Examined whether children's cognitive biases moderated impact of stressful divorce-related events on adjustment in 9- to 12-year olds. Found that endorsing negative cognitive errors for hypothetical divorce events moderated relations between stressful divorce events and self- and maternal-reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms for…

Literature review provides list of risk factors associated with violent behaviors in adolescents. Identifies protective factors that have the potential to protect youth from violent lifestyles. Suggests approaches for prevention and describes recommendations for action: early prevention; identification; individualized assessment; trained…

Examined preschoolers' judgments regarding affect experienced by four participants in three social events. Found that preschoolers expected actors across all events to feel happy and recipient-observers in moral and conventional, not personal, events to feel unhappy; teachers witnessing the acts to feel happy in personal, not moral and…

Describes creative stress management techniques for early childhood practitioners. Presents a model whereby the caregiver identifies the problem; conducts a personal scan to identify symptoms and reactions that form behavior patterns; chooses from options to alleviate stress reactions related to the body, emotions, actions/behavior, or the mind;…

Evaluates the effectiveness of one-year participation in a program of volunteer-facilitated peer support groups conducted in a southwest Texas high school. Results of program evaluation by participants (N=118) indicate that the program was highly accepted even though two-thirds of the students had initially felt uncomfortable in the group.…

Examined whether links between marital relations and six- to nine-year olds' adjustment were mediated by children's emotional security. Latent variable path analysis results supported theoretical pathway whereby marital dysfunction was linked with adjustment problems as mediated by emotional insecurity regarding parental conflicts. Emotional…

Compared performance of infants with autism, developmental delays, or normal development on a prospective screening instrument for autism. Found that 20-month-olds with autism lacked social gaze in empathy and joint attention tasks. Infants with autism or developmental delays demonstrated functional play. Few produced spontaneous pretend play.…

Three experiments compared infants' reactions to videos of normally responsive women varying in eye contact. Found that, relative to frontal faces, three-month olds smiled less at images averting head and eye (H&I), head alone (H), and closing eyes (ECL) but not at averting eyes (E). Five-month-olds smiled less at H&I, E, and ECL but not…

Used questionnaire and observations from 94 nonclinical mother-adolescent dyads to examine whether the inverse relationship between maternal emotional distress and responsiveness was mediated by mothers' parenting efficacy and parental perspective taking. Found that maternal emotional distress was associated with lower levels of mother- and…

Explores the importance of emotional expression in music performance. Performers played music to express different emotions and then listening tests were conducted in order to determine whether the intended expressions were perceived. Presents and discusses the results. (CMK)

Discusses the use of children's picture books to assist preschool children's understanding of the "realness," permanence, and inclusiveness of death as part of the life cycle. Provides a list of "Do's and don'ts for helping children grieve" and a bibliography of books to share with preschoolers when a pet dies. (JPB)

Examined the nature and accuracy of 4th-6th grade teachers' judgments about students' mathematics motivation. Teachers and students rated student motivation four times during the school year. Teachers' assessments of students' beliefs corresponded only modestly to students' self-assessments. Teachers' ratings were more stable across time and…

Examined role of parent-child discourse within a supportive relationship in children's early conscience development. Found that children's attachment security predicted maternal and child references to feelings and moral evaluatives in narratives about previous behavior incidents. Attachment security, shared positive affect between mother and…

Investigated the role of gender, gender role identity, rape myth acceptance, and initial resistance in assigning blame in the case of acquaintance rape, and studied the perceived avoidability of the assault for 355 female and 179 male college students. The gender differences in responses are discussed. (SLD)

Examines the emotional impact of inter- and intraethnic interactions with peers and authority figures among black undergraduates (n=66). Subjects reported more negative emotions in hypothetical interactions with whites and intensification of both positive and negative affect in interactions with authority figures. Range of reported effect was more…