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…

This article discusses three focal areas in promoting positive youth development (PYD) in schools: positive people, positive places, and positive opportunities. Given school personnel workload and federal policies that emphasize academic achievement, it remains a goal to focus on holistic adolescent outcomes and school outcomes that increase both…

Research reported in recent years highlights that many children and young people living in Northern Ireland are struggling to cope with a range of complex issues in their daily lives. The lack of accessible and appropriate professional support means that many children and young people carry these issues to school, where their struggle to cope…

The psychosocial inventory of ego strengths (PIES) was devised as a measure of Erikson's eight ego strengths. The present investigation extended previous research through examination of the validity and reliability of the PIES among 502 high school students. The study also included an appraisal of Erikson's ego strengths as indices of psychosocial…

Background: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a congenital alteration of chromosome pair 15. It is characterized by short stature, muscular hypotonia, hyperphagia, obesity, behavioural and emotional disturbances, hypogonadism and partial Growth Hormone (GH) deficiency. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term effect of GH treatment on the…

The number of U.S. children living in poverty increased in 2007--continuing an upward trend dating back to 2000: in 2007, 13.3 million children were living in poverty, up from 11.6 million children in 2000. The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in…

The Child Development & Behavior (CDB) Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) seeks to improve the health and well-being of individuals from infancy through early adulthood by supporting research into healthy growth and development, including all aspects of child development. The study of typical child…

Using data from the final two rounds of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a longitudinal study begun in 2001, this First Look provides a snapshot of the demographic characteristics, reading and mathematics knowledge, fine motor skills, school characteristics, and before- and after-school care arrangements of the cohort…

Family-school partnerships are increasingly touted as a means of improving both student and school improvement. This recognition has led to an increase in policies and initiatives that offer the following benefits: improved communication between parents and educators; home and school goals that are mutually supportive and shared; better…

The current study examines the social and behavioral development of school-age children with different histories of overweight onset. Eight thousand children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) participated. Three groups of children were identified for analysis: (1) those who were persistently overweight from…

The present study examined the midlife outcomes of 548 adults who became parents before the age of 20. Participants were from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) and were followed prospectively from age 18 until age 53. Their life-course development was compared to sample members who gave birth at the mean age for the WLS. Midlife outcomes were…

In this groundbreaking book, the authors show how the cycle of educational alienation can be broken, to enable parents and schools to work together to contribute to children's educational, social and emotional well-being. They illustrate this by exploring a highly successful initiative in a school with severe socioeconomic disadvantages, which, in…

This chapter focuses on how the routine elements of family mealtimes such as assigned tasks and the more emotional ritual aspects such as recognition of feelings are related to children's well-being and the creation of a family identity. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

We examined the nature and implications of family differentiation among adolescents facing a life transition in 2 European countries with differing family cultures. One hundred and twenty-four Italian and 109 U.K. adolescents completed measures of family differentiation (cohesion and enmeshment), identity threat (perception of threat to the self…

One portion of a national study of bullying, which surveyed gifted 8th graders regarding bullying during their school years (N = 432), used structured interviews (N = 57) to explore the lived experience of being bullied or being a bully. Qualitative analysis of interview data found that even just one incident was highly distressing for some. Also…