Findings from a randomized controlled design study of an ability-based versus needs-based approach to response-contingent learning among children with significant developmental delays and disabilities who did not use instrumental behavior to produce reinforcing consequences are reported. The ability-based intervention and needs-based intervention…

Study includes variety of subjectively positive as well as negative outcomes of becoming a parent for the first time. Using large urban sample, crisis was found to be slight or moderate. Several variables were found to be significantly related to the ease of dealing with first year of parenthood. (Author)

The objective of this project was to test the effect of the presence of a mother, compared with the presence of an adult female stranger, upon the apprehensiveness of children confronted with novel stimuli. Subjects were 10 children, 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old, who were individually placed in a room containing a toy cash register, a marble-race toy,…

Demonstrates that a mother's perceptions of and behavior toward an infant can be influenced by knowing whether the infant was born prematurely or full-term. Differences in maternal behavior arising from this knowledge appear to produce differences in the infant's behavior. (HOD)

Response patterns of 24 female nurses to 2-day-old neonates who had been arbitrarily labeled male or female were studied. A total of 17 reliable behaviors of nurses were scored from videotapes of nurse-infant interaction. Nurses responded differentially to neonates based on true gender rather than ascribed gender. Nurses held boys more by their…

Direct observation of a child's motor performance by a parent was hypothesized to exert an effect on motor behavior. The presence of a parent observer during practice was hypothesized to exert a depressing effect on learning and a facilitating effect on performance when parent observer was introduced later in practice. Male and female children age…

This study compares interactions between infants and parents to interactions between infants and strangers. Infants from 2 weeks to 6 months of age were taped in face-to-face interactions with unfamiliar male and female adults. Tapes of parent-infant interactions were available from a prior study. Specific infant and adult behaviors were coded and…

A primary purpose of the present study was to further investigate the effects of children upon parents in order to gain a better understanding of the interactional relationship between parents and children. Subjects were 42 middle and upper-middle class parents and their daughters. Mothers and fathers were first observed separately with their…

Two studies are reported: (1) the growth and change, from age 2 to 3, in certain aspects of attachment to mother and stranger-fear among a group of American children, and (2) a cross-sectional study of a group of 2 1/2 year-old kibbutz-reared Israeli children. (Authors/MB)

The deleterious effects of separation and deprivation using children who were undergoing chemotherapy for childhood cancer was investigated. Extensive observational and physiological records were obtained on four children under five years of age during six weeks of treatment in a protected environment. In general, findings parallel those reported…

Should a stimulus be defined as the single event immediately preceding a response (simple stimulus) or as a constellation of antecedents representing several preceding events (complex stimulus)? Sixty-eight families with a child between four and eight years of age were observed, and family interactions coded in the naturalistic setting of the…

THE BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS, BACKGROUNDS, AND THEMES OF CHILDREN'S REALISTIC TRADE BOOKS WERE IDENTIFIED. NINE CATEGORIES OF INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR WERE DEVELOPED AND DEFINED IN THIS INVESTIGATION OF CHANGES IN CONTENT OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS PUBLISHED WITHIN A PERIOD OF 40 YEARS, FROM 1920-60. FROM 780 SAMPLES REVIEWED BY THE EXAMINER, THREE JUDGES…

A study of the effect of the twin sibling relationship upon interactions between monkey mothers and infants. Findings provided strong support for the prediction that the twin sibling presence decreases the amount of behavior directed from infant to mother. Differences in maternal behavior were concluded to be reactions to differences in infant…