Math and science motivational beliefs are essential in understanding students' science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) achievement and choices in high school and college. Drawing on the Eccles' expectancy-value theory and Arnett's emerging adulthood framework, this study examined the relations among high school students' motivational…

Two studies with preschool-age children examined the effectiveness of perceptual individuation training at reducing racial bias (Study 1, N = 32; Study 2, N = 56). We found that training preschool-age children to individuate other-race faces resulted in a reduction in implicit racial bias while mere exposure to other-race faces produced no such…

This study examines developmental change across adolescence in the similarity of friends versus nonfriends. This differential in similarity is a key aspect of the organization of the peer context of development: The stronger the correlation between friends for an attribute, the more the attribute delineates clustering and divisions of friendships.…

There is fear that adolescents have limited control over their digital technology use. The current research examines longitudinal (Study 1) and daily (Study 2) associations between U.S. adolescents' self-control and digital technological impairment and use. Using a large sample (N = 2,104; Wave 1: M[subscript age] = 12.36, 52% female, 57%…

This study is a conceptual replication of a widely cited study by Moffitt et al. (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled "self-control") predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data…

Persistence in high school curricula leading to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is structured by complex institutional systems, but developmental processes underlie how young people navigate these systems. This study examined differences in the development of STEM identity and efficacy during high school among…

Person × Environment mismatch theory has been applied to understanding how the classroom social ecology moderates associations between peer victimization and socioemotional well-being. In 2004, Bellmore et al. applied this theory to the ethnic composition and social climate of the classroom. The current study tested whether their findings…

Adolescence is a developmental period when youth are increasingly likely to turn to their peers for support, and it is also a time of increased salience and development of ethnic-racial identity (ERI). Ethnic-racial centrality, a dimension of ERI, could be a predictor in the development of peer support, as youth with a stronger self-concept on the…

Developmental theory posits that youth are civically engaged in different ways, patterns of civic development vary across individuals, and both stability and change in youth civic engagement can be influenced by experiences in context. Drawing on these notions, we used a longitudinal person-oriented approach to document stability and change in…

Prior research suggests that social relations may play a role in explaining individual differences in cognitive functioning in older adulthood. In particular, early life maternal relationship quality (MRQ) has been shown to be a strong predictor of later-life socioemotional outcomes and may also contribute to later-life cognitive outcomes. The…

This study investigated children's and adolescents' predictions of inclusion and evaluations of exclusion in interracial and same-race peer contexts. The sample (N = 246) consisted of African American (n = 115) and European American (n = 131) children and adolescents who judged the likelihood of including a new peer, evaluated the group's decision…

Two studies examined when and why children (10-13 years) help ethnic in-group and out-group peers. In Study 1 (n = 163) children could help an out-group or in-group peer with a word-guessing game by entering codes into a computer. While children evaluated the out-group more negatively than the in-group, they helped out-group peers "more"…

This study examined how children's perceptions of economic inequalities impacted their moral judgments about access to opportunities. The sample included ethnically diverse 8- to 14-year-olds (N = 267; M = 11.61 years, SD = 1.88) of middle- to upper-middle-income backgrounds. The larger the economic inequality in access to opportunities children…

We examined children's sleep at age 9 as a predictor of developmental trajectories of cognitive performance from ages 9 to 11 years. The effects of sleep on cognition are not uniform and thus we tested race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and sex as moderators of these associations. At the first assessment, 282 children aged 9.44 years (52%…

Both environmental factors and genetic variation, particularly in genes responsible for the dopaminergic system such as "DRD4," "DRD2," and "DAT1" ("SLC6A3"), affect adolescent delinquency. The school context, despite its developmental importance, has been overlooked in gene-environment research. Using data…