Examined security of attachment between pairs of young children and their mothers and fathers in maritally intact families. Found that younger and older children developed concordant attachments to both parents. Parents were consistent in caregiving to their two children. Associations were found between maternal caregiving and attachment only for…

Examined children's and adults' ability to decode emotions in dance forms of expressive body movements and detect intensity differences in anger and happiness. Found that decoding ability exceeded chance for sadness by 4-year olds; sadness, fear, and happiness by 5-year olds; and all emotions by 8-year olds and adults. Children as young as 5…

Examined analytic methods for describing children's social risk. Found that the individual-risk-variables approach provided better overall prediction of developmental outcomes at a particular age. The risk-factor approach provided good prediction of developmental trajectories with moderate to large sample sizes. The risk-index was useful for…

In this study of Oklahoma's universal pre-K program, the authors relied on a strict birthday eligibility criterion to compare "young" kindergarten children who just completed pre-K to "old" pre-K children just beginning pre-K. This regression-discontinuity design reduces the threat of selection bias. Their sample consisted of…

Effects of maltreatment were examined in three domains suggested by attachment theory: relationships with novel adults, effectance motivation, and cognitive maturity. Three samples of four- to eight-year-old children were studied: 93 maltreated children, 67 demographically matched nonmaltreated childen, and 30 nonmaltreated middle-class children.

Looked at the quality and quantity of interactions between fathers and their firstborn five-year-olds. Goals were to identify predictors of men's parenting from their own adaptation (direct effects) and from their wives' characteristics (indirect effects). (PCB)

Measured the pattern goodness effect at visual encoding stages and short term memory stages in observers aged 6 to 22 years using a speeded sequential same-different paradigm. Found goodness effects were larger in short term memory for all subjects, memory effects decreased with age, and encoding effects remained constant. (SKC)

Four experiments conceived with children's responses to, and judgements of ambiguous verbal messages were presented, demonstrating that 5-to-9 year olds were more likely to respond differently to ambiguous and unambiguous messages if they were prevented from pointing at potential referents. (Author/DST)

Tested whether or not cognitive development (as measured by mental capacity) and cognitive style (as measured by field-dependence/independence) are different dimensions. Results are discussed with regard to Pascual-Leone's model of cognitive development, relevance to stylistic dimension of reflection/impulsivity, and educational implications.…

Investigated the ability to deceive in participants with autism, mental retardation (MR), and normal development. Results indicated that participants with autism and those with MR did not differ in their ability to use a deceptive method, but participants with autism were significantly less able to understand that they manipulated the beliefs of…

Examined factors associated with individual variation in false belief understanding in three- to five-year olds. Found that family size was strongly associated with false belief understanding in children who were less competent linguistically, suggesting that the presence of siblings can compensate for slower language development in developing…

Maternal instructional behavior at home and maternal ratings of children's temperament when children were 18 months old predicted mothers' problem-solving behaviors and children's performance on a cognitive problem-solving task at 30 months. Mothers' cognitive assistance to children during tasks at 18 and 30 months predicted children's cognitive…

Focuses on: (1) principles that underlie regulation of distress and negative emotions among infants and young children; and (2) developmental trends that occur during the first years of life. Discusses the role of caregivers. Offers ideas that lend themselves to hypothesis testing and empirical validation. (RH)

Studied 7,018 children between birth and 7 years and 81 children of 5-8 years to test the hypothesis that birth order is negatively related to motor activity level. Activity level declined linearly across birth position, so that early-borns were rated as more active than later-borns. (RJC)

A study of 53 Japanese mothers and their young children who were temporarily living in the United States found that, when life stress was high, mothers reported less parenting stress if social support was adequate. The more satisfied mothers were with their support, the less secure was their children's attachment. (BC)