Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies with adults provide evidence that functional brain networks, including the default mode network and frontoparietal network, underlie executive functioning (EF). However, given the challenges of using fMRI with infants and young children, little work has assessed the developmental trajectories of…

Puberty is often implicated in the onset or exacerbation of psychopathology during adolescence, and pubertal timing and tempo have emerged as important predictors of wellbeing. In the psychosocial literature there is a tendency to view individual differences in the nature (timing and tempo) of pubertal development as either determined by stress…

Research suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have significant difficulties with adaptive behavior skills including daily living and functional communication skills. Few studies have examined the developmental trajectory of adaptive behavior across childhood and adolescence. The present study examined longitudinal…

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

The predictive relations between social capital depth (high-quality relationships across contexts) and breadth (friendship network extensivity) and early-adult life adjustment outcomes were examined using data from a prospective longitudinal study. Interviews at age 22 yielded (a) psychometrically sound indexes of relationship quality with…

Retrospective accounts of 42 married couples were used to construct a developmental model of courtship. A basic three-stage pattern was found to characterize the majority of relationships from initial acquaintance to marriage: Casual Dating, Serious Dating and Engagement. Changes in the relationships were measured through the use of a standardized…

A taxonomy of stages in the development of values concepts is presented and illustrated. In addition, the role of direct and social feedback in the evolution of an individual's values is examined. Level I of the taxonomy, Developing Behavior Patterns, is a pre-values stage experienced in early childhood. At this stage, the infant learns what he…

Studied the ontogeny of walking by prelocomotor infants. Results support a dynamic systems view of development and the view that upright locomotion emerges from the self-organization of multiple cooperating elements rather than as a result of a preexisting neural code. (Author/GR)

Investigation of the relationship between maternal employment and behaviors and attitudes of preadolescents and adolescents indicated significant differences only for preadolescents regarding sex role ideology. Results suggest full-time maternal employment has few effects on behaviors and attitudes of school-age children from intact families.…

Prior research has indicated that, although negative mood induction procedures reliably lead to enhanced helping in adults, such procedures do not produce increased helping in young children. Consistent with the negative state relief model, it was expected that, relative to neutral mood subjects, children in a negative mood would be more generous…

Applies a systems approach to the development of expressive and communicative action of infants in the first year of life. Hypothesizes that the systems approach (which integrates expressive and communicative actions with other elements of the infant's physiology, cognition, behavior, and social environment) will explain previously unexplained…

Investigates a proposed four-stage developmental sequence that describes how children explain changes in sad and angry feelings and how their ability to understand is related to their theories of how feelings change. (HOD)

Exploratory behavior of educationally mentally retarded 7- to 12-year-old children was compared to that of two independent groups of normal children matched on chronological and mental age. In a multidimensional assessment of exploration, results suggested that delays in exploratory behavior in retarded children are developmental in nature, and…

Many studies using questionnaires and observational methods to collect information on the pointing gesture in infants have recently been performed. However, no study based on long-term observation is presently available that deals with the appearance and development of pointing as an interaction between mothers and their children. Therefore, this…

Two longitudinal studies examined patterns of reading disability in children. Results indicated that remission of reading disability was relatively common with up to 37% of reading-disabled children showing remission within a 2-year period. Results suggest that the presence of measurement errors may lead to misleading impression of the rate of…