Children (n = 133, aged 8-13) were interviewed about helping situations that systematically varied in recipient's need for help and the costs for the helper. In situations where helping a peer involved low costs, children perceived a moral obligation to help that was independent of peer norms, parental authority, and reciprocity…

This study tests a model of reciprocal influences between absenteeism and youth psychopathology using 3 longitudinal datasets (Ns = 20,745, 2,311, and 671). Participants in 1st through 12th grades were interviewed annually or biannually. Measures of psychopathology include self-, parent-, and teacher-report questionnaires. Structural cross-lagged…

This study explores the educational achievement of immigrant youth in Spain employing data from 3 waves of the Longitudinal Study of Families and Childhood (Panel de Families i Infancia), a representative sample of children in Catalonia first interviewed at ages 13-16 in 2006 (N = 2,710). Results suggest consistent disadvantage in achievement…

Two field studies of high school students' sense of obligation to nonclass school activities are reported. "Sense of obligation" is conceived of as mediating some relations between the student and the school environment and is defined as a personal feeling of "I ought to..." or "I must...," i.e., a personal constraint, with reference to attending…

Observations were made in 10 schools at the second-, fifth-, and seventh-grade levels of the forms of responses teachers and children provided to moral and social conventional transgressions. It was found that the responses of both teachers and children to social conventional events differed from their responses to moral events. (Author/RH)

Developmental changes in interpersonal perceptions in older siblings were studied in children in grades K, 2, 4, 6, 8. Older children used more abstract and more nonegocentric modes of description. (ST)

Physiological measures were monitored as 80 undergraduate women watched videotapes of responsive and unresponsive children in anticipation of interaction with them and later during a postinterview. Results were interpreted as indicating the importance of social cognitions as moderators of caregiver response to child behavior. (RH)

In experiment 1, 48 first-grade children were presented one of four elaboration strategies or labeling instructions during a single study trial and then recalled 16 paired associates. In experiment 2, 32 first-grade children were trained over a four-day period in the use of an interrogative elaboration strategy or received labeling instructions.…

Employs a clinical interview methodology to examine some of the creative thinking strategies commonly used by children in elementary school grades. Results suggest that children use several strategies on creativity tasks. (RH)

Two studies examined preschool teacher and child interactions regarding personal, moral, and socioconventional issues in the classroom and the development of personal concepts. Findings suggested that in both judgments and social interactions, teachers and children identified a personal domain in which children can and should make choices about…

Examines reading awareness and comprehension skills to discover the developmental and instructional relationships between metacognition and performance. Half of the third- and fifth-grade subjects received four months of classroom instruction on reading strategies. Results of pre- and posttests and interviews revealed that the instruction…

The development of sociometric status in children's peer groups over time was observed among 48 unacquainted second-grade boys brought together in play groups of eight boys each. Observers recorded free-play interaction behaviors of each boy by using a complex event-recording system and video cameras. (Author/RH)