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Concept-based language instruction (C-BLI) is a pedagogy guided by sociocultural theory, which has been shown to be effective in facilitating second language learning. Typical activities include materialization by using a schema for a complete orienting basis of an action (SCOBA) and languaging, through which learners' internalization of scientific knowledge can be observed. However, previous studies have mainly used languaging as an assessment tool to examine the outcome of the internalization of concepts. Few studies have integrated SCOBAs (visual) and languaging (oral or written) in their investigation of the internalization process. This 5-week study involved 53 Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language learners in a university who were all taught with the C-BLI approach to learn English modal verbs. Among them, there were 26 lower proficiency students and 27 higher proficiency students. Visual, oral, and written data were collected to examine the participants' internalization of the modal verb concepts. All 53 learners participated in SCOBA drawing and written-languaging tasks. Twelve students (6 per group) volunteered to participate in oral languaging. The results showed that in the SCOBA drawing activity, higher level learners produced more abstract, systematic, and imitated visualizations of the concepts, while lower level learners produced more concrete, disconnected, and emulated visualizations. With regard to oral languaging, both groups largely abandoned their previously learned "rule of thumb" after the C-BLI intervention, and there were no obvious differences in oral-languaging performance between the two groups, except that the higher group produced more languaging units. Finally, we also found that the changes between pre- and post-written-languaging tasks for lower level students were more obvious, especially in the appropriation of SCOBAs in written languaging.

This research examines whether prior research may not have detected cultural-specificity in the role of controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting in children's adjustment because of reliance on between-individual analyses. In two longitudinal studies (Ns = 825 and 934) of early adolescents, within-individual analyses were conducted to examine the reciprocal pathways between children's reports of parenting and their reports of their adjustment in the United States and China. Increments in controlling parenting predicted decrements in children's emotional and behavioral, but generally not academic, adjustment over time, with little evidence that this was stronger in the United States than in China. Decrements in children's emotional and behavioral, but generally not academic, adjustment predicted increments in controlling parenting over time similarly in the two countries. There were few overtime pathways involving autonomy-supportive parenting in either direction in either country.

This research examined parents' restriction of children's peer relationships in the United States and China. American and Chinese children (N = 934; M[subscript age] = 12.67 years) reported on their parents' peer restriction (e.g., limiting children's time with peers) and their behavioral and psychological adjustment 3 times over a year. Increments in parents' peer restriction predicted decrements in children's adjustment over time to a similar extent in the United States and China. However, decrements in children's adjustment predicted increments in parents' peer restriction over time to a greater extent in the United States (vs. China). Thus, it is possible that culture contributes to the socialization process involving parents' restriction of children's peer relationships but only via child-driven pathways.

This research evaluated the role of high-status peers in youth's academic engagement. Youth (mean age = 12.7 years) in the United States and China (N = 934) made social status (i.e., sociometric popularity, perceived popularity, and admiration) nominations of their peers in the fall and spring of their first year of middle school. They also reported on their academic engagement at these two time points. The academic engagement of peers that youth nominated as high in sociometric and perceived popularity, but not of peers they admired, was predictive of youth's own academic engagement over time. Notably, this effect was evident over and above any initial similarity youth had with high-status peers they nominated (e.g., youth tended to nominate peers as high in sociometric popularity when they were similarly academically engaged to youth). It also did not differ in size in the United States and China. The results underscore the importance of high-status peers in youth's academic engagement in two countries that differ in terms of their cultural and educational systems.

High social status youth are often influential in the peer system. Thus, they may serve as agents of cultural socialization if they exhibit characteristics that reflect cultural values (e.g., interdependence). This research examined the behavior that contributes to high social status in the United States and China. At each of 3 waves, 934 early adolescents (M[subscript age] = 12.7 years at Wave 1) made behavioral (i.e., prosocial behavior and academic engagement) and social status (i.e., likability, perceived popularity, and admiration) nominations of their peers. Positive behavior was predictive of higher social status in both the United States and China, but this was stronger in China. In the United States, there was a tendency for positive behavior to be less predictive of perceived popularity than other forms of social status (e.g., likability); however, this tendency was not evident in China.

This research examined how children's inclusion of social personal attributes (e.g., talkative and argumentative) in their views of themselves changes over early adolescence in the United States and China. In 2 studies (N = 825 in Study 1 and 394 in Study 2) using open-ended methods (e.g., completion of "I ... " stems), American and Chinese children described themselves multiple times during the 7th and 8th grades. Conceptions of the self in terms of personal attributes were the norm in both the United States and China, but personal attributes that are social became more common over early adolescence in only the United States. Study 1 indicated that increases in social personal attributes were accompanied by heightened psychological and positive descriptions of the self in both countries. Study 2 ruled out potential confounds (e.g., pubertal status) in the differences in American and Chinese children's use of social personal attributes to define themselves.

This research examined the reciprocal pathways between youth's sense of responsibility to parents and disclosure to them during early adolescence in the United States and China. Four times over the seventh and eighth grades, 825 American and Chinese youth (M[subscript age] = 12.73 years) reported on their sense of responsibility to parents and disclosure of everyday activities to them. Autoregressive latent trajectory models revealed that the more youth felt responsible to parents, the more they subsequently disclosed to them in both the United States and China. The reverse was also true: The more youth disclosed to parents, the more responsible they felt to them over time. The strength of these reciprocal pathways increased as youth progressed through early adolescence.

This research examined American and Chinese children's sense of responsibility to their parents during early adolescence, with a focus on its implications for children's academic functioning. Four times over the seventh and eighth grades, 825 children (mean age = 12.73 years) in the United States and China reported on their sense of responsibility to their parents. Information on children's academic functioning was also collected from children as well as school records. Although children's sense of responsibility to their parents declined over the seventh and eighth grades in the United States, this was not the case in China. In both countries, children's sense of responsibility was predictive of enhanced academic functioning among children over time.

This research examined children's interdependent self-construals as manifest in their seeing their relationships with their parents as self-defining. Four times over early adolescence, 825 children (mean age = 12.73 years) in the United States and China reported on their inclusion of their relationships with their parents in their self-construals as well as other dimensions of their psychological functioning. Although there was continuity in children's inclusion of their relationships with their parents in their self-construals, American, but not Chinese, children decreased their inclusion over time. In both the United States and China, the more children defined themselves in terms of their relationships with their parents, the more their perceptions of the quality of these relationships mattered for their subsequent emotional functioning.

This research examined the role of children's decision-making autonomy in their emotional functioning during early adolescence in the United States and China. Four times over the 7th and 8th grades, 825 American and Chinese children (M = 12.73 years) reported on the extent to which they versus their parents make decisions about issues children often deem as under their authority. Children also reported on their emotional functioning. American children made greater gains over time in decision-making autonomy than did Chinese children. Initial decision-making autonomy predicted enhanced emotional functioning similarly among American and Chinese children. However, gains over time in decision-making autonomy predicted enhanced emotional functioning more in the United States (vs. China) where such gains were normative.