A critical skill of childhood is learning social norms. We examine whether the generic pronouns "you" and "we," which frame information as applying to people in general rather than to a specific individual, facilitate this process. In one pre-registered experiment conducted online between 2020 and 2021, children 4- to…

Young infants are sensitive to self-directed social actions, but do they appreciate the intentional, target-directed nature of such behaviors? The authors addressed this question by investigating infants' understanding of social gaze in third-party interactions (N = 104). Ten-month-old infants discriminated between 2 people in mutual versus…

Children prefer learning from, and affiliating with, their racial in-group but those preferences may vary for biracial children. Monoracial (White, Black, Asian) and biracial (Black/White, Asian/White) children (N = 246, 3-8 years) had their racial identity primed. In a learning preferences task, participants determined the function of a novel…

Examined effects of social objects on smile production in 44 infants aged 1 1/2 years. Infants directed most of the smiles produced during nonsocial activity to an attentive social object. Although smiling frequency was lower when the only potential recipient was inattentive, the effect did not appear to be mediated by negative emotion. (RJC)

Investigates 57 three- to five-year-old children's sharing of preferred and nonpreferred food with same-sex peers as a function of (1) whether or not the children had previous experience as recipients and (2) whether or not the child was shared with during the experience as a recipient. (HOD)

This study examines the effects of cooperative versus competitive goal structures on the subsequent intra- and interpersonal behavior of fourth-grade children. Results indicate that the effects of competitively structured environments differ for winners and nonwinners and for boys and girls. (Author/SB)

Discusses observations of sets of infant twins, aged 6 to 24 months, as they interacted with one another and with an unfamiliar peer. Assesses quality of infant-mother attachment. Finds twins are more likely to react with one another than with a peer. Results are discussed in relation to early peer relationships and attachment. (Author/RWB)

Examines the hypothesis that biases in peer interpretations of social behavior may contribute to the stability of social acceptance and rejection in children. (HOD)

Investigated how children's decisions about allocating money to story characters were affected by the relationship (friends versus strangers) among the characters. Children's rationales for their decisions showed that equality was the most salient principle for decisions at all ages and that older children provided rationales based on benevolence…

Examined peer group contextual effects on relations between academic achievement and social functioning among Chinese 9-, 13-, and 16-year-olds. Found that peer groups were highly homogeneous on academic achievement. Academic achievement and social adjustment were associated at within-group individual and group levels. Group academic performance…

Children's discourse with peers was examined in relation to speaker gender, partner gender, and age level. Girls' and boys' communication patterns were more similar than different, but gender-related differences with medium to large effect sizes were found. Findings are interpreted in terms of developmental and contextual accounts of gender and…