Recursive partitioning is an analytic technique that is useful for identifying complex combinations of conditions that predict particular outcomes as well as for delineating multiple subgroup differences in how such factors work together. As such, the methodology is well suited to multidisciplinary, life course inquiry in which the goal is to…

A majority of U.S. adolescents at least occasionally communicate on the Internet with unknown peers. This study tested the hypothesis that online communication with an unknown peer facilitates recovery from the acute aversive effects of social exclusion and examined whether this benefit may be greater for adolescents compared with young adults. A…

Characteristics of the familial and societal context were examined as predictors of Latino adolescents' (N = 323; 49.5% female) ethnic identity. Consistent with previous work, familial ethnic socialization significantly predicted future levels of ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation for both male adolescents and female…

This study examined longitudinal trajectories of positive and negative affective states with a sample of 265 adolescent elite hockey players followed across 3 measurement points during the 1st 11 weeks of a season. Latent class growth modeling, incorporating a time-varying covariate and a series of predictors assessed at the onset of the season,…

This study examined children's peer information processing as an explanatory mechanism underlying the association between their insecure representations of interparental and parent-child relationships and school adjustment in a sample of 210 first graders. Consistent with emotional security theory (P. T. Davies & E. M. Cummings, 1994), results…

It was hypothesized that combined individual child vulnerability (anxious solitude) and interpersonal stress (peer exclusion) would predict the strongest responses to experimentally manipulated behavioral peer rejection. Results indicated that in a sample of 3rd graders (N = 160, 59% girls), anxious solitary excluded children displayed more…

Toward advancing conceptualizations of the spillover hypothesis, this study examined the conditions and mechanisms underlying the transmission of distress from the interparental relationship to parenting difficulties over a 2-year period in a sample of 233 mothers (M = 35.0 years) and fathers (M = 36.8 years) of kindergarten children. Findings…

Examined the function and effectiveness of certain behaviors in regulating negative arousal in infants who participated in an arm restraint procedure at age 5 months and a toy removal task at age 10 months. Results showed that comforting behaviors were preferred at both 5 and 10 months of age. (MDM)

Young infants use caregivers' emotional expressions to guide their behavior in novel, ambiguous situations. This skill, known as social referencing, likely involves at least 3 separate abilities: (a) looking at an adult in an unfamiliar situation, (b) associating that adult's emotion with the novel situation, and (c) regulating their own…

This study of 9 to 10-month-old fearful and non-fearful males examined the relationship of cognitive and affective variables to fear of strangers. (DP)

A direct induction of mood was employed to determine the role of affect in self-gratification. (Authors)

Discusses problems of general interest in developmental psychology that can be successfully studied in the domain of food; these include (1) development of food likes and dislikes; (2) establishment of the edible/inedible distinction; (3) disgust and contagion; (4) transgenerational communication of preferences; and (5) transition to food…

First- and third-graders' emotion dissimulation in a disappointing gift task was compared with their degree of dissimulation in a highly motivating game task that required the same ability but involved a self-gain motive. Although boys reduced their expression of negative affect in the game task, they still showed higher levels of negativity than…

Interactions of mothers and fathers with hyperactive or normal 6- to 12-year-old sons were observed in dyadic and triadic settings. There was more frequent coercion in families with hyperactive boys than in those with normal boys. (BC)