International Journal of Behavioral Development This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort
Children who enter school with limited proficiency in the language of instruction face a range of challenges in negotiating this new context, yet limited data have been available to describe the early developmental outcomes of this subpopulation in the Australian context. The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is a teacher-rated checklist that measures five important domains of child development: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. In 2009, the AEDI was completed for 97.5% of Australian children in their ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - January 6, 2014 Category: Child Development Authors: Goldfeld, S., O'Connor, M., Mithen, J., Sayers, M., Brinkman, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

An investigation of children's peer trust across culture: Is the composition of peer trust universal?
The components of children’s trust in same-gender peers (trust beliefs, ascribed trustworthiness, and dyadic reciprocal trust) were examined in samples of 8–11-year-olds from the UK, Italy, and Japan. Trust was assessed by children’s ratings of the extent to which same-gender classmates kept promises and kept secrets. Social relations analyses confirmed that children from each country showed significant: (a) actor variance demonstrating reliable individual differences in trust beliefs, (b) partner variance demonstrating reliable individual differences in ascribed trustworthiness, and (c) relationship vari...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - January 6, 2014 Category: Child Development Authors: Betts, L. R., Rotenberg, K. J., Petrocchi, S., Lecciso, F., Sakai, A., Maeshiro, K., Judson, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Transformation of the incomplete figure in young children
This study aims to examine the developmental changes in young children’s perception. A matching completion task consisting of three geometric figures and one bird-like figure were completed by children 3–5 years of age (N = 99). The rotation effect, in which the correct response decreased with orientation (45°, 90° 135°, and 180°), was confirmed, except in one of the geometric conditions. We found that two factors were needed for a child to perform the bird-like completion task: clarification of the reference to each stimulus and awareness of the turning orientation. These studies suggest that t...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - January 6, 2014 Category: Child Development Authors: Noda, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Canadian youths' trajectories of psychosocial competencies through university: Academic and romantic affairs matter
The increasingly prolonged transition to adulthood has raised concerns about the nature and timing of growth in the attainment of important psychosocial competencies in young people. Changes over time in self-reported competencies (work orientation, identity, intimacy) were examined in 198 Canadians, who were followed for the first 4 years of university. Work orientation and intimacy positively contributed to later levels of identity, and identity reciprocally contributed to later levels of work orientation. Work orientation decreased and intimacy increased in the first 2 years of university but work orientation rose and i...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - January 6, 2014 Category: Child Development Authors: Lascano, D. I. V., Galambos, N. L., Hoglund, W. L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Optimizing cognitive development over the life course and preventing cognitive decline: Introducing the Cognitive Health Environment Life Course Model (CHELM)
Optimal cognitive development is defined in this article as the highest level of cognitive function reached in each cognitive domain given a person’s biological and genetic disposition, and the highest possible maintenance of cognitive function over the adult life course. Theoretical perspectives underpinning the development of a framework for understanding optimal cognitive development are described, including differential development, intra-individual dynamics, cascades, biological mechanisms, reserve capacity, and plasticity. The Cognitive Health and Environment Life Course Model (CHELM) is proposed as a means to ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - January 6, 2014 Category: Child Development Authors: Anstey, K. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

The utility of person-specific analyses for investigating developmental processes: An analytic primer on studying the individual
This article addresses the issues of analyzing intraindividual psychological/developmental phenomena using standard analytical techniques for interindividual variation. When phenomena are characterized by intraindividual variation, analyses must be done at the level of the individual. Research on these processes generally uses methods analyzing interindividual variation, rather than intraindividual, however, a noteworthy fundamental difference exists between the two. The current article provides theoretical and empirical illustrations of the fundamental contrast between variation within subjects and variation between subje...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Gayles, J. G., Molenaar, P. C. M. Tags: Methods and Measures Source Type: research

How joint attention relates to cooperation in 1- and 2-year-olds
Joint attention has been suggested to contribute to children’s development of cooperation; however, few empirical studies have directly tested this hypothesis. Children aged 1 and 2 years participated in two joint action activities to assess their cooperation with an adult partner, who stopped participating at a specific moment during the tasks. Children’s joint attention skills were measured by the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). Results showed that children’s responding to joint attention ability contributed to their successful cooperation in an activity that required parallel roles, whereas i...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Wu, Z., Pan, J., Su, Y., Gros-Louis, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Adversity and internalizing problems among rural Chinese adolescents: The roles of parents and teachers
Throughout the developing world, adolescents living in rural poverty face multiple and inter-related adaptive challenges. Using longitudinal data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, we adopt an approach grounded in resilience theory to investigate the relationship between cumulative adversity and internalizing problems among 1,659 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 years in an interior Chinese province. We also investigate the compensatory roles of parental warmth and teacher support. Results of multivariate regression models suggest that internalizing problems increased in later adolescence in this samp...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Davidson, S., Adams, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Adolescent resource control: Associations with physical and relational aggression, prosocial and withdrawn behaviors, and peer regard
This study examined adolescent coercive and prosocial resource control strategies in relation to various indices of peer-reported behaviors and peer regard (N = 384; 12–14 years). Coercive control was uniquely positively related to physical and relational aggression and peer disliking, and negatively to prosocial behaviors when controlling for prosocial control, which, in turn, was uniquely negatively related to physical aggression and social withdrawal, and positively to prosocial behaviors, peer liking, and popularity. Findings from person-centered analyses augmented these findings, indicating that bi-strategic, co...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Findley, D., Ojanen, T. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Instrumental and reactive functions and overt and relational forms of aggression: Developmental trajectories and prospective associations during middle school
This study examined the development of adolescent self-reported instrumental-overt, instrumental-relational, reactive-overt, and reactive-relational aggression during middle school (N = 384; 12–14 years; 53% boys). Growth modeling indicated average increases in instrumental-relational aggression, and decreases in reactive-overt and reactive-instrumental aggression over time. Further, overt and relational aggression driven by reactive reasons (functions) predicted gains in aggression driven by instrumental reasons, and overt form of aggression predicted increases in relational form of aggression across time. (Source: ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Ojanen, T., Kiefer, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Becoming cruel: Appetitive aggression released by detrimental socialisation in former Congolese soldiers
Appetitive aggression – a rewarding perception of the perpetration of violence – seems to be an adaptation common to adverse conditions. Children raised within armed groups may develop attitudes and values that favour harming others when socialized within a combat force. Combatants who joined an armed force early in their lives should, therefore, perceive aggression in a more appetitive way than those who were recruited later. We interviewed 95 former members of armed groups operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those combatants that were having higher levels of appetitive aggre...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Weierstall, R., Haer, R., Banholzer, L., Elbert, T. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Parental emotional support during emerging adulthood and Baby Boomers' well-being in midlife
This study examined whether parental emotional support around emerging adulthood influenced well-being in midlife. We applied latent growth curve (LGC) models on 337 Baby Boomers who were in their late teens to early 20s when they entered the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG) in 1971. There was a small but significant decline in self-rated health and positive emotions through 2005, but not depressive symptoms. Greater support from fathers in 1971 was associated with better self-rated health, less depression, and a slower decline in self-rated health across midlife. Greater support from mothers was associated with mo...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Poon, C. Y. M., Knight, B. G. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Use of a non-navigational, non-verbal landmark task in children
Two hundred and twenty two children (104 females), 1–8 years of age and young adults, were tested for up to 25 days on five versions of a non-verbal, non-navigational landmark task that had previously been used for monkeys. In monkeys, performance on this task is severely impaired following damage to the parietal cortex. For the basic task, the positive of two identical stimuli concealed a food reward and was designated by spatial proximity of a salient landmark. None of the 1- and 2-year-old children learned the task, i.e., they failed to consistently reach for and displace the positive stimulus in 25 test days. Of ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Overman, W., Pierce, A., Watterson, L., Coleman, J. K. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Trajectories and personality correlates of change in perceptions of physical and mental health across adulthood and old age
Subjective health is known to predict later outcomes, including survival. However, less is known about subjective health changes across adulthood, how personality moderates those changes, and whether such associations differ with age. We applied growth models to 10 waves of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA, N = 7,172; median ages 20–93) to examine age-related differences in trajectories of subjective physical and mental health. On average, perceptions of physical health declined with increasing steepness in old age, whereas self-rated mental health remained relatively sta...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - November 5, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Morack, J., Infurna, F. J., Ram, N., Gerstorf, D. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Using a head-mounted camera to infer attention direction
A head-mounted camera was used to measure head direction. The camera was mounted to the forehead of 20 6- and 20 12-month-old infants while they watched an object held at 11 horizontal (–80° to + 80°) and 9 vertical (–48° to + 50°) positions. The results showed that the head always moved less than required to be on target. Below 30° in the horizontal dimension, the head undershoot of object direction was less than 5°. At 80°, however, the undershoot was substantial or between 10° and 15°. In the vertical dimension, the undershoot was larger than in the horizontal dimension. A...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - September 4, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Schmitow, C., Stenberg, G., Billard, A., Hofsten, C. v. Tags: Methods and Measures Source Type: research