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Objectives: Perceived expectations for active aging (PEAA) reflect subjective exposure to social expectations about staying active and fit in old age, for example, by maintaining health and social engagement. We investigated whether motivational and personality factors were related to PEAA in the domains of physical health, mental health, and social engagement. Method: We used a nationally representative sample of German adults (SOEP-IS) covering the entire adult life span (N = 2,007, age range 16–94 years) to test our pre-registered hypotheses. Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated that motivation (i.e. life goals and health-related worries) was consistently associated with PEAA in the matching domains and mediated the effects of openness to experience on PEAA. No other personality trait was associated with PEAA. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that individuals preferentially notice the expectations for active aging whose content relates to their personal concerns and goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how individuals deal with demands of social and economic change in the domains of work and family when opportunities for their mastery are unfavorable. Theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that with unattainable goals and unmanageable demands motivational disengagement and self-protective cognitions bring about superior outcomes than continued goal striving. Building on research on developmental deadlines, this paper introduces the concept of developmental barriers to address socioeconomic conditions of severely constrained opportunities in certain geographical regions. Mixed-effects methods were used to model cross-level interactions between individual-level compensatory secondary control and regional-level opportunity structures in terms of social indicators for the economic prosperity and family friendliness. Results showed that disengagement was positively associated with general life satisfaction in regions that were economically devastated and has less than average services for families. In regions that were economically well off and family-friendly, the association was negative. Similar results were found for self-protection concerning domain-specific satisfaction with life. These findings suggest that compensatory secondary control can be an adaptive way of mastering a demand when primary control is not possible.

In this study, the effectiveness of a life skills program to impede tobacco use in early adolescence was scrutinized. The focus was on the mediating role of yielding to peer pressure. The universal school-based life skills program IPSY (Information + Psychosocial Competence = Protection) against adolescent substance use was implemented over 3 years. Over the same time period, it was evaluated based on a longitudinal quasi-experimental design with an intervention and comparison group (4 measurement points; N = 1,657 German students, age 10 at T1). By applying a growth curve modeling approach, we found that participation in IPSY compared with non-participation predicted a slower increase in tobacco use over time, suggesting a significant intervention effect. Moreover, a parallel growth curve model revealed that less yielding to peer pressure induced by IPSY mediated the program effects on tobacco use over time.

The literature proposes that leisure boredom may systematically increase during adolescence. Moreover, some authors assume that this hypothesized developmental trend is associated with increases in youthful delinquency and depression. Individual dispositions (e.g., temperamental disinhibition) are believed to exacerbate the relationship between boredom and delinquency. This study investigated whether (1) leisure boredom really is an increasing phenomenon during early adolescence; (2) gender, temperamental disinhibition, shyness, family relationship quality, peer rejection, a deprived school context, and rural/urban living explain developmental variations in boredom; (3) boredom is longitudinally and reciprocally related to delinquency and depression; and (4) bored disinhibited adolescents are particularly likely to become delinquent and to use delinquent acts to mitigate boredom. Analyses were based on a German sample of school students (N = 722) who provided annual self-reports on study variables from age 10 to 14 years. Bivariate growth curve models captured correlations between developmental trajectories of boredom and delinquency/depression. Cross-lagged models examined reciprocal short-term associations. Analyses revealed a modest increase in leisure boredom during early adolescence. Disinhibition and qualities of proximal social contexts (family, peers, school) were related to boredom with peer rejection showing the most consistent longitudinal association. Boredom was developmentally associated with depression whereas longitudinal associations with delinquency were weaker and more short-term. Temperamentally disinhibited adolescents appeared to buffer leisure boredom by means of delinquency. Results support person-context models of leisure boredom with regard to its etiology and consequences. Findings further demonstrate that leisure boredom plays a prominent role in the developmental adaptation of adolescents.

We analyzed whether perceived demands associated with social change and coping with these demands are related to depressive symptoms in German adolescents from the highest versus middle/lowest educational track. Demands reflected an increase in uncertainty (e.g., risk for getting no job). Adolescents on the highest educational track perceived fewer demands in the field of education/work and reported lower levels of depression than adolescents on lower educational tracks. In addition, work-related demands were associated with depressive symptoms only in students on lower educational tracks. Whereas problem-focused coping with these demands was associated with lower depressive symptoms in all students, we found that associations of distancing from demands with depression varied by educational track. We conclude that increased uncertainty associated with social change serves as a stressor that relates to adolescents' depressive symptoms. However, educational attainment is an important resource for dealing with these stressors.

On the basis of general theories of delinquency and the specific situation of immigrants, this longitudinal study investigated predictors of initial levels and rates of change in delinquency among 188 male ethnic German Diaspora immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Germany, 237 male native German adolescents, and 182 male Jewish Diaspora adolescents from the FSU in Israel. The participants (15.2 years old) completed 3 annual assessments. Latent growth curve models showed that ethnic German adolescents reported higher initial levels of delinquency than native German adolescents and lower levels than the Russian Jewish adolescents. Groups did not differ in the rate of change, indicating a decrease in delinquency over time. Peer-oriented leisure related positively and parental knowledge negatively with levels and change rates in delinquency in all groups, but could not fully account for the ethnic differences in delinquency levels. School bonding was associated negatively with delinquency only among native German adolescents. Acculturation-related hassles were an additional predictor for higher levels and also associated with change rates in the immigrant groups. Thus, general theories of delinquency apply to immigrants, but may be complemented by adding acculturation-specific challenges.

A successful entry into work is one of the key developmental tasks in young adulthood. The present 4-wave longitudinal study examined the interplay between occupational motivation (i.e., goal engagement and goal disengagement) and well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life, satisfaction with work, satisfaction with partnership, positive affect, depressive symptoms, autonomy, purpose in life, positive relations with others) during the transition from university to work. The sample consisted of 498 university graduates from 4 majors with favorable or unfavorable employment opportunities. Data were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling. The results showed that increases in goal engagement were associated with increases in numerous aspects of well-being. Increases in goal disengagement were associated with decreases in numerous aspects of well-being. However, this dynamic was not without exception. Goal engagement at graduation was associated with a decrease in autonomy and, for individuals with unfavorable employment opportunities, an increase in depressive symptoms. Goal disengagement at graduation was associated with an increase in satisfaction with work. These findings elucidate why some individuals may opt for overall maladaptive motivational strategies during the transition into the workforce: They provide selective well-being benefits. In sum, how young adults deal with their occupational goals is closely linked to changes in their well-being. (Contains 5 tables, 2 figures and 1 footnote.)

Globalized labor markets confront many adults, both employed and unemployed, with demands arising from career uncertainty that have the potential to jeopardize their occupational planning. This article investigated how individuals in different regions of Germany, which are characterized by different economic opportunities, negotiate such demands to pursue a career. The central hypothesis is that under unfavorable economic conditions, disengagement from demands of career planning, in terms of reducing commitment to their mastery, will predict positive changes in subjective well-being. This was tested using a sample of N = 806 adults living in 91 regions of Germany. Results suggest that disengagement predicts increased subjective well-being, but only if individuals report a very high load of demands of career planning and live in regions characterized by particularly poor opportunities for goal striving. It is concluded that disengagement can be an adaptive way of mastering occupational planning under particularly disadvantageous circumstances. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

Applying a life-span approach of human development and using the example of science-based business idea generation, the authors used structural equation modeling to test a mediation model for predicting entrepreneurial behavior in a sample of German scientists (2 measurement occasions; Time 1, N = 488). It was found that recalled early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence predicted business idea generation. This link was mediated by entrepreneurial human and social capital. Moreover, an entrepreneurial Big Five profile was associated with early entrepreneurial competence and predicted entrepreneurial human and social capital. Results underscore the relevance of the long-neglected developmental approach to entrepreneurship.

This study investigated the effectiveness of a life skills program with regard to alcohol consumption, life skills, knowledge, and school bonding for young adolescents. The focus was on the moderating role of gender, based on the assumption that life skills programs may address specific needs of adolescent girls better than those of boys. The universal school-based life skills program IPSY (Information + Psychosocial competence = Protection) was implemented and evaluated over 3 years (longitudinal quasi-experimental design with four measurement points; N = 952, 10 years at T1). Results of (M)ANCOVAs revealed positive general program effects of IPSY on alcohol-related outcomes, life skills, knowledge, and school bonding. As expected, girls profited regarding knowledge of effective communication within groups and self-confidence, but not boys. In contrast, none of the other program effects was moderated by gender. Thus, the program, although lacking gender-specific components, worked well for both boys and girls during early adolescence. (Contains 4 tables.)