Asserts that effective children and adolescents can engage in socially undesirable behavior to attain personal goals at relatively little personal or interpersonal cost, implying that relations between adjustment and aggression may not be optimally described by standard linear models. Suggests that if researchers recognize that some aggression…

Observed Head Start and community samples with regard to children's initiations of negative interactions. Found that Head Start children tended to have higher scores for negative initiations and for one aggression scale, but these results were qualified. Found that aggression and negative behavior measures were positive predictors of social…

Examined preschoolers' performance on false belief tasks and perceptions of parental discipline. Found that children performed better on questions about their own false beliefs than on questions about others' false beliefs. Overall, children performed below average on false belief measures; and children expected parents in hypothetical scenarios…

Offers examples of what infants and toddlers might do in early childhood settings, how these behaviors are related to mathematics, and what teachers can do to encourage the natural mathematical interests of this age group. Asserts that teachers' interactions with children are vitally important to children's understanding of early mathematics. (KB)

This study of 234 validated sexual abuse cases (in which 59% of perpetrators were household members) calls into question the belief that children gradually disclose their abuse in a quasi-developmental process that follows sequential stages. Of the cases, 96% of victims made a partial or full disclosure of abuse during at least 1 interview with…

Collected data on natural rates of compliance of preschool children in day care centers. Found a mean rate of 84%. Also found that overall compliance increased with age, that children were more compliant to direct requests (of which teachers gave more) than to indirect or group requests, and that girls were not significantly more compliant than…

Surveys of parents of 87 Dutch children (ages 3-10) involved in multiple victim/multiple perpetrator sexual abuse investigated the children's behavior 2 years and 7 years after disclosure. Thirty-nine percent of the children changed as a result of the abuse and 7% showed signs of severe behavioral disorders. (Author/CR)

Presents a case study involving a primary grade student who has been caught stealing, offering differing perspectives on how the teacher should handle the situation. Each proposed solution draws on the NAEYC's code of ethics, offers analysis of student's behavior, and makes recommendations for disciplinary action that may or may not involve the…

Used vignettes to investigate children's integration of information on behavior, body weight, and sex when forming peer impressions. Found that positively behaving peers were liked more and attributed more positive traits than negatively behaving peers. Also found that boys, but not girls, believed that peers would evaluate average weight,…

Four-year-olds and their mothers co-constructed a narrative. At ages 4 and 5, children constructed personal narratives and mothers rated children's behavior. At both ages, children who were more emotionally coherent, compared to children who were less so during the co-construction, constructed personal narratives that were more coherent, more…

To deal with difficult campers, meet with them at an unexpected place and time, and have as many adults present as campers. Begin with a story, then have each camper share a positive story. Discuss positive possibilities and ask for honest accountability. Frame the solution realistically, get agreement for change, and close with affirmation.…

Examines television advertisements aimed at children outlining the implications for the classroom as well as art education as a field of study. Argues that the images presented in mass media offer a challenge to adults related to their childhood conceptions resulting from certain roles, such as teachers. (CMK)

Results of four mid-1970s experiments continue to be used as evidence that exposure to media violence desensitizes children to real-life aggression. This study replicated procedures from those experiments using contemporary video materials, and results confirmed original findings that children tend to tolerate more the aggressive behaviors of…

Tested a process model for the impact of children's exposure to marital conflict on their behavior adjustment with a sample of 28 couples and their 6-year-old children. Found that maternal conflict behavior and children's negative emotional reactions to fathers independently predicted children's behavioral adjustment. (MDM)

Discusses techniques that teachers and parents can use to help young children cope with the birth of a new sibling and reduce fighting amongst siblings. Young children need to understand what is taking place, what is expected of them, and how they should interact with their brother or sister. (MDM)