LEVY-SHIFF, RACHEL. Adaptation and Competence in Early Childhood: Communally Raised Kibbutz Children versus Family Raised Children in the City. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 1606-1614. The study explored the effects of socialization and child-rearing practices on the development of individual adaptation and competencies in early childhood. 44 communally raised kibbutz children were compared with 42 urban family raised children (aged 2-10 to 3-2). Adaptation and competencies were assessed by means of semistructured interview, observations, questionnaire, and a series of problem-solving tasks (matching colored disks, arranging insoluble jigsaw puzzle, and fitting cutouts) testing aspects of performance such as systematic approach, perseverance, etc. As compared to city children, the kibbutz children were found to be more instrumentally independent and self-reliant in routine and daily tasks, but less effective in the problem-solving tasks. They were also less responsive and cooperative with adult strangers. No significant difference between the 2 groups was found with regard to attachment, difficulty in separation from parents, adjustment to a nonfamilial setting (nursery school), and developmental disturbances. The findings raise the possibility that different competence profiles and developmental paths may emerge in different socialization and child-rearing systems, arising from differences in what is adaptive, required, and encouraged inf a certain sociocultural environment.