Global concerns about the consequences of disasters, political violence, disease, malnutrition, maltreatment, and other threats to human development and well-being have sparked a surge of international interest in resilience science. This article highlights progress and issues in research that aims to understand variations in human adaptation to…

Although often conceptualized in contradictory terms, the common assumption that natural and supernatural explanations are incompatible is psychologically inaccurate. Instead, there is considerable evidence that the same individuals use both natural and supernatural explanations to interpret the very same events and that there are multiple ways in…

Feeding practices are important determinants of growth and development of children. Using infant and young child feeding indicators and complementary feeding guidelines, 7 practices in 28 countries are described, showing substantial variation across countries. Only 25% of 0- to 5-month-olds were exclusively breastfed, and only half of 6- to…

Category-based induction requires selective use of different relations to guide inferences; this article examines the development of inferences based on ecological relations among living things. Three hundred and forty-six 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children from rural, suburban, and urban communities projected novel "diseases" or "insides" from one…

Family mealtimes have the potential to promote healthy child development. This observational study of 200 family mealtimes examined the relation between child health in a group of children (ages 5 to 12) with persistent asthma and 3 dimensions of mealtime interaction: Action, Behavior Control, and Communication. Percent time spent in Action and…

Individuals with late-treated phenylketonuria (PKU) not detected by newborn screening but who followed dietary treatment for at least 12 months before 7 years of age have intelligence quotient (IQ) scores that range from severe impairment to the low-normal range. Among adults with late-treated PKU in California, 85% of those who were born from…

In a prospective study of developmental outcomes in relation to early-life otitis media, behavioral, cognitive, and language measures were administered to a large, diverse sample of children at 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9-11 years of age (N = 741). At 9-11 years of age, 9% of the children were categorized as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder…

Discusses potential beneficial effects of children's illnesses on their behavioral development. It is argued, on the basis of clinical experience and related research, that minor illnesses give children many opportunities to increase knowledge of self, other, prosocial behavior, and empathy and to realistically understand the sick role. (Author/RH)

Findings of three experiments indicated that preschool children have a more substantial knowledge of contagion and contamination than has been estimated previously. Results are discussed in terms of children's ability to understand causal relations. (RH)

Focuses on three major questions about children's understanding of the causes of illness: (1) developmental trends in understanding causes of illness; (2) children's use of the notion of immanent justice to explain illness and accident; and (3) the relationship between the extent of knowledge about the physical causes of illness and the use of…

Addresses three questions: (1) To what extent do risk factors of prematurity and illness affect neonatal characteristics? (2) Do these risk factors continue to account for differences in mother and infant social interactive behavior at three months? and (three) To what degree are neonatal characteristics predictive of mother and infant behavior at…

Data on perinatal and early childhood somatic and psychological risk factors of a random sample of children in early to middle childhood were used to examine the long-term risk of emotional and behavioral problems of late childhood and adolescence. (PCB)

Compared children's concept of illness with that of adults. Results suggested that both causes and symptoms of affected adults' categorization of illness, with neither type of feature being definitive. Children's ascriptions of illness generally matched adults' but were highly correlated with judgments of illness. Children also viewed illness as a…

Discusses building blocks for a developmental psychopathology, focusing on studies of risk, competence, and protective factors. Describes studies of stress and competence, giving particular attention to methodology and strategies for data analysis. A three-model approach to stress resistance is also presented, and Project Competence is evaluated…