Parent–Child Shared Time From Middle Childhood to Late Adolescence: Developmental Course and Adjustment Correlates

The development and adjustment correlates of parent–child social (parent, child, and others present) and dyadic time (only parent and child present) from age 8 to 18 were examined. Mothers, fathers, and firstborns and secondborns from 188 White families participated in both home and nightly phone interviews. Social time declined across adolescence, but dyadic time with mothers and fathers peaked in early and middle adolescence, respectively. In addition, secondborns’ social time declined more slowly than firstborns’, and gendered time use patterns were more pronounced in boys and in opposite‐sex sibling dyads. Finally, youths who spent more dyadic time with their fathers, on average, had higher general self‐worth, and changes in social time with fathers were positively linked to changes in social competence.     

Trajectories of Ethnic–Racial Identity and Autonomy Among Mexican‐Origin Adolescent Mothers in the United States

This study examined trajectories of ethnic–racial identity (ERI) and autonomy development among Mexican‐origin adolescent females in the United States (N = 181; M_age at Wave 1 = 16.80 years, SD = 1.00) as they transitioned through the first 5 years of parenthood. Trajectories of ERI and autonomy also were examined in relation to psychosocial functioning. Unconditional latent growth models indicated significant growth in autonomy, ERI resolution, and ERI affirmation from middle to late adolescence. Conditional latent growth models indicated that autonomy and ERI exploration growth trajectories were positively associated with psychosocial adjustment. Although adolescent mothers are experiencing transitions that are not normative during adolescence, they also engage in normative developmental processes, and their engagement in such processes is linked with better adjustment.     

Hope,Friends, and Subjective Well‐Being: A Social Network Approach to Peer Group Contextual Effects

Research on adolescence has previously shown that factors like depression and burnout are influenced by friendship groups. Little research, however, has considered whether similar effects are present for variables such as hope and subjective well‐being. Furthermore, there is no research that considers whether the degree of hope of an adolescent's friends is associated with well‐being over the individual's level of hope. Data were collected in 2012 from a sample of 15‐year‐olds (N = 1,972; 62% Caucasian; 46% identified as Catholic; 25% had professional parents) from the East Coast of Australia. Findings suggest that individuals from the same friendship group were somewhat similar in hope and well‐being. Multilevel structural equation modeling indicated that friendship group hope was significantly related to psychological and social well‐being.     

Accent,Language, and Race: 4–6‐Year‐Old Children's Inferences Differ by Speaker Cue

Three experiments examined 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds' use of potential cues to geographic background. In Experiment 1 (N = 72), 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds used a speaker's foreign accent to infer that they currently live far away, but 6‐year‐olds did not. In Experiment 2 (N = 72), children at all ages used accent to infer where a speaker was born. In both experiments, race played some role in children's geographic inferences. Finally, in Experiment 3 (N = 48), 6‐year‐olds used language to infer both where a speaker was born and where they currently live. These findings reveal critical differences across development in the ways that speaker characteristics are used as inferential cues to a speaker's geographic location and history.     

Now you see me,now you don’t: From reader to student and back again in A‐Level English literature

In this paper I investigate students’ experience of the assessment regime in A‐Level English literature, and present data from a small‐scale interview study with students intending to study English at university. Research has shown that students experience conflict between reading for pleasure and reading for assessment; and I draw upon Bernstein’s work on invisible and visible pedagogies to explain how the personal response hinders interpretation of text they do not find pleasurable. Interview data explore some strategies that students might adopt, perhaps helping us to understand how they become, or fail to be, successful.