Neighborhood is a key context where children learn to process social information; however, the field has largely overlooked the ways children's individual characteristics might be moderated by neighborhood effects. We examined 1,030 six- to 11-year-olds (48.7% female; 82% White) twin pairs oversampled for neighborhood disadvantage from the Twin…

While negative associations between behavioral inhibition/shyness and social competence are well established for children from Western cultures, the directions of these associations have been inconsistent for Chinese children, partly due to the ongoing social-cultural changes in China. Drawing from three samples of young Chinese children (born…

The second year of life is a time of formative developmental change as basic behavioral systems undergo rapid integration and expansion. This study examined the developmental trajectories of social-emotional (SoE) outcomes and the effects of infant sex and household chaos (HC) on the development of SoE outcomes across the second year of life. The…

Although early life experiences of language and parenting are critical for children's development, large home observation studies of both domains are scarce in the psychological literature, presumably because of their considerable costs to the participants and researchers. Here, we used digital audio-recorders to unobtrusively observe 107…

Although the strong link between maternal education and children's outcomes is one of the most well-established findings in developmental psychology (Reardon, 2011; Sirin, 2005), less is known about how young, low-income children are influenced by their mothers completing additional education. In this research, longitudinal data from the Head…

The authors of the present study addressed the measurement of temperament by examining the convergence between observational and questionnaire measures and the occurrence of contrast effects in parental ratings of nontwin siblings on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Fathers', mothers', and observers' ratings of 94 early-school-age sibling…

Examined the function and effectiveness of certain behaviors in regulating negative arousal in infants who participated in an arm restraint procedure at age 5 months and a toy removal task at age 10 months. Results showed that comforting behaviors were preferred at both 5 and 10 months of age. (MDM)

Spatial matching--the ability to distribute search effort in accord with the distribution of hidden resources--was studied in 18- to 54-month-old children. The principal development was the appropriate use of win-shift response. (Author/RWB)

The early psychomotor development (DQ) of 29 term small-for-gestational-age Brazilian infants was shown to be more dependent on postnatal growth than the DQ of 51 term appropriate-for-gestational-age infants. (Author/RH)

Assessed behavior and emotion regulation strategies of developmentally delayed and nondelayed young boys. Compared to nondelayed children, delayed children were equally able to understand others' play themes but were more intrusive in their entry attempts; appeared to have less effective emotion regulation strategies for coping with entry failure;…

Presents a mathematical model of the development of reaching behavior in infants, along with the results of two experiments that showed that infant movements could be decomposed into the underlying submovements using a principled method; and the angular error in infant reaches matches the form and magnitude of error assumed by the model. (MDM)

Sequences of mastery behavior were analyzed in a sample of 67 infants 6 to 12 months old. Authors computed (a) frequencies of six categories of mastery behavior, transitional probabilities, and z scores for each behavior change, and (b) transitions from a mastery behavior to positive affect. Changes in frequencies and similarity in organization…

Ninety-two clinically normal infants (48 male, 44 female) were tested at 2 and 90 days of age to examine the continuity of newborn behavior through early infancy across a broad range of behaviors. (MP)

Compared the postural responsiveness of seven-, eight-, and nine-month-old infants. Results indicated greater use of optic flow for postural control after a self-produced locomotor experience. Infants with endogenous (creeping) or artificial (walker) self-produced locomotor experience responded to portions of the optic flow field, whereas…

Two studies examined whether effects of attention to rewards during a delay of gratification task in waiting situations affects preschoolers' ability to delay gratification in working situations. Findings show that when work provides distraction, attention on rewards reduces delay time whether working or waiting; when work is not engaging,…