This paper draws together the as yet nascent literature on the development of failure-avoidant patterns of behaviour. These are behaviours intended to minimise risk to self-worth in the event of failure, thereby avoiding the negative impact of poor performance in terms of damage to self-worth. Self-worth protection, self-handicapping, impostor…

Some perspectives on society, family and childhood leave us with the impression that contemporary children are growing up in a post-traditional society that has decisively broken away from previous values. Based on a representative study of specific maternal childrearing values in a Scandinavian welfare society (Denmark) this article will present…

This article describes the development of a teacher's framework to identify a number of primary school classes in Malta characterized by high levels of pupil resilience, namely socio-emotional competence and educational engagement. The article starts by defining resilience as a proactive, contextual and relational phenomenon concerning all pupils,…

Personality and gender differences in close same-sex friendship needs and experiences were investigated in two samples. Participants were 312 university students (217 women, M age = 19.5) and 491 preadolescents (269 girls, M age = 11.87). Participants completed several questionnaires yielding scores for communion and agency (personality), communal…

Although adult education leads to a moderation of racist or authoritarian attitudes amongst the general population, little is known concerning the impact of adult education on individuals with extremist racist-authoritarian views. In this paper we group individuals from the NCDS (National Child Development Study) into various racist-authoritarian…

This article reports on an investigation into the attributions of success and perceived areas of strength and weakness of adult learners of English as a foreign language in the Department of Continuing Education at Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus. The students attributed their limited progress in learning the foreign language mainly to…

Psychomotor performance is fundamental to human existence. It is important in many real world activities and nowadays psychomotor tests are used in several fields of industry, army, and medical sciences in employee selection. This article tries to define psychomotor activity by introducing some psychomotor theories. Furthermore the…

Adolescent obesity is positively associated with soft drink consumption. We investigated the association of social-environmental and individual-level factors with soft drink consumption in a Dutch adolescent sample. Data were gathered in a longitudinal Dutch adolescent sample (n = 208, 62% girls). Soft drink consumption, social cognitions from the…

This article outlines the research design of a large-scale, longitudinal research study in England intended to describe and explore variations in teachers' work, lives and their effects on pupils' educational outcomes. The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and incorporated into the Teaching and Learning Research…

The factor structure, psychometric properties, and relationship with personality variables of a Spanish version of the Savings Inventory-Revised (SI-R) are investigated in a sample of 381 undergraduate students. A maximum likelihood factor analysis suggests a three-factor structure, which is similar but not identical to that of the original…

Refugee families in Australia generally have a dual challenge--dealing with past traumatic experiences while facing the struggles of integrating with a new and unfamiliar society. For children and their families who have experienced war-related trauma and disruption, the resettlement process is being referred to as "secondary trauma" to…

This study tested a developmental model of pathways to risky sexual behavior among South African adolescents. Participants comprised 633 adolescents, 12-17 years old, recruited from households in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using in-person interviews. Topics included adolescents' sexual behaviors, household poverty levels, vulnerable…

The present research on self-evaluation embraced 360 students, 11-15 years of age, in grades 5 to 8. Subjects selected from an ordered set of tasks (easiest to most difficult) those conforming with their self-evaluated possibilities and attempted to solve them. The easier problems were typical of academic tasks, Polish language and mathematics,…

This two-part study examined aspects of family environments that are considered to be influential in the development of young children's creativity. Mothers of children ages 4 to 6 years were surveyed on their valuing of particular personality characteristics (The Ideal Child Checklist) and specific features of the home environment (The Creative…

The concept of "learning disposition" provides a useful way of examining longer-term outcomes of quality early childhood programs and outlines characteristics of a learning orientation or disposition in early childhood. The learning disposition involves the tendency to want to do something, sensitivity to being alert to the appropriate…