Tests validity of the Literary Response Questionnaire (LRQ) and assesses its relationships with Dutch junior-high-school student, home-background, and school-related variables. Confirms the seven first-order factors of the LRQ identified in a previous study. Finds grade, gender, type of education, vocabulary size, reading behavior, and cultural…

Presents the results of a meta-analysis of the predictors of female delinquency. Finds that most of the strong predictors of female delinquency are the same as those for males, including history of antisocial behavior, antisocial attitudes, antisocial peers, and antisocial personality. School and family relationships and a history of…

This study offers a critical review and analysis of the Social Development Model and social control theory in delinquency. Results show that attachment and commitment to parents, school, and peers is associated with delinquency for both boys and girls. Parental attachment and commitment play a stronger role in female delinquency, while alienation…

Examined relationship between jealousy and self-esteem, insecurity, external locus of control, and sex in undergraduates (N=128) from a predominantly Black university. Determined self-esteem and insecurity accounted for 28 percent of variance in jealousy; external locus of control did not account for significant amount of variance in jealousy.…

Examined whether the relationship between selected affective variables and mathematics achievement was different for nontraditional college students (more than 25 years old) than for traditional students. Reports no significant differences for pretest/posttest between traditional/nontraditional students. Lists affective predictors for mathematics…

Tested a process model for the impact of children's exposure to marital conflict on their behavior adjustment with a sample of 28 couples and their 6-year-old children. Found that maternal conflict behavior and children's negative emotional reactions to fathers independently predicted children's behavioral adjustment. (MDM)

The role of cognitive and linguistic individual differences as well as contextual factors and processing complexity were examined as determinants of pronoun reversal (I/you). It is proposed that pronoun reversals commonly result from a failure to perform a deicitic shift, which is especially likely when children's psycholinguistic processing…

Maternal treatment of sibling pairs with affectively ill and well mothers was examined in relation to child psychiatric status across childhood and early adolescence. Found that older siblings' symptoms were predicted by maternal bipolar or unipolar illness, whereas younger siblings' symptoms were predicted by lower maternal engagement and higher…

Individual differences in children's conceptual strategies at 3 years of age were predicted by aspects of children's behavior and language at 13 and 24 months. Production of pointing gestures at 13 months and nouns and attributive adjectives at 24 months were positively associated with the use of a taxonomic matching strategy at 3 years of age.…

Explores the extent of preschoolers' knowledge of mixed emotions, and whether difficulty in discerning mixed emotions stems from beliefs about how emotions are portrayed on the face. Found that both four- and five-year olds can identify mixed emotions. Only five-year olds (with appropriate scaffolding and with simple, clear stories) can…

Examined multiple measures of 82 young children's emotionality, regulation, and social functioning over a 2-year period, finding that social functioning was predicted by low negative emotionality and high levels of regulation. Also found that vagal tone was positively related to competent social functioning and emotionality/regulation for boys,…

This editorial proposes that the dependent variables that predict childhood intelligence quotient (IQ) from habituation and recognition memory assessments made during infancy may primarily reflect individual differences in rate of information processing. Inhibition may be a stable thread in mental development. (Author/SLD)

Investigated intergenerational transmission of violence among college students in dating relationships (n=380). Severe abuse by his father predicted a man's violent behavior. Witnessing marital violence predicted a woman's liberal attitudes and a man's conservative attitudes. Discrepancy in attitudes toward women and particularly a woman's liberal…

At 4-year followup on 110 Mexican-American adolescents in a drug abuse prevention program, association with deviant peers was strongly predictive of alcohol and drug use and criminality, whereas parental influences were minor predictors. Low school satisfaction was related to greater drug use, particularly for females. (Author/SV)

This literature review discusses gender differences in psychosocial determinants of adolescent smoking. Studies show that external pressures (e.g., peer and parental smoking) are important for boys and girls, although their influence may be moderated differently by age and type of smoking behavior assessed. Gender-specific components of…