The goal of the study was to examine the joint and distinct contribution of attachment security and social anxiety to Arab children's peer competence in middle childhood. We focused on Arab children as very little research has examined close relationships for this group. A sample of 404 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade Arabic students (203 boys and…

Finds that children's ethnicity and gender, and possibly the socio-cultural composition of the school population, are variables that influence how characters are perceived and themes extracted from a theater event. (SR)

A study investigated properties of children's naturally occurring arguments. The arguments were sampled from transcripts of 20 discussions held in 4 fourth-grade classrooms. The principal findings were that children's arguments are filled with seemingly vague referring expressions; that the arguments sometimes do not contain explicit conclusions;…

Examined overlap between child depression and conduct disorder (D&CD) as function of peer social status in 1,464 nonreferred fourth graders. Found strong correlation between D&CD. Analyses revealed that associations between depression and rejected social status might be resulting from a subgroup of depressed children who also manifested symptoms…

A study drew upon the oral and written texts of four fourth-grade, inner-city children to explore how writing functioned in transformative or political ways. Transformative or political aspects of writing involve the potential restructuring of power relations that exist between the writer and a variety of social or cultural spheres. Several…

Examined the effect of lateral preference on passage comprehension and short-term memory function for 48 normal fourth-grade males. Lateralized readers recalled more information under auditory than written conditions; bilateral readers showed no preference. Between-group comparisons showed bilateral readers to comprehend significantly more than…

The construct of parental support has been defined and measured from a variety of perspectives with little consistency across studies. The present study investigates the relationships among parents' self-reports, children's perceptions, and observers' ratings of parental support in order to assess the validity of each perspective. In addition, the…

The typical approach to studying children's ideas about marriage and divorce is to ask children what they think about their parents' divorce and from their answers to calculate "divorce adjustment." This study used a different approach and asked about children's perceptions of marriage, divorce, and stepfamilies. It also studied if there are…

Historical accounts by fourth graders at the beginning stage of learning history show that these young students lack an experience-based framework for grounding and connecting historical teaching. Implications for teaching history to elementary school students and aspects of children's reliance on imagination in constructing historical narratives…

This educational program on drugs and alcohol provides a "No-Use" message to students. The curriculum maintains that alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs are unhealthy and harmful, and that society's laws and values are to be respected. The lessons build students' resistance to influences that encourage drug abuse and they promote safe, healthy,…

A study examined the effects of rationale emotive psychoeducational procedures on aspects of mental health with 22 Australian fourth grade girls and 14 control subjects who received an attention control intervention. Rational emotive education increased perceptions of internal locus of control and rationality but did not reduce trait anxiety.…

This report describes a program for decreasing student aggressive behavior when confronted with conflict. The targeted population consisted of four fourth grade classrooms in a growing middle class community. The problems of aggressive behavior were documented with classroom surveys, discipline and peer mediation referrals, records of parent…

Investigated the relationship between peer-tutoring interactions of dyads and experience in a reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) program in mathematics. Analysis of 40 at-risk fourth- and fifth-grade students indicates that RPT participants displayed significantly higher rates of mathematics achievement, social acceptance, and other favorable measures…

Examines the influence of happy outcome information and coping style on fourth and fifth graders' emotional responses to a frightening film sequence. Finds that prior knowledge of the happy outcome reduced self-reported fear and worry for "blunters" but not for "monitors." Discusses interpretations of findings and implications for understanding…

One hundred forty fourth graders were asked to solve proportion problems about juice-mixing situations both before and after an intervention that used a manipulative model or other materials in three experiments. Results indicate different approaches appear to be necessary to facilitate children's proportional reasoning, depending on the reasoning…