One particular developmental task during adolescence is to regulate fluctuating moods to successfully transition through this period. The aim of this person-centered study was to identify distinct developmental trajectories of adolescent mood variability and to compare adolescents in different trajectories on changes in depressive symptoms,…

This study investigates the relation of young adult identities (ages 18-22 years), reflecting subjective age and psychosocial maturity, to educational and career attainment in young adulthood (ages 25-29 years). Add Health data show that having an older subjective age alone does not curtail attainment; the critical issue is the level of…

In the current study, we explored patterns of change in Black emerging adults' racial identity beliefs during the transition to adulthood, assessed neighborhood racial composition effects on Black emerging adults' racial identity beliefs, and tested the moderating effects of neighborhood racial composition on the associations between Black…

Adolescents' expectations about the timing of adult role transitions have the potential to shape their actual transitions, setting the stage for their adult lives. Although expectations about timing emerge by early adolescence, little is known about how these expectations develop across adolescence. This longitudinal study examined developmental…

The transition from general education (e.g., high school) to vocational and tertiary education (e.g., college, vocational school) or to the labor market presents a number of developmental challenges. These challenges include making career choices and, more broadly, managing the transition. Coping with these challenges depends on the individual,…

A comparison of the two leading indices of moral development, the Defining Issues Test and the Moral Dilemma Interview, was made using 215 subjects ranging in age from 12 to 25. Correlation between the two tests was low when age, socioeconomic status, and intelligence variables were partialed out. (Author/SS)

Administered five Piagetian tests to 180 adolescents for comparison to similar samples from 1967 and 1972. Found that today's adolescents exhibited higher levels of cognitive development than did previous cohorts. Gain varied across tasks, being very large for combinatory thought but mixed for conservation. This acceleration of cognitive…

Attachment representations and self-confidence were assessed at age 7 on the basis of children's responses to a separation story and independent observations, although cognitive functioning was measured at ages 7-17 years based on a battery of Piagetian tasks assessing concrete and formal reasoning. Children with a secure attachment representation…

Three samples of 8- to 16-year olds were assessed three times at yearly intervals on eight water-level items. Within-child change over age was viewed as stochastic process of the child changing or remaining in one of three latent strategy states. Although there was improvement in task performance over age, the general finding was that strategy…