Reviews studies of adult and child response to male and female infants based on preconceived sex stereotypes. Evaluates overall conclusions from studies. Indicates that knowledge of infant's gender is not a consistent determinant of adults' reactions but more strongly influences children's reactions. Considers implications for sex role…

Proposes that internalization as a result of discipline is based on a child's accurate perception of the parental message and acceptance or rejection of it. Mechanisms promoting acceptance are perceptions of the parent's actions as appropriate, motivation to accept the parental position, and perception that a value has been self-generated.…

Examined 28 preschoolers' affective and behavioral responses to 3 potentially problematic peer situations. Results supported a model of social competence which maintains that expressed emotions and understanding of emotions influence social cognition about affective and behavioral aspects of developmentally important peer situations. Social…

Introduces this theme issue by synthesizing findings obtained using diverse methodologies derived from different theories about children's friendships. Comments on the trend away from studying global peer acceptance to studying friendship dyads. Discusses the features--individual, age, and gender differences--of children's friendships. (DR)

Used a teacher rating scale and coded videotaped observations to examine 30 toddlers' emerging social competence in an unfamiliar peer group during a 4-week summer camp. Found a correlation between the prosocial component of the teacher rating scale and observations of children's interactive-functional play and overall rate of interactive play…

Four basic steps for using cooperative learning to teach social skills to young children are discussed, including targeting specific social skills; defining the skills behaviorally; designing and implement the cooperative activities; and processing and evaluate. (DB)

Compared family relationships and the social and emotional development of children in families created by new reproductive technologies with those of natural and adoptive families. Found that quality of parenting in experimental families was superior to that of families with a naturally conceived child. No group differences were found for measures…

The industrial age, by mechanizing production and reorganizing the workplace into large factory units, destroyed a pattern of life that saw living, working, and learning as a single interconnected entity. Conventional schooling, stressing abstract knowledge, has separated learning from the community and world of work. The new, higher order…

Through a formal program offering in-school jobs to students who want or need them, kids at a small-town Oregon middle school can experience various work conditions and apply abstract knowledge to practical problems. As science aides, playground assistants, and groundskeepers, students earn tokens that can be spent for parties, field trips, school…

Seven children (ages 4 to 7) with autism were taught to engage in symbolic play using Pivotal Response Training. Children with autism rarely exhibited symbolic play before training, but after training they learned to perform complex and creative symbolic play at levels similar to that of language-matched controls. Interaction skills also improved…

James Baldwin's ideas, such as that of a genetic science, and their influence on later theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, and Kohlberg, are described. The further Baldwin moved from the study of infancy, the more speculative and the less empirically verifiable became his ideas. (BC)

Examined young children's social play for length of play episodes, use of communicative strategies, and complexity of play. Concluded that children spontaneously constructed shared meaning during interactive play from their shared knowledge about everyday activities and by responding to and building on their partner's ideas as the play unfolded.…

Elementary school children named peers they felt were best described by each item in the Revised Class Play measure. Reasons for naming peers were classified under the categories "passive withdrawal" and "active isolation." Results indicate the importance of refining peer assessment measures of withdrawal. (LB)

Examined the links between children's relationships with their parents at one and three years and their relationships with a friend at five years. Positive and secure parent-child relationships were associated with children's positive friendships and negative family relationships with negative friendships. Several counterintuitive findings…

Children between 5 and 10 years of age watched boys and girls endorse toys of varying attractiveness and then play with the toys. Boys with gender constancy spent more time than other boys in playing with unattractive sex-typed toys. Among girls, toy play was related to the toy's attractiveness. (BC)