This study examined the development of social skills across five measurement points from 4th through 7th grade, and the influence of child gender and school-related factors on the level and growth of social skills, in a large sample of normally developing children in Norway (N = 2,076). On average, children's social skills scores increased…

At school entry, girls are rated by teachers as more competent on measures of social skills than boys. It is less clear if this higher rating is stable or grows over time. To address this question, multiple group curve of factors models investigated gender-specific growth trajectories across seven waves of measurement in a large, longitudinal…

Parents play an important role in adolescents' development of empathy. However, less understood is what dimensions of parental behavior predict changes in empathy during early adolescence and whether effects of parental behavior are moderated by pubertal timing or differ by sex. This study used data from an ethnically diverse sample of 704 youth…

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare social emotional skills and prosocial behaviour among 15-16-year-old adolescent athletes and non-athletes. The measures of social emotional skills and prosocial behaviour were evaluated using Schutte Self-Report Inventory, Self-control scale, Social Skills Rating System (Student form),…

The present study used a large sample of mostly non-resident fathers (74%) to determine whether father-school involvement (e.g. attending parent-teacher conferences) predicted better academic and social emotional skills after controlling for the influence of mother-school involvement, the quality of children's home learning environment, and…

We report here findings from a community-based multifaceted prevention program which was implemented concomitantly as a universal and indicated intervention. Screening of social competence development was used to select preschool children targeted by the indicated intervention (high risk), and by the universal intervention (moderate and low risk).…

Pregnancy and early motherhood involve uncertainty and change, which can evoke mental health problems. We identified maternal mental health trajectories in pre- and postnatal period, and examined their association with later child mental health and development. Finnish mothers reported psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire [GHQ-36])…

Using data from the first 2 phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, the authors examine the links between maternal employment in the first 12 months of life and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children at age 3, at age 4.5, and in first grade. Drawing on theory and prior research from developmental psychology as well as…

Prior research has documented that classroom-level variables have a significant effect on student outcomes; however, previous findings have typically focused on average student outcomes and have only recently begun to use hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of classroom-level variables on the…

This study uses geocoded address data and information about parents' economic behavior and children's development from four random-assignment welfare and anti-poverty experiments conducted during the 1990s. We find that the impacts of these welfare and anti-poverty programs on boys' and girls' developmental outcomes during the transition to early…

Dyadic shared-reading and oral storytelling practices and their association to American preschoolers' (N = 33) prosocial and problem behaviour was examined. The frequency (how often dyads read) and history (the child's age at first reading) were examined within shared-reading; emotion state talk and evaluative judgments were examined in both…

School readiness assessment is a prominent feature of early childhood education. Because the construct of readiness is multifaceted, we examined children's patterns on multiple indicators previously found to be both theoretically and empirically linked to school readiness: social skill, interactions with parents, problem behavior, and performance…

This paper will review several important constructs in the area of social and emotional development of children in grades 2-5. The importance of social and emotional development has become increasingly evident in light of new research on the brain and the development of programs to prevent social and behavioral disorders in youth. This review will…