The purpose of this review was to introduce readers of "Child Development" to the meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) technique. Provided are a background to the MASEM approach, a discussion of its utility in the study of child development, and an application of this technique in the study of reading comprehension (RC)…

Reviews Greenough, Black, and Wallace's (1987) conceptual framework for understanding the effects of early experience and sensitive periods on development, and illustrates the applicability of their model with recent data on the consequences for animals and human infants of the acquistion of self-produced locomotion. (BN)

Argues that dynamic systems approaches may provide an explanatory framework based on general scientific principles for developmental psychology, using principles of self-organization to explain how novel forms emerge without predetermination and become increasingly complex with development. Contends that self-organization provides a single…

Argues that researchers can achieve objectives of advancing basic knowledge and addressing applied problems within a single research program. Provides a framework for this perspective by examining historical trends of basic and applied developmental research and examining potential approaches. Uses research on affordances and childhood injuries to…

Addresses the influence of cultural and ecological backgrounds, as mediated by the family, on children's achievement. Contrasts models used to explain academic successes and failures of African-American and Asian-American children. (PCB)

This review draws together research by developmentalists on parents' ideas about parenting and development, and research in social psychology on attitudes, schemas, and social categorization. (PCB)

Provides an introduction to loglinear analysis of cross-classification tables, including tables with nominal and ordinal variables. Compares the chi-square test of independence with the loglinear model of independence. Reviews the advantages and overall strategy of loglinear modeling. Each model discussed is applied to data from the developmental…

When pioneering longitudinal studies of child development extended into adulthood, they generated issues that could not be addressed satisfactorily by available theories, including the recognition that individual lives are influenced by their ever-changing historical context and that human development concepts should apply to processes across the…

Maintains that one future direction for cognitive development research involves a closer integration with knowledge about the developing brain. Presents a framework for analyzing and interpreting postnatal functional brain development. Discusses three contributing hypotheses, within which a variety of phenomena associated with the neural basis of…

The developmental pattern of concurrent synaptogenesis in rhesus monkeys is consistent with a straightforward model of relations between brain and cognitive development. Concurrent synaptogenesis is hypothesized to lay the primary cortical foundation for a series of developmental levels in middle infancy that have been empirically documented in…

Points out the need for and proposes a developmental model of self-understanding (the cognitive basis for self-conception), analyzing the self as a cognitive concept and giving a chronological account of developmental trends in self-understanding. (RH)

Constructs a model for understanding possible relationships between parents' personal social networks and their children's development. (JMB)

Reviews a series of studies documenting that key aspects of helpless reactions to failure are present in preschool and early elementary school children. Proposes a preliminary model in which a general conception of self and the notion of this self as an object of contingent worth are sufficient conditions for helplessness. (HTH)

Presents a developmentally grounded perspective on study of social life in cultures that examines sources of coexistence of sociability and opposition, harmony and conflict, acceptance and critique. Proposes that coexistence of these elements is systematically connected both to development of distinct domains of thought and to the dynamics of…

Suggests that the study of memory needs to be situated within broader conceptual and research contexts. Examines how four contexts accommodate memory phenomena: (1) knowledge; (2) comprehension; (3) context/function; and (4) strategy. Suggests that memories are best examined as knowledge structures resulting from efforts to understand, and that…