Background: Language has been shown to play a critical role in social cognitive reasoning in preschool and school-aged children, but little research has been conducted with adolescents. During adolescence, the ability to understand figurative language becomes increasingly important for social relationships and may affect social adjustment. This…

We investigated mothering and mother-child interactions in adolescents with and without persistent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a sample of 190 adolescents with persistent DSM-IV ADHD, 147 without persistent ADHD, and 223 without ADHD. Both participants and their mothers received psychiatric interviews for diagnosis of ADHD…

This study examined subtypes of nonsocial play and their relation to psychosocial adjustment in Malaysian preschool children (N = 141, 72 boys, M age = 4.65 years). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a three-factor model that distinguished social reticence, solitary-active play, and solitary-passive play fit the data reasonably well, and…

This study explored children, preschool, and family characteristics that contribute to individual differences in the developmental trajectories of social competence and internalizing and externalizing behavior. Teachers reported on personality and social adjustment of 304 children at ages 3, 4, 5, and 6 years. Predictors of social adjustment…

Social-emotional development, psychosocial functioning, and relational experiences have been shown to impact academic achievement and psychological well-being. Social skills have been identified as being particularly critical in promoting mental health and life-long success. Children with well-developed social skills (e.g., sharing, being…

This study examined the associations between children's and adolescents' autistic-like social deficits and school and social adjustment as well as the moderating roles of age and gender in these associations. The sample consisted of 1321 students (48.7% boys) in Grade 1 to Grade 8 from northern Taiwan. Children's and adolescents' autistic-like…

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by motor and phonic tics that follow a fluctuating pattern of severity, intensity and frequency. TS is often associated with other conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and learning difficulties. This complex phenotype affects the…

In the present study, we focus on the concept of adolescent autonomy and its relation with psychosocial functioning. Specifically, we aim to differentiate between 2 prevailing conceptualizations of autonomy, that is, (a) autonomy defined as independence versus dependence and (b) autonomy defined as self-endorsed versus controlled functioning. A…

Investigation of the role of adolescents' patterns of close relationships with significant adults may be of particular interest in populations with learning disabilities ("LD") during adolescence, because attachment relationship variables may act as risk or protective factors during this developmental period when trajectories are set that can lead…

This study examined associations among children's agentic (social influence, status, power) and communal (relationship, affiliation) goals for peer interaction, cognitive and affective responses to hypothetical peer conflict, and teacher-reported achievement and behavior at school ("N" = 367; "M" age = 9.9 years). Agentic goals…

The present study tested whether individual differences in autonomic nervous system functioning interact with environmental risk factors to predict adolescents' psychosocial functioning. The authors assessed skin conductance and respiratory sinus arrhythmia at rest and during laboratory stressors in 110 14-year-olds. Subsequently, adolescents and…

Little is known about contributors to positive social, behavioral, and emotional adjustment among foreign-born youth at different stages of adapting to life in the United States. Using baseline data from the Adolescent Latino Acculturation Study (N = 217), this article examines the effects of time in residency on parent adjustment, family stress,…

We analyze the effects of family capital on child behavior problems in the United States and Great Britain by comparing a longitudinal survey sample of 5- to 13-year-old children from the 1994 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,864) with a similar sample of children from the 1991 National Child Development Study "British Child"…

Concordance between age-6 attachment behaviour and age-8 doll play attachment representations during the school-age period, and associations between these measures and child social adaptation at school were examined. One hundred and twenty-nine 6-year-olds and their mothers participated in a separation/reunion protocol. Two years later, 104…

Drawing on two nationally representative German studies (N[subscript 1] = 1744, N[subscript 2] = 759), we examined correlates of early, on-time, and late curfew autonomy, a retrospective indicator of behavioural autonomy, in young and middle adulthood (19-37 years of age). Adjustment in four domains was considered: educational attainment,…