The purpose of the present study was to conduct an initial validation of the Positive Family Support--Strengths and Needs Assessment (PFS-SaNA) for elementary school children. The PFS-SaNA is designed as a universal screener wherein parents report on common areas their children may need additional support. Parents of children attending one…

In this article, the author synthesizes research from several disciplines to shed light on play's central role in healthy development. Gordon builds on research in attachment theory that correlates secure attachment in infancy with adult well-being to demonstrate how playfulness might be a lifelong outcome of secure attachment and a primary…

Background: There is limited knowledge about how positive and negative parenting practices differ across individuals and change over time in parents with substantiated physical abuse history, and how trajectories of these parenting practices affect child adjustment. Objective: The present study examined latent trajectories of positive and negative…

The purpose of the study was to examine the contributions of maternal encouragement of autonomy and maternal encouragement of connectedness to the prediction of children's social behaviors. A sample of children (N = 94), initially aged two years, and their mothers in China participated in the two-year longitudinal study. Child autonomy and…

The purpose of this study was to test direct, additive, and mediation models involving family, neighborhood, and peer factors in relation to emerging antisocial behavior and social skills. Neighborhood danger, maternal depressive symptoms, and supportive parenting were assessed in early childhood. Peer group acceptance was measured in middle…

Studies the effects of mothers' presence and absence on two infants from birth to two years. (AJ)

Examines the extent to which an infant's social initiative resists or is modified by three variations in the behavior of adult responsiveness: repeated responses, varied responses, and eye aversion. (HOD)

This study examines the existence of Oedipal conflicts and the relationship of social and cognitive factors to Oedipal conflicts. Forty children of three to six years were studied and found to show Oedipal behaviors that varied with age and changes in the children's social and cognitive understanding. (SH)

This paper reported a pilot study on issues relevant to the social development of the 2-year-old child and discussed the results within the framework of the evolutionary-control-systems theory proposed by Bowlby (1958, 1969) and Ainsworth (1967, 1969). The issues examined were (1) attachment and (2) reciprocity, or the ability of the child-mother…

Identifies reliable mother action-child reaction patterns and assesses the effect of maternal consequences for those patterns on the probability of their subsequent occurrence. (HOD)

This paper is a summary of a study concerned with identification of risk variables which affect the development of social and emotional behavior in young children. Families with pre-schoolers responded to a questionnaire designed to screen children who might be considered high risk. The screening results were validated with behavior observations…

A total of 51 mothers and their newborn infants were studied in order to evaluate the relationship between neonatal style and the early mother-infant relationship. The procedure included an infant assessment with the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, a mother-infant interaction observation during feeding, and an interview concerning maternal…

Observes parents' socialization practices in 24 homes of families with first-born infants at 11, 14, and 17 months of age. Four kinds of socializing practices were observed and compared by parents' sex, infants' age, and infants' sex. (HOD)

This paper presents a study designed to determine if providing information to primiparous mothers about the behavioral characteristics of their infants would affect reciprocity in mother-infant interaction. Thirty married, Caucasian, middle class mothers of healthy, normally carried and delivered 48-hour-old first-born infants served as subjects.…

Using a longitudinal design, investigates the interactive behaviors of mothers of normal infants and mothers of infants who are known to differ on a host of cognitive, behavioral, and biological parameters. Examines the developmental course of emotional expressivity in these infants. (HOD)