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…

Article critically reviews the research literature on peer modeling among children as a function of model attributes. Conditions under which perceived similarity causes behavioral change are discussed. (RB)

This review of 50 social validation research studies involving persons with handicaps concludes that social validation procedures are an appropriate and important component of applied behavior analysis. Discussed are methodological issues, social importance of effects, social significance of goals, social appropriateness of procedures, and…

Theory and research on sex differences in adjustment focus largely on parental, societal, and biological influences. However, it also is important to consider how peers contribute to girls' and boys' development. This article provides a critical review of sex differences in several peer relationship processes, including behavioral and…

Children's avoidance responses were conditioned and then extinguished in a laboratory analog of a social threat situation. (DP)

Knowledge about guns and the relation between play with guns and aggressivity was assessed in a group of 5-9 year old children. Each child was questioned about his gun play and his understanding of guns after he was shown a display of two toy and two real guns. This data was then correlated with a teacher rating of aggression for each child.…

Aggression is examined in this discussion of the role of television in the development of young children's social behaviors. The way aggression is interpreted by children watching television and program influences on the children's own aggressive behavior are among topics considered. Some suggestions are made in regard to context of aggression…

Four socialization environments, all of which included some modeling of altruism by an adult, were differentially effective in altering children's responsiveness to others in circumstances of distress. (Authors)

The behaving organism is described as a system with internal motivational and memory components which guide the actions of external input and output components. The organism actively shapes its environment by using its output to control its input from the environment. Output is a function of the psychological forces, topographic memory, and input…

Among the findings are that girls become more self-reliant and responsible than boys at an earlier age and that the non-social behavior of boys reflects their greater free time and lack of responsibilities. The responses of adults are inconclusive, but consistent with findings on childrens behavior. (Author/AM)

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)

Differences between males and females have been documented for a number of behaviors. Among the environmental determinants of the development of behavioral sex differences is differential treatment of girls and boys by their parents and teachers. This paper reviews and comments on the research literature concerning differential socialization of…