This study examined the course and correlates of the happy victimizer tendency--the expectation that harming others to achieve a goal will result in positive emotional outcomes for the transgressor--from 4 to 6 years of age in a community sample of Canadian children (N = 150; 50% female; Time 1 M[subscript age] = 4.53 years, SD = 0.30; 33%…

Objective: The present study examined the antecedents and consequences of perceived parental autonomy support and psychological control. More specifically, we had three aims: a) to investigate the associations between parents' expectations and beliefs about parenting and perceived parental autonomy support and psychological control; b) to analyse…

Background: Evocative gene-environment correlation (rGE) describes a process through which children's heritable characteristics influence their rearing environments. The current study examined if heritable influences on parenting and children's behavioral outcomes operate through child negative emotionality. Method: Using data from the Early…

This study examines three parenting behaviors (support, involvement, and harsh control) in predicting children's loneliness and aggression across developmental transitions to adolescence in a Taiwanese sample. Two cohorts (n = 4,990) were followed for 5 years: a younger cohort (first-graders, 51.5%) and an older cohort (fourth-graders). Multilevel…

We assessed the extent to which feelings of sympathy and aggressive behaviors codeveloped from 6 to 12 years of age in a representative sample of Swiss children (N = 1,273). Caregivers and teachers reported children's sympathy and overt aggression in 3-year intervals. Second-order latent curve models indicated general mean-level declines in…

Previous research suggests that the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) reflect both a general diagnostic construct and two distinct symptom dimensions, irritability and defiant behavior. Recent studies have found that these two symptom dimensions exhibit different patterns of correlates and outcomes (e.g., irritability linked to…

This study explored the relationship between electronic media use, sleep and behaviour in preschool-aged children between the ages of three and five years. The primary hypothesis of this study was that excessive electronic media use (>2 hours a day) would positively correlate with sleep patterns (in particular, disturbances) and negative…

Kindergarten retention is a popular practice for children who are considered unready for primary school. However, past research has not yet succeeded to find consistent, strong empirical evidence supporting the practice. In the current study, kindergarten repeaters' development in nine psychosocial domains is compared with that of equally at risk…

We investigated longitudinal relations between children's sleep and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and anger/aggression. We expected that initial sleep problems and increases in these problems over time would be associated with worse adjustment outcomes. The study had 3 waves with 1-year lags. At Time 1 [T1], 128 girls and 123 boys (M age =…

Periodic mass school shootings and the steady slaughter of youth on the streets of our cities are both products of cultures of violence. The authors highlight key factors that promote or prevent such acts, beginning with the little-known account of a young boy who perpetuated the most deadly school violence in history.

This prospective longitudinal study provides evidence of preschool-age precursors of hostile attribution bias in young school-age children, a topic that has received little empirical attention. We examined multiple risk domains, including laboratory and observational assessments of children's social-cognition, general cognitive functioning,…

"Interpersonal" rejection and "intergroup" exclusion in childhood reflect different, but complementary, aspects of child development. Interpersonal rejection focuses on individual differences in personality traits, such as wariness and being fearful, to explain bully-victim relationships. In contrast, intergroup exclusion focuses on how in-group…

This study investigated the contributions of child and parents' sociodemographics, daily stressors, family environment, and coping strategies, to academic achievement, cognitive functioning and aggression in a sample of 600 children at the intermediate grade levels from Gaza Strip. Each of the predictor variables exhibited a different pattern of…

How does parenting affect relational aggression in children? The goal of the present series of meta-analyses based on 48 studies (28,097 children) was to analyze and integrate the findings on the associations between various types of parenting behaviors and relational aggression, and to identify potential substantive and methodological factors…

Bullying is well recognized as an experience with negative and potentially adverse consequences. Specifically, research has consistently shown that involvement in bullying has been linked to a wide range of psychosocial difficulties. There are three forms of bullying that have been identified in the literature: Overt bullying, relational bullying,…