Background: The frequently reported decline in the "overall" frequency and intensity of fears during late childhood and adolescence may mask different developmental patterns for two broad subclasses of fears: fears concerning physical danger and fears concerning social evaluation. It was investigated if physical fears decrease between…

Children over two standard deviations below height expectations have been described by researchers as being behaviorally immature and shown to be emotionally inhibited. The present study seeks to extend these findings by systematically evaluating what role age, sex, and etiology factors may have in the behavioral adjustment of groups of children…

To date, the focus of research has been to demonstrate the link between interpersonal problem-solving skills and adjustment. Little attention has been given to the study of how specific interpersonal problem-solving abilities evolve or to age-related changes in overall ability. White students (N=30) identified as socially well-adjusted,…

Reports two cross-sectional studies assessing the influence of age on the use of 28 coping mechanisms. Results showed older people coped similiarly to younger people, and where they employed different mechanisms it was because of different types of stress. Middle-aged and older people used less hostile and escapist reactions. (Author/RC)

The hypothesis of this study is that there are no differences between urban and rural high school students. All the students in attendance in a rural (n=752) and an urban (n=1413) high school in Kentucky were given a questionnaire by homeroom teachers who had been instructed in its use. Comparisons of the sample were made by school location (rural…

Data are presented which show: (1) that differences between adult and child psyches have important implications for age-stratified interaction process; and (2) that adult-child interactional differences cannot be solely attributable to genetic or psychological differences but that they are in part due to social factors. The data are based on…

This study is an initial investigation of the effects of grade level, item content and type of probe on children's understanding of communicative ineptness. It was hypothesized that children's recognition and avoidance of inept communications would increase as a function of age and that recognition of ineptness would precede the ability to avoid…

Twelve studies examined implications of age-related changes in movement between 6 weeks and 52 years for various psychological domains. Findings indicate an inverted U-shaped pattern in limb movements per hour that peaked in middle childhood, later than expected. This pattern in motor activity has relevance for development, and for ADHD,…

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate the appropriateness of Piagetian tasks for a comparative assessment of the cognitive development of rural and semi-urban Senegalese youth; and (2) to determine relationships among selected social and environmental factors affecting Senegalese youth. Fifty semi-urban and 50 rural area…

A test battery that corresponded to the Gesell Developmental Assessment (GDA) was given to 400 4-6 year olds. A truncated version of the GDA had moderate reliability and predictive power. Experienced judges sometimes differed in their assessments of a child's developmental level and recommendations for grade placement. (GLR)

Alcohol remains the drug of choice for many adolescents; however, the nature of the relationship between athletic involvement and alcohol misuse remains ambiguous. In this article, we used a longitudinal sample of over 600 Western New York adolescents and their families to explore the gender-specific and race-specific relationships between…

The aim of this study is to analyse the possible effects of Age of Onset (AO), Cognitive Maturity (Age at Testing--AT) and Amount of Exposure (AE) on the productive vocabularies of learners of English as a Foreign Language (FL). Three groups of bilingual Catalan/Spanish students were tested towards the end of Secondary Education. The groups…

Background: It has been proposed that ADHD is an executive control disorder. Little is known however about the maturation of executive control in ADHD. Method: A cross-sectional study of ADHD patients compared to normal controls tested on a computerized neurocognitive test battery. Participants: 175 patients with ADHD, age 10 to 29, compared to…

To discover whether linguistic retardation shows itself in vocabulary concerned with orectic characteristics of children and whether a relationship exists between linguistic retardation and orectic immaturity, children were studied (ages 8 to 16) from 11 schools for the hearing impaired. Discussed as background is the general linguistic…

Reports on two studies addressing the issue of ultimate attainment of pronunciation by late second-language learners. Findings indicate that it is not impossible to achieve an authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a second language after a specified biological time. The article argues that certain learner characteristics and learning contexts may…