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Psychological maladjustment and its relation to academic achievement, parental expectations, and parental satisfaction were studied in a cross-national sample of 1,386 American, 1,633 Chinese, and 1,247 Japanese eleventh-grade students. 5 indices of maladjustment included measures of stress, depressed mood, academic anxiety, aggression, and somatic complaints. Asian students reported higher levels of parental expectation and lower levels of parental satisfaction concerning academic achievement than their American peers. Nevertheless, Japanese students reported less stress, depressed mood, aggression, academic anxiety, and fewer somatic complaints than did American students. Chinese students reported less stress, academic anxiety, and aggressive feelings than their American counterparts, but did report higher frequencies of depressed mood and somatic complaints. High academic achievement as assessed by a test of mathematics was generally not associated with psychological maladjustment. The only exception was in the United States, where high achievers indicated more frequent feelings of stress than did low achievers.

This is a report of the main points I made in an informal "conversation" with Paul Fletcher and the audience at the 14th ICPLA conference in Cork. The observations arose randomly, as part of an unstructured 1-h Q&A, so they do not provide a systematic account of the subject, but simply reflect the issues which were raised by the conference participants during that time.

This study investigated U.S. ethnic majority and minority youth's perceptions of fair and unfair treatment by authorities and evaluations of three situations of interracial exclusion (N = 685). Findings revealed that older adolescents who reported fair treatment by authorities were more likely to perceive wrongfulness in interracial exclusion scenarios than were their peers who reported unfair treatment. Additionally, in explaining the wrongfulness of interracial exclusion, older adolescents who had not experienced unfair treatment by authorities were more likely to mention racial prejudice than were their counterparts who had experienced unfair treatment. Results are discussed with reference to developmental theory on authority relations and the positive benefits of authority-adolescent relationships that reflect just and fair treatment. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

Intergroup contact and evaluations about race-based exclusion were assessed for majority and minority students in grades 4, 7 and 10 (N=685). Scenarios depicting cross-race relations in contexts of dyadic friendship, parental discomfort and peer group disapproval were described to participants. Participants reporting higher levels of intergroup contact gave higher ratings of wrongfulness of exclusion and lower frequency estimations of race-based exclusion than did participants reporting lower levels of such contact. Intergroup contact also predicted students' attributions of motives in two out of the three scenarios. Findings are discussed in terms of the extant literature on peer relations, moral reasoning and intergroup contact.

Japanese and U.S. sixth, eighth, and tenth graders (N = 2141) responded to questionnaires asking whom they depended on in six contexts of need. These contexts were: morning awakening, physical illness, emotional upset, help with homework, causing a problem, and guidance in extracurricular activities. Findings indicated that, relative to culture, contextual effects exerted an equally if not more powerful effect on students' responses. In line with traditional cross-national theorizing, U.S. youth were, overall, more self-reliant than their Japanese peers. In contrast to such theorizing, U.S. students were more interdependent with family, and Japanese students were more interdependent with peers, than their counterparts in the other country. Furthermore, both Japanese and U.S. youth showed similar age-related decreases in interdependence with family and increases in interdependence with peers. Results are discussed in terms of active dyadic help-seeking versus conceptualized notions of social identity, and recent theories of development, culture, and the self. (Contains 3 tables.)

US majority (European-American) and minority (African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American) children were interviewed regarding race-based and non-race based reasons for exclusion in interracial peer contexts (N = 685), evenly divided by gender at 9, 12, and 15 years of age (4th, 7th, and 10th grades) attending 13 US public schools. All children judged race-based exclusion as wrong using moral reasons. In contrast, non-race based reasons such as lack of shared interests, parental discomfort, and peer pressure were viewed as more wrong by minority children than by majority children. This pattern decreased with age for all participants. Further minority children were more likely to expect that racial exclusion occurs, indicating that ethnic background, social experience, and age are significantly related to interpretations of interracial peer motives for exclusion. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

This study examined whether others (i.e., teachers and parents) and self-appraisals of social competence mediated the relationship between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and depression. To determine whether age moderated the effects of the mediation, the total sample was divided into younger (under 9) and older (at or above 9 years) age levels. The total sample (age range 6.6 to 11.7 years) was primarily male (194 boys and 52 females) and consisted of 148 children diagnosed with ADHD and 98 community controls. Three central findings were derived from this study. First, there was a strong relationship between ADHD (with and without comorbid ODD/CD) and depression in both younger and older aged children. Among younger children with ADHD, there was no differential influence on the level of depression depending on whether or not ADHD was comorbid with ODD/CD; in contrast, with older children, comorbid ODD/CD had higher levels of depression than was the case for children with ADHD that did not display such comorbidity. Second, with younger children approximately half of the relationship between ADHD (with and without comorbid ODD/CD) and depression was exclusively mediated by others appraisal of social competence. Third, a more complex relationship between ADHD and depression emerged during the later part of the childhood years. As such, the relationship between ADHD, others appraisals of social competence, and depression was further mediated by self-appraisals of social competence. Findings are discussed in terms of developmental theory and theoretical models of childhood depression.

Surveyed fourth-, seventh-, and tenth-graders in Japan and the United States regarding evaluations of peer group exclusion of atypical peers. Found that with increasing age, children demonstrated sensitivity to context (reason the peer was different) and believed that the excluded child should not change to be accepted. Girls were less willing to exclude than boys and were more tolerant of differences. The context influenced all forms of judgment. (Author/KB)

Investigated Japanese and U.S. mothers' descriptions of behavioral characteristics they found most desirable and undesirable in preschool children, noting characteristics they considered most highly positive or negative. Mothers in both cultures emphasized social cooperativeness and interpersonal sensitivity. U.S. mothers were far more likely to consider aggressive and disruptive behaviors negative, whereas Japanese mothers highlighted social insensitivity and uncooperativeness. (SM)

Examines self-enhancement bias among 5th and 11th graders in the United States and Japan by having students listen to stories describing behaviors (aggressive, depressive, oppositional, and school-phobic) of hypothetical peers. Reports that U.S. students showed no greater self-enhancement tendencies, while 11th graders rated themselves less like deviant characters and different from peers. (CMK)