Victimization has been primarily studied within the broader peer group, leaving other potentially important contexts, such as friendship cliques, unexplored. This study examined the role of popularity in identifying protective factors that buffer against victimization within early adolescents' (N = 387) friendship cliques. Previously identified…

This study examined aspects of peer clique participation that mitigated victimization by peers over a school year. Participants were 1,033 children age 8-14 years (M[subscript age] = 11.81; 444 boys and 589 girls), including 128 (66 boys) victimized children. Cliques (N = 162) and clique participation were assessed by using the Social Cognitive…

Shy children display wariness in unfamiliar social situations and often experience feelings of social anxiety. This study explored the potential mediating role of cognitive biases in the link between shyness and social anxiety in early adolescence. In particular, we focused on judgments of the probability and cost of negative social situations…

Argument writing is challenging for elementary students. Previous experimental research has focused on scaffolding rhetorical goals, leaving content goals relatively unexplored. In a randomized experiment, 73 students in grades 5, 6, and 7 wrote persuasive texts about difficult-to-classify vertebrates. Each student received one of three sets of…

Work and negotiation experiences were examined among early adolescents (12-15 years) through a survey (N = 157) and follow-up interview (N = 89) conducted in two Canadian cities. Key findings, based on a mixed-method research approach, were (a) gifts were the primary income source; (b) females completed more chores than males, and younger…

This case study investigated the effectiveness of the United Beyond Our Diversity (UBOD) project for the development of language skills and intercultural communicative competence (including attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical intercultural awareness) in Taiwanese seventh grade learners. The learners' attitudes and evaluations of UBOD were…

Pedagogical shifts favouring collaborative learning and findings of recent studies have raised concerns regarding the claim that gifted students prefer to learn alone. The purpose of this study was to further investigate if, when and how high ability learners want to work with or without others. The distributions of 416 high ability students (n =…

The maladaptive personality and neuropsychological features of highly relationally aggressive females were examined in a group of 30 grade 6, 7, and 8 girls and group-matched controls. Employing a multistage cluster sampling procedure, a group of highly, yet almost exclusively, relationally aggressive females were identified and matched on a…

This cross-national study investigates the perception of the impact of students' relationships towards teachers and peers on scholastic motivation in a total sample of 1477 seventh and eighth grade German (N?=?1088) and Canadian (N?=?389) secondary school students. By applying Multigroup Confirmatory Latent Class Analysis in Mplus we confirmed…

The science vocabulary from a science curriculum standards document (Ministry of Education Ontario, 2007) was classified by morphological developmental level and compared to the grade level topics of the curriculum (grades 1 to 8). Descriptive statistical analyses highlight the complex nature of science vocabulary and the incompatibilities between…

Self-concept has been found to play a key role in academic and psychosocial outcomes for students. Appreciating the factors that have a bearing upon self-concept may be of particular importance for Aboriginal students, many of whom experience poorer outcomes than non-Aboriginal Canadians. In this study, we conducted a quantitative analysis of the…

While students begin schooling with high engagement levels, these levels begin to drop in the middle years of schooling but appear to recover somewhat in 10th grade, suggesting that the middle years of schooling are an especially vulnerable time in terms of student engagement (Willms et al., 2009). Moreover disengagement is most common in students…

This study examined relationships between three factors related to teacher self-efficacy (use of inclusive instruction, collaboration with others, and managing disruptive behaviour) and practicing teachers' sentiments, attitudes, and concerns about inclusive education of students with developmental disabilities. We calculated Pearson…

Emotional and behavioral outcomes of the Respecting Diversity (RD) program, a social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention to develop self-awareness, self-respect and respect for diverse others, were investigated with 218 students in Grades four to seven and their teachers. Intervention and control groups were assessed pre and post…

This study examined the link between victimization and sexual orientation and how this link contributes to social-emotional health, extending to school-related outcomes among adolescents. Of additional interest was whether having caring adult support was a protective factor in reducing the risk for high levels of distress or enhancing positive…