The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development is an authoritative, accessible and up-to-date account of all aspects of child development. Written by an international team of leading experts, it adopts an multidisciplinary approach and covers everything from prenatal development to education, pediatrics, neuroscience, theories, and research methods to physical development, social development, cognitive development, psychopathology, and parenting. It also looks at cultural issues, sex differences, and the history of child development. The combination of comprehensive coverage, clear, jargon-free style, and user-friendly format will ensure this book is essential reading for students, researchers, health-care professionals, social workers, education professionals, parents, and anyone interested in the welfare of children.

Features include:

• Foreword by Jerome Bruner
• Comprehensive coverage
• Cross-references between entries
• Extensive glossary
• Biographies of key figures
• Companion web site
• Clear, user-friendly format

BRIAN HOPKINS is Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University and has published extensively in the field of developmental psychology. He is co-editor of Neurobiology of Infant Vision (2003) and Motor Development in Early and Later Childhood (1993), as well as editor of the journal Infant and Child Development.

RONALD G. BARR is the Canada Research Chair in Community Child Health Research at the University of British Columbia and Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine there.

GEORGE F. MICHEL is Professor of Psychology at the University of Carolina at Greensboro, co-author of two books on developmental psychobiology, and editor-in-chief of Developmental Psychobiology (the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology).

PHILIPPE ROCHAT is Professor of Psychology at Emory University. In addition to numerous research articles, he is the editor of The Self in Infancy (1995), Early Social Cognition (1999), and the author of The Infant’s World (2001).

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Edited by BRIAN HOPKINS

Associate Editors: Ronald G. Barr, George F. Michel, Philippe Rochat

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521651172

© Cambridge University Press, 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of child development / edited by Brian Hopkins; associate editors Ronald G. Barr . . . [et al.].
   p.   cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 65117 4
1. Child development – Encyclopedias.   I. Hopkins, B.   II. Barr, Ronald G.
HQ767.9+   305.231′03 – dc22   2004047291

ISBN-13 978-0-521-65117-2 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-65117-4 hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

RYAN ADAMS, Department of Psychology, Concordia University

DIMA AMSO, Department of Psychology, New York University

ROGER BAKEMAN, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University

SIMON BARON-COHEN, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge

MARTIN C. O. BAX, Department of Paediatrics, Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London

JOYCE F. BENENSON, Department of Psychology, University of Plymouth

MARK BENNETT, Department of Psychology, University of Dundee

ANN BIGELOW, Department of Psychology, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia

JOHAN J. BOLHUIS, Behavioural Biology, Utrecht University

MELISSA BOWERMAN, Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

GAVIN BREMNER, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

JEROME S. BRUNER, School of Law, New York University

PETER BRYANT, Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

WILLIAM M. BUKOWSKI, Department of Psychology, Concordia University

TARA C. CALLAGHAN, Department of Psychology, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia

JANE E. CLARK, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland

PATRICIA R. COHEN, New York State Psychiatric Institute & School of Public Health, Columbia University

JENNIFER COLE, Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago

MICHAEL COLE, Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, University of California

MARGARET COUSINS, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

MORAG L. DONALDSON, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh

JUDY DUNN, Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London

THALIA C. ELEY, Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre Institute of Psychiatry, London

DIGBY ELLIOTT, Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University

JOHN C. FENTRESS, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

WILLIAM P. FIFER, Developmental Psychobiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University

BARBARA L. F INLAY, Departments of Psychology and Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University

KURT W. FISCHER, Department of Human Development, Harvard University

PETER FONAGY, Department of Psychology, University College London

NATHAN A. FOX, Institute for Child Study, University of Maryland

NORMAN H. FREEMAN, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol

ROGER D. FREEMAN, Neuropsychiatry Clinic, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, University of British Columbia

CHRISTOPHER GILLBERG, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Göteborg

IAN M. GOODYER, Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge

GILBERT GOTTLIEB, Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

ALBERT GRAMSBERGEN, Department of Medical Physiology, University of Groningen

MARYKE GROENVELD, Department of Psychiatry, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, University of British Columbia

MICHELLE DE HAAN, Institute of Child Health, University College London

MIJNA HADDERS-ALGRA, Developmental Neurology, University Hospital Groningen

ERIN R. HANNON, Department of Psychology, Cornell University

LAUREN J. HARRIS, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University

WILLIAM A. HARRIS, Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge

JANE S. HERBERT, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield

JAN B. HOEKSMA, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

JERRY A. HOGAN, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto

BRIAN HOPKINS, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

CLAIRE HUGHES, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge

JULIE HWANG, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon

MARK H. JOHNSON, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, London

SCOTT P. JOHNSON, Department of Psychology, New York University

RAY D. KENT, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin

FREDERICK K. KOZAK, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, University of British Columbia

KURT KREPPNER, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Berlin

ADINA R. LEW, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

CHARLIE LEWIS, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

MICHAEL LEWIS, Institute of Child Development, Rutgers University, New Jersey

BRIAN MACWHINNEY, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh

ROBERT M. MALINA, Department of Kinesiology, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas

DENIS MARESCHAL, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, London

MICHAEL F. MASCOLO, Department of Psychology, Merrimack College, Massachusetts

JOHN J. MCARDLE, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia

JAMES J. MCKENNA, Department of Anthropology, Notre Dame University

EDWARD C. MELHUISH, Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, Birkbeck College, London

ANDREW N. MELTZOFF, Department of Psychology, University of Washington

ELIZABETH G. MENAGHAN, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University

CELIA MOORE, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston

PIERRE MOUNOUD, Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences, Université de Génève

ULRICH MüLLER, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria

CHARLES A. NELSON, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota

DAVID OLSON, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

RONALD W. OPPENHEIM, Wake Forest Medical School, Wake Forest University, North Carolina

WILLIS F. OVERTON, Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia

SIMON H. PARSON, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds

SERGIO M. PELLIS, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge

YPE H. POORTINGA, Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

HELLGARD RAUH, Institute for Psychology, University of Potsdam

RICHARD R. RIBCHERTER, Division of Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh

JOHN E. RICHARDS, Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina

MICHAEL J.L. RIVKIN, Departments of Neurology and Radiology, Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

SCOTT R. ROBINSON, Laboratory of Comparative Ethogenesis, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa

HILDY S. ROSS, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo

MARY K. ROTHBART, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon

GREGOR SCHöNER, Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

CARLA SHARP, Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge

LESLIE SMITH, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University

PETER K. SMITH, Unit for School and Family Studies, Goldsmiths College, London

MARY M. SMYTH, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

MARGARET J. SNOWLING, Department of Psychology, University of York

YVETTE SOLOMON, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University

CATHERINE E. SPIELMACHER, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo

IAN ST. JAMES-ROBERTS, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London

FIONA STANLEY, Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Western Australia

ROBERT J. STERNBERG, Department of Psychology, Yale University

JAMES E. STEVENSON, Centre for Research into Psychological Development, University of Southampton

CYNTHIA STIFTER, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University

EUGENE SUBBOTSKY, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

ERIC TAYLOR, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London

RICHARD E. TREMBLAY, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal

WENDA R. TREVATHAN, Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University

ELLIOT TURIEL, Department of Education, University of California, Berkeley

BEATRIX VEREIJKEN, Human Movement Sciences Section, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

ALEXANDER VON EYE, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University

CLAES VON HOFSTEN, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden

JOHN S. WATSON, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

HELEN L. WESTCOTT, Psychology Discipline, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University

GERT WESTERMANN, Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

PETER H. WOLFF, Department of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital, Boston

JOHN WOROBEY, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University

ROBERT H. WOZNIAK, Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia

EDITORIAL PREFACE

The subject matter of child development has grown exponentially over the last fifty years such that its study has become a vast multidisciplinary enterprise. The roots of this enterprise can be traced back to the 1930s, when the likes of Arnold Gesell, Myrtle McGraw, and Jean Piaget embarked on systematic programs of research, each one encompassing a variety of disciplines in different ways.

   Common to these pioneering attempts at forging a multidisciplinary approach to the study of child development was an appreciation that ontogenetic development and biological evolution were somehow inextricably linked, and as such it shaped the questions being asked and the answers provided. Subsequently, and perhaps for justifiable reasons at the time, child development was studied bereft of evolutionary considerations and all things ‘biological.’ With the rise of molecular developmental genetics during the last decade or so, together with renewed insights into the relationships between ontogeny and phylogeny, the landscape of research on ontogenetic development has been changed irrevocably, and as a consequence that on child development will have to take into account newly emerging fields of study such as evolutionary developmental biology.

   Another theme that stands out in the book concerns the impact of neuroscience on how child development, both ‘normal’ and ‘deviant, ’ is presently studied. Ranging from specific animal models through non-invasive neural imaging techniques to computational modeling, the wealth of information generated about the changing nature of brain–behavior relationships during development is truly staggering. The challenge now, and one to which this book is geared, is how to integrate this plethora of new knowledge and that contained in the first theme so that progress can be made toward the provision of more unified theories of ontogenetic development that cross disciplinary boundaries.

   A further theme includes the historical roots and controversies that have motivated the study of child development and which form essential reading for understanding the two main issues that continue today: the origin problem and the change problem. The first calls for a better understanding of the ways in which prenatal development relates to that after birth, and the second for the use of longitudinal designs and associated statistical techniques for teasing out the salient features of intra-individual change in whatever domain of development. As an additional theme, this book strives wherever possible to encourage the study of child development across domains (e.g. cognitive, motor, social) rather than within domains as one means of achieving greater theoretical integration.

   There is no pretense made of having covered every possible topic that might fall under the heading of ‘child development.’ Given the limitations of space and those imposed by our own experiences in studying child development, we have endeavored nevertheless to provide a coverage that is as comprehensive as possible. Having said this, there are no separate entries, for example, that deal with ‘attachment theory’ or ‘qualitative research.’ Despite not having dedicated slots, such topics are given consideration across a number of entries. Furthermore, the book will have a companion web site by means of which readers will be able to communicate with the editor about the structure of the book and its contents as well as make suggestions for revisions or for correcting any inaccuracies. It will also contain an extended glossary, a large number of web site addresses for relevant scientific organizations, as well as further information relevant to specific entries, and short biographical sketches of additional individuals who have, directly or indirectly, had an influence on the study of child development.

   Finally, we wish to thank a number of individuals who enabled this book to come to fruition. To begin, there are the numerous referees whose reviews of the initial proposal helped us to refine both structure and content. In approaching authors for particular topics, the recommendations of Jonathan W. Hill (University of Liverpool), William P. Fifer (Columbia University), Albert Gramsbergen (University of Groningen), and Claudio Stern (University College London) were particularly helpful. Throughout the whole process of editing the book, Ronald W. Oppenheim (Wake Forest University) was a consistent source of valuable advice, and in the run-in to completion Thomas C. Dalton (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) provided a much-needed and coherent description of the term ‘consciousness’ for the glossary. A number of people kindly accepted the job of reviewing a selection of first drafts, which resulted in some very helpful comments that improved the quality of subsequent versions. These particular individuals have been acknowledged on a separate page. A special debt of gratitude goes to the in-house editorial team at Cambridge University Press: Sarah Caro, Gillian Dadd, Alison Powell, and especially Juliet Davis-Berry. Their advice, patience, and support throughout the arduous task of completing such a large book were unfailing and of the highest professional quality. Another special debt of gratitude goes to Leigh Mueller, copy-editor par excellence. To everyone who has helped us in one way or another, we are most grateful.

Brian Hopkins
Lancaster, January 2005

FOREWORD

The course of human development used to be a topic for the specialist – the pediatrician, the development psychologist, the child welfare worker, and even the anthropologist in search of the origins of cultural difference. There was also, to be sure, a wider audience of parents, in search of advice about how best to ‘raise’ their children, and the better educated among them often browsed in the technical developmental handbooks for clues about how to deal with their children’s ‘difficulties,’ like dyslexia or persistent bedwetting or failure to meet the ‘norms’ popularized in such widely read manuals as Arnold Gessell’s endlessly revised and reissued Manual of Child Development.

   That degree of specialization is no more. ‘Child development’ and its course has, in the last quarter-century, become an issue of general, even political concern, a passionate issue. To a degree never before seen, the cultivation of childhood has become central not only in debates about schooling and parenting, but also in discussions of broader policy: anti-poverty programs in our inner cities, budgetary policy nationally, even international policy where aid for the care and education of the young has become a central issue. Indeed, there are few issues that are as publicly scrutinized as, for example, when and how ‘education’ should start, even before a child ever gets to school. What should schools take as their objective, and in what ways might the larger social environment harm or help a child’s readiness for later school learning?

   Indeed, the introduction of Head Start in America in the 1960s (and comparable programs elsewhere) provoked a blizzard of debate on how and whether poverty disables a young pre-school child for later schooling. In a like vein, intense debates rage about the possibly irreversible effects of childhood ‘deprivations’ in the Third World. As never before, the adage “The child is father to the man” has emerged into open debate about policy.

   All of these concerns make it all the more urgent that there be available not only to the expert, but also to the engaged citizen, some informed and intelligent guidance regarding human growth and development. It is our hope that The Cambridge Encyclopedia will fill that function. It is written by distinguished specialists in child development, but written with a view to being accessible to the intelligent reader concerned with the growth and welfare of the young.

   One special point needs emphasis. Over the last quarter-century, there has been a remarkable burgeoning of research on early childhood. Inevitably, this research on early growth and the factors affecting it has come to concentrate more than before on neural as well as psychological processes that might be affected by early encounters with the world. Such research is well represented in this volume, and to good effect. For many current debates swirl futilely around the issue, for example, of whether certain early experiences produce ‘irreversible’ effects on the ‘brain.’ The reader will find a well-balanced approach to this feverish issue in this Encyclopedia.

   The contributors to this volume, as well as its editors, are to be congratulated, finally, for maintaining a happy balance between the general and the particular. For, indeed, the details of development cannot be understood without appreciating the broader contexts in which they occur, nor can general trends be grasped without reference to the specific mechanisms that make them possible. The relation between early experience and the state of the brain is, indeed, a two-way street.

Jerome S. Bruner
New York University

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: EXTERNAL REVIEWERS

The following colleagues provided reviews of one or more first drafts for just over thirty entries:

MAGGIE BRUCK (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions)

ADELE DIAMOND (Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia)

KIERAN EGAN (Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University)

REBECCA EILERS (Department of Psychology, University of Maine)

GLEN H. ELDER (Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

DALE HAY (School of Psychology, Cardiff University)

DENNIS HAY (Department of Psychology, Lancaster University)

ROB HENDERSON (Medical Stats Unit, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Lancaster University)

CHRISTOPHER HENRICH (Department of Psychology, Georgia State University)

MARTIN L. HOFFMAN (Department of Psychology, New York University)

ALAN LEVITON (Neurodevelopmental Unit, Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School)

SHU-CHEN LI (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Berlin)

PHILIP LIEBERMAN (Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University)

ELENA LIEVEN (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig)

CAROLYN B. MERVIS (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville)

DEBRA L. MILLS (Department of Psychology, Emory University)

TOMAS PAUS (Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery, McGill University)

DANIEL PÉRUSSE (Hôpital Sainte Justine et Université de Montréal)

CHING-FAN SHEU (Psychology Department, DePaul University)

STEPHANIE A. SHIELDS (Department of Psychology, Penn State University)

JAMES H. STEIGER (Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia)

FRED R. VOLKMAR (Yale University Child Study Center)

KATE WATKINS (Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute)