Trait understanding or evaluative reasoning? An analysis of children's behavioral predictions.

This study tested the hypothesis that in predicting the future behavior of an actor, older children rely on trait inferences, whereas younger children rely on global, evaluative inferences. Vignettes depicting actors engaging in trait-relevant behaviors were presented to 5- and 6-year-olds (N = 67) and 9- and 10-year-olds (N = 71). For each actor, children made predictions of future behavior, evaluated the goodness and badness of the actor, and rated each actor on a relevant trait. A mediational analysis found that the behavioral predictions of older children were mediated solely by trait ratings, whereas those of younger children were mediated by evaluative ratings. Furthermore, unlike older children, younger children made trait-like predictions only when they made an evaluation of the actor. These results suggest that young children utilize evaluative reasoning when making behavioral predictions, and therefore rely on an inferential process that is distinct from that of older children.

"God made me a girl": sex-category constancy judgments and explanations revisited.

To examine reasons for inconsistent findings in the development of sex-category constancy, children's constancy judgments and their accompanying explanations were studied over a 3-year period. Preschool, kindergarten, and 1st-grade children (N = 195) completed a sex-category constancy measure that elicited explanations and assessed constancy for the self and others across changes in gender-typed clothing, activities, and traits. Improvements in sex-category constancy performance were linked to explanations based on operational reasoning. Lower constancy scores were linked to explanations that emphasized gender role norms and external appearances. A separate analysis revealed that judgment-explanation relationships were stronger for questions about gender role changes in the self as opposed to others and for changes in gender-typed clothing as opposed to activities and traits. Findings suggest that the salience and personal relevance of gender role changes have important effects on children's sex-category constancy judgments and explanations.

The role of maternal control in the development of sex differences in child self-evaluative factors.

The major goal of the present research was to examine the role of parental control in the development of sex differences in 2 pivotal self-evaluative factors in children: taking responsibility for failure and possessing strong standards. Parents were expected to use control with and without autonomy granting in specific domains differentially with girls and boys on a daily basis, and this was expected to foster sex differences in children's self-evaluative factors. Ninety-one mothers of elementary school children completed a daily checklist for 10 to 21 days. The checklist assessed mothers' everyday use of control and autonomy granting in 5 specific domains (helping, monitoring, decision making, praising, and disciplining). Children completed self-report measures assessing their tendency to take responsibility for failure and the strength of their standards. As anticipated, mothers were more likely to employ control without autonomy granting with girls than with boys, but were more likely to employ control with autonomy granting with boys than with girls. Significantly, this pattern of gender socialization partially mediated the tendency of girls to take greater responsibility for failure than boys. Although there were no sex differences in the strength of children's standards, the pattern of gender socialization was associated with the strength of children's standards as well.

A developmental perspective of self-construals and sex differences: comment on Cross and Madson (1997)

S. E. Cross and L. Madson (1997) proposed that women and men differ in self-construals, with women as interdependent and men as independent, and that these construals are seen to underlie many sex differences in social behavior. In this article, the authors address the issues of sex differences in self-construals, the stability of self-construals, and the centrality of interdependence-independence to sex differences. They examine the proposal next from a developmental perspective, suggesting that development of the self does not precede children's gender-related behavior. Evidence regarding the socialization processes that may contribute to sex differences in self-construals is largely inconclusive, especially regarding the differential treatment of boys and girls by parents. Their developmental perspective provides insights into ways that Cross and Madson's approach can be elaborated to explain sex differences in social behavior.

Distinguishing multiple dimensions of conceptions of ability: implications for self-evaluation.

Three separate lines of research have suggested that conceptions of ability may play a key role in the development of self-evaluation. Each line has focused on a different dimension of conceptions of ability: conceptions of ability as uncontrollable, conceptions of ability as constant, and conceptions of ability as capacity. Unfortunately, there has been little attention to the convergences and divergences among the 3 dimensions. The present study examined this issue in 236 second- through fifth-grade children. Children indicated the extent to which they conceived of ability as uncontrollable, as constant, and as capacity. Two forms of self-evaluation (performance following failure and the extent to which self-perceptions of competence converge with external indicators of competence) were investigated. In addition, cognitive competence was assessed. The near-zero correlations, 3-factor solution yielded by confirmatory factor analysis, variability in age-related differences, differential links to cognitive competence, and diverse forms of self-evaluation among the 3 dimensions suggested that the 3 are relatively distinct, and that they may play different roles in the development of self-evaluation. Moreover, the 3 dimensions appear to interact with one another to influence self-evaluation.

Meeting goals and confronting conflict: children's changing perceptions of social comparison.

It was proposed that previously observed grade-related changes in children's social comparison behavior could be explained by the changing goals and meanings children assign to this behavior. Specifically, it was suggested that, as children progress through the school system, they become increasingly aware of the negative and positive aspects of social comparison and adjust their behavior in response to this awareness, as well as to increasingly salient self-evaluation goals. To examine these propositions, 106 elementary school children were observed in their classrooms and interviewed once a year for 3 years. Consistent with previous research, overt forms of social comparison were most frequent among younger children, whereas subtle forms of social comparison were most frequent among older children. Furthermore, with increasing grade children were likely to view overt forms of social comparison negatively and subtle forms as useful in meeting self-evaluation goals. Additional analyses revealed little association between perceptions of social comparison and actual social comparison behavior, except that perceiving subtle social comparison as useful for self-evaluative goals predicted engagement in such behavior 2 years later.

Developmental changes in achievement evaluation: motivational implications of self-other differences.

In order to explore the development of self-evaluative biases, children at 3 age levels (5-6, 7-8, 9-10) evaluated themselves or another child when given social or temporal comparison feedback. Evaluative biases were indicated by higher evaluations for the self than another, especially after failure. Children at different ages were not differentially responsive to temporal vs. social comparison information. However, evaluative bias in response to the type of evaluation differed by age; there was greater bias for general ability evaluations by older children and greater bias for specific performance evaluations by younger children. Alternative explanations for these self-other differences were minimized, as differences in visual orientation were held constant and differences in knowledge of effort were controlled statistically. Other aspects of the design as well as sex differences support a motivational interpretation of these biases. How these biases are manifested is related to children's level of understanding and concerns at different ages.

The role of gender-related processes in the development of sex differences in self-evaluation and depression.

This paper examines gender socialization processes during childhood that may contribute to a higher incidence of depression or depressive symptoms in females than in males. It is argued that because of the actions of socialization agents and the impact of gender stereotypes on a child's construction of gender identity, girls may exhibit higher levels of self-evaluative concerns that increase vulnerability to depression. Indeed, a review of the literature on sex differences in self-evaluation suggests that girls may be more susceptible than boys to self-evaluative concerns, particularly as reflected in lower expectations for future success, more maladaptive causal attributions for success or failure outcomes, and negative behavioral and evaluative reactions to failure. Moreover, an examination of the literature on sex differences in depressive symptoms leads to questions about previous conclusions that girls do not exhibit higher levels of depressive symptoms prior to adolescence. Finally, we present some recent original data that support the contention that sex differences in vulnerability to depression may be evident prior to adolescence.

Changes in the marital relationship after the first baby is born: predicting the impact of expectancy disconfirmation.

A longitudinal study of 50 couples during the transition to first parenthood examined how failure to confirm expectations regarding the sharing of child-care and housekeeping responsibilities influenced postpartum reports of marital satisfaction. On the basis of recent theories of expectancy confirmation processes, 5 variables representing strength and importance were identified as possible moderators. As predicted, disconfirmation of stronger and more important expectations generally led to more negative reports about the marriage. Surprisingly, some subsets of wives showed opposite reactions; less negative feelings when they were doing more than they expected. These findings were interpreted in terms of personal and role traditionality influencing the valence of the reactions to expectancy disconfirmation.

Transition to motherhood and the self: measurement, stability, and change.

Different ways of conceptualizing and measuring change in attitudes during transition to motherhood are examined. A series of analyses was performed on data from a cross-sectional sample (N = 667) and a smaller longitudinal sample (n = 48) to demonstrate sound psychometric properties for 2 new scales and to show construct comparability across different phases of childbearing. For Childbearing Attitudes Questionnaire, results demonstrated equality of covariance for 16 scales and comparability of structure and meaning of 4 higher order factors--identification with motherhood, social orientation, self-confidence, and negative aspects of giving birth. For Mothering Self-Definition Questionnaire, results demonstrated equality of covariance of 5 scales and comparability of structure and meaning of a single higher order factor, interpreted as reflecting positive feelings about one's mothering characteristics. Analyses of correlations and mean differences identified areas of change and stability.

Developmental changes in children's awareness of strategies for coping with uncontrollable stress.

Children at 3 age levels (5-6 1/2, 7 1/2-9, and 10-12 years) were interviewed to determine their spontaneous suggestions of coping strategies designed to manage frustration caused by waiting for a desired object (positive valence) and fear caused by waiting for an unpleasant event (negative valence) in uncontrollable situations. Subjects' responses were grouped into categories based on coping techniques discussed in the adult coping literature on a continuum from approach to avoidance techniques. The avoidance tactics, the main focus of interest, were further divided into 4 distinct forms. In contrast to investigations of children's coping in more controllable situations, approach strategies were very infrequently mentioned. An age increase was found in the proportion of cognitive distraction strategies suggested, but behavioral distraction strategies were most frequently suggested by children at all age levels and did not differ significantly across age. The developmental differences were particularly evident for the negative valence scenarios and, within the negative valence scenarios, for the story likely to be the most stressful to young children--getting a shot. The results are discussed in terms of possible reasons for age differences in cognitive but not behavioral distraction and their implications for children's ability to cope with uncontrollable stress.

The effect of personal relevance on psychological inference: a developmental analysis.

The effect of personal relevance was examined as a motivational alternative to capacity-based explanations of young children's failure to describe others in terms of psychological characteristics. In Study 1, children at 2 age levels (5-6 and 9-10 years) were asked to describe actors exhibiting different behaviors and to select partners for different games. As predicted, children who expected to interact with the actors were much more likely to describe them in psychological terms. Older children selected partners based on instrumental goals, maximizing their own outcomes, whereas younger children selected partners based on liking. The findings were replicated in Study 2, and expecting interaction was also found to affect behavior (toy allocation). The results suggest that the verbal inferencing skills of young children have been underestimated in the past, and that younger children may be more oriented than older children toward affective relative to instrumental goals in anticipating interaction with a peer.

Information-seeking and maternal self-definition during the transition to motherhood.

The self-definitional processes accompanying the transition to motherhood were examined in this study. A cross-sectional sample of more than 600 women who were planning to get pregnant within 2 years, pregnant, or in the postpartum stage completed extensive questionnaires pertaining to their experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. On the basis of the assumption of the "self-socialization" perspective that individuals actively construct their identities in response to life transitions, our analyses focused on the role of information-seeking in the developing self-definitions of women becoming mothers. As predicted, (a) women actively sought information in anticipation of a first birth, (b) they used this information to construct identities incorporating motherhood, and (c) after the birth the determinants of their self-definitions shifted from indirect sources of information to direct experiences with child care. Hence, consistent with the self-socialization perspective, information-seeking did play an important role in the women's developing self-conceptions during this life transition. Mechanisms by which information gathered may alter self-conception are discussed.

Changes in the marital relationship during the transition to first time motherhood: effects of violated expectations concerning division of household labor.

This research combined cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses to evaluate the hypothesis that violated expectations with respect to sharing child care and housekeeping responsibilities contribute to women's dissatisfactions with their marital relationships after the birth of their first child. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 670 women who completed questionnaires at one of six phases in relation to birth. The longitudinal sample consisted of 48 women who filled out questionnaires late in pregnancy and at three periods postpartum. The results showed, consistent with previous findings, that women reported less positive feelings about their husbands during the postpartum period than during pregnancy, and that women reported doing much more of the housework and child care than they had expected. Moreover, regression analyses indicated, as predicted, that violated expectations concerning division of labor were related to negative feelings postpartum concerning some aspects of the marital relationship. Additional findings suggested that the negative implications of the birth of a baby for the marital relationship may not be as great as has been emphasized in previous literature, and that expectancy violations affect some parts of the relationship but not necessarily the core affective feeling.

Conflicting goals in self-evaluative information seeking: developmental and ability level analyses.

Developmental changes in the resolution of conflicting goals involved in self-evaluation were examined in children entering second, fourth, and sixth grades representing high, medium, and low ability levels in arithmetic. Children completed a series of arithmetic tasks and were given an opportunity to evaluate themselves in terms of social comparison or autonomous comparison. As expected, overall, high-ability children engaged in the most self-evaluative information seeking, whereas low-ability children engaged in the least information seeking. Moreover, with increasing age, high-ability children were more likely to engage in autonomous comparison, whereas low- and medium-ability children maintained an interest in social comparison. In addition, greater interest in social comparison, particularly among older children, was associated with relative uncertainty about one's own ability but perceptions of ability as constant in others. The results are discussed in terms of strategies for balancing self-assessment with self-enhancement needs and the impact of such strategies for task mastery.

What children say about classroom performance: sex and grade differences in perceived competence.

Naturalistic observations and interviews with children in kindergarten, first, second, and fourth grades (ages 5 1/2-10 years) were used to examine sex and age differences in evaluations of, and attributions to performance of, self and others. Observers coded the content of peer verbal exchanges during class work times, and the children were subsequently interviewed about their and their peers' classroom performance, as well as expectancies of performance on a novel task. Analyses of classroom observations generally supported previous laboratory findings; positive evaluation declined with grade level, and more negative self-evaluations and attributions were made by girls than by boys. In contrast, the interview measures did not show grade or sex differences in self-assessment; however, the consistency across interview and observation measures was greater at higher grade levels and for boys than for girls. Previous interpretations of age and sex differences in performance assessment are reexamined, and the possible impact of social context on evaluative statements is discussed.

Children's impressions of other persons: the effects of temporal separation of behavioral information.

The study addresses the role of developmental differences in the use of behavioral information that is acquired at different points in time in the person perception/attribution process. The topic of temporal separations was considered to be potentially important because of the possibility that age differences in information use might at least partially explain developmental differences in children's conceptualizations of personality traits and abilities and more generally, because integration over time is an aspect of naturalistic perception processes that has not been widely studied from a developmental perspective. The result of the study supported the general hypothesis that younger and older children respond differently to temporally distributed patterns of behavior. Specifically, it was found that younger children use behavioral information that was observed in the past primarily when an actor's immediate behavior conflicts with stereotypical expectations for behavior. When there is no conflict, younger children seem to use only an actor's current, immediate behavior when forming an impression. The implications of this finding for the maintenance of the stereotypical beliefs and expectations regarding persons are discussed along with the implications for children's understanding of psychological dispositions.

Social cognition in parents: inferential and affective reactions to children of three age levels.

The present research proposes and tests an attributional model of parent cognition. Derived from correspondent inference theory, the model emphasizes that parents assess children's behavior primarily by determining whether that behavior reflects children's intentions and dispositions or, instead, constraints on children's control of behavior from situational pressures or developmental limitations in knowledge and ability. In 2 studies, support was obtained for 4 predictions. First, findings show that parents' assessments of children's behavior are closely tied to the developmental level of the child. As children developed, parents thought children's behavior was increasingly caused by personality dispositions and was increasingly intentional, under the child's control, and, for misconduct, understood to be wrong. Second, parents' affective reactions to misconduct were related to their assessments of its cause and, third, became increasingly negative as children developed. Positive affect, in contrast, was unrelated to attributions for children's positive behavior. Fourth, parents' assessments of children's behavior were affected by the behavior's desirability. Parents thought children's altruism was more intentional, dispositional, and under the child's control than children's misconduct. Implications for how parents assess and react to children's behavior are discussed.

What children say when the teacher is not around: conflicting goals in social comparison and performance assessment in the classroom.

Naturalistic observations and interviews with children in kindergarten, first, second, and fourth grades were used to examine developmental shifts in the focus of social comparison and the expression of comparative and evaluative interests in relation to possibly conflicting goals. First, observers coded the content of peer exchanges and direction of visual gaze during class work times. Children were then interviewed about help seeking and reading performance in the classroom. Classroom observations revealed that comparisons related to personal aspects of peers declined with age, whereas evaluative comments and comparisons related to performance assessment increased sharply in first grade. In the higher grades, blatantly evaluative and comparative statements decreased, whereas more subtle and functional performance-related exchanges continued to increase. Interviews showed that differences in classroom behaviors were associated with knowledge of classroom performance hierarchies, the salience of general ability, and self-evaluation. The data patterns are interpreted in terms of two converging processes: self-socialization and goal conflict. Implications for social comparison theory are also discussed.