Social skills are dynamic developmental constructs typically measured using assessments developed via cross-sectional methods. The measurement model of derivatives (MMOD), a factor analytic approach targeting individual growth trajectories, was used to evaluate the longitudinal factor structure of the Social Skills Improvement System--Rating…

Quartets of Chinese (n = 125) and Canadian (n = 133) 7-year-old children were observed as they played with a single attractive toy. Chinese children exhibited more assertive and general rule bids, engaged in more spontaneous giving, and reacted more positively to assertions of others whereas Canadian children more frequently referred to norms of…

Investigates the effects of child controllability on adult assertiveness, as moderated by adult control perceptions. Four boys (aged seven to nine), trained to be responsive or unresponsive, interacted in adult-child dyads on a toy construction task with 32 women. (Author/SS)

A sample of 79 children from 5 to 8 years of age were observed for a 6-week period while they attended summer camp. Their inferential ability was assessed by asking each child to interpret a series of videotaped social episodes which were then related to their observed assertive and prosocial behaviors. (Author/JMB)

This study examined the hypothesis that group size can influence whether 9- to 10-year-olds display self-assertive versus self-deprecating responses to interpersonal competition, especially under stress. Findings indicated that individuals displayed more assertive behaviors during competitive game-playing in groups than in dyads, and more…

Over five days, videotaped and analyzed contrived play sessions of African-American male first and third graders to examine behavioral patterns leading to chronic victimization by peers. Victims demonstrated lower rates of assertive behaviors and higher rates of nonassertive behaviors than nonvictims. Children who eventually emerged as chronic…

Examines the relationship of birth order to sociability with an unfamiliar peer in a group of 101 children, 33 months of age. Differences were found favoring sociability in children with one or no siblings. Assertiveness followed the same pattern. Family influences which may account for these birth order differences are discussed. (Author/DB)

Conducted a meta-analytic review of 41 studies to explore the relation between children's aggressive behavior and hostile attribution of intent to peers. Found a significant association between hostile attribution of intent and aggressive behavior, with larger effects associated with more severe aggressive behavior, rejection by peers as a…

Analyzed reactions 15 boys and 19 girls received from adults and peers when subjects attempted to communicate and physically assert control. At 14 months, children's behavior did not differ by sex, but caregivers differentiated responses by sex; at 24 months, children's behavior differed by sex, but caregivers did not differentiate their responses…

Explores the hypothesis that parenting practices of abusive mothers are characterized by (1) greater use of power-assertive strategies, (2) less flexible behavior with respect to child compliance attempts, (3) more inconsistent use of parenting techniques, and (4) diminished affective quality. (HOD)

Fifty-nine children with varying amounts and types of day-care experience were followed over their first 2 or 3 years of public schooling. Schoolteachers rated aggressiveness of several types and in several situations and supplied information about managing the children, their use of conflict-avoiding strategies, and other associated skills and…

Examined mother-child interaction in play and teaching tasks. Mother-child interaction aggregates represented task orientation, positive emotion, and allowance of autonomy. Maternal interaction aggregates predicted teachers' ratings of children's positive social behavior, assertiveness, and sadness in the preschool setting. (BC)

The current study modeled developmental trajectories of ethnic identity exploration and affirmation and belonging from middle to late adolescence (ages 15-18) and examined how these trajectories varied according to ethnicity, gender, immigrant status, and perceived level of discrimination. The sample consisted of 135 urban low-income Black and…

Examined assertive bids of elementary school children engaged in a cooperative task. Results from kindergarten and grade one participants support previous research regarding greater male assertiveness and attempts to influence other boys. By grade three, girls' overall assertiveness equaled that of boys. (Author/DB)

Preschool children's security of attachment was assessed in the laboratory, and their interactions with peers were observed in the preschool. Insecure boys showed more aggressive, disruptive, assertive, and controlling behavior than secure children. Insecure girls showed more dependent and compliant behavior, and less assertive and controlling…