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Studies have suggested that the presence of individual differences in children's ability to detect social contingencies may be related to their behavioral characteristics, as a result of cumulative transactions with their physical and social environments. This study sought to identify behavioral characteristics associated with children's ability to detect social contingency and to validate the Detection of Social Contingency (DSC) task. A total of 87 kindergartners and 102 second graders completed the DSC, two measures of cognitive abilities, and a measure of memory span. The children's teachers completed a social behavior questionnaire. Results showed that 29 percent of kindergartners and 49 percent of second graders successfully completed the DSC task, and girls were more likely to detect social contingency than boys. Children who completed the task demonstrated a better memory span than children who did not. Children who learned the contingency rule of the DSC task were more prosocial than those who did not. Among children who were not able to learn the rule, boys were more aggressive than girls. The study shows the discriminant and convergent validity of the DSC task with both age groups. (Contains 13 references.) (MDM)

This study investigated how fathers and mothers modulated the specificity of their tutoring strategies as a function of their children's moment-to-moment behavior during a problem-solving activity. A total of 63 seven-year-old children and their parents participated in the study. Mothers and fathers worked separately with their children on a microcomputer activity, and these activities were recorded and coded to ascertain children's help-seeking and parents' tutoring behaviors. The results indicated that mothers and fathers adjusted their tutoring strategies according to a contingent-shift rule--parents offered more specific support when the children failed and offered less specific support when the children succeeded in their attempts to solve the task. Mothers' and fathers' modulation of their level of tutoring were not different and were not influenced by the sex of the children. Neither boys nor girls were more likely to seek help from their same-sex parent than from the opposite sex parent. (Contains 26 references.) (MDM)