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A previous report, publication I of the Center for Research in Child Health and Development, Harvard School of Public Health, describes fully the response to and the general plan of the entire research project and the conditions under which the nursery school was conducted. The present report deals primarily with observations made in a nursery school of 40 children, ranging in age from 2 through 4½ years. Striking differences in adaptability, variety of responses, defenses and permanence of adjustment were observed, raising many questions that cannot be answered through a study of 40 children; but the results should be of interest to others working in a larger field.
The group was predominantly Irish and contained no Jews or Negroes. The homes ranged from poor to moderately comfortable, and the intelligence quotients, from 72 to 132. The children attended a nursery school in groups of 5 or 6 at a time