Among samples of Australian unemployed, younger and older people had different psychological reactions to unemployment. Age was a better predictor of psychological reactions than sex, length of unemployment, or migrant status. The younger unemployed showed less tolerance of others and less self-reliance than older people. (Author/MJL)

Measures of parenting stress and anger expression were examined for their ability to jointly predict child abuse potential in two samples (total N=123) of New Zealand parents. The study found a strong joint contribution of scores on the Parenting Stress Index and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory in predicting results of the Child Abuse…

Examined affectively-charged moral narratives and attachment-related narratives of preschoolers. Found that, after controlling for child age, gender, SES, and expressive language ability, children with more externalizing problems were more likely to describe aggressive themes, and less likely to mention adult aid or taking responsibility for…

The present investigation examines mediated pathways from pubertal development to changes in depressive affect and aggression. Participants were 100 white girls who were between the ages of 10 and 14 (M=12.13, SD=0.80); girls were from well-educated, middle-to upper-middle class families, and attended private schools in a major northeastern urban…

Many social policies rely on assessments of violence potential in their implementation. Decisions concerning such civil matters as involuntary institutionalization and level of institutional custody, and criminal matters such as type or length of sentence and the granting of bail often rely on estimates of the potential that an individual will be…

Distress in response to brief maternal separations was examined in a sample of 93 predominantly home-reared infants using the Ainsworth strange situation paradigm. At 18 months, the age when separation protests begin to decline, securely attached infants are better able than anxiously attached infants to tolerate maternal separations. (Author/RH)

In a study of self-reports from 111 adults enrolled in education classes at seven adult education centers, peer relations, positive and negative affect, and curiosity and perception of learning improvement each uniquely predicted secure attachment among the participants. After controlling for age, sex, and income, the hierarchical logistical…

In previous research, children's empathy has been positively related to guilt and unrelated to shame. In the present study, it was predicted that guilt and empathy would have a curvilinear relationship, while shame and empathy were expected to be inversely related. Participating were 115 children: somewhat less than half were ages 8-9 years, while…

Observed father's behaviors toward newborns. Found fathers who had been present during delivery exhibited more distal attachment-type behaviors. Proximal father behavior (touching) did not differ according to father presence at delivery. Attendance at prenatal classes was not related to either father behaviors observed. (Author)

Used the Children's Emotion Projection Instrument to investigate the emotional predispositions of children from divorce or disruption and children from intact families. Results indicated that children of divorce or disruption are not more hampered emotionally than children from intact families. Discusses implications for family therapists.…

Two experiments examined how different frustration contexts affect the instrumental and emotional responses of 4- to 5-month-olds. Both experiments showed that arm responses increased when the contingent stimulus was lost or reduced but decreased when control of the stimulus was lost under noncontingency. Facial expressions of anger, but not…

Investigates two constructs integral to adolescent development, continuing parental attachment and social support, to assess whether the constructs are differentially related to indices of adjustment following a romantic relationship breakup. As hypothesized, hierarchical regression analyses showed that current attachment levels were related to…

Tested a process model for the impact of children's exposure to marital conflict on their behavior adjustment with a sample of 28 couples and their 6-year-old children. Found that maternal conflict behavior and children's negative emotional reactions to fathers independently predicted children's behavioral adjustment. (MDM)

Explores the extent of preschoolers' knowledge of mixed emotions, and whether difficulty in discerning mixed emotions stems from beliefs about how emotions are portrayed on the face. Found that both four- and five-year olds can identify mixed emotions. Only five-year olds (with appropriate scaffolding and with simple, clear stories) can…

Examined multiple measures of 82 young children's emotionality, regulation, and social functioning over a 2-year period, finding that social functioning was predicted by low negative emotionality and high levels of regulation. Also found that vagal tone was positively related to competent social functioning and emotionality/regulation for boys,…