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This study addresses the development of health-related behavior during childhood and adolescence and the protective influence of an authoritative parenting style. The study is based on two samples followed from Grades 2 through 5 and from Grades 4 through 7. The first sample consisted of 432 second graders with a mean age of 7.9 years at the beginning of the study, while the second sample consisted of 366 fourth graders with a mean age of 10.1 years. Later health behavior showed substantial correlations to previous health behavior over a 3-year interval. Moreover, there was an increase of favorable health behavior during elementary school and a decrease in the subsequent age periods. The slope for negative health behavior showed an inverted pattern. The level of this general trend was significantly affected by the perceived maternal and paternal parenting style and by gender. The significance of the results for health promotion is discussed.

Our results support the assumption that female and male adolescents develop in different directions regarding their pain tolerance when reaching puberty. This seems mainly attributable to a decrease of pain threshold in girls. In contrast, boys and girls are able to endure pain to an equal extent influenced, however, by self-efficacy and coping variables.

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We investigated the development of the other‐race effect “ORE” in a longitudinal sample of 3‐, 6‐, and 9‐month‐old Caucasian infants. Previous research using cross‐sectional samples has shown an unstable ORE at 3 months, an increase at 6 months and full development at 9 months. In Experiment 1, we tested whether 9‐month‐olds showed the ORE with Caucasian and African faces. As expected, the 9‐month‐olds discriminated faces within their own ethnicity (Caucasian) but not within the unfamiliar ethnicity (African). In months. In Experiment 2, we longitudinally tested infants at 3, 6, and 9 months by presenting either the Caucasian or the African faces used in Experiment 1. In contrast to previous cross‐sectional studies and Experiment 1, we found that infants discriminated between all stimuli. Hence, we did not find the ORE in this longitudinal study even at 9 months. We assume that the infants in our longitudinal study showed no ORE because of previous repetitive exposure to African faces at 3 and 6 months. We argue that only a few presentations of faces from other ethnic categories sufficiently slow the development of the ORE.

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Previous studies on the development of coping have shown rather inconsistent findings regarding the developmental trajectories for different coping dimensions. The aim of this study is to search for possible influences that might explain these inconsistencies. The analysis focuses on methodological influences (longitudinal vs. cross-sectional assessments) and situational influences. Two samples of children were traced longitudinally with yearly assessments from grade 2 to 5 (sample 1, N =432) and from grade 4 to 7 (sample 2, N =366). A third sample (N =849) was added with cross-sectional assessments from grade 2 to 7. The assessed coping dimensions were related to (a) problem solving, (b) seeking social support, (c) palliative coping, (d) externalizing emotional coping, and (e) avoidant coping. The use of the coping strategies had to be assessed for six stress-evoking situations. The results show only small differences between the longitudinal and the cross-sectional coping assessments. There are, however, clear situational influences on the choice of the coping strategies and also on the resulting developmental trajectories.

Sex differences in pain perception have been reported in an expanding literature based on adult samples in epidemiological as well as laboratory studies. Especially with respect to the latter, studies with children and adolescents do not consistently show that females report higher pain ratings and display lower pain tolerance than males. The first aim of the presented studies is to comparably examine sex differences in children and adolescents based on experimental and questionnaire approach indices of pain perception. The second aim is to examine the contribution of three prominent psychosocial factors (gender-role expectations, coping with pain, and pain self-efficacy) to these sex differences. In Study 1, a total of 118 children and adolescents from grades 5 to 9 were tested with the Cold Pressor Task (CPT) and a Pain Perception Questionnaire. In Study 2, 148 participants additionally reported on their gender-role expectations, coping with pain, and pain self-efficacy. Although the results reveal only medium-sized correlations between the CPT and the questionnaire measures, both measures indicate substantial sex differences in pain perception in both studies. In Study 2, sex differences are also present for masculinity, femininity, catastrophizing as well as pain self-efficacy. However, while the relation between sex and the CPT rating is partially mediated by pain self-efficacy, catastrophizing partially mediates the relation between sex and the questionnaire based pain ratings. The results of both studies are discussed with respect to the difference between experimental assessments of pain perception and assessments by questionnaire in children and adolescents.