Explores the socioeconomic determinants of chronic illness in Jamaica, a middle-income country burdened by this problem. Econometric results from a national household survey indicate that additional education significantly reduces the reporting incidence of chronic illness, especially among adults aged 14 to 49. This relationship persists even…

Investigated body image across life span in cross-section of women ages 20-84 years. Found that although body dissatisfaction remained stable, self-objectification, habitual body monitoring, appearance anxiety, and disordered eating all significantly decreased with age. Self- objectification mediated the relationship between age and disordered…

Examines the music listening preferences of 2,042 students from Greece, South Korea, and the United States using a survey that listed selections from art music, traditional jazz, and rock music. Finds that age, gender, and country all exerted influence, but the variables did not perform the same way in each country. (CMK)

Birth order effects on intellectual performance show both positive and negative results. Considers the intellectual aspects of siblings' changing environments, explaining that birth order and family size effects depend crucially on the age at which children are tested. Within-family data conceal patterns of aggregate effects that are revealed by…

Examined 2- to 5-year-olds' play with peers in their child care classroom and on the playground. Found that children were more likely to engage in interactive dramatic play outdoors than indoors. Outdoors, older children were more likely to interact with peers than were younger children. Outdoors offered older children functional and dramatic play…

A study involving 18 individuals with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) (ages 9-21) and 67 controls found total score on the Biber Cognitive Estimation Test for both individuals with PDD and controls progressed consistently with mental age, development being the most dramatic around the mental age of 8 years. (Contains references.)…

A study investigated the situation and characteristics of people with mental retardation reported to exhibit challenging behaviors in two areas of England. Results indicate challenging behaviors were shown by 10-15 percent of people with mental retardation, two-thirds were men/boys, and close to two-thirds were adolescents or young adults.…

Examines native speakers' reactions to the second language Danish of young Bilingual Turkish-Danish school students. Respondents were asked to evaluate the quality of the Danish of these students on the basis of tape recorded excerpts. Overall, respondents evaluated all speakers more negatively when they considered them to be nonnative Danes, but…

Forty seven children with severely impaired hearing, fitted with a cochlear implant, and 40 children with moderately impaired hearing, fitted with hearing aids, were evaluated using speech perception, production, and language measures over a 3-year period. Few differences were found between the groups, suggesting the implant improves hearing…

Investigates the range of Creole and standard English tense-aspect markers used by men and women at two age levels in the Islands of Tobago in the Southern Caribbean. People aged 70 and over and people aged 16-21 were compared on critical social variables and interviews were designed to tap their full range of communicative competence. (Author/VWL)

Examined association of three maternal regulating behaviors with children's positive and negative behaviors toward siblings in 40 Japanese families. Observed maternal regulating behaviors more frequently when younger sibling was still in early developmental stage. Older siblings' negative behaviors toward younger positively correlated with…

Parents of 69 students with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) were surveyed about their perceptions of, and their satisfaction with, educational services. Parents of nonverbal children rated classroom environment and education team variables more highly, as did parents of younger children and parents of more than one child with PDD.…

Examined visual attention and implications for recognition memory in a longitudinal sample of full-term and preterm infants at 5, 7, and 12 months. Found differences between full-terms and preterms in several aspects of visual attention. Infants showed consistent attentional styles over various conditions. Shorter looks and higher shift rates…

Examined the emergence of theory-motivated reasoning biases when early and middle adolescents evaluated evidence either congruent or incongruent to their theories of social class or religion. Found that higher order scientific reasoning was used to reject theory-incongruent evidence; judgmental heuristics were used to evaluate theory-congruent…

Examines the changes in stressors on a university campus over the past eight years by replicating a 1983 study on the same campus. Undergraduates (n=639) completed a survey consisting of 7 demographic questions and 2 open-ended questions. Discusses differences in both personal and academic problems between the 1985 and 1993 sample for different…