Over 600 White females between 10.5 and 18.5 years of age were studied to test construct comparability across adolescence. Assessed were emotional functioning, eating problems, self-reflection, self-image, and mastery/adjustment to examine meaning equivalence in self-concepts and developmental psychopathology. Results suggest that the five factors…

Two studies, one involving college students and the other high school students, found a strong relationship between relatively early sexual intimacy and nonsexual forms of deviance. Siblings were more alike than chance in deviance and in physical sexual behavior. Additionally, an association was found between one sibling's sexual intimacy with a…

In a study of eating problems in adolescent girls, researchers saw 193 White adolescent females and their mothers in the girls' middle school years and two years later. Examined was the emergence of eating problems as a function of pubertal growth, body image, personality development, and family relationships. (RH)

With 72 children between 4 and 10 years of age, researchers tested how children use information about others' sex, sex-typed interests, and cross-sex labels to make predictions. Both younger and older children liked same-sex children and disliked tomboys and sissies. In contrast, younger and older children used information differently when…

College students participated in a study to test competing hypotheses derived from Bem's gender schema theory and Spence's gender identity theory. In two samples, sex, self-concept, and spatial activities made significant direct contributions to the prediction of spatial performance, supporting Spence's theory. (RH)

Findings highlight the importance of development-related control efforts and beliefs for achieving a subjectively favorable balance of developmental gains and losses and for maintaining an optimistic perspective in middle and later adulthood. Results are discussed with reference to a theoretical model of development-related control activities. (RH)

Findings indicated: much interage consensus in expectations about the nature of adult development; the nature of adult development was perceived to be multidirectional (gains and losses coexist), although the overall conception implied increasing risk of decline and decreasing potential for growth across adult life span; and older adults held more…

Infants' detection of temporal increments to silent intervals "between" groups of tones was compared with their detection of comparable silent increments "within" groups of tones. Results indicated infants discriminated temporally altered sequences from standard only when increments occurred within group. Concludes perceptual grouping processes…

Experiment One demonstrated that all six- and seven-year-old subjects and many four- and five-year-old preschool children could learn layout of large playhouse of six adjoined rooms by memorizing map. When, in Experiment Two, preschoolers carried map of entire configuration with them around larger room, they performed perfectly or almost…

Two studies involving five- and nine-year-old children examined the effects of planning with a partner as well as the relation of collaborative planning to subsequent solo planning. Results suggest that cognitive gains resulting from joint problem solving between children and adults or peers may be more likely with shared task responsibility. (RH)

Two experiments provide strong evidence that very young children are capable of constructing the meaning of metaphors pertaining to psychological phenomena, even when not given opportunity to derive the meaning of the metaphor from context alone. Subjects at all ages from five years to college age were able to achieve above-chance levels of…

Describes differences in the socialization setting provided by all-boy and all-girl play groups, and explores possible reasons for children's tendency to congregate in same-sex groups. Considers three classes of possible explanatory processes: biological factors, socialization pressures from adults, and gender cognitions. (RH)

Third and sixth graders were induced to experience sympathy and distress with procedures to examine: possibility that facial and heart-rate markers and self-report indices could differentiate sympathetic and distress reactions; age and sex differences in markers of response modes; relations of empathy, parental attitudes toward expression of…

A total of 20 abused and 20 nonabused pairs of children of three-seven years and their mothers participated in a facial expression posing task and a facial expression recognition task. Findings suggest that abused children may not observe as often as nonabused children do the easily interpreted voluntary displays of emotion by their mothers. (RH)

Findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis that strategy information derived from enactive interviews is more predictive of children's behavior in peer situations than is information derived from the verbal interview method. This suggests that preschool children automatically access cognitive scripts for behavior in social interactions.…