Previous work has provided evidence that both merit and social relationships guide resource distribution in children. However, no prior studies have addressed the question of how children as third-party distributors balance the 2 factors when they are in conflict with one another. Two studies tested 7-year-old Chinese children's allocation of 3…

Using a framework of activity theory, I follow one mentor/student teacher pair through a yearlong student teaching experience, investigating their interactions around the practice of educative co-planning. Evidence from multiple data sources collected over the course of one year is analyzed to understand the role co-planning played in the…

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify a "grass-roots" change based on Dewey's experimental progressive education model employed in the "Bridge over the Valley" bilingual school, a Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school in Israel. In order to identify the progressive "approach" underlying this change, the…

Several authors consider high and frequent conflicts between friends during childhood as a serious risk for subsequent conduct problems such as generalized physical aggression toward others (e.g., Kupersmidt, Burchinal, & Patterson, 1995; Sebanc, 2003). Although it seems logical to assume that friendship conflict could have some negative…

Conflict management is a skill best learned early in life, and lays a foundation for the development of future relationships. The present study examined the strategies children use when negotiating roles in a dynamic play situation. Participants were 156 children (M age = 6.5 years) in 39 groups of four, who were videotaped in a play activity that…

A five-month ethnographic study of friendship development identified major issues in first graders' disputes with friends. Examined consequences of the disputes for children's relationships. Stressed the importance of detailed, historical investigations of specific interactive events for an accurate understanding of human development and…

Studied the role of sociometric status and gender on first-graders' conflict resolution outcomes and compared children's conflict behavior in both mother-child and peer contexts. Found that higher-status children had fewer and shorter disputes, were more likely to invoke skillful verbal resistance strategies, and had more positive affect outcomes…

This research project explored how children's ability to exchange ideas and resolve conflict was influenced by regularly setting aside time to dictate and act out stories. Research methods for this 3-month project included audiotapes, a questionnaire, and the stories from 23 first-grade children. Observations looked specifically at conflict…

The purpose of this study was to determine if prosocial development could be positively influenced through a classroom intervention strategy using selected children's books and critical questioning techniques. In order to determine ability to share and to take different perspectives, 99 subjects from kindergarten and first grade classes were given…

Examined the effectiveness of a course conducted during the first two weeks of school to teach Russian first graders to cooperate with each other and their teacher. Results indicated that students in the experimental groups improved in terms of their ability to account for partners' actions, initiative, cooperative action, conflict resolution,…

The intent of this study was to examine the effectiveness of elements of the thematic-fantasy play training paradigm in facilitating children's immediate and maintained story comprehension. Thematic-fantasy play was defined as play in which children enact themes and events not related to their everyday experience, as when they act out a fairy…

Mediator models were examined in which children's emotional reactions to peer aggression were hypothesized to mediate their selection of coping strategies and subsequent peer victimization and internalizing problems. Self-report data were collected from 145 ethnically diverse kindergarten through fifth grade children (66 females and 79 males) who…