Early childhood has long been known to be a formative time in a child's development-- a time when the brain produces more than 1 million neural connections every second during the first few years of a child's life. However, there are factors at the individual and community levels that impact the development process. In communities across America,…

This brief explores the link between rural youths' identification with their community, their self-esteem, and their future plans. The panel study of New Hampshire's Coos County youth offers a snapshot into the dynamics of a population that is developing its identity in a region that is undergoing an identity transformation of its own. Place…

One of a series of papers which focus on 10- to 15-year-old adolescents, this publication describes these young people as they work through developmental tasks in environments (families, communities, peer groups, and schools) that are part of their daily lives. This description is used as a basis to accomplish the following: (1) a further…