This study compared the performance of 300 Chinese children on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Revised (BTBC-R) with that of American children from the standardization sample of the BTBC-R. Subjects were in kindergarten, first, and second grade, and completed the test at the end of the 1996-97 school year. The focus of the comparison was to…

Public support for individual and media rights of freedom of expression was examined in this study. Data were analyzed from a national probability sample of 1,508 adults, with items pertaining to freedom of expression formed into two indexes: media rights and individual rights. These indexes were used as dependent variables to test hypotheses…

This paper addresses the effects of developmental changes that occur in the transition from childhood to adolescence on parent-child relationships. The first section considers four theoretical approaches to changes in relationships during the transition to adolescence. Noted especially are perspectives regarding the impetus for changes in…

A study explored perceived reality and developmental differences in viewing theater. Subjects, 33 second graders, 33 fourth graders, 23 sixth graders, and 23 college students viewed a production of "This Is Not a Pipe Dream," a non-representational play based on biographical facts about the early life and work of the surrealist painter…

Public support for various media rights was examined in this study. Data were analyzed from a national probability sample of 1,508 adults, with items pertaining to media formed into three indexes: Morality, Routine Journalism, and Identification. These indexes were used as dependent variables in a multiple analysis of variance test based on the…

A study examined the relationship between self-perceived leadership ability and aspiration levels among 262 randomly selected consumer and home economic students in grades 7 through 12. The Dimensions of Self Concept (DOSC) questionnaire and a demographic survey instrument were administered to the students to gather data on their gender, age, and…

This study investigated the contributions of parent, infant, and contextual variables to the prediction of maternal ratings of infant temperament. Between the time when they gave birth and six months after the birth, 104 mothers completed measures of parenting attitudes, maternal anxiety and depression, family social support, demographic…

In this study, Vygotsky's theory of the interpersonal origin and cognitive-developmental function of children's private speech is outlined and compared with Piaget's view of egocentric speech, and some contemporary North American research on children's private speech is reviewed. For the study, 32 preschool-aged children were videotaped during two…

Preschool children (N=23) and fifth-grade children (N=23) and their mothers judged the acceptability of corporal punishment as a function of the type of transgression (acting danerously, violating a social rule, or violating a moral precept) and discipline agent. Children of both ages and their mothers discriminated among different types of…

A recent issue of importance in the vast literature on well-being and age concerns the factorial invariance of the construct across age groups. Current wisdom suggests that while differences in loadings exist among age groups, the construction of summary measures introduces little bias. To investigate age and ethnic variation in the meaning of…

Evidence concerning the contributions of social networks to the subjective well-being of older persons is inconsistent, reflecting the conceptual complexity of social networks and supports. In order to investigate the relative importance of different types of social ties and supports, the distinction between objective and subjective dimensions of…

Previous research on friendship selection has failed to focus on how the selection process changes with age or in differently organized environments. This review of the literature takes a life-course perspective on the selection of friends, charting research results on three aspects of the selection process: (1) the number of friends and their…

In recent research, two qualitatively different classes of mental operations have been identified. The performance of one type of cognitive task requires attention, in the sense of mental effort, for its execution, while the second type can be performed automatically, independent of attentional control. Further research has shown that automatic…

Studies suggesting appropriate literature for children at various stages of social and intellectual development can offer only a general picture of children's changing response to literature. While smaller children appear to prefer shorter stories in simple language, for example, they readily accept the unfamiliar place names or nonsense words of…

Investigated were school children's recognition of social class distinctions, cues they used, and the relationship of their ideas about social class to other beliefs and attitudes about the social world. An ethnically mixed group of 201 male and female subjects participated in the study. Five age groups were represented: second, fifth, and sixth…