Observed 32 preschoolers' interactions with their toddler siblings. Preschoolers' references about emotions were more likely to be about the toddler than the self. Preschoolers who were skillful perspective takers talked more about internal emotional states and more frequently about the toddler and themselves than did poor perspective takers. (BC)

Measured mother-child shared cooperation and positive affect, at 26-41 months and at 43-56 months, in multiple contexts of daily interactions. In dyads high on mutually responsive orientation, mothers resorted to less power, and children were more internalized regarding material values and rules. Mothers high on empathic perspective-taking were…

Evaluated emotional expressiveness, empathy, and prosocial behavior in 9-, and 13-year-olds. As expected, emotional expressiveness, emotional insight, and role taking were strong predictors of latent empathy. Boys' empathy was a strong predictor of prosocial behavior, whereas girls' empathy was related to prosocial behaviors with friends but not…

Investigates relations among young preschoolers' social cognitive abilities, expression of emotions, and prosocial responses to others' emotions. Results suggested that subjects' social cognitive acuity and differential responding to emotion have heretofore been underrated. (Author/DR)

Seventy-two children were presented with a series of stories involving psychological harm in a game context. Found that older children were more likely than younger ones to base their evaluations on intentions, or both intentions and consequences, and to take into account the recipient's perspective. Game context interacted differentially with…

Describes two experiments that examined children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. Discusses the findings in relation to research concerning children's concept of mind, their grasp of the appearance-reality distinction; their ability to produce complex, embedded justifications; and their ideas about emotion.…

Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit…