Reports three studies which assess bias on the part of aggressive boys to overattribute hostile intentions to peers. After determining the condition under which aggressive attributions are made, the role of selective attention to and recall of hostile cues in biased attribution was investigated. Additionally, peer-directed aggressive behaviors…

Attempts to achieve a relatively comprehensive empirical description of the mother-infant relationship at the age of six months, with special focus on possible correlates of infant developmental competence. One hundred and sixty-eight mother-infant pairs contributed data on a wide variety of measures. (Author/RH)

Assessed the relation between four- and five-year-olds' prosocial behavior and empathy with a modified version of the Feshbach empathy measure. Prosocial behaviors were assessed naturalistically over 10 weeks. (Author/SS)

Subjects categorized as either players who displayed make-believe in natural free-play situations or nonplayers whose behavioral repertoires did not include make-believe, were exposed to either a free-play, an imitation or a problem-solving condition and given an alternate-uses test. Free-play enhanced associative fluency among players who engaged…

Examined factors associated with young children's aggression. Observed 104 toddlers during free play with same-sex peer, with both mothers present. Found that early out-of-home care was not related to aggression. Boys were more aggressive than girls. Observed aggression and mother-reported externalizing problems were associated significantly with…

This naturalistic field study of child-rearing patterns compared observational and developmental data for 60 home-based and 60 day care center-based Swedish toddlers. (Author/JMB)

Firstborn children's reaction to sibling birth assessed in 41 families via family interviews at 1 month prepartum and 1, 4, 8, and 12 months postpartum. Familial interaction patterns were observed in semistructured play sessions. Time since the birth of the sibling and sibling gender had significant effects on firstborn children's adjustment.…

Behaviors observed in 47 families interacting at home were recorded in terms of interactions between a target child and other family members. The types of behaviors emitted by a target child to parents versus siblings were analyzed as were the types of responses that parents versus siblings gave to the target child's behavior. (Author/RH)

The production and discrimination of eight basic facial expressions were investigated among 34 preschool children three to five years of age. Children's productions were elicited and videotaped under four different prompting conditions. Children's discrimination of drawings depicting facial expressions, sociometric ratings, and spontaneous…

Reports further analysis of longitudinal records of mother-infant interaction at home during the infant's first year of life. Analysis was designed to clarify the role of maternal affectionate behavior in defining maternal patterns and in discriminating anxious/avoidant mothers from secure mothers and from anxious/resistant mothers. (Author/DB)

An observational study among 50 preschool children was conducted to assess the validity of experimental findings that at elementary-school age levels boys display greater mastery motivation than do girls. Generally, findings revealed that older preschoolers did, but younger preschoolers did not, show evidence of the sex effects found in previous…

Caregiver-infant transactions with 51 premature infants were studied in naturalistic observations in the home when the infants were aged 1, 3, and 8 months. Gesell developmental schedules and a sensorimotor scale were administered at 9 months. (Author/JH)

Three studies investigated children's belief in causal determinism. If children are determinists, they should infer unobserved causes whenever observed causes appear to act stochastically. In Experiment 1, 4-year-olds saw a stochastic generative cause and inferred the existence of an unobserved inhibitory cause. Children traded off inferences…

The effectance motivation of 624 sixth graders was assessed on the basis of two measures completed by teachers. Student were also observed for their choice of hard and easy problems after being informed of contingencies based on the correctness of solutions. (Author/CI)