The memorial service is becoming a common alternative to the traditional funeral. The effectiveness of the form can be determined by the degree to which each assists the bereft in dealing with loss. Memorial and funeral services are outlined. Appendices provide examples. (Author/BEF)

This paper examines fertility patterns of women in two different types of marital unions (monogamous and polygynous) in 16 sample villages of eastern Nigeria. Results show polygyny tends to reduce fertility through the intermediary of a comparatively wider age differential between the polygynists and their wives. (Author)

This study utilized an axiomatic approach to develop a middle-range theory of premarital sexual intercourse. Using an unanalyzed data base of 336 never-married coeds in a southern state college and in a southern medical complex, 15 propositions were either statistically significant or in the stated direction. (Author)

The behavior of an autistic child (5 years old) was observed in three settings, over approximately 6 months. (Author/SBH)

A two-step procedure is proposed for detecting behavioral patterns in observational data in evaluation research. Latent class analysis is used to derive a classification of single observations at the variable level. The second step uses the probabilities that each observation falls into latent classes to derive behavioral preference scores. (SLD)

This study investigated the sleep of 28 young blind and 22 sighted children (ages 4 to 36 months) whose parents completed the Sleep Habits Questionnaire. It found that the blind children had significantly more sleep problems related to bedtime and behaviors during the night than did the sighted children. (Author/DB)

Reviews lessons learned from research in Antarctica with relevance to understanding human behavior in other isolated and confined environments. Outlines four distinct characteristics of psychosocial adaptation to such environments and discusses some of the benefits for individuals seeking challenging experiences. (Contains references.) (SLD)

A parent-report questionnaire, the Child Routines Inventory (CRI), was administered to 1,492 parents with children between 8 and 72 months of age. Results indicated that frequency of compulsive-like behaviors is more common among 2-, 3- and 4-year olds than among children younger than 1 year or over 4 years of age. Findings are relevant to a…

Examined the relations between aggressive problem-solving strategies and aggressive behavior and the intervening role of social acceptance in that relation in early and late adolescents. Subjects were 1,655 11- and 17-year-olds in Finland. Results show that aggressive problem-solving strategies were significantly, but not very highly, associated…

Used self-report diaries (N=38) and descriptive family care scenarios (N=30) to highlight behavioral, cognitive, and emotional components of family care and generate researchable questions surrounding the interplay of gender and expression of care. Results indicated, although family members held idealized notions of family care, their behaviors…

Explored use of guided imagery for revealing a client's phenomenal patterning in undergraduates (N=9). Found sequences of inclusion and exclusion behavior within the guided images were related to self-report data as a way of formulating initial descriptions of personal involvement patterns. (Author/ABL)

The research on nine women incarcerated for the death of a child found a recurrent pattern of child abuse prior to the fatality. The women provided warning signals by alerting others to the abuse incidents at the same time as they attempted to rationalize and minimize the abuse. (Author/DB)

A theory of timing is proposed, based on the observation that signals of reinforcement elicit adjunctive behaviors. Transitions between these behaviors are described as a Poisson process. These behaviors may come to serve as the basis for conditional discriminations of the passage of time. (SLD)

Examined meaning and maintenance of friend relationships among 41 male and 74 female older adults. Men and women tended to agree on characteristics of friend; gender differences emerged when they differentiated between "friend" and "close friend." Older women were more likely than older men to consider friends made earlier in life as still part of…

This study of 12 residents of a treatment facility for individuals with mental retardation examined cycles in occurrences of self-injurious behavior (SIB) and aggression both within and across individuals. The study confirmed that such behavior tended to be rhythmical, with cycles of three-month and five-month periods consistently observed for…