Results of a year-long study of doctorate production among minority individuals with nontraditional backgrounds suggest that university officials who want to increase minority doctoral starts should look beyond the baccalaureate graduating classes to both older and younger students. (SLD)

A total of 120 children, adolescents, and adults completed questionnaires and interviews to determine effects of age, cognitive level, gender, and family structure on their definitions of family, divorce, and adoption. Both children and adolescents most frequently mentioned affective ties in their definitions of family. Females were more likely…

Surveyed secondary school students concerning their preferred sources of social support after having problems with or questions about alcohol or drugs. Students most frequently selected adult friend category (38%), followed by parent/guardian (25%). With selection of parent/guardian treated as binary variables, main effects were found for grade,…

The Phonetic Level Evaluation was administered to 30 preschoolers with normal hearing. Results indicated that approximately the same error rate was observed for vowel productions as for simple consonants and that scores for all children were considerably poorer for initial consonant blends than for final consonant blends. These findings run…

This paper investigates the development of interactive communication skills in 170 children aged 7 to 13. Results indicate that the development of interactive communication skills is rather different from the process of language acquisition both in the extended timescale involved and in the considerable variability exhibited by speakers of…

Two experiments investigated the relationship between family size and "theory of mind." Results from an experiment with three- and four-year olds showed that children from larger families were better able than children from smaller families to predict a story character's mistaken (false-belief based) action. (MDM)

A study investigated medical residents' perceptions of the important components of the clinical teacher's role, and possible differences in first- and third-year residents' perceptions, based on comments written on 268 residents' evaluation forms of 490 teachers. Results suggest this methodology is useful and contributes to definition of the…

Two studies: evaluated the consistency of toddlers' motor activity level over time and across situations; and examined the relations between several measures of activity level and ratings of problem behavior in toddlers. Found that activity level was stable when measured by the same methods in the same situation but not across methods or across…

Rural elementary school students participated in the Let's Meet the New Kids on the Block (KOB) program or the Better Understanding of Disabled Youth (BUDY) program. Based on differences in pre- and posttest scores on the Acceptance Scale, second graders increased their acceptance toward handicapped peers more with the KOB, whereas sixth graders…

Differences between high school and college students' and male and female students perceptions of one form of male sexually aggressive behavior against women were studied with 108 college students and 96 high school juniors. Findings suggest that the sensitivity gap between males and females may lessen with age for males. (SLD)

Examined the development of proportional reasoning by means of a temperature mixture task. Results show the importance of distinguishing between intuitive knowledge and formal computational knowledge of proportional concepts. Provides a new perspective on the relation of intuitive and computational knowledge during development. (GLR)

In a study of differential socialization of boys and girls by mothers and fathers, families of 12 and 18 month olds, and 5 year olds, were examined at home. There were several differences in mothers' and fathers' reactions to boys and girls. Implications for further studies of parental sex-role socialization are discussed. (GLR)

Two studies investigated children's understanding that biases may influence the interpretation of behavior. In the first experiment, most second graders inferred that a negatively biased, uninformed observer would construe an act as intentional. In the second, kindergartners and second graders appropriately used bias and knowledge information to…

In two studies, second and sixth graders heard descriptions of hypothetical boys and girls who were either aggressive, socially withdrawn, or prosociable. Subjects' memories of items in the descriptions were assessed. Results indicated that school-age and early adolescent children's recall of information about a peer is affected by the peer's…

A total of 87 children, 3- to 7-years old, were examined in a study of children's play and reasoning in games of mathematical logic and social logic. Children's sophistication in reasoning was positively related for two games, suggesting a common three-level progression from mastery of procedures to a competitive attitude to advanced strategy. (SH)