Previous research on Montessori preschool education is inconsistent and prone to analytic flexibility. In this preregistered study, disadvantaged preschoolers in a French public school were randomly assigned to either conventional or Montessori classrooms, with the latter being adapted to French public education. Adaptations included fewer…

This study leveraged data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 243) to investigate the predictive significance of maternal sensitivity during the first 3 years of life for social and academic competence through age 32 years. Structural model comparisons replicated previous findings that early maternal sensitivity…

Head Start enhances school readiness during preschool, but effects diminish after children transition into kindergarten. Designed to promote sustained gains, the Research-based Developmentally Informed (REDI) Parent program (REDI-P) provided home visits before and after the kindergarten transition, giving parents evidence-based learning games,…

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving)…

To bridge the social-reasoning focus of developmental research on irony understanding and the pragmatic focus of research with adult populations, this cross-sectional study examines 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds' (n = 72) developing understanding of both social-cognitive and social-communicative aspects of discourse irony, when compared with adults (n =…

Few studies have examined whether familiarity of partner affects social responses in children with autism. This study investigated heart rate regulation (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]: The myelinated vagus nerve's regulation of heart rate) and temporal-parietal electroencephalogram (EEG) activity while nineteen 8- to 12-year-old children with…

Examined the hypotheses that intimacy of friendship is more integral to socioemotional adjustment during adolescence than during preadolescence, and that competence in close relationship skills is more important during adolescence than preadolescence. Findings suggest the importance of the ability to establish close friendships increases during…

Using extensive, multifaceted observational and interview data from the Family Socialization and Developmental Competence Project (FSP), this paper examines the claims that androgynes, by comparison with sex-typed individuals, are more effective persons and parents. (Author/RH)

Assessed friendships among Head Start preschoolers. Found that older children were more likely than younger children to participate in a reciprocated friendship, and reciprocated dyads were more likely to be same-gender than were nonreciprocated dyads. Reciprocated friends interacted more frequently and looked at each other more than…

Interaction during feeding sessions between preterm infants (N=21) and their mothers and interaction between full-term infants (N=22) and their mothers were compared. Mothers and babies were from a low-income, inner-city population. (Author/MP)

Aggressive unpopular, withdrawn unpopular, aggressive-withdrawn unpopular, and average status children were identified by peer evaluation and compared in terms of peer and self-perceptions of competence in various social and nonsocial domains. Results indicated that the three groups of unpopular children exhibited distinct profiles according to…

Assessed similarities between 192 target children and their friends and nonfriends. Found that children and friends were more similar to one another than nonfriends across the dataset. Friendship similarities were greater in antisocial behavior than in other domains. Similarities between friends in sociometric status and size of the friendship…

Results indicate that socially maladjusted girls with histories of delinquency involving aggressive, disruptive, and antisocial behavior resulting in placement in institutional custody can, through training in social perspective-taking, increase their understanding of others in interpersonal situations. Subjects were 16 girls of 10-16 years of…

Compared measures of peer relationships and emotional well-being of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) to those of same-classroom peers. Found that, compared to nondiseased subjects, SCD females were perceived as less sociable and less well accepted; SCD males were perceived as less aggressive. No other differences were identified for…

Explores outcome differences associated with types of after-school care among third graders from a suburban school system. No differences were found between latchkey and mother-care children. However, significant differences were found for children who attended day care centers after school. (RJC)