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OBJECTIVES: Two studies aimed to assess the provision of nutrition and psychosocial stimulation in the home and to examine associations between mental development and nutrition and stimulation using a validated measure of development milestones. METHODS: The first study consisted of secondary analyses on health and nutrition data from 1081 mother-child pairs (the children aged 0-12 months) and their households in Ghana's Eastern Region. For the second study, the Ghana Milestones Measure, consisting of items assessing cognitive and language development, was used to assess child development in a subsample (N = 330) of Study 1 participants one year later (children 10-24 months of age). This measure was mother-reported and had been validated in a separate community in Ghana. Correlation and linear regression analyses were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Family assets and maternal education were identified as key factors of the family context. Both variables were positively associated with preventive health practices (r = 0.08 to 0.13, p < 0.0001 to 0.01), and dietary diversity (r = 0.15, p = 0.0001 to 0.0006), and negatively associated with maternal depressive symptoms (r = -0.19 to -0.12, p < 0.0001). Taller children had higher receptive (standardized beta = 0.16; p = 0.04) and expressive (0.21; 0.003) language, but not cognitive (0.15; 0.07) milestone scores, and psychosocial stimulation was positively associated with all three milestones (receptive = 0.13, p = 0.01; expressive = 0.21, p < 0.0001; and cognitive = 0.24, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our study provides the first validated measure of children's language and cognitive development in Ghana, finding associations with nutrition and stimulation. The Ghana Milestones Measure can be used to assess and help promote children's mental development. KEY WORDS: Child development; cognitive/language milestones; home environment; Ghana OBJECTIFS : Deux etudes ont evalue la nutrition et la stimulation psychosociale en milieu familial et ont examine les associations entre le developpement mental d'une part, et la nutrition et la stimulation d'autre part, a l'aide d'un indicateur valide des etapes de developpement. METHODE : Pour la premiere etude, des analyses secondaires des donnees de sante et de nutrition de 1 081 couples mere-enfant (les enfants etant ages de 0 a 12 mois) et de leurs menages ont ete menees dans la Region orientale du Ghana. La seconde etude a fait appel au Ghana Milestones Measure, un indicateur d'evaluation du developpement cognitif et de l'acquisition du langage, pour evaluer le developpement des enfants dans un sous-echantillon (N = 330) des participants de l'etude 1 un an plus tard (les enfants etant ages de 10 a 24 mois). Les elements de l'indicateur ont ete declares par les meres et valides dans une autre communaute du Ghana. Les donnees ont ete analysees par correlation et par regression lineaire. RESULTATS : L'actif familial et l'instruction maternelle ont ete juges etre les facteurs cles du milieu familial. Ces deux variables etaient associees positivement aux pratiques sanitaires preventives (r = 0,08 a 0,13, p < 0,0001 a 0,01) et a la diversite alimentaire (r = 0,15, p = 0,0001 a 0,0006), et associees negativement aux symptomes depressifs maternels (r = -0,19 a -0,12, p < 0,0001). Le langage receptif (coefficient normalise [beta] = 0,16; p = 0,04) et expressif (0,21; 0,003) des enfants de plus grande taille etait plus developpe, mais non leurs indices de developpement cognitif (0,15; 0,07), et la stimulation psychosociale etait associee positivement aux trois etapes (langage receptif = 0,13, p = 0,01; langage expressif = 0,21, p < 0,0001; et developpement cognitif = 0,24, p < 0,0001). CONCLUSION : Notre etude, qui offre le premier indicateur valide du developpement linguistique et cognitif des enfants au Ghana, etablit des associations avec la nutrition et la stimulation. L'outil Ghana Milestones Measure peut etre utilise pour evaluer et contribuer a favoriser le developpement mental des enfants. MOTS CLES : developpement de l'enfant; etapes cognitives et d'acquisition du langage; milieu familial; Ghana, Mental development refers to the cognitive, language, socio-emotional and fine motor maturity of children as they age. It is now acknowledged that 39% of children under 5 years of age [...]

Due to their sociocognitive limitations, children between the ages of 4 and 8 years tend to resist antibias messages from others. The purpose of this study was to examine if children would be more responsive to an antibias message as a function of the race of the communicator, the strength of the antibias message, and their ability to reconcile different perspectives. As children's inferences of communicators' attitudes constitute an unintended message, we assessed children's inferences of communicators' Black and White attitudes before and after the intervention. Children's own attitudes and cognitive elaboration of the antibias message were assessed after the intervention. Very few children were able to reconcile different ethnic perspectives. Results further revealed that communicators were inferred to hold more positive attitudes after the intervention, but that this was largely due to an increase in the ingroup communicator's inferred White attitudes and when the message was weak. Moreover, no difference was observed for children's own attitudes and cognitive elaboration of the message. Results are discussed with respect to social cognitive barriers that result in children's distortion or dismissal of antibias messages. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

A randomized evaluation of a 9-month comprehensive math program for preprimary Bangladeshi school children addressed skills such as numbers, measurement, shapes, patterns, and space. Nine schools were randomly selected for the Intervention group and nine for the Control group, with 12 children randomly selected from each to participate in testing. Pre- and posttested scores on each unit's skills and a cumulative test at the end were subjected to analyses of covariance. Intervention children doubled their scores on almost all tests while control children increased only slightly. Reasons for the program's effectiveness were discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)

Evidence was collected regarding changes over 3 years in the quality of a preprimary program in rural Bangladesh and differences in school achievement of children who did and did not attend. The quality of 30 preprimary schools was evaluated using the ECERS-R (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised) and ECERS-E (-Extension). Results indicated that the quality improved overall from 3.50 in 2006 to 5.24 in 2008. Samples of 180 graduates of these schools were annually followed into first and second grades and tested for five competencies: speaking, writing, reading, oral mathematics and written mathematics. Their achievement scores were compared with students in their classrooms and students in neighboring schools who did not have the opportunity to attend preprimary schools. First graders in 2008 performed significantly better than comparisons in all competencies, and better than earlier graduates. Second graders performed significantly better than comparisons on all but Reading. Qualities of the math preprimary program correlated with math achievement in Grade 1 only. Consequently the quality of the preprimary program improved over time along with higher achievement for its graduates. The findings support efforts to expand high-quality programs in developing countries to help children succeed in the early primary grades.

The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of a 4-week dialogic reading intervention with rural Bangladeshi preschoolers with the intention of increasing their expressive vocabulary. Eighty preschoolers randomly selected from five preschools participated in the 4-week program. Their expressive vocabulary, measured in terms of definitions, was tested on 170 challenging words before and after the program and compared with that of control children who participated in the regular language program. Both groups were read in Bangla eight children's storybooks with illustrations, but the dialogic reading teacher was given a set of "wh" and definitional questions to enhance children's verbal participation. The mean vocabulary scores of dialogic program children increased from 26% to 54% whereas the control children remained at the same level. Results are discussed in terms of the successful application of dialogic reading to low-resource preschools. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

An important goal of education in developing countries is to implement and improve early childhood education. A pre-post intervention-control design was used to compare a piloted-revised versus a regular preschool program offered by an organization in rural Bangladesh. After 7 months in operation, the quality of the piloted-revised program was higher than the regular program, though the regular program had also improved. Children attending pilot preschools made greater gains than children attending regular preschools on most outcome measures. Action research was conducted alongside the quantitative evaluation to study the process of the implementation and to identify areas for further improvement.

This evaluation research compares the first-grade competencies of two cohorts of Bangladesh children who attended "Succeed" preschools, with a control group who did not attend preschool. Testing of these groups occurred in 2006, 2007, and 2005, respectively. The Succeed program aims to improve children's learning and children's school success by developing and testing an affordable, sustainable preschool model that can be implemented in school, community and home settings. Researchers assessed the quality of school- and home-based preschool environments using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) plus two curricular subscales that tap program quality. An independently developed test based on government-defined competencies assessed school achievement of Grade 1 children. Results showed that children who attended Succeed preschools performed better in four of the five competencies relating to reading, writing, and oral math, compared with children without any preschool experience. Better quality preschool environments were positively associated with children's competencies in Grade 1. There were no statistically significant differences in first-grade performance between children from home-based preschools compared with school-based preschools, both using the same Succeed program. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)

A cross-sectional design was used to inquire about peer relations of 85 second and fifth grade students in two integrated Anglophone and Francophone schools in Montreal, Canada. Data on same- and cross-ethnic identification, interactive companions and mutual best friends were collected for each student. Overall findings were that students had more companions from their own than the other ethno-linguistic group, but equivalent numbers of mutual best friends. Same- and cross-ethnic mutual friends were rated similarly in terms of friendship quality (as assessed by the McGill Friendship Questionnaire). Exploratory in-depth interviews with 16 students indicated that cross-ethnic relationships ran into two barriers. One was that they were limited to only a few activities and locations and so did not become personalized. The second was that in-group and out-group friends did not always mix well. (Contains 4 tables.)

A preschool program in rural Bangladesh was evaluated in terms of cognitive and social outcomes of children. The preschools provided a half-day program, 6 days a week, with free play, stories, and instruction in literacy and math. Four hundred children between 4.5 and 6.5 years were assessed, half in preschools and half in villages where there were no preschools. After controlling the differences in child's age, nutritional status, mother's education, and assets: preschool children performed better than the comparison children on measures of vocabulary, verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and school readiness. On some indicators of social development during play, preschool children performed better, though not on the cognitive aspects of play. They were less likely to be stunted but did not differ on most other health variables. The mean quality score from the ECERS-R was 3.5, and this correlated with the group averages of verbal and nonverbal reasoning. Results were discussed in terms of implementing a high-quality program in rural sites of developing countries, where there was a mix of play and teacher-directed instruction.

Two studies examined in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice among two samples of white 4- to 7-year-olds. Findings indicated that the two attitudes were reciprocally correlated in the sample from a racially homogeneous school but not in the sample from a mixed-race school. In-group favoritism did not appear until 5 years of age and was strongly related to developing social cognitions. Out-group prejudice was consistently low but significant among 5-year-olds only. (Author/KB)

Examined the cross-racial validity of friendship qualities and the value of reciprocity in friendship with 40 white and black fifth graders in a multiracial elementary school. Found that reliable alliance was considered significantly more important as a friendship quality by black than by white students, with 10 qualities, including reciprocity, considered important by all students. (KB)

Responsive complementary feeding, whereby the mother feeds her child in response to child cues and psychomotor abilities, is low in some countries and likely contributes to malnutrition. Interventions are needed to evaluate whether promoting responsive feeding would add any benefit. Using a cluster-randomized field trial, we evaluated a 6-session educational program that emphasized the practice of child self-feeding and maternal responsiveness. A total of 108 mothers and their 8- to 20-mo-old children in 19 clusters were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 95 in 18 clusters were assigned to the informational control group. Outcomes were assessed at pretest, postintervention, and follow-up. Research assistants, who were unaware of group assignment, observed and coded mother and child midday meal behaviors. At follow-up, the percent of self-fed mouthfuls was 47.8 [+ or -] 42.4 (mean [+ or -] SD) in the responsive feeding group children compared with 32.2 [+ or -] 41.0 in the controls (P = 0.01); likewise, the number of responsive verbalizations was 6.55 [+ or -] 5.9 in the responsive feeding mothers and 4.62 [+ or -] 4.5 in controls (P = 0.01 ). Intervention mothers recalled more messages. Mouthfuls of food eaten by children and weight were equivalent in the 2 groups. Lack of change in foods eaten and small quantities may explain the similarly low levels of weight gain. These results provide evidence that self- feeding and maternal verbal responsiveness, two developmentally important behaviors, can be increased by targeting specific behaviors with appropriate behavior change strategies of modeling and coached practice. Weight gain may require more nutritional input, especially in areas of high food insecurity.

It is now widely recognized that malnutrition can partly be attributed to caregiver--child interaction during feeding episodes. Current conceptual frameworks emphasize the importance of responsiveness (including active and social behaviour), psychomotor abilities of the child to self-feed, and a non-distracting feeding environment. The present observational study had three main objectives: (1) to define operationally key terms such as responsive and active feeding and observe their frequency in a rural Bangladesh sample; (2) to examine whether self-feeding, responsive and active behaviours of the mother and child varied with child's age and amounts eaten; and (3) to determine associations between mother and child behaviours. Fifty-four mother--child pairs were observed during one feeding episode and behaviours were coded for 5 categories, namely self-feeding, responsive, active, social and distracting behaviours. Children were between 8 and 24 months of age. Results indicated that the five behaviours could be observed and reliably coded. Two-thirds of mothers had an active feeding style but only a third were responsive; the two styles did not overlap. With older children, mothers encouraged more eating and more self-feeding, but children did not feed themselves more; instead older children were more negatively responsive (refusing offered food). Positively responsive mothers tended to have active children who explicitly signaled their desire for food or water, and who ate more mouthfuls of food. Positively active mothers adopted different strategies to encourage eating, such as verbally directing the child to eat, focusing, and temporarily diverting. These mothers tended to have children who were negatively responsive and refused food. Children accepted on average 5.31 mouthfuls of food and rejected 2.13. Mothers who used intrusively active strategies (e.g. force feeding) tended to have children who were both positively and negatively responsive, thus partially reinforcing her forceful behaviour. Thus, the responsive feeding framework, once operationalized, has the potential to identify specific behaviours that support or impede mother-child interaction during complementary feeding. Keywords: Responsive feeding; Feeding practices; Malnutrition; Child development; Bangladesh

Forty children between the ages of 16 and 42 months and their mothers, living in an Ethiopian rural village, participated in the study. The objective was to determine the mental development of the children using the Bayley Scale of Mental Development, and to examine its relation to nutritional status and mother-child interaction. Forty-eight percent of the children were mildly or moderately malnourished; 7.5% severely so. The child's weight for age was significantly related to the child's scores on the Bayley scale. Mother-child interaction was assessed through a 30-60 min observation of the pair in a naturalistic setting around the home. The number of verbal, gestural and motor actions spontaneously initiated by the mother and child, as well as responses made by each to the others' behavior were recorded and coded separately. The rate of a mother's verbal responses to the child positively predicted the child's verbal score. In contrast, the mother's spontaneously initiated motor actions toward the child correlated negatively with the child's performance score. The mother's responsiveness was unrelated to the child's nutritional status, age or sex, but was best predicted by a fussing/crying child and by her expectations about the ages when specific social-cognitive abilities would be acquired by a child. Key words - nutrition, child development, developing country

A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1000 adult Ethiopians living in rural communities to determine firstly the prevalence of mental illness and secondly its association with stress and demographic variables. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire developed by WHO experts was used as the meausre of mental illness. A modified version of the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Scale was the measure of stress. Respondents were interviewed in their homes. Those experiencing 11 or more of the 20 neurotic symptoms and 3 or more of the 4 psychotic symptoms were considered mentally ill. Despite the use of high cut-off points for identifying potential cases, the prevalence of mental illness was 17.2% -- neurotic 11.2% and psychotic 6.0%. This is higher than earlier reports for Ethiopia, but comparable to rates found in other African countries. Mental illness scores were most strongly associated with stress in that the odds of experiencing 6 or more stressful life events in the past year were 2.7 times greater for neurotics and 2.1 times greater for psychotics. In addition, neuroses and psychoses were significantly associated with a family history of mental illness and with being divorced, separated or widowed. Neurosis alone was also associated with chronic illness, females, those between the ages of 35 and 44, and illiteracy. These findings were discussed in terms of their relevance for identifying high stress groups and thus for preventing mental illness through community activities.

Investigates whether third- and fourth-grade children respond differently to conflict with friends and acquaintances. Results support the view that conflict between friends promotes more social development than conflict between nonfriends. Discussion among friends disagreeing on answers to social problems resulted in more mature solutions than that of nonfriends. (Author/RH)

Examines extent to which second- and fifth-graders use social comparison information to evaluate themselves. Results indicate that fifth-, but not second-graders, made appropriate evaluations of their abilities on the basis of variations in relative performance and compensated for time differences. (Author/BE)

Examined the consequences of peer conflict on performance of a preference task and on relationships of 36 children of 8-11 years. Children evaluated their preferences more negatively after disagreeing with a friend than after disagreeing with a nonfriend, and were more likely to change, often to a more mature way of thinking. (RJC)

Abstract: We summarize the state of the field of implementation research and practice for early child development and propose recommendations. First, conclusions are drawn regarding what is generally known about the implementation of early childhood development programs, based on papers and discussions leading to a published series on the topic. Second, recommendations for short‐term activities emphasize the use of newly published guidelines for reporting data collection methods and results for implementation processes; knowledge of the guidelines and a menu of measures allows for planning ahead. Additional recommendations include careful documentation of early‐stage implementation, such as adapting a program to a different context and assessing feasibility, as well as the process of sustaining and scaling up a program. Using existing implementation information by building on and improving past programs and translating them into policy are recommended. Longer term goals are to identify implementation characteristics of effective programs and determinants of these characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Meta‐analyses of interventions such as parenting, stimulation, and early childhood education have reported consistent medium‐to‐high effect sizes on early childhood development (ECD) and early learning outcomes. However, few effective interventions promoting ECD have achieved scale. In order to increase the access to effective or high‐quality services, greater focus on implementation research of interventions promoting ECD is necessary. In this paper, we describe the development of reporting guidelines for implementation research of nurturing care interventions designed to promote ECD following an expert consensus‐building process. The goal of these guidelines is to support a transparent and standard reporting of implementation evidence on nurturing care interventions designed to promote early childhood development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we describe ways to measure variables of interest when evaluating the implementation of a program to improve early childhood development (ECD). The variables apply to programs delivered to parents in group sessions and home or clinic visits, as well as in early group care for children. Measurements for four categories of variables are included: training and assessment of delivery agents and supervisors; program features such as quality of delivery, reach, and dosage; recipients’ acceptance and enactment; and stakeholders’ engagement. Quantitative and qualitative methods are described, along with when measures might be taken throughout the processes of planning, preparing, and implementing. A few standard measures are available, along with others that researchers can select and modify according to their goals. Descriptions of measures include who might collect the information, from whom, and when, along with how information might be analyzed and findings used. By converging on a set of common methods to measure implementation variables, investigators can work toward improving programs, identifying gaps that impede the scalability and sustainability of programs, and, over time, ascertain program features that lead to successful outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of salt iodisation in improving the mental development of young children has not been assessed. We implemented a community-based cluster-randomised effectiveness trial in sixty randomly selected districts in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. We randomly allocated each district to treatment and randomly selected one of its villages. In parallel to national salt iodisation efforts, iodised salt was brought early into the markets of the thirty intervention villages before it became widely available in the thirty control villages 4–6 months later. The primary outcome was children’s mental development scores on the Bayley Scales. This was an intention-to-treat analysis using mixed linear models adjusted for covariates and clusters. The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT013496. We assessed 1835 infants aged 5–11 months at baseline. The same children (85 % of the sample) were re-assessed at 20–29 months when all villages had iodised salt. At endline, urinary iodine concentration was higher in children in the intervention group compared with those in the control group (median 228·0 v. 155·1 µg/l, P=0·001). The intervention group had higher scores compared with the control group on the Bayley composite score (raw scores:130·60 v. 128·51; standardised scores: 27·8 v. 26·9; d=0·13; 95 % CI 0·02, 0·23) and three of the four subscales: cognitive (53·27 v. 52·54, d=0·13; 95 % CI 0·03, 0·23), receptive language (20·71 v. 20·18, d=0·13; 95 % CI 0·03, 0·24) and fine motor (35·45 v. 34·94, d=0·15; 95 % CI 0·04, 0·25). The introduction of iodised salt contributes to children’s higher urinary iodine concentration and mental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cluster randomized effectiveness trial was used to examine the effects on mental development of introducing iodized salt to children 4 to 6 years of age in Ethiopia, where there were reportedly high levels of iodine deficiency. Sixty district clusters were randomized to receive iodized salt early at their markets with assistance from regular salt distributors or later as introduced by market forces. At pre- and post-iodization, 1602 children were given cognitive/language tests (namely School Readiness, WPPSI verbal reasoning, WPPSI Matrix reasoning), and mothers were interviewed concerning demographics, nutrition and health. Children's weight, height, urine and a blood sample were taken. Analyses of covariance, adjusting for clustering and baseline levels were conducted. Urinary iodine concentrations were significantly higher at endline in the intervention children than controls though both medians were above threshold. Overall, less than 5% were anemic. There were no significant main effect differences between groups on the cognitive/language tests, but there were effect modifiers, namely mother's education, child's sex and diet. For example, the intervention group performed better on the school readiness test than controls if their mothers had attended school, but not otherwise. In conclusion, the data are consistent with negative findings from studies where children 6 to 12 years were supplemented with an iodine capsule, indicating that the benefits of iodine, in salt or capsule form, for brain development may be restricted to children under 3 years. Yet, benefits may be tied to those with more educational resources or may compensate for conditions of disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined Filipino mothers' problem solving on issues related to child feeding, using a dyadic, peer-help approach. The participants were mothers of children under 6 yr of age from a village in the southern Philippines, where malnutrition among children is prevalent. Mothers were paired with a mutual friend (each nominated the other as a best friend) or a unilateral friend (only one nominated the other as a best friend) to discuss a feeding problem to which they initially gave similar solutions (agreed) and one to which they gave different solutions (disagreed). In the final step, they were asked to give privately the solutions they considered best for the problem. The number and quality of these final-step solutions were analyzed as a function of the friend relation, the level of initial agreement with their friend partner, and the source of the solution. Results indicated that the quantity and quality of solutions increased from before to after the dyadic discussion, especially among mothers paired with a mutual friend with whom they agreed. Most of their final-step solutions came from ones they themselves had generated during the discussion, not ones their friend partner had proposed. There was also evidence that high quality solutions were generated by mothers paired with a disagreeing unilateral friend. Implications for nutrition education concern the benefits of a peer-help, dyadic problem-solving approach, taking into account the role of a friend in facilitating a mother's production of new solutions to child feeding problems. The procedure may be used by health promoters who want to build capacities and self-reliance through collective problem solving. Key words - nutrition education, problem solving, developing country, Philippines

Responsive complementary feeding, whereby the mother feeds her child in response to child cues of hunger state and psychomotor abilities, is a problem in some countries, and likely contributes to malnutrition. Interventions are needed to evaluate whether promoting responsive feeding would add any benefit. Using a cluster randomized field trial, we evaluated a six-session educational programme that emphasized practice of two key behaviours, namely child self-feeding and maternal responsiveness. One hundred mothers and their 12- to 24-month-olds attended the sessions as part of village clusters randomly assigned to the intervention group. A similar number of controls received sessions on foods to feed and nutritional disorders. Outcomes assessed at pre-test, 2-week post-intervention and again 5-months post-intervention included weight, mouthfuls of food taken, self-feeding and maternal responsiveness. Research assistants, blind to group assignment, observed and coded mother and child behaviours during the midday meal. Secondary measures included foods fed and feeding messages recalled. Analysis was based on intention to treat and accounted for clustering. Only 10% of each group was lost to follow-up. Weight ( d = 0.28), weight gain ( d = 0.48) and child self-feeding ( d = 0.30) were significantly higher in the responsive feeding group. Mouthfuls of food eaten and maternal responsiveness were not significantly increased by the intervention. Mothers in the intervention gave their children more vegetables, and spontaneously recalled more feeding messages at the 5-month follow-up. These results provide evidence that self-feeding and weight gain can improve by targeting specific behaviours, while maternal responsiveness may require more intensive strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergroup contact and friendship are keystones to the reduction of prejudice, yet most available data on this topic are based on indices that do not actually reflect contact or relationships. This study examined various indices of peer relations (viz., interactive companions, mutual friendships, and the stability and perceived qualities of mutual friends) for elementary school students who differed in grade, gender, and racial background; and it explored whether racial attitudes were associated with befriending or avoiding classmates. Cross-race mutual friendships declined with grade, and among fifth-graders were less likely to show 6-month stability than same-race friendships. Despite overall same-race selectivity, mutual cross-race friends, once selected, did not differ significantly from samerace ones in friendship functions such as loyalty and emotional security; only with respect to intimacy were they rated lower. Finally, racial prejudice was most strongly related to the number of excluded classmates, while children with less biased attitudes had more cross-race interactive companions and more positive perceptions of their friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies American kindergartner's relationships with siblings, peers and friends. Assessment of kindergartners' popularity to peers; Identification of kindergartners with siblings; Friendliness to same-sex friend and same-sex sibling.