Regulatory focus may shape the manner in which students perceive and respond to learning environments and then further influence their attitudes and behaviors. In the current study, 1487 adolescents in China were surveyed to illuminate the relationship between regulatory focus and learning engagement. The results showed that promotion focus was a…

We examined the relationship between high school and collegiate organizational involvement and their differential and collective effects on the development of leader self-efficacy, motivation to lead and leadership skill. Our goal was to better understand how the student leader development process unfolds at different points in time over young…

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) describes parents' beliefs about being able to handle developmentally specific issues and being able to influence their child in a way that fosters the child's positive development and adjustment (Bandura, 1997). Parents of adolescents have been shown to feel less efficacious than parents of preadolescent children…

Studies dedicated to examination of self-regulation posit a bi-directional association between self-regulation and other variables including social connectedness, self-efficacy and self-control. However, to date, studies of this caliber have only evidenced that self-regulation is a predictor of other variables. In the present study, the factors…

Academic underachievement, a syndrome affecting nearly 50% of gifted adolescents across gender, race, and socioeconomic strata, has fueled research for decades, in an attempt to identify its antecedents, characteristics, and consequences on the individual and on society. The research bridges fields of inquiry that converge in the area of human…

A theoretical model was examined linking early adolescent interpersonal relatedness and self-definition, autonomous and controlled regulation, and negative and positive life events. Findings indicated that self-criticism predicted less positive events, whereas efficacy predicted more positive events. Effects were fully mediated by absence and…

Examined relationship qualities and perceived social self- efficacy of 12-year-olds. Found that perceived low parental intimate support, high conflict with parents, and lower perceived self-efficacy were related to depression symptoms. Girls reported greater best friend intimate support and less conflict, greater self-efficacy, and stronger…

Presents a look at individual responsibility and decision making (here defined as planfulness) and how it is affected by external factors of social and economic turmoil. Utilizes data from a longitudinal study of privileged men born between 1904 and 1917 and their educational attainment in subsequent years. (MJP)