Children around 4, 5, and 7 years old (N = 48) listened to scenarios depicting a child alone or accompanied by another person (mother, father, friend) who encounters an entity that looks like a real or an imaginary fear-inducing creature. Participants predicted and explained each protagonist's fear intensity and suggested coping strategies.…

Trauma symptoms, recovery patterns, and life stressors of children between the ages of 9 and 18 (n = 387) following Hurricane Katrina were assessed using an adapted version of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Hurricane Assessment and Referral Tool for Children and Adolescents (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2005). Based on…

Investigated awareness of strategies for coping with uncontrollable stress of 72 children of 5-12 years. Children mentioned approach strategies infrequently. Findings showed an age increase in the proportion of cognitive distraction strategies suggested. Behavioral distraction strategies were most frequently suggested by children of all ages. (RJC)

Examined responses of 63 children of 4-9 years to different forms of expression of anger. Angry interactions between adults elicited anger and distress in young children and were discriminated from more positive interactions. Children responded negatively to unresolved expressions of anger. (RJC)

Examined the relations of teachers' and parents' reports of children's shyness at ages 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12 years to dispositional regulation, emotionality, and coping. The overall pattern of findings was partially consistent with the conclusion that parent-rated shyness reflected primarily social wariness with unfamiliar people, whereas…

Examined the relations of emotionality and regulation to preschoolers' naturally occurring anger reactions through observations of behavior. Children's use of verbal objections to anger situations were positively related to constructive coping and attentional control, particularly for boys, and negatively related to girls' anger intensity,…

Considered variations in pubertal timing, specifically age at menarche, and association with various antecedents, including heredity; weight and weight for height; stressful life events; family relations; absence or presence of adult male in household; and psychological adjustment, in 75 premenarcheal adolescent girls. Found complex interactions…

Compared adolescents' reactions to hypothetical situations involving anger-provoking actions by best friends and classmates. Subjects were 96 students, ages 11 through 15. Found that situations involving best friends elicited higher ratings of prolonged negative emotion, but more coping attempts were taken than in the situations involving…

A total of 87 children were observed in play with unfamiliar peers at 4, 6, and 8 years of age, and judged by their parents for inhibition. Observed inhibited behavior and parental judgments of inhibition became increasingly associated with solitary-passive activity. With increasing age, inhibited children spent longer periods in solitary-passive…

Investigated homesickness in boys ages 8 through 16. Results indicated that homesickness was prevalent and varied in intensity, was experienced as a combination of depression and anxiety, was presented most often as internalizing behavior, and was more typical for younger boys. The most-homesick became increasingly so during the separation,…

Causes of preschoolers' anger, and preschoolers' reactions to anger, were studied. Measures of social competence and popularity were obtained. Sex, age, and context differences in coping strategies were found. Socially competent and popular children coped with anger in relatively direct and active ways that minimized conflict and damage to social…

Developed measures of preoccupied and avoidant coping to determine whether the measures concurrently relate to adjustment problems. Subjects were 229 children from third through seventh grades. Results indicated that preoccupied and avoidant coping with the mother can contribute to maladjustment in other arenas. Children's adjustment with peers…

Tested the basic hypothesis that failure experiences at school increase the likelihood of aversive parent-child interaction after school. Subjects were 254 elementary school students. Found that children who rated more academic failure events at school described parents as more disapproving after school, but this effect was only partially mediated…