Background: The aim of this study was to determine (1) the prevalence of behavioral problems among two-year-old Pacific children living in New Zealand, (2) ethnic differences in behavioral problems, and (3) relationships between maternal and socio-demographic variables and problem child behavior. Methods: Data were gathered from the Pacific…

The "Colorado Children's Budget" presents and analyzes investments and spending trends during the past five state fiscal years on services that benefit children. The "Children's Budget" focuses mainly on state investment and spending, with some analysis of federal investments and spending to provide broader context of state…

This study examined associations between acculturation and teaching styles among 55 young mainland Puerto Rican mothers. Mothers (M age = 19.2 years) and their children (M age = 19.2 months) were videotaped during a puzzle-completion teaching task. Three aspects of acculturation were assessed: language, cultural involvement, and exposure to…

This study investigated the issue of whether a shift occurs in infant play goals at around the beginning of the second year in terms of the organization of object-directed and caregiver-directed attention and preference for toys that require the caregiver's involvement. A total of 108 infants of 10, 15, and 29 months were observed playing with…

A study was conducted to investigate age changes in children's noncompliant and resistant behaviors and their relation to parental control strategies during the toddler period. Specifically, the study explored possible changes in the form of children's oppositional behavior (or "negativism") and investigated how parental control…

Coding systems developed for a study of the way mothers influence the cognitive development of their 2- to 4-year-old children are described in this report. The coding systems were developed for the analysis of data recorded on videotapes of 3 mother-child situations: 8 minutes of interaction starting with a reunion between mother and child, 5…

A scheme for classifying attachment patterns is proposed that retains important elements of Ainsworth's system, but extends it to allow for the inclusion of more deviant patterns of behavior. The proposed scheme asserts that attachment relationships can be ordered on a continuum of felt security based upon an organizational interpretation of the…

Pairs of toddlers were observed with mothers in a context structured to assess sharing behavior. Children were separated by a barrier; one child had toys and the other had no toys. The situation was then reversed. Sharing for the initially deprived peer was related to extent to which the partner had shared, suggesting operation of principle of…

The findings of differential maternal treatment of siblings in current research are often confounded by the fact that at the time of assessment the two siblings were of different ages. This prospective study examined concordance of siblings' attachment quality to their shared mother. Participating were 106 families and their 12 to 15 month olds.…

In this study, maternal speech was analyzed acoustically to see whether mothers spoke with the same simplitude in both real and play situations. Results showed that mothers use both pitch height and pitch range to introduce the preverbal infant to the difference between play and nonplay situations. (Author/JL)

Analyzed naturalistic data from 12 2- to 3-year-old children and their mothers to assess the relative contribution of complexity and input frequency to wh-question acquisition. Results suggests that the relationship between acquisition and complexity may be a by-product of the high correlation between complexity and the frequency with which…

Examined predictors of compliance in 51 mother-toddler (15 to 31 months) dyads. Found that emotional availability (especially sensitivity and structuring) assessed during a laboratory free play period was the strongest predictor of compliance. High-compliance toddlers were perceived by their mothers to be less socially fearful and less prone to…

Results suggest that the most adaptive course of action for children may be to be responsive to environmental demands and interpersonal constraints. In the study, the patterns of compliance of 31 children of 18 months, 32 children of 24 months, and 36 children of 30 months, and their mothers and fathers were observed in five situations. (RH)

Naturally occurring interactions between a normally hearing mother and her 2-year-old hearing-impaired child were analyzed. Two distinct maternal interaction styles were identified: "labeling" which was very didactic, and "dialoguing" which was very interactive, less controlling, and more similar to interactions between mothers and normally…

The relation of compliance to comprehension in toddlers of 12-18 months was studied. Requests were made to children in naturalistic play situations, and children's responses were coded. Significant shifts in the categories of compliance-comprehension and noncompliance-noncomprehension were found. (BC)