Results support the prediction that mothers of high social status children and mothers of low social status children would show behavior and social knowledge differences comparable with those reported in the literature. Findings are considered consistent with the hypothesis that children may partly acquire social skills from their mothers. (RH)

Observations of playground behavior of kindergarteners and second- and fourth-grade students suggested that rough-and-tumble play led to games-with-rules for popular children, and to aggression for rejected children. Findings are discussed in terms of possible effects of the sociometric composition of rough-and-tumble play groups. (RH)

A peer nomination scale was designed to assess the degree to which children were subjected to direct physical and verbal abuse by peers. Subjects were 165 third through sixth grade students. Children's victimization scores were uncorrelated with their aggression scores, negatively correlated with peer acceptance, and positively correlated with…

Studied the aggressive behavior in school of two cohorts of boys and girls in the fourth and seventh grades. Highly aggressive subjects were usually solid members of peer clusters and typically had a network of friends. Aggressive patterns and correlated behaviors provided a basis for social cohesion and commonalities in friendships for both boys…

Used archival data on individuals identified as shy and reserved in late childhood in 1954 to trace the continuities and consequences of the individuals' behavioral style for the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Childhood shyness did not produce pathological or extreme outcomes, but did have significant consequences for later development,…

Data from 24 mothers and fathers who worked separately with their 3-year-old children on difficult block construction, matrix classification, and story retelling tasks were consistent with the hypothesis that authoritative parents may obtain some of their reported success in cognitive skill socialization by using a tutoring style that is more…

A total of 32 adult-child and peer dyads involving children of 9-10 years participated in an errand-planning task to see whether children who worked with adults gained from adults' expertise. Adult-child dyads explored a map more frequently, planned longer sequences of moves, and verbalized more planning strategies than did peer dyads. (RH)

Evaluates the validity of extrapolating research findings from the Monadic Phases Coding System (MP) to the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System by coding videotapes of 12 4-month-old infants engaged in mother-infant interaction. (RJC)

Investigated 34 4- and 5-year-olds and their parents to determine the children's behavioral, physiological, and verbal responses to adults' angry behavior. Findings indicate behavioral and verbal responses of distress and an increase in systolic blood pressure in response to anger. (RJC)

Examined moral and conventional transgressions of 36 toddlers aged 24 and 36 months in a session with mothers and a session with mothers and peers. Moral transgressions were more frequent in the peer session, and conventional transgressions were more frequent when children were alone with mothers. (RJC)

Examined the relation between 72 mothers' attitudes and practices regarding the use of rewards and their second- through fifth-grade children's susceptibility to the undermining effects of rewards. It was suggested that children's responses to rewards depend in part on their experiences with rewards. (RJC)

Assessed the impact of different forms of maltreatment on the socioemotional development of 70 children aged 5-7 years in a day camp. Maltreated children scored lower than the comparison group on self-esteem and prosocial measures and higher on withdrawn behavior ratings. (RJC)

Analyzed attachment relationships of 22 maltreated and 21 nonmaltreated infants of 12 months. Findings indicated a preponderance of disorganized/disoriented (Type D) attachments in the maltreatment group, with boys more likely than girls to be Type D. (RJC)

Investigates the perceived balance of control of negative caregiving outcomes in 2 studies involving 40 undergraduates and 40 mothers in counseling at a child abuse agency. Findings indicate that low perceived control is a potentially important moderator of negative affect in response to difficult children. (RJC)

Estimated effects of marital dissolution on several measures of children's well-being at 2 points in time using a nationally representative sample of 1,197 children. Regression estimates suggest that marital dissolution has pervasive, long-lasting effects on problem behavior, psychological distress, and academic performance. (RJC)