This study was part of a larger on-going study that is examining the Pygmalion Principle for the practicum experiences of six mature-age student-teachers. The participants are former graduates with university degrees and aged from 36 to 49. They have extensive career backgrounds unrelated to classroom teaching. For this part of the larger study,…

Social and economic transformations in Russia have had an influence on all spheres of society. The value orientations of young people have been influenced by the market economy, and this has led to a new type of adaptive behavior, in which preference is given to material value orientations, growth of individualism, pragmatism, and hedonistic…

Socioeconomic status (SES), a variable combining income, education, and occupation, is correlated with a variety of social health outcomes including school dropout rates, early parenthood, delinquency, and mental illness. Several studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s largely failed to report a relationship between SES and hemispheric asymmetry…

Determining a child's chronological age and stage of maturation is particularly important in fields such as paediatrics, orthopaedics, and orthodontics, as well as in forensic and anthropological studies. Some systemic conditions can cause abnormal physiological maturation, and skeletal maturation is usually more delayed than dental maturation.…

Developmental theories suggest that affiliation with deviant peers and susceptibility to peer influence are important contributors to adolescent delinquency, but it is unclear how these variables impact antisocial behavior during the transition to adulthood, a period when most delinquent individuals decline in antisocial behavior. Using data from…

This article considers the repercussions of discharging youth from foster care at age 18 based on recent research demonstrating that youth at this age are not developmentally prepared to live independently and have a continued need for strong social scaffolding during emerging adulthood. Drawing upon recent research findings, we make…

Vocopher: The Career Collaboratory is an Internet-based website (http://www.vocopher.com) that contains free career instruments and educational materials intended for practitioners, researchers, and teachers of career development. The instruments include inventories and tests designed to measure the processes that shape career development and work…

In a large sample of early adolescents (T2: N = 1023; M age = 13.51; 55.5% girls), the impact of parental protection and unsupervised wandering on adolescents' antisocial behavior 2.5 years later was tested in this TRAILS study; gender and parental knowledge were controlled for. In addition, the level of biological maturation and having antisocial…

Although cultural and subcultural differences during the transition to adulthood have been examined, important factors like rural/urban upbringing and gender differences among Canadian emerging adults have been neglected. The present study explored developmentally significant tasks including criteria for adulthood, beliefs about religiosity, and…

This study compares the life events perceived as "rites of passage" from adolescence to adulthood by respondents between the ages of 14 and 23 in 3 countries and discusses the possible influences of culture and globalization on these perceptions. Participants include: (1) 250 adolescents from the US (125 males and 125 females); (2) 191…

Regardless of disability status, adolescents benefit from planning and instruction as they prepare to move forward into adulthood. For those with disabilities, however, transition education--that is, the planning, direct instruction, and experiential learning that helps adolescents make decisions and gain requisite attitudes, knowledge, and…

Slowly but surely, Generation Xers have been taking over from Baby Boomers as the majority of parents in elementary and secondary education. In the early 1990s, Gen Xers began joining parent-teacher associations in the nation's elementary schools. Around 2005, they became the majority of middle school parents. By the fall of 2008, they took over…

It is thought that a child takes the first 8 years of life to develop an adult-like volitional attention system. The data that support this belief, however, are based on studies that inadvertently measured a combination of volitional and reflexive attention, rather than volitional attention alone. What is immature then in children that are younger…

Two faculty members developed and implemented a successful, holistic, goal-oriented peer-mentoring project for two years at a midsize, urban university to enhance student success and retention. In year one, 12 juniors and seniors mentored 34 freshmen and sophomores; in year two, 14 upperclassmen mentored 40 underclassmen. A grounded theory…

Scholarly literature points to an important relationship between transformative learning and pastoral ministry, as well as the need for experiential learning in pastoral ministry formation. The necessary role of critical self-reflection in transformative learning underlines the need for theological field education experiences to foster students'…