Recent studies on parental disciplinary practices focus on children's attributes that influence harshness of discipline. The present study examined the effects of facial babyishness on parents' recommendations regarding the discipline of 4- and 11-year-old children who had perpetrated an act of commission or of omission. It was predicted that the…

This study examined gender and race differences in children's interactions with infants. Subjects were 53 black and white children between 8 and 10 years of age. An experimenter of the same race as the children presented them with a 6-week to 12-month-old infant of the same race. Children were photographed with the infant; while playing the role…

This study investigated the effect of similarity and reciprocity on dyadic friendship choices. Subjects were 34 third graders and 30 sixth graders. Reciprocal (mutual) and nonreciprocal (nonmutual) friendships were identified through use of the roster sociometric technique, whereby children choose their three best friends from an alphabetized list…

Duval and Wicklund proposed a theory of self-awareness that distinguishes between objective and subjective self-awareness, in which objectively self-aware individuals are assumed to focus attention on themselves and subjectively self-aware individuals direct attention toward external objects. To investigate self-awareness of physical…

Previous tests of Erikson's hypothesized relationship between identity and intimacy development with undergraduate students have provided inconsistent support. To examine the possibility that college students are not developmentally prepared for intimacy crisis resolution, samples of 87 alumni and 93 college students from the same university were…

The relationship between altruistic behavior and popularity found in young children becomes much less defined with older children. In a paired-comparison procedure, 144 children from two elementary schools ranked the relative attractiveness as a potential friend of four fictional children described as altruistic, prosocial-aggressive, good at…

A major argument made in favor of age-segregated services is that older people prefer and benefit from age-homogeneous social interaction. This preference was assessed through a secondary analysis of the national data from "The Myth and Reality of Aging" survey (Harris, 1975). All respondents 18 years of age or older (N=4065) were asked whether…

While clinical populations of obese children have been shown to possess negative self-images, little evidence exists that overweight children in non-clinical populations are discriminated against by their peers or possess negative psychological self-evaluations. A study was conducted to examine the relationship among body type, sociometric…

Similarity of friends and the degree to which friendship selection criteria and similarity change as a function of age were investigated in this study. Subjects were 27 preschoolers, 34 third graders, and 30 sixth graders. Fifty-three percent were male, 47 percent were female, and 29 percent were black. Friendship choices were measured by…