Group Social Context and Children's Aggressive Behavior

Very little is known about the influence of the social-psychological context on children's aggressive behavior. The purpose of this research was to examine the interrelations of group contextual factors and the occurrence of aggressive behavior in 22 experimental play groups of 7- and 9-year-old African-American boys. Group context was examined before, during, and after an aggressive act as well as during nonaggressive periods. The results showed that there are dimensions of group context (i.e., negative affect, high aversive behavior, high activity level, low group cohesion, competitiveness) that were related to the occurrence of aggressive behavior between 2 children in the group. Group context influenced how children reacted to aggression between its members (e.g., siding with the victim), which in turn influenced the quality of the postaggression group atmosphere. This study suggests that individual-within-context information be incorporated into theories of aggression among children.     

Context Effects on Children's Use of Language

The sweeping changes in Swedish society in the 1990s, with extensive decentralisation, privatisation and cutbacks in the public sector, implied quite new conditions for the realisation of the aim of pre-school and school as a meeting place for children from different backgrounds. This article discusses some of these changes and their implications, through a study of parent's choice of pre-school care facility in the city of Uppsala. The main data source is a survey study among 1584 mothers of children born in 1995. The results show that parents' use of the right to choose pre-school facility is economically, socially and culturally segregated; the patterns of choice are construed in relation to residential areas but are not a simple effect of housing segregation. The choice of pre-school facility in Uppsala is thus a practice that creates specific conditions--socially and culturally homogenous private pre-school facilities--that make it virtually impossible for them to achieve the goal of being meeting places.     

Children's Social Reasoning in Context: Reply to Gabennesch

Children's social reasoning is multifaceted. Moral judgments of justice, welfare, and rights are an important aspect of domains of social reasoning that are not merely the arbitrary and relative products of social formations. In defining all social formations as conventions that are either reified or accurately perceived as arbitrary and relative human inventions, Gabennesch relegates the moral concepts of many philosophers, moral leaders, and laypersons to ethnocentrism and reification. In the process, he fails to distinguish between metaethics relating to the source of knowledge and the form of knowledge. He also fails to account for distinctions between conventionality and moral concepts that do not constitute realism or reification. His review of the evidence of moral realism in children is selective in that isolated findings are taken out of the context of a particular study and of the entire body of evidence. Moreover, he has incorrectly interpreted many of the findings he cites in support of childhood realism. We present a summary of 48 studies demonstrating that children distinguish morality and convention. Gabennesch's perceptual metaphors hinge on an exaggerated role for conventionality in social formations at the expense of other complex social phenomena.     

3～6岁幼儿数守恒和长度守恒的发展特点

不同年龄阶段的幼儿在数守恒和长度守恒方面具有不同的发展水平。小班幼儿极易受物体排列形式的影响,部分中班幼儿仍摆脱不了物体排列形式的影响,大班幼儿初步形成了数的守恒。幼儿长度守恒的发展落后于数守恒的发展,其发展顺序与皮亚杰的研究结果一致,但形成年龄略微提前。     

Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context

In this paper, we review research on parental expectations and their effects on student achievement within and across diverse racial and ethnic groups. Our review suggests that the level of parental expectations varies by racial/ethnic group, and that students' previous academic performance is a less influential determinant of parental expectations among racial/ethnic minority parents than among European American parents. To explain this pattern, we identify three processes associated with race/ethnicity that moderate the relation between students' previous performance and parental expectations. Our review also indicates that the relation of parental expectations to concurrent or future student achievement outcomes is weaker for racial/ethnic minority families than for European American families. We describe four mediating processes by which high parental expectations may influence children's academic trajectories and show how these processes are associated with racial/ethnic status. The article concludes with a discussion of educational implications as well as suggestions for future research.     

When Peer Performance Matters: Effects of Expertise and Traits on Children's Self‐Evaluations After Social Comparison

The present research examined the influence of peer characteristics on children's reactions to upward social comparisons. In Experiment 1, one hundred twenty‐six 5‐, 8‐, and 10‐year‐olds were told that they were outperformed by an expert or novice peer. Older children reported higher self‐evaluations after comparisons with an expert rather than a novice, whereas 5‐year‐olds reported high self‐evaluations broadly. In Experiment 2, ninety‐eight 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds and 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds were told that the peer possessed a positive or negative trait that was task relevant (i.e., intelligence) or task irrelevant (i.e., athleticism). Older children reported higher self‐evaluations after hearing about positive rather than negative traits, irrespective of relevance. Younger children reported high self‐evaluations indiscriminately. Results inform the understanding of social comparison development in childhood.     

The Effects of Alternative Flowcharting Techniques on Performance on Procedural Tasks

Many individuals tend to have difficulty completing complex procedural tasks that require branching. Neither prose–based nor list–based instructions have been efficient in alleviating this difficulty. Traditional flowcharts have proven more effective in helping individuals to complete complex procedural tasks, but only after several practice sessions. However, it is possible that the use of map–like symbols may eliminate the need for repeated flowchart practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of flowcharts utilizing map–like symbols on performer efficiency in completing a complex procedural task. The results of this study indicated no significant difference between the use of map–like symbols and traditional flowcharts in helping performers to complete complex procedural tasks. However, both graphic presentation formats were found to be significantly more efficient than a list–based presentation of information. It was expected than an intuitive map–like presentation would be more efficient than a list–based format. However, the efficiency of the flowchart presentation under unpracticed conditions was unexpected, based on prior research.     

The Effects of Physical Abuse on Children's Social Relationships

Social behavior and peer status of 87 physically abused 8–12-year-old urban children were compared with those of 87 case-matched nonmaltreated classmates. Peer nominations and peer ratings were collected in classrooms, social networks were assessed by child interview, family variables were assessed by interviewing mothers, and behavior problems were rated by parents and teachers. Significant findings were that abused children had lower peer status and less positive reciprocity with peers chosen as friends; they were rated by peers as more aggressive and less cooperative and by parents and teachers as more disturbed; and their social networks showed more insularity, atypicality, and negativity. Social behavior as perceived by peers accounted for a significant portion of the variance in social status; global disturbance measures did not add to this association. Results are discussed in terms of a context of family violence in the development of social maladjustment.     

Appendix C: Potential Effects on Children's Performance of Child Language and Gender

In addition to the variables manipulated in this research, children's performance may have been affected by individual and group differences among the participants. This Appendix is a report of analyses of two child variables that might have influenced their performance. First, to determine whether initial differences in facility with language by children in the different delay conditions may have influenced the patterns obtained, we compared children's levels of productive vocabulary at the time of enrollment in the study. Second, we report analyses designed to determine whether there were any differences in performance associatedd with child gender. Although with regard to child gender, some effects obtained, in no case did the findings present substantive qualifications to the major patterns described in the body of the text.     

Social Class Effects on Northeastern Brazilian Children's Conceptions of Areas of Personal Choice and Social Regulation

2 studies examined middle- and lower-class Brazilian children's concepts of personal choice and social regulation. In Study 1, interviews of 40 middle- and lower-class children (9 and 15 years old) revealed that children across classes distinguished moral from conventional issues on the bases of rule contingency and act generalizability criteria. Lower-class children, however, were less likely to view conventions as rule contingent and more likely to generalize conventional acts. In Study 2, interviews of 240 middle- and lower-class children (ages 8, 12, 16 years) found that across classes, children distinguished prudential issues from matters they treated as personal. Prudential issues were seen as subject to parental authority. Middle-class children were more likely to treat personal issues as matters of choice. With age, lower-class children increasingly tended to treat personal items as matters of choice, and by adolescence there were no class differences. Findings show that Brazilian children maintain a heterogeneous orientation to rules and authority which includes a domain of personal choice. Class differences indicate that hierarchical social structures affect children's sense of autonomy. However, developmental effects indicate that a domain of personal choice emerges among children across social classes.     

Studying Children's Learning in Context: Problems and Prospects

In this article, I present a framework for the study of children's learning in cultural practices and educational activities. The framework consists of three analytic components, each of which is grounded in a constructivist treatment of cognitive development: (a) a model for the analysis of emergent cognitive goals in practices, (b) a model for the analysis of cognitive developments linked to emergent goals, and (c) a model for the analysis of the interplay between cognitive developments linked to one practice or activity to accomplish emergent goals in another. The article describes the early history of the framework and its current application to the design and analysis of a classroom practice in the United States involving arithmetical problem solving in third and fourth grade inner-city classrooms. I close with a discussion of the framework with reference to Schoenfeld's (1992) standards for methodological innovations.     

Appendix B: Potential Effects on Children's Performance of Features of the Research Design

In addition to the variables of interest in this research (namely, age, delay, sequence type, mode of experience, and verbal reminders), children's performance may have been affected by a number of features of the research design. This Appendix is a report of the results of analyses of three potential influences on the children's performance. First, we examined the possibility that the particular experimenter who conducted the session might have affected the children's performance. Second, we examined the possibility that conclusions regarding children's recall of the event sequences were qualified by specific event sequence effects. Third, we examined the possibility that differences in the lengths of the child-controlled response periods might account for the patterns of effects observed. Although in each case some effects obtained, in no case did the findings present substantive qualifications to the major patterns described in the body of the text.     

Order Matters: Children's Evaluation of Underinformative Teachers Depends on Context

The ability to evaluate “sins of omission”—true but pragmatically misleading, underinformative pedagogy—is critical for learning. This study reveals a developmental change in children's evaluation of underinformative teachers and investigates the nature of their limitations. Participants rated a fully informative teacher and an underinformative teacher in two different orders. Six‐ and 7‐year‐olds (N = 28) successfully distinguished the teachers regardless of the order (Experiment 1), whereas 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds (N = 82) succeeded only when the fully informative teacher came first (Experiments 2 and 3). After seeing both teachers, 4‐year‐olds (N = 32) successfully preferred the fully informative teacher (Experiment 4). These results are discussed in light of developmental work in pragmatic implicature, suggesting that young children might struggle with spontaneously generating relevant alternatives for evaluating underinformative pedagogy.     

Nonverbal and Verbal Performance on a Number Conservation Problem and a Proposal about the Determinants of Nonconservation

This study compared the ease of verbal and nonverbal versions of a number conservation problem for 4and S‐year‐old children. The nonverbal task employed a ‘train‐transfer’ procedure in which children were first trained to a criterial level to make one response to stimulus pairs that contained two rows of the same number in one‐to‐one correspondence and a different response to stimulus pairs in which one of the rows was of greater or of lesser number than the other. Conservation performance was maintaining the learned response to the identical pair after one of its rows had been deformed. Taking both ages together the nonverbal task was the easier. However, children's justifications showed that verbal processes may have been responsible for both correct and incorrect performance in many cases. The data are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that children interpret conservation terms perceptually when used by others in certain contexts in spite of what they know about the underlying fact of conservation.     

Young Children's Reasoning About the Effects of Emotional and Physiological States on Academic Performance

This study assessed young children's understanding of the effects of emotional and physiological states on cognitive performance. Five, 6-, 7-year-olds, and adults ( N = 96) predicted and explained how children experiencing a variety of physiological and emotional states would perform on academic tasks. Scenarios included: (a) negative and positive emotions, (b) negative and positive physiological states, and (c) control conditions. All age groups understood the impairing effects of negative emotions and physiological states. Only 7-year-olds, however, showed adult-like reasoning about the potential enhancing effects of positive internal states and routinely cited cognitive mechanisms to explain how internal states affect performance. These results shed light on theory-of-mind development and also have significance for children's everyday school success.     

The Effects of Gender, at-Risk Status, and Number of Years in Preschool on Children's Academic Readiness

While there has been a number of studies examining the effects of preschool as intervention for children of economic poverty and special needs children, there has not been research examining the effects of preschool education for the general population of children. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of years of preschool, gender, and at-risk status on children's readiness for first grade. 4539 children participated in the study. 104 children started public school at three-years-old (K3), 1234started school at age four (K4) and 3201 started at age five. At-risk status was determined using the Cooperative Preschool Inventory (Caldwell, 1974) and first grade readiness was determined using the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT; Nurss & McGauvran, 1974). Results of the analyses indicated that children who entered the public school preschool program at K3 or K4 scored significantly higher on the MRT than children who entered at K5. Additionally, the findings indicated that if children started at K3, by the end of kindergarten there was no difference between the at-risk and not-at-risk children's scores on the MRT. This was not true for the K4 or K5 groups. The discussion focuses on two issues. First, the relationship between the benefits of preschool and continuity of programs, and second, that “regular” preschool education may serve as intervention for those children who require it, if attended long enough.     

The Effects of Gender,at-Risk Status,and Number of Years in Preschool on Children's Academic Readiness

While there has been a number of studies examining the effects of preschool as intervention for children of economic poverty and special needs children, there has not been research examining the effects of preschool education for the general population of children. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of years of preschool, gender, and at-risk status on children's readiness for first grade. 4539 children participated in the study. 104 children started public school at three-years-old (K3), 1234started school at age four (K4) and 3201 started at age five. At-risk status was determined using the Cooperative Preschool Inventory (Caldwell, 1974) and first grade readiness was determined using the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT; Nurss & McGauvran, 1974). Results of the analyses indicated that children who entered the public school preschool program at K3 or K4 scored significantly higher on the MRT than children who entered at K5. Additionally, the findings indicated that if children started at K3, by the end of kindergarten there was no difference between the at-risk and not-at-risk children's scores on the MRT. This was not true for the K4 or K5 groups. The discussion focuses on two issues. First, the relationship between the benefits of preschool and continuity of programs, and second, that "regular" preschool education may serve as intervention for those children who require it, if attended long enough.     

Playing Social Chess: Children's play and social intelligence

Humans live in complex social environments. By the time they reach adulthood, most people have developed highly sophisticated social skills, including the ability to infer the 'invisible' mental states in others, and to act upon those inferences; they have become experts at 'social chess'. This paper draws upon research from developmental and evolutionary psychology, primatology, as well as studies of autistic children, to explore the processes by which children acquire the complex skills underpinning social interaction. It also examines obstacles to social skill acquisition. In light of ethological studies of social play in humans and other primates, it is argued that play is a fundamental medium for acquiring social skills.     

Minimal Groups Increase Young Children's Motivation and Learning on Group‐Relevant Tasks

Three experiments (N = 130) used a minimal group manipulation to show that just perceived membership in a social group boosts young children's motivation for and learning from group‐relevant tasks. In Experiment 1, 4‐year‐old children assigned to a minimal “puzzles group” persisted longer on a challenging puzzle than children identified as the “puzzles child” or children in a control condition. Experiment 2 showed that this boost in motivation occurred only when the group was associated with the task. In Experiment 3, children assigned to a minimal group associated with word learning learned more words than children assigned an analogous individual identity. The studies demonstrate that fostering shared motivations may be a powerful means by which to shape young children's academic outcomes.