Executive function (EF) has rarely been considered for adolescents' daily school outcomes or in conjunction with ethnic/racial discrimination. Using 2-week, daily data from 137 ethnic/racial minority adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14.56; 53% female; 56% Black, 19% Latinx, 7% Asian, 7% Native, 12% other [e.g., multiracial]) in the Midwest United…

Developmental delays in cognitive flexibility early in elementary school can potentially increase vulnerability for subsequent externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. The first goal of the current study was to identify latent subgroups of children characterized by different developmental trajectories of cognitive flexibility throughout…

The interrelationships between math and behavioral skill development prior to school entry are not well understood, yet have important implications for understanding how to best prepare young children for kindergarten. This study addresses this gap by utilizing a sample of 1,750 children (53% male; 47% White, 16% Black, 16% Hispanic, 8% Asian, and…

Existing research focused on social role destabilization (historical increases in role instability) and destandardization (historical increases in variability of role instability) has primarily focused on discrete social roles during discrete periods of development. Building on this work, we applied a macro approach to elucidate the extent to…

Parents commonly vocalize to infants to mitigate their distress, especially when holding them is not possible. Here we examined the relative efficacy of parents' speech and singing (familiar and unfamiliar songs) in alleviating the distress of 8- and 10-month-old infants (n = 68 per age group). Parent-infant dyads participated in 3 trials of the…

Children often answer questions when they do not have the requisite knowledge or when they do not understand them. We examined whether "ground rules" instruction--to say "I don't know," to tell the truth, and to correct the interviewer when necessary--assisted children in applying those rules during an interview about a past…

The current study examined the trajectory of gender role attitudes of 471 Mexican-origin adolescents (236 girls, 235 boys) from 5th grade (M[subscript age] = 10.86 years) to 11th grade (M[subscript age] = 16.75 years), investigating how situating identities (i.e., gender, nativity, SES), ethnic identity (i.e., ethnic pride), and familial context…

We assessed trajectories of children's internalizing symptoms, indexed through anxiety and depression, with a focus on the role of interactions between interparental marital conflict, children's sympathetic nervous system activity indexed by skin conductance level (SCL), and parasympathetic nervous system activity indexed by respiratory sinus…

Disadvantageous decision making is cited as one of the premier problems in childhood development, underlying risky behavior and causing adolescents to make poor choices that could prove detrimental later in life. However, there are relatively few studies looking at the development of decision making in children and adolescents, and fewer still…

Skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) was examined as a moderator of the association between harsh parenting at age 8 years and growth in child externalizing behavior from age 8 to age 10 (N = 251). Mothers and fathers provided reports of harsh parenting and their children's externalizing behavior; children also provided reports of harsh…

How do infants learn to perceive the backs of objects that they see only from a limited viewpoint? Infants' 3-dimensional object completion abilities emerge in conjunction with developing motor skills--independent sitting and visual-manual exploration. Infants at 4.5 to 7.5 months of age (n = 28) were habituated to a limited-view object and tested…

With a sample of 242 twins (135 girls, 107 boys) studied longitudinally, behavioral inhibition (BI) and inhibitory control (IC) measured at 3 years, as well as early and concurrent family process variables, were examined as predictors of shyness and of anxiety symptoms approximately 4 years later. Structured observational data from laboratory and…

Although many adolescents participate in sports and other types of organized activities, little extant research explores how youth development outcomes may vary for youth involved in different combinations of activities. The present study uses the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a large, nationally…

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…

Gains and losses in visual search were studied across the life span in a representative sample of 298 individuals from 6 to 89 years of age. Participants searched for single-feature and conjunction targets of high or low eccentricity. Search was substantially slowed early and late in life, age gradients were more pronounced in conjunction than in…