Examined personal storytelling of European-American preschoolers from working- or middle-class families as a medium through which they construct autonomous selves. Found that children in both communities had extensive rights to speak of past experiences and limited rights to author experiences. Middle-class communities viewed expressing one's view…

Investigated sociometric status, aggression, and gender differences in African American second-graders' expression of anger, happiness, and sadness during a competitive game. Found that rejected children expressed more facial and verbal anger than average-status children and more nonverbal happiness, but only during turns that were favorable to…

Followed development of children at family risk for dyslexia from 3 years to 8 years. Found that 66 percent of high-risk group had reading disabilities at age 8 compared with only 13 percent in a control group. However, family risk of dyslexia was continuous. Interpreted findings within a model in which problems in establishing a phonological…

Identified groups of economically disadvantaged children showing high externalizing behavior in first grade that persisted (persistent) or decreased (improver) in third grade, or low first- grade levels that were stable (unproblematic) or increased (new problem) in third grade. Found that verbal ability, behavioral impulsivity, parent…

Two studies examined concepts of personal autonomy and social roles among persons in different types of cultures. Found that Druze subjects attributed more power than Jewish subjects to males over females, but concepts of personal entitlements were prominent in both groups. Overall, findings indicated that social reasoning is heterogeneous in…

Compared socialization, family, and mental health variables among 231 low socioeconomic status Hispanic and Anglo-American preadolescents and their mothers. Found that Anglo-American mothers, compared to Hispanic mothers, reported less rejection and inconsistent discipline, but also less cohesion. Anglo-American children reported less rejection,…

Examined how child and family factors influence individual differences in the language development of African-American children between 18 and 30 months of age. Found that vocabulary and utterance length increased linearly. Children from more stimulating and responsive homes had larger vocabularies, used more irregular nouns and verbs, and had…

Evaluated a path model of teacher expectancy effects in 376 first- through fifth-grade urban children. Found that classroom environment and developmental differences moderated the strength of teacher expectancy effects on students' year-end achievement. Results suggested that teacher expectations may tend to magnify achievement differences in the…

Examined in 2 studies development and consequences of 6- to 10-year-olds' awareness of others' stereotypes. Findings indicated that children's ability to infer an individual's stereotype and awareness of broadly-held stereotypes increased with age. Academically stigmatized groups (African American and Latino) were more likely to be aware of…

Examined longitudinal relations of observed parental warmth and positive expressivity and children's effortful control and ego control with children's high versus low emotional expressivity. Found that moderate child expressivity related to high effortful control. Children's ego overcontrol mediated relations between parental warmth/positive…

Compared attitudes of children in child-centered preschools and kindergartens with those of children in didactic, highly academic programs in terms achievement and motivation. Compared to children in child-centered programs, children in didactic programs rated their abilities significantly lower, had lower expectations for success on academic…

Examines the effects of persistent economic hardship on children. Both black and white children who experienced persistent family economic hardship demonstrated problems in peer relations, showed conduct problems at school, and reported low self-esteem. Connections between persistent economic hardship and psychosocial adjustment were more…

In comparison to American adolescent data sets, Japanese adolescents are found to have lower self-esteem and less favorable views of their bodies' attractiveness and effectiveness. Sex differences in self-concept account for more variance in the Japanese cohorts than in comparative American ones. Types of self-concept differences are similar in…

Compared aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive/withdrawn children to normative and matched control groups on teacher and peer relationship attributes, loneliness, and social satisfaction from kindergarten through grade 2. Found that withdrawn behavior was neither highly stable nor predictive of relational difficulties. Aggression was fairly stable…