Observed home interaction between parents and 2- and 4-year-olds at Time 1 and 2 years later. Found that parent mental state talk to children varied by child's age, context of talk, and parent gender. Four-year-olds with older siblings produced and heard more cognitive talk and less desire talk than children without older siblings. Time 1 family…

A study was conducted of 201 adults with Down's syndrome to investigate the differential causes of decline in adaptive behavior. Results indicated that aging, dementia, and severity of mental retardation were significant factors, while absence of a medical illness predicted a higher level of adaptive behavior. (CR)

Discusses changes occurring in two-, four-, and six-month-old infants' visual attention span, through a series of experiments examining their ability to orient to peripheral visual stimuli. The results obtained were consistent with the hypothesis that infants get faster with age in shifting attention to a spatial location. (AA)

Reactions to praise, blame, and reward received by two children were studied among 79 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Findings suggest an alternate and less differentiated cognitive mechanism for the paradoxical effects of praise and blame. Older children showed an increasing preference to be like the nonpraised, nonrewarded, or blamed child.…

The influence of child age and parent and child gender on parents' attributions and responses to their children's social and academic outcomes was studied with 76 dual-parent families of fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders. Results suggest the complexity of the interactions among these factors. (SLD)

The factor structure and scale characteristics of a shortened version of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale (SCBE) are presented for a Quebec (Canada) sample of 910 preschoolers and three U.S. samples totaling 1,736. Also presented are age and gender differences in preschool emotional and behavioral problems. (SLD)

This study surveyed ninth- and eleventh-graders' evaluations of social exclusion based on social group membership. Responses indicated that participants found exclusion less wrong than denying resources, and used fewer moral and more conventional reasons to justify judgments. Participants relied on their group knowledge or stereotypes in…

In many African countries, rural-urban kinship ties support the education and economic mobility of rural children through fosterage into urban families. Demographic survey data from central Cameroon indicate major rural-urban differences in child fosterage relative to family characteristics and child's school performance, and show lower rural…

Discusses the effectiveness of interactive televised (ITV) distance education and describes a study that measured constructs that contributed to graduate student satisfaction with ITV courses. Considers instructor's communication skills, teaching skills, instructor accessibility, course management, course content, quality of technology, on-campus…

Research findings from a series of longitudinal studies of the language, speech, and social-emotional development of children with hearing impairments and hearing parents found language development is positively and significantly affected by the age of identification of the hearing loss and age of initiation into Colorado early intervention…

Hoping to gain prestige and financial support for research, many four-year institutions have toughened faculty tenure and promotion standards to require more and better research. Some older faculty have been surpassed in salary and perquisites by younger, more aggressive scholars. Morale problems and concern over evaluation criteria have resulted.…

A follow-up study of 268 adolescents was conducted to determine predictors of disabilities. Parental traits were more accurate predictors of adolescent status than the child's own behavior from birth to 3 years, whereas child-centered skills assessed at 4 and 7 years of age were better predictors than familial factors. (Author/JDD)

Purposes of this study were to identify certain psychosocial attributes and life experiences of minority adolescent mothers and explore variations in these attributes and experiences in and across age and ethnic groups. (PCB)

Describes status and challenge of worldwide illiteracy. Discusses statistical plausibility of universal literacy by 2000. Predicts literacy universalization will take from 14 to 21 years, depending on region, if 1980s trends continue. Implies literacy work requires action strategies commensurate with problem, including national programs and mass…

Western and Soviet views of memory-related performance are synthesized. Whether middle childhood-aged students comprehend better with meaning-based (involuntary) strategies due to the importance of semantic focus, and whether adolescent students comprehend better with memory-oriented (voluntary) strategies were studied with 243 students in grades…