A recent study suggests that parent report on the Social Symptom and Prosocial scales of the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale provides useful information about differences in the social development of school-aged autistic children. The current study provides additional psychometric data on the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale regarding…

Social engagement, pretend play, and concern for another's distress represent fundamental features of typical social-emotional development in the second year. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display delays and deficits in these areas, and research on toddlers at heightened risk for ASD (HR; younger siblings of children with ASD)…

This study examined the relationship between social withdrawal (isolation and unsociability) and peer victimization by exploring the moderating influences of gender, classroom norms of social withdrawal, individualism, and collectivism. One hundred fifty-eight adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14.11, SD = 1.10; 46.3% boys) in 7th and 8th grade from…

Successful inclusive education creates a learning environment that supports not only the cognitive abilities of all children but also their social and emotional development. The present study focuses on the development of social participation of students with and without special education needs (SEN). A longitudinal study with two measurement…

Research Findings: This study investigates contributions of the preschool classroom interpersonal environment to students' social competence in 1st grade. Participants were 862 ethnically/racially diverse children who attended public preschool classrooms serving low-income families. Systematic observations of 60 classrooms occurred across the…

This research examined links among academic ability, social-perspective coordination, and friendship quality, within the context of gifted adolescents' friendships. The sample consisted of 120 early adolescents (59 girls, 61 boys), 81 of whom were identified as gifted. Academic ability, sex, and grade significantly predicted social-perspective…

Social skills and symbol skills are positively associated in middle childhood, but the relation between these domains is less clear in newly verbal toddlers. Vygotsky proposed that symbols are both tools for interaction and mental tools for thought. Do symbols help even very young children build skills for interacting with and conceptualizing the…

Peer-mediated intervention (PMI), a strategy those working in preschool inclusive environments can use, creates opportunities for peers to assume instructional roles to promote positive social behaviors for children with disabilities. The purpose of the study was threefold: first, to examine peer mediators' use of PMI during baseline and…

Although many recognize that social and behavioral skills play an important role in educational stratification, no studies have attempted to estimate teachers' effects on these outcomes. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), the authors estimate teacher effects on social and behavioral skills as well…

This multimethod study of 101 mothers, fathers, and children elucidates poorly understood role of children's attachment security as "moderating" a common maladaptive trajectory: from parental power assertion, to child resentful opposition, to child antisocial conduct. Children's security was assessed at 15 months, parents' power assertion observed…

Adaptive social skills were assessed longitudinally at approximately ages 2, 3, 5, 9, and 13 years in a sample of 192 children with a clinical diagnosis of autism (n = 93), PDD-NOS (n = 51), or nonspectrum developmental disabilities (n = 46) at age 2. Growth curve analyses with SAS proc mixed were used to analyze social trajectories over time.…

This study examined the heterotypic continuity of aggression hypothesis (physical to indirect) using independent teacher reports of aggression drawn from a nationally representative sample of 749 Canadian girls and boys. Confirmatory factor analysis using an accelerated longitudinal design confirmed a two-factor model of physical and indirect…

Two aspects of young children's cognitive representations of peer relationships-peer affiliative motivation and feelings and beliefs about the self and peers-were assessed among a sample of 75 children (37 girls), who ranged in age from 32 to 76 months (M = 58.2 months). Measures of three aspects of discrete social cognition, encoding of social…

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 early developmental antecedents of individual differences in children's social functioning with peers in third grade were examined using longitudinal data from the large-scale National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study of early child care. In a sample of 1,364 children, with family and child factors controlled, the…