Child, Mother, Father, and Teacher Beliefs About Child Academic Competence: Predicting Math and Reading Performance in European American Adolescents.

Beliefs about child competence in math and reading have important implications for academic performance in adolescence. However, it is unclear whether children's own beliefs are the most important predictor of their academic performance or whether parents' and teachers' beliefs about child competence influence child academic performance. We assessed mothers', fathers', teachers', and children's beliefs about European American children's (N = 189) competence in math and reading at age 10 and children's math and language performance at ages 10, 13, and 18 years. Confirmatory factor models demonstrated that children's and teachers' beliefs had lower loadings on a latent variable of child competence in math and reading than mothers' beliefs. Children's self-competence beliefs in math and reading were not significantly correlated, suggesting children may use dimensional comparisons when assessing their own competence. Mothers', fathers', and teachers' assessments of child competence in math were strongly correlated with their assessments of child competence in reading. Controlling for stability in academic performance, family socioeconomic status, and other reporters, mothers and fathers who rated their children's math competence higher had adolescents who performed better in math, and fathers who rated their children's reading competence higher had adolescents who performed better in language tasks. However, children who rated their own competence higher in math and reading had lower math and language (for girls only) performance in adolescence. European American children may use dimensional comparisons that render them poorer judges of their math and reading competence than parents.

Developmental stability of scholastic, social, athletic, and physical appearance self-concepts from preschool to early adulthood.

BACKGROUND: Self-concept has meaningful relations with psychological functioning and well-being across the life span. Hence, it is important to understand how and when individual differences in multiple domains of self-concept begin to stabilize and whether individual differences remain stable throughout childhood and adolescence and into early adulthood. METHODS: We assessed individuals' (N = 372) scholastic, social, athletic, and physical appearance self-concepts at five waves over 20 years from age 4 to age 24. RESULTS: In general, stability was large, but medium-sized estimates were obtained for some domains over longer (e.g., 6-year) intervals. Indirect effects from preschool to early adulthood were small, but from age 14 to 24 were medium to large. Stabilities maintained significance independent of family socioeconomic status and global self-worth. Stability estimates were similar for boys and girls except over adolescence for scholastic self-concept, which was more stable for girls than boys. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple domains of self-concept constitute stable individual-difference characteristics, independent of global feelings of self-worth. Individuals who have high or low self-concepts early in development tend to maintain their relative standing into early adulthood suggesting points of intervention.

Long-Term Effects of Parenting and Adolescent Self-Competence for the Development of Optimism and Neuroticism.

Optimism and neuroticism have strong public health significance; however, their developmental precursors have rarely been identified. This study examined adolescents' self-competence and their parents' parenting practices as developmental origins of optimism and neuroticism in a moderated mediation model. Data were collected when European American adolescents (N = 290, 47% girls) were 14, 18, and 23 years old. Multiple-group path analyses with the nested data revealed that 14-year psychological control and lax behavioral control of both parents predicted lower levels of 18-year adolescence self-competence, which in turn predicted decreased 23-year optimism and increased neuroticism. However, the positive effects of warmth on 18-year optimism were stronger in the context of high maternal and paternal authoritativeness, and the positive effects of warmth on adolescent self-competence was attenuated by maternal authoritarianism. This study identified nuanced effects of parenting on adolescents' competence and personality, which point to important intervention targets to promote positive youth development.

Health-Risk Behavior Profiles and Reciprocal Relations With Depressive Symptoms From Adolescence to Young Adulthood.

PURPOSE: We examined co-occurrences of multiple health-risk behaviors among adolescents in a 5-year longitudinal design as well as their associations with mental health outcomes. METHODS: Latent transition analyses explored subgroups of adolescents (N = 229; 51% males) who engaged in distinct patterns of health-risk behaviors and transitions over time. Moreover, longitudinal relations between risk behavior profiles and depressive symptoms were also explored. RESULTS: We identified four latent profiles based on risk levels of safety and violence, sexual behavior, alcohol use, and marijuana and other drug use at both 18 years and 23 years: low risk, modest risk, medium risk, and high risk. Some adolescents maintained their latent profile membership over time, but more transitioned between risk profiles. Adolescents with more depressive symptoms had a higher probability of developing into the high-risk versus low-risk and modest risk profiles at 23 years. Adolescents in the high-risk, low-risk, and modest risk profiles at 18 years developed more depressive symptoms in young adulthood compared with medium risk adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a better understanding of the prevalence, distribution, and change patterns of health-risk profiles across adolescence and young adulthood in a European American sample. Reciprocal relations between high-risk profiles and depressive symptoms suggest the need for integrated but tailored prevention and intervention programs.

Cognitive Abilities, Social Adaptation, and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Childhood and Adolescence: Specific Cascade Effects Across Development.

Children's and adolescents' cognitive abilities, social adaptation, and externalizing behaviors are broadly associated with each other at the bivariate level; however, the direction, ordering, and uniqueness of these associations have yet to be identified. Developmental cascade models are particularly well-suited to (1) discern unique pathways among psychological domains and (2) model stability in and covariation among constructs, allowing for conservative tests of longitudinal associations. The current study aimed to identify specific cascade effects among children's cognitive abilities, social adaptation, and externalizing behaviors, beginning in preschool and extending through adolescence. Children (46.2 % female) and mothers (N = 351 families) provided data when children were 4, 10, and 14 years old. Cascade effects highlighted significant stability in these domains. Unique longitudinal associations were identified between (1) age-10 cognitive abilities and age-14 social adaptation, (2) age-4 social adaptation and age-10 externalizing behavior, and (3) age-10 externalizing behavior and age-14 social adaptation. These findings suggest that children's social adaptation in preschool and externalizing behavior in middle childhood may be ideal intervention targets to enhance adolescent well-being.

Adolescent-Peer Relationships, Separation and Detachment from Parents, and Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors: Linkages and Interactions.

Most research exploring the interplay between context and adolescent separation and detachment has focused on the family; in contrast, this investigation directs its attention outside of the family to peers. Utilizing a latent variable approach for modeling interactions and incorporating reports of behavioral adjustment from 14-year-old adolescents (N = 190) and their mothers, we examine how separation and detachment relate to adolescent peer relationships, and whether peer relationships moderate how separation and detachment relate to adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Positive peer relationships were both associated with lower detachment and sharply attenuated relations between detachment and higher adolescent internalizing and externalizing. Separation from parents was unrelated to peer relationships, and regardless of whether peer relationships were positive, separation was not related to adolescent internalizing and externalizing. We integrate these findings with those from family-focused investigations and discuss their substantive and clinical implications.

The relations of family members' unique and shared perspectives of family dysfunction to dyad adjustment.

Among a community sample of families (N = 128), this study examined how family members' shared and unique perspectives of family dysfunction relate to dyad members' shared views of dyad adjustment within adolescent-mother, adolescent-father, and mother-father dyads. Independent of a family's family perspective (shared perspective of family dysfunction), the adolescent's unique perspective was associated with lower security and higher conflict with both mother and father; the father's unique perspective was associated with lower security and higher conflict with the adolescent, as well as lower marital quality with mother; and the mother unique perspective was associated with lower marital quality with the father. Moreover, for adolescent-parent dyads, compared with the parent unique perspective, the adolescent unique perspective was more strongly associated with dyad adjustment. These findings indicate that both shared and unique views of the family system-the adolescent's unique view in particular-independently relate to the health of family subsystems. They also suggest that research, as well as therapeutic interventions, that focus on just the shared view of the family may miss important elements of family dysfunction.

Associations between child disabilities and caregiver discipline and violence in low- and middle-income countries.

Using nationally representative samples of 45,964 two- to nine-year-old children and their primary caregivers in 17 developing countries, this study examined the relations between children's cognitive, language, sensory, and motor disabilities and caregivers' use of discipline and violence. Primary caregivers reported on their child's disabilities and whether they or anyone in their household had used nonviolent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical violence toward the target child and believed that using corporal punishment is necessary. Logistic regression analyses supported the hypothesis that children with disabilities are treated more harshly than children without disabilities. The findings suggest that policies and interventions are needed to work toward the United Nations' goals of ensuring that children with disabilities are protected from abuse and violence.

Screening for developmental disabilities in developing countries.

Despite waxing international interest in child disability, little information exists about the situation of children with disabilities in developing countries. Using a culture-free screen for child disability from the 2005-2007 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, this study reports percentages of children in 16 developing countries who screened positive for cognitive, language, sensory, and motor disabilities, covariation among disabilities, deviation contrasts that compare each country to the overall effect of country (including effects of age and gender and their interactions), and associations of disabilities with the Human Development Index. Developmental disabilities vary by child age and country, and younger children in developing countries with lower standards of living are more likely to screen positive for disabilities. The discussion of these findings revolves around research and policy implications.

Mother-infant socioemotional contingent responding in families by adoption and birth.

Contingencies of three maternal and two infant socioemotional behaviors that are universal components of mother-infant interaction were investigated at 5 months in 62 mothers (31 who had adopted domestically and 31 who had given birth) and their first children (16 males in each group). Patterns of contingent responding were largely comparable in dyads by adoption and birth, although the two groups of mothers responded differentially to the two types of infant signals. Mothers in both groups were more responsive than infants in social and vocal interactions, but infants were more responsive in maternal speech-infant attention interactions. Family type × gender statistical interactions suggested a possible differential role of infant gender in establishing mother-infant contingencies in families by adoption and birth.

Family members' unique perspectives of the family: examining their scope, size, and relations to individual adjustment.

Using the McMaster Family Assessment Device (Epstein, Baldwin, & Bishop, 1983) and incorporating the perspectives of adolescent, mother, and father, this study examined each family member's "unique perspective" or nonshared, idiosyncratic view of the family. We used a modified multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis that (a) isolated for each family member's 6 reports of family dysfunction the nonshared variance (a combination of variance idiosyncratic to the individual and measurement error) from variance shared by 1 or more family members and (b) extracted common variance across each family member's set of nonshared variances. The sample included 128 families from a U.S. East Coast metropolitan area. Each family member's unique perspective generalized across his or her different reports of family dysfunction and accounted for a sizable proportion of his or her own variance in reports of family dysfunction. In addition, after holding level of dysfunction constant across families and controlling for a family's shared variance (agreement regarding family dysfunction), each family member's unique perspective was associated with his or her own adjustment. Future applications and competing alternatives for what these "unique perspectives" reflect about the family are discussed.

Basic language comprehension and production in >100,000 young children from sixteen developing nations.

Using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, language comprehension and production were compared in a sample of 101,250 children aged 2 ; 00 to 9 ; 11 and a focus subsample of 38,845 children aged 2 ; 00 to 4 ; 11 from sixteen under-researched developing nations. In the whole sample, comprehension slightly exceeded production; correlations between comprehension and production by country were positive and significant, but varied in size, and the average correlation was positive, significant, and small to medium. Mean comprehension and production varied with child age, reaching an asymptote at 5 ; 00, and correlations between comprehension and production by age were positive, significant, and similar at each age. In the focus subsample, comprehension exceeded production; correlations between comprehension and production by country were positive and significant, but varied in size, and the average correlation was positive, significant, and medium in size. Children in countries with lower standards of living were less likely to demonstrate basic language comprehension or production.

Stability, Continuity, and Similarity of Parenting Stress in European American Mothers and Fathers across their Child's Transition to Adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: Experiencing some degree of parenting stress is virtually unavoidable, particularly as children enter early adolescence and assert their independence. In this study, we examined how parenting stress attributed to the parent, the child, or the dyad changed in mean level and relative standing across their child's transition to adolescence. We also compared mothers and fathers from the same families in terms of parenting stress and explored how one parent's stress affected the other parent's stress. DESIGN: Participants included 222 European American parents (111 mothers and 111 fathers), assessed when their children were 10 and 14 years old. RESULTS: Parenting stress was highly stable from 10 to 14 years. Total parenting stress increased across time, and was attributable to stress due to increased parent-child dysfunctional interaction, not parental distress or stress due to child behavior. Mothers and fathers agreed moderately in their relative standing and in the average levels of parenting stress in the three different domains of parenting stress at each time point. Mothers' and fathers' stress across domains were sometimes related. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers' and fathers' increased parenting stress across their child's transition to adolescence seems to derive from parent-child interaction rather than qualities of the parent or the child per se. Finding ways to maintain parent-child communication and closeness may protect parents and families from increased stress during this vulnerable time.

Parenting stress, perceived parenting behaviors, and adolescent self-concept in European American families.

This study assesses whether the stresses associated with parenting a child are indirectly related to adolescent self-concept through parenting behaviors. We examined longitudinal associations among mothers' and fathers' parenting stress at age 10, children's perceptions of parenting at age 10, and adolescents' self-concept at age 14 in 120 European American families. Mothers' and fathers' parenting stress was related to children's perceptions of acceptance and psychologically controlling behavior, and psychologically controlling behavior (and lax control for fathers) was related to adolescent self-concept. We further examined which domains of parenting stress and perceived parenting behaviors were associated with adolescents' scholastic competence, social acceptance, physical appearance, and behavioral conduct. Parenting stress was related to specific parenting behaviors, which were, in turn, related to specific domains of self-concept in adolescence. Parenting stress appears to exert its effects on early adolescent self-concept indirectly through perceived parenting behavior.

Families by Adoption and Birth: I. Mother-Infant Socio-emotional Interactions.

The role of adoptive family dynamics in the etiology of both resilient and adverse developmental outcomes is not well understood. In this study, socio-emotional aspects of the mother-infant relationship were examined in families by adoption and by birth. Matched groups of mothers and their 5-month-old first babies were observed in the home setting. Dyads in the two groups were comparable in the frequency and ranking of a full array of age-appropriate behaviors. Group differences emerged for selected infant and maternal behaviors; infants by birth were in an alert state and smiled more often than infants by adoption, and adoptive mothers nourished and caressed their infants more than did mothers by birth. While the structure of the infant's behavior repertoire was similar for both groups, there were twice as many significant correlations among maternal behaviors for the birth group than for the adoptive group. There were also more correlations between maternal and infant behaviors for dyads by birth than for dyads by adoption, and the nature of the correlations differed for the two groups. It is argued that both groups of mothers and babies were functioning in the adaptive, healthy range, and that observed differences between them reflect subtle differences in behavioral emphasis, possibly related to the unique paths to parenthood represented by adoption and birth.

Families by Adoption and Birth: II. Mother-Infant Cognitive Interactions.

Adopted children are more likely to develop learning and school adjustment problems than are their non-adopted peers, despite the fact that learning potential appears to be comparable in the two groups. In an effort to explain this phenomenon, the present study examined cognitive behavior repertoires in healthy 5-month-old first infants and their mothers during their normal daily routine in families by adoption and by birth. Two areas of functioning, vocal/verbal communication and exploration, were examined. Infants and mothers in both groups were similar in the frequency and ranking of a full array of age-appropriate cognitive behaviors. Both groups of babies experienced rich and comparable opportunities for the development of language competence. In the exploratory realm, group differences emerged for some infant measures; infants by birth were in an alert state and mouthed objects more than infants by adoption. Examination of the linkages among infant behaviors and between mothers and infants suggested that, while mothers by birth and adoption provided comparable opportunities for exploration, infants by birth were engaging in exploratory behavior to a somewhat greater extent.

Maternal Sensitivity and Child Responsiveness: Associations with Social Context, Maternal Characteristics, and Child Characteristics in a Multivariate Analysis.

This study examined unique associations of multiple distal context variables (family socioeconomic status [SES], maternal employment, and paternal parenting) and proximal maternal (personality, intelligence, and knowledge; behavior, self-perceptions, and attributions) and child (age, gender, representation, language, and sociability) characteristics with maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness in 254 European American mothers and their firstborn 20-month-olds. Specific unique relations emerged in hierarchical regression analyses. Mothers who worked fewer hours per week and reported less dissonance in their husbands' didactic parenting, whose children spoke using more vocabulary, and who reported less limit setting in their parenting and attributed their parenting failures to internal causes were observed to be more sensitive in their interactions with their children. Children in higher SES families, whose mothers worked fewer hours and attributed their parenting failures to internal causes, and who themselves used more vocabulary were observed to be more responsive in their interactions with their mothers. Although potential associations are many, when considered together, unique associations with maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness are few, and some are shared whereas others are unique.

Enhancing academic performance by strengthening class-inclusion reasoning.

Class inclusion is an early form of abstract thought that requires logical rather than perceptually based inferences plus an appreciation of part-whole relationships (B. Inhelder and J. Piaget, 1959/1964). The authors randomly assigned 2 groups of first graders who were having academic difficulties to be instructed on either class inclusion or phonics. Results showed a significant linear relation between individual children's mastery of class inclusion and their scores on the Cognitive Abilities Test Form 6 (D. F. Lohman and E. P. Hagen, 2001) verbal and quantitative measures of reasoning. The authors also found a significant linear relation between mastery of class inclusion and improvement in report card marks issued by teachers who were blind to the children's group assignment.