Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science (2 Volume Set) [1-2] 0761928200

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Copyright © 2005 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information: Sage Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] Sage Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B-42, Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 110 017 India Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of applied developmental science / edited by Celia B. Fisher, Richard M. Lerner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7619-2820-0 (cloth) 1. Child development—Encyclopedias. 2. Youth development—Encyclopedias. 3. Adolescence—Encyclopedias. 4. Developmental psychology—Encyclopedias. 5. Community development—Encyclopedias. I. Fisher, Celia B. II. Lerner, Richard M. HQ767.84.E52 2005 305.231′03—dc22 2004014078

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Jim Brace-Thompson Karen Ehrmann Sanford Robinson C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. Carla Freeman and Pam Suwinsky Scott Oney Jean Casalegno Michelle Kenny

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Contents Advisory Board, vi List of Entries, vii Reader’s Guide, xiii Contributors, xxiii About the Editors, xxxv Foreword, xxxvii Preface, xxxix Introduction, xli

Entries

VOLUME I: A–K

1–626

VOLUME II: L–Y

627–1190 Author Index, 1191 Subject Index, 1235

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Advisory Board Peter L. Benson President, Search Institute

Jari-Erik Nurmi University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Joan M. Bergstrom Wheelock College

Ellen PinderHughes Tufts University

Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel Fordham University

Avi Sagi-Schwartz University of Haifa, Israel

Roger A. Dixon University of Alberta

T. S. Saraswathi University of Baroda, India

Felton “Tony” Earls Harvard University

Rainer K. Silbereisen University of Jena, Germany

Robert C. Granger William T. Grant Foundation

Merrill Singer Chief of Research, Hispanic Health Council, Inc.

Daniel P. Keating University of Toronto

Margaret Beale Spencer University of Pennsylvania

Kim Choo Khoo National University of Singapore

Linda Thompson University of Maryland

Kaveh Khoshnood Yale University

Richard A. Weinberg University of Minnesota

Bonnie Leadbeater University of Victoria

Hirokazu Yoshikawa New York University

Rick Little President and CEO, The ImagineNations Group

Luis H. Zayas Washington University, St. Louis

Gary B. Melton Clemson University

Edward Zigler Yale University

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List of Entries

A

Anastasi, Anne Anorexia Nervosa Anxiety Disorders in Children Applied Developmental Science, Concepts of Asian American Families and Youth Asian Americans, a Term in Transition Assessment, Applied Developmental Assessment, Cognitive Assessment, Cultural Validity of Assessment, Early Childhood Performance Assessment, Ethnic Identity Assessment, Giftedness Assessment, Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale Assessment, Special Education Assessment, Standardized Tests Asset Mapping Asthma in Adolescence Athletic Participation and Girls’ Development Attachment, Child-Parent Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults Autism, Educational Treatments for Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Abstinence in Adolescence Acculturation Acculturation Stress Achievement in Mathematics, Gender and Ethnic Differences Adaptation Adaptive Behavior Adolescence, Current Trends and Research About Adolescence and Thriving Adolescent Females, Physical Activity Adolescent Mothers Adolescent-Parent Relations Adolescent Parents, Programs and Policies for Adolescent Pregnancy and Births Adolescent Sexuality Adolescents, at Risk Adolescents, Consent and Refusal of Treatment Adoption Adult Development, Definition, Culture, and Applications Advertising, Effects on Children Advocacy, Child African American Youth Development, Cultural Influences African Culture, Human Ontogenesis Within African Family Traditions, Education and Aggression AIDS, Women, and Poverty Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use, Media Education for Adolescents Alcohol Use and Disorders Among Youth Alcoholism Prevention Programs for Children American Psychological Association, Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) Ames, Louise Bates

B Behavior Theory Benson, Peter L. Bilingualism, International Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder in Children Blum, Robert W. Body Size and Image, Female Attitudes and Perceptions About Body Size, Societal Views of Body Types, Appraisals of vii

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Bonding, Parent-Child Bornstein, Marc H. Boys & Girls Clubs of America Brain Mapping Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center Bronfenbrenner, Urie Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne Bulimia Nervosa Bullying, School

C Cancer Patients, Adolescent Consent to Research Cancer, Psychosocial Dimensions of Career Choice Career Development Catholic University of America Cauce, Ana Mari Ceci, Stephen J. Celiac Disease Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University Center for Social Development, Applied Developmental Science at Center for the Study of Human Development (CSHD), Brown University Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR), Headquarters for the Youth as Resources® (YAR) Change, Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay Child Abuse, Religion-Related Child Care Centers, an International Perspective Child Care, Infant and Toddler Child Development Across Cultures Child and Family Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Child Labor Child Trends Children’s Reading Comprehension Chronic Disability in Old Age Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents Civic Engagement Clinical Significance Cocaine Cognitive Development Cognitive Skills and Aging Community Community-Based Research Ethics Community-Campus Partnerships and Community-Based Program Evaluation

Community Involvement Community Linkages, Levels of Community Schools and Applied Developmental Research Community Youth Development Computer Games Conduct Disorders Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Early Childhood Cortisol and Stress Côté, James E. Criminalization and Mental Illness Critical-Period Hypothesis Culture and Health Culture and Human Development

D Damon, William Dating in Adolescence Day Care, Effects on Child Development Day Care, Measuring Quality of Care Decision Making Among Adolescents Delinquency Delinquent Development, the Cambridge Study Depression in Adolescence Depression in Later Life Depression, Maternal Developmental Assets Developmental Contextualism Developmental Contextualism and Cultural Adjustment of Immigrant Children Developmental Disabilities Developmental Systems Theories Developmentally Attentive Communities Diabetes Discipline, Early Childhood Divorce, Its Impact on Children Domestic Violence, Child Exposure to Domestic Violence, Impact on Women and Children

E Early Childhood Care, Development, and Education in Asia Early Childhood Education in Turkey Eccles, Jacquelynne, and the Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Choice

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Education and Applied Developmental Science Education, Urban Egocentrism, Elkind’s Contribution to Piagetian Theory Eisenberg, Nancy Eliot-Pearson Children’s School Elkind, David Empowerment Theory and Youth Erikson Institute Erikson’s Theory Ethical Issues in Cross-Cultural Research Ethnic Gloss Ethnic Identity Ethnic Identity Development in Minority Adolescents Ethnicity and Race, Understanding of Ethnography Evolutionary Developmental Psychology Externalizing Behavior Problems Eyewitness Testimony

F Facing History and Ourselves Foundation Faith-Based Organizations Families, Dual-Career Families, Immigrant Families in the United States Families, Multigenerational Family Caregiving for Elders Family Policy Family Systems Theory Farrington, David P. Father Involvement Feeding Disorders, Childhood Field Experimentation Research Fisher, Celia B. Flanagan, Constance A. Floyd, Donald T., Jr. Fordham University Forensic Interviewing Foster Care Four-H (4-H) Freud, Anna Freud, Sigmund Frontal Cortex Fuller Theological Seminary

G Gardner, Howard Gastrointestinal Disorders, Developmental Aspects of Gay and Lesbian Parenting, Community Attitudes Toward Gay and Lesbian Parenting, Legal Aspects of Gender Intensification Genetics and Human Development Gesell, Arnold Lucius Giftedness in African American Children “Goodness of Fit” and Development Grant, William T., Foundation

H Hagen, John William Hall, G. Stanley Head Start Helms, Janet E. HIV Prevention in Young Adults HIV Prevention With Injecting Drug Users Home Economics Homelessness and Runaway Youth Horowitz, Frances Degen Human Brain, Evolution of

I Identity Identity, Capital Model of Identity Development in Biracial Children Identity, Helms’s Theory of Racial Identity Statuses ImagineNations Group Immigrant Families, European Immigrants, Acculturation of Immigrants, Experiences of Incarcerated Mothers, Children of Inclusion Infant Reflexes Infants, Intervention for Premature Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University

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Institute of Child Development Intelligence Testing Interactive Media, Effects of Internalizing Disorders International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development International Youth Foundation Internet Intervention Programs, Web-Based

J Jacobs, Francine Just-World Beliefs, Development of Juvenile Justice, Racial Differences

K Khoo, Kim Choo

Media Use, Reading, and Academic Achievement Media Violence Mediated Learning Experience Meiosis and Its Consequences Meisels, Samuel J. Memory, Flashbulb Menarche Mental Health in Later Life, Ecology of Mental Illness, Serotonin, and Genetics Mental Retardation Mental Retardation, Sociocontextual Influences in Adulthood Mentoring Metacognition Michigan State University, Applied Developmental Science at Montessori, Maria Moore, Kristin Morality, Theories of Development Murray, Henry A., Research Center Mussen, Paul H.

L Lamb, Michael Language Production in Infants and Toddlers Latino Families in America Law, Child Witnesses Law, Jurors’ Perceptions of Child Witnesses Learned Helplessness and Learned Optimism Learning in the Life Cycle Lerner, Jacqueline V. Lerner, Richard M. Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth Life Events Life Expectancy and the Life Span Limbic System, Hedonic Escalation Lipsitt, Lewis P. Little, Rick R.

M Malnutrition, Effects of Marriage and Family Therapy Mastery Motivation, Preschool and Early Childhood Maternal Employment Media and Children’s Fears Media and Developmental Science

N National Council on Family Relations Native Alaskan Tribes Native American Children and Families Northwestern University, Human Development and Social Policy Program

O Obesity Obesity, Pediatric Obesity, Prevention in Childhood Occupations and Gender Old Age Osofsky, Joy Doniger Overton, Willis F. Overton, Willis F., Philosophical Foundations of Developmental Science

P Parent Advocacy Parent Education Parent Expectations Parent Involvement, Programs in

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Parental Involvement in Education Parental Self-Efficacy Parenting in Adolescence Parenting, Chinese Families and Parenting, Divorce and Parenting, Native Americans and Parenting, Prejudice and Parenting, Single Mothers Parenting, Stressful Environments and Participant Advocate, Research Involving Children Pediatric Psychology Peer Play in Early Childhood Peer Relationships Perceptual Development, Childhood Petersen, Anne C. Philosophy of Science and Applied Developmental Science Phinney, Jean S. Phobias, Childhood Piaget, Jean Pittman, Karen J. Placebo Controls, Ethics in Multinational Clinical Trials Planning and Evaluation Resource Center (PERC) Play, Childhood Play, Nonsocial, and Social-Emotional Development in Childhood Policy-Relevant Methods in Applied Developmental Science Political Engagement Positive Development Positive Psychology Positive Psychology, Seligman’s Concept of Positive Youth Development, a Developmental Systems View Positive Youth Development, Service-Learning Versus Community-Collaborative Models Postpartum Depression Prejudice in Childhood Problem Behavior Theory Problem Solving Program Evaluation Prosocial Behavior Psychoanalysis in Adults, Theory and Technique Psychodrama, Personality Development and Psychotropic Medications Puberty

Public Policy and Human Development Public Policy and Youth Development

R Racism Recapitulation Refugees Religion and Applied Developmental Science Religiosity and Mental Health Religiosity and Resilience in Adolescence Religious Development Religious Groups, Psychosocial Covariates of Research Design, Developmental Research Methods, Quantitative Research Methods, Statistical Analysis for Longitudinal Research Resiliency in Adolescence Rhodes, Jean Risk Behaviors

S Savin-Williams, Ritch C. School Counseling School Refusal School Transitions, Impact, Intervention, and Policy Schools, Consultation to Schools and School Reform Search Institute Self-Concept Self-Concepts and Self-Esteem, Children and Adolescents Self-Regulation Seligman, Martin E. P. Sensory Impairment, Aging Sensory Impairment, Vision and Hearing Separation-Individuation, Margaret Mahler’s Model Service Learning Sexuality, Adolescents’ Development of Sherrod, Lonnie R. Siblinghood, Transitions to Silbereisen, Rainer K. Smyer, Michael A. Social Capital Social Change and Human Development

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Social Exclusion Social Justice Social Motivation Social Skills Training and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) Social Support Social Support in Old Age Social Support, Urban Adolescents Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Division 53, American Psychological Association Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues Society for Research on Adolescence Society for the Study of Human Development Socioeconomic Status Spanier, Graham B. Special Education, Transition From School to Young Adulthood Spiritual and Religious Coping in Later Life Spirituality Sport Psychology Sports/Athletics, Children and Sports, High School Sports and Positive Youth Development Stage-Environment Fit Theory Stage Theories of Human Development Stimulants, Adolescent Use of Street Children Substance Use and Abuse Across the Life Span Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Supervision

Traumatic Brain Injury, School Adjustment Tufts University, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development

U UNICEF United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child University of Michigan University of Wisconsin–Madison Unwed Mothers

V Video Games Violence, Effects on Development Vision Impairment, Late Life Adjustment and Rehabilitation Visual Impairment Across the Life Span

W Watson, John B. Weinberg, Richard A. Welfare Reform Wertlieb, Donald Wheeler, Wendy Windle, Michael Women, Infants, and Children, Special Supplemental Food Program for Work and Family Life World Health Organization

T Television, Children’s Processing of Television, Educational and Prosocial Effects of Television, Mediating Effects of Family Communication Terman, Lewis M. Testimony, Children’s Competence for Thinking, Education for Thriving Toddlerhood Training in Applied Developmental Science Transfer of Knowledge, Child Education About the Real World Transition in Adulthood Transition to College

Y Yale University, Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy Youniss, James Youth-Adult Partnerships YouthBuild USA Youth Civic/Political Development Youth Culture, Hip-hop Youth Development Professionals Youth Development Programs, Essential Elements of Youth Development as a Public Idea Youth Mentoring Youth Programs, Out-of-School Activities Youth Prostitution

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Reader’s Guide ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth, Sexual Development (see also Developmental Processes) Menarche (see also Developmental Processes) Parenting in Adolescence (see also Parenting) Positive Youth Development, Service-Learning Versus Community Collaborative Models (see also Civic Engagement) Puberty (see also Developmental Processes) Religiosity and Resilience in Adolescence (see also Religiosity and Spirituality) Resiliency in Adolescence (see also Developmental Processes) Sexuality, Adolescents’ Development of Silbereisen, Rainer K. (see also Social Issues) Social Support, Urban Adolescents (see also Ecology of Human Development) Stimulants, Adolescent Use of (see also Developmental Risks) Youth-Adult Partnerships (see also Civic Engagement; Ecology of Human Development) Youth Civic/Political Development (see also Civic Engagement) Youth Development Professionals (see also ADS Training and Education) Youth Development Programs, Essential Elements of (see also ADS Training and Education) Youth Mentoring (see also Development-Promoting Interventions)

Abstinence in Adolescence (see also Health) Adolescence, Current Trends and Research About (see also Research Methodology) Adolescence and Thriving (see also Developmental Processes) Adolescent Females, Physical Activity Adolescent Parents, Programs and Policies for (see also Development-Promoting Interventions) Adolescent Pregnancy and Births (see also Health) Adolescent Sexuality Adolescents, at Risk Adolescents, Consent and Refusal of Treatment Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use, Media Education for Adolescents Alcohol Use and Disorders Among Youth (see also Developmental Risks) Asthma in Adolescence (see also Health) Athletic Participation and Girls’ Development Cancer Patients, Adolescent Consent to Research (see also Health) Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents (see also Developmental Risks) Dating in Adolescence (see also Emotional and Social Development) Decision Making Among Adolescents (see also Developmental Processes) Delinquency (see also Developmental Risks) Depression in Adolescence (see also Developmental Disorders) Ethnic Identity Development in Minority Adolescents (see also Culture and Diversity) Gender Intensification (see also Developmental Processes) HIV Prevention in Young Adults (see also Health) Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth

ADS TRAINING AND EDUCATION Education and Applied Developmental Science Planning and Evaluation Resource Center (PERC) Positive Development (see also Developmental Processes) Training in Applied Developmental Science

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Yale University, Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy (see also Universities) Youth Development as a Public Idea (see also Adolescent Development) Youth Development Professionals (see also Adolescent Development) Youth Development Programs, Essential Elements of (see also Adolescent Development)

ADULT DEVELOPMENT Adult Development, Definition, Culture, and Applications Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults Chronic Disability in Old Age Depression in Later Life Depression, Maternal Family Caregiving for Elders (see also Families) Marriage and Family Therapy Mental Health in Later Life, Ecology of Mental Retardation, Sociocontextual Influences in Adulthood (see also Ecology of Human Development) Old Age Psychoanalysis in Adults, Theory and Technique Sensory Impairment, Aging (see also Health) Social Support in Old Age (see also Ecology of Human Development) Special Education, Transition From School to Young Adulthood (see also Developmental Processes) Spiritual and Religious Coping in Later Life (see also Religiosity and Spirituality) Transition in Adulthood Transition to College (see also Developmental Processes) Vision Impairment, Late Life Adjustment and Rehabilitation (see also Health)

BIOGRAPHIES OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENTISTS Ames, Louise Bates Anastasi, Anne Benson, Peter L. Blum, Robert W. Bornstein, Marc H. Bronfenbrenner, Urie Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne Cauce, Ana Mari Ceci, Stephen J.

Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay Côté, James E. Damon, William Eccles, Jacquelynne, and the Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Choice (see also Theory) Eisenberg, Nancy Elkind, David Farrington, David P. Fisher, Celia B. Flanagan, Constance A. Floyd, Donald T., Jr. Freud, Anna Freud, Sigmund Gardner, Howard Gesell, Arnold Lucius Hagen, John William Hall, G. Stanley Helms, Janet E. Horowitz, Frances Degen Jacobs, Francine Khoo, Kim Choo Lamb, Michael Lerner, Jacqueline V. Lerner, Richard M. Lipsitt, Lewis P. Little, Rick R. Meisels, Samuel J. Montessori, Maria Moore, Kristin Mussen, Paul H. Osofsky, Joy Doniger Overton, Willis F. Petersen, Anne C. Phinney, Jean S. Piaget, Jean Pittman, Karen J. Rhodes, Jean Savin-Williams, Ritch C. Seligman, Martin E. P. Sherrod, Lonnie R. Silbereisen, Rainer K. Smyer, Michael A. Spanier, Graham B. Terman, Lewis M. Watson, John B. Weinberg, Richard A. Wertlieb, Donald Wheeler, Wendy Windle, Michael Youniss, James

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CHILD DEVELOPMENT Advertising, Effects on Children (see also Ecology of Human Development) Alcoholism Prevention Programs for Children (see also Development-Promoting Interventions) Anxiety Disorders in Children (see also Developmental Disorders) Bipolar Disorder in Children (see also Developmental Disorders) Cancer, Psychosocial Dimensions of (see also Health) Child Abuse, Religion-Related (see also Developmental Risks) Child Care Centers, an International Perspective (see also Culture and Diversity) Child Care, Infant and Toddler (see also Infant Development) Child Development Across Cultures (see also Culture and Diversity) Child Labor (see also Developmental Risks) Children’s Reading Comprehension (see also Developmental Processes) Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Early Childhood Day Care, Effects on Child Development Day Care, Measuring Quality of Care (see also Research Methodology) Domestic Violence, Child Exposure to (see also Developmental Risks) Early Childhood Care, Development, and Education in Asia (see also Culture and Diversity) Early Childhood Education in Turkey (see also Culture and Diversity) Feeding Disorders, Childhood (see also Developmental Disorders) Giftedness in African American Children (see also Developmental Processes) Incarcerated Mothers, Children of (see also Developmental Risks) Mastery Motivation, Preschool and Early Childhood (see also Developmental Processes) Media and Children’s Fears (see also Ecology of Human Development) Obesity, Pediatric (see also Health) Obesity, Prevention in Childhood (see also Health) Pediatric Psychology (see also Theory) Peer Play in Early Childhood (see also Ecology of Human Development) Perceptual Development, Childhood (see also Theory)

Play, Nonsocial, and Social-Emotional Development in Childhood (see also Ecology of Human Development) Prejudice in Childhood (see also Social Issues) Psychotropic Medications (see also Health) Siblinghood, Transitions to (see also Developmental Risks) Sports and Positive Youth Development Sports/Athletics, Children and Street Children (see also Culture and Diversity) Television, Children’s Processing of (see also Theory) Toddlerhood Visual Impairment Across the Life Span (see also Health) Women, Infants, and Children, Special Supplemental Food Program for (see also Development-Promoting Interventions) CIVIC ENGAGEMENT Advocacy, Child Civic Engagement Community Involvement Just-World Beliefs, Development of Mentoring Political Engagement Positive Youth Development, Service-Learning Versus Community-Collaborative Models (see also Adolescent Development) Public Policy and Human Development Service Learning Youth-Adult Partnerships (see also Adolescent Development; Ecology of Human Development) Youth Civic/Political Development (see also Adolescent Development) CULTURE AND DIVERSITY Acculturation Acculturation Stress Achievement in Mathematics, Gender and Ethnic Differences African American Youth Development, Cultural Influences African Culture, Human Ontogenesis Within African Family Traditions, Education and (see also Families) Asian American Families and Youth Asian Americans, a Term in Transition

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Assessment, Cultural Validity of (see also Research Methodology) Bilingualism, International Child Care Centers, an International Perspective (see also Child Development) Child Development Across Cultures (see also Child Development) Community-Based Research Ethics (see also Research Methodology) Culture and Health (see also Health) Culture and Human Development Developmental Contextualism and Cultural Adjustment of Immigrant Children (see also Ecology of Human Development; Theory) Early Childhood Care, Development, and Education in Asia (see also Child Development) Early Childhood Education in Turkey (see also Child Development) Ethical Issues in Cross-Cultural Research (see also Ethics) Ethnic Gloss Ethnic Identity Ethnic Identity Development in Minority Adolescents (see also Adolescent Development) Ethnicity and Race, Understanding of (see also Developmental Processes) Ethnography Immigrant Families, European (see also Families) Immigrants, Acculturation of Juvenile Justice, Racial Differences (see also Social Issues) Native Alaskan Tribes Parenting, Chinese Families and (see also Parenting) Refugees (see also Ecology of Human Development) Religion and Applied Developmental Science (see also Religiosity and Spirituality) Street Children (see also Child Development) Youth Culture, Hip-hop (see also Ecology of Human Development) DEVELOPMENTPROMOTING INTERVENTIONS Adolescent Parents, Programs and Policies for (see also Adolescent Development) Alcoholism Prevention Programs for Children (see also Child Development)

Infants, Intervention for Premature (see also Infant Development) Intervention Programs, Web-Based Mediated Learning Experience (see also Developmental Processes) Social Skills Training and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) Supervision Thinking, Education for Transfer of Knowledge, Child Education About the Real World Women, Infants, and Children, Special Supplemental Food Program for (see also Child Development) Youth Mentoring (see also Adolescent Development) DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT Assessment, Applied Developmental Assessment, Cognitive Assessment, Early Childhood Performance Assessment, Ethnic Identity Assessment, Giftedness Assessment, Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (see also Infant Development) Assessment, Special Education Assessment, Standardized Tests Asset Mapping (see also Research Methodology) Intelligence Testing DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS Anorexia Nervosa Anxiety Disorders in Children (see also Child Development) Autism, Educational Treatments for Autistic Spectrum Disorders Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder in Children (see also Child Development) Bulimia Nervosa Celiac Disease Clinical Significance Conduct Disorders Depression in Adolescence Developmental Disabilities Externalizing Behavior Problems Feeding Disorders, Childhood (see also Child Development)

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Gastrointestinal Disorders, Developmental Aspects of Mental Illness, Serotonin, and Genetics Mental Retardation Phobias, Childhood Postpartum Depression DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESSES Adaptation Adaptive Behavior Adolescence and Thriving (see also Adolescent Development) Body Size and Image, Female Attitudes and Perceptions About Body Size, Societal Views of Career Development Children’s Reading Comprehension (see also Child Development) Cognitive Development Cognitive Skills and Aging Cortisol and Stress (see also Health) Critical-Period Hypothesis Decision Making Among Adolescents (see also Adolescent Development) Developmental Assets Egocentrism, Elkind’s Contribution to Piagetian Theory Ethnicity and Race, Understanding of (see also Culture and Diversity) Gender Intensification (see also Adolescent Development) Genetics and Human Development Giftedness in African American Children (see also Child Development) Human Brain, Evolution of Identity (see also Personality Development) Identity, Capital Model of Identity Development in Biracial Children (see also Personality Development) Identity Statuses (see also Personality Development) Infant Reflexes (see also Infant Development) Language Production in Infants and Toddlers (see also Infant Development) Learning in the Life Cycle Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth, Sexual Development (see also Adolescent Development) Limbic System, Hedonic Escalation

Mastery Motivation, Preschool and Early Childhood (see also Child Development) Mediated Learning Experience (see also Development-Promoting Interventions) Meiosis and Its Consequences Memory, Flashbulb Menarche (see also Adolescent Development) Metacognition Morality, Theories of Development Play, Childhood Positive Development (see also ADS Training and Education) Problem Solving Prosocial Behavior Puberty (see also Adolescent Development) Resiliency in Adolescence (see also Adolescent Development) Self-Concept Self-Concepts and Self-Esteem, Children and Adolescents (see also Personality Development) Self-Regulation Separation-Individuation, Margaret Mahler’s Model Social Motivation Special Education, Transition From School to Young Adulthood (see also Adult Development) Testimony, Children’s Competence for Transition to College (see also Adult Development) DEVELOPMENTAL RISKS Alcohol Use and Disorders Among Youth (see also Adolescent Development) Child Abuse, Religion-Related (see also Child Development) Child labor (see also Child Development) Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents (see also Adolescent Development) Cocaine Delinquency (see also Adolescent Development) Diabetes (see also Health) Divorce, Its Impact on Children (see also Families) Domestic Violence, Child Exposure to (see also Child Development) Domestic Violence, Impact on Women and Children Homelessness and Runaway Youth Incarcerated Mothers, Children of (see also Child Development) Learned Helplessness and Learned Optimism Malnutrition, Effects of

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Obesity Risk Behaviors Sensory Impairment, Vision and Hearing Siblinghood, Transitions to (see also Child Development) Stimulants, Adolescent Use of (see also Adolescent Development) Substance Use and Abuse Across the Life Span Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Traumatic Brain Injury, School Adjustment Violence, Effects on Development Youth Prostitution ECOLOGY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Advertising, Effects on Children (see also Child Development) Body Types, Appraisals of Bullying, School (see also Schools) Career Choice Community Community Linkages, Levels of Community Schools and Applied Developmental Research (see also Schools) Community Youth Development Developmental Contextualism Developmental Contextualism and Cultural Adjustment of Immigrant Children (see also Culture and Diversity; Theory) Developmentally Attentive Communities Education, Urban (see also Schools) Families, Dual-Career (see also Families) Interactive Media, Effects of Internet Maternal Employment Media and Children’s Fears (see also Child Development) Media Use, Reading, and Academic Achievement Media Violence Mental Retardation, Sociocontextual Influences in Adulthood (see also Adult Development) Occupations and Gender Peer Play in Early Childhood (see also Child Development) Peer Relationships Refugees (see also Culture and Diversity) School Counseling (see also Schools) School Refusal (see also Schools) School Transitions, Impact, Intervention, and Policy (see also Schools)

Schools, Consultation to (see also Schools) Schools and School Reform (see also Schools) Social Capital Social Change and Human Development Social Exclusion Social Support Social Support in Old Age (see also Adult Development) Social Support, Urban Adolescents (see also Adolescent Development) Sports, High School Television, Educational and Prosocial Effects of Video Games Youth Culture, Hip-hop (see also Culture and Diversity) Youth-Adult Partnerships (see also Civic Engagement) EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Aggression Dating in Adolescence (see also Adolescent Development) Play, Childhood Play, Nonsocial, and Social-Emotional Development in Childhood (see also Child Development) Psychodrama, Personality Development and (see also Personality Development) ETHICS Criminalization and Mental Illness Ethical Issues in Cross-Cultural Research (see also Culture and Diversity) Eyewitness Testimony Law, Child Witnesses Law, Jurors’ Perceptions of Child Witnesses Placebo Controls, Ethics in Multinational Clinical Trials Social Justice FAMILIES Adoption African Family Traditions, Education and (see also Culture and Diversity) Divorce, Its Impact on Children (see also Developmental Risks) Families, Dual-Career (see also Ecology of Human Development)

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Families, Immigrant Families in the United States Families, Multigenerational (see also Parenting) Family Caregiving for Elders (see also Adult Development) Family Policy (see also Social Issues) Family Systems Theory (see also Theory) Immigrant Families, European (see also Culture and Diversity) Immigrants, Experiences of Latino Families in America Native American Children and Families Television, Mediating Effects of Family Communication (see also Parenting) FOUNDATIONS Facing History and Ourselves Foundation Grant, William T., Foundation International Youth Foundation HEALTH Abstinence in Adolescence (see also Adolescent Development) Adolescent Pregnancy and Births (see also Adolescent Development) Asthma in Adolescence (see also Adolescent Development) Cancer Patients, Adolescent Consent to Research (see also Adolescent Development) Cancer, Psychosocial Dimensions of (see also Child Development) Celiac Disease (see also Developmental Disorders) Cortisol and Stress (see also Developmental Processes) Culture and Health (see also Culture and Diversity) Diabetes (see also Developmental Risks) Frontal Cortex HIV Prevention in Young Adults (see also Adolescent Development) HIV Prevention With Injecting Drug Users Obesity, Pediatric (see also Child Development) Obesity, Prevention in Childhood (see also Child Development) Psychotropic Medications (see also Child Development) Religiosity and Mental Health (see also Religiosity and Spirituality) Sensory Impairment, Aging (see also Adult Development)

Vision Impairment, Late Life Adjustment and Rehabilitation (see also Adult Development) Visual Impairment Across the Life Span (see also Adolescent Development) Youth Development as a Public Idea (see also ADS Training and Education) Youth Development Professionals (see also ADS Training and Education) Youth Development Programs, Essential Elements of (see also ADS Training and Education) HISTORICAL INFLUENCES Delinquent Development, the Cambridge Study (see also Research Methodology) Evolutionary Developmental Psychology Home Economics INFANT DEVELOPMENT Assessment, Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (see also Developmental Assessment) Child Care, Infant and Toddler (see also Child Development) Infant Reflexes (see also Developmental Processes) Infants, Intervention for Premature (see also Development-Promoting Interventions) Language Production in Infants and Toddlers (see also Developmental Processes) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (see also Developmental Risks) ORGANIZATIONS American Psychological Association, Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) Boys & Girls Clubs of America Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center (see also Universities) Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University (see also Universities) Center for Social Development, Applied Developmental Science at Center for the Study of Human Development (CSHD), Brown University (see also Universities) Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR), Headquarters for the Youth as Resources® (YAR) Child and Family Research, National Institute of Child Heath and Human Development

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Child Trends Community-Campus Partnerships and Community-Based Program Evaluation Erikson Institute Faith-Based Organizations Four-H (4-H) (see also Youth Programs) Head Start ImagineNations Group Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (see also Universities) Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University (see also Universities) International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development Murray, Henry A., Research Center National Council on Family Relations Public Policy and Youth Development Search Institute Society for Research on Adolescence Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues Society for the Study of Human Development Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Division 53, American Psychological Association UNICEF United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child World Health Organization YouthBuild USA (see also Youth Programs) PARENTING Adolescent Mothers (see also Social Issues) Adolescent-Parent Relations Attachment, Child-Parent Bonding, Parent-Child Discipline, Early Childhood Families, Multigenerational (see also Families) Father Involvement Foster Care Gay and Lesbian Parenting, Community Attitudes Toward Gay and Lesbian Parenting, Legal Aspects of Parent Advocacy Parent Education Parent Expectations

Parent Involvement, Programs in Parental Involvement in Education Parental Self-Efficacy Parenting, Chinese Families and (see also Culture and Diversity) Parenting, Divorce and Parenting in Adolescence (see also Adolescent Development) Parenting, Native Americans and Parenting, Prejudice and Parenting, Single Mothers (see also Social Issues) Parenting, Stressful Environments and Television, Mediating Effects of Family Communication (see also Families) PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT Identity (see also Developmental Processes) Identity Development in Biracial Children (see also Developmental Processes) Identity Statuses (see also Developmental Processes) Psychodrama, Personality Development and (see also Ecology of Human Development) Self-Concepts and Self-Esteem, Children and Adolescents (see also Developmental Processes)

RELIGIOSITY AND SPIRITUALITY Religion and Applied Developmental Science (see also Culture and Diversity) Religiosity and Mental Health (see also Health) Religiosity and Resilience in Adolescence (see also Adolescent Development) Religious Development Religious Groups, Psychosocial Covariates of Spiritual and Religious Coping in Later Life (see also Adult Development) Spirituality

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Adolescence, Current Trends and Research About (see also Adolescent Development) Assessment, Cultural Validity of (see also Culture and Diversity) Asset Mapping (see also Developmental Assessment) Brain Mapping

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Change, Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Community-Based Research Ethics (see also Culture and Diversity) Day Care, Measuring Quality of Care Delinquent Development, the Cambridge Study (see also Historical Influences) Field Experimentation Research Forensic Interviewing Policy-Relevant Methods in Applied Developmental Science Program Evaluation Research Design, Developmental Research Methods, Quantitative Research Methods, Statistical Analysis for Longitudinal Research SCHOOLS Bullying, School (see also Ecology of Human Development) Community Schools and Applied Developmental Research (see also Ecology of Human Development) Education, Urban (see also Ecology of Human Development) Eliot-Pearson Children’s School School Counseling (see also Ecology of Human Development) School Refusal (see also Ecology of Human Development) School Transitions, Impact, Intervention, and Policy (see also Ecology of Human Development) Schools, Consultation to (see also Ecology of Human Development) Schools and School Reform (see also Ecology of Human Development)

SOCIAL ISSUES Adolescent Mothers (see also Parenting) AIDS, Women, and Poverty Computer Games Family Policy (see also Families) Juvenile Justice, Racial Differences (see also Culture and Diversity) Media and Developmental Science Parenting, Single Mothers (see also Parenting) Participant Advocate, Research Involving Children

Prejudice in Childhood (see also Child Development) Racism Silbereisen, Rainer K. (see also Adolescent Development) Socioeconomic Status Welfare Reform Work and Family Life THEORY Applied Developmental Science, Concepts of Behavior Theory Developmental Contextualism and Cultural Adjustment of Immigrant Children (see also Culture and Diversity; Ecology of Human Development) Developmental Systems Theories Eccles, Jacquelynne, and the ExpectancyValue Model of Achievement Choice (see also Biographies of Applied Developmental Scientists) Empowerment Theory and Youth Erickson’s Theory Family Systems Theory (see also Families) “Goodness of Fit” and Development Identity, Helm’s Theory of Racial Life Events Life Expectancy and the Life Span Overton, Willis F., Philosophical Foundations of Developmental Science Pediatric Psychology (see also Child Development) Perceptual Development, Childhood (see also Child Development) Philosophy of Science and Applied Developmental Science Positive Psychology Positive Psychology, Seligman’s Concept of Positive Youth Development, a Developmental Systems View Problem Behavior Theory Psychoanalysis in Adults, Theory and Technique Recapitulation Sport Psychology Stage-Environment Fit Theory Stage Theories of Human Development Television, Children’s Processing of (see also Child Development)

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UNIVERSITIES Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center (see also Organizations) Catholic University of America Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University (see also Organizations) Center for the Study of Human Development (CSHD), Brown University (see also Organizations) Fordham University Fuller Theological Seminary Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (see also Organizations) Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University (see also Organizations) Institute of Child Development

Michigan State University, Applied Developmental Science at Northwestern University, Human Development and Social Policy Program Tufts University, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development University of Michigan University of Wisconsin–Madison Yale University, Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy (see also ADS Training and Education) YOUTH PROGRAMS Four-H (4-H) (see also Organizations) YouthBuild USA (see also Organizations) Youth Programs, Out-of-School Activities

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Contributors Abraham, Cini University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry Alberts, Amy E. Tufts University Albizu-García, Carmen E. University of Puerto Rico Anderson, Pamela M. Tufts University Applewhite, Erain Yale University School of Medicine Aptekar, Lewis San Jose University Arteaga, Sonia S. University of Maryland Baltimore County Atkins, Robert College of Allied Health Professions Department of Nursing Auld, Daniel P. Fordham University Ayer, Lynsay National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Barton, Marianne University of Connecticut Basu, Archana University of Illinois at Chicago Baumgardner, Barbara University of Maryland School of Medicine Bekman, Sevda Bog˘aziçi University Bellavia, Gina M. State University of New York at Buffalo Benjamin, Alan F. The Pennsylvania State University Benjamin, Ann C. University of Massachusetts Lowell Benson, Peter L. Search Institute Bergstrom, Joan M. Wheelock College Bertelsen, Amy Pennsylvania State University Birman, Dina University of Illinois at Chicago

Balsano, Aida Bilalbegovic′ Tufts University

Birnbaum, Liora The College of Judea & Samaria

Banik, Rumeli Tufts University

Bishop-Josef, Sandra Yale University

Banks, Sean R. The Pennsylvania State University

Biswas-Diener, Robert University of Oregon

Barber, Bonnie L. University of Arizona

Bjorklund, David F. Florida Atlantic University

Barrett, James G. Boston College

Black, Maureen University of Maryland School of Medicine xxiii

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Blum, Robert W. Johns Hopkins University

Bruce, Susan Boston College

Blumberg, Fran C. Fordham University

Bruzzese, Jean-Marie New York University

Bobek, Deborah Tufts University

Bulotsky Shearer, Rebecca University of Pennsylvania

Boerner, Kathrin Lighthouse International

Burns, Barbara University of Louisville

Bogat, G. Anne Michigan State University

Busch-Rossnagel, Nancy A. Fordham University

Bogenschneider, Karen University of Wisconsin–Madison

Butcher, Shaun Center for Youth as Resources

Borden, Lynne M. University of Arizona Bornstein, Marc H. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Bornstein, Helen G.

Cabrera, Natasha University of Maryland Cain, Nancy University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Bornstein, Jonathan D.

Cantor, Joanne University of Wisconsin, Madison

Bottjer, Steven J. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Casas, Juan University of Nebraska at Omaha

Bottoms, Bette L. University of Illinois at Chicago Bourque, Alison Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development Bowman, Lonna R. Georgia State University Brennan, Mark Lighthouse International Brockman, Michael S. University of California Brokowski, Carolyn Yale University Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne Columbia University

Castella, Catherine Carnegie Hall Castellino, Domini Duke University Cauce, Ana Mari University of Washington Cea, Christine D. Fordham University Cecero, John J. Fordham University Ceci, Stephen J. Cornell University Chandler, Michael University of British Columbia, Canada

Brown, Drusilla Tufts University

Chatham, Melissa L. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Brownell, Kelly D. Yale University

Chauveron, Lisa The Pennsylvania State University

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Contributors———xxv

Cheah, Charissa Siew Lyng University of Saskatchewan

Daniel, Jessica Henderson Children’s Hospital, Boston

Cheong, Agnes Chang Shook Nanyang Technological University

Danziger, Carla Center For Youth as Resources

Chorev, Matan Tufts University

Dayton, Carolyn J. Michigan State University

Christiansen, Elise DiDenti Boston College

de Jesus, Maria Boston College

Christmas-Best, Verona University of Jena

Degirmencioglu, Serdar M. Istanbul Bilgi University

Chun, Kevin University of San Francisco

DeGroot Hanawalt, Jennifer Wayne State University

Cigoli, Vittorio Catholic University of Milan

DeJonghe, Erika Michigan State University

Clano-Boyce, Claudia Westfield State College

Dempster-McClain, Donna Cornell University

Cohen, Heather University of Pennsylvania

Dennison, Renee Peltz University of Arizona

Cohen, Kenneth Cornell University

Desmond, Roger University of Hartford

Colt, Walter Georgia State University

Dickson, Ryan Western Washington University

Cook, Fay Lomax Northwestern University

Diener, Ed University of Illinois

Côté, James E. University of Western Ontario

Dixon, Pamela University of Connecticut

Cote, Linda Chapman University

Dokken, Deborah The Children’s National Medical Center

Coward, Carrie Emory University

Donnelly, Thomas Rutgers University

Craven, John A., III Dowling College

Donovan, John E. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Cummings, Andrea M. Georgia State University

Dowling, Elizabeth M. ImagineNations Group

Cureton, Pamela University of Maryland School of Medicine

Downey, Rosemarie Boston College

Dalbert, Claudia Martin-Luther University

Duncan, Greg J. Northwestern University

Dalton, Thomas C. Cal Poly State University

Dykas, Matthew J. University of Maryland–College Park

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Dym, Barry WorkWise Research and Consulting

Fried, Adam Fordham University

Edmonds, Christina University of Maryland

Fusco, Rachel A. University of Pennsylvania

Eger, Stacey J. Fordham University

Gagliardi, Amy Yale University

Elkind, David Tufts University

Galambos, Nancy L. University of Victoria

Elkington, Katherine S. Northwestern University Medical School

Gallager, Richard New York University

Falender, Carol University of California, Los Angeles

Galvin, Kerri A. Fordham University

Falk, Debra National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Garcia Coll, Cynthia Brown University

Fantuzzo, John W. University of Pennsylvania

Garthwaite, Lucinda Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development

Farrington, David F. University of Cambridge

Geller, Barbara Washington University in St. Louis

Fasano, Alessio University of Maryland School of Medicine

Gestsdottir, Steinunn Tufts University

Fein, Deborah A. University of Connecticut

Gianinno, Lawrence J. William T. Grant Foundation

Firebaugh, Francille M. Cornell University

Gilbert, Melissa University of Michigan

Fisch, Shalom M. MediaKidz Research & Consulting

Glidden, Laraine St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Fisher, Celia B. Fordham University

Göksel Göçer, Ayla Mother Child Education Foundation

Fitzgerald, Hiram E. Michigan State University

Goldweber, Asha M. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Flanagan, Constance A. The Pennsylvania State University Floyd, Donald T., Jr. National 4-H Council Foster, Erica Yale University Fouts, Hillary N. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Franco, Ximena Florida International University

Gordon, Rachel A. University of Illinois at Chicago Green, Beth NPC Research, Inc. Green, Donald P. Yale University Greenburg, Gary Wichita State University Greene, Jeff University of Maryland

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Contributors———xxvii

Gregory, Erik EMG Executive and Life Coaching, LLC

Hoon, Alice Seng Seok Nanyang Technological University

Hagen, John W. University of Michigan

Horowitz, Amy Lighthouse International

Hahn, Andrew Brandeis University

Horowitz, Frances Degen The City University of New York

Hall, Nancy

Horvath, Karoly University of Maryland School of Medicine

Hamilton, Stephen F. Cornell University Hansen, Nathan B. Yale University School of Medicine Hart, Daniel Rutgers University Harter, Susan University of Denver Hartup, Willard W. University of Minnesota Hauser-Cram, Penny Boston College Hedvat, Tara Boston College Hertzog, Sarah Tufts University Herz, Rachel Brown University Hess, Christine University of Maryland Baltimore County Hill, Katherine National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Hirsch, Jerry University of Illinois Hobson, Hartley Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development

Hunt, James E. University of Arizona Irby, Merita The Forum for Youth Investment Jackson, Julie Heim Boston College James, Jacquelyn Boston College Jelicic, Helena Tufts University Jones, Kenneth The Pennsylvania State University Jones, Shallimar Michigan State University Jovoniche, Jasna University of Illinois Juang, Linda San Francisco State University Jude, Cassidy University of Maryland–College Park Kail, Robert Purdue University Kaliner, Matthew Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Katcher, Elizabeth Tufts University

Hofferth, Sandra L. University of Maryland

Kawahara, Debra M. Alliant International University

Hogan, John D. St. John’s University

Kelley, Elizabeth University of Connecticut

Hogan, Tracy M. Fordham University

Keyes, Corey L. M. Emory University

Holder, Angela Roddey Duke University

Khoo, Kim Choo National University of Singapore

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Killen, Melanie University of Maryland

Lopez, Barbara Florida International University

King, Pamela Ebstyne Fuller Theological Seminary

Lord, Heather Yale University

Klein, Nancy Cleveland State University

Lord, Jessica University of Connecticut

Kleinman, Jamie University of Connecticut Kroger, Jane University of Tromsø Kulkofsky, Sarah Christine Cornell University Kwak, Kyunghwa Queen’s University Lachman, Margie Brandeis University LaFromboise, Teresa Stanford University

Lucariello, Joan Boston College Luckner, Amy University of Minnesota Luster, Tom Michigan State University Ma, Lang Tufts University Macy, Christina International Youth Foundation Mahoney, Joseph Yale University

Lamb, Michael National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Mair, Patrick University of Vienna

Le, Katherine University of Maryland School of Medicine

Makel, Matthew Cornell University

Lee, Sun-A University of Arizona

Manian, Nanmathi National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

LeeKeenan, Debbie Tufts University Leibson-Hawkins, Beth

Manikam, Ramasamy University of Maryland School of Medicine

Leibson-Hawkins, Robert Tufts University

Mannes, Marc Search Institute

Lempert, Karen Facing History and Ourselves

Margie, Nancy University of Maryland

Lerner, Richard M. Tufts University

Marks, Steve University of Arizona

Levendosky, Alytia A. Michigan State University

Masten, Ann University of Minnesota

Levine, Robert Yale University

McAdam-Crisp, Jacqueline Fielding Institute

Locker, Sari Columbia University Teachers College

McBride, Amanda Moore Washington University, St. Louis

Loeber, Rolf University of Pittsburgh

McCall, Robert University of Pittsburgh

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Contributors———xxix

McCann-Doyle, Sharon New York University

Nelson, Larry J. Brigham Young University

McFarland, Carl University of Alabama

Neocleous, Marliena University of California

McGlothlin, Heidi University of Maryland

Neupert, Shevaun Brandeis University

McWayne, Christine New York University

Nielsen, Michael E. Georgia Southern University

Mehta, Kalyani National University of Singapore

Ninan, Ajit University of Rochester

Meisels, Samuel J. President, Erikson Institute

Nolan, Bridget Rose National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Meszaros, Peggy Virginia Tech Mincemoyer, Claudia C. The Pennsylvania State University Mio, Jeffery California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Miron, Dorina University of Alabama Morris, Jodi Boston College Morrissey, Taryn Cornell University Mosack, Victoria Wichita State University Mourad, Mariam Michigan State University Murphy, Jennifer Boston College Murphy, Kathryn M. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Nsamenang, A. Bame Ecole Normale Sperieure (ENS) du Cameroun Oakland, Thomas University of Florida O’Connell, Melissa University of Maryland Baltimore County Ohannessian, Christine McCauley University of Connecticut Medical School Ollendick, Thomas H. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Onaga, Esther E. Michigan State University Osborn, Peter Tufts University Ostrov, Jamie M. University of Minnesota Pandey, Juhi University of Connecticut Papierno, Paul Cornell University

Murphy-Kelsey, Bridget University of Oklahoma

Park-Taylor, Jennie Boston College

Murray, Rebecca Georgia Southern University

Partridge, Ty Wayne State University

Must, Aviva Tufts University

Patalano, Frank St. John’s University

Naudeau, Sophie Tufts University

Paus, Tomáš McGill University

Negrón, Salvador Santiago Carlos Albizu University

Peckham, Staci M. University of Pennsylvania

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Pedersen, Sara Frances Aileen New York University

Remer, Lorraine A. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Perkins, Daniel F. The Pennsylvania State University

Resnick, Robert Randolph-Macon College

Perman, Jay A. University of Maryland School of Medicine

Rhodes, Jean E. University of Massachusetts, Boston

Pernice-Duca, Francesca Michigan State University

Ribas de Castro, Rodolfo Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Peterson, Christopher University of Michigan

Riley, Dave University of Wisconsin–Madison

Phinney, Jean S. California State University, Los Angeles

Rivera, Ann C. New York University

PinderHughes, Ellen Tufts University

Roehlkepartain, Eugene Search Institute

Pinquart, Martin University of Jena

Roeser, Robert W. Stanford University

Pittman, Karen The Forum for Youth Investment

Rudmin, Floyd W. University of Tromsø

Procidano, Mary E. Fordham University

Rudnicki, Aaron University of Illinois at Chicago

Puhl, Rebecca M. Yale University

Russell, Stephen University of California

Qualls, Sara Honn University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Saavedra, Lissette Florida International University

Quintana, Stephen University of Wisconsin

Salonius-Pasternak, Dorothy Elizabeth Tufts University

Raney, Gary University of Illinois at Chicago

Savage, Carter Julian Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Rao, Abha S. University of Arizona

Savin-Williams, Ritch Cornell University

Ream, Geoffery Cornell University

Scales, Peter Search Institute

Reese, Patricia Northwestern University

Scarupa, Harriet J. Child Trends

Reesman, Meredith St. John’s University

Schmitt-Rodermund, Eva University of Jena

Reinhardt, Joann Lighthouse International

Schoemer, Kathleen M. University of Maryland Hospital for Children

Reitzle, Matthias University of Jena

Schotland, Marieka Sarah New York University

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Contributors———xxxi

Schwartz, Marlene B. Yale University

Smiler, Andrew University of Michigan

Scollon, Christine University of Illinois

Smith, Cynthia L. Virginia Tech University

Seidman, Edward William T. Grant Foundation

Smith, Lisa Tufts University

Sekino, Yumiko University of Pennsylvania

Smith, Mary Tufts University

Shafranske, Edward Pepperdine University

Solazzo, Lisa A. Fordham University

Sharma, Deepali University of Jena

Sorensen, Silvia University of Rochester Medical Center

Shelley-Sireci, Lynn M. Westfield State College

Sorrell, Gwendolyn T. Texas Tech University

Sherraden, Margaret Sherrard Washington University, St. Louis

Spencer, Margaret Beale University of Pennsylvania

Sherraden, Michael Washington University, St. Louis

Spencer, Renee Boston University

Sherrod, Lonnie R. Fordham University

Spetter, Dante S. Harvard University

Sherwin, Elisabeth University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Spiel, Christiane University of Vienna

Sikkema, Kathleen J. Yale University School of Medicine Silbereisen, Rainer K. University of Jena Silverman, Robyn Tufts University Silverman, Wendy K. Florida International University Simmons, Janie Hispanic Health Council Simpson, Isla H. Tufts University Sinno, Stefani University of Maryland Skara, Silvana University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine Small, Steve University of Wisconsin–Madison

Steinman, Jason Tufts University Stines, Elise University of Maryland Hospital for Children Stoltenberg, Scott Adduction Entry Center Stone, Margaret R. University of Arizona Storey, Isabel Brown University Stott, Frances Erikson Institute Stubbs, Julie University of Michigan Subramaniam, Aarti University of California Susman, Elizabeth J. The Pennsylvania State University

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Susman-Stillman, Amy University of Minnesota

Udell, Wadiya Teachers College, Columbia University

Sussman, Steve University of Southern Califorina

Vaccaro, Thomas P. St. John’s University

Takagi, Miyuki San Francisco State University

Valkenburg, Patti M. Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCOR)

Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine New York University Tan, Oon-Seng Nanyang Technological University Taylor, Al Michigan State University Taylor, Carl Michigan State University Teplin, Linda A. Northwestern University Teti, Douglas M. The Pennsylvania State University Theokas, Christina Tufts University Thompson, Chalmer E. Indiana University Thompson, Dennis N. Georgia State University Tillman, Rebecca Washington University in St. Louis

van Dulmen, Manfred H. M. Kent State University Verducci, Susan Stanford University Verhofstadt-Denève, Leni Ghent University Vetta, Atam Oxford University Victoria, Mosack Wichita State University Villarruel, Francisco A. Michigan State University Vinay, Harpalani University of Pennsylvania Vitulano, Lawrence Child Development–Community Policing Program von Eye, Alexander Michigan State University von Károlyi, Catya University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Tilton-Weaver, Lauree University of Nebraska

Vondracek, Fred W. The Pennsylvania State University

Torney-Purta, Judith University of Maryland

Waddington, Susan New York City Department of Education

Townsend, Nicolas L. University of Michigan

Wagener, Linda Mans Fuller Theological Seminary

Trimble, Joseph E. Western Washington University

Wallace, Scyatta A. Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education

Trotman Reid, Pamela University of Michigan

Walsh, Mary E. Boston College

Tryon, Warren W. Fordham University

Wang, Shirley S. Yale University

Tufaro, Katrina A. Boston College

Weekes-Shackelford, Viviana A. Florida Atlantic University

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Contributors———xxxiii

Weichold, Karina University of Jena

Witherspoon, Dawn New York University

Weinberg, Richard A. University of Minnesota

Wolf, Julie University of Connecticut

Weiner, Susan L. The Children’s Cause, Inc.

Worobey, John Rutgers University

Wentzel, Kathryn R. University of Maryland

Young, Jessica Mercer Boston College

Wertlieb, Donald Tufts University

Youngblade, Lise M. University of Florida

Wigfield, Allan University of Maryland

Youniss, James Catholic University of America

Williams, Steve Duke University

Zabrucky, Karen Georgia State University

Williams, Wendy Cornell University

Zeldin, Shepard University of Wisconsin–Madison

Windle, Michael University of Alabama

Zigler, Edward Yale University

Winner, Ellen Boston College

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About the Editors Celia B. Fisher, PhD, Marie Ward Doty Professor of Psychology and Director of the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education, has provided national leadership in developing guidelines for graduate education in applied developmental science (ADS) and ethical standards for the science and practice of psychology and federal guidelines for human subjects research. She is a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) and the Ethics Working Group of the National Children’s Study. She chaired the first National Conference on Graduate Education in ADS, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Ethics Code Task Force, and the New York State Board for Psychology. She was a member of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) Data Safety Monitoring Board and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Clinical Research Involving Children. Fisher is a founding coeditor of the journal Applied Developmental Science. She has more than 100 publications and five books covering topics in developmental psychology and in ethics, including developmental correlates of racial/ethnic discrimination; child and parental attitudes toward privacy and research ethics; the ability of children, adults with mental retardation, and other vulnerable populations to consent to treatment and research; and guidelines for mental health research involving ethnic minority children and youth. Her most recent book, Decoding the Ethics Code: A Practical Guide for Psychologists (2003) has become a required text for graduate psychology programs across the country. Dr. Fisher’s research and the ethics workshops and educational materials developed through the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education have received support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Mental Health, and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

Richard M. Lerner is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the Director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. A developmental psychologist, Lerner received a PhD in 1971 from the City University of New York. He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society. Prior to joining Tufts University, he was on the faculty and held administrative posts at Michigan State University, the Pennsylvania State University, and Boston College, where he was the Anita L. Brennan Professor of Education and the Director of the Center for Child, Family, and Community Partnerships. During the 1994–1995 academic year, Lerner held the Tyner Eminent Scholar Chair in the Human Sciences at Florida State University. Lerner is the author or editor of 57 books and more than 400 scholarly articles and chapters. He edited Volume 1, Theoretical Models of Human Development, for the 5th edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology (1998), edited (with Francine Jacobs and Donald Wertlieb) the four-volume Handbook of Applied Developmental Science (2003), edited (with Laurence Steinberg) the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (2004), and is editing (with William Damon) the forthcoming 6th edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and of Applied Developmental Science. He is known for his theory of and research about relations between life span human development and contextual or ecological change. He has done foundational studies of the mutually influential relations between adolescents and their peer, family, school, and community contexts, and is a leader in the study of public policies and community-based programs aimed at the promotion of positive youth development.

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Foreword Robert C. Granger

Since it was created in 1936, the William T. Grant Foundation has been interested in describing, explaining, and thereby fostering the optimal development of young people. To do this work, over the years the Foundation has supported selected communication, direct service, and capacity-building projects, but research is the bulk and core of our work. As the Foundation’s current president, this means that I have the job and luxury of staying current on the big ideas, people, and important research questions that should guide our grantmaking. This Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science, masterfully created and edited by Celia Fisher and Richard M. Lerner, is replete with all three. In their overview chapter, Drs. Fisher and Lerner write that applied developmental science is in many ways “old wine in new bottles.” This acknowledgement of the historical antecedents of this field is appropriate in the way they imply. That is, the essence of science is the accumulation of knowledge over time, and therefore new fields grow from former ones. But as we know, scientific progress is also marked by reformulating how phenomena, in this case development across the life span, are understood. Sometimes these reformulations are modest, and once in a while they are much more radical; applied developmental science may be an example of the latter. As entry after entry in this volume makes clear, a great strength of applied developmental science is its ability to synthesize formerly competing ideas. Dualities such as individual/context, proximal contexts/ distal contexts, and basic research/applied research are often understood as examples of distinct concepts. Applied developmental science treats each of these dualities as an integrated whole. For example, the recognition that development is best understood from an ecological perspective and that individuals both shape and are shaped by their

social settings predates the naming of a field as “applied developmental science.” However, the assumption of applied developmental science that the person/setting and proximal/distal contexts are best understood as a dynamic system with a developmental course is something new. It focuses us much more clearly on the relationships among levels of the system rather than the characteristics of any particular level. No longer can we productively study individuals devoid of their connections to setting. Nor can we assume that individuals are affected by the close-in settings like families while families are in turn only influenced by more distal contexts like the nation state. Rather, all this exists as one system and perturbations in one area interact with all the others. Some may see this systemic conception of development as overly complicating the task of understanding individual development and variation. My own view is that it may simplify matters, by suggesting that development is the manifestation of principles applicable to all systems. If so, our focus needs to be on explicating these principles and regularities. While this is not a trivial task, it feels more tractable than the attempt to make sense of the endless variety of possible interactions between people and their settings, if we treat those exchanges as random events. Similarly, there is a long history to the assumption that there is a connection between so-called basic and applied research, yet applied developmental science is moving beyond those conventional categories. In my conversations with scholars, there is a vague unease with the proposition that certain science is about theory and basic processes while other science is about the application of such theorizing and research to real life. The basic/applied distinction, and the linear dimension it implies, may be reasonable in certain areas of scientific inquiry, but not in understanding

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human development. Rather, applied developmental science reminds us that social life and intraindividual processes are bound and it makes little sense to conceptually pull them apart for study. Applied developmental science also moves us beyond the view that scholars somehow need to generate and then translate knowledge so that practitioners (e.g., parents, teachers, policymakers) can apply the new findings and make the world a better place. Such a linear translation rarely occurs, and this volume suggests it is not a useful way to think about the relationship between scholarship and practice. That is, the most theoretically important questions about development are derived from the situations, roles, and activities of daily life. Therefore, the way to productively connect research, policy, and practice is to join them throughout the process of stating and investigating research questions. Elsewhere I have argued that the reason that scholars need to connect to practitioners is not to improve practice but to improve scholarship. Such connections, authentically created among

people from different roles and disciplines who are working on important, everyday questions, will inevitably have an influence on practice. After all, research, practice, and policy are joined in a larger system, too. The current encyclopedia is wonderfully rich, and any omissions are a reflection of the state of the current science, not an oversight. There are statements throughout the volume suggesting frontiers that need to be addressed. For example, we are much stronger at theorizing development at the level of individuals than at other contextual levels such as organizations, public systems, or policy. Said another way, applied developmental science has helped us see and synthesize what people need across the life span. But we know much more about how to name the conditions and connections that aid positive development than how to create them intentionally when they do not exist. Making progress on this issue demands the systemic, interdisciplinary, cross-role thinking and work that is the heart of this encyclopedia.

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Preface Applied developmental science (ADS) seeks to advance the integration of developmental research with actions that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children, adolescents, young and old adults, and their families. There are three integrated components of ADS activity: theory/research, professional practice (i.e., the enactment of the services and/or the generation of the products associated with fields such as psychology, education, social work, nursing, and youth development programming), and policy and program development and evaluation. The goals of this integration are to (a) promote positive human development, (b) strengthen and enhance family life, (c) build communities and community collaborations from an asset- or strength-based orientation, and (d) engage policy to create and sustain efforts at enriching civil society. Indeed, the systemic interrelation of these four substantive foci (positive human development, family life enhancement, community building, and policy engagement for civil society) justifies the three domains of activity for the field (theory/ research, practice, and evaluation) and has accounted for the burgeoning of university-community collaboration to further this work. The substantive foci of the Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science involves describing and explaining all four of these foci in regard to theory/ research, professional practice, and evaluation. We recognize that the breadth of activity in applied developmental science makes adequate representation of these foci a daunting challenge. How may all the information about this field be integrated in a manner accessible, meaningful, and useful to the next generation of the leaders of our nation and world? How may we best convey the key knowledge necessary for them to understand the nature of their development and the way that they may contribute positively to their own lives, to their families and communities, and to the designed and natural environments of which they will be stewards throughout their adult years?

We believe the present work provides an effective way to address these questions because it includes entries written in an authoritative but not overly technical manner by the broad range of scholars and practitioners involved in applied developmental science. Moreover, the entries in this encyclopedia are written to be accessible not only to other professionals but, as well, to policymakers and other potential consumers of applied developmental science scholarship, for instance, young people and their parents, teachers, and counselors. Our hope is that the Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science: will be seen as an important and timely contribution to the field of applied developmental science. Our goal is that, as a single, authoritative source, it will encompass the range of concepts and topics involved in the study of applied developmental science and that its contents and levels will have broad appeal across the diverse audiences we believe should be interested in how the application of knowledge about human development can be used to enhance the lives of the diverse individuals, families, and communities of our world. To the extent that our hopes and goals are realized, we will find ourselves in even greater debt than we are at this writing to the numerous people whose contributions made this work possible. First and foremost we are indebted to the contributors to the Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science. Their scholarship and dedication to excellence and social relevance in developmental science and its application enabled this work to be produced and serve as a model of how scholarship may both contribute to knowledge and the positive development of people across their life spans. Our colleagues and students in the Psychology Department of Fordham University and in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development of Tufts University, respectively, were great resources to us in the development of this volume. Karyn Lu, the former managing editor of the Institute for Applied

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Research in Youth Development Publications Office in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development provided initial editorial assistance for this work, and we are deeply indebted to her for her superb contributions. For the past year Katherine M. Connery, assistant editor in the institute’s Publications Office, has provided superb editorial support and guidance, and we express our boundless appreciation for her unflagging commitment to excellence and for the precision and excellence of her contributions to this work. Our editing of this encyclopedia was enhanced substantially by the sage advice and support of a distinguished advisory board: Peter Benson, Joan Bergstrom, Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel, Roger A. Dixon, Felton “Tony” Earls, Robert C. Granger, Daniel P. Keating, Kim Choo Khoo, Kaveh Khoshnood, Bonnie Leadbeater, Rick Little, Gary B. Melton, Jari-Erik Nurmi, Ellen Pinderhughes, Avi Schwartz, T. S. Saraswathi, Rainer K. Silbereisen, Merrill Singer, Margaret Beale Spencer, Linda Thompson, Richard A. Weinberg, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Luis H. Zayas, and Edward Zigler. We are grateful to these colleagues for their wisdom and

guidance. We are especially grateful to Dr. Robert C. Granger for writing a foreword to this work. It is a model of scholarly insight and applied significance. James Brace-Thompson, our editor at Sage Publications, was a constant source of excellent advice, encouragement, and collegial support, and we are pleased to acknowledge our gratitude to him, as well as to Karen Ehrmann, editorial assistant, and Sanford Robinson, Project Editor, for the excellence of their work and their unflagging support for and enthusiasm about the encyclopedia. Finally, we deeply appreciate the love and support given to us by our families during our work on Applied Developmental Science: An Encyclopedia of Research, Policies, and Programs. They remain our most cherished developmental assets, and we gratefully dedicate this book to them. C. B. F. Bronx, New York R. M. L. Medford, Massachusetts

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Introduction Celia B. Fisher Richard M. Lerner

The latter part of the 20th century was marked by public anxiety about a myriad of social problems, some old, some new, but all affecting the lives of vulnerable children, adolescents, adults, families, and communities (Fisher & Murray, 1996; Lerner, 1995). For instance, in America, a set of problems, of historically unprecedented scope and severity, involved interrelated issues of economic development, environmental quality, health and health care delivery, poverty, crime, violence, drug and alcohol use and abuse, unsafe sex, and school failure. Indeed, in the last years of the 20th century and in the first years of the current one, across the United States and in other nations, infants, children, adolescents, and the adults who care for them continued to die from the effects of these social problems (e.g., Dryfoos, 1990; Hamburg, 1992; Perkins & Borden, 2003). And, if people were not dying, their prospects for future success were being reduced by civil unrest and ethnic conflict, by famine, by environmental challenges (e.g., involving water quality and solid waste management), by school underachievement and dropout, by teenage pregnancy and parenting, by lack of job opportunities and preparedness, by prolonged welfare dependency, by challenges to their health (e.g., lack of immunization, inadequate screening for disabilities, insufficient prenatal care, and lack of sufficient infant and childhood medical services), and by the sequelae of persistent and pervasive poverty (e.g., Huston, McLoyd, & Garcia Coll, 1994; McLoyd, 1998). These issues challenge the resources and the future viability of civil society in America and throughout the world (Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000a, 2000b). The potential role of scientific knowledge about human development in addressing these issues of

individuals, families, communities, and civil society resulted in growing interest and activity in what has been termed applied developmental science (ADS). Indeed, over the past two decades, increasing numbers of developmental scientists from diverse disciplines have come to identify themselves professionally as “applied developmental scientists.” Joining under this umbrella are colleagues from allied disciplines and specialties in the biological, psychological, social, and behavioral sciences and the helping professions, all sharing common goals and visions captured in some of the more formal definitions of the ADS fields. In many ways, applied developmental science is “old wine in a new bottle,” that is, there are significant historical antecedents to the burgeoning field evident today (Wertlieb, 2003). It is useful here to provide a brief overview of this history, focusing most on the events over the past quarter century that have given shape to contemporary ADS.

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE: A BRIEF HISTORY Applied developmental science has its roots in numerous fields concerned with human development, for example, home economics/family and consumer sciences (e.g., Meszaros, 2003; Nickols, 2001), human ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 2001, in press; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998), comparative psychology (Tobach, 1994), and developmental psychology (Lerner, 2002; Wertlieb, 2003). Within the past quarter century, a key milestone in the elaboration of the field’s territory occurred with the founding of the Journal of Applied Developmental xli

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Psychology in 1980, an international multidisciplinary life-span journal. The masthead proclaimed a forum for communication between researchers and practitioners working in life-span human development fields, a forum for the presentation of the conceptual, methodological, policy, and related issues involved in the application of behavioral science research in developmental psychology to social action and social problem solving. (Sigel & Cocking, 1980, p. i) In welcoming the new journal in an inaugural editorial, Zigler (1980) narrowed the definition of the journal’s purview to what he called a “field within a field” (i.e., presumably, applied developmental psychology within developmental psychology) but set high and broad expectations that “these pages shall attest to the synergistic relationship between basic and applied research” (p. 1). In 1991, a National Task Force on Applied Developmental Science convened representatives from a broad but not an exhaustive range of professional scientific organizations concerned with the application of the developmental psychology knowledge base to societal problems. Organizations represented included the American Psychological Association, the Gerontological Society of America, the International Society for Infant Studies, the National Black Child Development Institute, the National Council on Family Relations, the Society for Research on Adolescence, and the Society for Research in Child Development. Goals included the articulation of the definition and scope of ADS along with guidelines for graduate training in this emergent, interdisciplinary field. A consensus process produced a complex four-point definition of ADS, quoted here at length to document the current parameters of content, process, methods, and values: 1.1. Applied developmental science involves the programmatic synthesis of research and applications to describe, explain, intervene, and provide preventive and enhancing uses of knowledge about human development. The conceptual bases of ADS reflects the view that individual and family functioning is a combined and interactive product of biology and the physical and social environments that continuously evolve and change over time. ADS emphasizes the nature of reciprocal person-environment interactions among people, across settings, and

within a multidisciplinary approach stressing individual and cultural diversity. This orientation is defined by three conjoint emphases: Applied: Direct implications for what individuals, families, practitioners, and policymakers do. Developmental: Systematic and successive changes within human systems that occur across the life span. Science: Grounded in a range of research methods designed to collect reliable and objective information systematically that can be used to test the validity of theory and application. 1.2. ADS recognizes that valid applications of our knowledge of human development depend upon scientifically based understanding of multilevel normative and atypical processes that continually change and emerge over the life cycle. 1.3. ADS reflects an integration of perspectives from relevant biological, social, and behavioral sciences disciplines in the service of promoting development in various populations. 1.4. The nature of work in ADS is reciprocal in that science drives application and application drives science. ADS emphasizes the bidirectional relationship between those who generate empirically based knowledge about developmental phenomena and those who pursue professional practices, services, and policies that affect the well-being of members of society. Accordingly, research and theory guide intervention strategies, and evaluations of outcomes of developmental interventions provide the basis for the reformulation of theory and for modification of future interventions. (Fisher et al., 1993, pp. 4–5) By 1997, these parameters defining ADS were adopted as the editorial scope of a new journal, Applied Developmental Science, with further explication of a more inclusive range of methodologies and audiences. The journal publishes research employing any of a diverse array of methodologies—multivariate longitudinal studies, demographic analyses, evaluation research,

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intensive measurement studies, ethnographic analyses, laboratory experiments, analyses of policy and/or policy-engagement studies, or animal comparative studies—when they have important implications for the application of developmental science across the life span. Manuscripts pertinent to the diversity of development throughout the life-span—cross-national and cross-cultural studies; systematic studies of psychopathology; and studies pertinent to gender, ethnic and racial diversity—are particularly welcome. . . . [The audience includes] developmental, clinical, school, counseling, aging, educational, and community psychologists; life course, family and demographic sociologists; health professionals; family and consumer scientists; human evolution and ecological biologists; practitioners in child and youth governmental and nongovernmental organizations. (Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 1997, p. 1) Most recently, some leaders of ADS have broadened the scope of ADS even further, suggesting elements of a blueprint for promoting civil society and social justice, a provocative and compelling elaboration of both the substance and ethical orientation of the field (Fisher, 2003; Lerner, 2004). Given the presence of this range of interests and activities, ADS is now considered “an established discipline” (Fisher, Murray, & Sigel, 1996), one operationalized by the diverse foci of work pursued under this framework but linked by a common conceptual/theoretical perspective about human development: developmental systems theory. To understand the diversity of empirical, methodological, and ethical interests and activities of contemporary ADS, it is important to appreciate the developmental systems theoretical orientation that rationalizes the use of developmental science for the promotion of positive human development and the enhancement of civil society. FROM DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORIES TO APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Paul Mussen, the editor of the third edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology, presaged what today is abundantly clear about the contemporary stress on systems theories of human development. Mussen (1970) said, “The major contemporary empirical and theoretical emphases in the field of developmental

psychology . . . seem to be on explanations of the psychological changes that occur, the mechanisms and processes accounting for growth and development” (p. vii). This vision alerted developmental scientists to a burgeoning interest not in structure, function, or content per se, but to change, to the processes through which change occurs, and on the means through which structures transform and functions evolve over the course of human life. Today, Mussen’s (1970) vision has been crystallized. The cutting edge of contemporary developmental theory is represented by systems conceptions of process, of how structures function and how functions are structured over time. Thus, developmental systems theories of human development are not tied necessarily to a particular content domain, although particular empirical issues or substantive foci (e.g., motor development, successful aging, wisdom, extraordinary cognitive achievements, language acquisition, the self, psychological complexity, or concept formation) may lend themselves readily as exemplary sample cases of the processes depicted in a given theory (see Lerner, 1998). The power of developmental systems theories lies in their ability not to be limited or confounded by an inextricable association with a unidimensional portrayal of the developing person. In developmental systems theories, the person is not biologized, psychologized, or sociologized. Rather, the individual is “systemized.” A person’s development is embedded within an integrated matrix of variables derived from multiple levels of organization. Development is conceptualized as deriving from the dynamic relations among the variables within this multi-tiered matrix. Developmental systems theories use the polarities that engaged developmental theory in the past (e.g., nature/nurture, individual/society, biology/culture; Lerner, 2002), not to “split” depictions of developmental processes along conceptually implausible and empirically counterfactual lines (Overton, 1998) or to force counterproductive choices between false opposites (e.g., heredity or environment, continuity or discontinuity, constancy or change; Lerner, 2002), but to gain insight into the integrations that exist among the multiple levels of organization involved in human development. These theories are certainly more complex than their one-sided predecessors. They are also more nuanced, more flexible, more balanced, and less susceptible to extravagant or even absurd claims (for instance, that nature, split from nurture, can shape the course of human development; that there is a gene for

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altruism, militarism, or intelligence; or that when the social context is demonstrated to affect development, the influence can be reduced to a genetic one (e.g., Plomin, 2000; Rowe, 1994; Rushton, 2000). These mechanistic and atomistic views of the past have been replaced, then, by theoretical models that stress the dynamic synthesis of multiple levels of analysis, a perspective having its roots in systems theories of biological development (e.g., Cairns, 1998; Gottlieb, 1997; Schneirla, 1957). In other words, development, understood as a property of systemic change in the multiple and integrated levels of organization (ranging from biology to culture and history) composing human life and its ecology, is an overarching conceptual frame associated with developmental systems models of human development. Explanation and Application: A Synthesis This stress on the dynamic relation between the individual and his or her context results in the recognition that a synthesis of perspectives from multiple disciplines is needed to understand the multilevel integrations involved in human development. In addition, to understand the basic process of human development both descriptive and explanatory research must be conducted within the actual ecology of people’s lives. Explanatory studies, by their very nature, constitute intervention research. The role of the developmental researcher conducting explanatory research is to understand the ways in which variations in personcontext relations account for the character of human developmental trajectories, life paths that are enacted in the natural laboratory of the real world. To gain an understanding of how theoretically relevant variations in person-context relations may influence developmental trajectories, the researcher may introduce policies and/or programs as experimental manipulations of the proximal and/or distal natural ecology. Evaluations of the outcomes of such interventions become a means to bring data to bear on theoretical issues pertinent to person-context relations. More specifically, these interventions have helped applied developmental scientists to understand the plasticity in human development that may exist and that may be capitalized on to enhance human life (Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde, 1998; Lerner, 1984). The interindividual differences in intraindividual change that exist as a consequence of these naturally

occurring interventions attest to the magnitude of the systematic changes in structure and function—the plasticity—that characterize human life. Explanatory research is necessary, however, to understand what variables, from what levels of organization, are involved in particular instances of plasticity that have been seen to exist. In addition, such research is necessary to determine what instances of plasticity may be created by science or society. In other words, explanatory research is needed to ascertain the extent of human plasticity or, in turn, to test the limits of plasticity (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998). From a developmental systems perspective, the conduct of such research may lead the scientist to alter the natural ecology of the person or group he or she is studying. Such research may involve either proximal or distal variations in the context of human development. But, in any case, these manipulations constitute theoretically guided alterations of the roles and events a person or group experiences at, or over, a portion of the life span. These alterations are indeed, then, interventions: They are planned attempts to alter the system of person-context relations that constitute the basic process of change; they are conducted in order to ascertain the specific bases of, or to test the limits of, particular instances of human plasticity (Baltes et al., 1998). These interventions are a researcher’s attempt to substitute designed person-context relations for naturally occurring ones in an attempt to understand the process of changing person-context relations that provides the basis of human development. In short, then, basic research in human development is intervention research (Lerner, 2002). Accordingly, the cutting edge of theory and research in human development lies in the application of the conceptual and methodological expertise of human developmental scientists to the natural ontogenetic laboratory of the real world. This placement into the actual ecology of human development of explanatory research about the basic, relational process of development involves, then, the fusion of application with basic developmental science. To pursue the study of ontogeny from a developmental systems perspective, a research/application agenda that is focused on the relations between diverse individuals and their similarly diverse contexts is brought to the fore (Lerner, 2002). In addition, however, scholars involved in such research must have at least two other concerns, ones deriving from the view that basic,

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explanatory research in human development is, in its essence, intervention research. Research in human development that is concerned with one or even a few instances of individual and contextual diversity cannot be assumed to be useful for understanding the life course of all people. Similarly, policies and programs derived from such research, or associated with it in the context of a researcher’s tests of ideas pertinent to human plasticity, cannot hope to be applicable, or equally appropriate and useful, in all contexts or for all individuals. Accordingly, developmental and individual differences-oriented policy development and program (intervention) design and delivery must be a key part of the approach to applied developmental research for which we are calling. The variation in settings within which people live means that studying development in a standard (for example, a “controlled”) environment does not provide information pertinent to the actual (ecologically valid), developing relations between individually distinct people and their specific contexts (for example, their particular families, schools, or communities). This point underscores the need to conduct research in real-world settings (Bronfenbrenner, 1974; Zigler, 1998) and highlights the ideas that (a) policies and programs constitute natural experiments, that is, planned interventions for people and institutions, and (b) the evaluation of such activities becomes a central focus in the developmental systems research agenda we have described (e.g., Cairns, Bergman, & Kagan, 1998; Lerner, 1995, 2002). In this view, then, policy and program endeavors do not constitute secondary work, or derivative applications, conducted after research evidence has been compiled. Quite to the contrary, policy development and implementation, and program design and delivery, become integral components of the applied developmental science approach to research; the evaluation component of such policy and intervention work provides critical feedback about the adequacy of the conceptual frame from which this research agenda should derive (Zigler, 1998; Zigler & Finn-Stevenson, 1999). In essence, then, a developmental systems perspective leads us to recognize that, if we are to have an adequate and sufficient science of human development, we must integratively study individual and contextual levels of organization in a relational and temporal manner (Bronfenbrenner, 1974; Zigler, 1998). And if we are to serve the world’s citizens and families through our science, if we are to help develop successful policies

and programs through our scholarly efforts, efforts that result in the promotion of positive human development, we may make great use of the integrative, temporal, and relational model of the person and of his or her context that is embodied in the developmental systems perspective. FROM DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORY TO THE CORE PRINCIPLES OF ADS As has been argued before us—for example, by Fisher (e.g., Fisher et al., 1993); Weinberg (e.g., Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 1997, 2000a, 2000b); Sherrod (e.g., Sherrod, 1999); Eccles (Eccles, Lord, & Buchanan, 1996); Takanishi (1993); Lerner (Lerner, 2002, 2004); and Wertlieb (2003)—ADS is predicated on the developmental systems theoretical perspective we have described. Within this context, Fisher et al. (1993) summarize the five conceptual components that, together, characterize the core principles of ADS. Taken together, these conceptual principles make ADS a unique approach to understanding and promoting positive development. The first conceptual component of ADS is the notion of the temporality, or historical embeddedness, of change pertinent to individuals, families, institutions, and communities. Some components of the context or of individuals remain stable over time and other components may change historically. Because phenomena of human behavior and development vary historically, one must assess whether generalizations across time periods are legitimate. Thus, temporality has important implications for research design, service provision, and program evaluation. Interventions are aimed at altering the developmental trajectory of within-person changes. To accomplish this aim, the second conceptual feature of ADS is that applied developmental scientists take into account interindividual differences (diversity) among, for instance, racial, ethnic, social class, and gender groups, and intraindividual changes, such as those associated with puberty. The third conceptual feature of ADS places an emphasis on the centrality of context. There is a focus on the relations among all levels of organization within the ecology of human development. These levels involve biology, families, peer groups, schools, businesses, neighborhoods and communities, physical/ ecological settings, and the sociocultural, political,

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legal/moral, and economic institutions of society. Together, bidirectional relations among these levels of the developmental system necessitate systemic approaches to research, program and policy design, and program and policy implementation. The fourth principle of ADS emphasizes descriptively normative developmental processes, and primary prevention and optimization rather than remediation. Applied developmental scientists emphasize healthy and normative developmental processes and seek to identify the strengths and assets of individual, groups, and settings, rather than focusing on deficits, weaknesses, or problems of individuals, families, or communities. Instead of dwelling on the problems faced by people, applied developmental scientists aim to find combinations of individual and ecological assets associated with thriving among people (e.g., Benson, 1997; Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000) and with the “Five Cs” of positive individual development: competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring/compassion (Lerner, 2002, 2004; Little, 1993; Pittman, 1996). The final principle of applied developmental science is the appreciation of the bidirectional relationship between knowledge generation and knowledge application. By acknowledging bidirectionality, applied developmental scientists recognize the importance of knowledge about life and development that exists among the individuals, families, and communities being served by applied developmental science. For applied developmental scientists, collaboration and colearning between researchers/universities and communities are essential features of the scholarly enterprise (Lerner, 1998). Such community-collaborative efforts are termed outreach scholarship (Lerner & Miller, 1998). In other words, given the developmental systems perspective on which ADS is predicated, applied developmental scientists assume that there is an interactive relationship between science and application. Accordingly, the work of those who generate empirically based knowledge about development and those who provide professional services or construct policies affecting individuals and families is seen as reciprocal in that research and theory guide intervention strategies and the evaluation of interventions and policies provides the bases for reformulating theory and future research. . . . As a result, applied

developmental [scientists] not only disseminate information about development to parents, professionals, and policy makers working to enhance the development of others, they also integrate the perspectives and experiences of these members of the community into the reformulation of theory and the design of research and interventions. (Fisher & Lerner, 1994, p. 7) Given the theoretically predicated set of principles defining ADS, it is clear that not all possible realms of developmental science would lend themselves to this view of scholarship (e.g., genetic reductionist approaches to human development would not fit within this approach; see Lerner, 2002, for fuller discussions of this point). As well, it is clear that there are formidable scientific challenges to conducting applied developmental science. It is useful to discuss some of the methodological dimensions of scientific work that are brought to the fore by an ADS perspective on research. METHODOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF ADS Human developmental science has long been associated with laboratory-based scholarship devoted to uncovering “universal” aspects of development by stripping away contextual influences (Cairns et al., 1998; Hagen, 1996). However, the mission and methods of human development are being transformed into an applied developmental science devoted to discovering diverse developmental patterns by examining the dynamic relations between individuals within the multiple, embedded contexts of the integrated developmental systems in which they live (e.g., Fisher, 2003; Fisher & Brennan, 1992; Fisher & Lerner, 1994; Fisher & Murray, 1996). This theoretical revision of the target of developmental analysis from the elements of relations to interlevel relations has significant implications for applications of developmental science to policies and programs aimed at promoting positive human development. Arguably the most radical feature of the theoretical, research, and applied agenda of applied developmental scientists is the idea that research about basic relational processes of development and applications focused on enhancing person-context relations across ontogeny are one and the same endeavor. In addition to the developmental systems theoretical orientation framing the substantive domains of

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scholarship included in this encyclopedia and, as well, found more broadly in ADS, we must emphasize that there are other features of scholarship that are emblematic of ADS. That is, there are specific views of methodology and of ethics involved in this field of work. As we have noted earlier in this introduction, the empirical parameters of ADS are addressed only to a certain extent by traditional research methods and designs. Acknowledgment of the conceptual complexity imposed by the relevant developmental systems bioecological (e.g.,) theories engages increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches. Orchestration of a researcher’s perspectives on a set of problems with a society’s perspectives on the problems—be they concerns about how to provide a type of care for children or how to sustain the health and development of an ill child, as considered in our sampling—requires extension and innovation by the applied developmental scientist. Some of the extension and innovation is relatively incremental. For example, study of children’s adaptation to illness becomes the province of interdisciplinary teams of pediatricians, pediatric psychologists, nurses, and child psychiatrists. Bolder innovation advances ADS when families and communities are recognized and embraced as legitimate partners in the research enterprise, when the audience or “consumer” of research is broadened to include service providers and policymakers, and when traditional institutional structures and functions associated with the ivory tower of the university are challenged or modified. This is the essence of the concept of outreach scholarship (Lerner & Miller, 1998) noted previously. Jensen, Hoagwood, and Trickett (1999) contrast university-based research traditionally supported by the National Institutes of Health in an “efficacy model” with an “outreach model” that reflects emergent approaches to research consistent with the parameters of ADS and basic to advancement in numerous domains of inquiry and action (see Wertlieb, 2003). Outreach research or outreach scholarship characterizes the “engaged university” (Kellogg Commission, 1999) more so than the traditional “ivory tower” university (e.g., McCall, Groark, Strauss, & Johnson, 1998). In outreach scholarship, knowledge advances as a function of collaborations and partnerships between universities and communities such that the scientists and the children, families, and communities they seek to understand and to help are defining problems,

methods, and solutions together. Communities include policymakers as well as the families and service providers who both implement and consume interventions and programs. Lerner et al. (2000b) properly note that this involves a “sea change in the way scholars conduct their research” (p. 14) and then note the principles of outreach scholarship that characterize these special collaborations and methods in ADS. These principles include (1) an enhanced focus on external validity, on the pertinence of the research to the actual ecology of human development . . . as opposed to contrived, albeit well-designed, laboratory type studies; (2) incorporating the values and needs of community collaborators within research activities; (3) full conceptualization and assessment of outcomes, that is, a commitment to understanding thoroughly both the direct and indirect effects of a research-based intervention program on youth and their context and to measuring these outcomes; (4) flexibility to fit local needs and circumstances, that is, an orientation to adjust the design or procedures . . . to the vicissitudes of the community within which the work is enacted; (5) accordingly, a willingness to make modifications to research methods in order to fit the circumstances of the local community; and (6) the embracing of long term perspectives, that is the commitment of the university to remain in the community for a time period sufficient to see the realization of community-valued developmental goals for its youth. . . . (In addition) co-learning between two expert systems—the community and the university; humility on the part of the university and its faculty, so that true co-learning and collaboration among equals can occur; and cultural integration, so that both the university and the community can appreciate each other’s perspective. (Lerner et al., 2000b, p. 14, italics added) As articulated in the definitional parameters of ADS that opened this introduction and as reflected in the specific examples of inquiry and action, the extensions and innovations involved in outreach scholarship provide a means to address the conceptual and methodological challenges inherent in attending to the synergy and advancement of science and practice. Along with these tools and potentials come a series of ethical

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imperatives reflecting responsibilities of both researchers and practitioners. These complex challenges have been a central concern to ADS from its earliest contemporary renditions, with the frameworks offered by Fisher and Tryon (1990) continuing to serve well as an agenda. Fisher and Tryon (1990) noted that along with the synergy and integration of research and application basic to the advance of the field, the applied developmental scientist is bound by the ethics of research, by the ethics of professional service, and by a complicated admixture that emerges with the acknowledgment of their interdependence. In addition, as the notion of outreach scholarship shifts the applied developmental scientist away from narrow and traditional notions of research subjects, patients, and clients to more appropriate notions of partners, consumers, and collaborators, there emerge areas as yet uncharted by the ethical standards of extant disciplines and professions. Indeed, even the imperative that ethical behavior in ADS reflects some consensus or amalgam of the applied ethics embraced over time by diverse disciplines or traditions now teaming up in any of the areas of inquiry and action noted earlier invokes challenge. Distinctive, perhaps even unique, ethical issues arise when the articulation of basic bioecological and contextual theories are parlayed into methods, measures, research designs, interventions, programs, and policies. Further, whether in the traditional disciplines or in emergent ADS, ethical considerations are encumbered and enriched by the mores and pressures of the historical context. Thus, the particular exigencies of our evolving multicultural and global societies that are manifested in concerns about diversity and cultural sensitivity and competence become deep and abiding concerns for the applied developmental scientist as she develops and tests her theories, designs and evaluates her interventions, provides health or social services, or engages policymakers around social programs and policies. As one example of the special ethical challenges that ADS must master, consider research on early child care and education. The sociohistorical shift involving the entry of more women into the workforce fueled the interest and concern of both society and developmental scientists. Hoffman (1990) describes the manner in which bias in the scientific process characterized much of the early research on maternal employment. Knowledge was produced and applied with an emphasis on documenting defects or deficits in children left in nonparental day care. As the more

sophisticated concepts and methods of ADS were engaged to address the social concern of nonparental care, there were more nuanced and accurate notions of direct and indirect effects of individual differences and quality variables in home-based and center-based care settings. In addition, as dire as were some of the ethical challenges in the conduct of the science aimed at generating understanding about the impacts of different care arrangements, the risks involved in the communication of findings to the public and to policymakers can also be harrowing and daunting. Hoffman (1990) concludes her account with the position that while there is a social responsibility to make findings available for social policy and individual decision, there is also a responsibility to communicate the results accurately, and to educate the public about what the data can and cannot say. The tentative nature of our findings, their susceptibility to different interpretations, and the complications of translating them into individual or policy actions must be communicated to achieve an ethical science. (p. 268) A second example to capture some of the particular ethical challenges facing ADS pertains especially to this particular historical moment, when ADS is gaining recognition as an “established discipline” (Fisher et al., 1996, p. xvii). Yet, training programs to produce the next generation of applied developmental scientists are only just emerging. Whereas some of the root or allied disciplines may have sophisticated quality control and credentialing procedures in place to increase the likelihood that ethical standards are met, ADS cannot borrow completely from these traditions. ADS must generate new and appropriate standards reflecting the exigencies of its special methods (e.g., university-community partnerships) and the special expectations and demands faced by new applied developmental scientists as they pursue their scholarship (Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003). For instance, traditional developmental psychologists can be trained and their allegiance to the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association (APA; 1992) can be inculcated during their graduate training. Clinical psychologists, as another example, can be educated and held accountable through both their graduate training and their later professional careers in APA standards and in a variety of state and

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national licensing and credentialing conventions. While applied developmental scientists now emerging from traditionally regulated fields such as clinical, school, or counseling psychology will have a starting point in these traditional ethical guidelines, neither they nor their colleagues from diverse disciplinary and multidisciplinary training bases are yet equipped with explicit ethical principles or credentials for the “practice” of ADS. Indeed, Koocher (1990) alerted the field to this challenge a decade ago, and though the sociopolitical scene has evolved in complex ways since then, the challenge remains for ADS to attend very seriously to issues of graduate training and ethics commensurate with its appropriately broadened scope and deepened mission.

CONCLUSIONS A focus on person-context relations underscores the key implications of developmental systems models for research and application pertinent to promoting positive human development. At any given point in ontogenetic and historical time, neither individuals’ attributes nor the features of their context (e.g., the demands of their parents regarding temperamental style) per se are the foremost predictors of their healthy functioning. Instead, the relations among the child, the parent, the school, the community, and the other levels of organization within the developmental system are most important in understanding the character of human development and of the role of the ecology of human development in a person’s ontogeny. Essentially, the developmental systems model specifies that applied developmental scholarship pertinent to understanding and enhancing the life course should focus on the relational process of human development, by integrating longitudinally the study of both the actions of the individual and the actions of parents, peers, teachers, neighbors, and the broader institutional context within which the individual is embedded. Bearing in mind the centrality of this complex relational system, the synthetic research and application agenda seems clear. Applied developmental scientists must continue to educate themselves about the best means available to promote (through integrating the developmental system) enhanced life chances among all individuals and families, but especially among those whose potential for positive contributions to civil society is most in danger of being wasted (Lerner, 2004).

The collaborative expertise of the research and program delivery communities can provide much of this information, especially if it is obtained in partnership with strong, empowered communities. Such coalitions could become an integral component of an integrated child, family, and human development policy aimed at creating caring communities with the capacity to further the healthy development of children, adolescents, adults, and families (Jensen et al., 1999; Kennedy, 1999; Sherrod, 1999; Spanier, 1999; Thompson, 1999). Given the enormous and historically unprecedented challenges facing the youth and families of America and the world, there is no time to lose in the development of such collaborations if there is the aspiration to raise healthy and successful children capable of leading civil society productively, responsibly, and morally across the 21st century (Benson, 1997; Damon, 1997; Lerner, 2004). As was originally the case, the understanding of children, their development, and their needs is pursued for the intellectual bounty only in part. It is the use of this knowledge to enhance the quality of life for children that launched the discipline of developmental psychology in the late 19th century and that propels ADS in the early 21st century. The field of human development has an opportunity through the publication of its applied developmental science research to serve our world’s citizens and demonstrate that there is nothing of greater value to civil society than a science devoted to using its scholarship to improve the life chances of all people. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychological Association. (1992). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 47(12), 1597–1611. Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (1998). Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1029–1144). New York: Wiley. Benson, P. L. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Developmental research, public policy, and the ecology of childhood. Child Development, 45, 1–5. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2001). Human development, biological theory of. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 6963–6970). Oxford: Elsevier.

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Bronfenbrenner, U. (in press). Making human beings human. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (1998). The ecology of developmental process. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 993–1028). New York: Wiley. Cairns, R. B. (1998). The making of developmental psychology. In W. Damon (series Ed.) R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 25–105). New York: Wiley. Cairns, R. B., Bergman, L. R., & Kagan, J. (Eds.). (1998). Methods and models for studying the individual: Essays in honor of Marian Radke-Yarrow. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Rathunde, K. (1998). The development of the person: An experiential perspective on the ontogenesis of psychological complexity. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 635–684). New York: Wiley. Damon, W. (1997). The youth character: How communities can work together to raise standards for all our children. New York: Free Press. Dryfoos, J. G. (1990). Adolescents at risk: Prevalence and prevention. New York: Oxford University Press. Eccles, J. S., Lord, S., & Buchanan, C. M. (1996). School transitions in early adolescence: What are we doing to our young people? In J. A. Graber, J. Brooks-Gunn, & A. C. Peterson (Eds.), Transitions through adolescence (pp. 251–284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Fisher, C. B. (2003). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fisher, C. B., & Brennan, M. (1992). Application and ethics in developmental psychology. In D. L. Featherman, R. M. Lerner, & M. Perlmutter (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 11, pp. 189–219). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Fisher, C. B., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (1994). Applied developmental psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fisher, C. B., & Murray, J. P. (1996). Applied developmental science comes of age. In C. B Fisher, J. P. Murray, & I. E. Sigel (Eds.), Applied developmental science: Graduate training for diverse disciplines and educational settings (pp. 1–21). Norwood NJ: Ablex. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R. M., et al. (1993). The national conference on graduate education in the applications of developmental science across the lifespan. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–10. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., & Sigel, I. E. (Eds.). (1996). Applied developmental science: Graduate training for diverse disciplines and educational settings (Vol. 13). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Fisher, C. B., & Tryon, W. W. (Eds.). (1990). Ethics in applied developmental psychology: Vol. 4. Emerging issues in an emerging field. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Gottlieb, G. (1997). Synthesizing nature-nurture: Prenatal roots of instinctive behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hagen, J. W. (1996). Graduate education in the applied developmental sciences: History and background. In C. B. Fisher & J. P. Murray (Eds.), Applied developmental science: Graduate training for diverse disciplines and educational settings. Advances in applied developmental psychology (pp. 45–51). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Hamburg, D. A. (1992). Today’s children: Creating a future for a generation in crisis. New York: Times Books. Hoffman, L. W. (1990). Bias and social responsibility in the study of maternal employment. In C. B. Fisher & W. W. Tyron (Eds.), Ethics in applied developmental psychology: Emerging issues in an emerging field (Vol. 4, pp. 253–272). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Huston, A. C., McLoyd, V. C., & Garcia Coll, C. (1994). Children and poverty: Issues in contemporary research. Child Development, 65, 275–282. Jensen, P., Hoagwood, K., & Trickett, E. (1999). Ivory towers or earthen trenches? Community collaborations to foster “real world” research. Applied Developmental Science, 3(4), 206–212. Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Colleges. (1999). Returning to our roots: The engaged institution. Washington, DC: National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Kennedy, E. M. (1999). University-community partnerships: A mutually beneficial effort to aid community development and improve academic learning opportunities. Applied Developmental Science, 3(4), 197–198. Koocher, G. P. (1990). Practicing applied developmental psychology: Playing the game you can’t win. In I. E. Sigel (Ed.), Ethics in applied developmental psychology: Emerging issues in an emerging field (Vol. 4, pp. 215–225). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Lerner, R. M. (1984). On the nature of plasticity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lerner, R. M. (1995). America’s youth in crisis: Challenges and options for programs and policies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M. (1998). Theories of human development: Contemporary perspectives. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (pp. 1–24). New York: Wiley. Lerner, R. M. (Ed.). (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2003). Positive youth development: Thriving as a basis of personhood and civil society. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 173–180. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (1997). Applied developmental science: Scholarship for our times. Applied Developmental Science, 1(1), 2–3.

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Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000a). Applying developmental science in the twenty-first century: International scholarship for our times. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 24–29. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000b). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71(1), 11–20. Lerner, R. M., & Miller, J. R. (1998). Developing multidisciplinary institutes to enhance the lives of individuals and families: Academic potentials and pitfalls. Journal of Public Service and Outreach, 3(1), 64–73. Little, R. R. (1993). What’s working for today’s youth: The issues, the programs, and the learnings. Paper presented at the ICYF Fellows Colloquium, Michigan State University. McCall, R. B., Groark, C. G., Strauss, M. S., & Johnson, C. N. (1998). Challenges of university-community outreach to traditional universities: The University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development experience. In R. M. Lerner & L. A. K. Simon (Eds.), University-community collaborations for the twenty-first century: Outreach scholarship for youth and families (pp. 203–230). New York: Garland. McLoyd, V. C. (1998). Children in poverty: Development, public policy, and practice. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) I. Sigel & K. A. Ranninger (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 135–208). New York: Wiley. Meszaros, P. S. (2003). Family and consumer sciences: A holistic approach stretching to the future. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Vol. 4. Adding value to youth and family development: The engaged university and professional and academic outreach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mussen, P. H. (1970). Carmichael’s manual of child psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley. Nickols, S. Y. (2001). Family and consumer sciences in the United States. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 5279–5286). Oxford: Elsevier. Overton, W. (1998). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 107–187). New York: Wiley. Perkins, D. F., & Borden, L. M. (2003). Key elements of community youth development programs. In F. A. Villarruel, D. F. Perkins, L. M. Borden, & J. G. Keith (Eds.), Community

youth development: Practice, policy, and research (pp. 327–340). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pittman, K. (1996). Community, youth, development: Three goals in search of connection. New Designs for Youth Development, Winter, 4–8. Plomin, R. (2000). Behavioral genetics in the 21st century. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 30–34. Rowe, D. C. (1994). The limits of family influences: Genes, experience, and behavior. New York: Guilford. Rushton, J. P. (2000). Race, evolution, and behavior (2nd special abr. ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (2000). Contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 4(1), 27–46. Schneirla, T. C. (1957). The concept of development in comparative psychology. In D. B. Harris (Ed.), The concept of development (pp. 78–108). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Sherrod, L. (1999). “Giving child development knowledge away”: Using university-community partnerships to disseminate research on children, youth, and families. Applied Developmental Science, 3(4), 228–234. Sigel, I. E., & Cocking, R. R. (1980). Editors’ message. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1(1), i–iii. Spanier, G. B. (1999). Enhancing the quality of life: A model for the 21st century land-grant university. Applied Developmental Science, 3(4), 199–205. Takanishi, R. (1993). An agenda for the integration of research and policy during early adolescence. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Early adolescence: Perspectives on research, policy, and intervention (pp. 457–470). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Thompson, L. (1999). Creating partnerships with government, communities, and universities to achieve results for children. Applied Developmental Science, 3(4), 213–216. Tobach, E. (1994). Personal is political is personal is political. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 221–224. Wertlieb, D. (2003). Applied developmental science. In R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Eds.), Developmental psychology (Vol. 6). New York: Wiley. Zigler, E. (1980). Welcoming a new journal. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1(1), 1–6. Zigler, E. (1998). A place of value for applied and policy studies. Child Development, 69(2), 532–542. Zigler, E. F., & Finn-Stevenson, M. (1999). Applied developmental psychology. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (4th ed., pp. 555–598). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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A inconsistent messages about sexuality as they negotiate between opposing viewpoints. On one hand, being sexy is highly valued in the media, yet young people hear repeated warnings that sex is dangerous. Parents erroneously fear that teens’ peers have a stronger influence on teens’ values than they do, and adults generally fail to recognize that young people are capable of making their own decisions about sexuality. Within the Unites States, adolescent sexuality has been and continues to be primarily interpreted as a dangerous social problem and is typically narrowly defined as a dichotomous choice between chastity and heterosexual intercourse. Sexuality education in the first part of the 20th century was one manifestation of a broad strategy to reform and regulate this adolescent “problem behavior,” and it is still largely driven by U.S. society’s fear of youthful sexuality and its consequences (Moran, 2000). Today, a significant number of modern sexuality education programs remain predominantly concerned with “dispensing sexual knowledge as a prophylactic for the unwelcomed consequences of freewheeling sexual behavior” (Sears, 1992, p. 17) rather than promoting healthy sexual development. Amidst this cultural ambiguity and contention, efforts to provide young people with the information, skills, resources, and motivation they need to develop into sexually healthy adults meet with a number of barriers. Clearly, an open discourse on sexual health is desperately needed, not only in light of the aforementioned confusion but also because the United States continues to have the world’s highest rates of teenage pregnancy and 4 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) occur among teens yearly

ABSTINENCE IN ADOLESCENCE In recent years, the notion of “abstinence” as a youth public health message—specifically, that the only healthy sexual expression is abstinence—has taken on weighty political and ideological meanings. This entry explores the ways that “abstinence-only” policies in the United States have served to create and sustain a counterproductive climate of silence. It also demonstrates how the concept, when taken at face value, is incongruous with normative and healthy adolescent development. By becoming a guiding directive of contemporary U.S. sexuality education policy, abstinence has come to represent a specific and rigid political, ideological, and moral framework for thinking about adolescent sexuality and health. It could be up to applied developmental scientists to reclaim abstinence and reframe it as an important goal of programmatic efforts and provide young people with the information, skills, resources, and motivation they need to make healthy choices for themselves and their communities. ABSTINENCE-ONLY-UNTIL-MARRIAGE SEXUALITY EDUCATION Contemporary U.S. culture is wrought with confusion and conflict surrounding sexuality in general and is especially so as regards adolescent sexuality. Deeprooted tensions resound within communities about what constitutes appropriate and acceptable sexual behaviors and values for young people (Russell & Sigler-Andrews, 2003). Adolescents are given 1

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(Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2001). However, forthright discussion is increasingly prohibited by federal “abstinence-only-until-marriage” policies that forbid references to contraceptive use in sexuality education programs except in terms of failure rates (Dailard, 2002). This serves to perpetuate a harmful “selective silence” (Satcher, 2001) within communities that deters the use of contraceptives among sexually active teens and places them at greater risk for negative health outcomes (Dailard, 2002). DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH ON SEXUALITY The current “abstinence-only” guidelines maintain that programs must teach that abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage is the expected standard for all school-age children, that a mutually faithful, monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity, and that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects (U.S. Social Security Act, Sec. 510[b][2]). Developmentally, the guidelines are misguided for multiple reasons. First, recent research contrasts strongly with the claim that “sexual activity outside the context of marriage” results in psychological and physical damage. Instead, research demonstrates that healthy sexual expression during adolescence has a number of positive health outcomes for young people, including reduced stress and loneliness and improved academic satisfaction (Moore & Leung, 2002). Second, the reality is that many, if not most, contemporary adolescents are not abstinent until marriage (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2001). Third, the notion that a “mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity” reflects only one of many value orientations regarding sexuality in the United States. Finally, “abstinence-only” sexuality education policies are plainly out of sync with the demands of the majority of parents, teachers, and young people, who consistently report wanting more comprehensive sexuality information and education on topics such as safe sex, negotiation and communication skills, how to talk with a partner about birth control and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and what to do in the event of rape or sexual assault (Dailard, 2001). Another problem with the current policy is that federal “abstinence-only” guidelines never explicitly

address what is meant by “abstinence from sexual activity,” thereby drawing attention to the pervasive uncertainty that surrounds the use of these terms in the United States. Research continues to find widely diverging public opinions in the United States as to what constitutes sex and what is considered abstinence (Sanders & Reinisch, 1999). Inescapably, this widespread discrepancy raises questions as to the utility of such a vague concept as “abstinence” and highlights the challenge that young people and the adults that care about them face in mutually identifying shared values as to what comprises developmentally appropriate sexual expression in adolescence (Russell, 2003). In sum, federal sexuality education policies that mandate “abstinence from sexual activity” in adolescence are incongruous with the developmental reality that sexuality is a fundamental dimension of human and therefore adolescent life and that healthy adolescent sexual experiences are paramount to healthy adult development. When taken literally, such mandates contrast sharply with adolescents’ healthy experiences of sexuality and do not account for research supporting the positive health outcomes of these healthy sexual experiences (Moore & Leung, 2002). This incongruity with “abstinence from sexual activity” and healthy adolescent sexual development requires that the concept of abstinence be reconceptualized if it is to be useful and is important to young people and the adults that care about them. To this end, abstinence must be mutually defined and clearly understood by both youth and adults within a developmental and ecological context and, from a policy perspective, reapproached as a subsequent outcome of youth development programming rather than a guiding directive of U.S. sexuality education. RECLAIMING ABSTINENCE Abstinence has come to represent a moral imperative for some, while for others, it represents a developmentally inappropriate and condescending message to teens, one that suggests desires to control adolescents rather than engage them in critical thinking and decision making about their health and well-being. Despite the current political and ideological tensions surrounding federally sponsored abstinence policies and programs, abstinence is an important general public health concept. Rather than being focused specifically on sexuality, abstinence could become an

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important overall health approach, one that should be particularly relevant for understanding and promoting adolescent health. Such an approach will be relevant in middle childhood and preadolescence for helping young people abstain from risk, before most of them are faced with the many difficult choices that pertain to health risk in adolescence (Kirby & Coyle, 1997). The message of abstinence is a critical one for young people if used in developmentally appropriate ways. Adolescence is defined by exploration and experimentation of adult roles and responsibilities. The developmental reality is that many of these explorations include areas of potential risk, including sexual expression and, for example, the use of alcohol and tobacco. An emphasis on abstinence can help preadolescents develop the skills to critically analyze the choices that they will be faced with as teens. If approached in this way, preadolescents could learn about how to make healthy choices about the behaviors that will ultimately be expected of them when they become adults, such as sexual behavior and the use of controlled substances. In addition, such an approach could help young people not only to develop healthy attitudes about these adult behaviors but also to distinguish between them and the behaviors that are inherently risky, such as unsafe sexual activity, substance abuse, or even reckless driving. One could argue for a holistic abstinence approach to adolescent health and development that focuses on assisting youth in their development of the knowledge, motivations, and skills to make healthy choices across multiple dimensions in their lives. Such an approach would emphasize the distinctions between socially sanctioned adult behaviors and those behaviors that are inherently dangerous. It would be guided by a focus on critical thinking that would provide the foundation for decision-making skills and for the critical analysis of peer pressures and cultural (e.g., media) representations of adolescence, including representations of sexuality and substance use among teens. With such skills and with guidance from adults, young people would be able to define their own values and goals regarding health choices. Such an approach could be initiated in middle childhood and preadolescence and reinforced throughout the adolescent and adult years. CONCLUSIONS From an applied developmental science perspective, society sells young people short by telling them that

what it wants for them is simply the absence of sex, drugs, and alcohol. A variety of approaches exist that aim to promote healthy and responsible sexual behavior in adolescence, and it is a developmental truism that not all approaches are appropriate for all young people. Research consistently indicates that sexuality and STD/HIV education programs that provide adolescents with information about abstinence in addition to comprehensive information about condom use and contraception have been found to postpone sexual intercourse, reduce the frequency of sex and number of sexual partners, and increase the use of condoms and contraceptives by adolescents who are sexually active (Kirby, 2001). Thus, to be relevant and effective as a holistic youth health approach, abstinence programs in the adolescent years must include attention to the knowledge and skills young people need to make healthy choices, including knowledge about contraception and discussions of what it means to be sexually healthy. —Stephen T. Russell and Michael S. Brockman

See also ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY; SEXUALITY, ADOLESCENTS’ DEVELOPMENT OF

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Alan Guttmacher Institute. (2001). Teenage sexual and reproductive behavior in developed countries: Can more progress be made? New York: Author. Available at http://www. agi-usa.org/pubs/euroteen_or.html Dailard, C. (2001). Sex education: Politicians, parents, teachers, and teens. The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 4(1), 9–12. Available at http://www.agi-usa.org/ pubs/journals/gr040109.html Dailard, C. (2002). Abstinence promotion and teen family planning: The misguided drive for equal funding. The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 5(1), 1–3. Available at http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/gr050101.html Kirby, D. (2001). Emerging answers: Research findings on programs to reduce teen pregnancy (Summary). Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Kirby, D., & Coyle, K. (1997). School-based programs to reduce sexual risk-taking behavior [Electronic version]. Children & Youth Services Review, 19(5–6), 415–436. Moore, S., & Leung, C. (2002). Young people’s romantic attachment styles and their associations with well-being [Electronic version]. Journal of Adolescence, 25(2), 243–255. Moran, J. P. (2000). Teaching sex: The shaping of adolescence in the 20th century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Russell, S. T. (2003). Adolescent sexuality: Healthy development and empowerment. Paper presented at the Critical

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Issues in American Sexuality, National Sexuality Resource Center Conference. Russell, S. T., & Sigler-Andrews, N. (2003). Adolescent sexuality and positive youth development. In D. Perkins, L. Borden, J. Keith, & F. A. Villarruel (Eds.), Community youth development: Programs, policies, and practices (pp. 146–161). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sanders, S. A., & Reinisch, J. M. (1999). Would you say you “had sex” if . . . ? [Electronic version]. Journal of the American Medical Association, 281(3), 275. Satcher, D. (2001). The surgeon general’s call to action to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior. American Journal of Health Education, 32(6), 356–368. Sears, J. T. (1992). Dilemmas and possibilities of sexuality education. In J. T. Sears (Ed.), Sexuality and the curriculum: The politics and practices of sexuality education (pp. 7–33). New York: Teachers College Press.

ACCULTURATION Acculturation refers to the psychological and cultural changes that are caused by continuous contact between people of different cultures. A culture comprises the norms, values, beliefs, information, and skills that people in a society share, and these are manifest in the visible behaviors, physical implements, and social systems that the society expresses. Thus, different nations and ethnic groups have different languages, laws, religions, gender roles, manners, foods, clothes, architecture, and so on. We are unaware of most aspects of our cultures until they are seen in contrast with other cultures. We think of ourselves as acting “naturally” and other people as acting “differently,” because of their cultures. A culture must have some adaptive utility to help a group of people survive and to transmit their way of life to future generations. However, all cultures have some maladaptive aspects due to cultural inertia in the face of changing natural and human environments. CULTURAL LEARNING Cultural learning is based on imitation, especially during childhood socialization, as well as on overt instructions and institutionalized schooling. Cultural learning is a lifelong process, because cultural norms define and regulate social roles and social situations and these are being newly encountered as we progress from one age category to another or move from one setting, job, or social position to another. Thus, we

continually learn from our cultures, for example, the information, skills, and attitudes to be students, teenagers, clerks, wedding guests, parents, tourists, homeowners, professors, retirees, sports fans, cancer patients, grandparents, widows, and so on. Furthermore, cultures are dynamic, and people must learn to adjust to changing norms, laws, and technologies. For example, old cultural norms such as burning trash in the backyard or phoning via telephone operators are giving way to new norms of recycling trash and phoning via text messaging. People are individually different in their abilities and their resources to learn their cultures and different in their attitudes toward their cultures’ norms and expectations. No individuals encounter, comprehend, like, or practice the entirety of their cultures. Cultural learning may also happen when people encounter a foreign culture, depending on the individuals’ abilities and on the norms of their groups. Usually, such acculturation entails the adoption of new cultural practices, for example, Americans learning to eat Japanese sushi, but it can also refer to the blending of cultures, for example, putting avocado into the sushi and calling it a “California Roll.” Thus, cultures change and evolve by acculturative processes, such that “California Roll” is now available in sushi bars in Japan. Many aspects of mainstream U.S. society are the products of acculturation: for example, peanut butter, bagels, pizza, tacos, tobacco, coffee, wine, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, yoga, lacrosse, hockey, skiing, Boy Scouts, Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas trees, Easter eggs, and the World Wide Web. However, acculturation can also entail reactions against the new culture: for example, disliking foreign foods or feeling that foreign ways are dirty, immoral, or inferior. The range of acculturative reactions includes racism, interethnic war, and genocide. HISTORY OF ACCULTURATION Acculturation is a universal human experience, as shown by archaeological evidence of prehistoric cultural diffusion. Plato was probably the first to write about acculturation: The intercourse of cities with one another is apt to create a confusion of manners; strangers are always suggesting novelties to strangers. When states are well governed by good laws, the mixture causes the greatest possible injury; but seeing that most cities are the reverse of

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well-ordered, the confusion which arises in them from the reception of strangers, and from the citizens themselves rushing off into other cities, when any one either young or old desires to travel anywhere abroad at whatever time, is of no consequence. On the other hand, the refusal of states to receive others, and for their own citizens never to go to other places, is an utter impossibility, and to the rest of the world is likely to appear ruthless and uncivilized; it is a practise adopted by people who use harsh words, such as xenelasia or banishment of strangers, and who have harsh and morose ways. (Plato, Laws XII, 384 B.C.E., 1969, pp. 338–339) Plato observed that acculturative learning is greatest for the young and for lone individuals, and he therefore recommended that acculturation be minimized by permitting people to travel abroad only after age 40 and only in company with fellow citizens. Foreign visitors, he argued, should be kept outside the city walls, restricted to the port district, in order to minimize acculturative contamination of the society. The United States has been a focus of acculturation theory because it is an expansive continental nation, first populated by a variety of American Indian societies, invaded by settlers from European societies who kidnapped slave laborers from several African societies, and eventually reached by immigrants from many parts of the world. De Tocqueville (1835/1945) described acculturation as the assimilation of these cultures to one another: If this tendency to assimilation brings foreign nations closer to each other, it must a fortiori prevent the descendants of the same people from becoming aliens to each other. The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty millions of men will be living in North America, equal in condition, the progeny of one race, owing their origin to the same cause, and preserving the same civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the same manners, and imbued with the same opinions, propagated under the same forms. The rest is uncertain, but this is certain; and it is a fact new to the world—a fact fraught with such portentous consequences as to baffle the efforts even of the imagination. (p. 452)

FIRST USE OF “ACCULTURATION” This focus on acculturation in America has extended to include the other continental Anglo-Saxon settler societies of Canada and Australia, such that acculturation research has been narrowed to theories and studies of how relatively powerless immigrants and ethnic minorities, including aboriginal peoples, adjust to the dominant, majority culture, with little consideration now of how the majority learns from the minorities. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word acculturation was first used by J. W. Powell in 1880 to describe changes in American Indian languages as a result of their contact with European settlers; and in 1883, he defined acculturation as the psychological changes that follow from cross-cultural imitation. In 1904, G. Stanley Hall theorized that acculturation and socialization were similar learning processes, noting that Harvard University was founded in 1636 to provide Christian Anglo-Saxon education for American Indians and adolescent colonial settlers. The first full psychological theory of acculturation was proposed by Thomas and Znaniecki, in their 1918 account, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. They argued that culture comprises the cognitive schemata and habits that are learned and useful in a stable, traditional society. Acculturation occurs when people enter the modern, urban, commercial world characterized by efficiency, individualism, and rapidly changing relationships and norms. Three types of acculturative personalities are defined by the two basic biological motivations of fear and curiosity. The Philistine personality is high in fear, low in curiosity, and clings to traditional schemata and habits, but at the cost of maladaptation in the modern society. The Bohemian personality is low in fear and high in curiosity, and thus easily changes to fit the flux of the modern world, but at the cost of personality disintegration and social dissociation. The creative personality is moderate in both fear and curiosity, and therefore maintains the schemata and habits of a stable personality while making controlled adjustments in order to maximize social opportunities.

ACCULTURATIVE STRESS During the course of the 20th century, more than 100 acculturation theories like this have been developed, arguing that minorities can assert their traditional cultures, abandon them to join the dominant culture, or develop some form of biculturalism. A diminished,

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maladaptive biculturalism has been called “marginality” or “deculturation,” and successful, adaptive biculturalism has been called “double loyalty,” “democratic acculturation,” “interactionism,” or “integration.” The four most prominent social psychologists advocating this kind of paradigm have been Kurt Lewin and Emory Bogardus in the United States, Ronald Taft in Australia, and most recently, John Berry in Canada. Plato, Thomas and Znaniecki, and many others have argued that acculturation can cause social and psychological distress. If acculturation entails conflicting cultural norms, such as gender equality and patriarchy, or entails contradictory demands, such as assimilating to a racist society, that can cause, according to Bartlett (1923/1970, pp. 148–152), “compromise formations,” “pathological developments of social life,” “violent social reversions,” and, according to Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits (1936, p. 152), “psychic conflict.” Ausubel (1960, p. 617) introduced the expression “acculturative stress,” and Born (1970) theorized that there are four adaptive modes for coping with acculturative stress: innovation, retreatism, reconciliation, and withdrawal, which are now called “assimilation,” “separation,” “integration,” and “marginalization,” respectively (Berry, 1997). The predominant and continuing focus of psychological research on acculturation has been to try to measure the relative successfulness of these four modes of acculturation in reducing stress. —Floyd W. Rudmin

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ausubel, D. P. (1960). Acculturative stress in modern Maori adolescence. Child Development, 31, 617–631. Bartlett, F. C. (1970). Psychology and primitive culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood. (Original work published 1923) Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46, 5–34. Bogardus, E. W. (1949). Cultural pluralism and acculturation. Sociology and Social Research, 34, 125–129. Born, D. O. (1970). Psychological adaptation and development under acculturative stress. Social Science and Medicine, 3, 529–547. Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence (Vol. 2). New York: Appleton. Lewin, K. (1948). Resolving social conflicts. New York: Harper & Row. Plato. (1969). Laws XII (A. E. Taylor, Trans.). In E. Hamilton and H. Cairns (Eds.), The collected dialogues of Plato (pp. 1488–1513). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Powell, J. W. (1883). Human evolution. Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, 2, 176–208. Redfield, R., Linton, R., & Herskovits, M. (1936). Memorandum on the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist, 38, 149–152. Taft, R. (1953). The shared frame of reference concept applied to the assimilation of immigrants. Human Relations, 6, 54–55. Thomas, W. I., & Znaniecki, F. (1918). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. de Tocqueville, A. (1945). In P. Bradley (Ed.), Democracy in America (Vol. 1). New York: Vintage. (Original work published 1835)

ACCULTURATION STRESS Acculturation stress, or stress incurred during the process of adjustment and adaptation to a new cultural milieu, is linked to numerous factors, reflecting the multidimensional and dynamic nature of acculturation. New immigrants often experience acculturation stress when they encounter adaptation demands associated with the acquisition of new cultural behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. Acculturation stress is especially likely when the new cultural behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes are incongruent or incompatible with those from one’s culture of origin—a situation popularly referred to as a “culture conflict.” Adaptation demands can likewise be seen during the transformation, maintenance, or loss of behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes from one’s culture of origin. Acculturation stress occurs when such demands exceed individuals’ abilities and resources, thus preventing individuals from achieving their adaptation goals and expectations.

THE STUDY OF ACCULTURATION STRESS Past studies have measured acculturation stress using a number of psychological indices, namely, selfreport measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms. The actual circumstances that contribute to acculturation stress are often inferred or indirectly assessed using various proxy variables (e.g., language proficiency and preferences, years spent in a host country, and generational status) that are then analyzed in relation to psychological indices of stress. In general, past research indicates that low levels of acculturation (e.g., poor English proficiency, being a new or

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first-generation immigrant) place individuals at greater risk for acculturation stress (Marin, Balls Organista, & Chun, 2003). Research also suggests that acculturation stress can also occur at a family level. In this case, varying levels of acculturation may be witnessed across family members, increasing the likelihood for parent-child and marital discord (Sue & Sue, 2003). Still, empirical studies indicate that certain individual traits (e.g., “hardiness,” being a younger versus an older adult), abilities, and skills (e.g., being biculturally competent, having a high level of formal education); adaptation strategies or “acculturation modes” (e.g., integration versus marginalization); goals and motives (e.g., being “pulled” toward a host country by greater economic and educational opportunities versus being “pushed” out of one’s country of origin due to civil and economic strife); along with the availability of certain resources (e.g., financial resources, social support networks) may serve as protective factors against acculturation stress (Chun, Balls Organista, & Marin, 2003). GROUP DIFFERENCES The experience of acculturation stress and its associated risk and protective factors can vary across ethnic groups, largely due to differences in sociocultural and historical experiences. In addition, acculturation stress is influenced by the environmental context in which acculturation processes transpire. New immigrants who resettle in communities that comprise people from their own ethnic groups (e.g., in an ethnic enclave) or in communities that promote multiculturalism and pluralism are less likely to experience acculturation stress (Berry & Sam, 1997). The negative effects of acculturation stress on health and psychosocial functioning are often compounded by discrimination and prejudice. However, acculturation stress and discrimination and prejudice can represent distinct processes that have independent effects on health and psychosocial functioning. CONCLUSIONS Researchers have called for new conceptual and methodological approaches to studying acculturation and acculturation stress. This includes developing new conceptual models that address the multidimensional and dynamic nature of acculturation and acculturation stress, focusing on contextual factors that

influence adaptation and adjustment, and formulating culturally appropriate coping strategies for new immigrants who experience acculturation stress. —Kevin Chun

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Berry, J. W., & Sam, D. (1997). Acculturation and adaptation. In J. W. Berry, M. H. Segall, & I. Kagitçibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Vol. 3. Social behavior and applications (pp. 291–326). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Chun, K. M., Balls Organista, P., & Marin, G. (Eds.). (2003). Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Marin, G., Balls Organista, P., & Chun, K. M. (2003). Acculturation research: Current issues and findings. In G. Bernal, J. E. Trimble, A. K. Burlew, & F. T. L. Leong (Eds.), Handbook of racial and ethnic minority psychology (pp. 208–219). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS, GENDER AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES In the United States, males outperform females in overall mathematics achievement and outnumber females in lucrative, prestigious math-related careers, although the degree of difference has narrowed during recent decades. There are also large and persistent ethnic gaps in mathematics achievement and participation. Just as males outperform females, Whites and Asian/Pacific Islanders outperform underrepresented minorities (i.e., African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians) (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2003; College Board, 2002). Researchers have found few gender and ethnic differences in math attitudes and achievement during early childhood. At Grades 4, 8, and 12, however, underrepresented minorities scored substantially lower than Whites and Asians on the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment. At each grade level, underrepresented minorities were more likely than Whites to

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score below basic proficiency level in mathematics and less likely than Asians to agree with the statement, “I am good at mathematics.” Likewise, at Grades 4, 8, and 12, girls reported liking math less and were less confident of their math abilities compared with boys (NSF, 2003). While there are no significant gender differences in performance on tests of basic math knowledge, on higher-level tasks related to mathematical concepts and problem solving, males outperform females (Wellesley College Center for Research on Women and American Association of University Women [AAUW], 1992). In addition, gender and ethnic achievement gaps exist on the high-stakes Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which influences college admissions and scholarship decisions. In 2002, the average quantitative SAT score was 516; males, Whites, and Asian Americans scored higher than average, while females and underrepresented minorities scored lower (College Board, 2002). There are also pronounced gender and ethnic gaps in math course enrollment. Thus, in 2002, 42% of Asian Americans, compared with 26% of Whites, 18% of Mexican Americans, and 14% of African Americans and Puerto Ricans, took calculus during high school (College Board, 2002). Furthermore, among those who earn bachelor’s degrees, a lower proportion of underrepresented minorities and women, compared with Whites, Asians, and men, major in math- and science-related fields. For example, though the gender gap in math course enrollment in high school has narrowed, and women earned 74.4% of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in psychology in 1998, they earned only 18.6% of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering and 26.9% awarded in computer sciences. Approximately one third of the bachelor’s degrees earned by underrepresented minorities in 1998 were in math and science fields, compared with roughly half of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Asians (NSF, 2003). Some researchers theorize that genetic factors lead to the gender and ethnic gaps in mathematical achievement and participation, while others focus on environmental factors and learner attitudes. Researchers who argue that the gender gap results from innate differences often point to gender differences in brain organization and sex-related differences in spatial abilities, which originate during middle childhood and have been linked to performance on mathematics tests (Geary, Saults, & Lui, 2000). Investigators citing environmental variables as

explanatory suggest that influential adults, such as parents and teachers, may reinforce traditional stereotypes, beliefs, and expectations that hold boys as superior or underrepresented minorities as inferior in mathematical ability. Such beliefs may undermine female and minority students’ math confidence and their motivation to learn mathematics, and limit their opportunities to engage in math-related activities. Research has shown that parents often distort their perceptions of their own children in gender role stereotypic activities such as mathematics and sports. Thus, parents may perceive more ability in their sons and less in their daughters. In addition, parents’ perceptual biases may influence children’s activity choices and their self-perceptions (Eccles & Jacobs, 1986). Teachers’ differential feedback patterns and instruction may also influence differences in mathematics achievement and performance. A number of studies have revealed that teachers’ responses to girls compared with boys may serve to reward boys more and attend to girls less, and that their expectations clearly reinforce expectations of male ability in mathematics (AAUW, 1992). Similarly, research has found that teachers also hold stereotypic views of children from ethnic minority groups. Their views also shape the responses of these children in the classroom and influence the children’s expectations for themselves (AAUW, 1992). Some studies suggest that these negative stereotypes about the mathematics ability of female and underrepresented minority students act as a threat, disrupting the targeted students’ math achievement by interfering with their performance on mental tasks and, over time, by prompting them to protect their self-esteem by disengaging from math altogether (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). Students’ own attitudes can influence differences in mathematics performance. Girls are more likely than boys to attribute their mathematics success to luck and attribute failure to lack of ability, while boys are more likely than girls to attribute their mathematics success to ability (AAUW, 1992). By high school, students view mathematics as a male domain. There is some evidence that student perception of mathematics as a male domain is related to mathematics achievement and future course selection; however, the findings are inconsistent. The findings of various researchers suggest that neither biological explanations nor environmental factors alone are sufficient to explain the continuing gaps. Instead, models that explain the interplay between

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genetics and environmental factors are most useful. Thus, male advantage in some areas of mathematics (e.g., spatial ability) may stem from, or be reinforced by, gender differences in other areas, such as early play activities and exposure to scientific principles. Focusing only on the genetic causes of sex or ethnic group differences risks neglecting within-group variation and person-situation factors that can help to understand why many girls and ethnic minorities succeed in mathematics despite lowered societal expectations. Adopting an exclusively biological perspective also minimizes the role that training may have in improving abilities of all students, that is, those who appear to have “natural” talent, as well as those who do not. —Julie Stubbs and Pamela Trotman Reid

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS College Board. (2002). 10-Year trend in SAT scores indicates increased emphasis on math is yielding results; reading and writing are causes for concern. Available at www .collegeboard.com Eccles, J. S., & Jacobs, J. E. (1986). Social forces shape math attitudes and performance. Signs, 11(2), 367–380. Geary, D. C., Saults, S. J., & Lui, F. (2000). Sex differences in spatial cognition, computational fluency, and arithmetical reasoning [Special Issue]. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology: Sex and Gender Development, 77(4), 337–353. National Science Foundation. (2003). Women, minorities and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. Arlington, VA: Author. Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 379–440). San Diego: Academic Press. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women and American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. (1992). How schools shortchange girls: The AAUW report: A study of major findings on girls in education. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, National Education Association.

ADAPTATION This entry on adaptation is being included in this volume because of the growing popularity of evolutionary psychology and its adoption, misuse,

and misunderstanding of some biological concepts (de Jong & van der Steen, 1998). Psychology can embrace evolution, but not in the manner in which evolutionary psychology does. The concept of adaptation has its origins in Darwinian thinking as a major mechanism of natural selection. In Darwinism, organisms reproduce in large numbers. That results in variability among traits, and from that variability, nature selects traits that endow a species with some measure of survival or of fitness; such traits are said to be adaptive. Before Darwin, adaptations were explained in terms of organisms having been “designed by God” to fit the demands of their environments. Of course, Darwin was not the first to discuss evolution. Lamarck, among others, preceded him, but Lamarckian theory accounted for adaptations acquired during an organism’s lifetime and subsequently passed on to future generations. We have long realized this approach to evolution to be mistaken, at least with respect to biological processes; it does have an important role to play in cultural evolution, reflected best in the collections of museums and libraries. Described in evolutionary biology terms, adaptation involves variations in function and structure resulting from genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, and natural selection acting on those variations as an adjustment toward relative environmental fitness. Evolutionary psychology, a recently developed and increasingly popular approach in psychology, posits that all human behavioral traits are adaptations, the result of adapting to life on the African plains during the Pleistocene period some 5 million years ago. Key to the evolutionary psychologists’ understanding of the evolutionary origins of human nature is that humans as a species evolved in a particular time and in a particular location, namely, the African savannah during the Pleistocene period. The evolutionary pressures of this time and place, what evolutionary psychologists call our “environment of evolutionary adaptedness” (EEA), resulted in our unique behavioral adaptations (Cosmides & Tooby, 1997). While for Homo sapiens, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness is considered to be the plains of the Serengeti several million years ago, the EEA is more generally defined as “not a place or time. It is the statistical composite of selection pressures that caused the design of an adaptation” (Cosmides & Tooby, 1997, p. 13). (Of course, it is still a matter of speculation regarding the actual nature of the environment at that time.)

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Chief among the adaptations Homo developed at that time are cognitive brain modules that comprise the human mind, endowing humans with a cognitive architecture—in other words, a brain organization—which predisposes us to interpret, understand, and interact with our world in a particularly human way. Evolutionary psychologists argue that this human cognitive architecture results in species-typical instinctive, cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral patterns, that is, a unique human nature. However, many investigators feel that evolutionary psychology has gone too far in its epistemological agenda as it attempts to uncover the brain mechanisms that constitute human nature. Indeed, there is no convincing evidence in support of the existence of these cognitive modules in the human neocortex or even a hint of how many there might be. Kaplan and Rogers (2003) offer the following assessment: Even if modular processing occurs, at least at some levels of cognition, and there are localized regions of the brain designated to a discrete function, there is absolutely no reason this organization should be genetically caused rather than being the result of experience or a variety of learning processes. (p. 68) As understood by evolutionary psychologists, adaptation is an active process that engineers biological solutions to ecological problems. It implies that ecological selection pressures are the primary cause of adaptations—in other words, adaptations are the result of current demands placed on the organism by the environment. And finally, the role of the EEA in designing human nature is based on a pan-selectionist foundation that all traits must be adaptive and that traits are fixed responses to a unique environment. However, evolutionary biologists, comparative psychologists, and developmental psychobiologists have demonstrated that adaptation and its relationship to both biology and behavior are quite at odds with the way adaptation is used in evolutionary psychology. Indeed, all three assumptions regarding adaptation described above are invariably wrong. Perhaps most fundamentally, selection is not an active process causing adaptations. Selection is a passive process—a complete and total stroke of luck, as it were. Selection cannot cause adaptations in the way we commonly understand the notion of a cause, in that selection does not bring about an adaptation. A trait is

adaptive insofar as organisms that have this trait have an increased likelihood of living long enough to reproduce. Among our objections to evolutionary psychology is its adherence to strong adaptationist and genetic determinism programs in which evolutionary change is understood to be the result of natural selection exclusively (see for example, Lickliter & Honeycutt, 2003). One of the most important Darwin scholars, Stephen J. Gould (1997), has pointed out that even Darwin suggested that other mechanisms were at work in evolution. It is a mistake and a misunderstanding of Darwinism to suppose that there is anything approaching the consensus claimed by evolutionary psychologists. Rather, pluralism of mechanisms is the rule in the still-emerging paradigm of evolution. For example, we now understand evolution to involve punctuated equilibrium (i.e., rapid rather gradual change, genetic drift, mutation, and other processes, as well as natural selection). In fact, evolution does not always involve changes in the genome. It is now understood that not all genes of the human genome get expressed. Evolution can occur if different portions of the genome are expressed, the result, perhaps, of environmental impact. This would result in new phenotypes. Over the last decade, there has been a synthesis of knowledge from evolutionary biology, theoretical and mathematical biology, comparative psychology, developmental psychobiology, and genetics that has revolutionized the way in which we understand the concept of adaptation. The key features of our new understanding of adaptation and its relationship to biological and behavioral “traits” are development and complexity. Older, more traditional ideas regarding adaptation were based on several key assertions. These include the ideas (a) that adaptations are fixed solutions to ecological demands; (b) that adaptations were encoded in the organism, namely, in the genes, and were faithfully reproduced from generation to generation; (c) that adaptive traits could be considered as independent of one another; and (d) that all features of an organism had to confer an adaptive advantage and existed only because they resolved an ecological problem posed by the environment in which the species evolved. However, we now understand that organisms and species are better considered as dynamic, integrated complex systems continually acting upon and being acted upon by their unique ecological settings. This has led to a profound revision of these older, more traditional assertions about adaptation.

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CONCLUSIONS While hypotheses formulated by evolutionary psychology may seem to be reasonable and even supported by empirical observation, a careful consideration of the claims and evidence reveals otherwise. In many cases, the hypotheses, often stated as fact, have dangerous implications. Concerning adaptation, two examples demonstrate this rather clearly. It has recently been argued that rape in humans has a natural and adaptive function, a result of our Stone Age brains, a biological means by which males unsuccessful in gaining partners can nevertheless spread their genes. This simplistic and fallacious line of reasoning is critically reviewed by Stanford (2000) and by Kaplan and Rogers (2003). Indeed, Stanford points out that the rape argument is based not so much on empirical evidence as it is on analogy to insect behavior. Of course, as a construct attributed to human behavior, the idea that insects or any animals other than humans can rape is highly questionable. Similarly, child abuse and killing in human societies is sometimes linked with infanticide in other animals, a supposedly genetically controlled behavior the adaptive value of which is to preserve the genes of a dominant male. But infanticide by males among primates is rare, if it occurs at all, and widely discussed accounts of such behavior among lions seem based on spurious evidence (Daag, 1998). As Daag states, “Field data indicate that in NO instance do we know that male lions killed cubs in a new pride, mated with their mother[s], and then remained with the pride to protect their own young” (p. 940). As with all accounts of the adaptive nature of human behavior and the argument that if it occurs in nonhuman animals, it must be natural and therefore acceptable, such arguments represent not only poor, but dangerous science. The examples cited here are good illustrations of this. —Gary Greenberg, Victoria Mosack, and Ty Partridge

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1997). Evolutionary psychology: A primer. Available at http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/EP-primer_ contents.html Daag, A. (1998). Infanticide by male lions: A fallacy influencing research into human behavior. American Anthropologist, 100(4), 940–950.

de Jong, H. L., & van der Steen, W. J. (1998). Biological thinking in evolutionary psychology: Rockbottom or quicksand. Philosophical Psychology, 11, 183–205. Gould, S. J. (1997). Darwinian fundamentalism. New York Review of Books, 44(10), 34–37. Kaplan, G., & Rogers, L. J. (2003). Gene worship: Moving beyond the nature/nurture debate over genes, brain, and gender. New York: Other Press. Lickliter, R., & Honeycutt, H. (2003). Developmental dynamics: A biologically plausible evolutionary psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 819–835. Stanford, C. B. (2000). Darwinians look at rape, sex, and war. American Scientist, 88, 360–362.

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR This entry discusses historic and current definitions of adaptive behavior, the importance of understanding its contextual nature, and typical and current applied uses of adaptive behavior information. The prevailing belief that adaptive behavior can be best understood by examining reciprocal relationships between an individual and his or her environment is consistent with principles fundamental to applied developmental science. DEFINITION OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR The construct of adaptive behavior has a multifactor structure. Historically, it was thought to include qualities associated with personal independence (e.g., what people do to take care of themselves) and social responsibility (e.g., how people relate to and assist others) (American Association on Mental Retardation [AAMR], 1992, 2002; Grossman, 1983). In 1992, AAMR specified 10 skill areas that compose adaptive behavior in an effort to define and measure adaptive behavior more precisely: communication, community use, functional academics, home/school living, health and safety, leisure, self-care, self-direction, social behavior, and work. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition–Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) incorporates this definition within its diagnosis of mental retardation. AAMR’S THREE-FACTOR MODEL In 2002, AAMR identified three factors that constitute adaptive behavior: conceptual (i.e., communication,

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functional academics, self-direction, and health and safety skills), social (i.e., social skills and leisure skills), and practical (i.e., self-care, home-living, community use, health and safety, and work skills) qualities. A BROADER AND EMPIRICAL VIEW OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR Thus, the specific components thought to comprise adaptive behavior have changed. The nature of the factor structure for adaptive behavior and other constructs within the behavioral sciences depends on the degree to which the data used in the analyses are robust and whether subtest or item data are used. The following four domains are thought to constitute adaptive behavior, based on a synthesis of factor analytic data: motor and physical competence; independent living skills, daily-living skills, or practical intelligence; cognitive competence, communication, or conceptual intelligence; and social competence or social intelligence (Widaman & McGrew, 1996). CONTEXTUAL NATURE OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND SKILLS The belief that adaptive behavior is best understood within a contextual framework that characterizes individuals as active determiners of their own development and in selecting and re-creating their environments is fairly widespread (Greenspan, 1999). Thus, the nature of one’s environment can strongly affect both the development of and need for adaptive behavior and skills. Psychologists, social workers, and others who acquire adaptive behavior data generally interpret the suitability of a person’s adaptive behavior and skills in light of opportunities for their development and requirements for their use. TYPICAL AND CURRENT APPLIED USES OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR INFORMATION Adaptive behavior assessment is often required to meet international, national, and state statutes governing the identification, diagnosis, and classification of disabilities and disorders, such as those based on the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA); DSM-IV-TR; Social Security (Reschly, Myers, & Hartel, 2002) and

Medicaid requirements; and other regulations. Its use in assessing mental retardation has been long-standing. Its use in assessing developmental delays in young children and diminished activities of daily living among seniors is also somewhat common. In addition, its use with persons who exhibit various other disabilities, disorders, and health problems is becoming more apparent, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorders, autistic disorders, biological risk factors, dementias, emotional and behavioral disorders, language disorders, motor impairments, neuropsychological disorders, learning disabilities, and physical impairments (Harrison & Oakland, 2003). The importance of adaptive skills together with executive processes is gaining increased recognition in neuropsychological practice. The assessment of adaptive behavior and skills is thought to be essential when adaptive skill limitations are a concern and the goal of an intervention or treatment is to improve an individual’s daily adaptive functioning. Guidelines for program planning and monitoring include the following five steps (AAMR, 1992, 2002): Identify the skill levels needed in an individual’s current environment or the one into which the individual is moving. Identify current adaptive skill strengths and weaknesses related to environmental requirements. Identify and prioritize intervention objectives based on discrepancies between environmental needs and personal attainment. Implement interventions to achieve specific objectives. Monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the interventions.

CONCLUSIONS The concept of adaptive behavior is no longer restricted to those who display mental retardation. Improvements in tests, concepts of adaptive behavior, and recognition of the importance of acquiring and maintaining daily living skills have elevated and expanded the importance of adaptive behavior in assessment and intervention services. The prevailing belief that adaptive behavior can be best understood by examining reciprocal relationships between an individual and his or her environment is consistent with principles fundamental to applied developmental science. —Thomas Oakland

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Association on Mental Retardation. (1992). Mental retardation: Definition, classification, and systems of support (9th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. American Association on Mental Retardation. (2002). Mental retardation: Definition, classification, and systems of support (10th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed, text revision). Washington, DC: Author. Greenspan, R. L. (1999). A contextual perspective on adaptive behavior. In R. Schalock (Ed.), Adaptive behavior and its measurement: Implications for the field of mental retardation. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation. Grossman, H. J. (Ed.). (1983). Classification in mental retardation. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation. Harrison, P., & Oakland, T. (2003). Adaptive Behavior Assessment System–II. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1997, 20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq. (64 Fed. Reg., 1999). Reschly, D., Myers, T., & Hartel, C. (Eds.). (2002). Disability determination for mental retardation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Widaman, K. F., & McGrew, K. S. (1996). The structure of adaptive behavior. In J. W. Jacobson & J. A. Mulick (Eds.), Manual of diagnosis and professional practice in mental retardation (pp. 97–110). Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation.

ADOLESCENCE, CURRENT TRENDS AND RESEARCH ABOUT The scientific study of adolescent development has rapidly evolved in the past 100 years, since G. Stanley Hall’s publication on adolescence in 1904. From the quest for applying general theoretical frameworks and much atheoretical work, through the development of adolescent research as a scientific discipline with remarkable growth in both breadth and depth of study, the current study of adolescence is moving toward a growing awareness by researchers of the importance of conducting research that has significant implications for policy development and practitioners who work with adolescents (Steinberg & Lerner, 2004). Research efforts have moved from asking the question, “Why do adolescents have problems or take advantage of opportunities?” to asking, “Which

adolescents, and under which conditions, have problems or take advantage of opportunities?” Research teams investigating questions of importance to adolescent development are increasingly interdisciplinary in nature and focus on both normative and nonnormative development. Applied developmental research and theory on adolescence reflects a recognition of the importance of the context for individual development. Although theoretical work (e.g., ecological models, developmental contextualism) on the importance of context has been around for several decades, it is only in the past 10 years that statistical techniques, such as hierarchical linear modeling and dynamic systems modeling, have caught up with theoretical efforts for studying contextual influences in detail. This has led to an increase in research that investigates the relative impact of families, peers, neighborhoods, and communities on the development of adolescents. In line with this increasing attention for contextualization, adolescent researchers have continued to focus on studying multiple levels of functioning, including biological processes.

CONTEXTUALIZATION The contextualization of adolescent research has provided opportunities for answering processoriented questions about adolescent development. Rather than examining the impact of one context at a time, current research has moved toward questions regarding the impact of multiple contextual domains. An example of this interplay is the emerging research on family-peer linkages and their impact on adolescent individual development. Inherent to the particular role of the family during adolescence, researchers have investigated the role of family process during adolescence in detail. Frameworks such as the individuality-connectedness framework have replaced earlier beliefs that the importance of parents diminishes during adolescence. According to the individuality-connectedness framework, families who provide adolescents with opportunities to develop their own independent ideas while at the same time providing opportunities to maintain close family relationships generally have adolescents who are well-adjusted. Research findings have supported this framework in areas such as adolescent identity and moral development.

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ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS Despite the fact that many facets of adolescents’ social worlds have been studied in detail, not all contextual domains have received equal attention. It is only recently that there is an emerging interest in the role and function of adolescent romantic relationships. Earlier beliefs that these relationships are mostly transitory, and therefore not a meaningful entity for scientific study, have been negated (Collins, 2003). Applied developmental investigations on adolescent romantic relationships have been informed by the study of interpersonal relationships. Based on interpersonal relationships theory and research, Collins has proposed a five-feature framework for studying adolescent romantic relationships: involvement, partner selection, content, quality, and cognitive/ emotional processes. This framework will help adolescent research move from investigating the structure of romantic relationships toward studying romantic relationship processes.

MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS The increased attention to contextual influences on adolescent development has not resulted in a diminished interest in biological factors. A large body of research continues to focus on the role of puberty and pubertal timing. These studies are conducted from a biopsychosocial viewpoint in which physical/biological growth and human behavior are uniquely related. Ge, Conger, and Elder (2001) investigated the relation among pubertal timing, life stress, and adolescent behavior problems. They found that early maturing boys were more susceptible to life stress events than on-time or late-maturing boys. In other words, the relation between life stress and consequent adolescent behavior problems was partially dependent on pubertal timing. This research advances our thinking from studying the relationship between puberty and later behavior problems—toward studying the interplay between puberty and psychological factors and their relationship to later behavior problems. Recent research efforts have also focused on the integration of behavior genetics research with contextual approaches. Cleveland (2003), for example, studied the relation between neighborhood impact and genetic factors in the development of aggression. Using data from one of the largest representative studies on adolescence to date, the National Longitudinal

Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), Cleveland found that shared environmental processes (i.e., whether siblings had similar family influences) had a particularly strong effect on the development of aggression in adolescents from disadvantaged neighborhoods compared with those from “adequate” neighborhoods. Similar to the study by Ge et al. (2001), this study is a good example of research investigating the interplay between biological and social factors in the development of adolescent behavior problems. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS Despite the fact that the study of adolescents has become more contextualized, interdisciplinary, and applied, many questions remain unanswered or unaddressed. More specifically, research efforts are not focusing on studying developmental change or special populations. There is limited attention for heterogeneity in course and outcome, and most research findings are based on research with adolescents growing up in North America or Western Europe. As indicated by Steinberg and Morris (2001), the shift in adolescent research toward contextualization and the greater recognition of biological factors has come at the expense of research efforts investigating normative development. In other words, research efforts have become less developmental and are currently focusing more on age-related changes than on investigating behavioral change in light of developmental tasks during adolescence. Even though the study of problem behaviors is not dominating the study of adolescence today, the study of normative development has been limited to normative populations. It is important to also investigate normative development and strengths among populations that have faced early adversities or are faced with challenges throughout the life course. For example, research on Tourette’s syndrome and mental retardation has informed normative development, both at the biological and social levels. It is important that research endeavors are moved toward studying these special populations to understand (a) the unique place of strengths and positive development within these populations as well as (b) how the study of strengths and positive development informs our understanding of normative adolescent development. The majority of adolescent research is being pursued in North America and Western Europe. Our

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understanding of normative and atypical development during adolescence is therefore a reflection of the development of adolescents in those parts of the world. Cross-cultural investigations on the underlying processes of development as well as development itself represent only a small proportion of the adolescents in the world. In light of increasing globalization, it will be fruitful to focus research investigations on topics from a cross-cultural perspective. An example of such pursuit includes the study group from the Society for Research on Adolescence on “Adolescents in the 21st Century: An International Perspective.” Finally, the increasing recognition of the heterogeneity of the course of behavior has been primarily expressed in work on antisocial behavior and substance abuse during adolescence. This is surprising, because these research efforts on heterogeneity have moved both theory and research in the domains of antisocial behavior and substance abuse tremendously forward. In light of both theoretical and statistical innovations in studying developmental heterogeneity, there are opportunities for investigations in other areas of adolescent development, such as the study of strengths and adolescent well-being.

Ge, X., Conger, R. D., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (2001). The relation between puberty and psychological distress in adolescent boys. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11(1), 49–70. Steinberg, L., & Lerner, R. M. (2004). The scientific study of adolescence: A brief history. Journal of Early Adolescence, 24(1), 45–54. Steinberg, L., & Morris, A. S. (2001). Adolescent development. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 83–110.

ADOLESCENCE AND THRIVING This entry describes the construct of thriving as an important and heretofore largely overlooked element in understanding positive adolescent development; posits several key conceptual and operational issues involved with the study of thriving; and describes initial results using one taxonomy of thriving, as well as the progress of a major new collaborative initiative designed to deepen knowledge of thriving and develop and broadly apply new thriving-measurement tools. The entry ends with suggestions for needed research in this area of adolescent development. THE NEGLECT OF THRIVING

CONCLUSIONS In summary, the study of adolescence has moved from a search for general principles and general theoretical frameworks toward an interdisciplinary study that puts much emphasis on informing policy and practice that enhances the lives of youth today, and it reflects a recognition of diversity of pathways and outcomes. The challenge during the next decades will be to keep this attention for diversification and practicebased research while at the same time continuing to seek scientific efforts that help us understand basic developmental issues in diverse populations. —Manfred H. M. van Dulmen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Cleveland, H. H. (2003). Disadvantaged neighborhoods and adolescent aggression: Behavioral genetic evidence of contextual effects. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13(2), 211–238. Collins, W. A. (2003). More than myth: Developmental significance of romantic relationships during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13(1), 1–24.

The focus of most research on adolescence has for decades largely been to name problems or risk factors in young people’s lives and attempt to identify methods for minimizing them (Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998; Furstenburg, 2000). Indeed, a sweeping review of the early childhood literature concluded that there is much more known about deprivation than enrichment even in the early years of life. There is more focus on developmental dangers than on developmental opportunities and more attention paid to obstacles to well-being than to well-being itself (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000). Of course, a considerable amount of research also has been conducted over the last decade on individual, family, peer, and community factors that protect young people from risk. But for the most part, the work on protective factors such as a positive family life, responsible peer affiliations, and “conventional” values has as its fundamental purpose the unlocking of secrets to reducing the incidence of high-risk behaviors such as alcohol and other drug use. Even the vast amount of research that has been done on resilience can be viewed as being largely about how people attain adequate functioning in the face of serious

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developmental threats, not how they overcome those challenges to thrive, that is, to enjoy optimal development. The orientation of both the public and researchers toward young people is predominantly about naming and reducing negative behavior, or at best, how to promote merely adequate functioning or “getting by” among young people—not how to promote their developmental best. Documenting the prevalence of risk behaviors among youth is necessary but insufficient in working toward a healthy community. A complementary approach to the catalog of risk behaviors is the study of thriving among adolescents. CONTEXTUAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE STUDY OF THRIVING Contemporary developmental theorists observe that promoting adolescent thriving entails understanding how positive bidirectional change occurs and may be promoted in the relation of persons to their contexts. The study of thriving may then best be thought of as understanding how young people become committed and able over time to contribute to “healthy family life and democratic community institutions while, at the same time, improving oneself in a manner that enables one’s individual actions to be successful” (Lerner, Brentano, Dowling, & Anderson, 2002, p. 15). Lerner (2004) further argues that young people who are thriving develop an “orientation to transcend self-interest and place value on, and commitments to, actions supportive of a social system promoting equity, democracy, social justice, and personal freedoms” (chap. 5, p. 24). In this way, the relations between individual and context (community/ society) as they change in mutually beneficial, healthy ways over time constitute the process of thriving. Public and scientific consensus has been more difficult to achieve on what constitutes adolescent “thriving” than it has been to agree about the constellation of risk behaviors that it is desirable to reduce in adolescence. Undoubtedly, part of the reason there is a deep and rich literature on risk and a relatively thin literature on thriving is that the latter is more rooted in moral worldviews and more culturally contextualized than are ideas about risk. For example, youth involvement in violence or cigarette smoking is plainly harmful to them and can kill them. These effects are appreciable regardless of one’s cultural background or

moral orientation. But showing leadership ability or being individually successful in other ways may not be so highly valued within a culture or moral orientation that values self-effacement and group harmony more highly. Similarly, thriving may describe more domains that extend beyond individual well-being than do risk behaviors. For example, there may be certain competencies required among a critical mass of citizens to ensure the vibrancy of a democratic, multicultural society. Young people who are thriving may not simply be doing well as individuals but may also be connected and contributing in meaningful ways to the common good that is realized through the groups, neighborhoods, communities, and societies to which they belong. But is there a clear public consensus on just what is the “common” good? Thus, any taxonomy of thriving dimensions necessarily reflects a particular moral and cultural framework that is likely to have less universality than competing taxonomies of risk. On the other hand, there may also be a core set of thriving dimensions that are relatively universal (e.g., the importance of being a caring person), but the indicators of such dimensions could vary widely by culture. For example, how an adolescent shows caring may be quite different for a Hmong youth in an inner city and an African American in the rural South. THRIVING AS OUTCOME AND PROCESS While risk behaviors are generally seen as end states or outcomes, thriving is a less readily grasped universe because it may also be seen as both outcome and process. Onetime measures of thriving domains may accurately reflect young people’s positive developmental status but may say little about their likely developmental trajectories. But thriving may also be understood as a developmental process of recursive cause-and-effect engagement with one’s ecology over time that repeatedly results in optimal outcomes as viewed at any one point in time. Thriving in this sense is developmental in two ways. First, it reflects processes that are unique to or more pronounced in particular stages of development, such as the successful navigation of rapidly expanding peer relationships in middle childhood. Another example would be the significant cognitive maturation in early adolescence, which can radically affect, for

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better or worse, young people’s construction of supportive social environments. But, second, thriving is developmental in the sense of describing a path or journey young people are on, even more than a developmental location at which they happen to be at any moment. How young people are doing today is not unimportant, of course, but perhaps equally or even more important is, what is the path on which they are headed? Are they headed to hopeful futures, irrespective of their present conditions? If so, then perhaps we can accurately say they are thriving persons. Thriving may certainly be thought of as implying that a young person is doing well in some or many areas of life, but it may also suggest demonstrable positive growth in a domain. This may be measured either by comparison to others or by comparison to where one was before on that “outcome.” Without this criterion as a form of one’s “personal best,” the concept of thriving becomes elitist. Instead, with the dual notion of thriving signifying demonstrable excellence or substantive positive growth, everyone is capable of thriving. But if this conceptual allowance is made for thriving as process in addition to thriving as outcomes or end states, then agreement on how to describe thriving will necessarily be more elusive. Then too, operationalizing good measures of thriving will be necessarily more complex, including longitudinal designs that might not always be practical or feasible. Finally, if process- and person-context relations are important elements in the concept of thriving, then two other implications arise. First, a thriving young person’s life may not always appear positive. Strength and wisdom, among many other positive qualities, are often born of adversity and struggle. Onetime observations may lead to the conclusion that a young person is not “doing well” in a given domain, but they cannot as readily convey what positives may emerge from the negative experiences of the moment. Most great moral exemplars, for instance, have endured discrimination and persecution. In addition, if person-context relations are crucial in understanding thriving, then one might ask, is it possible for a young person to be considered thriving if he or she engages in socially or morally unacceptable behavior? Is a young person in a crime-ridden neighborhood who helps take care of his family financially “thriving” if he acquires his money through drug dealing or gang violence? Or is he just crafty, skilled in survival, and street-smart?

PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENT THRIVING All these questions and issues permeate the research agenda on thriving in adolescence, and a new effort, the Thriving Indicator Project (or TIP, described below), has been launched to take them into account in conducting a new line of inquiry on thriving. In previous research, however, Search Institute has studied seven possible domains of thriving among adolescents: school success (defined as getting mostly As), helping others, valuing diversity, exhibiting leadership, overcoming adversity, maintaining physical health, and delaying gratification (Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000). They collectively appear to satisfy what Takanishi, Mortimer, and McGourthy (1997) defined as their “primary” criterion for indicators of positive adolescent development: The attainment of social competency for adult roles and responsibilities. That broad criterion includes being an educated and productive worker, a person who enjoys a healthy lifestyle, a caring family member, and an involved citizen in a diverse society. Self-report results from an aggregate sample of more than 217,000 6th to 12th graders across the United States suggest that adolescents’ experience of thriving varies by domain. School success is the least common (22% agree or strongly agree they get mostly As), and helping friends and neighbors one or more hours per week is the most common (82% agree or strongly agree they do). The other thriving dimensions fall in between: 71% say they overcome adversity; 69% say that they have been a leader of a group or organization in the last 12 months; 63% say that it’s important to them to get to know people from different racial/ethnic groups; 55% say that they pay attention to healthy nutrition and exercise; and 46% say that they can save money for something special rather than spending it right away (Search Institute, 2001). Other analyses have shown an association between young people’s reports of these thriving domains and how much they say they experience various “developmental assets”: relationships, opportunities, values, skills, and self-perceptions, which are building blocks of success. The more assets young people experience, the more they thrive in these domains. In addition, in a sample of 6,000 adolescents equally divided among African American, Asian, Hispanic, multiracial, Native American, and White youth, clusters of those

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developmental assets have been found to concurrently explain 10% to 43% of those seven thriving domains, over and above demographics (Scales et al., 2000). Time spent in youth programs, cultural competence, self-esteem, personal power (akin to self-efficacy), achievement motivation, and planning and decisionmaking skills each made meaningful contributions to concurrently explaining at least two of the thriving domains in at least three racial/ethnic groups. These findings offer some useful foundational insights but also have significant limitations, not the least of which is that all the data are self-reports. In addition, other than satisfying the broad criterion that they suggest the social competencies required to assume adult roles and responsibilities, these seven domains of thriving in adolescence were generated from little other formal elaboration of child and adolescent development theory. Almost all conceptualizations of thriving, flourishing, or positive psychology among adolescents share this feature of being more lists of desirable attributes, qualities, and skills than domains comprehensively grounded in explicitly articulated theory. Nor are there psychometrically sound and sufficiently brief tools to employ to adequately measure and promote thriving in individuals, as an element of program evaluation, as an outcome of community initiatives, or as a tracking indicator that reflects the well-being over time of young people at the state or national level. For example, the thriving data reported above were obtained using single-item measures of each thriving domain. Multi-item measures of those thriving domains have been shown to have acceptable internal consistency reliabilities in the .70s or above, but they have been used in only one study of 5,000 youth to date (Scales, Leffert, & Vraa, 2003). THE THRIVING INDICATOR PROJECT (TIP): A COLLABORATIVE APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE EFFORT In response to the conceptual issues and research limitations described here, a unique partnership was launched in 2002 to build scientific understanding of thriving in adolescents and create practical tools for the measurement and promotion of thriving. Search Institute, the Applied Developmental Science Institute at Tufts University, and the Fuller Theological Seminary, with strategic consultation from Stanford University and the Thrive Foundation for Youth, embarked on this multiyear initiative with the goal of producing

effective measurement tools and resources that would be widely used and developed from a foundation of deep science. Initial activities have included a comprehensive review of the literature on thriving and related concepts and the development of an interview protocol for use with scholars, positive youth development practitioners, youth, and their parents that elicited their views on what describes a thriving youth. The aim of the early interviews was to generate numerous possible dimensions of thriving as represented in scientific literature, in applied work with youth, and in the minds of young people and their parents. Subsequent studies will be undertaken to structurally analyze this larger number of dimensions in order to identify a smaller, more practically useful set of dimensions that best reflects the concept of thriving, both in the sense of consensus across constituencies of scholars, practitioners, and the public and in the sense of content and construct validity. These core dimensions will then serve as the lens that focuses development of thriving measurement tools to be used in clinical, programmatic, community change, and national tracking applications. The ultimate goal of this ambitious initiative is to aid the promotion of thriving among young people. The TIP partners hope to achieve that aim by articulating consensus priorities about what thriving is and by providing easy-to-use, scientifically sound tools for assessing adolescent thriving and suggesting concrete strategies that young people, families, schools, congregations, youth organizations, and community residents can adopt for building it. CONCLUSIONS The TIP has influenced or sparked several new lines of inquiry in research and several new emerging and potential applications. For example, discussions are under way with a number of federal agencies about development and utilization of new thrivingmeasurement tools that would advance the goals of those agencies, which include the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families; the Department of Education; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. In the nonprofit sector, discussions are under way with the YMCA of the USA about avenues for helping Ys across the country become leading sources of energy for the promotion and measurement of adolescent thriving in local communities, an initiative that could positively affect the lives of millions of young people.

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Additional research and practice applications include thriving measures being incorporated into several federally funded studies being done as part of the Fuller Youth Initiative for Positive Youth Development and Violence Prevention, in Pasadena, California. Tufts University has also included thriving measures in its longitudinal study of a national sample of 4-H youth (a study with the potential to deeply affect how this major youth organization focuses on promoting thriving) and has mined Search Institute databases spanning nearly 20 years to identify thriving factors that appear to be common across samples, geographies, and time. Finally, Search Institute has received a planning grant from the Horizon Foundation to design a long-term community mobilization and research effort in Columbia, Maryland, in which the promotion and measurement of thriving will be a central feature. Because that effort will be the single largest initiative of its kind, bringing together “best practices” in building young people’s developmental strengths and well-designed, longitudinal research documenting the process and effects of that work, it is likely to have far-reaching impact for years to come across the nation at large. There are many research questions and potential applications to be explored and invented as these and similar projects unfold. For example, much more work is needed to understand whether the same thriving taxonomy is equally valid across adolescent diversities, or how thriving may vary contextually. Extending that line of inquiry, more study is needed to assess the degree to which the emerging taxonomy of thriving is internationally generalizable. In addition, more conceptual and operational work is needed to define and investigate thriving among preadolescent children and to better understand the kinds of childhood experiences that maximize the chance of thriving in childhood as well as later in adolescence. From an applied standpoint, once consensus has been reached on defining a core of key thriving factors and acceptable tools have been developed for measuring them, it is then critical to ensure that such positive indicators become pervasively incorporated into local, state, and national tracking/monitoring systems. Collectively and collaboratively, the efforts of the TIP partners and organizations and individuals such as Child Trends and the leaders of the positive psychology movement may help bring about a sea change in how youth development is seen among policymakers, program developers, the media, and the general public. Ultimately, the result will be a more complete picture of how youth are doing, enabling leaders to set

youth development goals that more fully reflect societal values, increase accountability, and improve the efforts of communities and individual residents to help young people be the best they can be. —Peter C. Scales and Peter L. Benson

See also POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, SYSTEMS VIEW

A

DEVELOPMENTAL

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Beyond the “village” rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2, 138–159. Furstenburg, F. F. (2000). The sociology of adolescence and youth in the 1990s: A critical commentary. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 896–910. Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M., Brentano, C., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2002). Positive youth development: Thriving as the basis for personhood and civil society. New Directions for Youth Development, 95, 11–33. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (2000). Contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 27–46. Scales, P. C., Leffert, N., & Vraa, R. (2003). The relation of community developmental attentiveness to adolescent health. American Journal of Health Behavior, 27 (Suppl. 1), S22–S34. Search Institute. (2001). Developmental assets: A portrait of your youth (1999–2000 school year aggregate database). Minneapolis, MN: Author. Takanishi, R., Mortimer, A. M., & McGourthy, T. J. (1997). Positive indicators of adolescent development: Redressing the negative image of American adolescents. In R. M. Hauser, B. V. Brown, & W. R. Prosser (Eds.), Indicators of children’s well-being (pp. 428–441). New York: Russell Sage.

ADOLESCENT FEMALES, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY There are many benefits of physical activity, including positive social development, positive selfesteem, a decrease in risk factors for chronic diseases, and increased endurance, strength, and flexibility. In addition, youth who are physically active are less

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likely to be overweight (Kimm, Glynn, et al., 2002). Physical activity declines during adolescence, with rates varying by gender and ethnicity. Almost three quarters (72%) of 9th graders participate in vigorous physical activity on a daily basis, whereas the rates are only 55% among 12th graders (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999). According to the 1997 Youth Risk and Behavior Survey, high school girls are less likely to be vigorously active than boys. In particular, African American girls are less vigorously active than White girls (54% and 67% respectively). Kimm, Glynn, et al. (2002) reported that Black girls are less active than White girls throughout adolescence, and by ages 16 to 17, 56% of Black girls and 31% of White girls report no regular leisure time physical activity (e.g., sports, recreational activities, dance, swimming, basketball, etc.). These high rates of physical inactivity are particularly troubling because patterns of physical activity track into adulthood, suggesting that physically inactive adolescents are likely to become physically inactive adults. INACTIVITY AND OVERWEIGHT The increasing rates of overweight among adolescent girls have affected teens from all ethnicities, particularly ethnic minorities. In a national study in which 2,379 Black and White girls were followed through their adolescence, at age 9, 31% of the Black girls and 22% of the White girls were at risk for overweight (BMI1 > 85th percentile, based on age- and gender-specific charts). By age 19, the rate had almost doubled among both groups, 57% for Black girls and 41% for White girls (Kimm, Barton, et al., 2002), illustrating that even in the face of increasing rates of overweight during adolescence, Black girls experienced higher rates of overweight than White girls. The risk of overweight also extends to Latinas, as shown in a nationally representative sample of adolescents girls aged 12 to 18. The Latina and African American girls were significantly more likely to be overweight than the White or Asian girls (Gordon-Larsen, Adair, & Popkin, 2002). The disproportionately high rates of overweight among ethnic minority adolescent girls have occurred within the past two decades. During the 1960s, Black girls were less likely to be overweight than their White counterparts. Today, African American and Latina girls tend to be heavier than White girls.

A contributing factor to the rise in overweight has been a decrease in physical activity. National recommendations are for adolescents to engage in vigorous physical activity2 for at least 20 minutes, at least three times a week, with some physical activity nearly every day. However, many adolescent girls do not adhere to these recommendations. DETERMINANTS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY Multiple factors contribute to the physical inactivity that has been reported among adolescent girls, including lack of motivation, lack of time, lack of opportunities, lack of skill, along with concerns about messing up one’s hair or clothes. There is a strong relationship between lack of physical activity and television watching. Teens who engage in the least vigorous activities or watch the most television are likely to be overweight. One group of investigators found that children’s risk for overweight increased by 12% for each hour of television watching (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). The inactivity of television watching coupled with the snacking of high-calorie foods that often occurs during television watching lead to weight gain. Finally, seasonal variation is an important component because children tend to be less active in winter months than in warmer seasons. Peer and Parental Influences Physical activity is also influenced by peers. In a study among urban, ethnic minority girls, those whose friends were active were more likely to engage in physical activity than those whose friends were sedentary (Borzekowski & Rickert, 2003). Adolescents, especially girls, develop strong peer relationships and may be influenced by the activity levels of their peers. Given the limited opportunities for physical activity in many modern societies, many adolescents do not engage in physical activity unless they are motivated to do so. Having friends who are physically active normalizes activity, makes activity more enjoyable, and may increase adolescents’ motivation to be active. Parents may also influence physical activity among their adolescent children. Adolescents whose parents are encouraging and support their activities are more likely to participate in physical activities than adolescents who do not receive support and encouragement. The Framingham Heart Study found that children who

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had physically active parents were almost 6 times more likely to be active themselves, in comparison with children of physically inactive parents. Other social influences (e.g., schoolteachers, siblings) may also have an effect on physical activity but have not been studied as extensively. Individual and Sociocultural Influences Most research on determinants of physical activity among children and adolescents has focused on individual psychological-level variables measured through self-report, often ignoring broader sociocultural and environmental levels. For the most part, these studies have found weak or no association between personality characteristics (e.g., stress tolerance, social adequacy, independence, etc.) and physical activity (Sallis et al., 1992). However, there is some evidence to suggest a relationship between self-efficacy and physical activity among adolescents, as is the case for adults. Thus, adolescents who feel that they can be physically active are likely to be active. However, little work has been done examining the mediators of physical activity. Sociocultural factors also influence physical activity among children and adolescents. Once again, similar to adults, ethnic minority youth and youth from low-socioeconomic families tend to engage in less physical activity than Whites or youth from middle- and high-socioeconomic families (Kimm, Glynn, et al., 2002). Access to resources and programs may be an important determinant of physical activity. Among adults, access to safe and convenient physical activity resources increases participation in physical activity. INTERVENTIONS Interventions to promote physical activity, particularly among ethnic minority adolescent girls, are necessary to halt the increasing rates of overweight. A recent review of interventions to prevent obesity found promising results from strategies that encourage reduction in sedentary behaviors and an increase in physical activity (Campbell, Waters, O’Meara, Kelly, & Summerbell, 2002). However, with little theory to explain the determinants of physical activity, there are few recommendations to guide intervention and prevention programs. From a developmental perspective, young girls need opportunities for physical

play so they acquire skills and feel comfortable engaging in physical activity. As children age and engage in more organized sports, adolescents who have skills and competence in physical activities and have access to opportunities to engage in physical activity are more likely to be active. Adolescent girls benefit from physically active role models and from a school and community philosophy of activity for all, rather than athletics for the most talented youth. Interventions should be culturally, gender, and age appropriate and include family and social peers, while providing environmental opportunities for physical activity, such as safe areas to play and an emphasis on lifestyle activities that can be sustained. —S. Sonia Arteaga and Maureen M. Black

NOTES 1. Body Mass Index = weight in kg/height in meters2. 2. Hard exercise that makes you breathe heavily and increases your heart rate.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Borzekowski, S. R., & Rickert, V. I. (2003). Physical activity levels among urban females. Journal of Adolescent Gynecology, 15(5), 279–284. Campbell, K., Waters, E., O’Meara, S., Kelly, S., & Summerbell, C. (2002). Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Database Systematic Review (CD001871). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1999). Promoting physical activity: A guide for community action. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Ebbeling, C. B., Pawlak, D. B., & Ludwig, D. S. (2002). Childhood obesity: Public-health, common-sense cure. The Lancet, 350, 473–482. Gordon-Larsen, P., Adair, L. S., & Popkin, B. M. (2002). Ethnic differences in physical activity and inactivity patterns and overweight status. Obesity Research, 10(3), 141–149. Kimm, S. Y. S., Barton, B. A., Obarzanel, E., McMahon, R. P., Kronsberg, S. S., Waclawiw, M. A., et al. (2002). Obesity development during adolescence in a biracial cohort: The NHLBI Growth and Health Study. Pediatrics, 110(5), 1–5. Kimm, S. Y. S., Glynn, N. W., Kriska, A. M., Barton, B. A., Kronsberg, S. S., Daniels, S. R., et al. (2002). Decline in physical activity in Black girls and White girls during adolescence. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(10), 709–715. Sallis, J. F., Simons-Morton, B., Stone, E. J., Corbin, C. B., Epstein, L. H., Faucette, N., et al. (1992). Determinants of physical activity and interventions in youth. Medicine and Science in Sports and Medicine, 24(6), S248–S257.

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ADOLESCENT MOTHERS This entry discusses adolescent mothers from a positive youth development perspective (Benson, 2003; Lerner, 2004). The traditional negative view of teenage mothers, in which they are deemed as “problems to be managed,” is contrasted with the perspective that these mothers are “resources to be developed” (Roth, Brooks-Gunn, Murray, & Foster, 1998). The last section discusses ways in which programs and interventions can be changed or developed to enhance the probability that teenage mothers and their children will be productively and positively contributing members of civil society. TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD WITHIN THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM The view that adolescent pregnancy is an enormous social burden in the United States may be due to the number of teenage mothers. In recent years, there has been a decrease in teenage pregnancy rates, with the teen birthrate falling from 37 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 17, in 1990, to 27 births per 1,000 females in this age range, in 2002. Nevertheless, in 2000, there were 48 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 and a total of 157,209 babies born to females aged 15 to 17 (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003). Kids Count (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003) reports that teenage mothers younger than age 18 are likely to be unmarried, likely to have not completed high school, and will have a child who is likely to be living in poverty. Earnings are often low or absent among teenage mothers, especially if they are high school dropouts, and, in turn, the children of teenage mothers have an increased probability of themselves being high school dropouts and becoming teenage mothers (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003; Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Moreover, adolescent pregnancy is linked to other risk behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, early initiation of sexual activity (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998), and other delinquent behavior (Hockaday, Crase, Shelley, & Stockdale, 2000). Perhaps based on the presence of these associations between teenage pregnancy and motherhood and problem behaviors, the majority of the studies and articles published about teenage pregnancy in the last couple of decades take the deficit-model perspective on

adolescent mothers and parenting. In fact, in 1987, the National Research Council Panel on Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing published “a monumental review of the literature that documents in great detail a host of negative consequences on the educational, economic, and marital careers of young mothers” (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 1989, p. 315). Only in very recent years has there been information available that regards adolescent motherhood from a positive youth development standpoint. A POSTIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE Given the behaviors that covary with teenage pregnancy, it is not surprising that adolescents engaging in risk behaviors, such as teenage mothers, have traditionally been viewed through the lens of the deficit model. However, this is not the only approach to helping these teenagers find healthier and more successful paths to better lives. The positive youth development perspective is “predicated on the ideas that every young person has the potential for successful, healthy development and that all youth possess the capacity for positive development” (Lerner, Brentano, Dowling, & Anderson, 2002, p. 11). Thus, whereas in the past, youth have been treated as problems to be managed, this new vision views adolescents as resources to be developed. The positive youth development perspective is based on the theory of developmental contextualism. This theory is associated with a life span conception of development and states that “development occurs through the dynamic interactions people experience with the specific characteristics of the changing contexts . . . within which they are embedded” (Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000a, p. 26). The interactions between the person and context are bidirectional; that is, each influences the other. As a consequence of such interactions, relative plasticity exists throughout the life span, and “physical, cognitive, social, and emotional characteristics undergo systematic changes” (Ford & Lerner, 1992) Furthermore, applied developmental science (ADS), “a scholarship that seeks to advance the integration of developmental research with actions— policies and programs—that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children and families” (Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000b, p. 11), is the culmination of the theory of

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developmental contextualism and the positive youth development perspective. The philosophy of ADS is to develop effective programs that provide the resources children need for several positive developmental outcomes. These outcomes are often operationalized as the “Five Cs” of competence, connection, character, confidence, and caring (or compassion). Once an individual obtains these five, the result will lead to a “sixth C,” contribution to civil society (Lerner et al., 2000b). The positive youth development perspective provides a vision of hope for adolescent mothers and their children. By regarding teenage mothers as possessing assets that can be developed, communities can help them find resources, including “a healthy start, a safe environment, education for marketable skills, the opportunity to give back to or serve the community, and freedom from prejudice and discrimination” (Lerner et al., 2002, p. 28), so that they and their children can be contributing members to society. In addition, these families do not necessarily have to remain on the unhealthy trajectory toward a life of welfare and poverty. Instead—because of relative plasticity and life span development—given the appropriate resources, they can break free of dependence and lead successful and engaged lives. BASES OF THE POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE From the evidence about the problems associated with teenage motherhood, it may appear as if a young woman’s life chances are compromised by teenage childbearing. However, recent findings show that for many adolescents, mothering is advantageous to the limited life options that precede pregnancy. Many of the teenagers who eventually become mothers realize that they live in disadvantaged communities and recognize their restricted educational and employment opportunities. They consider early motherhood a rite of passage into adulthood. Therefore, it is unfair that the practices and policies concerning adolescent mothers target “deficiencies located strictly in the self (e.g., poor judgment, lack of planning, and lack of job and parenting skills) while dismissing the social sources of disadvantage that predispose teens to become parents in the first place” (SmithBattle, 2000, p. 30). Deferring parenthood would not necessarily improve employment prospects or the economic circumstances of these teenagers (SmithBattle, 2000).

Moreover, in some subcultures in the United States, such as in African American communities in the inner cities, premarital adolescent childbearing is widespread and largely accepted. In fact, “Girls growing up in poverty have been socialized to view parenthood as the principal realm in which they can meet their needs. Bearing a child matches with their sense of who they are, what they can do, what options are available, and what others expect of them” (Musick, 1993, p. 503). African American teenagers are more likely to live in dangerous neighborhoods with high unemployment rates, serious health risks, and premature mortality. These factors influence expectations for a life course and shape cultural traditions of family formation and family caregiving (SmithBattle, 2000). For many African American female adolescents, early parenthood is a logical and adaptive option because they are more likely to receive assistance from both their families and the government in their teenage years than when they are adults (Coley & ChaseLansdale, 1998). Mothering may be a corrective experience for many female adolescents. Early parenthood may lead to positive feelings about the self and identity, and young mothers may gain an outlook of a more coherent life for themselves. They may become more mature and develop a more sensitive sense of future and responsibility. SmithBattle and Leonard (1998) performed a study in which they looked at teenage mothers’ narratives of the self and visions of the future. In a follow-up study 4 years later of 13 of the original 16 mothers, “Mothering was not described as a negative event that jeopardized future plans but, rather, engendered a sense of responsibility and supplied a social identity that was familiar and consistent with family and cultural meanings of becoming a woman” (p. 38). Motherhood helped these adolescents reorganize their lives, develop a sense of self, and develop a sense of trust, responsiveness, and interdependence. Consequently, in learning about the baby, the young mother has the opportunity to learn about herself and empower her sense of self (SmithBattle, 2000). Grandmothers of the children of teenage mothers play an important role in curbing the negative effects of teenage pregnancy, as well. In three-generational family systems, grandmothers have a major part in coparenting, housing, and support for both the teenager and her child. Earlier research found that coresidence with the grandmother was the most

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beneficial situation for the adolescent and her child. However, recent studies have shown that this arrangement can have some detrimental consequences, such as lower-quality parenting from both the mother and grandmother, including less supportive and authoritative relationships. Coresidence was also linked to higher mother-grandmother conflict and poorer child functioning. It appears that for older teenagers, at least, the best situation with the most effective parenting is when they live apart but the grandmother provides positive modeling and support (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Furthermore, from the economic perspective, although a large percentage of teenage mothers are on welfare and have low incomes in the years immediately after birth, they have increased employment opportunities and incomes in their late 20s, when their children reach school age (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). In addition, the gap in income between early and later childbearers decreases when the latter drop out of the labor force to have children in their late 20s and early 30s (Furstenberg et al., 1989). The tax burden attributed to early childbearing may be greatly exaggerated, too. Although adolescent mothers initially may have lower incomes and are on public assistance, they pay more in income tax overall because they started working from a younger age (SmithBattle, 2000). In addition, a change in welfare legislation in 1996 has given female adolescents less monetary incentive to have a child. The main provisions of the bill state that cash entitlements will no longer be given; families can receive benefits for no more than 5 years over their lifetimes; recipients are required to work a certain number of hours a week; mothers who are minors are required to live with a parent or legal guardian and stay in school; and mothers are required to identify fathers and cooperate with child support enforcement. Because many teenage mothers are required to finish their education and gain employment, there is a possibility of improved self-esteem and psychological function, resulting in better parenting (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Furthermore, studies that find that teenage pregnancy has such grave consequences have several methodological limitations. Early cross-sectional studies compared primarily disadvantaged African American adolescents with older mothers (SmithBattle, 2000). Moreover, many research projects do not distinguish the differences between the effects of poverty

and the effects of the mother’s age at the child’s birth on the child’s development (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). In general, several background characteristics, such as socioeconomic status, family income, and educational background, lack adequate controls. Also, because of changes to welfare and access to education in recent years, conclusions drawn from studies of teenage mothers in previous decades may not still be relevant today (SmithBattle, 2000). In addition, the literature lacks longitudinal studies focusing on how psychological variables such as self-esteem, individuation, and depression influence and are influenced by early, unplanned parenthood (Coley & ChaseLansdale, 1998). Fortunately, as SmithBattle (2000) explains, The methodological limitations of earlier studies are now being addressed with innovative research designs and the use of national surveys that permit more rigorous examination of the effects of early childbearing. In addition, a growing number of qualitative studies restores the missing perspective of teenage mothers; their accounts detail how the self and parenting are socially embedded. (p. 31) With new research in the coming years that may indicate that teenage mothers are capable and have competent parenting skills, new interventions can be developed to aid these families in leading healthy and successful lives, during which they are civically engaged and contributing to society. CONCLUSIONS Interventions must be multifaceted, provide resources that allow adolescents to become good parents, and begin at an early age in order to be effective. Because teenage pregnancy is multidimensional, programs must be aimed to benefit both the adolescent mother and her child (Hockaday et al., 2000). Programs must be developed to address the direct needs of their participants at multiple points in time (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Because not all adolescent parents are in the same situation, programs and policies cannot assume that they are a homogeneous population and should make an effort to serve and provide resources for several types of circumstances. Moreover, there is a need for interventions that encourage higher education, and the belief that it

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is attainable may protect teenagers from the risk of pregnancy and prevent teenage mothers from repeat pregnancies (Hockaday et al., 2000). In general, elected officials throughout the United States need to not only advocate sustaining “existing effective youth-serving programs and support the development and evaluation of new innovative programs” (Lerner & Boulos, 1999, p. 9) but also create policies for universal health care, subsidized child care, and improved educational and employment opportunities (SmithBattle, 2000). By instilling in them the desire to contribute to civil society, teenage parents and their children will encourage and nurture future generations to enhance society, and this will break the recursive cycle of the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy (Lerner & Boulos, 1999). Nevertheless, SmithBattle and Leonard (1998) conclude, As the growing body of literature demonstrates, it is not the young mother’s age per se that results in poor outcomes for mother and child, but the socially toxic conditions associated with poverty that endanger mothering and childhood. Rather than focusing on the deficits and failures of young mothers, we must recognize how teenagers’ decisions and actions make sense of the social worlds they inhabit and recommit to public policies that promote a sense of future. (p. 8) Adolescent mothers do not possess only negative attributes; they have positive qualities that give them the ability to be competent and achieving mothers. They are not simply problems to be managed; they are resources to be developed, and with the appropriate interventions, this population can become a great asset to society. —Rumeli Banik

See also MENARCHE

and asset-building communities: Implications for research, policy, and practice (pp. 19–43). New York: Kluwer/Plenum. Coley, R. L., & Chase-Lansdale, L. (1998). Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood: Recent evidence and future directions. American Psychologist, 53(2), 152–166. Ford, D. L., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Furstenberg, F. F., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Chase-Lansdale, L. (1989). Teenaged pregnancy and childbearing. American Psychologist, 44(2), 313–320. Hockaday, C., Crase, S. J., Shelley, M. C., & Stockdale, D. F. (2000). A prospective study of adolescent pregnancy. Journal of Adolescence, 23, 423–428. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M., & Boulos, S. (1999). Policies and programs promoting positive youth development: Beyond the prevention of teenage pregnancy. PPFY Network, 2(4), 9–10. Lerner, R. M., Brentano, C., Dowling, E., & Anderson, P. M. (2002). Positive youth development: Thriving as the basis of personhood and civil society. In R. M. Lerner, C. S. Taylor, & A. von Eye (Eds.), Pathways to positive development among diverse youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000a). Applying developmental science in the 21st century: International scholarship of our times. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(1), 24–29. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000b). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71(1), 11–20. Musick, J. S. (1993). Adolescent development. In E. Aries (Ed.), Adolescent behavior: Readings and interpretations. Amherst, MA: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin. Roth, J., Brooks-Gunn, J., Murray, L., & Foster, W. (1998). Promoting healthy adolescents: Synthesis of youth development program evaluations. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8, 423–459. SmithBattle, L. (2000). The vulnerabilities of teenage mothers: Challenging prevailing assumptions. Advances in Nursing Science, 23(1), 29–40. SmithBattle, L., & Leonard, V. W. (1998). Adolescent mothers four years later: Narratives of the self and visions of the future. Advances in Nursing Science, 20(3), 36–49.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Annie E. Casey Foundation. (1998). Kids Count special report: When teens have sex: Issues and trends. Baltimore: Author. Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2003). Kids Count 2003 data book. Baltimore: Author. Benson, P. L. (2003). Developmental assets and asset-building community: Conceptual and empirical foundations. In R. M. Lerner & P. L. Benson (Eds.), Developmental assets

ADOLESCENT-PARENT RELATIONS The socialization of family consists of two complementary developmental processes: autonomy/ independence as sought by adolescents and embeddedness/interdependence as expected by their

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parents. The compatibility or coexistence of these two processes establishes a common matrix for the adolescent’s enculturation as well as for parental efforts to ensure transmission of cultural priorities. Within this matrix, stressful negative tension can be maladaptive for adolescents in the short term, but family disagreements can also promote healthy long-term development. A related challenge is the ability of ethnocultural and immigrant adolescents to maintain their core cultural values amidst the dominant culture of the larger society. For harmonious family relations, these adolescents need to adhere willingly to their family values at home; they thus require coping strategies to deal with discrepancies in these values inside and outside the home. Parents, in turn, require the ability to embrace as well as negotiate the adolescents’ developmental changes and demands for autonomy. In ethnocultural minority and immigrant families, efforts to maintain a balance between autonomy and embeddedness may lead to intense intergenerational disagreements and conflict, whereas among dominant-group and nonimmigrant families, these disagreements can be relatively small. The adolescents of the latter may not perceive discrepancies in cultural values inside and outside the home, and their parents do not need to impose high expectations of family embeddedness on their children because of their acceptance of the larger cultural values and practices. This entry highlights current research on family autonomy and embeddedness in ethnocultural minority and immigrant families. MIGRATION AND THE STUDY OF FAMILY RELATIONS Two fundamental socialization issues for family relations between adolescents and their parents are (1) autonomy, the degree of self-determination and independence from family, and (2) embeddedness, the degree of belonging to and sharing with family. These aspects of family relations are influenced by the intrafamily setting as well as by the socialization expectations imposed by the surrounding cultural context. Hence, understanding of a culture-specific account of self-development must include an analysis of cultural forms of autonomy and embeddedness. However, the extent to which ethnocultural minorities and immigrant families experience such tensions will vary by cultural origin and settlement society. The broad historical movement of migrants in the 20th century has been from more collectivistic and

less well-to-do nations to more individualistic and economically advanced nations. As a result, research into the influence of sociocultural contexts on changes in family relations has been limited to the examination of this historical pattern of acculturative cross-cultural encounter and adaptation. Overall, immigrant families have seemed to maintain healthy intergenerational relations when family embeddedness is supported by the families’ own core cultural values as well as their ethnocultural social networks in the larger society. In the face of socioeconomic hardship, immigrant families have managed to collaborate and participate at home closely, even more so if encouraged by their own ethnic cultures. However, ethnic heritage cultural transmission within the immigrant families is still limited, and the harmony of family relations can be adversely affected by the great cultural distance between the culture of origin and the new settlement society. Only after a longer period of residence in the new society do declines in family embeddedness occur in immigrant families, whereas the issue of autonomy as the source of intergenerational discrepancy becomes apparent even from the very earliest stages of immigration. CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES The extent to which the balance between family autonomy and embeddedness will significantly disrupt family harmony depends on the compatibility of the family’s core cultural values and the larger society. For example, in Canada, regardless of ethnocultural background, intergenerational disagreements concerning parental authority and children’s rights (autonomy) are much greater than those concerning children’s obligations for family (embeddedness) (Kwak & Berry, 2001). Still, clear differences of culture were detected not only between dominant AngloCeltic and Asian immigrant groups in Canada but also among the three Asian groups: Vietnamese, Korean, and East Indian. On one hand, for the Asian groups, the evidence of cultural group differentiation provides a stronger cultural endorsement for family embeddedness, while a stronger endorsement of individual autonomy is tied to the Anglo-Celtic group. On the other hand, the research also suggests that in a family setting, maintenance of the core cultural values varies, further reflecting each Asian immigrant group’s specific cultural emphases and their prior contact history with the larger society.

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Research findings also indicate that family expectations and coping strategies are differentiated by societal values practiced in the national society as well as the cultural values endorsed by the ethnocultural group. First, international studies on the impact of the enculturating society on adolescent development and family socialization show evidence of age differences for expectations of autonomy across national settings. Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong seek their autonomy much later and believe that higher values should be given to family embeddedness and lower values to individualism than do their Australian and American counterparts (Feldman & Rosenthal, 1994). Surprisingly, however, in Chinese families, the adolescent’s latent autonomy and stronger endorsement of family cohesion do not lead to a higher degree of family socialization or to more intergenerational interactions at home. Despite the favorable socialization pattern of more active family interactions, adolescents from the two individualistic Western societies experience a more restricted and controlled family context due to their preference expressed for the more salient autonomy imposed on them by the larger society. Second, the influence of the sociopolitical history of the national society also plays a clear role in family relations. For instance, the adolescents from the former Communist Eastern bloc consider their household chores to be communal activities, while those from capitalist societies believe the individual chore requires compensation (Bowes, Flanagan, & Taylor, 2001). The higher level of education for American parents is associated with a stronger valuation of autonomy in their children, but in China, gender and the education level of parents show no influence on child-rearing values, which can be attributed to the Communist societal values of gender equality (Xiao, 1999). By contrast, in China and Japan, adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ expectations and satisfaction with their school performance vary with gender, since boys acknowledge the burden of higher expectations placed on them by their parents, while girls do not face such expectations; but in the United States, no such gender differences have been found among adolescents (Crystal et al., 1994). Third, the overall economic characteristics of a nation are related to culturally specific parenting practices and adolescent self-development. Comparing German families in West Berlin and Polish families in Warsaw, Walper and Silbereisen (1994) showed a differentiating outcome for cultural expectations and

socioeconomic status on family experiences. Although economic hardship impaired family relations in both national groups, the former group experienced a more serious negative impact than the latter. This and other studies with similar findings imply that as the different sociopolitical histories contribute to the variation in cultural standards and expectations on the previous economic conditions, the families in each nation endure similar stressful hardships differently and their resilience to cope with the adverse condition varies accordingly. THE DYNAMIC NATURE OF SOCIETIES AND FAMILIES Researchers should be cautious when asserting that societal characteristics are fixed. The characteristics of societies themselves are changing through cultural contacts between the ethnocultural groups that come to compose a nation, as well as transform the contacts between nations. Over the years, researchers have observed gradual changes in the sociocultural characteristics of nations. For example, studies of Chinese families on family values and child-rearing practices report noticeable changes in the pattern of family relations. These relations are shifting away from their traditional values of family piety and cohesion and toward Western values of individuality and autonomy. Another caution to be exercised is in the interpretation of findings on adolescent-parent family relations, since similar levels of family disagreement within various ethnocultural groups may produce dissimilar implications for individual psychological outcomes. For example, when the cultural emphasis is to avoid family conflict, family members may be more motivated to generate greater family cohesion by setting aside disagreements among themselves. More harmonious family relations can be achieved with the acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by parents and with the contributions made by adolescents to the family. However, such harmony will be influenced by the degree to which adolescents within and between different ethnocultural groups understand parental expectations regarding contributions to family embeddedness. CONCLUSIONS In summary, the comparative aspects of the adolescent-parent family relations of autonomy and embeddedness need to be understood within both the

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intrafamily setting and the larger sociocultural context. Differences and variations shown across ethnocultural groups should be interpreted within the specific context in which the family resides as well as the family’s own cultural history. Research suggests that when issues stemming from family embeddedness arise, both adolescents and their parents do not experience great intergenerational conflict but they do experience great conflict over the issue of autonomy. Differences in family relations across ethnocultural groups are also influenced by differences in the onset and intensity of an adolescents pursuit of autonomy as well as the degree of family embeddedness expected by parents. In a society where communal values are endorsed and in a culture where familial cohesion is emphasized, hardship and conflict experienced by families do not necessarily lead to adolescent-parent family problems. Family embeddedness is shared by the family members across all ethnocultural groups, even though group differences can still be observed across cultures. Intergenerational disagreements in ethnocultural minority and immigrant families are more likely to occur over adolescent autonomy, especially when the larger society encourages and expects such autonomy. —Kyunghwa Kwak

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bowes, J. M., Flanagan, C., & Taylor, A. J. (2001). Adolescents’ ideas about individual and social responsibility in relation to children’s household work: Some international comparisons. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 60–68. Crystal, D., Chen, C., Fuligni, A., Stevenson, H. W., Hsu, C., Ko, H., et al. (1994). Psychological maladjustment and academic achievement: A cross-cultural study of Japanese, Chinese, and American high school students. Child Development, 65, 738–753. Feldman, S. S., & Rosenthal, D. A. (1994). Culture makes a difference . . . or does it? A comparison of adolescents in Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States. In R. K. Silbereisen & E. Todt (Eds.), Adolescence in context: The interplay of family, school, peers, and work in adjustment (chap. 6, pp. 99–124). New York: Springer-Verlag. Kwak, K. (2003). Adolescents and their parents: A review of intergenerational family relations for immigrant and non-immigrant families. Human Development, 46, 115–136. Kwak, K., & Berry, J. W. (2001). Generational differences in acculturation among Asian families in Canada: A comparison of Vietnamese, Korean, and East Indian groups. International Journal of Psychology, 36, 152–162.

McLoyd, V. C., & Steinberg, L. (Eds.). (1998). Studying minority adolescents: Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Walper, S., & Silbereisen, R. K. (1994). Economic hardship in Polish and German families: Some consequences for adolescents. In R. K. Silbereisen & E. Todt (Eds.), Adolescence in context: The interplay of family, school, peers, and work in adjustment (chap. 7, pp. 125–148). New York: Springer-Verlag. Xiao, H. (1999). Independence and obedience: An analysis of child socialization values in the United States and China. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 30, 641–657.

ADOLESCENT PARENTS, PROGRAMS AND POLICIES FOR This entry provides a brief overview of adolescent parenthood in the United States and its implications for young mothers. It will describe types of prevention and intervention programs for pregnant and parenting adolescents, briefly summarize evaluation findings of these programs, and explore the ways in which the issue of teenage parenthood has been addressed at a policy level. While adolescent parenthood is not a new issue in the United States, the nature and context of teenage parenthood has changed. In the past, it was common for young, single women who became pregnant to get married or give up their children for adoption. During the last half century, however, young women have become increasingly more likely to keep their children and to be single parents; the proportion of nonmarital teenage births has risen from 13% in the 1950s to 79% in 2000 (Boonstra, 2002). While there has been a considerable decline in the number of adolescent births in the United States, in the last decade, the teenage birth rate is still among the highest of all Western countries (Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale, 1995; Child Trends, 2001). As an example, adolescent pregnancy rates in the United States were approximately 4 times those in France and Sweden in 2000 (Boonstra, 2002). Almost 480,000 teenage girls gave birth in the United States during that year (Child Trends, 2001). The changing context of adolescent parenthood has raised concerns about the consequences of teenage childbearing for the mother and the child and has prompted a large body of research on the issue of adolescent parenthood (Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale,

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1995). Studies have shown that teenage mothers are more likely to be single parents, have more children, have lower academic achievement levels, live in poverty, and show poorer parenting skills than older mothers (Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale, 1995; Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Furthermore, teenage childbearing has been estimated to cost society $15 billion annually for social services and lost productivity (Maynard, 1996). PROGRAMS FOR ADOLESCENT PARENTS Such negative findings about the life trajectories of young mothers and their children and the resulting cost to society have led to an abundance of programs that address teenage pregnancy and childbearing (Seitz & Apfel, 1999). The majority of these programs are designed to prevent teenage pregnancies, although a significant number of programs focus on teenagers who are already pregnant or parenting. Programs that focus on pregnant or parenting teenagers typically aim to help teenage mothers achieve outcomes that are comparable to those of older mothers (SmithBattle, 2000), and their specific goals generally include some combination of the following: improved educational outcomes, reduced welfare dependency, increased educational and economic achievement, prevented or delayed further childbearing, improved parenting attitudes and behaviors, a safer child-rearing environment, stronger social support systems, better connection with other social services, and finally, better health outcomes for mother and child. Despite the considerable attention that has been paid to the issue of adolescent mothers, little academic or programmatic attention has been paid to teenage fathers. Evaluations of young-parenting programs have found conflicting results. Some intervention programs have been shown to have beneficial effects on the life of the mothers and their children, such as improved child health outcomes and a reduction in the number of subsequent pregnancies (Olds, Henderson, Tatelbaum, & Chamberlin, 1986). In other programs, however, evaluators have found less encouraging results, and when benefits are demonstrated, they are often modest or accrue only to a subset of families. Even intensive interventions have failed to achieve their goals (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998; Wagner & Clayton, 1999). Such inconsistent effects of programs have led some researchers to conclude that intervention programs that target parenting teenagers have had disappointing

results (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998), while others believe that well-designed and well-implemented programs can be effective in having a positive influence on the future of young parents and their children (Seitz & Apfel, 1999). More researchers are beginning to explore why many programs fail to have the positive effects they were designed to achieve. Some investigators point out that teen parents are a difficult population to serve and engage (Wagner & Clayton, 1999), while others speculate that researchers and practitioners have failed to recognize the complexity of the lives of adolescent parents and how severe the effects are of the poor economic and social contexts in which young parents live (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998; SmithBattle, 2000). It has been suggested that to achieve more optimal outcomes for young parents, programs should be more sensitive to the context of young mothers’ lives, have realistic expectations of them, and identify goals that the mothers themselves view as important (Seitz & Apfel, 1999). ADOLESCENT PARENTS AND PUBLIC POLICIES Unfortunately, communities and public systems rarely recognize adolescent parents as a distinct population with a distinct set of needs. Despite the fact that adolescent mothers are heavily effected by several existing policies and institutions (Center for Assessment and Policy Development, 1999), there are few public agencies and policies that have been created with the specific goal of addressing the needs and interests of young parents. For example, although teenage mothers frequently are of low income and therefore involved with several social services, few communities have the type of agencies needed to facilitate and coordinate the different systems relevant to these young parents (Center for Assessment and Policy Development, 1999). While the needs and interests of young parents have largely been ignored by policymakers, the issue of adolescent pregnancy and parenthood figured largely in the formulation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the major welfare reform bill passed in 1996. The reforms focused on ways to move people off welfare and into economic self-sufficiency, and as research had shown that almost half of all welfare recipients had been teenage mothers, it lead to a push for stricter requirements for teen parents (Duffy & Levine-Epstein, 2002; Hotz, McElroy, & Sanders, 1996). Under the new laws,

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teenage mothers are subject to different requirements than older mothers; a single mother under the age of 18 with an infant age 3 months or older must live with a parent, relative, or legal guardian to receive cash assistance. Furthermore, if she has not completed high school, she must participate in educational activities rather than fulfill work requirements (Center for Assessment and Policy Development, 1999; Duffy & Levine-Epstein, 2002). Researchers and practitioners have raised questions about whether these and other requirements for adolescent parents are realistic and whether they represent the best ways to support a healthy future for young parents and their children (Duffy & Levine-Epstein, 2002; Seitz & Apfel, 1999). On a policy level, current concern about teenage parenting tends to take the form of concern about adolescent sexuality, and consequently, most recent political and fiscal energy has been devoted toward teenage pregnancy prevention programs, with a specific focus on programs and policies that promote abstinence and encourage marriage. In fact, the United States is the only country with formal policies that direct public funds toward educational programs that have the promotion of abstinence as their sole purpose. Unlike many other Western countries, sexual education in the United States frequently presents abstinence as the only appropriate option to avoid pregnancies, and despite their effectiveness, contraception is presented only as ineffective or is not covered at all (Boonstra, 2002). Thus, the United States focuses less on sex education and access to contraceptive services than almost any other Western country. Adolescent parenthood is a social issue that has received considerable attention. Research shows that teenage parents and their children are at risk for poor social and economic outcomes later in life, which has inspired the creation of various programs aimed at preventing teenage pregnancies and parenthood or at supporting young parents. Evaluations of such programs have demonstrated effects that are inconsistent, which has led to a call for more meaningful investigations of adolescent pregnancy and parenting. Although public concern about adolescent sexuality and pregnancies is widespread, policies and programs that address the needs and interests of this population are rare. When teenage pregnancies and parenting are addressed on a policy level, the discussion tends to focus on the teenager’s “faulty behaviors” (Rhode, 1993). If there is a true commitment to supporting young people in finding paths to successful adulthood, those

at risk for adolescent parenthood must be provided with constructive ways to spend their time and build their futures. At the same time, adolescent parents represent a unique group as they try to manage the different roles of parent and adolescent and often balance employment and school, as well. Programs and policies must recognize the unique needs and circumstances of teenage parents and use that knowledge to better support the healthy development of young parents and their children. —Steinunn Gestsdottir

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Boonstra, H. (2002). Teen pregnancy: Trends and lessons learned [Electronic version]. The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 5(1). Brooks-Gunn, J., & Chase-Lansdale, P. L. (1995). Adolescent parenthood. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting (pp. 113–149). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Center for Assessment and Policy Development. (1999, April). Improving outcomes for teen parents and their young children by strengthening school-based programs. Available at the Center for Assessment and Policy Development Web site: http://www.capd.org/home/publications/PDF/ policy.pdf Child Trends. (2001). Facts at a glance. Washington, DC: Author. Coley, R. L., & Chase-Lansdale, P. L. (1998). Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood: Recent evidence and future directions. The American Psychologist, 53(2), 152–166. Duffy, J., & Levine-Epstein, J. (2002). Add it up. Teen parents and welfare: Undercounted, oversanctioned, underserved. Available at the Center for Law and Social Policy Web site: http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1023136975.87/do c_AddItUpReportFINAL.pdf Hotz, V. J., McElroy, S. W., & Sanders, S. G. (1996). The impacts of teenage childbearing on the mothers and the consequences of those impacts for government. In R. A. Maynard (Ed.), Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy (pp. 55–94). Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Maynard, R. A. (1996). The costs of adolescent childbearing. In R. A. Maynard (Ed.), Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy (pp. 285–337). Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Olds, D. L., Henderson, C. R., Tatelbaum, R., & Chamberlin, R. (1986). Improving the delivery of prenatal care and outcomes of pregnancy: A randomized trial of nurse home visitation. Pediatrics, 78, 16–28. Rhode, D. (1993). Adolescent pregnancy and public policy. In A. Lawson and D. L. Rhode (Eds.), The politics of pregnancy (pp. 301–335). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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Seitz, V., & Apfel, N. H. (1999). Effective interventions for adolescent mothers. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 6(1), 50–66. SmithBattle, L. (2000). The vulnerabilities of teenage mothers: Challenging prevailing assumptions. Advances in Nursing Science, 23(1), 29–40. Wagner, M. M., & Clayton, S. L. (1999). The parents as teachers program: Results from two demonstrations. The Future of Children, 9(1), 91–115.

ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY AND BIRTHS Almost half a million adolescents had babies in the United States in 2001. Because of the consequences of early childbearing for both the young mothers and their children, teenage pregnancy is an important social issue (Maynard, 1997). In the following sections, information is provided about birthrates for adolescent females; sexual activity among adolescents; factors associated with sexual activity; adolescents’ use of contraception; and other intervention approaches for reducing rates of teenage pregnancies. BIRTHRATES To examine trends over time, records are kept of the number of births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 in the United States and several other countries. These records show that births to teenage females have declined over the past decade in the United States. The number of births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 was 45.9 in 2001, compared with 62.1 per 1,000 in 1991. The birthrate has declined among all major ethnic groups in the United States, but the birthrate is highest for Hispanic teens (92 per 1,000), followed by Blacks (82 per 1,000), and non-Hispanic Whites (30 per 1,000). Although the birthrate has declined, the United States continues to have one of the highest teenage birthrates among developed countries. Countries with very low birthrates (e.g., Japan, Italy, Spain) have fewer than 10 births per 1,000 teenage females (Child Trends, 2001, 2002). SEXUAL ACTIVITY One of the factors contributing to the declining birthrate among teens in the United States is a decrease in the percentage of teens who have ever had

sexual intercourse. Each year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) survey a sample of high school students about their behaviors, including whether or not they have ever had sexual intercourse (CDC, 2001). In 2001, 45.6% of high school students reported ever having had intercourse, compared with 54.1% in 1991. Sixty-one percent of high school seniors reported ever having had sexual intercourse in 2001, and 22% of the seniors reported having had sex with four or more partners during their lifetimes. The number of sexual partners is of concern because of the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among teenagers in the United States. The CDC survey also asked the students about pregnancies. Among the seniors, 7.1% reported that they had ever been pregnant or had gotten someone pregnant. Another national survey (Child Trends, 2002) asked teens where they were the first time they had sexual intercourse. Most teens had their first sexual experiences in either their partners’ family homes (34%) or their own homes (22%). They were also asked about the time of day when they first had intercourse; 42% had intercourse late at night (10 p.m. to 7 a.m.), and 28% had sex during the evening (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.). Although there has been much concern about teens being unsupervised between the time school gets out and their parents get home from work, only 15% of the teens reported having their first sexual experiences in the late afternoon (3 p.m. to 6 p.m.).

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH SEXUAL ACTIVITY The CDC survey showed that nearly half of all high school students were sexually experienced. Researchers have examined factors that are associated with early sexual activity to try to understand why some teens are sexually active while others are not. The types of factors examined include characteristics of the teens themselves, family characteristics, and extrafamilial factors, such as peer groups and neighborhood characteristics (Manlove et al., 2002; Small & Luster, 1994). Obviously, biology provides humans with a natural desire to engage in reproductive behavior. Most people have acted on these biological urges before they reach the age of 20. Thus, it is not surprising that the age of the individual is one of the strongest predictors of sexual experience. In addition, early-maturing and

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more physically developed teens are more likely than their peers to be sexually experienced at an early age. Males are also more likely than females to report early sexual experience; in a recent CDC survey of high school students, 49% of males and 43% of females reported ever having had intercourse (CDC, 2001). Rates of sexual experience also vary by ethnicity. In the most recent CDC survey of high school students, 61% of Blacks, 48% of Hispanics, and 43% of Whites reported ever having had intercourse. These differences in rates of sexual activity are due, at least in part, to differences in the risk factors that students from different ethnic groups experience (e.g., poverty, single-parent households). Other characteristics of the individual that are related to sexual activity include school status and performance. Adolescents who have dropped out of school or who are struggling in school are more likely than their peers to be sexually active. In contrast, adolescents who plan to go to college are less likely than their peers to be sexually active and are more likely to use contraception when they are sexually active. Many individuals contemplate having children once they have completed their education, so individuals who have higher educational expectations tend to take steps to prevent early pregnancy from curtailing educational advancement. Researchers have identified several other risk factors for early sexual experience (Manlove et al., 2002; Small & Luster, 1994). Alcohol use is one of those factors. Alcohol may be predictive of sexual activity because teens who engage in one type of risky behavior also tend to engage in other risk behaviors and associate with peers who engage in risky behavior. Alternatively, alcohol consumption may lower inhibitions and impair judgment, thus contributing directly to sexual risk taking. A history of sexual abuse is another risk factor. Adolescent females who have been sexually abused sometimes show a precocious interest in sex, have voluntary sex at an earlier age on average, tend to have more sexual partners than peers, and are at risk for eventually becoming adolescent mothers. However, the extent to which sexual abuse predicts sexual risk taking tends to depend on other factors, such as how much support and supervision the victim receives from her family after the abuse occurs (Luster & Small, 1997). Some teens delay having sex for religious reasons. A growing number of teens are pledging to remain virgins until marriage, and associating with teens who hold similar beliefs reduces the risk of early sexual activity.

Several family factors also reduce the risk of early sexual activity (Miller, 2002). Teens are less likely to be sexually active if they live with both biological parents and have parents who monitor their activities (i.e., know who they are with, where they are, and what they are doing). Parents also influence teenage sexual behavior by what they communicate to their children about their values and beliefs. On the other hand, adolescents are more likely to be sexually active if they live in poverty, have mothers who were teenage parents, or have older siblings who are sexually experienced. In general, teens who have experienced very disadvantaged circumstances while growing up (e.g., disharmonious families, abuse, impoverished and violent neighborhoods) are more likely than more advantaged age-mates to engage in early sexual activity. Extrafamilial factors include relationships with partners and peers. Adolescents who start dating early and who date the same person for a long time are more likely than other teens to be sexually experienced at an early age. Many dating couples gradually move toward sexual intimacy as they spend more time together. Adolescents are also more likely to be sexually active if their friends are sexually active or they think most of their friends are sexually active. Peers appear to exert considerable influence in this area (Rodgers & Rowe, 1993). Teens who attend schools or live in neighborhoods with high rates of teenage pregnancy are at risk for becoming sexually active at an early age. Another possible influence on sexual behavior is media portrayals of sexuality (Brown, 2002). Teens are exposed to a great deal of sexual behavior on television and in the movies. Media portrayals of sexuality typically do not highlight the possible negative consequences of unprotected sex. However, it should be noted that teens in many countries with much lower teenage birthrates have opportunities to view more sexually explicit content on television than do U.S. teens. Moreover, Canadian teens who have access to many of the same television shows and movies as U.S. teens have a birthrate that is approximately half as high as the birthrate among U.S. teens (Child Trends, 2001). Thus, the effect of the media on adolescent behavior may depend on other risk or protective factors in the culture. Many researchers have asked why teens become sexually active. However, given powerful biological urges to procreate, the more appropriate question may be this: Why do many teens delay sexual activity or having children? Some teens postpone sexual involvement because of the perceived negative consequences of early

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pregnancy or the risk of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Teens who have opportunities for higher education may fear that an early pregnancy could derail their plans to attend college or vocational school. Other teens may delay sexual activity because of parental pressure to practice abstinence or because of their concerns about how a pregnancy may affect their relationships with their parents. Still other teens may delay sexual experience because of their moral convictions or religious beliefs. Dating someone who believes in abstinence or associating with peers who are not sexually active also decreases the pressure to engage in intercourse at an early age. For any given individual, a number of factors are likely to affect their sexual behavior over time. CONTRACEPTION Teenage pregnancy is determined not only by sexual activity but also by whether or not teens consistently use effective contraception when they are sexually active. Part of the decline in birthrates has been attributed to greater use of contraception by teens. Researchers have focused on whether teens used contraception the first time they had intercourse and the most recent time they had intercourse. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a marked increase in the percentage of teens who had used some form of contraception the first time they had intercourse (Terry & Manlove, 2000). In particular, there has been an increase in condom use at first intercourse. Increased knowledge about contraception and public concern about HIV/AIDS and other STDs have contributed to this trend. Of the major ethnic groups in the United States, White teens are the most likely to use contraception at first intercourse, and Hispanic teens are the least likely to use contraception. Older teens are more likely than younger teens to use contraception at first intercourse. Studies of most recent contraception use have shown trends that are less positive (Terry & Manlove, 2000). Although over two thirds of teens used some form of contraception the last time they had intercourse, from 1988 to 1995, there was a decline in the percentage of Hispanic and White females who reported using some form of contraception at last intercourse. High school students were asked about contraceptive use in the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Of the students who had sexual intercourse during the past 3 months, 57.9% had used condoms and 18.2% had used birth control pills (CDC, 2001). In the

1990s, longer-term forms of birth control such as Norplant and Depo Provera also became available. Some researchers believe that these new forms of birth control are also contributing to a reduction in birthrates. Unlike users of birth control pills, those who use these new methods are not required to remember to take a pill each day. Overall, contraception use has increased among teens in the United States during the past several decades. However, teens in the United States are less likely to use contraception consistently than teens in most other developed countries. That is the primary reason why other developed countries have lower birthrates among teens than the United States (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2002). Many developed countries with lower birthrates have rates of teen sexual activity that are similar to those in the United States. OTHER INTERVENTION APPROACHES Although most programs aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy rates target sexual behavior directly (e.g., abstinence programs, family planning services), other approaches may also be important. For example, it is known that teens who are struggling in school are at greater risk for becoming teen parents. Programs such as early childhood education programs that improve early school success or tutoring programs that target early reading ability may indirectly affect sexual risk-taking behavior. Females who participated in the Perry Preschool Program had fewer pregnancies during the teen years than their peers in the control group (Berrueta-Clement, Schweinhart, Barnett, Epstein, & Weikart, 1984). This was a smallscale study and requires replication, but it suggests that concern about adolescent pregnancy should begin long before children reach adolescence. In addition, programs that promote positive youth development generally may contribute to reduced rates of teen pregnancies. For example, the Teen Outreach Program, which combines volunteer community service with classroom discussions on topics of importance to teens, has been effective in preventing teen pregnancies (Allen, Philliber, Herrling, & Kuperminc, 1997). CONCLUSIONS Some researchers have concluded that adolescents are most likely to avoid early childbearing if they have

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attractive opportunities in the areas of work and education. Having and nurturing children may be a relatively attractive option to those who do not believe that they have good opportunities in other areas or who believe that they are not likely to be successful in other areas. A positive future orientation combined with the means to prevent unintended pregnancies (i.e., access to contraception) are key factors in whether or not an adolescent avoids early childbearing. —Tom Luster

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Alan Guttmacher Institute. (2002). Facts in brief: Teenagers’ sexual and reproductive health. Available at http://www .agi-usa.org Allen, J. P., Philliber, S., Herrling, S., & Kuperminc, G. P. (1997). Preventing teen pregnancy and academic failure: Experimental evaluation of a developmentally based approach. Child Development, 64, 729–742. Berrueta-Clement, J. R., Schweinhart, L. J., Barnett, W. S., Epstein, A. S., & Weikart, D. P. (1984). Changed lives: The effects of the Perry Preschool Program on youths through age 19. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope. Brown, J. D. (2002). Mass media influences on sexuality. The Journal of Sex Research, 39(1), 42–45. Centers for Disease Control. (2001). Youth risk behavior surveillance system. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ dash/yrbs/ Child Trends. (2001). Facts at a glance. Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://www.childtrends.org Child Trends. (2002). Facts at a glance. Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://www.childtrends.org Luster, T., & Small, S. A. (1997). Sexual abuse history and number of sex partners among female adolescents. Family Planning Perspectives, 29(5), 204–211. Manlove, J., Terry-Humen, E., Papillo, A. R., Franzetta, K., Williams, S., & Ryan, S. (2002). Preventing teenage pregnancy, childbearing, and sexually transmitted diseases: What the research shows. Washington, DC: Child Trends. Maynard, R. A. (1997). Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Miller, B. C. (2002). Family influences on adolescent sexual and contraceptive behavior. Journal of Sex Research, 39(1), 22–26. Rodgers, J. L., & Rowe, D. C. (1993). Social contagion and adolescent sexual behavior: A developmental EMOSA model. Psychological Review, 100(3), 479–510. Small, S., & Luster, T. (1994). Adolescent sexual activity: An ecological, risk-factor approach. Journal of Marriage and Family, 56, 181–192. Terry, E., & Manlove, J. (2000). Trends in sexual activity and contraceptive use among teens. Washington, DC: Child Trends.

ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY The topic of adolescent sexuality is of great importance in the study of applied developmental science because it represents an area in which many contextual factors influence the development of this innately personal aspect of life. Sexuality, in turn, affects many dimensions of adolescent development. While people are sexual from birth to death, it is the years during adolescence in which they begin to understand and experience their sexuality in preparation for a mature, adult sex life. Spurred by physical bodily changes (including increased levels of sex hormones, the development of secondary sex organs, menarche, or semenarche), a heightened surge of sexual interest begins at the onset of puberty. A key developmental task for an adolescent is becoming a sexually healthy adult. As part of this, adolescents begin to engage in sexual interactions. However, sexuality is not only about sexual behaviors or having sex. It also involves aspects that are intellectual, social, moral, and emotional. Herein is an overview of the topic of adolescent sexuality, exploring the numerous factors that inform it. The entry begins by examining adolescents’ quest for identity, expressed through their exploration of gender roles and sexual orientation, as well as their ability to develop and maintain meaningful relationships and express affection, love, and intimacy in ways consistent with their emerging values. Next is an examination of the patterns of adolescent sexual experience, including the percentages of sexually active adolescents and the pleasures and risk of adolescent sexuality. Then, there is a discussion of factors that influence the development of sexuality, such as friends, potential sex partners, family, and the media. Finally, the entry concludes with a brief discussion of the need for sex education to encourage healthy development of adolescents’ sexuality. ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUALITY Adolescents are attempting to solidify their roles in society and their own sense of self. Answering the question, “Who am I?” is related to understanding what makes one attractive or desirable and defining one’s gender role and sexual orientation. During adolescence, people begin to understand how their gender affects their sexual and nonsexual interactions. As they observe the gender roles of their parents and

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other adults, their identity, and thus their sexuality, is affected by taking on these roles (Brooks-Gunn & Graber, 1999). It is also during adolescence that people begin to have a greater awareness that they are attracted to certain “types” of people and not to others. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people may realize their sexual orientations during adolescence. At this time, they may be ready to “come out” and express their sexual orientations as part of their public identities. Yet while it is generally accepted that about 10% of the adult population is homosexual, less than 2% of adolescents identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (Remafedi, Resnick, Blum, & Harris, 1992). Perhaps this is an indication of the stigma that is still attached to a homosexual identity; perhaps it only goes to show that adolescents are still in the process of determining who they are, and reluctant to label themselves. Adolescents’ sexuality unfolds as an element of their personality that is shaping their identities when they test their new realizations though social interactions, dating, and sexual connections. Adolescents are striving to develop dating relationships that may help them define their own identities apart from their parents. Initiating sexual behavior is a way of expressing autonomy, and private intimacy with another person creates independence from parents (Brooks-Gunn & Graber, 1999). Simultaneously, adolescents’ quest for independence may hasten their interest in dating and sexual activity. Exploration of sexual behaviors is natural during adolescence and is widely recognized as a normative aspect of life (Bauserman & Davis, 1996; SIECUS, 2000). The frequency, extent, and impact of sexual behaviors vary for different individuals. The varieties of sexual behaviors that adolescents engage in usually develop in a progression over the course of their adolescent years. The pattern with which most adolescents’ sexuality unfolds follows a socially determined script that begins with hand holding, then kissing, and proceeds to petting and mutual masturbation, then to oral sex, and next to intercourse. This has been understood by adolescents themselves for decades and has been confirmed in research (Halpern, Joyner, Udry, & Suchindran, 2000). Each level of sexual involvement may not occur with each partner and, in fact, usually takes a number of years, and thus at least a couple of partners, to progress to intercourse; yet these facts have yet to be effectively explored in empirical research. In early adolescence (approximately age 10–14), individuals most often express sexual self-gratification

by masturbating, which helps them learn about their own sexuality (Halpern, Udry, Suchindran, & Campbell, 2000; Bauserman & Davis, 1996). It is important to note, however, that for adolescents who grow up in religious or conservative families, where they may be taught that masturbation is “sinful” or shameful, this healthy behavior may result in negative emotional consequences. In fact, almost 60% of adolescents felt guilty after masturbation (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994), and over 80% of adolescents thought of masturbation as harmful (Halpern, Udry, Campbell, & Suchindran, 1993). Besides sexual self-gratification, for most early adolescents, when a partner is present, they may begin experimenting with kissing or light petting. Oral sex and sexual intercourse at this age are rare. By age 13, only about 9% of boys and about 4% of girls have had intercourse (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001). Dating and more serious relationships usually begin in middle adolescence (approximately age 15–17). Among 16- and-17-year-olds, 70% of girls and 58% of boys have had a steady relationship at some point, and 37% of boys and 57% of girls have gone steady for a year or more (McDonald & McKinney, 1994). In these relationships, romantic or sexual touching, perhaps including mutual masturbation, are common. As mentioned, before most adolescents have sexual intercourse, they are sexually active with a partner in other ways. Forty-eight percent of virgins have engaged in masturbation of a partner of the opposite gender (Schuster, 1996). Seventeen percent of adolescents who have never had intercourse have engaged in fellatio with ejaculation with a partner of the opposite gender (Schuster, Bell, & Kanouse, 1996). Ten percent have engaged in cunnilingus with a partner of the opposite gender (Schuster et al., 1996). Intercourse most often occurs in later adolescence (approximately age 16–18). In fact, the average age for first intercourse is age 16. By their 18th birthdays, 6 in 10 women and 7 in 10 men have had sexual intercourse. By age 21, 88% of adolescents have had intercourse (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2002). The number of partners on average that late adolescents have is between one and four partners; 19% of boys and 13% girls have had more than four partners by age 19 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001). Consider that the average age of marriage in America is 24 for women and 26 for men (National Center for Health Statistics, 2001). Because

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it is normative for adolescents to engage in sex before they are married, the concept of “premarital sex” is antiquated. It has been estimated that about 90% of people who marry have had what was previously deemed “premarital sex” (Laumann et al., 1994). Therefore, today, this is simply referred to as “sexual activity,” rather than putting it in terms of when it takes place in reference to marriage. Prior to finding a marriage partner, most often, people establish a pattern of serial monogamy beginning in adolescence, in which a person is with one partner at a time, in succession. Obviously, today, sex is not used for procreation as often as it is used for pleasure. Overall, adolescents have sexual pleasure and positive feelings about having intercourse. According to Coles and Stokes, 80% of adolescent males and 70% of adolescent females enjoy intercourse “a great deal,” whereas 11% of adolescent females and 1% of adolescent males report that they “feel sorry” about having sex (Coles & Stokes, 1985). Most adolescents who report an enjoyment of sex also add that they feel love for their partners and report a feeling of “readiness,” and they do not feel that they are lying to their parents about their behavior. Adolescents often report that they felt ready to have sex when they could deal with the emotional impact and protect themselves physically from the negative consequences (Alexander & Hickner, 1997). DEVELOPMENT AND SEXUALITY Adolescent sexuality encompasses much more than the sexual behaviors and emotions that occur as a part of having sex. Cognitive development simultaneously influences and informs an adolescent’s sexuality (Pestrak & Martin, 1985). Adolescents are developing advanced reasoning skills, including the ability to think about multiple options and possibilities. They can think more logically, and they have the ability to think about things hypothetically. Therefore, they are becoming more equipped to answer the “What if . . .” questions regarding sexual behavior, including the physical risks of unprotected sex or the emotional risks of sex without commitment. As they are developing their abstract thinking skills, they are testing their abilities to have a personal connection to concepts such as love and trust, which are cornerstones of sexual and loving relationships. As their understanding of themselves and the implications of their sexual activity develop, so does their realization

that sexual behaviors can become a part of their lives (Pestrak & Martin, 1985). In some cases, adolescents may engage in sexual behaviors before they are cognitively advanced enough to understand their implications (Raffaelli & Crockett, 2003). Then, they may be more at risk for the physical and emotional complications of sex. Similarly, adolescents may tend to exhibit the “It can’t happen to me” syndrome—an egocentric way of thinking that is also known as a “personal fable.” This idea is often associated with feelings of invulnerability and enhanced risk taking. It may cause adolescents to take unnecessary risks, such as having unprotected sex, when they are thinking, “I can’t possibly get pregnant or get a sexually transmitted disease.” Sexual risk taking may occur for other reasons as well, including getting caught up in the moment or trying to impress a partner with one’s spontaneity (Raffaelli & Crockett, 2003). THE CONTEXT OF ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY Most sex educators believe that if adolescents have the information about protecting themselves, then they will be more likely to move beyond risk-taking behavior and take more responsibility for their sexual health and emotional well-being (SIECUS, 2000). However, at this time, sex education is not as widely offered and as comprehensive as it should be, and the problems that unprotected sex can cause adolescents are widespread. Each year in United States, 800,000 to 900,000 adolescents 19 years of age or younger become pregnant (Centers for Disease Control, 2000). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 40,000 to 80,000 new cases of HIV that are reported each year in the United States, about half of all new infections are among people younger than 25. When it comes to other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), each year, about 13% of 13- to 19-year-olds contract STDs (Centers for Disease Control, 2001). These may be the most salient reasons why sex education is imperative. Adolescents should have knowledge about sex so they can take more active roles in determining how they should behave and learning that their actions have consequences that can be life altering. Today’s adolescents are coming of age in a culture of confusion. Concepts of waiting to have sex and fear of sex because of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS compete with our popular culture, which

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pummels young people with images of immediate gratification and unsafe casual sexual behavior. TV shows, music videos, and movies seem to portray adolescents only as gorgeous, sexually desired, and sexually active with multiple partners. In reality, most adolescents are trying to adjust to their developing bodies and to become less awkward in their social and dating interactions. Mixed messages adolescents receive about sexuality contribute to the confusion of what they are personally coping with versus what they think they should do to keep up with the sexually explicit media (Locker, 1990). One aspect of the media that can cause more direct harm is the Internet. The Internet is often used by adolescents as a source for accurate sex education (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2001). However, adolescents are even more likely to use the Internet to look at pornography (Yankelovich Partners, 1999). Whether it is to satisfy their curiosity, or to engage in sexual selfgratification, pornography use itself (while technically illegal to be sold to people under age 18 in the U.S.) is not inherently harmful to adolescents. Yet what is destructive to them is compulsive or prolonged use of pornography online, since it is available 24 hours every day in limitless quantities in unimaginable variation. Even more dangerous is if they begin interacting with strangers in online chat rooms. Adolescents must be taught that sexual sharing this way is not a constructive way of meeting people for underage youth and, in some cases, can be quite dangerous—especially if they meet the stranger in person. This is an area in which parents can intervene to help their adolescents understand these aspects of sexuality in our society. Besides the influence of the media, another factor that affects adolescents is the influence of their peer groups. Many adolescents desperately want to fit in with their peers. If their friends boast about their sexual activity, they may think that they are falling behind and should become sexual to keep up (Rosenthal, Burklow, Lewis, Succop, & Biro, 1997). While there is much talk about the “peer pressure” that adolescents succumb to, another factor that often causes adolescents to begin sexual activity when they may not be fully ready is “partner pressure.” When they are in a relationship, adolescents may think that they should have sex to maintain the relationship (Bearman & Bruckner, 1999). Whether it is a persistent and persuasive partner or the peer pressure chorus of “Everybody’s doing it,” the young people who can firmly say “no” to having sex are those who have the highest self-esteem. Feeling confident about

one’s own values and choices goes hand in hand with high self-esteem and a healthy attitude about when and how to have sex. Having high self-esteem also has the effect of staving off the impact of the pop cultural images of sex and increasing adolescents’ ability to talk about the realities of sex. When adolescents can view themselves realistically (instead of in comparison with sexy media icons) and as people who are lovable, capable, and who can enjoy sexual pleasure in age- and situationappropriate ways, they are more likely to develop as sexually healthy individuals (Locker, 2001). When adolescents develop healthy sexual attitudes, they make decisions about sexual behaviors that lead to their establishment of a moral system of their own. Adolescents most often make critical moral decisions about their own sexual conduct independently of their parents, thereby establishing their own viable personal ethical systems. If they create a strong system, then it may guide them to healthy adult sexuality. If not, then they may be devastated by negative consequences of sex. This is why it is so important that adolescents have parents or teachers who can teach them to make good choices prior to the time when they will be making those choices independently. While adolescents are becoming closer to their peers and striving to become independent from their parents, the fact is that having a positive relationship with parents can help the adolescent’s development of healthy sexual expression. The more satisfaction adolescents feel with their relationships with their parents, the more likely they are to have attitudes and behaviors that are consistent with their parents’ own attitudes (Papini, Clark, & Snell, 1988). However, not all adolescents feel comfortable with their relationships with their parents. As they develop their own values, many adolescents may believe that no one else has ever experienced similar feelings, especially their parents. In their process of emotional development, they may become overly dramatic in describing things that are upsetting to them about dating and sexuality. They may say things like, “You’ll never understand,” or in the case of sexual decision making, they may feel isolated as they discover new aspects of sex, especially if their parents have not been open with them. This is why it is best if parents attempt to be open with discussion of sexuality. An adolescent’s ability to talk to parents about birth control, sexual decision making, and the meaning of sex and love is helpful in guiding adolescents to realize that they are not alone and that

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they can get help with these stressful changes and often confusing choices (Papini et al., 1988). Overall, it is advantageous for adolescents to delay sexual behaviors until they are physically, cognitively, and emotionally ready for mature sexual relationships and their consequences. This readiness may occur in late adolescence if the adolescent is creating a good system for thinking about sexual choices. CONCLUSIONS In America today, there is more support than ever from parents and school personnel who want comprehensive sexuality education to be taught in school (SIECUS, 2000). Comprehensive sexuality education programs offer them a wide range of information about intimacy; sexual limit setting; coping with social, media, peer, and partner pressure; the benefits of abstinence; and precautions to prevent pregnancy and STDs (Locker, 1990). With the development of sexuality as a focal point of adolescence, parents, teachers, and society can help young people develop as healthy and happy individuals, more prepared for adulthood with confidence and a sense of pleasure in sexuality. —Sari Locker

See also DATING IN ADOLESCENCE; SEXUALITY, ADOLESCENTS’ DEVELOPMENT OF

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Alan Guttmacher Institute. (2002). In their own right: Addressing the sexual and reproductive health needs of American men. New York: AGI. Alexander, E., & Hickner, J. (1997). First coitus for adolescents: Understanding why and when. Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 10, 96–103. Bauserman, R., & Davis, C. (1996). Perceptions of early sexual experiences and adult sexual adjustment. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 8, 37–59. Bearman, P., & Bruckner, B. (1999). Power in numbers: Peer effects on adolescent girls’ sexual debut and pregnancy. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Brooks-Gunn, J., & Graber, J. A. (1999). What’s sex got to do with it? The development of sexual identities during adolescence. In R. J. Contrada & R. D. Ashmore (Eds.), Self, social identity, and physical health: Interdisciplinary explorations. New York: Oxford University Press. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2000). National and state-specific pregnancy rates among adolescents: United States, 1995–1997. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 49, 605.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2001). Youth risk behavior surveillance: United States 2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 51, SS04. Coles, R., & Stokes, F. (1985). Sex and the American teenager. New York: Harper & Row. Halpern, C. T., Joyner, K., Udry, J. R., & Suchindran, C. (2000). Smart teens don’t have sex (or kiss much either). Journal of Adolescent Health, 26, 213–225. Halpern, C. T., Udry, J. R., Campbell, B., & Suchindran, C. (1993). Testosterone and pubertal development as predictors of sexual activity: A panel analysis of adolescent males. Psychosomatic Medicine, 55, 436–447. Halpern, C. T., Udry, J. R., Suchindran, C., & Campbell, B. (2000). Adolescent males’ willingness to report masturbation. The Journal of Sex Research, 37, 327–332. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2001). Generation RX.com: How young people use the Internet for health information. New York: Kaiser Family Foundation. Laumann, E., Gagnon, J., Michael, R., & Michaels, S. (1994). The social organization of sexuality—Sexual practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Locker, S. (1990). An adolescent’s perspective on sexuality education. In J. Money & M. E. Perry (Eds.), Handbook of sexology: Vol. VII. Childhood and adolescent sexuality. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Locker, S. (2001). Sari says: The real dirt on everything from sex to school. New York: HarperCollins. McDonald, D. L., & McKinney, J. P. (1994). Steady dating and self-esteem in high school students. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 557–564. National Center for Health Statistics. (1991). Advance report of final marriage statistics, monthly vital statistics report. Hyattsville, MD, Public Health Service, 39, 12. National Center for Health Statistics. (2001). National vital statistics report. Hyattsville, MD, Public Health Service, 50, 8. Papini, D. R., Clark, S. M., & Snell, W. E., Jr. (1988). An evaluation of adolescent patterns of sexual self-disclosure to parents and friends. Journal of Adolescent Research, 3, 387–401. Pestrak, V. A., & Martin, D. (1985). Cognitive development and aspects of adolescent sexuality. Adolescence, 20, 981–987. Raffaelli, M., & Crockett, L. (2003). Sexual risk taking in adolescence: The role of self-regulation and attraction to risk. Developmental Psychology, 39, 1036–1046. Remafedi, G., Resnick, M., Blum, R., & Harris, L. (1992). Demography of sexual orientation in adolescents. Pediatrics, 89, 714–721. Rosenthal, S. L., Burklow, K. A., Lewis, L. M., Succop, P. A., & Biro, F. M. (1997). Heterosexual romantic relationships and sexual behaviors of young adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescent Health, 21, 238–243. Schuster, M. A., Bell, R. M., & Kanouse, D. E. (1996). The sexual practices of adolescent virgins: Genital sexual activities of high school students who have never had vaginal intercourse. American Journal of Public Health, 86, 1570–1576.

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SIECUS. (2000). Public support for sexuality education. SIECUS Report, 28. Yankelovich Partners. (1999). Yankelovich Partners Survey. Washington, DC: Safe American Foundation.

ADOLESCENTS, AT RISK The term at risk as it applies to adolescent behaviors is difficult to define, as it can be used to describe many diverse behaviors. They can include any combination of alcohol and drug use and abuse, antisocial behaviors, and risky sexual behaviors. One important goal in this area is for both parents and professionals to be able to note the warning signs of unsafe behaviors before they occur. Risky behaviors are often interrelated. Therefore, to gain a better understanding of these behaviors, it is important to look at common factors among them. Adolescent behaviors are often divided into two categories: internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Internalizing behaviors refer to those behaviors that are often directed toward the self, such as depression, phobia, and withdrawal, whereas externalizing behaviors are usually directed outward. Examples include lying and aggression. UNDERSTANDING AT-RISK BEHAVIORS There are many different models and theories used to predict and understand behaviors, but relatively little consensus as to how to synthesize the research findings. Dodge and Petit (2003) presented a biopsychosocial approach to the understanding of the issues and problems faced by adolescents with conduct problems and stressed the importance of distinct models for individual problems. In this model, no single variable can be used without fail to predict the behavior of an adolescent. Instead, these researchers stated that predictions are best made by looking at a nonlinear interaction between factors related to biological, psychological, and social variables. While the merits of this theory are subject to debate, one thing that seems clear is that previously identified risk factors do not accurately predict outcome for everyone. For example, Gleason and Dynarksi (2002) found that many traditionally used risk factors, such as demographic variables and past school performance, were ineffective in predicting future school dropouts.

Problem behavior theory (Jessor & Jessor, 1977) is another model that has frequently been used to explain at-risk adolescent behavior. Problem behavior theory attempts to predict the likelihood of an adolescent engaging in a particular behavior through the analysis of the relationships of a host of social and psychological variables. Problem behavior theory focuses on the interaction of at-risk behaviors and how one behavior can be related to, or even used to predict, other risky behaviors. Developmental factors can be used to understand the factors related to the decision to engage in unsafe behaviors. Different periods of childhood and adolescence present different goals and values. For example, establishing independence and individual identity separate from parental figures is likely more important in later adolescence than it is in early childhood. Early childhood interactions likely influence mechanisms of self-representation, such as self-esteem. Early experiences of acceptance, both in school and at home, may serve as important protective factors against risky behaviors. FACTORS RELATED TO AT-RISK BEHAVIORS Risk factors for future negative outcomes for adolescents can be highly intertwined and difficult to disentangle. For example, early alcohol and drug use has been related to a host of outcomes, such as future delinquent behavior and illicit drug use. Therefore, alcohol use at a young age becomes an early warning sign. However, what are the early warning signs for alcohol use at a young age? The task then becomes to look for the warning signs of warning signs, often creating more confusion than clarity. Even the search for the earliest warning signs can be difficult, as unhealthy behaviors can result from any number of factors or their interactions. Promotion of healthy decision-making processes should include an understanding of the factors that affect the decision to engage in unsafe behaviors. Some researchers believe that adolescents who have very few, if any, positive expectations about their futures are more likely to engage in risky behavior. Many other factors related to the decision-making process have been proposed, such as socioeconomic status, family situation (Gleason & Dynarksi, 2002), or even sensation seeking (Harris, Duncan, & Boisoly, 2002), as influencing the decision to engage in these behaviors.

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Unsafe behaviors are often correlated with other risky behaviors. A developmental analysis of the factors related to the decision to engage in risky behaviors may be helpful in predicting outcome. Certain behaviors present in early adolescence may predict outcome in later adolescence. Alcohol use, for example, has been found to relate to many negative outcomes, including delinquency (Barnes, Welte, & Hoffman, 2002). Alcohol use is often associated with violent crimes. Therefore, early alcohol use can be a significant warning of future problems with other drugs and antisocial and violent behavior. Guo et al. (2002), while controlling for demographic variables, found that alcohol alone was a significant predictor of responsible sexual behavior. Risky sexual behavior is often another focus of both prevention and treatment strategies. Teen pregnancy, unsafe sexual practices, and sexually transmitted diseases are important issues for adolescents and are often correlated with other risky behaviors. In general, it seems that higher risk exposure has consistently been found to be associated with higher rates of the incidence of problem behavior (Pollard & Hawkins, 1999). Therefore, early identification of problem behaviors would likely be helpful in preventing future negative behaviors. While promoting protective factors is important, it has been found to be insufficient in preventing adolescents from engaging in risky behavior (Pollard & Hawkins, 1999). Risk factors as well as mediating variables, such as attitudes toward risk behaviors, are important targets of intervention. In addition, views about future outcome should also be targets of intervention, as they are important factors in the decision to engage in risky behaviors (Harris et al., 2002).

CONCLUSIONS Risky behaviors among adolescents have been found to be predictive of later outcome as well as correlated with other unsafe behaviors. Therefore, early detection and treatment of problem behaviors is important in preventing future, more serious problems. Understanding how and why adolescents engage in unhealthy behaviors is important in this goal and has been complicated by the difficulty in combining current research findings into a single theory of the development of risky behavior. When

designing interventions, prevention approaches should consider risk factors, such as demographic variables, as well as constructs related to decisionmaking processes, such as perceived outcome or attitudes toward behaviors. —Adam Fried

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Barnes, G. M., Welte, J. H., & Hoffman, J. H. (2002). Relationship of alcohol use to delinquency and illicit drug use in adolescents: Gender, age, and racial/ethnic differences. Journal of Drug Issues, 32, 153–178. Dodge, K. A., & Petit, G. S. (2003). Biospsychosocial model of development of chronic conduct problems in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 39, 349–371. Gleason, P., & Dynarski, M. (2002). Do we know whom to serve? Issues in using risk factors to identify dropouts. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 7, 25–41. Guo, J., Chung, I., Hill, K. G., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Abbott, R. D. (2002). Developmental relationships between adolescent substance abuse and risky sexual behavior in young adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31, 354–362. Harris, K. M., Duncan, G. J., & Boisoly, J. (2002). Evaluating the role of “nothing to lose” attitudes on risky behavior in adolescence. Social Forces, 80, 1005–1039. Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. (1977). Problem behavior and psychological development: A longitudinal study of youth. New York: Academic Press. Pollard, J. A., & Hawkins, D. J. (1999). Risk and protection: Are both necessary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence? Social Work Research, 2, 145–159.

ADOLESCENTS, CONSENT AND REFUSAL OF TREATMENT WHAT IS INFORMED CONSENT? The concept of informed consent in the practice of medicine means that the patient, not the physician or other health care provider, makes decisions about how treatment will proceed. It is, after all, the patient’s body, not the health care provider’s, and the patient is the one who has to live with the consequences of medical interventions.

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Informed consent usually involves questions of values: which risks among alternative treatments a particular person is more willing to accept. For example, two women of the same age with identical diagnoses of breast cancer might select very different therapies. A professional tennis player might elect the least mutilating form of therapy so she can continue her career. She may well realize that she has a higher theoretical risk of relapse than if she made another choice, but she is most interested in her present situation. The mother of an infant and a 4-year-old might elect to have a treatment that is more disfiguring but which she believes will allow her to live long enough to see her children grow into adulthood. These are value choices that no physician can make for a patient. WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF INFORMED CONSENT? The first aspect of informed consent is an explanation to the patient of what will happen: “The incision will be . . .” and “You should expect to be in the hospital for 4 days” and “After you are discharged, you will need to have physical therapy.” The physician does not have to go into great detail, but the patient must understand what he or she is “getting into” in terms of time, discomfort, and, in some cases, financial obligation. The next element is that of explanation of the anticipated material risks. If the likelihood of something occurring is remote but the consequences are severe, the patient has the right to know about it. For example, if a remote risk is death, blindness, or paralysis, the patient should be told. If something is quite likely to happen, although it may not be very serious from the physician’s perspective, the patient also has the right to know. If, for example, a medication is likely to cause the patient to itch, the patient (who may not be able to tolerate itching and who would rather live with pain) has the right to know that, as well. Third, the benefits of the proposed intervention must be made clear. Of course, if it will cure the problem, the patient should know that. An appendectomy absolutely cures appendicitis. In more complex situations, however, if the therapy can at best ameliorate a condition or prolong life without enhancing the patient’s ability to interact with his or her environment, the concept of “benefit” may not be so clear. Reasonable alternatives, those considered “mainstream medicine” even if the particular physician prefers

another treatment, is a fourth element that must be explained to the patient. If the medication causes itching and the patient chooses not to take it, another medication that does not cause itching but may be marginally less effective should be prescribed. Unless the patient knows about it, however, he or she has no information on which to make the choice. In many instances, “doing nothing” is a perfectly acceptable alternative and must be discussed with the patient. In self-limiting diseases, even if treatment could shorten the intensity or duration, the patient may prefer just to leave things alone. A fifth element of informed consent is addressing this question: Why does the patient need the therapy? In another era, an oncologist would never tell a patient the diagnosis and would prevail upon a patient to undergo something as debilitating as chemotherapy without explaining why it was necessary. If a child or adolescent has a life-threatening illness, parents sometimes insist that the patient not know the diagnosis. While these situations are best negotiated, it is clear that if the minor has a disease that can be communicated to another person, the minor must understand the problem and how to prevent transmission. For example, if an adolescent male contracted HIV from blood or blood products, does not know his diagnosis (or how to practice safe sex), and infects his girlfriend, she has a clearcut malpractice suit against the physician who knew the boyfriend had the disease but did not tell him. WHO IS AN ADOLESCENT UNDER THE LAW? Most courts in dealing with minors’ consent rights have held that 15, and in some cases (for minor illness) 14, is the youngest age limit of consent abilities. These young people from 14 to 18 (when they become adults) may be (a) living at home with their parents, (b) supported by their parents but not living at home (i.e., a student away at preparatory school or a 16-year-old college freshman), (c) a runaway or “throwaway” whose adult caregiver told them to leave, or (d) emancipated. An emancipated minor, who has all of the legal rights of an adult to consent and to make contracts, may be emancipated by court order; the minor and his or her parents have gone to court and asked a judge to declare that parental obligations are terminated and the individual is solely responsible for himself or herself. In almost all states, a minor mother is considered emancipated: No matter how young she may be, her

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parents have no obligation to support her, and in no state but North Carolina do they have any obligation to support her baby, even if she is still living at home. A married minor remains emancipated even if the marriage is terminated. Runaways are usually considered emancipated, since they are de facto living without adult supervision. Virtually any adolescent who is not living at home, is self-supporting, and is in no way dependent on his or her parents can be assumed to be emancipated. THE ADOLESCENT AND INFORMED CONSENT Issues involving nonemergency medical care without parental involvement almost always involve outpatient (and thus less risky) care. Regardless of an unemancipated adolescent’s theoretical legal or ethical claims to be able to consent, a hospital will not admit him or her without an agreement to pay, and teens, if they are insured at all, are insured through their parents. Thus, a hospital will not admit a minor electively unless a parent or guardian agrees to become financially responsible. On the other hand, no matter how young a child, a physician may administer emergency care if parents cannot be located to consent and a delay would result in harm or distress to the child. All states have statutes permitting treatment without parental involvement of any minor (no matter how young) for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These statutes were enacted in the early 1960s, when the STD epidemic among young people reached its highest level. The adolescents were not going for treatment because they did not want their parents to find out about their sexual behavior, and infections were spreading unchecked. Led by the American Medical Association and other medical organizations, legislatures adopted these statutes. Virtually all states have now added drug and alcohol treatment to the same statutes. Some states’ laws include a specific age (usually 16, but in some, 14) at which a minor is allowed to consent to medical or surgical treatment as if he or she were an adult. In all states where the issue has been raised, courts have been willing to accept the “matureminor rule.” This means that if a physician is satisfied that an adolescent understands as well as an adult what the physician has communicated and can give consent as readily as an adult, the consent will be

valid. There has not been a successful case in 45 years in this country in which a parent sued a physician for treating an adolescent without parental permission. Whether or not a physician is willing to accept a minor’s consent depends both on how young the adolescent is—is he a week past his 14th birthday, or is she a week before her 18th birthday?—and how serious both the illness and the risks of treatment are. A physician might be perfectly willing to treat an adolescent’s earache without calling his mother; it is most unlikely that the same physician would consider treating the same teenager for leukemia on his own. If the parent has not been involved in the decision for treatment, the minor is entitled to assume that the treatment has been given in confidence. If the physician thinks the parent should be involved in the decision, this should be made clear to the young patient before that decision is made.

REFUSAL OF TREATMENT If adolescents can consent to treatment, they also have the equivalent right to refuse. In the example above, the young patient would be perfectly able to refuse treatment for an earache but not treatment for leukemia. Almost all states prohibit a minor from refusing lifesaving treatment, and in no state may a minor have an enforceable living will or durable power of attorney. That is not, however, to suggest that minors (even young children) who have a terminal illness should not have their views considered and treated with respect. —Angela Roddey Holder

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics. (2003). Consent for emergency medical services for children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 111(3), 703–706. English, A. (2000). Treating adolescents: Legal and ethical considerations. Medical Clinics of North America, 74, 1097–1112. English, A., & Morreale, M. (2001). Legal and policy framework for adolescent health care: Past, present, and future. Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy, 1, 63. Hanisco, C. M. (2000). Acknowledging the hypocrisy: Granting minors the right to choose their medical treatment. New York Law School Journal of Human Rights, 16, 899.

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Hartman, R. G. (2000). Adolescent autonomy: Clarifying an ageless conundrum. Hastings Law Journal, 51, 1265. Holder, A. R. (1987). Minor’s rights to consent to medical care. Journal of the American Medical Association, 257, 3400–3402. Holder, A. R. (1988). Disclosure and consent problems in pediatrics. Law, Medicine and Health Care, 16, 219. Newman, A. (2001). Adolescent consent to routine medical and surgical treatment. Journal of Legal Medicine, 22, 501. Rosato, J. L. (2002). Let’s get real: Quilting a principled approach to adolescent empowerment in health care decision-making. DePaul Law Review, 51, 769. Sigman, G., Silber, T. J., English, A., & Epner, J. E. (1997). Confidential health care for adolescents: Position paper of the society of adolescent medicine. Journal of Adolescent Health, 21, 408–415.

ADOPTION Each year, about 120,000 children are adopted (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, 2003). Adoption, which involves the legal transfer of parental rights and responsibilities from birth parents to adoptive parents, is becoming more widely known and accepted. The adopted child, adoptive parents, and birth parents constitute the adoption triad: three persons who are profoundly affected by this process. Although an estimated 2% to 4% of children in the United States are adopted, 65% of the population in the United States is touched by adoption, as a relative, friend, or member of the adoption triad (Evan B. Donaldson Institute, 2002). VARIATIONS IN ADOPTION There are four critical areas of variation in adoption: age of the child at placement, how the placement was facilitated, degree of cultural differences between the adoptee and adoptive family, and degree of openness in the adoptive placement. Children placed for adoption range in age from infants, placed at birth or after several months of life, to adolescents. Unfortunately, due to variations in states’ reporting of adoption legalizations, accurate aggregated statistics of the demographic characteristics of children being adopted are not available. The vast majority are placed as infants, whereas about 50% of children adopted from foster care are placed after age 5. Adoptive placements may be facilitated independently or through public child welfare or private

adoption agencies. Independent adoptions involve birth parents directly placing children with adoptive parents. These placements are often facilitated by a lawyer, licensed adoption facilitator, physician, or member of the clergy. Public and private agencies will place children in adoptive families after birth parents’ rights are voluntarily or involuntarily terminated. Many independent adoptions involve children placed with related individuals, as in kinship or stepparent adoptions. Infant placements with unrelated adults tend to be independent adoptions, whereas older child placements with unrelated persons are often facilitated through agencies. International adoptions, placements of children from one country with parents in another country, must be approved by not only an adoption agency but also the governments of both countries. All families raise their children in the context of various cultural, societal, and community influences. However, adoptive families may face bridging cultural differences within the family. Because adoptive families typically have access to more resources than do birth parents whose parental rights have been terminated, many adoptees experience a shift upward in socioeconomic status when placed in adoptive families. Some adoptees are placed in a domestic transracial adoption, which involves placement of a child of color into a family of a different racial background when both adoptee and family are from the same country. Typically, White parents adopt children of African descent. International transracial adoptions occur when children are placed not only internationally but also with families of a different race, as typically occurs when children from Asian countries are adopted by European American families. Approximately 8% of adopted children have been placed in transracial adoptions (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, 2003). The degree of openness in adoption refers to how much contact and information are shared between adoptive and birth families. There is a continuum of openness: confidential adoptions in which there is no contact; mediated adoptions in which there is the exchange of nonidentifying information through a third party; and fully disclosed adoptions, involving the exchange of at least some identifying information and often including face-to-face meetings. Until the late 1980s, most adoptions were confidential; however, more recently, more adoptive parents and birth parents are having some kind of contact. In recent years, many U.S. states have moved to legalize

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cooperative adoption agreements, which are written contracts between birth and adoptive parents regarding the amount of postadoptive contact (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, 2003). This change may be due in part to evolving findings that suggest that when adoptive parents and birth parents agree to and feel comfortable with the amount of contact, healthy adjustment can be facilitated among members of the triad (Grotevant, Perry, & McRoy, in press). Contact arrangements are not always static; they may evolve in either direction (more open, less open) as adoptive and birth parents negotiate their change. DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN ADOPTION Across the life span, salient issues emerge for adopted persons that may reflect the influence of adoption on development. For infants and toddlers, the critical challenge is the development of healthy relationships with the adoptive parent. This relationship, termed a secure attachment, can facilitate success in later years with friendships, learning in school, and learning about the world. For adopted children placed as infants, forming a secure attachment with adoptive parents is no more difficult than it is for infants and their birth parents. However, for children placed for adoption as older children, previous experiences with abusive or neglectful parents may undermine the formation of a secure attachment. During the preschool years, children’s levels of cognitive development can facilitate an understanding of adoption and birth as different paths into a family. Brodzinsky, Singer, and Braff (1984) found that children’s understanding of adoption becomes increasingly specific and sophisticated throughout childhood and adolescence. Thus, these authors suggest that parents teach children about adoption with ongoing discussions throughout childhood and adolescence that use words appropriate to the child’s developmental level. Discussions in the preschool years should focus on adoption as one path of entry into the family. During the elementary school years, children become cognitively able to hold two distinct ideas in their minds simultaneously, thus facilitating a more specific understanding of adoption. As a result, adoptees understand that being adopted means having been given away. For some adoptees, uncertainty about the permanence of their current adoption can emerge, and they can become vulnerable to a loss of self-esteem

and emotional difficulties. Open, comfortable, and frank discussions between adoptive parents and adoptees are critical in order to facilitate a healthy incorporation of these two ideas. All adolescents face the redefinition of the self. This process of identity reformulation may have greater significance for adoptees. Adopted adolescents’ identity formation reflects not only the input of one’s own perspective and feelings about adoption but also the input of one’s family’s messages and comfort level with adoption, and the input from peers and the larger community. Thus, for an adopted adolescent, the significance of being adopted depends on how the adoptee, family, peers, and the larger community handle this issue. As adopted adolescents explore their identities, they may consider searching for information about birth parents, a curiosity that is normative (Grotevant, 1997). Adoption is a lifelong process. Adopted adults may find themselves continuing to explore their adoptive status and its meaning. Some adults (and adolescents) resolve this issue through searching for birth parents, a process that has been made easier in some states with the establishment of search registries. Search registries enable birth parents and adoptees to give permission for the release of identifying information, thus paving the way for one to contact the other. Approximately 2% to 4% of adoptees search each year; over 500,000 persons have searched for their birth families (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, 2003). Reasons for searching include a desire to find out why one was adopted, a desire to meet one’s birth parents, and a desire to find physical resemblance to a parent. In general, adopted adults who have searched for birth parents express satisfaction with the outcome. Developing in the context of these issues, adopted children tend to display more adjustment difficulties than do biological children, including learning problems; impulsive, hyperactive, or rule-breaking behavior; and drug use. However, for most adopted children, these difficulties fall within what is considered a normal range of problems. For a more detailed discussion of adoption issues, development, and parenting, see Brodzinsky and Pinderhughes (2002). UNIQUE ISSUES WITH CERTAIN TYPES OF ADOPTION In addition to the developmental issues that adoptees experience, adoptees in certain types of adoption face

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unique challenges. Adoption of children from foster care carries the most risk for failure; 10% to 15% of these placements fail or disrupt, with the adoptee returning to foster care. Children who are older and have severe emotional or behavioral problems (such as sexual acting out, fire setting, suicidal behavior) are most at risk to have placements disrupt. Older children’s prior experiences with birth families and repeated moves between different foster families shape their expectations about family life, which may differ from the expectations about family life that adoptive families have. Adoptive parents who have realistic expectations of the child and employ flexible parenting styles, while remaining committed to the placement, tend to facilitate successful placements. Domestic transracial adoptions have a controversial history largely because they involve White parents and children of color from the same country. These adoptions are more common in the United States and England than in other countries. In the United States, an increase in transracial placements following the civil rights movement, the unequivocal opposition voiced by the National Black Social Workers Association in 1972, and federal legislation passed in 1994 (the Multiethnic Placement Act) and 1996 (the Interethnic Placement Act) all have been critical developments in the history of these placements. Research generally indicates that transracially adopted children can emotionally adjust as well as children adopted into same-race families. However, recent retrospective accounts from transracial adoptees (e.g., Simon & Roorda, 2002) suggest that how well adoptive parents cope with becoming a multiracial family in the world, raise their children to be prepared for the discrimination they will face, and promote in their adopted children a sense of racial pride may affect how successfully transracially adopted adults adjust as persons of color. International adoptions, whether transracial or intraracial, face yet other complications. Immediate challenges include language and other cultural differences that may complicate communication and formation of attachments. Other immediate challenges may include consequences of institutionalization and inadequate medical care. Many international adoptees lived in orphanages prior to their adoptions and may suffer from histories of inadequate physical, cognitive, and emotional stimulation, which are linked to growth delays, infectious diseases, and neurological diagnoses (Gunnar, Bruce, & Grotevant, 2000). How

well adoptive parents can access external resources to provide compensatory stimulating experiences may affect adoptees’ subsequent recovery and long-term growth. Another long-term challenge for parents is coping as an international family in the world and fostering an identity for the adoptee that includes influences from his or her country of origin and the country of the adopted family. INNOVATIVE SUPPORTS FOR ADOPTIVE FAMILIES With all the variation and normative issues related to adoption, adoptees and adoptive families frequently need supports to facilitate or maintain a successful placement. Over the past 20 years, adoption practice and clinical/counseling practice have evolved to respond to the enduring and changing needs for adoption support. Novel models of adoption communities, such as Generations of Hope, illustrate how the planned creation of a community of foster and adoptive families and senior citizens, supported by services grounded in the community, can provide critical supports for families adopting children from foster care. Some agencies facilitating transracial adoptions have begun to require prospective parents to undergo experiential examination of race/ethnicity prejudice and its potential impact on transracial adoptive families. Medical clinics dedicated to the provision of coordinated medical care for children adopted internationally from institutions are now available in several major cities. Certain mental health agencies now provide creative therapeutic services for members of the adoption triad that are grounded in an understanding of developmental and clinical issues related to adoption. The National Adoption Clearinghouse Web site provides additional examples of innovative and promising practices. CONCLUSIONS Adoption offers to children and families an alternate path to family life. This alternate path, which is characterized by several variations, can be both similar to and different from biological family life. The differences usually present challenges and complications for adoptive family life and adoptees’ development; however, most adopted children tend to function much like nonadopted children do. An understanding of the complications and similarities by all, especially those not yet directly touched by adoption,

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can facilitate more effective and appropriate support for adoptive families and children. —Ellen E. Pinderhughes

See also FOSTER CARE

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brodzinsky, D. M., & Pinderhughes, E. E. (2002). Parenting and child development in adoptive families. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Brodzinsky, D. M., Singer, L. M., & Braff, A. M. (1984). Children’s understanding of adoption. Child Development, 55, 869–878. Evan B. Donaldson Institute. (2002). National Adoption Attitudes Survey. Available at http://www.adoptioninstitute .org/survey/survey_intro.html Grotevant, H. D. (1997). Coming to terms with adoption: The construction of identity from adolescence into adulthood. Adoption Quarterly, 1(1), 3–27. Grotevant, H. D., Perry, Y. V., & McRoy, R. G. (in press). Openness in adoption: Outcomes for adolescents within their adoptive kinship networks. In D. Brodzinsky & J. Palacios (Eds.), Psychological issues in adoption: Theory, research and application. Westport CT: Greenwood. Gunnar, M., Bruce, J., & Grotevant, H. (2000). International adoption of institutionally reared children: Research and policy. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 677–693. National Adoption Information Clearinghouse. (2003). Adoption statistics. Available at http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm Simon, R. J., & Roorda, R. M. (2002). In their own voices: Transracial adoptees tell their stories. New York: Columbia University Press.

ADULT DEVELOPMENT, DEFINITION, CULTURE, AND APPLICATIONS Sweeping demographic changes in Western societies over the past several decades have produced significant changes in the manner and timing in which young people make the transition to adulthood. The most notable change in the United States has been the rise in the median age of marriage from about 21 years for females and 23 for males, in 1970, to 25 and 27 for females and males, respectively, in 1996 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997). As a result, young people have an extended period of time in which they do not consider themselves adolescents but do not yet feel they are adults. Indeed, this relatively new and distinct period of development between adolescence

and young adulthood has been termed emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000) and is characterized as a time in which individuals believe they have begun the transition to adulthood but do not feel they have taken on the full responsibilities of being an adult. The aims of this entry are to (a) provide a description of the defining features of this developmental period, (b) discuss how these features may vary according to culture, and (c) offer possible practical implications that may stem from a better understanding of this period.

DEFINING FEATURES OF EMERGING ADULTHOOD While emerging adulthood is generally viewed as the years between ages 18 and 25, there is no specific age or event that marks the end of the period. Instead, the end of this period of development, and the subsequent entrance into young adulthood, is a subjective experience marked by individuals’ perceived maturity in areas of self-sufficiency, behavior, and identity formation. For example, one study found that approximately 75% of 18- to 25-year-olds did not consider themselves to be adults; and compared with those who did perceive themselves as adults, they viewed themselves as less self-sufficient (i.e., not as financially independent or decided on personal beliefs and values independently of parents or other influences, etc.), not having a strong sense of their overall identities, and engaging in more risk behaviors, such as illegal drug use and drunk driving (Nelson & Barry, 2003). Exploration and experimentation in these areas (subjective criteria for adulthood, identity, and risk behaviors) are the defining features of this age period and will be addressed in greater detail in the following sections. Criteria for Adulthood For years, researchers have examined various events (e.g., marriage, completion of education, starting a career) that are often considered markers of adulthood. More recently, however, researchers have begun to ask young people who are actually in the process of making the transition to adulthood what they perceive as necessary for adult status. Results find that emerging adults do not consider marriage and other events as necessary for adulthood. Instead, young people use more internal and individualistic qualities as the most important criteria for adulthood,

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including taking responsibility for one’s actions, independent decision making, and financial independence from parents (see Arnett, 2000). These criteria consistently rank as the most important markers of adulthood in the minds of young people in the United States, including various cultural subgroups such as ethnic minorities (Arnett, 2003) and religious subgroups (Nelson, 2003). Taken together, independence and self-sufficiency are the general themes in the process of becoming adults for young people in Western cultures such as the United States. Identity Distinctions Many theorists and researchers have identified identity formation as a defining feature of the transition to adulthood, as young people attempt to answer these questions: Who am I, and what is my place in society? Given that young people in contemporary society lack specific roles to help them answer these questions, they use this period of time to explore their identities in the areas of work, relationships, and worldviews. For example, Côté (1996) identified three domain clusters, including psychological (e.g., career choice), interactional (e.g., dating), and social structural (e.g., politics, morality). Given that emerging adults, especially those in higher education, have few societal roles, responsibilities, and expectations placed upon them during these years, they have an extended period of time to explore and “try on” various possible selves in each of these domains. First, emerging adults tend to engage in a number of activities that reflect their attempts to find the type of work they are good at and would find satisfying as a long-term career. For example, this exploration in work can be seen in emerging adults’ tendencies to change majors, increasingly attend graduate school (often in fields different from undergraduate paths), participate in short-term volunteer jobs (e.g., Americorps, Peace Corps), and travel to various places in the country or the world as part of work or educational experiences (Arnett, 2000). Second, emerging adults use this time of their lives to explore their identities in the area of romantic relations. Similar to the area of work, emerging adults tend to engage in a number of activities that reflect their attempts to find the type of person they wish to have as long-term partners. For example, romantic relationships during these years tend to last longer than in adolescence (but still tend not to be long-term

relationships or include marriage), are likely to include sexual intercourse, and may include cohabitation (Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, & Kolata, 1995). Finally, exploration of worldviews and religious beliefs are important aspects of identity formation in emerging adulthood. As noted previously, the item “decide on personal beliefs and values independently of parents or other influences” appears repeatedly in studies as one of the most important criteria young people have for becoming adults. Exploration and experimentation in this domain can be seen in the fact that emerging adults often enter adulthood with different views than those they were raised with and held when they left adolescence (e.g., Arnett & Jensen, 2002). In sum, identity exploration is a defining feature of this developmental period. As a whole, the age period tends to be characterized by Marcia’s (1980) state of identity moratorium: extensive exploration with little commitment. Via the process of exploration and experimentation, however, individuals form the mature identity that is necessary to successfully take on adult roles and responsibilities. Behavioral Distinctions There are numerous behaviors of emerging adults that distinguish them from adolescents and young adults. As described earlier, romantic relationships (nonmarital) tend to include sexual intercourse and, often, cohabitation (Michael et al., 1995). Furthermore, emerging adulthood (rather than adolescence) is the peak period for several risk behaviors, including unprotected sex and most types of substance use, including binge drinking, and risky driving behaviors, such as driving at high speeds or while intoxicated (e.g., Arnett, 1992). CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN EMERGING ADULTHOOD Researchers have cautioned that emerging adulthood may not be a universal period. Indeed, it may vary widely according to a culture’s values and views on when young people are expected to enter full adulthood and take on adult responsibilities. For example, whereas Western cultures such as the United States tend to value the individual and emphasize the capacity of an individual to stand alone as a self-sufficient person, some Western subcultures (Arnett, 2003; Nelson, 2003) and Eastern majority cultures (e.g., China;

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Nelson, Badger, & Wu, in press) tend to emphasize the goals, needs, and views of the family and community over those of the individual. These differences in values appear to influence emerging adulthood. For example, in a study examining emerging adulthood in college students in China, researchers found that the defining features of emerging adulthood reflected several values of Chinese cultures (Nelson et al., in press). First, the majority of Chinese young people in the study felt they had reached adult status in their early 20s. That is the exact opposite of what is usually found in samples of college students in the United States. Second, Chinese emerging adults rated criteria necessary for adulthood that reflected cultural values, including responsibility toward parents. Unlike studies in the United States, in China, the item “capable of supporting parents financially” ranked near the top of criteria deemed necessary for adulthood. Finally, Chinese emerging adults tended not to engage in behaviors that typically occur during this period in Western cultures. For example, only 16% of participants drank alcohol, and only 8% had used illegal drugs. Similar results that reflect a culture’s values and beliefs have been found in studies of young Israelis as well as ethnic minorities and religious subgroups in the United States. Taken together, there is strong evidence that culture plays a significant role in defining emerging adulthood. APPLICATIONS One practical implication of these ideas could include how we understand behaviors that are commonly labeled “risky.” Programs to reduce “dangerous” driving practices, unprotected sexual intercourse, and substance use typically conceptualize these behaviors within the risk framework—that is, with reference to potential for personal harm. According to the emerging-adulthood perspective, we may be conceptualizing such behaviors inappropriately with respect to danger when, in fact, they may be forms of personal experimentation for most young adults that have value in terms of identity formation that subsume any potential danger to physical health. That is, during this time period, individuals (at least in Western cultures) engage in these behaviors for reasons other than personal safety or danger. The effectiveness of any health promotion and risk reduction interventions will depend on how sensitive they are to critical

developmental junctions faced by young adults (i.e., “figuring out who I really am”). These programs might be well-advised to instead encourage young adults to use alternate ways (i.e., ones that have less potential for personal harm) to “find” themselves. Examples might include artistic expression and athletics (as an example of personal challenge). Such programs could also provide work placement options, which could foster the process of role exploration and experimentation and assist in the formation of mature identity that is necessary to successfully take on adult roles and responsibilities. Moreover, psychosocial (strong sense of identity, religious beliefs) and interpersonal strengths (e.g., social support) that have been identified can be mobilized as a resource to reduce the incidence of risky behaviors and internalizing symptomatology, such as depression. CONCLUSIONS Emerging adulthood is a complex and dynamic period of life that presents young people both numerous opportunities and a variety of challenges. It may be best characterized as a time during which 18- to 25-year-olds (a) are pursuing individualisticoriented rather than other-oriented goals; (b) are striving to form identities through experimenting with work, relationships, and worldviews; (c) are lacking specific transitional roles that prepare them for adult roles; (d) are entering into increasingly intimate, nonmarital relationships; and (e) are engaging in relatively high rates of risky behaviors, such as unprotected intercourse, illegal drug use, and driving while drunk. However, this generalization of the time period does not capture the variation that exists both within individuals and across cultures. Future research needs to continue to examine the overall trends that exist in the developmental period as well as factors that influence individual differences and the role of culture. —Larry J. Nelson and Charissa S. L. Cheah

See also TRANSITION IN ADULTHOOD

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Arnett, J. (1992). Reckless behavior in adolescence: A developmental perspective. Developmental Review, 12, 339–373. Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. Arnett, J. J. (2003). Conceptions of the transition to adulthood among emerging adults in American ethnic groups. In

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J. Arnett & N. Galambos (Eds.), New directions for child and adolescent development: Cultural conceptions of the transition to adulthood, 100, 33–49. Arnett, J. J., & Jensen, L. A. (2002). A congregation of one: Individualized religious beliefs among emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17, 451–467. Côté, J. E. (1996). Identity: A multidimensional analysis. In G. R. Adams, R. Montemayor, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), Psychosocial development in adolescence: Advances in adolescent development (pp. 130–180). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology. New York: Wiley. Michael, R. T., Gagnon, J. H., Laumann, E. O., & Kolata, G. (1995). Sex in America: A definitive survey. New York: Warner Brooks. Nelson, L. J. (2003). Rites of passage in emerging adulthood: Perspectives of young Mormons. In J. Arnett & N. Galambos (Eds.), New directions for child and adolescent development: Cultural conceptions of the transition to adulthood, 100, 33–49. Nelson, L. J., Badger, S., & Wu, B. (in press). The influence of culture in emerging adulthood: Perspectives of Chinese college students. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Nelson, L. J., & Barry, C. M. (2003). Distinguishing features of emerging adulthood: The role of self-classification as an adult. Manuscript submitted for publication. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1997). Statistical abstracts of the United States: 1997. Washington, DC: Author.

ADVERTISING, EFFECTS ON CHILDREN Despite many years of academic research, there continues to be no consensus on the way in which advertising influences children and adolescents. Some authors argue that children are critical consumers who are well capable of defending themselves against the possible negative effects of advertising. They believe that advertising provides children with valuable product information, which supports them in their development as consumers. Many others, however, believe that advertising aimed at children has a strong impact on their beliefs, values, and moral norms. They argue that children are more vulnerable than adults to the persuasive influences of commercials because they still lack the cognitive skills to defend themselves against the attractive and cleverly put advertising messages (see Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003, for a review). Studies into the impact of advertising on children typically focus on three kinds of effects: cognitive,

affective, and behavioral. This entry will discuss each type of advertising effect and provide an insight into the current state of the empirical research on these effects. COGNITIVE-EFFECTS STUDIES Cognitive-effects studies fall apart into two subtypes. A first subtype focuses on children’s ability to distinguish commercials from television programs and their ability to understand the selling intent of advertising. Most of these studies have adopted Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to guide their research (e.g., Wartella & Ettema, 1974). These studies have demonstrated that children who are at Piaget’s preoperational stage (2–7 years) respond differently to commercials than do children at the concrete operational stage (7–12 years). It has been shown, for example, that from 7 years onward, children are progressively more able to distinguish commercials from television programs and show a better understanding of the persuasive intent of commercials. A second subtype of cognitive-effects studies investigates the influence of advertising on children’s brand awareness. Brand awareness is usually investigated by showing children brand logos or brand characters and then measuring the extent to which they recognize or recall the relevant brands. Brand recognition is investigated by showing children brand logos or characters and then asking them to which brand or product a particular logo best fits. The children can choose from a number of options. In the case of brand recall, the children have to name the brand spontaneously while looking at the logos or characters. Both correlational and experimental research into children’s brand recognition has found that television advertising stimulates children’s brand recognition (e.g., Fischer, Schwartz, Richards, Goldstein, & Rojas, 1991). However, research into the brand recall of children has come up with far less clear results. In a study by Ward, Wackman, and Wartella (1977), children of 4 to 12 years of age were asked to name as many brands as possible from a particular product group. They were asked, for example, to name as many brands of toothpaste as possible. Although most brands that were named were advertised frequently on television, the relationship between watching television and brand recall was not significant. Also, in another study that investigated children of different ages, no positive relationship was found among children from 4 to 14 years of age (Atkin, 1975).

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In summary, both correlational and experimental research show that the influence of advertising on the brand recall of young children is smaller than its influence on their brand recognition. There are various explanations for this. First, recalling things requires greater cognitive efforts than recognition. Recalling something requires a mental journey to a particular information unit in memory and, then, in a second step, an evaluation as to whether the activated information unit is the correct one. In the case of recognition memory, only the second step is necessary. Most recall tasks in advertising research, particularly those in which children have to come up with the brand name themselves, are probably too difficult for young children, perhaps so difficult that advertising has little or no effect on their recall. Another explanation for the finding that advertising has more effect on the brand recognition of older children than that of younger children is that older children possess better strategies to aid their memory, such as rehearsal, categorization, visualization of particular words, and mnemonics (e.g., Roy G. Biv for the colors of the rainbow). As of 7 years of age, children use these sorts of strategies increasingly often, thereby helping to increase their recall memory. A final and perhaps the most important explanation for the finding that advertising has more effect on older children’s brand recall is that older children have a greater knowledge than younger children. Recall studies have suggested that new information is best remembered when it is related to existing knowledge in the memory. Because younger children often lack certain domain-specific knowledge, they often have more difficulty remembering new information than do older children. AFFECTIVE-EFFECTS STUDIES Affective-effects studies of advertising concentrate on children’s trust in and liking of commercials and on their brand preferences. This body of research examines, for example, how skeptical children’s responses toward advertising are, whether children like the advertised brand (better) under the influence of advertising, whether their desire for the brand is aroused, or whether they would choose advertised brands in preference to others. Studies into children’s trust in commercials have consistently shown that responses toward commercials gradually become less favorable as children

mature. From about 8 years of age, children begin to become more critical and skeptical of advertising. This development reaches its peak at around 12 years of age. It should be noted, though, that the finding that children become more skeptical of certain commercials does not necessarily mean that they are skeptical about all commercials. Riecken and Ugur (1990), for example, demonstrated that children can be very critical about some types of commercials (e.g., for detergents) but not at all in the case of other ones. Moreover, children’s skepticism does not necessarily have to preclude their credulity. A study by Linn, de Benedictis, and Delucchi (1982) showed that adolescents who were highly critical about certain persuasive techniques used in commercials, for example, comparative tests, often still believed the results of these tests. The effect of advertising on children’s brand preferences is also significantly related to age. Several studies have found that advertising effects on children’s brand preferences are generally greater for children under the age of 8. These age differences can by explained in several ways. First, it is assumed that children do not begin to be able to form and maintain stable attitudes until they reach about 8 years of age (Piaget, 1981). Children under 8 years of age may therefore be more easily swayed by an appealing commercial than are older children, who are better able to relate and compare new information to their existing attitudes toward the advertised products or brands. Another explanation is that younger children have less experience and knowledge that they can use while processing commercials. Because of this, they are less able to come up with critical thoughts and counterarguments while watching commercials, which inherently makes them more susceptible to persuasive information (Young, 1990). A final explanation is that children of up to about 8 years old are not capable of realizing the persuasive intent of advertising. In contrast to older children, they see advertising primarily as entertainment and are not yet able to critically evaluate its content. Persuasive effects are generally greater when the source is perceived as credible. Because young children cannot see through many persuasive techniques, far more sources are considered as credible. This might be the reason why younger children are more easily convinced by attractive advertising claims than are older children (see Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003, for a review).

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BEHAVIORAL-EFFECTS STUDIES

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS

Behavioral-effects studies of advertising focus on the extent to which children are persuaded by advertisements. Since young children usually do not have the means to purchase products, behavioral effects are usually measured by the requests children make in response to advertised products. Only a few studies have investigated the relationship between advertising and children’s request behavior. The studies that have been conducted have all demonstrated that children who often watch commercial television ask their parents for products more often (see Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003, for a review). The approximate correlations in the different correlational studies vary from r = .18 (Isler, Popper, & Ward, 1987) to r = .41 (Atkin, 1975). In the majority of studies, the reported correlations were around r = .30. To date, no research has investigated how age or developmental level influences advertising’s effects on children’s purchase requests. It is possible that for younger children, there is a relatively greater direct relationship between watching commercials and request behavior. After all, younger children generally have more difficulty delaying gratification and diverting their attention from the tempting aspects of particular products than do older children, so that it is conceivable that advertising has a greater influence on the request behavior of younger than older children. Unfortunately, such age differences in advertising-induced purchase requests have, as yet, not been investigated.

Atkin, C. K. (1975). Survey of children’s and mothers’ responses to television commercials: The effects of television advertising on children (Report 8). East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED123675) Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2003). The effects of television advertising on materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness: A review of research. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 437–456. Fischer, P. M., Schwartz, M. P., Richards, J. W., Goldstein, A. O., & Rojas, T. H. (1991). Brand logo recognition by children aged 3 to 6 years. Journal of the American Medical Association, 266, 3145–3148. Isler, L., Popper, E. T., & Ward, S. (1987). Children’s purchase requests and parental responses: Results from a diary study. Journal of Advertising Research, 27(5), 29–39. Linn, M. C., de Benedictis, T., & Delucchi, K. (1982). Adolescent reasoning about advertisements: Preliminary investigations. Child Development, 53, 1599–1633. Piaget, J. (1981). Intelligence and affectivity: Their relationship during child development. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews. Riecken, G., & Ugur, Y. (1990). Children’s general, product and brand-specific attitudes towards television commercials. International Journal of Advertising, 9, 136–148. Ward, S., Wackman, D. B., & Wartella, E. (1977). How children learn to buy: The development of consumer information-processing skills. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Wartella, E., & Ettema, J. S. (1974). A cognitive developmental study of children’s attention to television commercials. Communication Research, 1, 69–87. Young, B. (1990). Television advertising and children. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

CONCLUSIONS Despite the lack of consensus about the effects of advertising on children in academic and popular literature, the empirical evidence to date clearly indicates that advertising has certain cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects on children. Television advertising can stimulate children’s brand awareness, their brand preferences, and their request behavior. The literature also suggests that advertising effects are most significant for children below the age of 8. However, there are indications that specific adult mediation strategies can mitigate or even counteract advertising effects on children (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003). Future research should investigate which mediation strategies are most successful for the different cognitive, affective, and behavioral advertising effects. —Patti M. Valkenburg

See also MEDIA USE, READING, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

ADVOCACY, CHILD Because children are seldom able to act for themselves in legislative and regulatory arenas, the need exists for adults to advocate for them. Advocates for children are those who press for reforms that will result in better lives for children or for the maintenance of the status quo in areas in which children are being well served by existing policies and practices. Advocates can be individuals or groups, formal agencies, or grassroots coalitions, and they can operate on any level—federal, state, or local—at which decisions regarding policies and practices affecting children and families are made. They might work alone or in collaboration with other advocates. They might be concerned with a single issue or with the overall wellbeing of children. Changes in the ways governments,

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schools, or businesses operate with respect to the needs of children and families are rarely implemented in the absence of advocacy. This entry describes the history of child advocacy and the institutions and individuals involved in the advocacy process. ADVOCACY IN HISTORY The roots of the advocacy movement are hundreds of years old. Child social policy was already being enacted as early as the second century A.D., when a foundation to save female infants from destruction at the hands of their parents was established by the Empress Faustina (Garrison, 1965). Children’s asylums were established by the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, and Pope Innocent III ordered the building of a series of institutions to care for the many illegitimate children left in the wake of the 13th-century crusades. Historians of child welfare describe laws against infanticide in numerous ancient and modern civilizations (Ariès, 1962; Boswell, 1974). More recent antecedents of the modern child advocacy movement can be found in the social reforms of the 19th century. Increasing industrialization and polarization of home and work life redefined parenting, implicitly assigning the greater share of responsibility for children and their care to women (Kessen, 1965). The 50 years following the Civil War were also characterized by the proliferation of child study institutions, advances in pediatric medicine, and the establishment of reform schools and orphanages (Jacobs & Davies, 1994; U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1976). These institutions both legitimized advocacy by making action on behalf of children a focus of study and trained scholars in the norms and needs of children and families. CHILD ABUSE AND CHILD LABOR Two early examples of advocacy movements in the United States illustrate some of the most basic principles of child advocacy. The history of child abuse gives us the case of 8-year-old Mary Ellen Wilson, brutally abused by her adoptive parents in New York City before the days of child protection laws. The founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, using his standing as a prominent city socialite, drew enough attention to the child’s plight that the case was eventually brought to trial; the media coverage caused a sensation, and the attention

garnered by the case eventually led to the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Bremner, 1971). At about the same time, political and rhetorical pressure—both formal and grassroots—were brought to bear against the uses and abuses of child labor in the United States. Many children died or were permanently crippled by the ill health and injury resulting from backbreaking labor, dangerous conditions, and environmental hazards encountered in mines, mills, chimneys, and factories. In 1881, the American Federation of Laborers (AFL), in their inaugural meeting, committed themselves to the abolition of child labor practices. During the early years of the 20th century, the National Child Labor Committee and the newly established Federal Children’s Bureau also worked to curb child labor. PRINCIPLES OF ADVOCACY These two cases (and many others like them) illustrate several basic principles of child advocacy. First, advocacy is most effective when information about its goals and motivations are made public. Awareness of a problem and what it will take to solve it is one of the critical components of a process that will lead to effective intervention or policy change. Second, though concern and compassion for children and families typically lie at the heart of advocacy efforts, successful bids for reform are more likely to be driven by an economic agenda and a focus on adult and general societal welfare, especially when the actions proposed have positive, measurable, and far-reaching ramifications for business, industry, or government. In the case of the anti–child labor movement, for example, groups like the AFL were spurred to action less out of a concern for child workers than by the desire to protect and conserve jobs for their own constituency, adults who were often shut out of the labor force by the steady supply of cheap child labor. Third, the timing of advocacy efforts is critical (by the time the National Child Labor Committee became active in 1904, many children had already been phased out of jobs because of the increasing complexity and mechanization of the jobs themselves), and changes come slowly (the first child labor law allowed by the Supreme Court to stand was not enacted until 1930). The same forces that ruled child advocacy in its early years—timing and patience, economic benefit, and the need for public awareness and acceptance of a

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given concern—still drive the advocacy movement today. THE PLAYERS There are many stakeholders involved in child advocacy. Successful advocacy involves multiple efforts, involving government agencies, parents, scholars, lobbyists, politicians, businesses, the media, private foundations and commissions, and the courts. Government Agencies Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government contributed substantial fiscal and human resources to the development of social programs, but state governments too began to play a critical role in the provision of social welfare services and the distribution of available resources. As these events developed, two things happened: The funding for children’s programs grew and so did decentralization of government responsibility for social services programs. Policy decisions surrounding child care, family leave, health care, education, and other social services are increasingly made at the state level, requiring advocates to focus their efforts closer to home (Pizzo, 1995; Zigler & Hall, 2000). Parents Parents, adopting the model of movements promoting racial and gender equality, joined the ranks of advocates for children. Parents represent a busy, beleaguered, but powerful constituency; they increasingly view themselves as informed consumers of public policy. Their actions have led to changes in legislation on child care, family leave, treatment of child abusers, missing children, the tracking of adults identified as sex offenders, and the provision of medical care. Consumer demand from parents, for instance, helped to bring about the passage and ultimate implementation (after twice being vetoed by the first President Bush) of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Families facing extraordinary crises have been able to bring about policy changes, such as those that led to the founding of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. Individual cases can also have profound advocacy implications: The murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka led to the passage of “Megan’s Law,” requiring communities to be notified of the

residency of convicted sex offenders; and the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman led to the establishment of the nationwide “Amber Alert” system, to promote awareness and recovery of abducted children. Scholars Scholars have played a part in child advocacy since at least the early years of the 20th century, when medical advances were spurred by growing understanding of germ theory. Efforts to provide a supply of clean, safe milk and water and to inoculate all U.S. children against potentially deadly diseases, such as polio, established an advocacy role for medical experts. This role has long since been extended to include educators, social scientists, mental health specialists, clinicians, lawyers, and others who lend credence and reliability to policy efforts and who participate at every stage of policy development, from enhancing public awareness to monitoring and adjusting policy and program efforts. Project Head Start provides a classic example of an arena in which child and family experts were invited to provide expertise in program development. Not only did scholars strengthen this and other early intervention programs by collecting baseline data, setting developmentally and culturally appropriate program goals, and building in research components to evaluate program effectiveness, these actions also furthered their understanding of how to best identify and meet the needs of children and families. The involvement of scholars in the policy process is often characterized by tensions between purely academic research in these areas and the applications of that research to “real-world” situations. Particularly in the 1970s, scholars of developmental science and their organizations exhibited profound reluctance to be openly involved in the development or implementation of child policy (Phillips & Styfco, 2004). Even so, scholars have established a permanent place for themselves in the policy forum: providing expertise, analyzing program outcomes, publishing findings, testifying before legislative and judicial bodies, and acting as consultants for legislators and executive branch decision makers, all in the name of improving the lot of children and families. Lobbyists and Political Action Committees Lobbyists and political action committees acting on behalf of children in general or those with special needs

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focus a scientific spotlight on the actions of policymakers and help to direct financial resources supportive of family policy efforts. The New-York-based Child Care Action Campaign is an example of such a group. KIDSPAC, a political action committee formed in 1981, also raises money and awareness to support the election of child- and family-friendly public officials. Business and Industry Business and industry have an enormous impact on the passage of family policy. With roughly two thirds of the mothers of young children in the paid labor force, work life policies such as those related to family leaves and child care quality are of prominent concern both to employers and employees. Private sector efforts aimed at promoting and protecting family needs have been slow to materialize and sometimes run counter to the wishes of parents. Business lobbies, for instance, slowed the passage of family leave legislation in the 1980s and early 1990s and were partially responsible for the veto of the first two family leave bills passed by Congress. More profamily efforts, though, especially at the local level, have led to many businesses adopting policies that help to keep parents in the workplace. The Media The power of the media makes them strong players as well, spotlighting child and family issues in ways that are sometimes sensational, but nearly always powerful. The ongoing needs of large groups of children (to have high-quality child care, for instance) are sometimes eclipsed by presentations (and sometimes distortions) of more dramatic but less typical concerns (such as abuse at the hands of day care providers). Media outlets play particularly strong roles in bringing the needs of children and families to public (and legislative) attention and play a watchdog role in monitoring and exposing policies that are poorly implemented, fail to meet established standards, lose or are threatened with the loss of funding, or, conversely, appear to waste or be unworthy of funding. Child advocates can make effective use of media coverage by providing media representatives at the right level (local, state, or national) with sound information in a format that makes it accessible. Advocates can also use the media to disseminate information about how larger issues in the world—military

conflicts, budget proposals, tax cuts, and so on—would affect children and families. Foundations and Commissions Foundations and commissions have much in common with the media, especially when promoting messages derived from research or task forces studying topics of particular importance in the lives of children. Foundations tend to be privately supported; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation are two examples of philanthropic organizations that devote time and money to the promotion of child welfare. Commissions might be either private or government sponsored, although they were authorized to act independently of government bodies and are, at least in theory, free to reach their own conclusions based on the evidence they gather. The National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality is such a group; the bipartisan Congressional Commission on Leave, which evaluated the impact of the FMLA 3 years after its implementation, is another. The Courts Policy making is often accomplished in the courts, as when the U.S. Supreme Court engineered a paradigm shift in American education by striking down so-called separate-but-equal educational arrangements and calling for the speedy desegregation of public schools in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Governments themselves can promote children’s policies. The Administration for Children and Families has improved child and family welfare but must answer to two masters: the children whose well-being they promote and the government at whose pleasure they serve. CONCLUSIONS Child advocates of all kinds must operate within a context of world events, economic constraints, cultural issues, conflicting agendas of advocates for other groups, and politics at every level. Those wishing to advocate effectively for positive outcomes for children and families must be well versed in the political and economic aspects of policy and program development, be well armed with empirically derived information about program rationale and potential effects, have excellent communication skills, learn to work with the

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media and build coalitions, and learn to balance a passion for protecting and supporting families with patience with the slow turning of the advocacy wheel. —Nancy W. Hall

See also LAW, CHILD WITNESSES

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ariès, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life. New York: Knopf. Boswell, J. (1974). The kindness of strangers. New York: Pantheon. Bremner, R. H. (1971). Children and youth in America: A documentary history: Vol. 2. 1600–1865. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Garrison, F. H. (1965). Abt-Garrison history of pediatrics. In A. Abt (Ed.), Pediatrics (Vol. 1). Philadelphia: Saunders. Hall, N. W. (2003). The brain campaign: Brain development and the media. In E. F. Zigler, M. Finn-Stevenson, & N. W. Hall (Eds.), The first three years and beyond: Brain development and social policy (pp. 185–198). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Jacobs, F. H., & Davies, M. W. (1994). More than kissing babies? Current child and family policy in the United States. Westport, CT: Auburn House. Kessen, W. (1965). The child. New York: Wiley. Phillips, D., & Styfco, S. (2004). Child development research and public policy: History through a personal lens. In L. Aber, D. Phillips, S. M. Jones, K. McLearn, & S. Bishop (Eds.), Child development and social policy: Knowledge for action. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pizzo, P. (1995). Parent advocacy: A resource for intervention. In S. J. Meisels & J. P. Shonkoff (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention (pp. 668–678). New York: Cambridge University Press. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. (1976). Child health in America. Rockville, MD: Author. Zigler, E. F., & Hall, N. W. (2000). Child development and social policy. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, CULTURAL INFLUENCES Black American youth constitute 16% of the U.S. population under 18 years of age (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003). Due to the growing need for practitioners, educators, and policymakers to better serve diverse populations, there has been an increase in the number of studies examining Black child development. This

entry describes potential areas for future research, which may be useful in guiding applied developmental scientists conducting research with this population. These areas of research include (a) the impact of ethnicity and immigrant status on Black child development; (b) the mechanisms and processes of culturally relevant factors (e.g., extended family support, racial socialization) related to Black child development; and (c) the inclusion of culturally specific approaches to the design and content of child- and family-focused interventions targeting Black populations. RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CULTURE Researchers studying ethnically diverse populations often use race as a factor in data analysis. The use of race in psychosocial research often rests on unproven assumptions of shared genetic heritage based on external physical characteristics, such as facial features, skin color, and hair texture (Thomas & Sillen, 1972). However, many social scientists advocate for the use of the more inclusive concepts of ethnicity and culture. Culture, the broader of the two concepts, is defined in terms of group ways of thinking and living, and shared knowledge, skills, values, expressive forms, social institutions, and behaviors. Ethnicity encompasses both race and culture and includes language, religion, history, beliefs, norms, behaviors, and institutions that members of a group share. This approach to understanding unique ethnic differences may be beneficial to Black populations due to the hetereogenity of this group. Studies of ethnicity involving Black youth in the United States need to include examinations of immigration status. Although Blacks have historically constituted a smaller percentage of the immigrants entering the United States compared with Asians or Latinos, this pattern is changing. Population rates showed a 1,277% increase over a 40-year period in the number of foreign-born Blacks residing in the United States. Demographers project that by the year 2010, the population of first-generation (i.e., foreign-born) and secondgeneration (i.e., U.S.-born children to at least one foreign-born parent) Blacks will reach 4.3 million, which is 12% of the total U.S. Black population. Many developmental outcomes may be affected by immigration status. For example, empirical evidence suggests that immigrant racial minorities remain in school longer and once they overcome initial language difficulties, achieve greater success than do nonimmigrant minorities. However, most of these studies focus

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on Hispanic and Asian children. Some researchers have argued that being Black and an immigrant is a double risk factor because this population may face the barriers of racism and xenophobia. Other researchers suggest that the social support and social networks among Black ethnic communities (e.g., Jamaican, Haitian) help Black immigrants overcome disadvantages. Additional research is needed to delineate factors that contribute to differences in academic achievement among Black immigrant children compared with their African American counterparts. For example, Rong and Preissle (1998) report that Black immigrant children aged 6 to 16 years are more likely to be ahead of other children in their grade levels, go to school at an early age, stay in school, and make satisfactory academic progress. CULTURALLY RELEVANT FACTORS IN BLACK YOUTH DEVELOPMENT Culturally relevant factors are those that, although applicable to the general population, have been found to be related to outcomes specifically for Black Americans, based on past empirical data or theory recognizing unique current or historical conditions for this group. Culture provides a shared system through which members interpret reality and construct their lives. Thus, research that aims to further our understanding of factors influencing Black American youth should be guided by an investigation of the nature, structure, and dynamics of the cultural experiences for this group. The literature on the Black American experience has identified many cultural components, including the parenting practice of racial socialization and the extended family network. Parental Racial Socialization The parenting practice of racial socialization helps to teach Black youth adaptive responses to social, economic, and political barriers they may face in society due to their racial group membership. There have been several phases of research examining racial socialization. The first phase of research focused on establishing racial socialization as a parenting practice used by Black Americans. The second line of inquiry focused on developing a typology to describe the nature of racial socialization messages that Black American parents provide to their children. For example, Hughes and Johnson (2001) conducted a study looking at racial socialization practices among

Black parents of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade children. Results indicated that parents with higher levels of experience with discrimination reported delivering more cultural history pride and racial diversity messages to their children. Children’s racial identity exploration was associated with more frequent parental messages regarding racial discrimination. In addition, perception of unfair racial treatment by peers was associated with increases in parental messages relating distrust of other races. The third phase was aimed at investigating the relationship of racial socialization to developmental outcomes. In a recent study, Fisher, Wallace, and Fenton (2000) explored the relationship between different racial socialization messages and youth distress in response-perceived peer, school, and institutional discrimination among Black, Hispanic, East Asian, and White youth. The next phase of research in this area should address the specifics of how racial socialization is delivered, including the timing and delivery strategies (e.g., setting, methods of communication, delivery style), and delineating how parents modify content based on the individual characteristics and experiences of the child. The Extended-Family Network Another culturally relevant factor that has received some attention in the developmental literature on Black American populations is the extended-family network. Although 45% of all Black households are womenheaded, one-parent families (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000), researchers have described up to 81 different combinations of family compositions and structures within the Black community. The organization of Black extended-family networks reveals a close network of relationships within and between families who may or may not be blood relatives. The Black American extended-family network is multigenerational, interdependent, and headed by a dominant family figure, and it reaches across geographical boundaries. Tolson and Wilson (1990) found that Black respondents reported frequent socializing among family members, often listing relatives as friends. In many Black extended families, there is an emphasis on participation in family events, such as birthdays, funerals, festivals, holidays, and celebrations. In addition, due to lack of resources and economic limitations, many Black extended-family members share a single residence. This system of sharing is facilitated by a strong sense of obligation to the family.

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In developmental research, the most common measure of family structure is a dichotomized construct of intact and nonintact families. There are concerns that this approach does not properly reflect the compositional diversity within Black families. To address these limitations, child development research needs to develop measurement criteria that include the extended-family network for examining family composition, structure, and functioning. For example, Kamo (2000) has identified various forms of samehousehold, extended-family structures. Downward households are those that include a younger generation that stays attached to the original household. In such households, an adult child comes back with his or her own children to live with the family of origin. An upward household emerges when an older-generation person becomes attached to his or her child’s family, such as when an elderly parent is taken care of by the family of his or her child. The last type of household is the horizontal extension, when same generations (i.e., two siblings and their respective families) share a household. Kamo (2000) found that non-Hispanic Whites are much less likely to form extended-family households of any type and that downward extension is more prevalent among Black Americans than other ethnic minority groups. Future studies should focus on understanding how family structures in Black populations are composed, how they may change over time, how they contribute to family functioning, and how these various structures affect child outcomes.

(2004) recommend adapting parenting curricula to address the use of various types of racial socialization parenting strategies (e.g., racism preparation, racial pride, racial equality, achievement). In addition, they describe ideas for program materials that use media, dolls, books, and events related to Black American populations to encourage culturally affirming attitudes and behaviors in children. By addressing the cultural needs and values of Black Americans, interventions may, in turn, be perceived as more inviting and encourage greater participation in youth development programs. CONCLUSIONS Cultural competence among applied developmental scientists is vital in a growing and diverse society. Demographic estimates indicate that the Black American youth population is projected to increase 18% by the year 2050. To meet the needs of this population, our knowledge base about the developmental pathways of Black children needs to expand. Although the literature has observed an increase in the research focused on Black youth populations, we have much more to learn. Future directions in the field should include research addressing the role of ethnicity and immigration status on Black youth outcomes, the study of culturally relevant processes affecting youth development, and the development of models for culturally specific approaches to the design and content of youthand family-focused interventions. —Scyatta A. Wallace

CULTURALLY SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS Youth- and family-focused interventions developed for Black populations often experience engagement and attrition problems. Many Black Americans feel that not enough research is relevant to their communities or shares their cultural values and concerns. Researchers’ lack of sensitivity to Black American cultural values may contribute to their reluctance to participate in intervention studies. The cultural values of Black American communities historically have not been included in intervention content. Therefore, a next line of research is to investigate the usefulness of incorporating culturally relevant variables into intervention content targeting Black youth populations. For example, given the saliency of racial socialization parenting practices among Black American families, Coard, Wallace, Stevenson, & Miller-Brotman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Coard, S. I., Wallace, S. A., Stevenson, H. C., & MillerBrotman, L. S. (2004). Towards culturally relevant prevention interventions: The consideration of racial socialization in parent training with African American families. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 13, 249–265. Fisher, C. B., Wallace, S. A., & Fenton, R. E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29, 679–695. Hughes, D., & Johnson, D. (2001). Correlates in children’s experiences of parents’ racial socialization behaviors. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63, 981–995. Kamo, Y. (2000). Racial and ethnic differences in extended family households. Sociological Perspectives, 43(2), 211–229. Rong, X. L., & Preissle, J. (1998). Educating immigrant students: What we need to know to meet the challenge. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

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Thomas, A., & Sillen, A. (1972). Racism and psychiatry. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Tolson, T. F., & Wilson, M. N. (1990). The impact of two and three generational Black family structure on perceived family climate. Demography, 22(3), 381–395. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2000). The Black population in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2003). National population estimates—Characteristics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

AFRICAN CULTURE, HUMAN ONTOGENESIS WITHIN Developmental science espouses the concept of the human life span and the human life cycle. Is this a developmental science fiat or does it possess cultural substantiation? This entry explores this notion in terms of human ontogenesis, with particular reference to the ontogenetic development of the human being within the African cultural setting. It is presented in two parts. The first part, the centerpiece of the entry, focuses on human ontogenesis and examines its meaning and some of its constituent elements within the African cultural context. This includes the experiential and metaphysical phases of human selfhood, the stages of social selfhood, and the social development of children through participation and learning together within the peer culture of the neighborhood rather than the school. A very brief second part concludes the entry. HUMAN ONTOGENESIS Ontogenesis refers to the development of an individual organism over its life span. African cultures, like other cultures, view human ontogeny from a social perspective. An important assumption with social ontogeny is that cultures write their texts onto the biology of human development. In this way, social ontogeny does not exclude biology, because ontogenesis implicates both biological and cultural evolution. Whereas the human species shares a universal humanity in its genetic code, this commonality plays out into a bewildering diversity of specific individuality (Maquet, 1972) in different cultural contexts (Nsamenang, 2001). In reality, hereditary factors

complement a variety of cultural formulas and ecological circumstances to nudge development in some directions, but not others. Accordingly, traditional African families take precautions to ensure spousal compatibility by excluding “shameful diseases” such as mental illness and convulsive seizures in prospective spouses. This is an obvious inclusive-fitness consideration to prevent the lethal consequences of genetic factors in childbearing. In addition, African cultural practices subject pregnant women and their spouses to behavioral taboos that guide sexual intercourse, specific food items, and emotional distress, among others things, in order to promote the health of the unborn child and mother. Social ontogeny draws on African life journeys to recognize the cultural transformation of the child into a viable member of a particular community through periods of an unbroken circle of existence. As they do so, children gradually and systematically enter into and assume particular levels of personhood, identity, and being. Broadly stated, an African ontogeny recognizes three components of human selfhood (comprising two metaphysical phases), namely, spiritual selfhood and ancestral selfhood and an existential or experiential social selfhood. This view of human ontogeny addresses the concept of the human life cycle that developmental science often invokes but has not yet fully articulated. Thus, an African perspective on human life explicitly posits a circular path to human being. The circularity derives from a theocentric view of the child as a divine gift. Some societies believe in special divine gifting through the reincarnation of ancestors who lived virtuous lives, though the Ibos of Nigeria believe in reincarnation of ancestors who led evil lives. Spiritual selfhood begins from the moment of incorporating a dead ancestor into the spirit world until that person reincarnates. Ordinarily, there is divine approval of the pregnancy of the majority of children. The experiential self or social selfhood begins at birth and extends to biological death. More accurately, social selfhood begins from the ritual incorporation of the child into the human community through naming. In some societies, “Children are not thought to belong to this world until they have been incorporated into the community of the living through naming” (Nsamenang, 1992, p. 142). Newborns are thought to have “special links with the spirit world.” The ancestral selfhood follows biological death and extends to the ritual initiation of the dead into the

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spiritual realm. It is difficult to accept the death of children and youth; death is more easily accepted for old people. Social selfhood, the experiential self, develops through seven social ages. These include the period of the newborn, social priming, social apprenticeship, social entrée, social internment, adulthood, and old age and death. These stages can be juxtaposed with the conventional stages, premised mainly on chronological age. Each ontogenetic stage is marked by a distinctive developmental task, defined within the framework of the culture’s primarily socio-affective, developmental agenda. These developmental tasks reflect the social and cultural preoccupations of parents in most African societies (Serpell, 1993), where responsibility is more highly valued than cognition as an end in itself. Africans value cognition primarily for its enhancement of social ends. A focus on the meaning and intentions of funeral sermons, eulogies, and the memories people hold of loved ones for decades, even centuries, after their death attest to the universality of a selfhood that transcends the existential self. If, indeed, human selfhood terminates with biological or medical death, what could be the intention of such practices or memories? By focusing primarily on the experiential self or social selfhood, developmental psychology largely ignores two metaphysical selfhoods: spiritual and ancestral selfhoods. Psychology tends to regard ancestral and spiritual selfhoods as not being psychological subject matter. This calls to question the wisdom of compartmentalizing subject matter or restricting the scope of human experience by disciplinary boundaries. Nevertheless, there exists a behavioral tendency evoked by these metaphysical components that underlies human motives across cultures. For example, the fear of death is universal, and most people would indicate concern with how they will be handled at death. Furthermore, some people identify with memorabilia from relatives who died even before they were born. Some have vested interest in the wills of the “loving dead,” as a mark of their attachment to deceased family members, and this remains a lively source of anxiety or inspiration for such people. To the extent that people in all cultures cognize the nonexistential or metaphysical phases of human selfhood about deceased significant others or themselves, they constitute an essential component of the psychology of those people, regardless of the discipline’s inability to operationalize and measure them.

The first and last stages of social selfhood thus connect with the two nonexistential components of personhood. This cyclical nexus is such that at birth, the newborn takes on a social selfhood into the existing human community, while the dying person takes on an ancestral selfhood into the world of the “living dead” (Mbiti, 1990) at death. One source of the mystery of death seems to hinge on the uncertainty about which community of the dead one would transit into in the afterlife. Thus, ancestor spirits are vitally important in African worlds because they are “spiritual presences” (Ellis, 1978) that monitor the moral probity and role fulfillment of their living descendents, ensuring that they care for children and family as well as ascertain the welfare of the clan. They are thus an important source of not only moral values but also stringent checks or inhibiting influences on social abuse and antisocial behavior. It is not naive to hypothesize that these indigenous behavioral checks tend to be more forceful in promoting prosocial attitudes, caring or hospitable values, and interpersonal harmony than any revealed religions or legal and constitutional codes. Child development can be defined as the acquisition and growth of the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional competencies required to engage fully in family and society. In one sense, development approximates the transformation of participation in cultural and economic activities (Rogoff, 2003). The end of adolescence or social internment completes a child’s learning of culture and its modus operandi. It marks the point at which the emerging adult begins to assume responsibility in the adult world. But the attainment of adult status is not automatic, as full adulthood is defined by marriage and parenthood. Ontogenetic ascent to adulthood through the seven stages of social selfhood identified earlier is gradual. During this life journey, the child individuates and relates to other people. Individuation and connectedness are not dichotomous human qualities; they develop together in the same child. The African child therefore individuates or evolves a self-identity by being interconnected in nested social relationships. Because children do not exist on their own terms, they define themselves or see their identities as interconnected to other people. Accordingly, selfhood or individuality becomes meaningful only in the light of the child’s sociological field. Some African precepts of development are garden metaphors, such as seed and plant or grain du monde

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(universal seed) (Erny, 1968). An inherent assumption in African garden metaphors, which is a seminal principle of developmental science, is that of selfgenerated development, which improves with appropriate tending or cultivation, the so-called enabling conditions or stimulating environment. These metaphors visualize a gradual unfolding of human potential or qualities or successive attainment of levels of personhood during ontogeny. The extended African family is the primary sociological garden in which children begin cultural learning and training in responsibility. In African family traditions, children are trained from an early age to participate in self-care and family maintenance chores. Parental values prime and socialize the norms that foster children’s self-emergence and participatory learning in the social and economic activities of the family and community. At each milepost, the child faces a distinct task, conceived in terms of important transitions between patterns of social participation that focus on the culture’s definition of children, family, and their welfare. At each stage of development, children are offered appropriate opportunities to begin to make sense of adult roles toward which they are primed from an early age. In brief, African children develop as learning participants in their cultural communities. They are socialized or they train themselves in the process of participation. An evocation of this type of selfmotivated learning or self-generated development is the story of Camara Laye’s boyhood and emergence into adulthood in rural and urban Guinea and France, presented in The African Child (1977). When African children are not in school or undertaking tasks, they are often engaged in neighborly sociability. The neighborhood peer group is a ubiquitous social reality in most traditional African settings. Most children spend more time with peers than with parents or other adults, including teachers. The peer culture offers opportunities for children to play, work, and learn together, free from parental supervision and adult control. Accordingly, the freedom of the peer culture breeds creativity and challenges children to cultivate prosocial values and altruism, to address and resolve conflicts, and to take perspective and notice the needs of others. In doing so, children gauge or assess their relative status and competence. In the activity settings of the peer culture, children are not prodded into learning by intervention; they

engage in self-motivated learning and interstimulation. They work out an understanding of issues and the world in their own terms. In this way, they regulate their development and increasingly control it. Ingenuity and creativity may be observed in African children in the “products” they produce from local materials during peer group activities. This teaches abstract and spatial thinking, work organization and responsible attitudes, and measurement and coordination. The conjecture is that the rich traditions of African artistic creativity evolved through such freewheeling activities in conjunction with the apprenticeship system. Participatory learning is neither a burden nor child abuse; it is Africa’s way of raising responsible children on its own terms. There are indigenous mechanisms to check abuse of this child-rearing technique. It stands in contrast to the apparent failure of the school in Africa largely to socialize responsibility and civic values in children. In fact, in much of subSaharan Africa, the remarkable creativity and high sense of responsibility observable in traditional African homes and neighborhood peer cultures seem to disappear with different levels of schooling. Does the African school kill the responsibility the family initiates? Instead of encouraging and promoting the positive elements of the responsible intelligence inherent in self-motivated development of participatory learning and guarding against its abuse, international advocacy opts to disempower Africans by condemning it as child abuse. In African family traditions, child “work” is an indigenous mechanism for social integration and the core process by which children learn the moral lessons and social and productive skills of their culture. Through it, children become active and increasingly knowledgeable and competent social participants. CONCLUSIONS Human development is a cultural process (Rogoff, 2003) that occurs within a biotic system, the human organism. The development of the human organism is ontogenetic; African cultures visualize it as a cycle of three interconnected phases of selfhood, namely, spiritual selfhood, social selfhood, and ancestral selfhood. Within African cultural niches, human development can be interpreted as the process of acquiring the capacity to take on and to appropriately enact tasks for

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successive phases of social ontogeny. Developmental science, thus far, invests mainly in social or experiential selfhood and sequences of tasks cognized as appropriate for successive chronological ages, largely ignoring metaphysical selfhoods and the impact that differences in circumstances of human development and cultural expectations introduce. Psychology’s inattention to spiritual and ancestral selfhoods does not obviate their impact on social selfhood, an impact that remains largely uncharted, but the discipline proceeds with developmental research, regardless. Furthermore, the person-generated model of human development engendered in an Africentric perspective is remarkable by its absence from paradigms on contemporary developmental science. It is crucial to note that existing human development models are expert generated; they are “crafted” or “created” instead of being “extracted” from the phenomenon in context or the ontogeny of the human life cycle. —A. Bame Nsamenang

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ellis, J. (1978). West African families in Great Britain. London: Routledge. Erny, P. (1968). L’Enfant dans la pensée traditionnelle d’Afrique Noire [The child in traditional thought of Black Africa]. Paris: Le Livre Africain. Laye, C. (1977). The African child. Douglas, Isle of Man, UK: Fontana. Maquet, J. (1972). Africanity. New York: Oxford University Press. Mbiti, J. S. (1990). African religions and philosophy (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Heinemann Educational. Nsamenang, A. B. (1992). Human development in cultural context: A Third World perspective. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Nsamenang, A. B. (2001). Indigenous view on human development: A West African perspective. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.-in-Chief), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. London: Elsevier. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Serpell, R. (1993). The significance of schooling: Life-journeys into an African society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Zimba, R. F. (2002). Indigenous conceptions of childhood development and social realities in southern Africa. In H. Keller, Y. P. Poortinga, & A. Scholmerish (Eds.), Between cultures and biology: Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 89–115). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

AFRICAN FAMILY TRADITIONS, EDUCATION AND The purpose of this entry is to present an overview of education in African family traditions. The education is participatory in nature and focuses primarily on learning family routines, age-appropriate cultural and economic activities, and social skills. The entry is in two parts. The first part concisely explores the concept of education and the nature of the African family. It also briefly articulates a philosophical foundation for African educational thought and praxis and its anchor on the family. The second part very succinctly contrasts participatory and school learning. A logical end to the entry is a brief concluding statement. CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION To survive and thrive, human beings need basic knowledge of their environments and the world. Children are not born with this knowledge; they learn it as they develop. Education, the process that seeks to orient children to the world, prepares them for a humane working life and the responsibilities this entails. It may occur through instruction or participation. Indigenous African views on the family and childhood provide a window for understanding African educational thought and practices. An African worldview primes pronatalist values and attitudes and inserts childbearing into lifestyles. The legitimate way to procreate and have socially integrated children is marriage. The conjugal pair is the core of the family. Marriage interconnects the families of spouses into extended- or joint-family systems (Nsamenang, 2002). Although alternate family forms are emerging, the African still tends not to think of the family in its nuclear version. In Africa’s predominantly agrarian economies, the family is the primary socioeconomic unit and social security system for proper care and socialization and education of children. Education starts at the roots of humanity, which is the child. Education is dynamic and proactive as it targets the child at critical points of development. The unborn are regarded as “buds of hope and expectation” (Zimba, 2002), the newborn as “full of potentialities of human nature” and “entirely geared toward the future” (Erny, 1973). Children discern the tacit knowledge, skills, and values and moral

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lessons that are woven into the texture of family traditions, daily routines, and social and economic activities, rather than instructions (Nsamenang, 2002). The seminal concept of African educational praxis is participation. Children “develop as participants in cultural communities” (Rogoff, 2003, p. 3). The curriculum is sequenced to systematically fit into the successive stages of development that the culture recognizes. It progresses as the capacities of children emerge. As such, it systematically connects children to the people’s heritage, family routines, social competencies, and productive systems. The child’s participatory learning and contribution to the family and community humanizes him or her. Thus, children are active learners and participants in their own development. Parents (a) guide children toward the appropriate adult identity and models, (b) communicate valued behavior and virtue, and (c) ensure that children learn acceptable values and rule systems (Nsamenang, 2002). The foundation of learning is laid in the family before the child is born. “Behavioral taboos” that apply to both men and women are “enshrined in customs, beliefs and taboos” to ensure spousal compatibility and protect the unborn child and mother (Zimba, 2002, p. 92). Children’s search for understanding, competence, and “the right ways” of the world begins with family members, long before they encounter nonfamilial peers in the neighborhood and at school. As the first educators of children, parents are the source of primary knowledge and cognitive orientation for children’s start on life and school. The interactional networks within families set the pace of children’s learning of culture and communicative skills. It is from such interactions that children learn the social, linguistic, cognitive, and other imperatives for cultural living. THE SCHOOL OF LIFE VERSUS THE SCHOOL OF TODAY While the African school of life fosters the development of social responsibility through participatory learning and encouragement of social engagement in family work and care of others, the poorly reformed schooling systems inherited from imperial countries largely promote individualistic values and rarely socialize responsibility. As African communities grapple with the imperatives of indigenous education, they face the dilemma to adjust to webs of change while holding on to their culture, whether still intact or just living in the

minds of the people. Thus, African children are subjects of two lines of education, which often do not complement each other, but enforce contradictory values. CONCLUSIONS Africa faces the challenges of both localization and globalization. A plausible caveat is to not pit globalization against localization, because this does not enhance understanding of the unfortunate state of the African condition. Rather, it seems more prudent to craft a vision and guiding values on which to chart Africa’s futuristic path from the interface of both imperatives, albeit with firm roots in the philosophy and pragmatics of participatory education. —A. Bame Nsamenang

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Erny, P. (1973). Childhood and cosmos: The social psychology of the Black African child. New York: New Perspectives. Nsamenang, A. B. (2002). Adolescence in sub-Saharan Africa: An image constructed from Africa’s triple inheritance. In B. B. Brown, R. W. Larson, & T. S. Saraswathi (Eds.), The world’s youth: Adolescence in eight regions of the globe (pp. 61–104). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Zimba, R. F. (2002). Indigenous conceptions of childhood development and social realities in southern Africa. In H. Keller, Y. P. Poortinga, & A. Scholmerish (Eds.), Between cultures and biology: Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 89–115). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS. See YOUTH PROGRAMS, OUT-OF-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

AGGRESSION Aggression as a topic has garnered an enormous amount of empirical attention over the years. While there is some disagreement on how to define aggression, most researchers would likely agree with the definition offered by Parke and Slaby (1983): “behavior that is aimed at harming or injuring another person or persons” (p. 550). Historically, most of the findings

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with respect to aggression have indicated that males are more aggressive than females (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1980). A limitation of past research is that it has focused almost exclusively on physical forms of aggressive behavior. In recent years, researchers have begun to expand the definition of what constitutes aggression to include forms other than physical aggression, and this has led to a more gender-balanced understanding of aggression, while also greatly improving our ability to identify children who are at risk for adjustment difficulties.

FORMS OF AGGRESSION Investigators have proposed the existence of subtypes of aggression for decades; nevertheless, the aggression literature has been dominated by studies examining physical forms of aggressive behavior only. Physical aggression is defined as behaviors that harm others through damage or the threat of damage to another’s physical well-being. This would include behaviors such as hitting, kicking, pinching, biting, and threats to beat up another. The term indirect aggression was first used by researchers such as Buss (1961) and Feshbach (1969) to describe more covert, harmful behavior in which the target is not directly confronted. As described by Buss and other scholars (e.g., Bjorkqvist and colleagues) since that time, indirect aggression includes behaviors such as spreading nasty rumors about another person and purposefully ignoring another person. Cairns, Cairns, Neckerman, Ferguson, & Gariepy (1989) have described another, related form of aggression, social aggression, which they describe as behaviors intended to harm another person’s social status, social acceptance, or self-esteem. Behaviors subsumed under this term “may take such direct forms as verbal rejection, negative facial expressions or body movements, or more indirect forms such as slanderous rumors or social exclusion” (Galen & Underwood, 1997, p. 589). Finally, relational aggression is a construct developed by Crick and colleagues and is defined as behaviors that harm others through “damage or the threat of damage to relationships or feelings of acceptance, friendship, or group inclusion” (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995, p. 79). It would include behaviors such as giving someone you are mad at the “silent treatment,” spreading mean rumors about someone you are mad

at, and threatening to not be someone’s friend unless they comply with your request. While there is some overlap between relational aggression and indirect aggression in that they both include indirect forms of aggression, such as spreading mean rumors about someone, relational aggression is distinctive in that it also includes direct behaviors, such as threatening to not invite someone to a party. The key difference is that indirect aggression focuses on the nonconfrontational nature of the harmful behavior, while relational aggression focuses on the relationship as the “vehicle of harm” (Crick et al., 1999). Relational aggression is also similar to, but distinct from, social aggression. Both forms of aggression include behaviors such as rumor spreading or social exclusion; however, in social aggression, the focus is on the harm done to a person’s social status or self-esteem, while relational aggression focuses more on the damage to relationships. GENDER DIFFERENCES AND INCIDENCE ACROSS DEVELOPMENT The work on physical aggression has found that at all developmental age periods (beginning around 3 years of age), males are found to be more physically aggressive than females. In terms of frequency, physical aggression is most common during the early childhood years, peaking at about 2 to 3 years of age. During middle childhood, there is a steady decline in the incidence of physical aggression. Most longitudinal studies seem to indicate a continued decrease in overall rates of physical aggression in the transition to adolescence; however, some researchers find a temporary increase with adolescence, particularly for more serious or violent acts (Elliott, 1994). Studies looking at physical aggression during the adult years seem to indicate a linear decline in prevalence with advancing age. Studies of indirect aggression have been conducted primarily with middle childhood and adolescent samples. This work has shown that indirect aggression is fairly common throughout these developmental periods. Although longitudinal studies are needed to confirm how indirect aggression might change across development, cross-sectional work by Bjorkqvist and colleagues (1992) seems to indicate a linear increase in the use of indirect aggression with age (their studies began with children age 8), with a peak in the early adolescent years and a small drop in subsequent years (through age 18). Bjorkqvist has posited that indirect forms of aggression are not

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likely to be seen very frequently in early childhood; however, more recent work seems to indicate that it is, indeed, seen during this time period. A few studies have been done in adulthood, and these indicate that indirect aggression is still used; however, it is too soon to say what the actual incidence might be at these older ages. With respect to gender differences, the available studies seem to indicate that it is more commonly seen among females than males (Owens, Shute, & Slee, 2000). The research on social aggression has yielded fairly consistent results showing that social aggression is more common among females than males; however, these findings apply primarily to the middle-childhood years. The evidence for gender differences in social aggression in early childhood is a bit more tenuous, and there have not yet been sufficient studies of social aggression in adolescence to substantiate claims regarding gender differences during this developmental period (for a review, see Underwood, 2003). At this juncture, there have not been any longitudinal studies of social aggression to clearly demonstrate whether and how the frequency of social aggression might vary across development. Work on relational aggression has indicated that with a few exceptions, females engage in more relational aggression than do males in early and middle childhood. Studies completed with adolescents have found a much less clear picture, with some continuing to find more girls engaging in relationally aggressive behaviors and others finding no gender differences. Engagement in relational aggression appears to be fairly stable and quite common, at least during the middle-childhood years (for a review, see Crick et al., 1999). There is some evidence to suggest that relational aggression is stable within the early childhood years, but currently, there are no empirical data to confirm that the use of relational aggression is stable across the transition from early to middle childhood. The relatively few studies that have been completed to date appear to indicate that relational aggression is quite common during early adolescence, adolescence, and young adulthood; however, no longitudinal studies have been completed during these years that could give a clearer picture about how the incidence might change with development. There is a final note with respect to gender differences in aggression that bears mentioning. In recent years, aggression researchers have, as part of their work, systematically searched for gender differences during different developmental periods. This work

is important and has certainly advanced the field; however, it also has the potential of giving the impression that there is not a lot of variability within gender. For example, while physical aggression is much more typical of boys’ aggressive behavior, there are many physically aggressive girls, as well. Conversely, there is a lot of evidence that relational aggression appears to be more characteristic of girls’ aggressive behavior (particularly in middle childhood); however, there certainly are relationally aggressive boys, as well. In looking for gender differences, it must be remembered that there is likely to be more within-group variation than between-group variation. ADJUSTMENT OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED WITH AGGRESSION The work on physical aggression has demonstrated clear links between engagement in physical aggression and adjustment difficulties. Perhaps the strongest association is between physical aggression and peer rejection. While the link between these two variables is strong, there is some disagreement among researchers as to the direction of influence, with some researchers arguing for aggressive behavior leading to rejection and other scholars arguing that peer rejection leads to aggressive behavior (Coie & Dodge, 1998). Engagement in physical aggression has also been correlated with a plentitude of other adjustment difficulties, such as academic struggles, including higher school drop-out rates; engagement in delinquent activities and adult criminality; externalizing difficulties; depression; and teen pregnancy. Studies of indirect aggression have shown that the use of these behaviors is related to both positive and negative variables. A study by Kaukiainen and colleagues (1999) found indirect aggression to be positively correlated with social intelligence at ages 10, 12, and 14, as well as with peer-estimated empathy at age 12. Other studies have found engagement in indirect aggression to be associated with peer alienation and social withdrawal. More work is needed to confirm that indirect aggression is a sign of social intelligence and, if so, to determine at what ages and under what circumstances, and why it becomes problematic for others. Studies of social aggression have not looked extensively at the adjustment difficulties faced by children who engage in these behaviors; however, there is some evidence to suggest that it is related to having a poor self-concept and that it may be related to poor

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academic outcomes (Underwood, 2003). It has also been suggested that social aggression could be positively correlated with social intelligence and in at least one study has been found to be related to being a central member of a network (Xie, Swift, Cairns, & Cairns, 2002, as cited in Underwood, 2003). As is the case for indirect aggression, more work is needed on social aggression to determine the specific adjustment outcomes for those who engage in these behaviors. Work on relational aggression has found that children who engage in these behaviors at high levels are at risk for a number of adjustment difficulties (Crick et al., 1999). Studies of relational aggression have found significant correlations with peer rejection in early and middle childhood as well as adolescence. It has also been linked to depressed affect, problematic peer relationships, borderline personality features, problematic eating patterns, and features of antisocial personality disorder. Studies have also found relational aggression to be negatively correlated with prosocial behavior. Finally, it is worth mentioning that both physically aggressive and relationally aggressive children exhibit many social cognitive difficulties that most likely contribute to their aggressive behavior. INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION There have been numerous attempts made by researchers to try to prevent aggression or to ameliorate its harmful effects. Almost all of these intervention and prevention programs have been targeted at physical aggression. To date, the programs have tended to fall along three different lines. First, some studies have made an attempt to reduce children’s exposure to either direct (e.g., parents) or indirect (e.g., media) models of aggression or increase their exposure to more competent or prosocial models (usually peers). Second, other programs have tried to teach children that using aggression comes with punishing consequences or that abstaining from these behaviors can be rewarding (e.g., using token economies). Finally, researchers have also tried to improve children’s general social skills or change children’s cognitions in social conflict situations (e.g., reducing hostile attributional biases). The majority of prevention and intervention work has not been overly effective; however, more recent programs such as the FAST Track program, which includes multiple components in a variety of contexts, seem to show promise (see

Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1999). It will be important for similar programs to be developed for children who exhibit chronic or extreme levels of indirect aggression, social aggression, and relational aggression. CONCLUSIONS The face of the aggression literature has changed fairly dramatically during the last couple of decades. The understanding that aggression can be more than just physical in nature has opened up new and very fruitful avenues of research. It has greatly enhanced the field’s ability to identify children at risk and has provided the field with a much more gender-balanced view of what constitutes harmful behaviors. While these are important advancements, it must also be recognized that many of these emerging literature bases are still in their infancy. For example, much more longitudinal work is necessary before more firm conclusions can be drawn about the incidence and stability of these forms of aggression. What does appear to be clear, however, is that the various forms of aggressive behavior are quite harmful to both the initiator and the target of the behaviors. It will be important that the coming years bring with them a substantial amount of high-quality and empirically valid intervention and prevention work. —Juan F. Casas

See also BULLYING, SCHOOL

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bjorkqvist, K., & Niemela, P. (Eds.). (1992). Of mice and women: Aspects of female aggression. San Diego: Academic Press. Buss, A. H. (1961). The psychology of aggression. New York: Wiley. Cairns, R. B., Cairns, B. D., Neckerman, H. J., Ferguson, L. L., & Gariepy, J. (1989). Growth and aggression: 1. Childhood to early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 25, 320–330. Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1998). Aggression and antisocial behavior. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 779–862). New York: Wiley. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (1999). Initial impact of the fast track prevention trial for conduct problems: I. The high risk sample. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 631–647. Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710–722. Crick, N. R., Werner, N. E., Casas, J. F., O’Brien, M. A., Nelson, D. A., Grotpeter, J. K., et al. (1999). Childhood

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aggression and gender: A new look at an old problem. In D. Bernstein (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (pp. 75–140). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Elliott, D. S. (1994). Serious violent offenders: Onset, developmental course, and termination (The American Society for Criminology 1993 Presidential Address). Criminology, 32, 1–21. Feshbach, N. D. (1969). Gender differences in children’s modes of aggressive responses towards outsiders. MerrillPalmer Quarterly, 15, 249–258. Galen, B. R., & Underwood, M. K. (1997). A developmental investigation of social aggression among children. Developmental Psychology, 33, 589–600. Kaukiainen, A., Bjorkqvist, K., Lagerspetz, K., Osterman, K., Salmivalli, C., Rothberg, S., et al. (1999). The relationship between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 81–89. Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. (1980). Sex differences in aggression: A rejoinder and reprise. Child Development, 51, 964–980. Owens, L., Shute, R., & Slee, P. (2000). “It hurts a hell of a lot . . .” The effects of indirect aggression on teenage girls. School Psychology International, 21, 359–376. Parke, R. D., & Slaby, R. G. (1983). The development of aggression. In P. Mussen (Series Ed.) & E. M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (pp. 547–641). New York: Wiley. Underwood, M. K. (2003). Social aggression among girls. New York: Guilford. Xie, H., Swift, D. J., Cairns, B. D., & Cairns, R. B. (2002). Aggressive behaviors in social interaction and developmental adaptation: A narrative analysis of interpersonal conflicts during early adolescence. Social Development, 11, 205–224.

AGING. See CHRONIC DISABILITY IN OLD AGE; COGNITIVE SKILLS AND AGING; DEPRESSION IN LATER LIFE; MENTAL HEATH LATER LIFE, THE ECOLOGY OF; OLD AGE; SENSORY IMPAIRMENT; SOCIAL SUPPORT IN OLD AGE; SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS COPING IN LATER LIFE; VISION IMPAIRMENT

IN

AIDS, WOMEN, AND POVERTY AIDS disproportionately affects poor women, worldwide.1 Ironically, its identification in 1981 in

both men and women in the United States did not preclude it from being initially understood as a “gay disease.” As a result, poor women were dying in many parts of the world long before their deaths were officially recognized as AIDS related. Between 1987 and 1991, heterosexual transmission of the disease became better understood in the United States, but the case definition for AIDS was still male-specific. This meant that afflicted women in the United States who otherwise would have been entitled to life-sustaining resources and benefits could not access them. In 1991, after intense activism, the case definition was rewritten to specifically identify AIDS-related opportunistic infections common to women. The AIDS case rate among women in the United States tripled as a result. CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF AIDS TRANSMISSION The invisibility of women was soon replaced, however, with cultural constructions that presumed that certain women (i.e., sex workers) were a major source of infection, along with other groups (i.e., gay men, injection drug users, Haitians). These “risk-group” classifications served to stigmatize already marginalized groups rather than orient public health programs for those most at risk of infection. Similarly, fascination with “hidden homosexuality,” “genetic difference,” and the “exotic” sexual or ritual practices of Africans were used to explain differences in transmission rates in this region (Farmer, 1992). Cultural constructions that stigmatize AIDS victims continue to obscure the role of larger structural forces, both global and local, in engendering risk. These structural forces include poverty, racism, gender inequality, and violence. Poor women and girls have been particularly affected by these forces. By the end of 1999, 95% of the entire world’s AIDS cases had occurred in developing countries. The vast majority of infections (an estimated 70%) and the highest prevalence rates (up to 30% of adults in some countries) were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the lowest gross national product. In this region, 58% of infections have been recorded among women (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). In some areas, prevalence rates among women are extremely high. Among 25- to 29-year-old pregnant women receiving prenatal care in urban clinics in Botswana, for example, 55.6% were living with HIV/AIDS in 2001 (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). Even younger women (aged 15–24) from this region are

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vulnerable, with infection rates that are at least double those of young men (6%–11% among young women compared with 3%–6% among young men). While overall rates of new infections have remained steady for the last few years in sub-Saharan Africa, particular countries or regions are still threatened by changing trends, including explosive growth of the epidemic (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). (In the capital of war-torn Sierra Leone, for example, infection rates among female sex workers rose from 26.7% in 1997 to 70.6% only 2 years later.) POVERTY Structural factors also shape infection rates in other parts of the world, including the wealthiest nations. In the United States, for example, the majority of women with HIV/AIDS are poor. African American women in the United States accounted for 58% of all women diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 1991, despite the fact that they represent only about 17% of U.S. women. The majority of new infections recorded among 13- to 19-year-olds in 34 areas in the United States were among females (56%). A disproportionate number of these infections were also among young African American women (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). AIDS is the number one cause of death among African American women aged 25 to 34. Latina women in the United States also experience high rates of infections, and these rates have continued to rise. Latina women represent 19% of cumulative AIDS cases, but 23% of cases reported in the year 2000 (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). The majority of these cases are among Puerto Ricans, the poorest Latino group in the United States. Similar trends of rising infection rates among poor women can be found in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Clearly, poor women throughout the world do not share a particular cultural history, “race,” or ethnicity. What poor women do share are poverty and their relative inequality compared with men.

relationships. Women’s poverty and relative status compared with men increases their vulnerability to HIV by making it more likely that they will exchange sex for money, housing, or drugs; be coerced into sexual unions, including unions with older men (who are more likely to be infected); and be less able to negotiate safe sex or leave a relationship that they perceive to be risky. In addition, cultural norms that support multiple partners for men yet make women look unfaithful or untrusting if they request condom use increase women’s risk. The lack of preventive technologies (such as microbicides) for women also limits their agency in sexual encounters. BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTORS This relative lack of agency is compounded with biological and physiological factors that also increase risks for women. HIV is transmitted more efficiently from men to women than vice versa. HIV is more heavily concentrated in seminal fluids than in vaginal secretions and may enter the bloodstream more easily through the extensive convoluted lining of the vagina and cervix. Young women are especially vulnerable to HIV transmission. Before menstruation begins, the lower reproductive tract is anatomically and physiologically immature. The multiple cell layers and secretions that provide adult women with some protection develop gradually so that a young woman’s (or girl’s) vaginal mucosa is not as well lined with protective cells as that of a more mature woman. Genital trauma and bleeding are thus more likely to occur, especially during first coitus. In addition, women and girls are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that increase the risk of HIV infection. Many STIs are asymptomatic in women and so go untreated. Treatment is more difficult in women than in men, and stigma of infection with an STI often makes women afraid to seek care even when it is available (Farmer, Connors, & Simmons, 1996).

GENDER INEQUALITY

SOCIAL POSITION

More specifically, poverty and gender inequality engender risk by limiting access to health care, enabling domestic violence and large-scale violence targeted against women in times of war (i.e., mass rape, as in Rwanda during the genocide), and otherwise reducing women’s power and agency in sexual

Women are also socially positioned to bear the brunt of the burden of AIDS in societies that are already reeling from large-scale poverty, persistent drought, rapid urbanization, and/or systems of migrant labor that take men away from their communities for long periods (Schoepf, 1992). These factors

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favor the spread of HIV/AIDS and draft more women (and their children) into the work of caring for the ill and trying to obtain food. In Zimbabwe, for example, one study found that crop outputs on small farms shrank by 29% for cattle, 49% for vegetables, and 61% for maize if the household had suffered an AIDSrelated death (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). As farming income shrinks, women and children are forced to seek wage-labor jobs, which are in short supply. In areas where women are the hardest hit by AIDS and are responsible for much of the food production, food preparation, and nurturing, AIDS can have disastrous results, including the dissolution of the family (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002). WHAT CAN BE DONE? Preventing the spread of AIDS requires preventing the spread to women. An increased focus on the need for access to both HIV prevention and treatment of AIDS is of paramount importance to all at-risk and infected individuals. In regions where sharing of infected syringes and drug paraphernalia fuels the epidemic, drug policy reform is greatly needed. In addition, the development of female-controlled prevention technology such as microbicides is urgently required. Since poverty and gender inequality are important cofactors in the AIDS pandemic, preventing AIDS will also require recognition and redress of the local and global forces that drive economic and social inequalities. Around the world, women have made enormous contributions to the physical, emotional, spiritual, and material well-being of their families and communities by supporting the sick and dying, the orphaned, and the exploited. Rather than accept HIV/AIDS as women’s lot or the lot of the poor, the global community must demand that the life conditions of all women be improved through compassionate and effective medical, social, economic, political, and legal strategies for change. —Janie Simmons

See also HIV PREVENTION IN YOUNG ADULTS

NOTE 1. This entry draws heavily from J. Simmons, P. Farmer, and G. Schoepf, “A Global Perspective,” in P. Farmer, M. Connors, and J. Simmons (Eds.), Women, Poverty, and AIDS: Sex, Drugs, and Structural Violence, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1986.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Farmer, P. (1992). AIDS and accusation: Haiti and geography of blame. Berkeley: University of California Press. Farmer, P., Connors, M., & Simmons, J. (1996). Women, poverty, and AIDS: Sex, drugs, and structural violence. Monroe, ME: Common Courage. Schoepf, B. G. (1992). Gender relations and development: Political economy and culture. In A. Seidman & F. Anang (Eds.), Twenty-first century Africa: Toward a new vision of self-sustainable development. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. UNAIDS/WHO. (2002). AIDS epidemic update, 2002. Available at http://www.unaids.org/worldaidsday/2002/ press/update/epiupdate_en.pdf

ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND DRUG USE, MEDIA EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS This entry defines the media education movement, a body of research and advocacy designed to produce media-literate children and adolescents, and reviews recent research regarding the effectiveness of media education to reduce drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in adolescents. Media education to produce media literacy is a global and growing phenomenon that involves educators, health professionals, and scholars concerned with media effects. A common definition of media literacy is that a media-literate person can access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages for a variety of media. In terms of a World Wide Web page, for example, a media-literate person could access or locate the content of the page and validate its information by checking a number of other sources. That user could analyze the content, that is, identify its creator’s purpose and recognize social, political, aesthetic, or other contexts in which it was located. Evaluating the Web page would involve making judgments about it and, as opposed to analysis, bringing one’s own attitudes and values into those judgments. Finally, the media-literate user can create a response by “weaving” his or her own Web page as a response, demonstrating skills in capturing and holding the attention of a desired audience. Media education is part of all levels of school curricula in virtually every English-speaking country besides the United States, much of Europe, South

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Africa, and Israel. There is an emerging movement to mandate such curricula in the United States, but at present, only two states have sanctioned media education as part of the regular curriculum. While there are transnational ideological differences among these curricula, generally, they are in place to provide students with critical-thinking skills applied to media. Among the specific goals of these programs are to arm children and adolescents with critical tools to comprehend the persuasive intent of, and strategies used in, advertising to young people. Among other goals are the reduction of aggression as a result of exposure to violent and disturbing content, the reduction of fear aroused by fright-oriented films and television programs, and the reduction of the influence of media in eliciting the use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs by young people. In the area of health, there is a fair amount of evidence for the need for media education. Apart from the studies demonstrating high recognition for advertising characters such as “Joe Camel,” there is evidence from surveys suggesting that junior high school students do not consider a one-pack-per-day cigarette habit as a serious risk to health (Willemsen & Zwart, 1999). Children who pay close attention to and recall tobacco ads and who own promotional items are more likely to become smokers than children who do not attend to this genre (Strasburger, 2001). Finally, it is likely that advertising is effective; the three most heavily advertised brands are used by 85% of teenage American smokers (Strasburger, 2001).

EVALUATION OF PROGRAMS While proponents of media education programs have focused on advertising issues surrounding susceptibility to persuasive appeals for at least 30 years, the specific use of these programs to reduce unhealthful behaviors is more recent. A typical investigation in this tradition is Austin’s (1997) investigation of thirdgraders’ training in alcohol advertising. She trained teachers to facilitate analysis of alcohol ads and found that the treatment had both immediate and delayed effects (3 weeks). Immediate effects included the children’s increased understanding of persuasive intent of the ads and their viewing of characters as less similar to people they knew in real life and less desirable as friends. More important, in the treatment group, there was decreased desire to be like the characters, decreased expectation of positive consequences

from drinking alcohol, and decreased likelihood of choosing an alcohol-related product as a reward over a nonthemed product. Four investigations have affirmed the efficacy of the Lion’s Club International’s Skills for Adolescents (SFA) program in preventing or reducing drug and alcohol use and smoking by middle school students (see, for example, Crano & Burgoon, 2002). The 40-session SFA program includes media education but also more global critical-thinking instruction about a number of life decisions related to physical and mental health. Among the findings are that the curriculum can help deter the initiation of regular cigarette smoking and experimental use of marijuana through the end of the 7th grade and deter the initiation of regular alcohol use and binge drinking. The data also indicate that the program can delay the progression to regular cigarette smoking and to experimental marijuana use among students who had initiated regular alcohol use or binge drinking but not regular cigarette smoking by the end of the 6th grade. Although the program is available at no cost, many communities do not use it because of the prevalence of DARE programs in school, which have not been supported by systematic programs of research.

THE FUTURE OF MEDIA EDUCATION AND HEALTH While it is clear that there is accumulating evidence for the effectiveness of media education, current implementation of programs far outstrips research activity. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, has made a program titled “Media Matters” available to medical schools that train pediatricians. This program is designed to facilitate instruction about the dangers of overconsumption of electronic media, but to date, there are no effectiveness data. Similarly, there are in-school programs, such as those created by the “Campaign for TobaccoFree Kids” and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Smoke Screeners,” that have yet to be supported by research. The attractiveness of these curricula to fulfill a perceived need for intervention is driving these efforts, but further research is needed to sustain them. There is a need to address when such training should be initiated, which programs are most effective, and how media education should be placed in the curriculum. Along with longitudinal data on which

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programs are most effective, it will be more possible to assess the magnitude of effects than it is at present. CONCLUSIONS Evidence from the small but growing body of research on the effectiveness of media education in reducing health risks is positive. This domain of research has more potential than one-shot fear appeals often used to frighten adolescents away from health risks, because it provides training in criticalthinking skills that ideally will arm adolescents with critical faculties that will continue through the life span. —Roger Desmond

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Austin, E. (1997). Effectiveness of media education in prompting health messages to youth. Journal of Health Communication, 2, 17–34. Crano, W. D., & Burgoon, M. (2002). (Eds.). Mass media and drug prevention: Classic and contemporary theories and research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Strasburger, V. (2001). Adolescents, drugs and the media. In D. Singer & J. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of children and the media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Willemsen, M., & Zwart, W. (1999). The effectiveness of policy and health education strategies for reducing adolescent smoking: A review of the evidence. Journal of Adolescence, 22, 587–599.

ALCOHOL USE AND DISORDERS AMONG YOUTH The use of alcohol is a common experience among youth, with recent national survey data indicating rates of lifetime use of alcohol at 78% for 12th graders (high school seniors), 65% for 10th graders, and 47% for 8th graders. Recent economic analyses have indicated that alcohol consumption among underage drinkers (defined as age 12–20 years) accounted for almost 20% of consumer expenditures for alcohol in the United States and that the cost associated with underage drinking was approximately $53 billion per year (Foster, Vaughan, Foster, & Califano, 2003). The cost was estimated on the basis of negative consequences associated with drinking, including alcohol-related traffic crashes, violent

crime, suicide attempts, and alcohol poisonings (Levy, Miller, & Cox, 1999). Although alcohol use increases rapidly in early and middle adolescence relative to earlier phases in the life span, it is important to note that developmentally important non-alcohol-use processes precede actual use. For example, there are significant cognitivedevelopmental processes (e.g., labeling and the elaboration and differentiation of concepts and categories used to organize the world) about alcohol use that are ongoing during the preschool and elementary school years, prior to the actual consumption of alcohol. Research by Noll, Zucker, and Greenberg (1990) demonstrated that preschool children (aged 3–5 years) can identify alcoholic beverages and have already developed certain cognitive concepts and schemata (i.e., integrated beliefs) about drinking behaviors. Hence, although this entry will focus principally on adolescent alcohol use, a life span developmental orientation toward alcohol use is important because it is increasingly evident that some of the cognitive foundations (e.g., beliefs and attitudes) for alcohol use, such as intentions and expectancies, are cultivated during the preschool and elementary school years. THE CONTINUUM OF ALCOHOL USE AND ABUSE BEHAVIORS It is useful to envision alcohol use and abuse during childhood and adolescence as a continuum of behaviors, beginning with initial use and escalating to more frequent and higher levels of use, to experiencing alcohol-related problems, such as missing school because of drinking, and finally, to the expression of a clinical disorder. Initiation of Use Initiation of use marks the age at which an individual first uses alcohol. Age of initiation is important for three reasons. First, earlier initiation predicts the development of more serious alcohol-related problems. For example, on the basis of national adult survey data, adults who reported initiating alcohol use before age 15 years were 4 times more likely to subsequently develop an alcohol disorder (Grant & Dawson, 1998). Second, there are historical changes in the age of first use of alcohol, such that many children are using alcohol at an earlier age. The average age of first use of alcohol in 1987 was 17.4 years, whereas the average age of first use in 1994 decreased to 15.9 years, and in

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2000 decreased to 13.9. Third, this secular pattern of an earlier onset of alcohol use is increasingly recognized as quite dangerous, because emerging, sophisticated research methods in the study of the brain (e.g., neuroimaging) have indicated that alcohol use may significantly impair the developing brain and adversely affect cortical (brain) areas, such as the hippocampus, that are critical for memory and learning. Indicators of Use Alcohol use is commonly assessed with several different indicators, including frequency (how often) and quantity (how much) of alcohol use, the number of times intoxicated or drunk, and the number of heavy- or binge-drinking episodes. When measured in surveys, binge-drinking episodes refer to the consumption of five or more drinks in a single setting in the 2-week period preceding the survey assessment. Annual surveys of alcohol and other substance use practices among national probability samples of seniors (12th graders) have been completed at the University of Michigan for almost 30 years and are collectively referred to as the “Monitoring the Future Studies” (MTF) (Johnston, O’Malley, & Bachman, 2003). Parenthetically, the MTF studies have recently also collected data on 8th and 10th graders, in addition to the 12th graders. The MTF studies have been used to monitor historical trends in alcohol and other substance use among adolescents (e.g., increases or decreases in the use of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs) and to identify new patterns of co-occurring or combined use (e.g., alcohol and cocaine use) that may be relevant for development, implementation, and evaluation of prevention and intervention programs and social policies. Findings from the 2002 MTF survey (Johnston et al., 2003) indicated the following percentage of students by grade level who reported using alcohol in the past 30 days: 8th graders (19.1%), 10th graders (35.3%), and 12th graders (52.3%). Hence, more than 50% of 12th graders reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days. Similarly, the following provide information on the percentage of students by grade level who reported binge drinking in the past 2 weeks: 8th graders (12.5%), 10th graders (23.8%), and 12th graders (34.2%). These findings suggest not only widespread use of alcohol by teens but also high rates of abusive, binge drinking. With regard to gender and ethnic group differences, girls typically begin consuming alcohol at a

somewhat later age than boys, but by their senior year, nearly as many girls as boys have used alcohol at some point in their lifetimes. Nevertheless, on measures of high-volume (heavy) drinking and alcoholrelated problems (e.g., driving while under the influence of alcohol), boys still evidence more alcohol-related difficulties than girls. For example, findings from the 2002 MTF survey (Johnston et al., 2003) indicated binge drinking among 34% of 12th-grade boys and 23% of 12th-grade girls. Likewise, daily drinking, defined as drinking alcohol on 20 or more of the last 30 days, was reported by 5.3% of 12th-grade boys and 1.7% of 12th-grade girls. Among ethnic groups, the highest percentage of users of alcohol among teenagers was reported by Caucasians and American Indians, followed closely by Hispanics. The lowest percentage of users of alcohol among teenagers was reported by African American and Asian American teenagers. Alcohol-Related Problems Alcohol-related problems refer to adverse consequences associated with alcohol use and include events such as missing school because of alcohol use, passing out from drinking, having encounters with legal authorities, and interpersonal problems (e.g., fighting) with family members or friends over alcohol use. The study of alcohol-related problems has indicated that adolescents experience a wide range of alcohol-related adverse social consequences. For example, research findings indicated the following percentages of alcohol-related problems among teens who had used alcohol in the last 6 months: Did things while I was drinking that I regretted the next day (46%); passed out from drinking (30%); had a fight with members of my family about drinking (16%); drank before or during school (12%); and thought about cutting down on my drinking (24%) (Windle, 1999). In addition, many teens report drinking to cope with the stressors in their lives. Adolescents who use alcohol or other substances as coping mechanisms may be at particularly high risk for the development of serious alcohol problems. The use of alcohol and other substances to self-medicate negative affect may signify current major problems and the adoption of a nonconstructive coping style that will likely perpetuate ongoing difficulties across the life span (Cooper, 1994).

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DIAGNOSIS OF ALCOHOL- AND SUBSTANCE-RELATED DISORDERS The clinical diagnosis for an alcohol- or other substance-related disorder is identical for children and adults and requires meeting explicit criteria. Alcohol disorders are characterized by (a) a prolonged period of frequent, heavy alcohol use; (b) a variety of social and/or legal problems associated with alcohol use (e.g., driving while intoxicated, impaired school/work performance); and (c) the expression of dependency symptoms (e.g., unpleasant withdrawal effects when unable to consume alcohol). There have been a limited number of studies on the prevalence of alcohol disorders among adolescents, and the existing studies are not based on nationally representative samples. Nonetheless, with regard to alcohol disorders, there is consistency in the findings in suggesting that teens who meet the clinical criteria for an alcohol disorder typically manifest persistent, high-volume drinking and pervasive adverse social consequences and dependency symptoms. Furthermore, these children typically have histories of childhood behavior problems (e.g., conduct-disordered difficulties, attention deficits), long-term troubled family relations, and a pattern of coexisting substance abuse (e.g., marijuana or cocaine abuse in addition to alcohol abuse). Prevalence estimates of the number of children and adolescents meeting clinical criteria for an alcohol disorder are not known, though some have speculated that the number may exceed 2 million.

school performance, delinquency, and school dropout (Boyd, Howard, & Zucker, 1995; Windle, 1999). INTERNET RESOURCES Below are a few electronic Web addresses that contain information on teen alcohol use. Each of these sites provides links to a broad range of other sites that may contain information for specific populations (e.g., American Indians), advocacy materials for prevention activities, or schedules of training workshops and conferences: 1. http://monitoringthefuture.org/: The Monitoring the Future Studies provide updated, annual national surveillance data on youth alcohol and other substance use. 2. http://www.nacoa.org/: This Web site for the National Association for Children of Alcoholics provides fact sheets for COAs and other families in distress, a newsletter, and extensive links to other Web pages. 3. http://www.samhsa.gov/csap/index.htm: This is the Web site for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and it provides a wealth of information on child and adolescent alcohol use prevention programs and the scientific evaluation of such programs. CONCLUSIONS

ALCOHOL USE AND RELATED HEALTH PROBLEMS Higher levels of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among children and adolescents are associated with the three major causes of adolescent mortality: unintentional injuries (e.g., automobile crashes), homicide, and suicide. Almost 9 out of 10 teenage automobile accidents involve the use of alcohol. Higher levels of alcohol use have also been associated with higher levels of adolescent suicidal ideation (i.e., thinking about committing suicide) and suicide attempts, and alcohol has been found in high concentrations among adolescents who have completed suicide. Higher levels of adolescent alcohol use have also been associated with a number of other healthcompromising behaviors and outcomes, including sexual precocity, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, human immunodeficiency virus infection, poor

Based on the epidemiological data provided in this entry, it is evident that alcohol use is common among adolescents, is manifested along a continuum ranging from initiation to clinical disorder, and is associated with a broad range of other health-compromising behaviors, such as unintentional injuries (e.g., automobile crashes), homicide, and suicide. Two trends related to alcohol use among children and adolescents are of particular concern. First, the age of onset of alcohol use appears to be decreasing (i.e., there is an earlier onset), and this is of concern both because an earlier age of onset is predictive of future serious alcohol problems and disorders and because initial research studies in the brain sciences suggest that such early alcohol use may affect the growth and development of critical brain regions, such as the hippocampus, that are involved in learning and memory. Second, it is becoming increasingly

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clear that many adolescents are experiencing high levels of alcohol-related problems (e.g., passing out, getting drunk several days in a row) and are not being identified for appropriate intervention activities. Overall, current research suggests the need for comprehensive intervention programs that target alcohol use reduction as a critical feature to address mortality and morbidity issues among children and adolescents. —Michael Windle

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Boyd, G. M., Howard, J., & Zucker, R. A. (Eds.). (1995). Alcohol problems among adolescents: Current directions in prevention research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Cooper, M. L. (1994). Motivations for alcohol use among adolescents: Development and validation of a four-factor model. Psychological Assessment, 6, 117–128. Foster, S. E., Vaughan, R. D., Foster, W. H., & Califano, J.A., Jr. (2003). Alcohol consumption and expenditures for underage drinking and adult excessive drinking. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289, 989–995. Grant, B., & Dawson, D. A. (1998). Age of alcohol onset and alcohol disorders. Journal of Substance Abuse, 10, 59–73. Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (2003). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2002: Vol. I. Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 03–5375). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. Levy, D. T., Miller, T. R., & Cox, K. (1999). Costs of underage drinking. Calverton, MD: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Noll, R. B., Zucker, R. A., & Greenberg, G. E. (1990). Identification of alcohol by smell among preschoolers: Evidence for early socialization about drugs occurring in the home. Child Development, 61, 1520–1527. Windle, M. (1999). Alcohol use among adolescents. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

ALCOHOLISM PREVENTION PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN Alcohol dependence (commonly called alcoholism) is the most common substance use disorder in the United States. Epidemiological studies of drinking indicate that there are about 15 million men and 5 million women in the United States aged 18 and older who have an alcohol use disorder (AUD). About 24%

of all men and 17% of all women will have an AUD sometime in their life courses (Zucker et al., 2000). Slightly more than half of all 14-year-olds in the United States report having consumed alcohol in situations other than during religious or family celebrations. Onset begins as early as 11 to 12 years of age. The economic impact of AUDs is estimated to be about $200 billion. This figure takes into account a wide variety of outcomes, including premature death, alcohol-related illnesses, fetal alcohol syndrome, crime/victimization, property damage, and lost workforce productivity. This entry describes the clinical features of AUD, its direct and indirect effects on children, and current prevention and intervention programs. ALCOHOL USE DISORDER Four symptoms are particularly important when arriving at a psychiatric diagnosis of AUD: craving (an uncontrolled need or compulsion to drink); loss of control (failure to stop drinking on any single occasion); physical dependence (seen when drinking stops for a while and the individual experiences withdrawal effects, such as sweating and anxiety); and tolerance (the need to have greater amounts of alcohol in order to produce the same effects experienced in the past). Alcohol abuse is also a substance use disorder but differs from alcohol dependence, particularly with respect to craving. Because alcohol abuse is more likely to be situational, it frequently is linked to a social context (work, school, home, driving). It also often involves the individual with the criminal justice system because of drunk driving, physical aggression, or social disorder. Definitions of alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse also are linked to the quantity of alcohol consumed, as indicated by the number of standard drinks consumed. A standard drink is one 12-ounce bottle or can of beer (or wine cooler), one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. Legally, alcohol use disorder is defined by blood alcohol level (BAL), with most states adhering to the federal guideline of .08% BAL as the legal definition of drunk driving. PRENATAL AND POSTNATAL EXPOSURE TO ALCOHOL In addition to direct consumption, there are two major ways in which children are exposed to alcohol:

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directly, in the prenatal environment, and indirectly, by being reared by parents with AUD. Prenatal Effects Animal and human research has clearly demonstrated the teratogenic effects of alcohol (Fitzgerald, Puttler, Mun, & Zucker, 2000). Alcohol consumed by a mother crosses the placenta and readily circulates in the fetal bloodstream. Major morphologic abnormalities more often occur as a result of exposure early in the pregnancy, and growth appears most affected by late exposure. But central nervous system deficits seem to occur any time during pregnancy. Because there is no established safe level of alcohol consumption or safe time of usage, abstinence is the “best practice” to be used throughout pregnancy if one wishes to assure that there will be no harmful alcohol exposure effects on the fetus. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a diagnosis applied to children who are exposed to alcohol prenatally and who have some symptoms in each of three categories: (1) growth deficiency in both the prenatal and postnatal periods; (2) abnormalities in facial and skull structure, including small eye openings, alterations in nose and forehead structure, an absent or elongated groove between the upper lip and nose, a thin upper lip, a flattened midface, and underdevelopment of the upper or lower jaw; and (3) central nervous system deficits, such as mental retardation and behavioral problems (impulsivity, hyperactivity, poor attention span, and problems in social judgment) (Fitzgerald et al., 1993; Fitzgerald, Davies, & Zucker, 2002; Olson, O’Connor, & Fitzgerald, 2001). Postnatal Exposure to Alcohol Investigators have proposed that the risk structures and developmental pathways leading to alcohol dependence or abuse are regulated by familial aggressive behavior, negative affect, and alcohol use. All familial influencing factors are embedded within a genetic vulnerability for such attributes and shaped by parents who model disorganized and addictive behaviors. As early as 3 to 5 years of age, children exposed to such rearing environments have cognitive-affective schemata for alcohol use, high levels of impulsivity, behavior problems, and poor school achievement. In addition, such families tend to be located in social ecologies that provide maintenance mental representations for aggressive behavior and alcohol and other drug use (Zucker et al.,

2000; Zucker, Fitzgerald, & Moses, 1995). This risk structure promotes early onset of alcohol use, heavier drinking, alcohol abuse, and problematic involvement of other drugs, particularly among children reared by alcoholic parents who are also antisocial. ALCOHOL SUBTYPES AND CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS Studies of adult males provide increasingly strong support for at least two major types of alcoholism (Zucker et al., 1995), distinguished by the degree to which antisocial behavior is characteristic of the alcoholic. Compared with children reared by nonalcoholic parents, children in alcoholic families are reported to have higher levels of hyperactivity, earlier evidence of negative mood, more problematic social relationships, greater deficits in cognitive functioning, higher levels of aggressive behavior, and more precocious acquisition of cognitive schemata about alcohol and other drugs. Compared with children reared by alcoholic fathers, children reared by antisocial alcoholic fathers are more likely to have histories of childhood behavior problems, illegal behavior, frequent arrests, chronic lying, relationship disturbances, failed relationships, depression and family violence, neuroticism, poor achievement and cognitive functioning, and low socioeconomic status (Zucker et al., 1995). 18–25: THE HIGH-RISK YEARS Onset of drinking occurs in the middle school years; by early high school, roughly 50% of adolescent males are active drinkers, and nearly 90% of high school seniors report being active drinkers. The age period from 18 to 25 represents the peak years for alcohol consumption, and within that age-group, college students are among the highest-risk drinkers. Studies report that up to 90% of college students report having consumed alcohol. Alcohol consumption among college students is implicated in 1,400 deaths, 500,000 injuries, and 600,000 assaults annually, many of which involve sexual assault. Nearly 60% of college-age men and 50% of women report driving after having engaged in binge drinking. PREVENTION PROGRAMS Clearly, alcohol use disorders are prime targets for prevention efforts, and such efforts range from

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the well-known Alcoholics Anonymous (a 12-step program), to family-oriented behavioral change models, to a wide range of community and/or school-based programs. Studies involving college students indicate that didactic approaches (educational materials, policies and procedures, required courses) have minimal impact on drinking behavior, as do approaches based on “Just say no!” Conversely, studies provide evidence that certain public policy and community-based practices do decrease drinking among college students. Such practices include reducing the minimal legal BAL definition of drunk driving to .08%, implementing and enforcing all existing laws concerning underage drinking, raising the prices or taxes on alcohol, and providing training programs for individuals who serve alcohol beverages in bars, liquor stores, and restaurants. Children’s Programs Prevention programs targeting young children can also be effective in deterring drinking. The programs that are most effective for affecting middleschool-aged children are those that are systemically designed, with comprehensive community efforts involving businesses, schools, police, faith communities, parents, and neighborhood associations. In other words, programs that present consistent community concern about drinking seem to provide sound models for teenagers from middle school through high school. Programs that are not effective are those that are completely school bound, such as the widely used DARE program. Interventions that have components focusing on self-esteem, general competence skills, peer educators, and parental involvement are also effective in reducing prevalence rates. Recently, considerable evidence has suggested that brief interventions are also effective, particularly among binge-drinking college students and individuals admitted to trauma units in emergency centers. Oftentimes, such brief interventions involve only one or two sessions plus a delayed follow-up. Family Interventions Family interventions also have promise, particularly in families where alcohol consumption is linked to high levels of aggressive behavior and violence. One such program involved parents in weekly behavior

modification sessions over a 10-month intervention period (Maguin, Zucker, Fitzgerald, & Noll, 1994; Nye, Zucker, & Fitzgerald, 1995). Parents were taught effective ways to discipline their children in an effort to reduce the level of parent-to-child aggression in the home. The idea was that parental aggression was the root cause of child conduct problems, not drinking per se. The standard order of skill building was (a) tracking the child’s behavior, (b) rewarding prosocial behavior (star charts and social reinforcement), (c) nonphysical discipline (time-out), and (d) marital communication skills. The intervention reduced antisocial behavior and increased prosocial behavior. Children whose parents received the intervention in the two-parent condition showed greater increases in prosocial behavior than the children in the motheronly condition. Results did suggest that a longer period of maintenance support would be necessary to sustain the impact. Additional information about preventive/intervention programs particularly relevant to families is available at the Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Web site: www.al-anon .alateen.org. CONCLUSIONS Alcohol use disorders are the most prevalent substance use disorders in the United States. The age of onset for drinking continues to creep lower, and the age at which at least half of all 14- to 15-year-olds report active drinking and having been drunk in the past 3 months continues to rise. The human and economic costs to society also escalate. Among collegeage adolescents, the prevalence of date rape among first-year college women is roughly 16%, much of which is linked to excessive alcohol consumption among both men and women. Community-based longitudinal studies involving nontreatment samples indicate that children as young as the preschool years already have cognitive schemata or mental representations about use of alcohol, and they evidence behavioral problems that magnify in relation to the amount of alcohol-related family violence and aggression to which they are exposed. Moreover, a small subset of these children shows little change in the level of aggressive behavior through adolescence. The appropriate developmental period to apply the intervention remains an important theoretical and empirical question. The good news is that effective prevention programs are available, but they require

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broad community involvement and sustained effort in order to reduce prevalence rates and induce resilience in adolescents. —Hiram E. Fitzgerald

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fitzgerald, H. E., Davies, W. H., & Zucker R. A. (2002). Growing up in an alcoholic family: Structuring pathways for risk aggregation. In R. MacMahon & R. deV. Peters (Eds.), Children of disordered parents. Boston: Kluwer. Fitzgerald, H. E., Puttler, L. I., Mun, E. Y., & Zucker, R. A. (2000). Prenatal and postnatal exposure to parental alcohol use and abuse. In J. D. Osofsky & H. E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), WAIMH handbook of infant mental health: Vol. 4. Infant mental health in groups at risk (pp. 123–160). New York: Wiley. Fitzgerald, H. E., Sullivan, L. A., Zucker, R. A., Bruckel, S., Schneider, A. M., & Noll, R. B. (1993). Predictors of behavioral problems in three-year-old sons of alcoholics: Early evidence for onset of risk. Child Development, 64, 110–123. Fitzgerald, H. E., Zucker, R. A., & Yang H.-Y. (1995). Developmental systems theory and alcoholism: Analyzing patterns of variation in high-risk families. Psychology of Addictive Behavior, 9, 8–22. Loukas, A., Piejak, L. A., Bingham, C. R., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Zucker, R. A. (2001). Parental distress as a mediator of problem behaviors in sons of alcohol involved families. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies, 50, 293–301. Maguin, E., Zucker, R. A., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Noll, R. B. (1994). The path to alcohol problems through conduct problems: A family-based approach to very early intervention with risk. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 249–269. Nye, C. L., Zucker, R. A., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (1995). Early intervention in the path to alcohol problems through conduct problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 831–840. Olson, C. H., O’Connor, M. J., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (2001). Lessons learned from study of the developmental impact of parental alcohol use. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22, 271–290. Poon, E., Ellis, D. A., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Zucker, R. A. (2000). Intellectual, cognitive, and academic performances among sons of alcoholics during the early school years: Differences related to subtypes of familial alcoholism. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 24, 1020–1027. Zucker, R. A., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Moses, H. (1995). Emergence of alcohol problems and the several alcoholisms: A developmental perspective on etiologic theory and life course trajectory. In D. Cicchetti & D. Cohen

(Eds.), Manual of developmental psychopathology: Vol. 2. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (pp. 677–711). New York: Wiley. Zucker, R. A., Fitzgerald, H. E., Refior, S. K., Puttler, L. I., Pallas, D., & Ellis, D. A. (2000). The clinical and social ecology of childhood for children of alcoholics: Description of a study of implications for a differentiated social policy. In H. E. Fitzgerald, B. M. Lester, & B. Zuckerman (Eds.), Children of addiction: Research, health, and public policy issues (pp. 109–142). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, DIVISION 7 (DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY) Founded in 1946, Division 7 comprises developmental psychologists and members of the American Psychological Association (APA) from several disciplines who study or work in the area of human development. The division pursues several objectives involving the promotion of research in the field of developmental psychology and fostering the development of researchers by providing information about educational opportunities. The division also recognizes outstanding contributions to the discipline and facilitates the exchange of scientific information about developmental psychology through publications, such as the division’s newsletter, and through national and international meetings. Finally, Division 7 promotes high standards for the application of scientific knowledge in human development to public policy issues. This entry will focus on the division’s activities in applied developmental psychology (see Dalton, 1997, for a comprehensive history of the division). The founding president of the division was John E. Anderson, who had previously served as president of the APA and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) in 1943. While at the University of Minnesota, Anderson gathered together a core group of psychologists among Division 7’s then 330 members; they were innovators and reformers who conducted research in a network of university institutes created by Lawrence K. Frank and supported by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation (Frank, 1962). Anderson and his colleagues had diverse interests in the fields of clinical and educational

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psychology, mental testing, developmental biology, and experimental psychology. The cofounders included Helen Thompson Woolley and Arthur Jersild, at Columbia University and Teachers College, who studied clinical aspects of personality development pertinent to educators. Also involved at the beginning were Iowa Child Welfare Research Station researchers Beth Wellman and Harold M. Skeels, who challenged the conventional wisdom that IQ predicted subsequent achievement, and Iowan Boyd McCandless, a pioneer in diagnostic tools for the assessment of learning disorders (see Cravens, 1993; Dalton, 1995). Developmental biologist Leonard Carmichael, who was APA president in 1940, was a cofounding member, as were clinicians Charlotte Bühler and Grace Fernald and experimentalists Harold Jones, Jean McFarlane, Louise Ames, and Wayne Dennis, among others. When the decade of the 1950s began, the division leadership undertook new initiatives contributing to the professionalization of child development. During his presidency of the division in 1950, Robert Sears, a respected researcher in socialization processes, spearheaded efforts to train and certify psychologists working with children. In addition, Ruth Updegraff and Harold E. Anderson helped formulate a code of ethics for experimental research involving children, which was recommended for adoption by the APA (Updegraff & Stendler, 1951, pp. 4–5). Practices and standards governing the regulation of research involving human subjects attracted renewed attention during Nora Newcombe’s presidency in 2002; she challenged several proposed changes in institutional review board procedures that would severely hamper behavioral research involving children. Newcombe and her colleagues were particularly concerned that consistent procedures be adopted for informed consent, that low-risk procedures be clearly defined, that accountability be delineated in multisite research, and that the responsibilities of researchers who change institutions be specified (Barenbaum, Cauffman, & Newcombe, 2003). During her presidential term of 1953 to 1954, Nancy Bayley enlarged the division’s policy role. She formed a policy and planning committee, composed of Alfred Baldwin, Urie Bronfenbrenner, Irvin Child, Dale Harris, Irving Stone, and Boyd McCandless, to draft a statement of the general objectives for the division. They recommended that the committee advise the executive committee as to issues affecting child

psychology as a science and profession and to “disseminate to the public facts and theories regarding the psychological development of the individual in his or her social setting” (Bayley, 1954, p. 5). The policy and planning committee proposed that an interdisciplinary focus be adopted for annual meetings that would “implement a cycle of symposia,” exploring problems in developmental psychology affecting other fields in psychology (Bayley, 1954, p. 6). The committee also recommended that panel discussions alternate between the assessment of methodological issues and presentation of research with broad theoretical implications. In the early 1960s, Division 7 members influenced the Johnson Administration’s decision to launch Head Start, a major program involving early childhood education. Yale psychologist Edward Zigler, a former administrator of the program, from 1970 to 1972 (Zigler & Muenchow, 1992), recounted in an astonishing anecdote that Urie Bronfenbrenner may have been instrumental in gaining President Johnson’s commitment to Head Start. Bronfenbrenner, a Russian émigré, discovered in his cross-cultural studies of child rearing in the former Soviet Union and America that Russian parents seemed to spend more time with their children and that this may have accounted for successful preschool experiences. After presenting his findings to a 1964 meeting of the National Institute for Child Health, he was invited to the White House to give this same presentation to President Johnson and his family. Zigler reported that according to Bronfenbrenner, “The Johnsons were impressed, especially by the pictures of Russian preschools. One of the Johnson daughters reportedly asked, ‘Why couldn’t we do something like this?’” (Zigler & Muenchow, 1992, p. 17). Subsequently, Bronfenbrenner and Zigler were appointed to the Head Start Planning Committee, which drafted legislation and oversaw its early implementation. Throughout the next several decades, Zigler at Yale University, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn at Teachers College, Lonnie Sherrod at Fordham University, and several other division members tirelessly supported Head Start and fought to make early education and child care services available to children in poverty. Division members responded to new challenges in the 1970s to present to the public, the press, and potential students of psychology a clearer image of what developmental psychology is by featuring the work of its leading scientists and practitioners. Consequently, Marian Radke-Yarrow and Frances

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Degen Horowitz formed an information committee in 1976 to organize a series of seminars attended by science writers from major newspapers and popular magazines. Division seminar sponsors compiled a roster of researchers for referral (eventually including 107 developmental psychologists) who were willing to act as “informed sources.” These researchers then developed background papers on specific issues such as sex differences and sex roles that could be distributed as press releases. The first “Child Research News Briefing” was held in 1978 at the New York Academy of Sciences, attended by 40 representatives of the press and magazines. Among the presenters were Jerome Kagan on “The Emergence of the Mind,” Marian Yarrow on “Altruism and Children,” and Ross Parke on “Babies Have Fathers Too” (Division 7 Newsletter, 1978, p. 36). During the mid- and late 1970s, division members were increasingly engaged in a dialogue about how the field of developmental psychology should be conceived as a discipline. Bronfenbrenner criticized his colleagues for their overreliance on laboratory techniques that focused on the ephemeral and unfamiliar. He challenged them to broaden the scope of their science to encompass the natural ecology shaping human development and behavior (Bronfenbrenner, 1974; Bronfenbrenner, Kessel, Kessen, & White, 1985). Bronfenbrenner’s plea seemingly struck a responsive chord among students and colleagues. Parent-infant relationships were now being characterized as an “interactive network”; peer relations and interpersonal competencies were being investigated; and attachment and empathy became the earmarks of prosocial behavior. Rodney Cocking, a Bronfenbrenner student, and Irving Sigel gave the emerging field of applied developmental psychology greater professional visibility by founding an international journal in 1979 dedicated to multidisciplinary applied research across the life span. In 1995, Division 7 created the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for a Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in Service of Science and Society. This award is presented to an individual who has, over a lifetime career, not only contributed to the science of developmental psychology but also worked to the benefit of the application of developmental psychology to society. Recipients have included Bronfenbrenner (1996), the only member to serve twice as president, from 1957 to 1958 and in 1987; Edward Zigler (1998); Aletha Huston (1999); Sheldon White (2000); and

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (2001), among other distinguished members. By the late 1970s, Division 7 sought to clearly define applied developmental psychology and to distinguish it from clinical practice, in order to prevent the imposition of inappropriate licensing guidelines that would unreasonably restrict the application of scientific knowledge. Frances Horowitz first broached this issue in 1977, when she created an ad hoc committee to investigate the need for a terminal master’s degree in developmental assessment and intervention, and an applied doctoral program. The following year, she cited the creation of a “developmental specialist” by the American Association of Psychiatric Services as a propitious time for Division 7 to do likewise, because federal funds for training would be made available. Toward these ends, Horowitz and William Kessen established criteria by which developmental psychologists could be included on the National Register of Health Providers. A survey was subsequently conducted of the division to determine how many members’ institutions provided training for applied research. Of the 101 members responding, 46 indicated that such training was provided, but there was much variation in how the term applied was defined, with “child clinical psychology” listed most frequently (Shantz, 1980, p. 18). In 1991, a National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Science Across the Life Span was held at Fordham University to reach a consensus on the scope of the field of applied developmental psychology. The conference, chaired by Celia B. Fisher and John P. Murray, was organized by a consortium of sponsors, including the APA Science Directorate; Division 7; SRCD; the Divisions of Adult Development and Aging and the Child; Family and Youth Services; the National Black Development Institute; the International Society of Infant Studies; and several other organizations. Horowitz and John W. Hagen, executive director of the SRCD, gave keynote addresses putting the conference in historical perspective. Conference participants developed models of graduate training and discussed curriculum and appropriate field experiences (Fisher et al., 1993). A significant consensus emerged from this conference for resolutions embodying the principles, methods, and training of applied developmental scientists. The conferees agreed that applied developmental science views individual and family development as

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products of the interaction of biological, physical, and social environments that evolve over time through exposure to diverse cultural influences. The goals of training should enable students to test and evaluate developmental theories and intervention strategies through field studies and experiences that use multiple levels of analysis to determine the factors promoting and impeding optimum human development in different institutional settings. Conference participants concluded that graduate education should draw on multiple disciplines, such as pediatrics, gerontology, sociology, and other fields (Fisher et al., 1993, p. 4). Division 7 has consistently sought the widest possible incorporation and application of developmental principles by educators in psychology and related disciplines. This goal was reaffirmed when Lynn Liben, president of the division in 1996, and her colleagues on the education and training committee undertook a major initiative for Directors of Training in Developmental Psychology (DOTDEP). DOTDEP fosters and enhances training in developmental psychology and related specialties and serves the needs of directors of developmental psychology training programs. DOTDEP, which maintains a listing of graduate developmental programs on the Division 7 Web site, has sponsored numerous workshops and symposia designed to improve teacher preparation, to expand experiential learning, and to incorporate the history of the field into graduate education. From its inception as a professional society, Division 7 of the APA has been dedicated to the generation and application of scientific knowledge about child development. Numerous Division 7 members have held significant leadership positions in governmental organizations and foundations involving national policy and sponsored research in human development. Anne C. Petersen, Division 7 president in 1993, was deputy director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) before becoming senior vice president of the Kellogg Foundation. Rodney Cocking held several research director posts, including the National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Academy of Sciences, and the NSF. Until recently, Deborah Phillips was the first director of the Board of Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. Phillips coedited an important book during her tenure, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2000), which integrates research that demonstrates the depth and breadth of developmental

processes and their pertinence to society and community life. Diane Scott Jones was a member of President Clinton’s National Bioethics Commission, and Celia B. Fisher currently represents social-behavioral sciences and cochairs the Children’s Research Subcommittee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections. To obtain current information about Division 7, please see its Web site: http://www.apa.org/divisions/div7. —Thomas C. Dalton

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Barenbaum, S., Cauffman, E., & Newcombe, N. (2003). Division 7 task force report on IRB issues. Requests can be made through http://www.apa.org/about/division/ div7.html/http://classweb.gmu.edu/awinsler/div7/files/ IRBissues.doc Bayley, N. (1954, November). Division 7 Newsletter. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Developmental research, public policy, and the ecology of childhood. Child Development, 45, 1–5. Bronfenbrenner, U., Kessel, F., Kessen, W., & White, S. (1984). Toward a critical social history of developmental psychology. American Psychologist, 41, 1218–1230. Cravens, H. (1993). Before Head Start: The Iowa Welfare Research Station and America’s children. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Dalton, T. C. (1995). Challenging the group bias of American culture. Contemporary Psychology, 40, 201–204. Dalton, T. C. (1997). The history of Division 7 (developmental psychology). In D. Dewsbury (Ed.), Unification through divisions: Histories of the divisions of the American Psychological Association (Vol. 1, pp. 67–99). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Division 7 Newsletter. (1978, December). First science writer’s news briefing held. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R., et al. (1993). Report of the National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Science Across the Life Span. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–7. Frank, L. K. (1962). The beginnings of child development and family life education in the twentieth century. The Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 8, 207–227. Shantz, C. U. (1980, Fall). Report of meetings of the executive committee of Division 7. Division 7 Newsletter. Updegraff, R., & Stendler, C. (1951, December). Developmental psychologist: APA Division 7 Newsletter. Zigler, E., & Muenchow, S. (1992). Head Start: The inside story of America’s most successful educational experiment. New York: Basic Books.

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AMES, LOUISE BATES Louise Bates Ames (1908–1996) was an American child psychologist who promoted the importance of maturation and biological timing in development. She was a follower of Arnold L. Gesell (1880–1961), with whom she studied and worked at Yale University. After Gesell retired, Ames and two of her colleagues founded the Gesell Institute in New Haven, Connecticut, to continue his work. Ames also conducted important research on children’s responses on the Rorschach Inkblot Test. In addition to her scientific writing, she wrote a popular syndicated column on child care and presented many of her ideas on television, becoming one of the first modern media psychologists. Louise Bates was born in Portland, Maine, the oldest child of a local judge and a housewife. She grew up in a bookish household (Ames, 1996) and attended Wheaton College, intending to become a lawyer like her father. After 2 years, she transferred to the University of Maine, where a faculty member sparked her interest in psychology. She dropped out during her senior year to marry Smith Whittier Ames (they later divorced) but returned to school after a year and graduated in 1933 with a master’s degree in psychology. After graduation, she applied to Yale University, hoping to study children. She was accepted into the doctoral program in experimental psychology, the only program available there in psychology at the time. Her educational experiences at Yale were not entirely satisfactory (Ames, 1993). She felt that many of the faculty looked down on child and clinical psychology, her major areas of interest, and she was encouraged to drop out of the program. Fortunately, she was a research assistant to Arnold Gesell, a psychologist and pediatrician, perhaps the most prominent child care expert of his day. Her work with him determined the future direction of her career. Gesell had founded the Child Study Center at Yale in 1911, after receiving his PhD degree from Clark University. While at Yale, he completed all the requirements for an MD degree. He is best known for his establishment of developmental norms for children, with a heavy emphasis on motor development. Gesell’s work was largely descriptive, but it had important practical implications for infant care. He discouraged parents from pushing children beyond what he saw as their physical limits. For instance, he

counseled parents to be more flexible about their expectations for toilet training. Ames’s master’s thesis was the perfect preparation for work with Gesell. She had conducted research on the development of motor coordination in a child from birth to 2 years (Ames, 1933)—using her own daughter as her subject. For her doctoral dissertation, she made use of the massive amount of film that Gesell had gathered. He had been a pioneer in the use of film for studying children. Her research, later published with Gesell, demonstrated that infant motor behavior did emerge in predictable ways, although not always in a straight line. She received her doctoral degree from Yale in 1936, after 3 years of study. Ames and her colleagues at Yale continued to conduct extensive observation and research on children. Their findings were summarized in a series of books aimed at parents. Most of their efforts attempted to describe the development of the typical child during specific age periods. The books became very popular and were translated into many languages. Gesell’s retirement in 1948 temporarily interrupted the productivity of the group. Yale had decided to take a different approach to the study of children, and the Gesell team found they were no longer welcome there. Ames and two of her associates left Yale and founded the Gesell Institute nearby, but not officially associated with the university. They supported the institute largely through earnings from their books and other writings and public appearances. Ames was no stranger to controversy. Probably her most notorious controversy concerned her criticism of the movie Bambi, in which Bambi’s mother is killed. Ames said that the death of a mother, even in a fantasy context, was a very frightening event for a child. She thought the movie should not be shown to children (Fountain, 1996). She was also known for coining the phrase “the terrible twos.” (She said she was actually referring to age two and a half.) According to her research, this age, commonly characterized by rigidity and inflexibility, is simply a phase of normal development, related to the emergence of a sense of self and autonomy in the child. In a departure from her usual work with Gesell, she conducted a substantial amount of research demonstrating the developmental dimensions of the Rorschach Inkblot Test for children. She was able to show that children at different ages gave responses that, though often judged abnormal, were simply immature and typical of a certain age. The responses

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would change and become more “normal” with time. Although she was initially criticized for her work in this area, many proponents of projective techniques came to see her work as very important. One of her long-lasting contributions was her research on the concept of readiness. Gesell had begun to discuss this area as early as 1919, but the idea remained dormant until the 1950s, when it began to be developed further by Ames and her associates. They believed that many children who were given diagnoses such as “learning disabled” were really children who were started in school too early. They advised that school placement be based on developmental or behavioral level rather than simply age or IQ. Under such a system, they said, many learning difficulties would disappear. They believed that about one third of all school failures were due to poor school placement. Ames continued to write and work at the Gesell Institute virtually to the end of her life, assuming a variety of administrative roles. She died on October 31, 1996, at the age of 88, in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the home of her granddaughter. —John D. Hogan and Dennis N. Thompson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ames, L. B. (1933). Growth of motor coordination in one child from birth to two years. Unpublished master’s thesis, Portland, University of Maine. Ames, L. B. (1993). Louise Bates Ames: Child development and clinical psychology. In Eugene Walker (Ed.), The history of clinical psychology in autobiography (Vol. 2, pp. 67–99). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Ames, L. B. (1996). Louise Bates Ames. In Dennis Thompson and John D. Hogan (Eds.), A history of developmental psychology in autobiography (pp. 1–23). Boulder, CO: Westview. Fountain, H. (1996, November 7). Louise Ames, 88, a child psychologist dies. New York Times, p. D27.

ANASTASI, ANNE Anne Anastasi (1908–2001) was a distinguished American psychologist and writer, best known for contributing to a better understanding of psychological tests and measurement. Throughout her long career as a university professor, she produced more

than 200 scholarly articles and books addressing not only the fine points of testing and evaluation but also questioning many of the assumptions on which they were built. Her books, particularly Psychological Testing (last edition, Anastasi & Urbina, 1996), have been translated into many languages and used around the world. Her emphasis on the important roles of context and culture in testing and her portrayal of the naturenurture issue continue to have important implications for research today. In 1972, she became the third woman president of the American Psychological Association (APA), the first woman to hold that office in 51 years. By the time of her death, she had become a nearlegendary figure among psychologists, not only for her far-ranging contributions to psychology but also for her striking personality. Anastasi was born December 19, 1908, to Anthony and Theresa Gaudiosi Anastasi, Italian immigrants who settled in New York City. Her father died when she was a year old. She later said that his death was a pivotal point in her development. It resulted in her unusual upbringing, in a household consisting of her mother, maternal grandmother, and her mother’s brother. In accordance with her grandmother’s wishes, she was homeschooled until she was 9 years old; a regular public school teacher was hired to conduct lessons for her in the afternoon (Hogan, 2003). Her entry into high school presented problems with overcrowded classrooms and overworked teachers, and she dropped out after only 2 months. Rather than return, she spent 2 years at a preparatory school and applied directly to Barnard College, where she was admitted in 1924, at age 15 (Anastasi, 1972). She began college with the intention of majoring in mathematics but changed her mind in her sophomore year. She became interested in psychology when she took a course from Harry Hollingworth, the chairman of the psychology department. Soon after, she read a paper by British psychologist and statistician Charles Spearman on correlation coefficients, which convinced her she could pursue psychology but still retain her interest in mathematics. Her career path was settled. She earned her BA degree in psychology from Barnard at age 19 (Anastasi, 1972). Anastasi immediately enrolled at Columbia University to study for a PhD in general experimental psychology, having already taken some graduate courses in psychology during her undergraduate years. It took her only 2 years to complete her degree;

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she received her PhD in 1930, at age 21, describing those years as among the most stimulating in her life. In 1929, she received a summer research assistantship to study with Charles Davenport and to assist him in devising culture-free tests. In September of that year, she attended the nineth International Congress of Psychology, held at Yale University, the first such Congress to be held in the United States. Among the speakers she heard there were several notable European psychologists, including Ivan Pavlov and Wolfgang Kohler. She also worked on her dissertation, later published as “A Group Factor in Immediate Memory” (1930). Her former professor, Harry Hollingworth, offered her a position at Barnard for the fall of 1930, and she accepted. She said later that she was grateful to have any job during the Depression. In 1933, she married John Porter Foley Jr., who had been a fellow doctoral student at Columbia. Anastasi said that her marriage gave her the benefit of two doctoral degrees, because the interests and background of her husband were so different from hers. Foley, originally from Indiana, had initially worked in animal psychology, an area in which Anastasi had had very little experience. He had also participated in some research with Franz Boas, the great cultural anthropologist, that Anastasi found intriguing. Together, the couple developed a strong interest in art and became ardent collectors. Foley became increasingly drawn to industrial psychology, and in the early 1940s, he left academic psychology and took a position with the Psychological Corporation in New York City. A year after her marriage, Anastasi was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Radium and X-ray treatment followed. At the end of treatment, her cancer was gone, never to recur. But she was sterile and could never have children. Later, she would assess her illness with characteristic directness. She saw the cancer as one of the principal reasons for her success. Women of her generation frequently had to choose between motherhood and a career. That choice was taken from her, and she was free to concentrate on her career without conflict or guilt. Anastasi left Barnard in 1939 for the position of chairperson, and sole faculty member, of the newly established Department of Psychology at Queens College of the City University of New York, and in 1947, she accepted a position as associate professor of psychology in the graduate school at Fordham University. She was promoted to professor in 1951 and

remained at Fordham until her retirement in 1979. She maintained that she never had a master plan for her career; she simply followed her interests. She also wrote that whatever her contributions to psychology, they were to be found in her writings. This last statement is true up to a point. She also made significant contributions to research, teaching, and organizational leadership. Her research covered a wide range of topics. One of the early emphases was on the development of traits, particularly the role of experience in trait development. She investigated language development among Black and Puerto Rican children, intelligence and family size, age changes in adult performance, sex differences in traits, and creativity. She conducted research on test construction and evaluation, including problems related to misuse and interpretation. Anastasi wrote extensively on misconceptions concerning “culture-fair” and “culture-free” tests and methodological problems related to test bias, speeded tests, item selection, and coaching. With her husband, she wrote several articles on psychological aspects of art. In 1958, she published an article titled “Heredity, Environment, and the Question ‘How?’” It is her most frequently reprinted paper. In it, she reconceptualized the age-old nature/nurture issue and gave it focus and a new direction. The paper became required reading for many graduate students and remains an important contribution today. Her three major books have had a notable impact on psychology. Differential Psychology (first edition, 1937) has been described as a major force in the development of differential psychology as a behavioral science. Fields of Applied Psychology (first edition, 1964) gave legitimacy to an area of psychology that was frequently ignored by academic psychologists. Psychological Testing (first edition, 1954) was a detailed account of the manner in which tests are constructed, validated, and interpreted. It also contained valuable information on specific tests. The book became the standard text in psychological testing for decades. When the seventh edition appeared in 1996 (this time with former student Susana Urbina as coauthor), the book was immediately translated into nine languages. Upon her retirement from Fordham University in 1979, Anastasi was awarded an honorary ScD degree. It was one of five honorary degrees that she would receive. (As retirement gifts she asked for, and received, a calculator and a dictionary.) She received awards from several professional organizations, and in 1987, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the

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National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest award for scientific achievement. Anastasi continued to be active after her retirement, participating at APA conventions into her 80s. Eventually, her public appearances grew less frequent. Her husband died in 1994, after almost 61 years of marriage. Even at this late stage of her career, she was concerned that the large amount of stock in a testing company that she inherited from him might have an effect on her objectivity regarding tests. She sold the stock as quickly as she could (Hogan, 2003). Anne Anastasi died in her Manhattan brownstone on May 4, 2001. She was 92 years old. —John D. Hogan and Meredith C. Reesman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anastasi, A. (1930). A group factor in immediate memory. Archives of Psychology, 120. Anastasi, A. (1937). Differential psychology. New York: Macmillan. Anastasi, A. (1954). Psychological testing. New York: Macmillan. Anastasi, A. (1958). Heredity, environment and the question “How?” Psychological Review, 65, 197–208. Anastasi, A. (1964). Fields of applied psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Anastasi, A. (1972). Reminiscences of a differential psychologist. In T. S. Krawiec (Ed.), The psychologists (Vol. 1, pp. 3–37). New York: Oxford University Press. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1996). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Hogan, J. D. (2003). Anne Anastasi. In G. Kimble and M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 263–277). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

ANOREXIA NERVOSA First classified in the 1970s, anorexia nervosa (AN) is a commonly recognized eating disorder characterized by both restrictive eating behaviors designed to produce or maintain a very low body weight and intense preoccupation with weight and shape (see Table 1 for complete diagnostic criteria). There are two subtypes of AN: restricting type (those who do not binge and purge) and binge-eating/purging type (those who regularly binge and purge). Binge-eating/purging AN is differentiated from another eating disorder involving

binging and purging, bulimia nervosa, by the low body weight and amenorrhea of those with AN. One cannot be dually diagnosed with multiple eating disorders; the AN diagnosis should prevail if diagnostic criteria are met. However, shifting from one type of eating disorder to another (e.g., bulimia nervosa) is not uncommon. ETIOLOGY Anorexia often develops in early to midadolescence following a successful weight loss attempt that subsequently spirals out of control. It is rare, but possible, for prepubertal children to develop the disorder as well. Individuals diagnosed with AN are most often female; only 5% to 10% are male. Estimates of prevalence in the population of those meeting full diagnostic criteria range from 0.28% to 1.0%, although the numbers may be greater in special high-risk populations, such as ballet dancers or those in appearance-conscious professions. Historically, eating disorders were considered to affect primarily middle- to upper-class Caucasian women in Western cultures. Recent research suggests that a trend of body Table 1.

Diagnostic Criteria for AN

Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g., weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight less than 85% of that expected, or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected). Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight. Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on selfevaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight. In postmenarcheal females, amenorrhea (i.e., the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles). Specific type: Restricting type: During the current episode of anorexia nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior (i.e., self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas). Binge-eating/purging type: During the current episode of anorexia nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior (i.e., self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas).

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image dissatisfaction is rising among many ethnic minority groups in the United States, particularly Hispanics and Asian Americans (e.g., Cachelin, Veisel, Barzegarnazari, & Striegel-Moore, 2000). Cross-cultural rates of eating disorders appear to be increasing as well. This increasing diversity of people with eating disorders introduces additional challenges for research and treatment. There are multiple possible contributors to the development of AN. Genetics appears to play an important role. Twin studies show that the concordance rate of AN is 55% among monozygotic twins and 5% in dizygotic twins (Treasure & Holland, 1989). Other research indicates that a genetic predisposition for leanness or particular personality traits (e.g., perfectionist or obsessive personality) may also contribute to the development of AN. Environmental factors, such as societal emphasis on thinness and appearance or familial attitudes toward weight are also likely to play a role. Further research is needed in this area to aid in efforts to prevent eating disorders. SIGNS, SYMPTOMS, AND MEDICAL CONSEQUENCES Persons with AN show extreme anxiety about their weight, with immense concern about gaining or losing even a pound, and also exhibit distorted body image, believing they are fat even when severely emaciated (Fairburn & Brownell, 2002). They usually display strict food rules and rituals, such as eating only lowfat foods and cutting their food into very small pieces before eating. Overexercising or fidgeting compulsively is also common. People with AN can have dry skin, brittle nails, loss of hair, and lanugo (i.e., fine downy hair) on their face, back, and arms. Some also develop hypercarotenemia, which gives the skin an orange tint. Anorexics are often sensitive to cold and may compensate by wearing several layers of clothing regardless of the temperature. There are a number of medical concerns related to anorexia. In very-low-weight anorexics, cardiovascular problems are common. Extreme food restriction causes the body to adapt to the starvation state, which can lead to low blood pressure and sinus bradycardia. More serious, however, are cardiac arrhythmias that can develop and lead to sudden death. Extensive problems with the endocrine system lead to amenorrhea and high cortisol levels. Abnormal gastrointestinal

(GI) motility causes bloating and constipation, and gastric dilation can occur during refeeding, the weight restoration phase of treatment. GI problems are exacerbated by laxative abuse. Decreased bone density due to starvation is a serious problem; the deterioration can be as severe as that suffered from menopausal osteoporosis, which increases the risk of bone fractures. Those who purge often may suffer erosion of the enamel of their teeth and electrolyte imbalance. Women with AN who become pregnant have higher rates of miscarriage, obstetric complications, and postpartum depression. Babies born of AN mothers are at risk of low birth weight and poor weight gain during infancy. Some medical concerns abate with refeeding, while others require further treatment. A thorough medical checkup should be required of anyone diagnosed with AN. There is substantial comorbidity between AN and other clinical disorders, particularly anxiety and depression. Some research indicates that more than half of women with AN report anxiety over the course of their lifetimes (Bulik, 2002). It is unclear, however, exactly how the AN and comorbid disorders affect one another. The presence of AN appears to significantly increase the risk of developing an anxiety disorder, but a preexisting anxiety disorder, tendency to have obsessional thoughts, or tendency toward perfectionism may also contribute to the development of AN. Individuals with AN often exhibit symptoms of depression, such as flat affect, feelings of hopelessness, and poor sleeping, but these may be due to the effects of starvation. Twin studies suggest that shared components of some genes contribute to both the development of AN and depression. TREATMENT Too little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of AN treatment, perhaps in part because of its rare occurrence in the population. Garner and Garfinkel (1997) and Fairburn and Harrison (2003) provide general guidelines for treating AN: If an individual is at an extremely low weight, the initial phase of treatment should be focused on restoring weight and motivating the person to cooperate with treatment. Often, a stay at an inpatient ward at a medical hospital is helpful for this phase. Following weight restoration, eating behaviors, body image distortions, and extreme importance of weight and shape should be addressed.

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Several approaches have been studied, including family therapy (best for younger patients) and cognitive behavioral treatment. Mortality rates of AN are estimated at 5% to 15%, making it one of the most deadly clinical disorders. Of those who survive, approximately 47% recover, 33% make improvements, and 20% remain chronically ill (Steinhausen, 2002). Outcomes improve with longer follow-up of care and are worse for those with long histories of AN, purging behavior, and features of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

CONCLUSIONS In summary, anorexia nervosa, because of its severe medical complications and sometimes chronic course, is a very serious disorder. Warning signs should be taken seriously, bearing in mind the staunch denial and resistance to treatment often seen in people with this disorder. Medical care to manage complications and counseling from a professional expert in eating disorders are imperative. —Shirley S. Wang and Kelly D. Brownell

See also BULIMIA NERVOSA; OBESITY

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bulik, C. M. (2002). Anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. In C. G. Fairburn & K. D. Brownell (Eds.), Eating disorders and obesity: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed., pp. 193–198). New York: Guilford. Cachelin, F. M., Veisel, C., Barzegarnazari, E., & StriegelMoore, R. H. (2000). Disordered eating, acculturation, and treatment-seeking in a community sample of Hispanic, Asian, Black, and White women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 244–253. Fairburn, C. G., & Brownell, K. D. (2002). Eating disorders and obesity: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford. Fairburn, C. G., & Harrison, P. J. (2003). Eating disorders. Lancet, 361, 407–416. Garner, D. M., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1997). Handbook of treatment for eating disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford. Steinhausen, H. (2002). The outcome of anorexia nervosa in the 20th century. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 1284–1293. Treasure, J., & Holland, A. (1989). Genetic vulnerability to eating disorders: evidence from twin and family studies. In H. Remschmidt & M. H. Schmidt (Eds.), Child and youth psychiatry: European perspectives (pp. 59–68). New York: Hogrefe & Huber.

ANXIETY DISORDERS IN CHILDREN Anxiety disorders appropriate for diagnosis in children and adolescents include separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia, posttraumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Most anxiety disorders are listed under “Anxiety Disorders” in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), with the exception of separation anxiety disorder, which is classified under “Other Disorders of Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence.” This entry describes the features of the disorder, prevalence and prognosis of anxiety disorders, and current methods of assessment and treatment. FEATURES, PREVALENCE, AND PROGNOSIS In general, anxiety disorders share similar features, including (a) maladaptive thoughts or cognitions of harm or injury to self or loved ones; (b) physiological arousal or reaction (e.g., palpitations, sweating, irritability); (c) avoidance or attempts at avoidance of particular objects or situations, and when avoidance is not possible, the child endures with severe distress (e.g., crying, freezing up, panic attacks); (d) presence of anxiety, fear, and/or worry that is developmentally inappropriate and causes clinically significant distress or impairment in important functioning (e.g., social, academic); and (e) prolonged period of anxiety, fear, and/or worry (e.g., 4 weeks for posttraumatic stress disorder and 6 months for social phobia). Anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent disorders of childhood and adolescence, with an estimated prevalence of 12% to 20% (Costello & Angold, 1995). Among the most prevalent anxiety disorders are social phobia, specific phobia, separation anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Longitudinal investigations have shown that anxiety disorders in childhood do not usually spontaneously remit. Rutter, Graham, Chadwick, and Yule (1976) found that approximately one half of children at age 10 with emotional problems, including anxiety disorders, continued to have emotional problems at age 14. Cantwell and Baker (1989) similarly found that 66% of children with

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emotional disorders either had the same disorder or another emotional disorder 4 years later.

interactions that may be maintaining the anxious behaviors (e.g., parental reinforcement of avoidance behavior).

ASSESSMENT When assessing anxiety disorders, it is important to assess for the presence of comorbid psychiatric disorders, including other anxiety, mood, and externalizing disorders (e.g., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder). A multisource, multimethod assessment procedure is preferable and may include (a) diagnostic interviews, (b) rating scales, and (c) behavioral observations. A variety of structured (e.g., Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children) and semistructured interviews (e.g., Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV: Child and Parent Versions) are available for assessment and diagnosis. There are several types of rating scales that may be used, including (a) general behavior problem scales, (b) global anxiety scales, (c) specific anxiety scales, and (d) DSM-based scales. The Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Reporting Form, and the Conner’s Rating Scales (parent and teacher versions) are examples of general problem scales that use parent or teacher report and yield total problem scores as well as anxiety/internalizing problems subscale scores. The Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children are examples of global self-rating scales to assess symptoms of anxiety. Several scales are available to assess specific anxiety problems, such as social anxiety (e.g., Social Anxiety Scale for Children–Revised, Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children) and specific fears (e.g., Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children). The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders, and Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale are examples of DSM-based rating scales that use both parent and child report. Behavioral observations can be used to assess the degree of severity of the anxiety symptoms and to identify factors that may be maintaining the anxiety. When assessing the severity of anxiety symptoms, an analogue situation pertaining to the child’s presenting problem can be used (e.g., behavioral avoidance test). A behavioral avoidance test, for example, requires the child to emit graded and gradual approach behaviors to the anxiety-provoking object or event (e.g., reading out loud in front of a group of peers, for a child with social phobia). Parents have also been included in behavioral observations to assess parent/child

TREATMENT Considerable evidence has now accumulated demonstrating the efficacy of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy for reducing childhood anxiety disorders (Silverman & Berman, 2001). Cognitive behavior therapy has been found to be efficacious, whether delivered using an individual child format, a format that involves increased parental involvement, or a format that involves increased peer involvement. Overall, results from studies using cognitive behavior therapy indicate positive treatment gains for up to 1 year posttreatment. Follow-up studies also showed that positive treatment gains were maintained for up to 7 years posttreatment. The pharmacological literature for the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders is in its infancy when compared with the treatment literature on exposurebased cognitive behavior therapy. One study that examined the efficacy of fluoxetine (i.e., Prozac) on children with separation anxiety disorder, overanxious disorder/generalized anxiety disorder, and social phobia found that 81% of the children displayed moderate to marked improvement in their anxiety symptoms, with no side effects reported (Birmaher et al., 1994). Given the paucity of research, pharmacological interventions have been recommended with only the more difficult or “resistant” cases, rather than as the frontline approach to be used with all cases. CONCLUSIONS Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent disorders of childhood and adolescence. The main clinical features of anxiety disorders are maladaptive thoughts or cognitions, physiological arousal or reaction, avoidance or attempts at avoidance, and clinically significant distress. Diagnostic interview schedules and rating scales are available for assessing anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Given the evidence on the short- and longterm efficacy of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy, this type of intervention is recommended as the frontline treatment approach. Pharmacological treatments are recommended for more difficult or “resistant” cases. Clinical trials are beginning to include anxious children already undergoing pharmacological therapy in their exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy interventions. The combination of exposure-based

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cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacological treatment may prove efficacious, especially with the more difficult cases. —Barbara Lopez and Wendy K. Silverman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Birmaher, B., Waterman, G. S., Ryan, N., Cully, M., Balach, L., Ingram, J., et al. (1994). Fluoxetine for childhood anxiety disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33, 993–999. Cantwell, D. P., & Baker, L. (1989). Stability and natural history of DSM-III childhood diagnoses. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 691–700. Costello, J. E., & Angold, A. (1995). Epidemiology. In J. S. March (Ed.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (pp. 109–124). New York: Guilford. Rutter, M., Graham, P., Chadwick, O. F., & Yule, W. (1976). Adolescent turmoil: Fact or fiction? Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 17, 35–56. Silverman, W. K., & Berman, S. L. (2001). Psychosocial interventions for anxiety disorders in children: Status and future directions. In W. K. Silverman & P. D. A. Treffers (Eds.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: Research, assessment and intervention. Cambridge child and adolescent psychiatry (pp. 313–334). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Stock, S. L., Werry, J. S., & McClellan, J. M. (2001). Pharmacological treatment of pediatric anxiety. In W. K. Silverman & P. D. A. Treffers (Eds.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: Research, assessment and intervention. Cambridge child and adolescent psychiatry (pp. 335–367). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, CONCEPTS OF Applied developmental science (ADS) is scholarship that is predicated on a developmental systems theoretical perspective (Lerner, 2002). Within this context, Fisher et al. (1993) summarized the five conceptual components that, together, characterize the core principles of ADS. Taken together, these conceptual principles make ADS a unique approach to understanding and promoting positive development. The first conceptual component of ADS is the notion of the temporality, or historical embeddedness,

of change pertinent to individuals, families, institutions, and communities. Some components of the context or of individuals remain stable over time, and other components may change historically. Because phenomena of human behavior and development vary historically, one must assess whether generalizations across time periods are legitimate. Thus, temporality has important implications for research design, service provision, and program evaluation. Elder’s (1974) research on the children of the Great Depression provides an important example of this first conceptual component of ADS. For instance, Elder found that experiencing the Great Depression during one’s childhood affected adult views of the family and issues about economic security. Accordingly, without a design that embeds a person’s development within a historical context, the nature of the challenges he or she faced would not be adequately understood, and programs and policies could not be most effectively designed. Interventions are aimed at altering the developmental trajectory of within-person changes. To accomplish this aim, the second conceptual feature of ADS is that applied developmental scientists take into account interindividual differences, or diversity, among, for instance, racial, ethnic, social class, and gender groups, and intraindividual changes, such as those associated with pubertal maturation or with aging. An example of the importance of diversity for intervention can be found in the research of Magnusson and Stattin (1998). The impact of puberty on delinquency and norm-breaking behavior varies in relation to individual differences in both timing of puberty and the nature of the peer context in which development is embedded. Specifically, early-maturing girls are more likely to break norms for substance abuse when embedded in peer groups composed of girls older than themselves than in peer groups composed of girls of the same age. The third conceptual feature of ADS places an emphasis on the centrality of context. There is a focus on the relations among all levels of organization within the ecology of human development. These levels involve biology, families, peer groups, schools, businesses, neighborhoods and communities, physical/ ecological settings, and the sociocultural, political, legal/moral, and economic institutions of society. Together, bidirectional relations among these levels of the developmental system necessitate systemic approaches to research, program and policy design, and program and policy implementation.

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A key example of the importance of considering the context in attempts to understand individual development comes from the work of Eccles, Wigfield, and Byrnes (2003), who point to the importance of understanding stage-environment fit when interpreting the impact of school curricula and curricula change on adolescent motivation. Similarly, Lerner (2002) reviews data indicating how fit between infant temperament or child temperament and the demands for behavior present in the home or school, respectively, provide a basis for infant and child adjustment and positive development. The fourth principle of ADS emphasizes descriptively normative developmental processes and primary prevention and optimization rather than remediation. Applied developmental scientists emphasize healthy and normative developmental processes and seek to identify the strengths and assets of individuals, groups, and settings, rather than focusing on deficits, weaknesses, or problems of individuals, families, or communities. While not denying that problems exist or the need to reduce or prevent them, the developmental systems orientation of applied developmental scientists leads to a focus on the relative plasticity of development and to the adoption of the view that problems represent only a proportion (and probably a small one) of the range of outcomes of person-context relations. Accordingly, instead of dwelling on the problems faced by people, applied developmental scientists seek to find combinations of individual and ecological assets associated with thriving among people (e.g., Benson, 1997; Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000) and with the “Five Cs” of positive individual development: competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring/compassion (e.g., Lerner, 2002). The final principle of ADS is the appreciation of the bidirectional relationship between knowledge generation and knowledge application. By acknowledging bidirectionality, applied developmental scientists recognize the importance of knowledge about life and development that exists among the individuals, families, and communities being served by ADS. For applied developmental scientists, collaboration and colearning between researchers/universities and communities are essential features of the scholarly enterprise. Such community-collaborative efforts are termed outreach scholarship (Lerner & Miller, 1998). In other words, given the developmental systems perspective on which ADS is predicated, applied developmental scientists assume that

there is an interactive relationship between science and application. Accordingly, the work of those who generate empirically based knowledge about development and those who provide professional services or construct policies affecting individuals and families is seen as reciprocal in that research and theory guide intervention strategies and the evaluation of interventions and policies provides the bases for reformulating theory and future research. . . . As a result, applied developmental [scientists] not only disseminate information about development to parents, professionals, and policy makers working to enhance the development of others, they also integrate the perspectives and experiences of these members of the community into the reformulation of theory and the design of research and interventions. (Fisher & Lerner, 1994, p. 7)

CONCLUSIONS ADS is an instance of outreach scholarship that seeks to both understand and serve society with synthetic research and intervention (e.g., program- and policy-related) activities. ADS scholars seek to work with the community to define the nature of research and program design, delivery, and evaluation endeavors. Thus, applied developmental scientists seek ways to apply their scientific expertise to collaborate with, and promote the life chances of, the individuals, social groups, and communities participating in developmental scholarship. The key challenge in such efforts is to generate scientifically rigorous evaluations of the usefulness of the policies and the programs associated with ADS and also to use such information in the day-to-day operation of programs (e.g., Higgins-D’Alessandro, Fisher, & Hamilton, 1998; Jacobs, 1988). —Richard M. Lerner, Amy E. Alberts, and Peter Osborn

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., & Byrnes, J. (2003). Cognitive development in adolescence. In R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (pp. 325–350). New York: Wiley.

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Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the great depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Fisher, C. B., & Lerner, R. M. (1994). Foundations of applied developmental psychology. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Applied developmental psychology (pp. 3–20). New York: McGraw-Hill. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R. M., et al. (1993). Report of the National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Science Across the Life-Span. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–10. Higgins-D’Alessandro, A., Fisher, C. B., & Hamilton, M. (1998). Educating the applied developmental psychologist for university-community partnerships. In R. M. Lerner & L. A. K. Simon (Eds.), University-community collaborations for the twenty-first century: Outreach scholarship for youth and families (pp. 157–183). New York: Garland. Jacobs, F. (1988). The five-tiered approach to evaluation: Context and implementation. In H. B. Weiss & F. Jacobs (Eds.), Evaluating family programs (pp. 37–68). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M., & Miller, J. R. (1998). Developing multidisciplinary institutes to enhance the lives of individuals and families: Academic potentials and pitfalls. Journal of Public Service & Outreach, 3(1), 64–73. Magnusson, D., & Stattin, H. (1998). Person-context interaction theories. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 685–759). New York: Wiley. Scales, P., Benson, P., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (2000). The contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 27–46.

dimensions, such as family structures, beliefs, values, and behaviors. For different families and different family members, changes can happen at different paces. This entry describes and discusses some salient characteristics of Asian American families relevant to youth development identified in literature and practical implications of these characteristics. SIMILARITIES AMONG ASIAN AMERICAN FAMILIES There are some salient similarities among Asian American families. One important general characteristic is the great influence of the traditional Asian value or belief systems that stress collectivism, interpersonal harmony, social hierarchy, parental authority, filial piety, honor, duty, obligation, and education. Many traditional Asian American families tend to maintain close-knit family relations, support among extended-family members, collective problem-solving practices, reluctance in expressing emotions among family members, preference for tacit communication, duty and obligation to family, and respect and high expectations for education (Fong, 1995; Sung, 1995; Yee, Huang, & Lew, 1998). Another characteristic is the similar changes experienced by Asian American families in acculturation. Traditional extended families are giving way to modern nuclear families (Fong, 1995; Yee et al., 1998), and some superficial cultural habits (such as language, dress habits, and food preferences) and situation-specific manners are being Americanized (Yee et al., 1998). DIFFERENCES AMONG ASIAN AMERICAN FAMILIES

ASIAN AMERICAN FAMILIES AND YOUTH Asian American families are a multicultural group composed of individuals from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam), Filipino, and other Asian backgrounds and cultures (Fong, 1995; Sung, 1995). While Asian American families are similar in some aspects of their heritage cultures, they are diverse in many ways (Sung, 1995). Asian American families are not static, but are fluid and adaptive in the ongoing processes of acculturation (Fong, 1998). Changes within the context of acculturation can happen unevenly in different

Cultural differences coexist with the cultural similarities. For example, the patriarchal mold of families in Japan is very similar to the Chinese system, but female subordination is more acute in Japanese families (Sung, 1995). In Filipino culture, women are accorded higher status, and families are bilateral instead of patrilineal (Fong, 1995; Sung, 1995). In addition to the differences in heritage cultures, Asian families in the United States are different in circumstances around immigration, experiences of immigration, generations, family structures, family types (intraracial, interracial), socioeconomic status, native languages, ethnic identity, and so on (Sung, 1995). Each Asian American family is a unique configuration

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of the aforementioned aspects. For different families, acculturation can happen at different paces, based on the interactions among family members in the niches in which the families’ heritage cultures transact with the dominant American culture across time. Therefore, although there are similarities between many Asian cultures and many Asian American families, the Asian American family cannot be described as monolithic or generalizable (Fong, 1998; Sung, 1995). THE BIDIRECTIONAL NATURE OF SOCIALIZATION AND INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICTS Family experiences in the dominant American culture and how family members interpret and adapt to these experiences will affect both parents and children in Asian American families. At the same time, families play an important role in shaping their environments by using their cultural, social, and family capital to adjust to the environment and make sense of it. In a reciprocal process, adults model and socialize children in acculturation, and children, on the other hand, socialize adults in their families (Yee et al., 1998) by actively appropriating their heritage culture and the dominant American culture. Unevenness of acculturation of family members is not uncommon in Asian American families (Yee et al., 1998). Often, children are acculturated to the dominant American culture (including language) more easily and quickly than their parents and grandparents (Sung, 1995). One reason for children’s facility at acculturation may be their greater accessibility to the American culture through school, interaction with peers, and exposure to the media. They may also be more willing to assimilate and accommodate to the American culture, which emphasizes individualism rather than duties or obligations to family. The unevenness of acculturation can lead to tensions felt among family members and even to intergenerational conflicts as they embrace very different and often conflicting beliefs, values, and norms of behaviors. The conflicts are likely to arise around issues such as individualism, respect for and obedience to parents, dating and sexual behavior in adolescence, and interracial marriage (Fong, 1995, 1998; Sung, 1995; Yee et al., 1998). The conflicts may put the Asian American parents and children under psychological strain, deteriorate the emotional atmosphere in the family, and impair communication among family members.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND CAREER SUCCESS Academic achievement and career success are highly valued in Asian American families. It is believed that being successful in education and career development is the path to personal success and enhancing family and ancestral honor and that such success is an important duty and obligation of children to the family and parents. It is also regarded as a main way of repaying parents for their sacrifices, as children are believed to be indebted to their parents because of the parents’ hard work in providing nurturance and care (Yee et al., 1998). Asian American parents are key figures in socializing their children to value academic performance in this way, and grandparents and other people in the extended family may reinforce this socialization, as children in Asian American families are traditionally socialized by parents and extendedfamily members (Fong, 1995; Yee et al., 1998). Asian American parents usually have high educational expectations for their children. To ensure children’s academic success, parents tend to invest in educational opportunities and foster academic endeavors (Yee et al., 1998). The parents also tend to exert more control and supervision over their children’s academic affairs, free time, and social activities. Families are likely to exercise authority in supervising and making unilateral decisions concerning their children’s academic and career goals, such as college selection and occupational decisions (Yee et al., 1998). Although traditional Asian values promote educational endeavors and are correlated with high academic achievement of Asian American youth (Fong, 1998; Yee et al., 1998), the emphasis on educational success can be a two-edged sword. Since individual effort is culturally believed to be the primary factor for successful learning, Asian American parents may tend to attribute poor academic performance to lack of effort. On the other hand, they give less personal credit to their children for successes, compared with that given by European American parents to their children, because of culturally shaped suppression of positive emotional expression, such as verbal praise. Not giving appropriate credit for successes might have negative implications for self-esteem and identity development. In addition, being singled out as the hope and savior of the family can be a very heavy burden for Asian American youth. Some of them may end up having emotional and behavioral difficulties,

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such as substance abuse, depression, and suicidal behaviors because of the intense pressure to succeed academically (Yee et al., 1998).

and/or father figure in their lives and associated parental nurturance, care, modeling, and guidance can pose huge challenges to the healthy development of children.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS Asian American families live in different socioeconomic situations. The working-poor families are more likely to have multiple stressors in their lives with fewer material and social resources. They are more likely to live in segregated neighborhoods where violence, drugs, and racial discrimination are significant problems. Children are likely to have fewer opportunities for quality education. Parents usually are preoccupied with economic survival and have to work long, hard hours (Sung, 1995), which can result in the limited physical availability of parents. At the same time, because of the many stressful life events associated with poverty, parents are likely to be more vulnerable to affective difficulties and may be less likely to provide sensitive and responsive parenting to children or provide a harmonious and supportive emotional atmosphere in the family. Many poor Asian American families are new immigrants, with adults speaking little English. The combination of monolingual parents or grandparents and bilingual children may upset the traditional role configuration within the family as children more easily communicate with the outside world and become spokespersons for their families (Fong, 1995; Sung, 1995). Some Asian American families are refugees or illegal immigrants living in sheer poverty and impoverished refugee camps, and that puts both parents and children in extremely disadvantaged situations with multiple highly stressful life events (Fong, 1998; Sung, 1995). IMMIGRATION Though some Asian families immigrated together, most Asian immigrants did not enter the United States as a family group. During the process of “relay immigration,” some children in the family are left in the home country, waiting to be sent for; some are sent to the United States before the rest of their family. The process of lateral reunification of the family can be long and drawn out, and years may pass before the family is finally resettled and reunited in the United States. For some families, separation may remain persistent (Sung, 1995). Lacking a mother

CONCLUSIONS There are many challenges for youth development in Asian American families. For example, minority status, associated with physical differences from the mainstream society, often means fewer or no privileges and reduced opportunities for success (Yee et al., 1998). As more Asian immigrants find themselves in poor and segregated schools, they face the same limited opportunities as other immigrants of color. As a result, for these students, academic achievement and the pursuit of the American dream is more elusive (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). For another example, some second- and third-generation American-born youth struggle with racial and ethnic identity issues (Fong, 1995). At the same time, there are many assets for youth development in Asian American families, such as positive Asian values. Understanding the similarity, diversity, and constant changes of Asian American families has important implications for practitioners and policymakers whose work may have an impact on Asian American youth. It helps to correct stereotypes and therefore guide services and inform policy making. For example, it would be a mistake to conclude that all Asian students are thriving in well-functioning, integrated schools (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Therefore, interventions on the service and policy levels are necessary. More research on youth development in Asian American families will help identify the challenges and the strengths for child development in the families and promote effective practices and culturally relevant policies addressing family welfare. —Lang Ma

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fong, R. (1995). Families. In F. Ng & J. D. Wilson (Eds.), The Asian American encyclopedia (pp. 401–412). New York: Marshall Cavendish. Fong, T. P. (1998). The contemporary Asian American experience: Beyond model minority. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Suárez-Orozco, C., & Suárez-Orozco, M. M. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Sung, B. L. (1995). Family. In S. Gall & I. Natividad (Eds.), The Asian American almanac (pp. 403–417). Detroit, MI: Gale Research. Yee, B. W. K., Huang, L. N., & Lew, A. (1998). Families: Lifespan socialization in a cultural context. In L. C. Lee & N. W. S. Zane (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology (pp. 83–135). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

ASIAN AMERICANS, A TERM IN TRANSITION Asian Americans, a term used to represent a U.S. socially constructed racial category, was coined by the late Yuji Ichioka in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. The racial category includes those Americans whose families were from Asia and often encompasses those from the Pacific Islands. The terms Asian Pacific Americans and Asian/Pacific Islander Americans are also commonly used to refer to individuals whose family origins are from Asia and the Pacific Islands. For the same reasons that other racial groups such as African Americans rejected historically used racial terms such as Negro, many Asian Americans rejected the term Oriental because of its negative connotations and associated stereotypes, and they embraced the new term with pride. The term includes members of at least 40 distinct ethnic groups because of their common ethnic origins in Asia and the Pacific Islands and their perceived similar physical appearance. The ethnic groups subsumed under this racial category include Americans of East Asia (e.g., China, Japan, Korea), Southeast Asia (e.g., Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos), South Asia (e.g., India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), and the Pacific Islands (e.g., Philippines, Samoa, Guam). Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing racial groups in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 4% of the U.S. population, totaling 10.2 million persons, identify with an Asian ancestry (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). Chinese Americans are the largest ethnic group within the Asian American population, numbering 2.4 million, closely followed by 1.9 million Filipino Americans. The Asian Indian population has rapidly grown 106% since the 1990 census, numbering more than 1.6 million. In addition,

the Vietnamese American population has shown a significant increase of 83% in the past decade (Asia Source, 2001). Investigators studying Asian American populations have primarily focused on Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Southeast Asian refugees, while other Asian American ethnic groups, such as Asian Indians, Indonesians, Guamanians, and Samoans, have rarely been studied (Uba, 1994). Asian American research participants with different ethnic origins are often aggregated when different Asian American ethnic groups are included in the sample, and separate analyses are generally not performed on the different ethnic groups. However, this trend is slowly becoming less acceptable as a research practice (Fisher et al., 2002). Takanishi (2003) strongly believes that the use of Asian and Asian Americans as a research category is outdated, unhelpful, and misleading in terms of policy and program implications, because of the withingroup differences among the more than 40 ethnic groups who are subsumed under the term Asian Americans. These differences include cultural practices and customs, language, religion, values, history, immigration and relocation experiences, acculturation levels, family structure and intactness, educational levels, socioeconomic status, and other factors. The result of these differences is that each Asian American ethnic group has its own distinct needs and concerns that must be specifically addressed. Thus, researchers and policymakers must carefully consider the appropriateness and usefulness of categorizing individuals into the racial group of Asian Americans and evaluate any conclusions drawn when the category of Asian Americans is used. —Debra M. Kawahara

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Asia Source. (2001). Asian Americans and census 2000 results. Available at http://www.asiasource.org/news Fisher, C. B., Hoagwood, K., Duster, T., Frank, D. A., Grisso, T., Macklin, R., et al. (2002). Research ethics for mental health science involving ethnic minority children and youth. American Psychologist, 57, 1024–1040. Takanishi, R. (2003). Yellow on the outside/yellow on the inside? Reflections on research on Asian American children and families. Paper presented at the biennial conference of the Society for Research on Child Development, Tampa, FL.

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Uba, L. (1994). Asian Americans: Personality patterns, identity and mental health. New York: Guilford. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2000). Selected social characteristics of the populations by citizenship. Available at http:// www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/api

ASSESSMENT, APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL Assessment has become a fact of life for today’s infants, children, and adolescents and their families. School testing grew after the 1983 report A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) documented that American students lagged behind students in other developed countries in school performance. The response was to articulate academic standards and then to create standardized tests to assess whether the standards are being met. In spring 2002, the result was Public Law 107–110, the No Child Left Behind Act, which sets specific goals for performance on standardized tests and ties federal aid for education to the testing results. The federal and state mandates represent a traditional “one size fits all” approach that can provide an assessment of minimum competencies, but it is ill suited to understanding the complexities of individual human development or of changes as a result of educational reforms. However, work in applied developmental science (ADS) suggests a different approach to assessment, that of applied developmental assessment. WHAT IS APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT? First, to be “applied,” assessment should have purpose and utility. There are different reasons for assessment, most of them related to the well-being of the person or group being assessed. One purpose for assessment, called “screening,” is usually also the first step in a multilevel assessment process. The goal of screening is to identify individuals at risk for poorer developmental outcomes and thus to reduce the number of individuals who receive more in-depth assessment. Traditionally, the purpose of this second stage of more in-depth evaluation was to provide information for diagnosis. However, the term diagnosis is derived from a medical model approach to assessment that seeks evidence of symptoms or

deficits that indicate a specific disease or disorder. From an ADS perspective, the goal of this second level of assessment is broader than diagnosis and not limited to disease or disorder. Rather, the goal of in-depth developmental assessments is to construct a conceptual framework that provides contextually rich information on the child’s developmental strengths and vulnerabilities to provide a foundation for understanding the problem or issue that has brought the child to the assessment. The last stage of developmental assessment is to apply the conceptual framework from the second stage of the assessment process to the identification of an intervention strategy that will help remediate a current developmental problem, prevent secondary problems from emerging, and optimize developmental pathways. Applied developmental interventions are usually designed as programs serving more than one child. The intervention thus includes program planning and evaluation at both the individual level (monitoring changes) and at the group level. The Bidirectional Nature of Applied Developmental Assessment A substantive assumption of ADS is the bidirectional relationship between knowledge application and knowledge generation (Fisher & Lerner, 1994; Fisher et al., 1993) and a long tradition of understanding that children are producers as well as products of their environments (Lerner & Busch-Rossnagel, 1981). Consistent with our understanding of the bidirectional nature of effects, assessment has utility for the professional involved in applied development assessment as well as for the person or group being assessed. Assessment provides us with a scheme of normative development and information about the range of individual differences. In addition, our understanding of individual differences can be enhanced by an examination of context effects. Development occurs within a specific environment, so that the development we observe is a combination of both nature and nurture effects. One way of increasing our understanding of the effects of a specific environment or context is to “test the limits.” In this technique, a test item is first observed under a typical standardized testing environment. The next step is to provide theory-guided practice on the specific skills underlying the test item and then observe performance on the test item. Thus, testing the limits enlarges the context of assessment to observe what

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individuals can do under ideal, as well as under standardized, conditions (Kliegl, Smith, & Baltes, 1989).

suited to identify issues associated with the lack of cultural equivalence of measures.

The Developmental Perspective

VALIDITY OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Within the ADS perspective, assessment should also be “developmental.” Developmental assessment has traditionally referred to normative, age-graded assessment (such as the establishment of major developmental milestones). However, chronological age may not be the best marker for time-related changes, especially after infancy. Instead, developmental assessment should be characterized by recognition of individual differences and by plasticity, that is, the potential for systematic change across the life span (Lerner & Busch-Rossnagel, 1981). Process Orientation Applied developmental assessment should also be a process rather than being equated with “testing.” A test is “an evaluative device or procedure in which a sample of an examinee’s behavior in a specified domain is obtained and subsequently scored using a standardized process” (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999, p. 3). For a test, the behaviors and context are the means, but the desired result, the end product, is the score. Assessment in general, and developmental assessment in particular, is a larger process that may or may not include tests, but it should examine behavior in a variety of settings, the meaning of the performance on the test or the behavior in general in terms of individuals’ functioning, and the likel explanation for that functioning (the conceptual framework). PSYCHOMETRIC PRINCIPLES The fact that assessment is not equated with testing does not mean that applied developmental assessment is free to ignore psychometric principles. The contrary is, in fact, true: Applied developmental assessment should be characterized by additional attention to the psychometric qualities of tests, observations, and so on in different contexts. In this way, we can discriminate bias and random error. Based in ADS, which emphasizes the influences of diversity on development, applied developmental assessment is particularly

What is necessary for applied developmental assessment to be valid? First, an assessment (or a test) is not valid in and of itself; rather, there is valid use of assessment, and valid use requires an understanding of competence, context, and prediction. Competence From this utilitarian, applied perspective, valid use first depends on the qualifications of the individual responsible for the assessment. Like traditional testing standards, applied developmental assessment assumes that examiners are skilled, that they are able to establish rapport with the individual(s) being assessed, and that any standardized assessments are administered, scored, and interpreted correctly. However, understanding of the bidirectional nature of communication changes the role of the applied developmental examiner from that of “expert” to that of a colleague. The participants in the assessment (and the guardians for children and youth) are equals in determining the utilization validity of the assessment. Most important, the participants are the ones who determine whether assessment should occur and the utility of the information obtained. In other words, the participants help to establish the “referral questions” that guide the assessment process. Context In addition to a skilled examiner who respects the participants as contributors to the assessment process, the validity of assessment rests with an adequate examination of the contextual effects at all the possible levels. Techniques such as testing the limits, which provides theory-guided practice on test items, may provide information about one aspect of the assessment context, namely, the impact of limited exposure to a testing situation or to the materials or instructions used in a test. However, applied developmental examiners need to interpret context broadly and not just limit it to the examination of the standardized aspects of a test. For example, to what extent does the ethnicity or gender of the examiner affect how testees of different

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ethnic backgrounds respond to the assessment? What is the effect of the context if early intervention screening is conducted in a medical clinic? What is the effect of having parent permission when the assessment is of the sexual behavior of adolescents? To identify contextual effects, evaluation of performance across multiple contexts should be part of the assessment process. In other words, context should be treated as one of the variables to be examined in the assessment process (Busch-Rossnagel, 1992). Prediction Validity of use also requires an understanding of the lack of perfect prediction from the assessment result. While current functioning may be observed, future behavior is only inferred. And that inference occurs within the conceptual framework created by the assessment process. If the assessment professional has a thorough grounding in research methods, then the conceptual framework may be a series of competing hypotheses tested through the assessment process. Research methods teach us that we cannot confirm the null hypothesis, so we should phrase our research questions to identify and seek the information that will lead us to reject the null hypothesis. Unfortunately, many traditional assessment methods, especially projective tests (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997), approach the assessment process in the opposite way: They look for the information consistent with the hypothesis rather than looking for the evidence that is discrepant with it. COMMUNICATION OF RESULTS The utility of assessment rests with communication of the results, and here again, best practice for applied developmental assessment differs from traditional approaches. In traditional practice, the result of the assessment is a series of scores, usually standardized (e.g., an IQ or the results of the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, SATs). Because they are standardized (e.g., with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 for most IQs or with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100 for the SATs), they have meaning for the “experts.” Mental health professionals are socialized to write assessment reports for other professionals, resulting in reports that are dense with jargon that may have little meaning and even less utility for the participants. Such reports are often focused on weaknesses,

the areas of poor functioning that originally brought the participant into the assessment process. In contrast, emphasis on the bidirectionality of communication in applied developmental assessments suggests that the participants should shape the method of communication of results. For some participants, a standardized score may be understandable, but for many participants and guardians, the most understandable quantitative score is the percentile rank. Quantitative information should be contextualized by identifying strengths as well as weaknesses, as these may help identify ideas for improvement or enhancement. Reports of observations of the performance will also suggest strengths and ideas for promotion of positive behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS The need to communicate assessment results that include ideas for the promotion of development returns us to the heart of the process of applied developmental assessment. The goal of assessment should be to provide information that is useful to modify or optimize development. The life span perspective that underlies work in ADS highlights that the potential for growth exists throughout the life course, but because of changes in the potential of plasticity across life, it suggests the importance of early intervention to facilitate change most effectively (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998). Thus, applied developmental assessment will be most useful when coupled with early intervention at any age. —Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Baltes, P., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (1998). Lifespan theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1029–1144). New York: Wiley. Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1992). Commonalities between test validity and external validity in basic research on

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Hispanics. In K. F. Geisinger (Ed.), Psychological testing of Hispanics (pp. 195–214). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Fisher, C., & Lerner, R. (1994). Applied developmental psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R., et al. (1993). Report of the National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Science Across the Life Span. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–7. Kliegl, R., Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (1989). Testing-the-limits and the study of adult age differences in cognitive plasticity of a mnemonic skill. Developmental Psychology, 25, 247–256. Lerner, R. M., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1981). Individuals as producers of their development: Conceptual and empirical bases. In R. M. Lerner & N. A. Busch-Rossnagel (Eds.), Individuals as producers of their development: A life-span perspective (pp. 1–36). New York: Academic. National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

ASSESSMENT, COGNITIVE The subject of cognitive assessment encompasses a multitude of related topics: classroom observation, testing, grading, intelligence, IQ, learning, education, and development, to name just a few. Cognitive assessment is also of special interest to applied developmental science because individuals, young and old, will be advantaged or disadvantaged by the quality of their nation’s policies and practices in this area. This entry will introduce the general reader to some basic information and key constructs on the topic of cognitive assessment.

PRECURSORS TO MODERN ASSESSMENT The desire to assess cognitive capabilities is not peculiar to modern, technologically sophisticated cultures. As early as 2200 B.C., the Chinese instituted a civil service examination to determine whether government officials were fit to perform their duties, seeking proficiency in music, archery, horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, and public and private rites and ceremonies (Green, 1991). Even the Bible records an instance of a brief oral examination concocted by the Gileadite armies to detect fugitives as they tried to escape from vanquished lands. The Gileadites allowed

passage only to those who could pronounce the word shibboleth, well aware that those attempting to escape would not know the correct pronunciation. Those who failed were “seized and slaughtered . . . by the fords of the Jordan” (Judges 12:4–6). The term final examination takes on new meaning in this context, a fate that, thankfully, is no longer associated with cognitive assessment in civilized nations. Nonetheless, controversy abounds regarding how, how much, to whom, and for what purpose cognitive assessments should be administered. The only agreement at present seems to be that people’s lives can, indeed, be changed for good or ill, depending on their performance on tests and other measurements. THE BIRTH OF MODERN PSYCHOMETRICS Achievement tests, aptitude tests, IQ tests—these types of cognitive assessments are associated with psychometrics, the field that concerns itself with the scientific measurement of psychological characteristics. Although widely believed to meet high standards of technical quality, measures of this sort have also been criticized, particularly on grounds of discrimination and culture bias (see, e.g., Gardner, 1993; Gould, 1981; Sternberg, 1985). The late 1800s produced several major figures in the history of psychometrics, specifically Frances Galton, J. McKeen Cattell, and Alfred Binet. Galton, Charles Darwin’s cousin, was preoccupied with the hereditary basis of intelligence and the measurement of human abilities. Cattell, an American who studied in Germany under Wilhelm Wundt, opened the first testing laboratory in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania in 1888. French psychologist Alfred Binet, in collaboration with his physician-associate Theodore Simon, constructed the first practical intelligence test, published in 1905. Other pioneers in psychological testing included Charles Spearman in test theory, Edward Thorndike in achievement testing, and Lewis Terman in intelligence testing and father of the gifted-child movement in the United States. As an outgrowth of the psychological testing movement of the 1920s, hundreds of psychological tests are now produced and distributed commercially. Their availability, however, is restricted to trained psychologists, educators, or researchers. Access to many of these instruments depends on meeting stringent criteria for administration and interpretation of results, as well as codes of ethical conduct that are distributed

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by all of the major professional organizations (see, e.g., American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999). TEST VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY Common to any type of assessment, which can range from informal observations to highly standardized, norm-referenced tests, are the psychometric requirements of validity and reliability. Validity depends on the extent to which an assessment actually measures what it was designed to measure. Reliability refers to the extent to which an assessment measures anything consistently, across time, across test items, or by different examiners. Even the seemingly simple acts of classroom observation and note taking must meet the criteria of validity and reliability, particularly if the data will be used for reporting purposes (e.g., parent conferences, special education team meetings). DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACHES In contrast to the psychometric movement, which closely paralleled the history of experimental psychology in the United States and abroad, stands a second strand of influence, the developmentally oriented work of Arnold Gesell. Begun at the Yale Clinic of Child Development in the 1920s and continuing for more than 40 years, Gesell’s research yielded normative data on the development of motor, linguistic, personal-social, and adaptive behavior of children from birth to age 6. Gesell’s concern was with tracking development longitudinally, not with measuring individual differences (although individual children could, of course, be compared with the norms identified by Gesell). More popular initially with pediatricians than with psychologists (who criticized the developmental scales as being too subjective and poorly standardized), Gesell’s work nonetheless influenced generations of educators and school psychologists. Current examples of developmental assessments include the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (Brazelton, 1984), the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, and the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities, with each instrument designed to assess a different aspect of cognitive functioning or to be used for younger or older children. Samuel Meisels and colleagues’ (Meisels, Jablon, Marsden, Dichtelmiller, & Dorfman, 1994) authentic assessment instrument, the

Work Sampling System, guides teachers in collecting children’s “work samples” as evidence of their growth in a variety of domains during the early childhood and elementary years. In stark contrast to the standardized paper-and-pencil tests associated with the psychometric movement, developmental assessments often include direct observation of children in classrooms or involved in a variety of preselected, often hands-on activities. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES The past 20 years have seen the rise of major efforts to assess student performance more directly and in context (Airasian, 2001; Baron & Wolf, 1996; Darling-Hammond, Ancess, & Falk, 1995; Resnick & Resnick, 1996). The alternative assessment movement is firmly rooted in the developmental, constructivist tradition most often associated with early childhood education. Current practice, however, reaches up into the elementary grades and beyond, even affecting graduate and professional schools. Numerous labels have been used to describe the alternatives to traditional testing, the most common being “authentic assessment” and “performance assessment.” In contrast to selected-answer, multiple-choice tests, alternative assessments involve direct observation of student performance on significant tasks. Believing that intelligence is “context-specific,” advocates of this approach seek evidence of a person’s cognitive competency while the person is doing whatever is being assessed. CONCLUSIONS The quality of applied developmental science in this arena has profoundly affected the lives of individuals from infancy through adulthood. The burden is on us to improve our assessment practices so that reforms in the future will not be necessary. American children are subjected to “tests” from birth onward, first with the Apgar Scale (which assesses newborn viability; Apgar, 1953), throughout the early childhood and elementary years (which are punctuated with school-based, state, and federally mandated tests), and, as many high school students know, on into college and graduate school. Students with gifts or with special needs encounter an additional battery of tests and assessments. Moreover, the standardsbased curriculum reform movement of recent decades has produced state-mandated graduation and school

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accountability requirements that rely on high-stakes tests. To use Massachusetts as an example, schoolchildren take the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) examinations in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades. They must pass the mathematics and English language arts sections of the MCAS in order to graduate. The MCAS movement has seen a parallel increase in the use of professional educator tests, which assess literacy skills, content knowledge, and professional knowledge of prospective educators. The 2002 No Child Left Behind legislation of the Bush administration has led to an explosion of new measurements of schoolchildren’s cognitive accomplishments—which can be viewed as either a boon or a burden, depending on one’s point of view about the purposes of schooling and whether test scores alone, however they are derived, reveal anything truly useful about a child’s abilities or a school’s effectiveness. —Ann C. Benjamin

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Airasian, P. W. (2001). Classroom assessment: Concepts & applications (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Apgar, V. (1953). A proposal for a new method of evaluation of the newborn infant. Current Researches in Anesthesia and Analgesics, 32, 260–267. Baron, J. B., & Wolf, D. P. (1996). Performance-based student assessment: Challenges and possibilities. Ninety-fifth yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (Pt. I). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Brazelton, T. B. (1984). Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Darling-Hammond, L., Ancess, J., & Falk, B. (1995). Authentic assessment in action: Studies of schools and students at work. New York: Teachers College Press. Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences: Tenth anniversary edition. New York: Basic Books. Gould, S. J. (1981). The mismeasure of man. New York: Norton. Green, K. E. (1991). Measurement theory. In K. E. Green (Ed.), Educational testing: Issues and applications (pp. 3–25). New York: Garland. Meisels, S. J., Jablon, J., Marsden, D. B., Dichtelmiller, M. L., & Dorfman, A. (1994). The Work Sampling System. Ann Arbor, MI: Rebus.

Resnick, D. P., & Resnick, L. B. (1996). Performance assessment and the multiple functions of educational measurement. In M. B. Kane & R. Mitchell (Eds.), Implementing performance assessment: Promises, problems, and challenges (pp. 23–38). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.

ASSESSMENT, CULTURAL VALIDITY OF The validity of research with subcultural groups or individuals identifying themselves as members of different ethnic groups is often compromised by the use of measures developed on samples of European Americans. Less well recognized is that validity of individual assessments is also limited by the use of instruments standardized on samples that are not representative of the diversity of the American population. No cultural group is homogeneous. Each new cultural group contributes to the American experience in different ways. Thus, assessment suffers when instruments are standardized on samples with restricted cultural diversity. The dynamic contextualism that is at the heart of applied developmental science suggests several ways of exploring and improving the cultural validity of developmental assessments. This entry briefly identifies factors applied developmental scientists must consider when constructing or selecting culturally valid instruments for use.

METHODOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS In examining the validity of developmental assessments for subcultural groups, researchers may be tempted to turn to the classic research designs, especially that of the experiment. In the experiment, independent variables are manipulated by the researchers to observe the effects on the dependent variables. The true experiment requires random assignment to the control versus the experimental group or to levels of the independent variable. When applying the design of the experiment to subcultural groups, researchers would use culture as an independent variable in an attempt to understand behaviors, which are the dependent variables. However, culture is usually an assigned or status variable that cannot be manipulated

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easily; in particular, it cannot be randomly assigned to research participants. Thus, research using culture as an independent variable will be limited in its ability to establish causality and explain behavior (Busch-Rossnagel, 1992). Population Generalizability Because such research using culture as a dependent variable holds limited promise for establishing the “why” of behavior, much cross-cultural or subcultural work is conducted to examine the population generalizability of tests or results of previous research. Research on population generalizability can yield two results: significant differences between the two groups or no significant differences. The finding of no significant differences is essentially meaningless because it is an acceptance of the null hypothesis. The finding of significant differences suggests the rejection of the null hypothesis of population generalizability, but this result may also be uninterpretable because culture or ethnicity is usually confounded with other variables, particularly socioeconomic status or educational attainment. Consider as an example the results of a study by Luis Laosa (1980), who found differences between Chicana and Anglo mothers when observing their teaching behaviors. When he controlled for the differences in the educational levels of the two groups of mothers, the ethnic group difference disappeared. Thus, when we use pseudoexperiments to look at cultural groups, we run the risk of assuming cultural differences, when they are likely the result of a confounded variable. External Validity These confounded relationships are seen as threats to external validity in the traditional approach to validity of research design, which seeks to ascertain general laws that hold regardless of others variables. However, within applied developmental science, confounded variables, or interactions, hold the key to understanding human behavior: Identification of the confounding variables and other dimensions of the context of research enhances the interpretation of the research findings. However, this endeavor is difficult because the key constructs are often not adequately defined. For example, what is culture? Culture includes psychological aspects of shared norms, values, and beliefs along with material entities, such as paintings,

music, and dress, and social structures of organizations and institutions. To be of use to applied developmental science, culture must be defined as a developmental process, so that specification of the cultural context means that the developmental processes that are assumed to be the mediating variables between culture and outcome are explicitly defined in research hypotheses. A similar approach should be taken to defining race or ethnicity if those concepts are used to define groups. In doing so, the likelihood of using pan-ethnic labels, such as Hispanic in place of Puerto Rican or Colombian, or Asian in place of Korean or Vietnamese, should diminish as national origin, acculturation, religion, immigration history, and other factors are identified to define ethnicity (Fisher, Jackson, & Villarruel, 1997). Likewise, unraveling the confounds of ethnicity with educational attainment, income, employment status, and so on can identify overgeneralizations that stigmatize individuals and ethnic groups. The Test Blueprint The concepts of both reliability and validity are basic principles underlying the assessment process. The idea of a test blueprint is less well-known but holds promise for helping to establish the cultural validity of the assessment process. An assessment blueprint is exactly what the term implies: a guide that shows what the final assessment process should look like. The blueprint should identify the constructs to be included and the contexts or domains in which such constructs will be assessed. By requiring specification of the context of the assessment procedures, the blueprint can be used to build an examination of processes related to culture or ethnicity into the assessment process. LANGUAGE One process related to culture or ethnicity, namely, linguistic competence, requires additional attention to ensure cultural validity. Most assessment is based on measures available just in English, but in today’s diverse population, individuals participating in developmental assessments may not speak English at all or may not feel comfortable speaking it. The ADS professional who wants to obtain information from a nonEnglish-speaking population is faced with creating measures that are linguistically equivalent. This process usually starts with a simple translation, done

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by an individual with fluency in both languages. Translation is not an exact process, so the process often includes having a number of bilingual individuals undertake the translation to achieve a consensus. However, the result is likely to be phrases in the second language that are not true to the intent of the English measure because of the lack of precision in the original English version. The most precise words are often less commonly used in everyday interactions, so their use in a psychological measure increases the reading level—and the difficulty—of the measure. Back Translation A second way of approaching translation is through the process of back translation, which is also known as double translation. For example, to create a Spanish version of an English measure, a bilingual person first translates the English version into Spanish, and this Spanish translation is then translated back into English by a second bilingual person. This completes the back, or double, translation. The back translation (which is in English) is compared with the original English text. If the two versions are different, the Spanish version is altered to more closely approximate the original English. The altered Spanish version is subjected to another back translation to English. Back translation through several iterations is usually seen as the “best” practice to develop linguistically equivalent versions of measures. However, because only the Spanish version is modified and the English version is not changed, back translation has limitations. When the original English measure is standardized and cannot be modified without jeopardizing the psychometric information gathered on the standardized measure, then iterative back translation must suffice to protect the standardization. Decentering When both versions of the instruments are being developed simultaneously, a better option is available. This is the process of decentering (Werner & Campbell, 1970). On the surface, the process of decentering is the same as the iterative process of back translation. The difference is that when comparing Spanish and English versions, either version may be modified to enhance the match between the two. Where discrepancies exist between the two versions, researchers can discuss the intent of the English item, rewrite the item for clarification, and then translate and back translate

again. In other words, each round of translation informs the development process for both versions of the questionnaire and often has the effect of clarifying the focus of the items. Decentering is likely to affect the development of a measure because it clarifies the linguistic boundaries of the constructs.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EQUIVALENCE Linguistic equivalence does not mean psychological equivalence. It is necessary to examine the pattern of relationships for the two versions with other measures to see whether they are psychologically equivalent (Busch-Rossnagel, 1992, 1998). Psychological equivalence is particularly important when assessing interaction or social processes, such as parenting, as these may have different meanings in different ethnic and cultural contexts (Vargas & Busch-Rossnagel, 2000).

CONCLUSIONS This entry has described the multiple dimensions along which the cultural validity of a developmental assessment must be evaluated. None of these dimensions alone guarantee cultural validity. Cultural validity requires an examination of the variables possibly confounded with culture, and these interactions may be with every level of development—the biological, psychological, and historical-social. Thus, an assessment of the cultural validity of developmental assessment requires an answer to the question, “Have we adequately considered all dimensions in order to characterize the complexity of the possible influences on the behavior we are assessing?” The bad news is that as with any type of psychometric effort, cultural validity can never be established. The good news is that in improving the cultural validity of developmental assessment, the approach of applied developmental science not only contributes to our understanding of individual development but also enhances our understanding of development both within and across subcultural groups. —Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1992). Commonalities between test validity and external validity in basic research on Hispanics. In K. F. Geisinger (Ed.), Psychological testing

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of Hispanics (pp. 195–214). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1998, January). Development in Puerto Rican and Dominican toddlers. Final report to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD30590). (Available from author) Fisher, C. B., Jackson, J. F., & Villarruel, F. (1997). The study of African American and Latin American children and youth. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1145–1207). New York: Wiley. Laosa, L. (1980). Maternal teaching strategies in Chicano and Anglo-American families: The influence of culture and education on maternal behavior. Child Development, 51, 759–765. Vargas, M., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (2000). Authority plus affection: Latino parenting during adolescence. In M. Montero-Sieburth & F. A. Villarruel (Eds.), Making invisible Latino adolescents visible: A critical approach to Latino diversity (pp. 265–287). New York: Falmer. Werner, O., & Campbell, D. T. (1970). Translating, working through interpreters and the problem of decentering. In R. Cohen (Ed.), A handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. New York: American Museum of Natural History.

ASSESSMENT, EARLY CHILDHOOD PERFORMANCE Performance assessments refer to methods that allow children to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, dispositions, and other aspects of development and expression through solving problems, acting on their environments, interacting with individuals in their settings, experimenting, talking, moving, and so forth. These assessments are formative: They provide information that can be used both to change the process of teaching and to keep track of children’s progress and accomplishments. Because performance assessments are continuous rather than discontinuous, they can be used to monitor a child’s progress longitudinally instead of only summarizing that progress on annual or semiannual occasions. CONTEXT AND MULTIPLE SOURCES Performance assessments thrive on context and on the evidence acquired from natural settings (Meisels, 1996). They require multiple sources of information and multiple observations of the same or related phenomena before conclusions can be drawn. They

rely on extensive sampling of behavior in order to derive meaningful conclusions about individual children. Moreover, they are highly sensitive to differences in the quality of children’s performances. Two children may have highly comparable skills, but they may demonstrate these skills in very different ways. Only performance assessments systematically provide information about qualitative differences between children and can provide information about change within a single child when that child is assessed over time. This is especially true of young children. Conventional, group-administered achievement tests are based on a set of specific psychometric assumptions about the measurements of learning that are not highly relevant to young children (Meisels, 1994) or to how we currently understand learning, especially among children (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Shepard, 2000). The emphasis on reliability of scoring and measurement in these tests focuses on learning that can be quantified and measured accurately. This focus is consistent with a pedagogical model in which teaching consists of the transmission of knowledge to students and learning consists of students’ acquisition of skills and facts rather than their ability to engage in critical thinking, to analyze, synthesize, and draw conclusions, or to apply skills and conceptual knowledge when solving problems. For young children just entering school, repeated exposure to this style of teaching and learning may establish negative expectations about what learning consists of, how to respond to new information, and whether the exercise of intellectual initiative and curiosity is welcome. LINKING ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION Performance assessments describe a child’s current status within a domain or area of development by documenting within daily contexts the child’s skills, knowledge, personality variables, and accomplishments in relation to specific developmental goals and objectives. Some of these goals are set by the child’s family; some are the outcome of consultations with professionals; some are derived from standards or milestones that have been articulated in practice and in the research literature. Unlike other types of assessments, performance assessment transforms the historical model that separated assessment and intervention from each other into one that fuses assessment and intervention into a common set of procedures.

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Performance assessment is based on the recognition that assessments depend on intervention data in order to obtain the most useful information possible for enhancing a child’s development—information that accounts for the complexity of development, the impact of environment, the influence of parental figures, and the role of context (Meisels & Fenichel, 1996). From this perspective, we do not apply one set of assessment procedures to a child in order to use this information to prescribe another set of interventions, as is often done with classical achievement testing. Rather, we assess in the process or context of teaching in order to learn how to teach still more effectively. When performance-based assessments are continuous and are used to monitor student learning longitudinally, they have the potential to improve instruction by closely linking instruction and assessment (Meisels, 1997; Meisels, Dorfman, & Steele, 1995). The Work Sampling System (Meisels, Jablon, Marsden, Dichtelmiller, & Dorfman, 2001) is an exemplar of this type of performance assessment. THE WORK SAMPLING SYSTEM The Work Sampling System (WSS), an authentic performance assessment for preschool (3-year-olds) to Grade 6, offers a comprehensive means of monitoring children’s social, emotional, physical, and academic progress. It is an instructional assessment that is based on teachers’ observations of children who are actively working and creating products day to day within the context of their daily classroom experience. The purpose of the WSS is to document and assess children’s skills, knowledge, behavior, and accomplishments across a wide variety of classroom activities and areas of learning on multiple occasions. It consists of three complementary elements: (1) teacher’s observations informed by developmental guidelines and recorded on developmental checklists, (2) regular collection of children’s work in portfolios, and (3) teacher summaries of this information on summary reports each fall, winter, and spring. These elements are all classroom-focused and instructionally relevant, reflecting the objectives of the classroom teacher. Instead of providing a mere snapshot of narrow academic skills at a single point in time, the elements of the system work together to create an ongoing evaluation process designed to improve both the student’s learning and the teacher’s instructional practices.

WSS Structure One of the WSS’s strengths is its systematic structure. This structure allows teachers to collect extensive information from multiple sources and to use this information to evaluate what children know and can do. In its reliance on observing, collecting, and summarizing, the WSS organizes the assessment process so that it is both comprehensive in scope and manageable for teachers and students. The developmental guidelines provide a framework for observation. They give teachers a set of observational criteria that are based on national standards and current knowledge of child development, such as those produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, they are consistent with proposals published by the National Education Goals Panel and others, and with the provisions for developmentally appropriate practices put forth by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The guidelines set forth developmentally appropriate expectations for children at each age or grade level. In using the guidelines as the basis for their professional judgments, teachers in different settings can make decisions about children’s behavior, knowledge, and accomplishments using identical criteria. Teachers record their observations on the developmental checklists. Portfolios are purposeful collections of children’s work that illustrate children’s efforts, progress, and achievements. These collections are intended to display the individual nature and quality of children’s work and their progress over time. Work Sampling advocates a structured approach to portfolio collection through the collection of two types of work samples: core items and individualized items. Core items are designed to show growth over time by representing the same area of learning on three separate occasions during the school year. Individualized items are designed to portray the unique characteristics of the child and to reflect work that integrates many domains of the curriculum. Child and teacher are both involved in the design, selection, and evaluation of portfolios. Summary reports are completed three times a year. Teachers combine information from the developmental checklists and portfolios with their own knowledge of child development to make evaluative decisions about student performance and progress. They summarize their knowledge of the child as they make

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ratings and write brief comments describing the student’s strengths and their own areas of concern. Summary reports take the place of conventional report cards. WSS Domains WSS addresses seven categories, or domains, of classroom learning and experience. These seven domains include Personal and Social Development, Language and Literacy, Mathematical Thinking, Scientific Thinking, Social Studies, the Arts, and Physical Development. WSS not only provides the teacher with clear criteria for evaluation but also incorporates the teacher’s own expertise and judgment. It is an evaluation system that does not dictate curriculum or instructional methods and that is designed for use with diverse groups of children in a variety of settings. The WSS is a flexible framework for assessment that helps teachers structure their assessments systematically and encourages them to devise techniques best suited to their styles, their students, and their contexts. WSS Applications Although the three elements of WSS (checklists and guidelines, portfolios, and summary reports) can be used separately, they form an integrated whole that draws upon teachers’ perceptions of students, while informing, expanding, and structuring those perceptions. The system allows teachers to assess children’s development and accomplishments—rather than their test-taking skills—in meaningful, curriculum-based activities. It enables them to recognize and nurture children’s unique learning styles, instead of rigidly classifying children as high or low achievers based on simplistic assessments. It also enables families to become actively involved in the assessment process. By objectively documenting what children learn and how teachers teach, Work Sampling provides for meaningful evaluation and genuine accountability. In addition, the comprehensive design of the WSS provides a structure to foster the professional development of prospective teachers. RESEARCH ON WORK SAMPLING WSS was studied extensively in 17 Title I classrooms (N = 345 students, K−3) in a large urban school

district. Cross-sectional WSS ratings were compared with student scores on a nationally normed, individually administered standardized test (the Woodcock Johnson Psychoeducational Battery–Revised, or WJ-R) in order to examine construct and predictive aspects of validity (see Meisels, Bickel, Nicholson, Xue, & Atkins-Burnett, 2001; Meisels, AtkinsBurnett, Xue, Nicholson, Bickel, & Son, 2003). In addition, levels of teacher implementation, understanding, and satisfaction and evaluations of family understanding and satisfaction were investigated by means of survey questionnaires (see Meisels, Xue, Bickel, Nicholson, & Atkins-Burnett, 2001). Major findings were as follows: Correlations between WSS Checklist ratings in literacy and mathematical thinking and standardized test scores were moderate to high, demonstrating that WSS is a valid and effective indicator of student learning. Four-step hierarchical regressions show that WSS ratings were a stronger predictor of test scores than demographic variables. Moreover, data from a ReceiverOperating-Curve Characteristic analysis show that WSS has significant utility for discriminating accurately between children who are at risk and those not at risk. Teachers reported a high level of understanding and implementation of WSS on surveys. The majority of them were positive about WSS, and satisfaction increased with experience with the WSS. The majority of families were also very positive in their ratings of WSS; satisfaction was linked to understanding of Work Sampling. Families reported that WSS helped them understand their children’s schoolwork and learning. They also said that WSS helped children understand their own learning and achievement. To examine the direct and indirect effect of parents’ perceptions of teachers’ willingness to use WSS and other factors on parents’ overall satisfaction, structural equation modeling was used. Results demonstrate that parents hold positive attitudes toward WSS and believe that WSS benefits their children. Another study (Meisels et al., 2003) examined the trajectory of change in scores of WSS and non-WSS third and fourth graders on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). The scores on the ITBS in third and fourth grades of children exposed to WSS were compared with those of students in a group of non-WSS contrast schools, who were matched by demographic variables (race, income, mobility, school size, and number of parents in the home). A second comparison

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group consisted of all other students in the school district where the study took place. Comparisons of mean change in reading and math scores on the ITBS and regression analyses were conducted in order to study the average change in test scores from one year to the next across the three groups. Results indicated that students who were in WSS classrooms displayed growth in reading from one year to the next that far exceeded the demographically matched contrast group (25:1) as well as the average change shown by all other students in the district (8:1). Although only marginally statistically reliable results were obtained for mathematics, the pattern of change was similar between math and reading. Furthermore, the impact of the curriculum-embedded performance assessment was not limited solely to those students who started with either low or high skills, but was generalized across the entire sample. An earlier study of the reliability and validity of the WSS presented data concerning the reliability and validity of the system with 100 kindergartenaged children (Meisels, Liaw, Dorfman, & Nelson, 1995). A design was implemented in which children who enrolled in classrooms that were using the field trial version of the WSS were also given individually administered norm-referenced assessments in the fall and spring (the WJ-R). Results show that the Work Sampling Checklist and Summary Report have very high internal and moderately high interrater reliability. The WSS accurately predicts performance on the norm-referenced achievement battery, even when the potential effects of gender, maturation (age), and initial ability are controlled. These data provide empirical support for the reliability and criterion validity of this performance assessment system as a measure of children’s overall school achievement in kindergarten. CONCLUSIONS Performance assessment represents a method for learning more about how children are learning without distorting the educational process, as too often occurs with high-stakes, multiple-choice tests. Although performance assessments like the WSS can be aggregated and used to demonstrate group progress and change, the key to an assessment that is instructionally sensitive is that it not result in “measurement-driven instruction.” The WSS and other curriculum-embedded performance assessments represent “instruction-driven

measurement”: They enable teachers to keep track of what their students are learning, while also evaluating children’s achievements in an atmosphere that is devoid of punishment and threat, that engages students in evaluating their own work, and that is committed to helping teachers individualize instruction and thus advance students’ learning. —Samuel J. Meisels

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Meisels, S. J. (1994). Designing meaningful measurements for early childhood. In B. L. Mallory & R. S. New (Eds.), Diversity in early childhood education: A call for more inclusive theory, practice, and policy (pp. 205–225). New York: Teachers College Press. Meisels, S. J. (1996). Performance in context: Assessing children’s achievement at the outset of school. In A. J. Sameroff & M. M. Haith (Eds.), The five to seven year shift: The age of reason and responsibility (pp. 410–431). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Meisels, S. J. (1997). Using Work Sampling in authentic performance assessments. Educational Leadership, 54, 60–65. Meisels, S. J., Atkins-Burnett, S., Xue, Y., Nicholson, J., Bickel, D. D., & Son, S. (2003). Creating a system of accountability: The impact of instructional assessment on elementary children’s achievement test scores. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(9). Available at http://epaa .asu.edu/epaa/v11n9/ Meisels, S. J., Bickel, D. D., Nicholson, J., Xue, Y., & AtkinsBurnett, S. (2001). Trusting teachers’ judgments: A validity study of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment in Kindergarten–Grade 3. American Educational Research Journal, 38(1), 73–95. Meisels, S. J., Dorfman, A., & Steele, D. (1995). Equity and excellence in group administered and performance-based assessments. In M. T. & A. L. Nettles (Eds.), Equity and excellence in educational testing and assessment (pp. 243–261). Boston: Kluwer. Meisels, S. J., & Fenichel, E. (Eds.). (1996). Charting the continuum of assessment and intervention. New visions for the developmental assessment of infants and young children (pp. 27–52). Washington, DC: ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Meisels, S. J., Jablon, J. R., Marsden, D. B., Dichtelmiller, M. L., & Dorfman, A. (2001). The Work Sampling System (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Early Learning. Meisels, S. J., Liaw, F.-R., Dorfman, A., & Nelson, R. (1995). The Work Sampling System: Reliability and validity of a performance assessment for young children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 10(3), 277–296.

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Meisels, S. J., Xue, Y., Bickel, D. D., Nicholson, J., & Atkins-Burnett, S. (2001). Parental reactions to authentic performance assessment. Educational Assessment, 7(1), 61–85. Shepard, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4–14.

ASSESSMENT, ETHNIC IDENTITY Many different methods have been used to assess ethnic identity. Measures depend on the conceptualization of the construct to be assessed, and ethnic identity has been conceptualized in a wide variety of ways. Social and developmental psychologists, as well as others who study ethnic identity, focus on differing aspects of ethnic identity, including ethnic self-labeling, identification with and commitment to an ethnic group, and the process by which an ethnic identity is formed. This entry reviews differing approaches to the study of ethnic identity and discusses measures that have been used to assess various aspects of the construct. SELF-LABELING At the simplest level, some people consider ethnic identity to be the group label that one uses to identify oneself; for example, Chinese or Mexican American. To assess this self-label, two types of measures have been used. One approach uses an open-ended item, asking simply, “In terms of ethnic group, what do you considerable yourself to be?” This approach provides information on how individuals see themselves as group members, but the results can be difficult to interpret because of the lack of consistency in terminology, such as Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano. That type of item also allows individuals to express a range of possibly idiosyncratic labels or no ethnic label at all, such as “a human being,” so that the respondent cannot be categorized by ethnicity. A second type of measure of self-label requires individuals to select their ethnic labels from a list of ethnic groups. This approach is complicated by the lack or precision in ethnic labels and the overlap and confounding of the concepts of race and ethnicity. For example, people of Hispanic or Latino origin can belong to various racial categories, such as White, Native/Indian, or Black. Thus, a list forces people to choose categories that may not accurately reflect their sense of group membership. A further complication is the increasing numbers of people of mixed

origin, whose parents are from two or more different groups. People of mixed origin may not indicate that they are multiethnic or multiracial. To get a more accurate picture of people’s backgrounds, some measures elicit the ethnicity of respondents’ mothers and fathers. SOCIAL IDENTITY However, simply knowing the categories in which individuals place themselves tells little about their identities as members of those groups. Ethnic identity is a group or social identity. Social identity has been defined by Tajfel and Turner (1986) as that part of an individual’s self-concept that derives from his or her knowledge of membership in a social group together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership. Thus, to assess ethnic identity, it is necessary to determine not just the group label but also how individuals feel about their group, including the strength of their attachment and their evaluation of their group membership. In studies based on social identity theory, group identity is typically measured with items assessing the strength of respondents’ identification with, or commitment to, their groups (Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 1999). Using such a measure, it is possible to study how commitment to one’s group is related to other psychological variables of interest. GROUP-SPECIFIC MEASURES While social identity approaches focus on group identity generally, a number of measures of ethnic identity have been developed for specific groups, such as Latinos (e.g., Felix-Ortiz, 1994) or Asians (Suinn, Ahuna, & Khoo, 1992). Such measures typically assess specific ethnic attitudes and behaviors, such as ethnic values and practices, language preference, and food choices, as well as commitment to the ethnic group. Measures of this sort are useful for within-group studies of ethnic identity in particular populations. However, group-specific measures cannot be used with ethnically diverse samples or comparisons of ethnic identity and its correlates across different ethnic groups. THE MULTIGROUP ETHNIC IDENTITY MEASURE In contrast to group-specific measures, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) (Phinney, 1992; Roberts et al., 1999) is a questionnaire measure

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of ethnic identity that assesses characteristics of ethnic identity that are assumed to be common across ethnic groups and thus can be used for ethnically diverse samples. Items are worded in generic terms (e.g., “I have a strong sense of belonging to my own ethnic group”) rather than in group-specific terms (e.g., “I have a strong sense of being Chinese American”), so that the scale can be used with any ethnic group. The MEIM was originally conceptualized as assessing ethnic identity along a continuum reflecting strength of identification (Phinney, 1992). In this view, ethnic identity can range from a strong, secure sense of self as an ethnic group member, together with a positive evaluation of one’s group, pride, and commitment in the group, to a low or weak ethnic identity, accompanied by negative or neutral attitudes, lack of involvement, and little interest in one’s group.

racial identity formation (Wijeyesinghe & Jackson, 2001). The exploration subscale of the MEIM includes items assessing efforts made to learn more about one’s ethnic group in order to understand the history, traditions, and customs of the group and its meaning for oneself; for example, “I have spent time trying to find out more about my ethnic group.” This developmental component is particularly relevant during adolescence and young adulthood, when young people are in the process of forming an identity, although exploration of one’s ethnicity may continue throughout life or recur when individuals encounter new situations. The two subscales of the MEIM (exploration and commitment) have been shown to be two distinct but correlated factors that form a scale that is highly reliable across diverse ethnic groups (Roberts et al., 1999). VALIDITY OF THE MEIM

MEIM SUBSCALES: COMMITMENT AND EXPLORATION Subsequently, the MEIM was revised (Roberts et al., 1999) to more closely reflect conceptualizations of ethnic identity from the ego identity literature (Marcia, 1994). The revised MEIM consists of two subscales, ethnic exploration and ethnic identity commitment. Ethnic identity commitment is based on the concept of ego identity commitment as conceptualized by Erik Erikson and studied empirically by Marcia (1994). From Marcia’s developmental perspective, a commitment marks a clear position that one holds regarding important areas of self-definition, such as occupation and religion. With regard to ethnicity, a strong commitment refers to a clear sense of self as an ethnic group member. Commitment is also a key characteristic of group identity as defined by social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and used in much social identity research (Ellemers et al., 1999). Thus, the commitment subscale is based on conceptualizations of identity from both developmental and social psychology. The commitment subscale of the MEIM includes items assessing the strength of attachment to one’s group, pride in the group, and positive attitudes associated with one’s sense of belonging. A sample item was given earlier. The exploration subscale of the MEIM derives primarily from developmental theory, which posits the importance of a period of exploration as part of the identity formation process (Marcia, 1994). Exploration is comparable to the immersion-emersion phase of

The validity of the MEIM has been demonstrated by means of correlations with variables that are expected theoretically to be related to ethnic identity. According to both social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and identity formation (Erikson, 1968), a strong ethnic identity should be associated with good psychological adjustment. Numerous studies across a wide range of ethnic groups, varying ages, and diverse geographic regions have consistently shown ethnic identity to be positively related to self-esteem and other measures of psychological well-being. ETHNIC IDENTITY STATUSES In addition to the assessment of ethnic identity commitment and exploration, ethnic identity has been studied using ethnic identity statuses corresponding to the ego identity statuses defined by Marcia (1994): diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement. Ethnic identity statuses, like ego identity statuses, are based on high or low scores on commitment and exploration (or the presence or absence of these characteristics). Theoretically, individuals low in both exploration and commitment are considered identity diffused; those high in both are identity achieved. Foreclosure refers to commitment without exploration, and moratorium is indicated by exploration without commitment. Studies that involve ethnic identity statuses have been carried out primarily by means of individual interviews, in which open-ended questions are used to determine the participant’s extent of exploration

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and commitment regarding ethnicity (Phinney, 1989). Such interviews require coding to assign individuals to statuses, based on the following characteristics: Diffuse The individual shows little interest in or understanding of his or her ethnicity and has made little or no effort to learn more about it. There is little or no evidence of pride or of a positive sense of belonging to the ethnic group. Foreclosed The individual expresses pride and a sense of belonging, but there is little or no evidence of having explored or questioned the meaning of this sense of belonging. Moratorium The individual has engaged in an effort to learn about and understand his or her ethnicity, but remains unclear about it or expresses ambivalence about belonging to the group. Achieved The individual has thought about and made an effort to understand the meaning and implications of his or her ethnic group membership and has a strong and secure sense of belonging to the group. Validity of the categories has been shown by evidence that the most mature status, ethnic identity achievement, is associated with the highest levels of psychological well-being. Furthermore, in agreement with developmental theory, adolescents are more likely to achieve ethnic identity with increasing age (Phinney & Chavira, 1992). Interviews are time-consuming to conduct and to code, and ethnic identity statuses have not been widely used in research. An alternative means of deriving statuses is by the use of the exploration and commitment subscales of the MEIM. By dividing responses to each scale at the midpoint (e.g., 3 on a 5-point scale), one can identify individuals who score high and low on each scale and then assign them to statuses (for example, high on both scales means an achieved ethnic identity). Use of a median split to achieve the same goal is not recommended, as the median changes across samples, and thus high and low positions have different meanings depending on the sample characteristics. CONCLUSIONS Researchers have approached the study of ethnic identity in many different ways. Self-labels can

indicate the groups that individuals identify with, but they provide no indication of the strength or quality of the identification. Measures to assess the strength of attitudes and feelings toward one’s ethnic group can be either specific to a particular group or generic, that is, applicable to any group. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure is a generic measure that includes assessment of both the strength of commitment to one’s group and the extent of exploration of one’s ethnicity. Interviews have been used to assess ethnic identity statuses, based on Erikson’s theory of ego identity development. Differing measures of ethnic identity yield varying perspectives on the construct, and empirical work is needed to examine the relationships among different ways of assessing ethnic identity. —Jean S. Phinney

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ellemers, N., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (1999). Social identity: Context, commitment, and content. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Felix-Ortiz, M. (1994). A multidimensional measure of cultural identity for Latino and Latina adolescents. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 16, 99–116. Marcia, J. (1994). The empirical study of ego identity. In H. Bosma, T. Graafsma, H. Grotevant, & D. de Levita (Eds.), Identity and development: An interdisciplinary approach (pp. 67–80). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Phinney, J. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34–49. Phinney, J. (1992). The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure: A new scale for use with diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176. Phinney, J., & Chavira, V. (1992). Ethnic identity and selfesteem: An exploratory longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence, 15, 271–281. Roberts, R., Phinney, J., Masse, L., Chen, Y., Roberts, C., & Romero, A. (1999). The structure of ethnic identity in young adolescents from diverse ethnocultural groups. Journal of Early Adolescence, 19, 301–322. Suinn, R., Ahuna, C., & Khoo, G. (1992). The Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale: Concurrent and factorial validation. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 52, 1041–1046. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

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Wijeyesinghe, C., & Jackson, B. (Eds.). (2001). New perspectives on racial identity development: A theoretical and practical anthology. New York: New York University Press.

of assessment strategies, educational programs, and social policies, in turn, influence what our society recognizes as giftedness.

ASSESSMENT, GIFTEDNESS

THE THREE-RING CONCEPTION OF GIFTEDNESS

Traditionally, giftedness has been defined as unusually high intellectual ability or potential. Recently, other definitions have been proposed to broaden the conception of giftedness beyond that which can be identified by high IQ scores. In the broadest terms, giftedness can be defined as unusually high achievement, ability, or potential in any domain or combination of domains. Which domains are socially valued will vary with the context of a particular zeitgeist. This entry draws upon the applied developmental science (ADS) perspective to describe the dynamic nature of giftedness. From the ADS perspective, giftedness develops throughout the life span and influences and is influenced by the individual’s biological makeup and social context as part of an interactive system. THE CONTEXTUAL NATURE OF GIFTEDNESS It takes a supportive environment for giftedness to emerge. Although traditionally, giftedness has been thought of as unusually high intellectual ability or potential in comparison to one’s age-mates, from an ADS perspective (Fisher & Lerner, 1994), the values embedded in any particular context will have implications for how giftedness is conceived, which domains of giftedness are developed, and how gifted individuals are viewed and nurtured. These values will also have implications for the development of social policies and practices. This entry highlights two implications of the concept of giftedness in context: the education policies for gifted students and the assessment of giftedness. An ADS conception of giftedness recognizes that the definition of giftedness includes how it is measured. Which domains of ability are valued by society and which individuals are identified as gifted influence the nature of assessment strategies, educational programs, and social policies directed toward the education and later employment of gifted individuals. These influences, however, are bidirectional. The nature

An example of the policy relevance of definitions of giftedness can be seen in Renzulli’s (1986) widely used three-ring conception of giftedness. Renzulli defined giftedness as the overlap of high levels of achievement, creativity, and task commitment. Many school districts have adopted policies for their gifted programs based on Renzulli’s definition. Measures to assess these characteristics have been developed to identify students for participation in gifted programs. These programs emphasize the development of student achievement as well as creativity and task commitment. A so-called revolving-door approach is employed to respond to changes in students’ demonstrated giftedness, all following from Renzulli’s definition. Thus, students who were identified as gifted in one semester but who, for example, failed to maintain sufficiently high levels of either achievement, creativity, or task commitment rotate out of the gifted program, while students who were not previously identified as gifted but who sufficiently increased their levels of achievement, creativity, or task commitment rotate into the gifted program. Although this approach has limitations (i.e., many traditionally gifted students are underachievers, are not creative, and may not commit to tasks if they don’t value them), it has had a strong influence and thereby shows us how an applied definition of giftedness can influence social programs and policies. Renzulli’s definition is embedded in social context and is thus consistent with an ADS perspective. THE ASSESSMENT OF GIFTEDNESS The Traditional IQ Test Approach Renzulli’s approach contrasts sharply with the more traditional approach of evaluating giftedness in terms of performance on an IQ test. IQ tests have a number of limitations. First, they assess a limited set of human abilities, primarily verbal ability, abstract and logical thinking, and mathematical ability. Second, an IQ test measures intelligence at one point in time. Third, although these tests can be useful as an

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assessment of intellectual giftedness for children who grow up within the cultural context in which the IQ tests have been normed, the use of an IQ score as the primary means of identifying students for gifted education may discriminate against those students whose intellectual abilities, for whatever reason, cannot be well measured under traditional standard testing contexts. Students with learning disabilities, those for whom English is a second language, and students from certain minority cultural groups may fall into this category. Multifaceted Assessments As part of the effort to identify gifted children more comprehensively, schools can employ an applied developmental assessment strategy that uses multifaceted approaches across multiple points in time. Various abilities will be evident in various situations and at various points of development. To uncover more gifted individuals with more diverse capabilities than can be found using a single observation, a single test, or a single selection criterion, schools can draw on a combination of assessment approaches that provide multiple observation points at multiple points of time. For example, schools could employ specialized applications of portfolio and dynamic assessment as part of their identification program (for more on identifying giftedness with these approaches, see Kingore, 1993; von Károlyi, Ramos-Ford, & Gardner, 2003; von Károlyi & Winner, in press). Both of these methods have been shown to increase minority representation in gifted programs and are useful for evaluating giftedness in a variety of domains. Dynamic Assessment Dynamic assessment is a method of evaluating a child’s ability to solve novel problems with the assistance of someone who is more expert. Dynamic assessment grows out of Vygotsky’s view that learning occurs within a zone of proximal development (ZPD). This zone ranges from what a child can accomplish independently to what the child can accomplish with the assistance of more knowledgeable others. First, the child’s prior learning is measured using a pretest. Then, the child is given a novel problem to solve that is slightly beyond what the child can accomplish independently. When the child gets as far as he or she is

able, the assessor gives hints and directions to help the child successfully complete the problem. A posttest to evaluate gains in learning is then administered. Children who are gifted in a domain will often solve novel problems in those domains using advanced and atypical approaches. Dynamic assessment provides a means of observing and measuring children’s approach to and skill at problem solving when the child is asked to stretch beyond what he or she can do independently. Dynamic assessment emphasizes the process of new learning observed in the context of solving problems. This approach contrasts sharply with traditional assessment approaches, which tend to emphasize accomplishments rather than processes. Portfolio Assessment A portfolio is a collection of an individual’s work that is used to demonstrate his or her accomplishments. Artists have long relied on portfolios for this purpose. More recently, teachers have begun to employ portfolios to document student performance over some period of time and to evaluate students’ strengths and weaknesses in a variety of domains. Portfolios can also help teachers recognize gifted students (Kingore, 1993; von Károlyi et al., 2003). Some gifted students can be recognized by their levels of prior accomplishment and some by the nature or rate of their new learning. Two approaches to portfolio assessment have been proposed for the identification of giftedness. Both approaches emphasize the processes of learning rather than focusing only on the products of learning. The process-folio includes examples of not only the best work, but work that reveals the gifted students’ journey of learning: their works-in-progress and the precipitating investigations (von Károlyi et al., 2003; Wolf, Bixby, Glenn, & Gardner, 1991). Thus, the quality of the student’s learning can be evaluated in terms of both product and process. This opens up a door to identify gifted students who might be missed using traditional identification methods. This also provides a means of identifying giftedness in more domains than those measured using traditional methods. Another expanded approach to portfolio assessment shown to be effective for the identification of giftedness in minority students in the classroom context is for teachers to evaluate student accomplishments in terms of rate, depth, and complexity of new learning, as well as level of abstraction (Kingore, 1993). For example, a

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portfolio evaluated in this manner might show that a first-grade student with no prior exposure to arithmetic mastered addition and subtraction during the same period that his or her classmates were taught and mastered only addition. The teacher would evaluate this student’s rate of learning arithmetic as unusually fast compared with his or her age-mates. In addition, because the student received no classroom instruction on subtraction but deduced the procedure based on what was taught about addition, the teacher would evaluate the student’s learning as revealing both deep understanding and a high level of abstraction compared with his or her age-mates. This student’s learning process is consistent with mathematical giftedness, and the student would be provided more challenging assignments and referred to the gifted program. A hybrid of these two approaches (von Károlyi & Winner, in press) provides yet another possible, as yet untried, identification strategy. Kingore’s (1993) approach to evaluating the process of learning (rather than the just the product of learning) can be applied during dynamic assessment. In dynamic assessment, the student’s abilities are assessed in terms of the extent to which he or she needs help solving a novel problem. In the hybrid approach, the new learning occurring during the process of this problem solving is evaluated not only in terms of the extent to which the student can solve the problem but also in terms of the rate, depth, complexity, and level of abstraction evident in the student’s problem-solving process. The extended applications of dynamic and portfolio assessment offer a number of benefits when compared with traditional methods of identifying giftedness, such as IQ and achievement tests. First, these methods have been shown to increase underrepresented groups’ participation in gifted education programs, whereas traditional methods are considered, in part, responsible for such underrepresentation. Second, these methods are highly adaptable to identifying giftedness of various kinds, including but not limited to intellectual giftedness. Third, whereas an IQ test provides information about a student’s intellectual ability gathered at a single point in time, both dynamic and portfolio assessments provide information about a student’s abilities gathered at multiple points in time. Fourth, whereas traditional methods measure prior learning, the extended applications of these methods are oriented toward evaluating the student’s processing during learning tasks. And finally, these methods are embedded in the context of genuine learning as it

occurs and provide information that is directly relevant to educational planning. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with an ADS perspective, the approaches described above are contextually sensitive in that (a) each of them can be employed to identify giftedness by evaluating the quality of an individual’s actual learning process and (b) they provide not only identification strategies but also information that can be applied to educational planning. An ADS perspective challenges schools to individualize the programming received by gifted students by evaluating student-context dynamics and thereby providing for each student’s educational needs. Individualization optimizes the match between the gifted child and the school environment. Such an approach goes hand in hand with “positive youth development,” one of the four cornerstones of ADS (Fisher & Lerner, 1994). The effectiveness of current practices in gifted education is called into question by the fact that a disproportionately high number of gifted students drop out of school (Robertson, 1991). This is not only a personal cost for the students involved but also a societal cost. Gifted individuals have the potential to contribute to society in the form of inventions, discoveries, works of art, and visionary leadership. Multifaceted and contextually sensitive assessment of giftedness has the potential to benefit not only the gifted individual but also the community and the larger society. —Catya von Károlyi

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fisher, C. B., & Lerner, R. M. (1994). Foundations of applied developmental psychology. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Applied developmental psychology (pp. 3–20). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kingore, B. W. (1993). Portfolios: Enriching and assessing all students, identifying the gifted Grades K–6. Des Moines, IA: Leadership Publishers. Renzulli, J. S. (1986). The three-ring conception of giftedness: A developmental model for creative production. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 53–92). New York: Cambridge University Press. Robertson, E. (1991). Neglected dropouts: The gifted and talented. Equity & Excellence, 25, 62–74. von Károlyi, C., Ramos-Ford, V., & Gardner, H. (2003). Giftedness from a multiple intelligences perspective (pp. 100–112). In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.),

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Handbook of gifted education (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. von Károlyi, C., & Winner, E. (in press). Extreme giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. D. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Wolf, D., Bixby, J., Glenn, J., III, & Gardner, H. (1991). To use their minds well: Investigating new forms of student assessment. Review of Research in Education, 17, 31–74.

ASSESSMENT, NEONATAL BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT SCALE The widespread use of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) by both researchers and practitioners across a variety of disciplines speaks to the universal and applied nature of this newbornassessment tool. By tapping the neonate’s natural mode of communication, that is, an elaborate vocabulary of body movements, cries, and explicit responses, the NBAS reveals its sensitivity to the unique language of infant behavior and corresponding developmental agenda. Moreover, the NBAS captures and communicates each infant’s individual developmental timetable by identifying strengths and examining breadth of individuality. By transforming theories of neonatal development into empirical evidence that, in turn, informs policy and future practice, the NBAS epitomizes the objectives of applied developmental science. From the moment of its inception in 1973, the NBAS has revolutionized Western perceptions of the neonate through its broad use in research and clinical settings (Brazelton, 1973, 1984; Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). The NBAS is based on the belief that the newborn is an active and competent participant in what can be conceived of as a system of mutualistic reciprocity whereby the caregiver enhances the infant’s behavioral organization and, in turn, the infant enhances the caregiver’s (Als, 1978). Once considered a passive recipient of environmental stimuli, the newborn is now recognized for his or her organized behavioral repertoire and impressive capacities for social interaction. Having documented the behavioral organization of the newborn, the NBAS has permeated and irrevocably changed the research and application of disciplines such as neonatology, nursing, and applied child development.

The primary goal of the NBAS is to systematically capture the extensive behavioral repertoire with which the neonate is endowed at birth. Furthermore, it seeks to identify and describe individual differences in newborn behavior so that clinicians can communicate the unique personality of the infant to his or her caregiver in an effort to facilitate their relationship. Thus, the scale comprises behavioral, reflexive, and supplementary items (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Infant behavior is assessed via 28 behavioral items, each of which is scored on a 9-point scale. The status of the infant’s neurological system is considered through 18 reflex items, each of which is scored on a 4-point scale. Rather than a single score, it is the combination of these items that produces a profile of neonatal functioning across the following four systems: autonomic, motor, state, and social interaction. Four developmental tasks, autonomic, motor, state, and social interaction, are most vital to growth during the period between 36 weeks gestational age and 2 months postterm (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). The most basic challenge first confronting newborns is the task of regulating their autonomic systems. Before infants can tend to other developmental agenda, they must first succeed in regulating such things as breathing and temperature. Second, infants devote energy toward stabilizing their motor systems. Once newborns are able to inhibit random movements and control activity levels, they are better suited to channel their energy into mastering other developmental tasks. Infants who are capable of managing their motor behavior will be better able to move to the third developmental agendum: state regulation. The extent to which newborns are able to regulate their state is perhaps the best indication of central nervous system function (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Infants who move quickly from state to state tend to reflect the existence of an immature nervous system. These infants have more difficulty processing and responding to environmental information. The behavioral newborn state has a tremendous impact on the extent to which infants are able to interact with their caregiving environments. The infant who is able to maintain various states, such as alert and sleep, is in a better position to process and respond to stimulation from his or her surrounding environment. These infants are ready to engage in the ultimate developmental task of the neonatal period, the task of social interaction. Once newborns have achieved equilibrium in their autonomic, motor, and state systems,

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they are better able to entertain the social environment. In fact, it is the degree to which they have mastered other developmental agenda that dictates their capacities for exploration and social interaction (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Although the four dimensions of newborn developmental agenda are often referred to as a sequence of increasing ability, these stages do not necessarily occur in a perfectly linear, hierarchical fashion. For instance, it would not be unusual to see a tremor in a well-organized and alert baby for whom social interaction is the primary developmental agendum. Such indications of stress are merely the vestiges of an early stage. However, in general, newborns do move through the developmental tasks in a particular sequence, such that one developmental task must be mastered before moving to the next (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Furthermore, it is postulated that each level is qualitatively different from the last and not merely a quantitative improvement (Als, 1978). Therefore, this model conceives of developmental changes as occurring in a stepwise but nonlinear fashion. The newborn behavioral state is central to a comprehensive understanding of neonatal behavior. The NBAS has taken great care to view newborn behavior through the lens of infant behavioral states. “State” is measured on a 6-point scale in which 1 = deep sleep; 2 = light sleep; 3 = drowsy; 4 = quiet alert; 5 = alert but active; and 6 = crying. The NBAS is based upon the premise that the regulation and organization of states is one of the foremost developmental tasks facing the neonate. Infants who have difficulty organizing their behavioral states or controlling their sequence will find themselves unable to secure a reliable relationship between themselves and the environment (Tronick, 1987). Brazelton contends that infant behavioral responses are meaningful only when considered within the context of each state. In recognition of this belief, the administration of the NBAS is rather flexible, so that it is the infant’s behavioral state that drives item administration. The most distinguishable and perhaps the most important aspect of the NBAS is its emphasis on bringing out the newborn’s “best performance.” To reveal the newborn’s rich behavioral repertoire, the administrator must create a secure and comfortable environment in which the infant’s weaknesses and strengths may be observed. Therefore, much of the infant’s performance relies on the extent to which the administrator succeeds in making the newborn feel comfortable and secure. This concept is also reflected in the scoring

procedures for the NBAS; that is, the infant’s best, rather than average, performance is documented. CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS Several of the conceptual underpinnings of the NBAS are based upon a variety of research and clinical traditions. First, the neurological tradition contributed the work of Prechtl and Beintema to the evolution of the scale (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Prechtl, who first recognized behavioral states as an essential part of newborn examination, proposed that infant behaviors were a reflection of central nervous system integrity. Withstanding several revisions of the NBAS, Prechtl’s scale remains the leading reference for the scale’s neurological items. A further contribution from the neurological tradition came with the work of Andre-Thomas. Andre-Thomas went beyond examining reflexes to consider the motor tone quality of newborns. He believed that motor tone provided a window into the central nervous system function of infants. The NBAS assesses active and passive tone in a very similar way to that proposed by Andre-Thomas. However, the scale does differ from the traditional neurological scale in that it is equally concerned with identifying competencies as it is with deficits. While the traditional neurological scale is primarily concerned with diagnosing abnormalities, the NBAS describes the full array of infant behaviors. The psychological research tradition also contributed greatly to the NBAS’s conceptualization of the newborn (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Much experimental research revised archaic notions of the newborn as a blind, deaf, and ineffective being. Such research provided the foundation upon which many of the scale’s social interactive items are built. The biological-ethological tradition offers further evidence suggesting that the newborn is an active, social being. Swiss animal-behaviorist Konard Lorenz contended that the newborn’s appearance and behavior are specifically designed to evoke a nurturing response from the caregiving environment. The NBAS reflects an acceptance of the newborn as a social organism. Finally, the clinical tradition has guided the approach and delineated the goals of the NBAS (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). The scale was initially designed as a clinical instrument that would enable clinicians to communicate important information to parents about their newborns. In this regard, the NBAS seeks to provide an exhaustive profile of newborn behavior.

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THE ROLE OF THE NBAS IN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research studies have employed the NBAS as both an outcome and a predictive measure. Studies that implement the scale as an outcome measure have investigated topics such as perinatal risk factors, including narcotic addiction, prematurity, respiratory distress, and postmaturity (Black, Schuler, & Nair, 1993) and cultural and ethnic affiliation (Keefer, Dixon, Tronick, & Brazelton, 1991). The NBAS, which is considered the criterion test, is then administered to both the control and contrast groups. Any discrepancies found in comparing the criterion measure across the two groups are considered to be a result of the presence or absence of the particular variable of interest, whereas in the case where no differences are found in the criterion measure, it is concluded that the variable of interest does not have a significant effect on the newborn behavior assessed. The NBAS has also been used as a predictive measure. Those that employ the scale for purposes of prediction generally start by assessing neonatal behavior at one point in time. Neonatal behavior is then assessed at a later point in time, either with the NBAS or another behavioral measure. It is then considered whether the behavior during the first assessment is or is not related to the behavior during the second assessment. In addition to measuring the effectiveness of various intervention procedures, the NBAS itself has been used as an intervention technique in a variety of research studies and clinical settings. Due to its powerful capacity to articulate a newborn’s unique behavioral style, the NBAS has been readily used to enhance parent-infant interaction (Beal, 1989) and track the social and neurological development of high-risk infants (Miller & Quinn-Hurst, 1994). It is the scale’s ability to help adjust parental expectations of newborn behavior to their particular newborn’s behavioral style that allows for this heightened sense of competence and effectiveness, which, in turn, strengthens the quality of parent-infant interaction. Several studies have documented the impact of the NBAS intervention on parental attitudes and parentinfant interaction (Nugent & Brazelton, 2000). The primary goal of the NBAS as a preventive intervention is to foster parents’ sensitivity and responsivity to their infants in an effort to avoid interactive disturbances. Following the preventive intervention, changes in interaction are seen in maternal affection and parental

responsiveness (e.g., Worobey & Belsky, 1982). As a result, the NBAS intervention enhances developmental outcome and the parent-child relationship. Many believe that much of the scale’s potential lies in its role as a clinical tool. In addition to strengthening parent-infant interaction, the NBAS is a medium through which the practitioner and the parent may communicate. Practitioners can capitalize on their demonstration of the NBAS by using this time to provide appropriate reassurance of the infant’s strengths, evaluate parental reactions, and offer recommendations for care based on the infant’s unique behavioral style. For instance, a seemingly insatiable infant who continuously cries may negatively affect the confidence of a first-time mother attempting to breast-feed. By bringing the infant to a quiet alert state or identifying consoling maneuvers, the practitioner may enable the mother to identify the positive characteristics of her newborn and elicit such qualities in the future. Research using the NBAS has substantially increased our information base regarding the effect of particular perinatal events on babies. Health care providers can communicate such information in an effort to inform parents about the condition of their babies. For instance, it has been found that 90% of babies show behavioral changes on the NBAS following newborn circumcision (Marshall, 1980). These changes in behavior often last up to 22 hours after the procedure. Such information may prove effective in soothing parental anxiety related to newborn circumcision. The NBAS has also demonstrated that babies who are jaundiced and receive phototherapy are less able to orient and they show greater disorganization of state (Nelson & Horowitz, 1982). The parents of these babies may feel comfort in knowing that their newborn’s labile state is a temporary result of the phototherapy and not necessarily a consequence of caregiving inadequacies. A final way in which the NBAS has been incorporated in study methodology is to detect individual and group differences in neonatal behavior. Among other things, such studies have examined cross-cultural differences in neonatal behavior (Coll, Sepkoski, & Lester, 1981) and compared human and nonhuman primate neonatal behavior (Bard, Platzman, Lester, & Suomi, 1992). Studies of group differences in human neonatal behavior have typically compared different cultural groups with American Caucasian infants. The purpose of these comparative studies is generally to assess the implications of neonatal behavior in order

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to gain a better understanding of cultural expectations and child-rearing practices (Coll et al., 1981). Although this multifaceted instrument has contributed greatly to the study of neonatal behavior, it is certainly not without methodological limitations. Those who have sought to force the instrument beyond its intended scope have been met with a variety of conceptual and research issues, particularly with regard to data analysis. Originally a clinical tool and then converted into a standardized research instrument, the NBAS has earned orthogonal proponents as a result of its extreme transformations. These opposing views are often exhibited by practitioners and researchers, respectively, creating a notable tension surrounding the utility of the NBAS. Although the NBAS was never intended to be analyzed with positivistic statistical approaches, it can still be treated analytically and employed in research inquiry. CONCLUSIONS The NBAS has contributed to the field of applied developmental science both a framework for conceptualizing early development and a tool for the application of such a concept. That the neonate is an active and competent participant in social interaction from the very beginning of life suggests that individual differences in interactional styles may exist very early in life and that their documentation may inform parentchild fit. The NBAS both captures these individual differences and serves as a forum for conveying them to parents. By providing empirical evidence of the neonate’s natural chosen language, capacities for social interaction, and ability to regulate state, the NBAS will facilitate an understanding of a strengthbased approach to neonatal development, in comparison to the traditional deficit approach so prominent in the perspectives of many practitioners, policymakers, and parents. For example, the cry is the neonate’s most common mode of communication but may create in parents a sense of discomfort, inadequacy, and even resentment. From the perspective of the NBAS, infants who are crying are taking steps to control the environment by seeking responses from their caregivers to tend to their needs. Viewing the infant cry from this strength-based perspective may ameliorate any parental feelings of discomfort and promote greater parental confidence and sensitivity. A largely untapped resource, the NBAS has myriad possibilities for future use, not just as a device for measurement

but also in clinical application to support the family system as a whole. —Amy E. Alberts

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Als, H., II. (1978). Assessing an assessment: Conceptual considerations, methodological issues, and a perspective on the future of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 43(5–6), 14–28. Bard, K. A., Platzman, K. A., Lester, B. M., & Suomi, S. J. (1992). Orientation to social and nonsocial stimuli in neonatal chimpanzees and humans. Infant Behavior and Development, 15(1), 43–56. Beal, J. A. (1989). The effect on father-infant interaction of demonstrating the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Birth, 16(1), 18–22. Black, M., Schuler, M., & Nair, P. (1993). Prenatal drug exposure: Neurodevelopmental outcome and parenting environment. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 18(5), 605–620. Brazelton, T. B. (1973). Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Brazelton, T. B. (1984). Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott. Brazelton, T. B., & Nugent, J. K. (1995). Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (3rd ed.). London: MacKeith. Coll, C. G., Sepkoski, C., & Lester, B. M. (1981). Cultural and biomedical correlates of neonatal behavior. Developmental Psychobiology, 14(2), 147–154. Keefer, C. H., Dixon, S., Tronick, E. Z., & Brazelton, T. B. (1991). Cultural mediation between newborn behavior and later development: Implications for methodology in crosscultural research. In J. K. Nugent, B. M. Lester, & T. B. Brazelton (Eds.), Multicultural and interdisciplinary approaches to parent-infant relations (pp. 39–61). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Marshall, R. E. (1980). Circumcision I: Effects upon newborn behavior. Infant Behavior and Development, 3, 1–14. Miller, M. Q., & Quinn-Hurst, M. (1994). Neurobehavioral assessment of high-risk infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 48(6), 506–513. Nelson, C. A., & Horowitz, F. D. (1982). The short-term behavioral sequelae of neonatal jaundice treated with phototherapy. Infant Behavior and Development, 5, 289–299. Nugent, J. K., & Brazelton, T. B. (2000). Preventive infant mental health: Uses of the Brazelton scale. In J. D. Osofsky & H. E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), WAIMH handbook of infant mental health: Early intervention, evaluation, and assessment. New York: Wiley. Tronick, E. Z. (1987). The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale as a biomarker of the effects of environmental agents on the newborn. Environmental Health Perspectives, 74, 185–189.

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Worobey, J., & Belsky, J. (1982). Employing the Brazelton scale to influence mothering: An experimental comparison of three strategies. Developmental Psychology, 18, 736–743.

ASSESSMENT, SPECIAL EDUCATION The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has affected educational policy at both state and local levels. Policies governing assessment and evaluation appear prominently in this act. This entry reviews sections of IDEA that provide guidance as to the manner in which assessment data should be acquired and used. In the United States, 53,400,000 students are enrolled in elementary and secondary schools (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003). Approximately 14% receive special education services, most under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 (see 20 U.S.C. 1414, for provisions that affect evaluations, eligibility, individual education plans, and placement; 20 U.S.C. 1415, for provisions that affect procedural safeguards; and 20 U.S.C. 1431, for provisions that affect infants and toddlers with disabilities).

INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT (IDEA) The initial federal legislation affecting special education, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, held state and local education agencies responsible for providing free appropriate public education to children aged 3 through 21 who have disabilities. The law was reauthorized in 1990 and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Its reauthorization in 1997 identified regulations governing the education and assessment of all children with disabilities, including those for infants and toddlers with disabilities. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health service providers often rely on the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) for guidance when conducting assessments and making diagnoses. Although the DSM-IV is somewhat relevant to special education assessment practice, the legal status of IDEA and thus its

overarching influence require psychologists and other mental health service providers to know and follow the act’s regulations when conducting special education assessments. Thus, these regulations are emphasized in this entry. Professionals are encouraged to obtain a copy of state board of education rules governing special education services from their state education agency, as these rules may differ somewhat from IDEA federal regulations. In addition, those interested in professional methods for conducting special education assessments are advised to consult Sattler (1998, 2001a, 2001b) and other authoritative sources. CHILD WITH A DISABILITY IDEA defines a child with a disability as one with autism, hearing impairments, mental retardation, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, serious emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, or traumatic brain injury who, due to the disability, needs special education and related services (emphasis added). Children with attention deficit disorders, with or without hyperactivity, generally are served under the category of “other health impaired.” Services for children with learning disabilities are the most common. SPECIAL EDUCATION Thus, to be eligible for special education, a child must be diagnosed as displaying qualities associated with one or more of the above-named categories and found to need special education and related services. Special education consists of specially designed instruction reasonably calculated to provide meaningful educational benefit that meets the unique needs of children with disabilities and is provided at no cost to parents. Instruction may be provided in classrooms, homes, hospitals, institutions, and other settings. RELATED SERVICES The term related services references supportive services in speech-language, audiology, counseling, medicine, physical and occupational therapy, psychology, social work, and recreation as may be required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education.

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ASSESSMENT, INITIAL EVALUATIONS, AND REEVALUATIONS Assessment and evaluation initially may assist in locating as early as possible all children who may have disabilities and may continue until their successful transition from school to work. IDEA requires a full and individual initial evaluation before initially providing special education and related services to determine two issues: whether the child has a disability, and the educational needs of the child. The child is assessed in all suspected areas of disability, including, if appropriate, academic performance, communicative status, general intelligence, health, hearing, motor abilities, social and emotional status, and vision. Evaluation methods require the use of various technically sound assessment tools and strategies that assess cognitive, behavioral, physical, or developmental qualities so as to obtain relevant functional and developmental information, including information from parents, that may assist in determining whether the child has a disability and the content of the child’s individualized education program. There is an emphasis on the use of standardized tests tailored to assess specific areas of educational need, not merely those designed to provide a single general intelligence quotient, validated for the specific purpose for which they are used, and administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel consistent with instructions for their use. No one assessment procedure should be used as the sole criterion for determining eligibility for services. When assessing children with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, tests are selected and administered to ensure the results provide accurate information of the child’s aptitude, achievement, and other qualities being assessed rather than the child’s impairment. If an assessment is not conducted under standardized conditions, a description of the extent to which it varies from standard conditions must be included in the report. Reevaluations may occur when warranted or if the parents or educators request an evaluation. A reevaluation must occur at least once every 3 years and before a child with a disability is removed from special education.

ISSUES OF BIAS AND OVERREPRESENTATION OF MINORITY STUDENTS Congress expressed concern about the disproportionate number of minority children in special

education, especially African Americans and Hispanic Americans, as well as the negative impact labeling, especially mislabeling, may have on their lives. Thus, IDEA requires that testing and evaluation materials and procedures be selected and administered so as not to be racially or culturally discriminatory. If feasible, these materials and procedures are to be administered in the child’s native language or mode of communication. Assessment methods used with children with limited English proficiency are selected and administered to ensure they assess the extent to which the child has a disability and needs special education, not merely the child’s English language skills. THE CHILD STUDY TEAM A child study team consisting of qualified professionals and the child’s parents form a committee, often called the individual education plan (IEP) committee, responsible for determining whether the child has a disability and, if so, the nature of the child’s individualized education program. DETERMINING AND CHANGING ELIGIBILITY After completing the assessment, an IEP committee reviews existing documents, including independent evaluations and other information provided by parents, classroom assessments, and observations, as well as teacher and other service provider information. This review is used as a basis for making decisions as to whether the child has a disability (or in the case of a reevaluation, whether the child continues to have a disability), the child’s present level of performance and educational needs, whether the child needs special education and related services, and whether additions or modifications to special education and related services are needed to enable the child to meet the measurable annual goals set forth in the child’s IEP. PARENTAL RIGHTS Parents have considerable legal rights under IDEA that pertain to assessment activities. Parents must be notified as to the evaluation procedures to be used, and their permission must be obtained prior to the initial and subsequent evaluations. However, should the parents object to an evaluation and the local education agency believes one is in the child’s best interests, the agency may pursue an evaluation through mediation and due

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process procedures. Parents have the right to obtain an independent evaluation and to present this evidence to the child study team. On occasion, they may obtain this evaluation at the expense of the local education agency. As members of the child study team, parents are involved in formative evaluation methods that examine the effectiveness of the child’s program and may propose changes to it. Should disagreements arise that warrant possible litigation, the parents have the right to an attorney, to present evidence, to present witnesses and cross-examine those testifying on behalf of the educational agency, and to appeal a decision rendered by an impartial hearing officer.

CONCLUSIONS Assessments play a central role in special education. Their impact is seen initially in locating children with special needs and extends through children exiting special education. Their use in diagnostic decision making is paramount. Further efforts that encourage their use to influence educational interventions are needed. In addition, decision-making practices in special education that rely heavily on test scores while minimizing clinical observations foster an assessment system that is overly legalistic, mechanical, and procedural. —Thomas Oakland

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, 20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq. (Federal Register, 64, 1999). Sattler, J. M. (1998). Clinical and forensic interviewing of children and families. San Diego: Author. Sattler, J. M. (2001a). Assessment of children: Behavior and clinical applications (4th ed.). San Diego: Author. Sattler, J. M. (2001b). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). San Diego: Author. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2003). 2000 census. Available at www.census.gov, 9.

and use, discusses various forms of tests, emphasizes the importance of research and/or theory to support the ways the data are being interpreted and used, underscores the importance of construct underrepresentation and construct irrelevance on test validity, and identifies test performance qualities that may contribute to construct irrelevance. The development and use of standardized tests may represent psychology’s most important technical contribution to the behavioral sciences. Tests that measure various personal qualities are used with all agegroups and in virtually every country. Although the use of standardized tests has become universal, their development is not universal. Some countries develop their own tests, while most countries translate tests developed in other countries (Hu & Oakland, 1991). Tests are used within the behavioral sciences to describe current behaviors and other personal qualities, estimate future behaviors, assist guidance and counseling services, evaluate progress, screen for special needs, diagnose disabling disorders, help place persons, and assist in determining whether persons should be credentialed, admitted/employed, retained, or promoted. Tests also are used widely in research and for various administrative, planning, and forensic purposes. DEFINITION OF A TEST A test is “an evaluation devise or procedure in which a sample of an examinee’s behaviors in a specified domain is obtained and subsequently evaluated and scored using standardized procedures” (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council for Measurement in Education, 1999, p. 183). Tests may be administered to groups or individually. Group tests are less costly to use and typically acquire information about group characteristics or screen an individual’s qualities. Individually administered tests typically are used to make important personal decisions as well as to help control conditions that otherwise may affect test performance adversely. STANDARDIZED TESTS

ASSESSMENT, STANDARDIZED TESTS This entry defines a test and psychological assessment, identifies standards governing test development

Tests may be standardized or nonstandardized. Standardized tests require test users to administer and score them in a uniform fashion. Most standardized tests also are normed on a sample of persons representative of those for whom the test is designed to be

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used. For example, tests designed to be used with adults typically are normed on a representative sample of adults stratified by age, gender, years of education or occupation, and the region of the country in which they reside. Adults who display various diagnoses (e.g., mental retardation, depression) may also be sampled in larger numbers when a test is designed for use with clinical samples. Some standardized tests are not normed (e.g., the Rorschach) and, instead, are interpreted in light of a test’s theory. DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDIZED NORM-REFERENCED TESTS Considerable resources are needed to develop standardized norm-referenced tests. A scholar interested in a specific domain (e.g., intelligence) typically submits a proposal for developing a new test to a company that specializes in test development and marketing. If the project is judged to be viable and the market for such a test is thought to exist, the test author and test company sign a contract outlining the rights and responsibilities of each party. The test author typically is responsible for writing and later selecting test items and writing the manual. The test company typically is responsible for producing test materials; collecting normative and validity data; conducting studies on item statistics, reliability, and validity; and publishing, promoting, and in other ways marketing the test. This process often takes between 3 and 10 years and requires the outlay of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. NONSTANDARDIZED TESTS The manner in which some tests are administered and scored is not standardized. Examples include tests developed by teachers to assess academic achievement, by researchers to acquire preliminary data, and by clinicians to probe areas of clinical interest. Their flexible use together with minimal developmental costs constitute some of their attractive features. However, their psychometric features (e.g., reliability and validity) are unknown, and their use in making ipsative (i.e., intraindividual) and normative comparisons is limited. TESTS OF MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE OR TYPICAL PERFORMANCE Standardized tests differ depending on whether the test is designed to measure one’s best performance or

one’s typical performance. Measures of cognitive, language, psychomotor, physical, and other abilities are designed and administered in ways intended to elicit one’s best performance. In contrast, tests measuring social and emotional qualities are designed and administered in ways intended to elicit one’s typical performance. TEST STANDARDS Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association et al., 1999; hereafter referred to as Standards) sets forth standards governing three broad issues: test construction, evaluation, and documentation; fairness in testing; and testing applications. Psychologists and other assessment specialists can be expected to know and adhere to these Standards when performing their work. The Standards can also guide the formation of policy governing assessment services to best serve forensic practice. ASSESSMENT Assessment involves the integration and interpretation of various forms of information, including scores from standardized tests, about a person. For example, educators often consider information on a student’s grade level, placement in regular or special education classes, and attendance when interpreting achievement test data. Psychologists performing clinical evaluations often interpret information acquired from various sources about various traits displayed previously and currently in various settings. The Standards defines psychological assessment as “a comprehensive examination undertaken to answer specific questions about a client’s functioning during a particular time interval or to predict a client’s psychological functioning in the future” (American Educational Research Association et al., 1999, p. 119). TEST VALIDITY Validity is a test’s most important quality. Validity is judged in light of evidence that supports the manner in which test data are interpreted and used. Strictly speaking, a test does not have validity. Thus, the question, “How valid is the test?” needs to be reframed into, “To what degree do research and/or theory support the ways the data are being interpreted and used?”

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Test validation requires the test user to develop a scientifically sound argument that supports the intended interpretation of test scores and their relevance to the proposed uses. Two Broad Qualities That May Jeopardize Test Validity Issues associated with validity figure prominently when developing a standardized test. Efforts are made to help ensure that a test measures a desired construct adequately and that qualities irrelevant to the construct do not attenuate its measurement. Thus, efforts that avoid construct underrepresentation (i.e., when a test fails to capture important aspects of the construct) and construct irrelevance (i.e., when processes extraneous to the construct attenuate its measurement) are critical (American Educational Research Association et al., 1999). Test Performance Qualities That May Contribute to Construct Irrelevance Various conditions extraneous to the construct being measured may jeopardize the validity of test data. The following seven broad qualities may affect test performance and thus contribute to construct irrelevance (Oakland & Glutting, 1998): testing-room conditions (e.g., rooms should be free of distractions); language qualities (e.g., the examinee’s receptive and expressive language skills must be sufficiently developed to understand the test and the examiner); healthrelated conditions (e.g., an absence of acute pain, disease, or illness); rapport (e.g., interpersonal relationships between the examinee and examiner must be conducive to test performance); readiness for testing (e.g., self-confidence, willingness to be tested); motivation (e.g., to engage and sustain involvement in the testing activity); and severity of one’s handicapping condition (e.g., more modifications typically are needed when assessing those with severe or profound disabilities). Three specific test-taking qualities are known to affect standardized test performance and thus contribute to construct irrelevance: task avoidance, uncooperative mood, and inattentiveness (Glutting & Oakland, 1993). TEST ETHICS The American Psychological Association’s (2002) Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct also addresses

test use. Issues addressed include the bases for assessments, use of assessments, informed consent, release of test data, test construction, interpreting assessment results, assessment by unqualified persons, use of obsolete tests and outdated test results, test scoring and interpretation services, explaining assessment results, and maintaining test security (see Fisher, 2003).

CONCLUSIONS The development and use of standardized tests may represent psychology’s most important technical contribution to the behavioral sciences. An estimated 5,000 English language standardized tests developed during the last century have had a profound impact on research and practice. Further efforts that help ensure that standardized tests serve the public good as well as institutional needs are needed. The lack of standardized tests in most developing nations severely limits the growth of behavioral sciences and practices in these regions. —Thomas Oakland

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council for Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: Author. American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060–1073. Fisher, C. B. (2003). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Glutting, J., & Oakland, T. (1993). Guide to the assessment of test session behavior. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. Hu, S., & Oakland, T. (1991). Global and regional perspectives on testing children and youth: An international survey. International Journal of Psychology, 26(3), 329–344. Oakland, T., & Glutting, J. (1998). Assessment of test behaviors with the WISC-III. In A. Prifitera & D. Saklofske (Eds.), WISC-III: A scientist-practitioner perspective (pp. 287–310). New York: Academic Press.

ASSET MAPPING Asset mapping refers to processes that are used to identify and catalog the skills, capacities, and

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resources in an organization, neighborhood, or community. Designed to identify and unleash the capacities of individuals, groups, and systems for positive growth and development, asset mapping stands in contrast with needs assessments, which focus on identifying problems and issues as a foundation for planning. Most observers credit John L. McKnight and his colleagues at Northwestern University (McKnight & Kretzmann, 1990) as the earliest proponents of asset mapping, as part of his grassroots model of assetbased community development (ABCD). They contend that needs assessments tend to take power and capacity away from the community by pointing toward service-oriented, external solutions (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993). Furthermore, needs assessments create “mental maps” that define communities and organizations primarily in terms of their problems and challenges so that communities can target limited resources to solve the most vexing problems. Critics of community “needs assessments” suggest that they not only have the side effect of defining the community by its problems but also direct all resources to professionally and institutionally driven programs, thus fostering a cycle of dependency on these services. In addition, problem-focused assessments tend to lead to fragmentation and competition in the community for accessing limited external resources (Beaulieu, 2002). Asset mapping (sometimes called a “capacity inventory”), in contrast, seeks to identify and tap strengths and capacities that exist in every individual, association, and institution so that those gifts can be unleashed and connected in building community. Though originally developed as an alternative approach to community assessment in economically distressed communities, the approach has been adapted and applied broadly to community building and organizational development, including neighborhoods, education, faith communities, community education, public health, mental health services, and international development, to name a few. Asset mapping has also come to be associated with young people through Search Institute’s framework of developmental assets. The two approaches are complementary and overlapping. While asset mapping focuses on identifying community resources for human and community development, developmental assets emphasize the resources and strengths young people need in their lives to grow up healthy, caring, and responsible (Benson, 1997). Search Institute

provides a survey, Search Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors, to communities that allows them to gain a portrait of their young people’s developmental assets, including their experiences within the community. In addition, many communities and organizations have combined the ABCD approach as an important strategy for community mobilization around Search Institute’s framework (Michigan State University, 1998–1999). In addition, the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research at the Academy for Educational Development (www.aed.org) developed a “community youth-mapping” process based on asset mapping that intentionally engages young people in identifying community resources for youth development. On a community level, asset mapping offers a frame for emphasizing the strengths present in communities, families, and other ecological contexts of development. Thus, for example, instead of only studying crime patterns in a community, it identifies and catalogs after-school programs, faith communities, neighborhood centers, informal associations, parks, and other potential resources for healthy development and community building. Within a particular organization or sector, asset mapping not only examines the challenges facing the organization (such as maintenance issues with the facilities) but also the physical, programmatic, economic, interpersonal, and individual resources for development. Thus, an asset map of a school would place a high emphasis on the capacity of volunteers to contribute to the school’s mission, rather than focusing only on policy, personnel, and infrastructure issues or problems. There is no single method for asset mapping, and the process is often, by design, idiosyncratic or specific to the specific organization or community. Most often, the learning processes are qualitative, using methods such as personal interviews, door-to-door canvasses, or community events and dialogues. In many cases, community residents (youth and adults) are equipped to conduct the assessment as an integral part of recognizing that the community itself has resources and capacities. Though there are no standardized processes for conducting asset mapping, several principles or assumptions guide the process. First, and most fundamental, is a focus on the capacities or gifts that are present in the community, not what is absent. Bohach (1997) writes,

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Every community, no matter how deprived or disadvantaged it may feel it is or be perceived to be, is comprised of citizens who have an endless supply of unique, positive, and valuable abilities that are their gifts. . . . Using their gifts, a community’s citizens can focus on areas of strength (the positive) rather than only focusing on areas of need (the negative). (p. 23) Second, asset mapping stresses local leadership, investment, and control in both the planning process and the outcome. This emphasis not only assumes that local residents are in the best position to know the true strengths and capacities of the community but also places community members as the “experts” (not clients) in the community, which provides a vital foundation for unleashing and sustaining community capacity, citizen engagement, and social capital (Benson, Scales, & Mannes, 2003). Third, asset mapping not only identifies formal, institutional resources (such as programs, facilities, and financial capital) but also emphasizes individual, associational, and informal strengths and resources, as well as the relationships between them. Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) write, “One of the central challenges for asset-based community developers is to constantly build and rebuild relationships between and among local residents, local associations, and local institutions” (p. 9). By connecting across traditional sectors and boundaries, communities often discover previously unrecognized interests, talents, skills, and capacities that can be matched with needs or challenges in another part of the community. These principles point to the key types of assets or resources that are examined in asset-mapping efforts. Because of the strong focus on individual capacities, asset mapping places high emphasis on identifying, cataloging, and linking the gifts, abilities, and interests of people within the community or organization. For example, one study of economically distressed neighborhoods identified the butcher in a corner general store as a key mentor, guide, and champion for children in the neighborhood (Saito, Sullivan, & Hintz, 2000). The mapping process also highlights the individually run organizations and networks that may never be noticed by outsiders, but are central to the lives of community residents. This may include barbershops and beauty parlors and home-based businesses that are not only small economic enterprises but also

informal community centers. Other resident-controlled organizations, such as clubs and associations, financial institutions, religious institutions, cultural organizations, and formal and informal media and communication systems, are all examined and catalogued. Next, the asset map identifies what McKnight and Kretzmann (1990) call “secondary building blocks,” which are resources within the community that are not controlled by the community residents. These may include institutes of higher education, nonprofit organizations, health care, social service agencies, public institutions and services, and physical resources. Finally, McKnight and Kretzmann identify potential resources that originate outside the neighborhood and are controlled by outsiders, such as social service spending. With imagination, these resources, they contend, can be redirected to support communitybuilding efforts. Not only is the process of asset mapping different from a prescribed needs assessment, but the resulting information is also dramatically different. A needs assessment, for example, might chart patterns of crime, unemployment, pollution, and economic blight within a neighborhood, all of which are truly present. An asset map of the same neighborhood might identify individual gifts and interests, as well as the capacities of local organizations and associations, all of which are truly present. The difference, contend McKnight and Kretzmann (1990), is that the latter map “is the map a neighborhood must rely on if it is to find the power to regenerate itself. Communities have never been built on their deficiencies. Building community has always depended upon mobilizing the capacities and assets of a people and a place” (p. 17). —Eugene C. Roehlkepartain

See also DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beaulieu, L. J. (2002). Mapping the assets of your community: A key component for building local capacity. Mississippi State, MS: Southern Rural Development Center. Available at www.srdc.msstate.edu/publications/227/227.htm Benson, P. L. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., & Mannes, M. (2003). Developmental strengths and their sources: Implications for the study and practice of community building. In

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R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Vol. 1. Applying developmental science for youth and families (pp. 369–406). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bohach, A. (1997). Fundamental principles of asset-based community development. Journal of Volunteer Administration, 15(4), 22–29. Kretzmann, J. P., & McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building communities from the inside: A path toward finding a community’s assets. Evanston, IL: Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University. McKnight, J. L., & Kretzmann, J. P. (1990). Mapping community capacity (Rev. 1996). Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. Available at www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/papers/mcc.pdf Michigan State University. (1998–1999). Several forms of “community mapping”—2. Best Practices Briefs, 4. Available at outreach.msu.edu/bpbriefs/archive.asp Saito, R. N., Sullivan, T. K., & Hintz, N. R. (2000). The possible dream: What families in distressed communities need to help youth thrive. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

ASTHMA IN ADOLESCENCE The developmental transition into adolescence both hinders and facilitates asthma management by teenagers. This entry will first discuss the pathophysiology of asthma, current treatment strategies, and the prevalence of asthma. Subsequently, the cognitive gains, identity development, and social changes adolescents experience will be described. This description will include a discussion of how these changes influence self-management of asthma. By understanding how the developmental challenges adolescents face hinder and facilitate asthma management, psychologists, researchers, and health care workers will be better able to help asthma patients cope with and manage their disease. Specific recommendations to accomplish this are made. THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF ASTHMA Asthma is a chronic lung disease characterized by airway inflammation and bronchoconstriction, or the tightening of the muscles surrounding the airway passages. Inflamed airways are hyperresponsive to environmental conditions, and bronchoconstriction occurs when the airway is exposed to certain triggers. These triggers vary among individuals and include exercise, viral infections, and allergens. Bronchoconstriction is

associated with asthma symptoms, which include wheezing, chest tightness, and a dry cough. Pharmacotherapy for asthma includes medications from two categories: (1) long-term control medications, which are taken daily over an extended period of time to reduce the underlying inflammation, and (2) quick-relief medications, which are taken for prompt but temporary relief of bronchoconstriction and symptoms (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [NHLBI], 1997). Asthma is a dynamic disease with symptoms that can vary across the life span, across individuals, and across seasons (Clark & Gong, 2000). As a result, to successfully manage asthma, individuals require not only knowledge of asthma but also a repertoire of behavioral strategies to cope with their changing disease. Patients must systematically assess their symptoms on a regular basis, set reasonable goals for asthma management, and monitor the effectiveness of their behavioral strategies to meet these goals. In addition, it is recommended that patients have written treatment plans detailing how to change medications in response to shifts in symptoms (NHLBI, 1997). ASTHMA IN ADOLESCENCE Contrary to popular opinion, children do not outgrow asthma. Adolescents (11 to 17 years old) have a higher prevalence of asthma and asthma attacks than their younger counterparts aged 0 to 10 (Centers for Disease Control, 2000). While the death rate due to asthma is low in minors compared with adults, the rate of near-death asthma attacks among minors is highest in 12- to 15-year-olds (Randolph & Fraser, 1998). This increased risk in adolescents may be due to their unique stage of psychosocial development, which presents both challenges and opportunities for effective asthma management. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND ASTHMA MANAGEMENT Adolescent cognitive abilities differ both quantitatively and quantitatively from that of children. With adolescence comes the ability to think logically and abstractly (Beyth-Marom & Fischhoff, 1997). Unlike younger children’s more concrete operational thinking, adolescents are able to think beyond immediately observed events and consider long-term consequences, applying if-then statements (Beyth-Marom & Fischhoff, 1997).

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These skills can be used by adolescents to comprehend the pathophysiology and treatment of asthma (Bruzzese et al., in press). While they cannot directly observe or feel the airway inflammation that underlies the bronchoconstriction and accompanying symptoms, adolescents are able to imagine and understand that the inflammation exists. Adolescents can also reason that to minimize airway inflammation, a medication that reduces the inflammation (i.e., a longterm control medication) is needed. They can understand how controlling their asthma can lead to a future with an improved quality of life, and they can set long-term goals to help achieve this life.

individuals to select, control, and monitor the use of cognitive strategies (Kuhn, 1992). This cognitive ability is vital to asthma management. Asthma selfregulation requires the ability to observe, evaluate, and react to one’s management strategies (Clark & Gong, 2000). Metacognition allows adolescents to understand their treatment plans and to make adjustments to their medications to reflect changing symptoms. Unlike children, adolescents can appraise their situations and select the appropriate treatments or management strategies. They can monitor how well strategies are working and either alter or maintain their management efforts in response to their assessments.

Decision-Making Skills Skills pertinent to effective decision making are mastered during the adolescent years (Beyth-Marom & Fischhoff, 1997). In contrast to young children who focus only on one aspect of a situation at a time, adolescents have the ability to consider multiple elements systematically, simultaneously, and exhaustively. Because of the dynamic nature of asthma, several management strategies are needed to cope with different situations (Clark & Gong, 2000). As such, the cognitive skills gained by adolescents facilitate asthma management because they allow adolescents to simultaneously consider different asthma management strategies and to understand the details of a changing treatment plan (Bruzzese et al., in press). The ability to process multiple points simultaneously also enables adolescents to understand the different components of their treatment plans. For example, adolescents can comprehend the need for adjusting medications to match changing symptoms. With adolescence comes an increased capacity to gain new information, an ability to use more sophisticated cognitive strategies, and a capacity to process information more quickly (Beyth-Marom & Fischhoff, 1997; Kuhn, 1992). Unlike children, adolescents have the ability to rapidly process changes in their asthma symptoms. They can recognize early warning signs of asthma and respond appropriately to these signs. Moreover, due to their ability to problem solve in a manner similar to adults, teenagers are also able to make certain independent medical decisions. Metacognition Metacognition, the most significant cognitive gain in adolescence, is an executive function that allows

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AND PEER RELATIONS One of the paramount challenges in adolescence is the search for an identity, or a sense of sameness and continuity (Erikson, 1968). To accomplish this, adolescents process their interactions with others to develop a sense of who they are. They take from these interactions feedback regarding how they should act and what values they should commit to. Successful asthma management requires the adoption of an “asthma identity.” By accepting and incorporating the diagnosis into their definitions of who they are and also by integrating self-management strategies into their checklists of how to act, adolescents can successfully manage the disease. Peers play a critical role in providing the feedback needed to develop an identity. When peer groups are associated with positive values, attitudes, and behaviors, they contribute to adolescents’ development (La Greca, 2001). Consequently, when peer groups are negative, they are predictive of negative outcomes. As such, peer groups can either hinder or facilitate asthma management (Bruzzese et al., in press). If the peer group supports the adolescent and accepts his or her treatment regimen, then the outcome is positive for the teenager with asthma. In contrast, peer groups who do not accept the asthma may isolate the teenager, making that individual feel different. For example, a teenager may be ridiculed by peers for having symptoms or may be embarrassed to take medication in front of peers. In addition, if the teenager’s asthma is not controlled, he or she may have difficulty participating in physical activities, thus adding to the feeling of being different and left out.

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SEPARATION FROM PARENTS AND AUTONOMY Adolescents’ reliance on peers is associated with a separation from parents. Unlike the unilateral parentchild relationship, in which parents typically are the sole decision makers, the parent-adolescent relationship can be reciprocal, moving toward confidence in independent adolescent decisions (Youniss & Smollar, 1985). As with peer relations, this autonomy can hinder or facilitate asthma management. As adolescents spend more time away from home, parents lose their ability to ensure that teenagers adhere to their treatment regimens. By default, there is a shift in accountability from the parent to the teenager (Bruzzese et al., in press). If the family copes with this change positively, the shift will be successful and the adolescent will become responsible for his or her asthma care. This, in turn, may help the adolescent to feel empowered and foster a sense of autonomy in the adolescent. Alternatively, if adolescents are not taught the skills needed to manage the disease and continue to rely on their parents, asthma management is thwarted.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND TREATMENT Compared with children, adolescents are at increased risk for asthma. The cognitive skills and social changes experienced in adolescence make this period an optimal point to intervene and teach minors to manage their asthma and cope with their disease. Psychologists, social workers, health educators, and medical providers can play key roles in helping adolescents accomplish this. To minimize factors that potentially compromise adolescents’ asthma management and to capitalize on the gains made in this unique developmental stage, the following recommendations are made: • Build on adolescents’ ability to think abstractly and motivate adolescents to manage their asthma by having them envision a life free of symptoms and restrictions due to asthma. • Guide adolescents in setting long-term goals regarding asthma. • Teach adolescents problem-solving skills that include generating solutions to challenges they will face, considering the consequences for each solution, making a choice, and monitoring the outcomes.

• Make the most out of adolescents’ need for autonomy and emphasize that by taking control of their asthma management, they can positively separate from their parents. • Empower adolescents with the skills needed to align themselves with peers who accept their asthma and to communicate about asthma to help nonsupportive peers better understand the disease. • Assist the teenager in developing strategies to cope with friends and family members who smoke in front of them as well as to communicate with medical providers and parents about their asthma, two significant challenges to asthma management in adolescents. • Foster in the teenagers an asthma identity that depicts a healthy person with asthma who can successfully cope with and proactively manage the disease. • Intervene in both group and individual settings. Group therapy and/or educational workshops create a supportive asthma peer group. One-on-one sessions provide individualized attention needed to develop individual management strategies. In addition, because adolescent development occurs in a system consisting of multiple levels that are integrated and influence each other (Lerner, 1986), it is recommended that interventions for adolescents with asthma occur on multiple levels. A comprehensive intervention should include a parent component that focuses on helping parents successfully transfer care to their adolescents. In this way, a supportive transitional period is cultivated. In addition, given the importance of fostering a partnership between the patient, the family, and the medical provider in successful asthma management (NHLBI, 1997), it is recommended that the adolescent’s medical provider be included in the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, adolescents with asthma must navigate through a variety of unique developmental transitions that can promote or thwart asthma management. Those working with adolescents can capitalize on these developmental challenges to ensure that adolescents learn positive asthma management and coping strategies, thereby laying the foundation for healthy practices in adulthood. —Jean-Marie Bruzzese

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AUTHOR’S NOTE The preparation of this manuscript received support from the New York City Council Speaker’s Fund for Public Health Research grant awarded to J.-M. Bruzzese. The author would like to thank Cécile Ferrando for her helpful comments.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beyth-Marom, R., & Fischhoff, B. (1997). Adolescents’ decisions about risks: A cognitive perspective. In J. Schulenberg, J. L. Maggs, & K. Hurrelman (Eds.), Health risks and developmental transitions during adolescence (pp. 110–135). New York: Cambridge University Press. Bruzzese, J. M., Bonner, S., Vincent, E. J., Mellins, R. B., Sheares, B. J., Levison, M. J., et al. (in press). Asthma education: The adolescent experience. Patient Education and Counseling. Centers for Disease Control. (2000, October 13). CDC surveillance summaries. MMWR, 49, 908–911. Clark, N. M., & Gong, M. (2000). Management of chronic diseases by practitioners and patients: Are we teaching them the wrong things? British Medical Journal, 320, 572–575. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Kuhn, D. (1992). Cognitive development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (pp. 211–272). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. La Greca, A. M. (2001). Friends or foe? Peer influences on anxiety among children and adolescents. In W. K. Silberman & P. Treffers (Eds.), Anxiety disorders among children and adolescents (pp. 158–186). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lerner, R. M. (1986). Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). (1997). Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma (No. 97-4056) (National Asthma Education and Prevention Program, Expert Panel Report 2). Bethesda, MD: Author. Randolph, C. C., & Fraser, B. (1998). Stressors and concerns in teen asthma. Allergy and Asthma Proceedings, 19(4), 93–203. Youniss, J., & Smollar, J. (1985). Adolescent relations with mothers, fathers, and friends. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

ATHLETIC PARTICIPATION AND GIRLS’ DEVELOPMENT This entry reviews the research on girls’ athletic participation and the effects of such participation on girls’ physical and psychosocial development. First,

competency-enhancing characteristics of sports activities that have been identified in the research literature are described. Next, gender differences in rates of sports participation and self-evaluations in the athletic domain are highlighted. The implications of girls’ lower rates of participation and lower athletic self-evaluations for developmental outcomes such as physical health, self-esteem, academic achievement, and problem behaviors are also discussed. Finally, a number of potentially fruitful directions for future research and program development in this area are suggested. COMPETENCY-ENHANCING CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENT SPORTS ACTIVITIES Sports participation plays a central role in the lives of many adolescents. National data suggest that more young people participate in sports than in any other form of structured out-of-school activity (National Center for Youth Statistics, 1996). Young people may be encouraged to engage in sports because these activities often have a number of positive, competencypromoting characteristics. They are likely to be highly organized and adult supervised. Sports activities can also promote increased involvement with prosocial peers, foster a sense of belonging among youth, provide youth with opportunities for achievement and mastery, enable the development of autonomous decisionmaking skills, and encourage teamwork. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SPORTS PARTICIPATION RATES AND SPORTS COMPETENCE BELIEFS Rates of sports participation vary by gender. Not surprisingly, girls participate at lower rates than boys. Much of the gender gap in sports participation may be explained by the historical tendency for girls to be offered fewer opportunities to engage in athletics. Legislation designed to “level the playing field” for girls (e.g., Title IX), however, has resulted in a greater variety of athletic options for girls and young women. A few professional and advanced amateur women’s sports leagues and tournaments, such as the Women’s National Basketball Association and Women’s World Cup soccer, have achieved national recognition and enhanced popularity in recent years. Still, girls’ rates of participation in athletics remain lower than boys’. By the last year of high school,

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fewer than 20% of girls participate in team sports, compared with more than 40% of boys (National Center for Youth Statistics, 1996). Furthermore, while both boys and girls tend to be less physically active as they progress through adolescence, girls’ rates of physical activity decline dramatically during this developmental period (Kimm et al., 2002). Some groups of young women are at particular risk for low levels of physical activity. For example, African American girls are less likely to be physically active in late adolescence than European American girls. By age 17, more that half of African American girls, compared with one third of European American girls, report no leisure time physical activity. Inner-city girls are also at heightened risk for low levels of involvement in sports activities, especially those sponsored by neighborhood or community sports leagues. While Title IX protects girls’ sports opportunities in the schools, community-based organizations (CBOs) with limited funding may find it difficult to expand their sports programs to be more inclusive of girls. In particular, CBOs with well-established boys’ sports programs may be hesitant to cut some of these popular activities in order to provide girls, who are perceived as less interested in sports, with a similar number of athletic opportunities (Hirsch et al., 2000). In addition to lower rates of sports participation, girls also tend to report less confidence in their athletic abilities and place a lower value on athletic achievement (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002). These gender differences in sports competence beliefs appear to be stable throughout adolescence. Adolescent girls’ declining rates of sports involvement and concurrent declines in sports self-evaluations may reflect a process whereby girls disidentify with sports, as Steele (1997) suggests they do with math and science. Pressure to conform to traditional gender role stereotypes may lead girls to choose school-based and other club activities over sports. Indeed, by the end of high school, girls participate in most nonathletic extracurricular activities at higher rates than boys. IMPLICATIONS FOR GIRLS’ PHYSICAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Girls’ lower rates of sports participation, greater declines in participation, and less positive sports selfevaluations have implications for their development. In general, athletic participation is associated with

psychosocial and health benefits (Larson, 2000). Positive effects of sports participation that have been identified in the literature include physical health benefits (e.g., better general health and fewer dietary problems) as well as better behavioral (e.g., greater academic persistence and achievement) and psychosocial (e.g., higher self-esteem, more self-confidence, and lower rates of depression) outcomes. Indeed, self-esteem researchers have characterized athletics as a salient domain of self-evaluation for adolescents. It should be noted, however, that there also exists evidence to suggest that athletic participation is associated with problem behaviors, such as alcohol use, among adolescents. The positive effects of sports participation are not unique to girls or boys. While the rates of sports participation and the meaning of such participation may vary by gender, gender differences in the associations between athletic involvement and youth well-being have not been identified consistently in the literature. Only a few studies have revealed gender differences in the health-related, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes associated with sports participation. In these studies, sports involvement appeared to benefit girls more than boys. For example, athletic involvement may be more strongly associated with risk taking and injuries in boys than girls. Other studies have found that girls (but not boys) involved in sports are more likely to postpone sexual activity until a later age and less likely to use drugs and alcohol than their same-sex peers. In general, however, sports participation predicts positive outcomes for both boys and girls, and there is no evidence to suggest that boys benefit more from sports participation than girls. Therefore, girls’ lower rates of participation may constitute a risk to their development. In sum, organized sports activities offer girls the opportunity to engage with prosocial peers and supportive adults in a goal-directed activity that also encourages health and physical fitness. The results of most studies examining the effects and correlates of girls’ athletic participation suggest that the recent expansion of girls’ athletic opportunities will positively affect girls’ development. Adolescent girls, however, are less likely to reap the health, behavioral, and psychosocial benefits of sports, because they are at risk for low levels of physical activity. Furthermore, inner-city girls, African American adolescent girls, girls in middle and late adolescence, and girls with more advanced pubertal status in early adolescence appear to be at heightened risk for a sedentary lifestyle.

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DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION A growing body of research has established the beneficial effects of sports participation on youth development, revealing that girls’ lower rates of athletic participation may compromise their physical and psychological well-being. In contrast, little is known about how girls’ athletic programs can be created or modified so that they are more attractive to girls and more likely to enhance girls’ development. For example, few studies have examined mediators of the effects of girls’ athletic participation on particular outcomes, such as academic achievement and selfesteem. Research that identifies such mediators, particularly mediators that are specific to girls, could aid action scientists in the development of girls’ sports programs that lead to the most positive developmental outcomes among participants. Furthermore, variations in girls’ athletic opportunities and interests by socioeconomic status or geographic location are rarely addressed. Additional studies on the athletic experiences of underresearched populations of girls, such as ethnic minority and inner-city girls, are needed.

CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, future collaborations among researchers and youth program developers interested in promoting positive development among young women should seek to broaden girls’ athletic options. This work should create opportunities for sports participation in both the school and neighborhood contexts that address girls’ diverse needs and interests. —Sara Pedersen

See also SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY; SPORTS/ATHLETICS, CHILDREN AND; SPORTS, HIGH SCHOOL; SPORTS AND POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fredricks, J. A., & Eccles, J. S. (2002). Children’s competence and value beliefs from childhood through adolescence: Growth trajectories in two male-sex-typed domains. Developmental Psychology, 38(4), 519–533. Hirsch, B. J., Roffman, J. G., Deutsch, N. L., Flynn, C. A., Loder, T. L., & Pagano, M. E. (2000). Inner-city youth development organizations: Strengthening programs for adolescent girls. Journal of Early Adolescence, 20(2), 210–230.

Kimm, S. Y. S., Glynn, N. W., Kriska, A. M., Barton, B. A., Kronsberg, S. S., Daniels, S. R., et al. (2002). Decline in physical activity in Black girls and White girls during adolescence. The New England Journal of Medicine, 347(10), 709–715. Larson, R. W. (2000). Toward a psychology of positive youth development. American Psychologist, 55(1), 170–183. National Center for Youth Statistics. (1996). Youth indicators, 1996 (OERI Publication No. NCES 96–027). Washington, DC: Author. Steele, C. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613–629.

ATTACHMENT, CHILD-PARENT Attachments are the emotional bonds that infants develop with their parents and parent figures. Undoubtedly, the most popular theory of attachment formation was put forward by John Bowlby (1969). Bowlby began from the assumption that in the environment in which the human species evolved, infants’ survival would have depended on their ability to maintain proximity to adults motivated to protect, feed, care for, and comfort them. Unlike the young of most primate species, however, human infants are unable to move closer to adults or to cling to them when they are within reach. Instead, humans must rely on signals to entice adults to approach or stay near them. The usefulness of these signals depends, of course, on their effectiveness in eliciting responses from adults. Adults, indeed, seem preprogrammed to approach, soothe, and pick up crying babies and to continue interacting with nearby infants who are smiling at them. Over time, Bowlby proposed, infants come to focus their proximity-promoting signals on those who have responded most regularly and with whom they are most familiar, and these people, typically the parents, become attachment figures. Bowlby described four phases in the development of infant-parent attachments. In the first phase, lasting through the first month or two of life, infants develop a repertoire of signals, such as cries, that promote proximity, although they use these signals quite indiscriminately, appearing satisfied whoever responds to them. Adults, of course, are more discerning, responding selectively depending on their relative investment and responsibility. During this phase, babies are characterized by unpredictable changes in states of arousal and are

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greatly dependent on adults to regulate their arousal, especially by picking them up when they are distressed. When picked up and held, distressed infants not only stop crying but also shift into states of quiet alertness in which they are best able to take in information about their surrounds. Because these states of attentiveness occur reliably often when babies are being held by specific individuals who have unique visible, audible, kinesthetic, and olfactory characteristics, adult responses to infants’ cries also foster the recognition of specific individuals. In addition, babies learn about the reliability of specific adults from the predictability of their responses to cries, as well as in the context of games and vocal “conversations.” The ability to recognize specific adults marks the transition to the second stage of attachment formation at 2 months, according to Bowlby, although more recent research shows that the ability to recognize parents occurs earlier than this. During the phase of discriminating sociability, infants show increasing preferences for interaction with some individuals, typically their parents. As they grow older, babies also spend increasing amounts of time in states of quiet alertness. During these periods of alertness, most babies in Western societies seem to enjoy many types of social interaction, including face-to-face games, in which the adult and child take turns. From repeated experiences of face-to-face games and distress-relief sequences, babies learn crucial lessons about reciprocity, effectance, and trust. Specifically, they learn that social partners take turns when interacting (reciprocity); they learn that they can affect the behavior of others (effectance) in a consistent and predictable way (“When I cry, I make her/him come to pick me up”); and they learn that they can count on or trust specific individuals, typically parents, to respond to their signals and needs. All of these lessons play important roles in early social development, and the third is especially important in the process of attachment formation. Major changes occur around 6 to 8 months of age, when, according to Bowlby, true attachments first emerge in the transition to Phase 3. Changes in the infant’s capacity to understand that people continue to exist even when they are not with the infant undergird this transition, which is marked behaviorally by the emergence of a tendency to cry when separated from specific people. Such separation responses are discriminating and indicate that the baby has become attached.

Over the succeeding months, infants become increasingly sophisticated in their abilities to behave intentionally, communicate verbally, and respond appropriately. Whereas positive social interactions were initially characterized by high levels of reactivity, infants come to play increasingly active roles in shaping their social interactions as they grow older. These developments continue until the beginning of the third year of life, when toddlers have sufficient cognitive capacity to take their parents’ perspectives into account when interacting with them, instead of being characterized by egocentricity. Bowlby described this fourth phase as one of goal-corrected partnerships. Babies form attachments to those familiar individuals who have been associated with consistent, predictable, and appropriate responses to their signals. Most babies in two-parent families develop attachments to both of their parents at about the same time (6–8 months) even though most mothers are much more involved than fathers in caring for and interacting with their infants (Lamb, 2002). These differences in levels of involvement do have an impact, however. Most infants seem to establish a hierarchy of attachment figures such that the adults most involved in interaction (typically, mothers) rank higher than secondary attachment figures, including fathers. These preferences are most likely to be evident when infants or toddlers are distressed, sleepy, or sick and can choose which attachment figures to seek. Adults differ greatly with respect to their responsiveness or sensitivity, and this affects the security of the infants’ attachments to them (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997). When adults have been highly and appropriately responsive, levels of trust are high and the relationships are called “secure.” When adults are inconsistently responsive or behave inappropriately, trust is diminished and insecure attachment relationships result. These differences in attachment security shape the child’s initial expectation of other people and so can have an important impact on social experiences outside the child-parent relationships (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). For this reason, a considerable literature on the implications and interpretations of individual differences in attachment has developed (Thompson, 1998). Because infants who have insecure attachments are disadvantaged in many situations, it is important to note that the security of attachment can and does change when the quality of interaction changes (Lamb,

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Thompson, Gardner, & Charnov, 1985). Major changes can promote insecurity or security depending on whether the quality of interaction deteriorates or improves. Importantly, these changes also affect the child’s behavior in other contexts, underscoring the extent to which the effects of adverse early experiences can be reduced by more positive later experiences, and vice versa (Lamb et al., 1985; Thompson, 1998). This entry has focused on the development of relationships between infants and parents from the child’s point of view. The process of attachment formation should be distinguished from the process of bonding, which describes the development of these relationships from the parents’ side. —Michael E. Lamb

See also BONDING, PARENT–CHILD

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. W. (1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. New York: Basic Books. De Wolff, M. S., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1997). Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis of parental antecedents of infant attachment. Child Development, 68, 571–591. Lamb, M. E. (2002). The development of father infant relationships. In C. Tamis-LeMonda & N. Cabrera (Eds.), Handbook of father involvement (pp. 93–117). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lamb, M. E., Thompson, R. A., Gardner, W. P., & Charnov, E. L. (1985). Infant-mother attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Thompson, R. A. (1998). Early sociopersonality development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 25–104). New York: Wiley.

ATTENTION DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER IN ADULTS For decades, continuing into the early 1970s, there was general agreement that attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was outgrown during puberty (in this entry, ADHD encompasses both the traditional attention deficit disorder and attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder). The major diagnostic focus

during this period was the elevated activity level. The assumption that with maturation came ADHD cure was in part due to the observation that most children with ADHD experience a significant reduction in their hyperactivity and the associated symptoms in their teenage years. It was not until 1976 that research clearly demonstrated that while symptom presentation may have been altered by maturation and by improved cognitive ability and coping that accompanies maturation, most children with ADHD do not outgrow their symptoms. This entry describes current diagnostic and treatment strategies for adults with ADHD. DIAGNOSIS By the 1990s, there was general agreement and consensus that approximately one third to two thirds of children with ADHD continue to have symptoms of the disorder into adulthood, which, in turn, often significantly impairs interpersonal, academic/occupational/ vocational, social, and even leisure time functioning. While most adults experience occasional problems with inattention, impulsivity, distractibility, and restlessness, ADHD adults differ in the frequency, intensity, and duration of these symptoms. ADHD in adults is often “hidden,” as the problems are overshadowed by moderate to profound difficulties maintaining their lives in the areas mentioned above. The ADHD adult is also at risk of being misdiagnosed, because presenting symptoms mimic other disorders, such as depression and other mood disorders, substance abuse, anxiety, sleep problems, marital problems, feeling overwhelmed, being stressed out, low motivation, and poor employment history. In addition, ADHD may have comorbid diagnoses, most often depression. Academic underachievement (frequently diagnosed as a learning disability) is also a common cofinding among ADHD adults. Indeed, learning disabilities may be confused with ADHD symptoms and misdiagnosed, with the former being the diagnosis while the latter is the root cause. There is no adult onset ADHD, but adult diagnosis of ADHD is common. That is, ADHD is a disorder whose origins are in childhood, and one cannot become an ADHD adult without having developmental symptoms (though not always identified as ADHD). Schools, parents, culture, socioeconomic class, and ethnicity contribute to the variability in the tolerance level, and thus intervention, of ADHD symptoms (Resnick, 2000).

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SYMPTOMATOLOGY

Psychotherapy

Wender (1995, 2000), in his rigorous reviews of prevalence data, concluded that the incidence of ADHD in adulthood is 2% to 7%. The ratio of men to women has been reported between 2 to 1 and 1 to 1 (Resnick, 2000). The diagnosis of ADHD in adults, as in children, can be one of three: (1) attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder: primarily hyperactive-impulsive type; (2) attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: primarily inattentive type; and (3) attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder: combined type (hyperactiveimpulsive and inattentive). While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition– Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) provides diagnostic criteria (many have to be modified to be applicable to adults), the most common complaints of ADHD adults usually center on procrastination, disorganization, and forgetfulness—even for those things they are motivated to do or complete. Hyperactivity, the most common symptom affected by maturation, is more likely to be experienced as a feeling of tension or restlessness in ADHD adults.

ADHD adults rarely, if ever, need long-term psychotherapy unless it is for a comorbid condition, but intermittent psychotherapy around life span issues (e.g., marriage, job change, parenthood) is quite common. Such treatment may include improving social skills, teaching self-advocacy, bibliotherapy, and self-help groups, such as Children and Adults with AttentionDeficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) and the Attention Deficit Disorders Association (ADDA). Additional psychosocial treatment approaches include stress reduction, environmental manipulation, and workand school-based interventions. Other strategies may include marital/couples therapy, coaching (someone to help develop and monitor short- and long-term goals), visual prompts (sticky-notes, PDAs, Voice-Its, etc.), advocating for the ADHD adult, and ongoing treatment of comorbid conditions.

TREATMENT Treatment for the ADHD adult is multifocused and individualized to meet the needs of the patient (Nadeau, 1996; Resnick, 2000). Patient and family education that explains the ADHD diagnosis, treatment options, and the lifetime course of the disorder is the first intervention. Medication Medication management is often used, but the response rate is less effective (about 50%) and less robust than with children. Stimulants have been the drug of choice for decades and continue to be the class of medication most often prescribed when pharmacotherapy is used. Antidepressant medication is a second-tier drug used with ADHD adults and may be more often used when there is a cofinding of depression or anhedonia. Recently, a nonstimulant drug, similar to an antidepressant, has been marketed to specifically treat ADHD. Medication management with ADHD women is more challenging because of reproductive issues and the effect menstrual cycles may have on drug effectiveness.

Legal Protections Certain provisions of federal laws may assist ADHD adults. The Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) mandates a free and public education until age 21. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers with at least 15 employees to make “reasonable accommodations” for a person with ADHD who is “otherwise qualified” to perform the job functions. CONCLUSIONS Treatments are very effective and can bring about significant change in the quality of life for sufferers of adult ADHD. Treatments must be individualized, combining the strengths and needs of the ADHD adult. Perhaps most difficult for ADHD adults is to accept the help of others without viewing such help as a commentary on the ADHD adult’s personal shortcomings. The ADHD therapist, coach, or spouse must try to keep the ADHD person focused on the objective, and not necessarily how the objective is attained. The degree to which ADHD symptoms will inhibit adult development is highly dependent on the patient’s life context. The goal therefore is to make the world more ADHD-friendly (K. G. Nadeau, personal communication, 1999) and bring a degree of order, peace, and happiness to the ADHD adult’s life. —Robert J. Resnick

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text rev.). Washington, DC: Author. Nadeau, K. G. (1996). Adventures in fast forward: Life, love, and work for the ADD adult. New York: Brunner-Mazel. Resnick, R. J. (2000). The hidden disorder: A clinician’s guide to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Wender, P. H. (1995). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders in adulthood. New York: Oxford University Press. Wender, P. H. (2000). ADHD: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adults. New York: Oxford University Press.

AUTISM, EDUCATIONAL TREATMENTS FOR Autism and related disorders (together called “pervasive developmental disorders” or “autistic spectrum disorders”) are characterized by deficits in three areas: social relatedness, communication, and repetitive behaviors. Social impairments include behaviors such as lack of eye contact, poor nonverbal communication, lack of joint attention (pointing things out to others to share interests), lack of interest in peers or poor peer relationships, and impaired attunement to the emotions of others. Communication deficits include delayed language, poor conversational ability, stereotyped language, and stereotyped or impoverished pretend play. Repetitive behaviors include preoccupations with certain objects or topics, resistance to change in the routine or environment, repetitive motor behaviors, and visual fascinations. Autism is usually apparent by age 3, and sometimes as early as the first year of life. Symptoms evolve with development, but the core impairments often persist throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Although autism is usually regarded as a lifelong disorder, it can often be treated effectively with a combination of behavioral, educational, and biological interventions (for a review of common programs, see Gresham, Beebe-Frankenberger, & MacMillan, 1999). Many comprehensive treatment programs for children with autism have reported increases in developmental levels, IQ, social behaviors, and functional language skills and decreases in maladaptive, self-injurious, or repetitive behaviors. However, children on the autistic spectrum constitute

a very heterogeneous group, and different treatments may be effective for different children. Most treatment efficacy studies have methodological problems, such as small samples and no control groups. The definitive treatment studies in which children with different characteristics are randomly assigned to treatments of different types and intensities have not been done and are probably not feasible, so current thinking about treatment efficacy is based on rather limited empirical data. This entry briefly discusses many of the common treatment approaches used with children with autism. It focuses on the educational approaches that are most frequently cited in the literature. Biological and “alternative” treatments are also used with children with autism, but they are not the focus of this entry. Biological treatments primarily include medications aimed at ameliorating interfering behaviors and coexisting mood disorders. “Alternative” treatments, those that are not widely accepted or have little supporting empirical data, include nutritional supplements, special diets, sensory integration therapy, and many others. As has been frequently noted, absence of evidence does not constitute evidence of absence, and some of these “alternative” treatments may ultimately prove effective for some children. One notable exception is facilitated communication, for which there is little empirical support (Simpson & Myles, 1995). Research is unanimous in finding that early intervention is crucial for optimizing outcome. “Early” is generally considered under the age of 5, and the earlier the better, with intervention starting before age 3 considered optimal. Of the approaches considered below, all are applicable to children from toddlerhood and preschool through adolescence, but in general, the applied behavior analysis and developmental approaches are usually chosen for preschool children, while the TEACCH model (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication-Handicapped Children) and applied behavior analysis are often chosen for school-aged children. APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a treatment approach based on the application of learning principles and behavior modification techniques. The term applied behavior analysis entails two crucial components: (1) the careful analysis of antecedents and consequences to determine the function of specific behaviors and to

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change behavior in measurable ways and (2) the analysis of target abilities (such as language) into component skills that can be separately and more easily taught. Ivar Lovaas and his colleagues at UCLA applied behavioral analytic strategies to the treatment of children with autism, beginning in the late 1960s. Empirical Support In 1987, Lovaas and his colleagues published a study in which they compared three groups of children with autism who received three different types of intervention. The three groups were divided into an experimental group of children who received 40 hours per week of highly structured behavioral intervention, a minimal control group who received 10 hours of behavioral intervention along with other therapies, and a second control group who received therapy but not intensive behavioral therapy. The researchers found that the children with autism who received intensive behavioral intervention (40 hours per week) performed much better than when previously tested and significantly better than those children in the two control groups. Two years later, a follow-up study conducted comparing the experimental group with the minimal intervention control group indicated that many of the children who had received intensive behavioral therapy maintained their skills and were able to function in integrated classrooms. Only a small number of children in the control group achieved similar levels of functioning. This study is important because it is one of the very few controlled studies of intervention with children with autism. It is important to note, however, that the study compared 40 hours with 10 hours of behavioral intervention weekly and did not evaluate programs providing 20 to 30 hours of treatment weekly, so the minimum level of intensity is uncertain and may differ from child to child. While these studies have been challenged and the efficacy claims advanced by Lovaas are not universally accepted, most researchers agree that Lovaas’s method and its variants have more empirical support than any other approach. Theoretical Underpinnings ABA is based on the premise that behaviors that typically developing children learn naturally, such as language, self-help skills, and social skills, can be taught to the child with autism through the use of reinforcement

for desirable behaviors and ignoring and reshaping troublesome behaviors. According to proponents of ABA, many children with autism can learn complex skills by breaking them down into component parts and reinforcing each of these parts. Children are taught these component skills through repeated practice, using a method known as discrete trials. When component skills are mastered, they can be reassembled into more complex behaviors. While discrete trials are a cornerstone of many behavioral treatment programs, ABA is a much broader methodology that incorporates a variety of behavioral techniques in addition to discrete trials. ABA focuses first on gaining the child’s attention so that the child can learn. Simple behaviors such as sitting in a chair, looking at the trainer, and so forth are reinforced liberally in the early stages of the program. The child is reinforced for showing motivation to learn early on, as well. Stimulus control is also an important aspect of the early stages of ABA; children are encouraged to be reinforced by others, and not by their own self-stimulating and negative behaviors. Children with autism must be given significant amounts of structure to succeed; they must be rewarded promptly and with effective reinforcers (especially early in the learning process); and the therapist should structure the trials to minimize the possibility of the child making an error. Once the child has mastered a few skills, generalization is incorporated into the program. Children with autism have difficulty generalizing learning to other situations, so it is very important for them to learn to transfer skills they learn in one environment to another. Once children have begun to communicate and generalize their learning, therapists will bring them into less structured social situations (such as a classroom with typically developing children), and they will begin to learn from other children through observation and in other more natural ways. Effective communication and social skills are best learned in a relatively naturalistic situation. Outcomes Although there is significant variability in how children respond to such training, there are some factors that generally lead to more promising outcomes. Lovaas and Buch (1997) argue that if treatment begins before the age of 3, is intensive and long-term, and includes active parental involvement at home, roughly half of children with autism will benefit to such a degree that they will function within the normal range on IQ tests and may be mainstreamed into age-appropriate classrooms.

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For those children who do not attain this high level of functioning, ABA can still be used to teach daily living and communication skills, although if functional language has not been attained after several years of ABA, Lovaas and Buch suggest that alternative means of communication be taught. These children, according to Lovaas and Buch (1997), should continue to receive ABA treatment throughout their lives. Lovaas’s method is now used in many treatment programs across the country. It is often referred to as “applied behavior analysis” or “ABA” or as “discretetrials instruction.” In some settings, especially when additional treatment components are offered, it may be called “intensive behavioral treatment.” DEVELOPMENTAL MODELS The major alternative to intensive behavioral treatment is a loosely related group of programs known as “developmental approaches.” Proponents of developmental approaches argue that skills must be taught within a developmental framework or the children acquire rote, isolated skills that have little meaning to them and may not generalize to new settings. Developmental therapists typically provide services in naturalistic settings, rely on natural reinforcers as much as possible, and take advantage of opportunities for incidental teaching. They are more likely to engage children in activities chosen by the child, but they often use behavioral principles such as shaping and reinforcement to promote skill acquisition. For example, children may be taught to say or sign “more” in order to obtain more of a desired activity or food item. Over time, increasingly sophisticated communicative efforts and behavioral sequences are required to obtain desired ends, such as adult attention and preferred activities. Developmental approaches are not as highly structured as ABA, nor are they as homogeneous as a group. They have also been less studied, and while specific programs report positive results, there is little controlled, empirical data by which to evaluate those claims. Philosophically, the differences between behavioral models and developmental approaches are quite significant; in practice, however, there is often considerable overlap in strategies and instructional practices. Proponents of developmental models have grown increasingly cognizant of the need for structure, clear and measurable goals, and consistency. At the same time, behaviorists have incorporated naturalistic

settings and incidental teaching models to teach complex behaviors and promote transfer of skills. MODEL TREATMENT PROGRAMS The following section provides descriptions of some of the most widely known and highly regarded specific programs that illustrate the approaches described above. Young Autism Project The Young Autism Project, founded by Lovaas at UCLA, continues to stress the importance of longterm, consistent behavioral therapy in order to teach specific skills and maintain mastered skills in children with autism (Gresham et al., 1999). Treatment consists of one-on-one discrete-trials instruction implemented by parents and trained therapists. Services are provided in the child’s home, 40 hours weekly, 50 weeks yearly, for at least 2 years.

The Douglass Developmental Center The Douglass Developmental Center is a centerbased program designed by Sandra Harris and her colleagues at Rutgers University. The center uses behavioral techniques, including discrete trials instruction, but also incorporates more naturalistic procedures as children progress. The Douglass Center has three classrooms: The first-level classroom consists of structured activities with one-to-one instruction for each of six children with autism. The second-level classroom has six children with autism working with three or four staff members and encourages a shift from individual attention to small-group work. The third-level classroom consists of children with autism integrated with typically developing peers and four to five adults. The program’s stepwise fashion of integration with peers provides a gradual transition for children with autism from an individual interaction pattern to small- and large-group interactions. As with other educational programs tailored to children with autism, this program includes speech pathologists who work with the children, training opportunities for parents to learn the behavioral techniques taught in school, and home visits to develop home programming (Harris & Weiss, 1998).

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Verbal Behavior A program developed by Vincent Carbone is based on B. F. Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior and the research of Sundberg and Partington (http://www .drcarbone.net). Carbone stresses the importance of teaching communication skills to children with autism and other developmental disabilities. The program relies on the use of behavioral language assessments, using the most effective form of communication for each child, such as sign language, vocalizing/verbalizing, or Picture Exchange Communications System (PECS), and selecting the communication responses and supporting skills that need to be taught first. The program uses many of the same methods and goals as traditional ABA therapy; it specifically focuses on the communicative functions of language and includes the use of naturalistic teaching when possible.

The Pivotal-Response Model The pivotal-response model at the University of California at Santa Barbara is another program with roots in ABA, including discrete trial instruction. In recent years, the program has moved toward the use of naturalistic behavioral interventions. The program is designed to promote change in certain pivotal skills areas, such as responding to social cues and initiating interaction, which would permit children with autism to function in inclusive settings. Services include center-based individual instruction, one-on-one teaching in the home, and concurrent participation in special education.

The Walden School Emory University’s Walden School, run by Gail McGee, is a program with a long and well-respected history, reliance on empirical data supporting claims of behavior change, and a focus on integration with typical peers in an early-intervention program. Although the program is based upon behavioral research, it does not use highly structured behavioral teaching. Instead, intervention focuses on incidental teaching, using highly motivating objects and activities in a typical preschool environment and routine.

Learning Experiences: An Alternative Program (LEAP) LEAP is an early-intervention program designed for 3- to 5-year-old children. The program originated at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, at the University of Pittsburgh, but is currently based at the University of Colorado School of Education. The program consists of an integrated preschool; a program that teaches parents about behavioral skills training; national outreach training activities, such as social skills training and the development of individual educational plans; and ongoing research on instructional practices (Gresham et al., 1999). The program was pioneered by Phil Strain and blends a behavioral approach with developmentally appropriate practices. LEAP was a pioneer in the inclusion of young children with autism in classrooms with typically developing children and in the use of peer-mediated social skills training. The Denver Health Sciences Center Program (DHSCP) DHSCP was initiated in 1981 at the University of Colorado by Rogers and colleagues (Rogers, 1998). DHSCP is based on the principles of Piagetian theory and focuses heavily on play as a primary vehicle for learning in early childhood. Services are provided in the home and in preschool settings with typically developing peers. Developmental Intervention Program The Developmental Intervention Program at George Washington School of Medicine was developed by child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan. The model is based on the view that children with autism suffer a variety of processing problems that prevent them from fully learning from and adapting to their environments. Intervention includes a variety of individual therapies, including occupational therapy, and early education services, as well as intensive interactive play sessions. These sessions, called “floortime,” are designed to encourage children to find greater pleasure in social interaction and communication. The child’s caregivers (typically the parents) spend time following the lead of the child and joining preferred activities, instead of trying to engage the child in

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activities initiated by the caregiver. Once reciprocal interactive patterns are established surrounding a preferred activity, the caregiver begins to deviate slightly from the expected sequence, challenging the child to elaborate and expand his or her interactive skills. As the child progresses, caregivers begin to describe situations to the child before they occur in order to help the child learn to anticipate what comes next. This explicit modeling and rehearsing allows the child to learn about and prepare for social situations. Some of the outcomes of floortime include increased affect cueing and increased enjoyment in interactive play. Greenspan (1999) notes that floortime is a starting place for working with children who have pervasive developmental disorders and that as communication skills increase, there may be a need for more structured approaches to teach more complex skills. For more information on the floortime approach, go to http://www.stanleygreenspan.com/. The Division for the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication-Handicapped Children (Division TEACCH) Division TEACCH was founded in 1972 by Eric Schopler and has become one of the best-known treatment programs in the country. It is located in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently directed by Gary Mesibov. The TEACCH approach emphasizes individual assessment, leading to a better understanding of each individual’s skills, interests, and needs in order to help that person achieve his or her specific level of independence. The TEACCH program uses a variety of intervention strategies, including structured teaching, behavioral techniques, and naturalistic procedures. In addition, Division TEACCH has developed a variety of practices that are commonly used in teaching children with autism, including organizing the physical environment, using visual materials to teach new skills, developing work systems and schedules, and making all expectations clear and explicit. The goal is to encourage people with autism to work independently in a variety of settings without direct supervision and cueing, and to develop play and leisure skills, including social communication. Independence is emphasized throughout every facet and stage of life. This approach can be used not only in the classroom

but also in living and employment situations, regardless of the age and functioning of the individual. The TEACCH approach is most successfully realized when implemented at the systems level with a coordinated effort in every area of the individual’s life. It is not something that is “done” for 20 to 30 hours per week, but is more a way of viewing and living with autism. Studies suggest that the TEACCH method helps decrease inappropriate behaviors, such as selfinjurious behavior, aggression, and tantrumming, while increasing the reported quality of life for those involved in the program. For more information on Division TEACCH, go to http://www.teacch.com/. LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS Speech and language are delayed or absent in most children with autism and in some children with pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). Most treatment programs for children with autism include some form of speech and language therapy as part of a comprehensive program. Children who begin treatment that focuses on language development before the age of 5 generally have a better prognosis than children who begin later or who do not receive language-based therapy at all. There are several different approaches to speech and language therapy for children with autism. The most common and effective programs are those with a behavioral focus that teach language in social and natural settings. One of the most commonly used communication interventions for children with autism is the Picture Exchange Communications System (PECS), designed by Frost and Bondy in the early 1990s. PECS is a pictorial system that uses behavioral techniques to teach functional communication to children with autism. The PECS system includes six phases, beginning with teaching the child to hand a picture card of a highly reinforcing item to an adult in order to receive the item. As children progress through the PECS training, they are able to identify and use many cards, which are then stored in a binder. When the child would like something, he or she is taught to get the binder, find the picture of the item, and hand it to an adult. Over time, the child is taught to use sentence cards (e.g., “I want”) and respond to others’ questions using PECS cards. Children who use PECS show increases in verbal communication, spontaneous communication, socialization, and eye contact (Frost & Bondy, 1994;

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Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le, LeBlanc, & Kellet, 2002). The use of PECS is frequently incorporated into both intensive behavioral approaches and developmental models. This program would not be appropriate for a child who is already quite verbal, since it is designed to help the child grasp the value of communication and that one thing can represent another. Recently, there have been numerous advances in the ability to use computers to help children with autism learn to communicate. Several different computer programs, such as Alpha Interactive Language Series/Gator Super Sentences and IBM SpeechViewer are available to aid in reading, writing, and spontaneous speech. These programs use video clips or computer graphics as reinforcements for creating words or sentences on the computer. Evidence indicates that many children with autism benefit from using these programs (e.g., Bernard-Opitz, Sriram, & Sapuan, 1999; Heimann, Nelson, Tjus, & Gillberg, 1995). CONCLUSIONS The array of treatment approaches available for teaching children with autism can be bewildering to parents of a child newly diagnosed. At the same time, the variability in approaches affords parents choices about which treatment or combination of treatments is most helpful for a particular child. While experts may disagree regarding theoretical models, there is considerable agreement regarding essential characteristics of effective treatment programs. The National Research Council recently surveyed a variety of treatment programs serving children with autism and identified the following characteristics of successful programs: Intervention should begin as early as possible, preferably before age 3. Services must be intensive. Lovaas and his colleagues recommend at least 40 hours of direct instruction weekly; other researchers suggest between 20 and 40 hours, supplemented by parental efforts in the home. Treatment should be provided on a year-round basis, for a minimum of 2 years. Staff must be well trained, with specialized expertise in autism, and families should be highly involved in their children’s treatment programs. There must be ongoing, objective measurement of progress and a curriculum that provides for systematic teaching of communication skills, social interaction, cognitive skills, and self-help skills. Services may be provided in a variety of settings, but the environments must include high levels of physical and staffing support. Services must be individualized,

and they should center on research-based teaching procedures, including plans for generalization of skills. Finally, transitions from one program to another must be carefully planned and well supported (National Research Council, 2001). Even if all these conditions are met, some children will progress faster than others, and programs will have to be adjusted often to provide new goals and address new behaviors. If a child is not making discernible progress within 3 to 6 months of starting treatment, parents should request a review of their child’s program so that services can be tailored to the needs of their child. —Pamela Dixon, Jamie Kleinman, Juhi Pandey, Elizabeth Kelley, Marianne Barton, and Deborah Fein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bernard-Opitz, V., Sriram, N., & Sapuan, N. (1999). Enhancing vocal imitation in children with autism using the IBM SpeechViewer. Autism, 3, 131–147. Charlop-Christy, M. H., Carpenter, M., Le, L., LeBlanc, L. A., & Kellet, K. (2002). Using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) with children with autism: Assessment of PECS acquisition, speech, social-communicative behavior, and problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 35, 213–231. Frost, L. A., & Bondy, A. S. (1994). The Picture Exchange Communication System training manual. Cherry Hill, NJ: Pyramid Educational Consultants. Green, G. (1996). Early behavioral intervention for autism. In C. Maurice, G. Green, & S. C. Luce (Eds.), Behavioral intervention for young children with autism: A manual for parents and professionals (pp. 31–32). Austin, TX: Pro-ed. Green, G., Brennan, L. C., & Fein, D. (2002). Intensive behavioral treatment for a toddler at high risk for autism. Behavior Modification, 26, 69–102. Greenspan, S. I. (1999). Alternative to behaviorism. Available at AUTCOM Web site, http://www.autcom.org/behaviorism .html Gresham, F. M., Beebe-Frankenberger, M. E., & MacMillan, D. L. (1999). A selective review of treatment for children with autism: Description and methodological considerations. School Psychology Review, 28, 559–575. Harris, S. L., & Weiss, M. J. (Eds.). (1998). Right from the start: Behavioral intervention for young children with autism: A guide for parents and professionals. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House. Heimann, M., Nelson, K. E., Tjus, T., & Gillberg, C. (1995). Increasing reading and communication skills in children with autism through an interactive multimedia computer program. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 25, 459–474. Lovaas, I. O., & Buch, G. (1997). Intensive behavioral treatment for young children with autism. In N. N. Singh (Ed.),

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Prevention and treatment of severe behavior problems: Models and methods in developmental disabilities (pp. 61–86). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. National Research Council. Committee on Educational Interventions for Children With Autism. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. (2001). Educating children with autism. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Rogers, S. (1998). Empirically supported comprehensive treatments for young children with autism. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, 243–246. Simpson, R. L., & Myles, B. S. (1995). Effectiveness of facilitated communication with children and youth with autism. Journal of Special Education, 28, 424–439.

AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS The terms autistic spectrum disorders and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) are synonyms that serve as an umbrella for a wide range of cognitive and neurobehavioral developmental disorders. Individuals on the autistic spectrum show similar qualitative impairments in (a) verbal and nonverbal communication, (b) social interactions, and (c) stereotyped and repetitive behaviors or interest (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994). The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (APA, 1994) includes five possible diagnoses under the PDD umbrella, all of which are concordant with the latest (10th) International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) (Filipek et al., 1999). The five possible autistic spectrum disorder diagnoses are autistic disorder (i.e., “classic” autism); Asperger disorder (i.e., Asperger’s syndrome); childhood disintegrative disorder; Rett disorder; and pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) including atypical autism (APA, 1994). Over the past two decades, there has been an intense focus on autistic spectrum disorders, and understanding of these disorders has improved greatly. However, almost all autistic spectrum disorders are still a mystery, and the exact cause or causes of these disorders are still unknown. While there are many theories on what causes autistic disorders, most research is focused primarily on genetic causes, with some research also looking at other factors, such as neurological, infectious, metabolic, immunologic, and environmental ones (Filipek et al., 1999).

Medical genetics strongly suggests that genetic heterogeneity is to be expected in autism since there are numerous examples of different genetic abnormalities all leading to what appears to be the same clinical picture (Rutter, Bailey, Simonoff, & Pickles, 1997). PREVALENCE Prevalence of autistic spectrum disorders has grown in the past two decades. These higher rates are mostly attributed to the changes in how professionals define and diagnose autism and to an increased awareness of its expression in both severely cognitively impaired and more cognitively capable individuals. However, the exact number of autistic spectrum disorder cases is not known, because of changes in what is considered an autistic spectrum disorder, how autistic spectrum disorders are diagnosed, and how autism cases are reported (Filipek et al., 1999). Moreover, prevalence of PDD-NOS and Asperger’s syndrome is still unknown. Currently, prevalence rates in the United States range from 1 in 500 cases to 1 in 1,000 cases, and reports show that autistic spectrum disorders occur in all racial, ethnic, and social groups (Bryson, 1997; Filipek et al., 1999). Traditionally, statistics have shown that boys are 3 to 4 times more likely to be affected by autism than girls; however, the ratio seems to vary with IQ. Research implies that individuals with either very low or very high IQs should on average be less severely autistic. In addition, there is a 2% rate of autism occurrences in siblings (Bryson, 1997; Filipek et al., 1999). DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA The symptoms of autism vary in both occurrence and severity, which makes diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders difficult. It is important to understand that the criteria for all autistic spectrum disorders include qualitative impairments and not absolute lack of ability in a specific developmental area. Following are explanations and descriptions of diagnostic criteria for each of the five autistic spectrum disorders. Autistic disorder, or “classic” autism, is a developmental disorder that affects an individual’s ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to the environment. According to the DSM-IV (APA, 1994), the general symptoms for autistic disorder include qualitative impairment in social interaction (at least two from this group of

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impairments); qualitative impairment in communication (at least one from this group); and restricted, repetitive, and stereotypic patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities (at least one from this group). Furthermore, criteria include delays or abnormal functioning (with onset before age 3) in social interaction, language used as social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play. The symptoms should not be better described with Rett syndrome or childhood disintegrative disorder. The symptoms of autism are usually measurable by 18 months of age, although parents and experts can usually detect symptoms earlier. Formal diagnoses can be made by age 2 but are usually made between age 2 and 3, when the child starts showing delays in language development (Filipek et al., 1999). Experts propose following five absolute indications that require immediate evaluation for autism: (1) no babbling by 12 months; (2) no gesturing (pointing, waving bye-bye, etc.) by 12 months; (3) no single words by 16 months; (4) no two-word spontaneous (not just echolalic) phrases by 24 months; and (5) any loss of any language or social skills at any age (Filipek et al., 1999). Experts report additional parental concerns that count as red flags for autism: communication concerns (e.g., does not respond to his/her name, does not follow directions, appears deaf at times), social concerns (e.g., does not smile socially, is very independent, has poor eye contact, is not interested in other children), and behavioral concerns (e.g., has tantrums, is hyperactive/uncooperative or oppositional, lines things up, has odd movement patterns) (Filipek et al., 1999). Asperger disorder is a developmental disorder that severely disables individuals’ capacity for socialization despite their desire to establish relationships. The diagnostic criteria for the qualitative impairments in social interaction and restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviors and activities are identical to those for autistic disorder. However, in contrast to autistic disorder, individuals with Asperger disorder do not have any clinically significant general delay in language. Furthermore, there is no significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of ageappropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood, and the individual does not meet the criteria for another pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia (APA, 1994). Even though individuals with Asperger disorder don’t have any evidence of “clinically significant” language delay, their

language is clearly not typical or normal. They usually have pedantic and poorly modulated speech, poor nonverbal communication skills, and intense preoccupations with specific topics such as the weather or railway timetables (Filipek et al., 1999). Generally, individuals with Asperger disorder have significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. In the past, some of these individuals have been mislabeled as having semanticpragmatic language disorder or an attention deficit disorder, but the majority of them have not had a prior diagnosis of autism (Attwood & Wing, 1998; Filipek et al., 1999). Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a very well-described disorder but is still infrequently reported and poorly understood. This classification describes children who have normal early development until at least the age of 24 months and afterward show a rapid neurodevelopmental regression that results most often in autistic symptomatology (Filipek et al., 1999). The symptomatology includes the loss of previously normal language, social, play, or motor skills and frequently the onset of restrictive repetitive behaviors, which is typical of autism. The difference from a typical autistic disorder is not only in later occurrence of autistic symptomatology (CDD usually occurs between 26 and 48 months of age but may occur up to 10 years of age) but also in the autistic symptoms that are more severe, including mental retardation due to profound loss of cognitive skills. Until a decade ago, children with this symptomatology were diagnosed as having Heller’s syndrome, dementia infantilis, or disintegrative psychosis. To date, reports on CDD show a 4-to-1 male-female ratio (Filipek et al., 1999). Rett syndrome is a neurodegenerative disorder, and its range of severity has just recently been discovered to be wider than was originally thought, ranging from mild learning disability to lethal neonatal degenerative disease of the brain. Previously, Rett syndrome was recognized only in females, but recently, after a gene for Rett syndrome was identified, it became clear that there are males with this syndrome but they are less likely to survive (Kerr, 2001). Individuals with Rett syndrome develop normally until 6 to 18 months of age, when they start to manifest Rett syndrome symptomatology. At first, their development starts to regress, followed by deceleration of head growth, loss of purposeful hand movements, and appearance of stereotypic hand movements. In addition, there is a

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loss of social engagement and severely impaired receptive and expressive language development and cognitive skills. It is common for children with Rett syndrome to have abnormal EEGs and even epilepsy (Filipek et al., 1999; Kerr, 2001). Pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD–NOS) or atypical autism are given as diagnoses when there is a significant autistic symptomatology, including deficits in reciprocal social interactions, verbal or nonverbal communication, or stereotyped behavior, interests, and activities, but full criteria are not met for a specific diagnosis of any other autistic spectrum disorder. This diagnosis is usually given to children whose symptoms are atypical or not as severe (APA, 1994; Filipek et al., 1999). OUTCOMES Even though there has been a great improvement in classification of conditions that appear to fall within the broad class of pervasive developmental disorders, still, many individuals with these conditions are inaccurately diagnosed or remain undiagnosed. The increased prevalence rates of PDD support the need for improving early screening and diagnosis. Studies in the past 15 years have shown that children who are diagnosed on time and who receive intense early intervention services in optimal educational settings during the preschool years for at least 2 years show improved outcomes, including speech, developmental progress, and intellectual performance (Filipek et al.,

1999). Therefore, it is important to note that if individuals with autistic spectrum disorder are early identified, they can be referred for full diagnostic assessment and needed interventions, which greatly increases a chance of improving skills in the range of their own capacities. —Helena Jelicic

See also DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Attwood, T., & Wing, L. (1998). Asperger’s syndrome. A guide for parents and professionals. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley. Bryson, S. E. (1997). Epidemiology of autism: Overview and issues outstanding. In D. J. Cohen & F. R. Volkmar (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Filipek, P. A., Accardo, P. J., Baranek, G. T., Cook, E. H., Jr., Dawson, G., Gordon, B., et al. (1999). The screening and diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29(6), 439–484. Kerr, A. M. (2001). Recent developments in Rett syndrome research. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 14(5), 437–442. Rutter, M., Bailey, A., Simonoff, E., & Pickles, A. (1997). Genetic influences and autism. In D. J. Cohen & F. R. Volkmar (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

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B person is asked why he or she is carrying an umbrella while it is raining, they may well answer, “To keep from getting wet”—a functional consequence that strengthens carrying umbrellas. However, if people are asked why they attend parties, they may say because they enjoy them; or more psychologically minded people might reply because they are extraverted. These explanations of behavior refer to internal states rather than to consequences and leave one to wonder what caused the person to enjoy parties or how extraversion develops. Behaviorists seek direct explanations by considering the functional consequences of behavior to be a sufficient explanation. Consequences that follow the behavior to be explained and that increase the probability of that behavior recurring in similar circumstances are termed positive reinforcers. The term reinforce always means to strengthen. Both physical and social consequences are termed stimuli to distinguish them from the behavior of the target person. The individual in question perceives or experiences physical and social consequences through the stimulation of sensory organs; hence the term stimuli. The offset of some stimuli strengthen behavior, and they are termed negative reinforcers because they also increase the probability of similar behavior under similar circumstances in the future. Nagging is a good example. The offset of nagging will negatively reinforce whatever behavior caused the nagging to stop. The matching law states that the frequency with which behavior is emitted (choices are made) is directly proportional to the frequency with which reinforcement follows that behavior.

BEHAVIOR THEORY Science is concerned with explanation as well as with prediction and control. Theories are explanatory efforts. But what must one do to explain behavior? Psychologists are not in agreement about what constitutes an informative, useful, or complete explanation of behavior. Differences regarding what constitutes a “cause” and the extent to which reductionism, the search for causes at a more basic level and usually in another branch of science, is acceptable is but one example. Rychlak (1981) discusses these issues and shows how theories of personality divide roughly into three groups: those that subscribe to the views of the philosopher Emanuel Kant (cognitive and existentialists), those that subscribe to the views of the philosopher John Locke (behaviorists), and those that subscribe to a mixture of these two views (Freudians). Psychologists also interpret the term behavior differently. Radical behaviorists understand behavior to be, and only be, that which can be recorded by a video camera. Cognitive psychologists consider behavior to include perceiving, thinking, and remembering. CLASSICAL OPERANT AND RESPONDENT CONDITIONING Behavior theory once meant explaining behavior in terms of principles of operant and respondent conditioning versus teleological explanations based on goals, drives, and decisions made by the person. If a

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Operants The term operant stems from the view that the behavior of people and animals operate upon their physical and social environment to produce changes. If behavior did not create change, then it would be ineffective and pointless. Operants are theoretical distributions of behavior. For example, one does not always shake hands the same way. Handshakes are more or less firm and last a variable amount of time. A rat does not press a bar to obtain food always the same way. Sometimes the bar is pressed more firmly and is held down for a longer duration than other times. Variation appears to be a universal and important characteristic of behavior. Variation enables behavior to be adaptive and appears to be unavoidable. New behaviors can be shaped by selectively reinforcing certain behavioral variations. For example, people can be shaped to have more assertive and even aggressive greeting behaviors, just as rats can be shaped to press a bar more vigorously. Skinner and Darwin B. F. Skinner explained the origin and extinction of behavior using the twin principles of variation and selection (reinforcement) in a way that parallels Charles Darwin’s use of variation and natural selection to explain the origin and extinction of behavior (Tryon, 1993b, 2002). One might think that Skinner’s explanation would therefore be as widely accepted as Darwin’s, given the strong parallels between both explanations. Actually, Skinner’s explanation today is as about as popular as Darwin’s explanation was, among scientists, when he first published it in 1859. It remains little known that biologists largely rejected Darwin’s explanation on the basis that it was a functional account that lacked plausible causal mechanisms for how variation was instantiated and for how natural selection occurred. The field of genetics did not yet exist. Darwin’s functional theory drifted into relative obscurity for approximately 75 years, until the new field of population genetics provided the necessary causal mechanisms. Skinner’s behavior theory is also a functional explanation that lacks a plausible proximal causal mechanism for how behavioral variation is instantiated and for how reinforcement, selection, works. It too was developed in the absence of plausible causal mediating mechanisms and has been discounted by psychologists to approximately the

same degree and for the same reason that biologists initially discounted Darwin’s theory. BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING THEORY A great deal of empirical evidence indicates that a large part of human behavior is learned. Cumulative learning requires some form of retention or longterm memory. Learning was once an area of vigorous research for experimental psychologists. Behavior theory was, and perhaps still is, largely equated with learning theory. Textbooks on learning mainly review experiments that reveal the necessary and sufficient conditions under which learning takes place. Hence, learning theories mainly make functional statements. Explanations of why these, and not other, conditions are necessary and sufficient for learning to occur are not provided. Radical Behaviorism Radical behaviorists have criticized the concept of learning as unscientific on the basis that its definition is circular. Learning is an inference based on observed behavior change, and therefore learning cannot be used to explain that behavior change. For example, one may first observe that a child cannot ride a bicycle and subsequently observe that they can ride a bicycle and infer that the child learned to ride a bicycle during the intervening time. If asked to explain the child’s development, it will not do to say that the child learned how to ride a bicycle, because the learning inference is based on the same behavior change that is to be explained. More correctly, this learning explanation is a redescription of the behavior change that is to be explained. No part of what is to be explained can be part of the explanation, for the same reason that one cannot use the word to be defined as part of its definition. Explanations must make reference to events that are independently certified by observations and/or measurements that are not part of the events to be explained. Psychologists frequently engage in circular explanations. Two additional examples will suffice. A child is observed throwing a tantrum. One possible explanation is that the child is insecure. But what evidence supports this explanation? If that evidence is that the child is throwing a tantrum, then the explanation is circular, constitutes a redescription, and is fatally flawed. Someone is misbehaving in a strange way.

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One possible explanation is that the child has a mental illness. But what evidence supports this explanation? If that evidence is that the person is behaving strangely, then the explanation is circular, constitutes a redescription, and is fatally flawed. Children are said to have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and adults are said to have personality disorder as means of explaining abnormal behavior. The crux of the explanatory issue is the extent to which causal evidence is independent of what is to be explained. NEW THEORIES ON “WHAT” IS LEARNED The difficulty of obtaining information about the learning process that is independent from the behavior to be explained via learning was one among other reasons why psychologists turned from studying learning to presuming that learning occurs and focusing their attention on what was learned and when, that is, during childhood or later life. Cognitive psychologists developed theories about how we process information that included a large set of psychological constructs. Developmental psychologists inquired about how information processing changes throughout the life span. The field of animal cognition came into being. Schemas were said to be cognitive structures that governed (explained) our behavior, and various functional attributes were assigned to schemas. Schemas were described as scripts that directed (explained) our behavior. For example, a restaurant schema was said to govern how we behave in restaurants. Maladaptive schemas were said to develop early in life and to explain many of the psychological disorders found in adults. The full range of psychological theorization could now be called behavior theory. Network Theories Some psychologists used what can be called informal network theory to avoid the limitations of stimulus-response (S-R) psychology, long associated with behavior theory. They modeled cognition by using interconnected nodes to represent thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Learning was understood as the ability of experience to change the connection strength among these network nodes. However, these networks were entirely hypothetical and completely inferred from the behavior to be explained and therefore were fatally flawed circular redescriptions, but were widely accepted nonetheless.

Other psychologists sought to examine the “microstructure of cognition” in an effort to identify underlying causal mechanisms of action. They used what can be called formal network theory that defined a neural architecture and developed mathematical equations to change the connection strength between network nodes. Their work was partly inspired by, and based on, writings of the psychologist Donald Hebb (1949). PDP-CNN The Parallel Distributed Processing Connectionist Neural Network (PDP-CNN) version of connectionism promises to provide Skinner’s theory with the missing mechanism information in the same way that population genetics provided Darwin’s theory with missing mechanism information. The field of physiological psychology was incorporated into a multidisciplinary neuroscience that included biologists and neurochemists. Some investigators studied how simple marine animals learn. They analyzed the biochemical changes associated with classical conditioning in sea slugs, whose relatively simple anatomy and physiology permitted detailed study. They confirmed Hebb’s (1949) speculations that the synapses connecting neurons change during classical conditioning (Kandel, 1991; Krasne, 2002). The formal network theorists incorporated these findings into PDP-CNN models of cognition and memory. Rumelhart and McClelland (1986) published a seminal two-volume work in this area. Donahoe and Palmer (1989) described how this approach is theoretically consistent with radical behaviorism, as did Donahoe and Dorsel (1997). All major classical and operant conditioning phenomena can now be simulated and thereby understood from this perspective. This connectionist approach has been productively extended to the full range of cognitive psychology (e.g., McLeod, Plunkett, & Rolls, 1998). A substantial amount of PDP-CNN research has now been conducted in all areas of psychology covered by chapters in introductory psychology texts. Tryon (2002) argued that this form of connectionism provides the required plausible proximal causal mechanisms for Skinner’s ontogenetic evolutionary explanation of behavior. CONCLUSIONS In sum, behavior theory has undergone substantial growth and development over the past 20 years.

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Behavior theory once was limited to functional relationships regarding environment-behavior (S-R) relationships and now includes brain-behavior mechanisms underlying thoughts and feelings as well as actions in a developmental way. The PDP-CNN form of connectionism provides psychologists with the same set of causal explanations used by some neuroscientists, thereby substantially advancing theoretical unification in our understanding of mind-body phenomena (Tryon, 1993a). This advance defines learning in terms of synaptic change and thereby avoids prior circular definitions. The full range of psychological phenomena is understood as emergent phenomena based on network functions. Connectionist network theory explains the relationship between structure and function and accounts for stability and change throughout development. The current network state explains the next behavioral response, but the ways in which that experience alters synaptic function explain how networks change and develop over time. PDP-CNNs are trained rather than programmed. This makes connectionism inherently developmental, thereby fully absorbing the field of developmental psychology and thereby further advancing theoretical unification. —Warren W. Tryon

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Donahoe, J. W., & Dorsel, V. P. (Eds.). (1997). Neural-network models of cognition: Biobehavioral foundations. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Donahoe, J. W., & Palmer, D. C. (1989). The interpretation of complex human behavior: Some reactions to parallel distributed processing, edited by J. L. McClelland, D. E. Rumelhart, and the PDP Research Group. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 51, 399–416. Hebb, D. O. (1949). The organization of behavior. New York: Wiley. Kandel, E. R. (1991). Cellular mechanisms of learning and the biological basis of individuality. In E. R. Kandel, J. H. Schwartz, & T. M. Jessell (Eds.), Principles of neural science (pp. 1009–1031). Norwalk, CT: Appleton & Lange. Krasne, F. (2002). Neural analysis of learning in simple systems. In H. Pashler & R. Gallistel (Eds.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology: Vol. 3. Learning, motivation, and emotion (3rd ed., pp. 131–200). New York: Wiley. McLeod, P., Plunkett, K., & Rolls, E. T. (1998). Introduction to connectionist modelling of cognitive processes. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rumelhart, D. E., & McClelland, J. L. (Eds.). (1986). Parallel distributed processing. Vols. 1 and 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Rychlak, J. F. (1981). A philosophy of science for personality theory (2nd ed.). Melbourne, FL: Krieger. Tryon, W. W. (1993a). Neural networks: I. Theoretical unification through connectionism. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 341–352. Tryon, W. W. (1993b). Neural networks: II. Unified learning theory and behavioral psychotherapy. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 353–371. Tryon, W. W. (2002). Expanding the explanatory base of behavior analysis via modern connectionism: Selectionism as a common explanatory core. The Behavior Analyst Today, 3, 104–118.

BENSON, PETER L. In a scholarly world that values dispassionate specialization, Peter L. Benson has persistently pursued a broad quest for understanding—and influencing—the individual, family, community, and social forces that shape young people’s lives, beliefs, values, and commitments. Undaunted by those who insist on methodological purity, he has embraced multiple ways of learning, knowing, and teaching. In a time when policymakers and academic leaders advocate for “proven programs” to address risks and deficits in the lives of young people, Benson articulates a vision and strategies for broad community innovation based on building strengths or developmental assets. Benson’s international reputation in applied developmental science emerged in the 1990s through his innovative, research-based framework of developmental assets and the accompanying vision of multifaceted, community-based change. Yet his approach and the themes in his work emerged much earlier, beginning in his family of origin. Born on May 2, 1946, in Duluth, Minnesota, to John and Dorothy Benson, Peter spent his childhood and adolescence watching his father, a Lutheran pastor, and mother, a homemaker, model social concern and action during the turbulent 1950s and 1960s. He recounts stories of his father giving calling cards to homeless people who came to the parsonage asking for help. With that card, they could go to a local restaurant for a meal, and the restaurant would bill the pastor. No one was ever turned down. Peter also remembers his father mobilizing fellow clergy to get

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involved in the cause of civil rights, including actively registering African Americans to vote. The Benson family moved every 5 years or so throughout Peter’s childhood, following John’s pastoral assignments. After Duluth, they lived in Salina, Kansas; Chicago; Joliet, Illinois; and Rockford, Illinois, where Peter graduated from high school before attending Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. There his integrative thinking and penchant for scholarship began to emerge, as he earned a double major in psychology and religion and became intrigued with many other disciplines, including anthropology, biology, ethics, and sociology. He also became active in campus antiwar protests, which became formative in his ongoing attention to social change and social movements. Upon college graduation in 1968, Benson and his fiancée, Tunie Munson, an aspiring writer and social activist, moved to the New York City area and then married a year later. He attended Yale University, where he earned an MA in psychology of religion (1970), studying under James E. Dittes, who became a lifelong mentor. After completing his Yale degree, Benson and Munson-Benson moved to Denver, where he studied at the University of Denver under Bernard Spilka. He earned another MA (1972) and a PhD (1973) in experimental social psychology, with a concentration in child development. His dissertation focused on the development of altruism, establishing a lifelong interest in how the inner life forms and shapes behavior. His first full-time position was as an assistant professor of psychology at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti (1973–1975). The themes of his work truly began to emerge, however, when he moved in 1975 to Earlham College, a Quaker school in Richmond, Indiana, with a deep commitment to social justice and change. He was first an assistant professor of psychology, but became the department chair a year later. In 1977, Benson became the founding cochair of the Program in Human Development and Social Relations, an interdisciplinary major in anthropology, biology, ethics, psychology, and sociology that became the school’s most popular major. Among other features, the program required that no professor could lecture in her or his own discipline; rather, they were to model ongoing scholarship by teaching in other fields. The next important transition occurred when, in 1978, Benson accepted the persistent invitation of Merton P. Strommen, then president of Search

Institute, to become a research scientist (and then, in 1983, director of research) for the Minneapolis-based organization. Benson’s early work for the institute focused on the connections between the beliefs and values of members of Congress and their voting records. He led a groundbreaking study of young adolescents and their parents—research that became formative in the development of early adolescence as a bona fide area of inquiry and practice. In 1985, with Strommen’s retirement, Benson became Search Institute’s president. By then, much of the institute’s work focused on evaluations of prevention programs (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; premature sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and violence). Benson was struck by the consistent and persistent challenge that emerged in these evaluations: regardless of initial effectiveness of an intervention, that effect wore off because young people went back to the families, institutions, and communities that had raised them. He was also intrigued that the only factors being measured consistently were problem or deficit oriented. In response, Benson developed in 1989 a new survey instrument, Search Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors (A&B), that not only examined the larger context of young people’s lives and their positive experiences; it was also designed primarily as a tool to catalyze community visioning and social change. At the core of the survey were what came to be called developmental assets, or building blocks of healthy development, which became one of Benson’s most important contributions to the field to date. The framework integrates several important themes in Benson’s work: • The framework builds on the works of scholars in many areas, including child and adolescent development, psychology, sociology, prevention, resiliency, youth development, and health promotion. In addition, it draws on the wisdom and perspectives of leaders, citizens, and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. This integrative, dynamic approach has been vital in helping a wide range of communities see their own wisdom in the framework. • The framework highlights the importance of the inner life and the intersection of person and society by balancing external assets (strengths and resources provided by family and community) and internal assets (individual commitments, values, competencies, and identity).

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• It intentionally names many aspects of family and community life as influencing and shaping healthy development. In this regard, it seeks to create a shared language of the common good around which people can unite across ideological, cultural, religious, economic, and other differences. • It seeks to incorporate quality social science while also communicating to the public a sense of shared responsibility and capacity. • The framework reflects Benson’s belief that social scientists need to be more than mere observers of what is. Rather, he believes, they have a responsibility to articulate what could or ought to be, then to trigger inquiry and practice on how to close the gap between the real and ideal. Thus, the asset framework and its interpretation starts with a vision of what children and adolescents need, shows current realities, and offers ideas and encouragement for closing the gap. As communities and schools began using the survey to gain a portrait of developmental assets among their young people, the research had its intended effect: to propel people and institutions toward positive action and change. Soon, Benson and his colleagues were delivering hundreds of presentations annually in schools and communities. In addition, Benson began collaborating with community leaders in developing grassroots, community-wide change strategies. Designed to emulate social movements more than formal programs, these initiatives called for all individuals, organizations, and communities to rediscover and unleash their latent capacity to contribute to young people’s healthy development. Rather than using policy-oriented strategies that involved convincing gatekeepers and power brokers to adopt new ideas, Benson and his colleagues sought to tap and unleash the passions, wisdom, and commitments of “asset champions” to claim, shape, and advance the vision of asset-rich communities. This approach led to the innovative, though often difficult, task of valuing both scientific knowledge and community wisdom. By the late 1990s, Benson’s work began gaining acceptance in the academy, among policymakers, and with social change activists across North America. In the policy arena, Benson’s work became foundational for the 1997 Presidents’ Summit for the Future, which involved all living U.S. presidents in a joint call to concern for children’s healthy development. That

event birthed America’s Promise: The Alliance for Youth, initially led by Colin Powell, of which Benson became a board member. In 2002, the influential report issued by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, utilized the concept of developmental assets as a major organizing framework for making its program and policy recommendations. Many federal, state, and municipal initiatives ground their work in the concepts of developmental assets and asset-building community. In the academic arena, Benson and his colleagues began gaining acceptance through their publications on developmental assets in peer-reviewed journals and reference works. In addition, a symposium was convened at the 2000 meeting of the American Psychological Association that focused on developmental assets, and the papers were later published. He also became a visiting scholar (2001–2003) at the William T. Grant Foundation. In recognition of these contributions, Benson was named in 2002 an International Fellow in Applied Developmental Science by Tufts University for “career achievements in positive youth development.” From Benson’s own perspective, however, his most lasting and important achievement will likely be in the arena of social change and practice. At the time of this writing, more than 500 communities across North America have launched grassroots, movementoriented efforts to build development assets with and for children and adolescents. Multiple states have formed umbrella initiatives, and several national civic, educational, religious, and service organizations have adopted Benson’s approaches as guiding lenses for their community-building and youth development efforts. Most notable, the YMCA of the USA and YMCA Canada have adopted asset building as a major national priority so that those far-reaching networks will not only be reshaped by this work, but they will also influence other individuals and systems in their communities and networks. Benson’s ability to maintain intellectual and scientific rigor, when needed, while also communicating clearly and passionately with laypeople, youth, and professionals make him a unique voice in applied developmental science. In some settings, he has almost celebrity status, with his two grown children, Liv and Kai, sometimes calling him their “rock star dad.” Yet Benson maintains his commitment to quality social science research, believing that it is an

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important tool for understanding—and improving— society so that children and adolescents from all cultures and backgrounds are valued and have the opportunity to thrive. —Eugene C. Roehlkepartain

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. L. (1990). The troubled journey: A portrait of 6th–12th grade youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Benson, P. L. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Benson, P. L., Galbraith, J., & Espeland, P. (1998). What kids need to succeed (Rev ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit. Benson, P. L., & Leffert, N. (2001). Developmental assets in childhood and adolescence. In N. J. Smelser & P. G. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 1690–1697). Oxford: Elsevier. Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., & Mannes, M. (2003). Developmental strengths and their sources: Implications for the study and practice of community building. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Vol. 1. Applying developmental science for youth and families (pp. 369–406). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Benson, P. L., & Williams, D. L. (1982). Religion on Capitol Hill: Myths and realities. San Francisco: Harper & Row. Eccles, J., & Gootman, J. A. (Eds.). (2002). Community programs to promote youth development: Implications for research, practice, and policy. Washington, DC: National Academies. Lerner, R. M., & Benson, P. L. (Eds.). (2002). Developmental assets and asset-building communities: Implications for research, policy, and practice. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

BILINGUALISM, INTERNATIONAL Bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages fluently. Effectively bilingual persons can switch easily from one language to another and can distinguish the context in which they could use each one (Fantini, 1985). With increased global trading, emigration, and ease of international travel, there is greater need now than before for children as well as adults to learn one or more languages in addition to their national language. Being bilingual is advantageous from both cultural and personal standpoints. Use of one’s native language

allows for intracommunity communication ballast. Mastery of spoken and written English is increasingly essential for international communication, trade, and investment. This is especially crucial for countries dependent on foreign investments. Singapore is one such country; it has a population that is 77% Chinese, 14% Malays, and 7.6% Indians. Its national language is Malay, and it has four official languages: English, Malay, Tamil, and Chinese. English is the most frequently used official language and is the principal language of instruction in school. But all students from primary to preuniversity levels need to take the Mother Tongue (Malay, Chinese, Tamil) as a compulsory curricular subject. Also, most countries in Asia and Southeast Asia have recognized English as an important lingua franca and have included it as a compulsory subject in their school curricula. This is gaining impetus with the wide adoption of information technology in business setups and educational systems. A number of European countries like Luxemburg also practice bilingual and multilingual education. Two international approaches are commonly used to teach a second language effectively. In the immersion approach to second language instruction, students hear and speak the language almost exclusively within the classroom. This method is recommended for children learning a second language in their own country. Total immersion helps students become proficient in a second language quickly, and any adverse effects of the immersion on achievement of either academic subject appear to be temporary (Collier, 1992). Children best learn a second language in their newly adopted country through the bilingual education approach. In this approach, students are instructed in academic subject areas in their native language while simultaneously being taught to speak and write in the second language. Such bilingual education has been found to produce higher overall academic achievement, especially in reading vocabulary and grammar, continuing development of the native language, greater self-esteem, and a better attitude toward schools (Cunningham & Graham, 1997; Wright, Taylor, & Macarthur, 2000). Instruction in a second language also promotes crosscommunication and peer interaction in the classrooms and interpersonal understanding among people with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Reich, 1986). —Agnes Chang Shook Cheong

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Collier, I. (1992). The Canadian Bilingual Immersion Debate: A synthesis of research findings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 87–98. Cunningham, T. H., & Graham, C. R. (1997). Increasing native English vocabulary recognition through Spanish immersion: Cognate transfer from foreign to first language. Paper presented at the annual meeting for the American Educationalist Research Association, Chicago. Fantini, A. E. (1985). Language acquisition of a bilingual child: A socio-linguistic perspective. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Reich, P. A. (1986). Language development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wright, S. C., Taylor, D. M., & Macarthur, J. (2000). Subtractive bilingualism and the survival of the Inuit language: Heritage versus second language education. Journal of Education Psychology, 9(2), 63–84.

BIPOLAR DISORDER Historically known as manic-depressive illness, bipolar disorder (BP) is one of the major psychiatric disorders. It can cause significant disability to individuals and result in devastating effects on their families and communities. NATURE OF DISORDER Prevalence rates are generally believed to be approximately 1% of the U.S. population. Bipolar disorder appears to occur equally in both genders. Onset is typically around 20 years of age, although it can happen throughout the life span. If the onset occurs in advanced age, it more likely has a medical cause. Bipolar disorder is a lifelong illness that is manifested by alternating episodic mood states from mania to depression to normal baseline, although some people will not experience discreet episodes of depression. Without treatment, individuals may experience more than 10 of these episodes, each of which may persist for weeks to months. About one third of individuals with bipolar disorder will have chronic symptoms. With appropriate treatment, the total number of episodes and frequency of occurrence can be significantly reduced. Numerous well-documented and -researched clinical trials have demonstrated that primary bipolar disorder is a biologic illness that can be stabilized but not cured with appropriate medications. Its cause to

date is unknown, although many hypotheses have been postulated based on results from cutting-edge biomolecular research. There is also a genetic component to this illness, as mood disorders are often present in relatives. DIAGNOSIS The term bipolar indicates the existence of two “poles” of symptoms marked by different mood states described as depression and mania. This does not imply that a person who experiences mood swings has bipolar disorder. A constellation of researched symptoms is needed to diagnose manic and depressive states. These symptoms are delineated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition, text revision (DSM IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) utilized by mental health clinicians to diagnose the full range of psychiatric disorders. Manic State A manic state is defined by the DSM-IV-TR as typically involving a period of persistent abnormally elevated or highly irritable mood lasting for at least one week. Along with this persistent change in mood, the individual may also display a significant increase in self-esteem or grandiosity. The individual often requires minimal sleep, on the order of 3 to 4 hours, throughout this period yet has sufficient energy or typically more energy than usual. This excitatory state drives the individual to experience a rapidity of thoughts that are usually spilled out in conversation as the person speaks quickly enough to keep up with the new ideas. One may witness these individuals become more involved with everyday activities at home, school, or work. In addition, they may involve themselves in riskier activities that could lead to deleterious consequences, like spending money excessively, engaging in increased sexual activities, and choosing high-risk business ventures. People with mania tend to be very distracted by minimal stimuli in their environment. Mania can be accompanied by psychosis, with disruptions of normal thinking such that the person loses his or her sense of reality. The individual begins to act on false beliefs, termed delusions, or experience perceptual disturbances such as hearing voices or visualizing objects that are not present. These symptoms create a significant disturbance to the individual’s functioning. They can result in strained relationships, infidelity, financial instability, unemployment, crime, violence, and suicide.

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Depression In contrast to the manic state, which can often present as persistent euphoria, depression is a mood state in which one experiences persistent sadness for at least a 2-week period or experiences a significant loss of interest or pleasure from activities that one normally enjoys. In addition to this, individuals may experience a disruption of the sleep cycle such that they sleep much less or much more than usual, feel fatigued, and have difficulty with concentration. These individuals may feel a sense of guilt, helplessness, or hopelessness. There may be a change in appetite, either increased or decreased, and there may be subsequent weight changes. Others may observe that the individual moves about slowly, has poor eye contact, and speaks with decreased volume, rate, and quantity and change in tone. It is common for individuals suffering from depression to experience thoughts of suicide, and a significant number carry out these plans. Depression, as with mania, also can be accompanied by psychosis, with delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thinking. It can cause significant disturbances in functioning with decrease in self-care, inability to work, and impairment of interpersonal and social interactions. It can, in fact, be more disabling than most chronic medical illnesses. Presentations of Disorder Presentations of bipolar disorder can vary tremendously, making it difficult to diagnose. Individuals often receive several other diagnoses before a clear picture of bipolar disorder emerges. Bipolar-like symptoms may also be manifested secondary to medical conditions such as strokes, thyroid dysfunction, and infections or with substance abuse such as cocaine and alcohol. Some medications may also cause changes in mood. Individuals with bipolar disorder often have other psychiatric illnesses, including substance use, anxiety disorders, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A good medical evaluation is needed, as well as a thorough review of medications and a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation in order to make the correct diagnosis.

Environmental stresses such as work pressures, marital discord, or changes in role must also be considered, as they may have a significant psychological impact on the individual and thus the illness. This comprehensive evaluation will then guide the decisions about treatment. Medications are one aspect of this. Supportive systems need to be in place, including those for family members, who often share the burden of this disease, including the stigma of mental illness. Careful attention must be paid to safety concerns, especially in light of the high suicide rates that characterize individuals with bipolar disorder as they face the consequences of their illness. As described in the Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients With Bipolar Disorder, Revised (American Psychiatric Association, 2002), key steps in treating individuals with bipolar disorder include the following: 1. Perform a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation. 2. Evaluate safety of the patient and others. 3. Develop a therapeutic alliance. 4. Monitor treatment response. 5. Provide education to the patient and family. 6. Enhance treatment adherence. 7. Promote awareness of stressors and regular patterns of activity and sleep. 8. Help the patient learn to recognize and address early signs of relapse. 9. Evaluate and manage functional impairments. CONCLUSIONS With active involvement in treatment and the essential community supports in place, most individuals with bipolar disorder can lead relatively stable lives and function as contributing members of society. —Ajit Ninan and Nancy N. Cain

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS PRACTICE GUIDELINES The impact of the illness on the individual’s social functioning should be assessed, as it can interfere with relationships, including marital, parental, and societal.

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text rev.). Washington, DC: Author. American Psychiatric Association. (2002). Practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with bipolar disorder, 159, April.

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Bipolar Disorder. Retrieved July 12, 2004 from http:// www .dbsalliance.org About Bipolar Disorder. Retrieved July 12, 2004 from http:// www.manicdepressive.org

BIPOLAR DISORDER IN CHILDREN More than 50 years ago, the discovery of lithium treatment for bipolar disorder (BP) in adults ushered in a productive period of diagnostic studies validated by longitudinal, family, genetic, and neurobiological investigations (Goodwin & Jamison, 1990). By contrast, only in the past decade have similar investigations of child BP been under way, amid great contention about the existence of prepubertal mania, its differentiation from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and differences between prepubertal and adult-onset BP (Craney & Geller, 2003; Geller et al., 2003; National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH] Research Roundtable on Prepubertal Bipolar Disorder, 2001). These controversies were discussed at the recent National Institute of Mental Health Research Roundtable on Prepubertal Bipolar Disorder (NIMH, 2001), where the consensus was that mania can exist in prepubertal children. Moreover, children with symptoms of mania may fall into two separate diagnostic categories. The first includes those who fit Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV) criteria for BP-I or -II, and the second consists of children who do not meet full DSM-IV criteria but have impairing symptoms of BP (NIMH, 2001). Children falling into the latter category are not yet systematically studied. PREPUBERTAL COMPARED TO ADULT-ONSET BIPOLAR DISORDER One topic of interest in the study of prepubertal BP is the differing presentations of child and adult-onset BP. Children with BP do not usually present with the reportedly typical adult presentation of discrete episodes of mania or depression with intervening relatively well periods (Goodwin & Jamison, 1990; NIMH, 2001). By contrast, prepubertal BP is typically characterized by long episode duration in years, mixed mania, psychosis, and ultradian (continuous) rapid cycling (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al., 2002; Geller, Tillman, Craney, & Bolhofner, 2004; Tillman & Geller, 2003). The entire duration of illness is called an episode, whereas mood switches within an episode are called

cycles (Tillman & Geller, 2003). For example, an 8-year-old boy was ill for 2 years, during which time he cycled twice daily. He is said to have an episode lasting 2 years, characterized by ultradian (continuous daily) cycling. A similarly severe presentation with continuous rapid cycling is observed in fewer than 20% of adults with BP (Goodwin & Jamison, 1990). ASSESSMENT OF PREPUBERTAL MANIA To address the need for a prepubertal age-specific instrument for assessing mania, Geller, Williams, Zimmerman, and Frazier (1996) developed the Washington University in St. Louis Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (WASH-UKSADS). The WASH-U-KSADS was developed from the KSADS by adding items specifically to assess prepubertal mania, a section on rapid cycling, items for current and lifetime occurrences of symptoms and syndromes, items for specific timing of onsets and offsets for all symptoms and syndromes, and expanded items for assessment of ADHD and multiple other DSM-IV diagnoses (Geller et al., 1996; Geller et al., 2000a; Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al., 2002; Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Frazier, et al., 2002; Geller et al., 2003). The WASH-U-KSADS allowed for the assessment of prepubertal manifestations of mania, because unlike adults with BP, children will not have “maxed out” credit cards or have had four or more marriages. It is not intuitive that children can have impairing, pathological happiness or be pathologically too expansive and grandiose (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Frazier, et al., 2002). The following examples differentiate normal from pathological elation and grandiosity. Normal children show elation when they go to Disneyland, on Christmas, and when grandparents are visiting. The excited mood is appropriate to context, is expected, and is nonimpairing (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Frazier, et al., 2002). By contrast, a manic child may act “Jim Carrey–like” daily in class, resulting in repeated trips to the principal’s office. The happiness is inappropriate to context and is impairing. In addition, normal children may play at being firefighters, rescuing victims with friends. The behavior is appropriate to the context of after-school play and is expected and nonimpairing (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Frazier, et al., 2002). A child suffering from grandiose delusions, however, may believe that he is Superman and attempt to fly from a second-story window, resulting in multiple fractures.

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The WASH-U-KSADS has demonstrated excellent reliability (Geller et al., 2000a) and is now used in the majority of NIMH-funded studies on prepubertal mania (NIMH, 2001). IRRITABILITY AND COMORBID ADHD There were two main factors leading to difficulty in diagnosing prepubertal mania: irritability and comorbid ADHD. Aggressive and irritable (A/I) behavior is a common symptom in children with BP; however, it is also a frequent reason for referral in children with a number of other psychiatric disorders, including oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, ADHD, major depressive disorder (MDD), autism, and Asperger syndrome (Geller et al., 2003). Due to the nonspecific nature of A/I as a symptom of prepubertal mania, the role of A/I in the diagnosis of child mania has been controversial. Moreover, as recently reported, risperidone has been shown to be effective for A/I in double-blind placebo controlled studies of A/I in autism (McCracken et al., 2002) and of A/I in subjects with low IQ (Aman, De Smedt, Derivan, Lyons, & Findling, 2002). Also, Kim-Cohen et al. (2003) found that 20% to 60% of adults with a range of psychiatric disorders had A/I as children. A second problem in diagnosing prepubertal mania was the high rate of comorbid attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder among children with BP (Tillman et al., 2003), which is a distinct difference between prepubertal and adult-onset BP. By contrast, ADHD is rarely asked about as a comorbid diagnosis in manic adults (Kessler, Rubinow, Holmes, Abelson, & Zhao, 1997; McElroy et al., 2001; Strakowski, Tohen, Stoll, Faedda, & Goodwin, 1992), so that the prevalence in adults with BP may not be fully realized. It is not yet established whether ADHD in manic children is a distinct comorbidity, a reflection of mania plus normal childhood developmental behaviors (e.g., children are more motorically active than adults), shared genetic vulnerabilities, and/or the result of overlapping criteria for ADHD and mania (Faraone, Biederman, Mennin, Wozniak, & Spencer, 1997; Geller, 1997). The Cardinal Symptom Approach In order to address the problems of the nonspecificity of A/I and the high rate of comorbid ADHD, Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al. (2002) studied a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype (PEA-BP) requiring DSMIV mania with at least one of the cardinal symptoms

of mania (i.e., elated mood or grandiosity) as one criterion. This criterion avoided diagnosing mania using only symptoms that overlapped with those for ADHD (e.g., hyperactivity, distractibility) and assured that subjects had at least one of the cardinal features of mania (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al., 2002). This cardinal symptom approach to diagnosing PEA-BP was analogous to the requirement of sad mood or anhedonia for a DSM-IV MDD diagnosis. Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al. (2002) compared symptom profiles of children with a PEA-BP to those of children with ADHD. The data showed that the symptoms that best differentiate child BP from ADHD are elation, grandiosity, flight of ideas/racing thoughts, decreased need for sleep, and hypersexuality (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al., 2002). Also, similar to adults, 87% of PEA-BP subjects had both elated mood and irritability (Geller, Zimerman, Williams, DelBello, Bolhofner, et al., 2002). LONGITUDINAL AND FAMILY STUDY VALIDATION OF PEA-BP Prospective longitudinal validation of the existence and chronicity of PEA-BP was provided by 6-month, 1-year, 2-year, and 4-year longitudinal follow-up data (Geller, et al., 2000b, Geller et al., 2001; Geller, Craney, et al., 2002; Geller et al., 2004). However, there are as yet no prospective follow-up studies into adulthood. Further follow-up of this PEA-BP sample will be informative on whether prepubertal BP will begin to resemble typical adult BP as subjects reach late adolescence and adulthood. Family study validation has also been demonstrated for PEA-BP (Geller et al., 2004). Family study data evidenced significantly higher familial aggregation of BP disorders among the PEA-BP group compared with the ADHD or normal control groups. In addition, there was a far higher proportion of first-degree relatives of PEABP probands with BP than of the first degree relatives of adult-onset BP-I probands (Andreasen et al., 1987; Geller et al., 2004; Gershon et al., 1982). Overall, these longitudinal and family study data strongly support that prepubertal BP is a validated diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS Counterintuitively, investigations suggest that typical children with PEA-BP resemble the most severely ill

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adults with adult-onset mania. This severe presentation is characterized by long episode duration, mixed mania, psychosis, and ultradian cycling. Also, the rate of comorbid ADHD is very high in PEA-BP subjects, even though these subjects were ascertained for DSMIV mania with at least one of the cardinal symptoms of mania (i.e., elation and grandiosity). Evidence of greater severity with earlier age of onset and higher familial aggregation has also been reported for other psychiatric and medical illnesses, including Crohn’s disease and gout (Childs & Scriver, 1986). One key question to address is whether or not these PEA-BP subjects will begin to resemble their adultonset bipolar disorder counterparts as they enter late adolescence and adulthood. Future research will determine if the PEA-BP presentation will change to the more typical adult-onset pattern of discrete episodes of mania or depression with intervening relatively well periods. Another important focus for future research will be investigating the rate of comorbid ADHD as these subjects reach adulthood. —Rebecca Tillman and Barbara Geller

NOTE: This article was supported by NIMH grants RO1 MH53063 and RO1 MH57451 to Barbara Geller.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Aman, M. G., De Smedt, G., Derivan, A., Lyons, B., & Findling, R. L. (2002). Double-blind, placebo-controlled study of risperidone for the treatment of disruptive behaviors in children with subaverage intelligence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(8), 1337–1346. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Andreasen, N. C., Rice, J., Endicott, J., Coryell, W., Grove, W. M., & Reich, T. (1987). Family rates of affective disorder. A report from the National Institute of Mental Health Collaborative Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44(5), 461–469. Childs, B., & Scriver, C. R. (1986). Age at onset and causes of disease. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 29(3 Pt. 1), 437–460. Craney, J. L., & Geller, B. (2003). A prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder-I phenotype: Review of phenomenology and longitudinal course. Bipolar Disorders, 5(4), 243–256. Faraone, S. V., Biederman, J., Mennin, D., Wozniak, J., & Spencer, T. (1997). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with bipolar disorder: A familial subtype? Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(10), 1378–1387.

Geller, B. (1997). Discussion of “Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with bipolar disorder: A familial subtype?” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(10), 1387–1388. Geller, B., Craney, J. L., Bolhofner, K., DelBello, M. P., Axelson, D., Luby, J., et al. (2003). Phenomenology and longitudinal course of children with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype. In B. Geller & M. P. DelBello (Eds.), Bipolar disorder in childhood and early adolescence (pp. 25–50). New York: Guilford. Geller, B., Craney, J. L., Bolhofner, K., DelBello, M. P., Williams, M., & Zimerman, B. (2001). One-year recovery and relapse rates of children with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(2), 303–305. Geller, B., Craney, J. L., Bolhofner, K., Nickelsburg, M. J., Williams, M., & Zimerman, B. (2002). Two-year prospective follow-up of children with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(6), 927–933. Geller, B., Tillman, R., Craney, J. L., & Bolhofner, K. (2004). Four-year prospective outcome and natural history of mania in children with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61(5), 459–467. Geller, B., Williams, M., Zimerman, B., & Frazier, J. (1996). Washington University in St. Louis Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (WASH-UKSADS). St. Louis: Washington University. Geller, B., Zimerman, B., Williams, M., Bolhofner, K., Craney, J. L., DelBello, M. P., et al. (2000a). Reliability of the Washington University in St. Louis Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (WASH-UKSADS) mania and rapid cycling sections. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(4), 450–455. Geller, B., Zimerman, B., Williams, M., Bolhofner, K., Craney, J. L., DelBello, M. P., et al. (2000b). Six-month stability and outcome of a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 10(3), 165–173. Geller, B., Zimerman, B., Williams, M., DelBello, M. P., Bolhofner, K., Craney, J. L., et al. (2002). DSM-IV mania symptoms in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype compared to attention-deficit hyperactive and normal controls. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 12(1), 11–25. Geller, B., Zimerman, B., Williams, M., DelBello, M. P., Frazier, J., & Beringer, L. (2002). Phenomenology of prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder: Examples of elated mood, grandiose behaviors, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, and hypersexuality. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 12(1), 3–9. Gershon, E. S., Hamovit, J., Guroff, J. J., Dibble, E., Leckman, J. F., Sceery, W., et al. (1982). A family study of schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, unipolar, and normal control

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probands. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39(10), 1157–1167. Goodwin, F. K., & Jamison, K. R. (Eds.). (1990). Manicdepressive illness. New York: Oxford University Press. Kessler, R. C., Rubinow, D. R., Holmes C., Abelson, J. M., & Zhao, S. (1997). The epidemiology of DSM-III-R bipolar I disorder in a general population survey. Psychological Medicine, 27(5), 1079–1089. Kim-Cohen, J., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Harrington, H., Milne, B. J., & Poulton, R. (2003). Prior juvenile diagnoses in adults with mental disorder: Developmental follow-back of a prospective-longitudinal cohort. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(7), 709–717. McCracken, J. T., McGough, J., Shah, B., Cronin, P., Hong, D., Aman, M. G., et al. (2002). Risperidone in children with autism and serious behavioral problems. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(5), 314–321. McElroy, S. L., Altshuler, L. L., Suppes, T., Keck, P. E., Jr., Frye, M. A., Denicoff, K. D., et al. (2001). Axis I psychiatric comorbidity and its relationship to historical illness variables in 288 patients with bipolar disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(3), 420–426. National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH] Research Roundtable on Prepubertal Bipolar Disorder. (2001). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(8), 871–878. Strakowski, S. M., Tohen, M., Stoll, A. L., Faedda, G. L., & Goodwin, D. C. (1992). Comorbidity in mania at first hospitalization. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149(4), 554–556. Tillman, R., & Geller, B. (2003). Definitions of rapid, ultrarapid, and ultradian cycling and of episode duration in pediatric and adult bipolar disorders: A proposal to distinguish episodes from cycles. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 13(3), 251–255. Tillman, R., Geller, B., Bolhofner, K., Craney, J. L., Williams, M., & Zimerman, B. (2003). Ages of onset and rates of syndromal and subsyndromal comorbid DSM-IV diagnoses in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42(12), 1486–1493.

BLUM, ROBERT W. On the day that I graduated Howard Medical School, my parents gave me a laminated plaque of a paper I wrote in the third grade: “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Doctor.” Why I wanted to be a doctor I have no idea; though I did not come from a medical family, it was something that was always there. I chose Howard for all the wrong reasons. Having grown up in an upper-middle-class Jewish community in New York City, I went to a small high school and a

liberal arts college that were extensions of my urban upbringing. In college I became politically active, and for medical school I wanted an environment different from my childhood experiences. Howard and D.C. fit the bill. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and the Embassy of South Vietnam was up the street from where I lived. It seemed that every week there were new demonstrations; I joined the Medical Committee for Human Rights, providing health services for the marches. I prayed that no one was injured on my watch; I was a first-year medical student. The spring of that first year was when four students were killed at Kent State. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into Washington. Every school closed—except Howard. I gave an impassioned speech at a school forum, where I argued that Howard should close as well. Suddenly, at the back of the room, a diminutive classmate of mine stood. “Orangeburg. Remember Orangeburg?” The room was silent. I had never heard of Orangeburg. Howard stayed open. Less than a month later similar killings occurred; this time it was Jackson State in Mississippi—a historically Black institution. There was no march on Washington, no school closings, and other than Howard only one university in the Washington area had a memorial service. Howard did close with the Jackson State killings and held 10 days of mandatory Black awareness. Undergraduates and graduate students were mixed together and sent to classrooms across campus. It was a tough time to be white. It was all a critical part of my education. My political activism shifted from demonstrations to community programs; for the last three years of medical school I participated in and then ran a national student project placing teams of health science students on reservations as employees of tribal health councils. Native American Indian health has been a professional thread ever since. Of the things I was pretty sure about in my early medical school years, not going into pediatrics was one. I was most interested in family practice, with a goal of returning to work with the Apache. That was until I met a 3-year-old redhead who was hospitalized with a terrible disease (rhabdomyosarcoma). I fell in love. I stayed late to play with him and to talk with his parents. My script was written; and as is true for most all who go into pediatrics, young children were to be the focus of my work—or so I thought.

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At the end of my medical schooling I went to Hawaii for a pediatric externship and was placed on Maui with Dr. Marion Hanlon. Maui was heaven, but try as I might, I never could figure out what Dr. Hanlon saw in teens. The externship only confirmed my interest in young children. I chose Minnesota for residency because of its reputation in pediatrics. My parents, the true New Yorkers that they were, had to get out a map of the world to find it. West of the Hudson was still wilderness. My first impressions included a bumper sticker that said “Stamp out Summer,” people sunbathing around a lake in 55-degree weather, and how White my internship class was—White faces and blond hair in white coats. I had never seen so many White physicians. As was true for my medical school experience, my residency derailed what I thought was my future. There was a 15-year-old young woman with cystic fibrosis and a 16-year-old boy with acute lymphocytic leukemia, both of whom taught me what it meant to live fully with then-fatal illnesses up until the moment of death. They taught me to value people above all else, and never to defer a discussion, a caring word, or a compliment—the chance may never come again. And as I came to know them and their parents, I also saw the increasing isolation they experienced. As death neared, people backed away. These experiences and others like them provided two other threads of my professional life: a primary commitment to adolescents and an interest in the coping and adjustment of youth and families with chronic conditions. Other experiences during residency had equally transforming consequences. A young patient for whom I cared had a rare infectious condition. The consultant with whom I worked encouraged me (or was it that he insisted?) that I write up the case for publication. I wrote it; he revised it (actually rewrote it); I submitted it (he declined to be a coauthor); and four weeks later an acceptance letter arrived. Academia seemed so easy! It would be 4 years until my next publication. Another experience as a resident that shaped my future was a rotation at Teenage Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr. Betty Jerome. It was there I first encountered young women who came in to find out if they were pregnant. When asked what they would do if they were, “I dunno” was a common response. “And if you’re not?” “I dunno.” I couldn’t understand how one of life’s major events could be met with what seemed like so much indifference. I have spent much

of my professional life trying to understand that phenomenon. A few people were also key during the years immediately following my residency, but most important was Gisa Konopka, one of the first generation of researchers whose work focused on adolescent girls and whose humanizing voice for kids in prison has had a major impact locally and nationally. That mentorship grew to a deep friendship that persisted until her recent death at nearly the age of 94. With my pediatric residency, fellowship, and MPH behind me, I was in the middle of doctoral studies in health policy when the pediatrics chair at Minnesota called me into his office, indicating that there was a request for proposals in interdisciplinary training in adolescent health. He wanted to know if I were interested in applying. My first grant application was somewhat less successful than my first manuscript; rather, it was notoriously ill conceived. I had never written a grant before—and it showed. By the time it was done it numbered just over 750 pages. We shipped all 26 copies to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. I can only imagine the horror on the faces of those in the bureau when the grant arrived. Six months later there was an opportunity to reapply—this time with a 50page maximum. It was that grant, awarded in the fall of 1978, that has been the cornerstone of the Center for Adolescent Health and Development ever since. In the subsequent 25 years, my work has focused in two areas: adolescent sexual and reproductive health and transitions to adulthood for youth with chronic conditions. Crosscutting all of my work has been an interest in what protects young people from harm. It has never been surprising to me that those who grow up in an alcoholic family are more likely to drink, or that one who is born to a teen mother is more likely than others to become pregnant as a teen. To me the most interesting questions have centered on those who, born into adverse circumstances, do not participate in such behaviors. Identifying what protects them has been a central research focus. Second, translating research for policy and programs has been an ongoing commitment. The training grant we received in 1978 expanded into the Center for Adolescent Health and Development, which in turn merged with other components of pediatrics (general academic pediatrics, behavioral pediatrics, child and adolescent mental health, and developmental pediatrics) to become the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health.

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In the fall of 2003, the program celebrated its 25th anniversary. With that silver anniversary came a new opportunity and decision to transition the center’s leadership to the next generation, and I will now assume the position of the William Gates Professorship and Chair, Population and Family Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. —Robert W. Blum

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Blum, R. W. (Ed.). (1995). Conference proceedings: Moving on: Transition from pediatric to adult health care. Journal of Adolescent Health, 17(1), a. Transition to adult health care: Setting the stage, 3–5; b. Summary of conference recommendations, 6–9. Blum, R. W. (1998a). Healthy youth development as a model for youth health promotion: A review. Journal of Adolescent Health, 22(5), 368–375. Blum, R. W. (1998b). Improving the health of youth: A community health perspective. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23(5), 254–258. Blum, R. W., Beuhring, T., Shew, M. L., Bearinger, L. H., Sieving, R. E., & Resnick, M. D. (2000). The effects of race, income and family on adolescent risk-taking behaviors. American Journal of Public Health, 90(12), 1879–1884. Blum, R. W., Beuhring, T., Wunderlich, M., & Resnick, M. (1996). Don’t ask, they won’t tell: Health screening of youth. American Journal of Public Health, 86(12), 1767–1772. Blum, R. W., Halcón, L., Beuhring, T., Pate, E., CampellForrester, S., & Venema, A. (2003). Adolescent health in the Caribbean: Risk and protective factors. American Journal of Public Health, 93(3), 456–460. Blum, R. W., & Rinehart, P. M. (1997). Reducing the risk: Connections that make a difference in the lives of youth. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Adolescent Health Program, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health. Nelson-Mmari, K., & Blum, R. W. (in press). Adolescent health in a global context. Journal of Adolescent Health.

BODY SIZE AND IMAGE, FEMALE ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS ABOUT The ways in which young women perceive and judge their bodies in light of the societal demands

placed on them and the feedback they receive relative to their body size and attractiveness—perceptual and attitudinal components—are instrumental in the formation of their body images. In particular, any distortion in the perceptual component can lead to a misinterpretation of the size, shape, or appearance of one’s body, while a disturbance in the attitudinal component can result in dissatisfaction with one’s bodily appearance and functional ability (Monteath & McCabe, 1997).

YOUNG CHILDREN’S BODY IMAGE Just as culturally “appropriate” judgments and discrimination of fat individuals have been identified among 5-year-old children or younger, body dissatisfaction and negative feelings about one’s own body fat begin at a young age. Even at the young age of 5, lower self-concept has been found to be associated with being heavy or overweight (Davison, Earnest, & Birch, 2002). Contextual issues such as parental concerns about a child’s weight, particularly from the father, coupled with parental food restrictions, have recently been associated with young girls’ negative self-evaluations and lowered overall body esteem. This recent finding suggests that parental feedback about the body covaries with young girls’ negative evaluations of their bodies. Young children have also expressed body dissatisfaction within contexts that enforce a pronounced or stringent form of the American standards of thinness. A recent study demonstrates that, in comparison to girls who participated in nonaesthetic sports or no sports, girls who participated in aesthetic sports reported higher weight concerns at ages 5 and 7 (Davison et al., 2002). Further, girls who participated in aesthetic sports at ages 5 and 7 reported the greatest concern about their weight at age 7. Attie and BrooksGunn (1989) explain that some physical activities, such as ballet, dance, and figure skating, place an influential set of demands on their students to maintain a low body weight because success in these arenas is dependent on a thin, prepubescent body appearance. While their studies tended to focus on young girls during puberty, it is apparent that such standards for thinness in contexts outside of the family influence the body images of children much earlier in life than previously thought.

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BODY IMAGE DURING THE SCHOOL YEARS AND ADOLESCENCE Poor body image has been detected during the school-age years and adolescence. In fact, girls as young as 7 or 9 years of age had distorted body images, thought they were heavier than they were, and desired to lose weight (Gardner, Friedman, & Jackson, 1999; Striegel-Moore, Schreiber, Pike, Wilfley, & Rodin, 1995). A national health survey found that 40% of the 2,379 girls studied at ages 9 and 10 believed that they were too fat and were therefore attempting to lose weight (Striegel-Moore et al., 1995). This trend has been shown to increase in intensity with age, such that by the early adolescent years, girls wish to be 5% thinner than their current size (Gardner et al., 1999) and consistently worry about their weight. Studies involving older adolescents show that anywhere from just under half to around three quarters of adolescent girls who are within normal weight ranges believe that they are “too fat” and are actively trying to lose weight (Morris & Katzman, 2003). Apparently, these distorted perceptions exist within both school-aged and adolescent groups; longitudinal data, particularly focusing on children and adolescents, would be valuable in understanding how the intensity of these distortions changes over time. A recent study revealed that 80% of adolescent girls are dissatisfied with their physiques (Kostanski & Gullone, 1998). Interestingly, while males may be interested in gaining weight and bulky muscle, females often worry about their weight and express a desire to have a slimmer figure (Gardner et al., 1999; Kostanski & Gullone, 1998). This discrepancy between males and females increases as they reach puberty, such that females develop increased dissatisfaction while satisfaction remains constant for males. Overweight girls have the most negative attitudes about their bodies when compared with other weight groups. Rierdan and Koff (1997) examined the relationship between actual weight and body satisfaction and depression. Young adolescent girls were physically weighed and measured for height, Body Mass Index (BMI = weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) was calculated, and each girl completed an inventory to assess depressive symptoms about the self. BMI was significantly related to weight satisfaction and weight concerns in this sample. Very overweight girls were most dissatisfied, such

that as BMI went up, weight satisfaction decreased and weight concerns increased. Body image problems associated with societal demands and negative feedback are a part of life for adolescent girls in a variety of social classes. In the past 15 years it has been found that weight concerns and eating disorders are occurring among women in lower socioeconomic (SES) groups as well as upper SES groups (Robinson et al., 1996; Tetlin, 1990), even though being overweight is more prevalent in lowincome districts. In a study including more than 36,000 public school students in Grades 7 to 12 throughout 80 school districts in Minneapolis, the percentage of females at high or very high risk for disordered eating appeared similar across each of the socioeconomic categories (Tetlin, 1990). Even in places in which the girls tend to be the thinnest, such as in predominantly European American, affluent towns around the United States, female adolescents still were concerned about being too fat (Robinson et al., 1996). Interestingly, these girls were found to be more focused on losing weight than were girls from poorer districts. Of course, while middle- to upper-class European American families tend to be the focus of most empirical research on body image, all social classes and ethnic groups are becoming increasingly affected, as shown in the research produced in the past 15 years. The American Association of University Women (1991) found that Latinas between the ages of 9 and 15 maintained a negative body image, and those who were “happy” with themselves dropped by 38% as they increased in age. More recent studies explain that Latinas born in the United States, and thus exposed to American culture, are more likely to prefer a smaller size and express the same concerns about their body shape and weight as European American females (Robinson et al., 1996). These girls believe that they are too fat and should strive for a thinner body. In fact, Latinas were recently reported to have lower levels of body satisfaction than any other girls in the United States (Robinson et al., 1996). While there have been hints of body image problems among Asian American (Robinson et al., 1996) and African American (Schreiber et al., 1996) adolescent girls, lack of ethnically diverse research has caused such concerns to remain overlooked. A recent study has shown that the leanest 25% of Asian American girls were significantly more dissatisfied with their bodies than were European American girls

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(Robinson et al., 1996). In addition, although it has been shown in earlier studies that African American girls are most secure with their bodies, as a result of the cultural tolerance among African Americans for larger women and lower incidence of weight-related discrimination than their European American counterparts, African American girls are not immune to American weight issues. It has been recently noted that there are no racial differences between black and white girls in their efforts to lose weight or to practice chronic dieting (Schreiber et al., 1996). Not surprisingly, concerns have been voiced about young African American girls’ recent exposure to very thin African American media models and actors and their possible negative influences on body perceptions and attitudes. Interestingly, in the past 5 years there have been a significant amount of weight loss concerns among prominent African American celebrities such as talk show host Oprah Winfrey and singer Toni Braxton. Pumariega, Gustavson, Gustavson, Stone Motes, and Ayers (1994) found that Black female stars in the film, music, and fashion industries are now just as thin as their European American counterparts. Such unachievable ideals have been on the rise in European American culture, as illustrated by the models featured in many wellread magazines, on the Internet, and on television during the past several decades, and this trend has been blamed for America’s weight obsession. However, thinner, more diverse media personalities are fairly new to the African American population and culture and are likely raising weight awareness in more diverse communities. While all girls across weight, age, social, and ethnic groups are possible victims of the thinness phenomenon, those whose bodies mature early are at particular risk for developing poor body image during adolescence. As young girls transition biologically, psychologically, and socially into adolescence, issues around body attractiveness and weight become more prevalent. With regard to the physical features of maturation, many studies published in the past few decades demonstrate that because female puberty is inextricably linked to increases in body fat in subcutaneous tissue and ultimately, a higher BMI, pubescent females tend to express a desire to be thinner than they are (Attie & Brooks-Gunn, 1989). In addition, other maturational changes such as breast development may also be associated with poor body attitudes and distorted perceptions of one’s body. As illustrated

by the results reported by Fabian and Thompson (1989), who studied 61 premenarcheal and 60 postmenarcheal female adolescents, a positive association was detected between global body size overestimation and feelings of depression for postmenarcheal females. Furthermore, as well documented by Brooks-Gunn and colleagues, early maturers are at greater risk for developing poor body images and an accompanying desire to lose weight, because they are likely to compare themselves with their late-maturing peers, who are generally thinner and lighter in weight (Graber, Brooks-Gunn, Paikoff, & Warren, 1994). In a culture that seems to value the streamlined figures customarily associated with prepubescent girls, it is not surprising that a lower body image is often associated with the adolescent girl’s dramatic gain in weight during her pubescent years. Such negative body images during early adolescence have been shown to be predictive of problematic eating behaviors and poor body image in mid-adolescence. However, early maturers are at highest risk for experiencing recurrent weight and eating-related problems throughout the adolescent decade. More extensive longitudinal investigations using a developmental perspective are needed to determine the life course of these body image problems as the adolescent ages. Simply, we need more data to determine if these feelings persist over time. Although the aforementioned studies are helpful in establishing a relationship between body image formation and weight, due to their cross-sectional nature their contributions cannot be generalized across age-groups. While longitudinal, developmental research is rare, existing longitudinal studies suggest that negative feelings about the body endure throughout adolescence (Gardner et al., 1999; Graber et al., 1994). In fact, in a 3-year study on children ages 6 through 13, researchers show that as female children age they desire to be increasingly thinner (Gardner et al., 1999). Another study that tested adolescent girls on two occasions, 3 years apart, demonstrated that weight dissatisfaction at Time 1 significantly influenced global appearance dissatisfaction at Time 2 (Thompson, Coovert, Richards, Johnson, & Cattarin, 1995). In particular, more weight dissatisfaction yielded higher global appearance dissatisfaction. In addition, global appearance dissatisfaction significantly influenced global psychological functioning (composed of self-esteem, anxiety, and depression scores) at Time 2. More dissatisfaction was

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predictive of lower self-esteem, higher anxiety, and more depression. Researchers concluded that there was a relation between psychological functioning and body dissatisfaction. While some attrition did occur during the 3-year period due to graduation, lack of parental permission, or other factors, high dissatisfaction about weight and appearance may still be noted as possible predictors of body image and eating disturbances as females develop through adolescence and into adulthood. In essence, the valence of a young person’s body image development during childhood and adolescence will likely affect her later in life. BODY IMAGE IN ADULTHOOD Differences in body weight, as noted previously, are predictive of differences in both social treatment and feelings about one’s body during childhood and adolescence. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that those who best fit with the present underweight ideal are more satisfied with their bodies than those who are considered average or overweight during young adulthood (Monteath & McCabe, 1997) and later in life. Moreover, overweight women are significantly more dissatisfied with the appearance of their bodies than women of any other weight category. Interestingly, heavier women may have no greater disturbances on conventional measures of psychopathology; however, many fat people suffer from a negative body image. Obese women are repeatedly reported to have significantly more negative body images than normal weight women (Gardner et al., 1999). Such poor attitudes about their bodies are said to be connected with the young endomorphic women’s intense feelings of failure and blame. Researchers report that young overweight women suffer from dual feelings that convey that “I am fat and therefore I am worthless” (Sanford & Donovan, 1993). It may be surmised that those people who see their bodies as less interpersonally attractive or less instrumentally effective are more apt to have lower self-esteem and have more feelings of worthlessness than those who have more favorable body images. Because self-esteem is mediated by the relationship between social factors and body satisfaction, as overweight girls move through adolescence and into young adulthood, a time of intense self- and social assessment, they experience a significant decrease in levels of global self-esteem and self-worth compared with their thinner counterparts (Strauss, 2000). It is therefore apparent that body

image (as well as overall appearance) takes on an excessively important role in the determination of self-esteem in young women. If they do not believe that their bodies meet the current thin standard, they are inundated with feelings of failure and poor body image satisfaction. It is not surprising that young women feel dissatisfied with their bodies. While the average height and weight of an American woman is 5 feet 4 inches and 142 pounds (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1995), it is not surprising that women whose weight is similar to the population mean for their age and weight class may be considered by others (and themselves) to be overweight when compared with the idealized bodies of media models and icons. Most models and media actresses are at least 10–15 pounds underweight; this weight is advantageous for their careers but not necessarily the most advantageous for their health and athletic ability. Following the American ideal that seems to epitomize thinness (Gardner et al., 1999), the average height and weight of a model is 5 feet 9 inches and 110 pounds; about 5 inches taller and 23% thinner than the average woman (NOW, 1998). Interestingly, women are not only concerned with their bodies as a whole, but also with the appearance of particular aspects of their figures. Monteath and McCabe (1997), using a variety of body esteem measures, found that 94% of their female participants desired to be thinner in general, but also found that the highest proportion of women expressed the most negative attitudes toward individual parts. In particular, they expressed concern with the stomach, buttocks, hips, legs, waist, and thighs—areas commonly affected by weight gain in women. These parts are often highlighted as problem areas by women as shown in other studies on body image. Monteath and McCabe (1997) further stressed that the perceived societal ideal strongly influenced their participants’ view of their own bodies. Large deviations, measured by identifying the discrepancy between their own bodies and their view of the ideal figure, were associated with greater levels of body dissatisfaction. Interestingly, the women believed that society’s judgment of their bodies would be even more negative than they would rate themselves. Although they admitted that the ideal of thinness set by Western cultures was extreme, most were unable to ignore the overwhelming pressure to conform to this ideal. This finding suggests that the perceptions of

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others, real or otherwise, are internalized by young females such that thinness becomes a goal they feel they must achieve. CONCLUSIONS While overweight females most often suffer from the poorest body images and the most consistent negative feedback about their bodies within American society, the majority of females in America have some concern about their weight, believe they are too fat, and desire to weigh less. It is important to consider, however, that both direct feedback from others in one’s environment, as well as indirect feedback from television and magazines, is providing influential feedback about the importance of being thin to fit in to the American standards of beauty. This feedback has reached beyond mainstream culture to Latina, Asian American, and African American girls, such that each year they are voicing more dissatisfaction and expressing more concerns about their bodies. While the majority of research on female body image is consistent in highlighting the negative affects of society’s thin body ideal, additional multimeasurement studies are necessary to gain a better understanding of the developmental consequences of social feedback on female psychological functioning and body image formation. In addition, although many of the studies noted are helpful in establishing that a relation exists between social biases and self-perceptions about the body, due to their cross-sectional nature or lack of multiple measures their contributions are limited. Longitudinal studies are necessary, although more complicated, expensive, and time-consuming, in order to explore the temporal and possibly causal relationships among variables. As noted, very few longitudinal studies exist on the topic of girls and body image development. From an applied standpoint, there are several implications of these research findings. First, because reports suggest that media is highly influential in shaping the views of young people with regard to their body weight and size, it is important to expose children and adolescents to media models and celebrity icons who are admired despite larger frames or heavier body weights. Such exposure may allow young people to be more accepting of body types that deviate from the American ideal of thinness. In addition, it is clear that programs that promote a sense of health and beauty at any body size are necessary in order to counteract young girls’ feelings of inadequacy.

Providing education on important asset-based rather than deficit-based lessons, including balanced diet rather than chronic dieting, fitness rather than excessive exercise, and healthy body rather than unattainable body ideal is imperative in order to help all young people to adapt and thrive in America despite body size, shape, or weight. —Robyn J. Abeles Silverman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Association of University Women [AAUW]. (1991). Shortchanging girls, shortchanging America: A call to action. Washington, DC: Author. Attie, I., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1989). The developmental of eating problems in adolescent girls: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 25, 70–79. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics (1995). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1988–1994. Retrieved on Oct. 20, 2000 from www.CDC.govinchs Davison, K. K., Earnest, M. B., & Birch, L. L. (2002). Participation in aesthetic sports. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 31(3), 312–317. Fabian, L. J., & Thompson, J. K. (1989). Body image and eating disturbance in young females. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 8, 63–74. Gardner, R. M., Friedman, B. N., & Jackson, N. A. (1999). Body size estimations, body dissatisfaction, and ideal size preferences in children six through thirteen. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 28, 603–618. Graber, J. A., Brooks-Gunn, J., Paikoff, R., & Warren, M. P. (1994). Predication of eating problems: An 8-year study of adolescent girls. Developmental Psychology, 30, 823–834. Kostanski, M., & Gullone, E. (1998). Adolescent body image dissatisfaction: Relationships with self-esteem, anxiety, and depression controlling for body mass. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 39(2), 255–262. Monteath, S. A., & McCabe, M. P. (1997). The influence of societal factors on female body images. Journal of Social Psychology, 13, 708–727. Morris, A. M., & Katzman, D. K. (2003). The impact of the media on eating disorders in children and adolescents. Pediatric Child Health, 8, 287–289. National Organization for Women [NOW]. (1998). Now says “Love your body.” Retrieved October 20, 2000 from http:// www. NOW.org Pumariega, A., Gustavson, C. R., Gustavson, J. C., Stone Motes, P., & Ayers, S. (1994). Eating attitudes in African-American women: The Essence eating disorders survey. Eating disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 2, 5–16. Rierdan, J., & Koff, E. (1997). Weight, weight-related aspects of body image, and depression in early adolescent girls. Adolescence, 32(127), 615–624.

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Robinson, T. N., Killen, J. D., Litt, I. F., Hammer, L. D., Wilson, D. M., Haydel, K. F., et al. (1996). Ethnicity and body dissatisfaction: Are Hispanic and Asian girls at increased risk for eating disorders? Journal of Adolescent Health, 19, 384–393. Sanford, L., & Donovan, M. (1993). Women and self-esteem: Understanding and improving the way we think and feel about ourselves. Toronto: Penguin. Schreiber, G. B. M., Robins, M., Striegel-Moore, R., Obarzanek, E., Morrison, J. A., & Wright, D. J. (1996). Weight modification efforts reported by Black and White preadolescent girls: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study. Pediatrics, 98, 63–70. Strauss, R. S. (2000). Childhood obesity and self-esteem. Pediatrics, 105, 1–5. Striegel-Moore, R. H., Schreiber, G. B., Pike, K. M., Wilfley, D. E., & Rodin, J. (1995). Drive for thinness in Black and White preadolescent girls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18, 59–69. Tetlin, P. (1990). Reflections of risk: Growing up female in Minnesota. A report on the health and well-being of adolescent girls in Minnesota. Minneapolis: Minnesota Women’s Fund. Thompson, J. K., Coovert, M. D., Richards, K. J., Johnson, S., & Cattarin, J. (1995). Development of body image, eating disturbance, and general psychological functioning in female adolescents: Covariance structure modeling and longitudinal investigations. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18(3), 221–236.

BODY SIZE, SOCIETAL VIEWS OF Overweight and obese individuals are susceptible to discrimination due to their body size and weight in many of their social circles (school, work, family, and home). Coined “the last acceptable form of prejudice,” such discrimination makes targets of ridicule of those who significantly deviate from America’s thin ideal, from kindergarten (Davison & Birch, 2001) through the school years (Eisenberg, NeumarkSztainer, & Story, 2003; Strauss & Pollack, 2003) and into college and adulthood (Puhl & Brownell, 2001; Wee, McCarthy, Davis, & Phillips, 2000). SOCIAL FEEDBACK DURING CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE Overweight and obese girls receive negative feedback about their weight at an early age. Research conducted with young participants suggests that school-aged children and adolescents give fewer peer

nominations and fewer best friend ratings to peers who are fat (Eisenberg et al., 2003; Strauss & Pollack, 2003). Strauss and Pollack (2003), whose National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health consisted of more than 17,500 participants, collected information on the social networks and friendships of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18. Not only were overweight adolescents more likely to be socially marginalized than were normal weight adolescents, they also tended to be more socially isolated. While those who were overweight listed as many friends as their normal weight peers, overweight adolescents received significantly fewer friendship nominations from others than were received by normal weight adolescents. In fact, overweight adolescents were about 70% more likely to possess a complete absence of friendship nominations than their normal weight peers. In addition, adolescents who nominated overweight peers as their friends received fewer peer nominations than did friends of nonoverweight participants, and interestingly, these friends of overweight respondents tended to be less popular themselves. These findings tended to be most dramatic for overweight girls. Another recent study suggests that overweight school-aged children must cope not only with fewer friends but also with consistent teasing from peers (Eisenberg et al., 2003). Nearly 4,750 adolescents in middle and high school were weighed and measured and asked to answer questions about being teased. Thirty percent of girls reported being teased by peers about their weight. Teasing ranged from derogatory name-calling such as “fatso” to harsh directives such as “Maybe you should have a salad instead of a burger.” Such teasing was consistently associated with low body satisfaction, low self-esteem, high depressive symptoms, and thinking about and attempting suicide. Interestingly, feedback about weight is not uniquely provided by other students, but also by teachers and coaches. School employees make comments about the weights of their students. In a survey of members of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), overweight members reported that when they were students, teachers told their parents to place them on a diet and that the student would receive a prize if weight was successfully lost (Rothblum, Brand, Miller, & Oetjen, 1989). The stigma of obesity also influenced the academic and extracurricular experience of overweight students.

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In particular, members reported being denied places on honor rolls, sports teams, leadership programs, performing arts opportunities, and cheerleading squads more so than average or thin people (Rothblum et al., 1989). Further, students reported that they received lower grades and were denied teacher support for college admission even though they believed that they scored similarly to thin and normal figured students on tests and homework. In fact, if recommendations were written, fat students reported that teachers wrote negative comments about their weight to their chosen colleges (Rothblum et al., 1989). It is not surprising, then, that “a fat high school girl has one-third the chance of getting into college than a thin girl, even though of the same intelligence” (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986). School is not the only context in which overweight young people, especially females, experience intense criticism about their weight. Families provide a great deal of feedback to youngsters in response to their weight. Parents who are particularly preoccupied with weight try to control their children’s caloric intake, portion sizes, and eating times (Davison & Birch, 2001). Such controlling behaviors are said to be especially enforced in young overweight daughters. In addition to food control, a recent study reported that nearly 29% of girls are teased by family members about their weight, are called names, and are picked on for their food selections (Eisenberg et al., 2003). Parents also tend to discriminate against their fat children (Crandall, 1995). Obese siblings tend to be made scapegoats in their families compared with a control group composed of normal weight children (Herman & Polivy, 1987). In addition, compared to the control group, the relationships between these children and other members of the family can more rarely be considered open, warm, and satisfactory. Discrimination of this kind tends to be even more intense for daughters, especially within families that embrace traditional, conservative values that have been shown to be reliably predictive of antifat attitudes (Crandall, 1995). Such overweight daughters have reported less financial support from parents than their thin peers. Parents provide indirect feedback to their obese children as well. When researchers asked parents in public settings for permission to photograph their children, an accidental finding indicated that all parents of nonobese children agreed, while all parents of obese children refused (Wooley, Wooley, & Dyrenforth, 1980). Interestingly, parents of both a nonobese child

and an obese child gave permission for photographing the former, not the latter. Obese individuals likely learn, although indirectly, that being overweight is shameful, according to their own parents. It is apparent that obese children are susceptible to negative feedback even within the confines of their family system. In addition to family discrimination, as overweight children mature, they are more likely to be rejected as viable dating partners. Thus it is not surprising that overweight adolescents date less often (Halpern, Udry, Campbell, & Suchindran, 1999) and are less likely to get married than peers who are not fat (Gortmaker, Must, Perrin, Sobol, & Dietz, 1993). A recent longitudinal study of 200 European American and African American girls, ages 13 and 14, found that not only was an adolescent girl’s fat physique a disadvantage for getting dates, but a more ectomorphic or underweight figure was a significant advantage for capturing opposite sex attention (Halpern et al., 1999). In particular, an average girl of 5 feet 3 inches tall and 126 pounds was only half as likely to date as a girl of the same height and physical maturity who is at a below-average weight of 110 pounds. Despite the fact that most of the girls reported that having a boyfriend was important, girls who were 1 standard deviation above the mean in body fat were 3 times as likely to have no dates, as were girls whose body fat was 1 standard deviation below the mean. This was particularly true for all European American girls and African American girls with collegeeducated mothers. While it is unclear if these results would generalize to other racial populations, this finding remained consistent for both European American and African American girls in the study and suggests that more body fat, even among nonobese girls, strongly lowers the probability of dating. In addition to a decreased likelihood of dating, young people with endomorphic body types are more susceptible to physical, verbal, and sexual abuse (Rothblum et al., 1989). In fact, a survey by NAAFA found that half of the 455 male and female respondents to this membership survey reported that they were victims of antifat jokes and received negative nicknames in high school and college (Rothblum et al., 1989). In particular, 20% of men and 26% of women experienced antifat tricks and jokes in college. Further, 14% of men and 21% of women received negative nicknames in light of their weight. Apparently, fat people are often targets of emotional abuse in college due to their weight.

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Finally, young people receive feedback about “good” and “bad” body types from the media. According to a recent study of the Miss America Pageant, in which the contestants are judged on a variety of personal features including the attractiveness and appeal of their figures, investigators have found that, since the 1920s, there have been an increasing number of pageant winners that are dangerously thin (Rubinstein & Caballero, 2000). In particular, a consistent decrease in Body Mass Index (BMI = weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) among pageant winners throughout the 80-year period has shown a trend toward undernutrition (defined by the World Health Organization as a BMI of less than 18.5), with some winners reaching levels that meet the criteria for anorexia nervosa (BMI of 17.5 or less). Interestingly, although the height of pageant winners has increased by a mere 2%, body weight has decreased by 12%, demonstrating an unmistakable downward trend toward dangerous levels of thinness. Interestingly, Miss America is hailed as “our ideal.” Further, an investigation of the distribution and individual characteristics of body types on prime-time television suggests that overweight and obese television characters are associated with negative characteristics, if they are seen at all. First, of the 1,018 major characters on prime-time shows during the 1999–2000 season, only 14% of the female characters were overweight or obese—representing less than half of the actual percentage of obese or overweight females in the American population. In addition, the data show that on the top 10 prime-time fictional programs, overweight and obese females were less likely to be considered attractive, to interact with romantic partners, or to display physical affection (Greenberg, Eastin, Hofschire, Lachlan, & Brownell, 2003). Young people watching series fiction may unknowingly internalize fat stereotypes, since they are repeated again and again in many of the prime-time shows that they watch. Unfortunately, most popular media does not subscribe to a “health and beauty at any size” motto. FEEDBACK DURING ADULTHOOD While one might desire to attribute negative feedback during childhood and adolescence to childish banter, data suggests that adults must cope with discrimination in their immediate contexts: the workplace (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986; Solovay, 2000), relationships (Tiggemann & Rothblum, 1988), and health

and medical facilities (Wee et al., 2000). Overweight and obese adults are therefore not immune to the negative direct and indirect feedback that stems from the stigma of being fat in America. Again, those who do not “fit” within the parameters of the thin ideal are subject to criticism and ostracism based on their weight. Employment Discrimination Discrimination continues to follow overweight people, especially females, into the workplace, making it difficult to secure a financial future (Solovay, 2000). In particular, fat people are not hired as often, are paid less, are charged more for employee insurance coverage, and are more likely to be fired because of their appearance than people of more normal or low weights (deLosa, 1991). Of the 367 women and 78 men who responded to a national survey of overweight individuals, 60% of fat women and 40% of fat men reported not being hired because of their weight, 30% were deprived of promotions, and 26% were deprived of benefits such as health and/or life insurance (Rothblum et al., 1989). Nearly all of those who responded reported that they were questioned about their weight on the job or urged to lose weight, even if they were only moderately fat or at recommended healthy weights. Moreover, comments made by a few of the very obese individuals suggested that their ability to be hired or to keep a job was contingent on weight loss. Not surprisingly, 17% of the very obese participants reported that they were fired or pressured to resign from their positions because of their weight. While the survey relies entirely on self-report, it is the first study to provide direct information about the experiences of fat people in the context of employment. It suggests that obese individuals, particularly those who are female and 50% or more above ideal weight, experience more weight-related employment discrimination than nonobese individuals. In addition, jobs such as flight attendant, fire fighter, clerk typist, nurse’s aide, physician, and educator were very difficult for a significantly overweight person to secure (Rothblum, 1989). In fact, deLosa (1991) reported that the American Airlines manual clearly conveys that they seek women with a firm silhouette that is free of any improper bulges. Due to discrimination such as this, fat people are being pushed into lower paying, less prestigious jobs for which they are overqualified and in which they can conceal their weight from the public, such as telephone sales (deLosa, 1991;

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Rothblum et al., 1989). Ultimately, socioeconomic penalties, including lower incomes, higher rates of poverty, and downward social mobility of overweight women follows (Gortmaker et al., 1993). Relationship Discrimination It is less probable that overweight and obese individuals will be chosen as husbands and wives. A study that questioned college students on their life partner preferences demonstrated that fat people were rated last as desirable marriage partners after embezzlers, cocaine users, shoplifters, and blind people (Tiggemann & Rothblum, 1988). This social stigma has been shown to be more intense with regard to women’s relationships with men and peers than for men’s relationships with others (Miller, Rothblum, Brand, & Felicio, 1995; Tiggemann & Rothblum, 1988). This phenomenon is likely due to the heightened expectation placed on women to either conform to the social ideal for body build or otherwise to be considered a failure appropriate for social rejection. Medical Discrimination Finally, patients who are obese are more likely to be treated poorly and denied necessary medical services due to their weight than nonobese patients (see Puhl & Brownell, 2001, for review). In particular, obese patients, particularly those considered to be extremely obese, have reported being treated with disrespect by physicians, medical students, and other medical staff. Even among less severely obese women, whose mean BMI was 35.2, 13.2% reported that physicians said critical or insulting things to them about their weight, and 22.5% reported that they were at least sometimes treated rudely due to their weight (Wadden et al., 2000). Further, one third of the NAAFA survey respondents reported that they were called negative names by their health professionals and that they received rough treatment, verbal abuse, and harassment due to their weight (Rothblum et al., 1989). In addition to having to cope with inappropriate verbal reactions, overweight and obese individuals are less likely to receive medical treatment for a variety of reasons. In particular, obese women are less likely to receive certain preventive care services, such as pelvic examinations, Papanicolaou (Pap) smears, and physician breast examinations, than those who are not

obese (Puhl & Brownell, 2001; Wee et al., 2000). While some medical studies suggest this differential treatment may be due to difficulty in performing an adequate examination on an obese person (see Puhl & Brownell, 2001, for a review), or lack of time to attend to preventive care due to more serious problems associated with obesity (i.e., diabetes or hypertension), one quarter of NAAFA survey respondents report that they were refused treatment because they were fat (Rothblum et al., 1989). Some medical professionals are reluctant to believe that obese patients are telling the truth when they remark that they do not eat excessively (Rothblum et al., 1989) and blame ailments and complaints on their weight. Even before they were examined, medical staff have reportedly told NAAFA survey respondents that their illnesses were due to being overweight regardless of their medical complaint. Several others reported being misdiagnosed, such as a fat woman who was told incorrectly that she was not pregnant, just fat. Finally, they were told to lose weight before coming back. It is not surprising that some NAAFA members, especially women, have stayed away from necessary medical treatment because of fear of abuse or discrimination. CONCLUSIONS Studies of overweight people show that discrimination and negative feedback is common and salient in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Overweight and obese individuals (especially females) receive negative feedback about their bodies and are denied equal access to many resources during their development from young childhood through adulthood. Although data are limited by the focus on a predominantly European American, middle-class population, and more racially and ethnically diverse populations should be considered in body image research, it is apparent that fat children, adolescents, and adults are less likely to be chosen for friends, dates, marriages, and jobs, and are more likely to be picked on or rejected by others. It is necessary to further explore the types of feedback overweight females receive from others in America, as well as the possible short-term and long-term effects girls and women may endure in connection with the derogatory commentary, actions, and reactions they receive. Finally, from an applied standpoint, it is necessary to educate children and adults about the predominance

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of negative feedback aimed at overweight females in our society as well as the possible effects of offensive weight-related feedback. Media need to be held accountable for perpetuating negative feedback and asked to take some responsibility for how they portray overweight women on screen. Highly diversified television and movie characters that demonstrate the successes of women of all sizes may assist in changing the views of the American population. In addition, medical and health professionals should undergo a reeducation process about weight sensitivity. Women of all sizes need to be made to feel worthy of medical assistance and comfortable in asking for help. Dangerous consequences may develop otherwise. Perhaps when some of the leading professionals and media coverage begin to demonstrate the assets women of all sizes demonstrate rather than focusing on the deficits of being overweight, others will follow. Weight-related feedback may then become less pronounced, and feedback based on ideas, internal attributes, and mutual respect regardless of body size may ensue. —Robyn J. Abeles Silverman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Crandall, C. S. (1995). Do parents discriminate against their own heavy weight daughters? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 724–735. Davison, K. K., & Birch, L. L. (2001). Weight status, parent reaction and self concept in five-year-old girls. Pediatrics, 107, 46–53. deLosa, P. (1991). Fat chances: American Airlines discrimination suit for overweight bias. Fortune, 10, 155–156. Eisenberg, M. E., Neumark-Sztainer, D., & Story, M. (2003). Associations of weight-based teasing and emotional wellbeing among adolescents. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 157, 733–738. Gortmaker, S. L., Must, A., Perrin, J. M., Sobol, A. M., & Dietz, W. H. (1993). Social and economic consequences of overweight in adolescence and young motherhood. New England Journal of Medicine, 328, 1008–1012. Greenberg, B. S., Eastin, M., Hofschire, L., Lachlan, K., & Brownell, K. D. (2003). Portrayals of overweight and obese individuals on commercial television. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 1342–1348. Halpern, C. T., Udry, J. R., Campbell, B., & Suchindran, C. (1999). Effects of body fat on weight concerns, dating, and sexual activity: A longitudinal analysis of Black and White adolescent females. Developmental Psychology, 35, 721–736.

Hatfield, E., & Sprecher, S. (1986). Mirror, mirror . . . The importance of looks in everyday life. Albany: State University of New York Press. Herman, C., & Polivy, J. (1987). Social and psychological factors in obesity. New York: Erlbaum. Miller, C. T., Rothblum, E. D., Brand, P., & Felicio, D. (1995). Do obese women have poorer social relationships than nonobese women? Reports by self, friends, and coworkers. Journal of Personality, 63, 65–85. Puhl, R., & Brownell, K. D. (2001). Bias, discrimination, and obesity. Obesity Research, 9, 788–805. Rothblum, E. D. (1990). Women and weight: Fad and fiction. Journal of Psychology, 124, 5–24. Rothblum, E. D., Brand, P., Miller, C., & Oetjen, H. (1989). Results of the NAAFA Survey on Employment Discrimination. NAAFA Newsletter, 17. Rubinstein, S., & Caballero, B. (2000). Is Miss America an undernourished role model? Journal of the American Medical Association, 283, 1569. Solovay, S. (2000). Tipping the scales of injustice: Fighting weight-based discrimination. Amherst, NY: Prometheus. Strauss, R. S., & Pollack, H. A. (2003). Social marginalization of overweight children. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 157, 746–752. Tiggemann, M., & Rothblum, E. D. (1988). Gender differences in social consequences of perceived overweight in the United States and Australia. Sex Roles, 18, 75–86. Wadden, T. A., Anderson, D. A., Foster, G. D., Bennett, A., Steinberg, C., & Sarwer, D. B. (2000). Obese women’s perceptions of their physicians’ weight management attitudes and practices. Archives of Family Medicine, 9, 854–860. Wee, C. C., McCarthy, E. P., Davis, R. B., & Phillips, R. S. (2000). Screening for cervical and breast cancer: Is obesity an unrecognized barrier to preventive care? Annals of Internal Medicine, 132, 697–704. Wooley, S. C., Wooley, O. W., & Dyrenforth, S. (1980). The case against radical interventions. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 33, 465–471.

BODY TYPES, APPRAISALS OF While young people are often taught to “never judge a book by its cover,” our society, in actuality, conveys a different message. In Western culture, the slim body ideal is currently promoted as beautiful and good, while overweight body types are judged from bad to worse depending on how much one deviates from the ideal (Berscheid & Walster, 1974). In general, the thin body type, defined by a low Body Mass Index (BMI = weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-bust ratio (WBR), is associated with

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success, sophistication, attractiveness, and control, as well as with positive character virtues. In contrast, the fat or obese figure, defined by a high BMI, WHR, and WBR, is associated with laziness, lack of success and intelligence, unattractiveness, and poor self-discipline and blame (Hawks & Gast, 2000; Lewis, Cash, Jacobi, & Bubb-Lewis, 1997). Such messages pervade the media and are delivered and reinforced by the countless members of society who subscribe to these body standards and judge people accordingly. Evidence of these standards is apparent in young children. THE EMERGENCE OF BODY TYPE PREJUDICE IN CHILDHOOD Interestingly, this aversion toward chubbiness has been shown to begin at a very young age. While there is a lack of research on appraisals of overweight children who are not yet of school age, the existence of negative attitudes toward overweight body builds has been detected in preschool-aged children. In a recent research study (Cramer & Steinwert, 1998), children between the ages of 3 and 5 demonstrated the use of body size to categorize figures of different body build as “nice” or “mean.” Consistent with America’s cultural stereotype that maintains that “fat is bad,” 4- and 5-year-old children consistently labeled the chubby figure as “mean” and the thin figure as “nice.” While the aversion for chubbiness was stronger in children ages 4 and 5, preschool-aged children regardless of age ascribed more negative attributes to the chubby figure than to the thin figure. In addition, the children preferred the slender figures as playmates. Interestingly, these findings remained consistent, and in some cases were pronounced, among overweight preschool participants. Studies on kindergarten-aged children show body build awareness among young children (Lerner & Gellert, 1969). In fact, many children as young as 5 years of age are generally not only able to distinguish between differing body types but also exhibit a clear dislike for chubby appearances, in accordance with their culture’s values. In a series of early studies performed by Lerner and his colleagues (e.g., Lerner & Gellert, 1969), support was found for this phenomenon. Using three body build stimuli modeled after Sheldon’s terms, “endomorphic,” “mesomorphic,” and “ectomorphic,” but adopted only to denote round and plump, muscular and triangular, and thin and streamlined bodies, respectively, Lerner and his

colleagues were able to identify trends in children’s aversion to the endomorphic body type. For example, Lerner and Gellert (1969) found that of the 46 children in the sample, 86% of subjects expressed an aversion toward the chubby figures in the photographs shown to them during the course of their interviews. In particular, the majority of girls chose the endomorphic stimulus picture as the “girl they would not like to look like at all.” Moreover, chubby children also displayed this negative opinion toward chubbiness such that, as a group, although they could accurately identify photographs of chubby girls their age, they failed to accurately match their own endomorphic body type with the correct “chubby” photograph. This result may reflect the chubby children’s unwillingness to admit that they fit into the endomorphic category due their own adoption of the cultural aversion for fat figures. Similarly, other researchers over the past several decades have found that children of all weight groups display preferences for thin stimuli. When young children were given the opportunity to play with fat or thin rag dolls, every child, including those who were themselves fat and thus shared a likeness with the fat dolls, preferred to play with the thin dolls (Wooley, Wooley, & Dyrenforth, 1980). In addition, a recent replication of a 1961 study showed that when children are presented with pictures of children who were in a wheelchair, missing a limb, on crutches, disfigured, or obese, most young children voiced that they would least prefer to play with the fat child (Latner & Stunkard, 2003). Clearly, by 5 years of age, children have accepted the stereotypes about body build perpetuated by society. BODY APPRAISALS FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO COLLEGE While longitudinal research is rare, the aversion toward chubbiness has been shown cross-sectionally to continue into elementary and secondary school. School-aged children describe fat children as lazy, sloppy, dirty, stupid, dishonest, and ugly (Must, 1996). In addition, obese children, especially girls, are considered to be less self-disciplined and more self-indulgent than nonobese classmates. Moreover, as shown in a study of 500 participants, children ages 6 to 9 described fat people as having significantly fewer friends, being less liked by their parents, and doing less well in school (Hill & Silver, 1995) than

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their nonchubby counterparts. The same children judged those who did not fit with the chubby body figure as friendly, kind, polite, and happy. Schoolaged children similarly report that children describe classmates who are not fat as smarter, friendlier, happier, and more successful than peers with alternative body builds (Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1984). While obese school-aged and preadolescent girls are assessed negatively, the physical evaluations during adolescence may be more severe or seem more significant because the importance of physical appearance increases during this time. In other words, during adolescence, when children strive to be like each other, those who are “different” are apt to be judged harshly, while those who best “fit” are judged kindly. Thus, judgments made about physical body appearance are prominent in high school such that slim females are rated more positively than obese females, and students themselves aspire to be thinner than they are. Two thirds of girls believe that being thinner would have a positive impact on their lives (Paxton et al., 1991). High school students often view obese students more negatively because they feel that they are responsible for their condition. Dejong (1980) asked female high school students to view a photograph of an obese or nonobese peer, along with a written description that attributed obesity to a thyroid problem in half of the cases. The obese peers without the thyroid condition were rated as more self-indulgent and lazier than nonobese peers without the condition. Interestingly, when a thyroid condition was indicated, obese individuals were rated as more self-disciplined and personable than when no thyroid condition was present. A second study provided additional data on how much responsibility and blame is placed on obese adolescents. Obese stimuli described as having recently lost 25 pounds were rated as more self-disciplined and less self-indulgent than obese stimuli whose file did not indicate any loss of weight (Dejong, 1980). While obese individuals receive more favorable ratings when the weight can be attributed to a medical condition or when weight loss is reported, obese peers are considered unhappy and unattractive despite the reason for their condition. People other than peers make assessments of students based on their body build. Older children have to cope with teachers and other school officials who judge fat children and adolescents more negatively than other students. Perhaps because older children are

perceived to have more self-control, discipline, and self-choice than younger children, adults within the school context view older students as responsible for their appearance. Overall, teachers evaluate youth who are not fat as smarter, better able to get along with peers, and more likely to go to college and have parents who cared about their education (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986). In addition, teachers consider a young person’s misbehavior as more serious if the adolescent is unattractive rather than attractive. To test teacher prejudice empirically, researchers have used photographs of different-sized students to access teacher response. For example, in one study, 200 teachers were shown photographs of obese and normal-sized children (Schroer, 1985). They were asked to judge each student on perceived attractiveness, energy level, leadership ability, self-esteem, and ability to be social. Teachers judged those students who were fat or obese more negatively on all dimensions. Weight and appearance, therefore, seem to play a crucial role in how students are evaluated in school by both peers and teachers. As evidenced in studies on college-aged individuals, overweight and obese people continue to be viewed negatively in young adulthood. Among college students, obese students are often rated as less active, intelligent, popular, hardworking, athletic, and successful than students who were not obese. Tiggemann and Rothblum (1988) found that college students rated fat people as having lower tendencies for self-confidence, self-discipline, and attractiveness and higher tendencies for self-indulgence and laziness than their nonobese counterparts. Despite being perceived as friendly and warm, obese individuals were rated as less happy than nonobese students. Character judgments based on body build are also common during late adolescence and adulthood. Those who conform to the social ideal of the thin body type are seen as self-disciplined and good (Berscheid & Walster, 1974). Conversely, those who deviate toward endomorphy are subject to criticism about their lack of character virtues (Hawks & Gast, 2000). Not only have overweight people been described as lazy, lying, dirty, stupid, and cheating, but also as undisciplined and blameworthy (Hawks & Gast, 2000; Lewis et al., 1997). In fact, when a sample of college students were asked about the ability to control weight and whether weight gain is mostly a result of behavior or biogenetics, greater blame was placed on the weak nature of the individual

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than on biology (Lewis et al., 1997). Hawks and Gast (2000) similarly found that fat people are consistently held responsible for their body size despite the fact that many of them have no control over their condition. APPRAISALS OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE INDIVIDUALS IN ADULTHOOD While the school context is not an area that many people frequent after the completion of high school and college, adults still judge others on their physical appearance in other contexts. For example, studies that have examined the association between appearance and employment have found that physical attractiveness influenced applicant likability as well as perceived intelligence, skill, and employability (see Puhl & Brownell, 2001, for a review). In addition, attractive candidates are rated as more competent, friendly, experienced, decisive, and motivated than nonattractive applicants. Overall, physical attractiveness is typically associated with favorable expectations and potential. While one may assume that attractiveness and body weight are two different constructs, such that assumptions about weight and employment might be confounded by overall attractiveness, additional studies suggest otherwise. Not only do studies using photographs and line drawings of various body types equate overweight and obesity to unattractiveness (Tiggemann & Rothblum, 1988), but specific research on obesity and employment shows that very overweight individuals, especially women, are judged negatively even when physical attractiveness is controlled. For example, college students rated applicants for employability based on job résumés that were accompanied by photographs of fat or thin women that were matched for physical attractiveness (Rothblum, Miller, & Garbutt, 1988). The fat women were rated lower on supervisory potential, self-discipline, professional appearance, personal hygiene, and ability to perform than were thin women who had the identical résumés. Other studies report that obese applicants are seen as less competent, productive, organized, active, successful, aggressive, and ambitious than nonobese people (see Puhl & Brownell, 2001, for a review)—characteristics that are not desirable for potential employees. While several of these studies are based on simulated or hypothetical employment situations, they suggest that obese individuals will experience employment-related discrimination due to their weight.

While employment contexts seem to invite discrimination toward overweight and obese individuals, one may not expect that mental health professionals (e.g., psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and social workers), who are educated in the areas of interpersonal communication and counseling, discriminate against fat people. This seems to be especially true when evaluating obese women. When case histories, accompanied by photographs of women who appeared either of average weight, mildly obese (20% over average weight), or obese (40% over average weight), were evaluated by mental health professionals, they were more likely to judge moderately obese women more negatively in a variety of areas than average weight women. In particular, obese women were rated as higher on agitation, egocentrism, emotional behavior, impaired judgment, inadequate hygiene, stereotypical behavior, and total psychological dysfunction. Women were judged more negatively the more obese they appeared. Interestingly, while mental health professionals who were male, older, and of average weight rated obese women in this negative manner, female health professionals and younger specialists in the field assigned more negative ratings to the photographs of obese women overall. Physicians have also adopted stereotypical attitudes toward overweight and obese individuals. Clinicians tend to view obese patients as awkward and ugly as well as lazy, sad, and lacking in self-control. Results of a recent study about family physician attitudes regarding their obese patients indicate that 38.5% attributed lack of willpower as one of the most significant contributors to their patients’ obesity (Harris, Hamaday, & Mochan, 1999). It is not surprising that medical students appraise overweight and obese individuals similarly. While medical students rated moderately obese patients as ugly, awkward, weak, sad, and low in selfcontrol, they judged morbidly obese people more negatively. In addition to the appraisals they provided on the moderately obese patients, students viewed morbidly obese individuals as worthless, bad, and awful. Interestingly, these ratings remained unchanged even after the medical students spent two months treating extremely obese individuals. CONCLUSIONS Clearly, obesity has become stigmatized in American society among children, adolescents, and

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adults and in a variety of contexts. Despite the lack of longitudinal research, the consistency of results suggests that children learn that being fat carries negative connotations in our society, disapproving opinions are formed about overweight and obese individuals, and these beliefs are carried from childhood to adulthood. In essence, being overweight is imbued with powerful cultural stereotypes such that, regardless of age, those who significantly deviate from the thin body ideal receive harsh judgments about both their appearance and their strength of character. It is apparent, then, that the contextual messages about fat infiltrate the society such that one’s ability to “fit in” is at least partially dependent on one’s ability to avoid being fat throughout his or her development. There are several research questions that must be explored further in order to gain a more complete picture of the state of overweight females and those who judge them in America. For example, due to the limited longitudinal research on this topic, it is uncertain how young females are ultimately affected by harsh body appraisals in America. Age-specific and crosssectional studies are informative but restricted in their overall contribution to our understanding of how young people judge different body types over time. In addition, more detailed studies of minorities in America are needed to understand how the European American idea of beauty and thinness is infiltrating other cultural boundaries. Research that includes girls of different ethnicities in America is becoming more common but is still limited. Further, exploring the childhood assets of those people who do not judge women by their weight will aid in understanding what is necessary to break this superficial cycle. Similarly, studies that feature overweight women who may receive positive commentary about their appearance and positive judgments about their talents are necessary in order to better understand how these women, despite their weight, may be valued by others in America. From an applied standpoint, it appears imperative that a reeducation process of Americans on the topic of overweight body types and prejudice be instituted—especially during the preschool and kindergarten years, when such judgments seem to form. It is also critical, once we gain an understanding of how certain overweight girls remain sheltered from negative judgments, or perhaps more important, become objects of positive judgments, to ensure that such knowledge can be accessed by parents, educators,

program providers, and policymakers and become integrated into those institutions that serve young females. In essence, the more we learn about the sources of prejudice and the assets that lead to positive judgments of others or the self, the more it may become possible to help those young people who may not physically “fit” well within the appearance-laden parameters of the culture to ultimately thrive and succeed in American society. —Robyn J. Abeles Silverman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1974). Physical attractiveness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 157–215). New York: Academic. Cramer, P., & Steinwert, T. (1998). Thin is good, fat is bad: How early does it begin? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 19, 417–439. Dejong (1980). The stigma of obesity: The consequences of naive assumptions concerning the causes on physical deviance Journal of Health and Social Behaviors, 21, 75–87. Harris J. E., Hamaday, V., & Mochan E. (1999). Osteopathic family physicians’ attitudes, knowledge, and self-reported practices regarding obesity. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 99, 358–365. Hatfield, E., & Sprecher, S. (1986). Mirror, mirror . . . The importance of looks in everyday life. Albany: State University of New York Press. Hawks, S. R., & Gast, J. A. (2000). The ethics of promoting weight loss. Healthy Weight Journal, 14(2), 25. Hill, A. J., & Silver, E. K. (1995). Fat, friendless, and unhealthy—nine-year-old children’s perception of body shape stereotypes. International Journal of Obesity, 19, 423–430. Latner, J., & Stunkard, A. J. (2003). Getting worse: The stigmatization of obese children. Obesity Research, 11, 452–456. Lerner, R. M., & Gellert, E. (1969). Body build identification, preference, and aversion in children. Developmental Psychology, 1, 456–462. Lewis, R. J., Cash, T. F., Jacobi, L., & Bubb-Lewis, C. (1997). Prejudice toward fat people: The development and validation of the Anti-Fat Attitudes Test. Obesity Research, 5, 297–307. Must, A. (1996). Morbidity and mortality associated with elevated body weight in children and adolescents. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 63(3), 445S–447S. Paxton, S. J., Wertheim, E. H., Gibbons, K., Szmukler, G. I., Hillier, L., & Petrivich, J. L. (1991). Body image satisfaction, dieting beliefs, and weight loss behaviors in adolescent girls and boys. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20(3), 361–370. Puhl, R., & Brownell, K. (2001). Bias, discrimination and obesity. Obesity Research, 9, 788–805.

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Rodin, J., Silberstein, L. R., & Striegel-Moore, R. H. (1984). Women and weight: A normative discontent. In T. B. Sonderegger (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: 32. Psychology and gender (pp. 267–307). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Rothblum, E. D., Miller, C. T., & Garbutt, B. (1988). Stereotypes of obese female job applicants. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 7, 277–283. Schroer, N. A. (1985). Perceptions of in service teachers and pre-service teachers toward obese and normal weight children. Dissertation Abstracts International, 47/01-B, 434. Tiggemann, M., & Rothblum, E. D. (1988). Gender differences in social consequences of perceived overweight in the United States and Australia. Sex Roles, 18, 75–86. Wooley, S. C., Wooley, O. W., & Dyrenforth, S. (1980). The case against radical interventions. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 33, 465–471.

BONDING, PARENT-CHILD Bonding refers to the process whereby parents develop emotional ties to—fall in love with—their children. Even in the professional literature, the term is frequently confused with the term attachment, which refers to the reciprocal process by which infants develop emotional relationships with their parents. It is helpful to use different terms for these reciprocal processes because very different factors shape the formation of the two sorts of relationships. Adults are not constrained by the same cognitive and neuromaturational factors that constrain the pace of attachment formation. As a result, bonding tends to occur comparatively quickly, although the qualities of bonds surely change over time in response to changes in the parties, their interaction, and their circumstances. Around 1970, pediatricians named M. H. Klaus and J. H. Kennell (e.g., 1981) began to popularize the concept of bonding in a series of widely publicized journal articles and an integrative book. Drawing heavily on experimental research involving the development of mother-offspring relationships in a number of nonhuman species, Klaus and Kennell criticized the birthing practices that had become normative in many industrialized countries, including the United States. In these countries, mothers were typically heavily sedated and gave birth in surgical suites, where the preferences of obstetricians seemed to outweigh those of mothers-to-be. Fathers and other potential sources of support were kept at bay. As soon

as the babies exited the vaginal canal, they were whisked away by other medical professionals. New mothers were later given infrequent opportunities to see and hold their babies after they had been bathed, weighed, checked, and dressed. Both mothers and infants were likely under the influence of obstetrical medication in these early encounters, and the opportunities for interaction were limited by hospital regimes and routines. Klaus and Kennell, along with some nursing professionals and parent advocacy groups, strongly criticized these practices on the grounds that they were medically unnecessary and seriously impeded the opportunities for mothers (and fathers) to bond to their newborn infants. History has proved them right. Motivated in large part by the criticism and advocacy, birthing practices were “humanized” by the adoption of practices that put prospective parents rather than medical professionals in charge, while moving childbirth from antiseptic delivery rooms into birthing rooms, where the mothers-to-be could be accompanied and assisted by support persons such as their partners. After the babies were born, they were often placed on the mothers’ stomach or in the fathers’ arms, and medically necessary intrusions were minimized and timed so as to be as unobtrusive as possible. Countless parents have benefited from these changes, which are believed to facilitate the formation of parent-infant relationships. Perhaps in an effort to persuade a deeply suspicious and resentful medical establishment, however, Klaus and Kennell also overstated the importance of the earliest interactions between new parents (especially mothers) and their newborns (Eyer, 1992; Lamb & Hwang, 1982). In several reports, they argued that early skin-to-skin contact between mothers and newborns was necessary for bonding to take place, and that the relationships might be irretrievably disrupted when such contact was denied. These claims placed unnecessary stress especially on those new parents who were not able to have early contact with their infants, perhaps because they had to deliver via cesarean section or because the infants were adopted or born prematurely or unhealthy. In fact, subsequent research has shown that such parents are able to bond successfully and that the relationships with their children are in no way deficient. Neither early nor extended contact per se have long-term effects on the formation of parent-offspring bonds (Lamb, 1982). As might be expected, a number of factors shape the development of relationships between parents

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and their children. As Klaus and Kennell proposed, opportunities to interact in stress-free situations and to take advantage of the elation and excitement that characterize the first encounters between parents and their infants are clearly beneficial. The existence of supportive social networks and adequate material resources continue to promote deep and positive bonds as parents and children grow older, just as disharmony, social isolation, and financial distress continue to impede the development of bonds. In addition, the personalities of the parents and children, as well as the “goodness of fit” between them, may constrain or enhance the quality of the parent-child bonds formed and their changes over time. —Michael E. Lamb

See also ATTACHMENT, CHILD-PARENT

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Eyer, D. (1992). Mother-infant bonding: A scientific fiction. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Klaus, M. H., & Kennell, J. H. (1981). Parent-infant bonding. St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Lamb, M. E. (1982). Early contact and mother-infant bonding: One decade later. Pediatrics, 70, 763-768. Lamb, M. E., & Hwang, C. P. (1982). Maternal attachment and mother-neonate bonding: A critical review. In M. E. Lamb & A. L. Brown (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology: Vol. 2 (pp. 1–39). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

BORNSTEIN, MARC H. Marc H. Bornstein is probably best known for his research on parenting and children’s development around the world. Few people (particularly the younger generation) may realize that he began his research career by studying perception and perceptual development in infants, in particular infants’ perception of color (e.g., Bornstein, 1978). But a good research program raises more questions than it answers. In laboratory-based studies on infant habituation, Bornstein noticed that, other things being equal, infants habituated in different patterns and at different rates. This observation led him to question the origins of these individual differences, and he turned to infants’ experiences (beyond their genetic endowment) as one likely source. As he wrote in the Handbook of Parenting,

The developmental changes that take place in individuals during the 2½ years after their conception—the prenatal and the infancy periods— are more dramatic and thorough than any others in the lifespan. The body, the mind, and the ability to function meaningfully in and on the world all emerge and flourish with verve. That dynamism, in turn, engages the world, for infants do not grow and develop in a vacuum. Every facet of creation they touch as they grow and develop influences infants in return. These reciprocal relations in infancy ultimately cast parenting in a featured role. (Bornstein, 2002b, p. 12) This deduction led in two intertwined research directions. The first concerned aspects of infants’ experiences with parents and family life. The second concerned infants’ development of mental representation, which gradually expanded to the study of infants’ cognitive competencies more generally. What he learned from this early work was the importance of experience and environment to infant development. Bornstein’s research eventually broadened beyond his local community to include multiple sociodemographic groups and multiple cultures (Bornstein, 2002c), and grew into an investigation of patterns of parent-child interaction and their developmental sequelae for children in diverse sociodemographic and cultural contexts (e.g., Bornstein & Cote, 2001; Bornstein, Hahn, Suwalsky, & Haynes, 2003; Bornstein, Selmi, Haynes, Painter, & Marx, 1999; Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 1990). Marc H. Bornstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at the Boston Latin School. He received his BA from Columbia College, majoring in psychology. He completed both his MS and PhD in psychology at Yale University. His mentors at Yale were the well-known psychophysicist Lawrence Marks and developmental psychologist William Kessen. During his doctoral training, Bornstein was a Yale University Fellow, a U.S. Public Health Service Trainee, and in addition, he was a Yale University Prize Teaching Fellow. At Yale, Bornstein actually conducted two PhD studies in psychology. During the daytime he undertook a study of infant color vision, and during the nighttime he studied retinal psychophysics. Eventually the infant studies won out. After completing his doctoral training, Bornstein was a visiting scientist with the Czech pediatrician Hanuš Papoušek at the Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie in

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Germany, and he later returned to Yale as a U.S. Public Health Service Postdoctoral Research Fellow to pursue his investigation of infant color vision. Bornstein’s first academic appointment was to the faculty at Princeton University. While at Princeton, Bornstein was awarded the B. R. McCandless Young Scientist Award by the American Psychological Association’s Division of Developmental Psychology in recognition of his outstanding research in the field of developmental psychology. During his tenure at Princeton, Bornstein furthered his research on infant perception and cognition, including studies of symmetry and other perceptual processes, and broadened this research developmentally (to studies of children, adults, and the aged) as well as substantively (to other fields within cognitive psychology like memory and information processing, as well as to parent-child interaction). In the 1980s, the focus of Bornstein’s research shifted from an interest in cross-cultural differences in visual perception to cross-cultural differences in human behavior and development more broadly. Thus, he began his programmatic research on motherinfant interaction across cultures. Bornstein left Princeton for an appointment as professor of psychology and human development at New York University. He trained as a Child Clinical Fellow at the Institute for Behavior Therapy. Bornstein received support for his research from the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation and the National Institutes of Health under a Research Career Development Award. At NYU, Bornstein began spending time teaching and doing research in different cultures in Paris as professeur invité at the Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, in London at University College, in Paris again as professeur invité at the Laboratoire de Psychologie du Développement et de l’Éducation de l’Enfant at the Sorbonne, and as a visiting professor in the education department at the University of Tokyo. In 1988, Bornstein was appointed head of Child and Family Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in Bethesda, Maryland (http://www.cfr.nichd.nih.gov), which is part of the world-renowned National Institutes of Health. Since coming to the NICHD, he has expanded his research on mother-infant interaction to study infants and their families on six continents, including countries such as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, England, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Peru, South Korea, and the United

States. The significance of Bornstein’s research is manifold. One of its hallmarks is that, rather than studying “exotic” cultures, as many anthropologists or psychologists do, Bornstein’s research focuses on mainstream cultures within the countries listed. Although Bornstein studies urbanites, he recognizes that no culture is homogeneous. Toward these ends, Bornstein designs research studies to sample at least two different groups in each culture that constitute a meaningful comparison within the culture. He has studied northern and southern families in Italy, for example. In Israel, this translates into a comparison of parenting and children’s development among urban and traditional kibbutz families. Part of the genius of studying urban families is that with the high trend toward migration of the past half century and increasing globalization, countries and cultures are becoming increasingly urbanized. Thus, Bornstein is studying our future. Those who study exotic cultures, however interesting, are increasingly studying the past of particular cultures and our species as a whole. Bornstein’s newest line of research is the study of acculturating families: families for whom two cultures play a prominent role in their parenting goals, strategies, and behavior, and the implications of these for their children’s development. Bornstein’s contributions to the field of applied developmental science are monumental, despite the fact that they span only three decades. To date, he has published hundreds of research articles in the field’s leading journals, collaborated on approximately 100 book chapters, and authored or edited dozens of books, including advanced textbooks for developmental psychology and his five-volume Handbook of Parenting (Bornstein, 2002a). While a professor, he was awarded multiple research grants to support his research, from organizations such as the NICHD, National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation. Just as his research has focused on myriad cultures, Bornstein has contributed not only to developmental psychology in the United States but worldwide. He has been invited to give presentations at universities, symposia, and conferences in many countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Republic of South Korea, Poland, Scotland, Thailand, and the United States. He has published in many languages, including Chinese, Czech, French, German, Hebrew, Italian,

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Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, in addition to English. Thus, Bornstein’s research is far-reaching not just in terms of time but distance. In addition, he has trained dozens of students at many levels—undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral—many of whom themselves are continuing Bornstein’s methodologically rigorous, compelling, and applied research in many subfields of developmental science. He has served the field of developmental science as editor or on the editorial boards of dozens of journals, including Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Infant Behavior and Development, and Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. He has even founded his own journal dedicated solely to the art and science of parenting, Parenting: Science and Practice (http://www .parentingscienceandpractice.com), bringing the study of parenting to the forefront. He has also served on dozens of institutional, local, national, and international scientific panels and shared his expertise with publishers, media, and industry as a developmental psychology consultant. The importance of Bornstein’s scientific contributions have earned him honors and appointments to leadership positions in his field. For example, he was appointed editor of Child Development (1995–2001). He has received numerous accolades from national and international research foundations, some multiple times, including the American MENSA Education and Research Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Theodor-Hellbrügge-Stiftung, and the National Institutes of Health. In 1999 he was appointed principal scientist for parenting and childwell-being by the Center for Child Well-Being (http://www.childwellbeing.org), an organization dedicated to promoting the positive growth and development of children from birth to age 5 by supporting those responsible for children: parents. As a result of the revolutionary advances in genetics in the 1990s, the current zeitgeist encourages genetic explanations for human experience—everything from behavior, personality, and cognitive capacity to physical and mental illness. In our eagerness to embrace genetic explanations (and thus, one day, “cures”) for what ails us, we ought not forget the importance of experience and environment in moderating genes and influencing human growth and development. As Bornstein has noted, Even if some human characteristics are inborn and persist or modulate through time as a reflection

of biological endowment, others originate and develop on account of experience, and development proceeds on the interplay of endowed attributes in the context of interactions experienced. (Bornstein, 1989, p. 197) Thus, the totality of Bornstein’s work impresses upon us time and again the importance of environmental influences, in their many forms, on human development, and this is perhaps his greatest contribution to applied developmental science. At this point in history as at no other, this message bears repeating. —Linda R. Cote

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bornstein, M. H. (1978). Chromatic vision in infancy. In H. W. Reese & L. P. Lipsitt (Eds.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 12, pp. 117–182). New York: Academic. Bornstein, M. H. (1989). Between caretakers and their young: Two modes of interaction and their consequences for cognitive growth. In M. H. Bornstein & J. S. Bruner (Eds.), Interaction in human development (pp. 197–214). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.). (2002a). Handbook of parenting (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H. (2002b). Parenting infants. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 1. Children and parenting (2nd ed., pp. 3–43). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H. (2002c). Toward a multiculture multiage multimethod science. Human Development, 45, 257–263. Bornstein, M. H., & Cote, L. R. (2001). Mother-infant interaction and acculturation I: Behavioral comparisons in Japanese American and South American families. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 549–563. Bornstein, M. H., Hahn, C., Suwalsky, J. T. D., & Haynes, O. M. (2003). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development: The Hollingshead Four-Factor Index of Social Status and the Socioeconomic Index of Occupations. In M. H. Bornstein & R. H. Bradley (Eds.), Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Monographs in parenting series (pp. 29–82). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H., Selmi, A. M., Haynes, O. M., Painter, K. M., & Marx, E. S. (1999). Representational abilities and the hearing status of child/mother dyads. Child Development, 70, 833–852. Bornstein, M. H., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (1990). Activities and interactions of mothers and their firstborn infants in the first six months of life: Covariation, stability, continuity, correspondence, and prediction. Child Development, 61, 1206–1217.

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BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF AMERICA In 2006, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) will celebrate its centennial. Whereas local Boys Clubs existed since 1860, the national office was formed when 53 local organizations came together in 1906. For the more than 140 years of service to youth, local club professionals have seen a multitude of programs, concepts, and strategies. What have endured the test of time are seven key principles: 1. A mission of hope and opportunity 2. A focus on disadvantaged youth 3. A unique system of informal guidance 4. Ongoing relationships with caring adults 5. A Youth Development Strategy (YDS) 6. A commitment to character development 7. Fun, diverse, and interesting experiences Although all of these time-tested principles are critical for success in the next century of service, I focus on two of these principles here: ongoing relationships with caring adults, and the Youth Development Strategy. These two principles are not only the foundation for how club professionals engage young people, but they form the basis for local and national program development. MISSION, CORE BELIEF, AND PURPOSE The mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of America is to inspire and enable all young people, especially youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, to realize their full potential as caring, responsible, and productive citizens. Two things should be emphasized from this mission. Although BGCA serves all young people, it has a special interest in those young people who are most at risk. The mission focuses on character development. Through the array of national and local programs from sports to education, the purpose of the organization is to shape the character of the next generation of citizens in this country. BGCA believes it can shape this next generation of citizens through local clubs that provide

• A safe place to learn and grow • Life-enhancing programs and character development experiences • Ongoing relationships with caring adult professionals • Hope and opportunity Local clubs reach this mission by programming in five core areas: • • • • •

Character and leadership development Education and career development Health and life skills The arts Sport, fitness, and recreation

With each activity in each of these five core program areas, BGCA has developed more than 30 national programs for its local clubs. These proven, national programs range from Project Learn (an after-school education strategy) to Targeted Outreach (a gang prevention/intervention and reintegration program) to SMART Moves (an alcohol, tobacco, and pregnancy prevention program) and include external evaluations that demonstrate their effectiveness (Schinke, 1991, 1998). Coupled with these national programs, local club professionals have developed numerous programs that capture the hearts and minds of the young people in their communities. In every program, nationally or locally developed, club professionals design these activities with BGCA’s Youth Development Strategy in mind. The YDS states that club programs should provide young people with four essential “senses”: 1. A sense of belonging: a setting where young people know they “fit” and are accepted 2. A sense of usefulness: the opportunity to do something of value for other people 3. A sense of competency: the feeling there is something boys and girls can do and do well 4. A sense of influence: a chance to be heard and to influence decisions In essence, Boys & Girls Clubs are a neighborhoodbased, building-centered program, led by full-time professional staff who provide after-school and summer activities for all youth, but targeted at youth who are most at risk.

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HISTORY OF THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS MOVEMENT

WHAT BGCA DO: CONNECTING WITH YOUTH

The Boys & Girls Clubs Movement began in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. During this period, cities, especially in the Northeast, saw surges in their populations. Other than limited public schooling, there were few places outside of the home for adolescent boys to congregate. Many either worked long hours in factories or engaged in delinquent behaviors on the city streets. In Hartford, three compassionate ladies invited a group of street boys into their home for tea or coffee and cake. The positive behavior and obvious appreciation of the boys completely surprised the ladies, so they extended their hospitality several more times, with the same positive response from the boys. Along with several other supporters, the ladies resolved to find an available facility where the boys could come regularly. This facility, the Dashaway Club, was the first Boys Club. Eight years later, the Union for Christian Work opened the second club in Providence, Rhode Island. Reorganizing its services and changing its name, the Providence Boys Club is still recognized as the oldest Boys Club in continuous existence. The United Workers in New Haven, Connecticut, opened a club for boys in 1871. In 1876, the Boys Club of New York was established. The New York Club was the first organization to use the name “Boys Club.” Beginning in the mid-1880s, the Boys Club concept began to spread westward and southward. The Milwaukee Boys Club, the first in the Midwest, was established in 1887. The Colorado Springs Boys Club opened in 1888. Columbia Park Boys Club in San Francisco was established in 1891. The Nashville (Tennessee) Boys Club opened its doors in 1903. In 1906, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America was organized. In May 1906, a group representing 53 Boys Clubs met in Boston to form the Federated Boys Club and established its office in Boston. In 1915, the organization moved to New York. The name was changed to the Boys Club Federation of America in 1929, to Boys Clubs of America in 1931, and to Boys & Girls Clubs of America in 1990. This final name change represented the movement’s formal inclusion of service to both girls and boys. As of 2003, Boys & Girls Clubs of America serves 4 million young people ages 6 to 18 years old. These young people are served in 3,400 local clubs by 41,000 club professionals in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and in military bases in Europe and Asia.

Most youth development professionals have heard or said to one another, “One of the most important things we (clubs) do is provide adult interaction with our members.” Intuitively and anecdotally, they know the creation of strong, positive relationships with youth, especially at-risk youth, is not only one of the core features of clubs, but also one of the most important features. Because such information is conveyed in anecdotal form, most Boys & Girls Club professionals are not aware of the growing body of research that documents their intuition. As a result, most of them focus on more tangible features like buildings, equipment, or programs and activities as the critical aspects of youth development and prevention. This body of research suggests that the focus should be on the quality of the human interaction. As Ohio State Professor Dawn Anderson-Butcher concludes, these other features are simply “venues” for adult-youth interaction (Anderson-Butcher et al., in press). In this research, these relationships are referred to as connectedness and/or social capital. This research posits that social capital and connectedness have a significant effect on the health and well-being of young people. Focused on young people in schools, the research states this social capital and connection is a primary factor in the reduction of high-risk behaviors and negative social outcomes in young people. Some of the most recent findings come from data analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Using this database, researchers studied 12,000 surveys and their responses to questions about their perceived “connectedness” to school. Connectedness to schools is defined as youth (a) feeling close to people at school, (b) being happy to be at school, (c) feeling a part of the school, (d) being treated fairly by teachers, and (e) feeling safe at school. From their responses to this connection-toschools scale, researchers found that young people who felt connected to schools were less likely to (a) use alcohol and illegal drugs, (b) engage in violent behaviors, (c) become pregnant, or (d) experience emotional distress (Blum, McNeely, & Rienhart, 2002). Other studies, using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, found that teacher-based forms of social capital reduced the probability of at-risk youth dropping out of high school by one half (Croninger & Lee, 2001). Finally, in Bowling Alone, a book-length

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treatise on this subject, Robert Putnam (2000) summarizes this previous research: Child development is powerfully shaped by social capital. A considerable body of research dating back 50 years has demonstrated that trust, networks and norms of reciprocity within a child’s family, school, peer group and larger community have wide-ranging effects on the child’s opportunities and choices, and hence, on his behavior and development. Although the presence of social capital has been linked to various positive outcomes, particularly in education, most research has focused on the bad things that happen to kids who live and learn in areas where there is a deficit of social capital. The implication is clear: social capital keeps bad things from happening to good kids. (p. 296) CONNECTEDNESS AT WORK IN A BOYS & GIRLS CLUB Whereas this data is focused on youth’s relationships with schools and within families, it has serious implications for club programming. It suggests that the level of connectivity staff members have with members has a tangible value—capital—to youth. The value of this capital to youth is its ability to protect them from deviant social behaviors and negative social outcomes. Specifically, this connection and capital enables them to be healthier, both physically and emotionally. Moreover, this connection allows youth to observe socially acceptable models of behavior, receive critical guidance, and focus their energy on learning and succeeding academically (Croninger & Lee, 2001). For youth to experience connectedness in a local Boys & Girls Club, research suggests that many youth must go through two phases: attachment and commitment (Schaps, Battistich, & Solomon, 2004). Attachment is the club’s ability to meet a youth’s basic physiological and psychological needs (i.e., food/water, safety, warmth, peacefulness, security, freedom from fear, stability). For example, local clubs have a special interest in services to at-risk youth. Many of these youth come from homes where there are high degrees of uncertainty about such needs as food, warmth, shelter, and security. Well-run clubs by nature should provide some basic level of consistency in the child’s life. However, when a staff person

becomes aware of particular situations, the first task should be to work with that child (and parents, if possible) within the club setting to bring some stability to the child’s life. Commitment has two major steps: relationship building and social exchange of information. The relationship building is the phase when programs or activities are used as a platform for young people to interact and form bonds with adult leaders in the clubs. It is through these relationships and the ongoing, informal conversations that information, strategies, and values are exchanged. Furthermore, as the relationships grow, the more valued and thereby internalized is the information within the exchange. For example, when a youth decides to become a member of a club, he commits himself to the values, ethics, and norms of the staff and the organization. Different from an open-door recreation center, youth cannot psychologically drop in and drop out. Club membership means that the particular youth is making an active choice to attach himself to the group; he likes the group; he is part owner with the group; he likes the adults and wants to associate himself with them; he accepts their rules, values, and norms and will allow himself to be governed by them. Becoming connected with staff, youth align themselves with the values and norms of individual club staff. Within these connections, club staff become a model for their current and future behaviors as well as providing guidance in addressing particular areas of their lives. Long term, this conceptual model suggests that strong, vibrant relationships between club staff and youth not only address intellectual, physical, and social competencies but are a significant force in shaping the character development of members (Schaps et al., 2004). CONNECTEDNESS IN EARLY BOYS CLUBS This program model has its roots in the earliest Boys Clubs. As mentioned earlier, the United Workers opened a Club in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1871. After dispensing with a volunteer-driven model, they employed a young Yale University divinity student, John C. Collins, to conduct the program for the boys. He was paid $1.00 per week and meals in the coffee shop. Collins, the first individual to be paid for conducting a Boys Club program, is often referred to as “the Boys Club missionary,” and his philosophy of a

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youth interaction and club operation remains vibrant. Collins’s vision is kept alive through a historic letter from A. C. Campbell on the foundations of the movement. In 1965, Campbell composed a letter, the “A. C. Campbell Paper,” that outlined Collins’s notions of connectedness in a club. As Collins considered the great desire of street boys to play games, a brilliant idea flashed into his mind: All that was needed was to provide the games. All games needed supervision to see that the rules were properly maintained. Friendly adult supervisors were readily accepted by the boys. The supervisor who controlled the games controlled who played them, and street boys were quick to learn that good behavior was important. So, the provision of play was not merely to amuse the boys. It was first of all a method of getting boys off the street. Secondly, it was a method of behavior control, and thirdly, play was a therapy for establishing friendly relationships in which behavior is most easily influenced. From these initial concepts, Campbell concludes the letter by cajoling professionals to look past the physical features of a club and inspect the intangible relationships that exist between club staff and young people. The Boys Club system is very unique. It is completely different from any other method of work with boys. . . . Ever since the Boys Club came into existence, it has been described and explained by what was commonly observable about a Boys Club. . . . Centering attention on the building and the activities conducted therein has continuously misled us in what constitutes the Boys Club. The building and the activities are only important as they are a part of a system or means of accomplishing a specific purpose. . . . The Boys Club, when described in terms of its purpose, is a process, a method of taking boys off the street and improving their behavior. . . . People seem to overlook the fundamental requirements for the successful operation of any guidance system. The person in need of guidance has to be brought under control and conditioned to accept suggestions with respect

to attitude and behavior. With the street boy, this person has (1) to actually capture the boy under conditions in which he has no resentment and feels no restriction of his independence, (2) to retain contact with the boy long enough to establish friendly relations, and (3) to create a climate of confidence and trust in which guidance functions naturally and efficiently. The only system ever devised to successfully meet these conditions is the Collins Boys Club system. CONNECTEDNESS AND BGCA’S YOUTH DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY As Collins’s theories of youth work suggest, young people do not come to the club to have their character developed. Youth come to the club because it’s fun; they’re with friends; and they’ve bonded with adult staff members. They come to engage in the gamesroom, sports and recreation action, computer lab activities (Anderson-Butcher et al., 2003; Deutsch & Hirsch, 2002; Gambone & Arbreton, 1997). Thus, club professionals must strategize ways to actively engage young people while subtlety guiding them in a specific direction. The primary strategy for doing this is the Youth Development Strategy. As stated earlier, the YDS posits that club programs should provide club members with four components. Three of the four components of the YDS directly address the embedded concepts of connectedness. The sense of belonging addresses the tangible relationships that have been developed in the club. It demonstrates the level of attachment and commitment young people feel for the club. In Deutsch and Hirsch’s (2002) study, they asked young people if they felt a “sense of home” at the club. Seventy-three percent of the members reported an emotional connection to the club. Most of the club members linked this feeling to their relationships with adults and other youth in the club. Similarly, the sense of usefulness addresses whether young people feel good about themselves, whether adults have conveyed to them the value of personhood, and whether young people feel they have something to contribute to society. In the same study, youth who felt at home reported, “They care about me; they’re concerned about my school and all that . . .” (Deutsch & Hirsch, 2002). The sense of influence addresses young people’s voice, value, and future accomplishments. Again, youth in the study

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conveyed the sense of influence they received by saying, “People here always listen to you and help you if you have a problem, just like your parents do . . . tell you what to do and what not to do so you won’t get into trouble” (Deutsch & Hirsch, 2002). The third component of the Youth Development Strategy—a sense of competence—has an indirect effect on the connectedness of young people to the clubs. Whereas the feelings of belonging, usefulness, and influence epitomize the connectedness of members to the clubs, competence can be seen as a pathway to the other three. In a club setting, youth’s existing feeling of competence may be the link that bridges the period of time when they do not have strong emotional ties to the club (Mahoney & Cairns, 1997). For example, an immigrant Latino youth coming to the club for the first time may feel alienated from the staff, the youth, and the institution. However, his interest and ability to play soccer within interclub leagues may keep this youth attending long enough to feel a sense of belonging, usefulness, and influence at the club. Similarly, a former gang member reintegrating into society via the club may find this initial connection to a particular club staff member through ongoing, one-on-one games of basketball. Through his connection to this staff person, this former gang member may discover new friends and adhere to a revised set of social norms. In summary, staff-member relationships, especially through the Youth Development Strategy, are a powerful protective factor for young people. Anderson-Butcher (in press) concludes, “Staff-youth relationships likely serve as a sort of glue further engaging and retaining youth’s membership and involvement in the program over time.” CONCLUSIONS What does this mean for BGCA as it moves into its second century of service? What does this mean for the youth development professionals in Boys & Girls Clubs? Strategically, BGCA wants to deepen its impact on the young people served through (a) increasing the attendance levels of members, (b) implementing a core of high-impact programs in all clubs, and (c) focusing on character development as the core outcome of the work. Practically, this research would suggest rethinking the program development strategy. It suggests focusing on the more intangible elements of club programming. This means club staff should spend more time creating

safe environments (physically and psychologically) for young people. They should spend as much time building and documenting strong bonds between youth and adults as they do implementing skill-, strategy-, and information-based curricula. It suggests that the most important program is the creation of an ongoing conversation with young people, beginning at 6 years of age and never ending. It suggests that the clubs’ effectiveness rests on the quality of staff hired and their ability to communicate with young people. Finally, this research suggests that if Boys & Girls Clubs are to achieve the mission of developing “responsible, caring and productive citizens” (i.e., character development), clubs must remain “caring communities” that satisfy young people’s basic psychological and physiological needs. Clubs must redouble efforts toward developing strong, vibrant, and caring relationships with all club members (Schaps et al., 2004). —Carter Savage

See also YOUTH PROGRAMS; OUT-OF-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anderson-Butcher, D., et al. (2003). Participation in Boys and Girls Clubs and relationships to outcomes. Journal of Community Psychology, 31(1), 39–55. Anderson-Butcher, D., et al. (in press). Institutions of youth development: The significance of supportive staff-youth relationships. Anderson-Butcher, D., & Fink, J. (in press). The importance of a sense of belonging to youth service agencies: A risk and protective factor analysis. Blum, R. W., McNeely, C. A., & Rienhart, P. M. (2002). Improving the odds: The untapped power of schools to improve the heath of teens. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Center for Adolescent Health and Development. Croninger, R. G., & Lee, V. E. (2001, August). Social capital and dropping out of high school: Benefits to at-risk students of teachers’ support and guidance. Teacher College Record, 103(4), 548–581. Deutsch, N., & Hirsch, B. (2002). A place called home: Youth organizations in the lives of inner city adolescents. In T. Brinthaupt & R. Lipka (Eds.), Understanding early adolescent self and identity: Applications and interventions. Albany: State University of New York Press. Gambone, M. A., & Arbreton, A. J. A. (1997). Safe havens: The contributions of youth development organizations to healthy adolescent development. Philadelphia: Public/ Private Ventures. Mahoney, J. L., & Cairns, R. B. (1997). Do extracurricular activities protect against early school dropout? Developmental Psychology, 33(2), 241–253.

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Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Schaps, E., Battistich, V., & Solomon, D. (2004). Community in school as a key to student growth: Findings from the child development project. In R. Weissberg, J. Zinc, & H. Walberg (Eds.), Building school success on social and emotional learning. New York: Teachers College Press. Schinke, S. (1991). The effects of Boys & Girls Clubs on alcohol and other drug use and related problems in public housing. Unpublished report. Schinke, S. (1998). Thirty-month data and process findings: Evaluation of educational enhancement program of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Unpublished report.

BRAIN MAPPING Several noninvasive techniques are available today to map the structure and function of the human brain during development; the most frequently used ones are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) (Paus, 2003; Toga & Mazziotta, 2002).

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING Magnetic resonance imaging is the only technique that allows the researcher to measure both structure and function of the brain. MRI is based on the following principles: Nuclei that have an odd number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) possess both a magnetic moment and an angular momentum (or spin). In the presence of an external magnetic field, such nuclei precess (or wobble) around their axis at a rate proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, emitting electromagnetic energy in the process. The hydrogen atom contains only a single proton, and therefore precesses when exposed to a magnetic field. In the majority of MRI studies, precessing nuclei of hydrogen associated with water and fat are the source of signal. The signal is generated and measured in the following way: First, the subject is exposed to a large static magnetic field (B0) that preferentially aligns hydrogen nuclei along the direction of the applied field. In clinical scanners, the strength of B0 is most often 1.5 Tesla (or 15,000 Gauss; for comparison, the Earth’s magnetic field is about 0.5 Gauss), and it is oriented horizontally pointing from head to toe along the long axis of the cylindrical magnet. Second,

a pulse of electromagnetic energy is applied at a specific radiofrequency (RF) with an RF coil placed around (or near) the head. The frequency is selected to be the same as the frequency of precession of the imaged nuclei at a given strength of B0; for hydrogen, this “resonant” frequency is about 64 MHz at 1.5 T. The RF pulse rotates the precessing nuclei away from their axes, thus allowing one to measure, with a receiver coil, the time it takes for the nuclei to “relax” back to their original position pointing along B0. The spatial origin of the signal is determined using subtle position-related changes in B0 induced by gradient coils (these generate the knocking noise heard during scanning). STRUCTURAL MRI Contrast in structural MR images is based on local differences in (a) proton density, that is, in the number of hydrogen nuclei per unit of tissue volume, or in (b) either of the following two relaxation times: longitudinal relaxation time (T1) or transverse relaxation time (T2) (Pike & Hoge, 2000). Quantitative measurements of T1 and T2 relaxation times are not carried out frequently, however. In the majority of MR studies, some combination of proton density-, T1-, and/or T2-weighted images are acquired instead. In these acquisitions, the MR signal is repeatedly measured (with a repetition time, TR) at one time point (so-called time to echo, TE) after the application of each RF pulse. Local differences in relaxation times are reflected in the image contrast simply because, at a given TR/TE combination, the MR signal has already recovered (T1) or decayed (T2) more in regions with short T1 (or T2) and vice versa. For this reason, tissue with short T1 (white matter) shows high MR signal and appears bright on T1-weighted images, whereas tissue with long T2 (grey matter) shows high signal and is bright in T2-weighted images (see Figure 1). While proton density reflects the amount of signalemitting nuclei present in the tissue (primarily water), relaxation times and therefore tissue “brightness” on T1- and T2-weighted images depend on a variety of biological and structural properties of the brain tissue, all of which vary as a function of age. Content of water is one of the most important determinants influencing T1 in the brain; to simplify, the more water there is in a given tissue compartment, the longer T1 and the lower the signal on a T1-weighted image will

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Figure 1

MR images acquired in a 15-year-old individual (sagittal sections).

be in that compartment. In the adult brain, T1 is the longest in cerebrospinal fluid, intermediate in grey matter, and the shortest in white matter. Content of (hydrophobic) lipids in white matter may also influence T1 through magnetic interactions with hydrogen nuclei of the lipids. Content of iron is another important factor influencing primarily local magnetic inhomogeneities; the higher the content of iron, the shorter T2. Finally, the anatomic arrangement of axons may influence the amount of interstitial water and, in turn, T1 values; more tightly bundled axons would have shorter T1 and therefore appear brighter on T1weighted images. Several other MR techniques are used to image specific structural properties of the brain. Thus, the preferred direction of movement of water molecules along the axons is the basis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Chemical composition of the brain is studied with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF MR IMAGES Structural images are color-coded representations of MR signal measured throughout the brain and localized into individual 3D elements of the brain image (i.e., voxels); each image consists of a set of 2D matrices (slices), each of which in turn consists of a number of rows and columns (e.g., 256 [rows] by 256 [columns]) containing values corresponding to the measured signal at a given location. It is therefore relatively straightforward to apply various computational approaches to analyze such 3D matrices. For example, the following morphometric features can be quantified in each individual using fully automatic procedures: volumes of grey and white matter in the whole

brain and its main subdivisions (e.g., frontal lobe), size/volume of well-demarcated brain regions (e.g., corpus callosum or caudate nucleus), variations in the shape of large (e.g., frontal pole) or small (e.g., central sulcus) morphological entities or those in the cortical thickness (Paus et al., 2001). The latter two types of analyses are typically carried out throughout the brain, that is, on the voxel-wise basis. Such voxelwise comparisons of various age (or clinical) groups are also used to assess the “density” of grey and white matter (see Figure 2). FUNCTIONAL MRI The chief motivation for functional neuroimaging is identification—in time and space—of neural circuits associated with particular sensory, motor, and cognitive functions and their development, from infancy through adolescence. The high spatial resolution of functional MRI (fMRI) makes this technique ideal for determining where in the brain changes in neural activity occur. In the majority of fMRI studies, task-related changes in local hemodynamics are inferred from changes in the so-called blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signal. As its name suggests, BOLD signal is based on our ability to detect, with MRI, changes in blood concentration of deoxyhemoglobin. Deoxyhemoglobin is paramagnetic and, as such, it acts as an endogenous contrast agent that creates microscopic magnetic-field inhomogeneities in the sampled tissue. These local inhomogeneities increase the rate of decay of transverse magnetization, that is, shorten T2 and T2* relaxation times. Upon neural activation, the disproportionate increase in local blood flow “dilutes” the amount of deoxyhemoglobin and, in turn, reduces the amount of local

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signals are intra- and extracellular currents, or field potentials, elicited by the activation of excitatory and inhibitory synapses. Spatial and temporal summation is necessary, however, to generate signals strong enough to be detected from outside the head. Such a summation occurs most often during simultaneous excitatory inputs onto apical dendrites of pyramidal cells; the apical dendrites are for the most part oriented in parallel with each other and are perpendicular to the cortical surface. Release of excitatory neurotransFigure 2 Age-related changes in white matter density in the mitter causes a local change in membrane internal capsule (left) and the left arcuate fasciculus potential, namely excitatory postsynaptic (right). The thresholded maps of t-statistic values (t > potential (EPSP). Each EPSP generates a 4.0) are superimposed on axial (capsule) and sagittal potential gradient along the membrane that, in (arcuate) sections through the magnetic resonance turn, gives rise to the field potential. image of a single subject. The images depict the exact brain locations that showed statistically EEG detects field potentials regardless of significant correlations between white matter density their orientation relative to the skull. In conand the subject’s age (n = 111; age: 4–17 years). trast, MEG can measure only magnetic fields Source: Paus et al. (1999). perpendicular to the skull. Such fields are generated by tangential current dipoles and, due to the orientation of pyramidal cells and their apical dendrites in the cortex, reflect inhomogeneities. This leads to a positive signal on primarily postsynaptic activity occurring in the cereT2*-weighted images. bral sulci. In a typical BOLD-based fMRI study, a set of T2*To record EEG, electrodes need to be attached to weighted images is acquired. Each 2D image has a the scalp; this can be done in various ways. The most given thickness (e.g., 5 mm) and size (e.g., 64 by 64 secure method is gluing electrodes to the head with pixels); if the field of view is a 320- by 320-mm collodion and then applying electrode jelly through a square, the resulting in-plane pixel size would be 5 by small hole in the center of a concave electrode. But 5 mm. To cover most of the cerebrum, about 25 conthe use of multiple (32, 64, or 128) electrodes makes tiguous 5-mm-thick slices need to be acquired; the this method impractical, and different types of elecexact number of slices depends on the brain size and, trode caps are employed. To record fluctuations in the to some extent, on slice orientation. Once the full (weak) magnetic signal, sensitive measuring instruset of slices has been acquired, the whole process is ments are operated in magnetically shielded rooms. repeated many times to collect the entire time series of The basic element of all commercially available fMRI data. Depending on the experimental design, the MEG systems is the SQUID sensor (Superconducting time interval between the acquisitions of each set of QUantum Interference Device). Current MEG systems slices can range from a couple of seconds (block contain between 122 and 306 channels covering the design or rapid event-related fMRI) to tens of seconds entire convexity of the two cerebral hemispheres. (slow event-related fMRI). Analysis of EEG and MEG data for brain mapping purposes focuses typically on two domains: (1) eventELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY (EEG) related potentials and (2) event-related synchronAND MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY (MEG) ization or desynchronization of brain activity. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are stimulus-locked Compared with fMRI, more direct and real-time small (2–20 µV) potential changes extracted from measurements of electrical and magnetic signals genthe ongoing “background” EEG activity by averaging erated by brain tissue are recorded by EEG and MEG tens of brief EEG epochs surrounding the stimulus. (Niedermeyer & da Silva, 1999). EEG and MEG are The latency and amplitude of individual ERP compothe methods of choice for determining when changes nents can be quantified in the individual averages; this in neural activity occur. The main sources of these

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is usually done at an electrode yielding a prototypical waveform. Localization of the brain sources of a given ERP component, or any other feature of the EEG signal, from the scalp-recorded potentials is a complex undertaking carried out with various mathematical algorithms designed to solve the “inverse” problem. Acquisition of structural MR images of the subject’s brain, together with the recording of the exact scalp position of the electrodes, facilitate greatly the localization of the neural generators. Event-related synchronization (ERS) and desynchronization (ERD) allow one to study changes in spontaneous rhythmic activity of the brain elicited by different events. Unlike ERPs, ERDs and ERSs are typically not phase-locked to the event onset; the temporal relationship between an event and EDR/ERS is less sharp, developing over a period of tens of milliseconds. —Tomáš Paus

See also TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY; SCHOOL ADJUSTMENT

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Niedermeyer, E., & Lopes da Silva, F. (Eds). (1999). Electroencephalography: Basic principles, clinical applications, and related fields (4th ed.). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. Paus, T. (2003). Principles of functional neuroimaging. In R. B. Schiffer, S. M. Rao, & B. S. Fogel (Eds.), Neuropsychiatry (2nd ed., pp. 63–90). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins. Paus, T., Collins, D. L., Evans, A. C., Leonard, G., Pike, B., & Zijdenbos, A. (2001). Maturation of white matter in the human brain: A review of magnetic-resonance studies. Brain Research Bulletin, 54, 255–266. Paus, T., Zijdenbos, A., Worsley, K. D., Collins, D. L., Blumenthal, J., Giedd, J. N., et al. (1999). Structural maturation of neural pathways in children and adolescents: In vivo study. Science, 283, 1908–1911. Pike, G. B., & Hoge, R. D. (2000). Functional magnetic resonance imaging: Technical aspects. In K. L. Casey & M. C. Bushnell (Eds.), Pain imaging: Progress in pain research and management (pp. 157–194). Seattle: IASP Press. Toga, A., & Mazziotta, J. (Eds.). (2002). Brain mapping: The methods (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: Academic.

BRONFENBRENNER LIFE COURSE CENTER The mission of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center (BLCC) at Cornell University is to foster

collaborative research, outreach, and educational efforts dedicated to understanding the forces and experiences that shape human development throughout all stages of the life course. It aims to promote an understanding of existing and emerging challenges to effective functioning of individuals and families across the life course, and to identify promising solutions, according to Phyllis Moen, founding director of the BLCC and its director for a decade. Moen’s own life course contributes to her scholarly commitment to the concept. (See Moen, 2001, and Moen, in press, for an autobiographical statement.) BLCC is a universitywide center at Cornell, housed in the College of Human Ecology. The center, created during the tenure of Francille M. Firebaugh (dean of the College of Human Ecology from 1988 to 1999), receives core support from the college and the provost’s office. BLCC evolved from the Life Course Institute that was established in January 1992. As early as 1990, Phyllis Moen wrote about the proposed formation of a “Cornell Life Course Studies Center,” with the conclusion that such a center can make a significant contribution to this “pivotal area of concern” by not fixating on the past or tinkering with outmoded and ineffective systems and policies. Rather, she proposed that as a nation we can invent new ways of designing our institutions and fashioning our lives, adopting as matters of national policy basic structural changes, including a redesign of the life course, that better fit with today’s and tomorrow’s realities. The choice can be ours if we are willing to strike out in new directions with our research and education programming. Such structural accommodations can substantially reduce the personal strains and career costs born disproportionately by women who struggle to combine work and family roles. But they also can provide to both men and women, young and old, greater latitude in shaping their own lives, and enhance the adaptive capability of families. Equally important, these structural changes can engender a more stable and productive workforce in an era when economic growth depends on our success in applying our human resources. (Moen, 1990, internal memo) In 1994, the Life Course Institute was renamed the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center in recognition of Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner’s scholarship and

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leadership in linking basic research to social policy. Moen described Bronfenbrenner’s contributions in the request to name the Center for him: The Life Course Institute embodies the lifelong effort of Urie Bronfenbrenner to promote a multidisciplinary, processual and ecological focus on families and lives, and to conduct policyrelevant basic research about human behavior and societal trends addressed to our nation’s problems. As such, the institute is a fitting tribute to one of Cornell’s, and indeed one of the nation’s most distinguished social scientists, and it can become a legacy of Urie’s contributions to science, to society, and to the university community. (Moen, 1993, internal memo) The Life Course Institute was and its successor BLCC is committed to fostering cross-campus involvement. From the early years, through the efforts of Director Phyllis Moen and Associate Director Donna Dempster-McClain, an ongoing colloquium series provides an opportunity to critique papers and concepts and to stimulate exchange among the participants. An Innovative Research Award Program makes grants to people across the campus who already have major proposals ready to seek external funding. According to Moen’s experience at the National Science Foundation (NSF), first proposals were often rejected, and most of the applicants did not reapply. The purpose of the Innovative Research Awards is to help investigators make their applications stronger. Each proposal to BLCC is reviewed by a panel of retired scholars who offer detailed critiques and suggestions for making the proposal more competitive. Forty projects involving 70 faculty members were funded in the first decade, in amounts ranging from $8,000 to $15,000. The Bronfenbrenner Center became home for several institutes, beginning with the Cornell Gerontological Research Institute (CGRI), funded in 1993 by the National Institute of Aging as a Roybal Center on Applied Gerontology, with funding continuing through 2008. In the first 5 years, under the direction of Karl Pillemer (professor of human development) and Phyllis Moen, the center focused on social integration in later life, with goals such as promoting volunteering after retirement, enhancing informal social support for family caregivers, improving transportation services for rural older persons, and

promoting neighboring behaviors. From 1998 to 2002, CGRI researchers investigated social integration in specific contexts of life course transitions with projects examining ways to create a more supportive interpersonal environment in nursing homes, negotiating role transitions and job changes in late midlife, and developing better measures of social integration and isolation. Under Pillemer’s leadership, CGRI will continue as a Roybal Center for at least an additional 5 years. Another important program under the umbrella of BLCC is the Pathways to Life Quality Project, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, in which a large number of the first cohort of a continuing care retirement community were interviewed in 1995–96 and reinterviewed in the summer of 1997. In 1998, additional interviews were conducted with a sample of residents of other senior living facilities and a representative sample of community members 60 years of age and older. These 1,000 respondents were interviewed again in 2000 and 2002. To date, 14 faculty members and more than 150 undergraduate students from Cornell University and Ithaca College have been involved in the study. Phyllis Moen (replaced in the summer of 2001 by Elaine Wethington, associate professor in Human Development at Cornell) and John Krout, director of the Gerontology Institute at Ithaca College, provide exemplary leadership for the Pathways to Life Quality Project. The Family Business Research Institute (FBRI) was the first family business program to focus on the family side of the issues and to take a leadership role for family business research. Ramona Heck instituted the program and led it until she accepted a position at Baruch College. Of major significance was the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to Moen to establish the Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute. Since its inception in January 1997, the mission of the institute has been to enlarge the understanding of the dramatic changes that have occurred in families and work and their intersections throughout the life course. Like the Bronfenbrenner Center itself and the programs under its umbrella, the Careers Institute engages in a threepronged agenda of research, training, and outreach. It has fielded a range of surveys that include extensive life history data and that locate respondents within particular employing organizations and/or particular neighborhoods. The result is the Ecology of Careers Panel Data, which offers a total sample of 4,637 individuals and 1,914 couples and opens possibilities for multilevel analyses to examine the couple, organizational,

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and geographic contexts of work and family careers, as well as the study of middle-class community life as it intersects with work and family careers. The educational/ training component has supported 20 predoctoral fellows and 11 postdoctoral fellows and engaged 32 members of the Cornell faculty. Outreach efforts focus on the dissemination of research findings and interpretation via books, reports, journal articles, issue briefs, presentations at major conferences, and interviews with the media. The Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center sponsors a series of symposia, conferences, distinguished speakers, visiting professors, and an abundance of publications, including a working paper series, issue brief/fact sheets, journal articles, book chapters, and major books. Director Moen’s unusually strong leadership of the program, her prodigious publications, and her unwavering commitment have been supported by Associate Director Donna Dempster-McClain, whose steady and insightful assistance and leadership of the undergraduate gerontology program have made a remarkable difference in the center. Books that resulted from conferences and research associated with BLCC are included in the References and Further Readings. BLCC has entered a new phase with Phyllis Moen’s move to the University of Minnesota as the McKnight Presidential Chair in Sociology. The national search for a new director is under way, with a strong commitment from the College of Human Ecology and Cornell University to continue the outstanding work accomplishment of the Moen and Dempster-McClain years. —Francille M. Firebaugh and Donna Dempster-McClain

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bronfenbrenner, U., McClelland, P., Wethington, E., Moen, P., & Ceci, S. J. (1996). The state of Americans: This generation and the next. New York: Free Press. Krout, J. A., & Wethington, E. (Eds.). (2003). Residential choices and experiences of older adults: Pathways to life quality. New York: Springer. Moen, P. (2001). Constructing a life course. Marriage and Family Review, 30(4), 97–109. Moen, P. (Ed.). (2003). It’s about time: Couples and careers. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Moen, P. (in press). Unscripted: Continuity and change in the gendered life course. In B. Glassner & R. Hertz (Eds.), Our studies, ourselves. London: Oxford University Press.

Moen, P., Dempster-McClain, D., & Walker, H. A. (1999). A nation divided: Diversity, inequality, and community in American society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Moen, P., Lüscher, K., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (1995). Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pillemer, K., Moen, P., Wethington, E., & Glasgow, N. (Eds.). (2000). Social integration in the second half of life. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.

BRONFENBRENNER, URIE Urie Bronfenbrenner has had a profound, enduring, and generative influence on our understanding of human development. As a teacher, he has influenced generations of Cornell University students. Many of his students have gone on to earn distinction as scholars in their own right. His introductory course in human development was so popular that only Cornell’s concert hall could hold all the students, and some years they spilled over into a second lecture hall connected via closed-circuit TV. Among the many thousands of students who took that course, some who became social scientists credit him with teaching them how to design research when they were freshmen. His teaching extends to detailed critiques on work in progress that he generously provides to colleagues and young scholars on campus and around the world. Born in Moscow in 1917 and emigrating to the United States at the age of 6, Bronfenbrenner has retained his fluent command of Russian throughout his long career as a developmental scientist. In the course of his readings he became aware of the work being done by leading faculty at Moscow University, all of whom had been colleagues and disciples of Lev Vygotsky—then no longer living, but now generally recognized as one of the outstanding theorists and designers of social programs that were successful not only in halting dysfunctional development but also in producing increased competence over the subsequent life course. Bronfenbrenner felt that the Russian scientific literature would also be of interest to developmental scientists in the United States, and he began to refer to it in his publications. But at the time, not knowing the realities of the programs under way, he did so only briefly. Then, in 1954, Bronfenbrenner had an opportunity to speak with some of these scholars at an international

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meeting in Montreal, and discovered that quite a few of them were familiar with his work and were interested in establishing a program of exchange visits between Cornell University and Moscow University. Shortly thereafter, the exchange began with several visits by Bronfenbrenner, which laid the groundwork for his book Two Worlds of Childhood (1970). These were soon followed with return visits to Cornell by Professor Alexander Vladimirovich Zaporozhits, who had primary responsibility at Moscow University for the design, direction, and scientific assessment of programs that had as their stated goal “the constructive development of children and youth,” and that included both families and schools as partners. As the program continued, other faculty and staff from both universities participated in the exchange, as did, eventually, faculty and staff from other universities as well as from government agencies in both nations. The exchanges continued until the mid-1980s, when the joint research reached completion and many of those involved had retired or were no longer living. In addition to designing creative studies himself, Bronfenbrenner has continually discovered gems hiding in data collected by others. The most impressive of his reinterpretations would today be called a metaanalysis of research on parental practices. Taking a set of findings that others had found inconclusive at best, Bronfenbrenner (1958) separated subjects by the nature of the father’s employment—manual and nonmanual (admittedly crude but the best that the data allowed). He also distinguished studies according to the age of the children. Finally, he ordered the published studies by the dates when the data had been collected. This more differentiated analysis revealed a clear historical trend toward greater permissiveness, with middle-class parents leading the way. On a much smaller scale, but similarly impressive as an intellectual feat, Bronfenbrenner extracted from a study of low-birth-weight infants (Drillien, 1964) the complex and theoretically important finding that the impact of mothers’ responsiveness (on an index of behavior problems at age 4) varied with family social class and with the severity of low birth weight. In brief, maternal responsiveness reduces problem behavior; it has its largest impact on children in the lowest social class and, within that class, on those of normal birth weight (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998). The achievement for which he is best known is systematizing and communicating the way of thinking that led to these insightful interpretations. Known by

the title of his 1979 book, The Ecology of Human Development, this way of thinking has two main axes. One, to which the book is primarily devoted, applies to the environment or the contexts in which development occurs. Bronfenbrenner conceives of that environment as a hierarchy of four systems, nested one inside the other like Russian dolls. The microsystem is the immediate setting that includes the developing person, for example, the home or classroom, and what happens in that setting. Key aspects of a child’s microsystem are the activities that the child engages in over time, the relationships he or she has with significant others, and the roles the child plays in that setting. Influenced by the Soviet psychologist Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner is especially interested in the joint activities that occur between adults and children that contribute to the growing competence of children. However, drawing on Freud, Bronfenbrenner emphasizes that these joint activities are especially powerful influences on development if the adult and child share a strong, mutual emotional attachment. A mesosystem is the system of microsystems in which the child spends time and the links among them. For example, children spend time at home and school, and each of these microsystems is important for their development. However, the relations between home and school are also important for their development. What kind of communication occurs between home and school? Do parents and teachers respect each other and work together on behalf of the children? Are their goals and practices compatible? These are questions about the mesosystem. The third level, the exosystem, refers to settings that do not ordinarily include the child but can, nonetheless, influence his or her development. A good example is the parent’s workplace. Circumstances at work may affect the time and energy that parents have to spend with children or the parents’ moods and overall psychological well-being. Another example is a school board meeting. Although the child may never attend a school board meeting, what happens at the meeting may have a significant impact on the child’s experiences in school. The macrosystem includes the culture, subculture, and social and economic system in which the other settings are embedded. It includes cultural beliefs and values, public policies and programs, and social norms that influence how institutions and individuals conduct their day-to-day business. Social class,

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race, and ethnicity are part of the macrosystem, but Bronfenbrenner warns that simply identifying people and groups by their “social address” is inadequate. We must understand how such influence affects development. Bronfenbrenner’s conception of the environment has made researchers more cognizant of both proximal (e.g., parent-child relationships) and distal (e.g., the parents’ workplace, government policies) influences on children’s development, of interactive as opposed to unidirectional influences, and of the importance of connections within and among systems. The propositions and hypotheses he set out to explicate this conception continue to stimulate research and shape interpretations of data almost a quarter of a century later. However, Bronfenbrenner became increasingly dissatisfied with that research because it has been more about contexts than about development. Therefore he set out in a series of essays to restore the centrality of the developing person. The resulting bioecological model incorporates process, person, context, and time (PPCT). Proximal processes occur at the microsystem level, where people interact face to face. They also include “solo activities with objects and symbols” (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998, p. 1013). “Proximal processes are posited as the primary engines of development” (p. 996). The characteristics of the persons who engage in proximal processes matter. For example, when a child and an adult interact, the characteristics of both affect the developmental process: some adults are more nurturing than others; some children are more curious and more open to new experiences than others. Some person characteristics are genetically endowed; others result from the interaction of this endowment with experience. Environmental contexts (at all four nested levels) vary in the opportunities and supports they afford for development. They are not immutable; the developing person selects and shapes contexts as well as being influenced by them. By definition, development occurs over time. It is also cumulative; those whose development has been fostered at one time are better able to take advantage of future development-enhancing opportunities. Bronfenbrenner stresses that enduring social relationships are most likely to foster development. Time also refers to the historical period in which a person

develops, which affords some kinds of developmental opportunities more than others. Some of the key ideas emerging from the bioecological model are succinctly expressed in the following propositions (Bronfenbrenner, 2001): Proposition II. Over the life course, human development takes place throughout life through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active evolving biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment. To be effective, the interaction must occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time. Such enduring forms of interaction in the immediate environment are referred to as proximal processes. Proposition III. The form, power, content, and direction of the proximal processes producing development vary systematically as a joint function of the characteristics of the developing person (including genetic inheritance); the environment—both immediate and remote—in which the processes are taking place; the nature of the developmental outcomes under consideration; and the continuities and changes occurring in the environment over time, through the life course, and during the historical period in which the person has lived. (p. 6965) One of the many provocative propositions and hypotheses that flow from this framework illustrates its value. Acknowledging that development is not always positive, Bronfenbrenner notes that “the effects of proximal processes vary systematically depending on the developmental outcome,” and distinguishes outcomes that enhance competence from those leading to dysfunction. He hypothesizes that: The greater developmental impact of proximal processes on children growing up in disadvantaged or disorganized environments is to be expected mainly for outcomes reflecting developmental dysfunction. By contrast, for outcomes reflecting developmental competence, proximal processes are posited as likely to have greater impact in more advantaged and stable environments. (Bronfenbrenner, 2000, p. 132)

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In other words, proximal processes can be expected to have their strongest impact on negative outcomes for disadvantaged children and youth but on positive outcomes for the advantaged. This hypothesis is illustrated with yet another imaginative re-analysis, this time with data collected by Small and Luster (1990) relating parental monitoring to school performance (GPA) in three family forms: two-parent, single mother, and mother with stepfather, and separately for boys and girls. The effect of parental monitoring (a proximal process) was strongest in families with two biological parents when the mother had some education beyond high school. Bronfenbrenner also found that parental monitoring had a stronger effect on the achievement of girls than boys. This was true for all three family types, but strongest for girls whose mothers had more than a high school education (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998, pp. 1003–1005). Consistent with his hypothesis, for a positive outcome (GPA) the effect of the proximal process is strongest in the most advantaged families, whereas in the Drillien (1964) study, the negative outcome (problem behavior) was most strongly affected by a promixal process (maternal responsiveness) in the least advantaged families—but for the children of normal birth weight. Throughout his career, Bronfenbrenner has challenged researchers to study human beings in the settings where they live and grow rather than relying largely on laboratory experiments. He coined the term “ecological validity” to mean “the extent to which the environment experienced by the subjects in a scientific investigation has the properties it is supposed or assumed to have by the investigator” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 29). He also champions “developmental science in the discovery mode,” implicitly rejecting the conventional notion that only “research in the verification mode” is rigorous (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998, pp. 999–1001). Urging researchers to look beyond the laboratory manifests Bronfenbrenner’s commitment to improving the lives of people and families. For him, the purpose of understanding human development is to promote human development. He has pursued this purpose directly as an adviser to policymakers. He was one of the founders of Head Start and has influenced other legislation through published work and extensive testimony and consultation. He has also welcomed opportunities to speak and write for educators, human service professionals, parents, and the public.

His teaching ability enables him to communicate effectively with people who are not scholars, without patronizing. Rather than just simplifying, his approach is to learn about his audience first, then to relate his message to their concerns, and on that basis to challenge them with complex ideas. The message Bronfenbrenner has delivered loudest and longest is a warning that chaotic forces in the macrosystem threaten the capacity of American families “to make human beings human.” In The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next (1996), he and his colleagues amass data to show that, relative to other developed nations, youth in the United States are more likely to be victims or perpetrators of homicide, become teenage parents, and eventually spend time in prison. Children in the United States are more likely than children in other developed countries to live in poverty and in single-parent households. He has consistently maintained that in order to develop optimally, children need to engage in progressively more complex activities on a regular basis for an extended period of time with someone who is committed to the child’s well-being and with whom the child develops a mutual emotional attachment. As he memorably synthesized the research in a congressional hearing and elsewhere, “Somebody has to be crazy about the kid.” He has also pointed out that the primary caregiver and the child are more likely to engage in such activities and develop these emotional attachments if another adult provides support and encouragement for the primary caregiver and also shares in child care and household tasks. While this is typically the father, single parents may also receive support from another adult in the home, or key members of the social network outside the home, such as relatives, neighbors, or friends. Bronfenbrenner attributes the origins of his ecological perspective to his personal history. Being born in Russia but brought up in the United States, he has always had the dual perspective of the immigrant. In the Russian cultural tradition, science and the arts are not so separate as in the West. His mother nurtured his love of music and literature, and Russian literature has always influenced his thinking about people in society. He learned about ecology in the natural world from his father, a physician, who, after arriving in the United States, was employed at Letchworth Village, a state institution for developmentally delayed individuals in downstate New York. In long walks around the grounds of the institution, his father, who also had a

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degree in zoology, would ask why the same plant looked so different in two different locations and then point to such factors as moisture, shade, wind, and soil type to illustrate the complex interdependencies between an organism and its physical environment. Living on the institution’s grounds as a boy, the young Urie had daily contact with clients who had been labeled “feebleminded,” but who nonetheless made valued contributions to their small community. He noticed that many became markedly more competent when given both the opportunity to contribute and the support they needed to do so. He was also influenced by the boys in the Pittsburgh neighborhood where he lived briefly upon arriving in the United States. His multiracial, multiethnic gang taught him how to “play fair,” especially in baseball, a lesson he came to see as fundamental to being American. They taught him to speak English in the process, which made him the family’s translator of both the language and the culture. In addition to reinforcing his dual perspective, this experience led him to view the peer group as a complement to the family in the socialization of children, a view that motivated some of his earliest research and led him to reject the assumption implicit in much research that the family operates in isolation. Cairns and Cairns (1995) saw in his thesis research, published in the early 1940s, part of the theoretical and methodological foundation for contemporary developmental science. These articles also foreshadow his lifelong advocacy of closer correspondence between theory and design. Bronfenbrenner received his BA in 1938 from Cornell University, with majors in psychology and music. He then received an MA from Harvard University and a PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1942, one day before being inducted into military service. Bronfenbrenner was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, where he participated in developing methods to assess the capability of potential spies. His colleagues included Theodore Newcomb, Edward Tolman, Kurt Lewin, and Henry Murray. Lengthy after-hours discussions with these luminaries extended his education. He especially enjoyed talking to (and singing with) Lewin, whose formulation that behavior is a function of the interaction between characteristics of the person and the environment strongly influenced Bronfenbrenner’s conception of the ecology of human development. At the end of World War II, Bronfenbrenner took a position as assistant professor of psychology at the

University of Michigan, but was soon lured to Cornell University in 1948, with a joint appointment in psychology, in the College of Arts and Sciences, and in child development and family relationships in the College of Home Economics. Although colleagues warned him to keep his distance from the lower-status college, he was drawn to the department where people worked directly with children and families and where strong women faculty members invited him to learn from and contribute to their extension activities around the state. He maintained his primary identification with that department throughout his career and is now the Jacob Gould Sherman Professor of Human Development and of Psychology, emeritus. Cornell has honored him by establishing the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center. He has received numerous other honors, including honorary degrees from universities around the world. Perhaps most fittingly, the American Psychological Association gave him its first Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society in 1996, and named the award for him. —Stephen F. Hamilton and Tom Luster

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bronfenbrenner, U. (1958). Socialization and social class through time and space. In E. E. Maccoby, T. M. Newcomb, & E. L. Hartley (Eds.), Readings in social psychology (pp. 400–425). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1970). Two worlds of childhood: US and USSR. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1995). The bioecological model from a life course perspective: Reflections of a participant observer. In P. Moen, G. H. Elder Jr., & K. Lüscher (Eds.), Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 599–618). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1999). Environments in developmental perspective: Theoretical and operational models. In S. L. Friedman & T. D. Wachs (Eds.), Measuring environment across the life span (pp. 3–28). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2000). Ecological systems theory. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 129–133). New York: Oxford University Press.

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Bronfenbrenner, U. (2001). Human development: Bioecological theory of. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds. in Chief), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. New York: Elsevier. Bronfenbrenner, U. Urie Bronfenbrenner Web site at Cornell University. Available at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/ ub11/ Bronfenbrenner, U., & Ceci, S. J. (1994). Nature-nurture reconceptualized: A bioecological model. Psychological Review, 101, 568–586. Bronfenbrenner, U., McClelland, P. D., Wethington, E., Moen, P., & Ceci, S. (1996). The state of Americans: This generation and the next. New York: Free Press. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (1998). The ecology of developmental processes. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theory (5th ed., pp. 993–1028). New York: Wiley. Cairns, R. B., & Cairns, B. D. (1995). Social ecology over time and space. In P. Moen, G. H. Elder, & K. Lüscher (Eds.), Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 397–422). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Drillien, C. M. (1964). Growth and development of the prematurely born infant. Edinburgh and London: E&S Livingston. Elder, G. H., Jr. (1998). Transcripts of interviews with Urie Bronfenbrenner for the Society for Research in Child Development, October 25. Hamilton, S. (2002). Face-to-face interview with Urie Bronfenbrenner, July 24. Luster, T. (2001). Telephone interview with Urie Bronfenbrenner, August 23. Moen, P., Elder, G. H., & Lüscher, K. (Eds.). (1995). Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Silbereisen, R. K. (1986). Entwicklung und ökologischer Kontext: Wissenschaftsgeschichte im Spiegel persönlicher Erfahrungen—Ein Interview mit Urie Bronfenbrenner (Development and ecological context: History of science in the mirror of personal experience—an interview with Urie Bronfenbrenner). Psychology in Erziehung und Unterricht, 33, 241–249. Small, S., & Luster, T. (1990, November). Youth at risk for parenthood. Paper presented at the Creating Caring Communities Conference, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. White, S. H. (1998). Transcripts of interviews with Urie Bronfenbrenner for the Foundation for Child Development, December 4.

BROOKS-GUNN, JEANNE In the late 1960s, I fell in love with developmental psychology as an undergraduate at a small liberal arts

college, Connecticut College (at that time a women’s college). Psychology was appealing from the first course, and I don’t remember ever thinking about another major after my freshman year. I still have a copy of my first developmental study (including the raw data, now-faded yellow mimeographed questionnaires on beliefs and feelings toward Hanukkah and Christmas holidays of conservative and reform Jewish children and Unitarian and Methodist Protestant children). My interests in developmental psychology coalesced when Eleanor Heider joined the faculty. She espoused a unique blend of cognitive and social psychology. My senior thesis was based on Lawrence Kohlberg’s work, so I applied to a master’s program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Moving to Cambridge in the fall of 1969 was a jolt: All of a sudden, the academic nurturing so common in women’s colleges at the time was replaced by big research university life and the obvious discrepancy between how female and male graduate students were perceived and often treated. I joined a woman’s group of Harvard graduate students almost immediately. I spent a year taking courses from professors whose work had become very familiar during my undergraduate years (Thomas Pettigrew, Courtney Cazden, Sheldon White). All were concerned with policy and equity. My interest in these topics came, I believe, from my activist church youth group (a focus on civil rights and literacy programs). My doctoral research was more theoretical, though, combining social and cognitive perspectives on the development of a sense of self. Work with Michael Lewis at the University of Pennsylvania and then the Education Testing Service on social cognition and the acquisition of self (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979) was exciting and rewarding. While at Penn, I helped initiate the Women’s Studies Program, which led to an interest in how females defined and revised their sense of self as a result of reproductive events, and how social cognitive processes as well as context influenced experiences such as menarche, dysmenorrheal, and so-called premenstrual blues (Brooks-Gunn & Matthews, 1979). Diane Ruble and I began a research collaboration on this topic. Even in the face of some skepticism (some colleagues recommended against doing reproductively oriented research, as it was not in the mainstream of psychology), our menarche results were relevant for social cognition and the self (BrooksGunn & Ruble, 1982). This research led to an interest in the socialization experiences of girls around the

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time of puberty, as well as the context in which girls experience puberty. Viewed from a historical perspective, the end of the 1970s found my research interests solidifying around central conceptual themes: social cognition and self, contextual features of key developmental transitions, and increasingly, the relationships that are central to redefinitions and adaptation. In the early 1980s, I initiated discussions at the Johnson and Johnson Company about pubertal health education, given that girls received most of their early information about puberty from the pamphlets and films produced by the feminine products industry. I had always cared about how developmental research could be used to promote well-being and equity. The result was an updating of their classic film on menarche, a conference on “Girls at Puberty,” and an edited volume with Anne Petersen (Brooks-Gunn & Petersen, 1983). At the end of the conference, I was determined to continue work on puberty, but with more of a focus on the intersection of pubertal changes (not just menarche), contextual influences, relationships, and biology. I was introduced to Michelle Warren, a reproductive endocrinologist at Columbia University. Here was a highly respected physician who had been studying behavior as well as physical consequences of hormonal dysfunction, and wanted to collaborate. We prepared a research agenda and spent 2 years trying to obtain funds to start it. The Adolescent Study Program continues today (with more than 20 years of continuous funding). We were interested in a variety of interlocking issues, including (a) the biological (including hormonal) and environmental contributions to adolescent girl’s behavior; (b) the antecedents and consequences of delayed puberty; (c) the emergence of specific forms of developmental psychopathology during adolescence; (d) the formation of gender identity and changes in self-definition; (e) the meaning and salience of pubertal events; (f) links among exercise, nutrition, and bone growth; and (g) the interaction of person and environmental characteristics using dancers and swimmers as case studies (see BrooksGunn, 1996; Paikoff & Brooks-Gunn, 1991, for autobiographic perspectives and articles). More recently, we have examined stress reactivity, racial differences in pubertal experiences, mother-daughter relationships, and prevention of eating problems (e.g., Graber, Archibald, & Brooks-Gunn, 1999; Graber, BrooksGunn, Paikoff, & Warren, 1994).

I also became curious about other transitional periods, first considering other reproductive events, specifically pregnancy, early parenthood (a natural for someone who had studied infants), and midlife (end of reproduction and, usually, living with one’s children). Being invited to attend several meetings sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the Aspen Institute consolidated interest in life span approaches (thanks to scholars like Paul B. Baltes, Orville G. Brim Jr., Richard M. Lerner, and Glen H. Elder Jr.). Frank Furstenberg (who also attended these meetings) and I decided to conduct a follow-up of his Baltimore Study of Teenage Motherhood (which started as an evaluation of a program for teenage mothers in the late 1960s). The children of these mothers were now 16. Furstenberg was at Penn, and I was by then a senior research scientist at the Educational Testing Service. The intersection of life courses for the teenage mothers and their children, as well as an emphasis on the variability of outcomes for teenage mothers, was the topic of our book, Adolescent Mothers in Later Life (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987). Work continued on intergenerational issues, sexuality, parenting, and grandparenting (see Brooks-Gunn, 2001, for autobiographic perspectives and articles). The 1980s could be characterized as the enlargement of the adolescence agenda, a focus on pregnancy and early parenthood transitions (Deutsch, Ruble, Fleming, Brooks-Gunn, & Stangor, 1988), and a move toward more direct policy concerns and more interdisciplinary work. My interest in young children also continued but took a turn toward the integration of research with practice and policy, unlike the childhood work of the 1970s, which had focused on social cognition and self (those themes moved into a study of puberty, pregnancy, early parenthood, and midlife). I began doing research on at-risk and delayed young children, many of whom were studied in the context of early childhood intervention programs, and became curious as to the efficacy of such programs. Three such evaluation opportunities arose in the 1980s, the first having to do with examining the impact of Head Start on a large sample of poor children in a three-city study conducted by Educational Testing Service (Lee, Brooks-Gunn, Schnur, & Liaw, 1990). The second was the opportunity to develop an outreach program at Harlem Hospital. Marie McCormick and I designed an intervention, helped implement it, and busily set about evaluating it. Meeting with the

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outreach workers several times a month, in clinics throughout Harlem, I was provided a first-rate education on how difficult it is to implement an intervention, how top-down approaches to behavior change are not effective, and how beliefs and child rearing are contextually situated (and therefore resistant to change by outside agents). This experience altered my approach to research and to policy forever. It deepened my feelings about racism and equity. The third opportunity emerged through discussions with Ruby Hearn (at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) about the possible efficacy of early childhood intervention programs for biologically and environmentally at-risk children. The foundation initiated a large multisite clinical trial in 1985, testing the efficacy of an early childhood intervention (home visits and center-based child care) from birth to age 3 on the health and development of low-birth-weight, premature children. I was extremely fortunate to “be at the table” during the design, site selection, implementation, and analyses phase. The involvement in such a large program was exhilarating. The program had very large positive effects on the children (e.g., Hill, Brooks-Gunn, & Waldfogel, 2003). The 1990s began with the arrival of a son, a blessed event for my husband and me. Work life changed, of course. However, becoming a parent in the middle of one’s career rather than at the beginning had its advantages. I was working with a fabulous group of postdoctoral fellows and colleagues on the aforementioned projects. In 1991, I was contacted about a position at Columbia University’s Teachers College. A new center and chaired professorship had been endowed by Virginia and Leonard Marx. The goal was to integrate research, policy, and practice on children and youth. While Educational Testing Service had been a wonderful research home, the opportunity to start a policy center was too good to pass up. In 1992, the Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University, began. I am proud that each year we have seven postdoctoral research scientists, eight faculty affiliates, 8 to 10 graduate fellows, and many, many masters’ students. The center runs a summer fellowship program in policy and has trained more than 1,030 graduate students from across the country and from a variety of disciplines in the past decade. In 2000, Sharon Lynn Kagan joined the Teachers College faculty, and we have codirected the center (renamed the National Center for Children and Families) ever since.

My research became even more policy oriented. I was asked to coedit, with Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, a special section of Developmental Psychology on studying lives through time as well as policy issues using national data sets (Brooks-Gunn, Phelps, & Elder, 1991). Nazli Baydar and I (1991) wrote a piece on effects of maternal employment in the first year of life on children’s well-being, a piece inspired by my infant son (work that has continued with Jane Waldfogel and Wen Han and others; e.g., BrooksGunn, Han, & Waldfogel, 2002). I also joined a SSRC committee on the urban underclass, where a working group was formed to examine the effects of neighborhoods on children and families. This wonderful group provided a conceptual link between the sociological theories of neighborhoods with the more developmental psychological constructs. We conducted and published a series of complementary data and conceptual analyses of neighborhood effects (Neighborhood Poverty, Vols. 1 and 2, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, & Aber, 1997a, 1997b). Taking advantage of housing policy changes, our group is exploring—via experimental design—how moves out of public housing in high-poverty neighborhoods into less poor neighborhoods affect child, youth, and family wellbeing in two studies (Moving to Opportunity and the Yonkers Project; e.g., Fauth, Leventhal, & BrooksGunn, in press; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000, 2003). In addition, I have become a scientific director (along with Tony Earls, Robert Sampson, and Stephen Raudenbush) of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, in which more than 6,000 children in seven age cohorts (ages 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18) were sampled from 80 randomly selected neighborhoods in Chicago and are being followed over time (other components of the study focus on evaluating neighborhood processes). Across these various studies, of particular importance is understanding the processes through which neighborhood effects might operate on child and family outcomes, such as family relationships, institutional resources, or collective efficacy (e.g., Brooks-Gunn, Fuligni, & Berlin, 2003). At the same time, I had the good fortune to become a member of the NICHD Research Network on Child and Family Well-Being (which was funded for a decade). Greg Duncan and I had met through the SSRC and began work on the effects of poverty and income on children and youth (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 1997), which has expanded to an examination of the pathways

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through which income might influence children (e.g., Yeung, Linver, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002). Another line focuses on welfare reform (Chase-Lansdale & BrooksGunn, 1995) as well as effects of other policy regimes on children (e.g., Brooks-Gunn, 2003). Most recently, I am collaborating with Sara McLanahan, Irv Garfinkel, and Chris Paxon on the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Project, which charts the lives of mothers and fathers following the birth of their child in the early 2000s. Unmarried couples (and a sample of married couples) in 20 cities are being seen, in order to understand the processes that influence couple relationships, cohabitation, and child well-being (e.g., Garfinkel, McLanahan, Tienda, & Brooks-Gunn, 2001). I have also become intrigued with the biological, social cognitive, relational, and environmental mechanisms underlying socioeconomic gradients in health and development that emerge in childhood and adolescence. This work has allowed me (at last) to merge my interests in equity, policy, social cognition, biobehavioral interactions, and relationships together. Much of my research in the next decade will be devoted to tying these conceptual threads together, as well as looking at biological indicators of stress and discrimination in minority and nonminority children living in integrated neighborhoods. The 1990s also meant more policy-oriented service, including three National Academy of Science/ Institute of Medicine Committees (Measurement of Poverty, Child Abuse and Neglect, and Behavioral Aspects of HIV), advisory board memberships (Institute for Research in Poverty of the University of Wisconsin, the Joint Center for Research on Poverty of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy Institute of Harvard University), and policy network memberships (NIMH Family Research Consortium, the MacArthur Network on Work and the Family, the Brookings Institute Roundtable on Children, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s Human Development Committee). All of these networks not only promote policy research but also disseminate work to appropriate national, state, and local policymakers. Sheila Kamerman, Lawrence Aber, and I started Columbia University’s Institute for Child and Family Policy, an exciting interdisciplinary, international endeavor (e.g., Aber, Gershoff, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002). I became a professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons department of pediatrics.

I also served as president of the Society for Research in Adolescence (SRA) in the mid-1990s, devoting my presidency to promoting policy research. In 1996, I received SRA’s John P. Hill Award, for a lifetime of excellence in theory development and research on adolescence. From the American Psychological Association, I have been blessed with three awards (the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for my lifetime contribution to developmental psychology from the Developmental Psychology Division; the Nicholas Hobbs Award for policy work from the Children, Youth and Families Division; and the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy). In 1998, I received the Vice President’s National Performance Review Hammer Award, for my participation in the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. In 2002, I received the Mes McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the American Psychological Society, and in 2004 I was elected the Margaret Mead Fellow by the American Academy of Political and Social Science (see BrooksGunn, 2001, for more a extensive autobiographic history). —Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Aber, J. L., Gershoff, E. T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2002). Social exclusion of children in the United States: Identifying potential indicators. In A. J. Kahn & S. B. Kamerman (Eds.), Beyond child poverty: The social exclusion of children (pp. 245–286). New York: Columbia University. Baydar, N., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1991). Effects of maternal employment and child-care arrangements on preschoolers’ cognitive and behavioral outcomes: Evidence from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Developmental Psychology, 27(6), 932–945. Brooks-Gunn, J. (1996). Unexpected opportunities: Confessions of an eclectic developmentalist. In M. Merrens & G. Brannigan (Eds.), The developmental psychologists: Research adventures across the lifespan (pp. 152–171). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Brooks-Gunn, J. (2001). Autobiographical perspectives. In Models of achievement: Reflections of eminent women in psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 275–292). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Do you believe in magic?: What we can expect from early childhood intervention programs. Society for Research in Child Development Social Policy Report, VVII(1). Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G. J., & Aber, J. L. (Eds.). (1997a). Neighborhood poverty: Vol. 1. Context and consequences for children. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

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Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G. J., & Aber, J. L. (Eds.). (1997b). Neighborhood poverty: Vol. 2. Policy implications in studying neighborhoods. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Brooks-Gunn, J., Fuligni, A. S., & Berlin, L. J. (Eds.). (2003). Early child development in the 21st century: Profiles of current research initiatives. New York: Teachers College Press. Brooks-Gunn, J., Han, W. J., & Waldfogel, J. (2002). Maternal employment and child cognitive outcomes in the first three years of life: The NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 73(4), 1052–1072. Brooks-Gunn, J., & Matthews, W. (1979). He and she: How children develop their sex-role identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Brooks-Gunn, J., & Petersen, A. C. (Eds.). (1983). Girls at puberty: Biological and psychosocial perspectives. New York: Plenum. Brooks-Gunn, J., Phelps, E., & Elder, G. H. (1991). Studying lives through time: Secondary data analyses in developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 27(6), 899–910. Brooks-Gunn, J., & Ruble, D. N. (1982). The development of menstrual-related beliefs and behaviors during early adolescence. Child Development, 53, 1567–1577. Chase-Lansdale, P. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1995). Escape from poverty: What makes a difference for children? New York: Cambridge University Press. Deutsch, F. M., Ruble, D. N., Fleming, A., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Stangor, C. (1988). Information-seeking and self-definition during the transition to motherhood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(3), 420–431. Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Fauth, R. C., Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (in press). Short-term effects of moving from public housing in poor to affluent neighborhoods on low-income, minority adults’ outcomes. Social Science and Medicine. Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Morgan, S. P. (1987). Adolescent mothers in later life. New York: Cambridge University Press. Garfinkel, I., McLanahan, S., Tienda, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2001). Fragile families and welfare reform. Children and Youth Services Review, 23(4/5), 277–301. Graber, J. A., Archibald, A. B., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1999). The role of parents in the emergence, maintenance, and prevention of eating problems and disorders. In N. Piran, M. P. Levine, & C. Steiner-Adair (Eds.), Preventing eating disorders: A handbook of interventions and special challenges (pp. 44–62). New York: Bruner/Mazel. Graber, J. A., Brooks-Gunn, J., Paikoff, R. L., & Warren, M. P. (1994). Prediction of eating problems: An 8-year study of adolescent girls. Developmental Psychology, 30(6), 823–834. Hill, J., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2003). Sustained effects of high participation in an early intervention for

low-birth-weight premature infants. Developmental Psychology, 39(4), 730–744. Lee, V., Brooks-Gunn, J., Schnur, E., & Liaw, T. (1990). Are Head Start effects sustained? A longitudinal follow-up comparison of disadvantaged children attending Head Start, no preschool, and other preschool programs. Child Development, 61, 495–507. Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2000). The neighborhoods they live in: The effects of neighborhood residence upon child and adolescent outcomes. Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), 309–337. Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Moving to opportunity: An experimental study of neighborhood effects on mental health. American Journal of Public Health, 93(9), 1576–1582. Lewis, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1979). Social cognition and the acquisition of self. New York: Plenum. Paikoff, R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1991). Do parent-child relationships change during puberty? Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 47–66. Yeung, W. J., Linver, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2002). How money matters for young children’s development: Parental investment and family processes. Child Development, 73(6), 1861–1879.

BULIMIA NERVOSA Bulimia nervosa (BN) emerged in the 1970s as an eating disorder in young women characterized by alternating patterns of extreme dieting and binge eating, followed by self-induced purging episodes. Individuals with BN engage in restrained eating behaviors and are preoccupied with their shape and weight, but usually maintain a normal body weight. A core feature of BN is engaging in objective binge episodes. A binge is defined as eating an unusually large amount of food given the circumstances, combined with feelings of loss of control. Individuals typically binge on foods that they forbid themselves during periods of dietary restriction, like foods high in fat and sugar. Bulimic episodes are often planned, where individuals decide on a time and location where they can eat binge foods privately and alone. These episodes may be triggered by feelings of anxiety, negative emotions, stress, or certain food cues. In order to compensate for the perceived excess of calories during a binge, the individual typically purges by vomiting, fasting, using extreme exercise, or taking laxatives or diuretics. This process is commonly referred to as the bingepurge cycle, and it is set in motion by social pressures

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on women to be thin that lead to preoccupation with food and attempts to lose weight through rigid dieting. Extreme dietary restriction is difficult to maintain over time and leads to binge eating, followed by purging, which often reduces anxiety about how much food was eaten and ultimately reinforces binge eating. Once this pattern is established, a self-perpetuating cycle of bingeing and purging emerges.

evidence to suggest that African American women experience similar levels of body dissatisfaction and are also vulnerable to BN, perhaps because societal ideals of thinness are spreading across cultures (for more information on distribution and characteristics of BN, see Fairburn & Brownell, 2002).

ETIOLOGY DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES AND PREVALENCE The DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition) defines several criteria for BN. Recurrent episodes of bingeing (and feeling a loss of control while bingeing) coupled with compensatory behaviors of purging must be present for a minimum of twice per week for 3 months. In addition, the individual’s self-appraisal is influenced largely by perceptions of body weight and shape, and symptoms of BN must not occur during episodes of anorexia nervosa. There are two subtypes of BN: purging type, in which the individual regularly uses methods of self-induced vomiting or laxatives following binge episodes; and nonpurging type, in which individuals use other compensatory behaviors such as exercise or fasting, but do not engage in self-induced vomiting or laxatives. The population prevalence of BN is approximately 1%, although estimates are as high as 10% in populations of females who are between 15 and 29 years of age. Research in college samples has documented as many as 19% of female students with symptoms of BN, but criteria differ across studies. More women may experience disordered eating at subclinical diagnostic criteria. While BN most often occurs in adolescent females and young adult women, approximately 5% to 15% of cases are males. BN can occur in older women and is increasingly documented in younger children. However, the typical age of onset is following puberty, when average levels of body fat in females increase from 8% to 22%, and when societal messages of thinness, dating relationships, and the need for peer acceptance become salient. Although there is insufficient data on prevalence, childhoodonset disordered eating typically occurs between ages 7 and 13, with boys representing 20% to 25% of cases. BN is believed to be more prominent among European American females who may face heightened pressures to be thin, but there is increasing

A biopsychosocial perspective is helpful in conceptualizing the multiple factors that contribute to the etiology of BN. This model highlights the interaction of cultural, societal, familial, cognitive, personality, and biologically based factors that combine to produce the complex presentation of eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 2002). Eating disorders are predominantly present in cultures with abundant food and normative ideals of thinness. Western media are often held responsible for the increase in BN because of media images that highlight ideals of thinness and sustain unrealistic expectations for female attractiveness through ample exposure to excessively thin models and female celebrities. This exposure increases body dissatisfaction in women, which is believed to cause dieting and is in turn a precursor to binge eating. Body dissatisfaction is thus a central factor leading to BN because of its relationship to negative affect, low self-esteem, and dieting (Stice & Shaw, 2002). Adolescent females may become at increased risk for BN through peer and familial influences. Peers can increase risk of BN through attitudes and behaviors that promote body dissatisfaction and dieting, such as emphasis on thinness, shared concerns about body shape, and teasing about weight. Parents may also encourage disordered eating by communicating cultural values of thinness, expressing unhealthy attitudes toward their children’s weight, or displaying unhealthy eating behaviors that are modeled by children. Females with BN may be more likely to have mothers who criticize their weight or shape, encourage them to diet, or are themselves engaging in disordered eating or dieting. Correlational research suggests that families of females with eating disorders display more hostility, enmeshment, and greater parental intrusiveness, control, and criticism. Several psychological factors are associated with BN (O’Brien & Vincent, 2003). Low self-esteem has been found to predict onset of disordered eating, and

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may interact with perfectionism in predicting symptoms of BN. Self-esteem based on shape and weight is worse among people with BN, and interventions that increase self-esteem have lowered bulimic symptoms. Major depression is the most common comorbid disorder in BN and may be relevant to the binge-purge cycle. Bingeing may be a method to initially improve mood, and purging may relieve negative emotions that typically follow a binge. Comorbid personality disorders range from 42% to 75% of BN cases. BN has been specifically associated with certain types of personality disorders, such as borderline and avoidant personality disorders, which may increase the likelihood of mood or substance abuse problems. Substance abuse has been found in 30% to 37% of those with BN. Certain cognitive factors may be important to the etiology of BN. Individuals with BN tend to have obsessional thoughts related to eating, weight, and shape, and may engage in obsessive thinking for several hours a day. Perfectionism may also contribute to BN by triggering binge-purge episodes when imperfections (e.g., related to physical appearance) are attributed as failures. Females with BN also tend to display greater impulsiveness and rigid cognitive styles such as “all or nothing” thinking, which can set off stringent diet patterns and binge eating. Finally, there may be heritable factors that play a role in BN. Twin studies have documented high concordance rates for eating disorders in monozygotic twins, with genetic factors accounting for 50% to 80% of the variance. Family studies report increased rates of disordered eating in relatives with BN compared with controls. Molecular research also provides evidence for the role of serotonin in the development of eating disorders in general. However, many questions remain about the function of genetic and biological factors in the etiology of BN, and more research is needed to distinguish the genetic transmission of disordered eating and attitudes related to shape and weight and to accurately identify biological markers of BN. TREATMENT Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been the most extensively studied treatment for BN. CBT aims to normalize eating patterns, identify triggers for bulimic episodes, develop cognitive and behavioral skills to cope with bingeing and purging, and reduce maladaptive thoughts about shape and weight. CBT

has demonstrated consistent improvements in these central symptoms, with 40% to 45% abstinence of bingeing and vomiting at 1-year follow-up and much higher rates of general improvement. Some research has documented treatment gains maintained at 3-year follow-up. Predictors of relapse may include greater preoccupation and rituals about eating, more severe eating disorder pathology, lower motivation to change, and shorter period of abstinence of bingeing and purging (Halmi et al., 2002). Interpersonal therapy (IPT), which addresses interpersonal situations that trigger bingeing and purging patterns, has demonstrated comparable success. Which IPT may have less effective short-term outcomes than CBT, but comparable outcomes at 1-year follow-up. Both of these approaches are short-term outpatient treatments, which typically involve 15 to 20 individual or group treatment sessions. Medication may be another effective treatment strategy for BN. Controlled trials show that antidepressants are effective in treating BN, which are superior to placebo in reducing binge eating, improving mood and weight and shape concerns. Short-term benefits of antidepressants for BN are clear, but their long-term effects need to be established. Outcomes of BN may be enhanced with CBT combined with medication. In summary, BN is a prevalent disorder in females, especially those in their late teenage years and twenties. It can have a serious impact on living, can be associated with considerable psychological distress, and in some cases, can have serious medical consequences. Effective treatments are available, so those who suffer should be urged to see a counselor who specializes in the treatments mentioned. —Rebecca M. Puhl and Kelly D. Brownell

See also ANOREXIA NERVOSA; OBESITY

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fairburn, C. G., & Brownell, K. D. (2002). Eating disorders and obesity: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford. Halmi, K. A., Agras, W. S., Mitchell, J., Wilson, T., Crow, S., Bryson, S. W., et al. (2002). Relapse predictors of patients with bulimia nervosa who achieved abstinence through cognitive behavioral therapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 1105–1109. O’Brien, K. M., & Vincent, N. K. (2003). Psychiatric comorbidity in anorexia and bulimia nervosa: Nature, prevalence,

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and causal relationships. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 57–74. Polivy, J., & Herman C. P. (2002). Causes of eating disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 187–213. Stice, E., & Shaw, H. E. (2002). Role of body dissatisfaction in the onset and maintenance of eating pathology: A synthesis of research findings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53, 985–993.

BULLYING, SCHOOL School bullying is a pervasive aggressive behavior among students that is characterized by repetition and imbalance of power. Some adverse life circumstances can create bullies and victims, and getting involved in bullying can have negative developmental outcomes. Theoretically and empirically based systematic bullying interventions that integrate preventive and ameliorative strategies and measures can prevent new bullying cases from happening and reduce the negative outcomes of bullying (Olweus, 1993; Smith & Brain, 2000; Smith et al., 1999). THE CONCEPT OF SCHOOL BULLYING AND PREVALENCE OF BULLYING/VICTIM PROBLEMS A student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students. Children play different roles in bullying episodes: some youth bully peers and some are bullied by peers; some children are bullies in some bullying episodes and victims in other episodes; some are reinforcers (who encourage the bully or laugh at the victim), defenders (who help the victim), and bystanders (who stay out of things). School bullying can happen in schools and on the way to and from home (Olweus, 1993; Smith & Brain, 2000; Smith et al., 1999). School bullying, as a behavior or phenomenon, is prevalent among schoolchildren and adolescents, and it is widespread in different nations and cultures (Smith et al., 1999). For example, in a large-scale survey of approximately 130,000 primary and junior high students from all over Norway, some 15% of the students were involved in bully/victim problems with some regularity—either as bullies or victims (Olweus, 1993). In another large-scale survey comprising more than 6,700 primary and secondary students in Britain,

27% of primary school students reported being bullies “sometimes” or more frequently, and this included 10% bullied “once a week” or more frequently. For secondary schools, the figures were 10% and 4% respectively (Smith et al., 1999). SCHOOL BULLYING: THE VICIOUS CIRCLE Getting involved in bullying can be a negative developmental outcome of adverse life circumstances. In turn, bullying can be a risk factor for some maladaptive developmental outcomes. Cautiousness, sensitivity, physical weakness, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, low self-esteem, overprotective parenting, and peer rejection contribute to make children victims of bullying. Impulsivity, lack of parental warmth and/or parental monitoring, inconsistency of parental discipline, and exposure to adult aggression and conflict (including marital difficulties) are found to put children at risk to be bullies (Hodges & Perry, 1999; Olweus, 1993; Smith et al., 1999). From this perspective, bullying can be a negative or maladaptive developmental outcome. Bullying can be pernicious and highly damaging in its effects by causing various salient short-term and long-term negative developmental outcomes. For example, low self-esteem, depression, and suicidal behaviors are consistently reported to result from being bullied by peers (Hodges & Perry, 1999; Olweus, 1993; Smith & Brain, 2000; Smith et al., 1999). Bullying, examined from this perspective, can be regarded as a negative life circumstance that can cause negative developmental outcomes. In short, bullying, as a negative developmental outcome because of adverse life circumstances or as an adversity that can lead to maladaptive developmental outcomes, may coexist in an ongoing process and form a vicious circle in which each reinforces the other. The existence of the vicious circle helps to explain the strong temporal stability of school bullying. Simply, some negative life environments can lead children to get involved in bullying as bullies or victims or both, and getting involved in bullying can cause other negative developmental outcomes. In turn, some negative life circumstances that lead to bullying or being bullied are also found to be outcomes of getting involved in bullying. For example, peer rejection can cause children to be victims of bullying and can be a result of being bullied (Hodges & Perry, 1999).

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THE NEED FOR BULLYING INTERVENTIONS AND AN EXEMPLAR OF SUCH INTERVENTION Without intervention to address the bullying issue, it tends to be temporally stable (Hodges & Perry, 1999). The stability would mean that, once the bullying cycle begins, there would be accumulation of children involved in bullying over years. Given that bullying is pervasive and that bullying has many negative developmental consequences, it is important to design and implement effective interventions to prevent bullying from happening, reduce the incidence of bullying, and ameliorate its harmful consequences. The Norwegian national bullying intervention programs have served as an exemplar of how to address bully/victim problems effectively. There are, at least, four characteristics of the Norwegian programs: (1) integrating preventive and alleviative strategies and measures; (2) having theoretical and empirical bases; (3) addressing risk factors and harnessing protective factors at multiple levels; and (4) having scientific evaluations. The first program was conducted in 1983 with two major goals: to reduce as much as possible existing bully/victim problems, and to prevent the development of new problems (Olweus, 1993). The goals guided the integration of preventive and alleviative strategies that address factors influencing bullying and its negative consequences. For example, strategies included better supervision during recess and lunchtimes and serious talks with the bullies and victims. The 1983 intervention program was built on a set of four key principles derived chiefly from research on the development and modification of the problem behaviors, in particular aggressive behavior. It was deemed important to try to create a school (and ideally also a home) environment characterized by (1) warmth, positive interest, and involvement from adults, on one hand; (2) firm limits to unacceptable behavior, on the other; (3) in cases of violations of limits and rules, nonhostile, nonphysical sanctions that are consistently applied; and (4) adults, both at school and home, acting as authority figures (Olweus, 1993). Olweus proposed “a wider perspective on bully/ victim problems” that encompassed “two sets of countervailing factors” (protective and risk factors), and he stressed that it was important to address bullying on the school, classroom, and individual levels.

For example, appropriate actions included school conference days, class rules against bullying, and serious talks with parents of involved children. Scientifically sound evaluations indicated that the program reduced existing bullying problems by 50% or more over a period of 2 –12 years (Olweus, 1993). A limitation of the 1983 program was that its focus was on what to do after bullying became a problem. The second national program, conducted in 1996, took a broad, preventive perspective based on the program designer’s research on bullying, pilot projects, and a theoretical model developed to systematize the main factors found in research. The focus of the program was shifted more to prevent bullying from happening and to promoting prosocial behavior and motivation for schoolwork. This shift of emphasis has been proven to be successful, and it was maintained in the new, 1999–2000 program, which has a broader preventive perspective focusing on “basic relations” among adults and children (Roland, 2000). The Norwegian programs have now been adapted in a considerable number of schools in Europe and North America (Smith & Brain, 2000; Smith et al., 1999). CONCLUSIONS Well-designed and -implemented bullying interventions can prevent new bullying cases from happening and reduce the negative outcomes of bullying. It may be helpful for research and interventions to go beyond the alleviative and preventive model and adapt a strategy of promoting positive development (Lerner & Benson, 2003). Such efforts would require that we understand more about what are the assets (strengths) in children’s and adolescents’ lives that lead them to healthy peer relationships instead of getting involved in bullying. Intervention programs can capitalize on the assets in children’s lives and promote healthy youth development in a proactive way instead of passively addressing bullying after it occurs or just aiming at preventing the bully/victim problem from happening. The design and implementation of promotive interventions, such as communitybased youth development programs, may usefully usher children and adolescents into positive developmental trajectories. —Lang Ma

See also AGGRESSION

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Hodges, E. V. E., & Perry, D. G. (1999). Personal and interpersonal antecedents and consequences of victimization by peers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(4), 677–685. Lerner, R. M., & Benson, P. L. (Eds.). (2003). Developmental assets and asset-building communities. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Oxford: Blackwell.

Roland, E. (2000). Bullying in schools: Three national innovations in Norwegian schools in 15 years. Aggressive Behavior, 26(1), 135–143. Smith, P. K., & Brain, P. (2000). Bullying in schools: Lessons from two decades of research. Aggressive Behavior, 26(1), 1–9. Smith, P. K., Morita, Y., Junger-Tas, J., Olweus, D., Catalano, R., & Slee, P. (Eds.). (1999). The nature of school bullying: A cross-national perspective. London: Routledge.

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C ethical value of informed consent rests on the assumption that individuals are able to understand (a) the nature and rationale of experimentation, (b) how the risks and potential benefits of participation may directly affect them or others, and (c) their research rights, including the right to dissent to or withdraw from participation. However, in both law and ethics, minors have been presumed to lack these capacities because of immature cognitive skills, inadequate experiences in situations analogous to the research context, and the actual and perceived power differentials between adolescents, parents, and clinical researchers. Based on this premise, guardian permission is required for participation of legal minors in research.

CANCER PATIENTS, ADOLESCENT CONSENT TO RESEARCH Most children with cancer enroll in clinical trials. These trials are most often sponsored by the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Entry into clinical trials is important to pediatric cancer patients because of the devastating and life-threatening nature of the disease and the lack of curative treatments. Many parents and oncologists enroll their children in clinical trials to receive the best state-of-the-art care, to possibly benefit from the experimental treatment, and to help generate knowledge that may produce effective treatments in the future. There are three types of clinical trials. Phase I trials evaluate safety, toxicity, and dosage level of a drug that has not been previously tested with children. Once a dosage level has been established, Phase II trials test its efficacy for specific types of cancer and evaluate its safety in a larger population. Phase III trials compare treatments that have proven efficacious in Phase II trials against the best standard treatment to date, to see whether it is more effective.

Empirical Evidence Out of respect for children and adolescents as developing persons, the child’s assent is obtained following parental permission. Research with healthy children and those involved in psychiatric treatment suggests that the ability to understand the nature of one’s health condition, the nature of treatment, the purpose of research, and participants’ rights in research matures to adult levels somewhere between 14 and 15 years of age (Abramovitch, Freedman, Thoden, & Nikolich, 1991; Bruzzese & Fisher, 2003; Morton & Green, 1991; Weithorn & Campbell, 1982). Only recently has the consent capacity of children with acute and chronic diseases been studied. Broome, Richards, and Hall (2001), for example, found that understanding clinical trials by children diagnosed with either diabetes or a hematological malignancy was influenced not only by their age but also by their

PEDIATRIC INFORMED CONSENT IN LAW AND ETHICS Adolescent participation in decisions regarding entry into cancer trials is a critical issue in pediatric ethics that has not been well studied. Voluntary informed consent is viewed by many as the best means of protecting the rights and welfare of individuals asked to participate in clinical research. The 199

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diagnosis (cancer patients’ understanding was more compromised) and previous experience with research. In addition, despite their mature cognitive capacities, research suggests that older adolescents may not exert their rights in research because of fear of disapproval by parents, researchers, or health care workers (Abramovitch et al., 1991; Bruzzese & Fisher, 2003; Scherer, 1991; Susman, Dorn, & Fletcher, 1992). Additional Protections To further protect children in research, regulations permit an institutional review board to waive the requirement for child assent if it determines (a) that the capability of some or all of the minors in a proposed clinical trial is so limited that they cannot reasonably be consulted or (b) that the intervention or procedure involved in the research holds out a prospect of direct benefit that is important to the health or well-being of the children and is available only in the context of the research. These regulations are often applied in adolescent cancer trials where entry into the trial is seen as a potential means of extending the child’s life and the child’s health status may compromise his or her decision-making capacities. Enhancing Comprehension of Treatment and Research Internal review boards (IRBs) are increasingly pressing for ways in which the involvement of children in research consent procedures can be enhanced. A few studies have demonstrated that brief lessons on rights in treatment and research can improve children’s and adolescents’ understanding. These studies have used brief video presentations, simplified written or videotaped forms, clarifying comments by investigators, and brief lessons on rights to increase understanding of the voluntary nature of treatment and research (Belter & Grisso, 1984; Bruzzese & Fisher, 2003). PARENTAL CONCERNS Many parents are conflicted about the effect that knowledge of the seriousness of disease or advance knowledge of the pain or discomfort that may accompany experimental procedures will have on their child. In many such instances, parents try to shield adolescents from this knowledge by not including them in the

decision to enter a clinical trial (Kunin, 1997). At the same time, there is some evidence that involving older children in decision making increases their feelings of self-worth, ability to cope with anxiety over illness and treatments, and long-term emotional and social adjustment (Varni, Katz, Colgrove, & Dolgin, 1996). Timing of Consent Requests Decisions by parents to enter their child in a cancer clinical trial is complicated by the fact that in many instances, such requests come at the same time that the parent is first informed about the child’s diagnosis. Pletsch and Stevens (2001) found that the closer the timing of the initial diagnosis to the request for trial entry, the immediacy of the threat to the child’s life, the belief that the clinical trial was the only option to save the child’s life, and expertise in managing the health care system were critical factors influencing the informed consent experience of mothers whose children were diagnosed with cancer. Even when parents want to involve their adolescent children in clinical trials decision making, they often are confused and uncertain about the amount of information to share and how to do so in a way that protects their children from anxiety or depression in reaction to such information (Kunin, 1997). PATIENT CONCERNS AND RIGHTS Adolescent cancer patients do not always share their parents’ views. For example, Ellis and Leventhal (1993) found that pediatric oncology patients wanted more involvement in decision making than their parents thought appropriate. Pain and Dosage Level Many cyclical treatments for different forms of childhood and adolescent malignancies have intensively painful or discomforting side effects resulting from toxicity levels of drugs such as the alkylating agents, the nitrogen mustards, the antimetabolites, the thiopurines, the anthracyclines, the vinca alkaloids, the corticosteroids, and the asparaginases. In some instances, patients may be exposed to the painful treatments in or outside of a research protocol. In other instances, painful procedures may be exclusive to a research protocol, such as intrathecal therapies necessitating more spinal taps or more bone marrow

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aspirations. It is both good practice and good ethics to inform adolescent patients about the pain that may be involved or exacerbated because of research participation. Out of respect for persons, adolescents should have the right to anticipate side effects of experimental treatments, and investigators and parents should avoid omissions during assent that will result in patient feelings of betrayal. Investigators should not assume that either parents or patients foresee that the severity of drug dosage will often directly correlate with the severity of resulting toxicity; rather, parents or patients often erroneously associate higher dosages with greater probability of cure, when this is what is being tested rather than what is already medically known. Long-Term Side Effects Unfortunately, cancer treatment often results in severe pain and/or nausea that are not always adequately alleviated by current medications. Moreover, the different therapies sometimes include the risk of developing secondary cancers at the time of treatment or even later in life. The possibility of infertility, the threat of neurological inhibitions that can leave the patient with severe learning disabilities, and the inhibition of both cognitive and physical growth and development are adverse realities of cancer treatment. Conditions such as these can be exacerbated by certain superfluous medications and treatments or by the larger doses that are required by a research protocol but not by standard treatments. Parents and patients may differentially weigh such risks against the potential benefits of experimental treatment. Thus, failure to involve adolescent patients in decision making can result in a consent process in which parents, practitioners, and investigators make uninformed risk-benefit judgments. A JOINT-DECISION-MAKING APPROACH The process of involving adolescents in treatment decisions is equally complicated. For example, Olechnowicz, Elder, Simon, Azyanski, and Kodish (2002) found that when children were present, clinicians were likely to direct their discussion to the parents; parents asked fewer questions; and the children’s questions focused on the details of the disease and treatment rather than the research itself. In addition, clinicians and parents sometimes disagree on whether sharing information with a patient is in the child’s best interest (Foreman, 1999; Kunin, 1997).

Acutely or chronically ill adolescents do not and should not make lifesaving decisions in isolation. Their involvement in decision making for entry into clinical trials needs to be determined by their developmental maturity, the extent to which their health is affecting their cognitive capacities, their family history of shared decision making, the extent to which urgency of their condition precludes meaningful input, and the unique ways in which they and their parents approach stressful situations. Even in the least stressful situations, with few exceptions, child assent is always given within the context of advance parental permission. Thus, a family-focused systems approach to decision making for pediatric clinical trials should be tailored to fit patients’ age, health status, and severity and urgency of illness, the lifelong pattern of family decision making (Fisher, 2003; Foreman, 1999), and the coping styles of family members, accompanied by strategies that can enhance adolescent understanding and parent-child dialogue. For example, often at the time families must consent to the initial entry into a clinical trial, adolescent patients’ frail health or current medications may interfere with their ability to comprehend the assent information or even the consent process. In such situations, it may be most respectful to either limit the information provided or defer the adolescent’s involvement in decision making until his or her health has improved. At that point, the adolescent can be involved in decisions about continuing in the study or treatment changes.

CONCLUSIONS This entry discussed the importance of seeking a goodness of fit between adolescent cancer patients’ decisional capacities and the assent context. To do so involves the creation of respectful and compassionate procedures based on an understanding of patients’ cognitive maturity, their changing health status, their assent strengths and weaknesses, their relationships to their parents, life experiences, and practical concerns about the immediate and long-term effects of research participation. Such understanding can be achieved through the development of developmentally fitted joint-decision-making procedures to ensure that consent to pediatric cancer trials reflects an ethic of mutual obligation, respect, and care. —Celia B. Fisher and Carolyn E. Brokowski

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Abramovitch, R., Freedman, J. L., Henry, K., & Van Brunschot, M. (1995). Children’s capacity to agree to psychological research: Knowledge of risks and benefits and voluntariness. Ethics and Behavior, 5(1), 25–48. Abramovitch, R., Freedman, J. L., Thoden, K., & Nikolich, C. (1991). Children’s capacity to consent to participate in psychological research: Empirical findings. Child Development, 62, 1100–1109. Belter, R. W., & Grisso, T. (1984). Children’s recognition of rights violations in counseling. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 15(6), 899–910. Broome, M. E., Richards, D. J., & Hall, J. M. (2001). Children in research: The experience of ill children and adolescents. Journal of Family Nursing, 7, 32–49. Bruzzese, J., & Fisher, C. B. (2003). Assessing and enhancing the research consent capacity of children and youth. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 13–26. Ellis, R., & Leventhal, B. (1993). Information needs and decision-making preferences of children with cancer. PsychoOncology, 2, 277–284. Fisher, C. B. (2003). A goodness-of-fit ethic for child assent to nonbeneficial research. American Journal of Bioethics, 3, 27–28. Foreman, D. M. (1999). The family rule: A framework for obtaining ethical consent for medical interventions from children. Journal of Medical Ethics, 25, 491–497. Grisso, T., & Vierling, L. (1978). Minors consent to treatment: A developmental perspective. Professional Psychology, 9, 412–427. Kunin, H. (1997). Ethical issues in pediatric life-threatening illness: Dilemmas of consent, assent, and communication. Ethics & Behavior, 7, 43–57. Morton, K. L., & Green, V. (1991). Comprehension of terminology related to treatment and patients’ rights by inpatient children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20, 392–399. Olechnowicz, J. Q., Elder, M., Simon, C., Azyanski, S., & Kodish, E. (2002). Assent observed: Children’s involvement in leukemia treatment and research discussions. Pediatrics, 198, 806–814. Pletsch, P. K., & Stevens, P. E. (2001). Children in research: Informed consent and critical factors affecting mothers. Journal of Family Nursing, 7, 50–70. Scherer, D. T. (1991). The capacities of minors to exercise voluntariness in medical treatment decisions. Law & Human Behavior, 15, 431–449. Susman, E. J., Dorn, L. D., & Fletcher, J. C. (1992). Participation in biomedical research: The consent process as viewed by children, adolescents, young adults, and physicians. Journal of Pediatrics, 124, 547–552. Varni, J., Katz, E., Colgrove, R., & Dolgin, M. (1996). Family functioning predictors of adjustment in children with newly diagnosed cancer: A prospective analysis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 321–328. Weithorn, L. A., & Campbell, S. B. (1982). The competency of children and adolescents to make informed consent treatment decisions. Child Development, 53, 1589–1598.

CANCER, PSYCHOSOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF The lives of almost everyone will be touched by cancer, either because they are diagnosed with cancer or because a family member or friend is diagnosed. This entry focuses on the prevalence of cancer, the impact of cancer on psychological development, and age differences in cancer’s impact on the individual in particular. PREVALENCE AND COURSE Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. Both cancer sites (e.g., breast, brain, lung) and cancer types (e.g., melanoma, sarcoma) vary with regard to etiology, course, mortality, and risk factors. In the United States, about 39% of women and 44% of men are estimated to have cancer at some point in their lives, and 20% of women and 24% of men are expected to die from cancer (National Cancer Institute, 2003). The incidence of cancer increases with age, with only a slight moderation among those over the age of 85. The course of cancer can be described as a process, starting with a phase of suspicious symptoms and followed by the definite diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation; in many cases by remission; and sometimes by recurrence and death. PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN CANCER PATIENTS Most psychological studies have focused on immediate consequences of cancer for subjective well-being and other psychological variables. The diagnosis of cancer is very threatening because it is associated with fears of pain, disability, and death due to the disease and with fears of painful and debilitating treatment. Severe symptoms of psychological distress (anxiety, depression) are common at the time of diagnosis, recurrence, and the terminal phase of illness, when symptoms of pain and delirium also often occur (Holland, 1998). Due to progress in cancer therapy and associated increase in life expectancy of cancer patients, there is growing interest in the effects of cancer on individual development and in longterm effects of cancer on development in particular. Four groups of psychological consequences have been considered, namely, effects on psychological health,

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life outlook, developmental tasks and individual resources, and changes in priorities and life goals. With regard to psychological adjustment, most cancer survivors (about 70% or higher) do well and do not differ from healthy controls in the prevalence of depression and anxiety, or report even fewer psychological symptoms. Cancer is more distressing for younger patients because it is more unexpected for that age range; they experience more disruptions in normative developmental tasks and have more to lose, whereas older patients have already lived most of their lives. In addition, the quality of psychological adjustment seems to vary according to the degree of cancerbased physical impairments, premorbid personality (e.g., optimism, emotional stability), and coping, although prospective studies are lacking. Cancer survivors report reduced confidence regarding planning for or anticipating their futures (life outlook), reduced internal control over their lives, and higher overall vulnerability. For example, they often worry about whether cancer may reoccur or whether present physical or cognitive impairments due to cancer and/or therapy may be overcome (Holland, 1998). Cancer may restrict available developmental options and resources to pursue one’s age-typical goals. For example, studies on cancer in childhood have shown declines in cognitive and neuropsychological functioning as well as in academic achievement following brain cancer and/or central nervous system (CNS) irradiation, particularly at high doses and in younger children (Armstrong, Blumberg, & Toledano, 1999). In adolescence, issues of autonomy, peer relations, and identity are often complicated by increased dependency on parents, social isolation due to illness or treatment, and potential uncertainty of chronic or relapsing conditions (Stuber & Kazak, 1999). In young adulthood, lost opportunities for childbearing are an important stressor in women with breast and gynecological cancer (Siegel, Gluhoski, & Gorey, 1999). Cancer causes a stronger thematic shift than expected by age in one’s priorities away from achievement-related goals to social and transcendental goals. Many cancer survivors report a changed lifestyle with regard to living for the day and doing things now instead of waiting. However, the latter effect is not found in elderly cancer patients, who have already narrowed their time perspectives before diagnosis due to age-associated impairments and the decrease in the number of years left to live (Pinquart, Nixdorf, & Silbereisen, 2002). With regard to perceived impact of

cancer on their lives, most younger survivors report more positive than negative changes, such as being more advanced or mature in one’s personality or psychological development, knowing more about life, and feeling a stronger purpose in life than one’s age-peers (Chesler, Weigers, & Lawther, 1992). These results reveal that cancer accelerates age-normative developmental changes in goals and life outlook in younger adults, whereas cancer has less impact on the psychological development of older patients. CONCLUSIONS In sum, the research on psychological development of cancer patients provides insight into the interplay of age-normative developmental processes and nonnormative life events. It also has important consequences on goals of psychosocial interventions. These interventions should not only emphasize coping with the diagnosis, symptoms of cancer, and side effects of therapy but also focus on the minimization of negative consequences on further individual development and even on identifying positive consequences. For example, interventions are needed that promote the reintegration of young patients into school after therapy, help them to cope with lost developmental options, and help them to adapt life goals to changed circumstances, so that satisfaction can be derived from goal attainment despite serious illness. —Martin Pinquart and Rainer K. Silbereisen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Armstrong, F. D., Blumberg, M. J., & Toledano, S. R. (1999). Neurobehavioral issues in childhood cancer. School Psychology Review, 28, 194–203. Chesler, M. A., Weigers, M., & Lawther, T. (1992). How am I different? Perspectives of childhood cancer survivors on changes and growth. In D. M. Green & G. J. Angio (Eds.), Late effects of treatment for childhood cancer (pp. 151–158). New York: Wiley. Holland, J. C. (Ed.). (1998). Psycho-oncology. New York: Oxford University Press. National Cancer Institute. (2003). SEER cancer statistics review 1973–1999. Available at http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/ 1973_1999/overview.pdf Pinquart, M., Nixdorf, J. C., & Silbereisen, R. K. (2002). Influences of age and cancer on individual goal commitment. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston.

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Siegel, K., Gluhoski, V., & Gorey, R. (1999). Age-related distress among young women with breast cancer. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 17, 1–20. Stuber, M. L., & Kazak, A. E. (1999). The developmental impact of cancer and treatment for adolescents. In M. Sugar (Ed.), Trauma and adolescence (pp. 143–162). Madison, CT: International University Press.

CAREER CHOICE Although career choice is influenced by internal factors (an individual’s attributes, attitudes, and abilities) rooted in both nature and nurture, it is also dependent on the context within which a career choice is made, that is, on the micro- (or proximal) and macro(or distal) environments with which an individual interacts. These environments, taken together, can be said to form an individual’s structure of opportunity. This entry provides an overview of theories and data that show how differences in structures of opportunity are formed and how these impinge on career choice. STRUCTURE OF OPPORTUNITY Choice is based on both personal preferences and on the structure of opportunity, which is ordered according to the functioning and development of the social systems of which the individual is a part. In the framework of career choice, this means that the type of work available and to whom it is accessible will be largely dependent on the characteristic features of the society and culture within which the individual is operating (Magnusson & Stattin, 1998), that is, on contextual factors (primarily social and economic). Contextual influences can be divided into micro- and macroenvironments (Bronfenbrenner, 1989): Microenvironment includes family, peers, and school, that is, an individual’s immediate environment. Macroenvironment includes social, political, and economic systems, such as type and level of economic development, labor market structures and organization, labor laws and regulations, employment policies, and broad cultural constructs, such as gender role beliefs and cultural stereotypes. Microenvironment Of the three elements said to compose an individual’s microenvironment, parental socioeconomic status (SES) is likely to have the strongest correlation

with educational attainment and career destination: In the United States, children from homes with low SES are more than 3 times as likely not to complete high school, 20 times as likely not to graduate from college, and 4 times as likely to be unemployed as peers from more affluent backgrounds (Levine & Nidiffer, 1996). Those who have had greater success at school and/or in higher education and who have higher levels of social skills and experience will increase the opportunities available to them and will have a greater chance of making a successful transition to work because they will have more to offer potential employers in the way of human and social capital. Macroenvironment The level of economic development underpinning the context within which a career choice is made plays a major determining role in the type of work available and, as such, will strongly affect an individual’s structure of opportunity. Using Fourastie’s (1949) theory of economic sector development, in premodern societies, the economy revolves around the primary sector (agriculture, mining, etc.). As societies develop and modernize, the primary sector declines and the secondary (production) sector increases. With increased modernization, the primary sector declines further, the importance of the secondary sector begins to wane, and that of the tertiary (service) sector increases. Such economic developments play a fundamental role in the nature, type, and location of work within a society. For example, growth in the United States production sector at the turn of the 19th century led to increased mechanization and to the bureaucratization of work. This, in turn, created opportunities for more women to enter the workforce through increased demand for capable but lower-paid workers, within both production and the developing service sector. The increased availability of women workers, in turn, enabled the expansion of the service sector, thus creating yet more work opportunities, especially for women (Reskin & Roos, 1990). Alongside the level of economic development, the type of economy, the organization of the labor market, and the structures within it form some of the most powerful external factors influencing career choice and destination. In centrally planned economies (like those of the former Communist regimes in Eastern Europe), the number of workers to be recruited and

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trained in particular fields, such as engineering, health, or education, is determined each year by the state. This can constrain individual choice by limiting the availability of specific work and by directing people into occupations according to national need (as well as by perceived aptitude and ability) rather than allowing complete freedom of choice based on personal preference. In free-market economies, although individuals may be theoretically freer to choose which career path they follow (dependent on internal factors, such as ability and aptitude), aspects such as labor “supply and demand” (especially concerning human and social capital), the level of employment, and the condition of the economy (recession or growth) can also form barriers or facilitate access to desired occupations. Furthermore, the need for employers to respond to economic factors, such as the reduction or expansion of a given market, can influence the type of work available and preferences for different categories of workers. For example, in Europe in the 1980s, employers hit by recession began to develop strategies to increase worker flexibility. This ultimately led to a significant rise in the number of part-time and temporary jobs available, most of which were filled by women (Hakim, 1989/1990). Social constructs such as patriarchy and gender stereotypes will have an impact on what work is considered acceptable for males and females and will influence structures of opportunity for men and women accordingly. For example, women in societies where the traditional gender stereotype is not adhered to, especially concerning child care, and where an egalitarian economic and social role for women is actively supported will have a different structure of opportunity from women in a society where patriarchy is paramount and the prime social role of women is seen as that of nurturer and caregiver (Walby, 1997). Such differences may also be fixed or enhanced by law, for example, to enforce more gender equality and to impede open forms of gender discrimination or to create barriers, as when married women were legally barred from certain occupations. CONCLUSIONS Career choice is often considered to be largely dependent on an individual’s aptitude, abilities, and preferences. However, the translation of career aspirations and preferences into work experiences will be

very largely determined by the structure of opportunity presented to an individual both at the micro- and the macrolevel. In particular, the generally accepted social roles of women and men and the way in which they are embedded within a society’s structure will determine what opportunities are available to each gender as well as influence the expectations of the individuals involved. —Verona Christmas-Best

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989). Ecological systems theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Six theories of child development: Revised formulations and current issues (pp. 185–246). Greenwich, CT: JAI. Fourastie, J. (1949). Le grand espoir du XXe siecle. Progre technique—Progre economique—Progre social [The great hope of the 20th century. Technical progress—Economic progress—Social progress]. Paris: PUF. Hakim, C. (1989/1990). Workforce re-structuring in Europe in the 1980s. The International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 5(4), 167–203. Levine, A., & Nidiffer, J. (1996). Beating the odds: How the poor get to college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Magnusson, D., & Stattin, H. (1998). Person-context interaction theories. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Theoretical models of human development: Handbook of child psychology (pp. 685–759). New York: Wiley. Reskin, B. F., & Roos, P. A. (1990). Job queues, gender queues. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Walby, S. (1997). Gender transformations. London: Routledge.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT In virtually all modern societies, work is of central importance in the lives of individuals. Work gives them the opportunity to provide for their families and to contribute to the prosperity of their communities. Beyond this basic utilitarian purpose, however, work has the potential to enrich the lives of individuals by giving them the opportunity to engage in activities that are meaningful to them in the pursuit of their dreams, their ideals, and their hopes. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of the tasks of childhood and adolescence are focused around preparation for choosing an occupation, while the entire period of adulthood has as one of its major organizing themes

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the successful conduct of one’s occupational career. Collectively, these phenomena constitute a person’s career development. Super (1983) suggested that the term “career psychology” be used to describe the scientific field that focuses “on the developing person in search of and pursuing a vocation” (p. 6). This entry provides an overview of major theories of career development and implications for intervention. THEORIES OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT Career development, also sometimes referred to as “vocational development,” has been the subject of theoretical formulations based on differential psychology (e.g., Holland, 1997) and social learning theory (e.g., Krumboltz, 1979). The principal focus of both of these approaches has been on career choice and the career decision-making process. More pertinent to developmental science are theoretical formulations based on developmental psychology. Foremost among these is the contribution of Super (1990), culminating in his life span, life space approach to career development and his career life rainbow. In Super’s view, individuals play different roles (e.g., student, worker, leisurite, retiree) as they move through the stages of the life course (e.g., growth, exploration, establishment), thus requiring different career skills and competencies. More recent theoretical advances in career development, such as the developmental-contextual model of life span career development (Vondracek, Lerner, & Schulenberg, 1986), have focused on the developing person in context. Depending on the historical and social circumstances, individuals may have limited access to information and educational and occupational opportunities. A significant number of young people who often belong to lower socioeconomic groups or are disadvantaged in other ways, referred to as the “forgotten half,” are unable to pursue their “dream” occupations and instead drop out of school and take low-level jobs that offer few opportunities for advancement or for obtaining the kind of satisfaction that others seek and obtain through their occupational careers. Even under less adverse conditions, choices between career options may be limited due to contextual restrictions such as labor market demands, political requirements, or the individual living situation. Because late adolescence and early adulthood are periods when most young people, either by choice or by necessity, make critical decisions regarding their careers, much of the research in career development

has focused on individuals in the 16- to 24-year age range. Nevertheless, some research has shown that children learn about work, directly as well as vicariously, throughout childhood. Through a process of exploration, they discover things they like to do and things they can do well, resulting in them showing interest in and self-efficacy for some occupations but not others. Unfortunately, sex role stereotyping may influence this process, which often precludes girls from considering male-dominated occupations and boys from considering female-dominated occupations. INTERVENTIONS Interventions in career development may be targeted at the antecedents of successful career behaviors, at the processes involved in choosing an occupation, or at processes that are critical to constructing a successful career over time. Most of them may be best described as individual or group counseling approaches that are directed either toward the selection of or adjustment to a specific occupation. Potential clients are adolescents from the age of 16 up or adults in need of assistance as they try to find more satisfactory careers. School-based guidance counselors are typically called upon to facilitate students’ transition from school to work (or to advanced schooling). The tools available to guidance counselors include a wide array of psychometric tests and other assessment instruments that purport to facilitate the matching of individual students and their personality characteristics, interests, and aptitudes against the modal requirements of a wide range of occupations. Surprisingly, interventions with children have received little attention. Although it is generally acknowledged that children should not be pressured to make early, and often premature, career choices, they should be encouraged to explore the world of work and their own strengths and weaknesses relative to possible careers. As the recognition grows that traditional career interventions often represented too little assistance, rendered too late in the process, schools and educators are beginning to encourage more active occupational and vocational exploration as early as the first years of grade school. CONCLUSIONS Even when career counseling is successful in assisting an individual in making a good occupational

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choice, the probability is high that this will not result in a lifelong occupational career. Globalization and the rapid pace of technological change have produced pluralized transition patterns for young people seeking to make the transition from school to work and have also produced a phenomenon of serial careers for many adults. Thus, career interventions are likely to be sought by an increasing number of individuals who are faced with the fact of having to reinvent themselves vocationally, time and again, as circumstances require. Ultimately, those who have acquired a good understanding of their own interests, aptitudes, and values, as well as sound knowledge of the ever-changing world of work, are most likely to have satisfying careers. —Eva Schmitt-Rodermund and Fred W. Vondracek

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. Krumboltz, J. D. (1979). A social learning theory of career decision making. In A. M. Mitchell, G. B. Jones, & J. D. Krumboltz (Eds.), Social learning and career decision making (pp. 19–49). Cranston, RI: Carroll. Sharf, R. S. (2001). Applying career development theory to counseling (3rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Super, D. E. (1983). History and development of vocational psychology: A personal perspective. In W. B. Walsh & S. H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook of vocational psychology: Vol. 1. Foundations (pp. 5–38). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Super, D. E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In D. Brown & L. Brooks (Eds.), Career choice and development: Applying theories to practice (pp. 197–261). San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Vondracek, F. W., Lerner, R. M., & Schulenberg, J. E. (1986). Career development: A life-span developmental approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The study of developmental psychology at the Catholic University of America (CUA) has a long and rich history. It can be traced back to the 1920s, when a “center” was established to assist families whose children were experiencing educational or psychological problems. At that time, (Rev.) Thomas Verner Moore,

a pioneering cognitive psychologist, was the departmental chairperson and saw the study of development as a theoretical as well as a practical tool for improving lives. One of his students, (Rev.) Paul Furfey, did his PhD dissertation on the topic of assessing children. He used a qualitative, holistic approach that was designed to situate each individual youth in a well-rounded sociological and psychological context. Furfey, who was a founding member of the Society for Research on Child Development, was, as was his mentor Moore, a priest. Later in the 1930s, Furfey refocused his work on bridging social science with social activism that was predicated on a commitment to Christian social justice. Thereafter, he left the field of development for radical social action and promotion of broader sociological studies that sought to combat the narrowness of the logical positivism that was prevalent at the time. Moore’s original interest in applied development took new form in the 1940s, with the formal establishment of the CUA Child Center. Its research, training, and service delivery staff offered assessment of children with problems in a manner that would not be considered cost-effective today. Each child client was seen by a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, social worker, and educational specialist, who together framed the problem and outlined a therapeutic course. This model of diagnosis and treatment pictured child clients in an integrated way and served as a unique vehicle for training interns in an interdisciplinary perspective that would be considered radical today. This model proved to be increasingly expensive during the 1960s and for this reason had to be abandoned, thus giving way to the intradisciplinary segmentation that marks much of contemporary service and training. This loss was compensated for in part by the hiring of Hans Furth, who joined the psychology department in 1959 to head a training and research program that was supported by the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration (VRA), an agency within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS). This agency was designed to support research and psychological services for people with physical disabilities, and Furth’s focus was on the deaf community. It is worth noting that his interest in development was shared by other grantees in the VRA program, for example, Clark University, where Seymour Wapner and Tamara Dembo were Furth’s VRA counterparts.

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Furth’s research agenda proved to be quite generative and largely defined the course of developmental psychology at CUA for the next four decades. Furth began a series of studies of deaf children in order to address the question of just how much the development of thinking or intelligence depended on language. At the time, the majority of deaf children born to hearing parents were virtually stymied in language acquisition because of a warp in speech pathologists’ preferred approach. When parents brought a child to a speech center for diagnosis, the standard recommendation was for the parents to adopt an “oral” strategy. Parents were told that if they desired their deaf child to speak English, they must never use signs or gestures, but speak clearly and train the child to read lips. For severely deaf youngsters, the hearing of speech was per force limited, and lipreading was more a hope than a real possibility. Thus, many deaf children were virtually without a language during their early years, which were spent with limited communication with other persons. Most deaf children were not mainstreamed, but were sent to state residential schools, where they lived and interacted with other deaf children, some of whom had deaf parents. This proved to be a saving grace, as the latter children had been reared with American sign language, which their deaf peers of hearing parents then picked up in the dormitories and on the playgrounds. One could see dramatic social and psychological change as children adopted this new form of communication and for the first time possessed a shared communication system that allowed them to participate in lively social discourse. Furth knew that deaf adults in the United States were an unusually normal population, as study after study showed that they sustained healthy marriages, reared normal children, had strong employment histories, voted at high rates, and in no way expressed the assortment of problems that one might expect from a handicapped group. (It is worth noting that Furfey and his sociological colleagues did some of the work that documented the healthy state of the deaf community in the Washington, D.C., area.) Knowing these life cycle data, Furth surmised that intelligence could not logically be dependent on the possession of a language during the early years. If it were, deaf adults should have shown serious signs of psychiatric and social crippling, but they did not. He therefore set out to study the development of intelligence in childhood, and his work led directly to the discovery

of Piaget’s writings, the only available theory at that time that allowed for the normal development of thinking in children without language. This work was quite fertile and served as the occasion for a 1964 conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that was attended by linguists (e.g., Noam Chomsky), cognitive researchers (e.g., George Mandler), experts on deafness (e.g., Pierre Oleron), scholars of symbolic life (e.g., Rudolph Arnheim), developmental theorists (e.g., Bernie Kaplan), and researchers (e.g., John Flavell). A sufficient intellectual basis was established so that in 1965, a formal PhD program in human development (HD) was started within the department of psychology. Over the years, this program produced about 65 graduates, many of whom went on to have productive careers as researchers and teachers of development. Students were steeped in Piagetian theory, not in the typical “stage” approach, but in the epistemology of action-based knowledge, which was always met with interaction from other persons and physical objects. The structuring that took place was fed by these interactions, so that knowledge was always social (or socialized), which kept it from being solipsistic, utterly abstract, or misleadingly self-serving. Furth, his colleagues, and the students who came to the program created an intellectual atmosphere that gave the HD program identity within the broader discipline. This identity was symbolized by CUA’s granting of an honorary degree to Piaget in 1970, an event that included a weekend of seminars and social gatherings that were attended by a host of developmental researchers from East Coast universities. Another indicator of the success of this program is the number of its graduates who went on to have careers that epitomize what applied developmental studies claims as its core purpose. Francis Sullivan received the American Psychological Association’s 2002 Award for Distinguished Public Service, for his administrative leadership at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where he served as interim director and continues in the capacity of liaison to the U.S. Congress, among other things. Paul Ahr became the assistant commissioner of Mental Health for the State of Virginia and, later, commissioner of mental health for the State of Missouri. Charles Friel became the dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University, where he remains as professor. Harry Hoemann established a 30-year

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career in studies of deafness and sign language at Bowling Green State University, in Ohio. And John Murray, who started his career with Senator Pastore’s and the NIH’s commission on violence in the media, continues to study the media’s effects on children from his position as former director of the School of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University. This sample of early graduates from 1965 to 1975 illustrates the obvious compatibility between strong theory and clear application that defines applied development studies. After 1975, the program widened its scope even further as it became housed within a social science interdisciplinary setting, the Life Cycle Institute. Its faculty and students were involved in daily interaction with colleagues from the departments of psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, political science, social work, and religion. Students in the HD program took seminars with scholars from these other departments and learned to do research involving various methodologies beyond those common in psychological research. One result was that recent generations of graduates have entered the field with a wide array of skills, which they have used for an assortment of applied work that ranges from the evaluation of federal programs, such as Head Start, to policy analysis of federal initiatives pertaining to families and runaway youth. This range of career activities capitalizes on CUA’s location in Washington, D.C., and the timing coincides with the expansion of government programs that have increasingly been directed to moments in the human life cycle and the issues each of them brings. During the 1980s and 1990s, CUA’s HD program maintained its tradition of balancing academic research with policy and application, primarily through its interdisciplinary status and the outstanding students it was able to attract. For example, in the past decade, its PhD graduates were awarded postdoctoral fellowships at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Brown University, Harvard University, Northwestern University, the University of Miami (Florida), and Boston University. Many of its graduates have continued to blend their grounding in development theory with practical applications. For example, Jacqueline Smollar received a contractor’s honor award from the HHS Administration of Children and Families; Miranda Yates is an executive

with Covenant House in Hollywood, California; Lynn Davey heads Kids Count in Maine for The Annie E. Casey Foundation; James DeGroot heads the Psychological Services Division of State of Georgia Prison System; and Mary Jo Pugh was awarded an early-career research fellowship with the Veterans Administration to do work on the course of health of aging veterans. This conscious openness to look beyond itself for collaborative connections with other academic settings for training sets the course for the HD program as it enters the 21st century. As this account is being written, the HD program is being redesigned as a core element of the psychology department’s new initiative in “Children, Families, and Cultures.” The plan is to provide more integrative training among clinical, cognitive, and developmental students and to stimulate collaborative research among the respective faculty. It is on this note that the future is viewed with optimism as CUA’s tradition in which developmental studies are part of and partners with complementary disciplines continues. A sample of representative publications is included in the references. —James Youniss

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Furth, H. G. (1966). Thinking without language. New York: Free Press. Furth, H. G. (1969). Piaget and knowledge: Theoretical foundations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Furth, H. G., & Youniss, J. (2000). Reflections of Piaget’s sociological studies. New Ideas in Psychology, 18, 121–133. Moore, T. V. (1939). Cognitive psychology. New York: Lippincott. Ross, B. M. (1991). Remembering the personal past: Descriptions of autobiographical memory. New York: Oxford University Press. Youniss, J. (1980). Parents and peers in social development: A Sullivan-Piaget perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Youniss, J., & Yates, M. (1997). Community service and social responsibility in youth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

CAUCE, ANA MARI Ana Mari Cauce’s interest in how child and adolescent development are shaped by social forces

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springs from her own early experiences. Born in 1956, in Havana, Cuba, she came to the United States at the age of 3 and settled along with her brother in Miami, Florida. The move was initiated by her parents, who were fleeing Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution. In Florida, her father, who had served as Cuba’s minister of education, worked in a factory, making dress shoes; her mother worked in a factory, making tennis shoes. And while her new life in Miami was generally happy and neither she nor her brother were deprived of the more important things in life, her parents’ shift from a life of prominence and prestige to one marked by struggle and sacrifice no doubt played a role in Cauce’s lifelong concern for children and youth growing up in poverty or other difficult circumstances. EDUCATION AND TRAINING Cauce lived at home, with her parents, while attending the University of Miami. It was a work-study job with professor of psychology Leonard Jacobson that first led her to contemplate research in psychology, and she graduated with a BA in psychology and English literature. In her first substantive research involvement, Cauce reviewed the literature on intelligence assessment, particularly as it applied to Latinos. In general, she found the research in this area to be conceptually and methodologically weak and permeated by implicit and incorrect assumptions about ethnic minorities (Cauce & Jacobson, 1981). Over time, she found that sloppy scholarship was more often the norm than the exception when ethnic minorities were the subject of interest, and she believed that she could do better. Leaving home was not easy for Cauce, but a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) predoctoral fellowship through Yale University and one from the American Psychological Association (APA) Minority Fellowship Program made the transition easier. While at Yale, she studied with and was most influenced by Edmund Gordon, her dissertation adviser, and committee members Edward Zigler and Seymour Sarason. Another enduring influence from those days was the death of her brother, then 25, murdered at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was a civil rights and union activist. He remains an important source of inspiration for her advocacy for social justice, whether through her research, professional, or personal undertakings. While continuing her focus on her research and studies was difficult in the face her brother’s murder,

Cauce completed her PhD in 1984, with a focus on child clinical and community psychology. As it has progressed, Cauce’s work has contributed to three areas that are not mutually exclusive: youth social support networks, family processes and development in ethnic minority adolescents, and community-based interventions with at-risk youth. CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL SUPPORT IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE Research on social support networks had long suggested that adults who report higher levels of support are more resistant to the deleterious effects of life stress, employment disruption, and normative life transitions. But Cauce (Cauce, Felner, & Primavera, 1982) was one of the first to examine the relationship between social support and adjustment during childhood and adolescence. In this study, she delineated the structural features of youth networks, hypothesizing that different subgroups of support providers (e.g., parents, peers, etc.) form separate “support systems” within the network and that these distinct support groupings differentially affect the impact of social support on adjustment. Cauce further found that youth of different ages and widely different backgrounds and situations delineate specific “systems,” consisting of parental/familial support, peer support, and support from school personnel, and that the profiles of parental, peer, and school support systems differ from one another in a highly interpretable manner (Cauce, Reid, Landesman, & Gonzales, 1990). Elementary school age children perceive their parents as multipurpose support providers or support “generalists,” in contrast to peers and schoolteachers, whom they perceive as support “specialists,” more limited in their social value. Cauce’s research also suggests that the exact composition of each support system and whether it serves a generalist or specialist role varies by developmental stage. As children enter adolescence, peers shift from support specialists (as play companions) to support generalists (Cauce, Mason, Gonzales, Hiraga, & Lui, 1994). Furthermore, whereas support from parents and school personnel has a positive impact on psychosocial adjustment and competence, the effects of peer support are generally mixed. Peer support, in some cases, is related to enhanced self-esteem but also more school absenteeism and poorer school competence and performance (Cauce et al., 1982; Cauce et al., 1990).

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When Cauce started her research on social support networks in youth, it was virtually uncharted territory. She was one of two or three investigators examining this topic. In recent years, research on this topic has gained some prominence not only in community psychology but in clinical and developmental psychology as well. Her work in this area has been widely cited, and today, virtually all state-of-the-art research programs distinguish between support providers and take these into account when assessing support and its impact on adjustment. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUTH Much of Cauce’s work on social support networks has focused on the link between support and psychosocial adjustment and has been conducted with ethnic minority (primarily African American) adolescents. This work clearly suggests that the early to midadolescent years are especially critical for African American youth, in terms of both the development of social competence and the initiation of high-risk behaviors. Cauce’s contribution to better delineating the developmental trajectory of African American youth during adolescence is best reflected in the body of research that she, together with her graduate student colleagues, conducted as part of her National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD) grant, “An Ecological Model of Well-Being in Minority Adolescent.” This project, one of the earliest to focus on a normative sample of minority youth, followed a cohort of about 150 African American adolescents from the 7th or 8th grade into the 10th or 11th grade. They interviewed parents (at least one) and adolescents, and a subsample engaged in videotaped problem-solving interactions (Cauce & Gonzales, 1993; Gonzales & Cauce, 1995). The Context of Development The first published study in this series (Mason, Cauce, Gonzales, Hiraga, & Grove, 1994) examined the utility of a two-step ecological model in predicting problem behavior among African American youth. This model posits that while the most direct predictors of adolescent behavior are processes within the family (i.e., warmth, disciplinary strategy, conflict), these family processes are shaped by the extrafamilial

context, which in this study was represented by the parental work environment and the social support available to the parent. In this sense, the family’s context affects adolescent behavior indirectly. Path analyses supported the utility of this two-step model and quite convincingly suggested that the addition of extrafamilial factors provided a better fit to the data than the more typical model that restricts its examination to intrafamilial processes. Cauce and colleagues believed that a demonstration of the importance of the context that surrounds African American families, supporting or hindering them and thus affecting child development, was crucial before moving to a more focused analysis of family processes themselves. When African American family processes are examined outside of the broader context they are nested in, it is too often the case that simplistic conclusions are drawn about the “pathology” of such families. Such oversimplifications hinder our ability to engage in either productive social policy debates or soundly grounded science that can further such debates. Parental Control The complexity of the relationship between family processes and adolescent outcomes in a normative African American sample is best illustrated by a study (Mason, Cauce, Gonzales, & Hiraga, 1997) that focused on the effects of maternal behavioral and psychological control, two aspects of parental disciplinary styles. Psychological control is characterized by overly harsh and punitive discipline, in contrast to behavioral control that is nonpunitive and age appropriate. Typically, psychological control has been posited to hinder adjustment, and behavioral control to enhance it. In contrast, Cauce’s conversations with African American families, particularly her work with mothers and daughters (Cauce, Gonzales, Hiraga, Grove, & Ryan-Finn, 1996) suggested that the relationship between maternal control and adolescent problem behavior is not so straightforward and linear. As one mother told Cauce, making decisions about appropriate curfews and household rules felt like “threading a needle in the dark.” Too much lenience or too much harshness could have negative consequences. Thus, Cauce and colleagues hypothesized that there would be a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship between either firm or restrictive control and

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adolescent behavior. They further posited that the optimal degree of control for adolescent development would vary by peer context. Thus, for youth who are part of a healthier, more prosocial peer group, the optimal level of parental control would be lower than for youth in a less benign peer group. Results largely supported this. On a theoretical level, this implies that the traditional linear maineffect models that are typically used to examine the relationship between parenting styles and adolescent adjustment may be missing the mark. On a more practical level, these results suggest that parenting programs based on simplistic notions of child rearing (e.g., psychological control is bad; behavioral control is good) may be not only ineffective but also harmful for African American parents trying to raise healthy children in high-risk contexts. At present, Cauce is involved in two grant-writing efforts that will be attempting to extend the basic socioecological model examined in her work with African Americans to two additional ethnic minority groups, Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans. DEVELOPMENTAL INTERVENTIONS Throughout her career, Cauce has strived to conduct research that will help to inform attempts to improve young people’s lives. This is most apparent in the intervention work in which she has participated. She is fortunate to have been involved in several prevention and intervention projects as a graduate student (Cauce, Comer, & Schwartz, 1987). But she was first actually involved in the development of an intervention, funded by the NIMH, as an offshoot of her work with an agency that served homeless adolescents. The intervention, intensive case management, was largely developed from interviewing caseworkers with extensive experience serving this population and reviewing the literature on interventions that had proven effective for homeless adults. It was in part a social support intervention, in that with more time and a smaller caseload, caseworkers should be able to form closer and more sensitive relationships with youth. It also assumes that because of the relatively high rates of psychological distress in this population, increased mental health training among caseworkers would better allow them to provide youth with more appropriate services (Cauce, Morgan, et al., 1994). Cauce and her colleagues at the University of Washington continue to focus a considerable amount of energy on better describing homelessness and the

“process” of homelessness among adolescents, working together with collaborators Les Whitbeck, Dan Hoyt, and Kim Tyler, now at the University of Nebraska (Tyler, Hoyt, Whitbeck, & Cauce, 2001; Whitbeck, Hoyt, Yoder, Cauce, & Paradise, 2001). Much of the work in this project has focused on better examining the role of abuse and victimization as it influences the trajectories of homeless youth on the streets. As the research has progressed, it has become clear that homeless youth are a much more heterogeneous group than they were once believed to be and that many such youth cycle in and out of homelessness. A better understanding of the factors that trigger these episodes may help us develop even more effective interventions for this hard-to-serve population.

CONCLUSIONS The central issues that propelled Cauce toward an academic career in psychology and the touchstones of her life as an exiled Latina lesbian continue to inform her work today. The desire to conduct high-quality research that reflects the complexity and challenge entailed in growing up as a person of color and/or under high-risk circumstances is at the heart of her research program; she remains convinced that an understanding of normal and problematic development needs to be couched in terms of multiple influences and many levels of analysis, from genes to culture. She hopes that her work can help us to understand the nature of such influences, while contributing to the well-being of disenfranchised youth and their families. —Ana Mari Cauce

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Cauce, A. M., Comer, J. P., & Schwartz, D. (1987). Long-term effects of a systems-oriented school prevention project. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 127–131. Cauce, A. M., Felner, R. D., & Primavera, J. (1982). Social support in high-risk adolescents: Structural components and adaptive impact. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 417–428. Cauce, A. M., & Gonzales, N. (1993). Slouching towards culturally competent research: Adolescents and families of color in context. Focus: Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, 7(2), 8–9. Cauce, A. M., Gonzales, N., Hiraga,Y., Grove, K., & Ryan-Finn, K. (1996). African American mothers and their adolescent

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daughters: Intimacy, autonomy, and conflict. In B. J. Leadbeater & N. Way (Eds.), Urban girls: Resisting stereotypes, creating identities. New York: New York University Press. Cauce, A. M., & Jacobson, L. I. (1981). Implicit and incorrect assumptions concerning the assessment of the Latino in the United States. American Journal of Community Psychology, 8, 571–586. Cauce, A. M., Mason, C., Gonzales, N., Hiraga, Y., & Liu, G. (1994). Social support during adolescence: Methodological and theoretical considerations. In F. Nestmann & K. Hurrelmann (Eds.), Social networks and social support in childhood and adolescence (pp. 89–108). Berlin: de Gruyter. Reprinted in K. Hurrelman & S. G. Hamilton (Eds.), Social problems and social contexts in adolescence: Perspectives across boundaries, 1996, New York: Aldine de Gruyter Cauce, A. M., Morgan, C. J., Wagner, V., Moore, E., Wurzbacher, K., Weeden, K., et al. (1994). Effectiveness of case management for homeless adolescents: Results for the three month follow-up. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Development, 2, 219–227. Cauce, A. M., Reid, M., Landesman, S., & Gonzales, N. (1990). Social support networks in young children: Measurement, structure, and behavioral impact. In I. G. Sarason, B. R. Sarason, & G. Pierce (Eds.), Social support: An interactional view (pp. 64–94). Newbury Park, NJ: Wiley. Gonzales, N., & Cauce, A. M. (1995). Ethnic identity and multicultural competence: Dilemmas and challenges for minority youth. In W. D. Hawley & A. Jackson (Eds.), Toward a common destiny: Improving race and ethnic relations in America (pp. 131–162). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Mason, C. A., Cauce, A. M., Gonzales, N., & Hiraga, Y. (1997). Neither too sweet nor too sour: Antisocial peers, maternal control, and problem behavior in African American adolescents. Child Development, 67, 2115–2130. Mason, C., Cauce, A. M., Gonzales, N., Hiraga, Y., & Grove, K. (1994). An ecological model of externalizing in African American adolescents: No family is an island. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 639–655. Tyler, K. A., Hoyt, D., Whitbeck, L., & Cauce, A. M. (2001). The effects of a high-risk environment on sexual victimization of homeless and runaway youth. Violence and Victims, 16, 441–455. Whitbeck, L., Hoyt, D., Yoder, K., Cauce, A. M., & Paradise, M. (2001). Deviant behavior and victimization among homeless and runaway adolescents. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 16, 1175–1204.

CECI, STEPHEN J. Stephen J. Ceci was born on March 22, 1950, the fourth of six children of working-class Italian parents,

in Wilmington, Delaware. Ceci attended Catholic school, where he developed remarkably little interest in anything academic, preferring to spend his formative years playing sports and roaming the streets. Despite this early apathy, he nevertheless earned both high grades and a reputation among the nuns and priests that made them thankful he had no younger brothers. As a teenager, Ceci ran numbers for a local bookie and soon became known for his prodigious memory; he was capable of recalling many 3-digit numbers and the amounts of money wagered on each without relying on written records—a distinct advantage if stopped by police. An epiphany struck him in his late teens, when he realized that his cognitive strengths could be better actualized in a classroom than on the street. Ceci applied for and received a scholarship to the University of Delaware, where he completed his BA in 1973. He later went on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Exeter, England, where he worked with the late Michael J. A. Howe, who continued to serve as both mentor and friend until Howe’s tragic death in 2002. Ceci began his academic career as an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota in 1978. Teaming up with another assistant professor, Douglas Peters, Ceci began a tradition of research on topics many wished he had not pursued. By resubmitting already-published articles to the same journals that had recently published them, Peters and Ceci (1982) demonstrated that very few editors and reviewers recognized that these same articles had already appeared in their journals. Furthermore, most of the articles were rejected the second time around, indicating massive unreliability in the peer review process and creating substantial embarrassment for the editors. This study won Ceci considerable notoriety, and in 1980, he left North Dakota for a position at Cornell University. He has remained there since and now holds a lifetime-endowed chair, the Helen L. Carr Professorship of Developmental Psychology. Ceci’s research is broad, encompassing two interrelated topics: first, the nature of intelligence in everyday settings and, second, the nature of children’s memory. Both lines of research focus on the role of context as a defining aspect of intelligence and memory in naturalistic settings. For example, in an early study on intelligence in context, Ceci and Liker (1986) showed that experts at the racetrack were more successful than men who attended the track equally

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often but failed to achieve the status of experts, because experts constructed more complex, intuitive models of horseracing, incorporating the complexities of multiple-interaction effects and nonlinearity. Ceci and Liker showed that the complexity of the experts’ mental models was unrelated to their IQ scores, years of formal education, or social status. The complexity of their thinking predicted success at the track, but their IQs did not. This important study was one of the earliest to argue that general intelligence, or g, may be domain-specific. In other words, Ceci and Liker showed that being an expert at racetrack handicapping did not mean that a person was an expert in school or did well on tests of intelligence. Ceci’s research on children’s memory has focused mainly on the testimonial reliability of young children. His work looks at the interplay of cognitive, biological, metacognitive, and social influences on the reliability of children’s recollections in courtrooms. Ceci has examined the relationship between the strength of a child’s memory when serving as a witness and the susceptibility of this memory to being overwritten or confounded as a result of repeated questioning by adults, especially when these questions are accompanied by suggestions containing misinformation about what actually happened. Ceci’s groundbreaking work in this area has been at the interface of theoretical and applied psychology, and it provides a framework for thinking about conditions in which children’s report inaccuracy is likely due to genuine memory failure, versus social factors such as demands made by the adults questioning the children. He is credited with the finding that at least some of the report inaccuracy of children stems from the destructive updating of their memory as a function of certain interview practices, an argument that was initially challenged but eventually accepted by all researchers. Ceci’s 1993 Psychological Bulletin article with Maggie Bruck (“The Suggestibility of the Child Witness”) attempted to synthesize research in this area. As a result of its widely acknowledged scholarship, this article has been quoted by many courts in cases involving child witnesses. This article represents the highest possible caliber of research, translated into broad and effective applications both within psychology and outside of it. It has been cited more than 400 times in the scientific literature. In addition to his interests in intelligence and memory, Ceci has a long-standing interest in the development of many basic cognitive processes. His theory of “false forgetting” (Ceci, 1995) is an outcome of a very

simple observation made in his lab several years ago; namely, young children often claim not to remember events they witnessed, despite being able to supply substantial accurate information about them. This theory posits that false forgetting is constrained by the nature of the mental representation created by the children: When young children’s mental representations resemble those of older children and adults in terms of their richness and integration, they do not exhibit false feelings of forgetting. Many of Ceci’s articles have been topics of media stories in The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek Magazine, Science, Time Magazine, and other major media outlets; he has also been interviewed numerous times on television on shows such as ABC’s 20/20, NBC’s Dateline, CBS’s 48 Hours, and PBS’s The McNeil-Lehrer News Hour. Ceci’s research contributions are also widely recognized among legal scholars, who regularly draw on his research when writing court opinions. Despite being asked almost daily to testify as an expert witness and being offered substantial sums to do so, Ceci has steadfastly refused to testify except on those rare occasions when he has been court appointed (in which case he has declined compensation for his testimony). Among his many accomplishments, Ceci is the author of approximately 300 articles and chapters and several books and has given hundreds of invited addresses around the world. In 2000, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. In 2002, Ceci was named recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Lifetime Contribution for Science in the Service of Society Award. In 2003, he was elected to the Governing Council of the Society for Research in Child Development and also received its award for Contributions to Public Policy for Children. He was the 2003 recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Scientific Contribution in the Application of Psychology Award by the American Psychological Association. His other major honors include a Senior Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship and a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award. Ceci and his coauthor Charles Henderson also received the IBM Supercomputing Prize, and Ceci has received three Senior Mensa Foundation Research Prizes, as well as the Arthur Rickter Award for his work on children’s testimony. He currently serves on seven editorial boards and has served on many others in the past. He is a fellow of eight divisions of the American Psychological

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Association, and of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, the British Psychological Society, and the American Psychological Society. In 2001, he was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Ceci’s book with Maggie Bruck, Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children’s Testimony, won the 2000 William James Award from the American Psychological Association. He has served as a scientific adviser to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) and as an advisory board member of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. Ceci is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. He served on the American Psychological Society’s board of directors and currently serves on the White House Task Force on Federal Funding for Research on Children and Youth. He is past president of the Division of General Psychology of the American Psychological Association. Ceci is coeditor, with Robert Bjork, of the American Psychological Society journal, Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Currently, he codirects with Wendy M. Williams the Cornell Institute for Research on Children, a center funded by the National Science Foundation promoting research and education on children and families.

Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1993). The suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 403–439. Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1995). Jeopardy in the courtroom: A scientific analysis of children’s testimony. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1998). Children’s testimony: Applied and basic issues. In I. Sigel & K. A. Renninger (Eds.), The handbook of child psychology (5th ed., Vol. 4, pp. 714–774). New York: Wiley. Ceci, S. J., & Friedman, R. D. (2000). The suggestibility of children: Scientific research and legal implications. Cornell Law Review, 86, 34–108. Ceci, S. J., & Liker, J. (1986). A day at the races: IQ, expertise, and cognitive complexity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115, 255–266. Ceci, S. J., Ross, D., & Toglia, M. (1987). Suggestibility of children’s memory: Psycholegal implications. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 116, 38–49. Ceci, S. J., & Williams, W. M. (1997). Schooling, intelligence, and income. American Psychologist, 52(10), 1051–1058. Henderson, C. R., & Ceci, S. J. (1992). Is it better to be born rich or smart? A bioecological analysis. The 1990 IBM Supercomputing Competition Winners. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Peters, D. P., & Ceci, S. J. (1982, June). A naturalistic study of psychology journals: The fate of published articles resubmitted. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 219–228.

—Wendy M. Williams

CELIAC DISEASE REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bronfenbrenner, U., & Ceci, S. J. (1994). Nature-nurture in developmental perspective: A bioecological theory. Psychological Review, 101, 568–586. Ceci, S. J. (1991). How much does schooling influence general intelligence and its cognitive components? A reassessment of the evidence. Developmental Psychology, 27, 703–722. Ceci, S. J. (1995). False beliefs: Some developmental and clinical considerations. In D. L. Schacter, J. T. Coyle, G. D. Fischbach, M. M. Mesulam, & L. E. Sullivan (Eds.), Memory distortion: How minds, brains, and societies reconstruct the past. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ceci, S. J. (1996). On intelligence: A bio-ecological treatise on intellectual development (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ceci, S. J., & Bronfenbrenner, U. (1985). Don’t forget to take the cupcakes out of the oven: Prospective memory, timemonitoring, and context. Child Development, 56, 152–164.

Celiac disease is a disorder of the small bowel. The lining in the small intestinal mucosa is damaged by the prolamin fraction of wheat gluten, barley, and rye in susceptible individuals. Celiac disease is also known as celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, gluten enteropathy, and gliadin-sensitive enteropathy. Celiac disease was considered rare in the past. However, a recent study (Fasano et al., 2003) showed that the prevalence of the disease was as high as 1 in 133 persons in the United States. This number may still be an underestimation. There are many undiagnosed and misdiagnosed cases that fall through the cracks. The disease has a genetic underpinning, with a 70% concordance in identical twins and 10% in firstdegree relatives (Schuppan, 2000). This entry describes current knowledge on the mechanisms, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the disease.

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MECHANISM Celiac disease is caused by the ingestion of gluten in genetically susceptible individuals in whom an immune reaction to gluten damages the small intestinal mucosa. The trigger of the immune reaction and the mechanism of damage have not been fully elucidated. In celiac disease, the villi, which are the fingerlike projections in the intestine and the lining of the intestine (enterocytes), are damaged, reducing the surface available for nutrient absorption. SYMPTOMS Celiac symptoms can manifest only when gluten is ingested by genetically susceptible individuals. Symptoms can be subtle, delayed, or absent; may vary in number, range, and intensity; and include intestinal as well as extraintestinal symptoms. The complexity of symptoms and variety can be elusive, and the diagnosis may be missed. Symptoms in children can include malodorous, bulky, pale-colored stools, diarrhea, growth retardation, weight loss, anorexia, poor appetite, irritability, abdominal discomfort, abdominal distension, or emesis (vomiting). Symptoms in adults can include abdominal pain, bloating, muscle cramps, anemia, depression, fatigue, irritability, diarrhea, emesis, involuntary weight loss, osteoporosis, osteopenia, steatorrhea, foul-smelling stool, and dermatitis herpetiformis. There are individuals with celiac disease who do not have overt symptoms.

DIAGNOSIS Diagnosis of celiac disease can be challenging. If a professional is unfamiliar with the protean manifestations of this disease, it is not considered in the differential diagnosis. Symptoms of the disease overlap with other diseases. Symptom complexes of interintestinal and extraintestinal origin vary in nature and intensity. Subjects with symptoms or at high risk for celiac disease should undergo laboratory screening. Serologic testing by using anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA antibody assay is necessary. A positive result should be confirmed by histological examination; therefore, endoscopy with small-bowel biopsy is considered the “gold standard” for the diagnosis. It is important to realize that a negative tTG test does not exclude the possibility of the disease later in life in those who have the genetic markers (HLA DQ2

or/and DQ8), which are present in 95% of the patients with celiac disease. In these individuals, celiac disease can manifest at any period of their lives. PREVENTION AND TREATMENT The exact pathomechanism of the disease is still undetermined, and except for the elimination of gluten, there is no known method of prevention. Individuals whose family members have celiac disease have higher lifelong risk (8%–10%). Early detection can alleviate suffering and severe intestinal damage. A lifelong elimination of gluten from the diet is the only available treatment at this time. Foods containing wheat, rye, and barley must be eliminated from the diet. Food labels should be scrutinized for “hidden” sources of gluten. Symptoms may disappear a few weeks after a gluten-free diet is begun, but the complete healing of the lining can take years. Some individuals may remain symptom free even if small amounts of gluten are present in their diets. However, symptom free does not equate to disease free. The damage to the intestine can continue undetected. Follow-up care with a dietician, gastroenterologist, and psychologist or psychiatrist should be made when appropriate. PROGNOSIS Celiac disease is a lifelong disorder. If it remains undiagnosed or the patients do not follow a glutenfree diet, the disease can lead to severe complications and increased mortality. Patients with celiac disease are at higher risk for gastrointestinal cancers, osteoporosis, and neuropathies. Diseases that are commonly associated with celiac disease include Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, Williams syndrome, diabetes mellitus, and other autoimmune disorders. Some individuals may continue to experience symptoms even on gluten-free diets. These subjects have a disease called refractory sprue, and they may have hidden gluten ingestion, sensitivity to other proteins, or intestinal malignancies. Psychological problems among patients with celiac disease are understudied. It is a chronic disease that can lead to social and emotional problems in the affected individuals and their families. Crying, irritability, anger, frustration, anxiety, and depression are

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psychological problems commonly experienced by individuals with celiac disease. Education and supportive therapy are helpful. If necessary, antidepressants and anxiolitics are appropriate. —Ramasamy Manikam, Karoly Horvath, Alessio Fasano, and Pam Cureton

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fasano, A., Berti, I., Gerarduzzi, T., Not, T., Colletti, R. B., Drago, S., et al. (2003). Prevalence of celiac disease in atrisk and not at-risk groups in the United States. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163, 286–292. Schuppan, D. (2000). Current concepts of celiac disease pathogenesis. Gastroenterology, 119, 234–242.

CENTER FOR CHILD AND FAMILY POLICY, DUKE UNIVERSITY The scholarly mission of the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University is to conduct interdisciplinary research that informs and improves practice and policy. The center’s faculty and staff further work to solve mental health, social, and related problems facing children and families by translating important research findings into tools and knowledge usable outside of academia. An essential part of this effort involves building bridges between social scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and communities. Many of the center’s studies involve initiatives undertaken in partnership with day care centers, schools, families, neighborhoods, community organizations, and government agencies. It focuses its work in three main areas: • Early childhood adversity • Education policy • Youth violence and problem behaviors EARLY CHILDHOOD ADVERSITY Representative of the center’s work in this area are Project Kid Start (Project TEAM and STARS Plus) and the extensive Durham Family Initiative. Project TEAM combines curricula from a number of preschool interventions that have proven to provide high-quality pre-K educational programs for at-risk

4-year-olds. This initiative has worked with preschool teachers, parents, and children to prepare those children for the transition to kindergarten emotionally and socially, focusing especially on children who exhibit aggressive behaviors. It uses a universal curriculum designed as a prevention strategy for aggressive behavior for all children in the classroom and an intensive home-visiting component that serves as a secondary prevention strategy for parents of highly aggressive children. STARS Plus, drawing on many of the same models, is a pre-K summer program designed to help at-risk children make successful transitions to kindergarten. Project TEAM encompasses seven components: (1) a social skills curriculum based on Second Step, a violence prevention curriculum; (2) a classroom management curriculum; (3) a literacy/vocabulary component based on dialogic reading; (4) a home-visiting program based on Fast Track; (5) a service provider training program in the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale; (6) parent group meetings; and (7) training for day care center staff on cultural diversity, North Carolina day care rules and regulations, and the identification and reporting of child maltreatment. These projects have heavily emphasized training for providers and for parents in an effort to build capabilities within the environments where the children spend most of their time. Parents, providers, and the children’s first school teachers have reported positive results. The Durham Family Initiative (DFI) is a far-reaching, community-based effort in Durham, North Carolina, designed to • help families that are at risk for child abuse and other challenges become self-sufficient and supportive of their children’s healthy growth and development; • help stressed neighborhoods become supportive environments for children and families; • help the wider Durham community support families and neighborhoods; and • help public and private service organizations integrate their services when they are needed, so that they can most effectively help Durham’s children and families. The theoretical framework for this effort is found in the system of care concept—a systematic attempt to have service providers coordinate their efforts to

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provide a continuum of care for families, ranging from universal supports for all families to targeted help for families that need tailored interventions. The initiative’s family and community partners work in Durham neighborhoods with high rates of reported child abuse, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, crime, poverty, and other challenges. They forge personal contacts between families and formal and informal neighborhood networks in clubs, churches, groups of friends, and elsewhere. Solutions may require informal help from within the neighborhood, such as day care in a neighbor’s home or ride sharing to work. They may require coordination with larger community services, such as schools, health care and mental health care providers, social service agencies, and other organizations. And they depend on support from a local business community committed to improving its city. DFI assesses and documents its activities rigorously in a constant feedback loop, adjusting activities as needed in order to improve services to families and neighborhoods. Data are collected to document the prevalence of various risks in the neighborhoods and families and to track changes across time. EDUCATION POLICY The center’s research into education policy currently focuses on understanding and reducing the achievement gaps between minority and majority students and on the effects of wide-ranging school reform in North Carolina. It is home to the North Carolina Research Data Center, a unique collaboration between university researchers and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), which provides researchers with access to the state’s voluminous confidential data on public schools, students, and teachers. The Data Center is an outgrowth of the Duke University–University of North Carolina (UNC) Consortium on Achievement Gaps. Consortium research at Duke and at UNC focuses on understanding the causes of and finding solutions for minority achievement gaps in education. The primary elements of the consortium are a series of faculty-initiated research proposals, the Data Center, faculty research symposia and seminars, outreach to state and local policymakers, and the training of young scholars. The Data Center is the central, essential component of the consortium. Without it, much of the proposed

research could not be undertaken. It provides researchers across social science disciplines with access to large databases, helps them learn from and build on each others’ work, connects them with state and local policymakers, and provides a rich intellectual environment for the training of a new generation of education researchers for the state and region. NCDPI collects a wide array of data on school districts, individual schools, teachers, students, and student achievement, but the data are not collected, managed, or reported in ways that are directly relevant to research. Furthermore, these data are collected by independent units within NCDPI, and separate files are not linked. For example, no single unit in state government links information about teachers and their preparation with students and their performance. As a consequence, a resource of great potential value had not formerly been accessible. The initial function of the Data Center has been to provide access to readily usable state-level data to researchers at Duke and the UNC system in order to complete consortium research projects. All data created by the new center will also be available to NCDPI for its research purposes. Representative studies from the consortium and the Data Center include “Who Teaches Whom? Race and the Distribution of Novice Teachers,” “The Relationship Between Ethnicity and Early Dropout: Evidence From North Carolina’s Public Schools,” “Individual and Group Differences in Student Achievement: The Role of Peers, Parental Choices, and Neighborhoods,” and “Teacher Quality and Student Achievement,” among many others. The center also coordinates the joint Duke-UNC Spencer Foundation Education Policy Research Training Program. The program’s goals are to attract doctoral fellows in arts and sciences disciplines to research careers studying contemporary problems in education policy, to train faculty members to use their methods to solve complex problems in education policy, and to push the field toward a new kind of research that addresses problems in education through interdisciplinary inquiry that closely links academic rigor with policy applications. YOUTH VIOLENCE AND PROBLEM BEHAVIORS The center’s research into the causes of youth violence and ways to prevent it dates to studies started in the mid-1980s. This research focuses not on the

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dramatic incidents that make the evening news but on the all-too-common acts of violence that create fearful environments in homes, schools, and communities. Researchers here seek to understand the reasons for individual violence and develop ways to prevent it. They work to understand and help create healthy home, school, and community environments free of violence and seek to help youth at risk for violent behavior avoid the commonly resulting failures in school, work, and relationships. Current projects in youth violence include the following: • Cultural Strategies for Preventing Conduct Problems, which tests the hypothesis that incorporating racial socialization in parent-training programs and assisting the efforts of African American parents in the proactive socialization of their children may assist in the overall effectiveness of a program when applied in community settings. • The Child Development Project, which has followed the social development and adjustment of nearly 600 children since 1987. • The Cognitive, Psychophysiological, and Situational Features of Reactive and Proactive Violence, which seeks specific causes for violent behavior in the children of the Child Development Project. • Fast Track, the largest violence prevention study ever funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, which nationally has followed a group of about 1,000 children starting in 1991. The project includes interventions in schools, homes, workplaces, juvenile courts, and elsewhere, as well as cost-benefit analyses of the interventions. It also includes the work of the on-site Fast Track Data Center. • GREAT Schools and Families, the largest youth violence study for middle schools ever funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This project includes the work of the on-site GREAT Schools and Families Data Center. • Safe Schools/Healthy Students, a collaboration with Durham Public Schools to deliver and evaluate a federally funded program aimed at promoting prosocial behavior and positive mental health, while preventing aggression and drug abuse among children from preschool through high school.

• The Center for Child and Family Policy, established in the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University in July 1999, when Kenneth A. Dodge, PhD, became its first director. It is generally home to 15 to 20 scholars and 60 staff members and has more than 90 affiliated faculty members. —Steve Williams

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. L. (2003). Segregation and resegregation in North Carolina’s public school classrooms. North Carolina Law Review, 81(4), 1463–1511. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2002). Evaluation of the first three years of the Fast Track Prevention Trial with children at high risk for adolescent conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 19–35. Dodge, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Burks, V. S., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., Fontaine, R., et al. (2003). Peer rejection and social information-processing factors in the development of aggressive behavior problems in children. Child Development, 74, 374–393. Ladd, H. F. (2002). School vouchers: A critical view. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(4), 3–24. Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., Bates, J. E., Crozier, J., & Kaplow, J. (2002). A 12-year prospective study of the long-term effects of early child physical maltreatment on psychological, behavioral, and academic problems in adolescence. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 156, 824–830. Rabiner, D., Coie, J. D., & the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2000). Early attention problems and children’s reading achievement: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 859–867.

CENTER FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE AT The Center for Social Development (CSD) is part of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work (GWB), at Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri. The impetus for creating CSD came from Dean Shanti Khinduka. The center began in 1994, with Professor Michael Sherraden as the founding director. Although relatively young as an organization, CSD has established itself as a leading academic

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center in social development in the United States and internationally. BACKGROUND What is social development, and how does the work of CSD reflect applied developmental science? Social development focuses on the growth and capacity building of individuals, families, communities, and societies, somewhat in contrast to the traditional social welfare focus on maintenance and problem solving. Social development is a large umbrella, under which a wide range of academic and applied discussions are intermingled. These include enhancing development and capabilities, improving social functioning and intergroup relations, creating responsive institutions, generating initiatives to increase individual and group participation, and more (Beverly & Sherraden, 1997). Social development is a multilevel, interdisciplinary enterprise. It often includes elements of economic development, but it goes beyond a purely economic focus that has characterized much of “international development” and “development studies.” Social development is a term that arose in “developing” countries, but today is being applied in “developed” nations, building a knowledge base and applying lessons across this arbitrary divide (Midgley, 1995). CSD approaches the study of social development from an applied developmental science (ADS) perspective. As an applied-research institution, CSD implements theoretically driven inquiry, examining structures and effects of social interventions. ADS is known for contextually based research, maintaining connections to program innovation and policy—and CSD makes these connections. CSD studies program and policy innovations that have the potential to produce multiple positive effects. The predominant problem focus of the social sciences has led to research that often seeks to explain negative effects or situations. CSD takes a different tack in creating theories and interventions that may explain and produce positive results. Given limited resources, this approach may be more productive and efficient for applied social research. SELECTED PROJECTS, PRODUCTS, AND IMPACTS CSD has a multipurpose agenda, encompassing social theory, research, policy innovation, projects in

the community, teaching, and information resources. CSD connects academic and applied interests and builds bridges between public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Both academic excellence and real-world involvement are emphasized. CSD’s work spans five arenas of social development: (1) investing in people to increase participation in the economy and involvement in society; (2) promoting strong communities, active citizenship, mutuality, and interracial harmony; (3) creating responsive and effective human service and community development organizations; (4) working on policies, state and federal, that may enhance social development; and (5) working transnationally and internationally on interventions that span national boundaries. Below, to illustrate CSD’s work, selected projects, products, and impacts are presented. Asset Building CSD is the leading academic center of theory and research on asset-building strategies for low-income, low-asset populations. The term “asset-based policy” was introduced by Sherraden (1991). CSD’s work has focused on financial accumulation, designing and testing subsidized (matched) savings in the form of individual development accounts (IDAs). IDA savings are used for homeownership, education, small-business capitalization, or other designated development purposes. IDAs are combined with financial education. Program goals include improving financial management skills and increasing wealth. In addition to economic effects, asset ownership may contribute to a range of psychological, social, and civic effects that are mostly positive (McBride, Lombe, & Beverly, in press; Sherraden, 1991). Although widely believed to be true, theory building and empirical evidence on “asset effects” are in a very early stage of theoretical specification and assessment. CSD plays a leading role in designing and carrying out research on IDA programs and their effects, including a national IDA demonstration, the “American Dream Demonstration” (ADD), from 1997 to 2003. ADD has been implemented by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) at 13 sites around the country, with funding by 11 private foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, F. B. Heron Foundation, Citigroup Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, and others. ADD is among the largest and most productive social policy demonstrations in the United States in recent years.

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Research results from ADD have had a major impact on policy. The idea of matched savings, unknown in public policy before the 1990s, is now common. CSD has helped write federal and state legislation. IDAs were part of the federal “welfare reform” of 1996 and a federal IDA demonstration, the “Assets for Independence Act,” in 1998. In September 2000, CSD hosted a national academic meeting in St. Louis, “Inclusion in Asset Building: Research and Policy Symposium.” The proceedings of this conference are being published by Oxford University Press. CSD research on IDAs was used by the Clinton White House in proposing Universal Savings Accounts and by President Bush’s Commission on Strengthening Social Security. At the state level, more than 40 states now have some type of IDA policy; CSD research results and staff testimony have played a direct role in almost all of these states. CSD has also assisted with IDA programs in dozens of communities, consulting on projects in Alaska and with tribal governments. Internationally, CSD’s work has influenced policy developments in the United Kingdom, Canada, Taiwan, Australia, and other countries. In January 2001, CSD cohosted an international meeting in London, “Asset-Based Welfare: An International Debate.” Influenced by CSD research and consultations, the United Kingdom created a Savings Gateway (short-term matched savings, like IDAs in the United States) and announced that a Child Trust Fund will be created, giving every child in the United Kingdom a savings account at birth, with larger public deposits into the accounts of the poorest children. Sherraden (1991) had proposed IDAs as lifelong, universal, progressive accounts beginning at birth. The Child Trust Fund in the United Kingdom will be the first universal, progressive asset-based policy on the planet. As such, it is an important policy precedent. Looking toward future work, CSD is working with program partners in Uganda and other parts of Africa to develop pilot projects that apply asset-building strategies. A demonstration and research project is currently under way to assess how a matched-savings program may work in Uganda. CSD is currently partnering with colleagues at the University of Kansas and CFED to create a large demonstration and research project on children and youth accounts in the United States. This project, known as Savings for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) will run from 2003 to 2008. Children’s savings accounts may offer considerable potential in public policy in the United States.

SEED, like ADD, will use software created by CSD. The Management Information System for Individual Development Accounts (MIS IDA) collects IDA program data and at the same time facilitates program management. Studies based on MIS IDA data (e.g., Schreiner et al., 2001) have been very influential in policy discussions in the United States and abroad. MIS IDA, sold and supported by CSD, is now used by most IDA programs in the United States. This is one illustration of Information Age potential in applied developmental science. Looking to larger theoretical developments, CSD also engages in basic research on assets. For example, using a large data set, Zhan and Sherraden (2003) find that controlling for many other factors, assets may increase mothers’ expectations for educational performance of children, which may, in turn, increase children’s academic performance. This pattern suggests a cognitive theory of asset effects, wherein assets alter particular cognitions, which, in turn, alter behaviors. Civic Service Beginning in 2001, a major international research initiative on civic service was initiated. CSD founded the Global Service Institute (GSI). Civic service refers to an organized period of engagement and contribution to the local, national, or world community. Examples of service in the United States include the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, and AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and the Senior Volunteer Corps today. Civic service appears to be an emerging institution in many countries, and it may have positive effects on both the servers and the served. The mission of GSI is to study, inform, and assist in development of civic service worldwide. Through GSI, CSD has completed a global assessment suggesting that civic service is a widespread phenomenon, with at least 210 programs in 57 nations (McBride, Benítez, & Sherraden, 2003). To begin to build a knowledge base about service that can inform program and policy decision making, CSD has convened scholars from around the world. The first conference was held in Buenos Aires in September 2002. Conference proceedings will be published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. A second research meeting was held in St. Louis in September 2003, with 28 countries represented. Papers focused on impacts of service and theories that might guide future research. These papers will be published as a conference volume.

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CSD is also assessing the potential for improved cross-national understanding through transnational and international civic service programs and has studied a pilot transnational service program with youth from Canada, Mexico, and the United States (Sherraden & Benítez, 2003). Taking a longer view, it is apparent that many social policies that are today tied to individual nation-states will become transnational in the future. The eventual internationalization of retirement, health care, and other social policies may be the most important policy agenda in the 21st century, and CSD views its study of transnational service as a window onto this larger set of questions and challenges. Other Areas of Work Somewhat overlapping with civic service, CSD is playing a leadership role in the study of productive aging. Led by Professor Nancy Morrow-Howell, CSD sponsored a national academic meeting on productive aging in December 1998, resulting in a book, Productive Aging: Concepts and Challenges (Morrow-Howell, Hinterlong, & Sherraden, 2001). Productive aging research continues at CSD, with a focus on institutional capacity for elder service roles. With older, healthier populations worldwide, productive aging strategies may maximize the benefits of skills and knowledge of elders. CSD has also undertaken an intensive study of microenterprise as a household development strategy. Looking broadly, Schreiner (1999) analyzed the potential of microenterprise in the United States. Another study, based on in-depth interviews and survey data, found that microenterprise is not particularly effective in increasing incomes (Sanders, 2002), but it may have multiple positive outcomes, such as increased control, better ability to care for children, increased sense of purpose, and increased knowledge of business and financial affairs (Sherraden, Sanders, & Sherraden, in press). Looking at international ties across a range of projects, CSD is the home of an academic exchange program in social policy and law between Tribhuvan University, in Nepal, and Washington University, in St. Louis, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and led by Professor Gautam Yadama. CSD also has working relationships with National Taiwan University, Ben Gurion University, in Israel, the National University of Mexico, and

others. CSD is a consultant to the United Nations and the World Bank on social development and asset development strategies, specifically. The George Warren Brown School of Social Work, at Washington University, is the new home of the journal Social Development Issues, which has an international orientation. Closer to home, CSD is involved in multiple projects in St. Louis and the state of Missouri, especially in asset building. For example, CSD assisted with the evaluation of a collaborative IDA program funded by the United Way of Greater St. Louis, and it is helping with IDA projects at Beaumont High School and East West Gateway Coordinating Council in St. Louis. CSD played a major role in designing and enacting legislation for Family Development Accounts in Missouri and in establishing a bistate IDA coalition between Missouri and Kansas, known as MOKANSave. In 2003, CSD developed a research agenda for homeownership programs in the city of St. Louis and for faith-based, asset-building initiatives. On campus, CSD cosponsors the Seminar on Work, Families, and Public Policy with the Department of Economics.

CONCLUSIONS Reflecting on the selected projects and activities at CSD, five themes illustrate the principles of ADS: (1) a focus on program and policy innovation that maximizes opportunity and increases capacity of individuals and organizations; (2) testing ideas, which requires both deductive and inductive approaches and a critical perspective; (3) forming partnerships in both scholarship and application; (4) an emphasis on convening scholars and other stakeholders to examine key issues, determining what is known and what remains to be known; and (5) a focus on research products that will be useful in application. Research is conducted not for research’s sake, but for development of data and understanding for decision making. Moreover, there is an eye to the future. CSD projects may inform large-scale emerging issues, and CSD recognizes that building the capacity of young scholars who work in the tradition of applied developmental science may be the center’s greatest legacy. —Amanda Moore McBride, Michael Sherraden, and Margaret S. Sherraden

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beverly, S. G., & Sherraden, M. (1997). Investment in human development as a social development strategy. Social Development Issues, 19(1), 1–18. McBride, A. M., Benítez, C., & Sherraden, M. (2003). The nature and forms of civic service: A global assessment (Research report). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development. McBride, A. M., Lombe, M., & Beverly, S. (in press). The effects of individual development account programs: Perceptions of participants. Social Development Issues. Midgley, J. (1995). Social development: The developmental perspective in social welfare. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., & Sherraden, M. (Eds.). (2001). Productive aging: Concepts and challenges. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Sanders, C. K. (2002). The impact of microenterprise assistance programs: A comparative study of program participants, nonparticipants, and other low-wage workers. Social Service Review, 76(2), 321–340. Schreiner, M. (1999). Self-employment, microenterprise, and the poorest Americans. Social Service Review, 73(4), 496–523. Schreiner, M., Sherraden, M., Clancy, M., Johnson, L., Curley, J., Grinstein-Weiss, M., et al. (2001). Savings and asset accumulation in individual savings accounts (Research report). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development. Sherraden, M. (1991). Assets and the poor: A new American welfare policy. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Sherraden, M. S., & Benítez, C. (2003). The North American Community Service Pilot Project (Research report). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development. Sherraden, M. S., Sanders, C., & Sherraden, M. (in press). Kitchen capitalism: Microenterprise in low-income households. Albany: State University of New York Press. Zhan, M., & Sherraden, M. (2003). Effects of mothers’ assets on expectations and children’s educational achievement in female-headed households. Social Service Review, 77(2), 191–211.

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (CSHD), BROWN UNIVERSITY The Center for the Study of Human Development (CSHD) at Brown University recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. Founded as the Child Study Center (CSC) by Lewis P. Lipsitt, now professor emeritus of psychology, medical science, and human development

at Brown, the center was first funded by the National Institutes of Health as part of the National Collaborative Perinatal project. The CSHD quickly became the hub for all project-related research activities. Ambitious in scope, this longitudinal study carefully documented the precursors of early childhood diseases, sensory defects, learning problems, and other neurological and psychological disorders, meticulously collecting and analyzing data on the 4,000 Rhode Island children enrolled in the study. Lipsitt and colleagues are still following these children as they approach their 45th birthdays. Former Director Lipsitt reflects, It is very exciting to be carrying out psychological studies of adults whom we first studied as newborns. Our studies today have been contributing important information about smoking and other risk behaviors, and about learning disorders. Of special interest and of great pride to me personally is that the collaborative project begun over forty years ago was one of the catalysts not only for the Center for the Study of Human Development, but the founding of the Brown Medical Program as well. (Storey, 2003) Thomas F. Anders, MD, currently executive associate dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, and Arnold Sameroff, PhD, currently professor of developmental psychology at the University of Michigan, both worked as acting directors during Lipsitt’s 25-year tenure. In 1992, William Damon, PhD, succeeded Lipsitt as the CSC’s director. Damon, currently professor of education at Stanford University and adjunct professor of human development at Brown, expanded the center’s mission to examine ways in which people reach their potential over the course of their lives. The center’s name thus changed to reflect this shift in orientation, to the Center for the Study of Human Development. The Mittlemann Family Directorship was created soon after, in 1994. Established by Marsy and Josef Mittlemann (class of 1972), the endowment supports in perpetuity the center director’s research efforts and initiatives for the center. Despite these significant changes in leadership, the CSHD continues its founding commitment to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of infant, child, and adolescent development. Former director Damon shares,

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The Center at Brown gave me an invaluable opportunity to work out my approach to character education, moral purpose, and human development in collaboration with a wonderful group of students and colleagues. The Center played an absolutely formative role in my own intellectual growth. Virtually all of the writing that I am presently doing on moral commitment through the life span had roots in the work that I began while Director of the Center at Brown. (Storey, 2003) Following Damon’s departure to Stanford in 1998, Cynthia García Coll, PhD, professor of education, psychology, and pediatrics at Brown, became the Mittlemann Family director. James Morgan, PhD, associate professor of cognitive and linguistic science at Brown, took the post of associate director. Under their leadership, the CSHD expanded its goal to ensure its position as the interdepartmental, multidisciplinary hub for research and scholarship on infant, child, and adolescent development at Brown. The resulting center is world-class, contributing with regularity to the understanding of developmental processes in both typical and atypical populations. Reflects current director García Coll, The Center’s potential is enormous, given Brown’s current academic renewal prospects under the leadership of President Ruth Simmons and the caliber of its faculty with human development interests across so many academic departments. The variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of human development is rather unique. It is an exciting time with great possibilities. (Storey, 2003) To ensure its multidisciplinary focus, the CSHD’s direction and philosophy are overseen by a core group of members from a variety of departments within and outside of Brown. Core members include current and former directors and Katherine Demuth, professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences; Gregory Elliott, associate professor of sociology; Marida Hollos, professor of anthropology; Jin Li, assistant professor of education; Fayneese Miller, associate professor of education; John Modell, professor of education and sociology; Michael Msall, professor of pediatrics; Ronald Seifer, professor of psychiatry and human

behavior; David Sobel, assistant professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences; and Joseph Plaud, visiting lecturer at the Center for the Study of Human Development, Brown University. In a recent self-evaluation, CSHD leadership assessed the productivity of its core faculty and found that in the past 7 years, each core faculty member’s production rate averaged 14.6 peer-reviewed journal articles, 8 book chapters, and 1.2 books. Each had a weighted average of 39 publications and had been principal or coprincipal investigator of 31 different research grants and participants in three distinct training grants. Over the past 5 years, the total individual amount of external funding has been in excess of $20,000,000, while 8 of the 13 core faculty were awarded research grants from the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation. Together, they serve on 30 editorial boards and over the past 5 years have served in a total of 36 leadership positions in professional organizations. (Visit www .brown.edu/Departments/Human_Development_Center/ for more details.) In addition, there are 15 other faculty members who are formally affiliated with the center but are not part of its core. They represent a variety of regional institutions, including Tufts University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Connecticut, and Harvard School of Public Health. Their interest in center membership is rooted in its identity as an interdisciplinary research community that emphasizes infant, child, and adolescent development. In total, center membership is drawn from 10 departments at Brown, four additional academic institutions, and several area clinical settings, which include Bradley Hospital, Women and Infants’ Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, and Memorial Hospital. Diverse in its gender and ethnic composition, the CSHD also includes approximately 60 faculty and nonfaculty members who are also part of its listserv. Research interests of CSHD membership have varied over the years, representing myriad disciplinary paradigms. Presently, roughly half of the center’s members may be broadly characterized as microdevelopmental, primarily concerned with processes that are measured mostly within individuals, such as early language, cognitive and sleep development, or relational processes, including the development of the self and parent-child interaction. The other half of the membership has macrodevelopmental concerns, looking at contextual influences on

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individual development, such as the effects of social class, gender, sexual orientation, and culture on social, emotional, and academic development. Most members support their research programs with grants from federal government agencies, including the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Development, through private foundations such as W. T. Grant and the MacArthur Foundation and intramural research funds. Students at all levels, from undergraduate to the postdoctoral, also participate in center research, enriching their educational experiences at Brown. CSHD has established a successful colloquium series, designed to help members and the community at large keep abreast of the research being conducted in the area. Held about 10 times each academic year, the colloquia have brought speakers on a variety of topics to Brown, including the “Alienation of Australia’s Indigenous Youth” (Quentin Beresford, PhD, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia); “Developmental Cycles of Cognition, Emotion, and Brain” (Kurt Fisher, PhD, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University); and “Looking In and Seeing Out: Contexts of Longitudinal Study in the Age of Eisenhower” (Stephen Lassonde, PhD, Department of History, Yale University). The center’s members have also presented their research on topics such as “The Statistics of Language Learning” (Katherine Demuth, PhD, Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University); “Toddlers Remember Disaster Trauma” (Anait Azarian, PhD, and Vitali Skriptchenko, PhD, visiting professors, Department of Human Development, Brown University); and “Transforming Experience Into Memories: The Alchemy of Messenger RNA Translation at Synapses” (Justin Fallon, PhD, Department of Neuroscience, Brown University). (For this year’s colloquium series, visit www.brown.edu/Departments/Human_Development_ Center/.) CSHD has also sponsored many interdisciplinary conferences, in several instances representing the first of their kind in the world. Two conferences were held in collaboration with Stanford University, with funding from the Stanford Center on Adolescence and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In June 1999, several of the center’s members attended the first conference held at Stanford, to explore youth and the development of the understanding of citizenship. The second conference, “Fostering Youth’s Civic Engagement and Participation in Free and Democratic

Societies,” held at Brown in 2000, was an international conference attended by directors and participants worldwide working to promote active citizenship in children, adolescents, and young adults. It offered a series of discussions on topics that include political socialization and engagement, the impact of service learning, and experiences of transitions to adult citizenship. Speakers came from Oxford University, Tel-Aviv University, Kazan State Technological University (Russia), and the University of Ulster, as well as from several U.S. institutions. (The presentations and discussions resulted in an online publication available at www.stanford.edu/group/adolescent.ctr and at www.brown.edu/CSHD/pubs.shtml.) In addition, in April 2001, the center sponsored an interdisciplinary conference, funded by the Center of Francis Wayland Collegium for Liberal Learning and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, on “Genetic Influences on Human Behavior and Development.” This conference offered a series of panels discussing varying viewpoints on genetic influences: history, ethics, and public policy; human development; and behavior genetics. Invited speakers represented several U.S. institutions, including Tufts University, Temple University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. An edited volume based on the proceedings of this conference, Nature and Nurture: The Complex Interplay of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Human Behavior and Development, is forthcoming with Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Most recently, in May 2002, CSHD cosponsored, with the National Science Foundation, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeships (IGERT), and Brown University’s Brain Sciences Program, a conference on “Perspectives on Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience,” funded primarily by the National Science Foundation. This conference hosted a series of talks by European and North American scholars on developing neural systems, brain correlates of cognitive and language development, and neural bases of developmental abnormalities. In the fall of 1999, Lifelines was launched as a CSHD publication dedicated to the dissemination of well-founded knowledge about the psychological, familiar, social, and cultural conditions that promote healthy human development. The publication, intended for readers with or without expertise in human development, tries in each issue to explore

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in depth a particular topic of widespread interest. (It is distributed both in print and online at the center’s Web site, www.brown.edu/CSHD/pubs.shtml.) Themes have included the growing efficacy of prevention programs relating to mental health, the dynamics of early human relationships, the civic engagement of youth, posttraumatic stress disorders in children, holistic perspectives on quality of life, and incarcerated youth. Today’s CSHD scholars follow in the footsteps of many outstanding and influential developmentalists who have established a long history of seminal work in the field of child development at Brown. These include, among others, Leonard Carmichael, who established the Handbook of Child Development; J. McVicker Hunt, who envisioned intelligence as an information-processing system; and Peter Eimas, who, in the early 1970s, drew international attention to research on infant speech perception. Each contributed to Brown’s excellence in the study of human development, but by the end of the 1990s, no individual department could be seen as the administrative home or the intellectual center of developmentalists at Brown. Today, given the foundation it has constructed and the emergence of relevant federal and private funding initiatives, CSHD is positioned to continue to grow into an even more active center of instruction, research, and faculty development. —Isabel Storey and Cynthia García Coll

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Center for the Study of Human Development Web site, Brown University. Available at http://www.brown.edu/CSHD García Coll, C., Bearer, E., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (2004). Nature and nurture: The complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences on human behavior and development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Storey, I. (2003). Lifelines, 9.

CENTER FOR YOUTH AS RESOURCES (CYAR), HEADQUARTERS FOR YOUTH AS RESOURCES® (YAR) The Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR) serves as the national and international headquarters for the

Youth as Resources® (YAR) youth development philosophy and program model developed in 1986/1987. YAR provides opportunities for youth civic engagement through service to the community (including service learning), youth empowerment and leadership, and reciprocal mentoring through youth-adult partnerships in governance and grant making. The effectiveness of the program model, now in its 17th year, can be demonstrated by a network of more than 70 locally embedded YAR programs in 22 states and abroad. Simply put, YAR’s goal is to connect youth to their communities through youth-led service initiatives. The problem YAR addresses is universal: youth who feel disconnected from their communities are at risk. Youth as Resources recognizes youth of all ages as valuable community resources and engages them in partnership with adults as philanthropists or grant makers and/or as leaders, designers, and implementers of community service projects. Through Youth as Resources, youth tackle a range of social problems that concern them—from health, housing, education, and the environment to drug abuse, gangs, illiteracy, and crime or any other issues they identify. In the process, they develop civic awareness, leadership, and life skills, as well as an ethos of social responsibility. With the help of YAR grants, cultural diversity forums are created. Neighborhoods are revitalized. Teens encourage their peers to make positive choices. High school students mentor elementary school kids. Latchkey children have after-school activities. Marginalized community residents receive companionship. Safety and security measures are implemented. Hungry people are fed. Animals are rescued. Drug, alcohol, and tobacco abuse are tackled at the roots. Future voters learn how the democratic system works. Environmentally sustainable practices are put in motion. Communities look and feel better, and the world is a better place to live. YAR programming has involved more than 350,000 youth in thousands of community service projects, benefiting millions of people. While community improvements are important, YAR’s most significant impact is on those who engineer its very existence. For youth, the YAR experience provides opportunities for creativity, leadership, teamwork, and empowerment to make a difference in people’s lives. Tangible accomplishments fuel youth self-esteem and confidence, personal satisfaction, and a feeling of contributing to something larger than themselves. Adults who partner with YAR youth are exposed to

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fresh ways of thinking and tackling problems. In the process, they gain a greater appreciation of youth as legitimate, competent, and innovative change agents. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) developed Youth as Resources in 1986, in Boston. In 1987, NCPC secured funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., for three Indiana communities to pilot YAR programs. YAR’s enduring message to youth is, “You are important. You are part of us. And we can’t solve community problems without you.” After 3 years, the pilot programs had been so successful that the model was soon implemented in other Indiana communities, in the Indiana juvenile corrections system, and in other states. In 1993, the program was embraced by Chicago Area Project and implemented in a public-housing community, where it continues to thrive. In 1995, NCPC established the Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR), a 501(c)(3) organization, to promote the Youth as Resources program and philosophy and to provide training and technical assistance to existing YAR programs and the growing number of communities interested in starting new programs. YAR sites provide a living laboratory of applied developmental science, putting theory—that youth, when nurtured and given meaningful connections to their communities, can and will make a difference— into practice. A 2003 report of the Commission on Children at Risk provides a scientific case of the importance of nurture. One way that Youth as Resources nurtures youth is through the positive youth/adult partnerships that are formed and built. YOUTH AS RESOURCES The YAR model calls for the programs to be housed by a host agency, a local nonprofit agency that can provide a firm foundation on which a program can build. YAR host agencies include YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, United Ways, Youth Service Bureaus, 4-H Extension offices, and so on. The strengths of these partnerships are the shared missions of the hosts and the YAR program, and an environment that is nurturing to youth. While there is a specific structure to the setup of a YAR program (set forth in Developing Communities in Partnership With Youth: A Manual for Starting and

Maintaining Youth as Resources Programs; CYAR, 2001), the model’s flexibility allows for it to work in urban, suburban, and rural communities and in all kinds of settings, from the classroom (servicelearning projects) to public-housing communities, and from youth service organizations to juvenile justice facilities. Youth as Resources, as a philosophy and a program, has significant relevance to applied developmental science. For example, Search Institute has identified a research-based framework of 40 developmental assets that are critical for youth to thrive. “Youth as resources” is one of the 40 assets, positive experiences, and qualities under the human development category of “Empowerment.” “Youth as resources,” according to Search Institute, is ensuring that young people are given useful roles in the community. The YAR program fits not only that category but also 25 others on the list of 40 assets. Another example of the relevance of Youth as Resources is based on the work of William Lofquist in The Technology of Development (1996). Lofquist suggests there are three ways to view young people: youth as objects, youth as recipients, and youth as partners. In the third category, youth are valued at the decisionmaking table because the community recognizes and needs the input of youth for the betterment of the community. This framework is the premise for Youth as Resources and the focus of CYAR’s agenda and that of the network of Youth as Resources programs. The concept of youth-led service, youth as decision makers, and youth as valuable resources was quite new 18 years ago, but the YAR philosophy and program is as relevant and effective today as it was then. As the international headquarters for the YAR philosophy and model, CYAR provides technical assistance, training, and instructional materials to communities wishing to implement or maintain YAR programs or to incorporate their philosophy into already existing organizations. CYAR connects youth to their communities through the Youth as Resources program and focuses particularly on taking the flexible YAR model to underserved or marginalized youth populations. ACTION AGENDA To date, there are 12 Youth as Resources in juvenile justice (YARJJ) sites in four states: Indiana, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Nebraska. Expansion to other states (West Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, and

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Florida) is being explored. This initiative is headed by a full-time YARJJ coordinator. In 2003, CYAR and NCPC established national partnerships with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the YMCA of the USA to expand YAR activities at local sites across the country. CYAR staff conducted training with representatives from all 14 Navajo Boys & Girls Club sites in the Southwest. One YAR board is being established, representing all 14 clubs (one youth and one adult from each club will sit on the YAR board). CYAR staff will return to New Mexico in early 2004 to provide assistance in establishing the new board and developing the grant application for groups of Navajo youth. CYAR and YMCA staffs have already developed a request for proposals (RFP) process for local YMCAs interested in hosting YAR programs. In addition, CYAR is a YMCA civic engagement initiative collaborator and part of the YMCA’s Civic Engagement Guide: Strategies and Tools for Increasing Civic Engagement (2004). CYAR will partner with the Outreach to New Americans (ONA) division of NCPC and with community leaders in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas to establish YAR programs for New Americans in both cities, thanks to a grant from the Maurice R. Robinson Fund. CYAR/ONA’s local partner for Youth as Resources in Salt Lake City is the Utah Peace Institute and its Young Refugees of Utah for World Peace (YRU4WP). Members of the club come from war-torn nations around the globe, including Kosovo, Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Russia, Serbia, Iraq, Bosnia, and Croatia. The YAR program to be developed in the Las Vegas area will reach out to youth from the Hispanic community, which includes immigrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, as well as refugees from Cuba. CYAR assists local sites with issues such as recruiting and hiring new staff, fund development and sustainability, host-agency relationships, and local collaborations. In addition, CYAR presents workshops on topics such as youth/adult partnerships, service learning, fund development, youth leadership, teambuilding, Youth as Resources 101 and others. CYAR is a frequent presenter at local, state, and national conferences. TESTED BY TIME The success of Youth as Resources is chronicled in publications and evaluations. In 1997, CYAR and

NCPC published Reconnecting Youth and Community: Youth as Resources in Juvenile Corrections, a 53-page report on the success of implementing YAR in the Indiana juvenile corrections system. In 2002, CYAR along with Chicago Youth as Resources, Chicago Area Project, and NCPC, with funding from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, published another YAR success story, Youth as Resources in Public Housing: The Chicago Experience. A forthcoming CYAR publication (2004) highlights the lessons learned by YAR programs in their day-to-day practice of the YAR model, engaging youth as agents of change in their communities. Several researchers have evaluated Youth as Resources programs over the years: the NCPC, 1990; independent consultants Paula Schmidt-Lewis and Chris Glancy, 1992 and 1995; Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, 1996 (see Pickens, Costello, & Jordan); and Dr. Jon Van Til, 2000. In the first of these evaluation reports, researchers examined YAR pilot programs in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Evansville, examining three major questions: • Through YAR participation, do youth attitudes toward and outlooks on the community change for the better? • Do agencies that work with youth develop a perspective more favorable to the YAR idea? • Does the community’s attitude toward youth change as a result of Youth as Resources? In each of the three field locations, the evaluators concluded that positive changes had resulted from the establishment of YAR programs. Each of the three questions asked yielded data strongly supportive of positive response. The results of this study were published in Changing Perspectives: Youth as Resources (NCPC, 1990). A 1992 study focused directly on the impact on youth of YAR participation (Glancy & SchmidtLewis, 1992). The study found that more than two thirds of the youth active in YAR volunteered again after completing their YAR projects. Furthermore, almost all of the youth studied (98%) indicated that they would advise their friends to become involved in similar work (Glancy & Schmidt-Lewis, 1992, p. 31). Another of the 1992 studies focused on the “special initiative” of the Indianapolis YAR to establish

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programs inside juvenile correctional and residential care facilities. The questions included the following: • Is there a place inside correctional and residential care facilities for YAR? • Will the youth be attracted to YAR, and will they benefit from their experiences? • Can the philosophies and guiding principles of YAR remain intact enough inside such organizations to provide meaningful experiences for youth? The first two of these questions led to decisively affirmative responses, based both on the experiences of youth and adults within the special initiative programs. The third question yielded a modified positive response, the evaluators noting that principles of “voluntary participation” and “youth-versus-adult decision making” required alteration within institutional confines (Schmidt-Lewis & Glancy, 1992, p. 60). A follow-up study published 3 years later (Schmidt-Lewis, 1995) found that the impact of YAR programs on the institutions studied increased over the intervening years. The findings of this second study concluded, • With time, appreciation for the significance and range of benefits resulting from YAR deepened among staff who work at the organizations that remained involved. • All of the agencies that participated in the special initiative expressed support for YAR’s objectives. • The data suggest a strong relationship between the degree of institutional support for YAR programs and the relative success of YAR. • All of the agencies that remained active in the special initiative took some important steps to integrate YAR into their operations. • The evaluation found indications that the staff of the organizations are beginning to integrate an understanding of the YAR ethos (SchmidtLewis, 1995, pp. 80–81). Replicating the original study 3 years later allowed for an admirable introduction of the variable of “historical maturation” into the evaluation process. Effects of the YAR intervention that were not noticeable at the time of the initial intervention emerged with clarity by the point of the second observation.

In 1996, the Chapin Hall Center for Children, at the University of Chicago, evaluated the Chicago Youth as Resources program implemented in 1993 in a highcrime public housing community. Chapin Hall reported, The most striking impact was on youth’s sense of competence to provide important services to community members and youth’s self-esteem that comes from pride in a service well done and appreciated by adults or by children who benefited. Youth who were skeptical that they could improve the quality of community life were heartened by the often visible effects of their efforts. Youth who were already committed to working in the community had their commitment reinforced. Youth were enthusiastic about having their voices and views heard and respected and having opportunities to contribute to their community. . . . It seemed clear that many hundreds of persons have benefited from YAR projects. Many of these benefits will continue because of the groundwork laid by youth service projects. (Pickens et al., 1996, p. 45) In 2000, Rutgers University Urban Studies professor Jon Van Til conducted an evaluation study of YARCI, one of the original Indiana YAR sites. Van Til’s report found a lively mix of stakeholder participation in YARCI, including important contributions from youth participants, staff, YAR board members, community agencies, parents, funders, media, and beneficiaries of YAR projects. He concluded, “The YAR model now has been tested by time and it clearly works.” So impressed was Van Til with the YAR model that he has initiated and led study tours to Northern Ireland to see how the model might be implemented there (see www.crab.rutgers.edu/~vantil). CONCLUSIONS Youth as Resources has moved from pioneer to mainstream. The number of positive youth development organizations has proliferated in the last decade, providing increased opportunities for youth involvement and organizational partnerships around common goals, greatly strengthening the youth development and youth service movement and influencing the lives of a new generation of Americans.

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Since 1995, CYAR has been an innovator in the youth development field, paving the way for an asset-based, positive youth development approach. CYAR has been a leader in the youth empowerment, youth service, and youth philanthropy movement, as evidenced by its numerous citations in articles, publications, books, Web sites, and other resource materials. For example, the YAR program was studied and cited extensively by the authors of Best Practices in Youth Philanthropy (Garza & Stevens, 2002). CYAR also encourages local YAR programs to reach out to additional partners to strengthen local and regional positive youth development on a broader scale. CYAR has been a player and partner in the youth civic engagement movement, partnering with other national organizations in creating a broader youth civic engagement agenda. CYAR was one of a handful of collaborators with the Innovation Center and Youth on Board on the At the Table Project. CYAR staff have played major roles in the Younger Americans Act Initiative and the National Youth Summit. In addition, CYAR has also partnered with Community Partnerships With Youth in the development of the Youth as Philanthropists curriculum. Tested by time, Youth as Resources continues to be adapted to new settings. CYAR continues to expand the reach and impact of the YAR philosophy and program to typically marginalized and undervalued youth, such as Native American youth as well as New Americans (refugee and immigrant youth). CYAR is engaged in efforts to take the tested YAR youth development model to scale in the United States. Youth as Resources provides in theory and practice an exciting and effective model of youth and community development. —Carla Danziger and Shuan Butcher

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Center for Youth as Resources. (2001). Developing communities in partnership with youth: A manual for starting and maintaining Youth as Resources programs, Washington, DC: Author. Center for Youth as Resources & National Crime Prevention Council. (1997). Reconnecting youth and community: Youth as Resources in juvenile corrections. Washington, DC: Author. Chicago Area Project. (2002). Youth as Resources in public housing: The Chicago experience. Chicago: Chicago Area

Project, Chicago Youth as Resources, Center for Youth as Resources, and National Crime Prevention Council. Commission on Children at Risk. (2003). Hardwired to connect: The new scientific case for authoritative communities. New York: Institute for American Values. Garza, P., & Stevens, P. (2002). Best practices in youth philanthropy. Basehor, KS: Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth. Glancy, C., & Schmidt-Lewis, P. (1992). A follow-up study of Youth as Resources Youth volunteers. Indianapolis, IN: Glancy Associates and PSL & Associates. Lofquist, W. (1996). The technology of development. Tucson, AZ: Developmental Publishers. National Crime Prevention Council. (1990). Changing perspectives: Youth as Resources. Washington, DC: Author. Pickens, L. M., Costello, J., & Jordan, M. (1996). Youth as Resources in Chicago: An evaluation. Chicago: University of Chicago, Chapin Hall Center for Children. Roehlkepartain, E. C. (2001). An asset approach to positive community change. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Schmidt-Lewis, P. (1995). Youth as Resources special initiative: Phase II. Final evaluation report. Indianapolis, IN: PSL & Associates. Schmidt-Lewis, P., & Glancy, C. (1992). An evaluation of the Youth as Resources special initiative. Indianapolis, IN: PSL & Associates and Glancy Associates. Van Til, J. (2000). A stakeholder assessment of Youth as Resources of Central Indiana. Available at http://crab. rutgers.edu/~vantil/reports/YAR.HTML

CHANGE, QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ASPECTS OF Descriptions or explanations of development can involve quantitative or qualitative changes. Descriptively, quantitative changes involve differences in how much (or how many) of something exists. For example, in adolescence, quantitative changes occur in areas as such height and weight, since there is an adolescent growth spurt and these changes are often interpreted as resulting from quantitative increases in the production of growth-stimulating hormones. In turn, descriptive qualitative changes involve differences in what exists in what sort of phenomenon is present. The emergence in adolescence of a drive-state never before present in life—that is, a reproductively mature sexual drive (Freud, 1969)—and of new and abstract thought capabilities not present in younger people—that is, formal operations (Piaget, 1950, 1972)—are instances of changes interpreted as arising from qualitative alterations in the person. It is

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believed that the person is not just “more of the same”; rather, the person is seen as having a new quality or characteristic. Explanations of development can vary also in regard to whether one accounts for change by positing quantitative changes (for example, increases in the amounts of growth hormone present in the bloodstream) or by positing a new reason for behaviors (e.g., an infant’s interactions in his or her social world are predicated on the need to establish a sense of basic trust in the world, whereas an adolescent’s social interactions involve the need to establish a sense of identity, or a self-definition). In other words, it is possible to offer an explanatory discontinuous interpretation of development involving either quantitative or qualitative change. For instance, when particular types of explanatory discontinuous qualitative changes are said to be involved in development, the critical-periods hypothesis is often raised (e.g., Erikson, 1959, 1964). The point is that on the basis of adherence to a particular theory of development (e.g., predetermined epigenetic, or nature; Gottlieb, 1997), qualitative changes are believed to characterize ontogeny, and because of this, discontinuous explanations of change are needed. Thus, virtually any statement about the character of intraindividual development involves, explicitly or implicitly, taking a position in regard to three dimensions of change: (1) descriptive continuity-discontinuity; (2) explanatory continuity-discontinuity; and (3) the quantitative versus the qualitative character of one’s descriptions and explanations; that is, the quantitativequalitative dimension pertains to both description and explanation. In essence, then, one may have descriptive quantitative discontinuity coupled with explanatory qualitative continuity, or descriptive qualitative continuity coupled with explanatory quantitative discontinuity, and so forth. For example, a feature of personality (e.g., a component of temperament, such as mood) may remain descriptively the same over time. It may be represented or depicted isomorphically at two different temporal points (e.g., positive mood may be represented by the percentage of facial expressions per unit time that are scored as indicative of smiling). Such cases therefore may be an instance of descriptive qualitative continuity. However, more of this qualitatively invariant phenomenon may exist at Time 2 (e.g., there may be more smiles per unit time), and thus descriptive quantitative discontinuity may be coupled with descriptive qualitative continuity.

Moreover, both descriptive quantitative discontinuity and descriptive qualitative continuity may be explained by the same ideas, such as by continuous explanatory principles. For example, smiling may be assumed to be released across life by biogenetically based physiological mechanisms. Alternatively, descriptive continuity or descriptive discontinuity may be explained by different ideas, such as by discontinuous explanatory principles. For instance, smiling may be assumed to be biogenetically released in early infancy and mediated by cognitively and socially textured processes across subsequent developmental periods. Indeed, if different explanations are, in fact, invoked, they may involve statements that constitute either quantitatively or qualitatively altered processes. In short, the particular couplings that one posits as involved in human life will depend on the substantive domain of development one is studying (e.g., intelligence, motivation, personality, or peer group relations) and, as will be seen, primarily on one’s theory of development. That is, any particular description or explanation of intraindividual change is the result of a particular theoretical view of development. This implies that commitment to a theory that focuses only on certain variables or processes will restrict one’s view of the variety of changes that may characterize development. Indeed, theory, not data, is the major lens through which one “observes” continuity or discontinuity in development. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF HEINZ WERNER Heinz Werner (1957) believed that considerable confusion existed among human developmentalists over the continuity-discontinuity issue and that at the crux of this confusion was a lack of understanding about two different aspects of change. He saw that developmental processes could change quantitatively or qualitatively and that this dimension of change must always be considered in discussions of descriptive and explanatory continuity-discontinuity. However, Werner explained the superordinate conceptual importance of the qualitative-quantitative dimension of change. Quantitative Change In regard to the quantitative aspect of development, as mentioned, there is change in a feature of development

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in regard to how much of something exists. Quantitative change is an alteration in the amount, frequency, magnitude, or amplitude of a developmental variable or process. For example, imagine that a person’s weight has been measured at the same time during each of his 8th through 13th years. He weighed 125 pounds when he was measured at 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12; but he weighed 150 pounds when he was measured at 13. Thus, a quantitative change occurred in how much weight existed between the times of measurement occurring at ages 12 and 13 years. Thus, quantitative change may be abrupt. There are no intermediate steps by which the person’s weight gradually moved from one level (amount) to the next. In measuring this change, there is a gap between one point in the measurement curve and another; that is, a curve representing the different measurements is not smooth, but has an abrupt change in its direction. There is a “gappiness” in the curve—a lack of an intermediate stage between the earlier and later levels of a variable (Werner, 1957, p. 133). The occurrence of an abrupt change is quantitative discontinuity. Alternatively, the child’s change in weight could have been gradual. By gaining 5 pounds per year, the child gradually goes from 125 to 150 pounds between his 8th and 13th years. With gradual quantitative changes, the rate of change stays the same—is continuous—from one measurement time to the next. This is quantitative continuity. Qualitative Change The second aspect of change that Werner specifies is the qualitative one. Here, of primary concern is not how much of something exists, but what exists—what kind or type of thing exists. Thus, the concern is whether or not a new quality has come to characterize an organism or whether something new has emerged in development. When considering qualitative change, one is dealing with epigenesis, or emergence (Gottlieb, 1997; Lerner, 2002). In distinguishing between quantitative and qualitative aspects of change, Werner highlights a core conception of the organismic position (Lerner, 2002). Some of the types of changes that comprise development are emergent changes. These are changes in what exists rather than in how much of something exists. Something new comes about in development, and because it is new—because it is qualitatively different from what went before—it cannot be reduced to

what went before. Hence, if at Time 1, we can be represented by 10 oranges, and at Time 2, we can be represented by a motorcycle, we cannot reduce our Time 2 motorcycle status to our Time 1 orange status. To take another example, before puberty, a person may be characterized as being (in part) comprised of several drives—for example, a hunger drive, a thirst drive, a drive to avoid pain, and perhaps a curiosity drive. With puberty, however, a new drive emerges (or at least emerges in a mature form): the sex drive. With this emergence, the adolescent begins to have new feelings, new thoughts, and even new behaviors, which may be interpreted as being a consequence of this new drive (Freud, 1969). The emergence of this new drive is an instance of qualitative discontinuity. The sex drive cannot be reduced to hunger and thirst drives, for instance. Hence, qualitative changes are by their very nature discontinuous. A qualitative, emergent, epigenetic change is always an instance of discontinuity. Moreover, not only is an emergent change an irreducible change, but it is a change characterized by gappiness. As indicated above, developmental gappiness occurs when there is a lack of an intermediate level between earlier and later levels of development. It should be clear that gappiness must also be a part of an emergent change. The presence of an intermediate step between what exists at Time 1 and the new quality that emerges at Time 2 would suggest that the new quality at Time 2 could be reduced through reference to the intermediate step. Since it has just been seen that an emergent change is defined in terms of its developmental irreducibility to what went before, it is clear that gappiness must also be a characteristic of any emergence. CONCLUSIONS The characteristics of emergence and gappiness are needed to describe qualitatively discontinuous changes in development; on the other hand, the characteristic of gappiness (abruptness) alone seems to suffice for characterizing quantitatively discontinuous changes. Thus, as Werner (1957) stated, It seems that discontinuity in terms of qualitative changes can be best defined by two characteristics: “emergence,” i.e., the irreducibility of a later stage to an earlier; and “gappiness,” i.e., the lack of intermediate stages between earlier

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and later forms. Quantitative discontinuity on the other hand, appears to be sufficiently defined by the second characteristic. . . . To facilitate distinction and alleviate confusion, I would suggest substituting “abruptness” for quantitative discontinuity, reserving the term “discontinuity” only for the qualitative aspect of change. (p. 133) What Werner has provided, then, is a clarification of the concepts involved in appropriately considering the continuity-discontinuity issue. He has given us the conceptual means with which to discriminate between quantitative continuity-discontinuity and qualitative continuity-discontinuity in developmental change. —Richard M. Lerner, Pamela M. Anderson, and Rumeli Banik

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life-cycle. Psychological Issues, 1, 18–164. Erikson, E. (1964). Inner and outer space: Reflections on womanhood. In R. J. Lifton (Ed.), The woman in America (pp. 1–26). Boston: Beacon. Freud, A. (1969). Adolescence as a developmental disturbance. In G. Caplan & S. Lebovier (Eds.), Adolescence (pp. 5–10). New York: Basic Books. Gottlieb, G. (1997). Synthesizing nature-nurture: Prenatal roots of instinctive behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Piaget, J. (1950). The psychology of intelligence. New York: Harcourt Brace. Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 15, 1–12. Werner, H. (1957). The concept of development from a comparative and organismic point of view. In D. B. Harris (Ed.), The concept of development (pp. 125–148). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.

effects on families and children, including families’ strengths, adaptations, and vulnerabilities. She specializes in the socioemotional development of children, adolescents, and young adults in addition to family functioning and family process. A central cross-cutting theme in her research is a focus on children and families in poverty. Chase-Lansdale was the first developmental psychologist to be tenured at a major school of public policy in the nation, the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy, at the University of Chicago. Since 1999, her academic home has been Northwestern University, where she holds appointments as a professor in the Human Development and Social Policy Program and as faculty fellow in the Institute for Policy Research. Chase-Lansdale is one of a handful of senior developmentalists who are forging a new multidisciplinary field: developmental science. Her books are illustrious in their interdisciplinary approaches to social problems: Escape From Poverty: What Makes a Difference for Children? For Better and for Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families; and Human Development Across Lives and Generations: The Potential for Change. She has belonged to a number of pathbreaking multidisciplinary research networks: the MacArthur Network on the Family and the Economy (since 1996); the Social Science Research Council’s Research Group on Communities, Neighborhoods, Family Process, and Individual Development (1990–1996); and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Consortium on Family Risk and Resilience (1990–1996). She is the first research scientist to be elected chair of the board of directors of the Foundation for Child Development, the oldest continuing philanthropy for children, whose mission is to foster research and policies that benefit children in poverty. POLICY-FOCUSED INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

CHASE-LANSDALE, P. LINDSAY Lindsay Chase-Lansdale is a leading developmental psychologist who has pioneered multidisciplinary research designed to influence social policy for children. Her intellectual perspective combines the study of societal conditions that may harm families, with an emphasis on investigating the full range of

Chase-Landsdale’s research draws on developmental theory related to continuity and discontinuity of development, in addition to risk and resilience. She has pursued three strategies. The first is to develop innovative measurement of family processes within low-income families. The second is to address developmental or policy questions, using largescale national data sets. The third is to combine these

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methodologies in order to conduct multidisciplinary, policy-relevant research with a developmental emphasis. Her policy-focused, interdisciplinary approach to research can be seen in her “Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study,” an unprecedented model of large-scale, multidisciplinary research on children and welfare reform. The welfare reform legislation that President Clinton signed in 1996 constituted the greatest shift in social policy for low-income families and children since the Social Security Act of 1935. The goal of the new policies is to increase selfreliance among persistently poor families and to encourage participation in the workforce. The new policies have changed the focus of welfare from providing open-ended cash transfers to providing transitional financial assistance while the head of the household secures work. Key policies include a time limit on receipt of cash assistance of 5 years or less, and strict work regulations with a loss of benefits to families who do not comply. At the time the 1996 law was passed, there was enormous uncertainty about whether this great national experiment in poverty policy would succeed. Would adult recipients be able to find and keep jobs that provide adequate income? Would mothers be able to balance their family lives with their work lives? Would the well-being of their children improve? Chase-Lansdale and five collaborators—Ron Angel, Linda Burton, Andrew Cherlin, Robert Moffitt, and William Julius Wilson—are conducting a large study of low-income families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio in order to examine the impact of welfare reform on the well-being of children and families. It consists of three interrelated components: (1) a longitudinal survey; (2) an embedded developmental study, which Chase-Lansdale directs; and (3) a contextual, comparative ethnography. It draws data from a random sample of approximately 2,400 households with children, in low-income neighborhoods in the three cities. The study of welfare reform is embedded in a broad conceptualization of the impact of poverty on families and children. It has followed families as they encounter the challenges of economic hardship and make decisions regarding employment, seeking welfare, and leaving welfare. The study includes primarily Hispanic and African American families, and children range in age from infancy to 4 years, and from 10 to 14 years at baseline. Chase-Lansdale has been instrumental in building this multidisciplinary collaboration, in designing many aspects of the study, and in fund-raising. She

also has had primary responsibility for the design, implementation, coding, and analysis of the embedded developmental study. This intensive study focuses on children aged 2 to 4 years and assesses the quality of mothering at home by means of videotaped observation, the quality of child care settings by means of live observation, and the role of fathers or father figures by means of in-depth interviews. With its large sample, longitudinal design, multicity focus, and time-intensive, multimethod approach, the Three-City Study has been instrumental in understanding the child and family perspective in welfare reform. Chase-Lansdale was first author of a paper on welfare reform and children’s development that appeared in Science (Chase-Lansdale et al., 2003). The study also has produced a number of policy briefs, which are available at www.jhu.edu/~welfare.

POLICY TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE Chase-Lansdale’s public policy expertise comes from a Bush Foundation Fellowship in Child Development and Social Policy at the University of Michigan during her doctoral training in developmental psychology, in addition to a Congressional Science Fellowship in Child Development sponsored by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); the goal of the latter program was to place scientists in staff and advisory positions in Congress for a year and to forge connections between science and policy.

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS For a 3-year period following the fellowship, Chase-Lansdale was the associate director of the Washington Liaison Office of the SRCD. In this capacity, she served as a “broker” between the scientific and policy communities related to children. These years strengthened her knowledge of the policy process, taught her the ways that research is and is not used by policymakers, stimulated new research interests, introduced her to political organizations and other scientific associations in Washington, and gave her an understanding of science policy. During that period, she sought and obtained funding and then created and guided two Summer Institutes on Child Development and Social Policy (for which top universities

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competed to be hosts), for leading scholars who wished to learn more about the policy/research interface. She also co-originated the Social Policy Report, by seeking funding and then writing the first several issues. The Social Policy Report selects one policy arena related to children and families and addresses the role of research as well as current political issues. In its early days, it was an optional subscription for members of the SRCD. Now, it is part of the society’s portfolio and is seen as a key part of anyone’s subscription for the society’s academic journal. Recognition of her policy expertise is evident in Chase-Lansdale’s chairing of the Committee on Social Policy for the Society for Research on Adolescence, during which time (among other activities), she established for the society two national awards to be given at the biennial meetings—one each for the book and journal article that best represent excellence in the integration of research and policy. She has also served as a member of the Social Policy Committee of the SRCD. When Chase-Lansdale came to the University of Chicago in 1989, she initiated a new fellowship program, “Fellowships in Child Welfare and Family Policy,” designed as a summer fellowship for graduate-level students from a broad spectrum of fields related to children and families. The focus was on the state and local level, in this case Illinois, since policies and programs affecting children and families are increasingly shaped and implemented by regional policymakers. Her overriding motivation behind the design of the program is the conviction that students cannot learn about policy only from courses; they need to be in situ in a policy setting, where their notions of research, decision making, political influences and the like are challenged and reframed. The program was jointly funded for 3 years by grants to the Chapin Hall Center for Children and the Harris School, earning a national reputation and receiving 10 times the number of applications for the available fellowships. The program was duplicated, and its “sister” program is called “Putting Children First,” located at Teachers College, Columbia University, and directed by Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. Chase-Lansdale has developed A Resource Guide to Careers in Child and Family Policy in collaboration with her former student, Rachel Gordon. The guide was first developed in 1993, because training for policy-related careers had been hampered by the absence of centralized information. The 1993 edition

was so successful that she received an Officers’ Discretionary Award from the William T. Grant Foundation to expand and update it in 1995. Since that time, Dr. Rachel Gordon, who is now an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, has taken the lead to put the Resource Guide on the World Wide Web. The Foundation for Child Development provided principal funding to Dr. Gordon for the Webbased version, including support for dissemination activities that more than tripled use of the Web site. It is now even more extensive and can be found at http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/CFP. —Greg J. Duncan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Chase-Lansdale, P. L., Moffitt, R. A., Lohman, B. J., Cherlin, A. J., Coley, R. L., Pittman, L. D., et al. (2003). Mothers’ transitions from welfare to work and the well-being of preschoolers and adolescents. Science, 299(5612), 1548–1552.

CHILD ABUSE, RELIGION-RELATED In this entry, psychological effects of religionrelated child abuse are described and placed in the context of child abuse perpetrated outside the scope of religion. There is a review of definitions of abuse, ways that religion has been used in child abuse, and effects of abuse in general and a summary of research on religion-related abuse.

BACKGROUND The abuse of children was not formally identified as a social problem until the 1870s and did not begin to receive serious attention until the 1960s. Since that time, definitions of child abuse, research on its prevalence and effects, legal and social policy related to the problem, and so forth, abound. More recently, social scientists, clinicians, clergy, and others have identified a nuance in the issue of child abuse, abuse that is connected to religious practice. Such maltreatment has been broadly defined as religion-related abuse.

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DEFINING RELIGION-RELATED ABUSE A comprehensive definition of religion-related child abuse is best built on a solid foundation of what constitutes child abuse that is not associated with religion. Paradigm differences between scholarly disciplines as well as historical, political, and social attitudes have led to considerable debate about what behaviors constitute the abuse of children. Despite these debates, many accepted definitions of child abuse share two key principles, the first being that a child’s physical or psychological well-being has been harmed or threatened with harm, and the second being that such harm is the result of action (or inaction) on the part of parents or other persons responsible for the child’s welfare. Using this definition as a base, religionrelated abuse may be defined as child abuse that is perpetrated within the context of religion. Religious context may be delineated further by identifying the ways in which a perpetrator of the child abuse may blend abuse and religion: 1. The perpetrator may interpret religious scripture to encourage and justify abuse: Encouragement for violent, physically abusive child-rearing techniques can be traced to Biblical passages, such as, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chaseneth him betimes,” and “Withhold no correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell” (Proverbs 13:24 and 23:13–14, respectively). Directives such as these and belief in a vengeful God who will punish earthly pleasure with the ultimate torture of hell drive some parents to use corporal punishment to enforce parental authority and to prohibit supposed sinful behavior. Some believers even equate children’s misbehavior with the actual activity of Satan or other evil spirits, who literally possess the children and must be exorcized by beatings. 2. The perpetrator may invoke God during episodes of abuse: Some parents and caregivers may attempt to bolster the effectiveness of their disciplinary techniques by threatening children with images of God as omnipresent, angry, and punitive. This view of God is associated with a relatively more conservative or fundamentalist religious perspective. 3. The perpetrator withholds medical treatment because of religious beliefs: Parents and caregivers

who belong to a religious group that believes medical interventions deviate from God’s plan (e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Science) may engage in medical neglect of the children in their care. Members of such religious groups tend to cite the First Amendment to legally justify their actions. With few exceptions, most states in the United States do not legally mandate medical care for children. 4. The perpetrator may be associated with religion: When priests, rabbis, ministers, church elders, and other religious officials abuse children, the abuse may become associated with God and/or the religious institution the perpetrator represents. This form of abuse may gain high-profile media coverage, but existing data suggest that religion-related abuse by parents is more pervasive. EFFECTS OF ABUSE IN GENERAL The detrimental effects of any form of child abuse on psychological well-being are well documented. Adult survivors of child abuse appear to differ in a number of ways from adults who were not abused. In summary, children who are neglected, battered, sexually abused, and emotionally mistreated can develop an assortment of psychological and behavioral problems in response to the stress of their abuse, and childhood abuse has repeatedly been identified as a risk factor for adult problems. How any one person adjusts psychologically after having been abused as a child depends on numerous factors, such as the person’s temperament, type and severity of the abuse, and the age at which the abuse occurred. In addition, it is clear that the context in which abuse happens greatly influences how one is affected. For example, the child’s relationship to the abuser, feelings about the abuse, and so forth may differentially determine the psychological consequences of the abuse. EFFECTS OF RELIGION-RELATED ABUSE The research on the effects of the context of religion-related abuse on survivors is meager and murky. The studies that have been published are diverse in methodology, operational definitions of variables, and type of participants. Research has focused primarily on abuse in the context of Christianity. Replication of findings is also lacking. It is, therefore, difficult to

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summarize the findings and provide a concise picture of the effects of religion-related abuse. In general, however, most researchers have found that while survivors of religion-related abuse may have suffered spiritual injury, their religiosity, spiritual beliefs, and religious practices were not ultimately disturbed. In terms of psychological consequences of religionrelated abuse, the only study that employed a nonreligion-related comparison group and a no-abuse control yielded results suggesting that adults who had been abused in a religious context had greater symptomatology in terms of depression, anxiety, hostility, psychoticism, and paranoid ideation. CONCLUSIONS Child abuse that involves religion in some form is termed religion-related child abuse. It may be classified as such because it stems from rationale presented by religious authorities or texts or it may be abuse performed by a religious authority figure. Effects of religion-related child abuse are best understood in the context of abuse in general, which shows a host of psychological and behavioral problems that can continue into adulthood. The limited research on religionrelated abuse shows that although the abuse has no consistent effect on the child’s religiosity, the adverse psychological effects of abuse are compounded when it involves religion in some form. —Rebecca Murray and Michael Nielsen

See also RELIGIOSITY AND MENTAL HEALTH; SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS COPING IN LATER LIFE

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bottoms, B. L., Shaver, P. R., Goodman, G. S., & Qin, J. (1995). In the name of God: A profile of religion-related child abuse. Journal of Social Issues, 51(2), 85–111. Capps, D. (1995). The child’s son: The religious abuse of children. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox. Lawson, R., Drebing, C., Berg, G., Vincellette, A., & Penk, W. (1998). The long-term impact of child abuse on religious behavior and spirituality in men. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22(5), 369–380. Nelson, H. M., & Kroliczak, A. (1984). Parental use of the threat “God will punish”: Replication and extension. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 23(3), 267–277. Winton, M. A., & Mara, B. A. (2001). Child abuse and neglect: Multidisciplinary approaches. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

CHILD CARE CENTERS, AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Institutional child care in the Western world started in response to child care needs as a result of more mothers entering the labor force during the early industrialization period after World War II, the increase of urbanization, and the decline of the extended family system (Zigler & Gilman, 1996). Asian countries soon followed the trend. Over the years, while child care centers have continued to meet the needs of working mothers, they have also served to meet the more comprehensive needs of young children. Child care centers in different permutations throughout the world have evolved in response to different needs and circumstances. This entry defines child care centers and discusses different aspects of their existence: legislation, issues of availability, affordability and accessibility, types of centers and programs, quality issues, and the development of child care centers over the years. The entry concludes with a call for quality and accessibility for the most disadvantaged children. WHAT IS A CHILD CARE CENTER? A child care center is a place that is set up for the purpose of caring for young children, usually for a fee. Such centers target children who have no adults at home to look after them when parents are at work. The age of children can range from a few months to 5 or 6 years, that is, from infants to preschool. The original purpose of child care centers was to provide a safe place for children where they could receive custodial care while their mothers were at work. To qualify as a child care center, there must be a certain number of children being taken care of, and this varies from country to country. Originally, children in child care came from bluecollar families. Today, more corporate and professional women are also placing their children in these facilities, with the decline of alternative family care arrangements and as quality of care improves. The decreasing trend in the extended-family system that once predominated in Asia has made child care centers an attractive alternative, especially for nuclear, dual-income, urban families. The institutions are becoming developmental centers, and in some

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countries, there is little to differentiate between a child care center and a full-day kindergarten. Child care centers may provide full-day or half-day care. Full-day care can be as long as 12 hours, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., to allow parents to leave their children at the center before they start work and to fetch them after work. Half-day care provides a service to parents who work half- or part-time. Some also provide emergency care for a few hours or a short period, for instance, due to hospitalization or a crisis in the family. In some Asian countries, care may be provided for 24 hours. This means that the child may remain in the center overnight. Such centers cater to the needs of parents who work the night shift, and may be necessary for single mothers who have no other alternative child care support. Some children may also be left in the center over the week and be taken home only over the weekend; these are referred to as “baby hotels” in Japan and “boarding kindergartens” in China. Working parents find it inconvenient to send and fetch their children when they work long hours and travel long distances to and from work. There are concerns about the effects on children who are left in institutions like these for such long hours, in terms of both the quality of care and the deprivation of opportunities for bonding between child and family members, especially the mother. Child care centers are run by different organizations. They range from the state, for instance, in Vietnam and Thailand, to private profit-making organizations, voluntary welfare organizations, religious organizations (such as churches and temples), foundations, communities, employers, employees, trade unions, and parent co-operatives. LEGISLATION In Asia, child care centers may come under different ministries in different countries. The most common is the Social Welfare Department, Women’s Affairs, and Education Ministry. In some countries, more than one ministry may be involved. Child care centers may require a license to operate. The state may set minimum standards in relation to a number of factors, including any or all of the following: floor space per child, health, nutrition, and safety requirements, physical amenities, availability of play equipment and material, staff-child ratio, educational and training requirements of child care teachers, and program requirements. Some countries may require

just the registration of centers, while others may have no requirements at all. With licensing, there is greater assurance of quality, as facilities will need to meet certain minimum standards to obtain the license or to have the license renewed. Licensing of centers also requires that the state set minimum standards that centers would have the wherewithal to meet. If requirements are beyond the reach of centers due to lack of funds, expertise, or availability of training, then the country may not be ready for licensing, but may require that centers register with the authorities, if at all. In some developing Asian countries, the child care center as a concept is fairly new (Khoo, 2000). AFFORDABILITY, AVAILABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY Parents pay a fee for child care service. In some countries, the state subsidizes the cost, for example, by funding all or part of the salaries of staff, operational cost of running the center, and the building and setting up of the state-run centers, as in Vietnam. In other countries, for instance, Singapore, the state subsidizes the fees paid by parents. In most countries, the state does not provide any funding at all, leaving it to market forces to decide on the supply and demand of such services. Special funds may be available for low-income families, from the state, voluntary welfare organizations, religious organizations, or the community itself. Child care centers are found mostly in urban centers. Even if they are available, they are usually not affordable (nor of good quality) and therefore not accessible to poor families. Very few countries have child care policies and practices that ensure accessibility to such centers by the most disadvantaged. TYPES OF CHILD CARE CENTERS There are variations of child care centers. Community-based centers located in the community may be run by the community itself. Some are home based, and may be run by private operators in their own or rented houses or by the community itself. Workplace centers can be found in office buildings, hospitals, institutions of higher learning, and shopping malls, generally within or near the workplace, to meet the needs of employees. Employers usually subsidize workplace child care to some extent, either

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through subsidized rent or subsidized fees. It may be run by the employees themselves, the employer, or tendered out to a licensed operator; or it could be a consortium, where a few companies located near each other share the cost in providing child care services for their respective employees. Workplace child care can also take place in the informal centers set up at construction sites for children of construction workers or at the marketplace for children whose parents are selling their food and wares, as in Indonesia and Thailand. Plantation workers in Malaysia are provided with a simple shed and basic facilities to serve as child care for their children. PROGRAMS Child care centers’ programs vary among and within countries. Generally, they provide safety, care, and nutrition for young children. Custodial care is the main focus. Children take their meals and engage in play activities. In countries like England, child care establishments are for families in need of social services apart from child care, for instance, family and child counseling. Children come from disadvantaged homes, and the center then provides welfare: nutritious meals, health care, and stimulating activities. Children of working mothers are not the target group for such services. There is, however, a trend for child care centers to move from providing merely custodial care to planned and holistic programs that include children’s physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. With the recognition that there is a close link between care, development, and education and that children’s learning begins at birth, child care facilities are now moving toward integrating these three aspects of children’s development. There is also better understanding that children’s development and education do not come after their physical development—they all happen simultaneously. Programs for the 0- to 5-year age range may fall into the following programs: infant and toddler programs, nursery programs, and kindergarten programs. In some countries, full-day child care for 4- to 6-yearolds is synonymous with full-day kindergarten. Some countries have a national child care curriculum, while some have just a curriculum framework or guidelines. The rest leave it entirely to the operators. The purpose of a national curriculum is to set and ensure a similar and acceptable standard for all. While

kindergartens are more likely to set national curriculum, it is less likely for child care centers to do so, as they are expected to be less structured, more casual, and less academic. QUALITY ISSUES With more children attending child care centers, quality of care is a major issue. Quality care has both process and structural features. Process features are practices that affect children’s experience in the facility, including how responsive the teachers are to the children, how language is used, and the individualization of care (Cryer, 1999; Helburn & Howes, 1996; Love, 1997; Love, Schochet, & Meckstroth, 1996). Structural features include the physical environment, staff turnover, group size, staff-child ratio, qualifications of teachers, and teachers’ salaries (Cryer, 1999; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1998). Generally, the more developed countries tend to have more extensive training for child care teachers. Training for child care teachers and caregivers in Asia varies widely and ranges from a few hours to a diploma or a college degree (Khoo, 2000). DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD CARE CENTERS As child care centers become more accepted with the breakdown of the extended family and as more mothers join the labor force, such services are becoming part of our changing society. Once viewed as a service for working-class, blue-collar workers or those who had no other family members to care for children at home, child care centers are now an acceptable and even desired alternative for working parents. They are, however, still very much restricted to larger towns and cities. The majority who live in the rural areas have very little access to quality centers. As parents gain greater awareness of the early years of child development, more will demand better-quality care for their children and will see facilities as development centers, rather than merely custodial. This will reflect the growing trend toward merging care, development, and education into one, as an increasing number of parents become concerned about giving their children a head start before they enter school. Kamerman’s (1996) review of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development family policies points to the inclusion of child care as

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one of the family benefits provided by the state in some countries. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Education for All as well as other child advocates have been calling for both accessibility and quality programs to improve and enhance early childhood care and development (Myers, 1992), but quality and accessibility are still not the norm. UNICEF’s Facts for Life (2002) identified key factors that contribute to children’s survival, holistic development, and wellbeing, especially for developing countries and disadvantaged children worldwide. While there are different strategies to reach these children, child care centers could serve as a focal point for children’s care and development, as well as for immunization, health and nutrition, and parent education on safe motherhood, breast-feeding, and preventable childhood diseases. CONCLUSIONS Child care centers are here to stay, to support working mothers as well as children’s care, development, and education. The key issues involved are related to quality care and ensuring accessibility of services, especially for children who need them most. While research on quality in the West will continue, developing countries all over the world will have to be especially creative in identifying and implementing quality care within their communities, using low-cost and indigenous resources. It behooves governments to ensure accessibility, affordability, and quality of child care, working in collaboration with the private sector, the voluntary welfare organizations, and other community partners to achieve these objectives. At the end of the day, government’s policy must ensure that all children, especially the most disadvantaged, have access to quality care, development, and education. —Kim Choo Khoo

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Cryer, D. (1999). Defining and assessing early childhood program quality. In S. Helburn (Ed.), The silent crisis in U.S. child care [Special issue]. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 563, 39–55. Helburn, S. W., & Howes, C. (1996). Child care cost and quality. Future of Children, 6(2), 62–82. Kamerman, S. K. (1996). Child and family policies: An international overview. In E. F. Zigler, S. L. Kagan, & N. W. Hall

(Eds.), Children, families and government: Preparing for the 21st century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Khoo, K. C. (2000). Report on status of childcare and early childhood development in ASEAN Countries and plan of action for Phase II. Singapore: Ministry of Community Development. Love, J. M. (1997). Quality in child care centers. Early Childhood Research and Policy Briefs, 1(1). Love, J. M., Schochet, P. Z., & Meckstroth, A. L. (1996). Are there any real dangers? What research does—and doesn’t—tell us about child care quality and children’s well-being. Plainsboro, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. Myers, R. (1992). The twelve who survive: Strengthening programmes of early childhood development in the third world. London & New York: Routledge & UNESCO. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network. (1998). The NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Available at http://www.nichd .nih.gov/publications/pubs/early_child_care.htm UNICEF. (2002). Facts for life (3rd ed.). New York: UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, WFP, World Bank. Zigler, E. F., & Gilman, E. (1996). Not just any care: Shaping a coherent child care policy. In E. F. Zigler, S. L. Kagan, & N. W. Hall (Eds.), Children, families and government: Preparing for the 21st century (chap. 6). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

CHILD CARE, INFANT AND TODDLER During the 1990s, the demand for quality infant and toddler child care grew significantly due to demographic trends and federal legislative policy change. Working mothers with children under the age of 1 composed the fastest-growing group in the labor force, and approximately 50% of mothers with infants were employed in the labor force. Research findings on the importance of early brain development were widely publicized and resulted in unprecedented attention to the needs of infants and toddlers. Welfare reform legislation was passed, and the Childcare and Development Fund (CCDF), a block grant, was created by blending the four major federal child care programs. States were given considerably greater resources and latitude in programming and spending to promote quality infant and toddler care and were also required to set aside 4% of their grants specifically for quality improvement efforts (known as the “earmark”).

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These trends were accompanied by an increase in the demand for quality infant and toddler care, because data clearly show that the quality of care is linked to developmental outcomes (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000). With the increased demand for quality infant and toddler care came greater awareness and attention to problems facing the child care field. Studies conducted during the 1990s raised serious questions about quality in both formal and informal care. This entry reviews data on quality care, assessment, and applications for child care improvements. DATA ON QUALITY CARE Concerns about infant and toddler child care have centered on all aspects of quality care, including health and safety, developmental appropriateness of the environments, and adult-child interaction. What is known about quality in child care settings is generated by observational rating scales (e.g., ITERS, FDCERS), interviews, and questionnaires of parents and providers, as well as information gathered by regulators and licensors. More is known about the quality of care in formal or licensed settings than in informal settings (family, friend, and neighbor care). Data have suggested that safety violations are common in both licensed centers and family child care homes. Observational ratings of the quality of care provided in centers, in family child care homes, and by family, friends, and neighbors have shown that approximately 35% to 40% of those settings offered inadequate or poor quality care (Helburn, 1995; Kontos, Howes, Shinn, & Galinsky, 1995). Caregivers offered limited language and cognitive stimulation and interacted with infants in moderately or highly detached ways (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1998). There is a dearth of knowledge about the quality of informal care. This data vacuum is causing increasing concern, as at least 25% of children in the United States are cared for by family, friends, or neighbors. State regulatory standards for informal care vary quite a bit, and there are no quality standards specified by the federal government for informal caregiving subsidized by federal welfare reform dollars. QUALITY IMPROVEMENT Quality improvement efforts are attempting to address the challenges of providing quality care:

meeting health and safety standards, offering sensitive and responsive caregiving, and providing developmentally appropriate and stimulating environments. To that end, caregivers need ongoing emotional support, developmental knowledge, and concrete support to best provide sensitive and responsive caregiving, as well as livable wages. Current quality improvement initiatives fall into three categories: professional development, community collaboration, and technical assistance. Professional Development Professional development includes training, education, and accreditation. While much of the training of child care providers is sporadic and often focused on a single content area (e.g., sudden infant death syndrome), it is difficult to know whether or not that type of training produces long-term improvements in the quality of care offered by providers. Efforts to train providers over the long term using a curriculum focusing on sensitive, responsive caregiving have been successful (Lally, n.d.). Mentoring is emerging as a trend because it is a way to improve the effectiveness of classroom-based training and help providers put into action the knowledge they acquire in those settings and “take it to a more personal level.” The mentoring programs springing up around the country vary in their duration and intensity, and in philosophies and strategies for working with providers. A few published studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of mentoring programs as a means of improving the quality of infant and toddler care (Fiene, 2002; Palsha & Wesley, 1998; Wesley, 1994). They report positive improvements in quality as measured by differences in the pre-post observational rating scales, but they also have methodological weaknesses that should be addressed in subsequent research. Community Collaboration In light of the policy and economic context, a great deal of time, energy, and emphasis is being placed on collaborations and partnerships as vehicles for improving infant and toddler care. The kinds of collaborations and partnerships that seem to be the most effective are those that provide for adequate funding and more intensive support to child care providers (Paulsell et al., 2002).

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Early Head Start (EHS), the federally funded early education program for families living in poverty with children under age 3, has developed partnerships with community child care providers to successfully improve the quality of infant and toddler care. Guided by the Head Start Performance Standards and funding aimed at quality improvement, data show that efforts to work intensively with providers and administrators by using observational tools to develop quality improvement plans and monitoring them helps improve quality (Ontai, Hinrichs, Beard, & Wilcox, 2002). Technical Assistance Technical assistance efforts, particularly around improving health and safety in child care settings, are building momentum and success. New data show that child care health consultation, which is the offering of technical assistance to providers, including health and safety education, consultation, in-service training, and referrals (not service) for individual children, is effective at improving hygiene, playground safety, nutrition, immunizations, and health insurance. Other data show that regular inspections and accreditation also improve the quality of care in both centers and family child care settings (Wilkes, Lambert, & VandeWiele, 1998). EVALUATION A weakness in the efforts to improve child care quality lies in the lack of good evaluation data. Many of the evaluations that have been conducted are poorly designed, with significant methodological flaws that make it difficult to draw conclusions about efficacy (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2002). Practical and logistical concerns also hamper evaluations, including financial and personnel resources as well as willingness of administrators, providers, and parents to participate. CONCLUSIONS Quality care promotes cognitive, language, and socioemotional development. One of the most powerful findings is that cognitive and language development are enhanced by child care settings that provide language-rich environments. While quality improvement in child care is a process that takes time, promising strategies based in research and best practice are

emerging. The field needs to ensure that evaluations are conducted that help determine the standard of training and directly test different options. —Amy Susman-Stillman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fiene, R. (2002). Improving child care quality through an infant caregiver mentoring project. Child & Youth Care Forum, 31(2), 79–87. Helburn, S. (1995). Cost, quality and child outcomes in child care centers. Denver, CO: University of Colorado, Department of Economics, Center for Research in Economics and Social Policy. Kontos, S., Howes, C., Shinn, M., & Galinsky, E. (1995). Quality in family child care and relative care. New York: Teachers College Press. Lally, R. (n.d.). Impact of PITC training on quality of infant/toddler care in San Diego County. Unpublished report. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Early Child Care Research Network. (1998). Early child care and self-control, compliance, and problem behavior at twenty-four and thirty-six months. Child Development, 69(4), 1145–1170. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development (J. P. Shonkoff & D. A. Phillips, Eds.; Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Ontai, L., Hinrichs, S., Beard, M., & Wilcox, B. (2002). Improving child care quality in early head start programs: A partnership model. Infant Mental Health Journal, 23(1–2), 48–61. Palsha, S., & Wesley, P. (1998). Improving quality in early childhood environments through on-site consultation. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 18(4), 243–253. Paulsell, D., Cohen, J., Stieglitz, A., Lurie-Hurvitz, E., Fenichel, E., & Kisker, E. (2002). Partnerships for quality: Improving infant-toddler child care for low-income families. Washington, DC: Zero to Three; Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. U.S. General Accounting Office. (2002). Child care: States have undertaken a variety of quality improvement initiatives, but more evaluations of effectiveness are needed (Report to Congressional Requesters, GAO-02-897). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Wesley, P. (1994). Innovative practices: Providing on-site consultation to promote quality in integrated child care programs. Journal of Early Intervention, 18(4), 391–402. Wilkes, D., Lambert, R., & VandeWiele, L. (1998). Technical assistance as part of routine inspections of family child care homes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(2), 355–372.

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CHILD DEVELOPMENT ACROSS CULTURES For a child, culture encompasses the environment in which a child is reared, the beliefs and goals of parents, and the means by which parents attempt to attain these goals (Cole, 1999). The field of crosscultural developmental psychology has three major goals. The first is to examine the generalizability of current theories within psychology, as well as testing these theories. The second is to learn more about other cultures and similarities and differences between cultures. The third is to gain a more universal understanding of psychology that is widely applicable to different cultures (Gardiner, Mutter, & Kosmitzki, 1998). Culture affects every aspect of a child’s development: physical and motor capabilities, cognitive abilities, and social and emotional behavior (Bornstein, 1980). PHYSICAL AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT The examination of cultural differences in physical and motor development has made a significant impact on the field of cross-cultural developmental psychology. Many of these processes were once thought to be essentially biological. However, in some cultures, mothers encourage infants to sit and walk earlier than in other cultures, and it is within these cultures that infants learn such skills the most rapidly (Rosenblith, 1992). It is not only the speed with which these skills develop but also the stages through which development proceeds that vary across cultures. There are African peoples among whom motor development is more rapid than in Western cultures, and Balinese infants progress through different stages as they advance toward walking (Bornstein, 1980). COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Cognitive development is also affected by cultural differences. Berry investigated the effects of alternative parenting skills on the cognitive functioning of children and showed a link between child-rearing practices and cognitive style (Berry, Segall, & Kagitçibasi, 1997). In addition, studies show that some Asian populations have accelerated formal operational thought, and Dutch children tend to have advanced mathematical skills (Gardiner et al., 1998).

PERCEPTION Cross-cultural studies of perception have identified more similarities than differences between cultures. An example is found in the ability to process language. Infants possess an innate ability to perceive distinctions in speech; however, experience and exposure to certain languages hinder the ability of adults to perceive distinctions not found within their native languages (Bornstein, 1980). LANGUAGE The development of language has its foundation in culture. The language a child learns can affect the child’s conceptualization of the world. For example, the Hananoo, from the Philippines, have 92 words for different types of “rice,” which is one of their staple foods. On the other hand, up-country Swahili makes no differentiation between “flying objects.” One group is learning to perceive and pay attention to differences within a category, and the other group is failing to make these distinctions. BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES Gender roles, need for achievement, and moral judgment are among the major arenas of social behavioral differences studied by cross-cultural psychologists and anthropologists. While gender identities tend to be relatively stable through a wide variety of cultures, there are cultural differences that are strong enough to show that these identities are not purely biological. For example, Margaret Mead explored several societies in which differences from Western notions of gender roles were pervasive. One such society, the Arapesh, consisted of men and women who all tended toward Western notions of feminine in their parental style and other sexual aspects. Conversely, both sexes of the Mundugumor tended to express more aggression and violence, reflecting typically masculine characteristics. Finally, Mead found that the Tchambuli tended to reverse the gender roles common in Western cultures, with men being more sensitive and emotional and women acting as the dominant aggressors. The need for achievement is also culturally influenced. Broadly defined, this is the individual’s motivation to seek responsibility and challenge and to pair this with an internal standard of achievement. Extensive research on the need for achievement has correlated it with

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child-rearing practices in a variety of cultures. Authoritarian families tend to elicit less need for achievement, whereas entrepreneurial societies tend to foster this characteristic. In addition, consistency has been found in the order in which children develop moral judgment. According to Kohlberg, children’s judgment advances through three stages. The first stage is that of punishment versus reward, the second is based on expectation of duty, and the third is a more universal standard of contract or conscience. Although the progression seems unaltered, end points vary between cultures (Bornstein, 1980). CONCLUSIONS Research in cross-cultural development is working toward a more complete understanding of human nature, our differences as well as our similarities. Such research is leading to a more culturally sensitive academic environment in which researchers are aware that one society does not hold all of the answers for developmental psychology, but rather look to other cultures for a more encompassing and valid perspective. —Melissa L. Chatham

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Berry, J. W., Segall, M. H., & Kagitçibasi, C. (Eds.). (1997). Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Best, D., & Williams, J. (1997). Sex, gender, and culture. In J. W. Berry, M. H. Segall, & C. Kagitçibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Vol. 3. Social behavior and applications (2nd ed., pp. 163–212). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Bornstein, M. H. (1980). Cross-cultural developmental psychology. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Comparative methods in psychology (pp. 231–281). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Cole, M. (1999). Culture in development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (4th ed., pp. 73–123). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Gardiner, H. W., Mutter, J. D., & Kosmitzki, C. (1998). Lives across cultures: Cross-cultural human development. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Greenfield, P. M., & Suzuki, L. K. (1998). Culture and human development: Implications for parenting, education, pediatrics, and mental health. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & I. E. Sigel & K. A. Renninger (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 1059–1109). New York: Wiley. Rosenblith, J. F. (1992). In the beginning: Development from conception to age two. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

CHILD AND FAMILY RESEARCH, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Maryland, is the nation’s and the world’s foremost biomedical research facility. The NIH is a federation of institutes and programs, of which the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is one. Child and Family Research, a laboratory within NICHD, investigates dispositional, experiential, and environmental factors that contribute to physical, mental, emotional, and social development in human beings in the first two decades of life. The research goals of the laboratory are to describe, analyze, and assess the capabilities and proclivities of developing children, including their genetic characteristics, physiological functioning, perceptual and cognitive abilities, and emotional, social, and interactional styles; the nature and consequences of interactions within the family and social world for children and parents; and influences of children’s exposure to and interactions with the inanimate environment on their development. Research topics concern the origins, status, and development of psychological constructs, structures, functions, and processes in the first two decades of life; effects of child characteristics and activities on parents; and the meaning of variations in parenting and in the family across different sociodemographic and cultural groups. Example sociodemographic comparisons under investigation include family socioeconomic status (SES), maternal age and employment status, and child parity and day care experience. Study sites include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, England, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Peru, and the Republic of Korea as well as the United States; intracultural as well as cross-cultural comparisons of human development are pursued. Laboratory and home-based studies employ a variety of approaches, including psychophysiological recordings, experimental techniques, behavioral observations, standardized assessments, rating scales, interviews, and demographic/census records in both longitudinal and cross-sectional designs.

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Child and Family Research also conducts a broad program of research in behavioral pediatrics that investigates questions at the interface of child development and physical health and biological development. This research program has several different facets. Research in one area concerns the role of cardiac and vagal function, as well as electroencephalographic and eye tracking in early psychological development. Fetal assessment and its developmental sequelae constitute a second realm of behavioral pediatrics research. A third area of research investigates the role of deafness in child development and family life, with samples that include hearing children of hearing parents, deaf children of hearing parents, hearing children of deaf parents, and deaf children of deaf parents. Development under cocaine exposure, a fourth area of research, addresses issues central to understanding ongoing transactions between biological factors and environmental conditions associated with preand postnatal cocaine exposure as they relate to diverse developmental outcomes. Finally, child development and early health care include studies of children’s knowledge, implementation, and evaluation of strategies for coping with stressful medical experiences; the development of children’s understanding of health and health care; and relations among children’s own health histories, pediatric health care utilization, and maternal health beliefs. Visit http://www.cfr.nichd.nih.gov. —Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.). (2002). Handbook of parenting (2nd ed.). Vol. 1: Children and parenting. Vol. 2: Biology and ecology of parenting. Vol. 3: Status and social conditions of parenting. Vol. 4: Applied parenting. Vol. 5: Practical parenting. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H., & Bradley, R. H. (Eds.). (2003). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H., Davidson, L., Keyes, C. M., Moore, K., & The Center for Child Well-Being. (Eds.). (2003). Well-being: Positive development across the life course. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H., & Lamb, M. E. (Eds.). (1999). Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (4th ed.). Mawah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lamb, M. E., Bornstein, M. H., & Teti, D. (2002). Development in infancy: An introduction (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

CHILD LABOR The specter of small children toiling long hours under dehumanizing conditions has, over the last decade and a half, precipitated an intense debate concerning appropriate conditions of work for children. As during the midst of the 19th-century British Industrial Revolution, policymakers and the public have struggled to come to grips with the causes and consequences of child labor. Attempts to coordinate a policy response reveal the complexity and moral ambiguity of the phenomenon of working children. Estimates of the extent of child labor today vary depending on the definition used. One International Labour Organization (ILO) survey identifies approximately 78.5 million economically active children under the age of 15 years. UNICEF reports 80 million children aged 10 to 14 whose work is characterized as “so long or onerous that it interfered with their normal development.” However, the ILO estimates that the total number of working children aged 10 to 14 worldwide is closer to 100 to 200 million. Employment among smaller children is pervasive as well. The ILO estimates that 250 million children aged 5 to 14 are working, of which 120 million are working full-time. The highest reported incidence of child labor is in sub-Saharan Africa. Labor force participation rates for some countries in this region are at or above 40%. (For recent estimates of child labor see ILO, 2002.) Children are most commonly found working in family-based agriculture, services such as domestic help, restaurants, street vending, prostitution, and small-scale manufacturing of carpets, garments, and furniture. Working conditions can range from light activities, such as newspaper delivery before school, to brutal conditions in which children work until they drop from exhaustion. Children working in agriculture or small-scale manufacturing are often exposed to dangerous equipment and dangerous chemicals, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and solvents. Children delivered into bonded labor for the purposes of intergenerational debt servitude perhaps suffer most of all. Human Rights Watch estimates that 10% to 20% of child laborers in the knotted-carpet industry in India are bonded child laborers, some as young as 6 or 7 years old. Such children may be forced to work up to 20 hours a day, eating, sleeping, and working in the same room. These children are found to suffer from skin ailments, chronic colds,

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respiratory problems, spine deformities, and weakened eyesight. (For a description of the industries and conditions under which children work, see U.S. Department of Labor, 1995). Although child labor has been the norm throughout history, the fact of children working and the difficult conditions under which children work occasionally become more evident and troubling. During the 19th century, child labor became more visible as children were drawn into industrial settings. More recently, child labor has received intensified scrutiny in the West because of the increased awareness of children producing goods for export. For a review of the literature on the causes, consequences, and decline of child labor in a historical context, see Tuttle (1999). There are two main competing explanations for the prevalence of child labor. On one hand, some argue that child labor arises as a response to technological change, thereby increasing the demand for the special characteristics of children. Proponents of this view site unskilled-labor-biased technological change that emerged during the early stages of the British Industrial Revolution, which drew children in droves into the textile factories while displacing textiles produced by adults in the home. Technological change, or lack thereof, can play an important role in creating employment opportunities for children. Central to this is the extent to which mothers, young women, or machines can duplicate and therefore replace the special labor qualities provided by child workers. Alternatively, child labor may be seen primarily as a consequence of poverty. Many families are so poor that they cannot survive without the income earned by children. Proponents of this view note the persistent decline in child labor throughout the 19th century, which accompanied seven decades of income growth in Western Europe. More recent explanations of child labor focus on capital market failure. All families seek to invest in their children today in order to raise their future productivity. Such investments principally take the form of schooling, which displaces work. However, poor families may not have access to a credit market that would allow them to forgo the current earnings of their children in order to reap future enhanced productivity. Considerable recent theoretical and empirical attention has focused on the role that market failures play in inefficient child labor. Failures that emerge in

financial, spot labor, and human capital markets can all give rise to more child labor than is economically efficient or in the interest of families; and political failure can in theory play a significant role in determining the allocation of children’s time. A close look at the history, empirical evidence, and current child labor practices suggest that technology and other demand-side factors interact subtly with household dynamics, culture, and market and political failures to determine the labor force participation rate and educational attainment of children. Nevertheless, there remains considerable disagreement among analysts concerning the nature of child labor. Historians continue to debate issues concerning the role that child workers played in the industrial setting, the impact that the Industrial Revolution had on total and sectoral employment of children and the role of legal restrictions on hours worked, the age at which children could enter the labor force, compulsory education, the quality of education, and the public provision of educational services. Furthermore, in the context of the modern debate, antiglobalization forces are concerned with the conflicting effects that trade openness has on child labor. Currently, there are many policy experiments under way to determine the policy configuration that is mostly likely to reduce the incidence of child labor without harming the welfare of families. Some policies have a positive focus, such as improving the quality and quantity of schooling, creating microcredit programs that improve access to capital markets by poor families, and offering education subsidies that compensate families for the forgone income of their children while they are in school. However, older punitive programs remain in place, such as laws regulating compulsory education and minimum age of work, and trade sanctions against countries that tolerate exploitative child labor. (For a discussion of the theoretical and empirical determinants of child labor and implications for policy, see Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2003). —Drusilla Brown

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS International Labour Organization. (2002). Every child counts: New global estimates on child labour. Geneva: IPEC. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2003). Combating child labour, a review of policies. Paris: Author.

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Tuttle, C. (1999). Hard at work in factories and mines: The economics of child labor during the British Industrial Revolution. Boulder, CO: Westview. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs. (1995). By the sweat and toil of children: Vol. 2. The use of child labor in U.S. agricultural imports & forced and bonded child labor (Report prepared for the Committee on Appropriations, Congress). Washington, DC: Author.

who was to become the first executive director of Child Trends, together gave birth to the idea of an organization that would provide that child development perspective. They also saw the tremendous value of using findings from such research to inform public policy on children. The name they came up with for the organization they envisioned was “Child Trends,” in keeping with the intent that the new organization would track trends in child well-being over the years.

CHILD TRENDS

SURVEYS AND INDICATORS

Child Trends, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that studies children, youth, and their families. Its mission is to improve the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children. In advancing this mission, Child Trends collects and analyzes data; conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research; and designs and evaluates programs. To carry out this work, Child Trends has attracted an interdisciplinary staff that includes specialists in developmental and social psychology, sociology, economics, social demography, human development, and public policy. The organization is a member of the Family and Child Well-Being Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Membership is awarded to this prestigious group of researchers through a highly competitive peer review process. IN THE BEGINNING Child Trends was founded in 1979 by the Foundation for Child Development, a national private philanthropy concerned with the prevention of child poverty and the promotion of economic security for families. At the time, little reliable, comprehensive national data existed on the living circumstances, experiences, health, cognition, and social and emotional development of America’s children (Hetherington, 1999). As a way to begin to remedy this situation, the foundation sought to bring a child development perspective to large-scale survey research so that a clearer picture of the well-being of America’s children would begin to emerge. Orville Gilbert Brim Jr., then president of the Foundation for Child Development, and Nicholas Zill,

Much of Child Trends’ early efforts were directed at improving information on children and their families derived from survey research. For example, Child Trends was involved in continuing the work of the pioneering National Survey of Children, which yielded important new information on the development of American children over time. The survey fielded its first wave in 1976 (on preadolescent children), its second wave in 1981 (on adolescents), and its third wave in 1987 (on youth making the transition to young adulthood). This effort broke new ground for research on children through its use of rigorous scientific methods among large and representative samples. These methods included using national, multistage probability samples, multi-item scales with good psychometric properties, and multiple informants, including children, parents, and teachers. Involvement with the National Survey on Children was just the start. Through the years, Child Trends has provided expert advice on new and existing national surveys to ensure that they generate data on key issues that affect children’s well-being. For example, Child Trends pressed for the addition of child supplements to the National Health Interview Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which had not previously included measures on the children of respondents. Child Trends also helped to conceptualize and develop measures for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) and helped outline the methodology that is the basis for the father involvement component of the ECLS-B design. In addition, Child Trends contributed measures of child well-being to the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) to track how well children, especially low-income children, were doing during a time of devolution of social programs from the federal government to the states. (The NSAF was developed as

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part of the Assessing the New Federalism project spearheaded by the Urban Institute, in partnership with Child Trends.) Child Trends has also worked to track the well-being of children in the child welfare population and at the state level. Indicators (statistical markers) are a critical element of public policy discussion. Since its founding, Child Trends has been engaged in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating statistics about children and families as a way to illuminate the conditions of children’s lives. The following have been among the major efforts of Child Trends in this area: • Developing three statistical reports on children

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(1983, 1987, and 1989) for the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families of the U.S. House of Representatives Producing the first four editions (1996–1999) of Trends in the Well-Being of America’s Children and Youth, a comprehensive volume of indicator data, for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Helping to design and produce the first edition (1997) of America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, a shorter indicator report, for the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics Producing The Right Start reports (beginning in 2000), which provide indicator data on the conditions of America’s newborns in states and the 50 largest cities, for The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count initiative Producing Facts at a Glance (since 1983), an annual statistical newsletter highlighting national-, state-, and city-level data on teen pregnancy, childbearing, and sexual behavior Developing the Child Trends DataBank (www. childtrendsdatabank.org), a continuously updated online resource of indicators of child well-being, launched by Child Trends in 2002.

MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS Work on indicators has remained an essential part of Child Trends’s research portfolio. But over the years, and especially since the appointment of Kristin Anderson Moore to head the organization in December 1992, the Child Trends portfolio has expanded to also include synthesizing results from research generated by Child Trends and other

researchers, evaluating programs and policies, and applying lessons learned from research to the “real world.” The subject matter of Child Trends’s research portfolio has expanded as well, with the organization producing information on a growing number of topics that have important consequences for the well-being of children and their families. Four of these topics and some of Child Trends’s work in these areas are highlighted next. Teen pregnancy and childbearing has been a longtime focus for Child Trends, with many important findings. For example, in the 1980s, Child Trends identified nonvoluntary sex as a significant component of early sexual activity. In the 1990s, Child Trends’s research identified four key predictors of early childbearing: early school failure, early behavior problems, family dysfunction, and early poverty (Moore, Miller, Glei, & Morrison, 1995). Around that same time, when some commentators were attributing the rise of unwed parenthood in the United States to the behaviors of Black teenagers, Child Trends’s research showed that White women in their 20s—and not Black teen girls—were the fastest-growing group of single mothers in the nation (Driscoll et al., 1999). A later prominent Child Trends research finding that similarly defied conventional wisdom concerned when and where teens first have sex. In its analyses of survey data, Child Trends found that teens were most likely to have their first sexual experiences at night (not during the assumed “danger hours” between 3 and 6 p.m.) and in either their own homes or the homes of their partners (not in the backseat of a car, a motel, or elsewhere), perhaps while the parents were actually at home (Papillo et al., 2002). Child Trends has applied its research-based knowledge in this area to help develop strategies to reduce teen pregnancy and other consequences of early sexual activity. For example, Child Trends has assisted, evaluated, and monitored an abstinence-based teen pregnancy prevention program sponsored by Covenant House Washington, the local affiliate of the national faith-based organization that assists homeless and runaway youth. Child Trends has also provided research insights and technical assistance to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and the D.C. Partnership to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In addition, Child Trends initiated a project to assess the capacity of reproductive health providers to deliver developmentally and culturally sensitive services to teens. The project resulted in a handy guidebook

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(Child Trends, 2002). More recently, Child Trends has helped to implement a program called “Prime Time” in the District of Columbia. This program, which is based on a Minnesota model, is a clinic-based intervention to reduce pregnancy among high-risk teen girls. Welfare and poverty has been another major research area for Child Trends. Studies by Child Trends are part of a growing body of research showing the harmful effects of poverty on child well-being. Child Trends’s research has also helped to advance understanding about the implications of welfare reform for child development and family functioning. Early work in this area included an experimental evaluation of child outcomes under the federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Training Program, a mandatory welfare-to-work program that is considered a precursor to welfare-to-work initiatives ushered in by the historic 1996 welfare law (Hamilton et al., 2001; McGroder, Zaslow, Moore, & LeMenestrel, 2000). Child Trends also worked with a dozen states to assess the implications for children of state welfare policies begun under waivers under the old welfare program (Aid to Families With Dependent Children) and continued under the 1996 reform, producing a guidebook (Child Trends, 1999) to help with this assessment. On a different front, Child Trends has analyzed data from a number of rigorous experimental studies of welfare-to-work programs to examine the impact for children when a parent moves or prepares to move from welfare dependency to economic self-sufficiency (e.g., Zaslow et al., 2002). One major finding from these analyses was that when parental participation in welfare-to-work programs resulted in an increase both in employment and in family income, children tended to fare better on behavioral, cognitive, and academic outcomes. Another important finding concerned the impact of welfare reform on teens. Child Trends’s research showed that while most of the impact on adolescents was neutral, when it did occur, it was often negative (e.g., Brooks, Hair, & Zaslow, 2001). Early childhood care and education have been relatively recent research concentrations at Child Trends, with work centered primarily on school readiness and child care quality. For example, in the area of school readiness, Child Trends has conducted a comprehensive review of the research literature on factors that shape school readiness and programs that aim to promote it (Zaslow, Calkins, Halle, Zaff, & Margie,

2001). One of the “take-home” points from this review is that cognitive skills (such as knowing numbers and letters) is just one measure of whether children are ready for school. Physical health, motor skills, social and emotional development, attitudes, and many other factors come into play. Child Trends also has analyzed survey data to produce estimates of the nation’s kindergartners who are “on track” in each dimension of school readiness and various combinations of these dimensions. And Child Trends has drawn on its knowledge of early child development and effective preschool programs to help communities develop, implement, and evaluate school readiness initiatives. Two initiatives that bear Child Trends’s particular imprint in this regard are South Carolina’s First Steps to School Readiness and First 5 California. In the area of child care quality, research synthesized at Child Trends and elsewhere confirms that the nature of the interactions between children and caregivers is one of the most important—if not the most important—measure of the quality of child care (e.g., Tout & Zaslow, 2002). Children develop best if these relationships are warm, supportive, responsive, and cognitively stimulating. Putting such research insights into practice, Child Trends has been working with state child care administrators to help them determine how to best target funds earmarked to improve child care quality. Youth development has similarly been a Child Trends focus, with the organization undertaking extensive research to inform policies and programs aimed at fostering the positive growth of teenagers. For example, Child Trends has conducted a comprehensive review of more than 1,100 research articles on adolescent development and the factors, both positive and negative, that affect it. Child Trends first synthesized findings from this body of research in seven lengthy and fully referenced reports and then in a series of shorter research briefs. These briefs were collected in a single volume (Child Trends, 2003). One of the most salient findings from Child Trends’s review of the research on adolescent development was that teens who have warm, involved, and satisfying relationships with their parents have better outcomes (such as better academic achievement and fewer behavior problems) than those who do not. One of the most salient findings about youth interventions was that programs that lead to the best outcomes for young people share several characteristics: They build relationships, truly involve adolescents, and provide

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well-implemented and structured activities (e.g., Moore & Zaff, 2002). In contrast, programs that lecture to teens from a “font” of adult wisdom in general fail to change behavior. As a tool to make such results of Child Trends’s analyses immediately accessible to policymakers and program designers, Child Trends researchers developed “What Works” tables, which are posted on the Child Trends Web site (www.childtrends.org). A Child Trends innovation, these point-and-click tables provide a handy way to show which types of programs or interventions have been found through experimental evaluations to be effective, or ineffective, at promoting positive youth development; which types of programs or interventions have been found through experimental evaluations to be partially effective, or effective for some teens but not for all teens; and which types of programs or interventions seem promising based on other types of research and the wisdom of community leaders and program providers. (Child Trends developed similar “What Works” tables on factors influencing school readiness.)

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH AREAS Over the years, Child Trends has been engaged in developing research-based information on a number of other topics related to child well-being. A sampling of these topics includes nonmarital fertility and family structure (e.g., tracking the rise in cohabiting couples and of births outside of marriage); fatherhood (e.g., highlighting fathers’ contributions to children’s growth and development); child abuse, neglect, and family violence (e.g., synthesizing information on the long-term effects of child abuse and neglect); family strengths (e.g., looking at the positive side of family functioning); religiosity (e.g., exploring how religious involvement affects children’s development); and marriage (e.g., looking at marriage from a child’s perspective.)

DISSEMINATION AND COLLABORATION Child Trends has developed a number of vehicles to disseminate the research and data that it produces. These vehicles include the organization’s Web site (www.childtrends.org) and the sister Web site of the Child Trends DataBank (www.childtrendsdatabank. org); research briefs, special reports, fact sheets, news

releases, and monographs; The Child Indicator, a newsletter for researchers; articles in scholarly and professional journals; presentations before policy and research audiences; and interviews with the media. As part of its dissemination efforts and in the interest of advancing research in the child and family field, Child Trends has organized conferences, workshops, and roundtables to examine particular research issues. Topics for these meetings have ranged from the market dynamics of child care for infants and toddlers to positive child and youth development to key indicators of child and youth well-being. In addition to this type of collaboration, Child Trends’s researchers also collaborate directly with their colleagues at universities and other research organizations on joint research projects. Funding for Child Trends’s multifaceted work comes from a mix of sources, including foundations; federal, state, and local governments; private organizations; and individual benefactors. For a full listing of Child Trends’s projects and publications and to view the organization’s most recent annual reports, visit the Child Trends Web site at www.childtrends.org. —Harriet J. Scarupa

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brooks, J. L., Hair, E. C., & Zaslow, M. J. (2001). Welfare reform’s impact on adolescents: Early warning signs (Research brief). Washington, DC: Child Trends. Child Trends. (1999). Children and welfare reform: A guide to evaluating the effects of state welfare policies on children. Washington, DC: Author. Child Trends. (2002). Reproductive health care for America’s diverse teen population: A guide for service providers. Washington, DC: Author. Child Trends. (2003). American teens: A special look at “what works” in adolescent development. Washington, DC: Author. Driscoll, A. K., Hearn, S. K., Evans, V. J., Moore, K. A., Sugland, B. W., & Call, V. (1999). Nonmarital childbearing among adult women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 178–187. Hamilton, G., Freedman, S., Gennetian, L., Michalopoulos, C., Walter, J., Adams-Ciardullo, D. et al. (2001). National evaluation of welfare-to-work strategies: How Effective are different welfare-to-work approaches? Five-year adult and child impacts for eleven programs. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and U.S. Department

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of Education, Office of the Deputy Secretary and Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Hetherington, E. M. (1999, November 19). 20 years of progress with Child Trends: A brief history. Speech delivered at celebration of Child Trends’s 20th anniversary, Washington, DC. Available at http://www.childtrends.org/ PDF/Speeches/1999/HetheringtonMooreRemarks.pdf McGroder, S. M., Zaslow, M. J., Moore, K. A., & LeMenestrel, S. M. (2000). National evaluation of welfareto-work strategies: Impacts on young children and their families two years after enrollment: Findings from the child outcomes study. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary and Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Moore, K. A., Miller, B. C., Glei, D., & Morrison, D. R. (1995). Adolescent sex, contraception, and childbearing: A review of the recent research. Washington, DC: Child Trends. Moore, K., & Zaff, J. (2002). Building a better teenager: A summary of “what works” in adolescent development (Research brief). Washington, DC: Child Trends. Papillo, A. R., Franzetta, K., Manlove, J., Moore, K. A., TerryHumen, E., & Ryan, S. (2002). Facts at a glance. Washington, DC: Child Trends. Tout, K., & Zaslow, M. (2002). Public investments in child care quality: Needs, challenges, and opportunities. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertleib (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Positive child, adolescent, and family development through research, policies, and programs: Vol. 1. A handbook of program and policy innovations (pp. 339–366). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Zaslow, M. J., Calkins, J., Halle, T., Zaff, J., & Margie, N. (2001). Background for community-level work on school readiness: A review of definitions, assessments and investment strategies. Washington, DC: Child Trends. Zaslow, M. J., Moore, K. A., Brooks, J. L., Morris, P. A., Tout, K., Redd, Z. A., et al. (2002). Experimental studies of welfare reform and children. The Future of Children, 12(1), 79–95.

CHILDREN’S READING COMPREHENSION Reading is a complex skill that requires the coordination of many mental activities. These activities are often grouped into three categories: word-level, textlevel, and situation-level processes (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983). Word-level processes refer to the processes needed to decipher words and identify their

meanings. Text-level processes combine the meanings of words to determine the meaning of phrases and sentences. Situation-level processes derive the general meaning of a passage (the events and actions described by the passage). Readers create a situationlevel representation by combining their prior knowledge about the topic with information from the actual text. As an example, the situation-level representation of the sentence “The frog ate a fly” might include the knowledge that frogs eat many types of insects. A well-developed situation-level representation reflects a deep comprehension of the passage. This entry briefly describes developmental changes in comprehension and challenges to designing comprehension improvement teaching strategies. TEXT PROCESSING AT DIFFERENT READING LEVELS According to Raney (2003), the relative difficulty of processing text at each level changes as children learn to read fluently. When initially learning to read, the child’s attention will be focused primarily on word-level processes, leaving few mental resources available for higher-level processes. In essence, processing words is so difficult for beginning readers that they cannot put much effort into understanding the overall meaning. In contrast, processing words is so easy for skilled adult readers that they can devote most of their resources to comprehension processes. ATTENTION Differences in attentional focus produce differences in how texts are represented in memory. Because beginning readers focus on word-level processing, their representations are primarily word based. Because skilled adult readers focus on situationlevel processing, their representations are mostly meaning based. The format of the representation influences how readers use their knowledge. As an example, how a text is represented determines whether knowledge learned from the text will influence how a second text is read. Suppose a child and an adult read two texts, one about cows and one about kangaroos. Also assume that the texts share some meaning (e.g., both passages discuss what the animal eats), but they don’t share any central content words (e.g., the words cow and hay are never used in the kangaroo passage). For adults, reading the cow passage will make the

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kangaroo passage easier to read because they share meaning. For children, reading the cow passage will not make the kangaroo passage much easier to read because the passages do not share words. Now, suppose that the child and adult read two new texts, one about trees and one about houses. This time, the texts were written so that they share many words (e.g., the words wood and rain are used in both passages) but do not share meaning. For adults, reading the tree passage will not make the house passage easier to read. For children, reading the wood passage will make the house passage easier to read. Raney (2003) proposed that because skilled readers create meaning-based representations in memory, reading one passage will make another passage easier to comprehend only if the passages share meaning. Because beginning readers create word-based representations, reading one passage will make another passage easier to comprehend if the passages share words. This also explains why reading words in isolation helps children comprehend a text that contains those words: Because children form word-based representations, repeating the words makes the text easier to read and, consequently, easier to comprehend. As children become skilled readers, their memory for texts gradually shifts toward meaning-based representations. IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPROVING COMPREHENSION Becoming a skilled reader requires fluency at each level of processing. Fluent word processing is needed to build a text-level representation, and fluent text processing is necessary to build a situation-level representation. Unfortunately, many children fail to achieve sufficient levels of word-processing fluency to support adequate reading comprehension. One way to improve word-processing fluency is to give children practice-reading words. Levy, Abello, and Lysynchuk (1997) and Bourassa, Levy, Dowin, and Casey (1998) demonstrated that having children repeatedly read individual words in isolation made it easier to process those words when they were part of a text. This occurred because resources normally devoted to word processing were freed up for comprehension. Interestingly, practice-reading words do not improve text comprehension in skilled adult readers. Why? Word processing is so efficient for skilled readers that practice-reading words do not substantially reduce word-processing demands associated with

normal reading. Also, skilled word processing alone does not guarantee comprehension. For example, some readers are skilled in word reading but unskilled at situation-level processing (Pinnell et al., 1995). This problem demonstrates that skilled reading requires not only fluency at each level of processing but also the ability to integrate information obtained from each level of processing.

CONCLUSIONS In summary, while research is providing greater insight into the reading-comprehension process, reading differences among individuals as well as individual changes in text processing with development challenge the construction of a one-teaching-strategyfits-all approach to improving comprehension. —Gary E. Raney

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bourassa, D. C., Levy, B. A., Dowin, S., & Casey, A. (1998). Transfer effects across contextual and linguistic boundaries: Evidence from poor readers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 71, 45–61. Levy, B. A., Abello, B., & Lysynchuk, L. (1997). Transfer from word training to reading in context: Gains in reading fluency and comprehension. Learning Disability Quarterly, 20, 173–188. Pinnell, G. S., Pikulski, J. J., Wixson, K. K., Campbell, J. R., Gough, P. B., & Beatty, A. S. (1995). Listening to children read aloud: Data from NAEP’s intergrated reading performance record at Grade 4. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Raney, G. E. (2003). A context-dependent representation model for explaining text repetition effects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 15–28. van Dijk, T. A., & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.

CHRONIC DISABILITY IN OLD AGE Chronic impairments such as arthritis and vision or hearing loss become more normative with age and often involve major limitations in functional ability that can threaten a person’s mental health and quality of life. Performing daily life tasks can become

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increasingly difficult due to an impairment, and new ways of coping are needed that allow a person to maintain his or her quality of life despite limitations. Addressing this issue, recent research has shown that older adults who deal with any sort of major loss or decline tend to use and benefit from ways of coping that are compensatory in nature (Brandtstädter & Rothermund, 2002; Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995). Two main groups of compensatory strategies have been defined in this literature. The first group of strategies may be characterized as a “maintenance approach,” because it aims at maintaining functional independence in one’s daily life routines. This includes seeking out help from others or using technical aids or devices. For example, to compensate for a difficulty in reading, a person with visual impairment may ask others to read something to him or her or decide to use devices such a magnifier or special lighting. Similarly, a person with a hearing impairment may ask others to speak louder and more slowly, and use hearing aids or a selective amplification device to facilitate social interactions. An older person with arthritis may ask others to lift things, or use elevated beds and chairs that are easier to get in and out of. Another strategy in this category could be to develop a system that allows getting a task done. For example, one might deal with mobility problems due to vision impairment by meticulously planning out one’s route beforehand in order to be prepared, or manage the task of organizing one’s home by creating contrast to counteract the problem of poor contrast sensitivity (e.g., using a white coffee cup to drink black coffee). A person with a hearing impairment may seek out or set up social interaction settings that minimize interfering background noise (e.g., having people over for dinner at home instead of meeting at a restaurant). These kinds of strategies can help a person maintain prior levels of functioning and quality of life in many regards. However, when a chronic impairment worsens over time, there may be a point at which accomplishing certain tasks with the compensatory means described above becomes too difficult or even impossible. For example, if a person’s vision gets much worse, reading with the help of a magnifier may become harder to do and help from others may not always be available as often as needed. In such a case, maintaining one’s quality of life requires compensatory strategies of a different nature that are used

either in addition to or instead of those described above. Research has demonstrated that when efforts to reach an important goal repeatedly fail or become too costly, coping activity that allows for an internal adjustment becomes increasingly important (Brandtstädter & Renner, 1990). This kind of strategy may be referred to as a “reorientation approach,” because it includes adopting a mind frame of acceptance as well as focusing on other equally important activities. A person may think that while it is hard to no longer be able to read, there are other activities that are also very satisfying (e.g., listening to music). Alternately, the person with a hearing impairment may be increasingly bothered by listening to music with a hearing aid because of the distorting effects of the aid’s amplification and may respond by thinking that listening to the music in one’s own mind is still an option. Other possible strategies in this group could be to comfort oneself by locating the source of the problem externally (e.g., this is God’s will), by thinking of others who may be worse off, or by reminding oneself that there have been worse times in one’s own life. Overall, these types of strategies involve an inner adjustment of values, standards, and priorities that becomes adaptive when change in some daily activities become necessary. Research indicates that the use of both types of compensatory strategies increases in the face of loss and decline and that this enhanced coping activity buffers the negative effects of a chronic impairment. However, the adaptiveness of each may vary depending on the kind of loss or level of impairment. In the beginning stages of dealing with the impairment, strategies reflecting the maintenance approach may be most effective. When a higher level of disability is reached, adding strategies from the reorientation approach may become more and more beneficial for a person’s well-being. It has therefore been suggested that although the use of compensatory strategies that help maintain one’s level of functioning may always be important for a person with a chronic impairment, the role of compensatory efforts that reflect the described inner adjustments may become increasingly crucial. Finally, there is evidence that people differ regarding the extent to which they use any of the above strategies, as well as in terms of the effect of the impairment on their quality of life, and that those who use more compensatory means tend to have a less

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difficult time (Wahl, Schilling, Becker, & Burmedi, in press). Assessing these types of coping activities may help to identify older adults whose mental health and quality of life would be most threatened by a chronic impairment. Intervention programs that promote the use of compensatory strategies of both types may be especially helpful. Strategies grouped under the maintenance approach could be specifically addressed as part of programs that focus on enhancement of daily living skills. Counseling services and support groups, on the other hand, may provide a fitting context to discuss and practice techniques representing the reorientation approach. —Kathrin Boerner

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brandtstädter, J., & Renner, G. (1990). Tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment: Explication and age-related analysis of assimilative and accommodative strategies of coping. Psychology and Aging, 5, 58–67. Brandtstädter, J., & Rothermund, K. (2002). The life-course dynamics of goal pursuit and goal adjustment: A twoprocess framework. Developmental Review, 22, 117–150. Heckhausen, J., & Schulz, R. (1995). A life-span theory of control. Psychological Review, 102, 284–304. Wahl, H.-W., Schilling, O., Becker, S., & Burmedi, D. (in press). A German research program on the psychosocial adaptations to age-related vision impairment: Recent findings based on a control theory approach. European Psychologist.

CIGARETTE SMOKING IN ADOLESCENTS Tobacco use by adolescents in the United States fluctuates over time but remains a persistent health risk. Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of death and illness in the United States (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 1994). To understand tobacco use in teens in the early 21st century, it is important to be aware of the frequency with which teens try cigarettes, what percentage are regular users, how experimenters become regular users, what risk and protective factors influence use, and what prevention steps have been taken. By comprehending these issues, applied developmental professionals can develop plans to continue to diminish use.

PREVALENCE OF USE Surveys indicate that a significant transition in the use of cigarettes occurs in middle school. While only 4% of 3rd- and 4th-grade students have tried a whole cigarette, 42% of 8th- and 9th-grade students and 71% of 11th- and 12th-grade students have tried cigarettes (Harrell, Skrikand, Deng, Webb, & Bradley, 1998; Kann et al., 1996). A lower number of adolescents report current use of cigarettes (i.e., use in the last 30 days), with the rate declining between 2000 and 2002 (CDC, 2003). In 2002, 20% of high school students and 10% of middle school students reported current use of cigarettes. For high school students, this rate represents an 18% decrease from 2000; a significant change was not noted for middle school students. Few daily smokers seem able to stop smoking even though they report an interest in doing so (CDC, 1994). Thus, current and daily smokers become an increasingly larger portion of the adolescent population as habits and addictions take hold. Conversion From Experimentation to Regular Use Younger adolescents who begin smoking are among the heaviest adult smokers (CDC, 1994). Persistent exposure to nicotine, the main substance of concern in cigarettes, results in increased opportunity for dependence and addiction. Compared with other addicting substances, nicotine has one of the most rapid rates of dependence and addiction and one of the strongest holds on those who have become dependent. There are indications that nicotine is a mild stimulant that has mood-elevating and antianxiety properties, thus making it more desirable for some teens. Dependency in teens may be higher because of an interest in sensation seeking known to be prevalent in younger adolescents (Martin et al., 2002). Approximately 3,000 youth become regular smokers on a daily basis. Overall, based on the information cited, it can be inferred that the majority of teens try cigarettes during their middle and high school years and that between 23% and 28% are regular or daily smokers by the end of high school.

Variations in Use Among Teens Family racial background, sex, and socioeconomic status all have an impact on smoking rates (Harrell et al.,

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1998). On the whole, White and Hispanic youth smoke at much higher rates than African Americans. Between 33% and 38% of White and Hispanic youth describe themselves as current smokers. Rates for African American youth fall below 20%. More boys than girls of Hispanic background smoke, while nearly an equal number of White girls and boys smoke, although White boys are likely to have started earlier than girls. Youth from families of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to try cigarettes, but teens must have a fair amount of discretionary money to keep smoking. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH SMOKING INITIATION Personal Factors Substance use, including cigarette use, is higher among teens with anxious and depressed mood, child conduct and attention problems, and poor academic success. Youth with poorer grades and lower selfimages are most likely to begin using tobacco (CDC, 1994). Those who are at higher pubertal stages relative to their same-age counterparts are more likely to experiment with cigarettes (Harrell et al., 1998). In addition, teenagers who do not believe they have the ability to refuse offers to smoke are at higher risk for smoking (CDC, 1994). Peer Factors Adolescents have a strong interest in adhering to peer norms, including norms associated with cigarette use. Normative peer influences are encountered when adolescents perceive a social norm within the peer group and alter their responses to conform to this perceived norm. In early adolescents, peers often have informational influence as they try to directly persuade youth to engage in smoking. Most teen smokers report that the initiation into smoking occurred with friends (Forster, Wolfson, Murray, Wagenaar, & Claxton, 1997). Many older adolescents perceive smoking to be more common among peers than is true. As a result, older adolescents may initiate smoking because they perceive smoking as a relatively low-risk behavior that is prevalent amongst peers.

impact of peer influences. Punishment that is harsh and inconsistent is associated with increased tobacco use, while the use of authoritative parenting practices reduces tobacco use (Chassin, Presson, Todd, Rose, & Sherman, 1998). Parents who are warm and supportive, use positive reinforcement, set age-appropriate standards, and are knowledgeable of and monitor their children’s activities tend to have teens who are less likely to smoke. Thus, the general approach to parenting influences youth smoking. Specific actions that parents take to deter smoking are also important. Teens are much less likely to smoke when parents (a) have specific discussions about smoking that convey a negative view of smoking, (b) clearly state expectations that their children remain nonsmokers, and (c) use punishment (e.g., grounding and loss of privileges) for youth smoking (Chassin et al., 1998; Jackson & Henriksen, 1997). Adolescents who have frequent family meals with their parents and who report that they have a close relationship with at least one parent have smoking rates that are half as high as adolescents who do not report such contact or closeness (Council of Economic Advisers, 2000). Parental smoking behavior also influences youth smoking (Jackson & Henriksen, 1997). If parents are current smokers, their teens are twice as likely to smoke. Teens report that they have more access to cigarettes when their parents are smokers and experience passive approval of smoking. However, even when parents are smokers, teens who believe that their parents expect them to remain tobacco free are more likely to do so compared with teens who are unfamiliar with their parents’ expectations. Media Influences Teens watch many movies and are exposed at a relatively high rate to film stars who smoke. The average adolescent may watch as many as 800 depictions of smoking during a year, which may be more instances of smoking than the adolescent would encounter in real life. Such exposure is associated with increased rates of trying cigarettes and increased approval of smoking (Sargent et al., 2001). PREVENTION EFFORTS

Parental Influences

Programs Directed to Youth

Although peer influences are strong, a number of analyses suggest that parental actions can override the

Efforts to prevent tobacco use began in the 1970s. These efforts have focused on youth aged 9 to 18 years

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because this corresponds to the age at which smoking initiation occurs for most persons. Programs that have been most successful in decreasing rates share several characteristics (Sussman, 2001). One characteristic is that the impact of social influence is recognized and addressed. To diminish perceived norms that smoking is more prevalent than it is, successful programs inform youth of accurate rates of teen smoking. In addition, teens are taught skills to diminish use. In particular, they are taught methods to resist peer influence to engage in unhealthy actions, and to develop problem-solving skills and social approach skills. Successful programs also have in common an emphasis on the short-term consequences of smoking. This is often accomplished by demonstrating the negative impact on current pulmonary functioning, current appearance, and smell. Long-term consequences are reviewed but not stressed as a means of adapting messages to the style of adolescent thinking, which is less future oriented than adult thinking. The most successful programs are also presented throughout the earlyadolescent, middle-adolescent, and late-adolescent years. Delivery of programs in school-based health education classes is preferred and most effective. Parent-Focused Programs While several youth-focused programs have been shown to be effective (e.g., Life Skills Training), others have not (e.g., Drug Abuse Prevention Effort or DARE). Youth smoking rates also continue to remain high. Together, this suggests that additional factors need to be addressed. Given the research regarding the impact of parental actions on youth substance use, another area of focus may be parent education. Parents should be taught parenting practices that reduce cigarette and other substance use. Two promising efforts have been found to have long-term positive outcomes: (1) Preparing for the Drug-Free Years and (2) the Iowa Strengthening Families Program. Parents who participated in either of these programs when their children were in their early teens were shown to have children who initiated smoking less frequently compared with parents who were randomized to a control condition at a 4-year follow-up (Spoth, Redmond, & Shin, 2001). Both programs addressed parent-child bonding, parent education about the consequences of substance use, parent discipline practices, and conflict-management techniques. Another effort, Family Matters, instructed parents to educate

their 12- to 14-year-old children about tobacco and alcohol and to use practices that would prevent substance use. The program used booklets mailed to parents and phone-based consultation with parents on how to use the booklets for productive discussions with their children. Years after program participation, children whose parents were enrolled had initiated smoking at lower rates than children from control families (Bauman et al., 2002). CONCLUSIONS Cigarette smoking by adolescents is a persistent public health concern that has a major effect on longterm health. When youth initiate smoking, there is a high risk for dependence and addiction, with 20% to 25% of all youth being current smokers. In addition, youth who smoke cigarettes are at an increased risk for later alcohol and drug use, and they are more likely to get into fights, carry weapons, attempt suicide, and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors than their nonsmoking counterparts (CDC, 1994). Because of this, it is possible that prevention efforts to diminish smoking may also decrease other high-risk behaviors in youth. Further research is required to understand exactly what influences smoking initiation by youth and what factors contribute to the transition from experimentation to regular use. Particular emphasis on variations in smoking by different racial groups is required. Efforts to diminish youth smoking need to recognize that school-based interventions that start at a relatively early age and continue into high school have the most influence on youth. Public message campaigns aimed at altering attitudes toward smoking and turning youth against tobacco companies should be considered. In addition to youth-directed programs and campaigns, efforts to involve parents show great potential and should be incorporated into interventions. While the exact method and message for parent-based efforts needs further study, parents need to be meaningfully involved in their teenagers’ lives and need to set standards for behavior that discourage smoking. Research on comprehensive programs that combine youth-directed approaches with parent-directed efforts should be conducted. —Richard Gallagher, Jean-Marie Bruzzese, and Sharon McCann-Doyle

See also SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bauman, K. E., Ennett, S. T., Foshee, V. A., Pemberton, M., King, T. S., & Koch, G. G. (2002). Influence of a family program on adolescent smoking and drinking prevalence. Prevention Science, 3(1), 35–42. Centers for Disease Control. (1994). Preventing tobacco use among young people: Surgeon General’s report. Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ tobacco/sgr/sgr_1994/460016.htm Centers for Disease Control. (2003). Tobacco use among middle and high school students—United States, 2002. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 52(45), 1096–1098. Chassin, L., Presson, C. C., Todd, M., Rose, J. S., & Sherman, S. J. (1998). Maternal socialization of adolescent smoking: The intergenerational transmission of parenting and smoking. Developmental Psychology, 34(6), 1189–1201. Council of Economic Advisers. (2000). Council of Economic Advisers report: Teens and their parents in the 21st century: An examination in trends in teen behavior and the role of parental involvement. Available at http://clinton3 .nara.gov/WH/New/html/teenconf.html Forster, J. L., Wolfson, M., Murray, D. M., Wagenaar, A. C., & Claxton, A. J. (1997). Perceived and measured availability of tobacco to youths in 14 Minnesota communities: The TPOP study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 13(3), 167–174. Harrell, J. S., Skrikand, I. B., Deng, S., Webb, J. P., & Bradley, C. (1998). Smoking initiation in youth: The roles of gender, race, socioeconomics, and developmental status. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23, 271–279. Jackson, C., & Henriksen, L. (1997). Do as I say: Parent smoking, antismoking socialization, and smoking onset among children. Addictive Behaviors, 22(1), 107–114. Kann, L., Warren, C. W., Collins, J. L., Williams, B. I., Ross, J. G., & Kolbe, L. J. (1996). Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 1995. Journal of School Health, 66(10), 365–377. Martin, C. A., Kelly, T. H., Rayens, M. K., Brogli, K. R., Brenzel, A., Smith, W., et al. (2002). Sensation seeking, puberty, and nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana use in adolescence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41(12), 1495–1502. Sargent, J. D., Beach, M. L., Dalton, M. A., Mott, L. A., Tickle, J. J., Ahrens, M. B., et al. (2001). Effect of seeing tobacco use in films on trying smoking among adolescents: Cross sectional study. British Medical Journal, 323, 1–6. Spoth, R., Redmond, C., & Shin, C. (2001). Randomized trial of brief family interventions for general populations: Adolescent substance use outcomes 4 years following baseline. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69(4), 627–642. Sussman, S. (2001). School-based tobacco use prevention and cessation: Where are we going? American Journal of Health Behavior, 25(3), 191–199.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT Political scientist Robert Putnam (2000) has argued that civic engagement is at an all-time low in the United States, especially in young people. He cites indices such as voting, reading newspapers, and participating in civic clubs, such as Kiwanis, all of which are lower today than a decade or two ago. He further argues that these indicators are much lower in youth aged 18 to 25 years than in any other age-group. For example, youth vote less than any other age-group. Putnam’s argument is controversial. It has been challenged by other researchers who argue that civic engagement has not declined but has simply changed in nature. So, for example, youth may not read newspapers, but they get news from TV or the Internet. Participation in organizations may be low, but volunteerism, as in community service, is at an all-time high. This controversy has, however, generated renewed interest in youth civic engagement. Participating as a citizen in society is as important as working or forming a family, yet there has been much more research on the development of schooling and work and on the formation of relationships and families than on the development of citizenship. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENSHIP There have been two major historical periods of research attention to the development of citizenship. The first, in the 1950s, reflected the developmental approach of that time and focused on early experience and socialization by the family. The second, during the 1970s, focused on social movements such as civil rights and the anti–Vietnam War protests. It therefore involved adolescents and youth but was not very developmental in orientation (Flanagan & Sherrod, 1998). Now, a new wave of research is emerging. A variety of socialization influences during adolescence have been shown to relate to later civic behaviors, such as voting. Both the nature of civics education teens receive in school and factors such as school climate and teacher behavior have been shown to predict youth civic participation (Flanagan & Tucker, 1999). For example, teachers who treat students fairly promote the development of just behavior in teens. Classes that promote open discussion of issues promote higher levels of understanding of civics materials. A large international study of 14,000

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14-year-olds across 28 countries examined civic education and youngsters’ understanding of citizenship and democracy in these 28 countries (TorneyPurta, Lehmann, Oswald, & Schultz, 2001). There was little variability in civic knowledge, and overall, it was not as high as we would want. Civics education should be of the same national priority as math and science; it is as important to functioning as an adult in society as are math and science (Sherrod, 2003). Civic knowledge is also important because it is the single most important predictor of youth voting; students with more knowledge are more likely to vote in political elections (Neimi & Junn, 2000). Knowledge does not, however, relate to how young people vote, that is, to their political attitudes. We do not know why some youth develop conservative views and others liberal ones, why some become Republicans and others Democrats. It is particularly important to understand the civic development of youth who may feel disenfranchised, such as poor or minority youth or sexual minority youth, for example (Sherrod, Flanagan, & Youniss, 2002); these young people may be the most likely to be unengaged, because they do not see the nation as offering them particularly good opportunities (Hart, Atkins, & Ford, 1998). But a democracy is based on the participation of all citizens, so that it is just as important to understand the development of citizenship in these youth as in more affluent, mainstream teens and young people. Furthermore, minority youth are increasing and will soon be the majority. COMMUNITY SERVICE AND SERVICE LEARNING Community service has also been recognized as a way to promote youth civic engagement. Some people consider it to be a form of civic engagement. National Youth Service Act, a National Service Corporation, AmeriCorps, and a variety of other government initiatives promote service in youth. As frequently happens, these efforts have been launched without sufficient research. Youniss and Yates (1997) found that the nature of the service influences whether or not it has any impact on youth. Working in their communities (e.g., in a soup kitchen versus tutoring young children), doing service voluntarily as opposed to having it mandated, and having an opportunity to reflect on what they do in the service and how the people they serve are and are not like them are three factors that relate to impact. Not all service programs have

these qualities. Research has also shown that youth do service for quite different reasons. Some young people do service because they want to help someone, others because their parents or religion expect it of them, and others for quite selfish reasons, such as it looks good on their records (Sherrod, 2003). One would expect these different reasons for doing service to relate to different effects of service on the individual’s development. Service learning is a form of community service that aims to connect doing service to academic benefits. According to the Corporation for National Service, service learning is defined as learning that involves students in community activities that complement their classroom studies. Thus, service learning is a form of applied education in which students doing communitybased service relate their real-world experiences to their academic coursework. Sometimes, courses may require students to do service in order to get some realworld experience. Students may also get additional credit for doing service. Studies show that service-learning programs can have both academic and social benefits. More research has focused, however, on gains in civic development and social competencies. Students engaged in service learning demonstrate prosocial benefits, including greater levels of social responsibility, volunteerism, likeliness to donate to charity, appreciation of others, and civic-mindedness (Youniss & Yates, 1997). There is less research focused on academic gains made by students in service-learning courses, and most research examining academic gains has focused on academically based programs. There is research indicating that youth do better academically and avoid risky behavior. POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS Researchers have asked youth about political issues that reflect a dimension relating to being politically conservative versus liberal. Youth may, for example, be asked why they think people are poor. Is it because they don’t work hard enough, because they are not smart or are lazy; that is, is the individual responsible for being poor? Or are people poor because of structural constraints, such as lack of opportunity? Interestingly, poor youth are more likely to attribute poverty to individual causes (Flanagan & Tucker, 1999). At first, these results seem surprising, but if you think about it, they make sense. If people are poor due to structural constraints, then they, as

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poor youth, may be trapped. If, however, individuals are responsible for being poor, then these youth can maintain the hope of escaping poverty through their hard work. Political attitudes also relate to youth reasons for doing service, and for example, they provided a filter through which young people reacted to the tragedy of September 11, 2001 (Sherrod, 2003). Attitudes are likely to shape young people’s political behavior, so that much more research is needed on how youth come to form different types of attitudes about political issues, such as poverty.

YOUTH ACTIVISM One unquestionable form of civic engagement is activism. Whereas a commitment to the rule of law is an aspect of being a good citizen, a society that is “ruled by the people,” as should be true of any democracy, also depends on citizens who make informed judgments, at times object to policies, and even (as in many movements for social justice) disobey unjust laws. Good behavior may be one aspect of citizenship, but so is activism or taking action to improve the nationstate, which is frequently not considered good behavior. Research on activism therefore documents that tendency of youth to take action to change society when they view such action as necessary. Activism includes protest events and actions, advocacy for causes, and information dissemination to raise consciousness. In general, it is behavior to promote causes. The exercise of good judgment, as a component of citizenship, involves assessing when behavior is needed to maintain the status quo and when it is necessary to take action to change it. Throughout history, youth have been the segment of the population most likely to refuse to accept the status quo and to act to change society for the better. Examples of issues that have captured the activist attention of young people during the past decade are child labor, environmental protection, animal rights, support for Palestine, and sweat shops. Historical examples include Nazi resistance, civil rights, and the anti–Vietnam War movement of the 1970s (Sherrod, Flanagan, & Kassimir, 2003).

civic engagement. Research is also needed on the development of youth political attitudes, since they may mediate the relationship between knowledge and behavior. And studies are needed of youth activism, because we need citizens who take active roles in politics and government. —Lonnie Sherrod

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Flanagan, C., & Sherrod, L. (1998). Political development: Youth growing up in a global community. Journal of Social Issues, 54(3). Flanagan, C., & Tucker, C. (1999). Adolescents’ explanations for political issues: Concordance with their views of self and society. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1198–1209. Hart, D., Atkins, R., & Ford, D. (1998). Urban America as a context for the development of moral identity in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 54, 513–530. Neimi, R., & Junn, J. (2000). Civic education: What makes students learn. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Sherrod, L. R. (2003, April). Promoting the development of citizenship in diverse youth. PS: Political Science and Politics, 36, 287–292. Sherrod, L. R., Flanagan, C., & Kassimir, R. (2003). An encyclopedia of youth activism. New York: Greenwood. Sherrod, L. R., Flanagan, C., & Youniss, J. (Eds.). (2002). Growing into citizenship: Multiple pathways and diverse influences [Special issue]. Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 172–173. Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H., & Schultz, W. (2001). Citizenship and education in 28 countries: Civic knowledge and engagement at age fourteen. Amsterdam: IEA. Youniss, J., & Yates, M. (1997). What we know about engendering civic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40, 620–631.

CIVIL SOCIETY. See CIVIC ENGAGEMENT; EMPOWERMENT THEORY AND YOUTH; POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT; SOCIAL JUSTICE; YOUTH CIVIC/POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

CONCLUSIONS The development of citizenship is as important as work or family and should be the subject of more research. Research is needed on specific socialization experiences, such as community service that promotes

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Clinical significance (CS) refers to methodology developed to estimate the meaningfulness of observed

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change following an intervention (Hansen & Lambert, 1996). It is more stringent than statistical significance, as it requires changes to be both statistically significant and meaningful within a social context. Traditionally, the outcomes of psychosocial interventions have been evaluated using standard statistical methods, such as t-tests or ANOVAs, to determine whether any observed change from pre- to postintervention is significant, meaning the change has a magnitude large enough that it is unlikely to have happened by chance. While these tools are useful, they do not address the relevance of any observed change. For instance, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (Beck & Steer, 1993), a common instrument used to measure depressive symptoms, may show a 4-point change from pre- to posttreatment in a sample of patients receiving a treatment for depression. If the sample is large and relatively homogeneous, a 4-point change on the BDI may well be statistically significant. It is unclear, however, what a 4-point difference on the BDI means clinically. Furthermore, a 4-point change on the BDI from a score of 24 to 20 likely has a very different meaning from a 4-point change from a score of 14 to 10. Tests of statistical significance help us understand the probability of a change occurring, but they can’t help us understand the practical importance of change. Clinical significance methodology was developed to address this problem. The foundation was laid by researchers evaluating behavioral modification interventions with children. Standard measurement practices and statistical procedures didn’t seem adequate for some of their evaluation needs, so social validation practices were advocated (Kazdin, 1977). Social validation refers to comparing pre- and postintervention scores against social norms, rather than simply evaluating a change score. For instance, researchers could note the typical level of disruptive behavior of children in a classroom setting, as well as the level of disruptive behavior among children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). After a behavioral intervention with children with ADHD, the posttreatment similarity of the ADHD sample to the behavior of a normal classroom could be evaluated, with the idea that a successful intervention will produce behavior that has moved into the “normal” range. CS takes the idea of social validation and formalizes it with clear guidelines that must be met before change can be considered to be “clinically meaningful.”

The process of evaluating the importance of observed change requires normative comparisons, and within clinical significance methodology, this is accomplished by defining independent functional and dysfunctional distributions against which a study sample can be compared (Jacobson & Truax, 1991). After defining appropriate comparison groups, two statistical procedures must be completed. First, a cutoff score is computed, denoting the point at which there is equal probability of a score falling into either the functional or dysfunctional range. A subject beginning treatment in the dysfunctional range of scores must cross this threshold in order to be considered “recovered” after delivery of treatment. Second, a value called the reliable change index (RCI) is computed, based on the variance of the initial, normative groups and the measurement error of the outcome instrument being used. This value is similar to an effect size, corrected for measurement error, and must be surpassed by a participant’s change score for that score to be considered reliable. When both of these criteria are met, a participant is considered to have entered the range of functional individuals and have a level of change that is statistically greater than measurement error. This status is considered clinically relevant change and is labeled “recovered” in clinical significance terminology. An advantage of CS is that it is equally applicable in large sample studies as well as with single cases. After establishing independent norms for functional and dysfunctional samples on an outcome measure, computing a cutoff, and computing an RCI, these values can be used to determine whether changes are clinically relevant, either for sample means or for individual patient scores. Furthermore, the percentage of patients achieving clinically meaningful change within a sample or treatment setting can be computed. An additional advantage of CS is that it allows straightforward comparisons between studies. There are also clinical applications of CS methodology, as patient progress in treatment can be monitored and treatment plans modified accordingly (Whipple et al., 2003). Originally, CS was proposed as a “gold standard” of the best therapy could offer, namely, recovery. While this is an important standard to establish, critics have responded that this is too stringent a criterion for treatment evaluation, particularly for populations with chronic mental illnesses. Therefore, a number of modifications have been suggested to the original CS methodology, and alternative methods proposed

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(Tingey, Lambert, Burlingame, & Hansen, 1996). For instance, the assertion that reliable patient change (change greater than the RCI value) is sufficient to indicate meaningful improvement, if not recovery, has received empirical support (Lunnen & Ogles, 1998). Nevertheless, CS as an objective standard by which to judge the clinical relevance of change is invaluable, particularly because it can enhance the practical application of research findings in clinical practice. —Nathan B. Hansen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. A. (1993). BDI: Beck Depression Inventory manual. New York: Psychological Corporation. Hansen, N. B., & Lambert, M. J. (1996). Clinical significance: An overview of methods. Journal of Mental Health, 5, 17–24. Jacobson, N. S., & Truax, P. (1991). Clinical significance: A statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 12–19. Kazdin, A. E. (1977). Assessing the clinical or applied importance of behavior change through social validation. Behavior Modification, 1, 427–452. Lunnen, K. M., & Ogles, B. A. (1998). A multiperspective, multivariable evaluation of reliable change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 400–410. Tingey, R. C., Lambert, M. J., Burlingame, G. M., & Hansen, N. B. (1996). Assessing clinical significance: Proposed extensions in method. Psychotherapy Research, 6, 109–123. Whipple, J. L., Lambert, M. J., Vermeersch, D. A., Smart, D. W., Nielsen, S. L., & Hawkins, E. J. (2003). Improving the effects of psychotherapy: The use of early identification of treatment failure and problem-solving strategies in routine practice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 59–68.

COCAINE Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that triggers a constriction of blood vessels in the brain, leading to a risk of stroke and brain damage (Personal MD, 1998). Cocaine was labeled “the drug of the ’80s and ’90s” because of its extensive popularity during this period (Leshner, 2000). However, cocaine is not a new drug. The pure chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, has been an abused substance for more than 100 years, and coca leaves, the source of cocaine, have been

ingested for thousands of years. Today, cocaine is a Schedule II drug, meaning that it has high potential for abuse but can be administered by a doctor for legitimate medical uses (Leshner, 2000). COCAINE AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE Cocaine addiction continues to inflict harm on addicted individuals, their families, and society. About 10% of Americans over the age of 12 have tried cocaine at least once in their lifetimes, about 2% have tried crack, and nearly 1% are currently using cocaine (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001). Individuals with cocaine problems may have other substance use disorders, medical problems, psychiatric disorders, and psychosocial problems. Adults 18 to 25 years of age have a higher rate of cocaine use than those in any other age-group. Overall, men have a higher rate of cocaine use than do women; men are also more likely to resort to criminal behavior in order to obtain the drug, but there is a strong correlation between female cocaine abuse, prostitution, and HIV/AIDS (Streatfeild, 2001). Cocaine carries a strong negative stigma. Leckman, Mayes, and Hodgins (2001) found that college students scored children’s performance less positively if the child was thought to be exposed to cocaine prenatally. College students also hold negative perceptions of maternal cocaine abusers: Vener, Krupka, and Engelmann (1992) found that 75% of undergraduates would imprison a pregnant woman who used cocaine and those who were pro-life believed the use of drugs to be a form of child abuse. PRENATAL EXPOSURE TO COCAINE The full extent of the effects of prenatal drug exposure on a child is not completely known. Many scientific studies have documented that babies born to mothers who abuse cocaine during pregnancy are often prematurely delivered, shorter in length, and lower in birth weight and head circumference (Mayes & Bornstein, 1997). The estimation of the consequences of maternal drug abuse is difficult, and determining the specific hazard of a particular drug to the unborn child is even more problematic given that pregnant women who use drugs typically abuse more than one substance. A multitude of factors makes it difficult to determine the direct impact of perinatal cocaine use on maternal and fetal outcomes: Frequency of drug

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abuse, inadequate prenatal care/abuse and neglect, socioeconomic status, poor maternal nutrition, other health problems, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases all interact to give rise to a poor developmental prognosis (Mayes & Bornstein, 1997). An estimated 1 million children have been born after fetal cocaine exposure since the mid-1980s. These babies were expected to suffer from severe, intractable effects, such as reduced intelligence and social skills. However, most cocaine-exposed babies appear to recover. Regardless of the damage from prenatal exposure to cocaine, the development of exposed children will not be improved by the assumption that they are a lost cause or that they are different from other children (Mayes, Granger, Bornstein, & Zuckerman, 1992). There are several possible mechanisms by which cocaine exposure during pregnancy may affect child development. The developing neural systems of the fetal brain may be adversely affected by cocaine exposure. During pregnancy, cocaine use may also constrict the vascular system, decrease blood flow through the placenta, and result in low oxygen levels (hypoxemia) in the fetus (Singer & Arenet, 2001). In the neonatal period, findings of neurobehavioral impairments as measured by the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scales (NBAS) (Brazelton, 1984) have been reported but are inconsistent. Research indicates a relation between drug exposure (particularly cocaine) and disturbances in attention, information processing, learning, and memory in human infants; however, prenatal cocaine exposure may affect arousal and attention regulation rather than early cognitive processes. Mayes, Bornstein, Chawarska, Haynes, and Granger (1996) found no differences between cocaine-exposed versus noncocaine-exposed 3-month-old infants in baseline behavioral state or affective expression before the presentation of novel stimuli. However, cocaine-exposed newborns were more reactive to reflex-eliciting stimuli as well as to specific auditory stimuli. Exposure to cocaine during fetal development may lead to subtle but significant deficits later, especially with behaviors that are crucial to success in the classroom, such as blocking out distractions and concentrating for long periods of time (Mayes & Bornstein, 1997). Continued parental cocaine use also poses a significant developmental risk for infants and children due to lack of parental attentiveness, interactiveness, and responsiveness. Mayes and Bornstein (1995) outlined

four pathways of cocaine’s indirect effects on children’s development. The first is continued postnatal cocaine exposure for the infant via passive absorption of crack smoke; the second relates to issues that bring adults to initial cocaine abuse; the third points to the effects of comorbid psychiatric disorders on abusing parents’ parenting behaviors; and the fourth explains the global level of family discord, virtual homelessness, poverty, and, on a more basic level, chronic uncertainty, despair, and fear in both adults and children that epitomize the cocaine-using world. TREATMENT There are no medications available to treat cocaine addiction specifically. Selegeline, one of the most promising anticocaine medications to date, was taken into multisite Phase III clinical trials in 1999. In clinical studies, disulfiram, a medication that has been used to treat alcoholism, was effective in reducing cocaine abuse. Because of mood changes experienced during the early stages of cocaine abstinence, antidepressant drugs have some benefit. Many behavioral treatments effectively combat cocaine addiction, including both in-patient and out-patient approaches. Integration of both types of treatment is ultimately the most effective approach for treating addiction. It is important to match the best treatment regimen to the needs of the patient. Furthermore, programs that include on-site child care and group meetings with family and friends facilitate compliance with these services and improvement of the health and wellbeing of both parents and children. —Asha M. Goldweber and Marc H. Bornstein

See also SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brazelton, T. B. (1984). Neonatal behavioral assessment scale (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott. Leckman, E. B., Mayes, L. C., & Hodgins, H. S. (2001). Perceptions and attitudes toward cocaine exposure in young children. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 31(4), 313–328. Leshner, A. I. (2000). National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series: Cocaine abuse and addiction. Available at http://www.drugabuse.gov/ResearchReports/ Cocaine/Cocaine.html Mayes, L. C., & Bornstein, M. H. (1995). Developmental dilemmas for cocaine-abusing parents and their children.

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In M. Lewis & M. Bendersky (Eds.), Mothers, babies, and cocaine: The role of toxins in development (pp. 251–272). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Mayes, L. C., & Bornstein, M. H. (1997). The development of children exposed to cocaine. In S. S. Luthar, J. A. Burak, D. Cicchetti, & J. R. Weisz (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Perspectives on adjustment, risk, and disorder (pp. 166–188). New York: Cambridge University Press. Mayes, L. C., Bornstein, M. H., Chawarska, K., Haynes, O. M., & Granger, R. H. (1996). Impaired regulation of arousal in three-month-old infants exposed prenatally to cocaine and other drugs. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 29–42. Mayes, L. C., Granger, R. H., Bornstein, M. H., & Zuckerman, B. (1992). The problem of prenatal cocaine exposure: A rush to judgment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 267, 406–408. Personal MD. (1998). Cocaine constricts brain arteries. Journal of the American Medical Association. Available at http://www.personalmd.com/news/a1998020310.shtml Singer, L. T., & Arenet, R. E. (2001). Prenatal cocaine exposure as a risk factor for later developmental outcomes. Journal of the American Medical Association, 286(1), 45–46. Streatfeild, D. (2001). Cocaine: An unauthorized biography. New York: St. Martin’s. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2001). Summary of findings from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Available at http:// www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/cocaine_factsheet.html#3 Vener, A. M., Krupka, L. R., & Engelmann, M. D. (1992). Drugs in the womb: College student perceptions of maternal v. fetal rights. Journal of Drug Education, 22(1), 15–24.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT There are five major theoretical and research orientations to understanding the development of cognition. These are Piaget’s constructivist stage theory; sociocultural theory, particularly that of Vygotsky; Nativist theory; information-processing theory; and organismicholistic and developmental systems theory. PIAGET’S STAGE THEORY Jean Piaget (1896–1987) was the first person to advance a theory of children’s cognitive development. Piaget believed that the goal of intelligence is to achieve a balanced, harmonious relation, known as cognitive equilibrium, between thought processes (cognitive structures) and the environment. Equilibration is

the process of achieving this equilibrium. Cognitive disequilibrium refers to imbalances between children’s thinking and the environment. Piaget viewed intelligence as active. Children are not passive recipients of information. Rather, they actively construct and reconstruct their knowledge of the world. The two factors, cognitive disequilibrium and the child’s action and interaction with the physical environment, propel the cognitive system toward development of more advanced psychological structures. The Processes of Intelligence Intelligence is influenced by biological factors in exhibiting two invariant functions: organization and adaptation. Organization refers to the fact that our psychological/cognitive structures are organized into coherent systems. Organization promotes adaptation to our environment. Adaptation consists of two complementary processes: assimilation and accommodation. In assimilation, current psychological structures are used to interpret the external world. Toddlers who overextend a known word (e.g., call the heretofore unknown cow a “dog”) are using their current concept (of dog) to understand the world. Cognitive structures do not change during assimilation. Rather, the experiences encountered are altered to fit existing psychological structures. In accommodation, new psychological structures are created, or old ones are adjusted upon noticing aspects of the environment that current psychological structures do not capture. The child’s adjusting actions and creating new ones in imitating a parent’s gestures would be a classic case of accommodation. The Structures of Intelligence: Stages of Cognitive Development The dual processes of intelligence, organization of thought and adaptation to the environment, lead to the development of different psychological structures at different points through childhood. These different psychological structures are represented in Piaget’s four stages. These stages mark the universal, unilinear progression toward the end point of cognitive development: the attainment of logical, rational reasoning. In stage theory, development is discontinuous. Each stage represents a qualitatively different way of

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reasoning, and earlier stages represent less mature and incorrect forms of reasoning. The Sensorimotor Stage (birth–2 years). The psychological structures of the infancy period are sensorimotor action schemes. Piaget believed that the infant was not capable of mental thought, but only of overt actions. Action schemes include basic reflexes like grasping or sucking. Schemes are organized action patterns. Hence, intelligence is built upon the basic reflexes of the infant. Piaget divided this stage into six substages of development, over which action schemes become more elaborate, interrelated, and goal directed. Development in the sensorimotor stage culminates with the achievement of mental representation. The toddler can now solve problems mentally through mental representations. That the child has achieved mental representation is evident in a milestone of this stage: the concept of object permanence. This is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when not seen or acted upon. The Preoperational Stage (2–7 years). This stage marks the emergence of mental representation (the symbolic function). The most obvious example of symbolic functioning is language. The child acquires words, which symbolize or stand for their referents. While the preschooler is capable of mental thought, this thought has some significant limitations. Egocentrism, which is the inability to take the perspective of another, is one primary deficiency in reasoning. Indeed, children presume that others have the same viewpoint as themselves. Piaget interpreted young children’s egocentric speech as reflective of their egocentric thought. Egocentric speech is speech spoken aloud, generally in the presence of others, but that is noncommunicative with the other. The Concrete Operational Stage (7–11 years). In this stage, children’s thinking overcomes the logical deficiencies of the preoperational stage. Reasoning is now nonegocentric. However, thought in this stage has its limitations. Thought is bound by concrete, physical reality. Children’s reasoning is caught up in the actual concrete contents that are being reasoned about. The Formal Operational Stage (11 years and onward). This stage marks the advent of abstract (“formal”) and scientific reasoning. Thinking is scientific in being combinatorial and hypothetico-deductive. In considering

a problem, adolescents can begin with and explore a general theory of all the possible variables (and their combinations) that could influence the outcome, and they can deduce predictions or hypotheses about what could occur. Moreover, the adolescent can discriminate between thoughts about reality and actual reality. Hence, teenagers’ thoughts about reality can take on a hypothetical “if, then” characteristic: “If Dad can get off work tomorrow, then we can leave for Boston.” Critiques of Piaget’s Theory Piaget’s theory of cognitive development does not prevail today. It has been challenged from many quarters. Some have shown that children possess many of the cognitive abilities that Piaget described much earlier in development than his theory predicted. (See “Nativism” section below.) Moreover, contrary to Piaget’s claims, children’s cognitive development has been found not to occur in stages. Finally, culture appears to play a large role in cognitive development, contrary to Piaget’s view that it did not. For example, schooling may be necessary for the achievement of concrete and formal operational reasoning. NATIVISM The Nativist approach has origins in the philosophical movement of the 17th century known as Rationalism. This movement was begun by Descartes and practiced by others, including Leibniz. Rationalists proposed the concept of innate ideas, such as those about causality. Innate ideas are foundational concepts that are known intuitively through reason and not experience. The core premise of the Nativist approach is that children enter the world with core knowledge in specific domains. The domains for which we possess some innate knowledge are those for which we are biologically prepared to learn. Accordingly, these domains represent universal knowledge. Indeed, the universality of this knowledge is taken as evidence for its biological basis. These domains include knowledge of language, number, causality, and the physical world, especially objects. Following from the idea of domain-specific knowledge and processing is the notion of modularity. Modularity may be a critical feature of the mind’s cognitive structure. The mind is said to comprise a host of interacting, specialized subsystems that exhibit

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only limited, if any, flow of intercommunication. Distinct modules may exist for processing linguistic information, visual-spatial information, and so on. Modularity may be the rule for dispositions of connections in the cerebral cortex. The claim of domain-specific or modular cognitive functioning contrasts with stage theory. According to stage theory, general cognitive structures are said to underlie the child’s cognitive performance across contexts and knowledge domains. Also contrastive with stage theory is the Nativist idea that the foundational or core knowledge credited to the infant, in various domains, is consistent with mature, adult knowledge. Children’s fundamental conceptions are correct. Hence, unlike stage theory, continuity in cognitive development is proposed. Children must come into the world with some core knowledge to guide their learning, because the environment is deemed an inadequate base from which to learn. The environment is unstructured and ambiguous. Hence, the mind must be structured. The environment is pluripotential; the same experience is potentially relevant to an extremely wide range of inductions. To illustrate the pluripotentiality of the environment, the Nativists invoke the Quinean dilemma (generated by the philosopher Quine, 1960). In this scenario, the language learner hears the tutor say the word “gavagai” as the tutor points to a rabbit in a field. How does the learner know to which of the infinite number of possibilities the word “gavagai” refers (e.g., the rabbit’s ears, nose, eyes, fur, its standing, the ground on which it stands)? Core knowledge enables the learner to focus on the right input. This knowledge constrains or guides learning. To solve the Quinean dilemma, cognitive developmentalists have described the child as having core knowledge related to word learning (Markman, 1990). This knowledge, the “whole-object” assumption, is knowledge that count nouns refer to whole objects. Since learning is based not in the environment, but in the biology of the organism, Nativists argue that learning occurs best, if not exclusively, in the “critical period.” This is a period, prior to adolescence, of optimal brain development where the brain exhibits great plasticity and is not yet fully lateralized. Noam Chomsky (e.g., 1957) was among the first to advance a Nativist/Rationalist perspective, and he did so with respect to language acquisition. He proposed that the child’s knowledge of syntax (grammatical rules) is innate, a part of the genetic endowment

of human beings, and called it “universal grammar” (UG). Nativists have presented a formidable challenge to Piagetian theory. They have shown that children develop many of the cognitive abilities described by Piaget much earlier in development than Piaget posited. Infants are credited with this knowledge as part of their native endowment, their genetic heritage. For example, babies are thought to know much more about the objects and to exhibit object permanence earlier than Piaget proposed. Moreover, infants are credited with the principles of solidity (knowledge that objects move only on unobstructed paths) and continuity (knowledge that objects move only on connected paths) (see Spelke, Breinlinger, Macomber, & Jacobson, 1992). VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY The Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–1934) proposed one of the most influential sociocultural theories of cognitive development. Vygotksy believed in the social origins of cognitive functions as formulated in his internalization process: Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological), and then inside the child (intrapsychological). . . . All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals. (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57; emphasis in original) Hence, through internalization, cognitive functions and processes performed on an external plane between persons come to be performed internally, within the child. Vygotsky (1962) studied the internalization of language because he believed that language, a cultural symbol system, has a profound influence on cognitive functioning. He proposed that language was first used between people (the social level) and served a communicative function. This social-communicative line of language continues to develop. However, language develops along a second line. It becomes internalized as inner speech (individual level) and serves an intraindividual-cognitive function. Language, when internalized, assists our thinking and planning and guides our actions.

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Egocentric speech marks the midpoint in this internalization process and serves a cognitive function. Accordingly, Vygotsky had a very different view of egocentric speech than did Piaget. In Piaget’s view, egocentric speech is the mere reflection of the egocentric thinking of the preoperational child, and it serves no function. In contrast, Vygotsky believed that egocentric speech helps thinking and guides the child’s action. Indeed, Vygotsky demonstrated that children’s amounts of egocentric speech increase when they are trying to solve problems. When we no longer hear the child speaking egocentrically, at about 7 to 8 years, the child’s speech has become internalized as inner speech. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a second seminal concept in Vygotsky’s theory. The ZPD is the difference between the child’s actual developmental level, as determined by independent problem solving, and the higher level of potential development, as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). The ZPD has been applied to the assessment of intelligence. It is a dynamic assessment measure. Instead of measuring actual development (completed and independent functioning), as does an IQ test, the ZPD assesses the potential level of development that can be achieved with assistance. Vygotsky also applied the ZPD concept to instruction. Vygotsky believed that instruction leads development. Hence, good instruction is pitched ahead of development.

Stores and Strategies Information first enters the system through the sensory register. Only a very limited amount of information can be held by the sensory register, and only very briefly. Sights and sounds are represented directly. Information in the sensory register can be transferred to the next store, short-term or working memory. In shortterm memory, only a limited amount of information (often referred to as “7 plus or minus 2” chunks of information) can be held. Moreover, information is held only very briefly, unless strategies are performed on it. Rehearsal, such as verbally repeating the information, is one important strategy to retain information. Young children are less likely to engage in strategies. For instance, if given a list of words to recall, younger children tend not to rehearse the words. Hence, their recall is poorer than that of older children who engage in spontaneous rehearsal. The longer we retain information in short-term memory, the greater the likelihood it will be transferred to long-term memory. This memory is our knowledge base. This store is very durable; information can be retained for decades. Long-term memory also has a large capacity. Given this large capacity, the retrieval of information from long-term memory can be problematic. However, since the large amount of information held in long-term memory is organized, one can be strategic in retrieval by relying on such organization. This increases the likelihood of retrieval. Knowledge Development

INFORMATION-PROCESSING THEORY Information-processing theorists adopt a computerlike view of the mind. Most information-processing models are traceable to the multistore model of memory proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). The model has two features: structural and functional. The structural features are three stores, sensory register, working or short-term memory, and long-term memory (the knowledge base), where information is stored or held. These stores are assumed to be universal and available for information processing by age 2 years, if not even earlier. The functional features are the mental strategies or control processes, such as selective attention and rehearsal, which operate on the information that flows through the stores. Development occurs with respect to mental strategies. Younger children are generally poor strategists, whereas older children and adults are more competent strategy users.

Children’s memory also improves with age because their knowledge base in long-term memory increases and becomes more organized. Greater knowledge affords better strategy use and also greater recall of a wider variety of information. Indeed, in cases where child knowledge exceeds that of adults, as in a classic study where memory for chess was compared across child chess experts and adult nonexperts, children’s memory performance exceeded that of adults (Chi, 1978). Memory Is a “Constructive” Process Memory does not copy reality at storage nor perfectly reproduce it at retrieval. Rather, memory is a constructive activity largely influenced by our current knowledge. Bartlett (1932) was among the first to note the constructive nature of memory. We interpret, select,

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omit, add, and otherwise transform material in the memory process. For example, the sentence “The man dug a hole” might subsequently be recalled as “The man dug with a shovel” or “The man dug a ditch.” Kinds of Knowledge Long-term memory is thought to consist of semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memory refers to all our general, factual knowledge. Schemata, part of our semantic memory, are packets of knowledge that represent our general knowledge about things such as spatial scenes, stories, and events. They help us understand and predict experience. Event schemata, also termed scripts, are a salient form of knowledge for young children (Nelson, Fivush, Hudson, & Lucariello, 1983). Scripts are our general knowledge of highly expected, commonplace events. These events include caretaking activities, holidays, rituals, and conventionally organized activities, such as going to the store, movies, restaurants, or doctor’s office. These representations specify the sequence of actions that occur in a spatialtemporal context, as well as the relevant actors and roles. Episodic memory is memory for specific events that we have personally experienced (e.g., birthday parties, vacations). One type of episodic memory is autobiographical memory, our memory for singular, important events in our lives (e.g., our first day at school). ORGANISMIC-HOLISTIC THEORY AND DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORY An organismic-holistic approach to development, pioneered by Heinz Werner (1890–1964). assumes a holistic assumption about behavior (Werner, 1957; Werner & Kaplan, 1963/1984). On this assumption, any local organ or activity is dependent on the context, field, or whole of which it is a constitutive part. Its properties and functional import are largely determined by this larger whole or context. “Every behavioral act, whether outwardly bodily movement or internalized cognitive operation, gains its significance and status in terms of its role in the overall functioning of the organism” (Werner & Kaplan, 1963/1984, pp. 4–5). The holistic assumption also speaks to the reciprocal relationship between an organism and its environment: “The analysis of behavior in its fullest scope should not be directed toward an organism in

isolation, but an organism embedded in its own vital field or ‘Umwelt’” (Werner & Kaplan, 1963/1984, p. 5). The Umwelt is largely determined by the organism’s ends and by its species-specific and individual apparatus for engaging in transactions with its surroundings. Also central to organismic-holistic theory is the idea of the multilinearity of development. There is a multiplicity of developmental forms. Hence, the developmental study of behavior can be conducted with respect to individual variations, that is, in terms of growth viewed as a branching-out process of specialization or aberration. Developmental systems theory has much in common with organismic-holistic theory, while setting forth its own assumptions. Six guiding assumptions are provided by Ford and Lerner (1992). First, variables from multiple, qualitatively distinct levels of analysis or organization are involved in human life and development. Second, individuals’ functioning and development result from a dynamic interaction within and between levels of organization of multiple, qualitatively different variables. Third, each human is unique in genetic endowment, in the environments in which he or she is embedded through life, and in the dynamic interactions through which genetic and environmental variables are fused in their influence on behavior and development. Fourth, human development displays relative plasticity, so there is no single or ideal developmental pathway for any person. Fifth, persons influence their own development through their own functioning. Humans are selforganizing and self-constructing. Person-context dynamics result from continuous circular functions within and between levels of organization. Through these circular functions, the person’s characteristics and behaviors influence the feedback from the environment, which, in turn, influences the person’s characteristics and behaviors. Finally, the sixth assumption states that individuals function to establish and maintain both coherent intraperson organization (to function effectively as a unit) and coherent person-context patterns (to function effectively as a component of larger contexts). A developmental systems perspective has been applied to cognitive development by Fischer and Bidell (1998). Psychological structures are described in terms of “dynamic skills.” These arise through a process of organism-environmental fusions. A skill,

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such as playing tennis or interpersonal negotiation, is defined as a capacity to act in an organized way in a specific context. Hence, skills are action based, context-specific, and culturally defined. Skills are built up gradually through the practice of real activities in real contexts and then are extended to new contexts through this same constructive process. A dynamic skill enables a person to act on the environment, while also reflecting the impact of all levels of the world (e.g., family, community, culture, history) on the person. “The context specificity of skills is related to the characteristics of integration and interparticipation because people build skills to participate with other people directly in specific contexts for particular sociocultural systems” (Fischer & Bidell, 1998, p. 479). Hence, the concept of skill reflects the relations among various processes, including the psychological, organismic, and sociocultural: It (the skill) helps to cut through artificial dichotomies between mind and action, memory and planning, or person and context. A skill— say, for story telling—draws on and unites systems for emotion, memory, planning, communication, cultural scripts, speech, gesture, and so forth. . . . In place of concepts of isolated processes or modules that obscure relations among cooperating systems, the concept of dynamic skill facilitates the study of relations among collaborative systems and the patterns of variation they produce. (Fischer & Bidell, 1998, pp. 478–479) The replacement of isolated processes and modules with the concept of dynamic skills marks the significant departure of skill theory from information processing and Nativism, respectively. Skills are not composed atomistically, but are necessarily integrated with other skills (Lerner, 2002). They are organized into multilevel hierarchies. In addition, skills are described as self-organizing: Part of the natural functioning of skills is that they organize and reorganize themselves. . . . The self-organizing properties of living systems also go beyond maintenance to include selforganization and mutual regulation in the growth of new, more complex systems. (Fischer & Bidell, 1998, p. 479)

Lerner (2002) notes that according to skill theory, The person is as an active constructor of the cognitive abilities that give him or her the competence to stay the same or change, as the requirements of his world impinge on him or her, and do so through dynamic structures that bridge the inner and outer worlds of the living, developmental system. (p. 355) SOME APPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY Many important applications can flow from theories of cognitive development. Some of these applications are illustrated below. Vygotsky’s theory shows the importance of developing standardized, dynamic measures of intelligence and identifying optimal interpersonal processes that foster learning. “Dynamic testing,” which is consistent with the ZPD, aims to narrow the gap between actual and potential performance. It does so by incorporating teaching, feedback, and an individualized teacher/examiner relationship into the testing situation. Nativist theory can inform educators. To better understand children’s learning in the school-age years, one can explore how core knowledge in given domains relates to concepts to be learned later (see Gelman & Lucariello, 2002). Learning is easier when the input (to-be-acquired information) is consistent with current knowledge. Reciprocally, learning is more difficult when to-be-acquired information contrasts with current knowledge. For example, in the domain of everyday cognition, older children come to acquire event schemata for unexpected events, such as situationally ironic events (e.g., the backfired plan) (Lucariello, 1994; Lucariello & Mindolovich, 1995, 2002). These schemas are known as counterscripts. Counterscript learning is difficult because this event knowledge contrasts with the child’s initial event knowledge as scripts. In a school-based domain, such as math, learning of fractions in the school-age years is difficult because the understanding of numbers as fractions conflicts with the child’s early number knowledge embodied in the counting principles (Gelman & Lucariello, 2002). Information-processing theory has much to contribute to our understanding of memory functioning in real-life situations. Infantile amnesia refers to our

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commonly experienced failure to retrieve memory for experiences that happened to us prior to age 3 years. Several accounts have been offered to explain infantile amnesia. Since autobiographical memory demands that children organize their personal experience into some kind of coherent story, children’s ability to structure memories into stories may require talking about these experiences with others. Or it has been proposed that autobiographical memories are dependent on having a strong sense of self. Such may not emerge prior to age 3. Another claim is that development of brain structures necessary to store experiences may be necessary to store and retrieve autobiographical memories. With respect to eyewitness testimony, more and more often, children are being called upon in courtrooms to deliver such testimony. Younger children’s memory is generally much less reliable than that of older children in this context. Younger children have been found to be less resistant to leading and misleading questions of the kind that attorneys might ask. Younger children are also weaker at source monitoring (identifying where they got their information). Also, court cases can be lengthy. Memory for the event in question may fade. Furthermore, children may substitute memory for a script in place of the original event. The script may incorporate features that were not part of the original episode. Finally, young children have been shown to be more susceptible to suggestibility and hence can be led into giving false testimony. Other applications of cognitive developmental theory relate to dynamic systems theory. For example, Rogoff and colleagues discuss “learning communities” in public elementary schools (Rogoff, Bartlett, & Goodman, 2001). The child’s learning is viewed as occurring in a community of learners. The school functions as a community and is an open classroom that is a parent-teacher-child cooperative. Even curriculum is created in adult-child collaboration. —Joan Lucariello

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. Spence & J. Spence (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 2). New York: Academic Press. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Chi, M. (1978). Knowledge structures and memory development. In R. Siegler (Ed.), Children’s thinking: What develops? Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton. Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (1998). Dynamic development of psychological structures in action and thought. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 467–561). New York: Wiley. Ford, D. H., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Gelman, R., & Lucariello, J. (2002). Role of learning in cognitive development. In H. Pashler (Series Ed.) & C. R. Gallistel (Vol. Ed.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology: Vol. 3. Learning, motivation, and emotion (3rd ed., pp. 395–443). New York: Wiley. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lucariello, J. (1994). Situational irony: A concept of events gone awry. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 129–145. Lucariello, J., & Mindolovich, C. (1995). The development of complex metarepresentational reasoning: The case of situational irony. Cognitive Development, 10, 551–576. Lucariello, J., & Mindolovich, C. (2002). The best laid plans. . . . Beyond scripts are counter-scripts. Journal of Cognition and Development, 3, 91–115. Markman, E. M. (1990). Constraints children place on word meanings. Cognitive Science, 14, 57–77. Nelson, K., Fivush, R., Hudson, J., & Lucariello, J. (1983). Scripts and the development of memory. In J. A. Meacham (Series Ed.) & M. Chi (Vol. Ed.), Contributions to human development: Vol. 9. Trends in memory development research (pp. 52–70). Basel, Switzerland: Karger. Quine, W. V. O. (1960). Word and object. Cambridge: MIT Press. Rogoff, B., Bartlett, L., & Goodman, C. (Eds.). (2001). Lessons about learning as a community. London: Oxford University Press. Spelke, E. S., Breinlinger, K., Macomber, J., & Jacobson, K. (1992). Origins of knowledge. Psychological Review, 99, 605–632. Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language (E. Hanfman & G. Vakar, Eds.). Cambridge: MIT Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Soberman, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Werner, H. (1957). The concept of development from a comparative and organismic point of view. In D. B. Harris (Ed.), The concept of development (pp. 125–147). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Werner, H., & Kaplan, B. (1984). Symbol formation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1963, Oxford, UK: Wiley)

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COGNITIVE SKILLS AND AGING Investigators have used various approaches to the study of adult cognition over the years. Until the 1960s, the associative approach dominated the field. Here, learning was thought to involve the acquisition of stimulus-response (S-R) associations during conditioning. This approach assumed a single underlying memory system, and age-related decline in conditioning was interpreted to mean general systemwide decline. In the 1970s and 1980s, stage theories of learning and memory emerged. These theories focused on stages referred to as encoding, storage, and retrieval. In this approach, encoding is the process of getting information into memory; storage is the manner in which information is kept in memory; and getting information out of memory is referred to as retrieval. It is clear that learning, forgetting, and memory are closely interrelated. In a sense, without learning there is no memory, and without memory there is no learning. Material is added to memory as learning takes place, and forgetting results from either the loss of information or the inability to recover material from memory. Contemporary cognitive theory assumes a much more central and varied role of memory than was used in previous years (Bäckman, 2001). By the mid-1990s, several major systems of human memory had been identified (see, for example, Hultsch, Hertzog, Dixon, & Small, 1998). Included among these are working memory and several systems of long-term memory, including episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and prospective memory. Each of these will be examined in turn. WORKING MEMORY In general, age differences are minimal for tasks that simply ask adults to hold small amounts of information in memory for short periods. This is sometimes referred to as memory span or digit span. An example is the experience of retaining a telephone number long enough to dial it. For many years, the research evidence has indicated that the average adult can retain approximately seven digits, or “pieces,” of information at one time, and age differences for healthy adults are minimal even into advanced old age. Working memory, on the other hand, involves

holding information in mind and at the same time working on, or manipulating, the information. Working memory is involved when solving a problem. For example, when comparison shopping, one must hold in mind the prices of several brands of an item, while at the same time dividing these items by weight to find out which is the best buy. Evidence strongly suggests that there is a decline in working memory with age (see, for example, Salthouse, 1994). Salthouse and colleagues believe that working memory is the key to understanding age differences in memory. Working memory is where information is processed, obtains deeper meaning, and most important, is transferred into long-term storage. Any age differences in working memory would have important implications for long-term store. If information is only partially processed and not completely integrated into the knowledge base, it becomes very difficult to remember it. LONG-TERM MEMORY Long-term memory, as the term suggests, retains information over long periods of time and has a virtually limitless capacity. As mentioned above, there are various aspects of long-term memory, including episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and prospective memory. Episodic memory is the general class of memory having to do with the conscious recollection of information from a particular event, time, or place. Examples include remembering what you did on your last birthday or remembering what you had for dinner last night. Episodic memory involves hundreds of day-to-day activities. The results from research indicate that older adults do not perform as well as younger adults on tests of episodic memory. One argument has been that older adults do poorly on episodic memory because tasks used in laboratory research have often used arbitrary, abstract, or unfamiliar tasks. Evidence is that older people do, in fact, perform better on tasks that appear relevant and meaningful to them. Unfortunately, however, age deficits in episodic memory are not restricted to laboratory tasks. Older adults also have difficulty with nonverbal episodic material, including faces (Crook & Larrabee, 1992) and maps (Lipman & Caplan, 1992). One aspect of episodic memory especially vulnerable to aging is termed source memory. Source memory has to do with the ability to remember where or when

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information was originally acquired. Failures of source memory can be of significance in distinguishing reliable from unreliable information. An example of a source-monitoring problem would be if a person could not remember whether his doctor told him to try a half dose of his medicine or whether he picked up this suggestion during a conversation at a church picnic. Semantic memory is memory for knowledge. Episodic memory is what we generally mean when we say, “I remember,” while semantic memory is what we mean when we say, “I know” (Lovelace, 1990). Examples include one’s knowledge of world events or the understanding of one’s vocation and avocation. Evidence suggests that there are relatively few differences with age in semantic memory processes. Furthermore, semantic memory retrieval typically does not tax working memory as does episodic memory, so older adults can draw on experience effectively. It may, however, still take healthy elderly individuals longer to search and retrieve information from this memory. The distinction between episodic and semantic memory is important for understanding age differences in memory for some forms of pathology. For example, people with Alzheimer’s disease show extreme deficits in episodic memory compared with healthy adults, but the two groups are more similar on semantic performance. Procedural memory, as the term implies, is the memory for learning procedures. Examples include riding a bike or changing a tire. Daily experience suggests that the elderly maintain complex cognitive skills, such as playing chess, bridge, or backgammon into advanced old age. Some research in recent years has investigated the learning of new cognitive skills, such as learning to use a word-processing program or a computer. In general, elderly individuals are able to learn these skills but often require more time to do so (see Kausler, 1994, for a discussion). Prospective memory involves remembering to carry out an action in the future. In recent years, prospective memory has been examined in naturalistic contexts, such as remembering to take medicine. In one experiment, older adults with arthritis were better at remembering to take their medicine than were middle-aged patients (Park et al., 1999). Other everyday aspects of prospective memory, such as remembering to pay bills, meet appointments, or take medications, appear to change little with age. Of course, once information is in memory, we must be able to get it back out of memory so that it may be

of use. Two basic mechanisms for accessing information in memory are recognition and recall. In this context, recall is the ability to retrieve a particular piece of information from memory. An essay test measures a form of recall memory, and tip-of-the-tongue phenomena provide another example. Recognition, on the other hand, is the ability to identify a given piece of information in memory. Multiple-choice tests measure a form of this memory. Generally, we can recognize information that we cannot recall. Looking around the house for your keys and saying, “What could I have done with them” is an example of recall memory. But finding your keys and instantly recognizing that you had placed them in that spot is an example of recognition memory. Much of the literature on memory in adulthood dating back many years suggests that recognition memory remains far more stable into old age than does recall memory (Schonfield, 1965). MEMORY IMPROVED Historical accounts to improve memory date back throughout recorded history. Modern approaches to address memory change with age emphasize one critical point: That is, memory is a complex process, and it is now recognized that interventions for memory improvement targeted at adults must consider agerelated change in how we get information into memory (encoding) as well as how we get information back out (retrieval). Training people to use encoding strategies without also training them to use retrieval strategies will be of limited benefit. Camp and colleagues (1993) classify memory aids into two groups, external and internal. External aids are memory aids that rely on environmental reminders, such as address books, calendars, and notepads. Some external interventions have proved very successful with the elderly. One example of this is the use of pillboxes that are divided into compartments corresponding to days of the week and times of the day. Internal memory aids include using strategies such as rehearsal and imagery. Rehearsal involves going back over material that needs to be learned. Imagery involves paying attention to relevant surroundings and forming a picture of what needs to be remembered. For example, imagery may help us remember where we parked the car at the mall. Classic memory-training workshops make use of these and other strategies and generally attempt to do two important things. First, they help to supply meaning and relevancy to

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new information, and, second, they help organize this information in effective ways. An example used in popular workshops is the method of loci. The method of loci involves remembering items, such as on a list, by mentally placing them in locations in a familiar environment, such as on the route you take through your house each evening when you arrive at home. As you think of each item on the list, you think of each sitting at a different place on your route. Older adults tend to be less efficient at spontaneously using organizational strategies such as using imagery or grouping new information into useful categories. However, when older adults are instructed or trained to use organizational strategies, such as categorization, they not only do so, but perform significantly better. For example, Thompson (1998) found that providing older adults with an organizational framework to help them remember what they were reading significantly improved performance. We do not know why older adults do not spontaneously use organizational strategies. The role of motivation may be important. Older adults may not be interested in the materials presented in many of our experiments, or they may be too anxious to perform well (Botwinick, 1984). Other explanations focus on changes in attentional resources and the slowing down of cognitive processing systems. Or the older participant may simply be suffering from less education, education that happened long ago, and perhaps a bit of “getting rusty.” Research has also found that age differences between older and younger adults can be reduced in several ways. Giving older adults more time to learn new tasks is important. Several experiments have shown that once new information is thoroughly learned and placed in memory, stability is similar to that of young people (Charness, 1981). Explaining why information that is to be learned is relevant also improves performance for older learners. When instructing older adults, it is also helpful to provide a clear organizational framework, with clear transitions between topics and emphasis placed on the main points. Finally, there are also contextual factors that are now recognized as a part of memory performance and improvement. Many overlook nutrition as a cause of memory failure in later life. Some evidence links thiamine deficiency to memory problems, and there is some evidence that links niacin and B12 deficiencies to some aspects of memory failure (Rosenthal & Goodwin, 1985). Drugs have also been associated

with memory problems. The most widely known of these is alcohol, which, if abused over long periods of time, is associated with severe memory loss. Depression is also a cause of poor memory performance. Although it is not a current topic of research, much of the early research on memory emphasized an emerging cautiousness with advancing age. That is, when older participants were asked questions about what they could remember in laboratory experiments, they often did more poorly than their younger counterparts. But it was discovered that the problem may not be that the older person hasn’t learned or couldn’t remember; it may have been due to exercising a greater degree of cautiousness in the particular situation. Similarly, other researchers point to greater need for support among adults and older adults, particularly in educational and training settings. Malcomb Knowles (1990), the adult-learning theorist, includes this as a central component of his theory. CONCLUSIONS Cognitive change during adulthood is one of the most active areas of investigation in the field of aging. A number of findings have been well established at this point in time. Individuals working with older learners will want to make sure that the task at hand appears relevant to the learner. It is also important to make sure that information to be presented is well organized beforehand, that major points are especially highlighted, and that transitions between points are made clear. Implications for future research include the need to gain a clearer understanding regarding change in attentional resources with aging, decline in cognitive processing speed with age, and the relationship between working memory and overall cognitive functioning. —Dennis Thompson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bäckman, L. (2001). Learning and memory. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (5th ed.). San Diego: Academic Press. Botwinick, J. (1984). Aging and behavior. New York: Springer. Camp, C. J., Foss, J. W., Stevens, A. B., Reichard, C. C., McKitrick, L. A., & O’Hanlon, A. M. (1993). Memory training in normal and demented populations: The E-I-E-I-O model. Experimental Aging Research, 19, 277–290.

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Charness, N. (1981). Aging and skilled problem solving. The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110, 21–38. Crook, T. H., & Larrabee, G. S. (1992). Changes in facial recognition memory across the adult life span. Journal of Gerontology, 47, 138–141. Hultsch, D. F., Hertzog, C., Dixon, R. A., & Small, B. J. (1998). Memory changes in the aged. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kausler, D. (1994). Learning and memory in normal aging. San Diego: Academic Press. Knowles, M. (1990). The adult learner: A neglected species (4th ed.). Houston, TX: Gulf. Lipman, P. D., & Caplan, L. J. (1992). Adult age differences in memory for routes: Effects of instruction and spatial diagrams. Psychology and Aging, 7, 435–442. Lovelace, E. A. (1990). Basic concepts in cognition and aging. In E. A. Lovelace (Ed.), Aging and cognition: Mental processes, self-awareness, and interventions (pp. 1–28). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Park, D., Hertzog, C., Leventhal, H., Morrell, R. W., Leventhal, F., Birchmore, D., et al. (1999). Medication adherence in rheumatoid arthritis patients: Older is wiser. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 47, 172–183. Rosenthal, M. J., & Goodwin, J. S. (1985). Cognitive effects of nutritional deficiency. In H. H. Draper (Ed.), Advances in nutritional research (Vol. 7, pp. 71–100). New York: Plenum. Salthouse, T. A. (1994). The nature and influence of speed on adult age differences in cognition. Developmental Psychology, 30, 240–259. Schonfield, D. (1965). Memory changes with age. Nature, 28, 918. Thompson, D. (1998). Using advance organizers to facilitate reading comprehension among older adults. Educational Gerontology, 24, 625–638.

COMMUNITY Ecological perspectives in psychology maintain that context has an important effect on individuals’ behavior and attitudes. One has to understand contexts of individuals, such as the physical environment, community, society, and politics, in order to explain human behavior. Community is one of the most important contexts for an individual, and therefore it needs to be part and parcel of contextual approaches to human development. In the past 20 years, developmental researchers have shown increased attention to contextual issues that were previously regarded as sociological, anthropological, or political. Historically, psychology has been concerned with individuals’ lasting characteristics and individual-level

variables, and had methodological difficulties with variables that cannot be brought into the laboratory. For a very long time, developmental psychologists were unable to capture dynamics within dyads (e.g., mother-infant) and triads (e.g., mother-father-child), let alone larger social units with multiple actors, such as communities. The ecological perspective that Bronfenbrenner, Garbarino, and others advocated for years has slowly become part of the developmental discourse, research, and practice, as theoretical and methodological advances have made it possible to deal with community variables and individual context interactions. Developmental sciences have therefore become better informed by community psychology and research in other disciplines, particularly in public health. There are now books devoted to community effects on human development (e.g., Booth & Crouter, 2001). DEFINING COMMUNITY Community is a term that is used excessively in many English-speaking countries to refer to a group or collection of individuals or social units that appear to be existing together or coming together on some salient dimension. A group of houses can be called the “local community” just because they look close to each other, or intergovernmental agreements can be called the work of the “international community.” Community does not simply suggest cultural similarity and social contiguity; it is, rather, a historically constructed categorical identity based on some forms of exclusion and some constructions on “we”-ness and “other”-ness. Individuals value and strive for being members of community (Whittaker & Banwell, 2002). Some researchers prefer a loose working definition that invokes community as a setting: “Community is the geographical and political place in which programs and organizations operate. Defining what constitutes a community is a complex and controversial task” (Eccles & Templeton, 2002). For others, community is more than a setting and refers to the joint presence of a locale, sharing, collective action, ties, and diversity. MacQueen et al. (2001) define community within a public health context as “a group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by socialities, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings.” Community is the combination of social units and systems, and it implies connection, shared beliefs,

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conditions, priorities, relationships, or concerns. These social units and systems include family, friends, neighbors, clubs, civic groups, local enterprises, religious institutions, ethnic associations, temples, local unions, local government, and local media. Connection may or may not be based on place. Although local communities form on the basis of a place, they are not simply geographically bounded lands. Social connections (as in kin, friend, and acquaintance networks), functional connections (as in the production and transfer of goods and services), cultural connections (as in religion, tradition, or ethnic identity), or circumstantial connections (as in economic status or lifestyle) may be bases of communities (Chaskin, 1997). Neighborhood is a related concept that is sometimes used interchangeably with community. Coulton, Korbin, and Su (1996) define neighborhoods as local communities bounded spatially. However, neighborhoods are defined by geographic boundaries of social milieu, whereas community implies relationships and joint activities. Traditionally, neighborhood implied social cohesion; social interaction and place identity resulted from shared institutions and space. Geographic boundaries may be defined according to phenomenological, international, or statistical bases; however, it is often difficult to draw neighborhood boundaries, and there is generally a lack of consensus about these boundaries. Both physical and social aspects of neighborhoods are important determinants of individual behavior. Research in the field of demography is dominated by census-based variables, such as percentage of whitecollar households, that do not explain why these variables are related to outcomes in people’s lives. Recent developmental research has focused on process variables or what actually goes on in the neighborhoods (Cook, Shagle, & Degirmencioglu, 1997). Process variables of neighborhood context include facility availability, quality, and usage; participation in religious and social activities; mobility; neighborhood interaction; satisfaction with neighborhood; tendency to intervene with children; response to delinquent acts and misbehavior; and tendency to intervene to prevent harm, community disorder, and worry about victimization in the neighborhood (Coulton et al., 1996). Coulton and colleagues found that it is possible to measure all these aspects of neighborhood context. Even when measured partially, neighborhood quality can be related to developmental outcomes (Cook et al., 1997).

LOSS OF COMMUNITY The effect of urbanization on social action and organization is seen as the main cause of decline of communities. Urbanization resulted in greater specialization and division of labor and increased size, density, and heterogeneity of settlement. Connections between individuals weakened, and mobility increased. Workplaces were separated from the residential neighborhood, and technological advances in communication and transportation fields increased this disconnection between people. Suburban dwellings, in particular, maximized privacy and distance, leading to minimal interaction between neighbors. However, it is also argued that urbanization does not necessarily weaken community; it may, instead, offer a chance to sustain a plurality of communities. Although the number of intimate ties maintained may be declining, members continue to keep many instrumental ties, supporting both each other and institutions and maintaining information exchange (Chaskin, 1997). It is important to note that research on communities has been urban focused and has undervalued the physical environment and cultural factors, such as ties to the land in rural or indigenous communities. Sagy, Stern, and Krakover (1996) found that for veterans, the number of dwelling units in the site was an important predictor of sense of community; however, for immigrants, evaluation of the dwelling unit, external network, and age were predictors of sense of community. For members in both types of communities, sense of community was based largely on physical environment and far less on the social environment of the site. Research also shows that losing one’s homeland can destroy traditions and bases of sense of community, resulting in long-lasting loss of well-being. In his seminal work on the underclass, Wilson (1981) focused on political and economic processes that could turn long-lasting communities into neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty, unemployment, and crime. With the selective moving out of residents and the erosion of communities, the innercity environments lose their vital cultural agents and become factories where misery is reproduced.

FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNITY Individuals’ attachment to their local communities may be contingent, voluntary, and based on instrumental values tied to investment, function, and use, or

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this attachment may be based on affective ties. Local communities may serve various functions, such as production, distribution, and consumption of religious, educational, and social goods and services; promotion of commercial and economic activities; socialization through families and schools; social control through governmental institutions, religious and educational institutions, and social relationships; social participation through voluntary organizations and networks; and mutual support through formal institutions and informal relationships. Importance attached to local community and individuals’ engagement may be varied. Individuals’ community networks and community behavior vary by individual characteristics, such as gender, age, ethnicity, family circumstances, socioeconomic status, and personal characteristics. Individuals who are highly integrated; women, married people, and the middleaged people; and people with high socioeconomic status tend to have larger neighborhood networks, although these networks are generally not intense and involve less frequent contact. However, individuals who are less integrated; singles, children, and the elderly; and people with lower socioeconomic status tend to have smaller, more intense relationships in neighborhoods. Length of residence of an individual in neighborhood and size and intensity of relations are also positively related. Contextual circumstances also influence neighbor networks and behavior. For example, residential stability of the neighborhood is positively related with density of relationships and level of social participation (Chaskin, 1997). Individuals differ in how they use neighborhood services and facilities. Children, families with young children, and elderly people generally use neighborhood facilities and services less frequently. Higherincome residents and long-term residents make greater use of services and facilities in neighborhoods. Availability is the most significant predictor of use. In neighborhoods that are more homogeneous and with a higher number of residents with high socioeconomic status, residents tend to address neighborhood issues more (Chaskin, 1997). SENSE OF COMMUNITY Research has shown that capturing an individual’s perception and assessment of his or her relationship with a community is as important as capturing the dynamic relationships between the individual and the

community. Sense of community can be defined as the feeling about the relationship an individual has for his or her community or the personal knowledge or sense that one belongs to a collective of others. When people feel a sense of community, they feel as if they are a part of a dependable and stable structure and that they fit into the community. They perceive similarity to others, acknowledge interdependence with others, and have the motivation to maintain this interdependence by meeting the needs and expectations of others. Community members have the feeling that they share the values of community, can make difference in the community, and can be influenced by it. Being members of a community provides integration and fulfillment of needs; members feel and believe that resources of the community will meet some of their needs. Sense of community (or the sense of belonging in the community) is associated with a subjective sense of well-being. Social disintegration of a community is positively related with increased fear of crime and vandalism, poor psychological outcomes among children, increases in school problems, and loneliness. Sense of community has also been found to be an important predictor of political participation at the neighborhood level (Chaskin, 1997). DIRECT AND INDIRECT INFLUENCES Community contexts may influence individuals in many ways. Because these influences are generally indirect, researchers have often ignored these effects. For example, individual-level variables, such as parenting practices, are related with community structure or community poverty, and it is difficult to distinguish between the effects of these individual- and communitylevel variables if multilevel approaches are not employed (Cook et al., 1997). Community influences may include constructs such as community size, community disadvantage, and proportion of single-parent families in the community. Community disadvantage may be defined by different community variables, such as the number of individuals who are unemployed, the number of individuals who receive government assistance, and illiteracy in the community (Simons, Johnson, Beaman, Conger, & Whitbeck, 1996). A similar construct that is frequently used in community research is community disorder. It refers to social and physical conditions of locale that may be related with decreased satisfactory quality of community life; unregulated

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and uncivil behaviors observed on the streets; social conflict; a lack of investment or supervision of the community members and private and public institutions on locale; and diminishing quality and/or maintenance of property, such as vandalism and graffiti (Perkins & Taylor, 1996). People who perceive disorder in their communities have higher levels of fear and mistrust than people who perceive social control and order in their neighborhoods. However, when members have informal integration with neighbors, this effect is diminished (Ross & Jang, 2000). Community structure has been found to be associated with developmental outcomes independent of the family characteristics (Simons et al., 1996). The indirect association is such that community disadvantage disrupts parenting for boys, which, in turn, increases involvement with deviant peers, and these peer ties lead to increased conduct disorder. PERSON-CONTEXT INTERACTIONS An interaction between community- and individuallevel factors indicates that not all individuals in a community respond to and are influenced by the community in the same way. This is one reason why communitylevel variables appear to have weaker influences on the psychological well-being of individuals compared with individual-level variables: Community factors, just like other global influences (e.g., economic instability, good weather) do not influence everyone in the same way, and they interact with the person’s characteristics in influencing outcomes. If these interactions are not specifically investigated, community effects may be completely missed. Recent research has revealed many interactive contextual effects. Neighborhood characteristics may intensify the protective or deleterious effects of individual-level attributes: Youth from single-parent homes have higher engagement in delinquent behavior than those from two-parent homes only in lowcohesion neighborhoods. Similarly, high-quality relationships may have a protective or buffering role in high-disordered neighborhoods: In such neighborhoods, relationship quality was found to be negatively associated with distress, although this relationship was not observed in low-disordered neighborhoods (Cutrona, Russel, Hessling, Brown, & Murry, 2000). In communities, there are norms that may influence the choices and behaviors of individuals. These norms are defined as shared expectations of people

about appropriate behaviors within certain roles or situations. Some of the norms are learned by explicit verbal rules, but some are internalized implicitly over time. For example, neighborhood norms influence beliefs and attitudes about parenting: Perceptions of parenting differ by community characteristics (Caughy, Brodsky, O’Campo, & Aronson, 2001). In high-risk environments, on average, parents are known to monitor their children more. However, even when average parenting practices differ from community to community, the variation within the community matters: Not all parents act the same way in each community, and in high-risk neighborhoods, parents who monitor the most are the ones who protect their children most effectively. Poverty and economic hardship in community are associated with a person’s sense of personal control: They often foster a focus on the present and negatively affect planning and organization among community members. As Wilson and others have described, when individuals who are resilient and those who still can cope with the hardships leave, individuals who are assets to their community are lost—and this change means that community effects are altered. CONCLUSIONS Communities and neighborhoods are important contextual determinants of human behavior, and various features of community influence many psychological and health outcomes. These features may make community members more vulnerable to different stressful events or may have a protective role in their lives. In both cases, applied developmental work has to focus on how to assess those community features, how these features interact with individual variables to influence outcomes, and, finally, what kind of interventions should be done at the community level. —Serdar M. Degirmencioglu

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Booth, A., & Crouter, A. C. (2001). Does it take a village? Community effects on children, adolescents, and families. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Caughy, M. O., Brodsky, A. E., O’Compo, P. J., & Aronson, R. (2001). Perceptions of parenting: Individual differences and the effect of community. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29(5), 679–700.

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Chaskin, R. J. (1997). Perspectives on neighborhood and community: A review of the literature. Social Service Review, 71(4), 521–547. Cook, T. D., Shagle, S. C., & Degirmencioglu, S. M. (1997). Capturing social process for testing mediational models of neighborhood effects. In J. Brooks-Gunn, G. J. Duncan, & J. L. Aber (Eds.), Neighborhood poverty: Vol. 2. Policy implications in studying neighborhoods (pp. 94–119). New York: Russell Sage. Coulton, C. J., Korbin, J. E., & Su, M. (1996). Measuring neighborhood context for young children in an urban area. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24(1), 5–32. Cutrona, C. E., Russel, D. W., Hessling, R. M., Brown, P. A., & Murry, V. (2000). Direct and moderating effects of community context on the psychological well-being of African American women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 1088–1101. Eccles, J., & Templeton, J. (2002). Extracurricular and other after-school activities for youth. In W. G. Secada (Ed.), Review of research in education. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. MacQueen, K. M., McLellan, E., Metzger, D. S., Kegeles, S., Strauss, R. P., Scotti, R., et al. (2001). What is community? An evidence-based definition for participatory public health. American Journal of Public Health, 91, 1929–1938. Perkins, D. P., & Taylor, R. B. (1996). Ecological assessments of community disorder: Their relationship to fear of crime and theoretical implications. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24(1), 63–107. Ross, C. E., & Jang, S. J. (2000). Neighborhood disorder, fear and mistrust: The buffering role of social ties with neighbors. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28(4), 401–420. Sagy, S., Stern, E., & Krakover, S. (1996). Macro and microlevel factors related to sense of community: The case of temporary neighborhoods in Israel. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24(5), 657–676. Simons, R. L., Johnson, C., Beaman, J., Conger, R. D., & Whitbeck, L. B. (1996). Parents and peer groups as mediators of the effect of community structure on adolescent problem behavior. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24(1), 145–171. Whittaker, A., & Banwell, C. (2002). Positioning policy: The epistemology of social capital and its application in applied rural research in Australia. Human Organization, 61(3), 252–261. Wilson, W. J. (1981). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH ETHICS Puerto Rico is a major epicenter of the AIDS pandemic, fueled by failed policies directed at illegal

drug use. Injecting drug use (IDU), or nonprotected sex with an injecting drug user, accounts for nearly two thirds of all cumulative AIDS cases in the island. Increases in the number of AIDS cases are slightly greater for women compared with men. Although the route of infection for the majority of Puerto Rican women is through heterosexual contact, nearly a third are exposed through heterosexual contact with an injecting drug user. Using injected drugs accounted for 37% of the cumulative AIDS cases among women between 1989 and 1996 (Pérez, Suárez, Pérez, & Morales, 1998). Curtailing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women who use drugs needs to be a public health priority for the island. Research involving drug-using women is necessary to inform all levels of prevention. Given the scant opportunities to obtain drug treatment faced by Puerto Rican drug users, research with clinical samples of drug-using women limits the applicability of findings to the much larger nontreated population. Conducting community-based research is therefore essential to inform public health policy designed to reduce the incidence and adverse impact of HIV/AIDS among Puerto Rican drug-using women. Women who use illicit drugs are vulnerable to risks associated with participating in research. This entry identifies important research risks faced by Puerto Rican female drug users involved in communitybased research and suggests research protections for this and similar vulnerable populations. THE CONTEXT OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE IN PUERTO RICO Policies directed at preventing and punishing illegal drug use in the United States are based on two assumptions: (1) Use of illegal psychoactive drugs with the potential to create dependence results from moral incompetence or psychological deficits of the user; and (2) problems associated with illegal drug use are inevitably related to the pharmacological properties of the drug itself. Within this framework, illicit drug users are viewed as lacking will and determination and possessing defective personalities (Evans & Sullivan, 2001), and use of any psychoactive drug is problematic and lacking instrumental value (Van de Wijngaart, 1991). This pervasive view has supported state criminalization of drug use and jail sentences as a strategy to curtail the demand for illegal drugs to attain a “drug-free society” and an improved moral environment (U.S. Department of Health, Education,

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and Welfare, 1979; White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, 1998). Puerto Rico has followed the mainland United States in adopting a criminal justice model drug policy. Attempts to control demand for illicit drugs by criminalizing their use as well as the possession of injection paraphernalia has marginalized drug users and reduced opportunities to minimize health risks through the application of public health measures, such as access to clean syringes. A COMMUNITY NETWORK APPROACH TO DRUG ABUSE RESEARCH ETHICS In 1996, a research group headed by Dr. Margarita Alegría at the University of Puerto Rico’s Graduate School of Public Health began a 3-year study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study sought to determine the extent to which conditions such as partner violence, criminal behavior, incarceration, and contagion with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were associated with illegal drug use among poor urban Puerto Rican women aged 18 to 35 years. Two groups of women were studied: (1) heroin and cocaine users recruited in areas where drugs were sold in the greater metropolitan area of San Juan and (2) a random sample of women of the same age range residing within the community surrounding the locations from which drug-using women were recruited. Undertaking community-based research with illicit drug users that conforms to ethical standards requires attention to many factors. First, researchers need to work with multiple stakeholders to accurately determine potential risks posed to vulnerable participants using illegal drugs. Second, investigators must explore with members of the drug use community which types of research compensation or incentives are fair and which might be coercive. Finally, researchers need to engage community members in recruitment planning and implementation to ensure that informed consent is respectful and voluntary. How the Puerto Rican community research project addressed these ethical challenges is described below. Identifying Research Harms Constructing an inventory of risks that potential participants may face within a particular social context and assessing their magnitude and likelihood of occurrence is an essential step in designing research

ethics procedures that protect the identity of participants involved in illegal behaviors. Because informed consent is built on information, decisional capacity, and autonomy (Roberts, 2002), this process will also enable the research team to select the information that prospective participants will require to carry out an informed decision on whether or not to consent to participate in research. Different sources of information within the community were used to construct a profile of the harms that users of illegal drugs might face if their drug use were disclosed. Sources include other more experienced researchers, policy experts, advocacy groups, criminal lawyers, and community-based organizations that service this population, particularly those that have implemented strategies based on harm reduction principles. This latter group usually has firsthand experience with drug users and with law enforcement that allows them to gauge the degree of tolerance or intolerance that law enforcement officers have toward drug users in the community. In Puerto Rico, contrary to what transpires in other nations such as the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada, drug users have not been encouraged to establish organizations that collaborate with health authorities to improve their health and service needs. Where these groups are formally or informally operational, they constitute an essential source of information for researchers as well as for public health officials. There was one instance of a policy change on the island with the potential to affect research integrity that could have gone unnoticed by researchers in the same way that it remained unnoticed by many other professionals in the community. When the fieldwork for the study of women’s drug use and problem behaviors was about to begin, the current government administration was implementing a policy to curtail crime, including drug-related crime and drug use, that was marketed under the slogan of Mano Dura Contra el Crimen, translated as “attacking crime with a tough, or hard, hand.” This policy led to increasing rates of drug arrests for possession, which garnered extensive press coverage. Other less obvious measures were concurrently unfolding, such as legislation to restrict social supports for drug offenders. In 1997, in the midst of an AIDS epidemic fueled by injecting drug use and at a time when many states had abolished their paraphernalia laws, the Puerto Rican legislature enacted a syringe and paraphernalia law that further criminalized drug users and restricted access to clean needles. In addition, it broadly included in the definition

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of paraphernalia any written information that might suggest that the individual bearing it participates in illegal drug use. The enactment of the paraphernalia law was undertaken with barely any public debate and without press coverage. A link to a drug policy analysis group and the network that it had established allowed the research team to assess the risk to research participants and staff that the law represented and to determine the consequences that it also might have on the research process itself. Researchers had planned to distribute among participants written information detailing safer injection measures to reduce risk of contagion with HIV and hepatitis B/C through syringes and paraphernalia. Under this law, distribution of these written materials could be interpreted as incriminating and place the bearer at risk of arrest for drug-use-related behavior. In consultation with their community partners, researchers decided to limit available written information to an inventory of health and human services in the community that included a list of drug treatment facilities, and participating women could opt out of receiving these materials. Monetary Compensation Whether to pay or not to pay impoverished and drug-abusing participants is an important ethical question for which clear guidance is still forthcoming (Dickert, Emanuel, & Grady, 2002). Selecting noncoercive compensation for participation in illicit drug use research is critical to insuring the voluntary nature of participation, that research burdens are not born unequally by economically disadvantaged populations, and that such payments do not facilitate or encourage illicit drug purchases (Fisher, 2004). Drug-using women, particularly very poor drug-using women such as those encountered in the study, face life circumstances that render them vulnerable to material inducements and thus threaten truly voluntary participation. These are women with multiple needs to whom even minimal monetary compensation for their participation in the study may be of such significance that it could override other considerations in their decision-making process, such as potential risks arising from the research itself. Under these conditions, payment can be construed as potentially coercive. Researchers encountered a paucity of literature assessing attitudes of research participants to monetary compensation. Results of a study exploring unpaid volunteer participants of clinical research

perspectives on payment indicated that volunteers distinguish between payment as an incentive and payment as compensation for time and expenses incurred in research participation. Although the majority of respondents believed that participants should not be paid, those that did agree with payments indicated it was only justifiable as compensation, but not as an incentive or inducement (Russell, Moralejo, & Burgess, 2000). Although it has not been possible to identify comparable investigations with vulnerable participants in community-based research, experience suggests that drug-using women may be as likely to participate in research for altruistic reasons. The following strategies were used to reduce the likelihood that monetary compensation would override other participation considerations. All information explaining the study, potential risks, and handling of confidentiality was discussed before bringing up the issue of compensation. There was the question of whether women would be approaching the field staff to seek admission into the research study once the word got around that it entailed receiving a monetary compensation. Field staff reported that the majority of women did not raise the issue of compensation when invited to participate, and they felt that many women would have taken part in the study even if compensation were not available. Respectful Recruitment Practices Fieldworkers were experienced in interviews with drug users; their training provided mechanisms to confront stereotypes regarding this population and overcome biases that would have hindered their ability to project themselves as honest and trustworthy people who held the welfare of the research participant in high esteem. They were trained to listen, to be empathic, and to be nonjudgmental. Fieldworker training in this regard is of the utmost importance in any context, but more so where demonizing and devaluation of drug users is prevalent even among political and religious leaders, as well as among sectors of health professionals. Efforts were also expended in quality control. Interviews were recorded if consent was granted. Quality control involved listening to a random sample of interviews to assure interviewer fidelity with the survey as well as attention to the quality of the communication with the participant. The care taken to respect participants’ autonomy also profited the quality of the data obtained in the study. In addition to field staff reports indicating that

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participants appeared glad to see them when they returned to the communities, some study results suggest that participants were able to truthfully report behaviors that are the object of significant stigma in society, such as being infected with HIV. As part of the interview and prior to obtaining blood samples for HIV testing, women were asked about their serologic status. Ninety-one percent of women that self-reported they were HIV-positive tested positive in the blood test conducted during the study. Eighty-nine percent of those who self-reported they were HIV-negative were also negative by the study test.

CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, developing a thorough inventory of potential risks faced by drug users who consent to participate in community-based research requires understanding the degree to which context-specific drug policies may generate legal, personal, or social harm to participants whose drug use is disclosed. In the group of impoverished, drug-using women participating in the study described in this entry, emotional distress and hopelessness were prevalent (Alegria et al., 1994; Paone, Cooper, Alperen, Shi, & Des Jarlais, 1999). Consistent with what Blankenship and Koester (2002) have described as the transformation of these women’s activities into their identities, many are known to their community as tecatas or putas, that is, “junkies” or “whores.” Ideally, contact with the research team provided an opportunity for them to be heard in a nonjudgmental environment, in which they could venture to share information with someone who was interested in listening and valued them as individuals. The success of this community-based approach to research ethics has encouraged the researchers to explore their perspectives on other issues related to their participation in research (Fisher, 2004). —Carmen E. Albizu-García and Salvador Santiago Negrón

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Alegria, M., Vera, M., Freeman, D. H., Jr., Robles, R., Santos, M. C., & Rivera, C. L. (1994). HIV infection, risk behaviors, and depressive symptoms among Puerto Rican sex workers. American Journal of Public Health, 84(12), 2000–2002. Blankenship, K. M., & Koester, S. (2002). Criminal law, policing policy, and HIV risk in female street sex workers and

injection drug users. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, 30, 548–559. Dickert, N., Emanuel, E., & Grady, C. (2002). Paying research subjects: An analysis of current policies. Annals of Internal Medicine, 136, 368–373. Evans, K., & Sullivan, J. M. (2001). Dual diagnosis: Counseling the mentally ill substance abuser. New York: Guilford. Fisher, C. B. (2004). Ethics in drug abuse and related HIV risk research. Applied Developmental Science, 8, 90–102. Paone, D., Cooper, H., Alperen, J., Shi, Q., & Des Jarlais, D. C. (1999). HIV risk behaviours of current sex workers attending syringe exchange: The experiences of women in five US cities. AIDS CARE, 11, 269–280. Pérez, R., Suárez, E., Pérez, C., & Morales, A. (1998). Epidemiologic profile of HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico: 1981–1996. San Juan, Puerto Rico: University of Puerto Rico, Faculty of Biosocial Sciences and Graduate School of Public Health, Medical Sciences Campus, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Roberts, L. W. (2002). Informed consent and the capacity for voluntarism. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 705–712. Russell, M. L., Moralejo, D. G., & Burgess, E. D. (2000). Paying research subjects: Participants’ perspectives. Journal of Medical Ethics, 26, 126–130. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. (1979). Preventing disease/promoting health. Objectives for the nation: alcohol and drug abuse. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Van de Wijngaart, G. F. (1991). Competing perspectives on drug use: The Dutch experience. Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. (1998). National drug control strategy. Washington, DC: Author.

COMMUNITY-CAMPUS PARTNERSHIPS AND COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAM EVALUATIONS Communities today are often called upon to meet the diverse needs of their community members. In fact, however, community efforts to solve the problems of children and families are not new. For example, in the 19th century, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr’s “Settlement House” approach brought together university researchers and community members. This work foreshadowed current efforts based on an applied developmental science (ADS) framework. The ADS framework calls for systematic attempts to ameliorate or prevent problems and to promote

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positive healthy behavior through collaboration between scientific and community partners (Lerner, 2002). Program evaluation is one important opportunity for such collaboration. In the past, the evaluation of a program was all too often based on the feelings of the participants and staff, rather than data collected through systematic evaluation. However, it is clear that without high-quality program evaluations, it is difficult to know (a) whether the program is having the intended impact and meeting the needs of the program participants, (b) whether the program could be conducted more effectively and efficiently, (c) whether the program is having a positive impact on the broader community it strives to serve, (d) whether this particular approach is worthy of the resources being invested, and (e) whether the program should be continued. Thus, organizations and agencies must not only design but also implement, manage, and evaluate programs if they are to meet the complex needs within a community. Such needs may be related to serious and/or longstanding problems, such as poverty, low educational attainment, or violence. Given the importance of the issues these programs intend to address, it is essential that an evaluative process be incorporated from their inception. Comprehensive evaluation should, then, involve conducting needs assessments throughout the program and outcome assessments at the conclusion of the program. The following paragraphs review critical characteristics and components of effective evaluation, including approaches and methods. THE EVALUATION PROCESS Program evaluation has been defined as “the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics, and outcomes of programs to make judgments about the program, improve program effectiveness, and/or inform decisions about future programming” (Patton, 1997, p. 23). Through such a process, the relevance, progress, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of a program are all considered (Veney & Kaluzney, 1991). Furthermore, program evaluations offer much-needed data for improving programs and program effects, as well as an opportunity to take this information and translate the results (both expected and unexpected) into social policy (Lerner, 2001). Thus, the evaluative process provides important information pertaining to the need for the program, program design, program implementation, programs goals, program modifications, and the

program’s potential to achieve its desired outcomes. Program evaluation at its best is an iterative process that influences the program’s design and targeted outcomes, thus creating programs that are of the highest quality and the most likely to meet the needs of the participants. Moreover, program evaluations are crucial in providing information valuable to program directors, staff, and participants, as well as policymakers and funders. All of these groups, of course, are deeply interested in knowing which programs are most likely to achieve important outcomes related to identified needs of community members. Program evaluation incorporates a range of everyday and specialized methods and strategies. The two primary approaches to program evaluation are process (formative) evaluation and outcome (summative) evaluation (Crano & Brewer, 2002; Eccles & Gootman, 2002). Together, process and outcome evaluation can clearly describe the program, how it operates, the activities the program initiates, and how these are implemented on a routine basis, as well as the potential for the program participants to truly reach the identified outcomes (Eccles & Gootman, 2002). Process Evaluation Process (formative) evaluation is the evaluation of the program from the time the program begins and proceeds, for the purpose of describing and improving the program; it focuses on how a program has attempted to produce its outcomes rather than on its outcomes. Thus, process evaluation can best be defined as a “focus on the internal dynamics and actual operations of a program in an attempt to understand its strengths and weaknesses” (Patton, 1997, p. 206). Process evaluation includes assessing program design (a plan based on a rationale), assessing participatory needs (asking what those in the program need), and conducting a feasibility study (testing on a small scale to see whether and how to enlarge or disseminate the program). By tracking and reporting what is happening in a program, the evaluator may help staff and participants keep to the program’s original design, guide redesign of the program to improve it, and document expected and unexpected changes, challenges, and successes. For example, early in the development of an intervention for families of teens at low and high risk for delinquency, a program design included 1-hour intervention classes on a weekly basis for low-risk families and 3-hour weekly intervention

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classes for high-risk families. It was established through the evaluation of the intervention classes that many low-risk families were dissatisfied with the 1hour class intervention. In contrast, higher-risk families were quite satisfied with their version of the program. Based on the evaluation results, the program format was changed to better assist the low-risk families by redesigning the intervention to become more similar to that for the high-risk families. This change in programming resulted in higher program completion rates for these families. Process evaluation is well suited to an applied developmental science approach, given that people develop in contexts and are active agents in their own development. Process evaluation tends to be inherently agentic and interactive. It is the interaction between program participants, staff, and evaluators that can truly generate adaptive action, track program progress, and improve a program. Such a collaboration can provide more opportunity for the program to meet the needs of the people it serves. Outcome Evaluation Outcome (summative) evaluation focuses on the effect of programs and how well the program has met its goals. Eccles and Gootman (2002) suggest that it “identifies the results of the program’s efforts and considers what difference the program made” (p. 202) to the program participants. For example, a peer-run youth center was designed to increase young people’s sense of belonging and their capacity to work collaboratively and to become responsible for the daily operations of the program. The goals of the program were to lower delinquency and increase the percentage of young people who have developed important life skills. The evaluation for this project would include a set of identified elements: (a) who participated in the program; (b) what were the desired outcomes for these participants; (c) what would indicate that the participants had reached the desired outcome; (d) how data would be collected (e.g., survey instrumentation, focus groups, personal interviews); (e) a plan for using the results; and (f) identifying the performance targets (Patton, 1997). Given the possible benefits of the above program to both the young persons involved and the communities in which it would be employed, it is important that the data collected be derived from scientifically valid methods and that the conclusions be contextually valid across

communities and time. However, it should be noted that attaining scientific and contextual validity is not simple, nor always possible in a single evaluation study. ANALYTIC METHODOLOGIES To meet standards of scientific validity, evaluations must use statistical methods that require meeting certain assumptions about the data, assumptions that are not always met in the community (or even in laboratory settings). Furthermore, the pragmatics of evaluation may preclude research designs that adhere to the criteria necessary for establishing causality. Proving causality requires random assignment to types of programs and replication of findings in multiple settings. Random assignment to developmental intervention programs is often not ethical or practical, as people enter programs to address problems in a nonrandom way. Although there are statistical methods and evaluation designs that attempt to replace random assignment, an evaluation alone can rarely prove that change is due to the program and not other factors. In the example of the youth center program above, an outcome evaluation could show whether certain criteria or goals were met, but not that the program itself caused change or that the program will work for all populations. Often, outcome evaluation results are thought to be valid only if they are in quantitative (numeric) form and derived via statistical methods. However, when central assumptions cannot be met, statistical results may be invalid or meaningless. Qualitative approaches offer a nonstatistical alternative, using close observation and impressionistic yet systematic analyses of the aspects or qualities of programs that do not easily lend themselves to numerical measures. Qualitative and quantitative methods can each contribute to making evaluations meaningful to their users. CONCLUSIONS Program evaluation offers community-based program developers, managers, staff, and participants, as well as researchers, the opportunity to gain muchneeded information pertaining to program process and results. By identifying both strengths and challenges, it offers a way in which to strengthen a program, determine best practices across programs, clarify funding priorities, support policy development,

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and provide communities with programs that are of the highest quality. Moreover, program evaluations offer an opportunity for communities to collaborate with their local universities through outreach scholarship. Working together to establish an evaluation process can result in findings that not only strengthen the program by identifying best practices but also provide information on program scale and sustainability (Lerner, 2001). This bidirectional process involving the university and the community offers the opportunity for both groups to appreciate each other’s work and to gain respect for the importance of evaluation studies to inform practice, research, and theory. Thus, community practitioners may begin to appreciate how evaluation efforts can assist program partners (managers, staff, and participants), while the academic community may learn critical lessons pertaining to the work of the community. Campus-community partnerships offer the opportunity to create programs and evaluations that focus on outreach, addressing program feasibility and palatability and affordability in community settings. Such partnerships emphasize relevance, community values, intended and unintended consequences, and flexibility, and they require long-term commitments to collaboration and colearning (Lerner, 2002). Thus, rigorous collaborative program evaluations balance objective assessment, subjective personal and political observations (among academic and community constituencies), and complex and agentic processes (process and outcome evaluation) to provide high-quality programs that will truly meet community needs. —Lynne M. Borden, Steve Marks, and Margaret Stone

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Crano, W. D., & Brewer, M. B. (2002). Principles and methods of social research (2nd ed., pp. 146–151). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Eccles, J. S., & Gootman, J. A. (Eds.). (2002). Community programs to promote youth development/committee on community-level programs for youth. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed., pp. 518–534). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Patton, M. Q. (1997). Utilization-focused evaluation: The new century text (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Veney, J. E., & Kaluzney, A. D. (1991). Evaluation and decision making for health services (2nd ed., pp. 4–6). Ann Arbor, MI: Health Administration Press.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Community involvement refers to the process whereby some or all members of the community— individuals, parents and family members, grassroots organizations and leaders, schools, religious organizations, associations, voluntary welfare agencies, government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and the business sector—come together to collectively support and contribute to the development, promotion, or maintenance of a particular project, service, or program. Community need not refer only to individuals living in the same geographical area, such as a neighborhood, village, or township. Community could be a group of people who share similar characteristics and identity, for example, a religious community, an ethnic community, a Chinese clan association, a community of families with dyslexic children, or the health care community. Terms often associated with community involvement are citizen participation, participatory processes, civil society, capacity building, and mutual aid. WHY COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT? Community involvement is promoted for a number of reasons, which may be economic, social, educational, or personal. Community involvement can help to cut and share cost; increase the pool of new ideas, talents, and resources in solving problems or in enhancing the social, economic, educational, or natural environment; and develop a sense of ownership and partnership among community members and agencies for sustainable programs and services. Community involvement provides opportunities and information to build and maintain social networks. It offers new skills and knowledge, as when a group of mothers learn to support their children’s development and education through a parent education project. It creates opportunities for some to be engaged in income-generating activities; for instance, when the community sets up a child care center, it frees mothers to seek gainful employment. Child care providers in the new center, paid in cash or in kind, also benefit through this process of mutual aid. Community involvement could be for business, as in credit schemes for women to set up small businesses to be self-supporting or to generate income to sustain the village preschool.

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Community involvement builds a sense of identity and belonging when people work together toward a common goal. It gives people a sense of “worthwhileness” and meaningfulness when they contribute to a common good. Often, decisions are made in a top-down fashion by policymakers who may not share or understand the needs of those who will be affected by social change. Community involvement reflects a sense of egalitarianism, whereby stakeholders have a chance to voice their opinions and participate in decision making that will have an impact on their lives. TYPES OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Chanan (1997) identified two models of community involvement in the European communities: the “ladder of participation” model, where the “strong form” has a few people involved as representatives in decision-making bodies, and the “weak form,” where people are “informed and consulted” but are not involved in decision making. The second model is the “pyramid” model, where different people participate at different levels and in different ways. The type of participation ranges from a handful at the top of the pyramid who represent the community in decision making, community group representations in a forum of community groups, and people regularly active and influential in community groups (the “social entrepreneurs”). Below this level are people who are occasionally active in community groups, socially excluded people (usually people targeted for services), people who use community groups but do not actively help (these could be passive supporters), and people who benefit from the general local improvement, who form the base of the pyramid. This model allows more people to be involved according to their interests and abilities. Types of community participation or citizen participation range from representing the community on different levels of committees, mobilizing people and material resources, sponsoring causes, fund-raising, advising local pregnant mothers’ groups, befriending lonely and incapacitated elderly, mentoring youth, teaching slow learners, advocating for children with HIV/AIDS, organizing activities for disabled children, and even just being cheering spectators. Community mobilization is the process of persuading, convincing, exhorting, and engaging different sectors of the community to solve a problem or to support a common goal, often appealing to their sense

of self-interest, civic-mindedness, and high ideals. Mobilization of the community is more effective when it is undertaken by a person of recognized authority—the village headman, the chief monk from the monastery or other spiritual authorities, the principal of the local school, an elected leader in the community—basically, an accepted authority, whether by descent, conferment, election, or religious belief. Community mobilization is necessary, as community participation does not always happen spontaneously. A community mobilizer is able to galvanize the support for a cause and provide leadership to facilitate the process. Community mobilization could be for generating ideas and solutions to a village problem, such as an increase in malnutrition among young children, generating funds for a project to build more schools, or getting villagers to start a rice bank for poor families. Community mobilization is easier when children’s well-being is at stake. Participatory research involves the community in the research process. Stakeholders in the community are involved in the process from beginning to end. It is a more egalitarian and empowering process that affirms stakeholders as able to solve their own problems collectively, with better-informed choices. It is different from conducting surveys of community needs where individuals merely provide the requested information to authorities but have no power over what is done with the information. Community-based approach programs can be the outcome of participatory research that identifies a need of the community as well as the types of resources necessary to meet that need. Such programs may be initiated with the help of an external agency, government, or NGO, which may eventually transfer the maintenance of the program to be wholly owned by the community. THE STAKEHOLDERS Stakeholders are basically everyone who would stand to benefit from the positive social changes as a result of the community involvement. The first would be the people who stand to directly gain from it. For instance, community involvement in building and maintaining a school would benefit the children themselves, the parents, and families. Educated children could serve as intermediaries with the outside world for their illiterate parents and villagers, translating newspapers and documentation and explaining procedures.

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It would also benefit teachers by creating teaching positions. The community benefits from a more educated population. Another group of stakeholders is the business sector. Corporate involvement in community is sometimes viewed with ambivalence (Roy, 1999). Companies sponsor causes from nature conservation to special needs programs for children. While this may be part of a public relations exercise, corporate involvement brings in much-needed funds for services and programs. In addition to direct donations to a particular charity, corporations can be powerful mobilizers for a cause. A television station in Singapore has raised huge amounts of money every year for different selected disadvantaged groups by having their artists engage in entertaining and challenging acts. A newspaper, the Straits Times, also uses its medium to solidify support for the School Pocket Money Fund for poor schoolchildren every year. In the process of fund-raising and sponsorship, the media themselves advocate for the cause of poor children and families. EXAMPLES OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN ASIA Singapore, as a developed Asian nation, has a somewhat structured form of community involvement. Many are initiated by the government, which promotes a “many helping hands” approach to community development. It exemplifies to a large extent the “ladder of participation” model, whereby citizens are selected to sit on various committees, including national committees, Community Development Councils (CDCs), Residents’ Committees (RCs), and ad hoc committees. The CDCs comprise volunteer representations from ethnic minority groups and professionals and are usually chaired by politicians and assisted by a paid secretariat. The aim of CDCs is social cohesion and community bonding. They take over the coordination and dispensation of social services and financial aid from the various ministries in order to respond more quickly to community needs. Another community involvement is through the neighborhood-based RCs. RCs also aim for community bonding and cohesion among ethnic groups living in public housing estates, where the majority of Singaporeans live. Each RC has representatives from each block of high-rise flats. Many of the activities are social in nature. RCs also look into complaints in the neighborhood and may connect with the relevant authorities to deal with problems.

Citizens are informed of any impending social, economic, and educational changes through the mass media and consulted through grassroots meetings, focus group discussions, and feedback sessions that representatives from selected community groups are invited to attend. However, while the community is involved through these various strategies, they do not hold the final decision-making power, which rests with the government. Another form of community involvement is based on ethnicity, such as associations of Indians, Chinese, Malay, and Eurasians. These associations provide community services, usually serving disadvantaged children from the same ethnic group in the form of preschool education, tuition classes, parenting classes, and counseling for youth. The associations use mainly volunteers from their own communities to run those services. In Cambodia, the pyramid model is reflected in some community involvement projects. An example is the work of an international NGO, Infant Development, which works with local communes. Its early childhood education project responds to local rural communes, setting up preschool centers for children from 3 to 5 years old. The first year is focused on mobilizing the community, including the local school administration, the local community groups, and village elders, to build or identify a site for a preschool center. The community contributes by supplying labor, building materials, and support. Village women volunteer to cook for the children. For 3 years, Infant Development pays for the preschool teachers. The community may also start a rice bank with contributions from the local farmers to feed the children. The village is also helped to set up a credit system that benefits not only those borrowing to start small businesses but also the community itself, which can use the interest to pay for the preschool teachers. The village may use the credit scheme to start its own business. After 3 years, the village takes over the project, owns it, and sustains the preschool as part of its community services for young children. Infant Development then transfers its skills and knowledge to a local NGO, which then takes over community development with the local rural communities. This is an example of capacity building at the village level as well as at the level of the local NGO, which takes over the task of helping more communities develop their capacities to build and operate preschools in a sustainable way. Cambodia also has various grassroots bodies for each village. Village development councils, headed by

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the village chief and village volunteers, coordinate what goes on in the villages. Village health support groups and their village health volunteers are responsible for the health of the villages, acting as intermediaries between the health clinics and the villagers. Health volunteers provide health information to the villagers, assist villagers to make use of the health clinics, and provide feedback to the clinics on health issues at the village level. In a country where there is a high underweight rate for children under the age of 5 as well as a high maternal mortality rate (Bellamy, 2004), these health volunteers can alleviate the local situation through disseminating vital messages on health care, nutrition, and feeding practices. Indonesia has a particular form of community involvement through its extensive network of community health posts, or posyandus, targeted especially at pregnant women and children from 0 to 5 years old. Posyandus are regarded as “efforts of the community, by the community, for the community” (Wijana, 2002). Posyandus are set up in the villages by the government but are substantially supported by thousands of village volunteers, posyandu cadres, all over Indonesia. These volunteers are trained in knowledge and skills as community mobilizers to address health problems. They conduct home visits for family planning and parent education on health care, nutrition, and early childhood stimulation. The focus is on the survival of the mother and her child, by paying attention to quality pregnancy; reduction of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies of mothers and children, aged 0 to 8 years; improving the psychosocial development of these children; and preparing them to enter schools. CONCLUSIONS Community involvement shows a respect for the views of the community and acknowledges that they have a right to be informed, to be consulted, and to participate in decision making in areas that affect their lives. It acknowledges that disadvantaged and deprived communities have their strengths, know their problems, and know what they need, although they may require some help with the process from external agencies. To decide that “the authorities,” the “government,” or other well-meaning agencies know what is good for them is a reflection of what Pantin (1988) would refer to as “cultural arrogance.” Pantin advocates for “respectful listening” to truly understand the people before undertaking any “respectful intervention.”

Community involvement, in its truest form, is a sharing of power by those in positions of authority with those who are the targets for change. Such examples are, unfortunately, few and far between. —Kim Choo Khoo

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bellamy, C. (2004). The state of the world’s children 2004: Girls, education, and development. New York: UNICEF. Chanan, G. (1997). Active citizenship and community involvement: Getting to the roots. Dublin, Ireland: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Pantin, G. (1988, November 14–24). Keynote address. Children and community: Progressing through partnership (Tenth International Seminar, with the cooperation of the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica). The Hague, The Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation. Roy, D. (1999). Corporate community involvement: Philanthropy or self-interest? London, UK: CAF International Publishing. Wijana, W. D. (2002). Early childhood care and development in Indonesia (Proceedings of the Seminar on Early Childhood Education and Study Tour, organized by the Korean Education Development Institute and UNESCO). Seoul, Korea: KEDI.

COMMUNITY LINKAGES, LEVELS OF Community organizations face the daunting task of addressing complex issues such as poor educational systems, unemployment, and poverty. Given the complexity of these issues, communities recognize that they may require comprehensive programmatic response through a community-wide effort, such as an interagency collaboration. As an area of scholarship, collaboration cuts across the three integrated components of applied developmental science (ADS): theory/ research, professional practice, and policy and program development and evaluation. Examining collaboration as one possible level in a broad framework of different levels of linkage provides an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to address the goals of ADS: (a) to promote positive child and adolescent (youth) development, (b) to strengthen and enhance family life, (c) to build communities and community collaborations from an asset- or strength-based orientation, and (d) to engage policy to create and sustain efforts at enriching civility.

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Numerous individuals and groups recommend working together to form strong collaborative relationships to improve the present status and future well-being of children, youth, families, and the communities in which they live (Perkins, Borden, & Hogue, 1998). Moreover, many local, state, and federal initiatives that focus on children, youth, and families now require collaboration between and among multiple sectors (Borden, 1999). As Gray (1989) has noted, this is often a “process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem [issue] can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited vision of what is possible” (p. 5).

multiple youth-serving organizations that meet to coordinate their services to ensure that there are a variety of opportunities for youth within the community. The purpose of cooperation is to match needs, limit duplication of services, and ensure that tasks are completed. The structure required for cooperation includes a central communication hub and semiformal links between organizations. Roles within the group should be somewhat defined, and the group should work together to leverage and raise money. The process needed for cooperation requires facilitative leadership, complex decision making, and formal communication among the central body of participating organizations. Within this level of linkage, there will be some, albeit minimal, conflict.

LEVELS OF LINKAGES Community partnerships can operate through various levels or types of linkages to address complex social issues. There are five levels of community linkage: networking, cooperation, coordination, coalition, and collaboration. Each level can be seen as having a particular kind of purpose, structure, and process (Hogue, 1994; Perkins et al., 1998; Vaughn, 1994). Each is described below. Networking Networking, the first level of linkage, is defined as the sharing of information among organizations. For example, a networking group would meet to share relevant information on a specific topic (e.g., disaster relief, employment opportunities, or child care referrals). The purpose of networking is to provide an opportunity for dialogue and common understanding, to be a clearinghouse for information, and to create a base of support for a specific issue. The structure needed for a network to function effectively is flexibility; it should not be hierarchal and should have loosely defined roles, with the focus of providing links between organizations. The process involved within a network includes low-level leadership, minimal decision making, low conflict, and informal communication procedures. Cooperation The second level of linkage, cooperation, is defined as the matching and organizing of existing programs and services to meet identified needs. An example of cooperation is an association comprising

Coordination The third level of linkage, coordination, is defined as the integration of resources that allows for the development or creation of new projects or programs and addresses a common issue. For example, partnering health organizations in a particular community create a joint budget to support the annual communication booth at the local community festival, where a common brochure listing the activities available within each organization is distributed. The purpose of coordination is to share and/or merge the resources available from individual organizations to address common issues. The structure of coordination requires a central body of organizations willing to make decisions, and it includes clearly defined roles, expectations, and links within the group. Moreover, the group at the coordination level works collectively to develop new resources and has a joint budget. The process of coordination involves leadership that is autonomous and focused on one issue. Decision making occurs both within the central group and within subgroups, and communication is frequent and clear. It is important to note that conflict within this level increases because of the intensity of the process. Coalition The fourth level of linkage, coalition, involves multiple organizations coming together and pooling their resources from existing systems to work together on a prescribed issue for a minimum of 3 years. For example, a group forms a coalition to increase the availability of literacy programs for children by pooling their resources to sponsor several AmeriCorps

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members to conduct a mobile-literacy learning-lab program. The purpose of a coalition is to share ideas and be willing to pull resources from existing systems to create a way to address a common issue. The structure of a coalition demands that all the members be involved in the decision-making process. There are clear expectations involved in the roles and the time commitment required as part of this group. There are written agreements to establish formal links and to authorize the procurement of new resources through a joint budget. The coalition process requires shared leadership and formal decision making among all organizations. Communication is formal and prioritized, and the level of commitment, both in terms of time and resources, increases the potential for conflict. The major difference distinguishing between the levels of coordination and coalition is that at the coalition level, there is a greater commitment of time and resources. Given the continued increase in commitment and intensity, conflicts are to be expected at this level of linkage. Collaboration The fifth and final level, full collaboration, is defined as multiple organizations coming together to act as a new entity that has a shared vision and the power to affect the participating organizations. An example of a collaborative effort was a collaboration formed to address family violence, which included groups such as social services, law enforcement, hospitals, schools, and the judicial system. The collaboration determined that to better serve and assist victims of family violence, reporting for the local law enforcement system needed to change. New reporting procedures were established and were sent to local law enforcement to be implemented. The collaboration’s purpose is to accomplish shared goals and affect benchmarks by building an interdependent system to address issues and opportunities. The structure of the collaborative effort involves shared decision making through consensus. There are formalized roles, time commitment, and evaluations; and there are written agreements that formalize the relationships between organizations and their work assignments. The collaboration process requires high levels of leadership, trust, and productivity and equally shared ideas and decisions. Communication within the collaboration and between the partnering organizations

should occur on a frequent basis and involve structured formal as well as informal avenues of communication.

CONCLUSIONS The collaborative process offers organizations the opportunity to be engaged in comprehensive efforts that can have long-term implications for the work of the organization and can require a redefining and/or a refocusing of the organization. Thus, collaborative efforts cannot be successful if those involved do not have the power to make the necessary decisions to move the effort forward. Each level of linkage provides a different way for community members to work together. The group needs to determine the level of linkage that best fits its goals. The ability of the group to successfully meet the needs of the children, youth, and families within a community is often dependent on the ability of the group to determine the level of linkage that empowers them to achieve their goals. Communities that can correctly identify the best level of linkage to address the identified issue are more likely to reach the goals identified by the group. Choosing an appropriate level of linkage can enable communities to develop the best possible strategies to enhance their abilities to meet the needs of children, youth, and their families. —Lynne M. Borden and Daniel F. Perkins

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Borden, L. M. (1999). Interagency collaborations: Addressing social issues from a community perspective. Journal of the Community Development Society, 30(1). Gray, B. (1989). Collaborating. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hogue, T. (1994). Community based collaborations: Wellness multiplied. Bend, OR: Oregon State University Extension Service, Oregon Center for Community Leadership. Perkins, D. F., Borden, L. M., & Hogue, T. (1998). Standards of practice for community-based educational collaborations. In R. Haney & J. O’Keefe (Eds.), Conversations in excellence: Providing for the diverse needs of children and their families (pp. 85–105). Washington, DC: National Catholic Educational Association. Vaughn, G. G. (1994). Collaboration: Finding pathways for change. Home Economics FORUM, 1, 6–12.

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COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AND APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH The application of developmental research to K–12 educational settings has led to a new understanding of how primary and secondary schools can best promote the academic and psychosocial development of children and adolescents. This entry will explore how the integration of these two disciplines has led to the development and implementation of a new model of schooling, the community school. This innovative school model, employing the lessons learned from developmental research, seeks to remove the barriers to learning that often exist in public school settings and thereby enable every child to succeed in school. The entry will begin by briefly discussing how applied developmental research has contributed to the development of the community school model. Next, a definition and description of a community school will be provided. The entry will end with a summary of the research and evaluation efforts examining the effectiveness of community schools.

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH AND SCHOOLS Recent advances in applied developmental research have demonstrated that development is no longer considered to be an isolated process occurring within the child, but, instead, reflects an interaction between the child and the surrounding environment, with each continually affecting and changing the other. Moreover, development is recognized to occur simultaneously across multiple domains—physical, psychological, social, and cognitive—which are continually interacting with and changing one another (Lerner, 2002). Thus, children who are physically and mentally healthy are more apt to do well in school, and, in turn, children who do well in school are likely to experience better physical and mental health. To this end, schools have begun to partner with community resources to provide a range of services to address children’s development across the domains of cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development (Walsh & Murphy, 2003). Increasingly, school-community partnerships that work to combine educational goals with health/mental

health services and youth development activities are being viewed as a promising model for promoting academic achievement as well as healthy development in a variety of other arenas (Epstein, 2001). One example of an increasingly successful model of school-community partnerships is the community school. The Community School Model A community school is a public school that combines high-quality education with a wide range of health and social services to ensure that children are physically, emotionally, and socially prepared to learn (Children’s Aid Society, 2003). A wide range of approaches can be adapted to fit into a community school model. Although frequently referred to as “full-service schools” or “extended-services schools,” in reality, these two titles are used to describe two subsets of the community school model. Although community schools vary in their organization and approach, they share a core set of principles and goals. That is, a community school is both a set of partnerships and a place that offers a wide range of health and human services in an effort to ensure that children are developing successfully academically, as well as physically, emotionally, and socially (Coalition for Community Schools, 2003). Community schools are open to students, families, and the community in the early morning and late evening hours, on weekends, and during the summer. The school is operated cooperatively through a partnership between the school system and one or more community agencies. Working together in collaborative partnerships, families, students, teachers, and community members help design and implement activities that promote academic achievement. As a result of the partnership, the school is able to offer services for children and parents that include youth development programs, including academic enrichment, sports, arts, and community service; summer camps; medical, dental, and mental health services; social services; adult education; immigration assistance; child health insurance enrollment; early childhood programs; and community development, including employment of neighborhood residents and sponsorship of community events (Children’s Aid Society, 2003). The school emphasizes community by encouraging learning through community service and service learning. Medical, dental, and mental health

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services are accessible through the school. Before- and after-school programs allow students to build on their classroom learning and have fun in a safe environment. A family support center helps families with child guidance, employment, legal, housing, and other services. In community schools, the children, families, school staff, and community members work in collaborative partnerships to develop programs and services in five primary areas: quality education, family support, family and community engagement, youth development, and community development. These collaborative partnerships are what distinguish a community school from a traditional school. Each of the various partners work together to create a different kind of institution, where the multifaceted developmental needs of each child are served. Do Community Schools Work? Currently, the Coalition for Community Schools (2003) is reporting that 20 community schools across the United States are conducting program evaluations. The collective results from these schools suggest that community schools make a difference for students in four significant ways: (1) improving student learning, (2) promoting family engagement with students and schools, (3) helping schools to function more effectively, and (4) adding vitality to the community (Coalition for Community Schools, 2003). In regard to improving student learning, many of the schools report improvement in student academic achievement as measured by grades and scores on standardized tests, improved attendance, reduced behavior or discipline problems, increased access to physical and mental health services, and greater contact with supportive adults. More than half of these evaluations suggest benefits to families that include improved communication with teachers, increased ability to provide for children’s basic needs, increased family stability, increased ability of parents to meet work expectations and to teach their children, and increased attendance at school meetings. In addition, the results suggest that community schools help the school to function more effectively. When examining issues related to the school climate, evaluation results suggest that an increased number of parents are participating in their children’s education; school environments are more likely to be perceived as safe; and services are well integrated into

the schoolday. Finally, the results of this collective evaluation suggest that the community surrounding the school reaps benefits as well. Evaluation results suggest improved community knowledge of community school initiatives, increased use of school buildings, increased knowledge of community agencies and access to services, and improved security and safety in the surrounding area (Coalition for Community Schools, 2003).

CONCLUSIONS The results of evaluations encourage further development and refinement of the community school model. If future evaluations continue to support the value of this approach to education and youth development, an enhanced role of schools in the positive development of children and communities may be the result. —Jennifer A. Murphy

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Children’s Aid Society. (2003). Available at www.children saidsociety.org Coalition for Community Schools. (2003). Available at www.communityschools.org Dryfoos, J. (1994). Full-service schools: A revolution in health and social services of children, youth, and families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Boulder, CO: Westview. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Walsh, M. E., & Murphy, J. A. (2003). Children, health, and learning: A guide to the issues. Westport, CT: Praeger.

COMMUNITY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT Community youth development is an emerging framework that involves a shift away from concentrating on problems, instead concentrating on strengths, competencies, and engagement in self-development and community development. Youth development is a process that occurs as youth interact with all levels of

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their ecology and the systems within those levels, including the other people in their environment, such as family, peers, other adults, and members of their communities. This can lead to either positive or negative developmental and behavioral outcomes. To foster positive development from a community, youth development requires positive supports, opportunities for skill and competency development, and partnerships with youth at multiple levels of young people’s ecology and within the systems that comprise that ecology. These youth-adult partnerships comprise one part of efforts by youth to be producers of their own development and shapers of their communities (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2002; Perkins, Borden, Keith, Hoppe-Rooney, & Villarruel, 2003). A DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT Community youth development is defined, then, as an integration of youth development and community development. Community youth development comprises four parts: (1) the natural unfolding of the potential inherent in the human organism in relation to the challenges and supports of the physical and social environment; (2) a commitment to enabling all young people to achieve their potential—characterized by a positive, asset-building orientation that builds on strengths and also addresses specific problems faced by some youth (e.g., substance abuse, involvement in violence, and premature parenthood); (3) programs and organizations that employ a planned set of activities that foster young people’s growing capacities; and (4) fully engaging youth as full contributors in problem solving for the community through employment of the skills and competencies they are developing (Lerner, 2002; Perkins, Borden, & Villarruel, 2001). Community youth development is a step beyond prevention. It is a process by which youth’s developmental needs are met, their engagement in problem behaviors is prevented, and, most important, youth are empowered to build the competencies and skills needed to become healthy, contributing citizens, now and as adults. From a medical perspective, community youth development can be compared with individuals taking active roles in their health, by getting an immunization shot, strengthening the body through physically appropriate exercise and dietary actions, and shaping their environment to support them with those endeavors (Perkins et al., 2003).

The goals of community youth development involve what Lerner (2002) has identified as “the Five Cs.” These include (1) competence in academics, social, emotional, and vocational; (2) confidence in who one is becoming (identity); (3) connection to self and others; (4) character that comes from positive values, integrity, and a strong sense of morals; (5) caring and compassion. However, from a community youth development perspective, there is a “sixth C,” contribution (Pittman, 2000), or “sense of mattering” (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2002). Through contributing to their families, neighborhoods, and communities, youth develop a sense of mattering and continue contributing. Moreover, opportunities to contribute give youth practical occasions to make use of the other “Five Cs.” Indeed, young people who have grown up in communities that promote their positive development have a better understanding of their own values, often become lifelong learners, are actively engaged in their communities, and are more likely to promote the positive well-being of other young people (Blyth & Leffert, 1995; McLaughlin, 2000). The importance of mattering is described in Community Programs to Promote Youth Development: Positive development is not something adults do to young people, but rather something that young people do for themselves with a lot of help from parents and others. They are agents of their own development. To foster development, then, it follows that settings need to be youth centered, providing youth—both individually and in groups—the opportunity to be efficacious and to make a difference in their social worlds—we refer to this opportunity as “mattering.” (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2002, p. 103) YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS: INTENTIONALITY ADDRESSING THE SIX CS As noted in the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine publication (2002), community programs that promote youth development are a promising strategy, although more research is needed. For youth programs and the professionals and organizations that comprise them, “being intentional” means deliberately adopting certain policies that foster community youth development. According to the National

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Research Council and the Institute of Medicine book, community-based youth programs can foster positive youth development by creating developmentally intentional learning experiences. Developmentally intentional learning experiences have three main components (Walker, Marczak, Blyth, & Borden, 2002). First, opportunities are designed to build positive relationships between youth and adults and between youth and their peers. Second, the knowledge, skills, and competencies to be learned and developed are identified, along with the learning methods involved. Third, the experience is tailored to the individual needs of the participating youth. Thus, programs need to be intentional about creating and sustaining environments for socialization and learning that surround youth with external supports in their ecology to promote their skills.

CONCLUSIONS As an area of scholarship, community youth development cuts across the three integrated components of ADS: theory/research, professional practice, and policy and program development and evaluation. For example, future research in this area might examine reliable and valid measures of community programs’ atmospheres linked to youth outcomes (Roth & BrooksGunn, 2003). Addressing community youth development within a broad framework provides opportunities for scholars and practitioners to directly address two goals of ADS: (1) to promote positive child and adolescent (youth) development and (2) to engage policy to create and sustain efforts at enriching civility. —Lisa Chauveron, Daniel F. Perkins, and Lynne M. Borden

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Blyth, D., & Leffert, N. (1995). Communities as contexts for adolescent development. Journal of Adolescent Research, 10, 64–87. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Adolescence: Development, diversity, context, and application. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. McLaughlin, M. (2000). Community counts: How youth organizations matter for youth development. Washington, DC: Public Education Network. Available at http://www.Public Education.org National Research Council & Institute of Medicine. (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Perkins, D. F., Borden, L. M., Keith, J. G., Hoppe-Rooney, T., & Villarruel, F. A. (2003). Community youth development: A partnership for creating a positive world. In F. A. Villarruel, D. F. Perkins, L. M. Borden, & J. G. Keith (Eds.), Community youth development: Practice, policy, and research (pp. 1–23). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Perkins, D. F., Borden, L. M., & Villarruel, F. A. (2001). Community youth development: A partnership for change. School Community Journal, 11, 39–56. Pittman, K. (2000, March). Grantmaker strategies for assessing the quality of unevaluated programs and the impact of unevaluated grantmaking. Evaluation of Youth Programs Symposium, Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Chicago. Roth, J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). What exactly is a youth development program? Answers from research and practice. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 94–111. Walker, J., Marczak, M., Blyth, D. A., & Borden, L. M. (2002). Designing developmentally intentional youth programs: Toward a theory of optimal developmental success in community-based learning experiences for youth. In J. L. Mahoney, R. W. Larson, & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after-school and community programs. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

COMPUTER GAMES According to Greenfield (1994), computer and video games may be seen as cultural artifacts that provide vehicles for cognitive socialization of the children that play them. That is, media-based games may create venues in which to enhance cognitive skills and computer literacy. For example, the playing of computer games has been linked to enhanced spatial skills, such as mental rotation and computer-readiness skills among young children. Unlike video games, computer games tend to serve more of an educational goal. For example, the instructional value of computer games has been long recognized by the military as an intrinsically motivating and relatively inexpensive vehicle by which to introduce trainees to new skills and content (Ricci, Salas, & Cannon-Bowers, 1996). Educators have also acknowledged the advantages of the computer game environment over the traditional classroom environment for facilitating learning and for transfer of skills and content gained outside the game context (Koedinger, 2001; Schank & Neaman, 2001). The review that follows distinguishes between computer and video games with regard to their characteristics and predominant genres, and information is

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presented pertaining to frequency of use and differential patterns of use among boys and girls. Finally, suggestions are given for research to further the understanding of the developmental ramifications of computer game play for cognitive and social development during childhood and adolescence. Computer games, unlike video games, include highly intricate graphics and sound effects and are played on personal computers. In particular, computer games are more likely to contain large amounts of data (e.g., detailed maps of large areas) than video games, as the latter typically have little or no secondary storage. The availability of relatively inexpensive high-speed Internet connections also allows for remote play on networks. However, convergent media has blurred the distinction between computer and video games, as most games are now available for computer and video game play. The variety of game genres includes adventure, sports, puzzle, simulations, and the top-selling genre for 2002, strategy games (Interactive Digital Software Association, 2003), such as The Sims. Adventure games include Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, in which the player must complete a series of tasks (e.g., fight a dragon) or acquire particular items (e.g., a gemstone) in pursuit of a final goal (e.g., recovering a lost manuscript). These games, unlike sports games such as Backyard Basketball, often show cross-gender appeal. Simulations such as the popular Barbie Fashion Designer have shown particular appeal among girls. Another popular computer game genre is that of strategy games, which often take the form of war games, as in the currently very popular Warcraft III series (Interactive Digital Software Association, 2003), in which the player must successfully complete a series of increasingly difficult military campaigns. These games also appeal more to boys than to girls. However, puzzle games, such as the classic Tetris and Minesweeper, given their nonaggressive nature, continue to show stronger appeal among girls than boys. Recent survey findings indicate that children between the ages of 2 and 17 play computer games about 20 minutes per day, and the games are most likely to be played by White children (Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, & Brodie, 1999). This finding is attributed to the greater proportion of White children’s homes (78%) with computers, compared with homes of African American (55%) and Hispanic American (48%) children (Roberts et al., 1999). Data from the

Interactive Digital Software Association (2003) indicates the majority of frequent computer game players are adults, with 30% of frequent game players under the age of 18. Among children between ages 8 and 18, only about 2% play more than an hour of computer games a day, compared with 8% who play video games for a comparable amount of time; for both types of games, boys are more likely than girls to play for more than an hour a day (Roberts et al., 1999). Differences are found between boys and girls with regard to their preferences for types of computer games and their approaches to playing. For example, boys display more of a trial-and-error approach, in which they are willing to examine a given game for its intrinsic value, whereas girls demonstrate a more deliberate, less exploratory approach (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 1998). Differential approaches to game play also may have implications for differential approaches to learning. This avenue of research warrants further consideration in view of increasing incorporation of computer technology into academic learning settings. For example, simulated science projects (Schank & Neaman, 2001) and self-paced mathematics tutoring programs (Koedinger, 2001) have been successfully used among high school students, with specific emphasis on the technology’s capacity to enhance motivation. Potential gender differences in approaches to interacting with computer technology also may have implications for this motivation. As computer games are often a prelude or accompaniment to more academic computer activities, examination of possible differences holds much promise for academic game design and games that appeal to both boys and girls. —Daniel P. Auld, Fran C. Blumberg, and Tracy M. Hogan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Greenfield, P. M. (1994). Video games as cultural artifacts. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15, 3–12. Interactive Digital Software Association. (2003). Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Washington, DC: Author. Koedinger, K. (2001). Cognitive tutors as modeling tools and instructional models. In K. D. Forbus & P. J. Feltovich (Eds.), Smart machines in education (pp. 145–167). Cambridge: MIT Press. Ricci, K. E., Salas, E., & Cannon-Bowers, J. A. (1996). Do computer-based games facilitate knowledge acquisition and retention? Military Psychology, 8, 295–307.

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Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G., Rideout, V. J., & Brodie, M. (1999, November). Kids and media at the new millennium: A comprehensive national analysis of children’s media use. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation. Schank, R., & Neaman, A. (2001). Motivation and failure in educational simulation. In K. D. Forbus & P. J. Feltovich (Eds.), Smart machines in education (pp. 37–69). Cambridge: MIT Press. Subrahmanyam, K., & Greenfield, P. M. (1998). Computer games for girls: What makes them play? In J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat (pp. 45–71). Cambridge: MIT Press. Subrahmanyam, K., Kraut, R., Greenfield, P., & Gross, E. (2001). New forms of electronic media. In D. G. Singer & J. L. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of children and the media (pp. 73–99). London: Sage.

CONDUCT DISORDERS This overview of the types of conduct disorders that are diagnosed in children and adolescents focuses on how to distinguish the etiology and developmental course of chronic and time-limited conduct problems in children and adolescents. It concludes with brief descriptions of some of the interventions that have demonstrated effectiveness in treating youth with conduct disorders. CONDUCT DISORDER AND OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER Youth diagnosed with conduct disorders typically fall into two diagnostic categories: Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). ODD is characterized by a pattern of hostile, defiant, or negative behaviors. It is often considered as a precursor to CD, which involves a more problematic and dangerous pattern of behaviors. Youth diagnosed with CD are characterized by a consistent pattern of behavior that violates the personal or property rights of others and the basic expectations of society. Approximately 1 in 10 children and adolescents today could be diagnosed with CD (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). To meet the full diagnostic criteria for CD, symptoms should be present in the following four domains: (1) aggression to people and animals, (2) destruction of property, (3) deceitfulness or theft, and (4) serious violations of rules (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). It is clear that youth who have a diagnosis of

CD are going to pose more of a threat to themselves and others than youth diagnosed with ODD. However, which specific youth are going to develop into chronic offenders is less clear. Research has shown that there are critical distinctions that can be made with conduct-disordered youth to help determine who is at the greatest risk for developing a stable, consistent, and dangerous pattern of antisocial behavior. Indeed, the trajectory of CD, the prognosis for treatment, and the severity of the antisocial behaviors are all strongly linked to the age of onset of the symptoms (Moffit & Caspi, 2001). For example, children with CD who manifest a certain pattern of symptoms in childhood are at a much greater risk to develop a pattern of antisocial behavior in adult life than children who do not (Kazdin, 1997). Determining the presence of these factors is crucial to distinguishing between adolescent-limited (AL) conduct disorder and life course persistent (LCP) conduct disorder. ADOLESCENT-LIMITED VERSUS LIFE COURSE PERSISTENT CONDUCT DISORDER The risk factors for early-onset or LCP conduct disorder include child factors, parent and family factors, and school-related factors. These risk factors occur at the biological, psychological, and social levels (Kazdin, 1997). Child risk factors include a difficult child temperament, neuropsychological deficits, attention difficulties, poor social skills, and poor academic and intellectual performance. Parent and family factors encompass prenatal and perinatal complications, a family history of psychopathology, harsh parent-child punishment, poor supervision or monitoring of the child, family relationships characterized by a lack of warmth and affection, marital discord, large family size, siblings with antisocial behavior, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Finally, schoolrelated factors involve the child attending a school where there is little emphasis on academic work, little teacher time spent on lessons, infrequent teacher use of praise and appreciation for schoolwork, little emphasis placed on individual responsibility of the students, and poor working conditions for students (Kazdin, 1997). Youth with AL conduct disorder often enter into adolescence with very few of the risk factors present in LCP youth, and they typically do not display overly

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aggressive or violent behaviors during childhood. The primary risk factor associated with the development of AL conduct disorder is an association or increased affiliation with a delinquent peer group (Kazdin, 1997). Thus, the delinquent behaviors associated with AL conduct disorder typically do not persist once the adolescent matures and ceases his or her affiliation with this peer group. While the natural course of development may be all that is needed to alleviate AL conduct disorder, youth who exhibit chronic conduct problems are in need of focused and comprehensive services if they are to avoid incarceration, physical harm, or, in the worst-case scenario, death. Thus, to maximize the efficacy of treatment efforts for this population, we must recognize that the delinquent behaviors associated with LCP conduct disorder have multiple, interactive causes and therefore require multimodal, coordinated, and comprehensive interventions. INTERVENTIONS Multisystemic therapy (MST) and the FAST Track Program are two interventions that have demonstrated success in treating youth with chronic conduct problems. Both are intensive family- and communitybased treatments designed to address the multiple factors known to contribute to CD. Therapists trained in MST work intensively with individuals and the interconnected systems that encompass them (e.g., peer groups, neighborhood, families, community supports) to both reduce the risks associated with CD and to develop strengths in the families and youth (Henggeler & Hoyt, 2001). The FAST Track Program targets the symptoms of CD by using a comprehensive, multimodal, early intervention approach. FAST Track intervenes at the level of the classroom, the home, and the individual, with the goal of improving the lines of communication among these three domains and fostering selfefficacy and problem-solving skills in both the child and the family (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1992). Both MST and FAST Track use the skills of multiple professionals (i.e., mental health counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses), and both have demonstrated gains in reducing delinquent behavior in youth and fostering social competencies in both children and their families (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001; Walsh & Barrett, in press).

CONCLUSIONS The behaviors associated with conduct disorders in children and adolescents are extremely pernicious in terms of the emotional, physical, and material damage that can be inflicted upon individuals, families, and communities. Efforts are ongoing to make treatment accessible to children and adolescents who are most at risk for developing long-term conduct problems. To be of assistance to these youth, mental health providers must first become more sophisticated in the early identification of youth with chronic conduct problems and then focus their resources and efforts on comprehensive, empirically based treatments that have been proven to be effective. —James G. Barrett

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (1992). A developmental and clinical model for the prevention of conduct disorders: The FAST Track Program. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 509–527. Henggeler, S. W., & Hoyt, S. W. (2001). Multisystemic therapy with juvenile offenders and their families. In J. M. Richman & M. W. Fraser (Eds.), The context of youth violence: Resilience, risk, and protection. Westport, CT: Praeger. Kazdin, A. E. (1997). Conduct disorder across the lifespan. In S. S. Luthar, J. A. Burack, D. Cicchetti, & J. R. Weisz (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Perspectives on adjustment, risk, and disorder (pp. 248–272). New York: Cambridge University Press. Moffit, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2001). Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways among males and females. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 355–375. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth violence: A report of the Surgeon General. Washington, DC: U.S. Public Health Service. Available at: http://www .surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence/chapter1/sec1 .html U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003). Child and adolescent mental health. Available at http:// www.mentalhealth.org/publications/allpubs/CA-0004/ default.asp Walsh, M. E., & Barrett, J. G. (in press). Roots of violence and aggression. In K. M. Thies & J. F. Travers (Eds.), The handbook of human development for health professionals. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK.

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CONFLICT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD Conflict and conflict resolution play important roles in social development. Most theorists studying children’s conflict make distinctions between conflict and aggression. Whereas nonaggressive conflict plays a positive role in social development, aggressive exchange often leads to social maladjustment (Killen & Nucci, 1995; Ross & Conant, 1992; Shantz & Hartup, 1992). Optimally, engagement in conflict with their peers provides children with the opportunity to learn about social relationships as well as the maintenance of social order. For example, engaging in conflicts with peers gives children the chance to be exposed to others’ points of view, examine their own opinions in light of others’ views, learn the fundamental skills of compromise and negotiation, learn how to maintain relationships despite differing opinions, and learn about cultural norms as well as concerns of fairness. PEER CONFLICT AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT Theory and empirical research has shown that peer conflicts are particularly important for children’s moral development (Piaget, 1932/1997). Conflicts between peers provide children with the opportunity to debate with someone of equal standing, whereas conflicts with adults involve an aspect of authority that may influence children to acquiesce to adults simply because they are adults. This does not provide children with the chance to fully express themselves or to come to understand others’ viewpoints. The source of conflicts includes moral issues (e.g., pertaining to the rights and welfare of others, such as hitting or not sharing resources and toys); socialconventional and social-organizational concerns (e.g., not listening to the teacher at appropriate times, not following the rules of a game, disagreeing about how to structure a game); personal issues (e.g., dress, appearance, individual choice about friends); and prudential issues (e.g., regarding safety and health, such as not washing one’s hands before lunch). These sources of conflict vary with age in terms of salience and magnitude.

METHODS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION Methods of conflict resolution include dropping of the topic, compromising, bargaining, transforming a conflict into a game, retribution, reconciliation by the instigator of the conflict, adult intervention, appeal to an adult for intervention, threats, bribery, or reconciliation by an observer of the conflict. From a developmental viewpoint, the most constructive methods of conflict resolution among peers include the use of compromising, bargaining, and negotiation. The least constructive methods are insisting on one’s own way, threatening others, and using forms of bribery. Typically, young children drop most conflicts and move on to new activities. Often, young children appeal to adults to intervene in conflicts. The use of bargaining and compromising involves incorporating others’ viewpoints and taking into account nonselfish concerns. Thus, these latter forms of conflict resolution are the most advanced and are socially beneficial for children to use with one another. Research on conflict resolution in early childhood shows that object disputes are the most frequently occurring source of conflict. As children get older, conflicts become increasingly more complex and difficult to resolve, and they involve psychological issues such as exclusion. By adolescence, parent-adolescent conflicts are frequent but involve mostly issues of personal choice (e.g., what clothing to wear, who adolescents can be friends with) rather than issues of morality (e.g., harming others or denying resources to those who deserve it). As types of conflicts become more complex, so do children’s abilities to resolve the conflicts. For instance, as young children’s verbal abilities improve, they are more likely to use verbal opposition in addition to physical opposition in object conflicts. Children’s use of justifications for their opposition to another child’s actions (e.g., “I don’t want you to take that toy because I am still playing with it”) also increases with age, and conflicts are less likely to continue when children justify their opposition. The use of justifications is an important developmental achievement for young children, beginning around 2 years of age. Children resolve conflicts differently depending on the domain of the conflict. Children react to conflicts involving moral issues, such as not sharing toys or teasing others, by referring to principles of fairness and concerns about others’ welfare. In contrast, children react to conventional conflicts by deferring to

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adult intervention. In general, children use different resolutions depending on the context and the presence or absence of teachers and adults. Conflicts between young children are similar across different cultures; the vast majority experience conflicts about sharing resources and harm to others. There is cultural variation, though, in how parents intervene and resolve conflicts with adolescents.

ROLES IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION There are at least five distinct roles that emerge in conflict episodes: instigator, recipient of the instigator’s action, accuser (one who accuses someone else of doing something wrong and is not an instigator or recipient), active observer, and passive observer. Children’s evaluations of conflict episodes differ depending on their roles in the conflict. Research has examined dyadic conflicts in which one child does or says something that another child opposes or objects to or in which an adult (or child) reacts to a child’s violation of a rule. However, interpersonal conflicts can involve more than two people, and coordinating conflict resolutions among triads and groups is much more difficult than between dyads, particularly in early childhood. Coordinating the roles and different viewpoints is difficult from a social and cognitive perspective. APPLICATIONS Conflict and conflict resolution are important experiential sources for children’s social development. Giving children the chance to resolve their own conflicts, without constant adult intervention, provides children with opportunities to construct negotiation skills and to learn how to compromise with others. These opportunities can and should be provided during the course of children’s day-to-day interactions. In addition, technology can be used to give children other occasions to explore the importance of conflict and conflict resolution. For example, the Youth Initiative branch of the Federal Conciliation and Mediation Service agency of the U.S. government is creating a CD-ROM to distribute to all elementary schools in the United States about peer conflict resolution. Developmental psychologists have assisted with this project, providing information about what we know about how children acquire conflict resolution skills. In this way, basic developmental science on conflict

resolution is being applied to an important project in a practical setting (e.g., public schools) to provide children with more opportunities to learn about the positive side of conflict and conflict resolution. —Melanie Killen and Nancy Geyelin Margie

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Killen, M., & Nucci, L. (1995). Morality, autonomy, and social conflict. In M. Killen & D. Hart (Eds.), Morality in everyday life: Developmental perspectives (pp. 52–86). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Piaget, J. (1997). The moral judgment of the child. New York: Free Press. (Original work published 1932) Ross, H. S., & Conant, C. L. (1992). The social structure of early conflict: Interaction, relationships, and alliances. In C. Shantz & W. W. Hartup (Eds.), Conflict in child and adolescent development (pp. 153–185). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Shantz, C., & Hartup, W. W. (1992). (Eds.). Conflict in child and adolescent development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

CORTISOL AND STRESS Research involving infants, children, and adults has generated a body of data pointing to the production and release of cortisol as a biological correlate of human stress reactions. The purpose of this entry is to summarize the physiological processes underlying these connections and to identify a number of fruitful applied directions such research has taken.

CORTISOL AND THE HPA AXIS SYSTEM Cortisol circulates at basal levels to keep the body at a balanced level but becomes elevated in response to stress (Stansbury & Gunnar, 1994). Often, this process is referred to as emotion regulation strategies (Nachmias, Gunnar, Mangelsdorf, Parritz, & Buss, 1996). Emotion regulation strategies serve an important function in stress resistance because of their involvement with the mobilization of resources necessary for action in response to stress. Stress reactivity and adaptation is managed by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis system (Sapolsky, 1992). When the system experiences stress,

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within minutes, the corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CHR) is released from the hypothalamus and travels to the pituitary (Brown, 2000). Once it arrives at the pituitary, it stimulates the release of andrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). ACTH is quickly released into the general circulation. When it reaches the adrenal glands, ACTH stimulates the production and release of cortisol. This process of hormone release is known as the stress response (Brown, 2000). The HPA system is regulated in part via central glucocorticoid negative feedback. This occurs because cortisol is a steroid hormone and is allowed to freely cross the blood-brain barrier. Circulating cortisol is able to regulate its own production and release by inhibiting the production of CHR and ACTH (Sapolsky, 1992). In effect, cortisol is the primary means of regulating the HPA response to stress and is the end product of this process; as a result, researchers use it as a marker. PSYCHOLOGICAL RISKS OF ELEVATED CORTISOL LEVELS While short-term elevated cortisol levels can be crucial in preparing humans for danger, elevated cortisol levels that occur over an extended period of time can have a detrimental effect on the body. Individuals suffering from prolonged exposure to cortisol may also be at heightened risk for a variety of negative health problems, including depression, hippocampal atrophy, cognitive impairment, abdominal obesity, postpartum stress, and loss of bone density (Brown, Varghese, & McEwen, 2004). Various studies have shown that one of the possible effects of long-term cortisol exposure is damage to the area of the brain that is involved with learning and memory (Sapolsky, 1985). Coe, Rosenberg, and Levine (1988) found that sustained, elevated cortisol levels can result in impaired immune functioning. Therefore, it is important to study the mechanisms that influence cortisol, to help prevent negative physiological outcomes. Recent studies have found an interaction between stressful events and vulnerability for depression (Heim & Nemeroff, 1999). This interaction may have a crucial role in the onset of depression. The biological abnormalities that are most often found in depressed individuals involve deviations in hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal axis functioning (Sapolsky, 1992). About half of patients with depression exhibit elevated cortisol levels (Brown et al., 2004).

There are overlapping medical problems exhibited by individuals with Cushing’s disease and individuals with depression. Cushing’s disease is an illness characterized by ACTH-secreting pituitary tumors. As a result of the pituitary tumors, this illness has been associated with cortisol elevation. These commonalities in medical illnesses have provided evidence of the detrimental effects of elevated cortisol (Brown et al., 2004). During pregnancy, the hypothalamus-pituitarythyroid (HPT) and HPA axes undergo the most change in a nonpathological state. In late pregnancy, cortisol levels are elevated well above normal ranges. Stressors during pregnancy are expected to alter the levels of different hormones and could affect fetal development. By 6 weeks postpartum, cortisol levels return to normal for all women (Pedersen et al., 1993). However, studies examining the psychological correlates of cortisol during pregnancy have been limited.

CONCLUSIONS While the short-term release of cortisol can be a crucial stress response to prepare humans for danger, its long-term consequences may be harmful to human health. Elevated cortisol levels have been linked to a variety of negative health problems, including depression, hippocampal atrophy, cognitive impairment, abdominal obesity, postpartum stress, and loss of bone density. These findings suggest that preventing longterm elevated cortisol levels is an important strategy in maintaining human health. Thus, further research should study the mechanisms that influence cortisol, to help prevent negative physiological outcomes. —Elise Christiansen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brown, E. S., Varghese, F. P., & McEwen, B. S. (2004). Association of depression with medical illness: Does cortisol play a role? Biological Psychiatry, 55, 1–9. Brown, L. L. (2000). The cortisol response to psychosocial stress in women at risk for depression. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 61, 6125. Coe, C. L., Rosenberg, L. T., & Levine, S. (1988). Immunological consequences of psychological disturbance and maternal loss in infancy. Advances in Infancy Research, 5, 97–134.

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Heim, C., & Nemeroff, C. (1999). The impact of early adverse experiences on brain systems involved in the pathophysiology of anxiety and affective disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 46, 1509–1522. Nachmias, N., Gunnar, N., Mangelsdorf, S., Parritz, R., & Buss, K. (1996). Behavioral inhibition and stress reactivity: The moderating role of attachment security. Child Development, 67, 508–522. Pedersen, C. A., Stern, R. A., Pate, J., Senger, M. A., Bowes, W. A., & Mason, G. A. (1993). Thyroid and adrenal measures during late pregnancy and the puerperium in women who have been major depressed or who become dysphoric postpartum. Journal of Affective Disorders, 29, 201–211. Sapolsky, R. M. (1985). The neuroendocrinology of stress and aging. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 45, 2458. Sapolsky, R. M. (1992). Behavioral endocrinology. Cambridge: MIT Press. Stansbury, K., & Gunnar, M. (1994). Adrenocortical activity and emotion regulation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 250–283.

CÔTÉ, JAMES E. James E. Côté was born in 1953 and was raised in a small-town Canadian setting in a working-class, Catholic family. He was the first in his bloodline to attend university and is now a professor of sociology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His own life course trajectories through religious denominations, social classes, educational settings, academic disciplines, and professional contexts have shaped his scholarly contributions, which focus on identity formation, education-work transitions, and the transition to adulthood. As a sociologist, he has endeavored to understand societal contexts not as variables but in terms of the “big picture” that sets the parameters for people’s lives, both in terms of opportunities (doors open to people of a given identity) and obstacles (doors closed because of “who one is”). His commitment to understanding the impact of the larger societal context on people’s potential has necessarily involved taking political stances that are not always popular to the mainstream, but which he feels he is morally obligated to take in view of his research-based insights. During his childhood, Côté attended a Catholic primary school, where he was groomed for the priesthood. The special attention he received from the nuns teaching him gave him a push in relation to his peers

in public speaking and essay-writing skills. His heavy involvement in the Catholic Church as an alter boy gave him confidence in public performance as well as exposure to role models of moral leadership. These school and church experiences stood in contrast to working-class family life, where “little boys are to be seen and not heard.” In early adolescence, the secure and normatively supported trajectory to the clergy was broken by a crisis of faith, undoubtedly associated with the development of formal operational-thinking capacities. This religious identity crisis was resolved relatively quickly, but the structure of his character remained— in search of new moral content that was more meaningful to the world he saw around him. Secondary school was a mixed experience. The school was large and impersonal, without the opportunities for meaningful involvement he had experienced in the Catholic primary school. Like so many other teenagers, this type of experience was quite alienating, with much of the curriculum unchallenging and without apparent purpose. But after a variety of personal experiments, Côté found himself once again in a small academic setting, this time an excellent liberal arts college, with caring professors who encouraged free thought concerning moral and political issues. It was while doing his honors BA in psychology and sociology as joint majors that Côté discovered Erik Erikson’s work, helping him to make sense of how his own life was unfolding. He read as much of Erikson’s work as he could, even during breaks when he worked in factories during summers to pay for his tuition and living expenses. His honors BA thesis constituted his first attempt to integrate psychological and sociological perspectives on identity, and it set the stage for much of his subsequent research, culminating in an MA in 1981 and a PhD in 1984. Like Erikson, he found mainstream psychology to be too theoretically narrow and technique oriented, and instead, he did both of his advanced degrees in sociology, in which he found greater tolerance for interdisciplinary work. Since the mid-1980s, Côté has maintained his focus on identity formation within the context of the transition to adulthood. He has also continued to use his own personal experiences as sources of insight. For example, he conducted studies on the religious socialization of academics (Côté & Levine, 1992), finding that a significant proportion of professors reported an intense primary socialization into

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a religion, with a truncated trajectory toward the clergy, especially those in the humanistic disciplines (about 1 in 3). In addition, he has addressed the difficulties associated with the transition to adulthood, including of those who do not have the opportunity to attend institutions of higher learning—sometimes referred to as the “forgotten half” (Côté, 2000; Côté & Allahar, 1996). His work on the transition to adulthood has attempted to correct the bias in much developmental work that “psychologizes” problems that more rightly can be seen as contextually significant, as the youth segment has lost some of its social legitimacy and bargaining power. He believes that this bias in adolescent psychology tends to glorify (Western) societal contexts and blame young people who encounter difficulties, when there is ample evidence that the transition to adulthood is now fraught with distinctive risks, especially for those unprepared by early family life and primary socialization. Côté’s entries in this encyclopedia can be seen in the above light. For example, his work on the identity capital model can be seen in part in terms of his own experiences with moving among various social contexts where one is judged on the basis of “who one is.” Making the transition from the working-class to middle-class professional life can be difficult, and subsequent life in a middle-class occupation is not necessarily problem free in terms of, for example, deeply ingrained behavior patterns and the expectations of colleagues regarding personal deportment. Those who change social classes must learn many things as adults that are taken for granted by those whose primary socialization has better prepared them for middle-class careers (e.g., parents who were professors or other professionals). Those who begin new lives in different social contexts are acutely aware of many things that others take for granted, and they should particularly appreciate the identity capital model. In addition, Côté’s work on the integrated paradigm of student development likewise reflects the experience of how personal effort can help one transcend what for others are structural barriers. While Western societies continue to present barriers associated with social class and other identity-based characteristics, they can also be open enough to allow some people to overcome those barriers. Higher-educational settings can be “open” in this sense, and Côté’s research shows that one person’s barrier can be

another person’s opportunity. The “openness” of these settings are selective, however, and the person’s motivation and behavior can be all-important in determining how these settings are experienced and what benefits are derived from them. At this stage in his career, Côté has turned to generative concerns, trying to give back to the profession and help others in their journeys to an academic career. Currently, he is founding editor of Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research and president (2003–2005) of the Society for Research on Identity Formation (SRIF). In addition, he serves on the executive board of the International Sociological Association Research Committee (34) on the Sociology of Youth and is editor of their newsletter, the International Bulletin of Youth Research (http:// www.alli.fi/youth/ research/ibyr/). To date, Côté has authored or coauthored five books, including Adolescent Storm and Stress: An Evaluation of the Mead-Freeman Controversy (1994) and Identity Formation, Agency, and Culture: A Social Psychological Synthesis (with Levine, 2002), as well as more than two dozen journal articles, including “A Social History of Youth in Samoa: Religion, Capitalism, and Cultural Disenfranchisement”; “A Formulation of Erikson’s Theory of Ego Identity Formation”; “Comparing Psychological and Sociological Approaches to Identity: Identity Status, Identity Capital, and the Individualization Process”; and “Foundations of a Psychoanalytic Social Psychology: Neo-Eriksonian Propositions Regarding the Relationship Between Psychic Structure and Cultural Institutions.” He teaches courses in the Sociology of Youth, Society and Identity, Social Psychology, Socialization, Problems of Mass Society, and the Sociology of Education. —James E. Côté

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Côté, J. E. (1994). Adolescent storm and stress: An evaluation of the Mead/Freeman controversy. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Côté, J. E. (2000). Arrested adulthood: The changing nature of identity and maturity in the late-modern world. New York: New York University Press. Côté, J. E., & Allahar, A. (1996). Generation on hold: Coming of age in the late twentieth century. New York: New York University Press. Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. (1992). The genesis of the humanistic academic: A second test of Erikson’s theory of ego identity formation. Youth & Society, 23, 387–410.

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Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. (2002). Identity formation, agency, and culture. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

CREATIVITY. See GIFTEDNESS, AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN CRIME. See CRIMINALIZATION AND MENTAL ILLNESS; DELINQUENCY; DELINQUENT DEVELOPMENT, THE CAMBRIDGE STUDY

CHANGES IN THE SOCIAL MILIEU Three sociocultural factors have set the stage for the criminalization of persons with mental illness (Teplin, 1984): (1) deinstitutionalization, (2) modifications to patients’ rights regarding psychiatric treatment and commitment, and (3) insufficient or inaccessible community services. Each has brought mentally ill persons increasingly into the community, where they have come to the attention (and become the responsibility) of law enforcement officials (Teplin, 1983, 1984). Deinstitutionalization

CRIMINALIZATION AND MENTAL ILLNESS Criminalization of the mentally ill refers to the process whereby individuals with mental disorders are shunted into the criminal justice system instead of being treated within the mental health system (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998; Teplin, 1983). The term “criminalization of mental-disordered behavior” was first used by Abramson in 1972 to describe his observations that persons with mental illness seemed increasingly likely to be arrested for minor crimes (Abramson, 1972). However, there has since developed some inconsistency over the use of the term (Steury, 1991). It is unclear whether the term criminalization refers only to those mentally ill persons who commit misdemeanors or to those who commit any kind of crime, including serious crime (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998). It is also unclear when the term should be applied: Does it happen at the point of arrest (e.g., Steadman, Cocozza, & Melick, 1978; Teplin, 1984), after prosecution (e.g., Arvanites, 1988; Hochstedler, 1986), or at the point of incarceration (e.g., Steadman & Ribner, 1980)? Finally, studies differ in their definition of mental disorders. The best studies use objective definitions based on symptoms and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria. Others rely on the police officer’s identification of mental disorder, which may skew results. For this entry, criminalization is defined as applying to those persons with mental illness “who are arrested, with or without jail detention, and prosecuted for minor offenses instead of being placed in the mental health system” (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998).

Within the past 50 years, the emphasis on treating individuals with mental illness has shifted away from long-stay or institutionalized care to communitybased care (Lamb & Bachrach, 2001). In 1955, when the number of psychiatric inpatients was at its highest in the United States, 559,000 persons were institutionalized on any given day, out of a total population of 165 million. By 1994, the number of persons institutionalized had been reduced to 72,000, out of a total U.S. population of 250 million (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998). The overall result of deinstitutionalization is that individuals who would have once been committed to long-stay psychiatric hospitals are now increasingly residing within the community (Green, 1997; Lamb & Bachrach, 2001; Teplin, 1983). Due to the paucity of research prior to deinstitutionalization, it is difficult to establish whether increases in the number of mentally ill persons processed in the criminal system are directly related to deinstitutionalization (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998). However, large numbers of mentally ill persons do reside in jails and prisons; long-term hospitalization or institutionalization is no longer available; and clinicians have noted that many of the individuals with mental illness currently in our jails resemble the institutionalized patients of past decades (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998).

Modifications to Patients’ Rights Modifications to the legal code regarding patients’ rights have resulted in more stringent civil commitment criteria, much shorter inpatient stays, and specific release dates (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998; Teplin, 1984). Patients also have the right to refuse treatment.

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A typical component of severe and persistent mental illness is a failure to appreciate the severity of the illness and to recognize a need for treatment; subsequently, many choose to go without services and reside in the community (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998). Insufficient or Inaccessible Community Services In the years following deinstitutionalization, community-based services designed as alternatives to hospitalization have been in many instances insufficient or, at best, fragmented (Lamb & Bachrach, 2001; Lamb & Weinberger, 1998; Teplin, 1983, 1984). Due to reduced funding, many community services lack resources to provide structured environments or adequate housing and are unable to aggressively extend community outreach to patients (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998; Teplin, 1983; Wachholz & Mullaly, 1993). Indeed, a recent report by the Office of the Surgeon General found that the majority of individuals with specific mental disorders do not receive treatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Because the mental health system is reluctant to treat individuals with a history of violence or criminal behavior or who are considered “dangerous,” community services are often inaccessible to these patients (Teplin, 1983). In addition, many individuals with mental illness receive inadequate community linkage after release from jail or prison and are unable to access appropriate services (Lamb & Bachrach, 2001; Lamb & Weinberger, 1998). Deemed too dangerous to treat yet not dangerous enough to be involuntarily committed (Bowden, 1978), these individuals fall through the cracks of the mental health system and, instead, enter the criminal justice system (Teplin, 1983). The net result of these factors has been to increase the number of mentally ill individuals, often untreated, who live within the community (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998; Teplin, 1983). Unfortunately, society’s tolerance for these individuals and their behavior is limited, especially given the stereotype of the “dangerous” patient and the sometimes bizarre behavior that can accompany severe mental illness (Teplin, 1983). As a result, many residents in the community frequently summon the police to deal with individuals with mental illness (Husted, Charter, & Perrou, 1995; Lamb, Weinberger, & DeCuir, 2002; Teplin & Pruett, 1992).

POLICE HANDLING OF THE MENTALLY ILL The police are frequently the first line of contact with mentally ill persons and are increasingly recognized as critical to the management of these individuals (Lamb et al., 2002). Nicknames like the “street-corner psychiatrist” (Husted et al., 1995; Teplin & Pruett, 1992) and “forensic gatekeepers” (Menzies, 1987) suggest the acknowledged unofficial role police officers fulfill. Two legal principles direct police involvement with the mentally ill: to protect the safety of the public and to act as parens patriae, protecting individuals with disabilities who cannot protect themselves (Teplin, 2000; Teplin & Pruett, 1992). Police officers must decide whether, when dealing with mentally ill persons, the appropriate course of action is to arrest or to obtain emergency hospitalization or mental health treatment. This decision process is impeded in a variety of ways. First, the police may not recognize an individual as mentally ill, due to a lack of training, the context at hand, or attributing symptoms of illness to substance abuse (Lamb & Weinberger, 1998). In instances where the police do recognize that the appropriate action is to divert the mentally ill person to treatment, they may still choose to arrest. Stricter civil commitment criteria have made diverting these mentally ill “offenders” to alternative appropriate services much more difficult (Teplin, 1983, 1984). Similarly, the lack of available alternatives for these individuals makes arrest a viable option, a process called “mercy booking” (Lamb et al., 2002). If the police do choose diversion to the mental health system, this process may be impeded by bureaucratic obstacles, such as long waits in emergency rooms or police judgment questioned by emergency room clinicians; the individual ultimately may not be admitted (Teplin, 1984). Faced with few good options, the police may choose to arrest with the hope that an appropriate disposition will result. Once involved in the criminal justice system, however, there is no guarantee that the mentally ill individual will receive evaluation and treatment by a mental health provider attached to the jail or courts. For example, Teplin, Abram, and McClelland (1997) found that less than a quarter of females and just over a third of males (Teplin, 1990) received needed services. The criminal justice system has few exclusionary criteria and has become “the system that can’t say no” (Teplin, 1983, 1984).

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CONCLUSIONS There are several interconnected structural factors that may place individuals with mental illness at risk for criminalization. With an increased presence in the community, compounded by unavailable or inaccessible treatment and an intolerant community, these individuals come into contact with the police, for whom few appropriate options exist except to arrest. —Katherine S. Elkington and Linda A. Teplin

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Abramson, M. F. (1972). The criminalization of mentally disordered behavior: Possible side-effect of a new mental health law. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 23, 101–105. Arvanites, K. (1988). The impact of state mental hospital deinstitutionalization on commitments for incompetency to stand trial. Criminology, 26, 307–320. Bowden, P. (1978). Men remanded into custody for medical reports: The outcome of treatment recommendation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 1045–1048. Green, T. M. (1997). Police as frontline mental health workers: The decision to arrest or refer to mental health agencies. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 20, 469–486. Hochstedler, E. (1986). Criminal prosecution of the mentally disordered. Law and Society Review, 20, 279–292. Husted, J. R., Charter, R. A., & Perrou, M. A. (1995). California law enforcement agencies and the mentally ill offender. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 23, 315–329. Lamb, H. R., & Bachrach, L. L. (2001). Some perspectives on deinstitutionalization. Psychiatric Services, 52, 1039–1045. Lamb, H. R., & Weinberger, L. E. (1998). Persons with severe mental illness in jails and prisons: A review. Psychiatric Services, 49, 483–492. Lamb, H. R., Weinberger, L. E., & DeCuir, W. J. (2002). The police and mental health. Psychiatric Services, 53, 1266–1271. Menzies, R. J. (1987). Psychiatrists in blue: Police apprehension of mental disorder and dangerousness. Criminology, 25, 429–453. Steadman, H. J., Cocozza, J. J., & Melick, M. E. (1978). Explaining the increased arrest rate among mental patients: The changing clientele of state hospitals. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 816–820. Steadman, H. J., & Ribner, S. (1980). Changing perceptions of the mental health needs of inmates in local jails. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1115–1116. Steury, E. H. (1991). Specifying “criminalization” of the mentally disordered misdemeanant. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 82, 334–359.

Teplin, L. A. (1983). Criminalization of the mentally ill: Speculation in search of data. Psychological Bulletin, 94, 54–67. Teplin, L. A. (1984). Criminalizing mental disorder: The comparative arrest rate of the mentally ill. American Psychologist, 39, 794–803. Teplin, L. A. (1990). Detecting disorder: The treatment of mental illness among jail detainees. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 233–236. Teplin, L. A. (2000, July). Keeping the peace: Police discretion and mentally ill persons. National Institute of Justice Journal, 9–15. Teplin, L. A., Abram, K. A., & McClelland, G. M. (1997). Mentally disordered women in jail: Who receives services? American Journal of Public Health, 87, 604–609. Teplin, L. A., & Pruett, N. S. (1992). Police as street corner psychiatrists: Managing the mentally ill. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 15, 139–156. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1999). Mental health: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. Wachholz, S., & Mullaly, R. (1993). Policing the deinstitutionalized mentally ill: Toward an understanding of its function. Crime, Law and Social Change, 19, 281–300.

CRITICAL-PERIOD HYPOTHESIS The critical period or sensitive period refers to a limited time span usually early in the life cycle, during which a certain kind of experience will have a profound impact on future structure and function (Bailey, Bruer, Symons, & Lichtman, 2001; Bornstein, 1987, 1988; Colombo, 1982). Critical periods are rarely brief and seldom sharply defined. Instead, during a sensitive period, the impact of the experience peaks and then gradually declines. Sensitive period effects are not necessarily permanent and irreversible, but rather, many are modifiable or even reversible. Sensitive-period research is relevant to biology, psychology, and sociology, and the concept has been applied to explaining development of cells, of human beings, and of institutions (Bornstein, 1987). Furthermore, sensitive periods have been seen as relevant to studies of brain and bodily structure, and they function across phylogenies as well as in studies of survival, social, and mental competence in infrahuman animals and in human beings.

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The goal for studying critical periods from an applied practice and policy perspective is to improve the health and welfare of children whose development may be at risk. By understanding what we know and do not know about early development from both a brain and behavior perspective, informed and rational interventions designed to alter development can be tested. Although opportunities for influence continue throughout the life span, they begin during early childhood. Thus, early childhood constitutes a period during which close attention should be paid to what children experience and how these experiences shape later development. HISTORY AND CLAIMS The sensitive-period hypothesis was first developed in experimental embryology. In the 1920s, Charles Stockard (1907, 1921) found that specific birth defects occurred in fish when normal development was disturbed by exposure to extreme temperatures and toxic chemicals during a particular stage as a specific embryonic organ was developing. Similarly, Hans Spemann (1938) discovered that at a particular time in their ontogeny, certain cells transplanted from one site in the embryo to another site matured like cells at the new site, but at other times, the cells developed as they would have at their original site in the embryo. On this basis, the idea was advanced that the various parts of the whole organism (e.g., various organs or organ systems) emerge in a fixed sequence, with a limited amount of time allowed for each part to develop. Any part that does not develop normally or appropriately during its own critical period will not have another chance. The focus of development will shift to another organ system in accordance with the predetermined timetable of development, which will then be in its critical period. Konrad Lorenz (1937) introduced the notion of the critical period into studies of animal and, eventually, human behavior. In his work on imprinting in birds, Lorenz observed that hatchlings of certain bird species fixated, or imprinted, on the first large moving object they saw, and then followed that object around as they would normally follow their mothers. Within a few days of hatching, though, this tendency to imprint ceased to exist. Lorenz found that the features of imprinting were analogous to features Spemann had identified in embryological development, such that environmental influences had effects confined to

limited periods of development, and in both cases, the results were irreversible. Lorenz’s studies of imprinting in birds gave rise to research in a variety of animal behaviors, ranging from sociability in dogs to emotional development in monkeys. Others extended these ideas to human development, including sensitive periods in human socioemotional development, the establishment of secure attachments between infant and caregiver, development of the visual system, and the acquisition of language. Behavioral scientists now have sufficient evidence to seriously weaken Lorenz’s original claims. Decades of research have shown that critical-period effects are not necessarily permanent and irreversible. Criticalperiod phenomena, from imprinting to the development of the visual system and language to the effects of maternal deprivation, have been shown to be, if not totally, at least substantially reversible. For example, to test the sensitive-period hypothesis for language development, researchers have tracked the recovery of severely abused children who experienced little human contact in childhood. The most thorough study is of Genie, a child isolated at 20 months of age in the back room of her parents’ house and not discovered until she was 13½ years old (Curtiss, 1977, 1989). Genie’s early environment was deprived of linguistic and emotional contact. Over several years of training with caregivers, Genie’s language developed but not nearly to the same extent as that of normal children. This case suggests that first-language learning in humans has a peak time for development, which then gradually weakens. A similar finding showed that isolation in the first 12 months of the monkey’s life results in severely maladjusted social behaviors. “Therapy,” however, at a later time can improve unfavorable effects to a degree and encourage more appropriate species-normal behaviors (Harlow & Harlow, 1969). The sensitive period involves longer, imprecise intervals of time, when specific types of experiences have particularly pronounced effects on development, still allowing that these effects might be modifiable or reversible by subsequent experience. CHARACTERISTICS OF SENSITIVE PERIODS There is no all-encompassing theory of the sensitive period. However, most researchers of sensitive periods, despite their diverse and specialized subjects of investigation, seem to recognize, first, the existence, function, and prominence of several characteristics of

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the sensitive period and, second, the importance of specifying their quantitative and qualitative makeup. A framework of structural characteristics and causal interpretations allows one to consider the sensitive period in general. The sensitive period is comprehensively described by at least 14 distinguishing, essential, and defining structural characteristics, which may be categorized into four distinct sets (Bornstein, 1988). The first set describes temporal and intensive contours of the sensitive period and includes information about (1) when and how often in the life cycle the sensitive period occurs, (2) the rise of the sensitive period, (3) the decay of the sensitive period, (4) the window of the sensitive period, and (5) the stability of sensitivity and how it changes. The second group describes the mechanisms involved in sensitiveperiod change: (6) the nature and origins of the effective experience, (7) what structure or function changes, and (8) the channels by which experience affects the structure or function that changes. The third set examines consequences: (9) the outcome in later development, (10) how the outcome is affected, (11) when and under what circumstances the outcome occurs, and (12) how long the outcome lasts. The fourth set takes into account evolutionary and ontogenetic time scales: (13) individual and species variation in sensitive-period characteristics and (14) the modifiability of the individual parameters of the sensitive period. MEANING OF SENSITIVE PERIODS Interpretations of the evolutionary meaning of sensitive periods vary (why the sensitive period arises), as do attributions of sources by which sensitive periods are regulated (how the sensitive period is regulated) (Bateson, 1979, 1983a; Bateson & Hinde, 1987). There are two perspectives from which to view the evolutionary meaning of the sensitive period. The first perspective is constructive and positive and states that this “optimal” period prepares the system for its developmental future. Most sensitive periods appear in the infancy of the organism because the organism at that stage can quickly and fully attain information that is critical and typical of its physical and social environment and is thought to enhance the probability of survival and the achievement of adaptive competence. The second perspective suggests that the sensitive period is also a “vulnerable” period, in which extreme and sometimes permanent detrimental effects can

result from brief experiences very early in the life of an organism. Conditions that are necessary or standard for development but are not met or atypical circumstances that are encountered at random place the organism at risk, which may facilitate or handicap the organism throughout its life span. Identifying the mechanism that regulates a sensitive period is vital, as it reveals how and why sensitive periods arise, endure, and decay. Sensitive periods could be regulated by physical (e.g., variation in genetics and biomolecular process), physiological (e.g., variation in state of arousal, anatomy, or perceptual capacity), or psychological (e.g., variation in behavior) mechanisms. Pinpointing the mechanisms of sensitive periods, however, has proved a challenge to investigators because systematic experimentation is the only method for clarifying the nature of causal explanation for the sensitive period. —Kate Hill and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bailey, D. B., Bruer, J. T., Symons, F. J., & Lichtman, J. W. (Eds.). (2001). Critical thinking about critical periods. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Bateson, P. (1979). How do sensitive periods arise and what are they for? Animal Behaviour, 27, 470–486. Bateson, P. (1983a). The interpretation of sensitive periods. In A. Oliverio & M. Zappella (Eds.), The behavior of human infants (pp. 57–70). New York: Plenum. Bateson, P. (1983b). Sensitive periods in behavioral development. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 58, 85–86. Bateson, P., & Hinde, R. A. (1987). Developmental changes in sensitivity to experience. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Sensitive periods in development: Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 19–34). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.). (1987). Sensitive periods in development: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H. (1988). Sensitive periods in development: Structural characteristics and causal interpretations. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 179–197. Colombo, J. (1982). The critical period concept: Research, methodology, and theoretical issues. Psychological Bulletin, 9, 260–275. Curtiss, S. (1977). Genie: A psycholinguistic study of modernday “wild child.” New York: Academic Press. Curtiss, S. (1989). The independence and task-specificity of language. In M. H. Bornstein & J. S. Bruner (Eds.), Interaction in human development (pp. 105–137). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Harlow, H. F., & Harlow, M. K. (1969). Effects of various mother-infant relationships on rhesus monkey behaviors.

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In B. M. Foss (Ed.), Determinants of infant behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 15–36). London: Methuen. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lorenz, K. (1937). The companion in the bird’s world. The Auk, 54, 245–273. Novak, M. A., & Harlow, H. F. (1975). Social recovery of monkeys isolated for the first year of life: I. Rehabilitation and therapy. Developmental Psychology, 11, 453–465. Spemann, H. (1938). Embryonic development and induction. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Stockard, C. R. (1907). The artificial production of a single median cyclopean eye in the fish embryo by means of seawater solutions of magnesium chloride. Archiv für Entwicklungsmechanik, 28, 249. Stockard, C. R. (1921). Developmental rate and structural expression: An expression study of twins, “double monsters,” and single deformities and their interaction among embryonic organs during their origins and development. American Journal of Anatomy, 28, 115–275.

assumes that disease is caused by pathogenic elements within biological structures (e.g., bacteria, virus infection, a broken leg) (Armstrong & Swartzman, 2001). The treatment goal is to identify the abnormal elements in the body and to remove or control the source of illness by physical surgery and medication. NON-WESTERN BIOMEDICAL MODELS

The maintenance of good health is a vital concern for people of all cultures. Despite the universal recognition of the importance of health, the conceptualization and strategies to achieve optimal health are culturally dependent, varying widely across cultural contexts. The United States is a multicultural society, in which ethnic minorities constitute approximately 30% of the current total population. This ethnic “minority” population is projected to constitute almost 50% of the total population by 2050 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). With this rapid increase in the cultural diversity of our society, it is crucial to understand how culture influences people’s lives in relation to health. This entry discusses how culture relates to the conceptualization of health, treatment modality, the epidemiology of disease, and healthseeking behaviors.

In contrast to the Western biomedical model, the most widely cited definition of health developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the conceptualization of health according to various non-Western cultural models take a more holistic approach. The WHO (1948) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The arrays of different non-Western cultural approaches around the world are generally consistent in conceptualizing health as a state of harmony with forces of various internal and external elements, within not only the body but also the mind, the spiritual, as well as the natural, and even the supernatural environment that surrounds them. According to these non-Western cultural models, illness occurs when the balance between these forces is disrupted, and the treatment goal is to restore the balance (Mulatu & Berry, 2001). Yin and yang, according to indigenous Chinese culture, and the Hispanic view of health involving the concept of “hot” and “cold” are examples of this balance theory. These theories divide elements that make up the internal and external world into two opposing forces. When one force within and around the individual is excessively dominant in its relation to the other force, the balance is disrupted and leads to poor health. This imbalance may be reinstated by eating foods that contain the subdominant force and using alternative treatment practices, such as acupuncture, moxibustion (e.g., chiropractic, physical massaging, cupping), and herbal remedies.

THE WESTERN BIOMEDICAL MODEL

ALTERNATIVE HEALTH PRACTICES

At present, the predominant theory of health officially taught and practiced in major medical institutions in the United States and most industrialized countries is based on the Western biomedical model. According to this model, health is defined as the absence of disease. Relying heavily on physiology, anatomy, and biochemistry, the biomedical approach

Alternative health practices derived from nonWestern cultural models have gained popularity and acceptance in the United States in recent years. More people, regardless of their ethnicity, use some forms of alternative medical practices fully or as a part of their health treatment. The wider acceptance of alternative medical practices is also evident in the facts

CULTURE AND HEALTH

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that the increasing number of insurance and managed care systems have started to include coverage for alternative medical practices and that most major U.S. medical schools and institutions currently offer classes on alternative medicine. In sum, the conceptualization of health in different cultural groups often emphasizes the balance among various forces not only within individual physiology but also encompassing social, emotional, environmental, and spiritual factors. The alternative health practices derived from these theories are increasingly accepted and incorporated into the Western medical models. CULTURE, LIFESTYLE, AND HEALTH Culture also relates to the development of disease via its influences on an individual’s lifestyle and behaviors, such as one’s diet, physical exercise, and risk-taking behaviors (e.g., alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking). An individual’s psychological characteristics, interpersonal styles, and psychosocial stressors (all influenced by culture) also contribute to the development of disease. For example, some psychological factors, such as depression and anger, are found to relate to higher rates of coronary heart disease. These factors, in turn, are frequently associated with individualistic cultures such as that of the United States, which is generally characterized by its cultural emphasis on competitiveness and self-assertion. This may partially explain the higher rate of coronary heart disease found in the United States compared with collectivistic cultures, such as Japan, which emphasizes cooperation and social support. The relationship between culture and the epidemiology of disease is obviously intertwined with other variables, such as socioeconomic status, geographical location, and other sociocultural influences. The disparity in rates of health problems, such as coronary heart disease, provides an indication of how culture affects the development of diseases. CULTURE AND HEALTH-SEEKING BEHAVIORS Culture is also found to influence health-seeking behaviors, which, in turn, relate to an individual’s health status. Ethnic minority groups in the United States are consistently found to use health care services less frequently compared with European Americans. This may partially explain the higher rate among ethnic minority groups of some leading health

problems, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). The general trends toward lower socioeconomic status and less likelihood of having health insurance coverage among many ethnic minority groups are often discussed as contributing to lower rates of health care access and use. Research, however, indicates that disparity in use of health care remains even after controlling for socioeconomic status and health insurance coverage (Leclere, Jensen, & Biddlecom, 1994). This finding suggests that cultural differences in conceptualizations of health and treatment modalities may be major factors that are often overlooked in explaining the underuse of health care services among ethnic minority groups. Other cultural reasons are suggested to influence the underuse of health care service by ethnic minority groups. Different interpersonal communication styles may cause discomfort and mistrust toward health care providers among ethnic minority groups. For example, most health care workers tend to address clients by their first names, regardless of the patient’s age. This may be considered disrespectful for members of some ethnic groups, such as first-generation Asians or older African Americans (Flack et al., 1995). Furthermore, people from collectivistic cultures tend to adhere to the circumspect and indirect communication styles because of cultural emphasis on interpersonal harmony (Armstrong & Swartzman, 2001). These people may find physicians’ direct questioning about personal information intrusive. In sum, health-seeking behavior is intricately linked with cultural influences on clients’ beliefs about health and treatment and their interpersonal behavioral and communication patterns.

CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, culture plays a crucial role in determining one’s health status, through its influence on the conceptualization of health, treatment modality, development of disease, and health-seeking behavior. For a culturally pluralistic society such as the United States it is imperative to understand the role of culture in the maintenance of good health and to develop culturally relevant treatments and interventions to promote healthy lives for diverse individuals. —Miyuki Takagi and Linda Juang

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Armstrong, T. L., & Swartzman, L. C. (2001). Cross-cultural differences in illness models and expectations for the health care provider-client/patient interaction. In S. S. Kazarian & D. R. Evans (Eds.), Handbook of cultural health psychology (pp. 63–112). San Diego: Academic Press. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2003). About minority health. Office of Minority Health. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/omh/AMH/AMH.htm Flack, J. M., Amaro, H., Jenkins, W., Kunitz, S., Levy, J., Mixon, M., et al. (1995). Panel I: Epidemiology of minority health. Health Psychology, 14, 592–600. Leclere, F. B., Jensen, L., & Biddlecom, A. E. (1994). Health care utilization, family context, and adaptation among immigrants to the United States. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 35, 370–384. Mulatu, M. S., & Berry, J. W. (2001). Health care practice in a multicultural context: Western and non-Western assumptions. In S. S. Kazarian & D. R. Evans (Eds.), Handbook of cultural health psychology (pp. 45–84). San Diego: Academic Press. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). National population projections. Population Division and Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. Available at http://www .census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/natproj.html. World Health Organization. (1948). Constitution of the World Health Organization. Geneva: Author.

CULTURE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Three major conceptualizations of the relation between culture and human development are discussed in this entry. According to one orientation, culture mediates development; sociocultural context affects the origin, development, nature, or functioning of behavior. According to a second approach, “the cultural mind,” the mind is claimed to have a cultural bent. Some behaviors are not the result of a developmental process, but rather represent cultural categories of mind. According to a third approach, “culture as frames of meaning,” culture is seen to be constituted by the person as an intentional agent. Persons construct and interpret experience in terms of meaning-imbued, culture-specific understandings or frames. Development consists in the accrual of these cultural frames. Human development will be discussed in this entry in terms of selected aspects of cognitive and social development. Sociocultural context is

defined broadly to include social interaction, schooling, literacy, technology, cultural symbol systems (e.g., language), and cultural practices (e.g., jobs). CULTURE MEDIATES DEVELOPMENT Several theories of cognitive and social development view sociocultural context as affecting the origin, development, nature, or functioning of behavior. Cognitive Development: Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory The social origin of cognition was proposed by the Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–1934). Vygotsky proposed the “General Genetic Law of Cultural Development,” which describes an internalization process: Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological), and then inside the child (intrapsychological). . . . All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals. (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57; emphasis in original) Vygotksy (1962) studied the internalization of language because he believed that language, a cultural symbol system, affects cognitive functioning. Language is first used between people (the social level) and serves a communicative function. However, language develops along a second line. It becomes internalized as inner speech (individual level) around 7 to 8 years of age and serves an intraindividual cognitive function. Language, when internalized, guides our thinking, planning, and action. Accordingly, the concept of “mediated activity” is central in Vygotsky’s (1978) theory. We create and use cultural symbol systems or “signs” (e.g., tying a knot, language) as means of solving psychological problems (e.g., remembering, planning). The sign acts as an instrument of psychological activity as the tool does in labor. The notion of mediated activity makes Vygotsky’s cultural theory different from biological accounts of development: Just as the first use of tools refutes the notion that development represents the mere unfolding

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of the child’s organically predetermined system of activity, so the first use of signs demonstrates that there cannot be a single organically predetermined internal system of activity that exists for each psychological function. (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 55) A classic study of culture’s mediation of cognition was by Luria (1979), in the 1930s. The development of abstract, logical thought was studied in Central Asia in the transition period following the Russian revolution. Reasoning was studied across those exposed or not exposed to the cultural changes of literacy, schooling, or economic reform. Such cultural signs led to qualitative changes in thought; only persons experiencing these cultural signs showed abstract, logical thought. Soviet Activity Theory In the early 1930s, a small group of Vygotsky’s students, including Leont’ev and Zaporozhets, left Moscow for the Ukrainian city of Kharkov. There, they joined with some local psychologists, including Zinchenko. The Kharkovites defined culture not in Vygotsky’s terms as symbolic systems (e.g., language) but as social, goal-directed activities that entail objects. (See Kozulin, 1990, and Leont’ev, 1981, for a review.) They cite the source of mental development as the person’s mind in interaction with an actual, practical reality. Cognition is viewed as activity embedded. Cognition is instrumental and purposeful; it functions in performing activities. Such is seen in their focus on involuntary memory: memory resulting from goal-oriented activities other than memorizing. Young children’s memory is often better when involuntary than voluntary. Cultural Activities Theory Based in their cross-cultural research (Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 1983) and Soviet activity theory, Scribner and Cole proposed the cultural practices/activities approach to cognitive development. Cognitive processes (e.g., classification) originate in and are initially constrained to the practices in which they are used. Scribner and Cole’s (1981) study in Liberia of literacy and schooling effects on cognition illustrated this approach. Literacy was defined as a practice, and forms of literacy that

served different functional roles in the life of the individual and society were distinguished. For example, literacy learned and used in English schooling differs from Koranic literacy (learned and used for reading/reciting the Koran). Specialized cognitive skills involved in learning and using a particular literacy developed best in those entailed in that practice. English schooling yielded the most pervasive effects on cognition, and these were traced back to specific schooling practices. Another illustration is Saxe’s (1991) studies of Brazilian street children. Saxe studied mathematical reasoning in candy-selling activity in the streets and in the classroom. Mathematical understanding originated and was more advanced in the candy-selling practice. Interpersonal Learning Theories Many sociocultural theories view learning as an interpersonal process, rather than one engaged in by the individual learner. Vygotksy (1978) proposed the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference between the child’s actual developmental level, as determined by independent problem solving, and the higher level of potential development, as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). Vygotsky applied the ZPD to learning and instruction. Learning leads development. Hence, instruction can facilitate development and should be pitched ahead of development. Another model of interpersonal learning, similar to the ZPD, is scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). This is the process by which a more skilled person (teacher/ parent) guides the child in problem solving. Guided participation is another interpersonal learning process (Rogoff, 1993). Guided participation is the “process and system of involvement of individuals with other individuals, as they communicate and collaborate in carrying out culturally valued activity” (Rogoff, 1993, p. 132). Appropriation is the process by which individuals transform their skills and understanding through their participation. It is through appropriation, and not internalization (as described by Vygotsky), that children gain from involvement with others: Rather than viewing the process as one of internalization in which something rather static is taken across a boundary from the external to the

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internal, I see the child’s active participation itself as being the process by which the child gains in skill and understanding of the activity. (Rogoff, 1993, p. 139) Guided participation differs from the ZPD and scaffolding in casting interpersonal learning as less didactic, and potentially child initiated and directed. Lave and Wenger (1991) view interpersonal learning within an apprenticeship model. Sociocultural activity (e.g., tailoring, midwifery, naval quartermastering) is primary, and learning occurs as secondary to and as part of doing an activity. Their notion of “legitimate peripheral participation” describes the way “newcomers” can participate in an activity and their growing participation as they become “old-timers” (experts).

Social Development Theory of Independent Versus Collectivist Self-Concept Individuals in different cultures have remarkably different views of the self. Markus and Kitayama (1991) provided a review of these differences and some evidence for their effects on cognition, motivation, and emotion. According to the “interdependent” or “collectivist” self-construal, characteristic of Asian cultures and many minority groups in America (e.g., African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans), the concept of the individual rests on a fundamental relatedness to others. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. One sees oneself as part of an encompassing social relationship and recognizes that one’s behavior is determined, contingent on, and largely organized by the perceptions of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others in the relationship. According to the “independent” or “autonomous” self-concept typical of Western cultures, persons seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing unique inner attributes. One construes oneself as an individual “whose behavior is organized and made meaningful primarily by reference to one’s own internal repertoire of thoughts, feelings, and action, rather than by reference to the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others” (Markus & Kitayama, 1991, p. 226). The sociocultural experiences of children mediate the development of their self-concepts, leading to

nonuniversality in such (Greenfield, 1994). These respective self-concepts can be transmitted through mother-child contact and communication. The interdependent self-concept is promoted through physical closeness, such as cosleeping arrangements and tactile communication. The independent self-concept is transmitted through reliance on more distal modes of communication, such as verbal communication, and through socialization directed at the child’s educational development. Literacy and Western-style schooling also promote an independent self-concept. Theory on the Social Basis of Universal Moral Distinctions According to this theory, “conventional” and “moral” understandings are distinguished, and both kinds of understandings coexist very early in childhood (e.g., Turiel, 1998). Morality refers to objective obligations entailing justice, harm, and rights and is exemplified in actions that objectively affect the rights or well-being of others (e.g., hitting/hurting someone). Moral understandings are based in rationality and natural law. Hence, they are unalterable and universal. Conventional understandings concern actions deemed right or wrong by social consensus (e.g., Sunday as a rest day). Social conventions concern food, clothing, social interaction, sex roles, address forms, and sexual practices. Conventions are arbitrary and relative. Young children distinguish these two kinds of behaviors. Their ability to do so is based in observing social interaction and in socialization processes (e.g., adult and peer behavior) (Turiel, 1998). THE CULTURAL MIND Some propose that the mind has a cultural bent and that cultural categories of the mind exist. Hence, there is the belief that these cognitive and social behaviors are universal. Development begins with this cultural basis, and future development and learning are affected by it. Cognitive Development: Bruner’s Narrative Theory Narrative, a cultural category, was proposed as intrinsic to mind by Bruner (1990). Narrative is one of two modes of thought said to order experience. Application of the narrative mode leads to stories, drama, and historical accounts. Narrative thought is

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not abstract. Rather, it deals in human intention and action and the particulars of experience, which it locates in time and place. Bruner (1990) defined “story” as entailing the pentadic elements of agents with intentions who perform actions in settings using particular means. Drama is generated by imbalance in the ratio of these elements (e.g., brutal crime in idyllic setting, convict sponsors young boy in Great Expectations). Also key to story is its “dual landscape”; story occurs jointly on the planes of action and consciousness (Bruner, 1990). A “human readiness” for narrative was claimed by Bruner (1990): “We have an ‘innate’ and primitive predisposition to narrative organization that allows us quickly and easily to comprehend and use it” (p. 80). The young child’s proclivity with narrative has been shown and supports the idea of readiness with narrative (Lucariello, 1990). Social Development: Gelman and Lucariello’s Theory of the Sociality Domain Gelman and Lucariello (2002) proposed that humans are biologically prepared for social interaction. Infants possess skeletal/core knowledge about the “sociality” domain. Infants recognize persons as persons and understand persons as social objects. Moreover, five principles, representing core knowledge, appear to guide the social interaction of infants (see Gelman & Lucariello, 2002). The principle of contingency indicates that when two or more people are interacting, the actions of each should be contingent on the actions of others. The principle of agency specifies that the actions of persons are goal directed, making persons “agents.” The principle of mental states specifies that persons are not understood on the plane of action alone, but that mental states underlie and determine their actions. The principle of emotional evaluation specifies that contingent, goaldirected social interaction succeeds. Hence, our default emotional valence is neutral to positive. Finally, the fittingness principle pertains to the normative operation of the other four principles. It states that agents in social interactive exchanges perform actions that are pursuant to their goals and persons/identities. These actions achieve the goal. Agents and their interactants engage in contingent interaction, fulfilling and complementing roles. Such presumes mutual understanding of one another’s mental states.

CULTURE AS FRAMES OF MEANING Culture can be understood as constructed by persons who interpret experience in terms of meaningimbued, culture-specific understandings or frames. Development consists in the accrual of these culturespecific frames or understandings. Cognitive Development: Shweder’s Theory of Intentional Worlds According to Shweder’s (1990) theory, culture is not an objective reality. Shweder introduced the concept of “intentional worlds.” These are human artifactual worlds populated with products of our own design. They include events such as taking communion, practices such as divorce, roles such as in-law, crafted objects such as card catalogues, professions such as the law, and games such as football. Intentional worlds do not exist independently of the intentional states (beliefs) directed at them by persons who live in them. “Intentional persons and intentional worlds are interdependent things that get dialectically constituted and reconstituted through the intentional activities and practices that are their products, yet make them up” (Shweder, 1990, pp. 25–26). Intentional worlds are frames through which we interpret/construct reality. Development is the acquisition of, and hence entry into, more frames or worlds.

Social Development: Moral Development Theory as Acquisition of Culture-Specific Frames A culturally based approach to moral development was proposed by Shweder, Mahapatra, and Miller (1987). The culture-specific nature of a moral code is said to be communicated and socialized rapidly over development, with little evidence for a spontaneous universal childhood morality. Shweder et al. (1987) conducted a study wherein children and adults in India and the United States rated acts for whether they were wrong, and if wrong, how seriously. Little agreement was found on the judgment of these acts. For example, Indians, but not the U.S. subjects, rated the act of “The oldest son in a family has a haircut and eats chicken the day after his father died” as one of the most morally offensive acts. Moreover, the study’s findings undermine the distinction between moral and conventional events. For example, among orthodox

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Brahmans and Untouchables in India, eating, clothing, and naming practices and various ritual events are viewed in moral (not conventional) terms. Furthermore, the idea of conventional understandings does not appear to be universal. Indeed, the directionality of change in moral thinking is highly culture-specific. As Americans grow older, they rely more on convention and pluralistic/relativistic judgments. As Indians grow older, they show a tendency to view their practices as universally binding and unalterable. APPLICATIONS OF THEORY Some of the most interesting research on human development represents the application of sociocultural theories. For example, studies that examine the role of current cultural signs, such as technology, on cognitive development are based in the idea that cognition is mediated by culture. As an illustration, computer programming has been found to improve concept formation, problem solving, creativity, metacognition, and self-regulation (Clements, 1995). The development of new measures of intelligence is another application of sociocultural theory. The ZPD was cast by Vygotsky (1978) as a dynamic measure of intelligence. Instead of measuring completed and independent development, as does an IQ test, the ZPD measures the potential level of development that can be achieved with assistance from others. Current “dynamic testing” approaches are consistent with the ZPD. They aim to narrow the gap between actual and potential performance by incorporating teaching, feedback, and an individualized teacher/ examiner relationship into the testing situation. Sociocultural theories also have significant implications for learning, instruction, and schooling. Apprenticeship models of learning provide insight on how learning, including adult learning, occurs outside of formal school settings. With respect to curriculum, activity-based approaches point to embedding learning in meaningful cultural activity as a means to improve learning. Moreover, the idea that the mind has a bent toward sociality (Gelman & Lucariello, 2002) suggests and explains the benefit of casting learning in schoolbased domains (e.g., science) in a social context. Furthermore, theories of self-concept illuminate some of the discontinuities and difficulties faced by the minority child in school. Schooling requires an independent self-concept, which conflicts with the

collectivist self-concept typical of minority children. Attempts have been made to bridge this discontinuity by altering the school-teaching environment to be more hospitable and to capitalize on the minority child’s collectivist orientation (e.g., Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield, & Quiroz, 2001). —Joan Lucariello

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Clements, D. H. (1995). Teaching creativity with computers. Educational Psychology Review, 7, 141–161. Gelman, R., & Lucariello, J. (2002). Role of learning in cognitive development. In H. Pashler (Series Ed.) & C. R. Gallistel (Vol. Ed.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology: Vol. 3. Learning, motivation, and emotion (3rd ed., pp. 395–443). New York: Wiley. Greenfield, P. M. (1994). Independence and interdependence as developmental scripts: Implications for theory, research, and practice. In P. M. Greenfield & R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority child development (pp. 1–37). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Kozulin, A. (1990). Vygotsky’s psychology: A biography of ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. (1983). Culture and cognitive development. In P. Mussen (Series Ed.) & W. Kessen (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. History, theory, and methods (4th ed., pp. 295–356). New York: Wiley. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Leont’ev, A. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (pp. 37–71). Armonk, NY: Sharpe. Lucariello, J. (1990). Canonicality and consciousness in child narrative. In B. Britton & A. Pellegrini (Eds.), Narrative thought and narrative language (pp. 131–149). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Luria, A. R. (1979). The making of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253. Rogoff, B. (1993). Children’s guided participation and participatory appropriation in sociocultural activity. In R. H. Wozniak & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments (pp. 121–153). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Saxe, G. (1991). Culture and cognitive development: Studies in mathematical understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Scribner, S., & Cole, M. (1981). The psychology of literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Shweder, R. (1990). Cultural psychology: What is it? In J. W. Stigler, R. A. Shweder, & G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays on comparative human development (pp. 1–43). New York: Cambridge University Press. Shweder, R. A., Mahapatra, M., & Miller, J. G. (1987). Culture and moral development. In J. Kagan & S. Lamb (Eds.), The emergence of morality in young children (pp. 1–83). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2001). Bridging cultures between home and school. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Turiel, E. (1998). The development of morality. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (pp. 863–932). New York: Wiley. Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. E. Hanfman & G. Vakar (Eds.). Cambridge: MIT Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Soberman (Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89–100.

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D can be seen in sharing) flourish, or are smothered, within these relationships. The Moral Child marked a shift in Damon’s scholarship. The book surveyed and synthesized the vast and complex body of knowledge about moral development and translated it for the general public. In addition to bringing him a new audience, it proposed ways that readers might use this information in their homes and schools. Howard Gardner described this book as

DAMON, WILLIAM In Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (1990), Ernest Boyer proposed a conception of professorial scholarship and research that is much broader than the traditional focus on the discovery and examination of phenomena. He described scholarship that tries to understand and integrate ideas from within one’s field and across other fields as well as scholarship that employs academic ideas in service of world improvement. William Damon’s work over the past 30 years reflects this full range of scholarly activity. As the author of 16 books and numerous book chapters and articles, his work on moral development has put him at the center of public and academic conversations about what is important for us as parents and as a society to do in order to nurture moral persons. By the time Damon captured the attention of the popular press with his book The Moral Child: Nurturing Children’s Natural Moral Growth (1990), he had written seven traditional scholarly books on the social and moral development of children. His early works include The Social World of the Child (1977), Moral Development (1978), and Social and Personality Development: Infancy Through Adolescence (1983). These studies focused on how moral action plays out in real social situations of children and adolescents. Damon emphasized that moral thinking and behavior develop in dynamic relationship with family, peers, teachers, and the larger social world. Moral emotions (such as empathy, shame, and guilt) and the principles of distributive justice (which

the rarest of documents—a magisterial survey of scientific knowledge about children’s moral development, linked to a viable approach to moral education at home and in the community. In sharpest contrast to the muddled thinking which has characterized this controversial topic, Damon’s work can serve as a charter for moral education in the future. (Damon, 1990, book jacket) In 1995, Damon gained an even larger popular audience with his book Greater Expectations: Overcoming the Culture of Indulgence in Our Homes and Schools (1995). The book proposed that prevailing child-rearing beliefs and practices are not leading to morally developed children. Damon argued that “with best intentions,” parents and schools have been in large part responsible for this situation: our unwavering focus on self-esteem and child-centered practices were misguided, and we have a general lack of understanding of “the nature of children and their developmental needs. . . . All the commonly accepted standards for young people’s skills and behavior have fallen drastically. Less is expected of the young, and in turn less is received” (Damon, 1995, p. xiii). 315

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To build character and competence requires high moral standards and expectations. This book won the Parent’s Choice Award and garnered Damon appearances on Oprah, The Today Show, and National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation. Eminent developmental psychologist Deana Kuhn writes that Damon’s “books have served the invaluable purpose of communicating academic research in the field of child development to a broader audience. Few academics are able to write in a way that does this successfully” (personal communication, February 10, 2004). Another important focus in Damon’s work has been his study of the development of moral exemplars. He believes that gaining an understanding of the values, beliefs, and development of moral heroes can help us figure out how to better live our lives and raise our children. His first book on this subject, Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives of Moral Commitment (1992), was written with developmental psychologist Anne Colby. They studied 23 people who were nominated by theologians, philosophers, and moral scholars for having “a sustained commitment to moral ideals or principles.” The authors found a number of qualities that were stable across the exemplars, including an impervious sense of certainty, a positive attitude toward hardship and challenge, receptivity toward new ideas and goals, and a lifelong capacity for personal and social growth. Currently, Damon is professor of education at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence. At the center, he is engaged in a study of specific youth who exhibit a striking sense of moral purpose, including a 12-year-old boy who, since he was 6 years old, has been raising money to build wells for schools in Africa. Damon is also working with Howard Gardner and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the Good Work Project (GWP). The project studies exemplary leaders and practitioners known in their professions for doing high-quality, ethical, and personally meaningful work. The project seeks to understand the values and motives of these individuals, as well as the challenges, pressures, and possibilities they face. Damon coauthored, with Gardner and Csikszentmihalyi, Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet (2001) and has a book on business, The Moral Advantage: How to Succeed in Business by Doing the Right Thing, in press. Damon’s work has been concerned not only with creating theory on moral development and communicating it to the general public, but has focused explicitly

on the applications of scientific understanding of child and adolescent development to the practical purpose of moral education at home and in schools. He has personally developed after-school programs and community-based “youth charters.” Damon’s commitment to using his scholarship to make a better world can be seen most clearly in the GWP, which not only tries to understand good work but seeks to promote its presence in the professions that it studies. For example, after the data on exemplary journalists was collected and analyzed, Damon partnered with the Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ). The committee had identified certain problems in the field. In turn, the GWP line of research identified some solutions. Damon and these partners produced educational curriculum and training workshops that they then delivered to more than 3,000 newspeople in more than 24 print newsrooms and 20 online and broadcast journalism organizations. His ideas have been implemented in newsrooms ranging from the small-town Chico Enterprise Record, which employs a total of 18 people, to the Chicago Tribune, which has hundreds of employees. These workshops have been so successful that Damon and the CCJ have had to hire part-time trainers to meet the demand for them. Damon is most definitely a leader in his own field. As Richard M. Lerner tells it, Bill’s professional leadership cannot be overestimated. For example, his editorship of the 5th and upcoming 6th editions of the Handbook of Child Psychology places him—along with Carl Murchison, Leonard Carmichael, and Paul Mussen—as one of the great organizers and synthesizers of developmental science. (personal communication, February 10, 2004). As part of Damon’s commitment to the study of human growth, he is also the long-term editor of a series called New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Damon’s work includes all the valuable conceptions of scholarship that Boyer describes: discovery, integration, and service. He has exhibited a powerful commitment to the study of moral development across the human life span. The mission he developed for the center reflects one of his most passionate commitments: “to promote the character and competence of all young people growing up in today’s world . . .

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[to provide] guidance for parenting, for improved educational practice, and for youth development in a wide variety of community settings.” —Susan Verducci

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Colby, A., & Damon, W. (1992). Some do care: Contemporary lives of moral commitment. New York: Free Press. Damon, W. (1977). The social world of the child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (German translation, 1983; Japanese translation, 1988) Damon, W. (1978). Moral development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Damon, W. (Series Ed.). (1979–2005). New directions for child and adolescent development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Damon, W. (1990). The moral child: Nurturing children’s natural moral growth. New York: Free Press. (Italian, Japanese, German, Chinese, Polish, Korean, Danish translations, 1995–2003) Damon, W. (1995). Greater expectations: Overcoming the culture of indulgence in our homes and schools. New York: Free Press. (Italian, Japanese translations, 1997–1999) Damon, W. (Ed.). (1997). Handbook of child psychology (5th ed.). New York: Wiley. Damon, W. (Ed.). (in press). Handbook of child psychology (6th ed.). New York: Wiley. Damon, W. (in press). The moral advantage: How to succeed in business by doing the right thing. San Francisco: BerrettKoehler. Gardner, H., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Damon. W. (2001). Good work: When excellence and ethics meet. New York: Basic. (Spanish translation, 2003)

DATING IN ADOLESCENCE Although the term dating conjures up images of young men and women pairing off and engaging in social activities together, arriving at an acceptable empirical definition is more difficult, due largely to sociohistorical changes. Prior to the 1970s, dating referred to heterosocial interactions that were somewhat formal in function and structure. That is, dating served the primary purpose of selecting an individual of the opposite sex with whom a long-term, romantic relationship might develop, culminating in mate selection (marriage and children). Moreover, relatively

strict scripts for dating provided a well-defined, albeit gender-differentiated structure (e.g., boy asks girl to go with him to an event, with a prearranged time or function). Today, dating refers to multifunctional and more loosely structured social activities between two individuals of the same or opposite sex who are potential partners, but may or may not be interested in developing a long-term relationship. In addition, recognition of dating among sexual minority youth suggests that an emphasis on heterosociality is outmoded. The current idioms reflect a less formal structure. Adolescents refer to their activities as “hanging out with,” “going out with,” or “talking with,” rather than “dating.” Although adolescents are capable of discriminating between friendships and romantic relationships, their notions of what constitutes “dating” changes across the course of adolescence. Thus, adolescents may be uncertain as to whether dating means romantic interests, spending time together, or formal dating. CONTEMPORARY DATING PATTERNS Experience with dating increases across adolescence and young adulthood, with the first dating experience typically occurring sometime between 13 and 15 years of age. Estimates range from slightly less than half to two thirds of adolescents having had some dating experience by age 16, with most early dating occurring in group contexts (Feiring, 1996) and more exclusive dating increasing with age. Although pubertal maturation might be expected to predict onset of dating and dating frequency, evidence suggests the contrary, with adolescents of the same age dating despite variability in pubertal timing and status. One exception is Chinese adolescents, among whom researchers have found that early pubertal maturation was linked to an early onset of dating, but only among boys (Lam, Shi, Ho, Stewart, & Fan, 2002). Dating often progresses through several different stages, beginning with socializing in mixed-sex groups (i.e., “hanging out”), followed by pairing off within group settings, to casual dyadic socializing, and involvement in steady, committed relationships. Adolescents vary considerably, however, in the degree to which they are involved in dating in terms of number of dating partners, amount of experience or dating history, and the degree of intimacy in their relationships with dating partners. Dating in adolescence, then, is somewhat transitory in nature, with even serious

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relationships lasting an average of about 4 months (Feiring, 1996). Adolescents are exposed to information about dating from a number of sources. Friends are cited as providing the most information as well as being the most comfortable source, whereas parents and sex educators are considered the most accurate sources. Parents, however, provide less information if there is an older sister (Wood, Senn, Desmarais, Park, & Verberg, 2002). CONSTRUCTIVE FUNCTIONS Dating may have multiple constructive functions, including the promotion of interpersonal competencies and intimacy, recreation and entertainment, enhancement of self-esteem, status grading among peers, autonomy development, gender role and sexual experimentation, and courtship or mate selection (Roscoe, Diana, & Brooks, 1987). The promotion of interpersonal competencies, intimacy, and autonomy may be qualified by the intensity of dating. Quatman, Sampson, Robinson, and Watson (2001) found that among middle to late adolescents, those who engaged in more frequent dating perceived higher peer popularity, social competence, and personal security than those who dated less frequently. The relative importance of these functions to adolescents appears to change across adolescents. Comparisons of early, middle, and late adolescents found that early and middle adolescents similarly endorsed recreation as the most important function of dating, followed by intimacy and status grading. Late adolescents placed the most emphasis on intimacy, followed by companionship and socialization, rating status grading as the least important dimension of dating (Roscoe et al., 1987). In addition, gender differences emerged: Boys placed more emphasis on sexual activity, whereas girls placed more emphasis on intimacy. From an evolutionary perspective, this gender difference makes sense, as dating theoretically serves distal reproductive functions. Short-term longitudinal research (Pelligrini & Long, 2003) provides additional support for an evolutionary perspective on dating: Early adolescent boys whose peer-rated dating popularity increased had corresponding increases in peer ratings of dominance across early adolescence. In contrast, increases in girls’ dating popularity were associated with increases in relational aggression.

These findings suggest differential functions of dating that could serve gender-differentiated reproductive needs (i.e., male emphasis on competition and female emphasis on maintaining the relationship with a mate). The causal direction of these influences, however, remains open to questioning. POTENTIAL RISKS Although dating provides an important venue for interpersonal development, some research has suggested that early onset and intensive dating may lead to psychological and behavioral difficulties, including higher levels of alcohol use, delinquency (Davies & Windle, 2000), and disordered eating patterns (for girls). Additional challenges to adolescents’ coping abilities are posed when they experience infidelity, jealousy, and relationship breakups as part of their dating experiences or when they have adverse experiences related to sexuality (e.g., sexual coercion, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, harassment of sexual minority youth). With respect to adverse sexual experiences, greater sexual activity is linked to more intensive dating (serious, exclusive partnering, as well as multiple casual relationships; Davies & Windle, 2000), wherein the emotional and physical consequences may be more likely. Two issues, however, need to be considered: directionality of effects and moderating influences. Given research suggesting reciprocal paths of influence between social relationships and problem behaviors, it is possible that adolescents who lack adequate coping and interpersonal skills become engaged in relationships that create or exacerbate problems. In addition, these paths are probably moderated by individual and contextual variables. Gender and parenting contexts appear to be two such moderators (Doyle, Brengden, Markiewicz, & Kamkar, 2003). Specifically, researchers found that compared with girls without, girls with steady partners had lower grades if they were securely attached to their parents (significant differences are not found for other types of attachment), lower selfesteem if exposed to high levels of marital conflict or authoritarian parenting (as opposed to low exposures to conflict and other parenting styles), and more depression if their parents were authoritarian. Boys in similarly authoritarian or conflicted contexts evinced opposite patterns, with higher self-esteem and less depression associated with having steady dating partners as opposed to not having a steady partner.

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PERCEPTIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS Given that behavior is guided by belief systems, differences in conceptions and perceptions of dating are important for understanding variability in dating. Adolescents differ in what they perceive constitutes a desirable date and how one goes about making a date. Roscoe et al. (1987) found that male adolescents focus on attractiveness and sexual activity, whereas girls focus on interpersonal qualities, responsible behavior, and future prospects. Younger adolescents focus more on presentational aspects (dress, age, being well liked), whereas older adolescents focus more on the future (job prospects, setting goals, marriage prospects). Examining adolescents’ beliefs about making dates, Jackson, Jacobs, Landman-Peters, and Lanting (2001) found that both boys and girls have strategies for initiating dates, with boys taking both direct and indirect roles, and girls encouraging attention (e.g., using mediators, attracting attention, using their femininity). Adolescents of both genders turn to friends for advice and support. Further, adolescents perceive advantages to dating. Adolescents who have dated identify advantages (companionship, support) and disadvantages (time commitment, jealousy), which likely influences their dating activities (Feiring, 1996).

DATING AMONG SEXUAL MINORITY YOUTH Research also suggests individual differences in dating. Among adolescents with more traditional gender role orientations, males place more emphasis on sexuality, whereas girls place more emphasis on affectional qualities. Although far less is know about the dating patterns of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth, existing research suggests that these patterns have shifted historically. Older research suggested that sexual minority youth often chose either not to date or restricted themselves to dating members of the opposite sex in order avoid exposing themselves to heterosexism or to consolidate their sexual identities. More recent research has suggested that despite challenges to dating (e.g., fewer potential partners, fewer arenas for interacting, heterosexism), many sexual minority youth date individuals of the same sex, and some benefit from primary same-sex relationships. Dating among sexual minority youth is more likely in areas where heterosexism is low and community support is high, where support organizations and activities for

sexual minority youth are more likely (Diamond, Savin-Williams, & Dubé, 1999). CULTURAL ISSUES There are often dramatic differences in the meaning and frequency of dating across cultures. Indeed, for some cultures, dating may threaten traditional courtship patterns. Mormons, for example, have an institutionalized age for dating, beginning at age 16, with barriers to dating outside of the faith and an emphasis on mate selection (e.g., suitability for marriage, ability to have a temple marriage). Examinations of dating among Latinas suggest that “American-style” dating (e.g., going off with a male, allowing physical contact) may violate cultural norms regarding chastity and family honor. Other cultures and countries may have dating patterns more similar to Americans. Studies comparing leisure time across Europe (Flammer, Alsaker, & Noack, 1999) found that, similar to American and Canadian samples, older adolescents spend more time with boyfriends/girlfriends than younger adolescents (particularly in Germany). German adolescents devoted the greatest proportion of their time to dating (1 hour, 14 minutes per day on average), whereas French and Norwegian adolescents devoted the least (7 and 11 minutes per day, respectively). This difference was attributable in part to differences in amount of leisure time. A study of Israeli adolescents suggests similarities: increases in dating with age, changes in the conceptions of dating, and higher levels of sexual intimacy among current daters when compared with those not currently in relationships (Shulman & Sharf, 2000). CONCLUSIONS Dating may be an important context for the development of interpersonal skills as well as romantic relationships. However, research suggests that adolescents’ dating patterns may be particularly difficult to pin down, due to cultural variation and historical dynamism in both terminology and the phenomenological meaning of dating. Thus, adolescents’ conceptualizations of dating are important to take into consideration. In addition, emphasis on the sequencing of dating and its correlates is needed. Although existing longitudinal evidence provides some insight, more attention needs to be given to the conditions under which different trajectories of dating and its sequelae might be expected.

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Dating in adolescence holds both promise for positive development and potential pitfalls. Supporting the development of adaptive coping and interpersonal skills in children and young adolescents may provide them with the tools necessary for maximizing the rewards dating has to offer. —Lauree C. Tilton-Weaver

See also ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY; SEXUALITY, ADOLESCENTS’ DEVELOPMENT OF

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Davies, P. T., & Windle, M. (2000). Middle adolescents’ dating pathways and psychosocial adjustment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46, 90–118. Diamond, L. M., Savin-Williams, R. C., & Dubé, E. M. (1999). Sex, dating, passionate friendships, and romance: Intimate peer relations among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents. In W. Furman, B. B. Brown, & C. Feiring (Eds.), The development of romantic relationships in adolescence (pp. 175–210). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Doyle, A. B., Brengden, N., Markiewicz, D., & Kamkar, K. (2003). Family relationships as moderators of the association between romantic relationships and adjustment in early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 23, 316–340. Feiring, C. (1996). Concepts of romance in 15-year-old adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 6, 181–200. Flammer, A., Alsaker, F. D., & Noack, P. (1999). Time use by adolescents in an international perspective: I. The case of leisure activities. In F. D. Alsaker & A. Flammer (Eds.), The adolescent experience: European and American adolescents in the 1990s (pp. 33–60). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Jackson, S., Jacobs, M. N., Landman-Peters, K., & Lanting, A. (2001). Cognitive strategies employed in trying to arrange a first date. Journal of Adolescence, 24, 267–279. Lam, T. H., Shi, H. J., Ho, L. M., Stewart, S. M., & Fan, S. (2002). Timing of pubertal maturation and heterosexual behavior among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31, 359–366. Pelligrini, A. D., & Long, J. F. (2003). A sexual selection theory longitudinal analysis of sexual segregation and integration in early adolescence. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 257–278. Quatman, T., Sampson, K., Robinson, C., & Watson, C. M. (2001). Academic, motivational, and emotional correlates of adolescent dating. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 127(2), 211–234. Roscoe, B., Diana, M. S., & Brooks, R. (1987). Early, middle, and late adolescents’ views on dating and factors influencing partner selection. Adolescence, 85, 59–68. Shulman, S., & Sharf, M. (2000). Adolescent romantic behaviors and perceptions: Age- and gender-related differences, and links with family and peer relationships. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 10, 99–118.

Wood, E., Senn, C. Y., Desmarais, S., Park, L., & Verberg, N. (2002). Sources of information about dating and their perceived influence on adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17, 401–417.

DAY CARE, EFFECTS ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT Most infants and young children initially respond with distress to enrollment in a new child care setting. This distress diminishes over time and is replaced by smiles, vocalizations, and increased interest in peers, but there is no doubt that enrollment in child care is typically stressful. Furthermore, because enrollment in day care often coincides with other important family events, like mothers’ return to work, it is quite common for the security of child-mother attachment to change when day care begins. Attachments become secure as frequently as they become insecure, however, and consequently day care is not associated with an increase in the proportion of child-mother attachment relationships that are insecure (Ahnert, Lamb, & Seltenheim, 2003; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD] Early Child Care Research Network, 1997). Although most scholars emphasize the importance of high-quality care, quality of care has been assessed comprehensively in relatively few studies concerned with the association between infant day care and attachment. The quality of care appears not to affect the security of infant-mother attachment, although rates of insecurity are disproportionately elevated when infants are exposed to such multiple risks as poor-quality care both at home and in nonparental care settings, more extensive care, and less stable care (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1997). Researchers still need to specify what types of care are potentially harmful or beneficial for specific subgroups of infants and families and to define with greater precision those aspects of quality likely to be of particular significance in defined circumstances. In early studies, primarily of infants enrolled in intervention or enrichment programs, researchers reported that infant day care was associated with later aggression toward peers, although the aggression diminished over time (Lamb, 1998). The results of several more recent studies suggest that nonmaternal child care in infancy is associated with less harmonious

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child-mother interactions, noncompliance, and other behavior problems, particularly when the care is of poorer quality (e.g., NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003). Enrollment in day care allows children to form additional significant relationships but does not lead care providers to displace mothers as the primary objects of attachment. As with parents, the security of infant-care provider attachments is determined by the care providers’ sensitivity and involvement, as well as the quality of care they provide (Ahnert, Pinquart, & Lamb, 2003). Unfortunately, however, more than half of the infants in day care are insecurely attached to their care providers. Even though children in group care settings typically have more experience with peers than do children cared for exclusively by their parents, Howes, Matheson, and Hamilton (1994) reported no differences in peer interaction skills among groups of children who entered child care in infancy, early toddlerhood, or late toddlerhood. Other researchers have reported that group care experiences indeed facilitate the development of children’s social skills, although it seems clear that simple enrollment in day care during the preschool years does not reliably facilitate or impede the development of positive relationships with peers (Lamb, 1998). Instead, the quality of nonparental care is predictively important: Children receiving care of high quality have superior relationship skills, whereas children receiving care of poor quality have deficient social skills. Other studies speak to the beneficial effects of high-quality care on the quality of peer interactions. Howes (1988) reported that preschoolers were more sociable with their peers when they began highquality day care in infancy, although low-quality care beginning in infancy is associated with poorer relations with peers at kindergarten age. Longitudinal studies show that more complex, more gregarious, and less aggressive play with peers at age 4 is associated with more secure teacher-child relationships earlier, whereas dependence on teachers is associated with social withdrawal and hostile, aggressive behavior later. These associations parallel other reports that, among preschoolers, children who have secure relationships with their teachers and care providers are more socially competent with peers (see Lamb, 1998, for a more detailed review). Enrollment in intensive intervention programs in infancy is consistently associated with improved cognitive competence (Lamb, 1998). In the case of the Abecedarian project, for example, half of the children

were enrolled in a full-time, center-based intervention program when they were 3 months old and received supplementary enrichment that continued through the first 3 years of elementary school. This experience was associated with better cognitive performance through age 7. Enrollment in the Infant Health and Development Program had similar effects on the IQs of the preterm infants enrolled shortly after birth, especially when the babies were heavier and the mothers had received less education. Studies of intervention programs designed to enhance the school readiness and academic performance of preschoolers from disadvantaged family backgrounds likewise show that enrichment programs tend to have the expected effects on young children, although these effects are often attenuated over time when not supplemented by continued enrichment (Lamb, 1998). Effects also tend to be more impressive when the quality is higher. Unfortunately, little effort has been made to identify the influential aspects of intervention programs, so that attempts can be made to fine-tune their effectiveness by determining which aspects of which programs are of particular value to which children from which types of families. Whereas the results of intervention programs are quite clear, the results of nonexperimental studies designed to explore the effects of infant day care are quite contradictory and inconsistent, although high-quality educationally oriented programs tend to have positive effects on cognitive performance, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (see Lamb, 1998, for a review). Unfortunately, few attempts have been made to evaluate the relative effectiveness of different curricula or pedagogical approaches, so we cannot identify the salient aspects of successful programs. Follow-up studies are also uncommon, but the few published reports show that significant effects are often attenuated over time when they are not maintained by continuing care or education of high quality. Care of poorer quality presumably has effects that vary relative to the quality of care and stimulation that children would receive at home. As a result, the performance of some infants from middle-class families may be affected adversely by out-of-home care experiences. Among preschoolers, center-based day care, presumably of high quality, can also have positive effects on children’s intellectual development, regardless of family background. Too few researchers have studied family day care to permit confident conclusions about the effects of this form of care, however.

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Overall, the data suggest that regular exposure to nonparental care need not have harmful effects on children’s development and on their family relationships, although it can do so (Lamb, 1998). Assertions that nonparental care does not consistently or inevitably have either positive or adverse effects on children’s development must be qualified on a number of grounds, however. Most important, true experimental studies have, with few exceptions, not been possible. Because of this, preexisting group differences— including those that led to the enrollment of some but not other children in nonparental care settings in the first place—may continue to explain at least some of the between-group variance identified by researchers. Unfortunately, statistical controls for some of the known group differences and potentially influential factors can only reduce, but not completely eliminate, the problem. In addition, social class (as manifest in varying levels of parental education and the richness of resources made available to children) is correlated with many indices of child development and needs to be considered in research on day care. In general, the specific type of care (exclusive home care, family day care, center day care) appears to be much less significant than was once thought. Type of care may also have varying effects depending on the ages at which the children entered the out-ofhome care settings, with the planned curricula of day care centers becoming increasingly advantageous as children get older. It also appears likely that different children will be affected differently by various day care experiences, although we remain ignorant about most of the factors that modulate these differential effects. Child temperament and gender, parental attitudes and values, and preenrollment differences in sociability, curiosity, and cognitive functioning may all be influential, but reliable evidence is scanty. Over time, researchers’ focus has clearly shifted from between-group to within-group (correlational) strategies (Lamb, 1998). Many researchers embracing such strategies have attempted to assess the predictive importance of the quality of care, and there is a clear consensus that the quality of care, broadly defined and measured, modulates the effects of nonparental child care on child development. Interestingly, improvements in quality appear to have significant positive effects even at the highest end of the range sampled, suggesting that there is no threshold beyond which quality of care does not matter. The magnitude of the effect is considerably less clear than its reliability,

however, and the fact that researchers must estimate the importance of quality in the context of complex correlational models that also include many other potential predictors means that we may never know how important the quality of care really is. In any event, the quality of children’s interactions and relationships with their parents and other family members and the quality of care children receive at home continue to be the most important sources of influence on the development of young children, even when they receive substantial amounts of care outside the home. —Michael E. Lamb

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ahnert, L., Lamb, M. E., & Seltenheim, K. (2000). Infant-care provider attachments in contrasting child care settings I: Group-oriented care before German reunification. Infant Behavior and Development, 23, 197–209. Ahnert, L., Pinquart, M., & Lamb, M. E. (2003). Security of children’s relationships with nonparental care providers: A meta-analysis. Manuscript in preparation. Howes, C. (1988). The peer interactions of young children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 53(217). Howes, C., Matheson, C. C., & Hamilton, C. E. (1994). Maternal, teacher, and child care history correlates of children’s relationships with peers. Child Development, 65, 264–273. Lamb, M. E. (1998). Nonparental child care: Context, quality, correlates, and consequences. In W. Damon, I. E. Sigel, & K. A. Renninger (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 73–133). New York: Wiley. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network. (1997). The effects of infant child care on infant-mother attachment security. Child Development, 68, 860–879. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network. (2003). Does amount of time spent in child care predict socioemotional adjustment during the transition to kindergarten? Child Development, 74, 976–1226.

DAY CARE, MEASURING QUALITY OF CARE Researchers recognize that there are vast differences in the quality of care that children experience

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both in and outside their homes. Much of the literature confirms that children perform better on many dimensions when they have received care of higher quality. Measurement of quality has improved dramatically in the past two decades, and this has permitted significant progress in evaluating the effects of the quality of care on children’s development. Researchers and policymakers have developed what are known as process and structural measures of quality. Conceptually, structural and process measures differ to the extent that factors indexed by the structural measures promote high-quality interaction and care but do not guarantee it, whereas process measures try to quantify the actual care received by children. In practice, however, some of the most popular process measures include indicators of environmental features (including those that index safety, for example) as well as indicators of interactional quality. Observational measures of the settings and of the interactions between care providers and children are often described as process measures, and the standardized measures developed by Thelma Harms and Richard Clifford (e.g., 1980) have been employed by most researchers in the United States. In addition to Harms and Clifford’s measures, several other measures have also been used in major studies conducted in the United States. Scores on the various process measures are in fact highly correlated with one another, making it possible to use composite measures containing fewer items to measure quality than the complete measures do. These measures have proven to be less useful as indices of the quality of care in Western Europe, however, perhaps because the quality of care available there is less variable and of higher average quality (Lamb, Sternberg, Hwang, & Broberg, 1992). Recognizing the need for more systematic and comprehensive measures that could be used internationally, Pierrehumbert and colleagues (1996) developed and validated measures of quality that could be used in countries where day care is of very high quality. Instead of process variables, many researchers index quality using a number of structural indices, including measures of teacher training and experience, group size, teacher-child ratios, crowding, staff turnover, and the like. Most of these factors can be and often are regulated. The adult-child ratio and the extent of teacher training are among the best and most widely used

structural indices of high-quality center-based care, whereas group size, the degree of safety, and the appropriateness of care provider behavior best index the quality of family day care (Howes, 1983, 1997). The care providers’ salaries also provide a valuable indirect measure of the quality of care, because salary levels predict the rate of staff turnover reasonably well. Howes has also introduced an important distinction between the conventional structural measures of quality (group size, adult-child ratio, care provider training) and more comprehensive and empirically derived measures, such as the number of care providers present at any given time, staff turnover, the number of settings experienced by each child, care provider sensitivity and involvement, and the provision of developmentally appropriate activities. Unfortunately, site- or care provider–specific measures of quality often fail to take account of the substantial frequency of moves by children from one setting to another. From an individual point of view, such instability may be developmentally disruptive. The many structural measures are all believed to indicate conditions conducive to high-quality interactions and experiences and thus scores on structural and process measures should be highly intercorrelated. In fact, many researchers have reported clear associations between scores on the two types of measures: the better the salaries, benefits, and level of training received by care providers and the smaller the adultchild ratios, the better the quality of care provided and the less likely adults are to quit their jobs. In addition, average levels of quality are related to the stringency of state standards: States with more demanding licensing standards have fewer centers providing care of poor quality. The fact that scores on diverse structural and process indices of quality are intercorrelated underscores the substantial consensus that exists regarding the components and nature of high- (or low-) quality care, despite the rather heterogeneous range of items considered as indices of quality. Observable aspects of appropriate care provider behavior are more likely to be evident when the structural indices suggest auspicious circumstances for such high-quality care. Interestingly, however, parents’ assessments of quality seem to be determined very differently than experts’ assessments, even though there is substantial agreement among experts regarding the components or dimensions of high-quality care. The quality of care received is also correlated with the socioeconomic background of the child and

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family. Initial studies in the United States reported that children from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds received nonparental care of poorer quality than those from more advantaged backgrounds. More recent large-scale studies in the United States have noted a curvilinear rather than linear relationship between social class and the quality of out-of-home care, especially with respect to center care (see Lamb, 1998, for a review). Centers serving children from advantaged backgrounds indeed seem to provide care of the highest quality, but the worst care is apparently provided by centers predominantly serving children from middle-income families rather than the poorest families. Many centers serving children from low-income families are subsidized, and the quality of care they provide does not differ from that provided by centers serving advantaged families on most measures of quality, although the teachers in centers serving poorer children tend to be less sensitive and harsher, perhaps because the children behave more poorly. According to a survey by Phillips, Voran, Kisker, Howes, and Whitebook (1994), quality varies across an especially wide range in centers serving disadvantaged families. —Michael E. Lamb

See also DAY CARE, EFFECTS ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Howes, C. (1983). Caregiver’s behavior in center and family day care. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 4, 99–107. Howes, C. (1997). Children’s experiences in center based child care as a function of teacher background and adult-child ratio. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 43, 404–426. Lamb, M. E. (1998). Nonparental child care: Context, quality, correlates, and consequences. In W. Damon, I. Sigel, & K. A. Renninger (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 73–133). New York: Wiley. Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Hwang, C. P., & Broberg, A. (Eds.). (1992). Child care in context. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Phillips, D. A., Voran, M., Kisker, E., Howes, C., & Whitebook, M. (1994). Child care for children in poverty: Opportunity or iniquity? Child Development, 65, 472–492. Pierrehumbert, B., Ramstein, T., Krucher, R., El-Najjar, S., Lamb, M. E., & Halfon, O. (1996). L’évaluation du lieu du jeune enfant [Evaluating the life experiences of young children]. Bulletin de Psychologie, 49, 565–584.

DECISION MAKING AMONG ADOLESCENTS Are adolescents competent decision makers? Do they have the skills necessary for good decision making? Are adolescents’ decision-making processes different than adults’? These are questions society has increasingly been confronted with. From decisions regarding adolescents’ reproductive health to questions of criminal responsibility, adolescents’ decision making has been a topic of interest to psychologists and policymakers alike. While few would argue the need for adolescents to have good decision-making skills, considerable disagreement regarding adolescents’ decision-making competency exists. THE IMPORTANCE OF ADOLESCENTS’ DECISIONS The decisions people make are not only vital to their own lives but also to the society in which they live. This is most evident in democratic societies, which depend on the ability and disposition of their citizens to make intelligent decisions. As society becomes more diverse and complex, decisions once made predominantly by adults are increasingly being made by adolescents. Decisions such as whether to experiment with drugs, practice safe sex, or drop out of school are just a few of the decisions frequently faced by adolescents today. Although many adolescents negotiate such challenges successfully, for too many the challenges of adolescent decision making will negatively affect the course of their adult lives. ARE ADOLESCENTS COMPETENT DECISION MAKERS? Results of studies of adolescent decision making are inconclusive. They generally fall into two camps. Some studies show adolescents to be less competent than adults at making decisions (Halpern-Felsher & Cauffman, 2001), while others find adolescents’ decision making comparable to that of adults (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischhoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993; Moshman, 1993). Those who view adolescents’ and adults’ decision making as comparable often cite adolescents’ reasoning ability as evidence. Various studies have found adolescents and adults to reason similarly on a range of tasks (Moshman, 1993). This

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is not surprising, since many reasoning skills used by adults have been reported to emerge during adolescence (Moshman, 1998). Similarly, research has shown adolescents’ decision-making skills to be comparable to those of adults (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993; Moshman, 1993). Specifically, adolescents were found to consider options, weigh pros and cons, and make decisions regarding their participation in research and receipt of medical treatment in similar ways as do adults (Moshman, 1993). Although such evidence suggests that adolescents are competent decision makers, there is also compelling evidence to suggest they are not. Those subscribing to the view of adolescents as less competent decision makers often cite as evidence adolescents’ higher risk taking compared with adults (Scott & Steinberg, 2003). This common view of adolescents as risky decision makers has been supported by a variety of studies (Furby & Beyth-Marom, 1992; Scott & Steinberg, 2003). In comparison to adults, adolescents generally take greater health and safety risks, such as engaging in unprotected sex and driving while intoxicated (Scott & Steinberg, 2003). Adolescents have also been found to differ from adults in the way they make decisions. Studies have shown adolescents to be less skilled than adults in considering options, risks, and future consequences (Halpern-Felsher & Cauffman, 2001; Scott & Steinberg, 2003). IMPROVING ADOLESCENTS’ DECISION MAKING: A NORMATIVE MODEL APPROACH Although research on adolescent decision making is inconclusive, considerable effort and expense have been devoted to developing and implementing programs to improve adolescent decision making. Most programs are founded on a value-based model, which associates a numerical value with each alternative and defines choice as the maximization of values (BeythMarom, Fischhoff, Jacobs, & Furby, 1991). Typically, such programs identify basic steps in decision making according to normative models and teach people how to execute each step. Most programs include the following four steps: (1) identifying options, (2) identifying consequences for each option, (3) calculating likelihood of each consequence, and (4) contemplating one’s preferences. Identifying one’s options is presented as the first step in the decision-making process. Although this

seems an obvious and simple step, many people fail to carry out this step adequately. People may not be aware of some options and therefore fail to consider them. Or they may not identify options thoroughly. Thinking of only the option one favors while ignoring others is one example of how people may inaccurately identify their options. For example, an adolescent who wants to hang out with her friends instead of stay after school for tutoring may fail to consider a third option, which could be to stay after school for a couple of hours and meet up with her friends later. A second step in the decision-making process involves identifying consequences of each option. During this step, the decision maker must consider both the positive and negative consequences of each option fairly. In other words, in addition to thinking about positive consequences of desirable options (and negative consequences of undesirable options), the decision maker must also consider negative consequences of desirable options (and positive consequences of undesirable options). To illustrate this point with the previous example, the adolescent should think about the negative consequences of hanging out with her friends (being unprepared for an exam) in addition to thinking about the fun she would have hanging out with her friends. Once the decision maker generates options and consequences for each option, he or she should consider how likely it is for each consequence to occur. Typically, this step requires calculating the probability of occurrence for each consequence. After considering the likelihood of occurrence, the decision maker then considers his or her preferences by thinking about which consequence is preferred over others and assigning numerical values representing these preferences to each consequence. If the adolescent in the previous example values spending time with her friends more than doing well in school, she would assign a higher value to having fun with her friends than to passing an exam. In evaluating programs to teach adolescent decision making, we should ask ourselves if it is realistic to think that adolescents can be taught to adopt such models to make their own decisions. Would they, for example, use a normative model in making a decision about whether to have sexual intercourse? Bearing on these questions is the dubious success of programs to teach decision-making skills to adolescents (BeythMarom et al., 1991). Although many programs claim to improve adolescent decision making, scant evidence

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supporting the success of these programs exists (Beyth-Marom et al., 1991). Significantly, none of the programs has demonstrated the transfer of decisionmaking skills beyond the context within which the skills were taught (Beyth-Marom et al., 1991). This limited success is not surprising. Adolescents are not the only people who have difficulty making decisions according to normative models. Data on adults’ decision making show adults also have difficulty using these models. Adults often use shortcut heuristics and exhibit systematic biases when making decisions (Jacobs & Potenza, 1991). One such common bias is the representativeness heuristic— people judge probabilities by the degree to which one factor resembles another (Jacobs & Potenza, 1991). When making decisions according to this heuristic, people disregard the factors that influence the probability of an outcome, such as base-rate frequency and sample size. Consider the following problem Jacobs and Potenza (1991) presented: In Juanita’s class 10 girls (residence hall) are trying out to be cheerleaders and 20 are trying out for the band. Juanita is very popular and pretty. She is always telling jokes and loves to be around people. Do you think Juanita is trying out to be a cheerleader or for the band? (p. 169) If basing their decision according to the representativeness heuristic, people would believe that Juanita is trying out to be a cheerleader because her description better represents a cheerleader, despite the fact that twice as many girls are trying out for band, and this is therefore the more probable case. AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH: REASON-BASED MODELS The difficulty adolescents and adults have in making decisions according to normative models has prompted researchers to consider alternative ways to study decision making. A reason-based approach is one such alternative. Instead of focusing on calculated values, this approach to decision making focuses on the thinking and reasoning that underlie a decision. A reason-based approach is arguably more congruent with what people actually do when making decisions. People often resolve conflict by seeking reasons for choosing one option over another (Shafir, Simonson, & Tversky, 1993). In addition, a reason-based approach

recognizes the most important aspect missing from value-based approaches, namely, thinking. People do not normally input probabilities into a formula and execute elaborate calculations to get the best choice; instead, people think about their options and are likely to act on the basis of that thought. Argumentive thinking is the type of thinking that provides a specific foundation for decision making. Decision making requires individuals to construct sound arguments as well as to recognize inferior ones. A decision maker who is unable to recognize an inferior argument in favor of or against an option will have difficulty identifying the best option. Argument thus has a central role in supporting decision making. Its role is particularly pertinent to adolescent decision making, since recent evidence indicates that argumentive thinking develops in particular during the adolescent years (Kuhn & Udell, 2003). One study found that adolescents who participated in a discourse-based intervention increased their use of advanced argumentive reasoning strategies that address an opposing opinion and decreased their use of less advanced strategies that elaborate their own opinion (Kuhn & Udell, 2003). The role of argument as a foundation for decision making underscores the importance of supporting the development of this form of reasoning during the teen years. DEVELOPING GOOD DECISION MAKERS If we want adolescents to make good decisions, we should support their development of the skills underlying good decision making as well as provide opportunities for them to exercise decision making. As with any skill, improved decision making is supported by repeated exercise of decision-making skills. Few would argue the importance of adolescents developing good decision-making skills. However, when it comes to providing opportunities for adolescents to exercise these skills in a variety of contexts, dissent emerges. Do we give adolescents as many opportunities as we might to exercise decision making? Moshman (1993) points to a deep ambivalence and inconsistency in adults’ attitudes toward adolescent thinking and decision making. On the one hand, adolescents are viewed to be mature enough to take responsibility for crimes they commit, but at the same time they are viewed as too immature to make medical decisions regarding such things as abortions (Moshman, 1993). This ambivalence regarding adolescent decision making

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may interfere with their developing good decision making on matters of vital importance to them. While it is important to be aware of adolescents’ immaturity and inexperience in various domains, it is equally important to recognize their developing skills and experience that enable them to make thoughtful decisions.

psychology: Vol. 2. Cognition, perception, and language (5th ed., pp. 947–978). New York: Wiley. Scott, E. S., & Steinberg, L. (2003). Blaming youth. Texas Law Review, 81, 799. Shafir, E., Simonson, I., & Tversky, A. (1993). Reason-based choice. Cognition, 49, 11–36.

CONCLUSIONS

DELINQUENCY

Evidence regarding adolescents’ decision-making abilities paints two pictures. In some domains, adolescents have been found to make decisions in similar ways as adults. At the same time, research has shown adolescents to take more risks and to consider fewer options and consequences than do adults. Although there remains disagreement regarding adolescents’ decision-making abilities, few would disagree that making good decisions is critical to adolescents’ lives and well-being. However, without resolution of the conflicting evidence regarding adolescents’ decisionmaking abilities and the kinds of programs most effective in developing their skills, it is a goal we have yet to achieve. —Wadiya A. Udell

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beyth-Marom, R., Austin, L., Fischhoff, B., Palmgren, C., & Jacobs-Quadrel, M. (1993). Perceived consequences of risky behaviors: Adults and adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 29, 549–563. Beyth-Marom, R., Fischhoff, B., Jacobs, M., & Furby, L. (1991). Teaching decision making to adolescents: A critical review. In J. Baron (Ed.), Teaching decision making to adolescents (pp. 19–60). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Furby, L., & Beyth-Marom, R. (1992). Risk taking in adolescence: A decision-making perspective. Developmental Review, 12, 1–44. Halpern-Felsher, B. L., & Cauffman, E. (2001). Costs and benefits of a decision: Decision-making competence in adolescents and adults. Applied Developmental Psychology, 22, 257–273. Jacobs, E., & Potenza, M. (1991). The use of judgmental heuristics to make social and object decisions: A developmental perspective. Child Development, 62, 166–178. Kuhn, D., & Udell, W. (2003). The development of argument skills. Child Development, 74(4), 1245–1260. Moshman, D. (1993). Adolescent reasoning and adolescent rights. Human Development, 36(1), 27–40. Moshman, D. (1998). Cognitive development beyond childhood. In D. Kuhn & R. S. Siegler (Eds.), Handbook of child

Delinquency is lawbreaking by nonadult persons. The definition varies from state to state in the United States because some offenses are illegal only when committed by juveniles. These status offenses include such acts as truancy and certain sexual behaviors that are defined by individual state laws. JUVENILE JUSTICE In the late 19th century, a separate justice system was established for juveniles. The first juvenile court was opened in Boston because it became apparent that the adult system for punishing criminals was not suitable for children. Soon after, the courts established the first child guidance clinic, the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute, under the direction of William Healy, to investigate the roots of delinquency and then treat the delinquents (Steiner & Redlich, 2002). As recently as 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court has defined children’s rights in court and has waived children to adult court for serious crimes. More recently, most states are establishing statutory exclusion from juvenile court jurisdiction for murder, rape, and other serious felonies. Today the tension between rehabilitation and punishment continues to prevail. Sanctions waver between punishing children who break the law in order to teach them a lesson and treating delinquents as disturbed youth in need of rehabilitation and treatment. CAUSES OF DELINQUENCY Disturbances of conduct are among the most frequently diagnosed childhood conditions. More than 10% of boys and somewhere between 2% and 9% of girls are diagnosed. Two and one half million juveniles are arrested annually at a cost of more than $1 billion for the juvenile justice budget alone (Snyder, 2003). There are many theories on the causes of delinquency. Learning theorists identify gang subcultures and family influences as the models for early deviancy

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from social norms. Sociologists suggest that poverty, substance abuse, and the lack of opportunity drives children in a direction toward crime in order to survive. Still others believe that early involvement in the juvenile justice system is a sure pathway to a chronic life of crime. This issue of etiology is complicated by the fact that up to 70% of delinquents have another comorbid psychiatric disorder that generally goes untreated and may in fact account for much of the disturbance. For example, chronic school failure due to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, or learning disabilities often leads to frustration and school failure before a child may drop out of school and associate with other children who are involved in breaking the law. Very often, substance abuse contributes to this pathway, as children try to feel better through the use of drugs and alcohol and also make quick money through the sale of such substances (Vitulano, Carlson, & Holmberg, 2002; Vitulano, Nagler, Adnopoz, & Grigsby, 1990; Vitulano & Tebes, 2002).

CONCLUSIONS Mental health professions are often at a loss when confronted with delinquents. Early identification and early treatment are the more hopeful avenues to rehabilitation. Children need to find success in school at an early age and then identify opportunities for future successes and career achievement. While benevolent authority from the courts can often encourage a reluctant teenager to attend treatment, only motivated clinicians, supportive families, and appealing programs will keep delinquents off the streets and out of harm’s way. —Lawrence A. Vitulano

Social and personal assessment of school-aged children: Developing interventions for educational and clinical settings (pp. 44–63). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Vitulano, L. A., Nagler, S., Adnopoz, J., & Grigsby, R. K. (1990). Preventing out of home placement for high-risk children. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 63, 285–291. Vitulano, L. A., & Tebes, J. K. (2002). Child and adolescent behavior therapy. In M. Lewis (Ed.), Child and adolescent psychiatry: A comprehensive textbook (3rd ed.; pp. 998– 1015). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

DELINQUENT DEVELOPMENT, THE CAMBRIDGE STUDY The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development is a 40-year follow-up study of South London males (see Farrington, 2003). It was begun by Donald West in 1961; I joined him to work on the study in 1969 and took charge of it in 1982. A main aim of the study was to describe the development of criminal behavior in urban males and to establish how far there was continuity or discontinuity over time in antisocial behavior. A second aim was to investigate why offending began, why it continued, and why it ended, to see how far offending could be predicted in advance, and to establish the relative importance of different predictors of offending. A third aim was to study the correlates of criminal behavior at different ages and the effects of life events on the course of development. Generally, we were not concerned to test one particular theory, but to test many different hypotheses about the causes and correlates of offending and about different mechanisms and processes linking risk factors and antisocial behavior.

See also DELINQUENT DEVELOPMENT, THE CAMBRIDGE STUDY

METHODS REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Snyder, N. H. (2003). Juvenile arrests 2001. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Steiner, H., & Redlich, A. D. (2002). Child psychiatry and the juvenile court. In M. Lewis (Ed.), Child and adolescent psychiatry: A comprehensive textbook (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. Vitulano, L. A., Carlson, J. F., & Holmberg, J. R. (2002). Common disorders and difficulties seen among schoolaged children. In J. F. Carlson & B. B. Waterman (Eds.),

The Cambridge Study has followed 411 South London males from age 8 to age 48. These males were originally assessed in 1961–1962, when they were in the second forms of six state primary schools and were aged 8 to 9 (West, 1969). Hence the most common year of birth of the males is 1953. The males are not a sample drawn systematically from a population, but rather are the complete population of boys of that age in those schools at that time. The vast majority of boys were living in two-parent families, had fathers in manual jobs, and were White and of British origin.

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The study males were interviewed and assessed eight times between age 8 and age 32, and are currently being interviewed at age 46–48. We have been very successful in keeping in contact with them; for example, 95% of those still alive were interviewed at age 18, and 94% at age 32. Currently, 91% of the 394 men still alive have been interviewed at age 46–48. The assessments in schools measured such factors as intelligence, personality, and impulsiveness, while information was collected in the interviews about such topics as living circumstances, employment histories, relationships with females, leisure activities such as drinking, drug use, and fighting, and of course offending behavior. We also interviewed their parents about once a year from when the boys were 8 until when they were 15. The parents provided details about such matters as family income, family composition, their employment histories, their child-rearing practices (including discipline and supervision), and the boy’s temporary or permanent separations from them. Also, the boys’ teachers completed questionnaires when the boys were aged about 8, 10, 12, and 14. These furnished information about such topics as their restlessness or poor concentration, truancy, school attainment, and disruptive behavior in class. We also searched the criminal records of the males, of their biological relatives (fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters), of their wives and cohabitees, and of any person who ever offended with any of our males. The latest searches were in 1994, when most of the males were aged 40. CRIMINAL CAREERS About 1 in 5 of the males was convicted as a juvenile (under age 17 at the time), while 40% were convicted up to age 40. Most convictions were for theft, taking vehicles, burglary, deception, or violence; minor offenses, such as traffic infractions, drunkenness, or common assault, are excluded from these figures. The peak age of conviction was 17, while the average age of conviction was 21. The average criminal career began at age 19, ended at age 26, and included 4.6 offenses leading to convictions (Farrington, Lambert, & West, 1998). There was considerable continuity in offending over time. Three quarters of juvenile offenders were reconvicted at 17–24, half were reconvicted at 25–32, and a quarter were reconvicted at 33–40. Roughly a third of offenders committed only one offense,

another third had criminal careers lasting less than 10 years, and a third had criminal careers lasting more than 10 years. While 40% of males were convicted, only 6% of them (the “chronic” offenders) committed half of all crimes leading to conviction, and they also committed substantial proportions of the undetected (but self-reported) offenses. Generally, the boys first convicted at the earliest ages (10–13) had the longest criminal careers and committed the most offenses. Most juvenile offenses were committed with others, but co-offending declined with age. Generally, the boys committed offenses with other boys of about the same age living close by. Offending tended to be concentrated in families, as shown in Table 1. While 40% of study males were convicted, this was also true of 28% of their fathers, 13% of their mothers, 43% of their brothers, 12% of their sisters, and 9% of their wives. Since the sample contained 14 pairs of brothers, there were 397 families of origin, and there were on average 1.5 convicted persons out of 5.5 persons per family (or about 600 convicted persons out of 2,200 searched). While two thirds of families contained at least one convicted person, only 6% of families accounted for half of all the convictions of all family members (Farrington, Barnes, & Lambert, 1996). The conviction careers of fathers and mothers (up to an average age of 70) were very different from those of the study males. Contrary to the view that offending is heavily concentrated in the teenage years, the average age of conviction was 30 for fathers and 35 for mothers. Contrary to the view that most people who are going to offend begin before age 20, the average age of onset was 27 for fathers and 33 for mothers. One quarter of convicted fathers did not start offending until after age 35, and one quarter of convicted mothers did not start offending until after age 42. Contrary to the view that most offenders “grow out” of crime in their twenties, the average age of desistance was 36 for convicted fathers and 38 for convicted mothers. One quarter of convicted fathers did not stop offending until after age 45, and one quarter of convicted mothers did not stop offending until after age 48. Contrary to the view that criminal careers are relatively short, their average duration (excluding one-time offenders) was 16 years for fathers and 15 years for mothers (compared with 10 years for study males). Hence, when complete criminal careers are studied, officially recorded offending seems far more persistent than previously thought.

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Table 1

Study Males Fathers Mothers Brothers Sisters Wives

Percentages of Different Family Members Convicted Percentage

Number

Average Age*

40 28 13 43 12 9

411 394 396 482 519 351

40 72 68 40 40 30

At age 32, the convicted males tended to have poor employment histories and low-paid jobs. They were still relatively deviant in binge drinking and in using hard drugs (heroin and cocaine), both of which had increased since age 18. They were also relatively deviant in their involvement in fights and in their antiestablishment attitudes, both of which had decreased since age 18. Hence, there was relative stability superimposed on absolute change in antisocial behavior.

* Percentage convicted and average age up to 1994.

CHILDHOOD RISK FACTORS THE ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR SYNDROME Offending was only one element of a larger syndrome of antisocial behavior. Most convicted males had committed crimes of dishonesty, but they differed in many ways from the unconvicted males (West & Farrington, 1977). For example, at age 18 the convicted males were more likely to have low-status jobs and unstable job records, including periods of unemployment. They were more likely to have taken prohibited drugs such as marijuana or LSD, although few were convicted of drug offenses. They tended to be heavy drinkers, heavy smokers, heavy gamblers, and drunk drivers (driving after having 10 drinks or more). They were also more likely to have convictions for minor motoring offenses and to have been involved in road accidents. The convicted delinquents at age 18 were more likely than others to have had sexual intercourse, especially beginning at an early age and with a variety of different girls, but they were less likely to use contraceptives. They tended to hang around the streets in groups of four or more males, and they tended to get involved in group violence or vandalism. They also tended to be impulsive and tattooed, and to express antiestablishment attitudes (negative to police, school, and bosses). At age 32, the males had generally become more conventional, but those who were still being convicted were relatively deviant (Farrington, 1989). The convicted males were more likely to be living in poorquality accommodations rented from the local authority, and they moved frequently. They were as likely as others to have married but were more likely to have divorced or separated and assaulted their wives or female partners. They were also more likely to be separated from their children and to have poor relationships with their parents.

Before anyone was convicted, at age 8–10, the future delinquents differed from the nondelinquents in many respects, and similar results were obtained whether offending was measured using convictions or self-reports (West & Farrington, 1973). Table 2 shows the key risk factors at age 8–10 for convictions up to age 40. About a quarter of the sample were identified in each risk group. For example, 92 boys were identified as troublesome by teachers and peers, and 59 of them (64%) were later convicted, compared with 105 (33%) of the remaining 319. The main measure of predictive efficiency is the “odds ratio,” which shows the effect of each risk factor on the odds (risk) of offending. Troublesomeness increased the odds of offending 3.5 times. The key risk factors fell into six major categories (Farrington, 1990), each of which independently predicted later offending: (1) disruptive child behavior (troublesomeness or dishonesty); (2) criminality in the family (a convicted parent, a delinquent sibling); (3) low intelligence or low school attainment; (4) poor child rearing (poor discipline, poor supervision, or separation of a child from a parent); (5) impulsiveness (daring or risk taking, restlessness or poor concentration); and (6) economic deprivation (low income, poor housing, large family size). To give some idea of how far convictions might be predictable in advance, we developed a combined measure of vulnerability at age 8–10, based on low family income, large family size (five or more children), a convicted parent, poor child rearing, and low IQ (90 or less). Of the 63 boys with three or more of these adverse factors, 48 (76%) were subsequently convicted. The unconvicted boys were said to have few or no friends at age 8, suggesting that social isolation might be a protective factor against offending.

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Table 2

Key Risk Factors at Age 8–10 Percentage Convicted Risk Group

Remainder

Odds Ratio

64 57 63 62 57 60 58 59 58 56 60 76

33 33 32 33 34 34 35 33 35 31 34 34

3.5 2.6 3.6 3.4 2.6 2.9 2.6 2.9 2.5 2.8 2.9 6.3

Troublesome Dishonest* Convicted Parent* Low School Attainment* Low IQ Separated From Parent* Poor Supervision Daring* Lacks Concentration Poor Housing* Large Family Size Vulnerable * Independent predictor in regression analysis.

RISK MECHANISMS As an example of an attempt to investigate mechanisms linking risk factors and antisocial behavior, we tested different explanations of the relationship between disrupted families and delinquency (Juby & Farrington, 2001). Trauma theories suggest that the loss of a parent has a damaging effect on a child, most commonly because of the effect on attachment to the parent. Life course theories focus on separation as a sequence of stressful experiences, and on the effects of multiple stressors such as parental conflict, parental loss, reduced economic circumstances, changes in parent figures, and poor childrearing methods. Selection theories argue that disrupted families produce delinquent children because of preexisting differences from other families in risk factors such as parental conflict, criminal or antisocial parents, low family income, or poor child-rearing methods. We concluded that the results favored life course theories rather than trauma or selection theories. While boys from broken homes (permanently disrupted families) were more delinquent than boys from intact homes, they were not more delinquent than boys from intact high-conflict families. Overall, the most important factor was the postdisruption trajectory. Boys who remained with their mothers after the separation had the same delinquency rate as boys from intact low-conflict families. Boys who remained with their fathers, with relatives, or with others (e.g., foster parents) had high delinquency rates. The results were

similar whether convictions or self-reports of delinquency were studied.

EFFECTS OF LIFE EVENTS We investigated the effects of numerous life events on the course of development of offending. In particular, going to a high delinquency-rate school at age 11 did not seem to amplify the risk of offending, since badly behaved boys tended to go to the high delinquency-rate schools. However, getting convicted did lead to an increase in offending, according to the boys’ self-reports. Unemployment also caused an increase in offending, but only for crimes leading to financial gain, such as theft, burglary, robbery, and fraud. There was no effect of unemployment on other offenses, such as violence, vandalism, or drug use, suggesting that the link between unemployment and offending was mediated by lack of money rather than boredom (Farrington, Gallagher, Morley, St. Ledger, & West, 1986). It is often believed that marriage to a good woman is one of the most effective treatments for male offending, and indeed we found that getting married led to a decrease in offending compared with staying single (Farrington & West, 1995). Also, later separation from a wife led to an increase in offending compared with staying married. Another protective life event was moving out of London, which led to a decrease in offending. This was probably because of the effect of the move in breaking up delinquent groups.

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CONCLUSIONS The Cambridge Study shows how far there is continuity in antisocial behavior from childhood to adulthood and what are the main risk factors and life events that influence offending. In the current follow-up at age 46–48, it is clear that many males from deprived backgrounds, and many former offenders, are living successful lives. Hence, the main challenge in the future will be to study discontinuities in antisocial behavior and protective factors that encourage life success. To the extent that protective factors can be identified, intervention programs can be designed to foster them and hence to promote successful outcomes despite criminogenic backgrounds (see Farrington, 2002). —David P. Farrington

See also DELINQUENCY

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Farrington, D. P. (1989). Later adult life outcomes of offenders and non-offenders. In M. Brambring, F. Losel, & H. Skowronek (Eds.), Children at risk: Assessment, longitudinal research, and intervention (pp. 220–244). Berlin: De Gruyter. Farrington, D. P. (1990). Implications of criminal career research for the prevention of offending. Journal of Adolescence, 13, 93–113. Farrington, D. P. (2002). Developmental criminology and risk-focused prevention. In M. Maquire, R. Morgan, & R. Reiner (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminology (3rd ed., pp. 657–701). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Farrington, D. P. (2003). Key results from the first 40 years of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. In T. P. Thornberry & M. D. Krohn (Eds.), Taking stock of delinquency: An overview of findings from contemporary longitudinal studies (pp. 137–183). New York: Kluwer/Plenum. Farrington, D. P., Barnes, G., & Lambert, S. (1996). The concentration of offending in families. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 1, 47–63. Farrington, D. P., Gallagher, B., Morley, L., St. Ledger, R. J., & West, D. J. (1986). Unemployment, school leaving and crime. British Journal of Criminology, 26, 335–356. Farrington, D. P., Lambert, S., & West, D. J. (1998). Criminal careers of two generations of family members in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention, 7, 85–106. Farrington, D. P., & West, D. J. (1995). Effects of marriage, separation and children on offending by adult males. In J. Hagan (Ed.), Current perspectives on aging and the life cycle: Vol. 4. Delinquency and disrepute in the life course (pp. 249–281). Greenwich, CT: JAI.

Juby, H., & Farrington, D. P. (2001). Disentangling the link between disrupted families and delinquency. British Journal of Criminology, 41, 22–40. West, D. J. (1969). Present conduct and future delinquency. London: Heinemann. West, D. J., & Farrington, D. P. (1973). Who becomes delinquent? London: Heinemann. West, D. J., & Farrington, D. P. (1977). The delinquent way of life. London: Heinemann.

DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENCE Interest in adolescent depression has increased recently (Wicks-Nelson & Israel, 1997), due in part to recent events such as high school shootings and the continual rise in the number of antidepressants prescribed to adolescents in the United States. These are just some of the reasons that clinicians and researchers have been encouraged to focus their efforts at gaining a better understanding of adolescent depression. Depression in adolescents can be quite variable and oftentimes difficult to diagnose. In addition, risk factors and developmental factors can be quite diverse. Untreated depression can lead to many serious consequences, including suicide. PRESENTATION OF THE DISORDER A concrete understanding of adolescent depression is complicated by its varied clinical presentation. As such, adolescent depression can be difficult to diagnose. For example, one symptom of depression can be a decline in academic performance, which is usually attributed to a lack of motivation and missed classes. It can be difficult to distinguish between learning problems and depression or the interaction of both factors in identifying the reasons for such a decline. Depression is a likely contributing factor, as it is one of the most common reasons for refusing to go to school (Lamberg, 2002). A decline in school performance is just one symptom frequently associated with adolescent depression. Other symptoms include a consistent change in mood, poor physical health, markedly diminished selfesteem, and unsatisfying and conflicted interpersonal relationships. Certain symptoms can mask the presentation of depression, such as social withdrawal, irritability, and oppositional-defiant behaviors. These symptoms can be overlooked, as they differ from the adult diagnosis, which focuses on feelings of sadness.

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Overlap with other disorders also makes accurate diagnosis of adolescent depression difficult. Anxiety disorders (especially generalized anxiety disorders in later adolescence) have a high rate of comorbidity with adolescent depression (Kovacs, Gatsonis, Paulauskas, & Richards, 1989). Conduct disorders are also often seen as a common coexisting condition. Finally, dysthymic disorder can occur in those presenting with depression. The combination of dysthymic disorder and major depression results in what is called a double depression, which can be especially resistant to treatment interventions. Finally, an initial depressive episode can be the onset of a bipolar disorder. Parents and others may be quick to dismiss symptoms of adolescent depression as simply the typical behaviors of a “normal teenager” in the age-appropriate search for identity. Although the adolescent may give the impression that he or she simply wants to be left alone, it is important that parents or other important figures in the child’s life, such as a teacher, be watchful for symptoms such as substance abuse or indications of hopelessness and worthlessness. Social support has been found to reduce depressive symptoms in some cases (Prinstein, Boergers, & Vernberg, 2001). Having someone to talk to may reduce feelings of isolation, which are commonly associated with suicide. By increasing social support, the adolescent will hopefully be more likely to use this outlet to talk about problems, rather than internalize them, which serves only to increase depressive symptoms. While it is difficult to predict which adolescents will develop depression, some groups are particularly vulnerable. For example, the gay or lesbian adolescent is especially vulnerable to depression. In fact, gay and lesbian youth are more vulnerable to mental health problems, including depression and suicide (Safren & Heimberg, 1999). It also appears that the more victimization a person experiences, the more likely he or she is to present with depressive symptoms. In research conducted by Prinstein et al. (2001), they found that victims of multiple types of aggression were more likely to demonstrate depressive symptoms than those exposed to only one or no form of aggression. RISK FACTORS AND CONSEQUENCES The development of adolescent depression may be an interaction among many different factors that are usually interdependent. While genetics has been implicated in the development of depression, certain

caregiver characteristics are also thought to be involved in the etiology of the disorder. Some of these factors include affect regulation, availability, and warmth. Maternal depression has been found to be correlated with depressed youth (Brennan, Hammen, Katz, & Le Brocque, 2002). In particular, insecure attachments may contribute to depressive symptoms. Through this insecure attachment, children may view the world and others as rejecting, which has detrimental effects for processes such as self-esteem. Future experiences of rejection, such as by peers, may serve only to exacerbate existing perceived inadequacies. Adolescence may be a time of increased sensitivity to peer rejection, and any such rejection may increase the chances of a depressive episode. The risk factors for depression are diverse. Stress, familial discord, and family history are important factors that warrant attention. The adolescent who feels a lack of belonging with other peers, as well as family, or feels isolated, may be at risk for depression as well. Finally, a history of familial depression can be a strong predictor of depressed youth (Brennan et al., 2002). Untreated depression can lead to several dangerous consequences. One outcome is suicide, which is a leading cause of death in the United States for teenagers. Suicide has been associated with substance abuse, access to firearms (Simon & Gutheil, 2002), physical and/or sexual abuse (Bridgeland, Duane, & Stewart, 2001), and parental psychiatric disorders (King et al., 2001). Predictors of suicide include history of a past attempt, low self-esteem, and having a friend who recently attempted suicide (Lewinsohn, Rohde, & Seeley, 1994). Another consequence of an untreated initial depression is the probability of future episodes, as it is thought that early episodes of depression predict future ones. Therefore, early treatment with consistent follow-up is essential in preventing future episodes of depression. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent depression can present in many different ways, which makes it a difficult disorder to diagnose. Many signs and symptoms of adolescent depression, such as substance abuse, irritability, or conduct problems, can be dismissed as “normal” adolescent identity experimentation or otherwise not related to depression. When the adolescent engages in behaviors that are not often associated with depression, such as acting out, it makes it difficult for many,

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especially parents, to see an underlying issue of depression. In addition, there is significant overlap with other diagnoses, further complicating an accurate characterization of the disorder. The development of depression is thought to be an interaction of many interdependent factors, including biological components as well as the quality of early parent-child attachment. Risk factors are diverse, ranging from biological components to situational stressors. It is important to seek treatment for the depressed adolescent. One important consequence of untreated depression can be suicide. It is important to remember that depression can occur repeatedly throughout the life span. Therefore, early treatment is important and should include follow-up care to continually monitor mood and functioning. —Adam Fried

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brennan, P. A., Hammen, C., Katz, A. R., & Le Brocque, R. M. (2002). Maternal depression, paternal psychopathology, and adolescent diagnostic outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 1075–1085. Bridgeland, W. M., Duane, E. A., & Stewart, C. S. (2001). Victimization and attempted suicide among college students. College Student Journal, 35, 63–76. King, R. A., Schwab-Stone, M., Flisher, A. J., Greenwald, S., Kramer, R. A., Goodman, S. H., et al. (2001). Psychosocial and risk behavior correlates of youth suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 837–846. Kovacs, M., Gatsonis, C., Paulauskas, S. L., & Richards, C. (1989). Depressive disorders in childhood: IV. A longitudinal study of comorbidity with and risk for anxiety disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 776–782. Lamberg, L. (2002). Multifaceted treatment aids depressed youth. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 1338–1341. Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P., & Seeley, J. R. (1994). Psychosocial risk factors for future adolescent suicide attempts. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 297–305. Prinstein, M. A., Boergers, J., & Vernberg, E. M. (2001). Overt and relational aggression in adolescents: Socialpsychological adjustment of aggressors and victims. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30, 479–491. Safren, S. A., & Heimberg, R. G. (1999). Depression, hopelessness, suicidality, and related factors in sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 859–866. Simon, R. I., & Gutheil, T. G. (2002). A recurrent pattern of suicide risk factors observed in litigation cases: Lessons in risk management. Psychiatric Annals, 32, 384–387.

Wicks-Nelson, R., & Israel, A. C. (1997). Behavior disorders of childhood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

DEPRESSION IN LATER LIFE Depression is the most pervasive mental health problem among older adults, but it is often unrecognized and untreated, representing a serious public health problem (Lebowitz et al., 1997). At the same time, and contrary to stereotypes, depression is far from ubiquitous among the elderly. It is important to remember that depression is a disease and not a normal part of the aging process nor a normal reaction to the losses experienced in old age. Two primary methods are used in both clinical and research settings to assess depression in adult populations. The first involves the use of diagnostic interviews (structured and unstructured) to establish diagnoses of depressive disorders including major depression, minor depression, and dysthymia based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Criteria for a major depression include the experience of either depressed mood/sadness or loss of pleasure, along with at least four of seven other criteria symptoms persistently present for at least 2 weeks. The criteria for a minor depression are the same, but only one other symptom is required beyond depressed mood or loss of pleasure. Complicating appropriate identification and diagnosis, geriatric depression, in contrast to depression earlier in life, often presents without sadness or depressed mood, as elders often do not define their problems in psychological terms. Apathy and/or irritability as a result of loss of interest and pleasure in daily life are often the primary symptoms (Kennedy, 2000). This classification approach (diagnosis of depression or not) is in contrast to the test approach, which assumes that depressive symptomatology among individuals can vary along a continuum of severity or intensity (Futterman, Thompson, Gallagher-Thompson, & Ferris, 1995). In this approach, depressive symptomatology is typically measured by standardized self-report instruments that have been normed against general community-based populations and have cutscores established to indicate the existence of significant depressive symptomatology. The most widely

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used instruments with older adults in this category include the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depressive Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale. PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION IN LATE LIFE The prevalence of major depression among older people tends to be lower than that among younger adults, ranging from 1% to 5% in community samples, with somewhat higher rates among elders in primary medical care, home care, and institutional settings (Blazer, 2002). However, recent research in geriatric depression has highlighted the importance of clinically significant depressive symptomatology for older adults. These syndromes are variably called subclinical, subthreshold, or subsyndromal depression. Although not meeting all criteria for a major depressive disorder, subthreshold depression has been found to have negative consequences similar to major depression in terms of morbidity, mortality, and health care utilization. In contrast to major depression, prevalence of subthreshold depression is higher among the elderly than younger adults and clearly overshadows major depression, with estimates ranging from 8% to 16% of community-dwelling elderly, 15% to 20% of those in primary care, 25% to 33% of elders in acute hospital settings, and as many as 50% of elders in long-term care facilities (Blazer, 2002; Futterman et al., 1995). DEPRESSION, DISABILITY, MORBIDITY, AND MORTALITY There is extensive evidence documenting high levels of comorbidity between medical and depressive illnesses (both major and subthreshold depression) in later life. Higher rates of depression are found among older adults suffering from a variety of health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and diabetes (Blazer, 2002). Depression also often coexists with dementia and may be a precursor as well as a consequence of the disease (Kennedy, 2000). Furthermore, across a variety of chronic conditions, depression is associated with higher levels of functional disability, with extensive evidence pointing to a reciprocal relationship over time (Bruce, 2001). That is, disability is a key risk factor for the onset of depressive symptoms and disorders, and the latter results in an increased risk for both physical illness and functional disability in later life.

Depression is also a major risk factor for suicide among the elderly, and European American men aged 75 and older have the highest rate of suicide of any other group (Reynolds, Alexopoulos, & Katz, 2002). In addition to suicidal risk, depression is associated with increased overall mortality in later life, even when severity of comorbid physical illnesses is controlled (Lebowitz et al., 1997). It has been hypothesized that the link between depression and mortality is a function of both physiological factors, such as negative effects of depression on immune functions, and psychological factors, such as reduced motivation for self-care (Karel, Ogland-Hand, & Gatz, 2002). RISK FACTORS FOR DEPRESSION IN LATER LIFE In addition to physical illness and functional disability, numerous independent risk factors for depression have been documented in the research literature and can be used to identify high-risk elders and target interventions (Blazer, 2002; Karel et al., 2003). Among demographic factors, being female and having lower education and limited income tend to increase the risk of depression, while age within the older cohort does not, and the evidence on race/ethnicity remains contradictory. A past history of depression, or a family history, are two of the strongest predictors of a late-life depressive episode. Specific psychological characteristics and resources that can decrease the risk of depression include more cognitive and less emotional coping styles as well as a sense of self-efficacy and mastery. Social support from family and friends is an especially strong protective factor for older adults. Married elders have lower depression rates, while those who do not have at least one confidant have higher rates. Recent research clearly indicates that it is the perception of support availability and one’s satisfaction with support relationships that buffer the effects of stress on depression, rather than the actual amount of tangible help received (Lakey & Lutz, 1996). TREATMENT FOR GERIATRIC DEPRESSION Most older adults suffering from depression remain unidentified and untreated (Lebowitz et al., 1997). When treated with antidepressants, they are more likely than younger people to receive dosages of inadequate strength or duration, and less likely to see a mental health professional (Kennedy, 2000).

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Primary barriers to diagnosis and treatment of depression in older persons include the misattribution of symptoms to normal aging or physical disease and the reluctance of older people to seek treatment due to the social stigma associated with mental illness (Karel et al., 2002). However, depression is a disease that is amenable to treatment at all ages. Treatments fall broadly into two major categories: psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic. Although more research needs to be done, existing evidence indicates that pharmacotherapy can be a safe and effective treatment for depression among older adults (Futterman et al., 1995; Kennedy, 2000). Psychotherapeutic approaches have also been found to be effective, and generally include either cognitive behavioral therapies or psychodynamic and interpersonal approaches. Overall, no one treatment approach has been found to be most effective, although studies that combine psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy suggest that this integrated approach results in high success rates (Futterman et al., 1995). Because of the strong reciprocal relationship between disability and depression, direct interventions to decrease disability (e.g., through rehabilitation services) have also been proposed as a primary treatment for depression, although more research is needed to document and understand the mechanisms underlying this effect (Kennedy, 2000). It is also important to recognize that depression is often a chronic, reoccurring disease requiring a treatment plan that includes maintenance medication and/or psychotherapy (Karel et al., 2002; Reynolds et al., 2003). CONCLUSIONS One of the more pressing research needs in late-life depression is for longitudinal studies with multiple points of data collection and sufficiently large numbers of subjects to examine carefully how the relationships among morbidity, disability, and depression evolve over time. Such studies will also contribute to a better understanding of the patterns and predictors of relapse and recovery from depression in later life. Understanding how the experience of late life differs by gender, race/ethnicity, and cohort is also important. Finally, a critical research need is for systematic evaluations of different intervention strategies (e.g., psychotherapies and/or psychopharmacology) for treating depression. —Amy Horowitz

See also

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Blazer, D. (2002). Depression in later life (3rd ed.). New York: Springer. Bruce, M. L. (2001). Depression and disability in late life: Directions for future research. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 9, 102–112. Futterman, A., Thompson, L., Gallagher-Thompson, D., & Ferris, R. (1995). Depression in later life: Epidemiology, assessment, etiology, and treatment. In E. E. Beckham & W. R. Leber (Eds.), Handbook of depression (2nd ed., pp. 494–525). New York: Guilford. Karel, M. J., Ogland-Hand, S., & Gatz, M. (2002). Assessing and treating late-life depression. New York: Basic. Kennedy, G. J. (2000). Geriatric mental health care. New York: Guilford. Lakey, B., & Lutz, C. J. (1996). Social support and preventive and therapeutic interventions. In G. R. Pierce, B. R. Sarason, & I. G. Sarason (Eds.), Handbook of social support and the family (pp. 435–465). New York: Plenum. Lebowitz, B. D., Pearson, J. L., Schneider, L. S., Reynolds, C. F., III, Alexopoulos, G. S., Bruce, M. L., et al. (1997). Diagnosis and treatment of depression in late life: Consensus statement update. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 1186–1190. Reynolds, C. F., III, Alexopoulos, G., & Katz, I. R. (2003). Geriatric depression: Diagnosis and treatment. Generations, 26, 28–31.

DEPRESSION, MATERNAL Depression comes in many forms and in many degrees. Historically, depression has been conceived of as encompassing a range of states and symptoms from melancholia to hopelessness. Depression is currently conceptualized as a group of related symptoms that include affective, cognitive, appetite, and weight problems, sleep disturbances, and suicidality. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) is recognized by most researchers, at least in North America, as the classification system that defines depression for research and clinical purposes. PHENOMENOLOGY OF DEPRESSION Major depression (MD) is the most serious type of depression. The criteria for MD require five or more depressive symptoms to be present during the same

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2-week period and that at least one be depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure. Minor depression, in comparison, requires two to four symptoms with the same severity and duration requirements as MD. The criterion for dysthymia, a more moderate but chronic version of depression, is depressed mood that occurs for most of the day for at least 2 years, in addition to two other depressive symptoms. Thus, the DSM-1V requires that a certain number, but not a certain constellation, of symptoms be present for a diagnosis, suggesting that very different conditions can receive the same diagnostic label of depression. It is important to note that MD is usually comorbid (co-occurs) with other disorders. Studies of diagnostic patterns in community samples show that there is substantial lifetime and episode comorbidity between depression and other mental and substance abuse disorders. Indeed, comorbidity seems to be the norm among people with depression. The strongest lifetime comorbidities of depression are with anxiety disorders, especially generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These comorbid conditions not only affect the presentation of depressive symptoms but may also predispose patients with MD to a more chronic course of disease. There is mounting evidence that depression, especially in women, adversely affects the quality of interpersonal relationships, in particular, relationships with spouses and children. Not only is the rate of divorce higher among depressed than among nondepressed individuals, but also the children of depressed mothers have themselves been found to be at elevated risk for psychopathology. PREVALENCE/INCIDENCE Recent estimates indicate that nearly 20% of the U.S. population, primarily women, experiences a clinically significant episode of depression at some point in their lives. Lifetime prevalence estimates of depression have ranged widely, from as low as 6% to as high as 25% (Lewinsohn, Rohde, Seeley, & Fischer, 1991). The wide range of prevalence estimates is partly due to heterogeneity among assessments and the criteria used to define depression. Whereas some researchers use the DSM-IV criteria, others define depression based on cutoff scores on self-rated questionnaires. In addition, the type of questionnaire used to assess depressive symptoms has an impact on the prevalence rates. However, irrespective of the criteria and type of assessment used,

it is generally agreed that depression is debilitating to the individual and causes significant distress and impairment. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Burden of Disease Study ranked depression as the single most burdensome disease in the world in terms of total disability-adjusted life years among people in the middle years of life (Gotlib & Hammen, 2002). This top ranking was due to a unique combination of high lifetime prevalence, early age of onset, high chronicity, and high role impairment. GENDER DIFFERENCES It has been long recognized that women’s rates of depression exceed those of men by about 2 to 1. Most large epidemiological studies of community samples in the United States find that about twice as many women as men meet the clinical criteria for depression. Women also tend to score higher than men on measures of subclinical depressive symptoms. The absolute prevalence of depression varies substantially across cultures and nations, but the gender difference in depression remains significant across most demographic and cultural groups (Weissman et al., 1996). Considerable research has attempted to explore the unique psychological and social experiences of women that make them more vulnerable to the onset of depression. Risk Factors for Depression in Women Epidemiological research on children and adolescents documents that the rates of depression are similar in prepubescent boys and girls, but begin to increase sharply at age 12–13 years for girls. Though disagreement still exists as to whether the rates of depressive disorders in boys remain relatively stable or decline through adolescence, there is some consensus that girls are twice as likely as boys to be diagnosed with major depression, and they score significantly higher on continuous measures of depressive symptoms. It has been suggested that emergence of a gender difference in depression in African Americans and Latin Americans occurs at a later developmental period than the emergence in European Americans. Biological Factors The timing of the emergence of gender difference in rates of depression, and the greater number of depressive symptoms experienced by women postpartum,

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have engendered biological explanations as to why women are more prone to depression than men. Most focus on the effects of gonadal hormones, especially estrogen and progesterone, on women’s moods. Several studies have investigated whether women carry a greater genetic vulnerability to depression than men. Approximately 10% to 15% of women experience a depressive episode severe enough to qualify for a diagnosis of major depression in the first few weeks after giving birth (O’Hara & Swain, 1996). Symptoms of the “postpartum blues” include dysphoria, mood lability, crying, anxiety, insomnia, poor appetite, and irritability. These symptoms typically subside within 2–3 weeks postpartum. Major depression with postpartum onset, however, can linger for months if not treated. Because the onset of MD during postpartum coincides with large changes in levels of estrogen, progesterone, and several other hormones, these changes have been thought to play a causal role. However, women with postpartum depression often have a family history of depression. They also tend to have a personal history of depression prior to becoming pregnant, or are depressed during pregnancy. Thus, it may be primarily women who carry some underlying vulnerability to depression who tend to develop postpartum depressions. Psychological Factors Psychological explanations for the gender difference in depression focus on the greater interpersonal orientation of women. Women are more likely than men to feel strong emotional ties with a wide range of people in their lives, to see their roles vis-à-vis others (as a daughter, wife/partner, mother) as central to their self-concepts, and to overvalue relationships as sources of self-esteem. Rumination—the tendency to focus on one’s symptoms of distress—is thought to be associated with depressed mood. Women are more likely than men to ruminate in response to distressing events, which makes them increasingly negative about the past and hopeless about the present and future (Nolen-Hoeksema & Jackson, 2001). Social explanations for women’s increased vulnerability to depression attribute this vulnerability to acute and chronic stressors that women experience more often than men. Experiences of sexual harassment, sexual and physical abuse, and women’s more frequent experiences of poverty are likely to contribute to their higher rates of depression compared with men, although these factors warrant more research.

MULTIPLE RISK FACTORS Although researchers tend to examine risk factors individually, they do not exist in isolation. It is quite possible, and indeed probable, that two or more risk factors coexist and contribute interactively to the development of maternal depression. In addition, risk factors themselves affect one another over time and set in motion transactional processes that are sometimes difficult to disentangle. In recognition of this complexity, a rewarding approach has been to view the risk factors from a cumulative risk perspective. That is, it is the number of risk factors, rather than the type, that affects child outcomes. While this view is conceptually compelling, it has not been widely tested within the context of maternal depression.

MATERNAL DEPRESSION AND CHILD OUTCOMES Recognizing the enormous toll of maternal depression on family functioning, there has been a vast amount of research on the negative outcomes in functioning and diagnostic status of children whose mothers are clinically or subclinically depressed. It has been well documented that infants of depressed mothers are at risk for developmental problems in a number of areas, ranging from disturbances in affect regulation to inferior performance on developmental assessments. Maternal depression, whether postpartum or chronic, substantially increases a child’s risk of developing abnormalities characteristic of depressed mothers. Children of depressed mothers have been found to be 2 to 5 times more likely to develop behavioral problems than children of nondepressed mothers. Toddlers of depressed mothers have been found to react more negatively to stress and to be delayed in their acquisition of self-regulation strategies. A significant percentage of children of depressed parents develop depression. Thus, maternal depression is a risk factor not only for depression and other mood disorders in offspring but also for a variety of other forms of psychological and medical dysfunction. More recently, researchers have attempted to move beyond documenting the adverse outcomes in children of depressed mothers to examine mechanisms that underlie the risk for these outcomes. Despite this shift in focus, we know little about how the risk is transmitted from depressed mothers to their children, and whether these mechanisms are particular

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to maternal depression or to certain kinds of child outcome. Nevertheless, some of the possible mechanisms are documented following. Genetic Predisposition/Prenatal Biology Having a depressed mother confers on the child a genetic predisposition to depression not only through direct inheritance of genes associated with hormonal imbalance (e.g., dopamine) but also the inheritance of psychobiological dysfunctions. Considering all of the data obtained in investigations using twin, adoption, and family study designs, the risk for an affective disorder in adult first-degree relatives of a patient with major depression is estimated at 20% to 25% compared with a general population risk of 7% (Gotlib & Hammen, 2002). In addition, infants of depressed mothers are born with dysfunctional neuroregulatory mechanisms that interfere with emotional regulation processes. However, these could be a function of either genetic factors or adverse prenatal experiences like exposure to the neuroendocrine alterations associated with the mother’s depression, constricted blood flow to the fetus, and so on. Adverse experiences during fetal development may precipitate a set of events that contribute to the later emergence of depression. The strongest case for this mechanism has been made by the dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenocortical (HPA) axis, the system that manages response to stress. Chronic activation of the HPA axis may lay the groundwork for illness and depression. To be noted is the fact that genetic inheritance of vulnerability is not the only factor that could contribute to activation of the HPA axis. Abuse or neglect in childhood may chronically boost HPA functioning and therefore increase the individual’s lifelong vulnerability to depression. In turn, these fetal developments may be manifested as behavioral traits or tendencies, such as behavioral inhibition or high temperamental reactivity. Maladaptive Cognition, Behaviors, and Affect Depressed mothers are characterized by negative cognitions, overt behaviors, and affect, which not only render the depressed mother an inadequate social partner for her children but also deter her from meeting her child’s social, cognitive, and emotional needs. For example, in interactions with their spouses, which presumably the children have opportunities to

observe, depressed women have been found to engage in self-derogation and dysfunctional problem-solving behavior, and to exhibit elevated levels of hostility, anger, and conflict. Consequently, these children, from infancy through adolescence, have been found to exhibit cognitive functioning, affect, and behaviors that mirror broadly the depressed mothers’ functioning. Another set of family processes that might increase risk for depression involves interparental conflict. Parents in distressed marriages may serve as models for negative interactions, particularly if the conflict is intense, aggressive, and unresolved and children are exposed repeatedly and at early ages. Children may feel threatened and overwhelmed, have heightened emotional arousal, and have difficulty regulating their emotions. The longitudinal relation between depression and marital difficulties suggests a bidirectional pattern of causation, where each is the cause for the other. Mother-Child Relationship The more proximal mechanisms implicated in associations between depression in mothers and problems in children are the quality of parenting and motherchild interactions and attachment. Depressed mothers are typically unresponsive, noncontingent, affectively flat, disengaged, and generally less competent during interactions with infants. Moreover, infants have been observed to develop a “depressed” profile during interactions with their depressed mothers, displaying flat affect, decreased vagal tone, inattentiveness, less activity, fussiness, and withdrawal. Because young children are more dependent on the nurturance, stimulation, and support provided by primary caregivers, the effects of maternal depression might be especially evident when children are infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Researchers have revealed that maternal depression is associated not only with withdrawn, unresponsive patterns of interaction with their infants, but also with a pattern of hostile-intrusive overstimulation. Depressed mothers also tend to reward their children infrequently and inconsistently. According to social learning theory, infants and young children who experience low levels of contingent responsiveness to their initiatives may fail to learn healthy patterns of self-reward and positive reinforcement. Contextual Stressors Children of depressed mothers are exposed not only to their mothers’ depression but also to a more

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stressful environment than that experienced by children of nondepressed mothers. Depressed women are more likely to be single and less educated, have low income-to-needs ratio, and live in high-risk neighborhoods. So it is quite possible that children “inherit” the environmental context in which maternal depression exists, that eventually contributes to maladaptive child outcomes. TRANSACTIONAL MODEL OF TRANSMISSION OF RISK It is important to appreciate that maternal depression does not occur in isolation from other family processes related to children’s risk for the development of the adjustment problems. Moreover, the risk may be cumulative over time, with greater exposure to maternal depression leading to greater problems. Children’s psychological outcomes and the quality of family relationships vary widely in families with maternal depression. Accordingly, children’s risk for adjustment problems is probabilistic, not certain, and many children in even the most adverse family circumstances develop normally or may even become high functioning. In every circumstance, there may be protective factors that serve as sources of resiliency. Some of these protective factors may come from within the child. For instance, children with easier temperaments are expected to be less vulnerable to the effects of the inadequate parenting that has been observed in depressed mothers. In addition, other family members, like the father, play an important role in families with depressed mothers, either exacerbating the risk of psychopathology in the child or protecting the child from the adverse effects of maternal depression. Thus, maternal depression and its sequelae need to be understood from a dynamic, processoriented perspective rather than as a function of the presence, or absence, of static marker variables. CONCLUSIONS There is considerable evidence that maternal depression is a significant risk for adverse outcomes, not just for the child, but also for the family as a whole. As the developmental pathways of children with depressed mothers have not been examined in depth, it is widely recognized that they are extremely complex and require a contextual approach that admits the co-occurrence of maternal depression with

other risk factors. Inevitably, the more accurate our understanding of the causal mechanisms, the more effective our preventions and interventions will be. —Nanmathi Manian and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Gotlib, I. H., & Hammen, C. L. (2002). Handbook of depression. New York: Guilford. Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P., Seeley, J., & Fischer, S. A. (1991). Age and depression: Unique and shared effects. Psychology and Aging, 6(2), 247–260. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Jackson, B. (2001). Mediators of the gender difference in rumination. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25(1), 37–47. O’Hara, M., & Swain, A. M. (1996). Rates and risk of postpartum depression: A meta-analysis. International Review of Psychiatry, 8(1), 37–54. Weissman, M. M., Bland, R. C., Canino, G. J., Faravelli, C., Greenwald, S., Hwu, H. G., et al. (1996). Cross-national epidemiology of major depression and bipolar disorder. Journal of the American Medical Association, 276, 293–299.

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS For most of the past 50 years, the theoretical and applied frame of reference for understanding and fostering adolescent development has been one of naming and reducing deficits and problems among youth: Juvenile delinquency, alcohol and other drug abuse, adolescent pregnancy, and school dropout and failure all have had their periods as the number one preoccupation of social scientists, practitioners, and policymakers. The typically unarticulated assumption of this emphasis on problem prevention has been that, if such problems can be averted, adolescent development is likely to be successful, or at the least that it could more or less take care of itself. But studies increasingly documented that these problems often co-occurred or covaried, and that interventions narrowly targeted on their prevention had uneven results. Even more important, the focus on preventing problem behavior led to emphasis on “at-risk” youth rather than the developmental needs of

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all young people, and left unanswered the question, Then what? What if no young people abused drugs, dropped out of school, committed antisocial behaviors, or became involved in an adolescent pregnancy? Would they then be prepared to be healthy and happy persons, loving and responsible parents, hardworking and productively engaged in a rewarding line of work, caring and involved citizens? To ask those questions is to answer them. In 1990, Search Institute introduced a different frame of reference that attempted to delineate the positive experiences young people needed for successful development. The framework of “developmental assets” has drawn on a synthesis of the vast literature in child and adolescent development, prevention, resilience, and risk and protective factors to identify the “building blocks” of development that enhance health and well-being (Benson, 1990, 1997; Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998). The assets initially were framed around the second decade of life, roughly spanning the middle school and high school years, but have subsequently been conceptually expanded to the first decade of life (Leffert, Benson, & Roehlkepartain, 1997; Scales, Sesma, & Bolstrom, 2003). Across those ages, identification of the assets was guided by evidence that they could contribute to three kinds of positive developmental outcomes. Developmental assets are conceived as factors that facilitate (1) the prevention of high-risk behaviors (e.g., substance use, violence, sexual intercourse, school failure); (2) the enhancement of thriving outcomes (e.g., school success, affirmation of diversity, helping others); and (3) resilience, or the capacity to function adequately in the face of adversity. Search Institute has identified 40 developmental assets (see Table 1) that seem to capture well key experiences that are associated with those positive outcomes. They are divided into eight broad categories that collectively reflect important developmental contexts and processes. The categories of Support, Empowerment, Boundaries and Expectations, and Constructive Use of Time comprise relationships and opportunities that are termed external assets because they are provided for young people by parents, other adults, and peers. The categories of Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies, and Positive Identity comprise values, skills, and selfperceptions young people develop to gradually regulate and guide themselves, and as such are called

internal assets. Contextually, the assets reflect key socialization experiences in the family, school, peer group, and community settings. A key feature of Search Institute’s developmental assets framework is that it serves the purpose of promoting both research on positive human development and community and social change. Extensive syntheses of the research literature point to the content validity of the framework for both adolescence and middle childhood (Scales & Leffert, 1999; Scales, Sesma, & Bolstrom, 2003). In addition, surveys have been developed for the span of 4th to 12th grades that measure young people’s self-reported experience of the assets. Studies of developmental assets have been conducted collectively involving more than 1.5 million 6th through 12th grade students, using the Search Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors survey. A new survey for upper-elementary students, the Search Institute Me and My World survey, became available in fall 2003. This line of inquiry with adolescent samples has repeatedly demonstrated that the more assets young people report experiencing, the less they report highrisk behaviors (e.g., violence, sexual intercourse) and the more they report indicators of thriving (e.g., school success, helping others). In terms of predictive power, clusters of assets have been found to explain between 16% and 35% of concurrent risk behavior outcomes (Leffert et al., 1998) and 10% and 43% of concurrent thriving outcomes (Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000) across gender, grade, and racial/ethnic diversity, over and above the contribution of demographic variables. Several small longitudinal studies under analysis at this writing also suggest the positive effect of assets on such developmental outcomes over time, with young people who report stability or an increase in assets also reporting decreases or smaller increases in high-risk behaviors, and maintenance or increases in thriving indicators. The results of these surveys are frequently utilized to help stimulate community initiatives that aim to more intentionally build developmental assets for all young people. The emphasis in earlier eras on problem prevention often led to an overreliance on formal program interventions and helping professionals, as well as the involvement of specific sectors largely in dealing with problems related to their slice of community life. Such approaches to child and adolescent development often left relatively untapped the indigenous power of relationships, talents, and

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Table 1

Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets External Assets

Support 1. Family support—Family life provides high levels of love and support. 2. Positive family communication—Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents. 3. Other adult relationships—Young person receives support from three or more nonparent adults. 4. Caring neighborhood—Young person experiences caring neighbors. 5. Caring school climate—School provides a caring, encouraging environment. 6. Parent involvement in schooling—Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school. Empowerment 7. Community values youth—Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth. 8. Youth as resources—Young people are given useful roles in the community. 9. Service to others—Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week. 10. Safety—Young person feels safe at home, school, and in the neighborhood. Boundaries and Expectations 11. Family boundaries—Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts. 12. School boundaries—School provides clear rules and consequences. 13. Neighborhood boundaries—Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior. 14. Adult role models—Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior. 15. Positive peer influence—Young person’s best friends model responsible behavior. 16. High expectations—Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well. Constructive Use of Time 17. Creative activities—Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater, or other arts. 18. Youth programs—Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in the community. 19. Religious community—Young person spends one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institution. 20. Time at home—Young person is out with friends “with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week. Internal Assets Commitment to Learning 21. Achievement motivation—Young person is motivated to do well in school. 22. School engagement—Young person is actively engaged in learning. 23. Homework—Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day. 24. Bonding to school—Young person cares about her or his school. 25. Reading for pleasure—Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week. Positive Values 26. Caring—Young person places high value on helping other people. 27. Equality and social justice—Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty. 28. Integrity—Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs. 29. Honesty—Young person “tells the truth even when it is not easy.” 30. Responsibility—Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility. 31. Restraint—Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs. Social Competencies 32. Planning and decision making—Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices. 33. Interpersonal competence—Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills. 34. Cultural competence—Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds. 35. Resistance skills—Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations. 36. Peaceful conflict resolution—Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently. Positive Identity 37. Personal power—Young person feels he or she has control over “things that happen to me.” 38. Self-esteem—Young person reports having a high self-esteem. 39. Sense of purpose—Young person reports that “my life has a purpose.” 40. Positive view of personal future—Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future. Copyright © 1997 by Search Institute, 615 First Ave. Northeast, Suite 125, Minneapolis, MN 55413; 800-888-7828; www.search-institute.org. Used with permission.

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energies of community residents, including young people themselves. In contrast, the developmental assets framework appears to provide a common language and data foundation for both formal programmatic efforts and informal actions residents can take to become more intentional “asset builders” in their everyday lives. Focusing on building assets in young people appears to bring to the table a broader representation of community than more narrowly targeted prevention efforts, with schools, congregations, youth organizations, businesses, health care providers, neighborhood groups, parents, young people, and other residents working together to bring about change that seems doable. After all, not everyone can see a role for himor herself in “preventing drug abuse,” but practically everyone can figure out or be shown simply how to show they care for the young people in their neighborhood. The developmental assets framework seems to facilitate several key action strategies to occur simultaneously in communities: • Engaging adults from all walks of life to develop sustained relationships with children and adolescents, within both families and neighborhoods • Mobilizing young people to use their power as asset builders and change agents • Activating sectors of the community—such as schools, congregations, youth, businesses, human services, and health care organizations— to create an asset-building culture and to contribute fully to young people’s healthy development • Invigorating programs to become more assetrich and to be available to and accessed by all children and youth • Influencing civic decisions to leverage financial, media, and policy resources in support of this positive transformation of communities and society The applied utility of the assets approach is attested to by the nearly 700 communities in the United States, as well as 24 states and several Canadian provinces, that are specifically using Search Institute’s developmental assets framework to pursue those strategies and create a developmentally attentive environment in which all young people are valued and thrive. The developmental assets framework has also been adopted as a significant lens for organizing the work of major organizations such as the YMCA of the USA

and the YMCA of Canada, 4-H, the United Way, and local, regional, and national foundations. Systematic efforts are in progress to document more precisely the impact of the framework in broader societal change. However, these examples alone collectively suggest the framework has had not inconsiderable impact on thousands of organizations and programs, and tens of thousands of individuals and relationships, as well as on community policies and norms. Rather than pursuing a reductionist goal of narrowing the framework of 40 assets to a handful of “most important” ones, the lessons of these various studies and examples of community mobilization around promoting developmental assets underscore the robustness of two critical components of a developmentalist point of view: Both the total ecology and specific contexts contribute to positive developmental pathways. Empirically, the Search Institute studies have shown that both the number of developmental strengths in young people’s lives (a measure of the total ecology) and clusters of assets (operating in the context of specific outcomes of interest for particular young people) are significant in explaining patterns of risk and thriving among adolescents (Benson, Scales, Leffert, & Roehlkepartain, 1999; Leffert et al., 1998; Scales et al., 2000). Practically, the experience of hundreds of communities and thousands of organizations demonstrates that the assets framework is a powerful tool. It helps both to communicate about what young people need to succeed and to engage a wide spectrum of community residents in creating that hopeful present and future for all their children and youth. —Peter L. Benson and Peter C. Scales

See also ASSET MAPPING; DEVELOPMENTALLY ATTENTIVE COMMUNITIES; SEARCH INSTITUTE

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. L. (1990). The troubled journey: A portrait of 6th–12th grade youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Benson, P. L. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Beyond the “village” rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2, 138–159. Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Leffert, N., & Roehlkepartain, E. C. (1999). A fragile foundation: The state of developmental assets among American youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

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Leffert, N., Benson, P. L., & Roehlkepartain, J. R. (1997). Starting out right: Developmental assets for children. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Leffert, N., Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Sharma, A., Drake, D., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Developmental assets: Measurement and prediction of risk behaviors among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2, 209–230. Lerner, R. M., & Benson, P. L. (Eds.) (2003). Developmental assets and asset-building communities: Implications for research, policy, and practice. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (2000). Contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 27–46. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., & Mannes, M. (2002). Grading grown-ups 2002: How do American adults and kids relate? Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Mannes, M., Hintz, N. R., Roehlkepartain, E. C., & Sullivan, T. S. (2003). Other people’s kids: Social expectations and American adults’ involvement with children and adolescents. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Scales, P. C., & Leffert, N. (1999). Developmental assets: A synthesis of the scientific research on adolescent development. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Scales, P. C., Sesma, A., Jr., & Bolstrom, B. (2003). Coming into their own: How developmental assets promote positive growth during middle childhood. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute.

DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUALISM Developmental contextualism is an exemplar of the family of human development theories sharing the paradigmatic assumptions of developmental systems theory (DST). DST, an application of general systems theory to the study of growth and change in living systems, assumes that individual organisms are actively embedded in a dynamic, multilevel contextual milieu evolving in historical time. Although DST can be and has been used to study a range of living systems, developmental contextualism focuses on the development of human psychological and behavioral characteristics across the life span of individuals and in particular on the development of individuality. Richard M. Lerner has spent the past 30 years formulating, articulating, and refining the theory, which was originally called dynamic interactionism (Lerner, 1976), then dialectical contextualism (Lerner,

Skinner, & Sorell, 1980), and finally developmental contextualism (Ford & Lerner, 1992; Lerner, 2002). The concepts of dynamic interactionism and dialectics, as well as contextualism, remain central to the theory’s current form and its definition of ontogenesis as systematic, successively emergent, elaborative, and enduring structural and functional changes in person-context relations. Grounded in the repudiation by Schneirla (1957) and Anastasi (1958) of the split ideas involved in the nature-nurture controversy, developmental contextualism never poses questions about whether nature or nurture, individual or society, culture or history prevail in the development of individuality. Questions are posed in terms of how personal characteristics, including genetic endowment, physicality, psychological structure, and learning, coalesce with contextual influences, such as familial and other social interactions, institutional structures, and cultural values and mores, geographical location, and historical circumstances and events, to create individuality in developmental trajectories and behavioral outcomes across the life span. The unit of analysis is the person-in-contextacross-time. Thus, the general question framing any empirical study designed from a developmental contextual perspective is how do the person-context relations for the individuals constituting this particular sample change systematically across time both intraindividually and interindividually in ways that are similar and in ways that are different. Three related but conceptually distinct propositions are fundamental to the posing of such questions: (1) that development is a probabilistic, epigenetic process characterized by plasticity; (2) that development involves bidirectional person-context influences whereby individuals become producers of their own development; and (3) that development is holistically constituted from the unique characteristics of multiple levels of organization. PROBABILISTIC EPIGENESIS AND PLASTICITY The notion that developmental change is defined by a succession of emergent, qualitatively distinct structures or forms is central to theories based on the assumptions of an organismic worldview (Overton & Reese, 1973; Reese & Overton, 1970). Developmental contextualism transforms this organismic assumption of emergent structural change in two ways. First, emergent structural and functional characteristics are suggested to

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be probabilistically constituted rather than inherently determined and inevitable. Specifically, aspects of person-context relations are seen as influencing (increasing or decreasing) the probability that particular cognitive, emotional, personality, and behavioral/interactional structures will emerge in a specific sequence and at specific points in development. For example, the probability that individuals will develop a mature human body or the ability to function cognitively at the concrete operational level may be a near certainty in most contextual circumstances for genetically intact individuals. However, the construction of a differentiated sense of identity, considered by some organismic theorists (cf. Erikson, 1950, 1959) as an essential adolescent development task, may be more likely in industrialized Western cultures than in premodern cultures offering few role adoption options (Côté & Levine, 2002). In a similar vein, developmental contextualism sees description and explanation of the variability that occurs between individuals encompassed within the same developmental category as essential to understanding processes of human development. Second, developmental contextualism conceptualizes structure and content as intertwined to a greater extent than do classical organismically based theories. For example, some classical theories of socioemotional development suggest that femininity and maternality in females are inherent developmental outcomes (e.g., Freud in Strachey, 1953–1966). However, certain neo-psychoanalytic theories framed from a contextual developmental perspective (e.g., Chodorow, 1978, 1999) propose that femininity and the desire to mother, which are more likely to characterize women than men, as well as misogyny (the hatred of women), which characterizes men to a greater extent than it does women, derive from the gender-differentiated content of attachment structures derived from culturally constituted infant caregiving practices (woman-only mothering). Yet many men mother quite successfully, whereas many women do not; many women are psychologically and/or socially more masculine than feminine; and misogyny is not universally or exclusively male. Thus, although maternality among females and misogyny among males may be widespread enough to be developmentally notable, individuality also characterizes these content domains. Such interindividual variability raises questions regarding the supremacy of structure over content by suggesting that structure-function relationships may be best conceptualized as domain specific.

Probabilistic epigenesis also implies developmental plasticity, an inherent and constrained potential for variability and individuality. Developmental contextualism proposes that no developmental process is inevitable. However, some developmental processes are more likely than others, most especially those that are associated with evolutionary (becoming a biologically mature human being capable of concrete operational thinking) and contextual (becoming a feminine, maternal female or a nonmothering, misogynistic male) adaptation. Furthermore, plasticity is affected by both contextual and life span potentials. Plasticity may be greater at younger ages and for those with acceptable, exceptional, or defined abilities, ambitions, and opportunities. Plasticity may decrease as choices limit opportunities or as opportunities limit choices; or increase as experiences challenge imagined constraints or as luck presents the unexpected event that creates the essential contradiction promoting further development. In essence, developmental contextualism suggests that although development can occur at any point in the life span, emergent elaborative change is not inevitable, but rather derives from person-context relationships and thus is both probabilistic and plastic. The task of contextual developmental research is to identify and describe the intraindividual and interindividual variations in person-context relations associated with developmental individuality across the life span. INDIVIDUALS AS PRODUCERS OF DEVELOPMENT Developmental contextualism proposes that individuals in context contribute to the production of their own development. This concept suggests that two equally important, reciprocally related sides constitute the person-context relations coin. On the first side is intrapsychic development—the emergence and transformation or epigenesis of temperament, personality, cognition, emotion, and other hypothetical processes constituting subjectivity and individuality. In keeping with theories that emphasize personal agency, developmental contextualism holds that development is an ongoing process of selfconstruction. This assertion is similar to the position adopted by classical theories associated with an organismic worldview. For example, Piagetian cognitive developmental theory argues that individuals construct knowledge. Knowledge begins within the

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individual with certain innate modes of sensorimotor action and develops through elaboration of these innate structures into increasingly complex forms, enabling adaptive interactions with the environment. Similarly, psychoanalytic theory suggests that personality structure is internally constructed, and although contextual circumstances may be more or less supportive of adaptive ego processes, personality development proceeds from its intrapsychic unconscious libidinal core. Again in keeping with structural theories, developmental contextualism suggests that individual biological and physiological characteristics such as sex/gender, race, body build, physical attractiveness, ableness, and age also influence intrapsychic subjectivity. On the other side of the coin, and unlike classical structural theories, but not unlike some neo-Piagetian (e.g., Fischer, 1980) and neo-psychoanalytic (e.g., Chodorow, 1978, 1999) theories, developmental contextualism extends the concept of individual agency beyond intrapsychic space and into the multilevel context. Specifically, characteristics of individuality are seen as influencing the perceptions and interactional behaviors of other people, groups, and social institutions toward individuals, and often in contradictory ways or in ways that change over time. For example, a temperamentally difficult baby may be seen as “feisty” by poor, minority parents who know that the streets in urban neighborhoods do not deal kindly with nonassertive youth, whereas white middle-class parents might fear their irregular, reactive child is headed for suburban delinquency. In view of these differing perceptions, the parents of the first baby might provide a supportive, encouraging environment even in the face of challenge, whereas the parents in the latter example might become excessively controlling and authoritative, in hopes of avoiding future problems. Similarly, the tall, athletic tomboy of the 1950s whose context offered her little more than a life as somebody’s domestic worker would today be given Sheryl Swoopes and Janet Reno as role models for higher education and professional success. In essence, the extension of the source of development beyond the structurally active individual into an active, changing, and diverse context lays the basis for conceptualizing development as a process of reciprocal person-context relations that is both systematic and pluripotential. These examples emphasize the extent to which developmental contextualism conceptualizes both individuals and contexts as actively and inextricably reciprocally intertwined in producing behavioral individuality.

In the link between person and context, the concepts of probabilistic epigenesis and plasticity become manifest. Epigenesis becomes probabilistic when individuality characterized by plasticity interacts with an active multilevel context in which each level of organization manifests its own laws of development and a set of unique terms for person-context relations. MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION The third developmental contextualist concept— that individual development is a process related to multiple levels of influence—is closely related to the notion of bidirectionality. Ontogenesis proceeds in the vortex of proximal and distal influences ranging from the biological to the sociological and historical, each of which proceeds according to within-level rules of organization (e.g., chemicals form base pairs, humans develop interpersonal bonds through physical and psychological intimacy, cultures form values and mores through shared social experiences that differ across place and time). From a developmental contextualist perspective, only the most general developmental rules, for example, the orthogenetic principle (Werner, 1948), can be generalized across levels of analysis. Specific rules, particularly those pertaining to causality, cannot be generalized (Lewontin, Rose, & Kamin, 1984). In other words, chemical base pairing is not homologous to human intimacy, nor is the evolutionary principle of natural selection homologous to social justice. Human intimate behavior such as heterosexuality is not explicable through reference to the biochemical processes of genes, although genetics may be an influence to be included in descriptions of human sexual behavior derived in accordance with rules applicable to development at the human level of organization. Likewise, the apparent unwillingness among certain nonhuman species to protect and preserve impaired offspring cannot explain the development of human moral reasoning that involves, among other constituents, distinctively human psychosocial processes. Neither behavior among nonhuman species nor human moral reasoning processes can explain the development of social justice practices attaching to historically evolving political institutions, although such practices (e.g., compulsory heterosexuality) may contribute to the constitution of human sexual behavior. Nevertheless, intralevel uniqueness does not preclude interlevel dependence. From a developmental contextualist perspective, each level of organization

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has a relationship to and influence upon individual developmental processes and must be taken into consideration in empirical attempts to describe and explain person-context relations and the development of individuality. These interlevel relationships or interdependencies are fundamentally bidirectional. For example, pheromones may influence human sexual attraction, but products designed to alter human body odors may alter the effects of pheromones. Human children born with genetic defects might die at an early age under certain social and historical circumstances, but in contemporary Western societies these children may experience many years of psychosocial development due to both technological developments and social constraints on natural selection. Developmental contextualism postulates that interdependent relationships among holistic levels of organization are nonhierarchical. In other words, theory and research regarding ontogeny and the development of individuality in any domain, such as attachment, language, sexuality, cognition, sociability, or generativity, cannot be viewed as either a “bottom up” or a “top down” process. Genetics does not determine whether individuals become mentally ill or homosexual or shy or managerial or academically superior or musical. Behavioral conditioning and social learning do not account for these outcomes; nor do familial characteristics, or sociological opportunities and constraints or historical circumstances. Developmental contextualism argues that a coalescence of influences from all of these levels of analysis creates systematic, empirically observable developmental opportunities and constraints associated with differential developmental outcomes. Furthermore, the contributions from proximal levels, such as family or peers, may be no greater than those of distal levels, such as governmental policies or major historical events. For example, Asian children adopted into families in the United States speak English with the same proficiency as the U.S.-born children of English-speaking parents, whereas the U.S.-born offspring of Asian parents who do not speak English may demonstrate less English language proficiency. The proficiency in adopted Asian children, although attributable to basic language learning potential, also is attributable to the presence of English-speaking caregivers and to changes in adoption laws that (a) make many U.S. citizens prefer out-of-country adoptions to ones arranged in-country due to the lesser risk of a biological parent seeking a return of custody; and (b) make foreign adoptions

easier than they have been in the past. Little utility inures to the suggestion that basic learning potential is more significant in the Asian children’s development of English language proficiency than are the language proficiency of their caregivers or the social and political changes regarding adoption that enable some foreign-born children to reside in English-speaking homes. Similarly, a genetic predisposition to drug addiction is no more important in the development of addictive behavior than are social factors that permit or restrict access to alcohol and drugs, as do some Islamic cultures, or families that provide consistent socialization for abstinence from addictive substances. The contributions from multiple levels of organization to developmental individuality are not additive, nor are they cumulative. Rather, all contributions are conceptualized as constituting development. The task of the developmental contextualist researcher is to theorize how the constituents of specific developmental processes coalesce functionally in accordance with the principles appropriate to the individual level of organization and to determine empirically the validity of that process model. Thus, a researcher would explore how the multilevel influences described in the preceding examples come together to create developmental similarities and differences among individuals. CONTRIBUTIONS OF DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUALISM TO THEORY AND RESEARCH Developmental contextualism has made at least two other significant contributions to developmental theory and research. First, because developmental contextualism offers a broad theoretical perspective applicable to an array of domains of inquiry, the theory stands as a useful reminder of the limits of generalizability of research findings and of the unknown influences that may be captured in the term error variance. The theory presents significant challenges to the operationalization of variables of interest in any research project. Indeed, in any given domain of inquiry, such as language, gender role, or peer relationship development, conceptualization and operationalization of all levels of influence contributing to even narrowly defined developmental processes would be impossible. Nevertheless, the theory suggests that developmental research must remain sensitive to the many levels of organization that

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contribute to the development of individuality and to the interdependence of these multiple levels as they coalesce in the creation of systematic and diverse developmental trajectories. Furthermore, the theory suggests that domain-specific hypotheses should be operationalized with configural or relational indices such as goodness-of-fit scores rather than separate individual or context assessments. Person-in-context measures are predicted to account for more variance in or to have greater covariance with indices of developmental change than are assessments of either individual characteristics or characteristics of an individual’s context. Second, because investigations focusing on multiple levels of organization require expertise associated with a range of disciplines, the theory highlights the importance of interdisciplinary research. Too often disciplinary blinders lead developmental researchers to overlook important aspects of the very processes highlighted in their work. At the same time, researchers focusing on specific developmental domains cannot be experts in every area that might be expected to contribute to the processes included within that domain. Adolescent identity development experts may not be conversant in the genetic, sociological, anthropological, and historical perspectives on human sexuality that might be expected to contribute to the development of an individual sense of ego identity, although conceptualization of these domains could enrich research design, operationalization, analysis, and interpretation. Developmental contextualism suggests that developmental researchers will benefit from consultation and collaboration with people working in other disciplines in order to gain a broad perspective on their own theoretical and empirical work. Research derived from a developmental contextual perspective has spanned the past three or four decades and includes the groundbreaking studies of Elder (1974) and others (Nesselroade & Baltes, 1974; Schaie, Labouvie, & Buech, 1973) who have identified the significance of cohort effects in individual development. Lerner and his colleagues have been guided by developmental contextual theory in designing studies operationalizing variables from multiple levels of analysis (e.g., school environment, teachers’ attitudes, family and peer relations, personality/temperament, physical changes associated with puberty) to describe individual variations in behavior and adaptation in early adolescence. Recently the scope of developmental contextualism has been

expanded to include a focus on interventions and public policies designed to promote positive development during the first two decades of life (Lerner, 2002). CONCLUSIONS Developmental contextualism offers a clearly articulated theory that integrates features of the mechanistic and organismic paradigms. In keeping with the assumptions of DST, the theory provides a useful conceptual framework for studying the development of individuality as a probabilistic cluster of personally, culturally, and historically situated processes. In addition, research guided by developmental contextualist theory has offered valuable insights into the development of individuality and useful suggestions regarding future studies, interventions, and public policy formation. —Gwendolyn T. Sorell

See also DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORIES

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anastasi, A. (1958). Heredity, environment, and the question “how?” Psychological Review, 65, 197–208. Chodorow, N. J. (1978). The reproduction of mothering: Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chodorow, N. J. (1999). The power of feelings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. G. (2002). Identity formation, agency, and culture: A social psychological synthesis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life-cycle. Psychological Issues, 1, 18–164. Fischer, K. W. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: The control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological Review, 87, 477–531. Ford, D. H., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M. (1976). Concepts and theories of human development. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M., Skinner, E. A., & Sorell, G. T. (1980). Methodological implications of contextual/dialectic theories of development. Human Development, 23, 225–235.

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Lewontin, R. C., Rose, S., & Kamin, L. J. (1984). Not in our genes: Biology, ideology, and human nature. New York: Pantheon. Nesselroade, J. R., & Baltes, P. B. (1974). Adolescent personality development and historical changes: 1970–1972. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 39(154). Overton, W. F., & Reese, H. W. (1973). Models of development: Methodological implications. In J. R. Nesselroade & H. W. Reese (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Methodological issues (pp. 65–86). New York: Academic. Reese, H. W., & Overton, W. F. (1970). Models of development and theories of development. In L. R. Goulet & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Research and theory (pp. 115–145). New York: Academic. Schaie, K. W., Labouvie, G. V., & Buech, B. V. (1973). Generational and cohort-specific differences in adult cognitive functioning: A fourteen-year study of independent samples. Developmental Psychology, 9, 151–166. Schneirla, T. C. (1957). The concept of development in comparative psychology. In D. B. Harris (Ed.), The concept of development (pp. 78–108). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Strachey, J. (Ed.). (1953–1966). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth. Werner, H. (1948). Comparative psychology of mental development. New York: International University Press.

DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUALISM AND CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT OF IMMIGRANT CHILDREN Immigration rates are significantly shifting the demographics of America’s public schools. The U.S. public education system is becoming increasingly multicultural, multilingual, and multiracial. In California, for example, immigrant children make up 20% of the public school population (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001), and according to national estimates, it is predicted that by 2010, the number of school-aged immigrant children will rise to 9 million, making up approximately 22% of the entire schoolaged population (Fix & Passel, 1994). Given the growing numbers of immigrant children entering today’s public schools, educators and school-based professionals are increasingly required to attend to the multifaceted needs of an extremely diverse group of students. For immigrant children and their families, the consequences of immigration for cultural adjustment

can be lifelong (Partida, 1996). For undocumented individuals, the added stress related to possible deportation serves as a significant barrier to positive health and mental health outcomes. Upon arrival, some of the potential losses immigrant children face include the loss of self-expression, self-identity, cultural identity, and confidence (Igoa, 1998). With such potential stressors, it is not surprising that many children of immigrant families are at heightened risk for negative health, mental health, and school outcomes (Arroyo, 1998). Given the risk factors associated with immigration, it is critical that educational and helping professionals begin designing interventions that specifically meet the needs of this growing group of students and their families. However, when designing interventions, educators, service providers, and researchers must rethink the assumption that all immigrant groups undergo the same kind of psychological acculturation process and examine the many variables that may affect their successful development (Bhatia & Ram, 2001). “Best practice” in designing school-based intervention programs for immigrant children rests on a solid theoretical framework. Although there is a growing body of research that examines the acculturation outcomes of immigrant children, much of the research is atheoretical (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001). It is becoming increasingly clear that meeting the needs of a rapidly growing immigrant student group requires more than the modification of old methods of inquiry and intervention; rather it calls for new ways of engaging youth that are practical and theoretically sound. Given that the experiences of immigrant children are diverse and dependent on a host of factors, the applicable theory must be comprehensive and yet flexible. Developmental contextualism represents a theoretical framework that can adequately capture the complex relationships between immigrant children and their varying contexts. DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUAL THEORY Developmental contextual theory, as outlined by Ford and Lerner (1992), provides a holistic framework for understanding the acculturation process of immigrant children, through an examination of the impact of multiple levels of influence (i.e., biopsychosocial), a life span conceptualization of development, an incorporation of individual and contextual factors, and a balanced view of strengths and risks.

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Given the many factors that potentially influence the developmental trajectory of immigrant children, developmental contextualism can successfully bridge the theory/practice divide by providing a more meaningful and hopeful understanding of the developmental pathways for this group of children. The following describes the application of developmental contextual theory to understanding the acculturation of immigrant children. Development as a Multilevel System Developmental contextual theory emphasizes the interaction of “multiple and integrated levels of organization” (ranging from biology to culture and history), where the developing individual is viewed as a dynamic multilevel system (Ford & Lerner, 1992). The flexibility in this systemic view of development is clearly seen in its ability to account for the many examples of individuals whose levels of organization have developed at inconsistent rates. For example, according to this theoretical principle, it is possible for an individual’s cognitive development to be at a very high level of hierarchical integration, while other aspects of his or her development (e.g., emotional development) are at earlier and less mature states of development. This principle reminds us to consider the ways in which academic difficulties affect socioemotional health and how earlier experiences of trauma, not uncommon for immigrant children, affect other areas of functioning and development. Furthermore, a multilevel approach to understanding immigrant children recognizes how barriers such as access to health care affect many other areas of development beyond physical health. Development Across the Life Span Unlike earlier theories of development, which did not account for development after adolescence, developmental contextual theory allows for an understanding of development as a process that begins with birth and continues until death. A life span approach to understanding development highlights the complexity of the cultural adaptation process for immigrant children and considers changes in developmental needs over time and throughout history. This principle also heightens our awareness of the significance of parental adjustment on the cultural adaptation of

children and reminds us that cultural stressors may be different at different stages of life. Individual and Contextual Variables of Development One of the core ideas in developmental contextual theory is the functional fusion of both biology and context across an individual’s life (Ford & Lerner, 1992). This theory posits the mutually dependent relationship between an individual and his or her context, where the environment affects the individual and, at the same time, that individual shifts his or her context. The acceptance of an inextricable link between nature and nurture leads to what Ford and Lerner describe as a “goodness of fit” model, which suggests that individuals play an active role in selecting and shaping their environments and that the degree to which they fit in any given context will be different and will also change over time. Thus, the acculturation experiences for immigrant children may depend, in part, on their varying environments (e.g., family, community, host society). Some of the contextual variables that potentially affect the experiences of children of immigrant families include, but are not limited to, (a) preimmigration status and experiences in country of origin (i.e., refugee or immigrant, level of socioeconomic status in country of origin); (b) pattern of arrival (i.e., intrafamilial separations); (c) sociopolitical relationship between receiving country and country of origin (i.e., impact of international relations); (d) social capital of geographical area of receiving country (i.e., presence of ethnic enclaves); and (e) social and cultural milieu of the receiving community (i.e., immigration policies and institutionalized racism). Therefore, a child’s immigration experience may better understood as an experience affected by both individual and contextual factors (Berry, 1998; Suarez-Orozco, 2000). The cultural adaptation process for children is a bidirectional one, during which the acculturating individual changes as he or she comes in contact with the majority culture (in school) and the context (school and community) changes as well. Attending school often brings the process of cultural adjustment into full relief. Immigrant children and U.S.-born children of immigrant parents can experience significant acculturative stress as they negotiate what is often a misalignment between the culture of home and the culture

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of school. Thus, it can be argued that the most effective interventions would be ones that are designed to promote changes at the individual and contextual level. For example, when schools are flexible institutions that serve as resource and intervention hubs for immigrant children and their families, they are creating the optimal context for this group to thrive.

Partida, J. (1996). The effects of immigration on children in the Mexican-American community. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 13(3), 241–254. Suarez-Orozco, C. (2000). Identities under siege: Immigration stress and social mirroring among the children of immigrants. In A. C. M. Robben & M. M. Suarez-Orozco (Eds.), Cultures under siege, collective violence and trauma (pp. 194–226). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Suarez-Orozco, C., & Suarez-Orozco, M. M. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Risks and Protective Factors of Development Finally, this theory incorporates the notion of plasticity in human development. According to Ford and Lerner (1992), human development is not an additive, but rather includes a balanced view of risks and resilience with a recognition that each provides critical information about individuals and their developmental process. In order to design balanced and effective interventions for an individual immigrant child or for a group of immigrant children, an assessment of both cultural stressors and cultural protective factors is required. Developmental contextualism provides a comprehensive and flexible theoretical framework for understanding the needs and strengths of immigrant children and their families. With a deeper understanding of this group’s risks and resources, this theory and its major principles can help educator and service providers design and implement balanced and culturally appropriate interventions. —Jennie Park-Taylor

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Arroyo, W. (1998). Immigrant children and families. In M. Hernandez & M. Isaacs (Eds.), Promoting cultural competence in children’s mental health services (pp. 251–268). Baltimore: Brookes. Berry, J. W. (1998). Acculturative stress. In P. B. Organista & K. M. Chun (Eds.), Readings in ethnic psychology (pp. 117–122). Florence, KY: Taylor & Francis/Routledge. Fix, M., & Passel, J. S. (1994). Immigration and immigrants: Setting the record straight. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Available at: http://www.uipress.org Ford, D. L., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental contextual theory: An integrative approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Igoa, C. (1998). Immigrant children: Art as a second language. In S. Books (Ed.), Invisible children in the society and its schools: Sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS. See AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS; DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES Generally, individuals with delays or deviations in cognitive (i.e., intellectual) and/or physical development are considered to have developmental disabilities. The term developmental disabilities is broad and includes an array of delays or deviations, such as autism spectrum disorders, specific syndromes associated with delays in cognitive or adaptive functioning (e.g., Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome), cerebral palsy, and other neurological impairments. A developmental disability is described in the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-402) as a condition attributable to a mental and/or physical impairment that begins before age 22, is likely to continue indefinitely, and results in substantial functional limitation in three or more areas of major life activity (e.g., self-care, language, mobility, self-direction, capacity for independent living, and economic self-sufficiency). These limitations result in the need for planned and continuous services. THE PREVALENCE OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES The rates of documented disability during childhood and adolescence have increased substantially over the past decade, with the greatest increase occurring for children living in poverty (Fujiura & Yamaki, 2000). Current estimates indicate that approximately 4 million individuals with developmental disabilities live in the United States, comprising 1%–2% of the population.

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Approximately 12% of youth (ages 3–21) receive special education services because of a disability. CHANGING PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES During the 20th century, substantial changes occurred in how individuals with disabilities were perceived, treated, and educated. Caldwell (1973) identified three major historical periods regarding the attitudes and practices of educating children with developmental disabilities. She characterized the first half of the century as the “Forget and Hide” period; institutionalization, isolation, and forced sterilization were common policies and practices. The second period, “Screen and Segregate,” occurred during the middle of the century, when children with developmental disabilities were tested and labeled, and usually placed in segregated classes or schools. In the 1970s, a period of “Identify and Help” began with the passage of landmark legislation (Public Law 94–142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) that established the right to a free and appropriate education for all children of school age, including those with disabilities. Meisels and Shonkoff (2000) added a fourth period, “Educate and Include,” to characterize the end of the century, as efforts to include children with disabilities in general education and other typical settings increased during the 1980s and 1990s. Current legislation, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, Public Law 105–17) requires states to facilitate the development of comprehensive early intervention services for children from birth to age 3 and to provide free and appropriate education to children with disabilities from age 3 to age 22. Education is to be provided in the “least restrictive environment,” which is often interpreted as having children participate in general education settings to the fullest extent possible. RESEARCH FOCUSED ON FAMILIES For decades, research findings have indicated that children with developmental disabilities vary in their cognitive and adaptive development based on the type of disability and, when applicable, specific syndrome (Hodapp, 1998). Recent research studies have broadened their scope to examine how family ecology relates to children’s developmental outcomes. Such studies indicate that positive family processes (e.g.,

cohesiveness of the family, supportive relationships within the family) are associated with advantageous developmental outcomes in children with disabilities (Hauser-Cram, Warfield, Shonkoff, & Krauss, 2001). Research now acknowledges that the family occupies a central and enduring role for those with developmental disabilities. Parenting Children With Developmental Disabilities Parents of children with developmental disabilities encounter many challenges over their child’s life course (Hauser-Cram & Howell, 2003). Infants with disabilities often display indistinct cues and provide diminished or delayed responses to caregivers. When caregivers react with either low levels of interaction or highly directive interaction, children tend to become less self-motivated. During the school-age years, children with developmental disabilities who display unusual behaviors (e.g., failure to make eye contact with others) or behavior problems (e.g., frequent tantrums) are reported by parents to be more stressful than children with exclusively cognitive impairments or delays. In middle childhood and adolescence, children with developmental disabilities, many of whom have meager peer networks, often rely heavily on parents and other family members for social interaction. This can add unanticipated responsibilities to the family as well as limit the social and cognitive benefits accrued by the child through peer friendships. Young adulthood also brings challenges, as entry into the workforce and other adult responsibilities (e.g., budgeting, chores of daily living) may require high levels of parental support. Increasingly, young adults with developmental disabilities are entering postsecondary educational settings, such as community colleges (Hall, Kleinert, & Kearns, 2000), and may require parental guidance in accessing a postsecondary system not accustomed to serving individuals with disabilities. Despite the numerous challenges, however, many parents of children with developmental disabilities report increased personal growth and satisfaction from parenting their child. Siblings of Children With Developmental Disabilities Researchers also have examined the experiences of siblings of children with developmental disabilities.

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A sibling’s ability to cope with a sister or brother’s disability is based on several factors, such as age, social cognitive skills, and responsibilities for caregiving. Primarily, siblings take their cues from their parents’ attitudes and adjustment. Generally, research indicates both advantageous and deleterious effects on siblings (Stoneman, 1998). Some siblings experience an atypical home life because of disruption to normal routines, as often occurs with frequent hospitalizations or therapeutic interventions, for example. Many siblings, however, report experiencing a close and positive relationship with their brother or sister with a disability and identify positive personal gains such as having increased empathy, maturity, and acceptance of differences (Eisenberg, Baker, & Blacher, 1998). CONCLUSIONS Considerable progress has been made in research on developmental disabilities, and the lives of many individuals with developmental disabilities have improved considerably as a result of legislation and changes in public attitude. Despite numerous challenges encountered by parents and siblings of those with developmental disabilities, many report tremendous satisfaction and personal growth based on supportive family relationships. Nevertheless, there is continued discrimination of those with developmental disabilities, as evidenced by inconsistent access to postsecondary educational programs and the lack of employment opportunities (Gouvier, Sytsma-Jordan, & Mayville, 2003). As a result, greater examination of ways to change such discrimination is needed. —Penny Hauser-Cram and Tara T. Hedvat

See also AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Caldwell, B. M. (1973). The importance of beginning early. In M. B. Karnes (Ed.), Not all little wagons are red: The exceptional child’s early years (pp. 2–10). Arlington, VA: Council for Exceptional Children. Eisenberg, L., Baker, B. L., & Blacher, J. (1998). Siblings of children with mental retardation living at home or in residential placement. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 39, 355–363. Fujiura, G. T., & Yamaki, K. (2000). Trends in demography of childhood poverty and disability. Exceptional Children, 66, 187–199. Gouvier, W. D., Sytsma-Jordan, S., & Mayville, S. (2003). Patterns of discrimination in hiring job applicants with

disabilities: The role of disability type, job complexity, and public contact. Rehabilitation Psychology, 48(3), 175–181. Hall, M., Kleinert, H. L., & Kearns, J. F. (2000). Going to college! Postsecondary programs for students with moderate and severe disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 32(3), 58–65. Hauser-Cram, P., & Howell, A. (2003). Disabilities and development. In R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (pp. 513–533). New York: Wiley. Hauser-Cram, P., Warfield, M. E., Shonkoff, J. P., & Krauss, M. W. (2001). Children with disabilities: A longitudinal study of child development and parent well-being. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 66(3, No. 266). Hodapp, R. M. (1998). Development and disabilities: Intellectual, sensory, and motor impairments. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Meisels, S. J., & Shonkoff, J. P. (2000). Early childhood intervention: A continuing evolution. In J. P. Shonkoff & S. J. Meisels (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention (pp. 3–31). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Stoneman, Z. (1998). Research on siblings of children with mental retardation. In J. A. Burak, R. M. Hodapp, & E. Zigler (Eds), Handbook of mental retardation and development (pp. 669–692). New York: Cambridge University Press.

DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORIES What sorts of changes characterize a person as he or she develops? Where do these changes come from? Questions such as these are inevitably involved in any theoretical consideration of human development, and developmental systems theories have evolved over the past 30 years to provide conceptually new and methodologically innovative answers (e.g., Gottlieb, 1997; Lerner, 2002; Thelen & Smith, 1998). THE CONCEPTUAL ORIENTATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORIES Prior to the emergence of developmental systems theories, prototypic concepts of development were predicated on Cartesian philosophical ideas about the character of reality that separated, or “split,” what was regarded as real from what was relegated to the “unreal” or epiphenomenal (Overton, 1998). Major instances of such splitting involved classic debates about nature versus nurture as “the” source of development, continuity versus

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discontinuity as an appropriate depiction of the character of the human developmental trajectory, and stability versus instability as an adequate means to describe developmental change. Developmental systems theories eschew such splits, and depict the basic developmental process as involving relations—or “fusions” (Tobach & Greenberg, 1984)—among variables from the multiple levels of organization that comprise the ecology of human development (e.g., see Bronfenbrenner, in press). In developmental systems theories, the basic process of development involves mutually influential (that is, bidirectional) relations between levels of organization ranging from biology through individual and social functioning to societal, cultural, physical, ecological, and, ultimately, historical levels of organization (e.g., Ford & Lerner, 1992). As a consequence, developmental systems theories transcend another split that has characterized the field of human developmental science, that is, a split between basic science and application (Fisher & Lerner, 1994; Lerner, 2002). The relational character of development means that some degree of change is always possible within the developmental system, as the temporality of history imbues each of the other levels of organization within the developmental system with the potential for change. Temporality means, then, that at least relative plasticity (the potential for systematic change) exists within the integrated (fused) developmental system, and that changes in the relations between individuals and their context (which may be represented as changes in individual
 context relations) may be instituted by entering the ecology of human development at any of its levels of organization. Theoretically predicated attempts to change the course of development—of individual
 context relation—constitute both tests of the basic, relational process of human development and (given ethical mandates to act only to enhance human development) attempts to improve the course of life. Depending on the level of organization on which such interventions into the life course are aimed (e.g., individual, families, communities, or the institutions of society), we may term such actions either programs or policies (Lerner, 2002). Thus, from the viewpoint of the developmental systems theories that define the cutting edge of contemporary developmental science, there is no necessary distinction between research on the basic, relational process linking the individual to her complex, multi-tiered ecological system and applications

aimed at promoting positive individual
 context relations. There are numerous instances of developmental systems theories within contemporary developmental science (e.g., Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998; Bronfenbrenner, in press; Elder, 1998; Ford & Lerner, 1992; Thelen & Smith, 1998; and see Lerner, 2002, for a review). However, all instances of this theoretical orientation possess four attributes that, together, mark the defining features of such models of human development. DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORIES The power of a developmental systems theoretical perspective is constituted by four interrelated, and in fact “fused” (Tobach & Greenberg, 1984), components of such theories: (1) change and relative plasticity, (2) relationism and the integration of levels of organization, (3) historical embeddedness and temporality, and (4) the limits of generalizability, diversity, and individual differences. Although these four conceptual components frame the contemporary set of developmental systems theories within the field of human development (Lerner, 2002), each has a long and rich tradition in the history of the field. For instance, Cairns (1998) describes the conception of developmental processes— as involving reciprocal interaction, bidirectionality, plasticity, and biobehavioral organization (all emphases in current developmental systems theories)—as integral to the thinking of the founders of the field of human development. CHANGE AND RELATIVE PLASTICITY Developmental systems theories stress that the focus of developmental understanding must be on (systematic) change. This focus is required because of the belief that the potential for change exists across (a) the life span and (b) the multiple levels of organization comprising the ecology of human ecology. Although it is also assumed that systematic change is not limitless (e.g., it is constrained by both past developments and by contemporary ecological, or contextual, conditions), developmental systems theories stress that relative plasticity exists across life (Lerner, 1984). There are important implications of relative plasticity for understanding the range of intraindividual variation that can exist over ontogeny and, as noted

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previously, for the application of development science. For instance, the presence of relative plasticity legitimates a proactive search across the life span for characteristics of people and of their contexts that, together, can influence the design of policies and programs promoting positive development. For example, the plasticity of intellectual development that is a feature of a systems view of mental functioning provides legitimization for educational policies and school- and community-based programs aimed at enhancing cognitive and social cognitive development (Lerner, 2004). Such implications for the design of policies and programs stand in marked contrast to those associated with mechanistic, genetic reductionistic theories that suggest that genetic inheritance constrains intellectual development among particular minority and/or lowincome groups (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). RELATIONISM AND THE INTEGRATION OF LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION Developmental systems theories stress that the bases for change, and for both plasticity and constraints in development, lie in the relations that exist among the multiple levels of organization that constitute the substance of human life. These levels range from the inner biological, through the individual/psychological and the proximal social relational (e.g., involving dyads, peer groups, and nuclear families), to the sociocultural level (including key macro-institutions such as educational, public policy, governmental, and economic systems) and the natural and designed physical ecologies of human development (Bronfenbrenner, in press). These tiers are structurally and functionally integrated, thus underscoring the use of a developmental systems view of the levels involved in human development. A developmental systems perspective promotes a relational unit of analysis as a requisite for developmental analysis. Variables associated with any level of organization exist (are structured) in relation to variables from other levels; the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the function of any variable are shaped as well by the relations that variable has with ones from other levels. Unilevel units of analysis (or the components of, or elements in, a relation) are not an adequate target of developmental analysis; rather, the relation itself—the interlevel linkage—should be the focus of such analysis. Relationism and integration have a clear implication for unilevel theories of development. At best, such

theories are severely limited, and inevitably provide a nonveridical depiction of development, due to their focus on what are essentially main effects embedded in higherorder interactions (e.g., see Walsten, 1990). At worst, such theories are neither valid nor useful. Thus, neither nature nor nurture theories provide adequate conceptual frames for understanding human development (Lerner, 2002). Moreover, many nature-nurture interaction theories also fall short in this regard because theories of this type still treat nature and nurture variables as separable entities and view their connection in manners analogous to the interaction term in an analysis of variance (see Walsten, 1990). Developmental systems theories move beyond the simplistic division of sources of development into nature-related and nurture-related variables or processes; they see the multiple levels of organization that exist within the ecology of human development as part of an inextricably fused developmental system. HISTORICAL EMBEDDEDNESS AND TEMPORALITY The relational units of analysis of concern in developmental systems theories are understood as change units. The change component of these units derives from the ideas that all of the levels of organization involved in human development are embedded in the broadest level of the person-context system: history. That is, all other levels of organization within the developmental system are integrated with historical change. History—change over time—is incessant and continuous, and is a level of organization that is fused with all other levels. This linkage means that change is a necessary, an inevitable, feature of variables from all levels of organization. In addition, this linkage means that the structure, as well as the function, of variables changes over time. Since historical change is continuous and temporality is infused in all levels of organization (Elder, 1998), change-sensitive measures of structure and function and change-sensitive (i.e., longitudinal) designs are necessitated in contemporary theories of human development (Baltes et al., 1998). The key question vis-à-vis temporality in such research is not whether change occurs but whether the changes that do occur make a difference for a given developmental outcome (Lerner, 2002). Given that the study of these changes will involve appraisal of both quantitative and qualitative features of change, which may occur at multiple levels of

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organization, there is a need to use both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods, ones associated with the range of disciplines having specialized expertise at the multiple levels of organization at which either quantitative or qualitative change can occur. In essence, the concepts of historical embeddedness and temporality indicate that a program of developmental research adequate to address the relational, integrated, embedded, and temporal changes involved in human life must involve multiple occasions, methods, levels, variables, and cohorts (Baltes et al., 1998). A developmental systems perspective, and the implications it suggests for research, through concepts such as temporality, may seem descriptively cumbersome; inelegant (if not untestable) in regard to explanations of individual and group behavior and development; and, as a consequence, of little use in the formulation of interventions aimed at enhancing individual and social life. However, in the face of the several profound historical changes in the lives of children and their families that have occurred across this century (e.g., see Elder, 1998), it would seem, at best, implausible to maintain that the nature of the human life course has been unaffected by this history. Accordingly, it would seem necessary to adopt some sort of developmental systems perspective in order to incorporate the impact of such historical changes, and of the contemporary diversity it has created, into the matrix of covariation considered in developmental explanations and the interventions that should, at least ideally, be derived from them (Lerner, 2002, 2004). Yet, it would be traditional in developmental psychology to assert that the historical variation and contemporary diversity of human (individual and group) development was irrelevant to understanding basic processes. Indeed, within developmental psychology, the conventional view of basic process, whether involving cognition, emotion, personality, or social behavior, is that it is a function generalizable across time and place. However, data such as those presented by Elder (1998) and Hernandez (1993)—which document the profound impact of historical change on individual and family life over the course of just the past two centuries—constitute a serious challenge to the ontological presuppositions that have grounded this view of basic process and, as such, of developmental psychology’s theory and research about people’s ontogenies. The traditional view of basic process found in developmental psychology (i.e., the prototypic view for much of the past 50–60 years) cannot be defended

in the face of the historical and contextual variation characterizing American individuals and families across the past century. Indeed, without adequate tests of, and evidence for, its presuppositions about the irrelevance of temporality, context, and diversity for its view of basic process, the field of developmental psychology fails in even an attempt to represent veridically the course of human life (Cairns, 1998). By weaving historical change and contextual specificities into the matrix of causal covariation that shapes human developmental trajectories, a developmental systems perspective reconstitutes the core process of human development, from a reductionistic and individualistic one to a synthetic, or multilevel integrated, one. Through the seemingly simple step of integrating historical change, contextual variation, and individual developmental change, a developmental systems perspective provides a paradigmatic departure from the psychogenic, biogenic, or reductionistic environmentalist models of causality that have undergirded the theories of human development that have been prevalent during most of this century (Gottlieb, 1997; Lerner, 2002; Overton, 1998). THE LIMITS OF GENERALIZABILITY, DIVERSITY, AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES The temporality of the changing relations among levels of organization means that changes that are seen within one historical period (or time of measurement), and/or with one set of instances of variables from the multiple levels of the ecology of human development, may not be seen at other points in time (Baltes et al., 1998; Bronfenbrenner, in press). What is seen in one data set may be only an instance of what does or what could exist. Accordingly, contemporary theories focus on diversity—of people, of relations, of settings, and of times of measurement (Lerner, 2004). Diversity is the exemplary illustration of the presence of relative plasticity in human development (Lerner, 2002). Diversity is also the best evidence that exists of the potential for change in the states and conditions of human life. In essence, racial/ethnic, cultural, and developmental diversity must be understood systemically in order to appreciate the nature and variation that exists within and across time in human behavior and development. In other words, individual differences arise inevitably from the action of the development system; in turn, they move the system in manners that elaborate diversity further.

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CONCLUSIONS The four components constitute a developmental systems perspective. This perspective leads us to recognize that, if we are to have an adequate and sufficient science of human development, we must integratively study individual and contextual levels of organization in a relational and temporal manner (Bronfenbrenner, in press; Lerner, 2004). Developmental systems theories use the polarities that engaged developmental theory in the past (e.g., nature/ nurture, individual/society, biology/culture), but not to “split” depictions of developmental processes along conceptually implausible and empirically counterfactual lines (Overton, 1998) or to force counterproductive choices between false opposites; rather, these issues are used to gain insight into the integrations that exist among the multiple levels of organization involved in human development. These theories are certainly more complex than their one-sided predecessors; however, they are also more nuanced, more flexible, more balanced, and less susceptible to extravagant, or even absurd, claims (for instance, that nature split from nurture can shape the course of human development; that there is a gene for altruism, militarism, intelligence, or even television watching; or that when the social context is demonstrated to affect development, the influence can be reduced to a genetic one, e.g., Rowe, 1994; Rushton, 2000). The power of developmental systems theories lies in the multilevel and, hence, multidimensional design criteria they impose on concepts (and research) pertinent to any content area about, or dimension of, the person. The power lies as well in their potential for advancing simultaneously both the understanding of the bases of human development and of the individual
 context relations involved in promoting wellbeing and thriving across the life span. —Richard M. Lerner, Lang Ma, and Lisa M. Smith

See also DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUALISM

Cairns, R. B. (1998). The making of developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 419–448). New York: Wiley. Elder, G. H., Jr. (1998). The life course and human development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 939–991). New York: Wiley. Fisher, C. B., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (1994). Applied developmental psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Ford, D. L., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Gottlieb, G. (1997). Synthesizing nature-nurture: Prenatal roots of instinctive behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hernandez, D. J. (1993). America’s children: Resources for family, government, and the economy. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Herrnstein, R., & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Free Press. Lerner, R. M. (1984). On the nature of human plasticity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Overton, W. (1998). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 107–187). New York: Wiley. Rowe, D. C. (1994). The limits of family influence: Genes, experience, and behavior. New York: Guilford. Rushton, J. P. (2000). Race, evolution, and behavior (2nd Special Abridged Edition). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (1998). Dynamic systems theories. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 563–633). New York: Wiley. Tobach, E., & Greenberg, G. (1984). The significance of T. C. Schneirla’s contribution to the concept of levels of integration. In G. Greenberg & E. Tobach (Eds.), Behavioral evolution and integrative levels (pp. 1–7). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Walsten, D. (1990). Insensitivity of the analysis of variance to heredity-environment interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 109–120.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (1998). Lifespan theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1029–1144). New York: Wiley. Bronfenbrenner, U. (in press). Making human beings human. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

DEVELOPMENTALLY ATTENTIVE COMMUNITIES One of the central tenets of developmental theory is that young people grow up in multiple nested

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contexts: Self-processes, family, school and other organizations, neighborhood, and peer groups do not exist independently of each other but rather are overlapping and interconnecting influences changing over time. The occurrence of these intersecting contextual relationships is a developmental given; whether they are positive developmental influences is not. A developmentally attentive community is one that “marshals and activates the strength-building capacity of its residents (both adults and youth) and sectors (families, neighborhoods, schools, youth organizations, places of work, congregations)” (Benson, Scales, & Mannes, 2003, p. 390). There are a number of implications in that single description. Search Institute’s framework of developmental assets is one lens through which to assess community developmental attentiveness. Other frameworks may be useful too, such as the “Six Cs” of positive youth development (competence, confidence, character, connection, caring, and contributions; Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000; Pittman, Irby, & Ferber, 2001) or the risk and protective factors approach of Communities That Care (Hawkins & Catalano, 1992). Regardless of the approach, what is important is the specific naming of developmental strengths—not just deficits—as targets of individual development and collective action. The multiple developmental goals of developmentally attentive communities are to reduce youth risks, promote resilience, and build developmental strengths. Since 1990, thousands of communities in the United States and Canada have utilized surveys of young people’s self-reported assets as a diagnostic for assessing developmental attentiveness and providing both intellectual capital and a source of momentum for community efforts. The surveys reveal the proportion of young people in a community who experience each of 40 assets, and illuminate across what contexts they are relatively asset rich or asset depleted. In so doing, the Search Institute developmental assets framework and survey provide a common language and sense of shared purpose for community action on behalf of the young. A developmentally attentive community utilizes such information to achieve three related developmental targets: 1. Provide young people many assets, so their total exposure to developmental strengths increases (vertical pile-up of assets)

2. Provide assets across multiple contexts, so young people experience developmental well-being wherever they turn (horizontal pile-up) 3. Do so for all youth, not only those “at risk,” so that responsibility for the developmental health of young people is shared by all, not by specially credentialed professionals with a particular focus on only some young people This last goal is especially crucial: If only some young people—typically those in trouble or at risk of being in trouble—are the focus of concern, then only a narrow part of the community is involved, and positive youth development in a broad sense is clearly not a priority. A community that includes all young people in its sphere of concern, but whose primary developmental goal is reducing risks, is not truly developmentally attentive. Likewise, a community is not truly developmentally attentive if it identifies broad developmental goals but focuses on only certain segments of young people. The role of social norms and community expectations around the development of young people is especially central to the notion of developmentally attentive community, because developmental attentiveness is not only about programs and particular groups of young people but about all aspects of community life and all young people. Marshaling developmental resources in a community context is not limited to formal, structured settings but includes the myriad informal relationships and situations young people are in every day. Neighbors, fellow members of religious congregations, residents young people interact with in libraries and parks and stores every day all have roles to play in promoting young people’s positive development. But several national studies done by Search Institute (Scales et al., 2003; Scales, Benson, & Mannes, 2002) suggest that the current norm in the United States is for most adults not to engage much with “other people’s kids.” Other than those in formal positions as teachers, child care providers, and such, most adults believe interacting with young people outside their families is important, but only a minority say they do so with any regularity or depth. In most communities, there does not exist a widely shared norm of most adults being expected to assume reasonable responsibility for the developmental well-being and thriving of their young

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people. Thus, one of the most important efforts communities must undertake to become more developmentally attentive is for adults to make more explicit among themselves what are the shared expectations residents have about their responsibility for nurturing all young people. Five broad action strategies are needed to raise the level of communities’ developmental attentiveness, and ultimately transform social patterns to strengthen young people’s developmental trajectories: 1. Engage all adults in building young people’s developmental assets 2. Mobilize young people themselves as activists and shapers of their own environments 3. Activate all sectors, from schools to congregations, health care providers to family support organizations, businesses to libraries, and more 4. Invigorate programs so that program development is guided explicitly by naming the assets programs wish to build 5. Influence civic decisions so that funding trends, media coverage, and policy development more consistently use an asset- or strength-based lens through which to consider what young people need from their communities As these five action strategies suggest, a developmentally attentive community orchestrates the interplay of both formal and informal resources for young people. Formal programs are complemented by widespread involvement of residents in everyday acts of positive relationship with numerous children and adolescents. Programs themselves are not narrowly focused in traditional ways but have a more developmentally transformative agenda. For example, Roth and Brooks-Gunn (2003) concluded that a key characteristic of positive youth development programs was their intention to not only create a supportive atmosphere within the program but to fundamentally alter in a growth-enhancing way how young people and their broader environments interact. That is, positive youth development programs also are concerned with social and community change that supports young people’s well-being. Most important, developmentally attentive communities are socially constructed through the twin dimensions

of intentionality and discovery. Developmental attentiveness to young people does not occur by accident or magic. It is an intentional outcome. It is the result of explicit consideration by adults and young people themselves of the kind of community environment they desire for young people, the responsibilities all residents and community institutions have in contributing to that environment, and the supports (funding, policies, etc.) needed to realize that shared vision. These processes also suggest that there is not a single formula for communities to follow to become truly attentive to young people’s development. The five actions represent a strategic road map, but many routes are possible as communities navigate toward ensuring young people’s positive development. Identifying a shared vision and consensus steps to take toward that vision imply discovery of differences and alternatives along the way. In addition, the concept of developmentally attentive community suggests nontraditional modes of thinking that do not always lend themselves to easy implementation. For example, mobilizing young people themselves as leaders in the construction of healthy community requires for both adults and young people shifting perspectives on power, goals, and timelines for action. Widespread involvement of adults in more frequent and deep daily interaction with other people’s kids requires explicit, and heretofore unusual, conversations among neighbors about expectations and boundaries, rather than relying on assumptions and unspoken norms. In short, the collective goal of being as developmentally attentive a community as possible suggests different ways of doing the business of raising responsible, caring, healthy, productive, and contributing young people than has been done before. —Peter L. Benson, Peter C. Scales, and Marc Mannes

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., & Mannes, M. (2003). Developmental strengths and their sources: Implications for the study and practice of community building. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Vol. 1. Applying developmental science for youth and families—Historical and theoretical foundations (pp. 369–406). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. (1992). Communities that care: Action for drug abuse prevention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting the civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71, 11–20. Pittman, K. J., Irby, M., & Ferber, T. (2001). Unfinished business: Further reflections on a decade of promoting youth development. In P. L. Benson & K. J. Pittman (Eds.), Trends in youth development: Visions, realities, and challenges (pp. 3–50). Boston: Kluwer Academic. Roth, J. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). What exactly is a youth development program? Answers from research and practice. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 94–111. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., & Mannes, M. (2002). Grading grown-ups 2002: How do American adults and kids relate? A national study. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Mannes, M., Hintz, N. R., Roehlkepartain, E. C., & Sullivan, T. S. (2003). Other people’s kids: Social expectations and American adults’ involvement with children and adolescents. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

DIABETES Diabetes is a chronic metabolic condition that results from the body either not producing or not properly using insulin, a hormone that plays a crucial role in converting glucose from food into energy. Effective diabetes management requires individuals with the condition to manually balance their insulin and blood glucose levels by following a complex medical care plan of blood glucose monitoring, insulin regulation, exercise, and a healthy diet. This is a complicated process that affects and involves not only the individuals who have the condition, but also families, peers, teachers and other school officials, coworkers, employers, the medical care community, researchers, and policymakers.

PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIABETES Type I diabetes (Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus; IDDM) is a condition that results in the body’s failure to produce insulin and typically requires insulin administration through injections or an insulin pump. Type II diabetes is characterized by the body’s inability to produce enough insulin or to properly use the insulin it does produce. Some

individuals with Type II diabetes must regulate their insulin through injections or medication in pill form, while others can effectively manage their condition without medication, through exercise and a healthy diet. Individuals with diabetes who effectively maintain metabolic control—keeping their blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible—have the potential to stay healthy and free of complications. However, effective diabetes management can be challenging. Nearly every facet of daily life—activity levels, frequency of meals, sleep schedule, menstrual cycle, stress, illness— can further complicate the delicate balance of metabolic control, despite even the best-laid plans. When diabetes is not treated effectively, it can result in dangerously high levels of blood glucose, or hyperglycemia. In the short term, hyperglycemia can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a condition commonly referred to as diabetic coma. Over time, hyperglycemia can lead to complications, including heart disease, nerve damage, kidney failure, blindness, and death. However, while tight control of blood glucose levels helps to prevent long-term complications, it can also increase the risk of dangerously low levels of blood glucose, commonly referred to as insulin reactions or hypoglycemia—which, if not treated in time, can cause seizures, brain damage, and death. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIABETES In the past two decades, the world has witnessed an alarming increase in the prevalence of diabetes. From 1985 to 2000, the worldwide prevalence of diabetes in adults rose from 30 million to 150 million. By 2025, the figure is expected to reach nearly 330 million (International Diabetes Federation [IDF], 2003). According to the IDF (2003), while the prevalence of diabetes is currently higher in developed countries than it is in developing countries, this trend is changing. Western and urban influences have increased aging populations, unhealthy diets, obesity, and sedentary lifestyles in developing countries, which has led to a staggering rise in the prevalence of diabetes in these areas. Currently, the highest rate of diabetes prevalence—7.9%—exists in North America (IDF, 2003). According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA; 2002), 18.2 million people in the United States have diabetes—and unfortunately, it is estimated that 5.2 million of these individuals are unaware of their condition. Five to ten percent of affected individuals

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have Type I diabetes. The remaining 90% to 95% of affected individuals have Type II diabetes. An additional 20.1 million people in the United States have prediabetes, a condition characterized by blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as Type II diabetes. It is estimated that .25% of youth (20 years of age and younger) in the United States have some type of diabetes—approximately 206,000 individuals in this age-group. Of great concern is the rising incidence of Type II diabetes in youth, particularly those of Native American, African American, and Latino descent. Type II diabetes has long been considered to be “adult onset,” while Type I diabetes is often referred to as “juvenile onset”—but increasing numbers of youth are obese or have inactive lifestyles, characteristics that increase the risk of Type II diabetes, so this condition is no longer considered to be an adult disease. Youth of particular ethnicities may bear a genetic predisposition that puts them at even greater risk for developing the condition (ADA, 2002). As the incidence of diabetes rises in the United States, so do the related costs; in 2002, the direct costs (medical expenses) and indirect costs (disability, inability to work, premature mortality) were estimated at $132 billion. This number is almost certainly an underestimation, as it does not include the costs of those who have diabetes but are undiagnosed or the intangible costs of nonpaid caregiving (ADA, 2003). DIABETES IN ADOLESCENCE Adolescence can be a particularly difficult time for individuals with diabetes. Common adolescent behaviors such as an erratic diet and sleep schedule may, for the most part, be innocuous for an adolescent without a chronic medical condition. Yet these uneven lifestyles can seriously jeopardize the health and even lives of adolescents with diabetes. Conflicts over peer acceptance can lead to adolescents’ masking their underlying and attention-demanding illness, which, in addition to inhibiting key health-related behaviors, can interfere with identity development and the deepening of friendships. The complex dynamic of adolescents seeking autonomy from their parents can be further complicated by diabetes, which requires parents to be more involved in the lives of their affected children than they might be otherwise (Salonius-Pasternak, 2003). This is not to say that all adolescents with diabetes will experience greater difficulty than their nonaffected

peers. However, given the increased risks that adolescents with diabetes face, it is important to consider what can be done to help this population. Policies and Programs Ongoing research indicates that family-centered care can help professionals to work more effectively with adolescents with diabetes and their families in order to identify their needs and provide services to address them. Increasingly, physicians, nurse practitioners, diabetes educators, dieticians, and social workers who treat adolescents with diabetes and their families are adopting a team approach in order to address the issues that these individuals face in the context of their communities. This includes developing support groups for adolescents with diabetes and programs to educate parents and peers about diabetes, helping parents to develop ways of managing their children’s care amidst the demands of their occupations, and working with school officials in order to effect school policies that are more conducive to adolescents with diabetes following their medical care plans. Thanks in part to these efforts, several school systems across the country have implemented individual education plans for students with diabetes. In addition to improving the care of adolescents with diabetes and their families, efforts are also being directed at the general public, many of whom are at risk for developing the disease. The American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and the International Diabetes Foundation are working to increase public awareness of the symptoms of diabetes and of positive lifestyle changes that can be made in order to prevent or delay the onset of Type II or prediabetes. In addition to education, the International Diabetes Federation is striving to provide technical, financial, and logistical support for care centers in economically disadvantaged areas of the world. CONCLUSIONS Regardless of the type, diabetes can have a tremendous impact on anyone who lives with the condition. As the population of people with diabetes continues to grow, so does the need for further research, policies, and programs. The issues that individuals with diabetes encounter occur within the ecological-transactional context of ontogenetic development, family environment,

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family and peer relationships, community environments, and the larger macrosystemic culture in which they live. Consequently, when planning for future research, policies, and programs, it is important to take into account the dynamic, multilevel nature of the relations among all of the relevant issues. —Dorothy Elizabeth Salonius-Pasternak

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Diabetes Association. (2002). National diabetes fact sheet. Available at http://www.diabetes.org/info/facts/ facts_natl.jsp American Diabetes Association. (2003). Economic costs of diabetes in the U.S. in 2002. Diabetes Care, 26, 917–932. International Diabetes Federation. (2003). Diabetes prevalence. Available at http://www.idf.org/home/index. cfm?node=264 Salonius-Pasternak, D. E. (2003). Developmental precursors of resilience in young adults with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Unpublished manuscript.

DISCIPLINE, EARLY CHILDHOOD Parents have a unique opportunity to teach children how they are expected to behave in the family and in society at large. The goal of socialization, which appears to be universal, is to teach children to distinguish right from wrong and to internalize appropriate rules of conduct. In the context of socialization, what is “right,” “wrong,” “appropriate,” and “inappropriate” is culturally prescribed. Discipline as a method of childhood socialization has been approached in a variety of ways. The behavioral-learning approach encourages the management of children’s behavior through behavioral reinforcements and consequences, such as punishments. Others have advocated a combination of warmth, praise, and induction as strategies that promote children’s internalization of values (Teti & Candelaria, 2002).

BEHAVIORAL-LEARNING PRINCIPLES One approach to discipline includes the use of behavior-management strategies that focus on rewards, reinforcement, punishment, and extinction as methods of promoting children’s desirable behaviors and reducing undesirable behaviors. Reinforcers

increase the likelihood that a behavior will occur; they can be positive or negative. Negative Reinforcement and Punishment Negative reinforcement involves the removal of something after a behavior has occurred, for the purpose of increasing the frequency of the behavior. Rewards are given after a child has engaged in a prosocial behavior, but they are not necessarily reinforcers if they do not increase the target behavior. By contrast, punishments decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur. Similar to reinforcement, punishment can also be positive or negative. Some examples include withdrawing privileges (e.g., watching television) or tangible items (e.g., toys), putting a child in time-out, and spanking. Extinction involves eliminating the reinforcement that maintains a behavior in order to reduce or eliminate previously reinforced behaviors. For example, if parental attention reinforces children’s temper tantrums, ignoring temper tantrums should lead to extinction (or at least reduction) of temper tantrums. The premise behind the behavioral approach to discipline is that extrinsic motivation can help children identify which behaviors are appropriate and desirable, and eventually, children internalize these rules of conduct and behave as a result of intrinsic motivation, rather than to receive rewards or reinforcement or to avoid punishment. Positive Reinforcement Positive reinforcement involves the addition of something after a behavior has occurred to increase the frequency of that behavior, such as praise and attention, tangible items (e.g., stickers or toys), and privileges. Using positive reinforcement for desirable behaviors helps foster positive self-esteem in children. When parents rely excessively on punishments or use punishments that are too harsh, this can foster low self-esteem in children. Spanking as a form of punishment tends to be an ineffective disciplinary strategy, since children remember the emotional reaction, pain, or embarrassment they felt regarding the spanking as opposed to the message about why a certain behavior was not allowed. This strategy runs counter to the goal of helping children to internalize standards of conduct, since their compliance likely results from fear of punishment. Reinforcement and punishment are more likely to be effective when combined with

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clear and consistent limits for children, a positive environment, and explanations for why certain behaviors are acceptable or unacceptable so that children internalize the rules. Use of reinforcement and punishment without the use of explanations and reasoning will likely foster children’s compliance to rules in the short term, but not internalization of values in which children adopt standards of conduct as their own. DISCIPLINARY STRATEGIES Sears and colleagues identified three disciplinary strategies that are predictive of internalization of standards of conduct for children (Sears, 1961; Sears, Whiting, Nowlis, & Sears, 1953). These include power assertion, love withdrawal, and induction. Power assertion includes the use of threats, physical punishment, or withdrawal of privileges in order to get children to comply. Love withdrawal is a more subtle technique, in which parents express disapproval or disappointment in children through direct verbal statements (e.g., “I don’t like when you behave that way”) or through indirect strategies such as ignoring the child. Induction involves explaining how a child’s actions or misdeeds negatively affect others and relies on children’s feelings of empathy to elicit their compliance. Of these three, induction is most predictive of internalization and has been related to children’s feelings of guilt for misdeeds, increased likelihood of admitting the misdeed before it was even discovered by a parent, and increased likelihood of taking responsibility for a misdeed. Power assertion is least predictive of internalization, although it can lead to short-term compliance with rules, particularly when the parent is present to enforce the sanction. Love withdrawal can also lead to short-term compliance but is inconsistently related to children’s internalization of values. Combining Strategies It is typical for parents to employ a combination of these strategies, and it is the balance achieved among them that is critical to effective discipline. Hoffman (1983, 1994) has found that children are more likely to pay attention to parents’ messages or explanations when the child experiences a certain level of arousal. Some degree of love withdrawal and power assertion, which are then used in combination with induction, tends to be effective in raising children’s arousal

levels high enough to process parental messages and to internalize the messages after repeated exposure. Overuse of power assertions, however, can lead to excessive arousal that makes it difficult for a child to process the message (as described in relation to spanking). Conversely, too little arousal often results in the child not paying attention to the parents’ messages. Consistent with this conceptualization is the “minimum sufficiency principle” proposed by Lepper (1973). According to this principle, behavioral change in children over the long term is more likely when just enough reward or coercion is used, but not so much that it becomes more salient than the message or standard of conduct that the parent is trying to instill. Under these conditions, Lepper has indicated that children’s attitudes and behavior will change, and children will internalize the standards of conduct. CHILD CHARACTERISTICS Discipline practices tend to be more effective when child characteristics such as developmental level and temperament are taken into account. Parents who have appropriate knowledge about developmental milestones tend to have more realistic expectations for their children’s behavior. Discipline that is matched to the child’s developmental level is more likely to be effective in fostering both child compliance and internalization of standards of conduct. For example, for younger children, short and simple parental messages tend to be more effective than complex or lengthy explanations in promoting children’s understanding and eventual internalization of rules. Compared with older children, younger children also require more repetition and reminders about parental messages before the messages become internalized. Temperament In terms of temperamental characteristics, Thomas and Chess (1977) have identified nine traits that make up temperament, including activity level, regularity/ predictability, distractibility, initial response (approach/ withdraw), adaptability, attention span and persistence, intensity of reaction, sensory threshold, and predominant mood. Self-control/impulsivity is another trait often included in discussions of temperament. Temperamental characteristics are inherent, stable aspects of children’s personalities that determine how they respond to their environment. Children’s

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temperamental characteristics elicit different reactions from their parents in such a way that children can contribute to their own socialization. By adapting discipline practices to children’s temperamental characteristics, parents can be effective in helping children learn appropriate standards of conduct. Thomas and Chess (1977) use the term “goodness of fit” to refer to how well the child’s temperament fits with the caregiver’s expectations and parenting style. When the fit is better, parent-child interactions tend to be more positive and children are more likely to buy into the socialization process. For example, a child who is temperamentally difficult due to irregularity, low sensory threshold, and intense reactions would lack the proper fit with a parent who uses harsh tactics and relies heavily on power assertions. Empirical research has found that harsh, punitive parenting with temperamentally difficult infants is associated with aggressive and externalizing behavior problems in early childhood (Shaw et al., 1998). Temperament and Socialization Practices Kochanska (1993) has incorporated temperament characteristics as a context for socialization practices in her model of children’s development of conscience. According to her model, there is an affective discomfort component and a behavioral control component to conscience. The former refers to children’s feelings of anxiety, guilt, or remorse associated with their misdeeds. The latter refers to children’s ability to use selfcontrol when faced with a forbidden object or activity that they desire. Kochanska indicated that children’s temperamental characteristics determine how much affective discomfort arousal they will feel and their ability to pay attention to parental messages related to children’s misdeeds. Children who are more sensitive to anxiety arousal will feel greater anxiety discomfort in regard to a misdeed, as well as heightened sensitivity to parental emotional reactions compared with children who are much less sensitive to anxiety arousal. For these anxiety-prone children, internalization of values is best predicted by mild parental discipline, such as induction and mild love withdrawal. This does not suggest that more coercive parental discipline tends to be effective for children who are less sensitive to anxiety arousal, since this type of parental discipline is associated with negative behavior for children, as discussed previously. Rather, for these

children, a more effective strategy is for parents to develop a mutually positive relationship with the child in which both parent and child are committed to each other and the socialization process such that children buy into parental messages. In support of this model, empirical evidence has shown that mild parental discipline that focused on low levels of power assertion combined with reasoning predicted compliance to mothers’ requests and multiple indices of internalization for anxiety-prone children, but not for children with low anxiety arousal. For the latter group, compliance and internalization were predicted by secure attachment to the parent, a measure of parent-child relationship quality. In terms of the behavioral control component of Kochanska’s conscience model, children who are well regulated and have good self-control need only mild discipline strategies to foster their internalization of parental messages. However, children who are less well regulated and more impulsive may need extra help from parents to understand how their behavior affects others. These children are more likely to internalize parental messages that are simply stated rather than complex and under circumstances in which the parent-child relationship is characterized by positive mutuality. Empirical evidence has shown that children with greater self-control showed higher levels of compliance to mothers’ requests, better behavioral restraint to a “forbidden” toy, and greater internalization of rules of conduct compared with more impulsive children. This suggests that parenting that is adapted to the child’s temperamental style is related to more optimal socialization outcomes. PARENTING STYLE Finally, just as important as what the child contributes to his own socialization is what the parent contributes through the style of parenting and the emotional climate or context in which parental messages and disciplinary practices are embedded. As discussed, the fit between parent and child is an important determinant of how effective socialization practices will be. The child’s likelihood of buying into the socialization process is higher when the parent and child both feel a sense of commitment and respect toward the other. This mutuality is fostered by an emotional context that is both positive and warm. Parenting style has been conceptualized by Darling and Steinberg (1993) as a cluster of emotional attitudes

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toward the child. These attitudes serve as the emotional context in which specific parenting practices are delivered. Parenting style is communicated to the child through tone of voice, quality of attention, emotional displays, and actions and behaviors that convey parental feelings about the child. When parents use a style characterized by love, acceptance, and warmth, as opposed to indifference, coldness, or hostility, children are more likely to attend to, process, and accept parental messages. Thus, parenting style serves to moderate the relation between specific parenting practices and children’s internalization of values, such that the emotional context determines how effective particular parenting practices will be in influencing children’s attitudes, behaviors, and values. Parenting practices that are matched to the child’s developmental level and temperament and are delivered in a context of warmth and acceptance predispose children to adopt standards of conduct as their own. —Christine Reiner Hess

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Darling, N., & Steinberg, L. (1993). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 487–496. Hoffman, M. L. (1983). Affective and cognitive processes in moral internalization. In E. T. Higgins, D. Ruble, & W. Hartup (Eds.), Social cognition and social development: A sociocultural perspective (pp. 236–274). New York: Cambridge University Press. Hoffman, M. L. (1994). Discipline and internalization. Developmental Psychology, 30, 26–28. Kochanska, G. (1993). Toward a synthesis of parental socialization and childhood temperament in early development of conscience. Child Development, 64, 325–347. Lepper, M. R. (1973). Dissonance, self-perception, and honesty in children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 65–74. Sears, R. R. (1961). Relation of early socialization experiences to aggression in middle childhood. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 63, 466–492. Sears, R. R., Whiting, J. W. M., Nowlis, V., & Sears, P. S. (1953). Some child-rearing antecedents of aggression and dependency in young children. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 47, 135–236. Shaw, D. S., Winslow, E. B., Owens, E. B., Vondra, J. I., Cohn, J. F., & Bell, R. Q. (1998). The development of early externalizing problems among children from low-income families: A transformational perspective. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 95–108. Teti, D.M., & Candelaria, M. A. (2002). Parenting competence. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4.

Social conditions and applied parenting (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York: Bruner/Mazel.

DIVORCE, ITS IMPACT ON CHILDREN Divorce is an inevitable outcome for over half of all marriages today, and every year more than 1 million children in the United States experience the divorce of their parents (Amato & Keith, 1991). Although there is a good deal of inconsistency in the divorce literature, there is general agreement that when compared with children with continuously married parents, children with divorced parents are disadvantaged in several ways, including conduct, psychological adjustment, academic achievement, and close relationships (Amato, 2001). These differences between children from divorced and married families are not large, and many children in divorced families adjust well. Furthermore, recent research suggests that these differences may be due more to factors such as parental conflict and less effective parenting than to the divorce itself, which suggests that there are potential targets for efforts to promote child well-being after divorce. IMPACT OF PARENTAL DIVORCE ON CHILDREN Much research effort has focused on the differences between children in divorced and married families, leading many to conclude that children from divorced families are behind children from married families on psychosocial developmental tasks (Amato, 2000; Hines, 1997). However, according to a careful review of the divorce research done in the 1990s (Amato, 2001), those differences are statistically small and dependent on how the studies were done. Conduct problems have been the most frequently examined effect of divorce on children. Many existing studies illustrate that children, especially boys, from divorced families show more aggression, disobedience, demandingness, and lack of self-control than children from married families do. In fact, according to Emery (1999), children from divorced families are overrepresented among delinquents. However, many researchers argue that those deviant behaviors are due to

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decreased parental supervision following divorce rather than due to divorce per se (Barber & Eccles, 1992). In addition, these findings could reflect preexisting differences in the children prior to their parents’ divorce, or could be in reaction to factors such as parental conflict, which may have been present before the divorce. Research is less consistent on internalizing problems of children from divorced families (Barber & Eccles, 1992; Emery, 1999). Although there are some studies showing that children from divorced families are more depressed and have lower self-esteem than children from married families, many other studies find no differences. In addition, when differences do exist, they decrease over time. In many studies, children from divorced families have lower academic achievement; however, it varies by the area of achievement examined. First, there are modest differences in performance and behavior in school—with children in divorced families earning slightly lower grades, but no meaningful differences in standardized test scores compared with children in married families. Second, children from divorced families show more misconduct in school. Finally, the largest and most meaningful difference is found in school completion and educational attainment. Specifically, children from divorced families are more likely to drop out of high school and complete fewer years in school overall. Children from married families show better outcomes in academic achievement; however, some scholars suggest that this advantage is related to less frequent misbehavior and greater motivation rather than to ability. Furthermore, children from divorced families have fewer economic resources available to facilitate academic activities and are more likely to move residences (and therefore change schools), and their parents are less likely to be involved in their school activities (Emery, 1999). Hence, it should be recognized that in addition to parental divorce, other factors can put children from divorced families at a disadvantage when it comes to academic achievement. Studies about intimate relationships of children from divorced families have tested the idea that parental divorce is passed on to children and has a negative effect on their attitudes toward, and experience of, committed romantic relationships. Indeed, many studies report findings that support this assumption. However, research has suggested that lower relationship quality is not only linked to parental divorce but also to family processes, such as interparental conflict. Children from divorced families are more likely

to be exposed to unhealthy interactions of parents before and after parental divorce; hence those children learn ineffective interpersonal relationship skills and in turn are more at risk of having negative intimate relationships than children from married families. In summary, parental divorce has been shown to diminish positive functioning in some children, resulting in an average difference between those from divorced and married families, favoring the latter. Of importance to those concerned by this impact is the variability in responses to divorce. Some children adjust well; others suffer. INDIVIDUAL ATTRIBUTES AND VULNERABILITY The vulnerability of children after parental divorce varies by children’s own characteristics, such as age, gender, and personal strengths. The findings on the effects of a child’s age at the time of divorce are somewhat inconsistent. Even though it has been proposed that younger children may be more adversely affected by a parental divorce, the findings do not fully support this proposal (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Early research often showed gender differences, indicating that boys were more likely to have difficulties adjusting after parental divorce. However, recent studies suggest that girls may experience a wider range of difficulties in their adjustment compared with boys. Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) illustrated that girls are more likely to have difficulties, including depression, behavior problems, and lower educational attainment. They also illustrated that girls are more likely to enhance their competence by dealing with the responsibilities, independence, and challenges following parental divorce if they do not feel overburdened in their situations. The effects of a parental divorce may also differ depending on a child’s individual strengths. In other words, the stress of a parental divorce may intensify problems in already poorly adjusted children, while children who are intelligent and competent and who have an easy temperament and feelings of mastery and control are more likely to adjust to those stresses well (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999). FAMILY CONTEXT FOLLOWING DIVORCE Beyond the characteristics and individual strengths of the child, the effects of parental divorce on children

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may differ greatly depending on the situation of the family before, during, and after the divorce. Five aspects of family context have been identified that can have an impact on children’s adjustment following divorce. Financial Resources Divorce often leads to a dramatic decline in the economic situation of mothers and children. This reduction in family financial resources is one important influence on the adjustment of children from divorced families, accounting for some of the decline in children’s well-being (Barber & Eccles, 1992). Indeed, many studies of the effects of divorce on children have found that if social class is controlled, the gap between children from divorced and married families is reduced (Emery, 1999). Interparental Conflict Many of the negative effects of divorce can be attributed to interparental conflict rather than to the divorce itself. Children from high-conflict divorces have more adjustment difficulties than children from low-conflict divorces, and children from divorced but conflict-free homes have fewer behavior problems than children whose parents remain in a high-conflict marriage (Emery, 1999). These findings have two important implications. First, it is important to remember that interparental conflict can be harmful to children’s adjustment before, during, and after a divorce; therefore interventions should not be limited to those families who have already divorced, nor should they assume that the effects of a conflictual marriage started after the divorce. Second, experts agree that children may be better off living in a happy divorced family than in a conflict-ridden married family (Emery, 1999), which means that in many cases divorce may be the beginning of a healing process rather than the beginning of problems.

Decision Making, Discipline, and Control A second change in family dynamics is the increase in autonomy that can accompany divorce. Divorced families experience a shift in the authority structure. Responsibilities are redistributed, and this change may provide an opportunity for the child to have more

control in negotiations over rules. Adolescents, especially boys, in divorced families experience greater opportunity for involvement in several areas of decision making and less parental control. This greater responsibility and input into decision making may have either positive or negative consequences. If it is too early for the child’s level of maturity, increased independence in divorced families may lead to negative outcomes. Independence may put too much pressure on a child, or it can be associated with inadequate monitoring and increased susceptibility to peer pressure. If the increase in adultlike responsibility and decrease in parental control are timed appropriately and are embedded in a warm, authoritative family environment, they can have positive consequences associated with increased self-esteem, confidence, and a sense of contribution to the family (Barber, 1995). Expectancies Divorced mothers have been found to have lower expectations for their children’s school performance, as well as satisfaction with lower school grades. Reduced expectancies such as these may help to explain the connection between divorce and adolescents’ lower achievement outcomes (Barber, 1995). In order to reduce these negative self-fulfilling prophesies, prevention efforts could provide information to parents and teachers about the negative effects of lowered expectations, along with the knowledge that lower achievement is not inevitable for children after divorce. Relationship With Parents The parent-child relationship also plays a crucial role in determining the adjustment of children after parental divorce. Even though family disruption can lead to negative adjustment in children, if parents have high levels of warmth, support, monitoring, and communication (all qualities of a good parent-child relationship), children are more likely to have positive adjustment (Hines, 1997). After divorce, the residential parent can be overwhelmed with the many different tasks of single parenting. Due to the burden, residential parents are likely to make fewer maturity demands, communicate less well, be less affectionate, be more inconsistent, and be less effective in controlling their children. This burden can also lead to depression, especially among residential mothers (Emery, 1999). Diminished parenting skills and parents’ emotional fluctuations often

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lead to poor relationships with children after divorce. Children may report that they feel distant from their parents and not satisfied with parents’ affection, and that there are few things that they and their parents can enjoy together. Indeed, a number of studies have shown difficulties in the relationship between residential parents and children (Emery, 1999). At the same time, however, studies document that as time goes by, the relationship between parents and children gets better, and most divorced residential parents function as well as married parents do after a period of readjustment (Emery, 1999). This might be one reason that children’s psychological adjustment in divorced families gradually improves after the initial decline. Similarly, if the parent-child relationship is well maintained following divorce, the child’s risk of the initial decline should be reduced. In general, more frequent contact is thought to lead to better nonresidential parent-child relationships (Emery, 1999). However, the findings on the connection between children’s adjustment and their relationship with the nonresidential parent (usually the father) are somewhat inconsistent. Studies have shown positive, negative, and neutral impacts on child adjustment of contact with the nonresidential father. Although the studies do not find consistent effects of amount of contact, they have suggested that the nonresidential father can be important. First, there is substantial evidence that the quality of the relationship between nonresidential fathers and children is more important than amount of contact. In addition, the economic contribution that nonresidential fathers make is important. Finally, as several studies support, frequent contact might be beneficial to children only when interparental conflict is low (Emery, 1999). In summary, a good relationship with nonresidential parents, especially in the case of little or no interparental conflict, can positively affect children’s adjustment following divorce.

been identified that predict postdivorce adjustment. Building on the strengths of divorced families in these areas is one promising approach for fostering positive postdivorce outcomes. Future research should go beyond documenting the impact of divorce and work to identify additional family processes (such as postdivorce coparenting practices) that should be targeted in intervention efforts to foster positive developmental outcomes for children after divorce. —Renee Peltz Dennison, Sun-A Lee, and Bonnie L. Barber

See also PARENTING, DIVORCE AND

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Amato, P. R. (2000). The consequences of divorce for adults and children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1269–1287. Amato, P. R. (2001). Children of divorce in the 1990s: An update of the Amato and Keith (1991) meta-analysis. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 344–370. Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 26–46. Barber, B. L. (1995). Preventive intervention with adolescents and divorced mothers: A conceptual framework for program design and evaluation. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 481–503. Barber, B. L., & Eccles, J. S. (1992). Long-term influence of divorce and single parenting on adolescent familyand work-related values, behaviors, and aspirations. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 108–126. Emery, R. E. (1999). Marriage, divorce, and children’s adjustment (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hetherington, E. M., & Stanley-Hagan, M. (1999). The adjustment of children with divorced parents: A risk and resiliency perspective. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40, 129–140. Hines, A. M. (1997). Divorce-related transitions, adolescent development, and the role of the parent-child relationship: A review of the literature. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 375–388.

CONCLUSIONS Some children are at greater risk following a divorce, while others are protected from harm. Practitioners should consider the specific characteristics of the child and the family situation when planning preventative efforts or treatment after divorce. In addition, efforts to promote child well-being in divorced families should be informed by the wealth of research on parenting practices and family relationships that are likely to enhance development. Several key factors have

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, CHILD EXPOSURE TO Violence against women by intimate partners is of epidemic proportions in the United States. National data indicate that nearly 700,000 intimate partner violence events were documented in 2001 (Bureau of Justice, 2002). Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

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data show that in the past 25 years, 57,000 individuals have been killed in domestic violence situations. In the past decade, national awareness of domestic violence has prompted the passage of the 1994, 1998, and 2000 Violence Against Women Acts and has resulted in legislation to combat this violence and to strengthen the authority of police officers to investigate and intervene in violent situations (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999). The magnitude of this national problem has caused growing concern for the physical and psychological well-being of children who are exposed to domestic violence. Applied developmental science is needed to inform research and practice for this vulnerable group of children. PREVALENCE To fully understand the issue of children exposed to domestic violence, accurate prevalence data are needed. Prevalence studies of domestic violence are limited by the manner in which data are collected (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999). All local and state law enforcement authorities are mandated to aggregate the number of criminal incidents by offense type and report them to the FBI, but this system does not provide specific information on domestic violence. National telephone surveys to study domestic violence also contribute to inaccurate prevalence rates. This method relies solely on retrospective self-report data, which is difficult to validate. Thus, estimates of domestic violence vary widely, ranging from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former boyfriend or girlfriend per year, to 3.9 million women who are physically abused by husbands or live-in partners per year (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999). Furthermore, at present, we have no national crime report system that systematically collects data on children exposed to family violence crimes. Law Enforcement Partnership Data Because domestic violence is a crime as well as a public health problem, many researchers believe that law enforcement personnel are in a strategic position to enhance scientific inquiry by providing direct assessments of domestic violence incidents (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999). As a result, researchers are considering ways to partner with law enforcement to study children’s exposure to substantiated domestic violence incidents. Police have the authority to enter people’s

homes and collect data pertinent to domestic violence, including the nature of the violence, the presence of children exposed, and the nature of the exposure. Therefore, law enforcement officers represent an important group of natural sentinels with whom researchers and service providers can partner to collect data on the nature of domestic violence incidents and children’s exposure, as well as to link children to services. To date, only a few studies have documented the value of partnering with law enforcement agencies to collect substantiated data on children exposed to family violence. The Spousal Abuse Replication Program (SARP) provided an important set of findings regarding a population-based examination of children’s exposure to substantiated police cases of domestic violence across five cities (Fantuzzo, Boruch, Beriama, Atkins, & Marcus, 1997). This multicity study found that children were disproportionately present in households where there was domestic violence and that these children were more likely to be under 6 years old. In addition, these households were more likely to pose other risks to child development, with higher than average rates of poverty, single-female-headed households, low educational attainment of caregiver, and parental substance abuse. Furthermore, 7% of the children experienced direct physical abuse. This rate documents that children exposed to domestic violence are at increased risk for child abuse, since the national prevalence rate for physical abuse is 1.3% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004). POPULATION-BASED STUDIES Two recent population-based studies support and extend the SARP research findings. Both investigations used law enforcement to gather prevalence data on children exposed to substantiated domestic violence incidents. One study examined substantiated domestic violence cases identified by law enforcement in Rhode Island over a 2-year period (Gjelsvik, Verhoek-Oftedahl, & Pearlman, 2003). Findings showed that 44% of domestic violence incidents had at least one child present and, like the SARP study, almost 47% of these children were younger than 6 years old. Results also revealed that incidents involving Hispanic and African American victims were more likely to have children present, compared with incidents with white victims. A second population-based study (Fantuzzo, Mohr, & Fusco, 2003) examined the prevalence of domestic

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violence within a primarily middle- to upper-middle-class county on the east coast. Researchers found that domestic violence accounted for 48% of all assaults in this county. Again supporting the SARP study, results indicated that households with domestic violence were twice as likely to have children compared with households where there was no reported domestic violence. Fifty percent of the exposed children were under the age of 6 years. Additional risk factors were associated with households where domestic violence occurred. They were more likely to be ethnic minority households headed by single females. Moreover, 7% of all exposed children were physically injured during the domestic violence incident. IMPACT OF CHILD EXPOSURE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE The existing impact research indicates that child exposure to domestic violence is associated with a range of adverse outcomes (Mohr, Lutz, Fantuzzo, & Perry, 2000). Children exposed to domestic violence have been found to exhibit higher levels of aggressive behaviors than children who are not exposed. This includes aggressive behavior toward peers, animals, and, in adolescents, aggression toward romantic partners (Mohr et al., 2000). These children have also been found to evidence high rates of internalizing behavioral problems, such as anxiety and stressrelated disorders (Mohr et al., 2000). Studies also have found a significant relationship between exposure to domestic violence and problems in cognitive functioning and academic achievement. DEVELOPMENTAL-ECOLOGICAL THEORY Creating an understanding of the developmental impact of exposure to domestic violence requires a comprehensive conceptual framework. A developmental-ecological perspective provides one such framework (Mohr et al., 2000). This framework posits that children develop within the context of multiple systems (ontogenic, microsystem, macrosystem, and exosystem) and that various risk and protective factors can have a transactional impact on the child’s development (Cicchetti, Toth, & Maughan, 2000). Recent comprehensive reviews of impact literature using this developmental-ecological perspective have identified various child (i.e., age, gender, race/ethnicity) and family factors (parental stress and shelter residents)

that have mediating and moderating effects for children exposed to domestic violence (Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003; Margolin, 1998; Mohr et al., 2000). Child Maltreatment The co-occurrence of child maltreatment and exposure to domestic violence is an area of research that is receiving increased attention. Margolin’s (1998) review found that 45% to 70% of children exposed to domestic violence are also victims of physical abuse. McCloskey, Figueredo, and Koss (1995) reported that children living with a battered mother are at increased risk of sexual abuse by either the mother’s partner, another family member, or a stranger. This study also demonstrated that children who experience both domestic violence and child maltreatment were more likely to evidence negative outcomes compared with children who experienced only one form of violence. Further, this research showed that families experiencing domestic violence and child maltreatment are likely to be exposed to other risk factors to children’s development, such as mental health issues, substance abuse, divorce, criminality, poverty, and unemployment. Limitations A review of the impact literature (Mohr et al., 2000) identified a number of limitations. First, most research on children exposed to domestic violence has been conducted using samples of convenience, such as shelter samples. Second, many of the studies examining the impact of domestic violence on development do not recognize the multiple domains of child functioning or mediating or moderating effects of other key child and family factors. Third, the current research base is not guided by a unifying conceptual framework. Each of these limitations must be addressed to build a comprehensive understanding of the developmental impact of exposure to domestic violence. INTERVENTION In recognition of the developmental impact of exposure to domestic violence on children’s development, several programs have been created to reduce risks and enhance protective factors. A recent review of research evaluating interventions for children who have been exposed to domestic violence found that

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interventions for children exposed to domestic violence were focused on reducing externalizing and internalizing behaviors, as well as maladaptive social behaviors (Graham-Bermann, 2001). In this review, interventions for children exposed to domestic violence were divided into three categories: universal, selective, and indicated. Universal programs were interventions open to all children and focus primarily on prevention. Selective programs were targeted at intervention for children classified as being at above average risk for developmental problems related to exposure to domestic violence. Indicated programs were targeted at intervention for children considered to be at the highest risk of developing social, emotional, or behavioral problems following exposure to domestic violence. There are several notable limitations of the research on intervention for children exposed to domestic violence that affect both the internal and external validity of findings (Graham-Bermann, 2001). First, there are sampling limitations. As with the research on prevalence and impact, intervention studies have been based on small sample sizes and samples of convenience. Second, there are notable limitations related to the design of the studies. For example, many of the studies did not utilize a comparison group or random assignment. Third, many of the existing studies are not guided by a unifying theoretical framework that links intervention to hypothesized outcomes of exposure to domestic violence. CONCLUSIONS Accurate, reliable information about the prevalence of exposure to domestic violence, the nature of children’s exposure, and the impact of exposure is needed to develop effective intervention (Jouriles, McDonald, Norwood, & Ezell, 2001). Current research indicates that children who live in households with domestic violence are exposed to more factors that threaten development and increase risk for maladjustment than are children who do not live with such violence (Kitzmann et al., 2003). However, inspection of our existing research reveals that there is a need to improve the conceptual foundations and research methods in this important area. Applied developmental science has much to contribute to enhance research and practice in this area. Heuristic developmentalecological models can provide a framework to account for the complex types of violence that

children are exposed to and the impact of various types of exposure on child development. Research to date demonstrates that violence in the home is associated with a host of other factors that have been shown to have their own unique harmful effects on children’s function. Multivariate, applied developmental research is need to determine the independent, interactive, and cumulative impact of child exposure to domestic violence. To inform national policies and systemwide action in this hard-to-research area, we need a more substantial knowledge base. This will require researchers to forge strategic partnerships with key frontline community service providers. Research collaborations with practitioners across relevant municipal agencies will help us develop more scientifically rigorous research. These partnerships will provide us with access to relevant data on the prevalence of children exposed to domestic violence and factors that increase risk for, or provide protection against, the nature and extent of the deleterious effects of child exposure to domestic violence. Collaborative research that is population based and child centered holds great promise to address this complex national problem. —John W. Fantuzzo, Rachel A. Fusco, and Staci M. Peckham

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bureau of Justice. (2002). Statistics 2002: At a glance. Available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/bjsg02.pdf Cicchetti, D., Toth, S. L., & Maughan, A. (2000). An ecological-transactional model of child maltreatment. In A. J. Sameroff, M. Lewis, & S. M. Miller (Eds.), Handbook of developmental psychopathology (2nd ed., pp. 689–722). New York: Kluwer Academic. Commonwealth Fund. (1998, February). Addressing domestic violence and its consequences: Policy report of the Commonwealth Fund’s Commission on Women’s Health. Available at http://www.cmwf.org/publist/publist2.asp? CategoryID=14 Fantuzzo, J., Boruch, R., Beriama, A., Atkins, M., & Marcus, S. (1997). Domestic violence and children: Prevalence and risk in five major U.S. cities. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(1), 116–122. Fantuzzo, J. W., & Mohr, W. K. (1999). Prevalence and effects of child exposure to domestic violence. Future of Children, 9(3), 21–32. Fantuzzo, J. W., Mohr, W. K., & Fusco, R. A. (2003, August). The nature of children’s exposure to domestic violence:

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Early findings from the DVEP-C. Paper presented at a meeting with the Montgomery County Police Department, Rockville, MD. Gjelsvik, A., Verhoek-Oftedahl, W., & Pearlman, D. N. (2003). Domestic violence incidents with children witnesses: Findings from Rhode Island surveillance data. Women’s Health Issues, 13, 68–73. Graham-Bermann, S. A. (2001). Designing intervention evaluations for children exposed to domestic violence: Applications of research and theory. In S. A. GrahamBermann & J. L. Edelson (Eds.), Domestic violence in the lives of children: The future of research, intervention, and social policy (pp. 237–268). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Jouriles, E. N., McDonald, R., Norwood, W. D., & Ezell, E. (2001). Issues and controversies in documenting the prevalence of children’s exposure to domestic violence. In S. A. Graham-Bermann & J. L. Edleson (Eds.), Domestic violence in the lives of children: The future of research, intervention, and social policy (pp. 12–34). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Kitzmann, K. M., Gaylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D. (2003). Child witnesses to domestic violence: A metaanalytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(2), 339–352. Margolin, G. (1998). Effects of witnessing violence on children. In P. K. Trickett & C. J. Schellenbach (Eds.), Violence against children in the family and the community (pp. 57–102). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. McCloskey, L. A., Figueredo, A. J., & Koss, M. P. (1995). The effects of systemic family violence on children’s mental health. Child Development, 66, 1239–1261. Mohr, W. K., Lutz, M. J., Fantuzzo, J. W., & Perry, M. A. (2000). Children exposed to family violence: A review of empirical research from a developmental-ecological perspective. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, 1(3), 264–283. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2004). Child maltreatment 2002: Summary of key finding/National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. Available at http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/factsheets/ canstats.cfm

year, with an overall lifetime prevalence rate of 28%. Data compiled from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) revealed that in 1998 nearly 1 million incidents of interpersonal violence occurred between spouses, dating couples, or cohabitating partners (Rennison & Welchans, 2000). Of these incidents, nearly 85% were committed against women. Recently the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence defined battering as “a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence. Battering happens when one person believes they are entitled to control another” (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence [NCADV], 2003). In fact, 21% to 34% of women in the United States are physically assaulted—slapped, kicked, beaten, choked, threatened and/or attacked with a weapon—by an intimate adult partner during their lifetime (Goodman, Koss, Fitzgerald, Russo, & Keita, 1993). Injuries are a common result of domestic violence and require more medical treatment than rape, auto accidents, and muggings combined (Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS], 1997). Domestic violence is not, however, restricted to physical abuse; it also includes marital rape and psychological abuse. Marital rape is defined as “being forced into sexual relations in the realization that refusal would lead to further physical abuse and/or psychological harassment” (Shepherd, 1994). Psychological abuse can include “constant verbal abuse, harassment, excessive possessiveness, isolating the woman from friends and family, deprivation of physical and economic resources, and destruction of personal property” (NCADV, 2003). Finally, domestic violence is not a problem exclusively in the United States; the World Health Organization estimated that “52 percent of women in the world are physically abused by their husbands/partners” (Pickup, Williams, & Sweetman, 2001).

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, IMPACT ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

IMPACT ON WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTH

Domestic violence (DV) is a significant public health concern in the United States today. Amnesty International reports that a woman is battered every 15 seconds in the United States (Amnesty International, 2001). Straus and Gelles (1990) reported that 16% of women were abused by their husbands during the past

Domestic violence has been found to have a negative impact on women’s mental health functioning and can lead to depression, negative self-esteem, distorted beliefs regarding self-efficacy, and general psychological distress. Battered women are more likely to attempt suicide than other women, and the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in battered women is high, ranging from 45% to 85%. Physical health

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problems are also prevalent. Women with abusive partners often experience numerous and severe health problems and physical injuries. Finally, excessive use of alcohol and drugs has also been noted by both partners in DV households, although the contextual factors underlying the substance abuse may differ for men and women. Trauma theory (Herman, 1992) provides a compelling explanation for the impact of domestic violence on women’s mental health functioning, suggesting that individuals suffering from chronic trauma, including DV, may develop complex traumatic stress syndrome. Resulting from the experience of living in constant fear, this syndrome is characterized by PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and characterological changes. An alternative, but related, view holds that the effects of DV on women are primarily due to the development of traumatic bonding as a survival strategy in abusive relationships (Dutton & Painter, 1993). Consequent to the repeated traumatizing experiences of being physically and psychologically threatened and abused, the woman comes to view the abuser as a captor. A psychological shift then occurs wherein the woman begins to believe that she must constantly appease the abuser so that he will let her live. As a result of this psychic process, the woman begins to unconsciously adopt the abuser’s perspective of the world. Common to both of these theories is the implication that trauma symptoms are a mediator for the impact of DV on women’s psychosocial functioning. Furthermore, these changes in psychosocial functioning that result from the DV experience will affect the likelihood of future exposure to DV during the life course of the woman. THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR WOMEN Social support can be a protective factor for women in violent relationships. In general, battered women have an inadequate number of supporters and are often reluctant to ask these supporters for help. However, when high-quality social support exists, it is directly and positively related to women’s mental health. Broadly defined, social support refers to the people in one’s life who can be relied on for guidance, practical support (e.g., financial aid), or emotional support. Structural support refers to the quantity of supporters, source of support (e.g., friends or clergy members), or the number of interactions with the support

network. Functional support, in contrast, refers to emotional support or practical aid that an individual provides. Both structural and functional social support in the lives of women experiencing domestic violence (especially severely abused women) have been shown to prevent negative mental health. For example, research by Mitchell and Hodson (1983) found that structural support, such as frequency of interaction with friends, was negatively correlated with reports of depression in abused women. Functional support, specifically high-quality emotional support or high levels of practical aid, is a protective factor against depression and other mental health outcomes in abused women. Finally, negative support (e.g., criticism from a supporter) can be detrimental to the mental health of abused women and serve to exacerbate the effects of the abuse (Levendosky et al., in press). IMPACT ON CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH In addition to these documented effects on women, an increasing number of studies are demonstrating the devastating social-emotional effects on children of growing up in a family experiencing domestic violence. Recent meta-analyses have demonstrated an increased risk of behavioral and emotional problems among children from a wide range of ages exposed to DV (Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003; Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003). In addition to direct negative effects, DV also commonly cooccurs with other risk factors such as single-parent status, lower family income, less maternal education and smaller family size, frequent family moves, parental divorce, maternal and paternal drinking, incarceration of father, and child abuse. Importantly, exposure to DV has been shown to account for behavioral and psychological problems in children over and above the effects of these co-occurring risk factors. Infants and young children, in particular, are especially vulnerable to DV exposure and are at an increased risk for a host of negative social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes as a result of this exposure. Infants exposed to DV have been described as displaying poor health, poor sleeping habits, and lack of responsiveness to adults (e.g., Layzer, Goodson, & Delange, 1985). Children as young as 4 years old exposed to DV show both behavior problems and diminished social competence as well as clinical levels of conduct problems.

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In addition to these problems, recent research has also documented the presence of trauma symptoms in young children exposed to DV. Levendosky, HuthBocks, Semel, and Shapiro (2002) report high levels of trauma symptoms in a sample of preschool-aged children exposed to DV: 92% had at least one reexperiencing symptom, 47% had at least three avoidance symptoms, 91% had at least two symptoms of hyperarousal, and 24% of the children met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Similarly, Scheeringa and Zeanah (1995) found that threat to a caregiver led to symptoms such as hyperarousal, fear, and aggression, and that threat to a caregiver was the trauma involved most often in a sample of infants diagnosed with PTSD (ages 3–48 months). In general, school-aged children who witness domestic violence exhibit problems in their social and emotional adjustment. Researchers have documented increased levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior and decreased social competence, lower self-esteem, increased behavior problems and psychopathology, increased fear and worry, increased depression and aggression, and PTSD in children of battered women (Kitzmann et al., 2003; Wolfe et al., 2003). One study that clustered 228 eight- to fourteenyear-old children exposed to violence according to symptomatology found that 31% of the children showed no externalizing or internalizing pathology and were considered resilient (Grych, Jouriles, Swank, McDonald, & Norwood, 2000). Forty percent had elevated externalizing behaviors, while 11% had elevated internalizing behaviors, and 18% were categorized as exhibiting mild distress. These findings underscore the importance of explicating the multiple mechanisms involved in determining the impact of domestic violence on children’s social-emotional functioning. Relative to other age-groups, less is known about the impact of domestic violence on adolescents. Exposure to domestic violence during this developmental stage is related to mental health problems (e.g., Levendosky, Huth-Bocks, & Semel, 2002) and to an increased propensity to experience dating violence and/or victimization in dating relationships for both boys and girls (Wekerle & Wolfe, 1998).

parenting and maternal mental health, is an important mediator of the impact of domestic violence on children’s social-emotional functioning. The mechanism underlying this mediational model is best understood from the perspective of attachment theory, which argues that the young child’s relationship with the primary caregiver (usually the mother) becomes internalized and serves as a template for other current and future relationships (Bowlby, 1988). Thus a secure and healthy maternal-child relationship can serve as a protective factor in shielding the child from the negative outcomes of exposure to abuse, whereas an insecure relationship may exacerbate the negative effects of the exposure. A number of studies have now examined the impact of domestic violence on maternal parenting and its effects on children’s adjustment. For example, Margolin and Gordis (2003) reported that domestic violence was positively related to power assertive parenting and the use of control tactics (e.g., physical punishment and yelling), according to mothers’ self-reports with children ages 8 to 11. In the same study, domestic violence was inversely related to consistent and sensitive parenting and a mother’s ability to provide a structured, organized environment for her children. Similarly, McCloskey, Figueredo, and Koss (1995) found less parental support in families experiencing violence based on school-aged children’s reports. Other researchers report that women who experience domestic violence, compared with nonabused women, are more physically aggressive, more inconsistent in their parenting styles (Holden, Stein, Ritchie, Harris, & Jouriles, 1998), and experience greater parenting stress (Levendosky & Graham-Bermann, 1998). Furthermore, maternal parenting behaviors have been found to mediate the effects of domestic violence on preschool and school-aged children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Levendosky & GrahamBermann, 2001; Levendosky, Huth-Bocks, Shapiro, & Semel, 2003; McCloskey et al., 1995). Finally, even as early as pregnancy, domestic violence can exert a negative impact on prenatal and postnatal parenting schemas that are related to the later infant-parent relationship (Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, Theran, & Bogat, in press; Theran, Levendosky, Bogat, & Huth-Bocks, 2003).

MEDIATORS OF THE IMPACT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN’S FUNCTIONING

IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION AND POLICY

A number of studies have found that the maternalchild relationship, conceptualized as either or both

Given the overwhelming evidence linking domestic violence with a decrease in mental health and

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social-emotional functioning in abused women, it is clear that continued efforts are needed in the domain of prevention of domestic violence as well as treatment for women and batterers who are experiencing this devastating problem. Furthermore, while there has been progress over the past three decades in implementing laws that protect women from abusive partners, much still needs to be done from a legal perspective to provide legal recourse and protection to abused women. Beyond the negative impact on the mental health and social-emotional functioning of the abused woman, the overwhelming devastation that exposure to violence brings to the lives of children in these families has become increasingly clear. Once thought of as a “private matter” between a woman and a man in their own home, it is now evident that the children of these relationships are profoundly affected by exposure to this violence. Interventions designed to assist children experiencing violence in the home to cope with this situation are of paramount importance. However, given the evidence for the mediating role of maternal behavior in protecting or exacerbating the effects of violence on children’s social-emotional functioning, it is also critical that maternal support be provided both in terms of assisting mothers in protecting themselves and their children from immediate harm (e.g., shelters) and in learning effective parenting strategies that help to protect their children from the psychological consequences of exposure to violence. —Alytia A. Levendosky, Erika DeJonghe, Shallimar Jones, Carolyn J. Dayton, Mariam Mourad, and Alexander von Eye

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Amnesty International Publications. (2001). Broken bodies, shattered minds: Torture and ill treatment of women. London: Alden. Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent child attachment and healthy development. New York: Basic. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1997, August). Violence related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Dutton, D. G., & Painter, S. (1993). Emotional attachments in abusive relationships: A test of traumatic bonding theory. Violence and Victims, 8(2), 105–120. Goodman, L. A., Koss, M. P., Fitzgerald, L. F., Russo, N. F., & Keita, G. P. (1993). Male violence against women: Current research and future directions. American Psychologist, 48(10), 1054–1058.

Grych, J. H., Jouriles, E. N., Swank, P. R., McDonald, R., & Norwood, W. D. (2000). Patterns of adjustment among children of battered women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 84–94. Herman, J. L. (1992). Complex PTSD: A syndrome in survivors of prolonged and repeated trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 5(3), 377–391. Holden, G. W., Stein, J. D., Ritchie, K. L. Harris, S. D., & Jouriles, E. N. (1998). Parenting behaviors and beliefs of battered women. In G. W. Holden, R. Geffner, & E. N. Jouriles (Eds.), Children exposed to marital violence: Theory, research, and applied issues (pp. 289–334). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Huth-Bocks, A. C., Levendosky, A. A., Theran, S. A., & Bogat, G. A. (in press). The impact of domestic violence on mothers prenatal representations of their infants. Infant Mental Health Journal. Kitzmann, K. M., Gaylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D. (2003). Child witnesses to domestic violence: A metaanalytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 339–352. Layzer, J. I., Goodson, B. D., & Delange, C. (1985). Children in shelters. Response to the Victimization of Women and Children, 9(2), 2–5. Levendosky, A. A., Bogat, G. A., Theran, S. A., Trotter, J., von Eye, A., & Davidson, W. S. (in press). The social networks of women experiencing domestic violence. American Journal of Community Psychology. Levendosky, A. A., & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (1998). The moderating effects of parenting stress in woman-abusing families. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13(3), 383–397. Levendosky, A. A., & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (2001). Parenting in battered women: The effects of domestic violence on women and children. Journal of Family Violence, 16, 171–192. Levendosky, A. A., Huth-Bocks, A. C., & Semel, M. A. (2002). Adolescent peer relationships and mental health in families with domestic violence. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 31, 206–218. Levendosky, A. A., Huth-Bocks, A. C., Semel, M. A., & Shapiro, D. L. (2002). Trauma symptoms in preschool-age children exposed to domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17, 150–164. Levendosky, A. A., Huth-Bocks, A. C., Shapiro, D. L., & Semel, M. A. (2003). The impact of domestic violence on the maternal-child relationship and preschool-age children’s functioning. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 275–287. Margolin, G., & Gordis, E. (2003). Co-occurrence between marital aggression and parents’ child abuse potential: The impact of cumulative stress. Violence and Victims, 18(3), 243–258. McCloskey, L. A., Figueredo, A. J., & Koss, M. P. (1995). The effects of systemic family violence on children’s mental health. Child Development, 66, 1239–1261. Mitchell, R. E., & Hodson, C. A. (1983). Coping with domestic violence: Social support and psychological health among

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battered women. American Journal of Community Psychology, 11(6), 629–654. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence [NCADV]. (2003). What is battering? Available at http://www.ncadv .org/problem/what.htm Pickup, F., Williams, S., & Sweetman, C. (Eds.). (2001). Ending violence against women: A Challenge for development and humanitarian work. Oxford, UK: Information Press. Rennison, C. M., & Welchans, S. (2000). Intimate Partner Violence. (Special Report NCJ 178247). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Scheeringa, M. S., & Zeanah, C. H. (1995). Symptom expression and trauma variables in children under 48 months of age. Infant Mental Health Journal Special Issue: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in infants and young children, 16(4), 259–270. Shepherd, J. (Ed.). (1994). Violence in health care: A practical guide to coping with violence and caring for victims. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Straus, M. A., & Gelles, R. (1990). Physical violence in American families: Risk factors and adaptation to violence in 8,145 families. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Theran, S. A., Levendosky, A. A., Bogat, G. A., & Huth-Bocks, A. C. (2003). Continuity and discontinuity of mothers internal representations of their infants over time. Unpublished manuscript.

Wekerle, C., & Wolfe, D. A. (1998). The role of child maltreatment and attachment style in adolescent relationship violence. Development and Psychopathology, 10, 571–586. Wolfe, D. A., Crooks, C. V., Lee, V., McIntyre-Smith, A., & Jaffe, P. G. (2003). The effects of children’s exposure to domestic violence: A meta-analysis and critique. Child Clinical and Family Psychology Review, 6, 171–187.

DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE. See ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND DRUG USE, MEDIA EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS; ALCOHOL USE AND DISORDERS AMONG YOUTH; ALCOHOLISM PREVENTION PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN; CIGARETTE SMOKING IN ADOLESCENTS; COCAINE; STIMULANTS, ADOLESCENT USE OF; SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

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E and care providers. Parents with infants seek out family day care as mothers return to work after maternity leave. This arrangement is preferred because of the home environment and the small number of children being cared for. Some parents have daily arrangements, while others may leave the children over the week and take them home during the weekends. Yet others may just visit the children at the family day care and have them come home when they are ready for kindergarten or school. One of the concerns about family day care is that sometimes children develop closer relationships with care providers than with their natural parents. On returning home to their parents, difficulties may arise between children and parents, such as clinging behavior, rejecting behavior, temper tantrums, parents’ inability to manage the children, and parent-child conflict. Poor parent-child relations may lead to frustration, guilt, and also child abuse. The other problem with family day care is that unless such services are registered and monitored, the quality of care is questionable. Although there are cases of warm and loving care providers, the lack of supervision and quality control leaves young children vulnerable and open to abuse. There are few, if any, attempts to regulate family day care in Asia. In an attempt to encourage quality caregiving, Singapore is introducing training of family care providers so that other components of children’s development can be addressed. Crèches and child care centers were set up to meet the needs of working mothers, usually under the auspices of the social welfare or health authorities, women’s affairs departments, or the local communities.

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE, DEVELOPMENT, AND EDUCATION IN ASIA Early childhood care refers to physical care: health, nutrition, safety, and general well-being. Care also denotes an element of a warm relationship. Development is a much broader concept and covers children’s holistic development, including the physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive development of young children. Early childhood education, in a narrow way, originally referred to preschool education or, more specifically, kindergartens. These three concepts used to be, and in some instances continue to be, considered as independent of one another. But with better understanding of brain development and how children learn, these three are now viewed as interrelated and integrated. Early childhood care is usually provided by parents, grandparents, and members of the extended family. When the extended family lives together, multiple parenting occurs; that is, other members of the household help look after the children. Care by older siblings, with infants on their hips, is a common sight in poor developing Asian countries. It is also not uncommon for neighbors in the same village to keep an eye on one another’s children. Informal day care is an alternative care arrangement when relatives are not available for working mothers and involves care of a small group of young children by usually another mother in the same neighborhood. It is a private arrangement between parents 377

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Child care centers are still perceived to be more custodial in nature, focusing on the safekeeping of children, meals, health, hygiene, and some play activities. Care may be divided into crèches for infants to below 3 years of age or child care centers for children from 3 years old through kindergarten. Some centers accept children from 2 months to 6 years old. Early childhood education is often referred to as preschool education, targeting children between 3 and 5 to 6 years old. The purpose of early childhood education has always been, and still is, school readiness. These are short programs ranging from 2 to 4 hours, in general. In Vietnam, for example, preschool may be a full-day program. Programs for 3-year-olds are sometimes called “playgroup” or “nursery programs.” Four and 5-year-old children are said to be in “Kindergarten 1” or “Kindergarten 2.” Activities usually include preparing children for the three Rs in more traditional preschools, where kindergartens are considered a watered-down version of first grade. Preschool education for the year before Grade 1 is not part of the formal basic education system in most Asian countries. With better understanding of how children learn, including infants, there is a movement toward perceiving that care, development, and education should be integrated and that it is not possible to separate and isolate one from the other. The way we care for children has implications for not only children’s physical development but also their social, moral, and cognitive development. For instance, when an infant is being breast-fed, how the mother holds the child can convey warmth, comfort, and care. At the same time, when the mother speaks softly to the infant and strokes his or her cheek while feeding, this builds a bond between mother and child and provides stimulation as well. When an infant’s needs are responded to quickly, the child develops a sense of trust. In going about her daily activities, a mother who talks to the child while bathing, feeding, and changing the infant is providing stimulation that is visual, aural, and kinesthetic, nurturing the child’s development while taking care of health, nutrition, and hygiene factors. In some countries, infants are carried on the hip, back, or front of the mother’s body as she goes about her work in the fields. Being close to the mother’s body creates a sense of warmth and bonding between mother and child, and the mother’s movement, talking, and singing and conversing with other people provides verbal, visual, aural, and kinesthetic stimulation.

This notion of integrated early childhood care, development, and education of children is slowly taking root. Child care centers are now seen as developmental centers, and attempts are made to deliberately integrate activities that foster children’s physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive development. Child care centers are also being referred to as “child development centers” or “child care and development” centers. Likewise, there is a slow movement in kindergartens and preschools to look beyond academics to a more holistic approach, although parents, especially in urban areas, tend to seek more academic programs. A child on entry to Grade 1 is not only ready for reading, writing, and arithmetic but should also be socially capable of working and playing with other children as a team, have confidence to ask and answer questions, and have a set of self-help skills to participate within and outside the school system. Parents are targets for early childhood care, development, and education, and different countries have different strategies to promote this. For the more developed countries and in major cities, strategies include parenting talks, seminars, and publications that tend to reach mainly the educated and the middle income. For rural areas and the less literate, some successful attempts at parent education include setting up mothers’ groups, as in Cambodia and in Myanmar, to train mothers to care for children’s health, development, and education, using very specific daily activities as a form of early childhood development and education. One of the goals of the Dakar Education for All framework is the expansion and improvement of comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children (UNESCO, 2002). However, for developing countries, where poverty is rife, many commitments and challenges face the countries’ attempts to provide quality early childhood care, development, and education (Myers, 1992). Studies (in Schweinhart, 2003) have shown the positive effects of quality preschool programs on poor children into their adult years and the costs and benefits to the state in the process. Like poor children, poor countries need such programs most for the children’s immediate gain and also for both children’s and countries’ long-term gain. Early childhood care, development, and education mean providing opportunities for children from birth to have a healthy start in life and opportunities for

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learning throughout the early years. Poor children in some of the Asian countries, like Cambodia and Laos, have some of the highest rates of malnourishment and infant and under-5 mortality rates, and these are the children who will benefit most from programs that take care of them holistically.

educational systems, as well as the evaluation of innovative models. This overview describes the research interests of academicians in the field of ECE in Turkey and the different intervention programs that have been developed to enhance early childhood development.

—Kim Choo Khoo

QUALITY OF ECE REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Myers, R. G. (1992). The twelve who survive: Strengthening early childhood development programs in the third world. New York: Routledge in cooperation with UNESCO for the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development. Schweinhart, L. J. (2003, April 26). Benefits, costs, and explanations of the High/Scope Perry preschool program. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL. UNESCO. (2002). Education for all: Is the world on track? Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN TURKEY Turkey does not have a standardized widespread system of early childhood education (ECE). Nearly all the services are center based and located in the large cities. Only 14% of 5- to 6-year-olds attend any sort of preschool institution. In the whole target population of 0 to 6 years old, access to any kind of early childhood education services (home based or center based) drops to 9%. Early childhood education in the country aims for the overall development of the child in the preschool years and focuses largely on preparation for school. Education services are administered by the Ministry of National Education (MONE) and Social Welfare and Child Protection Agency (SCPA) or by the private sector under the supervision of either of these two government agencies. The majority of early childhood education services in the country are center based, but in recent years, programs developed by universities and nongovernmental organizations have provided an alternative to mainstream center-based ECE. Despite the low access rates to ECE, there have been a number of interesting empirical investigations on macro- and microcomponents of early childhood

Research examining the quality of ECE centers (Bekman, 2002; Kagitçibasi, Sunar, & Bekman, 2001) evaluated preschool centers on various dimensions, such as objectives of curriculum; physical arrangement; number and nature of the available materials, equipment, and activities; and staff/child ratio. Studies have confirmed that the aim of a center (educational vs. custodial) affects all components of preschool education physical arrangement, materials and equipment, program, teacher behavior, staff/child ratio, parent-teacher relationship, and whether or not there is an evaluation of the programs as well as the overall development of the child. It has also been found that the enriching environment in educational centers overcomes expected developmental differences due to social class. A very striking finding was that working-class children in educational centers engage in play behavior that is cognitively more complex and hold higher levels of social participation than that of the middle-class children in centers with a similar aim. CHILDREN IN ECE Studies investigating the effects of preschool education on child development indicate positive outcomes (Gürkan, 1979; Zembat & Tokol, 1996). Children who attend preschool centers have better cognitive, language, and motor development; are better adapted to primary school; display healthy emotional development; are academically better; and have special interests and skills compared with children who do not attend any type of preschool. Preschool attendance has also been found to improve the level of class performance and develop better selfhelp skills (Basal, 2000; Dinçer & Demiriz, 2000). PHYSICAL CONDITIONS IN ECE Studies have highlighted the need to improve the system and its physical environment. Dinçer (2000)

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conducted a study in 88 preschool centers in Istanbul and used the physical environment rating scale developed by Lovell and Harms (1985). It is reported that one third of the centers were rated low with respect to items of safety, appropriateness of texture, functionality of the play area, and ease of observing children. However, in another study, conducted by Oktay, Zembat, Önder, Güven, and Fathi (1994) to survey and examine the physical arrangement of 25 preschool centers in Ankara, it was observed that the physical arrangements were appropriate in that there were various activity corners in the group rooms and the materials were located at a level that children could reach independently. These two studies also showed that the assessment criteria used and the locations of the preschools can result in different findings. CURRICULUM IN ECE In a study that investigated the types of curricula in the system, data were collected randomly from 282 centers out of a registered 522 in Istanbul. It was found that centers under the control of the Ministry of Education tend to follow the centralized curriculum program, while centers under the control of the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SSCPA) implement curricula developed by teachers at each center. The developmental level of children was taken as the main factor, and individual differences had a secondary role in preparing the curricula of SSCPA centers (Oktay et al., 1994). Available toys and materials at hand also determined the design of the curricula, as some teachers confined activities in the curricula to these materials. Many teachers mentioned “holistic development of the child” as the main objective of curriculum development. There have been some attempts to improve the curricula in center-based programs, but these remain largely at an experimental stage. Dinçer and Güneysu (1997) designed and implemented a problem-solving training for children and later evaluated the effects of the training on interpersonal problem-solving skills. Interpersonal problem-solving skills with peers and with mothers were studied separately, and the results indicated a significant difference for the experimental group, in that children in the experimental group did better in interpersonal problems with peers than the control group. However, it was also found that in the experimental group, the subjects did better with their peers than with their mothers.

Önder and Kamaraj (1998) studied the effects of an 8-week pedagogical drama activity program on socioemotional development of children who attend preschool centers and found that socioemotional performance of children was positively affected by the program. More recently, Oktay and Aktan-Kerem (2001) evaluated the “School Readiness Program,” which included activities of reading readiness, linguistic competence, and acquisition of concepts, provided for 4 days a week, 60 to 90 minutes per day, for a duration of 6 weeks. The program was found to enhance skills such as phonological awareness, print concept, usage of vocabulary, and auditory and visual discrimination. The School-Parent-Child Education Program, developed by the Mother-Child Education Foundation, aims to help children prepare for formal schooling and to facilitate parent involvement. Worksheet activities for children designed to improve literacy and numeracy skills are carried out as a part of the daily curriculum. In addition, parents are expected to attend group meetings to empower them in contributing to the development of their children. Parents are also expected to carry out literacy and numeracy activities at home similar to what is applied in the centers. The evaluation of the program (Bekman & Topaç, 1999) indicated that children who had been in the program had better preliteracy and numeracy skills compared with those who had not attended the program. Moreover, mothers who participated in the program were found to use more positive and less negative child-rearing practices. Both parents and teachers of children in the program stated that they perceived themselves as close to their children as well as their partners. Parents were also more satisfied with what their children were learning at school and felt that the school met their expectations. Teachers of the participating children also felt that the school and home environment worked in coordination with each other for the development of the child. More than 11,000 mothers and children have participated in this ongoing program in six provinces of Turkey. TEACHERS IN ECE Those examining teachers in ECE have studied teacher-related and school-related variables and differences in attitudes and behaviors with respect to factors such as years of experience, motivation, and satisfaction with the job.

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Teachers with more years of experience and lower levels of education have difficulty in adapting to new techniques and have been found to mention more problems (Turla, Tezel, & Avcý, 1997). Similarly, Zembat and Bilgin (1996) investigated the attitudes of teachers with respect to various factors, such as age, marital status, years of experience, number of children in the class, and job satisfaction. It was found that young teachers, married teachers, teachers working for more than 15 and less than 5 years, and teachers who had low job satisfaction had more autocratic attitudes, in that they paid little attention to children’s wishes or ideas, exhibited dominating behaviors, and enforced a large number of rules for children. The working conditions were also found to be indicative of attitudes: Teachers working with smaller groups of children and for only half days were found to be more democratic (Zembat & Bilgin, 1996). In-service training for teachers is an important part of the Turkish ECE system. Oktay and Zembat (1997) have studied the effects of in-service training programs on teachers and found these programs to be effective in improving relations with colleagues, using these relationships to evaluate their own work, improve knowledge, and change views regarding program development, program evaluation, the importance of creativity, and the role of the child in the learning environment. PARENTS IN ECE Parent involvement is considered one of the main components of quality in center-based ECE. A study by Ensari and Zembat (1996) set out to examine how much the teachers and administrators foster parent involvement in 55 centers. In almost all of the schools studied, there were no procedures or mechanisms for the parents to contribute to the administrative and educational aspects of the preschool centers. While families claimed the attitudes of school administrators were an important barrier to parent involvement, administrators claimed parents’ lack of interest. Schools are increasingly finding that programs to improve parent involvement are necessary, and one such intervention in this regard is the Preschool Parent Child Education Program, described above (Bekman & Topaç, 1999). One of the most well-documented models of preschool education and parents is the Mother-Child Education Program. This program began in 1982 as

the Turkish Early Enrichment Project, a home-based ECE program to increase the coverage of ECE programs in the country, and is one of the longest-running research projects in the country. It has been subject to several qualitative and experimental research projects (Bekman, 1998b; Kagitçibasi, Bekman, & Göksel, 1995; Kagitçibasi et al., 2001). The program is a 25-week, home-based parent education and preschool program, aiming at sensitizing the mother to the needs of the child and to enhance the cognitive development of the child in order to better prepare him or her for school. Starting with 90 children in the original research project, the program has to date reached 135,000 mothers and children. Both short- and longterm results have indicated positive effects on children’s overall development and commitment to schooling and school achievement. Better quality of interaction between family members and the target child, better family adjustment, and a better perception of the child by the parents have been reported in comparisons of the research groups with carefully selected control groups. Further studies of the program have been conducted since it became a national government-run program, and results have revealed significant improvements in preliteracy and prenumeracy skills, illustrating clearly that children in the program were more prepared to deal with the expectations of formal schooling than their counterparts not in the program. Children were also followed up in their first year of schooling, and the effects of the program were found to be sustained, in that the experimental children had better literacy and numeracy skills, began to read earlier than the control group, and had higher end-of-year passing grades. These positive effects were reflected in mothers in better child-rearing practices. The change reflects the presence of certain mother-child interactions that lead to more adequate growth and development of children (Bekman, 1998a). CONCLUSIONS The system of ECE in Turkey is at an early stage of development, and there is a need to improve both the coverage and the quality of the system. The research in the area provides an indication of attempts to improve the quality of ECE with evaluations of experimental models of curricula or programs as well as an assessment of existing practices. Most likely, as the number of children benefiting from ECE in Turkey

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increases, this will reflect on the amount and quality of research in the area. —Sevda Bekman andAyla Göksel Göçer

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS .

Basal, H. A. (2000, September). Ilkögˇ retim birinci s
n
f ögˇ rencilerinin s
n
f içi etkinlik düzeylerinde okulöncesi egˇ itim, sosyo-ekonomik düzey ve cinsiyetin etkileri [The effects of preschool education, socioeconomic status, and gender on the level of class performance]. Verbal presentation at the XI. Ulusal Egˇitim Bilimleri Kongresi, Erzurum. Bekman, S. (1998a). A fair chance: An evaluation of the Mother-Child Education Program. Istanbul, Turkey: Yap
m. Bekman, S. (1998b). Long-term effects of the Turkish homebased early enrichment program. In U. P. Gielen and A. L. Comunian (Eds.), The family and family therapy in international perspective. Trieste, Italy: Legoprint-Lavis. Bekman, S. (2002). Does daycare centre experience and its aim matter? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 10(1), 123–135. Bekman, S., & Topaç, B. (1999). III. “Okulöncesi Veli Çocuk . Egˇitimi Program
I stanbul Pilot Projesi” degˇerlendirme aras¸ tirmasi [III. Preschool Parent Child Education Program Istanbul Pilot Project evaluation research]. Available at http://www.acev.org/arastirma/arastirma/ ovcep_istanbul.doc Dinçer, Ç. (2000, August). Okulöncesi egˇitim kurumlar
ndaki d
¸s ar
oyun alanlar
n
n degˇerlendirilmesi [Evaluation of the outdoor play areas in preschool education institutions]. In Z. Gökçakan (Ed.), VIII. Ulusal Egˇitim Bilimleri Kongresi Bilimsel Çal
s¸ malar
(1–3 Eylül 1999, Cilt-1, pp. 423–432). Trabzon, Turkey: Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Bas
mevi. Dinçer, Ç., & Demiriz, S. (2000). Okulöncesi dönem çocuklar
n öz bak
m becerilerinin annelerinin çal
s¸
p çal
s¸ mama durumlar
na göre incelenmesi [Inspection of the self-help skills of preschool-aged children according to employment status of their mothers]. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Egˇitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 19, 58–66. Dinçer, Ç., & Güneysu, S. (1997). Examining the effects of problem solving training on the acquisition of interpersonal problem solving skills by 5-year-old children in Turkey. International Journal of Early Years Education, 5(1), 37–46. Ensari, H., & Zembat, R. (1996, May). Ailelerin Okulöncesi egˇ itim programlar
na kat
l
m
nda kars¸
las¸t
klar
engeller. In II. Ulusal Egˇitim Sempozyumu Bildirileri [2nd National Education Symposium Proceedings] (pp. 1–8). Istanbul, Turkey: Marmara Üniversitesi Atatürk Egˇ itim Fakültesi. Gürkan, T. (1979). Okulöncesi egˇ itimin ilkokuldaki etkileri üzerine bir inceleme [An inspection of the effects of preschool education on primary education]. Egˇitim ve Bilim, 22, 16–26.

Kagitçibasi, Ç., Bekman, S., & Göksel, A. (1995). A multipurpose model of nonformal education. Coordinator’s Notebook, 17, 24–32. Kagitçibasi, Ç., Sunar, D., & Bekman, S. (2001). Long-term effects of early intervention: Turkish low-income mothers and children. Applied Developmental Psychology, 22, 333–361. Lovell, P., & Harms, T. (1985). How can playgrounds be improved? A rating scale. Young Children, 40, 3–9. Oktay, A., & Aktan-Kerem, E. (2001). Okulöncesi dönem çocuklar
nda okuma gelis¸ imi ve okumaya haz
rl
k program
n
n etkisinin degˇerlendirilmesi [Development of reading in preschool children and an evaluation of the reading readiness program]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey. Oktay, A., & Zembat, R. (1997). Okulöncesi egˇ itimcisinin yetis¸tirilmesinde yeni egˇ ilimler [New tendencies in training of the preschool educator]. In G. Haktan
r (Ed.), Okulöncesi Egˇitim Sempozyumu ‘Okulöncesi Egˇitimde Yeni Yaklas¸
mlar [Preschool Education Symposium, “New Approaches in Preschool Education”] (pp. 24–32). Ankara, Turkey: Ankara Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Ev Ekonomisi Yüksek Okulu Çocuk Gelis¸imi Ana Bilim Dal
Türkiye Okul Öncesi Egˇ itimi Dernegˇ i. Oktay, A., Zembat, R., Önder, A., Güven, Y., & Fathi, L. (1994, April). Istanbul’daki okulöncesi kurumlar
nda uygulanan programlar
n özelliklerinin tespiti aras¸t
rmas
[A research on the features of the programmes that are applied in preschool education institutions in Istanbul]. In 1. Egˇitim Bilimleri Kongresi Bildirileri [1st Education Sciences Congress Proceedings] (Cilt-2, pp. 805–814). Adana, Turkey: Çukurova Üniversitesi Bas
mevi. Önder, A., & Kamaraj, I. (1998, August). Social emotional effects of pedagogical drama in Turkish preschool children. Paper presented at the 22nd World Congress of OMEP, Child’s Rights to Care, Play and Education, Copenhagen, Denmark. Turla, A., Tezel, F., & Avc
, N. (1997). Okulöncesi ögˇ retmenlerinin fiziksel ¸sartlar, program, yöntem, teknik, s
n
f ve davran
s¸ yöntemi sorunlar
n
n baz
degˇ is¸kenlere göre incelenmesi [Inspection of the physical conditions, program, method, techniques, classroom and behavior method problems according to some variables]. Milli Egˇitim Dergisi, 151, 95–101. Zembat, R., & Bilgin, H. (1996, September). Okulöncesi egˇ itim kurumlar
nda çal
s¸an ögˇ retmenlerin ögˇ retmenlik tutumlar
n
n incelenmesi [Inspection of the teaching attitudes of the teachers who work in preschool education institutes]. II. Ulusal Egˇitim Sempozyumu Bildirileri [2nd National Education Symposium Proceedings] (pp. 108–118). Istanbul, Turkey: Marmara Üniversitesi Teknik Egˇ itim Fakültesi Döner Sermaye Saymanl
gˇ
. Zembat, R., & Tokol, O. (1996, September). Okulöncesi egˇ itim kurumlar
na devam eden ve etmeyen 3–6 yas¸ çocuklar
n
n gelis¸im özelliklerinin incelenmesi [Inspection of the developmental features of children 3–6 years who attend to

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preschool education institutions and who do not]. In N. U. . Inan & O. Ayd
n (Eds.), II. Ulusal Egˇitim Sempozyumu Bildirileri [2nd National Education Symposium Proceedings] (pp. 50–61). Istanbul, Turkey: Marmara Üniversitesi Atatürk Egˇ itim Fakültesi Matbaa Birimi.

EATING DISORDERS. See ANOREXIA NERVOSA; BULIMIA NERVOSA; FEEDING DISORDERS, CHILDHOOD; OBESITY; OBESITY, PEDIATRIC; OBESITY, PREVENTION IN CHILDHOOD

ECCLES, JACQUELYNNE, AND THE EXPECTANCY-VALUE MODEL OF ACHIEVEMENT CHOICE Jacquelynne Eccles and her colleagues developed an expectancy-value model of achievement performance and choice that has been influential in the achievement motivation field. The model helps us understand motivational factors contributing to individuals’ choices of which activities to pursue and performance on them. The model has been used to explain individuals’ performance and choice in a variety of different achievement domains, including mathematics, English, computer activities in the academic achievement domain, and different activities in the domain of sports. EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY: A BRIEF HISTORY Expectancy-value models have a relatively long history in the achievement motivation field (see Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). Building on earlier work of Lewin and Tolman, Atkinson (1957) developed the first formal expectancy-value model in an attempt to explain different kinds of achievement-related behaviors, such as striving for success, choice among achievement tasks, and persistence. Atkinson (1957) postulated that achievement behaviors are determined by achievement motives, expectancies for success, and incentive values. Atkinson defined expectancies for success as the individual’s expected probability for success on a specific task. He defined incentive value as the relative attractiveness of succeeding on a given achievement task and

also stated that incentive value is inversely related to the probability for success. He and his colleagues compiled an extensive body of research on individuals’ achievement strivings under different probabilities for success (see Atkinson, 1964; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). THE ECCLES ET AL. EXPECTANCY-VALUE MODEL Eccles and her colleagues’ model was based in Atkinson’s (1957) work, in that they link achievement performance, persistence, and choice most directly to individuals’ expectancy-related beliefs and task values. However, the model differs from Atkinson’s expectancy-value theory in important ways. First, both the expectancy and value components are defined in more elaborate ways and are linked to a broader array of psychological and social/cultural determinants. Second, the model has been tested in real-world achievement situations rather than with the laboratory tasks often used to test Atkinson’s theory. Third, the model was initially developed to explain gender differences in children’s choices of whether or not to continue to take mathematics courses in high school and beyond. Fourth, research stemming from the model has addressed the issue of how children’s expectancies and values develop and how they are influenced by experiences in the home and at school. Eccles et al. (1983) presented the first formal statement of this model, a recent version of which is presented in Figure 1. As can be seen, children’s expectancies and values are assumed to have the most direct effects on their performance, persistence, and choice of achievement tasks. Expectancies and values themselves are influenced by children’s task-specific beliefs, which are perceptions of competence and perceptions of the difficulty of different tasks and their goals. These variables are, in turn, influenced by children’s perceptions of parents’ and teachers’ attitudes and expectations, and their interpretations of previous achievement outcomes. Socializers’ behaviors and beliefs about their children influence children’s perceptions as well as their interpretations of their past outcomes. The overall cultural milieu and unique historical events directly influence socializers’ behaviors and beliefs, and children’s own beliefs. One of the most important aspects of this model is the broader definition of achievement task values that Eccles and her colleagues provided (Eccles, 1984; Eccles et al., 1983). They defined four aspects of

E. Child’s Perception of

G. Child’s Goals and General Self-Schemata

I. Expectation of Success

K. Achievement-Related Choices and Performance

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B. Socializer’s Beliefs and Behaviors

384

C. Stable Child Characteristics 1. Aptitudes of child and sibs 2. Child gender 3. Birth order

J. Subjective Task Value H. Child’s Affective Reactions and Memories

F. Child’s Interpretations of Experience D. Previous Achievement-Related Experiences Across Time

Figure 1

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1. Self-schemata⎯personal and social identities 2. Short-term goals 3. Long-term goals 4. Ideal self 5. Self-concept of one’s abilities

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1. Socializer’s beliefs, expectations, attitudes, and behaviors 2. Gender roles 3. Activity stereotypes and task demands

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A. Cultural Milieu 1. Gender role stereotypes 2. Cultural stereotypes of subject matter and occupational characteristics 3. Family demographics

General Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Choices

1. 2. 3. 4.

Interest-enjoyment value Attainment value Utility value Relative cost

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achievement task values that can influence achievement behavior: attainment value, intrinsic value, utility value, and cost. Eccles et al. defined attainment value as the importance of doing well on the task. They also linked attainment value to the relevance of engaging in a task to confirm or disconfirm salient aspects of one’s selfschema. That is, they argued that tasks provide the opportunity to demonstrate aspects of one’s actual or ideal self-schema, such as masculinity, femininity, or competence in various domains. Tasks will have higher attainment value to the extent that they allow the individual to confirm salient aspects of these selfschemata. Intrinsic value is the enjoyment the individual gets from performing the activity or the subjective interest the individual has in the subject. Eccles et al. (1983) argued that when a task has high interest value, the individual will be intrinsically motivated to do the task. Thus, interest value is a construct that has some similarity to the construct of intrinsic motivation. Utility value is how the task relates to future goals, such as career goals. The individual may pursue some tasks because they are important for future goals, even if he or she is not that interested in that task for its own sake. For instance, students often take classes that they do not particularly enjoy but that they need to take to pursue their real interests, to please their parents, or to be with their friends. In one sense, this component captures more “extrinsic” reasons for engaging in a task, such as doing a task not for its own sake but to reach some desired end state. Finally, Eccles and her colleagues have also discussed the “cost” of engaging in different tasks (Eccles et al., 1983). They conceptualized cost in terms of all the negative aspects of engaging in the task. These include anticipated emotional states (e.g., performance anxiety and fear of both failure and success) as well as the amount of effort that will be necessary to succeed at the task. Another aspect of cost is the tradeoff involved in choosing to spend time on one activity rather than another. Doing one’s homework means that other activities cannot be undertaken, which sometimes poses a dilemma for children and adolescents. To date, the cost aspect of values has not been studied as extensively as the other aspects. CRITICAL RESEARCH FINDINGS Eccles and her colleagues’ research and the research of other scholars provide support for many of the

constructs included in the model and the predicted relationships among them. This section focuses on five research issues and sets of findings relevant them. One issue is when the expectancy and value constructs become distinguished in children’s minds. A second is how children’s and adolescents’ expectancies and values predict performance and choice. A third issue is how children’s expectancy-related beliefs and values change over time. Fourth is how boys’ and girls’ expectancies and values differ. The fifth is how socialization experiences influence children’s expectancies and values. With respect to the first issue, factor analytic studies of children’s competence beliefs (done within the framework of this model and by other researchers studying ability-related beliefs) have found that during the early elementary school years, children distinguish different domains of competence, including math, reading, general school, physical ability, physical appearance, peer relations, parent relations, and general self-concept (e.g., Eccles, Wigfield, Harold, & Blumenfeld, 1993). Children’s competencerelated beliefs and values also form distinct factors quite early on, suggesting that these constructs are distinctive even for young children (Eccles et al., 1993; Eccles & Wigfield, 1995). The different components of children’s subjective values become distinguished later in the elementary school years (Eccles & Wigfield, 1995). This research demonstrates that the expectancy belief and value constructs can be empirically identified even in children as young as 6 years old. Three fundamental findings emerged from studies looking at relations between children’s competence beliefs and values and their performance and choices in different achievement areas. First, even when previous performance is controlled, children’s beliefs about their abilities and expectancies for success are the strongest predictors of subsequent performance on different activities, predicting those outcomes more strongly than either previous grades or achievement values. Second, children’s subjective task values are the strongest predictors of children’s intentions to keep taking math (and other activities) and actual decisions to do so (Eccles, 1984; Meece, Wigfield, & Eccles, 1990). Third, because expectancies and values themselves are positively related, they each have indirect influences on individuals’ choices of activities and their performance on them. With respect to change in children’s expectancies and values, children’s expectancies and values become more negative in many ways between Grades 1 and 12

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(Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002; Wigfield et al., 1997). Children believe they are less competent in many activities and often value those activities less. These differences are more pronounced in certain activity areas than in others, and the patterns of change in children’s beliefs and values also vary across activities. For instance, in language arts, the strongest declines in competence beliefs and values occurred during elementary school, and then little change was observed after that. In sports, the change in competence beliefs in particular accelerated during the high school years. The decline in math competence beliefs was steady over time, whereas the decline in math values was strongest in high school. These declines in expectancy-related beliefs and values have been explained in two main ways. One explanation focuses on changes in children’s understanding of their own performance and the implications of evaluation on this understanding. As children learn to process the feedback they receive more fully and accurately, their expectancies and values often decline from their initial optimistic state. The second explanation focuses on change in school and classroom environments that may deflate children’s competence-related beliefs and values. These changes can include increasing amounts of evaluation, emphasis on competition among students, and emphasis on ability and performance rather than on effort and improvement (see Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998). There are three central findings with respect to sex differences in children’s expectancy-related beliefs and values. First, boys’ and girls’ expectancy-related beliefs differ in sex-stereotypical ways. For example, boys have higher expectancies in math and sport activities than do girls, and girls have higher expectancies in music and English activities (Eccles et al., 1993; Wigfield et al., 1997). Boys and girls appear to value math equally, but there are sex-stereotypical gender differences in the valuing of activities in English, music, and sports that parallel those in expectancy-related beliefs. Second, although there are these mean-level gender differences in children’s expectancy-related beliefs and values, the predictive relations of expectancy beliefs and values to performance and choice are similar for both boys and girls. Third, work on instruction in math classrooms shows that these classrooms vary in the extent to which they foster boys’ and girls’ expectancy beliefs and values. Females respond more positively to math and science instruction if competition between students is not emphasized, stronger applied

perspectives are taken, and teachers treat boys and girls equally (see Eccles et al., 1998). Fifth, socializers (both parents and teachers) have an impact on children’s beliefs and values. Parents’ and teachers’ beliefs about students predict students’ own expectancies and values, and there are some sexstereotypical differences in parents’ beliefs about their children’s competence at different activities (Eccles, 1993; Jacobs & Eccles, 2000). Variations in classroom environments influence children’s expectancies and values in positive and negative ways (Eccles et al., 1998). Classrooms at various levels of schooling can be structured in ways that facilitate children’s competence-related beliefs and values—or can be structured in ways that have a negative impact on children’s beliefs and values. CONCLUSIONS In summary, Eccles and her colleagues’ expectancyvalue model of achievement choice has been an influential model of achievement motivation processes and their relations to important achievement outcomes, such as performance on different activities and choices of whether or not to continue to pursue them. It has generated research on the nature and development of expectancy beliefs and values, how these beliefs and values relate to children’s performance and choice in different achievement domains, and how socializers influence these beliefs and values. A particular focus of research coming out of this model concerns sex differences in beliefs and values and their influences on performance and choice. The model continues to generate research on these and other topics. —Allan Wigfield

See also STAGE-ENVIRONMENT FIT THEORY

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Atkinson, J. W. (1957). Motivational determinants of risk taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64, 359–372. Atkinson, J. W. (1964). An introduction to motivation. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum. Eccles, J. S. (1984). Sex differences in achievement patterns. In T. Sonderegger (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (Vol. 32, pp. 97–132). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Eccles, J. S. (1993). School and family effects of the ontogeny of children’s interests, self-perception, and activity choice.

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In J. Jacobs (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1992: Developmental perspectives on motivation (pp. 145–208). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Eccles, J. S., Adler, T. F., Futterman, R., Goff, S. B., Kaczala, C. M., Meece, J. L., et al. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motivation (pp. 75–146). San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (1995). In the mind of the achiever: The structure of adolescents’ academic achievement related-beliefs and self-perceptions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 215–225. Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., Harold, R., & Blumenfeld, P. B. (1993). Age and gender differences in children’s selfand task perceptions during elementary school. Child Development, 64, 830–847. Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., & Schiefele, U. (1998). Motivation to succeed. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 1017–1095). New York: Wiley. Jacobs, J. E., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Parents, task values, and real-live achievement choices. In C. Sansone & J. M. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimum motivation and performance (pp. 405–439). San Diego: Academic Press. Jacobs, J. E., Lanza, S., Osgood, D. W., Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Changes in children’s self-competence and values: Gender and domain differences across grades one through twelve. Child Development, 73, 509–527. Meece, J. L., Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (1990). Predictors of math anxiety and its consequences for young adolescents’ course enrollment intentions and performances in mathematics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 60–70. Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. (1992). The development of achievement task values: A theoretical analysis. Developmental Review, 12, 265–310. Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., Yoon, K. S., Harold, R. D., Arbreton, A., Freedman-Doan, K., et al. (1997). Changes in children’s competence beliefs and subjective task values across the elementary school years: A three-year study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 451–469.

EDUCATION AND APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Education and applied developmental science have multiple points of intersection. In advocating for “schools that develop children,” Comer (2001) points out, The eventual learning of basic academic skills—reading, writing, mathematics—and development are inextricably linked. Indeed,

learning is an aspect of development and simultaneously facilitates it. Basic academic skills grow out of the fertile soil of overall development; they provide the platform for higher-order learning. (p. 1) Given the central role of development in the education of children, it is natural that developmental science is one of the basic disciplines contributing to education research and practice. In recent years, the emergence of applied developmental science has facilitated the application of developmental theory to the practice of education across the spectrum of developmental levels (e.g., early childhood education, kindergarten through Grade 12, higher education, and adult education). Defined as “scholarship that seeks to advance the integration of developmental research with actions—policies and programs—that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children and families” (Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000, p. 11), applied developmental science reflects an inclusive understanding of human development that is relevant in a unique way to the field of education. THE HISTORICAL INTERSECTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY AND EDUCATION From the early 20th century through the mid-1940s, developmental psychologists proposed a descriptive and normative framework for human development. They assumed that behavior was a function of structure and that humans developed in a predictable way. A number of developmental scientists believed that maturationally based changes unfold spontaneously, independent of learning and context. These theories of maturational change encouraged schools to cultivate a developmental approach to instruction. The middle part of the 20th century saw the rise and influence of broader models of human development as well as the emergence of theories that focused on specific domains of development, such as Jean Piaget’s focus on cognitive development, Erikson’s focus on psychosocial development, and Kohlberg’s focus on moral development (Lerner, 2002). While the focus on specific domains of development, such as cognition and affect, has been a valuable contribution to the field of developmental psychology, this singleminded focus on a particular domain has often

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resulted in practitioners addressing these domains in an isolated way. Within the field of education, the domain of cognition has been a central focus and has affected educational policy and practice much more widely than any other domain, including affective development. The belief that different domains of development can be addressed separately has been particularly evident in the way that education and other services to children have been organized. With their primary focus on cognitive development, educators have left the domain of socioemotional development to other professions, such as psychology and medicine. The split between cognitive and affective domains has had a profound effect on recent educational reform efforts. Educators and policymakers have believed that a laserlike focus on teaching and learning in the classroom would result in significant academic improvement. Most large school systems devoted few, if any, resources to socioemotional prevention and intervention efforts. However, as the achievement gap between poor students of color and other students continues to remain wide, educators and policymakers are beginning to acknowledge something that teachers have known for a long time, namely, that academic achievement is affected by the contextual conditions of children, including the environment of their homes, neighborhoods, and schools. In addition to cognitive development, children’s socioemotional and physical development are critical to their learning. SCHOOLS CAN’T DO IT ALONE It is now widely recognized that schools can’t do it alone; that is, schools cannot create all the conditions that young people need to flourish. Promoting development of students in all domains will require crossprofessional and school-community collaboration in order to develop a coordinated and cohesive continuum of interventions (Fisher & Murray, 1996). These school-agency partnerships have been broadened in many communities to include businesses, religious and civic groups, postsecondary institutions, parks and libraries, and almost any facility that can be used for recreation, learning, enrichment, or support. As is evident in many school-community partnerships, this holistic approach to children’s development has been refined and expanded by the principles of applied developmental science.

While there are many overlapping conceptual frameworks within the field of human development, applied developmental science provides a particularly useful approach to guide educators’ research and practice (Lambert, 1999). This framework is consistent with educators’ emphasis on a diverse student body, students’ resilience, and the holistic development of students. Applied developmental science articulates clearly how human development (a) is affected by context, (b) involves biopsychosocial levels, (c) occurs over the life span, and (d) includes both deficits and strengths. CONTEXT AFFECTS DEVELOPMENT Over the past two decades, educators have undergone a significant shift in their understanding of how children learn. Contemporary best practices in education reflect the understanding that knowledge is not imparted to the child independent of context, but rather that academic achievement is significantly affected by the conditions and circumstances of a child’s life. The economic, sociopolitical, cultural, social, and familial worlds of children play major roles in their learning (Zigler & Finn-Stevenson, 1992). Furthermore, positive influences such as adequate community resources and familial supports are critical, and not simply ancillary, factors in academic success. Children in today’s schools reflect the increasing diversity of society. In large, urban schools, for example, dozens of different languages may be spoken by the children’s families. Educators can use their knowledge of multicultural issues to assist them in creating school climates that are not only respectful of and responsive to the diverse needs of these families but also promote positive racial, cultural, and ethnic identities among the children. Professionals need to be proactive rather than reactive in these endeavors and in their attempts to understand the diverse worldviews of children. As they search for new ways to improve the lives of children and families, educators can collaborate with other professionals to take into account the multiple contexts that simultaneously affect these children and their families. BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Educational leaders and classroom teachers now realize that their primary goal—increasing the academic

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achievement of their students—cannot be realized if these students suffer from ill health and live in unsafe communities. Applied developmental psychology has helped educators and other providers to understand that the biological, psychological, and sociocultural levels of development are interdependent, meaning that all of these levels both influence and are influenced by each other. While focused professional expertise is warranted and valuable, in the past, a lack of collaboration across the professions has resulted in uncoordinated, fragmented, and disjointed service delivery (Lerner, 1995). The complex issues facing today’s children and families can rarely be neatly divided into discipline-shaped boxes. Thus, parents and professionals have begun to call for a more holistic approach to the systems that support children and families (Walsh & Park-Taylor, 2003). Viewing the levels of development as mutually interdependent necessarily leads to a systemic approach to prevention and intervention with children and families. This perspective should lead professionals from every field to practice in ways that recognize that cognitive, biological, social, cultural, and emotional development cannot be separated from each other, but can be considered only in relation to one another. Research has clearly shown that effective intervention and prevention efforts with school-aged children require coordinated and comprehensive approaches that target a wide range of behaviors and take into account the complexity of human development (Lerner, 1995). DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN For many decades, educators have been adept at applying principles from developmental psychology to educational practice, but they have done this primarily with children in the 5- to 18-year-old age group that comprises the school population. It is increasingly recognized, however, that development is not confined to childhood, but occurs over the entire life span. The life span approach has important ramifications in three areas of increasing concern to schools: (1) involvement with parents, (2) preparation of students for the working world, and (3) promotion of healthy behaviors that will endure over the life span. Traditionally, schools have had little direct interest in parents. However, new understandings of development have led educators to realize that the developmental status of the parents has a powerful impact on the child

(Lerner, 2002). Consequently, schools are now beginning to house programs that directly benefit parents, including health promotion, continuing education, and child-rearing classes. These programs are often designed and implemented collaboratively with community agencies and assist parents to become more involved in the schools and in their children’s education. A life span approach has also affected schools’ concern with important transitions, particularly the transition from school to work. While many high school graduates transition immediately into college, a large percentage of graduates move directly into jobs. In Minnesota, for example, about 35% of graduating high school seniors do not enroll in a postsecondary institution in the year following graduation, leaving them open to the possibility of moving directly into jobs. The school-to-work transition is a growing area of concern for school districts, and education’s longstanding strength in career development lends itself to a natural alignment with this focus in schools. In Boston, for example, the public schools’ Office of School-to-Work Transition has called on the expertise of applied developmental scientists to assist in designing, implementing, and evaluating holistic approaches to school-to-work transition programs for high school students. Finally, a life span approach is beginning to shape educators’ efforts to influence the lifelong healthy development and well-being of students. For many years, educators have implemented a range of curriculum programs in order to promote positive life skills and healthy lifestyles. While these programs are often referred to as “health education,” they cover a wide range of domains, including physical health, mental health, and social development. However, most of these programs have not had a developmental focus. Instead of assuming that interpersonal skills and health-related lifestyles develop over time, health educators have assumed that they could be taught in a “one-shot” manner. For example, health educators frequently offered HIV education or violence prevention in one or a few instructional sessions. They now realize that to have an impact that lasts into adulthood, these knowledge areas need to be embedded in a comprehensive and coordinated approach that parallels instruction in academic subjects. The interventions need to be implemented sequentially over a long period of time and delivered in a manner that is consistent with the developmental levels of the child and the family. Educators are well positioned to help schools implement prevention and intervention programs that

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are developmentally grounded, for they understand that effective prevention programs must be embedded in the context of long-term relationships. They also understand that the impact of a particular event is mediated by the developmental level of the individual. In other words, the age at which a problem arises influences how it is experienced, the meaning assigned to it, the coping behaviors initiated, and the outcomes that occur. This understanding of the role of developmental status in prevention and intervention helps educators play key roles in designing, implementing, and evaluating these programs. DEFICITS AND STRENGTHS, OR RISK AND RESILIENCE For a number of years, the fields of both education and psychology have struggled with determining whether their primary focus should be on building strengths or on remediating deficits. Although education historically has espoused the importance of human strengths, in reality, the research and practice of psychology in general has placed relatively little emphasis on a strength-based perspective of human functioning. Moreover, the clinical specialties within psychology generally have adhered to deficit and asocial models of mental illness rather than strengthbased models of mental health. Over the years, an excessive focus on deficits has come under sharp criticism because it pathologizes clients and has not led to unequivocally successful treatment interventions. Educators working in schools can help counterbalance the focus on deficits by heightening awareness of the powerful role of strengths in the lives of children. Moreover, their efforts can be significantly enriched by attending to the recent developments in theory and research done by developmental scientists on resiliency and related constructs (Henderson & Milstein, 1996). Resiliency is defined as “the capacity to spring back, rebound, successfully adapt in the face of adversity and develop social, academic, and vocational competence despite exposure to severe stress or simply to the stress inherent in today’s world” (Henderson & Milstein, 1996, p. 7). In a number of longitudinal studies, resiliency research has repeatedly demonstrated that contrary to popular belief, most people are not necessarily permanently overwhelmed and irreparably damaged by exposure to adverse life circumstances. Typically, 50% or more of children who have been reared under conditions of

profound adversity (e.g., extreme poverty, child abuse and neglect, homelessness, parental mental illness, family dysfunction) over a prolonged period of time nevertheless develop into adults who have healthy relations with other people, are gainfully employed, and have positive expectations for the future. Findings such as these have prompted resiliency researchers to identify key protective factors and processes that are associated with moderating the impact of severe developmental risks. Protective processes that appear to alter, or even reverse, predictions of impaired functioning in adulthood include both those that are internal to or can be developed by the individual (e.g., intelligence, self-motivation, sociability, autonomy, being good at something) and those that exist or can be developed in the environment (e.g., promoting supportive relationships, establishing and enforcing clear boundaries, providing leadership, and other opportunities for meaningful participation).

CONCLUSIONS In short, applied developmental science can provide a significant knowledge base for the field of education. It offers a theoretical framework and body of research that can shape and guide the design of effective and meaningful intervention and prevention programs. In turn, the field of applied developmental science is shaped and enriched by “best practices” in the field of education. Educators and applied developmental scientists are in a unique position to use their strengths to create programs collaboratively that are “more complex, train a wider variety of more elaborate skills over longer periods of time, link the teaching of skills to developmental trends, and attend to the various developmental contexts for competence” (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998, p. 214). Applied developmental science and education are, and should continue to be, effective partners in enhancing the academic and social development of our nation’s youth. —Mary E. Walsh, Rosemarie Downey, and Katrina A. Tufaro

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Comer, J. P. (2001, April 23). Schools that develop children. The American Prospect, 12(7), 1–10. Fisher, C. B., & Murray, J. P. (1996). Applied developmental science comes of age. In C. B. Fisher & J. P. Murray, & I. E. Sigel (Eds.), Applied developmental science: Vol. 13.

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Graduate training for diverse disciplines and educational settings (pp. 1–21). Westport, CT: Ablex. Henderson, N., & Milstein, M. (1996). Resiliency in schools: Making it happen for students and educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Lambert, N. M. (1999). Developmental trajectories in psychology: Applications to education and training. American Psychologist, 54(11), 991. Lerner, R. M. (1995). America’s youth in crisis: Challenges and options for programs and policies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71(1), 11–20. Masten, A. S., & Coatsworth, J. D. (1998). The development of competence in favorable and unfavorable environments: Lessons from research on successful children. American Psychologist, 53, 205–220. Walsh, M. E., & Park-Taylor, J. V. (2003). Comprehensive schooling and interprofessional collaboration: Theory, research, and practice. In M. M. Brabeck, M. E. Walsh, & R. E. Latta (Eds.), Meeting at the hyphen: Schools-universities-communities-professions in collaboration for student achievement and well-being. 102nd Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education: Part II (pp. 8–44). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Zigler, E. F., & Finn-Stevenson, M. (1992). Applied developmental psychology. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (3rd ed., pp. 677–729). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

EDUCATION, URBAN Education has always been the vehicle by which individuals have been able to maintain or improve their positions in society. Along these same lines, one’s position in society has also frequently determined the type and quality of education provided to an individual. According to Scott (1997), “Educational institutions reflect the values of society by the way in which they are organized and operated, and by the ways in which the various ethnic, religious, racial (and economic) groups are treated” (p. 122). In this regard, one has to look no further than the current state of urban education to see how society has affected elementary and secondary schools. When one thinks of urban areas, or as some people have referred to them, “inner cities,” the first images usually evoked are of blight, poverty, unemployment,

drugs, and crime (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1994). The reputation of urban schools is often equally negative, with frequent reports of students who attend them consistently showing the lowest academic achievement and the poorest social skills in the country (Esposito, 1999). The problems of chronically poor school districts are complex. The broader issues of poverty in urban communities negatively affect both students and schools; the direction of their influence (from community to school, school to student, student to school) is multidirectional (Esposito, 1999). The history of many cities and their schools reveals that many generations of urban students, particularly African Americans, have suffered inadequate education. As such, many contemporary urban schools must now contend with the intergenerationally transmitted effects of poor education. Families, for example, may be less able to support their children and may be less involved with their children’s education because of their own negative experiences in school. STAFFING, SERVICE, AND SPACE While fewer than half of urban students are above the national achievement norm, and high percentages of them need supplementary academic instruction, there is a 50% higher shortage of teachers in cities than the national average (Anyon, 1997). This is due to the fact that many teachers decide to work in suburban districts with opportunities for higher salaries. Students in inner-city schools tend to have less access to science and math resources and programs and teachers with science or math backgrounds than do those in more advantaged schools. Moreover, math and science teachers in urban schools rate themselves as less confident about their science and math teaching than do teachers in advantaged schools (Anyon, 1997). Smaller budgets, particularly during times of fiscal crisis, often result in the loss of staff and other resources, which is particularly detrimental to those students with the greatest educational needs. Due to the effects of poverty in their environment, high percentages of inner-city students need special services, such as psychological services, remedial instruction, and other programs, to address their many needs. These programs and services often strain city school districts, which are often funded at a lower rate than are suburban schools due to the lower amount of revenue generated from taxes. In many cases, even when

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services are available, they still do not provide sufficient support to meet the great demand of the students. Old school buildings, many dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, have not been well maintained. With the increase in number of students over time and lack of new school construction, many schools are now often over 100% of capacity, with classrooms holding approximately 30 students. As such, in junior and senior high schools, teachers often do not have their own classrooms and must travel between periods to different rooms. In addition, rooms such as cafeterias are now used to alleviate some of the space problems.

REFORM Reform efforts should be directed toward strategies that will increase the number of qualified teachers that enter the school system, provide a richer curriculum for students, increase access to better resources, and facilitate school-community partnerships. Only then will some of the educational difficulties confronted by children in urban schools be addressed. —Erain Applewhite

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anyon, J. (1997). Ghetto schooling: A political economy of urban educational reform. New York: Teachers College. Esposito, C. (1999). The effect of school climate on the school performance of urban, minority, low-income children. School Psychology Review, 28, 365–377. Scott, H. (1997). Academics and cultural excellence for African-American students: Imperatives for public education. In L. Castenell & J. Tarule (Eds.), The minority voice in education: An analysis by minority and women college of education deans (pp. 115–134). Greenwich, CT: Ablex. Wang, M., Haertel, G., & Walberg, H. (1994). Educational resilience in inner cities. In M. Wang & E. Gordon (Eds.), Educational resilience in inner-city America: Challenges and prospects (pp. 45–72). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

EGOCENTRISM, ELKIND’S CONTRIBUTION TO PIAGETIAN THEORY The concept of egocentrism was first introduced into developmental psychology by Jean Piaget (1955)

in his classic book, The Language and Thought of the Child. In this book, Piaget revolutionized the study of children’s language by exploring language development from a functional perspective. Up until this time, those who studied the growth of children’s language observed the sequence in which the parts of speech emerged and/or assessed vocabulary size at successive age levels. Piaget asked a different question. He wanted to know the purpose behind children’s use of language. It was in answer to this question that Piaget introduced the concept of egocentrism. What Piaget discovered was that young children often talked at, rather than to, other children. Indeed, he observed that two children purportedly speaking to one another were actually carrying on separate dialogues. Piaget labeled such interactions “collective monologues.” He said that young children often used language as an accompaniment to their activities rather than as a means of communication. Not all of the child’s verbalizations were of this sort. Children could communicate their needs and respond to adult commands and directions. These types of verbal interaction, however, did not require the child to take the other person’s perspective into account. To make the case that egocentrism was not simply a matter of language, Piaget introduced a variety of other tasks to illustrate the global egocentrism of the young child. For example, he demonstrated that a preschooler believes that the right and left hands of a person standing opposite to him or her are in the same position as his or her own. Likewise, the young child may know that he or she has a brother or sister but does not understand that this entails the sibling having a brother and sister as well (Piaget, 1951). All of these demonstrations support the assertion that egocentrism is not limited to language and that it appears whenever the task requires the child to take another’s point of view. Perhaps the most well-known demonstration of nonlanguage egocentrism is the “three-mountains task” (Piaget & Inhelder, 1967). In this task, a mock-up of three differently sized mountains are placed on a table. The child is seated in front of one of the mountains and is asked first to draw the three mountains as he or she sees them from where he or she is sitting. Then the child is asked to draw the mountains as they would appear from the perspective of a doll sitting opposite to him or her. Young children draw pretty much the same picture for the doll’s perspective as they do for their own. Older children, however, draw

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the mountains differently when they are asked to draw them from the doll’s perspective. During the 1920s and 1930s, Piaget employed a sociological model of development. He believed that mental growth was essentially a process of socialization—of learning to take the other person’s perspective. Accordingly, young children were egocentric, relatively unsocialized, because they could not yet put themselves in another person’s position. With increasing mental maturity, children become progressively able to take the perspectives of others in ever-morecomplex ways. In adolescence, for example, young people are able to take the roles of others. Later, in the 1940s, Piaget introduced a logical theory of mental development. From this perspective, mental growth proceeds by way of the attainment of new, higher-order groupings of cognitive operations. Piaget came to view mental development as an expanding upward spiral. At each level of development, the child must reconstruct the basic concepts of space, time, quantity, and causality in keeping with his or her new mental abilities. Piaget did not, however, abandon his socialization model. Rather, he came to regard the decline of egocentrism and the rise of sociocentrism as the phenotypic expressions of the underlying genotype of the growth of mental operations. This broader view of the egocentrism concept appeared in Inhelder and Piaget’s book on adolescent thinking: In other words, the process which we have followed through the different stages of the child’s development is recapitulated on the planes of thought and reality new to formal operations. An initial failure to distinguish between objects and or the actions of others and one’s own actions gives way to an enlargement of perspective toward objectivity and reciprocity. Even at the sensori-motor level, the infant does not at first know how to separate the effects of his own actions from the qualities of external objects or persons. At first he lives in a world without permanent objects and without awareness of self or any internal subjective life. Later he differentiates his own ego and situates his body in a spatially and casually organized field composed of permanent objects and other persons similar to himself. This is the first decentering process, its result is the gradual coordination of sensorimotor behavior.

But when symbolic functioning appears, language representation, and communication with others expand this field to unheard of proportions and a new type of structure is required. For a second time egocentrism appears, but this time on another plane. It still takes the form of an initial lack of differentiation both between the ego and the alter’s point of view, between subjective and objective, but this time the lack of differentiation is representational rather than sensori-motor. When the child reaches the stage of concrete operations (7–8 years), the de-centering process has gone far enough for him to structure relationships between classes, relations and numbers objectively. . . . But when the cognitive field is again enlarged by the structuring of formal thought, a third form of egocentrism comes into view. . . . The result is a relative failure to distinguish between his own point of view as an individual called upon to organize a life program and the point of view of the group he hopes to reform. (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958, pp. 342–343) It was this broader concept of egocentrism that I took as a starting point for my own work. In my research on religious development (Elkind, 1978), I was able to confirm Inhelder and Piaget’s finding regarding the emergence of formal thought in adolescence. As part of the protocol on religious development, I asked young people to define their religious denominations. Children defined their denominations in practical terms, by church or synagogue attendance, holidays separated, and the like. Adolescents, in contrast, defined their religious denominations in terms of belief. Protestant children, to illustrate, said that they believed in Jesus Christ but not in the Pope. At the same time I was carrying out this research, however, I was also working with juvenile delinquents in family court. I was impressed by how sensitive these young people were to the reactions of their peers to their behavior. They seemed to believe that everyone was as concerned with their appearance and behavior as they themselves were. It was almost as if they were onstage and were performing before an audience. I then visited a number of middle schools and noted similar behavior in children who were not in trouble with the law. Many young adolescents were embarrassed when their parents brought their lunch to school, as if everybody knew and cared.

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These observations offered an opportunity to bring together some clinical interests with my interests in developmental psychology. I wrote an article in which I extended Piaget’s concept of egocentrism to children’s social behavior (Elkind, 1967). I suggested that when a school-aged child discovers that an adult doesn’t know something the child knows, the child assumes that he or she is smarter than the adult. Children do not test this hypothesis, but rather take it as a given. At this stage, children fit the facts to the hypothesis rather than the hypothesis to the facts. One social result is what might be called “cognitive conceit,” the child’s implicit belief that he or she is smarter than adults. Not surprisingly, children enjoy stories, like Harry Potter, where the boy outwits the adults. I proposed that in adolescence, young people create an imaginary audience, a belief that other people are as interested in their appearance and behavior as they are themselves. The preoccupation with self in early adolescence is understandable given all the changes going on in the young person’s body and mind. The audience assumption gives rise to a characteristic self-consciousness, which is a dominant trait of this developmental era. We constructed a scale to measure this, the Imaginary Audience Scale (Elkind & Bowen, 1979). This scale has now been used by many investigators, with consistent findings that young people are most self-conscious from age 12 to 14. My work with young adolescent delinquents suggested that they often take risks because of an implicit belief in their own invulnerability and specialty. This suggested that there was a corollary to the imaginary audience, namely, a personal fable, a belief in one’s own uniqueness and specialty. It is a corollary to the audience, because it follows that if everyone is watching you and concerned with your appearance and behavior, you must be special and unique: “Other people will get a venereal disease, not me,” or “Other people will get hooked on drugs, not me.” The fable helps to explain why young adolescents take risks even when they are well aware of the dangers inherent in the actions they are taking. We are currently testing a Personal Fable Scale, and preliminary results suggest that young adolescents do have a greater sense of invulnerability and specialty than do children or older adolescents. Many different investigators have explored various facets of the Imaginary Audience Scale and its relation to other variables (e.g., Adams & Jones, 1981). While most investigators have found comparable developmental results for the scale, a number of

questions have been raised about the relation of the performance on the scale to the attainment of formal operations, to other variables, and to the theory itself. For example, Enright, Shukla, and Lapsley (1980) have offered an alternative explanation to the selfconsciousness revealed by the scale. They argue that the heightened self-consciousness of the early adolescent has to do with increasing self-awareness and selfconsciousness of the age-group. While I would certainly accept the fact that young people become increasingly self-conscious and self-aware with maturity, this still does not explain why young people are so concerned with what other people think about them. It seems to me that this is still best explained by the failure of the young person to distinguish between his or her own concerns and those of others. Certainly, increased self-consciousness and self-awareness contribute to the formation of an imaginary audience but do not fully explain it. In conclusion, the concepts of the imaginary audience and the personal fable have considerable research support at the phenotypic level. Controversy continues as to the underlying explanation. In the meantime, there continues to be anecdotal consensual validation for the imaginary audience and personal fable. Perhaps for that reason, the concepts are covered in most major textbooks on child development and adolescence, along with personal accounts or cartoons that support these ideas, providing powerful examples of how one can go from observation to theory to practical application. It is but another example of Goethe’s dictum that “alles Factische schon Theorie ist”: Every fact is already a theory. —David Elkind

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Adams, G. R., & Jones, R. M. (1981). Imaginary audience behavior: A validation study. Journal of Early Adolescence, 1, 1–10. Elkind, D. (1967). Egocentrism in children and adolescents. Child Development, 38, 1025–1034. Elkind, D. (1978). The child’s reality: Three developmental themes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Elkind, D., & Bowen, R. (1979). Imaginary audience behavior in children and adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 15, 38–44. Enright, R. D., Shukla, D., & Lapsley, D. K. (1980). Adolescent egocentrism, sociocentrism and self-consciousness. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 9, 101–116.

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Inhelder, B., & Piaget, J. (1958). The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence. New York: Basic Books. Piaget, J. (1951). Judgement and reasoning in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Piaget, J. (1955). The language and thought of the child. New York: Meridian. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1967). The child’s conception of space. New York: Norton.

EISENBERG, NANCY Nancy Eisenberg’s curiosity about social behavior began in childhood as she contemplated why people behave in particular ways. Interestingly, though, she did not consider psychology when she began her college career; rather, she initially named microbiology as her intended major after a psychologist tested her for vocational aptitude and told her that she had an aptitude for science (Eisenberg, 1996). Fortunately for those interested in understanding and optimizing developmental processes, she realized her passion while taking her first psychology course in college. She received her bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. During her graduate studies, she worked with the late Paul Mussen, who provided a lifelong role model through his approach to developmental psychology as well as through his respect and warmth toward colleagues and students. Eisenberg began her academic career as an assistant professor in psychology at Arizona State University (ASU) in 1976. Her career at ASU has been very productive, and she currently holds the title Regents’ Professor of Psychology at ASU. CONTRIBUTIONS Throughout her career, Eisenberg has made significant contributions to the understanding of a variety of developmental processes. Although her interests have changed throughout the years, there has been continuity in her research topics as one question or finding has led to another. When she first entered graduate school, she was interested in the development of humanitarian political attitudes, partly as a result of the political climate in the 1960s and early 1970s. To adequately understand such attitudes, she realized she

would need to understand other-oriented responding. Thus, early in her career, she became interested in a variety of aspects of prosocial development. Prosocial Moral Reasoning Of particular interest to Eisenberg was the development of the cognitive aspect of prosocial functioning, specifically, prosocial moral reasoning (i.e., reasoning about dilemmas in which an individual has an opportunity to assist others, but at a personal cost). She delineated different types of reasoning (e.g., hedonistic, steoreotypical, internalized affective) and developed an interview procedure that involves questioning individuals about hypothetical scenarios in which the story protagonist can help another person, but at a cost to the self. Shortly after arriving at ASU, she began a longitudinal study on prosocial moral reasoning with preschoolers and continues to assess individuals from the original sample every few years (see Eisenberg et al., 2002, for the most recent publication based on the sample). Based on this longitudinal work, she and her students have identified important age-related changes in prosocial moral judgment from early childhood to early adulthood. Empathy After an initial focus on the cognitive aspects of prosocial functioning, Eisenberg became increasingly interested in the emotional aspects, particularly empathy. Her innovative work has had a large impact on the theoretical and methodological advancement of the study of prosocial development (for reviews, see Eisenberg, 2000; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990). Building on Batson’s (1991) work with adults, she was instrumental in distinguishing between various empathic responses in children, specifically sympathy (i.e., other-oriented response to another’s distress or need) and personal distress (i.e., self-oriented, egoistic response to another’s distress or need). Eisenberg and her colleagues encountered methodological problems in this area of study, though. For example, children’s empathic responses were affected by the sex of the experimenter, and children’s self-reports of their emotional reactions were not related to their prosocial behavior. To deal with these methodological issues, she incorporated methodologies that had not been used previously to distinguish sympathy and personal distress. Specifically, Eisenberg implemented the use

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of videotaped facial reactions and psychophysiological responses (e.g., heart rate patterns, skin conductance) following exposure to needy or distressed others in experimental situations. Studies confirmed the usefulness of these measures, such that increased physiological arousal and distressed facial expressions generally occurred with personal distress, whereas decreased physiological arousal and facial expression involving concerned attention and sadness were associated with sympathy. In addition, individuals exhibiting the physiological and facial markers of distress generally were less likely to help others in need than were individuals exhibiting markers associated with sympathy. Socialization Factors To further advance understanding regarding the development of prosocial functioning, Eisenberg has also focused on the factors that contribute to prosocial emotion, behavior, and cognition. Of particular interest have been socialization factors, such as parenting, and dispositional factors, such as children’s negative emotional reactivity and regulatory abilities. Moreover, Eisenberg’s longitudinal work has provided evidence for the presence of a prosocial personality disposition, such that there are substantial interrelations among a variety of aspects of prosocial functioning (e.g., helping behavior, prosocial values and attitudes, sympathy, prosocial moral judgment) as well as interindividual consistency across development. Eisenberg’s specific interest in prosocial functioning has led to a more recent focus on social functioning in general. She has primarily been interested in emotional reactivity and regulatory processes as predictors of a variety of aspects of social functioning, such as socially appropriate behavior, problem behavior, shyness, and popularity among peers. She and her colleague Richard Fabes developed a model (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1992) in which they proposed that individuals who are high on emotionality (particularly negative emotionality) or who are unable to regulate their emotions or emotionally driven behavior are likely to become overwhelmed with emotional arousal during social situations and, consequently, to enact inappropriate or disruptive forms of behavior. This model has served as the basis for numerous empirical studies. Indeed, there is mounting evidence for the unique as well as joint role of negative emotionality and regulation in the contemporaneous as well as longitudinal prediction of many

aspects of social functioning (see Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000). In addition, the ways in which emotional and regulatory processes work in combination with socialization factors to predict social functioning have been of interest. In collaboration with Fabes and other colleagues, Eisenberg has also begun to examine issues pertaining to the role of resiliency in social functioning. AWARDS AND CAREER HIGHLIGHTS Eisenberg’s vast contributions to developmental psychology have been recognized in numerous ways throughout her career. She is the recipient of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Research Scientist Development Award, the National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award, and the National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Award. In addition, she is a fellow of the American Psychological Society, Western Psychological Association, and Division 7 as well as Division 8 of the American Psychological Association. Eisenberg is the author or coauthor of more than 300 articles, books, and chapters, and she has given hundreds of presentations around the world to a variety of audiences, including universities, professional organizations, and governmental agencies. She recently was chosen to serve on the American Psychological Society Board of Directors. She was elected and has served as the Western Psychological Association president and as a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Research on Child Development. In addition, Eisenberg has been the editor of Psychological Bulletin and associate editor of Merrill-Palmer Quarterly and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. She also has served on the editorial board of many journals. A highlight of Eisenberg’s career was being asked to serve as the volume editor for the 5th edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology: Socialization, Personality, and Social Development (1998). The handbook is a set of volumes that is written approximately every 15 years and contains a comprehensive account of the current state of the field. The leading experts in the field are invited to contribute chapters. Her mentor, the late Paul Mussen, edited earlier editions of the series. Thus, she considered it a privilege and an honor to carry on the tradition. Interestingly, as a graduate student, while Mussen was working on the handbook, Eisenberg dreamed of one day contributing

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a chapter to it; she was delighted to not only contribute a chapter on prosocial development (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998) but also contribute to the entire volume by serving as editor. Eisenberg’s contributions and commitment to developmental psychology are clearly evident in her mentoring of graduate students. As a mentor, Eisenberg sets very high standards for her students and works diligently to foster their research skills. Her students receive rigorous training and extensive experience conducting developmental research. Of course, her students are fortunate to be exposed to one of the most knowledgeable and productive role models in the field. She has mentored many students through the years, many of whom are pursuing academic careers and conducting research in related areas. Eisenberg’s work throughout her career has been consistent with several goals of the applied developmental science model (see Lerner & Fisher, 1994). Specifically, her research reflects the recognition that individuals are products as well as producers of their environments, and she studies the contributions of dispositional as well as socialization factors to developmental outcomes. The longitudinal work that Eisenberg conducts is especially important for illuminating the complexity and bidirectionality of developmental processes. Moreover, she has considered cultural context in her examination of development, studying German, Brazilian, Indonesian, and Israeli city as well as kibbutz children. The practical implications of Eisenberg’s work also are noteworthy. The information she and her colleagues have obtained through research informs researchers, practitioners, parents, schools, and others interested in optimizing developmental processes. An understanding of developmental processes is essential for the successful design and implementation of community-based, school-based, or home-based programs to foster social development. One of the goals of applied developmental science is that university scholars communicate their research findings to the community and learn from the community regarding future research endeavors. Indeed, she has directly applied her knowledge regarding developmental processes by assisting organizations interested in optimizing development. For example, she has worked with several agencies, including Disney Cable Television and Public Television, to develop educational programs to promote the development of concern for others. A particularly interesting experience for Eisenberg was being one of

six invited participants for a discussion of altruism, ethics, and compassion with the XIVth Dalai Lama, in India. Eisenberg continues her productive research career at ASU. Although she has already accomplished an enormous amount in the field, there are few indications that she will be slowing down any time soon. She notes that her personal interests lead her down exciting paths, and the results of studies continually lead her to new questions; indeed, she views her job as a very satisfying adventure. —Bridget C. Murphy

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Batson, C. D. (1991). The altruism question: Toward a socialpsychological answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Eisenberg, N. (1996). In search of the good heart. In M. R. Merrens & G. G. Bannigan (Eds.), The developmental psychologists: Research adventures across the lifespan (pp. 89–104). New York: McGraw-Hill. Eisenberg, N. (Ed.). (1998). Handbook of child psychology: Socialization, personality, and social development (5th ed.). New York: Wiley. Eisenberg, N. (2000). Empathy and sympathy. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (2nd ed., pp. 677–691). New York: Guilford. Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1990). Empathy: Conceptualization, assessment, and relation to prosocial behavior. Motivation and Emotion, 14, 131–149. Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1992). Emotion, regulation, and the development of social competence. In M. S. Clark (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology: Vol. 14. Emotion and social behavior (pp. 119–150). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1998). Prosocial development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Socialization, personality, and social development (5th ed., pp. 701–778). New York: Wiley. Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Guthrie, I. K., & Reiser, M. (2000). Dispositional emotionality and regulation: Their role in predicting role of social functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 136–157. Eisenberg, N., Guthrie, I., Cumberland, A., Murphy, B. C., Shepard, S. A., Zhou, Q., et al. (2002). Prosocial development in early adulthood: A longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 993–1006. Lerner, R. M., & Fisher, C. B. (1994). From applied developmental psychology to applied developmental science: Community coalitions and collaborative careers. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Applied developmental psychology (pp. 503–522). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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ELIOT-PEARSON CHILDREN’S SCHOOL The Eliot-Pearson Children’s School is the laboratory-demonstration school affiliated with the EliotPearson Department of Child Development, at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The school serves as a model and demonstration facility, providing a training and observation site for new and experienced teachers and a research facility for faculty and supervised students in the Department of Child Development. The Children’s School enrolls approximately 80 children, between 2.9 and 8 years of age. It has preschool, kindergarten, and first- and secondgrade programs that vary in length and frequency. Each classroom is taught by a team of teachers, consisting of a headteacher, a graduate teaching assistant, and a student teacher or fieldwork student. Undergraduate and graduate students from the Department of Child Development have a critical role in the teaching teams. In addition to the classroom teaching staff, the school has a team of specialists (speech and language, physical therapy, occupational therapy) who collaborate with the teachers, families, and all others who may be involved in setting goals and providing services for children identified with special needs. The special-needs coordinator works closely with the director of the school to ensure that all children’s learning and social-emotional needs are met. The Children’s School places great value on professional development for all adults in the community. The school is viewed as a place where all constituencies, from the littlest children to the most experienced adults, are lifelong learners (Eliot-Pearson Children’s School, 2003a, 2003b). The Children’s School reflects a developmental approach to early education. The classrooms are places where children are engaged in meaningful activity and are nurtured socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Children are encouraged to interact with materials, peers, and teachers in constructive explorations, promoting children’s self-esteem, confidence, and natural passion for learning. Partnering with families is a major goal of the program (Eliot-Pearson Children’s School, 2003a, 2003b). The Children’s School is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC; 2003), licensed by the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services (OCCS; 2003), and follows the guidelines of

both organizations. The Children’s School philosophy and practice are influenced and inspired by the roots of progressive education as well as the current thinking from groups such as the National Research Council on Early Childhood Pedagogy (National Research Council, 2000) and from exemplary schools such as the ones in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The Eliot-Pearson Children’s School is committed to providing appropriate inclusive education for all children. The school actively seeks student populations that represent a wide variety of ability, racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, and economic backgrounds. The school seeks and values diversity within the family population and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, cultural heritage, color, political beliefs, marital status, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation, or family style in the administration of any school policies or programs. Appreciation and respect for all people, regardless of their differences, is at the heart of the program (EliotPearson Children’s School, 2003a, 2003b). HISTORY OF THE ELIOT-PEARSON CHILDREN’S SCHOOL In 1922, Abigail Adams Eliot established one of the first nursery schools in America. Through the encouragement of Mrs. Henry Greenleaf Pearson, a philanthropically minded Bostonian, Eliot became interested in the work of Margaret McMillan, the founder of the nursery school movement in England. In 1921, Miss Eliot (as she was known then) worked and studied at the McMillan Nursery School in Deptford, a lowincome district of London. In the McMillan Nursery School, children were provided with an educational setting that emphasized good nutrition, adequate rest, open air, and daily health inspections. Upon her return to Boston, in 1922, Eliot became director of the Ruggles Street Day Nursery, in Roxbury. Day nurseries such as Ruggles Street were available to parents who worked outside the home or were incapable of providing adequate supervision of their children. The nurseries, for the most part, enrolled children of immigrant families and emphasized health, nutrition, and cleanliness. Their educational components, if existent, were meager. When Eliot took over the directorship of Ruggles Street Day Nursery, she emphasized educational activities for children and encouraged parents to observe their children in the educational setting she provided. She

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also reduced the amount of time children attended the nursery from 12 to 7 hours a day. Reflecting its change in focus, the name of the Ruggles Street Day Nursery was changed to the “Ruggles Street Nursery School and Training Center.” Parents who were not in need of child care but were interested in the educational setting of the school began enrolling their children there. Educators interested in learning how to provide an educational program for young children came to the center. At this time, the center moved to Marlborough Street in Boston and changed its name to the “Nursery Training School of Boston.” Eliot and the Nursery Training School played a major role in teacher training during the 1930s, when the federal government, through the Works Progress Administration, provided funding for nursery schools across the country. The Nursery Training School of Boston had affiliations with several local colleges, permitting students to obtain a college education while receiving teacher training. In 1951, Eliot decided a more formal relationship with a university would be beneficial, and she selected Tufts University. The Corporation of the Nursery Training School voted to change the name of the center to the “Eliot-Pearson School” when it became one of several professional schools affiliated with Tufts University. In 1964, the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study was developed, with the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School as its laboratory/demonstration facility. The department and the school together developed as a center for teacher training and research on child development. On Thanksgiving night in 1978, a fire completely destroyed the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School. Eliot heard the news on the radio and was devastated: “It’s my life work.” But with her characteristic resilience, she said, “We will rebuild it and make it even better than it was.” The generosity of alumni and friends of Eliot-Pearson, including Eliot’s own generosity and hard work, made it possible to rebuild the school (Manning, 1982, p. 51). Fundamental principles of Miss Eliot’s Nursery Training School continue to guide the philosophy of the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School today: 1. Children are persons. 2. Education should always be thought of as guidance (teaching), which influences the development of persons (personalities).

3. Maturation and learning must go hand in hand in the process of development. 4. It is important that personalities be wellbalanced. Therefore, in guiding children, we should aim to help them develop balancing traits at the same time we try to supply what they need for self-realization. Some of the balancing traits considered are security and growing independence, self-expression and self-control, awareness of self and social awareness, growth in freedom and growth in responsibility, and opportunities to create and ability to conform (Manning, 1982, p. 37). —Debbie Lee Keenan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Eliot-Pearson Children’s School. (2003a). Family handbook 2003–04. Medford, MA: Tufts University. Eliot-Pearson Children’s School. (2003b). Staff handbook 2003–04. Medford, MA: Tufts University. Faculty of Tufts University’s Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. (2003). Proactive parenting: Guiding your child from two to six. New York: Berkley. Manning, M. (Ed.). (1982). A heart of grateful trust: Memoirs of Abigail Adams Eliot. Medford, MA: Tufts University. Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services. (2003). Group child care license regulations. Boston: Author. National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2003). NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation. Washington, DC: Author. National Research Council, Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy. (2000). Eager to learn: educating our preschoolers. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

ELKIND, DAVID As one of the leading scholars in the field of developmental psychology, David Elkind has had significant impact on our understanding of children, particularly in the areas of perceptual, religious, and adolescent development. Furthermore, his theories have changed how we interact with children. Before the term applied developmental science was even coined, Elkind worked to fundamentally change both child development theory and application. David Elkind was born March 11, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan, the sixth and last child of Peter and Bessie

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Elkind, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father was a skilled machinist and was able to continue working during the tough times of the Depression. Despite a familial emphasis on blue-collar work, David became enthralled with reading and writing at a young age, even publishing in the school newspaper. After World War II, the Elkinds moved to San Diego, California. David worked for a clothing manufacturer in high school and subsequently entered the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) as an apparelmerchandising major. Inspired by an introductory psychology course and encouraged by exceptional grades, he soon changed his major to psychology. After graduating with highest honors, Elkind entered the Veterans Administration Clinical Psychology Training Program, to pay for his continuing education at UCLA. It was in graduate school that he first encountered the schism common to psychology departments: Social, behavioral, and physiological psychologists emphasized experimental science, while the clinical faculty adhered to traditional psychoanalysis and Freudian theory. He would attend an experimental course that denounced projective testing in the morning, and then learn how to use the Rorschach Ink Blot Test in the afternoon. Elkind would struggle to balance experimental science and clinical practice throughout his career. After completing his clinical training, the young academic started a postdoctoral fellowship at the Austin Riggs Center, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. While preparing for his new position, Elkind was introduced to the work of a then-obscure Swiss child psychologist named Jean Piaget. Interested in but skeptical of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Elkind began to test the theory with rigorous scientific procedures and materials. Despite Elkind’s skepticism, Piaget’s ideas were repeatedly supported by the experiments. He became an enthusiastic convert and began to see Piaget as a means of solving the scientific and clinical schism that he had experienced in graduate school. Furthermore, Elkind’s investigation of Piaget’s theory brought to the surface his inclination and skill for working with children, and consequently, in 1957, he left Austin Riggs for the child psychiatry department at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He worked tirelessly, taking on a night-teaching position and pouring himself into writing. He was able to find some personal time in the midst of his work; he met and married Sally Malinsky, an English teacher, in 1960.

Over the next 4 years, Elkind took various faculty positions, working at Wheaton College, UCLA, and the University of Denver, searching for an arrangement that allowed for teaching, clinical work, and research. In Denver, Elkind felt satisfied with the balance of all three aspects of psychology, and his work began to thrive, particularly his research. He continued his Piagetian investigations, applying the concepts to religion. Because of his relentless hard work, Elkind became well respected in the field, and Piaget himself took notice of the young researcher. Piaget invited Elkind to join his Centre d’Epistemologie Genetique. Together with his wife and newborn son, Paul, Elkind traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1964. There, Elkind was able to continue his research while working directly with the scholar responsible for its theoretical basis. After returning to Denver in 1965, Elkind tried to establish a child development program at the university. However, his efforts were met with resistance, and subsequently he left Denver with his wife, Paul, and newest son, Robert, for the University of Rochester, in New York State. At Rochester, Elkind discovered an environment conducive to both his career goals and research endeavors. He built a successful child development training program, as he had wanted to in Denver. He held joint appointments in education and psychiatry, teaching future educators, psychiatrists, and even pediatricians. In addition, Elkind published some of his most famous work on adolescent cognition and child perception, initiating areas of research still popular today. With the university, he opened Mt. Hope School, which housed an intensive reading program based on his perceptual research. Unfortunately, due to changing administrations and budget cuts, Rochester’s child development program lost the funding for its laboratory school after 1976. Elkind applied for and was awarded professor and chair of the Child Study Department at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1978. With his family, now including a third son, Rick, Elkind moved back to Boston. Once again, Elkind found an institution conducive to his diverse interests. Within his first few years, he helped rebuild the department. New faculty were hired, courses were restructured, a doctoral program was established, and the department was granted a teacher certification license. Elkind was able to teach, conduct research, practice clinically outside the

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university, and, perhaps most notably, continue writing. In summer 1980, he wrote The Hurried Child. Concerning the phenomenon of children being pressured to grow up too fast, the book became an instant success among both scholars and the popular audience, landing Elkind spots on major television shows and public lectures. In 1983, he resigned as chair of the department to assume the role as child advocate full-time. His next two books, All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis (1984) and Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk (1987), furthered his advocacy cause. He served as president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) from 1986 to 1988 and wrote a monthly column for Parents Magazine from 1987 to 1993. Unlike the typical scholar, Elkind was able to connect with an audience outside the research field. In particular, his writing reached parents and educators themselves, changing the way children are viewed and cared for by the people who interact with them daily. Within the past 15 years, Elkind has maintained his varied research endeavors, pursuing topics concerning adolescent cognition, historical perspectives of children, perception and language, and education. His long and successful career has been instrumental in changing the way in which child development is both understood and applied. From his Piagetian studies to his numerous publications, David Elkind has been able to bridge the wide gap between scholarship and application. He remains an exemplar within the field of applied developmental science. —Taryn W. Morrissey

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Corsini, R. J. (1994). Elkind, David (1931–). In Encyclopedia of psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 4). New York: Wiley. Doorey, M. (2001). Elkind, David (1931–). In Gale encyclopedia of psychology (2nd ed). Gale Group. Available at http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/g2699/0004/26990004 53/p1/article.jhtml?term= Elkind, D. (1978). The child’s reality: Three developmental themes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Elkind, D. (1981). The hurried child. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Elkind, D. (1984). All grown up and no place to go: Teenagers in crisis. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Elkind, D. (1996). David Elkind. In D. Thompson & J. D. Hogan (Eds.), A history of developmental psychology in autobiography (pp. 71–83). Boulder, CO: Westview.

Elkind, D. (1998). Who’s who in America (54th ed.). Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who’s Who. Reber, A. S. (1985). The Penguin dictionary of psychology. Middlesex, UK: Penguin. Sheehy, N., Chapman, A. J., & Conroy, W. A. (1997). Elkind, D. In Biographical dictionary of psychology. New York: Routledge.

EMPOWERMENT THEORY AND YOUTH This entry introduces the notion of empowerment as it has evolved in developmental research. The discussion begins with a definition of empowerment and goes on to illustrate the dynamic nature of the construct, major models for understanding it, and its most common operationalizations. Next, examples from the literature demonstrate the implications of empowerment theory for both research and practice. To illustrate further the influence of empowerment theory on developmental science, the entry ends with a brief summary of the growing literature on youth empowerment and recommendations for future research and application.

EMPOWERMENT THEORY The concept of empowerment has been introduced into the field of psychology as a useful paradigm for understanding how to promote psychological wellness (Rappaport, 1981). Empowerment can be viewed as an outcome or a process. As an outcome, it refers to both the feeling of control over one’s life and effective participation. Empowering processes facilitate people’s active participation in determining matters that are important to them, by developing skills, self-confidence, awareness, and opportunities for self-determination. Empowerment takes different forms across people and settings and over time, but its emphasis is always the enhancement of strengths in the interest of more effective participation. Empowerment has direct implications for both research and practice in social science. Empowerment is described as a process that leads to “participatory competence.” A common model of empowerment development features (a) the presence of conflict that requires action and (b) a dynamic cycle of reflection and action, in which participation

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leads to greater understanding, which leads to continued participation. The abilities and insights gained enable people to participate more actively in their own selfdetermination and in affecting change in their environments (Kieffer, 1984). A MULTILEVEL MODEL OF EMPOWERMENT Empowerment occurs at multiple levels of analysis: individual, organizational or group, and community (Zimmerman, 2000). Among individuals, psychological empowerment may be evident in enhanced sense of personal control, efficacy expectations, competency, and consciousness of factors in one’s environment that affect goal attainment (Kieffer, 1984). Many theorists stress the importance of increased participatory behaviors as evidence of psychological empowerment, and thus, a substantial portion of empowerment research has examined various selfhelp and volunteer groups as empowering settings for individuals. Organizational empowerment is often observed in various advocacy and mutual help groups that successfully acquire resources, cooperate with other organizations, and influence public policy (Fawcett, Seekins, Whang, Muiu, & Suarez de Balcazar, 1984). Practices and structures that enhance participation within an organization can be empowering for the organization as well as its members. An organization can foster individual members’ sense of personal influence through shared decision making, and, subsequently, the organization expands its capacity to meet members’ needs and achieve organizational goals. Empowered or “competent” communities often have organizational coalitions that share resources and work together, leadership that reflects diverse interests, and residents that participate in activities and decision making to improve the quality of life (Iscoe, 1974). Case studies of successful community empowerment efforts have emphasized the importance of informing members, coalition building, and increasing access to resources. These informational, supportive, and monetary mechanisms or networks have proved vital in the attainment of community goals, such as protection from environmental threats, recognition of welfare and civil rights, and reduction of crime (Fawcett et al., 1984). In psychology as in social science more generally, theories of empowerment emphasize people’s interaction

with their environments. The transactional nature of the construct cannot be overemphasized. As illustrated in the multiple levels of analysis, empowerment describes a dynamic process that alters the relationship between people or groups of people and the contexts they occupy (Zimmerman, 2000). While some intrapsychic variables may signify an individual’s empowerment, the concept focuses on how people relate to their social and political worlds. Furthermore, empowerment entails the transformation of this relationship when people are not critically engaged in the determination and direction of matters that are important to them. APPLICATION OF EMPOWERMENT Empowerment is of particular interest to human service professionals interested in transforming the traditional paternalistic model of human service delivery and emphasizing the importance of clients’ participation in any actions affecting their welfare. In developmental science, it serves as a way to think about the design and language of educational, social service, and prevention or promotion programs, particularly among vulnerable populations (Rappaport, 1981). In the classroom, self-directed learning curricula are developed with a focus on empowering learners by providing information and identifying opportunities to assume more personal responsibility for choices and actions. In the workplace, shared decision-making practices are a mechanism that empowers workers by permitting them to influence institutional policies and operations. Among social service agencies, models of helping that emphasize proactive and enabling procedures function to empower clients by enhancing knowledge, skills, and collaborative decision making. In particular, in the field of family therapy, empowerment models of case management aim to build competency among family members so that they can address their own needs more effectively and recognize their capacity to affect changes independently. In social science research, empowerment theory insists that research practices be attentive to the needs of the people of interest. Theories and methods that are more inclusive of the target populations’ voices, diverse forms of data, and cross-disciplinary collaboration advance empowerment goals in the praxis of scientific inquiry. Developmental research can be empowering when it is responsive in its content,

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methods, interpretation, and application to the actual needs of the underserved. YOUTH EMPOWERMENT Although most of the literature on empowerment has focused on adults, the concept is frequently applied to youth, especially in discussions of interventions targeting disadvantaged and at-risk populations, such as young African American males and adjudicated youth. Youth empowerment is commonly used to describe processes and experiences that emphasize youth strengths instead of weaknesses and that enable active participation and greater influence in their activity settings (Wiley & Rappaport, 2000). Theoretically, the variables associated with youth empowerment include increased skills, critical awareness and mastery of environment, higher levels of self-determination, shared decision making, and participatory competence. Unlike the empowerment literature on adult populations, the discussion of youth empowerment has been less dominated by civic participation and more concerned with the prevention of problem behaviors and negative outcomes. A common model of youth empowerment characterizes it as a “preventive intervention.” Prevention programs that emphasize strengths instead of weaknesses or risks and that foster active participation through capacity building and collaborative activities are believed to contribute to youth empowerment. For adolescents in particular, one empowerment model draws on theories of identity development, rolelessness, bonding, and social control (Chinman & Linney, 1998). This research contributes to a vast literature suggesting that the empowerment cycle for youth centers on youth participation in meaningful activities, wherein youth learn relevant skills and receive reinforcement. Through active participation, youth develop a critical personal awareness of how to interact with others and with the environment. The majority of literature describing youth empowerment is not quantitative in nature. Empowering processes and empowered outcomes among youth are primarily described in qualitative accounts of youth programs. Within this expansive literature, case studies generally demonstrate the psychological and behavioral benefits of enhancing opportunities for youth participation in various social, political, and out-ofschool activity settings. Empirical studies featuring youth interventions with empowerment goals have

shown greater feelings of self-confidence, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of control and lower levels of alienation, hopelessness, and problem behaviors among youth participants.

CONCLUSIONS Empowerment as a psychological construct requires further research. More examination is needed to illuminate the dynamic precursors of participatory competence for individuals, groups of people, and communities. Since processes and outcomes of empowerment are not universal, the research in this area should pay more attention to the distinctive features of each situation as it seeks to expand theory. As researchers and practitioners focus increasingly on youth empowerment, mixed methods of observation and analysis employing quantitative and qualitative approaches can build on the rich insights offered to date in case studies. Furthermore, empowerment theory calls attention to the need for developmental research to continue to transform its content and methods to be more inclusive of its human subjects. Cross-disciplinary and community research collaborations can enhance developmental science and increase its relevance by expanding the perspectives, variety of data, and forms of analysis to more closely reflect the needs, priorities, and meanings of the populations of interest. —Ann C. Rivera and Edward Seidman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Chinman, M. J., & Linney, J. A. (1998). Toward a model of adolescent empowerment: Theoretical and empirical evidence. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 18, 393–413. Fawcett, S. B., Seekins, T., Whang, P. L., Muiu, C., & Suarez de Balcazar, Y. (1984). Creating and using social technologies for community empowerment. Prevention in Human Services, 3, 145–171. Iscoe, I. (1974). Community psychology and the competent community. American Psychologist, 29, 607–613. Kieffer, C. H. (1984). Citizen empowerment: A developmental perspective. Prevention in Human Services, 3, 9–36. Rappaport, J. (1981). In praise of paradox: A social policy of empowerment over prevention. Reprinted in T. A. Revenson, A. R. D’Augelli et al. (Eds.), A quarter century of community psychology: Readings from the American Journal of Community Psychology (pp. 121–145). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.

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Wiley, A., & Rappaport, J. (2000). Empowerment, wellness and the politics of development. In D. Cicchetti & J. Rappaport (Eds.), The promotion of wellness in children and adolescents (pp. 59–99). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America. Zimmerman, M. (2000). Empowerment theory: Psychological, organizational and community levels of analysis. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community psychology (pp. 43–63). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.

The method Erikson’s founders proposed for preparing these leaders was unique, and it remains so today: relationship-based, theory-driven, self-reflective practice. Simply put, Erikson students must develop more than a knowledge base or skill set. In addition, they must develop professional self-awareness and the ability to reflect on their practice, use their theoretical training, and implement practical solutions to shortand long-term problems.

ERIKSON INSTITUTE

MISSION AND VISION

Erikson Institute, located in Chicago, Illinois, was founded in 1966 as an inspired response to a socially charged era. While the growing middle class was beginning to enjoy the fruits of postwar prosperity— advances in housing, health, nutrition, and education—the country was awakening to the plight of the urban and rural poor and the socially disenfranchised. With the launch of Head Start and the War on Poverty, the government recognized that quality early education was imperative for all children, especially those living in poverty and growing up amidst social disadvantage. Erikson’s founders—Maria Piers, Barbara Bowman, Lorraine Wallach, and Irving Harris—were persuaded that a comprehensive understanding of child development was fundamental to the task of helping children reach their potential. The institute was established to provide that comprehensive understanding to early childhood practitioners, educators, administrators, and community leaders. Faculty were recruited from disciplines including early childhood education, administration, cultural anthropology, clinical and developmental psychology, pediatrics, and social work. They taught a curriculum that emphasized developmental psychology, biology, and social science, in addition to more traditional disciplines. Students participated in field internships that enabled them to maximize their effectiveness with children and families in the context of diverse communities. From the outset, Erikson has been committed to equity and justice in the care and education of young children, especially disadvantaged and minority children. The vision of the founders was clear: to create a multiethnic, interdisciplinary group of child development leaders committed to educating the whole child. These leaders would work in many divergent communities as advocates for children at risk for school failure and developmental harm.

Erikson Institute is an independent institution of higher education that prepares child development professionals for leadership. Through its academic programs, applied research, and community engagement, Erikson advances the ability of practitioners, researchers, and decision makers to improve life for children and their families. The institute is a catalyst for discovery and change, continually bringing the newest scientific knowledge and theories of children’s development and learning into its classrooms and out to the community, so that professionals serving children and families are informed, inspired, and responsive. Central to Erikson’s mission is the commitment to generate and communicate knowledge in the service of children. This mission is accomplished through three parallel activities: educating professionals; conducting applied research; and engaging with the community and field to enhance policy, marshal evidence on behalf of children and families, and support community services and engagement. Educating Professionals The Erikson approach recognizes the centrality of relationships in all learning and in successful intervention with families and community and institutional systems. Furthermore, it demands that early childhood practitioners understand their own reactions and contributions to the professional relationship. Through one-on-one mentoring by faculty, smallgroup seminars, and professional internships, students develop and strengthen their personal and professional identities and become equipped to take on leadership roles at the forefront of the early care and education field. This is reflected in Erikson’s programs and offerings, designed to provide a rigorous and distinctive education that prepares child development professionals for leadership.

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Academic programs focus on children from birth to age 8 and prepare professionals across the full range of disciplines and systems that serve young children and their families. All academic programs provide a multidisciplinary approach to the study of child development through courses and seminars, research or fieldwork experience, and reflection on practice through a mentorship model. Central to Erikson’s educational mission is the belief that the process of professional preparation is as important as the content— that adults, like children, learn most deeply in and through relationships. Erikson offers academic programs at several levels of study, each serving the needs of child development professionals in different ways. The doctoral program is designed for students preparing for careers as college and university faculty, applied researchers, or program administrators. It is currently offered jointly with the Graduate School of Loyola University Chicago. The master’s program offers an MS in child development for professionals in fields as diverse as infant studies, administration, social service, public policy, and health care. In collaboration with Loyola University School of Social Work, Erikson also offers a dual degree leading to an MS in child development and a master’s in social work. Erikson also offers an MS in early childhood education, which leads to certification to teach in prekindergarten through third-grade classrooms. Certificate programs prepare specialists in infant studies, administration, bilingual/ ESL education, and infant mental health. Professional development programs respond to the needs of practitioners to continue their professional education through courses, seminars, workshops, and on-site consultation and training. Applied Research Erikson develops knowledge from applied research that contributes to improving the quality, effectiveness, and equity of education and services for children and families, and helps children develop to their fullest potential. Examples of current research projects include Children and Violence; Doula Support for Young Mothers (in collaboration with the University of Chicago); Performance Assessment in Early Childhood; Erikson Arts Project; Faculty Development Project on the Brain; The Learning and Teaching Assessment System; Analysis of After School Activities; Father Care; and Teacher Attitudes About Play.

Community Engagement Erikson collaborates with and supports groups in the community committed to improving knowledge, skills, and practice with young children and their families. Since its inception, Erikson has been committed to urban issues. Erikson maintains close ties to professionals, schools, families, and agencies in the Chicago metropolitan community through its public service, community-based projects, and professional development offerings. The institute’s consultation efforts have focused on reforming practice systems, enhancing public policies, and helping service agencies improve their ability to help children and families. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Erikson has made tremendous strides and significant contributions since its inception. It has been in the forefront of helping those who work with children and families understand the role culture and community play in development and the critical importance of understanding the challenge and necessity of confronting problems from the time of infancy. For example, in 2003, Erikson started its first clinical program, The Fussy Baby Network, for families with infants with regulatory disorders and other problems that contribute to crying, eating, and sleeping difficulties. Services include home visiting, clinic, telephone support, and parent groups. The needs of the field, however, have grown exponentially in the last decades. For example, the number of children at risk for school failure and developmental harm in our society continues to remain high; and more families and children must rely on care outside the home than at any time in the history of the United States. These and other critical issues reinforce Erikson’s commitment to children and families and direct future work. In January 2002, Samuel J. Meisels became president of Erikson Institute after serving on the faculty of the University of Michigan for 21 years, where he was a professor of education and a research scientist and is now an emeritus professor. Dr. Meisels has pledged to continue to advance the mission and increase Erikson’s impact: the capacity to address critical issues in the field and make a long-term positive difference for children and families. Given Erikson’s history, mission, and clear identity as a unique institution

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of higher education focused on early childhood, its efforts to better meet the needs of children and families are focused on the three areas of teaching, research, and community service and engagement. Under Meisels’s leadership, Erikson’s strategic goals in the coming years include teaching, research, and community service and engagement. The need for excellent early care and education professionals is expanding. Erikson will attempt to meet the growing need for improved care by equipping graduates to make lasting contributions to children and families and the institutions that serve them. The goal is to establish the Erikson approach to education as a model for preparing professionals in the full range of disciplines and systems that serve young children and their families. More young children are beginning life with some form of biological or environmental disadvantage, and there is a critical need to prevent violence, reduce the risk of school failure, and promote the well-being of children and families. Erikson’s goal is to enhance and expand its applied research activities in order to address these issues. A small, focused institution of higher education is in a prime position to establish a research agenda that aligns with and contributes to teaching and community service and therefore better meets the needs of the field for new knowledge. Erikson’s goal is to enhance its capacity to collaborate with and serve young children and their families, as well as other groups and organizations in the community, state, and nation. In addition to its commitment to urban issues, Erikson has developed a model clinical service for infants and their families and will develop other assessment and clinical services that provide training opportunities for students and serve as models for the field. Erikson will also bring its unique focus on early childhood to further develop policy initiatives for community leaders, legislators, and others interested in the well-being of young children and their families. CONCLUSIONS The history of the Erikson Institute is stellar. The goals are critical to the well-being of the nation. The students and faculty affiliated with Erikson have been outstanding from its founding to the present day, and the institute will most likely continue to serve as a national hub of complex, creative thinking about children and families and as a source of expertise that

contributes to shaping program and policies for years to come. —Frances Stott

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING Stott, F., & Bowman, B. (1996). Child development knowledge: A slippery base for practice. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 11, 169–183.

ERIKSON’S THEORY This entry provides a summary of Erikson’s psychosocial theory of human development, framed in terms of its consistency with developmental contextualism and positive youth development. First, the ways in which his theory prefigured these current trends in adolescent psychology are pointed out. Second, his view of ego development as a source of agency is discussed. Finally, Erikson’s stipulation of the environment as a differential context of identity development is highlighted. This selection ends with a call for contemporary researchers to acknowledge Erikson’s influence on their fields of study. OVERVIEW OF ERIKSON’S THEORY Erik Erikson was a pioneer in emphasizing the role of social context in human development. His theory is particularly useful because it allows us to address in one analysis the psychological, biological, cultural, and historical factors that influence epigenetic development. Early in his career, Erikson undertook detailed analyses of childhood and adolescence in North American Native cultures (1963) when developing his “ego psychology.” These studies in cultural anthropology, along with his experiences treating war casualties and disturbed children, led him to subsequently study the unique cultural contexts experienced by American young people in the 1950s and 1960s (1963, 1968). Strongly influenced by both Sigmund and Anna Freud, Erikson modified the psychodynamic model to show how cultural contexts can affect ego development over the entire life span, not just during the first few years of life. With his well-known eight-stage theory of epigenetic development, he argued that human development is inherently psychosocial because in addition to being influenced by biological

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development, each stage of ego development involves the gradual meshing of the individual’s maturing psychological (ego) characteristics with the increasingly complex social contexts encountered during the life course. Psychosocial tasks involve solving problems associated with functioning in social and cultural contexts while at the same time overcoming difficulties in managing psychological conflicts. Completing these psychosocial tasks constitutes positive resolutions of a stage when the person acquires the ego-syntonic quality of that stage (e.g., trust or autonomy). Incompletely mastered tasks leave ego-dystonic qualities (e.g., mistrust, sense of inferiority) that can interfere with later situations requiring positive ego capacities (e.g., the person does not have a sufficient sense of trust or autonomy in relation to the contexts encountered in later life). The years of infancy and childhood include four psychosocial stages, during which specific ego strengths are ideally acquired in ways that lay foundations for subsequent positive development. During the first stage, a sufficient sense of trust is needed to outweigh residual feelings of mistrust, producing the basic ego strength of “hope,” upon which subsequent ego strengths are established. In the second stage, positive development requires a sense of autonomy to outbalance the senses of shame and doubt for the ego strength of “will” that is necessary to venture out into the world. At the third stage, the sense of initiative needs to outweigh a sense of guilt for the ego strength of “purpose” necessary for individuation. And, by the end of the fourth stage, a sufficient sense of industry in successfully completing work tasks is needed to overcome a nascent sense of inferiority that would come from failure experiences, providing the ego strength of “competence” for eventually taking up productive roles in society. During adolescence and youth, the psychosocial task is to develop a viable sense of identity (the fifth stage) as a foundation upon which to assume roles in adult society. This stage can involve prolonged periods of identity confusion and identity crisis, especially in cultures that encourage a high degree of choice and/or provide little guidance in how to transit adolescence. However, if a sufficient sense of ego identity is not accrued, the person does not have sufficient ego strength of “fidelity” (the ability to commit to a larger common good) with which to function as a productive adult and will be prone to adolescent-like, regressive behaviors. During the sixth stage, young

adults face the challenge of developing a sense of intimacy that counteracts feelings of isolation, producing the strength of “love.” During the seventh stage, middle-aged people face the problem of nurturing a sense of generativity (with the strength of “care” for others) instead of being drawn into a sense of selfabsorption and stagnation. In the last stage, which is usually entered in old age, individuals must come to terms with the overall quality and evaluation of their lives. Here, the major challenges are ego integrity versus a sense of despair, the former of which produces the strength of “wisdom.” ERIKSON AS A DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUALIST Erikson is noted for his optimistic views of young people, which were so positive that he has even been considered Pollyannaish (e.g., Roazen, 1976). His positive slant on human development in general is widely acknowledged, particularly as a corrective to Freud’s more negative construals. Indeed, in addition to the positive poles for each of his eight stages, he postulated that positive resolution of each stage provided the person with a sort of value-added ego strength that he referred to as “virtues” (i.e., hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom, as above). Erikson (1968) believed that this positive development was possible because the ego is a dynamic entity at the center of a network of inner, biological processes and outer, social process influences. It was because of these influences—which were often challenging and in conflict—that the ego had to attempt to become an active agent. Of course, not everyone can master challenges and conflicts to the same degree, so Erikson had an interest in what caused variations in ego strength, which he thought of in terms of an active/passive dimension. Those who developed the strongest egos, especially in overcoming contextual obstacles, provided the most interesting case studies for Erikson. Indeed, Erikson was a pioneer in the field of psychohistory, with his case studies of figures such as Luther (1958) and Gandhi (1969), in which he showed how their own positive development, stimulated by unique interactions of their development with cultural contexts, became a model for others, inspiring social movements. He thus illustrated how the person can act on the context and the context can act on the person.

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ERIKSON’S THEORY AND AGENCY A fundamental postulate of Erikson’s theory is that humans are predisposed to attempt to gain a sense of mastery when interacting with their social environments. This predisposition constitutes a “drive” for mastery and provides the stimulus for ego development, with the qualities of this predisposition varying by psychosocial task and stage of development. Erikson argued that throughout the life cycle, the ego becomes structured on the basis of the types of challenges associated with stage-specific competence tasks (e.g., initiative, industry). Without challenges to resolve, the ego becomes structured in ways that produce passive and weak responses to subsequent demands. This has implications for both the “content” and “process” of the ego. Ego content includes cognitive schemata, which influence how experience is conceptualized, and ego processes involve the vigor or strength with which ongoing experience is approached. Both of these dimensions of the ego are important for our understanding of ego processes as a source of agency. As the ego derives meaning (content) from the challenges it experiences—as it synthesizes experiences— it becomes stronger in its ability to master more complex challenges, namely, to execute increasingly complex behaviors. In turn, the increased strength in these ego synthetic and executive process functions allows the ego to move to more advanced levels of competence, to higher psychosocial stages representing a widening radius of experience. It is this movement through increasingly advanced levels of competence that constitutes psychosocial development through Erikson’s eight stages.

ERIKSON’S THEORY AND CONTEXT Erikson (1968) saw the interaction between person and context epigenetically, explicitly incorporating the metaphor of the growing flower that has genetic potentials, whose final shape and form depend on environmental conditions at critical periods of growth. If the environment is felicitous at the right time, the person (flower) will flourish; but, if environmental conditions are not right or lacking, the person’s growth will be adversely affected. Accordingly, if the ego is exposed to a negative environment, is prevented from actively mastering its environment, or is expected to master tasks beyond its grasp, ego damage can

occur and the ego will be left weak in certain ways that can impede subsequent development (e.g., as per the eight psychosocial qualities described above). This is especially the case if negative conditions are long-term and prevent the ego from sensing some sort of task resolution from its experiences. Western cultures put many young people in exactly this position when they are subjected to long periods of childlike dependency and marginalization. For instance, many secondary schools discourage ego mastery of industry tasks when their primary concern is with the discipline and “custody” of their wards; and the increasingly prolonged school-work transition can discourage ego mastery of identity issues when educationwork opportunities lack challenge, meaning, and direction. To cite a more specific example of Erikson’s recognition of how contexts can affect development, he argued that an identity crisis of some form, even an extremely muted one, is a universal aspect of development as part of the transition from childhood to adulthood. Although he is sometimes portrayed as advocating a “storm and stress” view of adolescence, Erikson recognized that well-structured cultures provide some sort of initiation, rite of passage, or apprenticeship for this transition. Common to these structures is a benign guidance offered by the adult community to help most people through this period of tension resolution (between identity confusion and gaining a sense of ego identity). However, these structures create a tension around the issue of whether people will accomplish the passage into adulthood and therefore resolve the “identity stage.” Mastering this challenge strengthens the ego and gives people a sense of accomplishment, autonomy, and pride, so that they feel like worthwhile people in a welcoming adult community. When the structures of transition are not adequate or benign and the adult community is not welcoming, a severe identity crisis is more likely, and this is where we are more likely to witness greater degrees of adolescent storm and stress. For Erikson, then, the severity of the identity crisis is largely dependent on cultural contexts, not biological factors. Although he thought that biological factors, in the form of new drives, physical strengths, and cognitive abilities, can contribute to the severity of an identity crisis, he also thought that biological factors do not generally cause the crisis unless a culture fails to provide guidance for the ego concerning how to master these new drives and capacities. It is in the

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absence of such guidance that impulsivity and sudden choice can become the basis of maladaptation for many youth. Thus, the structure of adolescence can be a source of widespread identity crises if it involves a serious disjuncture between childhood and adulthood. Finally, contrary to common conceptions of his work, Erikson (1968) argued that a severe identity crisis is not a cultural norm, even in contemporary North American society. In his words, “The vast majority of young people . . . can go along with their parents in a kind of fraternal identification” (p. 33). In addition, the identity crisis is least severe among those who invest their sense of identity in the technological ethos of their cultures. Instead of severe, prolonged, or aggravated identity crises, Erikson believed that even in modern societies, most young people work through an identity crisis in a muted and barely discernible form, even if over a long period of time. In contrast, he observed that in premodern and tribal societies, most young people are guided through the crisis by the adult community in order to ensure that it takes place over a relatively short period of time and with maximum assurance of a successful resolution. APPLICATIONS Erikson applied his theory of psychosocial development in a number of ways: cultural differences in child rearing, how the structuring of children’s play reproduces cultural ideologies, the interplay between individual biography and historical events, and the contribution of youth to cultural renewal. His theory has found applications ranging from clinical approaches in treating disorders of childhood and adolescence to the psychohistorical analysis of figures such as Martin Luther and Mahatma Gandhi. CONCLUSIONS Erikson’s theory is not without its critics. Some find the idea of progressive life stages to be too linear and prescriptive (preferring to see psychosocial tasks as being met as they arise or not encountered at all, with no serious developmental consequences). Yet others think that many cultures do not institutionalize some of the stages he proposed, especially those in which there are few distinctions between the roles played by people of different ages (e.g., where childhood labor is widespread). Still, Erikson’s theory continues to be taught in human development and clinical

courses, and no theories have been proposed that seriously compete with it in terms of its depth and breadth of explanation. Moreover, the corpus of Erikson’s work shows that he held generally positive views of (young) people and their potential, believed that agency comes with positive forms of development associated with the mastery of experience, showed how social contexts affect development (especially identity development), and laid the theoretical bases for interventions to correct developmental problems. He was a developmental contextualist ahead of his time. —James E. Côté

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Côté, J., & Levine, C. (2002). Identity formation, agency, and culture: A social psychological synthesis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Erikson, E. H. (1958). Young Man Luther. Norton: New York. Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1969). Gandhi’s truth. New York: Norton. Roazen, P. (1976). Erik H. Erikson: The power and limits of a vision. New York: Free Press.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH Most codes designed to promote ethical behavior by researchers are modeled after those developed to guide biomedical researchers. Relationships between researchers and participants vary greatly depending on the methodological context, however, and the contexts navigated by biomedical researchers and students of social behavior and organization in other cultures (the focus here) are vastly different. This entry highlights these differences and focuses on ethical issues that are especially relevant to cross-cultural field research on social behavior, particularly in small-scale societies.

THE INVESTIGATOR-PARTICIPANT RELATIONSHIP Codes of ethical conduct typically place great stress on relationships between researchers and participants.

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Table 1

Relationships Between Researchers and Participants in Biomedical Research and Cross-Cultural Fieldwork

Researchers’ power as perceived by participants Effect of researchers’ status and lifestyle on research success Researchers’ control over research setting Direction of research interaction Risk to participants Potential benefit to participants Informed consent

Biomedical Research

Cross-Cultural Fieldwork

High Low

Mid High

High One-way, researcher to participant High, often physical High Formal, written

Low or negative Two-way Low, often psychological Low Informal, often verbal, continuous

SOURCE: Adapted from Cassell (1980).

These relationships are very different in biomedical studies, psychological experiments, survey research, and cross-cultural observational studies. These differences make codes based on those developed for biomedical research contexts especially problematic when applied to cross-cultural observational research. Some of the key differences between the two contexts are summarized in Table 1. As the table makes clear, the presumed distance between researchers and participants is often much less in cross-cultural observational studies than it is in biomedical contexts. As a result, these cross-cultural researchers must often wrestle with concerns about the ways in which their living arrangements may affect the people they study, while their familiarity with the group under study and its language surely affects the quality and success of their research. Fieldworkers have unique relationships with the people they study because they are often dependent on the studied population for shelter, food, informants, and translation. POWER AND STATUS The perceived power of cross-cultural researchers varies according to the research methodology and the history of researchers in the area. These researchers may be perceived as powerful because they are economically privileged relative to the local population, but they are weak in other respects because they may be perceived as “naive” or “childlike” with respect to their ability to communicate or understand local customs. Biomedical researchers, in contrast, typically appear to have considerable power over procedures and even the health of participants. In biomedical

research, participants enter contexts (e.g., clinics, hospitals) in which researchers are perceived as experts. Cross-cultural researchers are usually foreigners to the communities they study and in which they live while conducting fieldwork. Because fieldworkers are typically more affluent than the people they study, they are often treated as scarce resources, so that their decisions (such as where to live) may create jealousy. Western fieldworkers may also elicit unwelcome comparisons with Western colonialists of the past, and this can influence the willingness of people to participate in the research. It is thus extremely important for researchers to respect local customs, speak the local language, and live like the participants. In fact, it is often necessary for cross-cultural researchers to learn about the local language and beliefs before they begin to conduct their research. Participants may also attribute roles and status to researchers simply because of their race, gender, and age. For example, White researchers in Africa are often assumed to be medical doctors and are thus sought out for advice and treatment. In addition, Western researchers are often viewed as wealthy by local populations, and much of their time may thus be spent negotiating the demands of the local population. The researchers’ genders also affect the topics they can broach and the locations of individuals to which or to whom they have access. For example, when Hillary Fouts conducted research on child development in two small-scale societies in Central Africa, she found it easy to talk with families about their children, because women often discussed these topics and even initiated discussion of these topics with her. On the other hand, people in many cultures assume that sexual relations are

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taking place when men and women meet out of the sight of others. This inference can harm the reputations of both participants and researchers, and thus researchers need to understand local beliefs and customs as well in order to avoid unintentionally creating embarrassment, shame, anger, or confusion among participants. CONTROL In fieldwork, as Cassell (1980) explained, Power is shared between investigators and subjects, with subjects having somewhat more power to frustrate research than researchers have to compel them to participate. Subjects control the setting of the research and influence the context, with interaction flowing comparatively freely in both directions. (p. 31) The daily life of fieldworkers is intertwined with their formal research, and their everyday decisions often pose ethical dilemmas, which are typically unanticipated. Table 1 thus indicates that biomedical researchers have considerable control over research settings, whereas cross-cultural researchers have little control and are as likely to be affected by as to affect the participants on whom they are often dependent for shelter, food, and information, thereby creating reciprocal relationships between researchers and participants. Because of the reciprocal researcher-participant relationship, cross-cultural researchers are often required to learn the local language and customs in order to conduct their study effectively and without unknowingly offending participants. Not only do the researchers learn about the studied population, but the local community also gains intimate knowledge about the fieldworkers. Because of the reciprocal relationships, furthermore, the chances of observer effects on the results of the research are greater.

and participants, and therefore risks to participants are quite different. Instead of risk to the health and physical welfare of participants in biomedical studies, participants in cross-cultural research face psychological risks such as embarrassment and invasion of privacy. Because the potential risks are psychological in nature, academic fields that specialize in cross-cultural research (such as anthropology) have difficultly stating exactly how to avoid harming participants. In the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) code of ethics (1998), the concept of risk is described in a general way, and individual researchers are advised to minimize the specific risks that their research might occasion. As noted by the code, one of the first ethical obligations is to “avoid harm or wrong, understanding that the development of knowledge can lead to change which may be positive or negative for the people or animals worked with or studied” (p. 2) and to “consult actively with the affected individuals or group(s), with the goal of establishing a working relationship that can be beneficial to all parties involved” (p. 2). The code makes clear that anthropologists do not expect to have direct control and thus cannot embrace highly specific guidelines for reducing risk. Biomedical research participants are often at risk physically, but they may also benefit greatly, as when they receive treatments that improve their health. By contrast, participants in cross-cultural social research are typically not only at minimal risk but also unlikely to benefit directly from the research. As a result, many Native American groups have accused anthropologists of gathering data that are of little use to them. Such resentment is evident is Deloria’s (1969) famous opening to his chapter on anthropologists, in Custer Died for Your Sins: “Into each life a little rain must fall. . . . But Indians have been cursed above all other people in history, Indians have anthropologists” (p. 78). Clearly, cross-cultural researchers must find ways to meet their theoretical goals while also contributing to the welfare of the communities that they study.

RESEARCH RISKS AND BENEFITS Because biomedical researchers have considerable control over their environments and participants, the potential for harm to participants is greater, and thus the institutional review boards (IRBs) that regulate their research tend to emphasize the balance between risk and benefit. By contrast, cross-cultural researchers typically have very little control over their environments

PRIVACY Invasion of privacy is the most common risk occasioned by cross-cultural observational research. Kelman (1977) identified three types of invasion of privacy: (1) public exposure of participants’ behavior or views that have damaging consequences, (2) procedures that deprive participants of control of their

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“self-presentation,” and (3) probing into areas that are perceived as private space. The first two violations are not unique to cross-cultural studies, but the third type is of particular importance to cross-cultural studies, because private and public domains are defined culturally and thus vary in different cultural contexts. For example, Western scientists may assume that the inside of a person’s home is universally private; but this is not true in all societies. Instead, in most nomadic groups, houses are temporary and often do not hide people’s behavior or possessions effectively. In many cultures, furthermore, large groups of extended-family members share living quarters. Not surprisingly, many Western fieldworkers complain that they do not have enough privacy while conducting fieldwork; although Western boundaries of the private domain are quite distinct, they may nevertheless have difficulty explaining and understanding the boundaries between public and private domains in the cultures they wish to study. INFORMED CONSENT Because the relationships between participants and researchers, as well as the risk-benefit relationships, are different in biomedical and cross-cultural research contexts, the process of informed consent inevitably differs as well. While formal written consent is the rule in biomedical research, it is often not feasible in cross-cultural studies, where the informed consent process is often dictated by factors such as the educational level of the studied population, their knowledge of Western scientific methods, their ability to read and write, and their perceptions of the researcher. In many rural areas in developing countries, for example, participants are likely to be illiterate, may not understand their rights, and may assume subordinate positions relative to Western researchers because of a history of colonialism. This makes it necessary to devise consent scripts that make the research understandable to those who have not been formally educated or exposed to standard human rights issues, so that they understand their freedom not to participate and to withdraw or refuse at any point. Consent scripts should be in the participants’ native language rather than more accessible trade languages, not only to make the participants feel more comfortable but also to communicate the researchers’ willingness to acknowledge and respect the local culture. The AAA code of ethics (1998) anticipates some of these problems and explains that “the informed consent process is dynamic and continuous; the process should be initiated

in the project design and continue through implementation by way of dialogue and negotiation with those studied” (p. 3). Furthermore, the code requires flexibility to traditional concepts of consent, stating that “informed consent . . . does not necessarily imply or require a particular written or signed form. It is the quality of the consent, not the format, that is relevant” (p. 3). CONCLUSIONS In sum, the nature of cross-cultural research often requires fieldworkers to face ethical dilemmas that are quite distinct from those in biomedical research, and often to face them spontaneously. Understanding the historical, linguistic, and cultural context of the people studied can thwart some of the ethical dilemmas inherent in cross-cultural research. This understanding enables researchers to accurately assess risk and benefit, use effective means to protect and communicate with participants, and modify their own status by behaving in a culturally sensitive manner. —Hillary N. Fouts and Michael E. Lamb

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Anthropological Association. (1998, June). Code of ethics of the American Anthropological Association. Available at http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ ethcode.htm Cassell, J. (1980). Ethical principles for conducting fieldwork. American Anthropologist, 82, 28–41. Deloria, V., Jr. (1969). Custer died for your sins: An Indian manifesto. London: Collier-Macmillan. Kelman, H. C. (1977). Privacy and research with human beings. Journal of Social Issues, 33, 169–195.

ETHICS, RESEARCH. See ADOLESCENTS, CONSENT AND REFUSAL OF TREATMENT; CANCER PATIENTS, ADOLESCENT CONSENT TO RESEARCH; ETHICAL ISSUES IN CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH ETHNIC GLOSS An ethnic gloss is an overgeneralization or simplistic categorical label used to refer to ethnocultural

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groups, such as American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans, and nationalistic or indigenous groups where unique cultural and ethnic differences found among group members are ignored. An ethnic gloss presents the illusion of homogeneity where none exists, and therefore it may be considered a superficial, almost vacuous, categorization that serves only to separate one group from another (Trimble, 1991). Use of an ethnic gloss provides little or no information on the richness and cultural variation within ethnocultural groups, much less the existence of numerous subgroups characterized by distinct lifeways and thoughtways. At best, it is an invented and often contrived symbolic label for referring to a distinct ethnocultural population. It is a sorting device that has little to do with the deep cultural influences that guide a group member’s thought, feelings, and behavior. Furthermore, use of a broad ethnic gloss to describe an ethnocultural group can generate biased and flawed scientific research outcomes as well as promote stereotypes. In addition, from the fact that such sweeping references to ethnocultural groups are gross misrepresentations, use of an ethnic gloss can violate certain scientific tenets concerning external validity, affect the ability to generalize findings across subgroups within an ethnic category, and erode any likelihood of an accurate and efficient replication of research results. This entry provides examples of the use of ethnic glosses and recommendations for more adequate identification and sampling of research participants from diverse ethnocultural groups.

these groups are extraordinarily complex. Given the diversity of languages, norms, mores, and immigrant status, it is evident that to label these peoples as Asian American implies a level of homogeneity that is almost certainly lacking. The Hispanic ethnic gloss is a term used to designate those individuals who reside in the United States and whose cultural origins are from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and various other Latin American countries. The American essayist Richard Rodriguez (2003), for example, asserts,

EXAMPLES OF ETHNIC GLOSSES

RISKS AND REMEDIES FOR ETHNIC SAMPLING

The category of American Indian (or Native American), a widely used and abused ethnic gloss, actually represents an extremely diverse and complicated ethnic group consisting of well over 500 identifiable tribal units, in which individual members represent varying degrees of mixtures, resulting from intermarriages, and reflect varying acculturative orientations that effect ethnic identity. Using the label American Indian ignores the specific and unique lifeways and thoughtways of each of these different groups or tribes. This brand of gross oversimplification is also found in the label Asian American. There are at least 32 distinct Asian American ethnic and cultural groups that are typically listed under this designation; however, the differences among and between

There is no such thing as a Hispanic race. In Latin America, one sees every race of the world. One sees white Hispanics, one sees brown Hispanics, one sees black Hispanics, one sees brown Hispanics who are Indians, many of whom do not speak Spanish because they resist Spain. One sees Asian Hispanics. (p. B11) African Americans or Blacks in America are considered to be individuals who can trace the origins of their ancestors to Africa. African American as a race is an illusion if one means by it a homogeneous group with common anatomical and psychological characteristics. Moreover, African Americans in America are as culturally heterogeneous as the other three groups, as reflected in social class characteristics, progeny from mixed ethnic marriages, and American Blacks who are descendants of, or originally from, the Caribbean Basin (e.g., Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica) and Central and South America.

In selecting ethnic samples for social and behavioral science studies, researchers often assume that their respondents share a common understanding of their own ethnicity and nationalistic identification. It is as though the researcher believes that American Indians, African Americans, and others share some modal characteristic that at one level sets them apart from another comparative sample such as “Whites” (Trimble, 1988). This assumption is invalid. The anthropologist Dwight Heath (1978) argues that “categories of people such as those compared under the rubric of ‘ethnic groups’ are often not really meaningful units in any sociocultural sense” and “that the ways in which people define and maintain the social

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boundaries between or among self-identified categories are often far more important and revealing of sociocultural dynamics” (p. 60). At an individual level, the researcher can use labels to describe one’s ethnic affiliation and thus one’s identity, but this nominal approach is incomplete and insufficient to adequately capture the full range and depth of one’s ethnic identity. The labeling of an individual, often achieved by having the respondent check off the most applicable ethnic category available on a questionnaire, can at best be construed as the representation of only a small part of one’s ethnic identification. One must consider gathering information on natal background, acculturation status, attitudes toward their own and other groups, preferences such as language use, friendship affiliations, music, foods, and participation in cultural and religious events. The variables are closely aligned to the four-part ethnic identification measurement model advocated by Trimble (2000) and related ethnic and racial identification scales (see Trimble, Helms, & Root, 2003). In the design of cultural or ethnic research, attention must be given to the manner in which one specifies and describes ethnocultural and nationalistic populations. In the cross-cultural and ethnic psychological literature, studies abound in which researchers purport to be studying groups with such labels as the Japanese, Israeli Jews, Hong Kong Chinese, Canadians, Australian aborigines, Greek Australians, Nigerians, American Indians (or Native Americans), Asian and Pacific Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other ethnic specific groups. Occasionally, researchers provide greater specificity concerning their respondents in their titles and abstracts by giving reference to a geographic region or city where the respondents and participants reside. Others will distinguish their respondents along urban and rural lines, while others, when referring to an American Indian group, for example, will specify the tribe and the location on a reservation where the study occurred. However, for a vast majority of the studies in the ethnic minority and cross-cultural literature, descriptions of ethnocultural groups tend to rely on the use of broad ethnic glosses. For example, in a study conducted by the psychologist Patrick H. Munley and his collaborators (2002), 402 empirical research studies selected from journals sponsored by the American Psychological Association were reviewed and analyzed for their participant description content using the personal dimensions of

identity (PDI) model to determine whether researchers were gathering appropriate participant characteristic information. The authors found that of the studies reviewed, only 60.7% included information related to a person’s race or ethnicity, only 16.2% reported the language of their participants, and even fewer reported their participants’ income or social class (14.5% and 14.9%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Researchers can avoid or minimize the use of an ethnic gloss by elaborating on the population descriptions or sample through administering detailed demographic or ethnic identification measures. The publication manual of the American Psychological Association (2001) states, “When describing racial and ethnic groups, be appropriately specific and sensitive to issues of labeling,” and “It may be helpful to describe them by their nation or region of origin” (p. 62). To avoid the bias inherent in the ethnic gloss phenomenon, it is prudent for the investigator to define the ethnocultural group in more precise terms. An ethnocultural minority group may be defined as follows: (1) Subordinate segments of complex state societies; (2) [having] special physical or cultural traits which are held in low esteem by the dominant segments of the society; (3) selfconscious units bound together by the special traits which their members have and by the special disabilities which these bring; (4) [one where] membership is transmitted by a rule of descent which is capable of affiliating succeeding generations even in the absence of readily apparent special cultural or physical traits; and (5) [people who] by choice or necessity tend to marry within the group. (Wayley & Harris, 1958, p. 10) Or one may prefer to use the definition offered by the anthropologist Raoll Narroll (1964), who maintains that it is a population, Largely biologically self-perpetuating; shares fundamental cultural values, realized in over unity in cultural forms; makes up a field of communication and interaction; [and] has a membership which identifies itself, and is identified by

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others, as constituting a category distinguishable from other categories of the same order. (p. 296) —Joseph E. Trimble and Ryan A. Dickson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Heath, D. B. (1978). The sociocultural model of alcohol use: Problems and prospects. Journal of Operational Psychiatry, 9, 55–66. Munley, P., Anderse, M., Baines, T., Borgman, A., Briggs, D., Dolan, J., et al. (2002). Personal dimensions of identity and empirical research in APA journals. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8(4), 357–365. Narroll, R. (1964). Ethnic unit classification. Current Anthropology, 5, 4. Rodriguez, R. (2003, September 12). “Blaxicans” and other reinvented Americans. The Chronicle of Higher Education, B11. Trimble, J. E. (1988). Multilinearity of acculturation: Personsituation interactions. In D. Keats, D. Munro, & L. Mann (Eds.), Heterogeneity in cross-cultural psychology (pp. 173–186). Berwyn, PA: Swets & Zeitlinger. Trimble, J. E. (1991). Ethnic specification, validation prospects, and the future of drug use research. International Journal of the Addictions, 25(2A), 149–170. Trimble, J. E. (2000). Social psychological perspectives on changing self-identification among American Indians and Alaska Natives. In R. H. Dana (Ed.), Handbook of crosscultural/multicultural personality assessment (pp. 197–222). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Trimble, J., Helms, J., & Root, M. (2003). Social and psychological perspectives on ethnic and racial identity. In G. Bernal, J. Trimble, K. Burlew, & F. Leong (Eds.), Handbook of racial and ethnic minority psychology (pp. 239–275). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Wayley, C., & Harris, M. (1958). Minorities in the new world: Six case studies. New York: Columbia University Press.

ETHNIC IDENTITY The construct ethnic identity can best be understood through an examination of its etymological origins. The term ethnic has Latin and Greek origins, ethnicus and ethnikas, both meaning “nation.” It can and has been used historically to refer to people as heathens. Ethos, in Greek, means “custom,” “disposition,” or “trait.” Ethnikas and ethos taken together therefore

can mean a band of people (nation) living together who share and acknowledge common customs. The second part of the construct, identity, has Latin origins and is derived from the word identitas; the word is formed from idem, meaning “same.” Thus, the term is used to express the notion of sameness, likeness, and oneness. More precisely, identity means “the sameness of a person or thing at all times in all circumstances; the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else” (Simpson & Weiner, 1989, p. 620). Combining the definitions and interpretations of identity and ethnicity, it can be concluded that they mean, or at minimum imply, the sameness of a band or nation of people who share common customs, traditions, historical experiences, and in some instances geographical residence. At one level of interpretation, the combined definition is sufficient to capture the manner in which identity is generally conceptualized and used to understand ethnocultural influences on its formation and development. At another level, identity is almost synonymous with ethnicity, prompting some sociologists, such as Herbert Gans (2003), to suggest that identity is no longer a useful term. In addition, because of its increasing popularity, identity is rapidly becoming a cliché and therefore more and more difficult to understand (Gleason, 1996). This entry begins with an overview of historical approaches to ethnic identity and then moves to contemporary understandings and continued challenges in defining the construct. HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO ETHNIC IDENTITY The first oblique reference to ethnic identity can be found in the anthropological and sociological literature of the early 20th century, in reference to the field study of non-Western cultures. The terms ethnic groups and ethnicity were first used in anthropology to refer to a people presumed to affiliate with the same cultural group and who shared the same customs, language, and traditions. Over the years, the construct seems to have emerged through the combination of ethnic and identity and their meanings, as a reasonably thorough literature search was unable to uncover a coining author or an often-cited definition. Reference to the notion of ethnic identity can be traced back to the early 19th century. In 1808, Hugh Murray (1808), in referring to the influence of mental

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images on self-recognition, asserted a notably modern view on the construct when he stated, “But I think it evident that the characteristic qualities . . . are wholly unconnected with those external by which races which are distinguished. Mind is more flexible substance and yields more readily to the influence of altered circumstances” (pp. 33–34). Writing about individual and national differences between 1830 and 1835, the naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt maintained that “language is the outer appearance of the mentalities of peoples; their language is their mentality and their mentality their language. One can hardly overemphasize their identity. People who share a common language develop a similar subjectivity, a Weltanschauung (world view)” (Von Humboldt, 1830–1835/1985, p. 12). In both citations, language and one’s mental images formed the basis of the scholars’ observations about the importance of identity from a nationalistic perspective. When first used, ethnic identity was synonymous with race or racial identity and ethnicity in general. It is likely that ethnicity was first used by the French nationalist and scientist Georges Vacher de la Pouge, in 1896, to describe the “natural and counterfeit” cultural, psychological, and social characteristics of a population and to distinguish the latter from the concept of race, which he defined as a series of physical characteristics (Vacher de la Pouge, 1896). Herbert J. Gans (1996) suggests that the sociologist David Riesman gave ethnicity a new and salient meaning in the 20th century. Werner Sollars (1996), on the other hand, attributes the earliest use of the term to Einar Haugen and Joshua Fishman, who were likely influenced by the sociologist W. Lloyd Warner, all of whom were writing about the concept in the 1940s and 1950s. Race and ethnicity were often used interchangeably in reference to both the physical and cultural characteristics of an individual as a member of his or her ethnic or racial group and the circumstances that influenced its importance. On this point in 1916, the philosopher Horace Kallen wrote, When the quarrel [whether they identified with the English or Britons in America] came they remembered how they had left the mother country in search of religious liberty for themselves; how they left Holland, where they had found this liberty, for fear of losing their ethnic and cultural identity and what hardships they

had borne for the sake of conserving both the liberty and the identity. (Kallen, 1996, p. 69) In 1922, the sociologist Max Weber wrote about ethnic groups in a novel way, including within the definition a subjective element that previously had been absent. Weber also differentiated between racial and ethnic identity by proposing that a blood relationship was necessary for racial identification but not for ethnic identification. He defined ethnic groups as follows: Those human groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration; this belief must be important for group formation; furthermore it does not matter whether an objective blood relationship exists. (Weber 1922/1955, p. 56) Although he wrote about the significance of ethnicity in general, Weber never acknowledged the need for individuals’ active participation in their ethnic identity formation, nor did he explore the construct much beyond a definitional conceptualization. The concept of ethnic identity began to reemerge in the social and behavioral sciences literature of the 1960s and 1970s. Ethnicity, for example, is more salient today than in prior decades. “Ethnicity,” according to Daniel Bell (1975), “is a means (now) for disadvantaged groups to claim a set of rights and privileges which the existing power structures have denied them” (p. 174). And for the past few decades, America’s ethnic minority groups have been actively asserting their civil rights and demanding privileges heretofore denied them. Several factors have been cited as leading to this renewed interest in ethnicity, arguably the most significant being the civil rights struggle of African Americans in the United States. The beginning of this movement can be characterized as an attempt on the part of African American leaders and the African American culture in general to take charge of their ethnic and racial identity and to subsequently redefine their ethnicity at both a societal and a cultural level. Consequently, the social movement led to increased discourse on the topics of race and ethnicity, in addition to an upsurge in societal awareness regarding these topics (Bourguignon, 1979; Phinney, 1990).

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MODERN DEFINITIONS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY Definitions of ethnic identity vary according to the underlying theory embraced by researchers and scholars intent on resolving its conceptual meanings. The fact that there is no widely agreed-on definition of ethnic identity is indicative of the confusion surrounding the topic. Typically, ethnic identity is an affiliative construct, whereby individuals are viewed by themselves and by others as belonging to a particular ethnic or cultural group. An individual can choose to associate with a group especially if other choices are available (i.e., the person is of mixed ethnic or racial heritage). Affiliation can be influenced by racial, natal, symbolic, and cultural factors (Cheung, 1993). Racial factors involve the use of physiognomic and physical characteristics; natal factors refer to “homeland” (ancestral home) or origins of individuals, their parents, and kin; and symbolic factors include factors that typify or exemplify an ethnic group (e.g., holidays, foods, clothing, artifacts, etc.). Symbolic ethnic identity usually implies that individuals choose their identities; however, to some extent, the cultural elements of the ethnic or racial group have a modest influence on their behavior (Kivisto & Nefzger, 1993). Yuet Cheung (1993) defines ethnic identification as “the psychological attachment to an ethnic group or heritage” (p. 1216) and thus centers the construct in the domain of self-perception. The Netherlands-based sociologist Sawitri Saharso (1989) extends the definition to include social processes that involve one’s choice of friends, selection of a future partner, and perception of one’s life chances, and the reactions of others in one’s social environment. Both definitions involve boundaries whereby one makes a distinction between “self” and “other.” Saharso’s definition extends the “others” boundary to include an attribution component. An individual may strongly identify psychologically with an ethnic group; however, the strength and authenticity of the identity is contingent on the acceptance and acknowledgment of “in-group” and “out-group” members. Saharso’s definition is consistent with the writings of the sociologist Fredrik Barth (1969), who argued that ethnic identity is a means to create boundaries that enable groups to distance themselves from one another. Barth was quite forceful about his position, as he strongly maintained that ethnic boundaries define a group and not the “cultural stuff that encloses it” (Sollars, 1996, p. xxii).

SELF- AND GROUP IDENTITY The psychologist Jean Phinney (1990) notes that there are “widely discrepant definitions and measures of ethnic identity, which makes generalizations and comparisons across studies difficult and ambiguous” (p. 500). Currently, the most widely used definition of the construct in psychology is the one developed by Phinney (1990, 2000, 2003). She maintains that “ethnic identity is a dynamic, multidimensional construct that refers to one’s identity, or sense of self as a member of an ethnic group” (2003, p. 63). From her perspective, one claims an identity within the context of a subgroup that claims a common ancestry and shares at least a similar culture, race, religion, language, kinship, or place of origin. Phinney goes on to add that “ethnic identity is not a fixed categorization, but rather is a fluid and dynamic understanding of self and ethnic background. Ethnic identity is constructed and modified as individuals become aware of their ethnicity, within the large (sociocultural) setting” (p. 63). Phinney (1990, 2000) views subjective identity as a starting point that eventually leads to the development of a social identity based on ethnic group membership. The cross-cultural psychologist Peter Weinreich not only views self-identity as a starting point but also believes that identity formation and development refer to different identity states whereby different social contexts will influence the identity state and one’s actions. He asserts, One’s identity as situated in a specific social context is defined as that part of the totality of one’s self-construal in which how one construes oneself in the situated present expresses the continuity between how one construes oneself as one was in the past and how one construes oneself as one aspires to be in the future. (Weinreich, 1986, p. 28) Moreover, Weinreich maintains that ethnic self-identity is not a static process, but one that changes and varies according to particular social contexts. Individuals, for example, may avoid situations where their identities are challenged, threatened, humiliated, and castigated, and seek out and sustain whatever possible settings favor the identity state. Self-expression, maintenance of ethnic identity, and situated identities offer promise for understanding the complexities and dynamics of ethnic orientations through Weinreich’s

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theory of identity structure analysis (Weinreich & Saunderson, 2003). LINKS TO SELF-CONCEPT Several conceptual approaches to ethnic identity emphasize an individual level of analysis whereby notions of identity formation and development are linked to one’s self-concept. Much of the work in this area relies on the social psychologist Henri Tajfel’s (1982) theory of social identity. Tajfel basically maintains that one’s social identity strongly influences selfperception and consequently should be the central locus of evaluation. The strength and weakness of the self is largely determined from our status with our reference groups and how we assess out-group members. When ethnicity and race form the nexus of an ingroup, then self-identity will be correspondingly influenced. One’s distinctive ethnic characteristics, however, can be restrictive, as individuals may reject external judgments and opinions of their own ethnic groups and, in turn, establish their own criteria to challenge and refute those of the dominant out-group. Other responses are possible: Individuals might withdraw or choose to dissociate with the referent, thereby creating added psychological complications for themselves. Tajfel’s social identity theory has generated considerable influence on ethnic identity research; some prefer to carry out the work under the ethnic self-identification rubric. CONTEXTUAL AND SITUATIONAL ASPECTS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY Ethnic identity is usually contextual and situational because it derives from social negotiations in which one declares an ethnic identity and then demonstrates acceptable and acknowledged ethnic group markers to others. One’s ethnic declaration often is open to the scrutiny of others, who may validate or invalidate the declaration. Ethnic declarations embody an ethnic consciousness that is closely aligned with the cultural elements of the ethnic group with which one affiliates. The ultimate form of ethnic consciousness is the genuine association of an individual’s personal identification with a communal one. Thus, it is logical to assume that a concordance would exist between personal identity and an outsider’s sense of identity in which the importance is placed on one’s own categories and intention of self-identification.

To promote the union between self and other, individuals often use ethnological speech patterns and gestures to promote the authenticity of their claim. If outward physical appearances do not mesh with the standard physical criteria or there is the sense that others doubt the identity claim, ethnic actors will tend to exaggerate and give emphasis to mannerisms and speech idiosyncrasies known to be particular and specific to the reference group. This ritual or stylistic emphasis also frequently occurs when ethnic group members meet or gather in geographic areas that differ from their homelands or communities of common origin. The distinctive ritual is a prime example of situational ethnicity and situated ethnic identity. ETHNIC LABELS At an individual or societal level, individuals may rely on labels to describe their ethnic affiliations and subsequently their identities. Labels assist in classifying and naming people. Thus, ethnic labeling has a sociopolitical value and function, especially for census and demographic studies. At a superficial level, where generalizations about distinct cultural orientations are not used, ethnic labels serve a useful function. However, use of a label is a small part of the identity process, as one is likely to expand the labeling to include other identifiers, such as natal background, acculturation status, ego involvement, and attitudes toward one’s own and other groups; behavioral preferences, such as language usage, friendship affiliations, music and food preferences, and participation in cultural and religious activities, may also be included (Trimble, 2000). INDIVIDUALS OF MIXED ETHNIC BACKGROUND People with mixed ethnic backgrounds present interesting ethnic identity cases, as they have at least two ethnic groups from which to claim and negotiate an ethnic declaration. Based on extensive interviews with people of mixed ethnic background, the clinical psychologist Maria P. P. Root (1992) identified four basic reasons why multiethnic persons would choose to identify with a particular group regardless of how others may view them. Root maintained that (1) one enhances one’s sense of security by understanding a distinct part of one’s ethnic heritage; (2) parental influences stimulated by the encouragement of grandparents

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promote identity, thereby granting permission to the offspring to make a choice; (3) racism and prejudice associated with certain groups lead to sharing experiences with family, thereby assisting the individual to develop psychological skills and defenses for selfprotection (the shared experiences help to build selfconfidence and create the sense that one can cope with the negative elements often associated with the group); and (4) “gender alignment between parents and children may exert influence on ethnic and racial socialization particularly when they have good relationships and are mutually held in esteem” (Root, 1992, p. 15).

CONCLUSIONS Increasingly, it appears that North Americans are realizing that their biological ancestors wittingly and unwittingly influence their lives. To gain some understanding and perhaps to add structure and meaning, many are searching their attics for long-lost records describing their social histories. And from the discoveries, one constructs a “symbolic identity.” “If you wish to understand persons—their development and their relations with significant others,” according to Anselm Strauss (1959), “you must be prepared to view them as embedded in historical context” (p. 164). In the course of constructing and maintaining the identity, common historical symbols are identified, shared, and passed along to future generations. The symbols can also serve as a public affirmation of one’s ethnic claim: clothing, decals, adornments, flags, food, language, and celebrations. —Joseph E. Trimble and Ryan Dickson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Barth, F. (1969). Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference. Boston: Little, Brown. Bell, D. (1975). Ethnicity and social change. In N. Glazer & D. P. Moynihan (Eds.), Ethnicity: Theory and practice (pp. 174n). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bourguignon, E. (1979). Psychological anthropology: An introduction to human nature and cultural differences. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Cheung, Y. W. (1993). Approaches to ethnicity: Clearing roadblocks in the study of ethnicity and substance abuse. International Journal of Addictions, 28(12), 1209–1226. Gans, H. J. (1996). Symbolic ethnicity: The future of ethnic groups and cultures in America. In W. Sollars (Ed.),

Theories of ethnicity: A classical reader (pp. 425–459). New York: New York University Press. Gans, H. (2003, March 7). Identity. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B4. Gleason, P. (1996). Identifying identity: A semantic history. In W. Sollars (Ed.), Theories of ethnicity: A classical reader (pp. 460–487). New York: New York University Press. Kallen, H. M. (1996). Democracy versus the melting-pot: A study of American nationality. In W. Sollars (Ed.), Theories of ethnicity: A classical reader (pp. 67–92). New York: New York University Press. Kivisto, P., & Nefzger, B. (1993). Symbolic ethnicity and American Jews: The relationship of ethnic identity to behavior and group affiliation. Social Science Journal, 30, 1–12. Murray, H. (1808). Enquiries historical and moral, respecting the character of nations, and the progress of society. Edinburgh, Scotland: Printed by J. Ballantyne and Co. for J. Anderson. Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. Phinney, J. (2000). Ethnic identity. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 254–259). New York: Oxford University Press. Phinney, J. (2003). Ethnic identity and acculturation. In K. Chun, P. B. Organista, & G. Marin (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 63–81). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Root, M. P. P. (1992). Back to the drawing board: Methodological issues in research on multiracial people. In M. P. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 181–189). London: Sage. Saharso, S. (1989). Ethnic identity and the paradox of equality. In J. P. Van Oudenhoven & T. M. Willemsen (Eds.), Ethnic minorities: Social psychological perspectives (pp. 97–114). Berwyn, PA: Swets North America. Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. (1989). The Oxford English dictionary (2nd ed., Vol. 7). Oxford, UK: Clarendon. Sollars, W. (1996). (Ed.). Theories of ethnicity: A classical reader. New York: New York University Press. Strauss, A. L. (1959). Mirrors and masks: The search for identity. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. Tajfel, H. (1982). Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Trimble, J. E. (2000). Social psychological perspectives on changing self-identification among American Indians and Alaska Natives. In R. H. Dana (Ed.), Handbook of cross-cultural and multicultural personality assessment (pp. 197–222). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Vacher de la Pouge, G. (1896). Les selections sociales. Paris: Thorin. Von Humboldt, A. (1985). Uber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einflub auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts [On language: The diversity of human language structure and its

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influence on the mental development of mankind]. In M. Riedel (Ed.), Geschichte der Philosophie in Text und Darstellung (Vol. 7, pp. 66–100). Stuttgart, Germany: Reclan. (Original work published 1830–1835) Weber, M. (1955). Theories of ethnicity. In G. Roth and C. Wittich (Eds.), Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. New York: Bedminster. (Original work published 1922) Weinreich, P. (1986). The operationalisation of identity theory in racial and ethnic relations. In J. Rex and D. Mason (Eds.), Theories of race and ethnic relations (pp. 299–320). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Weinreich, P., & Saunderson, W. (Eds.). (2003). Analyzing identity: Cross-cultural, societal and clinical contexts. New York: Routledge.

ETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT IN MINORITY ADOLESCENTS Ethnic identity is a sense of belonging or attachment to one’s ethnic group and the feelings that accompany that sense of belonging. During adolescence, identity issues become important as young people move toward adulthood and begin to make decisions about the kind of person they will be in the future. For members of ethnic minority groups, ethnicity is a central aspect of their identities (Phinney, 1990). An ethnic identity develops through a process similar to the formation of an ego identity, as described by Erik Erikson and studied empirically initially by James Marcia (1994). The formation of an ethnic identity occurs typically during adolescence and young adulthood, but it may occur later in life, depending on the context. In early childhood, children who are exposed to diverse ethnic groups learn the names of their ethnic groups and some of their distinguishing characteristics, such as food, customs, and language. During early and middle childhood, children begin to attach meanings to their ethnic group membership. These meanings will depend to a large extent on the context in which they live. When parents convey a positive sense of their groups and when cohesive ethnic communities provide opportunities for cultural involvement in customs and activities, children will develop good feelings about their ethnicity. However, virtually all minority children are exposed as well to messages from the larger society about their groups. These messages often include images of their groups as less worthy, less accomplished, and less attractive than

members of the dominant group. These negative stereotypes can become internalized, so that some minority children feel unhappy about their group memberships and may, in fact, wish to belong to the dominant group. Minority children thus enter adolescence with a range of feelings and attitudes, both positive and negative, about their groups and their relationship to them. The task for minority adolescents is to explore the meaning of their group memberships for themselves, attempt to resolve conflicting attitudes, and come to an understanding of the implications in their lives, that is, to develop a secure ethnic identity. Models that have described the development of ethnic identity (Phinney, 1993), racial identity (Wijeyesinghe & Jackson, 2001), and minority identity generally (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1993) are similar in suggesting that the process can be thought of in terms of distinct phases or aspects. At the earliest phase, individuals have given little thought to the meaning and implications of their ethnicity. A second phase involves a period of exploration of one’s ethnicity or race. This can lead to a resolution that includes a commitment to a particular way of being a member of the group. These are not, however, true stages, as they do not occur in an invariant sequence, show a single developmental direction, or imply that everyone progresses through all phases. THE EXPLORATION AND COMMITMENT MODEL A model of ethnic identity formation based on Marcia’s (1994) work emphasizes the two processes of exploration and commitment (Phinney, 1993). Exploration involves active learning about one’s ethnic heritage and culture; commitment involves having or taking a position regarding the meaning of being a member of a particular group. When the two dimensions of exploration and commitment are divided into high and low categories, the four possible combinations of these categories create four ethnic identity types or statuses: diffusion (low on both exploration and commitment), foreclosure (low exploration and high commitment), moratorium (high exploration and low commitment), and identity achievement (high on both exploration and commitment). Identity Diffusion. Initially, young adolescents may not have explored their ethnicity nor made a commitment to it (identity diffusion). These adolescents show little

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interest in, or knowledge about, their ethnicity. Diffusion is common among those who live in very homogeneous communities in which ethnicity is not salient and also among those who have had little exposure to other ethnic groups or whose experiences with other groups have not included prejudice or discrimination. Ethnicity is not a salient issue for these adolescents as long as their environment is stable and they are focused on other concerns, such as school, friends, and family. Foreclosure. Alternatively, adolescents may be committed without having engaged in exploration (foreclosure). They have a clear sense about their ethnicity, based on information received from their parents or from society. However, this sense of one’s ethnic group can vary across individuals from positive to negative. Foreclosed adolescents may have a sense of belonging to their groups, express positive feelings about their groups, and enjoy their traditions and customs within the context of a supportive ethnic community. On the other hand, models of racial identity formation (e.g., Cross, 1991; Wijeyesinghe & Jackson, 2001) have emphasized a negative type of foreclosure, in which adolescents prefer the dominant culture over their own and try to imitate it, for example, in adopting the styles of dress and behavior of the majority group. Such attitudes can be observed in minority adolescents, but it is not clear how common they are. Multicultural programs and classes in schools serve to counter such attitudes. Moratorium. Adolescents typically begin to explore and question the meaning and implications of their ethnicity as a result of experiences that highlight their ethnicity, such as discrimination or exposure to other groups or experiences that derive from the adolescent identity formation task. They engage in exploration but do not yet have a clear commitment (moratorium). As part of the exploration process, they may “immerse” themselves in the history, customs, and symbols of their groups (Cross, 1991). This process can be highly emotional and disruptive, especially when adolescents become more aware of past and present mistreatment. On the other hand, the process may simply involve the pursuit of knowledge and understanding about their groups. Identity Achievement. By late adolescence or young adulthood, many individuals have explored their

ethnic backgrounds and made commitments involving a secure, confident sense of their own ethnicity (identity achievement). They have a clear understanding of the meaning of their group memberships and the implications of such membership for their lives. Racial identity models describe a similar positive sense of one’s race that is attained after overcoming internalized racism (Cross, 1991). Over time, an increasing proportion of adolescents and young adults are likely to reach an achieved status. However, not all individuals attain an achieved ethnic identity or remain achieved after attaining it. Some people may remain diffuse, with ethnicity never becoming a salient part of their identities. Others may remain indefinitely foreclosed, a status that can provide a solid sense of one’s ethnicity within a stable ethnic community. Furthermore, individuals who have achieved identities may encounter changes and challenges in their lives that motivate them to reexamine their commitments, that is, to return to a moratorium phase. Any status, if it is compatible with their needs and with the context in which they live, can be satisfactory for the individual. Nevertheless, an achieved ethnic identity has consistently been shown to be associated with higher levels of psychological wellbeing than have the other statuses. Adolescents and young adults with achieved identities have higher selfesteem, sense of mastery, and optimism and a lower incidence of depression. ETHNIC GROUP VARIATION The meaning and strength of ethnic identity vary across American ethnic groups. Ethnic identity is generally stronger among minority group members who have experienced negative stereotypes and discrimination. African Americans consistently show stronger ethnic identities than any other group, generally at the upper end of scales that have been used to assess it. Latino and Asian adolescents also tend to show strong ethnic identities, but somewhat less so than African Americans. European Americans, even those living in ethnically diverse communities and attending ethnically mixed schools, show substantially lower scores on ethnic identity than do minority group members. As minority adolescents develop a sense of their own group membership, they also face issues regarding their national identities, that is (in the United States), the extent to which they feel that they are American (Phinney & Devich-Navarro, 1997). The

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ways in which adolescents think of themselves as being both ethnic and American define an important aspect of their cultural identities. Adolescents may have strong identities as both ethnic and American; that is, they are bicultural. Alternatively, they may have strong ethnic identities but little sense of being American; these adolescents have been called separated. Conceptually, minority adolescents could be assimilated; that is, they feel completely American and retain little or no sense of belonging to an ethnic group. Adolescents from European backgrounds such as Italian Americans or Polish Americans, who have been in the United States for several generations and do not retain their ethnic cultures, have been described as assimilated. In contrast, for Hispanic, African American, and Asian Americans, racial and cultural differences, together with the increasing diversity of the country and the greater emphasis on cultural retention and ethnic pride, result in a situation in which most people from these groups retain a strong sense of their ethnicity. Their options are primarily between being bicultural and being separated. BICULTURAL, MULTIRACIAL, OR MULTIETHNIC IDENTITY Most ethnic minority adolescents report having bicultural identities, although they differ in how they handle involvement with two cultures (Phinney & Devich-Navarro, 1997). Two types of bicultural adolescents can be distinguished. Some maintain generally separate identities and alternate between them; for example, they may feel Mexican at home and American at school. Others combine the two cultures to form a single, blended identity as Mexican American. Both types include a strong ethnic identity, and both seem to provide a satisfactory way of being bicultural. Adolescents of mixed ethnic or racial backgrounds, that is, who have parents from two different groups, face a special challenge in forming an ethnic identity (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002). Multiracial or multiethnic children are typically aware at an early age of their “differentness” from each of their parents, and they learn early that they do not fully belong to any of the obvious ethnic groups in their environment. As adolescents, they are less likely to experience diffusion or foreclosure; rather, they may engage in an extended moratorium. Usually lacking an existing biracial group with which to identify, they face a more

difficult task of achieving a group identity. Identification with the group of only one of their parents implies rejection of the other parent. An environment in which there are other biracial people with whom they can explore their experience can help multiethnic or multiracial adolescents achieve secure identities as biracial.

CONCLUSIONS Ethnic identity does not develop in isolation. Parents, communities, and the larger society influence the course of its development. Proficiency in one’s ethnic language and having friends from one’s ethnic group contribute to a strong commitment to one’s group (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001). Parents who teach their children about their groups also enhance children’s commitment. Yet in addition to a commitment, exploration is also essential for achieving an identity. Exploration involves gaining a deeper understanding of one’s group and its history in the context of the larger society. Adolescents who have learned about the history and traditions of their own groups and are committed to their groups have a more secure and confident sense of their ethnic identity compared with those who have made a commitment without having explored. There is some evidence that this secure sense of one’s ethnicity is associated with more positive and accepting attitudes toward other ethnic groups. Multicultural education programs, which expose children and adolescents to diverse cultures, can both promote development of ethnic identity during adolescence and also make a positive contribution to intergroup relations. In today’s diverse cultural environment, it is important that all adolescents have the opportunity to learn about both their own and other groups in order to develop strong ethnic identities. A strong and secure ethnic identity can contribute both to their own wellbeing and to more positive attitudes toward other groups. —Jean S. Phinney

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Atkinson, D., Morten, G., & Sue, D. (1993). Counseling American minorities (4th ed.). Dubuque, IA: Brown & Benchmark.

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Cross, W. (1991). Shades of black: Diversity in AfricanAmerican identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Marcia, J. (1994). The empirical study of ego identity. In H. Bosma, T. Graafsma, H. Grotevant, & D. de Levita (Eds.), Identity and development: An interdisciplinary approach (pp. 67–80). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Phinney, J. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: A review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. Phinney, J. (1993). A three-stage model of ethnic identity development. In M. Bernal & G. Knight (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Formation and transmission among Hispanics and other minorities (pp. 61–79). Albany: State University of New York Press. Phinney, J., & Devich-Navarro, M. (1997). Variations in bicultural identification among African American and Mexican American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 7, 3–32. Phinney, J., Romero, I., Nava, M., & Huang, D. (2001). The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30, 135–153. Rockquemore, K., & Brunsma, D. (2002). Beyond Black: Biracial identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Wijeyesinghe, C., & Jackson, B. (Eds.). (2001). New perspectives on racial identity development: A theoretical and practical anthology. New York: New York University Press.

ETHNICITY AND RACE, UNDERSTANDING OF Children’s understanding of ethnicity and race undergoes dramatic transformation during childhood and adolescence. How children understand ethnicity and race has important implications for educational and social policy as well as interventions or programs designed to address interethnic relations, ethnic prejudice, ethnic identity development, and other attitudes and actions associated with race and ethnicity. Sensitivity to changes in children’s understanding of race and ethnicity will allow for policy and interventions to be tailored specifically to the developmental level of children and adolescents. Children begin early childhood either unaware of ethnicity and race or aware of only the superficial manifestations of ethnic and racial status, such as skin color, hair texture, or facial features. During the first two decades of life, however, children’s understanding of ethnicity and race becomes much more complex and elaborated, to the extent that some adolescents

understand the impact of ethnic group membership on social relations, personal ideologies, and attitudes. DEVELOPMENTAL LEVELS Development of children’s understanding of race and ethnicity, not surprisingly, appears to parallel their development of understanding other aspects of their social world. Children’s understanding of ethnicity matures along with increases in social perspective taking and the cognitive skills needed to construe social relations and situations. Quintana and his colleagues (e.g., Quintana, 1994, 1998; Quintana, Castañeda-English, & Ybarra, 1999; Quintana & Segura-Herrera, 2003; Quintana & Vera, 1999; Quintana, Ybarra, GonzalezDoupe, & de Baessa, 2000) have developed the following taxonomy of ethnic perspective taking (see Table 1).

Level 0: Physical Perspective of Ethnicity The first level of ethnic perspective-taking ability involves young children’s (e.g., preschool to early elementary school) tendency to construe ethnic and racial status based on physical and other superficial manifestations of race and ethnicity. At this level, to be White or African American, for example, means to have either white or black skin coloration. Indeed, young children seem more able to understand and apply racial terms that have color connotations (e.g., Black or White vs. African or European American). They may also coin their own terms based on physical properties (e.g., “Brown”) to refer to ethnic and racial groups. Similarly, young children may suggest that a change in skin color (or other observable markers of race) would change a person’s racial or ethnic status. Hence, ethnic status is not seen as permanent, but is understood by young children to be changeable to the extent that physical and observable markers of ethnicity are changeable. There is some evidence that some young children express racial bias against groups who have dark skin complexion. It is, however, unclear whether children’s responses are based on a bias against certain skin colors rather than on behavioral or attitudinal negative stereotypes of racial groups. For example, research has shown that young children do not use expressed racial attitudes to determine their playmates. In short, young children’s understanding of ethnicity and race is strongly determined by their emphasis on physical and

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Table 1

Ethnic Perspective-Taking Ability

Level 0: Physicalistic and Observable Perspective of Ethnicity Sublevel 0a:

Sublevel 0b:

Idiosyncratic terminology used for race; awareness of race, but not of the nonobservable characteristics associated with ethnicity. Increased accuracy in classifying races and ethnicities based on observable features.

Level 1: Literal Perspective of Ethnicity Sublevel 1a:

Sublevel 1b:

Beginning understanding of some of the relatively permanent, nonobservable aspects of ethnicity (e.g., language spoken, food preferences). Conception of the heritage or ancestry components of ethnicity. At both sublevels of 1, understanding of ethnicity remains fixed on nonsocial, somewhat abstract aspects of ethnicity directly connected to Mexico (e.g., ancestors from Mexico, Mexican food, etc.).

Level 2: Nonliteral and Social Perspective of Ethnicity Sublevel 2a:

Sublevel 2b:

Awareness of subtle aspects associated with ethnicity not directly tied to Mexico (e.g., social class issues). Integration of everyday, mundane social experiences related to ethnicity and awareness of ethnic prejudice.

Level 3: Group Perspective of Ethnicity Sublevel 3a:

Sublevel 3b:

Awareness of the impact of pervasive experiential influences associated with ethnicity. Ethnic group consciousness.

Level 4: Multicultural Perspective of Ethnicity Sublevel 4a:

Sublevel 4b:

Diversity within ethnic groups and similarities across ethnic groups are appreciated and integrated. Awareness of diverse sociocultural influences on self and identity.

SOURCE: Copyright © 1993 by Stephen M. Quintana. This EPTA table is reprinted by permission.

observable features of race, and they seem relatively less able to understand features of race and ethnicity that cannot be directly observed.

Level 1: Literal Perspective of Ethnicity During early to middle elementary school, children develop an understanding of race and ethnicity that is based on nonobservable features and characteristics, such as heritage and ancestry. Consequently, children at this level understand that ethnic/racial status is permanent and unchangeable. Children’s conceptions of ethnicity and race at this level are primarily limited to a literal understanding of ethnic/racial characteristics similar to a dictionary definition. To illustrate, they associate ethnicity with characteristics that include an ethnic label, such as speaking Korean, having African heritage, or participating in American Indian rituals. Interestingly, at this level of development, children tend to construe ethnicity and race as primarily an artifact of an individual’s past or as having occasional importance, such as how holidays are celebrated or which foods are preferred. Children’s literal understanding of ethnicity tends to exclude a full understanding of the social implications of ethnic and racial status.

Level 2: Social Perspective of Ethnicity During late elementary school grades, children are better able to see themselves through others’ eyes. Consequently, children develop a greater appreciation for some social consequences associated with ethnic and racial status. This appreciation allows preadolescent youth to better understand the role of discrimination, racial prejudice, and ethnic bias on their own and others’ lives. They understand, for example, that persons in authority, such as teachers, judges, and police officers, may act on ethnic bias and that social interactions may be influenced by racial and ethnic attitudes. There is greater recognition that because members of the same ethnic or racial group have some similar experiences, it may be easer to befriend others of the same racial or ethnic group. Youth may also perceive that differences in ethnic status may create some barriers or challenges to interethnic relationships. The rate at which children develop this level of understanding may depend on their racial/ethnic status. Children of nonstigmatized ethnic groups may have some delay in developing understanding of the potentially negative social consequences of ethnic or racial group membership. A more rapid developmental trajectory in achieving a social perspective of ethnicity

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may make children of stigmatized ethnic groups more susceptible to developing a socially induced false consciousness about themselves and their racial groups. Level 3: Ethnic Group Consciousness During adolescence, youth participate and form social cliques and oftentimes worry about conforming to in-group norms. The formation of cliques and increased concern about group norms demonstrate that adolescents are developing the ability to assume a group perspective. When these social cognitive skills are applied to the ethnic and racial domain, youth develop a consciousness about their ethnic or racial group memberships. During previous developmental periods, objective features of race and ethnicity, including ethnic heritage or physical markers, were critical. In contrast, during adolescence, subjective racial and ethnic features gain in importance. These subjective features include racial attitudes, ideology, and, more generally, how an individual expresses his or her ethnic group membership. Expressions of racial pride, for example, influence peers’ evaluation of others. There may be concern over “selling out” one’s ethnic group. Conversely, a member of another ethnic group may be adopted as an honorary member of an ethnic group if that person conforms to the group’s norms, such as manner of dress, expressions, attitudes, and values. Hence, objective racial status, determined by ancestry or phenotype, assumes less importance, while subjective racial characteristics, such as expression of racial pride and solidarity, become more important when judging others. In addition, interethnic or interracial interactions are conceived not simply as interactions between two individuals but also as interactions between two ethnic or racial groups. There may be a tendency at this level of development to accentuate differences between groups and exaggerate the extent of in-group similarity as well as to stereotype members of other ethnic or racial groups and members of the adolescent’s own group. Early childhood is marked by a gradual lessening of egocentrism, while early adolescence is marked by increases in other forms of centrism based on group membership (e.g., ethnocentrism). Level 4: Multicultural Perspective of Ethnicity At the last level of development, there is a lessening of emphasis given to in-group similarity and

out-group differences. More specifically, during late adolescence and early adulthood, many develop a greater appreciation for the diversity within ethnic and racial groups as well as similarities across these groups. There may be, for example, an increased recognition of various subgroups within ethnic and racial groups. Moreover, there tends to be greater integration of the various sociocultural influences on an individual’s identity (e.g., nationality, social class, religion) at this level of development compared with previous levels. Diversity is likely to be seen as a strength of a group, rather than a threat, as was more characteristic of the previous developmental level. Instead of defining sharp boundaries between groups, the emphasis at this level often focuses on building bridges and interconnections between ethnic and racial groups.

CONCLUSIONS Extant research reveals that these developmental levels of ethnic perspective taking appear to be applicable across a wide variety of contexts. Children from different ethnic and racial groups and in different sociocultural contexts appear to develop understanding of ethnicity and race in much the same pattern. The main source of variation appears to be in how rapidly children progress through these levels, which, in turn, appears to depend on the amount of opportunity and encouragement children receive to explore the ethnic and racial components of their environments. Those children, for example, who are raised in multicultural environments and for whom ethnic or racial status is a salient aspect of their social status have more opportunity to reflect on and observe the ways race and ethnicity influence their lives and, consequently, develop through these levels of understanding more rapidly than other children. Conversely, those children who are raised in monocultural environments or have only limited exposure to ethnic and racial diversity appear to progress through the levels at a slower rate. —Stephen M. Quintana

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Quintana, S. M. (1994). A model of ethnic perspective taking ability applied to Mexican-American children and youth. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 18, 419–448.

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Quintana, S. M. (1998). Development of children’s understanding of ethnicity and race. Applied & Preventive Psychology: Current Scientific Perspectives, 7, 27–45. Quintana, S. M., Castañeda-English, P., & Ybarra, V. C. (1999). Role of perspective-taking ability and ethnic socialization in the development of adolescent ethnic identity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 9, 161–184. Quintana, S. M., & Segura-Herrera, T. (2003). Developmental transformations of self and identity in context of oppression. Journal of Self and Identity, 2, 269–285. Quintana, S. M., & Vera, E. (1999). Mexican-American children’s representations of ethnic prejudice. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21, 387–404. Quintana, S. M., Ybarra, V. C., Gonzalez-Doupe, P., & de Baessa, Y. (2000). Cross-cultural evaluation of ethnic perspective-taking ability in two samples: U.S. Latino and Guatemalan Ladino children. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 6, 334–351.

ETHNOGRAPHY Ethnography, encompassing a broad constellation of methods and perspectives on social science research, is distinctive in its focus on cultural and social context, its perspective that behaviors are best understood as specific to the time and place in which they occur, and its methodology. These distinctions are widely, though not universally, agreed on by its practitioners and significantly differentiate ethnography from other research in the social sciences. Ethnographic research characteristically takes a holistic and ecological approach. Its focus is on the interactions of individuals with others and with institutions, as well as on the cultural, social, and environmental milieu in which they take place. Ethnographic research explores the dynamics of those interactions and the processes that shape them, which include meaning and intersubjective patterns of thought as well as relations of power. The term ethnography may refer to (a) a methodology (e.g., Evans-Pritchard proposes an ethnography that will draw on a naturalistic paradigm to holistically describe and interpret the Nuer population in the context of their place and time); (b) fieldwork practice (e.g., Evans-Pritchard is conducting ethnography, systematically immersing himself in Nuer everyday life); and (c) a product (e.g., Evans-Pritchard has written an ethnography, a book about the Nuer). Each of these is one aspect of “writing people” or producing representations of them. That is, each is an aspect of the

attempt to describe and interpret human culture and social systems. The origins of ethnography as we know it today, and particularly of participant-observation, commonly are ascribed to the Polish-British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, who conducted research among the people of the Trobriand Islands while interned there as a foreign national during World War I. Malinowski is noted for attending to everyday behaviors (“the minutiae of everyday life”) and participating in the social life of respondents for an extended period of time. A second source is found in “the Chicago school” of sociology (e.g., Robert E. Park and his student and son-in-law, Robert Redfield), which tended toward face-to-face fieldwork and qualitative, holistic descriptions of small communities. Increasingly, scholarly disciplines, policymakers, and practitioners are drawing on ethnography to address their research questions (see Fetterman, 1993, for a discussion and critique of applied ethnography). Ethnography is becoming more widely accepted as an approach to research and as an alternative means to address gaps in conventional social and behavioral research. The aim of an ethnographic study can be basic or applied and can add to understandings of human development by placing it in cultural context (e.g., Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems approach, the concept of developmental niche developed by Super and Harkness, and Vygotsky’s sociocultural approach to development). In addition, ethnography can facilitate close apprehension of developmental transitions and change. (See Jessor, Colby, & Shweder, 1996, for a collection of perspectives on the role and application of ethnography in developmental sciences; Harkness & Super, 1996, for an edited collection of developmental ethnographies; and, Heath, 1996, and Heath & McLaughlin, 1993, for ethnographic studies of education and adolescents, respectively.) Methodology Ethnographic research is based on a naturalistic science paradigm, which assumes that “natural” human behavior is connected to the time and place in which it occurs. Patterns of behavior are discovered or revealed during the course of data collection, and their functions emerge through careful analysis. Ethnography thus explores complex sets of information and relationships, often in a nonlinear manner, in which functional associations emerge inductively. The

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methodology assumes that behavior is driven by meaning, shaped by culture, and performed in social context. Thus, ethnographers generally do not seek to control or alter the research environment but, instead, to observe, collect, catalogue, describe, and interpret patterns of behavior. Ethnographic research is close to its data, that is, to people and their social contexts. Focusing on emergent information enables ethnographic studies to minimize the preconceptions that might be brought to a study’s design, data collection, and analysis. It tends to leave the factors and relevant contexts in subjects’ lives open to discovery (see Bernard, 2001, and LeCompte & Schensul, 1999, for wide-ranging and detailed presentations of ethnographic methodology and methods). Ethnographic research requires that study design, recruitment strategy, data collection, data processing, analysis, and conclusions conform to one another. Each research stage builds on and is interdependent with other stages. These interlocking stages result in a practice that may be entirely qualitative, quantitative, or some combination of the two. Though often thought to rely exclusively on qualitative methods, ethnography often includes quantitative methods. On the other hand, neither qualitative nor quantitative methods are inherently ethnographic. Increasingly, ethnography is used in conjunction with other methodologies. The differing perspectives and methods can supplement one another, improve study design and data collection, and result in a more complete picture. For example, ethnography conducted prior to a survey can generate survey questions and culturally sensitive interviewing strategies that improve the survey’s response rates and reliability. New understandings arising from the emic perspective common to ethnography can generate new ways to think about survey and experimental data and hypotheses to test. The differing assumptions, research timelines, and analytic processes of ethnography and other social science research, however, present obstacles to the thorough coordination and integration of such multimethod studies.

participant-observers immerse themselves in the life of a group, develop rapport with its members, and carefully record their observations of the group’s behaviors, comments, and other aspects of its social life—both material and cultural (see Ely, Anzul, Friedman, Garner, & Steinmetz, 1991, for a reflective discussion of the experience of learning to conduct ethnographic research). Participant-observers tend to watch behaviors as they unfold and change over time, generally for months, and even a year or more. Their research is longitudinal by design, but not merely longitudinal. The method enables access to events that lead up to a specific behavior, as well as the opportunity to observe the consequences of behaviors and how those consequences affect subsequent behaviors. Engagement over time also facilitates the development of rapport, which fosters genuineness in researcherparticipant interactions and thus higher-quality data. The longitudinal character of ethnographic research also permits observation of seasonal, diurnal, and other time-dependant variability in behavior. However, due to its time-intensive character, variations to participant-observation sometimes are employed. These include “shadowing” participants during key points in time or representative days and returning repeatedly to conduct unstructured or loosely structured interviews. The combinations of methods and techniques used in ethnography vary widely from one study to another (Bernard, 2001; LeCompte & Schensul, 1999). Although participant-observation is often conducted, it need not be, and it commonly is supplemented by additional methods. Ethnographic researchers draw on the methods that best suit their particular research questions, resources, and study populations. Archival research, life histories, family genograms, focus groups, mapping, photography and videography, projective psychological techniques, rapid ethnographic assessment, surveys, and a variety of interviewing techniques, among other methods, have been employed in ethnographic research. When conducted with the purpose of understanding culture and local context, these methods are integral components of ethnography.

Fieldwork Practice Participant-observation, a practice of systematic engagement for an extended period of time, is the research method most closely associated with ethnography. Indeed, some use the terms participant-observation and ethnography interchangeably. Ethnographic

Analysis With its commonly broad array of qualitative, narrative, and quantitative data, ethnographic analysis is a complex and iterative process, much like conducting a literature review. The data are organized into categories

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that facilitate working hypotheses to test and explore, and this organizing process continues from study design through fieldwork. After data collection is complete, analyses may begin deductively, from theoretically generated coding schemes, or inductively, based on emerging understandings from fieldwork. Systems, including the use of qualitative data management software, are developed to organize data and enable comparisons that conform to the study’s aims. Qualitative data often are analyzed interpretively, but may be assigned numerical values and analyzed quantitatively. Data collected through the various methods of research are triangulated to test the interpretations that arise. Then, the population studied is described and interpreted through a representation that will walk a fine line between holism and focus. That is, the methodological focus on broad context will be narrowed to a substantive topic, but still informed by context. Though their utility may appear limited to particularistic analyses, ethnographies often are comparative. Interpretations of a pattern of behavior in one social group can be compared with another. Although humans are culturally specific, similarities across cultures makes ethnographic research generalizable, within limits. Indeed, by describing and interpreting constellations of interacting factors that shape people’s actions, ethnography has led to alternative ways to frame patterns of behavior and to advances in social theory. —Alan F. Benjamin

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bernard, H. R. (2001). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Ely, M., Anzul, M., Friedman, T., Garner, D., & Steinmetz, A. M. (1991). Doing qualitative research: Circles within circles. London: Falmer. Fetterman, D. M. (Ed.). (1993). Speaking the language of power: Communication, collaboration and advocacy (translating ethnography into action). Washington, DC: Falmer. Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (Eds.). (1996). Parents’ cultural belief systems: Their origins, expressions, and consequences. New York: Guilford. Heath, S. B. (1996). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Heath, S. B., & McLaughlin, M. W. (Eds.). (1993). Identity and inner-city youth: Beyond ethnicity and gender. New York: Teachers College Press.

Jessor, R., Colby, A., & Shweder, R. A. (Eds.). (1996). Ethnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. LeCompte, M. D., & Schensul, J. J. (1999). Ethnographer’s toolkit (7 vols.). Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira.

EVOLUTION. See ADAPTATION; ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR; EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY; HUMAN BRAIN, EVOLUTION; RECAPITULATION. EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Evolutionary psychology is the study of how and why humans and nonhumans behave the way they do, with special attention to the particular ancestral environments that contributed to the production of the physical and behavioral aspects of an organism. Evolutionary psychology is built on on the fact of evolution by natural selection (Darwin, 1859) and asserts that the behaviors that we see today are a result of the mind or brain being shaped by millions of years of evolution (for reviews, see Buss, 1999; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). Three components are necessary for natural selection to operate. There must be variation in a particular characteristic; this variation must be inherited from parent to offspring; and the characteristics that contribute to successful genetic replication must be retained or selected. Although scientific work inspired by evolutionary theory had been conducted prior to Darwin’s presentation of natural selection, Darwin’s writings filled a gap in understanding how evolution works and provided a foundation for numerous scientific advances, including evolutionary psychology and its innovative contributions to science. Evolutionary psychology is a relatively new area of psychology but has already generated theories and empirical findings that are stimulating other areas of psychology (e.g., cognitive, social, and developmental) to use an evolutionary perspective to generate a better understanding of psychology and behavior. Evolutionary developmental psychology is an emerging field that applies an evolutionary perspective to developmental issues, from prenatal development through adulthood (see Bjorklund & Pellegrini,

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2000, 2002; Geary & Bjorklund, 2000). An evolutionary developmental psychological perspective can be applied profitably to understanding every aspect of an organism’s development. To illustrate the wide application of this perspective and its potential for generating social, economic, and other practical benefits, this entry briefly reviews recent theory and research on three topics from an evolutionary developmental psychological (EDP) perspective: education, parenting, and child homicide. EDUCATION The high-fidelity transmission of information from one generation to the next is the hallmark of human culture and attributable to the educability of Homo sapiens. Although education is not a modern invention, formal education, performed “out of context” and often in large groups lead by adults unrelated to children, is an evolutionarily novel enterprise. Moreover, many of the technological skills that today’s children must learn, such as reading and mathematics, would have been foreign to our ancestors only 10,000 years ago. These skills are what Geary (1995) has referred to as “biologically secondary abilities,” which are recent cultural inventions requiring practice and external motivation to acquire. These are contrasted with “biologically primary abilities,” which have been shaped by evolution and are typically acquired without extensive practice and external motivation, such as language and the counting of small quantities. Given that much of what children need to learn in contemporary societies is evolutionarily novel, it is not surprising that many children find school overly challenging. APPLICATION Formal schooling, though necessary for success for contemporary people, is an “unnatural” experience (Bjorklund & Bering, 2002). Knowing this, school curricula and environments can be constructed to take advantage of children’s natural proclivities to make the task of learning biologically secondary abilities easier. For example, physical activity is important to children, and research has shown that children who are given recess breaks in which to exercise show more on-task behavior and less “fidgeting” than children not given recess (e.g., Jarrett et al., 1998; Pellegrini, Huberty, & Jones, 1995). Other research

has suggested that formal instruction for middle-class preschool children provides no academic benefit relative to more play-oriented instruction and may, in fact, lead to higher levels of test anxiety and less positive attitudes toward school (Hyson, Hirsh-Pasek, & Rescorla, 1990). These results are consistent with an EDP perspective, which posits that the teaching method used to teach 3- to 4-year-old children might not be as effective as it is when used with older children (see Bjorklund & Bering, 2002). Preschoolers may not be developmentally “ready” to benefit from a formal education in the way that is intended. Accordingly, an EDP perspective contends that preschool children can benefit from early learning programs, but how the program is designed (e.g., child centered or instructor centered) is of significance to maximize the benefits of preschool educational programs. PARENTING Parenting is of great interest to researchers, clinicians, parents, and even parents-to-be. One ubiquitous question that is often encountered is: Does the child’s environment affect his or her development, and if so, how? Using an EDP perspective, Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper (1991) addressed this question. Belsky et al. based their research on the idea that child psychological outcomes are associated with differences in the attachment quality between parents and children (for a review, see Bowlby, 1969). Belsky et al. (1991) proposed that children have a psychology that is sensitive to particular features of their environment (e.g., level of stress, insecurity of attachment, father presence/absence). These features of the environment evoke responses that can alter a child’s rate of maturation, sexual promiscuity, and future romantic relationships (for reviews, see Belsky, 2000; Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002). Research indicates, for example, that girls living in singlemother households (i.e., father-absent households) reach puberty earlier than girls living in intact family households (genetic mother and father or genetic mother and stepfather) (e.g., Ellis, McFayden-Ketchum, Dodge, Petit, & Bates, 1999). Although this finding is not held with boys, it has been documented that boys raised in father-absent homes are more likely to be aggressive and to “act out” than boys living with their genetic fathers (Draper & Harpending, 1988).

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GENDER DIFFERENCES Why do girls and boys respond differently to the same environmental feature (i.e., growing up in a father-absent home)? Over our evolutionary history, the sexes faced different selection pressures that caused males and females to evolve psychologies that are sometimes differently responsive to the same environmental features. Based on parental investment theory (Trivers, 1972), for example, there is sexdifferentiated parental investment in children, such that women invest more than do men. Accordingly, it is expected that female sexual psychology is more sensitive to environmental factors (e.g., high stress and father absence) that affect their ability to care for future children. CHILD HOMICIDE Child abuse by parents has received attention from researchers, social workers, clinical psychologists, and policy developers. One goal shared by researchers and theorists across these disciplines is to identify the risk factors that make it more likely that a child will be abused by his or her parent. There are many theoretical frameworks that propose explanations for child abuse. EDP provides a theoretical framework to understand why a particular parent-child relationship, or stepparent-stepchild relationship, poses the greatest risk that a child will be abused or killed (Daly & Wilson, 1988). Daly and Wilson (1985) found that preschoolers who resided with one genetic parent and one stepparent were 40 times more likely to be abused than preschoolers living with both genetic parents. The best predictor of increased risk remained residence with stepparents, even after controlling for several variables, including socioeconomic status, family size, and mother’s age (Wilson & Daly, 1987). Using a United States national-level database spanning 20 years, Weekes-Shackelford and Shackelford (2003) found similar risk patterns for filicide, the killing of a ward by his or her parent. Children under the age of 5 years are 8 times more likely to be killed by a stepfather than by a genetic father and 3 times more likely to be killed by a stepmother than by a genetic mother. How does applying an evolutionary psychological perspective help explain these results? Based on inclusive-fitness theory (Hamilton, 1964), a parent will invest more in genetic offspring

because they are carrying copies of their genes. Because stepparents do not share genes with stepchildren, stepparents may display less care toward stepchildren than genetic parents do toward genetic children (Daly & Wilson, 1995; Trivers, 1972). According to Daly and Wilson (1988), there is an underlying evolved parental psychology that is sensitive to cues of nonrelatedness, which motivate an increased likelihood of physically abusing and sometimes killing stepchildren. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, applying an evolutionary psychological perspective to academia, clinical practice, and everyday life can offer alternative solutions to problems that we face. Evolutionary psychology proposes that the mind we have today is a result of millions of years of evolution by natural selection. An evolutionary perspective in no way condones behaviors such as child abuse. To the contrary, one goal of an evolutionary perspective is to better understand human behavior and thus better predict human behavior. Identifying the predictors of behavior can shed light on maximizing the benefits in a variety of domains, including, education, parenting, and filicide. —Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford and David F. Bjorklund

AUTHORS’ NOTE We thank Todd K. Shackelford for helpful comments.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Belsky, J. (2000). Conditional and alternative reproductive strategies: Individual differences in susceptibility to rearing experience. In J. Rodgers & D. Rowe (Eds.), Genetic influences on fertility and sexuality (pp. 127–146). Boston: Kluwer. Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647–670. Bjorklund, D. F., & Bering, J. M. (2002). The evolved child: Applying evolutionary developmental psychology to modern schooling. Learning and Individual Differences, 12, 1–27. Bjorklund, D. F., & Pellegrini, A. D. (2000). Child development and evolutionary psychology. Child Development, 71, 1687–1798.

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Bjorklund, D. F., & Pellegrini, A. D. (2002). The origins of human nature: Evolutionary developmental psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. London: Hogarth. Buss, D. M. (1999). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1985). Child abuse and other risks of not living with both parents. Ethology and Sociobiology, 6, 197–210. Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1995). Discriminative parental solicitude and the relevance of evolutionary models to the analysis of motivational systems. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (pp. 1269–1286). Cambridge: MIT Press. Darwin, C. (1859). The origin of the species. New York: Modern Library. Draper, P., & Harpending, H. (1988). A sociological perspective on reproductive strategies. In K. B. MacDonald (Ed.), Sociological perspectives on human development (pp. 340–372). New York: Springer-Verlag. Ellis, B. J., McFayden-Ketchum, S., Dodge, K. A., Petit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (1999). Quality of early family relationships and individual differences in the timing of pubertal maturation in girls: A longitudinal test of an evolutionary model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 387–401. Geary, D. C. (1995). Reflections of evolution and culture in children’s cognition: Implications for mathematical development and instruction. American Psychologist, 50, 24–37. Geary, D. C., & Bjorklund, D. F. (2000). Evolutionary developmental psychology. Child Development, 71, 57–65. Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behavior. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–52. Hyson, M. C., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Rescorla, L. (1990). Academic environments in preschool: Challenge or pressure? Early Education and Development, 1, 401–423. Jarrett, O. S., Maxwell, D. M., Dickerson, C., Hoge, P., Davies, G., & Yetley, A. (1998). Impact of recess on classroom behavior: Group effects and individual differences. Journal of Educational Research, 92, 121–126. Pellegrini, A. D., Huberty, P. D., & Jones, I. (1995). The effects of recess timing on children’s playground and classroom behaviors. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 845–864. Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1992). The psychological foundations of culture. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 19–139). New York: Oxford University Press. Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man (pp. 136–179). New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., & Shackelford, T. K. (2003). Methods of filicide: Stepparents and genetic parents kill differently. Manuscript submitted for publication. Wilson, M., & Daly, M. (1987). Risk of maltreatment of children living with stepparents. In R. Gelles & J. Lancaster (Eds.), Child abuse and neglect (pp. 215–232). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Wilson, M., Daly, M., & Weghorst, S. J. (1980). Household composition and the risk of child abuse and neglect. Journal of Biosocial Science, 12, 333–340.

EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS Externalizing behavior problems refer to the broad domain of behavior problems that are disruptive to the surroundings of children and adolescents, including delinquency and aggression. Some definitions of externalizing behavior problems also encompass attention problems. Externalizing behavior problems are sometimes referred to as antisocial behavior. Clinical levels of externalizing behavior problems are represented by the psychiatric diagnoses of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). MEASUREMENT The most widely used measure of externalizing behavior problems is the Child Behavior Checklist battery of instruments. This battery is widely used by researchers, in part due to the fact that separate forms exist for assessing behavior problems by different informants and each form has well-established norms and is psychometrically sound. Based on a large body of research with the Child Behavior Checklist battery, it is currently a best practice to obtain reports from multiple informants on externalizing behavior problems. Agreement among various informants on externalizing behavior problems is only moderate, and differences between informants have been explained in terms of situational specificity— children behave differently in various settings such as school or home. It is also good practice to obtain multiple-informant reports, because single-informant reports may be biased due to informant characteristics. Depressed mothers, for example, tend to overrate their children’s levels of behavior problems.

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THEORETICAL MODELS Theoretical models explaining the underlying factors of externalizing behavior problems formerly focused primarily on the relations between contextual factors, such as parenting strategies, family disruption, and the peer environment. More recently, there has been a shift toward understanding externalizing behavior problems in terms of their course and origin and the relation between biological (e.g., difficult temperament) and environmental factors (e.g., harsh parental discipline). These latter theoretical models are becoming increasingly developmental by considering developmental tasks and the transactional nature and course of individual behavior. CONTINUITY AND CHANGE Aggressive behavior is highly stable over time but increases from childhood to adolescence (Lahey, Waldman, & McBurnett, 1999). Recent research has shown that there is wide variation in the trajectories individuals follow from childhood through adulthood. Specifically, research has identified different groups of individuals who display various levels of antisocial behavior, namely, the “adolescent-limited” group and the “life course persistent” group (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001). Life course persisters have consistently high levels of externalizing behavior problems from childhood through adulthood, whereas the adolescentlimited group’s level of externalizing behavior problems seems to peak during adolescence. Recently, researchers have started to investigate fluctuations in crime behavior that are directly relevant to the study of trajectories of externalizing behavior problems. Bushway and colleagues (Bushway, Thornberry, & Krohn, 2003) investigated both linear and nonlinear components in trajectories of crime behavior through young adulthood and found that there was one group that was identified by consistent fluctuations in crime behavior.

GENDER DIFFERENCES Despite the fact that on average, boys display higher levels of externalizing behavior problems than girls, recent research has focused on important gender differences regarding the antecedents and course of externalizing behavior problems. The stability of externalizing behavior problems is similar for boys and

girls, but pathways of externalizing behavior problems seem to differ by gender. Boys are more likely than girls to demonstrate externalizing behavior problems— particularly aggression and delinquency—during childhood, whereas there are no gender differences for adolescent-onset aggression and delinquency (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001). Arguments have been made that the course of externalizing behavior problems and its antecedents are gender-specific (Silverthorn & Frick, 1999). Research suggests, however, that the particular trajectory of externalizing behavior problems (i.e., childhood-onset versus adolescent-limited), and not gender, is associated with different groups of risk factors. The childhood-onset group has had a history of high-risk factors in both biological and environmental domains, whereas the adolescent-onset group has not been characterized by high-risk factors during childhood (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001). COMORBIDITY Children who display high levels of externalizing behavior problems generally also have problems in other domains of behavior problems. This phenomenon is generally referred to as comorbidity or co-occurrence. Correlations of externalizing behavior problems with internalizing behavior problems, such as depressive symptoms and somatic complaints, are generally moderate to high. Likewise, externalizing behavior problems are often associated with substance abuse problems during adolescence. These findings suggest that children/adolescents with externalizing behavior problems generally have difficulties in other domains of behavioral functioning. Research on the comorbidity of externalizing behavior problems has particularly focused on clinical diagnoses, specifically conduct disorder. Clinical diagnoses that often occur in conjunction with conduct disorder include ADHD, anxiety disorders, depressive disorder, substance use, and somatization disorder. There are important age and gender effects associated with the comorbidity of conduct disorder; the prevalence increases with age, and conduct disorder is less prevalent among girls than among boys. Despite the fact that conduct disorder is less prevalent among girls, the likelihood of having co-occurring conduct disorder is at least as high for girls, and for some, co-occurring diagnoses are even higher among girls than boys. Explanations of comorbidity between externalizing and internalizing behavior problems have focused on

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both methodological and substantive reasons (Lilienfeld, 2003). Methodological reasons include shared symptoms as well as method covariance. Substantive reasons include the fact that internalizing behavior problems may contribute to externalizing behavior problems, or vice versa. Similarly, internalizing and externalizing behavior problems may have the same underlying correlates, such as personality and/or temperament factors.

PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION Violence prevention programs have generally been more successful when they focus on multiple contextual domains rather than on one dimension (Kerns & Prinz, 2002). Research efforts addressing the effect of prevention and intervention programs are becoming increasingly embedded within larger research projects. The advantage of such an approach is that researchers benefit from the case-control facet of experimental studies as well as the follow-up advantages of longitudinal studies (Tremblay, 2003). CONCLUSIONS Applied developmental research investigating the causes and correlates of externalizing behavior problems is becoming more systematic and programmatic. This is evident from both theoretical and research efforts that integrate biological and social factors as well as research efforts that incorporate intervention programs into the study of externalizing behavior problems. These research efforts will likely enhance our understanding of those facets that underlie both desistance and persistence of externalizing behavior problems during the first decades of life. —Manfred H. M. van Dulmen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bushway, S. D., Thornberry, T. P., & Krohn, M. D. (2003). Desistance as a developmental process: A comparison of static and dynamic approaches. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 19(2), 129–153. Kerns, S. E. U., & Prinz, R. J. (2002). Critical issues in the prevention of violence-related behavior in youth. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 5(2), 133–160. Lahey, B. B., Waldman, I. D., & McBurnett, K. (1999). Annotation: The development of antisocial behavior: An

integrative causal model. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40(5), 669–682. Lilienfeld, S. O. (2003). Comorbidity between and within childhood externalizing and internalizing disorders: Reflections and directions. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31(3), 285–291. Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2001). Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways among males and females. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 355–375. Silverthorn, P., & Frick, P. J. (1999). Developmental pathways to antisocial behavior: The delayed-onset pathway in girls. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 101–126. Tremblay, R. E. (2003). Why socialization fails: The case of physical aggression. In B. B. Lahey, T. E. Moffitt, & A. Caspi (Eds.), Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency (pp. 182–224). New York: Guilford.

EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY By definition, eyewitness testimony involves the description of events that have been experienced or observed. Researchers who study children have recently focused on accounts of experienced events in which the reporter was a participant, although some have studied reports of observed events. The difference between observing and participating is significant, because participation typically provides richer and more salient details to remember, and thus the reports of experienced events tend to be more detailed, more extensive, and more enduring than the reports of events that were merely observed or described by others (Murachver, Pipe, Gordon, Owens, & Fivush, 1996). Although young children clearly can remember events they have witnessed or participated in, their memories tend to be less detailed than those of adults. They also tend to forget details more rapidly than older children and adults do, presumably because they have had fewer prior experiences and have more limited semantic understanding, which together make it more difficult for them either to create mental associations between new and old experiences or to interpret these new experiences in ways that make them more memorable (Poole & Lamb, 1998). Memories tend to be encoded in terms of symbols and associations between them, and this limits the ability to recall events that happened before acquisition of the ability to use symbols (including words). Thus, both children and adults can seldom remember things that happened

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before the acquisition of language. Most people can remember more than they report in an initial account, but young children are less familiar than older children and adults with strategies for helping them remember better, and they thus tend to need more external prompts when retrieving memories. Of course, it is important to ensure that these prompts do not suggest or mislead, but rather help children better access information in their memories. Both children and adults tend to create composite or averaged memories of events that have taken place many times (such as getting dressed or going to work or school), and these generalized or script memories tend to be quite skeletal. Both adults and children have difficulty recounting single incidents of these repeated events, and young children may have particular difficulty. There is also substantial evidence that the accuracy of remembered and reported information is greater when it is freely recalled, which means that the way memory is retrieved has a substantial impact on the quality or likely accuracy of the information reported (Lamb, Sternberg, Orbach, Hershkowitz, & Esplin, 1999). Children are also more easily confused and misled when they are questioned in developmentally inappropriate ways. In forensic contexts, adult eyewitnesses are frequently asked to describe or recognize (usually by selecting from a set of pictures) “who did it” as well as “what they did,” whereas child witnesses, as indicated earlier, tend to be asked for details about what happened, especially during events in which they participated as victims, for example (Lamb et al., 1999;

Wells & Olson, 2003). In such cases, eyewitness identification is seldom at issue, because the overwhelming majority of abused children are maltreated by people whom they know. Even when they feel quite confident about their capacities, most adults are not good at describing the appearance of other individuals or at recognizing individuals whom they have seen briefly, perhaps in stress-inducing and poorly lit situations. As a result, investigators must take careful steps to control the risks of misidentification (Wells, 2001). Children’s capacities seem more limited than those of adults when it comes to the identification and description of individuals. —Michael E. Lamb

See also FORENSIC INTERVIEWING; TESTIMONY, CHILDREN’S COMPETENCE FOR

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., & Esplin, P. W. (1999). Forensic interviews of children. In A. Memon & R. Bull (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of interviewing (pp. 253–277). New York: Wiley. Murachver, T., Pipe, M. E., Gordon, R., Owens, J. L., & Fivush, R. (1996). Do, show, and tell: Children’s event memories acquired through direct experience, observation, and stories. Child Development, 67, 3029–3044. Poole, D. A., & Lamb, M. E. (1998). Investigative interviews of children. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Wells, G. L. (2001). Police lineups: Data, theory, and policy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7, 791–801. Wells, G. L., & Olson, E. A. (2003). Eyewitness testimony. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 277–295.

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F Facing History has engaged teachers and students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of collective violence, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. Facing History and Ourselves offers educators in schools and communities opportunities to engage with the past, explore new ideas and approaches, and develop practical models for civic engagement that link history to the challenges of an increasingly interconnected world and the choices that young people make daily. Facing History believes that students can be trusted to examine history in all of its complexities, including its legacies of prejudice and discrimination, resilience and courage. This trust encourages young people to develop a voice in conversations with their peers, as well as in the critical discussions and debates of their communities and nations. Facing History’s philosophy promotes an understanding of different perspectives, competing truths, and the need to comprehend one’s own motives and those of others. The Facing History journey includes a pedagogy rooted in the concerns and issues of adolescence: the overarching interest in individual and group identity, in acceptance or rejection, in conformity or nonconformity, and in labeling, ostracism, loyalty, fairness, and peer group pressure. It integrates a developmental framework, including the adolescent’s newly discovered ideas of subjectivity, competing truths, and differing perspectives, along with the growing capacity

FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES FOUNDATION Facing History and Ourselves is a professional development program for teachers across the United States and in countries around the world. Educators with whom the program works understand that the academic and emotional growth of students is interwoven with their commitment to growing and learning as adults and as educators. A nonprofit educational organization that serves teachers of middle and high school students, Facing History helps teachers master important skills in classroom pedagogy: how to conduct a discussion in which students truly talk and listen to one another; how to raise controversial topics; and how to establish a classroom atmosphere of trust. Since its founding in 1976, more than 17,000 educators around the world have participated in Facing History workshops and/or weeklong institutes. An estimated 1,500,000 students are reached each year through Facing History’s educator network, with regional offices located in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York, San Francisco, and Europe. In addition, educators and the lay public have access to Facing History and Ourselves resources through the organization’s Web site: www.facinghistory.org. The Facing History and Ourselves curriculum is based on the belief that education in a democracy must be what Alexis de Tocqueville called “an apprenticeship in liberty.” Facing History aspires to help students find meaning in the past and recognize the need for participation and responsible decision making. 435

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to think hypothetically and the inclination to find personal meaning in newly introduced phenomena. Since the examination of difficult and complex issues of human behavior in critical moments in past and present requires careful thinking and reflection, Facing History teachers employ effective strategies to encourage students to listen, to take another’s perspective, to understand differing points of view, and to undertake intellectual risks in their analysis and discussion. Meaningful intellectual growth is a process of confronting imbalance and dissonance as students grapple with new ideas and different perspectives that contradict unexamined premises, so these teachers carefully challenge generalizations and push for clear distinctions in language and explication. Building on the increasing ability to think hypothetically and imagine options, Facing History teachers stretch the historical imagination by urging delineation of what might have been done, choices that could have been made, and alternative scenarios that could have come about. Equally important, Facing History pedagogy embodies teaching the skills of in-depth historical thinking and understanding. These include knowledge of chronology, causality, and point of view, along with the ability to analyze evidence, take different perspectives, make distinctions, and understand relationships. Facing History teachers make these skills explicit and provide opportunity for continual demonstration and practice. They further believe that all students are capable of attaining the high standards necessary to engage deeply in the resource materials of the program. Yet students learn differently, so it is essential to use multiple assessments in their classrooms to honor the complexity of their thinking. In a Facing History classroom, meaningful civic education is rooted in a moral component in which students are taught to confront the choices about right and wrong, rights and obligations, and fairness and justice that underlie responsible participation in democratic societies. By examining the consequences of courage and caring as well as of indifference and apathy, students begin to discover how their own freedom is inextricably bound with that of others. They also learn that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not abstract ideas, but a legacy that must be protected if democracy is not to become the tyranny of the majority. Facing History and Ourselves is devoted to teaching about the dangers of indifference and the value of civility. Facing History’s programs and resources help educators confront the complexities of

history in ways that promote critical and creative thinking about the challenges we face and the opportunities we have for positive change. The program has several expected outcomes. For students, the program creates a unique learning opportunity—examining a compelling piece of 20th century history—which, in turn, illuminates issues of racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic and religious intolerance, as well as social justice and democratic participation. It enhances students’ critical-thinking skills and encourages them to reflect on their roles in society, guiding them to choose how they will participate in their schools, neighborhoods, and nation. For teachers, the Facing History program provides an opportunity for professional development to establish collegial relationships within their own school and across school lines and to enhance their teaching skills, while creating a new curriculum component for their English, history, social studies, or other courses. Evaluation has played a critical role in the development of the Facing History program since its inception. Facing History continually conducts evaluations to ensure that those who participate in training and followup activities are able to use the methodologies and resources offered to address issues of social responsibility with adolescents. The overall goal is to make sure that the program is implemented in a way that realizes the essential elements, while allowing individual sites to craft a program that reflects unique needs. Participating teachers complete surveys and provide evaluation comments and feedback, which are used to monitor the effectiveness of training activities. Participants in Facing History activities also keep journals that record their responses to sessions. These journals also serve as evaluation tools for reviewing program quality. Site visits, classroom observations, telephone interviews, Web site surveys, reviews of lesson plans, and other examples of participants’ written work are all forms of data used to measure actual implementation of Facing History concepts in the classroom. The success of the Facing History program and its impact on students and teachers have been thoroughly analyzed and documented. The program evaluation process has demonstrated that Facing History is a model educational intervention that (a) provides young people with a vocabulary for discussing critical issues while widening perspectives, (b) increases empathy, (c) creates an awareness of choices and opportunities, and (d) prepares students for responsible

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citizenship. Based on the principle that educators are adult learners who can continue to develop their knowledge, skills, and understanding of their roles as teachers over time, the Facing History program also offers a model of successful professional development for teachers whose elements have broad interdisciplinary applications. For 16 years, the U.S. Department of Education selected Facing History as an “exemplary program” worthy of dissemination through the federal government’s National Diffusion Network. In 1996, Facing History was awarded a 2-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to further explore how the program helps young people develop their capacities to become active, thoughtful, and compassionate citizens who can work with people of diverse backgrounds. Recently completed, the Carnegie study demonstrated the efficacy of the Facing History program in promoting positive interpersonal and intergroup relations. Specifically, the evaluation team found that Facing History students showed increased relationship maturity and decreased fighting behavior, racist attitudes, and insular ethnic identity relative to comparison students. Facing History and Ourselves offers a model of professional development for educators that encompasses in-depth training, individualized follow-up support, and classroom resources. Facing History delivers this program to a national network of educators through seven regional offices; major current initiatives in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina; and hundreds of additional educators throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. Facing History also reaches out to the larger community, including students, parents, police officers, community activists, civic and religious leaders, and other citizens. Activities include book clubs, workshops, symposia, and conferences that are open to the general public. Research and development of new curricular materials, new and enhanced technology, and numerous community initiatives enrich the core program and keep it current. Facing History has developed a robust and elaborate Web site, receiving about 55,000 visits each month, which hosts many of its resources and offers new modes for teacher outreach as well as significant ways of broadening and connecting the Facing History educator community. An online campus component of the Web site demonstrates model lessons, suggests links to significant curricula resources, and invites continual

interactive exchange of classroom strategies. Even more groundbreaking is a project designed to translate a Facing History teacher-training workshop into a Web-based environment, through interactive study of materials, reflection and exchange of ideas, and responses to materials and speakers similar to what happens in a face-to-face workshop and facilitated discussion. Facing History is committed to maximizing the extraordinary potential to enhance its international endeavors, host virtual conferences that engage important scholars, establish effective educator networks, and build bridges between Facing History classrooms around the world in the next quarter century. —Karen Lempert

FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS Faith-based organizations are organizations or programs that have a religious orientation and offer various forms of services to individuals or families. They have both a religious and a social service component. They can be church-, synagogue-, temple-, or community-based programs that aim to help people and involve religion. The role of religion or faith varies from organization to organization. For some faith-based organizations, religion is a motivation for their mission, and for others, religion is an integral part of the content of their program. Although the staff and volunteers of such organizations usually adhere to a specific faith or religious tradition, participants may or may not share those same beliefs. Such organizations can be an important resource for youth, adults, and families by promoting spiritual, religious, social, and/or practical support. Needs addressed by faithbased organizations may include tutoring, mentoring, addiction recovery, or legal assistance. In addition, they may offer religious education or nurture spiritual development. Underprivileged populations are usually the focus of faith-based organizations and initiatives. Faith communities address their neighborhoods’ needs in a variety of ways. For example, Victory Outreach in Los Angeles is an extremely effective recovery program that helps men and women recover from addiction through faith conversion and spiritual growth. Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) organizes

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communities in a way that politically empowers underrepresented members of society. In the South Bronx, the Urban Youth Alliance, a 30-year-old faithbased organization, now provides after-school programs that include mentoring, counseling, recreation, and church and educational programming for neighborhood gang youth. They do this in conjunction with a local religious organization, the Latino Pastoral Action Center, and a neighborhood congregation, the Love Gospel Assembly. Although religious congregations have been at the heart of American public life since its inception, the terms faith-based organization and faith-based initiative have gained increased prominence in the last decade. Service has always been central to the mission of congregations and religious institutions. They have fed and clothed the poor, offered guidance and counseling, and educated individuals for centuries. However, their ability to effectively meet the complex issues facing youth and families today has become identified as an important community asset within our society. This is especially true in urban areas. Government officials, policymakers, foundations, and community organizations have begun to recognize that congregations and faith-based organizations are uniquely positioned within their neighborhoods to distribute social services to those in need. Congregations are often a natural resource for reaching their communities. They are often highly trusted and regarded. They have a donor base, a committed core of volunteers, and clergy who have an intimate knowledge of the needs and habits of their neighbors. Faith-based terminology has gained prominence in the public, religious, political, and academic sectors. The term is inclusive and can refer to congregations and organizations of various religions and faith traditions. In addition, the term faith-based enables organizations to designate religion or spirituality as an important part of their programs, while communicating that proselytization or evangelism is not necessarily a major goal of their initiatives. Dr. Donald Miller and colleagues (Berndt & Miller, 2000; Orr, Miller, Roof, & Melton, 1995) at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California were among the first to document the important role faith-based organizations played in rebuilding neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles after the Rodney King Riots, in April 1992. After neighborhoods were devastated during the riots, faith-based

organizations were among the first to provide resources for community redevelopment by offering things such as medical services, loans to start small businesses, after-school programs for kids, and hope. Also bringing faith-based issues to the public’s attention, President George W. Bush established a White House Task Force on Community and Faith-Based Organizations early on in his administration, which led to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center for Faith- and Community-Based Initiatives. Significant controversy has surrounded the government’s advocacy and support of legislation and federal funding for organizations with religious affiliations because of a potential violation of the U.S. commitment to separation of church and state. Although religious and nonreligious groups have been wary of the federal government’s support of compassionate care through faith-based organizations, in 2002, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established a Center on Faith- and Community-Based Initiatives that intends to provide resources for local organizations that achieve valid public purposes, such as decreasing violence, strengthening families, and improving neighborhoods. Faith-based organizations or initiatives can take on many forms. They can refer to a single congregation that offers particular services in its community, or they can refer to a coalition of churches and law enforcement that offers an alternative program to juvenile offenders. Being congregationally or faith based might provide opportunities to build strategic partnerships within the community, leverage resources, build financial and community support, recruit volunteers, attract participants, and implement programs. Faith influences or shapes the programs. It serves to attract and engage participants and provide motivation and support for paid staff and volunteers, as well as youth and adults who attend programs. Faith-based organizations generally have focused leadership. Urban congregations are faced with many legitimate needs including food, clothing, and shelter. Those that are most effective in these circumstances have a specific focus to the services they provide, be it high-risk youth or single mothers (Trulear, 2000). In addition, a specific focus often provides a rallying point for congregations of different faiths to gather around. Although individuals of different religions may not share the same doctrinal beliefs, they are able to work together for the welfare of the children in the neighborhood.

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Faith-based programs intend to bring about transformation in the lives of their participants and their communities. Transformation is sometimes intended to be religious, and at other times not. Although personal transformation through religious faith is often the ultimate goal, faith-based organizations recognize that there are many changes in the lives of their participants that are worth pursuing. In addition, faith-based organizations aim to bring about change in their individual neighborhoods. Their intention might be to decrease violence or increase employment or literacy. Regardless of mission and size, faith-based organizations are community-serving ministries that leverage faith or religion to be effective in the lives of individuals and in their communities. —Pamela Ebstyne King

See also RELIGION AND APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE; RELIGIOUS GROUPS, PSYCHOLOGICAL COVARIATES OF

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Berndt, J., & Miller, D. (2000). Politics of the spirit: Portraits. Los Angeles: Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California. Christian Community Development Association. (2001). Homepage. Available at http://ccda.org/ Orr, J. B., Miller, D. E., Roof, W. C., & Melton, J. G. (1995). Politics of the spirit: Religion and multi-ethnicity in Los Angeles. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. Public/Private Ventures. (2001). Faith-based initiatives. Available at http://www.ppv.org/indexfiles/faith-index.html Trulear, H. D. (2000). Faith-based institutions and high-risk youth: First report to the field. Philadelphia: Public Private Ventures. University of Southern California. (2001). Center for Religion and Civic Culture. Available at http://www.usc.edu/go/rol. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002). The president’s initiative and HHS. http://www.hhs.gov/faith/ president.html

social and political transformations (Gilbert, 1994). However, a closer look at the history of dual-career families in America reveals that diverse races and cultures have been differentially involved in and affected by dual careerism. According to Lois Hoffman and F. Ivan Nye, in 1960, median socioeconomic African American and White families were disparate in their participation in the labor force. To illustrate, within these families, 48% of African American mothers participated in the paid labor force, compared with 16% of White women (Hoffman & Nye, 1984). These statistics reveal not only workforce participation rates but also the bias contained in much of the literature featuring dual-career families. Much of the literature on dual-career families, which focuses primarily on White, middle- to upper-socioeconomic status families, discusses the “rise” of the dual-career family as occurring during the 1960s. Such an interpretation of the onset of this phenomenon is slanted and narrow in scope, as dual careerism was not a new concept for a variety of ethnic groups in America. A review of the literature, which focuses primarily on median-socioeconomic White mothers and therefore will be the focus of this entry, reveals the surge of these women into the paid workforce beginning in the early 1960s and the changes these families underwent. Traditionally, home- and work-related labor were relatively clear-cut for these families, with the female partner consistently tending to matters of the home and child care, while the male partner participated in the paid labor force. Women’s increased participation in the paid labor force has obscured these clear-cut boundaries. Accompanying these women’s burgeoning participation in the paid labor force are new family issues and concerns, such as the division of labor within the home and the effects of dual-career families on the positive development of children. THE DUAL-CAREER FAMILY

FAMILIES, DUAL-CAREER Over the past 100 years, both the workplace and the home have undergone substantial changes. One such issue, which has received considerable attention, is the dual-career family. A term first coined in the late 1960s, the “dual-career” or “dual-earner” family was originally characterized as a peculiar or revolutionary type of dual-wage, heterosexual family born of complex

The concept of dual-career families is not new. During Word War II, substantial numbers of White, median-socioeconomic-status women joined other women of varying socioeconomic status and ethnic backgrounds who had already been working in the paid labor force. Their participation in the paid labor force was a response to the increasingly industrial economy in the United States and the public call to fill the positions left vacant by men active in the military. With the dawn of the 1960s, equality struggles

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emerged as a focal point in much of the Western world, specifically the United States, leading to a sharp rise in the number of women pursuing advanced degrees. The 1960s also witnessed the contraceptive revolution, which granted women a new kind of freedom, as they had, for the first time, control over the timing of their fertility. As a result of the human rights movement, scientific advancements, and the everincreasing cost of living, increasing numbers of White women began to seek positions in the paid workforce and pursue advanced degrees. By the 1990s, rates of employment by married mothers of children younger than 1 year old had risen to more than 50% (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). Thus, a new family structure emerged in White families of median socioeconomic status. Unlike the traditional family structure where one partner, typically the male, was the breadwinner and the other partner, typically the female, was the homemaker, this new structure consisted of two working adults from the same family unit. Contrary to tradition, these women regarded employment and the pursuit of occupational goals as salient features of their self-concept, regardless of their maternal role. In turn, it would no longer be accurate to depict the male partner as the sole member of the family within the paid workforce. As a result of this change in family structure, the equal division of responsibilities within the home became a preoccupation, if not a necessity. DIVISION OF LABOR WITHIN THE HOME With the rise of White, median-socioeconomicstatus women in the workforce and thus the rise of dual-career families for this section of the population, many modern families are met with the challenge of juggling two individual careers, as well as labor within the home. However, the shift within the workforce has not always been compensated by a shift within the home environment. Often, the original breadwinner in the family neglects to acknowledge the shift to dual careerism, and his role remains static, while the partner who traditionally fills the role of the homemaker feels the burden of both her paid and unpaid labor. Because dual-career families exist within a larger context of gender inequity, role-sharing dualcareer families are not yet representative of normative social patterns (Gilbert, 1994). Traditionally, in White, middle-income families, gender role stereotypes dictate that the male in the family is the breadwinner and

the provider, while the female is the homemaker and caretaker. Thus, with the rise of the dual-career family in this section of the population and therefore the existence of two “providers” in the family, much confusion has surrounded the abandoned role of the full-time homemaker. Despite their modern roles in the paid labor force, many of men’s and women’s life choices continue to be dictated by the traditional breadwinner/homemaker template. As a result, these men and women have become perplexed in regard to their traditional gender roles relative to their modern roles as part of the paid labor force (Hertz & Marshall, 2001). There exists much variability with regard to division of labor even within heterosexual families who identify themselves as dual-career families. Research by Gilbert (1994) indicates three overarching marital patterns: conventional, modern, and role sharing. In the conventional pattern, both partners pursue careers, while child-rearing and household tasks are the responsibility of the woman. In a modern dual-career family, both spouses are active in child rearing, but the woman does more household work than the man. Men in these families are characteristically eager to develop close relationships with their children but have less egalitarian views with regard to other aspects of family work. Finally, partners within rolesharing dual-career families seek the greatest equality in all aspects of labor within the home. In these families, both partners participate in child rearing and housekeeping in addition to their respective occupational endeavors. Although Gilbert (1994) found that more than one third of heterosexual dual-career families are categorized by the role-sharing variation, other data suggest that women continue to take greater responsibility for child-rearing tasks and are more likely to allow family-related experiences and issues to affect their work life. Interestingly, families spanning all socioeconomic strata are equally affected by the struggles characteristic of dual-career families (Heymann, 2000). While affluent families may have the means to outsource many of the responsibilities associated with their children and homes, the responsibility of performing the outsourcing duties indeed lies with the person who traditionally performs the homemaker role. Likewise, if outsourcing problems arise, it is this person who is often left responsible. In less affluent families who do not have the financial means to outsource household responsibilities, one partner often performs the duties

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of the homemaker as well as the duties as a paid laborer. In this situation, often described as the “second shift” (Hochschild, 1990), the partner who would traditionally perform the role of the homemaker bears this responsibility. EFFECTS OF THE DUAL-CAREER FAMILY ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT As a result of the dramatic change in child rearing created by dual-career families, developmental researchers, policymakers, and parents alike have long pondered its effect on child development. Most of these findings represent polar views, thereby creating a controversial milieu surrounding these issues in both the academic community and the popular press. While some researchers, such as Belsky (2001), propose that the dual-career family has largely a negative effect on infant and child development, researchers with contrary views propose that children of dual-career families are unaffected or even positively affected by this situation (Hoffman & Youngblade, 2002; Knaub, 1986). For example, Belsky (2001) reported data suggesting that early, extensive, and continuous nonmaternal care is related to increased levels of aggression and noncompliance, as well as less harmonious parentchild relations. Notably, Belsky’s findings evoked profuse criticism and methodological critiques that reveal the questionable nature of this research (Scarr, 1991; Vandell, 1991). Despite several strengths in Belsky’s research, including the substantial length of his 8-year longitudinal study and the numerous data gathered, Vandell (1991) argues that severe problems in design and analysis outweigh these strengths. However, the presentation of findings represents gross generalizations surrounding maternal employment and its effects on child development (Scarr, 1991). Both Scarr and Vandell emphasize the danger in drawing generalizations, especially those with powerful implications, from research with such severe limitations. Although quite controversial, negative perceptions of nonmaternal care are consistent with many parental views (Farkas, Duffet, & Johnson, 2000). However, much of the research that implicates dual-career families and nonmaternal care as the reasons for negative developmental outcomes has been questioned due to certain methodological limitations. First, the quality of child care differs from place to place, and therefore findings should not be generalized. Second, selection effects represent a genuine

concern with regard to the generalizability of data. Last, there is some concern about the presence of potential “third variables” that may be affecting developmental outcomes, as many of these studies are longitudinal, not experimental, and child care experiences cannot be randomly assigned. Researchers who have identified the positive effects of dual careerism on child development have considered things such as children’s perceptions of their dual-career families. Research suggests that these children hold positive views of this lifestyle (Hoffman & Youngblade, 2002; Knaub, 1986). These children rated their families high in family strength, concern, respect, and support. Mothers’ career interruptions were also regarded positively by children. Knaub (1986) proposes that children define career interruption positively because they perceive it as representing greater concern for them. Analyses also revealed that 15% of the children surveyed felt that their dual-career families created no specific problems. These findings represent but a glimpse of the tension among researchers, policymakers, and parents surrounding the effect of dual careerism on positive child development. CORPORATE RESPONSE TO THE DUAL-CAREER FAMILY As an increasing number of women participate in the paid labor force and the traditional conceptual division of work and family continues to become blurred, women have searched for options to help them balance work and family. In response to these forces and in recognition of women as valuable entities within the paid labor force, corporate America has developed “family-friendly policies” in an effort to attract women to work at specific companies and to increase their productivity. Such policies include maternity/paternity leave, part-time work, telecommuting, job sharing, and flexible hours. In theory, family-friendly policies offer viable solutions to complex situations; however, in reality, the percentage of women or men exercising these options (other than maternity leave) is quite small. Researchers examining this phenomenon, such as Hertz and Marshall (2001), have discovered that although companies may successfully obtain employees by offering these policies as part of the benefits package, workers’ attempts to use these benefits are often stymied at all levels of the system. For example,

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low-wage workers are often paid hourly and must be on-site to perform their jobs. To illustrate, secretaries must be on-site to answer phones, and factory workers must be on-site to perform their duties as well. While some low-wage workers look for part-time work, it is often hard to divide the responsibilities of low-wage work among several workers. Moreover, if a middle- or upper-level manager, male or female, tries to take a leave, their commitment to the company may be questioned. Although in theory, these policies promise to alleviate some of the stresses endured by the dual-career family, reality has proven that many of these attempts at addressing the balance between home and work do not function efficiently within our current economic- or work-based model. CONCLUSIONS There are many different views illuminating the effects of dual careerism on child development. Research to date has increased our understanding of the effects of dual careerism on family and child development for a certain section of the population. The available research on dual-career families predominantly pertains to White, median-socioeconomic families. Researchers who began examining the effects of dualcareer family structure on child development must continue to expand their research in order to comprehensively understand the long-term effects this particular family structure has on life span development for all socioeconomic strata and ethnicities within America. Irrespective of whether the family structure created by dual careerism has a positive or negative impact on child development, current research has confirmed that tension indeed exists between work and family domains across all sections of the population (Hertz & Marshall, 2001). Regardless of their positions in the dual-career family debate, most researchers readily acknowledge the complex and difficult situations that often confront dual-career families. Policies and programs that have the capacity to either support or hinder the healthy development of dual-career families will benefit from research designed to move beyond the mere presentation of findings to suggest effective and relevant solutions. A primary aim of applied developmental science is to translate research into application. Research guided by the tenets of applied developmental science will have direct implications for creating a new, flexible work/ family model that will support the interconnectedness

of work, family, and community. Ultimately, the creation of a symbiotic relationship between the paid labor force and the family environment will foster the positive development of families within the context of dual careerism. —Isla H. Simpson and Amy E. Alberts

See also MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Belsky, J. (2001). Emanuel Miller Lecture: Developmental risks (still) associated with early child care. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42(7), 845–859. Farkas, S., Duffet, A., & Johnson, J. (2000). Necessary compromises: How parents, employers, and children’s advocates view child care today. New York: Public Agenda. Gilbert, L. A. (1994). Current perspectives on dual-career families. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3(4), 101–105. Hertz, R., & Marshall, N. L. (2001). Working families: The transformation of the American home. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Heymann, J. (2000). The widening gap: Why America’s working families are in jeopardy—and what can be done about it. New York: Basic Books. Hochschild, A. R. (1990). The second shift. New York: Avon. Hoffman, L. W., & Nye, F. I. (1984). Working mothers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hoffman, L. W., & Youngblade, L. M. (2002). Mothers at work: Effects on children’s well-being. Family Therapy, 29(3), 188. Knaub, P. K. (1986). Growing up in a dual-career family: The children’s perceptions. Family Relations, 35, 431–437. Scarr, S. (1991). On comparing apples and oranges and making inferences about bananas. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53(4), 1099–1100. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1992). Statistical abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Vandell, D. L. (1991). Belsky and Eggebeen’s analysis of the NLSY: Meaningful results or statistical illusions? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53(4), 1100–1103.

FAMILIES, IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN THE UNITED STATES The study of immigrant families in the United States is relevant to applied developmental science for several reasons. Chief among these is the increasing number of families immigrating to the United States.

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Results of the 2000 census indicate that 10% of the people living in the United States were born in other countries, making the current wave of immigrants the largest in U.S. history (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). Furthermore, many of those who immigrate to the United States have young or school-aged children. Current statistics indicate that 20% of children under the age of 18, or 14 million children, are either immigrants themselves or the children of immigrant parents (Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families, 1998). Moreover, the majority of immigrants coming to the United States at the turn of the 21st century were from Asia and Latin America, and not from Europe as was the case at the turn of the 20th century. Thus, previous research on the developmental correlates of immigration may not be applicable to this new generation. UNIQUE DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES A second reason that knowledge of immigrant families is of interest to applied developmental science is because of the special challenges that immigrants face. Immigrant families on first entry to the United States may hold values, beliefs, and goals for themselves and their children that may be very different from those held by long-term residents. Thus, in addition to negotiating normative developmental tasks, immigrant parents and their children face the additional psychological task of adapting to a new culture, or acculturation. For example, because immigrant families are straddling two cultures, there may be tension in families between parents who wish to inculcate the traditional beliefs of their homelands in their children and children who wish to conform to and be accepted by their American peers. In addition, schoolaged children who are fluent in English may be required to act as “culture brokers” on behalf of their parents who are not fluent in English, for example, by acting as translators at parent-teacher conferences. There may also be more serious issues facing immigrant families. For example, some immigrant children and their families may be refugees and perhaps have endured wars in their homelands or suffered in other ways under a brutal regime (e.g., suffered starvation, were victims of violence, or were prohibited from attending school because of their gender). Thus, immigrant families may have faced stressors and challenges not usually seen among American children and families.

UNIVERSAL VERSUS CONTEXTUAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT A third reason immigrant families are important to the field of applied developmental science is that the study of diverse populations within the United States can enhance understanding of universal versus contextual factors influencing development. Although research on diverse ethnic groups is beginning to increase, the majority of developmental psychology and human development research involves European American middle-class family participant pools; yet the results of these studies are often generalized to all individuals and families, regardless of immigration status or ethnic identification (e.g., Fisher et al., 2002; Parke, 2000). Often, scholars who have made claims about the universality of human developmental trajectories have been humbled when research with ethnically diverse populations fails to substantiate such claims. THE DIVERSITY OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES Despite their importance to applied developmental science, little is known about immigrant children and their families. What we do know suggests that these families are extraordinarily diverse. Immigrant families come from many countries, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds and speak many languages, to name just a few of the ways in which modern immigrant families differ from each other. The skills that immigrant children and families arrive with and the speed with which they acquire skills valued in U.S. society also vary. For example, in terms of educational achievement and literacy, some children who immigrate to the United States may not have had much schooling in their countries of origin and may not be literate in any language, even though they are of school age when they arrive. Other immigrant children, although not fluent in English when they come to the United States, nevertheless learn to speak and read English quickly and succeed in school (Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families, 1998).

TRANSMISSION OF CULTURAL VALUES The emerging empirical literature in this area also suggests that many immigrant families retain some beliefs and practices of their homelands and do not

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adopt American beliefs and behaviors entirely. For example, research indicates that parental socialization and teaching behaviors influence children’s cognitive competence (i.e., symbolic play and language development, respectively) and differ between cultural groups (Bornstein, 1989; Bornstein, Azuma, Tamis-LeMonda, & Ogino, 1990; Bornstein, Haynes, Pascual, Painter, & Galperín, 1999; Cote & Bornstein, 2000; Greenfield & Suzuki, 1998; Vargas & Busch-Rossnagel, in press). We also know that generally, first- and second-generation immigrant children outperform their later-generation counterparts in educational attainment, health, and psychological well-being (Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Famlies, 1998), but why this happens remains to be investigated.

CONCLUSIONS Research on immigrant families is important because so little is known about individual, familial, and cultural factors that contribute to both positive and negative outcomes for immigrant children. To help immigrant children succeed in the United States, more must be learned about the ways parents in other cultures socialize their children, the goals and values that guide these socialization practices, the outcomes of these socialization practices in terms of children’s development, and how positive outcomes can be promoted following immigration. Research suggests that patterns of parent-child interactions that lead to social and cognitive competence for immigrant children may not necessarily be the same as those successfully applied by long-term residents in the United States. —Linda R. Cote

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bornstein, M. H. (1989). Cross-cultural developmental comparisons: The case of Japanese-American infant and mother activities and interactions. What we know, what we need to know, and why we need to know. Developmental Review, 9, 171–204. Bornstein, M. H., Azuma, H., Tamis-LeMonda, C., & Ogino, M. (1990). Mother and infant activity and interaction in Japan and in the United States: I. A comparative macroanalysis of naturalistic exchanges. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 13, 267–287. Bornstein, M. H., Haynes, O. M., Pascual, L., Painter, K. M., & Galperín, C. (1999). Play in two societies: Pervasiveness of

process, specificity of structure. Child Development, 70, 317–331. Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families: Board on Children, Youth, and Families, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. (1998). In D. J. Hernandez & E. Charney (Eds.), From generation to generation: The health and well-being of children in immigrant families. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Cote, L. R., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Social and didactic parenting behaviors and beliefs among Japanese American and South American mothers of infants. Infancy, 1, 363–374. Fisher, C. B., Hoagwood, K., Duster, T., Frank, D. A., Grisso, T., Macklin, R., et al. (2002). Research ethics for mental health science involving ethnic minority children and youth. American Psychologist, 57, 1024–1040. Greenfield, P. M., & Suzuki, L. K. (1998). Culture and human development: Implications for parenting, education, pediatrics, and mental health. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & I. E. Sigel & K. A. Renninger (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 1059–1109). New York: Wiley. Parke, R. D. (2000). Beyond White and middle class: Cultural variations in families—assessments, processes, and policies. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 331–333. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). United States Census 2000. Available at www.factfinder.census.gov Vargas, M., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. (in press). Teaching behaviors and styles of low-income Puerto Rican Mothers. Applied Developmental Science.

FAMILIES, MULTIGENERATIONAL Multigenerational families are typically defined as relatives from three or more generations who share a household. These families are salient in contemporary research, policy, and practice. Researchers recognize the range of family members active in many people’s lives. Policymakers and practitioners recognize ways in which these family members may enhance, support, replace, or, in some cases, undermine policies and programs. DEFINITIONS OF MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILIES Genealogically, a generation is a set of family members who are at the same stage of descent from a common ancestor. For example, grandparents, parents, and grandchildren represent three generations. The term multigenerational refers to two or

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more generations, such as the three just listed. Although the generations within a family often have distinct age ranges, the timing of marriage, remarriage, and fertility may produce generations with overlapping ages. Family is a term with varied meanings, both popular and scholarly. These range from very specific definitions, such as that of the U.S. Bureau of the Census—two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption who share a household—to more general definitions, such as two or more people who have long-term commitments to one another. From the broadest perspective, all families are multigenerational. Two generations of parents and children share many households. Most households also keep ties with additional earlier and later generations that live elsewhere. This entry considers the multigenerational family as a shared residential situation that extends beyond parent-child, with the most typical being grandparent-parent-child. Examples of policy and practice further focus primarily on the multigenerational family formed when a young mother and her child coreside with the child’s maternal grandmother. Multigenerational families are clearly relevant to additional areas of policy and practice, such as the balance between societal and familial roles in caring for the elderly. THE PREVALENCE OF MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILIES IN THE UNITED STATES New research has repeatedly revised our answer to the question of whether multigenerational families were more prevalent in the past than today. Likewise, the interplay of contemporary demographic changes is complex. The simplest argument with general agreement is that declining mortality has led to more people today having living relatives from multiple generations. Still, recent empirical work has dispelled the notion of families having surviving members spanning five or six generations and has suggested that the parent-child relationship is stronger than ties to more distant generations. As Uhlenberg (1995) summarizes, “No doubt the average lineage depth has increased as more people have survived to older ages, but empirical evidence helps us to avoid overemphasizing structures that are rare (the five-generation family)” (p. 20). According to the 2000 census, 4% of households in the United States are multigenerational. Of these, nearly two thirds are headed by the oldest generation,

with the householder providing a home for his or her child(ren) and grandchild(ren). One third are headed by the middle generation, with the householder providing a home for his or her parent(s) and child(ren). Just 2% contain the four generations of parent-householderchild-grandchild (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003). WHEN AND WHY DO MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILIES FORM? Demographic, economic, and social factors influence the prevalence of multigenerational families. Viewed from a life cycle perspective, multigenerational families are likely at early and late stages. Parents of young children may coreside with their own parents, receiving help with the transition to parenthood, child care assistance, and reduced housing costs. This is particularly true among young, nevermarried, and divorced mothers. Grandparents may coreside with their children and grandchildren as declining health, depleted assets, and loss of a spouse limit their independent living. Events at any life cycle stage migration, such as death of a family member, divorce, job loss, or a disabling accident, may also prompt coresidence. External factors, such as housing shortages and housing costs, can also encourage multiple generations to “double up” in shared housing. Descriptively, women and non-Whites are more likely to live in multigenerational households than their counterparts. For example, according to the 1998 to 2000 Current Population Surveys, 11% of White adults live in multigenerational households, in contrast to 23% of African American adults and 21% of Latino adults (Cohen & Casper, 2002). In addition, whereas in most multigenerational families, adult children live in households maintained by their parents, within ethnicities, Asian American household heads are more likely to be adult children who provide homes for their parents (Kamo, 2000). And close to two thirds of grandparents who are coresident with grandchildren are grandmothers (Bryson & Casper, 1999). Researchers debate the causes and meaning of these descriptive differences. Generally, controlling for demographic (particularly economic) and contextual factors reduces race-ethnic differences considerably. But recent research also demonstrates some evidence of potential cultural mechanisms, such as varying norms for providing assistance across generations. Gender differences likewise reflect both demographic differences and familial processes. For example,

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consistent with their greater likelihood of living in multigenerational families, women have been characterized as the “kinkeepers” who stay in touch with and care for kin (Rosenthal, 1985). Yet demographically, women are more likely to survive a spouse, and are thus more likely to need financial and caregiving assistance from adult children. Similarly, men are more likely than women to become disconnected from children following divorce (Lye, 1996). But on average, divorced men are also better off financially than divorced women and thus better able to afford a household separate from their adult children. MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILIES AND WELFARE POLICY Recent policy discussions in the United States highlight multigenerational families as part of the social safety net. For example, the particular multigenerational family occupied by an adolescent mother, her parents, and her child received attention during the 1996 welfare reforms (Gordon, 1999). The Congressional Research Service reported some policymakers’ concerns about “undermining parental authority” by providing income for teenagers to cover the rent of an independent residence. In subsidizing such independent residence, the government was thought to foster an “isolating . . . unnurturning . . . and financially impractical environment” for teenage mothers. Likewise, some lawmakers suggested that teenage mothers who stayed at home would benefit from parental guidance, discipline, and monitoring. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 included a mandate that unmarried, minor parents who receive cash assistance live with their own parents (or in an approved adultsupervised setting) and participate in school or training. The research base provided some, but not complete, support for the rationale behind these policies (Gordon, 1999). Numerous studies have found that living in a grandmother-young mother-child household is associated with better educational and economic outcomes for young mothers. At the same time, young mothers in these multigenerational households demonstrate poorer parenting skills. Recent research that attempts to account for preexisting differences between young mothers who coreside with their adult relatives and those who do not confirms these earlier findings, although there is also evidence that mothers who had less knowledge of child development when their

children were born sorted into coresident households (Gordon, Chase-Lansdale, & Brooks-Gunn, 2003). These studies appear to uphold the educational benefit lawmakers had in mind when mandating coresidence for minor parents who receive federal cash assistance. But prior research has generally examined voluntary coresidence, and since the 1996 reforms, many grandparents in households that receive welfare will be subject to work requirements and thus less available to provide child care and other supports to young mothers who are working or in school. In fact, a recent study of minor mothers in the postreform period suggests that those who coreside with grandmothers are doing less well in their schooling progress than those who do not (Kalil & Danziger, 2000). Furthermore, policymakers and practitioners cannot assume that coresidence with parents is sufficient to inoculate young mothers from negative outcomes, given the findings that coresident mothers exhibit lower parenting skills. In addition, research on children’s outcomes has revealed varied positive and negative associations with grandmother coresidence. And before the recent interest in grandmothers as primary parents for grandchildren (also highlighted in the 1996 welfare reforms), fewer studies had examined grandmothers’ well-being. SOCIAL PROGRAMS AND MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILIES Researchers are also beginning to document how the effectiveness of a social program may differ for participants living in various household configurations. Cole, Kitzman, Olds, and Sidora (1998) conducted a large randomized trial to evaluate a nurse visitation program for first-time, low-income mothers. The program aimed to improve mothers’ and infants’ well-being across multiple domains, including physical health, emotions, and education. Among the most vulnerable mothers, who had lower IQs, coping skills, self-efficacy, and mental health, treatment group members showed better scores on a measure of the quality of the home environment (the HOME Observation Scale) only when they lived alone. This finding remained when household size was controlled. The authors note that complex households, particularly multigenerational households, complicated the home visitor’s task, for example, by requiring that recommended changes to household routines be negotiated with several household members.

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A recent intervention to alter infant feeding practices focused explicitly on the grandmothermother relationship within multigenerational households (Black, Siegel, Abel, & Bentley, 2001). Ethnographic research had revealed that grandmothers in these families dominated decisions about the introduction of foods. In contrast to advice young mothers received from physicians and professionals, grandmothers encouraged the early introduction of solid foods, for example, to satisfy crying babies and to help babies sleep through the night. Low-income adolescent mothers were viewed as particularly vulnerable to grandmothers’ influences because of their lack of experience with parenting and their emotional and financial dependence on their mothers. An intervention was designed to help teenage mothers in multigenerational families interpret and respond to babies’ cues without using food and to negotiate with the grandmother about feeding their newborns. Mothers in the intervention were nearly 4 times more likely to delay the introduction of foods other than breast milk, formula, or water than were mothers in the control group. Although the study design does not allow the separation of the multigenerational negotiation component from the other components of the intervention, it encourages the design and study of future programs that address the role of the coresident grandmother. DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND INTERVENTION Additional research on the causes and consequences of multiple generations coming together to share a household are needed to advance both theory and practice. Questions in need of additional research include the following: Who is active in the decisionmaking process leading to “doubling up”? Do differences between families who do and do not coreside explain outcomes associated with multigenerational families? What mechanisms operate within multigenerational families to affect family members’ wellbeing? What challenges and benefits accrue to the members of each generation when they share a household? How do these positive and negative outcomes balance out within and across family members? It is particularly important for future research to avoid an “either/or” perspective about whether the consequences of multigenerational families reflect factors that lead multiple generations to share a household

versus different ways that family members interact together when they share a household rather than live apart. Similarly, rather than considering only the advantages or the disadvantages of multigenerational families, carefully designed studies are needed to delineate potentially offsetting negative and positive processes. For example, coresident mothers may experience benefits, such as help caring for the baby, but may also experience drawbacks, such as criticism or unwanted advice. Likewise, noncoresident mothers may benefit from privacy but may experience isolation and feelings of being overwhelmed. Not only will such studies advance theory; they can also best inform practice. Based on research findings, programs may be designed to reinforce positive mechanisms, to address negative consequences, and to target families in which multigenerational coresidence reflects a preexisting risk factor. It is also important for researchers to continue to evaluate policy changes, such as the minor parent provision in welfare policy, and to suggest modifications when warranted. Practitioners can similarly expand upon recent efforts to consider ways in which their programs might operate differently for multigenerational than for other families. Although recent research has highlighted negative consequences, it is also important for future program design and study to consider ways in which programs might be more effective when multiple generations share a household. In the feeding intervention described above, for example, when grandmothers can be convinced of the reasons not to introduce solid foods early and can be trained in alternative responses to children’s cries and sleep patterns, are young mothers most likely to follow the suggested schedule for food introduction? —Rachel A. Gordon

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Black, M. M., Siegel, E. H., Abel, Y., & Bentley, M. E. (2001). Home and videotape intervention delays early complementary feeding among adolescent mothers. Pediatrics, 107(5), 67. Bryson, K., & Casper, L. M. (1999). Coresident grandparents and grandchildren. Current Population Reports, 23, 198. Cohen, P. N., & Casper, L. M. (2002). In whose home? Multigenerational families in the United States, 1998–2000. Sociological Perspectives, 45, 1–20. Cole, R., Kitzman, H., Olds, D., & Sidora, K. (1998). Family context as a moderator of program effects in prenatal and early childhood home visitation. Journal of Community Psychology, 26, 37–48.

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Gordon, R. A. (1999). Multigenerational coresidence and welfare policy. Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 525–549. Gordon, R. A., Chase-Lansdale, L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Extended households and the life course of young mothers: Understanding the associations. Submitted for publication. Kalil, A., & Danziger, S. K. (2000). How teen mothers are faring under welfare reform. Journal of Social Issues, 56(4), 775–798. Kamo, Y. (2000). Racial and ethnic differences in extended family households. Sociological Perspectives, 43, 211–229. Lye, D. N. (1996). Adult child-parent relationships. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 79–102. Rosenthal, C. J. (1985). Kinkeeping in the family division of labor. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47, 965–974. Uhlenberg, P. (1995). Commentary: Demographic influences on intergenerational relationships. In V. L. Bengtson, K. W. Schair, & L. M. Burton (Eds.), Adult intergenerational relations: Effects of societal change (pp. 19–25). New York: Springer. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2003). Multigenerational households for the United States, States and for Puerto Rico: 2000. Available at http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/ phc-t17.pdf

FAMILY CAREGIVING FOR ELDERS Caregiving for a dependent older adult is a significant influence on human development because it affects an individual’s physical, emotional, financial, and mental well-being. This entry summarizes the prevalence of caregiving, discusses caregivers’ motives and the processes by which they become caregivers, and reviews the psychological outcomes of providing care to a frail older adult. In addition, there is a discussion of psychosocial interventions for caregivers.

PREVALENCE Family caregiving refers to the provision of assistance to a physically and/or cognitively impaired older adult by family members. It includes personal care, help with household tasks, health care assistance, monitoring, coordinating service use, and emotional support (in combination with other assistance). In Western countries, adult children and spouses provide most informal care to older adults. According to the 1997 National Family Caregiver Survey, nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households was involved in caring for an individual 50 years and older at some point during the

previous year, and 17.5% were currently involved in caregiving. About 73% of caregivers were women, and 64% were employed. They spent on average 18 hours per week on caregiving and had been providing care for about 4.5 years (National Alliance for Caregiving, 1997). Most informal care is provided by adult children, primarily daughters and daughters-inlaw, and by spouses. CAREGIVING MOTIVES AND THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A CAREGIVER Although it is difficult to predict whether and under which circumstances care needs may occur, attitudes and feelings regarding caregiving often emerge before people decide whether and how to provide support. Blenkner (1965) has presented an idealized image of “filial maturity” as a unique developmental challenge of adult children in which they come to recognize the parent as an individual with personal needs and goals apart from the parenting role, resulting in willingness to assume a caregiving role for the parent. However, many adult children and spouses worry about the extent of future help that might be called for by their aging parents or spouses and whether they would be able to manage this burden. Providing care may be motivated by discretionary reasons, such as affection, closeness, and enjoyment of the relationship, as well as by family or social obligation and perceived lack of alternative sources of care. Although both groups of motives increase the probability of care provision, discretionary motives are associated with lower levels of psychological distress for caregivers, whereas the reverse is true for the obligation motive (Cicirelli, 1993). The trajectory of becoming a caregiver usually begins with a general awareness of aging of the older adult and progresses to the recognition of concrete health problems and then to actual care provision. The amount of care provision increases with declining health of the care recipient. Caregiving for chronically ill older adults ends with institutional placement or bereavement, although some caregivers continue to provide care while the care receiver is institutionalized, and some provide care for other older adults (caregiver careers). EFFECTS OF CAREGIVING Caregiving for older adults has important consequences for the psychological health and the general

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well-being of caregivers. The overall impact of physical, psychological, social, and financial demands of caregiving has been termed caregiver burden, which can be further differentiated into objective and subjective burden. Objective burden involves primary stressors, including having to manage the caregiver’s physical, cognitive, and behavioral changes, and secondary stressors, such as having less time for the family, friends, work, vacations, hobbies, or leisure activities and experiencing financial hardship (National Alliance for Caregiving, 1997). For example, in the National Family Caregiver Survey, 54% of caregivers had to make work-related adjustments, and among those with the highest caregiving demands, 30% gave up working. The demands of caregiving are higher in dementia caregivers than in caregivers for physically frail older adults: Dementia caregivers spend more hours per week providing care and report greater employment problems, reduced time for leisure and other family members, and high levels of distress due to recipients’ behavior problems (e.g., aggressiveness, wandering). Subjective burden involves negative emotional reactions of the caregiver, such as worry, anxiety, frustration, and fatigue. Compared with noncaregivers, caregivers are more stressed and depressed and have lower levels of subjective well-being, self-efficacy, and physical health. The largest differences are found between dementia caregivers and noncaregivers: Up to 48% of dementia caregivers have been identified as being at risk for psychiatric symptoms (Pinquart & Sörensen, 2003a). Most studies on caregiving are based on cross-sectional data, and only a small number of studies have investigated psychological consequences of caregiving transitions (e.g., Seltzer & Li, 2000). Caregiver burden and depression are most strongly associated with behavior problems of the care recipient. The amount of care provided, care receivers’ cognitive deficits, and physical impairments also contribute to subjective burden (Pinquart & Sörensen, 2003b). The stress experienced as a result of caregiving is a risk factor for physical illness and the death of the caregiver (Schulz & Beach, 1999). However, studies vary considerably in the reported psychological and health effects of caregiving. For example, the size of the relationship between caregiving demands and outcome variables is moderated by motives of care provision, individual and social resources, and coping processes. Increased attention has been focused on caregiving as a source of positive affect. In addition to

being stressed, caregivers also report feeling useful, appreciating closeness to the care recipient, and experiencing pride in their ability to handle crises (Kramer, 1997). Whereas the effects of caregiving on psychological and physical health of caregivers have been addressed in hundreds of studies, there is much less research on consequences for caregivers’ psychosocial development in general. Differences in developmental stages may affect the nature of the caregiving experience. For example, younger caregivers may feel more distressed than older caregivers because caregiving is a less normative event than caring for a spouse in old age and because they may have more competing work and family responsibilities. Older caregivers are frequently more burdened, especially if they suffer from poor health, since this may interfere with their ability to provide care. However, for the “young old,” the caregiving role may compensate for the lost work role due to retirement and add meaning to life. Because it is difficult to anticipate the duration and demands levels of caregiving and care is often provided much longer than initially expected (National Alliance for Caregiving, 1997), most caregivers may not adequately anticipate and prevent possible negative long-term consequences of caregiving for other social roles and developmental tasks. For example, they often do not anticipate difficulties in reentering the labor market after the end of caregiving, long-term effects of caregiving on the maintenance of friendship ties, or how caregiving will affect their future financial resources. This may lead to long-term difficulties, due to the erosion of psychological resources and caregiving-based losses in other social roles that are difficult to replace. For example, a study by Seltzer and Li (2000) showed that although cessation of caregiving because of institutionalization or bereavement increased the former caregivers’ social participation and decreased subjective burden, it did not reduce depressive symptoms. PSYCHOSOCIAL INTERVENTIONS Caregiver interventions can be divided into two major groups: those aimed at reducing the objective amount of care provided by caregivers (respite, interventions to enhance the competence of the care receiver) and those aimed at improving the caregiver’s well-being and coping skills (e.g., psychoeducational interventions, support groups). A recent meta-analysis

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showed that psychotherapeutic interventions improved caregivers’ stress, depression, and self-efficacy by about one third of a standard deviation unit. Respite/ adult day care had similar effects on stress reduction. Intervention effects for dementia caregivers were smaller than effects for other caregivers, probably because many stressors specific to dementia are more difficult to cope with and less modifiable than the stressors common to purely physical care (Sörensen, Pinquart, & Duberstein, 2002). More efforts are needed to increase the effectiveness of interventions with dementia caregivers, for example, by combining respite/day care with training, to increase caregivers’ abilities to cope with care receiver behavior problems. It is also important to increase accessibility of these interventions to dementia caregivers in the community, due to their high levels of caregiver burden and depression.

Kramer, B. J. (1997). Gain in the caregiving experience: Where are we? What next? Gerontologist, 37, 218–232. National Alliance for Caregiving. (1997). Family caregiving in the U.S.: Finding from a national survey. Bethesda, MD: Author. Pinquart, M., & Sörensen, S. (2003a). Differences between caregivers and noncaregivers in psychological health and physical health: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 18, 250–267. Pinquart, M., & Sörensen, S. (2003b). Predictors of caregiver burden and depressive mood: A meta-analysis. Journal of Gerontology, Psychological Sciences, 58, 112–128. Schulz, R., & Beach, S. (1999). Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: The caregiver health effects study. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282, 2215–2219. Seltzer, M. M., & Li, L. (2000). The dynamics of caregiving: Transitions during a three-year prospective study. Gerontologist, 40, 165–177. Sörensen, S., Pinquart, M., & Duberstein, P. (2002). How effective are interventions with caregivers? An updated meta-analysis. Gerontologist, 42, 356–372.

CONCLUSIONS Providing care for a frail older adult has an important impact on family caregivers’ development because it affects a person’s financial situation, work roles, maintenance of friendship ties, subjective well-being, and perceived control. However, more longitudinal research is needed on the consequences of caregiving for social roles and age-associated developmental tasks. From an applied developmental perspective, interventions with caregivers could be improved by extending the focus on coping with stressors to also include enhancing the caregiver’s broader psychosocial development. For example, respite/day care programs may also serve to enhance caregivers’ development, such as maintaining existing social relations in the later years and developing new interests that will increase positive emotions even after caregiving ends. —Martin Pinquart and Silvia Sörensen

FAMILY POLICY Over the past few decades, family policy has incrementally emerged as an important academic and governmental issue in the United States. In this sense, it is following Europe’s lead, where family policy has long had strong emphasis. Academic and professional fields, such as social work, applied sociology, family science, and applied human and child development, have begun to include social and family policy in their curricula as an important tool for advocacy. Furthermore, some government agencies and nonprofits now employ “family policy analysts” as part of their staffs, to focus on programs and policies related to family well-being. This entry examines family policy and how it is defined and functions in the United States. It also explores how family is defined in order to set policy and briefly looks at useful tools to assess the impact of policies on families and children.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Blenkner, M. (1965). Social work and family relationships in later life with some thoughts on filial maturity. In E. Shanas & G. F. Streib (Eds.), Social structure and the family (pp. 46–59). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cicirelli, V. G. (1993). Attachment and obligation as daughters’ motives for caregiving behavior and subsequent effect on subjective burden. Psychology and Aging, 8, 144–155.

DEFINING FAMILY POLICY The roots of family policy lie in the fields of general public and social policy. Public policy is often described as the totality of government action and inaction that affects the larger general population (Stone, 1997). Social policy addresses those same

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actions but focuses not so much on the general population as on individual demographic groups, such as low-income communities, older adults, or people with disabilities. Family policy is even more specific. It focuses on the well-being of those individuals who, in one way or another, make up a family unit. Family policy covers a broad area of programs and actions that have prompted some critics to describe certain definitions as “meaningless” (Bogenschneider, 2000) or as “everything and nothing” (Steiner, 1981, p. 197). It has come to be understood as “everything governments do that affects families” (Zimmerman, 1992, p. 3). Government actions affect families in many ways: directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly, targeted or (less often) universally. These policies and programs range from the Earned Income Tax Credit to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families to child care to Head Start to marriage itself. Family policy is not exclusively the domain of governments. It is not unusual for workplaces to have policies and programs that focus on the family or members of a family (Bogenschneider, 2000). Major workplaces, with 50 or more employees, have a paternal leave policy (some with benefits beyond those required by the Family and Medical Leave Act). Many larger employers also provide child care benefits, health and wellness benefits, or educational programs for spouses and children. Policy scientists also consider family policy in a manner similar to social policy: as a perspective or way to think about or analyze public and social policies that affect families (Zimmerman, 1988, 1992). In this manner, academic and governmental analysts examine policies to see the real effects that these policies have on families. These broad definitions still make it difficult to understand specifically what family policy is and how it affects positive family functioning, well-being, and youth development. Yet understanding family policy as the by-product of government action directed at members of families and as a way to analyze those policies allows the family practitioner, the policymaker, and the policy scientist to better evaluate government policies and how they do or would affect families. DEFINING A FAMILY FOR FAMILY POLICY As family policy continues to emerge as a field, the changing and varying definitions of family can cause confusion. According to the U.S. Bureau of the

Census Web site (2002), a family is “a group of two people or more . . . related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together.” This definition is often used to determine who can participate in governmental services, such as public assistance benefits, or who can have access to school records. This definition also drives much of the governmental family policy. But it does not address the broader reality of same-sex partnerships, male-female cohabitation, extended families, communal living where individuals or family members reside in close proximity but not under the same roof, or other configurations of family. Cherlin (2002) offers broader definitions and distinguishes between the public family and the private family. The public family contributes to the public welfare by reproducing the workforce and by taking care of dependents. The public family consists of “one adult, or two adults who are related by marriage, partnership, or shared parenthood, who is/are taking care of dependents, and the dependents themselves” (p. 14). Family members do not necessarily reside under the same roof, but they must provide care for a child, an elderly person, or a person with a chronic illness or disability, thus lessening the burden on society and benefiting the public welfare. The private family, according to Cherlin, provides its members with intimacy and emotional support. It consists of “two or more individuals who maintain an intimate relationship that they expect will last indefinitely—or, in the case of a parent and child, until the child reaches adulthood—and who live in the same household and pool their income and household labor” (Cherlin, 2002, p. 17). Children learn and develop; adults gain strength and love. The private family includes traditional families as well as kinship relationships, foster care settings, and cohabitation arrangements. These various definitions have social, political, and economic implications. Socially, individuals may be ostracized, supported, or welcomed into a community or social setting based on the type of family from which they come. Politically, persons seeking election may speak to the specific needs of the family types of their constituents, be they traditional or not. Economically, identifying family members determines who might be eligible to participate in governmental income programs or share in employee health and other benefits (Cherlin, 2002). Federal policymakers are more apt to use the narrow definition of family to create policy and programs. This definition can exclude nontraditional

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families. Couples that do not or cannot marry are unable to receive Social Security survivor benefits when a partner dies. In cohabitation situations, domestic partner benefits are taxed by the federal government. In partnerships where there is no federally recognized marriage, partners cannot file joint tax returns, meaning that only one partner can claim children as dependents for tax purposes. Outside of the federal government, there is a somewhat looser definition of family. Many corporations, nonprofits, and about a dozen states are slowly extending benefits to include “nontraditional” public families, such as extending health insurance benefits to domestic partners of the same or opposite gender. It is still not common, however, to include the private family in policymaking at either the governmental or nongovernmental level. FORMS OF FAMILY POLICY The United States has never had a single, formal family policy. Instead, family policy is the collection of various policies and programs by which families are directly or indirectly affected. This approach is not new. The state or federal government’s role in developing policies that specifically address the functioning and formulation of family has been present since the European colonization of North America. Some early family policies were directed at recruiting and maintaining White families in the “New World.” Other policies were directed at regulating and controlling the actions, activities, and rights of women, Native Americans, and slaves (Abramovitz, 1996). Today, family policy is generally associated with programs and policies that focus on family well-being in the larger sense, but more specifically, on child protection, economics of the family, family creation, child rearing, and caregiving (Bogenschneider, 2000). Family policy encompasses a number of existing policies and programs, such as the Adoptions and Safe Families Act of 1997, family preservation programs, the Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (welfare reform), Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families, and other tax policies. It also includes regulations and laws around marriage, divorce, adoption, and termination of parental rights. Child-rearing and caregiving issues arise under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and include federal child care policies and programs, such as the Child Care and Development Block Grant

(CCDF), Head Start, and state initiatives such as North Carolina’s Smart Start program. It is the role of policymakers and analysts to determine the impact of policies and programs on families and children. Some kind of criteria for policy evaluation would be useful in helping determine whether policies can create and maintain healthy families and contribute to positive youth development. Jacobs (1994) suggested using five dimensions to evaluate government policies and their effect on families and children, proposing that the following five questions would move the United States to a more comprehensive and progressive set of child and family policies: 1. Are these policies child centered or family centered? 2. Do they provide families economic support or support for caretaking and nurturance? 3. Are they targeted or universal? 4. Do they promote treatment strategies or preventive strategies? 5. Do they view children as a private or public responsibility? (p. 21) Another useful tool comes from Ooms (1995) and Ooms and Preister (1988), who adapted a broader checklist of six principles developed by the Family Criteria Task Force of the Consortium of Family Organizations for evaluating the effect that policies and programs have on families. These six principles were used as part of the Family Impact Seminars in the 1990s and can serve as a useful tool for assessing individual programs as well as broader, overreaching policies. The checklist stresses that policy and programs should (1) address and recognize a family’s own support system and responsibilities; (2) encourage and reinforce family membership and stability; (3) recognize the interdependence of family relationships and ties; (4) encourage empowerment and collaboration among family members; (5) respect, acknowledge, and value the diversity of families; and (6) pay special attention to families who are most vulnerable. CONCLUSIONS As we recognize the diversity of families, family policy should evolve to include the range and types of families in the United States. Governments and

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private agencies need to expand their definitions of families to be most effective in developing comprehensive and effective polices and programs that affect families. Likewise, this broader approach is necessary for policy analysts as they study and analyze family policies. Future research in family policy should explore how policies created and implemented with a broader family perspective affect positive family and child development. —Robert Leibson Hawkins

See also PUBLIC POLICY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; WELFARE REFORM

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Abramovitz, M. (1996). Regulating the lives of women: Social welfare policy from Colonial times to the present. Cambridge, MA: South End. Bogenschneider, K. (2000). Has family policy come of age? A decade review of the state of the U.S. family policy in the 1990s. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1136–1159. Cherlin, A. J. (2002). Public & private families: An introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill. Jacobs, F. H. (1994). Child and family policy: Framing the issues. In F. H. Jacobs & M. W. Davies (Eds.), More than kissing babies: Current child and family policy in the United States (pp. 9–35). Westport, CT: Auburn House. Ooms, T. (1995). Taking families seriously: Family impact analysis as an essential policy tool. Washington, DC: The Family Impact Seminar. Available at http://www.uwex.edu/ ces/familyimpact/reports/pins2.pdf Ooms, T., & Preister, S. (Eds.). (1988). A strategy for strengthening families: Using family criteria in policymaking and program evaluation. Washington, DC: Family Impact Seminar. Steiner, G. Y. (1981). The futility of family policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Stone, D. (1997). Policy paradox: The art of political decisionmaking. New York: Norton. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2002). Current population survey (CPS): Definitions and explanations. Population Division, Fertility & Family Statistics Branch. Available at http://www .census.gov/population/www/cps/cpsdef.html. Zimmerman, S. I. (1988). Understanding family policy: Theoretical approaches. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Zimmerman, S. I. (1992). Family policies and family well-being: The role of political culture. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY Family systems theory represents a theoretical orientation in research and practice that is concerned

with family structure and functioning as a means of understanding individuals. Since its introduction in the mid-1950s, it has evolved into a largely accepted and highly influential approach to children and families. It proposes that the best interests of individual members, when properly interpreted, are coextensive with those of the family as a whole. Based on the assumption that the best way to understand an individual is to observe that individual in the context of his or her family, this theory offers researchers and clinicians alike a framework for identifying and addressing the best interests of individual family members. In this regard, family systems theory creates a dialectic between research and practice via a shared theoretical framework. By forging the integration of developmental research and practice so that it may inform policy and future practice related to the positive development of children and families, family systems theory is in line with the core tenets of applied developmental science. FEATURES OF FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY Family systems theory emerged from general systems theory (von Bertalanffy, 1968; Weiner, 1948) by scholars who discovered it had many applications to familial and other social systems. While general systems theory has been used as a paradigm for explanation across academic disciplines, family systems theory is specifically useful for understanding family behavior and adjustment. Seminal thinkers, including Bateson, Ackerman, and Haley, were first to adapt certain tenets of general systems theory to the conceptualization and treatment of the family system. Their endeavors were decidedly successful, as systems-oriented perspectives drove much of theory and practice in family therapy by the 1980s. The family systems framework has been used most extensively as a therapeutic paradigm for the assessment and treatment of families (e.g., Kerr & Bowen, 1988; Minuchin, 1974). The family systems framework proposes that the whole, that is, the family, is different from the sum of its parts, that is, the individuals who compose the family. Specifically, this framework focuses on the interdependence, as opposed to the independence, of family members (Klein & White, 1996). The family is depicted as a single emotional unit comprising interlocking relationships existing across multiple generations. As a result, the framework moves beyond a cause-and-effect interpretation of intrafamily behavior to a more exhaustive understanding of the multiple

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variables that interact across time to produce conflicts or symptoms. Two basic elements of systems theory translate into the fundamental elements of family systems theory: recursion and feedback (Klein & White, 1996). Recursion refers to reciprocal causality. A systems perspective is unconcerned with causality between A and B; instead, the focus is on the reciprocal relationship between A and B. In regard to families, meaning is derived from the relationship between individuals and elements as each influences and defines the other. Each family system possesses a complex coherence structure predicated on the interrelatedness of members. Inherent in the systems perspective is the notion that a change in any one family member reverberates throughout the entire family system. “A change to one is a change to all” stands as a central maxim of family systems theory. Feedback, the second fundamental aspect of systems theory, refers to processes, or self-corrective mechanisms. In regard to a system, feedback refers to the likelihood that a communication pattern will continue or discontinue. Both positive and negative feedback serve to increase the probability of the survival of the system. Positive feedback refers to change in the functioning of a family system, whereas negative feedback refers to a lack of change in the functioning of a family system. For a family system to sustain its survival, the system must both remain stable and change when appropriate. From a family systems perspective, the family is self-regulating, maintaining the integrity of the family system through both positive and negative feedback loops (Kantor & Lehr, 1975). Additional tenets of family systems theory describe how a healthy system functions. Regardless of the content of interactions within families, certain processes are theoretically related to adjustment, whereas contrary processes are related to maladjustment. At any given time, a family system can be identified along a continuum of divergent states: entropy and negentropy (Beavers, 1977). Entropic family systems are functioning toward maximum disorder and disintegration such that the survival of the family is undermined. In contrast, negentropic family systems tend toward maximum order. That is, patterns of relating in such families maximize the orderliness, maintenance, and survival of the family system. Family systems theory suggests that negentropic families are most effective in balancing tendencies toward change and stability, and openness and closedness of boundaries.

In a healthy-functioning family, it is necessary for a family system to both change and remain stable. Morphogenesis refers to system-enhancing behavior that allows for growth, productivity, innovation, and change, whereas morphostasis refers to the tendency toward stability. Both are necessary for healthy family functioning. Therefore, both morphogenic and morphostatic tendencies must be balanced. As found in any system, each family has a set of implicit rules based on values and role expectations for individuals involved in the system. According to family systems theory, a family is defined by these rules, or boundaries, that identify and differentiate each family (Minuchin, 1985; Minuchin, 1974). These rules define what is “appropriate” and “normal” for each family. The boundaries of a family system serve as a filter for the exchange of information between the system and other systems, for example, between the family and the school. Indeed, a healthy family has boundaries that are neither too permeable nor too impervious to influences from external systems. The extent to which family systems allow information to move in and out of the system describes the openness or closedness of the system. A balance between openness and closedness is associated with healthy family functioning. At times, a family has the resources to expose itself to change without threat to the identity of the family. At other times, exposure to other systems will overwhelm the family system and inhibit the healthy functioning of the family. The healthy family system, in turn, fosters the positive development of each of the family members both by supporting individual development and by creating a model for maintenance of healthy relations within the system. According to family systems theorists, individuals’ abilities to handle stress and accommodate change are directly related to the ability of one’s family to maintain healthy functioning. Moreover, the individual’s level of functioning is transmitted through his or her differentiation of self, or the capacity to function both independently and dependently (Kerr & Bowen, 1988). Such family systems patterns are transmitted through interlocking generations over time. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES OF FAMILY SYSTEMS RESEARCH Research inquiry guided by family systems theory has examined issues such as how one element of a

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system recursively influences the whole system and how the fit between subsystems affects the functioning of the family system as a whole. Other topics considered by family systems theorists concerned with aspects of development in relational systems include how systems evolve and how individuals interact with significant others (e.g., Combrinck-Graham, 1990). Several researchers have conducted longitudinal studies of the relationship between marital functioning and parenting with regard to the birth of the first child (e.g., Lewis, 1988; McHale & Fivaz-Depeursinge, 1999). For example, Lewis (1988) found that marital competence over the course of the first child’s birth and subsequent year varied depending on the structure of the marital sphere before the birth. Lewis’s findings advanced the notion that the state of the marital dyad alone is insufficient to determine the impact of a third member of the family. Another research team, Krepner, Paulsen, and Schuetz (1982), also examined the impact of adding new members to the family but with a focus on the introduction of a second child. These authors depicted the family as comprising multiple, autonomous dyads, including sibling and parentchild relationships. Both studies demonstrated that family construction and development are unlikely a linear, additive process resting on unwavering rules previously developed in the marital system. In other words, the introduction of new members into the family system evokes the creation of new structures, agendas, and relationships. Despite these intriguing findings, complex methodological challenges make the study of multiperson, open systems a unique and arduous task. Although it may seem that various family system phenomena would be amenable to research inquiry, only a modest amount of research has been done with a systemic view of the family. This is likely due to the fact that the basic concepts of family systems theory, such as cohesion, enmeshment, and disengagement, are very hard to operationalize or measure. The notion of circular causality, that is, that causes and effects are interchangeable, a key concept in family systems theory, is not well captured by traditional scientific research and statistical analysis. Implied in the notion of circular causality is the absence of dependent and independent variables, which are far more pertinent to the study of linear cause-and-effect paradigms than to family systems. Conventional scientific notions such as replication, reliability, and “error” are best suited for measurable, orderly, and linear research inquiry.

Thus, much research on the family continues to consider only individual-level outcomes. Lest it seem that research on the family system is an insurmountable challenge, several research studies have successfully employed the family as the object of analysis. Gurman and Kniskern (1978) conducted a meta-analysis of psychotherapy outcome studies, discovering that marital and family therapies were equal to or more effective than treatment of the individual. Offering very similar findings as their predecessors, Hazelrigg, Cooper, and Borduin (1987) concluded after a meta-analysis of 20 family therapy outcomes studies that intervention at the family level was more effective than both the absence of treatment and individual therapies. At the most basic level, family systems theory provides a conceptual foundation from which systemic research on the family may flourish. At the most generative level, family systems theory moves beyond providing such a foundation to translate findings into effective policy and practice. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY Beyond providing an approach to studying the family, family systems theory represents the theoretical underpinnings of several therapeutic strategies. Although differing in method, each approach is united by the shared notion that people are connected to a living system, the family, and that tapping the family’s resources will address the presenting problem. Therapy addresses the family as a whole, as it is believed that change occurring in one subsystem will lead to changes in the rest of the family system. Thus, symptoms of the identified client are regarded as a manifestation of dysfunction within the family. Furthermore, difficulties experienced in one relationship system may elicit symptomatic expression in other relationship systems. This constitutes a markedly different way of approaching and assessing the family system, as current relationships within the client’s family are emphasized more so than past experiences, the primary consideration of most therapeutic traditions. Systems theory approaches to family therapy are also consonant in their belief that all individuals need a human group or social system for identity and satisfaction (Kurtz, 1996). Given the contextual nature of human identity and symptomatology according to this framework, it is prudent to intervene directly in the family system.

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Family systems theory is distinct from other theories in that it requires the family to work as a whole in their efforts to solve problems that may appear to belong only to one member. No single member of the family is deemed culpable; rather, every member works to understand how their interactions affect one another and to identify solutions. Central to this approach is Bateson’s (1971) concept of “immanent” mind, which pinpoints “thinking” as occurring not within the individual, but as a part of larger social systems in conjunction with the environment. The primary strength of this approach to therapy is that it avoids making any one member of the family feel as though he or she is alone, both in working through the problem and in devising ways for effectively dealing with future problems. No individual person is absolutely helpless or consummately powerful in a relationship. All human behavior is regarded as the product of multiple variables, as opposed to the effect of one cause, making simplistic solutions suspect. Furthermore, causes and effects are regarded as interchangeable (i.e., there exists circular causality within the family system) (Kurtz, 1996). The relationship between family systems theory and family therapy has become an increasingly recursive process; that is, the theory informs the therapies, and vice versa (Combrinck-Graham, 1990). Several emergent approaches to family therapy were born of the family systems framework, and these approaches continue to refine and, sometimes, redefine the overarching framework. Solution-focused therapy is an example of a therapeutic strategy derived from family systems theory (O’Hanlon & Weiner-Davis, 1989). Therapists who adhere to this strategy have clients focus on solutions that either have worked in the past or are likely to work. It is believed that families have the skills and resources requisite to solve their problems but have, perhaps, lost sight of these abilities and support systems. Another popular strategy for family therapy derived from family systems theory is the reflecting-team approach, in which the therapeutic team develops a collaborative relationship with the family. In this approach, the family and the therapeutic team partake in a dialogue surrounding the problem so that both parties are equally influential and invested in the treatment plan (Andersen, 1991). Yet another notable therapeutic model, an offshoot of family systems theory, requires the family to reauthor their life stories through a process of separating the

problem from the family members, or externalizing the problem (White & Epston, 1990). After giving the problem an existence outside the family, the therapist encourages the family to use their internal and external resources to combat the problem. Although a seemingly modest shift in perspective, externalizing the problem can have a dramatic effect on the family’s ability to cooperate with one another in opposition to a shared “enemy.” Through depersonalizing the problem, the family is less likely to make enemies of one another. While these approaches were born of the family systems framework, therapy is arguably the most important catalyst in the evolution of family systems theory (Combrinck-Graham, 1990). Family systems theory has signaled to clinicians the importance of assessing various phenomena occurring within the family. For instance, clinicians regard the family emotional system as one of the most essential parts of the family to assess (Kerr & Bowen, 1988). Because family members generally cannot depict the emotional system, clinicians must infer it from observing interactive behavior. Thus, clinicians evaluate the family emotional system via behaviors including approaching, avoiding, and conflicting. The focus of family therapy intervention, as a result, is the salient, repetitive, interactive patterns between family members. In this regard, the therapist is concerned with how family members interact, rather than assessing discrete verbal utterances in a vacuum. The family systems framework encourages a strength-based approach to the positive development of children and families across academic and therapeutic disciplines. By making family members cognizant of even the slightest family belief that they possess sufficient resources to cope, family systems therapy enables family members to revise their perceptions of both the problem and their capacity for resolution. Family therapists are advised by this perspective to endorse and use the expertise of the family in identifying and eliminating problems (Vakalahi, 2001). Its nonjudgmental and descriptive stance emphasizes current family functioning rather than historical analysis and intrapsychic conflict. Taken together, these foci enable family therapists to mediate in a positive manner within the family system. CONCLUSIONS Family systems theory provides both researchers and practitioners with a framework for studying and

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supporting the healthy development of the family system. Researchers benefit from an expansive framework for theory construction and scientific implementation. Despite certain methodological challenges in studying multiperson, open systems, family systems theory guides the burgeoning field of systemic research on the family. Family systems theory offers clinicians a straightforward and accessible theory of family functioning and recommendations for intervention. Family therapists are responsible for interpreting and eliciting a multitude of familial interactions over the course of family therapy. Given the incredible complexity of this challenge, family therapists benefit from a theory that is conceptualized at a relatively global level, as it is more likely to encapsulate all the variations of family functioning seen in family therapy (Kurtz, 1996). Family systems theory offers this level of simplicity desired in guiding clinicians through such variations. It makes intuitive sense that researchers and practitioners benefit from the family systems framework, as we are all members of several systems and thus understand and are better understood when examined within the context of a given system. An apt expression of applied developmental science, the family systems framework illuminates the work of researchers and practitioners who seek to understand healthy family functioning and subsequently to be understood by policymakers and future practitioners. —Amy E. Alberts

Kerr, M. E., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation: An approach based on Bowen theory. New York: Norton. Klein, D. M., & White, J. M. (1996). Family theories: An introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Krepner, K., Paulsen, S., & Schuetz, Y. (1982). Infant and family development from triads to tetrads. Human Development, 25, 373–391. Kurtz, R. R. (1996). Family systems theory: A brief review for the clinician. Journal of Psychological Practice, 2(2), 21–28. Lewis, J. M. (1988). The transition to parenthood: I. Family Process, 27, 149–165. McHale, J. P., & Fivaz-Depeursinge, E. (1999). Understanding triadic and family group interactions during infancy and toddlerhood. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 2(2), 107–127. Minuchin, P. (1985). Families and individual development: Provocations from the field of family therapy. Child Development, 56, 289–302. Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. O’Hanlon, W. H., & Weiner-Davis, M. (1989). In search of solutions. New York: Norton. Vakalahi, H. F. (2001). Adolescent substance use and familybased risk and protective factors: A literature review. Journal of Drug Education, 31(1), 29–46. von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General systems theory: Foundations, development, applications. New York: G. Braziller. von Bertalanffy, L. (1976). General systems theory (Rev.). New York: G. Braziller. Weiner, N. (1948). Cybernetics. Cambridge, MA: Technology Press. White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: Norton.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Andersen, T. (1991). The reflecting team. New York: Norton. Bateson, G. (1971). A systems approach. International Journal of Psychiatry, 9, 242–244. Beavers, W. R. (1977). Psychotherapy and growth: A family systems perspective. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Combrinck-Graham, L. (1990). Developments in family systems theory and research. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29(4), 501–512. Gurman, A. S., & Kniskern, D. P. (1978). Research on marital and family therapy. In S. Garfield & A. Bergin (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change: An empirical analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Hazelrigg, M., Cooper, H., & Borduin, C. (1987). Evaluating the effectiveness of family therapies: An integrative review and analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 428–442. Kantor, D., & Lehr, W. (1975). Inside the family: Toward a theory of family process. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

FARRINGTON, DAVID P. David Philip Farrington was born in 1944 at Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, the youngest son of William and Gladys Farrington. His father was an engineer who worked for the English army in a civilian capacity. David’s early schooling was at the Ormskirk Grammar School, where he passed national scholarship exams in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, which made it possible for him to begin to study at Cambridge University in 1963. He did his undergraduate work at Clare College, where he received his BA degree in psychology in 1966 and played soccer for his college. Subsequently, he obtained his MA and his PhD in psychology and developed skills and interest in experimental psychology,

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writing a dissertation, “Continuity and Discontinuity in Human Learning.” However, Farrington found himself more interested in longitudinal studies and obtained a position in 1969 as research officer at Dr. Donald West’s Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, the most important longitudinal study on delinquency in the United Kingdom, which was to influence the course of his subsequent career. While working for West at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge, he brought to the job computer skills, a sharp analytic mind, and high energy. This work also meant a reorientation in academic interests away from experimental psychology, to criminology and methods to analyze longitudinal data. In 1974, Professor Nigel Walker created the position of assistant director of research for Farrington at the institute. Successful at his work, he was appointed university lecturer in criminology in 1976, reader in psychological criminology in 1988, and as a professor of psychological criminology in 1992, a position he currently holds. One of the unique aspects of Farrington’s career was his cementing of ties and collaborations, especially in North America, while working in Cambridge as a base. This was triggered initially by his becoming a researcher at the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Ottawa, Canada, in 1978 to 1979, and receiving a fellowship at the U.S. National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C., in 1981. His academic contacts and work in the United States expanded, leading to an adjunct professorship of psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pittsburgh (1998 onward) and the Jerry Lee Professorship of Criminology at the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology of the University of Maryland (1998–2002). Currently, Farrington is one of the most cited criminologists in the world, having produced 22 books, 20 monographs, 189 papers, and 159 book chapters. Overall, his approach to science has been evidence based rather than solely theoretical, combining a profound knowledge of the literature with novel approaches to the analysis of longitudinal data. Invariably, his style of writing is concise, clear, and accessible. He has an uncanny ability to cast problems in a solvable fashion and to identify up-and-coming areas of scientific development. As a public speaker, invariably, he is able to address both scholarly and policy-oriented audiences. The variety and depth of his scholarship are resounding. Early interests focused on the follow-up of the Cambridge Study in

Delinquent Development, for which he became primarily responsible from 1982 onward. He organized further follow-up of the participants when they were age 32 (1984–1986), while currently, in collaboration with Jeremy Coid and Temi Moffitt, he is completing their follow-up at age 46 to 48. David Farrington has been highly prolific in writing empirical articles on this study. Alongside, he wrote many seminal review and empirical papers dealing with important topics in criminology, such as the association between selfreported and official records of delinquency (1973), labeling processes (1977), longitudinal studies (1979), experimental approaches to crime (1983), personality and delinquency (1982), the relationship between age and crime (1986), the onset of offending (1990), co-offending (1991), bullying (1993), the causes of within-individual variations of behavior (2002), and offending by girls (2004). He pioneered several experiments in theft and shoplifting (1979, 1984, 1993) and advocated combined longitudinal and experimental approaches to crime (1986). In collaboration with several researchers, he instigated cross-national comparisons between delinquency in London and in England and other locations (Montreal, 1982; Stockholm, 1994; Pittsburgh, 1999; United States, 1998). Interests in statistical matters led to publications on relative improvement over chance (1989) and the effects of dichotomization of continuous data variables (2000). An intense interest in other longitudinal data led him to analyze data from Seattle (2003), Newcastle (1996), inner London (2001), and, very enduringly, the Pittsburgh Youth Study (1989 to the present). Other research focused on aspects of the juvenile justice systems, including sentencing (1983), cautioning by the police (1981), and juvenile justice practices in England and Wales (1984). Throughout his academic career, Farrington’s interests have remained focused on developmental aspects of criminology but also expanded into areas such as interventions (including his leadership role in the Campbell collaboration, 2001), cost-benefit studies of interventions (2001), and a focus on serious and violent offenders (1998) and young offenders (2001). Recently, he revised and expanded his earlier theory of crime (2003). Throughout his career, he has intensively collaborated and published with scholars and activated the careers of junior colleagues. Senior colleagues include Alfred Blumstein, J. David Hawkins, Rolf Loeber, Lloyd Ohlin, Alfred J. Reiss, Magda

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Stouthamer-Loeber, Michael Tonry, Per-Olof Wikstrom, and James Q. Wilson; among the PhD students who greatly benefited from his mentorship are Anna Baldry, Anne Connell, Ellen Cohn, Carol Hedderman, Darrick Jolliffe, Andreas Kapardis, John Macleod, and Brandon Welsh. He has generously allowed researchers to analyze data from the Cambridge Study (e.g., Arnold Barnett, Heather Juby, Daniel Nagin, and Carolyn Smith). Farrington has made numerous professional contributions in Britain, such as Member of the Parole Board for England and Wales (1984–1987), Chair of the Division of Forensic Psychology of the British Psychological Society (1983–1985), Co-chair of the High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board, Network on Primary Prevention of Adult Antisocial Behavior (1997–1998), Chair of the U.K. Department of Health Advisory Committee for the National Programme on Forensic Mental Health (2000–2003), and many other organizations and committees. Similarly, he has made significant professional contributions in the United States: for example, his membership on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Panel on Criminal Careers (1983–1986), membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Working Group on Crime and Violence (1985), membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Law and Justice (1986–1993), as a member of the advisory board of the U.S. National Juvenile Court Data Archive (1987–present), Vice Chair, U.S. National Academy of Sciences Panel on Violence (1989–1992), Co-chair, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders (1995–1997), Co-chair, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Study Group on Very Young Offenders (1998–2000), Chair of the Crime and Justice Coordinating Group of the International Campbell Collaboration (2000–present), and numerous other advisory commitments. Farrington’s contributions to science have been recognized from different quarters: Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (1983), Honorary Life Member of the British Society of Criminology (1996), Fellow of the British Academy (1997), Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2000), and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E., 2004). He has received several major awards for his contributions to criminology, including the Sellin-Glueck Award (1984) and the Sutherland Award (2002) of the

American Society of Criminology. He was elected president of the British Society of Criminology (1990–1993). Remarkably, he is the only criminologist who simultaneously held the positions of the president of the American Society of Criminology (1998–1999) and of the European Association of Psychology and the Law (1997–1999). Farrington married Sally Chamberlain, who worked as a teacher, in 1966. They have three daughters, Lucy, Katie, and Alice. The two eldest, after obtaining university degrees, worked for the U.K. government, while the youngest works as a clinical psychologist with young children. In short, David Farrington, within a span of just over 30 years, has become one of the most productive and leading scholars in criminology in the world, is among the most cited criminologists, and has achieved fame through his numerous publications and public-speaking engagements. A large number of individuals and government and private organizations on each side of the Atlantic have sought his advice. In many areas of study, he has advanced the frontiers of science and opened up new scholarly fields. He has shown himself generous to his colleagues and collaborators by sharing his insights, by being inspiring, and by his considerable knowledge and his great sense of humor. —Rolf Loeber

FURTHER READINGS Farrington, D. P. (1986). Age and crime. In M. Tonry & N. Morris (Eds.), Crime and justice: An annual review of research (Vol. 7, pp. 189–250). Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Farrington, D. P. (1993). Understanding and preventing bullying. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and justice: An annual review of research (Vol. 17, pp. 381–458). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Farrington, D. P. (2002). Developmental criminology and riskfocused prevention. In M. Maguire, R. Morganand, & R. Reiner (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminology (3rd ed., pp. 657–701). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Farrington, D. P. (2002). Key results from the first 40 years of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. In T. P. Thornberry & M. D. Krohn (Eds.), Taking stock of delinquency. New York: Kluwer/Plenum. Farrington, D. P., Ohlin, L. E., & Wilson, J. Q. (1986). Understanding and controlling crime: Toward a new research strategy. New York: Springer-Verlag. (Prize for Distinguished Scholarship of the American Sociological Association, Criminology Section, 1988)

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Farrington, D. P., & Petrosino, A. (2001). The Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 578, 35–49. Loeber, R., & Farrington, D. P. (Eds.). (1998). Serious and violent juvenile offenders: Risk factors and successful interventions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. West, D. J., & Farrington, D. P. (1977). The delinquent way of life. London: Heinemann.

FATHER INVOLVEMENT The lack of unique theory on father involvement poses challenges for developing measures of father involvement and designing programs that lead to positive father involvement and, consequently, better child outcomes. The challenge is compounded when ethnic/ cultural differences are recognized, as well as diverse family structures. Despite this problem, researchers from a variety of disciplines have relied on various models and frameworks to understand the nature of father involvement, its determinants, and consequences for children. MODELS AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES Belsky’s (1984) conceptualization of “growthfacilitating parenting” suggests that father involvement is determined by the personality or characteristics of the parent, the social context in which the parent-child interactions occur (i.e., marital satisfaction, employment), and the characteristics of the child (i.e., age, gender, temperament). Lamb, Pleck, Charnov, and Levine (1987) conceptualize father interactions in terms of three dimensions of father-child involvement: (1) engagement (i.e., the extent to which fathers experience direct contact and shared interactions with their children in the context of caretaking, play, or leisure); (2) availability (i.e., a father’s presence or accessibility to the child); and (3) responsibility (e.g., the extent to which a father arranges for resources to be available to the child, including organizing and planning children’s lives). Amato’s (1987) summary measure of “paternal support” incorporates positive paternal activities along with reports of the father being a favorite person with whom the child talks and in whom the child confides. McBride’s (1990) Interaction/Accessibility Time Chart discriminates four subcategories of engagement (defined as using play, functional, parallel, and

transitional), accessibility, and responsibility. Radin’s (1994) Paternal Index of Child Care Involvement (PICCI) assesses several domains of father involvement, including child care responsibility, socialization, influence, child-rearing decisions, and accessibility. And Palkovitz (1997) conceptualizes paternal involvement to include three overlapping domains: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. In addition to the domains of involvement, his model assesses simultaneously occurring continua (e.g., time invested, degree of involvement, observability, salience of involvement, directness, and proximity) and factors moderating involvement (e.g., individual/personality, interactional context/process, and meso-macro contexts). Within this conceptualization, Palkovitz lists 15 ways to be involved in parenting: communicating, teaching, monitoring, engaging in thought processes, providing, showing affection, protecting, supporting emotionally, running errands, caregiving, engaging in child-related maintenance, sharing interests, being available, planning, and sharing activities. In sum, there are a variety of models of father involvement, and with few exceptions, there is little overlap among them. There are few validity and reliability data available, so it is difficult to ascertain what these models are measuring and whether these measures are reliable and valid across types of fathers. Which model should be used? The choice of model of father involvement depends on the purpose and design of the study, the mode of data collection (qualitative or quantitative), and the population under study. THEORETICAL APPROACHES The most common way to theorize about father involvement is in terms of resources available to the family. Drawing from psychology, economics, sociology, and education, these resources can be divided into social, human, and physical (or financial) capital (Tamis-LeMonda & Cabrera, 2002). Social capital includes the quality of the relationships within the family, the ways that parents interact with their children and each other, the educational aspirations parents have for their children, the home environment (rules, routines, order, harmony of household), and even the time that family members have to devote to each other. Human capital within the family includes parental education levels and the skills and abilities that parents and other family members have. Within the community, it includes the education, skills,

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and abilities of those in the community and of those who work in important institutions, such as schools. And physical capital includes such things as family income, the assets in the home, including computers and books, and the resources of the local community, including community institutions such as schools, libraries, parks, and recreation centers. According to attachment theory, infants’ first attachments to caregivers, usually the mother, have immediate and long-term effects in children’s development. Although the research is not clear on whether the content, meaning, and style of father-child interactions differ from those of mother-child, researchers have shown that infants can and do bond with their fathers in the same way they bond with their mothers. More important, mother-child and father-child interactions (sensitivity, scaffolding, and nurturance) seem to have similar effects on child development. Other theoretical approaches derive from an organismic or systems metaphor that views the family as a system, a complex and integrated whole. For example, general systems theory applies a set of principles to understand families as an organized system: (a) wholeness and order, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; (b) hierarchical structure, systems are composed of subsystems; (c) adaptive self-stabilization, homeostatic features that bring the system into equilibrium; and (d) adaptive self-organization, the ability to adapt to change. Most of this work has focused on mother-child relationships. The inclusion of the father into this family research has underscored that relationships with fathers are unique and different from those with mothers, thus challenging the “second pair of hands” hypothesis. CONCLUSIONS Because research on fatherhood is not guided by a unique theory, investigators have drawn from many theoretical traditions that characterize research on parenting, family systems, family economics, and parentchild relationships. These frameworks have enabled researchers to gain insight into important questions related to the role of fathers in children’s development. However, this body of work needs to be carefully understood in the context of a lack of a paternal template, ethnically and culturally insensitive measures, multiple definitions of father involvement, and a seemingly independent set of models. While the field has made do with the existing models and theories, there are still serious limitations

that cannot be overcome unless a comprehensive theory on father involvement is developed. This effort would have to be interdisciplinary and include discipline-specific assumptions and methods (TamisLeMonda & Cabrera, 2002). In keeping with the social construction of fatherhood, it would have to include fathers’ perspectives, mothers’ perspectives, and children’s perspectives. The end result should not be an understanding of how fathers interact with their children, but how parents, both mothers and fathers, interact with their children. —Natasha J. Cabrera

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Amato, P. R. (1987). Children in Australian families: The growth of competence. New York: Prentice Hall. Amato, P. R., & Rivera, F. (1999). Paternal involvement and children’s behavior. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 375–384. Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of parenting: A process model. Child Development, 55, 83–96. Lamb, M. E., Pleck, J. H., Charnov, E. L., & Levine, J. A. (1987). A biosocial perspective on paternal behavior and involvement. In J. B. Lancaster, J. Altaman, A. Rossi, & R. L. Sherrod (Eds.), Parenting across the lifespan: Biosocial perspectives (pp. 11–42). New York: Academic. McBride, B. A. (1990). The effects of parent education/play group program on father involvement. In R. A. Hinde & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds.), Relationships within families: Mutual influences (pp. 7–26). Oxford, UK: Clarendon. Palkovitz, R. (1997). Reconstructing involvement: Expanding conceptualizations of men’s caring in contemporary families. In A. J. Hawkins & D. C. Dollahite (Eds.), Generative fathering: Beyond deficit perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Radin, N. (1994). Primary-caregiving fathers in intact families. In A. E. Gottfried & A. W. Gottfried (Eds.), Redefining families: Implications for children’s development (pp. 55–97). New York: Plenum. Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Cabrera, N. (2002). (Eds.). Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

FEEDING DISORDERS, CHILDHOOD Problems associated with feeding occur in 25% to 35% of all young children, particularly when children are acquiring new skills and are challenged with new foods or mealtime expectations (Linscheid,

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Budd, & Rasnake, 1995). Feeding problems may occur in as many as 60% to 80% of children with developmental disabilities. Most feeding problems are temporary and are easily resolved with little or no intervention. However, feeding problems that persist can undermine children’s growth, development, and relationships with their caregivers, leading to longterm health and developmental problems (Keren, Feldman, & Tyano, 2001). Feeding problems not only often interfere with adequate growth, sometimes leading to malnutrition, but can also disrupt family interaction patterns, often through stressful mealtimes. The most common feeding problem is food refusal, sometimes associated with low appetite and early satiety. Children use many strategies to reject food, including refusing to open their mouths, turning away, spitting, throwing, crying, holding food in the mouth, and vomiting. Another common problem is selectivity, or the picky eater. Some children are selective by texture, refusing to advance to more complex textures; others are selective by type of food, refusing to eat anything beyond a limited range of preferred foods or drinks. A third feeding problem is difficulty related to oral-motor problems. Some children cannot handle specific textures or types of food and may choke, gag, cough, or have difficulty swallowing. Finally, some children display inappropriate mealtime behavior, including dawdling (not eating at a reasonable pace, playing, or attending to other things), disrupting the meal, refusing to remain seated, or high distractibility. CLASSIFICATION OF FEEDING DISORDERS Childhood feeding disorders can be divided into three major categories: (1) family, (2) parent-child, and (3) child. Family The family category includes conditions at the household or family level that may undermine children’s feeding behavior. The family category includes lack of access to healthy food, lack of knowledge about developmentally appropriate food and feeding behavior, lack of mealtime structure (e.g., no regular eating time or place), family chaos and dysfunction, and caregiver psychopathology. When family routines and mealtimes are replaced by irregular eating patterns or frequent snacks, children do not learn healthy mealtime patterns. They may not get

enough food, or they may become accustomed to snack foods and refuse to eat other foods (Birch, 1992). Feeding disorders can also emerge when caregivers lack emotional control and become angry or frustrated or when they are burdened with their own psychopathology or personality disorders. Parent-Child The parent-child category includes relationship and communication problems that may influence feeding. Feeding is a partnership in which caregivers are responsible for providing healthy food on a predictable schedule in a pleasant setting, and children are responsible for determining how much they will eat (Satter, 2000). When caregivers are unresponsive to their children’s signals, children do not receive the guidance they need to establish a healthy feeding relationship. A disruption in the communication between children and caregivers may indicate that the attachment bond is not secure, and feeding may become an occasion for unproductive, upsetting battles over food. Infants who do not provide clear signals to their caregivers or who do not respond to their caregivers’ efforts to help them establish predictable routines of eating, sleeping, and playing are at risk for a range of problems. Infants who are premature or ill may be less responsive than healthy, full-term infants and less able to communicate their feelings of hunger or satiety. Caregivers who do not recognize their infants’ satiety cues may overfeed them, thereby causing infants to associate feelings of satiety with frustration and conflict. When caregivers are intrusive and overcontrolling, children may refuse to eat. A negative cycle can emerge whereby children who refuse to eat have caregivers who rely on verbal or physical threats to encourage eating. These strategies backfire, leading to unpleasant struggles around food and high rates of food refusal (Fisher, Mitchell, Smiciklas-Wright, & Birch, 2002). At the other extreme, caregivers who use techniques of “encouragement” that are overly manipulative (clapping after every bite, bribery, chasing the child around with bites) are teaching their children that food refusal is a powerful way to control caregiver behavior (Egeland, Pianta, & O’Brien, 1993). Child The child category can be further divided into medical, physical/sensory, behavioral, and psychological

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factors. Medical factors include problems related to gastroenterology (e.g., reflux esophagitis), allergy, endocrinology, prematurity, autism, or other medical conditions. Physical/sensory factors include abnormal tone (hypo or hyper), oral-motor problems, tactile defensiveness, regulatory problems, and developmental delay. Behavior problems include children with low appetite, early satiety, selective eating (e.g., picky), passivity, temperamental problems, and distractibility. Psychological factors include depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic feeding disorders (often resulting from a negative experience, such as choking). DIAGNOSIS Feeding disorders that do not resolve spontaneously or in response to basic recommendations by a pediatrician are best managed by an interdisciplinary team (Bithoney et al., 1991). Interdisciplinary teams include a pediatrician who examines whether there are medical contributors to the child’s feeding problems, a dietitian/nutritionist who examines the adequacy of the child’s diet, and a psychologist who assesses the environmental, parent-child, and behavioral/developmental contributors to the problem. Depending on the nature of the feeding problems, interdisciplinary teams may also include a speech and/or occupational therapist to evaluate the child’s oral-motor and swallowing skills. Information is gathered from record review, parent interview, standardized testing, and observation of a meal.

developing mealtime routines, caregivers help children learn to anticipate when they will eat. Children learn that feelings of hunger are soon relieved and there is no need to feel anxious or irritable. Mealtimes should be pleasant and family oriented, with family members eating together and sharing the events of the day. When mealtimes are too brief (less than 10 minutes), children may not have enough time to eat, particularly when they are acquiring self-feeding skills and may eat slowly. Alternatively, sitting for more than 20 to 30 minutes is often difficult for a child, and mealtime may become aversive. When meals are characterized by distractions from television, family arguments, or competing activities, children may have difficulty focusing on eating. Caregivers should separate mealtime from playtime and avoid using toys or television to distract the child during mealtime. Child-oriented equipment, such as highchairs, bibs, and small utensils, may facilitate eating and enable children to acquire the skills of self-feeding. Strategies that help children develop healthy eating habits by eating nutritious foods and eating to satisfy hunger, rather than to satisfy emotional needs, may prevent feeding problems and associated health and developmental problems (Black et al., 1999). —Ramasamy Manikam and Maureen M. Black

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS TREATMENT In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the evaluation, treatment often includes recommendations from multiple disciplines. Medical intervention is provided for active medical conditions, such as reflux. Nutritional recommendations are provided to ensure that the children are receiving adequate calories and macro- and micronutrients for catch-up or sustained growth. Oral-motor therapy is recommended to children who have oral-motor problems and may benefit from specific therapy to improve their feeding skills. Appetite manipulation and mealtime structure are frequent recommendations directed to the caregiver. Children should not graze or nibble throughout the day, so they develop an expectation and an appetite around mealtime (Black, Cureton, & Berenson-Howard, 1999). By ensuring that children are hungry at mealtime and

Birch, L. L. (1992). Children’s preference for high fat foods. Nutrition Review, 50, 249–255. Bithoney, W. G., McJunkin, J., Michalek, J., Snyder, J., Egan, H., & Epstein, D. (1991). The effect of a multidisciplinary team approach on weight gain in nonorganic failure-tothrive children. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 12, 254–258. Black, M. M., Cureton, P. A., & Berenson-Howard, J. (1999). Behavior problems in feeding. In P. B. Kessler & P. Dawson (Eds.), Pediatric undernutrition: Failure to thrive in young children: A transdisciplinary approach (pp. 151–172). Baltimore: Brookes. Egeland, B., Pianta, R., & O’Brien, M. A. (1993). Maternal intrusiveness in infancy and child maladaptation in early school years. Development & Psychopathology, 5, 359–370. Fisher, J. O., Mitchell, D. C., Smiciklas-Wright, H., & Birch, L. L. (2002). Parental influences on young girls’ fruit and vegetable, micronutrient, and fat intakes. Journal of American Dietetic Association, 102, 58–64.

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Keren, M., Feldman, R., & Tyano, S. (2001). Diagnoses and interactive patterns of infants referred to a communitybased infant mental health clinic. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 27–35. Linscheid, T. R., Budd, K. S., & Rasnake, L. K. (1995). Pediatric feeding disorders. In M. C. Roberts (Ed.), Handbook of pediatric psychology (2nd ed., pp. 501–515). New York: Wiley. Satter, E. (2000). Child of mine: Feeding with love and good sense. Palo Alto, CA: Bull Publishing.

FIELD EXPERIMENTATION RESEARCH Field experiments are randomized interventions that take place in real-world settings. Although the term field experimentation has occasionally been used to refer to nonrandomized interventions, current usage restricts the domain of field experimentation to studies in which the units of analysis are randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Examples of randomized interventions may be found in a variety of social science disciplines. Working in conjunction with both state and nongovernmental organizations, scholars have randomized interventions such as job training programs, income tax schedules, health insurance plans, sex education programs, voter mobilization campaigns, school voucher programs, public-housing assignments, and narcotics enforcement. Well-executed field experiments combine the strengths of randomized designs with the external validity of field research. While a laboratory study might examine the effects of political advertising on vote choice by assigning treatment and control groups to different advertising stimuli within an artificial setting and gauging their candidate preferences, field experiments randomly manipulate the content and timing of actual advertisement campaigns and attempt to link these varied interventions to voting patterns. Both types of studies use randomization, but the latter has the advantage of linking cause and effect in terms that have direct real-world applicability. Often, randomized interventions are unobtrusive, in the sense that the subjects remain unaware that the intervention they may receive has been assigned as part of a research effort. The external validity of field experimentation is especially important when researchers study treatments whose effects decay over time. For example, laboratory

studies that establish that political advertisements sway voters’ candidate preferences within the context of a 1-hour experiment leave unanswered the question of whether in the outside world these advertisements’ effects dissipate before election day. Laboratory studies serve to demonstrate that interventions are capable of exerting influence on social outcomes; field experimentation is then required to gauge whether these effects persist amid myriad competing messages characteristic of real political settings. More marked than the contrast between field and laboratory experimentation is the difference between field experimentation and other types of fieldwork, such as ethnographic or participant-observer research. Ethnographic studies provide valuable descriptive information about cultural, economic, and political practices and how individuals understand them, but they rarely set out to trace the consequences of a randomized intervention. Participants in organizations or agencies sometimes craft randomized field experiments, but this work is typically quite different in character from conventional participant-observer research, which tends to involve a participant’s reflections on a nonexperimental event. What distinguishes field experimentation is that it derives its insights from randomization procedures that ensure the comparability of treatment and control groups. Because field experiments take place in natural settings, their features are often shaped by practical constraints. Seldom can researchers randomly assign students to different curricula; as a result, educational experiments often use the classroom or the school as the unit of assignment. Scholars seeking to assess whether voter mobilization campaigns cause citizens to vote may assign individuals to treatment and control conditions, but those seeking to study whether a campaign alters citizens’ preferences for particular candidates may need to randomize at the level of the voting precinct, given the constraints of the secret ballot. Field experimentation requires a certain degree of agility on the part of the researcher, who must choose a unit of assignment that is both informative and practicable. Field experiments require researchers and their collaborators to have some degree of control over the resources or policies that will serve as the treatment. Accordingly, one of the most common uses of field experimentation is program evaluation. Working with government agencies, researchers have conducted a number of important studies involving large-scale randomization of interventions, such as classroom size or

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eligibility for welfare benefits. The strength of the research design often generates persuasive cost-benefit assessments of alternative interventions. The challenge of orchestrating randomized interventions often dissuades researchers who might otherwise be drawn to field experimentation. It should be noted, however, that it is often possible to conduct informative evaluations that require relatively minor adjustments to existing procedures. For example, to evaluate the extent to which a one-semester high school civics curriculum increases civic participation, researchers need only randomly vary the semester during which students take the course. If some students take the course in the fall and others in the spring, researchers may evaluate the attitudes and behavior of all students just prior to the beginning of the spring semester. Similarly, to gauge the effects of a traveling program, such as organizations that visit high schools to encourage virginity pledges, one need only randomly vary the order in which the organization schedules its meetings with the schools. Midway through its schedule, the schools that have been treated may be compared with the control group of soon-to-be-treated schools. By comparing outcomes in treatment and control groups that were initially formed by random chance, the evaluator may make an unbiased assessment of the intervention’s effects. Closely related to randomized field experiments are so-called natural experiments, in which agents other than the researcher generate randomized interventions. Many social institutions authorize random or near-random assignment. Military draft lotteries, procedures mandating random selection of applicants from waiting lists, procedures that assign judges to cases by lot, and randomly drawn prizes from gambling lotteries are all examples of institutions that create comparable treatment and control groups within certain subject populations. As social scientists have become increasingly skeptical of observational research, these natural experiments have attracted growing attention. Somewhat less secure methodologically are nearrandom interventions created by unexpected events, such as unforeseen natural disasters or deaths of political leaders. Here, the sample may consist of a timeseries of observations before and after the event or a cross-sectional sample of observations that were equally susceptible to the intervention but experienced it to different degrees. Another research opportunity of this type arises when policies arbitrarily

distinguish between people who are otherwise very similar. For example, in jurisdictions where children are mandated to begin school if they have reached their sixth birthday before September 1, one may reasonably compare children whose birthdays fall on September 1 and August 31. Although one group is obviously older than the other, the gap between them is so small than any difference in educational outcomes would be attributable to the fact that administrative rules treated them differently. Although near-random experiments have much to recommend them, the exogeneity of the independent variables is not ensured by means of randomization procedures. Instead, researchers use their background knowledge about the comparability of different groups to establish a meaningful comparison. When experimental treatments are administered as planned and outcomes measured for all the observations that were assigned to treatment and control groups, experimental data analysis is simple and transparent. In contrast to nonexperimental data analysis, where results often vary markedly depending on the model the researcher imposes on the data, and researchers often fit a great many models in an effort to find the right one, experimental data analysis tends to be quite robust. Elementary comparisons between control and treatment groups often suffice to give an unbiased account of the treatment effect, and additional analysis with covariates merely estimates the causal parameters with greater precision. This is not to say that experimental analysis is free from data mining. Good experimental practice involves specifying how the data will be analyzed prior to gathering the outcome measures. Presumably, the model to be estimated is implied directly by the experimental design and stock of available covariates. Unbiased estimation is most likely to occur when the researcher devises the statistical analysis while blind to the experimental outcomes. In practice, field experiments often confront problems of noncompliance and sample attrition. Noncompliance occurs when the experimenter fails to treat those assigned to the treatment group or inadvertently treats those assigned to the control group. The well-intentioned physician who surreptitiously administers the treatment to suffering patients who were assigned to the control group may cause the experiment to produce misleading results, unless the analyst monitors the rate at which subjects in each experimental group are actually treated. Although

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noncompliance diminishes the power of an experimental design, it does not create insurmountable problems so long as the decision to participate is unrelated to the strength of the treatment effect. (Whether the effects of the treatment do in fact vary may be studied empirically by experimentally manipulating participation rates, e.g., by varying inducements offered to subjects to comply with the experimental protocol.) The statistical correction is to perform an instrumental-variables regression in which the independent variable is whether a subject was actually treated and the instrumental variable is whether a subject was originally assigned to the treatment group. The resulting effect estimate is termed the effect of treatment on the treated. Sometimes, the quantity of interest is not the effect of the treatment on the treated but rather the intent-totreat effect, which is estimated by a simple comparison of those assigned to the treatment and control groups without reference to how many in each group were actually treated. Consider, for example, the effects of a voter mobilization campaign that contacts only 10% of the subjects assigned to the treatment group but increases the probability of voting by 10 percentage points among those who are contacted. The effect of the treatment on the treated may be considerable, but the fact that so few people were actually treated means that the net effect of the campaign is to raise turnout in the treatment group by just 1 percentage point. When calculating the cost-effectiveness of a program, it makes sense to divide the intent-to-treat effect by the program’s cost. Sample attrition, the failure to measure the outcome variable for some subset of the sample, presents a potentially more challenging problem when attrition is related to whether a person is in the treatment or control group. For example, some studies of school vouchers invite students in both the treatment and control groups to take a follow-up test to assess their academic skills. Students who receive vouchers are typically more inclined to show up for the follow-up test than students who receive nothing. This differential attrition rate raises the possibility that observed test score difference between the treatment and control groups reflects in part the different characteristics of those who show up for the test in each group. The severity of this problem may be assessed if pretest information exists for both experimental groups. Thus, although pretest information is not needed in general for unbiased causal inference, it does enhance the persuasiveness of experimental results when attrition problems arise.

The challenge of orchestrating field experiments and maintaining the integrity of the randomization means that they tend to occur in a small number of sites that are chosen for reasons of logistics rather than representativeness. This constraint raises the issue of whether the study’s conclusions are specific to the setting in which it occurred. These concerns about external validity invite additional research; replication studies should endeavor to examine whether the size of the experimental effect depends on the subjects involved or the context in which the treatment is administered. In particular, analysts must be attentive to the possibility that outcomes bear a nonlinear relationship to experimental inputs. The effectiveness of an experimental voter mobilization campaign may hinge on how many other voter mobilization campaigns are already active in the areas assigned to the treatment condition. One possibility is that the effectiveness of the experimental get-out-the-vote message diminishes when other campaigns are deploying similar messages; an alternative hypothesis is that voters take these messages more seriously when a number of organizations express them. One of the attractive features of field experimental work is that it enables researchers to accumulate knowledge about the conditions under which a given treatment exerts an influence. This accumulation of knowledge is essential if researchers are to draw externally valid inferences from field experimental results. In principle, field experimentation represents the strongest basis for sound causal inference available to social scientists, but in practice, this methodology faces important ethical and pragmatic constraints. Rarely do social scientists have the opportunity to manipulate the variables of most interest to them, such as culture, political systems, economic prosperity, and the like. In a similar vein, scholars are often forced to limit their experimental purview to localized settings, randomizing within a school district, for example. The narrow scope of this type of intervention precludes study of potentially interesting outcomes that emerge only when an intervention is implemented on a large scale. For example, the political advertising campaign that does little when directed at a regional audience may have large effects when directed at the nation as a whole if it becomes the subject of national political debate. The difficulty of executing large-scale experimental research does not necessarily recommend

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nonexperimental approaches, which suffer from difficult and possibly insurmountable problems of internal validity, but it does suggest that caution is warranted when drawing generalizations from field-experimental results. If we seek convincing answers to causal questions about large-scale social phenomena, our only recourse may be to conduct large-scale experiments. As Donald Campbell pointed out decades ago, governments and organizations routinely introduce massive interventions. The problem is not a lack of large-scale interventions, but rather the fact that these interventions are introduced with no basis in or prospect of generating hard scientific knowledge. —Donald P. Green

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Angrist, J. D., Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (1996, June). Identification of casual effects using instrumental variables. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 91, 444–455. Campbell, D. T. (1969). Reforms as experiments. American Psychologist, 24, 409–429. Cook, T. D., & Payne, M. R. (2002). Objecting to the objections to using random assignment in educational research. In F. Mosteller & R. Boruch (Eds.), Evidence matters: Randomized trials in education research. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Green, D. P., & Gerber, A. S. (2002). Reclaiming the experimental tradition in political science. Political science: The state of the discipline (3rd ed., pp. 805–832). New York: Norton. Heckman, J. J., & Smith, J. A. (1995). Assessing the case for social experiments. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9, 85–110. Rosenzweig, M. R., & Wolpin, K. I. (2000, December). Natural “natural experiments” in economics. Journal of Economic Literature, 38, 827–874.

FISHER, CELIA B. Wife, mother, scholar, public advocate: Celia Fisher is one of those superwomen inspired by the 1970s who showed the world that she could indeed do it all—and do it all well. Most of us would be content with one major professional contribution, but Fisher is widely recognized both for being one of the founders of the field of applied developmental science (ADS) and for her work in research ethics, in which she has used the theory, methods, and the approach of ADS to

show that ethics is not just inherent in research and practice but also a subject worthy of scientific study. EARLY YEARS Celia Fisher grew up in the 1950s, on Long Island, where her parents instilled a lifelong love of learning, not only with words but also by example. Her parents pursued higher education in their later years; her mother received her bachelor’s degree in her late 30s, and her father, who left high school to fight in World War II, received his bachelor’s degree after his retirement at the age of 70. Schooling shaped her life in other ways. Her high school home economics teacher, having decided that Celia was deserving of an A in a class on marriage, also decided she was a good catch for her son. Her future mother-in-law also influenced her choice of a major, human ecology, at Cornell University. After Cornell, Fisher spent a few years as a kindergarten teacher, and returned to the academy to pursue a doctorate under the mentorship of Arien Mack at the New School University, where she was honored with the Alfred J. Marrow Dissertation Award for her investigation of children’s visual memory for the orientation of objects (Fisher, 1979). Establishing a pattern of reverse commuting that would keep her base in New York, she completed a postdoc with Mark Bornstein and Charles Gross, at Princeton, where their collaboration produced the first empirical evidence that by 4 months of age, infants distinguish symmetrical from nonsymmetrical forms (Fisher, Ferdinandsen, & Bornstein, 1981). For the last 25 years, Fisher has made her home at Fordham University, in New York City, where she is currently professor of psychology, founder and director of the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education, and holder of the Marie Ward Doty Chair. Her husband, Gary, credits Celia’s success to her ability to compartmentalize. But the reality is that Fisher was multitasking before computers introduced us to the concept. Throughout her career, the interests she has pursued have been shaped by her roles as daughter, wife, and mother. When her children, Brian and Erica, were young, Fisher was exploring infant visual perception. Her earliest work was in basic developmental science: With empirical methods, she intended to take a “stance against sexist and racist assumptions about human development by generating value-free knowledge” (Fisher, 2000, p. 125). But her experience as a mother led her to emphasize the

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importance not just of basic science but also of the effect of basic science on research participants, and not just of research questions derived from theory but also those derived from real-world experience. In particular, helping her son Brian and daughter Erica overcome the hurdles of childhood and adolescence and watching her mother bravely and optimistically face the challenges of Parkinson’s disease drew her into empirical studies on parent-child relationships across the life span and the ethics of research with vulnerable populations (cf. Fisher, 1993, 2002; Fisher, Higgins-D’Alessandro, Rau, Kuther, & Belanger, 1996; Fisher et al., 2002; Fisher & Johnson, 1990). CONTRIBUTIONS TO GRADUATE EDUCATION IN APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE In 1985, Fisher assumed the directorship of the doctoral program in developmental psychology at Fordham, a position she held until 1998. As a result of her growing interest in applied developmental psychology, she led the Fordham program and the higher education community in establishing the first training standards for graduate education in the applications of human development and family ecology across the life span, and she wrote the first book on Ethics in Applied Developmental Psychology (Fisher & Tryon, 1990). Fisher’s early training in basic developmental psychology did not blind her to the crucial contributions of other disciplines to the application of science to promote human development. Perhaps primed by her undergraduate major in human ecology, Fisher used her position as chair of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Committee on Applied Developmental Psychology to reach out to those disciplines: to home economics/human ecology/human development at land grant institutions, to sociology and family relations, to medicine, and so on. By reaching out in this way, Fisher helped to organize the National Task Force on Applied Developmental Science. As cochair with John Murray, Kansas State University, Fisher organized the first National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Science Across the Life Span, held at Fordham University in 1991. In this role, her natural skills as a leader and listener emerged and were critical to the success of the conference. Her commitment to making sure that the voice of every developmental science would be heard and that every

viewpoint could be expressed led her to develop a procedure of group meetings for developing consensus. As chair of the plenary sessions, Fisher emphasized that neither she nor the organizing committee had a preconceived outcome for the conference. By relying on established parliamentary procedures, Fisher empowered the participants to create a set of guidelines that have energized ADS for the last decade (Fisher et al., 1993). Among its contributions, the conference defined for the first time six substantive assumptions of ADS: the temporality of change, individual differences and within-person change, the centrality of context, science-based knowledge and intervention strategies, understanding of normative developmental processes, and the bidirectional relationship between knowledge generation and knowledge application. With Richard Lerner and Richard Weinberg, Fisher also founded the journal Applied Developmental Science (Lawrence Erlbaum). The endurance of this visionary model for graduate education is a testament to Fisher’s leadership skills (e.g., Fisher & Lerner, 1994; Fisher, Murray, & Sigel, 1996). CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY Fisher’s psychological credentials were—and continue to be—impeccable. She is a licensed psychologist in the state of New York and was a member of the New York State Board for Psychology from 1987 to 1993. During her years on the board, she was honored as fellow of the American Association of State Psychology Boards (AASPB) and was a member of two AASPB committees, the Long-Range Planning Committee for Mobility and the Examination Committee. This experience gave her a national perspective on the application of science to practice and the role of licensing and certification in professional practice. After completing funded work to develop and validate licensing and certification essay exams for New York State and the AASPB (Fisher & Hall, 1990), Fisher became the vice chair and then chair of the New York State Board for Psychology from 1991 to 1993. Her tenure as chair was marked by a concern with public awareness of the board’s activities, exemplified by holding the public meeting marking the centennial celebration of the board outside of the state capital, at Fordham University, where it was more accessible to the public. During her tenure as chair, she also worked with the New York State Psychological

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Association to preserve the integrity of the practice of psychology in state law. Not surprisingly, Fisher’s work with the New York State Board brought her to the attention of the APA, and the late 1980s and early 1990s marked the beginning of her considerable service to this organization, which continues to this day. During this early period, she served as member and fact finder for the APA Ethics Committee, member and then chair of the Policy and Education Task Force for the APA Ethics Committee, and fellow of both Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) and Division 37 (Children, Youth, & Families). For Division 7, she served as representative to the Task Force on the Review of the Scope and Criteria for Accreditation, member of the Policy and Planning Committee, and member and then Chair of the Committee on Applied Developmental Psychology. In 1997, Fisher’s expertise in ethics and gifts as a leader were recognized when the APA tapped her to chair the Task Force for the revision of the APA ethics code. During the 5 years of the revision process, Fisher worked assiduously to ensure that every constituent group had the opportunity to voice their opinions, a process that echoed her leadership of the National Conference on Graduate Education in ADS. Recognizing the value of new technology, she worked with Steven Behnke, Director of the APA Ethics Office, to integrate the dissemination of drafts of the code on the World Wide Web with the ability to comment on those drafts. Fisher’s book Decoding the Ethics Code: A Practical Guide for Psychologists (2003a) has already become an essential desk reference in the field. Her extraordinary leadership of this potentially fractious endeavor resulted in a standing ovation from the APA Council of Representatives, after voting unanimously to adopt the revised code in August 2002, and an APA Presidential Citation, which sums up her gifts: As Chair of the Ethics Code Task Force, you devoted countless hours over many years to the revision process. You were tireless in your efforts. You ensured that the voice of every psychologist was heard, and then you reached beyond psychology to include the voices of those served by psychologists as well. To those who did not approach the Task Force themselves, you reached out and invited (sometimes cajoled!) them to participate in the unfolding process of revision.

At times, the voices of those who advocated on behalf of their constituents were strong. You responded to all concerns with poise, equanimity, and grace, as you listened patiently and thoughtfully to all those who wished to take part. You read each and every comment contributed by each and every individual, group, and organization. In the end, you achieved a remarkable consensus. (Zimbardo, 2002) CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENTIFIC ETHICS At the same time Fisher was helping to establish the field of ADS, she was turning her sights to the ethics of research. Fisher incorporated the ADS perspective into an innovative research program that emphasized the importance of understanding prospective participant perspective on ethical issues in research with vulnerable populations, including highrisk adolescents, ethnic minority youth, persons at risk for suicide, and adults with mental retardation. She received National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and foundation grants to integrate ethics into course curricula, to develop casebooks of ethical dilemmas, to examine parent and child attitudes toward confidentiality in adolescent risk research, and to improve understanding of informed consent for children and adults with impaired cognitive capacities. Over the years, Fisher developed an increased sensitivity to the challenges faced by ethnic minority youth and investigators who wish to involve them in respectful and ethical research. With her students, she developed the first multicultural scale to measure discrimination distress in adolescents (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000). And with Kimberly Hoagwood, she chaired and developed ethics guidelines derived from the Fordham Conference on Research Ethics for Mental Health Science Involving Ethnic Minority Children and Youth (Fisher et al., 2002) for informed consent procedures for vulnerable populations, including adolescents, adults with mental retardation, and ethnic minority children and youth, and turned this work into papers that are reprinted and cited as the basis for a new understanding of research ethics (Fisher & Fyrberg, 1994; Fisher, 2003b; Fisher, Higgins-D’Allesandro, et al., 1996; Fisher & Kuther, 1997; Fisher & Wallace, 2000). The importance of her relational approach to research ethics was recognized by President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory

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Commission, which asked her to write a paper on research with vulnerable populations to help guide the commission’s work (Fisher, 1999). From 2002 to 2003, Fisher spent a year as visiting professor and bioethicist-in-residence at Yale University, where she led a faculty seminar on ethics for research involving vulnerable populations. During this year, the Washington establishment recognized her expertise and tapped her for membership on several illustrious panels: the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine Committee on Clinical Research Involving Children, the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP, for which she also cochairs the Children’s Research working group), the Social and Behavioral Sciences Workgroup on Human Research Protections of NIH, and the Ethics Working Group of the National Children’s Study. Never one to see such appointments as merely honorary, Fisher has committed herself to continuing to serve as a public advocate by keeping sensitivity to vulnerable populations and community values at the forefront of the agendas of these committees. CONTRIBUTIONS TO FORDHAM AND ITS COMMUNITY Surprisingly for such a national leader, Fisher has remained visibly present in activities on the campuses of Fordham University as she consistently integrates her professional service with her duties as an academician. She founded and chaired the Fordham Faculty Seminar on Ethics, which brought together the multiple disciplines concerned with ethics, including philosophy, theology, sociology, and law. Not content to just “talk the talk,” she pushed Fordham to institutionalize a commitment to ethics education by leveraging her research funds to found the Center for Ethics Education. The center is the first of its kind in the nation to prepare students and professionals to effectively apply empirical knowledge of human psychological and social functioning to philosophical and theological moral inquiries into health care ethics and policy for treatment and research involving vulnerable populations (www.fordhamethics.org). The outreach activities of the center have included workshops on institutional review board (IRB) evaluation of responsible ethics, conducting ethically responsible research from both developmental and multicultural perspectives, the conduct of responsible science, and responsible

mentoring in the social and physical sciences. Exemplifying her continuing commitment to the involvement of all stakeholders in ethical decision making, the audiences for these workshops have ranged from fellow faculty members, members of the residential life staff at colleges, and professionals (physicians and other health care workers, lawyers, etc.) to parents and guardians of individuals with mental impairments, community members of IRBs, and the public at large. Through all, Fisher remains a committed mentor to her numerous students. A review of her vitae of over 100 books, articles, and chapters demonstrates her commitment to the professional socialization of her students, as evidenced by the number of papers she has published with her students. Ever committed to ethical behavior in her own life, these papers are not gifts from a mentor, but authorships earned. Legendary for her lack of need for sleep, each of her many students has a tale to tell of dropping off a paper at her office in the late afternoon or sending a draft of a dissertation chapter by e-mail in the evening, only to find Fisher’s comments and critique on that effort in the e-mail in-box early—very early (3:00 a.m.)—the next morning. Her unflagging support has enabled a generation of students to meet her high standards and achieve distinction in the academy, in nonprofit research centers, and like their role model, in their integration of integrity into their personal, family, professional, and public lives. CONCLUSIONS Returning to Fordham in 2003, Fisher was installed as Marie Ward Doty Chair and awarded the Sapientia et Doctrina Medal. Some might not understand why Fordham, a Catholic institution in the Jesuit tradition, chose to bestow its highest honors on this homegrown Jewish woman. Her installation address for an audience of colleagues, students, family, and friends demonstrated that not only has her work reflected the values of the Jesuit tradition, “Men and women for others,” but that by her personal journey as a scientist striving “for a research ethic that reflects the interpersonal nature and obligations inherent in the scientist-participant relationship” (Fisher, 2003c), she is moving the 450-year-old tradition forward. Through responsible science, Fisher’s work has established that “morality is embedded in the investigatorparticipant connection” and provides notice to all that

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recognizing the inherent connection between scientist and subject is the essence of ethically responsible research. —Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fisher, C. B. (1979). Children’s memory for orientation in the absence of external cues. Child Development, 50, 1088–1092. Fisher, C. B. (1993). Integrating science and ethics in research with high-risk children & youth. SRCD Public Polity Report, 7, 1–26. Fisher, C. B. (1999). Relational ethics and research with vulnerable populations. Reports on research involving persons with mental disorders that may affect decisionmaking capacity (Vol. 2, pp. 29–49). Rockville, MD: Commissioned Papers by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Fisher, C. B. (2000). Relational ethics in psychological research: One feminist’s journey. In M. Brabeck (Ed.), Practicing feminist ethics in psychology (pp. 125–142). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Fisher, C. B. (2002). Respecting and protecting mentally impaired persons in medial research. Ethics & Behavior, 12, 279–284. Fisher, C. B. (2003a). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fisher, C. B. (2003b). A goodness-of-fit ethic for informed consent to research involving persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 9, 27–31. Fisher, C. B. (2003c, November 12). Wisdom, learning, and justice in health care research. A Sapientia et Doctrina lecture and installation of the Marie Ward Doty Chair, Fordham University, New York. Fisher, C. B., Ferdinandsen, K., & Bornstein, M. H. (1981). The role of symmetry in infant form discrimination. Child Development, 52, 457–462. Fisher, C. B., & Fyrberg, D. (1994). Participant partners: College students weigh the costs and benefits of deceptive research. American Psychologist, 49(5), 417–427. Fisher, C. B., & Hall, J. E. (1990). Development and validation of an essay licensure examination: The NYS Board for Psychology complementary examination project. Report to the NYS Education Department, Office of the Professions. Fisher, C. B., Higgins-D’Allesandro, A., Rau, J. M. B., Kuther, T., & Belanger, S. (1996). Reporting and referring research participants: The view from urban adolescents. Child Development, 67, 2086–2099. Fisher, C. B., Hoagwood, K., Boyce, C., Duster, T., Frank, D. A., Grisso, T., et al. (2002). Research ethics for mental health science involving ethnic minority children and youth. American Psychologist, 57, 1024–1040.

Fisher, C. B., & Johnson, B. L. (1990). Getting mad at mom and dad: Children’s changing views of family conflict. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 13, 31–48. Fisher, C. B., & Kuther, T. (1997). Integrating research ethics into the introductory psychology course curriculum. Teaching of Psychology, 24, 171–175. Fisher, C. B., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (1994). Applied developmental psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R. M., et al. (1993). The National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Science Across the Life Span. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–10. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., & Sigel, I. E. (Eds.). (1996). Graduate training in applied developmental science for diverse disciplines and educational settings. Norwood NJ: Ablex. Fisher, C. B., & Tryon, W. W. (Eds.). (1990). Ethics in applied developmental psychology: Emerging issues in an emerging field. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Fisher, C. B., & Wallace, S. A. (2000). Through the community looking glass: Re-evaluating the ethical and policy implications of research on adolescent risk and psychopathology. Ethics & Behavior, 10, 99–118. Fisher, C. B., Wallace, S. A., & Fenton, R. E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29, 679–695. Hoagwood, K., Jensen, P., & Fisher, C. B. (Eds.). (1996). Ethical issues in mental health research with children and adolescents. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Zimbardo, P. G. (2002, December). Presidential Citation. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

FLANAGAN, CONSTANCE A. Constance (Connie) A. Flanagan is a developmental psychologist whose guiding interests are in political and social justice and the ways that young people rediscover the conditions of their societies and become engaged in social change. Her career provides an example of scholarship that bridges theory and practice, bringing developmental science into the realm of social policy for the purposes of social justice and social change. Her contributions to the theoretical and applied developmental sciences are grounded in her conceptualizations of the ecological processes of youth civic development that bridge the individual and society through the social contract, which forms the basis for individual and collective civic identity. Flanagan’s work provides the conceptual grounding for social action toward an engaged

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citizenry and true democracy. Central to her scholarship are analyses of the roles of race, gender, culture, and social class in shaping development and the consequential implications for political and social policy and change. EARLY INFLUENCES Flanagan largely attributes her career interests in the field of youth civic engagement to her own developmental experiences. She grew up in a large family, the daughter of “Social Gospel Catholic” parents who were active in the civil rights movement and instilled the value that life’s purpose is to attend to the needs of others. As a young person and, later, young mother in the 1960s, Flanagan was drawn to many of the emerging social movements that included so many young people at that time: the antiwar, women’s, and environmental movements. It was through these experiences that she became interested in childhood and adolescent formative experiences that lead young people to become engaged in pressing political and social issues. She entered the developmental sciences with a goal to pursue a scholarship that would both help to understand the development of civic engagement and help to apply this knowledge to facilitate the engagement of young people in issues of social justice and change. Flanagan’s work has been influenced by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework for understanding the interactions of structural conditions and developmental processes. Her early work with Jacquelynne Eccles explored the family economy (specifically, unemployment) and the ways these structural forces interact with interfamilial dynamics to influence adolescents’ beliefs, values, and motivations (Flanagan & Eccles, 1993). Since that time, she has continued to bridge the developmental and social sciences, using an ecological framework to understand adolescents’ civic development, often through mutlinational collaborative work. THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS Flanagan’s work is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing mainly from developmental science and sociology but also relevant to anthropological and political science inquiry. Her scholarship addresses the ways that young people’s formative developmental experiences influence their views of themselves in

their social order and consequentially affects their participation in social change. Flanagan’s work fills gaps in both the developmental and sociological literatures by addressing the ways that social structural and social justice issues influence and are influenced by individual formative experience. In her work, she brings the moral underpinnings of social justice and the development of social responsibility into critical social scientific inquiry. Flanagan explores the developmental mechanisms of engaged citizenship through her theory of the social contract (Flanagan, 2000). Central to this concept is Flanagan’s conception of being “political” in a democratic society, which includes a broad notion of having a sense of the “public good” and participating in resolving contentions with a sense of social justice and fairness. In this sense, the politic and the civic assume similar meanings in accordance with the roots of the words polis (meaning “citizen” in Greek) and civis (meaning “citizen” in Latin), which imply a dynamic between individual and social responsibility and action. Understanding the social contract requires an analysis of the tensions between individual and social responsibility within the context of social trust (Bowes, Flanagan, & Taylor, 2001). Flanagan’s empirical research has focused on the ecological factors that contribute to a young person’s development into a “political being” and the differences in the ways that young people from different social class or national backgrounds understand the social contract. She has explored these questions through collaborative research on young people growing up in post-Communist and democratic societies. Her work indicates that young people have a very different idea of what holds them together as a society in Eastern Europe compared with the United States (Flanagan, Bowes, Jonsson, Csapo, & Sheblanova, 1998). This work has led Flanagan to think about how societies differ in beliefs about state responsibilities for guaranteeing their citizens’ rights, and citizen responsibility and obligations for one another and for the state. According to Flanagan, everyday acts are shaped by what a society or a people believes are their individual or social responsibilities. These acts are shaped by societal and familial values and are the very core of our developmental experiences. Every day, social and political actions play pivotal roles in constructing the “social contract”: the individual’s conception of his or her relationship with society or the political community. The social contract emphasizes

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reciprocity in the concept of citizenship and implies that a central developmental process is the way a young person will come to understand the principles that make society work (Flanagan, 2000). What are the ecological factors that play a role in developing and maintaining a democratic social contract? Flanagan finds that societal and familial ethics of social responsibility, school environments, gender, ethnicity, and developmental opportunities (such as the opportunity for community service) all play roles in shaping the ties that bind adolescents to their larger communities. She emphasizes that young people need opportunities to identify with individuals, groups, and institutions other than their families and friends. Community-based organizations have a significant role to play in helping young people develop a sense of membership with the political community (Macek et al., 1998).

IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE Flanagan’s scholarship has been foundational in the field of applied developmental sciences because it brings social justice into the realm of social inquiry. Historically, developmental sciences have not attended to the process of civic development, while political and sociological understandings of citizenship have been largely ignorant of human development. By bringing these fields together, Flanagan has laid the foundation for future empirical and theoretical enterprises on the development of a socially responsible citizenry. Her work is a precursor to applied developmental research on subjects such as the psychological meaning of social class and the impact of marginalization on civic and social participation. In the applied area of youth development, her work provides the basis for critical and intentional programs that aim to increase the participation of disadvantaged youth in issues of social change. Flanagan’s work highlights the role of social justice and social change as crucial dimensions of civic development. —Stephen T. Russell and Aarti Subramaniam

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bowes, J. M., Flanagan, C., & Taylor, A. J. (2001). Adolescents’ ideas about individual and social responsibility in relation to children’s household work: Some international

comparisons. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 60–68. Flanagan, C. A. (2000). Social change and the “social contract” in adolescent development. In L. J. Crockett & R. K. Silbereisen (Eds.), Negotiating adolescence in times of social change (pp. 191–198). New York: Cambridge University Press. Flanagan, C., Bowes, J., Jonsson, B., Csapo, B., & Sheblanova, E. (1998). Ties that bind: Correlates of adolescents’ civic commitments in seven countries. Journal of Social Issues, 54, 457–475. Flanagan, C. A., & Eccles, J. (1993). Changes in parental work status and adolescents’ adjustment at school. Child Development, 64, 246–257. Macek, P., Flanagan, C., Gallay, L., Kostron, L., Botcheva, L., & Csapo, B. (1998). Post-Communist societies in times of transition: Perceptions of change among adolescents in central and Eastern Europe. Journal of Social Issues, 54, 547–560.

FLOURISHING. See ADOLESCENCE AND THRIVING; POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, A DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS VIEW OF

FLOYD, DONALD T., JR. Donald T. Floyd Jr. has been associated with innovative leadership of youth-serving nonprofits for more than 30 years. In his current leadership role as president and CEO of National 4-H Council, Floyd provides facilitative stewardship of the organization. National 4-H Council is the private sector, nonprofit partner of America’s largest and most diverse youth organization, 4-H, serving more than 7 million young people. The mission of National 4-H Council is “to advance the 4-H youth development movement building a world in which youth and adults learn, grow and work together as catalysts for positive change.” Floyd works diligently to ensure that the council’s mission honors shared leadership and supports the National 4-H Strategic Plan. Under Floyd’s leadership, National 4-H Council led 4-H in the “National Conversation on Youth Development in the 21st Century” and created the nation’s first national action agenda for youth policy. The Conversations engaged 50,000 young adults of various ages and backgrounds from all 50 states and Puerto Rico and resulted in the most comprehensive

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and inclusive national youth agenda ever produced. In addition to his significant role in the success of the National Conversation, Floyd effectively positioned 4-H in the national spotlight throughout the centennial year by garnering media attention across the country in prime markets, such as 4-H’s appearance on the CBS Saturday Early Show. 4-H is a pioneer in the after-school arena. More than 4.2 million youth participate in 4-H after-school programs. Floyd serves on the National 4-H Afterschool Leadership Team, focusing on building an infrastructure for after-school programming in every county in the nation and having the necessary tools in place to make 4-H Afterschool a premier program. With the introduction of “4-H Afterschool in a Box,” which was unveiled at the National 4-H Afterschool RollOut Conference in April 2003, Floyd said, “The 4-H movement takes a major stride toward ensuring greater access, equity, and opportunity for all youth.” The 4-H Afterschool initiative is just one example of today’s 4-H movement, for which Floyd actively seeks partners to engage in and support after-school programming. Prior to joining National 4-H Council in 1991, Floyd spent 2 years as a full-time dad caring for his two young children following the death of their mother. For 17 years, he held local and national-level jobs with Junior Achievement (an international nonprofit teaching economics and business to youth). His career started as an executive director in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1976, he moved to the National Junior Achievement office to lead Junior Achievement’s first venture into classroombased programming. That middle school program is today Junior Achievement’s largest program. Floyd also led the resurgence of Junior Achievement in New York City, and as national executive vice president, he led major areas of expansion, including their international program. In addition to Floyd’s innovative leadership, he volunteers his time to work with emerging youth movements in order to share learning about innovative organizational designs and to encourage collaboration, clarity of purpose, and significant learning and impact. He is on the board of directors of the National Center for Small Communities and is a trustee at Albright College. He serves on the International Leaders Committee for the Applied Developmental Sciences Institute, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, and in April 2001, Floyd was one of six inaugural recipients of the

International Fellows in Applied Developmental Science Award. Floyd is a 1965 graduate of Reading High School and a graduate of Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. He continued his learning at the IBM Nonprofit Leadership School and The Center for Creative Leadership. He lives in Highland, Maryland, with his wife, Carolyn, daughter Jordan, sons Jacob and Matthew, and stepsons Patrick and Bryan Orwig. In sum, colleagues in 4-H, in other youth-serving organizations, and in public and private institutions of higher education regard Floyd as a visionary and innovative leader in the field of youth development. His leadership has transformed and enhanced the connection between youth development theory and research and community-based programs designed to promote positive youth development. He has articulated in eloquent and compelling terms a belief in the potential of all youth to develop in positive ways, in order to create a new, national commitment to young people. He has championed the creation in America of an authentic and sustained partnership among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, families, and young people themselves. In contemporary America, Floyd stands first among his peers in energizing all sectors of the nation to promote positive youth development. —Donald Floyd

See also FOUR-H (4-H)

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY In 1991, Fordham University, in New York City, hosted the first National Conference on Graduate Education in Applications of Developmental Science Across the Lifespan, where representatives from organizations throughout the country met to discuss concerns regarding the efficacy of controlled laboratory-based developmental research in meeting the needs of children and families in real-world community contexts (Fisher, Murray, et al., 1993). The consensus of conferees was that the effectiveness of future social programs to treat and prevent developmental problems and optimize human growth rests in large measure on training a new generation of scientist-professionals to work with community members and policymakers to ensure that community goals are achieved (Fisher, Murray, & Sigel, 1996; Lerner & Fisher, 1994; Melton, 1995). Thus began

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the extension of developmental psychology beyond laboratory settings and into the community to study and solve practical social problems (Fisher, Rau, & Colapietro, 1993). Educational guidelines were established for training the newly proposed developmental scientist-professionals to work with community groups, practitioners, and policymakers in generating knowledge and creating programs aimed at minimizing developmental risks of children and their families across the life span. These guidelines included the ability (a) to conduct research reflecting real-world issues and problems in the context in which they occur; (b) to develop, administer, and interpret developmentally and culturally fair assessments; (c) to design, implement, and evaluate interventions promoting positive development; and (d) to disseminate information to professionals, organizations, and policymakers involved in child and family welfare. Conference participants also saw field experience as essential to training, allowing students the opportunity to apply acquired knowledge and skills to social problems in real-world contexts. Using these recommendations, the Fordham University doctoral specialization in applied developmental psychology (ADP) was developed to train students in professional psychology with a development-enhancing, risk prevention, scientist-practitioner emphasis. FORDHAM UNIVERSITY’S APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY MODEL Fordham University’s doctoral training in ADP, initiated in 1989 as an applied research program (Fisher et al., 1993), has evolved into a scientist-practitioner model of training professional psychologists who can generate and apply a developmental contextual perspective to problems facing individuals and families. Curriculum planning and program development was the outgrowth of dialogue with practitioners and administrators working in community systems, students in the program, Fordham psychology faculty, and university administrators to ensure that the program’s goals matched those of the university. Through scientific inquiry and practice, students in the Fordham University ADP program gain skills in the design, implementation, and assessment of development-enhancing psychological services. The program draws on the theoretical, scientific, methodological, and practice bases of developmental, clinical, school,

and counseling psychology. Within these contexts, students learn to study, prevent, and develop interventions for problems that affect individuals, families, and community systems, such as schools, hospitals, social service organizations, and justice and governmental agencies. The primary goal of this program is to prepare graduates for university teaching, research, consultation, and psychological practice aimed at prevention of developmental delays and disorders, and promotion of positive development across the life span. A DEVELOPMENTAL-CONTEXTUAL MODEL FOR SCIENCE AND PRACTICE Fordham’s training of scientist-practitioners in ADP assumes that the measure of success of a research program or intervention is based not only on the validity of guiding developmental theory but also on whether the research question or treatment strategy fits with the self-perceived goals and needs of a given community and its service systems (HigginsD’Alessandro, Fisher, & Hamilton, in press; Fisher et al., 1993; Fisher et al., 1996; Lerner et al., 1996). To this end, students learn the value of engaging community members as ongoing collaborators in research to assist in establishing new ways of enhancing knowledge and building individual and system-based developmental strengths (Higgins-D’Alessandro et al., in press). Within the ADP perspective, science and practice are integrated into a process of colearning, with psychologists and community members playing reciprocal roles as teachers and students. The colearning model has a set of interrelated training goals (see Higgins-D’Alessandro et al., in press): • Contextually guided action research. Students are taught to examine causes, consequences, and correlates of psychological and developmental strengths, vulnerabilities, and problems of individuals, families, and service organizations as they occur in context. • Identifying individual, family, and organizational goals. Students learn to conduct needs assessments and focus groups that identify goals and concerns of service providers, service recipients, practitioners, administrators, and public officials. Students use this information to evaluate the relevance of the developmental and psychological scientist-professional knowledge

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base to the needs of each individual and to ensure that intervention strategies match these needs. Supporting community members serving children. Students are taught to develop service delivery systems that support families, teachers, medical practitioners, and other systems of care for at-risk children, youth, and older adults and to design research studies, services, and interventions that take into account the competencies of both service providers and recipients and the supporting and limiting roles of local and federal laws and institutional regulations. Assessing program readiness. Fordham students learn to assess the readiness of individuals to benefit from programs and interventions, anticipate who will use service delivery programs, and find ways to increase usage among individuals who do not readily access services through these systems. Delivery of psychological services. Students learn to deliver services to individuals and families using techniques from family systems, mental health consultation, and behavioral management orientations within a developmentenhancing and risk prevention framework. Formative and process evaluations. Students are taught to evaluate how well intervention strategies are being conducted and to perform ongoing evaluations that measure the extent to which these programs initiate and maintain sensitivity to the socioeconomic status, cultural characteristics, and goals of students, clients, and families. Scientific and social validity of outcome measures. Fordham graduates conduct program evaluations to ensure that the outcome measures of intervention and program efficacy have both scientific and social validity. Data sharing. Students learn to consult and share data with research participants and service providers in ways that enhance the validity of the conclusions drawn, listen and respond to community concerns, and generate alternative developmentally grounded psychological theories and evaluation strategies. Ethical foundations and the developmental-contextual model. Through action-oriented research and intervention, applied developmental psychologists have the opportunity to influence the

lives of vulnerable and at-risk populations of individuals and the service systems in their immediate and extended environments. Psychologists involved in such research have the potential to either help or harm individuals, families, and communities (Fisher, 1993). Preparation for a career as an applied developmental scientistpractitioner necessitates familiarity with ethical and legal issues and professional codes of conduct, especially as they relate to working with vulnerable populations. Through required coursework, students-in-training at Fordham gain a strong foundation in the ethical principles and professional standards that govern the delicate balance of their obligation to protect both the rights and the welfare of individuals and groups they are trying to help. CREATING A COMPETENCY-DRIVEN, SCIENTIST-PRACTITIONER CURRICULUM The training goals of the Fordham University ADP model have been translated into a series of didactic coursework and field experiences that enhance students’ knowledge and skills in 6 core areas: 1. The General and Developmental Psychology Core includes course work in history and systems in psychology, individual differences, and developmental patterns associated with the biological, cognitive-affective, and social bases of behavior. 2. The Applied Research Core includes coursework in contextually sensitive research methodologies and statistical techniques, and a first-year research apprenticeship followed by a succession of increasingly more independent research projects. 3. The Individual Assessment and Intervention Core includes coursework and practical experience in the administration and interpretation of psychological and developmental assessment instruments, as well as mental health consultation, multicultural counseling, and child management techniques. 4. The Systems Applications Core includes coursework and practical experience in family therapy, assessment of community needs and service utilization patterns, school- and community-based

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program design and evaluation, instructional consultation, and parent education. 5. The Ethical, Legal, and Professional Standards Core includes coursework and supervision on scientific and professional decision making guided by the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Code, federal guidelines for human subjects research, and mental health law. 6. The Experiential Core provides a yearlong, supervised professional psychology practicum experience allowing students to apply their newly acquired skills in community settings, which, in turn, prepares them for internship placements and the ability to successfully complete dissertations of both scientific and community value.

CAREER PREPARATION The program’s commitment to the communitypartnership model of science and practice has enhanced the employment options for Fordham students. Graduates are employed at universities, hospitals, and private and government-funded institutes, where they teach, conduct research, and administer programs. They have acquired positions in medical facilities, schools, and social service agencies, where some evaluate service utilization needs, provide psychological consultation to teachers on behavioral management and instructional techniques for children and adults with developmental disabilities, or train nurses and other health care practitioners to apply developmentally appropriate strategies in programs designed to optimize children’s ability to comply with essential health management routines. Graduates continue to stay in contact with faculty at Fordham and provide feedback on features of the program that were helpful to professional development and on aspects needed to be strengthened to ensure that future graduates will effectively influence the positive development of individuals and communities through scholarship, practice, and leadership. —Christine D. Cea and Celia B. Fisher

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fisher, C. B. (1993). Integrating science and ethics in research with high-risk children and youth. Social Policy Report, 7, 1–27.

Fisher, C. B. (1997). A relational perspective on ethics-in-science decision making for research with vulnerable populations. IRB: Review of Human Subjects Research, 19(5), 1–4. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R. M., et al. (1993). The National Conference on Graduate Education in the Applications of Developmental Sciences Across the Life Span. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–10. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., & Sigel, I. E. (Eds.). (1996). Applied developmental science: Graduate training for diverse disciplines and educational settings (pp. 1–22). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Fisher, C. B., Rau, J. M., & Colapietro, E. (1993). Models of graduate education in applied developmental science: The Fordham University doctoral specialization in applied developmental psychology. Journal of Applied Development Psychology, 14, 289–301. Higgins-D’Alessandro, A., Fisher, C. B., & Hamilton, M. G. (in press). Educating the applied developmental psychologist for university-community partnerships: The Fordham model. In R. M. Lerner & L. S. K. Simon (Eds.), Outreach universities for America’s youth and families: Building community collaborations for the 21st century. New York: Garland. Lerner, R. M., Abrams, L. A., Hoopfer, M. M., Miller, J. R., Patterson, A. T., & Votruba, J. C. (1996). Training applied developmental scientists for community outreach. In C. B. Fisher, J. P. Murray, & I. E. Sigel (Eds.), Applied developmental science: Graduate training for diverse disciplines and educational settings (pp. 163–188). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Lerner, R. M., & Fisher, C. B. (1994). From applied developmental psychology to applied developmental science: Community coalitions and collaborative careers. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Applied developmental psychology (pp. 503–522). New York: McGraw-Hill. Melton, G. B. (1995). Bringing psychology to Capitol Hill: Briefings on child and family policy. American Psychologist, 50, 766–771.

FORENSIC INTERVIEWING By definition, forensic interviews are designed to obtain information about experienced events that is as accurate as possible so that it can be used in legal proceedings, both civil and criminal, to protect children and punish offenders (Poole & Lamb, 1998). Such interviews differ in important ways from clinical or therapeutic interviews that are designed to explore the interviewee’s subjective feelings and interpretations rather than objective facts. Most of the research on forensic interviewing of children has focused on those

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who may have been sexually abused, and that focus is evident in this entry. Sex crimes against children are extremely difficult to investigate because most such offenses leave no physical evidence and occur in private, where the only witnesses are the victims and perpetrators. Because most offenders at least initially deny that the incidents took place, the victims’ accounts are extremely important to those seeking to investigate alleged crimes and protect children. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to elicit or interpret reports from children, especially those of preschool age, and as a result, the credibility and reliability of young witnesses are frequently challenged. Many researchers have studied and demonstrated the capacity of young children to provide reliable and valid accounts of their experiences, however, and these have helped experts to develop guidelines about the ways in which forensic interviews should be conducted (Lamb, Sternberg, Orbach, Hershkowitz, & Esplin, 1999; Poole & Lamb, 1998). These guidelines are based on years of research documenting the development of the social, communicative, and memory processes that affect the capacity and performance of young witnesses. Accordingly, researchers have shown that children often can remember important details about events that they have experienced or observed, although their accounts can be manipulated or contaminated (just as adults’ accounts can be). Interviewers thus need to be aware of children’s capacities and limitations so that they can avoid behaving in ways that force children to operate at or beyond the limits of their capacities. Only rarely do children spontaneously volunteer complete accounts of abusive incidents, and thus interviewers need to prompt children to reveal information about the events. Students of memory have known for many years that open-ended questions (such as “Tell me what happened”) yield the most accurate information, whereas focused questions (“Did he touch you?” “Did he have all his clothes on?”) tend to elicit information that is more likely to be inaccurate (Lamb et al., 1999). Most information provided in response to focused questions is likely to be accurate, of course, just as some of the information provided in response to open-ended questions may be inaccurate. On average, however, the proportions differ substantially. The reason appears to be that open-ended questions prompt children to provide (“recall”) as much information as they “remember,” whereas focused prompts

typically ask children to recognize, confirm, or select among options provided by the interviewer. Such recognition prompts are more likely to elicit erroneous responses because of response biases (such as the tendency to say “yes”) and the false recognition of details that were only mentioned in previous interviews or inferred from the gist of the experienced events. Narrative responses to open-ended prompts are thus more desirable because they are obtained from free recall, they are more detailed, they are more accurate, and they permit researchers to study presumed indices of credibility. For this reason, forensic interviewers are advised to rely on free-recall prompts whenever possible, while avoiding recognition memory prompts, especially those that suggest a specific response (Poole & Lamb, 1998). It is especially important to avoid suggestive questions (such as “Did it hurt when he touched you?” when the child hasn’t mentioned any touching) where young children are concerned (Ceci & Bruck, 1995). Children, especially preschoolers, may respond inaccurately to such questions because they think that the interviewer would prefer a particular response, do not understand the question but would like to be cooperative, or confuse information about the original event and “information” provided by others, perhaps while questioning them about it. Misleading or suggestive questions can degrade the quality of information provided by both older and younger witnesses, of course, especially when the memory is not rich or recent, the content was imagined rather than experienced, the questions are complicated or confusing, and the interviewee feels compelled to agree with an apparently authoritative interviewer. Regardless of the types of questions asked, children tend to be shy and reticent when questioned by strangers, and they are unused to being sources of information for others. It thus becomes important for interviewers to establish rapport with children before starting to question them about the incidents under investigation. They also need to teach children the ground rules of the investigative interview, since these differ so much from the implicit ground rules of most situations in which adults question children, typically to test the accuracy of their knowledge about topics or events already known to the questioner. Forensic interviewers, by contrast, should explain to children that the children know details that no one else can provide, and they can helpfully illustrate the ground rules by questioning children about a recent neutral event using the types of free-recall prompts that they will

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later use to solicit detailed information about the incident under investigation (Lamb et al., 1999). Despite near-universal consensus about these guidelines, there is ample evidence that forensic interviewers know what they should do but nevertheless tend not to use many of the free-recall prompts recommended by experts, relying instead on more focused, and thus riskier, prompts. Many efforts have been made to alter this pattern, but it has proven difficult to change the behavior of interviewers. This may be because it is difficult for interviewers to remember all the recommended “do’s” and “don’ts” while simultaneously listening to and trying to make sense of the children’s accounts. For that reason, many interviewers quickly shift from open-ended probing to more focused questioning as soon as they encounter a detail that is hard to understand. To avoid this from happening, researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) developed a highly structured interview guide (Orbach et al., 2000; Sternberg, Lamb, Orbach, Esplin, & Mitchell, 2001). The NICHD protocol translates professional recommendations into operational guidelines that help interviewers give priority to open-ended prompts. The protocol promotes the retrieval of event-specific accounts using various types of open-ended prompts. When interviewers use the NICHD protocol, they elicit substantially more information using open-ended prompts than interviewers typically do, and thus they are presumed to obtain more accurate information, although, of course, it is not usually possible to assess the accuracy of information that informants provide about incidents of abuse. To maintain their skills, forensic interviewers need to review their interviews with peers and trainers. In the absence of such continuing quality control, interviewers tend to fall back on riskier practices (Lamb et al., 2002). —Michael E. Lamb

See also EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY; LAW, JURORS’ PERCEPTION OF CHILD WITNESSES; TESTIMONY, CHILDREN’S COMPETENCE FOR

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1995). Jeopardy in the courtroom. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., & Esplin, P. W. (1999). Forensic interviews of children. In A. Menon & R. Bull (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of interviewing (pp. 253–277). New York: Wiley. Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., Horowitz, D., & Esplin, P. W. (2002). The effects of intensive

training and ongoing supervision on the quality of investigative interviews with alleged sex abuse victims. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 114–125. Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Esplin, P. W., & Horowitz, D. (2000). Assessing the value of structured protocols for forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims. Child Abuse and Neglect, 24, 733–752. Poole, D. A., & Lamb, M. E. (1998). Investigative interviews of children. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Sternberg, K. J., Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y., Esplin, P. W., & Mitchell, S. (2001). Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances young children’s responses to free recall prompts in the course of forensic interviews. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 997–1005.

FOSTER CARE Few would dispute the claim that the biological family is the ideal when it comes to the process of child rearing. However, it is not always practical or advisable that biological parents rear their children. Indeed, there are roughly 500,000 children who, on any given day, are living under the care of the child welfare system in the United States. Foster care is defined as state-sponsored, 24-hour custodial care for children who require placement outside of the homes of their biological parents or legal guardians due to maltreatment. Children are transferred to the care of the state for a multitude of reasons, which can include death of parents, intentional neglect, and abuse, as well as the inability of the biological parents to provide the necessities of child rearing. THE ORIGIN AND GOALS OF FOSTER CARE The first White House Conference on Children was held in 1909 in response to widespread use of institutional care for children whose parents were deemed unfit. The conference affirmed the sanctity of the biological family unit, stating that state intervention should occur only in the most severe cases of neglect. Institutional care remained the preferred form of housing these children into the 1920s, when a debate emerged over perceived harmful effects for children living outside of a family environment. By 1977, about 80% of children were housed in family foster care homes, and institutional care is now considered a

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supplement to family foster care. Recently, the problem of “foster care limbo” has emerged, which occurs when children remain in foster care for excessive amounts of time without either returning home or parental rights being terminated, which would allow the child to be adopted. Child care advocates placed pressure on Congress, which subsequently passed the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act in 1980, requiring states to make reasonable efforts to provide family support services with the intent of quickly returning children to safe, stable families. State social workers came to perceive the inability to return a child to his or her “natural” home as a failure and thus were making extraordinary efforts for families who intentionally abused their children or were beyond the capacity to function in a healthy manner. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), passed in 1997, reaffirmed the desire to provide safety, permanency, and well-being for America’s children. Moreover, the ASFA explicitly stated that under some circumstances, the termination of parental rights was the best way to assure a child’s well-being. With the goals of safety, permanency, and well-being in mind, foster care became neither the first nor last option for child welfare services when dealing with families in crisis. That is, programs such as Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) and Homebuilders often precede alternative placement in an effort to avoid out-of-home care. If this is not a safe option for the child, the purpose of alternative placement is to provide a safe environment for the child while the family works toward stability and reunification or when such an event is deemed impossible (Bartholet, 1999). THE RECIPIENTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF FOSTER CARE Before considering research analyzing the success of the child welfare services regarding their stated goals, it is first important to understand the demographics of foster care. Data gathered and reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Administration for Children and Families; the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families; and the Children’s Bureau offer comprehensive national data on children in state-sponsored care. As of September 30, 2000, 556,000 children were in the custodial care of the state. Just over one half of these children (52%) were males, and the mean age of these

foster children was 10.1 years. Nearly one half (47%) of the children were living in nonrelative family foster care, 25% lived with relatives, 8% were in group homes, and 10% were living in institutions. While 40% of the foster children were African American and 38% were Caucasian, only 15% were Hispanic. As for duration, 31% of children stayed in care for less than 1 year, 17% stayed for 1 to 2 years, and 32% stayed 3 or more years. In terms of case plan goals, 43% were working toward family reunification, 20% were waiting for adoption (i.e., parent’s rights were terminated), 15% had not established a case plan, 9% were slated for long-term foster care, 6% were working toward emancipation, 5% expected to continue to live with other relatives, and 3% were seeking to establish guardianship with another nonrelative adult. During the fiscal year of 2000, approximately 291,000 children entered foster care and about 275,000 were discharged. For those who exited foster care during the fiscal year of 2000, the average number of months out of the home was 22.7; only 19% remained in foster care for less than 1 month (see the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site, www.acf.hhs.gov/ programs/cb). Permanency is an essential measure of the effectiveness of the foster care system. Research has shown that children who experience multiple placements are less likely to reunify with their parents. An inability to form healthy attachments has also been associated with multiple placements. Finally, disruptive placement histories tend to place children into more restrictive and costly institutional settings. Research focusing on permanency tends to concentrate on the number of placements per spell in care, length of each spell, and the number of spells a child experiences in his or her lifetime. A spell is defined as one continuous stay under state supervision with no more than a 24-hour disruption in placement. The data on permanency have provided mixed results. A study by Usher, Randolph, and Gogan (1999) reported that 76.7% of children who stayed in care for 1 year or less had only one placement, 15.9% had two placements, and only 7.3% experienced three or more. For children who remained in care for 1 to 2 years, 40.7% had only one placement, and 30.8% had two placements. About 29% of children experienced three or more placements. For those still in care 3 years after entry into foster care, 24% had one placement, and 24.7% had two placements, while 51.3% experienced three or more placements. In short, research

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suggests that there is some semblance of permanency for foster children during their first year of placement; however, by the 3rd year, slightly more than half experience the fluctuation of multiple placements. Bartholet (1999) argues that this impression of permanence is misleading because even the long-term, stable foster placements are unable to offer the lifetime emotional support and anchor that are provided by legally permanent homes. In addition, nationwide data on what has been termed foster care drift (i.e., excessive disruption in foster placement) remains unavailable. Rather, current data rely on community or statewide samples that are collected according to a host of methodologies that make comparisons impossible. With regard to length of stay per spell, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (see U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002) offers comprehensive nationwide data over a number of years. The mean number of months, 22.7, has remained relatively consistent. However, the primary question is the parameter for an acceptable length of stay. Although an objective of foster care is family reunification, some advocates have wondered whether it is justifiable to keep children in state care for years in hopes of achieving this goal. There are no official standards that delimit the point at which the family unit can be deemed irreparable so that parental rights can be terminated, thereby freeing the child for adoption. Moreover, there is no agreement about the point at which family reunification should become subordinate to establishing legally permanent housing for the child. A concentrated emphasis on promptly returning the child to the home could result in returning him or her to the same unfit, or even dangerous, situation. Until the federal government is able to respond to the above questions, the issues surrounding length of stay in foster care will remain an ineffective measure of permanency. Finally, the recidivism rate provides an unflattering view of the success of the foster care system. Although the number of spells for each child is recorded in his or her file, national data have not been compiled. Once again, reports are usually based on community or statewide samples that make generalization to the entire country difficult and inadvisable. Bartholet’s (1999) study, however, suggests that about a third of children released from state care into the custody of their parents will return to foster care before their 18th birthdays. Further research is needed

to discern the generalizability of this claim, as well as its cause. Safety is the second stated goal of foster care. There are several definitional issues that make assessing safety difficult. Are legislators referring to safety within the foster home or safety in the event that the child returns to his or her original home? How is safety best measured—for example, by instances of physical abuse while in care or, more generally, by the quality of care? Perhaps due to the difficulty in defining and measuring “safety,” scant data exist on the matter. There have been, in recent times, concerns raised about the quality of foster parents recruited by child welfare services. In the mid-1990s, for example, it was found that Massachusetts had placed a number of children in the care of persons with prior criminal records, including offenses for domestic abuse. After claiming it had rectified the situation, it was discovered that 7% to 10% of the foster parents in Massachusetts were also on the welfare roll. While being on welfare is not by any means indicative of poor parenting skills, the existence of such a large number of foster parents receiving welfare added to the already existing concern that some individuals become foster parents for the state subsidies they receive. While monetary support received for fostering children is not exorbitant, it does exceed the support received under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children Act (AFDC). In fact, families fostering two children receive nearly double the amount they would for having two biological children supported under the AFDC. Other concerns regarding the quality of foster parents focus on the substantial increase in kinship care over the past decade. Nearly one third of foster care placements are within the original family. This is in accordance with an emphasis on family preservation and a value-based belief that children will fare better if they are able to stay with extended family rather than complete strangers. The apprehension regarding this is that abusive or negligent parents were often raised as abused or neglected children. Poor parenting is thought to be one part of the cycle of violence. Therefore, by placing children in the care of extended family, there remains a significant chance that the child will receive the same or minimally better care as in his or her own home. Research regarding this aspect of safety has offered mixed results, with some studies indicating that children receive better care and remain in that placement longer when placed within the family structure.

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The final stated goal of the foster care system is the well-being of the child. It has been well documented that these children fare worse than their counterparts in the general population across a variety of measures. Indeed, a 1995 report from the Government Accountability Office revealed that foster children’s mental and physical health was worse than the health of homeless children and children who lived in some of the most violent and impoverished urban neighborhoods. There remains, however, difficulty in discerning whether the foster child is impaired educationally, physically, and emotionally solely due to treatment prior to arrival in state custody or due to the experience of foster care itself. Put differently, it is difficult to disentangle the impact of experiencing foster care with the presumably difficult conditions the child was subject to prior to care. McMillen and Tucker (1999) conducted a thorough study of children who had remained in the care of the Missouri Department of Family Services past their 17th birthdays. Of these children, only 39% had received a high school diploma or its equivalent. Nearly half, 45.2%, exited foster care without either a job or high school diploma. Forty-four percent of foster children in this study were inpatients in a psychiatric hospital. Fifteen percent of the children exited foster care either pregnant or as parents. The researchers observed substance abuse indicators in 13% of the cases and criminal involvement in 8%. Results similar to these have been found in other studies, implying a clear distinction between children who experience care and those who do not. CONCLUSIONS In sum, foster care is state-sponsored care for youth whose parents are unable to care for their children or unfit for child rearing. Ideally, foster care placement provides safe housing for youth until either family issues are addressed and the child can return to his or her family of origin or parental rights are terminated and the child is eligible for adoption. The goals of foster care programs are to provide safety, permanency, and well-being for each foster child. However, the success of foster care remains difficult to clearly define. On the positive side, 56% of those youth entering the system in fiscal year 2000 left within one year; and 57% of youth exiting care during that same year returned to their families of origin (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). On the downside, youth who experience foster care perform

below average in school and are at greater risk for experiencing mental health problems, substance abuse, and early pregnancy than all other children. Further research is needed to untangle whether the problems and developmental delays of foster children are due to foster care itself or the conditions that preceded and precipitated entry into foster care. —Carrie E. Coward and Corey L. M. Keyes

See also ADOPTION

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bartholet, E. (1999). Nobody’s children: Abuse and neglect, foster drift, and the adoption alternative. Boston: Beacon. McMillen, J. C., & Tucker, J. (1999). The status of older adolescents at exit from out-of-home care. Child Welfare, 78, 339–360. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau. (2002). Interim estimates for FY 2000 as of August 2002 (7). Available at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb U.S. Government Accountability Office. (1995, May). Foster care: Health needs of many young children are unknown and unmet (pp. 95–114). Washington, DC: GAO/HEHS. Usher, C. L., Randolph, K. A., & Gogan, H. C. (1999). Placement patterns in foster care. Social Service Review, 1, 22–36.

FOUR-H (4-H) Founded in 1902, 4-H is the world’s largest educational program for young people based on democratic principles, and it is the only youth development program that ties both public and private resources to the single purpose of supporting the positive and successful development of youth. The philosophy of “learning by doing” drives the work of nearly 7 million 4-H youth and more than 600,000 4-H volunteers in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and military installations worldwide. The 4-H program provides innovative, fun programs ranging from robotics and biotechnology to skateboarding and agriculture. As the only youth program with direct access to technological advances in agriculture, life sciences, human development, social sciences, and related areas through land grant university research, 4-H youth development helps young people become mature, competent adults capable of participation and leadership in their communities and entry into the workforce.

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The core capabilities of 4-H reflect strong expertise that 4-H youth development has to offer and also suggest changes to accomplish the National 4-H Strategic Plan. Not all are unique to 4-H, but the unique synergy of these capabilities makes the organization different and special in the communities it serves. The organization believes the following capabilities add exceptional value to 4-H youth development programs: • Exceptional human capacity: Contributing, empowered youth; dedicated, supportive families; highly educated professional staff; talented, enthusiastic volunteer base. • Strategic resource development partnerships: Public-private collaboration; funded at three distinct levels: local, state, federal; alumni and community support. • High-quality educational programs: based in youth development research; customized for each community, personalized for each individual; experiential learning. • Nationwide community-focused network: based in the land grant university system; in every county; variety of delivery models; decentralized, shared-leadership model. The 4-H youth development mission specifies that 4-H empowers youth to reach their full potential working and learning in partnership with caring adults. In turn, the 4-H youth development vision is of “a world in which youth and adults learn, grow and work together as catalysts for positive change.” The 4-H youth development values include the following: • We, the youth and adults of the 4-H movement, value youth as powerful members of society, youth and adults as caring partners, learning as a lifelong commitment, diversity and social conscience, doing our best and making it better. Therefore: • We believe that youth are powerful members of society, with the ability to contribute significantly to their communities, to create positive change, and to imagine new possibilities and directions. • We believe that youth are equal and caring partners, bringing unique energy, knowledge, and

•

•

•

• • •

perspective to the work they do—they are keepers of the vision. We believe that relationships with caring adults are essential for youth to achieve their potential because of the guidance, respect, knowledge, and wisdom adults can share. We believe that learning is a lifelong commitment for citizens of a democracy, enhancing self-determination, independent thinking, and self-esteem, and that learning by doing promotes practical skills, confidence, and experience for both youth and adults. We believe that a social conscience is built on service and volunteerism, that a commitment to diversity depends on embracing and respecting difference, and that both are essential to making our society a better place. We believe that our youth are the future of our nation and our world and that they deserve nothing less than our best. Because we believe in these things, we touch the future through the 4-H youth development movement. To learn more about 4-H, refer to their Web site at www.fourhcouncil.edu. —Donald T. Floyd, Jr.

See also FLOYD, DONALD T., JR; YOUTH PROGRAMS, OUT-OF-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

FREUD, ANNA Anna Freud (1895–1982) was the only one of Sigmund Freud’s children to become a psychoanalyst, but that role does not begin to characterize her contributions adequately. She was an important figure as her father’s daughter, colleague, companion, secretary, nurse, and heir. But she also made substantial independent scientific contributions in her own right. A prolific writer, her publications spanned a remarkably broad range of topics, including numerous books and more than 100 articles. She systematized and furthered her father’s ideas and pioneered their application to child psychotherapy and education. THE EARLY YEARS IN VIENNA The youngest of six children, Anna Freud was born to Sigmund and Martha Bernays Freud on December 3,

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1895, in Vienna, Austria. By all accounts, Anna was very close to her father, having been born during the period when he was undergoing the vigorous self-analysis that ultimately led to some of his most important work. She sometimes said that she and psychoanalysis were born in the same year: 1895 was the publication date of Freud and Breuer’s Studies on Hysteria, often identified as the first publication in psychoanalysis. Young “Annerl” was a precocious and somewhat mischievous child (Young-Bruehl, 1988). Despite early school anxieties, she excelled in her studies and initially intended to become an elementary school teacher. Upon graduation from secondary school, she obtained a 4-year contract for a teaching position with her former school, the Cottage Lyceum in Vienna. Although Anna discontinued her teaching career to become a psychoanalyst at the age of 24, her early teaching experiences provided her with opportunities to observe the normal development of relatively healthy children and probably gave direction to her later psychoanalytic research. In 1919, Anna accepted a position as an assistant in the English department of the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag (International Psychoanalytic Publishing House) of Vienna and intensified her psychoanalytic training. She did not continue her formal education beyond secondary school, but her informal qualifications as a lay psychoanalyst were extensive. Her interest in psychoanalysis began early. Eager to accompany and emulate her father, she avidly studied the psychoanalytic literature and attended the Wednesday evening meetings of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society from the age of 14. Anna was undoubtedly influenced by her father’s circle of friends and colleagues, perhaps most notably Lou Andreas-Salomé, Karl Abraham, Hermine HugHellmuth, and Sandor Ferenczi (the latter two were early pioneers of child psychoanalysis and laid some of the groundwork for Anna’s later contributions). Furthermore, her acquaintance with Ernest Jones and Abraham Brill may have encouraged her interest in learning the English language, which was of decisive benefit in her later career (Dyer, 1983). Anna Freud’s training analysis was performed by her father, with assistance from Lou AndreasSalomé, who acted in a kind of mentoring capacity (Appignanesi & Forrester, 1992). It was not uncommon to analyze relatives at the time, and there were no formal rules to prohibit such arrangements. However,

the issue was not without controversy, as indicated by the apparent secrecy surrounding the identity of Anna’s training analyst and later suggestions by opponents (e.g., Ernest Jones) to the effect that she was improperly analyzed (Dyer, 1983). CHILD PSYCHOANALYSIS In 1922, the year Sigmund Freud published his tripartite theory of the mind, Anna Freud became a formal member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society with her presentation of “Beating Phantasies and Day Dreams.” The following year, her father was diagnosed with epithelial oral cancer. As his illness progressed, he gradually became more dependent on Anna as his nurse, secretary, and representative at various professional functions. Conversely, Anna became increasingly independent of her father, with her growing professional stature and friendship with Dorothy Burlingham (Appignanesi & Forrester, 1992). The daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany, and an heir to the family fortune, Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham had left America in 1925 to escape an unhappy marriage. She had initially made Anna Freud’s acquaintance to obtain psychotherapeutic treatment for her children, but she and Anna soon became lifelong friends and colleagues. In 1926, in one of their earliest collaborations, Anna and Dorothy partnered with Eva Rosenfeld, Peter Blos, and Erik H. Erikson to found a nursery school. The nursery school was established in Eva Rosenfeld’s garden with funds provided by Burlingham. Blos and Erikson, who would both later become prominent psychoanalysts in the United States, were employed as teachers. Developed in accordance with psychoanalytic principles, the nursery school was in many ways a forerunner to the Hampstead War Nursery. Anna Freud’s professional prominence grew substantially with her appointment as training secretary of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society Lehrinstitut (training institute), in 1925, and as general secretary of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) the following year. Her first book, Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis (1927), was based on her lectures at the Lehrinstitut and introduced modifications of adult psychoanalytic techniques for work with children. Among her innovations, Anna replaced the free-association method with analysis of daydreams and drawings, to give children an appropriate medium through which they could express their wishes and

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desires. Furthermore, she recommended a preparatory period preceding psychotherapy to establish the proper psychotherapeutic relationship, argued for greater sensitivity to the child’s family environment, and encouraged the active involvement of parents in the psychotherapeutic process. EGO PSYCHOLOGY In 1936, Anna Freud published what many regard as her greatest theoretical contribution: The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (Trans., 1973). An immediate success, this book systematized and extended Freud’s ideas on defense mechanisms, with a greater emphasis on the role of the ego, and is perhaps best known for enumerating and adding sublimation to the list of defense mechanisms proposed by others. However, her theories on the process of identification with the aggressor and on the normal and abnormal development of defense mechanisms and her introduction of the concept of age-appropriate defense were probably among the more significant and original contributions in this book (Dyer, 1983). LONDON AND THE HAMPSTEAD CLINIC As Hitler’s National Socialist regime came to power in Vienna in 1938, Sigmund Freud, unlike most members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, resisted the idea of emigrating to avoid the impending persecution of Jews. Only after Anna was interrogated by the Gestapo did the Freud family finally relocate to London. Sigmund Freud’s health declined rapidly after their arrival, and he died on September 23, 1939, an assisted suicide. Anna, ever her father’s daughter, remained as stoic in her grief as her father had been on his deathbed. With little public display of mourning, she soon busied herself with her psychotherapy patients and with helping some of London’s youngest victims of World War II. In 1940, Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham founded the Hampstead War Nursery, to provide shelter and schooling for children who were orphaned or left with broken families as a result of the war. In collaboration with Kate Friedlander and much of the War Nursery staff, Anna established the Hampstead Child Therapy Training Course and Clinic, in 1947. Like the War Nursery, the Hampstead Clinic functioned as a training site for future analysts and grounded its practices in psychoanalytic and Montessori theories. Now

known as the Anna Freud Center, this facility is still a charitable organization, provides various treatment services for children and their parents, and maintains leading research and educational programs in child psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Substantial funding for the Hampstead Clinic was initially provided from the United States on the condition that American students would be given preference in the admission process (Fine, 1985). As these students returned home after completing their training, the Hampstead Clinic played a large role in the dissemination of child therapy and research techniques throughout the United States. THE KLEINIAN CONTROVERSY The arrival of Anna Freud and other Viennese psychoanalysts in London, during the years preceding World War II, fueled a divisive theoretical and personal dispute that had been smoldering in the child psychoanalysis community since 1927. This “Kleinian controversy” (Dyer, 1983, p. 169) originated in a caustic debate between Anna Freud and Melanie Klein over theoretical and methodological differences following the former’s publication of Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis. The dispute resulted in opposing Freudian and Kleinian schools of child psychoanalysis based in Vienna and London, respectively. At the height of the controversy, during the last 2 years of the war, the British Psychoanalytic Society was divided into three factions: Freudian, Kleinian, and the independent Middle. For some time, the society even conducted their admissions so that there were separate training courses and equal representation for these groups (Fine, 1985). Some of the most salient points of contention in the controversy concerned the continuity between adult and child psychoanalysis and the nature of the superego in children. Anna Freud argued for an alternative pedagogical technique for children. She rejected the idea that transference occurs in children because children are still attached to their primary love objects. She did not believe that children could tolerate a full analysis of the parent-child relationship. Predicating a weak or immature superego during childhood, Anna Freud held that the psychotherapist should assume a normative role to strengthen and become a part of the child’s superego. Conversely, Klein often employed direct translations of adult techniques and believed that all children could engage in transference with the therapist and

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withstand a full analysis. She emphasized the punitive qualities of the superego, whereby the goal of psychoanalysis was to control the superego and reduce the severity with which it produces guilt and anxiety. Furthermore, Klein rejected Anna Freud’s method of including a preparatory period and involving the parent in the psychotherapeutic process. Although the controversies within the British Psychoanalytic Society came to an end in 1946, some of the above theoretical differences were never truly resolved and continue to divide the field of child psychoanalysis today (Viner, 1996). THE LATER YEARS Following the war, Anna Freud discontinued her work with individual patients to devote greater time and effort to disseminating her ideas and to her involvements with various psychoanalytic organizations. She held various offices of importance with IPA, and she cofounded and served as coeditor for the Bulletin of the Hampstead Clinic in 1978. She also became a popular guest lecturer and gradually gained considerable international recognition for her contributions. Like her father, Anna Freud’s first lecture tour to the United States came at the invitation of Clark University, which, in 1950, conferred upon her the first of 10 honorary doctoral degrees. Among her other accolades, she was appointed honorary president of IPA at the 28th International Psychoanalytic Congress in Paris, in 1973. In 1960, Anna Freud presented a series of lectures in New York City describing normal development in psychoanalytic terms, including the way in which psychopathology would develop if normal development were obstructed. These lectures formed the basis of her later book Normality and Pathology in Childhood (1966). During the postwar years, she also took an active role in the legal rights of children, concerned that these rights were often ignored by the judicial system. She presented seminars on children’s rights as a visiting professor at Yale Law School, in 1963 and 1964, eventually coauthoring a book on the subject with professors from the Yale University Child Study Center. On October 9, 1982, Anna Freud died of cerebellar stroke. She was 86 years old. Although it may be too early to take full stock of her legacy, it will probably include lasting contributions to ego and developmental

psychology. She is likely to be remembered as the founder of the Hampstead Clinic, as a pioneer child psychoanalyst, and as a leading member of the psychoanalytic orthodoxy who furthered her father’s work with tireless devotion. —Thomas P. Vaccaro and John D. Hogan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Appignanesi, L., & Forrester, J. (1992). Anna Freud: The dutiful daughter. In Freud’s women (pp. 272–306). New York: Basic Books. Dyer, R. (1983). Her father’s daughter: The work of Anna Freud. New York: Aronson. Fine, R. (1985). Anna Freud (1895–1982). American Psychologist, 40, 230–232. Freud, A. (1927). Einführung in die Technik der Kinderanalyse [Introduction to the technique of child analysis]. Vienna: Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag. Freud, A. (1966). Normality and pathology in childhood. London: Hogarth. Freud, A. (1973). The ego and the mechanisms of defense (C. Baines, Trans.). New York: International Universities Press. (Original work published 1936) Viner, R. (1996). Melanie Klein and Anna Freud: The discourse of the early dispute. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 32, 4–15. Young-Bruehl, E. (1988). Anna Freud: A biography. New York: Summit.

FREUD, SIGMUND The impact of Sigmund Freud on Western culture has been enormous. More than anyone since Charles Darwin, he changed the way we think about ourselves. Aspects of his psychoanalytic theory have pervaded everyday life to such an extent that people often refer to the theory without realizing they are doing so. For many, the work of Freud has come to epitomize psychology. Despite his visibility, his work is frequently maligned and often misunderstood. For instance, it is not always appreciated that psychoanalysis is more than a method of psychotherapy; it is also a detailed theory of development. Although many individuals associate Freud with the discipline of psychology itself, his work was slow to be accepted in academic psychology. Even now, despite his many adherents, there are those who feel his work should form no part of mainstream psychology.

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THE EARLY YEARS Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiburg, Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. His father, Jacob, was a wool merchant who had been married twice before; his mother, Amalia, only 20 years old at the time of her marriage, was 20 years younger than her husband. In all, eight children were born to the marriage, seven of whom survived childhood, but Sigmund, the firstborn, would remain the favorite child. When Sigmund was 4 years old, the family moved to Vienna. Business opportunities were thought to be better there for his father. In addition, anti-Semitism was expected to be less pronounced than in some other parts of Europe. From his earliest days, Freud was a strong student, with considerable ambition. As a young man, he was particularly interested in history and the humanities. At the age of 17, he enrolled in the medical school of the University of Vienna. While at the university, he encountered several influential teachers, including Franz Brentano (1838–1917), the father of “act” psychology, and Ernst Brucke (1819–1892), a student of Johannes Muller (1801–1858), who had continued work in the tradition of Muller’s mechanistic physiology. Freud conducted research in Brucke’s laboratory, publishing several papers in the process, even postponing his own medical school graduation to continue the research. Later, he named one of his sons after Brucke. He could not postpone graduation indefinitely, however. He had fallen in love with a young woman, Martha Bernays, and he needed to make a living. Although Freud felt drawn to the academic life, he had little hope of securing a university position. Reluctantly, he began pursuing the practical training that would qualify him for medical practice. In 1885, while in the midst of his clinical medical training, he received a small grant to study with the famous French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), in Paris. Charcot had contributed to the understanding of several neurological disorders but had become particularly famous in psychology for his controversial ideas regarding the treatment of hysteria. Freud was profoundly influenced by Charcot’s ideas.

THE BEGINNINGS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS One of the great breakthroughs for Freud came from the experience of Josef Breuer (1842–1925), his

friend and early mentor. Beginning in 1880, Breuer had treated a young women known as “Anna O.” (In later reports, she was identified as Bertha Pappenheim.) She suffered from a variety of confusing symptoms, including paralysis, phobias, and speech and vision disorders, which Breuer recognized as signs of hysteria. He treated her principally with hypnosis, giving her the opportunity to vent her emotions while hypnotized. During these sessions, Anna often discussed early experiences. Following the sessions, her symptoms were frequently diminished or disappeared. She began referring to her treatment as “chimney sweeping” and “the talking cure.” Anna O. is often referred to as the “first patient of psychoanalysis.” Freud and Breuer discussed her case, and Freud became fascinated with it. He even tried to discuss the case with Charcot on his visit in Paris. Freud found meaning in the treatment of Anna O., particularly in the cathartic elements that would later have an impact on his own theory and practice. In 1895, Freud and Breuer published a book, Studies on Hysteria, and the case of Anna O. had a prominent position in it. The volume is often referred to as the “first publication in psychoanalysis.” Although Freud gave Breuer considerable credit for pioneering the psychoanalytic movement, the two became estranged, and Breuer dropped out of participation in the later development of psychoanalysis. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS Soon after returning from Paris, Freud married Martha Bernays and began a private practice in neurology. Subsequently, he began to include the treatment of various “nervous disorders” in his practice. He experimented with several techniques, including a form of electrotherapy and hypnosis. Although initially successful with hypnosis, he became dissatisfied with it when he found that symptoms frequently returned. Instead, he began to use another technique now known as “free association.” He also began a friendship with Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin-based physician. Fliess had several ideas that seem bizarre by contemporary standards, including his thoughts on the nose as a central organ of sexuality and the role of numbers in governing an individual’s life. But he quickly became Freud’s confidant, and Freud treated him as if he were his psychoanalyst (Gay, 1988). A rich correspondence developed between the two of them, and their letters frequently discussed the sexual basis for psychological disorders. Several ideas that were central

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to Freud’s theory first appeared in the writing of Fliess, for example, infant sexuality (Gay, 1988). Eventually, the close friends would have a falling-out—a pattern for many of Freud’s relationships. Freud increasingly came to believe in the sexual basis for neurotic symptoms. At first, he attributed these symptoms to childhood sexual abuse of his patients. Although the evidence was not clear-cut, he believed he had found indirect signs of it in discussions with his patients. He presented his conclusions to a local medical society in 1896, but his thesis was not well received. Later, he came to recognize that the sexual seduction of his patients had been a symbolic seduction, not an actual one, and that the vestiges he was seeing were part of normal development. In 1897, Freud began a self-analysis. He had been bothered for years by a variety of symptoms that he identified as neurotic in origin. He hoped that the analysis would provide a personal benefit as well as permit him a better understanding of his patients. He understood the basic contradiction of a self-analysis, and sometimes he doubted its success. Nonetheless, he continued the process for almost 2 years, using his dreams as the primary vehicle for self-understanding. His self-analysis proved to be a crucial element in the development of psychoanalysis. In 1900, he published The Interpretation of Dreams, a volume that he, and many others, considered his most important work. In it, he developed several concepts that would always be associated with him, including the Oedipus complex, the role of repression, and the dream as wish fulfillment. Shortly after, he published The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), an exposition of the manner in which unconscious desires express themselves in daily life. DEVELOPING A FOLLOWING As Freud’s reputation grew, he began to attract followers, many of whom became important analysts and theoreticians in their own right. Among them were Karl Abraham, Alfred Adler, Ernest Jones, Otto Rank, Sandor Ferenczi, and Carl G. Jung. The last became a particular favorite of Freud and the heir designate to his psychoanalytic movement. Freud began to meet regularly with disciples in Vienna to discuss psychoanalysis and to find ways to promote the movement. In 1909, Freud had his first taste of international recognition when he was invited to the United States to give a series of lectures at Clark University, in

Worcester, Massachusetts. The invitation came from G. Stanley Hall, the president of Clark and one of America’s pioneer psychologists. Freud’s lectures were part of a larger conference, but the event has almost always been known as the “Freud Conference” (Evans & Koelsch, 1985). At Clark, Freud met the premier psychologists in America and received his only honorary doctorate degree. It was his first and last visit to America. He was grateful for the recognition, although he was not impressed with America and its ways. In the years that followed, Freud’s reputation continued to grow. He had an active professional life, which included seeing many patients and engaging in considerable correspondence and professional writing. He had always been a hard worker. Several of his disciples left him, including Carl Jung. In the 1920s, the last of his six children, Anna, joined the psychoanalytic movement, the only one of his children to follow his professional path. She became an important analyst on her own and the watchdog for the movement after his death. In 1930, he published Civilization and Its Discontents, a psychoanalytic explanation of man’s search for happiness. It became one of his most popular books. THE FINAL YEARS In 1923, Freud was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth—it is estimated that he smoked 20 cigars a day, and he continued to smoke even after his diagnosis. His first operation took place that year, and he would have many more before his death. With the 1930s came the rise of Nazism and increased anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria. In 1933, Freud’s books were publicly burned in Berlin. Many Jews saw the ominous signs and chose to flee the country. Freud did not. At his advanced age and with his recurring difficulties with cancer, he chose to die in Vienna. However, after his daughter Anna was arrested and detained for 5 hours, Freud agreed to leave the country. The complicated arrangements for Freud’s departure from Vienna were successful, and Freud and his family arrived in London in 1938. Soon after, his health took a serious downward turn. After several months, the family settled into permanent quarters in greater London and Freud continued to see patients. By September of 1939, however, he had to discontinue any work. He was in constant pain from his

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disease. Even his favorite dog refused to approach him, repelled by the smell of his necrotic flesh. On September 21, Freud asked his physician, Max Schur, if he would end his suffering. With permission of his daughter Anna, they agreed to do so. Freud was given several doses of morphine that put him into a coma. He died on September 23, 1939. PSYCHOANALYSIS: THEORY AND PRACTICE The term psychoanalysis was first used by Freud in 1886 (Gay, 1988) and refers to a set of psychotherapeutic methods and comprehensive psychological theories. It also refers to an intellectual movement, or school of psychology, that has disseminated, applied, and further developed Freud’s work. Since its inception, psychoanalysis has undergone considerable revisions, but many of Freud’s underlying ideas or premises have remained integral to later psychoanalytic theories. The hallmarks of the Freudian paradigm include the emphasis on development and unconscious process. Development is understood in terms of energy economy and continuous interaction between mental forces. Freud posited Eros and Thanatos, the sexual and death drives, respectively, as the organic origins of mental energies. Freud’s theories essentially involve the processes and mechanisms through which the manifestations of mental energies are controlled. Freud was particularly concerned with libido, the energy that derives from Eros, because he believed that disrupted manifestations of libidinal energies are the primary cause of psychopathology. As part of his psychotherapeutic procedure, Freud examined the developmental history of his patients to determine the etiology of psychopathological symptoms. Based on such retrospections, Freud (1905) formulated a theory of psychosexual development. According to this theory, normal development occurs through a process whereby libidinal energy flows through successive stages, and psychopathology results from fixations and developmental regressions. Broadly, Freud characterized each of the psychosexual stages in terms of erogenous zones and focal conflicts. The oral stage spans the period from birth through the first 18 months of life, and the developmental conflict in this stage revolves around the mouth and feeding. The anal stage ranges from 18 months to 3 to 4 years of age. In this stage, the anus is the erogenous zone, and the developmental conflict concerns cleanliness,

independence, and retention-expulsion issues associated with toilet training. During the phallic stage, ranging from ages 3 to 4 to ages 6 to 8, the genitals become the erogenous zone, and the focal conflicts concern gender identity and the Oedipus complex. (For boys, this involves the unconscious wish to replace one’s father by killing him and marrying the mother.) Over the course of normal development, the conflicts in this stage are resolved through repression and identification with the same-sex parent. The latency period from ages 6 to 8 through puberty is marked by shifts from sexual interests to socialization and peer group interactions. In the genital stage, which lasts from puberty through adulthood, the individual develops sexual relationships and libidinal energies that focus on the genitals and tend to be sublimated into work and social activities. In The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud expounded a “topographical” theory of the mind, whereby thoughts, feelings, and memories were partitioned by their accessibility to conscious awareness. He postulated the existence of a preconscious area, containing everything available to the conscious, and an unconscious area, containing repressed material. The existence of the latter area, which is not directly accessible to conscious awareness due to the anxietyprovoking nature of its contents, was deduced through analyses of parapraxes, or “Freudian slips,” manifest dream content, and psychopathological symptoms (Freud, 1901). In later publications, Freud (1923a) conceptualized mental processes in terms of dynamic relationships between personality structures. According this “structural” theory, the tripartite structures or systems—he named them the id, ego, and superego—are in continuous conflict. The id consists of unconscious, primitive instincts organized around the pleasure-pain principle (i.e., the general proclivity to maximize pleasure and minimize pain). The superego consists of internalized social and moral standards. The ego is responsible for planning and executive functions. Its role is to compromise between the irrational demands of the id and the superego, for immediate gratification and perfect adherence to social standards, respectively, based on the reality principle that it is sometimes more expedient and socially appropriate to postpone gratification. The ego uses various defense mechanisms to cope with internal conflicts and external stressors. Although defense mechanisms are necessary for adaptive functioning, these defenses all

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entail some level of reality distortion that can become maladaptive. The curative process in Freud’s psychoanalytic procedure involves raising the unconscious conflicts that underlie psychopathological symptoms to conscious awareness. However, due to the anxietyprovoking nature of unconscious conflicts, patients resist such procedures. Freud’s techniques therefore centered on identifying and overcoming the patient’s internal resistance and on exploring precisely those subject matters that elicit the strongest resistance. Among his methodological innovations, Freud (1912) analyzed transference and countertransference responses, or misperceptions and distortions of the patient-therapist interactions based on past and current relationships with significant others. He also developed a method of free association, whereby the patient was instructed to verbalize any thoughts, memories, or feelings that came into conscious awareness as he or she associated about certain stimuli (e.g., dream symbols), no matter how irrelevant or trivial the associations might seem (Freud, 1923b).

death of Freud include ego psychology (commonly associated with A. Freud, E. Erikson, H. Hartmann, and E. Kris), the interpersonal school (K. Horney, H. S. Sullivan, and E. Fromm), object-relations (M. Klein, D. W. Winnicot, W. R. D. Fairbairn, H. Guntrip, and O. F. Kernberg), and self-psychology (H. Kohut).

CONCLUSIONS Sigmund Freud was one of the most important intellectual figures of the 20th century. He developed an extraordinarily comprehensive system encompassing psychotherapy, the unconscious, psychopathology, sexuality, and human development. Although his ideas remain contentious, particularly with regard to their scientific merits, Freud has had an indelible and lasting influence on Western thought and culture. —John D. Hogan, Thomas P. Vaccaro, and Frank Patalano

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS CRITICISMS AND MODIFICATIONS There has been considerable debate over the validity and utility of Freud’s theories over the past century. Among the more common points of contention, Freud has been criticized for overemphasizing the role of sexuality and early experiences in development. He has also been criticized for lacking an empirically supported theory and for basing his ideas on adult retrospections and proxies, rather than on direct work with children. Furthermore, his ideas on the death drive have not been widely accepted, and his psychotherapeutic method has been criticized as being too expensive and time-consuming relative to other treatment options. Freud’s work has given rise to a variety of psychoanalytic schools. Several of his students broke with him over fundamental issues, while others attempted to supplement, rather than replace, his theories. Generally, later psychoanalytic theorists built on Freud’s structural theory, rather than his drive theory, and focused more on interpersonal dynamics and the role of the ego. Methodologically, later psychoanalysts placed greater emphasis on analyzing patienttherapist interactions, particularly transference and countertransference responses, and have made less use of dream interpretation and free association. The most prominent psychoanalytic schools since the

Breuer, J., & Freud, S. (1895). Studies on hysteria. In Standard edition (Vol. 2). London: Hogarth. Evans, R. B., & Koelsch, W. A. (1985). Psychoanalysis arrives in America: The 1909 psychology conference at Clark University. American Psychologist, 40, 942–948. Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams. In Standard Edition (Vols. 4, 5). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1901). The psychopathology of everyday life. In Standard Edition (Vol. 6). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In Standard Edition (Vol. 7). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1912). The dynamics of transference. In Standard Edition (Vol. 12). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1923a). The ego and the id. In Standard Edition (Vol. 19). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1923b). Remarks upon the theory of dream interpretation. In Standard edition (Vol. 19). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1930). Civilization and its discontents. London: Liveright. Gay, P. (1988). Freud: A life for our time. New York: Norton.

FRONTAL CORTEX The frontal cortex occupies about 35% of the cerebral cortex in humans and great apes (Semendeferi, Lu, Schenker, & Damasio, 2002). It contains the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex (dorsal and

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Schematic diagrams of the lateral (left), medial (middle), and inferior (right) surfaces of the human frontal lobe to illustrate its cytoarchitectonic parcellation. Reprinted with permission from M. Petrides & D. N. Pandya, Handbook of Neuropsychology, F. Boller & J. Grafman, eds. (Vol. 9, Chap. 2, pp. 17–58), 1994.

ventral premotor cortex on the lateral convexity; supplementary motor area [SMA] and the cingulate motor areas [CMA] on the medial convexity), and prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is further subdivided into the mid-dorsolateral and mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex, fronto-polar cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and mesial frontal cortex; the latter includes also the cingulate cortex surrounding the anterior part of the corpus callosum. CYTOARCHITECTURE Each of the above gross-morphological subdivisions consists of a number of areas that differ in the exact arrangement of cells in the six cortical layers (cytoarchitecture; see Figure 1) and in their connectivity with other cortical and subcortical regions. These anatomical differences determine to a great extent what type of information is being processed in a given region and which other regions share this information. Such regional specialization is reflected, in turn, in the specific contributions made by a given “node” of a particular neural network in support of a specific behavior. MOTOR, SENSORY, AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS Given the structural heterogeneity of the frontal cortex and the presence of an extensive connectivity of fronto-cortical regions with other parts of the cerebral cortex, most prominently with the temporal and parietal cortex, it is not surprising that the frontal

cortex supports a multitude of motor, sensory, and cognitive functions. For example, the primary motor cortex is essential for fine-motor control; maturation of the motor cortex and its primary output pathway (corticospinal tract) during childhood and adolescence (see Figure 2 in entry on “Brain Mapping”) correlates with age-related increases in central conduction time and in fine-motor skills such as those tested with the Purdue peg-board (Müller & Hömberg, 1992). The premotor cortex appears to be critical for integrating visual and auditory inputs associated with a specific (hand) action into the actual motor program (Murray, Bussey, & Wise, 2000). The neighboring pars opercularis and triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus are critical for language; a clear hemispheric specialization is observed in this case, with the majority of right-handed individuals having language represented in the left hemisphere. The premotor areas on the medial convexity (i.e., SMA and CMA) may be essential for sequencing behavior and willed initiation of movement (Paus, 2001). The mid-dorsolateral cortex and mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex play an important role in working memory and retrieval, respectively (Petrides, 1996). MATURATION Maturation of the mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex underlies emergence of working memory during infancy (e.g., A-not-B test) and a further increase in working memory and planning during childhood (e.g., self-ordered pointing). Maturations of the lateral prefrontal and/or cingulate cortices may be critical for

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the dramatic increase in the child’s ability to suppress external interference observed just before the onset of puberty (e.g., suppression of reflexive eye movements; Munoz, Broughton, Goldring, & Armstrong, 1998; Paus, Babenko, & Radil, 1990). Maturation of the orbitofrontal, medio-frontal, and cingulate cortex may be associated with the development of delayed gratification and other aspects of intentional behavior. Although the above examples emphasize regional specialization, it is important to realize that all behaviors require a simultaneous contribution of many frontocortical regions, hence the importance of structural and functional connectivity and their development. —Tomás Paus

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Müller, K., & Hömberg, V. (1992). Development of speed of repetitive movements in children is determined by structural changes in corticospinal efferents. Neuroscience Letters, 144, 57–60. Munoz, D. P., Broughton, J. R., Goldring, J. E., & Armstrong, I. T. (1998). Age-related performance of human subjects on saccadic eye movement tasks. Experimental Brain Research, 121, 391–400. Murray, E. A., Bussey, T. J., & Wise, S. P. (2000). Role of prefrontal cortex in a network for arbitrary visuomotormapping. Experimental Brain Research, 133, 114–129. Paus, T. (2001). Primate anterior cingulate cortex: Where motor control, drive and cognition interface. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 417–424. Paus, T., Babenko, V., & Radil, T. (1990). Development of an ability to maintain verbally instructed central gaze fixation studied in 8 to 10 year children. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 10, 53–61. Petrides, M. (1996). Lateral frontal cortical contribution to memory. Seminars in the Neurosciences, 8, 57–63. Petrides, M., & Pandya, D. N. (1994). Comparative architectonic analysis of the human and the macaque frontal cortex. In F. Boller & J. Grafman (Eds.), Handbook of neuropsychology (Vol. 9, pp. 17–58). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Semendeferi, K., Lu, A., Schenker, N., & Damasio, H. (2002). Humans and great apes share a large frontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 272–276.

FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY As one of North America’s largest seminaries, Fuller Theological Seminary provides students with a university-style education in its Schools of Theology,

Intercultural Studies, and Psychology. The seminary is widely known for its racial and denominational diversity, with more than 4,300 students from more than 67 countries and more than 108 denominations. Fuller remains on the front line of evangelical Protestant thought, while committed to service that is grounded in scholarship. Fuller currently has 80 resident and 84 adjunct faculty. The main campus is located in southern California, a veritable laboratory for men and women dedicated to ministry, mission, and service. Fuller, the founding center for the study of Christian faith and psychology, remains a pioneer in the integration of serious theological study and thorough graduatelevel preparation in clinical psychology and in marriage and family therapy (Malony, 1995). Fuller’s School of Psychology has as its mission the integration of the Christian faith with today’s mental health services. The first school of its type in the nation, it has the oldest seminary-based clinical psychology department and was the first clinical program outside a university to receive American Psychological Association (APA) accreditation (December 5, 1972). The School of Psychology was expanded to include the Marriage and Family Department in 1987. A PhD student describes Fuller’s unique vision: Between Fuller’s high academic standards and the amount of clinical training we receive, our candidates are competitive with people from any program in the country. And there’s a movement now to bring religion and psychotherapy closer together—something Fuller has been doing for years. Just a few examples of recent faculty publications include works in the area of cognitive science and soul (Brown, Murphy, & Malony, 1998), the theoretical interface between psychology and theology (Gorsuch, 2002), the development of wisdom (Furrow & Wagener, 2002), and religious coping and health (Abernethy, Chang, Seidlitz, Evinger, & Deberstein, 2002). In considering its purpose and goals for the beginning of the new millennium, the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary has set as one of its primary goals the extension of faculty and student participation in a vigorous and cooperative research project to significantly advance the understanding of the relationship of religion and spirituality to mental health and optimum human functioning.

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Religion and spirituality are attributes central to the core of human nature and psychological functioning, yet these variables have been largely ignored in much of the research in psychology over the past century. A majority of the population of the United States considers itself to be religious in some way, while a large percentage regularly participates in some form of religious worship. While these percentages vary from culture to culture throughout the world, there are few (if any) societies within which religion does not play a significant and formative role. However, the effects of religion on mental health and optimum psychosocial function have received a disproportionately small amount of attention in psychological research. Compared with the roles of other variables, such as parenting, social support, stress, emotional learning, cognitive functioning, and neurobiological systems, which continue to be intensively researched, religion and spirituality have been ignored by much of the research of the past. There is currently an increasing openness within the field of psychology and its various research journals to consider this important aspect of human nature. Building on the expertise of its faculty in psychology of religion, theology, and psychology, the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Seminary is strategically placed both institutionally and historically to carry out important research on religion and mental health and to make a substantial contribution to knowledge in this area. The Lee Edward Travis Research Institute, the research arm of the School of Psychology, is committed to fostering interdisciplinary research into the relationships between social systems, environmental situations, personality, mental and affective states, cognitive processes, neurobiological functions, and spiritual and religious states and practices. The Center for Research in Child and Adolescent Development (CRCAD) functions under the umbrella of the Lee Edward Travis Research Institute of the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary. The primary purpose of the center is to further the knowledge of positive development in childhood and adolescence. A specific focus of this research program is the identification of ecological

factors that are associated with the promotion of well-being and the prevention of risk among children and youth. Special attention is given to the unique role of religious and spiritual resources in shaping these positive developmental outcomes (cf. Furrow & Wagener, 2003; King, 2003; King, Furrow, & Roth, 2002; Wagener, Furrow, King, Leffert, & Benson, 2003). For additional information, see the Fuller Theological Seminary Web site, www.fuller.edu. —Linda Wagener

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Abernethy, A. D., Chang, H. T., Seidlitz, L., Evinger, J. S., & Deberstein, P. (2002). Religious coping and depression among spouses with lung cancer. Psychosomatics, 43, 456–463. Brown, W. S., Murphy, N. C., & Malony, H. S. (1998). Whatever happened to the soul: Scientific and theological portraits of human nature. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress. Furrow, J. L., & Wagener, L. M. (2002). Lessons learned: The role of religion in the development of wisdom in adolescence. In W. S. Brown (Ed.), Understanding wisdom: Sources, science, & society. Philadelphia: Templeton. Furrow, J. L., & Wagener, L. M. (2003). Transcendence and adolescent identity: A view of the issues. In J. Furrow & L. Wagener (Eds.), Beyond the self: Identity and transcendence [Special issue]. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3). Gorsuch, R. L. (2002). Integrating psychology and religion? Westport, CT: Praeger. King, P. E. (2003). Religion and identity: The role of ideological, social, and spiritual contexts. In J. Furrow & L. Wagener (Eds.), Beyond the self: Identity and transcendence [Special issue]. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3). King, P. E., Furrow, J. L., & Roth, N. H. (2002). The influence of families and peers on adolescent religiousness. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 21, 109–120. Malony, H. N. (1995). Psychology and the cross: The early history of Fuller Seminary’s School of Psychology. Pasadena, CA: Fuller Seminary Press. Wagener, L., Furrow, J., King, P. E., Leffert, N., & Benson, P. (2003). Religious involvement and developmental resources in youth. Review of Religious Research, 44(3), 271–284.

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G northeastern Pennsylvania. He was an excellent student and a promising pianist. Gardner quit formal study of music at the start of adolescence but continued to play and teach sporadically, and music remains important in his life. He attended local schools in the Scranton area but claims that his education began in earnest when he arrived at Harvard College in September 1961. There he studied history, sociology, and psychology and audited a record number of courses that spanned the curriculum. He also decided to become a scholar rather than pursue one of the standard professions that his family had in mind for him— the first in his family to attend college. As an undergraduate, Gardner worked with the noted psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. After spending a postgraduate year as a Harvard Knox Fellow at the London School of Economics, where he read philosophy and sociology, Gardner decided to continue graduate studies in developmental psychology at Harvard. In addition to his ties to founding cognitivists Piaget and Bruner, Gardner also worked closely with the psycholinguist Roger Brown and the epistemologist Nelson Goodman. After completing his doctoral studies, Gardner had the opportunity to work with Norman Geschwind, a brilliant and charismatic neurologist, and he was able to pursue empirical work in both developmental psychology and neuropsychology for the ensuing two decades. Maintaining his Harvard connection throughout, Gardner avoided the usual tenure ladder and became a professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1986. Thus, while he has traveled widely and conducted field research in China in the middle 1980s, his entire adult career has been spent in Cambridge.

GARDNER, HOWARD Howard Gardner’s career trajectory as a developmental psychologist parallels that of his age cohort in some ways, while deviating from the canonical pattern in others. Attracted to developmental psychology by his reading of Jean Piaget and his meeting Jerome Bruner, he soon gravitated to cognitive development, with a special interest in human symbolic capacities. Following postdoctoral work in neurology and neuropsychology, he pursued parallel empirical research programs in cognitive development and neuropsychology. His regular production of research articles for the scholarly community was complemented by a steady stream of books directed principally at the general reader and at college and graduate students. Around 1980, Gardner’s empirical work culminated in the positing of the theory of multiple intelligences, for which he is best known. In the 1980s, like many of his colleagues, he moved in a more applied direction, focusing particularly on issues of teaching, learning, and school reform. In the 1990s, he joined forces with two other developmentally oriented psychologists, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon, to investigate issues of professional ethics—what he and colleagues term “good work.” Gardner is part of the third wave of individuals affected by the rise of fascism in Europe. His Jewish parents, Ralph and Hilde Gardner, fled from their native Nuremberg, Germany, arriving in America on the infamous Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938. Gardner was born on July 11, 1943, and grew up in Scranton, a medium-sized former coal mining city in 495

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Gardner’s work is best described as an effort to understand and explicate the broadest and highest reaches of human thought, with a particular focus on the development and breakdown of intellectual capacities, broadly construed. He was a founding member of Harvard University’s Project Zero, a group that is dedicated to the study of higher cognitive processes, with a special focus on creativity and the arts. His work in neuropsychology focused on the breakdown of artistic and other high-level skills under various forms of brain pathology. His theory of multiple intelligences recognizes a broad swathe of human capacities, including ones from the arts and from the realm of human interaction, that have traditionally been considered nonintellectual and perhaps not even cognitive, such as interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. His studies of extraordinary individuals, including leaders as well as creators, are cognitively construed; he views leadership as an interaction between the mind of the leader and the minds of his or her constituency. And in his recent collaborative research on “good work,” he looks for evidence of work that is not only excellent in quality but also displays a sense of responsibility about the uses to which that work is put. Gardner is best known as a synthesizer of vast amounts of research and theory. His first books treated human development from the perspective of the arts (The Arts and Human Development, 1973); structuralist thought (The Quest for Mind, 1973); neuropsychology (The Shattered Mind, 1975); and cognitive science (The Mind’s New Science, 1985); and in 1978 he wrote a textbook, Developmental Psychology (revised in 1982), a well-regarded text that he elected not to update further. With the publication of Frames of Mind in 1983, Gardner began to put forth his own views about the mind. This work introduces the claim that standard views of intelligence are flawed and that human beings are better described as possessing eight or more relatively autonomous intellectual capacities, which he refers to as “multiple intelligences.” This work quickly became well-known and much discussed, and not surprisingly, Gardner became a far more controversial figure. While continuing to produce works of synthesis, Gardner devoted more of his attention to putting forth his own ideas about creativity (Creating Minds, 1993), leadership (Leading Minds, 1995), and education (The Unschooled Mind, 1991; The Disciplined Mind, 1999; Intelligence Reframed, 1999). His most recent work, Changing Minds (2004), is an examination of the processes by

which individuals change their own minds and the minds of other persons. While he is best known as a synthesizer, Gardner’s other research and professional accomplishments merit attention as well. His early empirical work in developmental psychology demonstrated the trajectory of metaphorical production and perception in young children’s language, as well as the sensitivity of children to style in different art forms. With Judy Gardner, he was among the first to demonstrate imitative capacities in early infancy (a much researched topic ever since). With Dennie Wolf, he traced the development in young children of the range of symbol-using capacities. With Ellen Winner, he examined the complementary aspects of two forms of figurative competence: metaphor and irony. Turning to neuropsychology, Gardner was the first scientist to explore the role of the right hemisphere in linguistic and paralinguistic spheres. With Ellen Winner, Hiram Brownell, and others, he researched the breakdown of narrative, metaphoric, and other forms of linguistic and artistic competences under conditions of brain damage. He wrote the chapter on “Extraordinary Cognitive Achievements” in the 1997 Handbook of Child Psychology and, with Seana Moran, has produced an expanded and more original update for the 2006 edition. In that updated chapter, Moran and Gardner describe the developmental course of extraordinary achievement across the domains of art, science, leadership, and moral excellence. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences was conceived of as a contribution to psychology, but its greatest influence has been in education. First in the United States and then in many other parts of the world, educators have drawn inspiration from his theory and have created a plethora of applications in the areas of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Many programs and schools have adopted the phrase “multiple intelligences,” and hundreds of books, articles, films, and other adaptations have been created, many with neither Gardner’s knowledge nor approval. Spurred in part by this great interest in the educational implications of his work, Gardner has undertaken several projects in education (see pzweb.harvard.edu and his books Multiple Intelligences, 1993, and Intelligence Reframed, 1999). He has stressed that neither multiple intelligences theory nor any other scientific innovation can be applied directly in the classroom; educational practice is always a reflection of goals and values, which should be as explicit as possible.

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In his book The Disciplined Mind (1999), Gardner has embraced the educational goal of “understanding in the principal disciplines.” Via a number of concrete examples, he has demonstrated how a recognition of multiple intelligences can aid in the inculcation of disciplinary understanding. More broadly, in his educational work Gardner has pushed for recognition and development of a wide range of human capacities: modes of assessment that are natural (e.g., portfolios, process folios, performances of understanding) and that encompass many forms of critical and creative thinking; pedagogical approaches that stimulate imaginative capacities; and institutional settings that encourage productive thought and creation with a range of materials and genres. Among his most important projects and collaborations have been ATLAS communities, Arts Propel, Teaching for Understanding, Project Spectrum, and a study of interdisciplinarity. Over the years he has had rich interchanges with the preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy, the Key Learning Community in Indianapolis, and the New City School in St Louis. His study of arts education in China was the centerpiece of To Open Minds: Chinese Clues to the Dilemma of Contemporary Education (1989). By choice, Gardner has not undertaken major editorial or professional roles. He sees himself primarily as an independent scholar and a public intellectual. However, with his longtime colleague David Perkins, Gardner has been instrumental in the founding and flourishing of Project Zero, now one of the oldest and most respected educational research sites in the world. Project Zero’s focus was originally on the arts and the arts in education but has since expanded to the study of education in a wide variety of areas, always with a focus on deep understanding and rich forms of assessment. Gardner is an accomplished grant getter and has also helped to raise significant funds for Project Zero, through Harvard University. He belongs to numerous honorary societies and has won many awards, including a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981 (the first year of the fellowship), the Grawemeyer Award in Education (he was the first American to win this award) in 1990, and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2000). He is also the recipient of 20 honorary degrees, including ones from universities in Italy, Ireland, Israel, and Canada, and his books have been translated into 22 languages. Married since 1982 to developmental psychologist Ellen Winner, he is the father of four children: Kerith (b. 1969), Jay (b. 1971), Andrew (b. 1976), and Benjamin (b. 1985).

Self-described as a happy workaholic, he spends his free time with his family, a close-knit group that spans several generations. —Ellen Winner

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Gardner, H. (1973). The arts and human development. New York: Wiley. (Translated into Chinese and Portuguese; 2nd ed., 1994, New York: Basic Books) Gardner, H. (1973). The quest for mind: Jean Piaget, Claude Levi-Strauss, and the structuralist movement. New York: Knopf. (Vintage paperback, 1974; coventure publication in England, 1975; translated into Italian and Japanese; 2nd ed., University of Chicago Press, 1981) Gardner, H. (1975). The shattered mind. New York: Knopf. (Main Selection, Psychology Today Book Club, January 1974; Vintage Paperback, 1976; Quality Paperback Book Club Selection; British ed., Routledge & Kegan Paul; translated into Japanese) Gardner, H. (1979). Developmental psychology: An introduction. Boston: Little, Brown, International Edition. (2nd ed., 1982) Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. (Selected by five book clubs; British ed., Heinemann; translated into Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew, Chinese, French, and German; Basic Books Paperback, 1985; Tenth Anniversary Edition with new introduction, New York: Basic Books, 1993; translated into Swedish, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese [Taiwan], French, Norwegian, Hebrew, Slovenian, Korean, and Czech; selected by three book clubs; selected by the Museum of Education for “Books of the Century” exhibit, Columbia, SC, 1999; Tenth Anniversary British Edition, London: HarperCollins [Fontana Press], 1993) Gardner, H. (1985). The mind’s new science: A history of the cognitive revolution. New York: Basic Books. (Translated into Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, and Portuguese; adopted by six book clubs; Basic Books Paperback with new epilogue, 1987) Gardner, H. (1989). To open minds: Chinese clues to the dilemma of contemporary education. New York: Basic Books. (Translated into Italian; Basic Books Paperback with new introduction, 1991) Gardner, H. (1991). The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. New York: Basic Books. (Translated into Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Chinese [R.C.], Chinese [Taiwan], Portuguese, Croatian, French, and Danish; adopted by the Reader’s Subscription Book Club; British ed., London: HarperCollins [Fontana Press], 1993) Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds: An anatomy of creativity seen through the lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso,

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Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books. (Quality Paperback Book Club; translated into Swedish, German, Spanish, Chinese [Taiwan], Portuguese, Italian, Slovenian, Korean, Polish, and French) Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books. (Translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Chinese [Taiwan], Hebrew, Korean, Polish, Chinese [R.C.], and Danish; selected by three book clubs; excerpted in the magazine Behinderte in Familie, Schule und Gesellschaft, vol. 2, 1997; abridged, Danish translation, 1997, Copenhagen: Glydendal Undervisning) Gardner, H., with the collaboration of Laskin, E. (1995). Leading minds: An anatomy of leadership. New York: Basic Books. (Translated into German, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Chinese [Taiwan], Greek, Korean, Spanish, and Japanese; British ed., HarperCollins, 1996; Basic Books Paperback) Gardner, H. (1997). Extraordinary cognitive achievements: A symbols systems approach. In W. Damon (Ed.-in-Chief), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 415–466). New York: Wiley. Gardner, H. (1999). The disciplined mind: What all students should understand. New York: Simon & Schuster. (Translated into Portuguese, German, Spanish, Chinese [Taiwan], Italian, Swedish, Korean, Hebrew, Danish, and Romanian; excerpted in The Futurist, 34(2), 30–32, March/April 2000; paperback edition with new afterword, “A Tale of Two Barns,” New York: Penguin Putnam, 2000) Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books. (Translated into German, Spanish, Korean, Hebrew, Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Bulgarian, Polish, Turkish, and Dutch) Gardner, H. (2004). Changing minds: The art and science of changing our own and other people’s minds. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Moran, S., & Gardner, H. (in press). Extraordinary cognitive achievement. In W. Damon (Ed.-in-Chief), Handbook of child psychology (6th ed.). New York: Wiley.

GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS, DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF Pediatric gastroenterologists are trained in the medical model to identify, assess, and treat organic disease. Organic disease is generally accepted as having identifiable tissue changes in the form of inflammatory, infectious, or structural abnormality. Yet it is not uncommon for gastroenterologists to encounter patients with functional gastrointestinal symptoms

(medically unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms). According to Wilhelmsen (2002), nearly half the patients in a gastroenterologist’s office are diagnosed as having a functional disorder without any biological markers or endoscopic findings. Medically unexplained physical symptoms are common in children and adolescents (Garralda, 1996). Functional abdominal pain, recurrent abdominal pain, and functional constipation constitute the majority of cases referred to the pediatric gastroenterologist. Many of these children and adolescents do not have organic disease. At the present time, patients with psychological, developmental, and social attendant illness are inadequately served through conventional medical management. Pediatric gastroenterologists must recognize how children’s developmental aspects and their mind-body interrelatedness jointly contribute to functional disorders. DEFINITION In functional gastrointestinal disorders, the symptoms cannot be traced to any lesion or change of structure. Functional gastrointestinal disorders are complex and heterogeneous, and thus are difficult to describe. A variety of diagnostic labels are used to describe patients with unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms. Medically, such symptoms are more often labeled as nonorganic or idiopathic disorders. A number of disorders for medically unexplained physical symptoms are given in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). While it is common for children to report physical symptoms without any physical cause, diagnosis and classification of children under the existing DSM-IV criteria is difficult. The existing categories were established for adults, and children do not experience all symptoms to meet the diagnostic threshold. These categories include somatoform disorder, conversion disorder, somatization disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, hypochondriasis, pain disorder, malingering, and undifferentiated somatoform disorder. MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROMES Factitious disorders, synonymous with Munchausen syndrome, is a form of self-abuse; it is the intentional production or falsification of symptoms to fabricate an illness. The primary purpose in inducing illness is

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to take on the sick role for attention without any other external incentives. This is an understudied condition in children and adolescents. Many pediatric gastroenterologists are unaware that children and adolescents can intentionally falsify gastrointestinal illness. As such, medically unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms may often be overlooked or misclassified as a somatization disorder. Factitious illness by proxy, synonymous with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, is a form of child abuse. It happens when a parent or caregiver consciously and intentionally induces or falsifies illness in a child. Unlike external abuse, falsifying and inducing illness using the gastrointestinal system is much easier to accomplish and more difficult to detect. A healthy suspicion, deep concern, and dogged determination of a gastroenterologist are required to confront and follow through with the diagnosis and referral to appropriate agencies. Appropriate diagnosis should not be limited by the physician’s concern for risk avoidance. EPIDEMIOLOGY Functional disorders are still the most common disorders seen in gastrointestinal practices. Studies show patients with unexplained symptom complex to be as high as 50% to 80%. The 1980–1981 National Ambulatory Medical Care survey determined that as many as 72% of the 90,000 visits to physicians receiving a psychiatric diagnosis had one or more physical symptoms (Cypress, 1984). Somatic complaints are twice as common in children and adolescents with depression (McCauley, Carlson, & Calderon, 1991). Abdominal pain is the most frequent cause for pediatric gastroenterology consultation, with almost one third of patients with no identifiable etiology for their symptoms. Thirty-two percent of overall health is explained by four main stress variables: abuse history, lifetime traumas, turmoil in childhood family, and recent stressful life events (Leserman, Li, Hu, & Drossman, 1998). ETIOLOGY Functional disorders include multiple heterogeneous conditions. A wide range of etiological factors have been proposed. Common medically unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms encountered by gastroenterologists include dysphagia, abdominal pain, vomiting,

nausea, diarrhea, functional constipation, food intolerance, and recurring abdominal pain. The central nervous system, through smell, vision, thought, and taste, has the capability to affect gastrointestinal sensation and motility, resulting in perceptible symptoms, including nausea, pain, and emesis. Research evidence exists indicating that functional gastrointestinal dysfunctions occur due to alterations in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, contributing to a wide range of symptoms. There is mounting evidence indicating that symptoms characteristic of the functional gastrointestinal disorders are due to dysfunction of the motor and sensory features of the gastrointestinal tract, including gut contractile activity; myoelectrical activity; and tone, transit, and hypersensitivity to distension (Kellow, Delvaux, Aspiroz, & Thompson, 1999). Extraintestinal symptoms including anxiety, appetite, energy levels, sleep, and cognition can be side effects of such alterations. Stress and extreme emotions can influence gastrointestinal functions. Gastroenterological dysfunctions are common among multiply handicapped children. Diagnosis of gastrointestinal problems in multiply handicapped children is not straightforward, especially if they lack functional language. Most children ignore mild gut sensations arising from digestive desynchronization. However, some seem to have an attentional bias and are hypervigilant and hyperreactive to such bodily sensations, magnifying their bodily sensations and causing anxiety and stress. Children with unexplained medical symptoms may form this subgroup. The nature, type, and severity of the symptom manifestations may differ depending on many factors. Infants and young children with poor communication and concrete thinking could evidence stress and fear through physical symptoms. Environmental and social influences can give rise to somatic symptoms, as in families and cultures where psychological problems are stigmatized, forcing individuals to take a physical route to communicate their psychological stress. Behavior is affected by its consequences. Children’s reports of somatic symptoms can be expected to increase if parents reinforce their children’s somatic symptoms with attention, permit them to stay home from school, allow them to engage in “fun activities,” and excuse them from routine chores. The sick role in a child may be encouraged and perpetuated by family members to serve their own dysfunctional personalities and family dynamics. This

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can be seen in families undergoing divorce, marital conflict, and other such family problems. They may cater to the child’s complaints through enmeshment, overprotection, or rigidity. Family influences affect how the child reacts to the symptoms as a result of modeling and positive reinforcement of the sick role. ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION A comprehensive history and physical is an important first step to gain direction for further evaluation. Attention should be given to current and past stressors. The onset, character, duration, frequency, intensity, and location of the symptoms should be assessed. Associated symptoms, such as fever, anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, or weight loss, should be evaluated. A psychosocial history and stressful events at the time of onset of the symptoms should be explored. Symptom changes in different environments (school vs. home) should be identified; changes at different times, such as school days versus holidays and weekends, should be explored. Joint and separate family and child interviews can provide different information or highlight discrepancies. A thorough physical examination is invaluable. Observation of the patient prior to and following the physical examination is beneficial. Examining the child without the parents present might show changes in the child’s behaviors. Laboratory tests should be unnecessary if the history and physical examination strongly suggest a functional disorder. Pertinent laboratory, radiologic, and endoscopic procedures are useful but should be reserved for cases with strong implications for an organic disease. Excessive testing to rule out organic causes for presenting symptoms sometimes leads to chance findings and laboratory errors, fueling further unnecessary testing. In some cases, empirical therapy, including acid suppression and prokinetic drugs for reflux and dysmotility, should precede invasive laboratory tests. Under certain circumstances, laboratory tests can be used to reassure patients and caregivers of the absence of organic disease. Early processes of disease may not show evidence of lesions or structural changes. Patients at initial stages of a disease may present vague symptoms that could be mistaken for somatoform disorders. Patients may not be able to associate symptoms with stressors. Patients with a yet-to-be-defined disease might be relegated to an “It is all in your head” category. Patients

with organic diseases with multiple intestinal and extraintestinal symptoms, as is often found in celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), can easily be dismissed as having somatization disorders. Fructose found in soft drinks and fruits has been known to cause unexplained abdominal discomfort in vulnerable children, causing cramps, gas, and diarrhea, yet has no “organic” markers. Many children referred for behavioral feeding symptoms have been diagnosed upon further assessment with organic disease, including delayed gastric emptying and esophagitis. Diagnosis can be challenging. Similar symptoms can underlie different functions. Vomiting, for example, can be organic or nonorganic. The organic can be due to allergy, reflux, and obstruction; nonorganic can be self-induced as in anorexia and bulimia, involuntary as in psychogenic vomiting, stress induced as in conversion, socially reinforced as in somatoform, or reinforced as in rumination. As difficult as it is for pediatric gastroenterologists to diagnose somatic syndromes, it is even more difficult for mental health practitioners to suspect gastrointestinal disturbances in patients with unexplained symptoms. It is important that physicians do not hastily refer patients with unexplained medical symptoms to mental health practitioners. It is entirely possible to miss initial signs of a disease, an uncommon disease, diseases with vague symptoms, or a yet-tobe-identified or -defined disease. TREATMENT Once the diagnosis of functional gastrointestinal disorders is established, a multifactorial illness model should be adopted to address the relevant factors surrounding the illness. The initial stages of treatment should be directed at clinical improvement, reduced disability, and improved functioning. Treatment is better offered through a multidisciplinary team. Channeling patients through multiple independent providers leads to ineffective communication. Functional gastrointestinal disorders are complex and heterogeneous. The physiology of stress, the psychology of attribution, the sociology of culture, and the chronology of age and development combine to determine how a person handles symptoms. Thus, effective treatment of functional disorders requires attention to biological, sociocultural, environmental, cognitive, and behavioral issues. Such complex disorders are better managed through the biopsychosocial

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model. Gastroenterologists can manage milder cases. However, severe cases require services of a multidisciplinary team. Functional gastrointestinal disorders can benefit from psychological interventions. Caregivers, for a variety of reasons including social, cultural, and family dynamics and pathology, would rather hear a medical diagnosis than a psychosocial explanation for their children’s symptoms. They minimize functional disorders and do not believe their children feign illness. They may not accept psychological explanations, especially in a dysfunctional family situation, due to embarrassment or because they have information to hide. So it is important that a doctor-patient relationship be established to prepare the families to trust and accept the findings. The symptoms are real to the patients. Confronting them at the initial stages is usually ineffective. They may not appreciate the “It is all in your head” approach. Any suggestion of referral to a mental health provider might set them on a “doctor-shopping” course until they find a gastroenterologist who will help them. It is best to involve multidisciplinary team members from the first visit. This makes it easier for children and their parents to accept the input of the dietician, pediatric nurse practitioner, and behavioral psychologists when it is time to address findings from many perspectives. Psychological disturbance, including depression and anxiety disorders, can be superimposed over an organic disorder or act as precipitants in a nonorganic condition. Comorbid psychological conditions should be evaluated and treated when encountering pediatric patients with organic and nonorganic symptom presentation.

individual therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, and/or parent guidance. Specific best practices include assessment, acceptance, assurance, advice, adjunct therapy, accessibility, and availability as key elements in the process of treating functional disorders.

BEST PRACTICES

• Work on coping skills that are problem focused to eliminate or reduce current stressors, and emotion focused to improve mental health.

Gastroenterologists do not fully understand or utilize medical consultation as psychological intervention. Gastroenterologists can reach their patient’s psychological zone through medical consultation. Information from assessment, laboratory tests, diagnosis, and treatment planning can be interpreted and used as intervention tools to give assurance, reduce stress, reduce anxiety, build confidence, augment selfesteem, enhance strengths, and empower self-care. The physician can also add cognitive techniques and blend psychological principles with the medical consultation. The mental health provider may recommend

• Assess the patient’s condition to rule out organic disease. The physician should always be cognizant of the potential of an undiscovered organic condition. A complete medical, neurological, and mental status examination is essential. Conservative diagnostic workups are appropriate. Unnecessary tests should be avoided. • Accept the patient’s complaints and feelings as real, but reinterpret the child’s perception and attributions to bodily sensations and emotional experiences. • As soon as an organic disease is ruled out and the nature of the functional disorder is understood, assure the child and caregivers that the child does not have an organic disease, but that stress and emotional crutches can cause gastrointestinal disturbances. Assure them that you will partner with them to reduce or eliminate their stress and accompanying symptoms. • Normalize routine activities as quickly as possible. Children should return to school, work, or play as they used to before the illness. Reinforcement for illness behavior should be eliminated. Reinforcement for appropriate behaviors should be introduced. Research has shown that parents tend to respond to symptom complaints with attention, rewards, and privileges. • Advise the patient and caregivers on foods to eat, foods to avoid, activities to carry out, and techniques to reduce stress.

• Therapy for comorbid disorders, including anxiety, abuse, depression, and trauma, should be considered. • Pharmacological treatment may be appropriate in some cases. The gastroenterologist and members of the multidisciplinary team should avail themselves and reassure the parent that the team is available if the parent needs to contact them, albeit with agreed-on rules for calling.

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• Follow-up appointments should be scheduled, beginning with frequent visits and gradually terminated as progress is achieved.

CONCLUSIONS Functional gastrointestinal disorders and somatization are common in children. Early detection and treatment favors a good outcome. Attention to the risk factors can lead to preventive measures. Providers would benefit from understanding developmental stages of children when managing functional gastrointestinal symptoms. Children proceed through predictable stages of development from infancy through their teen years. Each developmental stage sets in motion certain roles and responsibilities. These include weaning from breast-feeding at 4 to 6 months, eating table food at 6 months, toilet training at 24 months, going to kindergarten at 48 months, entering school at 5 years, and accepting bodily changes at puberty. Vulnerable children might find these roles and responsibilities stressful. They may experience these psychological stresses as somatization symptoms. Knowing the developmental stages and probable stresses children experience helps to target assessment and intervention. The hardest task for providers is to convince parents and elicit their support to follow the team’s recommendations. The vulnerable child, golden child, and good parent syndromes can get in the way of compliance, even when caregivers understand and accept the rationale. Helping parents to understand the gut-brain connection and how stress can affect the child’s physical symptoms and cognition is invaluable in getting parental support. —Jay A. Perman, Ramasamy Manikam, Kathleen M. Schoemer, and Elsie Stines

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Cypress, B. K. (1984). Patterns of ambulatory care in office visits to general surgeons: The national ambulatory medical care survey, United States, January 1980–December 1981. Advance data from health and vital statistics, 99, 1–11. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Garralda, M. E. (1996). Somatisation in children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 13–33.

Leserman, J., Li, Z., Hu, Y. J., & Drossman, D. A. (1998). How multiple types of stressors impact on health. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60(2), 175–181. Kellow, J. E., Delvaux, M., Aspiroz, F., & Thompson, D. G. (1999). Applied neurogastroenterology: Physiology/motilitysensation. GUT, 45(Suppl. 2), 17–24. McCauley, E., Carlson, G. A., & Calderon, R. (1991). The role of somatic complaints in the diagnosis of depression in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30(4), 631–635. Wilhelmsen, I. (2002). Somatization, sensitization, and functional dyspepsia. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 43, 177–180.

GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTING, COMMUNITY ATTITUDES TOWARD During the past half century, the profile of the traditional family has changed dramatically, and today there is great diversity in family constellations. While society has become less discriminatory and more accepting of some nontraditional family types, families headed by sexual minority parents face considerable social, legal, religious, and economic barriers. The assumption and expectation in our society is that all people are inherently heterosexual—this is especially true for parents. Yet, an estimated 4 to 14 million children have gay or lesbian parents. Many individuals hold negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian parenting, and numerous religious, political, and social groups have objected to parenting by sexual minorities. The rationale for condemning lesbian and gay parenthood is typically based on the assumptions that homosexuals are not fit to be parents because they are mentally ill or because they are pedophiles and sexual predators, and the concern that children with homosexual parents will develop disturbed sexual identities, will be poorly adjusted, and will experience tremendous social stigma. These assertions have been rejected by social science research. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association officially declared that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, and criminal justice researchers report that there is no evidence that homosexuals are more likely to perpetrate sex offenses than are heterosexuals. Furthermore, there is a substantial body of research that shows parents’ sexual orientation has little ability to predict child development (Patterson, 2002). However, while children of

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lesbian and gay parents develop normal social relationships, the extent of social stigma that children experience remains unclear. What is unquestionable is the fact that sexual minorities are a socially stigmatized group, and that the prejudices against them frequently influence public policy. Public policy can affect the custody rights of gay and lesbian parents, the rights of lesbians and gays to adopt or foster children, and the rights of lesbians and gays to adopt the biological child of a partner.

adopt hard-to-place or disabled children, yet are viewed as greedy when they seek healthy white newborn children to adopt. Most families that include lesbian, gay, or and bisexual (LGB) couples were formed biologically, that is, the couple used assisted fertilization, or the child or children resulted from a previous heterosexual relationship. However, many homosexual couples choose to become parents through adoption or foster care.

RESEARCH ON COMMUNITY ATTITUDES

CONCLUSIONS

To assess community attitudes toward gay and lesbian parenting, Isaiah Crawford and colleagues conducted several studies that asked adults, such as college students, social workers, and psychologists, to read one of several vignettes describing a couple interested in adopting a child (e.g., Crawford, McLeod, Zamboni, & Jordan, 1999). The vignettes were identical, with the exception of the sexual orientation of the parents. Overall, compared with heterosexual couples, homosexual couples were viewed by college students as less emotionally stable and more likely to create a dangerous environment for children; all types of respondents were ultimately less likely to award custody of the child to a homosexual couple. Using Crawford’s vignettes, Shelley-Sireci, Ciano-Boyce, and Deramo (2001) replicated the same pattern of results for individuals who had earned “homophobic” scores on the Index of Homophobia (Hudson & Ricketts, 1980). Interestingly, despite the fact that respondents who earned scores in the “nonhomophobic” range of the Index of Homophobia reported strong support for gay and lesbian parenting on a paperand-pencil questionnaire, after reading Crawford’s vignettes they too were more likely to award custody of a child to heterosexual parents. Hence, preliminary research suggests that many adults are supportive of gay and lesbian parents adopting in theory, but when reading about an “actual” couple and child, they give preference to heterosexual couples.

Precise estimates of how lesbian and gay families are formed are difficult to ascertain, and whether acceptance of gay and lesbian parenthood varies based on method of family formation remains unclear. What is clear, though, is that support for parenthood by sexual minorities is significantly correlated with measures of homophobia (Shelley-Sireci et al., 2001). Hence, as community attitudes toward homosexuality change, so too should support for parenthood.

Family Formation and Community Attitudes Some writers have suggested that how a family is formed affects the community’s response to that family. For example, Savage (1999) suggests that gay and lesbian parents are viewed as saviors when they

—Lynn M. Shelley-Sireci

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Crawford, I., McLeod, A., Zamboni, B. D., & Jordan, M. B. (1999). Psychologists’ attitudes toward gay and lesbian parenting. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 30, 391–401. Hudson, W. W., & Ricketts, W. A. (1980). A strategy for the measurement of homophobia. Journal of Homosexuality, 5(4), 357–372. Patterson, C. (2002). Lesbian and gay parenthood. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 3. Being and becoming a parent (2nd ed., pp. 317–338). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Savage, D. (1999). Pick of the litter. Out, 70, 66–67. Shelley-Sireci, L. M., Ciano-Boyce, C., & Deramo, M. (2001, October). Attitudes toward gay and lesbian parenting. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Educational Research Association, Kerhonkston, NY.

GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTING, LEGAL ASPECTS OF Numerous legal issues confront families headed by homosexual parents. These concerns are not encountered by heterosexual parents, in large part because of

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legal protections that allow heterosexual couples more ease in the process of becoming and being parents. While a small number of state and local governments have instituted nondiscrimination legislation, currently no overarching federal protections or civil rights exist for homosexuals in the United States. Individual states have different legislation, and within states and jurisdictions individual judicial decisions are often contradictory, thus leaving the lesbian or gay couple to navigate the legal system for answers to questions regarding family life. The legal obstacles facing families headed by lesbians or gays primarily stem from the fact that their relationships are not legally recognized. The state of legal matrimony grants heterosexual couples many legal benefits. Both parents of children in a heterosexual union automatically have legal guardianship of their children. If assisted reproduction is utilized and sperm or egg donation is employed, the husband or wife in the marriage does not have to adopt the child even if they have no biological tie to the child. Adoption is available for heterosexual parents in every state. Marriage affords the heterosexual partnership an ease with which to navigate the legal system in issues pertaining to making medical decisions for a partner, the inheritance of property of a deceased partner, employment and health insurance benefits for a partner and children, or, in the event of a separation and/or divorce, laws provide guidance with respect to division of property, child support, and child custody. Numerous federal benefits, such as Social Security survivor benefits or income and estate tax benefits, provided for the heterosexual couple are denied the homosexual couple. Civil union and domestic partnership legislation provides some of these rights and protections to the homosexual couple, but the vast majority of states lack this legislation. In 2003, 44 states continue to deprive gay and lesbian couples of these rights and ultimately sentence the children of these unions to what could be called “legal single parenthood”—only one parent has the legal right to spend time with the child and make decisions about the child’s well-being. HOW IS THE FAMILY FORMED? Previous Heterosexual Relationship In large part, the legal obstacles parents face stem from the manner in which the family is formed. For example, the primary concerns for lesbian or gay

parents who became parents as the result of a previous heterosexual relationship are custody and visitation. When parents disagree, custody decisions are typically decided on the basis of the evidence a judge decides to consider and the judge’s right to determine what is “in the best interest of the child.” Lesbian and gay parents have been consistently denied custody and visitation on the basis of their sexual orientation, although, increasingly, states require dueling parents to demonstrate an “adverse effect”—parents must show how the actual behavior of a parent has affected the child. Expert witnesses tend to play key roles in these custody cases. Foster Care and Adoption Like all other issues facing lesbian and gay families, the legal right of gay and lesbian parents to foster and adopt children varies from state to state. Seeking parenthood as an individual or as a couple also affects their legal rights (typically single parents are afforded more rights). Interestingly, some states explicitly prohibit gay or lesbian parents from adopting children but permit them to foster children. In the majority of states, the right of gay and lesbian parents to adopt is legally ambiguous—leaving it up to individual judicial decision. A small number of states currently allow gay and lesbian parents to adopt children; however, a small number of states explicitly prohibit adoption by gay and lesbian parents, and about 20% of states have judicial decisions that discriminate against gay and lesbian adoption. Second-Parent Adoptions In all states, heterosexual stepparents are permitted to adopt biological or adopted children of their spouse. In most states, homosexual stepparents are not afforded the same right. Second-parent adoptions enable lesbian or gay parents to form a legally recognized parental relationship with their partner’s child without severing the partner’s legal ties to the child. This is useful if one partner used assisted reproduction to biologically parent a child, if one partner legally adopted a child, or if a partner parented a child in a previous relationship. Currently, only a small number of states allow second-parent adoptions. But the fact that a state does not grant second-parent adoptions itself does not necessarily mean it has a public policy that would cause it to bar recognition of such adoptions in other states.

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Assisted Reproduction Technology The most common way for lesbian women to form a family is to use assisted reproductive technology. When this occurs, the birth mother is the only parent with a legally recognized relationship to the child. Lesbian mothers can seek a second-parent adoption; however, these are available in only a small number of states, and even when a second-parent adoption is sought, there is a period of time when the child is not legally adopted, in which case the birth parent must assign legal guardianship in the event of her incapacitation or death before the adoption is finalized. In recent years medical technology and its availability have changed; therefore, numerous parenting scenarios with highly questionable legal status have emerged. For example, in some states, it is illegal for a man (regardless of his sexual orientation) to hire a surrogate mother to carry his biological child; in other states, it is legal only if no money is exchanged; and in still other states, it is legal to exchange money. Still other questions exist that have not yet been dealt with by the courts: What is the legal relationship of a lesbian mother who carries and gives birth to a child conceived with her partner’s egg? In the past, courts have typically recognized the legal contracts formed by the parties involved in such instances, unless they go against public policy.

CONCLUSIONS While the day-to-day functioning of heterosexual and homosexual families is virtually identical, the rights and protections granted to heterosexual parents render much more support and flexibility to families that include heterosexual couples. The legal contracts, documents, and court cases lesbian and gay parents often pursue in search of protection for their family unit are unnecessary for heterosexual parents. These legal pursuits can be time-consuming and expensive. Often parents spend a considerable amount of money, with very few rights to show for it in the end. Furthermore, many families feel restricted to move out of an area in the fear that they will lose the rights they worked to obtain. Numerous advocacy groups provide advice and assistance to lesbian and gay families, such as the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (www.nlgla .org), Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (www.glad.org), Lambda Legal Defense and Education

Fund (www.lambdalegal.org), and American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay Rights Project (www.aclu.org). —Lynn M. Shelley-Sireci and Claudia Ciano-Boyce

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Curry, H., Clifford, D., & Hertz, F. (2002). A legal guide for lesbian and gay couples (11th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Nolo. Human Rights Campaign Foundation. (2002). The state of the family: Laws and legislation affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families. Washington, DC: Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

GENDER DIFFERENCES. See ADOLESCENT FEMALES, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY; ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY

GENDER INTENSIFICATION Considering the period of adolescence, Hill and Lynch (1983) argued that, with the onset of puberty, boys and girls experience an intensification of genderrelated expectations. This gender intensification hypothesis posits that behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological differences between adolescent boys and girls increase with age and are the result of increased socialization pressures to conform to gender roles that are traditionally masculine (characteristics considered most appropriate for males) and feminine (characteristics considered most appropriate for females). Hill and Lynch (1983) proposed that puberty plays a part in the differentiation of masculine and feminine characteristics by serving as a signal to socializing others (parents, teachers, peers) that the adolescent is beginning the approach to adulthood and should begin to act accordingly, that is, in ways that resemble the stereotypical male or female adult. Galambos, Almeida, and Petersen (1990) suggested that empirical support for gender intensification is provided if a pattern of increasing differentiation between boys and girls is shown on characteristics that already exhibited gender differences prior to early

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adolescence, and this intensification is greatest for adolescents who have entered puberty. To test the gender intensification hypothesis, Galambos et al. (1990) examined data on adolescents followed from the 6th through the 8th grades. They observed patterns of change in self-reported masculine personality traits (e.g., self-reliant), feminine personality traits (e.g., yielding), and gender role attitudes (i.e., extent to which they believed that roles for males and females should differ). The results indicated that initial gender differences on masculinity (with boys higher than girls) and on gender role attitudes (with girls exhibiting more egalitarian attitudes than boys) increased from 6th to 8th grade, thereby providing some support for gender intensification. Pubertal timing, however, was unrelated to this gender divergence, calling into question the role that puberty plays in gender intensification. One way in which girls and boys might be pressured to behave differently is in the freedom to express oneself emotionally. Indeed, in a crosssectional study, gender differences in self-reported emotional expression (the extent to which one outwardly displays emotion) were nonexistent in Grade 5, significant in Grade 8, and even larger in Grade 12. Whereas older girls reported higher levels of emotional expressiveness, older boys were more restricted emotionally, results that are congruent with the gender intensification hypothesis (Polce-Lynch, Myers, Kliewer, & Kilmartin, 2001). Crouter, Manke, and McHale (1995) examined whether there was evidence for gender intensification in adolescents’ completion of household chores at two points across a 1-year period in early adolescence, and whether the family context (parents’ division of labor, sex of younger sibling) seemed to influence adolescents’ chores. The results showed that adolescent girls in families with a traditional parental division of labor (i.e., the mother performed most household chores) and with a younger brother maintained a high level of participation in feminine household tasks, whereas participation of the rest of the sample in feminine tasks declined. Boys in families with a traditional parental division of labor increased their performance of masculine household tasks compared to other adolescents. Thus, the results provided some support for gender intensification in adolescents’ household work, but this pattern was dependent on selected aspects of the family context. Another study examined self-competence in math, language arts, and sports in a sample of children first

recruited in Grades 1 through 4 and followed for 8 years (Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002). Because boys typically rate their abilities as higher than girls in math and sports and girls rate their competence as higher than boys in language arts (e.g., English), the investigators were able to examine the gender intensification hypothesis by exploring change in self-rated competence across the period of childhood through adolescence. Surprisingly, the gender difference in math competence (with boys feeling more competent) was largest in Grade 1, but by Grade 12, girls and boys reported similar levels of competence in math. With respect to language arts, girls and boys started out at similar levels, but by Grade 6 there was a dramatic gender difference favoring girls, which narrowed somewhat by Grade 12. Competence in sports demonstrated a significant gender difference in Grade 1 (favoring boys) that continued through to Grade 12. Self-rated competence in all domains declined on average over the period of the study. Thus, this study did not find increased gender differentiation in self-competence in math, language arts, and sports during adolescence. Hill and Lynch’s (1983) gender intensification hypothesis was based in part on research suggesting increased gender differences in self-esteem, with girls more than boys experiencing drops in self-esteem. A recent analysis examined gender differences in global self-esteem (the overall regard held for the self) by aggregating the results of more than 200 reports, representing more than 97,000 research participants from the ages of 7 to 60-plus years (Kling, Hyde, Showers, & Buswell, 1999). The results were that with all ages combined there was an overall gender difference; males showed higher self-esteem than females. Comparisons across age demonstrated that the gender difference peaked in late adolescence (ages 15–18). The results suggest some evidence for gender intensification in self-esteem in adolescence, although the gender differences were rather small, and girls may recover from any decrease in self-esteem. Girls do not recover, however, from the increase in depressive symptoms and clinical depression that emerges after age 13. This gender difference is maintained throughout adulthood, with about twice as many females as males evidencing depression (Galambos, Leadbeater, & Barker, in press). What is the validity of the gender intensification hypothesis? It is both surprising and interesting that the gender intensification hypothesis was not

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supported in the Jacobs et al. (2002) study. This is an excellent example of research covering a large age range and a long span of time in which to observe whether and when gender differences emerge or escalate. As such, this may be the only study explicitly speaking to the gender intensification hypothesis that has covered this large an age span. A rigorous test of the gender intensification hypothesis can only be conducted in the context of such longitudinal data. Other longitudinal studies finding some support for gender intensification were short-term ones (Crouter et al., 1995; Galambos et al., 1990). The Jacobs et al. (2002) study raises the possibility that, when considered across the period of childhood and adolescence, gender intensification is not as strong or as wide ranging a phenomenon as was first assumed. Of course, the breadth of gender-related constructs that have been studied for gender intensification in adolescence is quite small. Change over time in gender-related constructs differs by domain; even within the area of achievement, patterns of change in gender differences differ according to the specific subject of study (e.g., math versus language arts) (Jacobs et al., 2002). Therefore, considering the many aspects of genderrelated development that could be observed, the gender intensification hypothesis has not yet been subjected to a fair test. Nor is the jury in on the role that puberty plays in gender intensification, given that few researchers have examined this aspect of the gender intensification hypothesis. Further longitudinal research on multiple gender-related constructs covering the period of childhood through adolescence will undoubtedly contribute to our better understanding of the breadth of gender intensification.

Hill, J. P., & Lynch, M. E. (1983). The intensification of gender-related role expectations during early adolescence. In J. Brooks-Gunn & A. C. Petersen (Eds.), Girls at puberty: Biological and psychosocial perspectives (pp. 201–228). New York: Plenum. Jacobs, J. E., Lanza, S., Osgood, D. W., Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Changes in children’s self-competence and values: Gender and domain differences across grades one through twelve. Child Development, 73, 509–527. Kling, K. C., Hyde, J. S., Showers, C. J., & Buswell, B. N. (1999). Gender differences in self-esteem: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 15, 470–500. Polce-Lynch, M., Myers, B. J., Kliewer, W., & Kilmartin, C. (2001). Adolescent self-esteem and gender: Exploring relations to sexual harassment, body image, media influence, and emotional expression. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30, 225–244.

GENETICS AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The relationship between genes and behavioral development is quite complex and has resulted in a long history of vexing scientific, ethical, and political debate. Improper metaphors for the functioning of genes have suppressed recognition of the impact of development in behavioral genetics and in popular conceptualization of genetics and behavior. Misconceptions about the relationship between population and molecular genetics have led to a great deal of the confusion about the role of genes in development. We discuss the role of genes and development as they pertain to our growing understanding of the development of human behavior.

—Nancy L. Galambos

THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE STUDY OF GENES REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Crouter, A. C., Manke, B. A., & McHale, S. M. (1995). The family context of gender intensification in early adolescence. Child Development, 66, 317–329. Galambos, N. L., Almeida, D. M., & Petersen, A. C. (1990). Masculinity, femininity, and sex role attitudes in early adolescence: Exploring gender intensification. Child Development, 61, 1905–1914. Galambos, N. L., Leadbeater, B. J., & Barker, E. T. (in press). Gender differences in and risk factors for depression in adolescence: A 4-year longitudinal study. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28.

It has been more than a half century since the publication of Watson and Crick’s (1953) landmark paper on the structure of DNA and its implications for the transmission of heritable information. In that time, genetics has become one of the most exalted fields in all of science. Indeed, more of the pages of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, are devoted to research that in one way or another involves genes than any other facet of science. Genetics has also captured the popular press like few other areas of science. Completion of the sequencing of the human genome, for instance,

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has been celebrated as one of the greatest achievements in the history of human intellectual endeavor. Perhaps nowhere has genetics seeped into popular culture more pervasively, nor more erroneously, than in the area of human behavior. This is, in part, based on the accolades and hubris with which genes have been promoted as the key to unraveling the mysteries of humanity. The National Institute of Mental Health has put identifying the genetic bases of complex behaviors and genetic roots of mental illness as cornerstones of their funding initiatives. The American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society (APS) have joined this movement with broad-scale support of behavioral genetics research. The APA Genetics in Psychology Web site proclaims, for instance, that “soon the genetic bases of common psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression, are likely to be unraveled” (Flint, 2004). Picking up on the euphoric optimism that mainstream behavioral science has for genes in explaining behavior, the popular press is replete with headline-grabbing stories about scientists identifying the genetic basis for schizophrenia, depression, homosexuality, aggression, perceptions of injustice, infidelity; and the list continues. However, when one reads the science of genetics closely, a key, if not the cornerstone, aspect of genetic science is missing from the scientific and popular press headline accounts: development. As geneticists are learning every day, the role of genes cannot be separated from the process of development. HISTORIC METAPHORS OF THE GENE: BLUEPRINTS AND ALGORITHMS Contemporary debates regarding the role that genes play in the development of human behavior are largely extensions of the historical debate between preformationism and probabilistic epigenesis (Gottlieb, 1992). Preformationism holds that the adult phenotype (i.e., biological and behavioral traits) is inherent in the embryo at conception. In other words, our adult traits are largely prespecified. Indeed, the classic preformationist claim was that the sperm cell contained miniature adults or homunculi that simply grew in size until they reached adulthood. Modern preformationism certainly does not take this view, but rather a modified perspective that the information for guiding the process of development from embryo to adult must be contained somewhere in the embryo. Behavioral

genetics has largely adopted this preformationist line of thought, leading to the ubiquitous metaphor of genes as the blueprints for life: an instruction manual for humanity. Genes, therefore, are set apart from development and are viewed as the governors or prime causes of developmental processes. Thus, the reasoning is that if we can just read the blueprint encoded in the genome we would know with relative certainty how development was going to proceed for a given individual. More recently, behavioral geneticists have reworked the blueprint metaphor into the seemingly more sophisticated metaphor of the genome as a computer algorithm—a set of programming code that specifies the developmental program. While this latter metaphor is couched in the vogue terminology du jour, the assumptions and implications are the same as the preformationist blueprint metaphor. The historical alternative to preformationism is probabilistic epigenesis, which has been incorporated into the field of developmental psychobiology and has a long history in comparative psychology. Epigenesis quite literally means “to create from what came before,” and the probabilistic epigenetic perspective argues that development proceeds through probabilistic transformations of one biological and/or behavioral state to another. These probabilistic transformations are the result of complex dynamic transactions among the integrated organism, its developmental history, and ecological contingencies. In short, the developmental process is “governed” by the act of developing via organism-environment transactions. The rules guiding development are not encoded somewhere outside the developmental process, but rather are created with each step of development. As opposed to a blueprint or computer program, a more apt metaphor for this perspective is that of a game of make-believe among children, where the rules are constantly being invented by the children playing the game and implemented via preschool arguments toward consensus. Where the game ends, no one knows, and it literally takes on a unique form of its own each time the children play. Similarly, each time the “game of development” is played out, a unique phenotypic life course emerges, even if the same genotype is involved. From this perspective, genes are critical, indeed essential, to the developmental process, yet they do not hold any special exalted place. Genes are simply one of many important participatory factors. It is important to note that the majority opinion, whether from a behavioral genetics perspective or a

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developmental psychobiological perspective, is that genes alone do not determine phenotypic outcomes— environmental influences also do play a role. However, the degree of environmental influences is distinct for each approach. Behavioral genetics considers environmental influences with the concept of the reaction range. The reaction range is the narrow range of deviation from the prespecified genetic program within which the environment can exert a modest influence. Conversely, developmental psychobiology employs the norm-of-reaction concept to explain gene-environment transactions. This concept refers to the fact that although a wide range of phenotypic outcomes are possible given a single genome, only a limited range of those potential phenotypes are generally observed, because the environmental context of development tends to be fairly homogeneous across individuals. This gives the illusion of a more limited phenotypegenotype relationship than is actually the case: Because we cannot reasonably manipulate and test development of every genotype in every environment possible, we cannot know the developmental limitation for any genotype. We estimate norm of reaction by the observed variation of a genotype within the range of environments observed in a study. Reaction range cannot be applied to biological genetics or to development. (Michel & Moore, 1995, pp. 184–185) Gottlieb (1992, 1997) illustrates this concept with a wide array of empirical examples of neophenotypes—new phenotypes that arise from the same genome as a product of differential developmental histories. Indeed, differences or similarities in animal phenotypes occur due to sharing or lacking similar developmental systems rather than sharing or lacking similar genotypes (Lickliter & Ness, 1990). THE TWO SCIENCES: POPULATION AND MOLECULAR GENETICS In part, the separation of human behavioral genetics and developmental psychobiology stems from the fact that there are actually two sciences of genetics: population (or quantitative) genetics and molecular genetics. Behavioral genetics is more closely aligned to the former and developmental psychobiology to the latter. To understand this divergence, it is important to

put it in a historical context. The concept of a gene has a long history, much longer than Watson and Crick’s (1953) discovery. Indeed, the practice of animal and plant husbandry clearly demonstrated that the traits of offspring resembled the traits of parents. Thus, through selective breeding, one could relatively reliably produce animals and plants with desirable traits. It seemed apparent that there must be some mechanism through which parents could pass on phenotypic traits to offspring via reproduction—and the concept of a gene was born (though as noted earlier, shared developmental systems rather than shared genes account for the common appearance of traits in parent and offspring populations). The important point here is that the notion of a gene extends back long before basic knowledge of cell biology, let alone chromosomes, DNA, and nucleotide sequences. Building on this long history of animal and plant husbandry, population genetics has its origins in the work of Gregor Mendel, the 19th-century priest and biologist who first quantified heritability by working out the statistical relationship between the phenotypic characteristics of offspring given the phenotypic characteristics of parents. Population genetics has little to do with the functioning of genes or their actual relationship to phenotypic development. Rather, population genetics is chiefly concerned with the development of statistical models relating parent population traits to the likelihood of those same traits appearing in offspring populations, and the statistical manner in which those traits spread through a species population. Molecular genetics, on the other hand, is a much newer science stemming from traditions in experimental embryology and cell biology. First suggested by Schrödinger (1948), the molecular search for genes truly began with Watson and Crick (1953). Contemporary molecular genetics focuses on the simultaneous tasks of identifying genes and articulating the processes through which they synthesize proteins. Gene identification alone is not a simple task. Genes, while we typically think of them as objects, can really be thought of more accurately as events. Genes are sequences of nucleotides that have the capacity to produce proteins, which are in turn the foundational building blocks of cell biology. Most of the DNA in the human genome is referred to as “junk DNA” because it is not involved in protein synthesis. We cannot simply look at strands of DNA and see the genes—we must catch them in action, and only

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through their behavior can we distinguish genes from junk DNA. It is in this way that genes are in many ways events rather than objects, and it is the reason that it is so very difficult to identify them. This is also the reason that the process of identifying genes is dependent on simultaneously understanding how they work to synthesize proteins. In the past 5 years, revolutionary advances in research technology have been made in both the identification and functional facets of molecular genetics. This has led to an equally revolutionary revision of our understanding of genes and how they work. Some of the more notable findings are these: 1. The human genome contains far fewer genes than was previously estimated—only approximately 30,000 as compared with the 120,000 historically assumed. This is of importance because, given that this is far fewer than the approximately 100,000 genes of the nematode (flatworm), it suggests a complex relationship between genes and the complex biological structures and behaviors of human beings. 2. A single gene is capable of synthesizing more than a single protein, which has severe consequences for relating genes to phenotypic outcomes as compared with the old dogma that there was a one-to-one relationship between genes and proteins. Thus, knowledge of the gene sequence itself, without the developmental conditions differentiating when a given protein might be synthesized, provides no information about how gene sequences relate to proteins, let alone complex behaviors such as depression and schizophrenia. 3. Both gene expression and the process of protein synthesis are much more probabilistic and complex than previously thought. Indeed, gene expression is dependent on the activity of many other genes in the genome and highly sensitive to cellular and extracellular contexts (see Garcia-Coll, Bearer, & Lerner, in press). THE TWO SCIENCES REDUX: BEHAVIORAL GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY Behavioral genetics, relying on population genetics methodology, has traditionally held as its aim the statistical estimation of behavioral traits given the

presence of those traits in parents, nontwin siblings, fraternal twin siblings, and identical twin siblings. The key statistic of behavioral genetics is the heritability quotient, signified as h2. This statistic is derived from the differential correlations in a given behavioral trait (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, alcoholism, extroverted personality, etc.) among various relative relationships (i.e., parent-child, nontwin siblings, fraternal twin siblings, and identical twin siblings). The h2 statistic can range in value from 0 to 1 and is thought to reflect the percentage of variation in a given behavioral trait due to shared genes (e.g., if h2 = .75 for a given trait, then it is argued that 75% of the variance in that trait is due to genes). However, this interpretation is a substantial misinterpretation of the true meaning of the statistic. The h2 coefficient simply reflects the likelihood of a phenotypic trait given that the trait is present in a relative—it in absolutely no way indicates a mechanism of heritability (Michel & Moore, 1995). The implication of the gene as the mechanism is an assumption based on an adherence to the nondevelopmental preformationist approach to genetics. Indeed, the genetic basis of human behavior was estimated using this statistical approach before any scientist had ever identified an actual gene! Moreover, the more we have learned about genes and their functioning, the more we find that the statistical assumptions underlying the h2 coefficient are largely invalid (Wolf, Brodie, & Wade, 2000). More recently, some behavioral geneticists have been working from a more “bottom-up” approach and employing molecular genetic techniques to relate genes to behavior. The majority of this research has relied on gene knockout techniques using animal models of human behaviors. This technique involves identifying animal model analogues for behaviors such as depression and substance abuse, and systematically blocking the expression of a specific gene or chromosomal region and observing the effect on the analogue behavior. More recently, behavioral geneticists have begun to employ newer techniques, such as quantitative trait loci (QTL) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), to correlate variation in DNA sequencing with behavioral outcomes. QTL methods seek to correlate patterns of variation in entire gene sets or networks with behavioral variation in a complex trait such as alcoholism or schizophrenia. To date, QTL approaches have failed to account for variation in a complex behavioral trait. Indeed, behavioral

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geneticists working in this line of research are now assuming that QTL associations are likely to account for less than 1% of the variation in complex behavioral traits. SNP techniques seek to correlate differences in nucleotide sequences (i.e., ordering of adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine in a strand of DNA) across individuals with variation in behavioral traits. With regard to complex human behavioral traits, the findings of SNP approaches have met with as little success as QTL. Indeed, as human behavioral genetics has employed more molecular genetic techniques to understanding the relationship between genes and human behavior, two things are becoming clear: that the relationship is much more complex than supposed by traditional behavioral genetics (see Plomin & McGuffin, 2003), and that behavioral genetics without a fully integrated developmental perspective is untenable. The view of gene-behavior relationships as understood by developmental psychobiology seems to be providing a more adequate fit to contemporary genetic findings. This view is a complex one, in which genes are important participatory factors, but are just one factor in a hierarchically organized developmental system (Gottlieb, 1997). This developmental system involves DNA, RNA, proteins, cells, organs, organ systems, biological entities, and ecological environments engaging in bidirectional transactions across development. This is a much more complicated situation than envisioned by classic behavioral genetics. With respect to the relationship between genes and behavior, the herald of the completion of the human genome sequence marks the prelude to our scientific voyage rather than a call to port. CONCLUSIONS The current historical moment is a promising era for research at the interface of genetics and human development. The advances in molecular genetics over the past decade have finally provided the empirical basis for addressing the long-standing difficulties of incorporating genetic perspectives into the study of human development. Assessment and measurement techniques in the field of molecular genetics have become well developed and relatively inexpensive, such that they can be routinely employed in behavioral research. The result has largely been an overhaul in our understanding of genes and their potential role in the development of complex behaviors. Indeed,

these revisions are so fundamental that directions for future research are largely aimed at the most fundamental ways in which genetic and developmental science are conducted rather than specific research questions. In this vein, we foresee at least three requirements for the conduct of research incorporating genetics and human development. The first is a multidisciplinary focus. A rich and useful program of research will require that research teams comprised of geneticists, neurologists, and psychologists work in an integrated arena of research. Second, the multidisciplinary nature of these research teams will shift the focus from research questions emphasizing genetic associations with behavioral outcomes to questions emphasizing the transactional nature of mutual organism-environment influences. In other words, research questions will emphasize the manner in which different developmental experiences affect the functioning of genetic systems and how that change in genetic functioning affects the future patterns of behavioral development. Another key question of this type is in regard to the manner in which behavioral, neural, and genetic systems coregulate each other to produce coherent patterns of behavioral development across the entire life span. Finally, this research will need to involve more statisticians and mathematicians able to develop analytic techniques and statistical models more consistent with our more dynamic, interdependent understanding of genes and behavior. —Ty Partridge and Jennifer DeGroot Hanawalt

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Flint, J. (2004). Genetics in psychology. Available at http://www.apa.org/science/genetics/intro.html Garcia-Coll, C., Bearer, E., & Lerner, R. M. (in press). Nature and nurture: The complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences on human behavior and development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Gottlieb, G. (1992). Individual development and evolution: The genesis of novel behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. Gottlieb, G. (1997). Synthesizing nature-nurture: Prenatal roots of instinctive behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lickliter, R., & Ness, J. W. (1990). Domestication and comparative psychology: Status and strategy. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 104(3), 211–218.

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Michel, G. F., & Moore, C. L. (1995). Developmental psychobiology: An interdisciplinary science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Plomin, R., & McGuffin, P. (2003). Psychopathology in the postgenomic era. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 205–228. Schrödinger, E. (1948). What is life? The physical aspect of the living cell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C. (1953). A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171, 737. Wolf, J. B., Brodie, E. D., & Wade, M. J. (2000). Epistasis and the evolutionary process. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

GESELL, ARNOLD LUCIUS Arnold Lucius Gesell (1880–1961) is best known for his contributions to the field of psychology in the realm of infant development, but his legacy extends far beyond this relatively narrow boundary. During the course of his 50-year career at the Yale University Clinic of Child Development, Gesell engaged in many methodological, philosophical, scientific, and literary advances in the fields of psychology, medicine, and ethology, and his work continues to have a substantial impact on the empirical sciences today.

CINEMANALYSIS Among Gesell’s greatest methodological contributions was his pioneering technique, termed “cinemanalysis,” involving a longitudinal series of motion pictures. Gesell collected motion picture data of 107 infants from birth to 56 weeks and again at 6- or 12-month intervals until age 6 (and, for some infants, age 10). Gesell and his colleagues used cinemanalysis to record four types of behavior: (1) motor behavior, which included gross bodily control and fine motor skills; (2) language behavior, which included facial expressions, gestures, prelinguistic vocalization, babbling, speech, and communication with others; (3) adaptive behavior, which included hand-eye coordination, reaching for and handling objects, and drawing; and (4) personal-social behavior, which included the child’s reaction to the social culture in which he or she lived, feeding, play, smiling responses to people, and responses to a mirror. Gesell used the data on these dimensions to assess relations between growth and culture in the developing child. In describing the

uniqueness and inherent usefulness of cinemanalysis, Gesell asserted that it permits a more intimate and more complete view of any pattern of motion. You can indeed see more deeply than with the unaided eye. And of course you can see the same file twice, thrice, or a score of times. With this technological reinforcement you are at a great advantage, for without the cinema you can see the living child perform a given act only once. Along with the use of cinemanalysis, Gesell employed the use of his so-called photographic dome, or observation dome, for use with motion pictures and for general research and teaching about child behavior. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT In terms of his theoretical approaches to the study of human behavior, Gesell argued that human development is largely a matter of biological maturation rather than environmental influence. Gesell’s view was that children, much like plants, simply “bloomed,” following a pattern and timetable laid out in their genes; the manner in which parents reared their young was thought to be of little importance. This viewpoint echoes the strains of the field now known as ethology, which is the scientific study of the evolutionary basis of behavior and the contributions of evolved responses to the survival and development of a species. To demonstrate and support his theoretical preference for nature over nurture, Gesell conducted twin studies in which one twin underwent some sort of behavioral training while the other twin served as a control (twins T and C, respectively). After delineating the striking similarities between identical twins on such measures as weight curves, dentition, and Gesell’s own developmental tests, Gesell gave the T twin daily practice and experience with an activity such as stair climbing from age 46 to 52 weeks. During this time, the C twin was kept in an environment that did not allow for this experience. In one case, the T twin could climb stairs in 25 seconds after the six weeks of training. At this 52-week time point, T’s training was discontinued and, a week later, C’s training commenced. Gesell found that the C twin, until then untrained and isolated from stairs, climbed the stairs seven times—a feat

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surpassed by T only after 5 weeks of training. Moreover, the twins were observed to climb the stairs in the same physical manner, although neither infant had seen the other complete the task. Gesell used his observations to conclude that added age alone very shortly brought an untrained twin up to a level of performance equal to the trained, but younger at the time of training, counterpart. In broader terms, it seemed to Gesell that, although outside influences (i.e., training) can sometimes speed up the development of behaviors, the effect is only temporary, and the benefits of time and biological development will erase any advantage achieved from outside influence. Gesell further globalized his findings to assert that, although both nature and nurture play a role in child development, environmental influences do not determine the ultimate rate or quality of development. Another of Gesell’s theoretical standpoints concerned his views on universality versus individuality and the role of the preschool period of development. According to his speculation, childhood development is universal, but children approach it individually; that is, nearly all children develop through more or less identical stages, but each child does so at an individualized pace in his or her own individualized way (which, Gesell would add, is largely determined genetically). Gesell touted the importance of the preschool years in a child’s development at a time when research in that area was virtually nonexistent; he asserted that the psychological care of infants and the guidance of young children had extensive and far-reaching consequences for development. In addition to the normative samples he studied, much of Gesell’s research included the adopted and the deaf as a result of his interest in the role of nutrition in human welfare during the preschool period and the problems of mental defects and handicaps that were for him an early and persistent concern. Another nonnormative sample featured in Gesell’s research was the human fetus, which he deemed worthy of study because of his belief that behavior in the fetus, like that of the infant once born, develops in a predictable and patterned manner influenced (but not wholly determined) by the environment. He believed that postnatal behavioral patterns had their foundations in the fetal period, and that the pregnant mother develops attitudes, expectancies, and decisions that influence the baby’s postnatal growth. Gesell also became a champion of

preparental education and desired for these parents “a new type of education, which will deal more directly and sincerely with the problems of infancy.” As a result of his prolific and variegated scientific inquiry, Gesell was an extensively published author. Some of his published works relevant to this discussion include The Pre-school Child From the Standpoint of Public Hygiene and Education (1923), An Atlas of Infant Behavior (1934, featuring more than 3,200 photos), The First Five Years of Life (1940), Infant and Child in the Culture of Today (1943), and The Embryology of Behavior (1945). This glimpse into the massively influential career of Arnold Gesell merely scratches the surface of his impact. The role of his contributions to psychology in particular and empirical science in general cannot be overstated; perhaps Louise Bates Ames, Gesell’s longtime colleague, put it best when she said, In countless homes the name of Arnold Gesell was better known than that of the President of the United States. And to great numbers of occupants of these homes, Arnold Gesell was a far more important man than the occupant of the White House. (Ames, 1989) —Bridget Rose Nolan and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ames, L. B. (1989). Arnold Gesell: Themes of his work. New York: Human Sciences Press. Bornstein, M. H. (2001). Arnold Lucius Gesell. Pediatrics and Related Topics/Pädiatrie und Grenzgebiete, 40, 395–409. Gesell, A. L. (1923). The pre-school child from the standpoint of public hygiene and education. Boston, MN: Houghton Mifflin. Gesell, A. L. (1940). The first five years of life: A guide to the study of the preschool child. New York: Harper & Brothers. Gesell, A. L. (1943). Infant and child in the culture of today. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Gesell, A. L. (1945). The embryology of behavior. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers. Gesell, A. L. (1952). Autobiography. In E. G. Boring, H. Werner, H. S. Langfeld, & R. M. Yerkes (Eds.), A history of psychology in autobiography: Vol. 4 (pp. 123–142). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. Gesell, A. L., et al. (1934). An atlas of infant behavior. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Miles, W. R. (1964). Arnold Lucius Gesell 1880–1961. A biographical memoir. In National Academy of Sciences, Biographical memoirs: Vol. 37 (pp. 55–96). New York: Columbia University Press.

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GIFTEDNESS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN While giftedness has been a topic that has been heavily studied since the days of Lewis Terman and the development of the Stanford-Binet test, considerably less work has been done on the study of gifted African American children (Hamilton, 1993). One explanation for this may be that African American children are significantly underrepresented in this field. Although African Americans make up 16% of the public school population, they represent only 8% of the population in gifted programs (Ford, 1995). Like other gifted children, gifted African Americans are confronted with many issues, such as peer pressure and pressure from parents and teachers to excel. Their experiences are unique, however, in that they must deal with other factors as well, such as discrimination, ethnic/racial identity, and clashes with cultural ideologies that may affect their psychological, social, and academic functioning. WHAT IS GIFTEDNESS? Giftedness is a term that over time has been hard to define. Most people have an idea that it means being “really smart” or “talented” but don’t know anything more than that. There has been a lack of agreement among educators, government officials, and others as to what giftedness really is and how it should be measured. During the early 1920s, the prevailing belief was that giftedness could be demonstrated through academic and cognitive abilities on intelligence or IQ tests (Hamilton, 1993). In later years, giftedness was thought to encompass many other abilities that are usually not measured by most intelligence tests. Many agencies responded to these results by also including nonacademic abilities in their definitions. The U.S. Department of Education (USDE), for example, includes performing and visual arts as well as leadership in their definition of giftedness. While this definition does comprise a broad array of abilities and is applied by many of our nation’s school districts, most giftedness testing involves only the administration of an IQ test. This is primarily

because these tests are time effective and relatively easy to administer. SOME PROBLEMS WITH CURRENT REFERRAL PRACTICES The lack of consensus in a definition for giftedness has made the identification process very problematic. As a result, many gifted children have been bypassed for gifted programs. The problem with using only intelligence tests for eligibility is that many of the test items do not transcend factors such as culture, socioeconomic status, and schooling that may have an impact on one’s performance. This is especially difficult for African American and other minority children, because the standards and values on which these tests are based differ from theirs. Minority children face test bias and experience test anxiety disproportionately to other groups. This also has an impact on their scores. Average IQ scores support this; the average IQ for European Americans is 100, whereas that for African Americans is only 85. As a result, the select few who do adapt have the opportunity to be identified. Before children can even be identified as gifted, they need to be referred for an evaluation. One of the most frequently used sources for identifying potentially gifted students is teachers. The data, however, show that many teachers are not reliable, especially in the identification of students from different racial and cultural backgrounds (Ford, 1995). One explanation for this is that many teachers are under the assumption that gifted children are only those who are “model children,” those who are well behaved and cooperative. Many teachers are also unaware of the differences in learning styles of people from different backgrounds and may take these approaches to be faults rather than assets. Oftentimes, however, students are not viewed as potentially gifted because they fall on either of two extremes: they’re either too visible to their teachers or not visible enough. Misbehavior and underachievement in gifted children are frequently the result of fear of being ridiculed by lower achieving students and/or of boredom because the class work is too easy. Low self-esteem and/or feelings of inferiority (which are commonplace in African American students) also prevent children from exhibiting the confidence that is characteristic of the traditional gifted child. In effect, many children get overlooked.

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ISSUES AFFECTING GIFTED AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN While gifted African American children experience many of the same issues as gifted children from other backgrounds (such as academic, peer, and parental pressures), they face additional problems as well. Usually, the problems stem from the following issues relating to their racial identity, which European American children, for the most part, do not have to contend with. Within the African American community, differences are seen between behaviors that are “Black” and those that are “White” and inappropriate. As education is considered by many African Americans to be affiliated with White society, many adolescents see going to school as negative, because in order to do well there, one must become “less black” (Ogbu, 1994). Gifted African American children are often confronted with the dilemma of whether they should give in to the pull of the Black community and risk academic success, or resist these forces and face being isolated and accused of thinking or trying to “act white” (Baldwin, 1991). Ogbu (1994) reports that many children implement strategies in order to avoid these issues. The child may try to hide his or her academic abilities by doing things such as acting like the “class clown” or focusing only on his or her athletic abilities, or may behave appropriately in school, but when he or she returns home to the community, act according to the norms of the minority group. Another factor to consider is that many gifted African American children don’t have appropriate role models and mentors with whom they can identify. Many crave someone who can help them find out more about their interests, inform them about various careers, and teach them how they should act in various situations. Interacting with professional people who look just like them and grew up in similar situations might show young children that they too can be successful despite the obstacles that might be put in their way.

this population, consideration should be given to (1) identifying additional methods for determining gifted classification; (2) forging relationships with parents so that they will understand the importance of these programs and will ultimately support their children’s academic endeavors; and (3) providing venues in which gifted African American children can talk with others in the same situation about the academic, cultural, and psychological pressures they are confronted with on a daily basis. Above all, it is important to talk with students and parents in order to get a sense of the values they hold and how those values affect what they need and how they should act. These factors help in directing what should and should not be included in a gifted program. Successful programs are not developed in isolation. If school staff work according to the needs of the people who will be influenced by the program, it is likely that they will be able to provide services that are culturally sensitive and fair, yet also challenging and rewarding. —Erain Applewhite

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baldwin, A. Y. (1991). Gifted black adolescents: Beyond racism to pride. In M. Bireley & J. Genshaft (Eds.), Understanding the gifted adolescent: Educational, developmental, and multicultural issues (pp. 231–239). New York: Teachers College Press. Ford, D. Y. (1995). Desegregating gifted education: A need unmet. Journal of Negro Education, 64, 52–62. Hamilton, S. E. (1993). Identifying African-American gifted children using a behavioral assessment technique: The gifted children locator. Journal of Black Psychology, 19, 63–76. Ogbu, J. (1994). From cultural differences to differences in cultural frame of reference. In P. M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority child development (pp. 365–391). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

PROGRAMS FOR GIFTED AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN

“GOODNESS OF FIT” AND DEVELOPMENT

Gifted African American children present with a unique set of needs that can be addressed through their gifted programs. When developing programs for

The “goodness of fit” model (Lerner & Lerner, 1983; Thomas & Chess, 1977) is derived from a

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developmental contextual perspective of human development (Lerner, 2002). Accordingly, both characteristics of the individual (e.g., temperament, physical attractiveness) and the environment (e.g., attitudes and expectations of others, physical characteristics of the setting) are assumed to affect an individual’s behavior and development. However, a key feature of this model is that characteristics of the individual and the environment depend on one another. More specifically, characteristics of the individual and the environment interactively influence behavior and development. This interplay between characteristics of the individual and the environment is of utmost importance and has been shown to be a better predictor of adjustment than either characteristics of the individual or the environment alone. It is important also to note that this interaction is circular in nature. For example, if an individual has negative or “difficult” temperament qualities, others in the individual’s context may react to him or her in a negative manner. These negative responses then may feed back to the individual and further influence his or her development. In essence, then, according to the goodnessof-fit model, individuals are active producers of their own behavior and development (Lerner, 2002). Ultimately, the fit between an individual’s unique characteristics and the demands of the environment predicts adjustment. If the individual’s characteristics are a good match for a particular setting, positive adjustment should occur. However, if the individual’s characteristics are a poor match for the setting, negative or maladaptive adjustment is more likely to occur. Importantly, it should be noted that certain characteristics may be adaptive in one setting but not another. For instance, an aggressive child might frequently be scolded and punished by his teacher in the classroom environment; however, this child’s aggressive behavior might be encouraged in football practice after school. This child is likely to do poorly in the classroom, where his temperament and behavior do not match the expectations of the teacher. However, he is more likely to do well on the football field, where there is a good match between his temperament and behavior and the expectations of the coach. Likewise, the same environment (or what appears to be the same environment) may have differential effects on children because of differences in individual characteristics (e.g., temperament). For example, children within the same family may have quite different family experiences because the interaction

between their unique characteristics and characteristics of the family differ. Behavioral genetics researchers refer to this differential experience across siblings as nonshared environment. Consistent with this concept, researchers have found that parents are more likely to behave in a hostile manner and to be more critical of their children who have difficult temperament characteristics in comparison to their more “easygoing” children (Rutter, 1987). Finally, it is important to note that people and the contexts in which they live are constantly changing. Therefore, the interactions between characteristics of the individual and the environment are not static; they too are continuously evolving. Accordingly, the interactions between characteristics of the individual and the environment are referred to as dynamic. Indeed, Chess and Thomas (1999) note that the “fit” between a child’s characteristics (e.g., temperament) and the demands of the environment varies with age. For example, during early childhood, an arrhythmic child is likely to receive negative feedback from his or her environment (e.g., parents) because most parents in the United States today expect (or at least hope) that their babies will establish regular eating and feeding schedules. Therefore, a child who is not eating or sleeping regularly may cause a high level of stress for the parents—stress that will then feed back to the child. However, during late childhood, an arrhythmic child is less likely to cause such stress because his or her irregular sleeping and eating patterns are less likely to directly affect the parents (e.g., their sleep schedules). To summarize, according to the goodness-offit model, individuals who have characteristics that match or fit well with the majority of settings in which they interact are likely to be well adjusted due to the positive feedback that they are more likely to receive from these settings. In contrast, individuals who have characteristics that do not fit well with many of the settings in which they interact are more likely to be maladjusted due to the negative feedback that they are likely to receive from these settings. EMPIRICAL SUPPORT FOR THE GOODNESS-OF-FIT MODEL Many studies have tested the goodness-of-fit model. Three areas that have been systematically examined are temperament, parent-child relations, and autonomy.

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Temperament The New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS) is a longitudinal study originating in 1956 that was designed to examine the relationship between temperament and childhood behavior disorders (Chess, 1990). Investigators from the NYLS examined temperament and parenting behaviors in two separate subsamples. One subsample consisted of European American families with middle-class professional parents; the other subsample included Puerto Rican families with working-class parents. When these two groups were compared, they were found to differ in regard to their parenting behavior. More specifically, the European American parents tended to impose strong demands for rhythmicity on their children, especially for sleep-wakefulness (e.g., they expected their children to sleep at certain times). In contrast, the Puerto Rican parents were much more relaxed about the rhythmicity of their children. Accordingly, arrhythmic European American children fit poorly with parental expectations regarding rhythmicity, whereas arrhythmic Puerto Rican children did not. Consistent with the goodness-of-fit model, arhythmicity was a significant predictor of behavior problems in the European American subsample, but not in the Puerto Rican subsample. The Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study (PEATS) is a short-term longitudinal study that was designed to follow adolescents as they progress through middle school. Data from the PEATS provide further empirical support for the goodness-of-fit model. In a series of studies conducted by the Lerners and colleagues (see Lerner & Lerner, 1994), young adolescents who had temperaments that best fit the demands for behavioral style from their teachers and their peer groups were found to be better adjusted (e.g., they had higher grades, higher scores on standardized tests, higher levels of self-esteem, more positive peer relations) in comparison to adolescents whose temperaments did not match teacher or peer demands as well. In another study examining the fit between temperament and environmental demands, Talwar, Nitz, and Lerner (1990) found that adolescents whose temperament characteristics (especially in relation to approach-withdrawal and mood) fit poorly with parental demands were rated by their teachers as having lower levels of academic and social competence and were more likely to have negative peer relations in

comparison to adolescents whose temperaments fit better with their parental demands. Similar findings were found for peer demands. Importantly, this study demonstrated that these relations are consistent across contexts. In addition, Talwar et al.’s study and others conducted by the Lerners and colleagues (e.g., Nitz, Lerner, Lerner, & Talwar, 1988) have shown that the fit between a child’s temperament and his or her environment (e.g., parental or peer demands) is a better predictor of adjustment than temperament alone. The Parent-Adolescent Relationship The goodness-of-fit model also has been applied to characteristics of the parent-adolescent relationship. For example, research conducted by Galambos and Turner (1999) has shown that the adolescent-parent relationship depends on the fit between the temperament of the adolescent and the temperament of the parent. More specifically, these researchers found that maternal acceptance was highest when both the adolescent and the mother were adaptable. Moreover, increased levels of parent-adolescent conflict were found in families where mothers were less adaptable and sons were less physically inactive (sons were expected to be active) and where mothers were less adaptable and daughters were highly active (daughters were expected to be relatively inactive). Consistent with the goodness-of-fit model, findings from this study also suggest that the fit between the adolescent’s temperament and the parent’s temperament is a more salient predictor of development than either the adolescent’s or the parent’s temperament alone. Adolescent Autonomy Although the majority of research examining the goodness-of-fit concept has focused on temperament, the goodness-of-fit model is applicable to many areas of human development. For example, this model also has been used to examine autonomy timetable expectations between adolescents and their parents. In a study conducted by Juang, Lerner, McKinney, and von Eye (1999), Asian American adolescents who had a good fit between their desired autonomy timetable and the autonomy timetable that their parents allowed were better adjusted (e.g., they had higher levels of self-esteem, more emotional closeness to their parents, lower levels of depression, lower levels of behavioral misconduct) than adolescents whose

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autonomy timetable did not match their parents’ as well. Moreover, the fit between the adolescents’ desired autonomy timetable and the parents’ autonomy timetable (e.g., what the parents allowed) was a better predictor of adolescent adjustment than the actual autonomy timetable experienced by the adolescents. PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: IMPLICATIONS FOR PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION The goodness-of-fit conceptual model has important implications for the prevention of psychopathology. According to the goodness-of-fit concept, if there is a good match between an individual’s characteristics and the demands of the environment, positive adjustment occurs. However, sometimes the demands of the environment may not match the individual’s characteristics well; and the demands of the environment may exceed the individual’s coping abilities. If these circumstances persist, the individual may exhibit psychological problems. The goodness-of-fit model provides flexibility in regard to prevention and intervention programs, since a key concept of this model is that adjustment depends on the interaction between characteristics of the individual and the environment. As discussed previously, research has indicated that during childhood, adjustment problems are likely to occur if the fit between a child’s individual characteristics and parental demands is poor. Since these two domains interact to influence adjustment, either the child’s characteristics or the parents’ expectations could be targeted for change. Sandra Scarr (1994) eloquently addressed this point when she stated that “some children require unusual adaptations from parents, and some parents are unable to handle the challenges that even normal children present” (p. 174). As Scarr suggests, exceptional (e.g., flexible) parenting may compensate for the potential effect that a child’s challenging characteristics (e.g., difficult temperament) may have on his or her adjustment. Likewise, positive child characteristics (e.g., having an “easy” disposition) may mitigate the effect that poor parenting (e.g., rigid) has on the child’s adjustment. A promising approach to the prevention of negative family outcomes that may result from a poor match between a child’s temperament and parental expectations is to counsel the parents in more appropriate ways of responding to their child’s unique temperament characteristics. Counseling also could target parental expectations. Such counseling should lessen

the degree of conflict caused by the mismatch between the child’s temperament characteristics and the parents’ response to these characteristics.

GOODNESS OF FIT ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN Although the goodness-of-fit conceptual model primarily has been applied to research examining children and adolescents, this model has important implications for development across the life span. The goodness-of-fit model could easily be applied to development during adulthood. For example, the compatibility of marriage partners could be examined in relation to a goodness-of-fit model. Partners’ match (or mismatch) in regard to personality characteristics, temperament, financial goals, life goals, and so on may be predictive of the marital outcome. The interaction between characteristics of the individual (e.g., genetic makeup, coping abilities) and the demands of the environment (e.g., stressful life events, poverty) also could be examined in relation to healthy aging (both psychological and physical). There are countless additional developmental outcomes throughout the life span that could be examined using the goodness-of-fit conceptual framework.

CONCLUSIONS According to the goodness-of-fit conceptual model, the fit between the characteristics of an individual and his or her environment predicts adjustment. More specifically, individuals whose characteristics fit well with the demands of their environment are likely to be well adjusted, whereas individuals whose characteristics do not fit well with their environmental demands are more likely to be maladjusted. Empirical research has provided ample support for the usefulness of the goodness-of-fit conceptual model for the study of human development. Nevertheless, future research should benefit from the application of the goodnessof-fit model to a wider array of developmental outcomes across the entire life span. —Christine McCauley Ohannessian

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Chess, S. (1990). Pathogenesis of the adjustment disorders: Vulnerabilities due to temperamental factors. In J. D. Noshpitz

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& R. D. Coddington (Eds.), Stressors and the adjustment disorders (pp. 457–476). New York: Wiley. Chess, S., & Thomas, A. (1999). Goodness of fit: Clinical applications from infancy through adult life. Philadelphia: Bruner/Mazel. Galambos, N. L., & Turner, P. K. (1999). Parent and adolescent temperaments and the quality of parent-adolescent relations. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45(3), 493–511. Juang, L. P., Lerner, J. V., McKinney, J. P., & von Eye, A. (1999). The goodness of fit in autonomy timetable expectations between Asian-American late adolescents and their parents. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 23(4), 1023–1048. Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (1983). Temperament and adaptation across life: Theoretical and empirical issues. In P. B. Bales & O. G. Brim, Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (pp. 197–230). New York: Academic. Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (1994). Explorations of the goodness of fit model in early adolescence. In W. B. Carey & S. C. McDevitt (Eds.), Prevention and early intervention: Individual differences as risk factors for the mental health of children (pp. 161–169). New York: Bruner/Mazel. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Nitz, K., Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., & Talwar, R. (1988). Parental and peer ethnotheory demands, temperament, and early adolescent adjustment. Journal of Early Adolescence, 8(3), 243–263. Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 316–331. Scarr, S. (1994). Genetics and individual differences: How Chess and Thomas shaped developmental thought. In W. B. Carey & S. C. McDevitt (Eds.), Prevention and early intervention: Individual differences as risk factors for the mental health of children (pp. 170–178). New York: Bruner/Mazel. Talwar, R., Nitz, K., & Lerner, R. M. (1990). Relations among early adolescent temperament, parent and peer demands, and adjustment: A test of the goodness of fit model. Journal of Adolescence, 13, 279–298. Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York: Bruner/Mazel.

GRANT, WILLIAM T., FOUNDATION The William T. Grant Foundation is a private foundation whose mission is to help create a society that values young people and enables them to reach their full potential. In pursuit of this goal, the foundation primarily supports research in the social, behavioral, and health sciences.

The foundation’s current grant making supports high-quality research, policy analyses, and evaluations of interventions, and is focused on three interrelated topics: 1. How contexts such as families, programs, and organizations affect young people 8–25 years of age 2. How those contexts can be improved, and 3. How and when scientific evidence affects the knowledge, views, and behavior of influential adults whose work affects young people The foundation also funds activities that increase the capacity of its grantees and others to develop, understand, and use research, and it supports a small grants program for youth-serving organizations in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In addition, to help evidence inform particular policies and practice, the foundation underwrites activities that encourage communication among such groups as policymakers, practitioners, scholars, and the media. FOUNDATION HISTORY The William T. Grant Foundation was founded in 1936 in New York City by William T. Grant, the head and founder of the retail chain store that bore his name. Grant was convinced that a foundation could serve as an instrument of social progress that would enable him to enhance the mental health of children and young people, a goal to which he was committed. In his foundation’s first annual report, Grant expressed the hope that the foundation would assist in developing “a cumulative body of knowledge which will have comprehensive social value.” He firmly believed in the importance and efficacy of scientific research, and felt sure that it could help guide young people to lead happy and productive lives as well as assist in establishing new programs of training and education that would help bring about that result. Since its inception, the foundation has maintained the mission set for it by its founder, but with a flexibility to implement insightful, innovative, and effective responses to the changing needs of children and youth. In particular, the foundation’s funding of research on children and young people has been responsive to four conditions: (1) the changing conceptions of core childand adolescent-related issues in the social, behavioral, and health sciences; (2) the changing social and cultural

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context of childhood, adolescence, and families in the United States; (3) new technologies that have allowed for more sophisticated methods of observation and measurement; and (4) the particular interests and areas of expertise of the foundation’s leaders. The foundation’s responses to these different conditions have led to it playing important and pioneering roles in the development of knowledge and understanding of several fields of study, including • Research and training in child psychiatry • The effects of social and economic factors on family mental health • Parent-infant attachment and early socialemotional development • Day care and preschool education • The physical basis for cognitive processes (“the neurosciences”) • The impact of stress and coping on school-aged children • The impact of violence on children and youth • The school-to-work transition • The effects of family-focused antipoverty policies and programs on children and youth In its long history, the foundation has supported, and continues to support, rigorous research that deliberately and simultaneously advances theory and practice, the identification and nurturance of talented young scholars, and the development of new ways to advance child and youth research, including linking research to social policy and practice. CURRENT PROGRAM STRATEGY During the past 2 years, the foundation has recognized the need to better leverage its modest resources and focus on a few topics within its grant-making portfolio where it can more clearly make a difference in the lives of youth. The discussions that took place addressing this need resulted in the development of a long-term strategy involving grant-making, communication, and capacity-building activities whereby the foundation’s support for research would result in changes in policy and practice affecting young people. Grant-Making and Communication Activities The foundation has done a number of things to implement an integrated strategy: (a) It has placed

greater emphasis on research studies that focus on context; (b) it has chosen to concentrate on a limited number of topics within its overall grant-making program where it can make a difference in the lives of young people; (c) it has refined its communication target to include only those people who influence critical policy and practice agendas affecting youth; and (d) it has chosen to carry out certain kinds of communication activities rather than others, consistent with the foundation’s new communication targets. Each of these activities is discussed following. Research: The Focus on Context In a move that is an important part of its change in strategic direction, and in line with recent reviews of youth development literature, the foundation shifted its support toward research studies that focus on contexts that optimize the development of all young people. Specifically, the foundation funds youth development research that enables us to understand how contexts such as families, programs, institutions, and policies influence young people and contribute to the development of their individual strengths, assets, and well-being. The foundation is particularly interested in research on how to improve these contexts. In addition, it also supports research to understand how influential adults use science-based evidence. Within these parameters, the foundation funds research syntheses, experiments, and quasi-experiments, with strong emphasis on experimental methods.

Action Topic: Improving the Quality of After-School Programs The foundation is focusing on a few topics within its overall grant-making program where it believes it can make a difference in the lives of youth. The selection of the topics is guided by three criteria for identifying what the foundation refers to as an “action topic.” The criteria are the following: 1. The topic is important and especially salient to policymakers and practitioners, and will continue to be over the next 3 to 4 years. 2. The foundation and other public and private funders have research, evaluation, policy analyses, and other complementary activities on the topic in the pipeline.

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3. The debate on the topic is amenable to empirical evidence instead of turning solely or mainly on values or ideology. The foundation selected as its first action topic “Improving the Quality of After-School Programs.” Consistent with the three criteria for choosing an action topic, it confirmed that after-school programs and concerns about their uneven quality are on the agenda of federal, state, and local-level policymakers and practitioners. It identified a growing cluster of foundation grantees producing work that is relevant to this issue. And other public and private funders are making a large investment in the supply of these programs, in technical assistance and capacity-building grants meant to improve their quality, and in communication and advocacy efforts meant to draw resources to the field. Last, with input from key advisers, the foundation judged that debate on the topic of quality improvement in after-school programs is amenable to being influenced by empirical evidence. Importantly, the topic of “Improving the Quality of After-School Programs” now firmly anchors and aligns its strategic communication activities. Communication Target: “Key Influentials” The foundation chose to target its communication activities to “key influentials.” Key influentials comprise policymakers, practitioners, scholars, representatives of the media, and advocates—people who are considered particularly knowledgeable and well connected, and who are able to use their knowledge, access, and resources to influence others on matters important to youth. The foundation took this step to create and nourish targeted networks of people who can make things happen in research, policy, and practice. A focus on these individuals and their networks, particularly those involved in its action topics, is integral to the foundation’s strategic communication program. Communication, Not Just Dissemination The foundation also came to the conclusion that one-way communication efforts directed from foundations or their grantees to people who can make a difference only rarely produce changes in policy and practice. This is largely because research is too often not useful or on point to policymakers, practitioners,

and others; and too often these individuals do not have the resources to distinguish good from bad research. As a result, the foundation has adopted a strategy of engaging key influentials in two-way communication activities whose purpose is to build a working relationship among the different groups involved (e.g., researchers, policymakers, and practitioners), where these groups can all come to understand and learn from each other in collaborative fashion, where they can gain a shared understanding of the strengths, limits, and implications of the best empirical evidence available. Significantly, these communication activities will originate mainly, but not exclusively, through intermediary groups or organizations rather than the foundation itself. The intermediary organizations chosen and funded for this purpose will be accustomed to building bridges between particular scientific research communities, policymakers, and practitioners, in many cases by working through their own legislative affairs staffs or their equivalents. The foundation is currently working closely with one intermediary organization, the Forum for Youth Investment, to reach its communication goals in the after-school field. The organization’s bridging activities illustrate what the foundation is trying to do through its strategic communication program. The foundation funded the Forum for Youth Investment to “bridge” or create connections among foundation grantees, practitioners, and policymakers on issues related to improving the quality of afterschool programs. Recently, the Forum brought all of the foundation’s after-school grantees together for two days in Washington, D.C., and helped the foundation begin to form a network among the grantees so that they could understand each other’s projects and see how they can help each other; have the researchers hear from advocates and practitioners about key questions facing policymakers and practitioners so that the research can be more policy and practice relevant; and improve communication plans by having them reviewed by advocates and communication specialists. More such meetings are planned involving this network. The foundation is currently looking for other organizations whose bridge-building expertise is focused on other topics of particular interest to the foundation, such as juvenile justice, diversity and immigration, and the impact of antipoverty policies on children and young people.

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Capacity-Building Activities The William T. Grant Scholars Program is the chief exemplar of the foundation’s efforts to support activities that increase the capacity of scholars and others to develop, understand, and use research. The Scholars Program annually selects four to six promising, early career scholars on the basis of a highly competitive, nationwide selection process and, with grants of up to $300,000 each, supports their research programs over the course of 5 years. The Scholars Program is particularly interested in funding scholars whose research is interdisciplinary, examines young people in social, institutional, community, and cultural contexts, and addresses issues that are relevant to youth-related programs and policies. In addition, through the foundation’s annual Scholars’ Retreat and other activities, the scholars are encouraged to continue inter- and multidisciplinary collaboration and interchange. Now in its 24th year, the William T. Grant Scholars Program has helped develop a cadre of more than 110 scholars. Separately, the foundation has recently enlisted the expertise of two scholars, Steve Raudenbush (University of Michigan) and Howard Bloom (Manpower Development Research Corporation), to work in tandem and help develop grantees’ ability to design, implement, and analyze studies of group-level interventions, and thus contribute to the development of a strong evidence base for public policy. The foundation has taken a keen interest in supporting such studies. This particular capacity-building effort is directly related to the foundation’s encouragement of studies to determine how contexts such as family, programs, and institutions can be improved and the improvements sustained. The foundation plans to introduce additional, new capacity-building activities involving scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in the near future.

Discretionary Grants Program Officers’ Discretionary Grants serve as a flexible mechanism for supporting modest research and communication activities that are consistent with the foundation’s mission. Funding for these projects is under $25,000. The foundation particularly seeks innovative work that may lead to more substantial projects. The foundation also provides Youth Service Grants, another part of the Discretionary Grants Program, to support local youth programs in New York, New Jersey,

and Connecticut. These 1-year grants, which range from $5,000 to $25,000 each, promote projects that actively engage young people and enable them to reach their full potential. These awards are made to taxexempt community-based organizations, youth service agencies, or multiservice centers. Accountability The foundation has adopted a policy of selectively evaluating certain of its program activities or strategies as it undertakes them, as a way to ensure that they are achieving desired ends and to add value to them. It has developed a data-driven framework for evaluating its current initiatives, which involves a number of steps: agreement on the purpose of the evaluation and its audience; development of a clear set of questions and agreement on the data needed to answer them; articulation of a reasonable logic model; assessment of the results by looking for patterns and intended and unintended consequences; and the application of this framework to the foundation’s work. For instance, efforts are underway at the foundation to monitor research grants on an ongoing basis after they have been awarded. These post-award monitoring activities are considered a crucial undertaking to achieving the fundamental goals of the foundation. The key post-award monitoring activities are mainly geared to looking for opportunities to link grantees to each other and to others who should learn from and influence grantee work. Ultimately, the foundation expects to succeed when the research on youth development identifies the features of contexts that improve youth development; when studies of program and system improvement succeed in identifying interventions that durably improve these contexts; and when key influentials use such research findings to improve theory, policy, and practice in ways that demonstrably improve the lives of young people. THE FUTURE Prevailing conditions have called for the foundation to tighten and better define its focus in a quest for greater effectiveness over the next several years. What has resulted is a new, long-term program strategy that integrates the foundation’s grant-making and communication activities. What is in development is a system

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linking these program activities to the foundation’s capacity-building efforts, to its process for evaluating progress made, and to its response to the outputs of that process. The foundation is optimistic that the successful implementation of this coherent plan will contribute to the growth of the youth development field and, eventually, to all of its efforts to create a society that values young people and enables them to reach their potential.

For additional information about the William T. Grant Foundation, visit its Web site at www.wtgrantfoundation.org. The Web site highlights news about the foundation, its programs and grantees, funding guidelines, resources related to its mission, foundation publications (e.g., annual reports, brochures, essays from foundation officers, etc.), and other related information. —Lawrence Gianinno

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H course in developmental psychology taught by Robert Sears and Eleanor Maccoby was a highlight and turning point, convincing Hagen that developmental psychology would be the focus of his graduate training. However, his interests were not so much in social and personality development, which concerned Sears and Maccoby; rather, Hagen wanted to pursue learning and cognitive processes, an interest fostered by early contacts at Stanford with Richard Atkinson, Gordon Bower, Thomas Landauer, and Karl Pribram. Maccoby, who had agreed to serve as Hagen’s adviser, encouraged him to forge a new line of research, one that would draw on the emerging field of cognitive psychology and apply it to questions of cognitive development. Hagen’s emerging commitment to cognitivedevelopmental psychology was strengthened by his participation in 1964 in a summer-long institute on cognitive development at the University of Minnesota. The faculty represented the leaders of the emerging field, including Harold W. Stevenson, Jerome Kagan, Roger Brown, and William Kessen, and their enthusiastic but often differing perspectives on the nature of that field made for a provocative summer, one that reassured Hagen he had found his niche. It was also a time of forging bonds with a cohort of fellow students who would help shape the field, including Leslie B. Cohen, Arnold Sameroff, Tom Achenbach, and Rita deVries. Completing his doctoral studies in 1965, Hagen joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. This was a period when many major universities were beginning to add graduate programs in developmental psychology. At that time, Michigan had a nucleus of developmental psychologists: Lorraine Nadelman,

HAGEN, JOHN WILLIAM John William Hagen was born May 11, 1940, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Wayne S. Hagen, M.D., and Elfie M. Erickson Hagen. Hagen’s father left his home state of South Dakota to pursue medical training at the University of Minnesota, where he met his wife, a nurse at the hospital where he interned. Hagen’s early childhood was spent near Army medical facilities in Rockford, Illinois; Brooklyn, New York; and San Francisco, where his father was stationed as a surgeon during and immediately after World War II. The family returned to Minneapolis in 1948, where Hagen was educated in the public schools and entered the University of Minnesota in 1958, intending to major in architecture. By the end of his sophomore year, however, he was attracted to the behavioral and social sciences, inspired in part by an unforgettable course in introductory psychology taught by David LaBerge (who played the piano in class) and James Jenkins (who fired a blank gun in class to illustrate false memory phenomena). LaBerge invited Hagen to become involved in his research on perceptual scaling; this work led to a presentation at the Midwestern Psychological Association, and Hagen had been hooked by psychology. This decision was reinforced by positive experiences at Minnesota as an undergraduate teaching assistant for courses in introductory psychology and applied psychology. Following LaBerge’s advice, Hagen applied to Stanford for graduate studies in psychology and began there in 1962. Initially, Hagen was not certain how to focus his graduate work. However, an introductory 525

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Klaus Riegel, David Birch, and Ronald Tikofsky. A program was created in 1965 with the hiring of Hagen, David McNeil, who came from Harvard, and Martin Hoffman, who was hired from the MerrillPalmer Institute to direct the new program. Hagen has remained at Michigan throughout his career, having been promoted to associate professor in 1969 and to full professor in 1973. SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS As a graduate student, Hagen’s interests in cognitive development came into focus after reading Donald Broadbent’s (1958) seminal Perception and Communication. In one of the first information processing models in psychology, Broadbent proposed stages of information processing in which filters select certain information to be processed by later, capacity-limited stages. As a developmental psychologist, Hagen wondered how children become adept at attending to certain features of their environment while ignoring others. To address this issue, he created a task in which children were told to remember some stimuli but to ignore others. Subsequently, he tested their ability to recall both types of stimuli. Recall of the former stimuli increased with age, but recall of the latter did not; moreover, only among young adolescents was there a trade-off in the recall of the two types of information: Young adolescents who remembered many of the task-relevant stimuli tended to recall fewer of the task-irrelevant stimuli. The initial studies, conducted during Hagen’s graduate career, spawned a decade’s worth of research showing that children become more flexible in their selective attention as they develop and become better able to determine the circumstances in which it is best to attend selectively (Hagen, 1967; Hagen & Hale, 1973). In the 1970s, Hagen and his colleagues extended this approach to the development of memory. They documented that developmental improvements in skilled use of strategies—viewing remembering as problem solving in which children must use effective means of achieving memory goals—explain why older children and adolescents typically remember more accurately than younger children. Hagen and others (Hagen, 1972; Hagen, Jongeward, & Kail, 1975) went on to create the most widely accepted view of memory development, one that emphasizes three contributing factors: as already described,

strategies; metamemory, which refers to both awareness and control of cognitive processes; and the knowledge base, which refers to declarative and procedural information that is linked to specific domains. Each of these elements changes with age and combined they determine the tasks, contexts, and settings in which children tend to remember accurately. As a graduate student, Hagen was interested in applying developmental research to exceptional children, but he did not pursue that interest systematically until he arrived at Michigan, where several talented graduate students were interested in the development of atypical children. In addition, the chair of Michigan’s psychology department, Wilbert McKeachie, was interested in building relations with the department of psychiatry, so Hagen had a joint appointment there. Finally, Hagen was affiliated with Michigan’s Institute for the Study of Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities, one of the national centers for the study of mental retardation that were created in the 1960s. With these many resources available, Hagen’s research quickly moved in a more applied direction, focusing on development in atypical populations of children. He was among the first wave of investigators to analyze cognitive processes in children with learning disability (LD). In early work, Hagen and Craig Barclay (1982) proposed that the same factors that contribute to memory development in typical children could be extended to the performance of LD children on academic and cognitive tasks. They argued that the success of LD children on such tasks depends on the availability of task-appropriate strategies, taskrelevant knowledge, and their ability to apply such strategies and knowledge (metacognition). Subsequently, Hagen extended this work to children with chronic illness (e.g., diabetes) because such children often have cognitive deficits that resemble those found in children with LD. In the process, Hagen came to view children’s cognitive functioning from a much broader perspective, recognizing that many groups of atypical children share a common profile of cognitive skills and yet emphasizing that a range of developmental, environmental, and cultural factors may influence each group uniquely (Hagen, Kamberelis, & Segal, 1991; Hagen & Myers, 2001). Thus, Hagen’s body of research contributed to more refined models of cognitive development in typical and atypical children and helped to identify the

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circumstances, conditions, and treatments most likely to foster development in atypical children.

CONTRIBUTIONS THROUGH LEADERSHIP Throughout his career, Hagen has contributed to developmental science in various leadership roles. For more than 15 years, he served as chair of Michigan’s graduate program in developmental psychology. In addition, beginning in 1982, he served as director of Michigan’s Center for Human Growth and Development, a leading multidisciplinary center for growth and development with a focus on basic research and application. At the time of Hagen’s appointment, the center still maintained a focus on pediatric dentistry, but during his tenure the behavioral components were strengthened and ties with pediatrics were fostered as well. A final administrative role at the University of Michigan was as director of the Reading and Learning Skills Center from 1985 to 1995. The center’s mission was to provide assessment and intervention, services that were offered to university students as well as to children and adolescents in the community. In addition, Hagen developed it into a training site, where students could do research and work on interventions. Hagen’s most enduring leadership contribution, however, probably has been through the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). His first administrative assignment for SRCD was demonstrated his organization skills. As arrangements chair for the 1971 meeting, he responded quickly to an unanticipated bankruptcy of the originally booked host hotel and arranged for the meeting to be moved successfully to Minneapolis. In 1977, Hagen joined the program committee for the biennial meeting to be held in New Orleans. He chaired that committee for the 1983 meeting in Detroit, which marked the 50th anniversary of SRCD. Working with Alice Smuts, a historian of child development who cochaired the committee to commemorate this occasion, kindled an interest in the history of SRCD (Smuts & Hagen, 1985). In 1988, Dorothy Eichorn, who had served as the society’s executive officer since 1971, elected to retire. The governing council of SRCD decided that the society should continue to be university based, with a faculty member as executive officer. Hagen was offered the position and took up this role in 1989.

Although deciding to remain university based, SRCD also chose to centralize many functions in the executive office. As in many similar professional organizations, the four key elements in SRCD are membership, publications, meetings, and investments. Previously, these tasks had been performed in different offices; under Hagen’s guidance, they were gradually transferred to the executive office. Another important feature of SRCD during Hagen’s period of leadership has been continued emphasis on diversity within the society. This emphasis has come in many forms. There has been sustained support within SRCD for issues of special concern to members who represent minority groups as well as for the fostering of research on children from minority groups. Emphasis on diversity also has been evident in efforts to expand the scope of SRCD beyond North America. Here too the emphasis comes in different forms: in encouraging developmental scientists who live outside North America to participate actively in SRCD, and in encouraging all scientists to study development in an international context through, for example, crossnational collaborations. A final push for diversity has been disciplinary: Traditionally, psychology has been the most common discipline for SRCD members, but the range of disciplines within the society continues to grow, including greater numbers of, for example, sociologists and economists. These different disciplines bring unique concerns for children and unique methods for understanding child development, and they make possible multidisciplinary research that crosses traditional scientific boundaries. One part of SRCD’s mission that Hagen has emphasized is to encourage the application of research findings. In pursuit of this goal, SRCD publishes Social Policy Report, both to provide policymakers with relevant research and to inform researchers about the state of policy-related research. In addition, an SRCD Office for Policy and Communication was opened in Washington, D.C., in 2000, with the aim of fostering dissemination of research findings and using this information to inform public policy. To accomplish these aims, this office administers a fellowship program in which researchers spend a year working in a congressional office or federal agency, and publishes the Washington Update, a monthly bulletin that provides information concerning research and policies that affect children and families.

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CONTRIBUTIONS AS A MENTOR Over his 40-year career, Hagen has served as chair or cochair of more than 30 doctoral dissertations and has served on more than 120 doctoral committees of students in psychology, education, and related disciplines. Several of his students have gone on to make important theoretical, empirical, and applied contributions to child development. These include Rosalind Folman (resilience in children in foster care), Daniel P. Hallahan (training cognitive skills in children with disabilities), Robert V. Kail (information processing in children), Susan Randolph (factors concerning performance in minority children and at-risk infants), Keith Stanovich and Richard West (theoretical and applied research on the factors underlying reading acquisition), and Joseph Torgesen (identifying and remediating learning disabilities). —Robert Kail

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Broadbent, D. E. (1958). Perception and communication. New York: Pergamon. Hagen, J. W. (1967). The effect of distraction on selective attention. Child Development, 38, 685–694. Hagen, J. W. (1972). Strategies for remembering. In S. Farnham-Diggory (Ed.), Information processing in children (pp. 65–79). New York: Academic. Hagen, J. W., & Barclay, C. R. (1982). The development of memory skills in children: Portraying learning disabilities in terms of strategy and knowledge deficiencies. In W. Cruickshank (Ed.), Coming of age: The best of ACLD (Vol. 3, pp. 127–141). New York: Syracuse University Press. Hagen, J. W., & Hale, G. A. (1973). The development of attention in children. In A. Pick (Ed.), Minnesota symposia on child psychology (Vol. 7, pp. 117–140). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Hagen, J. W., Jongeward, R. H., & Kail, R. V. (1975). Cognitive perspectives on the development of memory. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 10, pp. 57–101). New York: Academic. Hagen, J. W., Kamberelis, G., & Segal, S. (1991). A dimensional approach to cognition and academic performance in children with medical problems or learning difficulties. In L. V. Feagans, E. J. Short, & L. J. Meltzer (Eds.), Subtypes of learning disabilities: Theoretical perspectives and research (pp. 53–82). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Hagen, J. W., & Myers, J. (2001). Chronic illness in adolescence. In J. V. Lerner & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Adolescence in America: An encyclopedia (Vol. 1, pp. 118–122). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Smuts, A. B., & Hagen, J. W. (Eds.). (1985). History and research in child development: In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the society. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(4–5).

HALL, G. STANLEY Granville Stanley Hall (1844–1924) was a pioneer psychologist in America whose contributions had a substantial impact on the evolution of the discipline. His work was particularly crucial to the emergence of developmental psychology, and he is often identified as the “father of developmental psychology.” However, his influence was considerably broader. He is especially remembered for his organizational abilities, including his creation of the first psychology journals in the United States and his role in the founding of the American Psychological Association. It was at his invitation that Sigmund Freud made his only visit to the United States, resulting in widespread dissemination of the ideas behind psychoanalysis and giving the movement a legitimacy it did not formerly possess. Despite Hall’s successes, he was a controversial figure. His writings and research were often strongly criticized, and his personal style frequently resulted in clashes with other important pioneers in psychology. The “recapitulation theory” he promoted was considered outmoded even in his day, and his emphasis on topics such as sex and religion added to the controversy. His criticism of other professionals could be biting, and his claims for himself were sometimes extravagant. Nonetheless, his influence was substantial, and his role as a founder of developmental psychology is unequaled. THE BEGINNINGS Stanley Hall, as he was known, was born in western Massachusetts in the small town of Ashfield on February 1, 1844. His parents, Abigail Beals and Granville Bascom Hall, were farmers, descended on both sides from early New England settlers. His mother held strong religious beliefs and hoped that her son would become a minister. As a youth, Stanley was bright and ambitious but out of step with his small-town environment. He attended nearby Williams College, where he developed a strong interest in

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philosophy. After graduation, he traveled to New York City to attend Union Theological Seminary to become a minister, a choice that pleased his mother (Ross, 1972). New York City was a revelation to the young man. For the first time, he could engage in activities that his strict religious upbringing had denied him. He attended one of the very first musical comedies ever produced in New York. Using money from a loan, he traveled to Europe and, while there, began considering a career as an academic. His studies, most of which took place at the University of Berlin, helped to expand his horizons even further. After more than a year in Europe, his money ran out and he returned to the United States. He completed his studies at the seminary, but his future was still uncertain. A brief trial run as a minister was unsuccessful. After 2 years as a tutor, he was able to obtain a position at Antioch College in Ohio, where he taught a wide range of courses and remained for 4 years. It was during this period that he first read about the new psychology being discussed in Germany by Wilhelm Wundt (Ross, 1972). He left Antioch and enrolled in a doctoral program in philosophy at Harvard University. There he became friends with William James, only 2 years older than he. A few years earlier, James had begun to teach the “new” psychology, the first in the United States to do so. In 1878, Hall received his PhD from Harvard under James. Since his topic, the muscular perception of space, reflected some of the concerns of the new psychology, his degree was granted in that discipline. His degree is usually considered the first PhD degree granted in psychology in the United States, and perhaps the first in the world. RETURN TO GERMANY After graduation, Hall left for Germany for further study. He returned first to Berlin, and then participated in some of the inaugural research at the newly founded laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig in 1879. The founding of Wundt’s laboratory is considered a landmark event in the development of experimental psychology. Although Hall is sometimes referred to as Wundt’s first American student, he conducted no research with Wundt. During this period he was exposed to the evolutionary theory of Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist. The theory is frequently summarized in the phrase “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” and maintains that individuals

pass through the evolutionary phases of the species in the course of their development. This belief would later become a cornerstone of much of Hall’s writing about development (Hogan, 1991). While in Germany, he became reacquainted with a young woman, Cornelia Fisher, who had been a student at Antioch College and had come to Europe to study art. She and Hall were married in Berlin in 1879 and returned to the United States the following year. Their future did not look bright. Hall was in debt, with no job prospects, and his wife was pregnant with their first child. He tried to secure a university appointment without success. He even considered becoming a physician. Instead, he decided on another direction. Using information he had acquired in Germany, he merged his ideas on education with the new psychology. He presented these ideas in public lectures, arguing that psychology could provide a scientific basis for the education of children. At the time, psychology was almost entirely an academic discipline, with little potential for and a sparse history of practical application. EARLY CAREER Fortunately for Hall, his promises came at exactly the right time. For several years, there had been a “child study movement” developing in America. This was a child-focused social movement that attempted to provide a better environment for children in a variety of ways, including compulsory education, childfriendly labor laws, and special courts for children. Hall’s promises struck a positive chord with parents and educators. He conducted some rudimentary survey research on children’s thoughts (Hall, 1883), based on research that he had read in Germany, and it was well received. In a relatively brief time, he emerged as one of the leaders of the child study movement in America. Hall continued to lecture over a period of 2 years, and by all accounts his lectures were a personal and professional success (Ross, 1972). Before long, he was offered, and accepted, a position at Johns Hopkins University. He earned a comfortable salary—he needed it since he was now the father of two children—and he quickly settled into the life of a university professor. In 1883, he developed the first research laboratory in psychology in the United States. (James had put together a small demonstration laboratory at Harvard earlier, but it was not primarily for research.) In 1887,

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Hall also began publishing the American Journal of Psychology, the first journal devoted to psychology in America. However, Hall’s life would soon take another dramatic turn. In 1888, Hall received an offer to be president of a new university that Jonas Clark was planning for Worcester, Massachusetts. The university, named after Clark, was opened in 1889 as a graduate center, not unlike Johns Hopkins. Jonas Clark had intended to found an undergraduate institution, but Hall had been able to change his mind. By all accounts, Hall assembled one of the finest faculties ever to grace any university (Sokal, 1990). But there were dark clouds on the horizon. Hall’s difficulties began with a personal tragedy. While he was away from his home, recovering from an illness, his wife and daughter were asphyxiated in a home accident. His son, who was in a different part of the house, survived. It seemed at first that Hall would quit the university, but he returned in the fall with renewed vigor. However, his benefactor, Jonas Clark, was now beginning to have doubts about the university. Apparently, the project was costlier than he had anticipated, and his relationship with Hall was not good. Eventually, he withdrew his financial support from the university. Hall carried on, but his relationships with his faculty suffered. After a particularly difficult period, many faculty and students left to join the newly formed University of Chicago. Although Clark University remained strong in psychology, it was many years before it regained its strength in other areas. Hall remained bitter about this episode until the end of his life (Hall, 1923). THE INNOVATOR In the immediate aftermath of these difficulties, Hall continued to try to exercise his leadership in the psychology community. In 1891, he founded Pedagogical Seminary, a journal of development (now published as the Journal of Genetic Psychology). In 1892, he called a number of distinguished psychologists together, resulting in the founding of the American Psychological Association, a group that is now the largest organization of psychologists in the world. Hall was elected its first president. Slowly, he began to shift his interests back to human development. He wrote several articles on “child study” and, in 1904, he published his first book, Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Psysiology [sic],

Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education. Despite its title, the book was about much more than adolescence; it outlined many of Hall’s ideas about human development in general. The book was criticized by several prominent psychologists for a variety of reasons, including its emphasis on sexual issues. By his own admission, Hall was obsessed with sex for most of his life. He even gave speeches on the subject at Clark, but they were eventually discontinued because they attracted too many townspeople. It was, in part, this interest that led him to invite Sigmund Freud to come to America, in the first academic recognition of Freud’s work (Evans & Koelsch, 1985). To be fair, Hall also appreciated some of Freud’s ideas on development, and they shared an interest in psychopathology. The invitation to Freud came as part of a larger conference that Hall convened to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Clark University. Many other distinguished psychologists attended and even gave presentations, but the conference has always been known as the “Freud conference” for its distinguished Austrian guest. In a very real way, the conference introduced psychoanalysis to America. As was often the case, Hall was able to anticipate as well as contribute to trends in social science. Although the practice of psychoanalysis continued to grow, it would be several decades before psychoanalysis became a subject of legitimate interest in most colleges and universities. THE LATER YEARS Hall continued to be very productive in the latter part of his life, developing dozens of questionnaire studies and writing several books. One of those books, Jesus the Christ in the Light of Psychology (1917), was a highly controversial interpretation of the role of Christ in contemporary society, and Hall incorporated many of his ideas on religion into it. (Religion was always a topic of great importance to him.) His book Senescence (1922) addressed development in the last half of life, calling for a scientific understanding of this part of development as he had done earlier for children. As usual, Hall drew on his omnivorous reading both in and outside of psychology to make his point. His final book was Life and Confessions of a Psychologist (1923), an autobiographical account of his life and work. Although unquestionably self-serving, the volume is frequently candid and sometimes

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touching. By Hall’s own admission, it was also selective. In it, he wrote of “the great fatigue” of later years and pondered his relationships with students and colleagues. In some ways, he saw himself as a failure. Certainly, Hall’s legacy is a mixed one. Although his work as an organizer of early American psychology is recognized, not everyone agrees on the value of his contributions. His personal views of evolution, and particularly his belief in recapitulation theory, led him to some highly controversial positions. As a result of those views, he is often labeled racist and sexist. Indeed, many of his writings would seem to confirm that judgment. But his attitudes toward women and African Americans were complex, not simply the result of prejudice. His university was open to African Americans long before most others were, and eventually he opened it to women as well. His last doctoral student was Francis C. Sumner, the first African American man to receive a PhD degree in psychology in the United States. Hall’s impact on developmental psychology is indisputable. He called for a scientific understanding of the child, and he promoted that belief constantly. It was largely through his efforts that the new science of psychology concerned itself with the study of children at all. Moreover, there is evidence for his impact on a variety of groups and movements, including the formation of Parent-Teacher Associations, the Boy Scouts, and even medical education reform (Hogan, 2003). Although his personal efforts to establish norms and a scientific basis for the education of children were weak, several of his students were able to fulfill his promises. Among those students were Lewis M. Terman and Henry H. Goddard, both of whom were central to the development and promotion of intelligence testing in America, and Arnold L. Gesell, whose norms for child development are still in common use today. Hall retired from Clark University in 1920 after more than 30 years of service. He was elected president of the American Psychological Association for a second time, but he did not live to complete his term. He died on April 24, 1924. —John D. Hogan and Thomas P. Vaccaro

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Evans, R. B., & Koelsch, W. A. (1985). Psychoanalysis arrives in America: The 1909 psychology conference at Clark University. American Psychologist, 40, 942–948.

Hall, G. S. (1883). The contents of children’s minds. Princeton Review, 11, 249–272. Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to psysiology [sic], anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton. Hall, G. S. (1917). Jesus the Christ in the light of psychology. New York: Doubleday. Hall, G. S. (1922). Senescence: The last half of life. New York: D. Appleton. Hall, G. S. (1923). Life and confessions of a psychologist. New York: D. Appleton. Hogan, J. D. (1991). G. Stanley Hall: The founder of the Journal of Genetic Psychology. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 152, 397–403. Hogan, J. D. (2003). G. Stanley Hall: Pioneer of developmental psychology. In G. Kimble & M. Wertheimer, Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 19–36). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Ross, D. (1972). G. Stanley Hall: The psychologist as prophet. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sokal, M. M. (1990). G. Stanley Hall and the institutional character of psychology at Clark 1889–1920. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 26, 114–124.

HEAD START Created in 1965, Project Head Start is an innovative application of developmental science in the public square. It is the nation’s largest, most comprehensive intervention program for low-income preschool children. Head Start currently serves more than 900,000 children in urban and rural areas in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories and is appropriated more than $6.5 billion in annual funding (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2003a). The program is administered centrally by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is the nation’s first comprehensive, developmentally based program created to address the needs of the whole child within a community context. EARLY HISTORY Like many social programs, Head Start emerged out of a particular sociopolitical climate. During the 1960s, the program grew out of the American public’s increasing social consciousness regarding poverty and civil rights and the revival of scientific interest in environmental influences on early development (Zigler & Valentine, 1997). Studies commissioned during the

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Kennedy and Johnson administrations called attention to high levels of poverty in America that “were threatening the nation’s social and economic well-being” (Zigler & Valentine, 1997, p. 4). Further, studies suggested that deep poverty was isolated within communities, destined to be perpetuated in a “cycle of poverty” passed down from generation to generation (Johnson, 1965). Project Head Start was one of the social programs created to break this cycle of poverty in America during what came to be known as the “War on Poverty” in the Johnson administration. In 1964 Head Start emerged from the second component (Community Action Programs [CAP]) of President Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act, creating a compensatory education program for disadvantaged preschoolers (Lubeck, DeVries, Nicholson, & Post, 1997; Zigler & Valentine, 1997). The program was founded on the belief that early educational enrichment could provide a “head start” for low-income children at risk for entering formal schooling behind their more advantaged peers. It was designed to provide such disadvantaged children with a comprehensive intervention to foster their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs. For President Johnson, Project Head Start was a symbol of the “nation’s commitment to the goal that no American child shall be condemned to failure by the accident of his birth” (Zigler & Valentine, 1997). To create this innovative, community-based program, the federal government commissioned a multidisciplinary panel of experts, including physicians, public health experts, psychologists, social workers, and teachers. Using a developmental-ecological approach, Head Start’s founders designed the program to address the needs of the whole child, including the family and community (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). In doing so, Head Start incorporated community partnerships and parental involvement into its multidimensional design, with the intent of producing multiple long-range effects (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Zigler & Valentine, 1997). In the words of one of Head Start’s early planners, George B. Brain, it was intended “to be the foundation for [children’s] long-term education and employment potential as well as health and social well-being” (Zigler & Valentine, 1997). In 1965, Project Head Start was first launched as an 8-week summer program by the Office of Economic Opportunity. Despite objections from some of Head Start’s original planners, who believed that program

implementation should start small so that it could be closely monitored, the program was implemented on a large scale (due to pressure from the Johnson administration). Nearly 560,000 preschoolers attended 13,400 Head Start programs across the nation (Zigler & Valentine, 1997). The program was received so enthusiastically that the Johnson administration expanded it to a full-year program. HEAD START PROGRAM COMPONENTS In keeping with the “whole child” developmentalecological model, Head Start’s program components are comprehensive, including both the child and the child’s context. While initially there were six program components (including early childhood education, parent involvement, health services, mental health services, nutrition, and social services for families), there are currently four broadly defined components: (1) education services, (2) health services, (3) social services, and (4) parent involvement (USDHHS, 1996). Each program component is defined by the Head Start Performance Standards, the federal mandates with which all Head Start grantee programs and delegate agencies must comply (USDHHS, 1996). Created in 1975, the performance standards provide a means for the federal government to monitor program implementation and quality, and adherence to Head Start goals and philosophy (USDHHS, 2003a). Directives for implementation of the most current Head Start program components are housed within the 1996 performance standards. Education and health needs are prioritized, as well as parent and community involvement, based on the premise that it is only through the involvement of these important contributors to children’s development that intervention can influence the lives of children (Zigler & Valentine, 1997). In addition, these program services must be responsive to each child’s ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage (USDHHS, 2003a). The educational services component focuses on the design and implementation of curriculum to enhance children’s school readiness. Key readiness competencies include cognitive (i.e., literacy and numeracy), language, motor, approaches toward learning, social, and emotional domains (USDHHS, 2003b). Fostering children’s early education also includes ongoing assessment of children’s responses to the curriculum. These assessments guide teacher practices and inform parental involvement. Teachers involve parents in a wide range of

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activities to enhance children’s readiness; for example, parents volunteer in the classroom and participate in home-based activities (USDHHS, 2003a). The health services component makes a commitment to children’s health. Child nutrition and safety are promoted through program services and parent education. The program supports parents’ well-child medical care by including health screenings within the program and follow-up diagnostic testing when necessary. Another important area of health services is mental health. Recent research has underscored the significance of early intervention to promote children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment in Head Start (USDHHS, 1996; Yoshikawa & Zigler, 2000). These initiatives are based on studies indicating that early behavioral problems place children at risk for a host of future social and academic difficulties, particularly for vulnerable populations exposed to multiple risks (Knitzer, 2003). The social services component prioritizes supportive services to families. This is timely amidst recent changes in welfare reform (i.e., Welfare to Work Program). Social services focus on child and family needs through family and community partnerships (USDHHS, 1996). These partnerships between families and Head Start social services help families to identify goals and steps to achieve these goals (i.e., parent education, career development, job training, and employment). Social services within Head Start also connect families with additional community resources through referrals (i.e., mental health services, employment services). The parent involvement component is at the foundation of Head Start’s philosophy and is woven throughout the program structure at various levels of program delivery. Consistent with Head Start’s whole child approach, parents are prioritized as the most proximal and significant influence in children’s development. As a comprehensive intervention, Head Start’s approach is considered to have a “two-generational” approach because it focuses not only on the child but the parents as well. Parents are active partners in the implementation of all service components, based on the premise that “effective intervention in the lives of children can only be accomplished through involving parents and the community in the intervention effort” (Zigler & Valentine, 1997, p. 137). Unique to Head Start, parents have a key role in program governance through the policy council. Unlike any other public educational program, Head

Start is mandated to “establish and maintain a formal structure of shared governance through which parents can participate in policymaking and in other decisions about the program” (USDHHS, 1996, 1304.5a1). Parents have power to veto or promote changes in program planning and operations that may affect their children’s development and learning. Parents have influence, therefore, on the program’s budget, policies, curriculum, staffing, and research activities. In addition to participation in program governance, parents are engaged at the community and classroom levels. For example, Head Start parents must volunteer a certain number of hours per year in their child’s classroom. Through their participation in their child’s early educational program, Head Start provides opportunities for parents to acquire more information about child development and education, health, nutrition, and mental health. Based on the whole child model, these opportunities can enhance parents’ growth and development as well—in hopes of fostering parents’ abilities to serve as their children’s primary advocates in the community (to better access quality education, health care, and resources for themselves and their families). HEAD START IMPACT AND PROGRAM EVALUATION Historically, the task of evaluating Head Start’s impact has presented a challenge to the research community. Studies have been problematic primarily for two reasons: they have not focused on the breadth of Head Start’s comprehensive intervention, nor have they considered the complex nature of its diverse populations. From its inception, Head Start has operated from a whole child model, providing an array of services to children and families. However, evaluation strategies typically have focused narrowly on onedimensional outcomes (e.g., IQ or achievement). Evaluations have also utilized assessment instruments that do not reflect the heterogeneity of Head Start’s underserved populations (Fantuzzo, McDermott, Manz, Hampton, & Burdick, 1996; Rogers, 1998). The lack of available measures that are developmentally and culturally appropriate for Head Start’s population has been a major limitation for such evaluations. From initial studies to more recent efforts, it is evident that the research capacity is not yet adequately developed to evaluate the efficacy of comprehensive services for a particularly vulnerable population.

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INITIAL STUDIES Within its first 5 years, Head Start expanded rapidly to provide services to more children nationally. Policymakers and government officials wanted to know, “Does it work?” To respond to this question, the first large-scale federally funded major study was carried out in 1969 by Westinghouse Learning Corporation and Ohio University, commissioned by the Office of Economic Opportunity. The focus of this national evaluation was to determine the psychological and intellectual impact of Head Start on children in the primary grades and its durable benefits (Westinghouse, 1969). The study employed a sample of children from 104 Head Start centers across the country and matched nonparticipants. School achievement for the sample was examined at one point in time for children in first, second, or third grade. Overall the study findings were inconclusive about the sustained impact of Head Start across time and across regions and populations. The study found very few differences in elementary school outcomes between former Head Start children and nonparticipants in primary grades (Westinghouse, 1969). Further, no significant differences were found for former Head Start summer program children. Full-year programs, overall, were shown to be effective in producing gains in cognitive development, although these findings were inconsistent across important subgroups (e.g., center, ethnicity). For example, Head Start programs working with predominantly African American children were shown to be particularly effective in producing gains in children’s cognitive development, while other programs were not. The Westinghouse study was the first major study examining Head Start’s effectiveness. The findings have had a significant influence on policymakers and the general public’s view of Head Start. However, this early evaluation missed its mark by focusing myopically on children’s achievement and cognitive gains (Cole & Washington, 1986; Zigler & Valentine, 1997). Rather than focusing on more comprehensive outcomes (more reflective of Head Start’s intervention focus), “program success” was assessed by gains in standardized measures of IQ and achievement. There was a large backlash from the research community after the Westinghouse Study and other initial studies that utilized decontextualized, unidimensional outcomes. In response, researchers emphasized the need for developmental science to evaluate Head

Start. There was a call for researchers to consider (a) the complex nature of child development, particularly for diverse, low-income populations exposed to multiple risks across contexts; and (b) the comprehensive nature of services provided by Head Start and assess multidimensional outcomes that are developmentally and culturally relevant for Head Start populations. The need for a new conceptualization of Head Start research is underscored in the recent Blueprint document, “Head Start Research and Evaluation: A Blueprint for the Future” (USDHHS, 1990). This report includes multiple recommendations to improve research and evaluation efforts. It recommends (a) shifting focus from Head Start as a “single” or “uniform” intervention to the variability in program implementation across regions and populations; (b) using more diverse methodologies (e.g., case, ethnographic, quasi-experimental, and experimental research) conducted with sensitivity to Head Start communities; and (c) explicitly addressing diverse outcome indices related to children, families, communities, and institutions (USDHHS, 1990). One of the major emphases of this report is that research should utilize outcome indicators that reflect the comprehensive goals of Head Start and that these measures should be reliable and valid for Head Start populations. Logically, the successful implementation of these recommendations in Head Start is contingent on the existing research capacity. Building capacity to create new methodologies that are reliable and valid for Head Start takes time, expertise, and resources. To support this effort, the federal government created opportunities for grant funding to foster university partnerships with community Head Start programs (USDHHS, 1990). These university partnerships promoted (and continue to promote) the effective production of quality Head Start research that protects the interests of local agencies and is sensitive to the needs of minority communities. A recent empirical study indicated that establishing genuine partnerships with Head Start programs helps to build program research capacity so that quality research can be successfully conducted (Lamb-Parker, Greenfield, Fantuzzo, Clark, & Coolahan, 2000). RECENT STUDIES More recently, with increased attention to quality research and the establishment of federal funding for

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university partnerships, there have been a number of key national studies. These studies employ more complex methodologies that include rigorous longitudinal designs and examine multidimensional outcomes. For example, studies examine cognitive, emergent literacy and numeracy, economic, health, social, and socioemotional competencies reflecting more of a whole child approach (Knitzer, 2003; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Research in Head Start has added substantially to our understanding of low-income children’s development and experiences (Harden, 2002). Studies suggest that Head Start children are more likely to enter kindergarten “ready to learn” than their non–Head Start peers, and demonstrate positive gains in social competency, self-esteem, achievement motivation, and reductions in classroom problem behavior (USDHHS, 2003b). Longitudinal studies indicate that Head Start has protective benefits on future kindergarten attendance rates, numeracy, literacy, social conduct, and physical development (Meier, 2003). Further, Head Start reduces the risk for grade repetition, special education, and high school dropout (Barnett, 2002). A major national study (the Family and Child Experiences Survey [FACES]) launched in 1997 by the Department of Health and Human Services seeks to provide comprehensive data about the children, families, and communities Head Start serves. It is currently following nationally representative cohorts of children from Head Start through kindergarten. Findings from this study have increased substantially our knowledge base about the characteristics and life experiences of Head Start children and families (see FACES Progress Reports for 2000–2003). The first major FACES study findings indicate that while children in Head Start enter the program significantly below national norms on measures of literacy and numeracy, Head Start children demonstrate significant gains in these areas as well as in social and emotional development by the end of the Head Start year. These gains endure into kindergarten. The FACES study concludes that the Head Start experience “narrows the gap” for these children (USDHHS, 2003b). Another major national study is being conducted by the ACF Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE), USDHHS. The National Head Start Impact Study is the first large-scale, nationally representative randomized field trial of Head Start. It has two goals: (1) to determine program effect on multiple dimensions of school readiness (including cognitive

development, general knowledge, approaches to learning, socioemotional development, communication skills, physical development, and well-being); and (2) to determine the type and quality of programming associated with most beneficial outcomes (USDHHS, 2003c).

FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR HEAD START As Head Start moves into its fifth decade, it sits squarely at the juncture of public policy and applied developmental science. In this unique position, Head Start faces two demands: (1) to expand to meet the ever-growing needs of our most vulnerable children at risk for educational failure; and (2) to empirically document its efficacy to fiscally conservative federal policymakers. In response to the first demand, Head Start is strategically positioned to provide developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive, and community-based services for the most vulnerable population in America (Fantuzzo, McWayne, & Bulotsky, 2003). The second challenge for Head Start is the challenge for applied developmental science. More than a decade ago, the “Blueprint for the Future” (USDHHS, 1990) document appropriately challenged developmental researchers. It charged researchers to develop more sophisticated methods that reflect Head Start’s whole child model and the diversity of the population it serves. An emphasis on investigating the variability within diverse populations has been an important advance in developmental science (Garcia-Coll & Vazquez Garcia, 1995). This advance is responsive to the Blueprint’s call for multidimensional approaches that examine the distinctive features within certain populations as a prerequisite for looking comparatively across groups. Studying within-group variability coupled with efforts to develop valid measures for diverse populations holds great promise for more precise evaluation of Head Start’s effectiveness. Head Start endures as a strategic agency for promoting change in the lives of low-income children and families. As history reflects, research in Head Start relies on the state of developmental science. It is our charge to continue to advance the field and apply research gains to benefit Head Start—a program pressed to meet the needs of vulnerable children. —John W. Fantuzzo, Rebecca J. Bulotsky Shearer, and Yumiko Sekino

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Barnett, W. S. (2002, September 13). The battle over Head Start: What the research shows. Presentation at a science and public policy briefing sponsored by the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences, Washington, DC. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cole, O. J., & Washington, V. (1986). A critical analysis of the assessment of the effects of Head Start on minority children. The Journal of Negro Education, 55(1), 91–106. Fantuzzo, J. W., McDermott, P. A., Manz, P. H., Hampton, V. R., & Burdick, N. A. (1996). The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance: Does it work with lowincome urban children? Child Development, 67(3), 1071–1084. Fantuzzo, J., McWayne, C., & Bulotsky, R. (2003). Forging strategic partnerships to advance mental health science and practice for vulnerable children. School Psychology Review, 32(1), 17–37. Garcia-Coll, C., & Vazquez Garcia, H. A. (1995). Hispanic children and their families: On a different track from the very beginning. In H. E. Fitzgerald, B. M. Lester, & B. Zuckerman (Eds.), Children in poverty: Research, health, and policy issues (pp. 57–83). New York: Garland. Harden, B. J. (2002). Towards evidence-based early intervention. Head Start Bulletin, 74, 3–5. Johnson, L. B. (1965). The economic report of the president, January 20, 1964. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Knitzer, J. (2003). Social and emotional development in young low-income children: What research tells us and why it matters for early school success. Testimony presented at the Head Start Hearing, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC. Lamb-Parker, F., Greenfield, D. B., Fantuzzo, J. W., Clark, C., & Coolahan, K. C. (2000). Shared decision making in early childhood research: A foundation for successful communityuniversity partnerships. NHSA Dialog, 3(2), 234–257. Lubeck, S., DeVries, M., Nicholson, J., & Post, J. (1997). Head Start in transition. Early Education and Development, 8(3), 219–244. Meier, J. (2003). Kindergarten readiness study: Head Start success. San Bernardino, CA: Preschool Services Department of San Bernardino County. Rogers, M. R. (1998). Psychoeducational assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse children and youth. In H. B. Vance (Ed.), Psychological assessment of children: Best practices for school and clinical settings (2nd ed., pp. 355–384). New York: Wiley. Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. A. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1990). Head Start research and evaluation: A blueprint for the future. Recommendations of the Advisory Panel for Head Start

Evaluation Design Project. Washington, DC: Administration on Children, Youth and Families. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1996). Final rule: Program performance standards for the operation of Head Start programs by grantee and delegate agencies (No. 45 CFR Part 1304). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003a). Head Start Bureau. Available at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/ programs/hsb/ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003b). Head Start FACES (2000): A whole child perspective on program performance—Fourth progress report. Available at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/core/on-going_research/ faces/faces_pubs_reports.html U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003c). Head Start Impact Study: Brief study overview. Available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/core/ongoing_research/ hs/impact_intro.html Westinghouse. (1969). The Impact of Head Start: An evaluation of the effects of Head Start on children’s cognitive and affective development. Washington, DC: Office of Economic Opportunity, No. PS 002 603. Yoshikawa, H., & Zigler, E. (2000). Mental health in Head Start: New directions for the twenty-first century. Early Education and Development, 11, 247–264. Zigler, E., & Valentine, J. (Eds.). (1997). Project Head Start: A legacy of the War on Poverty (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: National Head Start Association.

HEALTH, PHYSICAL. See ASTHMA IN ADOLESCENCE; CELIAC DISEASE; CULTURE AND HEALTH; DIABETES; GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS, DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF; POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION; SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS); WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

HELMS, JANET E. At the threshold of a new millennium, and five decades after the birth of the U.S. civil rights movement, it is with some irony that the phenomenon of race continues to be marginally attended in the work of U.S. psychological theorists, researchers, and practitioners. The civil rights movement was instrumental in giving voice to the silenced masses and raising the

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consciousness of a society weighed down by unfair stratifications. With the charge to serve the welfare of the public by promoting mental health, psychologists have needed somehow to shift their thinking and practices to better account for previously marginalized voices and reassess their understanding of constructs such as cognitive, personality, and affective development, coping and adaptation, and their skills as practitioners. But the mainstream literature of the past 30 years or more has not been the best source from which educators and practitioners can draw to gain an understanding about race. Investigators have relied too heavily on research participants’ self-identified race as the sole means for interpreting (or rather speculating about) “racial” findings (Helms, 1994a, 1994b; Thompson, Shin, & Stephens, in press). Textbooks on psychological practice address matters of race (and culture) when referring only to non-White racial groups and thus overlook the relevance of race to Whites. Authors of these instructional guides also attend rarely to the dialectical construction of race that is witnessed when people interact with others of different or similar races, as in the context of counseling and psychotherapy (Thompson, in press). And although the rise in multicultural research studies would lead seemingly to an increase in our understanding of race as a component of psychological processes, researchers instead use the terms race, culture, and ethnicity interchangeably and hence collude in the obscuring of these constructs. Indeed, Helms (1994a) proposed that multiculturalism, though a useful term for encouraging discussion about matters of culture in general, “is virtually useless as a scientific construct” (p. 162). She stated further that “in particular, the lack of specificity about which aspects of individual diversity are appropriately subsumed under the rubric of multiculturalism has contributed to considerable confusion in theory, research, and practice” (p. 162). Why do so many people sway away from a study of race as a subject necessary to an understanding of psychological and interpersonal processes? It is precisely in this question that Janet Helms has invested her years as a scholar and educator. From early on in her career, Helms recognized that the binds and absurdities that characterize racial lives are qualities that help to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon of race. Her life’s work has helped researchers and practitioners throughout the world contemplate and

correct the untoward effects of racism on psychological development, individual and group relations, and societal harmony. RACE AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT Whereas psychologists have generally tended to diminish or distort the works of scholars across disciplines who have shown that race resides in our everyday lives (see discussions by Gaines & Reed, 1995; Smedley, 1993), Helms has brilliantly maintained an approach to theorizing and studying race that is uncompromised and uncompromising. She confronts the study of race with complexity, understanding that the phenomenon is experienced differently depending on the racialized vantage points of the referent group (Helms, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990e, 1995; Takaki, 1994) and that internalized racism has to be enfolded into our understanding to account for the proliferating impact of rampant racism. Her contribution to the research literature on race is voluminous and can be said to constitute the definitive word on race as a psychological construct. She has published five books on or related to racial identity theory, and scores of book chapters, refereed articles, and monographs geared to developing the theory, devising measures and protocols for assessing racial profiles of individuals and contexts, and applying the theory to a variety of settings like schools and organizations. Her 1990 book, Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research, and Practice, is the first collection of its kind, a compilation of research studies and theoretical formulations about the psychological ramifications of race based on her formative elaboration of Cross’s (1970) model of psychological Nigrescence. In her later works (Helms, 1995; Helms & Cook, 1999), Helms elaborates further on her own model, refining it to reflect research and observations of practice. ADDRESSING THE SOCIOPOLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF RACE-RELEVANT POLICIES Helms is also widely known for raising questions, studying, and attempting to offer solutions to the weighty dilemmas of our times, like high-stakes testing, cognitive abilities assessment, racial disparities in organizational and institutional decisions, and the mental health needs of women of color (Helms, 1990a, 1990b, 1992). The reasons for her passion in

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studying race, and the marginalization and unjust treatment of humans in general, are not entirely clear. Indeed, Helms expressed in a narrative about her life that she could identify no role models who directly influenced her work (Helms, 2001), yet it is clear that at least some part of her commitment to nag at a climate in which issues of race are perpetually diminished is her desire to facilitate well-being and harmony to individuals, all individuals, whose lives are affected by the pathology of racism and other structures of disadvantage. This focus on health and harmony necessarily transfers to the belief that people function better and with greater harmony when the communities in which they live and function are also harmonious. The pronouncement of Helms’s commitment to harmony might come as a surprise to some, because generally, people who attune to matters of race, particularly people of color, are often met with heated reactions and are no strangers to intense conflict. During public lectures, Helms has revealed instances in which she has been accused by audience members and journal and book reviewers of being preoccupied or angry, or as stirring problems of race. The tenor of these reactions is that the subject of race is best left alone; color blindness is a more ideal path to human understanding and harmony. But Helms consistently points out in her writings that prolonged avoidance of race as a strategy to cope with the phenomenon diminishes an understanding of its impact on the functioning of societies and on mental health. In a recent interview, I asked her to describe the essence of what it means to achieve or aspire to the final status of racial identity theory. She stated that it is when the “self becomes the other and the other becomes the self” (Helms, 2003, personal communication). Developing racial identity is that transformation that aligns people to each other. HELMS’S IDENTITY THEORY The basic foundation of Helms’s racial identity theory, described originally in a 1984 article published in The Counseling Psychologist, is that a person in a position of influence can capably transcend the problems that cause people to dehumanize themselves and others by skillfully confronting matters of race. The impact of race is pervasive and simultaneously diminished as incidental. Popular media and acceptable language locates race as residing solely in the bodies of non-Whites. Racist ideology has taken the lives of millions of people in the past few centuries alone.

In Helms’s vision, moving beyond the painfully unjust and inhuman manifestations of race entails efforts to peel away the layers that have influenced divisions among people. Restoring history and commemorating past struggles are part of the necessary reconstruction that makes identities whole rather than fragmented. And yet another component of the reconstruction is to approach racial situations with the goal of achieving mutual understanding and respect. The value of examining societal racial interactions using my models is that such situations may be rendered less mysterious and thus, more manageable. Clearly, for example, if one knows that potential participants in a dialogue are crossed with respect to racial identity [not sharing similar racial identity statuses], then it is foolhardy to expect them to make peace without a peacemaker who can acknowledge the racial identity concerns underlying their various perspectives. Ideally, my model will allow people not only to mediate racial problems once they have occurred but to anticipate and resolve tensions before they become problems. (Helms, 1995, p. 196) RECOGNIZING THE MARGINALIZED AND THE PRIVILEGED Helms’s inclusion of marginalized voices is necessary to an evolving understanding of race and its impact on psychological processes. She is mindful not only of these perspectives, but also respectful of them. During lectures, she shows her insistence on educating people about marginalized perspectives by showing how her own life experiences as an African American woman reflects a catapulting between invisibility and hypervisibility (see also Williams, 1997). And with the use of humor and wit, Helms helps her audiences consider the absurdities that surround their lives. Her messages are not lighthearted musings, but rather are efforts to urge her audiences to take glimpses of reality that are often below the surface of consciousness. As Helms stated in our interview, “For some people, humor is what we need to deal with life” (Helms, 2003, personal communication). A sage who promotes moral lessons about life when she speaks, Helms attempts frequently to expose the illusion that the lives and experiences of sociopolitically dominant and subordinate groups are similarly bogged down by universal (human) problems,

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a strategy used by many to erase a painful reality of racism (see Neville, Worthington, & Spanierman, 2001, for an excellent discussion about color blindness). For example, in an autobiographical essay, Helms (2001) responded to one question from a group of graduate student regarding the event or events that have saddened her the most about her formal education in Kansas and Iowa. “If anything saddens me, it is that the Rockefellers, Fords, or Kennedys didn’t send their children to public schools in the Midwest. I might have acquired more connections” (p. 24). In this statement, Helms seems to be urging readers (and the graduate students) to think about the privileges that help pave successful material lives based on some people’s racial and economic stature in society. She also seems to be encouraging her audience to appreciate that her own life was not paved with such connections, as are the lives of so many, and that we need to constantly evaluate our often unchecked assumptions about success in appraising people and their value to us. CONTINUING ACCOMPLISHMENTS It is perchance this gift of wit and wisdom that has been passed down to her from her family of storytellers (Carter, 1995) and that has garnered praise from many of her students and colleagues. In 1991, she was the first recipient of the Teachers College Columbia University’s Janet E. Helms Award for Scholarship and Research Mentoring. The award, named in her honor, is given annually to the person who best exemplifies her accomplishments in training culture-focused researchers. It is befitting that her stories, a form of cultural transmission that at once entertains and informs, are something for which she is known and that capture a tradition of generations past. Helms is the originator of the Black and White Racial Identity Workshop, a training module presented in three states in the United States, and has spoken throughout the country and in South Africa on race, poverty, and gender for professional audiences. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Counseling Psychology and in the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Diversity, each appointment awarded in recognition of outstanding and unusual contributions to the science and profession of psychology. She was also the recipient of the University of Maryland’s

Outstanding Minority Faculty Member of the Year Award in 1991, and the first recipient of the University of Maryland’s Multicultural Community Classroom Climate Award in 1990. In 1999, she received the Distinguished Career Contribution to Research for Division 45 of the APA, the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Diversity. And in 2002, she was selected to receive the highest research award in counseling psychology, the Leona Tyler Award, for her outstanding contribution to the field of racialcultural psychology. Helms was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, “the second born and the first daughter in a family of seven children and in an extended family network” (Carter, 1995, p. 73). Knowing from an early age that she wanted to practice psychology, Helms received her PhD in psychology with a major in counseling psychology from the Iowa State University of Science and Technology. She received her bachelor of art and master of art degrees from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1968 and 1970, respectively. She attended predominantly Black grade schools, experiences to which she attributes her ability to survive in subsequent settings that were predominantly White. Helms’s first professional job was a joint position as an assistant professor at Washington State University’s department of education and in the university’s Student Counseling Center. After 2 years, she taught as an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, was promoted to associate professor, and after 4 years she joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the department of psychology. Promoted to full professor in 1991, Helms remained on the faculty at the University of Maryland for 18 years, and eventually left to join the counseling psychology faculty of Boston College in January 2000 as professor of counseling psychology. As part of her appointment, Helms founded and currently directs the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture (ISPRC). The institute seeks to “promote the assets and address the societal conflicts associated with race or culture in theory and research, mental health practice, education, business, and societies at large” (http://www.bc.edu/isprc). A statement laden with an understanding of the complexities inherent in race and culture (as possessing both conflicts and assets), the mission of the institute is clearly consistent with Helms’s resolve to continue

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to examine empirically the impact of race and culture on psychological and interpersonal processes. It also bespeaks the life dream of Janet Helms by developing a forum that can help psychologists and other professionals in racialized societies like the United States recognize and approach their work with an eye toward greater inclusion and social justice. —Chalmer E. Thompson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Carter, R. T. (1995). Pioneers of multicultural counseling: An interview with Janet E. Helms. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 23, 73–86. Cross, W. E., Jr. (1970). The Negro-to-Black conversion experience: Toward a psychology of Black liberation. Black World, 20, 13–27. Gaines, S. O., Jr., & Reed, E. S. (1995). Prejudice: From Allport to Du Bois. American Psychologist, 50, 96–103. Helms, J. E. (1984). Toward a theoretical explanation of the effects of race on counseling: A Black and White model. The Counseling Psychologist, 12, 153–165. Helms, J. E. (1989). Considering some methodological issues in racial identity counseling research. The Counseling Psychologist, 17, 227–252. Helms, J. E. (1990a). Applying the interaction model to social dyads. In J. E. Helms (Ed.), Black and White racial identity: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 177–185). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Helms, J. E. (1990b). Black and White racial identity: Theory, research, and practice. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Helms, J. E. (1990c). Generalizing racial identity interaction theory to groups. In J. E. Helms (Ed.), Black and White racial identity: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 187–204). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Helms, J. E. (1990d). Three perspectives on counseling visible racial/ethnic group clients. In F. C. Serfica, A. I. Schwebel, R. K. Russell, P. D. Isaac, & L. B. Myers (Eds.), Mental health of ethnic minorities (pp. 171–201). New York: Praeger. Helms, J. E. (1990e). Training manual for diagnosing racial identity in social interactions. Topeka, KS: Content Communications. Helms, J. E. (1992). A race is a nice thing to have. Topeka, KS: Content Communications. Helms J. E. (1994a). The conceptualization of racial identity and other “racial” constructs. In E. J. Trickett, R. J. Watts, & D. Birman (Eds.), Human diversity: Perspectives on people in context (pp. 285–311). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Helms, J. E. (1994b). How multiculturalism obscures racial factors in the psychotherapy process. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41, 162–165. Helms, J. E. (1994c). Racial identity in the school environment. In P. Pederson & J. Carey (Eds.), Multicultural counseling in schools (pp. 19–37). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Helms, J. E. (1995). An update of Helms’s White and People of Color racial identity models. In J. P. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 181–198). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Helms, J. E. (2001). Life stories. In J. P. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 22–29). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Helms, J. E., & Cook, D. A. (1999). Using race and culture in counseling and therapy. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Neville, H. A., Worthington, R. L., & Spanierman, L. B. (2001). Race, power, and multicultural counseling psychology: Understanding White privilege and color-blind racial attitudes. In J. P. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 257–288). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Smedley, A. (1993). Race in North America: Origins and evolution of a worldview. Boulder, CO: Westview. Takaki, R. (Ed.). (1994). From different shores: Perspectives on race and ethnicity in America (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Thompson, C. E. (in press). Psychological theory and culture: Implications for practitioners. In R. T. Carter (Ed.), Handbook of racial-cultural psychology. New York: Prentice Hall. Thompson, C. E., Shin, C. E., & Stephens, J. A. (in press). Race and research evidence. In R. T. Carter (Ed.), Handbook of racial-cultural psychology. New York: Prentice Hall. Williams, P. J. (1997). Seeing a color-blind future: The paradox of race. New York: Noonday.

HIV PREVENTION IN YOUNG ADULTS Since AIDS was first identified in 1981, globally, 70 million persons have been infected with HIV, and 28 million have died (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS], 2002). In the United States, the cumulative number of reported AIDS cases is more than 816,000, nearly 468,000 of whom have died. Approximately 40,000 Americans contract HIV infection every year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Young adults are the highest group at risk for HIV infections, especially those aged 15 to 24 and women of childbearing age. Despite the availability of effective treatment for HIV disease and extensive evidence that it is preventable through behavior change, the epidemic remains a significant global public health issue.

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A substantial body of research has established the effectiveness of theoretically based HIV prevention interventions to assist individuals in changing highrisk sexual and injection-related behaviors. A significant majority of this research has been conducted with young adults. Randomized, controlled trials have demonstrated the efficacy of HIV prevention intervention on behavior change, with some studies utilizing sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV incidence to support self-reported behavior change. HIV primary prevention has been successfully conducted at multiple levels of intervention, including individual, dyad, group, community, and structural interventions. INDIVIDUAL- AND GROUP-LEVEL INTERVENTION HIV prevention interventions targeting individuallevel change are face-to-face interventions implemented with individuals, couples, and groups of at-risk individuals. The majority of randomized, controlled trials have primarily described the effects of cognitivebehavioral group interventions that are intended to develop risk reduction skills. Most interventions combine in various ways HIV risk education, encouraging beliefs and intentions to reduce risk behavior, development of skills related to sexual communication and negotiation, condom use skills, risk behavior selfmanagement skills, problem solving related to risk reduction, peer support of behavior change efforts, and maintenance of behavioral changes. These studies have been shown to be effective in reducing HIV risk behaviors, as assessed by increased condom use, decreased number of partners, and decreased drug use and injection behavior. Project RESPECT, the largest randomized, controlled trial of individual HIV prevention counseling, was conducted among young adults in STD clinics (Kamb et al., 1998). In a comparison of three individual counseling models, both a two-session brief counseling and an enhanced four-session intervention reduced the frequency of unprotected sexual intercourse and the incidence of new STDs among participants, in comparison to a standard of care, didactic risk education only, control condition. A limited number of couples intervention studies have been implemented. For example, Padian, O’Brien, Chang, Glass, and Francis (1993) conducted a cognitivebehavioral counseling intervention for HIV serodiscordant couples that resulted in a significant increase

in consistent condom use and no seroconversions among the HIV-negative partners. The most extensively studied HIV prevention approach has been the small-group, cognitivebehavioral risk reduction intervention. A large number of randomized controlled trials have documented the efficacy of this approach across a variety of populations, including gay and bisexual men, at-risk women, drug users, adolescents, STD patients, homeless persons, and those with serious mental illness. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Multisite Prevention Trial (1998), conducted with nearly 3,700 men and women from STD and primary care clinics across seven cities in the United States, exemplifies this intervention approach. Participants were randomly assigned to a seven-session, cognitive-behavioral skill training group, as described, or a one-session educational control group. One year following the intervention, those assigned to the multisession group exhibited a reduction in HIV risk behavior across a variety of sexual behaviors, including consistent condom use, abstaining from sexual intercourse, reductions in the frequency of unprotected intercourse, and reduction in STD symptoms and STD incidence (in males). This type of multisession skills training group intervention is considered state-of-thescience in HIV prevention and has been broadly disseminated for use in community-based HIV prevention services. COMMUNITY-LEVEL INTERVENTIONS Community intervention approaches can enhance HIV prevention efforts by providing strategies to intervene on a larger scale. Controlled community-level intervention trials to prevent HIV have been successfully undertaken with gay men, inner-city women, and injection drug users. While these interventions have differed in approach, they are intended to reduce risk among communities by population-level changes in social norms concerning sexual and drug use risk behaviors, risk awareness and risk reduction attitudes, and collective self-efficacy related to behavior change. For example, a randomized, multisite communitylevel trial was undertaken with women living in 18 low-income housing developments in five U.S. cities (Sikkema et al., 2000). In nine of the developments, a multicomponent intervention that included HIV riskreduction workshops and community HIV prevention activities and events was implemented by women who

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were identified as popular opinion leaders among their peers. In comparison to women in the nine control developments where HIV-AIDS educational materials and condoms were made available, women in the intervention developments reported an increase in condom-protected intercourse and a decrease in reports of any unprotected intercourse. Communitylevel interventions that involve and empower young adult women in neighborhood-based HIV prevention activities can bring about reductions in high-risk sexual behaviors. STRUCTURAL AND POLICY INTERVENTIONS Structural interventions include promoting and implementing changes in laws, policies, and social structures that influence risk behavior and reduction of HIV transmission. A variety of innovative interventions have been implemented that have effectively reduced risk among young adults. Among the best known interventions are laws and policies that improve access to clean syringes for injection drug users, including needle exchange programs and availability of syringes in pharmacies. These interventions have reduced the frequency of needle sharing and HIV transmission. Other effective structural interventions have included the 100% condom policy in brothels in Thailand, increased alcohol taxes that have been linked to reductions in STD rates, and condom social marketing programs. GLOBAL ISSUES IN HIV PREVENTION Approximately 95% of all HIV infections have occurred in developing countries. It is essential that HIV prevention efforts are focused globally and that international collaborations in HIV prevention research are developed. In a review of the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions in developing countries (Merson, Dayton, & O’Reilly, 2000), behavior change interventions targeted to high-risk populations were found to be effective, particularly those among female sex workers. Voluntary counseling and testing programs, primarily among serodiscordant couples, was promising, but additional research is needed among youth, injection drug users, and HIV-infected persons. Structural interventions, such as treatment of STDs, appeared highly effective and show much promise for effecting change needed at the global level.

HIV SECONDARY PREVENTION EFFECTS HIV secondary prevention interventions are focused on reducing transmission risk behavior and improving the emotional health and quality of life among infected persons. With the availability of medical treatments that may prolong life, interventions related to treatment adherence, coping, and psychological adjustment are being implemented with increasing frequency. A limited number of research studies are ongoing to identify interventions to prevent HIV transmission targeting HIVpositive persons. Specifically, efforts to integrate HIV prevention and care are at the forefront of innovative approaches in secondary prevention strategies. While gender inequality, poverty, stigma, and access to medical treatments exist as challenges to implementing effective interventions on the global level, HIV-AIDS remains the greatest public health threat of our time, and effective prevention strategies must be disseminated worldwide. —Kathleen J. Sikkema

See also AIDS, YOUNG WOMEN, AND POVERTY

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2003). National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention: Basic statistics. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). (2002). Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Geneva: World Health Organization. Kamb, M. L., Fishbein, M., Douglas, J. M., Rhodes, F., Rogers, J., Bolan, G., et al., for the Project RESPECT Study Group. (1998). Efficacy of risk-reduction counseling to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 280, 1161–1167. Merson, M. H., Dayton, J. M., & O’Reilly, K. (2000). Effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions in developing countries. AIDS, 14(Suppl. 2), S68–S84. National Institute of Mental Health Multisite HIV Prevention Trial Group. (1998). The NIMH Multisite HIV prevention trial: Reducing HIV sexual risk behavior. Science, 280, 1889–1894. Padian, N. S., O’Brien, T. R., Chang, Y. C., Glass, S., & Francis, D. P. (1993). Prevention of heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus through couple counseling. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 6, 1043–1048. Sikkema, K. J., Kelly, J. A., Winett, R. A., Solomon, L. J., Cargill, V. A., Roffman, R. A., et al. (2000). Outcomes of a randomized community-level HIV prevention intervention for women living in 18 low-income housing developments. American Journal of Public Health, 90, 57–63.

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HIV PREVENTION WITH INJECTING DRUG USERS Injection drug use accounts for 5% to 10% of HIV/AIDS transmission worldwide. Estimates of the number of people who inject drugs range from 3 million to 10 million in more than 135 countries. Drug-related transmission rates vary widely from country to country and region to region and can change dramatically within a decade or less. Since the 1990s, a fourfold increase in heroin production and shifting drug trafficking routes, as well as socioeconomic upheavals resulting in rising unemployment and poverty levels, have contributed to a rapid rise in injection drug use in many countries. Reports of injection drug use in countries where this trend was previously nonexistent have also increased (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS]/World Health Organization [WHO], 2002).

INJECTION DRUG USE AND HIV/AIDS As injection drug use rises, so do HIV infection rates. In the former Soviet Union, for example, where the epidemic has grown exponentially since 1999, HIV/AIDS epidemics have been discovered in more than 30 cities and in 86 of the country’s 89 regions. Currently, up to 90% of registered infections in the country have been attributed to injection drug use. Likewise, social and economic upheavals in Indonesia have spawned sharp increases in injection drug use and HIV prevalence in the past decade. National estimates indicate that approximately 43,000 injecting drug users are already infected with HIV. Before 1990, injection drug use was virtually unknown in Indonesia (UNAIDS/WHO, 2002).

periods of time. Therefore, indirect sharing practices, such as rinsing previously used syringes in a shared container prior to drug preparation, also represent significant HIV transmission risks (Koester, 1996). Targeted Prevention Targeted prevention of HIV among injection drug users began in the early 1980s as part of a broader public health movement: harm reduction. Harm reduction is a philosophy that seeks to compassionately and pragmatically minimize the adverse consequences of drug use without condemning drug users or demanding abstinence from drugs. Harm reduction approaches to HIV prevention with drug injectors include syringe exchange (drug users exchange used syringes for sterile ones, as well as acquire clean water, bleach, alcohol, containers for drug mixing, and condoms); pharmacy access to syringes without a prescription; street outreach (peer-led prevention education and bleach distribution to sterilize syringes between uses); preventive case management; drug treatment; access to health care; and anti-retroviral treatment. The best HIV prevention practice for active drug users involves using a sterile, unused needle for each injection, but primarily because of legal restrictions on access to needles, drug injectors are forced to reuse or share needles as well as other injection equipment. Many countries have made legal access to sterile injection equipment via needle exchange and/or pharmacy access a key component of AIDS prevention, although opposition has been common. While needle exchange is now legal in many states in the United States, prohibitions continue to disallow the use of federal monies to operate these programs. Needle Exchange Programs

HIV/AIDS Risk HIV infection spreads among injectors who share syringes or needles and other injection equipment. Sharing syringes involves significant HIV risk, because the HIV virus remains viable on even invisible traces of blood within a syringe or needle up to several days under certain conditions. Injection practices can be risky even when they do not involve the direct sharing of a syringe, however. Virological studies have indicated that HIV can survive in tap water for extended

Political opposition to needle exchange occurs despite the proliferation of scientific studies that have consistently demonstrated that needle exchange programs decrease risky injection practices by as much as 73% (Des Jarlais et al., 1996) and reduce HIV transmission among injection drug users by as much as 30% (Kaplan, 1995). Since needle exchange programs also serve as conduits to drug treatment and other health and social services, legal and/or economic restrictions also impede access to these HIV prevention services. (Pharmacy sale of syringes has been

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shown to reduce risky injection practices by 40% [Vlahov, 1995] but does not serve the same function as needle exchange programs in serving as conduits to services.) ACCESS TO TREATMENT The spread of the epidemic among drug users is bolstered by a lack of access to drug treatment and other health care programs. Drug treatment is an important HIV prevention strategy because it reduces (or eliminates) the frequency of injecting and consequently the risk of needle sharing. In addition, harm reduction strategies such as accessing sterile syringes or cleaning used syringes with bleach between uses are emphasized when relapse occurs. Distribution of condoms and safer sex education are also commonly integrated into drug treatment and other harm reduction programs, such as street outreach programs that disseminate prevention education as well as bleach and clean water. Street outreach is particularly important because only a small percentage of drug users tend to seek drug treatment, even when treatment programs are available. In addition, there is a critical need to recognize the importance of antiviral treatment for HIV-positive drug users as a preventive (as well as a humanitarian) strategy. Treating HIV-positive individuals markedly decreases viral load, which decreases the risk of transmitting the virus to others. Mental health programs targeted at drug users are also urgently needed, since an appreciable percentage of drug users suffer from mental illness or multiple traumas. High rates of domestic violence and sexual abuse, including childhood sexual abuse, are extremely common among women who use drugs. HIV prevention among drug users is also dependent on large-scale social reform efforts, including drug law reform. Drug users are imprisoned for possession of drugs at staggering rates. Prisons serve as transmission sites for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases (hepatitis, tuberculosis). High rates of incarceration destabilize families and communities, which contributes to higher rates of infection as well (Blankenship, Mattocks, & Stolar, 2003). CONCLUSIONS To stem the tide of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among injection drug users and their sexual partners, prevention

must involve a multipronged strategy of street outreach, needle exchange, and pharmacy access programs that utilize harm reduction principles for both drug-related and sexual transmission, comprehensive health care (including antiviral treatment for HIV-positive users), and drug treatment and other social services. The underlying causes of rising rates of injection drug use, especially among youth, including socioeconomic upheaval and rising unemployment, must also be addressed. —Janie Simmons

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Blankenship, K., Mattocks, K., & Stolar, M. (2003, April). Structural racism and Black and White disparities in HIV/AIDS. Presentation at AIDS Science Day, Yale University. Des Jarlais, D., Marmor, R. M., Paone, D., Titus, S., Shi, Q., Perlis, T., et al. (1996). HIV incidence among injecting drug users in New York City Syringe Exchange Programs. Lancet, 348, 987–991. Friedman, S., Des Jarlais, D., & Ward, T. P. (1994). Social models for changing health-relevant behavior. In R. diClemente & J. Peterson (Eds.), Preventing AIDS: Theories and methods of behavioral interventions. New York: Plenum. Kaplan, E. H. (1995). Probability models of needle exchange. Operations Research, 43, 558–569. Koester, S. (1996). The process of drug injection: Applying ethnography to the study of HIV risk among IDUs. In T. Rhodes & R. Hartnoll (Eds.), AIDS, drugs and prevention: Perspectives on individual and community action. London: Routledge. Page, J. B., Chitwood, D., Smith, P., Kane, N., & McBride, D. (1990). Intravenous drug use and HIV infection in Miami. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 4(4), 56–71. UNAIDS/World Health Organization (WHO). (2002). AIDS epidemic update, 2002. Available at http://www.unaids .org/worldaidsday/2002/press/update/epiupdate_en.pdf Vlahov, D. (1995). Deregulation of the sale and possession of syringes for HIV prevention among injection drug users. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, 10, 71–72.

HOME ECONOMICS Home economics as a movement, an academic field of study, and a profession had its birth in 1899 at the first of a series of conferences in Lake Placid, New York, initiated by Ellen Swallow Richards.

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Begun as a social movement to enlarge women’s opportunities for scientific training and careers, it emphasized applying scientific principles to the problems of everyday living. From its early beginnings through establishing a professional organization, the American Home Economics Association (AHEA), to a myriad of efforts at restatement of its mission, definition, and name, the field has continued to reflect concern for the elements of the home, in its broadest sense, and the well-being of individuals and families. Educated as a research chemist and the first female graduate of MIT, Ellen Richards was committed to applying science to the problems women encountered in everyday life. She had “faith in science as a cureall” (Richards, 1909, p. 20). She engineered the first serious discussion of this new field, home economics, by organizing a series of Lake Placid Conferences in 1899. Ten women who were in careers or active in public affairs were invited by Richards to become founders of this new profession. Richards was elected the first chair and oversaw the number of attendees grow from the founding 11 to more than 700. The definition of home economics formulated at the 1902 Conference is still widely used and quoted today: Home Economics in its most comprehensive sense is the study of the laws, conditions, principles, and ideals which are concerned on the one hand with man’s immediate physical environment and on the other with his nature as a social being, and is the study specially of the relation between these two factors. (Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics, 1902, pp. 70–71) Richards’s emphasis on professionalism and education prevailed over the course of the conferences and culminated in the founding of the American Home Economics Association in 1909, when she was elected its first president. She was visionary in her desire to have educated women both apply scientific principles in their own homes and have concern for the amelioration of the condition of mankind. This holistic vision gave the profession a unique mission and moved it beyond simple attention to household tasks. Richards worked throughout her lifetime to broaden the thinking of leaders in this new enterprise to include the task of helping to shape society. Her comprehensive vision has both sustained the profession and presented obstacles to its clear understanding.

Since the 1960s, the field has continuously examined itself and acted dynamically to mold its mission and vision to reflect a contemporary response to societal problems. A profession dedicated to a synergistic, holistic focus and an abiding commitment to individuals, families, and communities, it brings together the research and practice of numerous specialized disciplines such as human nutrition, foods, clothing and textiles, family and child development, housing, family economics, consumer education, and home management. It is no wonder that the tensions between the “whole” and the specialized parts have been felt over time. Beginning in 1959, as the celebration of the 50th anniversary was taking place, a statement of philosophy known as “New Directions” was issued by the AHEA. It reviewed the past and identified challenges for the future. This was followed in 1961 with a national conference in French Lick, Indiana, to address problems of articulation in home economics subject matter at the secondary, college, and adult education levels. During this same time period, higher education administrators were reorganizing themselves, and two new organizations of administrators only were formed. Higher education administrators from liberal arts backgrounds held the Lake Michigan Conferences in Chicago, ending in 1966 with the founding of the National Council of Administrators of Home Economics (NCAHE). This inclusive organization brought together administrators from all types of degree-granting institutions to work together. Administrators at state university and land-grant colleges had also become concerned about the field’s visibility and power within the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), and established the Association of Administrators of Home Economics (AAHE) to provide a forum for discussion and action for home economics in higher education. Only those administrators whose institutions were members of NASULGC were eligible to join this organization. In 1973, the AHEA held the 11th Lake Placid Conference to develop consensus about the future direction of the field. This, coupled with the AHEAcommissioned 1974 Yankelovich study, resulted in New Directions II, published in 1975. This document was pivotal in moving the field from an emphasis on tasks of home and family life to an ecosystem approach, viewing humans within their changing environments.

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Still dynamically searching for identity, the AHEA Future Directions Committee commissioned Drs. Marjorie Brown and Beatrice Paolucci to write Home Economics: A Definition. This in-depth philosophical essay was published in 1979 and sparked national workshops and study groups throughout the nation. This essay and spirited discussion promoted change in secondary and higher education curriculum from an emphasis on knowledge and skill to an empowerment model concerned with critical thinking and critique. The name for the profession has been a concern from the 1902 Lake Placid Conference, when home economics was adopted after heated discussion and objections, to the present day. In 1992, ninety years after the selection of the name “home economics,” the identity problem was so great that five major professional home economics organizations appointed a joint task force and charged it to examine the mission, breadth, scope, and name that would be most appropriate for the profession in the years ahead. In 1993, the work of the task force culminated in a national meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, entitled “Positioning the Profession for the 21st Century.” After much careful discussion, the nearly 100 participants representing all the specializations within the field recommended a new conceptual framework and a new name: “family and consumer sciences.” The unifying focus was “an integrative approach to the relationships among individuals, families, and communities and the environments in which they function.” Subsequently, four of the five national associations present at the Scottsdale meeting voted to change their organizations’ name to accommodate recommendations from the Scottsdale meeting. The American Home Economics Association became the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in 1994. In 1995, the fifth association, the Association of Administrators of Home Economics, changed its name to the Association of Administrators of Human Sciences to more closely parallel the agricultural sciences and the organization’s association with NASULGC. During the past century, society and home economics have changed dramatically, and the problems facing families today are no less significant. Since its founding, the field has been in a continual state of rethinking and reshaping its research and practice to come closer to the original vision and mission of the founders. The unique body of knowledge has now been clarified, the research framework strengthened,

and a new name, reflecting a positive image, has been selected. A strong century-long foundation has been laid for family and consumer sciences to stretch its holistic focus to solving the problems facing individuals and families of the 21st century. —Peggy S. Meszaros

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Home Economics Association. (1975). New directions II. Washington, DC: Author. Brown, M., & Paolucci, B. (1979). Home economics: A definition. Washington, DC: American Home Economics Association. Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics. (1902). Proceedings of the fourth annual conference, 1902. Washington, DC: American Home Economics Association. Richards, E. (1909). Ten years of the Lake Placid Conferences on Home Economics: Its history and aims. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Conference. Chautauqua, NY: Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics.

HOMELESSNESS AND RUNAWAY YOUTH Homelessness among adolescents is a growing concern across the United States, where adolescents make up about a quarter of all the homeless. Conservative estimates suggest that between 500,000 and 1 million adolescents run away from home each year, and that in any given year between 1 and 1.5 million spend some period of time in emergency shelters or on the streets (Robertson, 1992). While many of these youths return home after brief episodes, others transition in and out of homelessness, migrating from one unstable situation to the next. Others become chronically homeless, taking refuge in shelters, squatting in makeshift or abandoned housing, or sleeping on the streets. While our knowledge of this population and their developmental trajectories is still in the early stages, it is quite clear that romantic stereotypes of homeless youth as modern Huck Finns, in search of independence and adventure, are inaccurate. Instead, recent research suggests that these youth typically come from conflict-laden, violent, and/or dysfunctional families, and most have also experienced neglect, physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse before leaving,

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being removed, or being expelled, from home (Cauce et al., 2000; Whitbeck & Hoyt, 1999). Homeless youth generally find that they are ill equipped to make it on their own without adult guidance or supervision. Survival strategies typically involve risky or illegal activities from the relatively benign panhandling, “spanging” (i.e., spare changing), and Dumpster diving to dealing drugs and trading sex for money or a place to stay. Participation in these strategies, often as part of a marginalized and delinquent peer group, in turn increases their risk for further physical or sexual victimization. Thus, all too often, risks in the home are traded for similar risks on the streets. In light of their histories, both before and after running away or becoming homeless, it is not surprising that many are found to suffer from or exhibit a host of emotional and behavioral problems, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic reactions, suicidal ideation and behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, poor school adjustment, delinquent acting out, and aggressive behaviors (Cauce et al., 2000; Whitbeck & Hoyt, 1999). Over the past couple of decades, increasing attention has been given to providing appropriate services to this at-risk population of youths, and most major cities provide at least services for them ranging from teen-feed programs or shelters run by church or religious groups to transitional living facilities, drop-in centers, or case management services offered by social service agencies. However, these agencies are typically underfunded, and they seldom have sufficient beds or staff to deal with the number of youths in need. Moreover, these services fail to address the underlying systemic problems that underlie adolescent homelessness. At a more fundamental level, these include poverty, lack of affordable housing, poor employment opportunities for unskilled workers, and restricted access to health care and mental health services. The problem of adolescent homelessness also underscores the ways in which foster care is an often untenable solution for older children and adolescents and is far too often a brief stop on the way to homelessness. Adolescent homelessness, then, represents a failure of our society on multiple levels—social, political, and economic. Young people on their own, without a home, and without adult guidance represent a profound moral failure, an inability to recognize that, as a society, we are unconditionally responsible for all our youth. —Ana Mari Cauce

See also STREET CHILDREN

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Cauce, A. M., Paradise, M., Ginzler, J. A., Embry, L., Morgan, C. J., Lohr, Y., et al. (2000). The characteristics and mental health of homeless adolescents: Age and gender differences. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 8, 230–239. Robertson, M. J. (1992). The prevalence of mental disorders among homeless people. In Rene I. Jahiel (Ed.), Homelessness: A prevention-oriented approach (pp. 57–86). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Whitbeck, L. B., & Hoyt, D. R. (1999). Nowhere to grow: Homeless and runaway adolescents and their families. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

HOROWITZ, FRANCES DEGEN Born in the Bronx, New York, Frances Degen Horowitz spent her formative years there, attending the public schools, and growing up in the context of an entirely Jewish environment and a close-knit extended family. She detailed these influences on her development in a chapter entitled “A Jewish Woman in Academic America” (Horowitz, 1988). Schooling in the Bronx gave way to the public schools of Long Beach, Long Island, when her family moved, and then, for the last 2 years of high school, at Cherry Lawn School, a coeducational, progressive boarding school in Darien, Connecticut. After 1 year at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, she transferred to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The years spent at Antioch, a progressive, liberal arts college with a work-study program like those at Cherry Lawn School, provided unparalleled opportunities for intellectual growth and experiences, helping to shape enduring interests in writing and inquiry as well as inspiration to live a life that would have meaningful consequences. Following marriage to Floyd R. Horowitz, Horowitz spent 1953–1954 as a Ford Foundation Fellow in a new program at Goucher College designed to educate liberal arts majors (Horowitz majored in philosophy at Antioch) to become elementary school teachers. This 1-year program earned her a masters in education and enabled her to teach the fifth grade in Iowa City, Iowa, where Floyd was to continue his studies in Iowa’s creative writing and English literature doctoral program. She enrolled in a course during a summer session at the University of Iowa and encountered Boyd McCandless, developmental

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psychologist and director of the then-famed Iowa Child Welfare Research Station. After Horowitz was rejected for the doctoral program in the University of Iowa’s School of Education, McCandless invited Horowitz to enter the doctoral program in developmental psychology. With little background or undergraduate study in psychology, earning a doctoral degree during 3 years at the Iowa Child Welfare Research station proved to be a heady journey of steep learning curves and full immersion in Hull-Spence behaviorism, research design, and statistical analysis. Her dissertation, the “Incentive Value of Social Stimuli for Preschool Children,” was published in Child Development (Horowitz, 1962) and cited as one of the early studies that influenced the development of the study of peer relationships. From Iowa the Horowitzes (now with one son) moved to Oregon, where Floyd had a position in the English department of Southern Oregon College. Despite a nepotism rule, Frances taught whenever enrollments required opening up another introductory or child psychology section, and secured a Sigma Xi grant to study anxiety, self-concept, and sociometric status in elementary school children. Nevertheless, opportunities in Oregon were clearly limited. So, in 1961, when Floyd was offered a position in the English department at the University of Kansas, the Horowitz family moved (with their two sons) to Kansas. Kansas also had a nepotism rule, but a place was made for Frances by Richard Schiefelbusch, director of the Bureau of Child Research. With support from an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, she pursued research on learning, anxiety, and reinforcement and, again, as enrollments pressed, there were teaching opportunities in psychology. The nepotism rule at Kansas was rescinded in 1964, and Horowitz was invited to develop a department of home economics and chair what would become the department of human development and family life (HDFL). Thus began the dual nature of Horowitz’s career: academic administration combined with research and teaching. As chair of HDFL, she worked with Donald Baer and others to build a department that was characterized by research and training in applied behavior analysis as well as traditional developmental psychology. In the mid-1960s, Horowitz’s interests turned to the study of infant behavior and development, individual differences, neonatal behavior, and visual and auditory attention. Her interest in individual

differences led her into a collaboration with the Harvard pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton and the development of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). A series of studies on the NBAS (Horowitz & Linn, 1982; Horowitz, Sullivan, & Linn, 1978; Lancioni, Horowitz, & Sullivan, 1980), designed to understand the stability of individual differences in the behavior of newborns, followed. In the Kansas Infant Research Laboratory, Horowitz and her students mounted a program of research on visual and auditory attention (Horowitz, 1974). While studying the role of the complexity of visual stimuli on infant attention and the phenomenon of habituation she and her students noted that some infants ceased their looking behavior well within the 20 seconds of the standard stimulus exposure duration, while others were still attending at the end of the 20 seconds. The answer to the question of what would happen if one left the stimulus on for as long as the infant continued to attend led to the development of the “infant control procedure” (Horowitz, Paden, Bhana, & Self, 1972), its widespread adoption, and its application for more detailed studies of habituation (Colombo & Horowitz, 1985) and visual attention. In addition to the basic research on newborn behavior and on auditory and visual attention, Horowitz’s participation in the University of Kansas Mental Retardation Research Center led Horowitz to be interested in the variables influencing the development of at-risk infants and contributed to her theoretical formulations related to individual differences as they interacted with environmental experience to affect development. Beginning with her presidential address to the Division of Developmental Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1978, she has worked on a model of development involving the interaction of constitutional variables and environmental experience. Subsequently elaborated on in her book on theories of development (Horowitz, 1987) and in her presidential address (Horowitz, 2000) to the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), as well as in a series of articles and chapters related to at-risk infants, mental retardation, and the gifted (Horowitz & Haritos, 1998; Horowitz & O’Brien, 1985), she has staked out a complex perspective on understanding developmental outcome in the context of the interactive dynamics of constitutional and experiential variables. Along the course of her career, Horowitz has been active in numbers of national organizations, including

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the APA and SRCD, serving a term (1997–1999) as president of the SRCD, as well as holding membership on the National Advisory Council for the NIH Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1999–2003). Among her many editorial roles, she served as editor of the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (1976–1982) and the special issue of the American Psychologist (1989) on children. Her administrative career at Kansas took her from chair of HDFL to associate dean of arts and sciences (1975–1978) to vice chancellor for Research, Graduate Studies and Public Service (1978–1991). In 1991, she moved to the City University of New York as president of its Graduate Center. All along, she has maintained active involvement in several national organizations related to public higher education. —Frances Degen Horowitz

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Colombo, J., & Horowitz, F. D. (1985). A parametric study of the infant control procedure. Infant Behavior and Development, 8, 117–121. Horowitz, F. D. (1962). Incentive value of social stimuli for preschool children. Child Development, 33, 111–116. Horowitz, F. D. (Ed.). (1974). Visual attention, auditory stimulation and language discrimination in young infants. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 39 (5–6, Serial No. 158). Horowitz, F. D. (1987). Exploring developmental theories: Toward a structural/behavioral model of development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Horowitz, F. D. (1988). A Jewish woman in academic America. In S. Brehm (Ed.), Seeing female: Reflections by women scholars (pp. 53–65). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Horowitz, F. D. (2000). Child development and the PITS: Simple questions, complex answers, and developmental theory. Child Development, 71, 1–10. Horowitz, F. D., Ashton, L. J., Culp, R. E., Gaddis, E., Levin, S., & Reichmann, F. (1977). The effect of obstetrical medication on the behavior of Israeli newborns and some comparisons with American and Uruguayan infants. Child Development, 48, 1607–1623. Horowitz, F. D., & Haritos, C. (1998). The organization and the environment: Implications for understanding mental retardation. In J. A. Burack, R. M. Hodapp, & E. Zigler (Eds.), Handbook of mental retardation and development (pp. 20–40). New York: Cambridge University Press. Horowitz, F. D., & Linn, P. L. (1982). The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. In M. Wolrich & D. K. Rought (Eds.), Advances in developmental pediatrics (Vol. 3, pp. 233–255). Greenwich, CT: JAL.

Horowitz, F. D., & O’Brien, M. (Eds.). (1985). The gifted and the talented: Developmental perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Horowitz, F. D., Paden, L. Y., Bhana, K., & Self, P. (1972). An “infant control” procedure for studying infant visual fixations. Developmental Psychology, 7, 90–92. Horowitz, F. D., Sullivan, J. W., & Linn, P. (1978). Stability and instability in newborn infants: The quest for elusive threads. In A. Sameroff (Ed.), Organization and stability of newborn behavior: A commentary on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 43, 29–45. Lancioni, G., Horowitz, F. D., & Sullivan, J. (1980). The MBAS-K I: A study of its stability and structure over the first month of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 3, 341–359.

HUMAN BRAIN, EVOLUTION OF Paleoanthropological research in Eastern and Southern Africa has provided extensive fossil records documenting human evolution over the past 2 to 3 million years. The sites from Koobi Fora, Olduvai Gorge, Omo Sterkfontein, and Swartkrans have been studied (Johanson & White, 1979). Specimens from these sites are more primitive than homonid specimens found elsewhere. The volume of a human brain is measured by its cranial capacity and depends on several factors, for example, environment and body size. The average cranial capacity of Australopithecus, our ancient ancestors, was about 450 cc in the gracile species and 600 cc in the robust species. Members of the genus Homo H. habilis, who lived in East Africa about 2 million years ago, exhibited marked expansion of the brain with an average cranial capacity of about 750 cc. About 1.6 million years ago, it evolved into a larger, more robust, and larger-brained species known as Homo erectus. Cranial capacities ranged from about 900 cc in early specimens to 1,050 cc in later ones. Between 500,000 and 250,000 years ago, H. erectus evolved into H. sapiens, with cranial capacity of about 1,150 cc in the early transitional forms and to the current world average of 1,400 to 1,500 cc. These figures suggest that the human brain evolved during the past 2 to 3 million years. The cause of the evolution of the human brain has, however, not received as much attention as the evolution of the human body. In his famous book, On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, Charles Darwin hypothesized that evolution occurred by natural selection. He did not, however, mention the human brain.

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By the early 20th century, Darwin’s work had lost its preeminence. R. A. Fisher revived it with his book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection and put neoDarwinism on a theoretical footing. Regrettably, he also did not mention the human brain. Its evolution is not mentioned in many books on evolutionary biology. Researchers have now begun to speculate on the evolution of the human brain. DARWIN’S VIEW ON THE SIZE OF BRAINS OF DOMESTIC RABBITS With the acceptance of Darwinism in the 19th century, the development of the human brain was thought to reflect the history of evolution of the human body. Accordingly, it was thought that a human brain in its development will first resemble the brain of a reptile, then that of a fish, bird, and lower mammal, and finally the human brain. We know that this is not the case. Darwin was aware of the effects of “environment” on the development of rabbit brains. In his book The Descent of Man he said, On the other hand I have shown that the brains of domestic rabbits are considerably reduced in bulk, in comparison with those of the wild rabbit or hare, and this may be attributed to their having been closely confined during many generations, so that they have exerted but little their intellect, instincts, senses and voluntary movements. (Darwin, 1871, p. 146) His experiments may not meet the current criteria for scientific experiments, but his suggestion does not attribute the evolution of brain to natural selection. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL SELECTION AND SEXUAL SELECTION To understand the neo-Darwinian view of the evolution of the human brain, it is necessary to understand the difference between natural selection (NS) and sexual selection. Darwin equated NS with Herbert Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest.” R. A. Fisher separated NS from this phrase but did not define it, and, even today, there is no agreed-on definition. Gould (2000) complained of the “lack of definition that natural selection has always suffered, even at the moment of its greatest explicit influence” (p. 545). This is a major drawback of neo-Darwinism as a

scientific hypothesis. If we define the “fitness of a genotype” as the number of its progeny not affected by environment, then NS is the differential fitness of genotypes. NS is based on the favorable mutation of an allele. Sexual Selection Darwin also invented the concept of sexual selection to explain the evolution of a character in one sex alone, for example, the beautiful plumage of peacocks. He argued that, for various reasons, hens might have preferred to mate with a peacock with plumage and this gave plumaged peacocks fitness advantage over other peacocks. With this continued advantage, plumage alleles became fixed in peacocks. Note that NS is based on an advantageous mutation, but sexual selection is based on the choice of the other sex. Both give fitness advantage. Sexual selection is selection by one sex. When both sexes select a mate with respect to a trait, it is known as assortative mating. Regrettably, some neoDarwinians do not realize this and use the phrase “two-sided sexual selection.” EVOLUTION OF A TRAIT The theory of evolution is concerned with the trait fitness. When one considers the inheritance or evolution of any other trait, its genetic correlation with fitness is important. In fact, in the long run, a trait would be inherited or would evolve only if it has positive genetic correlation with fitness (Vetta & Courgeau, 2003). It is noteworthy that both Charles Darwin and R. A. Fisher made this assumption with regard to the peacock plumage. Obviously, we cannot prove or disprove this assumption. NEO-DARWINISM AND EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN Neo-Darwinians have now begun to speculate about the evolution of the human brain. Regrettably, there is no consensus. Three different mechanisms, namely, NS, sexual selection, and coevolution, are offered. For example, Dawkins (1991) prevaricates between NS and sexual selection. Discussing “the extremely rapid swelling of our brains during the last few million years” he writes, “it has been suggested that this is due to sexual selection. . . . But it could

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also be that the brain size has exploded under the influence of a different kind of selection” (p. 215). Later, he writes, “The Darwinian says that the variation that was offered up by mutation for selection included some individuals with smaller brains and some individuals with larger brains; selection favoured the latter” (p. 230). Thus, NS is the cause of the development of the human brain. In a debate organized by the New Scientist (2002), he says, “Our brains follow their own rule, which can rise above the rules of natural selection.” However, Dawkins commends sexual selection: Sexual selection is really a good candidate for explaining a great deal about the unique evolution of our species. It may also be responsible for some unique features of our species that are shared equally by all races, for example our enormous brain. (Dawkins, 2003, p. 90; emphases added) Note that a positive genetic correlation between the brain size and fitness is implicit in his assertions. Another neo-Darwinian, Pinker (1994), writes in his book The Language Instinct, “At the level of the whole brain, the remark that there has been selection for bigger brains, is: to be sure, common in writings about human evolution.” He disagreed “Selection for more powerful computational abilities (language, perception, reasoning, and so on) must have given us big brains as a by-product and not the other way round” (p. 363, italics added). Later, Pinker commended NS: “The [human] brain and the [elephant] trunk are the product of the same evolutionary force, natural selection” (Pinker, 1999, p. 152). We stress that selection for “more powerful abilities” or for larger brains could take place only in the presence of positive genetic correlation with fitness (Vetta & Courgeau, 2003). Neo-Darwinians need to show that this correlation existed in the evolutionary period. CURRENT RELEVANT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE HUMAN BRAIN Humans have about 28,000 genes that provide instructions for the developing embryo. About two thirds (20,000 genes) are thought to be involved in brain development and function. From the instructions of these genes, a brain is formed with billions of nerve

cells, each capable of making a thousand different connections. We differ from our simian relatives in that the greater part of the development of the human brain takes place in interaction with environment. The human brain doubles in size in the first 2 years and doubles again by about the age of 16. It was thought that “we are born with most of the neurons we are ever going to have” and that “it is not the brain cells themselves that change and continue to change, so much as the connections between them” (Greenfield, 2000, p. 63). Current researchers show that new neurons grow to meet needs even in adulthood. MAN AND MOUSE GENOMES Genetically, man and mouse have similar numbers of genes: 99% of a mouse’s genes have counterparts in humans. The mouse code consists of 2.5 billion base pairs, compared with 2.9 billion pairs in the human code. Initial comparisons suggest that more than two thirds of the mouse genetic code matches the human code. The major difference is the order in which that matching code is arranged. About 40% of the two genomes can be directly aligned with each other. Only about 300 genes in mice are unique, and they relate to mating and sense of smell. Thus, the mouse is the ideal model to study human diseases and to test new treatments. New Neurons in Mice Researchers at the California biotechnology company StemCells, Inc., have shown that human brain stem cells can be induced to grow within a mouse’s skull. These researchers are not trying to create a human brain in a mouse. Indeed, this may not be possible, as Vetta and Courgeau (2003) argue that a gene has a “species value,” that is, its phenotype depends on the species in which it occurs. Thus, the muscle gene in mouse and man produces muscles of different sizes. Praag, Kempermann, and Gage (1999) discovered that exposure to an enriched environment increases neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of adult mice. Enriched environments include expanded learning opportunities, increased social interaction, more physical activity, and larger housing. They found that running increases cell proliferation and doubles the number of surviving newborn cells. This is similar to results found in other enrichment experiments. Consequently, they stated that voluntary exercise

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enhances neurogenesis. This could have implications for humans. New Neurons in Humans Laboratory experiments are not possible on humans, and most of the available knowledge on the human brain is based on observations. Deficiencies of observational studies are well-known. Nonetheless, they enable us to make some tentative conclusions. Brains of London Taxi Drivers London taxi drivers undergo extensive training for 2 years, learning to navigate between thousands of places in the city. Maguire et al. (2000) analyzed the structural MRI of London taxi drivers and compared it with a control group of non-taxi drivers. They found that the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects. A more anterior hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers. Moreover, hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver (positively in the posterior and negatively in the anterior hippocampus). The researchers felt that their research accorded with the idea that the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate elaboration of this representation in people with a high dependence on navigational skills. Brains of Musicians The auditory cortex consists mainly of “grey matter” or nerve cells called neurons that are interconnected by long filament-like axons or “white matter.” Schneider et al. (2000) compared the auditory cortex of three groups: professional musicians, amateur musicians, and nonmusicians. They found that musicians had larger amounts of grey matter in the region called Heschl’s gyrus. The structure contained 536–983 cubic mm of grey matter in professional musicians, 189–798 cubic mm in amateurs, and 172–450 cubic mm in nonmusicians. The activity in the brains of amateur musicians and professional musicians, as compared with nonmusicians, was 37% and 102% higher, respectively. This suggests that the cortex activity in musicians depends on the amount of “practice.”

Statistical Analysis of MRI Sowell et al. (1999) summarized their research as follows: “We spatially and temporally mapped brain maturation between adolescence and young adulthood using a whole-brain, voxel-by-voxel statistical analysis of high-resolution structural magnetic resonance images (MRI). The pattern of brain maturation during these years was distinct from earlier development and was localized to large regions of dorsal, medial, and orbital frontal cortex and lenticular nuclei, with relatively little change in any other location. This spatial and temporal pattern agrees with convergent findings from postmortem studies of brain development and the continued development over this age range of cognitive functions attributed to frontal structures.” CONCLUSIONS These studies on human and mouse brains show that neurons grow in response to environmental challenges. This does not involve natural selection or sexual selection, suggesting that neo-Darwinism has no relevance to these changes. These studies, however, give some support to Vetta’s hypothesis (Vetta & Capron, 1999) that the human brain evolved by problem solving and not by natural selection. If Darwin’s experiments on rabbit brains were replicated, they would also support this hypothesis. —Atam Vetta

See also FRONTAL CORTEX

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of species. London: Murray. Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man (Vol. 1). London: Murray. Dawkins, R. (1991). The blind watchmaker. London: Penguin. Dawkins R. (2003). A devil’s chaplain. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. Gould, S. J. (2000). The structure of evolutionary theory. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press. Greenfield, S. (2000). The private life of the BRAIN. London: Allan Lane. Johanson, D. C., & White, T. D. (1979). A systematic assessment of early African hominids. Science, 203, 321–330. Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S. J., et al. (2000). Navigation related structural changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 97(8), 4398–4403. New Scientist. (2002). Available at http://www.newscientists .com/debates

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Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York: Morrow. Pinker, S. (1999) How the mind works. New York: Norton. Praag, H., Kempermann, G., & Gage, F. H. (1999). Running increases cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult mouse dentate gyrus. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 266–270. Schneider, P., Scherg, M., Dosch, H. G., Specht, H. J., Gutschalk, A., & Rupp, A. (2002). Morphology of Heschl’s gyrus reflects enhanced activation in the auditory cortex of musicians. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 688–694.

Sowell, E. R., Thompson, P. M., Holmes, C. J., Jernigan, T. L., & Toga, A. W. (1999). In vivo evidence for post-adolescent brain maturation in frontal and striatal regions. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 859–861. Vetta, A., & Capron, C. (1999). A review of “How the mind works” by Steven Pinker. Current Psychology of Cognition, 18, 105–111. Vetta, A., & Courgeau, D. (2003). Demographic behaviour and behaviour genetics. Population-E, 58, 401–428.

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I elements, bringing them into clearer relief. He also popularized the term “identity crisis.”

IDENTITY DEFINITIONS

ERIKSON’S NOTIONS OF IDENTITY’S ELEMENTS AND FUNCTIONS

Identity lies behind the answer one gives to the questions, “Who are you? What do you like doing? What do you value?” and “Whom do you love?” Identity enables one to move with direction in life, and identity gives meaning to one’s existence as one interacts with the surrounding context. Subjectively, identity is a feeling of being “at home” in one’s self, and a feeling of personal endurance across time and space. Identity is also a structural configuration, enabling one to synthesize important identifications from childhood and integrate them into a framework for interpreting one’s life experiences that is uniquely one’s own. Identity is a behavior, evidenced by the ability to make commitments to certain vocations, leisure pursuits, relationships, beliefs, and values within the social surrounds. Identity can be an act of enormous creativity.

Some of identity’s important elements and functions as identified by Erikson are as follows: its providing of a sense of continuity and self-sameness; its psychosocial nature with biological, psychological, and social components; its process of formation; its resolution on an identity achievement-to-diffusion continuum; and the meaning of an identity crisis. Perhaps most important for Erikson was identity’s provision of a sense of continuity in one’s life. In different places and in different social situations, one still retains a sense of being the same person—as others come to know and be known by this individual. Identity for the holder as well as the beholder ensures a reasonably predictable sense of continuity and social order across multiple settings. Identity, to Erikson, has three components: the biological, the psychological, and the social. Thus, identity results from the interaction of one’s biological givens (such as gender, biological capacities and limitations) with one’s psychological needs, interests, defenses, talents, and personality features, and in conjunction with one’s social context and the possibilities and sanctions it provides. Erikson (1963) viewed identity formation as a lifelong endeavor, with an initial resolution normatively occurring during adolescence. He describes identity formation as a process by which childhood identifications become synthesized into a new configuration, greater than the sum of its parts (Erikson, 1968). In this process, the individual chooses some and discards

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND As a concept, “identity” was first used by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson (1963) to describe an entity that seemed to be missing in the lives of some World War II veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. Erikson noted that these men had a sense of who they were, a sense of personal identity, but that they subjectively experienced the loss of a sense of selfsameness and continuity in their lives. “There was a central disturbance in what I then started to call ego identity” (Erikson, 1963, p. 42). Through its absence, Erikson was able to delineate identity’s central 555

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other possibilities on the way to adopting various vocational, ideological, and sexual roles and values offered by one’s context. In this way, a person finds a place on the identity spectrum, somewhere between identity achievement and role confusion, according to Erikson. A further concept stressed by Erikson is the importance of identity exploration and a moratorium process. In his view, an identity crisis is an important developmental phenomenon, occurring when one faces a crucial turning point involving identity choices. Optimal resolution of such an identity crisis is to a large extent dependent on successful resolutions to previous psychosocial tasks of childhood. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO IDENTITY Since the time of Erikson’s original writings on identity, various groups of social scientists have also attempted to examine some of identity’s many elements. These general frameworks have placed different emphases on particular identity than Erikson originally identified, and have thus generated rather different research directions. The following five general traditions for understanding and researching identity have emerged over the past 40 years from Erikson’s original writings: historical, structural stage, sociocultural, psychosocial, and narrative approaches. Historically, a concern with individual identity is a relatively recent phenomenon. Baumeister (1987) has suggested that social issues, such as rising industrialization and an accumulation of wealth by middle- and upper-middle-class families, enabled teens to remain in school rather than in work. Thus, many social value systems that had previously defined childhood fell by the wayside, and youth were left to deal with the problem of defining themselves in uncertain terrain. A structural stage framework for defining identity focuses on changing internal, psychological structures that enable one to filter, interpret, and thus give meaning to one’s life experiences and create a sense of individual identity. The theories of Loevinger (1976) and Kegan (1982) exemplify this approach, which argues that there are internal filters that change through a predictable sequence of stages over the course of time. These structures, in turn, provide the foundation for one’s experience and understanding of identity. In marked contrast to this structural stage view is the sociocultural framework, exemplified by Gergen (1991). Generally, this sociocultural framework views individual identity as a product of social circumstance.

Cultural texts provide vital messages for residents about both potentials and limitations for identity construction in that particular milieu. Individual factors, in this view, are unnecessary for an understanding of individual identity; rather, the social surroundings dictate one’s identity possibilities. A psychosocial approach, as exemplified by the work of Erikson, strikes a middle ground between these extremes. This approach focuses on the interaction of individual as well as contextual factors to the development and maintenance of individual identity. Finally, a recent narrative approach to understanding identity and its formation process suggests that language is a text out of which identities are formed, justified, and maintained. Individual biographies are studied as life stories in an attempt to learn how individuals give meaning and coherence to them. Life stories, in turn, are the basis for identity. McAdams (1996) exemplifies this view. He has examined how we create our stories, and through them, how our identities evolve. There is no single definition of identity agreed on by all social scientists; rather, there are varied emphases placed on the role of historical, contextual, and individual factors in the formation and maintenance of identity over time. APPLICATIONS Each of the varied approaches to understanding and researching identity described will have different implications for those working with adolescents in clinical, educational, judicial, and other institutional contexts. From historical and cultural perspectives, one can appreciate that certain historical and cultural conditions have given rise to adolescents’ identity concerns in the first place; neither of these perspectives, however, enable one to understand how individual differences interact with contextual factors to produce individuals. A structural stage framework implies that those working with adolescents appreciate the structural stage from which the individual is constructing meaning and tailor interventions accordingly. In striking a middle ground between cultural and structural stage views, a psychosocial approach would aim to create contexts able to provide appropriate recognition of an adolescent’s genuine talents and abilities. A narrative approach would aim to help adolescents recreate or reframe their life stories in such a way that more adaptive identity understandings and outcomes may emerge.

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CONCLUSIONS Each of the five general approaches to questions of identity’s origins and its formation processes suggests somewhat different avenues for future identity research. All understandings of identity, however, must ultimately attempt to answer the question of how we come to form ourselves in a society that is, in turn, forming us. It is most likely that a multidimensional approach will provide the most enlightened answers to questions concerning the individual and social conditions necessary to optimal identity development for adolescents around the globe. —Jane Kroger

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baumeister, R. F. (1987). How the self became a problem: A psychological review. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 163–176. Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Gergen, R. J. (1991). The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. New York: Basic. Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problems and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Loevinger, J. (1976). Ego development: Conceptions and theories. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. McAdams, D. (1996). Personality, modernity, and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 295–321.

views individualization as an function of cultural destructuring processes: As a society undergoes a reorganization, old norms become obsolete, leaving people to their own devices in making major life decisions, including finding communities within which to establish integrative bonds. Individualized life courses are those involving “self-styled career/ lifestyle trajectories based on . . . personal preferences and choices” (Côté, 2002, p. 118; to be distinguished from “individuation,” the process involving the boundary between self and other). Accordingly, an emerging normative course of maturation in late-modern societies compels people to develop themselves as self-determining, independent “individuals,” especially in terms of negotiating their own life courses (setting and achieving goals). The stances that can be taken toward an individualized life course can range from default individualization— or following paths of least resistance and effort, allowing decisions to made for one, and passively accepting identities, which can lead to a deferred formation of an adult identity and adult community commitments—through developmental individualization, or the active, strategic approach to personal growth and a life project in an adult community. Thus, variations in developmental-default individualization are useful in conceptualizing the range of agentic potential and point to the possibility that while in principle “the individual is an active agent in his or her own development” (Lerner, 2002, p. 32; a basic tenet of developmental contextualism), in reality individuals can vary widely in how active they are in all developmental contexts. IDENTITY CAPITAL RESOURCES

IDENTITY, CAPITAL MODEL OF IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALIZATION The identity capital model is a social-psychological approach to identity formation that integrates (developmental) psychological and (contextual) sociological understandings of identity. Sociologically, it is based on the assumption that, as a result of global economic and political changes that have eroded traditional normative and community structures, life course contexts in late-modern (contemporary Western) societies have become more “individualized.” Beck (1992)

Psychologically, the identity capital model proposes that the personal resources acquired developmentally become important in late-modern contexts, particularly those psychological resources that can facilitate the agentic movement through, and negotiation with, various social contexts. In this sense, certain internal resources acquired at one point of development are postulated to enable subsequent agentic mastery of later tasks as required by late-modern contexts. To cite a couple of examples, higher levels of ego strength associated with early task mastery can help the person undertake more challenging tasks that can lead to future benefits; and a greater sense of purpose in life associated with task mastery can facilitate

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long-term planning, increasing the likelihood of accomplishing later higher-order personal and professional goals (cf. Benson, 1997, on developmental assets associated with social competencies and positive identity). Identity capital resources vary in degree of tangibility: tangible resources include the possessions, social networks, and behaviors of individuals, whereas intangible resources constitute their personality attributes. Tangible attributes comprise financial resources, educational credentials, group memberships, and parental social status, along with impression management skills and social skills. Intangible resources include capacities such as ego strength, an internal locus of control, self-esteem, a sense of purpose in life, social perspective taking, critical thinking abilities, and moral reasoning abilities (Côté, 1997). The common feature of intangible attributes is that they can afford the person the cognitive and behavioral capacities with which to understand and negotiate the various obstacles and opportunities commonly encountered throughout the late-modern life course, with its decoupled and multifaceted transitions (cf. Ferrer-Wreder et al., 2002). The identity capital model also proposes that people can take advantage of, or compensate for, the institutional holes and deficits of late modernity by making identity investments as they individualize. This can involve a strategic development of “who one is” on the basis of exchangeable resources like money, abilities, appearance, and interactional skills. These resources could include parents’ social class and their investment in offspring, gender, or group memberships as well as an agentic personality, prior identity capital acquisitions, or level of emotional and cognitive development. As a portfolio, these could be used to establish and accumulate certain identity gains, like community memberships, and the transition to adulthood itself. A partial list of identity capital acquisitions that can result from these strategic exchanges includes adult identity resolution, community identity resolution, salary and job satisfaction, desired personal development, and progress in one’s life project. The basic requirement for the acquisition of identity capital involves the utilization of resources by means of various (conscious and unconscious) strategies. Over time, the gains made through these efforts can become resources for further exchange. In short, a person would ask what is “exchangeable” to invest in

“who I am” in relation to a group, a goal, a value, a skill, and so forth. RESEARCH FINDINGS Initial empirical research based on the model (Côté, 1997) has used the Multi-Measure Agentic Personality Scale (MAPS) to predict identity capital acquisition in terms of formulating a stronger sense of adult identity and a sense of belonging in a stable adult community, as measured by the Identity Stage Resolution Index (ISRI). Specifically, Côté (1997) reported that the MAPS, comprising established measures of agency-related traits such as ego strength and purpose in life, correlates in the magnitude of .25 to .40 with the two ISRI scales, the Adult Identity Resolution Scale (AIRS) and the Community Identity Resolution Scale (CIRS). Longitudinal research has found various “goodness of fits” of identity capital with university context based on (a) entering university with a more developed sense of personal skills or talents (agency); (b) levels of parental financial support to attend university (affluence); and (c) gender. With respect to gender, it appears that female students acquire more identity capital while attending university, net of the identity capital they brought with them. Universities may thus give female students an opportunity to “catch up” to the males, who begin university with higher levels. The effects of agency and affluence can even be detected some 10 years later among university graduates in their late twenties, including a long-term impact of agency on the transition to adulthood (measured by the ISRI) and satisfaction with one’s life project and personal development at that age (Côté, 2002). The identity capital model has also been employed in studies undertaken by Bynner (1998, 2002) to interpret data generated by the British Birth Cohort Studies, which drew samples based on births in a single week in the three years 1946, 1958, and 1970. Data from the 1958 and 1970 cohorts provide information on 16,500 people, who were followed every few years into adulthood. The most recent survey in 2000 provided information at age 44 for the 1958 cohort and age 30 for the 1970 cohort. Bynner’s interest is in studying the changing nature of the transition from education to work, where marked changes are evident in the U.K. since the 1970s. His chief finding is that the most recent cohort (born in 1970) needed more intangible identity capital resources than did the

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earlier cohorts, whose transition was governed far more by the occupational opportunities and normative structures in the education-work transition. In the past, employment prospects were structured much more independently of personal characteristics, whereas now people need to possess certain individualized characteristics if they are to make the transition at all—those without key characteristics now face exclusion from the labor force, whereas in the past some sort of transition could be made independent of personal characteristics (including resources such as literacy and numeracy). IDENTITY CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTS Overall, research on identity capital among university students suggests that there are three sets of opportunities provided by the university context that can affect development: moratorium opportunities, compensation effects, and acceleration avenues. For example, more affluent students may feel they can afford a longer moratorium period and therefore may not expend as much effort in university to immediately accumulate forms of identity capital associated with adulthood, so they postpone an accumulation of the identity capital that will give them independence in adulthood in favor of other forms of development that might help them in future contexts. In contrast, the less affluent students seem to use their time at university to more directly acquire adult identity assets (compensation) and move more quickly (acceleration) into adulthood. More generally, the identity capital model helps us understand the developmental consequences of certain late-modern experiences. For example, it is becoming increasingly common for parents not to instill an agentic orientation toward a religion, an occupation, political positions, and the like in their children, often based on the belief that they do not want to “interfere” in their children’s development, and that their children can decide for themselves when they are old enough to do so. While this strategy may work out for some children, overall, parents are influencing development by encouraging their children to take a default individualization stance toward experience mastery. Thus, by taking a hands-off position, these parents are instilling neither a sense of purpose nor the mental structures needed to reflect on a sense of purpose. Moreover, research on the identity capital model suggests that the quality of relationship with

parents is a predictor of an agentic disposition during the transition to adulthood (MAPS), a sense of purpose being a key component of the agentic disposition. Without a fundamental sense of purpose to begin the transition to adulthood, the task of constructing an individualized identity can be much more difficult, in part because the person may not know where to begin. FUTURE RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS The identity capital model is still in its formative stage and requires more empirical investigation to determine its full validity and range of application. Quantitatively, it has been operationalized is several ways, but its general and abstract nature makes operationalization difficult. In addition, its abstractness and complexity may limit its appeal among conventional researchers who prefer the more concrete concepts and parsimonious measures. Still, it appears that the model is capable of differentiating those who do and do not do well in contemporary developmental contexts. At the same time, however, its qualitative and ideographic potential has not yet been examined. Qualitatively, the conscious strategies people develop toward achieving developmental goals need to be explored, along with the narratives they develop to explain their past, present, and future identity formation. Ideographically, case studies can be examined of the successes and failures of attempts to move through developmental contexts, especially educational and occupational ones (see Côté & Levine, 2002, for hypothetical examples). As with quantitative approaches, the goal of this research can be to determine variations in the success of identity capital strategies and resource portfolios, with an eye to recommending how intervention efforts might increase the success rates of those experiencing difficulties in negotiating the transition to adulthood. CONCLUSIONS The identity capital model provides a means of integrating psychological (developmental) and sociological (contextual) concepts to enhance our understanding of the changing nature of life course transitions in late-modern societies where old normative structures, and to some extent social class, gender, and race barriers, have broken down, requiring individuals to exert personal agency in certain contexts. For those who are able to do so, life chances can increase proportionately; for those who are unable to do so, life

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chances can be diminished accordingly. Thus, the identity capital model can help us understand how people successfully navigate new passages through late-modern life courses, and we should be able to use this understanding to help those who encounter difficulties navigating their life courses. The model thus provides a potential framework for structuring interventions according to applied developmental science principles and establishing criteria for positive youth development. —James E. Côté

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage. Benson, P. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bynner, J. (1998). Education and family components in the transition to work. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 22, 29–53. Bynner, J. (2002). Changing youth transitions across time: An examination of processes and outcomes for three post-war generations born across the interval 1946–1970. Presented at the World Congress of Sociology, Sociology of Youth Research Committee (RC34), Brisbane. Côté, J. E. (1996). Sociological perspectives on identity formation: The culture-identity link and identity capital. Journal of Adolescence, 19, 419–430. Côté, J. E. (1997). An empirical test of the identity capital model. Journal of Adolescence, 20, 421–437. Côté, J. E. (2002). The role of identity capital in the transition to adulthood: The individualization thesis examined. Journal of Youth Studies, 5(2), 117–134. Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. (2002). Identity formation, agency, and culture: A social psychological approach. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Ferrer-Wreder, L. A., Cass-Lorente, C., Kurtines, W. M., Briones, E., Bussell, J. R., Berman, S. L., et al. (2002). Promoting identity development in marginalized youth. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17(2), 168–187. Lerner, R. (2002). Adolescence: Development, diversity, and application. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT IN BIRACIAL CHILDREN The cultural/ethnic identity of biracial individuals has long been a social and political concern; as the U.S. biracial population grows, it is of increasing

salience. Much of the concern has involved children with one African American and one European American parent. Because of this social and historical relevance, biracial children here refers to children with one African American and one European American parent. DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL TRENDS With minority group populations growing approximately 12 times faster than the White population, the United States is becoming increasingly racially diverse. At the same time, the population of biracial people is on the rise. The U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged the increasingly mixed heritage of the country when it added the option to select more than one racial category to the main survey instrument of the 2000 Census. This addition was a huge step forward for a country that traditionally followed the “one drop rule,” wherein if an individual had one African American ancestor, she would be identified as Black. Recent Census data show that 6.8 million Americans (2.4%) identified as belonging to two or more races. Some advocates estimate that the actual percentages are higher, citing the historical mixed racial heritage of African Americans in this country and suggesting that some mixed-raced individuals identify with only one group. BIRACIAL IDENTITY AND THE HISTORY OF RACE RELATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES Because of the nature and history of race relations in the United States, including slavery, antimiscegenation laws, and Jim Crow policies barring marriage and sexual relations between African Americans and European Americans, children from these unions have historically been stigmatized. They have been referred to as tragic mulattoes, mongrels, and quadroons, among the kinder labels. As biracial people become more common, increasingly the image of the “tragic mulattoes” is put to rest. The stereotype of a biracial child or adult who simply does not feel as though she belongs anywhere in society is a common perception perpetuated by books such as the Quadroons, High Yellow, and Passing, and movies such as Imitation of Life, Pinky, and Showboat. While the plots differed somewhat, the results were the same: a mixed-race individual (often a woman)

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who did not fit into either the Black or the White world and paid dearly for the sins of her parents. BIRACIAL CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT There is no indication in the research that biracial children are unusually unhappy or maladjusted. Early studies did suggest negative social and psychological consequences of having parents of different racial/ ethnic backgrounds. But many researchers suggest that these early studies were tainted by racist and antimiscegenationist attitudes. More recent studies show biracial children with levels of self-confidence, creativity, and positive development found in typically developing monoracial children. These positive findings are particularly present when biracial children have a strong social network and a supportive family and attend integrated schools (Gillem, Cohn, & Throne, 2001). Thriving As with all children, biracials thrive most when raised in an environment that supports and, indeed, celebrates, their racial/ethnic backgrounds and other components of their identities (such as religion). In other words, they need positive role models, as do monoracial children. Indeed, several studies have now shown that people who embrace their biracial background develop a more positive sense of identity, have fewer psychological problems, and display greater selfconfidence than those biracial individuals who adopt a single racial identity. This does not begin to imply that biracial children have not experienced negative circumstances or even pressure due to their racial mixture. Theories of Biracial Identity Development Biracial children pass through a series of stages in developing their sense of racial/ethnic identity. These stages are simply the developmental milestones that all children pass through, including color differentiation, racial awareness, self- and race awareness, and personal and group self-evaluation (Johnson, 1992). Building on Erikson’s ego identity development theory, Phinney (1990) adapted the notion of ethnic identity based on three stages: (1) unexamined ethnic identity status, wherein the child gives little thought to her identity; (2) ethnic identity search, which is typically triggered by an encounter; and (3) ethnic

identity achievement, wherein a child accepts her ethnic identity as distinct from the mainstream. Jacobs (1992) looked specifically at preadolescent biracial children, noting three stages in the development of their sense of racial/ethnic identity. In the pre-color constancy stage, children use color in a nonevaluative way and do not classify social groups by race. At about 4½ years, children reach the color constancy stage. During this stage, they realize that their skin color will not change, and they begin to feel ambivalent about their race. Children ages 8–12 reach a biracial identity stage, according to Jacobs, and realize that race is not determined by skin color but rather by parenting. The child either continues to struggle with identity, or the “discordant elements of racial identity are fully reconciled in a unified ego identity” (Jacobs, 1992, p. 203). Other researchers focus on black identity development, because of the historical “one drop rule.” As conceptualized by Cross (1991, 1995), this developmental process contains four major stages: (1) preencounter/conformity status, where the child is either unaware of race or holds anti-Black attitudes; (2) encounter/dissonance status, in which a racial encounter or series of encounters causes self-questioning; (3) immersion/emersion status, in which the child immerses herself in everything African American and denigrates all that is European American; and (4) internalization status, which occurs when the child develops a way to balance multiple identity demands. One concern about this theory is the assumption that all biracial children will develop a singular African American identity, when, in fact, identity development is more complex. Healthy Developmental Outcomes In considering the process of developing racial/ ethnic identity, it is important to determine what constitutes a healthy end result. According to Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002), biracial people develop a sense of identity in one of four ways. They can cultivate a border identity, which involves a consciousness of being African American, European American, and biracial. They can select one identity, a state called singular identity. They can develop a protean identity, where behavior and racial/ethnic identity varies by situation. Or they can decide not to be concerned with issues of racial/ethnic identity at all and take on a transcendent identity.

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These stages are similar to the theory espoused by Boykin (1986), who suggests that African Americans face a “triple quandary” when integrating and negotiating psychological and cultural realities. These realities are mainstream, minority, and African American, each containing its own characteristics and values that shape one’s life experience. Everyday life becomes more complicated when these values come into conflict. For biracial people, this quandary may operate more often and more often lead to conflict. Tatum (1997) focuses on developmental periods rather than on particular types of interactions or conflicts. In the preschool years, she explains, children begin to notice color in the world, and are taught by parents and others to label themselves racially. As biracial children enter school, they are confronted with the perceptions of other adults and children. During adolescence, Tatum asserts, biracial children may feel pressured to choose one racial group over another; in addition, they often experience difficulties with dating. During the college years and beyond, biracial people are more likely to develop a more secure personal identity.

COVARIATES OF DEVELOPMENT The way a child, either biracial or monoracial, develops her sense of racial/ethnic identity can be affected by a series of factors beyond the socioemotional developmental process. Personality type, physical appearance, and available social networks are topics that researchers typically consider in thinking about how biracial people develop. Personality type, for instance, can affect a biracial child’s racial/ethnic identity development, according to Haritatos and Benet-Martinez (2002). A child is more likely to experience cultural conflict if she has “low openness,” is neurotic, or has an anxious disposition. Some researchers have found that physical appearance (e.g., skin color or hair texture) influences a child’s developing sense of identity; the darker the skin and the coarser the hair, for instance, the greater the chance that the child will think of herself as African American (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002). Jacobs (1992) disagrees, however, stating that racial group membership is correlated but not determined by skin color. Others propose that social networks can affect the sense of identity; children who have positive experiences

with European Americans, for instance, are more likely to see themselves as White. Still others suggest that parental socialization and peer influences are what really matters as a child develops her sense of racial/ethnic identity (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002; Tatum, 1997). Similarly, situational causes of cultural conflict can include strained intercultural relations (often through teasing or conflict with peers) or linguistic concerns (such as self-consciousness about accent). Still, studies show that these experiences are not necessarily outside of the norm, especially for adolescents of any race. Children who are biracial appear to adopt the same coping skills or resilience that other minority children adopt. Haritatos and Benet-Martinez (2002) suggest that personality type might be an important element in whether biracial people have conflict associated with their racial status. Easygoing, agreeable, and extraverted biracial children, they found, are less likely to experience stress in intercultural relationships than neurotic biracial individuals, who are more likely to feel a conflict between their two racial or cultural identities. While it has been within the history of the United States to view biracial children as “tragic” or “oddities,” the fact remains that the U.S. biracial population is increasing and will continue to grow. Mixed-race people face different challenges in developing their racial/ethnic identity than people of a single heritage, but there is no empirical evidence to suggest that biracial people are unhappy or maladjusted; indeed, most studies support the perception that biracial children—and adults—are self-confident, creative, and well adjusted.

CONCLUSIONS Research on identity development of biracial individuals is still in the early stages. Some directions for future explorations include service provisions geared specifically to the biracial population and parenting and education issues for biracial children at home and at school. A national cross-sectional or longitudinal study on race and ethnic identity development and psychosocial emotional issues primarily focused on biracial individuals would also be an important starting point for future research. —Beth Leibson-Hawkins and Robert Leibson-Hawkins

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Boykin, A. W. (1986). The triple quandary and the schooling of Afro-American children. In U. Nelsser (Ed.), The school achievement of minority children (pp. 57–92). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Cross, W. E., Jr. (1991). Shades of Black: Diversity in AfricanAmerican identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Cross, W. E. (1995). The psychology of Nigrescence: Revising the Cross model. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 93–122). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gillem, A. R., Cohn, L. R., & Throne, C. (2001). Black identity in biracial Black/White people: A comparison of Jacqueline who refuses to be exclusively Black and Adolphus who wishes he were. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 7(2), 182–196. Haritatos, J., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2002). Bicultural identities: The interface of cultural, personality, and sociocognitive processes. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 598–606. Jacobs, J. (1992). Identity development in biracial children. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 190–206). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Johnson, D. J. (1992). Developmental pathways: Toward an ecological theoretical formulation of race identity in BlackWhite biracial children. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 37–49). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. Rockquemore, K. A., & Brunsma, D. L. (2002). Beyond Black: Biracial identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? New York: Basic.

IDENTITY, HELMS’S THEORY OF RACIAL Racial identity or identification with one’s societally designated racial group occurs in response to environments in which societal resources are differentially allocated on the basis of racial group membership. Usually, allocation of resources implies a hierarchy by which one group is assumed to be entitled to more than its share of resources, whereas other groups are assumed to be entitled to less than their share. . . . In U.S. society, “Whites” (rather than Caucasians) are members of the entitled group, and it has

been these characteristics (e.g., skin color) deemed by them to indicate “Whiteness” that have permitted their members to have access to entitled status. . . . People of color, that is, Native Americans, Blacks, Asians, and Latinoa/s of color, have tended to be the deprived groups. . . . (Helms, 1995, p. 184) Helms’s racial identity theory consists of three models: the People of Color (POC) Identity Model, the White Identity Model, and the Racial Interaction Model, also known as the People of Color (POC)White Interaction model (Helms & Cook, 1999). Each of these models is crucial to an overarching theory about the psychological impact of racism on personality development and interpersonal interactions, and they describe respectively the individual development of POC and Whites and the processes that likely occur when members of different or similar racial groups attempt to address matters of race and racism during their interactions. THE PEOPLE OF COLOR IDENTITY MODEL The POC Identity Model consists of five statuses: conformity, dissonance, immersion- emersion, internalization, and integrative awareness. Each status represents the individual’s assessment of his or her racial self and that of others. Statuses also comprise different information processing strategies (IPS), or approaches that people tend to use when coping with racial stimuli. For each of the statuses in both the POC and White Identity models, movement between statuses occurs epigenetically, meaning that people need to resolve earlier status conflicts before they fully proceed to the next status (Helms, 1995). The principle of epigenesis is useful in explaining the variability displayed in how people respond to and cope with racial stimuli. Conformity People who operate primarily in the initial conformity status are conditioned to accept the hierarchical arrangement based on race, even though they are not necessarily aware of such an arrangement or their collusion with it. They think and act in ways that reflect a presumption that the depressed position of members of their own racial group and other POC is deserved, the result of biological and/or cultural

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insufficiencies, while Whites’ top status is due to superior endowments in biology and/or culture. These racial group designations can also splinter into subgroups based on racial group members’ similarity or dissimilarity with Whites. For example, lighter-skinned Salvadoreans may be perceived as having more superior endowments than darker-skinned Salvadoreans because of the evidence of their European lineage. The IPS in the conformity status include the tendency to deny (e.g., history, contextual factors, contemporary perspectives of marginalized groups) or be oblivious. These strategies are supported by institutional or structural practices and policies. These practices and polices include the media use of “appropriate” language, media portrayals, omissions in classroom learning, and housing, policing, political, and employment exclusions (e.g., redistricting, redlining, racial profiling, and real estate inflation). Dissonance, Immersion-Emersion, and Internalization A series of learning experiences can enable the person to move to other statuses. These experiences can be either positive or negative and can lead the person to feeling some general confusion about reality in general and about his or her conformity to at least one imposed hierarchical structure: race. This status is called dissonance and is primarily transitional (Helms, 1990). The status is followed by the immersion-emersion status, characterized by feelings of rage and mistrust toward Whites and, simultaneously, a reifying of people of similar races. The person perceives racially similar others more favorably, but gradually realizes that these perceptions are faulty and unreal. They may begin to recognize that their way of seeing and being in the world is a reaction to a divisive and hostile environment and that the way they portray both POC and Whites is stereotypical and restricted. They then move into the internalization status and attempt to work through the contradictions process. The person is becoming more liberated by seeing others—people of color and Whites—as being humans and thus as possessing a panoply of human qualities. The person notably is also perceiving himor herself in more liberated ways. Internationalization status individuals still hold on to selectively attending to reality and dichotomized thinking, but these strategies are wearing away and replaced by more complex thinking. In the first four statuses, the IPS of selective

attention, hypervigilance, and dichotomous thinking are variously employed to cope with racial stimuli. Probably as a means to dualistically define the self one way (e.g., African American or as an assimilated Asian American) and as opposite of the “other” (e.g., White or a nonassimilated Asian American, respectively), the person who operates in the first four statuses is caught up in trying to define the self within the structures that society has imposed and to which people generally adhere. He does not define the self from within (in terms of human qualities that are informed by culture, race, gender, and so forth) but rather from externally ascribed attributes (e.g., as an “object” or salve for the exotic interests of White society, or as proof of the exceptionality of his socioracial existence). Racial pride is implicated as a key factor in the person of color advancing in the development of racial identity. This pride acknowledges the significance of the past and the generations of people of color who have worked to endure the oppressive structures and suggests that in order for people of color to develop healthy racial identities in a society that demoralizes people of color, they must develop love and appreciation of racially similar others. Conversely, people of color need to develop a love of Whites and not develop an infatuation or attraction that emerges from encrypted notions about White supremacy. They also need to overcome any rage that helps to project uniform qualities onto individuals based on phenotypical cues. In short, they need to pierce and move beyond the racial conditioning that diminishes the humanity of these socially constructed groupings. Integrative Awareness Integrative awareness is the final status and is characterized by an internally defined self. The person fully recognizes that society systemically oppresses people and that everyone suffers when they collude in the various structures of injustice. People of color with primarily integrative awareness status schema come to learn that race is a social construction that imposes an unfair hierarchy on people, and that the stereotypes that cast people into unfair categories, positive or otherwise, deflates individuality and human complexity. They also know that by continually working through a reality of racism and other structures of oppression, they can learn to overcome the fragmentation that once prevented the political

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self from becoming integrated into other aspects of the self. As they develop a more synergistic understanding of the whole self, they approach reality rather than avoid it. They also know that racism and all structures of disadvantage have posed limitations to their ability to forge relationships and to form collective, harmonious communities. THE WHITE IDENTITY MODEL The White racial identity model is composed of six statuses: contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudoindependence, immersion-emersion, and autonomy. At the contact status, Whites learn about their whiteness and believe that their role in the construction and maintenance of the hierarchy is benign, even invisible. When Whites experience a single event or series of events that jar this distortion of invisibility (disintegration status), they can experience anxiety, confusion, and/or anger. Whites can experience anger toward other Whites, people of color, or both. Those who blame other Whites feel duped by racially similar others and potentially powerless if there are no models for them to emulate in broadening their racial horizons. In progressing to the next statuses of racial identity, they may feel affirmed in the position of privilege and annoyed or enraged at people of color for not trying hard enough. In this reintegration status, Whites reinvest in beliefs about their superiority as White people and the inferiority of non-Whites. When faced with the fallacy of these beliefs, and with resurfaced concerns about equality and fairness, Whites move to the pseudo-independent status. Although they continue to have lingering beliefs about the deservedness of Whites, they also believe that people of color can ascend the racial hierarchy given the proper skills or tools. Denial, selective attention, dichotomous thinking, and obliviousness are IPS that operate in the first four statuses of the White Identity Model. The latter two statuses of White Identity theory, immersion-emersion and autonomy, are characterized by a gradual liberation from the perspective that Whites are the standard, universal, and superior, and that the “other” is inferior, exotic, pitiable, or undeserving. The twofold struggle for Whites in proceeding along this course of development is, first, to recognize and overcome their role in the perpetuation of racism, and second, to discover a positive White identity. This latter struggle primarily surfaces in the last two statuses.

THE POC AND THE WHITE IDENTITY MODELS If the feature of racial/ethnic pride is important to the development of people of color, then it can be argued that a particular challenge for Whites in their racial identity development is the relative absence in their lives or in history of White people who have engaged in the formidable struggle against racism as White people. This is not to state that White people have not been engaged in the struggle against racial oppression, but rather that their stories have been largely diminished or distorted. Therefore, in order for Whites to advance through racial identity development, it is important that they develop a love and appreciation for those Whites who have used their privilege in the service of eradicating racial oppression. They must also develop a love and appreciation for people of color, not for the purpose of meeting their own needs or purposes but for their beliefs in a shared humanity. The two final statuses of the two racial identity models are similar in that both people of color and Whites make use of complex and flexible IPS to cope with racial stimuli. Whites with autonomy, like people of color with integrative awareness, seek out relationships and strive to forge meaningful connections with people of all backgrounds. They become fully aware of how superficial politeness and physical distancing between certain populations are artifacts of the various structures of disadvantage. This awareness helps them to anticipate and continue the struggle to overcome problems in communicating with others.

THE RACIAL INTERACTION MODEL The Racial Interaction Model is a framework for facilitating racial identity development. In counseling and psychotherapy, practitioners who employ advanced racial identity IPS are able to assist clients by discerning racial identity profiles and in so doing, determining how the impact of racism and other structures of disadvantage have influenced the construction of self. Although the interaction model describes the qualities of interaction in therapist-client dyads based on similar racial identity schemata (termed parallel interactions) or on counterproductive matching (termed regressive interactions), it is the progressive interactions that encourage the facilitation of racial identity development. Helms (1995) explained that her rationale for creating a framework for discussing and studying racial

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factors was that such information would enable counselors and researchers to diagnose tensions in the environment and to intervene to resolve them in a manner compatible with the racial identity dynamics of the participants (Helms, 1984). Subsequently, the concept of environmental context was elaborated to pertain to various forms of interpersonal relationships, including other types of “couples” (e.g., teacherstudent) and group interactions, in addition to global societal movements (Helms, 1989). Thompson and Carter (1997) presented case studies in which therapists, supervisors, and organizational leaders and consultants have applied Helms’s theory to facilitate change in individuals and groups. Research too has shown support for the different models relative to personality, attitudinal, and cognitive factors (e.g., Carter, 1990, 1991; Carter & Constantine, 2000; Carter, Gushue, & Weitzman, 1994; Gushue & Carter, 2000) and counseling-related outcomes (e.g., Carter & Helms, 1992; Helms, 1990; Helms & Carter, 1991). CONCLUSIONS “Racial identity” is used in everyday parlance to refer to different ideas, but Helms’s empirical and theoretical work has helped to draw together several of these ideas coherently. Helms’s models can be thought of as nested models. The POC and White models (there is also a Black Racial Identity Model) include descriptions of how race has an impact on personality and relational dynamics. The interaction model incorporates an understanding of these dynamics and demonstrates the likely outcomes of racial situations given the prevailing statuses of the participants. In devising all of the models, Helms has attended not only to descriptions of how people behave but also to their potential to change. Helms’s efforts are directed to making meaning of the experience of race, a derivative of racism, and to show practitioners how they have the potential to help their clients overcome the tensions and injustices that surround this persistent phenomenon. Her efforts reflect a wedding between psychology and sociology to produce meaningful change at all ecological levels. Perhaps one irony of this theory of identity is that its pinnacle status is anathema to the notion of a bounded self, a differentiation between the self and others, however defined. Instead, Helms strives to show that defining the “self” as distinct and superior or inferior to another referent group is the result of a sinister

imposition, a human imposition, that complicates individual, group, and community lives. A freeing away from the bounded self requires a “working through”—approaching difficult situations related to racism and developing comfort with the self. This process of liberation also requires ultimately that the person perceive the self as neither superior nor inferior to another human being. Helms’s work has attempted to capture this decidedly transformational experience. —Chalmer E. Thompson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Carter, R. T. (1990). The relationship between racism and racial identity among White Americans: An exploratory investigation. Journal of Counseling and Development, 69, 46–50. Carter, R. T. (1991). Racial identity attitudes and psychological functioning. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 19, 105–114. Carter, R. T., & Constantine, M. G. (2000). Career maturity, life role salience, and racial/ethnic identity among Black and Asian American college students. Journal of Career Assessment, 8, 173–187. Carter, R. T., Gushue, G. V., & Weitzman, L. M. (1994). White racial identity development and work values. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 44, 185–197. Carter, R. T., & Helms, J. E. (1992). The counseling process as defined by relationship types: A test of Helms’ interactional model. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 20, 181–201. Gushue, G. W., & Carter, R. T. (2000). Remembering race: White racial identity attitudes and two aspects of social memory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 199–210. Helms, J. E. (1984). Toward a theoretical explanation of the effects of race on counseling: A Black and White model. The Counseling Psychologist, 12, 153–165. Helms, J. E. (1989). Considering some methodological issues in racial identity counseling research. The Counseling Psychologist, 17, 227–252. Helms, J. E. (1990). Black and White racial identity: Theory, research, and practice. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Helms, J. E. (1995). An update of Helms’s White and People of Color racial identity models. In J. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 181–198). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Helms, J. E., & Carter, R. T. (1991). Relationships of White and Black racial identity attitudes and demographic similarity to counselor preferences. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 38, 446–457. Helms, J. E., & Cook, D. A. (1999). Using race and culture in counseling and psychotherapy: Theory and process. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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Thompson, C. E., & Carter, R. T. (1997). Racial identity theory: Applications to individual, group, and organizational interventions. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

IDENTITY STATUSES Erik Erikson (1968) conceptualized the primary psychosocial task of adolescence as one of developing a sense of identity, of finding a place on a continuum between identity achievement and identity confusion. Identity, thus, is something one possesses to a greater or lesser degree, according to Erikson. In the mid1960s, however, James Marcia developed and began empirically validating the ego identity statuses. Marcia’s (1966) approach to identity suggested that there were qualitatively different styles by which individuals undertook the identity formation task. Marcia’s identity status model has been a popular means of exploring questions of identity development, antecedents, associated personality variables, and behavioral outcomes in both adolescent and adult life. DEFINING THE IDENTITY STATUSES The identity statuses refer to different possible modes by which individuals undertake the psychosocial task of identity formation, a process most commonly occurring during adolescence. Drawing from Erikson’s (1968) writings on adolescent identity, Marcia (1966) used the criteria of exploration and commitment to define the four identity statuses: identity achieved, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. Identity achieved and foreclosed individuals had both formed strong, identity-defining commitments; however, the manner by which such commitments were undertaken differed dramatically for these two groups. The identity achieved had made identity-defining commitments on their own terms, following a period of thoughtful exploration and decision making, while the foreclosed had simply adopted identity-defining roles and values displayed by significant others, without significant exploration of possible options. The identity achieved had thus constructed a sense of individual identity, while the foreclosed had been passive recipients of a conferred identity. Neither moratorium nor diffusion individuals had made identity-defining commitments to roles and values; however, these two groups again differed dramatically in their exploratory

processes. Moratorium individuals were actively engaged in identity exploration, concerned about finding a good “fit” for their own interests and talents within a social context, while diffusions were not. Diffuse individuals were unlikely to have engaged previously in extensive identity exploration, and were subsequently unable to form identity commitments. The identity-defining roles and values used to assess one’s identity status (in vocational, ideological, and sexual arenas), as well as the identity statuses themselves, had origins in Erikson’s writings (Marcia, 2003). MEASURING THE IDENTITY STATUSES Marcia’s (1966; Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Archer, & Orlofsky, 1993) Identity Status Interview was the first instrument developed to assess one’s identity status. This semi-structured interview enables the researcher to evaluate an individual’s quality of commitments in the domains of vocation, spiritual and political values, and sexual and sex role values. The interviewer probes, for example, reasons for any expressed commitments, plans for the future, any exploration that may have preceded commitments, role of parents and significant others in arriving at any identity-defining decisions, and the respondent’s knowledgeability about domains of expressed interest. Through such probings, the interviewer attempts to determine both the depth and extent of any commitments, as well as their source. Typically, an Identity Status Interview is administered in about 30 minutes and is tape-recorded for later assessment. An identity status rating is assigned for each domain, followed by an overall rating based on the clinical judgment of the interviewer. Interrater reliability has generally been about 80%. The instrument has demonstrated satisfactory construct validity. Because of the interview’s time-consuming nature, Adams, Bennion, and Huh (1989) have developed a self-report, paper-and-pencil measure of identity status that has also frequently been used to assess identity status. This instrument, the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status–2, is comprised of 64 items using a Likert Scale format to evaluate the presence or absence of exploration and commitment with regard to occupational, political, religious, and philosophy of life values (in the ideological domain), and friendship, dating, sex role, and recreational values (in the interpersonal domain). Internal consistency, splithalf, and test-retest reliabilities over a 4-week interval

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have been in satisfactory ranges. The instrument has demonstrated satisfactory construct validity. RESEARCH ABOUT THE IDENTITY STATUSES Marcia’s (1966) identity statuses have each been associated with selected personality variables, family styles of communication, behavioral consequences, and developmental patterns of change over time. For example, identity achieved individuals are introspective and are not likely to change evaluations under stressful conditions; they are intimate in their relationships and use the principled level of moral reasoning. Moratorium individuals are more anxious than those in other identity statuses. In the throes of an identity crisis, the moratorium adolescent is often in search of an intimate relationship but has not yet established one. The foreclosed are often rigid in their identity commitments and authoritarian in their values. They reason at the conventional level of moral reasoning and are most frequently engaged in stereotypic forms of relationships. The identity diffuse are heavily influenced by whichever way the wind is currently blowing in their lack of identity commitments. They are isolated or stereotypic in their interpersonal relationships. Over time, the most common pattern of movement for those who change identity status is from foreclosure to moratorium to identity achievement. However, virtually all longitudinal studies of identity status change indicate that significant percentages (often around 50%) of individuals remain in less mature (foreclosure and diffusion) identity statuses as they enter early adulthood (Kroger, 2000). APPLICATIONS OF THE IDENTITY STATUSES Research on the applications of Marcia’s identity statuses is in its infancy. However, Marcia (1989; Marcia et al., 1993) has indicated that the identity statuses do hold important clinical implications. Individuals within each identity status require a different form of intervention. Identity achieved individuals are unlikely to seek therapy. They may appear for brief counseling around specific issues but are likely to require only factual information from a practitioner. Someone in the moratorium status is acutely uncomfortable. It is important that the therapist not align herself with various possibilities the client is considering,

but rather listen, reflect the adolescent’s internal dilemmas, and remain available until resolution is attained. The foreclosed adolescent will generally come to therapy when something has upset his or her equilibrium. A crisis intervention approach may be beneficial. However, also riskier is a growth-oriented approach, which would assist the individual to construct an identity on his or her own terms. Adolescent diffusions show the widest range of adjustment difficulties among the identity statuses. In the most serious cases, the diffuse adolescent has failed to form a strong sense of identification with parental values, and it will be the role of the therapist to quietly and dependably enable the diffuse adolescent to rebuild a sense of basic trust, both in the self and others, by internalizing a representation of the therapist herself.

CONCLUSIONS While personality factors and parental attitudes toward child rearing have been correlated with the identity statuses during the 1970s and 1980s, there is need for long-term longitudinal research to explore personality, familial, and contextual variables in relation to patterns of identity status stability, regression, and development over time. Conditions that are conducive to identity development need to be explored. There is also need to examine the effects of intervention programs and screening measures to identify those adolescents who may be at risk of failing to form identity commitments by the time of entry into young adulthood. Finally, there is a need to explore the meanings that the identity statuses hold when applied to adult development. The identity statuses have yielded a fruitful 40-year history of research and applications, and they continue to hold many promising directions for future developmental and applied research. —Jane Kroger

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Adams, G. R., Bennion, L., & Huh, K. (1989). Objective measure of ego identity status: A reference manual. Unpublished manuscript, University of Guelph. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Kroger, J. (2000). Identity development: Adolescence through adulthood. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

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Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558. Marcia, J. E. (1989). Identity and intervention. Journal of Adolescence, 12, 401–410. Marcia, J. E. (2003). Why Erikson? In K. R. Hoover (Ed.), The future of identity: Centennial reflections on the legacy of Erik Erikson. Manuscript under preparation. Marcia, J. E., Waterman, A. S., Matteson, D. R., Archer, S. L., & Orlofsky, J. L. (Eds.). (1993). Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research. New York: Springer.

IMAGINENATIONS GROUP The ImagineNations Group is an international youth advocacy group founded by Rick R. Little, the founder and past president of the International Youth Foundation. Rick started developing the idea for ImagineNations in 2002, with an interest in engaging young people in the developing world in informing and influencing positive changes in human development in their own countries and on a global scale. As such, the ImagineNations Group partners with key leaders and national and international individuals and organizations to foster a movement aimed at engaging widespread involvement of youth in the developing world in envisioning better lives for themselves and their nations. These partnerships serve to guide, support, and promote the work of ImagineNations both within individual countries and globally. To provide young people with an outlet for their voices to be heard, ImagineNations and its partners will survey about a million young people in the developing world. The survey is framed around the hopes, dreams, attitudes, and behaviors of young people, as well as their views about issues related to the Millennium Development Goals, a human development initiative developed in 2000 by the United Nations that was signed by every government in the world. The voices of young people, captured by the results of the survey and additional focus groups, will then be disseminated through a broad-based social awareness campaign involving, as examples, town meetings with youth, op-ed pages in local and international newspapers, magazine articles, dialogues on radio shows, and other venues. The social awareness campaign will provide a way for the voices of young people (who, in the developing world, make up more than 50% of the population) to inform and influence program and

policy development within their respective countries as well as internationally, including influencing the involvement of donor agencies. With the results of the survey serving to inform and influence program and policy development, ImagineNations and its partners will additionally seek to identify, improve, and scale up opportunities for healthy human development and to empower young people by providing them with the opportunities and resources needed to develop the skills and capacities to improve their lives as well as the lives of those in their respective communities and nations. More information on ImagineNations is available on their Web site, www.imaginenations.org. —Elizabeth M. Dowling

IMMIGRANT FAMILIES, EUROPEAN Descendants of immigrants from Europe whose ancestors came to permanently resettle in North America compose the greatest proportion of the population in the United States today. Although they are no longer the largest immigrant group, European immigration continues to this day, and immigrants face acculturation and adaptation challenges that are both similar and distinct from those faced by other immigrant groups. HISTORY OF EUROPEAN MIGRATION IN THE UNITED STATES Early in the history of the United States, large numbers of Europeans immigrated to resettle in the New World. Much of this migration was prompted by a search for a better life and escape from persecution and famine. In fact, by today’s definition, many of those early immigrants, such as the Pilgrims, who were escaping religious persecution, may be considered “refugees.” In the 19th century, a greater diversity of Europeans were immigrating to the United States. While the contrast is frequently drawn between voluntary economic immigrants and refugees who are forced to flee, the distinction can be difficult to draw. Immigration is not a task that people embark on lightly, regardless of circumstances. In Europe, political violence or economic hardship often gave rise to

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Table 1

Sample Statistics for European Immigration to the U.S. (for Selected Decades)

Decade

Total Number Immigrants to U.S.

Total Number Immigrants to U.S. from Europe (and % of total immigration)

1851–60

2,598,214

2,452,577 (94%)

Germany 951,667 Ireland 914,119 U.K. 423,974 France 76,358 Switzerland 25,011

1881–90

5,246,613

4,735,484 (90%)

Germany 1,452,970 U.K. 807,357 Ireland 655,482 Norway-Sweden 568,362 Italy 307,309

1901–10

8,795,386

8,056,040 (92%)

Austria-Hungary 2,145,266 Italy 2,045,877 Former Soviet Union 1,597,306 U.K. 525,950 Norway-Sweden 440,039

1991–2000

9,095,417

1,359,737 (15%)

Former Soviet Union 462,874 Poland 162,747 U.K. 151,866 Germany 92,606 Former Yugoslavia 66,557

Top Five European Countries of Immigration

SOURCE: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (2004).

different waves of migration. In the mid-19th century, the Irish were escaping the potato famine, and western Europeans the political unrest associated with the revolutions of 1848. Toward the end of the 19th century, the Germans were escaping the Franco-Prussian War, and the Italians poverty resulting from effects of industrialization, primarily in Southern Italy. Whereas immigrants from the British Isles, western Europe, and Scandinavia predominated before the 1890s, by the 1900s people from Southern and Eastern Europe dominated the influx. Pogroms in the “Pale of Settlement” within the Russian Empire, which included today’s Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, gave rise to a large exodus of Jews. Non-Jews were experiencing economic and political hardships in eastern Europe as well, particularly Poles whose country had been continually divided and ruled by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. In southern Europe, Italians continued to migrate and join distant relatives already resettled in the United States, and around the turn of the 20th century many Greek families sent their young men to work in the United States, eventually leading to the establishment of large Greek communities.

Immigration subsided with World War I and U.S. postwar isolationism, and was negligible between the World Wars. While the United States did take in European refugees displaced as a result of World War II, this migration was relatively small. The next large immigration wave in the United States is said to have occurred since the 1970s and continues to this day. In contrast to prior waves, the percentage of immigrant Europeans is quite small, dropping to 15% of all arrivals in the decade of 1991–2000, compared with 92% in the decade of 1901–1910 (see Table 1). CURRENT PATTERNS AND ISSUES IN EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION AND ADAPTATION In the first part of the 20th century, the adaptation of European immigrants was studied primarily by sociologists, and the most notable example of such work was the book The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (Thomas & Znaniecki, 1958). The book described the trials and tribulations of adaptation for this group, which along with the Italians, the Irish, Jews, and others faced discrimination from the dominant

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majority at a time when popular culture embraced ethnic stereotypes. However since the latter part of the 20th century, assimilation of these groups has been seen as commonplace, as the non-White immigrant populations began to arrive. Through legal reforms and changes in popular culture, ethnic prejudice toward Jews and Europeans has declined in America, and attention has turned toward visible minority groups, including immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. As a result, it appears that social scientists are largely assuming that European immigrants do not experience difficulties, particularly when compared with those who are non-White. Thus in the context of today’s emphasis on multiculturalism, European immigrants are largely overlooked as a population of concern. However the experiences of first-generation immigrants from Europe may not be all that different from those of other immigrants and refugees. Many of today’s European immigrants who undertake the hardships of immigration do so to escape stark realities in their own countries. They are most likely to come from Eastern Europe, from countries that had been Communist and under Soviet control until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. As has happened throughout history, immigration is stimulated by political and economic reasons, as people strive to escape totalitarian regimes and find better economic circumstances in the Western world. The distinction between political refugees, economic immigrants, and family reunification cases is sometimes difficult to establish for these populations. Regardless, the few available studies do suggest that these immigrants undergo a process of acculturation similar to that of other groups, that many struggle with learning the language and adjusting economically, that parent-child differences emerge as they do in other immigrant families, and that children experience discrimination from their U.S.-born peers (e.g., Birman & Trickett, 2001a; Vinokurov, Birman, & Trickett, 2000). One challenge in documenting the extent of the migration and resettlement patterns of European groups is that they are not clearly identified as a distinct ethnic group in many available sources of data available from school districts, state governments, or even the U.S. Census. Data on patterns of European migration to the United States, however, are available, and are summarized in Table 1. Statistics for the most recent decade available, 1991–2000, indicate that the largest European group to immigrate was from the former Soviet Union, followed by immigrants from

Poland (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service [USCIS], 2004). IMMIGRATION FROM THE FORMER SOVIET UNION Large-scale migration from the former Soviet Union began prior to the 1990s, when international agreements in the 1970s made it possible for Jews to leave the former Soviet Union for purposes of family reunification with relatives in Israel, the United States, and other Western countries. Since the mid-1970s, more than 600,000 Jews fleeing the former Soviet Union have resettled in the United States, and more than 1 million in Israel. The primary reasons for this exodus were related to official and unofficial ethnic discrimination against Jews in the former Soviet Union. In the former Soviet Union, being Jewish was considered to be one’s ethnicity or “nationality,” so while they were considered Soviet citizens, they could not call themselves “Russian.” Thus most Jews from the former Soviet Union entered the United States with refugee status. More recently, and since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, some are continuing to arrive as relatives of those resettled prior to 1990, stimulated by fear of a reemergence of anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union as well as better economic opportunities in the United States. The majority of these émigrés have settled in the Northeast, particularly in New York City and in other major cities along the Eastern seaboard. Los Angeles, Chicago, and other large urban areas also have relatively large communities (Gold, 1992). These émigrés are characterized by being urban and relatively well educated, with more than 70% having at least a college education, and have been described as deriving their identity from their professional status and occupational achievements. In the United States, they have been relatively successful economically, with respect to being able to earn a living through using their skills or retraining when necessary (e.g., Vinokurov et al., 2000). However, in one study, high professional status held in the former Soviet Union served as a predictor of psychological distress, suggesting particular adaptation issues for this highly skilled population (Birman & Trickett, 2001b). Thus while the majority have succeeded economically, a high level of education for these immigrants is a blessing and a curse, as it helps them succeed economically but puts them in a situation where their professional aspirations

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may never be realized as they face the prospects of underemployment, without the possibility of attaining a professional level similar to that held prior to migration. In contrast, immigrants with blue collar occupations may have skills that are more transferable across countries, and do not experience a radical downward mobility with respect to job status. In 1988, Soviet citizens who were Pentecostal Christians, as well as other evangelical groups, also became eligible for refugee status and began to immigrate to the United States in relatively large numbers. Because of a history of official oppression of religious groups in the Soviet Union, evangelical Christians had adapted by avoiding participation in official government organizations, including the educational system, and are predominantly rural, generally employed in blue collar jobs, and have a lower level of education. These were deeply religious people with large families, little education, and ancient religious practices that had to be followed secretly when under Soviet rule. This history has created challenges in the acculturation of this group and their adaptation to mainstream American society. This group has resettled primarily in the northwestern United States, where American churches provided sponsorship in Oregon, Washington State, and Northern California. For example, the “Slavic” community in Portland, Oregon, has grown from a few thousand in the early 1990s to estimates of 40,000–60,000 in 2004; large communities have been noted in Sacramento, California, and Spokane, Washington. OTHER EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS Polish migration is also notable in the 1991–2000 decade, with 162,000 Poles entering the country. As a result of continuing Polish migration, according to the Polish American Association (2004), Polish Americans and Polish immigrants number more than 8.9 million persons, and constitute the ninth largest ethnic group in the United States. Other Eastern Europeans from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and other former Soviet bloc countries have been coming to the United States as well. As a result of the conflict in former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s, a large influx of refugees fled and continue to come to the United States for permanent resettlement. In 2002, 25,373 immigrants and refugees came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, 10,401 from today’s Yugoslavia, and 3,805 from Croatia. Although the war

had ended, the legacy of trauma for these refugees continues as the scars of the war continue to haunt those with posttraumatic symptoms, as well as affect others who are members of the community in other ways. Finally, the statistics for European migration in Table 1 suggest that immigrants from the U.K. and Germany have continually been in the top five European countries of immigration across the centuries. Unfortunately, little is known about the realities of this immigration process because studies of these immigrants are not conducted. Yet our knowledge of immigration and the ways in which language, culture, and race influence adaptation and acculturation of immigrants can be much enhanced by conducting studies of these groups. Perhaps the assumption is made that western European immigrants do not experience hardships, particularly British immigrants for whom the transition to the U.S. language and culture is presumed to be simple. Yet in terms of informing our understanding of adaptation of immigrants, a comparative study of immigrants that includes German and U.K. migrants can be a fascinating complement to our knowledge base about how immigrants adjust and cope. CONCLUSIONS European immigrants from diverse countries and their descendants have historically represented the dominant group in the United States, shaping the country’s culture, traditions, and institutions. However, despite the present-day perception that they represent a homogeneous group, in the past European ethnic groups have been perceived as being racially distinct. In particular, immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and Ireland historically experienced difficulties similar to those that non-White immigrants confront today. Further, today’s European immigrants are largely coming from the less prosperous part of Europe comprised of the countries of the former Soviet bloc, and many have had little exposure to Western cultures. As a result, many face difficulties in acculturation that are similar to those faced by nonWhite immigrants. Our understanding of adaptation and acculturation of immigrants can be greatly informed through studies of these White as well as non-White groups to help disentangle issues in minority and immigrant adjustment. —Dina Birman

See also REFUGEES

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Birman, D., & Trickett, E. J. (2001a). The process of acculturation in first generation immigrants: A study of Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents and parents. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 32(4), 456–477. Birman, D., & Trickett, E. J. (2001b). Psychosocial and workrelated adaptation of Soviet Jewish refugees in Maryland. Maryland Office for New Americans. Refugee Research Project. Available at: http://63.236.98.116/mona/refugee.htm Gold, S. (1992). Refugee communities: A comparative field study. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Polish American Association. (2004). America’s Polish American Community. Available at http://www.polish.org/ Thomas, W. I., & Znaniecki, F. (1958). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. New York: Dover. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). (2004). 2002 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. Immigration by selected country of last residence, pp. 11–15. Available at http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/ ybpage.htm Vinokurov, A., Birman, D., & Trickett, E. J. (2000). Psychological and acculturation correlates of work status among Soviet Jewish refugees in the U.S. International Migration Review, 34, 538–559.

IMMIGRANTS, ACCULTURATION OF Individuals’ healthy behavior and development result from mutually beneficial exchanges between them and their contexts, as well as from a goodness of fit between the two (e.g., see Lerner, 2002, for discussion). Migrants’ ability (or inability) to adjust to a new cultural setting is often discussed in terms of their acculturation to the new context. Acculturation has been described as a change in cultural patterns held by an individual due to conflicts and negotiations that occur while the individual is adjusting to a new cultural setting (Berry, 1997; Teske & Nelson, 1992). How well an individual has acculturated to the culture of his of her new host depends on the extent to which that individual has retained cultural patterns of the context within which he or she developed prior to migration and the extent to which the individual is ready to accept patterns of the new culture. ACCULTURATIVE STRATEGIES Based on where in a change trajectory the migrant is on this crossing between host culture and the

culture of origin, the migrant is likely to exhibit preference for one of the four strategies of acculturation: (1) assimilation, when individuals prefer to identify themselves through and interact almost exclusively with the culture of the new context; (2) separation, when individuals show no desire to interact with the new culture, but rather prefer to maintain cultural patterns they held prior to migration; (3) integration, when individuals opt for continued nurturance of their cultures of origin but also seek interactions with their new cultures; and (4) marginalization, when there is no interest in either maintaining one’s own culture or taking on the culture of the host (Berry, 1997; Cuellar, Arnold, & Maldonado, 1995). An individual’s ability to adapt to the new culture does not necessarily imply that the person has to give up cultural values and norms characteristic of his or her culture of origin, nor does it imply that the goodness of fit between the individual characteristics and demands of the host culture has been fully attained. Rather, as is the case with individuals who choose to use an acculturative strategy of integration, the ability to adapt to the new culture reflects one’s ability to attain an adaptive positive outcome within a larger ecology, where two sets of cultural norms and values exist at the same point in historical time, with each set of norms and values placing varying degrees of demands on the individual. ACCULTURATIVE STRATEGIES AS A REFLECTION OF GOODNESS OF FIT While different groups of migrants may have some acculturation characteristics in common, there are still variations between the groups and, especially, within groups. The extent to which an individual shows a preference for one acculturation strategy over another is not only the function of individual choice but also the function of the freedom of choice provided to the migrant by the host culture and the function of the level to which members of the host culture are accepting of the choice that the migrant has made (Berry, 1997). In other words, characteristics of the migrant (e.g., choice of acculturation strategy) and characteristics of the migrant’s new environment (e.g., support for the freedom of choice) both contribute to the degree of goodness of fit between the acculturating individual and his or her new cultural setting. Acculturation strategies such as assimilation and integration reflect

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increased goodness of fit between the acculturating person and his or her new context, whereas an increase in strategies such as separation and marginalization points to a lack of fit between the acculturating individual and the context (Berry, 1997). ACCULTURATION AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION TO CHANGE Stresses that migrants encounter during the course of exile and their efforts to meet the demands imposed on them during the course of acculturation can lead to psychological distress. This psychological distress can further challenge the migrant’s ability to adapt to living in the new culture. Taking into account the role of psychological stress in one’s acculturation process, Berry (1997) argued that a distinction must be made between acculturation, a phenomenon defined at a group level, and psychological acculturation, which is an approach that looks at acculturation as an adaptive change in the psychological functioning and wellbeing of the individual. Although psychological maladjustment may arise as the consequence of acculturation experience and acculturative stresses, it must be noted that migrants’ maladjustment is not inevitable. Rather, possible maladjustment is moderated by the degree to which each of the following six individual and contextual components are present: (1) the nature of the larger society (e.g., collectivistic versus individualistic); (2) the type of acculturating group (e.g., immigrants versus refugees); (3) the acculturation strategy that one employs (e.g., integration versus separation); (4) demographic and social characteristics of individual (e.g., age at the time of migration, education, language proficiency, years of living in the host culture, and quality of social relations); (5) psychological characteristics of individual (e.g., extroversion versus introversion); and (6) social support (see, for example, Berry, 1997; Bornstein & Cote, 2001; and Miller et al., 2002).

needs of both local culture and the culture of origin, to use support systems at the level of both cultures, and to exhibit a certain level of personal flexibility. For certain types of migrants who come to the United States from countries with languages, cultural norms, and values considerably different from those found in the United States, integration represents a challenging task. This is especially true for involuntary migrants (such is the case with refugees), who do not come to the United States in search for a better education, job, or an improved lifestyle, but rather because they are forced to leave their countries of origin due to, for example, war or famine. Successful integration of involuntary migrants such as refugees can be a slow process, since refugees are much less likely than voluntary migrants to be ready to make a transition to the new cultural setting. Lack of refugees’ readiness to either integrate or assimilate to the new setting can pose, in turn, diverse challenges for the host culture. For example, out of 68,426 refugees who resettled in the United States during the course of 2001, more than 50% represented refugees from the Soviet Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq alone (U.S. Committee for Refugees, 2002). In addition, while the majority of the refugees resettling in the United States are adults, a great number of them (about one third, or 24,685) are children under the age of 18 (U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, 2001). If we are to successfully support integration and positive and healthy development of refugees resettling in the United States, it is imperative that we explore their current status, challenges that they might be facing during the process of acculturation, and the consequences that stresses brought about by these challenges may have for their development. For example, for refugee parents who may be suffering from depression due to acculturative stresses, depressive tendencies may create a stressful living environment for their children. CONCLUSIONS

INTEGRATIVE STRATEGY IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETIES In the case of individuals who have migrated to a multicultural society such as the United States, an integrative strategy of acculturation holds the best prospect for long-term positive adaptation (Berry, 1997). However, as Berry remarked, to be able to exercise integration, one must be ready to accommodate to the

A growing body of literature has demonstrated that the challenges that migrants face as they try to acculturate to their new contexts can result in acculturative stress, which, in turn, can contribute to problems of adjustment in the migrant population. Although involuntary migrants (such as refugees) constitute a significant proportion of the global migrant population, few studies have focused on their acculturation and on the

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lack of the goodness of fit that they experience. Our understanding of mechanisms by which the experience of acculturation and acculturative stress may affect involuntary migrant populations is crucial, especially in situations where multiple generations of families experience the challenges of acculturation at the same time. Our next steps in gaining deeper understanding of acculturation should include studies that offer to explore the relations between acculturative strategies and psychological well-being in parents who are involuntary migrants and the relations between the parents’ psychological well-being and their children’s adjustment and healthy development. In addition, there is a need for information that would allow us to learn about specific individual and contextual variables that represent assets for these parents and allow them to successfully cope with the stresses of acculturation and to integrate into their host cultures. Information collected through these studies could be used by different refugee-serving governmental and nongovernmental agencies to develop better social supports and evaluate the progress of acculturation among refugee families with children. The purpose of such assistance would be to support parents in developing assets that have proved to be helpful tools and resources in involuntary migrants’ successful adjustment to a new culture and in their successful parenting of their children. Only by supporting positive and healthy development of these families can we get closer to ensuring a positive and healthy development of the nation as a whole. —Aida B. Balsano

REFERENCES Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46(1), 5–68. Bornstein, M. H., & Cote, L. R. (2001). Mother-infant interaction and acculturation: I. Behavioural comparisons in Japanese American and South American families. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 25(6), 549–563. Cuellar, I., Arnold, B., & Maldonado, R. (1995). Acculturation rating scale for Mexican Americans–II: A revision of the original ARSMA scale. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 17(3), 275–304. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Miller, K. E., Weine, S. M., Ramic, A., Brkic, N., Djuric Bjedic, Z., Smajkic, A., et al. (2002). The relative contribution of war experiences and exile-related stressors to levels

of psychological distress among Bosnian refugees. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15(5), 377–387. Teske, R. H., Jr., & Nelson, B. H. (1992). Acculturation and assimilation: A clarification. American Ethnologist, 1(2), 351–367. U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. (2001). Available at http://www.state.gov/g/prm/ U.S. Committee for Refugees. (2002). World refugee survey. Available at http://www.refugees.org/world/worldmain.htm

IMMIGRANTS, EXPERIENCES OF WHO ARE IMMIGRANTS? Immigrant is a term used to describe foreign nationals who enter a country for purposes of permanent resettlement. They are distinguished from persons who may cross national borders temporarily, such as for purposes of enrolling in educational institutions or temporary employment but with the intent of returning to their homeland permanently. An immigrant may arrive legally, holding a specific visa for immigration, may decide to remain in a foreign country permanently after having spent some time there as a tourist, student, or guest worker, or may arrive without legal documents. In the United States, the legal definition of immigrant or permanent resident alien is used by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, formerly INS) to refer only to lawful permanent residents; however the term is commonly used to refer to any foreign nationals crossing borders for purposes of permanent resettlement. There is no general agreement as to whether the term immigrant implies voluntary migration exclusively or encompasses voluntary as well as forced migration. Thus the term is generally not used to refer to the forced migration of Africans who were brought to the United States as slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the same way it may exclude the experience of “refugees,” or those who fled their native country to escape persecution, though often refugees, legal immigrants, and undocumented immigrants are thought of as different types of immigrants. IMMIGRANTS IN THE U.S. CONTEXT Early migration in U.S. history was predominantly European, the nation being a British colony till the late 18th century. Throughout the 19th century,

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northern Europeans, primarily of British, Irish, Scandinavian, and German descent, continued to come to the country. While these immigrants undoubtedly faced challenges in their adaptation to their new homeland, ethnic distinctions among these groups were not emphasized. Many spoke English and did not confront the challenge of needing to learn a new language. Many of the others continued to retain their native languages, with German bilingual education becoming a prominent system in private and public schools. The turn of the 20th century brought the largest immigrant influx to date, and several events gave rise to assimilationist attitudes among Americans. Ellis Island became a symbol of this wave, with the nation creating a comprehensive infrastructure for processing large numbers of new arrivals. First, this migration wave was culturally distinct from groups that had settled the United States in prior decades and centuries, being predominantly composed of southern and eastern Europeans, including Italians, Greeks, and Jews from the Pale of Settlement within the Russian Empire. The size of this migration raised questions about whether the newcomers would so overwhelm the country that they would effectively change the culture, presumably for the worse. Many of the newly arrived groups were seen at the time as not only ethnically but racially distinct from “Anglo-Americans” (Alba, 1990). In this context, assimilation was seen as the solution to the immigration crisis, and public education was seen as the vehicle through which the newcomers would become Americanized. Second, the outbreak of World War I resulted in anti-German sentiment and effectively put an end to German bilingual education, which could have served as a model for adaptation to the U.S. culture while retaining the culture of origin for newly arrived groups. In this atmosphere immigrants were encouraged to abandon their native cultures and become “American.” Over time, these ethnic distinctions among Europeans have ceased to create social chasms, and descendants of Irish, Italian, Greek, and even Jewish immigrants are all considered “White” in the United States today. PRESENT-DAY IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES The 1970s brought another large wave of immigration and with it new challenges to how the country would absorb the new arrivals. This wave continues to

this day, and resembles in scope the migration wave at the turn of the 20th century, with approximately 1 million immigrants entering the country each year. The vast majority of arrivals in this wave are not European. Mexicans continue to represent the largest immigrant group entering the United States, both legally and through other channels. In 1975, with the fall of Saigon, a large influx of Vietnamese refugees began to arrive, and was soon joined by migrations from Cambodia and Laos. Even today, relatives of refugees who had come in the late 20th century continue to come to the United States for permanent resettlement. Immigrants came to the United States in large numbers since the 1970s from the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea, and other countries throughout Asia and Latin America. FROM ASSIMILATION TO MULTICULTURALISM With the majority of new arrivals being non-White, the nation has had to rethink its expectations for assimilation. While the earlier immigrants were able to lose their accents, and over the span of generations effectively “blend in” and intermarry with those whose ancestors had immigrated earlier in U.S. history, this was seen as impossible for those who would continue to be visible minorities. For example, Portes and Zhou (1993) have described non-White immigrants as undergoing “segmented assimilation,” or acculturation into the low-income and inner-city segments of the U.S. society, rather than the White middle class. This is thought to occur because nonWhite immigrants continue to be visibly different from the majority even when they become acculturated to the United States, and they continue to experience discrimination. The rise of multiculturalism and biculturalism as an acculturation strategy has occurred in this context. Berry (1988), Szapocznik, Kurtines, and Fernandez (1980), and others have proposed that while acculturation to American society may indeed be adaptive, it does not have to displace attachment to immigrants’ native culture. Because discrimination results in a devaluing of the culture and ethnicity of the minority group relative to the majority, a strong sense of one’s ethnic identity and a positive valuation of one’s ethnic group are seen as psychologically resilient and adaptive, providing individuals with inner resources for handling difficulties, prejudice, and discrimination

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(e.g., Phinney, 1990). Biculturalism is thought to allow immigrants to both adapt to the new culture and retain an attachment to their native culture.

ADJUSTMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH Challenges for Immigrant Families On one hand, immigrants have been found to be a resilient group, with lower incidence of disease or mental disorder found in immigrant populations as compared with citizens of countries of origin or destination countries. In addition, economists suggest that despite difficulties in transferability of skills, immigrants tend to quickly advance economically to levels comparable to or even exceeding those of the native-born citizens. The reasons for this are that voluntary immigrants are considered to be self-selecting, and only those who evaluate the costs of migration relative to their resources, such as transferability of skills, are likely to make the journey. The implication of this analysis is that those for whom the costs of migration are likely to be lower, such as those crossing the border from Mexico, are likely to have a lower level of skill, whereas those for whom costs of migration are high would not undertake the journey unless they could foresee economic benefits. In support of this theory, the level of education of immigrants from Mexico into the United States (i.e., low costs of migration) tends to be low, whereas Africans and Koreans (i.e., high costs of migration) on average represent the highest educated immigrant groups entering the United States, often exceeding the average level of education in the United States. Despite these economic theories, the psychological literature suggests that a wide range of issues may put all immigrant children at risk for maladjustment. This may be particularly true for immigrants who become visible minorities when resettled in the United States, such as immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and Africa. For them, adaptation involves overcoming racism, and there is some suggestion that economic advancement may not proceed as smoothly as for White immigrants. For all immigrants, however, potential problems are created by differential rates of acculturation between parents and children, difficulties negotiating dual cultural identities, and lack of guidance and supervision from parents who themselves are struggling to adapt to life in a new culture (e.g., Aronowitz, 1984; Szapocznik et al., 1980). Without such supervision,

and because immigrant parents may not fully understand the context of their children’s lives, adolescents in particular become overly susceptible to negative peer influences and may engage in substance abuse and gang violence (e.g., Szapocznik, Kurtines, Santisteban, & Rio, 1990). Children and adolescents struggling with identity formation may experience psychological difficulties in the context of dual cultural membership (Phinney, 1990), particularly if they are discriminated against and receive negative messages from the larger society about their race and culture (e.g., Portes & Zhou, 1993). In addition, immigrants confront many challenges associated with migration, such as establishing new social relationships, locating services, and learning about new norms and customs, all in a foreign language. Further, immigrants simultaneously experience many losses, including family, friends, and familiar places and patterns left behind. Acculturation Gap For families, adjustment in immigration involves parenting in a new cultural context, as parents make decisions about how much to hold on to native traditions and values in child rearing while adapting to the requirements of the new cultural context. Because adults (and parents) acculturate at a slower rate than their children, and because those who arrived in the United States as adults are less likely to lose their language and culture, an acculturation gap develops between children and parents over time (e.g., Birman & Trickett, 2001). One implication of the acculturation gap is that at home children live according to the norms of their native culture and speak their native language, whereas at school they have to switch cultures and be “American.” Because parents are immersed predominantly in one culture and children in another, immigrant parents often know little of their children’s lives outside the home. The implication of the acculturation gap is potential misunderstandings between the parents and children with respect to many aspects of growing up. Another implication is that the acculturation gap not only diminishes the capacity of parents to help their children, it also undermines their authority. While in the United States adolescence is culturally assumed to involve continual testing of parental limits as parents gradually give children increasing independence, parenting in immigrant families can be complicated. Without sufficient knowledge or understanding of

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their children’s lives outside the home, parents may set rules that are overly strict, too permissive, or both. For example, not knowing about the danger of crime, gangs, and drugs in the inner city, parents may not supervise their adolescent children enough with respect to what they do after school while parents are at work. Children may grow adept at forging excuse notes for school or concealing how they are doing at school. At the same time, parents may be overly strict with the same children in the evenings, requiring unusually early curfews or restricting contact with peers of the opposite sex. As a result, children and adolescents may be coping with developmental milestones without sufficient supervision or guidance.

See also REFUGEES

The Culture Broker Role

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS

Another consequence of the acculturation gap is that children in immigrant families are frequently asked to take on the role of culture broker (Buriel, Perez, De Ment, Chavez, & Morgan, 1998) as a way of aiding the adaptation of their families to life in the new country. This role encompasses a wide range of behaviors in which children and adolescents mediate or broker the relationship of family members with local institutions, other adults, and peers of the children. These activities may involve translating in situations such as when documents are sent home by a local school, someone in the family needs to set up a doctor’s appointment, answering the telephone, or simply explaining to parents what their nativespeaking friends are talking about when visiting the home. While many children are glad to be able to be helpful to their families, this role may place an undue burden on them. For example, translating during a medical exam for one’s parent or grandparent may be inappropriate and embarrassing, and result in the child knowing far more than parents may want the child to know about their own health. Moreover, in many immigrant families adolescents must work to help support the family, thus taking on a role that in this country children their age are generally not asked to take on. In all these ways, children act more like adults in their families, and the adults more like children, a role reversal that can have negative consequences.

Alba, D. (1990). Ethnic identity: The transformation of White America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Aronowitz, M. (1984). The social and emotional adjustment of immigrant children: A review of the literature. International Migration Review, 18(2), 237–257. Berry, J. W. (1988). Acculturation and psychological adaptation: A conceptual overview. In J. W. Berry & R. C. Annis (Eds.), Ethnic psychology: Research and practice with immigrants, refugees, native peoples, ethnic groups and sojourners. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger. Birman, D., & Trickett. E. J. (2001). Cultural transitions in first-generation immigrants: Acculturation of Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents and parents. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(4), 456–477. Buriel, R., Perez, W., De Ment, T., Chavez, D., & Morgan, V. (1998). The relationship of language brokering to academic performance, biculturalism, and self-efficacy among Latino adolescents. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 20, 283–297. Phinney, J. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: A review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. Portes, A., & Zhou, M. (1993). The new second-generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants. Annals of the Academy of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530, 74–96. Szapocznik, J., Kurtines, W. M., & Fernandez, T. (1980). Bicultural involvement and adjustment in HispanicAmerican youths. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 4, 353–365. Szapocznik, J., Kurtines, W., Santisteban, D. A., & Rio, A. T. (1990). Interplay of advances between theory, research, and application in treatment interventions aimed at behavior problem children and adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 696–703. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). (2004). Immigration statistics. Available at: http://uscis.gov/ graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/index.htm

CONCLUSIONS U.S. history involves different waves of immigration that have given rise to diverse ethnic communities

resettled under different circumstances. As the demographics of the new immigrants have shifted, so have the nation’s policies and attitudes toward the newcomers. Today, expectations that immigrants assimilate are being examined and debated, and multiculturalism is increasingly embraced. The distinctive circumstances facing varied immigrant populations pose both significant challenges and opportunities for psychology to expand its understanding of crosscultural issues, transition processes, family dynamics, and psychological well-being. —Dina Birman

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INCARCERATED MOTHERS, CHILDREN OF In recent years, the rate of incarceration in prisons and jails in the United States has been rapidly escalating. This trend has affected men and women in equally dramatic ways. However, the increasing incarceration rate for women is of particular concern, because these women are often the only caregivers of their children. Although no specific agency or system is charged with collecting data about incarcerated mothers and their children, conservative estimates indicate that 65% of female inmates have children (Mumola, 2000) and that at least 6% of women entering prison or jail are pregnant (Beck & Karberg, 2001). As a result, it is estimated that approximately 200,000 children in this country currently have incarcerated mothers, while many more have experienced or will experience this situation at some point during their childhoods (Seymour, 1998). Certain minorities are affected more than others. Indeed, 2% of all minor children in the United States and about 7% of all African American children had at least one parent in state or federal prison in 1999 (Travis & Waul, 2004). DEVELOPMENTAL CORRELATES OF MATERNAL INCARCERATION Due to the scarcity of research in the field, very little is known about the ability of incarcerated mothers to function as parents and about the developmental outcomes that their children might experience (Gabel & Johnston, 1995). Sometimes, imprisonment can even represent a source of relief from difficulties associated with the removed parent, such as financial strain, abuse, or neglect. Yet, in most cases, researchers assume that the consequences of the incarceration of a mother are negative and potentially traumatic for their children, especially when the mother is the primary caregiver prior to incarceration. Among the most commonly cited effects are strains of economic deprivation; inappropriate separation anxieties and developmental delays or regressions; feelings of abandonment, loneliness, shame, guilt, sadness, anger, and resentment; eating and sleeping disorders; disruptive behaviors at home or at school; and diminished academic performances. There are developmental differences in children’s reactions to maternal incarceration. Infants, for

example, are at risk of experiencing attachment difficulties, especially if they are subjected to multiple placements with multiple caregivers during the separation period. Children and adolescents might develop fears of being stigmatized by peers, teachers, and society in general, unless they see incarceration as a direct result of social prejudice against the minority or group that they identify with (Gabel & Johnston, 1995). Adolescents may develop a negative perception of the legal system and take part in illicit activities themselves (Travis & Waul, 2004). MULTIPLE RISK FACTORS As in other types of separation (e.g., divorce), it is difficult to disentangle the effects of incarceration per se from the many other potential risk factors that children of incarcerated mothers may be exposed to, such as mother’s history of illicit substance abuse and low socioeconomic status (SES). The variables that need to be taken into consideration include, but are not limited to, the age, gender, and temperament of the child; the relationships among the mother, the child, and other family members prior to the mother’s incarceration; the kind of criminal offense committed by the mother; the duration of imprisonment; the type of living arrangements before, during, and after the incarceration period; the type and frequency of visits and other contacts among the child, other family members, and the incarcerated mother; and the family’s ethnicity, cultural background, and socioeconomic status. Frequency of Contact The type and frequency of visits that children are allowed to have with their incarcerated mothers appear particularly important. Several studies have shown that children who interact with their incarcerated mother only once a month or less develop substantial emotional needs as compared with children who visit their mothers more often. These studies have also shown that failure to provide nurturing relationships that fulfill these emotional needs might contribute to a continuation of the cycle of incarceration (Harris & Landreth, 1997). On the other hand, when regular contacts and visits do take place, children get an opportunity to better understand their mothers’ situation, to see them realistically, and to express their emotional reactions to the separation. Regular visitation also allows mothers and children to maintain their

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existing relationship, thus allowing the family to reunite more successfully following separation (Gabel & Johnston, 1995). Yet, despite these beneficial aspects, approximately one half of incarcerated mothers in the United States do not receive any visits from their children, while many others receive only infrequent visits (Seymour, 1998). Several obstacles prevent incarcerated mothers and their children from having regular contacts. For instance, more than 60% of mothers in prison are incarcerated more than 100 miles away from their children, making visitation difficult, financially prohibitive, and often impossible (Mumola, 2000). In this respect, jails are almost worse. Indeed, although jails are typically closer to the children’s homes than prisons, they almost universally require noncontact visits: mothers and their children must communicate over the phone through glass or a thick wire mesh, often making the experience so distressing that many mothers do not want their children to visit in such conditions (Covington Katz, 1998). Finally, many children do not visit their incarcerated mothers because they have received distorted explanations of why they are absent, which might lead to further problems. Indeed, such practices are universally condemned in the literature as harmful to the child and potentially the cause of behavioral difficulties (Gabel & Johnston, 1995). Living Arrangements After Separation The children’s living arrangements during and after the separation period also influence their capacity to cope with maternal incarceration. Several studies show that children of incarcerated mothers often experience disrupted and multiple placements (Seymour, 1998). Approximately half of them live with grandparents, one quarter live with their fathers, some live with relatives and friends, and the rest are placed in out-of-home care or with relatives and friends in informal placements. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the children of about 10% of incarcerated mothers are being cared for in non-kin foster care while the mother is incarcerated (Mumola, 2000). For these children, the instability and multiplicity of placements can lead to additional negative outcomes. PARENTAL RIGHTS Incarcerated mothers face a number of obstacles when trying to preserve their parental rights. More

than 25 states have termination of right statutes that explicitly pertain to incarcerated parents (Gabel & Johnson, 1995), and in many states—if not all— several policies directly target children in out-of-home care. At the federal level, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA, P.L. 105-89) of 1997 encourages states to terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. Under this same act, which was passed by Congress as an amendment to the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA) of 1980, the time frame for holding permanency planning hearings and locating adoptive homes for children has been reduced from 18 to 12 months. This short period of time does not take into consideration the many obstacles that incarcerated mothers face when trying to see their children and complete their service plans, two prerequisites for future reunification. Twelve months is also an extremely short time frame of intervention for the caseworkers. Although they are legally mandated to make “reasonable efforts” to reunify families, many obstacles often prevent them from doing so, including high mobility of prisoners during their first year of incarceration, difficulty of facilitating visits for the children, and difficulty of assessing parental competence when the mother is in a strange environment such as a prison.

CONCLUSIONS In sum, incarcerated mothers and their children face unique difficulties. Assessing and addressing their specific needs is becoming increasingly urgent as more and more mothers are being put in jails and prisons in the United States. —Sophie Naudeau

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beck, A., & Karberg, J. (2001). Prison and jail inmates at Midyear 2000. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 185989. Covington Katz, P. (1998). Supporting families and children of mothers in jail: An integrated child welfare and criminal justice strategy. Child Welfare, 77(5), 495–511. Gabel, K., & Johnston, D. (1995). Children of incarcerated parents. New York: Lexington Books. Harris, Z. L., & Landreth, G. L. (1997). Filial therapy with incarcerated mothers: A five week model. International Journal of Play Therapy, 6(2), 53–73.

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Johnston, D. (1995). Parent-child visits in jails. Children’s Environments Quarterly 12(1), 25–38. Mumola, C. (2000). Incarcerated parents and their children. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 182335. Seymour, C. (1998). Children with parents in prison: Child welfare policy, program, and practice issues. Child Welfare 77(5), 469–493. Travis, J., & Waul, M. (2004). Prisoners once removed: The impact of incarceration and reentry on children, families, and communities. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.

INCLUSION. See SPECIAL EDUCATION, TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO YOUNG ADULTHOOD

INFANT REFLEXES Newborn infants perform a number of automatic behaviors called reflexes, most of which develop before birth and disappear within the first year of life. Reflexes are unlearned, involuntary responses to specific stimuli, and they provide information about the condition of the brain and the nervous system. Some infant reflexes serve adaptive functions and are related to survival, whereas others, called primitive or infantile reflexes, have only vestigial meaning. In other words, they may have had protective value at one time in human history, but they have no obvious meaning now. The primitive reflexes are gradually inhibited as the cerebral cortex matures, whereas those that serve a protective purpose do not disappear (Berk, 1997). Examining infant reflex development, or our early responses to the outside world, is one way to see how individuals influence and are influenced by their environment, an important facet of applied developmental science. All major examinations administered to newborns involve some assessment of reflexes as a means of monitoring development. Weak or abnormal reflex responses may indicate neurological problems, and the timely disappearance of reflexes with only vestigial value indicates the emergence of more advanced brain functions, a sign of normal neurological development (Bornstein & Lamb, 1999). The adaptive reflexes that remain throughout adulthood include the sneeze reflex, which is elicited when

the nasal passages are irritated; the gag reflex, which occurs when the throat or back of the mouth is stimulated; the yawn reflex; the cough reflex (Hait, 2002); and the blink reflex, which protects the eyes from harsh visual stimuli.

COMMON PRIMITIVE REFLEXES Examples of the more common primitive reflexes and the stimuli that produce them follow, beginning with the rooting reflex, the first reflex to appear.

Rooting Reflex In response to light tactile stimulation of the newborn’s cheek, the newborn will turn the head in the direction of the stimulation, open the mouth, and begin to suck. The rooting reflex helps the baby find the nipple of the mother’s breast, thereby increasing the proximity of the infant’s mouth to the source of food, a clearly adaptive behavior. This reflex becomes visible as early as 2–3 months gestational age and disappears around 1 month after birth (Berk, 1997).

Babinski and Moro Reflexes A gentle stroke on the side of an infant’s foot from heel to toes will elicit the Babinski reflex, which consists of the dorsal flexion of the big toe, extension of the other toes, and an inward twist of the whole foot. The Babinski reflex usually disappears around 12 months after birth and is replaced by plantar flexion of the big toe in a normal adult. Pressure against the infant’s palm elicits the palmar or grasp reflex, in which the infant closes the fists on and firmly grasps the stimulating object. This reflex increases during the first month after birth and is gone by 3–4 months. The Moro reflex is the infant’s response to a loud sound or loss of head support. As a result of either stimulus, the infant extends arms and legs outward, arches the back and opens the hands, and then proceeds to bring the arms inward and clench the hands into fists. The Moro reflex is usually gone by the fifth postnatal month. The palmar grasp, Babinski toe fanning, and the Moro reflex are all still present in many nonhuman primate infants, enabling those newborns to stay close to their mothers by clinging to body hair (Bornstein & Lamb, 1999).

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Plantar and Tonic Reflexes The plantar or toe grasp occurs when a finger is pressed against the ball of an infant’s foot. As a result of that pressure, all of the infant’s toes curl under. The plantar reflex disappears around 6 months after birth (Augustyn & Zuckerman, 1998). The tonic neck reflex takes place when the baby is laid down on the back. The baby turns the head to one side and extends the arm and leg on that side, while bending the other arm and arching the body opposite to the direction faced. Tonic neck, also called the fencer’s position, disappears by 3–4 months following birth and is related to the development of hand-eye coordination (Berk, 1997). Motor Reflexes The stepping or automatic walking reflex is seen when a baby is held upright on a flat surface and moved forward while tilted slightly from side to side. The barefoot baby will make rhythmic stepping movements up until 2–3 months after birth (Augustyn & Zuckerman, 1998). When held horizontally on the stomach in water in the first 6 postnatal months, a baby will exhibit the swimming reflex, or alternate arm and leg movements accompanied by exhalation through the mouth. This reflex demonstrates the coordination of the infant’s arms and legs. The infant also has a crawl reflex and will make crawling motions when placed on the abdomen. Additional Reflexes The Babkin or palmarmental reflex occurs when pressure is applied to both of an infant’s palms while the infant is lying in the supine position. The infant will open the mouth, close the eyes, and turn the head to the midline. This reflex disappears 3–4 months after birth. A quick extension or kick of the knee, called the knee jerk or patellar tendon reflex, occurs in response to a tap on the tendon below the patella or kneecap. This response is evident in the first 2 days after birth, and it is exaggerated in hyperexcitable infants. The Galant biceps reflex is a short contraction of the biceps muscle in response to a tap on the tendon of the biceps. This response is strongest in the first few days of postnatal life. DIAGNOSTIC IMPLICATIONS Although infants appear helpless, they have a number of organized behaviors available to them at

birth that offer protection or provide a basis for later, more complex behaviors. The developmental course of these reflexes is an important guide to the evaluation of neurological development, as the presence of a primitive reflex after the age at which it normally disappears can signal a problem within the central nervous system, and the absence of a reflex during the period after birth, when it is normally elicited, also suggests neurological abnormality (Coffey & Brumback, 1998). The combination of an abnormal presence or absence of primitive reflexes may be an accurate predictor of cerebral palsy or another neurodevelopmental abnormality (Zafeiriou, 2000). However, to differentiate definitively between normal and abnormal functioning, evaluation of newborn reflexes must be combined with other observations of the baby (Berk, 1997). —Debra Falk and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Augustyn, M., & Zuckerman, B. (1998). Normal behavioral development. In Coffey, C. E., & Brumback, R. A. (Eds.), Textbook of pediatric neuropsychiatry. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Berk, L. E. (1997). Child development (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Bornstein, M. H., & Lamb, M. E. (Eds.). (1999). Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Coffey, C. E., & Brumback, R. A. (Eds.). (1998). Textbook of pediatric neuropsychiatry. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Hait, E. (2002). Infantile reflexes. Available at http://www .pennhealth.com/ency/article/003292.htm Zafeiriou, D. I. (2000). Plantar grasp reflex in high-risk infants during the first year of life. Pediatric Neurology, 22, 75–76.

INFANTS, INTERVENTION FOR PREMATURE THE CONTEXT OF PREMATURE BIRTH Among the more than 4 million new births each year in the United States, 11% are born too early and 7% are born too small. Prematurity is a major cause of developmental delay. Four decades of research confirm that preterm infants, defined as less than 37 weeks gestational age (GA) and comprising 11% of all yearly births in the United States, are at higher risk than

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full-term infants for death in the early postpartum period, chronic medical conditions, and developmental delays in physical growth and intellectual and socioemotional functioning that can persist into the schoolage years and beyond. These problems are more pronounced among very premature (< 32 weeks GA) and extremely premature (< 28 weeks GA) infants, the latter of whom have been found to be at extreme risk for developmental delay by 30 months of age (Wood, Marlow, Costeloe, Chir, Gibson, & Wilkinson, 2000). The very preterm infant has average hospital stays of 45–50 days, and 33% to 50% experience one or more rehospitalizations during the first 3 years. Rates of premature birth in industrialized counties are unlikely to decrease. Indeed, the premature birth rate in the United States has increased 17% between 1981 and 1995, in response to technological advances in neonatal care that promote the viability of small infants. Pressing needs thus remain for cost-effective, replicable, theoretically based interventions targeting preterm infants and their families (Ventura, Martin, Curtin, & Matthews, 1995). Interventions targeting preterm infants and their parents (almost always mothers) have included infant stimulation, attempts to facilitate mother-infant bonding, provision of parental supports, and psychoeducational programs to foster parental skills in reading and responding to infant social cues. ETIOLOGY AND RISK FACTORS OF EARLY BIRTH The etiology of developmental delays in children born preterm can be traced in part to the degree of perinatal illness occasioned by preterm birth, which is a more important predictor of development among preterms than degree of prematurity per se. However, preterm infants are also at risk for inefficiencies in state and behavioral organization that arise simply from being born too soon. These irregularities render preterms less communicative and “readable” than full-term infants, setting the stage for deficits in both cognitive and socioemotional domains. Compared to full-term infants, preterms have been characterized as less responsive and more gaze avoidant of their mothers. In turn, mothers of preterms have been rated as less engaged, less responsive, and overstimulating. Preterm infant-parent interactive difficulties may be compounded by the fact that parents of preterms are themselves in a premature developmental stage.

Parents may grieve for the loss of the expected full-term, healthy baby and may experience depression, anxiety, helplessness, and self-blame; psychologically distressed parents are in turn at risk for parenting difficulties (Teti, O’Connell, & Reiner, 1997). INFANT STIMULATION PROGRAMS The use of systematic infant stimulation in intervention is based on the premise that early stimulation compensates for what the infant would have experienced in utero had the pregnancy gone full term (e.g., vestibular stimulation), or for deprivations of specific extrauterine stimulation (e.g., gentle touch) normally available to full-term infants and perceived as critical for intimate parent-child relations. Programmatic tactile stimulation, performed by trained neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) personnel, has been found to stimulate infant growth rates and weight gain, activity level, health status, and cognitive/motor development. Field (2001) in particular has revived interest in touch as an intervention modality for neonates at risk. Her 10-day program of tactile/kinesthetic stimulation, involving three 15-minute sessions of tactile/ kinesthetic stimulation per day, has had positive effects on weight gain among preterms, with treatment infants gaining 47% more weight per day (8 more grams per day) than did controls, with longerterm effects reported for infant cognitive and motor development. The use of tactile/kinesthetic stimulation with premature infants is not without controversy, however. Infant massage is also associated with increases in premature infants’ heart and respiration rates, behavioral indicators of distress (e.g., regurgitation of feeds, crying, gaze aversion), and decreases in blood oxygen saturation levels. Such findings have raised questions about the benefits of touch for preterm infants. This work also indicates, however, that the degree to which a premature infant is at risk for physiological instability depends on the infant’s developmental and medical status, and to the duration and type of tactile/kinesthetic stimulation. In general, premature infants under 32 weeks postconceptual age (PCA) are considerably more likely to be physiologically unstable and behaviorally disorganized than are infants over 32 weeks PCA, and thus tactile/ kinesthetic stimulation of very premature, very low birth weight (VLBW) infants should await the establishment of clinical stability.

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Parents as Interventionists Interestingly, relatively few attempts have been made to train parents to administer infant massage and evaluate the efficacy of such an approach. Such an approach may be quite fruitful, not simply in terms of promoting weight and height gains in the infant, but because of the potential for promoting emotionally satisfying parentinfant relations. Indeed, attachment theorists have emphasized the salience of touch for the establishment and maintenance of emotional intimacy and attachment. Recent studies that have trained parents to administer infant tactile-kinesthetic massage have found it to improve the quantity of parent-infant interaction among small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants (Watt, 1990). This work holds promise for the efficacy of parents as massage interventionists with their infants, although it is clear that parentally administered infant stimulation should only be done with medically stable infants and with a carefully prepared program of training.

PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION APPROACHES The aims of psychoeducational interventions for parents of preterm infants include providing information, via instruction and demonstration, about the impact of prematurity on infant responsivity, the role of parent-infant interaction in optimizing infant development, and how to recognize and respond to infant cues. The majority of psychoeducational interventions with preterms have been evaluated using standardized measures of infant intellectual and motor development (typically the Bayley Mental Development Index [MDI], and Psychomotor Developmental Index [PDI]) and of mother-infant interaction, with impressive success. These interventions also typically target parental (usually maternal) behavior with the infant. Interestingly, measures of infant/toddler social development (e.g., quality of secure base behavior and social competence) are conspicuously absent in these studies, despite the fact that assessing for intervention-control differences in such outcomes can be justified theoretically. One of the more intensive and broad-based psychoeducational interventions targeting premature infants and their parents is the Infant Health and Development Program, a multisite program that combined home visits with full-time day care to intervention families. Home visitors provided information to

parents about parenting and child development, and when intervention infants turned 1 year of age they were placed into full-time day care in educationally based child development centers. This program has yielded long-term positive effects (i.e., up to 8 years of age to date) on the intellectual development of the intervention participants relative to controls (Hill, Brooks-Gunn, & Waldfogel, 2003). Other psychoeducationally based programs, such as the Mother-Infant Transaction Program (MITP; Achenbach, Howell, Aoki, & Rauh, 1993), have also been effective in promoting infant intellectual development along with quality (and quantity) of parenting. USE OF THE NBAS IN PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION One particular psychoeducational intervention approach used repeatedly with preterm infants has involved the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS; Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). Although the NBAS was originally developed to assess neonatal central nervous system (CNS) organization and the infant’s unique contributions to the parent-infant subsystem, there has been ongoing interest in the NBAS in intervention. A theoretical premise underlying NBAS intervention is that fostering parental knowledge of infant capabilities and weaknesses sets in train mutually positive infant-parent transactions that facilitate development. Through discussion with the examiner, parents learn about their infant’s particular behavior style and cues of interactive readiness and withdrawal, and about sensitive behavioral approaches to optimize their infant’s capacity for interaction. A critical component of NBAS intervention is the examiner’s role as a supportive discussant and interpreter of infant behavior. Some studies have shown that as little as one demonstration of the NBAS to parents during the first 2–3 days postpartum had positive effects on frequency of parents’ visits to the NICU, parental knowledge of infant capacities, paternal involvement in caretaking, and in contingent maternal interaction at 2 weeks–2 months postpartum. Other studies, however, found no such effects, suggesting that NBAS intervention effects are more reasonably expected with multiple NBAS assessments with parents over time (Eiden & Reifman, 1996). The enhanced efficacy of serial NBAS administrations was demonstrated in Widmayer and Field’s (1981) study of preterm infants of African American

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teen mothers. The intervention involved weekly NBAS assessments of the infant in the mother’s presence for one month. Compared to controls, intervention infants had better feeding and face-to-face interactions at 1 month postpartum. Differences favoring intervention infants continued at 4 months on the Denver Developmental Screening Test and faceto-face interaction ratings, and at 12 months on the Bayley MDI. In another study of 48 low-socioeconomicstatus African American and Hispanic mothers of preterm infants, Parker et al. (1992) conducted weekly, systematic, NBAS-based observations of infant behavior and provided feedback to mothers about the relation between supportive parental care and infant development. Intervention infants had higher Bayley MDI scores at 4 months (intervention group mean = 91.5 versus 79.1 for controls) and again at 8 months of age (intervention group mean = 96.8 versus 82.7 for controls). Rauh and her colleagues have demonstrated longterm effects of an NBAS-based intervention with preterms (Achenbach et al., 1993). Rauh’s MITP program involved 11 one-hour sessions with mothers, seven of which took place during the infant’s final week before hospital discharge, and four that took place in the home at 3, 14, 30, and 90 days postdischarge. In-hospital sessions focused on recognizing infants’ indicators of distress, disorganization, and states of arousal, facilitating the quiet alert state, and contingently responding to the infant during daily routines. The four home sessions addressed the mother’s adjustment to the infant at home, engaging the infant in social interactive play, facilitating the fit between maternal and infant interactive styles, and reviewing recent changes in infant behavior and the mother’s reaction to the intervention program. Intervention children had significantly higher McCarthy General Cognitive Index scores than did control children at 36 months. These differences were upheld at 7 and 9 years of age. Additionally, intervention mothers reported significantly higher levels of self-confidence in mothering at 4 years than did control mothers. SECOND GENERATION INTERVENTION RESEARCH It is clear that the early intervention approaches described promote development in the preterm infants. It is also clear, however, that early intervention does not affect all parents and children to the same degree.

Reasons for this are poorly understood, and early intervention research has evolved into a “second generation” phase, concerned not only with intervention efficacy but also with theoretical influences that underlie, mediate, and moderate intervention effects (Blair & Ramey, 1997). These include exploring and identifying specific components of intervention, or the “active ingredients” that are more critical to its success than others. They also include identifying proximal and distal mediators of intervention effects on development and contextual and individual characteristics that influence intervention efficacy. For example, quality of parents’ involvement in early intervention appears to bear directly on the extent to which early intervention programs facilitate early growth and development (Blair & Ramey, 1997). Not surprisingly, parents who commit to an intervention are more likely to learn and apply it effectively than are parents who are less motivated to participate in and cooperate with the intervention. Increasing interest is being devoted to parental commitment to intervention, the factors that influence it, and strategies that can be used to gain access and better cooperation from less committed parents (who most often are those most in need of intervention services). Other factors that may influence intervention efficacy include degree of family socioeconomic disadvantage, partner support of intervention, parental personality traits such as openness to new experience and new ideas, parents’ state of mind regarding attachment relationships, and infant birth weight. The IHDP, for example, has been found to be more effective with heavier-at-birth than lighter-at-birth infants, whereas the effects of systematically delivered tactilekinesthetic stimulation have been more pronounced for lighter than for heavier infants. CONCLUSIONS Psychoeducationally based interventions may prove to have their own set of mediators and moderators that are distinct from those associated with tactile-kinesthetic interventions. To date, attempts to identify mediators and moderators of intervention efficacy with preterms has been done in a post hoc manner, perhaps as an attempt to explore why a particular overall intervention effect was weaker than expected, or because casual observation suggested certain variables as being particularly important for intervention success. Such efforts are important

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in their own right and are especially relevant for hypothesis generation. It is argued, however, that second generation intervention research cannot be truly successful unless it is theoretically driven, with studies carried out specifically to test the mediational or moderational role of variables that are theoretically derived a priori. Through careful hypothesis testing, second generation intervention research can be expected to assist interventionists in their attempts to tailor intervention more effectively to preterm infants and their families and to promote the dissemination and routine use of successful prevention and intervention practices among the public at large. —Douglas M. Teti

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Achenbach, T. M., Howell, C. T., Aoki, M. F., & Rauh, V. A. (1993). Nine-year outcome of the Vermont Intervention Program for low birth weight infants. Pediatrics, 91, 45–55. Blair, C., & Ramey, C. T. (1997). Early intervention for lowbirth-weight infants and the path to second-generation research. In M. J. Guralnick (Ed.), The effectiveness of early intervention (pp. 77–97). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Brazelton, T. B., & Nugent, J. K. (1995). Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (3rd ed.). London: Mac Keith. Eiden, R. D., & Reifman, A. (1996). Effects of Brazelton demonstrations on later parenting: A meta-analysis. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 21, 857–868. Field, T. (2001). Touch. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hill, J. L., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2003). Sustained effects of high participation in an early intervention program for low-birth-weight premature infants. Developmental Psychology, 39, 730–744. Parker, S. J., Zahr, L. K., Cole, J. G., & Brecht., M. (1992). Outcome after developmental intervention in the neonatal intensive care unit for mothers of preterm infants with low socioeconomic status. Journal of Pediatrics, 120, 780–785. Teti, D. M., O’Connell, M. A., & Reiner, C. D. (1997). Parenting sensitivity, parental depression, and child health: The mediational role of parental self-efficacy. Early Development and Parenting, 6(136), 1–14. Ventura, S. J., Martin, J. A., Curtin, S. C., & Matthews, T. J. (1995). Report of final natality statistics. Monthly Vital Statistics Report, 45(11). Watt, J. (1990). Interaction, intervention, and development in small-for-gestational-age infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 13, 273–286.

Widmayer, S., & Field, T. M. (1981). Effects of Brazelton demonstrations for mothers on the development of preterm infants. Pediatrics, 47, 289–298. Wood, N. S., Marlow, N., Costeloe, K., Chir, B., Gibson, A. T., & Wilkinson, A. R. (2000). Neurologic and developmental disability after extremely preterm birth. New England Journal of Medicine, 343, 378–384.

INNOVATION CENTER FOR COMMUNITY AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT The mission of the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development is to “unleash the potential of youth, adults, organizations, and communities to engage together in creating a just and equitable society.” Toward that end, the Innovation Center partners with organizations and individuals in the United States and around the world to “seek out expertise and innovation at the local level, test new and promising practices, advance the field of community and youth development, inform research and policy and effect social and economic justice on a broad scale” (Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, 2003). The Innovation Center was founded as a project of the National 4-H Council in 1998, under the leadership of Wendy Wheeler, an internationally known and respected leader and innovator in youth and community development. Since then, the Innovation Center has grown into an independent nonprofit organization, still led by Wheeler. In order to sustain and develop relationships throughout the United States and the world, the Innovation Center, operating out of its base in Maryland, has developed a flexible, virtual structure that includes a network of staff and trainers—from grassroots organizations all over the world—who are changing the way youth development is done on a global scale. This organizational structure has allowed the Innovation Center the flexibility to develop a geographically and culturally diverse staff and associate base that has been successful in establishing partnerships and initiatives with a broad range of individuals, organizations, and communities. The Innovation Center’s contribution to the field of applied developmental science is evidenced in part through its commitment

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and ongoing effort to connect stakeholders in community and youth development throughout the world. One of the unique contributions of the Innovation Center in recent years has been the development and facilitation of peer- and interest-based gatherings, sometimes called “learning group meetings,” where communitybased youth and community development practitioners can share, develop, and evaluate best practices, explore challenges, and develop shared resources. These gatherings have resulted in and strengthened powerful relationships among practitioners who may not otherwise have been able to connect—community organizers from Kenya and South Africa with youth activists from Los Angeles, California, and rural Alabama; youth workers from India with Native and African American youth development organizations; faith-based groups with gay youth activists. As a result of these relationships, communities as well as young people experience positive change. The work of the Innovation Center always includes initiating, brokering, and supporting partnerships with and among local organizations, academics, policymakers, and funders toward a common goal of both action and learning. Such connections develop into or out of Innovation Center–led initiatives such as the following recent examples: • At the Table: A collaborative committed to building a national movement of youth in decision making, with partners as wide-ranging as the United Way, Points of Light Foundation, the Alliance for Justice, Youth on Board, and the University of Wisconsin Extension, among many others. • Charting Community Connections (CCC): In partnership with community-based groups in the Hopi and Confederated Salish and Kootenai (Flathead) communities of Arizona and Montana, CCC has explored community mobilization efforts, especially through cultural revitalization. Evaluation and technical assistance on the project has been provided by the University of Arizona Extension and a native-owned and -led consulting firm in Montana. • Service Learning for Community Change: Designed according to the key principles of building youth-adult partnerships, generating broad civic engagement, and contributing to ongoing community-building work. The Cooperative Extension offices in Oxford County, Maine, and Baltimore, Maryland, are project partners.

• The National 4-H Council, National Network for Youth and Youth Leadership Institute partnered with the Innovation Center to develop Youth-Adult Partnerships: A Training Manual (2003b). • The Innovation Center collaborated with the Ford Foundation to create the Youth Leadership for Development Initiative (YLDI), thus developing ongoing partnerships with 16 community-based youth organizations in the United States and Africa who, through YLDI, explored and developed best practice for using civic activism as a strategy for youth development. While core permanent staff members work closely with every Innovation Center project, the Innovation Center model also ensures that “boundaries are deliberately indistinct.” In fact, the Innovation Center has established a reputation for successful collaboration, for wanting “ideas and concepts from one project to spill over and become central to the execution of another. . . . Our chief aim is to share our experiences and knowledge with all youth workers and young leaders” (Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, 2003). This “chief aim” pervades all of the Innovation Center’s work and has made the Innovation Center a key contributor to the growing field of applied developmental science. The Innovation Center model always includes a learning component, supported by learning group meetings, research, and evaluations, as well as a documentation component demonstrated by Web sites, publications, curricula, and presentations. The model has been described as “generative” in that it generates practice that leads to knowledge, which leads to even more effective practice. Innovation Center–led initiatives and activities are driven by a fundamental understanding of applied developmental theory coupled with a deep commitment to a “just and equitable world,” as stated in its mission. This is consistent with what Richard Lerner and Celia Fisher define in the preface to this encyclopedia as the requirement that applied developmental science be informed by “actions that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children, adolescents, young and old adults, and their families.” Lerner and Fisher go on to write that “ADS challenges the usefulness of decontextualized knowledge, that is, knowledge that is not based on this theoretical

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view about the importance of individual-context relations.” [AU: Cite, with page number?] In fact, the Innovation Center’s work leads to contextualized knowledge; understandings of best practice in youth and community development that come out of carefully, collaboratively developed grassroots initiatives implemented in tandem with equally carefully developed evaluation and documentation activities. The Innovation Center has partnered, for example, with Social Policy Research Associates of Oakland, California, to evaluate and document best practice in youth civic engagement based on the world of the 16 organizations that were part of the Youth Leadership for Development Initiative. The resulting information has contributed to the development of Learning and Leading: A Tool Kit for Youth Development and Civic Activism (2004b) and Lessons in Leadership: How Young People Change Their Communities and Themselves (2004c), a monograph that demonstrates a clear link between civic activism and youth development that has already begun to affect change in youth development practice throughout the United States and in Africa, Egypt, and Palestine. That evaluation experience has also served as the foundation for Evaluating Civic Activism: A Curriculum for Community and Youth-Serving Organizations (2004a). Such products are typical of the knowledge outcome of Innovation Center work. As of this writing, the Innovation Center has, in partnership with other national youth and community development–focused organizations, generated and published other curricula, manuals, training materials, and tool kits that include • Building Community: A Tool Kit for Youth and Adults in Charting Assets and Creating Change (2001) • Creating Youth-Adult Partnerships (1996) • Service-Learning for Community Change: Tools for Youth and Adults to Mobilize Community Change Through Service Learning (2004d) • Taking the Reins Together: Youth-Adult Partnerships (1999b) • Youth-Adult Partnerships: A Training Manual (2003b) Other publications include the monographs Broadening the Bounds of Youth Development: Youth as Engaged Citizens (1999a) and Youth Leadership

for Development Initiative (1999c), as well as Youth Activism and Civic Engagement: Lessons and Learnings From 16 Communities (2004e). The Innovation Center also created and maintains www.atthetable.org, a Web-based resource for engaging youth in decision making in communities and organizations around the world, and is a founding partner in the Planning and Evaluation Resource Center, housed at the Applied Developmental Science Institute at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Each of the products generated by the Innovation Center is a result of work in communities, work that is grounded in visions articulated by the communities themselves. One community partner, a Native American activist, commented that staff and partners of the Innovation Center are not “hopeless, romantic do-gooders,” but respectful, serious, and curious supporters of the positive change envisioned by his community. The Innovation Center’s current plans include developing this kind of relationship in an everbroadening network of individuals, community-based organizations, academics, funders, and policymakers. As defined in the Innovation Center’s 2002–2004 strategic plan, its agenda for the foreseeable future is to “increase the capacity of individuals, organizations and communities to engage together in creating a just and equitable society.” It will do this through continued development of practical materials, testing innovative practice, and facilitation of peer and learning groups, as well as by brokering connections and alliances that will increase community-based organizations’ access to resources and ideas. The Innovation Center will work to “catalyze the field” of applied developmental science by continuing to add to the knowledge base, informing policy development, increasing the availability of funding to community-based programs, and influencing the course and content of research. Finally, the Innovation Center will work to “broaden its reach” by bringing selected projects to scale, creating marketing partnerships and interest and regionally based training alliances. Through such work in the past, and certainly in the present landscape of applied developmental science, the Innovation Center has had a major impact on the development of the field and on effecting positive change for youth and adults in the United States, Africa, Egypt, India, and Palestine. No doubt its future will bring the “broader reach” it seeks, and the

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furthering of its primary mission of engendering a just and equitable society. —Lucinda Garthwaite

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. At the table. Available: http://atthetable.org/ Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (1996). Creating youth-adult partnerships. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (1999a). Broadening the bounds of youth development: Youth as engaged citizens. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (1999b). Taking the reins together: Youth-adult partnerships. Videocassette. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (1999c). Youth leadership for development initiative. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2001). Building community: A tool kit for youth and adults in charting assets and creating change. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2003a). Connecting people and ideas to create change. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2003b). Youth-adult partnerships: A training manual. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004a). Evaluating civic activism: A curriculum for community and youth-serving organizations. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004b). Learning and leading: A tool kit for youth development and civic activism. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004c). Lessons in leadership: How young people change their communities and themselves. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004d). Service-learning for community change: Tools for youth and adults to mobilize community change through service learning. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004e). Youth activism and civic engagement: Lessons and learnings from 16 communities. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development homepage. Available at http://theinnovationcenter.org/ Lewis-Charp, H., Yu, H. C., Soukamneuth, S., & Lacoe, J. (2003). Extending the reach of youth development through civic activism. Takoma Park, MD: Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development.

INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT The goal of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University (http://ase .tufts.edu/adsi) is to conduct applied research projects and to bring the results of this and other outreach programs to the youth-serving community-based organizations that are working to improve the lives of America’s children, families, and communities. The institute serves as a training ground for young applied developmental scientists, conducts research on positive youth development, hosts a wide variety of public lectures and symposia, and develops electronic and print publications in academic and nonacademic venues to change the way people think and talk about young people.

HISTORY OF THE APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE INSTITUTE In 1997, Joan Margosian Bergstrom, her husband, Gary Bergstrom, and their son Craig established the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science. The chair, which underscores the Bergstroms’ commitment to improving the lives and education of children and their families, is the first endowed professorship at Tufts University’s Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development and was established to improve the lives of children and families nationally and internationally through scholarship in applied developmental science, an interdisciplinary field that integrates sociocultural, cognitive, and biological processes affecting learning and development across the life span. The work of the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science is intended to focus on innovative research and teaching that covers the social, cultural, and biological factors affecting a child’s ability to learn and develop. Richard M. Lerner was the first recipient of the chair. As part of his work as chair, Lerner began a set of initiatives in 1999 designed to use the application of developmental science to promote positive development among diverse children, families, and communities. In December 2001, as a reflection of the sustained commitment by Eliot-Pearson and Tufts to the scholarship

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of Lerner and the initiatives, the name was officially changed to the Applied Developmental Science Institute (ADSI). In April 2004, the institute underwent another name change and became the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, a name which more clearly reflects the core work of the institute. Despite the name changes, the goal of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development has always remained the same: to empower communities to raise healthy, engaged young people in ways that will be sustainable over time. Having started with only one faculty member, two staff people, and two graduate students, the institute has grown to include, at this writing, 10 staff people, 17 graduate students, and 12 undergraduate students. ACTIVITIES The work of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development involves research, community outreach, and education. Research The staff and students of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development are currently engaged in three research projects: the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, the Overcoming the Odds Longitudinal Study, and the Thriving Indicators Project. The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development is a longitudinal investigation involving a sample varying in racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, family, rural-urban location, and geographic region. Begun with students in the 5th grade, the study assesses the arrays of positive development among these young people as well as the contextual strengths and assets of participants’ families and communities. The Overcoming the Odds (OTO) Longitudinal Study examines the bases of positive development among African American male adolescent gang youth living in Detroit, and seeks to identify the assets for positive development among the subset of gang youth who are able to “overcome the odds” and live healthy, productive lives. Finally, the Thriving Indicators Project, involving a collaboration among the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Stanford University, Fuller Theological Seminary, Search Institute, and the THRIVE Foundation, seeks to develop a nationally applicable measure of thriving among diverse

American youth. This measure will be used in longitudinal research aimed at providing benchmark data to gauge community-based policy and program initiatives aimed at enhancing thriving. Each of these research projects takes a positive approach to young people and assesses the strengths, or resources, that young people have, rather than just measuring the weaknesses or problems of youth. The Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development presents the research findings of these projects at many conferences both nationally and internationally and, as well, publishes articles in refereed journals. Community Outreach The Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development actively engages in projects working with various communities at different levels. For example, in partnership with the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, the institute developed an online clearinghouse called the Planning and Evaluation Resource Center (PERC; available at http://ase.tufts.edu/adsi/perc). PERC is designed to function as a center for information and resources relevant to the creation and maintenance of communitybased youth-serving organizations. Throughout the site there are tutorials, information, and tools on topics related to program planning and evaluation. PERC also has interactive components, including a calendar of training events and lectures relevant to program planning and evaluation and a database of practitioners nationwide. The Web site is designed to be a venue through which people involved in community programs and collaborations nationwide can connect and interact, share advice and experience, and contribute to the store of knowledge available. Also on a national scale, the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development is working with several national youth-serving organizations, such as 4-H and YouthBuild USA, as well as other universities, such as the University of Arizona, to establish a new professional pathway for community-youth development practitioners. This training, which would be at the undergraduate and graduate levels, would lead to a specialization wherein professionals possess the set of abilities requisite to work with community-based organizations in manners that identify individual and community strengths and resources pertinent to enhancing the course of youth development and that catalyzes and engages participants in those organizations to develop,

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implement, and evaluate plans to use these assets to build capacity and improve the lives of young people, families, and communities. These professionals would understand the relations among individuals, organizations, and social policies at community, state, national, and international levels of analysis; crosscutting research design, evaluation, and statistical analytic methodologies for understanding the different scientific tools available for studying individuals, organizations, and policies; and youth-serving organizational development and management and the theoretical and practical facets of university/scholarcommunity collaborations. In addition to these national outreach projects, the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development also works directly with several local towns, including engaging with the Cambridge Kids Council and working with the town of Concord, Massachusetts, to assist them in adopting a positive youth development approach to their young people. Such work has been featured in both print and television media. The institute also works with the Tutoring Plus Program of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to design and implement a data collection and data management program. This work enables Tutoring Plus to institute and institutionalize an evaluation system affording specification of the goals for the program, collecting information pertinent to these goals, and learning what program elements are associated with what sorts of outcomes among children of what specific characteristics. In addition to these outreach activities, the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development also sponsors lectures and symposia. Each year the Bergstrom Family International Fellowship in Applied Developmental Science program honors and celebrates the career achievements of colleagues whose work has significantly enhanced the lives of children, adolescents, and families. The International Fellows Program brings to Tufts leaders who have made contributions to knowledge, community-based programs, and public policies in order to promote positive youth development. The contributions of the people honored each year as International Fellows in Applied Developmental Science stand as exemplars of how the ideas and actions of gifted and dedicated people may make the world better for children. Receiving the annual award for excellence in applied developmental science stands as a visible recognition of exemplary contributions to the health and positive development of

children. The award honors distinguished contributors to application and scholarship pertinent to advancing knowledge, policies, and programs that promote positive child, family, and community development. The international fellows are asked to visit Tufts to serve as scholars-in-residence for 2 days during the academic year, presenting a lecture, participating in seminars, and teaching a class. Since 2002, the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development has also cosponsored Family ReUnion with the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University. Family Re-Union is a decadeold policy initiative highlighted by a series of annual conferences, moderated by former Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore. The conferences have brought together families, their children, and those who work with them to discuss and design better ways to strengthen family life. Moving forward, Family ReUnion seeks to build on the first decade of learning and, through engaging those interested in creating university-community partnerships, to create a sustainable structure for broader development, dissemination, and implementation of family-centered community-building strategies. Each of the outreach projects engaged in by the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development is connected with the research and educational functions of the institute and serves as an application of the developmental science being researched and taught at the institute. Education The Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development takes the training of graduate and undergraduate students very seriously. As mentioned, the institute supports 17 graduate students and 12 undergraduate students. These students have won several university-wide awards for their work and have participated in internships with diverse companies around the nation. In addition, they are active members of research teams and have been given opportunities to publish. In fact, in the 2002–2003 academic year, these students of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development published more than 40 articles, chapters, and books and made more than five presentations at professional meetings. One special project at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development related to education is the Jacobs Foundation Fellowship. The Jacobs

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Foundation International Graduate Fellowships supports the doctoral education of individuals who have experience and/or interest in youth-serving nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in developing nations and Eastern Europe. These individuals study at the institute, Eliot-Pearson, and Tufts to enhance their understanding of contemporary child and adolescent development theory, research, and methods; promote skills in program evaluation; and increase their ability to further public policies promoting positive child and adolescent development. Currently there are three Jacobs Fellows, one from Bosnia/Herzegovina, one from the People’s Republic of China, and one from Croatia.

CONCLUSIONS The combination of research, outreach, and training being conducted at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development is a product of the shared vision of the faculty, staff, students, and community partners that a better future for children and adolescents will be made more likely when developmental scholarship pertinent to the diversity of individuals, families, communities, cultures, and historical time periods is created and applied through collaborations between universities and communities. The Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development seeks to be a model of how developmental scholarship may be a valued added contribution to human development and civil society.

was receiving more than $7 million annually in grants. Its history has been marked by a commitment to highquality, policy-relevant research that addresses such societal concerns as poverty, crime, social welfare policy, education, community building, and race and inequality. ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE IPR has six research programs and two working groups. Thirty-two faculty fellows are supported by IPR either quarter time (releasing them from one fourth of their teaching load) or half time (releasing them from half of their course load), and there are 41 faculty associates. These faculty members represent 16 departments in eight of the university’s nine schools. They collaborate with research associates, visiting scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates on research projects and participate in conferences, a weekly colloquia series, and workshops. These activities are supported by the university, grants from local and national foundations, government agencies, corporations, and other gifts. In 2003, 73 research projects were externally funded by government agencies and foundations. Major funders included foundations such as the Chicago Community Trust, Ford Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation, and federal agencies such as the National Institute of Justice, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

—Deborah L. Bobek

DISSEMINATION

INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY The mission of the Institute for Policy Research (IPR), located at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, is to stimulate and support social science research on significant public policy issues and to disseminate the findings widely—to students, scholars, policymakers, and the public at large. IPR began in 1968 as the Center for Urban Affairs with one house, three part-time faculty, a secretary, and a $15,000 research grant from the Ford Foundation. By 2003, it was supporting 32 core faculty and a research staff of approximately 35 lodged in five campus houses, and

To fulfill its mission of both stimulating and disseminating research, IPR sponsors or cosponsors conferences, policy briefings, a colloquium series, and lectures throughout the year. These events help the institute to bridge the gap between the academic and the policy-making worlds. Recent conferences have examined health policy and the underserved, state fiscal crises, welfare reform reauthorization, welfare to work, and Chicago public housing. Through its annual Distinguished Public Policy Lecture Series, established in 1994, IPR has hosted lectures by such figures as the then-secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala; former U.S. Senator Paul Simon (D-IL); former U.S. Representative John Porter (R-IL); and U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

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During the academic year, the institute also organizes weekly colloquia that are open to the public. The institute’s policy briefings on current topics such as state fiscal crises and welfare reform give policymakers and others access to nonpartisan and unbiased data by leading researchers. IPR also disseminates its faculty research through a working paper series, brochures, and its Web site (www.northwestern. edu/ipr). IPR’S RESEARCH PROGRAMS With Chicago as its laboratory, IPR’s earliest research projects dealt with such issues as high school dropouts, redlining, determinants of urban health, citizen responses to environmental concerns, delivery of city services, and the labor market experiences of migrants. Some of these initial studies were the seeds of major themes that have distinguished IPR research throughout its history and remain dominant today: racism, poverty, community development, and criminal justice reform. The institute’s research agenda reflects its view that research plays a key role, along with ideology and interests, in deliberations about policy decisions and in understanding the process and politics of policymaking. In addition, IPR believes that the link between research and education is vital, which is why the institute involves graduate and undergraduate students in its research enterprise. Carried out by a distinguished and vibrant faculty, IPR research attacks questions about social problems from a multitude of perspectives, with the goal of providing objective, nonpartisan data on which sound policy decisions can be made. CHILD, ADOLESCENT, AND FAMILY STUDIES Faculty in this interdisciplinary program study the ways in which social programs, policies, and contexts affect the lives of families and children, from birth to old age. Drawn from the fields of human development and social policy, economics, law, psychology, and sociology, the faculty are examining how social contexts (families, schools, neighborhoods, and peer groups) affect developmental outcomes such as test scores, social behavior, and mental health (T. Cook, Herman, Phillips, & Setterson, 2002); the success of Comer School Reform Programs (T. Cook, Hunt, & Murphy, 2000); why college might not be for all

(Rosenbaum, 2001); and why some couples with very young children break up while others remain together (Edin, Scott, London, & Mazelis, 2002). IPR Faculty Fellow Greg Duncan participated in a two-and-ahalf-year National Research Council Project, “From Neurons to Neighborhoods,” which evaluated and integrated the current scientific knowledge of early childhood development and discussed the implications of this knowledge on policies, practices, and research (see Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 2000, for research on the effects of poverty on child development). IPR is leading a major $20-million study, funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and several foundations, that is tracking 2,400 low-income families in three U.S. cities. The most recent finding of this Three-City Study—that welfare mothers returning to work has neither helped nor harmed their children—received extensive media attention and helped to shape the debate over welfare reauthorization (Chase-Lansdale et al., 2003). Another project, a 6-year panel study, is tracking 1,500 former and current Illinois welfare recipients to learn how welfare reform has affected the recipients’ experiences in the labor market and their families. The results of this study are distributed each year to Illinois lawmakers (Lewis et al., 2003). POVERTY, RACE, AND INEQUALITY Since its inception, IPR has been concerned with the causes and consequences of persistent poverty and social and economic exclusion. Faculty are exploring the impact of the government’s social welfare policies on jobs and income, changing labor market conditions, and racial discrimination. The strength of this program— and corresponding expertise at the University of Chicago—was recognized in June 1996 when the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established the Joint Center for Poverty Research (JCPR) at IPR and the Harris School at the University of Chicago. Another area where IPR faculty have had a significant impact is in their ongoing research on the Gautreaux Program, one of the most significant housing experiments of the past two decades (Rosenbaum & Rubinowitz, 2000). An IPR faculty evaluation of the local Gautreaux Program’s relocation of families in public housing inspired HUD’s National Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program in five U.S. cities.

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To learn how Americans perceive their near- and long-term economic prospects, an IPR economist designed and implemented the Survey of Economic Expectations (SEE). This rich source of data will be used to assess many Americans’ perceptions over time, including expectations of Social Security benefits, household risk-avoidance behavior, and the distribution of perceived risks of economic misfortune across households (Dominitz & Manski, 1997). Other IPR faculty have investigated welfare-towork programs and work incentives, such as the first full-scale examination of the earned income tax credit (EITC), which explored its effects on income distribution, poverty, work, and marriage (Meyer & HoltzEakin, 2001). COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT From the beginning, IPR has been interested in researching the powerful social, economic, and psychological ties that bind communities and their residents. In the early 1970s, a study of redlining in Chicago provided the background data that helped to outlaw this practice through the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. In 1995, the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute was founded, with John McKnight and John Kretzmann as codirectors. Based on the recognition that institutions sometimes create more problems than they solve, the ABCD Institute seeks to teach citizens how to use local resources to rejuvenate their economies and strengthen investments in their community—from Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods to communities in other countries such as Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. Data have been collected from more than 300 neighborhoods in 20 cities on the potential of such local assets as residents, associations, schools, hospitals, churches, parks, and libraries, and can be found in Building Communities from the Inside Out (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993), of which 80,000 copies have been printed. The ABCD Institute has also helped to redefine the giving philosophies of entities such as the United Way and charitable foundations such as the W. K. Kellogg and Annie E. Casey foundations. LAW AND JUSTICE STUDIES In more than two dozen major crime research projects since 1970, IPR researchers have clarified the implementation problems police departments face and

documented how properly implemented programs can reduce crime and fear. Since 1993, a research team has been evaluating Chicago’s Alternative Policing Strategy program (CAPS), the nation’s largest experiment in community policing, which is supported by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA; Skogan et al., 1999). CAPS involves the creation of turf-oriented teams of police officers with long-term beat assignments, extensive community involvement and empowerment, and integration with improved city services. The project submits its data to the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research Criminal Justice Data Archive at the University of Michigan. It has published 19 reports for the ICJIA and the National Institute of Justice, in addition to two books and 27 working papers. The institute’s Law and Justice Studies faculty, led by John Heinz, have also examined the other faces of the law: lawyers and their affiliations and juveniles in the system. Others in this program area have investigated the high proportion of African American children in the foster care system (Roberts, 2002). POLITICS, INSTITUTIONS, AND PUBLIC POLICY This broad multidisciplinary program looks at the ways in which political and institutional dynamics shape and constrain national policymaking in the United States and how U.S. politics and processes compare with those of other advanced industrial societies. IPR faculty are examining the complex interface of public sentiment and elite action by exploring the ways politicians and other leaders exploit, shape—and even listen to—the vox populi (Manza, Cook, & Page, 2002). Other faculty projects include the first national survey to examine the extent, nature, and impact of civic deliberation, launched by Fay Lomax Cook, and the effects of felon disenfranchisement on American political expression undertaken by Jeff Manza. PHILANTHROPY, VOLUNTARISM, AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS The rapidly growing and evolving nonprofit sector is prominent in such major service industries as hospitals, nursing homes, higher education, and museums, often competing with for-profit and government organizations. This competition is a key research

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focus of this program, led by Burton A. Weisbrod. Investigators have considered differences in incentive structures between for-profit hospitals and those in government and for-profit organizations and examined how the nonprofit sector has transformed itself through commercial means. HEALTH POLICY WORKING GROUP A relatively new addition to IPR’s spectrum of research, the Health Policy Working Group is tackling some of the enormous issues that face Medicare and Medicaid, such as an examination of how the structure and characteristics of the health care safety net affect employees’ decisions to accept employer-sponsored health insurance. Another project is gauging whether recent Medicaid expansions and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program have improved children’s access to health care and consequently might have made them healthier and lowered mortality rates. URBAN POLICY WORKING GROUP Many of IPR’s faculty work on projects that are closely tied to urban policy in areas such as education, policing, housing, welfare reform, community development, and philanthropy. IPR faculty held mayoral policy briefings for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s office on options for high school students transitioning to work and the effects of welfare reform on families and children. In 2003, the group also addressed the pressing fiscal problems of states in a conference held in Washington, D.C., and in a policy briefing in Chicago. LOOKING AHEAD IPR faculty are well positioned and committed to apply their interdisciplinary research capabilities to many of the nation’s most difficult and unresolved issues. Since 1968, the range of research topics has changed with the times. But what has remained constant throughout is the institute’s emphasis on objective, nonpartisan research to identify and analyze pressing social problems. —Fay Lomax Cook and Patricia Reese

from welfare to work and the well-being of preschoolers and adolescents. Science, 299(5612), 1548–1552. Cook, T. D., Herman, M., Phillips, M., & Setterson, R. J., Jr. (2002). Some ways in which neighborhoods, nuclear families, friendship groups, and schools jointly affect changes in early adolescent development. Child Development, 73(4), 1283–1309. Cook, T. D., Hunt, H. D., & Murphy, R. F. (2000). Comer’s school development program in Chicago: A theory-based evaluation. American Educational Research Journal, 37(2), 535–597. Dominitz, J., & Manski, C. (1997). Perceptions of economic insecurity: Evidence from the Survey of Economic Expectations. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61(2), 261–287. Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2000). Family poverty, welfare reform and child development. Child Development, 71(1), 188–196. Edin, K., Scott, E. K., London, A., & Mazelis, J. M. (2002). My children come first: Welfare-reliant women’s postTANF views of work-family tradeoffs, neighborhoods, and marriage. In P. L. Chase-Lansdale & G. J. Duncan (Eds.), For better and for worse: Welfare reform and the wellbeing of children and families (pp. 132–153). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Kretzmann, J. P., & McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications. Lewis, D. A., et al. (2003). Preserving the gains, rethinking the losses. Welfare in Illinois five years after reform. The third annual report from the Illinois Families Study. University Consortium on Welfare Reform/IPR. Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research. Manza, J., Cook, F. L., & Page, B. I. (Eds.). (2002). Navigating public opinion: Polls, policy, and the future of American democracy. New York: Oxford University Press. Meyer, B., & Holtz-Eakin, D. (Eds.). (2001). Making work pay: The Earned Income Tax Credit and its impact on American families. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Roberts, D. (2002). Shattered bonds: The color of child welfare. New York: Basic. Rosenbaum, J. (2001). Beyond college for all: Career paths for the forgotten half. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Rosenbaum, J., & Rubinowitz, L. (2000). Crossing the class and color lines: From public housing to white suburbia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Skogan, W., Hartnett, S. M., DuBois, J., Comey, J. T., Kaiser, M., & Lovig, J. H. (1999). On the beat: Police and community problem solving. Boulder, CO: Westview.

INSTITUTE OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Chase-Lansdale, P. L., Moffitt, R. A., Robert, A., Lohman, B. J., Cherlin, A. J., Coley, R. L., et al. (2003). Mothers’ transitions

The Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota is among the world’s oldest

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and largest units devoted to the study of children’s development. Founded in 1925, the institute was the outgrowth of a social movement, one that drew its energy from a surge of interest in the idea that social betterment can be achieved through improved understanding of the natural world and the application of this knowledge to social institutions as well as to the individual condition. Known widely as the “progressive movement,” these views shaped public policy in many fields between the 1890s and the 1920s and were responsible for the beginnings of the “child guidance” movement as well as decisions by various agencies to support efforts to learn more about child development. In 1918, John D. Rockefeller founded a special fund in his wife’s memory, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, to support research and social programs for improving the lives of women and children. Lawrence K. Frank, who became the memorial’s administrator of programs for children and parents, along with Beardsley Ruml, was responsible for research on normal child development, family studies, and parent education. These men believed that the programs they supported should be directed largely at mothers and should be grounded in scientific knowledge about child development, especially during the early years. By 1920, research on children’s development was proceeding at the University of Iowa and Yale University, as well as several other units like the Merrill-Palmer School (Detroit). A professional field of child development, however, did not exist. With increasing commitment from the memorial, however, other units were established, among them a research and training institute at Minnesota. “The institutionalization of child development” had begun. The Minnesota Institute came into being largely as the result of conversations between Lawrence Frank and his college classmate, Lotus D. Coffman, who was president of the University of Minnesota in the 1920s (Hartup, Johnson, & Weinberg, 2000). The ideas leading to the formation of this unit did not come from within the university. Rather, it was at the request of the memorial that a grant application for $50,000 was submitted. These monies enabled the institution to hire John E. Anderson, a young psychology professor at Yale, to become director of what was to be called the Institute of Child Welfare. Facilities were made available and recruitment of a small core staff begun in the summer of 1925, including individuals

drawn from various departments of the university, such as anatomy, pediatrics, psychology, sociology, home economics, and the “psychopathic department.” Research and teaching in the new institute began that autumn, and a nursery school was begun that continues to the present. Parent education, including both university classes and a wide range of other activities conducted in various regions throughout Minnesota, was also begun in 1925–26. John Anderson submitted an annual report in the summer of 1926 that listed more than 100 research projects that had been mounted during the year. Research was conducted in the institute both by budgeted staff (six professorial appointments) and distinguished members of other departments. But clouds began to appear on the horizon almost immediately. Lawrence Frank and Beardsley Ruml regretted the extent to which they were committed to programs of parent education, in view of the thin knowledge base existing in child development. Discontent became so great among the trustees of the memorial that, in 1928, the decision was taken to fund mainly research; terms of support for the Institute of Child Welfare were renegotiated so that funding would be supplied for only 10 years (it turned out to be 14), beginning at an increased amount ($90,000 annually) and declining to zero by the end of the period. Although faculty productivity (including both research and graduate training) increased for a time, the financial condition of the institute at the advent of World War II can only be described as dire. The faculty had endured pay cuts, and the total budget (including a small ongoing grant from the Minnesota legislature) was only $41,615 in 1941–42. Younger male faculty left for service in the armed forces, Florence Goodenough (one of the most distinguished researchers in the institute’s history) was in failing health, and research productivity had declined. State funds increased somewhat following the war, but it was the parent education program that sustained the institute in that period. John Anderson retired as director in 1954 and was succeeded by Dale Harris, an energetic investigator who offered the university’s first televised course in that year and changed the name to the Institute of Child Development. When Harold Stevenson succeeded Harris as director in 1959, many of the institute’s teaching and parent education programs were conducted by individuals who were not highly trained, and the research output had shrunk (Hartup et al., 2000). The efficacy of the

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parent education program was also questioned (intervention studies showed mixed effects, and parent education was questioned owing to the belief that it steers women students away from more academic goals; Cahan, 1991). Within the next 4 years, the parent education program was closed, all but two faculty members had resigned, and faculty recruitment began to expand two programs: experimental child psychology and child clinical psychology. The main goal was to broaden the research specialties represented in the institute and, over the next dozen years, faculty were appointed who studied learning and cognitive development, language development, perceptual development, social and personality development, and child clinical psychology. Planning was centered on the recruitment of individuals who could carry out many different kinds of research projects rather than one or two major longitudinal studies. Not until the late 1970s were several successful long-term developmental studies launched, but, even then, the research program was comprehensive, being devoted to many different developmental processes. At the time of Stevenson’s departure (1971), the institute consisted of 15 professors, the nursery school, and the child development clinic. Faculty consisted entirely of psychologists, and there were no budgeted joint appointments. Two trends distinguish the Institute of Child Development during the next three decades: (1) new staff positions and reallocations were made to several new research areas, especially developmental psychobiology and cognitive neuroscience; and (2) a number of new programs, including several interdepartmental programs, were organized to enhance institute involvement in applied developmental science. The professorial faculty was expanded to 17 positions and the budget greatly enhanced—both from university and nonuniversity sources. Directors during these decades were Willard W. Hartup, W. Andrew Collins, Richard A. Weinberg, and (currently) Ann S. Masten. RESEARCH Research in the Institute of Child Development shows both continuity and change. Some developmental processes have been studied more or less continuously for three quarters of a century, with changes largely reflecting scientific advances occurring during the time. Cognitive science, for example, was not a cohesive research area when the institute began operations,

but early studies were devoted to the growth of logical reasoning, including causal thinking, as well as recall memory in young children. Current investigators are continuing to study memory for events as well as the relation between memorial processes and brain functioning and in relation to clinical designations such as attention deficit disorder. Facilitating work in developmental cognitive science is the Center for Cognitive Studies, an interdepartmental unit in which numbers of institute faculty and graduate students have participated since it was founded in the late 1960s. More recently, the Center for Neurobehavioral Development was established to focus explicitly on brain development and its implications for learning, cognition, and emotional development. Studies of social and personality development began with a series of investigations dealing with the early manifestations of aggression and anger, conflict, and social competence among nursery school children. Current investigators continue to be interested in aggression, especially children’s efforts to injure one another by threatening interpersonal relationships, that is, “relational aggression.” Interest also continues in peer competence, especially in relationships among friends. Once again, continuity exists in general terms, although considerable change is evident in the specific research questions being asked. Distinguishing the current program, too, are several well-known longitudinal studies designed to better understand the linkages emerging over time between significant relationships in the child’s experience (e.g., attachments within the family) and competence in coping with the developmental challenges of later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. In some instances, research on certain topics was abandoned after a time, owing either to changes in staffing or changes in science. Anatomical studies are no longer conducted. The measurement of intelligence is no longer an active research area. Descriptive studies of vocabulary and articulation have given way to investigations of the child’s acquisition of grammar and the relation between thought and language. Normative studies of motor development have been discontinued, but were replaced by efforts to understand the integration of visual experience and motor development and other problems in perceptual learning. Other new programs have been started: growing rapidly in recent years, for example, have been investigations dealing with the psychohormonal aspects of stress and coping.

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APPLICATIONS As it turned out, the termination of the parent education program in the 1960s was the beginning of a redirected effort in applied developmental science rather than an end of the unit’s commitments to developmental applications. First, a long-term effort was made to reorganize the Clinical Child Psychology Training Program. Although training in this area was offered since the 1930s, students were admitted for the first time to a joint training program with the department of psychology in 1991. Training of graduate students in school psychology is undertaken in cooperation with the School Psychology Training Program. Nursery school teachers have been trained in the institute’s facilities since 1925. Beginning late in the 1960s, however, new applications of child development were being tested in Project Head Start and other intervention programs. To augment this work, the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED), an interdepartmental program, was organized with major support from the institute in 1974. CEED has been associated with broad efforts to provide professional leaders (not parents themselves) with relevant child development information through institutes, fellowship programs, roundtables, and other activities involving trainees recruited on a national basis. Also housed in the Institute of Child Development is the Irving B. Harris Center for Infant and Toddler Development, which is specifically dedicated to the training and continuing education of individuals working in the field of infant and toddler development. Activities conducted by the center include short-term training modules, public forums for policymakers and the public, online training courses, clearinghouse services, development of curriculum and intervention materials, and leadership training. The Harris Center also serves as the venue for the STEEP Partnering with Parents program (Egeland & Erickson, 1999), especially designed for pregnant and parenting women and their families to increase parenting knowledge, coping with stress and personal history, and social support. The STEEP program is based on attachment theory and is grounded in the longitudinal research on risk and resilience conducted at the institute over the past 25 years. The institute is also the main venue for the International Adoption Project, a federally funded program designed to provide registry information and other detailed data on international adoptions that have become common in Minnesota, as elsewhere.

The most comprehensive applicational enterprise to have been established with major input from the institute is the All-University Children, Youth, and Families Consortium, founded in 1991. The consortium was established to bring together the varied competencies of the University of Minnesota and resources in the community to address critical health, education, and social policy concerns in ways that improve the well-being of children, youth, and families in the state. Considering this background of activities in applied developmental science, the institute has organized a certification program for students in applied developmental psychology. The program is designed for doctoral students in any relevant discipline and provides them with lectures, readings, discussion, writing, and field experiences that build expertise for applying basic research knowledge to programs and policies designed to improve the lives of children. Representative topics covered in this program are ethical issues, media and children’s programming, nutrition and hunger, accidents and safety issues, children in the judicial system, learning in informal settings, children in sports, and the development of toys and games. Students are awarded a Certificate in Applied Developmental Psychology upon successful completion of the 1-year program’s requirements.

CONCLUSIONS Two years after the Institute of Child Development was founded, John Anderson wrote, While society will never quite catch up to the problems proposed in the home and by science itself, nevertheless, there will be a healthy advance and improvement of the general level. The problems of one generation will become the commonplaces of the next. (Anderson, 1927, p. 4). The institute has remained viable for three quarters of a century after these words were written. There are more problems around us than the pioneers dreamed of, and social demand for the “new news” about children remains insatiable. Clearly, comprehensive efforts encompassing both basic and applied research in developmental science will continue to be needed in the Institute of Child Development for many years to come. —Willard W. Hartup

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anderson, J. E. (1927). Parents and children: An educational opportunity and a stimulus to research. Paper presented at the Midwest Conference on Education for Parenthood, Kansas City. (Available in the archives of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial) Cahan, E. D. (1991). Science, practice, and gender roles in early American child psychology. In F. S. Kessel, M. H. Bornstein, & A. J. Sameroff (Eds.), Contemporary constructions of the child: Essays in honor of William Kessen (pp. 225–239). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Egeland, B., & Erickson, M. F. (1999). The STEEP Program: Linking theory and research to practice. Zero to Three, 20, 3–16. Hartup, W. W., Johnson, A., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). The Institute of Child Development: Pioneering in science and application (1925–2000). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development.

INTELLIGENCE TESTING Intelligence testing is the process of sampling behavior thought to represent the construct of intelligence in order to obtain an indicator of intellectual functioning. The types of behavior sampled usually include problem solving, reasoning, abstract thinking, and acquired knowledge, although the specific behaviors sampled vary depending on which measure of intellectual ability is used (Sattler, 2001). HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE TESTING Near the end of the 19th century, many psychologists became interested in mental abilities and their measurement. Psychologists researched intelligence with a variety of goals, including the study of heredity, the examination of individual differences in behavior, and the development of statistical methods for test data. Alfred Binet, who studied intelligence to determine individual levels of intellectual functioning, is often credited with developing the first practical intelligence test. Binet, along with Victor Henri and Theodore Simon, developed the Binet-Simon Scale in 1905 in response to the French government’s request for a systematic method to determine which school-aged children could benefit from extra services. The early versions of Binet’s test used an age-scale format for evaluating cognitive performance. Items were standardized using groups of children at specific age levels, and

those items passed by the majority of children at a specific age were considered to represent that age level (Ittenbach, Esters, & Wainer, 1997; Sattler, 2001). The Binet-Simon Scale was expanded and standardized in the United States by Lewis Terman in 1916. At this time, Terman introduced the intelligence quotient (IQ), a ratio determined by dividing mental age by chronological age and multiplying the result by 100, as a measure of a child’s rate of intellectual growth. The scale was subsequently revised several times to become the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale currently in use. In 1986, the age-scale format was dropped in favor of a point-scale format, by which an individual’s scores on all items are summed and compared with scores from a normative sample of individuals of the same age. The point-scale format continues to be favored in current measures of intelligence. The intelligence test originally developed by Binet and its revisions have become prototypes for the development of other measures of intelligence (Flanagan & Ortiz, 2002; Sattler, 2001). The development of Binet’s assessment of intelligence was guided by a practical need—measuring mental ability to determine the distribution of services for children. The psychometric properties of the test also became a focus as it was revised. The BinetSimon Scale was not developed as a theoretically guided instrument to measure the construct of intelligence. At about the same time that the Binet-Simon Scale was published, however, Spearman was also publishing his theory of general intelligence (g). As such, the Binet-Simon Scale and its descendents are considered to be measures of the “general intelligence” construct. Following Binet’s prototype, most intelligence tests continue to follow some form of the generalized intelligence theory. Some psychologists have criticized the intelligence testing field for not implementing current advances in theory, and, in general, for lacking a theoretical framework. Some researchers, however, have begun to use current, empirically supported theories of intelligence to guide their test development (e.g., the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, which use the CattellHorn-Carroll theory; Flanagan & Ortiz, 2002; Ittenbach et al., 1997; Weinberg, 1989). KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS The creation of standardized measures of intelligent behavior has inspired many studies concerning

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the nature of intelligence. Research has largely focused on investigating variables influencing individual differences in test performance as well as outcomes related to the performance. Stemming from the nature-versus-nurture debate, one of the more popular research questions regarding intelligence concerns the extent to which genes and/or environment influence intelligence (as measured by intelligence tests). Research has found strong evidence for the relation between genetic background and intelligence test performance. The intelligence test scores for individuals who are genetically related are more highly correlated than scores for individuals who are not related but share the same family environment. Even within the same biological family, those members who are more genetically related (e.g., monozygotic twins) have more highly correlated scores than family members who are less genetically related (e.g., dizygotic twins). In addition, genetically related individuals who were raised apart have similar scores (Sattler, 2001). Research has provided evidence that home environment variables, such as intellectual environment of the home, stimulation in the home, and type of punishment regime, are also highly related to intelligence test scores (Sattler, 2001). Research following children adopted into upper-middle-class families found that these children, who were raised in a culture of schools and tests, performed better on IQ tests than other children with similar genetic backgrounds (Weinberg, 1989). Family variables, such as socioeconomic status, are also related to IQ. Living in poverty can have a negative effect on a child’s intellectual functioning due to a variety of factors associated with poverty, such as reduced access to health-promoting resources and inadequate cognitive stimulation (Sattler, 2001). Scores on intelligence tests are relatively stable after the age of 5–7. However, significant variations in scores (up to 20 points, in some cases) have been found for some individuals. Scores are most likely to vary when changes in an individual’s environment occur. Researchers point to both the invariance of genetic factors and the stability of one’s environment as possible explanations for the stability of IQ. On a population level, however, IQ has been increasing in economically advanced countries by roughly 3 points per decade. Researchers suggest that this trend, known as the Flynn effect, could result from improved environments (nutrition, etc.), improved education, or

improved test-taking ability (Reschly & Grimes, 2002; Sattler, 2001). Researchers have also been interested in outcomes that are related to IQ test performance. Intelligence test scores in childhood are highly correlated with school achievement, number of years of schooling completed, and level of occupational attainment (Reschly & Grimes, 2002; Weinberg, 1989). General life outcomes and satisfaction, however, do not tend to be related to IQ test performance (Weinberg, 1989). Researchers have found consistent differences in level and pattern of performance on intelligence tests for different sociocultural groups. These differences are confounded by the relation between sociocultural group and socioeconomic status (Reschly & Grimes, 2002). Some concerns have been raised regarding test bias. Although it has been shown that most tests are not biased in terms of psychometric properties (Brown, Reynolds, & Whitaker, 1999), it is also true that different environments provide different preparation, motivation, and comfort level for the testing experience (Armour-Thomas, 1992; Reschly & Grimes, 2002; Weinberg, 1989). CURRENT MEASURES OF INTELECTUAL ABILITY Intelligence tests are typically administered individually in a standardized format by a trained professional. Typical items are similar to questions such as, “What must you do to make water freeze?” and “In what way are pencil and crayon alike?” Individuals may also be asked to complete tasks such as arranging pictures into meaningful sequences, identifying missing parts of pictures, arranging blocks, and remembering information. The specific questions included, and the specific “intelligent behaviors” sampled in any given measure of intelligence, are guided by the test author’s conception of intelligence (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 1998). As noted, current measures generate IQ scores by comparing an individual’s performance with the performance of a normative sample, a representative group of people the same age who have taken the same measure. The normative sample typically includes certain percentages of individuals with specific demographic variables (ethnicity, sex, etc.) as determined by the U.S. Census (Sattler, 2001). As such, an IQ score indicates how well (e.g., average, above average, below average) an individual performs on a given

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test compared with the sample. The validity of an individual’s score is dependent on how well that individual’s cultural and life experiences are represented by the normative sample used by the test. When using any measure of intelligence (or any other measure, for that matter), the reliability and validity should also be evaluated. There are a number of intelligence tests available today. The most widely used tests include the StanfordBinet Intelligence Scale, the Wechsler Scales, and the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 1998; Sattler, 2001). Psychologists have critiqued traditional measures of intelligence for relying too heavily on verbal performance, even on scales that are intended to measure nonverbal abilities. Nonverbal measures have been developed with the purpose of measuring intellectual abilities independent of language. It is hoped that these measures will more accurately assess the intellectual behaviors of those individuals who have difficulty completing traditional tests, such as individuals who are not proficient in the English language or individuals who are hard of hearing. Examples of nonverbal tests include the Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised and the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence–3 (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 1998). It is important to remember that intelligence tests are only samples of current behavior, and that they are limited in the spectrum of competencies they do sample (Reschly & Grimes, 2002; Sattler, 2001). An individual’s attitudinal characteristics (e.g., motivation), as well as the specific stimuli and response requirements of the test given, are likely to influence performance on intelligence tests (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 1998; Sattler, 2001). The psychological demands of a test vary among individuals. The level of acculturation, for example, can change the demands of a test such that the same test is measuring different behaviors for different individuals (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 1998). CURRENT USES Intelligence testing currently occurs most often as part of an educational or clinical assessment, as an indicator of an individual’s level of intellectual functioning. In educational assessments, intelligence test performance is often used to help estimate expected level of achievement, to generate hypotheses as to the causes of low achievement, and to determine eligibility for special education services. In most states, intelligence

tests are required to qualify students for services for learning disabilities and mental retardation. For example, many states use a discrepancy formula to determine eligibility for learning disability services. An individual must have a significant discrepancy between his or her intelligence test score and his or her achievement test score to be considered learning disabled. Some schools and states no longer use intelligence tests as part of their educational assessments, preferring to use more direct measures of performance in the school setting. Proponents of a more functional assessment argue that direct measures of skills and behaviors in the natural setting lead more directly to intervention planning (Flanagan & Ortiz, 2002; Reschly & Grimes, 2002). Psychological and psychiatric assessments also use intelligence tests as an important component for establishing the presence of or ruling out certain disorders, such as mental retardation. The military, the judicial system, and employers also use intelligence tests as a measure of an individual’s current intellectual functioning.

CONCLUSIONS Intelligence testing, as part of a comprehensive evaluation, can provide useful information regarding the child’s current level of intellectual ability. It is important, however, to consider multiple sources of information in any assessment and to keep in mind the influence of environmental context. —Amy E. Luckner and Richard A. Weinberg

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Armour-Thomas, E. (1992). Intellectual assessment of children from culturally diverse backgrounds. School Psychology Review, 21, 552–565. Brown, R. T., Reynolds, C. R., & Whitaker, J. S. (1999). Bias in mental testing since Bias in mental testing. School Psychology Quarterly, 14, 208–238. Flanagan, D. P., & Ortiz, S. O. (2002). Best practices in intellectual assessment: Future directions. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology IV (Vol. 2, pp. 1351–1372). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Ittenbach, R. F., Esters, I. G., & Wainer, H. (1997). The history of test development. In D. P. Flanagan, J. L. Genshaft, & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment:

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Theories, tests, and issues (pp. 17–31). New York: Guilford. Reschly, D. J., & Grimes, J. P. (2002). Best practices in intellectual assessment. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology IV (Vol. 2, pp. 1337–1350). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Salvia, J., & Ysseldyke, J. E. (1998). Assessment (7th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). San Diego: Jerome M. Sattler. Weinberg, R. A. (1989). Intelligence and IQ. American Psychologist, 44, 98–104.

oversensitive to flickering lights. The symptoms vary from headaches and changes in the field of vision to nervous tics, dizziness, confusion, reduced awareness, and seizures. The symptoms usually disappear as soon as the child stops playing. Research has shown that the chance that the child will be affected is reduced the further the child sits from the screen and the better the quality of the screen: 100Hz screens seem to be better than 50Hz screens. RSI and Nintendonitis

INTERACTIVE MEDIA, EFFECTS OF Although interactive media, such as video and computer games and the Internet, have rapidly gained prominence as leisure activities among children, research into their effects is still very much in its infancy. Most of the research up until now has focused on video and computer games, with only a few studies looking at different Internet applications. The views on the effect of interactive media on children differ greatly. Proponents usually mention the positive effects, such as improving eye-hand coordination, spatial intelligence, and the possibility of playing together. Opponents claim that interactive media undermine family relations and impoverish children’s social contacts. They also believe that violent interactive media stimulate children’s aggressiveness. PHYSICAL EFFECTS The research literature on the physical effects of interactive media on children has so far only addressed the effects of video and computer games on epileptic seizures during or after playing, and on the effects of these games on repetitive strain injury (RSI), or an RSI-related complaint: Nintendonitis. Epileptic Seizures Particularly in the 1980s, several reports appeared in the media regarding children who had suffered epileptic seizures because of playing video games. This phenomenon also received some attention in the academic literature. These epileptic seizures are primarily caused by a specific form of epilepsy— photosensitive epilepsy—whereby the child is

Children often sit in front of the screen focused and tense. If they sit too long in this posture, they run the risk, as do adults, of developing repetitive strain injury: pain in the elbow and wrist or a lack of feeling in the lower or upper arm. With the increasing use of computers among children, RSI is, as with adults, a growing problem. A special form of RSI seen among some children is a phenomenon that has been referred to as Nintendonitis. This is a play on words with the medical term tendonitis, an inflammation of the tendon, and the Nintendo console. Nintendonitis results from making quick movements for a long period of time with the thumb on the controller of game computers. COGNITIVE EFFECTS A number of studies have been carried out into the cognitive effects of using computers at school. These studies found, for example, that children’s knowledge of biology or meteorology increased because of using certain computer applications. Research has been carried out on the effects of interactive media in children’s everyday home environment on the following three cognitive effects: eye-hand coordination, spatial intelligence, and attentional capacity. Eye-Hand Coordination Research on the effects of electronic games on children’s eye-hand coordination has yielded mixed results. A study carried out by Gagnon (1985) did not find any effects. However, this study measured the eye-hand coordination using a paper test, where the children using a pencil had to quickly draw a dot in a series of circles. It is, of course, possible that this form of measurement was too far removed from the eyehand coordination required by electronic games. After all, electronic games primarily involve following

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moving objects. Several other studies, which used tests that fell within the definition of eye-hand coordination, did find positive effects of video and computer games on eye-hand coordination. Spatial Intelligence Some studies suggest that children who regularly play computer games develop a better spatial intelligence. For example, in a study by Okagaki and Frensch (1994), a group of teenagers played the puzzle game Tetris for 6 hours. None of these teenagers was familiar with the game. After 6 hours of playing Tetris, the spatial intelligence of both girls and boys had significantly improved. It is not only puzzle games that can enhance spatial intelligence; other games have this potential as well. Visual Attentional Capacity Playing video games not only seems to stimulate eye-hand coordination and spatial intelligence; there are also indications that they may increase a player’s visual attentional capacity. In a study by Green and Bavelier (2003), the attentional capacity of videogame players (VGPs) was compared with that of nonvideo-game players (NVGPs). A VGP was defined as a person who had played video games on at least 4 days per week for a minimum of 12 hours per day for the previous 6 months. The study consisted of four quasi-experiments, in which a different measure of attentional capacity was used. In all four experiments, it was found that VGPs were significantly better able to monitor objects in their visual field than were NVGPs. SOCIAL EFFECTS Do children become lonely if they spend too much time on the Internet? Do interactive media undermine family relations? Do children become aggressive from playing violent computer games? Family Relations An important concern about the Internet is that it encourages children to spend more time alone in front of the screen, talking to strangers and forming online friendships instead of friendships with their real-life peers. Because these online friendships are seen as

superficial, “easy in, easy out” relationships that lack a common set of values and feelings of affection and obligation, it is believed that the Internet increases social isolation and fragmentation of families and social groups. Evidence to support this media-induced fragmentation hypothesis is mixed. An early study carried out when the game console first came onto the market showed that the game computer had a positive effect on family relations. At the time, the game computer brought parents and children together to play video games and discover new things. It is doubtful, however, whether the computer still has a positive effect on family communication and cohesion, now that most children have a computer or game computer in their own rooms, and many children’s technological knowledge is far greater than that of their parents. There are not many indications to show that the modern computer and game console helps to bring families together. A study carried out by Roberts (2000) showed that 61% of 12- to 17-year-olds use the Internet usually alone and that 64% of them normally played computer games also on their own. Another study revealed that 50% of parents believed that family members who spend a great deal of time online talk with the family less than they would do otherwise. Finally, a study by Kraut and colleagues (1998) demonstrated that the use of the Internet went together with a small, though significant, reduction in family communication. In this 5-year longitudinal research project, 93 American families were followed during two time spans: from 1995 to 1997, and from 1998 to 1999. The initial study demonstrated that using the Internet for as little as half an hour a day led to small though significant declines in family communication. However, in the follow-up study, these aversive Internet effects disappeared: Time spent on the Internet tended to be positively related to family communication. The discrepancy between the results of the initial and those of the follow-up study by Kraut et al. suggests that the Internet initially can replace a small portion of time spent with family members, but that this displacement effect dissipates as soon as family members have gained experience with the technology. Friendships and Loneliness Children regularly use the Internet for communication and social interaction with friends and potential

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friends. However, there are as yet few indications to show that the Internet facilitates primarily superficial contacts. A survey by Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor (2002) carried out among 1,500 American children revealed that 16% of children between the ages of 10 and 17 had at some time in the past year developed a close friendship with a person they had met online. A close friend was defined as someone with whom you could speak about things that were important to you. In another survey conducted among 12- to 17-year-olds, 48% of the 754 respondents said that the Internet had actually improved their relationships with their friends, and 32% said that the Internet helped them in making new friends. The majority (61%) of the respondents felt that the Internet did not take away time that they would otherwise spend with their friends. However, a small group (10%) did feel that the Internet made them spend less time with their friends, although they did feel that they were better able to keep in contact with friends who lived far away. A special case in communication via the Internet involves the Multi User Dungeons (MUDs). In MUDs it is common practice to experiment with your identity. Children can therefore pretend to be an older person, someone from the opposite sex, or even someone without any particular sex. What do MUD visitors think of online friendships? This was investigated in a study by Parks and Roberts (1998) among 235 MUD participants, who primarily consisted of adolescents. Nearly all participants had developed at least one personal relationship while participating in the MUD games. The majority had made between 4 and 15 contacts. Various types of relationships had developed, but most contacts were described by the respondents as close friendships (41%), friendships (26%), and romantic relationships (26%). There were significant differences in the time spent on the various friendships. Romantic relationships received more time, followed by close friendships and then friendships. In sum, several surveys have shown that children and adolescents regularly form online contacts and friendships. However, such observations do not allow for the inference that the Internet stimulates the social involvement of children and adolescents. To draw such a conclusion, one needs to know more about the quality of children’s online relationships and about the impact of the Internet on children’s offline social relationships. The study by Kraut et al. (1998) demonstrated that Internet use leads to increases in adolescents’

loneliness and decreases in their offline social involvement, although their follow-up study could again not replicate their initial result. In this second study, the authors even found a small positive relationship between hours spent on the Internet and the number of contacts with whom adolescents kept up. Aggression In the past two decades, numerous studies have been carried out into the influence of video games such as Mortal Kombat and Dactyl Nightmare on the aggressive behavior of children. At the start of the millennium, two meta-analyses on this subject were published almost at the same time. Both meta-analyses on the effect of video and computer games reported a correlation between violent games and aggressive behavior that is classified in the literature as small to moderate. Sherry (2001) found a correlation of r = .15, and Anderson and Bushman (2001) found a slightly higher correlation of r = .19. Although both meta-analyses clearly show that video and computer games can promote aggressive behavior, it is of course equally important to know how this happens. Social Learning The social learning theory of Bandura (1986) states that children learn aggressive behavior from television by observing the aggressive behavior of their TV heroes and in particular the consequences of this behavior. This learning of aggression occurs particularly (a) when the child identifies with the TV hero and (b) when the aggressive behavior of the TV hero is rewarded. Video and computer games provide players with ample possibilities for identification. In many games, the player even plays the role of the main character, which further stimulates the possibilities for identification. The reward aspect of Bandura’s theory also plays an important role in video and computer games. After all, in many video and computer games each well-executed violent action is rewarded immediately. This can be in the form of extra lives, power, energy, or ammunition, or through direct compliments, such as in Mortal Kombat: “You are the supreme warrior.” Violent video games teach players the same lesson as violent films and TV series: Violence is an effective means to solve a conflict.

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Arousing Violence A second explanation for the violence-provoking capacity of interactive media is that exciting violent programs make children so restless that afterward they become more aggressive in their play and interaction with other children. It has been demonstrated that video and computer games can bring about intense physical arousal among children. In the meta-analysis of Anderson and Bushman (2001), a significant positive correlation of r = .22 was found between playing games and physical arousal. In violent computer games, the violence is usually combined with lots of action, speed, and rousing music. It is therefore likely that children, after playing these kinds of games—just as after watching violence in films and television— remain restless and as a result show aggressive behavior in their play and interaction with other children.

Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist, 53(9), 1017–1031. Okagaki, L., & Frensch, P. A. (1994). Effects of video game playing on measures of spatial performance: Gender effects in late adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15, 33–58. Parks, M. R., & Roberts, L. D. (1998). “Making MOOsic”: The development of personal relationships on line and a comparison to their off-line counterparts. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15(4), 517–537. Roberts, D. F. (2000). Media and youth: Access, exposure and privatisation. Journal of Adolescent Health, 27(2), 8–14. Sherry, J. (2001). The effects of violent video games on aggression? A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research, 27, 409–431. Wolak, J., Mitchell, K. J., & Finkelhor, D. (2002). Close online relationships in a national sample of adolescents. Adolescence, 37, 441–455.

CONCLUSIONS Video and computer games have various positive and negative effects on the development of children. Children who spend a great deal of time playing these games may develop better eye-hand coordination and spatial awareness as well as visual attentional capacity. However, spending too much time on these games may result in physical complaints such as RSI and Nintendonitis, and, above all, playing may come at the expense of other activities such as homework, reading, social contacts, and sports. The negative effects of video and computer games primarily have to do with the content of the games. A series of empirical studies and two meta-analyses have shown that the violence in the games can stimulate aggressive thoughts and behavior. —Patti M. Valkenburg

See also MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12(5), 353–359. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Gagnon, D. (1985). Videogames and spatial skills. Educational Communication and Technology, 33, 263–275. Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423, 534–537.

INTERNALIZING DISORDERS. See ANXIETY DISORDERS IN CHILDREN; BIPOLAR DISORDER; BIPOLAR DISORDER IN CHILDREN; DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENCE; DEPRESSION IN LATER LIFE; DEPRESSION, MATERNAL INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT The International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD) was founded in 1969 on the occasion of international scientific meetings in Germany, England, and the United States by a group of researchers particularly devoted to longitudinal research on human development in a life span perspective. The interdisciplinary orientation was expressed by the emphasis on behavioral development. Due to the enormous expansion of scientific interest in psychological studies and particularly in research on human development in the 1970s, the newly formed society grew rapidly. The mission of ISSBD entails the promotion, discovery, dissemination, and application of knowledge on human development across the entire life span. At the time of its foundation, the stress on commonalities and differences of developmental processes from

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infancy to old age was new, and it is still true that conceptualizing development in such a way represents particular challenges in the analyses of processes that result in continuities and discontinuities. ISSBD was given its charter in the Netherlands, but its membership has always been truly international by design and in reality. At present the membership amounts to approximately 1,000 members in various categories (including student memberships) from 50-plus countries around the globe (with large representation from Europe and North America). A major emphasis was always to include researchers from less well-off countries where currency restrictions were in force. Toward this aim, an elaborate system of reduced membership dues and regional offices was established until the sociopolitical changes of the 1990s. Most members received their training and are active in various fields of psychology, but a considerable portion work in allied disciplines such as psychiatry, pediatrics, and sociology. ISSBD’s governance is composed of officers, namely the president (who also serves a term as past president), the secretary general, treasurer and membership secretary, the president-elect, the executive committee, and special advisors. Concerning nominations and elections for the officers and members of the executive committee, attention is give to representation of regions, disciplines, scientific topics, and gender. The current president is Rainer K. Silbereisen (2003–2006, University of Jena, Germany), the president-elect is Anne C. Petersen (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, United States). The society’s premier scientific gathering is the series of biennial meetings that started in 1971. The recent meetings have been held in Beijing (China, 2000), Ottawa (Canada, 2002), and Ghent (Belgium, 2004). The venue of the 2006 congress will be Melbourne (Australia). To date (2003), 16 meetings have been held in more than a dozen different countries, including North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The usual attendance during the past decade is in the order of 1,000 or more, typically from more than 50 countries. In line with the change in scientific publication strategies, proceedings have not published since the 1980s. In order to fulfill its mission, ISSBD has always been active in organizing workshops and conferences. Between 1975 (Jakarta, Indonesia) and 1997 (Groningen, the Netherlands), nine Asian Workshops on Child and Adolescent Development were organized in the region,

with a strong emphasis on scientific training. Likewise, a series of European Conferences of Developmental Psychology was organized under the auspices of ISSBD between 1984 (Groningen, the Netherlands) and 1994 (Krakow, Poland). Encouraged by the success of these events, an independent offshoot of ISSBD was formed, the European Society for Developmental Psychology, which organized these conferences from 1997 on (the incoming president of the new society is Willem Koops, the Netherlands, a former secretary general of ISSBD). Another important instrument of ISSBD’s support role is represented by the Summer Training Seminar in Life Span Development that began in 1977 (Torun, Poland), and took place every 4 years. In most cases, these seminars were held outside North America or Western Europe, such as a recent workshop in Lima (Peru) on contexts of development. A final element in ISSBD’s scientific events is sponsored or cosponsored conferences that address topics relevant for particular regions, often planned to help establish or broaden infrastructure for research on behavioral development. Such conferences have taken place in Asia (China, Indonesia, India, Korea), South America (Brazil), and Africa (Kenya, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Namibia, and Uganda). ISSBD publishes a newsletter for its members that addresses all aspects of its mission, for instance, by publishing views on issues of human development from different regions or disciplines with a lead article and various comments. The current editors are Joan Miller (United States) and Xingin Chen (Canada). ISSBD also publishes a major outlet for empirical research, the International Journal of Behavioral Development (IJBD). Since 1976, 26 volumes have appeared, including special editions such as the one devoted to the millennium (major articles were also published in a book edited by W. Hartup and Rainer K. Silbereisen [2002] under the title Growing Points in Developmental Science). The journal enjoys having readers in more than 50 countries and brings together authors particularly from North America, Europe, and Asia. The current editor-in-chief is William Bukowski (Canada). Most of the activities (except for IJBD) could not be funded from the modest membership fees alone. Rather, by way of principle, ISSBD looks to team up with scientists and institutions in the region that bring their own resources (thereby often multiplying the basic funds ISSBD could provide). In addition, the society has been successful in securing grants from

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leading private foundations, such as the Jacobs Foundation (Zurich), the William T. Grant Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Soros Foundation (New York). The main aim supported was the exchange between young scientists from all parts of the world, and in particular their getting into contact with major research centers and activities in Western Europe and North America. In many cases such exchanges resulted in collaborative research efforts, often with a crosscultural emphasis on issues of human development. At the beginning of the new century, new tasks for this unique learned society are imminent, whereas in the past a major focus was on providing a bridge between disparate and often politically separated parts of the world (in many countries, membership in ISSBD was the only way to build up and maintain contacts with researchers in the Western world). The new challenges now are twofold: one is to be more efficacious in helping societies (through members’ scientific activities and other efforts) to apply insight in processes of human development in a culturally appropriate way in order to alter or improve developmental trajectories across the life span (Dasen & Mishra, 2002). Prominent examples include interventions related to cognitive aging, prevention against adolescent psychosocial maladjustment, or improving career development under conditions of rapid social change (Pinquart & Silbereisen, in press). The other new challenge concerns the fact that the study of human development, always an interdisciplinary endeavor, needs to bring together the new emerging and very successful disciplines and research areas, such as behavioral and molecular genetics, neuroendocrinology, research on structural and functional properties of the brain, and so on (Spear, 2000). Note that the applications of developmental research mentioned, and many more, have been profiting tremendously by recent theoretical concepts and technical breakthroughs (such as the brain mapping methods). For ISSBD, all this implies the need to enlarge and diversify its membership to bring together the best minds for a new dialogue. —Rainer K. Silbereisen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Dasen, P. R., & Mishra, R. C. (2002). Cross-cultural views on human development in the third millennium. In. W. W. Hartup & R. K. Silbereisen (Eds.), Growing

points in developmental science (pp. 266–286). Hove, UK: Psychology Press. Hartup, W. W. (1996). The international society for the study of behavioral development after 25 years: Retrospect and prospect. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 19, 243–254. Hartup, W. W., & Silbereisen, R. K. (Eds.). (2002). Growing points in developmental science. Hove, UK: Psychology Press. Pinquart, M., & Silbereisen, R. K. (in press). Human development in times of social change: Theoretical considerations and research needs. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Spear, L. P. (2000). The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations. Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 24, 417–463.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FOUNDATION Half of the world’s citizens today—more than 3 billion people—are under the age of 25, and the vast majority of them are growing up in communities ill equipped to ensure their health and well-being. Many are the victims of violence and social unrest, while others are lost and adrift, out of school, unable to find a job, and with little hope for a better future. The International Youth Foundation (IYF) was launched in 1990 to help change these daunting odds—by identifying young people’s most pressing needs and then promoting the most effective programs and approaches to meet them. Over the past decade, IYF and its global network of partner organizations have helped millions of young people gain access to the life skills, education, job training, and opportunities so critical to their success. IYF is currently operating in nearly 60 countries and territories worldwide.

HISTORY Before founding IYF, Richard Little spent 2 years consulting with business, philanthropy, education, government, and youth leaders around the world about what was missing in current efforts to meet the needs of millions of the world’s youth. These conversations confirmed that while great progress had been made in keeping more children alive, an even greater proportion were growing up with little education, job training, or productive employment. Little also identified

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a wide range of innovative approaches and practices that had been developed in communities around the world to meet these urgent needs. As a result of these consultations, and with the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which awarded the foundation its largest single grant in its history, IYF was established “to improve the conditions and prospects for young people where they live, learn, work, and play.” FOCUS At the time IYF was established, the majority of philanthropic resources for children and youth were directed at children under the age of 5 or those in higher education. IYF seeks to bridge that gap—by addressing the needs and aspirations of underserved children and youth ages 5–25. With so much international grant making focused on relief and emergency efforts, IYF is committed to implementing long-term development initiatives for children and youth. And while traditional philanthropic funding has often gone to experimental start-ups, IYF invests in programs that are already proven to be effective and takes them to scale.

recognizes and builds on young people’s assets and talents. IYF supports programs that are designed to help youth develop the skills, values, and attitudes they need to succeed today, not just tomorrow. Over the years, IYF has sought to change the image of young people from passive beneficiaries of programs and services to active players who can—and do— contribute their energy, idealism, and insights to society’s growth and progress. IYF and its partners have developed a wide range of child and youth initiatives to improve young people’s conditions and prospects. For example, as a result of IYF’s global efforts, unemployed youth in Argentina are being trained for jobs in the information technology sector; factory workers in China are improving their life prospects, health, and workplace conditions; Palestinian youth are enhancing their learning skills and employability through the use of computer technology; young people in Hungary are gaining experience in teamwork, budgeting, and project planning as they design and carry out community service projects; and in Zambia, youth are learning how to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS in their communities, and among their peers. HOW IYF DOES IT

WHAT IYF DOES IYF seeks to bring new support to the many effective local efforts that are having a positive and sustained impact on youth in every corner of the globe. IYF first identifies programs that work and then connects them to the resources and expertise of global corporations, multilateral institutions, and other donors. By drawing on the local expertise of a worldwide network of affiliated foundations, and by developing strong multisector partnerships in support of their efforts, IYF works to magnify the scale of best practice programs and extend their benefits to far greater numbers of young people. IYF places a significant emphasis on promoting the effectiveness, scale, and sustainability of its youth programs. Acknowledging the daunting range of challenges facing children and youth today, IYF has chosen to focus its efforts in five programmatic areas: education, employability, leadership and engagement, health education and awareness, and worker/workplace development. These five centers of activity, around which all IYF programs are organized, reinforce IYF’s philosophy of positive youth development that

IYF has developed a range of strategies to carry out its work and extend its reach. At the heart of its efforts is a global network of partner organizations—each a recognized leader in youth development, working in their countries to identify effective programs, strengthen and expand the reach of such programs, and maximize the impact of the children and youth sector as a whole. The IYF global partner network maximizes its collective impact by sharing practical experience, learning, and knowledge across national boundaries. IYF aims to increase the quality and quantity of philanthropy for children and youth, with special emphasis on leveraging substantial new funds from both traditional and nontraditional sources. Toward this end, IYF promotes public-private partnerships, encourages international investment, and works to stimulate local philanthropy. Recognizing that an increasing number of global companies are looking for ways to maximize their social investments, IYF works with a number of the world’s leading corporations to implement customized social responsibility programs. These corporate partners

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include Goldman Sachs, Intel Corporation, Lucent Technologies, Merrill Lynch, Nike, and Nokia. Through its on-the-ground network of partner organizations, IYF provides its corporate partners with indepth knowledge of local children and youth needs, access to “best practice” programs, and close monitoring and evaluation of outcomes. IYF also partners with bi- and multilateral institutions such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) to support its youth programs worldwide. STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS ADDRESS YOUTH TRENDS In order to capitalize on global trends and opportunities, IYF has entered into a number of strategic initiatives, many of which are multicountry, multistakeholder, multiyear programs designed to address some of the most pressing issues facing children and youth today. In response to growing numbers of unemployed youth in Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, IYF and the Multilateral Investment Fund of the IDB have joined forces to help train up to 12,000 of the region’s disadvantaged youth and help them find jobs. Part of IYF’s employability center, the $25 million program, “entra 21,” is cofinancing youth employment projects in information technology (IT) through grants that support training and job placement. For example, in Bolivia, 600 young people are being trained to help nonprofits in rural and urban communities link up with a new nationwide telecommunications network system. In Columbia, 500 young people are gaining technical competencies that are in demand by local employers. And in the Dominican Republic, entra 21 is helping 360 disadvantaged youth gain the technical and personal skills they need to quality for jobs in the local provincial capital. Capturing and distributing important “lessons learned” in the area of youth employment is a key objective of the program. Local businesses are engaged in each project, often offering internships to entra 21 participants. Global companies, including Merrill Lynch and Microsoft, are now joining the initiative as well. Bridging the digital divide and ensuring that more young people living in isolated, underserved

communities have enriched learning opportunities is a key focus for IYF’s education center. One such initiative is IT4Youth, a $4 million, 4-year pilot project in the West Bank aimed at enhancing the learning skills and employability of Palestinian youth. The program is a joint effort by the Welfare Association, a nonprofit Palestinian foundation, and IYF, and is funded primarily through USAID, with support from Intel and others. To date, computer labs have been installed in 14 rural schools, and as a result, more than 4,000 young people have been trained in computer-based information technology. A recently built IT center, which is expanding the reach of the program to outof-school youth, is providing vocational training and assist Palestinian youth in finding employment. As part of the IT4Youth initiative, the first Intel Computer Clubhouse has been established in the Arab-speaking world, in the West Bank. An increasingly global economy has helped fuel a growing movement toward corporate social responsibility. Today, global companies acknowledge that they need to address issues beyond their bottom line, and a growing number are seeking new ways to improve workplace conditions and invest in the lives of the millions of workers who are engaged in the global supply chain. In response, as part of its worker/ workplace development center, IYF has created the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities (GA), which uses a multi-stakeholder approach to corporate responsibility. In partnership with the World Bank and corporate partners such as Nike, Gap, and Inditex, GA works with local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), factory owners, trade unions, and government agencies to improve the workplace experience and life opportunities of workers, while at the same time generating benefits for factory managers and companies through enhanced employee retention, motivation, and performance. Currently active in more than 60 factories in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, GA designs and delivers programs that respond directly to workers’ expressed needs. As a result, more than 100,000 workers have gained skills, training, and knowledge in such critical areas as health, personal finance, and labor issues. GA has also conducted management training with more than 9,000 senior- and middle-level factory managers and supervisors as a way to improve treatment of workers and workplace productivity. Engaging young people in the life of their communities and promoting their leadership skills is a critical

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focus for IYF’s leadership and engagement center. Toward that end, IYF and Nokia have developed the global “Make a Connection” program, giving young people the opportunities to make a connection to their communities, their families and peers, and to themselves. Currently operating in 17 countries worldwide, the program equips young people with “skills for life” such as leadership, communications, teamwork, and respect for themselves and others—as well as provides them with opportunities to make a positive contribution to society. Make a Connection programs include a youth-run newspaper in China, youth-led volunteer activities in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, and a mentoring program that encourages reading among disadvantaged children in Mexico. IYF and Nokia have also established YouthActionNet, a global initiative that celebrates and promotes the role of young people in leading positive social change through an interactive youth-led Web site and a global awards program. LOOKING AHEAD In the years ahead, IYF will continue to identify emerging challenges and opportunities for collaboration. Its health education and awareness center, for example, will expand its focus on HIV/AIDS prevention, by working on equipping young people with life skills as a strategy to address the spread of the pandemic. IYF has already developed partnerships with the seven largest youth organizations in the world— including the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the World Organization of the Scout Movements, and the World Alliance of WMCAs—to enhance health education and services targeting youth in sub-Saharan Africa. IYF serves as the global secretariat for this new initiative, called “Empowering Africa’s Young People.” IYF will also continue to explore new ways to use technology to advance learning and bridge the digital divide—both outside and inside the classroom, as part of its education center. For example, IYF has helped launch an innovative program that uses mobile technology to bring interactive, multimedia learning materials to underserved classrooms around the world. The initiative, called “Bridgeit,” brings together the resources and expertise of Nokia, Pearson (a leading international media company), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The pilot, which has been launched in the Philippines, is currently

improving learning opportunities for more than 14,000 5th and 6th grade Filipino students in 40 schools, delivering multimedia materials—in this case relating to science—to teachers and students who otherwise would have no access to them. After the pilot phase, Bridgeit will expand its geographic reach and range of educational content. In addition to expanding its global network of partner organizations, IYF will continue to make the case—to the nonprofit, private, and public sectors— that expanding investments in positive youth development, and working collaboratively toward that goal, is critical to the realization of a more peaceful, democratic, and stable world. —Christy Macy

INTERNET Today’s children are growing up in a world filled with media, and the reach of one such medium, the Internet, has grown with meteoric speed. Widespread use of the Internet by children has given rise to numerous questions of interest to developmentalists and educators, and only some of these questions have been answered through empirical research. In some respects, research has suggested that children’s interactions with the Internet greatly resemble their interactions with traditional media such as television. At the same time, however, new questions have also been raised by children’s use of this new medium. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that, in the year 2000, 65% of children aged 3–17 lived in households with computers. Moreover, although the “digital divide” continues to endure with regard to home access (as seen in significant differences in access across ethnic or socioeconomic lines), efforts toward wiring schools with computers appear to have borne fruit. One survey found that, on average, elementary and middle schools had approximately one computer with Internet access for every 15 students. Even more striking, Census data indicate that, in the year 2000, nearly 90% of 6- to 17-year-olds had access to computers at home, school, or both (Newburger, 2001). It is important to note that these statistics on school access may be slightly misleading, because they do not distinguish between students who were using the

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Internet and students who could (i.e., who had physical access to machines). However, national studies have shown that as many as 94% of American adolescents now use the Internet to do research for school, and 71% report that they rely on the Internet even more than on traditional sources such as books (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2001). The prominence of the Internet raises questions as to the role that the medium plays in children’s and adolescents’ lives: how they use the Internet, and how it might contribute to their education, socialization, and development. Because the Internet is still a relatively new medium, many of these questions have not yet been answered. However, the existing research, coupled with past research on traditional media such as television and print, provides insight into some of these issues. Additionally, discussion and debate have already ensued with regard to issues that have not yet been addressed in empirical research.

SIMILARITIES TO OTHER MEDIA In some ways, children’s interaction with (and through) the Internet greatly resembles their interaction with other media. For example, among preschoolers, an exploratory study by Fisch, Shulman, Akerman, and Levin (2002) demonstrated that online storybooks can elicit many of the same kinds of parent-child interactions that have been found to occur during joint reading of traditional books. Among older children, Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, and Brodie (1999) found that when 8- to 18-year-old children visit chat rooms, they most often choose chat rooms devoted to topics that are consistent with typical offline interests for this age group: entertainment such as music or television (approximately 33%), followed by sports (20%), hobbies/groups (16%), and gaming (15%). Girls tend more toward chat rooms about entertainment and relationships/lifestyles, while boys lean more toward chat rooms about entertainment and sports. Indeed, in some cases, similarities between media have caused concern as well. For example, the extensive literature on the negative impact of violent television programs has raised the question of whether similar effects might be caused by violent online (or offline) video games—or whether the participatory nature of video games might result in effects that are even stronger. To date, however, empirical data on this question have not yet been reported.

UNIQUE ISSUES Whereas some aspects of children’s use of the Internet are comparable to their use of traditional media, other aspects are unique to the medium. They raise issues that are different than those raised by print, television, or even offline computer use (e.g., when using CD-ROMs). For example, although children most often use computers to play games (Roberts et al., 1999), this is not true when they are using computers to access the Internet. Rather, data from the 2000 Census demonstrated that the most common use of the Internet among 3- to 17-year-olds was for e-mail (as reported by approximately 73% of the children who used the Internet at home). This was followed by school research (68%), searching for information (33%), checking news, weather, or sports (20%), and games/entertainment/fun (11%); several other activities were less common (Newburger, 2001). Thus, although games remain popular on CD-ROMs, video game systems, and handheld devices, online gaming is heavily outweighed by activities related to communication and information. In fact, students’ widespread use of the Internet as an informational tool represents a potential boon for education. The World Wide Web offers unprecedented communicative power and instant access to material on a plethora of topics ranging from medieval literature to nanotechnology. Yet, students’ reliance on online information is also a matter of some concern, because much of the information posted on the Internet is not subject to the same sort of review or validation as publication in a book or newspaper. As a result, information found online may be subject to blatant inaccuracy or bias that children fail to recognize. For this reason, agencies and organizations such as the U.S. Department of Education and the American Library Association (1998) have stressed the critical need for training children in information literacy—that is, the ability to recognize when information is needed, find it (either online or offline), evaluate its relevance and credibility, and use it effectively. Children need to think critically about online information, weighing criteria such as its objectivity and the qualifications of its author (e.g., Alexander & Tate, 1999). To date, however, no empirical research has been conducted to assess the degree to which children do so. Another area that has not yet been researched sufficiently is the impact of Internet usage on children’s

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social development. Some have argued that, because computer use is typically a solitary activity, use of the Internet can lead to social isolation. Others emphasize positive aspects of the Internet’s potential for facilitating communication. For example, the Internet provides a conduit for essentially instantaneous communication among users—even those who live in different countries. Online communication provides opportunities for interaction that is not prejudiced by considerations of race or personal appearance. Adolescents can even create multiple online personas for themselves, as they experiment with various roles in the course of identity formation (e.g., Turkle, 1995). Naturally, even if the Internet is used for communication rather than isolation, there are potential negative aspects to online communication as well. Safety concerns arise as children form online relationships with others who may be misrepresenting themselves. Children can use the Internet to access inappropriate sexual content with relative ease, or even inadvertently by mistyping a URL. Additional concerns arise with regard to privacy issues, particularly since research has shown that 10- to 17-year-olds are far more likely than their parents to believe that it is all right to give personal and family information to commercial Web sites in exchange for a free gift (Turow & Nir, 2000). Issues such as these have motivated efforts toward educating parents about using the Internet with their children (e.g., U.S. Department of Education, 1997), as well as federal legislation, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which regulates the collection of personal information from children below the age of 13. Clearly, as time progresses, the Internet will become an even greater presence in children’s lives. As in the case of other media, this presence is likely to hold both benefits and dangers for children, depending on the nature of the content that is conveyed. The question is not whether, from a developmental perspective, the Internet as a whole is “good” or “bad” for children. Rather, the key is to consider the types of material that children encounter online, as well as the nature of the medium itself. Although discussion and debate regarding these issues are already in full swing, the relative newness of the medium has meant that, from the standpoint of empirical data, we are still faced with more questions than answers. What is the impact (both positive and negative) of Internet usage on children’s social behavior? How do children interpret information that they

find online? How does use of the Internet for schoolwork impact on children’s academic performance, and how can its benefits be maximized? All of these questions, and many others, remain to be answered. The existing research literature has begun to address a variety of issues regarding the Internet. However, both time and extensive research will be needed before we can fully understand children’s use of the Internet and its implications for their development. —Shalom M. Fisch

See also MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Alexander, J. E., & Tate, M. A. (1999). Web wisdom: How to evaluate and create information quality on the Web. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. American Library Association and Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (1998). Information power: Building partnerships for learning. Chicago: ALA Editions. Fisch, S. M., Shulman, J. S., Akerman, A., & Levin, G. (2002). Reading between the pixels: Parent-child interaction while reading online storybooks. Early Education and Development, 13, 435–451. Newburger, E. C. (2001). Home computers and internet use in the United States: August 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. Pew Internet and American Life Project. (2001). The Internet and education: Findings of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Washington, DC: Author. Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G., Rideout, V. J., & Brodie, M. (1999). Kids & media @ the new millennium. Encino, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation. Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster. Turow, J., & Nir, L. (2000). The Internet and the family 2000: The view from parents, the view from kids. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg Public Policy Center. U.S. Department of Education. (1997). Parent’s guide to the Internet. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Office of Educational Technology.

INTERVENTION PROGRAMS, WEB-BASED A Web-based intervention is an intervention that is delivered to a target population over the World Wide Web, using any number of advanced Web-based

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applications. This type of intervention relies on a “client-server” computer networking model. According to this model, participants (i.e., clients) locate a Web site on a remote computer (i.e., server) using a Web browser on their personal computer (e.g., Internet Explorer). Once the Web site is located, clients have the capability to receive information from the server and send information back to it. A Web-based intervention can be applied to virtually any content area that would typically be the focus of a traditional intervention—it is simply a different type of delivery mechanism. Possible applications include, but are by no means limited to, (a) increasing parents’ understanding of their children’s socioemotional, cognitive, and/or physical development, (b) helping individuals improve their academic and/or social skills, and (c) providing individuals with information about (and ways of coping with) abnormal development, illness and/or disease, and adverse life events. There are two different types of Web-based interventions. A static Web-based intervention delivers information to participants in a uniform (i.e., noncustomized) fashion and only allows participants to send back simple information. A dynamic Web-based intervention, on the other hand, delivers information to participants in a flexible (i.e., customized) fashion and allows participants to send back complex information. There are several reasons why dynamic Web-based interventions are superior to their static counterparts (Ullman, 2003). First, dynamic Web-based interventions can have a “memory” that allows participants to register and log on to the intervention Web site. By requiring participants to register and log on, dynamic Web-based interventions can be tailored to each individual participant, and each participant’s progress in the intervention can be monitored. Second, dynamic Web-based interventions can respond to different parameters that are set by the intervener (e.g., the amount of time a participant needs to spend on a given intervention topic). Third, because dynamic Webbased interventions can receive complex information, interveners can collect survey data from participants. Static Web sites cannot collect survey data because they can only receive simple information from participants (e.g., the command to visit another Web page). Furthermore, dynamic Web sites can support chat rooms and instant messaging applications that allow participants to communicate with interveners (or

possibly other participants) in real time. Fourth, dynamic Web-based interventions can be more easily maintained, updated, and built on by interveners than static Web-based interventions. Finally, dynamic Web-based interventions have a much greater potential to be interactive, user-friendly, and entertaining than static Web-based interventions. A Web-based intervention can be used to supplement an existing intervention or it can be used as an intervention in itself. As a supplement, a Web-based intervention can be designed to reinforce and expand participants’ experiences in an existing intervention. For example, if participants only spend limited amounts of time in face-to-face intervention meetings, a Web-based intervention can be used to maintain the momentum and effectiveness of the intervention outside of these meetings. As an intervention in itself, a Web-based intervention can be designed to provide participants with the full intervention experience. Such a design would allow individuals living in rural, confined, underserved, or isolated areas to receive vital intervention services (Jerome et al., 2000). It would also help to reduce participant attrition in interventions because the intervention would be accessible from virtually anywhere in the world. Web-based interventions can be created by health professionals or by health professionals in cooperation with experienced Web site designers. In either case, knowledge of (and access to) client-side (e.g., HTML) and server-side (e.g., scripting language, database) Web development components are required. A Web hosting service is also required so that the intervention is accessible from the World Wide Web. When these interventions are being created, the conceptual, aesthetic, and technical qualities of the intervention should always be considered, as should the rights of the participant once the intervention is implemented (e.g., the right to confidentiality). —Matthew Dykas and Jude Cassidy

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Jerome, L. W., DeLeon, P. H., James, L. C., Folen, R., Earles, J., & Gedney, J. (2000). The coming age of telecommunications in psychological research and practice. American Psychologist, 55, 407–421. Ullman, L. (2003). PHP and MySQL for dynamic Web sites. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit.

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J at a time when few, if any, other child care centers had done so. It was during this same period that Jacobs read the Westinghouse Learning Corporation’s (1969) evaluation of Head Start. She was surprised at results describing Head Start’s ineffectiveness; the findings ran counter to her own, hands-on experience in the field and to her own beliefs about the promise of early childhood interventions. About that time, she writes,

JACOBS, FRANCINE Francine Jacobs is an associate professor at Tufts University, with a joint appointment in the EliotPearson Department of Child Development and the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP), of which she is currently the chairperson. She is also the coprincipal investigator of the Massachusetts Healthy Families Evaluation, a multiyear study of the implementation and effects of Healthy Families Massachusetts, a statewide homevisiting program for young families. Her teaching focuses on child and family policy, program evaluation, and policy analysis. In 1971, fresh out of Brandeis University, Jacobs took a job as an aide at a local child care center. Within 6 weeks, the director had resigned. Fran was the only staff person with a college degree, which is likely why, she believes, she was appointed the new director. As only inexperienced idealists can, she expanded services, recruited all kinds of families and children, and used the center as a political base from which to advocate for better child care arrangements for poor and working families. Among her proudest achievements was the center’s integration of children with significant special needs. This appears to have been undertaken not for clear pedagogical reasons nor because of a legislative mandate (since there weren’t any at the time), but rather out of a sense of moral necessity and a youthful belief that however difficult, it could be done. Under her passionate leadership, the center eventually accommodated itself to the physical and service needs of these children—this,

I was concerned that support for the national program would be undermined and that fewer children would be served as a result. But my predominant feeling at the time was one of amazement at how far afield the evaluation seemed to have been from the real concerns, goals, and dreams of program personnel and participants. How had evaluation, a scientific (and I thought, precise) endeavor, missed by so much? (Jacobs, 1988, p. 37) Here, then, during the first years of Jacobs’s career, were many of the seeds of her later concerns and work: a passion to advance the cause of children, to promote their healthy development, and to protect them from harm; an insistence that scholarship serve the practical and immediate needs of children, families, and the workers “in the trenches”; a belief that wisdom derived from practice should undergird the development of theory and research; an inclination toward innovation, not for its own sake, but to serve ethical and professional demands; the willingness and audacity to lead, even when every day required calls to friends and experts to support, refine, and revise 615

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instincts that often proved to be right; and the insistence that the strengths, weaknesses, and capacities of individual programs be understood within their larger political, social, and ethical contexts. Toward the end of her 2-year stint at the child care center, Jacobs attracted the attention of U.S. Congresswoman Margaret Heckler, in whose district the center was located. Representative Heckler urged her to go to graduate school, arguing that she could even better represent the needs of children once she had received an advanced degree. Although returning to school had not been at the top of her list of “next steps,” Jacobs took the advice, entering the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) in 1973. At first, she sought a master’s degree but then was encouraged to enter the doctoral program in administration, planning, and social policy, which she did; she completed her doctorate in 1979, 6 years, one husband, and two children after she began at HGSE. In her early graduate school days, Jacobs also worked at the newly established Massachusetts Office for Children, in the day care licensing and consultation unit. She helped draft the group child care and other child care regulations and consulted with early childhood programs on curricular and policy issues. She then briefly served as the director of an early intervention program for infants and toddlers with special needs. Her dissertation on the implementation of new special education legislation and its application to preschool-aged children built upon her own experiences as a child care administrator. This research was undertaken in Michigan, as part of a large, ambitious project—the Harvard Community Child Health Studies—based at the Harvard School of Public Health. Robert Haggerty, MD, the study’s principal investigator, was supported by a talented team of young investigators, each of whom would become an accomplished applied developmental scientist in his or her own rights. (This group included Deborah Klein Walker and Katherine Messenger, eventually of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Michael Weitzman, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; Bernard Guyer, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and Stephen Gortmaker, Harvard School of Public Health.) While still a graduate student, Jacobs taught her first class in program evaluation at a local college, stepping in for Deborah Klein Walker, who sat on her dissertation committee and had become her mentor

in applied research and evaluation. That session launched her career in program evaluation. For several years after graduating, Fran served as a consultant on evaluation to a wide variety of public and private agencies, at the community, local, and state levels. From the start, Jacobs’s primary interest in evaluation has been to make its methods and findings accessible to program practitioners and administrators and to participants and community members, as well; her particular “audience” has been those involved with small, community-based efforts that lack the person power and training to conduct the sophisticated outcome-based evaluations that have long been the “coin of the realm.” Although dedicated to the search for demonstrable results, Jacobs has been at least as committed to helping people reflect on their work and improve their practice, and to welcoming program participants, or “targets,” as they are often deprecatingly called, into the evaluation process. In 1983, Jacobs joined with Heather Weiss at the HGSE to form the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP); she became its associate director and the director of research. The organization’s initial purpose was to appraise, synthesize, and disseminate the results of evaluation research on family support and parent education programs and to provide guidance in program and policy development and implementation, not only to the programs themselves but also to the burgeoning field of family support. HFRP continues as a vibrant policy research organization to this day. It was during Jacobs’s HFRP period that she developed the Five-Tiered Approach to Evaluation (FTA). Since its conception in the late 1980s, the FTA has developed its own considerable following, both in the United States and abroad. It has been applied to a broad array of child- and family-oriented programs, including, for example, family support initiatives, parent education classes, after-school child care programs, child nutrition interventions, marital enrichment program, home visiting, and child abuse prevention efforts. It has also been used with environmentally oriented programs and policies and by private industry, as well. The Five-Tiered Approach was first published in 1988 (in Weiss & Jacobs, Evaluating Family Programs) and was then further elaborated, in 2000, for use with Family Preservation Services (see Jacobs & Kapuscik, 2000). It is explicitly incremental, developmental, and systemic in nature. It organizes evaluation

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activities at five levels, moving from generating descriptive and process-oriented information at the early stages (Tier 1 is Needs Assessment; Tier 2 is Monitoring and Accountability; Tier 3 is Quality Review and Program Clarification) to determining the effects of programs later on (Tier 4 is Achieving Outcomes; Tier 5 is Establishing Impact). The tiers are structured for consecutive use, at least on the first go-through; programs need the information gathered in the initial stages to conduct more sophisticated analyses in the later stages. This approach is responsive both to program variations and to the varieties of contexts in which programs are located. Finally, the FTA is a collaborative model that encourages broad participation in both its implementation and the utilization of its findings. In 1986, Jacobs left HFRP and joined the EliotPearson Department of Child Development, at Tufts University. In 1989, she became an assistant professor, with a joint appointment at Eliot-Pearson and the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. She became an associate professor in 1993, and she has served as chairperson for both of her departments: for Child Development, from 1995 to 1998, and for UEP, from 2001 to 2004. Soon after arriving at Tufts, Jacobs began working with a colleague, Margery Davies, and a collection of students interested in child and family policy on a “casebook” on that topic. The analytic structure for the book developed over a few years, and the case material was used in a number of courses at Tufts. Eventually, in 1994, the Jacobs and Davies edited volume, More Than Kissing Babies: Current Child and Family Policy in the United States, was published. Over time, Jacobs expanded her substantive child and family policy interests to include child protection/child welfare and public welfare in a more central way. For example, during her first sabbatical, Jacobs acted as the director of the National Child Welfare Research Center at a Washington, D.C.–based think tank, the Center for the Study of Social Policy. More recently, in the midst of the national debate about the reauthorization of welfare reform legislation (from 2001–2003), she served on a National Academies of Sciences Committee to review and synthesize the extant research on parental employment and child and family well-being. Finally, as coeditor of the four-volume Handbook of Applied Developmental Science (Lerner, Jacobs, & Wertlieb, 2003), she moved policy discussions to the center of the applied developmental science conversation,

trying to help create the bridge between theory and research, on one end, and practice and policy, on the other. She remains convinced that only a science that insists on those connections can hope to yield a better world for children. —Barry Dym

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Jacobs, F. (1988). The Five-Tiered Approach to evaluation: Context and implementation. In H. Weiss & F. Jacobs (Eds.), Evaluating family programs (pp. 37–68). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Jacobs, F. (2003, April). Child and family program evaluation: Learning to enjoy complexity. Applied Developmental Science, 7(2), 62–79. Jacobs, F., & Davies, M. (Eds.). (1994). More than kissing babies: Current child and family policy in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Jacobs, F., & Kapuscik, J. (2000). Making it count: Evaluating family preservation services. Medford, MA: Tufts University. Lerner, R., Jacobs, F., & Wertlieb, D. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of applied developmental science: Promoting positive child, adolescent, and family development through research, policy, and programs. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

JUST-WORLD BELIEFS, DEVELOPMENT OF This entry explores the developmental impact of justice concerns in general and the developmental trajectories and consequences of the belief in a just world (BJW) in particular. It shows that the belief in justice is an important resource that enables adolescents to cope with difficult developmental tasks. In the first section, which presents the theoretical background to the entry, the justice motive theory and the just-world hypothesis are outlined. In the next section, the general functions of BJW and its consequences in adolescence are described. The developmental trajectories of BJW from childhood to young adulthood are mapped out in the third section. The entry closes with some concluding remarks on developmental interventions during adolescence.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Individuals experience unfairness and the accompanying emotion—anger—on a daily basis, from

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everyday inconveniences to fundamental societal problems. There are great individual differences in reactions to unfairness and in the striving for justice, however, and the meaning of justice concerns changes across the life span. Two approaches to the explanation of justice, one content oriented, the other motivational, aim to elucidate these differences. The contentoriented approach starts with the question of what is seen as (un-)just. The rules of distributive and procedural justice are defined, and the situational conditions and personal characteristics guiding the application of specific rules are described. However, the content of justice matters only if one actually cares about justice. In this sense, the motivational approach, which explains why people are concerned with justice and how this motive guides their actions, is the more basic one. In the following, the functions of the justice motive and its developmental trajectories are described. Psychological research highlighting the motivational functions of justice concerns is rooted in the “belief in a just world” hypothesis formulated by Melvin J. Lerner (e.g., Lerner, 1980; for a review, see Furnham, 2003). Lerner states that people need to believe in a just world, in which everybody gets what they deserve, because this enables them to deal with the physical and social environment as if it were stable and orderly. Because observed or experienced injustices threaten these adaptive functions, individuals suffer greatly when confronted with unfairness and thus do their best to avoid it. THE THREE FUNCTIONS OF BJW Dalbert (2001) identified three main functions of BJW: First, individuals high in BJW are able to place more trust in others, that is, to believe that they will be treated fairly by others and will not fall victim to unforeseeable disasters. In achievement situations, for example, individuals high in BJW expect to be confronted only with fair tasks. They thus feel less stressed and consequently perform better, as has been shown in both laboratory (Tomaka & Blascovich, 1994) and school studies (e.g., see Dalbert & Sallay, in press). Moreover, people high in BJW are more likely to invest in their futures because they are confident that their investments will be fairly rewarded. For example, adolescent school leavers and young male prisoners high in BJW are more sure of attaining their personal goals (e.g., see Dalbert & Sallay, in press).

Consequently, they are more likely to display persistent goal-directed behavior. The second function of BJW is that it provides a conceptual framework that helps individuals to interpret the events of their personal lives in meaningful ways. When individuals high in BJW either observe or experience injustice, they usually try to restore justice or—if they see no way to compensate for the injustice in reality—to assimilate this experience to their BJW, for example, by justifying an experienced unfairness as being at least partly self-inflicted, by playing down the injustice or explaining the perpetrator’s actions as unintentional, and by avoiding self-focused rumination (e.g., Hafer & Correy, 1999). Assimilating unfairness to one’s BJW promotes the adaptive coping processes of finding meaning in one’s life, allaying feelings of anger, and enhancing mental health (e.g., Dalbert, 2001). Consequently, adolescents and young adults with a strong BJW are more satisfied with their lives, and they experience more positive affect, both in daily life and when coping with critical life events, such as early unemployment (e.g., see Dalbert & Sallay, in press). Furthermore, they experience less anger and are better able to control their angry reactions, in particular, outburst behavior (see Dalbert & Sallay, in press). The third function is that in a just world, a positive future is not the gift of a benevolent world, but a reward for the individual’s behavior and character. Consequently, individuals high in BJW try to behave fairly whenever possible; they try to establish justice in reality (e.g., Bierhoff, Klein, & Kramp, 1991), and their own unjust behavior will be censured, for example, by a decrease in self-esteem (see Dalbert, 2001). Overall, BJW seems to be highly adaptive, helping individuals to cope with developmental tasks and critical life events. The need to avoid unfairness and the ensuing threat to one’s BJW can, however, constitute a social problem. People often think that they cannot resolve unfairness in reality, and they attempt to restore justice psychologically instead. This may result in undesirable social consequences, such as blaming the disadvantaged or justifying inequalities. Endeavors to increase BJW may thus exacerbate social problems. The stronger their sense of personal self-efficacy with respect to restoring justice in reality, the more likely individuals are to do so (Lerner & Simmons, 1966). Consequently, strengthening BJW and justice-related self-efficacy simultaneously should boost an important personal resource, while limiting deleterious social outcomes.

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THE DEVELOPMENTAL TRAJECTORIES OF THE BJW What are the developmental trajectories of BJW? Until the age of 7 or 8, children typically believe in immanent justice and are convinced that wrongdoings are automatically punished (Piaget, 1932/1997). As they grow older, however, they slowly abandon this belief in immanent justice. As a result of cognitive development, older children and adults have no difficulty in identifying random events. Nevertheless, they sense that a random fate is unjust, and when given the possibility to justify a negative fate, they will do so (e.g., Jose, 1990). Children thus develop a belief in a just world, which can be interpreted as a more mature version of their belief in immanent justice—as the belief that people in general deserve their fates, but accompanied by the cognitive ability to identify causality and randomness. During adolescence, a differentiation of two different BJWs can be observed: the belief in a personal just world in which one is usually treated fairly, on one hand, and the belief in a general just world in which people in general get what they deserve, on the other. The strength of both beliefs seems to decrease slightly over adolescence and young adulthood. Both developmental changes, differentiation and decline, can be interpreted as consequences of growing cognitive maturity. The more cognitively mature the individual, the more pronounced the decline in general BJW. However, the sharper the decline in general BJW, the less pronounced the decrease in personal BJW, such that a weak general BJW can be seen as compensated by a stronger personal BJW (Dalbert, 2001). Growing cognitive maturity undermines teenagers’ belief that the world is a generally just place. This implies the loss of an important personal resource that would have enabled them to develop their own philosophy of life, invest in long-term goals, and perform better. In this sense, the decline in general BJW implies a significant developmental loss. The compensation of this loss by a less pronounced decline in personal BJW allows cognitively mature adolescents to fall back on their personal BJWs as a resource, while coping with the developmental tasks of this phase of life. Once BJW has developed over childhood and adolescence, a small decline can be discerned during young adulthood, along with a tiny increase in late adulthood and old age (e.g., Dalbert, 2001). Even after

the initial decline, BJW tends to be rather strong. Overall, BJW is a personality characteristic that remains reasonably stable over time and does not appear to differ across situations (for a review, see Dalbert, 2001). Moreover, BJW is positively associated with mental health in all periods of life. However, the meaning of BJW seems to differ systematically across the life span, and this relationship can thus be seen as mediated by different functions. In adolescence and young adulthood, especially, the main function of BJW seems to be to provide trust in the fairness of the world, thus enabling youngsters to master challenges in school and at the workplace and to invest in their personal goals. In old age, when the remaining lifetime is shorter, the function of BJW of providing a framework to help individuals interpret the events of their lives seems to become more important. A strong BJW allows seniors to see themselves as less discriminated against during their life courses, prevents them from ruminating about the negative aspects of their lives, and instead enables them to find meaning in them. To explore individual differences in BJW, studies have investigated the impact of parenting on BJW. In adolescence at least, there does not seem to be direct transmission from the parents’ to the child’s BJW, but parenting styles have proved to be positively associated with children’s BJW (e.g., Dalbert, 2001). Nurture, as reflected by a harmonious family climate with a low rate of conflict and manipulation, and the experience of a just-family climate are positively associated with a strong BJW. Restriction, defined as a family orientation toward strict rules and rule reinforcement, where breaking rules has aversive consequences, is not. This indicates that BJW is fostered by the trust in fairness and is not learned by adapting to social rules. CONCLUSIONS Adolescence is a period in life in which important investments in one’s future and further development have to be made. Adolescents need to invest in their school careers as a precondition for an optimal school-to-work transition and a successful professional life; they have to learn to trust in societal institutions as a precondition for a smooth legal socialization; they leave their families of origin, which often involves a geographical move; not least, they invest in romantic relationships as a first step toward starting families of their own. All these efforts are necessarily based on the trust in being treated

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fairly by others and getting a just share of life. The trust in justice is founded on the belief in a just world and experiences of (in)justice during development. This should be borne in mind by all those aiming to promote adolescents’ development. The belief in a just world and, as a consequence, the trust in justice, are fostered by a nurturing socialization context, with low rates of conflict and manipulation, and by the experience of a just climate in the family and other developmental contexts, such as the school. It is no easy task to define the content of a just decision in a given situation. However, the impression that justice is being done can be strengthened by ensuring that the decision-making process itself is just and by giving adolescents a say in this process (Miller, 2001). If adolescents are actively involved in the decisions that concern them, they will be more likely to accept the resulting decision as a just one, and this, in turn, will strengthen their belief in a just world. —Claudia Dalbert

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bierhoff, H. W., Klein, R., & Kramp, P. (1991). Evidence for the altruistic personality from data on accident research. Journal of Personality, 59, 263–280. Dalbert, C. (2001). The justice motive as a personal resource: Dealing with challenges and critical life events. New York: Kluwer/Plenum. Dalbert, C., & Sallay, H. (Eds.). (in press). The justice motive in adolescence and young adulthood: Changes and consequences. London: Routledge. Dzuka, J., & Dalbert, C. (2002). Mental health and personality of Slovak unemployed adolescents: About the beliefs in a just world’s impact. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 4, 732–757. Furnham, A. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 795–817. Hafer, C. L., & Correy, B. L. (1999). Mediators of the relation of beliefs in a just world and emotional responses to negative outcomes. Social Justice Research, 12, 189–204. Jose, P. E. (1990). Just-world-reasoning in children’s immanent justice judgments. Child Development, 61, 1024–1033. Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum. Lerner, M. J., & Simmons, C. H. (1966). The observer’s reaction to the “innocent victim”: Compassion or rejection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 203–210. Miller, D. T. (2001). Disrespect and the experience of injustice. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 527–553.

Piaget, J. (1997). The moral judgment of the child. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. (Original work published 1932) Tomaka, J., & Blascovich, J. (1994). Effects of justice beliefs on cognitive, psychological, and behavioral responses to potential stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 732–740.

JUVENILE JUSTICE, RACIAL DIFFERENCES In the late 1990s, ethnic minority youth accounted for one third of the adolescent population in the United States and yet comprised nearly two thirds of the 100,000 youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000; Pope & Feyerherm, 1995). Disproportionate minority confinement, or DMC, is the term that refers to the phenomenon in which the percentage of ethnic minority youth incarcerated in the juvenile justice system exceeds their proportions in the general population. Although European American adolescents represent the majority of arrested youth (approximately 71%), minority adolescents are incarcerated 2 times as often as their White counterparts (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000). Moreover, minority youth comprise the majority of young people held in both public and private facilities, whereas European American youth brought before a judge are more likely to be placed on probation for similar offenses (Krisberg, DeComo, & Herrera, 1992; Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000). Though it is apparent that there is an overrepresentation of minority youth involved in the juvenile justice system, the reason for this trend is not as clear. An overview of this issue suggests two hypotheses: (1) Minority youth commit more crime and/or more serious offenses than their European American cohorts, or (2) there is an inherent racial bias against youth of color in the justice system (Pope & Feyerherm, 1990). To fully grasp the extent and complexity of this issue, researchers and policymakers have examined minority overrepresentation on several levels of the juvenile justice system. NATURE OF THE PROBLEM: A RACIAL ANALYSIS The term ethnic minority refers to African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. Though DMC occurs in each of

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these groups, the greatest overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system is found among African American youth (Conley, 1994; Pope & Feyerherm, 1995; Wordes, Bynam, & Corley, 1994). In arrests made for 26 out of 29 offenses documented by the FBI, including violent offenses and property crimes, Black youth are disproportionately represented compared with European American youth (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000). In 1997, though Black youth comprised approximately 15% of the youth population, they accounted for 26% of all juvenile arrests and 44% of arrests for violent crimes (e.g., murder, robbery, and assault) (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999). Moreover, an African American youth with no prior record charged with a particular offense was 6 times more likely to be incarcerated in a public facility than a European American youth with an identical record charged with the same crime (Krisberg et al., 1992). Much less is known about the extent of Latino overrepresentation in the system due to the fact that members of this group are often categorized as “White” in the juvenile justice data (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000). Nonetheless, the limited data available suggest a disproportionate number of Latino youth in the system (Krisberg et al., 1992). Overrepresentation has also been reported for Asian and Native American youth (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999). However, these groups are often aggregated into a single category and account for only 5% of juveniles currently in the system. Thus, it is believed that the extent of disproportionate minority confinement is underreported in most states. RESEARCH AND POLICY Given the fact that juvenile justice systems operate differently from state to state, the problem of disproportionate minority confinement has been addressed at both the federal and local levels. In 1992, an amendment made to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act mandated that states assess the extent of minority group overrepresentation in the system and implement changes to rectify the problem if it did exist (Devine, Coolbaugh, & Jenkins, 1998). Federal funding for state programs, including juvenile justice initiatives, was contingent upon compliance with this mandate, while noncompliance warranted a 25% reduction in grant funding (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999). Of the states in compliance with the mandate, all but Vermont found that minorities were

indeed overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. Addressing the question of why this problem existed proved to be a more complicated issue that spurred the federal government to require states to assess the extent of minority overrepresentation at each decision point of the justice process to help disentangle the many possible mediating factors. A juvenile’s initial contact with the system begins at the time of arrest and proceeds through a series of decision points, including intake (should the juvenile be released or processed further?), detention (should the juvenile be removed from his/her current living arrangement?), adjudication (the case is tried before a judge), and disposition (formal sentencing of the youth). Studies suggest that the greatest disparity among the races occurs at the beginning decision points of the justice process, especially at intake and detention, and increases as minority youth are processed through subsequent decision points (Devine et al., 1998; Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000; Wordes et al., 1994). In terms of disproportionate arrest rates, some scholars suggest that disparate policing practices are to blame (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000). Low-income communities populated primarily by ethnic minorities are more heavily patrolled than other communities. Other possible contributing factors present at subsequent decision points include the following: (a) negative stereotypes of ethnic minorities held by some justice personnel, which may lead to harsher treatment for these youth; (b) a disproportionately small number of ethnic minority staff and justice workers with decision-making power within state systems; (c) language and cultural barriers faced by some Latino and Asian groups; (d) justice procedures that vary from state to state, with no universal set of guidelines dictating sentencing procedures; and (e) the lowincome, high-risk environments that are predominantly populated by people of color, which provide few opportunities and little support for ethnic minority youth, may lead to higher crime rates among these groups (Pope & Feyerherm, 1995). Thus, both institutional and environmental factors are believed to contribute to the disproportionate numbers of minority youth in the system. CONCLUSIONS The continued monitoring of the racial composition of the population of youth involved in the justice system is essential to bringing about change. Pope and

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Feyerherm (1995) suggest that qualitative research collected through focus groups and interviews conducted with juvenile justice personnel would complement the current body of quantitative research by presenting a clearer picture of the underlying factors leading to these disproportionate numbers. Resulting policy should address the institutional shortcomings of the system as well as the high-risk environments in which many of the ethnic minority youth live. Policies concerning the juvenile justice system itself include requiring juvenile justice workers, including police officers, to attend cultural diversity training programs. Moreover, some suggest that a checks and balances system of sorts be incorporated into the decisionmaking process such that a team of personnel, rather than a single person, decides the fate of a youth by using a universal set of guidelines. Furthermore, increasing the number of ethnic minorities with upper-level positions in the system may also help to eliminate bias. Last, in terms of addressing the factors found in the environments in which many arrested ethnic minority youth reside, it is suggested that community agencies and institutions, such as schools and religious groups, become involved in the juvenile justice process by providing alternatives to incarceration as well as educational programs for youth. —Erica Foster

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Conley, D. J. (1994). Adding color to a black and white picture: Using qualitative data to explain racial disproportionality in the juvenile justice system. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31, 135–148. Devine, P., Coolbaugh, K., & Jenkins, S. (1998). Disproportionate minority confinement: Lessons learned from five states. Juvenile Justice Bulletin, 1–12. Krisberg, B., DeComo, R., & Herrera, N. (1992). National juvenile custody trends 1978–1989 (OJJDP Publication No. NCJ-131649). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Poe-Yamagata, E., & Jones, M. A. (2000). And justice for some (Report). Washington, DC: National Building Blocks for Youth Initiative. Pope, C. E., & Feyerherm, W. (1990). Minority status and juvenile processing. Criminal Justice Abstracts, 22, 327–336. Pope, C. E., & Feyerherm, W. F. (1995). Minorities and the juvenile justice system (OJJDP Publication No. NCJ145849). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. Department of Justice. (1999). Minorities in the juvenile justice system (Juvenile Justice Bulletin: 1999 National Report Series NCJ-179007). Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Wordes, M., Bynam, T. S., & Corley, C. J. (1994). Locking up youth: The impact of race on detention decisions. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31, 149–165.

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K CAREER DEVELOPMENT

KHOO, KIM CHOO

Khoo completed her 3-year bachelor in social science degree (sociology, social administration, and social work), with honors, in 1970. She worked briefly as a school counselor before joining the Social Welfare Department. She was assigned to head one of the crèches as an attempt by the government to boost the quality of crèches by injecting some graduates into the system. The few extant child care centers were operated by the Social Welfare Department, which targeted blue-collar workers. Although the facilities were good, there was no training available for child care staff, but there was a nurse attached to each center, and a doctor visited weekly. Kindergarten teachers with minimal training came to teach the children daily. Khoo asked for a transfer after almost a year: Little did she know that she would come back to this early childhood sector later on in life. For 6 years, Khoo counseled women and girls in “moral” danger, dealing with victims of rape and abuse, children beyond parental control, and juvenile court cases, as well as underaged prostitutes. Disillusioned with the increase of such cases and the rate of recidivism, she left for further studies in search of preventive strategies for social ills affecting children.

Dr. Kim Choo Khoo was born on the island of Penang, off the northern coast of Malaysia, where she completed 12 years of education. Born and raised in a large, extended family, she grew up with dozens of relatives as playmates, including two sisters and a brother. A family gathering celebrating the 90th birthday of her grandmother had more than 100 relatives present, spanning four generations. Despite the large number of relatives, only two of the boys went to the university. It was rare for girls then to pursue a university education, and there were few role models. Most girls went into teaching, nursing, or secretarial work. Khoo went to a teacher-training college, but left after 3 months when she “discovered” a social work course being offered at (then) Singapore University. The description of the course fit exactly what she would like to be doing: helping others in a professional way. Khoo went on to earn a PhD in social welfare from the University of Washington, Seattle, specializing in children and families. She is currently an adjunct associate professor with the Social Work and Psychology Department at the National University of Singapore. Her areas of interest are early childhood care, development, and education; parent education and involvement; and resilience, creativity, and multiple intelligences in both adults and children. Khoo is married to Dr. Ho Hua Chew, formerly a philosophy lecturer at the National University of Singapore turned full-time nature conservationist. They have a son, Hee Juan, who is a computer engineer. She enjoys gardening, reading, and drawing.

Studies in the United States In 1977, Khoo enrolled in a master’s in social work program at the School of Social Work, University of Washington, and took an ethnic minority concentration. She then went on to do work on her PhD, 623

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specializing in children and families. She wrote her dissertation in Singapore, on cognitive interpersonal problem solving among kindergarten children, and completed her PhD in 1982. Years With NTUC Childcare/RTRC Asia On her return, Khoo was asked to join the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), to raise the standard of the 12 centers through training and program development. She saw this as an opportunity for an early childhood intervention by training child care teachers to best deal with young children, identify children at risk of abuse and other risks, and to work with parents. Khoo stayed with NTUC Childcare (which broke off from the parent body to become a cooperative in 1992) from 1982 to 1998. The cooperative expanded from 12 to 30, serving more than 3,000 children from 18 months to 6 years of age. By the time she left, she had also set up another chain of child care centers, The Little Skoolhouse Pte, Ltd., targeted at the upperincome levels. The cooperative’s chain was to remain affordable and accessible to average working parents, with financial assistance available for low-income families. She had also set up The Family Place, a onestop center for children’s programs, parent education, and a drop-in center for parents who needed urgent and short-term care. More important, Khoo left behind the Regional Training and Resource Centre (RTRC) Asia, which she had set up in 1989, with funding from the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and developed to be a major provider of early childhood care and education (ECCE) training in Singapore as well as for other developing countries. Khoo was the director of three projects funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation over the years. The first 4-year project upgraded the quality of care in NTUC Childcare through the establishment of a modest training center, parent involvement programs in the centers, and a curriculum for the different groups of children. The second project, over a period of 7 years, built on the first project to develop an alternative model of child care, which collaborated with the local members of Parliament and their grassroots organizations to organize parent education outreach, set up a toy and book library for low-income children in the neighborhood, and start the first bilingual (English/Chinese) parent education publication, Nurture, in Singapore. The toy-and-book library concept was disseminated to

other child care agencies, as well as family service centers and various agencies serving children with special needs. A third project was, as mentioned, the Regional Training and Resource Centre in Early Childhood Care and Education (RTRC) for Asia, which was to provide support and networking in areas of common concern among other Bernard van Leer projects as well as government and nongovernmental organizations operating in Asia. This resulted in various regional seminars and workshops of common concern and a regional newsletter for networking. In 1990, Khoo initiated collaboration with Wheelock College of Boston to develop a customized master’s in early childhood education, to develop a corps of trainers that would train ECCE teachers up to the diploma level. That was not a requirement for teachers at that time, but she foresaw such a need in the years to come. On completion of the master’s program, Khoo developed a diploma in early childhood education in collaboration with Wheelock College. Today, it has become a requirement for the principal and at least one teacher to be trained at this level. To deal with the problem of shortage of qualified child care teachers, Khoo initiated collaboration with the Ngee Ann Polytechnic to offer a diploma in early childhood education to school leavers who would qualify for admission to the institute. This move tapped into a new pool of manpower resources for the child care sector, younger and academically stronger. Discussion with the Ngee Ann Polytechnic over 3 years with three different principals finally resulted in the launching of a 3-year diploma that would see the entrance of batches of young people into the early childhood sector. Today, the institute is a major producer of early childhood teachers with diplomas in early childhood education. Before she left NTUC Childcare, Khoo, who was the director of both NTUC Childcare and RTRC Asia, also put into place a collaboration among UNICEF (East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office), the Singapore Foreign Affairs, and RTRC that would result in the ongoing training of trainers from developing countries in Singapore. UNICEF in the respective countries helps to identify candidates and sponsor the trip, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pays for the cost of living and the training. This is part of the legacy Khoo left behind when she left NTUC Childcare Cooperative, RTRC Asia, in 1998.

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CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS Khoo founded the Sunbird Child Development Centre for developing children’s multiple intelligences. She is also an international consultant, having consulted for UNESCO (Cambodia, Early Childhood Unit, Paris), UNICEF (East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and Romania), Save the Children (Singapore, UK, Mongolia), World Bank, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore International Foundation (SIF), the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training (Early Childhood Department), the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), and Hong Kong Social Welfare Department. In this capacity, she has been involved in various activities in several countries, including Malaysia, Japan, The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Romania, Hong Kong, Mongolia, the United States, and Korea. Wheelock College’s Center for International Education, Leadership, and Innovation collaborated with Khoo to deliver programs in Singapore when she was executive director of RTRC Asia, the training arm of NTUC Childcare Cooperative, Ltd. To recognize Khoo’s extraordinary commitment to excellence in education, international interests, leadership qualities, and innovative endeavors, Wheelock College established a 5-year scholarship program in her name. The Kim Choo Khoo Scholarship for Advanced Study in Early Childhood Leadership 1999/2003 consisted of up to 9 credit hours of graduate school summer school tuition and a single dormitory room for the 6-week summer session for two individuals in each of the 5 years. Khoo has written three books on children’s poems, and a parenting book, Nurturing Family Values. She edited Nurturing Young Children and contributed numerous book chapters and articles on child welfare, early childhood care, development and education, parent and community involvement in early childhood, and parent education. In mid-1980, she initiated, edited, and published the first bilingual parenting magazine, Nurture, funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, to fill the absence of local parenting magazines in Singapore. Since then, several local publishers have published parenting magazines. She speaks at various conferences and seminars at home and overseas and appears on numerous occasions in the media to speak on parenting issues.

COMMUNITY WORK Khoo is very active on various national committees for policy and professional input in Singapore, as a member of a resource panel to the Government Parliamentary Committee on Education, a member of the Ministry of Education Steering Committee for Preschool Education, an advisor to the joint Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Community Development and Sports (MCDS) Preschool Qualification Accreditation Committee for early childhood education training, and a member of the Institute for Policy Studies working group on education for the “Economic Restructuring” Forum. She also chairs the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Early Childhood Education Advisory Committee and is a member of the Academic Review Board of the RTRC in Early Childhood Care and Education. For many years, she served on the Programme Advisory Committee of the Singapore Broadcasting Authorities, chairing the Children’s Program Subcommittee, which advised on the quality of children’s television programs. She had also served on the Community Development Council of the Hougang constituency in Singapore. Internationally, Khoo serves on UNESCO’s (Child and Family Education Unit) Peer Review Group of its Policy Briefs on Early Childhood and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science, Sage Publishing. AWARDS Dr. Khoo received awards and grants during her studies in the University of Washington, including an International Fellowship from the American University Women’s Association. She also received an Honorary Doctorate in Education in 1992 from Wheelock College. The Ministry of Information and the Arts in 2001 bestowed upon her a Special Commendation Award for her contribution to the Singapore Broadcasting Authorities, including her work with children’s programs. In 2003, she received the Friend of MCDS Award (Ministry of Community Development and Sports) for her contribution in various capacities to child care and family education in Singapore. She received an NTUC Childcare Award in recognition of her years of contribution while with the organization and was also listed in Marquis’s Who’s Who in the World. —Joan Bergstrom

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Khoo, K. C. (1996a). Going downtown and other rhymes: A collection of poems for kids about the zoo, living in Singapore, the food markets, and other activities. Singapore: NTUC Childcare Cooperative. Khoo, K. C. (1996b). House by the woods and other rhymes: A collection of poems for kids about animals from Singapore. Singapore: NTUC Childcare Cooperative.

Khoo, K. C. (1997). Whose cat is that and other rhymes: A collection of poems for kids about kindergarten, animals, and other kid-related activities. Singapore: NTUC Childcare Cooperative. Khoo, K. C. (2003). Promoting the development of the ASEAN child: Issues and challenges. In D. Wertlieb, F. Jacobs, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science (Vol. 3, pp. 287–308). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Copyright © 2005 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information: Sage Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] Sage Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B-42, Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 110 017 India Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of applied developmental science / edited by Celia B. Fisher, Richard M. Lerner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7619-2820-0 (cloth) 1. Child development—Encyclopedias. 2. Youth development—Encyclopedias. 3. Adolescence—Encyclopedias. 4. Developmental psychology—Encyclopedias. 5. Community development—Encyclopedias. I. Fisher, Celia B. II. Lerner, Richard M. HQ767.84.E52 2005 305.231′03—dc22 2004014078

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Jim Brace-Thompson Karen Ehrmann Sanford Robinson C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. Carla Freeman and Pam Suwinsky Scott Oney Jean Casalegno Michelle Kenny

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Contents Advisory Board, vi List of Entries, vii Reader’s Guide, xiii Contributors, xxiii About the Editors, xxxv Foreword, xxxvii Preface, xxxix Introduction, xli

Entries

VOLUME I: A–K

1–626

VOLUME II: L–Y

627–1190 Author Index, 1191 Subject Index, 1235

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Advisory Board Peter L. Benson President, Search Institute

Jari-Erik Nurmi University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Joan M. Bergstrom Wheelock College

Ellen PinderHughes Tufts University

Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel Fordham University

Avi Sagi-Schwartz University of Haifa, Israel

Roger A. Dixon University of Alberta

T. S. Saraswathi University of Baroda, India

Felton “Tony” Earls Harvard University

Rainer K. Silbereisen University of Jena, Germany

Robert C. Granger William T. Grant Foundation

Merrill Singer Chief of Research, Hispanic Health Council, Inc.

Daniel P. Keating University of Toronto

Margaret Beale Spencer University of Pennsylvania

Kim Choo Khoo National University of Singapore

Linda Thompson University of Maryland

Kaveh Khoshnood Yale University

Richard A. Weinberg University of Minnesota

Bonnie Leadbeater University of Victoria

Hirokazu Yoshikawa New York University

Rick Little President and CEO, The ImagineNations Group

Luis H. Zayas Washington University, St. Louis

Gary B. Melton Clemson University

Edward Zigler Yale University

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L of Utah, where, from 1980 to 1987, he was professor of psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics. In 1987, he entered into his current position, in the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, where he is senior research scientist and chief of the section on social and emotional development. Attesting to his worldwide acclaim as a developmental scientist of the highest rank, Lamb has also been a visiting professor at the University of Haifa, Israel (1981); the University of Hokkaido, Sapporo, Japan (1985); the University of Osnabrück, Germany (1995); and Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany (1996). Currently, Lamb also holds research or adjunct professorial appointments at major universities across the United States: the University of Virginia, the Pennsylvania State University, University of Maryland (Baltimore County), University of Maryland (College Park), University of Utah, and Catholic University of America. The eminence and influence of Michael Lamb has grown with the publication of more than 490 scientific contributions across his career, including more than 30 edited or authored books. Given this singular record of high-quality productivity across three decades, it is not surprising that Lamb has been the recipient of numerous honors by colleagues across the scientific community. For instance, in 1976, he was given the Young Psychologist Award by the American Psychological Association, and, in 1978, he was the recipient of the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award from Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. In 1986, he was given the Distinguished Scientist Award from

LAMB, MICHAEL E. Michael Lamb’s 30-year scholarly career has been of central importance to the field of human development. As a consequence of his professional leadership in the application of developmental psychological science to public policy and community-based programs both across the United States and internationally, virtually all scholars in developmental science around the world are thoroughly familiar with his substantial contributions as a basic scholar and as an applied scientist, and with the numerous, distinguished contributions of his research to children and families around the globe. THE SCOPE OF LAMB’S CONTRIBUTIONS Michael Lamb was born in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). In 1972, he received a BA degree from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, and in 1974, he earned the first of three master’s degrees, graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a master’s of arts degree. In 1975, he completed a master’s of science and a master’s of philosophy, both from Yale University. He was awarded a PhD in psychology from Yale University in 1976, although he actually completed all requirements for the degree in October 1975. He also holds a doctorate from the University of Goteborg, Sweden, awarded in 1995. Lamb’s first professorial position was at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he served from 1976 to 1978. He then moved to the University of Michigan (from 1978 to 1980) and to the University 627

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the University of Utah. This is the highest possible award from this institution. In 1987, he was accorded the Distinguished Speaker Award from the American Family Therapy Association, and in 2003, the American Psychological Society awarded him the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award. Moreover, he has been appointed to the editorial boards of more than 20 scientific journals; and in the period between receiving his doctorate and entering service within the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (a span of 11 years), he was the recipient of several million dollars of awards from national and international funders in support of grant proposals for more than 35 different scholarly projects. Given this history, the breadth and depth of Lamb’s scholarship are enormous, and certainly a discussion of its scholarly merit and impact would justify booklength treatment. The present entry, then, seeks only to highlight the several significant domains of Lamb’s contributions and point the reader to further exploration of his singularly creative and far-ranging scholarly contributions by reading some of the citations provided to his work. It is useful to discuss Lamb’s contributions with respect to his initial and his current theoretical and empirical contributions, identifying both continuing and emergent themes in his work. Theoretically, Lamb has been a leader in the elaboration of developmental systems theoretical perspective, models that depict the mutual, bidirectional influences between developing individuals and complex and changing ecology. Empirically, his scholarship has championed the substantive importance of individual and contextual diversity. Across his career, he has been an intellectual leader in the study of diverse families and of the ways in which nontraditional family configurations can promote positive child development. In addition, his work has given unique voice to what was, prior to his scholarship, the largely unrecognized importance of the father in healthy child development. Finally, his scholarship has always seamlessly blended interest in the basic, person
 context relational process of human development and concern with applications of developmental science to promote positive development across life. His contributions have influenced the understanding of problems of behavioral development, mental health, and the cognitive and social developmental processes that must be engaged to elicit from children accurate testimony in cases of physical and sexual abuse.

INITIAL DIMENSIONS OF LAMB’S CONTRIBUTIONS Throughout the 1970s, researchers studying the infant years often provided foundational contributions to the development of person-context relational models. The work of Michael Lamb is an exemplar of the role that scholars of infant development played in devising models of person
 context relations and of demonstrating their usefulness in research on human development. His scholarship fostered an intellectual climate among other infancy researchers to reconceptualize phenomena of infant development within dynamic personal-context relational models. Indeed, Lamb’s theory and research is a prime example of the use of models of bidirectional influence between individuals and their contexts (which may be represented as individual
 context relations) in the study of infant attachment. Lamb and his colleagues approached the study of infant attachment within the context of the following assumptions: 1. Children have an influence on their “socializers” and are not simply the receptive foci for socializing forces. 2. Early sociopersonality development occurs in the context of a complex family system rather than in the context of the mother-infant dyad. 3. Social and psychological development is not confined to infancy and childhood but is a process that continues from birth to death. Within this conceptual framework, Lamb and his colleagues found prior interpretations of infant attachment, which included “an emphasis on the formative significance of early experiences, a focus on unidirectional influences on the child, a tendency to view development within a narrow ecological context, and a search for universal processes of developmental change” (Thompson & Lamb, 1986, p. 1), to be less powerful in accounting for the findings of attachment research than an interpretation associated with the sorts of person
 context relational models burgeoning during the 1970s and 1980s. Accordingly, in a review of attachment research conducted through the mid-1980s, Lamb and his colleagues concluded that “reciprocal organism-environment influences, developmental plasticity, individual patterns of developmental change and broader contextual influences on development can

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better help to integrate and interpret the attachment literature, and may also provide new directions for study” (Thompson & Lamb, 1986, p. 1). Lamb’s work challenged the field of infancy to study the early years of life not through the use of narrow conceptions of the exclusive influences of heredity or early experiences, or of simplistic views of proximal dyadic relationships acting in isolation from the fuller and richer ecology of human development. He provided, instead, a vision for the understanding of infancy as part of the entire life span of the individual and of all of the other people in the infant’s world. His research appreciated this complex set of social interactions as reciprocal exchanges in and with a multilevel and dynamic context. In fact, Lamb continued through the next quarter century and, as well, through this writing, to contribute research that studied infant development within the context of a dynamic, personal-context relational model. In essence, then, stimulated by scholars of infancy such as Lamb, the study of human development during the 1970s and 1980s became increasingly focused on developing models and conducting research that enabled understanding of interactions, reciprocal influences, and bidirectional relations between individuals and the complex contexts within which they develop. CONTEMPORARY FACETS OF LAMB’S CONTRIBUTIONS In recent years, Lamb has made major and singular contributions to the literatures of child and adolescent development and, in particular, to the study of the developmental and contextual factors involved in designing and delivering quality child care in the early years of life and in understanding the cognitive, emotional, and social interactional bases of children’s testimony, especially in cases of abuse and neglect. Indeed, his scholarship is “required reading” for all scholars and students of human development and especially for scholars interested in applying their knowledge to improve key institutions of society: families, the workplace, child care settings and schools, and the legal system. It is accurate to say that he has shaped, nationally and internationally, much of the theoretical, empirical, policy, and program emphases in the study of the first two decades of life. The defining role of his scholarship for the field of psychological science derives from the fact that his research is marked by a theoretically innovative and methodologically rigorous integration of individual

and human ecological processes. This scholarship has resulted in Lamb being regarded as one of the premier human developmentalists in the world. Indeed, his research has consistently attracted significant attention from the most prestigious scientific, community, and policymaking bodies both in the United States and internationally (e.g., in Sweden and Israel). Obviously, Lamb’s theoretical and empirical contributions are numerous. It is useful for us to note two examples that encompass much of the breadth of his career. These illustrations display the range and importance of his work and the reason why he is internationally renowned as a creative and productive developmental scientist of the highest quality. He has contributed superb work to the study of the nature of quality child care, both within the family (e.g., involving the development of attachment processes) and in extrafamilial child care settings (e.g., community-based care centers). His scholarship is marked by theoretical sophistication about the developmental systems involved in moderating the influence of variations in child care on development across the first two decades of life; substantive insight about topics such as the concept of quality of care, caregiverchild interaction, attachment, and developmental and contextual determinants of continuities and changes in child care effects; and impressive use of cutting-edge multivariate developmental methodologies. To illustrate the impact of his scholarship, it is useful to note that Lamb was first invited to discuss parental leave programs and policies with the Swedish authorities in 1976 and to help the Singapore government to set up government-sponsored child care centers in 1983. He continued to work with Singapore as these programs developed and were evaluated through about 1986. In addition, Lamb served on an advisory board to the U.S. Department of Education as it evaluated what “really happened” in early childhood programs from 1990 to 1993. He continues to advise public and academic groups on these topics through the present, particularly in the United States and Europe. Because Lamb’s child care work has been embedded in a cross-national comparative perspective, it has broad impact for research and policymakers working in a diverse range of settings. This impact has been enhanced by his similarly significant contributions to a second area of study: the role of psychological processes (e.g., memory, affect) and contextual variables (e.g., lawyer-interviewing techniques) in the production of eyewitness testimony by children. His work has been essential in illuminating the key

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individual and social interactional (child-lawyer) processes influencing the quality and content of testimony. His work has been instrumental in extending the field of psychological science to consider the implications for legal policies of the developmental system that affects children serving as witnesses. For example, the protocol he developed for interviewing alleged victims has been mandated nationally in Israel (since 1997), has been field-tested in one police region in England (since 1997), and has been recommended by advisory groups in Sweden and Finland. Of course, there is no national policy in the United States. However, the essence of the approach he pioneered is recommended widely in this nation. Thus, and not of little moment, Lamb’s work has provided essential leadership in bridging the all-toooften broad gap dividing basic and applied concerns in the study of human development. He is a scientist whose career contributions have been singularly able to shape both the science of human development and family, educational, and legal public policies and programs influencing children around the world. For instance, he served from 1987 to 1994 as a consultant to the municipality of Jerusalem regarding intervening in abusive families. In regard to custody/parenting plans for separating and divorcing parents, Lamb regularly receives invitations to address groups of judges either in statewide groups or groups of new judges attending classes, for example, at the Judicial College, in Reno, Nevada. The papers he wrote on the application of research knowledge in such contexts are widely circulated in judicial and forensic psychology circles. CONCLUSIONS Michael Lamb’s scholarship has changed the way the world understands and appreciates the contributions of psychological science. His singular scholarly creativity and leadership has resulted not only in deserved national and international visibility and respect but also in being frequently called on by his peers, by educators, and by policymakers to play numerous consulting and leadership roles in scholarly and community organizations around the world. The respect for, and reliance on, Dr. Lamb has been enhanced because of the fact that he is regarded by others across the world as an ideal colleague. He is open, warm, and facilitative and is always prepared to lend his considerable theoretical and methodological talents to help advance the work of his field, his

colleagues, his students, and the diverse communities he serves. Lamb is devoted to advancing psychology as a discipline and, through it, the quality of child, family, and community life. There is no major scientist in the field of human development who does not hold both his scholarship and his person in the highest esteem. —Richard M. Lerner and Elizabeth Katcher

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Lamb, M. E. (1977a). The development of mother-infant and father-infant attachments in the second year of life. Developmental Psychology, 13, 637–648. Lamb, M. E. (1977b). Father-infant and mother-infant interaction in the first year of life. Child Development, 48, 167–181. Lamb, M. E. (1977c). A reexamination of the infant social world. Human Development, 20, 65–85. Lamb, M. E. (1978). Influence of the child on marital quality and family interaction during the prenatal, perinatal, and infancy periods. In R. M. Lerner & G. B. Spanier (Eds.), Child influences on marital and family interaction: A lifespan perspective (pp. 137–163). New York: Academic Press. Lamb, M. E. (1998). Nonparental child care: Context, quality, correlates, and consequences. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & I. Sigel & K. A. Renninger (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 73–133). New York: Wiley. Lamb, M. E. (Ed.). (1999). New research on child witnesses. Applied Developmental Science, 4(1 & 2). Lamb, M. E. (2000). (Ed.). The effects of quality of care on child development. Applied Developmental Science, 4(3). Lamb, M. E., Thompson, R. A., Gardner, W. P., & Charnov, E. L. (1985). Infant-mother attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Thompson, R. A., & Lamb, M. E. (1986). Infant-mother attachment: New directions for theory and research. In P. B. Baltes, D. L. Featherman, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 7, pp. 1–41). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT. See BILINGUALISM, INTERNATIONAL; LANGUAGE PRODUCTION IN INFANTS AND TODDLERS LANGUAGE PRODUCTION IN INFANTS AND TODDLERS Language is a uniquely human activity. It allows us to communicate with each other, not just across the dinner table, but across time and space. Once a child

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begins to speak and master language, we begin to see fundamental changes in that child’s behavior and in the behaviors of others toward the child. For example, emerging language skills can reduce the frequency of infant behaviors associated with frustration at being unable to communicate one’s wants and needs to others. Researchers interested in language development generally study one particular area of language. For example, researchers may study spoken or written language, language production or comprehension, or one aspect of language (e.g., vocabulary, grammar). In addition, researchers may choose to study any of these topics at any stage of the life span. Because language development is such a broad topic, this entry focuses on spoken language production during infancy and toddlerhood, including individual differences in and parents’ contributions to language development and methods of assessing children’s language production. THE GROUNDWORK FOR LANGUAGE Derivatively, the word infant means “without speech,” and typically the end of infancy is defined by developmental scientists as between 1 and 2 years of age, the approximate age by which most children begin to use words. Although we generally think of infants as being “prelinguistic,” the groundwork for language development is laid in infancy, and perhaps even before. For example, during the third trimester of pregnancy, the fetus hears sounds from the outside world. Chief among these sounds is the mother’s voice. At birth, neonates show a preference for the mother’s voice and for the language she speaks (DeCasper & Fifer, 1987). Thus, even at this early age, infants are becoming familiar with sounds that will become their native language. Amazingly, children appear to learn their first language (for the most part) without being explicitly taught. It is up to the infant to decipher the stream of sounds heard coming from the parent and to parse this stream into smaller bits of phonemes, words, and sentences. It is still a mystery how infants accomplish this extraordinarily complex task. Although parents (knowingly or unknowingly) often attempt to make it easier for infants to learn language—for example, by speaking more slowly, in shorter phrases, and in higher pitches to infants—it is still primarily the infant’s task to make sense out of what is heard.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Much of the early research on children’s language development focused on milestones such as the average age at which infants say their first words or utter their first two-word sentences. However, an important aspect of language development that is often overlooked is the range of individual differences among typically developing children. For example, small but consistent gender and birth order differences in children’s language development have been found: Generally, girls learn to speak before, and they speak more than, boys (e.g., Bornstein & Haynes, 1998; Dale, Dionne, Eley, & Plomin, 2000; Fenson et al., 1994), and generally, firstborn children learn to speak before, and they speak more than, later-born children (e.g., Fenson et al., 1994). It is not clear whether the gender difference is the result of maturational or environmental influences; however, the fact that it has been found for girls and boys in a variety of countries speaking a variety of languages (e.g., Dutch, French, and Hebrew) suggests that maturational factors may be responsible. By contrast, birth order differences suggest that environmental factors are at play: Namely, firstborns, when compared with their younger siblings, may have greater exposure to a fluent adult model of language that, in turn, facilitates infants’ language learning.

PARENTAL FACTORS Parents also have ideas about how children’s language develops, and these ideas influence how parents interact with their children. For example, parents who believe that the environment plays a key role in children’s language development are likely to talk to their infants, thus providing linguistically stimulating environments. Parents who believe that language development is the result of maturational factors may wait for the natural unfolding of language to occur and may not feel that they need to do anything special to stimulate language development. Research suggests that such differences in parent-child interaction during infancy and toddlerhood and, in particular, contingent verbal responsiveness to children’s speech, influence infants’ and toddlers’ language production (e.g., Bornstein, Tamis-LeMonda, & Haynes, 1999; Hart & Risley, 1995; Lamb, Bornstein, & Teti, 2002). These empirical findings provide a basis from which parents and professionals can have a better understanding of

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infant and toddler language development and recognize children who may need assistance. METHODS OF ASSESSING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Although researchers, teachers, and practitioners all wish to assess infants’ and toddlers’ language development, this can be a complicated task. Generally, it is more difficult to assess language comprehension than language production in infants and young children. However, there is no consensus as to which method of assessment is the best or most accurate. Observation One method of assessing language production is observation (in the laboratory or at home). Although an advantage of this method is that infant speech in a natural setting can be observed, infants are sometimes reluctant to speak in front of strangers, including pediatricians and researchers. Moreover, the situation in which language is observed can have an effect. For example, speech samples gathered from play interactions may be very different from those gathered during mealtimes or book-reading activities (e.g., Bornstein et al., 1999; Tardiff, Gelman, & Xu, 1999). Thus, applied developmental scientists need to observe infant and toddler language development across multiple contexts. Parental Report Parental report is another frequently used method of assessing infants’ and toddlers’ language production. A popular example is to ask a parent to write down every word a child says for a specified length of time (the diary method). Although this method may cover a broader range of contexts than observational methods, it relies on parents’ co-operation and memory of children’s language production, which may not always be reliable or unbiased (e.g., Bornstein & Haynes, 1998; Miller, 1981). Because of limitations with the straight parent-report diary method, researchers have also developed structured parental report or parental interview protocols, many of which are geared toward identifying children who experience difficulties in language production (e.g., Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale). These methods have the advantage of being representative of

children’s language development, as they do not rely on context. These more structured parental reports also provide a valid representation of emerging language skills (Bates, Bretherton, & Snyder, 1988; Bornstein & Haynes, 1998), are cost-effective and time-saving for a rapid general evaluation of child language (Fenson et al., 1994), and have been found to relate to concurrent laboratory measures of children’s language (Fenson et al., 1994) and subsequent vocabulary size and grammatical development (assessed using maternal report and standardized tests; Bates et al., 1988; Fenson et al., 1994). A popular standardized parental-report measure is the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories, and an interview method is the Communication Domain Score on Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Such standardized structured parental reports are popular with pediatricians, who are often the first to identify potential language difficulties in infants and toddlers. Language Testing A third method of assessing infants’ and toddlers’ language production is by testing the infant or toddler directly. The Reynell Developmental Language Scales (which are currently under revision) are an example. However, because it can be challenging to elicit infants’ and toddlers’ language directly (particularly in a brief clinical setting) and because such assessments may be time intensive for the child, biased, and less representative of children’s actual language than other assessment techniques (Bornstein & Haynes, 1998), most of the popular screening methods using direct elicitation from the child actually combine this information with parental report and observation. Examples of popular developmental screening tools involving direct elicitation of infants’ and toddlers’ language include the Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener and the Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test (currently under revision). Convergence of Measures In short, each method of assessing children’s language development has advantages and disadvantages. To further complicate matters, there is not always convergence when different methods of assessing young children’s language development are used. Some research suggests that there is convergence across measures at the macrolevel; that is,

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researchers are consistently able to identify individual differences in vocabulary and grammatical development across measurement techniques (Bornstein & Haynes, 1998). Other research suggests that there is less convergence when these measures are compared at the microlevel; that is, when the specific contents of children’s vocabularies are examined, there is not always concordance across different measurement techniques (Tardiff et al., 1999). Thus, multiple measurements or instruments that use a combination of observation, parental report, and direct testing of children’s language are recommended for those who seek to identify whether an individual child’s language development is lagging behind his or her peers. The Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Web site, www.dbpeds.org, provides an overview of some popular developmental screening tools used by practitioners to assess infant and toddler language development, and www.psychtest.com provides a comprehensive list of developmental screening tools available and purchase information.

CONCLUSIONS The focus here has been on spoken language learning during infancy and toddlerhood. Of course, language comprehension (which normally precedes production) is equally important, and language development continues as children’s vocabularies grow throughout early and middle childhood, and even into adolescence and adulthood. —Linda R. Cote and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. (1988). From first words to grammar: Individual differences and dissociable mechanisms. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bornstein, M. H., & Haynes, O. M. (1998). Vocabulary competence in early childhood: Measurement, latent construct, and predictive validity. Child Development, 69, 654–671. Bornstein, M. H., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Haynes, O. M. (1999). First words in the second year: Continuity, stability, and models of concurrent and predictive correspondence in vocabulary and verbal responsiveness across age and context. Infant Behavior and Development, 22, 65–85. Dale, P. S., Dionne, G., Eley, T. C., & Plomin, R. (2000). Lexical and grammatical development: A behavioural genetic perspective. Journal of Child Language, 27, 619–642.

DeCasper, A. J., & Fifer, W. P. (1987). Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers’ voices. In J. Oates & S. Sheldon (Eds.), Cognitive development in infancy (pp. 111–118). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Bates, E., Thal, D. J., & Pethick, S. J. (1994). Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(5, Serial No. 242). Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Lamb, M. E., Bornstein, M. H., & Teti, D. M. (2002). Development in infancy: An introduction (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Miller, G. A. (1981). Language and speech. New York: Freeman. Tardiff, T., Gelman, S. A., & Xu, F. (1999). Putting the “noun bias” in context: A comparison of English and Mandarin. Child Development, 70, 620–635.

LATINO FAMILIES IN AMERICA According to the census of 2000, Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, representing about 13% of the country’s population, compared with 9% in the 1990 census (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). Dramatic changes in the composition of the Latino population in the United States present a unique opportunity for applied developmental science to examine and understand cultural differences and related diversity in patterns of behavior. Typically, however, researchers have not been sensitive to the size and diversity of the Latino population. In fact, data prior to 1988 often confused race and ethnicity (e.g., using categories of Black, White, and Hispanic), not realizing that the term Hispanic is a classification of national background and therefore Hispanics can be of any race. In addition to the confusion between race and identity, researchers have not adequately distinguished subgroups and instead have used pan-ethnic labels, such as Latino (or Hispanic), to describe participants, rather than noting national backgrounds (Fisher, Jackson, & Villarruel, 1997). Research needs to be sensitive to the nuances among Spanish-speaking groups. Latino subgroups show diversity in beliefs and behavior, differences that are often tied to political and migratory background, generational status, acculturation, and language use preference. Latinos, however, share both a common language and some cultural characteristics, such as

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religious beliefs and traditional values, that differentiate them from other ethnic minority groups (Fitzpatrick, 1987). This entry describes the changing demographic populations of Latinos living in the United States, cultural influences on parenting styles, and the need for differential rather than comparative approaches to understanding Latino family development. THE DEMOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Latino population growth in the United States can be tied to two basic demographic factors: fertility and immigration. Although, historically, Latinos tend to have larger families than other ethnic minority groups residing in the United States, fertility alone cannot account for the dramatic increases in the Latino population over the last decade. Immigration thus is the most likely reason for the recent Latino population growth. In the 1990 census, it was reported that Latinos lived primarily in the West (California), Southwest (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas), and several metropolitan areas, such as Miami, New York, and Chicago. During the 1990s, however, Latinos migrated in great numbers to small cities and rural areas in the Midwest and South, with many of these areas witnessing more than a 100% increase in the number of Latinos reporting in the 2000 census. LATINO NATIONAL DIVERSITY The U.S. Bureau of the Census considers “Hispanic” an ethnicity, so people of Hispanic ethnicity can be of any race. The census in 1970 was the first to use the term Hispanic to denote individuals of Spanish-speaking backgrounds, such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Central or South Americans (which includes Brazil, where Portuguese is the national language). Inasmuch as this term is intimately tied to the Spanish cultural diaspora and thus associated with Spanish imperialism, many individuals prefer the term Latino. Latino, however, stems from the term Latin and may inadvertently imply ties to ancient Rome, so this term is controversial as well. The term Hispanic (or Latino) refers to a large, heterogeneous group of people who come from a wide array of geographic and racial origins. In the 2000 census, Hispanics were allowed to identify themselves by national background, providing information on population size, growth, and proportionate distribution of Hispanics by country of family origin.

Mexican Americans are the largest (20.6 million) subgroup, an increase of 53% from 1990, and make up 59% of all Hispanics (decrease from 60% in 1990). There are 3.4 million Puerto Ricans residing on the mainland, an increase of 25%, with another 3.6 million on the island, and they make up 10% of the total (decrease from 12%). While individuals from Central American backgrounds (the majority from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and excluding Mexico) represent the third-largest subgroup of Latinos (1.7 million) and make up 4.8% of the total Latino population, they tend to be both educationally and economically deprived. Cubans (1.2 million) and South Americans (1.4 million), however, have the highest levels of education of all Latino subgroups, with 11.9 years average education for Cubans and 35% of foreign-born South Americans having college degrees. Immigrants from the Dominican Republic (0.8 million) are the poorest Latino subgroup, with more than 36% living below the poverty line (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). CULTURAL VALUES AND FAMILY PRACTICES Of particular interest to applied developmental scientists are cultural values that influence parenting practices. These include a strong sense of family obligation and emphasis on respect for authority and deferential behavior of children (Fracasso & BuschRossnagel, 1992). In Latino culture, the family’s unity, welfare, and honor have traditionally occupied a central place in the organization structure of society. Originating from this centrality is the cultural value known as familism, which emphasizes a sense of commitment to the family and obligation and responsibility to the family network (Rogler & Cooney, 1984). Family ties and relationships are often so profound that an individual’s primary responsibilities are to the family, which is the fundamental referent for an individual’s identity in the Latino culture. The value placed on deference and respect for authority is first learned in the home and then expanded to outside society. Respeto (respect) promotes obedience of children to their parents and adult authorities, both in and out of the family. Indeed, boys and girls are punished for disobedience, poor manners, rudeness, or doing things without permission. Respeto accentuates the unique dignity each person possesses (Falicov, 1982).

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Finally, traditional male-dominated gender roles, such as machismo, are significant in the development of behaviors and attitudes of children. While females are socialized to be devoted to home and children, males are socialized to roles that encourage independence, physical courage, and assertiveness, with loyalty to and protection of the family (Falicov, 1982). One of the principal characteristics of the Latino family structure is the undisputed authoritarian role of the father. Clearly, then, culturally determined values foster the development of particular child-rearing practices that attempt to instill values in and guide the behavior of children. PARENTING STYLES Baumrind (1967) delineated three styles of parenting behavior: authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Authoritarian parents are very demanding of and unresponsive to their children. These parents demand strict obedience and respect for authority, tolerate no debate or discussion, and are often critical and harsh, using threats, punishment, and occasional rewards to control their children’s behavior. Children raised in an authoritarian environment become angry, rebellious, lack self-discipline, and tend to be more vulnerable to stress than other children. These children lack critical social skills, are typically withdrawn and fearful, and often appear moody, irritable, and unhappy. Permissive parents are responsive, warm, accepting, and encouraging to their children but provide very little structure by which their children can excel, and thus expect very little in return. These parents allow excessive freedom, with no limitations placed on behavior, and rules are either not communicated or unenforced. Children raised in permissive homes are often seen as impulsive, lacking in self-control, insecure, immature, spoiled, and disrespectful to adults. Authoritative parents are warm, responsive, caring, and demanding. Children are guided by parental firmness, cooperativeness, and encouragement by setting clear limits and standards of behavior. Parents focus on fostering their children’s autonomy and self-direction. Children in these families manifest self-discipline and behave in a socially responsible manner; they are adept with both peers and adults. Clearly, then, Baumrind’s work suggests that warmth and control are interrelated factors that work to help raise a caring, productive, and healthy child.

LATINO VALUES AND PARENTING STYLES The values of familism, respeto, and machismo have often been related to parenting behaviors emphasizing parental power, hierarchy, and male dominance, thus leading to a characterization of Latino parenting as being controlling and authoritarian (Bird & Canino, 1982). This characterization, however, neglects the high regard in which children are held in Latino cultures, the commonplace displays of affection, and the interdependence valued by Latino families (Moreno, 1997; Vargas & Busch-Rossnagel, 2000). If Baumrind’s styles are understood as resulting from four parenting qualities—nurturance, control, type of parental power, and demands on the child— then the characterization of Latino parenting is better labeled as “parental authority with affection.” Nurturance refers to the amount of warmth and affection present in the parent-child relationship. Research has documented the high level of affection and attachment in Puerto Rican and Mexican families, a characteristic underlying the authoritative, rather than the authoritarian, style. The center of power, on a continuum from parent to child, is a reflection of the control quality. In Latino families, decisions are made by the parent, a characteristic shared by both the authoritative and authoritarian styles. Type of parental power indexes the methods used by parents to exert their influence. Similar to the authoritarian style, Latino parents typically expect obedience and may use physical punishment, in contrast to the authoritative parents who use reasoning. Demands on the child reflect the parental expectations for the child. Similar to the permissive style, Latino parents tend to place few demands on their children.

APPLYING A DIFFERENTIAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING LATINO PARENTING A comparison with Baumrind’s styles indicates that Latino parenting demonstrates characteristics of all three styles. The high level of nurturing of the authoritative style, the parental control of both the authoritative and authoritarian style, the expectation of obedience and use of physical punishment of the authoritarian style, and the limited demands on the child of the permissive style are all characteristic of Latino parenting. This suggests that attempts to identify

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a normative or modal style of Latino parenting are misguided. Such attempts do not acknowledge the diversity of Latino families, particularly in socioeconomic status and acculturation, both of which are related to parenting (Planos, Zayas, & BuschRossnagel, 1995; Richman, Miller, & LeVine, 1992). The validity of applying the clusters found in European American samples to other ethnic groups is questionable, and using a normative approach to Latino parenting is inconsistent with the differential approach of Baumrind’s styles (Martinez, 1988; Vargas & BuschRossnagel, 2000). CONCLUSIONS A differential, rather than a comparative, approach is more appropriate in addressing the series of questions associated with the applied developmental approach to values and parenting in Latino families. The differential approach can assess what values and parenting behaviors cluster in Latino families and what child outcomes are associated with the clusters. Applied developmental scientists should also identify antecedents, particularly national origin, educational level, acculturation, and cultural beliefs, which lead to the clusters (Fracasso, Busch-Rossnagel, & Fisher, 1994; Planos et al., 1995; Vargas & Busch-Rossnagel, 2003). Finally, future research needs to examine the way family values and parenting change over time, in response both to family changes and to the individuality and development of the child as part of the applied developmental science model of bidirectional influence. —Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel and Maria P. Fracasso

See also ADVOCACY, CHILD

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baumrind, D. (1967). Child-care practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 75, 69–74. Bird, H. R., & Canino, G. (1982). The Puerto Rican family: Cultural factors and family intervention strategies. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 10, 257–268. Falicov, E. J. (1982). Mexican families. In M. McGoldrick, J. K. Pearce, & J. Giordano (Eds.), Ethnicity and family therapy (pp. 134–163). New York: Guilford. Fisher, C. B., Jackson, J., & Villarruel, F. (1997). The study of African American and Latin American children and youth. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Theoretical models of human development: Vol. 1.

Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., pp. 1145–1207). New York: Wiley. Fitzpatrick, J. P. (1987). Puerto Rican Americans: The meaning of migration to the mainland (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Fracasso, M. P., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1992). Parents and children of Hispanic origin. In M. E. Procidano & C. B. Fisher (Eds.), Contemporary families: A handbook for school professionals (pp. 83–98). New York: Teachers College Press. Fracasso, M. P., Busch-Rossnagel, N. A., & Fisher, C. B. (1994). The relationship of maternal behavior and acculturation to the quality of attachment in Hispanic infants living in New York City. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 16, 143–154. Martinez, E. A. (1988). Child behavior in MexicanAmerican/Chicano families: Maternal teaching and childrearing practices. Family Relations, 37, 275–280. Moreno, R. P. (1997). Everyday instruction: A comparison of Mexican American and Anglo mothers and their preschool children. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 19, 527–539. Planos, R., Zayas, L. H., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1995). Acculturation and teaching behaviors of Dominican and Puerto Rican mothers. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 17, 225–236. Richman, A. L., Miller, P. M., & LeVine, R. A. (1992). Cultural and educational variations in maternal responsiveness. Developmental Psychology, 28, 614–621. Rogler, L. H., & Cooney, R. S. (1984). Puerto Rican families in New York City: Intergenerational processes (Monograph No. 11). New York: Fordham University, Hispanic Research Center. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). The Hispanic population: Census 2000 brief (121st ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. Available at http://www .census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01–3.pdf Vargas, M., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (2000). Authority plus affection: Latino parenting during adolescence. In M. Montero-Sieburth & F. A. Villarruel (Eds.), Making invisible Latino adolescents visible (pp. 265–287). New York: Falmer. Vargas, M., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (2003). Teaching behaviors and styles of low-income Puerto Rican mothers. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 229–238.

LAW, CHILD WITNESSES When accusations of child abuse arise, the only witness is often a child. In the past, legal restrictions on child witnesses prevented their testimony from being included as evidence in criminal cases, thus making prosecution of such crimes difficult. As society’s

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awareness of child abuse and maltreatment increased, changes to the legal system were enacted to facilitate children testifying in court. With these changes came a greater number of children taking the stand in court. Current estimates suggest that approximately 100,000 children testify in court cases in the United States annually, with 13,000 testifying in sexual abuse cases (Ceci & Bruck, 1995). With such a large number of children testifying, especially in cases where the only evidence is the child’s report of the events, issues of the reliability of child witnesses become paramount. Are children, especially young children, able to accurately report events they have experienced, and furthermore, are there conditions whereby children’s reports may be more or less reliable? These questions have been the topic of much research by psycholegal scholars.

Children’s memory is not inherently poor. Preschool-aged children are able to remember events that happened as early as 112 years previously, such as trips to museums (Fivush & Hamond, 1990). Similarly, in studies of eyewitness memory, children are as accurate as adults when responding to openended questions, such as “Tell me what happened.” Young children are able to provide a great deal of accurate information and generally do not spontaneously fabricate false details (Poole & White, 1991). While their recall may be no less inaccurate than that of adults, children’s responses to open-ended questions do differ from adults in some important aspects. Most notably, children provide fewer details than adults. Pool and White (1991) found that 4-year-olds reported less than a quarter of the accurate details that adults did, while 8-year-olds reported less than half as many. These “errors of omission” may include important details. In real cases of child sexual abuse, this may mean omitting that the abuse even occurred or omitting details that are necessary for the successful prosecution of the case.

presuming that an event occurred. Rather than asking, for example, “What did the man look like?” a leading question may ask, “The man had a beard, didn’t he?” When leading questions are accurate, they are not problematic and may even aid children’s recall. However, the accuracy of children’s recall may come into question when leading questions contain inaccuracies about what events actually occurred. Do using misleading questions when interviewing children reduce their accuracy? This particular question has been the subject of much debate. Goodman and her associates suggest that in most cases, children do not make “errors of commission” (i.e., claiming something occurred that did not) in response to misleading questions. In one study, children were asked misleading questions about a visit to a trailer where the child interacted with a male stranger. Some of the questions were abuse related (e.g., “He took your clothes off, didn’t he?”), while others were not (e.g., “The man had a beard, didn’t he?”). Overall, children were quite accurate; among 4-year-olds, 83% of the questions were answered correctly, and among 7-yearolds, 93% were correct. Most errors among both groups were errors of omission rather than errors of commission. Most important, children rarely made commission errors when responding to abuse-related questions (Goodman, Rudy, Bottoms, & Aman, 1990). This study, then, suggests that even in the face of misleading questions, children still may retain good levels of accuracy. However, the interview situation in this study did not resemble many real-life legal situations: Children were interviewed and exposed to the misleading information only once. In many cases, child witnesses are interviewed a number of times by parents, social workers, police investigators, lawyers, and, finally, by the courts (Ceci & Friedman, 2000). Interviewers may be operating under the belief that the abuse did occur and thus ask a number of leading (or misleading) questions to this end. Because investigative interviews are more than an isolated series of leading questions, this research paradigm is not the best indicator of the accuracy of real child witnesses in real-life interviews.

ACCURACY AND LEADING QUESTIONING

ACCURACY AND INTERVIEWER BIAS

Because children report less information than adults, interviewers may be tempted to use leading or highly directive questions when interviewing children. Leading questions are framed in a manner

A feature of some interviews in real investigations of abuse is the concept known as interviewer bias. Interviewer bias refers to the belief held by an interviewer that certain events, such as abuse, actually

ACCURACY AND OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONING

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occurred. As a result of this belief, these interviewers construct the interview in a manner designed to maximize the child’s disclosure that the abuse occurred, such as using misleading questions, refusing to accept “no” for an answer, invoking peer testimony (“Your friends already told me you were there, so I want to hear it from you”), and selectively rewarding children for disclosures (“Wow, you have a really great memory!”). Research has shown that when interviewers are misled into thinking an event occurred that did not, the interviewer will pursue the children relentlessly with leading questions, peer pressure, and rewards until the child reports information inaccurately in a manner consistent with the interviewer’s biased belief (see Ceci & Bruck, 1995, pp. 89–92, for a review). As the above example indicates, when interviewers are biased, they do more than simply ask a child a single misleading question; rather, a number of techniques are combined in order to elicit the desired information from the child. These techniques include, but are not limited to, repeating questions, inviting children to speculate about or imagine what might have happened, giving positive or negative consequences for providing (or not providing) the desired answer, using anatomically correct dolls, and inducing stereotypes. Research suggests that these techniques, especially when combined with misleading questions, are likely to reduce children’s accuracy. For example, Garven, Wood, Malpass, and Shaw (1998) compared children’s accuracy when they were interviewed with simple leading questions versus interviews including a number of social influences (rewards and punishments). While children in the suggestion-only condition incorrectly reported wrongdoings by a classroom visitor 17% of the time, children exposed to a combination of social influences and suggestive questioning reported erroneous wrongdoings 58% of the time. Similarly, Leichtman and Ceci (1995) found that when children were exposed to a negative stereotype about a classroom visitor, they gave more incorrect information than did the control children. In addition, when misleading information was repeated across multiple interviews, children also became less accurate than control children. The most toxic combination was for children to receive both the negative stereotype and repeated misleading information. Forty-six percent of 3- and 4-year-olds and 30% of 5- and 6-year-olds erroneously reported witnessing information that had only been suggested to them.

Thus, in the context of suggestive interviews where a biased interviewer may combine a number of social and questioning techniques, children’s accuracy is quite compromised. CONCLUSIONS Are children reliable witnesses? The picture painted by the research to date suggests that they can be but that they are also at risk for misleading suggestions. Children are able to report information accurately and tend not to produce inaccurate information spontaneously. Problems arise, however, when children are interviewed by an individual operating under a false assumption that an event did in fact take place. Under these conditions, children may provide highly inaccurate information. In real-life interviews, this can lead to catastrophic results such as the successful prosecution and incarceration of an innocent individual, on one hand, or the equally heinous failure to prosecute a guilty perpetrator, on the other. —Sarah Christine Kulkofsky and Stephen J. Ceci

See also ADVOCACY, CHILD

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1995). Jeopardy in the courtroom: A scientific analysis of children’s testimony. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Ceci, S. J., & Friedman, R. D. (2000). The suggestibility of children: Scientific research and legal implications. Cornell Law Review, 86, 34–108. Fivush, R., & Hamond, N. R. (1990). Autobiographical memory across the preschool years: Toward reconceptualizing childhood amnesia. In R. Fivush & J. A. Hudson (Eds.), Knowing and remembering in young children. New York: Cambridge University Press. Garven, S., Wood, J. M., Malpass, R. S., & Shaw, J. S. (1998). More than suggestion: The effect of interviewing techniques from the McMartin preschool case. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 347–359. Goodman, G. S., Rudy, L., Bottoms, B. L., & Aman, C. (1990). Children’s concerns and memory: Issues of ecological validity in the study of children’s eyewitness testimony. In R. Fivush & J. A. Hudson (Eds.), Knowing and remembering in young children. New York: Cambridge University Press. Leichtman, M. D., & Ceci, S. J. (1995). The effects of stereotypes and suggestions on preschoolers’ reports. Developmental Psychology, 31, 568–578. Poole, D. A., & White, L. T. (1991). Effects of question repetition on the eyewitness testimony of children and adults. Developmental Psychology, 27, 975–986.

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LAW, JURORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF CHILD WITNESSES The reliability of children’s eyewitness testimony has been of concern for over a century. Although early research concluded that children were highly suggestible witnesses, modern work finds that even young children can be reliable witnesses under optimal conditions (Eisen, Quas, & Goodman, 2002). Considerable attention has also focused on children’s perceived accuracy. That is, in a legal context such as a courtroom, children’s actual accuracy may never be known with certainty; nevertheless, their perceived accuracy (credibility) must be evaluated by forensic investigators, jurors, and judges. Social scientists have been particularly interested in the perceived credibility of children’s testimony in child sexual abuse cases, because such cases often involve little other corroborative evidence that would form the basis of jurors’ verdicts. Research on perceptions of children’s testimony in sexual abuse cases finds that adults are not very skilled at discerning children’s actual accuracy (Leippe, Manion, & Romanczyk, 1992), and as a result, their perceptions of credibility are influenced by a host of legal and extralegal factors, such as the following: 1. Juror characteristics: Women jurors are, on average, more child-victim-oriented than men and render more guilty verdicts in mock child sexual abuse trials (Bottoms & Goodman, 1994). Researchers have begun to identify the psychological origins of this tendency (preexisting differences in men’s and women’s empathic tendencies and attitudes toward child sexual abuse) and to investigate the effect of jury deliberations on this gender difference. 2. Victim characteristics: In some circumstances, children of color are perceived to be more responsible for abuse than nonminority children, but this may not affect trial verdicts (Bottoms, Davis, & Epstein, in press). Child gender affects judgments in a complex manner, interacting with both defendant and juror gender, to produce effects such as lenient sentences for women accused of molesting adolescent boys. Victim age is also a powerful predictor of juror perceptions through its influence on perceptions of competence and trustworthiness, which are theorized to be central components of credibility. In child sexual

abuse cases, young children are perceived to be more credible than older children because they are deemed trustworthy and honest, yet lacking in the level of cognitive competence necessary for fabricating false charges (Bottoms & Goodman, 1994). For the same reason, children with intellectual disabilities are perceived as more credible than children of average intelligence. Older children may be perceived as more credible than younger children in other types of cases, however, such as when they are bystander witnesses to car accidents, because such cases highlight a greater need for cognitive competence (recall of specific details). Finally, children’s demeanor, especially their confidence, is also a cue taken by jurors. As with adult eyewitnesses, the most confident child witnesses are not always the most accurate, but jurors rely on confidence to judge children’s credibility. 3. Defendant characteristics: Research focusing on defendant factors reveals, for example, that child victim witnesses are perceived as more credible when evidence about their alleged molesters’ past acts of child abuse are admitted at trial (Bottoms & Goodman, 1994). Other work shows that defendant race can be an important factor in child sexual abuse cases, though perhaps only in interaction with victim race. For example, jurors appear to be sensitive to the decreased plausibility of cross-race instances of child abuse, regardless of whether the suspect is White or African American (Bottoms et al., in press). 4. Situational case factors: In many jurisdictions, procedural innovations have been instituted to protect children from the trauma of testifying in open courtrooms. Such innovations, such as testimony via closed-circuit television and the pretrial preparation of children for the task of testifying in court, sometimes increase children’s actual testimonial accuracy but decrease children’s perceived credibility in the eyes of jurors (McAuliff & Kovera, 2002). That is, children who have been prepared or who testify via television can appear less emotionally distraught and, in turn, less believable than otherwise (although this can be offset by explanatory testimony from an expert witness). Another courtroom factor that can affect perceptions of child witnesses is attorney trial tactics. For example, through opening and closing arguments, attorneys can successfully induce juror empathy for child victims and, in turn, influence verdicts. Research has begun to examine perceptions of children and their testimony in a different context:

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cases in which adolescents are themselves accused of crimes. Today, an increasing number of cases involving adolescent offenders are being transferred from juvenile to adult criminal courts, where cases are tried before juries rather than juvenile or family court judges. Research is beginning to document the ways in which adolescents and adults differ in competencies related to adjudication, such as competence to understand legal charges and court processes, to assist in one’s own defense, and so on. Little research has addressed jurors’ perceptions of such competencies or of the ways in which these perceptions affect juror judgments in cases involving juvenile offenders. One study suggests that jurors perceive juvenile offenders either as immature, incompetent adolescents who should be rehabilitated rather than punished (a “wayward youth” stereotype) or as culpable, competent offenders who should be punished (a “superpredator” stereotype). Jurors who endorse the superpredator stereotype are more likely to vote “guilty” in trials involving juveniles than are jurors who endorse the wayward youth stereotype (Haegerich, 2002). In summary, researchers have discovered a great deal about the myriad factors that influence jurors’ perceptions and judgments in cases involving children who give testimony, either as alleged victims or as perpetrators. The future trajectory of this line of research appears quite promising, even though researchers face formidable challenges such as maintaining the high standards of ecological validity necessary for generalizing findings to legal contexts.

accuracy of adults’ and children’s memory reports? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 181–197. McAuliff, B., & Kovera, M. B. (2002). The status of evidentiary and procedural innovations in child abuse proceedings. In B. L. Bottoms, M. B. Kovera, & B. McAuliff (Eds.), Children, social science, and the law (pp. 412–445). New York: Cambridge.

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AND LEARNED OPTIMISM Learned helplessness refers to the maladaptive passivity shown by animals and people following experience with uncontrollable events. Learned helplessness also refers to the cognitive explanation of this phenomenon: The individual learns in one situation that responses and outcomes are independent, represents this learning as an expectation of helplessness, and then generalizes this expectation to other situations to produce passivity even if outcomes objectively can be controlled. In recent years, theory and research into learned helplessness have evolved into the study of learned optimism, which is evident not just in the absence of passivity in the wake of uncontrollable events but also in active striving and thriving despite adversity. Learned optimism is a cornerstone of the newly christened field of positive psychology, which calls for the study of the good life and the psychological processes contributing to it.

—Bette L. Bottoms and Aaron G. Rudnicki

See also FORENSIC INTERVIEWING

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AND ITS EXPLANATION

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS

Researchers first described learned helplessness in the 1960s (Overmier & Seligman, 1967; Seligman & Maier, 1967). Dogs were immobilized and exposed to a series of electric shocks. Regardless of what the dogs did or did not do, the shocks went on and off. Twentyfour hours later, these animals were placed in a long box with a barrier in the middle. Shocks were periodically delivered through the floor of the box, and the dogs could escape them by jumping over the barrier and running to the other end of the box. Researchers found that animals previously exposed to uncontrollable shock acted passively when placed in a shuttle box. They simply sat there and endured the shocks. In contrast, animals without prior experience with uncontrollable shocks had no difficulty learning to escape the shocks.

Bottoms, B. L., Davis, S. L., & Epstein, M. A. (in press). Effects of victim and defendant race on jurors’ decisions in child sexual abuse cases. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Bottoms, B. L., & Goodman, G. S. (1994). Perceptions of children’s credibility in sexual assault cases. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 702–732. Eisen, M., Quas, J., & Goodman, G. S. (2002). Memory and suggestibility in the forensic interview. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Haegerich, T. M. (2002). The influence of stereotypes on individual and group decisions in a novel context: Juvenile offenders in court. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago. Leippe, M., Manion, A., & Romanczyk, A. (1992). Eyewitness persuasion: How and how well do fact finders judge the

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These investigators proposed that the dogs had learned to be helpless: When originally exposed to uncontrollable shock, they learned that nothing they did mattered because the shocks came and went independently of their behaviors. The investigators hypothesized that this learning of response-outcome independence was represented cognitively as an expectation of future helplessness that was generalized to new situations to produce a variety of deficits: motivational, cognitive, and emotional. The deficits that follow in the wake of uncontrollability have come to be known as the learned-helplessness phenomenon, and their cognitive explanation as the learned-helplessness model (Seligman, 1975). Learned helplessness in animals continues to interest experimental psychologists, in large part because it provides an opportunity to investigate the interaction between mind and body (Peterson, Maier, & Seligman, 1993). The learned-helplessness model is at odds with a stimulus-response (S-R) view of learning because it proposes that the helpless animal learns not specific responses, but rather general expectations affecting responses across a variety of situations. The helplessness model is a cognitive account of learning, and in the 1960s, it was a radical theory in a field long dominated by strict behaviorism. Accordingly, much of the early interest in learned helplessness stemmed from its clash with the tenets of traditional S-R theories (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Alternative accounts of learned helplessness were proposed by theorists who saw no need to invoke mentalistic constructs. Different alternatives were proposed, many of which emphasized an incompatible motor response learned when animals were first exposed to uncontrollable shocks. This response was presumably generalized to the second situation, where it interfered with performance at the test task. Said another way, the learned-helplessness phenomenon is produced by an inappropriate response learned in the original situation rather than an inappropriate expectation (of response-outcome independence). For example, perhaps the dogs learned that holding still when shocked somehow decreased pain. If so, then they held still in the second situation as well, because this response was previously reinforced. Steven Maier, Martin Seligman, and others conducted a series of studies testing between the learned-helplessness model and the incompatiblemotor-response alternatives. Several lines of research implied that the expectations emphasized by the

learned-helplessness model were operative. Perhaps the most compelling argument comes from the “triadic design,” a three-group experimental design that shows that the uncontrollability of shocks is responsible for ensuing deficits. Animals in one group are exposed to shock that they are able to terminate by making some response. Animals in a second group are yoked to those in the first group, exposed to the identical shocks, the only difference being that animals in the first group control their offset, whereas those in the second do not. Animals in a third group are exposed to no shock at all in the original situation. All animals are then given the same test task. Animals with control over the initial shocks typically show no helplessness when subsequently tested. They act just like animals with no prior exposure to shock. Animals without control become helpless. Whether or not shocks are controllable is not a property of the shocks per se, but rather of the relationship between the animal and the shocks. That animals are sensitive to the link between responses and outcomes implies that they must be able to detect and represent the relevant contingencies. A cognitive explanation of this ability is more parsimonious than one phrased in terms of incompatible motor responses. Also arguing in favor of a cognitive interpretation of helplessness effects were studies showing that an animal can be “immunized” against the debilitating effects of uncontrollability by first exposing it to controllable events. Presumably, the animal learns during immunization that events can be controlled, and this expectation is sustained during exposure to uncontrollable events. Learned helplessness is thus precluded. Other studies showed that learned-helplessness deficits could be undone by forcibly exposing a helpless animal to the contingency between behavior and outcome. In other words, the animal is forced to make an appropriate response at the test task, by pushing or pulling it into action. After several such trials, the animal notices that escape is possible and begins to respond on its own. Again, the presumed process at work is a cognitive one. The animal’s expectation of response-outcome independence is challenged during the “therapy” experience, and hence learning occurs. The studies described so far exposed animals to aversive stimuli (i.e., shocks). But it is also possible to produce helplessness by providing uncontrollable appetitive stimuli: food or water, regardless of responses. Here, an explanation in terms of incompatible motor responses becomes quite difficult to support. What is

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gained by holding still in response to food or water? Certainly not the reduction of pain. Psychologists interested in humans, and particularly human problems, were quick to see the parallels between learned helplessness as produced by uncontrollable events in the laboratory and maladaptive passivity as it exists in the real world (Seligman, 1975). Thus began several lines of research looking at learned helplessness in people (Peterson et al., 1993). In one line of work, helplessness in people was produced in the laboratory much as it was in animals, by exposing them to uncontrollable events and seeing the effects on their motivation, cognition, and emotion. Unsolvable problems were usually substituted for uncontrollable electric shocks, but the critical aspects of the phenomenon remained: Following uncontrollability, people show a variety of deficits. Other studies further attested to the similarity between the animal phenomenon and what was produced in the human laboratory. Uncontrollable bad events made anxiety and depression more likely. Previous exposure to controllable events immunized people against learned helplessness. Similarly, forcible exposure to contingencies reversed helplessness deficits. In yet another line of work, researchers proposed various failures of adaptation as analogous to learned helplessness and investigated the similarity of these failures and learned helplessness on various fronts. Especially popular was Seligman’s (1975) proposal that reactive depression and learned helplessness share critical features: causes, symptoms, consequences, treatments, and preventions. THE ATTRIBUTIONAL REFORMULATION As investigations were pursued, it became clear that the original learned-helplessness explanation was an oversimplification when applied to people. Most generally, it failed to account for the range of reactions that people displayed in response to uncontrollable events. Some people, indeed, showed pervasive deficits, as the model hypothesized, that were general across time and situation, whereas others did not. Furthermore, failures of adaptation that the learned-helplessness model was supposed to explain, such as depression, were sometimes characterized by a striking loss of self-esteem, about which the model was silent. As used to explain human behavior, the learnedhelplessness model was therefore revised by Lyn Abramson, Martin Seligman, and John Teasdale (1978)

to emphasize the role of the person’s interpretation of the cause of the original events. According to this reformulated theory, depression follows uncontrollability when a person explains an uncontrollable event with causes that are internal (“It’s me”), stable (“It’s going to last forever”), and global (“It’s going to undermine everything I do”). Explanatory style refers to the causal explanations that people habitually offer for negative events. An internal, stable, and global style for explaining negative events is often described as a pessimistic explanatory style. Research shows that pessimistic causal explanations and explanatory style relate to depression as proposed by the reformulated learned-helplessness model. Explanatory style has since been extensively studied in its own right (Buchanan & Seligman, 1995). It seems to take form as a coherent individual difference around 8 years of age, when children’s cognitive abilities allow them to think in causal terms. Twin studies suggest that explanatory style is moderately heritable, but there is no reason to believe that there is a specific optimism-pessimism gene. Rather, characteristics such as intelligence, physical prowess, and attractiveness—which are themselves heritable—set the stage for success or failure in a variety of domains, and it is these experiences that lead the individual to entertain optimistic or pessimistic explanations for important outcomes. Early loss, such as death of a parent, or early trauma, such as sexual abuse, makes an individual more pessimistic. Early success makes an individual more optimistic. Social learning is also implicated in the origins of explanatory style. Studies show convergence between the explanatory styles of parents and their children, although the fine detail of how an explanatory style is transmitted across generations has yet to be explored. Messages from schoolteachers, peers, and the media about the causes of events may also be critical. Explanatory style has a vast array of consequences other than depression. Pessimistic explanatory style has been linked to various negative emotions and poor morale; to giving up and ineffective problem solving; to academic, athletic, military, occupational, and political failure; to social estrangement; to poor health; and even to untimely death (Peterson & Bossio, 1991). The mechanism by which explanatory style leads to these disparate outcomes has yet to be fully specified, but it is likely that the pathway is overdetermined, involving biological, psychological, and interpersonal processes.

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LEARNED-HELPLESSNESS INTERVENTIONS One practical implication of these ideas is that helplessness and its consequences can be alleviated by changing the way people think about response-outcome contingencies and how they explain the causes of bad events. Cognitive therapy for depression is effective in part because it changes these sorts of beliefs and provides clients with strategies for viewing future bad events in more optimistic ways (Seligman et al., 1988). Another practical implication is that helplessness and its consequences can be prevented in the first place by teaching clients cognitive-behavioral skills before the development of problems (Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, & Gillham, 1995). One protocol based on these tenets, designed for group administration to middle school students, is the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) (Gillham, Reivich, Jaycox, & Seligman, 1995). PRP is a 12-session curriculum administered by schoolteachers and guidance counselors. The program contains two main components, one cognitive and the other based on social-problem-solving techniques. In the cognitive component, core cognitive techniques are translated, through the use of cartoons and skits, into a language that adolescents can understand and apply to their own lives. Group facilitators begin by teaching students about the link between thoughts and feelings. In the second lesson, students learn how to evaluate the beliefs they learned to recognize in the first lesson. Skits are used to help find differences between the beliefs of fictitious characters who are thriving and those that are not. By the end of the lesson, students have learned that “me,” “always,” and “everything” beliefs about bad events are more likely than others to result in undesirable outcomes. In the third lesson, two detectives are contrasted: one skilled and one inept. The skilled detective makes a list of many possible suspects (beliefs) and chooses the one most supported by the evidence. The inept detective always chooses the first suspect that pops into his head. Students are taught to evaluate their beliefs as if they were the good detective. In the fourth lesson, students learn to decatastrophize, or to evaluate the accuracy of their first and often erroneous beliefs. And in the fifth lesson, students intensively practice a technique called the “hot seat,” which helps transition the cognitive skills from the classroom into the real world by providing an opportunity for rapid-fire disputation of negative beliefs.

Through the cognitive component, students learn to evaluate the accuracy of their interpretations of the world. In the social-problem-solving component, students learn seven skills that help them better interact with this world: assertiveness, negotiation, relaxation, avoidance of procrastination, social skills, decision making, and problem solving. PRP has been successfully evaluated in school and managed care settings in both the United States and China. Results have indicated that prevention participants report fewer depressive symptoms and are less likely to report symptoms in the moderate-to-severe range through 2 years of follow-up.

LEARNED OPTIMISM In adopting the shorthand label of pessimism to describe a helplessness-producing explanatory style that uses internal, stable, and global causes to explain bad events, theorists and researchers were led to wonder about the causes and consequences of a form of optimism that could be learned. So was born the phenomenon of learned optimism, which has come to mean active, problem-focused coping following setbacks and disappointment (Seligman, 1991). Learned optimism is immediately under the sway of positive expectations (“I can make this happen”) and more distantly influenced by an optimistic explanatory style (causal explanations for uncontrollable events phrased in terms of external, unstable, and specific causes). People can learn to be optimistic (just as they can learn to be pessimistic) through specific successes overcoming problems and through more generic processes of social learning. Learned optimism obviously means the absence of learned helplessness, and everything learned about helplessness (how it is caused, how it can be undone, and how it can be prevented) sheds light on learned optimism. But learned optimism is not just learned helplessness negated. There is more to doing well than just avoiding problems. There is a world of difference between people who are not suicidal, not lethargic, and not self-deprecating versus those who bound out of bed in the morning with twinkling eyes. If one’s interest is in the good life, one must look explicitly at indices of human thriving: measures of life satisfaction, happiness, and zest. Such studies are now beginning. For example, ongoing PRP interventions are now supplementing

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the assessment of depression with the assessment of positive emotions and strengths of character. And in a related line of research, researchers at Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania are adopting the cognitive and social-problem-solving strategies of PRP to teach everyday children how to be happier and more fulfilled. Learned optimism is an excellent example of the new field of positive psychology, which calls for as much focus on strength as on weakness, as much interest in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst, and as much attention to fulfilling the lives of healthy people as to healing the wounds of the distressed (Seligman, 2002). The concern of psychology with human problems—like helplessness and its consequences—will not and should not be abandoned. People experience difficulties that demand and deserve scientifically informed solutions. Proponents of positive psychologist are “merely” saying that the problem-focused psychology of the past 60 years is incomplete. But as simple as this proposal sounds, it demands a sea change in perspective. Psychologists interested in promoting human potential need to start with different assumptions and to pose questions different from those of their peers who assume a disease model. Research into learned optimism helps show the way. —Christopher Peterson, Derek Freres, and Nansook Park

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49–74. Buchanan, G. M., & Seligman, M. E. P. (Eds.). (1995). Explanatory style. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Gillham, J. E., Reivich, K. J., Jaycox, L. H., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1995). Prevention of depressive symptoms in schoolchildren: Two-year follow-up. Psychological Science, 6, 343–351. Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1976). Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 105, 3–46. Overmier, J. B., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1967). Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance learning. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 63, 23–33. Peterson, C., & Bossio, L. M. (1991). Health and optimism. New York: Free Press.

Peterson, C., Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1993). Learned helplessness: A theory for the age of personal control. New York: Oxford University Press. Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On depression, development, and death. San Francisco: Freeman. Seligman, M. E. P. (1991). Learned optimism. New York: Knopf. Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness. New York: Free Press. Seligman, M. E. P., Castellon, C., Cacciola, J., Schulman, P., Luborsky, L., Ollove, M., et al. (1988). Explanatory style change during cognitive therapy for unipolar depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 13–18. Seligman, M. E. P., & Maier, S. F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1–9. Seligman, M. E. P., Reivich, K., Jaycox, L., & Gillham, J. (1995). The optimistic child. New York: Harper Perennial.

LEARNING IN THE LIFE CYCLE As interest in instruction targeted for adults continues to rise, so has supporting empirical research and theory grown that provides the basis for program development. Research has shown that healthy adults can continue to learn through advanced old age, and it has helped to identify those conditions that maximize learning for adults of all ages. This entry discusses some of the characteristics of adult learners and the tasks and conditions under which they are at their best; it considers both early and more recent literature in an attempt to convey findings that are of greatest and relevance to program planners, instructors, and administrators concerned with the educational activities of the adult. THE ADULT LEARNER In her review of the literature, Willis (1985) defines the characteristics of the learner as including the ability to maintain attention, one’s metacognitive abilities and skills, and other factors, such as individual learning styles and the needs and motivation of the learner. Each of these areas has implications for those interested in adult learning. Age-related changes in the ability to maintain attention have been well documented. One area of research, selective attention, has generated particular interest. A major set of findings is that the ability to maintain and orient attention declines with age and that interference becomes especially problematic by the later years (see Rogers & Fisk, 2001, for a discussion).

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Metamemory is the knowledge and awareness one has about one’s own learning. One aspect of metamemory that is of interest to adult educators is called comprehension monitoring. This refers to the question of how well we understand that we do or do not understand new material as it is being presented. Zabrucky, Moore, and Schultz (1987) used an error detection paradigm to examine the ability of young and old adults of varying education levels to monitor their own ability to comprehend text. Results indicated that older adults are able to evaluate their comprehension of text material as well as young adults. Although age did not affect their ability to evaluate their comprehension during reading, the adults’ education levels did. Adults with more education, regardless of whether they were young or old, more often detected textual inconsistencies than adults with relatively less education. Learning style is an area that has generated a wide number of publications dating back to the 1950s. Perhaps the best known of these approaches in the field of adult learning is the work of Kolb and Fry (1975). Kolb and Fry believe that adult learners need to develop four different skill areas. First, adults should be able to meaningfully involve themselves in new experiences. Kolb and Fry refer to this as “concrete experience.” Second, they should be able to reflect on and observe these experiences from many perspectives. This is referred to as “reflective observation.” Third, adults should be able to create concepts that integrate their observations into logically sound theories, referred to as “abstract conceptualization,” and fourth, they should be able to use their knowledge to make decisions, referred to as “active experimentation.” As it turns out, there are very few ideal learners, and most individuals develop strength in only one or two of these skills. Kolb and Fry (1975) have developed a learning-style inventory that identifies four basic learning styles, namely, the converger, the diverger, the assimilator, and the accomodator. Convergers are strong on abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. They are interested in the practical application of ideas and perform best when a single correct answer exists. An engineer is generally an example of this style. Divergers are best at concrete operations and reflective observation. They have strong imaginations and do well in their ability to view concrete situations from multiple perspectives. They often have interests in people and culture and specialize in the arts. Assimilator strengths are in

abstract conceptualization and reflective observation. They appreciate dealing with questions from a theoretical “what if” perspective. Finally, the accomodators are best at concrete experience and active experimentation. While they rely on others for information, accomodators are good at getting things done. They generally find theory to be of little help and do not spend large amounts of time investigating the details behind a decision. They tend to intuitively solve problems and are willing to take calculated risks. Kolb and Fry maintain that all four styles are found in adult education settings. Another approach to the study of adult learning comes from Malcomb Knowles. Knowles is perhaps the best-known theorist of adult learning and has had a tremendous influence on how we look at the adult learner’s needs and motivations. Knowles (1990) terms his theory “andragogy,” which is the science of helping adults learn. For Knowles, this is in contrast to pedagogy, the science of educating children. Knowles argues that andragogy makes the following assumptions about the adult learner. First, adults develop from that of a dependent personality to that of a self-directing human being. Second, adults accumulate a growing reservoir of experience, which acts as a rich resource for learning. Third, adults change their perspective from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application and become more task oriented in their approaches. Finally, adults become more intrinsically motivated, rather than extrinsically motivated. Knowles (1990) contrasted andragogy with pedagogy by arguing that pedagogy is more teacher directed and subject centered. Under pedagogy, the learner’s experience means very little, and the teacher decides on content to be covered. For Knowles, the primary task of the facilitator in the adult setting is to enable learners to learn how to direct themselves. Facilitators must also relate subject matter to the learner’s experience and recognize that adults will not learn until they have been motivated to learn. Adults may also have inhibitions, largely stemming from negative childhood experiences in the classroom, which the facilitator may help the learner to overcome. TASKS AND CONDITIONS Task variables include approaches that can maximize the effectiveness of the way material is presented to the learner. These include pacing, atmosphere, organization, and task meaningfulness.

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Pacing One of the first studies to show that adults learn less well under time pressure was Canestrari’s (1963) now classic experiment. Canestrari demonstrated that response deficits can be improved if the learner is simply given sufficient time to respond, and this fact becomes more important as adults grow older. Peterson (1983) argued that instruction should be paced in such a way as to provide time for both intake and retrieval. Since lecture is also a form of timed instruction, it should be structured in such a way that material is presented, reviewed, and examined. In a classroom setting, this will require the instructor to reduce the amount of content presented per any one unit of time. Atmosphere Ross (1968), in her early study, was one of the first to demonstrate that adults seem to learn best in supportive contexts. She found that by altering instructions given to participants, older adults, but not college-aged students, took increasingly longer to learn as instructions were altered from a supportive, to a neutral, to a challenging context. Some of the bestknown research in this area was conducted by Yesavage. For example, Yesavage and Jacob (1984) reported improvement in memory performance in adults as a result of anxiety reduction techniques. In a somewhat later experiment, Flynn and Storandt (1990) demonstrated that a social support system is helpful to maintain gains learned in a training session. All of this supports Knowles’s contention that adults learn best when the facilitator is perceived as a nonthreatening equal, rather than as the directing expert. In general, the situations in which setting up a supportive atmosphere helps may vary, and the type of learner helped may differ, but a supporting context is easy to provide and not at all costly. Those approaches that can help are well worth trying.

Organization Hulicka and Grossman (1967) were among the first to recognize that there is a decline in the spontaneous use of memory aids across the life span. These strategies include things such as tying a concept that is to be learned with information that is already known or thinking of an image to help make a new concept

more concrete. They found, however, that young people tend to use a variety of memory strategies on their own without being told to do so. These memory strategies are believed to help the learner more effectively organize new incoming information, and this leads to more thorough and deeper processing. Hulicka and Grossman also discovered that older people are capable of learning memory-organizational strategies, and when they use them, they benefit from them. One important finding in this area of research is that organizational difficulties are most likely to appear for adults of limited verbal ability. Thompson (1998) investigated the use of advance organizers as an aid in the recall of verbal material. Advance organizers are introductions that precede a passage to be read and understood. Advance organizers are believed to help readers determine the main themes and conceptual points in that passage. Thompson compared a group of young (aged 18–32) and older (aged 55–82) adults of average and limited verbal ability on their retention of a 1,600-word passage. Results indicated that participants of limited verbal ability benefited most from the advance organizer, but not one agegroup more than the other. In addition, the advance organizer appeared to benefit recollection of the most detailed information in the text. Task Meaningfulness Task familiarity has been an issue in the literature for many years. As far back as Thorndike (1928), there has been an emphasis on the greater need for relevance on the part of the adult learner. This finding continues to be reported in more recent years (see Camp, 1999, for a discussion). CONCLUSIONS The literature on instruction of adults and older adults is diverse and sometimes contradictory. But still, there are several conclusions that can be agreed on and have general consensus: 1. Rate of presentation: Middle-aged and older adult learners often take longer than young people to learn a new task, but when provided sufficient time, they will perform as well as younger people. New information may have to be presented at a fairly slow rate, but since there

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is wide variability among adults, self-paced instruction should be used whenever possible. Dividing the presentation of material over several occasions, rather than in one massed session, appears to be most effective. And adults may need more time to respond to a question, such as found on classroom tests. 2. Climate: Instruction may be most conducive to a supportive climate. A light atmosphere should be maintained to reduce tension. This may be especially true for people who have been out of school for many years and who may need to overcome a fear of not being able to compete. Engaging the adult learner in informationoriented, collaborative evaluations may also have clear benefits. 3. Meaningfulness of material: The conditions for learning should use the background of the adult so that new material may be associated with previously learned information. Tasks may be arranged from simple and familiar to the more complex. The use of concrete examples and illustrations may also be helpful. 4. Organization of information: New information should be presented in a highly organized fashion. The big “take-home” points should be clearly identified. Transitions should be made clear so that the learner always understands where instruction is headed. The introduction of irrelevant information and digressions may be difficult for many adult learners. 5. The needs of the learner: Close attention should be paid to the actual needs and interests of the population to be addressed. Learning facts for facts’ sake may be necessary for the young, but is not of interest to most adults. —Dennis Thompson

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Camp, C. (1999). Memory interventions for normal and pathological older adults. In R. Schulz, G. Maddox, & M. P. Lawton (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics: Interventions research with older adults (Vol. 18, pp. 155–189). New York: Springer. Canestrari, R. E. (1963). Paced and self-paced learning in young and elderly adults. Journal of Gerontology, 37, 165–168.

Flynn, T., & Storandt, M. (1990). Supplemental group discussions in memory training for older adults. Psychology and Aging, 5, 178–181. Hulicka, I., & Grossman, J. (1967). Age group comparisons for the use of mediators in paired associate learning. Journal of Gerontology, 22, 46–51. Knowles, M. (1990). The adult learner: A neglected species (4th ed.). Houston, TX: Gulf. Kolb, D., & Fry, R. (1975). Towards an applied theory of experimental learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of group processes (pp. 33–57). London: Wiley. Peterson, D. A. (1983). Facilitating education for older learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Rogers, W., & Fisk, A. (2001). Understanding the role of attention in cognitive aging research. In J. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (5th ed., pp. 267–287). New York: Academic Press. Ross, D. (1968). Effects of challenging and supportive instruction in verbal learning in older persons. Journal of Educational Psychology, 59, 261–266. Thompson, D. (1998). Using advance organizers to facilitate reading comprehension among older adults. Educational Gerontology, 24, 625–638. Thorndike, E. L. (1928). Adult learning. New York: Macmillan. Willis, S. L. (1985). Towards an educational psychology of the older adult learner: Intellectual and cognitive bases. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (2nd ed., pp. 818–847). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Yesavage, J. A., & Jacob, R. (1984). Effects of relaxation and mnemonics on memory, attention, and anxiety in the elderly. Experimental Aging Research, 10, 211–214. Zabrucky, K., Moore, D., & Schultz, N. (1987). Evaluation of comprehension in young and old adults. Developmental Psychology, 23, 39–43.

LERNER, JACQUELINE V. Jackie Lerner was born Jacqueline Rose Verdirame, in 1954. Born and raised in Flushing, New York, she is the middle child of three children born to an Italian American father and a German American mother. After spending her childhood in New York, Lerner attended St. John’s University as a psychology major. She graduated with honors in 1975 and decided to pursue a career in psychology, and went on to obtain a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University. Impressively, Lerner completed her master’s in 1 year at Eastern Michigan. While there, she met her future husband and longtime collaborator, Richard Lerner. As he went on to accept a

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professorship at Penn State University, she continued her studies and later earned a PhD in educational psychology from Penn State University, in 1980. She spent the following year as a visiting scholar at the Center for Research on Women at Stanford University. Lerner began her tenure track career at Penn State as an assistant professor of human development and family studies in 1981. Much of her early research focused on children’s temperament. She collaborated with Alexander Thomas, Stella Chess, and other colleagues on the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS), one of the earliest and longest longitudinal studies directed at assessing children’s temperament. This study followed 133 White, middle-class children of professional parents and 98 Puerto Rican children from working-class homes from the first month of life into adulthood. Lerner and her colleagues’ research focused on ideas consistent with a “goodness-of-fit” model (Thomas & Chess, 1977); that is, she adheres to an approach that posits that when children’s individual characteristics match, or fit, with the demands of the child’s context, then adaptive functioning is likely to occur. This match, or goodness-of-fit approach was used by Lerner to frame her research on children’s temperament, which has resulted in numerous publications over the past 20 years, including an edited volume of New Directions for Child Development, titled Temperament and Psychosocial Interactions in Infancy and Childhood (Lerner & Lerner, 1986). In 1980, Jackie and Richard Lerner became the archivists for the NYLS. Research continues at present, with the Lerners and other members of the scientific community using archives of the NYLS sample. In addition to assessment of the NYLS sample, much of Jackie Lerner’s work has been the result of data collected in collaboration with Richard Lerner from two of their research studies: the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study (PEATS) and the follow-up to that investigation, the Replication and Extension of the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study (REPEATS). These short-term longitudinal investigations assessed the biological, psychological, and social aspects of children’s adjustment during the transition to and development across middle school. They were two of the few longitudinal investigations at the time to incorporate a holistic approach in the examination of youth and their families. Given both the breadth and depth of these investigations, several theses and dissertations were

completed and numerous published studies have resulted from the PEATS and REPEATS investigations (e.g., Castellino, Lerner, Lerner, & von Eye, 1998; East et al., 1992; Jovanovic, Lerner, & Lerner, 1989; Ohannessian, Lerner, Lerner, & von Eye, 1995, 1996, 1998). In 1988, Lerner became an associate professor at Penn State. After 10 years at PSU, she accepted a full professorship in the Psychology Department at Michigan State University, in 1991. During her tenure there, she served on numerous master’s and doctoral committees. Moreover, she served as the chair of the Developmental Interest Group for 3 years, where she brought energy, expertise, and leadership to her role as chair. In 1996, Lerner left Michigan State and went on to Boston College, where she remains today. In addition to her professorship in the School of Education, she serves as coordinator of the Human Development Undergraduate Program. Impressively, in 2000, after only 4 years at Boston College, she became chair of the department of counseling, applied developmental, and educational psychology, a position that she held until the fall of 2003. It is clear from her esteemed leadership positions that Lerner has excelled as an administrative leader as well as a social scientist. Lerner’s contributions to the field of human development are quite impressive. Her research career has primarily focused on three main themes: children’s temperament, the adjustment to adolescence, and the effects of maternal employment on children’s development. As mentioned above, her work on temperament has focused on a goodness-of-fit model between the individual’s characteristics and the demands of his or her context. Her work on maternal employment has continued that theme by assessing maternal employment and children’s development within the contexts within which they occur. In fact, it is this overarching framework, that of the development of children within context, that has guided Lerner’s work for more than 25 years. Lerner was one of the first to take a novel approach to the study of the “effects” of maternal employment on children by examining maternal employment within context, that is, assessing maternal employment as a family process rather than a single-status variable of working versus not working. In a groundbreaking article in 1985 (Lerner & Galambos, 1985), Lerner and her colleague examined the relations among maternal role satisfaction, mother-child

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relationship quality, and children’s temperament using a sample of both working and nonworking mothers. Their results suggested that mothers who were highly satisfied with their roles, whether they were working or not working, showed higher levels of warmth and acceptance of their children compared with dissatisfied mothers. This study was of significant importance to the field in that it demonstrated that a critical factor in assessing the impact of mothers’ work is not whether or not they work, but rather how satisfied they are with being employed or not that influences their relationships with their children and the children’s subsequent development. Moreover, this study documented the importance of examining a “process of influence” model when examining the relation between maternal employment and children’s adjustment, rather than examining the direct relation between work status and children’s outcomes. Previous work in this domain had focused primarily on maternal employment as a status variable, working versus not working, as opposed to examining the factors that surround and influence a mother’s employment situation. Lerner’s continued work in this area has shed further light on the relationship between maternal employment and children’s adjustment and has resulted in the publication of two outstanding books on the topic, Employed Mothers and Their Children, an edited volume completed in collaboration with Nancy Galambos (Lerner & Galambos, 1991), and Working Women and Their Families (Lerner, 1994). The edited volume by Lerner and Galambos highlighted the issues confronted by employed parents and their children, such as infant day care, children in self-care, and issues faced by dualearner marriages. This volume brought to the fore the contemporary concerns surrounding mothers’ employment and its impact on children, with chapters contributed by prominent scholars in the field, such as Sandra Scarr, Martha Zaslow, and Adele Gottfried. Lerner expanded on this prior work in her 1994 authored book, in which she synthesized the literature on maternal employment and children’s adjustment. This book documented the historical trends of women in the labor force and integrated knowledge gleaned from two decades of research on working mothers and the psychological, social, academic, and behavioral development of children. These contributions have positioned Lerner as one of the leading contemporary scholars in the field of maternal employment research.

In addition, Lerner has published seven books and monographs, more than 30 chapters, and more than 50 scholarly articles thus far in her career. In 2001, she coedited a two-volume series on adolescent development, Adolescence in America: An Encyclopedia, arguably the contemporary premier series on adolescent development available today. Lerner’s research has been supported by numerous grants over the course of her career, including funds received from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. Lerner is currently collaborating with her husband, Richard, on a national longitudinal study of positive youth development funded by the National 4-H Council. This 3-year investigation includes a sample of 2,000 children nationwide. Rather than adopting a “deficit model” perspective, this study focuses on youth assets. Lerner’s leadership role in this investigation is another example of her involvement in cutting-edge research. Moreover, she currently serves as an associate editor for the scholarly journal Developmental Psychology and has been an associate editor for Child Development and reviewer for journals such as the Journal of Adolescence, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and the International Journal of Behavioral Development, as well as others. In addition, Lerner was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees at Newbury College. She is a member of professional societies such as the Society for Research in Child Development, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, and the Society for Research in Adolescence. Lerner’s commitment to fostering positive human development and enhancing the lives of youth is not only seen in her empirical research and scholarly achievements but is also markedly evident in her relations with her students. Throughout the course of her esteemed career, Lerner has mentored numerous students, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition to her many accomplishments in the field of human development, one of her greatest contributions has been and continues to be her role as valued and respected mentor, which she has been to so many students and young scholars. For graduate students, the ideal mentor is distinguished in his or her chosen field and also provides the needed support and

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guidance to foster the development of students. Jackie Lerner is one such mentor. Dr. Lerner’s students at the undergraduate and graduate levels have appreciated her valuable guidance, nurturing support, and unwavering commitment to her students both in and out of the classroom. Lerner is one scholar who clearly stands out in her dedication to her students and in the collaborative relations she cultivates. Above and beyond her esteemed contributions to the field and her unwavering commitment to her students, her warm and generous personality is evident in all that she does. Lerner currently resides in Wayland, Massachusetts. She and her husband, Richard, have three children, Justin, Blair, and Jarrett. —Domini R. Castellino

LERNER, RICHARD M. Richard M. Lerner is an internationally recognized leader in the field of human development and its application to programs and policies promoting positive development across the life span. Although a developmental psychologist by training, he is truly an applied developmental scientist, whose more than 30 years of scholarship have influenced the thinking of other scholars across many disciplines. In addition, because of his commitment to applying his scholarship, his work has had an effect on the lives of real children, families, and communities, both nationally and internationally. Through his scholarship, teaching, and leadership, Richard Lerner has inspired significant change in the way people think about and create programs and policies for the diverse youth and families of the world.1

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Castellino, D. R., Lerner, J. V., Lerner, R. M., & von Eye, A. (1998). Maternal employment and education: Predictors of young adolescent career trajectories. Applied Developmental Science, 2, 114–126. East, P., Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Soni, R. T., Ohannessian, C. M., & Jacobson, L. P. (1992). Early adolescent peergroup fit, peer relations, and adjustment: A short-term longitudinal study. Journal of Early Adolescence, 12, 132–152. Jovanovic, J., Lerner, R. M., & Lerner, J. V. (1989). Objective and subjective attractiveness and early adolescent adjustment. Journal of Adolescence, 12, 225–229. Lerner, J. V. (1994). Working women and their families. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Lerner, J. V., & Galambos, N. L. (1985). Maternal role satisfaction, mother-child interaction, and child temperament. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1157–1164. Lerner, J. V., & Galambos, N. L. (Eds.). (1991). Employed mothers and their children. New York: Garland. Ohannessian, C. M., Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., & von Eye, A. (1995). Discrepancies in adolescents’ and parents’ perceptions of family functioning and adolescent emotional adjustment. Journal of Early Adolescence, 15, 490–516. Ohannessian, C. M., Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., & von Eye, A. (1996). Direct and indirect relations among perceived parental acceptance, perceptions of the self and emotional adjustment during early adolescence. Family and Consumer Science Research Journal, 25, 159–183. Ohannessian, C. M., Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., & von Eye, A. (1998). Perceived parental acceptance and early adolescent self-competence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68, 621–692. Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York: Bruner/Mazel.

HISTORICAL ROOTS OF LERNER’S BASIC DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH Lerner’s career in human development began in 1966, in his first year as a doctoral student in the psychology doctoral program within the City University of New York. As an undergraduate, Lerner was exposed to the work of Donald Hebb, which he initially interpreted as pertaining to physiological psychology. However, under the guidance of Elizabeth Gellert and, most important, Sam J. Korn, Lerner learned that Hebb (1949) was actually presenting a theory of development. This developmental theory stated that the organism and environment interact to bring organization to the brain and, ultimately, to the individual’s behavior. This was Lerner’s first exposure to the idea that a relation between organism and context constituted the basic process of development. Furthermore, he found that such influences between the two levels within this relation enabled the potential for plasticity in brain organization and behavior to be actualized (Lerner, 1982, 1984, 2002a). While still a graduate student, and again through Sam Korn’s tutelage, Lerner was exposed to some of the key philosophical issues of development, such as teleology, organicism, and the mechanist/reductionist perspective. He was also introduced to the scholarship of developmental scientists whose theory and research would come to be a major influence on his work, most notably Heinz Werner and especially T. C. Schneirla.

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Schneirla was a comparative psychologist whose research dealt mainly with army ants and kittens. Through his dissertation and almost 15 years of postdoctoral research, Lerner, focusing on human development, extended Schneirla’s ideas of organismexperience relations as the basis of developmental processes. For example, for his dissertation, Lerner used the idea of circular functions (individuals both influence and are influenced by their contexts and are thus a source of their own development) to frame a study of the role of individual differences in male children’s and adolescents’ body builds for their personality and social development. Despite being successfully defended, there was one foreshadowing objection to his work by the psychology faculty: that the dissertation was more sociological or anthropological than psychological. In retrospect, this dissertation presaged Lerner’s career as a scholar who draws from multiple fields to understand development. The larger theoretical extension of Schneirla’s work that Lerner made was to show that a personological analysis of individual development is incomplete. To understand development, one needs to understand the mutually influential relations between individual and context (represented as individual
 context relations) and that there are multiple levels of organization that compose the context, for example, social relationships, social institutions, and culture. One could not rely on psychology alone to understand the breadth of the relations between the individual and the context that compose the basic process of human development. Following the completion of his doctorate, in 1971 (Lerner & Korn, 1972), Lerner extended the empirical focus of his research to include not just body build but also physical appearance (e.g., facial attractiveness) more generally. While continuing to frame his work by an interest in circular functions and the broader individual
 context relational ideas of psychologists such as Hebb and Schneirla, as well as of Gottlieb (1970) and Tobach (1971), he also considered the importance of other characteristics of organismic individuality (for example, temperament and puberty) for child and adolescent development (e.g., see Lerner & Lerner, 1983). Through the influence of Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess (1977), Lerner and his colleague Jacqueline V. Lerner explored the ideas of “goodness of fit” to understand the feedback (either positive or negative) that a child might receive from the other people in his or her life (such as

parents, teachers, or peers) as a result of the influence the child’s individual characteristics have on them. Lerner continued this work through the mid-1980s, always using the framework of an individual
 context relational model. In addition, Lerner continued to draw on diverse fields such as anthropology, sociology, psychiatry, and psychology to understand person-context relations. Lerner saw the ideas of these fields as relevant to the broad theoretical model of development he was beginning to advance. LERNER, THE DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS THEORIST During the mid-1970s, Lerner was influenced increasingly by the human ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979) and the dialectical theory of Klaus Riegel (1975). Lerner’s multidisciplinarity led him to elaborate his view that to understand human development, developmental changes among all levels of organization in the ecology of human development must be considered. This thinking was deepened upon gaining an academic appointment at the Pennsylvania State University. In the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State, Lerner’s theoretical understanding of human development was substantially furthered by the life span developmental perspective being advanced by Paul B. Baltes (1983), by John R. Nesselroade (1977), and by other colleagues. These colleagues helped Lerner to merge theory and methodology in the service of better understanding how humans and their ecologies develop over time and how the changes they exhibit are interdependent. Through exposure to some of the world’s leading sociologists within the professional network of Baltes and Nesselroade, scholars such as Orville G. Brim Jr. (1966), Glen H. Elder Jr. (1980), and David L. Featherman (1983), Lerner gained deeper appreciation of the role in human development of the multiple levels of organization that constitute the ecology of human behavior and development. He began to understand that the embeddedness of these macrolevels of organization within history not only provides a temporal component to all levels within the developmental system and to the basic, relational developmental process itself but also that this temporality makes the potential for systematic change—for plasticity—a defining feature of human development across the life span (Lerner, 2002a).

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Lerner spent the mid- to late 1970s and the early 1980s arguing for a focus in developmental research and theory on the individual
 context relational process. He argued for making this the predominant conceptual frame for research in the study of human development (Lerner, 1976, 1982, 1984). Although other colleagues also argued for a relational unit of analysis, Lerner developed a specific theoretical model, developmental contextualism, depicting how these relations operate within the system of “fused,” within- and between-level relations constituting the individual and ecological milieu of human development across the life span. Developmental contextualism was one of the first models that, today, are part of the “family” of theories that are termed developmental systems theories (Lerner, 2002a). LERNER’S THEORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTUALISM Lerner’s (2002a) theory of developmental contextualism stresses that the basic process of development involves mutually influential (that is, bidirectional) relations between levels of organization, ranging from biology through individual and social functioning to societal, cultural, physical ecological, and, ultimately, historical levels of organization. He noted that there are several important implications of this relational process of human development. First, Lerner emphasized that because of the variation that will necessarily exist across people in the set of multilevel relations that comprise their life spans, diversity—interindividual differences in intraindividual change—is a fundamental, substantive feature of human development. He further noted that because diversity provides a sample of the range of variation in human development that may exist, it is a basis for optimism that scientists may be able to identify variations in individual
 context relations that may promote positive human development. Second, in stressing relationism, developmental contextualism transcends the person-context (or nature-nurture) split theories that have characterized the field of human developmental science (Overton, 1998). Third, developmental contextualism transcends another split in developmental science, one between basic science and application. To Lerner, the relational character of development (and the temporality of history that leads to relative plasticity) means that at least to some degree, change

is always possible within the developmental system. Lerner (2002a) contended that changes in the relations between individuals and their contexts may be instituted by entering the ecology of human development at any of its levels of organization. Thus, theoretically predicated attempts to change the course of individual
 context relations constitute both tests of the basic, relational process of human development and attempts to improve the course of life (given ethical mandates to enhance development only in a positive direction). Depending on the level of organization on which such interventions into the life course are aimed, one may term such actions either programs or policies (Lerner, 2002a). Thus, in Lerner’s theory of developmental contextualism, there is no distinction between basic research, which is aimed at understanding the nature of individual
 context relations, and applications aimed at promoting these relations. Thus, Lerner (2002b) has called for designing research and interventions that involve (a) dynamic (fused) relations between the multiple levels of organization (Ford & Lerner, 1992) involved in the ecology of human development; (b) the appraisal of all levels of the human ecology, from individual through cultural and historical, and the way these levels interrelate or are fused; (c) a focus on the individual differences (the diversity) that derives from variation of the interactions among levels; and (d) a “colearning” model for the design of research (and intervention) programs (Lerner, 1998), in which the individuals being influenced by a given intervention are co-collaborators in the research project. The action-theoretical understanding of individuals as coproducers of their own development (e.g, Brandstädter, 1998) also promotes a colearning model, as individuals have expert knowledge about the issues, assets, and risks affecting their lives and can provide a unique perspective about these variables. This approach also diminishes research participants’ feelings of alienation from the research and makes it more likely that research will be valued by people. The theoretical synthesis in developmental contextualism between the study of the basic, relational process of human development and the application of developmental science to promote positive human development provides a basis for Lerner’s work as an applied developmental scientist. Although Lerner is interested in development across the life span, the majority of his work as an applied developmental scientist has focused on youth in the first two decades of life.

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FROM DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENTIST TO APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENTIST Although always having an understanding that it is necessary for research to be applied to the real lives of the people being studied, it is only in the past 15 years that Lerner has moved away from the traditional work of the basic developmental researcher to focus his efforts on applying developmental science. For Lerner, it became necessary that as a scholar of child and adolescent development, he needed to not only contribute to better knowledge about youth development but also to apply that knowledge to enhance the development of young people. As suggested above, Lerner’s elaboration over the years of his developmental contextual theory led him to realize that in the real ecology of human development, policy and programs could serve as interventions that altered individual
context relations for the better. By using his ideas to design and assess the effectiveness of programs and policies, Lerner could both learn about how the programs and policies were working and learn something about the nature of human development. In Lerner’s own words, Within developmental contextualism, then, programs and policies represent theory-guided actions to alter youth-context connections in ways that promote positive developmental trajectories. Evaluation of the effectiveness of these applications of developmental science provide information about both the efficacy of such interventions, and the basic, relational process of human development. (Lerner, 2002b, pp. 325–326) Lerner’s current research reflects his attempts to understand the basic relational process promoting positive youth development (Lerner, 2002b). For example, with the support of the W. T. Grant Foundation, Lerner and colleagues Carl Taylor and Alexander von Eye are conducting a longitudinal study, “Overcoming the Odds,” which examines the bases of positive development among African American gang youth. In addition, with the support of the National 4-H Council, Lerner is currently engaged in a longitudinal study of the bases of positive development among a national sample of youth from diverse ethnic, racial, geographical, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

In addition to enhancing the applied aspects of his own work, Lerner has worked diligently to bring the ideas of applied developmental science to colleagues in multiple fields across the nation and world. He has argued for the necessity of outreach scholarship at all colleges and universities across the country. His goal is to ensure that all institutions of higher education make value-added contributions to the lives of diverse youth, families, and communities. Lerner himself has created applied developmental science centers at Michigan State University and Boston College, and he is currently the director of the Applied Developmental Science Institute at Tufts University. In addition, with Celia B. Fisher and Richard A. Weinberg, Lerner was the founding editor of the journal Applied Developmental Science, and earlier, he was the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence. Lerner also edited Volume 1, Theoretical Models of Human Development, for the fifth edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology (1998) and with Laurence Steinberg, the second edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (2004). He is currently editing, with William Damon, the forthcoming sixth edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology, and he edited, with Francine Jacobs and Donald Wertlieb, the four-volume Handbook of Applied Developmental Science (2003). In short, through his work and the work of his colleagues, applied developmental science is now considered an established part of developmental science. CONCLUSIONS Richard M. Lerner’s contributions to the field have been (and continue to be) enormous and have changed the way scholars and practitioners think about youth, families, and communities. In addition to authoring or editing more than 180 peer-reviewed articles, 145 chapters, and 55 books—including one of the premier graduate textbooks in human development (Lerner, 2002a)—he also continues to collaborate with national and international youth-serving organizations such as National 4-H Council, International Youth Foundation, Search Institute, and YouthBuild USA. He serves, as well, on numerous government, foundation, and editorial boards, including on the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Scientific Board of Advisors. Lerner also has been and continues to be an open and collaborative mentor to numerous students at both the undergraduate and graduate

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levels. He is unselfish in his dedication to all of those around him. Today, Lerner continues to use his considerable theoretical and methodological talents to make new and exciting contributions to the theory of human development. His 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development is the first longitudinal study of a theoretical model of positive youth development, and his latest book, Liberty: Thriving and Civic Engagement Among America’s Youth (2004), offers a perspective on how developmental theory can be applied to programs and policies that enhance youth civic contributions and the quality of civil society in the United States. In short, Lerner is a dedicated and prolific applied developmental scientist who is held in the highest regard by colleagues in both science and practice. —Deborah L. Bobek, Elizabeth Katcher, Daniel F. Perkins, and Jasna Jovanovich

NOTE 1. The biographical information for this entry is derived largely from Lerner (2002b).

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baltes, P. B. (1983). Life-span developmental psychology: Observations on history and theory revisited. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Developmental psychology: Historical and philosophical perspectives (pp. 79–112). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Brandtstädter, J. (1998). Action perspectives on human development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 807–863). New York: Wiley. Brim, O. G., Jr. (1966). Socialization through the life cycle. In O. G. Brim Jr. & S. Wheeler (Eds.), Socialization after childhood: Two essays (pp. 1–49). New York: Wiley. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Elder, G. H., Jr. (1980). Adolescence in historical perspective. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 3–46). New York: Wiley. Featherman, D. L. (1983). Life-span perspectives in social science research. In P. B. Baltes & O. G. Brim Jr. (Eds.), Life span development and behavior (Vol. 5, pp. 1–57). New York: McGraw-Hill. Ford, D. L., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Gottlieb, G. (1970). Conceptions of prenatal behavior. In R. Aronson, E. Tobach, D. S. Lehrman, & J. S. Rosenblatt (Eds.), Development and evolution of behavior: Essays in memory of T. C. Schneirla (pp. 111–137). San Francisco: Freeman. Hebb, D. O. (1949). The organization of behavior. New York: Wiley. Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (1983). Temperament and adaptation across life: Theoretical and empirical issues. In P. B. Baltes & O. G. Brim Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 5, pp. 197–231). New York: Academic Press. Lerner, R. M. (1976). Concepts and theories of human development. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Lerner, R. M. (1982). Children and adolescents as producers of their own development. Developmental Review, 2, 342–370. Lerner, R. M. (1984). On the nature of human plasticity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lerner, R. M. (1998). Theories of human development: Contemporary perspectives. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (pp. 1–24). New York: Wiley. Lerner, R. M. (2002a). Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2002b). Multigenesis: Levels of professional integration in the life-span of a developmental scientist. In R. Lickliter & D. J. Lewkowicz (Eds.), Conceptions of development: Lessons from the laboratory (pp. 313–337). New York: Psychology Press. Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M., Jacobs, F., & Wertlieb, D. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of applied developmental science: Promoting positive child, adolescent, and family development through research, policies, and programs. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M., & Korn, S. J. (1972). The development of body build stereotypes in males. Child Development, 43, 912–920. Lerner, R. M., & Steinberg, L. (2004). Handbook of adolescent psychology. New York: Wiley. Nesselroade, J. R. (1977). Issues in studying developmental change in adults from a multivariate perspective. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), The handbook of the psychology of aging (pp. 59–69). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Overton, W. (1998). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 107–187). New York: Wiley. Riegel, K. F. (1975). Toward a dialectical theory of development. Human Development, 18, 50–64. Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Tobach, E. (1971). Some evolutionary aspects of human gender. Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 41, 710–715.

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LESBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL YOUTH Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are youth who claim a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) identity and/or knowingly experience same-sex attractions. Positive development refers to resiliency to and avoidance of risk factors, the accumulation of developmental assets, and the achievement of positive outcomes. ORIGINS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION Beliefs about the origins of sexual orientation underlie whether individuals and institutions interpret homosexuality as a natural variation of development or as psychopathology and moral failure. Early psychoanalytic perspectives of homosexuality hold that humans are inherently heterosexual and that homosexuality develops in childhood from improper gender socialization, identification with the opposite-sex parent, alienation from the same-sex parent, or other family system characteristics. Although some sources, usually affiliated with conservative Evangelical or Roman Catholic organizations, still claim that homosexuality develops in this way and is amenable to change through therapy, mainstream psychology and medicine repudiate these views. Reliable research has never upheld purely psychogenic theories of homosexuality and has specifically refuted their conclusion that homosexuality necessarily connects with psychopathology. Indeed, empirical evidence only supports theories attributing part or all of the cause of variation in sexual orientation to biology. There are, however, many biological and partially biological theories, and research has not demonstrated any of them to be the singular explanation for all variation in sexual orientation. A more reasonable position acknowledges differential developmental trajectories, implying that multiple combinations of factors at multiple life stages create sexual orientation. Investigations have found genes, brain anatomy, and levels of sex hormones present in the womb with the developing fetus to contribute to variation in sexual orientation. Twin studies find that monozygotic twins are more often of the same sexual orientation than dizygotic twins, implying a genetic component to sexual orientation differences. Human genome

research found a possible genetic marker for male homosexuality, but another study failed to replicate this. Rather than directly coding for homosexuality, genes may rather influence sex hormone levels in the womb, which determine degrees of masculinization and feminization of the brain during prenatal development. Experiments on sheep and rats have demonstrated that manipulating prenatal sex hormone levels causes significant differences in sexual orientation, but these findings have not, for obvious reasons, been replicated with humans. Further corroborating the explanatory role of sex hormones, likelihood of having same-sex attractions increases with every older brother a man has. An explanation for this finding is that repeated exposure of the mother to certain male-specific antigens causes her body to produce antibodies to them, which enter the fetus’s bloodstream and interfere with masculinization of the brain. In further support of biological explanations, studies have demonstrated brain anatomy differences via PET scans, postmortem analysis of brain tissue, and paper-and-pencil tasks that demonstrate differences in processing. Same-sex attracted individuals often also exhibit sex-atypicality in handedness, fingerprints, finger length, and reflexive eye blinking. The preponderance of the evidence points to a mismatch between brain gender and biological sex. This explains why sex-atypicality in childhood is related to later same-sex attractions, and why the correspondence is not one-to-one: brains can be masculine or feminine or in between with respect to several different characteristics, and sexual orientation is only one of them. Biological differences cannot, however, completely explain variation in sexual orientation. Attractions sometimes change over a matter of years, long after puberty. Females are more likely than males to exhibit this “sexual fluidity.” Although an easy answer does not yet exist to the question of how sexual orientation develops, the biological evidence is clear that some individuals are naturally or inherently sex-atypical and/or same-sex attracted, these differences are not linked to mental or physical health problems, and to the extent that they are biologically “hard- wired,” no amount of therapy will change them.

GENDER CONFORMITY Many sexual minority youth feel different, in a way they may not even understand, from their peers, and at

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odds with social expectations for their gender. Although empirical research cannot usefully address the question of whether parents are less supportive of their sexual minority sons and daughters than they are of their sex-typical children, many sexual minority youth, particularly gender-atypical young men, report not being understood by parents and other adults involved in their lives. According to conventional wisdom, fathers, in particular, are estranged from sons who do not enjoy typically masculine activities and who violate gender stereotypes. Parents, especially if they follow conservative religious sources that purport homosexuality to be the result of (rather than merely correlated with) gender nonconformity and family system problems in childhood, are often very concerned about sex-atypical behavior and temperament in their children. According to prevailing gender ideology, which conservative religion and other social forces enforce, boys are not to show weakness or softness by emulating girls, and girls are not to try to usurp men’s rightful position of power by emulating boys. Peers and teachers may take up the standard of enforcing gender conformity, and public fear of homosexuality may lead to an environment in which any atypicality, such as introversion, earns a child or youth the label “gay.” Empirical evidence shows that others’ perceptions of “gay”-ness or gender-atypicality present problems for youth in ways that sexual minority status itself does not. Extreme cases in which perceived homosexuality (whether or not the subject actually was a sexual minority) proved to be a risk factor have made headlines. A typical story is that classmates harass youth for perceived gayness and school officials blame the victim. In two nationally known cases, students sued their schools for tens of thousands of dollars for allowing this. Several of the school shooters of 1999–2000 were called “gay,” and no convincing evidence has yet been found that any actually were. Less visible and far more prevalent, however, are scenarios in which parents turn their kids out and render them homeless. These tragic cases are not typical of the population of sexual minority youth in general. However, for those that do occur, special services such as the Harvey Milk School are critical to ensuring their future welfare. COMING OUT TO SELF AND OTHERS Coming out can be conceptualized as a series of milestones: first awareness of same-sex attractions,

first self-labeling as LGB, first disclosure of sexual minority status to another person, first romantic relationship, and first same-sex sexual experience. Although some studies report average timing of these developmental milestones and have tracked them as occurring earlier and earlier in life for each subsequent generation (indicating that sexual minority development is increasingly becoming as “normal” as heterosexual development), there is no normative timing or order to these experiences. There is wide variation as to the timing of first awareness of same-sex attractions. Some do not even think about it until they are married with children, others report experiences such as cruising young grocery store employees of their gender as a toddler sitting in the child seat of a shopping cart. Puberty, or soon after, is the usual time of first awareness. Once first awareness happens, self-labeling is optional: some same-sex-attracted youth reason that they are not gay/lesbian/bisexual because their primary attraction is to the opposite sex, because they have only had sex with same-sex others but all their romantic relationships have been with members of the opposite sex, or other reasons. Because self-labeling is a choice, it is not useful to impose a hard-and-fast definition of who the “real” LGB youth are. A youth’s own selflabel is an important piece of information when considered alongside of sexual behavior, attractions, and romantic dating pattern. First disclosure or “coming out,” also optional, is most often to an established, trusted friend, usually heterosexual. There is no ideal or normative time to come out. Literature for gay and lesbian youth advises them to wait until they are comfortable, know they are telling someone trustworthy, and are not in danger from a negative reaction. In a recent study of sexual minority youth, more than half waited until their college years to come out. Parents rarely find out until after their children have come out to themselves and disclosed to friends. Extreme, violent parental reactions to disclosure are relatively rare, possibly because youth who expect such reactions choose not to come out. Disclosure causes some short-term immediate stress to the family system, but relationships usually improve with time. First same-sex experience and first romantic relationship are often figural in the coming-out process, although how they are so differs from person to person. Some have experiences in sexual experimentation with friends before realizing that their feelings

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are sexual. First sexual experience can precipitate first awareness, or it may come years later. First sexual experience can confirm a self-label, or an individual may wait to adopt the self-label until he or she has moved beyond the stage of “just sex” and had an actual romantic relationship. This in-between stage can be problematic, because a person who maintains a heterosexual romantic relationship while having same-sex partners “on the side” is putting his or her partner at risks unknown to that partner. SOURCES OF RISK AND SUPPORT Sexual minority youth are not necessarily worse off than other youth. Many studies have found sexual minority youth to have higher rates of reported suicide attempts, more cases of depression, lower average self-esteem, and higher rates of substance use than other youth. Some conservative pseudoscientific sources review these studies and conclude that there is a necessary connection between homosexuality/ transgendered status and psychopathology. This conclusion requires the assumption that random, representative samples of sexual minority youth have participated in the research. This assumption cannot be valid, because such a sample is impossible to obtain. Further, many LGB youth who participate in studies are recruited from support groups and urban community centers, where many youth go who are seeking support. These samples cannot be meaningfully compared to a general population of youth. Therefore, research cannot establish baseline population differences in outcomes between sexual minority and other youth, and definitely cannot support a hypothesis that sexual minority status is necessarily connected with psychopathology. Research has, however, identified some groups of sexual minority youth (such as throwaway, bullied, or seriously genderatypical youth) who are at risk and would benefit from special services, and other groups (such as college students) who cannot be assumed to be at risk. In practice, presenting the assumption that all LGB, same-sex-attracted, or same-sex-partner sexually active youth are at risk can lead to a further, invalid assumption that sexual minority status is a risk factor in and of itself, and to a one-dimensional view of sexual minority youth that is neither honest nor helpful. Sexual minority status, in and of itself, is not a risk factor. Highly gender-atypical youth are, however, at risk due to the reactions that this behavior provokes. It is

important not to blame the victim: if gender-atypicality is biologically hardwired, then gender-atypical youth cannot simply stop it. Early sexual behavior with multiple partners also leads to negative outcomes, as it does for heterosexual youth. Too-early disclosure of sexual minority status is also a risk factor, probably because such disclosures occur involuntarily when gender-atypicality or sexual behavior becomes too noticeable by intolerant others to be ignored. Religion is a source of both risk and resiliency. Although many antigay social forces are based in conservative religion, and irreconcilable conflicts between religion and sexual identity are problematic, religious sexual minority youth draw as much strength from their spiritual commitments as do other youth. Many define themselves as spiritual rather than religious, or seek an alternative religious commitment that is close to their own but tolerant. A resiliency factor over which concerned adults have considerable control is the creation and maintenance of safe spaces within schools, campuses, and communities in which sexual minority youth may experience intolerance. Many sexual minority youth are adept at finding supportive environments both online and in their own towns, seeking out, for example, the one guidance counselor at their school with a copy of One Teenager in Ten (Heron, 1983) on his or her bookshelf, or attending the one youth group or campus ministry in their area with a neutral-topositive stance toward sexual minorities.

CONCLUSIONS The fact that positive developmental outcomes for sexual minority youth are more possible now than they have been in recent history is a testament to the efforts of concerned justice-minded adults and to the strength and resiliency of the youth themselves. A positive development perspective acknowledges and fosters this strength and resiliency in the avoidance of risk and the achievement of positive outcomes. —Geoffrey L. Ream

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bem, D. J. (2000). Exotic becomes erotic: Interpreting the biological correlates of sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29(6), 531–548.

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Haldeman, D. C. (2002). Gay rights, patient rights: The implications of sexual orientation conversion therapy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 33(3), 260–264. Heron, A. (Ed.). (1983). One teenager in ten. Boston: Alyson. Ream, G. L. (2003). Religion and sexual orientation in America. In J. R. Miller, R. M. Lerner, L. B. Schiamberg, & P. M. Anderson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of human ecology: Vol. 2. I–Z (pp. 608–613). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Ryan, C., & Futterman, D. (1997). Lesbian and gay youth: Care and counseling. Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus. Savin-Williams, R. C. (2001). Mom, dad. I’m gay. How families negotiate coming out. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Savin-Williams, R. C., & Cohen, K. M. (Eds.). (1996). The lives of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals: Children to adults. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace College. Savin-Williams, R. C., & Ream, G. L. (2003). Sex variations in the disclosure of same-sex attractions to parents. Journal of Family Psychology, 17(3), 429–438. Savin-Williams, R. C., & Ream, G. L. (2003). Suicide attempts among sexual-minority male youth. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32(4), 509–522.

LIFE EVENTS Life events contribute to the nature and course of development throughout the life span. They are determined by normative age-graded, normative historygraded, and nonnormative influences and are a function of both biological and social/environmental factors (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998). While normative age-graded life events are expected and experienced by most people at a common time or age, nonnormative events do not occur regularly, or occur at different times (Baltes et al., 1998). For example, graduating from high school and menarche or menopause are normative life events, but getting divorced or experiencing a chronic disease in early adulthood are nonnormative life events. Life events can also be due to normative history-graded influences; that is, an event can occur in a similar way for most people in a particular cohort or generation (Baltes et al., 1998). Examples of history-graded events that have had significant impact are the Great Depression and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This entry summarizes current theory and research on how age-graded, history-graded, and nonnormative life events intersect and together make up the course and context of life span development.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE EVENTS The characteristics of life events are varied and tied to aspects such as their valence, timing, sequencing, predictability, controllability, and desirability (Brim & Ryff, 1980). For example, the timing of life events may be characterized as “on-time” or “off-time” relative to one’s cohort or one’s own expectations (Neugarten & Hagestead, 1976). “Off-time” events may occur earlier or later than expected or desired. While having one’s first child in one’s 20s or 30s is considered on-time and normative, having one’s first child at 50 is less normative and may be considered off-time. Some events have short-term effects that wear off relatively quickly, and others may have longterm effects (e.g., parental divorce; Maier & Lachman, 2000). Adaptive coping strategies are important, especially as adults approach social and biological developmental deadlines for events (e.g., getting a job, having a child; Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Fleeson, 2001). Events that are predictable and controllable typically are less stressful because they can be anticipated and coping strategies can be prepared and resources mobilized in advance (Aldwin & Levenson, 2001).

APPRAISAL OF LIFE EVENTS Reactions to and perceptions of life events have received much attention (e.g., Lazarus, 1999). The consequences of life events and whether or not an event is stressful can depend on a variety of factors, including objective components and subjective appraisal. Thus, some events may have positive effects, and others may lead to negative outcomes. Many researchers believe that the effects of stressful events on negative affective/mood states depend more upon the cognitive response to those events than upon the events themselves (e.g., Lazarus, 1999). This may suggest that the subjective appraisal of an event is more salient to predicting reactions to the event than the objective nature of the event. Lazarus (1999) stated that whether an individual experiences distress as a result of a stressor depends upon his or her appraisal of the situation. In contrast to Lazarus, Pearlin and Turner (1987) argued that people experience distress as a result of exposure to the stressors themselves and individual characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status, gender). If indicators of stressors are based on subjective perceptions, they can easily

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become entangled with and indistinguishable from the emotional stress the stressors are supposed to create (Pearlin & Turner, 1987). ASSESSMENT OF LIFE EVENTS To disentangle the stressful event from an individual’s response, researchers have attempted to objectively describe stressor indicators. Specifically, Zautra, Affleck, and Tennen (1994) outlined three recommendations of item construction for researchers: (a) The event should be observable; (b) the event should have a discrete beginning; and (c) the event should be able to be rated reliably by independent judges. Life events scales are believed to more adequately identify events that have actually occurred than scales built on subjective appraisals, which are more apt to be distorted by retrospective recall bias and personal constructions (Lazarus, 1999). Recent measures have attempted to blend the flexibility of more open-ended question approaches with assessments of quantitative, objective measures of stressor exposure (e.g., Almeida, Wethington, & Kessler, 2002). Brown and Harris (1989) argued for the use of investigator-based judgments of the content, severity, and threat of stressors, so they included measures of interviewer ratings of threat severity in the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS). In early work, Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale to identify common life events on the basis of the amount of effort needed to cope with them. Their scale was rank ordered by the severity of the event so that death of a spouse was considered the most stressful event on their list (or requiring the most effort to cope) and a minor violation of the law was considered the least stressful event. Research showed that the system of quantifying events with a universal score was not effective because the same event varied in stress effects across individuals. Life event measures for specific age groups have also been constructed. For example, the Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI) was designed specifically for use in older populations and includes items such as institutionalization of a spouse and divorce or marital problems of children (Aldwin, 1991). A contemporary view of life events emphasizes that how a life event influences development depends not only on the event but also on mediating factors (e.g., physical health, sense of control), the individual’s adaptation to the event (e.g., coping strategies),

the life stage context, and the sociohistorical context. If an individual is in poor health, has few psychosocial resources, and has little family support, life events are likely to be more stressful. Many researchers currently examining life events incorporate contexts that are proximal (e.g., age, personality) and more distal (e.g., socioeconomic status, ethnicity) in order to gain understanding of the antecedents and consequences of the events. IMPACT OF LIFE EVENTS ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING The study of life events began with a focus on major discrete life events, typically those that were negative or stressful, and their impact on health and well-being (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Given that these events are relatively rare, the relationship with illness was not firmly established. Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, and Lazarus (1981) suggested that daily stressors or hassles, which occur more frequently, may have a greater impact on health and well-being; daily stressors or hassles are defined as “the irritating, frustrating, distressing demands that to some degree characterize everyday transactions with the environment” (p. 3) and represent a unique area of stress that is not tapped by the more general conceptualization of chronic (ongoing) or life event stressors. Examples of daily stressors include events such as an argument, repairing things around the house, having to wait, and traffic problems. Daily stressors tend to be far less dramatic than major life events, but when they pile up or touch on special areas of vulnerability, they can be very stressful for some people and very important for their subjective well-being and physical health (Kanner et al., 1981). People can experience life event stressors for a variety of reasons, such as person-level characteristics and surrounding contexts. For example, individuals of lower socioeconomic status may be exposed to more stressors involving natural disasters because they are more likely to live in areas vulnerable to such damage. The role of age may also be important for exposure. Displacement from roles and positions accelerates with age (e.g., life events such as retirement and children leaving the home), so the aging process is often synonymous with loss (Chiriboga, 1997). However, Aldwin and Levenson (2001) suggested that the relationship between age and stress depends upon the type of stressor (i.e., life events, daily hassles) that

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is examined. The frequency of life events does not appear to increase with age, but the types of life events experienced by middle-aged and older adults are different than those experienced by younger adults (Chiriboga, 1997). For example, middle-aged and older adults tend to experience more life events involving network stressors (misfortunes that happen to close others), health-related events, and changes in social roles (Zautra et al., 1994). Younger individuals typically report more gains in social roles, while older individuals report more losses (Aldwin & Levenson, 2001). Therefore, the balance of positive and negative events tends to shift with age, such that older adults may experience fewer positive events/gains relative to negative events/losses than younger adults (Almeida & Horn, 2004) and the impact of the negative events experienced may increase (Chiriboga, 1997). CONCLUSIONS The characteristics, impact, assessment, and implications of life events are important for understanding development throughout the life span. Life events are determined by normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and nonnormative influences and are a function of both biological and social/environmental factors. It is useful to assess proximal and distal contexts in order to gain understanding of the antecedents and consequences of life events. Major life events and more frequently occurring daily stressors can have an impact on physical and mental health, but the effects of stressful events depend upon a variety of vulnerability and resilience factors. Interventions to alleviate the negative effects of stressful events have implemented techniques such as modifying appraisal of events, enhancing coping strategies, cognitive restructuring, and relaxation training. A more thorough understanding of the intersecting contexts surrounding life events has much promise for developing successful interventions to prevent or minimize the deleterious effects of stressful events. —Shevaun D. Neupert and Margie E. Lachman

AUTHORS’ NOTE We appreciate the support for writing this entry from the National Institute on Aging (T32 AG 00204 and P01 AG 20166).

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Aldwin, C. M. (1991). The Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI): Research and clinical applications. In P. A. Keller & S. R. Heyman (Eds.), Innovations in clinical practice: A sourcebook (pp. 355–364). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. Aldwin, C. M., & Levenson, M. R. (2001). Stress, coping, and health at midlife: A developmental perspective. In M. E. Lachman (Ed.), Handbook of midlife development (pp. 188–214). New York: Wiley. Almeida, D. M., & Horn, M. C. (2004). Is daily life more stressful during middle adulthood? In O. G. Brim, C. D. Ryff, & R. C. Kessler (Eds.), How healthy are we? A national study of well-being at midlife (pp. 425–451). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Almeida, D. M., Wethington, E., & Kessler, R. C. (2002). The daily inventory of stressful events: An investigator-based approach for measuring daily stressors. Assessment, 9, 41–55. Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (1998). Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1029–1143). New York: Wiley. Brim, O. G., & Ryff, C. D. (1980). On the properties of life events. In P. G. Baltes & O. G. Brim Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 3, pp. 368–388). New York: Academic Press. Brown, G. W., & Harris, T. O. (1989). The origins of life events and difficulties. In G. W. Brown & T. O. Harris (Eds.), Life events and illness (pp. 3–45). New York: Guilford. Chiriboga, D. A. (1997). Crisis, challenge, and stability in the middle years. In M. E. Lachman & J. Boone James (Eds.), Multiple paths of midlife development (pp. 293–322). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Heckhausen, J., Wrosch, C., & Fleeson, W. (2001). Developmental regulation before and after a developmental deadline: The sample case of “biological clock” for childbearing. Psychology and Aging, 16, 400–413. Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–218. Kanner, A. D., Coyne, J. C., Schaefer, C., & Lazarus, R. S. (1981). Comparison of two models of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 1–39. Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis. New York: Springer. Maier, H. E., & Lachman, M. E. (2000). Consequences of early parental loss and separation for health and well-being in midlife. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 183–189. Neugarten, B., & Hagestead, G. (1976). In R. H. Binstock & L. K. George (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences. New York: Academic Press.

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Pearlin, L. I., & Turner, H. A. (1987). The family as a context of the stress process. In S. V. Kasl & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Stress and health: Issues in research methodology (pp. 143–165). New York: Wiley. Zautra, A. J., Affleck, G., & Tennen, H. (1994). Assessing life events among older adults. In M. P. Lawton & J. A. Teresi (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics: Focus on assessment techniques (pp. 324–352). New York: Springer.

LIFE EXPECTANCY AND THE LIFE SPAN Two thousand years ago, in ancient Rome, the life expectancy of a newborn child was just 22 years. The life expectancy of a child born in the 1800s in Europe equaled 35 years. In the United States in 1900, life expectancy was approximately 47 years. But these figures do not mean that the average adult during these eras died at these ages. Life expectancy refers to demographic projections about the average length of life. And unless otherwise stated, the age reported represents life expectancy at birth for any given era. Life expectancy at birth has increased significantly over the past century, and it varies by gender, ethnic, and racial groups. In 2002, the National Vital Statistics Reports published life expectancy projections for the year 2000 (Arias, 2002). In the United States, White males born in the year 2000 could expect to live 74.8 years, Black males 68.2 years, White females 80 years, and Black females 74.9 years. As can be seen from these figures, life expectancy at birth in the United States has risen approximately 25 years since the 47 years reported for 1900. Data such as these are sometimes interpreted to mean that as a population, we are living significantly longer into advanced old age. But this interpretation is not entirely correct. The main reason for the increase in life expectancy at birth over the past century is that the infant mortality rate decreased significantly during the same time. That is, more children are reaching adulthood than ever before. Once we become adults, however, life expectancy for any given age has changed much more modestly. Demographers often use age 65 to examine changes in adult life expectancy. For example, from Arias’s (2002) report,

life expectancy at age 65 in 1950 in the United States was 13.9 years and in 2000 was 17.9 years, an increase of 4 years. The Belgian statistician Quetelet (1842) is generally regarded to have published the earliest life expectancy data available. Quetelet reported that life expectancy at age 65 in 1830s Europe was slightly greater than 10 years. So, over approximately 170 years, life expectancy at age 65 has increased a little more than 7 years. Quetelet’s estimations were calculated the same way they are today. That is, life expectancy refers to the age at which half a given population group is expected to be living and half are expected to have died. Apart from life expectancy, life span is defined as the maximum age that a person can live without illness or accident. Hayflick (1977) and his associates have demonstrated that normal human cells survive and reproduce for a certain period but eventually enter a period of degeneration and die. On the basis of his evidence, Hayflick has estimated the maximum potential life span at about 110 years. From this point of view, if all pathological causes of death were eliminated, including cancer and heart disease, a human would still die, merely as a result of the programmed life span of cells and the number of times they are capable of reproducing. Using a somewhat different approach, a more recent series of analyses by Olshansky and colleagues has reached similar conclusions regarding the potential length of the human life span (see, for example, Olshansky, Carnes, & Cassel, 1990). Still, the number of elderly continues to grow. In 1900, about 3% of the U.S. population was over the age of 65. In 1950, the number had risen to 8%, and in the 2000 census, the number had reached 12.4%. By 2030, the number could grow to over 20% (Hetzel & Smith, 2001). Much of the change in the next quarter century will not be due to people living longer, but rather to the aging of the baby-boomer population (born between 1946 and 1964). That is, as this rather large bulge in the population ages, they will because of their large numbers increase the proportion of people living over the age of 65. This growth may well also increase societal and governmental attention to the dependency needs of the aged, demand by the aged for resources, and awareness of the aged as a political force. —Dennis N. Thompson and Walter Colt

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Arias, E. (2002, December 19). National vital statistics reports, 51. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services. (Also available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ fastats/lifexpec.htm) Hayflick, L. (1977). The cellular basis for biological aging. In L. E. Finch & L. Hayflick (Eds.), Handbook of the biology of aging (pp. 159–186). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Hetzel, L., & Smith, A. (2001). The 65 years and over population: 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. Olshansky, S. J., Carnes, B., & Cassel, C. (1990, November 2). In search of Methuselah: Estimating the upper limits to human longevity. Science, 250, 634–640. Quetelet, A. (1842). A treatise on man and the development of his faculties (Edinburgh translation). Edinburgh, Scotland: W. and R. Chambers.

LIFE SPAN/LIFE COURSE DEVELOPMENT. See ADULT DEVELOPMENT, DEFINITION, CULTURE, AND APPLICATIONS; LEARNING IN THE LIFE CYCLE; LIFE EXPECTANCY AND THE LIFE SPAN; OLD AGE; SOCIAL SUPPORT IN OLD AGE; SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN; TRANSITION IN ADULTHOOD; TRANSITION TO COLLEGE; VISUAL IMPAIRMENT ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

LIMBIC SYSTEM, HEDONIC ESCALATION In physiological terms, pleasure can be defined as activation of the limbic areas of the brain (Campbell, 1973). The nerve fibers serving pleasure seeking are inextricably interwoven with fibers that control physiological functions that are indispensable for individual and species survival, such as heart beating, breathing, blood pressure, and sexual excitation. Those functions activate pleasure networks and are, in turn, activated by neural constellations in the pleasure areas. Thus, the limbic system emerged as a coordinator of the basic survival functions: Activities that serve the species get to be performed because they reward

individuals with pleasures; activities that are detrimental to the species are punished and discouraged through displeasure. This explains how humans’ basic (default) goal in life came to be the maximization of pleasure and minimization of displeasure. This entry explains the physiological, environmental, and social correlates of hedonic escalation, associated pleasure behaviors, and implications for understanding addictive behaviors. THE ROLE OF STIMULATION Humans as pleasure seekers are in constant search of stimulation. When the activation of a pleasure area decreases, nerve impulses are sent to the motor centers that control the muscles involved in exploratory behavior until the individual finds a new source of sensory stimulation and a new source of temporary pleasure. This scheme is to be regarded as the most fundamental and basic neural mechanism of behavior (Campbell, 1973). The five senses are the interface between the environment and an individual’s autonomic system, which is the part of the human brain that looks after basic survival and reproduction processes and ensures that these functions are performed automatically (unconsciously). THE ROLE OF PLEASURE WITHIN THE AUTONOMIC SYSTEM The pleasure provided by the autonomic activity in general and sensorial activity in particular (i.e., the stimulation of neurons located in the pleasure areas) has survival value because it motivates us to stay connected to the world and adjust, that is, respond in ways that minimize discomfort and maximize pleasure (Greenfield, 2000). The autonomic system energizes and monitors two types of functions: routine maintenance processes, for which resource deployment is minimized, and processes that support emergency activities, for which resource deployment needs to be maximized (e.g., fight-or-flight response, sexual intercourse). Autonomic activities surface in consciousness typically in relation to deprivation (pain in case of deficiency, and pleasure in case of remedied deficiency; e.g., pleasure of movement after immobility, pleasure of breathing fresh air after stifling in a crowded room). But it is also possible to experience pleasure during energy-intensive activities (e.g., runner’s high). The role of pleasure in such situations is to supplement

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resource investment beyond the automatic deployment encoded for the base level of that function. ESCALATION OF AUTONOMIC PLEASURE Autonomic pleasure (associated with the five senses and basic activities such as eating, drinking, physical activity, and sexual activity) can be enhanced by sequencing deprivation and excess, repeating the sequence, simultaneously applying the schema to several autonomic processes, and further synergizing by means of combinations with other nonautonomic activities/stimulations. The additional pleasure does not come without costs, though: Both deprivation and excesses throw the neatly coordinated autonomic system out of balance and reduce its functional efficiency and/or effectiveness (cause resource dissipation/ waste). If practiced long term, they may lead to physical exhaustion and illnesses. Fortunately, some natural protection mechanisms have evolved to balance human greed for pleasure and to promote homeostasis (system stability). NATURAL PROTECTION AGAINST THE ESCALATION OF AUTONOMIC PLEASURE Adaptation is the most basic safety mechanism against pleasure escalation excesses. Adaptation means automatic decay of excitation at the level of peripheral receptors (Campbell, 1973). The pleasure seeker’s strategies for circumventing adaptation are changing the sources of stimulation and searching for new sources. Each novel stimulus triggers fewer associations and is more readily displaced. The turnover rate of processing novel stimuli is faster, and that keeps a pleasure seeker bombarded by his or her senses, experiencing intense pleasure (Greenfield, 2000). Hedonic reversal is another natural defense against stimulation excesses. At too high a speed of change and excessive stimulus density, the processing capacity is overwhelmed, and the hedonic quality of the experience is spontaneously reversed from pleasure to displeasure. “Pleasure shades into fear when the stimulation is just too fast and too novel” (Greenfield, 2000, p. 113). Pleasure seekers will therefore try to optimize rather than maximize arousal. Zillmann’s (1988; Bryant & Zillmann, 1984) mood management theory and Apter’s (1994) reversal theory of enjoyment of violence endorse the notion that pleasure is a curvilinear function of arousal, with

displeasure occurring at too-high or too-low levels of stimulation. One strategy for preventing reversal is monitoring/optimizing the level of pleasure (maintaining it close to the peak point on the rising slope of the curve). Another strategy for avoiding hedonic reversal is “sustaining pure pleasure” (Greenfield, 2000) by adding a “protective frame” (Apter, 1994) that undercuts the fear reaction. Examples of “protected” experiences are sports, which exploit environmental dangers and control risk primarily through equipment (e.g., skydiving with a parachute); games, which exploit dangers associated with personal interactions and control risk primarily through rules and equipment; and spectacles, which exploit all possible dangers and limit risk through environment artificiality (controllability) and the indirect (vicarious) nature of the experience, which gives the spectator a choice between empathy and detachment. Habituation is a third natural defense against excessive stimulation. It involves a “safety cognition” that develops through repeated stimulation experiences. If an unpleasant (potentially dangerous) stimulus has been stable (has not aggravated in terms of harmful effects) in prior experiences, then the brain will decide not to pay attention simply because there is nothing to worry about (Campbell, 1973). Pleasure seekers’ strategy to overcome this natural defense is beating memory on its own ground by increasing stimulus intensity (which heightens arousal and strengthens the memory trace) and by repetition (which develops chronic accessibility). A typical example is that of a teenager playing the same music over and over again and turning up the volume higher and higher: This keeps giving him or her pleasure, but it also prevents the neighbors from habituating. NEURAL RESOURCES FOR PLEASURE A human being has about 106 genes that contain the “programmed” survival activity of the species. For activities that are not autonomic, a mechanism of choice (individual latitude) has developed to handle the increasing richness of pleasure opportunities historically produced by social life. Our choices are instrumented by a system of 1,011 neurons with possibilities of connecting through 1,015 synapses (Greenfield, 2000). We can exercise choice (respond in nonautomatic ways) only in situations of which we are conscious. The more arousing a situation and the more frequently repeated, the more extensive is the

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constellation of neurons it activates in our brains, and the deeper our consciousness of it. Each activity has a hedonic component, which means that the neural constellation activated during the experience of that activity includes neurons located in the pleasure areas. Repeated activation through similar experiences builds meaning into our experience of the world by means of quasi-permanent connections between neurons (preferred pathways) that personalize our brain (Greenfield, 2000). The most sophisticated part of memory is supported by the prefrontal cortex, which individualizes a brain by means of time and space referencing, which is essential for an individual’s history. The contextualization of experiences makes possible the recognition and choice of situations (rather than isolated stimuli) that provide similar pleasures. Theoretically, this can serve both hedonic optimization and homeostasis. Practically, this linkage makes us prisoners of our gradually stabilizing (closing) universe of pleasures. Responsible for this unfortunate tendency is the natural decay of our memory (i.e., deactivation of unused links), which is an efficiency bias that pushes us toward extreme and easy (sensorial) sources of pleasure and makes us disregard other activities that either have lower hedonic potential or have higher hedonic potential but are more difficult to derive pleasure from. REPEATED EXPERIENCES, SOCIALIZATION, AND INCREASING HARMFULNESS IN PLEASURE ESCALATION What happens when pleasure more intense than that naturally provided by ordinary life experiences becomes available? Experiments with intracranial self-stimulation revealed compulsive pleasure-seeking behavior that preempts other activity. The relationship between pleasure and displeasure is critically important in the process of hedonic maximization or escalation. Habituation to Associated Displeasure Let us consider an isolated experience of simultaneous feelings of pain and pleasure. A trivial pain will attenuate and, if not completely eliminated from consciousness, will tend to be habituated. If the pain is nontrivial, it will trigger what has traditionally been called the “instinct for self-preservation” or “fear and

avoidance of pain.” The outcome will be avoidance behavior that will momentarily prevail over our general tendency to pursue pleasure. Thus, the activity that caused simultaneous pleasure and nontrivial pain will be discontinued. If the same activity is repeated, though, even nontrivial pain will tend to be habituated if it does not aggravate or develop alarming effects. The brain will cease to pay attention to those components of the stimulation that cause stable pain. The neural constellation corresponding to the experience of that activity will lose pain connections, which will shift the individual’s behavioral priority away from self-preservation toward pleasure maximization, “liberating” him or her for enjoyment (e.g., football players’ insensitivity to severe bodily injuries while happily engaged in their games, moviegoers’ enjoyment of violent or horror movies). One problem associated with this type of practice is the amount of harm incurred by the individuals without them being aware (i.e., eliminated from their consciousness through habituation). Another problem is the projection of the individual’s personal harm (incurred for pleasure) onto the social structure he or she belongs to, through modified perception, values, and, ultimately, behavior (e.g., tolerance to violence in games, acceptance of pornography). Remembered and Anticipated Pleasure A more sophisticated exploitation of habituation for the purpose of pleasure maximization is that in which pleasure is not copresent in reality, but merely imagined, or evoked from memory. Such imagination may naturally develop through repetition of specific sequences of painful and pleasurable activities: During the unpleasant activity, the brain may anticipate the subsequent pleasure expected to follow. This “fore-pleasure” (Bousfield, 1926/1999, p. 84) is enjoyed, and the pain of the current activity is habituated. This model would cover pleasures associated with “perverse” practices, such as sadomasochism. The problems associated with these practices based on memory and anticipation are more serious. At the individual level, the activation of neural pathways through imagination mobilizes top-down control (Hobson, 1994) by the cortex. Cortical control is hedonically more efficient than the haphazard trialand-error pattern because it achieves coordination among brain and body activities and tends to produce a coherent and stable set of hedonic behaviors at the

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individual level. On the other hand, this mechanism of generating pleasure produces stable patterns of behavior activities that are naturally avoided and socially discouraged because they consistently cause nontrivial harm. The adopters tend to put pressure on the social system to accept such behaviors (remove restrictions and sanctions). Initiation to Addictive Pleasures A different pattern of hedonic behaviors, originally described for drug consumption, covers a class of activities that combine initial lack of pleasure with subsequent copresence of pain and pleasure. Even repeated experiences of such activities by individuals in isolation would have a negative hedonic balance that would discourage adoption. But individuals do not live in isolation. Hirsch, Conforti, and Graney (1998) revamped Becker’s (1953) three-stage process theory of drug consumption, applicable to the whole class. The theory posits that for individuals to experience pleasure, they need to develop a conception of the means (drug, sexual practice, etc.) as a source of pleasure. The construction of that concept (the meanspleasure neural linkage in memory) involves learning the technique (in the case of drugs, quantities, administration procedures), experiencing and recognizing the effects, and learning to enjoy the effects (i.e., habituating to initially unpleasant feelings and anticipating subsequent pleasures). This learning process requires initiation by other, more “advanced” practitioners and encouragement to overcome the pain during the habituation process. This technique of pleasure escalation is the most aggressive. At the individual level, it may be very harmful physically to the extent it involves addictive noxious stimuli. As learning is conducted in a social context, abundant opportunities for interpersonal pressure and social norm pressure occur. If the practice is effective and very intense sensorial stimulation is achieved, consciousness is flooded with fleeting “pure pleasures” (Greenfield, 2000, p. 116) and the high turnover of small neural constellations precludes the development of links to higher levels of the brain that support contextualization and control functions. The very simple and standard neural activation will make group members feel more “alike” and “together,” which will tend to materialize in uncontrolled herd behavior. At the social level, cohesive groups of pleasure seekers develop and tend to proselytize and to propagandize for their

preferences. Large groups gain market and political power and begin to shape social life, from values to consumption patterns and distribution of wealth. CONCLUSIONS Pleasure has evolved as a reward/stimulant for individual preservation and species preservation actions. Humans seek to maximize pleasure and to defeat natural defenses against pleasure escalation (adaptation, hedonic reversal, and habituation) by repeating stimulation, increasing stimulus intensity, varying stimuli, seeking new stimuli, and increasing the speed of stimulus change. Humans also monitor the level of stimulation in order to optimize pleasure, develop pleasure practices with protective frames, and use memory and anticipation in repeated pleasure experiences, and they may socialize others to addictive pleasure practices. —Dorina Miron

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Apter, M. J. (1994, October). Why we enjoy media violence: A reversal theory approach. Paper presented at the International Conference on Violence in the Media, St. John’s University, New York. Becker, H. S. (1953). Becoming a marijuana user. American Journal of Sociology, 59, 235–242. Bousfield, P. (1999). Pleasure and pain: A theory of the energic foundation of feeling. London: Routledge. (Original work published 1926) Bryant, J., & Zillmann, D. (1984). Using television to alleviate boredom and stress: Selective exposure as a function of induced excitational states. Journal of Broadcasting, 28, 1–20. Campbell, H. J. (1973). The pleasure areas: A new theory of behavior. New York: Delacorte. Greenfield, S. (2000). The private life of the brain: Emotions, consciousness, and the secret of the self. New York: Wiley. Hirsch, M. L., Conforti, R. W., & Graney, C. J. (1998). The use of marijuana for pleasure: A replication of Howard S. Becker’s study of marijuana use. In J. A. Inciardi & K. McElrath (Eds.), The American drug scene: An anthology (2nd ed., pp. 27–35). Los Angeles: Roxbury. Hobson, J. A. (1994). The chemistry of conscious states: How the brain changes its mind. New York: Little, Brown. Zillmann, D. (1988). Mood management: Using entertainment to full advantage. In L. Donohew, H. E. Sypher, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Communication, social cognition, and affect (pp. 147–171). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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LIPSITT, LEWIS P. This review of the sensory behavioral research of Lewis P. Lipsitt traces his contributions to infant development by profiling his work on the chemical senses, touch, vision, and audition. Lipsitt conducted most of this research as part of his general study program, founded in 1957, on the sensory and learning processing of infants at Brown University and the Providence Lying-In Hospital. The development of this laboratory was facilitated by the establishment at Brown University of the “Providence Cohort” (4,000 children born in Rhode Island and followed into adulthood), of which Lipsitt was one of the original researchers and eventually the director. The overarching themes of Lipsitt’s research, which will be clear from this review, are the consequences of behavior and the importance of hedonic (pleasuredispleasure) factors in perception and human adaptation. PROFESSIONAL LIFE Lewis P. Lipsitt came to Brown University as an instructor of psychology in 1957, after obtaining his PhD from the University of Iowa, and he retired in 1996 as professor emeritus of psychology, medical science, and human development. Lipsitt continues his faculty presence today, with an office in the department of psychology and as a core member of the Brown University Center for the Study of Human Development (which he founded in 1967 as the Brown University Child Study Center). Along with his wife, Edna Duchin Lipsitt, he also organizes their endowed Child Behavior and Development annual lecture series at Brown University. Lipsitt trained 52 honors students, 17 masters students, and 16 doctoral students during his tenure at Brown University. At least six of his former students have gone on to their own illustrious careers in psychophysics and sensory research, including Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Velma Dobson, Stephen Buka, John Werner, and Christine Kennedy. Lipsitt has earned tremendous respect among his colleagues and peers for his seminal research in sensory development and learning throughout his career. Most recently (in 2003), he was named the Hilgard Awardee for his lifetime contributions to psychology by the Society of General Psychology (Division 1 of the American Psychological Association [APA]) and at the same

time has been named the Bronfenbrenner Lecturer for the 2004 APA meetings by the APA’s Division of Developmental Psychology. EARLY CONTRIBUTIONS: INFANT CHEMOSENSES Lipsitt’s research covered the five senses, with a particular focus on the chemosenses (taste and smell). He made his first contribution to the chemical senses in 1963, with two articles published in collaboration with Trygg Engen, of the Brown University Psychology Department. The method they used to assess infants’ chemosensory preferences was an ingenious sucking device, along with a stabilimeter for assessing motoric activity. Lipsitt developed this device in his first work on neonatal learning, and it was used in a variety of studies testing nonolfactory stimuli as well. Among the important discoveries that are due to this device was the observation that the shape of the nipple itself, in the absence of any fluid reinforcement, was a determinant of sucking rate (Lipsitt & Kaye, 1965). With the appropriately designed nipple, Lipsitt showed that infants suck differently (with longer bursts of sucking, but at slower rates within bursts) for fluids that they like. Lipsitt’s general sucking method continues to be used today in studies on infant learning across the senses. Olfactory Studies In their first odor perception experiments, Lipsitt and Engen documented the developmental changes in neonatal olfactory threshold and adaptation and recovery rates to various olfactory stimuli (Engen, Lipsitt, & Kaye, 1963; Lipsitt, Engen, & Kaye, 1963). These studies were the first to demonstrate developmental changes and adaptation recovery responses to odors. In 1965, Engen and Lipsitt published a continuation of their work on olfactory adaptation and showed that decreases in responding were due to habituation rather than sensory fatigue and that the recovery of responses was due to a novelty effect. The 1965 study was also the first olfactory study on crossadaptation effects, an important chemical phenomenon that has since become critical to the methodology of olfactory studies in adults and an important area of research itself. These carefully conducted psychophysical experiments, which measured infants’ activities and breathing rates as dependent measures,

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paved the way for the next 40 years of olfactory research on human newborns. Taste Studies Lipsitt’s chemosensory interests were most centered on the development of taste. In particular, he made many important new observations and contributions to understanding infant gustatory perception and the behavioral physiology of sweet taste. A major finding was that infants slow their sucking rates for sucrose solutions, compared with water or nonnutritive sucking (sucking without any fluid reinforcement). Lipsitt’s observation that the rate of activity decreases during sucking for sweet fluids is now known as the “pacification phenomenon” (Lipsitt & Behl, 1990). Note that as mentioned above, infants slow their sucking rates to fluids that they like. However, with sweet solutions, Lipsitt also observed that heart rate increased during sucking (Lipsitt, 1984, 1986). Indeed, he and his colleagues were the first to document that heart rate increases during sucking are positively correlated with increased sweetness concentration (Crook & Lipsitt, 1976; Lipsitt, Reilly, Butcher, & Greenwood, 1976). Lipsitt and his colleagues also showed that presentation of even a small quantity of sweet (e.g., pleasant) fluid can activate the infant and eliminate the “pacifying phenomenon” observed for nonnutritive sucking (Daniel, Zakreski, & Lipsitt, 1982).

That is, the liking or disliking shown of the water and sucrose solutions were based on the prior experience the infants had with these solutions. This work also shows how hedonic responses are relativistic. Responses to water are much more positive in the absence of a sweet contrast solution, and responses to sweet solutions are less positive when not in contrast with alternate tastants. Taste Discrimination In 1974, with Trygg Engen, Lipsitt also published the first study to show that newborns can discriminate between very similar tastants (e.g., glucose and sucrose) and that newborns prefer glucose (Engen, Lipsitt, & Peck, 1974). In addition to demonstrating the discriminative ability of the newborn, this study suggested a very important theoretical distinction between olfactory and gustatory responses: Gustatory responses are innate (e.g., glucose especially positive), whereas olfactory responses are learned. In Lipsitt and Engen’s early olfactory studies and others conducted by Engen and his followers today (Herz, 2001; Herz, Beland, & Hellerstein, 2004), it has been shown that there are no innate olfactory hedonic responses; rather, liking and disliking of odors appears to be learned as a function of the context in which the odor is first encountered and its emotional significance. Flavor Preferences

Negative-Contrast Effect Lipsitt and his colleagues were also the first to observe a negative-contrast effect in newborns who receive alternations between a sweet solution and water (Kobre & Lipsitt, 1972). In this paradigm, involving the infants sucking for 5 minutes for one solution (sucrose), then 5 minutes for another (water), then alternated again, the babies sucked less to water than control babies who sucked for water throughout the 20-minute session. The results obtained for the alternated group were compared with water-only and sucrose-only control groups, which provided baselines. Notably, infants who received sucrose only or water only never showed the dramatic highs or lows of the sucking rates seen in infants who received the alternations. In addition to its empirical contribution, this work makes a deep theoretical observation by showing that hedonic responses are based on experience.

Lipsitt and Engen’s observations that olfactory preferences are learned while taste preferences are present at birth is also important for understanding the development of flavor preferences. Flavor is the combination of taste and smell sensations. However, taste contributes only the sensations of salt, sour, sweet, bitter, and savory (“umami”). Therefore, the flavor of chocolate is due to the taste of sweet, and sometimes also bitter, but it is the smell of chocolate that gives chocolate its flavor. Thus, due to its olfactory component flavor, preferences must also be learned. Lipsitt and Engen’s early findings on innate versus learned chemosensory responses anticipated more than a decade of recent research on infant flavor learning. Researchers such as Benoist Schaal and Julie Mennella have now shown that infant flavor learning begins in utero and is directly affected by maternal diet (Mennella, 1995; Mennella & Beauchamp, 1998;

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Mennella, Johnson, & Beauchamp, 1995; Schaal, Marlier, & Soussignan, 1998; Schaal & Rouby, 1990). Moreover, it has been found that early learned preferences influence food and flavor preferences in later childhood (Mennella & Beauchamp, 2002) and adulthood (Haller, Rummel, Henneberg, Pollmer, & Koster, 1999). Associative learning can even reverse flavor preference trends, and “disliked” flavors can become liked as a consequence of experience. Lipsitt’s pioneering work on taste, smell, and hedonic perception, and hence the development of flavor preferences, both foreshadowed and converges with current research in the field of infant and adult chemosensory response and development. EATING BEHAVIOR AND GUSTATORY SENSATION More recently, Lipsitt has made important contributions to understanding the physiology and development of eating behavior and gustatory sensation. Work conducted with Stephen Porges (Porges & Lipsitt, 1993) tested the gustatory-vagal hypothesis that increases in heart rate and sucking frequency in response to sweet stimuli would reflect a gustatory-vagal response produced by suppression of vagal tone. Their data confirmed the gustatory-vagal hypothesis and showed that in response to increased sweet taste (15% vs. 5% sucrose), sucking frequency increased, heart rate increased, and cardiac vagal tone decreased. In addition, they found individual differences in cardiac vagal tone that correlated with heart rate reactivity to gustatory stimuli. These findings provide an important metric for predicting other vagal responses relevant to gustatory sensation, such as food intake, weight gain, and diabetes susceptibility. This study was the first to examine the gustatory-vagal hypothesis, which is now a well-established physiological response. SALT PREFERENCES Most recently, a study by Lipsitt and colleagues on neonatal blood pressure and salt taste responsiveness showed that increased appetite (sucking responses) for salt was correlated with higher neonatal blood pressure (Zinner, McGarvey, Lipsitt, & Rosner, 2002). It was also suggested in this study that maternal diet may be at the root of these neonatal salt preferences and blood pressure. Thus, Lipsitt’s recent work on salt taste relates to research on flavor development and also has important implications for medicine.

TACTILE SENSATION Moving from the chemical senses, Lipsitt studied the development of tactile sensation, as it related both to gustatory pleasure and to what basic tactile responses the neonate had to external stimuli that might induce pain. Lipsitt and Levy (1959) and Kaye and Lipsitt (1964) followed infants from birth through Day 4 of life and were the first to document that on each successive day, tactile sensitivity increased. Using a toe electrode to deliver electrotactile stimulation, tactile threshold level was measured by foot withdrawal. Their data showed that response threshold decreased with every following measurement. In follow-up analyses, it was made clear that their findings were not due to repeated testing (e.g., sensitization) or changes in basal skin conductance during the first postpartum days. Possible explanations for the observed increases in sensitivity over the first 4 days of life offered by Lipsitt included increased wakefulness, decreases in the effects of maternal anesthesia and analgesia, and increasing recovery from perinatal anoxia. Each of these explanations has been an active area of infant biomedical investigation over the past four decades. In addition to establishing basic response and sensation gradients to tactile stimulation, Lipsitt’s work on tactile perception ties in with his general interest in hedonic perception and human adaptation. His work has underscored how newborns respond to the pleasure and pain of touch in basic approach-avoidance ways that help ensure survival. Lipsitt’s work in tactile perception was also critical to reforming medical procedures. Up until the early 1960s, it was routine for surgeons to perform operations on infants without anesthesia. Lipsitt’s research showing that infants perceive pain was therefore necessary for changing this inhumane practice. AUDITORY PERCEPTION 1964 was a very industrious year for Lipsitt. In addition to his work on the chemical senses and tactile perception, he also investigated auditory pitch discrimination, adaptation, and sound localization in the neonate (Leventhal & Lipsitt, 1964). In infants approximately 2.5 days old, general stabilimeter activity, foot withdrawal, and respiration were recorded, while a 75db tone was used as the stimulus. This experiment showed for the first time that human infants can determine the location of a sound source, and adaptation to the auditory stimulus was also clearly demonstrated. However, pitch discrimination was not unequivocally

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observed in this study, perhaps due to the constricted spectrum of sound frequencies employed. In later work on audition, Lipsitt examined the influence of auditory stimulation on sucking behavior for sweet taste in infants during the first few days of life (Daniel et al., 1982). It was already known that auditory stimulation would increase infant activity during nonnutritive sucking and increase the probability of initiating a sucking bout (Semb & Lipsitt, 1968). However, Lipsitt’s experiment, based on an observation by Crook (1978), showed that the sound of the fluid releasing from the pump alone could instigate sucking and that sound and fluid together could significantly reduce the latency in sucking bouts. In other words, the sound became a conditioned stimulus for the pleasurable fluid to follow. However, learning alone did not fully account for the observed behavior, as concurrent experience (fluid + sound) produced the greatest sucking behavior. VISUAL INFORMATION PROCESSING In Lipsitt’s thorough investigation of infant sensory perception, he included visual information processing. At a conference in 1968 sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the Committee on Brain Sciences, Division of Medical Sciences, National Research Council, he reported several experiments in which he and his colleagues had examined the ability of infants in the first few months of life to extract information from visual scenes and control their visual environments. The report of this presentation was published in 1970 (Lipsitt, 1970). In one set of experiments done with (then) student Carolyn Kent Rovee (now Carolyn Rovee-Collier), they devised an apparatus whereby the infant could control the movement of a mobile suspended over its crib. This work showed that infants would make direct physical movements to engage the mobile, which indicated both their visual awareness and preference for moving stimuli and their implicit understanding that they could exert control over their environments. In other experiments, conducted with Einar Siqueland, a colleague in the Brown University Psychology Department, it was demonstrated that infants will suck with greater intensity and frequency to obtain visual stimulation. This was shown by having the infant’s sucking behavior control the illumination of slides on a screen depicting complex forms, such as faces. These experiments showed that infants would suck harder to get more light and hence see the

figures better. This work showed that infants are captivated by visual stimuli, particularly when they are novel, and that they learn from their own behavior; the more practice infants had with this apparatus, the more readily they engaged sucking to increase the ambient light. Lipsitt’s work with his colleagues in this area was also central to negating the dogma at the time that the infant’s visual perception at birth and in the first days of life was minimal to nonexistent. SENSORY DEVELOPMENT AND BASIC LEARNING PROCESSES Lipsitt’s work on sensory development was instrumental in underscoring (a) the importance of approachand-avoidance behavior as mediated by the pleasures and annoyances of sensation and (b) that pleasure (hedonic perception) is key to understanding the basic learning processes and cognitive elaborations on these that come with maturation. Lipsitt’s work on hedonic processes in infant behavior and development also ties together his research in various sensory domains, from touch and optimal threshold to his work on taste and smell. Lipsitt’s position is that the pleasure and annoyances of sensation provide the impetus for repeating or not repeating various actions and that as a function of the outcome of the infant’s own behavior, important basic survival consequences are gained and learned. Pleasurable experiences are likely to be repeated, and the information gained from the pleasant experience has important appetitive consequences for engaging in the behavior again, such as in feeding as well as many other behavioral scenarios. Likewise, unpleasant experiences teach avoidance and lead to learning how to defend against threats, such as occlusion to breathing, another major area of Lipsitt’s research (e.g., sudden infant death syndrome). Thus, human adaptation is mediated by perception. Moreover, all of these basic approachavoid behaviors are especially prepared to be learned, conditioned, and modified. According to Lipsitt (1988), Babies acquire information from their environment and change their behavior accordingly principally through learning mechanisms. . . . The capacity to feel that one has an effect upon the environment, and that the maximization of pleasure, and the minimization of annoyance, are to a large extent matters of behavioral self-regulation, are perhaps the most important psychobiological lessons that parents transmit to their children. (p. 140)

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CONCLUSIONS In summary, Lewis Lipsitt’s research on sensory perception and learning, while pivotal in itself, has also had broad implications for human development. He recognized and discussed in detail how the infant’s prepartum psychobiological history and innate sensory and learning skills, then honed by learning and experience in the first days or month of life, would have general biobehavioral consequences throughout the individual’s life. Moreover, these early experiences would serve as the proving ground for the development of other self-regulatory human behaviors. Lipsitt’s work on hedonic perception and the essential pleasure or pain of all experience is theoretically and philosophically profound and has encouraged thinking about human perception and experience in ways not experimentally approached before in the field of developmental psychology. —Rachel Sarah Herz

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Crook, C. K. (1978). Taste perception in the newborn infant. Infant Behavior and Development, 1, 52–69. Crook, C. K., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1976). Neonatal nutritive sucking: Effects of taste stimulation upon sucking rhythm and heart rate. Child Development, 6, 473–484. Daniel, P. A., Zakreski, J. R., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1982). Effects of auditory and taste stimulation on sucking, heart rate, and movement in the newborn. Infant Behavior and Development, 5, 237–247. Engen, T., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1965). Decrement and recovery of responses to olfactory stimuli in the human neonate. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 59(2), 312–316. Engen, T., Lipsitt, L. P., & Kaye, H. (1963). Olfactory responses and adapation in the human neonate. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 56(1), 73–77. Engen, T., Lipsitt, L. P., & Peck, M. B. (1974). Ability of newborn infants to discriminate sapid substances. Developmental Psychology, 10(5), 741–744. Haller, R., Rummel, C., Henneberg, S., Pollmer, U., & Koster, E. P. (1999). The influence of early experience with vanillin on food preference later in life. Chemical Senses, 24(4), 465–467. Herz, R. S. (2001). Ah, sweet skunk: Why we like or dislike what we smell. Cerebrum, 3(4), 31–47. Herz, R. S., Beland, S., & Hellerstein, M. (2004). Changing hedonic perception of odors through emotional associations. International Journal of Comparative Psychology.

Kaye, H., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1964). Relation of electrotactual threshold to basal skin conductance. Child Development, 35, 1307–1312. Kobre, K. R., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1972). A negative-contrast effect in newborns. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 14(1), 81–91. Leventhal, A. S., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1964). Adaptation, pitch discrimination, and sound localization in the neonate. Child Development, 35, 759–767. Lipsitt, L. P. (1970). Pattern perception and information seeking in early infancy. In D. B. Lindsley (Ed.), Early experience and visual information processing in perceptual and reading disorders (pp. 382–402). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences. Lipsitt, L. P. (1984). The pleasures and annoyances of babies: Causes and consequences. In J. D. Galenson (Ed.), Frontiers of infant psychiatry (Vol. 2). New York: Basic Books. Lipsitt, L. P. (1986). Toward understanding the hedonic nature of infancy. In J. H. Cantor (Ed.), Experimental child psychologist: Essays and experiments in honor of Charles C. Spiker (pp. 97–109). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Lipsitt, L. P. (1988). Hedonic processes in infant behavior and development. In E. D. Hibbs (Ed.), Children and families: Studies in prevention and intervention (pp. 131–141). Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Lipsitt, L. P., & Behl, G. (1990). Taste mediated differences in the sucking behavior of human newborns. In T. Powley (Ed.), Taste, experience and feeding (pp. 75–93). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Lipsitt, L. P., Engen, T., & Kaye, H. (1963). Developmental changes in the olfactory threshold of the neonate. Child Development, 34, 371–376. Lipsitt, L. P., & Kaye, H. (1965). Change in neonatal response to optimizing and non-optimizing sucking stimulation. Psychonomic Science, 2, 221–222. Lipsitt, L. P., & Levy, N. (1959). Electrotactual threshold in the neonate. Child Development, 30, 547–554. Lipsitt, L. P., Reilly, B. M., Butcher, M. J., & Greenwood, M. M. (1976). The stability and interrelationships of newborn sucking and heart rate. Developmental Psychobiology, 9, 305–310. Mennella, J. A. (1995). Mother’s milk: A medium for early flavor experiences. Journal of Human Lactation, 11(1), 39–45. Mennella, J. A., & Beauchamp, G. K. (1998). Infants’ exploration of scented toys: effects of prior experiences. Chemical Senses, 23(1), 11–17. Mennella, J. A., & Beauchamp, G. K. (2002). Flavor experiences during formula feeding are related to preferences during childhood. Early Human Development, 68(2), 71–82. Mennella, J. A., Johnson, A., & Beauchamp, G. K. (1995). Garlic ingestion by pregnant women alters the odor of amniotic fluid. Chemical Senses, 20(2), 207–209. Porges, S. W., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1993). Neonatal responsivity to gustatory stimulation: The gustatory-vagal hypothesis. Infant Behavior and Development, 16, 487–494.

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Schaal, B., Marlier, L., & Soussignan, R. (1998). Olfactory function in the human fetus: Evidence from selective neonatal responsiveness to the odor of amniotic fluid. Behavioral Neuroscience, 112(6), 1438–1449. Schaal, B., & Rouby, C. (1990). Le development des sens chimiques: Influences exogenes prenatales, consequences postnatales. In J. Relier (Ed.), Progrès en Néonatologie (Vol. 10, pp. 182–201). Basel, Switzerland: Karger. Semb, G., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1968). The effects of acoustic stimulation on cessation and initiation of non-nutritive sucking in neonates. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 6(4), 585–597. Zinner, S. H., McGarvey, S. T., Lipsitt, L. P., & Rosner, B. (2002). Neonatal blood pressure and salt taste responsiveness. Hypertension, 40, 280–285.

LITTLE, RICK R. Rick R. Little is president and chief executive of the ImagineNations Group and founder of the International Youth Foundation (IYF). At the age of 19, he convinced the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to grant him $133,000 to develop a school-based program to offer young people positive and productive ways to face life challenges. This grant resulted in the founding of his first organization, Quest International, in 1975. Little served as its creator, president, and CEO. Quest programs, implemented in more than 38,000 schools in over 30 countries, provide a set of programs teaching life skills. In 1989, Little was invited to work with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, where he led a process involving hundreds of leaders from more than 30 countries. People from business, philanthropy, education, government, and social services, as well as young people themselves, gave him advice that resulted in the establishment of the IYF in 1990. It was launched with the largest charitable investment ever made by the Kellogg Foundation—more than $68 million. IYF is now among the world’s largest public foundations focused on finding and supporting “what works” for young people. IYF operates in more than 60 countries and territories. Its global network invests more than $135 million annually in hundreds of youth development projects. Little also serves as Chairman of the Oversight Board of the Global Alliance (GA) for Workers and

Communities, a unique partnership of private, public, and nongovernmental organizations. The alliance seeks to improve the workplace experience and life opportunities of young adult workers in global manufacturing. More than 200,000 workers in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and China have been engaged in GA programs. As founder and current president of the ImagineNations Group, Little leads an organization that partners with individuals and organizations to engage youth in envisioning better lives for themselves. To provide youth with an outlet for their voices to be heard, ImagineNations and its partners will survey close to a million young people in the developing world. The results of the survey will be disseminated through nationally focused social awareness campaigns serving to inform and influence policy and program development as well as donor agency involvement. ImagineNations and its partners will also direct young people to practical opportunities and resources that empower them with an improved ability to improve their lives and the lives of others. Currently, Little serves as a member of the United Nations’ 12-person High-Level Panel advising Secretary General Kofi Annan on youth employment issues, and he sits on the boards of the IYF, the Balkan Children and Youth Foundation, the German Children and Youth Foundation, FilmAid, and the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. He was also the founding president and a member of the founding board of America’s Promise. He has received numerous awards, including the Scrivner Award from the Council on Foundation, and is currently writing a book on tolerance with Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordon. Little’s 25-year career has brought the gift of hope to literally millions of young people around the world. His faith in the potential of every young child to develop positively has been confirmed and rewarded by the countless young people whose lives have been significantly enhanced by his vision, passion, creativity, energy, and unique world leadership. His efforts on the world stage have contributed to bringing the positive, healthy development of children to the forefront of concern among leaders of civil society and of government. Rick Little’s career stands as the exemplar of how the dedication of one person can change the work on behalf of young people. —Elisabeth M. Dowling

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M susceptibility to lead poisoning, dental disease, and so forth are all associated with undernutrition. Children who manage to survive PEM and live into adulthood have lessened intellectual ability, lower levels of productivity, and higher incidences of chronic illness and disability, serving to further continue the cycle of poverty. Besides PEM, nutrient deficiencies such as iron, iodine, and vitamin A may appear in combination and contribute to each other’s debilitating effects. However, PEM is the most common form of malnutrition in the world, affecting an estimated 500 million children. Severe PEM in childhood has traditionally been classified as either marasmus or kwashiorkor (Weigley, Mueller, & Robinson, 1997). Marasmus results from insufficient energy intake, that is, an extremely low intake of both protein and calories, and is most often observed in infants 6–18 months old at the time of weaning. In attempting to stretch their limited resources, impoverished mothers will often dilute commercial formula, further contaminating it with dirty water, which leads to bacterial infection. In attempting to cure the baby, the mother may even withhold food. Recurrent infections, coupled with little or no food, subsequently lead to marasmus. In terms of resulting behavior, the marasmic infant is typically irritable, but may also appear weak and apathetic. In contrast, kwashiorkor results from the insufficient intake of protein, with caloric needs usually satisfied. It typically develops when the toddler is 18–24 months of age, and comes about when a newborn sibling arrives and the toddler is weaned from the breast and fed the high carbohydrate–low protein diet on

MALNUTRITION, EFFECTS OF Throughout the world, hunger and malnutrition are responsible for nearly half the deaths of children under age 5, with deficiencies in protein, vitamins, and minerals also resulting in illness, limits on development, or stunted growth. Aside from debilitating illnesses, some 12 million children in the United States grow up in what are termed food-insecure households, where calories may be adequate but diet quality has suffered (Andrews, Nord, Bickel, & Carlson, 2000). Children, much more than adults, are vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition because their bodies are in a growth state. To understand the far-reaching effects of malnutrition on children, it is necessary to first understand the affliction and its subtypes. The outcome of malnutrition in infancy is complexly determined, with a functional isolation hypothesis ventured to explain its effects on the developing child. In recent years, however, it has also been recognized that the malnourished mother may adversely affect prenatal development, and a fetal-origins-of-disease hypothesis has been formulated. PROTEIN-ENERGY MALNUTRITION Malnutrition, more appropriately referred to as protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) or protein-calorie malnutrition, continues to be associated with conditions of extreme poverty in the developing world, but it may also affect low-income children in developed nations. Low birth weight, anemia, growth failure, weakened resistance to infection, increased 673

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which the family subsists. While such a diet may be adequate for the adult, it is insufficient for the rapidly growing toddler. Since the child of this age is beginning to explore the environment, the opportunity for exposure to bacteria and viruses can further exacerbate the consequences of the poor diet. However, one of the behavioral characteristics of kwashiorkor is a lessened interest in the environment, along with irritability, apathy, and frequently anorexia. But most notably, the toddler with kwashiorkor cries easily and often displays an expression of sadness and misery. PEM AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS Although the primary cause of PEM is a lack of sufficient protein and calories, the problem of PEM cannot be viewed in isolation from other environmental conditions because a child’s state of malnourishment is invariably confounded with socioeconomic status. The term confound means that poor socioeconomic status covaries with poor nutrition, and since both of these factors may be independently associated with reduced cognitive performance in children, it is difficult to determine if one, the other, or their interaction is most responsible for mental deficits. Indeed, the environment of the malnourished child is different in countless ways beyond the mere deficiency of food intake. The list of confounding conditions includes but is not limited to low income, low education, overcrowding, poor sanitation, few possessions, and large numbers of closely spaced children. EFFECTS OF MALNUTRITION ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT A number of investigators have researched the effects of malnutrition on the cognitive development of infants. Data suggest that severe malnutrition leads to a diminished responsiveness to environmental signals and therefore to a reduction in the infant’s capacity for information processing (Strupp & Levitsky, 1995). It is likely that these deficits in information processing persist even after nutritional rehabilitation has occurred. Of all the behavioral symptoms associated with marasmus and kwashiorkor, lethargy and reduced activity are the most commonly observed. It has been hypothesized that a reduction in motor activity may serve to further isolate malnourished infants from their environment, resulting in limited opportunities for learning and thereby depressing mental development.

Functional Isolation Specifically, the functional isolation hypothesis posits that the decreased activity, affect, and attention that characterize malnourished infants make them less likely to seek stimulation from their environment (Brown & Pollitt, 1996). In turn, the caregivers are less responsive to their infants and offer them less stimulation. Over time, this repeating circle of less seeking/less receiving of stimulation interferes with the infant’s normal acquisition of information from the social and physical environment. Left unchecked, the child’s development is adversely affected (Wachs, 1993). Besides the reduction in motor activity that characterizes PEM, however, other noncognitive aspects of the malnourished infant’s behavior may bear on the interaction between mother and baby and further exacerbate the risk of lowered stimulation. For example, studies have shown that malnourished newborns are low in social responsiveness and display poor orienting to visual stimuli such as human faces. An infant who shows little social responsiveness to his mother, and who persists in fussing and crying when awake, is less rewarding to be around (Brazelton, Tronick, Lechtig, Lasky, & Klein, 1977). In such situations the mother is likely to be undernourished herself. With less energy to stimulate, rouse up, or play with her baby, her caregiving efforts are likely to be minimal, and the infant’s cognitive development suffers. With respect to children, a number of investigators in many countries have attempted to assess the effects of severe PEM on concurrent and subsequent behaviors. In recent years, investigations have also examined the effects of mild-to-moderate malnutrition in children. As might be expected, certain metabolic consequences of severe malnutrition may rapidly recover with nutritional intervention, whereas other outcomes, such as physical growth, may improve only slowly after an extended period or may never reach normal levels. Even moderate undernutrition, if chronic, may prevent children from behaving at a level that is appropriate for their age.

Measures of Intelligence The majority of studies have focused on measuring intellectual and school performance, partly because testing procedures are readily available but also because the demonstration of permanent cognitive deficits has implications for social policy. Studies with

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malnourished populations in Barbados and Mexico have revealed substantially lowered IQ scores (less than 70) in children who had experienced severe malnutrition before the age of 3. However, encouraging results have been shown for the use of nutritional supplements, as malnourished children in Jamaica and Guatemala, for example, have shown improvements in verbal and perceptual intelligence by age 5 (Grantham-MacGregor, 1995). THE FETAL ORIGINS OF DISEASE Although one tends to associate PEM with extreme poverty and relatively large families, severe malnutrition and food deprivation can actually reduce fertility. From a behavioral perspective, both men and women have little interest in sex during times of starvation. Biologically speaking, women may develop amenorrhea, while men may lose their ability to produce viable sperm. Indeed, women who diet excessively to the point of anorexia suffer from malnutrition and are neither interested in nor capable of becoming pregnant. But if a malnourished woman does become pregnant, she must face the challenge of supporting both the growth of her fetus and her own physical health with insufficient nutrient stores. For many years it was believed that through a protective relationship with the mother, the fetus would be spared any adverse consequences of maternal malnutrition. There are in fact two mechanisms that buffer the fetus from inadequate nutrition: the mother’s intake of food provides a direct nutritional source, and the placenta transfers nutrients that are stored by the mother to the developing fetus. However, malnutrition before or around the time of conception can prevent the placenta from developing fully. Severe PEM early in development will typically result in a failure to maintain embryonic implantation, resulting in a spontaneous abortion. Moderate malnutrition throughout gestation will generally permit the continued development of the fetus, but also leads to changes in growth of both the placenta and the fetus. If the placenta is poorly developed, it cannot deliver proper nourishment to the fetus, and the infant may be born prematurely, small for gestational age, and with reduced head circumference (Hay, Catz, Grave, & Yaffe, 1997). In human infants, a reduced head circumference may be the first indication that PEM, particularly during gestation and infancy, has resulted in permanent brain damage. Since marasmus typically

develops at a younger age than kwashiorkor, the marasmic child is likelier to have a reduced head circumference than a child with kwashiorkor. In recent years, a somewhat controversial hypothesis has been formulated out of epidemiological work that further underscores the importance of maternal nutrition during fetal development. The so-called Barker hypothesis is founded on the concept that maternal dietary imbalances during critical periods of fetal development affect fetal structure and metabolism in ways that predispose the individual to later endocrine and cardiovascular diseases (Barker, 1998). For example, babies who are born at a low birth weight at term, who exhibit intrauterine growth retardation from being malnourished in utero, tend to be insulin resistant as children and are likely to develop non-insulin-dependent diabetes in later life. This idea, that there may be fetal origins of disease, could prove to have major implications for public health, especially in developing countries where a high proportion of births occur in the low birth weight range. The uncertainties that surround the Barker hypothesis will be better resolved when research progresses beyond epidemiological associations to a greater understanding of the underlying molecular and cellular processes that relate to early malnutrition.

CONCLUSIONS It is abundantly clear that malnutrition does not occur in a vacuum but is just one component of an ecological framework that includes poverty, illiteracy, disease, inadequate parenting, and the lack of other support systems. With this complex a system, it is safe to conclude that malnutrition has adverse behavioral as well as health consequences. It has long been known that severe PEM in infancy can reduce brain weight, cause impairments in myelination, and decrease the development of synapses. Early irritability and inactivity can depress mother-infant interactions and lead to a vicious cycle of less attention being paid to the developing child, with less interest and attention displayed by the child as well. Lowered intellectual abilities are the likely result. What is currently being recognized is the role that malnutrition during pregnancy may have on fetal development, with the implications for the adult health of the child only beginning to be understood. —John Worobey

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Andrews, M., Nord, M., Bickel, G., & Carlson, S. (2000). Household food security in the United States—1999. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture. Barker, D. J. P. (1998). Mothers, babies and health in later life (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. Brazelton, T. B., Tronick, E., Lechtig, A., Lasky, R. E., & Klein, R. E. (1977). The behavior of nutritionally deprived Guatemalan infants. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 19, 364–372. Brown, J. L., & Pollitt, E. (1996). Malnutrition, poverty and intellectual development. Scientific American, 274(2), 38–43. Grantham-MacGregor, S. (1995). A review of studies of the effect of severe malnutrition on mental development. Journal of Nutrition, 125(8S), 2233–2238. Hay, W. W., Catz, C. S., Grave, G. D., & Yaffe, S. J. (1997). Fetal growth: Its regulation and disorders. Pediatrics, 99, 585–591. Strupp, B. J., & Levitsky, D. A. (1995). Enduring cognitive effects of early malnutrition: A theoretical reappraisal. Journal of Nutrition, 125(8S), 2221–2232. Wachs, T. D. (1993). Environment and the development of disadvantaged children. In R. J. Karp (Ed.), Malnourished children in the United States caught in the cycle of poverty (pp. 13–30). New York: Springer. Weigley, E. S., Mueller, D. H., & Robinson, C. H. (1997). Robinson’s basic nutrition and diet therapy (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY The field of marriage and family therapy grew exponentially during the 20th century, to the point that the models of treatment available are numerous. Nevertheless, the key features of the field can be understood through (a) an overview of the alternating dominance of marriage versus family therapy throughout the years and across continents, in the United States and Europe in particular; and (b) a depiction of the present-day scenario of the practice with families and, specifically, with couples. HISTORICAL BASES OF THE FIELD As noted by Broderick and Schrader (1981), the historical origins of marriage and family therapy may be found in the social assistance and family education movements developed in the United States during the

1920s and 1930s. Given the recognition of the importance of marriage and its central role in the life of the entire family, many specialized centers were founded in order to improve marriage and family living. The nature of these centers was frequently religious, and their activities were mainly marriage education and marriage counseling, with the primary aim of giving support to the marital relationship. In the 1950s and 1960s, the interest in family relationships grew in conjunction with the development of the Systemic Movement. The attention shifted from support of the marital couple to the detection of the causes of psychopathology, especially the severe ones (i.e., schizophrenia or other psychoses). The aim then became to promote new family learning styles and new family rules of functioning in order to prevent psychopathology and to contrast the maintenance of severe personality and relationship disorders. In this regard, it is necessary to underline the influence of the “American spirit,” with its strong faith-based educational values and trust in the possibility that people can change their behavioral patterns as well as their systems of beliefs, ways of expressing emotions, and ways of relating to the other. The history of the development of marriage and family therapy in Europe is quite different. In the 1940s, David and Vera Mace established in England the first Marriage Guidance Council, an institute where a large number of paraprofessional workers were trained to give assistance and support to couples throughout the country. Even though the Maces’ institute was quite similar to the early developments in the United States, in Europe the dominant influence on psychotherapy came from the psychoanalytic movement and its reluctance to alter its typical individual clinical setting. Some reasons for this unwillingness can be found in the psychoanalysis philosophical heritage (idealism and romanticism) and in its suspiciousness toward the possibilities of changing (in opposition to the American tradition). As a result, the developing group of the European marriage and family therapists split into two, taking different pathways. The first group of therapists moved into the new fields of marriage and family therapy without repudiating their psychoanalytic theoretical orientation (e.g., Henry Dicks in England and Jean Lemaire in France). The other group broke off from traditional perspectives, which they considered an insurmountable hindrance. The research of Mara Selvini Palazzoli and her colleagues (Selvini

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Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, & Prata, 1978) is a case in point. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, the second group was further influenced by the antipsychiatric movement and the increased number of contacts between European and American family therapists. By the end of the 20th century, the focus of marriage and family therapy turned again. In particular, important changes from a social and clinical point of view took place, leading to a shift of focus from “marriage” to “couple.” Principal factors in this shift were the crisis of the family concept; the opposition of families with a mentally ill member toward the family therapists’ movement; the exponential spreading of divorce (to the point that it was considered a normal phase of the life cycle); a new interest in couple sexuality; the view that homosexual relationships are not pathological; and the significant involvement of the society in the destinies and dramas of couples, as popularized by American and European media. CONTEMPORARY FEATURES Consequently, centers of family therapy found more and more couples requesting their services. These services were increasingly focused on the couple, no matter if marital or conjugal, cohabitant, reconstructed, or homosexual. Even the consideration of parenthood changed: no longer was the generation of children seen as a natural marital outcome within the intergenerational exchange, but rather as a thought-through choice of the couple, married or not. Not surprisingly, couple therapy has started to grow in popularity, and clinical intervention has increasingly begun to focus on “here and now” relationship quality, communication, and satisfaction per se. Yet, some couple therapists are still connected to family therapy in their attention to the intergenerational dimension of the relationship (in the wake of therapists such as Murray Bowen, Carl A. Whitaker, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, and James L. Framo). For instance, in considering the “contract” or the “couple pact” (Cigoli, 1997; Sager, 1976), therapists do not confine their attention to the here and now, but they extend their analysis to family history (relational patterns) and plans for the future (expectations, goals). Currently, if family therapy is still aimed at the most severe psychopathologies and is oriented to both biological dimensions and psychosocial features, couple therapy deals with various clinical conditions ranging from relationship crisis and parental difficulties

to cases of divorce and reconstructed couples. Moreover, it uses numerous and different treatment modalities. For example, Dattilio and Bevilacqua (2000) have presented and compared 16 models of couple therapy on the basis of a single clinical case: The models are drawn on theoretical paradigms (cognitivebehavioral, psychodynamic, systemic, humanisticexperiential), but they develop clinical concepts into specific therapeutic methods and techniques and pay attention to their empirical validation. Of course, without empirical evidence, any belief in therapeuticspecific concepts and methods may be regarded as only ideology. Comparing those models, it is possible to trace the common interests and issues shared by couple therapists. These commonalities include the assessment of the couple relationship and its resources; the development of a therapeutic alliance; the overcoming of the crisis connected to the therapeutic relationship; the management of the end of the therapy; and the tools and methods used to evaluate the therapy outcome and to analyze the therapeutic process. CONCLUSIONS The connections between marriage and family therapy might well be compared to a figure-background relation. But even though marriage and family therapies are interwoven, each therapy has its own peculiarities, and they can be considered two different therapeutic genres. —Vittorio Cigoli

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Broderick, C. B., & Schrader, S. S. (1981). The history of professional marriage and family therapy. In A. S. Gurman & D. P. Kniskern (Eds.), Handbook of family therapy (pp. 5–35). New York: Bruner/Mazel. Cigoli, V. (1997). Intrecci familiari. Realtà interiore e scenario relazionale [Family plots: Inner reality and relational scenery]. Milan, Italy: Raffaello Cortina. Dattilio, F. M., & Bevilacqua, L. J. (Eds.). (2000). Comparative treatments for relationship dysfunction. London: Springer. Sager, C. J. (1976). Marriage contracts and couple therapy: Hidden forces in intimate relationships. New York: Bruner/Mazel. Selvini Palazzoli, M., Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., & Prata, S. (1978). Paradox and counter paradox: A new model in the therapy of the family in schizophrenic transaction. New York: Jason Aronson.

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MASTERY MOTIVATION, PRESCHOOL AND EARLY CHILDHOOD Mastery motivation is defined as the impetus to achieve and improve one’s skills in the absence of any physical reward—the mastery of the environment seems to be the reward in itself. Research in early childhood has shown that mastery motivation will predict later cognitive abilities and is related to achievement motivation. Achievement motivation and cognitive abilities are good predictors of school success. Mastery motivation is linked to other terms, such as effectance motivation, competence motivation, curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and achievement motivation, with each term representing a different theoretical approach. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Most work in mastery motivation refers to the classic work by Robert White (1959) as the source of the original propositions. White proposed that drive reduction theory could not explain some observations of behavior that apparently occurred in a satiated state—in the absence of a drive. A good example of this is sex. The goal of the sex drive is biological reproduction. However, even when that goal has been met, when we have reproduced, we still engage in sex—apparently for the pleasure of it. White suggested that these behaviors occurring in a satiated state were the result of effectance motivation. This propensity to act on the environment is a primitive biological endowment, which results in competence motivation, the impetus toward mastering tasks and improving skills. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Hunt (1965) highlighted the importance of standards to motivation in his cognitive-motivational perspective. Hunger and thirst are the result of physiological standards, but cognitive processes provide psychological standards. Hunt distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation by specifying the source of factors related to the standards. Thus, the absence of food was an external factor, while incongruity with a psychological standard was the source

of intrinsic motivation. Hunt’s work is probably best remembered for his notion of the “match.” The match is the optimal level of incongruity between the organism’s level of cognitive processing and the stimulus from the environment. Because the match provides the highest degree of motivation, and resolution of the incongruity leads to change in cognitive structures, finding the right match will facilitate behavior change. Learning Theory In contrast to White and Hunt, learning theory has emphasized that mastery motivation can be acquired. This perspective has suggested that these motivation processes are the result of the contingencies between the child’s action and the outcome. Recognition of the contingency produces pleasure and awareness of the contingency as a result of experiencing it increases motivation. Harter (1978) also discussed learning as an influence on motivation but emphasized the social nature of the acquisition process. The encouragement of others (often in the form of praise) provides information about successes and becomes internalized as development occurs. The child who does not receive praise for independent acts will be less likely to develop internal self-praise and thus will continue to be dependent on external sources of motivation. CHARACTERISTICS OF MASTERY MOTIVATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD The classic work done on mastery motivation focused on children working by themselves to explore and use a toy (MacTurk & Morgan, 1995). Examples of this would be persistence in putting pieces in puzzles or finding out how a toy CD player worked. More recent work has expanded the notion of mastery motivation to include not only actions with toys or objects but also actions directed toward people. What we term social mastery motivation can be indexed by the child’s attempts to initiate, maintain, and influence interactions with others. The most current thinking has another domain of mastery motivation, that of the self. This conceptualization is the result of looking at the literature in mastery motivation and self-concept simultaneously. The affective expression of mastery motivation is sometimes called pride, a concept that also appears in the self-concept literature as self-evaluation.

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Likewise, the self-concept literature explores the notion of autonomy, which is tied to the child’s independent effort, a key component of the definition of object-oriented mastery motivation. The Developmental Nature of Mastery Motivation In addition to being expressed in multiple domains, mastery motivation is developmental in nature (MacTurk & Morgan, 1995). These developmental changes occur both across and within age periods. Mastery motivation in the first 9 months is manifested by a preference for novel stimuli and awareness of contingencies between action and outcome. The behaviors associated with mastery motivation during the period from 9 to 17 months include exploration of objects and a preference for control novelty. A preference for challenging tasks and goal-directed activity, coupled with pleasure when tasks are mastered or frustration and sadness at inability to complete goal-directed activity, are characteristics of the period from 17 to 32 months. The final period of mastery motivation behaviors in early childhood can be seen from about 32 months on and involves the mastery of sequential, multipart tasks, the acquisition of performance standards. Accompanying this awareness of standards is pride when those standards are achieved and shame when they are not.

MEASUREMENT For research and clinical settings, three types of measures—namely structured tasks, free-play observations, and caregiver report questionnaires—have been developed to assess mastery motivation in children. Free-play measures are the most timeconsuming and probably reflect other child characteristics, especially competence, so they are used less frequently. The structured tasks represent an individualized method to identify and use tasks or toys that are moderately difficult for the child to complete (Morgan, Busch-Rossnagel, Maslin-Cole, & Harmon, 1992). Because children persist less at easy and very difficult tasks, the use of moderately difficult tasks allows the separation of mastery motivation from competence at solving the tasks. These tasks originally focused on objects, such as shape sorters and cause-effect toys, but more recent work has added tasks involving interactions with people. In the scoring of the tasks, scoring of modal behaviors in each 15-section interval is used to index persistence. The Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ) is a series of caregiver report instruments for different ages of children (infant, toddler/preschool, school-age). Each questionnaire has scales appropriate to the child’s developmental level. For example, the DMQ for toddlers and preschoolers contains scales tapping persistence with objects, gross motor persistence, social mastery with adults, social mastery with children, mastery pleasure, and sensitivity to standards.

The Socializing Environment A third characteristic of work in mastery motivation during early childhood is emphasis on the socializing environment. The socializing environment includes mothers and other caregivers who affect the context of the child’s attempts at mastery in three ways (Busch-Rossnagel, Knauf-Jensen, & DesRosiers, 1995). One dimension of the socializing environment indexes the nature of the inanimate objects in the child’s environment, so mastery motivation is enhanced by the provision of appropriately stimulating toys. A second dimension of the socializing environment is the affective nature of the interaction, or emotional communication, in the caregiver-child dyad, which can be seen in smiles and praise. The didactic or instrumental interchanges in the dyad have been operationalized by contingent responses, specific feedback, and demonstrations.

INTERVENTION The research on mastery motivation completed during the past three decades has included many children with special developmental needs. Changes in early intervention services, especially greater emphasis on family participation and inclusion of functional goals, suggest the importance of including mastery motivation as a target for intervention. In addition, the knowledge base about the influence of the socializing environment suggests possible influences on the development of secondary handicaps too often associated with developmental disabilities (Busch-Rossnagel, 1997). For example, directive verbal interaction may suppress child behavior and thus eliminate opportunities for the development of mastery. Thus, the adult must be sensitive to the child’s

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developmental level so that the stimulation is tied to the child’s cues. CONCLUSIONS Contingencies help infants learn that the environment is controllable, while toddlers need the opportunity for independent exploration and mastery. Caregivers of special needs children are more likely to be directive—that is, to initiate interaction, which is likely to suppress the development of mastery motivation. Interventions that emphasize stimulation and the caregiver’s educational responsibilities are likely to exacerbate this problem. What is appropriate stimulation for the younger stages of development becomes caregiver intrusiveness in later developmental periods. Although caregivers of special needs children perceive their children to be less motivated on the DMQ, observational measures do not confirm this perception, and this discrepancy is a logical focus for intervention. Thus, early interventions should focus on caregiver sensitivity to the children’s developmental cues and providing the appropriate type of stimulation. —Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1997). Mastery motivation in toddlers. Infants and Young Children, 9(4), 1–11. Busch-Rossnagel, N. A., Knauf-Jensen, D. E., & DesRosiers, F. S. (1995). Mothers and others: The role of the socializing environment in the development of mastery motivation. In R. H. MacTurk & G. A. Morgan (Eds.), Mastery motivation: Origins, conceptualizations and applications (pp. 117–145). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Harter, S. (1978). Effectance motivation reconsidered: Towards a developmental model. Human Development, 21, 34–64. Hunt, J. M. (1965). Intrinsic motivation and its role in psychological development. In D. Levine (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 13, pp. 189–282). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. MacTurk, R. H., & Morgan, G. A. (Eds.). (1995). Mastery motivation: Origins, conceptualizations and applications. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Morgan, G. A., Busch-Rossnagel, N. A., Maslin-Cole, C. A., & Harmon, R. J. (1992). Mastery motivation tasks: Manual for 15- to 36-month-old children. New York: Fordham University, Psychology Department. White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–333.

MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT The past several decades have seen an explosion of research, policy, and debate about one of the major social changes in the United States: the increased entry of mothers into the labor force. Central to these discussions are questions about the effects of maternal employment on children and families, as well as on mothers themselves. Several core themes have emerged from this body of work. These include an acknowledgment of the complex social context within which maternal employment affects children and families; the identification of processes by which mothers’ work influences child and family outcomes, such as through changes in family interactions, mental health and well-being, and parenting styles; an appreciation that maternal employment may have differential effects on children of different ages; and policy applications. CONTEXTUAL CONSIDERATIONS For mothers with children under age 18, the United States has gone from fewer than 30 percent in the labor force in 1960 to fewer than 30 percent not in the labor force today; the greatest recent increases have occurred among married mothers of infants and preschoolers (Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999). With more than half of all new mothers in the United States going to work within a year after giving birth, many children today have never known a time when their mothers were not working for pay. Moreover, attempts to understand maternal employment and its effects on children and families must take into account that this change is part of a whole complex of social changes. Both employed mothers and homemakers today live in a very different environment than their counterparts of 40 or even 20 years ago. It is reasonable to assume that a mother’s employment status affects children and families. What has become abundantly clear over several decades of research is that it is not the mother’s job per se—or the fact of her employment—that produces the various effects that are linked to maternal employment. The impact of a mother’s work depends on many factors, including the child’s age, sex, temperament, and personality; whether the mother works full- or part-time; why she is working and how she feels about it; whether she has a supportive mate; the family socioeconomic status; and the kind of care the child receives when

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mother is at work (Parke & Buriel, 1998). The route by which mothers’ employment affects children is likewise multifaceted, through influences on the family structure, functioning, interaction patterns, and childrearing orientations, which, in turn have significance for child outcomes (Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999). EFFECTS ON CHILDREN Most of the research on the impact of mothers’ employment points to a neutral or somewhat positive effect for most children, at least in U.S. culture at this time in history (Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999; Parke & Buriel, 1998). Children of mothers who enjoy their work and are committed to parenting show very favorable adjustment—a higher sense of self-esteem, more positive family and peer relations, less genderstereotyped beliefs, and better grades in school. Girls, especially, seem to profit from the image of female competence, and this is reflected in their greater achievement and career orientation (Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999). Boys, especially those whose mothers work full-time, do slightly less well in school in some studies, although this is by no means a robust finding (Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, & Killian, 1999). Studies of children in poverty, in both two-parent and single-mother families, have found higher cognitive scores and higher scores on socioemotional indices for children with employed mothers (e.g., Vandell & Ramanan, 1992). Why should these effects ensue? Researchers have identified several pathways by which maternal employment influences child development. They can be grouped into five general mediating processes: (1) the role of the father in dual-earner families; (2) the mother’s sense of well-being; (3) parenting styles; (4) age of the child when mother first enters the workforce; and (5) nonmaternal care arrangements. It is important to remember that these mediational relationships are moderated by the context in which the family resides. For example, employment differentially affects some aspects of development in lower socioeconomic circumstances than in middle-class environments, or by whether mothers are single or married. Moreover, patterns may differ by ethnicity. Some researchers argue, for example, that because of their longer history of maternal employment, African American families will evince more positive effects (McLoyd, 1993); and some data do exist that show positive effects for African American families with

more negative effects evident in European American families (Brooks-Gunn, Han, & Waldfogel, 2002). ROLE OF THE FATHER Research has documented repeatedly that fathers play a more active role when the mother is employed, by spending more time on child care and household tasks (Crouter, Perry-Jenkins, Huston, & McHale, 1987; Gottfried et al., 1999; Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999). The consequences of this increased participation are that it mitigates the mother’s potential overload from her dual role and that it presents to children a less traditional model of adult roles. Thus, the repeated finding that children of employed mothers hold less stereotyped attitudes about sex roles than do the children of nonemployed mothers may be at least partly explained by the intermediating effect on the parental division of labor. The children’s nonstereotyped attitudes might be because of the parents’ attitudes, but also because children observe their parents’ less traditional role. In turn, the presentation of less traditional gender roles seems to have positive effects especially for daughters, and may also help to explain the link between maternal employment and the higher academic achievement of daughters of employed mothers. Finally, when fathers take on greater child care responsibility, they spend more time with their children. Greater paternal contact is related to increased achievement and more mature social behavior (Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999). MOTHER’S SENSE OF WELL-BEING Having a job may affect the mother’s own view of herself by improving her morale and thereby changing the way she relates to the rest of the family. In fact, the mental health advantage of employment is most consistently found in the working class or poverty samples (Hoffman & Youngblade, 1999), perhaps by serving as a buffer against stress and depression, both of which are more prevalent in lower socioeconomic circumstances. This social class difference is important, because research has also shown more consistent advantages of maternal employment for children in the lower class than in the middle class. Thus, it is possible that the greater advantage of maternal employment, especially for working-class children and those in poverty, is in part mediated by its more positive effect on mothers’ morale.

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A mother’s attitude toward her work is also an important intervening variable—studies show that the most negative outcomes are found among children in two subgroups: those with mothers who would prefer to work but are staying at home, and those with working mothers who dislike their jobs or are unwilling workers (Lerner & Galambos, 1985). The most positive outcomes occur when the mother wants to work and works at a job she likes (Greenberger & Goldberg, 1989). PARENTING Over the years, research has documented differences between employed-mother and nonemployedmother families in parents’ behavior and expectations regarding their children’s independence and achievement, as well as general orientations to discipline. Several studies demonstrate the greater participation of school-aged children in household tasks and selfcare when mothers are employed, and this pattern is seen as promoting responsibility and maturity in children (Bartko & McHale, 1991). In addition, research related to parenting orientations has shown that employed mothers who are committed to their parenting role are more likely to use authoritative childrearing and coregulation techniques—in other words, parenting that grants their child independence with oversight (e.g., Greenberger & Goldberg, 1989). Research regarding the quality of parents’ work also sheds light on issues related to parenting. This body of work demonstrates that complex jobs are linked to increases in authoritative child rearing and decreases in authoritarian child rearing (Parcel & Menaghan, 1994). Moreover, when a mother who has been at home with her children begins working at a job that is simple and not very challenging, the child’s home environment becomes less stimulating and supportive than it was before; in contrast, a mother’s beginning work at an intellectually complex job is linked to improvements in the child’s environment (Menaghan & Parcel, 1995). CHILD AGE One of the more contentious issues related to maternal employment in the United States concerns the timing of entry into the workforce and its effect on children, particularly during the first year of the child’s life. The debate revolves around socioemotional

outcomes, as the literature in this area strongly suggests that there are no net effects of early employment per se on child cognitive outcomes, above and beyond the well-documented cognitive and academic benefits of early intervention programs for children from impoverished backgrounds (Greenstein, 1995). Research related to social-emotional development is controversial, however, and has been the grist of significant public debate. Some studies show deleterious effects of early maternal employment on children, such as increases in infant-parent attachment insecurity, and toddler aggression and noncompliance (for a review, see Belsky, 2001), as well as negative behavioral consequences well into the elementary school years (Youngblade, 2003). However, other analyses document few negative effects of early employment and even suggest social and emotional benefits from early entry into quality day care, while still other studies show that family characteristics are more strongly related to social-emotional development than are child care experiences and question the extent to which any perceptible negative effects last beyond early childhood (see ClarkeStewart, Gruber, & Fitzgerald, 1994, for a review). POLICY ISSUES Employed mothers and dual-earner parents need assistance from work settings and communities in their child-rearing roles. Part-time employment, flexible schedules, job sharing, and paid leave when children are ill help parents juggle demands of work and child rearing. Although these supports are available in other industrialized nations, only unpaid employment leave is mandated by U.S. federal law at present, and that is only under certain employment situations (Kamerman, 2000). In addition, policy changes that ensure equal pay and equal employment opportunities for women are important; by enhancing women’s financial status and morale, these policies portend beneficial outcomes for children and families. CONCLUSIONS Three main points should be underscored. First, children in the United States today live in a country where most mothers work, and this is a dramatic change that has occurred over the past four to five decades. Second, changes in maternal employment have occurred within a complex social context that has itself changed dramatically over the past 40–50

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years. Third, earlier analyses of whether maternal employment is “good for” or “bad for” children and families have given way to sophisticated analyses of the process by which any effects ensue. In general, most of the research on the impact of mothers’ employment points to a neutral or somewhat positive effect for most children, at least in the United States at this time in history. Moreover, the impact of mothers’ work depends on many factors, and thus it is not the fact of a mother’s employment per se that leads to the child and family outcomes that are linked to maternal employment. Rather, the route is multifaceted, through influences on the family structure, functioning, interaction patterns, and child-rearing orientations. New directions in research will likely continue to develop in four areas. First, researchers will continue to examine process questions, but as they are moderated by context. Thus, do the effects of maternal employment, as well as the process by which they ensue, differ, for example, by ethnicity or by marital status? Second, maternal employment, early nonmaternal care, and after-school care are intricately intertwined. However, the literatures in these areas are not well integrated. Future work must forge these connections. Third, what has been reviewed here is research about status differences based on whether mothers work or not. New forays into specific aspects of the work environment (e.g., flextime, hours worked) and how job characteristics influence child and family functioning are sorely needed. Finally, important policy-related work is needed. Significant research is currently under way that examines (a) the effects of early maternal employment and early child care and (b) maternal employment and work reentry from the perspective of welfare reform. Other opportunities for policy research include the evaluation of part-time employment, flexible schedules, job sharing, and paid leave when children are ill. These are all policies that are available to support women, children, and families in other industrialized nations; research examining their benefits may help to ensure the provision of these types of policies in the United States as well. —Lise M. Youngblade

See also FAMILIES, DUAL-CAREER

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bartko, T., & McHale, S. M. (1991). The household labor of children from dual- versus single-earner families. In

J. V. Lerner & N. L. Galambos (Eds.), Employed mothers and their children (pp. 159–180). New York: Garland. Belsky, J. (2001). Developmental risks (still) associated with early child care. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 845–859. Brooks-Gunn, J., Han, W. J., & Waldfogel, J. (2002). Maternal employment and child cognitive outcomes in the first three years of life: The NICHD study of early child care. Child Development, 73, 1052–1072. Clarke-Stewart, K. A., Gruber, C., & Fitzgerald, L. (1994). Children at home and in day care. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Crouter, A. C., Perry-Jenkins, M., Huston, T., & McHale, S. M. (1987). Processes underlying father involvement in dual-earner and single-earner families. Developmental Psychology, 23, 431–440. Gottfried, A. E., Gottfried, A. W., Bathurst, K., & Killian, C. (1999). Maternal and dual-earner employment: Family environment, adaptations, and the developmental impingement perspective. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and child development in “nontraditional” families (pp. 15–37). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Greenberger, E., & Goldberg, W. A. (1989). Work, parenting, and the socialization of children. Developmental Psychology, 25, 22–35. Greenstein, T. N. (1995). Are the “most advantaged” children truly disadvantaged by early maternal employment? Journal of Family Issues, 16, 149–169. Hoffman, L. W., & Youngblade, L. M. (1999). Mothers at work: Effects on children’s well being. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kamerman, S. (2000). Early childhood intervention policies: An international perspective. In J. P. Shonkoff & S. J. Meisels (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention (2nd ed., pp. 316–329). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lerner, J. V., & Galambos, N. L. (1985). Maternal role satisfaction, mother-child interaction, and child temperament: A process model. Child Development, 21, 1157–1164. Menaghan, E. G., & Parcel, T. L. (1995). Social sources of change in children’s home environments: The effects of parental occupational experiences and family conditions. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 69–84. McLoyd, V. C. (1993). Employment among African American mothers in dual-earner families: Antecedents and consequences for family life and child development. In S. Frankel (Ed.), The employed mother and the family context (pp. 180–226). New York: Springer. Parcel, T. L., & Menaghan, E. G. (1994). Parents’ jobs and children’s lives. New York: Walter de Gruyter. Parke, R. D., & Buriel, R. (1998). Socialization in the family: Ethnic and ecological perspectives. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 463–552). New York: Wiley. Vandell, D. L., & Ramanan, J. (1992). Effects of early and recent maternal employment on children from low-income families. Child Development, 63, 938–949.

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Youngblade, L. M. (2003). Peer and teacher ratings of 3rd and 4th grade children’s social behavior as a function of early maternal employment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 477–488.

MEDIA AND CHILDREN’S FEARS There is an accumulating body of research evidence that the mass media, especially films and television, often induce intense fears, nightmares, and lingering anxieties in children (Cantor, 1998, 2002). National surveys of parents indicate that a majority of children have been frightened by television programs or movies. Moreover, a survey of third through eighth graders in Ohio revealed that as the number of hours of television viewing per day increased, so did the prevalence of symptoms of psychological trauma, such as anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress (Singer, Slovak, Frierson, & York, 1998). Similarly, a survey of the parents of children in kindergarten through fourth grade in Rhode Island revealed that the amount of children’s television viewing (especially television viewing at bedtime) and having a television in one’s own bedroom were significantly related to the frequency of sleep disturbances (Owens et al., 1999). In the latter study, 9% of the parents surveyed reported that their child experienced TV-induced nightmares at least once a week. Studies of adults’ retrospective reports of having been frightened by the mass media demonstrate that most people have vivid, detailed memories of having experienced an intense and enduring fright reaction to a movie or television program at some time in their youth. Common responses to these experiences include disturbances in sleeping or eating (nightmares, difficulties in falling asleep, stomachaches, etc.), mental preoccupation with the disturbing material (i.e., the inability to get the images off their minds), and subsequent uneasiness in real-life situations related to the content of the program or movie, which often leads to avoidance of similar situations. One study of college students reported that more than one fourth of the respondents said that the impact of a frightening program or movie was still with them at the time of reporting, an average of 6 years after exposure (Harrison & Cantor, 1999). Studies like these reveal that it is not at all unusual to give up swimming in the ocean after seeing Jaws, a

movie about sharks—in fact, a surprising number of people who saw Jaws before the age of 11 report having given up swimming altogether after seeing that movie. Many other people trace their long-term fears of specific animals, such as dogs, cats, or insects, to childhood exposure to cartoon features like Alice in Wonderland or Beauty and the Beast or to horror movies. Long-term traumatic memories of media exposure interfere with a variety of normal activities that would otherwise be unthreatening to adults. DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES IN THE MEDIA STIMULI THAT PROVOKE FEAR Parents often find it difficult to predict their children’s fright reactions to television and films because a child’s level of cognitive development influences how he or she perceives and responds to media stimuli. Research shows that as children mature cognitively, some media images and events become less likely to disturb them, whereas other things become potentially more upsetting. As a first generalization, the importance of appearance decreases as a child’s age increases. Both experimental and survey research supports the generalization that preschool children (approximately 3–6 years old) are more likely to be frightened by something that looks scary but is actually harmless (such as ET, the kindly but weird-looking extraterrestrial) than by something that looks attractive but is actually harmful (e.g., a handsome villain); for older elementary school children (approximately 7–11 years), appearance carries much less weight relative to the behavior or destructive potential of a character, animal, or object. A second generalization is that as children mature, they become more disturbed by realistic and less responsive to fantastic dangers depicted in the media. This change results from developmental trends in children’s understanding of the fantasy-reality distinction. Because of this, older elementary school children begin to be especially susceptible to fear produced by the news and other realistic presentations. Younger children are sometimes vulnerable to fear produced by the news as well, especially stories in which the threat is explicitly visual, as in natural disasters. A third generalization about what frightens children is that as they mature, they become frightened by media depictions involving increasingly abstract concepts, such as world problems (e.g., the threat of war, famine) and invisible environmental

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threats (e.g., AIDS, anthrax). Themes that adolescents and young adults report as extremely disturbing include sexual assault and stalking, and attacks by supernatural and occult forces. The media’s repeated showing of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath had features that frightened viewers of all ages, but different-aged children most likely responded to different features of the presentations. Prior research suggests that preschoolers most likely responded to images of bloodied victims and expressions of emotional distress; older elementary school children most likely were disturbed by the idea of their own and their family’s vulnerability to attack; teenagers, like adults, were able to grasp the enormity of the events and the long-term implications they presented for civilized society. PREVENTING AND REDUCING MEDIA-INDUCED FEARS Although it would be impossible and perhaps ill advised to shelter children from all frightening media stimuli, the research suggests that it is a good idea to limit children’s exposure to intensely frightening images before they are capable of handling them. However, movie ratings are often misleading, because even most G-rated features contain intense violence and grotesque visual images. Moreover, threatening images appear unpredictably on television in breaking news alerts and promotions for upcoming programming, as well as in programs that may appear to be child friendly but are not. Because of the pervasiveness of disturbing media themes and images, parents need information on how to help their children cope with the fear-evoking media they encounter. Strategies for coping with media-induced fears need to be tailored to the age of the child. Up to the age of approximately 7, nonverbal coping strategies work the best (Cantor, 2004). These strategies, which do not depend on words or explanations, include removing children from the scary situation, distracting them, giving them attention and warmth, and under some circumstances, desensitization (gradually exposing children to small, less-threatening parts of a program). Eight-year-olds and older can benefit from verbal coping strategies, including logical explanations of why they are not in danger. If what they saw is pure fantasy, it helps children in this age-group to be reminded that what they have seen

could never happen. If the program depicts frightening events that can possibly occur, however, it may help to give older children information about why what they have seen cannot happen to them or to give them empowering instructions on how to prevent it from occurring. Research shows that explanations that minimize the likelihood that a horrible event will occur (e.g., “That sort of thing is extremely rare”) are not effective. —Joanne Cantor

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Cantor, J. (1998). “Mommy, I’m scared”: How TV and movies frighten children and what we can do to protect them. San Diego: Harvest/Harcourt. Cantor, J. (2002). Fright reactions to mass media. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 287–306). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Cantor, J. (2004). Teddy’s TV troubles. Madison, WI: Goblin Fern. Harrison, K. S., & Cantor, J. (1999). Tales from the screen: Enduring fright reactions to scary media. Media Psychology, 1(2), 97–116. Owens, J., Maxim, R., McGuinn, M., Nobile, C., Msall, M., & Alario, A. (1999). Television-viewing habits and sleep disturbance in school children. Pediatrics, 104(3), 552. Available at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/ content/full/104/3/e27 Singer, M. I., Slovak, K., Frierson, T., & York, P. (1998). Viewing preferences, symptoms of psychological trauma, and violent behaviors among children who watch television. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 1041–1048.

MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE In making the journey from the laboratory to the daily newspaper, evening news broadcast, or parenting magazine, scholarly information derived from developmental science often gets lost in translation. Media coverage of developmental science and related fields fulfills an essential step in bringing profoundly important information about child development to the attention of the public, but the material in question is often subject to dilution, unwarranted simplification, or complete misinterpretation. The benefits obtained

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by opening up such findings for the consideration of parents, policymakers, and other members of lay audiences concerned with the findings of developmental science can also be conferred through rigorous and elegant writing for nonscholars, but both the developmental scientist and the journalist must be aware of the pitfalls inherent in their interactions. POPULAR DISSEMINATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Developmental science may well be unique in the scope of the demand among nonacademic audiences for its reports and findings. Such publications as Popular Science, Nature, Science, and Psychology Today do, of course, bring scientific findings and discussions of their implications to the public. They do not, however, garner as large a share of the consumer periodicals market as do magazines devoted to simpler and more applied discussions of human development, particularly those focusing on infancy and early through middle childhood, for example, Parents, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother, Child, and scores of regional and specialty parenting magazines. In addition, mainstream women’s magazines (e.g., Woman’s Day, Redbook, Good Housekeeping) and general interest periodicals (e.g., Parade, Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker) also cover child and family science and policy issues. Newsweeklies regularly devote not only feature story inches but also special editions to the science of human development (Special Report, 1997), and respected newspapers like the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Christian Science Monitor cover the “family beat” in greater depth than in previous eras. Stories focusing on the status of children and families in the United States (and on crises among them) are regularly featured on television news digest shows such as 20/20, Prime Time, Dateline, and 60 Minutes. Translating Developmental Science Into Consumer-Friendly Language For developmental science, translation from science-speak to parent-ese often results in simplistic interpretations of what we know, fabrications of material to substitute for what we don’t yet know, and misunderstandings about the implications for rearing, educating, and caring for children on both national and family levels. These oversimplifications and

misunderstandings have the power to distract our attention from the most salient problems in developmental science and may result in wasted time, effort, and resources. In some cases, such coverage also tarnishes the public perception of social sciences already too often viewed by the public as imprecise or “soft.” In other cases, hyperbolic claims about the implications of developmental science have led to the development of programs and interventions that—in spite of being based on overstated or flawed interpretations of research findings—have provided valuable services to children at risk for educational, social, and health problems. HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE MEDIA COVERAGE The 1990s saw considerable growth in the media coverage of developmental science topics. Once relegated to the features and women’s sections of newspapers and a handful of magazines devoted to children and families, articles about child development, the needs of parents, maternal and child health, and family policy have become front-page fodder for newspapers and leading stories in televised news digests. The number of major newspapers that have added child and family beats to their coverage has increased dramatically; these positions are now coveted by journalists who might previously have resented being relegated to covering “women’s” stories (Lakshmi, 1996). The nature of the coverage of children’s issues is not always of a quality that will, in the long run, serve the needs of developmental science. Much of the media coverage of child and family concerns has been spurred by social crises and negative events related to substance abuse and tragedies resulting in and from school and community violence. Innumerable stories are generated by outcomes of the paucity of human and monetary resources devoted by national policy to the care of children, but the focus is more likely to be on the drama created by relatively isolated and sensational events than on cumulative or chronic deficits in child and family services. A child who dies of hyperthermia after being left unattended in a hot car at her unlicensed day care facility generates a flurry of news stories, while information about the ongoing national crisis in child care quality does not. Random accidental deaths to children with access to handguns in private homes generate little national interest, but a

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school shooting on the scale of that which occurred at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 2001 stimulates ’round-the-clock news coverage for weeks and may contribute to the development of social policies at a rate at odds with the statistical likelihood of students being involved in such an occurrence. Too much coverage of child and family stories still follows the old newspaper dictum, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Yet not all such media coverage is negative or sensationalist in nature. Responsible reporting of scientific studies and the opinions of reputable policymakers and institutions has also taken a more prominent place in recent decades. For example, when the Carnegie Corporation of New York released its important 1994 report on the unmet needs of America’s young children, Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children, the story appeared on the front page of the New York Times and received appropriate coverage in newsweeklies and on talk radio and television news analysis programming. THE DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENTIST AND THE JOURNALIST The relationship between social science and journalism is steeped in irony. Both the scholar and the journalist have as their goals uncovering and disseminating information about their subjects: describing the effect of spending many hours in child care at an early age, for instance, or defining the factors in early childhood that contribute to optimal neurological development. Both are investigators, both are interested in getting their findings in front of an audience, and in doing so before their professional colleagues do. Both are in search of forums in which they can make a timely and unique contribution to our understanding of the issues they cover. Beyond these similarities, however, lie differences that impinge on the effectiveness of both the reporter and the scholar. Fundamental contrasts present themselves with respect to language: a developmental psychologist, for instance, prepares a manuscript for a specialty journal in a passive voice (“Little is known about . . .”), stressing aggregate findings (“75% of subjects reached criterion on the task,” or “the 332 subjects cried an average of 2.8 hours a day”). The journalist can have a greater impact on an audience by speaking in an active voice and focusing on individuals: “Sue Swanson, a 34-year-old mother of two

toddlers, struggles daily to hold together a patchwork of day care arrangements,” or “Cassandra, 15, feels hopeful that she can overcome these obstacles and become the first person in her family to graduate from high school.” The scholar’s interests and concerns are described relative to a set of norms: how much crying, the average age at which a developmental milestone is reached, the percentage of children vaccinated by a given age. The journalist uses such information as well, but puts a human face on it: “Emily’s parents even took turns by night, one sleeping, one getting up to deal with their 3-month-old’s incessant crying,” or “But when Eric lost interest even in his favorite sport, his parents insisted that their pediatrician refer them to a clinical psychologist.” Interactions Between Developmental Scientists and Journalists The structure of popular publications that target parents both relies heavily on research in child development and manifests a certain distrust of academia. Newspaper and magazine editors seek out freelance writers with backgrounds in a given field, such as child development, pediatrics, or early childhood education, but may doubt their ability to distill their scholarly information into a format digestible by their readers. Similarly, even scholars who are eager for their work to attract popular media attention are leery of journalists who may misunderstand, misinterpret, or oversimplify research findings. They are inclined to fear a publication process in which they have little control over the final product. After all, describing one’s research in a lengthy journal article in which the work is explained in detail and placed in a scholarly and historical context is very different from describing the same work to a journalist who may use only a line or two of interview material and who may then draw new or unexpected—and sometimes unwarranted— implications from that work. Scholars are seldom trained to interact with journalists. Accustomed to their own publication modes and standards, many are unused to summarizing the methods and findings of their research for a lay audience. The specialized language of research can be off-putting as well, as scholars and editors fear (with some justification) that the nuances of a study or larger body of work will be lost in the translation from academic jargon to the vernacular. Scholars are often frustrated, too, by the relatively short turnaround time

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of popular articles and broadcast reports and by having to provide interviews on the spur of the moment. Although this is changing as media awareness invades even the most closeted, ivory-tower scholarly communities, it remains the case that relatively few academicians are accustomed to thinking of their work in terms of the media-friendly “sound bites” so often demanded—often in short order—by journalists. In turn, journalists who may be guided as much by their interest in promoting child-oriented policy issues, a style sometimes described as “campaign journalism” (Thompson & Nelson, 2001), are quick to make use of research findings that support—or appear to support— child advocacy goals. MEDIA-FRIENDLY DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Specific characteristics of the coverage of developmental science topics for lay audiences lend themselves to remedy: • The length of most popular press articles and news stories on developmental science topics severely limits the presentation of details necessary for clarification of the more subtle aspects and outcomes of a given piece of research or a body of research. • The format of most newspaper and magazine articles lends itself to oversimplification. Readers too busy to scan more than headlines, text boxes, pull quotes, and photo captions often come away with a skewed picture. • Reporting of developmental science issues typically takes place too soon, often before findings can be given the scientific imprimatur of publication in peerreviewed journals, and may give the false impression of a fixed and static picture of research that might better be viewed in terms of its ongoing developments. • Research is “new” to journalists unfamiliar with an existing body of research and may be described as such even if it took place years or even decades earlier. • News coverage tends to favor findings perceived as “hard” or “more scientific” if they are based on high-technology measurements (advances in neuroimaging, for example) as opposed to comparable findings from experimental or observational research even when the newer research confirms or is compatible with earlier reports. This bias may skew perceptions

about the reliability of scientific findings and, in particular, may lead policymakers down ill-advised pathways (Muenchow, 1996). IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY Media reports of developmental science research play a significant role in the policy process. Raising public awareness of issues and problems in fields that are the focus of developmental science (e.g., day care, health care, school readiness, children’s mental health, life span development, etc.) is an essential component of policy development. Media coverage is particularly important at the early stages of policy development— creating public awareness—and at the later stages— monitoring and reporting on the ongoing effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of a given policy to achieve the desired ends (Zigler & Hall, 2000). CONCLUSIONS The power of and potential for media coverage to benefit parents, educators, policymakers, and researchers themselves cannot be overestimated. The relationship between developmental scientists and the producers and developers of popular media can and should be repaired and strengthened. Developmental scholars should have access to training resources, including courses, seminars, or workshops on interacting with the press, and awareness of and familiarity with public relations staff at their place of training or employment. Developing and strengthening training opportunities for journalists in which they interact with researchers and scholars in ways that improve both these relationships and the media coverage of the topics in question should be encouraged and funded by colleges and universities, developmental science foundations, journalism foundations, and the magazines, newspapers, and broadcast outlets that cover relevant issues and events. —Nancy W. Hall

See also INTERACTIVE MEDIA, EFFECTS OF; INTERNET; TELEVISION, CHILDREN’S PROCESSING OF; TELEVISION, EDUCATIONAL AND PROSOCIAL EFFECTS; TELEVISION, MEDIATING EFFECTS OF FAMILY COMMUNICATION; VIDEO GAMES

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Hall, N. W. (2003). The brain campaign: Brain development and the media. In E. F. Zigler, M. Finn-Stevenson, & N. W. Hall (Eds.), The first three years and beyond: Brain development

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and social policy (pp. 185–198). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Lakshmi, I. (1996, April). Setting up a children’s beat. Paper presented at Poynter Institute Journalism Conference, Hartford, CT. Muenchow, S. (1996). The role of the media in child and family policy. In E. F. Zigler, S. L. Kagan, & N. W. Hall (Eds.), Children, families and government: Preparing for the 21st century (pp. 394–408). New York: Cambridge University Press. Special report: How a child’s brain develops. (1997). Time, February 3. Thompson, R. A., & Nelson, C. A. (2001). Developmental science and the media: Early brain development. American Psychologist, 56, 5–15. Zigler, E. F., & Hall, N. W. (2000). Child development and social policy. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

MEDIA USE, READING, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT It is common for elementary and secondary educators to blame declining academic achievement in reading and reading ability on their students’ use of electronic media. Citing such anecdotal phenomena as students’ difficulty in reading texts, lowered attention spans, and preoccupation with films, television, video games, and most recently, computers, teachers and caregivers are quick to make a causal connection. ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT The bulk of research on relationships betweeen academic achievement and media use center on the medium of television. In more than 25 years of research investigating the relationships between these domains, there is a consistent, usually moderate, sometimes weak, always negative correlation between TV watching and academic achievement for both elementary- and secondary-level students. While the majority of these studies are correlational, several have been interrupted time-series designs that lend themselves to more causal interpretations. In the correlational investigations, some with samples of several thousand, there is either a negative relationship between viewing and grades on state-mandated achievement test scores or a curvilinear relationship, where the negative correlation appears at some level of viewing, usually between 3 and 4 hours per day. In a thorough critical review of

this literature, the authors attribute causality to key variables in the equation: The evidence supports a three-factor process in which large amounts of viewing not only (a) displace skill acquisition but also (b) interferes with further practice, or skill development and maintenance, and (c) lower the quality or value by decreased capacity of practice done in conjunction with television. (Comstock & Paik, 1991, p. 86) Several recent investigations have specifically explored “practice done in conjunction with television,” and results indicate that for college students, homework done when a television is on in the room is of lower quality than silent study or study accompanied by music. This deterioration is most pronounced when the subject of study is difficult for the student. The data suggest that even if the television is not being watched, its mere presence is enough to degrade critical thinking about the material being studied. READING PROFICIENCY There is accumulating evidence for the decline of reading ability as a function of TV viewing. In the only published meta-analysis (23 studies, 274 correlations), television viewing was negatively correlated with reading ability and other dimensions of academic achievement, and the magnitude of the correlation rises sharply after 20 hours per week of viewing (Walberg & Haertel, 1992). Research reviews of the past three decades also find a consistent negative relationship. Extracting from a line of investigations, 3 hours of TV per day may be the critical peak in the decline of reading ability. In a longitudinal study of parent-child communication and its implications for media use, preschool children who were heavy viewers of television were less capable readers than lighter viewers by Grade 1 (Desmond, Singer, Singer, Calam, & Colimore, 1985). In light of small to moderate effect sizes found in much of the research, it is important to emphasize that if television viewing displaces as little as 15 minutes of homework per day, its ultimate impact is tremendous. In terms of media comparisons, there is a good deal of evidence that children more easily understand information conveyed by television than by print.

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The advantages of reading, however, appear to go beyond mere ease of story comprehension. Reading has positive effects on oral and written expression, reading ability as measured by standardized tests, and creative imagination. In a society that values oral and written expression, the accumulating evidence for the negative impact of television on young readers continues to be taken seriously by educators, researchers, and child advocates. Computer use and use of the Internet depend heavily on reading and related skills of sequential processing. TV VIEWING AND FREE READING A related issue in media use and reading ability is that of free reading, or reading that is child elected, not part of classroom assignments. In terms of the amount of reading, it is clear from several investigations that when children’s television is removed or decreased, reading increases, so it is tempting to extend the conclusion to a TV-detracts-from-reading hypothesis. One of these investigations of students in Grades 3–5 found a negative relationship between TV viewing and reading, in that time spent reading was inversely correlated with the viewing of aggressive TV programs, and the number of books read was inversely correlated with viewing of game shows. The authors interpret their results as evidence for television displacing some of the exciting and amusing aspects of books. Television influences the kind of reading that children prefer, not merely the amount. Heavy viewers tend to read books and magazines that are more television-like, more eventful and less “interior monologue” in nature, than do lighter viewers. One study found that young adolescents who are heavy viewers of television prefer stories about love and romance, stories with teenage themes and articles about film and TV personalities. Lighter viewers predominantly chose fiction and poetry for free reading, and they selected more overall categories of reading than did their heavy-viewing counterparts. Citing research that demonstrated a negative relationship between TV viewing and comic reading, Bentjes and van der Voort (1996) conducted a panel study of two cohorts of 8- and 10-year-olds to determine the effect of specific television diets on children’s book reading. Among their findings was that the negative effect of TV viewing was cumulative, increasing up to age 13. In terms of establishing the reasons for the TV-to-reading decline, the investigators

found that attitudes toward reading were negatively affected by TV viewing, and these negative attitudes led to decreased book reading over time. Second, they found a deterioration of the ability to concentrate on book reading as a function of TV viewing. As a result of years of happy moments watching television, it is likely that children regard the medium as an easily accessible mode of entertainment that provides more satisfaction than do books and magazines. CONCLUSIONS While it is clear that heavy television viewing places children and adolescents at risk for substandard academic achievement and reading ability, the time of life that is of most concern is the first 3 elementary years, when these skills are formed. Reading of the research suggests that ages 6–9 years are a critical period wherein excessive amounts of television may inhibit a child for life. While adolescent viewing is of concern, in a sense, the damage is done by the middle school years, and the possibility of recovery is vastly reduced. More research is needed on other media, such as computer games and the Internet, which are becoming more important to children each year. Some investigations demonstrate that computer games can increase certain problem-solving and spatial perception skills in young players, but when these activities occupy large amounts of leisure time, it is a good bet that academic achievement and reading will suffer. In any case, for most children, television is still the most utilized medium in the child’s free time, and there are sound reasons for parents to limit this activity in the leisure diet. —Roger Desmond

See also ADVERTISING, EFFECTS ON CHILDREN

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bentjes, J., & van der Voort, T. (1996). Children’s written accounts of televised and printed stories. Educational Technology Research and Development, 39, 15–26. Comstock, G., & Paik, H. (1991). Television and the American child. Los Angeles: Academic. Desmond, R. J., Singer, J. L., Singer, D. G., Calam, R., & Colimore, K. (1985). Family mediation patterns: Young children’s use and grasp of the medium. Human Communication Research, 11, 461–480. Walberg, H., & Haertel, G. (1992). Educational psychology’s first century. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 6–20.

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MEDIA VIOLENCE Parents have been concerned about the effects of media violence on their children at least as far back as the 1930s, when movies became a prominent form of entertainment. Hundreds of studies have been conducted to explore these effects over the years, and the consensus of the research is that media violence promotes psychologically harmful effects in children and adolescents (see Cantor, 2002). The most prominent of these effects involve the contribution of media violence to children’s violent behaviors and to their levels of hostility and aggressiveness in general. Several meta-analyses have shown that exposure to media violence leads to more violent and aggressive behavior after viewing and that, in the long run, children who consume large amounts of violent media grow up to become more violent, hostile adults (e.g., Bushman & Anderson, 2001; see also Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 2003).

PROCESSES UNDERLYING THE ANTISOCIAL EFFECTS OF MEDIA VIOLENCE There are several means by which violent activities on TV, in the movies, in video games, and in music promote aggressiveness in viewers. First, children often imitate the behaviors they see in the media, and violent behaviors are no exception. Sometimes this imitation is harmless, but often children imitate actions that lead to severe injury. For example, a survey documented the “epidemic” of playground injuries that followed the introduction of World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) in Israel as children imitated the wrestlers’ moves on school playgrounds (Lemish, 1997). A second way in which media violence promotes aggressiveness is through the process of desensitization. The normal reaction to violence, hostility, and aggressiveness is one of emotional arousal and affective disturbance. However, with repeated viewing of violence in an entertainment context, the negative emotional responses diminish, and viewers become less bothered, not only by violence in the media, but by real-life violence as well. Desensitized individuals become less sympathetic to the victims of violence and less likely to try to prevent violence from occurring.

Viewing violence also results in an increase in hostile feelings. Research shows that people leave a violent movie with higher levels of hostility than when they arrived and feel more hostile after hearing songs with violent lyrics (Anderson, Carnagey, & Eubanks, 2003). Moreover, after viewing violence or playing a violent video game, people are more likely to interpret a neutral comment or action as an insult or an attack. This effect has been termed the hostile attribution bias. In other words, exposure to media violence colors an individual’s worldview in ways that may lead to a decreased ability to interact harmoniously with others. Content analyses show that violence is a prominent component of the media that young people consume. Moreover, the way violence is typically presented in media entertainment makes it especially likely to produce imitation or the adoption of pro-violence attitudes. For example, violence on television typically minimizes the risks of violence; most violent scenes show no criticism, penalty, or remorse for committing violence; and a substantial proportion of violent villains are never punished in violent shows (Center for Communication and Social Policy, 1998). Research also shows that children who are already high in aggressiveness choose to consume more violent media. Although some critics of the research findings allege that violent children’s preference for violent entertainment accounts for the link between viewing and aggression, research shows that the causal link goes both ways. Not only do violent children and adolescents consume more violent media; these children are more likely to be negatively affected by the violence they watch than are their less aggressive peers. Defenders of media violence sometimes claim that the demonstrated effects are quite small. Although other factors, such as living in an abusive home environment, are more strongly linked to youth violence, meta-analyses show that the link between viewing violence and antisocial outcomes is stronger than many well-known and accepted links, such as the relationship between exposure to lead and lower IQ scores in children. ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM OF MEDIA VIOLENCE A variety of solutions have been proposed to reduce the impact of media violence (see Cantor & Wilson, 2003, for review). Reducing children’s exposure to these materials is made more difficult because

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the media industries actively market their violent products to children. Studies show that when children consume fewer violent media, their levels of aggression decline. However, they also show that parents’ attempts to limit exposure, particularly among adolescents, are often unsuccessful, and at times have the opposite effect, by making the forbidden materials more appealing. There is some evidence that adult commentary while children view violence can mitigate the negative impact of the materials. However, as children enter their adolescent years, these comments need to be less direct and more tactful to avoid being rejected and dismissed out of hand. Moreover, research has also found that when adults coview violence with their children and make no comments, the lack of commentary often serves as a tacit endorsement of the material, making the impact of the viewed violence stronger rather than weaker. Large-scale media literacy curricula focusing on reducing the effect of media violence have reported varying degrees of success. In general, interventions focusing on the unreality of stories involving media violence have been more effective with younger elementary school children than with older students. Older children have generally benefited from more indirect approaches, such as participating in activities aimed at teaching other children about the harms of media violence or hearing experts talk about real-world violence. There is also evidence that well-intentioned interventions can sometimes backfire if the message is not properly designed for a particular age-group or type of audience. Media ratings have been developed for movies, television, video games, music, and the Internet to alert parents to potentially harmful or objectionable content. Each type of media has its own rating system, however, and parental understanding of many of the systems is low (Bushman & Cantor, 2003). The V-Chip, a blocking device that is now standard equipment in televisions, was mandated by law to permit parents to block content they consider inappropriate. However, because the television rating system that works with the V-Chip has not been effectively publicized or explained, and because the equipment is difficult to program, the V-Chip is not widely used. A variety of other tools, such as alternative filtering and rating systems, are being developed to help parents. In addition, several laws have been introduced in Congress and in various states to give parents more say in their children’s exposure. Several localities

have passed video game ordinances that prohibit arcade owners from allowing children to play violent games that have “Mature” ratings without their parents’ consent. These ordinances have been challenged by the video game industry on First Amendment grounds, and several of them have been overturned.

CONCLUSIONS The prevalence and popularity of media violence coupled with the well-established risks of viewing violence suggest that parents need to be aware of the media their children are consuming. Parents are well advised to try to limit or moderate their children’s consumption of media violence and to discuss the violent images and themes in the media their children watch, listen to, and play. —Joanne Cantor

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Anderson, C. A., Carnagey, N. L., & Eubanks, J. (2003). Exposure to violent media: The effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 960–971. Bushman, B., & Anderson, C. A. (2001). Media violence and the American public: Scientific facts versus media misinformation. American Psychologist, 56, 477–489. Bushman, B., & Cantor, J. (2003). Media ratings for violence and sex: Implications for policymakers and parents. American Psychologist, 58, 130–141. Cantor, J. (2002). The psychological effects of media violence on children and adolescents. In N. Turgeon (Ed.), La violence à la télévision et les jeunes: Pas de tueries dans nos écoles donc pas de problème? [Television violence and children: No killings in our schools so no problem?]. Symposium Proceedings. HEC, Montreal. Available at http:// joannecantor.com/montrealpap_fin.htm Cantor, J., & Wilson, B. J. (2003). Media and violence: Intervention strategies for reducing aggression. Media Psychology, 5, 363–403. Center for Communication and Social Policy. (1998). National Television Violence Study (Vol. 3). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C., & Eron, L. D. (2003). Longitudinal relations between children’s exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977–1992. Developmental Psychology, 39, 201–221. Lemish, D. (1997). The school as a wrestling arena: The modeling of a television series. Communication, 22(4), 395–418.

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MEDIATED LEARNING EXPERIENCE Mediated learning experience (MLE) refers to a specific kind of adult-child interaction in which the quality of interaction is characterized by the mediation of critical parameters. These parameters are cognitive and affective factors involving the mind of the adult, the mind of the child, and the learning environment. Three of these parameters are necessary and sufficient conditions for constituting MLE: (1) intentionality and reciprocity, (2) the mediation of meaning, and (3) transcendence. MLE as a concept became prominent in the literature of education and psychology only after the seminal work of the Israeli psychologist Reuven Feuerstein (Feuerstein, Rand, & Hoffman, 1979). Feuerstein believes that this interaction is unique to the human species. MLE determines the flexibility, modifiability, and propensity for higher levels of adaptability in human beings. HISTORICAL CONTEXT The theory of MLE was developed over the period 1950–1963, when Feuerstein was working with Youth Aliyah, an agency whose mission was the ingathering and integration of Jewish children in Israel. He and his colleagues had to work with large numbers of orphaned and traumatized youths coming to Israel after the Holocaust. These young people came from diverse cultures and disadvantaged conditions and had to be received, settled, classified, and schooled in a new country. The psychometrics of the day provided little solution for such a mammoth task. Existing practice was to look at what children failed to learn and not what they could learn. Feuerstein approached the problem very differently. First, he was more concerned with the learning potential and untapped capacity of these children. Second, he turned the need to assess into a learning opportunity for the students, so that every assessment was in fact a learning experience interwoven with a diagnostic approach and an intervention or remediation. The notion of MLE represents an important contribution to applied developmental science by advancing the work of Piaget. The phenomenon of MLE is distinct from the experience of direct learning. The quality of interaction between the individual and the environment via an intentional human being plays a pivotal role in the cognitive development of the individual.

The development of cognitive structure comes from two modalities of interaction: (1) direct exposure of the organism to experiences as described by the stimulusorganism-response (S-O-R) model of Piaget, and (2) interaction of the organism with the environment via the human mediator (H), hence the S-H-O-H-R model (Feuerstein, Klein, & Tannenbaum, 1991). The mediator may be a parent, facilitator, teacher, or significant other who plays the intentional role of explaining, emphasizing, interpreting, or extending the environment so that the learner builds up a meaningful internal model of the context or the world experienced. The lack of MLE is responsible for an individual’s deficiencies in cognitive prerequisites, important habits, dispositions, and propensities to learn how to learn (Feuerstein, Feuerstein, & Kozulin, 2001). MLE PARAMETERS Seng, Pou, and Tan (2003) represented the parameters of MLE as a repertoire as shown in Figure 1. In the MLE interactionist model, the mediator not only has a clear intention to mediate the stimuli (i.e., the environment) but also demonstrates and shares the intention to the learner. Reciprocity calls for the learner’s response to turn an implicit intention into an explicit and purposeful outcome. The next major characteristic of MLE is the mediation of a continuous and intensive search for meaning. In MLE, the awareness of meaning constitutes a major component of the motivation system. Meaning relates to the individual’s cultural background, value system, aspirations, and needs. According to Feuerstein and Feuerstein (1991), the mediator makes known to the learner the meaning of the interaction, its significance, its why, and its what for. Transcendence is about leading the learner away from the “here and now” of the learning situation. The mediator goes beyond the immediate primary and elementary goal of the interaction, changing and widening it by including other more remote and important ones. This is particularly important when addressing the individual’s capacity to adapt and cope with change and new environments. The mediation of transcendence is thus about facilitating the application of learning across situations and contexts as well as developing a mental paradigm that would be future oriented and farsighted. Apart from the three paramount parameters, other parameters are often present whenever applicable in

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Feeling of Competence (FC)

io n

n

ti o M

iat

ti o

iat ed

Transcendence (T)

Search for Optimistic Alternatives (OA)

n

M

dia

Mediation of Meaning (ME)

io n

Repertoire of Mediated Learning

Me

Goal Seeking, Setting & Achieving (GO)

Reflective Practice (RP)

Intentionality and Reciprocity (IR)

ia ed

M

ed

Individual Uniqueness and Esteem (IU)

M e d i a ti o n

Interdependency and Sharing (IS)

M e d i a ti o n

Change Awareness (CA) Challenge of Novelty & Complexity (NC)

Figure 1

Representation of Feuerstein’s Parameters for Mediated Learning Experience.

SOURCE: Seng et al., 2003. Copyright © 2003 by Thomson Learning.

effective learning situations. Mediation of feeling of competence relates to the need to provide successful experiences in the tasks given to students and to remove the unwarranted fear of failure. It is important, as the fear of making mistakes often results in the student’s lack of investment in time and effort to try again. The mediation of reflective practice, which relates to self-regulatory and metacognitive behaviors, is significant for learning situations. The mediation of interdependence and sharing parameter incorporates the sense of belonging and sharing behavior parameters from the list. There is a need to encourage students to appreciate being an integral part of the community and institution, as teamwork, interdependence, and knowledge sharing are attributes emphasized in today’s world.

EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES AND APPLICATION OF MLE The knowledge-based economy, with its rapid proliferation of technology, information accessibility, globalization, and new industrial and business demands, calls for new responses in the way education deals with knowledge and participation at all levels, from preschool to university. What MLE tells us is that the most important questions to address in any classroom situation are these: What is the quality of interaction of the teacher and the students? Is there a meeting of the minds? What is the thinking going on in the minds of the students? Is learning purposeful, meaningful, and transferable? Or are our classroom situations ones of mere transmission of information from the teacher’s

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notebook to the students’ notepads without passing through the mind of either? Furthermore, MLE provides the theoretical basis for the reversibility of deficient cognitive processes under specified conditions of intervention (Kozulin & Rand, 2000). Education reforms are implying that teachers need to take the role of facilitators rather than content disseminators. This can only happen if the learning environment encourages meaningfulness, a feeling of competence, goal-seeking behavior, and the need for challenge and novelty. Such mediation should start from preschool. Competencies such as adaptability and creativity are not necessarily encapsulated in content knowledge and measured by examination scores. Corollaries of these concerns include the need to change the mindsets of both the present and future generations in learning to learn, the need for continuous learning, for assuming personal responsibility for one’s own learning, and embracing new approaches to learning that prepare individuals with relevant competencies. CONCLUSIONS Research on mediated learning experiences shows that when teachers are cognizant of the MLE model, they become more reflective and become better learners themselves. MLE helps educators reexamine their roles as facilitators for learning content knowledge; facilitators for learning the process, heuristics, and strategies of learning a particular knowledge field; mediators of knowledge sources; mediators of lifelong learning (i.e., helping learners develop dispositions and mind-sets for learning to learn); and mediators of life-wide learning (helping learners transfer learning across contexts and disciplines). Some suggestions of potential areas for further research include the further development of MLE intervention models for different groups of children; models for MLE training of different groups of adults, such as parents, teachers, and caregivers; MLE and its impact on cognitive functioning and cognitive development; effects of MLE on multiple dimensions of children’s development and performance; development of peer mediation models; further development of a wide range of materials, tools, and instruments for specific intervention of cognitive abilities; impact of MLE and dynamic assessment; and MLE and the design of learning environments. —Alice Seng Seok Hoon and Tan Oon Seng

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Feuerstein, R., & Feuerstein, S. (1991). Mediated learning experience: A theoretical review. In R. Feuerstein, P. S. Klein, & A. J. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Mediated learning experience: Theoretical, psychological and learning implications (pp. 3–51). London: Freund. Feuerstein, R., Klein, P., & Tannenbaum, A. J. (1991). Mediated learning experience: Theoretical, psychological and learning implications. London: Freund. Feuerstein, R., Rand, Y., & Hoffman, M. B. (1979). The dynamic assessment of retarded performers: The learning potential assessment device, theory, instruments, and techniques. Baltimore: University Park Press. Feuerstein, R., Feuerstein, R., & Kozulin, A. (2001). Mediated learning experience in teaching and counseling. Jerusalem, Israel: ICELP. Kozulin, A., & Rand, Y. (2000). Experience of mediated learning. Oxford: Pergamon. Seng, A., Pou, L., & Tan, O. S. (2003). Mediated learning experience with children: Applications across contexts. Singapore: McGraw-Hill (Asia).

MEIOSIS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES In one sense, meiosis explains individual differences. It is a mechanism that generates diversity. However, understanding of the consequences of meiosis for human diversity has undergone revision. The work of Hirsch (1963, 2004) frames the history of this evolution in understanding. DEFINING MEIOSIS Writing in Science, Hirsch (1963) explained that sexual reproduction involves meiosis—a complex cellular process resulting in a meristic division of the nucleus and formation of gametes (reproductive cells) having single genomes (a haploid chromosome set). One homolog in every chromosome pair in our diploid complement is of paternal origin and the other is of maternal origin. In meiosis, the homologs of a pair segregate and a gamete receives one from each pair. The assortment to gametes of the segregating homologs occurs independently for each pair. This process ensures diversity because it maximizes the likelihood that gametes will receive unique genomes. For example, gametogenesis in Drosophila

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willistoni produces eight alternative gametic genomes, which, if we represent the three chromosome pairs of this species by Aa, Bb, and Cc, we designate ABC, Abc, AbC, aBC, ABc, aBc, abC, abc. In general, n pairs of chromosomes produce 2n genomes (if we ignore the recombination of gene linkages that actually occurs in crossover exchanges between chromosomes). Humans, with 23 chromosome pairs, produce gametes with any of 223 alternative genomes. Hirsch (1963) argued that these facts make vanishingly small the chances that even siblings (other than monozygotes) will be genetically identical. He concluded that, since the gamete contributed by each parent is chosen from 223 alternatives, the probability that the second offspring born to parents will have exactly the same genotype as their firstborn is (1/223)2, or less than 1 chance in more than 70 trillion (Hirsch, 1963). The probability that two unrelated individuals will have the same genotype, then, is effectively zero (Hirsch, 1963). After this computation, the argument for the genotypic uniqueness of members of populations is even more compelling, since other conditions also contribute to diversity. Accordingly, Hirsch stressed that the organisms that the behavioral sciences study are intrinsically variable before they undergo differentiating experiences, and that the mechanisms responsible for this variety are mutation, recombination, and meiosis. If one adds to these factors individual experience, it then becomes evident why individuals differ in behavior. In fact, it was inferred that the more reliable our methods of observation become, the more evident will this variety be (Hirsch, 1963). While Hirsch (1963) was correct that the facts of meiosis result in an impressive degree of human diversity, it is now apparent that the magnitude of this variation—while nevertheless vast—is less than specified in 1963. Understanding why this is the case illustrates that there are some surprising and important subtleties about the impact of meiosis on diversity. ADVANCES IN THE CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF MEIOSIS AND DIVERSITY The two extremes of diversity are, first, that each individual is unique, which was what researchers said for years (Hirsch, 1963, through Hirsch, 2004). However, this assertion turned out to be wrong. The other extreme

of diversity is that, except for sex, all individuals are similar. This view is not true either. Individuals are not uniformly unique and, theoretically, replicates will occur. It turns out to be a “Never Never Land.” Individuals are unique but can fall into similar slots. The individuality calculation was made and published in an invited lead article in Science magazine more than 40 years ago (1963) and for these four decades has withstood the test of time. It was and still is correct. But now, the author found that he had to challenge the interpretation given to the calculation at that time (Hirsch, 2004). Since each individual can produce gametes with any of 223 alternative genomes, the probability of a replicate occurring is 1/223 in the case of each parent independently and separately, and the probability of their joint and simultaneous occurrence in combination was logically inferred to be the product of their separate probabilities, that is, (1/223)2, or 1 chance in more than 70 trillion. The logic is impeccable; we learn it as students in elementary mathematics: The probability of the simultaneous occurrence of two independent events is the product of their separate probabilities. But the actual relationship is different, and we did not appreciate that difference until we started to work with diagrams (Punnett squares) we employ to explain some of elementary genetics to our classes (see Hirsch, 2004). Our collective error has been not to appreciate that when the number of gametic genomes, 2N, is squared, the result describes the number of cells in the matrix of zygotes, not the number of zygotic genotypes. The probability that the second offspring born to parents will be genotypically the same as their firstborn depends on (a) the number of genotypes that are possible and (b) the relative frequencies of their expected occurrences. Humans, with 23 chromosome pairs, produce gametes with any of 223 = 8,388,608 possible genomes, and would require a matrix with (223)2 = 70,368, 744,177,666, or more than 70 trillion cells, and 323 = 94,143,178,827, or more than 94 billion different possible genotypes distributed over those 70 trillionplus cells. Previously we had estimated the probability of two identical children from one couple as 1 in 70 trillion; now we find that it is slightly less than 1 in 160,000— almost a billion times more likely! Our analysis also reveals that the previous estimate was an answer to a question somewhat different from the one we had

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stated, that is, instead of two children from the same parents, it was in fact addressing the question of two identical children from any (same or different) parents in the population. Nevertheless, the answer to the question involving any parents is also grossly different, that is, now seen to be 1 in 6.27 billion, also a much more likely event. Furthermore, evidence and analysis also reveal the unrealistic nature of our assumption that there are in a population only two alternative forms of the chromosomes in each pair. In many cases, for example, maximum heterozygosity, both parents were required to have the same genotype—a ridiculous assumption. Whereas that assumption was certainly not concealed, effectively all of us researchers seem to have ignored it, or at least failed to appreciate it. One might object and raise the “So what?” question that the foregoing discussion has merely shown that an event once believed to be infinitesimally unlikely now appears merely very unlikely. Reference to the Punnett squares (see Hirsch, 2004) should remind us that our analysis has shown that we can no longer consider the populations we study to comprise almost exclusively unique genotypes and must now consider the possibility of the existence of nonunique genotypes, namely, replicates. Use of the Punnett square depicts the diversity of genotypes as well as their frequencies. On one main diagonal lies the unique genotypes; they are homozygotes. On the other main diagonal lies the N replicates of the single most frequent genotype, the multiple heterozygote. On either side of the main diagonals lie duplicate to multiple copies of the several homozygote-heterozygote combinations. Within the human population exist the unique as well as groups of individuals with varying frequencies of similarity. In short, the import of these analyses is not merely to adjust a 40-year-old computation. Rather, it is to underscore the complexity of genetic combinations and to signal the dangers of simplistic approaches to representing genetic variability. For many decades (Hirsch, 1970, 1997), such dangers have been ignored in several treatments of the concept of heritability. THE HERITABILITY CONCEPT The heritability concept must be distinguished from, rather than confused or conflated with, the heredity concept. Usually, the heritability statistic measures the additive genetic variance of a trait in a population and

may be quite different in one population from that in another population of one species. Heredity is our name for the biological system that makes possible the existence and reproduction of each species. What must be appreciated is that heritability is not a nature/nurture ratio measuring contributions to individual development, and heritability is not heredity—two entirely different concepts that have been hopelessly conflated in The Bell Curve and many other texts where most of the hereditarian interpretations have been based on unjustifiable human heritability estimates (Platt & Bach, 1997). Unfortunately, because of their assonance, when we hear one of the two words, automatically we think the other. Heritability was developed in the mid-1930s to predict the outcome of plant and animal breeding studies and was borrowed by some psychologists in the belief that it could be applied to human data, for example, to determine what proportion of IQ is inherited (nature) and how much is acquired through experience (nurture). Analysis of the limitations of heritability reveals its inappropriateness as a measure in human psychology (Hirsch, 1997, pp. 213–214, 220) where breeding experiments are off-limits. Social policy based on inappropriate heritability statistics risks misguided predictions about human psychology in present and future society. NORM OF REACTION Norm of reaction speaks of how a genotype produces a phenotype, but the phenotypes that may be a consequence of that genotype can vary depending on the environment in which that genotype develops. Therefore, we should expect the outcome of a genotype to vary depending on the environment in which it develops. Norm of reaction, in a way, sets the limits on developmental possibilities for a given genotype. As individuals, our norms of reaction are not necessarily the same (Hirsch, 1970; Lerner, 2002). It’s a tongue twister, this area, because norm of reaction prevents us from making simplistic statements. We much prefer simplistic statements, for example, “Oh, he’s a criminal type. . . . She’s a nymphomaniac.” These types might exist in society—“but it ain’t necessarily so.” CONCLUSIONS Because of the consequences of the nature of meiosis, the diversity it generates (despite our new

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awareness of increased frequencies of genotypic similarities), and the interaction with differing environments, no one approach to the problems of applied developmental science, for example, child development, can be expected to be universally applicable. As previously stated, the heritability concept must be distinguished from, rather than confused or conflated with, the heredity concept. Social policy based on inappropriate heritability statistics risks misguided predictions about human psychology in present and future society. —Jerry Hirsch

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Hirsch, J. (1963). Behavior genetics and individuality understood: Behaviorism’s counterfactual dogma blinded the behavioral sciences to the significance of meiosis. Science, 142, 1436–1442. Hirsch, J. (1970). Behavior-genetic analysis and its biosocial consequences. Seminars in Psychiatry, 2, 89–105. Hirsch, J. (1997). Some history of heredity-vs-environment, genetic inferiority at Harvard(?), and The (incredible) Bell Curve. Genetica, 99, 207–224. Hirsch, J. (2004). Uniqueness, diversity, similarity, repeatability, and heritability. In C. Garcia Coll, E. Bearer, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Nature and nurture: The complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences on human behavior and development (pp. 127–170) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Platt, S. A., & Bach, M. (1997). Uses and misinterpretations of genetics in psychology. Genetica, 99, 135–143.

MEISELS, SAMUEL J. It is rare that a former practitioner who has been a strong advocate for appropriate, high-quality children’s educational services is also an accomplished scholar and researcher. Samuel J. Meisels is well-known for his concern for fairness and equity in the assessment of young children. He has also been a vocal critic of potentially damaging educational practices with young children and is a highly regarded, prolific scholar. A former preschool, kindergarten, and firstgrade teacher and director of a university-based, model early childhood program, Meisels was able

to integrate his research about children and their developmental needs with his own personal observations of and interactions with children. Since his earliest experiences with both typical and disabled children in the late 1960s, Meisels has focused his attention on children’s educational services, state and federal policy issues, and valid, reliable, equitable, appropriate, and fair assessments of children’s developmental and educational progress. EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS Samuel Joseph Meisels was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945, the son of a famous cantor and a musician mother. He received his bachelor’s degree with high honors from the University of Rochester, where he studied philosophy, focusing on moral philosophy. Upon graduation from Rochester, he enrolled in a doctoral program at Harvard in education and philosophy, which seemed to be a reasonable next step in his education, given Meisels’s belief that education was an inherently moral enterprise. It was as a graduate student at Harvard that Meisels discovered the work of Jean Piaget. He was immediately impressed with Piaget’s revolutionary ideas about children and epistemology. In fact, it was this early acquaintance with Piaget’s work that motivated Meisels to begin spending time in classrooms in various capacities as a teacher of young children. In his words, it was during this time, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, that he gave up epistemology (“knowing that”) for curriculum development and intervention (“knowing how”) (Meisels, 2002). At a later point in his career, when he became more engaged in children’s assessment, “knowing that” became dominant once more. Upon completing his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Meisels accepted a position at Tufts University, where he became an assistant professor and the director of the EliotPearson Children’s School, a university laboratory school, in the department of child study. He was affiliated with Tufts from 1972 to 1980. He spent 1979–1980 as a senior adviser in Early Childhood Development at the Developmental Evaluation Clinic at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston before joining the faculty of the University of Michigan in the fall of 1980. Meisels was appointed an associate professor in the School of Education and

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the director of Special Education at the Michigan University Affiliated Facility, known as the Institute for the Study of Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities. During his 21 years at Michigan, he held several positions, including that of research scientist at the Center for Human Growth, professor in the School of Education, and interim dean and associate dean for research in the Education School. He is currently a professor emeritus at Michigan. In 2002, Meisels became the president of Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development located in Chicago. CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS It is clear from Meisels’s earliest work that theorybased instructional approaches in early childhood classrooms, including those of Piaget, were of great interest to him (Friedland & Meisels, 1975; Meisels, 1976). In addition, his work has been consistently on the cutting edge of current thinking in the areas of developmental screening (Meisels, 1978a, 1989a), the inclusion of young children with special needs in regular educational programs (Meisels, 1978b), developmental consequences of high-risk birth (Meisels, Plunkett, Roloff, Pasick, & Stiefel, 1986; Meisels & Plunkett, 1988), the combining of special education and development as a lens through which to view young children with special needs (Meisels, 1979), readiness for school (1992, 1999), and performance assessments of young children (1996, 1997). Through the innovative practices he and his staff employed while he was director of the early childhood lab school at Tufts as well as through his writing, he attempted to reform special education, which was very behavioral at the time he began his career. His work demonstrated his keen understanding of the need to bring the insights of quality early childhood programs to work with children with special needs. In fact, the first book he edited, Special Education and Development (Meisels, 1979), was one of the earliest attempts to integrate child development and special education to recognize that there is one psychology for all children and that similar methods of instruction can apply to all. While it may appear commonplace today to subscribe to a merged conceptual framework for early childhood special education, Meisels’s work, beginning in the late 1970s, led the way to the present

integration of these fields. Meisels’s research served to provide conceptual models, which others have replicated (Meisels, 1985). CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING AND EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT Meisels has been and continues to be a leader in several areas of assessment, as well as an outspoken critic of assessment strategies and educational practices that are in opposition to the “best practices” approaches needed by young children. As a leader, Meisels responded to the need for a developmental screening instrument for identifying children between the ages of 3 and 6 years who were at risk for developing future learning and behavior problems (Meisels, 1988). He and his colleagues developed the Early Screening Inventory (ESI; Meisels & Wiske, 1983). This screening instrument, designed specifically for the preschool age range, more accurately identified children who could benefit from early intervention services than all other previously used instruments (Henderson & Meisels, 1994; Meisels, Henderson, Liaw, Browning, & Ten Have, 1993; Meisels, Wiske, & Tivnan, 1984). As is characteristic of much of his work, Meisels was able to show empirically how the ESI could be used to predict school performance. The ESI, widely used in Head Start and other early childhood programs in several states, was revised in 1997, as the Early Screening Inventory– Revised, or ESI-R, at which time a Spanish version was also published (Meisels, Marsden, Wiske, & Henderson, 1997). A PASSION FOR FAIRNESS In addition to Meisels’s creative work in the area of early developmental screening, he has been unwavering since his earliest writings in the 1970s in his concern about fairness in the assessment of children (Bryk, Meisels, & Markowitz, 1979; Meisels, 1987, 1989a, 1989b, 1994). He began advocating for using alternative assessment strategies that were authentic, performance based, and developmentally appropriate for young children and those in the early elementary grades (Meisels, 2000). According to Meisels, in an unpublished presentation to a group of Fellows of Zero to Three in October 2002,

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All of my work has been motivated by a passion to create fair, honest, child-focused means of evaluating children’s skills, knowledge, and accomplishments in order to better help children learn. Children should not go away from an assessment feeling that the questions on the test don’t speak to what they know, who they are, or what they count as important. (Meisels, 2002) It has been his passionate drive for fairness, equity, practicality, and accuracy, as well as his concern regarding assessments that were being widely used to sort children into educational settings that were not appropriate, that motivated him and his colleagues to develop the Work Sampling System (WSS), a performance assessment for children from age 3 to Grade 6 (Meisels, Jablon, Marsden, Dichtelmiller, & Dorfman, 1994, 2001). The Work Sampling System The development of the Work Sampling System could have been predicted, given Meisels’s desire to create assessments that demonstrate what children can do rather than what they cannot do. Working with a group of collaborators who shared his vision, enthusiasm, and goals, Meisels was able to develop an assessment that was groundbreaking in several respects. Piagetian and constructivist in orientation, WSS gives teachers a different perspective on children and their development from that available from conventional achievement tests. The developmental observations recorded three times each year enable teachers to see what children can do, how they progress during the year, and what their specific strengths and areas of weakness are. Just as Piaget had stressed, observing children’s abilities gives teachers much valuable information about children. In addition, the portfolio of children’s work that is part of WSS provides an opportunity for children to select work they want to include, and feel they are contributors to the decision-making team, as they are asked to explain why they selected a particular artifact. The developmental checklists and the portfolios provide an unusual source of information for parents as well. By the end of the year, parents can see their children’s progress on developmental checklists and can see growth through the work in their children’s portfolios. This information provides a rich picture to both parents and teachers of children’s progress

over the course of a year. Such information has the potential to empower teachers to be data-based decision makers, based on individual performance/authentic assessments. WSS took several years to develop and has now been in use for more than a decade. It underwent a long validation process, was the subject of several empirical studies which documented its validity and which were published in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal (Meisels, Bickel, Nicholson, Xue, & Atkins-Burnett, 2001), Education Policy Analysis Archives (Meisels, Atkins-Burnett, Xue, Nicholson, Bickel, & Son, 2003), Educational Assessment (Meisels, Xue, Bickel, Nicholson, & Atkins-Burnett, 2001), and others (Meisels, Liaw, Dorfman, Nelson, 1995). WSS is the most widely used performance assessment system for preschool through Grade 6, it is mandated for use in six states and strongly recommended in many others. Meisels and his colleagues have written a handbook for teacher educators about the use of the WSS that describes how to include this material in teacher education preservice programs (Meisels & Harrington, 2002). CONTINUING CONTRIBUTIONS Meisels’s most recent accomplishment has been the publication of the Ounce Scale: An Observational Assessment for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, another authentic performance, assessment approach that can be used for children from infancy to age 3 (Meisels, Dombro, Marsden, Weston, & Jewkes, 2003). In addition to the development of these innovative assessment instruments and a number of publications about them, Meisels has found time to write books for parents, Winning Ways to Learn for 3, 4, & 5 Year Olds (Meisels, Marsden, & Stetson, 2000) and Winning Ways to Learn for 6, 7, & 8 Year Olds (Meisels, Stetson, & Marsden, 2000.) What is noteworthy about Meisels is that his “state of the art” creative development activities are supported by regularly published empirical work often at the rate of several articles per year, and supported by millions of dollars of public and private fiscal resources his proposals have successfully secured. He has also edited some of the most important handbooks in the field (Meisels & Fenichel, 1996; Meisels & Shonkoff, 1990; Shonkoff & Meisels, 2000). He has managed to do all of this, provide leadership to

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his colleagues working on these and other research projects, oversee doctoral dissertations, teach classes, and at the same time respond to requests to provide service to many local, state, and national organizations, often in leadership roles. For example, between 2002 and 2004 he was cochair of the Commission on Improving Curriculum-Based Assessment for the Chicago Public Schools, from 2000 to 2003 he was the president of the board of directors of Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families in Washington, D.C. He is also an adviser to the Head Start Bureau and many other organizations. Meisels has participated as a presenter and a consultant to countless academic meetings, teacher groups, and state departments of education and has been appointed to committees for the National Academy of Sciences, National Center for Education and the Economy, the National Education Goals Panel, National Governors Association, the National School Readiness Task Force of the National Association of School Boards, and other such organizations. The high regard Meisels’s colleagues on the local, state, and national levels have for him and his work is evident by the number of requests he receives to participate in important discussions of policy and practice in early childhood education and related arenas. Meisels has served on several editorial boards including Applied Developmental Science, Journal of Early Intervention, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and Journal of Research in Early Childhood, to name but a few. Furthermore, Meisels is currently a reviewer for another dozen journals in a number of different fields. Throughout his career, Samuel J. Meisels has been unwavering in his commitment to “best practices” in the assessment and education of young children. His unrelenting passion has borne fruit for thousands of young children who will have a greater opportunity to show us who they are, what they know, and what they can do. —Nancy K. Klein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bryk, A. S., Meisels, S. J., & Markowitz, M. T. (1979). Assessing the effectiveness of open classrooms on children with special needs. In S. J. Meisels (Ed.), Special education and development: Perspectives on young

children with special needs (pp. 257–296). Baltimore: University Park Press. Friedland, S. J., & Meisels, S. J. (1975). An application of the Piagetian model to perceptual handicaps. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 8, 20–24. Henderson, L. W., & Meisels, S. J. (1994). Parental involvement in the developmental screening of their young children: A multiple source perspective. Journal of Early Intervention, 18, 141–154. Meisels, S. J. (1976). A personal-social theory for the cognitive classroom. Viewpoints, 52, 15–22. Meisels, S. J. (1978a). Developmental screening in early childhood: A guide. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Meisels, S. J. (1978b). Open education and the integration of children with special needs. In M. J. Guralnick (Ed.), Early intervention and the integration of handicapped and nonhandicapped children (pp. 239–260). Baltimore: University Park Press. Meisels, S. J. (Ed.). (1979). Special education and development: Perspectives on young children with special needs. Baltimore: University Park Press. Meisels, S. J. (1985). A functional analysis of the evolution of public policy for handicapped young children. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 7, 115–126. Meisels, S. J. (1987). Uses and abuses of developmental screening and school readiness testing. Young Children, 42, 4–6, 68–73. Meisels, S. J. (1988). Developmental screening in early childhood: The interaction of research and social policy. In L. Breslow, J. E. Fielding, & L. B. Lave (Eds.), Annual review of public health (Vol. 9, pp. 527–550). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews. Meisels, S. J. (1989a). Can developmental screening tests identify children who are developmentally at-risk? Pediatrics, 83, 578–585. Meisels, S. J. (1989b). High stakes testing in kindergarten. Educational Leadership, 46, 16–22. Meisels, S. J. (1992). Doing harm by doing good: Iatrogenic effects of early childhood enrollment and promotion policies. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 7, 155–174. Meisels, S. J. (1994). Designing meaningful measurements for early childhood. In B. L. Mallory & R. S. New (Eds.), Diversity in early childhood education: A call for more inclusive theory, practice, and policy (pp. 202–222). New York: Teachers College Press. Meisels, S. J. (1996). Performance in context: Assessing children’s achievement at the outset of school. In A. J. Sameroff & M. M. Haith (Eds.), The five to seven year shift: The age of reason and responsibility (pp. 410–431). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Meisels, S. J. (1997). Using Work Sampling in authentic performance assessments. Educational Leadership, 54, 60–65. Meisels, S. J. (1999). Assessing readiness. In R. C. Pianta & M. Cox (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten (pp. 39–66). Baltimore: Paul Brookes.

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Meisels, S. J. (2000). On the side of the child: Personal reflections on testing, teaching, and early childhood education. Young Children, 55(6), 16–19. Meisels, S. J. (2002, October). An intellectual autobiography. Presentation to the early- and mid-career Fellows of Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, Chicago. Meisels, S. J., Atkins-Burnett, S., Xue, Y., Nicholson, J., Bickel, D. D., & Son, S. (2003). Creating a system of accountability: The impact of instructional assessment on elementary children’s achievement test scores. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(9). Available at http://epaa .asu.edu/epaa/v11n9/ Meisels, S. J., Bickel, D. D., Nicholson, J., Xue, Y., & AtkinsBurnett, S. (2001). Trusting teachers’ judgments: A validity study of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment in Kindergarten–Grade 3. American Educational Research Journal, 38(1), 73–95. Meisels, S. J., Dombro, A. L., Marsden, D. B., Weston, D., & Jewkes, A. (2003). The Ounce Scale: An observational assessment for infants, toddlers, and families. New York: Pearson Early Learning. Meisels, S. J., Dorfman, A., & Steele, D. (1995). Equity and excellence in group-administered and performance-based assessments. In M. T. Nettles & A. L. Nettles (Eds.), Equity in educational assessment and testing (pp. 196–211). Boston: Kluwer Academic. Meisels, S. J., & Fenichel, E. (Eds.). (1996). New visions for the developmental assessment of infants and young children. Washington, DC: Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Meisels, S. J., & Harrington, H. L. (with McMahon, P., Dichtelmiller, M. D., & Jablon, J. R.) (2002). Thinking like a teacher: Using observational assessment to improve teaching and learning. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Meisels, S. J., Henderson, L. W., Liaw, F., Browning, K., & Ten Have, T. (1993). New evidence for the effectiveness of the Early Screening Inventory. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8, 327–346. Meisels, S. J., Jablon, J. R., Marsden, D. B., Dichtelmiller, M. L., & Dorfman, A. B. (1994). The Work Sampling System. Ann Arbor, MI: Rebus. Meisels, S. J., Jablon, J. R., Marsden, D. B., Dichtelmiller, M. L., & Dorfman, A. B. (2001). The Work Sampling System (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Early Learning. Meisels, S. J., Liaw, F.-R., Dorfman, A., & Nelson, R. (1995). The Work Sampling System: Reliability and validity of a performance assessment for young children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 10(3), 277–296. Meisels, S. J., Marsden, D. B., & Stetson, C. (2000). Winning ways to learn for 3, 4, & 5 year olds. New York: Goddard. Meisels, S. J., Marsden, D. B., Wiske, M. S., & Henderson, L. W. (1997). The Early Screening Inventory–Revised (ESI-R). New York: Pearson Early Learning.

Meisels, S. J., & Plunkett, J. W. (1988). Developmental consequences of preterm birth: Are there long-term effects? In P. B. Baltes, D. L. Featherman, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 9, pp. 87–128). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Meisels, S. J., Plunkett, J. W., Pasick, P. L., Stiefel, G. S., & Roloff, D. W. (1987). Effects of severity and chronicity of respiratory illness on the cognitive development of preterm infants. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 12, 117–132. Meisels, S. J., Plunkett, J. W., Roloff, D. R., Pasick, P. L., & Stiefel, G. S. (1986). Growth and development of preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Pediatrics, 77, 345–352. Meisels, S. J., & Provence, S. (1989). Screening and assessment: Guidelines for identifying young disabled and developmentally vulnerable children and their families. Washington, DC: NCCIP. Meisels, S. J., & Shonkoff, J. P. (Eds.). (1990). Handbook of early childhood intervention. New York: Cambridge University Press. Meisels, S. J., Steele, D., & Quinn-Leering, K. (1993). Testing, tracking and retaining young children: An analysis of research and social policy. In B. Spodek (Ed.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (pp. 279–292). New York: Macmillan. Meisels, S. J., Stetson, C., & Marsden, D. B. (2000). Winning ways to learn for 6, 7, & 8 year olds. New York: Goddard. Meisels, S. J., & Wiske, M. S. (1983). The Early Screening Inventory. New York: Teachers College Press. Meisels, S. J., Wiske, M. S., & Tivnan, T. (1984). Predicting school performance with the Early Screening Inventory. Psychology in the Schools, 21, 25–33. Meisels, S. J., Xue, Y., Bickel, D. D., Nicholson, J., & AtkinsBurnett, S. (2001). Parental reactions to authentic performance assessment. Educational Assessment, 7(1), 61–85. Shonkoff, J. P., & Meisels, S. J. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of early childhood intervention (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

MEMORY, FLASHBULB One of the most intriguing as well as controversial concepts in the study of memory is that of flashbulb memories. Brown and Kulik first popularized the concept in an early seminal study in 1977. Flashbulb memories, as conceived by Brown and Kulik, are memories for the personal circumstances surrounding our exposure to surprising and highly unexpected consequential events in our lives. Thus, for example, a flashbulb memory would involve (if we are old enough to remember this event) the personal

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circumstances in which we first heard or saw the news that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Brown and Kulik (1977) operationally defined the concept of a flashbulb memory as a “yes” response to the question of whether one recalled the circumstances in which he or she first heard the news of President Kennedy’s assassination coupled with the ability to provide information on at least one of six “canonical” categories of contextual circumstances (place, ongoing event, informant, affect in others, own affect, and aftermath). Although this operational definition allows for forgetting of many circumstantial details, Brown and Kulik also argued that memory for the circumstances of a such a surprising and consequential event are “permanently” (p. 98) remembered because of its biological significance and relation to survival of the species. Researchers interested in the concept of flashbulb memory have, in some cases, focused on one of Brown and Kulik’s claims or have viewed Brown and Kulik’s claims as inconsistent and confusing.

mechanism. McCloskey et al. further suggested that in order to substantiate this claim, researchers would need to demonstrate that either there is no forgetting of details in a flashbulb memory or that, although there is some forgetting of details, flashbulb memories are still better than those produced by ordinary memory mechanisms. Based on the level of inaccurate recall found in their study, McCloskey et al. argued that flashbulb memories are not the result of a special memory mechanism. Other investigators have also found that flashbulb memories may be subject to inaccuracies and reconstructions over time (e.g., Christianson, 1989; Neisser & Harsch, 1992) or may not be more accurate than memories for more mundane events that we have simply been asked to remember (Weaver, 1993). For this reason, some researchers (e.g., Christianson, 1989; McCloskey et al., 1988) have suggested that flashbulb memories should not be viewed as a separate category of autobiographical memories.

ACCURACY OF FLASHBULB MEMORIES

EVENT DETAILS AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Flashbulb memories are most often studied for surprising and consequential public events such as deaths of prominent individuals, earthquakes, and wars. In most studies, individuals’ memories for the circumstances of first seeing or hearing the news of the public event are examined shortly after the event itself as well as after varying amounts of time have passed. Later memories are compared with earlier memories to determine accuracy and clarity (generally the earlier memories are presumed to be accurate). Since Brown and Kulik’s (1977) early study, researchers have focused on whether flashbulb memories are the result of “special” encoding mechanisms and, hence, are more accurate than ordinary autobiographical memories (McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988), on factors that may influence flashbulb memory formation and clarity (Curci, Luminet, Finkenauer, & Gisle, 2001; Neisser, Winograd, Bergman, Schreiber, Palmer, & Weldon, 1996; Tekcan & Peynircioglu, 2002), and on the underlying processes that may contribute to the formation and maintenance of flashbulb memories (Finkenauer, Luminet, Gisle, El-Ahmadi, van der Linden, & Philippot, 1998). For example, McCloskey et al. (1988) argued that Brown and Kulik’s (1977) conceptualization of flashbulb memories implied the need for a special memory

Still, however, individuals’ memories for the details of circumstances in which they first heard of surprising and consequential information can be impressive. For example, Tekcan and Peynircioglu (2002) have reported that 70% of the elderly Turkish citizens they investigated had flashbulb memories for the circumstances in which they first heard of the death of the first president of Turkey (some 58 years earlier), while only 15% had flashbulb memories of another important event from the same time period (the inclusion of the city of Hatay into the borders of Turkey). Furthermore, the percentage of older adults having flashbulb memories of the death of the first president was not substantially different from the percentage of older adults having such memories of the death of the eighth president, some 3 years earlier (it should be noted, however, as the authors point out, that there was no way in this study to determine the accuracy of the older adults’ flashbulb memories for the very remote events). In Tekcan and Peynircioglu’s study, younger adults were more likely than older adults to have formed flashbulb memories of the more recent event. These findings suggest that although older adults’ ability to form flashbulb memories was impressive, their ability was not as good as that of younger adults.

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Older adults’ flashbulb memories were also related to their age at the time of encoding of reception events. Older adults who were most likely to have flashbulb memories were the oldest at the time of the reception event (the ages ranged from 6 years of age to 16 years of age and older). Thus, individuals’ age during the reception event was related to flashbulb memory formation. REPETITION AND PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT Results such as those found by Tekcan and Peynircioglu (2002) suggest that the duration of flashbulb memories can sometimes be impressive and have led investigators to begin to explore the conditions under which such memories are more likely to occur and be more accurate. For example, Neisser et al. (1996) found that personal involvement in an event, in this case the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, enhanced flashbulb memory accuracy. In the Neisser et al. study, flashbulb memories were examined for students at both Berkeley and the University of California at Santa Cruz as well as at Emory University in Atlanta. The level of flashbulb memory formation was higher for the students in California than for those in Atlanta. After reviewing several possible explanations for their results, the authors suggested that repeated narrative rehearsals were likely responsible for the enhanced recall for the California students. Neisser et al.’s data were also consistent with data reported by Curci et al. (2001), who found that French individuals showed enhanced flashbulb memories for the death of the former president of France, F. Mitterrand, compared with a group of Belgian individuals. The results of both studies suggest that personal involvement or concern may play a key role in the development and maintenance of flashbulb memories. In most examinations of flashbulb memories, researchers have hypothesized about the underlying processes that may be responsible for the formation and maintenance of memories regarding reception events. The processes most often mentioned are surprise, importance or consequentiality, emotions, and rehearsal (Finkenauer et al., 1998). In a recent study, Finkenauer et al. attempted to specify the role of these underlying mechanisms more precisely and attempted to determine which of three models of underlying processes provided the best fit for the data they collected. Such research should further elucidate

our understanding of underlying mechanisms and their relationship to flashbulb memory formation and maintenance. CONCLUSIONS In summary, flashbulb memories are individuals’ memories for the reception context of hearing about surprising and consequential events. Although researchers generally agree that such memories can erode over time and have a reconstructive nature, as do other memories, fairly impressive flashbulb memories have also been reported in the literature. Recently, researchers have begun to explore the factors and underlying mechanisms that may produce more accurate and long-lasting flashbulb memories. Such research will contribute to our understanding of why our memories for the context of hearing about important events in our lives can be so impressive. —Karen M. Zabrucky

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73–99. Christianson, S. (1989). Flashbulb memories: Special, but not so special. Memory and Cognition, 17(4), 435–443. Curci, A., Luminet, O., Finkenauer, C., & Gisle, L. (2001). Memory, 9(2), 81–101. Finkenauer, C., Luminet, O., Gisle, L., El-Ahmadi, A., van der Linden, M., & Philippot, P. (1998). Flashbulb memories and the underlying mechanisms of their formation: Toward an emotional-integrative model. Memory and Cognition, 26(3), 516–531. McCloskey, M., Wible, C. G., & Cohen, N. J. (1988). Is there a special flashbulb-memory mechanism? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117(2), 171–181. Neisser, U., & Harsch, N. (1992). Phantom flashbulbs: False recollections of hearing the news about Challenger. In E. Winograd & U. Neisser (Eds.), Affect and accuracy in recall: Studies of “flashbulb” memories (pp. 9–31). New York: Cambridge University Press. Neisser, U., Winograd, E., Bergman, E. T., Schreiber, C. A., Palmer, S. E., & Weldon, M. S. (1996). Remembering the earthquake: Direct experience vs. hearing the news. Memory, 4(4), 337–357. Tekcan, A. I., & Peynircioglu, Z. F. (2002). Effects of age on flashbulb memories. Psychology and Aging, 17(3), 416–422. Weaver, C. A. (1993). Do you need a “flash” to form a flashbulb memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122(1), 39–46.

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MENARCHE The term menarche, though often used interchangeably as a marker of the onset of puberty and the time of sexual maturation in females, defines the onset of first menstruation in girls. It is a pubertal stage equivalent to spermarche (the onset of the release of spermatozoa) in boys. There is a great diversity in the timing of menarche, and different studies of menarche have indicated an association between the timing of menarche and individual and environmental factors, such as heredity, nutrition, interfamilial relationships, and social expectations. An evolutionary theory of socialization has been used to explain mechanisms through which contextual and individual factors may lead to accelerated or postponed menarche in some girls. In the course of pubertal changes and development, menarche represents a relatively late pubertal event. Onset of puberty in girls falls, on average, between the ages of 8 and 13 years. The first puberty-related physical change to appear in girls is the growth spurt, followed by breast budding and the appearance of pubic hair. In addition, there is an increase in weight gain, widening of pelvis, and increased activity of sweat glands. These physical changes (referred to as secondary sexual characteristics) are accompanied by increased activity of the organs directly involved in reproduction (ovaries, uterus, and vagina) and an increase in the production of female steroid hormones, (estrogen). Menarche marks maturity of uterine development, and it is, typically, not accompanied by ovulation, meaning that arrival of menarche does not necessarily signify reproductive maturity of girls. The timing of menarche has undergone a steady decline in the past century. The average age at which menarche occurred among American girls in the 1880s was 15 years. By the 1990s this age dropped to between 11.9 and 12.8 years (Clayman, 1994; Tanner, 1991). Age at the onset of menarche is used often as a way of categorizing female adolescents as early maturers (before the rest of their female peers), late maturers (after their peers), or “on-time” maturers (when most of the rest of their female peers reach menarche). Of the three types of menarcheal onset, the first type (i.e., early menarche) tends to be the most detrimental for girls. Given that gradual physical alterations characteristic of pubertal development heighten young people’s awareness of their bodies and increase their self-consciousness, which leads to

youth’s heightened focus on social comparisons and dislike of being different from their peers, being an early-maturing female can have important implications for one’s psychosocial development and adjustment in adolescence. For example, it is not uncommon that due to increased body weight characteristic of early stages of puberty, an early-maturing girl develops dissatisfaction with her body image and may engage in problem behaviors (such as strenuous exercise, or dieting, or both) in an effort to lose weight. For many early-maturing girls, menarche is a stressful experience possibly leading to problem behaviors. Early maturation in adolescent girls has been linked not only to dieting but also to an increase in emotional problems (e.g., depression and anxiety), early sexual activity and/or alcohol use, more intense conflicts with parents and teachers, and poor adjustment in school (Dick, Rose, Viken, & Kaprio, 2000; Magnusson & Stattin, 1998; Wierson, Long, & Forehand, 1993). However, onset of menarche alone does not account for development of these internalizing and externalizing behaviors observed in some early-maturing girls. The nature of the bidirectional relationship that exists between girls and their context during puberty has an influence on the onset of menarche and may explain, at least in part, why some female children experience difficulties with psychosocial adjustment during their adolescent years. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ONSET OF MENARCHE Heredity and body weight play an important role in pubertal development and menarche. Mother’s age at menarche has a strong, direct effect on daughter’s age at menarche. Graber, Brooks-Gunn, and Warren (1995) looked at heredity and body composition in 75 premenarcheal girls between the ages of 10 and 14 through annual measures of the girls’ stages of breast development, weight, and height. Maternal age at menarche was positively correlated with girls’ age at menarche, whereas no significant relationship was found either between girls’ body fat and timing of menarche or between girls’ height and timing of menarche. However, absolute body weight did turn out to be a significant predictor of girls’ timing of menarche: absolute body weight was significantly negatively correlated with the onset of menarche, meaning that higher body weight was linked to younger ages at the time of menarche. Striegel-Moore and colleagues

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(2001) reached similar results, with early-maturing girls exhibiting greater body weight than was the case with girls who were on time (“mid-onset”) or girls who experienced menarche much later than most of their peers. In addition to heredity and body composition, the premenarcheal environmental context in which a girl develops also has been associated with differences in the timing of menarche. Factors such as parental conflict and divorce, father absence, family’s socioeconomic status, nutrition, and quality of parent-child relationship seem to be more consequential for girls’ development than natural physiological changes that characterize the onset of menarche. To determine if early menarche is associated with conditions of family stress in childhood, Moffitt, Caspi, Belskey, and Silva (1992) collected self-reports on the onset of menarche from 326 adolescent girls in New Zealand. The girls’ mothers also provided ratings of the girls’ emotional and behavioral functioning and family relations when the girls were 7 years old. The study showed significant correlation between family conflict when the girls were 7 years old and again when the girls were of menarcheal age, with greater family conflict being associated with earlier menarche. This finding was present even when biological factors such as weight and nutrition were controlled. Half of the early maturing girls in Moffitt et al.’s (1992) study had absent biological fathers, and, within the group of girls whose fathers were absent before age 11, the girls’ onset of earlier menarche was significantly negatively associated with a greater number of years of father absence. Similarly, Surbey (1990) looked at this issue of parental absence in data collected from 1,200 Canadian women and also found a significant relationship between parental absence and onset of menarche. Girls who experienced father absence before the age of 10 matured 4–5 months earlier than girls who had experienced mother absence during the same time period. As in the previous study, the longer the period of father absence, the earlier was the onset of menarche. However, girls who grew up without mothers did not differ in the timing of their menarche from the girls who grew up with both parents present. In addition to findings pertinent to the relationship between father absence and girls’ onset of menarche, Surbey (1990) also examined youth’s experiences of interfamilial conflict. Girls who reported higher levels of interfamilial conflict prior to menarche menstruated significantly earlier than did their peers from

low-conflict homes. This was true for participants from both intact and one-parent homes. Wierson et al. (1993) further supported research on the effects of family stress on the biological timing of puberty in girls. Among a sample of 71 adolescent girls ages 11–18, self-reports of girls who were from divorced families indicated that these girls menstruated 6 months earlier than did girls from intact homes. Moreover, taking into account their parents’ reports on marital conflict, it was established that there is a significant, negatively correlated relationship between frequency of marital conflict and the adolescent girls’ age at first menstruation. Environmental context does not necessarily always result in early onset of menarche. While certain characteristics of particular environmental/social contexts may lead to early menarche, other characteristics tend to delay it. This delay is, at times, environmentally imposed, whereas at other times it may be personally desired and attained, more often than not under the influence of environmental expectations. The impact on menarche of both environmentally imposed and personally desired factors can be found in the examples of (a) the effects of war on timing of menarche and (b) in the attitudes of young ballerinas toward exercise and nutrition. Tahirovic (1998) surveyed 2,582 girls between the ages of 8 and 17 who were, during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, deported from their hometowns to several refugee camps. The control group for this study consisted of 3,238 girls of the same age living in peaceful communities of unoccupied territory within the country. The study focused on the influence of very low socioeconomic status, physical injury, and psychological trauma on the menarcheal age of deported girls. Psychological distress and inadequate nutritional intake imposed by extremely low socioeconomic status and personal physical injury or injury or death of a loved one as experienced by girls was related to a 1-year delay in the onset of menarche in the experimental group (the girls who were deported to the refugee camp). Nutritional intake and its relation to menarche have also been studied in combination with physical exertion in girls in nonwar contexts. Professions that call for vigorous physical exercise and particular thinness regardless of one’s age may delay onset of menarche. For example, Brooks-Gunn and Warren (1985) looked at 345 ballerinas ages 14–17 from two different settings. One setting was a highly competitive and

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physically strenuous national ballet company school, and the second setting was a regular high school. Differential pressure of the settings for having a thin body figure was related to timing of menarche and girls’ identity development. Ballerinas had more problems with body image and eating than did girls in the regular school setting. In addition, the on-time dancers had higher levels of psychopathology, perfection, and bulimia scores, and lower body image than did the later maturing dancers. While it is possible that girls who pursue dance or other athletic training are genetically predisposed to have later menarcheal timing (Brooks-Gunn & Warren, 1985), it is equally if not more likely that limited nutritional intake achieved through rigorous dieting will lead to delayed onset of menarche when paired with excessive physical strain. The question is no longer whether the context in which girls live affects their timing of menarche but rather what are the mechanisms through which a context leads to early rather than late menarche, and vice versa. For example, why do girls growing up without a father figure or girls in high-conflict families not react to their stressful environments with a delay, rather than an acceleration, of menarche. SOME EXPLANATIONS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN CONTEXT AND THE TIMING OF MENARCHE As mentioned earlier, onset of menarche occurs relatively late in the course of pubertal development. Pubertal changes preceding menarche more often than not alter young adolescents’ interactions with their parents, and it is likely that this modified interaction may contribute to increased levels of stress for girls who live in households characterized by poor family dynamics or absentee fathers. The quality of the parentchild relationship during earlier stages of puberty may either accelerate or slow down the process of pubertal maturation, consequently leading to earlier onset or delays of menarche. In a way, pubertal maturation can initiate accelerated timing of menarche by leading to (a) an increased number of arguments that girls have with their mothers (especially girls in father-absent homes), (b) decreased number of calm discussions that girls have with their fathers, and, overall, to (c) increased intensity of father-daughter conflict in intact homes (Steinberg, 1988). In the case of war refugee girls and ballerinas, it might be that the effect size of pubertal maturation on

the onset of menarche was overridden by the context outside the family setting. The impact of war on socioeconomic status and physical health, or of rigorous exercise and dieting for the purpose of reaching a social norm of thinness imposed on ballerinas, each might have a stronger effect on timing of menarche than family dynamics/structure. Furthermore, it is equally possible that the first pubertal changes have occurred, for some girls, on time, but that their menarche itself was prompted by environmental context to start earlier or later than expected. Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper (1991) offer an evolutionary theory of socialization as a possible explanation for occurrence of early menarche in girls. This evolutionary theory of socialization, which has its roots in evolution and natural selection theory, argues that the most adaptive response for a female in a high-risk environment is to reproduce early and often in order to increase the probability of gene transfer into the next generation. In contrast, the most adaptive strategy for a female in a stable home environment is to defer sexual maturation, produce fewer offspring, and, in that manner, invest her time and resources to better her offspring’s care and increase the offspring’s survival. Following the evolutionary theory, it could be said that in times of war, or the exercise hindering adequate body composition, one is likely to see delay in menarche because a girl’s body is unlikely to be physically apt to carry a successful pregnancy. In other words, sexual maturation is likely to be deferred when the very survival, and not just the reproductive prospects, of an individual are threatened (Belsky et al., 1991). Among girls who come from conflicted homes and have absentee fathers, there is still a group of girls who, against what we might expect to see, experience their menarche “on time.” It could be said that these girls have some factors in common that, perhaps, protect them from stressful home and social environments. Individual difference in the interpretation of a single situation may account for the partly unique ways in which female adolescents cope with their environmental conditions. This would mean that young girls might differ in their interpretation of their interactions with the environment. Our understanding of this phenomenon may be especially critical in regard to early stages of puberty, that is, during the period when striving for autonomy leads some girls to exacerbated conflicts with parents, accelerated onset of menarche, and, possibly, increased vulnerability to psychosocial maladjustment in adolescence.

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CONCLUSIONS

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Pubertal maturation is a rather stressful developmental period during which one’s success in resolving the identity crisis may shape one’s emotional outlook, self-esteem, and acceptance of oneself. For many girls, the onset of menarche is a cause for embarrassment and discomfort, and parents should make an effort to help their daughters understand what the menstrual cycle is and what sort of feelings the cycle usually brings up in females. Parents also need to be aware that their own behavior, such as marital conflict or parental divorce, can elicit much greater variations of behaviors in their pubertal girls. It is equally important to propose that adolescents should explore different ways in which to communicate to their parents any concerns that they might have regarding their maturational state, as well as possible social pressures. By helping parents understand better what their adolescent girls’ concerns are, the girls will enable parents to communicate with them more successfully and, thereby, to know how to be supportive of their girls’ needs and development. As far as research on menarche goes, to adequately assess the contribution of the many variables that seem to have independent effects on the age of menarche, studies should seek to report more than just mean differences in menarcheal age. It also may be helpful to consider looking into more variables at once rather than trying to assess the relative contribution of each one of them separately, because it is likely that some environmental or individual factors might be more detrimental to young girls’ psychosocial development when in combination with other possible risks. For example, father absence alone might not be the sole contributor to early menarche. Other factors, such as dynamics between siblings, or girls’ level of depression/anxiety in prepubertal age, may in some way contribute to the effect that father absence has on the timing of menarche. Equally important, while looking at risk factors that increase a girl’s predisposition to early menarche, we should also turn our attention to girls who have their menarche on time, and we should try to identify possible environmental and individual factors that seem to protect girls from early menarche and, possibly, increase their likelihood of positive development during the course of adolescence.

Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647–670. Brooks-Gunn, J., & Warren, M. P. (1985). Effects of delayed menarche in different contexts: Dance and nondance students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 14(4), 285–300. Dick, D. M., Rose, R. J., Viken, R. J., & Kaprio, J. (2000). Pubertal timing and substance use: Associations between and within families across late adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 36(2), 180–189. Clayman, C. B. (1994). The American medical association family medical guide (3rd ed.). New York: Random House. Graber, J. A., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Warren, M. P. (1995). The antecedents of menarcheal age: Heredity, family environment, and stressful life events. Child Development, 66, 346–359. Magnusson, D., & Stattin, H. (1998). Person-context interaction theories. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 685–740). New York: Wiley. Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Belskey, J., & Silva, P. A. (1992). Childhood experience and the onset of menarche: A test of sociobiological model. Child Development, 63, 47–58. Steinberg, L. (1988). Reciprocal relation between parent-child distance and pubertal maturation. Developmental Psychology, 24(1), 122–128. Striegel-Moore, R. H., McMahon, R. P., Biro, F. M., Schreiber, G., Crawford, P. B., & Voorhees, C. (2001). Exploring the relationship between timing of menarche and eating disorder symptoms in Black and White adolescent girls. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 30(4), 421–433. Surbey, M. K. (1990). Family composition, stress, and human menarche. In T. E. Ziegler & F. B. Bercovitch (Eds.), Socioendocrinology of primate reproduction (pp. 11–32). New York: Wiley-Liss. Tahirovic, H. F. (1998). Menarchal age and the stress of war: An example from Bosnia. European Journal of Pediatrics, 157, 978–980. Tanner, J. M. (1991). Menarche, secular trend in age of. In R. M. Lerner, A. C. Petersen, & J. Brooks-Gunn (Eds.), Encyclopedia of adolescence (Vol. 1, pp. 637–641). New York: Garland. Wierson, M., Long, P. J., & Forehand, R. L. (1993). Toward a new understanding of early menarche: The role of environmental stress in pubertal timing. Adolescence, 28, 913–924.

MENTAL HEALTH IN LATER LIFE, ECOLOGY OF

—Aida Bilalbegovic′ Balsano

See also ADOLESCENT MOTHERS

The ecology of mental health refers to the interrelationships among individual well-being and the layers

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of contexts that surround humans. The study of the impact of environments on individual functioning and well-being in later life was launched by Lawton’s (1984) model of environmental press, which suggests that an optimal amount of environmental challenge is critical for the well-being of older adults, whereas excessive challenge leads to premature loss of autonomy. The ecological context of mental health is complex, requiring multidimensional, multilayered approaches (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1995). The layers of contexts in which individuals live are intricately connected to the very definitions of well-being (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), suggesting that mental health cannot be studied, evaluated, or treated as if it exists solely within the individual. Indeed, the study of mental health in later life requires examination of the multiple layers in the ecology of the individual’s context to understand, explain, or alter it. A useful framework is provided by Bronfenbrenner’s taxonomy of ecological layers that proceeds from proximal to distal, including microsystems (the immediate settings in influence the individual lives), mesosystems (relationships among settings), exosystems (distal settings in which events affect the settings in which the person lives), and macrosystems (subcultural or cultural-level consistencies in the lower-order systems). MICROSYSTEMS: ACTIVITIES, ROLES, AND RELATIONSHIPS A microsystem is “a pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given setting with particular physical and material characteristics” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 22). Intrapersonal microsystemic variables such as health, personality, and cognitive functioning have been documented to influence well-being and mortality (Lang, Rieckmann, & Baltes, 2002). External contextual examples of microsystems include physical environments, institutions, relationships with family and friends, and relationships with particular health providers. The crucial role of families and friends for individual well-being is well established (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1995). Specific relationships such as marriage are relevant to both well-being and the experience of particular mental disorders such as depression and dementia. Similarly, mental health in institutions such as nursing homes is influenced by staff, characteristics of the physical environment, and nursing

home policies (Smyer, Cohn, & Brannon, 1988). Other relevant contexts that relate to mental health include immediate living environment, primary health care providers, and community resource agencies. The processes by which microsystems influence individual well-being have been conceptualized within a variety of frameworks. The diathesis-stress model and environmental press model both suggest that the balance between stressors or contextual challenges and the aging individual’s capacity to respond is key to mental health (Gatz, Kasl-Godley, & Karel, 1996). Family systems models focus on the cyclical patterns of communication that shape behavior and mental health, whereas behavioral models examine proximal antecedents and consequences of desirable or undesirable behaviors within the environment or the thought patterns of individuals (Smyer & Qualls, 1999). The internal, psychological ecology of mental health is the focus of psychodynamic theories that point to the role of ego development in responding to the challenges of later life (Vaillant & Vaillant, 1990). Recently, social cognitive models have begun to shape understanding of the influence of contextual cues on cognitive frameworks and subsequent internal experiences (e.g., mood) and behavior that form the basis for mental health (Hess & Blanchard-Fields, 1999). A comprehensive framework for successful aging that has influenced the fields of human development and clinical geropsychology is the model of selective optimization with compensation (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). This model focuses on the interactive processes by which individuals adapt by selectively relying on abilities that are retained while compensating for lost capacities and resources. Evidence from the Berlin Aging Study documents the role of selective optimization with compensation strategies in mediating the relationship between internal microsystemic resources (e.g., health, personality, and cognitive functioning) and successful aging outcomes as well as mortality (Freund & Baltes, 1998). MESOSYSTEMS Meso-, or mid-level, systemic influences on mental health in later life focus on the interrelationships among settings such as those noted. A well-investigated example is research on caregiving families where the powerful influence of the relationship between the broader family system and the caregiving dyad have been documented for both caregiver and patient

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well-being and nursing home placement rates (Lieberman & Fisher, 1999). Furthermore, interventions targeted at relationships among family members have powerful positive influences on the individual mental health of the care recipient as well as the primary caregiver (Eisdorfer et al., 2003). In long-term care settings, relationships between staff and families are similarly important for the well-being of residents, and interventions targeted at staff/family relationships influence resident wellbeing (Smyer et al., 1988). Concerns about decisionmaking capacity of older adults commonly engage legal, health care, mental health, and social services systems with families and the individual in efforts to balance autonomy and safety (Smyer, Schaie, & Kapp, 1996). Intersystemic conflicts among cultures, processes, and frameworks for mental health can disrupt well-being or, more positively, can evoke problem solving to transcend the limitations of disjointed systems in support of the individual. EXOSYSTEMS: MARKETS, POLICIES, AND SERVICE STRUCTURES Distal factors also influence mental health of older adults, as suggested by Bronfenbrenner’s reference to exosystems, which are “settings that do not involve the developing person as an active participant, but in which events occur that affect, or are affected by, what happens in the setting containing the developing person” (1979, p. 25). Market factors, such as the emergence of assisted living facilities in very recent decades, influence mental health by providing supportive living environments that support autonomy. Health care policies, especially those in the United States that regulate reimbursement for mental health services under Medicare, have profound influences on access to services (Gatz & Smyer, 2001). For example, until 1987, a severely restricting cap on reimbursement and constraints on practitioner access essentially excluded most older adults from accessing mental health services. The decision to define Alzheimer’s disease as a physical rather than mental disorder has had profound impact on the way individuals and families experience their symptoms as well as the service delivery structures that have emerged to help families. Approaches to service delivery also influence access to mental health services, as evidenced by recent efforts to integrate mental health services

within primary care (Katon et al., 1999). The extent to which services are fragmented or coordinated as a result of funding policies for physical health, mental health, disabilities, rehabilitation, and aging service networks also affect mental health of older adults (Estes, 1995). Other key elements in the ecology of mental health in later life include the very definitions of disorders used by mental health professionals, the curriculum on aging within training programs in mental health disciplines, the growing crisis in geriatric health care services due to an inadequate workforce, and the level of advocacy of professional and consumer organizations (Administration on Aging, 2001). MACROSYSTEMS: CULTURAL FACTORS At the broadest level of analysis, macrosystemic factors focus on the impact of beliefs and social structures across cultures or subcultures. Ecological factors influencing mental health at this level include cultural differences in frameworks for mental health, the development of settings for older adults, and the structuring of services. Cross-national comparisons of the impact of diverse family structures, social services such as adult day care, and definitions of mental disorders such as dementia and delirium demonstrate the power of cultural-level influences on mental health. Within the United States, subcultural differences are evident in thresholds for recognizing memory problems as abnormal or normal, patterns of comorbidity in physical and mental health, and family beliefs about caregiving responsibilities and structures (Knight et al., 2001). The levels of the ecology of mental health are also interconnected such that a shift in one level typically creates change at another level (e.g., Shae, Russo, & Smyer, 2000). Thus, shifts in cultural values eventually affect funding policies which influence service delivery patterns that affect individual well-being. Understanding of mental health in later life requires familiarity with the topography of each layer as well as the webs of interconnection among the layers. CONCLUSIONS Practitioners of applied developmental work (e.g., clinicians, policymakers) work within particular ecological contexts that are influenced by complex layers

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of influence often invisible to the practitioner. Efforts to assist a particular older person are inevitably affected by public policies, for example, as well as cultural beliefs, family structures, and broad economic trends. The social and practice contexts of work on mental health are distinctive for older adults because of the combined impact of age-related biological, social, and psychological processes, and the emergence of particular housing, health, and services contexts to address them. Practitioners cannot wait for the emergence of sophisticated models to be of assistance, so they are constantly forming intuitive maps of the ecology of mental health in their daily work. Much can be learned from their capacity to move across layers to foster change. Future research must continue mapping the topography of each level of analysis, with a focus on separating age-distinctive variables from universal variables that simply unfold in predictable ways in later life. Mental health will be examined with combinations of biological, social, and psychological variables. Furthermore, linkages across those levels of analysis will become an increasing focus of research (e.g., the influence of cultural frameworks on policies, and policies on family functioning, and family functioning on individual well-being). Efforts to move from descriptive work on ecological influences on mental health to explanations and interventions require the development of models of mediating variables. Successful models of ecological influences on mental health in later life will inevitably include the wide range of influences inherent in a biopsychosocial framework. Multidisciplinary teams will be needed to address the complexity inherent in linking multiple levels of context to human behavior in research, policy, and practice. Research methods that allow for the study of simultaneous, reciprocal patterns of influence are critical to the future study of complex systems that characterize the ecological contexts of mental health. Repeated measurements of multiple simultaneous data points (e.g., self and other view of unfolding interaction) are not easily managed in current research methods, a distinct impediment to the study of ecological contexts that are typically quite complex. Furthermore, the need to investigate causal factors for patterns that unfold over time is core to both developmental processes and intervention outcome studies. —Sara Honn Qualls

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Administration on Aging. (2001). Older adults and mental health: Issues and opportunities. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging. Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1995). Convoys of social relations: Family and friendships within the life span context. In R. Blieszner & V. H. Bedford (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the family (pp. 355–371). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Baltes, P. B., & Baltes, M. M. (1990). Successful aging. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1995). Developmental ecology through space and time: A future perspective. In P. Moen, G. H. Elder, & K. Lüscher (Eds.), Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 619–647). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Eisdorfer, C., Loewenstein, D. A., Czaja, S. J., Rubert, M. P., Argüelles, S., Mitrani, V. B., et al. (2003). The effect of a family therapy and technology-based intervention on caregiver depression. The Gerontologist, 43, 521–531. Estes, C. (1995). Mental health services for the elderly: Key policy elements. In M. Gatz (Ed.), Emerging issues in mental health and aging (pp. 303–327). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Fisher, L., & Lieberman, M. A. (1999). A longitudinal study of predictors of nursing home placement for patients with dementia: The contribution of family characteristics. The Gerontologist, 39, 677–686. Freund, A. M., & Baltes, P. B. (1998). Selection, optimization and compensation as strategies of life management: Correlations with subjective indicators of successful aging. Psychology and Aging, 13, 531–543. Gatz, M. (1995). Emerging issues in mental health and aging. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Gatz, M., Kasl-Godley, J. E., & Karel, M. J. (1996). Aging and mental disorders. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (4th ed., pp. 367–382). San Diego: Academic. Gatz, M., & Smyer, M. A. (2001). Mental health and aging at the outset of the twenty-first century. In J. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (5th ed., pp. 523–544). San Diego: Academic. Hess, T. M., & Blanchard-Fields, F. (1999). Social cognition and aging. San Diego: Academic. Katon, W., Von Korff, M., Lin, E., Simon, G., Walker, E., Unutzer, J., et al. (1999). Stepped collaborative care for primary care patients with persistent symptoms of depression: A randomized trial. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 1109–1115. Knight, B. G., Robinson, G. S., Longmire, C. V. F., Chun, M., Nakao, K., & Kim, J. H. (2001). Cross cultural issues in

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caregiving for persons with dementia: Do familism values reduce burden and distress? Ageing International, 27, 70–94. Lang, F. R., Rieckmann, N., & Baltes, M. M. (2002). Adapting to aging losses: Do resources facilitate strategies of selection, compensation, and optimization in everyday functioning? Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57, P501–P509. Lawton, M. P. (1984). Competence, environmental press, and the adaptation of older people. In M. P. Lawton, P. G. Windley, & T. O. Byerts (Eds.), Aging and the environment: Theoretical approaches (pp. 33–59). New York: Springer. Lieberman, M. A., & Fisher, L. (1999). The effects of family conflict resolution and decision making on the provision of help for an elder with Alzheimer’s disease. The Gerontologist, 39, 159–166. Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719–727. Shae, D. G., Russo, P. A., & Smyer, M. A. (2000). Use of mental health services by persons with a mental illness in nursing facilities: Initial impacts of OBRA87. Journal of Aging and Mental Health, 12(4), 560–578. Smyer, M. A., Cohn, M. D., & Brannon, D. (1988). Mental health consultation in nursing homes. New York: New York University Press. Smyer, M. A., & Qualls, S. H. (1999). Aging and mental health. London: Blackwell. Smyer, M. A., Schaie, K. W., & Kapp, M. B. (1996). Older adults’ decision-making and the law. New York: Springer. Vaillant, G. E., & Vaillant, C. O. (1990). Natural history of male psychological health, XII: A 45-year study of predictors of successful aging at age 65. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 31–37. Whitbourne, S. K. (2000). Psychopathology in later adulthood. New York: Wiley.

MENTAL ILLNESS, SEROTONIN, AND GENETICS Mental illnesses are common, often chronic, and always costly. It is estimated that in any given year, nearly 30% of adults in the United States have either a mental illness or an addiction (Regier et al., 1993). Those with mental illness often experience multiple episodes of the disorder, and the healthy periods between episodes often become shorter. In terms of years lived with a disability, mental illnesses account for 5 of the top 10 causes of disability worldwide and are thereby responsible for a tremendous social and economic burden (Murray & Lopez, 1996).

It has long been known that mental illness runs in families, but firm evidence for genetic influence on risk for mental illness was not established until late in the 20th century. And although it is no longer controversial to state that heredity influences risk for mental illness, few genes have been identified that increase a person’s risk for mental illness (Stoltenberg & Burmeister, 2000). THE SEROTONIN SYSTEM Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, one of the chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate. The bodies of most of the nerve cells that use serotonin are located in a region of the brain stem called the raphe nuclei. These nerve cells send their axons to many other regions of the brain, relaying messages to areas that are involved in emotion, planning, sleep-wake cycles, eating, drinking, and many other important processes (Lucki, 1998). In the search for biological causes of mental illness, researchers have paid a great deal of attention to the serotonin neurotransmitter system. Several lines of evidence implicate serotonergic dysfunction in a number of mental illnesses. For example, important evidence that serotonin is involved in depression is that drugs that reduce depression symptoms have direct effects on the serotonin system. Each of the three major classes of antidepressant drugs—the tricyclics, the monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—affects serotonin system function. In addition to depression, drugs that act on the serotonin system have been shown to be somewhat effective in treating other mental illnesses, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and alcoholism (Blier & de Montigny, 1999). SEROTONIN SYSTEM COMPONENTS The serotonin system, like other neurotransmitter systems, is made up of several components that enable nerve cells to communicate with other nerve cells (Baumgarten & Gothert, 1999). Each component has a role in communication, and while it appears that some components are not vital for survival, because they can be genetically deleted (i.e., knocked out) in mice and the mice do not perish, it is likely that a healthy serotonin system requires all components

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to function properly. In humans, there are common genetic differences that affect how well some of these components function. Although it is clear that genetic factors underlie serotonin system dysfunction, it is not well understood how combinations of genetic differences in serotonin system components contribute to serotonin system dysfunction. One component synthesizes serotonin (tryptophan hydroxylase), while another breaks it down (monoamine oxidase A). Serotonin receptors are important components in nerve cell communication; they are located on the outer surface of nerve cells and receive serotonin much like a baseball glove catches a baseball. At least 14 different types of serotonin receptors have been identified. Such variation is likely to enable serotonin to convey more than one message. After a message has been sent from one nerve cell to another, the neurotransmitter is removed from the synapse (the space between nerve cells) so that, in time, another message can be sent. Removing a neurotransmitter from the synapse by bringing it back into the nerve cell that released it is known as reuptake. A membrane-bound protein called the serotonin transporter is responsible for serotonin reuptake and appears to be especially important to mental illness. Efficiency of serotonin reuptake is associated with a common genetic variant that determines transporter abundance in the brain. Serotonin nerve cells in people with two long versions of this genetic variant (i.e., L/L) remove serotonin more efficiently from synapses than do those in people with either two short versions (i.e., S/S) or one long and one short (i.e., L/S). Studies have shown that individuals with less efficient variants of the serotonin transporter (i.e., S/S or L/S), on average, have higher scores on a test that measures a personality trait called Neuroticism that is a risk factor for depression (Sen, Burmeister, & Ghosh, 2004). The most widely prescribed class of antidepressant drugs blocks the process of reuptake. These selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are known by recognizable names such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. These drugs are often effective at treating depression, in some cases are effective in treating alcoholism, and are often used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses with varying success. SSRIs are literally lifesavers for some people, because suicide can be a very real outcome of depression. Not every person with depression, however,

experiences symptom relief with SSRI treatment. Even those that do respond well to SSRI treatment can experience unpleasant side effects, and sometimes it takes a significant amount of time before any symptom relief is experienced. It may be that genetic differences in the serotonin system are responsible for differences in response to SSRI treatment. There is still much to learn about how serotonin system genes influence mental illness. ANIMAL MODELS Research conducted with animals provides compelling evidence for the involvement of serotonin system genes in mental illness. While no animal model of mental illness can be considered identical to mental illness in humans, there is much to be learned from such research (Seong, Seasholtz, & Burmeister, 2002). In fact, much of what we know about the serotonin genetics system has been learned by using animals, especially mice. Although there are differences between human and mouse serotonin systems, there are enough similarities to make mice valuable resources in efforts to identify the biological causes of mental illness. Great insight into the contribution that genes make to the functioning of the serotonin system has come from so-called knock-out mice. By using techniques of molecular genetics, scientists are able to selectively eliminate, or knock out, the function of a particular gene in a group of mice. By comparing a group of mice that have a particular gene knocked out with a group of mice with the gene intact, it is possible to test whether that gene plays some role in observable behaviors or other measurable characteristics. Studies using this knock-out technique have shown that serotonin system genes play a role in anxiety, aggression, and alcohol drinking (Gingrich & Hen, 2001). Such studies show that genes play a role in serotonin function and help researchers to better define the biological mechanisms through which genes influence behavior. Another approach to studying the serotonin system is to give animals drugs and to carefully observe their behavior and other characteristics. When mice are given SSRIs, such as Prozac, their serotonin system responds much like those mice that have had a gene for the serotonin transporter knocked out. So, in a sense, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors mimic a genetic effect.

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COMPLEXITY

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS

It is reasonable to expect that multiple components of the serotonin system interactively contribute to serotonin function, because there is evidence that when one component of the system is deficient, other components can compensate for that deficiency. It is important to note that environmental influences early in life can have an enormous impact on serotonin system function and on risk for adult mental illness and that the extent of the impact may vary by genotype (Caspi et al., 2003). Certain genotypes for serotonin system components may be more vulnerable than others to stresses early in life. This is an excellent example of a genotype by environment interaction. Such interactions, along with gene-gene interactions, are expected to be the rule rather than the exception in heredity-behavior relations, and are characteristic of complex adaptive systems. It appears, therefore, that the serotonin system acts as a complex adaptive system, and it may be that computer simulations will prove useful in understanding how serotonin is involved with mental illness (Stoltenberg, 2003). Studying the behavior of complex systems with computer simulations has been routine in some disciplines, such as economics and physics, but it has not yet become common in research into the causes of mental illness.

Baumgarten, H., & Gothert, M. (Eds.). (1999). Serotonergic neurons and 5-HT receptors in the CNS. Berlin: Springer. Blier, P., & de Montigny, C. (1999). Current psychiatric uses of drugs acting on the serotonin system. In H. Baumgarten & M. Gothert (Eds.), Serotonergic neurons and 5-HT receptors in the CNS (pp. 727–750). Berlin: Springer. Caspi, A., Sugden, K., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. W., Harrington, H., et al. (2003). Influence of life stress on depression: Moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science, 301(5631), 386–389. Gingrich, J. A., & Hen, R. (2001). Dissecting the role of the serotonin system in neuropsychiatric disorders using knockout mice. Psychopharmacology (Berlin), 155(1), 1–10. Lucki, I. (1998). The spectrum of behaviors influenced by serotonin. Biological Psychiatry, 44(3), 151–162. Murray, C. J. L., & Lopez, A. D. (Eds.). (1996). A comprehensive assessment of mortality and disability from diseases, injuries, and risk factors in 1990 and projected to 2020: (Vol. 1). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Regier, D. A., Narrow, W. E., Rae, D. S., Manderscheid, R. W., Locke, B. Z., & Goodwin, F. K. (1993). The de facto US mental and addictive disorders service system: Epidemiologic catchment area prospective 1-year prevalence rates of disorders and services. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50(2), 85–94. Sen, S., Burmeister, M., & Ghosh, D. (2004). Meta-analysis of the association between a serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and anxiety-related personality traits. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 127B(1), 85–89. Seong, E., Seasholtz, A. F., & Burmeister, M. (2002). Mouse models for psychiatric disorders. Trends in Genetics, 18(12), 643–650. Stoltenberg, S. F. (2003). Serotonergic agents and alcoholism treatment: A simulation. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 27(12), 1853–1859. Stoltenberg, S. F., & Burmeister, M. (2000). Recent progress in psychiatric genetics—Some hope but no hype. Human Molecular Genetics, 9(6), 927–935.

CONCLUSIONS Dysfunction in the serotonin neurotransmitter system is associated with mental illness. The serotonin system is composed of multiple components, each of which may vary genetically. Some drugs that act on the serotonin system are effective in treating a variety of mental illnesses, but not everyone treated with serotonin system drugs is helped by them. Animal models for mental illness have enabled researchers to better understand how genes and drugs affect the serotonin system and will remain an important part of research into the biological influences on mental illness. Both genes and environment influence risk for and the development of mental illness. Understanding the causes of mental illness may be aided by using computer simulations. Efforts at prevention and treatment of mental illness will benefit from a more complete understanding of how serotonin system genes contribute to mental illness. —Scott F. Stoltenberg

MENTAL RETARDATION Mental retardation is a condition that relates to a broad range of developmental constructs, from the nature of intelligence and how to measure it, to applied developmental science issues regarding prevention and intervention. Mental retardation encompasses a wide range of functioning levels, and prevalence, etiology, education, and lifelong adaptation differ substantially depending on level of functioning.

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DEFINITION Psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals who provide services to individuals with mental retardation do not always agree on its definition. Nonetheless, all currently accepted definitions share three essential components: (1) significant deficits in intelligence; (2) substantial limitations in adaptive behavior; and (3) manifestation in the childhood period (American Association on Mental Retardation, 2002; American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Jacobson & Mulick, 1996). Intellectual Deficits All definitions consider that a significant deficit in intelligence is at least two standard deviations below the mean IQ of the population, or approximately 70. Most definitions specify levels of mental retardation based on IQ scores, with mild, moderate, severe, and profound levels delineating, respectively, IQ scores that are between 2 and 3, 3 and 4, 4 and 5, and 5 and below standard deviations from the mean. At least 75% of persons with mental retardation have IQ scores in the mild range. Adaptive Behavior The definition and assessment of adaptive behavior is rooted in the kinds of daily tasks that an individual of a given age and culture is expected to perform successfully. Most definitions use a criterion of significant limitations in at least two of the following domains: communication, self-care, self-direction, social and interpersonal skills, home living, academic tasks, health, safety, leisure, use of community resources, and work. It is relatively straightforward to determine who does and does not have some medical conditions, but mental retardation is at least in part a social construction, based on the complexity of the society in which the individual lives and the demands of the society for individual functioning. For example, if literacy is not expected of most adults in a society, then some persons who have trouble acquiring it might not receive the mental retardation diagnosis. Manifestation in Childhood All definitions agree that mental retardation is a developmental disorder and must manifest prior to adulthood or before the age of 18 or 22, depending on the definition. Individuals with more severe mental

retardation, especially those with syndromes that have known physical characteristics, are likely to be diagnosed at a younger age than those who have mild mental retardation and no obvious accompanying physical markers. PREVALENCE Estimates of the prevalence of mental retardation in the United States vary by time period and age of the child. Historically, most estimates were in the 2% to 3% range, based largely on the theoretical normal distribution of IQ scores. However, current estimates are much lower. Even during the school years, when the incidence of mental retardation increases, the prevalence rarely goes beyond 1% of school-aged children. This peak during school is acknowledged by the phrase “six-hour retardation,” referring to the increase in identification and diagnosis during the school years when children with mild mental retardation who frequently have no recognizable medical conditions are identified for the first time as the result of failure at academic tasks (Graziano, 2002). Many of these children “lose” the label when they leave school and enter the world of work. Although they may live on the social and economic margins of society, they are less likely to receive services than are individuals with more severe mental retardation. It is likely that “six-hour retardation” is fading into oblivion because of the change in educational labeling practices in the past 25 years. For example, in the 1976–1977 school year, 26% of all children who had a disability diagnosis were in the mental retardation category. In 2000–2001, that had declined to 10.8% (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). This decrease was accompanied by a similarly sized increase in the percentage of children labeled as learning disabled. This shift is generally attributed to the greater stigma of the mental retardation label and the reluctance of schools to use it because of actual or anticipated parental pressure. Nonetheless, many of the children who have a mild intellectual disability, but are not diagnosed with mental retardation, do exhibit similar limitations in the more complex activities of daily living during adulthood. ETIOLOGY The etiology of mental retardation is varied and can arise in the prenatal, perinatal, or postnatal

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periods. Causes can be genetic, environmental, or a combination. Prenatal causes of mental retardation include specific known factors including inherited inborn errors of metabolism such as phenylketonuria; chromosomal irregularities such as those resulting in trisomy-21 or Down syndrome and fragile-X syndrome; toxins such as alcohol; and infectious diseases such as rubella. In addition, many genes still unidentified, or polygenic factors, are believed to contribute to overall intellectual ability. Thus, parents of low intelligence have a much higher probability of having children of low intelligence than do parents of high intelligence, and concordance rates for low IQ in monozygotic twins are substantially higher than they are for dizygotic twins (Spitz, 2003). Perinatal and postnatal origins of mental retardation are numerous and can result from physical trauma leading to anoxia and other causes of brain injury. Low birth weight is a risk factor for mental retardation, as are other conditions such as seizure disorder that can cause brain damage. In the postnatal period, environmental factors play a major role in the etiology of mental retardation. These factors may be physical, such as accidental or nonaccidental injury, or they may be psychosocial, such as unstimulating or chaotic environments. Frequently, children are exposed to multiple pre-, peri- and postnatal risk factors that combine to produce a higher cumulative risk for mental retardation. Because there is often a combination of environmental factors and polygenic heredity, the term cultural-familial has been used to describe the ensuing mental retardation. COMORBIDITY Many conditions are comorbid with mental retardation and may usually, but not always, result in mental retardation. For example, autism is a condition that is diagnosed independently from mental retardation. Although most individuals with autism will also meet diagnostic criteria for mental retardation, some will not, and may actually function in the gifted range intellectually. Other examples of conditions that are frequently but not always associated with mental retardation include fragile-X syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), and cerebral palsy. Down syndrome almost always results in mental retardation, but there have been occasional instances of individuals with it who function above the IQ level for a mental retardation diagnosis.

RISK IDENTIFICATION AND PREVENTION Many strategies can be implemented to identify, prevent, or lessen the severity of mental retardation. Techniques vary depending on the etiology. For example, because the risk of a Down syndrome birth is far greater for older than for younger mothers, it is routine to recommend prenatal screening for pregnant women who are 34 years or older. A positive diagnosis for the condition may be followed by the voluntary termination of the pregnancy, but also provides parents with time to prepare for the needs of the newborn. Since most children are born to younger women, this screening has not greatly affected the incidence of Down syndrome, which remains at approximately 1 in 1,000 births overall. Some forms of prevention focus on eliminating the environmental conditions that cause the impairment. For example, neural tube defects resulting in spina bifida and hydrocephalus increase the risk of mental retardation. The risk of these defects is known to be greatly reduced by adequate consumption of folic acid, occurring naturally as folate in beans, leafy green vegetables, and citrus fruits. Current medical recommendations are that all women of child-bearing age consume daily at least 400 micrograms of folic acid, thereby greatly reducing the risk of spina bifida and other neural tube defects. Universal implementation of alcohol abstinence during pregnancy would be 100% effective in eliminating fetal alcohol syndrome, the result of the teratogenic (environmentally adverse) effects of alcohol on the developing embryo and fetus. Embryos and fetuses that are exposed to alcohol are at risk for growth deficiency, craniofacial anomalies, and neurological disorders, including deficits in general intellectual functioning that result in mental retardation or borderline functioning but with measurable difficulties in learning, memory, attention, and problem solving. Although there is a dose-dependent function for severity of effects, currently there is no definite safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Moreover, despite the dissemination of information about the deleterious effects of drinking, estimates are that about 15% of pregnant women do consume alcohol (Ebrahim, Luman, Floyd, Murphy, Bennett, & Boyle, 1998), and that binge drinking, which is associated with higher FAS risk, has increased in the past decade. In addition to the primary prevention techniques already described, other strategies can limit the degree

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of disability associated with the impairment. For example, fetal surgery for spina bifida can reduce damage by closing the opening that exposes nervous system material to the intrauterine environment. This technique is still being evaluated for its long-term impact. On the other hand, the effectiveness of dietary control for phenylketonuria (PKU) is well established, and the current recommendation is that some version of the diet limiting phenylalanine must be started immediately after diagnosis of the condition and maintained for life, and especially during pregnancy for a woman with PKU to prevent damage to her gestating baby. EARLY INTERVENTION Early intervention is a method of postnatal prevention that holds great promise (Ramey & Ramey, 1998). It is a potentially useful strategy for children with known etiology of mental retardation as well as for those with no known etiology but with numerous risk factors that increase the likelihood that the child will eventually receive a mental retardation diagnosis. A number of early intervention programs have been designed for young children who have risk factors such as little or no prenatal care; low birth weight; poverty; and single parents with little education and low IQ. The results of evaluations of many of these programs demonstrate that they can have many positive outcomes, including a lower likelihood of diagnosis of mental retardation; lower frequency of special education school placement; and the reduction of school dropout during adolescence. A caveat, however, is that positive outcomes are achieved by programs that are intensive and enduring. Although such programs tend to require more resources, the results of cost-benefit analyses suggest that they are actually money saving in the long run, because they prevent problems later on. SPECIAL EDUCATION AND THE LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT The probable outcomes for children and adults with mental retardation and the strategies for achieving them vary considerably. Factors that contribute to this variability include the severity level of the retardation; whether there are additional disabilities, such as physical, sensory, or emotional disorders; and the quality and intensity of educational programs

designed to maximize the abilities of individuals with mental retardation. Federal legislation in the form of Public Laws 94-142, 99-147, and 101-476, and accompanying state statutes and regulations, mandate free and appropriate education for all children with disabilities through age 21. Since 1975, when Public Law 94-142 (now known as the IDEA, or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was passed, it became more difficult than in previous years for public school systems to fail to provide educational services. The processes by which children are identified and labeled are specified, as is the requirement that each child have an individualized education plan (IEP) that is updated at least annually. These plans identify current functioning levels, yearly goals and a timeline for achieving them, methods of instruction and who will be responsible for them, and the educational placement. One of the principles of education for individuals with disabilities is that they be placed in the least restrictive environment (Hickson, Blackman, & Reis, 1995). Generally, a goal of the principle of least restrictive environment is to educate children with mental retardation and typically developing children together, a practice known as mainstreaming or, more recently, inclusion. Certainly, some children with mental retardation are educated in regular schools and classrooms and included in most academic and nonacademic activities. Others, especially those with severe or profound mental retardation, substantial functional limitations, and multiple disabilities, are more likely to be educated in segregated special education classrooms. For these children, the educational goals will focus on self-care skills, mobility training, and developing communication, frequently using augmentation such as communication boards or electronic systems. Nonetheless, for all children, there is an emphasis on teaching for independent functioning as the individual prepares for the transition to adulthood. RESOURCES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES Supports for individuals with mental retardation come from many sources. First and foremost, families provide both physical and psychological nurturance to their children and adults with mental retardation. During the latter half of the 20th century, as stigma toward disability lessened and services increased, understanding about family reactions to children with disabilities underwent a substantial change.

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Psychologists and other service providers moved away from models that emphasized maladjustment and pathology and toward ones that focused on adaptation, coping, and resilience. Research showed that families maintained lifelong involvement with their sons and daughters with mental retardation, and derived many rewards from their experiences (Flaherty & Glidden, 2000). In addition to the support of families, adults with mental retardation have state-provided and community supports available to them. They may live in an institution or in a community residence with varying degrees of independence, and work in settings that can range from competitive employment to a sheltered workshop that is highly supervised. Individuals may move from a more supported to a more competitive work context as they acquire the skills that are necessary to achieve greater independence. Job coaches and other service professionals assist the adult with mental retardation in the move toward vocational independence. A number of principles have guided the treatment of individuals with mental retardation during the past 40 years. During the 1970s and 1980s, normalization— creating environments for persons with disabilities comparable to those available for persons without disabilities—was adopted as the guiding principle of human services. Arguably, it has been responsible for substantial improvements in the lives of people with disabilities, resulting in deinstitutionalization and increased educational and vocational opportunities. Nonetheless, reaction against its implementation has focused on its ignoring the person with mental retardation in the process, with human service “experts” making decisions as to what is normal. Currently, movements toward self-determination and self-advocacy have focused on individuals with mental retardation making their own decisions about issues affecting them. These movements have coincided with more concern for the rights of individuals with disabilities as reflected in legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act enacted by Congress in 1990. Another outgrowth of the move toward empowerment for individuals with mental retardation is the emphasis on quality of life (Keith, 2001). Although there is not widespread consensus on the definition or measurement of quality of life, many conceptualizations include feelings of well-being, opportunities for social involvement, maximizing potential, and individual choice. These dimensions have considerable

overlap with the self-determination and self-advocacy movements.

CONCLUSIONS More effective identification, intervention, and treatment strategies, including better health care; community rather than institutional residence; and increased supports in many dimensions have combined to result in longer lives for individuals with mental retardation. The 21st century will see record numbers of persons with mental retardation living into old age and encountering many of the same difficulties as individuals who become newly disabled in old age, for example, Alzheimer’s disease. Service systems will need to prepare for these individuals to ensure that the better quality of life that has characterized their childhood and earlier adult years is maintained. —Laraine Masters Glidden

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Association on Mental Retardation. (2002). Definition, classification, and systems of support (10th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author. Ebrahim, S. H., Luman, E. T., Floyd, R. L., Murphy, C. C., Bennett, E. M., & Boyle, C. A. (1998). Alcohol consumption by pregnant women in the United States during 1988–1995. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 92, 187–192. Flaherty, E. M., & Glidden, L. M. (2000). Positive adjustment in parents rearing children with Down syndrome. Early Education and Development, 11, 407–422. Graziano, A. M. (2002). Developmental disabilities. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Hickson, L., Blackman, L. S., & Reis, E. M. (1995). Mental retardation: Foundations of educational programming. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Jacobson, J. W., & Mulick, J. A. (Eds.). (1996). Manual of diagnosis and professional practice in mental retardation. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Keith, K. D. (2001). International quality of life: Current conceptual, measurement, and implementation issues. In L. M. Glidden (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation (Vol. 24, pp. 49–74). San Diego: Academic. Ramey, C. T., & Ramey, S. L. (1998). Early intervention and early experience. American Psychologist, 53, 109–120.

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Spitz, H. H. (2003). How we eradicated familial (hereditary) mental retardation. In H. N. Switzky & S. Greenspan (Eds.), What is mental retardation: Ideas for an evolving disability. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation. Available at http://www.readslikeabook.com/ servlet/PurchaseBooks U.S. Department of Education. (2003). Twenty-fourth annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Office of Special Education Programs, Data Analysis system. Available at http://www .ed.gov

MENTAL RETARDATION, SOCIOCONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES IN ADULTHOOD Adults with mental retardation are a heterogeneous group of individuals with varying levels of intellectual and adaptive skill ability. Classification at each of four distinct diagnostic levels of mental retardation (mild, moderate, severe, profound; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000) is related to differences in the developmental course of individual abilities from birth through adulthood, with optimal achievement at each level influenced by the provision of needed environmental supports. It is the interaction of inherent characteristics with these appropriate supports that can help prevent some deficits, minimize or ameliorate others, or serve to sustain a particular level of competency that allows the person with mental retardation to function at his or her own potential. LEVELS OF MENTAL RETARDATION AND SKILL ACQUISITION IN ADULTHOOD Family support, appropriate educational environments, and opportunities for work or recreational activities help individuals with mental retardation thrive. For example, children and adolescents classified with mild mental retardation can acquire the social, communication, and academic skills (up to 6th grade level) that may allow them as adults to live and work independently in the community with appropriate supports. Adults with moderate mental retardation may be less academically and socially prepared for independent functioning, but with training many are able to work and live in supervised community settings with needed supports. Adults classified with severe mental retardation who typically show delayed

milestones in childhood and later develop simple self-care skills may be capable in their adult years of performing simple work tasks in highly supervised settings and generally adapt to community living in small group residences with supports. Adults with profound mental retardation are more substantially delayed and often experience significant lifelong sensory and motor impairment and limited self-care skills. The most favorable level of development for adults classified at this level can only be realized with consistent supports in highly supervised structured contexts, whether in day treatment–type programs or in group residences (APA, 2000; Jacobson & Mulick, 1996). THE DAILY LIFE OF ADULTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION The everyday life experiences of adults with mental retardation in contemporary American society are comparable in many ways to those of their nondisabled peers. To the best of their level of ability, adults with mental retardation are living in community settings, some independently, some with supports. Many have gone from sheltered workshop environments to competitive employment and supportive vocational settings. Others are receiving training in day habilitation programs in preparation for work in less restrictive environments. Most adults with mental retardation participate in community activities and experience social relationships with family and friends. Some are married, and some, with assistance, are even raising children of their own. At no other time in history have such a large number of adults with mental retardation, regardless of their level of impairment, enjoyed such a wide array of age-appropriate life experiences. INFLUENCES ON POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT The newfound growth and independence of adults with mental retardation is attributed in large measure to shifting societal values and expectations and the inception of public policies and social programs begun more than three decades ago. Historically, it was believed that persons diagnosed with mental retardation could not learn or contribute to society. Labeled as “feebleminded” or “mentally defective,” they were segregated from the general population and subjected to custodial-type care in large, overcrowded, state-operated institutions with little concern for their

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cognitive and physical development, health, safety, or emotional well-being. Deinstitutionalization The early 1970s brought concerns regarding the conditions within custodial care institutions that ultimately resulted in judicial, social, and political reform, calling for the discharge of residents to the more independent and homelike settings of communitybased group residences. The deinstitutionalization movement and accompanying normalization ideology (Wolfensberger, 1972) were driving forces influencing public attitudes and social policy that underscored the rights of persons with mental retardation to be integrated into culturally normative settings and to lead everyday lives as similar as possible to those of mainstream society (Rothman & Rothman, 1984; Trent, 1994). As a result, persons residing in institutions were “placed” either with their families or in small group residences in neighborhood communities, which served to provide necessary supports and services. Families as Advocates Research by developmental psychologists during the 1970s pointed to the role of the family in providing the primary context for their child’s growth and development. Specific findings indicated the significance of enriched responsive home environments in facilitating optimal cognitive, language, and social and emotional child developmental outcomes (e.g., Ainsworth, 1973; Piaget, 1963; Thomas & Chess, 1977). These findings were important not only for families with typically developing children but for those born at risk or with developmental delay. Recognition of the significant impact of the family on the development of their child with a disability led to a strengthening of the role of parents as teachers, ultimately empowering them as advocates of social change in the lives of their children with mental retardation. Legislation The prospect of educational and social equality as civil rights for persons with mental retardation evolved within the political, legislative, and judicial climate of the time. The Education of All Handicapped

Children Act (PL 94-142) was enacted by Congress in 1975 (renamed in 1990 the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). To this day, this federal law and subsequent amendments have ensured free and appropriate (to the needs of the student) public educational services for all children and young adults with mental retardation from ages 3 through 21 years in the least restrictive environmental setting to the maximum extent possible, regardless of level of disability. Under IDEA, schools must offer a range of educational contexts for students with special needs, ranging from least restrictive such as a “regular” classroom setting with children without disabilities, and with or without supplemental support services, to more restrictive specialized self-contained classrooms in “regular” school settings. Subsequent amendments to the IDEA extended early intervention services to infants and toddlers from birth to 3 years of age. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) extended the civil rights of persons with disabilities of all ages by protecting them from discrimination at school, work, or in other aspects of the community because of their disabilities. Requiring that reasonable accommodations be made, the ADA goes beyond the IDEA by equalizing the ability of persons with mental retardation of all ages to function not only in educational settings but in the public sector as well, thus allowing them to participate in and benefit from all aspects of society in ways similar to others (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, & Leal, 1995). FUTURE ISSUES CONCERNING ADULTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION Like the general population of older adults, adults with mental retardation are enjoying a longer life span. These changes in life expectancy are largely due to improvements in the overall quality of their lives, advances in health care, and recognition and treatment of conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes that were at one time life threatening (Ansello, 1991). As a result, this may be the first generation of persons with developmental disabilities to outlive their parent/caregivers. Policymakers, organized systems of health, social service agencies, families, and advocates are being challenged to formulate social policies that ensure that the appropriate care and quality of life received by adults with mental retardation today continue as they age. Programs are needed for those of retirement age

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that are designed to minimize loss of level of functioning and at the same time recognize the limitations of the aging individual. Staff and medical professionals must be trained to understand how normative age-related changes in physical, adaptive, and cognitive abilities will manifest themselves in persons already experiencing lifelong disabilities of a similar nature. Accessible residential housing options must be developed and plans allowing older adults with mental retardation to age “in place” in their current community residences must address structural changes and budgetary, staffing, and support needs of these individuals. For the many older adults with mental retardation living at home with their aging parents, the appropriate physical, emotional, and economic supports of both generations must be considered; when this living arrangement is no longer possible, transition planning from home to community residence must be in place. Last, for those who will require acute nursing care, nursing homes must be prepared to address the special needs of this aging population. Responding to the needs of aging adults with mental retardation will ensure protection of their rights to appropriate care, services, and supports as they age. In providing for these needs, a continuum of care from birth through old age will have been realized. The role of social policymakers, families, and advocates will then be to oversee that the quality of life for persons with mental retardation remains consistent with their needs. —Christine D. Cea

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Ainsworth, M. D. (1973). The development of infant-mother attachment. In B. M. Caldwell & H. Ricciutti (Eds.), Review of child developmental research (pp. 1–94). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author. Ansello, E. F. (1991). Seeking common ground between aging and developmental disabilities. Generations, 16, 9–15. Jacobson, J. W., & Mulick, J. A. (Eds.). (1996). Manual of diagnosis and professional practice in mental retardation. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: Norton. Rothman, D. J., & Rothman, S. M. (1984). The Willowbrook wars. New York: Harper & Row.

Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York: Bruner/Mazel. Trent, J. (1994). Inventing the feeble mind: A history of mental retardation in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press. Turnbull, A. P., Turnbull, H. R., III, Shank, M., & Leal, D. (1995). Exceptional lives: Special education in today’s schools. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wolfensberger, W. (1972). The principle of normalization. Toronto: National Institute of Mental Retardation.

MENTORING Mentoring, defined as a relationship of instruction and guidance, typically occurs between a more experienced person (the mentor) and a less knowledgeable person (the mentee or protégé). Examples include skilled worker and apprentice, teacher and student, and expert and novice. Evaluation of mentoring has been conducted across several venues, most often in either workplace or academic settings. Although there is no universal agreement or concise definition of a mentor, there is agreement about what functions are necessary to fulfill the mentoring role. Kram (1988) suggested that mentoring should incorporate “those aspects of a developmental relationship which enhance both individuals’ growth and advancement” (p. 22). Therefore, mentoring is conceptualized as positive and beneficial for the mentor and the mentee. Kram further proposed two categories of mentoring functions: psychosocial and career. Psychosocial functions include such mentoring activities as role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, counseling, and friendship. Such activities are expected to aid mentees to develop their potential and the confidence to achieve this potential. Psychosocial functions operate at the interpersonal level and are relational in nature, centering on notions of mutuality, trust, and enhancement. Career functions, on the other hand, include activities such as sponsorship, coaching, and introducing the mentee to others. These functions operate at social systems levels (e.g., schools, neighborhoods). They serve to help the mentee enter into and move successfully though the organizational structures he or she may encounter. Mentoring has been an effective way to influence adolescent and adult behavior. Specifically, investigators find that mentors may influence aspirations and enhance career development at almost every stage

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(Jones, Bibbins, & Henderson, 1993; Kram, 1988). Because of the apparent benefits, many human resource managers now attempt to establish formal mentoring systems in which mentors and protégés are brought together systematically. Youth intervention programs also have increasingly incorporated mentoring as a desirable feature. Mentors have been shown to raise levels of self-esteem, increase selfmotivation, and instill a desire to achieve. Mentoring programs also have been utilized to help lessen the impact of risk factors. The academic, careerrelated, and psychosocial assistance that mentors provide can offer the attention needed to cope with concerns in school or the workplace. For example, Hedges & Mania-Farnell (2002) examined the effect of mentoring on college students’ success in an introductory science course. Students who were mentored had greater retention rates and academic success on examinations than did tutored and nontutored students. A positive relationship between participation in mentoring programs and women’s career advancement, academic “persistence rates” for minority students, and success for females in nontraditional pursuits (e.g., science, sports) has also been suggested. Several studies still noted that protégé characteristics, such as ethnicity, and group characteristics, such as intragroup trust and leader approachability of the mentoring pair, could have significant effects on the degree of psychosocial mentoring provided (Koberg, Boss, & Goodman, 1998). Gender composition of the mentor-mentee dyad was also found to affect the mentoring process. Dyads with female mentors and male protégés were found to be the least favorable combination (Armstrong, Allinson, & Hayes, 2002). Cognitive style was similarly found to work indirectly through its influence on other variables to enhance mutual liking and psychosocial and career mentoring functions. Matching characteristics along other domains, such as interest in and commitment to the program, can also affect the outcome of mentoring. Yet, almost anyone can serve as a mentor. Older youth can mentor younger children with positive effects for both. As noted previously, benefits in the mentoring relationship also accrue to mentors who participate (Reisner Petry, & Armitage, 1989). Mentors benefit from feeling that they have contributed to the positive development of someone else. This outcome is often experienced as increased self-esteem and selfconfidence. Mentors can experience an increase in

their leadership and communication skills. They may also reap rewards of recognition, enhanced experience, or tangible credits from the academic or work setting for their role in guiding others. A positive mentoring experience for the mentor is likely to instill a desire for future participation in such service. Youth identify being mentored as a positive influence on their development. Mentees show improvements in school. Depending on the focus of the mentoring, the results have included stronger academic performance, such as higher test scores and grades, a more positive attitude about and greater motivation toward education, and a reduction in disruptive behavior. Some mentoring programs have also prevented students from dropping out of school (Jones et al., 1993). Regarding development of self, mentoring experiences have bolstered mentees’ self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-perceptions. An additional benefit of mentoring has been better relationships with parents and peers. The benefits notwithstanding, challenges and problems may still arise from mentoring relationships. Some difficulties include insufficient numbers of mentors, so that inequities among novices are exacerbated; inadequate mentor training; and poor mentor support. These conditions may damage the relationship between mentor and mentee rather than enrich it. Some recommendations for the development and maintenance of successful mentoring programs are having a defined time commitment from mentors, providing systematic screening of prospective mentors, taking care to establish a good matching with mentees, and establishing other systems of support within the sponsoring organization. —Pamela Trotman Reid and Melissa Gilbert

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Armstrong, S. J., Allinson, C. W., & Hayes, J. (2002). Formal mentoring systems: An examination of the effects of mentor/protege cognitive styles on the mentoring process. Journal of Management Studies, 39(8), 1111–1137. Hedges, K., & Mania-Farnell, B. (2002). Mentoring students in an introductory science course. Journal of College Science Teaching, 32(3), 194–198. Koberg, C. S., Boss, R. W., & Goodman, E. (1998). Factors and outcomes associated with mentoring among healthcare professionals. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 53(1), 58–72.

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Kram, K. E. (1988). Mentoring at work: Developmental relationships in organizational life. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Jones, D. J., Bibbins, V. E., & Henderson, R. D. (1993). Reaffirming young African American males: Mentoring and community involvement by fraternities and other groups. Urban League Review, 16(2), 9–19. Reisner, E. R., Petry, C. A., & Armitage, M. (1989). A review of programs involving college students as tutors or mentors in Grades K–12 (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Rockwell, S. (1997). Mentoring through accessible, authentic opportunities. Preventing School Failure, 41(3), 111–114.

METACOGNITION The term cognition refers to the constellation of cognitive processes we use daily to acquire and use knowledge, for example, perception, attention, memory, comprehension, and problem solving. By contrast, the term metacognition refers to our knowledge of and regulation of these cognitive processes (Baker & Brown, 1984). An examination of the literature on metacognition reveals that psychologists have devoted most of their attention to the study of metacognition related to comprehension processes (or metacomprehension) and the study of metacognition related to memory processes (or metamemory). However, research has been done examining other metacognitive processes such as problem solving (BerardiColetta, Buyer, Dominowski, & Rellinger, 1995). GENERAL FEATURES OF METACOGNITION Metacognition refers to knowledge and regulation of cognitive processes. An individual’s knowledge about cognition is generally considered to be the relatively stable knowledge that he or she possesses about various cognitive processes. Examples include the knowledge that remembering the gist of a passage is easier than remembering a passage word for word; knowing that some individuals are better comprehenders than others; or knowing that it would be easier to understand a passage about a familiar than an unfamiliar topic. Such knowledge, generally assessed though interviews or questionnaires, may develop through direct instruction as well as an individual’s experience with a variety of cognitive tasks encountered during a lifetime of learning.

Regulation (or monitoring) of cognition involves an individual’s ability to assess how he or she is doing on any particular cognitive task, such as solving a problem or remembering a list of items, as well as his or her ability to use compensatory strategies to solve any difficulties encountered while engaged in the cognitive task. The term monitoring in this context refers to the combined activities of assessment and strategy use, as strategy use itself has been referred to as regulation in the literature by some authors. Such strategies could involve using contextual information to aid in the understanding of an unknown word, rereading sections of a passage to help resolve comprehension failures, or attempting to relate new information one is trying to remember to previously acquired knowledge. Monitoring of cognition is assessed though a variety of research paradigms. METACOMPREHENSION Metacomprehension includes knowledge about and monitoring of comprehension. Knowledge About Comprehension Children’s and adults’ knowledge about comprehension is generally assessed through the use of an interview format or a questionnaire. Oftentimes interviews or questionnaires will include questions that assess individuals’ knowledge about person variables (e.g., what makes someone a good comprehender), task variables (e.g., what types of comprehension tasks may be easier or more difficult than others), and strategy variables (e.g., what strategies one might employ to better understand text material). Investigators examining children’s knowledge of comprehension have found that such knowledge increases as a function of age (Myers & Paris, 1978) and is related to children’s reading skills (Ehrlich, Kurtz-Costes, & Loridant, 1993). Knowledge of comprehension, particularly knowledge of strategies to employ to better understand, is related to comprehension performance in adults (Moore, Zabrucky, & Commander, 1997). Knowledge of comprehension is also related to academic achievement in adults (Taraban, Rynearson, & Kerr, 2000). Monitoring of Comprehension Monitoring of comprehension has two components. One of these components is evaluation of

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comprehension, and the other is regulation of comprehension (Baker, 1985). Evaluation of comprehension involves an individual’s ability to accurately assess his or her level of understanding during reading. Regulation of understanding, on the other hand, involves the use of compensatory strategies to resolve any comprehension failures encountered during evaluation. Thus, regulation cannot occur without evaluation, but evaluation may occur in the absence of regulation or may not occur at all. The Error Detection Paradigm Two research paradigms have been used extensively to examine monitoring of comprehension. In one, the error detection paradigm, individuals are presented with passages to listen to or to read, and some of the passages contain one or more errors. Of interest are the extent to which individuals notice the errors (an indication that they are evaluating their comprehension of the information presented) and the extent to which they may use compensatory strategies to resolve the errors (an indication that they are regulating their comprehension of the presented information). One strength of the error detection paradigm is that it can be used to examine both evaluation and regulation of comprehension simultaneously. It can also be used to examine individuals’ spontaneous evaluation and regulation activities (when individuals are not forewarned about the presence of textual errors) as well as their evaluation and regulation skills when forewarned and asked to look for errors. Finally, investigators can insert different types of errors into passages (such as nonsense words, falsehoods, or inconsistent sentences). In this way, investigators can gain a greater understanding of not only whether individuals are evaluating their comprehension but also how they are evaluating their comprehension. For example, the ability to detect nonsense words but not inconsistencies would suggest that individuals are proficient at using a lexical standard of evaluation (and are examining individual word meanings) but are not proficient at using an internal consistency standard (requiring an assessment of consistency across textual information; see Baker, 1985, for a further discussion of evaluation standards). Investigators employing the error detection paradigm have found that evaluation skills in children increase with age and are better in children who are proficient readers (Zabrucky & Moore, 1989).

Further, children are more able to use some standards of evaluation than others (Zabrucky & Moore, 1989). Interestingly, evaluation skills in young adults are at far from ceiling-level performance and also increase as a function of educational level (Zabrucky, Moore, & Schultz, 1987). Although the evaluation performance of younger and older adults appears to be similar, older adults are less likely to use regulation strategies to resolve comprehension failures once detected. For example, Zabrucky and Moore (1994) have found that older adults are less likely than younger adults to selectively reread inconsistent sentences. Furthermore, such selective rereading (or regulation ability) is related to improved memory for passage information. Calibration of Comprehension In another research paradigm, termed calibration of comprehension, individuals are also asked to read a series of passages one at a time. In this paradigm, however, investigators ask individuals to estimate their level of understanding after reading each passage and generally their readiness to be tested over the material. Individuals are then given a short comprehension quiz over the passage. Of concern is not individuals’ level of comprehension per se but their ability to accurately assess their level of comprehension. Thus, an individual who rates his or her level of understanding high and, at the same time, does quite well on a comprehension test has good calibration ability, as does the individual who rates his or her level of understanding low and, at the same time, does poorly on a comprehension test. In poor calibrators, on the other hand, there is a mismatch between perceived comprehension and actual comprehension performance. The most common mismatch is a perception of high comprehension coupled with low comprehension performance (termed “illusion of knowing” by Glenberg, Wilkinson, & Epstein, 1982). The calibration of comprehension paradigm is used to examine the evaluation component of comprehension monitoring and has primarily been used to assess monitoring skills in adults. Investigators employing the calibration of comprehension paradigm have generally reported fairly poor calibration skills in adults (see Lin & Zabrucky, 1998, for a review of the literature). For this reason, investigators have begun to explore the variables that may influence individuals’ calibration performance. The

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primary categories of variables that have been examined include subject variables (e.g., individuals’ reading ability or prior knowledge about a passage topic), task variables (e.g., whether individuals are tested with multiple-choice versus inference verification tests or the number of items used to assess comprehension), and text variables (e.g., text genre or the difficulty level of texts). By examining such variables, researchers have begun to determine the characteristics of individuals who are more likely to calibrate their comprehension accurately and the conditions that will promote more effective calibration in individuals. METAMEMORY Metamemory refers to knowledge and regulation of memory itself. Knowledge About Memory Metamemory knowledge consists of one’s knowledge of memory tasks and strategies as well as one’s beliefs about memory. The literature suggests that knowledge increases with age following a developmental path similar to that of memory performance (Bjorklund, 2000). By early adolescence children show clear improvement in task knowledge and can be observed using strategies spontaneously. These agerelated improvements in knowledge may explain why a moderately strong relationship has been found between metamemory knowledge and memory performance, but only for older children (Schneider & Pressley, 1997). Adults’ metamemory knowledge has usually been examined through self-report questionnaires. The most widely used are the Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire (MIA; Dixon & Hultsch, 1983) and the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ; Gilewski, Zelinski, & Schaie, 1990). There is a considerable amount of research examining adults’ metamemory knowledge, and most has focused on comparisons of younger and older adults. This is one difference between the metamemory and metacomprehension literatures, since examinations of metacomprehension knowledge in adults are fairly limited and comparisons between younger and older adults even more so. The data on adults’ metamemory knowledge suggests that younger adults have superior knowledge but that this may be due to the fact that the younger adults in studies are typically psychology students who may have acquired additional knowledge about memory

from courses (Hertzog & Hultsch, 2000). Older adults tend to report more memory loss, have more memory complaints, and have less self-efficacy regarding their ability to slow memory decline while adults of all ages believe that memory loss is an inevitable part of aging (Hertzog & Hultsch, 2000). There are low or modest correlations between older adults’ reports on questionnaire subscales that measure self-efficacy and their actual memory performance. Because selfefficacy may directly influence behavior (e.g., people may initiate more strategies when performing a memory task if they believe their performance is under their control), researchers are now investigating whether older adults’ beliefs play a role in memory decline (e.g., Lineweaver & Hertzog, 1998). Monitoring of Memory Several research paradigms have been used to examine monitoring of memory. Monitoring processes have been examined through Ease of Learning Judgments, or EOLs (i.e., decisions made prior to learning), Judgments of Learning, or JOLs (i.e., monitoring of encoding), and Feelings of Knowing, or FOKs (i.e., monitoring of information stored in memory). Investigators have also examined strategy selection and decisions about allocation of study time. In EOL tasks, children are often asked to predict their future performance on memory tasks (e.g., learning a list of words or pictures). Preschool and kindergarten children tend to overpredict their performance even when given practice, but by adolescence are more accurate and can use practice to further improve their accuracy (Schneider, 1998). Similarly, children tend to become progressively more accurate through the elementary school years on JOL tasks. The developmental pattern of FOK judgments, however, is not yet clear (Schneider, 1998). Developmental Differences The ability to use strategies seems to develop somewhat later than the ability to evaluate one’s memory performance. Elementary age children do not appear to use strategies such as self-testing to determine when material has been learned and, although age-related improvements have been observed, even young adults tend to overestimate their test readiness (Schneider, 1998). Younger children also have difficulty allocating study time effectively. Despite knowing

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that more study time should be spent on items not yet mastered, young children do not spend more time studying novel material until about fifth grade. What we know about adults’ monitoring abilities is based primarily on investigations of FOKs and predictions of memory performance. Most researchers have examined a special case of FOK judgments, the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, which occurs when one can retrieve only part of the information sought in long-term memory (e.g., one can recall the first letter of a word). Findings indicate that adults of all ages are accurate at making FOK judgments. In JOL tasks, adults predict recall on an item-byitem basis. When asked to recall a word immediately after making a prediction, accuracy is generally less than 50%. This accuracy increases to 80% and higher, however, when there is a delay between prediction and recall (the delayed JOL effect; Nelson & Dunlosky, 1991). In global prediction tasks, adults estimate the likelihood of recalling word lists or short texts prior to a recall test (predictions) or rate their performance after a recall test (postdictions). Similar to findings from metacomprehension studies, adults of all ages are relatively poor at predictions but can improve with practice and are fairly accurate at making postdictions. Adults of all ages do not use strategies optimally, although younger adults use more effective strategies (similar to the findings of metacomprehension studies) and allocate more study time than older adults. However, when given specific instruction, older adults are able to use strategies and improve their memory performance. Thus, the literature on metamemory provides evidence that the ability to monitor memory remains fairly stable from adulthood to old age (Hertzog & Hultsch, 2000). CONCLUSIONS Metacomprehension and metamemory skills appear to be important contributors to comprehension and memory performance. Although the paradigms used to examine metacomprehension and metamemory are not identical, and the specific issues focused on across these literatures are not identical, some general conclusions can be drawn. Research findings to date suggest that knowledge about comprehension increases with children’s age and is related to their reading skills. Comprehension knowledge

is also related to comprehension and academic performance in adults. Knowledge about memory also increases with children’s age and is related to memory performance in older children. Younger adults appear to have more knowledge about memory processes than older adults, as well as greater self-efficacy about their memory. Overall, research examining metacognitive knowledge suggests that such knowledge increases with development and/or experience and is frequently related to performance on cognitive tasks. Findings on monitoring of comprehension suggest that the accurate assessment or evaluation of comprehension and use of effective regulation strategies are not terribly easy tasks. Children’s ability to evaluate their comprehension increases with age and reading proficiency. Even adults’ evaluations of comprehension are at far from ceiling levels and are often quite poor. Younger and older adults appear to have comparable evaluation skills, but older adults’ use of regulation strategies may be less effective than that of younger adults. This is noteworthy since regulation skills during reading are related to improved memory for textual information. Children’s ability to evaluate memory performance also increases as a function of their age, and appears to be more advanced than their ability to use strategies to regulate memory performance. Adults’ ability to evaluate memory performance depends, in part, on the type of evaluation judgment. In some cases (FOK judgments) adults are relatively accurate, and, in other cases (JOL judgments), adults’ judgments, as in the case of comprehension judgments, are at far from ceiling level. Findings on strategy use appear similar to those from the metacomprehension literature, suggesting that older adults may not use strategies as effectively as younger adults. With instructions, however, older adults are able to show improvement in strategy use. Overall, research examining metacognitive monitoring suggests that such monitoring increases with development and/or experience, that evaluation and regulation skills are often in need of improvement, and that adult age differences, when apparent, may be more likely to emerge for strategy use. Given the importance of metacognitive skills to cognitive performance, investigations examining ways to improve metacognitive knowledge as well as monitoring are warranted. —Karen M. Zabrucky and Andrea M. Cummings

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baker, L. (1985). How do we know when we don’t understand? Standards for evaluating comprehension. In D. L. Forest, G. E. MacKinnon, & T. G. Waller (Eds.), Metacognition, cognition, and human performance (pp. 155–205). New York: Academic. Baker, L., & Brown, A. (1984). Metacognitive skills and reading. In P. D. Pearson, M. Kamil, R. Barr, & P. Rosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 353–394). New York: Longman. Berardi-Coletta, B., Buyer, L. S., Dominowski, R. L., & Rellinger, E. R. (1995). Metacognition and problem solving: A processoriented approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(1), 205–223. Bjorklund, D. F. (2000). Memory development. In Children’s thinking: Developmental function and individual differences (3rd ed., pp. 233–274). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Dixon, R. A., & Hultsch, D. F. (1983). Structure and development of metamemory in adulthood. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 682–688. Ehrlich, M., Kurtz-Costes, B., & Loridant, C. (1993). Cognitive and motivational determinants of reading comprehension in good and poor readers. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25(4), 365–381. Gilewski, M. J., Zelinski, E. M., & Schaie, K. W. (1990). The Memory Functioning Questionnaire for assessment of memory complaints in adulthood and old age. Psychology and Aging, 5, 482–490. Glenberg, A. M., Wilkinson, A., & Epstein. W. (1982). The illusion of knowing: Failure in the self-assessment of comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 10, 597–602. Hertzog, C., & Hultsch, D. F. (2000). Metacognition in adulthood and old age. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 417–466). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lin, L., & Zabrucky, K. M. (1998). Calibration of comprehension: Research and implications for education and instruction. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, 345–391. Lineweaver, T. T., & Hertzog, C. (1998). Adults’ efficacy and control beliefs regarding memory and aging: Separating general from personal beliefs. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 5, 264–296. Moore, D., Zabrucky, K., & Commander, N. E. (1997). Validation of the metacomprehension scale. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 22, 457–471. Myers, M., & Paris, S. G. (1978). Children’s metacognitive knowledge about reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 70(5), 680–690. Nelson, T. O., & Dunlosky, J. (1991). When people’s judgments of learning (JOLs) are extremely accurate at predicting subsequent recall: The “delayed-JOL-effect.” Psychological Science, 2, 267–270. Schneider, W. (1998). The development of procedural metamemory in childhood and adolescence. In G. Mazzoni & T. O. Nelson (Eds.), Metacognition and cognitive neuropsychology (pp. 1–21). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Schneider, W., & Pressley, M. (1997). Memory development between two and twenty (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Taraban, R., Rynearson, K., & Kerr, M. (2000). College students’ academic performance and self-reports of comprehension strategy use. Reading Psychology, 21, 283–308. Zabrucky, K., & Moore, D. (1989). Children’s ability to use three standards to evaluate their comprehension of text. Reading Research Quarterly, 24, 336–352. Zabrucky, K., & Moore, D. (1994). Contributions of working memory and evaluation and regulation of understanding to adults’ recall of texts. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 49(5), P201–P212. Zabrucky, K., Moore, D., & Schultz, N. R. (1987). Evaluation of comprehension in young and old adults. Developmental Psychology, 23, 39–43.

METHODOLOGY. See FIELD EXPERIMENTATION RESEARCH; PLACEBO CONTROLS, ETHICS IN MULTINATIONAL CLINICAL TRIALS; RESEARCH DESIGN, DEVELOPMENTAL; RESEARCH METHODS, QUANTITATIVE; RESEARCH METHODS, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS FOR LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE AT Innovations in higher education are slow to implement. Sometimes related events coalesce and provide the impetus for paradigmatic change. Two such events in the latter part of the 20th century were (1) societal dissatisfaction with attempts to resolve problems of individuals and communities across the life span, and (2) dissatisfaction with the perceived lack of leadership and involvement of American colleges and universities in efforts to resolve societal problems, such as high-risk infants, disabled children, troubled youth and adolescents, single parenthood, substance abuse, failing schools, poverty, family illiteracy, family and neighborhood violence, nutritional disorders, and environmental contaminants. These two events helped to generate a venue for applied developmental science (ADS) to emerge as a theoretical, methodological, and applied approach to university-community partnerships with an emphasis

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on long-term relationships, asset approaches to problem solving, respect for diversity, and the reciprocal relationship between knowledge application and knowledge generation (Fitzgerald, Abrams, Church, Votruba, & Imig, 1996). HISTORY OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Applied developmental science was first articulated as an innovative approach in higher education by a Task Force on Applied Developmental Science that was convened at Fordham University in October 1991. The goal of the task force was to launch discussion about graduate education involving the various disciplines that were coalescing into a newly framed applied developmental science (Fisher et al., 1993). The launch was impressively successful! Within a decade ADS has become sufficiently well defined and recognized to merit handbook status. The Fordham task force was convened by Celia Fisher, a member of the Fordham faculty and a national leader in the applied developmental science movement. Richard M. Lerner, then director of the Institute for Children, Youth, and Families at Michigan State University, was also a member of the task force. ADS AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY On March 29, 1993, Richard Lerner and Jack Knott (Director of MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research) issued a concept paper drawing attention to the relationships between ADS and the university’s land grant tradition, the need to develop undergraduate service learning opportunities in ADS, the need to establish an interdisciplinary graduate program in ADS, and the desire to provide national leadership for the ADS movement. Provost Lou Anna Kimsey Simon and Vice Provost James Votruba, in collaboration with Deans Kenneth Corey (College of Social Science) and Julia Miller (College of Human Ecology), established the Steering Committee on Applied Developmental Science and charged it to meet with Celia Fisher to determine whether the university should pursue the recommendations advanced in the LernerKnott concept paper. Members of the committee represented 11 different disciplinary units, with Hiram Fitzgerald from the department of psychology serving as convenor.

On the basis of its meeting with Celia Fisher, the committee recommended that the university support a year-long study to address three key questions about ADS: (1) How are ADS activities different from those associated with the land grant philosophy and its historical connection with Cooperative Extension? (2) How can the university better inform the public about its existing applied research programs? (3) Should the university establish an interdisciplinary graduate program in applied developmental science? While the committee was meeting to develop responses to these questions, Michigan State University was hosting the second meeting of the Task Force Consortium for ADS in September 1994. The purpose of this meeting was to extend the recommendations advanced by the earlier Fordham Task Force and to develop research and training models for universitycommunity partnerships. The group articulated two aims in particular that were influential in the development of ADS at Michigan State University: (1) to build and nurture community-university relationships with an eye toward reconfiguring the academy, and (2) to identify best practices in ADS through the design and evaluation of pilot programs. The presence of the national task force generated such broad interest in the campus community that the ADS Committee recommendation for establishment of the Interdepartmental Graduate Specializations in Applied Developmental Science (IGSADS) moved through the academic governance system relatively quickly. In 1995 the provost approved a 5-year startup plan, assigned administrative oversight to Deans Corey and Miller, and approved faculty release time for Fitzgerald to serve as director of the newly established ADS graduate programs. Faculty from 19 disciplinary units participated as core or affiliated ADS faculty. The graduate program was structured so that ADS students first had to be admitted to the graduate school through one of the disciplinary units of the university, and then a subsequent application was required for admission to the ADS graduate program. WHAT IS ADS? At Michigan State University, ADS is a model for facilitating partnerships between the university and the community to address community-defined concerns and to generate new knowledge through research, evaluation, and instructional programming.

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It is developmental in orientation—learning by doing, growing with experience, improving with practice. It is based on developmental systems theory, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of people and environments and their mutual interdependence. A strong feature of ADS is its focus on the conscious development of competencies in recognizing and capitalizing on the strengths of diversity. Fundamental to the approach is its contextual base—recognizing the unique contextual features of the setting as important in shaping evaluation plans and strategies and as fundamental to applying the results for improved performance. One aspect of context is the need to be in touch with the community and responsive to the changing nature of issues and responses. In this regard, the ADS approach fosters participation as a way to maintain open communications and responsive operations. ADS stresses the importance of shared missions, outcome-oriented work plans, and resource development. Finally, ADS is a scholarship or knowledge-based approach to university-community partnerships. ADS IN ACTION As ADS is a model for university outreach and instruction, it focuses on linking faculty and staff directly to outreach opportunities in the community (Schiffman, Fitzgerald, & DeLuca, 2002). It is a solution-focused approach to university-community scholarship-based partnerships (Brown & Reed, 2002). An ADS partnership exists primarily as a virtual organization that facilitates partnerships between faculty and community colleagues in order to connect knowledge generation, application, dissemination, and preservation (i.e., the university’s mission) with community impact. ADS partnerships address community-defined concerns with the goal of solving problems, generating new knowledge, and enhancing the capacity of community partners to be increasingly self-sufficient through research and instruction (Fitzgerald et al., 1999). These partnerships form the foundation of the ADS Outcome-Impact-Assessment Model (OIAM) and are at the core of the success of the activities that are undertaken (Reed & Brown, 2001). OIAM is an asset-based approach used to assist communities to focus on the multiple components of the system they

wish to change. Facilitators work with community networks to identify participants at all levels of the system, and then to help them identify the short-term, intermediate, and long-term objectives that will enable them to achieve their goals (Fitzgerald et al., 1999; Reed & Brown, 2001). The mission of ADS is to build partnerships and outreach scholarship focusing on areas of communityidentified need. In addition, it is the mission of ADS to demonstrate that university-community partnerships can successfully focus on social and community problems but also focus on the application of scientific methods within the context of community constraints. The goal of ADS is to “generate engagements” at the partnership/project level (linking people from the university, community, and policy arenas), to address community-defined issues for which knowledge application and knowledge generation are integral components of the partnership mission. The objectives of ADS are (1) to facilitate establishment of university-community partnerships and interdisciplinary affiliations; (2) to emphasize the integration of theory, research, policy, and practice; and (3) to address issues of concern to the community that enhance university research and instructional programs and contribute to the solution of community problems. THE ADS PROGRAM AT MSU In the first 2 years of the program, considerable time was spent developing community-based sites to serve as training centers for graduate students. Formal partnerships were formed with health care systems, intermediate school districts, community action agencies, various city and county governments, mental health providers, and public and private human service agencies located throughout Michigan (Fitzgerald et al., 1996). The partnerships provided training sites for undergraduate and graduate student research experiences and applied research opportunities for faculty across a wide range of disciplines (Fitzgerald, Abrams, Hernandez, Barton, & Johnson, 1997/2001; Fitzgerald, 2000). In the first 5 years, five doctoral students have completed the program and are actively engaged in ADS evaluation research at sites consistent with the mission of the program. In addition, ADS has

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SOURCE: Brown and Reed (2002) © University Outreach Evaluation/Planning Process, Michigan State University.

attracted faculty from the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez and the University of the Andes, as well as a Winston Churchill Fellow from the United Kingdom. Undergraduate students from Finland and Germany have also been involved in time-limited training experiences focusing on asset approaches to community development and approaches to outcomebased evaluation. Perhaps the strongest evidence of the impact of ADS at Michigan State University is that it has provided the theoretical and methodological framework for much of the reorganization of the Office of Outreach and Engagement. In 1993, the Provost’s Report defined outreach as a form of scholarship cutting across the research, teaching, and service mission of the university, embracing, in effect, the scholarship of discovery, application, transmission, and preservation of knowledge. Institutional reorganization gave visibility to outreach in the Office of the Provost, thus, enabling the establishment of new routes by which faculty could be intellectually engaged and challenged to define the boundaries of scholarship and to develop ways to assess outreach scholarship (Zimmerman, Church, Bargerstock, &

Kenney, 2002). What began at Michigan State University as an effort to generate an innovative approach to university-community evidence-based partnerships has evolved into a generic framework for scholarship-based approaches that is woven into all facets of Michigan State University’s outreach and engagement activities. —Hiram E. Fitzgerald

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brown, R. E., & Reed, C. S. (2002). An integral approach to evaluating outcome evaluation training. American Journal of Evaluation, 23(1), 1–17. Fisher, C. B., Murray, J. P., Dill, J. R., Hagen, J. W., Hogan, M. J., Lerner, R. M., et al. (1993). The national conference on graduate education in the applications of developmental science across the life span. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 1–10. Fitzgerald, H. E. (2000). From inreach to outreach: Innovations in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 6, 61–70. Fitzgerald, H. E., Abrams, L. A., Andrews, M., Villarruel, F., Brown, R., & Reed, C. S. (1999). Checkpoints: Building

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capacity to enhance program impact through evaluation. In T. R. Chibucos & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Serving children and families through community-university partnerships: Success stories (pp. 199–206). Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic. Fitzgerald, H. E., Abrams, L. A., Church, R. L., Votruba, J. C., & Imig, G. L. (1996). Applied developmental science at Michigan State University: Connecting university and community via programs for children, youth, and families. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 6, 55–69. Fitzgerald, H. E., Abrams, L. A., Hernandez, O., Barton, L. M. R., & Johnson, R. B. (1997, revised 2001). Standards of practice for community-university outreach research and instruction. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Outreach, Michigan State University Board of Trustees. Reed, C. S., & Brown, R. (2001). Outcome/Impact Assessment Model: Linking outcomes and assets. Evaluation and Program Planning, 24(3), 287–295. Schiffman, R., Fitzgerald, H. E., & DeLuca, M. C. (2002). Community-university partnerships: The best vintage. NHS Dialogue, 5, 325–330. Zimmerman, D. L., Church, R. L., Bargerstocik, B. A., & Kenney, P. A. (2002). Measuring scholarly outreach at Michigan State University: Tools, challenges, and faculty perceptions. Paper presented at the annual Outreach Scholarship conference, Columbus, OH.

MONTESSORI, MARIA As a young girl, Maria Montessori (1870–1952) insisted she would never become a teacher, even though it was one of the few professions open to women at the time. Ironically, she later became famous for developing a method of teaching that transformed educational systems around the world. As the first woman physician in modern Italy, and one of the first in Europe, she used her scientific background to study children and to describe developmental processes that influenced several important developmental theorists. While her contributions to education have always been appreciated, she has not always received credit for her theory of development. After a flurry of early interest in her work, her writings were neglected in the United States. In the past few decades, however, there has been renewed interest in her theory and methods. Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, on August 31, 1870. Her father, Alessandro, was a successful government official. Her mother, Renide Stoppani, was well educated and an outspoken

supporter for the liberation and unity of Italy. Alessandro’s work kept the family continually on the move in Maria’s early years. However, when Maria was 5 years old, the family made a permanent move to Rome. Maria was a self-confident, strong-willed child, with a sense of duty. At the age of 13, with the support of her mother, she attended a technical school for boys in order to study engineering. Her father was against her choice of a profession—he had encouraged her to become a teacher. Although she was close to her father, it was her mother who supported her ambitions (Kramer, 1976). Her attraction to engineering eventually waned, and she became increasingly interested in biology. She decided to become a doctor of medicine, an unheard-of goal for a woman at that time. Despite the obstacles she faced, she succeeded in becoming the first woman medical student in Italy. In 1896, she graduated with a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Rome. Soon after graduation, she was invited to speak at an international women’s congress in Berlin, where her address was well received. Her appearance and style were in striking contrast to many of the other delegates, and her name appeared in several newspapers, giving her some of her first public exposure. On her return to Rome, she began work at the psychiatric clinic in the University of Rome. One of her duties was to select subjects for the clinic from the local asylum. At the time, developmentally disabled children were considered a medical problem and were kept at the asylum along with emotionally disturbed children. The children in the asylum rarely had activities available to them and were given little opportunity for play. The lack of stimulation concerned Montessori, who believed that the children could benefit from special education. In an effort to learn more about the treatment of disabled children, she began to study the work of two early French physicians, Jean-Marc Itard (1775–1838) and his protégé, Edouard Seguin (1812–1880; Standing, 1984). Itard had worked with “Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron,” a so-called feral child who had spent 10 or more years living alone in the woods. (Later evidence suggests that Victor had spent considerably less time in the wild.) Although Itard’s attempt to teach Victor language failed, it led Itard to speculate about the role of critical periods in the course of normal development. In related work, his protégé, Seguin, tried to adapt ordinary education to the special needs of

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disabled children. He trained the children’s senses and taught them the skills of everyday life. Montessori was so impressed with both of these men that she translated their writings by hand. She did this “in order that I might have time to weigh the sense of each word and read in truth the spirit of the authors” (Montessori, as quoted in Standing, 1984, p. 32). Montessori also explored the work of several other early educators, including Jacob Rodriquez Pereira (1715–1780), for his work in training the sense of touch; Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), for his general thoughts about the process of learning and the nature of the child; Johann Pestalozzi (1746–1827), for his interest in learning through the direct experience of things; and Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), for his work in early education, particularly in founding the kindergarten movement. Each of them made an important contribution to her evolving theory. Soon she began speaking about her educational ideas publicly. When she addressed a national medical conference in Turin in 1897, she focused on the lack of adequate care for disabled and disturbed children, a situation that she said could lead to delinquency on the part of the children. She wrote numerous articles about educating exceptional children, drawing on what she had learned from medicine, anthropology, education—particularly from Seguin—and from her own observations. She concluded that disabled children could be effectively taught, with a substantial benefit to the children and society (Kramer, 1976). As a result of her work, La Lega nazionale per la educazione dei fanciulli deficienti (The National League for the Education of Deficient Children) was formed. In 1900, a medical-pedagogical institute was opened in Rome by the league to train teachers in the care and education of “deficient” children. Twentytwo children attended the school, and Montessori was appointed the director. Montessori was very satisfied with her success at the school, and she continued to observe and experiment with different materials, eventually teaching these children to read and write. The codirector of the school was a colleague from the psychiatric clinic, Giuseppe Montesano, a man with whom Montessori worked closely and, ultimately, became personally involved. Although little information is available about their relationship, it is known that she had a son by him, whom she named Mario. At the time, Mario’s birth was kept a secret. Shortly after, Montessori gave up the directorship and left the Orthophrenic School (Scuola

Magistrale Ortofrenica), presumably because of her relationship with Montesano. When she left the institute, she returned to the university, this time to study psychology. More than anything, Montessori wanted to try her educational methods on more typical children. When she was given the opportunity to open a school for young children from the slum area of the San Lorenzo Quarter in Rome, she readily accepted the offer. The first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) was opened on January 6, 1907. Initially, Montessori used the techniques that she had used with the disabled children with whom she had worked earlier. However, she soon created new didactic materials in response to the needs of these children. She even had furniture constructed that was lightweight enough for the children to move around by themselves. For all practical purposes, it was in this first Casa dei Bambini that the Montessori method of education was developed. For Montessori, education should take place in a structured or prepared environment that allows children the freedom to choose their own materials. By providing this environment, she believed, children will develop their distinctive abilities. One of the most important items that a teacher can provide is respect for the children and their choices. She maintained that children were self-motivated learners and preferred child-directed activities rather than simply listening to a teacher. Through her observations she theorized that there are “sensitive periods” in which the child can most easily master a particular skill. She believed that children absorb knowledge when provided with the proper activities at the right time. She maintained that “child psychology could not of itself have discovered the natural characteristics and the consequent psychological laws that govern a child’s development because of the abnormal conditions existing in the schools” (Montessori, 1972, p. 41). News of the success of the Children’s House spread, and people from all over the world came to see the children and observe what they had achieved. Additional houses were opened in Rome and Milan, and before long, Montessori was giving training courses for teachers. By the age of 40, Montessori gave up her work as a physician and her lectureship at the University of Rome to devote herself full-time to the Montessori movement and the training of teachers. She made her first trip to the United States in December 1913, where she attracted the attention of Alexander

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Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, and Margaret Wilson, the daughter of the then-current U.S. president. During her lectures she emphasized that those trained in her method would grow to be independent, clear thinking, controlled, and responsible. As a consequence, they would help to create a better world (Shephard, 1996). In 1915 she returned to the United States and received world attention with her schoolroom exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. She was given the opportunity to come to America on a more permanent basis to open an institute, but she turned it down. Soon after this, her popularity in the United States began to decline. Part of the decline was due to the criticism of her work from some prominent educators. There was also a general feeling that the movement was not helped by the strong control that Montessori exerted over all of its elements. The movement continued to flourish in other parts of the world. In fact, Montessori schools seemed to be opening everywhere. In 1922, Montessori was appointed a government inspector of schools in Italy. However, in 1934, when she refused to change her methods to conform with Mussolini’s ideas, she was forced to leave Italy. First she settled in Spain, and later in Amsterdam, where she remained for the rest of her life. She spent her remaining years training teachers and lecturing and writing about the Montessori method of education. Several prominent developmental theorists, including Anna Freud, Erik Erikson, and Jean Piaget, were strongly influenced by her work. Piaget had been the president of the Swiss Montessori Society in the 1930s, and initially worked along the same lines as she did (Montessori, 1992). Later, he became strongly critical of the way she used her materials (Evans, 1973). During the Second World War, while in India, she and Mario were held as enemy aliens, but she was allowed to continue her training courses nonetheless. After the war, she returned to Amsterdam and remained active for the rest of her life. Because of her work, she was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on May 6, 1952. Her son continued her work through the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization she founded in 1929 and that still operates today. —Catherine Casella and John D. Hogan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Evans, R. I. (1973). Jean Piaget: The man and his ideas. New York: Dutton. Kramer, R. (1976). Maria Montessori: A biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Montessori, M. (1972). The discovery of the child. New York: Ballantine. Montessori, M. M. (1992). Education for human development: Understanding Montessori. Oxford, UK: Clio Press. Shephard, M. T. (1996). Maria Montessori: Teacher of teachers. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications. Standing, E. M. (1984). Maria Montessori: Her life and work. New York: Plume.

MOORE, KRISTIN Kristen Moore is a social psychologist who has been with Child Trends, Inc., since 1982, studying trends in child and family well-being, the effects of family structure and social change on children, the determinants and consequences of adolescent parenthood, the effects of welfare and welfare reform on children, fathers, and positive development. Kristin Anderson Moore was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1948. She graduated as a National Merit scholar from Southwest High School in Minneapolis, where she met her future husband and life partner, Jeffrey Moore, also a social psychologist. Moore received her BA in sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1970 and her PhD from the University of Michigan in 1975. The University of Michigan was a training ground for fine survey researchers, psychologists, and population researchers in the 1970s. Others studying population studies at that time included Linda Waite, now at University of Chicago, as well as Bob Groves and Arland Thornton, who are both still affiliated with the University of Michigan. This was an activist period in American academia, seeding Moore’s lifelong interest in social policy and the search for knowledge to inform social change. In 1975, soon after graduating from Michigan, Moore moved to Washington, D.C., to work at the Urban Institute with Isabel Sawhill (now at Brookings), in the Women and Family Policy Program. Before the program disbanded in the 1980s, others who participated included Nancy Gordon (U.S. Census Bureau), June O’Neill (NYU), Steven Caldwell (Cornell), and Sandra Hofferth (University of Maryland). During

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this period, Moore won the first of many grants to study adolescent pregnancy and childbearing. Reflecting her ongoing interest in service, she volunteered as counselor in a family planning clinic, as well. A nationally recognized expert on adolescent pregnancy and childbearing, Moore served on the National Academy of Sciences’ panel on Work, Family and Community between 1980 and 1982, and on its panel on Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing between 1984 and 1986. She founded the Task Force on Effective Programs and Research of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In 1991, Moore was selected to receive the Presidential Award from the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting. In the early 1980s, the Urban Institute was blacklisted, and many of its researchers went to other organizations. In 1982, Moore moved to Child Trends, a research organization founded in 1979 by the Foundation for Child Development specifically to study trends in children’s development. The mission statement says: Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children. In advancing this mission, Child Trends collects and analyzes data; conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research; designs and evaluates programs; and develops and tests promising approaches to research in the field. (Child Trends) In 1982, Child Trends was a small organization, with founder Nicholas Zill as president and only a handful of staff. In 1992, Zill resigned to move to Westat. Moore became executive director in 1992 and president in 1997. Moore’s ideas, academic credentials, and research skills plus economic prosperity led Child Trends to expand gradually through the 1990s, achieving a reputation as one of the nation’s leading sources of credible data and high-quality research on children. Child Trends currently has staff consisting of 39 researchers and 8 support staff. Research to inform public policy issues has been important to Moore. In the early 1990s, the Department of Health and Human Services, anticipating welfare reform (eventually passed in 1996), initiated a set of experimental programs and evaluations. Moore

worked to include a component evaluating impacts on children. Moore’s work in the area of welfare reform includes an evaluation (with Martha Zaslow and the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) of the federal JOBS program, extensive work with a dozen states seeking to assess the impact of welfare reform on children, a child outcomes module for the Census Bureau’s Survey of Program Dynamics, and the Assessing the New Federalism project in partnership with the Urban Institute. Moore has delivered congressional testimony on numerous occasions, including at hearings of the House Subcommittee on Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations, the House Subcommittee on Census and Population, and the Senate Finance Committee. She has also briefed senior federal officials in both the current and past administrations, and served on the bipartisan Federal Advisory Board on Welfare Indicators. Moore has devoted much of her career to one important and thankless area: improving national data collection efforts. She has been active on numerous advisory groups that help data collectors develop questions about child well-being. She has served as an advisor on teenage pregnancy and family issues for the National Survey of Family Growth, the National Survey of Families and Households, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, the Data Archive on Adolescent Pregnancy and Pregnancy Prevention, and the Technical Review Group for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort panel. Moore directed, with James Peterson, the third wave of the National Survey of Children in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Moore worked closely with the National Commission on Children, headed by Senator Jay Rockefeller. In 1990 and 1991, Moore assisted the National Commission on Children to design, implement, and analyze two national surveys—one among the general public and one among a sample of parents and children with oversamples of African American and Hispanic families. She was key in adding child outcome measures to the National Survey of American Families conducted by the Urban Institute in the late 1990s. Moore also served on the Advisory Council for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the body that oversees its scientific research grant making and advises on research priorities. Moore’s contributions to understanding children in the context of public policy are essential. She has sought to include child indicators, indicators of fathers and fathering, and questions about children

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and parenting on most large-scale national surveys. As befits an organization called Child Trends, Moore is tireless in working to rationalize indicators of child well-being. Child Trends helped to produce the volume of indicators called America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being in 1997, which is produced annually by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, and the first four volumes of Trends in the Well- Being of America’s Children and Youth (1996–1999). These volumes were followed in 2002 by a report on indicators of parenting, called Charting Parenthood: A Statistical Portrait of Fathers and Mothers in America. In the early 1990s, Moore was a founding member of the Family and Child Well-being Research Network, established by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to examine the factors that enhance the development and well-being of children and link to public policy. As a network member, Moore is working on several projects to enhance child indicators data and to develop new analytic data resources to inform both scientific research and policy making, including new data on fatherhood and male fertility. Moore has been widely recognized for her accomplishments. She received Hammer Awards in 1998 and 1999 from Vice President Gore for work on a major public-private initiative to improve data on fathers and for work on the report, “American’s Children.” Moore received the 1999 Foundation for Child Development Centennial Award for linking research on children’s development to policies that serve the public interest. Also, the Awards Committee for the Society for Adolescent Medicine selected Moore as the 2002 SAM Visiting Professor in Adolescent Research. Kris and Jeff Moore have three children. Of the three, one child has apparently inherited the “social science gene” as she is currently completing a PhD in human development and public policy. —Sandra L. Hofferth

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Child Trends. Retrieved 22. Available July, 2001 from http:// www.childtrends.org/background.asp Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (1997). America’s children: Key national indicators of well-being. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretry for Planning and Evaluation (2000).

Trends in the well-being of America’s children and youth. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Child Trends. (2002). Charting parenthood: A statistical portrait of fathers and mothers in America. Washington, D.C: Child Trends. Driscoll, A. K., Hearn, G. K., Evans, V. J., Moore, K. A., Sugland, B. W., & Call, V. (1999). Nonmarital childbearing among adult women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 178–187. Driscoll, A. K. & Moore, K. A. (1999). Deprivation and dependency: The relationship of poverty and welfare to child outcomes. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 20(1), 85–114. Hair, E. C., McGroder, S. M., Zaslow, M. J., Ahluwalia, S. K., & Moore, K. A. (2002). How do maternal risk factors affect children in low-income families? Further evidence of twogenerational implications. In S. Telleen & J. Sayad (Eds.), The transition from welfare to work: Processes, challenges, and outcomes. Binghamton, NY: Haworth. Moore, K. A. (2002). How do state policymakers think about family processes and child development in low-income families? In G. Duncan & L. Chase-Lansdale (Eds.), For better or worse: Welfare reform and the well-being of children and families. New York: Russell Sage. Moore, K. A., & Burt, M. R. (1982). Private crisis, public cost: Policy perspectives on teenage childbearing. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Moore, K. A., Halle, T., Vandivere, S., & Mariner, C. (2002). Scaling back survey scales: How short is too short? Sociological Methods and Research, 30(4), 530–567. Moore, K. A., Lippman, L., & Brown, B. (in press). Indicators of child well-being: The promise for positive youth development. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Zaslow, J. J., Moore, K. A., Morrison, P., & Tout, K. (2002). Experimental studies of welfare reform and children. The Future of Children, 12(1), 79–95.

MORALITY, THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT The development of moral judgment and behavior is a central aspect of children’s social development. Factors to consider are the theoretical foundations in the area of children’s moral development, how morality emerges in the family and school contexts, the role of culture and complex issues, and how basic research informs practice. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Over the past 70 years, morality has been examined by developmental psychologists beginning with Jean

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Piaget’s classic book, The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932). Piaget focused on morality in the child’s world and interviewed children about rules of fairness in the game of marbles as well as the relationship between intentions and consequences. His major contribution was to focus research on children’s underlying reasoning (not rote responses) and to develop methodologies for interviewing children about concepts of distribution justice, harm, and rights. Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development was composed of two different types of morality, that based on constraint and that based on cooperation. Children then progress through these two stages of development. From the ages of 3 to 8, children have a heteronomous orientation in which they are constrained by conventions in their social environment. It is also at this level that children judge transgressions to be wrong because they are concerned with respecting authority. Through increased interactions with their peers and cognitive growth, children move to an autonomous orientation toward morality, in which there is cooperation in their social relationships. In the equal status relationship among peers, children develop a sense of morality that is based on reciprocity and justice. Children’s ability to make moral judgments based on issues of fairness and justice does not evolve until middle childhood and is developed through interactions with peer culture and an increase in nonsocial cognitive skills. In the 1960s, Lawrence Kohlberg (1969) reformulated Piaget’s theory and proposed a three-level, sixstage sequence of moral judgment, using Piaget’s structural-developmental approach to morality. Level I was referred to as preconventional and reflected changes between the ages of 6 and 11. During this level, children’s development is characterized in two stages: first, children have a punishment and obedience orientation, and second, their moral judgments are focused on an instrumental purpose and exchange. Level II, composed of stages three and four, occurs during early adolescence, between the ages of 12 and 17, and is defined as the conventional level. In stage three, adolescents begin to formulate criteria of a morally good person. In stage four, they come to respect authority and social order. Level III, referred to as postconventional, is composed of stages five and six, and does not emerge until late adolescence or early adulthood. In stage five, individuals have an understanding of mutual agreements and social contracts that are beneficial to social welfare. Finally, in

stage six, individuals make moral decisions based on mutual respect, justice, and universal rights (see Colby & Kohlberg, 1987, for an in-depth description of the stages). In Kohlberg’s theory, the concepts of justice and fairness emerge much later than in Piaget’s theory. Both Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s theories focused on important aspects of morality in that they discussed that obligation is essential to the moral domain (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987). In the late 1970s, Elliot Turiel (1983) reexamined these theories and postulated a domain-specific model of social cognition, which proposed that children differentiate moral, social-conventional, and psychological domains of knowledge early in development. In this model, unlike the prior approaches, social reasoning does not reflect broad, global stages or levels. In the theories of Piaget and Kohlberg, all socially unacceptable events were considered to reflect moral transgressions. Turiel’s theory contradicts this assumption by utilizing philosophical criteria to empirically determine whether children analyze all transgressions as wrong using the same set of criteria. The findings revealed that children evaluate rule transgressions very differently, depending on the domain of the transgression. Issues in the moral domain are evaluated as obligatory in that they must be followed, universal in that they apply to all people, unalterable in that they do not change depending on circumstance, and impersonal in that they do not change from one person to the next. Some examples of transgressions in the moral domain would include hitting and harming another person or taking someone’s possessions away from them (Tisak, 1995). In contrast, rules in the social conventional domain are evaluated as alterable, contextually relative, contingent on rules, and dictated by authority. Issues in this domain entail appropriate social behavior within a given social unit, are based on the conventions of that social unit, and are defined by the consensus of the group. The changing of these conventions is arbitrary in that a convention in one social setting may be of particular importance and in another have no importance at all. Conventions deal with rules and regulations as well as uniformities. Transgressions of the social conventional domain would include such events as codes of dress or eating manners at the dinner table. A third domain of knowledge, the psychological, refers to individual decisions that are not regulated but are a matter of personal choice (Nucci, 1996).

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Thus, based on these findings, three domains of knowledge were identified: the moral, societal, and psychological. The moral domain comprises issues that deal with justice, others’ welfare, and rights. Justice entails matters of fair distribution; welfare involves harm to another; and rights are each individual’s entitlements as a human being. Judgments about morality have to do with how individuals ought to behave toward one another, and violations of morality often focus on the negative intrinsic consequences of the action. Morality also entails prosocial acts and behaviors, which constitute another, quite extensive, line of research (see Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). Conventions are culturally specific norms to regulate social interactions, and psychological decisions are matters of personal choice, such as hair length, nicknames, and choice of friends. MORALITY IN THE FAMILY AND SCHOOL CONTEXTS Through social interactions, children come to distinguish among these domains. Family interactions provide children with their first experiences of the social world. Research done by Dunn and Munn (1987) suggests that children are introduced to both moral and conventional concerns when mothers use prohibitions or indications of social rules. These concerns are introduced into the child’s life as early as 1½ years, and the explicitness of the prohibitions increases throughout the 2nd year. In social interactions with their peers, children as young as 3 years of age are able to distinguish between the moral and conventional domains as demonstrated in their responses to transgressions. When a moral transgression has occurred, children are likely to respond by focusing on the harm or loss to the victim and how the victim feels rather than attributing the wrongness to social disruption. Research involving observations and interviews with preschool children has consistently shown that by this age children are even better at differentiating between the two domains (Smetana, 1995). Children at this age are more capable of understanding that moral transgressions, such as hitting or stealing, are wrong regardless of the rules against them and that social conventional transgressions are dependent on the existence of a rule and can be considered acceptable if no rule exists. The ability to distinguish between moral and conventional issues becomes even

more established with age. However, it is not until approximately 8 or 9 years of age that children are able to utilize all of the criteria available for the distinction between moral and conventional domains. ROLE OF CULTURE AND COMPLEX ISSUES Cultural differences have also been examined from the perspective of the social domain model. Research in a wide range of cultures, including China, Japan, Korea, Israel, India, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, and Nigeria, have shown that children use the same set of criteria to make distinctions among the three domains of knowledge. Cultural differences are manifested in the way that children evaluate social-conventional rules, but not moral rules. In recent years, work from the social domain theory has moved beyond examination of individuals’ reasoning about prototypical moral events. Work from this theory has produced more than 90 empirical works that indicate that children and adults classify and reason about transgressions according to the theories’ predictions (see Killen, Lee-Kim, McGlothlin, & Stangor, 2002; Turiel, 1998, for reviews). Current research based on the social domain theory includes more complex topics such as exclusion based on racial and gender stereotypes, parent-adolescent conflict, tolerance and intolerance, cultural expectations, and drug use. These issues are complex in that individual differences occur based on context of the situation and often involve integration of two or more domains. For example, investigations of exclusion based on gender stereotypes have found that children judge straightforward exclusion based on gender stereotypes as morally wrong. At the same time, children use stereotypes to justify exclusion in complex or ambiguous situations. The social-cognitive domain model has contributed to research on moral issues by demonstrating the ways in which moral reasoning is distinct from reasoning about issues pertaining to conventions and individual choice. This has allowed researchers to identify moral reasoning based on issues of justice and rights at a much earlier age than past theories have suggested. Also, research based on the social-cognitive domain model has indicated that many social issues are not straightforward situations of wrong or right. Many times, social situations involve reasoning from several domains of social knowledge. Past theories that combined all social issues into one general, global stage

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system did not allow for an examination of how moral reasoning manifests in the everyday life of children, adolescents, and adults. APPLICATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS Current areas of application of moral judgment include intervention programs for aggressive and behavior-disordered children, conflict resolution intervention programs, broad-based media intervention programs, deviance, and developmental psychopathology. For example, violent children do not differ from nonviolent children in their evaluation of straightforward moral transgressions; however, they differ in their interpretation of provocation and retaliation (Astor, 1994). This work helps psychologists determine how to teach violent children to avoid responding too quickly in situations involving provocation. Moral development research provides information that enables educators, psychologists, teachers, and parents to understand the vast array of problems that children confront in their everyday lives, which enables them to facilitate children’s positive social development. Future directions in this area of work include the role of culture on moral development, moral reasoning, and moral behavior. —Melanie Killen and Stefanie Sinno

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Astor, R. (1994). Children’s moral reasoning about family and peer violence: The role of provocation and retribution. Child Development, 65, 1054–1067. Colby, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1987). The measurement of moral judgment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Dunn, J., & Munn, P. (1987). Development of justification in disputes with mother and sibling. Developmental Psychology, 23, 791–798. Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. (1998). Prosocial development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Socialization (5th ed., pp. 701–778). New York: Wiley. Killen, M., Lee-Kim, J., McGlothlin, H., & Stangor, C. (2002). How adolescents evaluate gender and racial exclusion. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 67. Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: The cognitivedevelopmental approach to socialization. In D. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (pp. 347–480). Skokie, IL: Rand McNally.

Nucci, L. P. (1996). Morality and the personal sphere of actions. In E. S. Reed, E. Turiel, & T. Brown (Eds.), Values and knowledge. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Piaget, J. (1932). The moral judgment of the child. New York: Free Press. Smetana, J. (1995). Morality in context: Abstractions, ambiguities, and applications. Annals of Child Development, 10, 83–130. Tisak, M. S. (1995). Domains of social reasoning and beyond. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of Child Development, 11, 95–130. Turiel, E. (1998). The development of morality. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Socialization (5th ed., pp. 863–932). New York: Wiley.

MOTHERS. See ADOLESCENT MOTHERS; ADOLESCENT-PARENT RELATIONS; ATTACHMENT, CHILD-PARENT; BONDING, PARENT-CHILD; MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT; PARENT EXPECTATIONS

MURRAY, HENRY A., RESEARCH CENTER The Henry A. Murray Research Center is a national repository for the social and behavioral sciences for the study of lives over time. The center’s primary purpose is to facilitate the use of these data to explore human development and social change. To make such research possible, the Murray Center has developed a national archive of data sets, including both quantitative and qualitative data. More than one third of the archive’s approximately 280 archived data sets are longitudinal in design, making it a rich resource for developmental researchers. Unique among archives for its commitment to studying women’s lives and preserving both computer-accessible quantitative data and qualitative materials, the Murray Center has been a vital contributor to the advancement of the theoretical, methodological, and training dimensions of the study of the human life course since its founding at Radcliffe College in 1976. The impetus for a social science archive for the study of women’s lives over time came from Matina

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Horner (then associate professor of psychology and social relations at Harvard and president of Radcliffe College, now executive vice president of TIAACREF) at a conference organized by the Ford Foundation. In light of the rapid changes in women’s lives during the 1960s and 1970s, the foundation had convened a group of leading scholars to examine how such drastic change had occurred without foresight and preparation by the academic community. Horner traced this failure to the limited number of studies that could be used to track and predict such change, studies that systematically linked social forces with individual trajectories. Further, the few existing studies of this nature had focused exclusively on men. Simply stated, there existed no satisfactory data repository with multiple resources to assess the changing patterns of women’s lives through this turbulent era. After the conference, the Ford Foundation announced a major funding initiative to support the study of women’s lives. Horner proposed that the foundation support a project to be based at Radcliffe that would archive reunion surveys from the Seven Sisters colleges. By bringing together and making available reunion data, social scientists would have a resource to compensate for the lack of longitudinal studies of women. First known as the Radcliffe Data Resource and Research Center, the Murray Research Center was established in 1976 with funding from the Ford Foundation. Abigail Stewart (now professor of psychology at the University of Michigan) served as its first director. Three years later, the center adopted its current name to honor Henry A. Murray, the renowned Harvard psychologist and personality theorist. Murray’s emphasis on the in-depth, multidisciplinary study of individual lives over time has continued to inform the center’s approach to both its selection of studies for the archive and its commitment to preserving both the quantitative and qualitative components of these studies. In 1980, Anne Colby (now senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching) was appointed the director of the center, a position that she held for 18 years. Under Dr. Colby’s leadership, the Murray Center expanded its collection from 60 to more than 200 studies, developing particularly strong resources in areas of special interest to women, such as women’s work and careers, education, mental health, political participation, family life, widowhood, and aging. It also

broadened its mandate to acquire exemplary studies from across the social sciences and research designs, so that the collection today contains studies with both female and male subjects from a wide range of ages and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic class groups. These data were collected using a variety of methods, including longitudinal, cross-sectional, survey, case study, and experimental designs. In keeping with the center’s interest in qualitative records, the archive also includes some videotaped and/or audiotaped data. From the start, the Murray Center sought to archive many of the landmark studies in the field of human development, including Block’s Lives Through Time, Kohlberg’s Longitudinal Study of Moral Development, Terman’s Terman Life Cycle Study of Children With High Ability, and White’s Lives in Progress. With support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Murray Center developed a Mental Health Archive, collecting studies such as Ainsworth’s Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Attachment, Baumrind’s Family Socialization Project, Brunswick’s Harlem Longitudinal Study of Urban Black Youth, Glueck and Glueck’s Crime Causation Study: Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency, the Institute of Human Development’s Intergenerational Studies, Plomin’s Colorado Adoption Study, and Vaillant’s Grant Study of Adult Development. Later, the National Science Foundation and NIMH funded efforts to archive studies with racially or ethnically diverse samples, including Almirol’s Study of a Filipino Community in California, Earls’s Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, Eccles’s Prince Georges Study of Adolescent Development in Multiple Contexts, Furstenberg’s Philadelphia Family Management Study, and Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco’s Immigration, Family Life, and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents. In addition, support from the MacArthur Foundation allowed the Murray Center to develop the only archive of video data in the United States. This archive contains Damon and Phelps’s Cognitive Growth Through Peer Collaboration, Elias’s Two Subcultures of Maternal Care in the United States, the Engel Archive Committee of the University of Rochester’s Monica Study, Grossman’s Pregnancy and Parenthood Project, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation’s Observational Studies of Parent/Child Interactions, Markman’s Denver Family Development Study, and Plomin’s Colorado Adoption Project.

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Under its most recent director, Annemette Sorensen (1999–2003, now a sociology lecturer at Harvard University), the Murray Center received funding from the W. T. Grant Foundation to expand its collection of youth and adolescence data sets. Through this grant, the Murray Center has acquired several important studies, including Administration for Children and Families’ Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, Eccles’s Childhood and Beyond, Enwistle and Alexander’s Beginning School Study, Fox’s Intrafamilial Sexual Socialization Patterns and Outcomes, and Kagan’s Study of Temperament. Today, the Murray Center is a leading resource for research in human development and related work in psychology and sociology. Its data archive, which is free and open to the public, is unique not just for commitment to longitudinal research design but also for its pioneering preservation of qualitative material and its record of facilitating follow-ups of existing samples. By imposing a rigorous deidentification process on incoming data sets, the Murray Center has established methods for making material such as case histories, open-ended interviews, and responses to projective tests available to new researchers for secondary analysis, replication, comparative analysis, and follow-up, all while protecting the confidentiality of study participants. To facilitate follow-up, legal permission is sought from its principal contributors to allow future researchers to recontact the study’s participants and for the Murray Center to preserve a list of participants’ identities. By securing the rights to grant (and archive) these follow-ups, dozens of cross-sectional studies have been transformed into longitudinal designs. For instance, Todd Heatherton recontacted the participants in Colby’s Prevalence of Bulimia Among College Students 10 years later and conducted a replication study to examine changes in the prevalence of dieting behavior and eating disorder symptoms from 1982 to 1992 (Heatherton, Nichols, Mahamedi, & Keel, 1995). Currently, a 20-year follow-up of Colby’s initial sample and a 10-year follow-up of Heatherton’s replication sample is under way, which will add enormous depth to this study and to the Murray Center’s archive generally. Another major effort facilitated by the Murray Center was John Laub and Robert Sampson’s reanalysis of the Gluecks’ Crime Causation Study, a classic study of juvenile delinquency that tracked 1,000 young men

from 1940 to 1963. Sampson and Laub systematically recoded the massive store of data archived at the Murray Center to examine criminality over the life course, producing their landmark book Crime in the Making (1993). The Murray Center has also been a major site for workshops and conferences on advanced research in human development. These meetings have produced important edited volumes and monographs in the areas of human development (Jessor, Colby, & Schweder, 1996), longitudinal design (Phelps, Furstenberg, & Colby, 2002), archival methods (Elder, Pavalko, & Clipp, 1993), and midlife development (Lachman & James, 1997). Finally, in the late 1980s, the staff of the Murray Center sought to identify the major longitudinal studies in the social sciences. This effort resulted in a widely used reference volume that serves as a directory and summary of all of the major longitudinal studies—including those not archived at the Murray Center (Young, Savola, & Phelps, 1991). Additional information about the Murray Center and the studies referenced here is available on its Web site, available at www.radcliffe.edu/murray. —Jacquelyn B. James and Matthew E. Kaliner

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Elder, G. H., Jr., Pavalko, E. K., & Clipp, E. C. (1993). Working with archival data: Studying lives. Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, 07-088. Newberry Park, CA: Sage. Heatherton, T. F., Nichols, P., Mahamedi, F., & Keel, P. (1995). Body weight, dieting, and eating disorder symptoms among college students, 1982–1992. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 1623–1629. Jessor, R., Colby, A., & Shweder, R. (Eds.). (1996). Ethnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lachman, M. E., & James, J. B. (Eds.). (1997). Multiple paths of midlife development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Phelps, E., Furstenberg, F. E., Jr., & Colby, A. (Eds.). (2002). Looking at lives: American longitudinal studies of the 20th century. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Young, C. H., Savola, K. L., & Phelps, E. (Eds.). (1991). Inventory of longitudinal studies in the social sciences. Newberry Park, CA: Sage.

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MUSSEN, PAUL H. Paul H. Mussen was born on March 21, 1922, in Paterson, New Jersey, to Harry and Taube Mussen. He received his AB in June 1942 and his masters in April 1943 from Stanford University, both with an emphasis in clinical psychology. During the latter part of World War II, he worked with the Office of Naval Intelligence in Hawaii. Here he wrote bulletins on the culture of the islands of the South Pacific in preparation for military operations. It was here, he later stated in his autobiography (Mussen, 1996), that he began his lifelong interest in cultural differences. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from Yale in 1949 under Leonard Doob. Even before leaving Yale, however, Mussen’s interests had begun to shift toward developmental psychology. His dissertation investigated the effect of social contact on racial attitudes among school-aged children. Working at an integrated summer camp for boys, he reported that the month-long experience changed racial attitudes among the white boys, especially for those who had scored low on aggression as measured by a projective test. He accepted an academic appointment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1949, moving on to Ohio State University in 1951, and finally to the University of California at Berkeley in 1956, where he remained for the rest of his career. His clinical background, along with his interest in developmental psychology, motivated him during the early years of his career to study identification and its underlying processes. His early Berkeley studies yielded evidence that satisfying relationships with the same-sex parent for male children led to a secure masculine identity. While these studies were well received at the time, and frequently cited, Mussen came to believe that they were of limited value because conformity with the stereotypical values and roles used in his research was culturally specific and not always generalizable to other cultures. At about the same time, he teamed up with John Conger to publish the first edition of Child Development and Personality in 1956. The favorable reception of his textbook and his other publications led to offers to edit larger works. Shortly after he came to Berkeley, the National Research Council’s Committee on Child Development proposed publishing a handbook of research methods. The resulting volume, Handbook of Research Methods in Child

Development, edited by Mussen (1960), was used for many years as a critical resource in the field of developmental psychology. In 1964 Mussen was invited to edit the third edition of Carmichael’s Manual of Child Psychology. The two-volume edition (Mussen, 1970) became the major resource book for researchers, theorists, and practitioners in all fields of developmental psychology. In 1978 he was approached again to edit a fourth edition of Carmichael’s Manual, now called Handbook of Child Psychology, published in four volumes in 1983. As Mussen’s career evolved, his research interests became focused on predictors of prosocial behavior in children. Participants in his research ranged in age from preschool to adolescence. In summarizing the results of his research line, he wrote that high levels of prosocial behavior in children are associated with warm nurturant relationships with strong identification with prosocial parental models, along with personal characteristics such as self-esteem and self-confidence (Mussen, 1996). He served as director of the Institute of Human Development at Berkeley from 1971 to 1980, and returned from retirement to serve as acting director in 1987. During his career, he also served as president of the Western Psychological Association (1973–1974) and Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) of the APA (1976–1977), and on the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council (1976–1979). Mussen lectured and consulted at universities in many parts of the world including Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. He was one of the first American professors to teach in China after the Cultural Revolution. He died on July 7, 2000. —Dennis N. Thompson and John D. Hogan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Mussen, P. H. (Ed.). (1960). Handbook of research methods in child development. New York: Wiley. Mussen, P. H. (Ed.). (1970). Carmichael’s manual of child psychology (3rd ed., 2 vols.). New York: Wiley. Mussen, P. H. (Ed.). (1983). Handbook of child psychology (4th ed., 4 vols.). New York: Wiley. Mussen, P. H. (1996). Paul Mussen. In D. N. Thompson & J. D. Hogan (Eds.), A history of developmental psychology in autobiography (pp. 161–179). Boulder, CO: Westview. Mussen, P. H., & Conger, J. J. (1956). Child development and personality. New York: Harper.

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N through, for example, Internet listservs and sponsoring edited volumes on specified topics. In addition to the interest sections, NCFR also has a Theory Construction Methodology Workshop. This workshop is dedicated to promoting theory and methodology development and takes place prior to each annual conference. NCFR sponsors the publication of two academic journals: the Journal of Marriage and the Family and Family Relations. The Journal of Marriage and the Family focuses primarily on research and theory in family science. Family Relations publishes applied articles within family science. Both journals are published four times a year. In addition to the two academic journals, NCFR also publishes a newsletter for its membership. More recently, NCFR has been active in sponsoring the initiative for the Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) program. This program certifies individuals as having expertise in 10 different substance areas of family life: families in society, internal dynamics of families, human growth and development over the life span, human sexuality, interpersonal relationships, family resource management, parent education and guidance, family law and public policy, ethics, and family life education methodology. Currently, more than 50 U.S. and Canadian undergraduate and graduate programs are accredited to deliver the CFLE certification to their students. For more information, please visit the National Council on Family Relations’ Web site at http://www.ncfr.org.

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON FAMILY RELATIONS The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) is a professional organization for family scholars. NCFR currently has more than 4,000 members across the world. Since its start in 1938, NCFR has been dedicated to integrating science and practice. Its members include professionals at universities, research organizations, and in clinical settings. NCFR annually organizes a conference for its membership in November. The conference consists of an overarching theme. Recent themes included “Families Over the Life-Course: Bridging Theory and Practice” (2002) and “What Is the Future of Marriage?” (2003). About 1,200 to 1,300 individuals attend the conference each year. For the past 5 years, NCFR has also organized a Public Policy and Education Conference with the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences, in Washington, D.C. This latter conference enables family professionals to discuss family policy issues with members of the U.S. administration and Congress. NCFR consists of 10 different interest sections, namely, Education and Enrichment, Ethnic Minorities, Family and Health, Family Policy, Family Science, Family Therapy, Feminism and Family Studies, International Section, Religion and Family Life, and Research and Theory. Each of these sections organizes sessions during NCFR’s annual conference. Many of the sections are also active outside the annual conference

—Manfred H. M. van Dulmen

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NATIVE ALASKAN TRIBES The indigenous population of Alaska consists of diverse groups of people. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Alaska Natives had certain characteristics in common; they were extremely well adapted to the harsh arctic and subarctic environment and prospered in small, subsistence-based communities. However, these people were largely heterogeneous and differed in physical traits, language, culture, and social organization. According to anthropologist Ernest S. Burch Jr. (1991), “One should speak in the plural—of Alaska Native histories, not of Alaska Native history” (cited in McBeath & Morehouse, 1994, p. 31). The idea of Alaska Natives as a single group is largely an artifact of Western colonization but has became increasingly appropriate because of their shared history of social problems due to contact with Russians and European Americans and the laws and policies pertaining to these peoples as a whole. ETHNOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW In broadest terms, Alaska Natives comprise Indian and Eskimo peoples. The Indian peoples were the first to migrate to Alaska and primarily settled in the interior and along the south-central and southeastern coast. Because these regions differ substantially in terms of climate, topography, and natural resources, the Native groups who occupied them developed distinct cultures and societal structures. The Athapaskan Indians who settled the interior were the most nomadic of all Alaskan people. Because of the natural barriers, the limited natural resources, and the harsh climate in this region, the Athapaskans lived in small, scattered groups of several nuclear families. Although Athapaskans shared a similar language and culture and would occasionally form larger groups for specific tasks, such as caribou hunting or warfare, they had no tribal organization and only a limited tribal identity (Naske & Slotnick, 1979). Due to the challenging natural environment and limited social structures, Athapaskan culture placed a greater emphasis on individual skills and behavior. Positions of leadership were acquired through demonstrations of individual abilities, rather than inherited, and Athapaskan religion usually involved individual, rather than community, rites. Tanaina Athapaskans primarily settled along the

south-central coast, in the Cook Inlet–Susitna River basin, and consequently developed somewhat differently. Influenced by Eskimos to their west, these Indians lived in relatively permanent villages, hunted sea mammals, and adopted elements of other coastal cultures. Unlike the Athapaskans, Indians in the southeast had a plethora of natural resources available. Consequently, they were mostly sedentary and lived in larger, highly structured societies. Today, the most numerous of these people are the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian. Communities were organized around common matrilineal ancestry and stratified into a flexible system of classes, such as nobles, commoners, and slaves. Haida and Tlingit societies were divided into moieties, or parts, and marriages were arranged between individuals belonging to opposite moieties. Tlingit communities were further subdivided into clans, or nuclei of matrilineally related males. Each such clan was an independent social and political unit with its own ceremonies, crests, and claims to hunting and fishing grounds. Lineage was central to Tlingit culture. It was the basis for greater alliances between clans, an integral aspect of their religion, and was commemorated with ornate totem poles (Naske & Slotnick, 1979). The Athapaskan language group is subdivided into several mutually comprehensible languages and related to Indian languages in the southwestern region of the United States (Lally & Haynes, 1995). Tlingit and Haida are also related to Athapaskan, but these languages are not mutually comprehensible. Paradoxically, Athapaskan is understood by Apaches and Navajos, but not by other Alaska Native groups. The Eskimo-Aleut language family is subdivided into Aleut, Sugpiaq, Inupiaq, Central Yup’ik, and Siberian Yup’ik. The Aleuts are an Eskimo people who occupy parts of the peninsula and chain of islands in the Bering Straight. They are usually considered to be distinct from Eskimos because their language diverged from the broader language group at a much earlier age (more than 10,000 years before the Inupiaq and Yup’ik languages separated) and because their culture developed differently. Unfortunately, anthropologists know less about their traditional way of life prior to contact with Europeans. The Russian conquest and introduction of new diseases reduced the Aleut population by as much as 80% in the mid-1800s (Naske & Slotnick, 1979). Survivors created a new culture through intermarriage with Russians and

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adopted Russian Orthodoxy. However, Aleuts had apparently developed a rich and complex culture. They lived in small villages comprising several families, and the greater society was divided into classes of honorables, common people, and slaves. Eskimo is the largest ethnic group in Alaska, and Yup’ik is the most numerous subdivision. Eskimos settled along Alaska’s western and northern coast, and their culture and language are preserved to a greater extent than those of other ethnic groups because European contact came relatively late to these regions. Due to the harsh living conditions in these areas, the Eskimo lifestyle was flexible and largely structured around subsistence activities. As with most Alaska Native societies, the village was the primary Eskimo social and political unit. Many activities were divided along clear gender roles, and individuals were socialized through a long, informal apprenticeship with family members and other adults in the community (Fienup-Riordan, 1992). Males above the age of 5 were socialized and trained for subsistence activities in qasgit (residential community centers). Although younger adults could act as village leaders, such as the umialik (whaling captain) in Inupiaq villages, elders had considerable influence in a kind of advisory role, and decisions were usually reached through consensus rather than the authority of certain individuals. SOCIOPOLITICAL HISTORY Concepts that apply to American Indians in the lower 48 states, such as tribe or chief, are often used to describe Alaska Native societies, but these terms are not always relevant to Alaska’s indigenous population. As discussed above, many terms and societal structures vary across ethnic groups, and most Alaska Natives refer to the village, rather than tribe, as the primary unit of social and political organization. In recent decades, however, the Alaska Native sovereignty movement has sought tribal status for villages to gain eligibility for federal laws and programs that apply to American Indian tribes. Alaska Natives are in a unique and somewhat ambiguous legal position because the development and application of federal policy leading to the dispossession of land and other aboriginal rights came relatively late to Alaska and through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), in 1971, rather than through conquest and forcible relocation to reservations (McBeath & Morehouse, 1994). Historically,

federal Indian policy has been inconsistent with regard to rights and powers of self-determination, such as aboriginal land titles, subsistence, tribal courts, and taxation, but even more so in the case of Alaska, because most such policies were neither developed for nor equivocally applied to Alaska Natives. Furthermore, the tribal status of Alaska Natives was never fully settled. Although Congress has explicitly referred to Alaska Native villages as tribes at various times since the Alaska purchase, tribal powers are often restricted to Indian country, or reservations, and the only congressionally created Indian reservation in Alaska is for the Tsimshian on Annette Island. The oil discovery at Prudhoe Bay in 1968 expedited the resolution of Alaska Native land claims that had remained unsettled since Alaska achieved statehood in 1959. ANCSA settled claims based on aboriginal title in exchange for nearly $1 billion, 44 million acres of land, tax provisions, and certain timber and petroleum rights. Monetary benefits and land were divided among 200 village corporations and 12 regional corporations, and all U.S. citizens with one fourth or more Alaska Native blood (except those on the Metlakatla reservation at Annette Island) became stockholders of one village and one regional corporation. A 13th regional corporation was established in Seattle for nonresident Alaska Natives and received money, but not land (Naske & Slotnick, 1979). In the aftermath of ANCSA, Native corporations have achieved varied financial success, with most of them failing to provide substantial dividends for their shareholders, and they have not solved the significant social problems in Alaska Native communities. Furthermore, ANCSA did not resolve core issues such as subsistence rights and the tribal status and powers of Native villages. These issues are therefore raised by advocates of Alaska Native sovereignty movement and have continued to develop through case law over the last three decades. Presently, more than 200 Alaska Native villages are recognized as tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible to Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2000). CULTURALLY SENSITIVE INTERVENTIONS Alaska Native communities have been devastated in virtually every way since the arrival of Russians and European Americans. In addition to outright

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cultural oppression, loss of freedom, and natural resources, Alaska Natives have also struggled with more insidious problems related to the introduction of alcohol, cash economies, television, and other aspects of Western culture that have promoted identity confusion and disrupted the subsistence lifestyle. Consequently, rates of alcohol and drug abuse, crime, sexual and child abuse, mental illness and death (particularly by suicide and accident) are all alarmingly high in Alaska Native communities (Sullivan & Brems, 1997). Conversely, Alaska Native peoples derive considerable resilience from the collective wisdom inherent in their traditional customs and values. As a result, Alaska Natives, particularly in the more traditional communities, have evidenced remarkable hardiness, resourcefulness, and social cohesion in the face of these severe social problems. The most promising interventions for such social problems employ culturally sensitive, communitybased strategies that empower Alaska Natives to help themselves. Prior to ANCSA, non-Native agents of change often fostered dependency and powerlessness through paternalistic approaches, whereby outsiders determined the best interests of Alaska Natives, imposed the values of the dominant culture, and forcibly acculturated Natives by removing them from the environment for which they were socialized (e.g., through mandatory boarding schools and relocation to urban areas). ANCSA was arguably also developed in the paternalistic tradition, because land and monetary benefits were entrusted to business corporations rather than to Natives themselves. Besides suggesting that Alaska Natives are not competent to administer their own resources, these business corporations are less accessible to Alaska Natives because they are located in urban areas and because such entities are foreign to traditional Native culture. Culturally sensitive interventions foster independence by securing community ownership through traditional institutions such as the village leaders and the council of elders. Services are provided within the community and, to the extent possible, by the Natives themselves. Furthermore, such interventions build on existing strengths within the community, such as traditional values and customs. For example, Hazel and Mohatt (2001) used focus groups and surveys to develop approaches to substance abuse prevention based on Alaska Native spiritual beliefs and practices. Furthermore, the Rural Alaska Community Action Program (RurAL CAP; n.d.) recruits and trains stipendiary

volunteers to develop programs in their own communities. RurAL CAP thereby assists Native communities in delivering a wide variety of services, including Head Start programs, legal services, affordable housing, and grant-writing and administration skills training, while empowering Natives to help themselves and decide what services they need. —Thomas P. Vaccaro and John D. Hogan

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fienup-Riordan, A. (1992). Hunting tradition in a changing world: Yup’ik lives in Alaska today. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Hazel, K. L., & Mohatt, G. V. (2001). Cultural and spiritual coping in sobriety: Informing substance abuse prevention for Alaska Native communities. Journal of Community Psychology, 29, 541–562. Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible to Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, 65 Fed. Reg. 49, 13298–13303 (March 13, 2000). Lally, E. M., & Haynes, H. A. (1995). Alaska Natives. In L. Beebe, N. A. Winchester, & F. Pflieger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social work (19th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 194–203). Washington, DC: NASW Press. McBeath, G. A., & Morehouse, T. A. (1994). Alaska politics and government. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Naske, C. M., & Slotnick, H. E. (1979). Alaska: A history of the 49th state. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Edermans. Rural Alaska Community Action Program (n.d.). RurAL CAP history. Available at http://www.ruralcap.com/history. shtml. Sullivan, A., & Brems, C. (1997). The psychological repercussions of the sociocultural oppression of Alaska Native peoples. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 12, 411–440.

NATIVE AMERICAN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Native Americans are a rapidly growing, relatively young, geographically dispersed and culturally heterogeneous population. Out of the more than 280 million Americans, approximately 2.5 million people identify themselves solely as American Indian/Alaska Native, but when including those who consider themselves part American Indian or part Alaska Native, the number grows to 4.1 million. The term American Indian is used to refer to all Native American individuals,

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including Alaska Natives, Aleuts, Eskimos, and those of mixed blood. The terms American Indian, Native American, Indian, and Native are used interchangeably in this entry, but it should be noted that these words represent diverse people from distinct tribes. Within families identified solely as Native American, the median age is 28 years, compared with the national average of 35 years (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002). Thirty-six percent of the population lives solely on reservations or in other census-defined tribal areas (the historically Indian areas of Oklahoma), and 64% live elsewhere in the United States. Native American children and their families represent some 558 federally recognized tribes, many of which practice their own customs, maintain particular social organizations, and speak different tribal languages. While many tribes share similar traditions and a common basis for beliefs, as with any group of individuals, complete homogeneity in those beliefs cannot be assumed. Two essential aspects of Native American culture, the extended family and spirituality, have enabled it to survive great social problems and economic challenges. This entry provides an overview of these two special cultural domains and related parenting practices. FAMILY STRUCTURE In many contemporary Native American families, relational values and their behavioral manifestations have remained intact. Extended family networks still provide extensive psychological support despite the fact that families have been transformed over time, due to geographic movements and intertribal marriages. Native American families that live in urban areas tend to have nuclear households but often reconstitute a kinship system among Native American community members in the surrounding area. Families that live on the reservation can more readily participate in extended-family activities. Red Horse (1980) described a traditional Native American extended family as structurally open, with a village-like characteristic, including several households and relatives along both vertical and horizontal lines, in contrast to the European model of an extended family, which is defined as three generations within a single household. A key feature of contemporary Native American family structure is the growing proportion of children who reside with only one parent. Women head 45% of Native American households. Poverty rates in the

United States for Native American children are nearly 3 times higher than rates for the general population. Single parenthood, divorce, poverty, and alcohol abuse have undeniable deleterious effects on the development of many Native children. Nevertheless, many Native American families still live the cultural traditions, providing a very close link between the family and the community and creating a sacred space for child development. Although there are exceptions, for the most part, Native American communities, both on and off the reservation, help to reinforce a protective sense of self-worth, identity, safety, and environmental mastery. Generally, everyone shares responsibility for meeting the needs of children. Thus, when parents cannot raise their own children, members of the extended family take them in and care for them. When there is only one parent in the family, there are often other adults in the household, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and livein partners, who continue the informal practice of caregiving. Within this kinship system, individual standing in the community is related to the extent to which a person fulfills his or her responsibilities to relatives. In many tribes, such as the Navajo, grandparents eagerly raise children in separate homes and train them in particular skills and traditional teachings. They readily offer assistance to parents, as young parents are not considered to have the years of experience necessary to raise children alone, and middleaged adults are taking on increasing responsibilities for running small businesses and tribal enterprises. These adults often take a special interest in youth both through personal contact and by promoting involvement in traditional cultural activities. Most Native American families operate biculturally, by maintaining some of the traditional ways from their tribal backgrounds and blending them with conventional American practices. Thus Native American families often consist of members with differing levels of cultural involvement and adherence to traditional teachings (Joe & Malach, 2002). For example, the grandparents may live on the reservation yet speak only English due to harsh experiences they may have had with Native language use in boarding schools. Some of their grandchildren may be learning to become bilingual through language immersion programs in tribal schools, whereas other grandchildren who live in the city may speak English exclusively. However, all of the members of this extended family

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may be involved in enculturation activities, such as beading, attending or participating in powwows (social/ ceremonial gatherings), hunting, fishing, and cooking Native foods. SPIRITUALITY For many Native Americans, spirituality pervades all aspects of daily life. A theme that is frequently noted in Native American spiritual belief systems is the interconnectedness of all things, both living and nonliving. Human beings are seen as a small part of the larger structure of the universe. They are morally intertwined with the natural world, such that the past of one’s family and community is linked to the present and teaches valuable lessons about proper and harmonious behavior. All creatures are an integral part of the sacred life force. Spirituality integrates Native American society, cementing and sustaining collective consciousness and social cohesion. Children are highly valued in most North American tribes and are often seen as sacred beings because they are believed to be coming from, and to have had the most recent contact with, the spirit world. Children are fully accepted as members of the family, clan, and tribe, whether they come from natural birth, are adopted, or are stepchildren. Notwithstanding incidences of child neglect and abuse, which may be precipitated by harsh environmental challenges, such as poverty, unemployment, displacement, or other circumstances (LaFromboise & Dizon, 2004), Native American families consider children to be beloved gifts from the Creator, the pathways through which the ancestors could offer help to the tribe. In recent years, there has been an effort to promote traditional child-rearing beliefs and practices in order to strengthen the quality of life in Indian communities (National Indian Child Welfare Association, 1986). CHILD REARING Many child-rearing processes that contemporary developmental psychologists recommend for raising healthy and productive children are apparent in traditional Native American ways of parenting (Kawamoto, 2001). The learning processes of modeling and behavioral demonstration of skills are widely practiced among caregivers. Native American adults and older children often demonstrate the strategy of cognitive structuring, which includes giving children reasons

for learning a new behavior or treating others with respect. Long before psychologists determined the positive effects of parental acceptance and warmth, Native people understood its importance and practiced it regularly through praise, affection, and devotion to children. They allowed their children to learn from natural and logical consequences, despite outside judgments that they were laissez-faire in their approach. Many behavioral modification programs teach parents and teachers about the positive impact of systematically ignoring child misbehaviors. When Native American children misbehave, families still practice collective inattention until the child displays remorse or makes restitution for the behavior. CONCLUSIONS Despite the overwhelming problems experienced by many Native people, the 21st century may well be the century of recovery for Native Americans. The current trend toward increased tribal sovereignty, population growth, and a burgeoning economic base undoubtedly strengthens the community context. Indian youth are increasingly able to emulate nationally known role models, such as Notah Begay, the professional golfer; Litefoot, the actor and rap artist; actress Irene Bedard; and Ben Night Horse Campbell, the first Native American U.S. Senator. Currently, there are 35 tribal colleges in the United States located on reservations, allowing both youth and adults to advance their education and engage in lifelong learning within a comfortable and familiar environment. Despite potential negative effects, the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 can be viewed as a source of empowerment for Native American children and families, as revenues allow for employment training and investment in tribal solutions to social and economic problems. Many tribes support cultural preservation initiatives, such as museums and oral history projects, build child care centers, and create comprehensive health plans with funds from Indian gaming. They also help support research and intervention efforts to promote and sustain resilience. The current prevalence of traditional beliefs and practices, together with the ongoing revitalization of Native cultural practices across the country, testifies to the incredible endurance that is inherent in Native American ways of life. The major areas of importance in Native American culture, extended family functioning, participation in traditional activities, and engagement

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in spiritual teachings, all function as protective factors for Native American children and their families. These factors increase a sense of belonging and connectedness, reminding Native American children of their place in the natural world and structuring opportunities to learn how to become contributing members of both the family and the community. —Teresa LaFromboise

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Joe, J. R., & Malach, R. S. (2002). Families with Native American roots. In E. W. Lynch & M. J. Hanson (Eds.), A guide for working with children and their families: Developing cross-cultural competence (pp. 127–164). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Kawamoto, W. T. (Ed.). (2001). Understanding American Indian families [Special issue]. American Behavioral Scientist, 44(9). LaFromboise, T. D., & Dizon, M. R. (2004). American Indian children and adolescents. Children of color: Psychological interventions with culturally diverse youth (pp. 45–90). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. National Indian Child Welfare Association. (1986). Positive Indian parenting: Honoring our children by honoring our traditions: A model Indian parent training manual. Portland, OR: Author. Red Horse, J. (1980). Family structure and values orientation in American Indians. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work, 61(8), 462–467. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2002). American Indian and Alaska Native population, by age and sex for the United States: 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL POLICY PROGRAM Founded in 1981 under the leadership of Dr. Bernice Neugarten, the Human Development and Social Policy (HDSP) Program prepares students to conduct research to understand and to attack the very human problems that pose the greatest challenges to society in this new century. This research informs decisions about policies, programs, and interventions. (For more information, see http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/ Programs/HDSP/Index.html.)

Over the life course, human beings learn, develop, and interact within families, communities, schools, workplaces, and the particular political and economic order within which their lives are embedded and defined. The overarching aim of HDSP scholarship is to improve human lives by examining and understanding how policies affect the lives of people through the life course and how people can analyze and affect policy. It does so by promoting an interdisciplinary understanding of how people develop, how various experiences and contexts affect human lives, the underlying logic of program design and evaluation, the ways in which political agendas are set, and how political forces distribute opportunities in a democracy. Uniquely combining training in human development and training in public policy, HDSP furthers both scientific discovery and effective practice in understanding and enhancing human lives. The core curriculum in HDSP provides training in human development, qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as policy development, implementation, and evaluation. More specialized training is offered in child development and social policy, adult development and social policy, and human development and education policy. The HDSP doctoral program is highly selective and admits four to seven graduate students each year. Successful applicants have diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and demography. Many have worked for a number of years after graduating from college. All share an interest in interdisciplinary approaches to public policy issues. Graduates are trained to bridge the social sciences and social policy-making arenas, to teach and carry out research in academic and nonacademic settings, and to occupy strategic positions in government and nongovernment agencies where policies are created. Graduates of the HDSP program have assumed teaching and research positions in colleges and universities such as Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and the Universities of Wisconsin and Washington. HDSP graduates are especially well trained to become professors in other interdisciplinary programs in areas such as human development, social ecology, and family studies. In addition, they bring an interdisciplinary perspective to traditional academic departments such as psychology and sociology or to schools of public policy.

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Some graduates assume professional positions in government or governmental agencies, where they are research directors or policy analysts. Examples include the General Accounting Office, Congressional Budget Office, the Rand Institute, and the Urban Institute. Some HDSP graduates are employed in businesses and corporations as directors of programs or as consultants. A recent graduate is the director of adult education and training programs at a major international corporation. Other graduates work at independent research centers or at foundations. The program has a diverse set of faculty, with collective expertise in developmental and social psychology, sociology, political science, economics, education, and statistics. Faculty members include Emma K. Adam and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, both developmental psychologists; Fay Lomax Cook, a politicial scientist who also directs the Institute for Policy Research; Greg J. Duncan, an economist who has directed the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research; Alexandra M. Freund and Barton J. Hirsch, both developmental psychologists; Syros Konstantopoulos, an education statistician; Dan A. Lewis, a political scientist; Jelani Mandara, a social and personality psychologist; Dan P. McAdams, a personality and life span developmental psychologist and director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives; James E. Rosenbaum, sociologist; and James P. Spillane, an education policy evaluator. Perhaps the best way of conveying faculty research interests and graduate student involvement in them is by describing three ongoing research programs. WELFARE, CHILDREN, AND FAMILIES: A THREE-CITY STUDY With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), in 1996, the focus of federal cash assistance to families shifted from open-ended aid to transitional financial support while the head of the household secures work. Chase-Lansdale and colleagues saw enormous uncertainty about whether this great national experiment in poverty policy would succeed. Would adult recipients be able to find jobs that provided adequate support? Would mothers be able to balance their family lives with their work lives? Would the well-being of their children improve? Codirected by Chase-Lansdale and conducted in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, the Three-City

Study is a multimethod examination of the consequences of welfare reform on the well-being of children and families. The project has numerous innovative strengths: (a) the use of multiple methodologies, including survey interviews, observations of children’s behavior, parenting, and child care settings, and intensive ethnography; (b) the longitudinal follow-up of a representative sample of low-income, primarily African American and Hispanic urban children and their families; and (c) an economic and developmental theoretical structure that informs the collection and analysis of unusually extensive measurements of children’s well-being in health, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional realms, as well as information on parents’ employment and training, parenting practices, family structure, and use of services. Six HDSP graduate students have played roles in the quantitative data management and analyses on the developmental, family process, and psychological aspects of the survey. Chase-Lansdale also oversees an intensive developmental study of the young children in the ThreeCity Study, called the “Embedded Developmental Study” (EDS), and has involved two of the above HDSP students in the various stages of the project, from planning to coding to analysis. The EDS further examined approximately 600 preschool children (aged 2–4) from the survey sample over time. Assessments include videotaped observations of children’s self-regulation behaviors and mother-child interactions at home, live observations of child care settings, and interviews with fathers. The students have gained experience with observational methodologies through piloting measures in the home, developing protocols and improved assessments, and acting as field trainers for the child and parent activities or the child care assessments in the EDS. They have also been involved in coding the videotapes as well as the management of the quantitative data sets in the study. Since the beginning of the project in 1998, HDSP graduate students have presented 19 Three-City Study papers or posters at professional meetings, such as Society for Research on Child Development, American Psychological Association (APA), Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and other disciplinary or methodological conferences. They have published or submitted for publication 10 sole- or coauthored papers. One of these papers is a collaboration between EDS-involved

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graduate students and an ethnographer at the San Antonio site, and several more collaborations with the ethnography team are planned for students working on the survey. The extensive multimethod data of the Three-City Study will yield many more publication opportunities for Northwestern graduate students. Graduate students have also been coauthors of the policy briefs emanating from the study and disseminated to federal, state, and local policymakers. THE GAUTREAUX RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY PROGRAMS Two housing-mobility projects directed by Duncan, Rosenbaum, and sociologist Kathryn Edin combine qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis to study the experiences of families who have moved from very high poverty, racially segregated, inner-city neighborhoods to more affluent suburban and city neighborhoods over the past 20 years. The original Gautreaux housing-mobility program, launched 25 years ago in Chicago, offered residents of (or applicants to) Chicago’s very poor and racially segregated public housing projects an opportunity to move to private apartments in suburban or city neighborhoods that were predominantly nonpoor and nonBlack. Rosenbaum’s mixed-method evaluation of Gautreaux began in 1981 and has involved eight Northwestern graduate students from both sociology and HDSP. With funding from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Foundation for Child Development, Rosenbaum and Duncan launched an administrative, data-based, longer-run follow-up study in 1998 and a qualitative study in 2002 of a stratified random sample of program participants and their children 15 years, on average, after moving. The quantitative analysis of the survey and administrative data showed that families placed in affluent neighborhoods continued to live in neighborhoods that were every bit as affluent. Despite this, families placed in more affluent neighborhoods did not experience uniformly more positive personal outcomes than those placed in less affluent neighborhoods. The goal of the qualitative addition is to better understand the reasons behind the range of child and adult outcomes observed nearly two decades after moving. This recent work has involved three graduate students, who have presented their work at research meetings of the American Sociological Association, Population Association of America, AERA, and APPAM.

In 2001, the Chicago Housing Authority initiated a new round of Gautreaux, called “Gautreaux 2,” offering vouchers to approximately 500 families who remain in Chicago public housing developments. An in-depth qualitative evaluation of the program began in spring 2002. A randomly selected group of program participants was enrolled, and both those who move and those who do not will be followed for approximately 3 years. Gautreaux 2 is unique in that it focuses on the process of and barriers to program take-up and the crucial early period of settling in to the new neighborhood—a part of the processes not studied directly in other research in this area. Five Northwestern University graduate students in sociology and HDSP have served as interviewers, coders, or data analysts for one or more of these housing-mobility projects. STUDY OF STRESS IN THE WORKING FAMILY Despite the rapidly changing nature of work and family life over the past few decades, little research has been conducted examining the impact of work and family factors on the emotional well-being, stress, and health of parents and children. Emma Adam’s research project examined factors in the everyday lives of families influencing their stress hormone levels and emotional and physical well-being. From 1998 to 2001, Adam gathered data on daily events, emotions, and stress hormone levels from 106 middleincome adults and their 36 adolescent and 35 kindergarten-aged children who participated in the University of Chicago Sloan Family Study, and provided interviews, questionnaires, and randomly signaled momentary diary data. Adam’s project, funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), added the collection of physiological stress hormone data to this study. Stress hormone levels, specifically levels of the hormone cortisol, were obtained from samples of saliva provided by parents and adolescents seven times a day for 2 days, as individuals went about the course of their daily lives at home, work, and school. Participants also provided diary reports of their situations, emotions, and thoughts at each data collection time point. Time points were semirandom and signaled by a programmed wristwatch. This study design allowed Adam to relate stress hormone levels to individuals’ momentary experiences in the work and home setting, as well as to stable

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aspects of individual and family functioning. Elevated cortisol levels have been linked in prior studies to a variety of physical and mental health disorders, but the factors in individuals’ daily lives causing these elevations in this hormone have not been identified in normal samples. In addition to this first wave of cross-sectional data, a 2-year longitudinal follow-up has just been conducted on some of the Family Stress Study participants, and Adam has just launched a 4-year longitudinal investigation of changes in stress hormone levels in relation to changing life events and changes in well-being in 200 adolescents. Thus far, three graduate students have worked on Adam’s project, two from the School of Education

and Social Policy and one from the Department of Psychology. Several publications are currently under review from this project, and many more opportunities to publish from these data are available to interested faculty and graduate students. Data have been presented at professional meetings of the Society for Research on Child Development, the Society for Research on Adolescence, the American Sociological Association, the International Society for Psychoneuroendocrinology, and an International Time-Use Conference. —Greg J. Duncan

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O a simpler measure on which to base an obesity definition is required. Although imperfect, the Body Mass Index (BMI), defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, has been adopted by consensus in the United States by the National Institutes of Health (NIH, 1998) and the Centers; for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; see http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ dnpa/obesity) and internationally by WHO (2000). Consensus definitions of overweight and obesity have been set at 25 (overweight) and 30 (obesity), with severity classes of obesity defined as follows: overweight, 25.0 to 29.9; Class I obesity, 30.0 to 34.9; Class II obesity, 35.0 to 39.9; and Class III obesity, 40.0+. The WHO (2000) terminology differs slightly, but the cutoff points are the same. In growing children, in whom weight and height are both changing (and at different rates), the definition of obesity is inherently more complicated. Although no universally agreed on standard exists for assessing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, there is a growing consensus that BMI should be adopted as an indirect measure of adiposity for children and adolescents, as well (Barlow & Dietz, 1998). Because BMI varies substantially by age and gender during childhood and adolescence, the specific BMI cutoffs used to classify obesity must be genderand age-specific and must be referenced against a standard. In the United States, the standard used is the CDC Revised Growth Reference (Barlow & Dietz, 1998). Internationally, several standards (Cole, Freeman, & Preece, 1995; Ogden et al., 2002), including one based on a pooled international sample (Cole, Bellizzi, Flegal, & Dietz, 2000), are also in use.

OBESITY Obesity has emerged as the most pressing nutritional problem facing the developed world. This trend has occurred over a relatively short period of time; in the United States, it appears to have begun in the last quarter of the 20th century. The epidemic in children followed shortly thereafter. The most recent data (1999–2000) from national surveys in the United States suggest that almost two thirds of the adult population is overweight, and almost one third is obese (Flegal, Carroll, Ogden, & Johnson, 2002). In children, current estimates (1999–2000) put the prevalence of overweight at 15%, a threefold increase over the past 30 years (Ogden, Flegal, Carroll, & Johnson, 2002). Although this epidemic has spared no subgroup of the population and has been documented in individuals of all ages and racial/ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups, the problem is greatest in minority populations and among persons living in poverty. Obesity is a global public health problem, affecting virtually every region of the world with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa. IDENTIFICATION The World Health Organization (WHO; 2000) defines obesity as a condition of abnormal or excess accumulation of adipose tissue (body fat) to an extent that an individual’s health may be impaired. Because the precise measurement of adipose tissue requires invasive laboratory measures, in the population context,

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Several periods in development have been proposed as critical periods in the development of persistent obesity and its comorbid consequences. These include the prenatal period (when intrauterine exposures may influence adiposity), early childhood, and adolescence. Some evidence suggests that breastfeeding may protect against later obesity. Likelihood of persistence in adulthood of obesity from childhood is related both to age at onset and severity. SEQUELAE Childhood obesity has a number of immediate, intermediate, and long-term health consequences (Must & Strauss, 1999). These include classic cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, abnormal blood lipid levels, and impaired glucose tolerance. Respiratory conditions include sleepdisordered breathing. In addition, early menarche and menstrual abnormalities are linked to overweight. Of particular concern is the emergence of type 2 diabetes, once considered an adult-onset disease, as a disease of childhood. The psychological impact may represent one of the most damaging effects of obesity given that stigmatization and social isolation may result in lower self-esteem and depression. In a recently replicated classic study, children were asked to rank order a series of drawings of children with various handicaps (crutches, wheelchair, missing a hand, facial disfigurement, obesity) based on which child they would “like best” (Latnerm & Stunkard, 2003). The obese child was ranked last irrespective of the ranking child’s sex, race, socioeconomic status, living environment, and own disability. In another study, ratings of quality of life for children with obesity were similar to those of children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer (Schwimmer, Burwinkle, & Varni, 2003). Although obesity in adulthood that has been present from childhood may carry an additional burden due to increased severity, much adult obesity arises through adult weight gain. The health consequences of obesity present in adulthood are enormous, both in magnitude and impact on quality of life. In developing its clinical guidelines, the NIH report identified an extensive list of health conditions for which obesity increased risk. These include hypertension, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, many cancers, and depression (NIH, 1998). The number of deaths

per year in the United States attributable to obesity has been estimated at about 300,000. RISK FACTORS In all persons, child or adult, obesity arises due to energy imbalance: When energy intake exceeds energy expenditure, most of the excess calories are stored as adipose tissue. To give rise to obesity, energy imbalance must occur over a long period of time and likely reflects a combination of factors. Individual behaviors, environmental factors, and heredity, singly and in combination, contribute to the development of obesity. The rapidity with which the obesity epidemic emerged rules out simple genetic explanations. The current environment in the United States has been characterized as obesogenic, meaning that it promotes high energy intakes and low energy expenditures—the energy imbalance that gives rise to weight gain. Modern industrialized societies provide abundant, relatively inexpensive food; modern life is organized to reduce energy expenditure at work and at home, through technology and urbanization. For a species that evolved to store fat in times of plenty in order to survive in leaner times, many individuals are genetically susceptible to gain weight in the current environment. Excessive energy intake is a primary risk factor for the development of childhood and adult obesity, although the specific aspects of intake responsible are controversial. Dietary factors, such as diet composition, energy density, fat intake, fruit and vegetable consumption, snacks, sugar-rich foods, and soft drinks, have all been identified in association with obesity. Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables can help reduce the intake of dietary fat and calories because they are naturally low in fat and energy density compared with other foods. Despite current recommendations that individuals over the age of 2 years consume 2 to 4 servings of fruits and 3 to 5 servings of vegetables daily, children and adolescents eat an average of only 3.6 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and fried potatoes account for a large proportion of those servings. A number of other dietary variables, including soft drinks, snacking, portion sizes, and infant feeding have also been linked to childhood obesity. Studies suggest that the increased consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks, snack foods (which are often high in fat or/and sugar), and largesized portions of foods have contributed to the increase in energy intakes.

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Reduced physical activity may be the most important factor in explaining the increase of obesity over the past two decades. Physical activity among U.S. youth is in decline, with nearly half of young people aged 12 to 21 reporting that they do not engage in vigorous physical activity regularly and one fourth reporting no vigorous physical activity. Whereas leisure time physical activity has increased in men and remained constant in women over the past four decades in the United States, activity associated with work and home life has declined over the same period. Sedentary behavior and “inactivity,” such as watching television and playing video/computer games, also are contributory factors. Gortmaker et al. (1996) reported an adjusted-odds ratio (OR) for obesity of 8.3 for adolescents who watched TV more than 5 hours per day compared with those who watched 0 to 2 hours. Compelling evidence comes from intervention studies, which show that reducing TV viewing time can help prevent childhood obesity. Adults in a trial of maintenance following weight loss sustained their losses best when physical activity was high and television viewing was low (van Baak et al., 2003). TV watching may promote obesity by reducing physical activity, lowering metabolic rate, and increasing energy intake. The latter may occur due to the fact that TV viewing may be associated with snacking and may moderate eating habits generally through greater exposure to advertising of foods high in added sugars and fat or by conveying mixed messages about lifestyle and health in the content of advertisements. TV viewing is a major source of inactivity among Americans. Screen time, a summary measure of time spent viewing television and videos and engaged in computer-based activity, represents the largest proportion of nonsleep, nonschool time for youth. CONCLUSIONS Obesity has emerged as the major nutritional problem facing the pediatric and adult populations worldwide. The etiology of obesity is multifactorial and includes individual risk factors, genetic influences, and environmental effectors. The severity of the problem, in terms of immediate and long-term health consequences to physical and psychological health, suggests it is a problem that will dominate the public health agenda in the 21st century. —Aviva Must

See also ANOREXIA NERVOSA, BULIMIA NERVOSA

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Barlow, S. E., & Dietz, W. H. (1998). Obesity evaluation and treatment: Expert committee recommendations. Pediatrics, 102, 222–228. Cole, T. J., Bellizzi, M. C., Flegal, K. M., & Dietz W. H. (2000). Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: International survey. British Medical Journal, 320, 1240–1243. Cole, T. J., Freeman, J. V., & Preece, M. A. (1995). Body mass index reference curves for the U.K., 1990. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 73, 25–29. Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D., Ogden, C. L., & Johnson C. L. (2002). Prevalence and trends in obesity among U.S. adults, 1999–2000. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 1723–1727. Gortmaker, S. L., Must, A., Sobol, A. M., Peterson, K., Colditz, G. A., & Dietz, W. H. (1996). Television viewing as a cause of increasing obesity among children in the United States, 1986–1990. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 150, 356–362. Latnerm, J. D., & Stunkard, A. J. (2003). Getting worse: The stigmatization of obese children. Obesity Research, 11(3), 452–456. Must, A., & Strauss, R. S. (1999). Risks and consequences of childhood and adolescent obesity. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, 23(Suppl. 2), S2–S11. National Institutes of Health. (1998). Clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults. Bethesda, MD: Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Ogden, C. L., Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D., & Johnson, C. L. (2002). Prevalence and trends in overweight among U.S. children and adolescents 1999–2000. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 1728–1732. Schwimmer, J. B., Burwinkle, T. M., & Varni, J. W. (2003). Health-related quality of life of severely obese children and adolescents. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289(14), 1813–1819. van Baak, M. A., van Mil, E., Astrup, A. V., Finer, N., Van Gaal, L. F., Hilsted, J., et al. (2003). Leisure-time activity is an important determinant of long-term weight maintenance after weight loss in the Sibutramine Trial on Obesity Reduction and Maintenance (STORM trial). American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 78, 209–214. World Health Organization. (2000). Obesity: Preventing and managing the global epidemic: Report of a WHO consultation (WHO Technical Report Series, No. 894). Geneva: Author.

OBESITY, PEDIATRIC Within the past decade, the epidemic of overweight has spread to children and adolescents, threatening to

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compromise their health and to impose a substantial financial burden on the health care system. Data from the 1999 to 2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) show that 15% of children and adolescents (aged 6–19) are overweight, a 4% increase from the 1988–1994 estimate and a doubling from the early 1970s (Centers for Disease Control, 2003). Minority children, especially Black and Mexican American children, are at higher risk for overweight than White children (Ogden, Flegal, Carroll, & Johnson, 2002). DEFINITION OF PEDIATRIC OVERWEIGHT Most health surveys use the Body Mass Index (BMI) to express the relationship between weight and height; BMI = (weight in kilograms)/(height in meters)2. Because the distribution of body fat varies by children’s age and gender, gender-specific BMIfor-age is used for children and adolescents aged 2 to 20 years. Current cut points established by the CDC are (a) underweight: BMI-for-age < 5th percentile; (b) at risk of overweight: BMI-for-age > 85th percentile to < 95th percentile; and (c) overweight: BMI-for-age > 95th percentile. BMI-for-age compares well to more invasive estimates of body fat and therefore is used to identify underweight, risk for overweight, and overweight children and adolescents (CDC, 2003). FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO PEDIATRIC OVERWEIGHT Overweight results from energy imbalance. In other words, when the energy consumed exceeds the energy expended, excessive weight gain occurs. Energy balance is regulated by genetics and environmental factors. Heredity alone cannot explain the current epidemic of overweight among children and adolescents. Only a small percentage (1%–4%) of severely overweight children and adolescents have genetic defects involved in food intake regulation. Therefore, intervention and prevention efforts must focus on the environmental factors that contribute to energy imbalance. The primary environmental factors related to overweight are excessive calorie consumption and low calorie expenditure, through sedentary activities and lack of physical activities. Children and adolescents have notoriously unhealthy diets. They do not adhere to the dietary guidelines, and their diets are high in fats and sugars and low in many required macro- and micronutrients. Meals and snacks are often eaten

outside of the home. Food obtained from fast-food restaurants tends to be higher in fat and calories than home-cooked food, often because portions are “supersized.” Prepackaged foods and fast foods that are high in fat, sugar, and calories are replacing home-cooked meals. Portion sizes have increased, resulting in increased calorie consumption. Modern conveniences such as cars, elevators, televisions, and computers contribute to the decline in physical activity, particularly during the adolescent years. As adolescents get older, their sedentary activities increase, particularly among females and minorities. In some communities, the unavailability of safe outdoor facilities, elimination of physical education classes, and lack of access to grocery stores exacerbate the problem of overweight. HEALTH CONSEQUENCES The consequences of overweight affect almost every system in the body, ranging from the psychosocial to the musculoskeletal systems (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). In a society that values thinness, overweight children and adolescents are often teased by their peers. As a result, many overweight children suffer from low self-esteem and may be at risk for depression. In addition, since overweight children tend to be taller than their peers, they may be viewed as more mature and subjected to more demanding expectations than their peers. Overweight children and adolescents also suffer from physical health consequences. As many as 25% of overweight children suffer from impaired glucose tolerance, an early symptom of type 2 diabetes (Sinha et al., 2002). They also experience a disproportionate number of chronic conditions, including sleep apnea, hypertension, and cardiovascular disorders. Overweight children are at increased risk of becoming overweight adults, thereby encountering social stigmatization and discrimination in education, employment, and health care, in addition to the risks of chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. FINANCIAL BURDEN/PERVENTION EFFECTS Childhood overweight imposes substantial financial burdens on the health care system. Overweightassociated annual hospital costs among children and adolescents increased more than threefold, from

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$35 to $127 million, during the 1980s and 1990s (Wang & Dietz, 2002). Yet obesity treatment is often excluded from insurance coverage. To defray some of this weight-associated disease burden, a number of treatment and prevention programs targeting children and adolescents are currently being conducted. The lack of success in weight reduction programs for adults illustrates the importance of avoiding adulthood overweight through prevention programs introduced in childhood. Programs use a variety of strategies, including education, health promotion, therapy, counseling, and active interventions designed to improve dietary intake and increase physical activity. Although there are some promising preliminary findings, a recent review of randomized trials of prevention programs among children concluded that the evidence is mixed and there is no approach that is most likely to be effective. Many of the existing trials have been school based and directed toward changes either at the school (providing healthier school lunch options and opportunities for physical activity) or in the individual child (choosing healthier snacks). Dietary patterns are established early in life, making the family an important component in prevention programs. Advocates also recommend focusing on environmental and policy changes, such as increasing opportunities for physical activity, encouraging restaurants to publish the nutritional content of food, subsidizing healthy snacks, prohibiting food ads directed to children, funding for public health campaigns to promote healthy diet and activity choices, providing insurance coverage for obesity treatment, and regulating political contributions from the food industry (Ebbeling et al., 2002; Nestle, 2003). Thus, there is a need for multilevel theories of behavior change to guide the development and evaluation of health promotion/overweight prevention programs. Halting and reversing the upward trend of the epidemic of overweight will require innovative strategies and collaboration among government, voluntary, and private sectors, as well as a commitment to action by individuals and communities across the nation. —Katherine Le and Maureen M. Black

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Centers for Disease Control. (2003). Available at htttp:// www.cdc.gov

Ebbeling, C. B., Pawlak, D. B., & Ludwig, D. S. (2002). Childhood obesity: Public-health crisis, common sense cure. Lancet, 360(9331), 473–482. Nestle, M. (2003). The ironic politics of obesity. Science, 299(5608), 781. Ogden, C. L., Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D., & Johnson, C. L. (2002). Prevalence and trends in overweight among U.S. children and adolescents, 1999–2000. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288(14), 1728–1732. Sinha, R., Fisch, G., Teague, B., Tamborlane, W. V., Banyas, B., Allen, K., et al. (2002). Prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance among children and adolescents with marked obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 346(11), 802–810. Wang, G., & Dietz, W. H. (2002). Economic burden of obesity in youths aged 6 to 17 years: 1979–1999. Pediatrics, 109(5), E81.

OBESITY, PREVENTION IN CHILDHOOD Obesity is a serious and growing threat to children’s health. The 1998 estimates of the prevalence of obesity (defined as having a body mass index [BMI] > 95th percentile) in children ages 6 to 17 years was approximately 11%, with an additional 14% identified as overweight (85th–95th percentiles). This is a dramatic increase in prevalence from 1963 to 1970, when only 4% to 4.5% of 6- to 17-year-olds were overweight (Troiano & Flegal, 1998). The problem is especially severe in minority groups; in 1998, 21.5% of African American children and 21.8% of Hispanic children were overweight (Strauss & Pollack, 2001). The health risks associated with childhood obesity are serious, and it has been suggested that the current generation of American children may be the first to live shorter lives than their parents due to these health complications. This public health crisis demands a comprehensive and innovative approach to prevention. WHY IS OBESITY DIFFERENT? There is a striking difference in public opinion on how to prevent childhood obesity compared with preventing other threats to child safety. For example, unintentional injury is the leading cause of death of children between ages 1 and 15; hence, there are public education, policy, and legal measures to protect children (e.g., public education campaigns about choking hazards of small toys, warning labels on toys with small parts, manufacturer’s recall of dangerous toys).

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In contrast, the prevention of childhood obesity is considered the sole responsibility of individual children and their parents. One reason is that obesity does not have one simple cause, and so there is no one problem to address to prevent obesity. Childhood obesity is the result of a complicated interaction of genetic, biological, behavioral, and psychological factors, many of which are still not fully understood. In addition, obesity is associated with negative character traits, such as being greedy, selfish, and lazy. The powerful societal stigma against obesity interferes with public health efforts. The prevailing attitude is that people are overweight due to their own behaviors and therefore must take responsibility for change. The push toward personal responsibility, however, has not resulted in improvement in the weight status of children. Rates of childhood obesity have increased despite powerful social stigmatization of obese children.

daily to a barrage of advertisements and unhealthy foods through Channel One, vending machines, soft drink and fast-food contracts with school cafeterias, and support of school activities and facilities in exchange for prominent trade logos. It is clear that a step toward preventing childhood obesity is to decrease consumption of sugared soda, candy, potato chips, and fried foods. These foods and their advertisements must be removed from schools entirely. Another problem in the schools is the continuing decline of physical education. Most states do not mandate daily physical education, and one study found that in the average gym class, children are aerobically active for only 3.5 minutes. School administrators feeling pressured to increase time for more academic subjects may not realize that children who are physically healthy will be better students.

PUBLIC POLICY

Parents are ultimately responsible for feeding their children. The problem is an uneven playing field: Parents compete with a tidal wave of advertising, schools promoting unhealthy foods, and companies such as Nickelodeon and Disney using their characters with sugared cereals, snack foods, candy, ice cream, and more. Parents deserve an environment where it is easy for them and their children to be healthy. They can be encouraged to keep unhealthy foods out of the home and to limit exposure to television. Television watching has been found to predict obesity in a number of studies, making it an important target for change. Parents need help learning strategies to minimize children’s television viewing time.

The way food is developed, marketed, and sold in our society contributes to the epidemic of obesity and needs to change. At the present time, economic and convenience factors pressure consumers to eat foods that are prepackaged and readily available. Typically, these foods are not fresh, lack many nutrients, and contain high levels of calories and fat. Snack foods, soft drinks, “children’s menu” items at restaurants, and sugared breakfast cereals are aggressively marketed to children. If breakfast cereals are ranked from least to most healthy (by any definition, e.g., amount of fiber, sugar, or fat), the cereals marketed most often to children tend to be the least healthy and are most likely to be associated with cartoon or movie characters. To change the economic structure of the food industry, one idea is to tax unhealthy foods and use the revenues to subsidize healthy foods. Some research has found that when healthier foods are offered at lower prices, consumption increases. This idea has been controversial, but it represents the type of dramatic policy change that may be necessary to alter the current food environment. Other broad-scale approaches are to regulate food advertising aimed at children and to devise ways to encourage children to be physically active. SCHOOLS Schools have become avenues of advertising for the food industry. American children are exposed

FAMILIES

INDIVIDUALS As children grow older, they become increasingly responsible for making their own food decisions. While nutrition education is believed to be important, it has proven to be insufficient to influence food choices among most children. Nutrition education can be continued, but it would be more powerful if coupled with environmental changes, such as providing only foods in the cafeteria that mirror the nutrition lessons in the classroom. Innovative programs such as having children grow their own vegetables or prepare meals at school that meet nutritional guidelines may help make academic nutritional education translate to behavior change.

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CONCLUSIONS We are currently experiencing an epidemic of childhood obesity. Economic, environmental, and social forces converge to promote the consumption of unhealthy foods, deter the consumption of healthy alternatives, and discourage physical activity. Calls for more nutrition education and more personal responsibility will be insufficient. Studies have found that even kindergarten children know which foods are healthy and not, but when provided with both types of food, they choose the unhealthy (and more palatable) options. Even adults with high levels of education and resources struggle to maintain a healthy weight in this environment; it is simply unreasonable to expect children to do a better job on their own. The current social environment provides mixed messages to parents and children: On one hand, there is a quiet voice promoting good nutrition through school curricula and public service announcements, while on the other hand, there is a loud voice that allows the food industry to sell unhealthy products in the public schools, advertises directly to children, and employs marketing tactics such as using children’s television and movie characters to promote unhealthy products. No other heath issue is treated this way, holding parents responsible while sabotaging their efforts on television, at school, and in nearly every public venue. As a society, we need to restructure the environment to make healthy foods and physical activity readily available and affordable for everyone. —Marlene B. Schwartz and Kelly D. Brownell

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brownell, K. D., & Horgen, K. B. (2003). Food fight: The inside story of the food industry, America’s obesity crisis, and what we can do about it. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fairburn, C. G., & Brownell, K. D. (2002). Eating disorders and obesity: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford. Schwartz, M. B., & Puhl, R. M. (2003). Childhood obesity: A societal problem to solve. Obesity Reviews, 4, 57–71. Strauss, R. S., & Pollack, H. A. (2001). Epidemic increase in childhood overweight, 1986–1998. Journal of the American Medical Association, 286, 2845–2848. Troiano, R. P., & Flegal, K. M. (1998). Overweight children and adolescents: Description, epidemiology, and demographics. Pediatrics, 101, 497–504.

OCCUPATIONS AND GENDER Since the end of the Second World War, the number of women in paid employment in Europe and the United States has steadily increased. However, although they have made inroads into some traditionally male-dominated occupations, such as law, the majority of working women are still concentrated in a narrow range of stereotypically female occupational areas. This entry provides an overview of theories and data on the reasons for continued occupational gender differences. GENDER-TYPICAL AND GENDER-ATYPICAL OCCUPATIONS Occupations can be classed as gender typical when the concentration of either gender performing them is 70% or higher, as gender atypical when the concentration is 30% or less, and as gender neutral where concentrations lie between the two points. Common gender-typical work settings for women include social, health, and educational services (particularly the care and teaching of younger children); office and administrative work; and sales. The concentration of females and males into separate areas of the labor force raises several reasons for social concern. Occupational differentiation is a major factor in the gender wage gap because female-typical occupations, on average, attract less pay and fringe benefits, such as overtime and training, than maletypical occupations, even when similar levels of skill and responsibility are involved. This can mean that the increasing number of children from single-parent families headed by female breadwinners are more likely to be financially disadvantaged than those in which the breadwinners are male. The concentration of most female workers into a restricted range of typical occupations also reinforces and perpetuates gender stereotypes and has a negative effect on labor market efficiency by underusing potential skills. Furthermore, female location within occupations, whether gender typical, neutral, or atypical, can be said to demonstrate Putnam’s Law of Growing Disproportion: The higher the status of a social position (in this case, occupational area and specific occupation), the less likely minority social groups and women are to be represented. This vertical segregation is often referred to as the “glass ceiling” effect.

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INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS The gendered segregation of labor is a global phenomenon that is pervasive and highly resistant to change (Anker, 1998). To understand why this is so, it is necessary to look at theories related to the question of why women work where they do and to identify which factors form barriers (or act as facilitators) to women’s entry into atypical occupations. For convenience, these can be divided into two groups: those pertaining to the influence of internal (psychological) factors on the behavior of the individual, such as selfconcept, self-efficacy, self-esteem, ability, achievement motivation, personality traits, values, and attitudes, and those pertaining to external (sociological and economic) or contextual factors within which career choices are made. Theories Relating to the Influence of Internal (Psychological) Factors How individuals see themselves, their self-concepts or perceived identities, is central to career choice, which is itself an expression of identity. Thus, the development of gender identity within a given social context will play a major role in the direction of career choice. Of particular relevance here are theories pertaining to the nature/nurture debate. Nature arguments draw on biological determinism to posit that gender differences in aptitude, abilities, and social behavior, such as gender role attribution, occupational preferences, and career versus family orientation, are largely biologically determined. Nurture arguments hold that socialization during formative years reproduces gender stereotypes, so that women and men choose to work in gender-typical areas in order to conform to social conventions concerning gender roles. Biological Determinism Findings from within the field of genetics and human development have suggested that fundamental behavioral differences between men and women, such as males being better at math and spatial awareness and more oriented toward things mechanical and females being more verbally skilled and highly person oriented, occur primarily through genetic influences, as well as through sex differences in body chemistry, brain physiology, and physical makeup. Biological factors have also been implicated in gender differences

observed in some areas related to later career preferences, such as differences in predilection for types of childhood play activities, whereby boys are more likely to opt for mechanical toys and grossmotor play, and girls for more nurture-related toys, such as dolls and soft toys, and fine-motor play (Alexander & Hines, 2002; see also Maccoby, 2000, for a more general overview). The existence of biological substrata, therefore, may promote gendered toy preferences in children, so that parental encouragement of sex stereotypes in play activities has a reinforcement effect on biologically instigated preferences, rather than being causal. In particular, sex hormones have been implicated as highly related to gender differences in behavior. Certainly, cases where hormone imbalance resulted in the incorrect sex attribution to children at birth, causing them to be reared initially as the opposite sex, have shown differences in behavior patterns that support this theory. Gendered behavior and task orientation have also been explored by scholars of evolutionary adaptation (Bjorklund & Kipp, 1996). Evolutionary theory proposes that in prehistoric times, survival of female hominids depended on the inhibition of potentially maladaptive emotional, social, and sexual responses, leading over time to enhanced inhibitory abilities in some domains. It further suggested that women excel in social and emotional tasks because they have evolved to be more attentive to, to gain more satisfaction from, and to be generally more motivated to perform tasks in these areas than men. Consequently, biologically determined gender differences in physical and psychological attributes may channel men and women into different occupations appropriate to their orientations. Social Determinism The antithesis of biological determinism or “nature” theory is social determinism, which suggests that gender identity, sex role differences, and related values, interests, and long-term goals are shaped by assimilation of social and cultural beliefs from an individual’s proximal and distal environments. Gendersocialized differences in self-concept and expectations for success encourage engagement in gendertypical activities, which, in turn, lead to the cultivation of gender-appropriate attributes and values that prime men and women to expect to work in occupational areas that match gendered expectations.

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Certain individual characteristics and personality traits, such as independence, a willingness to take a stand, valuing independence, and self-efficacy, are known to correlate with women’s gender role attitudes, career orientations, and levels of education, and hence to the typicality of their occupational choices. From a socialization standpoint, it is suggested that the development of these characteristics is influenced and directed through interactions with “significant others,” the most important being the immediate family: Parents who hold strong gender-typical attitudes and therefore present strong gender-typical role models are likely to structure the rearing of their children accordingly, which, in turn, increases the chance of their offspring choosing gender-typical occupations and life career patterns. Certainly, girls with mothers working in atypical fields, and hence demonstrating gender-atypical attitudes, have been found to aspire to less gender-stereotypic careers. Lower female enrollment in secondary school math and science courses (despite their increasing success in school-based courses) has long been associated with gender-typical career choice, in that failure to study these subjects can preclude entry into higherlevel courses and into many female-atypical careers (Eccles, 1994). Consistent with social determinism, parents are more likely to underestimate the academic achievements of their daughters and overestimate the achievements of their sons, especially in math, and gifted girls are also likely to receive less parental encouragement than similarly gifted boys (Fox, 1982). At school too, teacher-pupil interactions and teachers’ academic predictions (via conscious or unconscious teacher bias) about pupil performance are often influenced by pupils’ genders. Such gender bias can serve to reinforce any negative attitudes toward math and science that girls might have, as well as influencing their overall aspirations and motivation for educational attainment. Parent and teacher gender attitudes can also predict the expectations of young people concerning typicality of career choice and life path: Low levels of academic motivation in girls correlate with greater likelihood of marriage, early parenthood, and work in female-typical occupations; high levels correlate with less likelihood of early parenthood and atypical career choice. At the same time, the assessment and judgment of peers can work to reinforce traditional gender role attitudes and push for conformity to gender stereotypes, especially concerning course choice, sex-appropriate

behavior, and career choice (Fear-Fenn & Kapostasy, 1992). In sum, it is suggested that women are socialized by their families, by schools, by peers, and by society in general into a relationship/person-oriented value system that leads to gender-typical expectations of success, attitudes, values, and life goals. These are translated into a specifically female attitude to careers and future roles that ultimately steers women away from atypical career choices. Theories Related To External (Sociological and Economic) or Contextual Factors A woman’s gender-typical or -atypical career choice will be influenced by factors above and beyond the development of certain personal characteristics, values, and life goals. Occupational choice is also influenced by proximal and distal macrolevel factors associated with social, political, and economic systems, especially economic sector development; labor market structure and organization; employment policies, laws, and labor regulations; and gender cultural hierarchies, such as patriarchy. Economic and Cultural Influences Parental socioeconomic status (SES) combined with cultural preferences for male child education can influence the availability of resources to support female children’s motivations for higher education. It can also sway teachers’ perceptions of children’s abilities and chance of academic success and hence affect their actual likelihood to achieve. Certainly, girls who enter atypical careers are more likely to come from backgrounds reflecting higher levels of parental SES. The quality and ethos of the educational institution attended can influence the level and direction of female academic success. Single-sex schools seem to provide a slightly more positive gender base for girls and a platform for their greater achievement in maledominated subjects, but the reasons are not clear and would not appear to be linked solely to educating girls separately from boys. In any respect, a high level of educational attainment is significantly correlated with a girl’s likelihood of entering a female-atypical occupation (including blue-collar occupations), and girls with low levels of attainment find themselves

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directed toward gender-typical occupations, not just by availability but also by career opportunity advisers and employment gatekeepers. Reports from women in atypical careers suggest that the link between higher levels of education and atypical career choice is related to females having to overcome entry barriers, including the skepticism of employers used to hiring males, by offering higher levels of qualification than their male coworkers.

to women entering gender-atypical occupations because of pressure from individuals within a woman’s immediate environment to conform to the accepted gender stereotype. This pattern has even been found in societies in which the female role was full labor participation by all women, with full state-supported child care provision, and patriarchy was supposedly limited by the removal of class and private ownership, such as the former Communist countries of Europe (Nickel, 1992).

Labor Market Influences At the broader contextual level, the organization of the labor market and structures within it form one of the most powerful external factors influencing career choice. In open-market economies, the concept of labor supply and demand can play a decisive role in women’s access to atypical occupations (Reskin & Roos, 1990). From the demand perspective, it is said that women’s more intermittent labor market participation results in less experience (and thus less human capital) and hence to restricted access to higher-paid jobs, including those in male-dominated areas. From the supply side, it is suggested that women do not seek high-demand jobs because they tend to bear the brunt of child care responsibilities. This results in women seeking part-time work or work with less responsibility, which, it is argued, naturally attracts fewer financial rewards and benefits and is more easily found within female-typical occupational areas. A supply-and-demand explanation has to be considered in relation to other features of the labor market, such as recruitment practices and the behavior of employers. Despite anti–sex discrimination legislation and published declarations of equal opportunity policies, many firms maintain and support gender segregation through their recruitment practices, particularly through informal processes such as word of mouth, recruiting through the workforce, and networking (Collinson, Knights, & Collinson, 1990). This gendered gatekeeping by employers forms one of the most difficult barriers to overcome when women seek to enter female-atypical occupations. Similarly, the level of patriarchy and gender stereotyping within a society will have an impact on the nature and direction of women’s labor and on the general acceptance of what work is deemed “suitable” for women. Both constructs interact and can result in women foreclosing on a large number of occupations by classifying jobs as “male,” and can form a barrier

Domestic Roles The domestic role of women also has a controlling effect on the extent and location of women’s participation in the labor market. In societies in which women bear the “double burden” of domestic work/ child rearing and paid employment, the former will hinder the latter, especially concerning geographical mobility and particularly when no subsidized provision is made for child care. In these circumstances, women’s typical career choices can be seen from a rational-choice perspective; that is, work in stereotypical occupations presents them with the highest benefits at the lowest costs: high benefits through social approval, the ability to fulfill the requirements of their multiple roles, and ease of access, and low costs by avoiding hostile, male-oriented environments with difficult access and by stress avoidance through not going against the social norm. CONCLUSIONS In sum, the factors influencing the gender typicality of women’s career choices are many and varied, and no one factor can be singled out as primary. Rather, women’s career orientations and destinations are the products of a complex interaction between a vast array of factors, arising from socialization experiences, biology, dominant cultural norms, economic influences, and circumstances unique to the individual. This context-dependent, multilayered explanation for gender-typical occupations suggests that the relevance and importance of individual factors will vary from woman to woman and be dependent on the context within which the internal and external factors interact. —Verona Christmas-Best

See also WORK AND FAMILY LIFE

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Alexander, G. M., & Hines, M. (2002). Sex differences in response to children’s toys in non-human primates (cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus). Evolution and Human Behavior, 23(6), 467–479. Anker, R. (1998). Gender and jobs: Sex segregation of occupations in the world. Geneva: ILO. Bjorklund, D. F., & Kipp, K. (1996). Parental investment theory and gender differences in the evolution of inhibition mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 120(2), 163–188. Collinson, D. L., Knights, D., & Collinson, M. (1990). Managing to discriminate. London: Routledge. Eccles, J. S. (1994). Understanding women’s educational and occupational choices. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 585–609. Fear-Fenn, M. B., & Kapostasy, K. K. (1992). Math + science + girls = Vocational preparation for girls: A difficult equation to balance. Columbus: Ohio State University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 341 863) Fox, L. H. (1982). The study of social processes that inhibit or enhance the development of competence and interest in mathematics among highly able young women. Final report to the National Institute of Education, Washington, DC. Maccoby, E. E. (2000). Perspectives on gender development. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 42(4), 398–406. Nickel, H. M. (1992). Women in the German Democratic Republic and in the New Federal States: Looking backwards and forwards. German Politics & Society, 24–25, 34–52. Reskin, B. F., & Roos, P. A. (1990). Job queues, gender queues. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

OLD AGE Old age has been depicted in a variety of ways, ranging from physical dependency to a time of spiritual discovery to a time for enjoying the fruits of one’s hard work. Some have also described it as a prelude to death. In objective terms, it is during the later part of one’s life journey when the effects of one’s past decisions and choices emerge to determine one’s financial, health, and social conditions.

HETEROGENEITY AMONG OLDER PERSONS Old age is the advanced part of the life course, generally defined as close to the official retirement age or age of withdrawal of pensions. In some countries, it is

benchmarked at 55; in others, it is 60, 62, or 65 years. There are other countries that do not have an official retirement age. There is no single, universal definition of old age, as it varies by society, culture, and even era. The persons who are in the “old-age category” are referred to as the “aged,” “elderly,” or “old.” Earlier scholars, for example Riley and Riley (1986), have subcategorized the old into the “young old” (65–74 years), the “old old” (75–84 years), and the “oldest old” (above 85 years). The broad category of persons classified as “old” spans about 30 to 40 years due to increasing life expectancy. This relatively long time period explains the heterogeneity of older people in terms of income, cognitive and physical health, living arrangements, social protection, personality, and the sociocultural contexts that influence them. Attitudes toward old persons are largely bound by the individual’s personal experiences with older people as well as the societal and cultural context. In a society that has a strong youth-oriented culture, negative stereotyping of old age tends to be prevalent. On the other hand, some cultures (e.g., the East Asian cultures of Japan, Korea, and China) traditionally accord a high level of social respect to older people, due to their knowledge and experiences, and to old age. A caveat to add is that even in these societies, there has been noted a gradual erosion of this value. The life course perspective on old age has gained much popularity because it explains at the micro- and macrolevel the impact of earlier life events and decisions on the conditions and quality of life for seniors. For example, the decision to remain single or to get married has implications for the social support available to individuals in old age. COHORT AND PERIOD EFFECTS Two major effects on the characteristics of older people in any part of the world are cohort effects and the period effects. Cohort effects refers to the general impact of experiences and major events on a particular age cohort. For instance, a birth cohort may be traced over time and analyzed in terms of gender differentials in response to the impact of a health epidemic. Cohort analysis is a sophisticated research tool that allows for comparisons between different cohort groups at a single point in time or the same cohort groups at different time. Period effects refers to the historical impact of events and occurrences on an individual or group of

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people. For instance, if a group of elderly individuals had been subject to traumas during the Second World War, this would have left a lasting psychological, social, and even physical impact on them. MAJOR ISSUES IN OLD AGE What are some of the major issues that face older persons? The main issues are financial, health, relationships, and the reality of death. To study the issues in detail, one must look at social, political, cultural, and family contexts. In some societies, the gender and ethnicity of older individuals predisposes them to certain vulnerabilities, such as poverty or health risks. Elderly women of the current cohort in many countries in Asia lack adequate financial security due to caregiving commitments to their families, which have deprived them of a long work history (Chow, 1997; Mehta & Blake, 1997). In addition to social reasons, Butler (2002) asserts that there are political reasons that explain the large numbers of impoverished older women. These include policies that exclude certain categories of people from receiving pensions, such as workers in the informal sector, where a majority of women are found (also see World Health Organization, 1996, p. 33). An example of ethnicity differences occurs in South Africa, where the Black population in general and the older members of this population in particular struggle with poverty. In addition to the above main issues are caregiving issues, lack of accessibility to services and health insurance coverage, suicide, and elder abuse. The alternative solutions that older people seek in response to these issues depend on their own and/or family resources, cultural expectations, personalities, earlier lifestyles, and the availability of services and programs. For example, for older persons in the United Kingdom or the United States, where the autonomy of the individual is highly valued, institutional care in late life is an acceptable option. However, most would like to live independently, in the community where they have friends and neighbors, for as long as possible. In other societies, such as Singapore or Thailand, where the ideal of family care for the older individual is prescribed by cultural norms, older individuals would possibly resist institutionalization in favor of home-based care. Their preferred choice is to live with family members, usually children, for as long as possible. Single elderly individuals may coreside with relatives, such as siblings, nieces, or nephews, or with

other single elderly friends. Apart from family setting and institutionalization, alternative living arrangements include living in a temple, dormitory, or hostel for older people or with a foster family. In some cultures, for instance, the Malay culture, a single elderly person who does not have family support may be “adopted” by a neighbor or friend to move in and live with them. Family and community support are important factors that enable elderly persons to maintain themselves in the absence of personal resources, such as financial resources and good health. CAREGIVING, SUICIDE, AND ELDER ABUSE Caregiving, suicide, and elder abuse are interrelated and often interdependent topics. Take the examples of an older couple living independently and a couple living with a married child and her family. In the first scenario, as the couple grow older, it is highly possible that one of them will fall ill and need constant care. The spouse, who is also aged, would need to take on the physical caregiver role. In such a situation, if they have access and can afford in-home help, it would assist them considerably. However, if this were not possible and they had no children to aid them, the stress of caregiving could be high. The care recipient as well as the caregiver could be overburdened, one with guilt and the other with exhaustion. A high risk of suicide may develop in such cases. In the second scenario, the married child looking after her elderly parents may have to juggle a job and a home, looking after her young children as well as the elderly parents. It is well-known that daughters form the majority of caregivers for parents, compared with sons. In her frustration, the daughter may begin to feel trapped in the situation, especially if she is a single child. The compounded weight of caregiving burden may be too much for her to cope with, and she may resort to verbal and physical abuse. If her husband is understanding and realizes the vulnerability of the situation, he may arrange for respite care for her or suggest that an alternative solution be found so that she does not suffer from a breakdown. He may also realize possible harm that the elderly couple may be experiencing. This type of scenario is common, and very frequently, the negative situation escalates rapidly. The adult child herself may not realize that she is a perpetrator of elder abuse. Elder abuse surfaces in many

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forms: financial, physical, sexual, psychological, and verbal. Frontline helping professionals need to pay attention to families undergoing high levels of stress and commitments and ensure that the primary caregivers are offered community support and regular respite care. This is particularly critical when care is being provided to elderly parents suffering from dementia. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO QUALITY OF LIFE The quality of life that is attained in old age determines to a great extent the older person’s psychological sense of satisfaction with life and level of adjustment. However, an elderly person’s quality of life is dependent not only on his or her resources, family, and community support but also on social policies and the physical and attitudinal barriers that prevail within a society. Ageism and ageist stereotypes restrict and sometimes even prevent older people from attaining their full potential or gaining access to opportunities. Different nations have developed various strategies to combat ageism, for example, through instituting laws or setting rules on employment practices that sanction ageism, and campaigns to raise public awareness. A multipronged approach usually leads to greater success. ATTITUDES TOWARD OLD AGE In some societies, old age is dreaded, while in others, it is accepted as “natural.” Myriad factors culminate to form the feelings attached to the aging process, and these change as the individual travels through his or her life course. Some of these factors are earlier experiences with grandparents or other older relatives, influence of school and education, media messages on TV, personal observations, and opportunities to know older people. Positive experiences with older people when one is young form a strong determining factor in shaping positive attitudes toward older people and the aging process as adults. The onus of building an age-integrated society therefore lies on the younger as well as the older generations. FUTURE RESEARCH There are many arenas that demand attention and require more research to be undertaken. The findings

of such research can be used to influence policies, services, and programs. Some of these arenas are mentioned here, but the list is not to be considered exhaustive: gender differentials in the aging process, cumulative disadvantages in accessing services by minority ethnic populations, the process of caregiving for elders, psychological and spiritual changes among people above 90 years, and coping strategies of disabled older persons. Gerontology/geriatrics, or the study of the process of aging and the aged, is relatively young and has much potential for future development. —Kalyani K. Mehta

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Butler, R. (2002). Preface. In C. Muller, M. Honig, O. Volkov, A. Oprisiu, & K. Knapp (Eds.), Economic status of older women (p. 1). United Nations, Second World Assembly on Aging, NGO Forum, Madrid, Spain. Chow, N. (1997). The status quo. In K. Mehta (Ed.), Untapped resources: Women in ageing societies across Asia (pp. 7–22). Singapore: Times Academic Press. Department of Social Development. (1994–2002). National report on the status of older persons (Report to the Second World Assembly on Aging, Madrid, Spain). Pretoria, South Africa: Author. Mehta, K., & Blake, M. (1997). The ageing experience of Singaporean women. In K. Mehta (Ed.), Untapped resources: Women in ageing societies across Asia (pp. 41–58). Singapore: Times Academic Press. Riley, M., & Riley, J. (1986). Longevity and social structure: The potential of the added years. In A. Pifer & L. Bronte (Eds.), Our aging society: Paradox and promise (pp. 53–77). New York: Norton. World Health Organization. (1996). Women, aging and health: Achieving health across the lifespan. Geneva: Author.

OSOFSKY, JOY DONIGER During the 20th century, scientific interest in infancy and early childhood was fueled by four key transformational events. The first was the gradual demise of mechanistic models of behavior and the emergence of worldviews that stressed active, dynamic, contextual, and emergent process models of development. The second event involved the emergence of clinical research and the presumption that the origins of psychopathology and developmental disability did not wholly reside within the infant, but were at least

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partially products of infant-caregiver relationships as they occurred in various contexts. The third transforming event was the dramatic growth in knowledge about the first 3 years of postnatal life. Although scientific study of the infant began early in the century, the last 60 years were unprecedented with respect to the attention investigators gave to a particular period in the life cycle. The century ended with the “Decade of the Brain” and its strong emphasis on the importance of brain growth and development during infancy and early childhood. The “Decade of the Brain” was also a time when society challenged the academic and scientific communities to begin to deliver on its investment and to engage with community partners to help solve the real-world problems generated by poverty, crime, racism, and social injustice. Joy D. Osofsky’s professional life embraces each of these transformational events, and in many respects, her personal life mirrors them as well. Transition and transformation have been part of the deep structure of Osofsky’s life as she worked her way through personal loss and numerous family relocations, while charting pathways that have brought her national and international respect in the field of infant mental health, applied developmental science, and violence prevention. Joy Osofsky (née Doniger) was born in 1944 in New York City and was raised in Rye, New York. Her father died when she was 16, an event that she recalls provoked an examination of her vulnerabilities as well as motivating her to strengthen her sense of independence, self-confidence, and resolve to move forward in life. In 1962, she enrolled at Simmons College in Boston. After completing her freshman year, she married Howard Osofsky, an obstetrician and gynecologist (who later became a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst), and began to structure a career pathway that not only was nontraditional but also required every ounce of the resolve that had been generated in her midteen years. The first stop on that pathway was Syracuse University. She completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1966, and only 3 years later (MA in psychology, 1967; PhD, 1969) earned her doctoral degree in psychology, under the direction of William J. Meyer, with support from a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Predoctoral Fellowship. During her years at Syracuse, Osofsky developed a strong interest in human development and was influenced by Bettye Caldwell and Julius Richmond and their innovative approaches to early intervention. She

also was deeply influenced by Richard Q. Bell’s 1968 publication on the direction of effects in socialization. Bell’s seminal article demonstrated that relationships are bidirectional—that children have an impact on parenting just as parents have an influence on child behavior and development. Each of these early influences is evident in Osofsky’s work. First, Bell’s influence can be seen in Osofsky’s early studies of parent-child relationships, including some of the earliest studies of father-infant relationships. Second, her recent work on approaches to prevention of community violence clearly reflects the spirit of the Caldwell/ Richmond early-intervention models, which influenced national programs such as Head Start. Osofsky’s academic career began in 1969, at Cornell, as an assistant professor in human development and family studies. There, she published some of the earliest studies on the direction of effects in early socialization and how it differs for mothers and fathers. In 1971, she moved to the Department of Psychology at Temple University, where she remained through her promotion to associate professor. In 1972, the Osofsky family was also “promoted” via the birth of the first of their three children, Hari Michele. While at Temple, Osofsky began to search for a deeper theoretical base for her work, a search that ultimately led her to additional clinical training and to psychoanalysis. In 1977, the family relocated to Kansas, joining the Menninger Foundation for a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology and psychoanalytic training. This move opened a decade that produced a hodgepodge of university appointments but no stable academic home: temporary professor at Kansas State University (1978–1979); adjunct associate professor to adjunct professor, Department of Human Development, University of Kansas (1977–1986); instructor, Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis (1981–1986); and director, Infant and Child Development Center, the Menninger Foundation (1985–1987). In addition, two sons joined the family, Justin David (1977) and Michael Joseph (1980), adding to the balancing act between professional and personal life. During her psychoanalytic training, Osofsky held firm to her belief that one could build bridges to connect clinical research with psychoanalytic theory. That opportunity came in 1988 when she received an NIMH preventiveintervention grant to work with teenage mothers and their babies. Work at the Topeka Institute of Psychoanalysis and the Menninger Foundation enabled

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Osofsky to gain deeper insights into psychoanalytic theory, but it heightened her concerns about the violence themes that were so common in the stories of the adolescent mothers with whom she worked. In 1986, a stable pathway emerged when the family moved to New Orleans and Osofsky was named professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC). Since 1999, she has been professor of public health and psychiatry at the same institution and currently is professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, and public health. But stability in location did not alter the complexity of her life. Osofsky is director of the Harris Center for Infant Mental Health at LSUHSC, director of the Violence Intervention Program for Children and Families, visiting professor at University College London, and a member of the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute faculty. In 1992, when the International Association for Infant Mental Health merged with the World Association for Infant Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines to form the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH), Osofsky was selected as the first president of the newly created organization. She provided decisive and forceful leadership for a professional society composed of researchers and clinicians spanning a wide range of disciplines and richly diverse cultures. Under her leadership, WAIMH affiliate societies were established in the United States (Louisiana, Kansas), Greece (1993), France (1994), Russia (St. Petersburg, 1995), the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany-Austria-Switzerland (1996). In 2003, Osofsky became president of Zero to Three, National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, the leading national organization for families with infants and toddlers in the United States. Her leadership role in both of these organizations will enable her to continue to support major initiatives concerning nosology and diagnosis in infancy and early childhood, the intersubjective world of shared affective and cognitive meaning between infants and their caregivers, the intergenerational transmission and developmental course of attachment relationships, and the development of effective preventive-intervention strategies, especially for infants at high psychosocial risk. In 1987, Osofsky became editor of the Infant Mental Health Journal, which had been established in 1980 under the founding editorship of Jack Stack. After 3 years, Stack was succeeded by Sharon Bradley

Johnson. However, during Johnson’s tenure, relationships with the publisher became strained, publication of the journal fell more than a year behind schedule, galley proofs came to the editor with portions of one article appearing in another, pages missing, and typos rampant, causing the editor to resign in frustration. Hiram Fitzgerald assumed editorial responsibilities and oversaw negotiations that led to a copyright transfer to the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health and to a contractual relationship with a new publishing firm. The journal was in need of stable leadership from an editor who understood both the clinical and research branches of infant mental health, and Osofsky was the answer. Under her editorial leadership, the journal has thrived, moving from its original four issues per year to six, and providing abstracts published in four languages and articles reflecting strong policies in support of international and multidisciplinary perspectives. For the past decade, Osofsky has focused national attention on the impact of community violence on early human development. Motivated by the recurrent incidence of violence in the lives of adolescent mothers, she was surprised to find so little literature addressing issues about the immediate and long-term impact of early exposure to violence on infant behavior and development. In 1997, concern turned into action when Osofsky established the Violence Intervention Program for Children and Families (VIP), a collaborative effort involving the New Orleans police department, community and agency representatives, resident council leaders, schools, and mental health professionals. Guided by systems models, VIP was designed to involve the whole community to address the problem of violence among youth. At the time, few investigators acknowledged that even very young children were being traumatized not only by being victims of violence but also by being exposed to violence in their homes and neighborhoods. Such violence was associated with “difficulty sleeping, clingy behavior, withdrawal, aggression, crying and irritability, eating problems, anxiety, and fearfulness” (Osofsky, 2002, p. 258). Indeed, “In extreme situations, the close association between exposure to violence and post traumatic symptoms and behavior resembles the behavioral, affective, and symptomatic manifestations of soldiers coming back from war zones” (Osofsky, 2000, p. 181). Since 1997, Osofsky has been consulting with Judge Cindy Lederman, administrative judge of the Juvenile

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Court in Miami/Dade County, related to the development and evaluation of programs to benefit high-risk young children and families in court. In 2002, Osofsky published jointly with judges and lawyers a technical assistance brief, “Questions Every Judge and Lawyer Should Ask About Infants and Toddlers in the Child Welfare System.” In 1998, Osofsky was awarded the Badge of Honor by the New Orleans Police Foundation, for her work with children and families exposed to violence. In 2002, she was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Mayor of New Orleans, for her work with the police and the community, and the Nicholas Hobbs Award, for contributions to public policy by Division 37 of the American Psychological Association. Although Osofsky’s professional life has taken her from the East, through the Midwest, to the South, and through a rich variety of academic appointments, her family life has remained a solid anchor of stability. Her marriage in her late teens gained her not only a lifetime partner but also a mother-in-law who encouraged her to finish her degrees and to achieve her personal scholarly goals. Deeply devoted to her children and to their successes, Osofsky is especially proud that each of her children has accepted their parents’ values, which “include caring about other people and ‘giving something back’ at the same time as they pursue their own goals.” Such values reflect well on a mother who has devoted her professional life to helping others to understand the importance of meaningful relationships in the context of love and in the absence of violence. The combination of infant researcher, clinician, psychoanalytic theorist, and community interventionist marks Joy Osofsky as one of the truly unique applied developmental scientists in the world. (Additional information about Joy Osofsky’s past and current work can be found at www.futureunlimited.org.) —Hiram E. Fitzgerald

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bell, R. Q. (1968). A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization. Psychological Review, 75, 81–95. Osofsky, J. D. (1983). Perspectives on infant mental health. In M. Kessler & S. Goldston (Eds.), A decade of progress in primary prevention. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. Osofsky, J. D. (Ed.). (1987). Handbook of infant development (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Osofsky, J. D. (1993). Perspectives on attachment and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 12, 347–362. Osofsky, J. D. (1995). The effects of violence exposure on young children. American Psychologist, 50, 782–788. Osofsky, J. D. (Ed.). (1997). Children in a violent society. New York: Guilford. Osofsky, J. D. (2000). Infants and violence: Prevention, intervention, and treatment. In J. D. Osofsky & H. E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), WAIMH handbook of infant mental health: Infant mental health in groups at high risk (pp. 161–196). New York: Wiley. Osofsky, J. D. (2002). The effects of exposure to violence on infants: Current perspectives and directions for the future. In H. E. Fitzgerald, K. H. Karraker, & T. Luster (Eds.), Infant development: Ecological perspectives (pp. 254–271). New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Osofsky, J. D., & Fenichel, E. (Eds.). (1996). Islands of safety: Assessing and treating young victims of violence. Washington, DC: Zero to Three/National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Osofsky, J. D., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (Eds.). (2000). WAIMH handbook of infant mental health (Vols. 1–4). New York: Wiley. Osofsky, J. D., & O’Connell, E. J. (1971). Parent-child interaction: Daughters’ effects upon mothers’ and fathers’ behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 7, 157–168.

OVERTON, WILLIS F. Because the roots of the developmental sciences often run differently than do those of psychology more generally, students of the discipline must, if they are to take the proper measure of their fields, come to a deep appreciation of these differences. For four decades, the profession has relied on and largely deferred to Willis F. Overton to make all of this as plain as it gets. In doing so, he has instructed not only his colleagues but also wave after wave of developmental students (almost everyone’s students) in how to best locate their subject matter in the long, trailing web of psychology’s intellectual history. As a result, his efforts have regularly transformed, often in radical ways, our collective self-understanding—the fundamental ways in which we see our own efforts and our discipline. In short, there is the “before having read Overton” and the “after having read Overton” way of conceptualizing the developmental sciences, and those who fail to make this transition are widely viewed as simply undereducated. This is not surmise. His readership insists upon it, railing against their own once-uninitiated views and marking as

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maladroit those who continue to misapprehend the place of their work in the larger arena of intellectual life. This is seismic, and few—very few—can claim so much. Of course, Overton didn’t accomplish all of this, plus a distinguished career as a research scientist, a theoretician, a teacher, and an editor, single-handedly. Rather, over the years, he has studied with, collaborated with, and helped train many whose association would lengthen anyone’s shadow. Still, if what one is looking for is the efficient cause of that signature mode of self-understanding that most regularly sets developmentalists apart from their nondevelopmental colleagues, then responsibility for an appreciation of this identity-conferring difference can, more often than not, be traced back to some earlier exposure to a career’s worth of writing by Willis (“Bill”) Overton. This, like any efficient causal explanation, is, of course, only a partial explanation and, as Overton would be the first to remind us, needs to be supplemented with a detailing of the material causes, or surrounding circumstances, in operation. Here are some of those contextual cues about Bill Overton. Following several years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, Overton began his postsecondary education at Boston University, where he graduated (magna cum laude) in 1960. These years, it seems in retrospect (and even as they were happening), were especially propitious years, pregnant with new meanings for scientific and intellectual, as well as ordinary, life. To point out only a few such watershed events, these same surrounding years saw the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s immensely influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; the appearance of the first English-language texts about Jean Piaget’s theory; the rout of behaviorism; the dawning of the so-called cognitive revolution; and, with the drafting of the “Boulder Agreement,” a broadly accepted interuniversity framework that enshrined the scientist-practitioner model of clinical psychology training. Not to mention, of course, these were the 1960s, when no one needed reminding that there were alternative worldviews to be had. This is the heady brew within which Overton finished his MA at Boston University, in 1961, and began his graduate training in developmental and clinical psychology at Clark University. Both now and then, but especially then, Clark was a place for “out of the box” thinking, the North American place where Freud and Piaget were first invited, the place that welcomed Heinz Werner and an accompanying menagerie of otherwise autre and “continental” people and ideas. Without qualifying as a bona fide “material” explanation

(i.e., others also grew up and went to Clark, or places like it, in the sixties), having one’s annealing done at such a time and in such places does serve to at least situate Overton’s remarkable career. Overton began his teaching and research career in 1966 in the Department of Psychology at SUNY/ Buffalo. In the 6 years that followed, and before his move to Temple University in 1972, he had already begun (in collaboration with his colleague Hayne Reese) the signature work that continues to single him out as the person collectively judged best able to chart the intellectual currents that have shaped the course of developmental psychology. What he accomplished, and has continued to accomplish in an ongoing series of more than 40 key individual and collaborative papers, is the job of persuading his colleagues and students that the demarcation problems that have plagued science and the philosophy of science more generally have also come to roost in what was once misunderstood as the theoretically neutral business of describing the maturational course of child growth and development. Here too, as his writings have made plain, conflicting world hypotheses vie for center stage; paradigms clash; the specter of relativism and incommensurability menace; and the simplifying lure of reductionism beckons. Of course, all of this was sensed or known in inchoate ways, but it was Willis Overton and his collaborators who turned this understanding into declarative knowledge by linking such struggles within psychology to the larger paradigm debates being grappled with by the likes of Pepper, Kuhn, Lakatos, and Laudan. Over the years, this seminal work became required reading in graduate programs across North America and Europe. This lifetime effort recently culminated in Overton’s chapter on philosophy, concepts, and methodology of development for the Handbook of Child Psychology (1998). There, he presents a “relational” paradigm and methodology as a means of overcoming the fundamental conceptual antinomies (biology-culture, mind-body, subject-object, etc.) that function as divisive forces in psychology generally and developmental psychology specifically. Along with his broad theoretical contributions, Overton is one of the world’s leading Piagetian scholars, and in this area, he has contributed extensively to our understanding of development from an actiontheoretical, embodied, person-centered perspective. Because of this, and because of his continuing efforts to elaborate and extend this earlier work with detailed analyses of the structure of developmental theory,

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the place of general systems in our understanding of development, and the assumptive base of the naturenurture debate, we have come to collectively understand ourselves in broader terms and to situate our professional struggles on the wider stage of intellectual history. Among other things, psychology is very much an empirical science, and the views (the methodological, theoretical, and metatheoretical views) of those who are not active contributors to this world of research are often poorly attended to. Overton suffers no such handicap. Even if he had kept entirely mum about his insights into psychology’s metatheoretical underpinnings, he would still deserve his place of special distinction in the discipline. His major empirical contributions revolve around the study of the development of representation, thinking, and reasoning. Of these, his most distinguished work centers on the development of logical reasoning in adolescence and the fate of this skill in the later years. Most fundamentally, this research has demonstrated that contrary to early conventional wisdom, there is a well-defined developmental increase in the competence to reason deductively across the adolescent years; by age 18, virtually all adolescents achieve this competence. This research has been conducted within a competence-performance framework, and it has demonstrated that a number of performance factors may function to mask the development of logical competence. Overton’s research on the elderly has also demonstrated that the competence to reason logically does not decline in nonpathological elderly populations. Working in these and related areas, he has contributed more than 50 empirically based research reports on cognitive development in general and reasoning, concept development, and developmental psychopathology in particular, reports that regularly find their way into the flagship journals of the field. Along with his theoretical and empirical contributions, Overton has made numerous contributions to the profession and its governance. He began his academic career as the director of developmental training at SUNY/Buffalo and went on to direct the Division of Developmental Psychology and the Graduate Studies Program at Temple University, where he is currently chair and the Thaddeus Lincoln Bolton Professor of Psychology. More broadly, he is a past president and a current honorary member of the Jean Piaget Society, a member of the Geneva-based International Association of the Archives Jean Piaget, a fellow of the Developmental, Clinical, and Adult

Development and Aging Divisions of the American Psychological Association, a fellow of the American Psychological Society, a past member of the National Institutes of Health Developmental Behavioral Science Study Section, and a chair and member of numerous committees of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the Jean Piaget Society. Overton’s contributions as an editor and as a teacher are equally lengthy and well recognized. In addition to having edited or coedited four books, he served for 7 years as the associate editor of the journal Developmental Psychology, and he has been on the editorial boards of virtually all of the major developmental journals, including Child Development, Cognitive Development, Human Development, the International Journal of Behavioral Development, the Journal of Adult Development, the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, and the Journal of Research on Adolescence. He is currently the editor of the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. An important mark of a valued professor is not only the quality of his or her scholarly work but also the lasting impression the individual makes through teaching. Overton’s classes and seminars are held in high regard by both undergraduate and graduate students alike. One indication of the success and impact of his teaching is his having been awarded Temple University’s prestigious Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching. In addition to offering highly regarded undergraduate and graduate classes and seminars, Overton has advised and mentored more than 30 graduate students, who have gone on to successful careers at institutions such as Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland, and the University of California. In addition to his reputation for excellence in teaching at the University of Buffalo and Temple University, Overton is much sought after as a master lecturer on the international scene. He has taught at the University of Geneva, the Free University of Amsterdam, the University of Warsaw, the Czechoslovak Academy of Science, and Karl Marx University, in Leipzig. His most recent invited address on development, presented to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, in November 2002, is yet another example of his visibility in the international community of scholars. In sum, Willis Overton is a scholar and teacher of genuine distinction in the area of developmental

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psychology. With four books, which examine issues such as the ontogenesis of meaning to the relationship between social and cognitive development, and more than 90 published articles and chapters, Overton’s work has made and continues to make a lasting contribution to developmental psychology that extends across disciplines and beyond psychology. —Michael Chandler

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Overton, W. F. (1994). The arrow of time and cycles of time: Concepts of change, cognition, and embodiment. Psychological Inquiry, 5, 215–237. Overton, W. F. (1997a). Beyond dichotomy: An embodied active agent for cultural psychology. Culture and Psychology, 3, 315–334. Overton, W. F. (1997b). Marching toward the millennium. Human Development, 40, 102–108. Overton, W. F. (1998). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Theoretical models of human development: Vol. 1. Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., pp. 107–188). New York: Wiley. Overton, W. F. (2000). Is and ought—fact and value: A relational development perspective. In M. Laupa (Ed.), Rights and wrongs: How children and young adults evaluate the world, new directions for child development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Overton, W. F. (2002). Understanding, explanation, and reductionism: Finding a cure for Cartesian anxiety. In L. Smith & T. Brown (Eds.), Reductionism (pp. 29–51). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Overton, W. F. (2003). Development across the life span: Philosophy, concepts, theory. In I. B. Weiner (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology. New York: Wiley. Reese, H. W., & Overton, W. F. (1970). Models of development and theories of development. In L. R. Goulet & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Research and theory (pp. 115–145). New York: Academic Press.

OVERTON, WILLIS F., PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Since the early 1970s, Willis F. Overton has written a series of essays (e.g., see Overton references,

1973–1998; Overton & Reese, 1973, 1981; Reese & Overton, 1970) that explain the ways in which developmental science theory and method are influenced by philosophical issues pertinent to the study of human development. More so than any other scholar in the past half century, Overton has been responsible for informing developmental scientists about the philosophical foundations of the theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and substantive facets of the field; explaining and critiquing the assets and limitations of diverse philosophical frameworks (models or metatheories of development); and championing the philosophical and conceptual advantages of an integrative, or relational, approach to developmental explanation and the application of developmental science for actions aimed at promoting positive development across the life span (Overton, 1998, 2003). Beginning in 1970, Overton and his colleague Hayne W. Reese (e.g., Overton & Reese, 1973, 1981; Reese & Overton, 1970) brought to the attention of developmental science the import for theory and method in human development of two worldviews, the mechanistic and the organismic, which, historically, have been central in influencing theories of development. Overton and Reese significantly advanced the understanding of human development by describing the different “families” (related, or consonant, groups) of theories and methodological traditions associated with mechanistic- and organismic-related theories. Moreover, Overton’s work was seminal in promoting among other developmental scientists an interest in exploring the potential role of other worldviews or metatheories in shaping theories of development, influencing the selection and utilization of research methods, and providing a frame for research in and application of developmental science. For instance, Overton’s contributions facilitated interest in Riegel’s (e.g., 1975) discussion of the potential use of a “dialectical” model of development and Lerner’s (e.g., Lerner & Kauffman, 1985) discussion of the ways in which a “contextual” world hypothesis (Pepper, 1942) could be used to devise a theory of development. In addition, his elaboration of a relational, integrative approach to developmental science shaped key arguments for the synthesis of basic and applied domains of scholarship that have served as an important foundation of the rationale for contemporary work in applied developmental science (Lerner, 2002; Overton, 1998, 2003). Overton’s (1984) work made clear that the dialectical and the contextual models did not readily provide

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a useful set of ideas for the derivation of scientifically adequate theories of development unless they were integrated into mechanistic or organismic conceptions. For instance, Overton (1984) argued that the dispersive nature of the contextual world hypothesis did not provide a useful frame for understanding the systematic, organized, and successive (or progressive) character of change, which is the defining feature of development (Lerner, 2002). Although Pepper (1942) claimed that it was not philosophically permissible to “mix metaphors” and combine mechanistic, organismic, and contextual worldviews, Overton’s ideas suggest that one may do just this. Arguing on the basis of criteria of usefulness (e.g., in regard to developing statements that, in comparison with those of other positions, account for more variance in developmental data sets, lead to more novel discoveries, or integrate a broader range of phenomena pertinent to development), Overton (1984) advanced the notion of combining organicism and contextualism to frame a new, relational approach to developmental theory. The integrative vision he advanced resulted in Overton stressing that neither mechanism nor organicism (nor contextualism, etc.) alone would suffice to provide a useful philosophical frame for developmental theory and method. He emphasized that any of these metatheories used alone would split one dimension of the developmental system from another, privileging one dimension or depiction of the system as “real” and the other components of the system as, at best, derivative or epiphenomenal (Overton, 1998). Overton explained how the tendency to split one part of the developmental system from another was a remnant of the influence of the ideas of René Descartes on modern philosophy, and he noted that across the history of developmental science, such split thinking framed not only abstract debates about metatheory (e.g., mechanism versus organicism) but also core conceptual discussions and methodological debates. Overton (1998) explained that the field of developmental psychology was one wherein fundamental conceptual issues were framed traditionally as Cartesian splits; that is, the conceptual issues that are regarded as foundational for the field were cast as controversies involving distinct (separate) conceptual categories. To illustrate, these splits involved discussions of the role of nature and nurture as providing

the bases of human behavior and development, or methodological assessments of whether continuity or discontinuity, stability or instability, or constancy versus change characterized empirical variation across the course of life (Overton, 1973, 1998, 2003). Overton (1998, 2003) cautioned developmental scientists to avoid all splits and, instead, to embrace integrative, relational models and methods. He explained that only through such action can developmental science “prevent conceptual confusions that may ultimately lead to unproductive theories and unproductive methods of empirical inquiry” (Overton, 2003, p. 38). He explained the advantages of theories associated with relational philosophical ideas (e.g., developmental systems models), ideas that took an integrated view of nature and nurture processes or, more broadly, person and contextual levels of organization and that regarded all levels within the developmental system as fused and reciprocally interactive over the course of life. Overton (2003) used the concept of embodiment—the idea that individual behavior and development is contextualized through the actions of the person on a world with which the individual exists in reciprocal relation—to explain why theories and methods associated with integrative and relational philosophical models afford advantages over split or reductionistic conceptions of human development. For instance, Overton (2003) explained that “embodiment makes our psychological meanings about the world intelligible and hence explains our meanings. Embodied action, so conceived, forms a person-agent bridge between biological and sociocultural systems” (p. 37). In sum, Willis Overton’s contributions have made explicit to developmental scientists their implicit philosophical predilections and conceptual presuppositions. This scholarship has framed others’ evaluations of the ideas they have used to devise theories and to deploy methods in the service of understanding and enhancing human development across the life span. More than this singular contribution, however, is the one Overton has made to fostering the development of what, today, are regarded as cutting-edge developmental concepts and theories (Lerner, 2002), predicated on the relational and integrative ideas about the developmental system that are embodied in his scholarship. —Richard M. Lerner

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M., & Kauffman, M. B. (1985). The concept of development in contextualism. Developmental Review, 5, 309–333. Overton, W. F. (1973). On the assumptive base of the naturenurture controversy: Additive versus interactive conceptions. Human Development, 16, 74–89. Overton, W. F. (1984). World views and their influence on psychological theory and research: Kuhn—Lakatos—Lauden. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 18, pp. 194–226). New York: Academic Press. Overton, W. F. (1991a). Competence, procedures, and hardware: Conceptual and empirical considerations. In M. Chandler & M. Chapman (Eds.), Criteria for competence: Controversies in the assessment of children’s ability (pp. 19–42). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Overton, W. F. (1991b). Historical and contemporary perspectives on developmental theory and research strategies. In R. Downs, L. Liben, & D. Palermo (Eds.), Visions of aesthetics, the environment, and development: The legacy of Joachim Wohlwill (pp. 263–311). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Overton, W. F. (1991c). Metaphor, recursive systems, and paradox in science and developmental theory. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 23, pp. 59–71). New York: Academic Press. Overton, W. F. (1991d). The structure of developmental theory. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 23, pp. 1–37). New York: Academic Press. Overton, W. F. (1994a). The arrow of time and cycles of time: Concepts of change, cognition, and embodiment. Psychological Inquiry, 5, 215–237.

Overton, W. F. (1994b). Contexts of meaning: The computational and the embodied mind. In W. F. Overton & D. S. Palermo (Eds.), The nature and ontogenesis of meaning (pp. 1–18). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Overton, W. F. (1994c). Interpretationism, pragmatism, realism, and other ideologies. Psychological Inquiry, 5, 260–271. Overton, W. F. (1998). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 107–187). New York: Wiley. Overton, W. F. (2003). Development across the life span. In I. B. Weiner (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (pp. 13–42). New York: Wiley. Overton, W. F., & Reese, H. W. (1973). Models of development: Methodological implications. In J. R. Nesselroade and H. W. Reese (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Methodological issues (pp. 65–86). New York: Academic Press. Overton, W., & Reese, H. (1981). Conceptual prerequisites for an understanding of stability-change and continuitydiscontinuity. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 4, 99–123. Pepper, S. C. (1942). World hypotheses: A study in evidence. Berkeley: University of California Press. Reese, H. W., & Overton, W. F. (1970). Models of development and theories of development. In L. R. Goulet & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Research and theory (pp. 115–145). New York: Academic. Riegel, K. F. (1975). Toward a dialectical theory of human development. Human Development, 18, 50–64.

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P groups have proliferated to include F/P advocacy for toddlers, twins, adopted children—in short, any group for which parents and families feel special attention is needed. Public Internet access to high-quality medical and service information has increased the sophistication of P/F advocates (e.g., http://www.mchlibrary.info/ KnowledgePaths/kp_CSHCN.html). As the self-help movement emerged, enlightened health care providers also began to promote familycentered care for children: “the philosophies, principles and practices that put the family at the heart of center of services” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2003, p. 691). Family-centered care is built on a set of core principles, including respect for family diversity, collaboration of families and health care providers at all levels of health care (i.e., from care of individual children to policy making), and empowerment of families to make health care decisions. Implicitly, these principles recognize the role of families as advocates for their children in health care decision making. The current picture of F/P advocacy now often includes active collaborations between families and professionals to change the delivery and systems of care for children.

PARENT ADVOCACY Families’/parents’ (F/P) advocacy on behalf of their children has emerged in the past 40 years as an organized force to obtain care and services for children, especially for those with special needs. Along with the self-help movement in the 1960s and 1970s, individuals sharing similar social or medical concerns formed groups to provide mutual support, share medical and practical information, and act as an identifiable advocacy force for change. This entry provides a brief overview of the history of F/P advocacy, the various forms in which F/P organizations advocate for children and families, and F/P resources. HISTORY OF FAMILY/PARENT ADVOCACY Families of children with special health care needs (SHCNs), that is, children who have or are at increased risk for “chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions and also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally” (Szilagyi, 2003, p. 137), have been leaders in organizing and advocating for improvements in services and care for children. Among the original leaders were United Cerebral Palsy, Parents Helping Parents, Association for Retarded Citizens, and the Learning Disabilities Association. F/P advocacy groups have organized around innumerable pediatric diseases and genetic conditions (Exceptional Parent, 2000). Indeed, with easier communication and access to information over the past decade through the Internet, self-help parents’

FORMS OF FAMILY/ PARENT ADVOCACY Over the years, we have seen parents and those who care for individuals with special needs have an impact on research, therapies, funding philosophies, and behavior. They have changed bus schedules, doorway dimensions, attitudes, policies, and the law. Most of all, they have moved people to action by their 775

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commitment to making a difference in the lives of the people they care for (Exceptional Parent, 2000). Advocacy activities can be conceptualized as a continuum of roles/activities (Weiner, McCabe, Smith, Monoco, & Fiduccia, 2001). In case or individual advocacy, a family or a professional acts as a proxy for an individual child to press for optimal care and outcomes. Examples include collaboration on individual educational plans for children with special needs, parent/professional jointly developed care plans in pediatric hospitals, as well as social workers’ efforts to obtain needed child welfare services for individual children. Group formation for mutual support and for local or community action is a next step in advocacy directed at improving conditions for children. Online support groups have also taken on a major role for geographically dispersed families whose children have rare disorders or conditions. Community program development, such as founding special schools, recreation programs, creating information conferences on specific diseases, and parent-to-parent networks are examples of F/P advocacy on the local level. Many local groups progress to be national in scope with state chapters and separate offices and support networks, for example, Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation, Family Voices, and Compassionate Friends. Many national groups push the advocacy continuum forward to change federal policies for a specific category of children. One of the earliest and best-known efforts of this type was the creation of the first federal legislation mandating special education for children with special needs (Education for All Handicapped Children Act, P.L. 94-142, 1975). More recent examples include provisions in legislation to improve cancer treatment and care (e.g., Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, P.L. 107-109, 2001) and pediatric palliative care (Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, P.L. 108-173). F/P advocacy efforts have also positively influenced health care coverage for children. For example, since 1982, “Katie Beckett waivers” have allowed some children with long-term disabilities or complex medical needs to be cared for at home (vs. institutionalized) by waiving income limits to establish Medicaid eligibility. Currently, many F/P advocacy groups provide information resources to help individual families understand and advocate within the health insurance system, whether employer-sponsored or publicly funded programs.

RESOURCES FOR FAMILY/PARENT ADVOCATES For families or professionals seeking to advocate for individual children or for groups of children, many resources are currently available. National F/P advocacy organizations offer written and online information as well as face-to-face conferences. Topics can include the care of special groups of children or how to become an advocate or even start an F/P advocacy group or chapter. For example, on the Family Voices Web site, families have access to numerous fact sheets (http://www.familyvoices.org/Information/factsheets .htm); the organization has also published a Leadership Handbook for family/parent advocates. Parent centers are now available in each state to provide training and information to families of children with special health care needs. Exceptional Parent Magazine (EP) and its online “Eparent.com” expose F/P advocates to a wealth of resources in areas ranging from education and health care to technology and mobility. The magazine’s annual Resource Guide, with its extensive lists of advocacy-related organizations and programs for children with SHCNs, also provides valuable networking opportunities and information for families and professionals.

CONCLUSIONS With the increasing sophistication of F/P advocates and the creation of stronger team relationships with education, medical, and mental health professionals, advocacy efforts can be expected to produce tangible improvements for the care and well-being especially of vulnerable children. —Deborah Dokken and Susan Weiner

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Health Care. (2003). Organizational principles to guide and define the child health care system and/or improve the health of all children. Pediatrics, 112(3). Exceptional Parent. (2000). 2000 resource guide. Oradell, NJ: Exceptional Parent Magazine. Szilagyi, P. G. (2003). Care of children with special health care needs. In R. E. Behrman (Ed.), Health insurance for children. Los Altos, CA: David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

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Weiner, S. L., McCabe, M. S., Smith, G., Monoco, G. P., & Fiduccia, D. (2001). Pediatric cancer: Advocacy, legal, insurance and employment issues. In P. Pizzo & D. Poplack (Eds.), Principles and practices of pediatric oncology (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Raven.

PARENT EDUCATION Although many Americans adhere to the belief that parenting (and mothering especially) is instinctual, decades of research have shown that much of parenting is not (at least not for human beings). Many aspects of parenting are learned by observing others or by trial and error “on the job,” by practicing the art of parenting. Although parents learn through a variety of methods, parent education is typically achieved through exposure to many sources, including the culture; child-rearing books; mass media (magazines, television, videotapes, the Internet); home visits by parent educators; informal discussion with other parents, relatives, or friends, or more formal parenting classes; and the medical establishment, to name a few. However, for applied developmental scientists, the term parent education typically denotes formal parenting classes. This entry describes why formal parent education programs have grown in recent decades, discusses the types of parents who participate in parent education programs, identifies some of the goals of parent education programs, and discusses the Certified Family Life Educator credential for professionals who conduct parent education. Because there are so many formal parent education programs designed to meet the needs of so great a variety of parents (e.g., parents of normally developing children, parents who have lost custody of their children, foster parents, adoptive parents, teen parents, parents of children with special needs), an evaluation of the efficacy of parent education programs is beyond the scope of this entry.

THE GROWTH OF PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAMS In the last few decades, organized efforts designed to educate parents have flourished in the United States for a variety of reasons. The first reason is demographic. In particular, the growth of the nuclear family as the normative family structure in the United States

and the increasing number of mothers of young children in the workforce, combined with the increased mobility of American families, mean that the traditional supports for new parents (their own parents and other parents) are not as readily available as they once were (e.g., Clarke-Stewart, 1978; Smith, Perou, & Lesesne, 2002). The second reason is scientific. Research in developmental science has demonstrated the importance of parenting to children’s development and thus of the tasks of parenting themselves. It is now widely acknowledged that parenting is important for several reasons. How children are parented fundamentally shapes their developmental outcomes in a variety of domains (e.g., Bornstein, 2002; Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000; Maccoby, 1994). And parenting is important for society: The children we produce today will shape the society of tomorrow. Although often overlooked, parenting is also a significant developmental task for adults and is one of the primary ways that adults meet their need for generativity (i.e., “guiding the next generation”; Erikson, 1959, p. 97). Who Participates in Parent Education? Despite the growth of the parent education movement, it is certainly not the case that all new parents receive such education. In fact, many more parents attend classes to prepare for childbirth, a 14-hour event, on average, for first births, than attend parenting classes, a lifelong commitment. Although many childbirth preparation classes also discuss the early physical care of the infant, seldom do they discuss the ways that parents can promote the psychological growth and developmental well-being of their children (Bornstein, Davidson, Keyes, Moore, & The Center for Child Well-Being, 2003). The idea that parenting is instinctive—mothering is particularly believed to be so—and the focus of many early parent education programs on special populations (e.g., parents at risk for abuse and neglect, teen parents, low-income parents, parents of children with special needs, and foster and adoptive parents) may contribute to the belief that parent education classes are not necessary for most parents of typically developing children. However, the knowledge that parents do influence their children’s development has also put a tremendous burden on parents to produce “ideal” children, and parent education classes may at least be helpful in giving parents a more realistic idea of what

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they can expect of themselves and their children as well as help them to set realistic parenting goals. Some of the toys and videos purporting to promote children’s development (with names such as “Baby Einstein” and “Baby Mozart”) have only added to the pressure parents feel to produce exceptional children. In the past few decades, in response to the growing body of knowledge about parenting practices that support children’s development, some states, for example, Minnesota (Early Childhood Family Education Program) and Missouri (Parents as Teachers), offer parent education programs for all parents of infants and young children. The goal of these programs is to teach parents about child development so that they can foster it (e.g., through the use of effective parenting strategies to engage children in age-appropriate activities).

Children With Special Needs Many parent education efforts are aimed at special populations, particularly those who parent children with special needs (e.g., foster parents, parents of children with disabilities). For example, prospective adoptive and foster parents are typically required to take some formal parenting classes, even if they have children of their own. Because some children in foster care have been traumatized by physical abuse, foster parents (in most states) are prohibited from spanking, so foster parents need to use different disciplinary techniques than they may use with their own children. Formal parent education classes help to teach foster parents alternative discipline strategies. Moreover, children who have been neglected or abused (physically or sexually) often display psychological, physical, or behavioral problems that foster parents must come to understand and address (e.g., anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, somatic disorders, eating disorders, and delinquency for victims of sexual abuse). Parent education programs that provide foster parents with information about sexual abuse and normative sexual development in combination with skills training have been shown to have a positive effect on foster parents. Parents of children with special needs (e.g., mental retardation, autism, behavior disorders) may also take parenting classes in order to better understand their child’s behavior and needs and how most effectively to promote their child’s optimal development, because strategies that

work well with typically developing children may not be as effective for children with special needs. Special Parent Populations Parent education programs also specifically target parents who are at risk of less-than-optimal parenting, such as teen parents, parents with little education or who are living in poverty, and parents with histories of abusing or neglecting their children, in an effort to prevent negative outcomes for the children. Indeed, prevention is one of the main foci of parent education programs. For example, teen parents often drop out of school to care for their children, and their children are at greater risk of child abuse and neglect, living in poverty, and having more health and school problems than children of adult parents (e.g., Moore & BrooksGunn, 2002; U.S. General Accounting Office, 1998). Parent education programs targeting teen parents thus take a comprehensive approach toward the parent and child by encouraging girls to finish high school, teaching them about birth control to prevent additional teen pregnancies, and teaching them parenting skills. For example, the Learning, Earning, and Parenting Program, instituted by the state of Ohio, encourages girls to finish high school by providing them with child care and transportation to school, and offering them financial incentives for attending school and penalizing them for absences. Research with parents living in poverty or who have little education suggests that these two sociodemographic characteristics are linked to poor child development (e.g., poor academic achievement, poor communication skills, mild mental retardation, and behavior problems; Hoff, Laursen, & Tardif, 2002; Jordan, 1978; Magnuson & Duncan, 2002). Well-known programs such as Head Start and Early Head Start were instituted to disrupt the cycle of poverty and low academic achievement of children living in poverty by fostering young children’s academic achievement. These programs treat the family as a unit and typically incorporate parent education (with a focus on teaching parents about the importance of and how to foster children’s literacy development) as part of their programs. Programs such as Hawaii’s Healthy Start program are targeted toward parents who are at risk of abusing or neglecting their children. In sum, although there has been recent growth in parent education programs designed for typical parents and children, most parent education programs specifically target parents of challenging children or

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parents who are at risk of less-than-optimal parenting. Thus, there is great diversity in the kinds of parent education programs currently being offered.

Goals of Parent Education The goal of parenting, from a societal perspective, is to nurture children’s development so that they will become productive members of society as adults. Addressing this need, the main goal of many parent education programs is to provide parents with information about parenting strategies and children’s development so that they can behave in effective ways and set realistic goals for themselves and their children. Parent education, whatever its form, also provides parents with basic knowledge about children’s development. Research has demonstrated that parents who are knowledgeable about children’s development and target their parenting to a child’s developmental level promote positive outcomes, including intellectual achievement, independence (in terms of selfcare), emotional security, and social competence in their children. Ideally, parent education programs emphasize that there is often more than one way to promote children’s development and achieve parenting goals, and they are sensitive to parents’ cultural and religious belief systems. CERTIFIED FAMILY LIFE EDUCATORS Parent educators receive training in a variety of fields, including (but not limited to) psychology, family studies, human development, and nursing. The National Council of Family Relations is the only national organization in the United States that certifies family life educators. The goal of the Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) is to educate parents about parenting and children’s development, prevent negative outcomes for children, and promote positive outcomes for both children and parents. Although CFLEs may work in a number of fields related to family life (for example, marriage enrichment), many of them are parent educators. To become a CFLE, candidates must exhibit expertise (i.e., a combination of academic preparation, professional development, and work experience) in 10 areas, including human growth and development, interpersonal relationships, and parent education and guidance. The CFLE credential is not required to become a parent educator.

CONCLUSIONS The goals of this brief introduction to parent education were to describe why formal parent education programs have grown in recent decades, discuss the types of parents who participate in parent education programs, identify some of the chief goals of parent education programs, and discuss how practitioners can become involved in parent education. For a more detailed discussion of parent education, see Smith et al.’s (2002) review. For more information about how to become a parent educator and the CFLE credential, visit the National Council on Family Relations Web site (www.ncfr.org). —Linda R. Cote and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bornstein, M. H. (2002). Parenting infants. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 1. Children and parenting (2nd ed., pp. 3–43). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Bornstein, M. H., Davidson, L., Keyes, C. M., Moore, K., & The Center for Child Well-Being. (Eds.). (2003). Wellbeing: Positive development across the life course. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Clarke-Stewart, K. A. (1978). Popular primers for parents. American Psychologist, 33, 359–369. Collins, W. A., Maccoby, E. E., Steinberg, L., Hetherington, E. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting: The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55, 218–232. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press. Hoff, E., Laursen, B., & Tardif, T. (2002). Socioeconomic status and parenting. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 2. Biology and ecology of parenting (2nd ed., pp. 231–252). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Jordan, T. E. (1978). Influences on vocabulary attainment: A five-year prospective study. Child Development, 49, 1096–1106. Maccoby, E. E. (1994). The role of parents in the socialization of children: A historical overview. In R. D. Parke, P. A. Ornstein, J. J. Rieser, & C. Zahn-Waxler (Eds.), A century of developmental psychology (pp. 589–615). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Magnuson, K. A., & Duncan, G. J. (2002). Parents in poverty. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4. Social conditions and applied parenting (2nd ed., pp. 95–121). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Moore, M. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2002). Adolescent parenthood. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 3. Being and becoming a parent (2nd ed., pp. 173–214). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Smith, C., Perou, R., & Lesesne, C. (2002). Parent education. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4. Social conditions and applied parenting (2nd ed., pp. 389–410). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. U.S. General Accounting Office. (1998). Teen pregnancy: State and federal efforts to implement prevention programs and measure their effectiveness (GAO No. GAO/HEHS-99-4). Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://frwebgate .access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/multidb.cgi

PARENT EXPECTATIONS Parent expectations are beliefs that parents hold about the future performance of their children and are often focused on achievement-related areas such as educational, professional, and marital futures. This entry describes how parental expectations affect children’s perceptions of their own abilities and therefore their outcomes. Differences in the achievementrelated expectations of both mothers and fathers and their effects on male and female children are described. The literature that addresses marital and family expectations, although important, is not covered here. In the conclusion, suggestions are offered to parents to develop more accurate expectations based on real abilities to allow their children to fulfill their potential. The words expectations and perceptions are used interchangeably in this entry. FEATURES OF PARENT EXPECTATIONS Parents communicate expectancies by acting as expectancy socializers, thereby influencing the attitudes and expectations of their children. Although role modeling of behaviors has traditionally been assumed to play a significant role in the socializing of children, parent expectancies and perceptions have been found to play an even more significant role in children’s development (Parsons, Adler, & Kaczala, 1982). Parent perceptions influence children’s sense of selfcompetence (Phillips, 1987) and play a mediating role in the relationship between children’s performance and their self-perceptions (Frome & Eccles, 1998). Parental perceptions based on children’s performance affect children’s self-perceptions more than their own actual performance. For instance, when parents perceive math as being difficult for their children, their children also have low math self-concepts, see math as being difficult, and have low expectancies

for future performances in math, irrespective of their actual abilities (Parsons et al., 1982). In fact, parents often hold beliefs about their children’s performance that are only weakly related to the children’s actual abilities, since these beliefs appear to be related to other factors as well (Eccles, Jacobs, & Harold, 1990). Parents influence their children’s performance not directly through expectancies for success, but more indirectly through the effect of expectations on the child’s self-perceptions of ability (Frome & Eccles, 1998). Gender-stereotyped perceptions held by parents affect children’s judgments, often even more than the children’s own perceptions (Parsons et al., 1982) and their actual grades (Frome & Eccles, 1998; Phillips, 1987). Parental perceptions of their children’s abilities and competencies are also influenced by the gender role stereotypes they hold. Specifically, parents who already subscribe to traditional gender stereotypes are more likely to believe that daughters find math difficult and sons do not, irrespective of their actual abilities (Eccles et al., 1990). Evidently, parent expectancies are partially based on their children’s performance but are also influenced by other factors, such as the gender stereotypes they hold, which often makes these expectancies inaccurate. Mothers’ expectations tend to have a stronger influence on the achievement expectancies and attitudes of their children than those of fathers (Parsons et al., 1982), and mothers tend to have more gender-typed ideas of competency (Eccles et al., 1990) and ability (Frome & Eccles, 1998). In addition, single mothers can be the sole residential expectancy socializers, resulting in their greater influence. This influence can be negative, as divorced mothers have lowered expectations for their children’s school performance (Barber, 1995). Fathers, on the other hand, appear to hold higher standards for children’s performance than do mothers (Phillips, 1987). Fathers’ perceptions are more closely related to children’s self-perceptions about school performance than are mothers’ perceptions (Frome & Eccles, 1998; Phillips, 1987). They are less likely to rely on gender stereotypes and more on actual grades in assessing their children’s abilities than are mothers, although they are still unlikely to perceive daughters as having greater ability than sons in math, even when actual grades reflect this difference (Frome & Eccles, 1998). Frome and Eccles (1998) suggested that parents underestimate their daughters’ abilities in math.

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Parents of daughters did not rate their child’s math ability any differently from parents of sons, but reported that math was harder for their daughters and that they had to work harder to do well in math (Parsons et al., 1982). Consequently, girls think they have to work harder to succeed in math. To the extent that parents attribute their children’s success in mathematics to effort, they are also more likely to consider their children less talented in the field (Eccles et al., 1990). It is not known whether parents actually initiate this bias or reaffirm it (Parsons et al., 1982). This issue has practical implications, as is evident in the following. Parental perceptions appear to influence children’s own self-perceptions. Since self-perceptions affect the kinds of activities that children are involved in, selffulfilling prophecies suggest that their subsequent development is also affected by parental perceptions (Eccles et al., 1990; Frome & Eccles, 1998). In the case of divorced mothers, who often have lowered expectations for their children, it could actually lead to lowered achievement in children (Barber, 1995). Phillips (1987) argues that the accuracy of parents’ perceptions of their children’s abilities is a “central determinant” of the children’s self-perceptions of their academic competence. Parents who base their perceptions of their children’s abilities on actual performance rather than on their own perceptions of difficulty or gender stereotypes will be more likely to have accurate perceptions. Frome and Eccles (1998) suggest that the generally realistic view of abilities that fathers have compared with mothers could be essential to girls having realistic views of their own abilities. Fathers could be encouraged to play larger roles in their daughters’ education, and mothers could be encouraged to limit their own gender stereotypes, especially in terms of their children’s education. This could encourage girls to continue in math- and science-related fields and to enter male-dominated professions in adulthood. To reduce the effect of negative self-fulfilling prophecies, Barber (1995) has suggested that parents and teachers of children of divorce be provided information about the negative effects of lowered expectancies, along with the information that these children do not necessarily have to be low achievers. Children whose parents avoid expectations for poor performance may rise to perform commensurately with their actual abilities. Given the potential influence that parent expectations can have on children, parents should be encouraged to be both

accurate and optimistic to provide the best possible futures for their children. CONCLUSIONS The study of parental expectations can be extended to nonacademic achievement. For instance, parental expectations about appropriate gender role behavior may discourage girls from playing rugby or boys from playing the flute. Parents also have and communicate expectations about their children’s long-term achievement in the roles of spouse or parent, but research has not examined the connection between these expectations and family formation behaviors. Furthermore, cross-cultural differences in parental expectations for education, work, and family roles should also be investigated. —Abha S. Rao and Bonnie L. Barber

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Barber, B. L. (1995). Preventive intervention with adolescents and divorced mothers: A conceptual framework for program design and evaluation. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 481–503. Eccles, J. S., Jacobs, J. E., & Harold, R. D. (1990). Gender role stereotypes, expectancy effects, and parents’ socialization of gender differences. Journal of Social Issues, 46, 183–201. Frome, P. M., & Eccles, J. S. (1998). Parents’ influence on children’s achievement-related perceptions. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 74, 435–452. Parsons, J. S., Adler, T. F., & Kaczala, C. M. (1982). Socialization of achievement attitudes and beliefs: Parental influences. Child Development, 53, 310–321. Phillips, D. A. (1987). Socialization of perceived academic competence among highly competent children. Child Development, 58, 1308–1320.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT, PROGRAMS IN Parent involvement refers to activities, programs, or services that involve parents in the care, development, and education of their children. Early parent involvement programs focus on helping parents provide appropriate stimulation for infants and toddlers. In early childhood, parent involvement is often

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associated with home and school partnerships to promote children’s school performance, especially for children with special needs. Parent involvement is also related to activities designed to facilitate children’s social-emotional development through nurturing their self-esteem, confidence, and positive social behaviors. Other common activities include parent education on child development and parenting issues; parent participation in affairs that affect their children’s education, development, and well-being; participation in parent support groups; information and referral services; and empowering parents as decision makers and contributors to make a difference in the lives of their children. AUSPICES Parent involvement programs may be initiated and funded by the government, for instance, health ministries for educating parents on infant care, health, nutrition, and breast-feeding. They can come under the auspices of ministries of education and schools, for school readiness, reading programs, math programs, and parent-child activities programs, or ministries of welfare, for strengthening parenting skills and working with teenage mothers. They can be initiated and supported by local government, individual schools and preschools, nongovernment agencies, or voluntary welfare organizations that provide family services and support. Parents themselves may initiate such programs, for instance, as in parent preschool cooperatives. WHY PARENT INVOLVEMENT? Parent involvement targets parents with children from infancy to preschoolers, as well as primaryschool-aged children and teenagers. Parent involvement may be universal, aimed at the general population of parents, based on the belief that all parents can benefit by being involved in their children’s lives. In many cases, it targets disadvantaged families with low incomes and low levels of education, ethnic minority groups, and single parents, to help their children achieve the same educational levels as middle-class children. Parents also play key roles in early-intervention programs for special-needs children. Parent involvement programs are based on theory, practice wisdom, and research—that children fare better when their parents are involved. Reviews of a number of programs found that parent involvement

does make a difference in outcomes. For example, Henderson & Mapp’s (2002) review of such programs found that students had higher grades and test scores, fewer placements in special education, greater enrollment in postsecondary schools, and more positive attitudes and behaviors, and more of them graduated than those in the control group. Schools themselves also had positive outcomes in terms of better teacher morale, higher ratings by parents, more support from parents, higher student achievement, and a better reputation in the community. THE ROLE OF PARENTS The role of parents has evolved over the years from a protective model, reflecting a clear divide between home and school, to a partnership model. Susan Swap (1993), for example, identified four different categories of home and school relationships: protective model, school-home transmission model, curriculum enrichment model, and partnership model. Passive Parental Models In the protective model, parents are invited to participate as observers during school concerts, sports days, and fund-raising. In the school-home transmission model, teachers, as educational “experts,” provide unidirectional information on what is happening in school and what parents should do. Parents are passive recipients. Even if there are parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and parent-teacher conferencing, parents are expected to take the cues from the school. The perception of the teacher as the expert began to change with the recognition that while teachers may have extensive knowledge about children’s development and education, in general, parents know their own children more intimately and thus have their own knowledge and resources to contribute. The concept of parents as the child’s first teacher and the recognition that education must continue beyond the school day is a concept strongly advocated and promoted by the United Nations Education for All World Convention, among other early childhood advocates. Parent involvement is not as common in Asia as in the West. This can be attributed to the fact that in Asia, parents often regard teachers and professionals as authorities in their own fields and therefore the best people to educate and care for their children. Parents,

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therefore, tend to defer to teachers and authority figures. However, in major Asian cities, parentteacher associations are emerging, and slowly there is an attempt to get parents involved beyond being helpers and fund-raisers. As parents become more educated and with many having only one or two children, they are more eager to be involved in their children’s education. In Singapore, parent involvement is one of the requirements in child care centers and is encouraged in kindergartens and schools. Active Parenting Models The curriculum enrichment model and more egalitarian parent-teacher partnership envisions parents as more active in contributing their own background knowledge and skills to their children’s education, and not merely carrying out instructions from the teachers. Ira Gordon (Olmstead, Rubin, True, & Revicki, 1980) of Follow Through, a program for graduates of Head Start, identified critical roles for parent involvement producing positive child outcomes within the context of parent-school/agency partnerships: parents as class volunteers, paraprofessionals, home teachers, adult educators, adult learners, and decision makers. The more extensive the involvement, the more successful children’s school achievement. Parents as partners in children’s education complement the work of teachers. For instance, a school-aged child facing the arrival of a new baby in the home may begin to show regressive behavior to get parents’ attention, which may spill over to the classroom environment as antisocial behavior and failing grades. When parents make teachers aware of the new situation at home, the teacher can take informed preventive or remedial actions. Likewise, a child who has difficulties in his schoolwork may develop stomachaches and anxieties about going to school. When teachers let parents know about such problems, they can work in partnership to help the child with his work as well as provide the necessary emotional support and assurance. Types of Parent Involvement Programs There are many ways that parents can be involved in programs. Parent education institutes allow parents to take up early childhood education courses. Parent resource and referral centers encourage parents to borrow books, toys, and equipment that they can use with their children at home. Such centers may also

offer parenting classes as well. Other programs involve parent-child classes, with parents learning and implementing what they have learned either with their own children or with a group of children. Others include workshops for parents with children of different age-groups, parent education seminars, and parenting talks on areas of parental concern, including homework and behavior management. For instance, in Singapore, with the introduction of “new math” in primary schools, many parents were unable to help their children. This resulted in some schools offering to teach parents to enable them to help their children. Some school-based programs have PTA-type involvement, in which parents work through committees for school improvement, such as fund-raising, parentteacher communication, tutoring, and assisting in the classroom. Parents who want to be more fully involved have set up parent cooperatives for child care and preschool, hiring teachers to run the classes and taking part in setting education policies and their implementation. Home-Based Programs Home-based programs are carried out through home visits, in which parents, usually mothers, may feel more at ease. The Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), a very structured program on how parents can educate and develop their children, is long established and has been accepted and practiced in several countries outside Israel, where it originated. A United Kingdom home-visiting program, funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, involves nurses working with individual mothers with young children. The mother decides on specific topics she is interested in, and the nurse works with her on these particular topics. A topic is selected for the next visit, so that the nurse will come with the appropriate resources to work with the mother. This program empowers mothers to choose and receive the required information rather than to accept what the “expert” thinks is best for them. Developing Indo-Chinese countries are also turning to home-based parent involvement with young children, in view of the shortage of preschools and in response to the United Nations’ calls for “Education for All,” including for preschoolers. Myanmar has its Mothers’ Circle, whereby a group of mothers meet weekly to learn about parenting. Their children go to the home of one of the mothers for early childhood activities, which range from listening to stories,

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singing and traditional dancing, to reciting of Buddhist mantras. A preschool teacher in charge of a few mothers’ groups visits each group of children to facilitate the group activities. Parents also meet at the home of the “leader” for parent education purposes. These activities are organized by local nongovernmental organizations that work closely with the Social Welfare Department to reach the parents. In Cambodia, Save the Children, Norway, works in partnership with the government to organize, at the village level, mothers’ groups of 12 women with preschool children. Each group selects a leader from within the group to be the leader/facilitator. The leaders/facilitators meet regularly with volunteer preschool teachers to receive specific training on how to integrate early childhood development and education into their daily activities, for instance, cooking, washing clothes, and housekeeping. Each leader/facilitator then shares that information with others in her group. The preschool teacher facilitates the meetings and once a month conducts group activities for the children while parents observe. Children have subsequently been observed to be more sociable, more articulate, and more creative in their responses to questions. Community-Based Programs Community-based programs include family centers that provide a range of support for the family— ranging from parent education to early childhood programs to counseling and referral. They recognize that families with marital or financial problems may need additional support for effective parenting. The family support services offer parents the necessary support, skills, and knowledge to support themselves as well as their children. Examples are Texas-based AVANCE, a family literacy, support, and education program, and the Family Services Centers of Singapore, which offer parent education, marital and family counseling, child care, student care, and information and referral. Back-to-back parent literacy and preschool classes in some parts of Asia offer parents the opportunity to become literate in the areas of child care, child safety, health, and nutrition. This model has the potential for parents to be further involved in their children’s development and education, as the literacy class includes a practical component of assisting in the preschool class

itself. There are several literacy programs in the United States aimed at building home literacy behaviors, including Books and Ready to Read. Toy and book libraries not only provide educational toys and books to children but also serve, in some cases, as tools for parent involvement. These are available in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, to name a few. Parent involvement also needs community involvement (Epstein, 1995). Some local businesses or government agencies provide buildings for parentorganized play groups. One such community-based parent involvement project is the Preschool Playgroup Association of UK, where parents, trained to be play group leaders, organize play groups for their own prekindergarten children.

FUTURE TRENDS Although there are methodological problems in some of the parent involvement studies, various reviews suggest strong parent involvement effects. More rigorous studies are required to identify key components that make a parent involvement program effective and successful and to determine whether these are transferable from group to group and to other cultures and countries. Parent involvement has its obstacles. Schools and agencies may be reluctant to share power, concerned that parents may “take over” or that teachers may be too busy to involve parents, viewing it as “extra work.” On the other hand, parents may feel that teachers, not themselves, are the experts or, in the case of dual-income parents, that they just do not have the time to be involved. Despite the obstacles, there is a movement for parental involvement. In countries that do not have the luxury of research, practice wisdom and understanding of the community may give rise to more parent involvement programs. Active parent involvement will occur when there is a desire to help children fare better in their development and education, when parents can see concrete results in their children and in themselves, when there is support from local authorities, both material and otherwise, and when there is support among parents themselves. —Kim Choo Khoo

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bastiani, J. (Ed.). (1987). Parents as teachers (1): Perspectives on home-school relations. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson. Epstein, J. (1995, May). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 701–712. Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (Eds.). (2002). A new generation of evidence: The impact of school, family and community connections on student achievement. Boston: National Committee for Citizens in Education. Olmstead, P. P., Rubin, R. I., True, J. H., & Revicki, D. A. (1980). Parent education: The contributions of Ira J. Gordon. Washington, DC: Association for Childhood Education International. Swap, S. M. (1993). Developing home-school partnerships: From concepts to practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION Parental involvement in education can be understood as the action taken or activities engaged in by parents to affect the education or learning experience of their children. This may include parents’ action or activities at home, in the school, and between home and school. Researchers generally assume that the level and quality of parental involvement results from beliefs about how children learn and what activities are important. The nature of parental involvement is believed to convey messages about these expectations and attitudes. Such expectations appear to influence students’ self-concepts, which, in turn, predict achievement levels (Eccles, 1983; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). Although the family and the school are institutions jointly responsible for educating children and modeling socializing behavior that facilitates educational achievement, parents are typically the first agents of socialization for children. Thus, it is important for educational researchers and practitioners to understand how parents prepare and assist their children around educational objectives. TYPES OF INVOLVEMENT Researchers broadly categorize parental involvement activities as either home based or school based. Examples of home-based activities include monitoring

or assisting with homework, discussing school events, course issues, or academic goals, providing experiences pertinent to school success, and talking with the teacher. School-based activities range from volunteering at school and coming to meetings to driving on a field trip or staffing a booth at a school fair (HooverDempsey & Sandler, 1997). Grolnick, Benjet, Kurowski, and Apostoleris (1997) identify three types of involvement in children’s schooling: behavioral, cognitive-intellectual, and personal. Most home-based and school-based activities described above constitute behavioral involvement. Cognitiveintellectual involvement includes exposing the child to intellectually stimulating activities, such as visiting a museum, reading to the child, or having discussions at dinner. Personal involvement is defined as knowing about and keeping abreast of what is going on with the child in school, including meeting with teachers and reviewing grades. CHILD OUTCOMES Parents have the ability to pass on work norms and ethics and values about education. Parenting practices, parent educational involvement, and parental expectations have been shown to affect child development and are generally found to be important in the learning and school success of children and adolescents (Shumow & Miller, 2001). Research has shown that parental involvement relates to children’s and adolescents’ efficacy (Eccles, 1983), school grades (Grolnick et al., 1997), and school orientation (Shumow & Miller, 2001). Parental involvement in homework has been found to relate positively to students’ attitudes about homework, perceptions of competence and ability, understanding of tasks and strategies, and homework behaviors such as persistence and more time spent on homework (HooverDempsey et al., 2001). FACTORS INFLUENCING INVOLVEMENT Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) proposed a model of the parent-involvement process that considers several aspects of the involvement process, from parents’ initial choice to become involved to the beneficial influence of that involvement on student outcomes. They consider several factors that may influence the actual involvement decision, such as

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parents’ perceptions of their influence on their children’s school achievement, a child’s request for help, the school’s expectations for involvement, and parents’ attitudes toward the appropriate role for parents in their children’s education. Parents are more likely to become involved when they believe their efforts will be effective, when they are encouraged to participate by school or child, and if they believe parents should play a role in their children’s education. Factors influencing parents’ decisions about how to become involved include parents’ differing skills, levels of comfort with participation in school-related activities, and demands on parents’ time and energy. Modeling, reinforcement, and instruction are the mechanisms through which parent involvement influences student outcomes. The model shows that when parents model academic-based attitudes and behaviors and use direct instruction, it reinforces behaviors fundamental to school success through interest, attention, and praise. Higher parental income and education are also associated with higher levels of parental involvement (Kohl, Lengua, & McMahon, 2000; Reynolds, 1992). Grolnick et al. (1997) also found that family socioeconomic status predicted school involvement and cognitive involvement (exposing the child to intellectually stimulating activities such as going to the library) but not personal involvement (parents’ interest in and knowledge about their children’s school activities and endeavors). Ethnicity is also a factor; thus, African American parents report less informal involvement in school activities (e.g., volunteering to serve on committees) (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1998). On the other hand, Black parents value education to the same degree or higher than their White counterparts (Stevenson, Chen, & Uttal, 1990) and are more likely to help with homework three or more times a week (NCES, 1998). This suggests that factors such as socioeconomic status and ethnicity may influence the types of involvement rather than the decision to actually become involved. While race, gender, and socioeconomic status provide contexts in which to examine parenting behaviors, researchers are acknowledging that involvement may function differently within groups (Hill & Sprague, 1999). Lareau and Horvat (1999) found that middle-class Black parents were more likely to intervene in their children’s school experiences than were poorer Black parents. Similarly, Yan’s (1999) results

showed that parents in Black families with higher levels of parental education and family income had higher levels of school contact and more parent-child discussions at home. Researchers have not sufficiently examined characteristics of children that may contribute toward parental involvement. We cannot, therefore, be certain about the extent to which some children may enable or encourage support or how others may impede or discourage it. Carter and Wojtkiewicz (2000) examined the ways gender may affect parental educational involvement. They found that generally, daughters experienced more parental educational involvement than did sons. However, the frequency of particular types of involvement varied across gender. They found that female students engaged in more discussions of educational matter with parents than did sons but that parents of boys had more parent-school connectivity. These differences in involvement may be based on gender-related parental beliefs around differential roles for parents and differential needs for males and females in schooling.

CONCLUSIONS It is critical to examine the mechanisms that underlie parenting behaviors and the effects that the context of race/ethnicity, as well as the impact that social class and gender, has on involvement behaviors. Future research on group differences can assist school professionals in encouraging and fostering parental involvement that reflects the diversity of cultural values and contexts of family life. In addition, characteristics of children, parental beliefs, and pressures exerted by career or neighborhood concerns may also provide valuable insights into the involvement of parents in the educational process. —Lumas J. Helaire and Pamela Trotman Reid

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Carter, R. S., & Wojtkiewicz, R. A. (2000, Spring). Parental involvement with adolescents’ education: Do daughters or sons get more help? Adolescence, 35(137), 29–44. Eccles, J. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motives: Psychological and sociological approaches (pp. 75–146). San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.

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Grolnick, W. S., Benjet, C., Kurowski, C. O., & Apostoleris, N. H. (1997, March). Predictors of parent involvement in children’s schooling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 538–548. Hill, S. A., & Sprague, J. (1999). Parenting in Black and White families, the interaction of gender with race and class. Gender & Society, 13(4), 480–502. Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Battiato, A. C., Walker, J. M. T., Reed, R. P., DeJong, J. M., & Jones, K. (2001). Parental involvement in homework. Educational Psychologists, 36(3), 195–209. Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1997). Why do parents become involved in their children’s education? Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 3–42. Kohl, G. O., Lengua, L. J., & McMahon, R. J. (2000). Parent involvement in school conceptualizing multiple dimensions and their relations with family and demographic risk factors. Journal of School Psychology, 38(6), 501–523. Lareau, A., & Horvat, E. (1999). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion: Race, class, and cultural capital in familyschool relationships. Sociology of Education, 72, 37–53. National Center for Education Statistics. (1998). Parent and family involvement in education component. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey (NHES), 1996. Washington, DC: Author. Reynolds, A. J. (1992). Comparing measures of parental involvement and their effects on academic achievement. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 7, 441–462. Shumow, L., & Miller, J. D. (2001). Parents’ at-home and at-school academic involvement with young adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 21(1), 68–91. Stevenson, H. W., Chen, C., & Uttal, D. H. (1990). Beliefs and achievement: A study of Black, White, and Hispanic children. Child Development, 61, 508–523. Yan, W. (1999). Successful African American students: The role of parental involvement. The Journal of Negro Education, 68(1), 5–22.

PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY Parental self-efficacy refers to the extent to which a parent expects to perform competently and effectively as a parent (Teti & Gelfand, 1991). According to selfefficacy theory (Bandura, 1989), parental self-efficacy incorporates (a) a parent’s specific knowledge of behaviors associated with positive child rearing and (b) the confidence with which a parent feels capable of performing these behaviors (Coleman & Karraker, 1997). Because parents often perform multiple parenting roles, it is generally believed that parents have the capacity to evaluate their self-efficacy in more than

one parenting domain. For example, it has been proposed that parents can independently evaluate their expectations of their abilities to assert effective parenting control, to facilitate their children’s cognitive development, to promote positive socioemotional development, and to maintain their children’s physical health (Coleman & Karraker, 1997). Parents who expect that they will behave competently and effectively in a given parenting role are said to have high parental self-efficacy. Parents who have low selfefficacy do not expect that they will behave competently or effectively in a given parenting role. Although it is believed that parents can evaluate their selfefficacy in different parenting roles, it is also believed that parents have a general (i.e., global) sense of parental self-efficacy. That is, parents can provide a global evaluation of the degree to which they expect to have a positive influence on their children’s development. A number of self-report questionnaires have been developed to tap parental self-efficacy. The vast majority of these questionnaires have been developed to assess role-specific and global parental self-efficacy in mothers of infants and children (see Coleman & Karraker, 1997, for a review). Others have also been developed to assess parental self-efficacy in families with adolescents (e.g., Cassidy & Woodhouse, 1998). Considerable research has been conducted on parental self-efficacy in the last two decades. Researchers from different theoretical perspectives have proposed that parental self-efficacy is influenced by a number of factors, such as parents’ cognitive representations of their own childhood experiences, culturally bound parenting norms, child personality traits (e.g., temperament), parental psychosocial functioning, social support, and cognitive/behavioral preparation for the parenting role (Coleman & Karraker, 1997; George & Solomon, 1999; Grusec, Hastings, & Mammone, 1994; Teti & Gelfand, 1991). In a recent review of the parental self-efficacy literature, Coleman and Karraker (1997) concluded that there is evidence that high maternal self-efficacy is associated with more positive parenting behaviors in a number of domains as well as with better maternal functioning. Interventions that are designed to promote positive child and adolescent development by focusing on parental functioning may benefit by increasing parental self-efficacy (Teti, O’Connell, & Reiner, 1996). For example, if the goal of an intervention is to make parents more sensitive to their children’s needs, interveners could work with parents to increase their

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knowledge of child or adolescent socioemotional development. This knowledge could help parents become more confident in their abilities to be sensitive to their children. Interveners could also instill confidence in parents by rewarding them for positive behavior. —Matthew Dykas and Jude Cassidy

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bandura, A. (1989). Regulation of cognitive processes through perceived self-efficacy. Developmental Psychology, 25, 729–735. Cassidy, J., & Woodhouse, S. (1998). Parental Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. Unpublished instrument, University of Maryland, College Park. Coleman, P. K., & Karraker, K. H. (1997). Self-efficacy and parenting quality: Findings and future applications. Developmental Review, 18, 47–85. George, C., & Solomon, J. (1999). Attachment and caregiving: The caregiving behavioral system. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical implications (pp. 649–670). New York: Guilford. Grusec, J. E., Hastings, P., & Mammone, N. (1994). Parenting cognitions and relationship schemas. In J. G. Smetana (Ed.), Beliefs about parenting: Origins and developmental implications (pp. 5–19). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Teti, D. M., & Gelfand, D. M. (1991). Behavioral competence among mothers of infants in the first year: The mediational role of maternal self-efficacy. Child Development, 62, 918–929. Teti, D. M., O’Connell, M. A., & Reiner, C. D. (1996). Parenting sensitivity, parental depression, and child health: The mediational role of parental self-efficacy. Early Development and Parenting, 5, 237–250.

PARENTING IN ADOLESCENCE Negative stereotypes do little to explain the variability in experience among adolescent mothers. This brief entry introduces the areas of potential concern, discusses the developmental significance of teen pregnancy, and tracks recent demographic trends. Moving on to an examination of both risk and protective factors in the lives of young women provides a meaningful way to conceptualize the issues faced by early adoption of the mothering role. Suggestions for policymakers and future researchers lie embedded within these potential perils and protective factors.

Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing are topics of national concern because they can have longlasting negative consequences for young parents and their children. Young women who begin their childbearing as adolescents are often unprepared for the tasks of parenting, have relatively high rates of depression, are less likely to complete high school, and are more likely to require public assistance compared with women who do not begin childbearing until adulthood. In addition, children of adolescent parents have an increased risk of being maltreated, experiencing behavioral and developmental problems, and repeating the pattern of adolescent parenthood (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Although adolescent birth is often conceptualized in the context of risk behaviors, in some low-income, minority communities, particularly those with few educational and employment opportunities, adolescent parenthood is part of the normative life course and not necessarily part of a risk profile (Dalla & Gamble, 2000). INCIDENCE Over the past decade, there has been a marked decline in the adolescent birthrate throughout the United States. Although the decline has occurred among all racial and ethnic groups, African American adolescents have experienced a greater decline (26%) compared with Caucasian (19%) and Hispanic (12%) adolescents. However, the birthrate among African American adolescents remains 2.5 times the rate of Caucasian adolescents. Notwithstanding the overall decline, in the year 2000, more than 470,000 adolescent young women gave birth. Adolescent parenting occurs disproportionately among low-income families, and approximately 70% of adolescent mothers are unmarried. The lack of either financial resources or stable environments that tend to accompany adolescent parenting, essentially the trauma of poverty, may contribute to the developmental and behavioral problems often experienced by both adolescent mothers and their children (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS The requirements of parenthood are often incompatible with the developmental tasks of adolescence. Competent parenting requires patience, empathy, and an ability to accept delayed gratification. Adolescents,

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who are striving for their own identities, may focus on themselves rather than on the needs of their babies. Social support has the potential to enhance adolescent parenting, particularly when adolescents are young, immature, and need assistance. Community-level protective factors include connections to friends and institutions that promote positive parenting. In other words, friends who value education and avoid delinquent behavior provide positive role models. At the family level, protection includes parents who provide support that is accepting and nurturing, while enabling adolescent mothers to achieve autonomy and independence in their new roles. The individual mother’s personal history of cognitive and emotional preparation, her own psychological well-being, her competence in interpersonal skills, and her academic successes will affect her successful role transition. Finally, mothers who regard the infant’s temperament to be relatively easy and adaptable may find parenting more rewarding than mothers who regard the baby as difficult. At both the community and the family level, the adolescent mother may also experience risk factors and potential stumbling blocks. Within the family system, risk factors include the adolescent mother having a history of teenage parenting and a lack of stable partner relationships. Disrupted family structure, strained relationships with parents, physical and emotional abuse, depression, and substance abuse are common risk practices among pregnant adolescents that may interfere with the adoption of a positive parenting role (Garrett & Tidwell, 1999). Rather than taking on a parenting role that requires empathy and consideration for the child, adolescents who are surrounded by friends and family engaged in high-risk and illegal behaviors, such as fighting or substance use, may lack the skills and support to forego the temptations to engage in risk behavior. FATHERS When the father does not live with his partner and children, there may be less dependence on the father and fewer expectations of him filling a paternal role. It is not surprising that approximately one third of the fathers of babies born to adolescent mothers lose touch with them within 5 years after delivery. If the father is also an adolescent, he may be unprepared for parenting and have limited knowledge about child development. Yet adolescent mothers who report

positive relationships with their babies’ fathers feel better about themselves and their competence as mothers, provide a more child-focused child-rearing environment, and are more likely to retain custody and care of their children (Samuels, Stockdale, & Crase, 1994). Although there is evidence that children benefit from involvement with their fathers through better language and developmental skills, in some societies, these benefits are not necessarily dependent on whether the parents live together or separately (Black, Dubowitz, & Starr, 1999). Thus, paternal involvement may be an important protective factor for the children of adolescent mothers. OUTCOMES Childbirth and child rearing are major developmental events that can organize, or reorganize, women’s mental, physical, and emotional lives (Oberman & Josselson, 1996). When these events occur in the midst of adolescence, young mothers are often unprepared and struggle to balance the responsibilities of parenting with the adolescent tasks of consolidating their identities, completing their education, and preparing to become competent adults. Although many young mothers achieve success in both their parenting and adolescent roles, others succumb to depression, school dropout, maltreatment toward the infant, and dependence on public assistance (Dalla & Gamble, 2000).

CONCLUSIONS Despite the challenges, there are many examples of successful outcomes of adolescent parenting. For example, children of adolescent parents are most likely to stay in school and avoid the pattern of adolescent pregnancy when their own mothers complete their education, form stable partner relationships, and support themselves without requiring public assistance. The variability among adolescent parents points to the need to move away from negative stereotypes and to examine how programs can be developed that capitalize on individuals’ strengths and enable them to accomplish the developmental tasks of adolescence, as well as to learn to care for their children (Dalla & Gamble, 2000; Hess, Papas, & Black, 2002). —Barbara Baumgardner and Maureen M. Black

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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Black, M. M., Dubowitz, H., & Starr, R. H., Jr. (1999). AfricanAmerican fathers in low income, urban families: Development and behavior of their 3-year-old children. Child Development, 70, 967–978. Coley, R. L., & Chase-Lansdale, P. L. (1998). Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood: Recent evidence and future directions. American Psychologist, 53, 152–166. Dalla, R. L., & Gamble, W. C. (2000). Mother, daughter, teenager—Who am I? Journal of Family Issues, 21(2), 225–245. Garrett, S. C., & Tidwell, R. (1999). Differences between adolescent mothers and nonmothers: An interview study. Adolescence, 34(133), 91–105. Hess, C. R., Papas, M. A., & Black, M. M. (2002). Resilience among African American adolescent mothers: Predictors of positive parenting in early infancy. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27(7), 619–629. Oberman, Y., & Josselson, R. (1996). Matrix of tensions: A model of mothering. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 341–359. Samuels, V. J., Stockdale, D. F., & Crase, S. J. (1994). Adolescent mothers’ adjustment to parenting. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 427–443.

PARENTING, CHINESE FAMILIES AND Before proceeding, some clarification of the designation Chinese is necessary in light of the vast amount of variation that exists across different societies that are considered Chinese. For the purpose of this entry, research conducted in a number of countries may be included in this designation, including the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. In addition, this designation will refer to individuals of Chinese descent residing in countries other than the ones listed previously (e.g., Chinese American immigrants). As of 2002, the population in Mainland China totaled 1,284,303,705, which is approximately one fifth of the world’s population. The immigration of Chinese people to countries such as the United States has helped create substantial populations in the receiving countries. For instance, in 2002, the Chinese population totaled 2,432,585 million in the United States and 1,029,395 in Canada. These Chinese immigrants constitute distinct cultural groups that bring with them particular beliefs, practices, and norms. Thus, the study of parenting among Chinese families is important not only for scholarly reasons pertaining

to our understanding of parenting in general or within particular groups; as the number of Chinese children increases in population worldwide and in North America, work in parenting among this population is necessary to inform public policy, practice, and effective intervention on these children’s behalf. This entry is based on the assumption that cultural models of childhood socialization have an influence on parenting, and it is imperative to first present a summary of the origins of indigenous conceptions about the person and childhood in Chinese culture. Thus, the historical influences on Chinese parenting will be discussed first. Next, the entry focuses on the central theme surrounding the socialization goals of Chinese parents, that of “family as center” and family interdependence. This is followed by a discussion of the theme of control and strictness in Chinese parenting, a topic that has generated some debate. HISTORICAL INFLUENCES ON CHINESE PARENTING: THE CONFUCIAN TRADITION The historical roots of childhood and child rearing emphasized in China have often been traced to Confucian sources, particularly Mencius, and Buddhist influences, which spread throughout many regions of Asia. According to D. Y. H. Wu (1996), Chinese scholars and political authorities have maintained a relatively clear idea about the concept of the child, the meaning of childhood, and the function of the family in educating young children. In the view espoused by Confucian scholars, a person does not become an acceptable human naturally; instead, there is an emphasis placed both on parental responsibility for instruction and the child’s responsibility for learning about the way of becoming human, or zuoren. One of the most basic assumptions of Confucian scholars is the belief that a child’s disposition derives from environmental influences. A child’s disposition, they believe, begins to develop before birth and during gestation. Therefore, the expecting mother seeks to shape the character of the coming child by carefully planning her activities, such as by avoiding bitter or spicy foods and by listening to refined music and elevated social discourse (Dardess, 1991, p. 75). Parents must continue to provide the correct environment for raising their children after birth. The process of learning to become human must begin early enough in the families to lay the foundation

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for the child to become a future adult of proper manners and moral tenets. In addition to providing specific instructions for proper behavior, teaching by example was, and still is, an important principle of childhood socialization. In Chinese culture, parents are considered a child’s first teachers, and they must model exemplary behavior to set a lifelong foundation for the child (Ho, 1986). Early Socialization: Emotional and Behavioral Restraint Characteristic Chinese socialization is described as including training for obedience, proper conduct, impulse control, and the acceptance of social obligations. There is a relative lack of emphasis given to independence, assertiveness, and creativity (Ho, 1986). An important aspect of early socialization in traditional Chinese culture is to train a child to never reveal his or her thoughts and feelings. Chinese parents are pressured to instill solemnity and selfcontrol early on in their children. Bond and Wang (1983) argued that the Chinese socialize their children to exhibit emotional restraint to promote group harmony. Dardess (1991) associated this emphasis in child training with the preservation of authority in Chinese society. Training a child to never reveal his or her thoughts and feelings and instilling solemnity and self-control early on in a child are important aspects of early socialization in traditional Chinese culture. The Chinese socialize their children to exhibit emotional restraint, and their children are taught to be “little adults” (Bond & Wang, 1983). Sociologists and anthropologists have asserted that traditional Confucian ideology is consistent with an ecology of limited resources and high population density (e.g., La Barre, 1945). Relatedly, an analysis of Confucian tradition would suggest that Chinese parents are consistently shown to limit aggressive behavior in their children, especially with regard to the “in-group,” however defined. For example, Chyou Niem and Collard (1972) found that Chinese mothers from Taiwan were more likely than European mothers to consistently discipline their children’s aggressive behaviors.

Chinese society. It has also greatly influenced parent care and parent-child relationships of the Chinese people. As a cornerstone of the Confucian ethic, it goes far beyond merely obeying and honoring one’s parents. It makes other demands that are no less stringent: Providing for the material and mental well-being of one’s aged parents, performing ceremonial duties of ancestral worship, taking care to avoid harm to one’s own body, ensuring the continuity of the family line, and, in general, conducting oneself so as to bring honor and not disgrace to the family name. Filial piety justifies absolutistic parental authority over children (Ho, 1986). But how are traditional Confucian ideas about child rearing pertinent to the Chinese family of today? The next two sections review the main socialization goal and parenting strategies of Chinese families. INTERDEPENDENCE IN THE FAMILY AND GROUP One of the most often discussed characteristics of Chinese parenting is that of interdependence in the family. The root of such emphasis on the family has been traced to the concept of filial piety in Confucian philosophy. The modern Chinese family is gradually modifying and adapting itself to an increasingly egalitarian perspective. For example, for the most part, the external form and ancient style of filial piety have disappeared. However, the substance of filial piety is still alive and flourishing (Slote & DeVos, 1998). For example, repaying one’s indebtedness to parents and bringing honor to the family name continues to be affirmed, while absolute obedience and subjugation of individual needs and interests to those of parents is decreasing (Ho, 1986). Some forms of adaptation of the traditional Confucian family to a new immigrant environment can be noted in the immigrant society, whether in North America or Southeast Asia, a process described as an indigenization of filial piety in the new environment. Although the value of filial piety may have been given new interpretations and its forms of expression and demonstration may have been changed, the obligation to support the aged parent remains one traditional value strongly adhered to and sanctioned by the immigrant Chinese community.

Filial Piety Another significant concept is that of filial piety, which is the basic ethic governing intergenerational and, more generally, interpersonal relationships in

Family as Reference Group Interdependence orientations depend on the reference group, and within Chinese cultures, children are

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socialized to view the family as the focal reference group for interdependence. That is, interdependent construals of the self stress persons in relation to others within harmonious relationships (Chao & Tseng, 2002). Chao’s (1995) comparisons of child-rearing beliefs among immigrant Chinese and European American mothers provide a contrast between parenting for interdependent versus independent goals. Although both groups of mothers stressed the importance of loving the child, Chinese American mothers emphasized the importance of love for fostering a close, enduring parent-child relationship, whereas European American mothers emphasized the importance of love for fostering the child’s self-esteem. Thus, both groups of mothers stressed the same quality, but Chinese American mothers were motivated toward relational goals and European American mothers were motivated toward individual goals. Although interdependence and concern for others are centered in the Chinese family, these concepts also extend beyond, as Chinese mothers focus on the transformation of the child into a socialized adult within society. Traditionally, failure to bring up a child properly was a poor reflection on the parents and brought disgrace to the family and to the ancestors in a system of interlocking responsibility extending over generations. To some extent, the family today still regards itself to have failed in observing the rules of propriety when one of its members misbehaves. The reputation of the individual and that of his or her family are closely associated (Cheah & Rubin, 2003). High parental expectations about standards of behavior for children are held, which are believed to help ensure that the family reputation is kept unharmed (Fung, 1999). In a survey of parental attitudes on child rearing, parents from Shanghai, China, rated as most important in a “good child” characteristics such as “loves others, is group oriented and cooperative, respects elders, has good manners, and is obedient,” all of which are behaviors that work to sustain positive group functioning (Ho, 1986). Emotional Control Chinese cultural ideologies have traditionally emphasized emotional control among children. Children are expected to be reserved and mindful of emotional displays, especially in public and in situations where one’s behavior could potentially be judged (Bond & Wang, 1983). Such socialization goals are consistent

with recent findings from the research program of Chen, Rubin, and colleagues, who have consistently found that unlike in Western cultures, shy (perhaps “overcontrolled”) behavior is associated positively with peer acceptance and educational success in Chinese children (e.g., Chen, Rubin, & Sun, 1992; Chen, Rubin, & Li, 1995). However, another body of research is developing that highlights the importance of distinguishing shy, cautious behavior from that of the consistent display of socially withdrawn behavior among familiar others. Whereas shy, socially reserved sensitive behavior (as studied by Chen and colleagues) may eventually be conducive to harmonious group interactions, socially withdrawn behavior that removes the child from familiar others could undermine such goals. In fact, Mainland Chinese mothers were found to react negatively to preschoolers’ withdrawn behaviors among familiar others. This sentiment was highlighted by the mothers’ frequent reports that the primary purpose in changing the child’s socially withdrawn behavior was to develop his or her “group spirit” (Cheah & Rubin, in press). THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PARENTAL CONTROL IN CHINESE FAMILIES Due to traditional Chinese beliefs that a child’s disposition is very much under the shaping hands of the parent, child socialization through providing specific instructions on proper conduct is thought to be an important principle of childhood socialization. Consequently, Chinese mothers report that they must provide guidance leading the child toward desired behavior to set a lifelong foundation for the child (Cheah & Rubin, 2003). In early and comparative research comparing European American and Canadian parents with Chinese parents, Chinese parents were found to be more controlling, protective, directive, and authoritarian in child rearing (e.g., Chao, 1994; Kriger & Kroes, 1972; Lin & Fu, 1990). However, studies that have used a more culturally sensitive approach by referring to indigenous notions of control have revealed that control may have different meanings for parents of Chinese versus European descent. Probably the most well-researched indigenous notion of parental control for the Chinese is described by Chao (1994) as guan. Guan is translated as “to govern” but can also mean “to care for” or “to love.” Therefore, parental care, concern, and involvement are synonymous with firm control and

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governance of the child. Thus, the concept of guan may overlap somewhat with restrictive control, but it is also distinct from restriction or domination of children per se. In addition, guan appears to have positive connotations for Chinese adolescents and is positively associated with their perceptions of parental warmth. Another conceptualization for the parenting style of immigrant Chinese, chiao shun, or “training,” was found to be more important or endorsed more by Chinese than European American mothers (Chao & Tseng, 2002). In comparison to their European American counterparts, Mainland Chinese mothers were almost twice as likely to endorse training the child to act in the proper way, providing specific instructions, followed by reasoning for the instructions, as well as offering ideas of cultivation and inculcating. The term that was consistently used by the Mainland Chinese mothers in one study to describe this concept was jiao-yu, which means to “teach him/her the right way” (Cheah & Rubin, 2003). Two additional types of parental control have been studied among adolescents: domineering control versus family-based control. Family-based control was positively correlated with warmth, whereas domineering control was negatively associated with warmth. Thus, for Chinese, and perhaps for other Asian groups, control may be perceived very positively by both children and parents unless it includes aspects of harshness or hostility. Together, these findings provide support for the argument that parental control may have different meanings for Chinese and Chinese Americans than it does for Europeans and European Americans. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE For practitioners working with Chinese parents who are recent immigrants with strong investments in their own cultural capital or with strong ethnic identities, certain principles can be derived from this body of theoretical and empirical research to guide interventions and practice. One is the critical importance of the larger sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts in family life. The contexts of Chinese American families reflecting unique cultural dimensions that may be foreign to Americans from other ethnic groups (e.g., the importance of family or emotional control) deserve particular attention. Similarly, the significance of paying attention to one’s own position on the parenting cultural continuum

cannot be downplayed. Specifically, practitioners and educators need to be aware of possible stereotypes they might bring when working with Chinese families. For example, care should be taken not to overreact or judge certain child-rearing practices with disapproval without an understanding of the cultural context and the strengths or differences that permeate family life in Chinese American groups. CONCLUSIONS This entry began with a review of traditional Confucian parenting ideologies and their continued influence on Chinese families. Although the parenting of the Chinese is diverse, there are also important commonalities or overarching themes that can be identified for describing their parental goals and strategies. The importance of family and harmony of the group is evident in the socialization goals of Chinese and Chinese immigrant parents, in terms of parent-child obligations and the control of emotion. In addition, the effects of parental control on child wellbeing for Chinese families appear to depend on the way control is defined, such that indigenous constructs have positive effects and domineering control has negative effects. Future research should focus on changes in Chinese parenting resulting from urbanization and migration, and the ways in which ecological changes can affect Chinese parents from different regions in Asia and immigrants from these regions. On a more general level, these findings may provide insight into the translation of current research into more culturally sensitive intervention and prevention strategies for children as well as mothers in or from Chinese cultures. —Charissa S. L. Cheah

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bond, M. H., & Wang, S. H. (1983). China, aggressive behavior and the problem of maintaining order and harmony. In A. P. Goldstein & M. H. Segall (Eds.), Aggression in global perspective (pp. 58–74). New York: Pergamon. Chao, R. (1994). Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: Understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training. Child Development, 65, 1111–1119. Chao, R., & Tseng, V. (2002). Asian parenting. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 59–93). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Chao, R. K. (1995). Chinese and European American cultural models of the self reflected in mothers’ childrearing beliefs. Ethos, 23, 328–354. Cheah, C. S. L., & Rubin, K. H. (2003). European American and Mainland Chinese mothers’ socialization beliefs regarding preschoolers’ social skills. Parenting: Science and Practice, 3, 1–22. Cheah, C. S. L., & Rubin, K. H. (in press). Comparison of European American and Mainland Chinese mothers’ responses to aggression and social withdrawal in preschoolers. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Chen, X., Rubin, K. H., & Li, B. (1995). Social and school adjustment of shy and aggressive children in China. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 337–349. Chen, X., Rubin, K. H., & Sun, Y. (1992). Social reputation and peer relationships in Chinese and Canadian children: A cross-cultural study. Child Development, 63, 1336–1343. Chyou Niem, T., & Collard, R. R. (1972). Parental discipline of aggressive behaviors in four-year-old Chinese and American children. Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, 7, 95–96. Dardess, J. (1991). Childhood in premodern China. In J. M. Hawes, M. Joseph, & N. R. Hiner (Eds.), Childhood in historical and comparative perspective (p. 75). New York: Greenwood. Fung, H. (1999). Becoming a moral child: The socialization of shame among young Chinese children. Manuscript submitted for publication. Ho, Y. F. (1986). Chinese patters of socialization: A critical review. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The psychology of Chinese people (pp. 1–37). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Kriger, S. F., & Kroes, W. H. (1972). Child-rearing attitudes of Chinese, Jewish, and Protestant mothers. Journal of Social Psychology, 86, 205–210. La Barre, W. (1945). Some observations on character structure in the Orient: The Japanese. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 8, 319–342. Lin, C. C., & Fu, V. R. (1990). A comparison of child-rearing practices among Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and CaucasianAmerican parents. Child Development, 61, 429–433. Slote, W. H., & DeVos, G. A. (Eds.). (1998). Confucianism and the family. Albany: SUNY Press. Wu, D. Y. H. (1996). Chinese childhood socialization. In M. Bond (Ed.), The handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 143–165). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

PARENTING, DIVORCE AND Years of research on parent-child relationships and on the effects of divorce have created a knowledge base that can guide professionals deciding children’s living arrangements when their parents no longer live

together (Kelly & Lamb, 2000; Lamb, 2002). Although the rates of divorce have recently stopped increasing, about half of the children in the United States are still likely to experience the separation of their parents before they reach adulthood, and many of them will cease having meaningful contact with their fathers. These experiences often have psychological costs, because children are better off psychologically and developmentally in two- rather than single-parent families (Amato & Sobolewski, 2004). On average, children growing up in fatherless families are disadvantaged relative to peers growing up in two-parent families with respect to psychosocial adjustment, behavior and achievement at school, educational attainment, employment trajectories, income generation, involvement in antisocial and criminal behavior, and the ability to establish and maintain intimate relationships. These differences are explained by a number of factors, including the social and financial stresses with which custodial parents must cope, largely on their own; reductions in the level and quality of parental stimulation, attention, and supervision; conflict between the parents; and disruptions of one of the child’s most important and enduring relationships. Children’s wellbeing is significantly enhanced when their relationships with nonresidential parents are positive and when the nonresidential parents engage in “active parenting.” This suggests that postdivorce arrangements should specifically seek to maximize positive and meaningful involvement by both parents rather than simply allow minimal levels of visitation by nonresidential parents. Overall, the level of involvement and quality of relationships between both parents and their children, the amount of conflict between the two parents, and the socioeconomic circumstances in which children reside all affect adjustment to divorce and single parenthood. Unfortunately, however, most contemporary custody and visitation decrees do not foster the maintenance of relationships between children and their noncustodial parents. Because relationships with parents play a crucial role in shaping children’s social, emotional, personal, and cognitive development (Lamb, Hwang, Ketterlinus, & Fracasso, 1999), children are more likely to attain their potential when they are able to develop and maintain meaningful relationships with both of their parents, whether or not the two parents live together. If the parents lived together prior to the separation and the relationships with both parents were of at least

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adequate quality and supportiveness, then the central challenge is to maintain both child-parent attachments after separation/divorce, whether or not the divorcing parents had “traditional” roles before the divorce. Ideally, children should have opportunities to interact with both parents frequently in a variety of functional contexts (feeding, play, discipline, basic care, limit setting, putting to bed, etc.). The evening and overnight periods with nonresidential parents (like extended daytime visits that include naptimes) are especially important psychologically for infants, toddlers, and young children. They provide opportunities for crucial social interactions and nurturing activities, including bathing, soothing hurts and anxieties, bedtime rituals, comforting in the middle of the night, and the reassurance and security of snuggling a dozing child that 1- to 2-hour visits cannot provide. According to attachment theory, these everyday activities promote and maintain trust and confidence in the parents while deepening and strengthening child-parent attachments, and thus need to be encouraged when decisions about custody and access are made. One implication is that even young children should spend overnight periods with both parents when children have established significant attachments to both parents and both have been actively involved in the children’s care. In such cases, overnight visits consolidate attachments and child adjustment, as opposed to working against them. By contrast, parents who have been actively involved before divorce but are then denied overnight access to their children are excluded from an important array of activities, and the strength or depth of their relationships suffer as a result. To minimize the deleterious impact of extended separations from either parent, furthermore, attachment theory tells us there should be more frequent transitions than would perhaps be desirable with older children (Kelly & Lamb, 2000) to ensure the continuity of both relationships and to promote the child’s security and comfort during a potentially stressful period. From the third year of life, the ability to tolerate longer separations begins to increase, so that most toddlers can manage two consecutive overnights with each parent without stress. Schedules involving separations spanning longer blocks of time, such as 5 to 7 days, should be avoided, as children this age may still become upset when separated from either parent for too long. To ensure that both adults become or remain parents to their children, postdivorce parenting plans need to encourage participation by both parents in as broad as

possible an array of social contexts on a regular basis. Brief dinners and occasional weekend visits do not provide an extensive enough basis to foster such relationships, whereas weekday and weekend daytime and nighttime activities are important for children of all ages. Braver (1998) has suggested that at least one third of the nonschool hours should be spent with the noncustodial parent, and most experts would agree that 15% (every other weekend) is almost certainly insufficient. Of course, there are some cases in which the possible benefits of keeping both parents involved are outweighed by the costs of doing so. Conflictful or violent relationships between the parents are most likely to trigger such cost-benefit analyses, because high conflict is reliably associated with poorer child outcomes following divorce (Kelly, 2000). Somewhere around a quarter of divorcing families experience high levels of conflict around the time of divorce, and perhaps 10% of them may have conflict that is sufficiently severe and sufficiently intractable that it is probably not beneficial for the children concerned to have continuing or extensive contact with their noncustodial parents. Of course, the quality of the relationships between nonresidential parents and their children must be examined when determining whether to sever or promote relationships between divorced parents and their children. Regardless of the levels of conflict, there are many families in which noncustodial fathers and children have sufficiently poor relationships, perhaps because of the parents’ psychopathology, substance abuse, or alcohol abuse, such that “maintenance” of interaction or involvement may not be of net benefit to the children, but we do not know how many relationships are like this. —Michael E. Lamb

See also DIVORCE, ITS IMPACT ON CHILDREN

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Amato, P., & Sobolewski, J. M. (2004). The effects of divorce on fathers and children: Nonresidential fathers and stepfathers. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed., pp. 341–368). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Braver, S. L. (1998). Divorced dads: Shattering the myths. New York: Tarcher/Putnam. Kelly, J. B. (2000). Children’s adjustment in conflicted marriage and divorce: A decade review of research. Journal of the America Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 963–973.

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Kelly, J. B., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Using child development research to make appropriate custody and access decisions for young children. Family and Conciliation Courts Review, 38, 297–311. Lamb, M. E. (2002). Placing children’s interests first: Developmentally appropriate parenting plans. Virginia Journal of Social Policy and The Law, 10, 98–119. Lamb, M. E., Hwang, C. P., Ketterlinus, R., & Fracasso, M. P. (1999). Parent-child relationships. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (4th ed., pp. 411–450). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

PARENTING, NATIVE AMERICANS AND The study of parenting among Native American families is imperative from an applied developmental science point of view in order to understand parenting processes and child development in light of the unique issues faced by these families in the United States and Canada. Pragmatically, as Native American children increase in numbers, research in parenting and child development among these populations is necessary to inform public policy, practice, and effective intervention. According to the 2000 census, 1.5% of the total U.S. population (4,119,301) reported being American Indian (includes those self-identified as American Indian or Alaska Native) alone or in combination with one or more other races (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). Moreover, in comparison to the total U.S. population, which grew 13% from 1990 to 2000, the American Indian population increased by 26%. The pattern is the same in Canada. In 2001, a total of 976,300 people identified themselves as aboriginal (includes those self-identified as North American Indian, Métis, or Inuit). This total in 2001 was 22% higher than the 1996 figure of 799,000. In contrast, the total nonaboriginal population grew only 3.4% between 1996 and 2001 (Statistics Canada, 2001). In addition, Native Americans are younger, on average, than their European American counterparts. Considering the above demographics, there is a dearth of research available on Native American parenting. When discussing Native American cultures, frequently, the assumption is that these peoples are a homogeneous group. However, Native American cultures comprise more than 400 distinct tribal groups and communities, with diverse cultural backgrounds (Forehand & Kotchick, 1996). Thus, generalizations

across tribes must be made cautiously; however, traditional Native American values provide some threads of unity with which to understand parenting behavior. These general themes will be discussed in the first section on traditional Native American childrearing beliefs. Next, some of the unique issues faced by these families in North America and current psychological research on Native American parenting will be presented. Finally, the entry concludes with implications for policy and practice. TRADITIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN CHILD-REARING BELIEFS Green (1983) emphasized the unique spiritual and naturalistic orientation of Native cultures. This spirituality underlies several important constructs of Native American families, specifically, balance and interconnectedness among family and tribe members; sharing, to maintain the balance of the group; honesty, to establish understanding; and kindness, to maintain the harmony of the group (Little Bear, 2000). Childrearing responsibilities are often shared in Native American families. The Native American community is considered collective, cooperative, and noncompetitive. One outstanding feature about the Native American family structure is the size and prevalence of the extended family. Native American family networks often include several households, and the extended family serves as an instrument of group solidarity by reinforcing cultural standards and expectations and lending practical assistance, as proximity and finances permit (Seideman et al., 1994). Native American grandparents enjoy both official and symbolic leadership in family communities. Official leadership is characterized by the physical proximity of grandparents to the family and operationalized by grandparents’ monitoring parental behavior and by children seeking contact with the grandparents. If a biological grandparent is not available, another older member of the community may be adopted for the role (Seideman et al., 1994). Many Native American tribes view children as equal beings and integral parts of the life cycle of the whole community. Children are held in high esteem and respect. The concept of the child as parental property is foreign. Among Native Americans, there is a belief in the inviolability of a person, namely, that no person has the right to speak for or control the actions of another person, even a child. Native American parents

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encourage early autonomy and developing a sense of responsibility at an earlier age than is typical in North American society. Consequently, children are treated rather permissively by European North American standards, with minimal adult discipline or regulation of activities (Green, 1983). Traditionally, Native Americans valued and preferred nonverbal teaching and learning through observation, rather than intervention. Children learned through the cultural transmission of beliefs and values from immediate and extended-family members, rather than through direct intervention by parents and teachers. Children were rarely physically punished. Instead, parental strategies to shape child development and the implications of wrongful or unacceptable behavior occurred through the use of praise, reward, recognition, example through storytelling, persuasion, fear induction, embarrassment, and shame (Little Bear, 2000). CULTURAL CHANGES Native American cultures have suffered greatly as the result of the opening of the West to settlement and the removal of Native Americans from their lands. The furthering of economic purposes of European North American society meant, in most cases, the destruction of many Native American traditions (Berlin, 1987). Beginning in the 1800s, many Native American children were placed in residential schools to promote their education and assimilation to the mainstream culture. Separation of children from their families had a profound effect on nurturing parenting skills in subsequent generations. This historical treatment effected a breakdown of traditional Native American child-rearing patterns (Ing, 1991) and the transmission of cultural and parental knowledge. Along with the physical displacement of tribes, the traditional parenting practices of Native Americans were belittled and undermined. In addition, some European American cultural values became attractive to displaced Native Americans. Thus, contemporary Native American parents have been torn between old child-rearing values and the new ways of living. ACCULTURATION Acculturation is the process of learning the dominant society’s language, values, and social competencies. Since the 1980s, researchers have redefined acculturation,

which is now viewed as a multidimensional and bidirectional process in which an individual or group retains values and practices of their heritage and simultaneously adopts those of another group(s), with which there is repeated or prolonged contact, regardless of the reason for this contact (e.g., migration, trade). Native Americans who may or may not have been subjected to mandatory migration and resettlement on reservations experience the acculturation process and its attendant stressful aspects. These peoples may demonstrate cultural orientations ranging from the very traditional (in the Native American sense) to the very assimilated (in the European American sense). Acculturation has been identified as a source of variability for family structure, family roles, parental goals in development, adaptations to extrafamilial stresses and demands, child-rearing practices, and intergenerational conflict, among other things. A paradox exists for contemporary Native American parents as they strive to maintain traditional cultural values while surviving in a dominant European American society (Battiste, 2000). The challenge has been to create a bicultural balance between the two worlds with regard to what is valued and what is to be taught to future generations. Very little is known about the ways that acculturation relates to parenting among Native Americans. In addition, for young parents who move to the city, the source of support and authority derived from extended family is often disrupted. RESEARCH ON NATIVE AMERICAN PARENTING The literature on ethnic and minority parenting (including Native Americans) in the United States and Canada displays a prevalence of deficit models. Historically, parenting practices of ethnic and minority families have been compared with the “standard,” defined as those displayed by European American parents of middle socioeconomic status. The differences observed between the groups are interpreted in terms of deficits, and not necessarily as adaptive strategies responsive to unique environmental and historical demands. More recently, several approaches to the study of ethnic and minority parenting have emerged that focus on the resilience and adaptiveness of families under a variety of social and economic conditions.

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Contextual forces that impinge on minority and ethnic families are increasingly acknowledged, measured, and documented. Unfortunately, the shift away from a deficit model continues to be rare in research on Native American families. Still predominant are works describing the prevalence of psychiatric disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and child abuse and neglect in Native American families, whereas psychological studies on parental beliefs, practices, and parentchild interactions are almost nonexistent. Furthermore, almost all the studies focus on mothers as the sole informant regarding parenting. Research on Native American fathers has revealed that greater amount of time fathers spent as primary caregivers is associated with higher academic achievement and better social development, almost exclusively for boys (Williams, Radin, & Coggins, 1996). In an observational study on Native American mothers of young children, Seideman et al. (1994) found that consistent with the traditional belief in the lack of interference with the expected course of child developmental tasks, Native American mothers tend not to structure their children’s play sessions or read to them frequently. Mothers also engage in almost no verbal and physical restriction and punishment. While expected and encouraged to learn, children are not consciously taught or forced. Instead, Native American mothers are high on responsivity and positive nonverbal behaviors. Thus, the principle of observation and the dominance of the visual (versus linguistic) mode in traditional Native American culture are still evident. Such behaviors are supported by findings that younger children score above norms on developmental tests based on a nonverbal measure, but they score lower at a later age when emphasis is placed on a verbal measure (Cazden & John, 1971). Another researched aspect of Native child rearing has been described as parental permissiveness. The encouragement among Native American parents of early autonomy in young children and the belief that no person has the right to control the actions of a child are often cast into the category of “noncontrol” and “neglect,” with the negativism associated with these terms. It has been argued that research on Native American child rearing often reflects European American prejudices regarding the behaviors interpreted as spoiling children and lacking parental control (Sprott, 1994). Like many ethnic minority groups, Native Americans are substantially less well off than

European Americans on almost every indicator of morbidity, mortality, and quality of life. For Native Americans, the need to alter these continued and serious consequences of demoralization has resulted in a return to ancient traditions (Berlin, 1987). The goals now seem to be to find strength in traditions and to use that strength to learn to adapt more effectively to European American culture, with its lure for adolescents and young adults. More and more, Native American communities have become concerned with child development as a key to tribal survival. APPLICATIONS: PARENTING PROGRAMS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN PARENTS There are several principles that are important for individuals working with Native American parents in practice or intervention. Foremost is the understanding that these efforts require sensitivity and cultural awareness if they are to be of service to Native American families and their communities. For instance, parenting programs need to be more culturally sensitive by incorporating traditional philosophies. A focus on traditional Native American child-rearing beliefs provides some assurance that the “skills” are less likely to be impositions of the mainstream culture. In addition, the acculturation level of parents must also be taken into account. Parents at different points of the acculturation process determine to some extent the aspects of parenting (e.g., disciplinary practices and educational expectations) they uphold and those they relinquish or modify in favor of the dominant culture’s parental values, attitudes, and practices. Although philosophies will at times be in conflict, such conflict can be minimized through flexibility and cultural adjustment. Parent program workers also need to broaden beyond their personal concepts of family and parenting. For example, the role of discipline in Native American families has to be addressed in light of traditional beliefs in child autonomy. These programs and services must also change how they are structured in order to provide workers with the necessary support and training needed to better serve Native American families. CONCLUSIONS While there is great diversity among Native American tribes and communities, several common elements appear to lie at the base of traditional child

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rearing. Some of these elements include strong interconnectedness in the family and tribe, the role of the extended family in child rearing, the importance of autonomy in children, the significance of the oral tradition, and observation as the main mode of learning. Such traditional child-rearing beliefs appear to guide Native American parenting practices as they relate to nonverbal parenting behaviors, punishment, and parental control. There are also unique conditions (e.g., historical attempts at assimilation by the majority culture) under which Native American parents function that need to be addressed in understanding parenting processes in these populations. These unique conditions place specific demands on Native American parents, including the loss of traditional parenting practices and knowledge in several generations of families. As Native American cultures change, the conflict between tradition and new ways presents a major struggle for these families. Fortunately, there is now a focus on finding strength in traditions and also the implementation of that strength to learn to live more effectively with European American culture. —Charissa S. L. Cheah and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Battiste, M. (2000). Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press. Berlin, I. N. (1987). Effects of changing Native American cultures on child development. Journal of Community Psychology, 15, 299–305. Cazden, C. N., & John, V. P. (1971). Learning in American Indian children. In. N. L. Wax, S. Diamond, & F. O. Gearing (Eds.), Anthropological perspectives on education. New York: Basic Books. Forehand, R., & Kotchick, B. A. (1996). Cultural diversity: A wake-up call for parent training. Behavior Therapy, 27, 187–206. Green, H. J. (1983). Risks and attitudes associated with extracultural placement of American Indian children: A critical review. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 22, 63–67. Ing, N. R. (1991). The effects of residential schools on native child-rearing practices. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 18, 65–118. Little Bear, L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press. Seideman, R. Y., Williams, R., Burns, P., Jacobson, S., Weatherby, F., & Primeaux, M. (1994). Culture sensitivity

in assessing urban Native American parenting. Public Health Nursing, 11, 98–103. Sprott, J. E. (1994). One person’s “spoiling” is another’s freedom to become: Overcoming ethnocentric views about parental control. Social Science and Medicine, 38, 1111–1124. Statistics Canada. (2001). Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Available at http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/ products/analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2000). The American Indian and Alaska Native population: 2000. Census 2000 brief. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. Williams, E., Radin, N., & Coggins, K. (1996). Parental involvement in childrearing and the school performance of Ojibwa children: An exploratory study. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 42, 578–595.

PARENTING, PREJUDICE AND Understanding the development of prejudice in individuals has received much attention over the past 50 years (Aboud & Amato, 2001). To address prejudice, it is necessary to examine how it is acquired and how it develops. A commonly held belief among laypersons, educators, and some psychologists is that parents are solely responsible for the development of prejudice in their children. In his classic examination of prejudice, Allport (1954) stressed the important role parents play in teaching prejudice to their children. Direct teaching by parents is the mechanism he used to explain how children are socialized to adopt prejudiced attitudes. Developmental research has challenged this view of the role of parents in the acquisition of prejudicial attitudes. Current research, which has concentrated on the cognitive development, social cognition, interpersonal relations, and social change experienced by children, indicates that children’s prejudice does not correlate with parental attitudes. While parental attitudes about race are fairly stable, children’s attitudes about race change throughout childhood and adolescence. If prejudice were a direct result of imitation of parental attitudes, then there would be little change across the childhood years (that is, some children would be prejudiced based on parental attitudes, and some children would not). Instead, there are significant age-related changes in the manifestation of prejudicial attitudes, indicating that these attitudes are a reflection of social-cognitive and cognitive changes in children’s thinking about others in the social world.

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For example, with age, there is a decrease in children’s propensity to imitate their parents’ emotional dispositions. Parental attitudes and those of their children are not highly correlated. Most significantly, researchers have found little or no meaningful relationship between parental prejudicial attitudes and those of their children for European American and African American families. Some studies have found that most children receive very little information about race or ethnicity from their parents. This suggests that children are influenced by their parents’ attitudes only when parents explicitly talk about their views. Kofkin, Katz, and Downey (1995) found that African American parents were more likely to discuss race with their 3-year-olds, reportedly to protect their children from, or prepare them for, experiences of discrimination. There was no relation, however, between African American parents’ talk of race and their children’s attitudes. While parental instruction in racism fits commonsense expectations, actual evidence supporting this view is scarce. Negative parental attitudes are not highly salient in adolescence due to the strong influence of peers, school experiences, and interracial encounters. Even if parents have negative attitudes, a child’s attitudes can change as he or she grows older. Simply because a parent expresses negative views does not mean that the child will necessarily grow up to have the same views. An alternate perspective, espoused by many researchers, is that parental influences on children’s acquisition of prejudice take indirect and implicit forms, rather than direct and explicit. Social psychology research has demonstrated that while most adults today reject explicit forms of racism, many hold implicit and subconscious racial biases (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1986). Thus, parents, as members of cultures, convey a complex set of implicit biases to children regarding expectations about friendship and intergroup attitudes based on race. For example, a European American mother may allow her daughter to be friends with an African American girl at school, but she might be uncomfortable allowing the friend to join a sleepover in her home. These messages may be conveyed implicitly, rather than explicitly, and may influence children’s choice of cross-race friendships. This, in turn, can have a negative effect on children’s prejudice levels, given that extensive research has found that cross-race friendships are one of the most significant predictors for a reduction in prejudice during development (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000).

While little research has directly linked parenting with the development of prejudice, parenting remains an influential component. Prejudice is a complex phenomenon that pulls from various facets and cognitions in a child’s life and development. Rather than viewing parents as the sole basis for the acquisition of prejudice, current research instead focuses on the multiple influences that parents and peers play in a child’s acquisition of values and decisions based on race. Understanding the indirect and implicit ways that adults and parents convey messages to children about race will help to ameliorate racial tensions and conflict in peer relationships and social contexts. Given the multicultural nature of the workforce, it is essential to design school curricula to foster positive crossrace relationships in childhood and adolescence, before negative racial stereotypes become deeply entrenched in social attitudes. The practical applications of this work are very important for promoting positive intergroup attitudes. —Melanie Killen and Christina Edmonds

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Aboud, F. E., & Amato, M. (2001). Developmental and socialization influences on intergroup bias. In R. Brown & S. Gaertner (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup relations (pp. 65–85). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley. Dovidio, J., & Gaertner, S. (1986). Prejudice, discrimination, and racism: Historical trends and contemporary approaches. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 1–34). Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Kofkin, J. A., Katz, P. A., & Downey, E. P. (1995, April). Family discourse about race and the development of children’s racial attitudes. Poster session presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN. Pettigrew, T., & Tropp, L. (2000). Does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Recent meta-analytic findings. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 93–114). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

PARENTING, SINGLE MOTHERS Despite popular beliefs to the contrary, single mothers have long been a reality in the United States.

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For years, however, single motherhood was seen as a moral issue unless the mother was widowed. Otherwise, such families were viewed as a problem among the very poor, the amoral, racial minorities, and those with emotional disorders. Those views, however, are changing. With the growing number of single-parent households, especially single mothers, the face of the American family is evolving. Increasingly, the American family portrait contains a single, divorced, widowed, or never-married mother. DEMOGRAPHICS OF SINGLE-MOTHER FAMILIES In 1970, there were 3 million households headed by single parents; by 1998, that figure had quadrupled to 14 million households, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (Fields & Casper, 2001). About a third of all children born today are born to unmarried mothers, and the fastest-growing segment of single mothers has never been married. Divorce also contributes to the number of single-mother households. According to some estimates, nearly half (45%) of children born to married parents will see their parents divorce by their 18th birthdays. And while the population of single fathers continues to grow, the majority of single parents continue to be mothers. Most single-parent children live in metropolitan areas, and 6 out of 10 dwell in cities with populations of 1 million or more. In terms of race and ethnicity, single-mother families come from every group, although a disproportionate number of single mothers are Latina or African American. Most families led by single mothers are highly functional, with well-developing children, but many such families are under financial or emotional stressors that pose certain risks. Some research on single mothers focuses on a narrow pathology model that insinuates that all single parents, especially mothers, are bad parents. Other studies take the opposite view but sometimes ignore the difficulties of raising children without a partner. Nonetheless, with the growing number of single-mother families, there is a need to study far-reaching effects on family economics, parental stressors, and children’s development. ECONOMIC IMPACT For many children, growing up in single-mother households means poverty. Nearly 6 of 10 children of

single mothers are living near or below the poverty line, according to U.S. Bureau of the Census (1998) statistics. Less than half of the children raised by divorced mothers (about 45%) and more than two thirds of those raised by never-married mothers (69%) live in or near poverty. While many single parents have jobs, 7.4 million children live with single mothers who are not in the labor force. Children of nevermarried mothers are twice as likely (59%) as those of divorced mothers (29%) to live with mothers who are unemployed. Single parents make up the largest proportion of American poor and are more likely than married couples to receive government assistance. In 2000, mothers who were never married made up about 48% of welfare recipients. Single-mother families are less likely than other family groups to benefit from economic growth and are more likely to experience chronic poverty (incomes at or below the poverty level each month for 2 years) than any other type of family (Fields & Casper, 2001; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998). There are several reasons for the large number of single-mother families in poverty. First, given the current and historical economic disparities between the genders, men earn approximately twice as much as women. Second, it is simply more financially difficult to raise a child alone than with a spouse or partner; two incomes go further than one. Third, women are often responsible for taking care of elderly parents, grandparents, and sometimes extended family members, and these additional responsibilities can limit a woman’s educational opportunities or the types of jobs she can take. PARENTAL STRESSORS There are emotional challenges associated with providing for and caring for a family single-handedly. Full-time work, for example, when combined with single parenthood and other economic concerns can be a risk factor for depression. A large body of research supports the claim that families headed by single mothers are more likely than two-parent families to experience stressful life events such as job loss, changes in income or place of residence, or long periods of unemployment. In addition, single-parent families often experience greater social isolation than two-parent families, and those receiving government assistance often experience negative and demeaning interactions with the public welfare system. As a

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result, single parents (most of whom are mothers) are at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and other mental and physical health problems. These situations are even more severe for single mothers who lack support systems. Single mothers receiving public assistance have also reported experiencing stress through negative and demeaning interaction with the public welfare system; the stigma associated with welfare use hurts recipients’ sense of self-esteem and selfefficacy and increases likelihood of depression (McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994; Seccombe, 1999). SUPPORT NETWORKS Single mothers often receive assistance from friends and relatives, but many do not have access to strong support networks. It stands to reason that married mothers, who often operate within a wider circle of friends and have two sets of relatives, receive more support from their social networks. This type of support also varies by race. Research suggests that White mothers are more likely than African Americans to receive income support from family members, while Black mothers get more in-kind help (such as child care or transportation) from friends than do White mothers. In addition, single mothers living in the north are more likely than their southern counterparts to receive help with child care (Boisjoly, Duncan, & Hofferth, 1995; Jayakody, Chatters, & Taylor, 1993). EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT Much has been written about the educational attainment of children growing up with single mothers. On average, studies have found that children growing up with single mothers have lower educational attainment then children living with two parents. These children tend to do worse in school than children growing up in two-parent homes; they are more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to attend college. Although these odds improve with income, many studies show that these differences can persist across economic levels (Amato, 2003; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). Many of the lowest-income single mothers have poor educational attainment themselves. Single mothers with general equivalency diplomas (GEDs) or high school diplomas receive public assistance at much higher rates than those with higher education levels. Nearly 38% of single mothers with high school

diplomas and 43% who are not high school graduates are on welfare, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (Fields & Casper, 2001). YOUTH DEVELOPMENT Some studies have indicated that children growing up with only one parent are deprived of economic, parental, and community resources, particularly if that one parent is female. Children of single-mother, lowincome households experience considerable disadvantages. Studies show that they are at greater risk than children reared in two-parent homes for low educational attainment, low occupational status, and behavior problems. They are more likely than their peers from two-parent homes to experience marriage and childbirth at an early age, display aggressive behavior, and have negative relationships with their parents (Amato & Stolba, 1993; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). The type of single-parent family home seemingly matters, as well. According to some studies, children who lose their fathers through death are not just better off economically but also have better educational and psychological outcomes than children whose fathers leave or never live with the family. A stepfather, in this view, has a minimal to negative effect. Indeed, social research has identified numerous risk factors that put youth at risk for problems, ranging from hyperactivity to dropping out of school to becoming involved with crime to having early unwanted pregnancies. The U.S. Bureau of the Census (1997) focuses on six of these risk factors, including growing up in a single-parent household and having an unwed mother. DEBUNKING THE PATHOLOGY MODEL OF SINGLE PARENTHOOD Increasingly, researchers emphasize that not all single-mother families fare poorly. Some studies show that when controlling for family income, living in a female-headed household does not affect a child’s academic test scores, their later development, or their overall life chances. They suggest that single mothers are resilient, self-reliant, resourceful, and creative, as evidenced by their survival strategies and management skills. Thus, they are creative and resourceful role models for their children (Brodsky, 1999; Smith, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1997).

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When researchers control for the effects of socioeconomic status, children of single-parent families are as well-adjusted as those with two parents living together. Often, a female-headed household has more than one adult; there are often two parents, a mother and a grandmother. Many studies do not even consider nontraditional living situations, such as same-gender relationships or communal living arrangements. Studies show that single-mother families that have been successful have been able to create personal resources for their children, such as extended families, coparenting with fathers, and adapting a positive outlook on life. Several moderators, or protective factors, improve life chances for single mothers and their children. Children who engage in problem solving, gathering social support, and other active coping skills do better than those who do not. Social support from peers helps, as does living in a neighborhood with good services and quality schools. In addition, access to therapeutic interventions, either in the school or outside, can improve life opportunities for children of single mothers (Amato, 2003).

LONG-TERM TRENDS As the number of single mothers increase, more women are opting to raise children without male spouses. These single mothers by choice either adopt or give birth to children, knowing that they will be the only parent. While most women who seek adoption or donor insemination are White, middle or upper income, and in their mid-30s to -40s, a growing number of minority women, particularly African American women who adopt, are also seeking to raise children without partners. As the American family continues to change, we can expect to see more households headed by single mothers. To better meet the needs of this changing structure and to foster positive development in their children, the United States requires more comprehensive family polices. These policies should be geared toward understanding and supporting nontraditional families and providing educational resources, appropriate and affordable child care, and flexible employment opportunities to parents and children in many different types of families. —Robert Leibson Hawkins

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Amato, P. R. (2003). Family functioning and child development: The case of divorce. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science (pp. 319–338). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Amato, P., & Stolba, A. (1993). Extended single-parent households and children’s behavior. Sociological Quarterly, 34, 543–549. Boisjoly, J., Duncan, G. J., & Hofferth, S. (1995). Access to social capital. Journal of Family Issues, 16(5), 609–632. Brodsky, A. E. (1999). “Making it”: The components and process of resilience among urban, African-American, single mothers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 69(2), 148–160. Fields, J., & Casper, L. (2001). America’s families and living arrangements. Current population reports (P20-537). Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Jayakody, R., Chatters, L. M., & Taylor, R. J. (1993). Family support to single and married African American mothers: The provision of financial, emotional, and child care assistance. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 261–276. McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Seccombe, K. (1999). So you think I drive a Cadillac? Welfare recipients’ perspectives on the system and its reform. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Smith, J., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Klebanov, P. K. (1997). Consequences of living in poverty for young children’s cognitive and verbal ability and early school achievement. In G. J. Duncan & J. Brooks-Gunn (Eds.), Consequences of growing up poor (pp. 132–189). New York: Russell Sage. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1997, September). Census brief: America’s children at risk (CENBR/97-2). Washington, DC: Author. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1998). Poverty 1993–94: Trap door? Revolving door? Or both? Current population reports. Washington, DC: Author.

PARENTING, STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS AND The focus of this entry is on parenting in socially impoverished settings that hold diverse psychosocial stressors for parents, pose challenges to the parent-child relationship, and act as risk factors in children’s healthy development. A developmental systems approach to understanding human behavior and development in general, and to parenting more specifically, considers multiple levels of organization that comprise individuals’ lives, as well as the integrative functions of these

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levels and the bidirectional interactions that exist between them. These multiple levels of organization represent each individual’s ecology (e.g., parents, peer groups, and culture), provide micro- and macroprocesses of support for the individual, and have the ability to change independently with time (Bronfenbrenner, 1999; Lerner, 2002). The interactions that occur within different levels of one’s ecology and between these levels and the individual reflect embeddedness of the individual in his or her context. In regard to parenting, the very presence of the individual’s embeddedness in the context tells us that to understand parenting, we must take into consideration not only the child and his or her parents but also the wider context that surrounds them and the dynamic interactions, and outcomes of those interactions, that exist between the child and the parent in the light of their daily settings. In the study of parenting in stressful environments, the focus can be either on the environments in which socioeconomic stressors represent an acute occurrence (e.g., war, parental illness, homelessness, etc.) or on the environments in which stressors have formed and remained long enough to be considered chronic stressors. It is important to note that acute social stressors can bring about social changes that, in time, may turn into more or less intense chronic social outcomes. For example, families living in communities ridden by war tend to experience at first acute stressors (e.g., unemployment, fear for physical safety, and inadequate nutrition), which eventually develop into chronic social issues (e.g., poverty and violence) and turn communities into impoverished settings for both parents and children. Our focus in this discussion of relations between parenting in stressful environments and its impact on children’s healthy development is on acutely impoverished settings, also referred to as “toxic environments” (Garbarino, Kostelny, & Barry, 1997). IMPACT OF STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS ON PARENTS Garbarino et al. (1997) describe toxic environments as representing neighborhoods and communities that foster high unemployment rates, violence, and stressful day-to-day family interactions. Neighborhood and community effects tend to seep into subsequent child-rearing practices through different components of the parent-child relationship (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2003). Such components may

include parental characteristics (e.g., coping skills and mental health), parental behavior (e.g., emotional responsiveness and support), support networks within neighborhood, and home environment (e.g., exposure to intramarital violence). In toxic social environments, stressors associated with scarcity of employment and low wages make it difficult for parents to cope with their life circumstances, to provide for their families, and, in the midst of it all, to adequately parent. Parents who must cope with adverse socioeconomic stressors are vulnerable to developing dysfunctional ways for coping with the stressors. In turn, dysfunctional coping styles are likely to affect the quality of parenting practices by decreasing parents’ ability to provide consistent and involved parenting. Indeed, when parents feel unhappy due to economic stressors in their life circumstances, a high density of irritable, hostile interchanges between parents are likely to take place (Conger, Ge, Elder, Lorenz, & Simons, 1994). Similarly, marital conflicts that stem from parents’ psychological distress in times of economic hardship may lead parents to interact with their children in a punitive and rejecting fashion. A study has shown, for instance, that high levels of parental stress due to low income are associated with parents’ more intense cognitive-emotional processes and more negative perceptions of children’s actions, leading to parents’ more frequent endorsement of harsh discipline, such as spanking (Pinderhughes, Dodge, Bates, Pettit, & Zelli, 2000). As can be seen, stressors imposed within a context of stressful environments tend to reflect in parents’ abilities to adjust their parenting styles in ways that will help them meet the limitations and avoid dangers of the environment in which they are raising their children. The more successful a parent is in adjusting his or her parenting style to the demands of the new ecology, the better chance the parent will have to protect his or her child’s well-being within the new context. For example, in an effort to protect their children, parents who are raising children in dangerous communities are likely to become more controlling and restrictive of their children’s whereabouts within the community. Though parents, out of the best intentions for their children, may seek to protect them by being more restrictive and controlling, this protective behavior may hinder children’ ability to develop an appropriate sense of autonomy (Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000). In the

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end, parental adaptation to socially impoverished environments may lead to child-rearing strategies that prove to be deleterious for a child’s ability to attain positive adjustment outcomes. IMPACT OF STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS ON CHILDREN While parents are expressing their own ways of adjusting to living in the impoverished/toxic environment, their children too are trying to adjust. However, children’s adjustment to stressful environments is twofold: It includes adjustment not only to social changes and associated stressors within the context of their ecology but also to the consequences of those social changes as reflected in their parents’ adjusted behavior. Elkind (1981) notes that stress in childhood is part of the normal process of growing up. In fact, the absence of developmental crises and associated stress can be seen as undermining development. However, just as the absence of stress in a child’s life is not necessarily in the child’s best interest, so can an excess of stress have negative effects on the child’s positive developmental trajectory. Problems in development can occur when children face powerful stressors that go beyond their coping thresholds. Indeed, most children who live in stressful environments face a considerably higher number of powerful stressors and challenges than their more advantaged peers. It should be noted that not all children react to stress in the exact same way. Depending on the overall context and on individual differences, the same environment can lead to various outcomes for different children. In this respect, most researchers now embrace a transactional approach to address the dynamic and reciprocal relations between environmental stressors and individual characteristics (Bronfenbrenner, 1999). Thus, a developmental systems approach seems useful in understanding how children of different ages perceive their global situations. In addition to the most commonly expected developmental outcomes (e.g., attachment difficulties, developmental delays or regressions, eating and sleeping disorders, poor school performance, etc.), children and adolescents living in toxic environments might experience additional stress through a variety of mediating factors (McLoyd, Jayaratne, Ceballo, & Borquez, 1994). Such negative mediating factors may include parents’ depression, inconsistent discipline

and monitoring practices, disruptions in parent-child relations, and lower-quality marital interactions. As a result of these mediating factors, many children living in stressful environments are at risk of failing to develop “values that promote hard work, responsibility for one’s actions, responsible parenting, respect, compassion and caring for others, tolerance of difference, and responsibility for one’s community” (Garbarino et al., 1997, p. 308). In other words, children living in stressful environments are likely to be “hit” twice. Most children perceive and experience stressful characteristics of their environments in ways that can directly affect their normal development. In addition, lack of good parenting may lead to additional—and potentially stronger— adjustment difficulties for the children. Garbarino et al. (1997) explain, for instance, that punitive parenting is likely to initiate aggression in children, which may, in turn, limit children’s capacities to develop in a healthy manner. In addition, many adolescents who have witnessed interparental conflicts have been found to develop internalizing and/or externalizing problem behaviors (Conger et al., 1994), such as lower perceived self-competence, poor self-control, and aggression toward peers—all factors potentially leading to long-term problems in adulthood. Finally, in instances of continued high-level interparental conflict, the conflict has been associated with more maternal rejection by (as perceived by children) or parental distancing from the adolescent child (Fauber, Forehand, McCombs, & Weirson, 1990). CONCLUSIONS In general, researchers agree that problems of stressful environments are likely to be most destructive for a family and for the children when they become chronic and seemingly without solution (Conger et al., 1994). However, to allow for more indepth exploration of the interplay between stressful environments, parenting, and children’s developmental outcomes, there is a need to distinguish between chronically and acutely stressful environments. Within acutely toxic environments, what is needed are neighborhood-based social services that would enable parents to use their parenting as a buffer from negative effects of their impoverished environment on children’s healthy development. Indeed, when parents who experience high levels of stress do not receive support from their communities necessary to help

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them nurture positive and caring relationships with their children, these children are less likely to reach positive developmental outcomes. What these parents could benefit from, then, is access to organized community-based support systems, in particular, to parent education programs. Indeed, parental access to networks and social connections can act as a moderator of environmental stressors (Leventhal & BrooksGunn, 2003) and, in turn, help promote children’s healthy and positive development, even in stressful environments. —Aida B. Balsano and Sophie Naudeau

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bronfenbrenner, U. (1999). Environments in developmental perspective: Theoretical and operational models. In S. L. Friedman & T. Wachs (Eds.), Measuring environment across the life span: Emerging methods and concepts (pp. 3–30). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Collins, W. A., Maccoby, E. E., Steinberg, L., Hetherington, E. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting: The case of nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55(2), 218–232. Conger, R. D., Ge, H., Elder, G. H., Lorenz, F. O., & Simons, R. L. (1994). Economic stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents. Child Development, 65, 541–561. Elkind, D. (1981). The hurried child. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley. Fauber, R., Forehand, R., McCombs, A., & Weirson, M. (1990). A mediational model of the impact of marital conflict on adolescent adjustment in intact and divorced families: The role of disrupted parenting. Child Development, 61, 1112–1123. Garbarino, J., Kostelny, K., & Barry, F. (1997). Value transmission in an ecological context: The high-risk neighborhood. In J. E. Grusec & L. Kuczynski (Eds.), Parenting and children’s internalization of values: A handbook of contemporary theory (pp. 307–332). New York: Wiley. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Moving on up: Neighborhood effects on children and families. In M. H. Bornstein and R. H. Bradley (Eds.), Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development (pp. 209–230). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. McLoyd, V. C., Jayaratne, T. E., Ceballo, R., & Borquez, J. (1994). Unemployment and work interruption among African American single mothers: Effects on parenting and

adolescent socioemotional functioning. Child Development, 65(2), 562–589. Pinderhughes, E. E., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., & Zelli, A. (2000). Discipline responses: Influences of parents’ socioeconomic status, ethnicity, beliefs about parenting, stress, and cognitive-emotional processes. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(3), 380–400.

PARTICIPANT ADVOCATE, RESEARCH INVOLVING CHILDREN To protect the rights and welfare of human participants involved in research, several federal regulations have been developed. Specifically, regulations indicate that a participant advocate must monitor the participation of an individual who may be vulnerable to coercion or undue influence to participate in research or who cannot make a “legally effective” decision regarding participation (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2001, Section 46.116). Such groups include children, prisoners, pregnant women, mentally disabled persons, and economically or educationally disadvantaged persons. This entry discusses the rationale and role of a participant advocate in conducting research with children and adolescents. PARENTAL PERMISSION AND CHILD ASSENT Drawing on the ethical principle of respect for autonomy, investigators must follow federal regulations to obtain informed consent before any research procedures can begin. Consent must be obtained only from a participant who can give “legally effective” informed consent on his or her own behalf (DHHS, 2001, Section 46.116). Under federal guidelines, most children are defined as “persons who have not attained the legal age for consent to treatments or procedures involved in research” (DHHS, 2001, Section 46.402a). Exceptions are “mature” or “emancipated” minors who have been given legal authority via statute or case law to make autonomous decisions regarding certain medical treatments and procedures. To ensure adequate child protection, the child’s parents or a guardian who has legal authority to consent on behalf of the child to general medical care must provide “permission” for the child’s research participation. Following this approval, the child’s “assent” must also be sought (DHHS, 2001, Section 46.408).

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WHY ARE PARTICIPANT ADVOCATES NEEDED? The rationale of obtaining permission from parents or guardians as a safeguard against harmful consequences to the child is based on the assumption that parents or guardians are present, caring, and motivated to act in the best interest of the child (Fisher, Hoagwood, & Jensen, 1996; Levine, 1986). Yet for some youth, this is not the case. For example, contacting the parents or guardians of a child who is abused or neglected may be detrimental to the child’s welfare. In other cases, parents or guardians may be unknown, deceased, or unable to be contacted. In such situations, federal regulations allow parental consent to be waived, providing (a) the study procedures are of minimal risk and do not affect the rights and welfare of participants and (b) the research could not be carried out without the waiver (DHHS, 2001, Section 46.408c; Fisher et al., 1996). To obtain a waiver of permission from the parent, an “appropriate mechanism” for protecting the welfare and safety of the child involved in research must be put in place (DHHS, 2001, Section 46.408c). Unfortunately, there are no clear guidelines for what the “appropriate mechanism” should be; it is dependent on the nature and purpose of the research, risks and benefits of participation, and the age, maturity, status, and condition of the child. In most instances when the guardian’s permission is waived, a participant advocate is appointed to ensure the protection of the participating child (Fisher et al., 1996). If the child is a ward of the state, federal regulations are more explicit and require a participant advocate be appointed for each child as an “appropriate mechanism” for protecting the child’s welfare. This advocate must not be associated in any way with the research (except in the role of advocate or internal review board [IRB] member), the investigator, or the guardian organization (DHHS, 2001, Section 46.409b).

THE ROLE OF PARTICIPANT ADVOCATE To serve in the role of advocate, the individual must have the background and experience to act in (and must agree to act in) the best interest of the child for the duration of the child’s participation in the study. In this role, the advocate must safeguard the rights and welfare of the child by (a) verifying that the child understands the procedures for assent,

(b) advocating for the child’s preferences, (c) ensuring that participation is voluntary, (d) checking periodically as to whether the child wishes to terminate participation in the project, (e) assessing the child’s reactions to planned study procedures, (f) ensuring the debriefing addresses the child’s questions and concerns, and (g) serving as a liaison to referral services (Fisher et al., 1996). The following section is a hypothetical case example of the use of a participant advocate while conducting research with children. PARTICIPANT ADVOCATES: A HYPOTHETICAL CASE EXAMPLE The mental health service needs and service utilization among juvenile detainees were examined using a sample of detainees questioned upon intake to a large urban detention center. Because these youth were typically assessed shortly before adjudication (typically 24 hours), the research project staff were often unable to reach parents by phone or other means to obtain parental permission. Since the research was deemed of minimal risk and of importance to the future well-being of juvenile detainees, the IRB permitted a waiver of guardian permission for detainees whose guardians could not be contacted. Despite this waiver, the investigators made every attempt to contact parents during visiting hours, and the detainees whose guardians refused permission were not approached. If contact with a guardian was not possible, a participant advocate with no relation to the research was asked to intervene. The advocate, a psychologist who regularly met with the juvenile detainees, interviewed the youth, evaluated their comprehension of research procedures, and determined whether they wanted to participate. If such an agreement to participate was judged as rational, informed, and voluntary, the research team was permitted to approach the youth and obtain his or her assent. If the youth refused or the advocate determined that the youth could not rationally or voluntarily provide assent, he or she was not contacted further. The participant advocate was also available to assist youth who wanted to withdraw their assent (Fisher et al., 1996). CONCLUSIONS In sum, a participant advocate upholds in two ways the ethical principles of respect, beneficence, and justice when conducting research with children. First, the

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participant advocate ensures that children without identifiable guardians or who are wards of the state participate in research knowingly and voluntarily and are not coerced into participation or exploited. Second, assigning a participant advocate ensures that youth of uncertain guardianship are not excluded from research studies because of failure to obtain guardian permission. This allows the potential benefits associated with research, such as improved treatments and interventions, to be distributed justly across all groups and not restricted to those youth who are the most well-adjusted or whose guardians are available, caring, or ready to act in the best interests of their children. —Katherine S. Elkington and Linda A. Teplin

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Fisher, C. B., Hoagwood, K., Boyce, C., Duster, T., Frank, D. A., Grisso, T., et al. (2002). Research ethics for mental health science involving ethnic minority children and youths. American Psychologist, 57, 1024–1040. Fisher, C. B., Hoagwood, K., & Jensen, P. (1996). Casebook on ethical issues in research with children and adolescents with mental disorders. In K. Hoagwood, P. S. Jensen, & C. B. Fisher (Eds.), Ethical issues in mental health research with children and adolescents (pp. 135–248). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Levine, R. (1986). Ethics and regulation of clinical research (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Urban & Schwarzenberg. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001, August). Code of federal regulations, protection of human subjects (Title 45, Public Welfare, Part 46). Washington, DC: Author.

PEDIATRIC PSYCHOLOGY Pediatric psychology constitutes a key domain of inquiry and action in applied developmental science (ADS) (Wertlieb, 2003a). Pediatric psychology and ADS share important historical roots as well as theories, methods, heuristics, and implications. As a discipline and field of research and professional practice, pediatric psychology emerges from strong traditions in clinical psychology with contemporary contexts encouraging its elaboration as an applied developmental science. The entry begins with a definition of pediatric psychology, then turns to its historical

evolution, key theories, and methods and, finally, to an assessment of its frontiers. DEFINING THE FIELD According to the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP), founded in 1967, “Pediatric psychology is an interdisciplinary field addressing physical, cognitive, social, and emotional functioning and development as they relate to health and illness issues in children, adolescents and families” (masthead, Brown, 2003b). The society’s scientific journal, Journal of Pediatric Psychology (JPP), which began publication in 1975, publishes papers on a wide variety of topics exploring the interrelationships between psychological and physical well-being of children, adolescents and families, including: psychosocial and developmental factors contributing to the etiology, course, treatment and outcome of pediatric conditions; assessment and treatment of behavioral and emotional concomitants of disease, illness, and developmental disorders; the role of psychology in health care settings; behavioral aspects of pediatric medicine; the promotion of health and health-related behavior; the prevention of illness and injury among children and youth; and issues related to the training of pediatric psychologists. (masthead, Brown, 2003b) The third edition of the Handbook of Pediatric Psychology was recently published, providing a comprehensive survey of the field (Roberts, 2003). Historically, pediatric psychology has been defined as a subdiscipline of clinical psychology or of health psychology, sometimes referred to as child health psychology, reflecting both political and conceptual issues in its emergence as a bona fide specialization in professional psychology. At least as important as locating pediatric psychology in psychology in grasping the scope of the field is locating it in the multidisciplinary nexus constituting applied developmental science. These connections between and among kindred disciplines will be evident in both the historical and contemporary analyses that follow. HISTORICAL ROOTS Historians of both pediatric psychology and ADS point to the establishment of the first psychological

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clinic in the United States by Lightner Witmer at the end of the 19th century as a significant early milestone in the collaboration between psychologists and pediatricians (Routh, 1975; Wertlieb, 2003a). The chronicle of pediatric psychology continues with early-20th-century notables such as Gesell (1919), a psychologist and a physician, describing clinical psychology in the medical treatment of children and Anderson (1938) suggesting that clinical psychologists assist pediatricians in assessing children and educating parents. By midcentury, Richmond (1967) had boldly and clearly defined child development as a “basic science” for pediatrics, and there was a proposal for a “new marriage” between psychology and pediatrics (Kagan, 1965). The offspring of this blessed event were to be today’s pediatric psychologists and developmental and behavioral pediatricians (Haggerty, Friedman, & Calderoni, 2003). Logan Wright (1967), considered by many to be the father of contemporary pediatric psychology, first coined the term in defining the field as “dealing primarily with children in a medical setting which is nonpsychiatric in nature” (p. 323). As Roberts and colleagues (2003) point out, at this time, the American Psychological Association (APA) was assessing interests and needs of its members, especially those who were clinical child psychologists, eventually forming the Society of Pediatric Psychology in 1968, with 97 members affiliated with the Division of Clinical Psychology’s Section on Clinical Child Psychology. By 1980, SPP was an independent section of the division, and in 2001 it became a separate division of the APA, Division 54, with more than 1,500 current members. The 1970s saw the emergence and the convergence of biopsychosocial models in the social and behavioral sciences as well as in medicine and health care, thus better reflecting the complex multivariate nature of development, behavior, and health and efforts to intervene in these processes. The term “new morbidity” was coined to acknowledge that environmental and psychosocial dimensions of children’s health were an increasingly significant priority (Haggerty, Roghmann, & Pless, 1975). No longer were pediatricians focused solely on infectious diseases as the major threats to children; rather, a diverse range of multifactorial threats, including chronic disease and disability, child maltreatment, learning disorders, and risk behaviors such as smoking and substance abuse, required the attention of pediatricians and their pediatric psychology colleagues.

Now, at the start of the 21st century, pediatric psychology is well established in psychology and applied developmental science, with comprehensive surveys and critical reviews in several seminal child psychology texts, including both the Handbook of Psychology (Barakat, Kunin-Batson, & Kazak, 2003) and the Handbook of Applied Developmental Science (Lerner, Jacobs, & Wertlieb, 2003). These surveys, as well as the handbook and journal noted earlier, also illustrate the web of connections to related disciplines, such as developmental, school, and clinical psychology; child psychiatry; special education; child life; medical sociology; and public health, community health, and prevention science. KEY THEORIES AND METHODS IN PEDIATRIC PSYCHOLOGY Among the forces shaping modern pediatric psychology as an applied developmental science, with the multidisciplinary identity that sets ADS apart from other related fields, was the deepening collaboration with pediatrician colleagues. By 1993, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) adopted the policy statement, “The Pediatrician and the New Morbidity,” which affirmed social difficulties, behavioral problems, and developmental problems to be a major focus of pediatric medical care. As noted above, infectious diseases and death during childbirth appeared to be largely behind us, with the advent of antibiotics, neonatal intensive care technology, and childhood immunization, but children’s health was, and continues to be, compromised by psychological and behavioral factors: unintentional injuries, child maltreatment, sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, and mental disorders. As more children survived illnesses and injuries thanks to advances in technology and care, living with chronic illness and disability became the goal of an increasing proportion of children, and the quality of life for these children and families became a focus for pediatric providers and pediatric psychologists. Thus, the AAP became committed to “prevention, early detection, and management of behavioral, developmental, and social problems” as a focus of their practice, a perspective that was reaffirmed in 2001 (AAP, 2001), and continues as a foundation of the bridge between pediatrics and pediatric psychology. As academic pediatrics sought to institutionalize the kind of “whole child” care that the best providers

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had always delivered, the need became obvious for scientifically based materials and for like-minded colleagues well versed in theories and methodologies of social and behavioral science as well as the expertise to provide interventions where necessary. Because pediatric psychologists could be found “where the docs are,” that is, in hospitals and health care settings, they were the logical applied developmental scientists to turn to for help in addressing the range of behavioral health issues confronting the pediatric physician. Johnson (1994) argues that the only meaningful health outcomes are behavioral health outcomes: how well an individual can conduct the business of daily life. Thus, for children with health-related problems, assessment must consider how a particular medical condition, be it illness, injury, or developmental disability, affects “normal” development. In addition, with the awareness that morbidity and mortality in adulthood are significantly related to both childhood experiences and health-promoting behaviors or lifestyles rooted in socialization and child rearing, the life span implications of pediatric psychology are increasingly salient. In trying to understand how various medical conditions affect normal development, the stress and coping model naturally resonates for the applied developmental scientist and provides an example of contemporary theory and research in pediatric psychology (Wertlieb, 2003a). In brief, the stress and coping model is a circular, bidirectional model relating stress to coping processes, coping resources, and outcomes. From an ADS perspective, every developing human confronts various challenges, be they in the individual, the family, or the broader community. From this vantage point, when a child develops a health problem, it creates stress for that child but also for all of the others in his or her social world: parents, siblings, extended family, classmates, and teachers. Each individual must then cope using whatever resources he or she brings to the situation, including personality and temperamental characteristics, cognitive capacity, social support, economic resources, and so forth. The availability or the scarcity of these resources, in turn, influences current coping and the individual’s beliefs about his or her own ability to cope in the future, and all of these factors contribute to the outcomes. As a circular model, the outcomes of an acute situation today contribute to the resources available during subsequent challenges. Wertlieb (2003a) points out that some stressors may be considered normative (e.g., the

developmental challenge of moving from elementary school to middle school), while some, particularly some that are the province of the pediatric psychologist, such as being diagnosed with cancer or watching a sibling die from cystic fibrosis, are more atypical. As applied developmental scientists, pediatric psychologists have studied children coping with chronic illness in order to develop specific, applied prevention and intervention programs and also as a model to understand stress and coping more generally (Thompson & Gustafson, 1996; Wallander & Varni, 1998). From this perspective, it becomes apparent that some individuals are better equipped to cope than others. The processes involved in the ability to succeed despite being confronted with multiple atypical stressors has been referred to as resiliency (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). Pediatric psychologists are interested in resiliency because of the focus on health promotion and the desire to maximize the potential of children and families coping with serious health concerns. Among the processes that promote resiliency are some that are obvious (e.g., intelligence, social skills, and social support) and some that are harder to specify (e.g., personality), but the identification of specific personality characteristics remains elusive, and our understanding of how the stressors themselves affect personality development is rudimentary. As applied developmental scientists, pediatric psychologists approach resiliency in relational and contextual terms, rather than as a static trait or characteristic of a child. One of major challenges in pediatric psychology research is the tension between specialization and generalization. Dennis Drotar, in his presidential address to the Society of Pediatric Psychology, eloquently addressed this issue (Drotar, 1994). Specifically, most pediatric psychologists, because of the nature of their work, find themselves working with one or a small number of pediatric populations. Thus, they specialize in children with cancer or adolescents with diabetes or infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. Naturally, they then focus their empirical investigations on the clinical issues they are confronting on a daily basis. Thus, the diabetes specialist may investigate treatment adherence, while the cancer specialist may focus on chronic pain or end-of-life decision making. By specializing in this way, a research team can learn as much as possible about the complex biobehavioral relationships between a particular disease or disorder, the specific medical experiences

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associated with living with that condition, and the unique neurological and mood effects of its treatment. Only by specializing in childhood cancer, for example, could one realize that some chemotherapeutic agents have been associated with increased incidence of nonverbal learning disabilities (Armstrong, Blumberg, & Toledano, 1999) or learn all of the implications of the decision to attempt a lifesaving bone marrow transplant (Phipps, 1994); and only by following large cohorts of adolescents with diabetes over time might you realize that while most children with diabetes do not have cognitive deficits, those diagnosed before age 5 are at increased risk for neuropsychological difficulties (Rovet, Ehrlich, Czuchta, & Akler, 1993). However, limiting oneself to one specific disease population limits both the type of questions that can be addressed and the methods that may be applied. Small sample sizes force researchers to examine limited numbers of variables and make it very hard to get sufficient samples to really understand the important developmental processes underlying all children’s coping. Consequently, some researchers have tried to look at mixed or combined samples, including a range of diseases or disorders in their research samples. For example, Thompson and his colleagues (Thompson & Gustafson, 1996) have developed a longitudinal model relating adaptation and adjustment of children with chronic illness and their families, which considers the frequency and type of adjustment problems seen as children and families develop over time. Their model considers not only the child’s own healthrelated problems but also the mother’s level of stress and her coping resources, the presence of mental health conditions in the child’s family, socioeconomic resources available to the family, and so forth. Wallander and Varni also have proposed models that cross over disease categories. Over the past 20 years, they have studied children with a broad range of chronic illnesses and physical disabilities (Wallander & Varni, 1998) and have focused their program of research on the interrelationship between child and family characteristics in order to understand the increased risk for psychological dysfunction observed in children with physical disabilities. In particular, they have found that maternal stress and coping mediates the relationship between children’s increased risk (created by their health challenges) and their psychological outcomes. This type of research, which goes beyond identifying risks to specify

protective factors, sets the stage for developing more specific and effective interventions to enhance normal development in children with chronic health conditions. Their findings suggest that enhancing family social support, for example, may lead to improved health outcomes for the entire family system. Obviously, this type of broad, developmental model must be tested empirically, and applied developmental scientists in general and those who identify themselves as pediatric psychologists in particular are working toward that goal. FRONTIERS AND HORIZONS FOR PEDIATRIC PSYCHOLOGY As the field of pediatric psychology matures as an applied developmental science, a number of trends reflect significant synergies. Though its earliest roots were individually and clinically focused, contemporary pediatric psychology is noteworthy for its increasing integration of broader contextual and ecological levels. This is especially evident in the broadening of the family focus of pediatric psychology (Wertlieb, 1993, 2003a, 2003b) as well as enhanced appreciation of public and community health frameworks. Consistent with the ADS focus on diversity and ethics, pediatric psychology generates culturally competent research and practice with increasing sensitivity to underserved populations, a full range of racial and ethnic subcultures, and both national and global perspectives. The emerging field of neuroethics addresses the challenging implications of recent advances in genetics and brain sciences for pediatric psychologists in both research and practice (Dana Foundation, 2002). Further ethical challenges are created by controversies around the funding of children’s health services both in the United States and around the world. Both in its basic scientific foundations and in responding to public policy demands for accountability and integrity in health services, pediatric psychology’s commitment to the recent movement toward evidence-based practice engages both the challenges and opportunities provided by an ADS framework. In describing and refining “treatments that work” and “empirically supported interventions,” pediatric psychologists provide leadership for improving both the quality of care and life for children and their families (Spirito, 1999). In both ADS and pediatric psychology, questions of how best to transmit knowledge

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and prepare the next generation make graduate and postgraduate training issues central and pressing concerns (Brown, 2003a). —Donald Wertlieb and Dante S. Spetter

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on the Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. (2001). The new morbidity revisited: A renewed commitment to the psychosocial aspects of child and family health. Pediatrics, 108(5), 1206–1210. Anderson, J. E. (1938). Pediatrics and child psychology. Journal of the American Medical Association, 95, 1015–1018. Armstrong, D. F., Blumberg, M. J., & Toledano, S. (1999). Neurobehavioral issues in childhood cancer. School Psychology Review, 28(2), 194–203. Barakat, L., Kunin-Batson, A., & Kazak, A. (2003). Child health psychology (pp. 439–464). In A. Nezu, C. M. Nezu, & P. Geller (Eds.), Handbook of psychology, health psychology (Vol. 9). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Brown, R. T. (2003a). Introduction to the special issue: Training in pediatric psychology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 28, 81–83. Brown, R. T. (2003b). Masthead. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 28(1). Dana Foundation. (2002). Neuroethics: Mapping the field. New York: Author. Drotar, D. (1994). Psychological research with pediatric conditions: If we specialize, can we generalize? Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 19(4), 403–414. Gesell, A. (1919). The field of clinical psychology as an applied science: A symposium. Journal of Applied Psychology, 3, 81–84. Haggerty, R. J., Friedman, S. B., & Calderoni, M. (2003). History of developmental-behavioral pediatrics. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 24(Suppl.), S1-S17. Haggerty, R. J., Roghmann, K. J., & Pless, I. B. (1975). Child health and the community. New York: Wiley. Johnson, S. B. (1994). Health behavior and health status: Concepts, methods, and applications. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 19(2), 129–141. Kagan, J. (1965). The new marriage: Pediatrics and psychology. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 110, 272–278. Lerner, R. M., Jacobs, F., & Wertlieb, D. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of applied developmental science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Luthar, S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71, 543–562. Phipps, S. (1994). One marrow transplantation. In D. Bearison & R. K. Mulhern (Eds.), Pediatric psycho-oncology: Psychological perspectives on children with cancer (pp. 143–170). New York: Oxford University Press.

Richmond, J. B. (1967). Child development: A basic science for pediatrics. Pediatrics, 39, 649–658. Roberts, M. C. (Ed.). (2003). Handbook of pediatric psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford. Routh, D. (1975). The short history of pediatric psychology. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 4, 6–8. Rovet, J. F., Ehrlich, R. M., Czuchta, D., & Akler, M. (1993). Psychoeducational characteristics of children and adolescents with insulin dependant diabetes mellitus. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 26(1), 7–22. Spirito, A. (1999). Introduction: Special series on empiricallysupported treatments in pediatric psychology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 24, 87–90. Thompson, R. J., & Gustafson, K. E. (1996). Adaptation to chronic childhood illness. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Wallander, J., & Varni, J. (1998). Effects of pediatric chronic physical disorders on child and family adjustment. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 39(1), 29–46. Wertlieb, D. (1993). Toward a family-centered pediatric psychology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 18, 541–548. Wertlieb, D. (2003a). Applied developmental science. In R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (pp. 43–61). New York: Wiley. Wertlieb, D. (2003b). Converging trends in family research and pediatrics: Recent findings for the AAP Task Force on the Family. Pediatrics, 111. Wright, L. (1967). The pediatric psychologist: A role model. American Psychologist, 22, 323–325.

PEER PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD For young children, play with peers represents a significant set of opportunities for positive development across a variety of developmental domains. This entry presents an overview of literature on peer play in early childhood. First, theoretical perspectives of play as a developmental context will be discussed. Next, empirical research will be presented that documents the relationships between peer play competencies and other developmental skills. Last, applications of peer play will be presented, and implications for future research, practice, and policy will be discussed. THEORIES OF PEER PLAY For young children, play with peers represents a dynamic developmental context in which competence

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emerges. Peer play is a distinct form of play and comprises spontaneous child-initiated and childselected activities rather than teacher-directed activities. Within this context, children learn to meet new cognitive, motor, and social/emotional challenges through their unstructured interactions with peers. Successful negotiation of this developmental task requires that children coordinate multiple competencies across developmental areas, such as the emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and language domains (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1996). A number of theoretical frameworks underscore the value of peer play for child development. Piaget and Vygotsky contributed two theories of child development that provide a conceptual framework for understanding the unique contributions of early peer play experiences. According to Piaget (1962), children gain knowledge about the world through play and incorporate that information into existing cognitive structures. Piaget proposed that children progress from “practice play” (which consists of individual sensorimotor activities), to “symbolic play” (in which they acquire the use of symbols and experience makebelieve), and, finally, to “play with rules” (during which they learn to regulate social interactions with peers). As children engage in these increasingly complex activities, they adjust their existing worldviews to incorporate newly acquired information. Piaget also believed that peer interactions during play provide children with opportunities to further develop higherlevel cognitive skills. Children develop perspectivetaking abilities, for example, when they argue or express different viewpoints. According to Piaget, cognitive development occurs not through the medium of play itself, but through the enhancement of specific skills during peer interactions in play. Vygotsky’s theory of development (1978) has received increasing support because of its emphasis on the social and cultural aspects of play. He proposed that children’s competencies are affected by the cultural practices and beliefs conveyed through social interactions and communication. Specifically, through interactions with more knowledgeable peers, children learn about cultural norms. Vygotsky asserted that play consists of imaginary situations and rules for behavior. When engaging in pretend play, children must work together to develop rules to govern the activity. Through pretend play with their peers, children are provided with opportunities to learn implicit rules of social behavior, according to their

cultural group’s norms. Vygotsky also theorized about the “zone of proximal development,” which refers to both children’s individual abilities to accomplish and create as well as their capabilities to grow and extend when confronted with the ideas of older and wiser peers. Therefore, he considered peer play the “source of development” during early childhood (rather than just a conduit of development), because it enables children to internalize social rules, acquire cognitive processes, and advance their competencies. Wentzel’s social motivational theory (1999) describes mechanisms by which early peer socialization experiences significantly influence academic achievement. In this conceptual framework, peer interactions are associated with students’ motivation to engage in academic tasks, and this engagement, in turn, is associated with achievement. Wentzel asserts that the social experiences children have with peers in the classroom provide students with a context for their personal achievement goals and a standard for acceptable levels of performance on social and academic tasks. Since these influences occur as early as the preschool years, when child-directed play is a major component of the structured learning environment, free-play sessions serve as the foundation for this important peer socialization influence. Positive interactions with peers help children develop motivation to engage in prosocial behaviors, such as being cooperative and willing to ask for help, which lead to academic success. According to this social motivational theory, acceptance from peers fosters a desire to become involved in classroom activities, whereas peer conflict and rejection suppress children’s motivation to succeed. STUDIES OF PEER PLAY Empirical literature on peer play documents important associations between children’s capacity to navigate peer relationships during play and the emergence of other competencies indicative of school readiness. Through pretend play, cognitive skills such as literacy emerge as children develop storytelling and memory abilities (Pellegrini & Galda, 1993). Advances in linguistic skills enable children to improve their communication with peers and make their own viewpoints known. With increasingly advanced cognitive skills, children develop perspective-taking abilities helpful for engaging in collaborative activity, solving interpersonal problems, and developing empathy (Gönçü, 1993).

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Children who evidence adaptive peer play skills demonstrate greater cognitive and linguistic skills than children who are not successful in play with peers (Fantuzzo, Sekino, & Cohen, in press). Interactive peer play has also been found to relate to social and behavioral outcomes in the classroom, such as self-regulation, autonomy, and initiative (Fantuzzo & McWayne, 2002). For example, the complex skills necessary to establish and sustain effective play interactions with peers require children to exercise self-control. A preschool child who has difficulty controlling his or her emotions during play (e.g., frequently cries, tantrums, or becomes angry) has a more difficult time making and keeping friends. On the other hand, positive peer relationships are enhanced by children’s ability to regulate their emotions, a skill that helps children maintain cooperation when experiencing interpersonal conflicts. A recent study found that peer play interactions within the home and neighborhood context related significantly to learning behaviors in the classroom, such as motivation to learn, task persistence, and autonomy (Fantuzzo & McWayne, 2002). Others have found evidence that behaviors significant to the learning process, such as cooperation and attention, are learned during play interactions among peers (Creasey, Jarvis, & Berk, 1998). Findings from longitudinal research link early peer interactions to developmental outcomes. For example, in a short-term, predictive study, Fantuzzo and colleagues (in press) found that with a sample of more than 700 Head Start children, successful interactions with peers during play early in the year were related to greater cognitive, social, and physical abilities at the end of the preschool year. Furthermore, early assessments of positive engagement in play were associated with lower levels of aggressive, shy, and withdrawn social adjustment behaviors at the end of the school year, and children who were either disengaged from their peers or disruptive during play evidenced negative emotional and behavioral adjustment outcomes. Longer-term predictive studies have demonstrated that children who develop positive relationships with their peers during early childhood have a greater likelihood of experiencing positive adjustment in kindergarten and positive academic outcomes in later elementary, middle, and high school grades (Hampton & Fantuzzo, 2003; Parker & Asher, 1987). Conversely, children who fail to establish effective peer interactions early in school are at greater risk for

numerous academic and behavioral problems, such as poor academic achievement, retention, emotional maladjustment, and criminality (Ladd & Coleman, 1997; Parker & Asher, 1987). APPLICATIONS: PEER PLAY AS INTERVENTION The emphasis on peer play experiences within the early childhood classroom curriculum has led to the development of specific interventions using natural peers in the context of play for children evidencing early school difficulties. A number of studies have tested peer play interventions. In an intervention that involved peer reinforcement and goal setting for 10-year-old children, the frequency and duration of child-initiated interactions during unstructured free play were demonstrated to significantly increase across intervention sessions (Ragland, Kerr, & Strain, 1981). In a more recent study of first and second graders, peerrejected children paired with more popular peers during play evidenced significant improvement in both sociometric status and positive interaction rates compared with nonpaired peers (Morris, Messer, & Gross, 1995). Similarly, a peer-mediated intervention with kindergarten children designed to decrease social exclusion within the classroom resulted in improved sociometric assessments for all children in intervention classrooms when compared with control classrooms (Harrist & Bradley, 2003). Peer dyads have also been effective in increasing the number and length of positive social interactions for preschool children with moderate mental retardation (Kohl & Beckman, 1990) and developmental delays (Goldstein, English, Shafer, & Kaczmarek, 1997). Though research demonstrates that play interactions with peers can enhance the development of social competencies, practical translations of play research must include recognition of the important influence of culture on children’s play. Historically, a lack of attention to children’s culture has limited the ability of research findings to be applied with diverse groups of children. Researchers frequently study groups of White, middle-class children and underrepresent ethnic and culturally diverse populations. Furthermore, when ethnically diverse groups of children are included, they are often evaluated according to the play of their White, middle-income counterparts. The development of measurement and intervention for children representing diverse backgrounds

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must include an understanding of competencies inherently valued within particular cultures to determine which skills are considered culturally appropriate (Roopnarine, Lasker, Sacks, & Stores, 1998). One response to this need for culturally appropriate identification and intervention was a line of research conducted with urban Head Start children and families. In this work, Fantuzzo and colleagues worked with parents and teacher assistants (who were also members of the surrounding community) to develop a multidimensional assessment of peer play that would inform an intervention for abused and neglected children evidencing early school difficulties. This effort was unique in two ways. First, it used natural partners within the community to define peer play constructs that were valid for use with the intended population. Second, it was designed to uncover specific skills within the play context that were observable within the Head Start classroom environment. This effort resulted in the identification of three distinct peer play dimensions that differentiated children with positive interactions during peer play from those children who experience difficulty with peers during play (Fantuzzo, Coolahan, Mendez, McDermott, & Sutton-Smith, 1998). These dimensions of peer play were used to identify children who were socially disconnected from their peers in classroom free play and children who demonstrated an amazing ability to engage peers in productive play interactions. In collaboration with Head Start parents and teachers, researchers designed the Play Buddy classroom intervention. This intervention created a supportive classroom play context, a Play Corner, and paired-engaged peers, Play Buddies, with socially isolated children (Fantuzzo et al., 1996). Randomized field trials have demonstrated the efficacy of this intervention strategy. Findings have shown that socially withdrawn Head Start children who participated in the Play Buddy intervention significantly increased their collaborative play interactions and demonstrated decreases in solitary play when compared with children in attention control conditions. Moreover, treatment gains were evident 2 months following the intervention (Fantuzzo, Manz, Atkins, & Meyers, 2003). CONCLUSIONS Children’s social negotiations within the peer play context reflect a significant challenge of normal

development for young children. For the early childhood educator, this knowledge is reflected in practical guidelines for early childhood curriculum. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (1996) identifies classroom peer play as a central focus for effective early childhood intervention. Teachers are expected to increase their knowledge of children’s peer play and to stimulate and encourage collaborative peer play interactions through specific curricular objectives. Through these peer play experiences, teachers promote social, emotional, motor, language, and cognitive competencies that provide children with a foundation for early school success. Given recent trends toward more academically oriented instruction in preschool, provisions for interactive classroom peer play are at risk of extinction. Recent federal mandates emphasize greater attention to academic skills, such as literacy, for federally funded early childhood programs (e.g., No Child Left Behind Act). These emphases have increased the likelihood that early childhood educators will spend more and more of their classroom time on teacher-directed instruction and little time on child-initiated peer play. Applied developmental psychologists need to use empirical research to document the learning benefits that are associated with preschool peer play and to develop ecologically sensitive interventions to promote these beneficial, child-centered learning experiences. These activities are essential to protect and enhance peer-mediated learning for future generations of young children. —John W. Fantuzzo, Christine McWayne, and Heather L. Cohen

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Creasey, G. L., Jarvis, P. A., & Berk, L. E. (1998). Play and social competence. In O. N. Sacacho & B. Spodek (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on play in early childhood education: Inquiries and insights (pp. 116–143). Albany: State University of New York Press. Fantuzzo, J., Coolahan, K., Mendez, J., McDermott, P., & Sutton-Smith, B. (1998). Contextually-relevant validation of peer play constructs with African American Head Start children: Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(3), 411–431. Fantuzzo, J., Manz, P., Atkins, M., & Meyers, R. (2003). Community-based resilient peer treatment for withdrawn preschool children: A replication study. Manuscript in preparation.

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Fantuzzo, J., & McWayne, C. (2002). The relationship between peer play interactions in the family context and dimensions of school readiness for low-income preschool children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1), 1–9. Fantuzzo, J., Sekino, Y., & Cohen, H. C. (in press). Head Start and school readiness: An examination of the contributions of interactive peer play to success in preschool. Psychology in the Schools. Fantuzzo, J., Sutton-Smith, B., Atkins, M., Meyers, R., Stevenson, H., Coolahan, K., et al. (1996). Communitybased resilient peer treatment of withdrawn maltreated preschool children. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1377–1386. Goldstein, H., English, K., Shafer, K., & Kaczmarek, L. (1997). Interaction among preschoolers with and without disabilities: Effects of across-the-day peer intervention. Journal of Speech Language & Hearing Research, 40(1), 33–48. Gönçü, A. (1993). Development of intersubjectivity in the dyadic play of preschoolers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8, 99–116. Hampton, V., & Fantuzzo, J. W. (2003). The validity of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS) with urban, lowincome kindergarten children. School Psychology Review, 32(1), 77–91. Harrist, A. W., & Bradley, K. D. (2003). “You can’t say you can’t play”: Intervening in the process of social exclusion in the kindergarten classroom. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 18, 185–205. Kohl, F. L., & Beckman, P. J. (1990). The effects of directed play on the frequency and length of reciprocal interactions with preschoolers having moderate handicaps. Education & Training in Mental Retardation, 25(3), 258–266. Ladd, G. W., & Coleman, C. C. (1997). Children’s classroom peer relationships and early school attitudes: Concurrent and longitudinal associations. Early Education & Development, 8(1), 51–66. Morris, T. L., Messer, S. C., & Gross, A. M. (1995). Enhancement of the social interaction and status of neglected children: A peer-pairing approach. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 24(1), 11–20. National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1996). Principles of child development and learning that inform developmentally appropriate practice: Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8 (NAEYC position statement). Available at www.naeyc.org/resources/ position_statements/dap3.htm Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357–389. Pellegrini, A. D., & Galda, L. (1993). Ten years later: A reexamination of symbolic play and literacy research. Reading Research Quarterly, 28(2), 163–175. Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood. New York: Norton.

Ragland, E. U., Kerr, M. M., & Strain, P. S. (1981). Social play of withdrawn children: A study of the effects of teachermediated peer feedback. Behavior Modification, 5(3), 347–359. Roopnarine, J. L., Lasker, J., Sacks, M., & Stores, M. (1998). The cultural contexts of children’s play. In S. N. Saracho & G. Spodek (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on play in early childhood education (pp. 194–219). Albany: State University of New York Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wentzel, K. R. (1999). Social-motivational processes and interpersonal relationships: Implications for understanding motivation at school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 76–97.

PEER RELATIONSHIPS The study of peer relationships and their impact on development has become an increasingly diverse and expansive field of inquiry, with rapid changes and advances being made within the last 30 years due in large part to the recognition that peer relationships serve as a crucial context for social-emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development (Hartup, 1996; Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). Although researchers conceptualize peer interactions, relationships, and groups to be unique levels of study, the recent developmental emphasis has been on the study of peer relationships (i.e., friendships, enemies, bully-victim relationships, etc.). PEER SYSTEMS Peer relationships, based on social interactions that affect each member of a dyad, are marked by a past relationship history of social exchange and by expectations for future interactions. Researchers have also discovered that individuals carry forward with them a relationship legacy from parent-child relationships that have an impact on the formation and quality of subsequent social relationships (e.g., peer, romantic, etc.). Specifically, prospective longitudinal studies have demonstrated a link between early parent-child attachment relationships (e.g., secure history) and subsequent social-emotional competence (e.g., positive peer interactions and friendship formation) during childhood and adolescence (see Sroufe, Egeland, &

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Carlson, 1999). In addition, there is strong converging evidence that peer relationships and the lessons that are learned during early childhood (e.g., controlling emotions, cooperation, reciprocal exchange of ideas, and social-cognitive perspective-taking abilities) establish the foundation for later adaptive peer relationships during middle childhood (e.g., emotional sharing, mutual self-disclosure) and adolescence (e.g., formation of meaningful friendships and appeal as a romantic partner). That is, peer competence and social-emotional competence appear to be quite stable and predictive of negotiating the subsequent relationship-based developmental tasks. ROLE OF PEERS DURING DEVELOPMENT During early childhood, one of the main forces affecting peer relationships is the developing notion of gender and gender segregation processes. It has been extensively documented and replicated that during the preschool years, children tend to segregate into gender-specific play groups that are marked by different norms, preferences, and interaction patterns (Maccoby, 1990). There is evidence that girls prefer and seek out dyadic relationships and have social goals, which consist of forming intimate bonds with others, more so than boys, who prefer larger social networks and have social goals consistent with themes of social power, resource control, and dominance. In addition, young girls begin to form an interdependent self (i.e., seeing self in relation to the other), whereas boys tend to form an independent self-view (i.e., seeing self as autonomous). Researchers begin to see strong sanctions in early childhood for interacting with members of the opposite gender, and samegender friendships (based on shared experiences, mutual liking, and an emotional connection with a peer) are the norm. Moreover, best friends are almost always of the same gender during early and middle childhood. However, when children are lacking in the social skills and strategies that underlie friendship formation (e.g., making initial overtures, learning friendship expectations, understanding principles of reciprocal exchange, etc.), they may seek out friendships with opposite-gender peers, violating gender boundary sanctions. These gender boundary violations may be predictive of maladaptive peer relationships during subsequent development (Sroufe et al., 1999). Researchers who study relationally aggressive peer behavior during early childhood, in which children harm their peers and

friends by removing or threatening the removal of their relationships (e.g., direct or covert ignoring, exclusion, malicious gossip, etc.), have found that girls are more often the perpetrators and victims of this subtype of aggression, which may be more salient for them given their preference for same-gender dyadic interactions (Crick et al., 1999). In contrast, boys typically try to harm their male peers by using physical aggression (e.g., hitting, kicking, verbal threats of force, etc.), which damages their position within the hierarchy and undermines their dominance goals (Crick et al., 1999). Interventions may be most effective that target these gender-linked subtypes of aggression by providing young children with positive (socially and emotionally competent) peer play partners. During middle childhood and adolescence, peer relationships become increasingly more salient as reliance on parents for social provisions is replaced with a need for companionship, intimacy, and enhancement of worth from peers and friends. During this developmental period, boys and girls slowly begin to interact with members of the opposite gender, forming cliques and larger crowds. The nature of peer interactions are still strikingly different for boys and girls; girls prefer face-to-face interactions and tasks that facilitate communication, whereas boys interact in side-by-side interactions and prefer group-oriented activities (e.g., sports). In addition, boys tend to maintain emotional connections to parents for self-disclosure of personal feelings. The evidence suggests that during middle childhood and adolescence, girls are still more relationally aggressive than boys but that the behaviors are becoming more covert and employed in more diverse relationship contexts (e.g., friendships and romantic relationships). Also, these behaviors are increasingly predictive of socialpsychological adjustment problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, peer rejection, etc.) for the perpetrator and the victim. Children who interact with deviant peer groups tend to be at an increased risk for antisocial problems during this period. In addition, those who are experiencing adjustment problems (e.g., delinquency, aggression, etc.) and maladaptive peer relationships (e.g., poor friendship quality) are at an increased risk for future adjustment and academic problems. A child who reports, via sociometrics (see below), that he or she does not like the other child is considered to have an enemy relationship, which appears to be more common during middle childhood and adolescence than among preschool-aged children.

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Friendships may serve as a protective factor against being physically victimized during this period, since bullies tend to avoid situations that will promote social ostracism or retaliation. However, if a friend is relatively submissive, socially unskilled, and victimized, these benefits may not be revealed. Interventions that target the larger social network (classrooms and schools) have better success than focused efforts. Recognizing the salient compensatory role of positive peer friendships, which have been shown to support social-emotional competence, academic performance, cognitive development, and future relationship formations and to buffer interpersonal stress, will inform the development of more effective preventive interventions for school-aged children. ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES DURING DEVELOPMENT Assessment techniques have a rich tradition within the peer relationships field. Applied scholars have a breadth of methods, each with particular costs and benefits, to address empirical questions and to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs with children and youth in a variety of contexts. Peer and teacher sociometric ratings permit each member of the network the opportunity to rate and be rated by everyone on a particular question (e.g., Do you like to play with: Name of peer?). These methods have been used effectively with young children (using headand-shoulder pictures and age-appropriate practice items) and older children (using classroom rosters). Sociometric nominations, which may be completed by either peers or teachers, typically ask the informant to nominate up to three members of the network for the behavior (e.g., pick three children with whom you like to play, etc.). This method is more time-sensitive but does not provide as detailed information as the ratings and may not be as appropriate for young children. Naturalistic observations have been the benchmark for peer relationship studies for years. It is important for researchers to have well-defined constructs and to demonstrate interobserver reliability as well as validity to avoid observer drift and biases. A variety of techniques have been developed for a host of relevant social behaviors, with myriad techniques (e.g., time sampling, event sampling, scan sampling, focal child approach, etc.). Quasi experiments and semistructured interactions, including playgroup designs in which unfamiliar or

familiar peers interact with each other in a more controlled setting, have been important tools for observing behaviors that occur at low frequency in the natural environment. Researchers should also be sensitive to issues of ecological validity, reactivity (e.g., behavior change due to observer presence), and ethical issues related to obtaining children’s assent for participation. Diary and self-report methods have also been used to capture children’s personal experiences and out-ofschool behaviors. These methods may be particularly important for assessing changes in functioning during the day and monitoring behaviors that are not always directly observable. CROSS-CULTURAL AND CONTEXTUAL FINDINGS AND PEER RELATIONSHIPS Context and culture have effects on the form and function of peer relationships. A cross-cultural perspective has revealed some meaningful differences in this area of study, and future culturally sensitive research agendas will continue to both support and refute claims of universal processes. For example, evidence from studies in Kenya has suggested that gender segregation processes do not occur until they are adaptive for the society (e.g., based on gender-linked chores assigned around puberty) (Super & Harkness, 1986). In addition, researchers in Italy have found that boys are more relationally aggressive than girls, perhaps due to their immediate familial contexts (e.g., rural villages in which fathers appear to value dyadic exchanges). However, researchers in Australia, China, Germany, and Indonesia tend to find evidence supporting North American researchers in that relational aggression occurs more among girls from preschool to adolescence (see Crick et al., 1999). Thus, when we take into account the developmental niche (e.g., parental beliefs, physical and social settings, and child care customs), we begin to see differences in peer relationship processes emerge (Super & Harkness, 1986). CONCLUSIONS The study of peers may offer applied developmental scientists the opportunity to understand the value of these relationships as a context for change, both concurrently and prospectively. Peer relationships may serve as protective or risk factors for social-psychological

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adjustment and academic outcomes. Interventions that are designed based on the empirical literature and conducted in a culturally sensitive manner will be most effective in influencing psychological and developmental changes. —Jamie M. Ostrov and Richard A. Weinberg

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Crick, N. R., Werner, N. E., Casas, J. F., O’Brien, K. M., Nelson, D. A., Grotpeter, J. K., et al. (1999). Childhood aggression and gender: A new look at an old problem. In D. Bernstein (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (pp. 75–141). Lincoln: University of Nebraska. Hartup, W. W. (1996). The company they keep: Friendships and their developmental significance. Child Development, 67, 1–13. Maccoby, E. E. (1990). Gender and relationships: A developmental account. American Psychologist, 45, 513–520. Rubin, K. H., Bukowski, W., & Parker, J. G. (1998). Peer interactions, relationships and groups. Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development. New York: Wiley. Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., & Carlson, E. A. (1999). One social world: The integrated development of parent-child and peer relationships. In W. A. Collins & B. Laursen (Eds.), Relationships as developmental contexts: Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology (Vol. 30). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545–569.

PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT, CHILDHOOD David Elkind is one of the leading developmental psychologists of our time. Throughout his long and successful career, he has contributed to our understanding of how children think, behave, and understand the world. In particular, his work in perceptual development has provided insight into how children adopt more mature ways of perceiving the world through interactions with people and objects. As in much of his other work, Elkind began his research where Jean Piaget, the renowned Swiss developmental psychologist, left off. Piaget is best known for his theory of cognitive development, which

states that an underlying thought mechanism determines how one understands and interprets the world. This mechanism develops with age and experience. Piaget and Elkind applied this idea to perceptual development. When young, a child’s thought mechanism is centered; that is, he or she is able to process only the dominant aspect of an object. As children age, they become decentered and are thus able to manage more features in their perceptual fields and can use logic to mentally imagine an object in different situations (Elkind, 1975, 1978). A child’s perceptual level, either centered or decentered, affects his or her capability to interpret and mentally manipulate objects within the visual field. One ability that matures with the developing mind is perceptual reorganization. Younger children focus on the dominant aspect within the visual field, such as that a circle is round. In contrast, older children can integrate multiple aspects of their fields of perception to create a holistic image and imagine objects in various situations (Elkind, 1978). Older children can imagine a circle as a wheel or gear. In addition, they are able to reorganize a layout of objects, useful in daily activities such as rearranging furniture. In a sense, younger children see only the quick, first impression of an object, while older children are able to dissect the sum of the object into parts and mentally rearrange them. Elkind tested Piaget’s theory of perceptual reorganization in experimental studies with children using pictures of distinct parts and wholes, such as a man made out of fruit. As predicted, younger children focused on one aspect of the picture, either the parts (in this case fruit) or the whole (the man), while older children saw both images simultaneously (Elkind, 1978; Elkind, Anagnostopoulou, & Malone, 1970; Whitestone & Elkind, 1976). Similar to perceptual reorganization, perceptual exploration, or the systematic scanning of the visual field, is used daily to make sense of the world around us. This skill is essential, for example, to a child in locating her mother in a crowded school parking lot. Elkind found that as children age, they develop new, more effective strategies for perceptual exploration (Elkind, 1978; Elkind & Weiss, 1967). Older children are able to systematically scan a swarming parking lot in a logical manner, such as in rows. In contrast, younger children are unable to employ an efficient strategy and usually require more time to locate or name objects in a visual field. A third perceptual skill that matures with the developing underlying mechanism is perceptual transport,

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or the ability to compare objects across distance. The capability to successfully make size judgments across distance increases significantly with age. According to Elkind, younger children center on one aspect of an object and overestimate its size relative to the other object. This tendency lessens as children become perceptually decentered (Elkind, 1978). The fourth perceptual skill affected by matured cognition is expectation. Once again, young children focus on one aspect of an object, while older children are able to coordinate multiple features of a stimulus (Elkind, 1975, 1978). For example, a child who is centered on the sound and movement of a passing car might not notice its color or that his aunt was driving, while an older child would be able to integrate the various characteristics of the car. Although these perceptual advances are not taught to children, but rather are constructed by the children themselves through experience, the developmental sequence of these skills does have important implications for education, particularly in reading (Elkind, 1978). For example, a child’s perceptual level could affect how he or she learns and distinguishes the letters of the alphabet. Elkind tested children’s perceptual levels in relation to their reading achievement and determined that the two areas shared a common underlying ability, presumably, the ability to decenter. Furthermore, when a group of second graders with perceptual training was compared with a group with standard reading tutoring, the group with perceptual training improved significantly more than the control group on word form and recognition (Elkind, 1978; Elkind & Deblinger, 1969). Elkind’s research can be used as a guideline in evaluating and individualizing educational curriculum to support the skills necessary to construct the subsequent perceptual level at each age. Furthermore, these findings could offer a glimpse into the roots of and possible therapies for dyslexia and other learning disabilities. —Taryn W. Morrissey

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Elkind, D. (1975). Perceptual development in young children. American Scientist, 63(5), 533–541. Elkind, D. (1978). Perceptual development in children. In D. Elkind (Ed.), The child’s reality: Three developmental themes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Elkind, D., Anagnostopoulou, R., & Malone, S. (1970). Determinants of part-whole perception in children. Child Development, 41(2), 391–397. Elkind, D., & Deblinger, J. (1969). Perceptual training and reading achievement in disadvantaged children. Child Development, 40(1), 11–19. Elkind, D., & Weiss, J. (1967). Studies in perceptual development: III. Perceptual exploration. Child Development, 38(2), 553–561. Whitestone, J. A., & Elkind, D. (1976). Effects of exposure duration on part-whole perception in children. Child Development, 46(2), 498–501.

PETERSEN, ANNE C. When the definitive history of the science of adolescent development is written, the contributions of Anne C. Petersen will stand as foundations and pillars of what is known about youth. The depth and breadth of her scientific and policy contributions are unsurpassed in the history of scholars of adolescent development. Her scientific contributions to adolescent development include empirical research and theoretical works that have been published in the best journals and champion books in the field. But Petersen’s contributions go beyond the rigid parameters of science. Her leadership in the field of applied developmental science has included high-level academic, governmental, and private foundation positions. In these positions, she has been exemplary in mentoring young scholars, establishing research and public policy, and leading foundations in the direction of supporting initiatives designed to enhance the health and psychological development of adolescents and humankind in general. In addition to her positions in academic and governmental and private entities, Petersen has been elected to the highest leadership positions in national and international professional and scientific societies. The three areas of contributions to science, leadership positions and social policy, and leadership in professional societies will be discussed. This categorization is indeed artificial, as Peterson is noted for her renaissance quality of simultaneously functioning as a scientist, an administrator, and an advocate for those in need. Prior to presenting her scholarly contributions, a short biographical sketch will be presented. Anne Petersen was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, and remained there until she began her undergraduate program at the University of Chicago, where she

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received her BS in mathematics in 1973. After graduating, she was a computer systems intern at the National Security Agency and computer programmer and mathematician at the University of Chicago. This work experience was followed by her pursuit of master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Chicago, in statistics, measurement, and evaluation and in statistical analysis, respectively. Of note is that she was an excellent role model in pursuing nontraditional careers for women; specifically, mathematics and statistics were not frequent areas of inquiry pursued by women in the 1970s. Since her early educational experiences, Petersen has been one of the nation’s foremost leaders in academic and other settings relevant to applied developmental science. SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS Beginning with her dissertation work, Petersen has consistently focused on adolescent development. Although her interests are broad and her publications include papers on statistical methods, day care, and teenage pregnancy, her contributions to understanding physical and psychological development of adolescents are legendary. After the early work of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Peter Blos, and others, the importance of biological processes in adolescent psychological development had largely been ignored. Petersen’s early work on biological processes in cognition and physical development returned a reticent academic audience to thinking about biology as an inherent aspect of the ontogeny of psychological development. One of her seminal papers on adolescent cognition brought to scientific consciousness the role of physical androgeny in spatial abilities (Petersen, 1976). This early work on physical development and cognition was followed by enduring empirical work on adolescent mental health, which has included research on adjustment and developmental psychopathology and overt psychotherapy, primarily depression and cognition (Petersen, Crockett, & Graber, 1990). The beginning of Petersen’s sustained trajectory of interest in adolescent mental health contributed sound findings on adolescents’ concepts of self and methodological innovations on self-concept. In the late 1970s, Petersen began what would become some of her most important work: She reinvented puberty (Petersen, 1979a, 1979b). Social and behavioral scholars had paid little heed to the importance of biological transitions in development. Yet the

pubertal period was, and continues to be, one in which increases in behavior problems, moodiness, and parentchild conflict are legendary. Petersen’s work on puberty also contributed to understanding sex differences in cognition and mental health. A conference organized by Petersen and Brooks-Gunn was the first to bring together scholars with empirical findings relevant to understanding female puberty (Brooks-Gunn & Petersen, 1983). The book that was a product of the conference continues to be cited and remains the only collection of papers on girls and puberty. Petersen’s work on pubertal processes did not end with new perspectives, findings, and measures on the importance of pubertal status or the degree of physical maturation. Her findings showed the importance of timing of puberty in mental health and achievement, as well as its social significance (Dubas, Graber, & Petersen, 1991; Petersen & Crockett, 1985). Her work on the timing of puberty provided a framework that has led two generations of scholars to continue to examine the breadth of mental health issues affected by this occurrence. Based on Petersen’s longitudinal study of youth, her work has contributed to understanding mid- and later- as well as early-adolescent development. She and her colleagues have shown the intricate links between self-esteem, achievement, and mental health during the midadolescent years. A conceptual and review paper on depression in adolescents, as it attempted to synthesize the breadth of knowledge about depression, is illustrative of comprehensive knowledge of the multiple social, cognitive, and emotional processes that contribute to mental health (Petersen et al., 1993). Throughout her work on early and middle adolescence, the models upon which Petersen’s work is based stood firmly at the crossroads of integrating biology and behavior. The theoretical emphasis on biobehavioral interactions provided, as in her empirical research, a model for much of the research that is currently done on adolescent development. Biobehavioral research on adolescent development is currently emerging as a field that considers the bidirectional influences of adolescent mental health and hormones, genes, immune functioning, and other biological processes. Petersen’s stellar scientific contributions in applied developmental psychology go beyond her own life and legend. Her former graduate students are now pursuing successful careers in academic, social service, and governmental agencies. As reflective of her

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interest and commitment to diversity, her students are diverse in racial and ethnic background, and they now live and work in diverse settings located throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN ACADEMIC AND PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ENTITIES Petersen’s commitment to education is notable in the history of psychology. After serving as director of a research laboratory on adolescent development at the University of Chicago, she began her academic leadership positions as head of the Department of Individual and Family Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. Her consistently strong leadership qualities as department head led to her appointment as dean of the College of Human Development, where she united two colleges to become the present College of Health and Human Development. The leadership skills that Petersen displayed as a dean were recognized throughout the country and led to her appointment as vice president for research and dean of the graduate school at the University of Minnesota. In the move to Minnesota, she returned to her home state as an acknowledged effective administrator, but her exceptional abilities as a scientist, educator, and administrator were recognized by leaders in the nation’s capital, and soon Petersen became, by presidential nomination and Senate confirmation, deputy director and chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation. In that position, she was a nationally recognized example of strong scientific and administrative leadership as well as one of the first psychologists to hold a position of national prominence in one of the world’s most prestigious science organizations. The same qualities that led Petersen to be successful in academic and governmental agencies were soon recognized by one of the most well-known and respected private foundations in the United States. In 1996, she became senior vice president for programs at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. In that role, she has uniquely blended her roles as experienced scientist and administrator and advocate for youth. The titles of her presentations since going to the Kellogg Foundation speak legends for her commitment to funding programs designed to create healthy, talented, and scientifically educated generations of youth: “Supporting Youth to Create the Future,” “Learning About Learning,” and “Health Across Borders.”

Petersen’s creative intellect and leadership in programming for youth at the Kellogg Foundation will benefit the health and development of youth for generations and will echo across nations for decades to come. Otherwise stated, most scientists are content with conducting major studies and publishing in prestigious journals. But Petersen has extended her scientific rigor and caring attitudes to improving the lives of the less fortunate. Through her membership on boards and advisory groups of governmental agencies and private foundations, she has contributed her expertise toward improving mental health of children, adolescents, and adults; fostering initiatives to improve education at all levels of learning for children, adolescents and college youth; and leading others at state, local, and international levels to think broadly and creatively about improving the health and development of children. Petersen has spoken to an impressive array of scholars and public citizens about the needs of adolescents and how organizations and cultures can improve the lives of adolescents. She has the unique ability to take her messages about youth to audiences through the geophysical world: Her audiences include Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand and continue to be located at major academic institutions. Recently, she has been appointed as a member of the Harvard School of Public Health Leadership Council, one of the most prestigious schools of public health programs in the world. LEADERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES The importance of Petersen’s scholarly scientific, policy, and foundation work has earned the respect of scientists throughout the world and has led to leadership positions in numerous scientific societies. One of the prestigious honors for a scientist in the biomedical and social and behavioral sciences is to be elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and Petersen was elected to this acclaimed society in 1998. Colleagues similarly have elected her to other visible and honored posts: Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research; charter fellow, American Psychological Society; president, Division 7, American Psychological Association; fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; and president, Society for Research on Adolescence.

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CONCLUSIONS Anne Petersen and her husband of 36 years, the Reverend Douglas Petersen, live in rural Western Michigan. Their passion for work and home life has been passed on to their children, Christy and Ben, who are now successful adults. The Petersens give heart and help to colleagues and friends, always thinking of others beyond themselves. In summary, the enthusiasm that Anne Petersen displays for science can be viewed in miniature in her interest in advancing the lives of adolescents. Her convictions integrate all aspects of adolescent development in particular and of human development in general: the biological and psychological domains of the person, the family, and the social and cultural worlds. Petersen’s vitality extends beyond the scientific world and will be forever evident in research, policies, and interventions that enhance the quality of existence of youth. —Elizabeth J. Susman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Brooks-Gunn, J., & Petersen, A. C. (Eds.). (1983). Girls at puberty: Biological and psychosocial perspectives. New York: Plenum. Dubas, J. S., Graber, J. A., & Petersen, A. C. (1991). The effects of pubertal development on achievement during adolescence. American Journal of Education, 99(4), 444–460. Petersen, A. C. (1976). Physical androgyny and cognitive functioning in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 12(6), 524–533. Petersen, A. C. (1979a). Female pubertal development. In M. Sugar (Ed.), Female adolescent development (pp. 23–46). New York: Brunner/Mazel. Petersen, A. C. (1979b). Hormones and cognitive functioning in normal development. In M. A. Wittig & A. C. Petersen (Eds.), Sex-related differences in cognitive functioning: Developmental issues (pp. 189–214). New York: Academic Press. Petersen, A. C., Compas, B. E., Brooks-Gunn, J., Stemmler, M., Ey, S., & Grant, K. (1993). Depression in adolescence. American Psychologist, 48(2), 155–168. Petersen, A. C., & Crockett, L. J. (1985). Pubertal timing and grade effects on adjustment. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 14(3), 191–206. Petersen, A. C., Crockett, L. J., & Graber, J. A. (1990). Issues in the development of mathematical precocity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 192–193. Petersen, A. C., & McClure, G. D. (2003). Private foundation support of youth development. In R. M. Lerner, F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science (pp. 403–423). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE The philosophy of science can be broadly defined as the branch of study aimed at defining science, examining scientific knowledge and its claims, and understanding scientific inquiry and other processes connected to the scientific enterprise. This entry examines several key facets of the philosophy of science. First, the nature of science is defined and explained. Second, scientific worldviews that are widely accepted among philosophers of science are described. Third, the modernism and postmodernism split in the philosophy of science is explained. Last, a new paradigm that should serve to bridge the divided scientific communities is presented. The entry concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of this philosophical presentation. THE NATURE OF SCIENCE In the last few centuries, philosophers of science have sought to define exactly what science is and explain what scientists do. The endeavor to understand scientific inquiry, scientific thinking and reasoning, and the function as well as the products of the scientific enterprise has led to a conceptualization of the nature of science. Articulated, the nature of science provides a cultural narrative of the activity that is enabling humankind to understand and explain the phenomenological world. In this light, explanations of natural phenomena have been described as the fruits of scientific activity. The contemporary surge in literature on the subject of science and the scientific enterprise within the broader community, as well as narrower research communities, is in part testimony to the collective interest in this narrative. Pundits argue that an understanding of the nature of science among members of the broader community is necessary to appreciate the capacity as well as limits of scientific knowledge. It follows that communications about the nature of science have been variously used to allay fears and distrust of the scientific community, inform the public of the directions of scientific research, and aid in the decision-making processes associated with increasingly complex science- and technology-based issues (Conant, 1951). Indeed, it has been argued that understanding the nature of science is a critical component of scientific literacy and crucial to an engaged

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citizenry (Matthews, 1994). However, there are varied, if not contentious, views of the nature of science. Often, these views are shaped by particular orientations to, or association within, distinct fields of science. Nonetheless, a generalized scientific worldview acceptable to most philosophers of science has been described (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1990). SCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEWS The scientific worldview holds that the world is understandable. If the world is knowable, then there must be sources for knowledge. Two traditional major theoretical sources of knowledge in science are empiricism and rationalism. In empiricism, experience serves as the source of all knowledge. Empirical studies are grounded in observable phenomena. Rationalism, on the other hand, is the doctrine that reason and logic (deductive and inductive) are the source of knowledge. At the fundamental level, rationalism does not require direct experience (observation) of phenomena (empiricism). Aristotle is often cited as the classical example of an empiricist, just as Plato is cited as the classical rationalist. There are, of course, families of philosophies found within the empiricist and rationalist doctrines that cannot be discussed in this limited space. Generally, however, few would argue that scientific methods employ a combination of empiricism and rationalism at some points. The critical emphasis on empiricism constrains the type of questions that science can answer. That is, not all questions are open to scientific inquiry. For example, religious, spiritual, and supernatural questions cannot be empirically scrutinized. MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM In the early part of the 20th century, the epistemological claims presented by the empiricist and rationalist traditions were beginning to be questioned. Most notably, Karl Popper (1902–1994) challenged the authority that observation and reason were given in the progress of scientific knowledge. Popper (1963) suggested that intellectual intuition and imagination were more important than observation and reason. Furthermore, he refuted the notion of objectivity in science by introducing the idea of theory-laden observation. By that, Popper asserted that scientific theories (explanations for phenomena) are constrained

by preexisting conceptions. Consequently, observations of phenomena are mere interpretations and subject to dispute. In 1962, a philosophical watershed appeared and divided contemporary views of science from traditional rationalist views. At the time, Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) presented, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a model of theory change in science. Kuhn posited that progress in science occurs through a revolutionary process. The incommensurability of competing paradigms precluded the type of transition and transformation widely envisioned by philosophers at the time. Later, Piaget and Garcia (1989) would explore the links between advancements in cognitive development and paradigm shifts in the history of science but draw distinctions between epistemological (that is, cognitive structures) paradigm shifts and the sociological paradigm shifts described by Kuhn. Through his model, Kuhn rejected the rationalists’ shibboleths about the progress of scientific knowledge. Bird (2000) describes the pre-Kuhn and postKuhn division in the philosophy of science as the “Old Rationalism” and the “New Paradigm.” The new paradigm is characterized by powerful social and political forces affecting paradigm shifts within scientific communities. The new paradigm also highlights the context-bound cultural embeddedness of scientific theories. Parallels to Kuhn’s model have since been drawn in evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology learning theory. Regardless of philosophical orientations for or against the accuracy of Kuhn’s new paradigm, the ensuing repercussions of the model cannot be denied. The questioning of certain knowledge and absolute reality, which were claims in the logical positivist view, highlights the divide between modernism and postmodernism. In a radical form, postmodernists reject the claims to truth and objectivity offered by the methodology adhered to in the logical positivism tradition. Indeed, postmodernism in its radical form denies the existence of any absoluteness and certainty. The modernism/postmodernism divide may be described as a loggerhead to advancements in the philosophy of science. A NEW PARADIGM Recently, Overton (2003) presented a new relational metatheory/methodology, which should serve as a more functional conceptual framework for inquiry and, thereby, the philosophy of science. The

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new relational model offers a unifying arena for inquiry to communities and disciplines previously divided by foundational exclusionary categorizations. In this model, it is possible to both distinguish disciplines and conduct inquiry from a particular perspective without entering into a relativistic/objectivistic debate. The new model opens possibilities for new programs of study. For example, Lerner (2002) has argued that the contemporary theories of developmental theory may use the historical categorical divisions (nature-nuture, biology-culture) to gather insights into the integrations that exist among the levels of organization involved in human development but not in ways that characterize human development in flawed or futile ways. Overton’s contributions shed important light for potential questions and provide needed guidelines for future scientific inquiry. The relational view offers intriguing possibilities for a more robust view of the nature of science. Indeed, Giere (1992) argued that the cognitive sciences have reached sufficient maturity that they may now serve as an important resource for philosophers of science. Giere supported this argument using examples of advances made across three domains: (1) models from cognitive psychology, (2) models from artificial intelligence, and (3) models from neuroscience. Giere expects that the cognitive sciences will serve our understanding of science and the scientific enterprises in much the same way that logical empiricism and the history of science have in the past. CONCLUSIONS The convergence of models in cognition, cognitive development, and the constructionists opened the door to new, diverse programs of research in science, psychology, and education. Researchers, adopting integrated and humanistic philosophical stances, continue to examine a wide array of issues connected to scientific inquiry, including access, retention, representation, and equity within scientific communities; androcentric, ethnocentric, and language biases in scientific knowledge; theory development and conceptual change; the role of naive conceptions in learning and transitions to scientifically accurate ideas; the nature of scientific problems and complex cognitive processes associated with theory development as well as theory abandonment; perception and problem representation; and the psychology of distributed reasoning. Yet while the research base in these areas

continues to expand, the pre-Kuhnian/post-Kuhnian (and modernist/postmodernist) arguments remain unsettled, if not heated. Despite the controversies, few would argue that ultimately, the way that the nature of science is perceived and defined will have a profound impact on and far-reaching consequences in society. For views of the nature of science have affected and are likely to continue to affect (a) educational policy, by way of identifying what science is taught and how it is taught; (b) cultural identity and access to science; and (c) the design and structure of future research questions and agendas. —John A. Craven III

See also SELIGMAN, MARTIN E. P.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1990). Science for all Americans. New York: Oxford University Press. Bird, A. (2000). Thomas Kuhn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Conant, J. (1951). Science and common sense. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Giere, R. (Ed.). (1992). Cognitive models of science (Vol. 15). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Matthews, M. R. (1994). Science teaching: The role of history and philosophy of science. New York: Routledge. Overton, W. (2003). Development across the life span. In I. B.Weiner (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (pp. 13–40). New York: Wiley. Piaget, J., & Garcia, R. (1989). Psychogenesis and the history of science. New York: Columbia Press. Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge. New York: Routledge.

PHINNEY, JEAN S. Professor Jean Phinney has had a lifelong career as a developmental psychologist, focusing on the role of culture and ethnicity in development. She had her first exposure to cultural differences at the early age of 6, when she and her family accompanied her father on a sabbatical to France, where he studied French cathedrals.

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Her next travel experience was during college, when she took a bicycle trip through Europe and had the chance, in youth hostels and elsewhere, to meet young people from many countries. She later spent a summer in Finland, and 6 months in Paris teaching English. It was perhaps inevitable that she married someone who also liked to travel. Soon after getting married, she and her husband spent a year in Japan during his sabbatical. The Japanese trip included 3 months driving throughout Japan, from the northern island of Hokkaido to the southern island of Kyushu, where her husband, a plant geneticist, visited many universities and agricultural experiment stations. A few year later she, her husband, and two small children spent a sabbatical year in England, with vacation trips to France, Germany, Italy, and Israel. In the meantime, a growing interest in psychology led Jean Phinney to enter a doctoral program in developmental psychology at UCLA. She had not yet realized that her cultural interests could be combined with developmental psychology, which at the time was heavily focused on Piaget and cognitive development. After completing her doctoral degree in 1973, on Piagetian concepts in young children, she took an academic position at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), an urban university with a student body that is about 80% non–European American, mostly Latino, but also Asian American, African American, and Middle Eastern. As she began conducting developmental research with children and adolescents in the schools and communities near CSULA, she became intrigued with the wide range of ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds of the children she was studying. As a result, she and her students began searching the literature for information on cultural and ethnic factors in development. At that time, in the early 1980s, there was very little psychological research on development in non-White children. She and a colleague began studying cultural and ethnic factors in children’s behavior and then organized a conference on the topic. The conference resulted in a book that brought the topic of ethnicity to the attention of developmental psychologists (Phinney & Rotheram, 1987). When Phinney and her students became interested in studying adolescents from diverse backgrounds, the topic of identity was an obvious topic to explore. Again, a review of existing literature revealed almost nothing on identity issues for minority group members or on the aspect of identity that is most relevant for

non-White adolescents, namely, ethnic identity. She initiated a program of research on ethnic identity that has continued for almost two decades. With her research group, she developed an ethnic identity interview modeled on the work of James Marcia. A series of interviews was carried out with adolescents and young adults from a range of ethnic backgrounds, using trained interviewers from the same backgrounds as the participants. The results from the coded interviews supported the existence of distinct identity statuses (Phinney, 1989), similar to the statuses identified in ego identity research. A longitudinal follow-up study (Phinney & Chavira, 1992) revealed a developmental pattern of change over time in ethnic identity statuses, from an initial diffuse phase to an achieved ethnic identity. As this work progressed, Phinney carried out an extensive review of the existing psychological literature on ethnic identity. The review, published in Psychological Bulletin (Phinney, 1990), has been widely cited as a seminal article that laid the groundwork for future research on ethnic identity. To be able to study ethnic identity in larger samples and examine its predictors and outcomes, as well as differences across ethnic groups, Phinney developed a questionnaire measure of ethnic identity, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) (Phinney, 1992). Unlike most existing measures of the construct, which focused on a specific ethnic group, the MEIM was worded so as to be usable with members of any ethnic group. Since its publication, the MEIM has been used by researchers in hundreds of studies, with virtually every ethnic group in the United States as well as in many countries around the world. The MEIM has been translated into many languages, including Spanish, French, Dutch, Chinese, and Serbian. During the following decade, Phinney continued her research on ethnic identity. More than 40 papers on the topic have been published, of which more than half were coauthored with students. Results of her research have been presented at professional meetings throughout the United States and Europe. Research using the MEIM has demonstrated the importance of ethnic identity to members of minority groups, who consistently report stronger ethnic identities than European Americans. This research has also shown that ethnic identity has its roots in family and community (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001). It is positively associated with psychological wellbeing, including self-esteem (e.g., Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997), and is negatively related to depression

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and loneliness. The work on ethnic identity has been extended as well to individuals from ethnically or racially mixed backgrounds. Phinney has consistently obtained research grants for her work from the National Institutes of Health, and these grants have supported dozens of minority students. Although CSULA does not offer a doctoral degree, more than 15 ethnic minority students whom she mentored have gone on to doctoral programs at universities throughout the country. Phinney was named Outstanding Professor at CSULA in 2002. She has been elected to fellow status in Divisons 7 and 45 of the American Psychological Association. As her work became known, Phinney was invited to talk about the work at conferences and universities throughout the United States and worldwide. She has presented her work in Belgium, Norway, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, China, and Brazil. As her interests broadened beyond the United States, she became acquainted with a group of cross-cultural psychologists interested in studying immigrant adolescents in a range of immigrant-receiving countries. As a result, she began a study with an international group of psychologists examining the adaptation of adolescents in immigrant families in the United States, Canada, Australia, and eight European countries. Using a common questionnaire, data were collected on identity, acculturation, adaptation, school adjustment, and a wide variety of demographic variables from more than 8,000 immigrant adolescents and nonimmigrant adolescents living in the host countries. The results showed clear commonalities in the immigration experience across countries. There was all strong preference among immigrant adolescents for retaining their ethnic cultures while becoming part of the new society. Generally, adolescents who both retained their own cultural roots and were involved in the larger society adapted better than those who did not have involvement with both their own and the new cultures. However, there were differences across countries in relation to contextual factors such as density of immigration, immigration policies, and perceived discrimination. After extensive research with adolescents, Phinney and her students initiated a longitudinal study of minority group college students who were the first members of their families to attend college. In contrast to much research with ethnic minority students who attend the major research universities where most researchers are based, the sample for the study was

drawn from an urban commuter university serving predominantly minority, low-income families. These students face special problems related to ethnicity, culture, and class that can interfere with the completion of college. Results from the study highlights ways in which these students differ from traditional middleclass students. They often must deal with lower expectations for them to go to college. Their reasons for attending college differ from traditional students; their motives include a desire to help out the family financially and to prove that they can succeed in college. This continuing longitudinal study shows the contribution of both family support and a strong commitment to college and to the academic success of these students. When Dr. Phinney is not working with her students or her research projects, she and her husband enjoy activities such as skiing, traveling, and attending concerts and plays. She often hikes in the local Santa Monica Mountains and in the Sierra Nevada mountains and rows with a crew in the local marina. With her two sons grown and married, she takes pleasure in being a grandparent. She enjoys continuing contacts with the many students and colleagues with whom she has worked on the study of ethnicity and development. —Jean S. Phinney

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Phinney, J. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34–49. Phinney, J. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: A review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499–514. Phinney, J. (1992). The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure: A new scale for use with diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176. Phinney, J., Cantu, C., & Kurtz, D. (1997). Ethnic and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among African American, Latino, and White adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 165–185. Phinney, J., & Chavira, V. (1992). Ethnic identity and selfesteem: An exploratory longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence, 15, 271–281. Phinney, J., Romero, I., Nava, M., & Huang, D. (2001). The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30, 135–153. Phinney, J., & Rotheram, M. (1987). Children’s ethnic socialization: Pluralism and development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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PHOBIAS, CHILDHOOD Childhood phobias are common psychiatric disorders characterized by excessive or unreasonable fear of, or in anticipation of, a circumscribed object or event. In contrast to developmentally appropriate fears (e.g., fear of strangers in a toddler), the fear experienced by the child with a phobia is irrational, though the child may not recognize its irrationality. Consequently, the child often avoids, or attempts to avoid, the feared object or event. When avoidance is not possible, the child experiences severe distress when faced with the object or event. The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) classifies specific phobias into five subtypes: (1) animal, (2) natural environment, (3) blood-injection, (4) situational, and (5) other. Some of the most frequent and severe phobias reported by children include animals (e.g., dogs), natural events (e.g., thunderstorms), and health providers (e.g., doctors, dentists). This entry describes the prevalence and developmental heterogeneity of phobias and current approaches to their assessment and treatment. PREVALENCE AND DEVELOPMENTAL VARIATIONS Epidemiological studies have reported varied prevalence rates of childhood phobia (hereafter referred to as specific phobia), depending on the type of phobia and the sample from which the information was drawn (community, clinic). Generally, prevalence rates for specific phobia range from 1.7% to 6% in community samples and 6% to 12% in clinic samples. Although girls report a greater number and a higher intensity of fears than boys, rates of specific phobia do not appear to differ between boys and girls. However, specific phobia appears to be more prominent in younger children than in older children, and in children from lower, rather than higher, socioeconomic status backgrounds. There is limited research on the prevalence of childhood phobias among diverse ethnic or racial groups. One study conducted on a community sample of youth aged 4 to 16 years in Puerto Rico reported the prevalence rate for specific phobia as 2.6%. A different study conducted by another group compared rates of anxiety and phobic symptoms in an outpatient clinic sample of African American and Euro-American youth (aged 5 to 17 years). Results

indicated that African American youth reported higher levels of fears than Euro-American youth (Last & Perrin, 1993). In another study, Hispanic and EuroAmerican youth were compared, and results indicated that parents of Hispanic youth rated their children as more fearful than did parents of Euro-American youth. Significant differences between Hispanic and Euro-American youth were not found in the youth self-ratings of fear (Ginsburg & Silverman, 1996). ASSESSMENT A comprehensive assessment involves assessing the cognitive, physiological, and behavioral aspects of specific phobias. A variety of semistructured (e.g., Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV: Child and Parent Versions) and structured (e.g., Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children) diagnostic interviews can be used to assess specific phobias. In addition, several rating scales are useful for identifying and quantifying anxiety and phobic symptoms (i.e., Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, StateTrait Anxiety Inventory for Children, and the Screen for Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders), as they discriminate among the different anxiety and phobic disorders. Other rating scales have been found useful for assessing different types of specific fears, including the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children. A behavioral assessment can be particularly useful because the overt behavioral reaction of avoidance is a characteristic component of specific phobia. Commonly used is a “behavioral avoidance test,” which requires the child to emit graded approach behaviors to the phobic object or event. Physiological assessments of specific phobias involving monitoring of heart rate and perspiration have been found useful but are most often used in research rather than clinic settings. Typically, these methods are used in the initial assessment of specific phobia and the continued monitoring of the child’s treatment response. TREATMENT Considerable evidence has accumulated demonstrating the efficacy of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for reducing childhood specific phobia (Silverman & Berman, 2001). Silverman and colleagues (1999) compared the effectiveness of exposure-based CBT relative to an education-support comparison condition in a sample of children with

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various specific phobias. Results demonstrated the efficacy of the behavioral and cognitive components of exposure-based CBT, respectively, though children in the comparison conditions also improved, suggesting the need for further research in the area to determine the prime mechanisms of therapeutic change. The relative efficacy of varying the type and duration of exposure in treatment has also been studied. Results suggest that although variations in exposures are generally efficacious, in vivo or live exposures appear to be most efficacious. There is also evidence that the exposure-based treatments that involve a single session of treatment (maximum of 3 hours of exposure) can reduce specific phobias in children and that children with successful outcomes evaluated the treatment experience positively. There is a paucity of research on pharmacological treatments for anxiety disorders in general and specific phobias in particular (Stock, Werry, & McClellan, 2001). Available studies provide preliminary evidence that benzodiazepines and tricyclic antidepressants may be useful for reducing symptoms of “school phobia.” Whether these findings are generalizable to children with specific phobias is unclear. Methodological limitations of these studies further render it difficult to draw firm conclusions. CONCLUSIONS Childhood phobias are common psychiatric disorders characterized by excessive or unreasonable fear of, or in anticipation of, a circumscribed object or event. Children with phobias often avoid, or attempt to avoid, the feared object or event. Diagnostic interview schedules and rating scales are available for assessing phobias in children and adolescents. Given the evidence on the short- and long-term efficacy of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy, this type of intervention is recommended as the frontline treatment approach. —Lissette M. Saavedra and Wendy K. Silverman

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Ginsburg, G., & Silverman, W. K. (1996). Phobic and anxiety disorders in Hispanic and Caucasian youth. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 10, 517–528.

Last, C., & Perrin, S. (1993). Anxiety disorders in African American and White children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 21, 153–164. Silverman, W. K., & Berman, S. L. (2001). Psychosocial interventions for anxiety disorders in children: Status and future directions. In W. K. Silverman & P. D. A. Treffers (Eds.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: Research, assessment and intervention (pp. 313–334). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Silverman, W. K., Kurtines, W. M., Ginsburg, G. S., Weems, C. F., Rabian, B., & Serafini, L. T. (1999). Contingency management, self-control, and educational support in the treatment of childhood phobic disorders: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 675–687. Stock, S. L., Werry, J. S., & McClellan, J. M. (2001). Pharmacological treatment of paediatric anxiety. In W. K Silverman & P. D. A. Treffers (Eds.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: Research, assessment, and intervention (pp. 335–367). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

PIAGET, JEAN Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century. Although he had little formal training in child psychology, his work transformed the field. He carried out ingenious but deceptively simple experiments to explore and support his ideas. His initial goal was largely a philosophical one: to discover how children acquire knowledge. The results of his work led him to create a stage theory of cognitive development that he continued to refine throughout his life. Piaget’s depiction of cognitive development has had important implications for a range of child-related areas, including education, child care, and research. It is likely that his work has been responsible for more empirical research in developmental psychology than that any other single theorist. In addition, it helped to weaken the hold of behaviorism on American psychology. Although his model has been criticized and many researchers now feel they have moved beyond his theory, the effect of his work lingers. On a practical level, many aspects of child development may still be understood in Piagetian terms. EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896. His father, Arthur, was a professor of medieval literature at the local university. His mother,

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Rebecca Jackson, was intelligent, energetic, and apparently neurotic. The household was not a completely happy one, largely because of her influence (Piaget, 1952). Jean was a precocious child who was very interested in nature. He published his first article, on an albino sparrow, when he was only 10 years old. Throughout his teen years, he continued to write on nature topics, particularly mollusks. When he was still in high school, he was offered a position as curator of the mollusk collection at a museum in Geneva, an offer that he declined because of his young age. Although Piaget’s earliest interests were in biology, he also read extensively in philosophy and to a lesser degree in psychology. At first, his appreciation for the combined fields of philosophy and biology convinced him to devote his life to a search for the biological explanation of knowledge (Evans, 1973, p. 111). But, eventually, he concluded that they were not enough to answer the questions he had in mind. After receiving his PhD in natural science from the University of Neuchatel, at the age of 22, he traveled to Zurich in the hopes of working in a psychology laboratory. While in Zurich, he studied under Eugen Bleuler and heard lectures by Carl Jung. He also had the opportunity to work in the psychology laboratory of G. E. Lipps, but still, he was not satisfied. In 1919, Piaget traveled to Paris to take courses at the Sorbonne. In Paris, he was introduced to Theodore Simon, who had worked with Alfred Binet on the first successful intelligence tests, the Binet-Simon Scales. (Binet had died in 1911.) Meeting Simon was a pivotal moment for Piaget. He agreed to restandardize Cyril Burt’s reasoning test on French children, but when he began his work, he was surprised at the direction it took. He found he was more interested in the wrong answers that the children gave. Those answers gave him insight into the reasoning ability of the children, and he began to engage them in conversation to better understand their reasoning processes. Eventually, he concluded that the fundamental problem in understanding intelligence was to comprehend the different kinds of thinking used by children of various ages (Ginsburg & Opper, 1988). At that time, he essentially mapped out his life’s work, and he stayed with that plan for the next 60 years. INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS Piaget spent the next 2 years observing and experimenting with children and wrote several articles

based on his work. In 1921, Eduoard Claparede offered him a position as director of studies at the J. J. Rousseau Institute, in Geneva. Piaget accepted and continued his research with children there. While at the institute, he met Valentine Chatenay, a student. They were married in 1923. She became an important partner in his early research. In that same year, he published his first book-length report on children’s language and thought. His work was immediately published in several languages and secured him a worldwide reputation (Beilin, 1994). In time, his wife gave birth to three children, two daughters and one son, Jacqueline, Lucienne, and Laurent. They became the subjects of intense observation in their early years, as well as the focus of several of Piaget’s books. Many of his beliefs about intellectual development before language were based on work with his children. While at the institute, Piaget was introduced to Gestalt psychology and was impressed by the work of Wolfgang Kohler and Max Wertheimer. In some ways, it confirmed his work on part-whole relationships. An appreciation of the structure of intellect, including the relationship of various parts to the whole, would underlie much of his work on the development of intelligence. Piaget found his early celebrity to be disconcerting. He considered the results of his work to be preliminary and tentative, yet many of his supporters were acting as if they were final. He accepted a chair at Neuchatel in 1925, then moved back to Geneva in 1929, eventually succeeding Claparede as director of the Psychological Laboratory there—during his career, Piaget frequently held positions at several universities and research centers simultaneously. Although his work was becoming increasingly popular in Europe, he was still relatively unknown in the United States. He had written an important chapter for a handbook of child psychology published in the United States (Piaget, 1931), was granted an honorary degree by Harvard University (1936), and was asked to contribute an autobiographical chapter to a prestigious series (Piaget, 1952). Nonetheless, U.S. psychology remained too dominated by behaviorism to pay him much attention. Beginning in the 1950s, however, American psychology’s attitude toward Piaget’s work began to change dramatically. Several writers, notably David Elkind, began promoting his work. Later, Flavell (1963) published an important sourcebook describing Piaget’s system, which helped to promote it further.

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Before long, Piaget’s ideas dominated child psychology. That dominance continued for more than two decades, reaching its peak influence in the late 1970s. In 1969, he received an award from the American Psychological Association for his “distinguished scientific contributions,” one of the few Europeans to be so honored. He visited the United States on several occasions during this period. A “Jean Piaget Society” was begun in 1970. The organization, which promotes research into the acquisition of knowledge, publishes a journal and continues to hold annual meetings. Piaget continued to live and work in Geneva after his official retirement in 1971. In 1955, he founded the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, an organization that he directed until his death. During his professional lifetime, he had written more than 50 books and hundreds of articles. Although many of his works were written alone, he also had several important collaborators in his work. The most notable of these was Barbel Inhelder (1913–1997), a former student, who succeeded him as chair of genetic and experimental psychology at the University of Geneva. Her work on formal reasoning was a substantial contribution to Piaget’s system. Piaget received many honors during his career, including 31 honorary doctorates, the Erasmus Prize (1972), and 11 other international awards. He died in Geneva on September 6, 1980. THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT Piaget’s theory is complicated and owes a great deal to his philosophical and biological background. American psychologists have tended to ignore these aspects of his theory and to emphasize the more practical and descriptive parts of his approach. Piaget referred to his work as “genetic epistemology,” or the study of the process of knowing from a developmental perspective. For Piaget, as children grow and develop, their thinking undergoes a series of changes that determine their worldviews. Therefore, children at different levels will interpret the world in different ways. Piaget’s model is usually described as “constructivist”; that is, children are active in constructing or creating their own universe. They do not acquire knowledge by being passive; they must act on their environments to grow intellectually. In the final version of his system, Piaget proposed four stages of development, each with its own underlying structure, peculiarities, and tasks. In order of their appearance, the stages are the sensorimotor

stage, the preoperational stage, the stage of concrete operations, and the stage of formal operations. As with most such theories, the stages are considered to be universal and appear in a specific order, in this case, proceeding from birth to approximately 15 or 16 years of age. Although Piaget insisted that chronological age was only an approximate index of the underlying intellectual ability, the stages often have specific ages associated with them. By 15, most adolescents will have achieved the capacity for adult reasoning and have completed the final stage in the Piagetian system. Each stage lays the groundwork for the next stage and, ultimately, is integrated into it. At birth, the child is no more than a bundle of reflexes. But soon, the reflexes are modified in response to the environment and can be called on voluntarily; discriminations take place that are later fine-tuned; simple motor behaviors form patterns that are integrated into more complicated behaviors. By 18 months, most children will have begun to develop internal representations of their external worlds. In this way, the sensorimotor period will lay down the foundation for the more sophisticated forms of intellectual development still to come. As Piaget described the development of these stages, he portrayed the individual world of the child in detail. These descriptions constitute one of the strongest arguments that the child is not simply a homunculus, or “little man,” a belief that was prominent in earlier times and still has many adherents today, although in a more sophisticated form. In Piaget’s view, a child at each level of cognitive development inhabits a world governed by its own rules, most of which are at odds with adult rules of logic. It is in describing these variations and the rules that govern them that Piaget is at his most provocative and, ultimately, his most satisfying. The culmination of the sensorimotor stage, in Piaget’s view, is the attainment of object permanence. Before this concept is attained, children live in a world in which objects have no permanent existence. Once it is attained, they are ready to move to another level of functioning, one in which the development of mental representations of objects will dominate their world. As with all stages of Piagetian development, the implications of the stages of development have enormous implications for child care. In the preoperational phase of development, children attain a rudimentary form of thinking, but it differs substantially from later forms. Preoperational

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thinking is only semilogical and is typically egocentric, in the sense that the child has difficulty seeing things from the perspectives of others. This is true in a perceptual way as well as in a socioemotional way. It is not so much that children at this stage willfully refuse to acknowledge the viewpoint of a parent, but rather that they cannot do so. Perhaps, most important, children at this stage lack the capacity for reversibility. Transformed objects lose their identities, because children fail to conserve mass or weight or length. Social relations suffer a similar fate. Experiments illustrating this lack of conservation are among Piaget’s most famous. Although children achieve an enhanced capacity for thinking in the stage of concrete operations, it is still a limited type of thinking. During this period, children are less bound by perception and egocentricity, and they have attained reversibility, but they still have not entirely left their earlier ways behind. Thoughts are still tied to a real and concrete world, and children cannot enter the world of pure hypothesis. When children are asked to imagine situations (“If all people had three arms . . .”), they find it impossible to deal with them. It is only when children enter the final stage, formal operations, that they reach the pinnacle of adult logical thought. OVERVIEW, CRITICISMS, AND IMPACT OF HIS WORK Piaget’s theory developed in phases over the course of many years (Beilin, 1994), but it is the “grand” theory of cognitive development for which he is best known. His theory is consistent with the “classical” thinkers of developmental psychology; that is, it is in the tradition of J. J. Rousseau. The theory is a dynamic one; according to Piaget, the development of intelligence is an ongoing process, not a state. The organism is in a continual state of adaptation to the environment. This adaptation is accomplished through both assimilation and accommodation. Through the use of assimilation, the organism is able to take in the reality of the outside world and change it to meet the cognitive structures available. Through accommodation, the organism must itself change to meet the demands of the environment. Adaptation is the engine that drives development. Piaget was frequently asked whether the appearance of the cognitive stages could be speeded up. In fact, there has been a great deal of research by others

addressing this question. Piaget referred to this as “the American question,” since it was so frequently asked on his visits to the United States. For him, such a question was largely irrelevant. Perhaps the stages could be speeded up, but for what purpose? In true interactionist fashion, he believed that changes come about as the natural unfolding of the organism meets the demands of the real world. While it might be possible to promote some change over the short term, such changes would be largely superficial and, ultimately, inconsequential. More than that, by speeding up the process, the child would be deprived of valuable learning. There have been many criticisms of Piaget’s work. His methodology, particularly his use of the “clinical method,” was not acceptable to some experimental psychologists, who were used to research taking place under more rigid laboratory conditions. Moreover, he seemed uninterested in statistics and typically failed to report sample size, gender, socioeconomic status, and other staples of traditional developmental research. His use of stages has also been questioned. Does development really organize itself in this fashion, or are stages simply useful devices that camouflage the more complex details of development? There is evidence that certain abilities, such as conservation, are very content related. Does this undermine the basic notion of the stages? Although Piaget addressed the influence of Gestalt psychologists on some of his early thinking, he seemed to operate independently of other theory or research in child development, particularly later in his career. If he had investigated more contemporary research on the capabilities of infants, for instance, might he have changed his mind about some aspects of the sensorimotor stage? He also ignored many of the social and emotional aspects of development, causing some to conclude that his is a theory of cognitive development, rather than simply a theory of development. He was even criticized for using a biased and very limited sample as subjects—that is, his own children. In the end, of course, thousands of children participated in his research. CONCLUSIONS Despite the criticisms, Piaget’s work continues to have an impact. In some ways, we are still grappling with the implications of his work (Zigler & Gilman, 1998). Indeed, today there are many psychologists

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who consider themselves staunch advocates of the Piagetian position and intend to remain so until their deaths! Others have developed a neo-Piagetian perspective, retaining some basic forms of his theory but modifying them to meet the results of current research. Piaget said that he was interested not in founding a school, but in finding the truth. He insisted that to the extent that there were Piagetians, he had failed. —John D. Hogan and Catherine Casella

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Beilin, H. (1994). Jean Piaget’s enduring contribution to developmental psychology. In R. Parke, P. A. Ornstein, J. J. Reiser, & C. Zahn-Waxler (Eds.), A century of developmental psychology (pp. 257–290). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Evans, R. I. (1973). Jean Piaget: The man and his ideas. New York: Dutton. Flavell, J. H. (1963). The developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. New York: Van Nostrand. Ginsburg, H., & Opper, S. (1988). Piaget’s theory of intellectual development: An introduction (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Piaget, J. (1931). Children’s philosophies. In C. Murchison (Ed.), A handbook of child psychology (pp. 377–391). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. Piaget, J. (1952). Autobiography. In E. G. Boring (Ed.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 4, pp. 237–256). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. Zigler, E., & Gilman, E. (1998). The legacy of Jean Piaget. In G. A. Kimble & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 145–160). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

PITTMAN, KAREN J. Karen Pittman has made a career starting organizations and initiatives that promote youth development. Currently, she is executive director of the Forum for Youth Investment (The Forum), cofounded in 1998 with Merita Irby. Dedicated to changing the odds for children, youth, and their families by “moving ideas to impact,” The Forum works to spark and support action by giving youth and adult leaders the information, inspiration, and support they need to increase the quality and quantity of youth investment and youth involvement in neighborhoods and across the nation.

A sociologist and recognized leader in the youth development field in the United States, Pittman began her career at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan, economic, and social policy research organization conducting numerous studies on social services for children and families and examining the impact of the Reagan era cuts on four truly needy populations. She also coauthored Testing the Social Safety Net: The Impact of Changes in Support Programs During the Reagan Administration, with Martha Burt. In 1985, Pittman moved on to join the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), shaping their teenage pregnancy prevention work. “Young people—young men and young women—need the capacity to prevent pregnancy,” Pittman argued. “But they also need the motivation.” Pittman stressed the importance of being steadfast about providing teens with information and reproductive health services and suggested that communities be equally vigilant in providing youth with real education and employment opportunities that allow them to calculate the costs of early pregnancy. While at CDF, Pittman produced more than 30 reports on teenage pregnancy, served on the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Bipartisan Task Force, testified before Congress, and, most important, helped debunk the idea that the primary cause of teenage pregnancy is race. By commissioning special data runs, Pittman was able to demonstrate that once poverty and poor academic skills are taken into account, the differences in birthrates between African American, Hispanic, and White teens disappear. African American, White, or Hispanic young women with poor basic academic skills and poor families are at least 5 times more likely to become teen mothers than are young women who have these basic academic and economic assets. As the founder of the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research (1990), Pittman testified before Congress about the danger of prematurely writing off thousands of young people by setting expectations too low. “Reducing youth problems was critical,” Pittman explained, but “problem-free is not fully prepared.” She emphasized that communities as well as their leaders had to be as articulate about what they wanted young people to do, be, and become as they were about what they did not want them to do. Pittman argued that by focusing on development (making sure that every young person has the supports and opportunities needed to be fully prepared and fully engaged in learning, work, and community life),

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communities could lay the groundwork for reducing or preventing problems. This became the cornerstone of what is now known as the “youth development movement.” As the unlikely head of the President’s Crime Prevention Council in the first Clinton Administration, directed by Vice President Al Gore (1995), Pittman brought an advocate’s agenda to the White House. Despite the fallout from the Gingrich Congress that thwarted the implementation of the council’s proposals, Pittman and her staff, led by Merita Irby (who had first worked with Pittman at the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research), facilitated a highlevel working group, bringing the Cabinet’s 13 department secretaries to consensus on three concepts: communities must protect, prevent, and prepare; communities must invest in young people, families, and neighborhoods; and communities must make early and sustained investments in young people from early childhood through young adulthood. Together, the council identified 273 separate federal programs that addressed violence, abuse, pregnancy, substance abuse, and delinquency and created recommendations for helping communities help youth by reducing red tape. When she left, the working group toasted Pittman as “a national treasure.” In 1999, Pittman, then senior vice president of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), joined IYF founder and CEO Rick Little in helping lay the foundation for the organization that would become America’s Promise. Initially, planning served as the response to the 1994 President’s Summit for America’s Future, a historic gathering that brought living presidents together to generate energy throughout the country for supporting and committing to young people. Pittman crafted key messages and laid the groundwork for the Communities of Promise and Schools of Promise campaigns before returning to IYF. Six months later, Pittman and Irby developed the Forum for Youth Investment. The Forum has a reputation for being on the cutting edge in framing the issues facing youth and is the result of more than two decades of efforts to institutionalize a positive public perception of young people: who they are, what they need, and what they can contribute. The organization works in partnership with dozens of foundations, nonprofits, and state and local governments to help strengthen programs and practices that contribute to safe and supportive environments for learning and development.

Not only is Pittman behind some of the major ideas that have shaped the thinking of policymakers, program planners, and philanthropists, she is also a widely published author, of three books and dozens of articles on youth issues; a regular columnist of the national youth work newspaper, Youth Today; and a highly regarded public speaker. In addition, Pittman has served behind the boardroom doors of organizations such as the Educational Testing Service, the National Center for Children in Poverty, the E. M. Kauffman Foundation, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, and the National Academy of Sciences Forum on Adolescence. She has stood in front of audiences such as the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the National Urban League, and the National League of Cities. Recognized internationally for her commitment to young people, Pittman was also a recipient of the Augustus F. Hawkins Educational Service Award, an honor granted to innovative leaders such as Gwendolyn Calvert Baker, past president of the United States Committee for UNICEF; James Comer, Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale and founder of the Comer Schools model; William Gray, former Congressman and current president and CEO of the College Fund; and Floretta Dukes McKenzie, former superintendent of the D.C. Public Schools. Karen Pittman, a native of Washington, D.C., and a product of the D.C. Public Schools, first became interested in youth development issues as a summer camp counselor at High/Scope Camp for adolescents. Pittman holds degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Chicago. —Merita Irby

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. L., & Pittman, K. J. (Eds.). (2001). Trends in youth development: Vision, realities, and challenges. Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Ferber, T., & Pittman, K. (with Marshall, T.). (2002). State youth policy: Helping all youth to grow up fully prepared and fully engaged. Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies. Available at http:// forumforyouthinvestment.org/papers/stateyouthpolicy.pdf The Forum for Youth Investment. (2001). Youth, action, community, development: The community & youth development series. Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies. Available at www.forumforyouthinvestment .org/respapers-cydseries.htm

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Pittman, K. (2002, July). Balancing the equation: Communities supporting youth, youth supporting communities. In J. P. Terry (Ed.), Center for Youth Development anthology 2002 (pp. 19–24). Sudbury, MA: Institute for Just Communities. Available at www.forumforyouthinvestment.org/cyd/ balancingequation.ant2002.pdf (Originally published in CYD Journal, 1, pp. 32–36, 2000, Winter) Pittman, K., Irby, M., & Ferber, T. (2000). Unfinished business: Further reflections on a decade of promoting youth development. Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies. Available at http:// forumforyouthinvestment.org/unfinishedbusiness.pdf Pittman, K., Irby, M., Tolman, J., Yohalem, N., & Ferber, T. (2001). Preventing problems, promoting development, encouraging engagement: Competing priorities or inseparable goals? Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies. Available at http://forumforyouthinvestment.org/ preventproblems.pdf Yohalem, N., & Pittman, K. (2001, October). Powerful pathways: Framing options and opportunities for vulnerable youth (Discussion paper of the Youth Transition Funders Group). Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies. Available at http://forumforyouthinvestment .org/pwrflpthwys.pdf

PLACEBO CONTROLS, ETHICS IN MULTINATIONAL CLINICAL TRIALS During the past decade, there has been a heated controversy over the ethical justification of the use of placebo controls in clinical trials designed to develop, for use in countries with limited resources, to develop affordable alternatives for the expensive therapies used in the wealthy countries. This entry identifies the major themes in this controversy and then specifies the current understandings of this issue as they are expressed in the international codes of research ethics.1 HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS: THE PROBLEM AS IT STOOD IN 1996 The Declaration of Helsinki, the code of research ethics promulgated by the World Medical Association (WMA) in 1964 and since recognized widely as a leading code of ethics for biomedical research involving human subjects, contained in its 1996 iteration the following article on the use of placebos; this established the “best proven therapeutic method” as the

standard requirement for all patients who serve as research subjects: II.3 In any medical study, every patient— including those of a control group, if any— should be assured of the best proven diagnostic and therapeutic method. This does not exclude the use of inert placebo in studies where no proven diagnostic or therapeutic method exists. The implications of this article, which has come to be known as the notorious “Article II.3,” extend far beyond the use of placebo controls in clinical trials. This article, if strictly applied, would rule out the development of all new therapies for conditions for which there are already existing “proven” therapies. One cannot evaluate a new therapy unless one withholds those that have already been demonstrated safe and effective for the same indication. (There are a few exceptions, most notably drugs having mechanisms of action different from the existing proven therapy.) Article II.3 also forbids placebo controls in clinical trials in which there is virtually no risk from withholding proven therapy. Consider research in the field of analgesics and antihistamines. No experienced clinical trialist would ever employ an active control for an evaluation of a new analgesic. Article II.3 also rules out the use of placebo controls where there is a very remote possibility of a serious adverse consequence of withholding the active drug, such as trials of new antihypertensives and of new oral hypoglycemic agents. Insisting on active controls in these areas would introduce major inefficiencies with virtually no compensating benefit; the amount of injury to research subjects that would be prevented by requiring active controls is so small that it can be, and generally is, considered negligible. The most controversial interpretation of Article II.3 was that it required the provision of the best proven therapeutic method that is available in the wealthy countries even when conducting research in countries in which such therapy is not available. This interpretation provoked the most acrimonious debate in the field of research ethics since the 1970s. The debate began with the publication in The New England Journal of Medicine of an article that denounced as unethical the clinical trials that were being carried out in several countries to evaluate the effectiveness of the short-duration regimen of AZT (azidothymidine) in preventing perinatal transmission of HIV infection.

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The editor of the New England Journal opined that these trials were, in certain respects, reminiscent of the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Studies. In contemporary American culture, Tuskegee is one of the most powerful metaphors for symbolizing evil in the field of research ethics. The other side of the controversy is exemplified by a statement of a physician-researcher from Uganda, one of the countries in which the trials were conducted. He accused the editor of a form of “ethical imperialism” that asserts that the American vision of research ethics must dominate the conduct of research everywhere in the world. The other leading international document on research ethics by the Council of International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS), International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects, in its 1993 revision, already allowed the use of placebo controls when indicated without providing detailed guidance for their ethical justification. Both sets of guidelines have since been clarified. ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST REVISION Proponents of Helsinki’s antiplacebo stance argued that use of placebo controls is a violation of the physician’s fiduciary duty of undivided loyalty to the interests of the patient. Clinical equipoise, a conceptual construct designed by its author to reinforce the fiduciary requirement in the research setting, was seen as also violated. Commentators on the other side replied that in research ethics, violations of fiduciary duty are not only commonplace, but, as of 1982, they were also endorsed explicitly by the CIOMS guidelines. Hence, if one were to rule out all violations of fiduciary duty, to be consistent, one would have to rule out as well most research in the fields of pathogenesis, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. Parenthetically, when physicians act as investigators, they are ethically required to inform patient-subjects of ways in which their relationships with them differ from the traditional physician-patient relationship. The fiduciary requirement includes an obligation to disclose to the patient any interest of the physician that could interfere with the fiduciary obligation of undivided loyalty to the interests of the patient. Those who embraced the antiplacebo position argued further that allowing placebo controls enhanced the potential for exploitation of research subjects in developing countries by researchers and sponsors in the wealthy nations. Their adversaries replied that

substantial safeguards against exploitation were already established in the 1993 version of the CIOMS guidelines. They included, among other things, a requirement that the research plan itself must be responsive to the health needs and priorities of the host country and a requirement that the therapeutic products, if any, of the research program must be made reasonably available to the residents of the host country. The 2002 revision of the CIOMS guidelines includes a strengthened set of standards to reduce the probability of exploitation. At the request of some antiplacebo advocates, the following statement was incorporated in the commentary on Guideline 11 of the 2002 version of the CIOMS guidelines: An economic reason for the unavailability of an established effective intervention cannot justify a placebo-controlled study in a country of limited resources when it would be unethical to conduct a study with the same design in a population with general access to the effective intervention outside the study. Advocates for the limited use of placebo in such circumstances argued that adoption of this position would preclude the development of most inexpensive alternatives to the high-priced therapies used in wealthy countries and that this would effectively deny effective treatments and preventions to most residents of lowresource countries and communities. Compliance with the CIOMS guidelines requirement that clinical trials must be responsive to the health needs and priorities of the host country necessitates that they must be so designed that their results will accurately inform the use of the study medication in the trial’s host country. In many cases, use of placebo, no treatment, or “local remedy” controls is preferred to active controls on both scientific and ethical grounds. CURRENT SITUATION The revision of Helsinki adopted in Edinburgh in 2000 changed the system of numbering to accommodate the long-overdue rejection of the distinction between therapeutic and nontherapeutic research; Article II.3 was replaced by the new Paragraph 29: 29. The benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness of a new method should be tested against those

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of the best current prophylactic, diagnostic, and therapeutic methods. This does not exclude the use of placebo, or no treatment, in studies where no proven prophylactic, diagnostic or therapeutic method exists. The new language relieved only one of the problems mentioned at the outset; it no longer rules out the development of all new therapies for conditions for which there are already existing “proven” therapies. Otherwise, the proscription of placebo controls was continued unaltered. In the debate over the ethical justification of placebo controls, those favoring their limited use apparently prevailed, at least in the arena of international documents. WMA issued a “Footnote of Clarification on Paragraph 29” in 2001 and revised it in Washington in 2002: WMA . . . reaffirms its position . . . that in general [placebo controls] should only be used in the absence of existing proven therapy. However, a placebo-controlled trial may be ethically acceptable, even if proven therapy is available. . . . • Where for compelling and scientifically sound methodological reasons its use is necessary to determine the efficacy or safety of a prophylactic, diagnostic or therapeutic method; or • Where a prophylactic, diagnostic or therapeutic method is being investigated for a minor condition and the patients who receive placebo will not be subject to any additional risk of serious or irreversible harm. The first of the two conditions has been the target of criticism by many commentators. It lacks specificity regarding the procedure to be followed to determine that there are “compelling and scientifically sound reasons,” what such reasons might be, and whether the limitations should vary according to the purpose of the product under evaluation. As we shall see, each of these deficiencies is supplied by CIOMS in its 2002 revision. The second of the two conditions relieves the earlier proscription against placebo controls in clinical trials in which there is virtually no risk from withholding proven therapy. It is unclear whether or not it would require use of the best proven therapeutic method that is available in the industrialized

countries (Paragraph 29, above) even when conducting research in countries in which such therapy is not available; it depends on one’s interpretation of the intent of the footnote. The revision of the International Ethical Guidelines issued by CIOMS in 2002, in Guideline 11, states, As a general rule, research subjects in the control group of a trial of a diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive intervention should receive an established effective intervention. In some circumstances it may be ethically acceptable to use an alternative comparator, such as placebo or “no treatment.” [Such circumstances include]: • when there is no established effective intervention;2 • when withholding an established effective intervention would expose subjects to, at most, temporary discomfort or delay in relief of symptoms; • when use of an established effective intervention as comparator would not yield scientifically reliable results and use of placebo would not add any risk of serious or irreversible harm to the subjects. In addition, the commentary on Guideline 11 provides guidance for exceptional use of a comparator other than an established effective intervention . . . in some studies designed to develop a therapeutic, preventive or diagnostic intervention for use in a country or community in which an established effective intervention is not available and unlikely in the foreseeable future to become available, usually for economic or logistic reasons. The purpose of such a study is to make available to the population of the country or community an effective alternative to an established effective intervention that is locally unavailable. Accordingly, the proposed investigational intervention must be responsive to the health needs of the population from which the research subjects are recruited and there must be assurance that, if it proves to be safe and effective, it will be made reasonably available to that population. Also, the scientific and ethical review committees must be satisfied that the

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established effective intervention cannot be used as comparator because its use would not yield scientifically reliable results that would be relevant to the health needs of the study population. In these circumstances an ethical review committee can approve a clinical trial in which the comparator is other than an established effective intervention, such as placebo or no treatment or a local remedy.

CONCLUSIONS The Declaration of Helsinki’s guidance on the ethical justification of withholding the best proven therapeutic method to conduct a placebo controlled clinical trial continues to be unclear. Many commentators who criticized the 1996 version on grounds it was too restrictive are concerned that the version promulgated in 2000, with its footnote of clarification, might be too permissive; whether it is too permissive depends entirely on one’s interpretation of the clarification. The CIOMS guidelines 2002 version, by contrast, provides a detailed account of the circumstances in which one may withhold “established effective treatment” to enable the conduct of a placebo-controlled trial. One may or may not agree with the CIOMS standards; however, their meaning, as set forth in their most recent iteration, is not open to diverse interpretations as is the meaning of Helsinki. Controversy in this field continues, and there are likely to be further revisions of the standards in the future. —Robert J. Levine

NOTES 1. Some passages in this entry have been adapted or excerpted from previous publications by the author. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation (The Donaghue Initiative in Biomedical and Behavioral Research Ethics) and by grant number 1 P30 MH 62294-01 A1 from the National Institute of Mental Health. 2. CIOMS uses a standard they call “established effective therapy,” which has a different meaning than the “best proven therapeutic method” standard used in Helsinki. Most important, it recognizes that for many diseases and conditions, there is no single “best proven method.” Rather, there are multiple methods, each having its advocates within the community of clinical experts. A full discussion of this issue is beyond the scope of this article.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Angell, M. (1997). The ethics of clinical research in the third world. New England Journal of Medicine, 337, 847–849. Council of International Organizations of Medical Sciences. (1993). International ethical guidelines for biomedical research involving human subjects. Geneva: Author. (Revised 2002) Freedman, B. (1987). Equipoise and the ethics of clinical research. New England Journal of Medicine, 317, 141–145. Levine, R. J. (1988). Ethics and regulation of clinical research (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Levine, R. J. (1996). International codes and guidelines for research ethics: A critical appraisal. In H. Y. Vanderpool (Ed.), The ethics of research involving human subjects: Facing the 21st century (pp. 235–259). Frederick, MD: University Publishing Group. Levine, R. J. (1998). The “best proven therapeutic method” standard in clinical trials in technologically developing countries. IRB: A Review of Human Subjects Research, 20(1), 5–9. Levine, R. J. (1999). The need to revise the Declaration of Helsinki. New England Journal of Medicine, 341, 531–534. Levine, R. J. (2000). Global issues in clinical trials. In M. Osterweis & D. E. Holmes (Eds.), Global dimensions of domestic health issues (pp. 119–130). Washington, DC: Association of Academic Health Centers. Levine, R. J. (2002). Placebo controls in clinical trials of new therapies for conditions for which there are known effective treatments. In H. A. Guess, A. Kleinman, J. W. Kusek, & L. W. Engel (Eds.), The science of the placebo: Toward an interdisciplinary research agenda (pp. 264–280). London: British Medical Journal. Lurie, P., & Wolfe, S. M. (1997). Unethical trials of interventions to reduce perinatal transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus in developing countries. New England Journal of Medicine, 337, 853–856. Weijer, C. (2000). Ethical challenges of the randomized clinical trial. In R. J. Levine & S. Gorovitz (Eds.), Biomedical research ethics: Updating international guidelines: A consultation (pp. 57–91). Geneva: Council of International Organizations of Medical Sciences. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, and amended by the 29th WMA General Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975; 35th WMA General Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983; 41st WMA General Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989; 48th WMA General Assembly, Somerset West, Republic of South Africa, October 1996; and 52nd WMA General Assembly, Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2000; Note of Clarification on Paragraph 29 added by the WMA General Assembly, Washington, DC, 2002. Available at http://www .wma.net/e/policy/17c.pdf

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PLANNING AND EVALUATION RESOURCE CENTER (PERC) Youth development practice is dynamic; as professionals and volunteers, activists and organizers do the work, they learn, and what they learn can change the practice and the policy of youth development. For this reason, the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development (Innovation Center), with its partners at the Tufts University Applied Developmental Science Institute (ADSI), has created the Planning and Evaluation Resource Center (PERC). PERC brings together the current best practices in youth program development and facilitates access to the best resources for communities to conduct, evaluate, and sustain youth programs that work. PERC’s design is based on a true partnership between research and practice, and in the process, it strengthens both. Participants in the 2002 Wingspread Conference on youth involvement in community evaluation argued that these types of researcherpractitioner partnerships are most beneficial for the work of youth development (Wingspread Symposium, 2002). PERC partners adhered to this value in researching, creating, and disseminating information to support planning and evaluation efforts. In 2001, the Innovation Center undertook an intensive study of the needs of community-based youth development workers within the Cooperative Extension Service, as well as civic-engagementbased youth development organizations. The aim was involved with the Innovation Center’s Youth Leadership for Development Initiative and sought to uncover these youth development organizations’ ideas for tools and strategies to strengthen their work (Innovation Center, 2001a). At the same time, the Innovation Center commissioned a report by Dewey & Kaye, Inc. (2001), which asked similar questions in a survey of 29 youth-serving organizations in southwest Pennsylvania. These compiled findings indicated that youth development practitioners saw a great need for more user-friendly tools to focus on program improvement and for partnerships with academics and experts who can validate knowledge developed locally. The results dovetailed with findings uncovered by ADSI through more than 100 interviews with researchers, policymakers, and funders, suggesting that accessible evaluation efforts from a centralized source might support evaluation efforts on a community

level (Lerner, 2001). To meet these needs and thereby strengthen youth development work, PERC was created as a source of information, training, technical assistance, and powerful connections for community youth development organizations and applied developmental scientists. PERC facilitates, through the Innovation Center, a full range of training, technical assistance, gatherings, and partnerships. The training, tool kits, and technical assistance target three areas: evaluation for youth development/civic engagement programs, evaluation and information management, and youth-adult partnerships in evaluation. Trainers collaborate with community partners to focus on empowering individuals and groups, through a trainthe-trainer approach, to implement their own planning and evaluation processes in their communities and organizations. To support the technical assistance available through the trainings, the Innovation Center has led efforts to create three practitioner tool kits. These distinctly different yet mutually supportive curricula provide practical activities and tools to help organizations measure program impact and improve opportunities for youth. Evaluating Civic Activism: A Curriculum for Community and Youth-Serving Organizations (Innovation Center, 2004a) is based on 5 years of work with 12 community-based youth activism programs in the United States. Written by Social Policy Research Associates under the direction of the Innovation Center, it helps groups assess their organizational needs for evaluation, design evaluations to fit their organizational goals, and use evaluation data to report to funders and other stakeholders. Measuring Incremental Change: Getting to Objectives and Outcomes That Make Sense for Youth Work (Innovation Center, 2004b) is written by the New England Network for Child, Youth, and Family Services with the Innovation Center, with the aim of helping child and youth service agencies to coordinate and manage information systems and streamline reporting and tracking functions for multiple funding audiences and stakeholders. Reflect and Improve: Practical Tools for Engaging Youth and Adults as Partners in Evaluation of Community Building (Innovation Center, 2004c), a partnership between the University of Kentucky and the Innovation Center, provides youth and adults with practical activities and tools to evaluate their community building work together. It is designed to complement the Innovation Center’s Building Community: A

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Tool Kit for Youth and Adults in Charting Assets and Creating Change (Innovation Center, 2001a). The final component of PERC, under the direction of ADSI, is an online clearinghouse of referrals, archives, materials, technical assistance, and interactive tools on evaluation and youth development, located at http://ase.tufts.edu/adsi/perc. The Web site facilitates and supports connections between community-based organizations, evaluators, trainers, and universities through a practitioner’s database, a training calendar, a tutorial on the evaluation cycle, a compendium of tools, and an upcoming technical assistance hotline. With additional funding, ADSI and the Innovation Center will work with other academic and research institutions and community organizations to launch a series of small studies and to provide organizations with customized assistance on proposals, data analysis, research design, and measurement development and scholarship and advocacy around policy issues of importance to youth development work. Through the mix of training, resources, and successful real-time partnerships between practitioners and researchers, PERC is able to articulate standards of practice and direct organizations to the tools and resources that best meet both their community needs and the general need for effective and sustained youth development programs. PERC is guided in this process by several advisers, made up of representatives from a range of community-based organizations, intermediaries, foundations, evaluation and technology professionals, and scholars from throughout the country. PERC advisers serve as trustees and visionaries for PERC, as sounding boards for the clearinghouse and for the trainings and as partners in building new opportunities for work. The project also has a management team made up of Innovation Center and ADSI staff members, PERC staff members. and representatives of organizations that are key participants in PERC’s work. With project partners and advisers sharing their experiences in academia, policy, and practice, PERC seeks out and brings together the best practical tools for evaluating youth development outcomes and develops methods and tools specific to communities of interest. PERC shares resources, effective tools, and experiences to strengthen the work of youth development on a global scale. —Lucinda Garthwaite, Hartley Hobson, and Ali Bourque

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Dewey & Kaye, Inc. (2001). Unpublished report. Pittsburgh, PA: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2001a). Building community: A tool kit for youth and adults in charting assets and creating change (3rd ed.). Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2001b). Summary of key findings: Interviews with 4-H/extension professionals for virtual evaluation center. Unpublished report. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004a). Evaluating civic activism: A curriculum for community and youth-serving organizations. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004b). Measuring incremental change: Getting to objectives and outcomes that make sense for youth work. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. (2004c). Reflect and improve: Practical tools for engaging youth and adults as partners in evaluation of community building. Takoma Park, MD: Author. Lerner, J. (2001). Victory survey. Unpublished report. Tufts University, Applied Developmental Science Institute, Medford, MA. Wingspread Symposium on Youth Participation in Community Research. (2002). Summary of proceedings. Unpublished report. University of Michigan School of Social Work, Ann Arbor.

PLAY, CHILDHOOD Play includes a number of activities throughout the life span but is primarily defined in terms of the cognitively enriching and personally enjoyable activities that occur from infancy through childhood. This entry focuses on independent and social play activities, their developmental progression, as well as other related concepts. Play gives us a chance to witness the processes working in a child’s mind. While individuals’ play abilities develop at different paces, just like other domains of development, most children tend to mature along the same pathway and achieve milestones in the same order, including children among nonnormative populations. Although some researchers tend to differentiate play from exploration (play being an end in itself and exploration being a means to an end), during very early infancy, these two behaviors are essentially one and the

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same (Belsky & Most, 1981). As the motor skills of an infant develop and objects and environments become more familiar, play becomes a pursuit in itself and is tailored to contextual factors. Children will play in ways that increase efficacy and enjoyment with the specific objects and people that are regularly played with. INDEPENDENT-PLAY DEVELOPMENT The first type of object play begins when infants gain the ability to grasp objects and mouth them. The next stage, which often exists concurrently with mouthing, is simple manipulation, such as swinging, banging, and throwing. Mouthing and indiscriminate simple manipulation are examples of how play can have no necessary purpose yet be enjoyable and enriching. However, the following stages begin to involve more focused play. The next stage that occurs is functional play, when a child plays with an object according to its physical features, such as spinning a propeller or pressing a button. When infants become proficient at functional play, they will gradually be able to perform this type of manipulation with two objects at the same time. However, the combinations created in this play are usually inappropriate according to the properties of the objects. A child in this stage may bang on a toy phone with a spoon but over time will gain the ability to bring two objects together appropriately. When most infants enter pretense play, they engage in acts that are symbolically appropriate to what the objects they are playing with represent. Instead of making sounds or using complete actions that would go along with pretense play, the child only hints at the pretense. The true pretense play that evolves from this first stage involves applying real-world meaning to an object during play. This begins as solely directed toward the self but over time will be applied to others, such as the child’s mother or a doll. As children develop the ability to use representations further and further from the physical attributes of an object, they will eventually be able to pretend that an object is something completely different and use it in such a manner. An example of this substitution would be a child who puts a block to his or her ear and talks into the block as if it were a telephone. The child then develops the ability to combine pretense play into sequences. Over time, children acquire the skills to apply the ability of sequencing to separate acts of substitution. Last, children develop the ability to hold more than one substitution at a time and

pretend two objects are something they are not, and use them in accordance with these symbols. SOCIAL PLAY DEVELOPMENT In addition to cognitive development, as related to objects and their possible functions, play also holds an important role in social development. Through social play, it is believed that children develop social skills and the ability to regulate their emotions, as well as the aptitude to envision what another is thinking (Gayler & Evans, 2001; Gönçü, 1993; Howes & Matheson, 1992). While children develop their social play skills quickly and regularly when they are interacting with peers and siblings, their first bouts at social play are with their mothers. Mothers’ play with their children begins as bids and responses for nonsymbolic play, but social play between the two develops along with the child’s other skills. In fact, some researchers have found that a mother will facilitate play at the level or slightly above the level of her child so that she is a catalyst for more pretend play (Bornstein, Haynes, O’Reilly, & Painter, 1996). Children begin their social play development with peers by simply playing in the same area as another child. This is parallel play. Over time, children become aware of what the other is doing but still do not engage one another in play. Simple social play involves just talking with and exchanging toys with another child, whereas reciprocal types of social play that develop next, such as tag, involve children exchanging action roles. Social pretend play begins in a simple form with children acting out complementary roles. One child will be the “cop,” and the other will be the “robber.” Next, children will take part in more complex social pretend play, which involves communication about symbolic roles (Howes & Matheson, 1992). Now, children play house with one being the “mommy” and one being “daddy,” and they discuss the pretend roles each has within the game. While one can imagine that the immediate physical and social environments of a child affect the development of object and social play, other, more global factors, such as culture and language, are also related to the development of play. Some researchers have found differences in play development ascribable to cultural tendencies. Japanese mothers, for example, more commonly focus their toddlers on other-directed behavior, whereas U.S. American mothers concentrate

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on more nonsymbolic behavior (Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, Cyphers, Toda, & Ogino, 1992). Moreover, toddlers’ and mothers’ foci in play tend to relate to one another (Bornstein et al., 1996). —Steven J. Bottje and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Belsky, J., & Most, R. K. (1981). From exploration to play: A cross-sectional study of infant free play behavior. Developmental Psychology, 17, 630–639. Bornstein, M. H., Haynes, O. M., O’Reilly, A. W., & Painter, K. M. (1996). Solitary and collaborative pretense play in early childhood: Sources of individual variation in the development of representational competence. Child Development, 67, 2910–2929. Gayler, K. T., & Evans, I. M. (2001). Pretend play and the development of emotion regulation in preschool children. Early Child Development and Care, 166, 93–108. Gönçü, A. (1993). Development of intersubjectivity in the dyadic play of preschoolers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8, 99–116. Howes, C., & Matheson, C. C. (1992). Sequences in the development of competent play with peers: Social and social pretend play. Developmental Psychology, 28, 961–974. Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bornstein, M. H., Cyphers, L., Toda, S., & Ogino, M. (1992). Language and play at one year: A comparison of toddlers and mothers in the United States and Japan. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 15, 19–42.

PLAY, NONSOCIAL, AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDHOOD Children spend much of their youthful energy engaged in play. According to many researchers, play is a generative force in children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development, and the extent to which children engage in play with others is of developmental significance (Fromberg & Bergen, 1998). In light of the complexity and developmental significance of children’s play and especially play with peers, it seems important to examine whether children who fail to engage others in social play are at risk for negative consequences. This entry focuses on the social and nonsocial contexts within which particular play behaviors may

occur. Specifically, the harmful consequences of nonsocial play are examined. The multiple types of nonsocial behaviors in early childhood will be discussed, along with the different psychological meanings of the different expressional forms of solitude. The role of culture in understanding the developmental significance of nonsocial play is also presented, followed by practical implications of the presented ideas. NONSOCIAL PLAY IN CHILDHOOD It is now widely accepted that children who consistently engage in solitary behavior while in the presence of peers during the early and middle childhood years may be “at risk” for later social and emotional problems in adolescence and adulthood, including school dropout, delinquency, aggression, depression, low self-esteem, and loneliness (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). While the terms behavioral solitude, social withdrawal, and nonsocial play have been used interchangeably, recent research has revealed the importance of identifying qualitatively different types of nonsocial behavior. It is now clear that nonsocial play is a complex and multidimensional construct, and recent advances in the study of social withdrawal have produced a literature suggesting that different expressional forms of solitude carry with them different psychological meanings. THE MULTIPLE FORMS AND “MEANINGS” OF NONSOCIAL PLAY BEHAVIORS Researchers have distinguished among three main clusters of solitary behaviors that children may engage in: solitary-passive, solitary-active, and reticent behaviors. Solitary-Passive Behavior Solitary-passive behavior is characterized by quiet exploration of objects and/or constructive activity (the building or creating of something, such as building blocks or drawing) while playing alone. Thus, these children are usually playing apart from the other children or with their backs to other children, with toys that are different from those the other children are using (Rubin, 1982). In early childhood, solitary-passive behavior is associated positively with (a) indices of emotion regulation, (b) competent problem solving while alone

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or in cooperative tasks with peers, and (c) peer acceptance. In addition, such behavior is reinforced positively by teachers and parents as well as peers, probably because it leads to order in the class and closely approximates the kinds of behavior generally occurring in elementary school classrooms. Preschool children who frequently engage in solitary-passive play (e.g., doing puzzles or artwork, building blocks, or reading) appear to be object oriented rather than people oriented. These children excel at objectoriented tasks, are more task persistent, and have a higher attention span. On the other hand, they perform poorly during people-oriented social tasks (e.g., “show and tell” during small group time) (e.g., Rubin, Coplan, Fox, & Calkins, 1995). However, generally, solitary-passive play among preschoolers is not associated with indices of maladaptation. Solitary-Active Behavior Solitary-active behavior, when produced in a social group, is identified by repeated sensorimotor actions with or without objects in which the focus of the actions is the physical sensation that results and/or by dramatizing (pretend play) in solitude. It is important to distinguish solitary-active behavior from sociodramatic play in the presence of peers. The latter is, in fact, a marker of social competence (e.g., Howes, 1992). Solitary-active behavior has a low frequency of occurrence, which makes this form of play highly salient and noticeable; as such, it is regarded by peers and teachers alike as rather peculiar. The cluster of behaviors composing solitary-active play has been associated with indices of (a) impulsivity among preschoolers, (b) peer rejection from as early as the preschool years, and (c) externalizing problems (in particular aggressiveness) and immaturity throughout the childhood years. Thus, solitary-active behavior, although nonsocial in nature, appears to be associated with externalizing, as opposed to internalizing, problems in childhood. Even in midchildhood, solitary-active behavior remains significantly associated with teacher- and peer-derived indices of aggression (Rubin & Mills, 1988). Some children may voluntarily withdraw from peer interaction. Others, however, may be actively isolated by the peer group. This may be the case for children who engage in a high frequency of solitary-active behaviors. Ameliorative action would thus be appropriate when it is noted that a child’s activities are dominated by this form of nonsocial activity.

Reticent Behavior The third cluster of solitary behaviors, reticence, may comprise the frequent production of prolonged watching of other children without accompanying play or attempting to join peers in play (onlooking), or being unoccupied (marked absence of focus or intent). Preschool-aged children who are often reticent are thought to experience what has been termed a social approach-avoidance conflict. That is, while desirous of peer interaction (high approach motivation), these children find that entering social situations elicits feelings of anxiety and the development of a powerful need to avoid interaction (high avoidance motivation). Thus, reticent behavior is thought to reflect social fear and anxiety in a social context. In the presence of unfamiliar peers, it is normal for most children to experience this conflict to some extent. The resolution of this conflict usually involves the child moving from onlooking to hovering near the social interactors of interest, to parallel play, and then finally to social interchange. However, children who are extremely reticent in the presence of unfamiliar peers do not make this progression, and because of fear and anxiety, they display prolonged onlooking of other peers without accompanying play and/or unoccupied behaviors. Reticence is also associated with overt indications of anxiety (e.g., crying, and automanipulatives such as digit sucking and hair pulling) as well as maternal ratings of shyness (Coplan & Rubin, 1998). Furthermore, reticence is highly stable across situations. As well, there is a higher incidence of internalizing problems reported for children who exhibit a high frequency of reticent behavior both in the laboratory and in preschool classroom free-play settings (Coplan & Rubin, 1998). CULTURE What we know about the developmental significance of nonsocial play is constrained by the cultures in which we study these phenomena. All of the studies described thus far have been specific to Western cultures, and we know little about the developmental progression of nonsocial play and its significance in non-Western cultures. Emerging data, however, give us reason to believe that culture plays a significant role in the expression of social and/or nonsocial play. Of particular cross-cultural interest are behaviors, including play, that may be considered “normal” in one culture but “deviant” in another. For example, as shown, in Western cultures, passive, reticent behavior

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is viewed negatively by parents and peers alike. Yet in Mainland China, children are encouraged to be dependent, cautious, self-restrained, and behaviorally inhibited. Such behaviors are considered indices of accomplishment, mastery, and maturity. Similarly, shy, reticent, and quiet children are described as well behaved. Indeed, socially reticent behavior is praised and encouraged. In support of these cultural notions, there is a body of research by Chen and colleagues that shows that shy/inhibited/socially restrained behaviors in children are associated with acceptance by peers, teachers, and parents in Mainland China (Chen et al., 1998). As such, the adaptive or maladaptive nature of social and nonsocial behaviors appears to depend on the meanings given to them within the cultural context. An adequate comparison of children from different cultures should involve, first, an examination of children’s development on the basis of what is required from them within their own cultures (Göncü, Tuermer, Jain, & Johnson, 1999). In studying intercultural and cultural variations in children’s play, we can better recognize the unique cultural properties that are reflected in children’s activities (Roopnarine, Lasker, Sacks, & Stores, 1998).

the ability to read the environmental print appropriate to each setting was assessed in context, with words embedded in their supporting contexts, and out of context, with words written on a list. Results indicated that exposure to the print and functional experiences with a more knowledgeable other around this print significantly influenced the children’s ability to read environmental print on both reading tasks, especially in a play setting. In another study, Williamson (1992) examined the effects of play training on story comprehension among older primary children who were identified as poor comprehenders. Recall ability was assessed before and after play training, and this revealed that the reenactment of stories for subgroups of older primary children was effective in facilitating story comprehension. The examples noted above represent just a few supportive arguments for the developmental significance of social play. In general, these experimental studies suggest that play is a powerful precursor to children’s social and cognitive developmental progress and a useful tool in intervention. Given such research support, there is reason for concern for children who do not engage in this growth-promoting behavior.

CONCLUSIONS PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Given the developmental significance of social play, we now turn to studies regarding play-training methods. The play-training method involves systematically coaching children to engage in greater amounts of sociodramatic play. In studies of this kind, concerted attempts to encourage social pretend play has led to increases in children’s sociodramatic play with peers. In addition, children coached in fantasy play do, indeed, show improvements in perspective taking, social problem solving, and group cooperation. Using play-training methods, researchers have found that play is related not only to interpersonal social skills but also to cognitive advances. For example, Vukelich (1995) examined the effects of exposure to print and interaction with a more knowledgeable other on kindergarten children’s environmental print knowledge. Three school classes were randomly assigned exposure to (a) print during play in print-enriched settings, (b) print and functional experiences with a more knowledgeable other during play in print-enriched settings, and (c) play in nonenriched settings. Prior to and following 3 weeks of play in each of the settings,

This entry began by describing the nonsocial forms of play in childhood and the significance of attending to subtle differences in play while children are active on their own or with others. Evidence was presented that suggested that the life course for at least one group of children (in Western societies) who frequently engage in nonsocial play when among peers may be markedly negative—these are children who do not often play socially with peers. The take-home message is that play carries with it different meanings, and whereas some forms make contributions to psychological adjustment, others represent deterrents to adjustment. Moreover, these meanings depend on the social and cultural contexts within which play is displayed. By studying play, we begin to understand the developmental significance, both positive and negative, of social and nonsocial activity in the lives of children. —Charissa S. L. Cheah

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Chen, X., Hastings, P. D., Rubin, K. H., Chen, H., Cen, G., & Stewart, S. L. (1998). Child-rearing attitudes and behavioral

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inhibition in Chinese and Canadian toddlers: A cross-cultural study. Developmental Psychology, 34, 677–686. Coplan, R. J., & Rubin, K. H. (1998). Social play. In D. P. Fromberg & D. Bergen (Eds.), Play from birth to twelve and beyond: Contexts, perspectives, and meanings (pp. 368–377). New York: Garland. Fromberg, D. P., & Bergen, D. (Eds.). (1998). Play from birth to twelve and beyond: Contexts, perspectives, and meanings. New York: Garland. Göncü, A., Tuermer, U., Jain, J., & Johnson, D. (1999). Children’s play as cultural activity. In A. Göncü (Ed.), Children’s engagement in the world: Sociocultural perspectives (pp. 148–172). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Howes, C. (1992). The collaborative construction of pretend. New York: State University of New York Press. Roopnarine, J. L., Lasker, J., Sacks, M., & Stores, M. (1998). The cultural contexts of children’s play. In O. N. Saracho & B. Spodek (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on play in early childhood education (pp. 194–219). Albany: State University of New York Press. Rubin, K. H. (1982). Nonsocial play in preschoolers: Necessarily evil? Child Development, 53, 651–657. Rubin, K. H., Bukowski, W., & Parker, J. (1998). Peer interactions, relationships, and groups. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 619–700). New York: Wiley. Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., Fox, N. A., & Calkins, S. D. (1995). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoolers’ social adaptation. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 49–62. Rubin, K. H., & Mills, R. S. L. (1988). The many faces of social isolation in childhood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 6, 916–924. Vukelich, C. (1995). Effects of play intervention on young children’s reading of environmental print. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 9, 153–170. Williamson, P. A. (1992). The effects of play training on the story comprehension of upper primary children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 4, 130–134.

POLICY. See POLICY-RELEVANT METHODS IN APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE; PUBLIC POLICY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

POLICY-RELEVANT METHODS IN APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE The “gold standard” in psychological research has traditionally been the experimental method. Such

methods have merit, especially for supporting causal inferences. However, it could be argued that they are often inappropriately valued and applied without sufficient attention to the nature of the research problem at hand, especially in attempts to evaluate and improve human services and contribute to effective public policy. Applied developmental scholars, as well as program funders, legislators, and other consumers of research, need to bring these methodological gold standards into greater balance with other approaches to create a useful and valid research base for solving social problems. This entry briefly illustrates key problems related to the two primary features of the experimental method: (1) random assignment of subjects to treatment groups and (2) experimentercontrolled, uniformly applied treatments.1 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT Experimental evaluations of social programs frequently involve randomly assigning participants to either receive the program being evaluated or to a comparison group receiving no services or “services as usual.” In doing so, researchers control for potential differences between individuals who receive the treatment and those who do not, and thus increase the internal validity of the study, that is, the confidence with which one can attribute differences between the two groups to the treatment program. Threats to Validity However, this investment in internal validity may be associated with considerable loss of external validity (e.g., Sue, 1999). Specifically, outside of randomized clinical research trials, people are not randomly assigned to programs that are provided in communities (e.g., children are not randomly assigned to Head Start). Furthermore, in applied developmental research, participants typically know what treatment group they are in, and the perception and opinion of the participant about the program may substantially influence treatment effectiveness. This can influence external validity in several ways. First, people willing to be randomly assigned in a demonstration project may differ substantially from those who would choose a particular treatment when it is offered as a community service. This may be true especially among particularly “overstudied” minority populations, who may be reluctant to volunteer for

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“a research study” but be quite willing to participate in services that are publicly offered in the community (Cauce, Ryan, & Grove, 1998). Second, the treatment may produce much better outcomes, for example, for those who actively seek out that treatment than for those who are randomly assigned to it. In this case, random assignment can produce misleading results, such as showing that a treatment is ineffective when it is actually quite effective for certain types of participants. Because of these factors, it is important that selection processes and motivational factors leading to positive outcomes be studied directly in social interventions rather than “controlled” through randomization (e.g., Koroloff & Friesen, 1997). For example, consider a design in which half of a sample of divorcing families is randomly assigned to either (a) court determination or (b) mediation, as in a traditional randomized trial, while the remaining parents choose whether they want court determination or mediation. Such a design permits a direct examination of random assignment versus selected participation. A related issue concerns keeping all randomly assigned participants in the data analysis, even if they drop out prematurely or never receive services at all (often referred to as the “intent to treat” model). This strategy preserves random assignment and avoids confounds with selective dropout from one or both groups. On the other hand, it seems absurd to include people in the “treatment” group who never received program services and to jettison analyses that would estimate how well the program worked for those participants who completed, or at least participated in, the program. Program participation in communitybased programs is rarely mandated; in the “real world,” some people will enter and engage fully in services while others will not. Program participation is an “outcome” of the program. But rather than asking only, “Does the program work for all eligible applicants,” a relevant additional question is, “Does the program work for people who are willing and able to participate?” From an applied policy perspective, it is important to know the program’s potential effectiveness and the types of participants and circumstances for which the program works best or not at all. Such analyses should be conducted and appropriately interpreted as a complement to the strict preservation of random assignment; other statistical techniques, such as propensity scoring, can help to model selection factors relating to program participation and control for

them in the comparison group (e.g., Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1985). Inappropriate Use of Individual-Level Random Assignment Another problem in the use of randomized designs is the reliance, sometimes inappropriate, on individuallevel randomization. Two of the most common problems that result from such inappropriate random assignment of individuals are diffusion of treatment and resentful demoralization (Cook & Campbell, 1979). Diffusion of treatment, that is, the receipt of treatment by those in the no-treatment comparison group, is common, especially in applied community-based research. Although it has generally been ignored by researchers and policymakers, reviews of applied research studies have shown a number of instances in which diffusion of treatment has significantly reduced estimated treatment effect sizes (Orwin, Cordray, & Huebner, 1994). Resentful demoralization arises when members of the control group know they did not receive the “special treatment” and as a result may be disappointed and have less positive outcomes than might be expected; conversely, they may overcompensate and do better. Such demoralization may also affect the service providers and lead to changes in the way control group services are offered. Resentful demoralization, therefore, can act to either artificially increase or decrease treatment effect estimates in randomized designs. Diffusion of treatment and resentful demoralization are likely to occur when individual participants are assigned to treatment versus comparison groups in a context in which members of the groups will be in contact with one another. For example, in the Comprehensive Child Development Project (CCDP), a federally funded, randomized study of comprehensive community-based family services, randomization was mandated at the individual level, but often within tightly knit neighborhoods and housing projects. In some instances, members of the same extended family were assigned to different groups, sometimes even when those family members shared the same residence. Ethnographers documented sharing of knowledge between individuals in the treatment group with those in the comparison group, a process participants called “passing it on” (McAllister, 1993). Ideally, in situations such as this, communities, rather than individuals, would be randomly assigned to treatment versus comparison groups.

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Finally, when it is impractical to randomly assign larger units such as communities, numerous quasiexperimental designs, especially the nonequivalent control group design, can be employed. Such approaches, if well designed and implemented, can yield effect size estimates comparable to those found in randomized studies (Heinsman & Shadish, 1996). Unfortunately, results from these studies are often dismissed by psychological researchers or prohibited by funders or policymakers because they are perceived as “inferior” for addressing questions of causality; such a value bias pervades recent work to establish “best practices” in many areas, such as education, prevention, and juvenile justice (e.g., Biglan, Mrazek, Carnine, & Flay, 2003). EXPERIMENTER-CONTROLLED, UNIFORM-TREATMENT MANIPULATION The second defining characteristic of gold standard experimental approaches is a uniform treatment or intervention that is carefully controlled by the researcher. The assumption of uniformity of treatment is appropriate when the treatment is singular and stable, such as the administration of a particular drug or medical procedure to treat a specific illness or disorder. However, this assumption rarely holds in program evaluation and policy research. In fact, research on social interventions almost never includes the years of preliminary work focused on understanding the treatment itself that commonly preface randomized clinical trials in medicine. Next, several problems are described that can result from applying methodologies that are based on the assumption of uniformity of treatment in applied developmental research. Lack of Specification of Treatment Variables A major putative advantage of the experimental method is that it allows researchers to know exactly what treatment or program produced the observed outcomes. But this benefit may exist more in theory than in actual practice, especially in applied social research. In most evaluations of applied developmental interventions, very little is known about the details of the programs, including some extremely prominent and influential interventions (e.g., the Perry Preschool Project). Therefore, researchers frequently have little description, let alone empirical documentation, of the

treatment or program that produced the observed benefits. In an era in which policymakers want “evidence-based programming,” sometimes researchers are embarrassingly left not knowing much about the program for which they have evidence. Lack of Specification of the Comparison Group To understand the results from a randomized experimental design, it is also necessary to understand the nature of services received by persons in the comparison group. Frequently in applied developmental research, “control” groups are not defined as “noservice” groups, but as “treatment as usual” groups, which may be called “comparison” groups to emphasize this circumstance (Gilliam, Ripple, Zigler, & Leiter, 2000). However, there is often little (if any) information about the “treatment as usual” that was received by the comparison group. This has two effects: First, it may increase the chance that no significant differences in outcomes between groups will be found (e.g., if comparison group members received reasonably effective services that don’t differ markedly from the new “treatment”). Second, it can obfuscate the interpretation of results (e.g., the treatment was better, or no different, than what?). Indeed, it may be difficult to obtain a comparison group that receives substantially less service than the treatment group, especially in service-rich urban communities (Heinsman & Shadish, 1996). This was the case in the CCDP evaluation, which failed to demonstrate many treatmentcomparison group differences, perhaps because of high service rates in the comparison group (McCall, Ryan, & Plemons, 2003). Continuous Program Development The urgency to conduct an outcome evaluation often means that the first (and sometimes only) cohort of participants and service providers is studied. But the nature of the treatment can change as researchers and providers struggle with how to implement the treatment and learn what seems to work best. Campbell (1984) long advocated to “evaluate only proud programs” (p. 37), citing premature evaluation as one of the 10 biggest mistakes of applied social science. Ten years later, Cook (1993) continued to argue that social scientists are bypassing the necessary research aimed at understanding the relation between

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and among treatment and outcomes necessary to select a specific treatment before moving on to randomized outcome studies, which puts neophyte programs to a premature and unfair test. STANDARDIZATION OF TREATMENT VERSUS INDIVIDUALIZATION OF TREATMENT Perhaps the biggest challenge to experimental methods that assume a single uniform treatment is the increasingly common program models that call for individualizing services to fit family, child, or parent needs. Many programs now strive to provide services that are matched to the profile of strengths or needs of individual participants. But this treatment strategy is in direct contrast to research methods that make vigorous attempts to ensure uniformity by standardizing and monitoring the treatment. Major evaluation initiatives continue to act as if the “treatment” is, or should be, uniformly and consistently delivered across all participants. For example, one of the principal tenets of the CCDP program was that families would identify their own needs, goals, and services, so by design, different families received different types and dosages of services based on individual needs. Such programs, by definition, are not one-size-fits-all treatment approaches, yet the national evaluation (St. Pierre, Layzer, Goodson, & Bernstein, 1997) effectively assumed every family received the same treatment. It should come as no surprise that CCDP was reported to have achieved very few of its intended outcomes when analyzed without regard to who selected a particular goal and relevant service and who did not (McCall et al., 2003).2 Rampkin and Mulvey (1990) question whether psychologists should be engaged in studying global program effects at the aggregate level at all, arguing that individual change processes are the appropriate unit of analysis. Behavior modifiers have long used single-participant designs to study individual change, and recent statistical developments, such as growth curve modeling, provide new and better tools for answering these types of questions. This approach will take longer and cost more, require a closer partnership between program and evaluation personnel, and increase the complexity of multisited projects in which “the program” is quite different at different sites. However, such approaches are necessary as researchers confront the fact that having a single,

uniformly administered treatment is extremely atypical in applied developmental research. CONCLUSIONS Scientific research on social interventions should address cause-effect questions as well as questions of ecological validity and practical importance. In psychology, that preference is for experimental methods; in education, the preference may be against experimental approaches (Cook, 2002). Respect for both approaches and tasks should rest on the quality of the work within each context, not on a categorical preference for one type of research methodology over the other. Specifically, researchers who study applied issues should 1. Use and value the relative contributions and limitations of a variety of methodological approaches. 2. Be creative and employ one or more designs that maximize both internal and external validity, including those that allow some self-selection into treatment, that introduce flexibility to match treatment with participants, and that employ randomization at levels other than the individual, when appropriate. 3. Employ designs that go beyond simple reliance on treatment versus control group comparisons, such as within-treatment analyses of varying levels of program involvement or service delivery, constructed comparison groups (e.g., McCall, Ryan, & Green, 1999), and designs that focus on developing and testing theories of change in systematic ways. 4. Maximize the use of statistical techniques that explore selection biases, individual growth trajectories, and complex relations among treatment variables as well as between treatment and outcome variables. At the same time, consider complementing quantitative approaches with carefully chosen qualitative methods that can generate knowledge to help improve quantitative design and measurement, provide rich information about participants’ experiences and the program’s social context, and aid in interpretation of quantitative study results. The potential of our discipline to contribute to human welfare, especially of children, youth, and

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families, is great. But this potential will not be achieved if researchers are constrained to experimental approaches, especially when such designs are inappropriate. Researchers are more likely to maximize their contributions if the methodological value system is broadened to recognize the benefits and limitations of all methods. —Beth L. Green and Robert B. McCall

NOTES 1. This paper was supported in part by an Urban Community Services Program Grant No. P252A50226 from the U.S. Department of Education to Robert B. McCall, PhD, and by a grant to McCall and Carey Ryan from the Howard Heinz Endowment. 2. In fairness to the evaluator (Abt Associates), the funder issued separate contracts for the outcome evaluation and the national management information system, which contained the goals and service utilization records of each family. No provisions were made to integrate the two databases, so it was not possible to relate individual goals and service utilization to specific outcomes.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Biglan, A., Mrazek, P. J., Carnine, D., & Flay, B. R. (2003). The integration of research and practice in the prevention of youth problem behaviors. American Psychologist, 58(6/7), 433–440. Campbell, D. T. (1984). Can we be scientific in applied social science? Evaluation Studies Review Annual, 9, 26–48. Cauce, A. M., Ryan, K. D., & Grove, K. (1998). Children and adolescents of color: Where are you? Participation, selection, recruitment, and retention in developmental research. In V. C. McLoyd & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Studying minority adolescents: Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Cook, T. (1993). A quasi-sampling theory of the generalization of causal relationships. In L. B. Sechrest & A. G. Scott (Eds.), New Directions in Program Evaluation, 57, 23–78. Cook, T., & Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation. Chicago: Rand McNally. Cook, T. D. (2002). Randomized experiments in educational policy research: A critical examination of the reasons the educational evaluation community has offered for not doing them. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(3), 175–199. Gilliam, W. S., Ripple, C. H., Zigler, E. F., & Leiter, V. (2000). Evaluating child and family demonstration initiatives: Lessons from the comprehensive child development program. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15, 41–59.

Heinsman, D. T., & Shadish, W. R. (1996). Assignment methods in experimentation: When do nonrandomized experiments approximate answers from randomized experiments? Psychological Methods, 1(2), 154–169. Koroloff, N. M., & Friesen, B. J. (1997). Challenges in conducting family-centered mental health services and research. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 5(3), 130–137. McAllister, C. (1993). The impact of the CCDP on communities in CCDP service areas (Family Foundation’s Comprehensive Child Development Program, Ethnographer’s Report No. 10). Washington, DC: Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, Department of Health and Human Services. McCall, R. B., Ryan, C. S., & Green, B. L. (1999). Some nonrandomized constructed comparison groups for evaluating age-related outcomes of intervention programs. American Journal of Evaluation, 2(20), 213–226. McCall, R. B., Ryan, C. S., & Plemons, B. W. (2003). Some lessons learned on evaluating community-based, twogeneration service programs: The case of the Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 125–141. Orwin, R. G., Cordray, D. S., & Huebner, R. B. (1994). Judicious application of randomized designs. In K. J. Conrad (Ed.), New Directions in Program Evaluation, 63, 73–86. Rampkin, B. D., & Mulvey, E. P. (1990). Toward excellence in quantitative community research. In P. Tolan, C. Keys, F. Chertok, & L. Jason (Eds.), Researching community psychology: Issues of theory and methods (pp. 147–152). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Rosenbaum, P. R., & Rubin, D. B. (1985). Constructing a control group using multivariate matched sampling methods that incorporate the propensity score. American Statistician, 39, 33–38. St. Pierre, R. G., Layzer, J. L., Goodson, B. D., & Bernstein, L. S. (1997, June). National impact evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development Program: Final report. Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates. Sue, S. (1999). Science, ethnicity, and bias. American Psychologist, 54, 1070–1077.

POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT Studies of political engagement almost inevitably address the question as to why there is a distinct lack of participation in most Western, industrialized democracies, the very places where one might expect the most involvement (Dalton, 1999). Indeed, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has found that today’s youth are “abandoning traditional forms of political participation” (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000) in lieu of

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more direct forms of service, such as volunteering. Others question whether such activities should replace more explicitly political engagement, however. Given that prior research has shown that many political attitudes form well before high school (Hess & Torney, 1967), it would seem that the sooner schools and communities could begin fostering political involvement and its precursors, the better. With that in mind, entry will first define political engagement and then focus on three predictors of engagement: civic knowledge, social capital or trust, and extracurricular activities at school. Finally, information on generational differences regarding political engagement will be reviewed.

While some seem to equate voting and political engagement, Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont, and Stephens (2003) aim for a more complex categorization. They define political engagement “as including activities intended to influence social and political institutions, beliefs, and practices and to affect processes and policies relating to community welfare, whether that community is local, state, national, or international” (Colby et al., 2003, p. 18). They include in this definition both informal work on local problems and more formal participation in political organizations and parties. However, they do stress that the activity must be political in nature (in the sense of dealing with political institutions or groups where power is concentrated) and not be limited to volunteer service. Colby et al.’s definition is a complex one, but nonetheless an appropriate goal for policy to endeavor to match. Their beliefs about reframing student volunteerism with a political dimension, promoting moral development, and the importance of school-based practice all parallel the individual work done by researchers in the field of political engagement.

valuable in itself. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (TorneyPurta, Lehmann, Oswald, & Schulz, 2001) studied large representative samples of 14-year-old students in 28 countries to assess both current levels of political engagement and the qualities and experiences that might be related to such involvement. Their findings were in some ways disheartening, as 4 out of 5 respondents stated that they did not intend to participate in the more traditional forms of political action, including joining a political party or being a candidate for local office. The study found that students in many countries (including the United States) were more likely to value local community service or environmental groups that were not overtly political. Only about 40% of 14-year-old respondents in the United States said they definitely expected to vote in national elections (Torney-Purta & Amadeo, 2003). This proportion tended to be lower in northern Europe and some of the post-Communist countries and higher in southern Europe and Latin America. The most powerful positive predictor of a student’s willingness to vote, even after accounting for other factors, was civic knowledge. The extent to which voting and elections were emphasized in school was also important (Torney-Purta, 2002). Schools can also capitalize on the altruistic impulses of students by connecting community service experiences to political activity and stressing the roots of observable social problems in larger political issues. As research has shown, such discussions must occur in open classroom climates where controversial topics can be discussed freely (Torney-Purta, 2002). Nonetheless, without an understanding of the basic structures and functions of a modern political state, the average student stands little chance of contextualizing his or her individual service within the power structures that are part of the political process.

CIVIC KNOWLEDGE

SOCIAL CAPITAL

Knowledge of political structures and events is important for several reasons. An individual’s ability to conceptualize his or her potential role as a voter, a community volunteer, or an activist mobilizing others depends on understanding the political structures and strategies, as well as current events about which individuals have different opinions. This basis of knowledge, usually acquired in school, provides a foundation for attitude formation as well as being

Contextualization requires not only content knowledge of politics but also a modicum of trust that one’s actions might be well received and have an impact. Putnam (2000) outlines what he describes as a profound loss of community and trust among United States citizens. This lack of community leads to an erosion of trust in others and in one’s ability to affect the system in a positive way. As such, Putnam sees social capital as a key resource necessary for the

DEFINING POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

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efficacy that would spur one to become politically engaged. Other research in this area has confirmed that political engagement requires the kind of trust that can be fostered with social capital (La Du Lake & Huckfeldt, 1998). Thus, it would seem that young people not only need to know the routes to political engagement but must also trust and believe in the community around them. However, it should be noted that there currently exists a debate in the field regarding the utility of social capital analyses applied to entire societies. Rather than focusing on social capital within a local community, Green & Preston (2001) argue that education and civic activity are most effective when they lead to a sense of social cohesion, defined more in terms of the macrolevel sense of societal bond in an entire country. While this dispute centers on the specifics of how education and civic activity positively affect various levels of society, both viewpoints encourage youth civic knowledge and education in the hopes of fostering at least a threshold level of trust and eventual engagement. EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Once this civic knowledge and trust are present, the politically engaged student needs a realm in which to practice. Many researchers recognize the importance of extracurricular school activities as the forum in which civic knowledge and trust blossom into a desire for involvement (Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE, 2003). Numerous authors (e.g., Eccles & Barber, 1999; Smith, 1999) have found that extracurricular activities that center on debate, journalism, service, and governance all positively affect students’ desire to become politically involved later in their adult lives and their overall well-being in schools. In a more specific analysis of the impact of extracurricular participation, Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (1995) engaged in a large, comprehensive study finding that adult political involvement was directly affected and strongly predicted by participation in high school student government. While this might make intuitive sense, it is important to note that it was this specific environment, where students could practice the civic knowledge and trust they had gained, that ultimately led to greater adult political engagement. Likewise, Wheeler (2003) suggests that the promotion of youth leadership opportunities through civic engagement can be a viable way to encourage development in the individual student and the formation of stronger community bonds.

GENERATIONAL DATA While knowing the factors that influence political engagement is important, it is also helpful to compare knowledge of those factors with generational studies of engagement. Andolina, Jenkins, Keeter, and Zukin (2002) surveyed people from four generations: the “Matures,” who were born before 1946; “Baby Boomers,” born between 1946 and 1964; “Generation Xers,” born between 1964 and 1976; and the “DotNet” generation, born after 1976. The study looked at both political and civic engagement measures, but only political outcomes will be reviewed here. In general, the study found a decrease in political engagement over each generation, with the DotNet generation showing the lowest levels of political engagement, with just 60% registered to vote and only 24% actually voting all the time. In the DotNet generation, the study found a lack of trust in others, or social capital; however, the DotNet’s average level of engagement in other kinds of civic activities was about even with other generations. Nonetheless, the study did find support for the importance of schooling and of trust, as students who had significant political engagement activities in school and had civically active parents were more likely to engage in both political and civic endeavors. What is not clear is whether the study’s findings regarding the decline in political engagement over the last decades demonstrates a generational effect or a developmental effect. It could very well be that as people get older, they become more politically engaged due to the need to pay taxes and put their children in schools. However, it is of concern that schools and communities populated by already low-participating adults are now charged with invoking political engagement in their children.

CONCLUSIONS The question as to why political engagement seems to be on the decline remains a complex one. Nonetheless, research has shown that increasing students’ civic knowledge, creating communities of trust where social capital can be fostered, and providing extracurricular structures where this knowledge and trust can be practiced ultimately have positive impacts upon adult political engagement. Future research needs to focus more upon an analysis and evaluation of interventions aimed at fostering civic knowledge and trust.

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Similarly, educators should continue to stress political awareness in the curricula and provide open environments where political thought and activity can be practiced. This positive approach to the problem of declining interest in political engagement is certainly promising. However, attention must be given to the question as to why political interest among young people is declining. It may be that another way to promote political engagement in youth is to more effectively manage the political environment so that students can one day envision themselves making a difference. —Jeff Greene and Judith Torney-Purta

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Andolina, M. W., Jenkins, K., Keeter, S., & Zukin, C. (2002). Searching for the meaning of youth civic engagement: Notes from the field. Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 189–195. Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). (2003). The civic mission of schools. New York: Carnegie Corporation. Colby, A., Ehrlich, T., Beaumont, E., & Stephens, J. (2003). Educating citizens: Preparing America’s undergraduates for lives of moral and civic responsibility. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Dalton, R. J. (1999). Political support in advanced industrialized democracies. In P. Norris (Ed.), Critical citizens: Global support for democratic governance (pp. 55–77). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Eccles, J. S., & Barber, B. L. (1999). Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: What kind of extracurricular involvement matters? Journal of Adolescent Research, 14(1), 10–43. Green, A., & Preston, J. (2001). Education and social cohesion: Recentering the debate. Peabody Journal of Education, 76(3&4), 247–284. Hess, R. D., & Torney, J. V. (1967). The development of political attitudes in children. Chicago: Aldine. La Due Lake, R., & Huckfeldt, R. (1998). Social capital, social networks, and political participation. Political Psychology, 19(3), 567–583. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Smith, E. S. (1999). The effects of investments in the social capital of youth on political and civic behavior in young adulthood: A longitudinal analysis. Political Psychology, 20(3), 553–580. Torney-Purta, J. (2002). The school’s role in developing civic engagement: A study of adolescents in twenty-eight countries. Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 203–212.

Torney-Purta, J., & Amadeo, J. (2003). A cross-national analysis of political and civic involvement among adolescents. Political Science & Politics, 36(2), 269–274. Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H., & Schulz, W. (2001). Citizenship and education in twenty-eight countries: Civic knowledge and engagement at age fourteen. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Available at http://www.wam .umd.edu/~iea U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2000, November). Voting and registration in the election 2000. U.S. Census current population surveys 2000. Available at http://www.census.gov/ prod/2002pubs/p20–542.pdf Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L., & Brady, H. E. (1995). Voice and equality. London: Harvard University Press. Wheeler, W. (2003). Youth leadership for development: Civic activism as a component of youth development programming and a strategy for strengthening civic society. In F. Jacobs, D. Wertlieb, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science: Vol. 2. Enhancing the life chances of youth and families (pp. 491–505). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT Positive development focuses on characteristics and behaviors that constitute strengths and virtues in children and adults. The science of positive development has direct effects on understanding and promoting individual strengths as well as the practice of civic virtues. Positive developmental science has indirect effects on the prevention of illnesses; human strengths buffer against disorder, deficit, and disability.

CHARACTERISTICS OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT Currently, there is no definitive list of positive developmental traits. Positive developmental outcomes are always “in the parental eye,” so while some parents stress obedience, others stress independence, and still others cultivate creativity or social skills. Bennett (1993) detailed a set of desired outcomes for youth that includes perseverance, faith, friendship, courage, responsibility, and compassion. Benson (1993) referred to a set of key internal assets, such as commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity. Lerner, Fisher, and Weinberg (2000) listed “Five Cs” of positive development: competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring.

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Three general domains of positive development can be identified: physical, social and emotional, and cognitive (Bornstein, Davidson, Keyes, Moore, & The Center for Child Well-Being, 2002). The essentials of physical positive development are the foundation of a healthy life and include good nutrition, health care, physical activity, safety and security, and reproductive health. The social and emotional domain of positive development relates to social intercourse and includes an easy temperament, emotional understanding and regulation, coping and resilience, trust, a mature self-system, good character traits, and positive social relationships with parents, siblings, and peers. Thinking, communicating thought, and the products of thought in everyday life are essential to positive cognitive development. Specific elements of the cognitive domain include information processing and memory, curiosity and exploration, mastery motivation, intelligence, problem solving, language and literacy, educational achievement, moral development, and talent. RELATIONS AMONG ELEMENTS OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT Elements of positive development influence one another within and across the physical, social and emotional, and cognitive domains. Thus, elements of positive development within the social and emotional domain are themselves positively associated: Children’s self-regulation of their internal emotional reactions contributes to the quality of their relationships with others. Eisenberg et al. (1997) found that in schoolaged children, high regulation and low levels of nonconstructive coping, negative emotionality, and general emotional intensity predicted high-quality social functioning. This is distinct from relations between domains, although elements of the three domains can be interconnected. For example, good nutrition, especially during the early years of rapid brain growth, can aid cognitive development. Positive cognitive development allows children to more fully understand the consequences of their behaviors and thus make better decisions concerning their physical health. Consequently, elements of positive development affect one another both within and between the physical, social and emotional, and cognitive domains. Attaining positive development in each element of a domain is important, but overall positive development depends on the

human being’s ability to attain and sustain reasonably high levels in all domains. SOURCES OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT Many elements of positive development may be stable from childhood to maturity, and the basis for positive developmental outcomes may be laid down early in life, making childhood a pivotal period for positive development. No single factor determines all of a child’s development. Biology and genetics, environment and experience all influence positive child development. Developmental science points to three general sources of positive characteristics: children themselves, child effects, and parenting. Children contribute directly to their own positive development through their personal traits, and they contribute indirectly to their positive development by the influences they exert on those around them, especially their caregivers. Environment and experience also play a role in children’s positive development. Many factors influence the positive development of children, but parenthood is the likely “final common pathway” to developmental success. Parents, the individuals who know children first and best, influence positive development directly through their genes, behaviors, and beliefs. Twin studies of children’s reactions to simulations of distress in others point to a genetic component for sympathy and prosocial activity, showing the role of heredity in positive development. Furthermore, parents’ behaviors, the tangible experiences they provide their children, also affect positive development. One example of how parents promote positive behaviors in children is their reinforcement, through praise or reward, of positive emotions, cognitions, and actions they appreciate. Finally, children’s positive development is also affected by parenting cognitions, that is, parents’ perceptions about, attitudes toward, and knowledge of parenting and childhood. How parents see their children shapes their affect, thinking, and behavior in child-rearing situations: Parents who regard their children as “easy” are more likely to pay attention and respond to their children, and, in turn, responsiveness can foster positive child growth. Seeing childhood in a particular way functions likewise: Parents who believe that they can affect their children’s development are more proactive and successful in cultivating their children’s positive competencies.

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PARENTS’ CONTRIBUTIONS Mothers and fathers indirectly influence their children’s positive development in several ways. First, child development is shaped by parents’ influence on one another, for example, by marital support and communication. Marital disruption has been found to negatively affect adolescents’ positive development. Second, parents coconstruct their children’s environment materially and socially. For example, parents who are warm and responsive toward their children encourage the development of trust and autonomy. Third, parents are citizens: Through their civic behaviors, parents influence the social health or social toxicity of the environments their children inhabit. Parents’ attitudes about themselves, their spouses, their marriages, and the world around them thereby modify the quality of their interactions with their children and, in turn, their children’s chances for positive development.

CONCLUSIONS Psychology’s focus on repairing individuals has led to many advances in the study of human disorders, but it has meant that psychology has not focused on cultivating human strengths or on individuals who thrive (Seligman, 1999). The discipline of positive development is still in its infancy, and further work is needed to define positive outcomes, increase research on positive constructs, undertake longitudinal assessments of their value, and monitor the psychometric adequacy of positive psychological constructs. However, what we already know about positive development in children can serve as a guide to parents and educators in helping them create more successful children. —Kathryn M. Murphy and Marc H. Bornstein

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Bennett, W. J. (Ed.). (1993). The book of virtues: A treasury of great moral stories. New York: Simon & Schuster. Benson, P. L. (1993). The troubled journey: A portrait of 6th–12th grade youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Bornstein, M. H., Davidson, L., Keyes, C. M., Moore, K., & The Center for Child Well-Being. (Eds.). (2002). Wellbeing: Positive development across the life course. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Murphy, B. C., Guthrie, I. K., Jones, S., et al. (1997). Contemporaneous and

longitudinal prediction of children’s social functioning from regulation and emotionality. Child Development, 68, 642–664. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71, 11–20. Seligman, M. E. P. (1999). The president’s address. American Psychologist, 54, 559–562.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Attaining well-being or happiness is an age-old pursuit, with scientific discourse dating back to the Greek era. The growth of research on well-being in the past 20 years has revealed that despite individuals in the United States being twice as wealthy as they were 40 years ago, they are 10 times more depressed. Material acquisition may not be the road to happiness, as is widely believed. Researchers in the field of positive psychology, a discipline that seeks to understand that which is healthy in human behavior, have used investigative methods that, for example, provide insight into people’s daily lived experiences. This has generated a great deal of information about their daily actions, thoughts, and feelings. Researchers are rediscovering what Benjamin Franklin knew many years ago: “Happiness is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.” Of course, one’s lived experience may vary greatly depending on age, culture, gender, geographic upbringing, and socioeconomic status. There is a large component of life that is biologically determined: body type, physical characteristics, and a predisposition to certain ailments, for example. In contrast, there is also an aspect of living that is determined by, for example, one’s approach to thinking and feeling about life. There have been several approaches to understanding a positive psychology. Many of these studies have found that an individual’s personal resources, such as intelligence, health, attractiveness, income, and education, are the most important individual difference variables to happiness. Overall, it is believed that an individual’s temperament (whether it be nature or nurture), cognitive abilities, goals, culture, and coping skills have a central mediating influence on life events and an individual’s sense of well-being. A happy person in today’s Western society has a profile of a

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positive temperament, has a resilient ability to look on the positive more than the negative, does not focus on bad circumstances, lives in an economically developed society where food and shelter are not the focus of one’s primary efforts, has friends, and is able to make progress toward reaching his or her goals (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). It should not come as a surprise that Americans have embraced positive psychology, with its emphasis on self-betterment, and made the pursuit of happiness an industry unto itself. In 2000, more than 30 million inspirational books were purchased in the United States. Happiness is very much part of our culture narrative, so much so that it is written as a right in the Declaration of Independence, which emphasizes the pursuit of “life, liberty, and happiness.” Today, researchers have a wealth of data regarding individual physical and material well-being, but it has not been until recently that we have begun to understand why some people experience life with more well-being then others. The field of positive psychology is leading the way in this understanding. Positive psychology is described as a focus on mental health rather than mental illness. It is a field of psychology that moves away from focusing on the traditional approach of examining the pathology of human functioning, and rather investigates that which is healthy in human behavior, such as courage, hope, joy, optimism, forgiveness, and resiliency. Researchers in positive psychology have been leading the way in asking questions about positive traits, fostering excellence, subjective well-being, and life satisfaction, using the scientific method to better understand the complexity of human behavior (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The influence of positive feelings (happiness), thoughts (optimism), and actions (optimal experience or “flow”) acts as a buffer against mental illness and promotes mental health. Building psychological strength is the central focus for the positive psychologist, who views human beings as active participants and decision makers in improving individual well-being. Positive psychology researchers have found, for example, that an optimistic life orientation (Seligman, 2002) and activities in which an individual is able to engage deeply by matching one’s skills to a challenge (Csikszentmihalyi, 1998) produce a greater sense of wellbeing, which consequently makes for happier individuals. These insights are just the beginnings of an understanding of why some people seem to experience life with more well-being and greater happiness than others.

There continues to be mounting evidence that individuals who cultivate experiences of positive emotions do, indeed, experience greater psychological well-being and possibly also physical health. Folkman (1997) found that experiences of positive emotions during periods of stress helped individuals cope with the event. This has opened the door to further research on positive emotions and resiliency. Individuals who are resilient are considered to be able to recover more quickly and efficiently from stressful experiences. Positive emotions, although often temporary, may have a cumulative effect and positive long-term consequences for the well-being of an individual. Research in positive psychology continues to grow. Researchers are examining how meditation changes brain functioning for increased well-being. Additional research is examining how individuals respond to external events and why responses lead to constructive or destructive emotions. Others are examining how happiness may lie in creating and ordering experiences through the influence of our approach to the world. With the integration of past philosophical voices and the knowledge of today’s science, the understanding of well-being shall better unfold to support healthy human functioning. —Erik M. Gregory

See also SELIGMAN, MARTIN E. P.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1998). Finding flow. New York: Basic Books Mastermind Series. Diener, E., Suh, E., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276–302. Folkman, S. (1997). Positive psychological states and coping with severe stress. Social Science Medicine, 45, 1207–1221. Myers, D. G. (1992). The pursuit of happiness. New York: Avon. Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness. New York: Free Press. Selgiman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, SELIGMAN’S CONCEPT OF In recent years, there has been a swell of textbooks, handbooks, journal articles, and college classes, all

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bearing the description “positive psychology.” The term positive psychology refers to a current movement within the field and an approach to research and application rooted in psychology’s intellectual history. Simply put, positive psychology is the pursuit of scientific knowledge, both theoretical and applied, that focuses on people’s strengths and abilities and essentially what makes life worth living, for instance, pleasant emotions and beneficial social relationships. Positive psychology is an intellectual counterpoint to the traditional emphasis on the study of mental illness and social problems. Rather than seeking to remedy ill health, an underlying principle of positive psychology is an emphasis on moving individuals above an emotional neutral point to a fulfilling and enjoyable life that benefits society. After all, any psychology focused entirely on correcting problems is only “half a psychology.” Researchers in positive psychology seek to understand the positive aspects of life, in addition to psychological problems, in an attempt toward formulating a more complete vision of the “good life.” Examples of positive psychologists can be found as early as 1958, when Marie Jahoda discussed the importance of studying positive psychological functioning in her book Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health (Jahoda, 1958). Similarly, humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow were among the forerunners of today’s positive psychologists, with their emphasis on growth and the realization of human potential. Maslow, for instance, theorized that “selfactualization” was the highest goal of psychological development, characterized as the fulfillment of one’s greatest potential. Likewise, another humanist, Carl Rogers, wrote about the “fully functioning person,” a person who has achieved a high level of self-awareness that is accompanied by increased creativity, confidence, spontaneity, and adaptability. In recent years, psychologists such as Ed Deci and Richard Ryan have continued in the tradition of Maslow and Rogers in their empirical studies of intrinsic motivation—being motivated internally rather than by external rewards—and the related gains in performance and life satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2000). There are also examples of positive psychology in each of psychology’s subdisciplines. For decades, educational and counseling psychologists have stressed the importance of people’s resources and have sought to develop theories and applications based on personality strengths rather than weaknesses. Likewise, organizational psychologists have studied positive

topics such as productivity in the workplace and job satisfaction. Social psychologists have done more than simply study aggression and mindless obedience; they have also studied love, altruism, and health. Researchers in developmental psychology have focused on topics such as empathy, friendship, positive child rearing, and positive aging. Developmental psychologists have also been influential in practical applications of many positive concepts such as preschool programs and after-school activities. Unlike the scattered interest in positive behavior that marked past research, the positive psychology movement has brought the diverse scholars studying positive topics together in a common effort. The current formal positive psychology movement was begun in the 1990s by Martin Seligman, as the focus of his presidency of the American Psychological Association, in an effort to integrate these disparate lines of research. With a core group of colleagues, Seligman planned an ambitious set of activities and institutions to foster the science of positive psychology: conferences, scholarly books, funded research projects, and a summer institute. These activities were supported by many businesses and foundations, who saw the potential benefits of a positive psychology (Seligman, 2003). Within 5 years, the movement was broad and had attracted many young scholars. Seligman succeeded in developing a positive psychology curriculum for high school and university classes, securing grants and prizes for research in positive psychology, developing a taxonomy of positive character traits, and establishing workshops and conferences for positive psychology scholars. According to Seligman’s vision, positive psychology is three-pronged, including positive subjective experience, positive character traits, and an understanding of the institutions that enable the first two. Current research in positive psychology includes the study of character strengths, subjective well-being, positive organizations, skills and ability, and an exploration of positive societies. Researchers in positive psychology have been careful to emphasize the scientific underpinnings of their work. Unlike some of its predecessor movements, positive psychology is not based on a particular theory or conceptual orthodoxy. Instead, positive psychologists strive to encourage debate, employ multiple measures, and use various theoretical approaches that might illuminate positive phenomena. Core areas in current positive psychology research are discussed below.

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CHARACTER Developing positive character traits has an intellectual history that dates back to Aristotle’s discussion of the moral and emotional good life. Currently, positive psychologists are interested in the situational and personality influences on desirable behaviors such as altruism. Thus, we might increase desirable behavior by fostering personality characteristics such as wisdom, empathy, maturity, and intelligence. For example, Paul Baltes’s research on wisdom has revealed that wise individuals tend to be tolerant yet principled. Rather than making egocentric attributions, wise individuals are able to examine issues from multiple perspectives. As another example, research by Laura King finds that maturity relates to being able to find meaning in negative events while at the same time truthfully acknowledging one’s losses. One notable project that has emerged from the study of character strength is a taxonomy of virtues, labeled VIA (virtues in action), that was developed by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2003). The VIA project is built on an analysis of the character strengths that are common across many religious groups, cultures, and philosophical systems. Peterson and Seligman intended the VIA project to be a positive counterpoint to the taxonomy of mental illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). It is their hope that in the future, the VIA taxonomy might be used to diagnose and guide the development of virtues such as loyalty, courage, and integrity.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES Closely related to character strengths are skills people develop, such as artistic, athletic, and mechanical abilities. Although there are usually genetic underpinnings to individual differences in ability, just as there might be for character strengths, there is also a learned component, and psychologists therefore must understand how to nurture abilities. An important aspect of abilities research is the understanding of person-environment fit, the matching of personal skills and resources with the environment in which they are used. Goodness of fit, whether in school, on the job, or in relationships, has been shown to be associated with increased life satisfaction, greater incidence of pleasant moods, and greater efficiency in some cognitive processing. Furthermore, several

developmental psychologists, such as Alexander Thomas, Stella Chess, and Jacquelynne Eccles, have noted the benefits of goodness of fit (usually defined as consonance between a child’s temperament and parents’ behaviors) as well as the negative consequences of ill fit. Goodness of fit has been shown to predict positive outcomes above and beyond the acontextual effects of temperament (or other variables). Similarly, work by Jacqueline and Richard Lerner and colleagues has shown that the matching of children’s temperaments with expectations from parents, peers, and teachers predicts better adjustment and academic performance (Lerner & Lerner, 1994). Positive psychology research could adopt and extend the paradigms used by developmental psychologists by examining people’s performance in roles that capitalize on their unique talents. For example, a highly extraverted person would be best placed in an environment that allows him or her to be sociable, such as sales or consulting. In other words, the interaction of abilities and one’s environment may matter more than simple main effects of individual differences and one’s surrounding conditions alone. SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING For three decades, positive psychologists have labored to establish the conceptual and measurement foundations of subjective well-being necessary for study in the field. The study of subjective wellbeing includes life satisfaction, fulfillment, positive emotions, and flow. Flow is the experience of feeling intensely engaged in an activity to the point that a person loses track of time and attains a heightened sense of awareness. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi has studied flow as it occurs in mundane daily activities, such as playing chess and going to work, as well as in extraordinary activities, such as rock climbing (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). General well-being researchers, such as Ed Diener, have often focused on possible causes of happiness, ranging from religiosity to income to personality factors, such as extraversion (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). Recent findings suggest that high-quality social relationships are crucial to high subjective well-being, whereas materialism can be toxic to it (Diener & Seligman, 2002). Researchers have also looked at the possible consequences of subjective well-being. For instance, research findings indicate that people who are chronically happy tend to be physically healthier, more

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sociable, and somewhat more creative. In addition, satisfied workers tend to make better organizational citizens. POSITIVE INSTITUTIONS Positive psychologists have taken interest in government, social, educational, and business organizations that provide opportunities for individuals to develop strengths and experience subjective wellbeing. Researchers have conducted studies on humane leadership, compassion, and forgiveness in the workplace; employee resilience; and organizational citizenship. Recent research has shown a relationship between worker satisfaction and outcomes of performance, such as creativity and helping behaviors. Positive organizational psychology is promising in that research and application focus both on the effects of positive institutions and the improvement of institutions by their memberships. The Gallup Organization, famous for polling, provides an example of a positive organization. Gallup uses an instrument called the “Strength Finder” to help place employees where their unique talents and abilities will be best used. APPLICATIONS The initial research in positive psychology has usually been basic in nature, resting on the assumption that we need a firm theoretical foundation before successful applications can be developed. However, practitioners have also begun developing practical applications for positive psychology. Positive clinical psychology offers two promising alternatives to traditional problem-oriented intervention strategies. First, clinicians with a positive psychology orientation have underscored the importance of prevention in mental health. Prevention, according to Mark Greenberg, is a process by which people build competencies rather than correct weaknesses (Greenberg, Domitrovich, & Bumbarger, 2001). Prevention strategies have been used widely and effectively in promoting health, in identifying risks and strengths in school-aged children, and in youth development programs. Preliminary research has shown that personal resources such as hope, insight, and anticipation can act as buffers against mental illness. Intervention strategies that focus on mental health rather than illness are also central to positive clinical psychology. Solution focus therapy, for example, encourages clients to look for

exceptions to their problems, instances when their lives were full of success and positive emotion. The application of positive psychology is not limited to clinical interventions. Sports psychologists, such as Ronald E. Smith, emphasize that psychologists can help coaches to develop greater athletic ability and motivation in their athletes, as well as use athletics to develop character more broadly, and foster subjective well-being through sports (Smith & Smoll, 1997). Similarly, developmental psychologists are looking at the benefits of character-building educational programs for youth, such as Big Brother/Big Sister programs. Recent research shows that many support-based programs are associated with higher self-esteem and a lower incidence of problem behaviors in children. CONCLUSIONS Psychologists who study positive topics are not blind to the existence of problems, nor are they naive enough to believe that the fabric of the desirable life is a simple matter. Positive psychologists understand that it is not functional for people to be happy every moment. Future research in positive psychology will examine optimal levels of performance and positive emotions. Researchers in positive psychology are also aware that desirable behavior must be placed within a cultural and situational framework. Thus, future research will examine culture-specific forms of positive functioning and how cultural values influence positive subjective experience and character. —Ed Diener, Robert Biswas-Diener, and Christie Scollon

See also SELIGMAN, MARTIN E. P.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Aspinwall, L. G., & Staudinger, U. M. (Eds.). (2003). A psychology of human strengths: Fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Brief, A. P., & Weiss, H. M. (2002). Organizational behavior: Affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 279–307. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Beyond boredom and anxiety: Experiencing flow in work and play. San Francisco: JosseyBass. Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575.

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Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13, 80–83. Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302. Greenberg, M., Domitrovich, C., & Bumbarger, B. (2001). The prevention of mental disorders in school-aged children: Current state of the field. Prevention and Treatment, 4. Jahoda, M. (1958). Current concepts of positive mental health. New York: Basic Books. Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (1999). Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. New York: Russell Sage. Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (1994). Explorations of the goodness-of-fit model in early adolescence. In W. B. Carey & S. C. McDevitt (Eds.), Prevention and early intervention: Individual differences as risk factors for the mental health of children: A festschrift for Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas (pp. 161–169). New York: Brunner/ Mazel. Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2003). Character strengths and well-being. Unpublished manuscript. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist 55, 68–78. Seligman, M. E. P. (2003). Martin Seligman research alliance. Available at http://www.psych.upenn.edu/seligman/index. htm. Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1997). Coaching the coaches: Youth sports as a scientific and applied behavioral setting. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 16–21. Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of positive psychology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, A DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS VIEW In these early years of the 21st century, a new vision and vocabulary for discussing America’s young people has emerged. Propelled by the increasingly more collaborative contributions of scholars (e.g., Damon & Gregory, 2003), practitioners (e.g., Pittman, Irby, & Ferber, 2001), and policymakers (e.g., Gore & Gore, 2002), youth are viewed as resources to be developed. The new vocabulary emphasizes the strengths present within all young people and involves concepts such as developmental assets (Benson, 2003), positive youth development (Benson, 1990), moral development (Damon, 1998), civic engagement

(e.g., Flanagan & Faison, 2001), well-being (Bornstein, Davidson, Keyes, Moore, & The Center for Child Well-Being, 2003), and thriving (Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000). All concepts are predicated on the ideas that every young person has the potential for successful, healthy development and that all youth possess the capacity for positive development. This vision for and vocabulary about youth have evolved over the course of a scientifically arduous path (Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003). Complicating any new conceptualization of the character of youth as resources for the positive development of self, families, and communities was an antithetical theoretical approach to the nature and development of young people, one characterized by a deficit view of youth that conceptualizes their behaviors as deviations from normative development (see Hall, 1904). Understanding such deviations was not seen as being of direct relevance to scholarship aimed at discovering the principles of basic developmental processes. Accordingly, the characteristics of youth were regarded as issues of “only” applied concern—and thus of secondary scientific interest. Not only did this model separate basic science from application, but it also disembedded the adolescent from the study of normal or healthy development. In short, the deficit view of youth as problems to be managed split the study of young people from the study of health and positive development (Lerner et al., 2003). However, the integration of person and context, of basic and applied scholarship, and of young people with the potential for positive development were legitimated by the relational models of development that emerged as cutting-edge scholarship by the end of the 20th century (Damon, 1998). The forefront of contemporary developmental theory and research is associated with ideas stressing that systemic relations between individuals and contexts provide the bases of human behavior and developmental change (e.g., Damon, 1998; Lerner, 2002; Overton, 1998). Within the context of such theories, changes across the life span are seen as propelled by the dynamic relations between individuals and the multiple levels of the ecology of human development, all changing interdependently across time (Lerner, 2002). Temporal embeddedness means that there always exists across life the potential for change in personcontext relations. There are two important concepts associated with this optimistic view of the potential to enhance human life: Relative plasticity and developmental regulation.

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Change in person-context relations is not limitless. Interlevel relations within the system both facilitate and constrain opportunities for change. As a consequence, contemporary developmental systems theories stress that relative plasticity—the potential for systematic change in structure and/or function—exists across life, although the magnitude of this plasticity may vary across ontogeny (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998; Lerner, 2002). The presence of relative plasticity legitimates an optimistic and proactive search for characteristics of individuals and their ecologies that, together, can be arrayed to promote positive developmental change (Lerner, 2002). The developmental systems stress on relative plasticity provides a foundation for an applied developmental science aimed at enhancing human development through strengthening the interrelations between an individual and his or her context that maintain and perpetuate healthy, positive functioning for all facets of the relationship. From this perspective, healthy development involves positive changes in the relation between a developing person who is committed and able to contribute positively to self, family, and community and a community supporting the development of such citizens. A young person may be said to be thriving, then, if he or she is involved across time in such healthy, positive relations with his or her community and is on the path to what Csikszentmihalyi and Rathunde (1998) describe as “idealized personhood,” an adult status marked by making culturally valued contributions to self, others, and institutions. While the structure of person-context relations remains invariant, the components of the individual psychological and social relational features of person-context relations may show intercultural differences as they change over time to constitute the thriving process. Applied developmental science (ADS) efforts that promote thriving may involve enhancing the orientation of a person to contribute to healthy family life and community institutions while, at the same time, improving oneself in manners that enable such individual actions to be successful. Promotion of a sense of the importance of levels of being beyond the self and of the importance of undertaking a role to contribute to social well-being are exemplars of such an orientation (cf. Erikson, 1959; Youniss, McLellan, & Yates, 1999). Simultaneously, such ADS work may involve furthering the institutions and systems within communities in order to facilitate healthy development.

Examples of such efforts within a democratic system, such as in the United States, involve providing young people with the opportunity to contribute to and take leadership positions in community efforts to improve social life and social justice and, over time, to develop their commitments to and skills at community building (Lerner, 2004; Sherrod, Flanagan, & Youniss, 2002; Zeldin, Camino, & Wheeler, 2000). The bases for change in person-context relations, and for both plasticity and constraints in development, lie in the relations that exist among the multiple levels of organization that constitute the substance of human life (Lerner, 2002). Accordingly, ADS efforts aimed at furthering the thriving process and fostering in young people a commitment to make healthy, integrated contributions to self, family, community, and civil society may involve work focused on multiple levels of organization within the developmental system. These levels range from the inner biological, to the individual psychological and the proximal social relational, to the sociocultural, to the natural and designed physical ecologies of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Within developmental systems theories, changing relations are the basic unit of analysis (Lerner, 2002; Overton, 1998). Neither individual nor context is stressed in such theories. Rather, systemic relations are the focal analytic units. Thus, the regulation across development of these relations is of central concern in efforts directed to positively capitalize on the relative plasticity of the human developmental system (note, not the individual) in order to enhance the healthy functioning and development of both individuals and settings. Accordingly, ADS efforts aimed at creating and sustaining effective person-context regulations may be directed to, on one hand, enhancing the person’s self-definition or moral sense in regard to embracing the significance of, in American society, social justice and democracy and, on the other hand, to improving the systems present within the social context to enable individual freedom and facilitate equity and opportunity across individuals. That is, if the institutions of society ensure democracy, social justice, and equity to all of its citizens, then there is an increased probability that individuals will be oriented to support these institutions. Wearing the “veil of ignorance” (Rawls, 1971), individuals will want to act to support a society that does not discriminate between individuals in providing the right to equal opportunity and freedom

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but, instead, assures liberty and justice for all. In all cultural systems, when these respective contributions by individuals and contexts are synthesized successfully over time, there is an increased probability that thriving increases within individuals. In such circumstances, there is also a growth in the institutions of civil society, in the “space” between people and government (O’Connell, 1999). A social system that protects and promotes the development of the individual will be one that individuals will seek to serve and sustain. Such a relation is the essence of the mutual person-context benefits defining adaptive developmental regulation. The healthy and successful development of young people may be understood within the context of human evolution and of how adaptive regulation of personcontext relations constitutes the basic process of ontogenetic change within the developmental system. We have conceptualized the idealized version of this ontogenetic change process as thriving. From the perspective of the integrated levels of organization composing this developmental system, there are universal structural and cultural and/or society-specific functional components of a developmental linkage between the person and physical and cultural ecological context that enable thriving to occur. This ecological context is composed of other people and the institutions of society and culture, which are constituted by both physical institutions and conceptual or ideological institutions. Within the developmental system, a relation that subserves the maintenance and perpetuation of the system is one wherein the individual acts to support the institutions of society and, simultaneously, where these institutions support the healthy and productive functioning and development of the individual (Elder, 1998; Lerner, 2002). In such a relation, the actions of the individual on the context and the actions of the context on the individual are fused in the production of healthy outcomes for both the individual and the institutions (Elder, 1998). As such, the key feature of the thriving process is one wherein the regulation of person-context relations eventuates in such multilevel outcomes (Brandtstädter, 1998). In fact, a key structural value of all societies is that individuals’ regulation of their person-context relations makes positive contributions to self, family, community, and society (Elder, 1998). In short, then, in all societies, healthy and valued personhood is seen as a period, or “stage,” wherein such generative regulation exists (Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde, 1998; Erikson, 1959).

In different societies, there is variation in what a person must do to manifest such structural values of productive and healthy personhood. That is, how a person must function to manifest structurally valued regulation will vary between social/cultural settings and across historical (and ecological) conditions (Elder, Modell, & Parke, 1993; Erikson, 1959). For example, in some societies, regulations that support interindividually invariant belief in and/or obedience to religious dictums may be of superordinate value. In turn, in the United States, regulations that support individual freedom, equity, and democracy are highly valued, and attributes such as the “Five Cs” of positive youth development—competence, confidence, character, social connection, and caring or compassion (Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000; Roth, BrooksGunn, Murray, & Foster, 1998)—are often regarded as healthy outcomes of functionally appropriate developmental regulations. In turn, attributes antithetical to these five attributes (for example, negative self-regard, abusive or manipulative social relationships, and the absence of integrity) are instances of unfavorable individual outcomes that (presumably) derive from inadequate developmental regulations. On the societal side of such dysfunctional developmental regulations, there may be political systems wherein there is a “disequilibrium” between the individual and the society, such that individual actions are constrained to meet the demands of the state and individual differences are curtailed because such functioning will decrease the probability of the state maintaining its hegemony over society. We believe that such societies are unstable and dysfunctional systems because they attempt to maintain person-context exchanges that are discrepant from what is required to maintain adaptive developmental regulations. Nevertheless, every society will show variation within a given historical moment as to which behaviors are judged as valuable in (consistent with) supporting the universal structural value of maintaining and perpetuating person-context regulations subserving mutually beneficial individual and institutional relations (Elder et al., 1993). As a consequence, the markers or indices of what an individual must manifest as he or she develops from infancy to adult personhood may vary across place and time (Elder et al., 1993). Accordingly, there may be variation across different societies and points in time within the same society in definitions of person-context relations that comprise positive youth development and thus in the

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specific behaviors that move a young person along a life path wherein he or she will possess the functional values of society and attain structurally valued personhood. Simply, there may be both historical and cultural variation in the specific, functionally valued components of the thriving process. Developmentally emergent and contextually mediated successful regulations of positive person-context relations ensure that individuals will have the nurturance and support needed for healthy development. Simultaneously, such regulation provides society with people having the mental and behavioral capacities requisite to maintain, perpetuate, and enhance their social worlds. To sustain the individual and societal benefits of these person-context relations, socialization must promote (a) a moral orientation among youth that good is created through contributions to positive personcontext relations and, as a derivative of this orientation, (b) a commitment to build the institutions of civil society by constructing the ecological “space” for individual citizens to promote in their communities the culturally specific institutions of civil society. Thus, when young people understand themselves as morally committed to and behaviorally engaged in building civil society and when they as a consequence possess a transcendent sense of the importance in life of a commitment to an enduring nature or being beyond the limits of their own existence, they are able to be agents both in their own healthy development and in the positive enhancement of other people and of society. —Richard M. Lerner, Elizabeth M. Dowling, and Pamela M. Anderson

See also ADOLESCENCE AND THRIVING

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Saudinger, U. M. (1998). Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1029–1144). New York: Wiley. Benson, P. L. (1990). The troubled journey: A portrait of 6th–12th grade youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Benson, P. L. (2003). Developmental assets and asset-building communities: Conceptual and empirical foundations. In R. M. Lerner & P. L. Benson (Eds.), Developmental assets and asset-building communities: Implications for research, policy, and practice (pp. 19–43). Norwell, MA: Kluwer.

Bornstein, H. H., Davidson, L., Keyes, C. M., Moore, K., & The Center for Child Well-Being. (Eds.). (2003). Wellbeing: Positive development across the life course. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Brandtstädter, J. (1998). Action perspectives on human development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 807–863). New York: Wiley. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Rathunde, K. (1998). The development of the person: An experiential perspective on the ontogenesis of psychological complexity. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 635–684). New York: Wiley. Damon, W. (Ed.). (1998). Handbook of child psychology (5th ed.). New York: Wiley. Damon, W., & Gregory, A. (2003). Bringing in a new era in the field of youth development. In R. M. Lerner & P. L. Benson (Eds.), Developmental assets and asset-building communities: Implications for research, policy, and practice (pp. 47–64). Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Elder, G. H., Jr. (1998). The life course and human development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 939–991). New York: Wiley. Elder, G. H., Modell, J., & Parke, R. D. (1993). Studying children in a changing world. In G. H. Elder, J. Modell, & R. D. Parke (Eds.), Children in time and place: Developmental and historical insights (pp. 3–21). New York: Cambridge University Press. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life-cycle. Psychological Issues, 1, 18–164. Flanagan, C., & Faison, N. (2001). Youth civic engagement: Implications of research for social policy and programs. Social Policy Reports, 1. Gore, A., & Gore, T. (2002). Joined at the heart: The transformation of the American family. New York: Henry Holt. Hall, G. (1904). Adolescence. New York: Appleton. Kant, I. (1966). Critique of pure reason (F. Max Muller, Trans.). New York: Anchor. (Original work published 1781) Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lerner, R. M. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America’s youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2003). Positive youth development: Thriving as a basis of personal and civil society. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 172–180. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71, 11–20.

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O’Connell, B. (1999). Civil society: The underpinnings of American democracy. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. Overton, W. F. (1998). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 107–189). New York: Wiley. Pittman, K., Irby, M., & Ferber, T. (2001). Unfinished business: Further reflections on a decade of promoting youth development. In P. L. Benson & K. J. Pittman (Eds.), Trends in youth development: Visions, realities, and challenges (pp. 4–50). Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Roth, J., Brooks-Gunn, J., Murray, L., & Foster, W. (1998). Promoting healthy adolescents: Synthesis of youth development program evaluations. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8, 423–459. Scales, P., Benson, P., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (2000). The contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 27–46. Sherrod, L., Flanagan, C., & Youniss, J. (Eds.). (2002). Growing into diverse citizenship: multiple pathways and diverse influences [Special issue]. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 172–272. Youniss, J., McLellan, J. A., & Yates, M. (1999). Religion, community service, and identity in American youth. Journal of Adolescence, 22, 243–253. Zeldin, S., Camino, L., & Wheeler, W. (Eds.). (2000). Promoting adolescent development in community context: Challenges to scholars, nonprofit managers, and higher education. Applied Developmental Science, 4(Suppl. 1).

POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, SERVICE-LEARNING VERSUS COMMUNITY-COLLABORATIVE MODELS From its birth in 1862, the tripartite mission of the American land grant university has been teaching, research, and service (Bonnen, 1998; Enerson, 1989). Today, these three missions are embraced by all universities, public and private. However, in the last decade, service has been reconceptualized by many academic leaders as outreach to or, when a more integrated, systemic model is adopted, engagement with communities (Kellogg Commission, 1999; Lerner & Simon, 1998). In part, these revised views of service have been based on the belief that a fundamental

purpose of universities is to improve the lives of children, families, and communities (Spanier, 1999) and that such a contribution may frame the knowledge generation, transmission, preservation, and application functions of universities (Boyer, 1990; Lerner & Simon, 1998; Ostrander, 2003). Universities have addressed the challenge of linking faculty scholarship and student education and improving the lives of children, families, and communities by attempting to integrate the traditional three parts of the mission of higher education. By building and enacting models through which this integration may occur, universities and communities may collaborate to facilitate the translation of university-developed knowledge into policies and programs of meaning and value to the community (Ostrander, 2003). A key issue that arises in the enactment of this integrative, collaborative agenda is the specification of models that may be used by universities to pursue all components of their mission in manners that are valued by both campus and community. In many instances, the concept of “service learning” is used to frame the model or means used to integrate campus and community (Kenny, Simon, Kiley-Brabeck, & Lerner, 2002a). SERVICE LEARNING The service-learning approach involves the idea that college students will learn valuable lessons by engaging in community service that, as well, adds value to the life of the community (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002; Kenny, Simon, Kiley-Brabeck, & Lerner, 2002b). Although there is considerable variation in the operationalization of the service-learning concept (Kenny et al., 2002a, 2002b), all instantiations share several fundamental concepts. First among these is a need for the university to enhance its relevance and connectedness to the issues and problems faced by the broader society. Enhancing faculty and student enthusiasm for teaching and learning, the conceptual basis of service learning is that it will facilitate the evolution of what was historically the focus of university-based scholarship, that is, decontextualized theoretical knowledge, into more community contingent (i.e., relational) and dynamic knowledge developed in relation to practice (Lerner & Simon, 1998; Ostrander, 2001, 2003). Second, there is a belief that service learning contributes to the personal development of students as well as to the quality of life in the community in a way

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that is not possible through campus-centered learning (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002). Arguing that service learning promotes civic responsibility, this perspective contends that community mentors for undergraduates enhance students’ knowledge about translating scholarship into practice (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002). In addition, there is the belief that energetic and eager volunteers provide manpower to assist community endeavors (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002). From this perspective, service learning offers a forum for the interaction of diverse populations and enriches facultystudent and “town-gown” relations. However, what remains unclear in such efforts is precisely what is learned in service learning, what theory surrounds the process and outcomes purportedly linked to the service-learning experience, and the quality of the empirical evidence that supports the belief that service-learning experiences enhance the quality of student understanding and mastery of the diverse components of the general or liberal arts requirements of universities (cf. Kenny et al., 2002b). Related to these theoretical and empirical issues is the fact that in most universities, the majority of faculty are not involved in service learning, do not see the relevance of service learning for students concentrating in their subject matters, and do not regard community service and volunteerism as ubiquitously important features of scholarly development (Kenny et al., 2002a, 2002b). Moreover, scholars trying to relate their work more directly to the community receive less institutional and collegial support than those engaged in traditional scholarship, for example, the publishing of papers in highly referenced academic journals that promote professional and university reputations (Kenny et al., 2002b). It is not surprising, therefore, that in most universities in the United States, service learning is not a core component of academic requirements and is relegated to the margins of university academic life (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002; Kenny et al., 2002b). Another challenge of the service-learning model is that of “priority mismatch.” The need expressed by both academic leaders and community members to create dimensions of relevance between universities and communities has promoted in academia a growing stress of the importance of engaging in research about issues pertinent to the community. Yet without clear, theoretically predicated, community-collaborative frameworks for basing efforts around community-defined

priorities, the issues studied may not be those most pertinent to communities themselves. In turn, such research may be regarded within academe as ad hoc and of little archival value to a given discipline. Sustainability of engagement may also pose a problem. The service in the service-learning model may ordinarily cease at the completion of the student’s coursework or tenure at the institution. A lack of potential for long-term collaboration limits the effectiveness of service-learning programs and their relevance to the community. Priority mismatch coupled with the lack of a university culture affording sustainable and relevant programs lowers the community’s incentive for a strong relationship with the university. While citizens of the communities served by universities may demand that these institutions compensate for the lost tax base they represent, they may not continue to call for more substantial commitments of service-learning activities if they fear the university is incapable of providing the community with meaningful, long-term, and sustainable collaboration. A COMMUNITY-COLLABORATIVE MODEL As emphasized by Kenny et al. (2002b), “Service learning is not a monolithic entity” (p. 7). Some of the variation in the models or operationalizations of service learning may blend into other models, ones that may be substantially different from service learning in fundamental assumptions or characteristics. Indeed, Kenny et al. (2002b) note that activities conceptualized as reflecting service learning represent only one means through which universities “integrate student civic engagement and outreach within their institutional missions” (p. 2) (also see Ostrander, 2003). In fact, over the last 10 years, a model of community collaboration and learning has evolved in a manner that integrates the missions of the university and engages scholars and students in service to and collaborations with their communities. While this community-collaborative model may be seen as an instance of service learning, we suggest it is, in fact, distinct. As do Kenny et al. (2002b), we believe that the community-collaborative model rests on a different “knowledge base for establishing ‘engaged’ universities that promote civil society and successfully integrate outreach scholarship into the core fabric of the institutional agenda” (p. 12) and that, as

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such, “this vision requires, then, either a broader, more inclusive definition of the civic engagement or service learning concept or, in turn, a differentiation of the expectancies that are currently subsumed under the label of service learning” (p. 7). The community-collaborative model provides a human development knowledge base as a means “through which universities seek to involve students in the life of the community” (Kenny et al., 2002b, p. 9). This model stresses that human development derives from dynamic relations between the developing individual and the multiple levels of his or her ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 2001; Lerner, 2002). These levels range from biology through culture and history. Embeddedness in history means that there is always a temporal, and hence a change, component to human development, and as such, patterns of human behavior seen at one time and place may vary across historical periods and contextual (e.g., community) settings. Accordingly, there is always some potential plasticity in human development; that is, there is always some chance that changes in the relations between individuals and their contexts can promote systematic alterations of the human life course (Lerner, 2002). Communities represent, then, a potentially rich instance of such critical contexts for human development. Describing and explaining the course and outcomes of individual-community relations constitutes, therefore, a fundamental focus of cutting-edge scholarship about the human development system. Plasticity, in these individual-community relations represents, then, a strength in all people—that is, the opportunity for change, for improving the course of human development, and for making it more positive. Within the human development literature, the recognition of the potential for positive development has created a focus on youth that at least in part is due to the historically unprecedented challenges of health and behavior affecting the likelihood of their positive development (e.g., Lerner, 1995; Perkins & Borden, 2003). In addition, the focus on positive youth development (PYD) has emerged as a means to counter the “deficit” model of youth development that has characterized the literature on adolescence for 100 years (e.g., Hall, 1904). The literature pertinent to PYD provides evidence that the several characteristics of such functioning (e.g., the “Five Cs” of competence, confidence, character,

positive social connections, and caring; Lerner, Fisher, & Weinberg, 2000) are facilitated by assets that exist in the communities within which young people live, that is, “nutrients” for healthy development that may be associated with mentorship by caring adults, safe settings within which youth can use their time constructively, and the opportunity to interact in settings where youth participation and leadership are valued (e.g., Benson, 1997; Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998). These developmental assets have been identified as typically present in community-based organizations serving youth (Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000), and there is growing evidence that when young people are involved in such organizations, not only is the probability of the development of the “Five Cs” enhanced, but, as well, there is evidence for the emergence of a “sixth C,” that is, contribution to community (Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003). In other words, a commitment to civic engagement is created. Based, then, on the literature pertinent to human development generally and to PYD more specifically, the community-collaborative model provides at least two levels of rationale for the broad, campuswide integration of the tripartite mission of the university. First, the positive development of the young people studying at universities is enhanced through activities that contribute to community life; simply, college student civic engagement is identified as a vehicle for the promotion of PYD among community members (who, in turn, as PYD proceeds, become themselves more civically engaged). Second, community engagement provides college students with a broad sampling of the ways in which variation in the levels of organization extant within the physical and designed ecology of human life moderate the natural and social facets of our world. With this conceptual frame, community collaboration becomes a method through which professors from a broad array of disciplines can engage their students in “real-world laboratories,” affording a richer understanding of the basic and applied dimensions of the physical and social sciences and the humanities (Wertlieb, 2003). Moreover, community needs are defined by the community members themselves, and this role of community partner provides a greater likelihood of more balanced collaboration, relevant projects, more consistent university-community partnerships, and more comprehensive, sustainable, and far-reaching

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outcomes (Lerner & Fisher, 1994). This set of potential outcomes of community collaboration may inspire more community enthusiasm in collaboration with university efforts. However, the community-collaborative model is not free of challenges and limitations. The model requires a more integrative approach across the several disciplines that are needed to understand and enhance the array of individual and contextual variables that may influence the course of positive youth-community relations and thus of the outcomes of greater civic engagement and community contribution. Accordingly, adequate implementation of the model may require new institutional structures and reward systems that are a challenge to implement and finance. Such comprehensive efforts require a fundamental commitment from the top down (from the highest levels of the administration) and from the bottom up (from lecturers and junior faculty members) to succeed (Lerner & Simon, 1998). The mission of winning the hearts and minds of tenured professors to become more civically engaged and to pursue interdisciplinary tracks more passionately is a formidable task (Lerner & Simon, 1998). Equally daunting is securing a financial and ideological commitment from university leadership faced with manifold pressures, priorities, and budget constraints (Spanier, 1999; Votruba, 1999).

CONCLUSIONS The need for university-community collaboration has never been greater (Kenny et al., 2002a; Lerner & Simon, 1998). It is crucial, then, to determine the most mutually successful environment for service and outreach scholarship. We believe that the variants of service-learning models and the community-collaborative model should both be rigorously evaluated for their respective fits with these goals. Which approach (or perhaps better, set of approaches) best promotes an integration of the cultures of the university and the community, best serves the goals and needs of both settings, and is most effective, scalable, and sustainable? We believe that the community-collaborative model we have described may prove to be the best fit and, as well, the currently most optimal means to serve the three—teaching, research, and service/ outreach—pillars of private and public universities.

However, at this writing, this belief awaits systematic empirical documentation. —Mary Smith, Jason Steinman, Matan Chorev, Sarah Hertzog, and Richard M. Lerner

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS Benson, P. (1997). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Beyond the “village” rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2(3), 138–159. Bonnen, J. T. (1998). The land-grant idea and the evolving outreach university. In R. M. Lerner & L. A. K. Simon (Eds.), University-community collaborations for the twenty-first century (pp. 25–70). New York: Garland. Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities for the professorate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2001). Bioecological theory of human development. In N. J. Smelse & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 6963–6970). Oxford, UK: Elsevier. Eccles, J., & Gootman, J. P. (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Enerson, H. L. (1989). Revitalizing the land grant mission. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Hall, G. (1904). Adolescence. New York: Appleton. Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Colleges. (1999). Returning to our roots: The engaged institution. Washington, DC: National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Kenny, M., & Gallagher, L. A. (2002). Service learning: A history of systems. In M. Kenny, L. A. K. Simon, K. Brabeck, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Learning to serve: Promoting civil society through service learning (pp. 15–29). Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Kenny, M., Simon, L. A. K., Kiley-Brabeck, K., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (2002a). Learning to serve: Promoting civil society through service learning. Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Kenny, M., Simon, L. A. K., Kiley-Brabeck, K., & Lerner, R. M. (2002b). Promoting civil society through service learning: A view of the issues. In M. Kenny, L. A. K. Simon, K. Brabeck, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Learning to serve: Promoting civil society through service learning (pp. 1–14). Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Lerner, R. M. (1995). America’s youth in crisis: Challenges and options for programs and policies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2003). Positive youth development: Thriving as a basis of personhood and civil society [Special issue, J. Furrow & L. Wagener, Eds.]. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 172–180. Lerner, R. M., & Fisher, C. B. (1994). From applied developmental psychology to applied developmental science: Community coalitions and collaborative careers. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Applied developmental psychology (pp. 505–522). New York: McGraw-Hill. Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71, 11–20. Lerner, R. M., & Simon, L. A. K. (Eds.). (1998). Universitycommunity collaborations for the twenty-first century: Outreach scholarship for youth and families. New York: Garland. Ostrander, S. A. (2001). University civic engagement and community partnerships: Varying emphases at five schools and lessons for a new century. Medford, MA: Tufts University, College of Citizenship and Public Service. Ostrander, S. A. (2003). A developmental framework for university civic engagement? Relationships between local factors and key program components. Applied Developmental Science, 7(2), 112–113. Perkins, D. F., & Borden, L. M. (2003). Positive behaviors, problems behaviors, and resiliency in adolescence. In I. B. Weiner (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (pp. 373–394). New York: Wiley. Scales, P., Benson, P., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (2000). The contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 27–46. Spanier, G. B. (1999). Enhancing the quality of life: A model for the 21st century land-grant university. Applied Developmental Science, 3, 199–205. Votruba, J. C. (1999). Implementing public policy education: The role of the university. In P. A. Ralston, R. M. Lerner, A. K. Mullis, C. B. Simerly, & J. B. Murray (Eds.), Social change, public policy, and community collaborations: Training human development professionals for the twentyfirst century (pp. 117–120). Boston: Kluwer. Wertlie