Research has shown that adolescent tobacco users are much more likely to progress to illicit drugs than are nonusers. This article suggests potential psychosocial reasons for progression based on principles of learning theory, Theory of Reasoned Action, Health Belief Model, and Cognitive Dissonance. Also discusses neuropharmacologic components to…

Traces the interrelations between neighborhood sociocultural factors and adolescents' networks, leisure preferences, and school behavior. The overall conclusion is that both the background variables and most of the network indices correlate with the outcome variables. Results show that time spent with peers indulging in passive leisure consumption…

This study examined children's recognition memory for descriptions of maladjusted behaviors displayed by hypothetical peers. Children were also asked about the desirability of these hypothetical peers as friends. (PCB)

Discusses motivation based on adult learning conditions, and suggests appropriate motivation plans for leaders and trainers that will enhance performance. The steps to develop motivation plans include assessing current thinking on motivation and reinforcement options; objectively describing expected behaviors; and developing motivational…

Social competence of 239 students with and without learning disabilities (LD) was followed from kindergarten through fifth grade. Students with LD demonstrated the same trends in social competence as non-LD students. Students with LD differed significantly from average-high-achieving non-LD students on social skills and behavior problems, but not…

Latent growth curve analysis was used to study individual differences in initial status and growth rates of antisocial behavior, delinquent peer association, and unsupervised wandering during the transition to early adolescence for 206 European American boys. Findings are discussed in terms of the trait-confluence model for peer influence. (SLD)

Examined effects of unexpected behavioral information on person impressions. Inconsistency was manipulated with respect to Implicit Personality Theory. Found that behaviors with inconsistent evaluation implications did not affect impressions and that effects of inconsistent information depended on dimension of contrast, valence of initial…

Examines people's behavior in the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD), in which a person must make two decisions to win a prize. In a series of five studies, found that people misapprehend probabilities in the MHD. Discusses the MHD's relation to illusion of control, belief perseverance, and the status quo bias. (RJM)

Among findings of evaluation of the coping strategies of maltreated children (n=152) were that abused children and children both abused and neglected were difficult or compliant in interactions with their mothers, avoidant under stress, and aggressive with siblings; and that neglected children were cooperative in play with the mother, anxious…

A group-administered interview was administered in 16 third- through sixth-grade classes (n=406) including 20 students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Although boys with EBD were assessed by peers as significantly higher in aggression and disruption and lower in cooperation than general education boys, they tended to associate with…

Comparison of 28 young children with autism, 29 children with other developmental disabilities, and 28 typical children found that autistic children were significantly less compliant with parental prohibitions than were control groups. This behavior correlated with chronological age, not with mental age, language development, or parental behavior.…

Studied the role of social conditions, Type A behavior, monitoring, blunting, and locus of control in second and fifth graders' methods of coping with everyday stressors. Except for Type A behavior, coping was associated with the predictors. Strongest associations were found for social competence. Predictors were not associated with ratings of…

This review examines signs indicating a child is reacting to a former traumatogenic event. Posttraumatic stress disorder, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-III, Revised, can result when children are refugees, children of war, immigrants, migrants from a different environment, or when children have experienced a major trauma.…

This study investigated methods for accurately identifying sexually abused children (n=26), mental health clinic-referred children (n=37), and community children (n=39), ages 6-12. Results suggest limited support for the Louisville Behavior Checklist but caution in using the Emotional Indicator Scoring System for Human Figure Drawings in the…

Studying normal infant development is a challenge for cognitive scientists in general and for neuroscientists in particular because: (1) physiological indices of infant cognition are generally noisy and technically difficult to obtain; and (2) interindividual variability and a paucity of established results make data interpretation very complex,…