A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.

The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.

Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

Does the autistic child have a theory of mind

Abstract We use a new model of metarepresentational development to predict a cognitive deficit which could explain a crucial component of the social impairment in childhood autism. One of the manifestations of a basic metarepresentational capacity is a ‘theory of mind’. We have reason to believe that autistic children lack such a ‘theory’. If this were so, then they would be unable to impute beliefs to others and to predict their behaviour. This hypothesis was tested using Wimmer and Perner's puppet play paradigm. Normal children and those with Down's syndrome were used as controls for a group of autistic children. Even though the mental age of the autistic children was higher than that of the controls, they alone failed to impute beliefs to others. Thus the dysfunction we have postulated and demonstrated is independent of mental retardation and specific to autism.

Does the Autistic Child Have a''Theory of Mind''? Cognition

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

/pdf/from-neurons-to-neighborhoods-the-science-of-early-childhood-3bfl5g72ow.pdf

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

Part 1 The new pioneers: changing families in a changing world, to be or not to be a parent the pregnant pause - nine long months. Part 2 Crossing the great divide: what's happening to me? what's happening to us? beyond the doorstep - new problems, new solutions legacies from our parents parenting our children. Part 3 Protecting the homestead: an ounce of prevention - couples groups talk to me - hidden challenges in couples' communication who is at risk and what can be done?

When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples

This study explores marital processes that may underlie the apparent decline in satisfaction with marriage in partners becoming parents for the first time. We assessed 47 couples expecting a first child and 15 couples not yet decided about having children at pretest, post 1 (6 months postpartum or 9 months after pretest) and post 2 (18 months postpartum or 21 months after pretest). Questionnaires examined (1) psychological sense of self; (2) partners' role arrangements and communication; (3) parenting ideology; (4) perceptions of the family of origin; and (5) social support and life stress, including parents' work patterns. Support was found for three hypotheses: (1) In four of the five family domains men and women having a first child showed more negative changes over time than nonparent spouses; (2) New fathers and mothers grew increasingly different from one another in most of these domains; (3) A combination of gender differentiation and change (increasing conflict) apparently contributed to lowered s...

Transitions to Parenthood His, Hers, and Theirs

Few programs to enhance fathers' engagement with children have been systematically evaluated, especially for low-income minority populations. In this study, 289 couples from primarily low-income Mexican American and European American families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and followed for 18 months: 16-week groups for fathers, 16-week groups for couples, or a 1-time informational meeting. Compared with families in the low-dose comparison condition, intervention families showed positive effects on fathers' engagement with their children, couple relationship quality, and children's problem behaviors. Participants in couples' groups showed more consistent, longer term positive effects than those in fathers-only groups. Intervention effects were similar across family structures, income levels, and ethnicities. Implications of the results for current family policy debates are discussed.

Promoting Fathers' Engagement with Children: Preventive Interventions for Low-Income Families.

Men and women have been having babies since human life began. Not until the last half of the twentieth century, however, did the transition to parenthood become the subject of intensive analysis by sociologists, psychologists, and health and mental health professionals. Academicians' and health providers' interest appears to have been stimulated by a study by LeMasters (1957), a sociologist, who made the apparently shocking claim that 83 of new parents had experienced "moderate or severe crisis" in their marital and family life in the first years following the birth of their first child. Using various methods and outcome measures, investigators over the next three decades challenged LeMasters' assertion that the transition to parenthood constitutes a crisis for a marriage (Hobbs, 1965; White & Booth, 1985). These investigators concluded that (a) new parenthood was a stressful but essentially manageable, normative transition (Hobbs & Cole, 1977) or (b) the decline in adjustment and marital satisfaction new parents experienced was not appreciably different from the waning of marital intimacy experienced over time by childless couples (McHale & Huston, 1985; White & Booth, 1985). Neither of these responses to LeMasters seemed to settle the controversy about crisis. After early retrospective studies, investigators in the 1980s began to follow couples from pregnancy into the early childrearing years. These longitudinal studies revealed negative changes in many aspects of men's and women's adaptation as individuals and as couples (see reviews by Belsky & Pensky, 1988; Cowan & Cowan, 1988; Worthington & Buston, 1987). Along with shifts in partners' stress levels, division of family labor, and leisure time, almost every study noted a decline in men's and women's marital satisfaction. Is the transition to parenthood likely to create long-term strain in men, women, and marriage? The answer to this question has important theoretical and practical implications. Theories of life course and family development (see Cowan, 1991; Hinde & Stevenson-Hinde, 1988) imply that major life changes and transitions create conditions of risk. New challenges can outstrip existing resources, trigger new problems, or amplify pre-existing vulnerabilities and inadequacies. Explicit in some of these theories is the idea that the challenges of transitions can also stimulate the development of new coping skills and higher levels of adaptation. The transition to parenthood is an interesting test case for lifespan developmental theories because, unlike most expected and unexpected traumatic transitions that have been studied extensively, becoming a parent is widely regarded as a positive change in the life of a couple. If the transition to parenthood does increase the probability of problematic outcomes in parents and children, then the hypothesis that life transitions constitute conditions of risk would be supported. Increased marital and family risk associated with the transition to parenthood has implications for the provision of health and mental health services. If a life transition experienced by approximately 90% of contemporary married couples can be expected to be accompanied by stress and distress for many parents, it is likely that this strain will permeate some or all of the relationships in the family, which, in turn, can be expected to compromise children's optimal development. In that case, it would seem reasonable to create targeted or even universal preventive intervention programs designed to enhance parents' coping skills and reduce their stress or to provide remedial help for couples already in difficulty when the transition begins. If there is no significant increase in risk or negative outcomes attributable to this transition, then intervention programs on a wide societal scale would be unnecessary. The first section of this article argues that, despite some remaining areas of controversy in comparing and interpreting studies, we can conclude with some confidence that the transition to parenthood constitutes a period of stressful and sometimes maladaptive change for a significant proportion of new parents. …

Interventions to Ease the Transition to Parenthood: Why They Are Needed and What They Can Do

In a prospective, longitudinal study we examined the psychometric properties of the self-perception scales of the Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI). A total sample of 97 young children were assessed with the BPI at 3 time points: preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. The BPI assesses young children's self-perceptions of their school adjustment in 6 domains: academic competence, achievement motivation, social competence, peer acceptance, depression-anxiety, and aggression-hostility. Results showed that 4 1/2- to 7 1/2-year-olds possess a multidimensional self-concept that can be reliably measured and that the BPI is sensitive to normative changes and individual differences in young boys' and girls' views of themselves. Support for the method's validity was derived from consistent and meaningful patterns of convergence between children's self-perceptions and ratings by adult informants--mothers, fathers, and teachers--as well as standardized test scores. In fact, in this study, the concordance between young children's self-reports and parallel ratings by teachers or mothers were consistently as strong as if not stronger than the concordance between mothers' and teachers' ratings.

https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06177.x

Assessing young children's views of their academic, social, and emotional lives: an evaluation of the self-perception scales of the Berkeley Puppet Interview.

Philip A. Cowan

Papers

When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples

Transitions to Parenthood His, Hers, and Theirs

Promoting Fathers' Engagement with Children: Preventive Interventions for Low-Income Families.

Interventions to Ease the Transition to Parenthood: Why They Are Needed and What They Can Do

Assessing young children's views of their academic, social, and emotional lives: an evaluation of the self-perception scales of the Berkeley Puppet Interview.