Panel mediation models and fixed-effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = 0.39 year) across kindergarten through…

The development of scientific thinking was assessed in 1,581 second, third, and fourth graders (8-, 9-, 10-year-olds) based on a conceptual model that posits developmental progression from naïve to more advanced conceptions. Using a 66-item scale, five components of scientific thinking were addressed, including experimental design, data…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

Parents' physiological regulation may support infants' regulation. Mothers (N=152) and 6-month-old male and female infants were observed in normal and disrupted social interaction. Affect was coded at 1-s intervals and vagal tone measured as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Maternal sensitivity was assessed in free play. Mothers and infants…

Although developmental psychologists are generally happy to endorse dissociations and gradualist views of development like Woolley's (2006), the design and interpretation of developmental research often suggests an implicit commitment to a cleaner, less dissociative, sudden-transition view of development. Such an implicit commitment may derive…

Discusses the conflict between situational influences and stable individual differences in attachment behavior and attempts to resolve this conflict by examining the functions, outcomes, and context sensitivity of attachment behavior and the underlying behavioral control systems that organize it. (JMB)

Children who observed a very generous adult model sharing, later shared more than those who observed a very stingy model. The effects of vicarious reinforcement on the amount shared, delivered by either the experimenter or the model alone, were also demonstrated. (Authors)

Results indicate that there is no simple relationship between type of observer present and children's aggressive responding following exposure to an aggressive model. (Authors)

Presents a model which reconceptualizes existing theories pertaining to the sociometric status of preschool children. Four sociometric categories (popular, amiable, isolated, rejected) resulting from an intersection of social impact (number of children who mention a given child) and social preference (predominance of positive or negative…

Theories of imitation learning are examined regarding their account of how the infant acquires the ability to emit a response which resembles a response previously exhibited by another. The role of cognition in imitation learning theory is discussed. (BRT)

Experiment studied the effectiveness of social reinforcement by a model who demonstrated varying degrees of commitment to the norm of giving or social responsibility. (Authors)

The tendency to delay gratification as affected by sex and group participation was explored in 6- and 7-year-old children. (BRT)

This study examined the power of nonshared environment to differentiate adolescent monozygotic twin development and the extent to which this power varied across social structural contexts. Findings indicated that differences in maternal closeness, teacher bonding, and religious participation differentiated twins on emotional distress. Family…

Assessed preschoolers' patterns of emotional expressiveness, emotion regulation, and emotion knowledge. Used latent variable modeling to identify their contributions to social competence, evidenced by sociometric liability and teacher ratings. Found that emotional competence assessed at 3 to 4 years of age contributed to both concurrent and…

Interprets literature on contributions of social cognitive and emotion processes to children's social competence in the context of an integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Provides neurophysiological and functional evidence for the centrality of emotion processes in personal-social decision making.…