Identifies the socioeconomic, demographic, and attitudinal correlates of neighborhood differences in the rate of child abuse and neglect, by comparing families in a high risk and a low risk neighborhood matched for socioeconomic level. (CM)

The effects of child deafness on mother-child interaction were investigated by observing mother-child dyads in free-play situations. Subjects were six deaf child/hearing mother pairs and six normal hearing pairs. All children were between 13.2 and 29.2 months of age. (Author/MP)

First graders were taught to read words either in printed sentence contexts or printed singly on flash cards. Post-test scores indicated that context-trained children learned more about the semantic identities of printed words, while flash card-trained children could read the words faster and learned more about orthographic forms. (JMB)

Examined validity of Strange Situation attachment classifications for infants with and without extensive child-care experience and the association of early child-care experience with attachment security. Found that infants were less likely to be secure when low maternal sensitivity was combined with poor quality child care, more than minimal…

Investigated effects of depressed mothers' touching on their infants' behavior during still-face situation. Subjects were 48 mothers and their 3-month-old infants. Findings suggested that by providing touch stimulation for their infants, depressed mothers can increase infants' positive affect and compensate for negative effects often resulting…

Three studies examined development of the perception of temporally unidirectional transformation, such as dropping blocks, with 3.5- to 6.5-year-olds who compared forward and backward videotapes of events or made individual judgments of what would happen if action were attempted. Findings indicated that even 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds recognized the…

A study of effects of age and schooling in grades five and six on raw scores from a variety of general ability tests found that schooling: (1) is the major factor underlying the increase of intelligence test scores as a function of age; and (2) has a larger effect on verbal than nonverbal tests. (RH)

Trained observers conducted direct observations of Thai and American children's school behavior and obtained teacher reports on the same children. Observers reported twice as much problem behavior and off-task behavior in American children as in their Thai age-mates, contradicting some earlier studies. Findings support the value of direct behavior…

Compared low-birthweight infants who participated in an intervention involving educational and family support services during the first three years of life with low-birthweight infants who received pediatric follow-up. Intervention group infants scored higher on cognitive tests and lower on measures of behavior problems at 24 and 36 months than…

Two studies assessed changes in attentional engagement as a function of exposure to "teachers" differing in perceived power and the communication style associated with perceived power. Results suggested that adult ambiguity (more characteristic of those with perception of low power) leads to reductions in children's attentional…

Examined word retrieval in 14- to 24-month-olds. Found that children with limited productive vocabularies were less likely to produce labels of hidden objects than children with larger vocabularies, even though all could name them and did well when asked to find them. Pictorial cues facilitated word retrieval. Naming errors peaked among children…

Compared attitudes, expectations, and behaviors of early adolescent girls with an adolescent childbearing sister to those of girls with nonchildbearing adolescent sisters. Found that the younger sisters of childbearing adolescents were consistently different from those of nonchildbearing adolescents on key characteristics known to be correlated…

Evaluated respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart period in 5-month-olds during interaction challenges. Found that during object-mediated challenge, RSA increases were uniquely related to positive engagement. During person-mediated challenge, subjects showed more complex integration of autonomic and behavioral responses such that only infants…

Examines research in folkbiology (commonsense understandings of plants and animals) to argue that several lines of comparative research are needed to understand the acquisition of folkbiology in particular and conceptual development in general. Asserts that comparisons are needed between children and adults within a given society, between adult…

Assessed friendships among Head Start preschoolers. Found that older children were more likely than younger children to participate in a reciprocated friendship, and reciprocated dyads were more likely to be same-gender than were nonreciprocated dyads. Reciprocated friends interacted more frequently and looked at each other more than…