Seeing The World Through Rose‐colored Glasses? Neglect of Consensus Information in Young Children's Personality Judgments

The present study examined the use of consensus information in early childhood. Ninety‐six three‐ to six‐year‐olds watched a demonstration that depicted the positive or negative behavior of one or several actors toward a recipient (low vs. high consensus, respectively). Subsequently, participants made behavioral predictions and personality judgments about the actors and recipients. Participants viewed all story characters favorably and were reluctant to assign blame for negative outcomes, although the appropriate use of consensus information increased with age for behavioral predictions. These findings suggest that there is a positivity bias in young children's personality judgments even in the face of explicit contradictory behavioral evidence. Children's early ‘theory of personality’ is apparently driven by a baseline assumption that people are nice.     

Intention Understanding and Partner-Sensitive Behaviors in Young Children's Peer Interactions

Recent research on peer interaction shows that complex, coordinated play emerges around 24 months. Increased understanding of others' intentions has been proposed as a reason for its emergence at this juncture. In this study, we assessed understanding of the intentional structure of human action in children aged 19 to 39 months by eliciting verbal explanations of observed action. We hypothesized that more elaborated understanding of intention would be related to more partner-sensitive behaviors during interactions with familiar, same-age peers at home. We found that level of intention understanding predicted types of overtures made, types of objects offered, monitoring partner responses, partner compliance, and types of speech acts addressed to partners. Results are discussed in terms of the contribution of intention understanding to interactive competence, the role of linguistic competence in conceptual development, the effects of context on the production of speech acts and developing theory of mind.     

Associations Between Behavioral Inhibition and Children's Social Problem‐solving Behavior During Social Exclusion

The current study examined the associations between the early childhood temperament of behavioral inhibition and children's displays of social problem‐solving (SPS) behavior during social exclusion. During toddlerhood (the ages of two to three), maternal report and behavioral observations of behavioral inhibition were collected. At the age of seven, children's SPS behaviors were observed during a laboratory social exclusion task based on the commonly used Cyberball game. Results showed that behavioral inhibition was positively associated with displayed social withdrawal and negatively associated with assertive behavior during the observed social exclusion task at seven years of age. These results add to our understanding of inhibited children's SPS behaviors during social exclusion and provide evidence for the associations between toddler temperament and children's social behavior during middle childhood.     

A Label Superiority Effect in Children's Categorization of Facial Expressions

In three studies (N's = 360, 68, 160), children (2 to 7 years of age) were asked to categorize various facial expressions. The emotion category was specified to the child by its label (such as happy), its facial expression (such as a smile), or both. From the youngest to the oldest children and for all 3 emotion categories examined (happiness, anger, and sadness), results showed a Label Superiority Effect: emotion labels resulted in more accurate categorization than did the corresponding facial expression. Errors conformed to a structural model emphasizing the dimension of pleasure‐displeasure.     

Children's Friends and Behavioral Similarity in Two Social Contexts

The general purpose of this study was to examine similarity between friends with respect to behavior. The specific goals were to consider; 1) different sources of evaluation (peer ratings and direct observations); 2) different social contexts (classroom and play group); and 3) different subtypes of aggressive behavior (proactive and reactive aggression). In the first phase of the study, sociometric assessments and peer evaluations of behavior were conducted in the school setting with third-grade boys and girls (n - 268). In the second phase, a subsample of boys participated in a series of play group sessions (n = 66). Direct observations and peer ratings of children's behavior were conducted in those sessions. Results showed in both social contexts a tendency towards similarity among friends, especially with respect to aggressive behavior. Separate analyses for subtypes of aggressive behavior revealed that the similarity hypothesis applied for proactive aggression but not for reactive aggression.     

A Longitudinal Examination of the Associations between Fathers' and Children's Attributions and Negative Interactions

The present investigation examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between attributions and negative behavioral interactions in the context of the father-child dyad. Participants were 177 fathers and their young adolescents recruited from non-metropolitan counties in the southeast. Results indicated that for children, attributions about their father play a significant role in their negative behavioral interactions with their father both within and across time. Interestingly, father's earlier negative behavioral interactions with their children predicted children's subsequent attributions about their father in the longitudinal analyses. In addition, both attributions and behavioral interactions were highly stable across time for both fathers and children.     

The Nature and Effects of Young Children's Lies

Children's use of deception in a naturalistic setting was observed longitudinally in 40 families when children were 2 and 4 years old, and again two years later. Goals included describing children's lying behavior and parents’ reactions to lies, and comparing lies to other false statements. Lies were commonly told to avoid responsibility for transgressions, to falsely accuse siblings, and to gain control over another's behavior. Unlike children's other false statements (e.g., mistakes, pretense), lies were distinctly self‐serving. Parents rarely addressed the act of lying itself but often challenged the veracity of lies or addressed the underlying transgression. Older siblings lied more often than younger ones, and parents who allowed older siblings to lie at Time 1 had children who lied more often at Time 2. Results are considered from a speech‐act perspective and in terms of children's developing understanding of mental states.     

Role of Various Fault Attributions and Other Factors in Children's Anticipated Response to Hypothetical Peers With Undesirable Characteristics

Two studies examined the role of various fault attributions and other factors in children's anticipated response to hypothetical peers described as having an undesirable characteristic. The children were found to distinguish among various fault attributions (i.e., general, onset, and perpetuation; study 1), and they tended to agree more strongly that the peers were responsible for the perpetuation than the onset of these characteristics (studies 1 and 2). In study 1, perceiving an aggressive or overweight peer as similar to a friend and believing that the overweight peer will overcome this undesirable characteristic were found to be associated with a relatively favorable response to these peers. The more strongly the children agreed that (1) an aggressive peer is generally at fault for his/her undesirable characteristic (study 1) and (2) peers who are aggressive, overweight, shy, or a poor student are at fault for the onset of their undesirable characteristics (study 2), the less favorably they anticipated responding to these peers. Unexpectedly, attributing responsibility to forces ‘outside the peer's control’ (i.e., parents and biology) for his/her undesirable characteristic in study 2 was not found to be associated with a relatively favorable response to any peer with an undesirable characteristic.     

Patterns of Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Young Adolescents in Singapore

The authors investigated the patterns of reactive and proactive aggression exhibited by young male (N = 604) and female (N = 544) adolescents in Singapore. Self‐report measures of reactive and proactive aggression, behavioral and emotional adjustment, parenting styles, and delinquency were administered to students aged 13–14. Using cluster analysis, three distinct patterns of aggression emerged: a low aggressive group, a combined aggressive group with high reactive and proactive aggression, and a reactively aggressive group with low proactive and high reactive aggression. The two aggressive groups showed similar disturbances in adjustment and delinquency, but the combined group showed the greatest disruptions. Findings indicate cross‐cultural stability of patterns of aggression as well as the usefulness of the reactive/proactive distinction in early identification of individuals with adjustment problems.     

Relations of Young Children's Agreeableness and Resiliency to Effortful Control and Impulsivity

The hypothesis that the relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's agreeableness would be at least partly indirect through their resiliency was tested. Eighty‐two children (M age=58.67 mos.) were participants. Children nominated peers on agreeableness and completed a behavioral measure of effortful control. Teachers and a subsample of parents reported on children's effortful control, impulsivity, resiliency, and agreeableness. In a structural equation model, effortful control predicted high agreeableness, and this relation was indirect through resiliency. Impulsivity predicted high resiliency and was negatively related to agreeableness. In an alternative model, effortful control predicted high resiliency indirectly through agreeableness and impulsivity was not related to agreeableness. A third model indicated that with the exception of a path from effortful control to agreeableness, agreeableness and resiliency did not predict effortful control or impulsivity. The findings suggest that effortful control and impulsivity may contribute to resiliency and agreeableness, that resiliency and agreeableness are interrelated, and that resilient children are not overly controlled.     

The Relations among Theory of Mind,Behavioral Inhibition,and Peer Interactions in Early Childhood

The current study examined relations among child temperament, peer interaction, and theory of mind (ToM) development. We hypothesized that: (1) children classified as behaviorally inhibited at 24 months would show less ToM understanding at 36 months in comparison to nonbehaviorally inhibited children; (2) children who displayed negative peer interaction behaviors in a peer dyadic interaction at 24 months would exhibit less ToM understanding at 36 months; and (3) behavioral inhibition (BI) and the degree of negative behaviors during a peer interaction would jointly influence ToM development, such that children with both heightened BI and negative peer interaction behaviors would exhibit worse ToM performance than behaviorally inhibited children who did not display negative social behaviors. Both BI and negative peer interaction behaviors were associated with passing fewer ToM tasks. The data revealed that children high in both BI and negative peer interaction behaviors passed fewer ToM tasks at 36 months of age than those high in BI and low in negative peer interactions or those low in BI.     

Social-cognitive Competence, Peer Rejection and Neglect, and Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Middle Childhood

This prospective, longitudinal study examines individual differences in two conceptually related but empirically distinct domains of social-cognitive competence (cognitive interpretive understanding and interpersonal perspective co-ordination) as moderators of the relation between peer rejection and neglect and behavioral and emotional problems in grades 2 and 3. As expected, peer rejection and neglect increased risks for behavioral and emotional problems whereas interpretive understanding (understanding of mental states) and perspective co-ordination (awareness of others' emotions and motives) reduced risks for aggressive, disruptive, inattentive, and anxious, sad, withdrawn behaviors. Assumptions that awareness of others' perspectives bestows consistent benefits for children experiencing peer problems were challenged. Unexpectedly, rejection and neglect increased risks for behavioral and emotional problems for children who demonstrated average and high levels of perspective co-ordination. More advanced perspective co-ordination may heighten children's sensitivity to peer relationship problems and result in general maladjustment, both concurrently and over time. Less advanced perspective co-ordination may also be responsible for the 'optimistic bias' that has been noted in aggressive children.     

Young Children's Evaluations of the Ingroup and of Outgroups: A Multi-National Study

In investigating intergroup attitudes, previous research in developmental psychology has frequently confounded ingroup favouritism and outgroup derogation. The present study, using unconfounded measures, examines the possibility that ingroup favouritism and outgroup derogation are distinct phenomena. Six‐year‐old children (n=594) from five, culturally diverse nations were asked to make various evaluations of the national ingroup and of four national outgroups. The data indicate that although there is overwhelming evidence that young children favour the ingroup over other groups, outgroup derogation is limited in extent and appears to reproduce attitudes held by adult members of the particular nations investigated.     

Young Children's Persuasion in Everyday Conversation: Tactics and Attunement to Others' Mental States

Young children's persuasion tactics, and how these reflected attunement to others' mental states, were explored in archived longitudinal samples of transcribed at‐home conversations of four children, three to five years old. Over 87,000 utterances were examined to identify conversation ‘chunks’ involving persuasion; 1,307 chunks were then coded for who initiated the persuasion, the persuader's goal, tactics employed, the presence of cues about others' beliefs and desires, and whether children attended to such information. Analyses suggested that persuasion exchanges were initiated similarly by children and adults, were stable in frequency and length across time, and involved a limited set of persuasion tactics. Children's attempts to change beliefs increased although explicit mental‐state cues were only rarely available. When such cues were available, children more often than not altered their tactics. Implications for our understanding of children's developing social cognition and theory of mind, as well as the limitations of conversational analysis, are discussed.     

中国新生代农民工：社会态度和行为选择

20世纪80年代以后出生的“新生代农民工”现已达到约1亿人,成为中国社会转型过程中破除城乡二元结构、加快推动城镇化进程的关键人群。与“老一代农民工”相比,新生代农民工的价值取向和行为规则等已发生很大变化。本文基于中国社会科学院社会学所2008年“全国社会状况综合调查”数据,比较分析了新生代农民工的收入状况、受教育水平、工作技能、消费特征和地位认同,并重点分析了“代际”（新生代）和“阶层”（农民工）两个因素对新生代农民工的处境、行为取向和社会态度的影响,以及收入、生活压力和社会态度三者之间的关系。研究发现,生活压力的变化和个人权利意识的增强,对新生代农民工的社会态度和行为取向具有非常重要的影响。     

Physiological Regulation and Fearfulness as Predictors of Young Children's Empathy‐related Reactions

Indices of physiological regulation (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] and RSA suppression) and observed fearfulness were tested as predictors of empathy‐related reactions to an unfamiliar person's simulated distress within and across 18 (T1, N = 247) and 30 (T2, N = 216) months of age. Controlling for T1 helping, high RSA suppression and low fearfulness at T1 predicted T2 helping. In a structural model, empathic concern was marginally positively related to resting RSA at both assessments whereas personal distress was related to RSA suppression within time (marginally positively at T1 and significantly negatively at T2). Fearfulness was associated with self‐oriented, distress‐related reactions within time. Comfort seeking (an index of personal distress) declined in mean level with age whereas helping increased, and both behaviors exhibited differential continuity (as did resting RSA). Individual, as well as developmental, differences in the types of reactions that young children exhibit when witnessing others' suffering and distress were discussed.     

Measuring Young Children's Perceptions of Support, Control, and Maintenance in Their Own Social Networks

Thirty‐eight children (aged 3;7–7;6) and one of their parents took part in a study concerning children's perceptions of their social networks. The study made use of a newly developed instrument—the Support, Control and Maintenance Pictures Interview (SCAMPI). The SCAMPI offers an individualized testing environment, employing computer presentation of questions based on photographs of significant persons familiar to the child. SCAMPI is designed to allow data analysis to be carried out with the aid of built‐in statistical procedures based on permutation and bootstrap techniques that are optimally adapted to the requirements of individualized testing. The study examines the differentiations young children make between persons in their social networks and the functions they fulfil, the level of agreement between children and their parents and the stability of the children's responses.     

Ability of the Behavioral Model to Predict Utilization of Five Services by Individuals Suffering from Severe Mental Illness and Homelessness

Abstract

This study examined the ability of the behavioral model to predict utilization of five specific services in a sample of individuals who suffered from severe mental illness and who were homeless at baseline. Nearly 4000 individuals from 18 sites provided data at baseline and 12 months later for this study. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The behavioral model did not explain much of the variance of utilization of medical services, housing services, and public support. The behavioral model did explain a moderate amount of the variance of utilization of psychiatric services and substance abuse services. Enabling variables explained more of the variance of psychiatric services than either predisposing or need variables. In contrast, predisposing and need variables explained more of the variance of utilization of substance abuse services than enabling variables. Social support from professionals and self-perceived need for service were the most consistent predictors of all of the service utilization variables.