Used traditional housekeeping and novel dramatic play centers to compare the effects of theme, novelty, and duration on the social and cognitive play of two- to five-year olds. More dramatic play was observed in centers that used familiar rather than unfamiliar themes. Girls preferred traditional to novel centers; boys preferred novel to…

Studied sexual knowledge among Norwegian adolescents (n=1,855) aged 17-19 years. Found knowledge gaps among adolescents on sexual physiology and anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, and fecundation/contraception. Level of sexual knowledge was higher among girls than boys and increased with increasing age. Sexual knowledge did not predict…

Evaluation of preoperative and postoperative equivalent ear canal volume measures on 334 children (ages 6 weeks to 6.7 years) with chronic otitis media with effusion found that the determination could be made very accurately for children 4 years and older. Criterion values for tympanic membrane perforation and preoperative and postoperative…

Mothers (n=112) with young, middle childhood, or older children with developmental delays completed the Parenting Stress Index. Child Domain scores were high for all age groups, but Parent Domain scores were within normal limits. The middle childhood group was higher in both domains than other groups. Degree of handicap and behavior problems were…

Three mother-child dyads were videotaped in a free play setting when children were two- and three-years old. Children's spontaneous comprehensible utterances were rated for grammaticality and ambiguity of function, and mothers' responses were noted. (Contains 14 references.) (Author)

Data from 48 infants revealed (1) that infants aged 1;2-2;3 failed to establish a stable word-object link even in follow-in labeling and (2) that only infants aged 1;6-1;7 could identify the correct referent during discrepant labeling. During the period between 1;2-1;7 infants are becoming increasingly adept at acquiring new labels under minimal…

Fifth through ninth graders reported their daily emotional states, and they and their parents reported on the students' life events. Older students experienced more negative events than younger students. The experience of multiple negative events had a stronger association with negative affect for older students than for younger students. (BC)

During a seven-year period, cognitive training by means of a pretest-posttest was used in a study of old adults' problem solving in regards to figural relations. Results showed significant training effects at each phase, with the largest gains occurring at the first phase. The performance of old adults after the last phase was significantly above…

Infants' visual fixations were monitored while they viewed predictable and unpredictable sequences of stimuli. Analyses of anticipatory fixations indicated that by two months of age, infants form expectations for the reappearance of visual stimuli positioned opposite to each other. By three months, infants rapidly form expectations for asymmetric…

Investigated extent to which cognitions mediate relationship between negative life events and depression. College students and their same-sex parents and grandparents (n=171) completed measures of stressful life events, automatic thoughts, dysfunctional attitudes, and depression. Found interaction between negative life events and cognition for…

Content analysis of 325 case records resulted in the identification of 7 main child care arrangements in which sexual abuse occurred, varying by the routinization and formality of the caregiving relationships, methods of caregiver selection, and reimbursement. Differing characteristics of female and male perpetrators were identified. (BRM)

Speech-associated attitudes of 70 stuttering and 271 nonstuttering Belgian elementary and middle school children were assessed. Stuttering students evidenced significantly more negative attitudes toward speech than did their nonstuttering peers. These attitudes became more negative with age among stuttering children, whereas attitudes of…

Investigated the relationship between initial understanding of information given by the school psychologist at parent conferences and characteristics of parents (anxiety, parental expectations, assertion, and language level). Language level of the parent, age of the parent, and socioeconomic status were significantly related to recall. Anxiety,…

Examines the development of toddlers' moral and conventional judgments and effects of language development on such judgments. Rudimentary distinctions between familiar moral, social and conventional transgressions are made during the child's third year. (Author/BB)

Representations of 40 3- to 6-year-olds' perceptions of Oedipal conflicts among family members were assessed through a doll-play task and parental diaries. Complementary information on children's understanding of family roles and age relativity was evaluated independently. Oedipal behaviors appeared to increase and then decrease during this age…