This 1-year longitudinal study examined the effects of academic performance and depression in friendships among elementary school children in China. Participants included 1122 children (44% boys) within 561 stable friendship dyads initially in fourth and fifth grades (initial M[subscript age] = 11 years). Data on academic performance, depression,…

Previous research on the role of prior skills like proportional reasoning skills for the development of mathematical concepts offers conclusions such as "more (prior skills) is better (for later learning)." Insights, which prior skill "level" goes along with which "level" of learning outcomes, may advance the…

This study provides empirical benchmarks that quantify typical changes in students' reports of social and emotional skills in a large, diverse sample. Data come from six cohorts of students (N = 361,815; 6% Asian, 8% Black, 68% White, 75% Latinx, 50% Female) who responded to the CORE survey from 2015 to 2018 and help quantify typical…

In order to broaden findings beyond high-income countries, this study used path models to test associations between parent involvement and student achievement in Brazil using a 2017 census of public school students in fifth grade (N = 2,167,729, M[subscript age] = 11, 49 % female, 44% "Parda," 29% White, 11% Black, 3% Asian, 3%…

Understanding the cognitive processes central to mathematical development is crucial to addressing systemic inequities in math achievement. We investigate the "Groupitizing" ability in 1209 third to eighth graders (mean age at first timepoint = 10.48, 586 girls, 39.16% Asian, 28.88% Hispanic/Latino, 18.51% White), a process that captures…

This study examined the associations between classmates' reading-related gender stereotypes and students' reading self-efficacy, self-concept, motivation, and achievement. Our sample consisted of 1,508 fifth-grade students (49% girls; age: 10.89 years); data were collected at two time points. Multilevel analyses yielded two main results: First,…

Three hundred and ninety-one children (195 girls; M[subscript age] = 9.56 years) attending Grades 1 and 5 completed implicit and explicit measures of math attitudes and math self-concepts. Math grades were obtained. Multilevel analyses showed that first-grade girls held a strong negative implicit attitude about math, despite no gender differences…

The "Developing Inclusive Youth" program is a classroom-based, individually administered video tool that depicts peer-based social and racial exclusion, combined with teacher-led discussions. A multisite randomized control trial was implemented with 983 participants (502 females; 58.5% White, 41.5% Ethnic/racial minority; M[subscript…

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the influence of spoken dialect density on writing and on the codevelopment of reading and writing in African American English-speaking (AAE) children from first through fifth grades. The sample included 869 students, ranging in age from 5.8 to 12.5 years. Results indicated that dialect density…

This research investigated whether delayed school entry was associated with higher achievement in national tests of reading and numeracy in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 (n = 2,823). Delayed entry was related to advantages in reading (0.14 SD) and numeracy (0.08 SD) at Grade 3, although little variance was explained (1%-2%). This slight advantage…

Nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 (n = 14,370) were used to examine the grade-level and cumulative outcomes of school absenteeism between kindergarten and fifth grade for students' school performance in the United States. Students who were more frequently absent in any year of…

Character strengths are an integral component of positive youth development that can promote flourishing. Developmental principles posit constructs become increasingly complex with age, yet this process has not been examined with character. Using a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 2,467 youth ages 9-19, bifactor models were…

This study examined teacher-child conflict as a possible mediator of the effects of temperamental anger and effortful control on subsequent externalizing behavior. Reciprocal influences between teacher-child conflict and externalizing behavior were also examined. Participants were 1,152 children (49% female; 81.6% non-Hispanic White) from the…

Theory suggests that African American students benefit from warm and demanding teachers. This study examines the relation between students' perceptions of 634 teachers' warm demander characteristics and achievement growth in fourth and fifth grades (M[subscript student age] = 9-11.5 years). Analyses explored whether relations were moderated by the…

The epistemic trust literature emphasizes that children's evaluations of informants' trustworthiness affects learning, but there is no evidence that epistemic trust affects learning in academic domains. The current study investigated how reliability affects decimal learning. Fourth and fifth graders (N = 122; M[subscript age] = 10.1 years)…