This paper describes a study of the socioemotional functioning of middle-class male and female preschoolers who had experienced varying degrees of nonparental care during the infant/toddler period. A review of the literature revealed that previous research findings from child care programs were inconclusive about potential differential effects on…

"Second Step" for preschoolers and kindergartners is a curriculum kit designed to reduce impulsive and aggressive behavior in young children and to increase their levels of social competence by teaching skills in empathy, impulse control, and anger management. The kit, which is part of a series that includes curricula for grades 1-3,…

Not all fighting or aggression in young children is bad, and some kinds of teacher intervention may be beneficial. Play-fighting refers primarily to rough and tumble play and chasing, and several studies have shown that play and serious fighting can be clearly distinguished in young children. Numerous authors have pointed out the value and…

This longitudinal, prospective study used case material from 232 families in its analysis of effects of family environments on criminal behavior. Men who had participated in a crime prevention program were studied 40 years after their families had first been visited by counselors. The men's convictions for serious crimes provided a measure of the…

This paper reports the results of a comparative study carried out with populations from two distinct cultural environments: kibbutz and city raised children in Israel. The study examined how perceptions and responses to television differ across social environments and how children's perceptions of, and reactions to, television may affect…

Considered are the developmental and prognostic implications of early peer relations. Evidence concerning peer difficulties as risk factors is reviewed along with research dealing with family relations and peer relations in social development. In preference to a stepping-stone model of the development of social deviance, a conjunctive feedback…

The goal of this unit is to assist students in understanding and practicing pro-social skills as alternatives to aggressive behavior. Intended for grades four to seven, the unit contains seven modules: (1) "Self-Appraisal"; (2) "Relaxation"; (3) "How to Listen"; (4) "Communicating Your Wants to Others"; (5)…

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that adults' differential definitions of social competence for boys and for girls may contribute to lack of agreement between teachers' and classmates' ratings of children's social competence. Subjects were 540 children in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms in four public schools in the greater Boston…

This longitudinal study identified hard-to-manage older toddlers and younger preschoolers, assessed the developmental course and prognostic significance of their difficult behavior, and delineated family factors possibly associated with early and persistent problems. Obtained from parents, teachers, and observers, cross-situational and…

The authors, critical of psychoanalytic paradigms used in the analysis of the perpetrators of child abuse, formulate an alternative model based on theoretical and empirical insights from social learning theory. The discussion focuses on the environmental contingencies of the sociopsychological states of families. To test several hypotheses based…

The five research papers that comprise this document report on research into the impact of the inception of television reception on residents of a Canadian town, "Notel." The introductory section tells how Notel and two other similar Canadian towns that already had television reception were studied just before Notel received television…

Results of a study to determine the effect of observing parental violence on attitudes about women's roles and the use of violence against women are reported. A national random sample of 1,092 women and 910 men were interviewed by telephone. Participants responded to questions such as: Did your father ever hit your mother? Did your mother ever hit…

This paper reviews previous research and describes a study about the use of psychophysiological indicators (skin conductance response--SCR and heart rate--HR) to measure people's reactions to violence. The review of research describes attempts to gauge the association between people's attitudes, personality, and physiological responses when they…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Language Agression Hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that measurable high language proficiency is associated with low observable aggression and low language proficiency is associated with high observable aggression. Consideration was also given to qualitative differences in aggressive behaviors…

The complete reports of the research efforts on the effects of televised violence on children sponsored by the American Broadcasting Company in the past five years are presented. Ten research projects on aggression and violence are described which examined primarily the effect of television on children who were emotionally disturbed, came from…