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While American educators fret about the mediocre educational performance of American students in international contests (e.g. the Program for International Student Assessment) and wonder why the Chinese education system produces such high-achieving students, educators, journalists, and public officials in China want to know what causes and how to prevent the high levels of academic stress that Chinese students, their families, and their school systems experience. So far, much of the blame for these toxic levels of stress has been directed to the Gaokao, the Chinese national college entrance exam that takes place in June each year. But to date, top-down Chinese educational reforms have been ineffective in reducing the problem. In this article, we build a case for strengthening bottom-up efforts at the school level in China and propose an evidence-based approach for addressing the challenge of academic stress experienced by Chinese students.

This article explores the relationship between early adolescents' understanding of social issues and their comprehension of a fictional story about interracial conflict. It combines qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine the ways in which social awareness and reading comprehension skills may be interrelated when children and adolescents read texts that deal with social issues. Results suggest that adolescents use their social awareness skills to comprehend fictional texts, but reading skill moderates the effect. Poor readers who demonstrate a capacity for high levels of social awareness comprehend the story as well as their better reading peers. The authors discuss implications for educational practice and the need for an integration of research in social development with language and literacy. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

This paper centers on the process of conducting research on children's social development through a partnership between university-based researchers and teachers and students in an urban New England school district. It does so through the eyes of its first author, a second year graduate student who is negotiating the dual roles of researcher and teacher. In the process of investigating more about young children's perceptions of teasing in conjunction with her research team, this student learns that theories about children's social awareness developed in university settings virtually always require modification when examined in the real world. Ultimately, she concludes that the partnership between theorists and practitioners leads to a fine-tuning of research protocols that elicit more complicated and variable responses from students, and that classroom climate factors, temporary or longstanding, may either facilitate or prevent effective data collection and analysis. (Contains 1 note.)

Argues that research in the context of programs designed to promote the psychosocial competence of children and adolescents is an important road to understanding the fundamental anatomy of social development. Focuses on the theoretical work, research, practice and institutional inventions of the author's professional career. (Author/SD)

A model of the development of interpersonal negotiation strategies in adolescents is proposed which included social-cognitive, interpersonal, and contextual aspects; and which has implications for such school-based interventions as classroom curriculum, individual/group counseling, school climate/discipline, and parent involvement. Implications for assessment, intervention, and evaluation are discussed. (Author/EGS)

For developmental social psychology to be clinically practical, it must use categories of experience similar to categories that counselors, clinicians, and other practitioners find useful. Describes how individuals may function at different levels depending on the context in which they are expressing their understanding. (Author)

Abstract: This research examined relationships between children''s social awareness (ability to understand and negotiate intergroup relationships) and their narrative and persuasive writing. Forty 5th grade students wrote a short fictional narrative and a persuasive letter to their principal. Writing samples were coded for quality, form, and social awareness. Students also completed a questionnaire assessing their capacity to understand and negotiate social relationships. Scores from literacy assessments in vocabulary, reading, and reading comprehension were also obtained. Results suggest that children''s quality of writing depends on both literacy and social skills. There was a positive relationship between social awareness and quality of writing in persuasive letters, controlling for vocabulary and demographic characteristics. In narratives, the positive effect was moderated by students'' reading skill. The magnitude of the social awareness effect was stronger in the narratives of children who were below average readers, controlling for background characteristics. The paper highlights the educational importance of teaching both social and literacy skills in the classroom. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]