Despite the fact that bullying has been consistently linked to moral disengagement among schoolchildren, research that distinguishes among the four loci of moral disengagement (cognitive restructuring, minimizing one's agentive role, distorting consequences, and victim attribution) to better understand bullying is scarce. The aim of this…

Youths' development can be positively or negatively impacted by various factors in their internal and external environment. This study investigated the interactive effects of self-regulation and internalizing and externalizing problems on academic achievement (reading and maths) and positive youth development (PYD) across one year. Data were…

This study investigated gender disparities in students' science motivational beliefs, conceptualized as self-concept and intrinsic value, from Grades 4 to 8 in 22 countries. The gender-specific relation between science motivational beliefs and achievement was also scrutinized. Data from the 2011 and 2015 national cohorts of the Trends in…

Shy children display wariness in unfamiliar social situations and often experience feelings of social anxiety. This study explored the potential mediating role of cognitive biases in the link between shyness and social anxiety in early adolescence. In particular, we focused on judgments of the probability and cost of negative social situations…

The aim of this study is to identify the perceptions of democracy of primary school students, identify the factors that affect these, and compare the results with those obtained from other countries. The research was carried out during the 2011-2012 school year with 1,667 students from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades who were chosen from 26 cities in…

Social psychological interventions in schools have gained popularity in education research for their ability to often dramatically increase student academic performance through simple exercises. Many of these interventions are designed to address stereotype threat, which is defined as "being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a…

Background: Motivational interference is defined as the amount of impairment in a target activity due to the incentives of a non-chosen attractive alternative. The amount to which pupils experience motivational interference while studying or while performing a leisure activity in a school-leisure conflict situation is seen as depending on the…

Students (N = 221) in an intermediate school (grades 5-8) in a rural area of the Southwestern United States completed a survey regarding their familiarity with technology and their experiences with cyberbullying during the school year. Initial evidence of survey reliability is presented. In the sample, 1.5% of participants were classified as…

This study was designed to examine the extent to which "content" accounts for variance in scores assigned in automated essay scoring protocols. Specifically it was hypothesised that certain writing genre would emphasise content more than others. Data were drawn from 1668 essays calibrated at two grade levels (6 and 8) using "e-rater[TM]", an…

This study tested whether an individual's beliefs about the importance of appearance in their life is a mediator of sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction in young girls. Participants were 265 girls in Grades 4 to 7 (M age = 10.71 years) from 5 private primary schools in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. Girls completed…

Using data from Grades 5, 6, and 7 of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the role of intentional self-regulation in the positive development of young adolescents was examined through use of the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) measure. Consistent with Gestsdóttir and Lerner (2007), results of confirmatory factor…

Two studies used latent growth-curve analysis to examine the relation between witnessing violence and changes in problem behaviors (drug use, aggression, and delinquency) and attitudes during early adolescence. In Study 1, six waves of data covering 6th to 8th grades were collected from 731 students in urban schools serving mostly African-American…