Over three years, students in grades 4 through 9 were asked to rate traits as masculine, feminine, or both. Results indicated that gender stereotype flexibility, represented by a selection of the "both" option, increased after the transition into junior high school but decreased over the remaining years of junior high and high school. (BC)

Assigned elementary schools to either immediate postbaseline intervention (PBI) with PeaceBuilders, a school-based violence prevention program, or to intervention 1 year later (PBD). Found significant gains in social competence for kindergarten through second-graders in Year 1, in peace-building behavior in Grades K to 5, and reduced aggression in…

Examined sixth graders' support from siblings and friends. Results indicated that (1) isolated children perceived their school friendships as least supportive and their favorite sibling relationship as most supportive; and (2) isolated, aggressive, and average children did not differ in their perceptions of support from nonschool friends. (BC)

Children between the ages of seven and nine years were given metalinguistic tasks and measures of field dependence-independence (FDI). Results showed a common basis for FDI and metalinguistic problems requiring high levels of control of linguistic processing but not for FDI and problems requiring high levels of analysis of linguistic knowledge.…

Assessed developments in the theory of mind suggested by changes in the organization of cognitive verb extensions during elementary school years. Found three major changes with development: increased understanding of the role of memory in input functions, increased interrelatedness of memory- and comprehension-related verbs, and increased…

Examined whether indexes of verbal imprecision could be quantified and used to predict changes in fifth graders' problem-solving performance. Found that four types of verbal imprecision predicted improved performance: false starts and self-repairs, deletions, long pauses, and metacognitive comments. Results suggested that adopting a new approach…

This study investigated the role of early literacy and behavioral skills in predicting the improvement of children who have experienced reading difficulties in 1st grade. The progress of 146 low-income children whose reading scores in 1st grade were below the 30th percentile was examined to determine (a) how the poorest readers in 1st grade…

The primary goal of this study was to assess the ability of maltreated school-age children and adolescents to understand the thoughts, feelings, and points of view of others. Level of egocentrism and social perspective-taking coordination were assessed in a group of 49 maltreated and 49 demographically matched nonmaltreated children. Twenty-six…

Examined imitative recall for sentences conforming to the grammatical rules of standard English versus those suggested for nonstandard (black) English. Subjects included black and white third and fourth grade children grouped according to socioeconomic background and attendance at either racially segregated or intergrated schools. (SDH)

Presents a study of paired-associative learning involving a total of 80 preschool and second grade children. Four familiarization categories of pretraining were utilized; results are discussed in terms of the effects of pretraining conditions and age on paired-associative learning and their consistency with some developmental hypotheses and phase…

Examines the development of feminine and masculine patterns of sexual identity in boyhood and the relation between these patterns and later sexual orientation. (Author/RWB)

Describes two experiments that examined word recognition processes of second, fourth, and sixth graders. Shows that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (HOD)

Investigates children's person-by-situation knowledge of probable causes of emotion in self and in others, and compares this to adults' construals. Shows that children can generate contextual explanations for affective states in self and others that are both shared by other children and adults and selectively related to different kinds of…

Examines kindergarten, second-, and fourth-grade children's use of the presence or absence of extrinsic rewards to make inferences about the intrinsic motivation of another person. Results are discussed in terms of parameters of the attributional effects, the possible mechanism responsible for the phenomena, and significance for other…

A longitudinal, cross-cultural field study was made to determine boundary conditions under which the television violence/aggression relation obtains, to determine intervening variables, and to illuminate the process through which television violence relates to aggression. Children from first through fifth grades in the United States, Australia,…