Mind-mindedness (MM) refers to caregivers' proclivity to treat a child as having an active and autonomous mental life. It has been shown to be a powerful predictor of many developmental outcomes and to mitigate the impact of risk conditions. However, longitudinal studies on MM reporting changes over time and individual differences among mothers…

Background: Research suggests that considerable individual differences may exist among preschool children in terms of emergent writing performance. However, there is no study examining this variability. Objective: This research explored the patterns of within-group individual differences in the emergent writing skills of preschool children.…

Preschoolers' vocabulary acquisition sets the stage for later reading ability and school achievement. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES) and the quality of the home environment of seventy-seven Chilean majority and Mapuche minority families from low and lower-middle-class backgrounds in explaining individual differences in…

Research Findings: The current study examined achievement motivation orientation in preschool-age children from low- and middle-income families. Participants were 126 children who were attending an urban Head Start site or a private preschool. Children's motivation orientation was assessed as being performance oriented or mastery oriented using a…

Compared the attention patterns of 40 toddlers and their mothers with or without dysphoric symptoms in a situation that allowed both common and independent foci of attention. Found that dysphoric mothers appeared to attend to an event in common with their children less frequently than did nondysphoric mothers. (MOK)

Forty-four boys and 23 girls aged 3 to 6 years attending preschools serving mostly middle class populations participated in a nonreversal discrimination task with gender typing and size of stimulus the relevant target dimensions. Results support predictions based on gender schema theory regarding salience of gender-to-gender schematic and…

The discrepancy between middle-class and lower-class children's performance on IQ tests has been thought of as "cognitive deficit" or as "cognitive differences." This paper proposes another explanation--cognitive lag hypothesis--according to which the low IQ test scores of lower-class children are seen as due to the developmentally delayed…

Teachers should be aware of the basic causes of behavior, that value choices and resultant behaviors to maintain the self are learned through antecedent experiences. Students from differing cultural or social backgrounds can be misunderstood when they react to classroom situations in their learned mode. (Author/SJL)

Examined whether neighborhoods influenced the likelihood of high school graduation for a cohort of African-American children who were followed from 1966 to 1993. Found that living in a poverty census tract did not seem to influence the likelihood of high school graduation or school leaving over and above the impact of family and individual…

Cognitive control over impulsive behavior on a Luria-type task was examined for 165 middle- and lower-socioeconomic status (SES) children in nursery school and first grade. Specific impulse control problems were found for both middle- and lower-SES children in nursery school. By first grade, only the lower-SES children continued to exhibit this…

Tested assumption that variability in home literacy environments has no effect on individual differences in reading development. Found that variability in shared reading interactions was significantly related to growth in phonological awareness even after accounting for the effects of age, oral language, and phonological awareness at the beginning…

Examined middle and lower class Anglo-American and Puerto Rican mothers' sociocultural values and perceptions of attachment behavior. Anglo mothers focused on self-confidence, independence, and autonomy, whereas Puerto Rican mothers focused on obedience, relatedness, and demeanor. Findings indicate the need for culturally sensitive models of the…

Time sampling data from 392 fifth to ninth graders from working-class and middle-class suburbs of Chicago (Illinois) show high rates of boredom within and outside of school. High boredom correlates with high ability and with oppositional behavior (when ability is controlled), but not with onset of adolescence. (SLD)

A study investigated developmental differences in children's self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity among 251 girls and 266 boys from grades 2 through 7. Meaningful developmental changes occur during the middle childhood period. Single summary scores ignore variations in gender-typed subtrait and raise study methodology questions. (JB)