Guided by family risk and allostasis theoretical frameworks, the present study utilized a prospective longitudinal design to examine associations among family risk experiences, basal cortisol patterns, and cognitive functioning in children. The sample included 201 low-income children living within a midsize city in the Northeastern United States.…

This study tested the 5-HTTLPR gene as a moderator in the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and child externalizing symptoms in a disadvantaged, predominantly Black sample of two hundred and one 2-year-old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, prospective design, structural equation model analyses indicated that maternal…

Retrospective studies indicate 2 major classes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) onset: early and later, after a period of relatively healthy development. This prospective, longitudinal study examined social, language, and motor trajectories in 235 children with and without a sibling with autism, ages 6-36 months. Children were grouped as: ASD…

A critique of research examining whether early experiences with primary caregivers are reflected in adaptation is that relevant longitudinal studies have generally not employed genetically informed research designs capable of unconfounding shared genes and environments. Using the twin subsample (N = 485 pairs) of the Early Childhood Longitudinal…

The current study was designed to investigate how the quality of stimulation and support available to children in the home interacts with participation in Early Head Start to determine children's development. Data were obtained as part of the national evaluation of Early Head Start (EHSRE), a randomized trial involving 3,001 children and families…

The association among mothers', fathers', and infants' risk and cognitive and social behaviors at 24 months was examined using structual equation modeling and data on 4,200 on toddlers and their parents from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. There were 3 main findings. First, for cognitive outcomes, maternal risk was directly…

Children between the ages of six and 11 were asked to recall personal experiences of pity, anger, and guilt and to rate the cause of each emotion on degree of controllability. Results were interpreted as evidence that guilt in young children may be a qualitatively different emotion because of its closer link to outcome than to perceived…

Examines the role of affect in children's attribution of intentionality and dispensation of punishment. Subjects were 12 boys and 12 girls at each of three grade levels: kindergarten and first and second grades. (CM)

Examines the level and quality of object play and other cognitive and socioemotional aspects of the play situation, both as individual entities and as interrelated aspects of the way the child with Down syndrome approaches and deals with the animate and inanimate world. Relationships among these aspects and the child's level of functioning were…

Investigated the effect of setting on the social referencing of 48 children of 6-40 months. Behavioral regulation was observed in familiar child care centers and an unfamiliar university laboratory. Affect was not influenced by setting and showed regulation only for the oldest children. (RJC)

When children with Down's syndrome and normally developing children of comparable mental age were compared in their ability to find things they saw in a mirror, it was found that the ability of children with Down's syndrome paralleled that of normally developing children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.…

Data were examined to determine (1) the stability of negative emotional characteristics from early life through adolescence; (2) the degree of relation between these emotional characteristics and adjustment in childhood and adolescence; and (3) the degree to which the characteristics differentially predict multiple adjustment dimensions in…

Examined factors that may influence control or expression of children's emotions. Regardless of emotion type, first, third, and fifth graders reported controlling expression significantly more when with peers than with a parent or when they were alone. Age and sex were also factors. Children's primary reason for controlling expression was…

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…

Examines young children's developing ability to talk about emotions, considers evidence concerning the ability to talk about emotions in the conduct of interpersonal interaction, and offers ideas about future directions for research, emphasizing the functionalist approach to the analysis of emotion-denoting terms. (HOD)