Thirty-seven mothers and fathers were observed in their homes interacting with their 2- and 4-year-old-children at Time 1 and 2 years later. Parental mental state talk to children varied as a function of children's age, the context in which talk occurred, and the gender of the parent. Four-year-old children, with an older sibling, produced and heard more cognitive talk and less desire talk than children without an older sibling. Cognitive and feeling talk by family members at Time 1 predicted change in younger children's cognitive and feeling talk (respectively) 2 years later, after controlling for initial levels of younger children's talk and general language ability. Findings are discussed in the context of theory of mind understanding and family talk about the mind.

The findings suggest that each group of respondents has unique discharge readiness needs and that registered nurses have an important role to play in helping patients and families make the transition home as successful as possible. Implications for nursing practice are highlighted.

Parent and sibling influences on children's development of conflict management strategies were examined. Data consist of naturally occurring, in-home sibling disputes of 37 families at two time points. The siblings were approximately two and four years old at Time 1, and four and six years old at Time 2. Parents' and children's use of conflict strategies that reflect proactive autonomy assertions such as opposition and verbal and physical power were the focus of the current study. Results suggest that parents and siblings play an important role in shaping children's conflict behaviours over time. For instance, parents' reliance on unelaborated opposition to the child, and older siblings' increased use of physical power predicted decreases in younger siblings' ability to assert themselves during conflict. In addition, increased proportions of opposition from a younger sibling was associated with the older siblings using less verbal aggression and using more mature conflict strategies such as justifying their own behaviour to their younger sibling. As sibling conflict is a salient child rearing concern for parents, practical implications are discussed.