Vocal and object-directed behaviors of parents and infants were examined according to the social-construction view of development. Interactions of 66 infant-parent dyads were observed. Normative changes and stability of individual differences of joint-action variables and the relation of these variables to 30-month cognitive-development status…

The relation between time spent in day care by preschool children and their social behavior was investigated at three child-care centers through observations of the children's free play. A positive relation was found in a large community center and in a small university center, but not in a small private center. (Author/BN)

Unobtrusive observations were made of 50 mother-child, 50 father-child, and 50 mother-father-child groups in an urban park playground in South Africa. The children ranged in age from one to five years. Each unit was observed for one four-minute sample. Results show similarity between father-child dyads and mother-father-child triads. (Author/BN)

Explored impact of peers on retained students. Second- and fifth-grade retained and nonretained children provided measures of peer reward allocations, preferences for social and task partners, attitudes about school environment, report card expectancy, and self-esteem. Peer discrimination was moderated by the rater's age, gender, physical size and…

Investigated the content and development of children's imitative behavior in the home. The data consisted of incidents of naturally occurring imitations of 24 children 16 and 29 months of age collected over a four-month period by mothers trained in observational recording. Immediate imitations decreased with age; deferred imitations increased with…

Study examines the Slaby and Frey (1975) gender-constancy interview, which has been widely used in tests of the cognitive-developmental account. Sixty children, aged between 42 and 54 months, were given the interview either in the traditional order or in a reversed order. Order effects were found. Methodological issues are discussed. (Author/BN)

Validity of a domain-specific model of self-perceived peer and school competence was examined in a sample of 89 seventh-grade black adolescents of lower socioeconomic status. Peer and school competences were gauged via self-ratings, nomination-based peer ratings, and more objective criteria. Findings support a domain-specific model over a more…

Three studies investigated identity status and self-consciousness. In the first, 870 high school students were administered measures of identity status and self-consciousness. In the second, 160 students 18 to 20 years of age completed a self-focus questionnaire and engaged in a self-focused laboratory task. Study three provided a replication of…

Examined the construction of parent-adolescent separation from the perspective of late adolescents. Study one included factor analysis of 34 separation-related items by 391 college students. In the second study, 199 college students completed related measures. Results indicate ways in which late adolescents define and achieve separation.(Author/BN)

This study used data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (1954) to identify children with a pattern of temper tantrums in late childhood (ages 8-10) and to trace the continuities and consequences of this behavioral style across the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Life course continuities in behavioral style were found for both sexes. (Author/BN)

Assessed behavioral and physiological differences between 61 breast-fed and 39 bottle-fed neonates. Mean postpartum assessment occurred at 37 hours. Results suggest that breast-fed infants had significantly longer heart periods, elevated heart period variability, and higher vagal tone than bottle-fed infants. (Author/RWB)

Investigates the use of the Bayley Infant Behavior Record (IBR) with premature and full-term infants. Analysis of the two discriminant functions obtained from the discriminant analysis appear to substantiate the claim that the IBR is an index of cognitive test-taking behaviors, which can be used reliably with preterm and full-term infants.…

Examined the stability of two aspects of infant visual attention derived from the paired-comparison procedure in infants tested at 6, 7, and 8 months of age. The two aspects were novelty preference and exposure time. Suggests that both novelty and exposure-time scores reflect moderately stable but independent characteristics of infant behavior.…

Spatial matching--the ability to distribute search effort in accord with the distribution of hidden resources--was studied in 18- to 54-month-old children. The principal development was the appropriate use of win-shift response. (Author/RWB)

Eight-, eleven-, and nineteen-year-olds' memory for spatial locations over an extended time period was assessed. Study suggested that adults remember spatial location information better than children over time because adults code location information in more organized representations and use better retrieval cues. (RWB)