Investigated relationships between mothers' perception of infants temperament at 6 months and their behavior toward their infants at 6 and 12 months of age among 40 firstborn Israeli infants. Temperamental intensity ratings were related to auditory stimulation and contingent positive vocalization for girls and to increased physical contact for…

Children's conflicts with one another during free play were observed to determine the relation between the child's rate of conflict participation and his or her rate of aggressive behavior during conflict episodes and between these variables and the degree to which the child was liked or disliked by peers. (Author/SO)

Investigates the developmental sequence of learning to transform objects into agents and recipients of action in early symbolic play. Each of 48 children (from 14 to 25 months old) demonstrated initiative pretending after an adult modeled agent and recipient substitutions in pretending to talk on the telephone. (Author/CB)

Examined developmental patterns in children's attempts to regulate their expressive behavior in a mildly conflictful situation where they expected to receive a desirable reward but in fact received an undesirable one. Major findings included significant age by sex interactions. (Author/RH)

Examines the tendency of observers to make less reliable recordings of behavorial events when a calibrating observer is absent. Using four different multicategory systems, 26 experienced observers coded 200 hours of videotaped family interactions. Concludes that observers lapse into a less attentive "set" prior to coding without a…

Firstborn children's reaction to sibling birth assessed in 41 families via family interviews at 1 month prepartum and 1, 4, 8, and 12 months postpartum. Familial interaction patterns were observed in semistructured play sessions. Time since the birth of the sibling and sibling gender had significant effects on firstborn children's adjustment.…

Examines the relationship between self-reported child-rearing attitudes and practices and actual child management among 68 mothers and their children aged 16-44 months. Results indicate that the authoritarian and authoritative patterns of child rearing attitudes were positively related to a number of child management strategies. (RJC)

Communication in mother-infant dyads and mother-infant-sibling triads was examined to determine how variation in the number of people and type of activity affect the ways language is used by all participants. Homebased observations were made of 16 first- and 16 later-born children when they were between 18 and 23 months old. (Author/BN)

Examines the effect of an unfamiliar peer in a situation requiring a subject's separation from mother in order to play with attractive toys. Observation of 20 children 18 months old and 20 children 30 months old revealed that peer presence facilitated initial separation for both ages, but that age differences in subsequent behaviors existed. (CB)

Multiple measures of social and cognitive functioning were obtained to investigate whether abused and neglected children demonstrate serious psychological disturbances following instances of child maltreatment. Participants were 42 preschool children who had a previous history of physical abuse, serious neglect, or no maltreatment. (Author/RH)

Systematic observations of affiliative interaction in 15 stable peer groups were conducted across three years in an urban day care center. Groups contained 193 French-speaking children ranging in age from one to six years. (Author/RH)

Two-year-old children's participation in family interaction was examined in two longitudinal observational studies of family conflict that focused on three developmental issues: children's understanding of the feelings and intentions of other family members, their understanding of social rules within the family, and the relation of emotional…

Results generated by peers, teachers, and unbiased observers converged in some behavioral domains and diverged in others. All three sources provided similar pictures of the relation between aggression and status, although observations of third grade boys did not yield sufficient frequencies of aggression to allow meaningful conclusions. (RH)

Primary aim: to test Edelstein, Keller, and Wahlen's model of sequential operations in perspective taking on 93 children in the third grade and 69 children in kindergarten, who were tested again when in the first grade. Secondary aim: to examine the relationship between social experience and perspective taking. (Author/BN)