This report investigates tool learning and its relations to executive functions (EFs) in toddlers. In Study 1 (N = 93), 18-, 20-, 22-, and 24-month-old children learned equally well to choose a correct tool from observation, whereas performance based on feedback improved with age. Knowledge transfer showed significant progress after 22 months of…

This study examined level of engagement with Disney Princess media/products as it relates to gender-stereotypical behavior, body esteem (i.e. body image), and prosocial behavior during early childhood. Participants consisted of 198 children (M[subscript age] = 58 months), who were tested at two time points (approximately 1 year apart). Data…

Several theoretical approaches have discussed the role of children's expectations of their parent's responsiveness in explaining motivation to collaborate in acquiring skills. This study attempted to measure these expectations in 102 toddlers (M age = 26.4 months) through observations of attention-seeking (A-S) behaviors during caregiver's…

A key prediction of cognitive theories of gender development concerns developmental trajectories in the relative strength or rigidity of gender typing. To examine these trajectories in early childhood, 229 children (African American, Mexican American, and Dominican American) were followed annually from age 3 to 5 years, and gender-stereotypical…

Tattling, defined as the reporting to a second party of norm violations committed by a third party, is a frequent but little-studied activity among young children. Participant observation and quantitative sampling are used to provide a detailed characterization of tattling in 2 preschools (initial mean age = 4.08 years, N = 40). In these…

The twofold purposes of the investigation were (a) to describe with direct observation data the physical activity behaviors and the accompanying social and environmental events of those behaviors for children in preschools and (b) to determine which contextual conditions were predictors of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and…

This study examined relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to second-graders' anger after losing in a board game to a cheating confederate. Found that reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was positively related to skin conductance reactivity and observed angry nonverbal behaviors, both at an aggregated level and in terms…

Used behavioral genetic methods and environmental assessment techniques to assess maladaptive behavior in 6- to 11-year-old twin pairs. Found that genetic variation accounts for majority of variance in parent-reported child maladaptive behavior; in contrast, observational coding and global impressions of parent-twin interactive behavior suggest…

In a year-long participant observation study of remediative action following child injury, 61 children ages 8 and 9 and their mothers wrote records and, in biweekly interviews, reported on more than 1,000 minor injuries. Found that remediative action was related to type of child activity and to mother's affect and beliefs. (MDM)

Examined environmental and gene-environment processes linking parenting (affect, control, responsiveness) and preschoolers' behavioral adjustment difficulties (noncompliance, conduct problems). Found that estimates of shared environmental variance and mediation were greatest for observational data, and estimates of child genetic variance and…