The construct of moral disengagement has increasingly been used by researchers to account for the asymmetry between children's moral reasoning and their moral behavior. According to this theory, moral disengagement occurs most aptly when children are motivated to violate their moral beliefs, such as when they hold antisocial goals during social…

The Child Behavior Scale (CBS) is a teacher-report instrument that was developed over a decade ago as an alternative to more costly methods for assessing children's behavior and peer relations in school contexts. This investigation was undertaken to clarify how well the CBS achieves its aims with a broader age spectrum of youth (6- to…

Three studies were conducted to assess age-related changes in children's compliant helping behavior (helping directed toward a peer at an adult's request) in relationship to (1) information about another's need, (2) knowledge about how to help, and (3) the helper's perception of interpersonal and situational constraints on helping. (Author/RH)

Assessed preschoolers' peer relations and measured the frequency of parents' and children's initiations of children's play interactions with peers. Frequent parent initiations were associated with high levels of children's prosocial behavior. Children who more often initiated interactions displayed less anxious behavior than children who less…

Examined the constructs of connectedness and autonomy in relation to 5-year-olds' relational competence, including socioemotional orientation, friendship, and peer acceptance. Found that connectedness was correlated with children's socioemotional orientations, number of mutual friendships, and peer acceptance, and that the relation between…

A study was conducted to develop reliable measures of parents' perceptions or concerns about their children's progress in the domain of peer relations, and to assess the relationship between perceptions of progress and concerns. The study sample consisted of 62 white, preschool children (34 girls and 28 boys) and their mothers and teachers.…

This study investigates the relationship between children's ideas about how to be helpful to peers and peer acceptance. Third- and fifth-grade children responded to three sociometric measures and were later individually interviewed under four conditions on two occasions in response to different cartoon situations. Children were asked to suggest…

Evaluated the reliability and validity of the Child Behavior Scale (CBS), designed to assess behavioral indicators of risk and competence in young children. In the spring and fall, teachers used the CBS to rate their kindergarten children and sociometric measures were administered to children. Found that scores for six CBS subscales were…

Examined relations between kindergartners' behavioral orientations and features of kindergartners' subsequent relationship with first-grade teacher. Found that unique associations emerged between early antisocial behavior and less closeness; greater conflict and dependency; and asocial behavior and teacher-child dependency. Prosocial behavior was…