Introduction/Background: In 2016, the Adolescent Motor Competence Questionnaire (AMCQ) was developed in Australia. The AMCQ was developed to assess perceived motor competence in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years. The 26 items represent four factors: participation in physical activity and sports, activities of daily living, public…

Research findings: Developing adequate socioemotional competencies is of great relevance for later health and academic outcomes. Shared book reading creates valuable social situations that provide opportunities to talk about characters' emotions and social interactions with children and thus might contribute to children's socioemotional…

International study results point to potential negative associations of time spent in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres in the first 3 years of a child's life and socio-emotional outcomes. However, the transferability of international results to the German ECEC system and the impact of characteristics of the home learning…

Cooperation between preschools and parents is one key dimension of pedagogical quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC). We examined the structural characteristics of ECEC that predict preschool cooperation activities and how they are associated with children's language and social-emotional skills at the age of 3. The results are based…

As a result of public discussions regarding Germany's standing on international rankings of student achievement, increased attention was focused on enhancing cognitive stimulation in preschools. There are some concerns that preschool curricula that focus more on cognitive stimulation rather than on socio-emotional skills might neglect the…

Experiencing the moral emotions of gratitude and moral elevation are responses to witnessing virtuous deeds of others. Both emotions have been found to share similar features and behavioral consequences, including the stimulation of personal development. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions indicates that gratitude and elevation…

A variety of studies have shown that social and academic integration are important indicators of future student success and satisfaction. They are therefore an important field of action for higher education development programmes. However, specifications of the theoretical models and empirical representations vary widely between researchers and…

Social--emotional competences are an important developmental domain for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children and early diagnosis of problems is needed to ensure that DHH children receive appropriate support in this domain. In order to explore the usefulness of an instrument, which was recently developed for very young children, two studies in…

Research Findings: A successful transition from preschool to elementary school requires a high level of behavioral adaptation. The aim of our study was to analyze child-related factors in preschool that facilitate a positive behavioral adaptation in the transitional period to elementary school. A cluster analysis was conducted with the data from…

Children's fine motor skills (FMS) are being increasingly recognized as an important aspect of preschool development; yet, we know very little about the experiences that foster their development. We utilized a parent-administered children's fine and gross motor activities questionnaire (MAQ) to investigate links with FMS. We recruited a sample of…

Although the decade for Education for Sustainable Development has been well promoted in Germany it still finds itself in a rather marginal position, both in the formal and in the informal educational sector. This is at least partly due to the status it is given in the political debate that leads to different expectations by different actors who…

Children develop linguistic competencies during interactions with more knowledgeable others. Consequently, one way to support this development is by enhancing the home literacy environment (HLE) in which children live. In this study a non-intensive intervention procedure was developed to improve HLE and linguistic competencies of 125 German…

Due to global water consumption and an intensification of the resulting consequences there is a need for education regarding sustainable water consumption. Regarding Education for Sustainable Development, the ongoing water use of the industrialized countries needs to be discussed in the classrooms. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present…

The number of foreign languages spoken in Germany is rising, and as a result German is increasingly being learned as a second language (L2). This is a challenge for many secondary-school students, especially those who have learning disabilities (LD) and behavioral difficulties, which are often accompanied by reduced motivation to learn, in this…

According to Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological model, school is an essential microsystem of the developing child. Schools provide important developmental contexts for children and adolescents, as they constitute environments that might either foster or evoke students' emotional instability. In particular, less is known about the precise and…