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In diesem Aufsatz werden die Leistungszuwachse in Mathematik und Deutsch von Schulerinnen und Schulern wahrend der obligatorischen Schulzeit betrachtet. Es wird untersucht, ob sich distinkte Typen von Leistungsverlaufen identifizieren lassen, um wie viele Typen es sich handelt und ob sich die Zugehorigkeit zu einem Verlaufstyp durch Variablen auf der Ebene des Individuums, der Herkunftsfamilie und der Schulklasse vorhersagen lasst. Die Datengrundlage zur Untersuchung dieser Fragestellungen stellt die Zurcher Langsschnittstudie, in der die Schulleistungen von etwa 2000 Schulerinnen und Schulern drei, sechs und neun Jahre nach der Einschulung erfasst und mit IRT-Methoden auf einer gemeinsamen metrischen Skala abgebildet wurden. Die Auswertung erfolgte mit Hilfe von mischverteilten Wachstumskurvenmodellen, wobei funf distinkte Typen von Schulleistungsverlaufen identifiziert wurden, die als „durchschnittlicher Typ“ (20 %), „lernschwacher Typ“ (26 %), „Nachzuglertyp“ (9 %), „ertragsreicher Typ“ (30 %) sowie „Typ mit Vorsprung“ (15 %) bezeichnet werden konnen. Die verschiedenen Pradiktorvariablen waren in unterschiedlichem Ausmas fur die Vorhersage der Typenzugehorigkeit relevant, wobei die psychometrische Intelligenz, die vorschulischen Rechenfertigkeiten sowie selbstandiges Arbeitsverhalten eine herausragende Rolle spielten.

Using data from a computer-based formative feedback system, we compare learning gains in the 8 weeks of school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland with learning gains in the 8 weeks before these school closures. The school performance in mathematics and language of N = 28,685 pupils is modelled in second-order piecewise latent growth models with strict measurement invariance for the two periods under investigation. While secondary school pupils remain largely unaffected by the school closures in terms of learning gains, for primary school pupils learning slows down and at the same time interindividual variance in learning gains increases. Distance learning arrangements seem an effective means to substitute for in-person learning, at least in an emergency situation, but not all pupils benefit to the same degree.

Based on optimal foraging theory, we propose a metric that allows evaluating the goodness of goal systems, that is, systems comprising multiple goals with facilitative and conflicting interrelations. This optimal foraging theory takes into account expectancy and value, as well as opportunity costs, of foraging. Applying this approach to goal systems provides a single index of goodness of a goal system for goal striving. Three quasi-experimental studies (N = 277, N = 145, and N = 210) provide evidence for the usefulness of this approach for goal systems comprising between 3 to 10 goals. Results indicate that persons with a more optimized goal-system are more conscientious and open to new experience, are more likely to represent their goals in terms of means (i.e., adopt a process focus), and are more satisfied and engaged with their goals. Persons with a suboptimal goal system tend to switch their goals more often and thereby optimize their goal system. We discuss limitations as well as possible future directions of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Longitudinal data collected between 2005 and 2009 is analyzed to investigate the interplay of trajectories of perceived demands in the domains of work and family. Quadratic latent growth curve models were used to mimic the increase of demands in N = 1,296 young adults from Germany as structural uncertainty increased in the second half of the study. Demands in the different domains develop highly parallel, reflecting possible spill-over effects between the domains, and seem to indicate changes of objective uncertainty during the outset of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, there is also evidence for cumulative disadvantage and inoculation effects.

The challenges of population ageing and globalisation have been addressed by many welfare states in terms of active ageing policies, which in turn confront individuals with new demands such as keeping up to date with technological developments. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how individuals negotiate the demands of active ageing. The outcome variable was change in primary and secondary control strategies with regard to demands of active ageing over the course of one year. In a German sample of N = 602 men and women aged 55–75 years, we found a strong preference for engagement with these demands and a low preference for disengagement. Furthermore, a higher load of demands of active ageing was associated with an increase in engagement with these demands. However, when people perceived their everyday surroundings as unfavourable, their disengagement with demands of active ageing increased. Higher internal control beliefs concerning demands of active ageing were associated with an increase in engagement and a decrease in disengagement. We conclude that individuals strengthen their efforts to master demands of active ageing when they believe that they can control them. When the everyday ecology seems unfavourable, though, strategies are preferred that enable people to avoid a presumably lost case.

Rather than focusing on single goals, people usually strive for multiple goals in different domains of life at the same time. To do so successfully, people need to match their multiple goals to their opportunity structures, maintain sufficient diversity in their goal system, and consider the positive and negative tradeoffs between particular goals. This issue brings together five original research articles addressing goals in the domains of work, family, leisure, and academic achievement. They draw on longitudinal data from the United States, Germany, Finland and Switzerland and on samples ranging from adolescence to adulthood.

The transition from school to work is a central developmental task with long-term implications for the financial and social status of individuals. We argue that dynamic adjustments of aspirations play a decisive role for a successful outcome of the school to work transition, particularly in the context of the German vocational training system. Latent growth curve analyses conducted on the self-reported occupational aspirations of German adolescents (N = 414) surveyed in a 5-wave longitudinal study during their senior school year support this assumption. Based on expectancy-value-models of achievement, we delineated an adaptive trajectory of aspirations as starting off with relatively high aspirations and subsequently gradually downgrading them until s is attained. Such a trajectory of adjustment should maximize both expectancy (i.e., probability of obtaining an apprenticeship position at all) and value (i.e., training position with promotion potential). Finally, we showed empirically that the trajectory conceptually proposed as most adaptive was characteristic for youth who reported phase-adequate goal engagement strategies as suggested by the life-span theory of control.

Globalization and economic change are translated into a variety of changes in the proximal contexts of youth development, which are perceived and tackled differently by different individuals.

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.

Zusammenfassung: Die Entwicklung von Konzepten zur sozialen Ungleichheit und des Verständnisses von beruflichem Prestige ist ein bedeutsamer Aspekt der ökonomischen Sozialisation von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Dieses sozial vermittelte Wissenssystem steht in direkter Abhängigkeit zu Werten und Normen der sozialisatorischen Instanzen (z. B. Eltern oder Lehrer). Es wird argumentiert, dass die Wahrnehmung und Beurteilung beruflichen Prestiges, genau wie bei anderen sozialen Phänomenen, zum Teil auch von der sozialen Position des Beurteilenden geprägt ist. Im empirischen Teil dieses Artikels werden Prestigeurteile Jugendlicher mit niedrigem und mittlerem sozialen Hintergrund sowie im Ost-West-Vergleich vorgestellt. Den Annahmen entsprechend unterscheiden sich diese Urteile merklich von gesamtgesellschaftlich aggregierten Prestigemaßen und zwischen Gruppen mit unterschiedlichem sozialisatorischen Hintergrund.