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Children prenatally exposed to cocaine may be at elevated risk for adjustment problems in early development because of greater reactivity and reduced regulation during challenging tasks. Few studies have examined whether cocaine-exposed children show such difficulties during the preschool years, a period marked by increased social and cognitive demands and by rapid changes in reactivity and regulation. The authors addressed this question by examining frustration reactivity and regulation of behavior during a problem-solving task in cocaine-exposed and-unexposed preschoolers. Participants were 174 4.5-year-olds (M age = 4.55 years, SD = 0.09). Frustration reactivity was measured as latency to show frustration and number of disruptive behaviors, whereas regulation was measured as latency to approach and attempt the problem-solving task and number of problem-solving behaviors. Results indicated that cocaine-exposed children took longer to attempt the problem-solving task but that cocaine-exposed boys showed the most difficulties: They were quicker to express frustration and were more disruptive. Effect sizes were relatively small, suggesting both resilience and vulnerabilities.

This study examined the relation of infant emotional responses of anger and sadness to cortisol response in 2 goal blockage situations. One goal blockage with 4-month-old infants (N=56) involved a contingency learning procedure where infants' learned response was no longer effective in reinstating an event. The other goal blockage with 6-month-old infants (N=84) involved the still face procedure where infants' reactions to their mothers' lack of responsivity were not effective in reestablishing interaction. For both blockages, sadness was related to cortisol response, though anger was notthe greater the sadness, the higher the cortisol response. This differential relation is consistent with other evidence indicating the more positive role of anger as opposed to sadness in overcoming an obstacle.

This study examined the relation of visual self-recognition to personal pronoun use and pretend play. For a longitudinal sample (N66) at the ages when self-recognition was emerging (15, 18, and 21 months), self-recognition was related to personal pronoun use and pretend play such that children showing self-recognition used more personal pronouns and demonstrated more advanced pretend play than did children not showing self-recognition. The finding of a relation among these measures provides additional evidence that in the middle of the 2nd year of life a metarepresentation of self emerges in the human child.

Examined relations between reactivity (peak response) and regulation (response dampening) in 6-month-olds' cortisol and behavioral responses to inoculation. Found that reactivity and regulation were unrelated for both cortisol and behavior, suggesting both measures are needed to characterize more accurately infant response to stress. Found considerable variation in timing of the peak cortisol response, suggesting that a single poststressor cortisol sample is not a sensitive measure of cortisol reactivity. (Author/KB)

This study examined individual differences in 4-year-old children's expression of the self-conscious emotions of embarrassment and shame and their relation to differences in cortisol response to stress. Results indicated the presence of two different types of embarrassment--one that reflected negative evaluation of the self, and the other a non-valuative type that reflected simply exposure of the self when the individual was the object of others' attention. (Author/KB)

Examined the effect of maternal soothing to infant inoculation as well as everyday distress on infant cortisol and behavioral responses to stress in two samples of infants between 2 and 6 months of age. Found no evidence that maternal soothing reduced cortisol or behavioral-stress responses, despite evidence for cross-time stability and cross-situation consistency in maternal soothing. (Author/KB)

A survey of 270 University of Washington permanent employees who were potential candidates for teaching clinics, found dental anxiety prevalent, correlating with poorer perceived dental health, longer intervals between dental appointments, higher frequency of past fear behaviors, more physical symptoms during last dental injection, and more symptoms of anxiety and depression. Implications for recognizing and managing fearful patients are discussed. (Author/MSE)

Examined whether early differences in stress reactivity were related to self-recognition at 18 months. Found that self-recognition was related to greater cortisol response and less rapid quieting at 6 to 18 months, whereas cortisol and quieting responses of 2- to 4-month-olds did not differentiate self-recognizers and non-self-recognizers, suggesting a role for temperament differences in facilitating self-recognition emergence. (Author/KB)

Examines the possible developmental relationship between unimanual handedness and duplicated syllable babbling. Thirty infants were tested at weekly intervals between five months of age and eight weeks after the onset of duplicated syllable babbling. Results suggest developmental change in hemispheric specialization or at least asymmetrical organization at some brain levels. (Author/CB)

Infants were tested for unimanual handedness at weekly intervals for a 14-week period beginning with the week of onset of duplicated syllable babbling. Group analyses indicating effects of sex and/or birth order on fluctuations and date review for individual infants suggested considerable variability across infants in occurrence and/or timing of fluctuations. (Author/DST)

Tested infants in their second year with a box task to determine whether they would show a hand preference in solutions involving complete differentiation of roles for the two hands. (HOD)

Examined the relation between the spontaneous occurrence in play of simple two-part action sequences and the frequency of these sequences and their components following modeling at 12, 15, and 19 months of age. Play following modeling was typically more advanced but only 19-month-old children generally were able to imitate complete sequences. (Author/DB)

Used two tapping tasks to determine whether individual infants' right- or left-hand preference for unimanual and bimanual tapping corresponded to their handedness in bimanual manipulation tasks during the second year of life. Also examined whether manual tapping preference occurred before or after the onset of bimanual handedness. (JMB)

Two studies (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal) examined the relation between two developmental trends in play during the second year of life: the emergence of decentered acts, and the integration of separate acts into simple sequences. Subjects were infants aged 13, 19, and 24 months. (CM)