The purpose of this review was to introduce readers of "Child Development" to the meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) technique. Provided are a background to the MASEM approach, a discussion of its utility in the study of child development, and an application of this technique in the study of reading comprehension (RC)…

The present study investigated the genetic and environmental covariance between psychopathic personality traits with reactive and proactive aggression in 9- to 10-year-old twins (N = 1,219). Psychopathic personality traits were assessed with the Child Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997), while aggressive behaviors were assessed using the…

Puberty is advanced by sex hormones, yet it is not clear how it is best measured. The interrelation of multiple indices of puberty was examined, including the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS), a picture-based interview about puberty (PBIP), and a physical exam. These physical pubertal measures were then associated with basal hormones responsible…

This study examined whether the affect children feel toward peers would influence children's social-cognitive evaluations and behaviors. The sample consisted of 209 fifth-grade children (11- to 12-year-olds; 119 boys and 90 girls). For each child, 3 target peers (liked, disliked, and neutral) were identified via a sociometric nomination procedure.…

The purpose of this study was to examine relations between shyness-sensitivity and social competence, school performance, and psychological well-being in Chinese children with rural and urban backgrounds. Participants were students in rural migrant children schools and city schools in China (Ns = 411 and 518, respectively; M age = 10 years). Data…

The present study examined how adolescents' and their romantic partners' romantic working models and relational styles were related to their interactions with each other. Sixty-five couples (M age=18.1 years) were observed interacting. Romantic working models were assessed in interviews about their romantic experiences; romantic styles were…

This study was designed to: (1) assess the influence of an instructional set given to an observer regarding the presence or absence of a predictable pattern in the observed interaction, (2) extend and replicate findings of a previous study of observer accuracy, and (3) identify some of the specific types of errors made by observers in coding…

Evaluated the susceptibility of radioimmunoassays (RIA) for saliva cortisol to interference effects caused by oral stimulants (drink mix crystals) used to facilitate saliva collection in studies with children. Found that oral stimulants artificially inflated estimated cortisol concentrations, with the magnitude of the interference-effect…

This introduction to a special section on psychobiological studies of stress and coping discusses the problems of interpreting and integrating information on stress reactivity derived from a combination of behavioral and physiological measures. (PCB)

Following a brief consideration of the nature of "stress" as implied in the articles in this special section, the possible role of biological measurements in the study of behavioral development is examined. (PCB)

Two studies address the sequence of understandings evident in preschoolers' developing theory of mind. The first, preliminary study provides a meta-analysis of research comparing different types of mental state understandings (e.g., desires vs. beliefs, ignorance vs. false belief). The second, primary study tests a theory-of-mind scale for…

This paper presents a psychometric analysis of the criterion problem in neo-Piagetian concept development research. The evidence shows that false negative and false positive criterion errors have the same effect on the null hypothesis so that the criterion with the lowest error rate should be utilized. (Author/JMB)

A measure of mother-infant synchrony was developed and used to compare the interactions of mothers with pre-term and mothers with full-term infants. Each mother-infant dyad was observed during a standard bottle feeding session on three separate occasions: once prior to discharge and at one and three months after discharge. (JMB)

Findings indicate that high cortisol levels and interfering substances in formula and breast milk could contaminate salivary cortisol measurements in young infants. To insure accurate results, appropriate controls should be taken for salivary cortisol measurements of young infants. (RH)

Using the multitrait-multimethod matrix design, this study investigated the convergent and discriminant validity of three selected measures of aggression in second, third, and fourth grade children based on three methods of data collection: teacher ratings, peer ratings, and self report. (BD)