The problem is well known to every parent of a teenager, every high school teacher, every clinical practitioner, and every social policy maker: vulnerable adolescents risk becoming more deviant through association with deviant peers and peer groups. Deviant peer influences are among the most potent factors in the development of antisocial…

Over the past 30 years, the rate of childhood obesity has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2 to 5 years and adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, and it has more than tripled for children 6 to 11 years of age (Institute of Medicine, 2005). At present, approximately 9 million children over 6 years are considered obese (Institute of…

Four studies established the reliability and validity of measures for assessing attitudes toward others and sex typing of self in occupations, activities, and traits. A fifth study provided longitudinal data from children tested 4 times from age 11 to 13 years. Data supported conceptual distinctions among individual's gender attitudes toward…

Used meta-analytic and narrative procedures to integrate results of 93 evaluations of summer school. Found that summer programs focusing on remedial or accelerated learning or other goals impacted positively on participants' knowledge and skills. Middle class students showed larger positive effects than disadvantaged students. Remedial programs…

Reviews conceptual background on atypical patterns of early attachments, including basic theoretical terms and constructs of attachment theory; the nature and function of the original classification system; notions of "exceptional cases" or "atypical patterns"; and implications of atypicality for both a classification system of attachment behavior…

Reports the results of a series of experimental studies and a sociodemographic survey designed to determine the relative influence of age and educational experience in the development of cognitive skills as manifested in formal, psychological experiments. (CM)

Examines the major findings in the history of the family, with special attention to their relations to childhood and child development. The focus is on the family and household structure and the wider kin group, the life course and the relations between the family and social change. (BB)

Reviews early theoretical and research literature on handedness and places it within the larger context of the nature-nurture controversy. Discussion focuses on Baldwin's study of the development of hand preference in infants in relation to the recapitulation theory, mental development ("dynamogenesis"), and speech development. (Author/BB)

Examines secular trends in research on Afro-American children appearing in CHILD DEVELOPMENT between 1936 and 1980. A statistical analysis revealed dramatic changes in the frequency and type of research on this population, and identified some of the changing social issues and perspectives that are reflected in the research. (Author/BB)

Statistical analysis of many studies on Piaget's stage 4 object concept attempts to synthesize available quantitative data. Factors of this "meta-analysis" include: (1) effects of age; (2) number of A trials; (3) length of delay between hiding and search; (4) number of locations; and (5) visual properties of hiding arrays. Includes commentary by…

Summarizes research on single-parent households and families whose mothers have remarried. This research concentrates on the effect of marital transitions on family functioning and children's adjustment. Introduces a longitudinal study that examined transformations in marital, parent-child, and sibling relationships following the remarriage of a…

Reviews studies on the effects of infant food supplementation on the children's later cognitive development. Suggests that the study by Pollitt et al. reported in this monograph presents evidence that correcting early malnutrition provides large benefits to children when they become adolescents and young adults. (BC)

Considers the debate about learning as based on conditioning or cognitive processes. Explores historical episodes in this debate in which issues were resolved first in favor of conditioning theory and then increasingly in favor of cognitive processes. Interprets the study by Coldren and Colombo reported in this monograph (PS 522 654) as a…

Discusses the assessment of children's early language comprehension by the use of (1) parent reports; (2) preferential-looking models; and (3) event-related brain potentials. Examines recent findings on dissociations between language comprehension and production in normal, late-talking, and brain-injured children and considers the implications of…

Reviews attachment research based on narrative assessments, noting that these assessments rely on subjective variables as well as working models as determinants of children's narrative productions. Reviews John Bowlby's ideas regarding the importance of parent-child verbal communications in attachment security. Reviews recent cognitive research…