The understanding of nature and nurture within developmental science has evolved with alternating ascendance of one or the other as primary explanations for individual differences in life course trajectories of success or failure. A dialectical perspective emphasizing the interconnectedness of individual and context is suggested to interpret the…

This study uses multilevel models to examine longitudinal associations between contextual influences (neighborhood and family) assessed in 1983 in a cohort of 2,355 children, 4-16 years of age, and educational attainment in 2001. Variation in educational attainment in 2001 attributable to between-neighborhood and between-family differences was…

A model of conditional reasoning predicted that children under 12 would respond correctly to questions of uncertain logical form if premises and context enabled them to access counterexamples from memory, and that children's performance with uncertain logical forms would decrease when empirically true premises are presented in a fantasy context.…

When pioneering longitudinal studies of child development extended into adulthood, they generated issues that could not be addressed satisfactorily by available theories, including the recognition that individual lives are influenced by their ever-changing historical context and that human development concepts should apply to processes across the…

Suggests that the determinants of individual differences in parental functioning are illuminated by research on the etiology of child maltreatment. Three domains of determinants include parents' personal psychological resources, child characteristics, and contextual sources of stress and support. A process model of competent parental functioning…

Discrimination affects millions of children in the United States and throughout the world. Although the topic is important for both theoretical and applied reasons, little developmental work has examined children's perceptions of discrimination directed toward themselves and others. A review of past theoretical and empirical work on the perception…

Third- and fifth-graders, like adults, quickly named words preceded by either an incongruous or a normal incomplete sentence. Results (1) support the assumption that context effects on children's word recognition are caused by spreading-activation and expectancy-based-attentional processes operating simultaneously and (2) indicate that word…

Examined peer group contextual effects of aggressive behavior among middle school students. Found substantial within-group similarity on self-reported bullying and fighting, suggesting that students affiliate with individuals who bully and fight at the same frequency as they. Peer group bullying and fighting were associated with individual-level…

Explored the antecedents of the ambivalent attachment pattern in Israeli infants. Found that mothers of ambivalent infants showed lower education level, higher separation anxiety, and higher parenting stress than mothers of secure infants. Infants' perceived difficult temperament did not discriminate between the two groups. Longer maternal work…

Suggests that the study of memory needs to be situated within broader conceptual and research contexts. Examines how four contexts accommodate memory phenomena: (1) knowledge; (2) comprehension; (3) context/function; and (4) strategy. Suggests that memories are best examined as knowledge structures resulting from efforts to understand, and that…

Argues that extant research assessing relations between contextual factors and psychological disturbance has confused two different roles of context. Suggests that environmental factors are nonspecific stressors and elicit psychopathology, with specificity of expressed psychopathology governed by individual differences, and that context is…

Used contextual and transactional approach to examine age and gender differences in experience and consequences of life stress in clinic-referred 8- to 18-year olds. Found that adolescent girls experienced highest interpersonal stress, self-generated within parent-child and peer relationships. Preadolescent girls experienced highest independent…

Calls for a process-oriented approach to study of categorization in infancy. Maintains that further understanding of infant categorization and its changes with development requires a more direct assessment of infants' category formation. Argues that two research directions will enhance understanding of categorization: (1) contextual variations on…

Examined relationship between child behavior and peer preference from the person-group similarity and the social-skill models with 2,895 first graders. Found support for both predictive models, with the acceptability aggression and withdrawal varying across classrooms and the effects of inattentive/hyperactive behavior and prosocial behavior…

Discusses how social trends changed father involvement and family life, and in turn affected children's and fathers' developmental trajectories. Examines how today's children will construct expectations about fathers' and mothers' roles. Maintains that a life-span approach considers the broader sociohistorical context in which fatherhood develops.…