The current research used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,103) to examine the developmental autoregressive cascades of prosocial behavior, academic competence, and peer exclusion in Grades 3-6. The cascade paths revealed that Grade 3…

This study examined the development of social skills across five measurement points from 4th through 7th grade, and the influence of child gender and school-related factors on the level and growth of social skills, in a large sample of normally developing children in Norway (N = 2,076). On average, children's social skills scores increased…

Learners' academic self-concepts and attributions have been widely evidenced to substantially regulate their educational development. Developmentally, they will not only operate in a mutually reinforcing manner. Rather, self-concepts will directly affect learners' outcome attributions in a particular academic setting. Current research in the…

This study tests the predictive associations between externalizing behaviors and internalizing symptoms and examines the mediating roles of social competence, parent-child conflicts, and academic achievement. Using youth-, parent-, and teacher-reported longitudinal data on a sample of 523 boys and 460 girls from late childhood to early…

This longitudinal study examined the rates of overweight, elevated blood pressure, acanthosis nigricans, and their associated factors in third through fifth grade students over 4 years. Participants consisted of 279 students who participated in health screenings in 2002 and 2006. Hispanic students had significantly higher rates of overweight and…

The Child Behavior Scale (CBS) is a teacher-report instrument that was developed over a decade ago as an alternative to more costly methods for assessing children's behavior and peer relations in school contexts. This investigation was undertaken to clarify how well the CBS achieves its aims with a broader age spectrum of youth (6- to…

This longitudinal study of 105 economically disadvantaged children examined the relation between reading problems and internalizing behavior in 3rd- and 5th-grade assessments (8- to 12-year olds). The variable-centered results showed that reading problems predicted change in internalizing behavior in the context of child and family predictors. The…

Theories of positive youth development (PYD) regard such development as bases of both community contributions and lessened likelihood of risk/problem behaviors. Using data from the 4-H Study of PYD, we tested these expectations by examining if PYD in Grade 5 predicted both youth contributions and risk behaviors and depression in Grade 6. Results…

This study examined linkages between divorce, depressive/withdrawn parenting, and child adjustment problems at home and school. Middle class divorced single mother families (n=35) and 2-parent families (n=174) with a child in the fourth grade participated. Mothers and teachers completed yearly questionnaires and children were interviewed when they…