Discusses assumptions and pressures underlying academic redshirting for kindergartners. Examines teachers' and parents' beliefs about kindergarten readiness. Summarizes research on the effects of the academic and social domains of delaying children's entry into school. Offers suggestions for early childhood educators about how to help families in…

Presents results of a study developing an informal social skills teacher rating scale for use with early adolescents. Reports that the scale includes skill identification and situational analysis. Provides information on identifying and ranking responses and checking a content validity and reliability. Concludes that the matrix can generate…

A test battery that corresponded to the Gesell Developmental Assessment (GDA) was given to 400 4-6 year olds. A truncated version of the GDA had moderate reliability and predictive power. Experienced judges sometimes differed in their assessments of a child's developmental level and recommendations for grade placement. (GLR)

A study compared the experience of parents of children with disabilities (n=93) and parents of children without disabilities (n=111) as their children prepared to leave high school. Parents of children with disabilities were more likely to be pessimistic and feel greater discomfort about the children's transition from school. (CR)

Alcohol remains the drug of choice for many adolescents; however, the nature of the relationship between athletic involvement and alcohol misuse remains ambiguous. In this article, we used a longitudinal sample of over 600 Western New York adolescents and their families to explore the gender-specific and race-specific relationships between…

The aim of this study is to analyse the possible effects of Age of Onset (AO), Cognitive Maturity (Age at Testing--AT) and Amount of Exposure (AE) on the productive vocabularies of learners of English as a Foreign Language (FL). Three groups of bilingual Catalan/Spanish students were tested towards the end of Secondary Education. The groups…

Research literature on childrens' causal understanding in oral and written settings is reviewed. Results show that maturation and task complexity both influence childrens' causal understanding. However, the findings are contradictory, and no generalizations could be made about which factors influence causal understanding and at which ages they are…

The article explores information processing models of spelling performance and argues that an adequate theory of spelling processes must include: (1) qualitative changes in performance as a function of maturation that underlie development of automaticity; (2) transactional development of spelling-related knowledge structures and efficient…

Discusses changes in psychological characteristics of college students and implications for student personnel workers. In four articles describes two recent trends in student characteristics: vocationalism and narcissism, and prolonged adolescence. Also discusses racism and the minority student. (JAC)

Using a revised faith-maturity scale, researchers examined young adults in Adventist and public schools, comparing the data with the controversial Valuegenesis sample. Data analysis found the Thayer Mature Faith Scale valid and reliable. Students in Christian education demonstrated significant advancement in faith maturity over students in public…

In Portugal, modernization is likely to exacerbate marginalization and exclusion for young people who are not educationally successful by blocking alternative possibilities for social mobility. Poverty, illiteracy, and unequal education opportunities are widespread. Future educational policies must be elastic to respond to accelerating changes and…

Unpopular students in grades 5-11 were compared with average and popular students among 319 high ability students. Unpopular students were distinguished by lower social self-concept, lower academic self-esteem, and less prestigious paternal occupations. Unpopular students were not found to be academically less capable, less mature, or more…

Examines the impact of friendship on the process and outcome of peer-tutoring in a study involving 90 Welsh 8- to 9-year-old children. Finds peer-tutors have difficulty coordinating the demands of tutoring tasks because of their limited cognitive resources. Also finds friendship imposes greater burdens on children's limited resources. (NL)

Argues that, while teacher and school efforts are important, the conditions outside of schools hold the key to increasing academic achievement substantially. Family socialization practices in American and Asian families are reviewed; and children's early cognitive and social behaviors are linked to later school behavior, including academic…

Social factors such as school context and school transition which affect adolescence are reviewed. Multiple, simultaneous, and earlier transitions that do not provide an arena of comfort for the adolescent appear to create more problems. More understanding of the proximal and distal effects of these transitions is needed. (NH)