The use of ratings of children by judges is pervasive in the area of father absence research. The interpretation of such ratings, though, is not always straightforward. The possibility that teacher ratings of children may indicate a stereotype on the part of teachers was investigated by showing 30 teachers a videotape that focused on the social…

The first part of this paper is a theoretical discussion which presents an argument for considering the concept of reciprocity to be a moral orientation. A general hypothesis is proposed which states that the salience of an individual's concept of reciprocity in a particular situation is related to the cooperative and moral behavior of the…

In an attempt to determine if an open classroom environment encourages greater curiosity and/or openmindedness than does a traditional classroom environment, 41 open classroom children and 42 traditional classroom children completed an openmindedness scale and 5 subtests of a curiosity scale. No significant sex differences were found. Other…

Interviewed randomly selected custodial parents (N=206). Custodial parents also completed a social adjustment scale on the criterion measure of children's adjustment. Results showed the most significant factor related to children's social adjustment was a positive relationship to the custodial parent. (Author/RC)

Case studies of first graders' approaches to learning reading and writing show that individual attack style is persistent regardless of teaching method and is related to personality and possibly physiology. (DD)

Discusses the cognitive characteristics, neurobiological bases, and language and reading abilities of individuals with hyperlexia. A study of 12 children (ages 7-13) with hyperlexia is summarized that illustrates the dissociation between decoding and comprehension and the limited use of meaningful context to aid decoding. (Author/CR)

This study documented suicidal behavior among 90 children and adolescents with mental retardation and psychiatric disorders in a psychiatric hospital. Suicidality was found in 21% of admissions and was distributed across gender, level of mental retardation, and psychiatric diagnosis. Results indicate that suicidality is an underrecognized but…

There has been a systematic underestimation by researchers and educational theorists of children's true abilities, with a distorted portrayal of childhood. Current understanding of children rests on a network of narrow assumptions about children and their abilities. A new research methodology is needed, with the child as the ethnographic…

Examines the relationship of individual family members' perceptions and family mean and discrepancy scores of cohesion and adaptability with child psychopathology in a sample of 138 families. Results indicate that family mean scores, contrary to family discrepancy scores, explain more of the variance in parent-reported child psychopathology than…

Investigates children's conceptions of the characteristic features of category members. Hypothesized that (1) children initially perceive category members in terms of individual characteristics and (2) only later do children conceive of category members in terms of shared beliefs and values. Two separate studies confirm the hypotheses. (CMK)

Cluster analysis was conducted to examine clinical characteristics of 1,961 boys and 1,320 girls (ages 10-19) with serious emotional disturbances entering systems of care funded by the Center for Mental Health Services. Combining functional and behavioral characteristics of participants indicate that symptom measures alone could not adequately…

A study examined the executive functioning, in particular the attentional set-shifting deficits in Australian individuals ages 6-20 with high-functioning autism (n=12) and Asperger's disorder (n=12). Results indicate that individuals with autism had a deficiency in shifting from local to global processing, however, this was not observed in…

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales scores and measures of intellectual functioning obtained for 44 children (ages 4-13) with autism, 21 with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, and 30 with developmental disorders, indicated autism and combined nonautism groups could be differentiated on socialization, daily living skills, and…

A study examined whether exemplar-specific or prototype representations were primarily used by 28 children (ages 10-12) with mild mental retardation in a categorization task consisting of two groups of make-believe animals whose features were ill-defined. Results indicated the children were able to acquire and use both types of representations.…