2018, Vol.31, No.3

THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.67

pISSN : 1229-0718 / eISSN : 2671-6542
https://journal.kci.go.kr/baldal

The current study examined the development of prosocial and aggressive behaviors in youth as related to the selection and influence of friends, and the potential moderating role of gender and relationship with their teacher in these processes. Participants were fifth and sixth graders from 48 classrooms and were followed from the start to the end of the semester in the Mid-West of the U.S. Across the school year, there was a tendency for youth to select peers who were similar to themselves as friends and to be influenced by their friends in regard to both aggressive and prosocial behaviors. However, friend selection and influence processes were moderated by youth’s gender and relationship with their teacher. Boys were more attracted to aggressive peers and less attracted to prosocial peers as friends, and were more influenced than girls by their friends' aggressive behavior over time. Further, when youth had a more positive relationship with their teacher, they were more likely to select peers who were highly prosocial and less aggressive as friends. Overall, results indicate that youth’s gender and relationship with their teacher play an important role in friendship dynamics and social behavior development.

This study aimed to predict students’ learning amotivation with the following predictors: parental attitudes, teachers’ attitudes, and previous academic achievement. Learning amotivation had four dimensions: task characteristics, lack of task value, absence of belief in personal abilities, and absence of belief in personal effort. The data analysis incorporated the students’ perceived competence and perceived autonomy as mediating variables. To ascertain the associations within and between the variables, path analysis was applied to questionnaire data on 331 middle school students. The results found complex interrelationships: Previous academic achievement, perceived competence, and parental neglect predicted absence of belief in personal abilities; teachers’ attitudes, parental neglect, and perceived competence predicted lack of task value. Teachers’ attitudes, parental over-control, and perceived competence significantly influenced task characteristics. Previous academic achievement, parental neglect, perceived competence, perceived autonomy, and teachers’ attitudes predicted absence of belief in personal effort. Perceived competence and perceived autonomy differently mediated the effects of parental neglect and previous academic achievement on learning amotivation depending on its dimensions. In sum, the results confirmed that learning amotivation is a multidimensional construct.

This study investigated maternal warmth and controlling behavior as mediators of the relationship of chronic maternal depression to child behavioral problems. The model included a measure of child negative emotionality to control for its effects on child adjustment and maternal factors. Using data from the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education(KICCE) Panel Study on Korean Children(PSKC), 2,150 mothers and their children(50% female) were analyzed. Mothers self-rated their extents of depression (child age zero to five years), positive parenting (age six years), and child externalizing and internalizing problems (age seven years). The results found that mother’s chronic depression predicted their children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviroal problems, which was mediated by maternal warmth, but not by controlling behavior. That is, longer-lasting depressive symptoms predicted child’s behavior in the transition to school age through less warm parenting. The findings elucidated a developmental pathway to child maladaptation during the early school ages which suggests a promising target for early prevention.