This study examined teachers' reports of early teacher-child relationships by focusing on their assessments of the severity and the causes of children's social behaviors. Eighty-one kindergarten teachers filled out questionnaires about socially inhibited, hyperactive, and average children (n = 237) selected from their own classes. Multilevel…

Play, particularly children's sociodramatic play, is the cornerstone of early childhood classrooms in the United States. Early childhood educators learn and expound mantras of "the value of play," "play-based programs," "children learning through play," and "play as child's work." They strive to promote the importance of making a place for play in…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the joint and collective contributions of student and teacher factors to observed variance in reports of conflict and closeness in first and second grade teacher-student relationships (STR). This study uses two data sets previously collected from elementary schools in the greater Pittsburgh area, to…

Two studies were conducted to investigate how 14- to 16-month-old infants select actions to imitate from the stream of events. In each study, an experimenter demonstrated two actions leading to an interesting effect. Aspects of the first action were manipulated and whether infants performed this action when given the objects was observed. In both…

Response variability, a fundamental characteristic of behavior, may be in some cases an induced effect of reinforcement schedules. Research on schedule-induced response variability has shown that continuous reinforcement results in less variability than intermittent reinforcement schedules. Studies on the effects of intermittency of reinforcement,…

This paper explores possible tactics for academics working within a context of increasing regulation and constraint. One suggested tactic is to move outside of a creativity-conformity binary. Rather than understanding creativity and conformity as separable, where one is seen as excluding the other, the authors consider the potential of examining…

Few studies have examined the nature of aggression in emerging adulthood (ages 18-25), a unique developmental period wherein relationships become increasingly important and intimate. Consistent with a greater emphasis on relationships, relationally manipulative forms of aggression may be particularly salient during this time period. Based on…

In most of our social life we communicate and relate to others. Successful interpersonal relating is crucial to physical and mental well-being and growth. This study, using the still-face paradigm, demonstrates that even human neonates (n = 90, 3-96 hr after birth) adjust their behavior according to the social responsiveness of their interaction…

This article aims to explore the ways in which preadolescents associate smoking with transitions to adulthood, in the context of sociological theories of childhood, using data from the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. The research found that at age 9 many of the cohort argued that smoking was more acceptable for adults because they had…

In this article, the author focuses on John Rechy's debut novel, "City of Night," to consider how cultural pressures, and later disciplinary pressures in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual/queer (LGBT/q) studies, affect the acquisition of critical literacies, particularly among students and scholars who follow the moment of gay…

School rules are usually associated with classroom management and school discipline. However, rules also define ways of thinking about oneself and the world. Rules are guidelines for actions and for the evaluation of actions in terms of good and bad, or right and wrong, and therefore a part of moral or values education in school. This study is a…

Based on a sample of 406 seven-year-old twins, this study examined whether exposure to friends' social or physical aggression, respectively, moderates the effect of heritability on children's own social and physical aggression. Univariate analyses showed that children's own social and physical aggression were significantly explained by genetic…

This paper summarizes variations in instructors' implementation practices during Peer Instruction (PI) and shows how these differences in practices shape different norms of classroom interaction. We describe variations in classroom norms along three dimensions of classroom culture that are integral to Peer Instruction, emphasis on: (1)…

Many young children demonstrate behavior that teachers find challenging. Accordingly, early childhood and elementary educators must be prepared to support children's social development and use effective practices so that children will be less likely to develop or sustain behavior problems. General education reform and legislation direct schools to…

Social-emotional learning (SEL) skill includes the ability to encode, interpret, and reason about social and emotional information. In two related studies, we examined the relationship between children's SEL skill, their ability to regulate their own behavior, and the competence of their social interactions. Study 1 included 158 typically…