The current study examined whether parental and contextual risk factors contribute to mothers' and fathers' differential treatment (MDT/FDT) when accounting for sibling dyad characteristics. Also explored was whether family type (single mothers vs. 2 parents) moderated the links between the parental and contextual correlates and MDT. One hundred…

Effects of early child care on children's functioning from 4 1/2 years through the end of 6th grade (M age=12.0 years) were examined in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n=1,364). The results indicated that although parenting was a stronger and more consistent predictor of…

Early temperament was assessed at ages six, 13, and 24 months via mother ratings on age-appropriate versions of the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ). Home observations of mother-toddler interactions at age 24 months were made, and behavior sequence variables were analyzed. The 24-month form of the ICQ was developed in this study.…

Examines the continuity of behavioral adjustment from the preschool through elementary and junior high school years. Behavior checklist data were obtained from 541 children, ages 9 through 15, who had participated in a preschool epidemiological study. Analyses focused on the relationship between internalizing and externalizing behavior dimensions…

Studies of children who initially display high rates of antisocial behavior indicate such children are more likely to persist in this behavior than those who initially show lower rates. (Author/MP)

Investigates the predictability of cognitive differences at 12 months from infant and maternal behaviors at 4 months. Overall, the results show that some individual differences in cognition may be predictable across the first year of life. (Author/RH)

Baseline and heelstick measures of behavioral state, heart period, vagal tone, and salivary cortisol were obtained from 50 full-term newborns. Mothers completed Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire when the infants reached six months of age. Greater reactivity to the heelstick was associated with lower scores on the…

In 2 studies, 200 mothers of 3-year-old boys and 87 mothers of 4- to 6-year-old boys completed measures of marital functioning and child behavior. Results indicated that parental child-rearing disagreements correlated with children's behavior problems and predicted a greater variety of behavior problems than did global marital adjustment. (BC)

Examined relationship between emotion regulation at ages 5, 10, and 18 months, and compliance at 30 months. Found that infants with low levels of regulatory behavior were more likely to be noncompliant as toddlers. High cardiac vagal tone was related to noncompliance to toy clean-up, whereas low cardiac vagal tone was related to noncompliance to…

Examined attachment's relation to multiple domains of psychosocial functioning in 131 moderately at-risk adolescents. Found that security displayed in adolescents' organization of discourse about attachment experiences was related to competence with peers, lower levels of internalizing behaviors, and lower levels of deviant behaviors.…

Examined relations between temperament, ability estimation, and injury proneness from toddlerhood through school age. Found that children scoring high on Extroversion and low on Inhibitory Control as toddlers and preschoolers tended to overestimate their physical abilities and have more unintentional injuries at age 6. Children low on Extroversion…

Tympanic membrane (TM) temperature asymmetry has been proposed as a phenotypic marker of vulnerability to negative emotionality in children. Little is known about the stability of TM temperatures or how readily one can obtain a reliable index of the phenotype. TM temperatures were collected from 3- to 5-year-old children (N=73) over 5 months…

This study examined the effects of peer groups on changes in academic engagement in 11- to 13-year-old children. From the entire cohort of 366 sixth graders in a town, 87% participated at the beginning and end of the school year. Peer groups were assessed using socio-cognitive mapping; as an indicator of motivation, teachers reported on students'…

Indicates that husband-wife differences in evaluations of marital adjustment increased over time when individuals recalled being reared in a cold/rejecting as opposed to warm/supportive manner, particularly when individuals also recalled their own parents as not having an especially harmonious marital relationship. (Author/RH)

Scores generated by two optimality and three complication scales used to assess perinatal risk for 103 infants were compared for accuracy in predicting a variety of neonatal and infant outcome measures. Results suggested an advantage in favor of the three complication scales. (Author/RH)