Extensive research has explored the ability of young children to learn about the causal structure of the world from patterns of evidence. These studies, however, have been conducted with middle-class samples from North America and Europe. In the present study, low-income Peruvian 4- and 5-year-olds and adults, low-income U.S. 4- and 5-year-olds in…

Middle-class teachers were significantly more permissive and less puritanical in outlook, took more pleasure in the emotional aspects of teacher-pupil relationships, and showed less authoritarian attitudes toward children than did lower-class teachers. (Author/MB)

Results were interpreted as suggesting that sociocultural factors may change the rate of development but not its course. (Author/JMB)

A total of 24 middle class and 16 lower class preschoolers were observed during free play period on 30 consecutive school days. The behaviors of the children were coded by combining the social play categories of Parten and the cognitive play schemes of Smilansky. Results indicate a significant difference in types of play by class. (Author/SB)

Effects of action content and verbal codability of stimulus pictures, parental occupational status and verbal intelligence upon nonverbal serial recall were investigated in white first graders. (Author/SB)

Study was designed to examine social-class differences in speech as produced under three conditions varying from highly structured to a more natural linguistic setting. (Authors)

High and low SES mothers of one- and three-year-old children (N=104) were interviewed. Results showed that low SES mothers believed that infants acquire basic cognitive skills later and that the introduction of cognitively stimulating activities should occur later than did high SES mothers. (JMB)

Results of this study were interpreted in terms of the social control function served by the public schools. (Author/RY)

Investigates vocabulary acquisition in the context of joint picture-book reading in mother-infant dyads. Infants aged 17 to 22 months and their mothers, 20 middle-class and 20 lower-class dyads, were observed. In both groups interaction foucused on the eliciting or the provision of information. Results indicate several social class differences in…

Examined personal storytelling of European-American preschoolers from working- or middle-class families as a medium through which they construct autonomous selves. Found that children in both communities had extensive rights to speak of past experiences and limited rights to author experiences. Middle-class communities viewed expressing one's view…