This longitudinal study responds to a need for new perspectives and research tools for studying school transition stress by identifying changes in student role strains and assessing sex differences in these changes during the transition from elementary school to a middle school for grades six through eight. Subjects included 120 fifth-grade…

Examined impact of religion and gender on fifth graders' (n=142) attitudes toward life and death. Although all children displayed high attraction and low repulsion to life and low attraction and high repulsion to death, religious children displayed higher attraction to death. Found main effect of gender and gender x religiosity interaction.…

This study was conducted to examine three explanations for gender differences in computer use and attitudes: (1) sex-typed females avoid computers if they perceive computers to be a male domain; (2) sex differences in video game use mediate sex differences in computer use; and (3) sex differences in attributional style mediate sex differences in…

In order to assess preteen activities in a moderate sized community in Georgia, selected group of classroom teachers conducted a pilot study. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to approximately 1,000 fifth-grade children and the results are presented here. It was discovered that Blacks, more than Whites, and boys, more than girls,…

During the last decade, the attributional aproach to achievement motivation has evolved into a powerful theory of motivated classroom behavior. Causal attributions, and their dimensional nature, are seen as influencing achievement behaviors through their effects on the expectations that individuals hold for outcomes in future achievement…

First- and second-year findings of a survey of the development of disordered eating in 80 fourth- and fifth-grade girls and 85 boys are presented. Results, especially findings about body mass index and pubertal development, emphasize gender differences and the importance of identifying early risk factors for eating disorders. (SLD)

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine friendships of early adolescents in a culturally diverse fifth grade class in an urban elementary school in the southeastern United States. The study described and interpreted the experiences of being a friend and having a friend in a culturally diverse classroom. The approach was grounded in…

Possible gender differences in attitudes toward mathematics were studied between low-achieving and high-achieving fifth-grade students in selected elementary schools within a large, metropolitan area. The attitudes of pre-adolescent children at an intermediate grade level were assessed to determine the effects of rapidly emerging gender-related…

Studied sex and acculturation differences in occupational values among 177 Chinese-American fifth and sixth graders. Found money and task satisfaction were very important values, whereas object orientation and solitude were quite unimportant; that the high-acculturation children valued self-realization more than the low-acculturation children; and…

This study examined selected characteristics and behaviors among fifth grade pupils who ranged in age from 11 to 12 years. The sample (N=975) constituted the entire fifth grade population of a moderate-sized city 45 miles from Atlanta, Georgia. The sample consisted of 160 black students and 815 white students, with 511 boys and 464 girls. A…

Assessed the relation between goals and strategies for conflict resolution of children in 4th through 6th grades. Found that prosocial strategies positively correlated with relationship and equality goals, whereas physically or relationally aggressive strategies related to self-interest, control, and revenge goals. Discovered gender differences in…