Dieting practices and beliefs offourth-grade children and their mothers were studied. The children's self-esteem, locus of control, and eating restraint were also assessed. Fifty children and their mothers were administered an eating restraint scale. The children were also administered self-esteem and locus of control scales. Although the children's eating restraint, self-esteem, and locus of control were not related, the mothers' eating restraint was found to be positively related to their daughters' eating restraint and internality scores. No relationship was found between the mothers' eating restraint and their sons' eating restraint and internality scores. The results are discussed in terms of same-sex identification processes.

Developmental psychology has been concerned with the role of culture since the beginnings of the discipline, and current views reflect universalistic, context-specific, and cultural practices conceptions of culture. Given the value of cross-cultural research for theories of development, an extensive content analysis of cross-cultural themes and research in selected developmental textbooks, handbooks, and reviews is reported in the present study. Cross-cultural entries have increased across the almost 40 years represented by these books and have shifted from more anthropological presentations to more comparative examinations. Although textbook discussions have lagged behind the professional literature, they have increased substantially in the early 1990s. By including more cross-cultural themes and research in texts, a more complete understanding of development is fostered.