One of the great puzzles of language acquisition has been described as poverty of the stimulus: how are complex aspects of language acquired when they appear to be rare or even non-occurring in the input that a learner receives and comprehends? This article presents an emergentist solution to one aspect of this puzzle (involving relative clauses)…

The aims of this study were to: (a) compare physical activity across two seasons and, within those seasons, across school and vacation time, and (b) compare the proportion of children meeting the activity thresholds recommended by Tudor-Locke et al. (2004) at each time point. Thirty-six boys, between the ages of 8 and 10 years (M age = 8.8 years,…

In the present longitudinal study, early adopted children (N = 160) were followed from infancy to adolescence to assess the influence of previous and concurrent factors on the children's social development. This study allowed for more conclusive evidence of the influence of early and concurrent rearing experiences and temperament on…

This 17-year longitudinal study tested whether low peer-perceived acceptance and association with aggressive-disruptive friends during preadolescence predicted students' failure to graduate from secondary school. Participants were 997 Caucasian, French-speaking boys from low-socioeconomic status, urban neighborhoods. The boys were recruited in…

Background: The development of youth psychopathology may be associated with direct and continuous contact with a different culture (acculturation) and to distress related to this process (cultural stress). We examine cultural experiences of Puerto Rican families in relation to youth psychiatric symptoms in two different contexts: one in which…

This longitudinal study analyzed the relationship between structure and content of socio-moral reasoning. Using a system that defines independently the cognitive organizational and content aspects of socio-moral reasoning, the study examined whether persons at different developmental levels make use of different content categories, and whether the…

Using a longitudinal data set obtained from 169 pre-adolescent children between the ages of 8 and 13 years, this study statistically divided locus of control into two independent components. The first component was noted as "age-dependent" (AD) and was determined by predicted values generated by regressing children's ages onto their…

This longitudinal study responds to a need for new perspectives and research tools for studying school transition stress by identifying changes in student role strains and assessing sex differences in these changes during the transition from elementary school to a middle school for grades six through eight. Subjects included 120 fifth-grade…

Tests the construct of belief-discrepancy reasoning (i.e., judgments people make about others who disagree with them). First, fourth, seventh, and tenth graders were assessed and retested one year later. Longitudinal trends supported a four-stage development toward open-mindedness which was confirmed by another study of fourth and seventh graders…

Background: A limited number of mostly cross-sectional studies have examined the possible effects of power sports on aggressive and antisocial involvement in children and youth. The majority of these studies have serious methodological limitations, and results are partly contradictory. Longitudinal studies with representative, reasonably large…

Previous research has indicated that pubertal development and the transition from middle or elementary school to junior high may present problems for some preadolescents. The effects of these transitions on achievement, psychological well-being, and social relations were examined using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and…

Considerable stability was observed on measures of acceptance, rejection, preference, and impact in a one-year longitudinal study of sociometric stability and friendship choice consistency in an early-adolescent peer group. Findings provided new information about patterns of stability in early adolescent peer groups and revealed the need for…

Assessed children's adjustment at clinic intake and six months later, and sampled children's saliva before and after a conflict-oriented parent-child interaction. Increases in salivary cortisol predicted children's internalizing problem behaviors and anxiety disorders at follow-up. High adrenocortical reactivity at intake and follow-up was…

We investigated determinants of parental monitoring and the association between parental monitoring and preadolescent sexual risk situations among low-income, African American families living in urban public housing. Preadolescents and their parents or caregivers who participated in a longitudinal study of familial and contextual influences on…

Competence and self-esteem of 445 fifth- and sixth-graders were examined across a one-year period. Half of the children made the transition from elementary to secondary school and the other half continued in the same school. Beginning at the end of the school year before transition, self- and teacher-ratings of competence were administered at…