Four-, five-, and six-year-old children were used as subjects in this investigation. There were 192 experimental and 96 control children used, divided equally between the three age groups. The experimental children received a 1-minute pretest exposure procedure in which 1/4 of the children observed 4 two-dimensional stimuli (irregular pentagons),…

Argues that although meta-analysis makes an important contribution to summarizing attachment studies, it limits the conceptual understanding to simple causal models and ignores family systems models that could illuminate the development of secure and insecure attachment. Maintains that fathers' role in attachment and the impact of the quality of…

Used structural equational modeling to examine the combined influence and predictive ability of family characteristics on maternal and paternal involvement in early intervention programs. Found that coping was a significant predictor of maternal and paternal involvement as well as a mediator variable between family functioning and parental…

Examined influences on African-American children's cognitive development between 6 months and 8 years. Found that more optimal patterns of development were associated with intensive early educational child care, responsive home stimulation, and higher maternal IQ. Child care experiences were related to cognitive performance through enhancing…

Examined the concordance between mother-infant attachment behavior and patterns of mother-child reunion responses when the children were age six. Found that concordance between four types of attachment status was 82%. Also found a correlation between children's observed social competence at age five and their reunion patterns at age six. (MDM)

Assessed children's beliefs about the effectiveness of five causes of school success. At the age of 7-8 years, children differentiated the factors into "unknown" and "other"; at 9-10, "other" was differentiated into "internal" and "external"; at 11-12, "internal" was differentiated into…

Compared behavioral, self-evaluative, and attributional responses of boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to those of typically-developing boys on a social success and failure laboratory task. Found that ADHD boys rated their own performance more favorably than controls, were more likely to attribute success to external…

Examines the implications of temporal separation for children's developmental differences in inferences drawn about an individual's characteristics after observing multiple instances of that individual's behavior. Also tests two competing hypotheses about how young children process information separated in time. (HOD)

Examines whether there are sex differences during middle childhood in children's choices to participate in activities differing in level of adult-provided structure; effects of structure on children's compliance, leadership, and recognition seeking directed to adults and to peers; and relation of sex-typed social skills or dispositions and…

Longitudinal studies in two countries investigated impact of father absence on girls' early sexual activity (ESA) and teenage pregnancy. Findings indicated that greater exposure to father absence strongly related to elevated ESA and adolescent pregnancy risk. Elevated risk was not explained (U.S. sample) or only partly explained (New Zealand…

This study examined a model of emotional, cognitive, and behavior predictors of peer acceptance in 201 early elementary school students. Findings indicated that social skills mediated the effect of emotion knowledge on same- and opposite-sex social preference. However, social skills and verbal ability were more strongly related to opposite-sex…

Explains economists' general approach to family behavior and describes how that framework is useful for thinking about families and children. Outlines how economists model parental investment in children. Examines the implications of approach for developmental science. Illustrates this approach using the example of the involvement of children and…

Children's magical explanations and beliefs were investigated in two studies. Found that many four-year olds view magic as a plausible mechanism, yet reserve magical explanations for certain real world events that violate their causal expectations. Parents and culture at large may at first actively support magical beliefs whereas peers and schools…

Examined the developmental sequence through which adolescents progress in solving a physics problem (balance beam ratio and proportion) and a social problem (predicting the behavior of a story character). Although most of the 9- through 19-year-olds performed at predictable and similar developmental stages on each task, a minority were more…

Reviews research on the determinants and the effects of parents' attributions. The evidence suggests that parents do form attributions for their children's behavior; these attributions vary in predictable ways across judges (mothers versus fathers), targets (age or sex of child), and behavior outcomes (positive or negative); and attributions…