Examined individual, ethnic, and age differences in structure of mother-adolescent conversations. Found Latin American mothers dominated conversations more than European Americans; mothers dominated conversations about sexuality/AIDS more than conversations about conflicts; older adolescents reported less satisfaction, less openness, and more…

Examined development of concern and externalizing problems in children at three behavior problem levels. Found no group differences in concern at 4-5 years. Concern in children with clinical behavior problems decreased by 6-7 years. Greater concern at 4-5 or at 6-7 years predicted decreased stability and severity of externalizing problems by 6-7…

Examined relations between nonmaternal child care and maternal sensitivity and child positive engagement ratings during mother-child interaction; infants were between 6 and 36 months old. Found that more child care hours predicted less maternal sensitivity and less positive child engagement. Child care effect sizes were similar to those for…

Provides a comprehensive meta-analysis of gender differences in aggression; offers estimates of the magnitude of differences; provides a developmental analysis of effects for all ages for which data are available; and includes a total of 143 studies. Basic techniques of meta-analysis are presented and then applied to analyze studies of gender…

Examined changes in sense of family obligation (FO) among an ethnically diverse group of 745 Americans in transition from secondary school into young adulthood. Found that FO increased for all young adults, with slight variations according to ethnic and financial backgrounds. Implications of FO for employment and educational persistence depended…

Used the Revised Class Play measure to examine measurement of peer perceptions of behavioral reputation in elementary, middle, and high school environments. Found that data did not fit the original 3-factor structure; cross-loading of items and different patterns of association between subscales across age groups contributed to poor fit.…

Mothers of 49 kindergartners and 54 second graders told their children 2 stories about distressed persons to obtain children's emotional, physiological, and prosocial responses. For kindergartners, mothers' perceptions of children's emotional reactivity were positively related to their use of positive facial expressions, whereas mothers'…

This 4-year study of 191 girls and 185 boys living in intact families in the rural Midwest examined the trajectories of life events and depressive symptoms during adolescence. Compared with boys, girls experienced a greater number of depressive symptoms after age 13. Changes in uncontrollable events were associated with increases in girls'…

Examined the impact of 2 environmental factors--social class and family risk levels--and 2 biological factors--intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and medical risk--on the cognitive and motor development of 175 preterm infants. Family risk, early medical risk, and the interaction of family risk and IVH were found to be significant predictors of…

Relations among dominance, sociometric preference, and social behavior were examined in groups of unacquainted first and third grade boys meeting in play sessions. Younger groups with high aggression showed less coherent organization than did others. Dominance was associated with social preference in younger groups, and with leadership in older…

Compared Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles of 1- to 6-month olds during weekly videotapes of mother/infant interaction for clues regarding emotional significance. Correlated levels of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiling within sessions; found that they had similar developmental trajectories. Duchenne smiles were typically preceded by non-Duchenne…

Three experiments investigated whether theory-of-mind deficits and weak central coherence might be functionally related. Found that theory-of-mind performance was inversely related to a measure of central coherence bias in the general population. Poor theory-of-mind performance was linked to weak central coherence among children with typical…

This study examined the idea that toddlers in some communities are accorded a privileged status in which they are allowed what they want, assumed not yet to "understand" how to cooperate. U.S. middle-class and Guatemalan Mayan mothers and 3- to 5-year-old siblings were observed while the siblings and toddlers (14-20 months) both sought…

Longitudinal analysis of 10-year follow-up data on objectified body consciousness, body esteem, weight-related attitudes and behaviors, and psychological well-being in 74 middle-aged and 72 young women tested hypotheses developed from age-related change and cohort differences models of body experience. Young women's body surveillance and body…

Examines change in prosocial moral judgment over a seven-year period; determines whether there are gender differences in the development of prosocial moral judgment; and examines the interrelations of moral judgment, affect (sympathy), and behavior in middle childhood. (Author/RWB)