The study examined the moderating role of children's affect-biased attention to angry, fearful, and sad adult faces in the link between interparental conflict and children's distinct forms of involvement. Participants included 243 preschool children (M[subscript age] = 4.60 years, 56% female) and their parents from racially (48% African American,…

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition in toddlerhood and social, school, and psychological adjustment in late adolescence in China. Data on behavioral inhibition were collected from a sample of 2-year-olds (initial N = 247). Follow-up data were collected at 7 years for peer relationships and 19 years for adjustment across…

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among middle-class and White children generalized to other groups. Using a representative sample of urban, low-income, predominantly African American and Hispanic families ("n" = 444), ordinary least squares regression…

This study examined the increase in salivary cortisol from midmorning to midafternoon in 151 children (3.0-4.5 years) in full-time home-based day care. Compared to cortisol levels at home, increases were noted in the majority of children (63%) at day care, with 40% classified as a stress response. Observations at day care revealed that intrusive,…

Predicting how people will behave in the future is a critical social-cognitive task. In four studies (N = 150, ages preschool to adult), young children (ages 4-5) used category information to guide their expectations about individual consistency. They predicted that psychological properties (preferences and fears) would remain consistent over time…

Two studies investigated the role of children's moral motivation and sympathy in prosocial behavior. Study 1 measured other-reported prosocial behavior and self- and other-reported sympathy. Moral motivation was assessed by emotion attributions and moral reasoning following hypothetical transgressions in a representative longitudinal sample of…

Findings yielded a comprehensive portrait of the predictive relations among children's aggressive or withdrawn behaviors, peer rejection, and psychological maladjustment across the 5-12 age period. Examination of peer rejection in different variable contexts and across repeated intervals throughout childhood revealed differences in the timing,…

This study investigated the combination of mothers' and fathers' parenting styles (affection, behavioral control, and psychological control) that would be most influential in predicting their children's internal and external problem behaviors. A total of 196 children (aged 5-6 years) were followed up six times from kindergarten to the second grade…

The effects of parental control on child behavior were examined in a survey of 473 fifth, eighth, and tenth graders, who completed measures on parent behavior, family functioning, and their own behavior. The study found that psychological control was more predictive of adolescent internalized problems, whereas behavioral control was more…

This multimethod, prospective study examined the nature of pathways between interparental hostility and withdrawal, parental emotional unavailability, and subsequent changes in children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and school adjustment difficulties over a 3-year period in a sample of 210 mothers, fathers, and 6-year-old children.…