Among a group of mostly African-American and Hispanic 10- to 14-year-olds, boys believed that parents would disapprove more of retaliation against siblings than friends, whereas girls believed that parents would equally disapprove of retaliation against either target. Children expected that retaliation was more likely to deter additional…

Assessed fourth-graders' peer clique characteristics as a function of socioeconomic status, gender, and aggressiveness. Found that rejected youth were less central group members than average-status peers; aggressive preadolescents were no less involved than nonaggressive peers; rejected preadolescents belonged to smaller cliques and cliques…

A study examined a summer science camp's impact on the attitudes of 46 children aged 9-12 toward the environment, and the extent of consequent behavior changes. All participants showed an increase in positive attitudes towards the environment. Almost one-fourth of the 128 intentions reported were acted upon during the following year. (Contains 30…

Discusses two aspects of a conceptual framework for examining the unique developmental significance of friendship. Presents findings from longitudinal study of preadolescent peer rejection and friendship status as predictors of adjustment in early adulthood. (SD)

This study sought to clarify parents' role in the initiation of alcohol use of young adolescents. Findings indicated that parent norms were directly related to adolescents' alcohol-related cognition, and thereby had a significant indirect relationship with teenagers' alcohol use. No significant differences were found between intervention and…

This study investigated parental socialization of adolescent political reasoning from a Vygotskian cognitive socialization perspective. Discussions between mothers and their adolescent sons or daughters were examined using a transactive dialogue system and were related to the adolescent's age and gender and to family parenting style. As predicted,…

Examined predictors of children's moral reasoning development over 4-year period. Found that parental and friend interaction during moral conflict discussions influenced development differently. Minimal moral development was predicted by friends' cognitive challenges to the target child's moral reasoning and by parents' interfering interactions.…

Two studies compared multidimensional self-concept measures in preadolescents. Findings indicated that the Self-Description Questionnaire and Self-Perception Profile for Children were highly correlated and comparable in reliability, stability, subscale interrelations, and associations with others' evaluations. Correspondence among various…

Children typically learn in classroom environments that have background noise and reverberation that interfere with accurate speech perception. Amplification technology can enhance the speech perception of students who are hard of hearing. Purpose: This study used a single-subject alternating treatments design to compare the speech recognition…

The Strong African American Families Program, a universal preventive intervention to deter alcohol use among rural African American adolescents, was evaluated in a cluster-randomized prevention trial. This 7-week family skills training program is based on a contextual model in which intervention effects on youth protective factors lead to changes…

The focus of this study was to identify whether there was a pattern of instability within the friendship bonds of a group of young girls aged between 10 and 12-years-old. Changes were monitored over 16 months within friendship clusters of dyads, triads and larger groups. Research has shown a trend towards gender difference in preferred forms of…

In this study we examined the psychopathology and behavioral treatment of White and African American preadolescent children with social phobia. The comprehensive assessment strategy, including semistructured diagnostic interviews, clinician ratings of impairment, behavioral observations, parental ratings, and self-report inventories, did not…

The social functioning of 64 young adolescents (10- to 12-year olds) was examined in relation to negative emotionality and regulation during early adolescence, as well as two, four, and six years earlier. Young adolescents who were viewed as relatively high in social functioning (i.e., high teacher-rated school social competence; low mother- or…

Should teachers teach the calculation of target heart rate to students? And when is it appropriate to engage students in the attainment of these heart rates during physical education class activities? The answers to these questions are not easy. One might be tempted to state a simple yes or no and to identify a specific age to begin using training…

Background: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus infections (PANDAS) is a recently recognized syndrome in which pre-adolescent children have abrupt onsets of tics and/or obsessive-compulsive symptoms, a recurring and remitting course of illness temporally related to streptococcal infections, and associated…