Recounts a study designed to determine the age at which sex differences first begin to appear and relates various aspects of children's behavior to the level of humor responsiveness. (MH)

The author discusses the development and manifestation of empathy in children. A three component model of empathy, involving cognitive and affective elements, is proposed. (Author/HMV)

Studies the aggressiveness of over 600 subjects, their parents, and their children over a 22-year period. Subjects who were more aggressive 8-year-olds were more aggressive 30-year-olds, exhibiting serious antisocial behavior as adults. The stability of aggression across generations within a family was also high. (Author/CB)

Presented children (N=96) aged 8-11 with verbal pain or nonpain stimuli contingent or noncontingent on a target response. Delivered stimuli within an aggressive or nonaggressive setting and with or without affect. Type of setting did not influence the behavior, but stimuli delivered in an affective manner did facilitate responding. (Author/RC)

Gender differences in reported anger and fear toward hypothetical males and females were explored in 120 6- to 12-year olds, 129 14- to 16-year olds, and 178 adults. Anger-producing or frightening situations or those depicting male stereotypic behaviors elicited the most gender consistent differences. (SLD)

This is the first stage of a research project concerned with the various ways in which parents perceive and categorize children's behavior and the effect this perception may have on parental reaction to such behavior. The present study compared the various ways in which mothers and fathers perceptually categorize the behavior of girls and boys. A…

On the basis of the sibling-similarity hypothesis, it was hypothesized that females with a sister as opposed to females with a brother would report less past and desired sport participation and more psychological femininity. To investigate this hypothesis, sibling-sex-status and ordinal position effects were analyzed separately for females who…

The characteristics of a group of 17 mentally retarded institutionalized individuals (ages 6 to 51) with self-injurious behavior (SIB) were compared with those of 14 patients without SIB. Among findings were that 65 percent of the SIB group were females, that the SIB group had an elevated pulse rate, and that they slept less. (PHR)

Children with mental retardation (n=32) and their younger nonretarded siblings were observed interacting in the home setting. Interactions were characterized by accentuated role asymmetries that favored the younger sibling. Competence of the mentally retarded child reliably predicted sibling role asymmetries. Gender differences in roles and…

The effects of situational influences and sex differences in the reward allocation behavior of children was investigated in four studies. Experiment 1 focused on the distribution of rewards to workers presented as being in either a unit or non-unit relationship with each other. The second experiment determined whether a similar pattern of sex…

This paper examines sex differences in the exclusiveness of children's dyadic friendships by comparing differences in the choice or nonchoice by dyad members of a third person at a given point in time as well as change in these triadic choices over time. (Author)

Examines verbal interactions of mothers and fathers with their school-age children (9 and 12 years of age) during structured sessions. Mothers, more than fathers, tend to use more problem-solving behaviors with their 9-year-olds than with their 12-year-olds and boys discriminate more than girls in their use of problem-solving behaviors with…

Research has shown that children who are socially rejected exhibit classroom behavior problems and are at risk for adjustment dificulties in later life. To examine the relationship between locus of control for social relationships and peer social status, 413 fifth grade students completed positive and negative same-sex peer nominations, a same-sex…