Examines hypothesis that stepfamilies experience more marital conflict than do biological families. Measured remarriage's and stepchildren's impact on marital conflict frequency. Findings suggest that remarriage and stepchildren are not necessarily associated with more frequent marital conflict and that stepchildren's effect varied depending on…

Study investigated ways maltreated children (MC) differ from nonmaltreated children in regard to achievement-related classroom behaviors. MC exhibited less classroom behavior positively linked with academic achievement than did nonmaltreated public assistance children (PAC). MC, though, paralleled PAC in most behaviors negatively linked with…

Examines the impact of Jean Piaget's cognitive-developmental theories on educators' views of child socialization, which argued that moral development occurred late in childhood. Notes that recent research indicates that moral and emotional development occur much earlier and that teachers and parents can have a significant influence on young…

Observes that the influence of television and media violence on children's behavior is of concern to many people. Examines research related to the influence of such violence on children's behavior and to teaching about the differences between television and real-life violence. Makes suggestions for dealing with this concern. (DSK)

Summarizes 10 documents and 7 journal articles from the ERIC database discussing the resilience of children. Topics covered include: ways to develop and promote resiliency in children; characteristics of resilient children; descriptions of school and community programs successful in promoting students' resilience and success; and characteristics…

Examined the context of class activities and teacher/child interaction in 10 preschool centers in Bahrain. Found that children at educationally-oriented centers played more at cognitively challenging tasks and engaged in more dialog with others than counterparts at care-oriented centers. In general, children were more likely to engage in…

This ethnographic study examined one inclusive early-childhood setting over four weeks. Observations indicated that children with special needs regularly imitated behaviors, words, and skills of typically developing peers, more advanced peers with special needs, and teachers. Individualized interventions were regularly conducted within general…

Studied multigenerational links between maternal history of problem behavior, mother's age at birth of first child, and child conduct disorder in boys. Found that maternal age at first birth was associated with child's conduct disorder, and maternal history of problem behavior was also associated with early maternal age at first birth and the…

Using Lickona's framework of morality, surveys of 1,650 Japanese students and 1,240 U.S. students in grades 5-8 examined student perceptions of moral expectations at home and school and of their own behaviors. Unexpectedly, determinants of moral behavior in the two societies were essentially the same, with school providing the primary influence on…

Purpose: Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of classroom noise on attention and speech perception in native Spanish-speaking second graders learning English as their second language (L2) as compared to English-only-speaking (EO) peers. Method: Study 1 measured children's on-task behavior during instructional activities with and…

In this study we described development of boys' and girls' games on the school playground at recess as they progressed across the first year of primary school in London (UK) and Minneapolis (USA) in order to document age-related trends in games during this period and to examine the predictive role of games in children's adjustment to school and…

Background: Extensive research has identified risk factors for problem behaviour in childhood. However, most of this research has focused on isolated variables, ignoring possible additive influences. The purpose of this study was to examine whether risk factors for problem behaviour act in a cumulative manner, and to investigate whether cumulative…

Background: Twin studies of childhood behavior problems support the conclusion that individual differences in impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattention are largely due to genetic influences. Non-genetic variation is due to environmental influences that are unique to the individual, and possibly to rater contrast effects. In the present…

In this study, the author examined the relationship between theory-of-mind understanding and preschool-aged children's peer-related social competence. One hundred eleven 3- to 5-year-old children (48 boys, 63 girls) participated in 2 theory-of-mind tasks designed to assess their understanding of false belief. Teachers rated children's peer-related…

Objective: To determine factors influencing the use of outpatient mental health services provided by mental health professionals (OMHS) for children in foster care using a national probability sample in the United States. Method: As part of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being, detailed survey data were collected on 462 children,…