This paper presents some empirical findings from the part of the International Socialization Project (an effort to collect more information about the socialization of sport involvement) which dealt with the attitudes of Swedish adolescents toward Olympic games. Attitudes towards the games are regarded here as indicators of affective involvement in…

Examined the relationship between perspective taking in response to another's distress and prosocial behavior and dispositional affective empathy in late childhood. The tendency to reflect spontaneously on the inner experience of others who are unfortunate was positively related to prosocial behavior in boys and to affective empathy in both sexes.…

Examined Swedish children's inhibition behavior using mothers' and psychologists' ratings of inhibition at age 18 and 24 months to predict later ratings through age 16 years. Prediction was more reliable for children rated as very inhibited or very uninhibited than for those in nonextreme group through age six. Only for inhibited girls did early…

A total of 145 children 4 through 6 years of age attending 12 day care centers in Sweden answered a picture questionnaire consisting of 10 stories about everyday events which might occur in the center. Each child listened individually to the stories and gave his/her answer by choosing one of two or three pictures describing possible outcomes of…

School climates at 12 day care centers in Sweden were compared to investigate effects of center climates on children's social and emotional behavior. Observations and interviews conducted at the day care centers revealed differences in center climates related to child-rearing patterns, patterns of interaction, the distribution of power, and in…

A Swedish empathy test for professional helpers, the Affect Reading Scale, was developed and tested on several occasions with 1000 caregivers in different sectors. Results support the conceptual validity of the scale and demonstrate that it is responsive to educational experiences that influence empathy. (SLD)

In developmental research, the family has mainly been studied through dyadic interaction. Three-way interactions have received less attention, partly because of their complexity. This difficulty may be overcome by distinguishing between four hierarchically embedded functions in three-way interactions: (1) participation (inclusion of all…

A study was conducted to explore the relationship between the working individual's daily experience on the job (job content) and his leisure activity, political participation, and mental strain after the workday is done. Based on individual level data from a representative national survey (1:1000 random sample) in Sweden in 1968, the study…

This longitudinal study examined the relationship of care quality in children's homes and external day care settings to children's emotional expressions and to problem and competence behaviors. Subjects were 123 children (63 males, 60 females) mostly from middle-class Swedish families. When children were 29 months old, data about quality of care…

A prospective study investigated associations between preschool temperament and environmental factors and school-age personality in 93 Swedish children. Found that personality was predicted by early temperament and environmental factors such as external day care and negative life events. Extraversion was most clearly related to temperament.…