The aim for this longitudinal study was to test three hypotheses concerning the effects of pubertal timing on substance use during early adolescence. The maturational deviance hypothesis posits that any deviation from the norm, that is, early maturation and late maturation, would increase the risk for substance use. The stage termination hypothesis proposes that only early maturers would show higher levels of substance use. The mediation hypothesis predicts that the relation between off-time maturation and substance use is mediated by heightened depressive symptoms. The three hypotheses were tested in a prospective design with a German sample of early adolescents. The results of the analyses supported the stage termination hypothesis rather than the maturational deviance hypothesis or the mediation hypothesis. Early maturing boys and girls reported a higher frequency of substance use within the following year than did the other participants, with the effects being more pronounced for smoking cigarettes than for drinking alcohol.Health-related risk behaviors, such as alcohol and cigarette use, often are initiated during early adolescence. Although prevalence rates and frequency of substance use generally rise during the course of adolescence and peak in late adolescence, early initiation of substance use puts adolescents in special jeopardy to develop long-term problem behaviors (Chassin, Presson, Sherman, & Edwards, 1990). Several factors, such as the lack of parental warmth and monitoring, substance use of peers, stress or depressive symptoms, might account for initiation and increase of substance use during early
Context: The current shortage of teachers in Germany, especially in vocational schools, is of relevance to the education system and labour market policy. To recruit future teachers more effectively, it is of great importance to gain a better understanding of pre-service teachers’ career choice motivation. However, research has concentrated so far mainly on teachers in the general education system. The present study investigates the career choice motivation of students who will become vocational education and training (VET) teachers and compares it to the career choice motivation of future comprehensive school teachers. Approach: We surveyed N = 79 teacher training students in total, 30 pre-service VET teachers and 49 pre-service comprehensive school teachers at the beginning of their university-based teacher training. To measure career choice motivation, we used the standardized questionnaire Motivation for Choosing Teacher Education (FEMOLA) including six subscales (Pohlmann & Möller, 2010). In order to compare pre-service VET and comprehensive school teachers with regard to the six scales of career choice motivation, we performed a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Findings: We found the highest means for the motives subject-specific and educational interest for the future VET teachers. In comparison to the pre-service comprehensive school teachers, they rated their educational interest, social influences, and utility as significantly less relevant in terms of their career choice motivation. There are no significant differences on the other three motivational scales. Conclusion: The findings show that the two groups partially differ in their motivations to become a teacher. Therefore, we can conclude that the measures for attracting new students should also be individually adapted to the motives for their career choice. For example, in a counselling interview, the motives for choosing a profession should be discussed and compared with the requirements for studying and later working life.
The primary goal of this study was to investigate the association between early adolescents' generalized beliefs about the causes of best friendship deterioration and dissolution and conflict experiences in their own best friendships. An additional goal was to assess whether early adolescents' self-esteem moderated this association. Participants listed their beliefs about the causes of best friendship deterioration and dissolution, indicated whether conflicts described in a series of vignettes had occurred in one of their best friendships, and described two conflicts they had experienced in their best friendships. They also judged the seriousness of the vignette and personally experienced conflicts. As predicted, early adolescents included conflict issues they had experienced personally more frequently in their causal inventories than conflict issues that they had not experienced personally. However, contrary to predictions, the perceived seriousness of the conflicts did not influence their inclusion in participants' causal inventories. While high and low self-esteem adolescents had similar beliefs about the causes of best friendship deterioration and dissolution, low self-esteem adolescents perceived their conflicts as more serious and their friendships as more fragile.
Using a person-centered research approach, the present study explored individual differences in students' perceptions of instructional quality in secondary school mathematics classes and their relations to students' self-concept and interest in mathematics. Drawing on data collected from 425 high school students from ten schools in Berlin, Germany (male: 53.2%; female: 46.3%), latent class analyses (LCA) revealed four distinct patterns of perceived quality of instruction. Almost half of the sample (46%) had a high likelihood of perceiving an overall low quality in mathematics classes. Those students reported particular low self-concept and interest in mathematics. Compared to male students, female students were significantly more likely to belong to this "challenging pattern." Consequences for educational practice are discussed and suggest that instruction in mathematics should take into account learners' highly individual ways of perceiving and evaluating their learning environment.
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