Studied the emotional attributions which 60 children aged four-eight gave to a story figure who violated a moral rule. Results suggested a clear change from outcome-oriented toward morally oriented attributions to a moral wrongdoer between the different age groups. (RJC)

Observed the interactions of 24 well and 26 depressed mothers with their 5-year-old children. Found no difference between well and depressed mothers' granting or denial of their children's requests. Depressed, but not well, mothers' responses to child requests could be predicted from their self-reported mood and child behavior. (BC)

Two- and three-year-old children differed in their recognition of their own and their mother's features. One year olds, and securely and insecurely attached infants, did not differ. At all ages, securely attached infants exhibited greater complexity than did insecurely attached infants in tasks relating to themselves and their mothers. (BC)

Investigated 4-6 year olds' ability to compare the distances covered by a direct and an indirect route to a location. Although many children believed that both routes covered the same distance, about 40% of the four year olds could explain why the direct route was shorter. (MDM)

Compared pretend play enactment, negotiation, internal state language, and sibling relationship quality in 40 kindergartners with older or younger siblings. Found that frequent pretend play dyads used more high-level negotiation and internal state language than infrequent pretend dyads. Friendly relationship quality was negatively related to…

Investigated 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds' and adults' integration of information about intentions, acts, and outcomes in moral judgments of psychological harm. Found that participants at all ages judged it wrong to inflict fear or embarrassment on unwilling participants. Younger children tended to use outcome rules when assigning punishment; older…

Three experiments investigated whether preschoolers attend to actions or object when learning a novel verb. Findings showed that children learning nouns in the context of novel, moving objects attended exclusively to appearances of objects. Children learning verbs attended equally to appearances and motions. With familiar objects, children…

Home visiting programs for families with young children have been in effect for many years; however, this is the first comprehensive meta-analytic effort to quantify the usefulness of home visits as a strategy for helping families across a range of outcomes. Sixty home visiting programs contributed data to analysis within 5 child and 5 parent…

This study examined attachment in institutionalized and community children 12-31 months of age in Bucharest, Romania. Attachment was assessed using ratings of attachment behaviors and ratings of caregiver descriptions in a structured interview. As predicted, children raised in institutions exhibited serious disturbances of attachment as assessed…

Two studies investigated children's metacognition about everyday reasoning, assessing how they distinguish reasoning from nonreasoning and "good" reasoning from "bad." In Study 1, 80 1st graders (6-7 years), 3rd graders (8-9 years), 5th graders (10-11 years), and adults (18+ years) evaluated scenarios where people (a) used reasoning, (b) solved…

When children with Down's syndrome and normally developing children of comparable mental age were compared in their ability to find things they saw in a mirror, it was found that the ability of children with Down's syndrome paralleled that of normally developing children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.…

The speech behavior of 14 depressed and 18 nondepressed mothers during conversations with their 3-year-old children was examined using the Automatic Vocal Transaction Analyzer. Mother-child dyads were observed in three settings for five minutes each: while mother was preparing lunch, during lunch, and while waiting for a doctor. (Author/BN)

Data were examined to determine (1) the stability of negative emotional characteristics from early life through adolescence; (2) the degree of relation between these emotional characteristics and adjustment in childhood and adolescence; and (3) the degree to which the characteristics differentially predict multiple adjustment dimensions in…

Examined (1) whether Korean children exhibit superior levels of mathematics achievement, compared to U.S. children; (2) whether an early advantage in informal mathematical thinking contributes to superiority in mathematical achievement; and (3) whether the superior achievement of Korean children is qualitatively different from that of U.S.…

A total of 97 children three to seven years of age were identified as high-, medium-, or low-exploratory and participated in both independent sessions and 1 of 2 types of supportive sessions with an adult. Support consisted of either close attention by the adult to the child's exploration or modeling and direction by the adult. (Author/RH)