Mothers' interventions in object conflicts during play between toddler peers of the same age and sex were examined. Results showed that mothers frequently intervened. Mothers favored the other child in the conflict, except with older sons, and were inconsistent in endorsing rights of ownership or possession. (BC)

Described experiences of 84 German toddlers enrolled or not enrolled in child care. Found total amount of care per weekday did not differ by child-care status; child-care toddlers received lower care levels from center providers; their mothers engaged in more social interactions during nonworking hours than did mothers of home-only toddlers; and…

Collected behavioral inhibition data from Chinese and Canadian 2-year-olds, and obtained information on mothers' child-rearing attitudes and beliefs. Found that Chinese toddlers were significantly more inhibited than Canadians. For Canadians, inhibition was associated positively with mothers' punishment orientation and negatively with mothers'…

Observed toddlers' imitation and responses to maternal control. Found that girls imitated more than boys. Responsive imitation measures were coherent and longitudinally stable, and correlated significantly with responsiveness to maternal control. Suggested that a young child's willingness to imitate parent in a teaching context and to comply in a…

Mothers and infants were observed in the laboratory when the infants were 12, 18, and 24 months. Mothers reported their child's behavior at 36 months. Predictors of boys' externalizing behavior at two and three years were maternal unresponsiveness and infant attention seeking, aggression, and noncompliance. For girls, infant noncompliance was…

Used quantitative genetic design to examine between- and within-family variations and gene-environment processes in parent-child mutuality among 3-year-old identical and same-sex fraternal twins. Found that greater mutuality was associated with higher socioeconomic status. Moderate sibling similarity in parent-child mutuality was accounted for by…

The authors studied receptive cooperation--a willing, eager stance toward parents--in 15-month-old children (N=101) in broadly ranging contexts. Children's anger proneness and parents' responsiveness (both observed at 7 months) and children's attachment security (assessed in Strange Situation at 15 months) were examined as predictors of children's…

Longitudinal data for 63 inner-city African American and Puerto Rican adolescent mothers and their firstborn children were used to examine relations among level of maternal depressive symptoms, mother-toddler conflict and contingent responses observed in play interactions, and maternal reports of child problem behaviors of toddlers of different…

Two experiments examined problem solving in 16-month-olds' adaptive locomotion (crossing bridges of varying width with/without handrail). Findings indicated that toddlers attempted wide bridges more than narrow ones. Attempts on narrow bridges depended on handrail presence. Toddlers had longer latencies, examined bridge/handrail more closely, and…

Examined the communicative behavior of 40 maltreated and nonmaltreated 31-month-old toddlers and their mothers. Results revealed that maltreated toddlers followed a pattern of shorter mean length of utterance, less descriptive speech, and proportionally less relevant speech. (RJC)

Examined in six experiments toddlers' use of syntactic cues to learn proper names and count nouns. Found that by 24 months, both girls and boys were significantly more likely to select a labeled object if they had heard a proper name than if they had heard a count noun. At 20 months, neither girls nor boys demonstrated this effect. (Author/KB)

Examines the influence on children's social development of variation in the quality of child care environments. Findings suggest that overall quality, caregiver-child verbal interactions, and director experience were each highly predictive of the children's social development in day care. (Author/RWB)

Discusses the extent to which certain key aspects of functioning in two-year-old children in 46 families, followed from mid-pregnancy to two years, are anticipated by pre-birth parent personality and marital characteristics, and how these characteristics interact with postbirth development. (Author/DR)

Investigated the content and development of children's imitative behavior in the home. The data consisted of incidents of naturally occurring imitations of 24 children 16 and 29 months of age collected over a four-month period by mothers trained in observational recording. Immediate imitations decreased with age; deferred imitations increased with…

Type and quality of nonfamilial child care were found to have no significant effect on peer social skills, sociability with strange adults, and child personality. The major determinants of personality maturity were background variables. Prior social skills and age were the best predictors of peer social skills. (PCB)