The Structure and Coherence of Competence from Childhood through Adolescence

The structure and coherence of competence from childhood (ages 8–12) to late adolescence (ages 17–23) was examined in a longitudinal study of 191 children. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test a conceptual model and alternative models. Results suggest that competence has at least 3 distinct dimensions in childhood and 5 in adolescence. These dimensions reflect developmental tasks related to academic achievement, social competence, and conduct important at both age levels in U.S. society, and the additional tasks of romantic and job competence in adolescence. As hypothesized, rule-breaking versus rule-abiding conduct showed strong continuity over time, while academic achievement and social competence showed moderate continuity. Results also were consistent with the hypothesis that antisocial behavior undermines academic attainment and job competence.     

The Relation Between Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement Across Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-Analysis

This research synthesis explores how academic achievement relates to two main components of self-regulated learning for students in elementary and secondary school. Two meta-analyses integrated previous findings on (1) the defining metacognitive processes of self-regulated learning and (2) students’ use of cognitive strategies. Overall correlations were small (metacognitive processes, r?=?0.20; cognitive strategies, r?=?0.11), but there was systematic variation around both of them. Five moderator analyses were conducted to explain this variation. Average correlations significantly differed based on the specific process or strategy, academic subject, grade level, type of self-regulated learning measure, and type of achievement measure. Follow-up tests explored the nature of these differences and largely support the hypotheses. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Understanding Transgender Identity Development in Childhood and Adolescence

Many sexuality educators and professionals, even those involved in program development and planning, are not aware of the biological and social factors involved in gender identity development in youth. As such, this topic is often not as well addressed in whole life educational curricula as better understood topics, such as reproductive anatomy, puberty, and contraception. This review article is intended to provide an overview of gender identity development in childhood and adolescence, in order to encourage better integration of comprehensive understandings of gender identity into new sexuality education curricula through the inclusion of specific information about transgender and other gender nonconforming identities.     

Development of Equity Preferences in Boys and Girls Across Adolescence

The aim of the current study was to examine the development of equity preferences across adolescence, for boys and girls separately. Participants from 8 to 18 years old (M = 14.09 years; N = 1,216) played four economic allocation games. Analyses revealed a decrease in equity preferences with age and this decrease was stronger for boys than for girls. There was also an age‐related increase in the preference for efficient outcomes (i.e., maximization of total available resources), which was again stronger for boys than for girls. Overall, although equity remains as a strong social norm, adolescents are decreasingly strict in adhering to the equity norm and show increasing flexibility in equity preferences.     

Inhibitory Control During Emotional Distraction Across Adolescence and Early Adulthood

This study investigated the changing relation between emotion and inhibitory control during adolescence. One hundred participants between 11 and 25 years of age performed a go‐nogo task in which task‐relevant stimuli (letters) were presented at the center of large task‐irrelevant images depicting negative, positive, or neutral scenes selected from the International Affective Picture System. Longer reaction times for negative trials were found across all age groups, suggesting that negative but not positive emotional images captured attention across this age range. However, age differences in accuracy on inhibitory trials suggest that response inhibition is more readily disrupted by negative emotional distraction in early adolescence relative to late childhood, late adolescence, or early adulthood.     

Perceptions of Sibling Relationships during Middle Childhood and Adolescence

Children in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 were administered the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire. Relationships were rated as progressively more egalitarian across the 4 grade groups, with adolescents reporting less dominance and nurturance by their older siblings than younger participants. Adolescents also reported less companionship, intimacy, and affection with siblings than younger participants reported. Levels of perceived conflict with younger siblings were moderately high across all 4 grades, whereas ratings of conflict with older siblings were progressively lower across the 4 grades. The findings suggested that sibling relationships: (a) become more egalitarian and less asymmetrical with age, (b) become less intense with age, and (c) encompass experiences that are partially determined by the child's standing in the family constellation.     

Down Syndrome Temperament: The Stereotype at Middle Childhood and Adolescence

MOTHERS AND TEACHERS of 94 children (53 boys) with Down syndrome, between 8 and 14 years of age, rated the children on a temperament scale and provided an overall impression as to whether the child was difficult in comparison with other children. Maternal ratings on the Middle Childhood Questionnaire showed significant differences from standardization scores. Children with Down syndrome were given ratings as less active, more predictable, of more positive mood, less persistent, and more distractible. Some of these dimensions favour the amiable personality stereotype for the syndrome but low persistence was associated with maternal impressions of difficulty. There was little agreement between mothers and teachers regarding the individual children who were rated as being significantly easier or more difficult than other children. Results with a subgroup (n = 32) showed that externalizing behaviours were significantly related to both mother and teacher impressions of difficulty and that mothers also found intense, active, distractible behaviour difficult.     

Changes in Beliefs About Category Homogeneity and Variability Across Childhood

Effective category‐based induction requires understanding that categories include both fundamental similarities between members and important variation. This article explores 4‐ to 11‐year‐olds’ (n = 207) and adults’ (n = 49) intuitions about this balance between within‐category homogeneity and variability using a novel induction task in which participants predict the distribution of a property among members of a novel category. Across childhood, children learned to recognize variability within categories—showing increasing sensitivity to the role of property type and domain in constraining inferences. Children below the age of 6 showed evidence for a domain‐general assumption that categories are homogeneous—generalizing properties broadly to 100% of category members. These studies support important developmental changes in category representations that may influence category‐based induction.     

Developmental Precursors of Relational Aggression From Late Childhood Through Adolescence

Relational aggression—a psychological form of aggression—has numerous negative consequences for physical and emotional health. However, little is known about the risk factors that lead youth to engage in relational aggression. Using multimethod data from a longitudinal research of 674 Mexican-origin youth, this study examined the influence of parents, siblings, and peers on the development of relational aggression. Increases in relational aggression from age 10 to 16 were associated with: (a) low levels of parental monitoring and (b) increased association with deviant peers and siblings. These results held across gender and nativity status. The findings suggest that multiple socialization agents contribute to the development of relational aggression. We discuss the practical implications for reducing relational aggression during adolescence.     

High Educational Expectations and Low Achievement: Stability of Educational Goals Across Adolescence

Abstract

Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 were used to investigate variables that predicted stability of adolescents' postsecondary educational expectations from Grade 8 to 2 years after high school. The study included students who had early expectations for at least a bachelor's degree as well as 8th-grade reading or mathematics test scores that were below the median. All participants had high early expectations and comparatively low early achievement. Six years later, approximately 76% of the participants still had high expectations, whereas 24% of them no longer expected to earn a bachelor's degree. Results provide support for the addition of variables to the social cognitive model of educational achievement when predicting long-term educational expectations and attainment.     

Spontaneous Self‐Distancing and Adaptive Self‐Reflection Across Adolescence

Experiments performed primarily with adults show that self‐distancing facilitates adaptive self‐reflection. However, no research has investigated whether adolescents spontaneously engage in this process or whether doing so is linked to adaptive outcomes. In this study, 226 African American adolescents, aged 11–20, reflected on an anger‐related interpersonal experience. As expected, spontaneous self‐distancing during reflection predicted lower levels of emotional reactivity by leading adolescents to reconstrue (rather than recount) their experience and blame their partner less. Moreover, the inverse relation between self‐distancing and emotional reactivity strengthened with age. These findings highlight the role that self‐distancing plays in fostering adaptive self‐reflection in adolescence, and begin to elucidate the role that development plays in enhancing the benefits of engaging in this process.     

Contributions of Reward Sensitivity to Ventral Striatum Activity Across Adolescence and Early Adulthood

It was examined how ventral striatum responses to rewards develop across adolescence and early adulthood and how individual differences in state‐ and trait‐level reward sensitivity are related to these changes. Participants (aged 8–29 years) were tested across three waves separated by 2 years (693 functional MRI scans) in an accelerated longitudinal design. The results confirmed an adolescent peak in reward‐related ventral striatum, specifically nucleus accumbens, activity. In early to mid‐adolescence, increases in reward activation were related to trait‐level reward drive. In mid‐adolescence to early adulthood decreases in reward activation were related to decreases in state‐level hedonic reward pleasure. This study demonstrates that state‐ and trait‐level reward sensitivity account for reward‐related ventral striatum activity in different phases of adolescence and early adulthood.     

Behavioral and Neural Pathways Supporting the Development of Prosocial and Risk-Taking Behavior Across Adolescence

This study tested the pathways supporting adolescent development of prosocial and rebellious behavior. Self-report and structural brain development data were obtained in a three-wave, longitudinal neuroimaging study (8–29 years, N = 210 at Wave 3). First, prosocial and rebellious behavior assessed at Wave 3 were positively correlated. Perspective taking and intention to comfort uniquely predicted prosocial behavior, whereas fun seeking (current levels and longitudinal changes) predicted both prosocial and rebellious behaviors. These changes were accompanied by developmental declines in nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) volumes, but only faster decline of MPFC (faster maturity) related to less rebellious behavior. These findings point toward a possible differential susceptibility marker, fun seeking, as a predictor of both prosocial and rebellious developmental outcomes.     

Behavioral Inhibition in Early Childhood and Adjustment in Late Adolescence in China

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition in toddlerhood and social, school, and psychological adjustment in late adolescence in China. Data on behavioral inhibition were collected from a sample of 2-year-olds (initial N = 247). Follow-up data were collected at 7 years for peer relationships and 19 years for adjustment across domains. The results showed that early inhibition positively predicted later social competence and school adjustment. Peer relationships in middle childhood served as a protective factor in the development of depression of inhibited children. The results indicate the distinct functional meaning of behavioral inhibition in the Chinese context from a developmental perspective.     

Early Warning Signs of Functional Illiteracy: Predictors in Childhood and Adolescence

Early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence determinants of functional literacy in adulthood are investigated, using 20-year longitudinal data from a sample of black children of teenaged mothers from the Baltimore metropolitan area. Document literacy was assessed by a test that consisted of a subset of items of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) adult literacy test. The Baltimore sample is compared to the NAEP sample. Family environmental factors, early childhood developmental level, and educational career factors were considered as predictors of young adulthood literacy. Preschool cognitive and behavioral functioning is highly predictive of literacy in young adulthood, even when the effects of family environmental characteristics, including living arrangements, the quality of the home environment, maternal education, and income, are controlled. Grade failure in elementary school is also associated with literacy, but this effect disappears when the measure of preschool abilities is controlled. Family environmental factors that are predictive of literacy include maternal education, family size in early childhood, maternal marital status, and income in middle childhood and early adolescence. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Daily Companionship in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Changing Developmental Contexts

The study employs time-sampling data to examine age differences in the quantity and quality of children's and young adolescents' daily experience with their families, friends, and alone. Participants (ages 9-15) carried electronic pagers for 1 week and reported their companionship, location, and affect at random times when signaled by the pagers. Findings show a dramatic decline in amount of time spent with family, with older students reporting half as much time with their families as younger students. Among boys, this family time was replaced by time spent alone; among girls, by time alone and with friends. Affect reported when with family became less positive between the fifth and seventh grade, but was more positive again in the ninth grade for boys. Affect with friends became more favorable across this age period; affect when alone did not vary. These age differences suggest changes in adolescents' daily opportunities for cognitive growth, emotional development, and social support.     

汉字的系统性与汉字认知

汉字是记录汉语的符号体系,有其自身的系统性。探求汉字的系统性,并力所能及地对其加以利用,在汉字认知上具有显而易见的意义。汉字的偏旁不但具有构形的功能,而且具有表示音义的功能,因而合体汉字偏旁之间不仅有外部结构关系,也有内部结构关系。汉字的系统性体现在形、音、义3个方面,汉字的字形系统因外在的形体联系而形成,汉字的读音系统因内在的读音联系而形成,汉字的意义系统因内在的意义联系而形成。汉字虽然繁难,但认知得法也可以化难为易,至少可以减轻难度,提高效率。所谓得法,就是了解汉字内在的系统性,然后循着汉字的系统性去进行认知。为了减轻汉字认知的难度,提高汉字认知的效率,至少可以从以下几方面作出努力:其一,以必要的汉字的理论知识为指导,提高学习者汉字认知能力;其二,以偏旁为纲,把一个个汉字放到整个系统中去学习,力求取得纲举目张的效果;其三,通过结构分析和字族字系联来培养汉字系统认知能力。     

Examining the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education

Reggio Emilia, a prosperous region in Northern Italy, is the site of one of the most innovative, high-quality city-run infant-toddler and pre-primary systems in the world. The Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education draws from the ideas of many great thinkers, yet it is much more than an eclectic mix of theories. With that in mind, the following points concerning the learner, the instructor, and knowledge serve to guide the Reggio Emilia Approach to educating young children: the learner possesses rights, is an active constructor of knowledge, and is a social being; the instructor is a collaborator and co-learner along with the child, a guide and facilitator, and a researcher; and knowledge is viewed as being socially constructed, encompassing multiple forms of knowing, and comprised of meaningful wholes.     

Transactional Links Between Social Anxiety Symptoms and Parenting Across Adolescence: Between- and Within-Person Associations

This 4-year longitudinal multi-informant study examined between- and within-person associations between adolescent social anxiety symptoms and parenting (parental psychological control and autonomy support). A community sample of 819 adolescents (46.1% girls; M_ageT₁ = 13.4 years) reported annually on social anxiety symptoms and both adolescents and mothers reported on parenting. Between-person associations suggested that adolescent social anxiety symptoms were associated with higher adolescent- and mother-reported psychological control and lower mother-reported autonomy support. At the within-person level, however, mothers reported lower psychological control and higher autonomy support after periods with higher adolescent social anxiety symptoms. Our findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing among between-person and within-person associations and including perceptions of both dyad members in longitudinal research concerning parenting and adolescent mental health.