provides a serious discussion of deep philosophical issues regarding the self, the other, and self-other relations. To see these issues approached in young infants with an open mind is refreshing. And to see the authors weave empirical results with theoretical incisiveness is enlightening."-James Youniss, The
Children's ability to deceive was examined in order to determine whether they are able to hide their emotional expression intentionally. Three-year-oids were instructed not to peek at a toy while the experimenter left the room. When asked, the great majority either denied that they peeked or would not answer the question. Facial and bodily activity did not differentiate the deceivers from the truth tellers. Boys were more likely than girls to admit their transgression. These results indicate that very young children have begun to learn how to mask their emotional expressions and support the role of socialization in this process.
In each of 2 studies, the mirror-rouge technique was used to differentiate children into those who showed self-recognition and those who did not. In Study 1, 27 children (aged 9-24 months) were observed in 2 experimental situations thought to differentially elicit fear and embarrassment behaviors. In Study 2, 44 children (aged 22 months) were seen in the situations of Study 1 and 3 additional contexts thought to elicit embarrassment behavior. The results of both studies indicate that embarrassment but not wariness was related to self-recognition.
This study examined adjustment following sexual abuse as a function of shame and attributional style. One hundred forty-seven participants (83 children and 64 adolescents) were seen at the time of abuse discovery and again 1 year later. Once adjustment at abuse discovery was accounted for, shame and attribution style explained additional variation in subsequent adjustment, whereas abuse severity did not. A pessimistic attribution style at abuse discovery moderated the relation between severity of abuse and subsequent depressive symptoms and self-esteem. The relations between abuse severity and these outcomes were significant only at high levels of pessimistic attribution style. Of note, patterns of change in shame and attribution predicted which children remained at risk or improved in adjustment. In addition, age and gender differences were found in adjustment over time.The past decade has seen a considerable increase in the number of studies focusing on sexual abuse and its relation to child outcomes. Child sexual abuse (CSA), in both clinical and nonclinical samples, has been consistently associated with a number of adjustment problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and poor self
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