Connections between youth activity involvement and indicators of successful development were examined in a longitudinal high school sample. Drawing on theories of expertise skill development (e.g., J. Cote, 1999); the selection, optimization, and compensation framework (P. B. Baltes, 1997); and theories of positive youth development (e.g., R. M.…

Similarity in early adolescent friends' general aggressiveness is well known, but questions remain regarding the degree to which friends aggress against the same victims. The authors examined this by administering the newly created Dyadic Aggression and Victimization Inventory to 417 sixth- through eighth-grade boys and girls (53%). Friends …

Recently, "Developmental Psychology" published 2 articles on the shape bias; both rejected the authors' previous proposals about the role of attentional learning in the development of a shape bias in object name learning. A. Cimpian and E. Markman (2005; see record EJ733667) did so by arguing that the shape bias does not exist but is an…

The authors assert that L. B. Smith and L. Samuelson's (2006; see record EJ750228) most recent critique of A. E. Booth, S. R. Waxman, and Y. T. Huang's (2005; see record EJ684979) work missed its mark, deflecting attention from the important theoretical difference between the two sets of authors' positions and focusing instead on imagined…

The influence of adolescents' autonomy and relatedness to parents on romantic relationships was examined longitudinally over 5 years in 76 middle-class African American late adolescents (mean age = 18.43 years). Relatedness to parents in early adolescence led to longer duration and more supportive romantic relationships in late adolescence, but…

What do toddlers learn from everyday picture-book reading interactions? To date, there has been scant research exploring this question. In this study, the authors adapted a standard imitation procedure to examine 18- to 30-month-olds' ability to learn how to reenact a novel action sequence from a picture book. The results provide evidence that…

Recently, there has been an emergence of literature on the mechanisms through which parents transmit information, values, and perspectives about ethnicity and race to their children, commonly referred to as racial or ethnic socialization. This literature has sought to document the nature of such socialization, its antecedents in parents' and…

Prosocial behavior is important for the functioning of society. This study investigates the extent to which environment shared by family members, nonshared environment, and genetics account for children's prosocial behavior. The prosocial behavior of twins (9,424 pairs) was rated by their parents at the ages of 2, 3, 4, and 7 and by their teachers…

Data from the Children in the Community Transitions Study were used to examine gender differences in the impact of family contact on the development of finance and romance instrumentality from ages 17 to 27 years. Family contact decreased among both men and women across emerging adulthood, although it decreased more rapidly in men than in women.…

Two studies examined age differences in autobiographical reasoning within narratives about personal experiences. In Study 1 (n = 63), people completed brief interviews about turning points and crises in their lives. Older participants were more likely to narrate crises in ways that connected the experience to the speaker's sense of self, that is,…

In this study, the authors investigate emotional understanding in autism through a discourse analytic framework to provide a window into children's strategies for interpreting emotional versus nonemotional encounters and consider the implications for the mechanisms underlying emotional understanding in typical development. Accounts were analyzed…

The author examined relations among demographic risk (income, maternal education, single-parent status), growth in temperament (fear, irritability, effortful control), and parenting (rejection, inconsistent discipline) across 3 years and the prediction of children's adjustment problems in a community sample (N=190; ages 8-12 years at Time 1).…

The authors captured mother-child and father-child relationships when children were 7 and 15 months old by coding 4 explicitly dyadic components of mutually responsive orientation (MRO): coordinated routines, harmonious communication, mutual cooperation, and emotional ambiance. These components were coded in 102 families in naturalistic contexts…

This study inventoried the types of developmental and negative experiences that youth encounter in different categories of extracurricular and community-based organized activities. A representative sample of 2,280 11th graders from 19 diverse high schools responded to a computer-administered protocol. Youth in faith-based activities reported…

In this study, the author examines the patterns of leaving home in a sample of 93 participants and their parents. The quality of parent-child relationships, psychological symptomatology in adolescence and young adulthood, and attachment representation were assessed longitudinally from mid-adolescence to young adulthood. Attachment representation,…