Reviews the history of the several editions of the "Handbook of Child Psychology" from 1931 to the present. Identifies continuing themes and alterations in theoretical orientation within the field of human development that are found in the handbook's editions. Discusses the strategy behind and the contents of the 1997 edition. (BC)

Describes the Youth Development Learning Network's extended evaluation, a collaboration of funders, program administrators, youth workers, and evaluators, that illustrates the process of building capacity for youth and youth workers. (SLD)

Advocates an environmentally congruent conception of child development and includes Montessori theory as part of a biocentric view where child development connects to the laws of nature. Explains orientations to the world informing development of a biocentric vision of childhood: mastery, immersion, and engagement. Discusses how mastery and…

Examines ways to model the production function for cognitive achievement to capture theoretical notions that child development is a cumulative process involving family and school inputs and ability. Develops a modeling framework that accommodates several known estimating equations, discussing how to address data limitations and highlighting the…

Reviews the literature on parental divorce and early childhood development, using developmental psychopathology as an organizing framework. Because this review is unique in its focus on divorce-related issues specific to young children, limitations of existing research are noted and directions for future research are suggested. (Contains 63…

Qualitatively analyzes the stories that 23 preadolescent foster children told about their lives. An ecological framework in conjunction with the social constructionist understanding of stories guided the ethnographic semistructured interviews. These stories contained both common and unique features and provided insight into the lives of foster…

Developmentalists have overlooked the problem of the real impermanence of things. Though the metaphor of impermanence is central to Piagetian and neo-nativist accounts of representation, the development of the understanding of impermanence is unstudied. This article proposes that the development of the concept of impermanence is distinct from the…

Neural network models and more conventional statistics were used to study the use of sequential phonological probabilities in the segmentation of a phonological transcription of conversational English that might allow the infant to bootstrap into a series of increasingly sophisticated segmentation competencies. Results are interpreted in the…

Summarizes and integrates key findings from the most widely cited research studies which have investigated children's understanding of what is "real" on television. Discusses the developmental patterns in young viewers' use of various criteria for assessing the reality status of television programs. (Author/LRW)

The Kid's Klub is a school-age child care summer program focused on building developmental assets. Extension staff, 4-H adult and youth leaders, and Master Gardeners presented projects to first- through fourth-graders. Parents (n=11) reported that their children continued developing empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills. (SK)

Explores relationships between ethics and individual and societal development in psychologist Baldwin's work, focusing on how he extended evolutionary theory to encompass social and ethical development. Asserts that Baldwin tried to demonstrate a natural developmental process leading toward truth, beauty, the Good, and God; that developmental…

Recent research provides evidence of the strong connections between quality of play in preschool years and children's readiness for school instruction. Mature play, characterized by imaginary situations, multiple roles, clearly defined rules, flexible themes, language development, length of play, helps students' cognitive development. (Contains 12…

This special issue brings together research concerned with the psychoeducational and psychosocial functioning of Chinese children in Mainland China (including Hong Kong) and of those who have immigrated to the U.S. Articles address a variety of topics including: moral development, self-concept, school adjustment, creativity, friendships, reading,…

Examined sharing of child development knowledge between grandmothers and mothers in White and Black populations to determine impact of cultural, generational, and familial effects. Fifty-six White grandmother-mother dyads and 31 Black dyads estimated age at which average child is capable of various developmental tasks. Blacks held older age…