A third-year follow-up investigation of socioemotional behaviors of preterm and full-term infants videotaped mother-child and child-peer play sessions. Contributions of gender, birth status, attachment classification, and maternal contingency behavior to children's expressive development were examined. Results suggest that children learn greater…

Investigated associations between ego development and emotion communication in 73 adolescents, 33 of whom were residents of an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Found that enthusiasm, affection, anxiety, and neutrality were directly associated with higher stages of ego development, whereas sadness and anger were inversely correlated with ego…

Examined facial expressions in relation to cognition in infants 2 to 8 months of age. A total of 48 subjects received an audiovisual stimulus contingent on arm movement, whereas 32 infants did not control the stimulus. Infants in the contingent group expressed greater interest and joy during learning and greater anger during extinction. (RH)

In response to Alberta's Educational Quality Indicators initiative, Lethbridge Catholic Schools developed and validated a taxonomy of student affective behaviors that reflect learning or development in the areas of self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, world awareness, motivation, and spiritual life. Measures developed include classroom…

Investigated relationship between children's negative expressivity to the formation of an Insecure- Disorganized/Disoriented, Type D attachment pattern in follow-up of maltreated and nonmaltreated children at 12 and 24 months of age. Found that experiencing maltreatment in infancy was associated with Type D attachment through the toddler years,…

Studied the relation of patterns of attachment and psychiatric status in 82 nonpsychotic inpatients and 85 case-matched controls using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Preliminary outcome results suggest that individuals rated as dismissing on the AAI are more likely to show improvements in psychotherapy. Discusses other findings. (KW)

Explored 14- and 18-month olds' ability to identify the target of the experimenter's emotional display of happiness or disgust in response to something seen or felt inside a box. Findings suggested that, regardless of age, infants used the experimenter's attentional cues to interpret her emotional signals and behaved as if they understood that she…

Observed weekly 13 infants from 1 to 6 months of age to determine when they produced different types of smiling and other facial expressions. Found that the cheek-raise and open-mouth dimensions of smiling appear to be associated with, respectively, amplification of processes of sharing positive affect and of visual engagement present to a lesser…

Assumptions of strong, causal relations between cognition, language, and affection are often made in general and in bilingualism in particular. This paper presents first a set of hypotheses concerning the relation between affection and language in bilingualism. One subset is concerned with language learning, language maintenance, and mental health…

A study conducted in two types of laboratory settings and one school setting tested a model of the development of emotional expression. The model included: (1) societal, peer, and family influences; (2) self-factors, such as physiological, affective, motivation, cognitive, and personality variables; and (3) self-mediators, which act as filters…

Assessments of social competence have played a major role in the identification and treatment of youth with emotional disorders. This study examined the construct validity of the social skills subtest of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) when used with youth with emotional disorders. Comparisons were made to examine the convergent and…

This paper presents a study of empathy in 6- to 9-year-olds. Although empathy is primarily defined as the response of one individual to the emotional state of another, definitions and assessment can be further differentiated depending on the empathizer's response and on the source of the empathizer's knowledge of the other person. Is the…

The purpose of this Child Development Associate (CDA) training module is to help the CDA intern develop the knowledge and skills necessary to encourage the open expression of feelings among children in the classroom. Objectives are stipulated, activities for achieving each objective are suggested, and an assessment checklist is provided. A study…

This article discusses the importance of emotions in human life and how emotions can be brought under rational assessment and evaluated in relation to worthwhile educational goals. (JD)

Third and fourth graders (N=72) participated in psychoeducational interventions focused on feeling and feeling content, moral dilemmas and conflict resolution, or combination of both. Combination condition manifested significantly greater gains in moral development than did other conditions. All conditions as a whole exhibited significant gains in…