Tattling, defined as the reporting to a second party of norm violations committed by a third party, is a frequent but little-studied activity among young children. Participant observation and quantitative sampling are used to provide a detailed characterization of tattling in 2 preschools (initial mean age = 4.08 years, N = 40). In these…

Observers and mothers rated infant behavior in the home on dimensions of temperament once a week for eight weeks. Although week-to-week correlations were modest, aggregates of the eight observations had high reliability for both observers and mothers. When direct observations were compared with mother reports, little evidence of mother-observer…

In a year-long participant observation study of remediative action following child injury, 61 children ages 8 and 9 and their mothers wrote records and, in biweekly interviews, reported on more than 1,000 minor injuries. Found that remediative action was related to type of child activity and to mother's affect and beliefs. (MDM)