Peer competence in preschool children in two classes was assessed via (a) teacher rankings of social competence, (b) peer sociometrics, and behavioral measures of (c) social participation, and others. Affective expression and social behavior were temporally stable and consistent across contexts for both classes; however, patterns of…

Examined age-related changes in the organization underlying children's ratings of peer social deviance. Peer ratings of aggression, withdrawal, and likeability using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI) were collected from first, fourth, and seventh graders. For all ages aggression and likeability items were found to comprise cohesive categories…

Kindergarten through eighth-grade children were presented with two revisions (luck and skill) of the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Questioning about performance of hypothetical others revealed four levels of differentiation of luck and skill. These levels showed parallels with age-related changes in conceptions of difficulty, effort, and…

Assessed use of certain rules for judging intentionality of action-outcomes by children of 3, 7, and 11 years. Intentionality judgments based on matching rather than objective rules were observed more frequently. It was concluded that matching rule emerges first in development and is more essential than various objective rules. (Author/DST)

Examined development of self-body-esteem and relation between self-esteem and body-esteem in overweight and normal weight boys and girls in three age groups. Results were interpreted in terms of age differences in subjects and possible social influences in development of self-esteem in overweight youngsters. (Author/DST)

Tested notion that observed sex differences in children's altruistic reputations that favor girls are due to sex-biased items found in peer-assessment measures. Gender-fair assessment of altruistic reputation was attempted through the use of empirically derived examples of masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral prosocial behaviors. (Author/DST)

Examined development of relations between causal explanations, the anticipated emotional consequences for others if these causes were communicated, and the decision to disclose or withhold causal explanation. Within a role-playing paradigm, children aged 5-12 were given scenarios involving social rejection or broken social engagement. Data…

Aimed to establish extent to which toddlers' social behaviors in recurrent play groups may become characterized by an increased consistency and predictability during second year of life, particularly first versus third trimester. Concurrent observations in contrasting settings provided data for examining differences in extent of cross-situational…

Explored origins of individual differences in infant shyness by studying its relationship to parental shyness, sociability, and introversion-extraversion. Full adoption design examined role of both genetic and family environmental influences as possible etiological factors in development of infant shyness. Results indicate genetic influences and…

Pairs of toddlers were observed with mothers in a context structured to assess sharing behavior. Children were separated by a barrier; one child had toys and the other had no toys. The situation was then reversed. Sharing for the initially deprived peer was related to extent to which the partner had shared, suggesting operation of principle of…

Observed role relationships and behaviors that characterize interactions of preschool-aged sibling pairs and school-aged sibling pairs. Seven roles were operationalized and observed: teacher, learner, manager, managee, helper, helpee, and observer. Instances of prosocial and agonistic behavior were also observed in unstructured naturalistic…

Studied relations between preschool children's characteristics at home assessed from maternal interviews and behavior in preschool as recorded in direct observations. Many characteristics assessed at home were related in a predictable way to behavior in preschool. Some differences between boys and girls and between firstborns and secondborns were…

Reflection-impulsivity was studied in preschoolers to clarify underlying behavioral dimensions, sex differences, and contribution of activity level, mental age, and socioeconomic status. Analyses replicate a previous finding that dimension of behavioral impulsivity characterizes children with long response latency and high error scores, not…

Male and female college students were assessed on measures of ego identity development, intimacy development, and sex role orientation. For both males and females, identity was related to masculinity; also, there were more high-intimacy females than males. This low identity-high intimacy finding in women is discussed with respect to proposed…

Five-, five-and-a-half-, and seven-month-old infants were tested for sensitivity to relative size as distance information. Infants viewed two equidistant, different-sized objects presented side by side and reaching was used as dependent measure. Findings revealing five-and-a-half- and seven- but not five-month-olds were sensitive to relative size…