The present study investigated the cross-lagged associations between parents' attributions of ability and effort concerning their children's success and failure, and children's academic performance in kindergarten and primary school. Two hundred seven children and their parents were followed over three years. The parents completed a questionnaire…

To examine the role of friendship among children involved in potential conflicts, 37 aggressive, 37 non-aggressive, and 76 "intermediate" third- and fifth-grade boys were presented with a variety of potentially conflictual situations, nine in story form and one involving a contest. Each situation involved a negative or ambiguous outcome…

Thirty kindergarten children, 30 third graders, 30 sixth graders, and 30 college students were told two stories in which an actor behaved either generously or selfishly. Subjects then predicted and rated the actor's behavior in 10 life-like situations that provided opportunities for generous behavior as well as behaviors similar to generosity…

Two studies investigated (1) the development of children's implicit theories of self-attributes in the domains of intelligence, sociability, physical skills, and physical appearance; and (2) the degree to which conceptions of ability can be experimentally manipulated to predict achievement cognitions and behaviors. (BB)

When kindergarten, second grade, fourth grade, and college students listened to stories and were asked to predict and explain the story character's behavioral or emotional reaction to a new event, the use of personality attributions to predict and explain future reactions increased with age. (RH)