Examined the impact of racial identity attitudes on African American parents' child-rearing beliefs. Parent surveys indicated that parents with immersion attitudes endorsed discipline and religion but not independence in children. Parents with internalization attitudes supported all Afrocentric parenting beliefs and child-rearing practices…

Investigated the ways 0-6 year-old children express their altruism, particularly the feelings and actions making up the altruistic behavior in this period of development, based on parent reports. Found that children behave altruistically almost from birth, with a great variety of this feeling from 2-4 years old, mostly expressed toward loved…

Developed direct observational measure of children's attachment to inanimate objects such as blankets and soft toys among object-attached and non-object-attached 15- to 31-month-olds. Procedure varied arousal levels across situations. Found support for validity of the procedure in, among other factors, its ability to capture the preference of…

This study examined the relation between weather and mothers' perceptions of children's moods. Thirty-three mothers rated their children for 30 days, and these scores were examined for their relation to six weather variables (barometric pressure, humidity, temperature, sunshine hours, precipitation, wind) and daily changes in variables. Results…

Addresses limitations of previous normative studies on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) and the Sutter-Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory (SESBI). Presents two studies that provide normative information on the ECBI for 2- to 17-year-old children and adolescents and on the SESBI for kindergarten through 6th grade children. Clinicians and…

Examined young children's metaplay--the process of suspending actual role playing to think or communicate about pretend themes from outside the play frame. Found three categories of metaplay behaviors, including initiations, responses, and constructions. Concluded that a rich array of developmentally useful interactions transpire outside of actual…

Study aims to extend previous research by evaluating the treatment sensitivity of items on a measure of child behavior, the Parent-Elementary form of the Social Skills Rating Scale using a clinical rather than experimental sample. Results reveal that scales formed with the subset of change-sensitive items demonstrate larger effect sizes than the…

This study finds similar levels of self-esteem in young adults who were childhood bullies, bully victims, and children not involved with bullies. However results show that as adults, bullies and their victims report significantly more loneliness than those not involved in bully situations. Examines implications for intervention and future…

Discusses two issues raised by Underwood et al.: the distinction between indirect and relational forms of aggression, and implications of indirect aggression for definitions of aggression; and the normative view of aggression that indicates that aggressive individuals may be socially skilled. Suggests that both issues lead to the conclusion that…

Tested the hypothesis that in predicting future behavior of an actor, older children rely on trait inferences, whereas younger children rely on global, evaluative inferences. Found that 9- and 10-year-olds' behavioral predictions were mediated solely by trait ratings, whereas 5- and 6-year-olds' predictions were mediated by evaluative ratings. The…

Examines the reaction of a kindergarten class at the unexpected death of their pet rabbit. Describes their spontaneous acts of writing, talking, playacting, and planning a funeral to process the rabbit's death. Asserts that if teachers had taken charge, much of the rich experience would have been lost. (EV)

This observational study suggests that many toddler friendships are occurring all the time, waiting to be discovered and fostered by astute teachers. Asserts that those working in toddler programs need to be sensitive to the potential for friendships in 2-year-olds and nurture these first fragile bonds. (EV)

Explored the association between preschoolers' hostile attribution and aggressive behaviors. Found that hostile/aggressive children were significantly more likely to possess a hostile attributional bias than less aggressive children. Also found that preschoolers were capable of distinguishing between intentional and unintentional actions when…

This study longitudinally followed Non-Hispanic White and African American children to see whether the impact of early maternal employment on cognitive and behavioral outcomes reported at age three and four persisted into school-age years. Results indicated that maternal employment in the first year of a child's life had significant negative…

Mand functions for two stimuli (A1 and A2) were trained for 3 children with autism and were then incorporated into two related conditional discriminations (A1-B1/A2 -B2 and B1-C1/B2-C2). Tests were conducted to probe for a derived transfer of mand response functions from Al and A2 to C1 and C2, respectively. When 1 participant failed to…