By 12 months of age, infants exhibit behavioral sensitivity to sound symbolism (e.g. sound-shape correspondences) when they hear universally sound symbolic pseudowords (e.g. "bouba," "kiki"). Here, we investigated whether infant's sensitivity to sound-shape correspondences is affected when they hear language-specific sound…

Multicultural European societies increasingly demand internationally oriented citizens, who are willing to actively participate in civic life and able to successfully access the labour market. The European dimension in education supposedly endows youngsters with civic values, multiculturalist attitudes and plurilingual competences which ultimately…

A great part of the research in adolescent popularity is based on sociometric methods, not always distinguishing between social preference (acceptance or likeability) and perceived popularity (visibility or salience), which has practical and theoretical implications. The aim of this work was to analyze the features that a sample of 406 Spanish…

The seven papers in this issue address a variety of challenges that parents in several different cultural places encounter as they do their best to ensure their children's safe, happy, and successful development from infancy through middle childhood: infant sleep, developmental agendas, temperament, preschools, academic success, and learning to be…

Mastering analytical writing involves the proficient use of varied later-acquired grammatical, lexical and discourse forms and functions. Developmental studies have identified specific linguistic features as diagnostic of increasing proficiency. This study examines how these features change throughout educational levels and before and after the…

Children achieve their first language milestones initially in gesture and prosody before they do so in speech. However, little is known about the potential precursor role of those features later in development when children start using more complex linguistic skills. In this study, we explore how children's ability to reflect on their degree of…

Background: Different studies reveal an association between parent involvement, metacognition, and academic achievement; however, the majority analyse the developmental process of acquisition in experimental or quasi-experimental designs with students enrolled in child education. Adolescence is an important stage in personal and academic…

Growing up in a high family risk (HFR) environment is accompanied by difficulties in executive functions (EFs) and interpersonal skills (IS) that may persist into adulthood. Because preadolescence is a critical period, this study will assess a multicomponent mediational intervention program, to determine the possibility of improving these skills.…

Perceived social support has been shown to be one of the most important protective factors for emerging adult students during their transition to university. However, the relationships between perceived social support and dimensions of gender and family background, which have been shown to affect adjustment to college life, remain unexplored. The…

A study was conducted to identify the scope and timing of maturational constraints in three linguistic domains within the same individuals, as well as the potential mediating roles of amount of second language (L2) exposure and language aptitude at different ages in different domains. Participants were 65 Chinese learners of Spanish and 12 native…

This study examined the prevalence, degree of association and differential effect, by sex and age, of conduct disorder symptoms on psychopathology and functioning. Participants included 680 Spanish children and adolescents between 8 and 17 years and their parents, attending to psychiatric outpatient consultation. Data were obtained through…

This study reviews the current state of career maturity in secondary education--a period of education which is critical for development of this construct, when students are faced with ongoing academic and occupational decisions over the course of their studies. This paper is organized in three parts: first we focus on the concept, models,…

The fact that there is a specific age marking the emergence of adulthood in the United States has been well documented. The starting point for the studies included in this special issue is the assumption that the same can be said for European countries. Thus, a comparison of characteristics of emerging adulthood between different European…

The development of language indicating the emergence of thinking about the thoughts of self and others has been scarcely studied in Spanish-speaking children. For this reason, we studied the development of mental state language and various indicators of language development in 25 Spanish-speaking children assessed at 3, 3 1/2, 4, 4 1/2, and 5…

Early morning school schedules are in the opposite direction to the sleep-wake cycle in adolescence and early adulthood. This conflict leads to sleep deprivation and irregular patterns whose consequences are scarcely explored. This article discusses the effects of three educational experiences with high school students, parents, teachers, and…