Over a two-year period, the linkages between parental discipline and the peer relationships and antisocial behavior of preadolescent boys were studied. Preadolescent antisocial behavior had negative effects on parental discipline and peer relationships. There was a reciprocal relationship between parental discipline and children's antisocial…

Examined the role of natural peer-group selection and socialization processes in children's school motivation in two fourth- and two fifth-grade classrooms. Student and teacher reports of students' classroom engagement, and student interviews allowed the construction of composite maps of the social networks in these classrooms. A significant…

Found a consensus in children's judgments of videotaped fighting episodes as playful or serious. Results were similar for Italian and English children, for 8 and 12 year olds and for girls and boys. The most frequently cited judgment criterion was physical actions. A questionnaire study yielded a further criterion of facial expression. (BC)

After viewing sequences of pictures that depicted a problem, children produced stories with plots and character responses. After sequences of uneventful pictures, children produced stories that focused on actions and used simple connectives. First graders' stories contained more goals, complex language, and temporal connectives than did those of…

First graders and their mothers completed an intention-cue detection task, while mothers completed a questionnaire on consideration of child intent. Rejected children and their mothers reported more aggressive behavioral responses to provocation, whereas mothers of popular children reported more prosocial resolutions. (BC)

Tested the hypothesis that individual differences in reading ability increase over time, by assessing children, at seven occasions between kindergarten and third grade, on various measures of reading ability, reading behavior, and attitudes toward reading. Found that individual differences among children in word recognition, but not reading…

Study examined whether 50 Korean children made conceptual distinctions between morality and social convention. Findings indicated that, at all ages, children treated moral transgressions as more generally wrong and independent of rules than conventional transgressions. (Author/RWB)

Examines the ability of 30 normal and 30 learning disabled children across a three-year period to understand a sequence of instructions, communicate the steps in a sequence to others, and rephrase their verbal messages through a referential communication task. (HOD)

Investigates ego development in 32 lower-class and lower-middle class Black students at the sixth and twelfth grade levels. Ego development was measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WU-SCT). (Author/SS)

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'…

Studied development of school performance-related belief and their link with actual academic performance in Moscow children and compared this similar data for Western children. Found considerable intercultural convergence as well as specific differences in beliefs about teachers and ability. Differences across gender were also found. (ET)

Measured the food intake and observed the playground behaviors of Kenyan school-age children. Well-nourished children were more active and happier, showed more leadership behavior, and were less anxious on the school playground than poorly nourished children. Amount of time spent in school was related to decreases in children's solitariness. (BC)

In a study of 112 children of 6-11 years of age and their parents, authoritative/democratic and authoritarian/restrictive factors in parent behavior predicted the child's prosocial behavior and sociometric status. Results support the idea that popular and rejected children have different family experiences. (BG)

Measures of self-monitoring and other measures were completed by 93 elementary school children on 3 occasions during a 15-month period. Self-monitoring was related to peer acceptance and self-esteem, but the relation may have been influenced by gender. Boys' self-monitoring correlated with popularity measures, whereas girls' did not. (BC)

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…