While there has been growing evidence that autonomy-supportive parenting is associated with the ability of Western adolescents to thrive, it is less clear this relationship exists in other cultural contexts. This study primarily explored the relationship between parental autonomy support (PAS) and Chinese adolescents' digital citizenship behavior…

The predictive ability of early consonant inventory and intentional communication on later expressive language was examined in 36 boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS). Autism symptom severity was included as a potential moderator. Participants were visited in their homes twice over a 6-year period, and mother-child interactions were videotaped,…

Guided by the biopsychosocial model, we examined (a) the prevalence of weight control behaviors (WCBs; i.e., trying to stay the same weight, lose weight, gain weight, or do nothing about weight) among early adolescent boys by race/ethnicity and grade level, and (b) how the boys' perceptions of sociocultural pressures (from parents, peers, and…

The present study investigated how Chinese children develop theory of mind (ToM) in a language environment with limited mental state talk that is rich in behavior discourse. In Study 1, 60 mothers shared a wordless storybook with their 3-4-year-olds. The children completed two false-belief tasks and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised at…

The present study examined the role of adolescents' self-esteem and perceptions of family and classroom contexts on their domain specific self-perceptions. 345 Greek junior high school adolescents aged 14-16 completed measures of domain specific self-perceptions, self-esteem, parenting styles and classroom climate. Hierarchical regression analyses…

Pavlovian fear conditioning is not a unitary process. At the neurobiological level multiple brain regions and neurotransmitters contribute to fear learning. At the behavioral level many variables contribute to fear learning including the physical salience of the events being learned about, the direction and magnitude of predictive error, and the…

Callous and unemotional (CU) traits have been linked to severe antisocial behavior in youth, but studies examining the etiology of CU traits are lacking. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that childhood anxiety and parenting practices would interact to predict changes in CU traits over time. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 120…

Data from the primary caretakers of 20,505 children in the National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children illustrate the influence of parents' own childhood running-away experiences on their children's behavior. The importance of intergenerational transmission factors is illustrated. (SLD)

To see if mother-child conflict and mother firmness in conflict situations could be predicted from previous measures of the level of young children's attempt to influence their mothers, a study was conducted among 27 boys and 25 girls who were observed at 33 and 45 months of age. Information about the 33-month-old children's influence attempts…

Trained observers used the Standardized Observation Codes III to observe interactive patterns within the homes of 23 mother-child dyads in which the mother had physically abused the child and 24 similar dyads with no history of abuse. Among other findings, results indicated the great classificatory and predictive value of this measurement.…

Studied the weight-loss behaviors of 369 Australian tenth-grade girls and possible parental influences related to weight and shape. Parental encouragement to lose weight was a more significant predictor of daughter's dietary restraint than parents' own dietary-restraint levels. (SLD)

The study attempted to develop predictors of severe psychopathology in early adulthood from behavioral descriptions provided in middle adolescence and early adulthood by parents of 24 males (first seen in middle adolescence). (Author)

This secondary analysis of De Wolff and van IJzendoorn's (1997) meta-analysis of maternal behavior and attachment reexamined their conclusion that sensitivity was not a preferred predictor of attachment security. The meta-analysis included 66 studies with 123 effect sizes sorted through a combination of personal choice and homogeneity analysis…

The past 20 years have seen research on language acquisition in the cognitive sciences grow immensely. The current paper offers a fairly extensive review of this literature, arguing that new cognitive theories and empirical data are perfectly consistent with core predictions a behavior analytic approach makes about language development. The review…

This study assessed physically abused/neglected and nonabused/nonneglected children (n=206) at preschool and elementary school age to identify variables significantly affecting children's behavioral functioning. Behavioral functioning was most strongly differentiated by the sociocultural and family climate in which the child was raised, with…