Studied the onset of puberty in girls aged nine to eleven as represented by breast, pubic hair growth, and height. Breast growth, but not pubic hair growth was associated with a positive body image, positive peer relationships, and superior adjustment. Height was linked to superior adjustment and rating of career as important. (RJC)

Two experiments compared the abilities of third and sixth graders and adults to recognize sarcasm given context and intonation cues. Children recognized sarcasm only when given a speaker's sarcastic intonation cue, even when context strongly indicated a nonliteral interpretation. (BC)

To examine children's comprehension monitoring (CM) ability more comprehensively, this study treated CM as a complex phenomenon involving multidimensional evaluation and regulation procedures and used several different measures to assess them. Results highlight the sensitivity of different measures and the importance of treating CM as a…

Attempts to identify the age range during which Type A behaviors emerge and begin to stabilize. A total of 633 children residing in two communities were assessed on the Matthews Youth Test for Health on two occasions approximately 1 year apart. (Author/RH)

Observations indicate Black and White sixth-grade students interacted primarily with others of their own sex and race. Boys interacted more across racial lines than did girls, and Blacks were almost twice as likely as Whites to be the source of cross-race interactions. Peer behaviors were more likely to be task-related when directed toward White…

Explores issue of whether beginning readers proceed from print directly to meaning, or whether they need to use phonological information to obtain access to the meaning of printed words. As derived from a group of children between seven and 12, results indicated that, at least at low levels of reading skill, intermediate phonemic codes are used in…

Judgments of similarities between numbers were solicited from kindergarten, third-grade, sixth-grade, and adult subjects. Results suggested children become sensitive to an expanding set of numerical relations during the period from kindergarten through sixth grade. Results of a second study suggested that the number similarity judgments of…

Surveyed 4,000 third and sixth graders and their parents and teachers, from 4 Chinese provinces. Found that, although only children scored higher on tests of verbal ability, were taller, and weighed more than firstborn and later born children, other measures of academic and personality development were similar between the groups. (MDM)

In two studies, second and sixth graders heard descriptions of hypothetical boys and girls who were either aggressive, socially withdrawn, or prosociable. Subjects' memories of items in the descriptions were assessed. Results indicated that school-age and early adolescent children's recall of information about a peer is affected by the peer's…

A group of 91 fifth and sixth graders kept diaries of liked and disliked peer behaviors and important peer activities for a week. Another group of 81 fifth and sixth graders rated the importance and prevalence of each activity and indicated most liked and disliked positive and negative behaviors. Three main functions were evident. (RH)

Explores the factors associated with expected outcome of emotional expression and likelihood of expression among 125 first-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children. Results suggest that socialization practices tend to be directed towards the suppression of sadness among males. (RJC)

Causal interpretations of story characters' helpful behavior were examined in first, fourth, and sixth graders, and in college-age students. Subjects heard stories featuring actors' anticipations of eight different consequences for helping. Differences in ratings of actors among age groups were discussed. (Author/CI)

Investigated mediators of effects of preschool intervention on children's school achievement in sixth grade. Found that preschool participation was significantly associated with higher reading achievement, higher math achievement, and with lower incidence of grade retention. Cognitive readiness and parent involvement in school significantly…

Longitudinally examines the stability of the association between maternal behavior and preschool children's cognitive abilities. Outcome measures included both school readiness (assessed at ages five and six) and achievement on mathematics and vocabulary subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills at grade six. (Author/RH)

Studied the relationship between academic performance and socially responsible behavior, sociometric status, goal setting, interpersonal trust, and problem solving in a sample of 423 sixth and seventh graders. Found that each aspect of social competence was related to students' grades. (BC)