Little cross-cultural research exists on parental socialization of children's learning beliefs. The current study compared 218 conversations between European American and Taiwanese mothers and children (6-10 years) about good and poor learning. The findings support well-documented cultural differences in learning beliefs. European Americans…

The domain-specific approach to socialization processes presented by J. E. Grusec and M. Davidov (this issue) provides a compelling framework for integrating and interpreting a large and disparate body of research findings, and it generates a wealth of testable new hypotheses. At the same time, it introduces core theoretical questions regarding…

Three- to 5-year-old (N = 61) religiously schooled preschoolers received theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks about the mental states of ordinary humans and agents with exceptional perceptual or mental capacities. Consistent with an anthropomorphism hypothesis, children beginning to appreciate limitations of human minds (e.g., ignorance) attributed those…

Examines the conceptual basis of preschoolers' judgments regarding cross-gender behavior, taking into consideration the type of sex-role regularity and whether it is male or female sex-role stereotype. (HOD)

Considers the divergent paths taken by research in cognitive development and research in social-emotional development, arguing that studies of socialization need to become more developmental. Discusses meanings of development that may affect the socialization process. (Author/CI)

Examined contribution of temperamental inhibitory control to conscience development. Found longitudinal stability in inhibitory control from toddlerhood to early school age, with inhibitory control increasing with age, and girls outperforming boys. Reaffirmed links between inhibitory control and multiple, diverse measures of children's conscience…

Describes two measures of gender salience, one assessing the use of the gender dimension in classifying new information and the other assessing its use in making affiliation choices. The developmental course of gender salience from age three to age seven and the relation between salience and sex-role development were examined. (HOD)

Assesses the degree of difficulty parents attribute to specific socialization tasks; explores the relation between parents' perceived difficulty and children's perceived and actual competence in these two domains; and determines whether the ease or difficulty of these child rearing tasks, as perceived by parents, varies as a function of the…

Specifies some problems in the Piagetian characterizations of assimilation and accommodation and offers an alternative formulation intended to resolve some conceptual anomalies. On the basis of the revision, the orthogenetic law of developmental progression is explicitly derived. Further, Piaget's notion of "equilibrium" is extended into…

Examined social, emotional, and cognitive characteristics of American and Chinese 6-year-olds' narratives. Found that, compared to American children, Chinese children showed greater orientation toward social engagement, greater concern with moral correctness, greater concern with authority, a less autonomous orientation, more expressions of…

Using a longitudinal design, investigates the interactive behaviors of mothers of normal infants and mothers of infants who are known to differ on a host of cognitive, behavioral, and biological parameters. Examines the developmental course of emotional expressivity in these infants. (HOD)

Explores the factors associated with expected outcome of emotional expression and likelihood of expression among 125 first-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children. Results suggest that socialization practices tend to be directed towards the suppression of sadness among males. (RJC)

Discusses a proposed interconnectedness between the ecologies of ethnic minority families, adaptive strategies, socialization goals, and child development outcomes. (PCB)

Takes the position, contrary to that of Sandra Scarr, that the details of socialization patterns are crucial to an understanding of normal and deviant development. Research is cited to support the argument that better than adequate parenting optimizes the development of both normal and vulnerable children and that parents' belief in their own…