Marc H. Bornstein

Maternal Responsiveness and Children's Achievement of Language Milestones

This prospective longitudinal study examined the contribution of dimensions of maternal responsiveness (descriptions, play, imitations) to the timing of five milestones in childrens (N = 40) early expressive language: first imitations, first words, 50 words in expressive language, combinatorial speech, and the use of language to talk about the past. Events-History Analysis, a statistical technique that estimates the extent to which predictors influence the timing of events, was used. At 9 and 13 months, maternal responsiveness and childrens activities (e.g., vocalizations, play) were coded from videotaped interactions of mother-child free play; information about childrens language acquisition was obtained through biweekly interviews with mothers from 9 through 21 months. Maternal responsiveness at both ages predicted the timing of childrens achieving language milestones over and above childrens observed behaviors. Responsiveness at 13 months was a stronger predictor of the timing of language milestones than was responsiveness at 9 months, and certain dimensions of responsiveness were more predictive than others. The multidimensional nature of maternal responsiveness and specificity in mother-child language relations are discussed.

Socioeconomic Status, Parenting, and Child Development

Contents: M.H. Bornstein, Series Foreword. Socioeconomic Status, Parenting, and Child Development: An Introduction. Part I:SES: Measurement and Ecology. M.E. Ensminger, K. Fothergill, A Decade of Measuring SES: What It Tells Us and Where We Go From Here. M.H. Bornstein, C-S. Hahn, J.T.D. Suwalsky, O.M. Haynes, Socioeconomic Status, Parenting, and Child Development: The Hollingshead Four-Factor Index of Social Status and the Socioeconomic Index of Occupations. G.J. Duncan, K.A. Magnuson, Off With Hollingshead: Socioeconomic Resources, Parenting, and Child Development. A.J. Fuligni, H. Yoshikawa, Socioeconomic Resources, Parenting, Poverty, and Child Development Among Immigrant Families. L.W. Hoffman, Methodological Issues in Studies of SES, Parenting, and Child Development. Part II:SES: Parenting and Child Development. E. Hoff, Causes and Consequences of SES-Related Differences in Parent-to-Child Speech. R.H. Bradley, R.F. Corwyn, Age and Ethnic Variations in Family Process Mediators of SES. A.W. Gottfried, A.E. Gottfried, K. Bathurst, D.W. Guerin, M.M. Parramore, Socioeconomic Status in Childrens Development and Family Environment: Infancy Through Adolescence. T. Leventhal, J. Brooks-Dunn, Moving on Up: Neighborhood Effects on Children and Families. R.M. Lerner, What Are SES Effects Effects of?: A Developmental Systems Perspective.

Well-Being: Positive Development across the Life Course.

Contents: M.H. Bornstein, Series Prologue. W.H. Foege, Foreword. K.A. Moore, C.L.M. Keyes, A Brief History of Well-Being in Children and Adults. E.L. Pollard, M.L. Rosenberg, The Strength-Based Approach to Child Well-Being: Lets Begin With the End in Mind. J.F. Zaff, D.C. Smith, M.F. Rogers, C.H. Leavitt, T.G. Halle, M.H. Bornstein, Holistic Well-Being and the Developing Child. Part I:Physical Domain. C.H. Leavitt, T.F. Tonniges, M.F. Rogers, Good Nutrition: The Imperative for Positive Development. T.F. Tonniges, C.H. Leavitt, Preventive Health Care in Early Childhood and Throughout the Life Span. J.M. Conner, Physical Activity and Well-Being. D.A. Sleet, J.A. Mercy, Promotion of Safety, Security, and Well-Being. J.M. Conner, J.E. Dewey, Reproductive Health. B.G. Simons-Morton, D.L. Haynie, Growing up Drug Free: A Developmental Challenge. Part II:Social-Emotional Domain. T.G. Halle, Emotional Development and Well-Being. W.G. Graziano, R.M. Tobin, Emotional Regulation From Infancy Through Adolescence. L.J. Bridges, Coping as an Element of Developmental Well-Being. L.J. Bridges, Autonomy as an Element of Developmental Well-Being. L.J. Bridges, Trust, Attachment, and Relatedness. M.J. Cox, K.S.M. Harter, Parent-Child Relationships. B.L. Volling, Sibling Relationships. W.M. Bukowski, Peer Relationships. J.F. Zaff, E.C. Hair, Positive Development of the Self: Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Identity. N. Eisenberg, Prosocial Behavior, Empathy, and Sympathy. Part III:Cognitive Domain. R.V. Kail, Information Processing and Memory. N. Wentworth, S.L. Witryol, Curiosity, Exploration, and Novelty-Seeking. K.D. Jennings, L.J. Dietz, Mastery Motivation and Goal Persistence in Young Children. R.S. Siegler, Thinking and Intelligence. D.C. Smith, Problem Solving as an Element of Developmental Well-Being. B. MacWhinney, M.H. Bornstein, Language and Literacy. S.B. Plank, D.J. MacIver, Educational Achievement. D.A. Hart, D.A. Burock, B.E. London, A.M. Miraglia, Moral Development in Childhood. E. Winner, Creativity and Talent. Part IV:Adult Development Domain. J. Eccles, J. Templeton, B. Barber, M. Stone, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: The Critical Passage Ways to Adulthood. E.L. Schneider, L. Davidson, Physical Health and Adult Well-Being. D.C. Reitzes, Social and Emotional Engagement in Adulthood. D.M. Isaacowitz, M.E.P. Seligman, Cognitive Styles and Well-Being in Adulthood and Old Age. C.L.M. Keyes, M.B. Waterman, Dimensions of Well-Being and Mental Health in Adulthood. Part V:Overarching Issues and Themes. R.M. Lerner, M.H. Bornstein, D.C. Smith, Child Well-Being: From Elements to Integration. L. Davidson, M.L. Rosenberg, K.A. Moore, Well-Being and the Future: Using Science Based Knowledge to Inform Practice and Policy.

Color vision and hue categorization in young human infants.

Two studies examined the organization of color perception in 4-month-old human infants. In Study 1, infants looked at selected spectral stimuli repeatedly until their visual attention waned. The stimuli represented instances of basic adult hue categories - blue, green, yellow, and red. Following habituation, infants were shown a series of wavelengths which were the same as or different from the stimuli first seen. Analyses of infant attention during this dishabituation phase of the study indicated that infants categorize wavelengths by perceptual similarity; that is, they see hues in the spectrum much as adults do. In Study 2, a group of infants who looked at the alteration of two wavelengths from the same hue category habituated as did the group of infants who looked at the repitition of a single wavelength from that category, but a group of infants who looked at two wavelengths from different categories habituated at a slower rate. Data from the two studies suggest a high degree of organization of the color world prior to language acquisition.

Interaction in Human Development

Contents: J.S. Bruner, M.H. Bornstein, On Interaction. Part I:Interaction in Cognitive Development. J. Tudge, B. Rogoff, Peer Influences on Cognitive Development: Piagetian and Vygotskian Perspectives. M. Bovet, S. ParratDayan, J. Voneche, Cognitive Development and Interaction. D. Wood, Social Interaction as Tutoring. Part II:Interaction in Language Acquisition C.E. Snow, Understanding Social Interaction and Language Acquisition: Sentences Are Not Enough. S. Curtiss, The Independence and Task-Specificity of Language. E.A. Schegloff, Reflections on Language, Development, and the Interactional Character of Talk-in-lnteraction. Part III:Child-Caretaker Interaction. C.S. Bergeman, R. Plomin, Genotype-Environmental Interaction. F.F. Strayer, E. Moss, The Co-Construction of Representational Activity During Social Interaction. M.H. Bornstein, Between Caretakers and Their Young: Two Modes of Interaction and Their Consequences for Cognitive Growth. Part IV:How to Formulate the Interaction Problem? R.M. Lerner, Developmental Contextualism and the Life-Span View of Person-Context Interaction. R. Bakeman, L.B . Adamson, P. Strisik, Lags and Logs: Statistical Approaches to Interaction C.J.Lumsden, The Gene-Culture Connection: Interaction Across Levels of Analysis.

Sensitive periods in development: Structural characteristics and causal interpretations.

The presence or absence of a particular experience at a particular time in the life cycle may exert an extraordinary and dramatic influence over structure or function well beyond that point in development. Such sensitive periods are thought to be widespread in animal and in human neurobiology and psychology. A comprehensive treatment of the sensitive period needs minimally to include information about its structural characteristics as well as an interpretation of its causes, including why the sensitive period arises in terms of the natural history of the species and how the sensitive period is regulated in terms of physical, physiological, and psychological processes. This article provides a framework for research and theory concerning specific sensitive periods and the sensitive period generally conceived. The framework delimits four sets of parameters, which encompass 14 structural characteristics that define sensitive periods, and two levels of causal interpretation that guide research and theory into sensitive periods however they may be manifested.

Social Competence, Externalizing, and Internalizing Behavioral Adjustment from Early Childhood through Early Adolescence: Developmental Cascades

This study used a three-wave longitudinal design to investigate developmental cascades among social competence and externalizing and internalizing behavioral adjustment in a normative sample of 117 children seen at 4, 10, and 14 years. Children, mothers, and teachers provided data. A series of nested path analysis models was used to determine the most parsimonious and plausible cascades across the three constructs over and above their covariation at each age and stability across age. Children with lower social competence at age 4 years exhibited more externalizing and internalizing behaviors at age 10 years and more externalizing behaviors at age 14 years. Children with lower social competence at age 4 years also exhibited more internalizing behaviors at age 10 years and more internalizing behaviors at age 14 years. Children who exhibited more internalizing behaviors at age 4 years exhibited more internalizing behaviors at age 10 years and more externalizing behaviors at age 14 years. These cascades among social competence and behavioral adjustment obtained independent of child intelligence and maternal education and social desirability of responding.

Specific and general language performance across early childhood: Stability and gender considerations.

Altogether 329 children participated in four longitudinal studies of specific and general language performance cumulatively from 1;1 to 6;10. Data were drawn from age-appropriate maternal questionnaires, maternal interviews, teacher reports, experimenter assessments and transcripts of children’s own spontaneous speech. Language performance at each age and stability of individual differences across age in girls and boys were assessed separately and together. Across age, including the important transition from preschool to school, across multiple tests at each age and across multiple reporters, children showed moderate to strong stability of individual differences; girls and boys alike were stable. In the second through fifth years, but not before or after, girls consistently outperformed boys in multiple specific and general measures of language.

Maternal verbal sensitivity and child language comprehension

Abstract This longitudinal investigation examined covariation among specific maternal behaviors and their differential prediction of childrens language comprehension across the transition to beginning speech. Forty mother-infant dyads were videotaped during free play in their homes when children were 9 and 13 months old. At each age, six maternal behaviors and childrens language comprehension were assessed. Two factors of maternal interaction, labeled verbal sensitivity and verbal intrusiveness, were extracted at the two ages; the two factors were stable across this 4-month period. Nine-month maternal sensitivity, but not intrusiveness, uniquely predicted 13-month child language comprehension and did so over and above childrens 9-month language comprehension, which was itself stable between the two ages. Maternal verbal sensitivity was especially influential in promoting comprehension among children who were initially lower in language comprehension, a finding that has implications for the design of intervention strategies. These findings confirm models of environmental specificity which state that certain aspects of parenting, in contrast with others, affect particular outcomes in the child; in this regard, we contrast the importance of maternal verbal sensitivity for childrens language development with other kinds of maternal interaction.

Discrimination and matching within and between hues measured by reaction times: some implications for categorical perception and levels of information processing

SummarySame-different reaction times (RTs) were obtained for pairs of color samples ranging perceptually from blue to green. In Experiment 1, observers responded with “same” if both stimuli in a pair were from the same hue category (i.e., blue-blue or green-green) or “different” if the two stimuli were from different hue categories (i.e., blue-green or green-blue). RT for “same” responses was faster for pairs of physically identical stimuli (A-A) than for pairs of physically different stimuli (A-a) belonging to the same hue. RT for “different” responses was faster for larger physical differences across a boundary between hues (A-B 6 step) than for smaller physical differences (A-B 2 step). Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings: In one phase observers matched pairs of stimuli as “same” or “different” by categorical similarity as in Experiment 1, and in a second phase observers matched the same stimulus pairs, this time by physical similarity. Matching by categorical similarity replicated the pattern of results found in Experiment 1. Matching by physical similarity showed that RTs for “different” responses were equivalently fast independent of the physical difference between A-B pairs, but were faster for A-B than for A-a comparisons. Further, matching identity was faster under categorical match instructions than under physical match instructions. Results of the two experiments support a model of parallel processing of physical and categorical stimulus information in color perception. Further, these reaction-time data and their implications in color perception (for hues) parallel reaction-time data and their implications in speech perception (for phonemes).