Evaluated the reliability and validity of the Child Behavior Scale (CBS), designed to assess behavioral indicators of risk and competence in young children. In the spring and fall, teachers used the CBS to rate their kindergarten children and sociometric measures were administered to children. Found that scores for six CBS subscales were…

Observed 9- to 14-year-old physically abused and nonabused children engaged in tasks with a close friend. Found that dyads with an abused child displayed less intimacy and more conflict than dyads with nonabused children. Compared to other dyads, those with abused boys displayed more negative affect during games, and those with abused girls…

Adults and children listened to tone sequences and were required to detect changes either from intervals with simple frequency ratios to intervals with complex ratios or vice versa. Adults performed better on changes from simple to complex ratios than on the reverse changes. Similar performance was observed for 6-year olds who had never taken…

Three- to 5-year-old children drew or watched another person draw what the children wrongly thought were the contents of a box. They were then shown the true contents, asked what had been drawn, and asked what they or the other person had thought was in the box. Children were more accurate at recalling drawings than beliefs. (BC)

European- and African-American mothers reported their use of physical discipline with their children. Mothers, teachers, and peers rated the children's externalizing problems annually from kindergarten through grade 3. Found that physical discipline was associated with higher teacher- and peer-rated externalizing scores for European-American…

For 62 African American families, mothers' social network, family structure, home environment, mother-child interaction, child's temperament, and child's cognitive development were periodically assessed until children were 54 months old. Mothers with larger support networks were more responsive to their infants and provided more stimulating home…

Preterm and term infants were given a sucrose solution, a glucose solution, or water during a test period in which the amount of their crying was measured. Sucrose reduced crying in preterm and term infants by 91% and 93%, respectively, and glucose by 86% and 81%, respectively. Water was ineffective in reducing crying in both preterm and term…

In one experiment, sucrose arrested crying and reduced heart rate and gross activity in 2-week-olds but was ineffective in calming 4-week-olds unless accompanied by eye contact. In a second experiment, for 4-week-olds who received sucrose without eye contact or water with eye contact, the reduction in crying was modest and not sustained.…

Related Swedish mothers' ratings of their children's shyness with the children's later timing of marriage and parenthood and career success. Shy boys married and became fathers later than non-shy boys, but their careers were not affected by shyness. Shy girls married and became mothers at the same time as non-shy girls. Compared results with…

Preadolescents, college students, middle-aged adults, and older adults described a problem and a goal for solving that problem. Interpersonal elements of problem descriptions and goals were coded. Interpersonal elements of problems were most salient for females and middle-aged adults. Subjects reported interpersonal goals when other people were…

Over three years, students in grades 4 through 9 were asked to rate traits as masculine, feminine, or both. Results indicated that gender stereotype flexibility, represented by a selection of the "both" option, increased after the transition into junior high school but decreased over the remaining years of junior high and high school. (BC)

Introduces this special theme issue examining the roles of socialization, biology, and culture as they affect adaptive and maladaptive developmental outcomes. Problems of adolescence addressed include antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms, substance abuse, low achievement, and eating problems. Considers factors implicated in successful…

Examined evidence for reciprocal influence between adoptive parents' behavior and heritable characteristics of adopted children. Found that psychiatric disorders of biological parents were significantly related to children's antisocial/hostile behaviors and consequently with adoptive parents' behavior. Also, the adoptee's antisocial/hostile…

Examines the extent to which substantial differences in the attitudes of children from the same family are mediated by nonshared environmental processes or by genetic factors. Results suggested that parental and sibling negativity is significantly related to adolescent adjustment through nonshared environmental processes, although genetic factors…

Examined the influence of environmental factors on adolescent adjustment in a sample of 667 adoptive families. Found that correlations between parental ratings of family functioning and offspring ratings of psychological adjustment were generally higher for the birth than the adoptive offspring sample, and that the correlation in the adjustment…