Mediation has played a critical role in developmental theory and research. Yet, developmentalists rarely discuss the methodological challenges of establishing causality in mediation analysis or potential strategies to improve the identification of causal mediation effects. In this article, we discuss the potential outcomes framework from…

Preschoolers' inhibitory control and early math skills were concurrently and longitudinally examined in 255 Chinese, African American, Dominican, and Mexican 4-year-olds in the United States. Inhibitory control at age 4, assessed with a peg-tapping task, was associated with early math skills at age 4 and predicted growth in such skills from age 4…

On the basis of self-determination theory it is proposed that adolescents' motives for forming and maintaining identity-relevant commitments can be either autonomous or controlled in nature. This study examined whether motives for identity commitments would add to the prediction of late adolescents' adjustment beyond the effect of strength of…

We first examined how war-related traumatic events impact on peer and sibling relations, and how the quality of these relations in turn are associated with children's mental health, indicating a mediation model. Second, we tested the moderating (protective) effects of good peer and sibling relations in attenuating the link between trauma and…

A total of 72 Nigerian (Igbo) children learned reversal or extradimensional shifts under one of two conditions of locality (urban or rural) and one of three conditions of age (4, 7, or 10 years). Results showed significant main effects for shift, age, and locality and were interpreted as being consistent with the Kendlers' (1962) mediational…

Investigates whether temperamental differences mediated infants' responses to the early environment and explores the nature of the relationship between temperament and cognitive-intellectual development. Subjects, 100 six-month-old infants, were observed in their homes three times over a three-week period. Data suggest a greater reactivity to the…

The first experiment investigates the ability of children ranging in age from two to five years to use taxonomic and complementary organizational principles in a forced-choice picture recognition task. The second experiment assesses two alternative classes of cues which may have been used by 2-year-olds to mediate their recognition pairings. (RH)