This research examined the effects of overhearing an adult praise an unseen child for not needing to work hard on an academic task. Five-year-old Han Chinese children (total N = 270 across three studies; 135 boys, collected 2020-2021) who heard this low effort praise tended to devalue effort relative to a baseline condition in which the overheard…

This article assesses the consequences of poverty between a child's prenatal year and 5th birthday for several adult achievement, health, and behavior outcomes, measured as late as age 37. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1,589) and controlling for economic conditions in middle childhood and adolescence, as well as demographic…

An observational study among 50 preschool children was conducted to assess the validity of experimental findings that at elementary-school age levels boys display greater mastery motivation than do girls. Generally, findings revealed that older preschoolers did, but younger preschoolers did not, show evidence of the sex effects found in previous…

It was hypothisized that socialization within an achievement-oriented culture would encourage children to adjust the amount of self reward according to length and difficulty of a task. Task length but not difficulty was found to influence a self reward in second grade children. (ST)

Mothers and fathers of 40 preschool children equally distributed by child gender and socioeconomic status (low and middle) were asked to predict the level of success for their child on 4 achievement-type tasks. (Author/JMB)

This study investigates associations between social skills (aggression and prosocial behavior) and literacy achievement in a sample of low-income children (between 4 and 6 years old when the study began) during elementary school. Results revealed consistent associations between social skills and literacy achievement in the first, third, and fifth…

Three- to eight-year-old children were asked to make causal attributions for performance on a motor task, reward allocations for the performance outcome, and state expectations for future success. (Author/DB)

Estimates confluence model of intellectual development for a within-family sample of 321 children from 101 transracial adoptive families. Mental ages of children and their parents and birth or adoption intervals were used in a nonlinear least-squares estimation procedure to obtain children's predicted mental ages. Results suggest efficiency of the…

The autonomous and social comparison achievement motivation of 197 black and white children was assessed at the end of first or fourth grades and again at the end of second and fifth grades. Level of aspiration and projective story telling measures of motivation were used. (Author/JMB)

When high anxious mothers administered tasks to their children, they facilitated the task performance of their daughters but were strongly detrimental to that of their sons. Low anxious mothers chose more difficult tasks for sons than for daughters, and they facilitated the task performance of sons more than that of daughters. (Authors/RY)

Examined changes in mothers' reported child-rearing practices in regard to independence and control, positive and negative affect, and disciplinary practices. The Child Rearing Practices Report was administered five times during an eight-year period. Substantial stability in behaviors and values was noted. Some practices changed with age. (BC)

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

The sex-differentiated socialization emphases of parents and other representatives of societal institutions are considered as they influence personality development and behavioral orientations. Such emphases, shaping behaviors, and teaching styles are evaluated with regard to the nature of "meta-messages" conveyed to children. (Author/RH)