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.

Challenges to developmental regulation across the life course: What are they and which individual differences matter?
We discuss the major processes involved in individuals’ motivation and self-regulation of goal striving throughout the life course. While much is regulated based on the biological and societal scaffolding of lifespan development, certain challenges for motivation and self-regulation are more substantial and need to be managed by the individual, providing opportunities for researchers for testing the limits of individual capacities in developmental regulation. These challenging circumstances include major changes in age-graded opportunities for goal pursuit, uncertain or obfuscated opportunities, and major unexpected ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Heckhausen, J., Wrosch, C. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

Goal disengagement capacities and severity of disease across older adulthood: The sample case of the common cold
This study examined age-related associations between goal disengagement capacities, emotional distress, and disease severity across older adulthood. Given that an age-related increase in the experience of stressors might render important goals unattainable, it is expected that goal disengagement capacities would predict a decrease in the severity of experienced illness (i.e., the common cold) by preventing emotional distress (i.e., depressive symptoms), particularly so among individuals in advanced (as compared to early) old age. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study of 131 older adults (age range = 64 ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Jobin, J., Wrosch, C. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

Self-regulatory strategies in daily life: Selection, optimization, and compensation and everyday memory problems
We examined whether SOC usage varied by age and level of constraints, and if the relationship between cognitive resources and memory problems was mitigated by SOC usage. A daily diary paradigm was used to explore day-to-day fluctuations in these relationships. Participants (n=145, ages 22 to 94) completed a baseline interview and a daily diary for seven consecutive days. Multilevel models examined between- and within-person relationships between daily SOC use, daily stressors, cognitive resources, and everyday memory problems. Middle-aged adults had the highest SOC usage, although older adults also showed high SOC use if t...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Robinson, S. A., Rickenbach, E. H., Lachman, M. E. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

Goal disengagement in emerging adulthood: The adaptive potential of action crises
In emerging adulthood, being committed to and making progress on important personal goals constitutes a source of identity and well-being. Goal striving, however, does not always go without problems. Even though highly committed to a goal, individuals may experience recurring setbacks and, consequently, increasing doubts about the goal that might culminate in an action crisis, that is, an intra-psychic decisional conflict about whether to disengage from or to continue on their way. Action crises have been shown to lead to negative consequences on well-being and performance. Besides these negative consequences, however, an ...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Brandstätter, V., Herrmann, M. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

For better or worse: Young adults opportunity beliefs and motivational self-regulation during career entry
Individuals’ motivational self-regulatory system is challenged as they cross the transition from school to work. Using data from a longitudinal study of participants approaching and crossing university graduation (n = 140), we examine the ways in which individuals’ motivational strategies reflect and direct their career-related opportunity field. Our findings indicate that participants’ beliefs about how socioeconomic status (SES) is attained in society and how they themselves believe their own SES will be attained, are related with the degree to which they engage with or disengage from their career goals...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Shane, J., Heckhausen, J. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

What motivates females and males to pursue careers in mathematics and science?
Drawing on Eccles’ expectancy-value model of achievement-related choices, we examined the personal aptitudes and motivational beliefs at 12th grade that move individuals toward or away from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations at age 29. In the first set of analyses, occupational and lifestyle values, math ability self-concepts, family demographics, and high school course-taking more strongly predicted both individual and gender differences in the likelihood of entering STEM careers than math scores on the Differential Aptitude Test. In the second set of analyses, individual and gender...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Eccles, J. S., Wang, M.-T. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

Introduction to the special section on motivational self-regulation across the lifespan
A special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development (IJBD) devoted to the topic ‘Motivational Self-Regulation Across the Lifespan.’ (Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development)
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - February 10, 2016 Category: Child Development Authors: Wrosch, C., Heckhausen, J. Tags: Special Section: Motivational Self Regulation Across the Life-Span Source Type: research

Individual change and the timing and onset of important life events: Methods, models, and assumptions
Researchers are often interested in studying how the timing of a specific event affects concurrent and future development. When faced with such research questions there are multiple statistical models to consider and those models are the focus of this paper as well as their theoretical underpinnings and assumptions regarding the nature of the effect of the event on the developmental process. We discuss three models, all variants of growth models specified within the multilevel modeling framework, which conceptualize the developmental process and the effect of the event in different ways. These models include the growth mod...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Grimm, K., Marcoulides, K. Tags: Methods and Measures Source Type: research

Ignoring individual differences in times of assessment in growth curve modeling
Researchers often collect longitudinal data to model change over time in a phenomenon of interest. Inevitably, there will be some variation across individuals in specific time intervals between assessments. In this simulation study of growth curve modeling, we investigate how ignoring individual differences in time points when modeling change over time relates to convergence and admissibility of solutions, bias in estimates of parameters, efficiency, power to detect change over time, and Type I error rate. We manipulated magnitude of the individual differences in assessment times, distribution of assessment times, magnitud...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Coulombe, P., Selig, J. P., Delaney, H. D. Tags: Methods and Measures Source Type: research

A systematic review of evidence for the psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
In conclusion, the lack of evidence for cultural validity, criterion validity and test-retest reliability should be addressed given wide-spread implementation of the tool in routine clinical practice. The moderate level of consistency between different informants indicate that an assessment of a pre-schooler should not rely on a single informant. (Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development)
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Kersten, P., Czuba, K., McPherson, K., Dudley, M., Elder, H., Tauroa, R., Vandal, A. Tags: Methods and Measures Source Type: research

Risky decision making in a laboratory driving task is associated with health risk behaviors during late adolescence but not adulthood
Adolescence is characterized by increasing incidence of health risk behaviors, including experimentation with drugs and alcohol. To fill the gap in our understanding of the associations between risky decision-making and health risk behaviors, we investigated associations between laboratory-based risky decision-making using the Stoplight task and self-reported health risk behaviors. Given that there has been no examination of potential age differences in the associations between risky decision-making and health risk behaviors, we also examined whether the association of risky decision-making with health risk behaviors is co...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Kim-Spoon, J., Kahn, R., Deater-Deckard, K., Chiu, P., Steinberg, L., King-Casas, B. Tags: Reports Source Type: research

Cognitive and reactive control processes: Associations with ADHD symptoms in preschoolers
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be identified in the preschool years, but little is known about the correlates of ADHD symptoms in preschool children. Research to date suggests that factors such as temperament, personality, and neuropsychological functioning may be important in understanding the development of early ADHD symptomatology. The current study sought to extend this research by examining how cognitive and reactive control processes predict ADHD symptoms. Data were drawn from a larger study that measured the cognitive, social, and emotional functioning of preschool children. Eighty-seven childr...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Jarrett, M. A., Gilpin, A. T., Pierucci, J. M., Rondon, A. T. Tags: Reports Source Type: research

Phonetic processing when learning words: The case of bilingual infants
Infants have remarkable abilities to learn several languages. However, phonological acquisition in bilingual infants appears to vary depending on the phonetic similarities or differences of their two native languages. Many studies suggest that learning contrasts with different realizations in the two languages (e.g., the /p/, /t/, /k/ stops have similar VOT values in French, Spanish, Italian and European Portuguese, but can be confounded with the /b/, /d/, /g/ in German and English) poses a particular challenge. The current study explores how similarity or difference in the realization of phonetic contrasts affects word-le...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Havy, M., Bouchon, C., Nazzi, T. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

"Who is worthy of my generosity?" Recipient characteristics and the development of childrens sharing
In this study, we examine whether these patterns of sharing behavior are affected by the needs of the recipient or by the recipient’s previous moral or immoral actions. One-hundred and sixty 4- and 8-year-old children had the opportunity to share stickers with hypothetical recipients who were assigned varying characteristics. For both age groups, sharing increased when recipients were needy (i.e., feels sad or has few toys) and morally deserving (i.e., shares with other children and does not push). The differentiation of sharing based on recipient characteristics increased between 4 and 8 years of age, with 8-year-ol...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Malti, T., Gummerum, M., Ongley, S., Chaparro, M., Nola, M., Bae, N. Y. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

From the external to the internal: Behavior clarifications facilitate theory of mind (ToM) development in Chinese children
The present study investigated how Chinese children develop theory of mind (ToM) in a language environment with limited mental state talk that is rich in behavior discourse. In Study 1, 60 mothers shared a wordless storybook with their 3–4-year-olds. The children completed two false-belief tasks and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised at the same time and again 1 year later. Mothers’ early behavior clarifications during book-sharing predicted children’s later false-belief understanding independent of children’s early false-belief scores; children’s early verbal ability; maternal educat...
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - December 9, 2015 Category: Child Development Authors: Liu, Y., Wang, Y., Luo, R., Su, Y. Tags: Articles Source Type: research