This study investigated the developmental dynamics of mathematical performance during children's transition from preschool to Grade 2 and the cognitive antecedents of this development. 194 Finnish children were examined 6 times according to their math performance, twice during each year across a 3-year period. Cognitive antecedents, that is, counting ability, visual attention, metacognitive knowledge, and listening comprehension, were tested at the first measurement point. The results indicated that math performance showed high stability and increasing variance over time. Moreover, the growth of math competence was faster among those who entered preschool with an already high level of mathematical skills. The initial level of math performance, as well as its growth, was best predicted by counting ability.

This study investigated the combination of mothers' and fathers' parenting styles (affection, behavioral control, and psychological control) that would be most influential in predicting their children's internal and external problem behaviors. A total of 196 children (aged 5–6 years) were followed up six times from kindergarten to the second grade to measure their problem behaviors. Mothers and fathers filled in a questionnaire measuring their parenting styles once every year. The results showed that a high level of psychological control exercised by mothers combined with high affection predicted increases in the levels of both internal and external problem behaviors among children. Behavioral control exercised by mothers decreased children's external problem behavior but only when combined with a low level of psychological control.

No abstract

No abstract

The present study investigated the interplay between developmental changes in stress and coping during early and late adolescence. Using a longitudinal design, stress perception and coping styles of 200 adolescents in 7 different stressful situations were investigated. Multilevel piecewise latent growth curve models showed that stress perception decreased during late adolescence, whereas active and internal coping increased continuously from ages 12 to 19. Adolescents' high levels of perceived stress in a particular situation were associated with a high level of active coping but a low level of internal coping in that same situation. Withdrawal was associated with high levels of perceived stress, independent of situation. Developmental changes in individual adolescents' stress perception and coping were in most cases situation specific.

To examine (a) how young adults' personal goals change as they progress from emerging to young adulthood in their university studies and immediately after and (b) the extent to which such changes are associated with the normative transitions and the life events they experience and their age, 297 university students completed the revised Personal Project Analysis and a life-event questionnaire five times over 10 years. The changes in young adults' personal goals reflected changing developmental tasks, role transitions, and life situations: They disengaged from goals related to education, friends, and traveling and engaged in goals related to work, family, and health. The older the participants, the more family- and work-related goals and the fewer friend-related goals they reported. The results showed further that the more family-related goals they had, the earlier they married, started to cohabitate, and had children. The earlier they had graduated and found permanent jobs, the more their education-related goals decelerated.

S This study investigated the trajectories of preschool and first‐grade children's development of reading skills, as well as the cognitive and social antecedents of that development. One‐hundred and ninety‐six 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children were tested in October and April of their preschool year and again in the first grade. Data included measures of reading ability and its cognitive and social antecedents, which were analyzed using Simplex and Piecewise Growth Curve Modeling. The results showed that during the preschool year individual differences in reading grew larger and that this growth was faster among those who entered preschool with well‐developed skills. However, during the first grade individual differences in reading diminished. The results suggest that systematic reading instruction in primary school education is more beneficial for children with less developed literacy skills, whereas children with more developed reading skills gain relatively less from reading instruction in the first grade. ESTE ESTUDIO investigó el curso evolutivo de las habilidades de lectura en niños de pre‐escolar y escuela primaria, así como los antecedentes cognitivos y sociales de dicho desarrollo. Ciento noventa y seis niños de 5 a 6 años fueron evaluados en octubre y abril en pre‐escolar y nuevamente en primer grado. Los datos incluyeron medidas de habilidad de lectura y sus antecedentes cognitivos y sociales y fueron analizados usando el método “Simplex and Piecewise Growth Curve Modeling.” Los resultados mostraron que, durante el año de pre‐escolar las diferencias individuales en lectura aumentaron y que este crecimiento fue más rápido entre aquellos que entraron a preescolar con habilidades bien desarrolladas. Sin embargo, durante el primer grado, las diferencias individuales en lectura disminuyeron. Los resultados sugieren que la enseñanza sistemática de la lectura en la educación primaria es más beneficiosa para los niños con habilidades de lectoescritura menos desarrolladas; en tanto que los niños con habilidades de lectura más desarrolladas obtienen relativamente menos beneficios de la enseñanza de la lectura en primer grado. DIESE STUDIE untersuchte die Gedankenbahnen bei der Entwicklung von Leseleistungen von Kindern in der Vorschule und der ersten Klasse, sowie die kognitiven und sozialen Antezedentien dieser Entwicklung. Einhundertsechsundneunzig fünf bis sechs Jahre alte Kinder wurden im Oktober und im April während ihres Vorschuljahres und dann nochmals in der ersten Klasse geprüft. Die Daten umfassten das Ermessen der Lesefähigkeit und deren kognitiven und sozialen Antezedentien, die mittels Nutzung der “Simplex‐ und Piecewise” Wachstumsmodellkurven analysiert wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, daß sich während des Vorschuljahres individuelle Differenzen im Lesen verbesserten und daß dieser Zuwachs bei jenen, die mit bereits gut entwickelten Leistungen in der Vorschule begannen, schneller vonstatten ging. Jedoch verringerten sich individuelle Differenzen während der ersten Klasse. Die Ergebnisse empfehlen, d...

The authors examined individual differences in reading development in English and Finnish. Englishspeaking Canadian children were assessed once per year in Grades 1-5, and Finnish children were assessed twice per year in Grades 1-2. Results from latent growth curve and simplex analyses showed that initial status was generally negatively associated with subsequent growth and that, although stable, individual differences were more likely to significantly decrease than to increase across the measurement points. Growth mixture models identified multiple groups of children whose reading development followed distinct patterns. The results indicate that it is possible for educational systems to significantly reduce individual differences in basic reading skills during early reading development.