Surveys of 663 students in grades 3-6 in 6 small rural Texas school districts found that student attitudes toward mathematics became more negative as they progressed through elementary school. Girls had more positive attitudes than boys, but gender differences decreased at higher grade levels. (SV)

Associations between major or minor offending and developmental factors, family characteristics, environmental characteristics, and problem behaviors and symptoms were examined with 180 youth having severe emotional disturbance. Minor offending was associated with increasing age and parental incarceration. Major offending was associated with…

Intelligence quotient (IQ) scores of 216 elderly Alzheimer's Disease patients based on 3 sets of recent age-extended norms were compared. Results demonstrate the importance of reporting the normative sample on which IQ scores for older adults are based and provide guidelines for selecting a set of age-related norms. (SLD)

Two studies had parents describe the characteristics of the most prosocial two- and five-year olds they knew and rate the relative importance of each attribute in defining a child as prosocial. Results indicated more similarities than differences between the two age groups and suggested that research has underrepresented the rich repertoire of…

Two northern California surveys examined prevalence of sexual relations, number of sexual partners, contraception, age at first intercourse, and sexually transmitted diseases among 2,596 Hispanic and non-Hispanic white adults aged 35-74. Differences in sexual behaviors were somewhat related to ethnicity and acculturation but were more strongly…

For a representative national sample (n=1,200) of children from 5 to 17 years old, ability constructs were assessed through the Differential Abilities Scale. Adjustment constructs were assessed through teacher ratings with the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents. Partialled canonical redundancy and regression analyses revealed that…

Studied influence of intelligence, metacognitive attributions, and knowledge base coherence in the regulation of the category-sorting strategy in first and second graders. Knowledge base was a powerful predictor of strategic-looking behavior; metacognitive attribution was most influential in low knowledge base conditions; and intelligence had…

Two experiments examined developmental changes in accuracy of judgments about physical abilities in primary school children and college students. Subjects were asked to complete four physical tasks with and without benefit of practice. Found that children overestimated their physical abilities, individual differences in overestimation related to…

This study examined differences and similarities between traditional aged and nontraditional aged beginning secondary teachers. Analysis of personal and professional characteristics and teacher career development concern stages indicated there were differences in both personal and professional characteristics. Nontraditional aged students had…

Examined children's ability to accurately monitor sources of suggested information. Age differences were found in the degree to which a misleading suggestion led subjects to believe they actually remembered seeing events that had in fact only been suggested to them. Proposes that these age differences reflect developmental differences in the…

Internal source monitoring and internal-external reality monitoring of actions were compared in kindergartners and fourth graders. Children were asked to recall actions and identify their origins. Suggests the kindergartners' decrement in source monitoring is specific to discriminating memories from highly similar sources such as between actual…

Examined whether interviewer status or a preconceived bias affects children's memory and suggestibility or adults' descriptions of children's reports. Analyses revealed children's free recall accuracy suffered when they were interviewed by biased versus unbiased strangers but not when interviewed by biased versus unbiased mothers. Exposure to the…

College-aged (n=88) and middle-aged (n=89) men completed 5 measures that assess gender role conflict and psychological well-being. Results indicate that, compared with college-aged men, middle-aged men were less conflicted about success, power, and competition, but were more conflicted about work and family responsibilities. The discussion focuses…

Examined the effects of infant age on parent-infant interactions during picture-book reading. Subjects were 3 groups of parent-infant dyads with infants aged 9, 17, and 27 months. Found that parents reading to younger infants used more attention-recruiting verbalizations and more elaborations, compared with parents reading to older infants, who…

A survey of 241 Nigerian teachers found that subjects felt that the principal marker of giftedness is learning characteristics rather than general behavioral characteristics or creativity. The demographic variables of sex, educational level, and age did not have any significant differential effects on the perceptions of the subjects. (Author/JDD)