Recent Trends in Developmental Research: A Quantitative Analysis.

An assessment of recent trends in developmental research examined all articles published in the periodical "Child Development" from 1967-1983. Of the articles that were included in the "Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography" in the same period, 200 articles from each year of the period were randomly selected for assessment. Sixteen keywords were used to categorize the content of articles: (1) abnormal development; (2) cognition; (3) communication-language; (4) education; (5) emotion; (6) family relations; (7) intelligence; (8) learning; (9) memory; (10) methodology; (11) moral development; (12) perception; (13) personality; (14) physical development; (15) social development; and (16) theory. Findings revealed an initial increase and subsequent decrease in the amount of research citing cognitive development. There was a dramatic decline in learning research. Several publication trends specific to "Child Development" were identified. In particular, research on social development was more prominent in "Child Development" than in other developmental journals. It was concluded that journal editorial policy may influence publication trends. Research trends are discussed in the context of journal characteristics and general changes in content areas. (RH)