This study examines whether youth's goals for their future societal engagement affect their future political activities. We hypothesized, first, that youth's political interest would be a central predictor of their future political activities and, second, that their goals for future societal engagement would moderate their political interest. The…

During emerging adulthood, family relationships remain salient. This study examined, from a gender perspective, continuity/discontinuity and stability/instability in family relationships, in a two-time repeated-measures study with Spanish emerging adult college students. It also analyzed the implications of the quality of parent--child…

Studies have demonstrated that being bullied in childhood may have long-term associations with lower psychological well-being in adulthood. However, although bullying incidents frequently target the victim's body and appearance, research has overlooked studying victims' long-term body image development and risk of engaging in disordered eating…

Despite the robust link between dispositional optimism and well-being across the lifespan, the developmental origins of dispositional optimism are unknown. Understanding the pathways that lead to greater optimism during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood may be important given that this stage of the life course involves the…

During periods of developmental crisis, individuals experience uncomfortable internal incongruence and are motivated to reduce this through forms of exploration of self, other and world. Based on this, we inferred that being in a crisis would relate positively to curiosity and negatively to a felt sense of authenticity. A quasi-experimental design…

The present study examined patterns of romantic pathways in 100 Israeli emerging adults (54 males) who were followed from age 22 to 29 years. Analyses of interviews at age 29 yielded four distinctive romantic pathways differing in stability and ability to learn from romantic experiences: "Sporadic," "Lengthy Relationships but…

A wealth of research suggests that youth whose parents use corporal punishment are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior during childhood and adolescence. Questions remain, however, about: (a) whether this relationship extends reliably to samples outside the US and Canada; (b) whether corporal punishment is associated with antisocial…

According to Blatt (2004; Blatt & Luyten, 2009) and others (e.g., Beck, Epstein, Harrison, & Emery, 1983), establishing positive self-definition and mature relatedness to others represent core lifespan developmental tasks. In a sample of emerging adults, this study examined the effects of the quality of one close friendship and changes in…

Dysregulated cortisol is a risk factor for poor health outcomes. Children of distressed mothers exhibit dysregulated cortisol, yet it is unclear whether maternal distress predicts cortisol activity in later developmental stages. This longitudinal study examined the prospective relation between maternal distress during late childhood (9-12 years)…

Drawing on data from a three-wave longitudinal study, the present research examined predictors of young adults' intentions to participate in politics and their actual political activities while referring to the broader assumptions of the theory of planned behavior. The analyses were based on a sample of university students from the federal state…

The study investigated long-term relations between moral emotion attributions in childhood and adolescence and antisocial conduct in early adulthood while taking into account potentially confounding personality factors. Specifically, onset of prediction, unique and indirect effects of moral emotion attributions were examined. In a longitudinal…

Drawing on Eccles' expectancy-value model of achievement-related choices, we examined the personal aptitudes and motivational beliefs at 12th grade that move individuals toward or away from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations at age 29. In the first set of analyses, occupational and lifestyle values, math ability…

Mothers of adolescents and adults with fragile X syndrome (FXS) are faced with high levels of parenting stress. The extent to which mothers are negatively impacted by this stress, however, may be influenced by their own genetic status. The present study uses a diathesis-stress model to examine the ways in which a genetic vulnerability in mothers…

We investigated longitudinal predictors for disordered eating from early adolescence to young adulthood (12-34 years) across gender and different developmental phases among Norwegian young people. Survey data from a population-based sample were collected at four time points (T) over a 13-year time span. A population-based sample of 5,679 females…

The present study examines two childhood markers of self-regulation, ego control and ego resiliency, as promotive factors for the development of global adjustment and as risk factors for the development of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a high-risk sample. Teachers and observers rated ego control and ego resiliency when…