Adolescent risky behaviors are often interpreted as products of self-control failures stemming from a developmental mismatch between reward processing and cognitive control systems. However, adolescents -- much like adults -- may also engage in risky behaviors because of conscious and deliberate (even if objectively poor) decisions. It is not easy…

In this article, I discuss major theoretical and methodological issues in the study of cultural meanings of children's behaviors. Research in this area is conducted mainly through assessing individual beliefs using hypothetical vignettes or other self-report methods. I argue that it is important to investigate functional meanings of children's…

A transactional model was used to examine the reciprocal relationship between maternal negativity and child externalizing behavior over three time points. Data were collected from 1,479 children and their mothers every two years, as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). Children were 10-11 years old at Time 1,…

Social relations of second grade students (247 boys, 290 girls) were examined in rural elementary classrooms. Cluster analysis of teacher ratings was used to identify interpersonal competence configurations including perceived unpopular-aggressive (i.e., "Troubled") and perceived popular-aggressive (i.e., "Tough") subtypes for…

The aim of this study was to examine whether there was variation in levels of psychological adjustment among children conceived through Assisted Reproductive Technologies using the parents' gametes (homologous), sperm donation, egg donation, embryo donation and surrogacy. Information was provided by parents about the psychological functioning of…

This study examined associations between infant-mother attachment, assessed using Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 12-months, and mother-child narrative co-construction in 110 Israeli mothers and their 71/2 year-old children to examine aspects of Bowlby's (1973) notion of "Goal-Corrected Partnerships". Narrative co-constructions were…

In adolescence, externalized problems such as risk taking and antisocial behavior are more frequent in boys. This suggests that there are differences in the way boys and girls evaluate risk and make decisions during this period. To explore decision making and highlight possible gender differences, 124 adolescents at a junior secondary school…

Cross-cultural differences in emotional expressions following disappointment were examined in 59 Chinese American (CA) and 58 European American (EA) children. Children aged four or seven participated in a disappointing gift situation. Dimensions of expressive behaviors following disappointment were coded and included positive, negative, social…

We investigated the development of ego-control (EC) and ego-resiliency (ER) over a 13-year period in a cohort of Swedish children first assessed at 2 years of age. Children became more ego-controlled over time although individual differences in EC remained stable. Children's levels of resiliency increased from 2 to 3 years of age and then declined…

This study addresses the utility of the resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled personality prototypes for predicting children's and adolescents' problem behaviour in a longitudinal general population sample (N = 491). Both parents and one child participated in the study at two measurement occasions separated by a 3-year interval. The major…

Aggressive behavior in childhood has long been separated into that which is proactively motivated and that which is reactive. We report a meta-analytic review of the existing empirical literature that examines the associations of each type of aggression with six indices of psychosocial adjustment: internalizing problems, emotional dysregulation…

The psychological adjustment of ethnic minority children has received little research attention, particularly in Britain. The present study set out to investigate the adjustment of Indian children living in Britain as well as the adjustment of their English peers. The sample consisted of 125 children (66 Indian and 59 English) between the ages of…

In the current study, 466 children completed a peer nomination survey assessing both perceived and sociometric popularity at the end of the 5th grade. Measures of behavior problems were assessed through a composite of peer-, teacher- and self-reports at the end of the 8th grade. Examination of the unique concurrent associations of each popularity…

The present study used a family systems approach to examine harsh parenting, maternal depressed affect, and marital quality in relation to children's externalising behaviour problems in a sample of 158 Hong Kong primary school children. At two time points, peers and teachers provided ratings of children's externalising behaviours, and mothers…

Negative emotionality and poor attention may combine or interact as risk factors in development. Negative emotionality is considered a challenge for self-regulation, whereas good attention is a potential means of self-regulation. In the current study, composites of 1- and 2-year maternal ratings of negative emotionality and global ratings of…