Eighty first and third graders were presented one of two brief videotaped social interactional episodes. Half viewed an unambiguous tape in which affective response was congruent with situational context; the other half viewed an ambiguous tape in which nonverbal affective response was incongruent with situational context. (MS)

Examined the development of toddler affectionate behavior toward new teachers. Observed 10 toddlers during free play on the first 40 days of day care attendance, recording children's responses to their teacher's smiling, affectionate words, and affectionate contact. Found that smiling received affectionate child responses earlier than other…

Examines the influence of socialization figures (parents, friends), emotion type (anger, sadness, physical pain), age, and gender on 66 second-grade and 71 fifth-grade children's reasons for and methods of affect expression. Found that girls reported using verbal means to communicate emotion, whereas boys cited mildly aggressive methods. (MDM)

Several activities that can help deaf children build affective awareness are described. The activities emphasize hands-on, experience-based learning and play, and focus on building self-awareness, learning new ways to interact, recognizing feelings, and having children create books about themselves. (JDD)

Affective responses of two year olds to their day care teachers' affectionate and caregiving behaviors were observed during free play times. Teacher behaviors were affectionate and caregiving physical contact, affectionate words, smiling, and use of questions and instructions. Smiling was the behavior most likely to elicit positive responses from…

Examined children's emotional and behavioral regulation and emotional and prosocial responses to a crying infant. Found that children who could regulate their arousal were unlikely to become distressed and more likely than other children to talk to and comfort the crying infant. Girls were more responsive and engaged in more active responses than…

Reviews research that provides connections between the constructs of emotional functioning and social competence in children, focusing on such areas as children's understanding and identification of emotions, emotion regulation, emotion display rules, sympathetic responding, and children's mood states. Finds some support for the idea that high…

Seventy-two children were presented with a series of stories involving psychological harm in a game context. Found that older children were more likely than younger ones to base their evaluations on intentions, or both intentions and consequences, and to take into account the recipient's perspective. Game context interacted differentially with…

Explores the characteristics and benefits of crying and how to handle appropriate and inappropriate crying episodes in young children. (HTH)

Discusses directions for future research on the importance of emotion during adolescence. Notes that such research should include an expanded focus on the normative range of emotional expression and on related adaptive behaviors, including competencies, coping, self-esteem, and creativity. The application of research to clinical problems and…

Examined the play activities of 49 at-risk (AR) and non-at-risk (NAR) elementary school students, using the Smilansky Scale for Evaluation of Dramatic and Sociodramatic Play measure. Found that AR students displayed higher levels of hostile acting out behaviors than did NAR students, whereas the NAR group engaged in more verbal communication…

Assessed mother-infant face-to-face play and infant difficult temperament at 3 and 9 months; assessed self-control, verbal IQ, and maternal warm discipline at 2 years. Found that maternal synchrony with infant affect at 3 months and mutual synchrony at 9 months were related to self-control at 2 years when temperament, IQ, and maternal style were…

This paper examines some of the research on imitation that shows it to be much more than simply a behavioural or reflex response, but rather an aspect of the growth of genuine social and psychological interaction and part of an intersubjective process that includes the representation of object relationships. Differentiations between mind,…

This study focused on the psychosocial aspects of cleft lip and/or palate on maternal emotional reactions and the family, with emphasis on the effect on the maternal-infant bond. Interviews were conducted with 40 mothers of 1-year-old infants with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate. The interviews were analyzed using the phenomenological…

Many researchers have speculated over the nature of the divorce recovery process. Is the process similar to Kubler-Ross's stages of grief or does divorce recovery follow a unique process? This paper examines the current body of empirical research in an attempt to answer these questions. From the 91 sources analyzed, it was discovered that most of…