Accumulating evidence indicates that students' sense of school belonging has a substantial positive effect on educational attainment. At the same time, life course and life span developmental theories suggest that the benefits of a sense of school belonging could be weakened by the channeling effects of education systems that assign students to…

This research examines whether prior research may not have detected cultural-specificity in the role of controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting in children's adjustment because of reliance on between-individual analyses. In two longitudinal studies (Ns = 825 and 934) of early adolescents, within-individual analyses were conducted to examine…

Guided by evolutionary-developmental models, this study tested the hypothesis that children's exposure to parental relationship instability, defined by initiation and dissolution of caregiver intimate relationships, has both costs in cognitive impairments and benefits in enhanced learning skills. Participants included 243 mothers and their…

Children's peer beliefs have been shown to mediate the link between stress experienced within the peer group and later internalizing symptoms. This study extends this research by examining bidirectional associations between children's peer beliefs, friendlessness, and perceived friendship quality (i.e., receiving provision, negative treatment) and…

Children with a history of maltreatment and placement into foster care face elevated risks of poor psychosocial outcomes including school failure, substance use, externalizing, and deviant peer association. For children in the general population, school engagement appears to be a promotive factor in preventing negative outcomes. In this study,…

In the current longitudinal study, we examined associations between Black and Latino youths' perceptions of the public's opinion of their racial/ethnic group (i.e., public regard) and changes in academic adjustment outcomes across middle school. We also tested combinations of racial/ethnic socialization and parent involvement in academic…

The present research examined whether the nature of gender differences varies by race for two types of academic engagement in the classroom (help avoidance and voice with the teacher) in a sample of early adolescents (N = 456; 55% female, 60% African American and 40% European American) making the transition to middle school. Growth curve analyses…