This longitudinal study examined the relation between continuity and change in the Big Five personality traits and life events. Approximately 2,000 German students were tracked from high school to university or to vocational training or work, with 3 assessments over 4 years. Life events were reported retrospectively at the 2nd and 3rd assessment. Latent curve analyses were used to assess change in personality traits, revealing 3 main findings. First, mean-level changes in the Big Five factors over the 4 years were in line with the maturity principle, indicating increasing psychological maturity from adolescence to young adulthood. Second, personality development was characterized by substantive individual differences relating to the life path followed; participants on a more vocationally oriented path showed higher increases in conscientiousness and lower increases in agreeableness than their peers at university. Third, initial level and change in the Big Five factors (especially Neuroticism and Extraversion) were linked to the occurrence of aggregated as well as single positive and negative life events. The analyses suggest that individual differences in personality development are associated with life transitions and individual life experiences.

Many psychological constructs are conceived to be hierarchically structured and thus to operate at various levels of generality. Alternative confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) models can be used to study various aspects of this proposition: (a) The one-factor model focuses on the top of the hierarchy and contains only a general construct, (b) the first-order factor model focuses on the intermediate level of the hierarchy and contains only specific constructs, and both (c) the higher order factor model and (d) the nested-factor model consider the hierarchy in its entirety and contain both general and specific constructs (e.g., bifactor model). This tutorial considers these CFA models in depth, addressing their psychometric properties, interpretation of general and specific constructs, and implications for model-based score reliabilities. The authors illustrate their arguments with normative data obtained for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and conclude with recommendations on which CFA model is most appropriate for which research and diagnostic purposes.

In modern expectancy-value theory (EVT) in educational psychology, expectancy and value beliefs additively predict performance, persistence, and task choice. In contrast to earlier formulations of EVT, the multiplicative term Expectancy ϫ Value in regression-type models typically plays no major role in educational psychology. The present study used latent moderated structural equation modeling to explore whether there is empirical support for a multiplicative effect in a sample of 2,508 students at the end of secondary education. Expectancy and four facets of value beliefs (attainment, intrinsic, and utility value as well as cost) predicted achievement when entered separately into a regression equation. Moreover, in models with both expectancy and value beliefs as predictor variables, the expectancy component as well as the multiplicative term Expectancy ϫ Value were consistently found to predict achievement positively.

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This study examined predictors of the quality of parental homework involvement and reciprocal relations between the quality of parental homework involvement and students’ reading achievement and academic functioning in a reading-intensive subject (German). Data from 2,830 students in nonacademic tracks and their parents who were surveyed in both Grades 5 and 7 were analyzed. The quality of parental homework involvement was assessed via student reports. It was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct and measured by 3 dimensions proposed by self-determination theory: parental control, parental responsiveness, and parental structure. Whereas students’ academic functioning in Grade 5 predicted the way parents became involved in the homework process in Grade 7, the quality of parents’ help with homework did not depend on their socioeconomic background. Reciprocal relations between the quality of parental homework involvement and children’s academic functioning were observed: Low academic functioning of students in Grade 5 resulted in more parental control in Grade 7, and more parental control in Grade 5 was associated with lower academic functioning in Grade 7. Similarly, high academic functioning in Grade 5 resulted in more parental responsiveness and structure in Grade 7, and more parental responsiveness and structure in Grade 5 were associated with better academic functioning in Grade 7.

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Gender differences in the development of children's and adolescents' academic self-perceptions have received increasing attention in recent years. This study extends previous research by examining the development of mathematics self-concept across grades 7-12 in three cultural settings: Australia (Sydney; N 5 1,333), the United States (Michigan; N 5 2,443), and Germany (four federal states; N 5 4,688). Results of latent growth curve models document very similar patterns of self-concept development in males and females in the three settings. First, gender differences in favor of boys were observed at the beginning of the observation period (grade 7). Second, gender was not significantly related to self-concept change in either group, meaning that initial differences persisted across time. Third, the results provided no evidence that the form of the longitudinal change trajectories for mathematics self-concept differed across the cultural settings. This pattern of results is inconsistent with explanatory models that predict converging or diverging gender differences in mathematics self-concept. Furthermore, the results indicate that self-concept development may be highly similar across western cultural settings. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 20(2), 482-506 r

In this article, the authors develop and test a differential effects model of university entry versus major selection using a set of common predictors, including background factors (gender and socioeconomic status), academic achievement, and academic self-concept. The research used data from 2 large longitudinal databases from Germany (N = 5,048) and England (N = 15,995) to explore the generalizability of the hypothesized model in 2 cultural contexts. For both countries, the results suggested that (a) socioeconomic status was a key predictor of university entry, whereas gender was a key predictor of major selection; (b) achievement and self-concept in both math and English were positive predictors of university entry; and (c) math achievement and self-concept predicted math-intensive major choice and lower likelihood of entering verbal-intensive majors (and vice versa). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.