Surveyed parents of preschoolers about their future plans for sex education. Found most middle-class mothers and fathers expected to discuss a wide range of sexual topics and in the same general sequence. Suggests delaying discussion of value-laden topics may limit parents' effectiveness. Discusses recommendations for family practitioners.…

Several hypotheses were investigated in order to specify the conditions under which students are able to perceive the level of counselor-offered therapeutic conditions, and counselor religous orientation. Data analysis revealed a significant difference in counselor favorability between high and low therapeutic levels for the intrinsically…

Possible differential relations between social sensitivity and perspective taking and prohibitive and prosocial moral reasoning were assessed for males and females. The levels of principled or internalized reasoning in these content areas were compared. (Author/GK)

An examination of 18 children's reality-fantasy judgments about television indicated that such judgments shift with age from a focus on physical features and a rigid assessment of actuality, to a sensitivity to the plausibility of characters and plotlines, and an appreciation of authorial intent. Sixteen references are cited. (Author/MER)

Tested whether intrinsic motivation depends on matching cognitive level and task demands and assessed effects of rewards and praise on intrinsic motivation. Children preferred tasks just beyond their ability levels. Praise had mixed effects: rewards decreased intrinsic motivation among highly motivated children but did not influence intrinsic…

Thirty kindergarten children, 30 third graders, 30 sixth graders, and 30 college students were told two stories in which an actor behaved either generously or selfishly. Subjects then predicted and rated the actor's behavior in 10 life-like situations that provided opportunities for generous behavior as well as behaviors similar to generosity…

One hundred sixty eight students (grade 1-college) evaluated the achievement behavior of hypothetical students differing in ability, effort expenditure, and test outcome, both from the perspective of student and teacher. Teacher perspectives indicated that effort and outcome were perceived as highly relevant. Student perspectives indicated high…

This study determines cultural meanings of parent v nonparent roles using the following variables: one's generational group, place of residence, and family size. Generational differences appear to be the overwhelming influence on parental roles. The decision not to be a parent is an emerging role in contemporary culture. (CT)

Describes and discusses the rule-assessment approach, a new research strategy for studying developmental sequences in children's acquisition of knowledge. Four experiments were conducted to illustrate the utility of this approach across a variety of concepts and a wide range of ages (three-year-olds to college students). (Author/CM)

Fifth- and sixth-graders were tested with multiple-choice fact and inference questions about a reading passage, then given feedback either with or without the text present. Retesting occurred four days later. Results corroborated recent findings on age-related improvement in inferential processing comprehension and memory. (Author/SJL)

This monograph describes the development of the Metaphoric Triads Task (MTT), an instrument designed to assess metaphoric comprehension. Validity and reliability of the instrument are discussed and data for 12 samples of subjects are reported. Sex differences were negligible, but progressive improvement in MTT score with age was noted. Pictorial…

The dyadic controls of the social interchange patterns of 12- to 42-month-olds (N=27) with their different social partners is the focus of this study. (Author/MP)

A review of the recent literature on pregnancy resolution among unmarried adolescent women suggests that those who seek and go through with an abortion do not comprise a "special" population, but are similar to their age mates in many of their social and psychological characteristics. (Author/DB)

Eighty adolescents, grades 7-9, were assessed on empathy development and perceived competencies. Females proved more empathic than males, but no developmental trends in empathy development were observed. Social competence was positively associated with empathic skills, but cognitive and physical competencies showed a negative association,…

Using a group-listening test, this study examined (1) what terminology from their own vocabulary subjects would use to label music concepts and (2) if consistent terminology would be selected by elementary children and by college students majoring in elementary or music education. (Author/SJL)