Two studies examined in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice among two samples of white 4- to 7-year-olds. Findings indicated that the two attitudes were reciprocally correlated in the sample from a racially homogeneous school but not in the sample from a mixed-race school. In-group favoritism did not appear until 5 years of age and was…

Social context and maternal style of requesting and responsiveness were examined in teaching and social interactions in relation to 28 Down's Syndrome (DS) and 28 mental-age matched normal children's cooperation and social initiative. Compliance for DS children was similar to that of normal children for child-initiated exchanges but decreased…

Two experiments examined the effects of drawing on young children's memory of an event one day and one month later, respectively. Children who were asked to draw what happened were as accurate and reported more information than children who were asked to tell what happened, although only the verbal reports of both groups were scored. (MDM)

Examined the relation between contextual risk factors and IQ in children at risk for mental disorder. Maternal teaching style and children's performance on a Luria bulb-squeeze procedure and delayed-match-to-sample task added variance to the risk-IQ equation. Contextual risk was related to children's preschool IQ. (BC)

Examined parent-child play with sex-stereotyped toys in young U.S. children of varied ethnic background. Found that the play activity accounted for a large proportion of the variance in parents' and children's mean affiliation and assertion ratings. Identified gender and ethnic group differences. Highlighted the importance of role modeling and…

Korean, Chinese, and American children were given identical free-narrative interviews about life events and were shown a narrated story. Children were then interviewed about the story. Compared to others, Americans provided more references to specific past events, more descriptives, more references to internal states, and more mentions of…

This study examined the connections between children's self-representations at age 5 and their self-perceptions, socioemotional competence, and peer acceptance at age 8. Findings generally revealed the expected connections between the positiveness of self at age 5 and self-perceptions and socioemotional functioning 3 years later, supporting the…

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)

Studied children's use of justification in disputes with their mothers and siblings and its relation to the social and emotional context of family disputes. Found children used justification in one third of their disputes by 36 months, and children's use of justification differed according to the topic of the dispute. (SKC)

Reviews results of research related to the control system model of how parents and children regulate each other's behavior. Confirmed early formulations that postulated individual differences in children's assertiveness, activity, and person orientation as explanations for differences in parents' child-rearing techniques. (HOD)

Examined whether kindergarten and first-grade children give sex-biased responses if reinforced and/or triggered by language, specifically pronouns, that they hear. Results supported the pronomial dominance theory of pronoun functioning for young children. Results also suggest that boys but not girls use a self-imaging response to neutral…

Compared preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders with a matched control group to investigate whether weak central coherence could account for deficits in two behaviors purported to tap capabilities fundamental to a theory of mind: joint attention and pretend play. Found that pretend play did not differentiate the two groups. Weak central…

Used observations and interview of mothers and children to test a mediational model in which committed compliance and opposition influence the child's emerging view of self on moral dimensions and this "moral self" regulates moral conduct. Found that the model, involving committed compliance and opposition in the "don't" demand…

Study results indicate that correlations between measures of the home environment and children's intelligence quotient at 7 years of age are often mediated genetically. Among 153 adoptive and 136 nonadoptive families, such correlations were generally lower in adoptive families than in nonadoptive families. (RH)