Examines whether elementary school children relate to the "harmful hidden message" about nuclear war in Dr. Seuss's THE BUTTER BATTLE BOOK. After ascertaining the children's cognitive level, they participated in activities to find hidden meanings in stories, including Seuss's book. Students failed to identify the nuclear war message in…

Confirmed expectations that emotional reactions to the movie, "The Day After," would increase with age. Found also that nonpermissive parents (those who had prevented a child from viewing the movie) were more likely than permissive parents to have been upset by the movie. (PD)

The purpose of this study was to determine differential relationships among teacher perceptions of student expression of effort, teacher expectation, grade, school, teacher, sex, and being handicapped/nonhandicapped on gross motor performance among handicapped and nonhandicapped children integrated together in physical education classes.…

Investigated relationships and sequence of acquisition among seven gender concepts and extent to which cognitive maturity is related to them. Study of 60 preschool children found that gender concepts improve with age, are similar in both sexes, and are related to one another and to some aspects of cognitive maturity. (Author/ML)

Examines the quality of conversation produced by small groups of subjects in fifth, ninth, and twelfth grades and the last year of college. Results supported Piaget's sequence of conversational development. However, topical coherence apparently is not fostered by focused turns but emerges as a generalization of the normative constraints applying…

Establishes a criterion for and assesses the incidence of friendship among preschoolers. Factors affecting the formation of close association and the consistency of children's interactions with friends and nonfriends were also analyzed. (Author/AS)

Assesses age differences in the reliability of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for children commissioned by the National Institute for Mental Health. The interview, covering a broad range of clinically relevant symptoms and behaviors, was administered to 242 children and their parents. Parent and child were interviewed separately and were…

Explores roles of class differences and economic status in household structure. Provides some evidence of between-group differences in family structure, partially attributable to differences in economic status. Concludes that the importance of economic status may be offset by other factors, including family social and emotional support needs, and…

Sixty-six seventh, eighth, and ninth graders were selected by guidance counselors to participate in a problem-solving skills training program. Students receiving training demonstrated better problem-solving skills and a higher level of self-esteem than control group students. (Author/BW)

Differences in the mastery motivation levels and approval needs of children, ages four and eight, were investigated. Two groups of 32 children each worked on puzzle tasks in one of two conditions: (1) verbal reinforcement or (2) nonreinforcement. Younger children needed more reinforcement than older children. (Author/BS)

Rated 15 sources of satisfaction and 15 sources of conflict for nine relationships of adults (N=52). Results showed three clear satisfaction factors (instrumental reward, emotional support, shared interests) and two conflict factors (emotional conflict, criticism). Shared interests seemed to be a universal satisfaction source. (WAS)

Examines modification of mother-child instruction as a function of age of learner in middle childhood (six versus eight years). Instruction and learning were compared on two tasks designed to simulate school and home activities. Results show more intense instruction of all kinds for the younger children in the school task. (RH)

Compares performance of 172 children aged 7 to 13 years on tasks involving visual or auditory presentation of rhyming and nonrhyming letters and an oral or written response. Results indicate insensitivity to phonological similarity for young children with disabilities; sensitivity improves with age, but deficits in short-term memory remain at…

Among Koreans tested on Rest's Defining Issues Test, females, urban people, and older subjects showed significantly more responses demonstrating principled morality than did males, rural people, and younger subjects. Comparisons with American results showed greater age differences in stages of moral development among Americans. Both groups showed…

Investigated the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) using 535 Canadian high school students. As expected, intelligence, grade, and sex were significant predictors of the CMI variables. However, evidence for discriminant validity was unsatisfactory and inconsistent with the theoretical framework of CMI. (JAC)