Nine experiments examined 6- to 10-month-olds' formation of an abstract category representation for "between." Findings indicated that older, but not younger infants, could form an abstract category representation for "between" when performing in an object-variation version of the between categorization task. Six- to…

Interviewed depressed and non-depressed mothers on their breastfeeding practices and perceptions of their infants' feeding behavior. Found that, compared to non-depressed mothers, depressed mothers breast fed less often, stopped breastfeeding earlier, and scored lower on a breastfeeding confidence scale. Mothers who breastfed rather than bottle…

Longitudinal data indicated a significant relation between five-month vagal tone and negative reactivity elicited in the laboratory and maternal ratings of activity level and smiling behavior. Newborn vagal tone predicted maternal ratings of frustration and fear. Moderate stability was found for infant reactivity. (RH)

Examined grief responses of parents suffering perinatal loss and explored effects of gender, type of loss, time since loss, number of losses, and subsequent pregnancy on grief response. Responses to Grief Experience Inventory from 176 such parents revealed subjects suffering grief. Grief response was affected by subjects' perception that loss was…

Evaluated the extent to which infants' expressive modalities of face, gaze, voice, gesture, and posture form coherent affective configurations and whether these modalities are related to specific interactive contexts. Found four distinct affective configurations: social engagement, object engagement, passive withdrawal, and active protest. (MDM)

Comments on Bradley's interpretation (PS 522 367) of Darwin's baby observations in this issue. Argues that Bradley reduced Darwin to a mere rhetorician, exaggerated Erasmus Darwin's influence, and diminished the importance of intertextual links in Darwin's own previous writings. Disagrees that Darwin's primary motive was rhetorical and suggests…

Comments sympathetically on Bradley's interpretation (PS 522 367) of Darwin's baby observations in this issue. Draws from Bradley to provide a sketch of the politics of child development as a human enterprise, and questions the view of developmental psychology as a positivistic, value-free field. (TM)

Responds to commentaries by Keegan and Gruber on Bradley's article in this issue, refuting charges of oversimplification of Darwin's ideas. States that the Darwin example undermines the notion that developmental psychology is insulated from cultural preoccupations, arguing that Darwin is important for introducing a new psychological poetic.…

Home visits and parental diaries revealed that children of deaf parents produced their initial recognizable sign at 8.2 months of age, attained a lexicon of 10 signs at 13.5 months, and combined signs at 16.1 months. Children did not use signs to name new things until 12.6 months, typically after they had demonstrated communicative pointing. (BC)

Reviews literature on attachment process between adopted children and their mothers. Explains empirical research in relation to Bowlby's theoretical formulation of attachment, basic thesis of which is that infants develop affectional bonds at specific ages of their development and, therefore, child's age at time of adoption is important…

Examined whether young infants produced differentially organized hand and arm actions in relation to affective expressions when the infants were presented with social and nonsocial stimuli. (PCB)

Describes the concept of sensitive and competent infant care in group child-care settings. Offers seven principles to provide a more complete picture of sensitive and competent care, covering aspects of caregiving including interactions with the child, providing opportunities for learning, and working with the child's own needs and schedules.…

Examined three components of the attachment-transmission model in 48 kibbutz dyads from communal and home-based sleeping arrangements. Found that security of infants' attachment relations and autonomy of mothers' attachment representations were associated with higher emotional availability scores. Poorer emotional availability was found in dyads…

Offers a framework for understanding how early separation and maltreatment affect infants' ability to securely rely on a foster parent. Argues that disruptions in primary attachment relationships, combined with maltreatment, place these infants at risk for insecure or disorganized attachments to foster parents. Maintains that foster parents need…

Two experiments investigated factors affecting joint visual attention in 12- and 18-month-olds. Findings indicated that parental pointing at objects elicited more episodes of joint visual attention than looking alone. Although infants most reliably followed gestures to targets in front of them, even 12-month-olds followed gestures to targets…