This study reports on relationships among gender, maternal depressed mood, and children's trajectories of depressive phenomena across middle childhood and early adolescence. It tested the hypothesis that, compared to boys, girls become increasingly vulnerable to maternal depression as they enter adolescence. The study sample consisted of 834…

Validity data are presented for a new measure of threat appraisals in response to community violence. Adolescents (N = 358; 45% male; 91% African American, M = 12.10 years, SD = 1.63) and their maternal caregivers participated in two waves of a longitudinal interview study focused on the consequences of exposure to community violence. Structural…

This study investigated student perceptions of differences in academic and social effects that occur when gifted and talented youth are grouped homogeneously (i.e., in special classes for gifted students) as contrasted with heterogeneously (i.e., in classes with many ability levels represented). Forty-four students in grades 5-11 completed…

The paper outlines a new paradigm and its underlying rationales for implementing networked learning environments that is emerging from new technologies such as multi-user platform, virtual worlds, virtual learning community, and intelligent agents. The proposed paradigm of the networked learning environments is described as inhabited virtual…

This investigation is an ethnographic case study of the literacy learning opportunities of a fifth-grade Hmong child (pseudonym Deng) who came to the United States from Laos via Thailand at the very end of his third-grade year in school. Deng was one of 25 students in a mainstream urban classroom in the Midwest during his fifth grade in school…

This article describes an afterschool program called "Poetic High" in which the author shares insights on the transformation of oneself as a teacher into more of a guide and a mentor. It outlines the process of transforming the attitudes of students from being passive learners into being poets of learning and life. The Poetic High created by this…

Since September 11, 2001, ethnic tensions involving persons of Middle Eastern descent have increased in the United States. This study examined the peer relationships of 748 fifth-grade students of different ethnic groups both at one month and eight months post-9-11. Results indicated that only Middle Eastern children showed a large drop in…

Social cliques start around fourth or fifth grade and get worse through middle school and beyond. The cool vs. the uncool. Nerds, jocks, popular kids and outsiders--students are categorized by their peers and excluded by those different from them. Students who are not part of the "cool" crowd feel isolated and lonely and are often subjected to…

This research examined the hypothesis that a tendency to base one's self-worth on peer approval is associated with positive and negative aspects of children's well-being. A sample of 153 fourth through eighth graders (9.0 to 14.8 years) reported on need for approval, global self-worth, social-evaluative concerns, anxiety and depression, and…

Four hundred and thirty-four children enrolled in school years 5 and 6 in the United Kingdom were administered measures of trust beliefs in peers/best friends and psychosocial functioning (internalized maladjustment, self-perceived social acceptance, social preference, and social exclusion) across an 8-month period (mean age = 9 years-9 months at…

A dynamic cascade model of development of serious adolescent violence was proposed and tested through prospective inquiry with 754 children (50% male; 43% African American) from 27 schools at 4 geographic sites followed annually from kindergarten through Grade 11 (ages 5-18). Self, parent, teacher, peer, observer, and administrative reports…

Black children generally receive poorer sociometric nominations compared with Whites. This effect is not fully understood because Black children rarely hold a classroom majority and teachers' race is rarely investigated. Research from a person-environment perspective suggests that the effects of children's race depend on the racial composition of…

This study was conducted in order to identify the intensity of Turkish students' views with regard to environmental issues presented in the national curriculum and to determine how these views differ by gender, grade level, previous science achievement, socio-economic status (SES), and school location. For this project, a 51-item Attitude Toward…

We need a model that can guide middle school educators to implement multiple literacies (multiliteracies) so prevalent in today's global economy, but how can this be successfully accomplished in today's schools? As a result of content analyses, regular classroom observations, and interviews, the researchers document a framework for…

A study seeks to examine fifth grade students' perceptions of learning preferences for individualistic, competitive, cooperative, and communal learning as well as students' perceptions of their classroom-learning environment. Results show that students prefer group learning compared to individualistic and competitive learning and that a majority…