Mothers (N = 67) taught their preschool children crafts while varying emotional expressions (delight, irritation). Mothers' typical expressive styles were assessed by questionnaire. After three weeks, children's memory was assessed with a free-recall interview followed by re-enactment of craft-making with an interviewer. Children of mothers high…

This longitudinal study examined the development, antecedents, and concomitants of empathic concern in the second year of life among 125 first-born girls. Findings indicated that empathic concern for mother's simulated distress increased from 16 to 22 months, whereas empathy for a stranger's simulated distress decreased. Fearful temperament and…

Reviews the literature on the role of self understanding, language, theory of mind, attachment security, and parental style in children's autobiographical memory development. Discusses evidence that social-cognitive factors appear to interact with parental style in producing children's first verbal memories. Emotional factors, such as attachment…

Examined relations between representational models of mother-child relationships of mothers and children ages 14 to 52 months (some diagnosed with cerebral palsy or epilepsy) and maternal characteristics, child disability status, and maternal behavior in a problem-solving task. Found that representations are related to caregiving behavior apart…

This study examined the additive and interactive effects of children's trait vicarious emotional responsiveness and maternal negative emotion expression on children's use of coping strategies. Ninety-five children (mean age = 5.87 years) and their mothers and teachers participated in the study. The mothers reported on their own negative emotion…

This study examined factors related to social competence in first-grade children of low-income, adolescent mothers. Findings indicated that higher social skills and lower levels of problem behaviors related to higher quality parenting, higher academic skills, and residence in neighborhoods with lower poverty rates. Children with higher social…

Studied the dinner table conversations of 22 families with young children. Analyzed utterances for language-focused terms. Reported that metalinguistic uses exceeded pragmatic uses. Found that during routine social interactions, parents provide children with potentially important information about the communicative functions of language.…

Parent-child communication regarding children's negative emotions and coping were examined in a sample of 75 5th graders (53% boys) and their mothers and fathers. We predicted that emotionally open communication between a parent and his or her child would be related to children's use of constructive coping strategies. Parents reported on how they…

This study compared the peer functioning of a community sample of preschool boys with pervasive hyperactivity (N=33) and comparison boys (N=34), and examined the extent to which any differences in peer functioning between these groups could be explained by comorbid child conduct problems and parenting factors. The quality of boys' peer relations…

Examined antisocial behavior, parent-child relationship quality, inept parenting, and adolescents' beliefs as predictors of parents' monitoring during high school. Found that greater concurrent monitoring knowledge related to less antisocial behavior, more parent-reported relationship enjoyment, more time together, and stronger adolescent-reported…

In Roberts and Strayer (1996) we described how emotional factors were strongly related to children's empathy, which in turn strongly predicted prosocial behavior. This paper focuses on how these child emotional factors, assessed across methods and sources, related to parental factors (empathy, emotional expressiveness, encouragement of children's…

This study examined the relations between preschool children's attachment security, temperament, and peer acceptance. Ninety-eight preschool children and their mothers were recruited through childcare centers in the southeast. Mothers and their children participated in two two-hour home observations. Attachment security was assessed using the…

The purpose of this study was to provide descriptive information about low-income fathers' and mothers' talk to toddlers and to re-examine the bridge hypothesis (Gleason, 1975) in light of current changes in family structure and childcare responsibilities. Thirty-three father-child and mother-child dyads were videotaped during semi-structured free…

The study investigates European American and Taiwanese grandmothers' folk theories of childrearing and self-esteem, building on an earlier comparison of mothers from the same families. Adopting methods that privilege local meanings, we bring grandmothers' voices into the conversation about childrearing, thereby contributing to a deeper…

This study tested a model of the association between maternal and child anxiety that views mother and child attachment beliefs and children's perceptions of maternal control as mediators of the association. The study was conducted with mothers and their children aged 6 to 17 (N = 88). Maternal anxiety was significantly associated with child…