Purpose: This study aims to empirically validate an innovative work behaviour-enhancing model of employability in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to examine possible moderating effects of age. Design/methodology/approach: Data have been collected from 487 pairs of employees and their immediate supervisors who worked in 151 SMEs.…

We present three statistical methods for causal analysis in life course research that are able to take into account the order of events and their possible causal relationship: a cross-lagged model, a latent growth model (LGM), and a synthesis of the two, an autoregressive latent trajectories model (ALT). We apply them to a highly relevant…

In this study, we investigated which componential skills can be distinguished in the second language (L2) development of 140 bilingual children with specific language impairment in the Netherlands, aged 6-11 years, divided into 3 age groups. L2 development was assessed by means of spoken language tasks representing different language skills…

The purpose of this study was to examine the directionality of the relationship between text reading prosody and reading comprehension in the upper grades of primary school. We compared 3 theoretical possibilities: Two unidirectional relations from text reading prosody to reading comprehension and from reading comprehension to text reading prosody…

The aim of this study was to explain adolescents' volunteering in terms of their morality and identity and to examine the moderation effect of gender and age in this process. Data were collected among 698 Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 20 (M = 15.19; SD = 1.43). Adolescents' moral reasoning was positively associated with understanding moral issues…

From all over the world there have been calls from governmental institutions to address a shortage of high quality teachers. As changing jobs generates new experiences, job mobility could be a way for teachers to adhere to the government's call to develop themselves into the teaching force needed. The research question of this study was: How do…

Teachers conceptualise and interpret violent behaviour of secondary students in different ways. They also differ in their estimates of the relevance of student and contextual school variables when explaining the severity of violence experienced by students. Research can assist here by explicating the role of different types of contextual school…

To locate objects in the environment, animals and humans use visual and nonvisual information. We were interested in children's ability to relocate an object on the basis of self-motion and local and distal color cues for orientation. Five- to 9-year-old children were tested on an object location memory task in which, between presentation and…

In this study, we investigated whether parental smoking-specific communication is related to adolescents' friendship-selection processes. Furthermore, we investigated whether adolescents and their best friends influence each other over time, and what role parents play in this process. In the present study we used data from the Family and Health…

In a longitudinal genetic study we explored which factors underlie stability in verbal and nonverbal abilities, and the extent to which the association between these abilities becomes stronger as children grow older. Measures of verbal and nonverbal IQ were collected in Dutch twin pairs at age 5, 7, 10, 12 and 18 years. The stability of both…

Two experiments were conducted to assess whether induced reciprocal imitation would generalize to an observer other than the one who imitated the child and to a task different from the one on which the child had been imitated. Subjects were 19 kindergartners and 23 first graders selected from a private elementary school in Holland. (MP)

A review of studies on identity status and of a study involving 2,557 Dutch adolescents who completed the Utrecht-Groningen Identity Development Scale (W. Meeus, 1993) supports a refinement of the identity status model that shows progressive developmental trends and indicates that the difference between high and low statuses increases with age.…

A random effects ordered response model of training is estimated to analyze the existence of training tracks and time varying coefficients in training frequency. Two waves of a Dutch panel survey of workers are used covering the period 1992-1996. The amount of training received by workers increased during the period 1994-1996 compared to…

This study of male and female adolescent delinquency trajectories focuses on the prediction of late adolescence delinquency, based on earlier delinquency and social support. In this 3-wave longitudinal survey, 270 Dutch adolescents (113 males and 157 females) ages 12 to 14, were followed for a period of 6 years. For males, the level of delinquent…

Guided by a conceptual model linking discrepancies between parent and adolescent developmental expectations and adolescent adjustment and the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, this study examined adolescent and parent beliefs about the age at which specific competencies should appear. Developmental timetables were grouped into…