Used contextual and transactional approach to examine age and gender differences in experience and consequences of life stress in clinic-referred 8- to 18-year olds. Found that adolescent girls experienced highest interpersonal stress, self-generated within parent-child and peer relationships. Preadolescent girls experienced highest independent…

Mothers' and fathers' responses to their children's spontaneous sibling conflicts were observed. Findings indicated that associations between parents' conflict management strategy and sibling interaction quality varied according to children's ages, gender of the monitoring parent, and type of strategy. Passive nonintervention was highly associated…

Three studies examined mothers' reactions to and thoughts about sibling conflict and aggression. Most mothers attributed sibling conflict to a variety of factors. Maternal intervention was related to contextual factors, including mothers' own tolerance. Although preschoolers' mothers expected that physical aggression would decline with increasing…

Examines the effect of repeated trials on children aged six to nine from different countries learning a new song. States that: (1) culture influences responses; (2) rote singing improves with age; (3) girls responses are better; and (4) children repeat rhythms more accurately before they can pitch match melodic contours and precise pitches. (CMK)

This study interviewed 39 children (ages 8 to 11) enrolled in an art enrichment class concerning their views of themselves as creative artists. Analysis revealed age-related qualitative changes in skill development as well as in conceptions of what it means to be an artist and to be creative. The motivation to work hard to develop skills was…

Analyzed videotapes of 3- to 7-year-old Singaporean children to document play and language level. Data analysis revealed a developmental trend in play and language scores, several significant gender differences in Smilansky's and Parten/Piaget play categories but no significant gender differences in language scores. Socioeconomic status…

Discusses a study that assessed the learning styles of students age 25-83. Finds that (1) most adults favored a structured learning environment and were not self-directed; (2) African Americans preferred to work with more environmental sound than did white Americans; (3) Hispanics displayed a preference for greater food intake while learning; and…

Considers the relative lack of research attention to retention in developmental psychology and recent findings on age differences in retention. Highlights unresolved issues and how Bauer and colleagues' work may help set the research agenda and contribute to a shift in how early childhood retention is studied. Discusses memory strength,…

Used drawings and questionnaires to investigate development of images of "a Jew" and "an Arab" among Jewish Israeli 4- to 15-year-olds. Found that preschoolers expressed positive biases toward the in-group and negativism toward the out-group. Early adolescents manifested mainly negative biases toward the out-group. Children in…

Examined preschoolers' peer conflicts in the naturalistic classroom setting during free-play time. Found conflicts about play and ideas significantly increased with age while those stemming from physical harm were low overall. Findings support the proposal that conflicts are natural contexts in which children develop socially, morally, and…

Assessed predictions from social identity theory (SIT) concerning acquisition of young children's intra- and intergroup attitudes and cognitions. Found that children as young as 5 years of age were sensitive to the status of their social group, and that ingroup status had important implications for their desire to remain group members and their…

Two experiments examined developmental changes in reasoning about intensive quantities--predicting mixture intensity of pairs of liquids with different intensities of red color. Results showed that cognitive averaging in this domain developed late and slowly. Predominating up to 12 years was an extensivity bias, a strong tendency to use rules that…

Examined relationships between physical factors, psychological factors, gender, and age in middle school physical education (PE) students. Data on PE alienation, perceived competency toward physical fitness (PCf) and physical activity (PCp), and various fitness and strength measures indicated that gender and PCf significantly predicted fitness.…

Comprehension of chance language, such as is found in newspapers, is a fundamental aspect of statistical literacy. In this study, students' understandings of chance language were explored through responses to two items in surveys administered to 2,726 students from grades 5 to 11. One item involved evaluating the chance expressed in phrases from…

RIASEC interests were assessed in grades 8, 10, and 12 on a large national sample of 69,987 college bound students. Random samples of 1000 were drawn to represent each of the major US ethnic groups (African, Asian, Native, Mexican, Latino (non Mexican), Anglo, and Multiracial Americans) and interests were examined as they varied across time,…