In the last half century, developmental scientists have become increasingly interested in studying contexts beyond the home environment that contribute to children's growth and development, including physical contexts such as schools and neighborhoods, as well as social contexts such as poverty. During this same period, a number of social trends have significantly impacted children's daily lives, including shifts in gender roles and expectations, the emergence of an early care and education system, and the proliferation of media technology. Societal Contexts of Child Development provides comprehensive literature reviews for six broad contextual influences on children's development that have emerged as key areas of inquiry in contemporary society - gender, child care, culture and ethnicity, poverty, schools and neighborhoods, and media. In the spirit of applied developmental science, this book considers these six contextual domains in a series of two linked chapters written by experts in the interdisciplinary field of developmental science. The first chapter in each section is organized as a review of basic research relevant to a particular context, including a discussion of prominent theoretical and methodological issues. The second chapter in each section then addresses the same context from an applied research perspective, examining and documenting how research has been, can be, or should be used to enhance the everyday lives and developmental outcomes of children and their families through interventions and/or social policies. The book concludes with a chapter specifically dedicated to making connections between research and practice and an epilogue that situates the book's chapters within the field's study of contexts. Societal Contexts of Child Development will appeal to a broad audience of scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, economics, human development, and public policy.

Dieses Standardwerk bietet allen, die sich beruflich oder privat für die Entwicklung im Kindes- und Jugendalter interessieren, umfassende Einblicke in den spannenden Prozess des Erwachsenwerdens. Die Autor*innen sind renommierte Wissenschaftler und Pädagogen. Sie haben diese Auflage grundlegend überarbeitet und um wichtige neue Informationen zur sozialen und emotionalen Entwicklung ergänzt. Studierende finden hier alles Wichtige für die Prüfung im Modul Entwicklungspsychologie: einen umfassenden Überblick über zentrale Konzepte, Theorien, Methoden und Ergebnisse entwicklungspsychologischer Forschung; geschrieben in einfacher und klar verständlicher Sprache; von Sabina Pauen, Professorin für Entwicklungspsychologie, für den deutschsprachigen Markt angepasst; mit Selbsttest-Fragen und Antworten über die Flashcards-App und mit hilfreichen Zusatzmaterialien über die Begleitwebseite. Eine Vielzahl an Illustrationen, Fallbeispielen und Praxisbezügen helfen dabei, den Stoff zu verstehen, zu strukturieren und zu verinnerlichen. So ist dieses Lehrbuch der Entwicklungspsychologie ein echtes Lese- und Lernvergnügen, auch für Laien. Die Inhalte des Werks gehen dabei weit über den klassischen Lehrstoff für Bachelor-Prüfungen hinaus; sie vermitteln ein vertieftes Verständnis dafür, wie die Entwicklung in unterschiedlichen Bereichen zusammenhängt, von welchen sozialen und gesellschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen sie abhängt und wie die Entstehung von Problemen verhindert werden kann. Dieses Hintergrundwissen ist entscheidend für vielfältige Anwendungsfelder. Das Lehrbuch dient damit auch als wichtiges Nachschlagewerk im Master-Studium. Auch wenn Sie bereits beruflich oder privat mit Kindern und Jugendlichen zu tun haben, wird Ihnen das Buch Lust machen, mehr über die Prozesse und Mechanismen zu erfahren, die Entwicklung erst möglich machen, sie unterstützen oder auch behindern. 

These two special issues of "Applied Developmental Science" include eight major studies of the impacts of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on children, youth, and their parents. Issue 1 includes a report of the impact of September 11th on New York City youth in comparison with that of everyday violence, as well as three studies which demonstrate the impact of the attacks on the metal health and coping strategies of adolescents throughout the country, despite being physically distant from the event.
Issue 2 includes a study of separation anxiety in school age children in New York City following the attacks, the results from two national surveys of parents' roles in helping children respond to or process the attacks, and a study of the impact of such a "distant trauma" on rural youth.

This Brief reviews the past, present, and future use of school corporal punishment in the United States, a practice that remains legal in 19 states as it is constitutionally permitted according to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result of school corporal punishment, nearly 200,000 children are paddled in schools each year. Most Americans are unaware of this fact or the physical injuries sustained by countless school children who are hit with objects by school personnel in the name of discipline. Therefore, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools begins by summarizing the legal basis for school corporal punishment and trends in Americans' attitudes about it. It then presents trends in the use of school corporal punishment in the United States over time to establish its past and current prevalence. It then discusses what is known about the effects of school corporal punishment on children, though with so little research on this topic, much of the relevant literature is focused on parents' use of corporal punishment with their children. It also provides results from a policy analysis that examines the effect of state-level school corporal punishment bans on trends in juvenile crime. It concludes by discussing potential legal, policy, and advocacy avenues for abolition of school corporal punishment at the state and federal levels as well as summarizing how school corporal punishment is being used and what its potential implications are for thousands of individual students and for the society at large. As school corporal punishment becomes more and more regulated at the state level, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools serves an essential guide for policymakers and advocates across the country as well as for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students.

This brief examines the U.S. foster care system and seeks to explain why the foster care system functions as it does and how it can be improved to serve the best interest of children. It defines and evaluates key challenges that undermine child safety and well-being in the current foster care system. Chapters highlight the competing values and priorities of the system as well as the pros and cons for the use of foster care. In addition, chapters assess whether the performance objectives in which states are evaluated by the federal government are sufficient to achieve positive health and well-being outcomes for children who experience foster care. Finally, it offers recommendations for improving the system and maximizing positive outcomes. Topics featured in this brief include: Legal aspects of removal and placement of children in foster care. The effectiveness of prior efforts to reform foster care. The regulation and quality of foster homes. Support for youth aging out of the foster care system. Racial and ethnic disparities in the foster care system. Foster Care and the Best Interests of the Child is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.