The current longitudinal study examined the predictive associations between the development of future perceptions in adolescence and depressive symptoms in adolescence and early and middle adulthood. Participants (N = 1,527; 48.3% female; broadly representative of Western Germany with respect to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status) were…

The architecture of sleep undergoes distinct changes during childhood and early adolescence. Slow wave sleep is involved in memory processing and may support active consolidation of newly encoded representations to support the formation of abstracted "gist" memories. Here, we examined sleep and overnight memory formation in German school…

In Western cultures, life narratives are typically expected to recount the narrator's life from birth to the present. Disparate autobiographical memories need to be integrated into a more or less coherent story, which is facilitated by an overarching temporal macrostructure. The temporal macrostructure consists of elaborated beginnings that…

One way to avert negative influences on well-being when confronted with blocked goals is the flexible adjustment of one's goals to the given situation. This study examines developmental differences in flexible goal adjustment (FGA) regarding age and gender in a sample of N = 815 participants (10 to 20 years; M = 13.63, SD = 2.60, 48.5% male).…

Despite the growing research on emotion regulation, the empirical evidence for normative age-related emotion regulation patterns is rather divergent. From a life-span perspective, normative age changes in emotion regulation may be more salient applying the same methodological approach on a broad age range examining both growth and decline during…

Examined research involving over 3,000 adolescents from various cultures to determine problems typical of this developmental phase and ways of coping with normative demands. Found that adolescents' response to problems stemming from different developmental fields such as parents, peers, school, or future involved three main modes of coping: Active…

It has been suggested (Youniss and Smollar, 1985) that the re-negotiation of the parent-adolescent relationship involves processes of separation and connectedness, with separation characterized, among other indicators, as the withdrawing of information by adolescents in order to establish territories that are unsupervised by the parents. This…

Estimated the frequency, comorbidity, and psychosocial impairment of depressive disorders from survey of 1,035 German 12- to 17-year-olds. Found that 17.9 percent met the lifetime criteria for depressive disorders, according to DSM-IV criteria; criteria were higher in females than in males. Rates for all disorders increased with age, with…

Examined whether the former East Germany has produced authoritarian personalities and whether there is age and gender variation on authoritarianism regardless of culture. Subjects were 552 West German, 320 East German, and 619 American adolescents. Found that all three cultures have similar proclivities to exhibit an authoritarian character…

In this introduction to the special journal issue on stress and coping, stress and coping theory is reviewed. Notes that issue is devoted to coping with stressors during transition of adolescence; age and gender differences in stress and coping; influence of close relationship as stress buffer; relationship between coping and adaption; and…

Considers the problems inherent in researching changes in social values and individual perspectives among selected age groups. Asserts that studies aimed at researching both aspects need to be organized as longitudinal studies. Utilizes data taken from a study of East and West Berlin adolescents to reveal specific research problems. (MJP)