Showing papers in "Developmental Psychology in 2002"

Oral language and code-related precursors to reading: Evidence from a longitudinal structural model.

Abstract: This study examined code-related and oral language precursors to reading in a longitudinal study of 626 children from preschool through 4th grade. Code-related precursors, including print concepts and phonological awareness, and oral language were assessed in preschool and kindergarten. Reading accuracy and reading comprehension skills were examined in 1st through 4th grades. Results demonstrated that (a) the relationship between code-related precursors and oral language is strong during preschool; (b) there is a high degree of continuity over time of both code-related and oral language abilities; (c) during early elementary school, reading ability is predominantly determined by the level of print knowledge and phonological awareness a child brings from kindergarten; and (d) in later elementary school, reading accuracy and reading comprehension appear to be 2 separate abilities that are influenced by different sets of skills.

Economic pressure in African American families: a replication and extension of the family stress model.

Abstract: This study of 422 two-caregiver African American families, each with a 10-11-year-old focal child (54% girls), evaluated the applicability of the family stress model of economic hardship for understanding economic influences on child development in this population. The findings generally replicated earlier research with European American families. The results showed that economic hardship positively relates to economic pressure in families. Economic pressure was related to the emotional distress of caregivers, which in turn was associated with problems in the caregiver relationship. These problems were related to disrupted parenting practices, which predicted lower positive child adjustment and higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The results provide significant support for the family stress model of economic hardship and its generalizability to diverse populations.

Children's competence and value beliefs from childhood through adolescence: growth trajectories in two male-sex-typed domains.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to document gender differences in children's competence and value beliefs (N =514) from the 1st through 12th grades and to investigate the relation of these trends to initial differences in parents' perceptions of children's ability. Six separate growth models were tested: math competence, math interest, math importance, sports competence, sports interest, and sports importance. Across all 6 models, children's self-perceptions declined from 1st grade to 12th grade. Gender differences in competence and value beliefs were found. The gap between boys' and girls' competence beliefs decreased over time. In addition, parents' initial ratings of children's ability helped to explain mean level differences and variations in the rate of change in children's beliefs over time, with the effect being strongest in the sports models.

Family processes as pathways from income to young children's development.

Abstract: A variety of family processes have been hypothesized to mediate associations between income and young children's development. Maternal emotional distress, parental authoritative and authoritarian behavior (videotaped mother-child interactions), and provision of cognitively stimulating activities (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment [HOME] scales) were examined as possible mediators in a sample of 493 White and African American low-birth-weight premature infants who were followed from birth through age 5. Cognitive ability was assessed by standardized test, and child behavior problems by maternal report, when the children were 3 and 5 years of age. As expected, family income was associated with child outcomes. The provision of stimulating experiences in the home mediated the relation between family income and both children's outcomes; maternal emotional distress and parenting practices mediated the relation between income and children's behavior problems.

Risk factors for body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls: a longitudinal investigation.

Abstract: Because few prospective studies have examined predictors of body dissatisfaction—an established risk factor for eating disorders—the authors tested whether a set of sociocultural, biological, interpersonal, and affective factors predicted increases in body dissatisfaction using longitudinal data from adolescent girls (N 496). Elevated adiposity, perceived pressure to be thin, thin-ideal internalization, and social support deficits predicted increases in body dissatisfaction, but early menarche, weight-related teasing, and depression did not. There was evidence of 2 distinct pathways to body dissatisfaction—1 involving pressure to be thin and 1 involving adiposity. Results support the contention that certain sociocultural, biological, and interpersonal factors increase the risk for body dissatisfaction, but suggest that other

Children's Perceptions of Popular and Unpopular Peers: A Multimethod Assessment

Abstract: Children's perceptions of popular and unpopular peers were examined in 2 studies. Study 1 examined the degree to which 4th-8th-grade boys and girls (N = 408) nominated the same peers for multiple criteria. Children viewed liked others as prosocial and disliked others as antisocial but associated perceived popularity with both prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Study 2, a subset of the children from Study 1 (N = 92) described what makes boys and girls popular or unpopular. Children described popular peers as attractive with frequent peer interactions, and unpopular peers as unattractive, deviant, incompetent, and socially isolated. In both studies, children's perceptions varied as a function of the gender, age, and ethnicity of the participants.

Comparative longitudinal structural analyses of the growth and decline of multiple intellectual abilities over the life span.

Abstract: Latent growth curve techniques and longitudinal data are used to examine predictions from the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence (Gf-Gc theory; J. L. Horn & R. B. Cattell, 1966, 1967). The data examined are from a sample (N approximately 1,200) measured on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised (WJ-R). The longitudinal structural equation models used are based on latent growth models of age using two-occasion "accelerated" data (e.g., J. J. McArdle & R. Q. Bell, 2000; J. J. McArdle & R. W. Woodcock, 1997). Nonlinear mixed-effects growth models based on a dual exponential rate yield a reasonable fit to all life span cognitive data. These results suggest that most broad cognitive functions fit a generalized curve that rises and falls. Novel multilevel models directly comparing growth curves show that broad fluid reasoning (Gf) and acculturated crystallized knowledge (Gc) have different growth patterns. In all comparisons, any model of cognitive age changes with only a single g factor yields an overly simplistic view of growth and change over age.

Anger regulation in disadvantaged preschool boys: strategies, antecedents, and the development of self-control.

Abstract: Emotion regulation strategies observed during an age 3 1/2 frustration task were examined in relation to (a) angry affect during the frustration task, (b) child and maternal characteristics at age 1 1/2, and (c) indices of self-control at age 6 in a sample of low-income boys (Ns varied between 189 and 310, depending on the assessment). Shifting attention away from sources of frustration and seeking information about situational constraints were associated with decreased anger. Secure attachment and positive maternal control correlated positively with effective regulatory strategy use. Individual differences in strategy use predicted self-control at school entry, but in specific rather than general ways: Reliance on attention-shifting strategies corresponded with low externalizing problems and high cooperation; reliance on information gathering corresponded with high assertiveness.

Children's coping strategies: moderators of the effects of peer victimization?

Abstract: Coping strategies were examined as potential moderators of the effects of peer victimization on children's adjustment. Self-report data on victimization experiences, coping strategies, and loneliness were collected on ethnically diverse 9-10-year-old children (177 girls, 179 boys). Teacher ratings of children's anxious-depressed and social problems and peer nominations of social preference were also obtained. Findings revealed that strategies such as problem solving that were beneficial for nonvictimized children exacerbated difficulties for victimized children. The effects of specific forms of coping were dependent on gender: social support seeking buffered victimized girls from social problems but was associated with lower peer preference for victimized boys. Data also revealed the need to examine the effects of coping on multiple adjustment outcomes.

Effects of early experience on children's recognition of facial displays of emotion.

Abstract: The present research examines visual perception of emotion in both typical and atypical development. To examine the processes by which perceptual mechanisms become attuned to the contingencies of affective signals in the environment, the authors measured the sequential, content-based properties of feature detection in emotion recognition processes. To evaluate the role of experience, they compared typically developing children with physically abused children, who were presumed to have experienced high levels of threat and hostility. As predicted, physically abused children accurately identified facial displays of anger on the basis of less sensory input than did controls, which suggests that physically abused children have facilitated access to representations of anger. The findings are discussed in terms of experiential processes in perceptual learning.

Maternal sensitivity, infant attachment, and temperament in early childhood predict adjustment in middle childhood: the case of adopted children and their biologically unrelated parents.

Abstract: In a longitudinal study, internationally adopted children (N = 146) placed before 6 months of age were followed from infancy to age 7. Results showed that girls were better adjusted than boys, except in cognitive development, and that easy temperament was associated with higher levels of social, cognitive, and personality development and fewer behavior problems. Higher quality of child-mother relationships, in terms of attachment security and maternal sensitivity, uniquely predicted better social and cognitive development. The combination of attachment disorganization and difficult temperament predicted less optimal ego-control and lower levels of cognitive development. It is concluded that even in adopted children, who are not biologically related to their adoptive parents, early mother-infant interactions and attachment relationships predict later socioemotional and cognitive development, beyond infant temperament and gender.

The Importance of Eyes: How Infants Interpret Adult Looking Behavior

Abstract: Gaze following occurs when a person looks where another person just looked. Among adults, detecting the direction of another’s gaze is a crucial component of social interactions (Argyle & Cook, 1976; Kleinke, 1986; Langton, Watt, & Bruce, 2000). Gaze following is important from a developmental perspective (Butterworth, 1991; Scaife & Bruner, 1975); for example, individuals with autism have profound deficits in gaze following (Baron-Cohen, 1995; Dawson, Meltzoff, Osterling, Rinaldi, & Brown, 1998; Sigman & Ruskin, 1999). Gaze following has been implicated as a building block for developing a “theory of mind” (Baldwin & Moses, 1994; Lee, Eskritt, Symons, & Muir, 1998; Meltzoff & Brooks, 2001). In particular, it is relevant for understanding the meaning of an emotional display because a person’s emotion is often “about” what he or she sees in the external world (e.g., that object is pleasant vs. dangerous). One needs to be able to follow gaze to understand the cause and meaning of a person’s emotional behavior (Moses, Baldwin, Rosicky, & Tidball, 2001; Repacholi, 1998). Language acquisition is also facilitated by understanding another’s line of regard. In the prototypical case, a verbal label refers to the object being looked at and not the other objects that may be in the room (Baldwin, 1995; Bloom, 2002; Tomasello, 1995). The act of looking at something may take on a referential meaning even to infants (Scaife & Bruner, 1975). The common-sense view is that infants look at the same object as the adult because they want to see what the adult is seeing. From this perspective, infants implicitly understand that the other person is directing his or her own attention to something (Baron-Cohen, 1995; Carpenter, Nagell, & Tomasello, 1998). This interpretation grants a complex interpersonal understanding to infants because it implies that infants interpret the triadic relationship of seeing or attention between themselves, the adult, and the object (Perner, 1991). Some researchers have offered a more conservative or “leaner” interpretation of infants’ gaze following (Langton et al., 2000; Moore, 1999; Moore & Corkum, 1994; Povinelli, 2001). Researchers have suggested that “looking at an object” can be processed as merely an observable movement—the movement of the gazer’s head draws the infant’s attention to a section of space. This would not require any understanding about the gazer’s attention or a reference to the object. Infants may coincidently look at the same object as the adult because they notice the most salient object in the hemifield to which they have been drawn (Butterworth & Jarrett, 1991). It should be noted that there are several debates being intertwined here. One is about the psychological attributions infants make to the adult. The other concerns the necessary and sufficient cues for eliciting gaze following. These are correlated but not identical debates. The natural alliances are for those advocating the lean interpretation about cues to also be conservative about attributions. After all, if infants are merely swept to a hemifield of space by another’s head movement, there is little reason to argue that gaze following is bound up with the attribution of mental states. No single study about cues, no matter how well-designed, is likely to provide definitive conclusions about infants’ attributions. As shown repeatedly in the history of psychology and philosophy, in schools of thought such as behaviorism, arguments can be mustered to show that even adults (no less infants) are simply smart readers of others’ behavior and need not rely on making attributions of mind to other humans (Ryle, 1949). Nonetheless, empirical work provides grist for the debate. If young infants simply follow global head movements to a hemifield but older infants do more than this and selectively follow only when an adult can see the target, this begins to raise questions about the young child’s developing understanding of “seeing” as psychological connectedness between observer and object (e.g., Flavell, 1988, 2001). Researchers have explored whether head movement is sufficient to elicit infant gaze following by manipulating the head-turn angle and the placement of targets. Between 6 and 12 months of age, infants follow another person’s gaze, especially if the targets are within their visual field (Butterworth & Jarrett, 1991; Deak, Flom, & Pick, 2000; D’Entremont, 2000; Morissette, Ricard, & Decarie, 1995). However, careful examination of infants’ gaze following reveals that in many cases they do not look at the same target as the adult, but rather match the general direction of the adult turn. Specifically, when given a choice between two potential targets in the correct half of the room, infants usually stopped searching for a target when they arrived at the first available target on their own scan path (Butterworth, 1991). Because of this response pattern, some theorists have argued that the adult’s head turn pulls infants in the generally indicated direction, providing support for the leaner interpretation of gaze following (Butterworth & Grover, 1990; Moore, 1999). Researchers have also investigated which features (e.g., head, eyes) are necessary for gaze following. For example, Johnson, Slaughter, and Carey (1998) presented 12-month-old infants with a round, furry toy animal. The animal either had a face or not and either interacted contingently with the infant or not. The results showed that the 12-month-old infants turned in the same direction as the faceless, eyeless animal as long as it had previously interacted with them in a contingent manner. The authors interpreted these findings to mean that adult eye gaze was not necessary for infant turning. In another study, Corkum and Moore (1995) pitted the direction of head movement against eye movement to assess which one elicited a response from infants. They tested whether 6- to 19-month-old infants follow eye gaze in conditions such as (a) turns of the eyes (with head remaining forward), (b) turns of the head (with eyes forward), and (c) head and eyes turning in opposite directions. The youngest infants to reveal a significant turning pattern were the 12-month-olds, and they matched the direction of head orientation rather than eye orientation. In this study, there was no age at which infants followed the adult’s gaze when only eyes were turned in the absence of head movement. On the basis of these results and others (Caron, Butler, & Brooks, 2002), a number of authors have suggested that the adult’s head movement often directs where infants look because it is distinct and salient enough to override eye-gaze information (Corkum & Moore, 1995; Farroni, Johnson, Brockbank, & Simion, 2000; Moore & Corkum, 1998). It is important to realize, however, that when head and eyes point in different directions, this presents young infants with a conflict between cues. For example, showing the eyes turning left while the head moves to the right provides an unnatural and potentially confusing display. If we design a test in which the head and eyes are not in conflict, we may find that infants are more sensitive to the role of eyes than previous studies suggest. We designed a study comparing infants’ reactions to an adult who either had open or closed eyes as she turned toward a target. This controls for the head movement, because the movement is identical whether the eyes are open or closed. Surprisingly, few studies of human infants have assessed gaze following in open-versus closed-eyes conditions (for an exception, see Caron et al., 2002). The closed-eyes stimulus has been used to test older children’s understanding (O’Neill, 1996) and has also been used by Povinelli (2000) in work with chimpanzees. Povinelli argued that chimpanzees do not understand the meaning of eye closure inasmuch as they are as likely to direct food-begging gestures to an adult with an unobstructed view of objects as to an adult with an obstructed view (i.e., closed eyes, a blindfold, or a bucket-over-the-head). Systematic tests with human infants seemed worthwhile. We also reasoned that progress could be made in addressing questions about the meaning of infant gaze following and the attributions legitimately credited to infants if we moved beyond narrow data collection strategies. The focus has traditionally been on whether infants follow the adult’s gaze. It became apparent to us in pilot studies, however, that gaze following is only one component of a richer envelope of social behavior. It is this cluster that is so striking in face-to-face adult interaction and so absent in children with autism and in other animals. For example, infants typically use a rich repertoire of behaviors to indicate objects when adults are present, including vocalizing and pointing (Franco & Butterworth, 1996; Moore & D’Entremont, 2001). Humans may be the only species that uses their index finger to draw a conspecific’s attention to a location or object in space (Butterworth, 1991). In addition to measuring infants’ looking behavior, we investigated whether infants would use pointing and vocalizing more often when the adult turned to look at a distal object with open rather than closed eyes.

Conditions under which young children can hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response.

Abstract: chunking the 2 rules into 1 (“say the opposite”), thus reducing memory load, did not help their performance. What helped was reducing the inhibitory demand by instructing them to say “dog” and “pig” (not “night” and “day”) even though memory of 2 rules and inhibiting saying what the pictures represented were still required. Here the response to be activated and the response to be inhibited were unrelated. When the correct response was semantically related to, and the direct opposite of, the to-be-inhibited response, children performed poorly. Inserting a delay between stimulus and response helped even though that delay was filled with distraction. Young children apparently need several seconds to compute the answer on this task. Often they do not take the needed time; when forced to do so, they do well. It is a well-replicated finding that children 3– 4 years of age have great difficulty guiding their actions by rules held in mind that require acting contrary to their inclinations. For example, they perform poorly on the day–night task (Gerstadt, Hong, & Diamond, 1994), which requires that they hold two rules in mind (“Say ‘day’ to black/moon cards. Say ‘night’ to white/sun cards.”) and resist the temptation to say what the stimuli really represent. Children 3– 4 years of age also perform poorly on the tapping task (Diamond & Taylor, 1996; Luria, 1966), which requires that they remember two rules (“Tap once when the experimenter taps twice. Tap twice when the experimenter taps once.”) and inhibit the tendency to mimic the experimenter’s actions. They perform poorly on the three pegs task (Balamore & Wozniak, 1984), which requires that they remember the sequence in which they should tap three pegs (red-green-yellow) and inhibit the tendency to tap the pegs in the order in which they have been placed in the pegboard (red-yellow-green). Children 3– 4 years of age also have difficulty in delay-of-gratification paradigms (Mischel & Mischel, 1983), in which they must (a) remember that if they wait they will receive a better reward and (b) inhibit the temptation to not wait and to reach immediately for the available, but lesser, reward. Most 3-yearolds, and many 4-year-olds, are unable to switch sorting dimensions in the standard condition of Zelazo’s card sorting task (Kirkham, Cruess, & Diamond, 2000; Zelazo, Frye, & Rapus,

A longitudinal analysis of friendships and substance use: bidirectional influence from adolescence to adulthood.

Abstract: The reciprocal relation between deviant friendships and substance use was examined from early adolescence (age 13-14) to young adulthood (age 22-23). Deviance within friendships was studied using direct observations of videotaped friendship interaction and global reports of deviant interactions with friends as well as time spent with friends. Substance use was assessed through youth self-report at all time points. Multivariate modeling revealed that substance use in young adulthood is a joint outcome of friendship influence and selection processes. In addition, substance use appears to influence the selection of friends in late adolescence. Findings suggest that effective preventions should target peer ecologies conducive to substance use and that treatment should address both the interpersonal underpinnings and addiction processes intrinsic to chronic use, dependence, and abuse.

Family obligation and the transition to young adulthood.

Abstract: Changes in a sense of obligation to assist, support, and respect the family were examined among an ethnically diverse group of 745 American individuals as they began to move from secondary school into young adulthood. A sense of family obligation increased for all young adults, with slight variations according to ethnic and financial backgrounds. Young adults from Filipino and Latin American families reported the strongest sense of familial duty during young adulthood, which partially explained their tendency to live with and contribute financially to their families. The implications of family obligation for employment and educational persistence depended on age and academic performance in high school. Finally, a sense of family obligation was associated with more positive emotional well-being.

Adjustment following sexual abuse discovery: the role of shame and attributional style.

Abstract: This study examined adjustment following sexual abuse as a function of shame and attributional style. One hundred forty-seven participants (83 children and 64 adolescents) were seen at the time of abuse discovery and again 1 year later. Once adjustment at abuse discovery was accounted for, shame and attribution style explained additional variation in subsequent adjustment, whereas abuse severity did not. A pessimistic attribution style at abuse discovery moderated the relation between severity of abuse and subsequent depressive symptoms and self-esteem. The relations between abuse severity and these outcomes were significant only at high levels of pessimistic attribution style. Of note, patterns of change in shame and attribution predicted which children remained at risk or improved in adjustment. In addition, age and gender differences were found in adjustment over time.

Antecedents and Consequences of Mothers' Autonomy Support: An Experimental Investigation

Abstract: This study examined the effects of contextual and individual differences on mothers' autonomy support versus control on homeworklike tasks. Sixty mothers and their third-grade children worked on map and poem tasks, with mothers in either an ego-involving (high pressure) or a non-ego-involving (low pressure) condition. Later, children worked on similar tasks themselves. Mothers in the high-pressure condition were more controlling on the poem task. For the map task, mothers who came in with controlling styles and received the high-pressure manipulation were most controlling. Children whose mothers interacted in a more controlling manner wrote less creative poems when alone. Results suggest the importance of context, children's competence levels, and mothers' styles in determining levels of autonomy support.

Committed compliance, moral self, and internalization: a mediational model.

Abstract: Previous research has established that children's committed, eager, willing compliance with maternal control promotes moral internalization, whereas their opposition interferes with internalization; but the causal mechanism responsible for those links is unknown. A mediational model is tested in which committed compliance and opposition are seen as influencing the child's emerging view of self on moral dimensions, and this "moral self," in turn, regulates moral conduct. Committed compliance and opposition were observed in naturalistic mother-child discipline contexts involving "do" and "don't" demands at 14, 22, 33, and 45 months. An interactive interview and observations were used to measure the moral self and internalization at 56 months (N = 74). The mediational model, involving committed compliance and opposition in the "don't" demand context, was supported, but only for boys.

Contextual amplification of pubertal transition effects on deviant peer affiliation and externalizing behavior among African American children.

Abstract: The effects of the pubertal transition on behavior problems and its interaction with family and neighborhood circumstances were examined with a sample of 867 African American children 10-12 years of age. Pubertal development status, pubertal timing, and primary caregivers' parenting behaviors were significantly related to affiliation with deviant peers and externalizing behaviors. Externalizing behavior among early-maturing children was associated positively with primary caregivers' use of harsh-inconsistent discipline and negatively with nurturant-involved parenting practices. Disadvantaged neighborhood conditions were significantly associated with deviant peer affiliation. The effect of pubertal transition varied according to family and neighborhood conditions: Early-maturing children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods were significantly more likely to affiliate with deviant peers. Early-maturing children with harsh and inconsistent parents were significantly more likely to have externalizing problems.

The cognitive profile and multiple-deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia.

Abstract: The present study was conducted to examine the cognitive profile and multiple-deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Thirty Chinese dyslexic children in Hong Kong were compared with 30 average readers of the same chronological age (CA controls) and 30 average readers of the same reading level (RL controls) in a number of rapid naming, visual, phonological, and orthographic tasks. Chinese dyslexic children performed significantly worse than the CA controls but similarly to the RL controls on most of the cognitive tasks. The rapid naming deficit was found to be the most dominant type of cognitive deficit in Chinese dyslexic children. Over half of the dyslexic children exhibited deficits in 3 or more cognitive areas, and there was a significant association between the number of cognitive deficits and the degree of reading and spelling impairment. The present findings support the multiple-deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia.

Skin-to-skin contact (kangaroo care) promotes self-regulation in premature infants: Sleep-wake cyclicity, arousal modulation, and sustained exploration.

Abstract: The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact (kangaroo care, or KC) on self-regulatory processes of premature infants was studied. Seventy-three infants who received KC were compared with 73 infants matched for birth weight, gestational age, medical risk, and family demographics. State organization was measured in 10-s epochs over 4 hr before KC and again at term. No differences between KC infants and controls were found before KC. At term, KC infants showed more mature state distribution and more organized sleep-wake cyclicity. At 3 months, KC infants had higher thresholds to negative emotionality and more efficient arousal modulation while attending to increasingly complex stimuli. At 6 months, longer duration of and shorter latencies to mother-infant shared attention and infant sustained exploration in a toy session were found for KC infants. The results underscore the importance of maternal body contact for infants' physiological, emotional, and cognitive regulatory capacities.

Mothers' insightfulness regarding their infants' internal experience: relations with maternal sensitivity and infant attachment

Abstract: This study examined the associations among mothers' insightfulness into their infants' internal experience, mothers' sensitivity to their infants' signals, and infants' security of attachment to their mothers. The insightfulness of 129 mothers of 12-month-old infants was assessed by showing mothers 3 videotaped segments of observations of their infants and themselves and interviewing them regarding their infants' and their own thoughts and feelings. Interviews were classified into 1 insightful and 3 noninsightful categories. Mothers' sensitivity was assessed during play sessions at home and at the laboratory, and infant-mother attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation. Mothers classified as positively insightful were rated as more sensitive and were more likely to have securely attached children than were mothers not classified as positively insightful. Insightfulness also accounted for variance in attachment beyond the variance explained by maternal sensitivity. These findings add an important dimension to research on caregiving, suggesting that mothers' seeking of explanations for the motives underlying their infants' behavior is related to both maternal sensitivity and infant attachment.

How do preschool children feel about themselves? Unraveling measurement and multidimensional self-concept structure.

Abstract: Theoretical models suggest that 4- and 5-year-old children should be able to differentiate between multiple dimensions of self-concept, but empirical support is limited. A new 38-item Self Description Questionnaire for Preschoolers (SDQP) that measures 6 self-concept factors (Physical, Appearance, Peers, Parents, Verbal, and Math) was developed and tested. Through an individual-interview procedure, young children (4.0-5.6 years) completed the SDQP and achievement tests. The self-concept scales were reliable (.75-.89), first-order and higher order confirmatory factor analysis models fit the data, and factor correlations were mostly moderate (-.03-.73; Mdn = .29). Achievement test scores correlated modestly with academic self-concept factors (rs = .15-40) but were nonsignificantly or significantly negatively related to nonacademic self-concepts. The results contribute to the critical debate about the validity of self-reports for preschool children, who distinguished between multiple dimensions of self-concept at an even younger age than suggested by previous self-concept research.

Two-year-olds learn novel nouns, verbs, and conventional actions from massed or distributed exposures.

Abstract: Two-year-old children were taught either 6 novel nouns, 6 novel verbs, or 6 novel actions over 1 month. In each condition, children were exposed to some items in massed presentations (on a single day) and some in distributed presentations (over the 2 weeks). Children's comprehension and production was tested at 3 intervals after training. In comprehension, children learned all types of items in all training conditions at all retention intervals. For production, the main findings were that (a) production was better for nonverbal actions than for either word type, (b) children produced more new nouns than verbs, (c) production of words was better following distributed than massed exposure, and (d) time to testing (immediate, 1 day, 1 week) did not affect retention. A follow-up study showed that the most important timing variable was the number of different days of exposure, with more days facilitating production. Results are discussed in terms of 2 key issues: (a) the domain-generality versus domain-specificity of processes of word learning and (b) the relative ease with which children learn nouns versus verbs.

Stability of attachment representations: The transition to marriage

Abstract: This study examined the stability of adult attachment representations across the transition to marriage. One hundred fifty-seven couples were assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985), the Current Relationship Interview (J. A. Crowell & G. Owens, 1996), and measures describing relationship functioning and life events 3 months prior to their weddings and 18 months into their marriages. The authors tested the hypotheses that attachment classifications are stable and that change is related to experiences in the relationship and/or life events; 78% of the sample received the same primary AAI classification (secure, preoccupied, and dismissing) at both times. Change was toward increased security and was associated with feelings and cognitions about the relationship. Only 46% of participants initially classified as unresolved retained the classification. Stability of the unresolved classification was associated with stressful life events and relationship aggression.

Assessing secure base behavior in adulthood: development of a measure, links to adult attachment representations, and relations to couples' communication and reports of relationships.

Abstract: A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (M. Main & R. Goldwyn, 1994). In Study 2, the interactions were independently scored with the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (RMICS; R. E. Heyman & D. Vivian, 1993), a communication-based system. The SBSS predicted relationship variables beyond the RMICS, especially for women. Results indicate that the secure base phenomenon provides a cogent perspective on adult attachment behavior.

Object names and object functions serve as cues to categories for infants

Abstract: Can object names and functions act as cues to categories for infants? In Study 1, 14- and 18-month-old infants were shown novel category exemplars along with a function, a name, or no cues. Infants were then asked to “find another one,” choosing between 2 novel objects (1 from the familiar category and the other not). Infants at both ages were more likely to select the category match in the function than in the no-cue condition. However, only at 18 months did naming the objects enhance categorization. Study 2 shows that names can facilitate categorization for 14-month-olds as well when a hint regarding the core meaning of the objects (the function of a single familiarization object) is provided. Partitioning the world into meaningful categories is a formidable task, especially considering the vast amount of information that could be organized in the process. Nevertheless, infants succeed at forming a wide variety of categories within their first year of life (e.g., Quinn & Eimas, 1997; Mandler & McDonough, 1993). Although it is commonly assumed that processing biases in the infant can help to explain this remarkable ability, the precise nature of such constraints, and the mechanisms by which they exert their

Home sweet home(s): parental separations, residential moves, and adjustment problems in low-income adolescent girls.

Abstract: Associations between histories of family disruption (residential moves and separations from parent figures) and adolescent adjustment (including educational, internalizing, externalizing, and sexual behavior outcomes) were examined in a random sample of 267 African American girls from 3 urban poverty neighborhoods. Higher numbers of residential moves and parental separations significantly predicted greater adolescent adjustment problems after household demographic characteristics were controlled. Adolescents' perceptions of their current relationships and neighborhoods were significantly associated with adolescent adjustment but did not mediate the effects of family disruption. Associations between parental separations and adolescent outcomes were strongest for externalizing problems and were found for both male and female caregivers, for long-standing and more temporary caregivers, and for separations in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

Differences in early parent-child conversations about negative versus positive emotions: implications for the development of psychological understanding.

Abstract: The authors examined whether the quality and content of everyday parent-child conversations about negative emotions are the same or different from everyday talk about positive emotions. Extensive longitudinal speech samples of 6 children and their parents were analyzed for several critical features when the children were between 2 and 5 years of age. Results showed that children and parents talked about past emotions, the causes of emotions, and connections between emotions and other mental states at higher rates during conversations about negative emotions than during conversations about positive emotions. Discourse about negative emotions also included a larger emotion vocabulary, more open-ended questions, and more talk about other people. These differences appeared before the children's 3rd birthdays and remained consistent through the preschool years. The findings strengthen and clarify current understanding of young children's articulation and knowledge about people's minds, lives, and emotions.

Heterosexual risk behaviors in at-risk young men from early adolescence to young adulthood: prevalence, prediction, and association with STD contraction.

Abstract: Health-compromising lifestyles involve stable patterns of behavior and are associated with high-risk social environments and accelerated developmental trajectories. Developmentally, antisocial behavior is associated with such lifestyles. Mediational models predicting a measure of lifetime average sexual risk behavior assessed over a 10-year period (from ages 13-14 to 22-23 years) were examined for a sample of at-risk young men. The measure included years of abstinence from intercourse as well as levels of 3 key heterosexual indicators of risk: frequency of intercourse, number of intercourse partners, and condom use. Predictors included lifetime average measures of contextual, family, and peer process variables and individual behaviors. In addition, similar models for prediction of STD contraction were assessed. A younger age of onset of intercourse was associated with higher numbers of intercourse partners after onset. As hypothesized, findings indicated mediational associations of socioeconomic status, parental monitoring, deviant-peer association, antisocial behavior, and substance use in the prediction of sexual risk behavior. Lower condom use also predicted STD contraction.