This study examined the association of friendships and popularity with adolescents' first-time involvement in a romantic relationship (referred to as romantic relationship debut). The aim of this article was twofold: first, to disentangle the unique effects of friendships and perceived popularity; second, to separate same- and cross-gender peer…

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the…

From a purely educationist perspective, gaining a deeper understanding of several aspects related to the prevalence of autism/ASD in a given population is of great value in planning and improving educational and psychological intervention for treatment, training, and teaching of children with this disorder. In this article, I present and discuss…

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…

This article describes a field experiment with a pretest-posttest control group design which investigated the potential of reading picture books to children for supporting their mathematical understanding. The study involved 384 children from 18 kindergarten classes in 18 schools in the Netherlands. During three months, the children in the nine…

Medical schools are increasingly faced with a more diverse student population. Generally, ethnic minority students are reported to underperform compared with those from the ethnic majority. However, there are inconsistencies in findings in different types of examinations. Additionally, little is known about the performance of first-generation…

The "OECD Skills Studies" series aims to provide a strategic approach to skills policies. It presents OECD internationally comparable indicators and policy analysis covering issues such as: quality of education and curricula; transitions from school to work; vocational education and training (VET); employment and unemployment; innovative…

The present study investigated differences between students sent to out-of-school facilities (N = 148), also called rebound facilities, and non-referred students (N = 411), in junior vocational high schools. Self-reports on externalizing and antisocial behaviors were used to compare the two samples. Referred students scored significantly higher on…

Research described risk factors for maternal use of harsh discipline, but knowledge about determinants of paternal harsh discipline is lacking. This study aimed to identify determinants of harsh discipline and whether this differed between mothers and fathers. Harsh disciplining practices were self-reported by Dutch parents of 3-year-old children.…

The results of a nationwide study of the citizenship competences of adolescents in the Netherlands are presented from the perspective of democratic citizenship in this article. Citizenship competences are defined as the knowledge, skills, attitudes and reflection needed by young people in a democratic and multicultural society to adequately fulfil…

The learning gains in reading of students in 57 classrooms in special primary education doubled as a result of implementing the Reading Impulse in Special Education (RISE) programme. Raising the scheduled reading time with 1.5 hr in all classrooms and implementing standards-based teaching characterised by "monitoring of pupil progress",…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a program that offered sustained strategic reading instruction on reading abilities of third and fourth graders. The study was conducted among 1,469 children from 40 schools in the Netherlands. Schools were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Multilevel…

The GOALS study (Grootschalig Onderzoek naar Activiteiten van Limburgse Scholieren [Large-scale Research of Activities in Dutch Students]) was set up to investigate possible associations between different forms of physical activity and inactivity with cognitive performance, academic achievement and mental well-being. It was conducted at a…

The present study examined the role of parental rearing behavior in adolescents' risky decision-making and the brain's feedback processing mechanisms. Healthy adolescent participants ("n" = 110) completed the EMBU-C, a self-report questionnaire on perceived parental rearing behaviors between 2006 and 2008 (T1). Subsequently, after an…

The study was conducted to look at differences between children who outgrew and did not outgrow an early diagnosis of mathematical learning disorder (MD; n=13), and peers without MD (n=13). Children were tested at 5, 6, 7 and 10 years of age. About 54% of the children with an early diagnosis of MD still experienced mathematical difficulties at the…