Revisits the middle-level school movement. Provides an overview of young adolescents' development, offers representative examples of developmentally appropriate practices, and looks at progress educators have made as well challenges encountered. Emphasizes the importance of understanding physical, pychosocial, and cognitive development in young…

Using children's art works as examples, explores the role of form of expression in art education and therapy. Outlines research approaches that see self-development symbolisms operating in these forms. Presents results from a West German intercultural study on the development and structure of art expression that ties artistic expression to an…

Examines the design of middle schools and cultural differences in the ways Anglos and Navajos view the stages of human development, noting interpretations of child development and their concomitant requisites for appropriate parenting. The article concludes with a discussion of the mismatch between Navajo culture and middle school planners in the…

Maintains that leisure-time training not only further institutionalized adolescence in mid-century Britain but also perpetuated sexual stereotypes of passivity and service for young women. In contrast to the boys' training, girls' indoctrination stressed physical appearance, femininity, and servitude. (MJP)

Adolescents whose parents had not divorced exhibited more social and scholastic competence and fewer adjustment problems than did adolescents from families with remarried or single mothers. Children from divorced, single-mother families demonstrated adjustment difficulties up to six years after their mother's divorce. (BC)

Research suggests that primary control increases as humans develop from infancy through middle age and then decreases in old age. To minimize losses, individuals rely on cognitively based secondary control processes in middle and old age. Literature on adult control processes is reviewed. (SLD)

Special supplement for middle level educators focuses on news from around the country, student environmental action, adolescent development, saying no to drugs, the case against tracking, technology solutions, astronomy, ancient Egypt, the American West, learning with literature, camaraderie, and puzzles for problem solvers. (SM)

In a follow-up study, academic achievement results from 2 years later are added to data from 1990 for 1,208 seventh and ninth graders for whom relationships between achievement and time use were studied. Results focus on competition of time uses for the time and attention of the adolescent. (SLD)

Confirms hypotheses correlating adolescent competence (comprised of dependability, intelligence, and self-confidence) with personal stability, career, and marital satisfaction. Uses data from a longitudinal cohort studied over 50 years and from recent interviews with 60 of the original group members. Concludes that early socialization largely…

Asserts that educational researchers have not paid enough attention to issues and problems related to parenting adolescents. Reports on a study of 300 Russian parents and 300 upper-grade students from both rural and urban environments. Summarizes those parenting skills and family practices that appear to be effective. (CFR)

Examined relationships among kinship support, family management, and adolescence in 135 African American adolescents, ages 14 to 19. Found that kin social support was positively related to self-reliance and grades, family organization, and parental involvement in schooling, and negatively associated with problem behavior. Poor kin relations were…

Investigated the presumed efficacy of authoritative parenting in influencing adjustment during basic training to the Israeli army, a more authoritarian environment. Found that authoritatively reared children were at a disadvantage with regard to successful adjustment to the army. They were more depressed, experienced greater stress, and had lower…

One factor that contributes to adolescent positive mental health is active engagement. Engagement is defined as any activity that is initiated to attain an outcome. In general, two forms of activities exist that correspond with engagement: solitary, non-structured, and non-cooperative pursuits, often without adult supervision (e.g., playing video…

Recent research suggests that a youth development framework emphasizing youth assets may be a promising intervention strategy for preventing adolescent risk behaviors. Understanding how neighborhood and community resources relate to youth assets may aid in identifying environmental strategies to complement individually oriented asset-building…

In Iowa in the 1980s, dreams of prosperity were suddenly replaced by economic nightmares as plummeting land values generated economic decline and dislocation in rural communities and individual lives. This book examines the experience of over 400 Iowa families who lived through the Great Farm Crisis and now face an uncertain future. Interviewed as…