This 2-year longitudinal study examined relations between enjoyment of learning in Chinese and mathematics, two major subjects in Chinese schools, and indexes of school performance. The participants included 1041 students (501 boys) initially in third, fifth, and seventh grades (mean age = 10.49 years) in China. Data on enjoyment of Chinese and…

Three hundred and ninety-one children (195 girls; M[subscript age] = 9.56 years) attending Grades 1 and 5 completed implicit and explicit measures of math attitudes and math self-concepts. Math grades were obtained. Multilevel analyses showed that first-grade girls held a strong negative implicit attitude about math, despite no gender differences…

This article examined parenting styles and prosocial behaviors as longitudinal predictors of academic outcomes in U.S. Mexican youth. Adolescents (N = 462; Wave 1 M[subscript age] = 10.4 years; 48.1% girls), parents, and teachers completed parenting, prosocial behavior, and academic outcome measures at 5th, 10th, and 12th grades.…

This longitudinal study examined the influence of parents' educational attitudes on adolescents' educational attitudes and identified antecedents (i.e., parent education, family income, and parent acculturation), consequences (i.e., academic achievement and engagement), and a potential moderator (i.e., adolescent acculturation) of the transmission…

This study used short-term longitudinal data to examine the contributions of democratic teaching practices (e.g., the Developmental Designs approach) and equitable school climate to civic engagement attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among 515 Black and Latino middle school students (47.9% male). Concurrent experiences of democratic homeroom and…

This study examined changes in and predictors of preference for same-ethnic friendships among German (N = 106) and Turkish (N = 45) preadolescents (M age = 10.4 years) during their 1st year in an ethnically heterogeneous school. Drawing on the contact hypothesis, it examined the relation between children's attitudes and their preference for…

Evidence indicates that peer victimization is predictive of later maladjustment, but the mechanisms by which harassment impairs development have yet to be identified. The objectives of this study were (a) to discern normative trends in peer victimization experiences and self- and peer perceptions during preadolescence and (b) to investigate…

Used social network analysis to investigate the peer group as context for socialization of young adolescents' school motivation and achievement. Found that students' Fall peer context predicted changes in liking and enjoyment of school and achievement over the year. Students' peer context was unrelated to changes in their beliefs about the…

Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit…

Examined the role of individual characteristics and peer influences in evoking early substance abuse in young boys. Individual characteristics, such as fighting, hyperactivity, oppositional behaviors, and likability, were found to be pivotal in the development of substance abuse--more than friends' deviance. Results suggest that prevention…

Used new administration procedure of Self Description Questionnaire to assess dimensions of young children's self-concept in a multicohort-multioccasion study. Found that the scale's reliability and stability improved with age and from one year to the next. Gender differences were stable over age. Time 1 teacher ratings contributed to the…