The present study explored the bidirectional longitudinal associations between prosocial behavior and school performance during adolescence in six countries (Colombia, Italy, Jordan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States). A total sample of 884 adolescents (T1: = 10.34 years, = 0.69) reported their prosocial behavior, while adolescents' mothers ( = 871) and fathers ( = 773) reported their children's school performance over three-time points covering the transition to adolescence (from ages 10 to 16). A Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model, controlling for countries' Human Development Index, child gender, and family SES, showed that adolescents with high levels of prosocial behavior also have high school performance on a stable basis over time. Moreover, being more prosocial than usual is positively associated with higher-than-expected school performance at each time point. The implications of the interplay between prosocial behavior and school performance during the transition to adolescence in multicultural contexts are discussed.

Pubertal timing has implications for adolescent substance use, such that early maturers have increased use. Yet, pubertal timing is not widely studied beyond adolescence, making it unclear whether and how adolescent effects persist or if downstream effects emerge after adolescence. This paper investigates the relation between pubertal timing (perceived comparison to same-sex peers) and alcohol use for 75-100 days and examines alcohol belief mediators. Participants (=183) aged 21-45 years ( =27.33 [ =6.65]) came from two intensive longitudinal studies. Across ~13,000 daily observations, pubertal timing was associated with normative daily alcohol use during adulthood, such that women who matured late and men who matured on-time drank the most. Alcohol beliefs about relaxation and social facilitation influenced the alcohol use behavior of late maturing men less than their peers. Adolescent alcohol use might be slow to emerge in late developers, and the mechanisms underlying use seem to differ across development and by gender.

In a large sample of children in northern Ghana ( = 4,723), we investigated the factorial validity and reliability of the widely used parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated poor fit for the proposed 5-factor model. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we found a reliable and empirically sound 3-factor solution. The first factor reflected self-regulatory and prosocial behaviors, a factor we termed "responsibility" to align with skills valued in the Ghanaian context. The second and third factors represented internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors, respectively. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses suggested measurement invariance across gender and age. While evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was mixed, associations with child and household characteristics offer new insights into child development in an understudied context. This study contributes to a conversation around the importance of applying socio-cultural understanding to conceptualizing and measuring social and emotional behaviors across diverse contexts.

Public preschool enhances consequential long-term education, economic, and health outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. One much-hypothesized - but rarely tested - explanation is that preschool predicts improved executive functioning (EF) in middle childhood. Our study provides empirical support linking preschool to middle childhood EF. We draw on a large, racially-diverse sample of children from low-income families in Tulsa, OK (=685, M= 8.5 years), home to a nationally-recognized universal public preschool program administered in school-based pre-k and Head Start classrooms. Using propensity score weighting, we compare the 3 grade EF skills of children who attended school-based pre-k or Head Start to those who did not. School-based pre-k attendance predicts better impulse control and working memory skills in 3 grade (.35-.37); Head Start attendance predicts better working memory (=.47). This evidence highlights public preschool's potential to promote the EF skills of diverse children from low-income families into middle childhood.

Encouraging involvement in school-based extracurricular activities (ECA) may be important for preventing high school dropout. However, the potential of these activities remains underexploited, perhaps because studies linking ECA involvement and dropout are rare and based on decades-old data. Previous studies also ignore key parameters of student involvement. The present study expands and updates this limited literature by using recent data from a high-risk Canadian sample ( = 545) and by considering a range of involvement parameters. Results showed that consistent involvement in the past year was associated with lower odds of dropout (OR = 0.32; 95% CI = 0.17-0.61). However, adolescents who interrupted their involvement during this period (e.g., because of cancelations or exclusions) were as much at risk of dropout as those who were not involved at all. Findings notably imply that excluding students from ECA (e.g., because of No Pass/No Play policies) may heighten their dropout risk.

Parents are important for the development and maintenance of regulatory control. The current longitudinal study examined associations between parental coercion and autonomy support and impulse control in 117 youth (ages 8-16; M= 12.87, SD=2.53; 44% male) with Type 1 diabetes and explored whether youth negative affect mediated these associations. Parental coercion (but not autonomy support) was concurrently associated with lower impulse control and higher negative affect within individuals. Increases in youth negative affect partially mediated the within-person association between parental coercion and impulse control. These findings suggest that parent-directed interventions to reduce parental coercion may be most beneficial for impulse control if combined with youth-directed interventions to help them regulate negative affect. Replication of the current findings in a larger sample of youth with and without a chronic illness is needed to address the theoretical and empirical importance of negative affect as a potential mechanism through which parental coercion impacts youth impulsivity.

Play during childhood is essential to growth and learning. Little is known about whether categories of toys moderate play behaviors at different ages, or how children interact with toys that are simple, appropriate, or complex for their developmental level. Two hundred and forty-three children between the ages of 1 and 8 years, divided into four age groups, played with toys that were targeted to their age group as well as toys aimed at one age group younger and older. Toys fell into nine different categories. Whether children fully utilized each toy was evaluated. Analyses examined how children's utilization of toys was affected by the age-appropriateness of the toy, the category of toy, and the child's age. Considering all age groups and toys, children were less likely to fully utilize toys targeted toward older children than age-appropriate toys, but this effect was moderated by the toy category and the child's age.

Forensic interviewers are encouraged to elicit a practice narrative from children in order to train them to answer free recall questions with narrative information. Although asking children about their last birthday has been recommended, concerns have been raised that many children will have nothing to report. This study asked 994 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and non-maltreated children to recall their last birthday. Although a fair number of children initially failed to recall information (9%), virtually all children recalled information with persistent encouragement (99%). Younger children and maltreated children were less responsive and spoke less, but nevertheless, 93% of the youngest children (4-year-olds) and 97% of maltreated children recalled information with persistent encouragement. The results suggest that children's failures to recall information about birthdays are predominantly attributable to a failure to provide additional support.

With growing attention to youth's efforts to address sexual and gender diversity issues in Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs), there remains limited research on adult advisors. Do advisor characteristics predict their youth members' advocacy? Among 58 advisors of 38 GSAs, we considered whether advisor attributes predicted greater advocacy by youth in these GSAs ( = 366) over the school year. GSAs varied in youth advocacy over the year. Youth in GSAs whose advisors reported longer years of service, devoted more time to GSA efforts each week, and employed more structure to meetings (to a point, with a curvilinear effect), reported greater relative increases in advocacy over the year (adjusting for initial advocacy and total meetings that year). Relative changes in advocacy were not associated with whether advisors received a stipend, training, or whether GSAs had co-advisors. Continued research should consider how advisors of GSAs and other social justice-oriented groups foster youth advocacy.

Developmental researchers face considerable challenges regarding maximizing data collection and reducing participant attrition. In this article, we use our experiences implementing our study on the effects of timing of prenatal stress on maternal and infant outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic as a framework to discuss the difficulties and solutions for these challenges, including the development of two types of virtual assessments. Specific information regarding use of virtual platforms, confidentiality, engaging children during video conferencing, and modifying the major assessments of our research are discussed. Feasibility data are presented, and data analytic challenges regarding statistical inference are outlined. Finally, we conclude with some of the unintended positive consequences for our research that resulted from making these modifications to our original methods.

The integration of neurodevelopmental perspectives into clinical science has identified irritability as an early dimensional marker of lifespan mental health risk. Elucidating the developmental patterning of irritable behavior is key to differentiating normative variation from risk markers. Accounting for dysregulation and contextual features of irritability is useful for differentiation at preschool age, laying the groundwork for even earlier characterization. We provide initial evidence for the validity of the Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Disruptive Behavior Temper Loss Scale, Infant-Toddler version in two independent samples of 12-18-month-olds from the US. We calibrated the measure using item response theory in a large representative sample, then validated within an independent sample. We characterized the developmental patterning of irritable behaviors and their dimensional spectrum, and demonstrated test-retest reliability, and convergent validity. The MAP-DB-IT is a standardized, dimensional survey assessing irritability that serves as a tool for characterizing the developmental expression of early mental health risk.

The current study assessed whether greater use of shift-and persist strategies, which entail the reappraisal of stressors (shifting) and endurance through optimism and meaning-making, buffered the associations between life stressors and adolescents' psychological health (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety) and physical health and health behaviors (i.e., self-rated health, sleep quality). Survey data were drawn from a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 750 9 grade adolescents (53% female). Path analysis revealed racial discrimination, neighborhood risk, and deportation exposure were linked to poorer psychological and physical health, while socioeconomic disadvantage was related to greater anxiety and poorer physical health. Some evidence suggested that shift-and-persist may be protective-reactive, wherein shift-and-persist typically promoted well-being across health domains but more so when the life stressors were at low versus high levels. Shift-and-persist strategies promote both mental and physical health, but the promotive effects appear to be maximized when adolescents' exposure to life stressors is minimal.

This study examined the associations between excessive alcohol intake during adolescence and neurocognitive functioning in young adulthood and whether these relations varied by sex. Participants were working-class Chilean adolescents ( = 692; 16.0 years; 54.5% female) who provided frequency of past 30-day bingeing and past-year intoxication. Neurocognitive measures were completed in young adulthood ( 21.2 years). Illicit substance users were excluded a priori and other substance use was controlled. When males and females were considered simultaneously, no main effects of intoxication or bingeing were found. However, several sex-specific effects emerged for intoxication, such that more frequent intoxication was associated with poorer visual memory, attention, processing speed, response inhibition, and cognitive flexibility in females, while frequent intoxication related to better attention and processing speed in males. In general, effect sizes were small. No relations emerged for verbal memory, working memory, or spatial learning. Possible factors that contribute to divergent sex effects are discussed.

Developmental research has suggested that certain parenting practices impact the development of children's later risk behaviours. However, little evidence exists regarding how parenting may impact a child's actual decision-making skills later in life. This study examined the degree to which earlier child-reports of parenting practices (assessed at age 10-12 and at 12-14), specifically monitoring/involvement, firm/lax control, and psychological control, predicted decision-making competence (), a measure of decision-making skills, at age 19. We conducted these analyses on a large, diverse sample of children ( = 775; 227 Female, 21.8% African-American); nearly half had at least one parent with a positive Substance Use Disorder (SUD) diagnosis. Analyses revealed that children reporting greater levels of psychological control demonstrated lower DMC performance at age 19, holding other parenting variables, level of neighbourhood disadvantage, and parental SUD status constant. We relate these results to the broader effects of psychological control on decision-making and self-regulatory capabilities.

Although children display strong individual differences in emotion expression, they also engage in emotional synchrony or reciprocity with interaction partners. To understand this paradox between trait-like and dyadic influences, the goal of the current study was to investigate children's emotion expression using a Social Relations Model (SRM) approach. Playgroups consisting typically of four same-sex unfamiliar nine-year-old children ( = 202) interacted in a round-robin format (6 dyads per group). Each dyad completed two 5-minute tasks, a challenging frustration task and a cooperative planning task. Observers coded children's emotions during the tasks (happy, sad, angry, anxious, neutral) on a second-by-second basis. SRM analyses provided substantial evidence of both the trait-like nature of children's emotion expression (through significant effects for actor variance, multivariate actor-actor correlations, and multivariate intrapersonal correlations) and the dyadic nature of their emotion expression (through significant effects for partner variance, relationship variance, dyadic reciprocity correlations, and multivariate interpersonal correlations).

Studies that distinguish parental monitoring (parent-driven behaviors) from parental knowledge often fail to find protective effects of monitoring on adolescent behavior problems. To answer whether parental monitoring is more strongly associated with adolescent behavior problems among adolescents who may need it most, this study applied group-based trajectory modeling to change in early- to mid-adolescent aggressive behavior problems and examined associations between parental monitoring with different subgroups. Three latent groups of adolescents were found: Low Aggression, Medium-Increasing Aggression, and High-Increasing Aggression. Results show that more maternal and paternal monitoring were associated with fewer adolescent aggressive behavior problems only for adolescents in the High-Increasing Group. This result suggests that parental monitoring is a protective factor against adolescent aggressive behavior problems for subgroups of adolescents who may need it most and less impactful for other adolescents.

Recent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) scholarship emphasizes that differing ACEs affect the onset and course of psychopathology, and that sociopolitical context contributes to ACEs experienced by marginalized youth. Guided by the Immigration-Related Adverse Childhood Experiences Model, we explored the associations between different ACEs-immigration enforcement fear and perceived economic hardship-on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among first and second-generation Latinx youth in immigrant families. Participants (n=306) included students from 11 high schools in two states (58% female; 25% aged 17 or older). Fifty-three percent were first generation students and 80% were born in, or had a parent from, Mexico or Central America. We found that immigration enforcement fear predicted greater PTSD symptoms after accounting for other key covariates. Perceived economic hardship was associated with depression across all subscales. Findings highlight the need for a multidimensional approach to assess and understand how ACEs, including immigration enforcement fear, influence mental health for youth in Latinx immigrant families.

Underserved racial/ethnic minoritized youth disproportionately experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and discrimination, potentially leading to substance use disparities. Understanding the co-occurrence of ACEs and discrimination can identify predictors of substance use. Latino/a/Hispanic youth (N=1,179) completed surveys from 2005-2016; ACEs and discrimination were assessed when participants were on average 21.6 and 23.9 years for substance use. Latent class analysis examined differential co-occurrence of ACEs and discrimination and regression analysis investigated their longitudinal associations with tobacco, alcohol, problematic alcohol, and marijuana use in young adulthood. A 4-class solution identified a "low adversity" (n=378; 32.06%) group; next the "psychological abuse and discrimination" (n=361; 30.62%); then "psychological, physical abuse and microaggressions" (n=258; 21.88%) and "mainly microaggressions" (n=182; 15.44%) groups. Compared to "mainly microaggressions," the "psychological abuse and discrimination" group reported higher alcohol use (B=.316, =.04) in young adulthood. Prevention should focus on reducing ACEs and discrimination exposure to lessen Latino/a/Hispanic youth behavioral health disparities.

More research is needed to understand the effects of school-based mindfulness programs in the years before adolescence, which represent a critical juncture and transitional period of development. The present study investigated mindfulness with elementary school students using random assignment and objective measures. The sample included 292 5 graders from 21 classrooms randomly assigned to an 8-week mindfulness training or wait-list control group. Students were assessed at pre- and post-intervention on behavioral measures of executive functioning and teacher-rated social emotional competence, along with end of year social-emotional learning report card grades. Analyses using hierarchal linear modeling found that students in the intervention group demonstrated significant gains on a computerized task of cognitive flexibility, and end of year social-emotional learning grades controlling for prior year grades, but not teacher reported social emotional competence. Taken together these findings point to a simple, yet promising method for bolstering students' cognitive and social emotional skills.

Schools are increasingly incorporating the teaching of social emotional learning (SEL)-informed self-regulation strategies. However, little is known about the social context that facilitates the use of these skills. The current study investigated whether students' popularity (indegree), perceived number of friends (outdegree), or school connectedness, are related to their practice of self-regulation strategies. The sample was 92 2 through 5 graders (49% girls, 48% boys, 3% non-binary) at an elementary school. Using multilevel models to account for students nested within classrooms, we found that 2 graders who were lower in school connectedness reported greater mean use of self-regulation strategies, but this association was not evident for third through fifth graders. By contrast, students who were more popular among their peers (i.e., higher indegree) reported using self-regulation strategies on a greater proportion of school days. Findings indicate that grade level, popularity, and connectedness to schools may impact students' use of said skills.