Examined effects of early physical maturation and accelerated pubertal changes on symptoms of major depression among 639 African American adolescents. Found that for girls, early maturation was consistently associated with elevated levels of depressive symptoms. For boys, early maturers showed elevated depression only at age 11, with symptoms…

A series of meta-analyses identified changes in parent-child conflict during adolescence and moderating factors. Results of age meta-analyses indicated that conflict rate and total conflict declined from early to mid adolescence and from mid to late adolescence; conflict affect increased from early to mid-adolescence. Puberty meta-analyses…

Examined the prominence of intimacy concerns, i.e., connectedness and independent needs in a sample of women in the health professions, analyzing for age and marital status. Used the Life Priorities Q-Sort. Older and single women were found to be significantly more independent than younger and married women. (Author/KS)

The period of major risk for initiation to cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana is completed mostly by age 20, and to illicit drugs other than cocaine by age 21. Overall patterns are similar for both sexes, with men initiating all drugs (except prescribed psychoactives) at higher rates than women. (Author/GC)

Six hundred adolescents and 25 teachers responded to incidents containing a moral issue. Overall there was moral development with age, as suggested by Piaget, but many (by Piaget's definitions) immature responses were recorded on some incidents, even by adults. The context in which issues were presented was an important influence. (Author/SJL)

Children and adolescents (n=40) with congenital or adventitious blindness were exposed to two unfamiliar environments. Evaluation of subjects' spatial representations (through construction of models and estimates of distance) found that age appeared to be more important than learning in their development of spatial representation skills. (DB)

Explores the process of personal and social transformation involved in becoming a mature student through the construction of four narratives derived from the biographical accounts of 21 students entering higher education. Demonstrates the gendered nature of conceptions of self in these accounts. Shows that education is a key site for the…

Personality characteristics of 101 epileptic children in two age groups (5-11 and 11-16) were studied by means of the child-reported Missouri Children's Picture Series and the mother-reported Missouri Problem Behavior Checklist. Scores for each age group across both parent and child reports were compared to published norms. A one-way multivariate…

A longitudinal study examined (1) development of relationship between physical maturation rate and cognitive performance as children become adolescent and (2) specific components of cognitive processing linked to physical maturation-related differences in performance on cognitive ability tasks. Differences were detected on cognitive process tasks.…

The oxygen uptake and heart rate of men and boys were determined and compared using a continuous incremental bicycle ergometer test. Both groups had similar patterns for consistency, but the children had smaller individual difference variations for both oxygen uptake and heart rate. (FG)

A structured interview was used to ascertain the level of understanding of the concept of death in 52 elementary school children. Data analysis showed sex, religious affilation, and the death of a close relative had little or no relationship to the level of understanding of death. (Author/RL)

Two of the major topics treated in this report are the current prevalence of drug use among American high school seniors, and trends in use since 1975. Also reported are data on school grade of first use, trends in use at earlier grade levels, intensity of drug use, attitudes and beliefs among seniors concerning various types of drug use, and…

Investigated time conceptualizations and delay of gratification capacities of 64 6- to 10-year-olds identified as impulsive or reflective according to performance on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test. They were administered a maintenance of delay of gratification task, a time concept questionnaire, and several measures of temporal perspective…

Results from achievement and ability testing of about 150 Swedish urban children in third, fifth, and sixth grades were analyzed according to the children's physical maturity and social background. Social background played the main role in performance on the achievement and most of the mental ability tests. (MP)

Performance on measures of phonology, reading, and spelling was evaluated for subjects (including 20 preschoolers, 23 grade school children, 17 adolescents, and 17 adults). Subjects had a history of a preschool phonology disorder. Although relative performance improved across age groups, at each age group subjects performed more poorly than…