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Although many studies have documented developmental change in mathematics motivation, little is known about how these trends predict math performance. A sample of 288 participants from the United States reported their perceived math ability, math utility value and math interest in 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Latent growth curve models estimated developmental trajectories in each of these constructs. Mathematics interest and utility value decreased across time, but there was no significant change in self-perceived math ability. Slopes and intercepts of all mathematics motivation variables correlated with one another. Even when controlling for prior mathematics performance, students who self-reported high math ability in 5th grade had higher standardised test scores than their peers in high school five years later. Neither math utility value nor math interest intercepts or slopes predicted later performance. Understanding the predictors of math performance is important for supporting students' success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.

Some U.S. school districts are experimenting with single-sex schooling, hoping that it will yield better academic outcomes for students. Empirical research on the effects of single-sex schooling, however, has been equivocal, with various studies finding benefits, disadvantages, or no effect. Most of this research is marred because families generally choose whether the child attends a single-sex or coeducational school, so there are selection effects that create pre-existing differences between students in the different types of schools. The research reported here capitalized on the case of Korea, where students are randomly assigned to single-sex or coeducational schools. Using 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data, we applied hierarchical linear modeling to account for the nesting of students within schools. Results for eighth graders indicated no differences between students in single-sex and coeducational schools in mathematics and science achievement. Results from the 2003 TIMSS data replicated the finding: students' mathematics and science achievement was unrelated to the gender composition of their school. These results call into question whether single-sex schooling has the academic advantages claimed by its proponents. (Contains 4 tables.)

Depression surges in adolescence, especially among girls. Most evidence indicates that the short allele of a polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) interacts with stress to influence the onset of depression. This effect appears to be less robust in adolescents, particularly among boys, and may be moderated by other genetic polymorphisms. Seeking to explain the adolescent gender difference in depression, this study examined the effects of 5-HTTLPR (rs25531), the monoamine oxidase A-upstream variable number tandem repeat (MAOA-uVNTR), and negative life events (NLE). A community-based longitudinal sample of 309 adolescents reported depressive symptoms and NLE at ages 11, 13, and 15. 5-HTTLPR and MAOA-uVNTR genotypes were ascertained via buccal swabs. A significant four-way interaction of 5-HTTLPR, MAOA-uVNTR, NLE at age 13, and gender predicted depressive symptoms at age 15. Girls were most likely to exhibit elevated depressive symptoms when experiencing NLE if they possessed low-expression MAOA-uVNTR alleles and short 5-HTTLPR alleles, whereas low-expression MAOA-uVNTR alleles but long 5-HTTLPR alleles were implicated in boys. The results indicate that the commonly reported 5-HTTLPR by stress interaction for depression may be limited to individuals with low-expression MAOA-uVNTR alleles. These data also provide new evidence that the short allele of 5-HTTLPR confers susceptibility to stress differently for females compared with males.

Power and inequality are central concepts in feminist theory and practice. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, there is relatively little empirical research on gender and power within feminist psychology. A search of PsycINFO for articles published in "Psychology of Women Quarterly" for the years 2000-2011 yielded only 14 empirical articles with the term "power" in the abstract. Into this dearth of empirical research on gender and power came new, nation-level measures of gender inequality in power. Developed by organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, these measures are publicly available. As the Else-Quest and Grabe (2012) article explains in detail, the measures involve a wide variety of aspects of power relations and gender equity, including women's health, power in the government, education and literacy, income, and success. (Contains 1 figure.)

Early sexual behaviors during adolescence have the potential to lead to unhealthy outcomes. This study explored the association between specific dimensions of maternal relationship quality and adolescent sexual debut by age 15. We hypothesized that adolescents who have poor maternal relationships are at greater risk of early sexual debut than those who have a more supportive relationship. These hypotheses were examined using both adolescents' perception of their maternal relationship quality and observed relationship quality. A sample of 268 adolescents (142 girls; 90% European American) were followed longitudinally from age 13 to age 15. The results indicate that adolescents with sexual debut by age 15 report significantly worse relationships with their mothers compared with other adolescents. Furthermore, behavioral observations of lower maternal support and higher observed displays of externalizing affect towards the mother also were related to early sexual debut. The significance of maternal relationship quality remained after controlling for family structure, race, and socioeconomic status. These findings suggest that mothers have a significant role in the timing of their adolescents' sexual debut. (Contains 6 tables.)

The development of negative cognitive style was examined in a longitudinal study of 366 community youth. Cognitive style and depressive symptoms were evaluated at ages 11, 13, and 15. Latent growth mixture modeling identified three unique trajectory patterns of negative cognitive style. The "normative" group (71% of the sample) displayed the least negative cognitive style and lowest depression scores at all assessments. The "increasing" group (22% of the sample) displayed a cognitive style that was comparable to the normative group at age 11 but increased markedly over time; this group displayed the highest depression scores at age 13 and 15, and youth in this group were most likely to have reported clinically significant depressive symptoms during the course of the study. Finally, the "decreasing" group (7% of the sample) displayed the most negative cognitive style at age 11 but an overall decline in negative cognitive style over time. Child sex, child temperament at age 1, observed maternal feedback to child failure at age 11, mothers' cognitive styles at age 11, and total stress from ages 11 to 15 served as predictors of class membership. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

In 1993 Oliver and Hyde conducted a meta-analysis on gender differences in sexuality. The current study updated that analysis with current research and methods. Evolutionary psychology, cognitive social learning theory, social structural theory, and the gender similarities hypothesis provided predictions about gender differences in sexuality. We analyzed gender differences in 30 reported sexual behaviors and attitudes for 834 individual samples uncovered in literature searches and 7 large national data sets. In support of evolutionary psychology, results from both the individual studies and the large data sets indicated that men reported slightly more sexual experience and more permissive attitudes than women for most of the variables. However, as predicted by the gender similarities hypothesis, most gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors were small. Exceptions were masturbation incidence, pornography use, casual sex, and attitudes toward casual sex, which all yielded medium effect sizes in which male participants reported more sexual behavior or permissive attitudes than female participants. Most effect sizes reported in the current study were comparable to those reported in Oliver and Hyde's study. In support of cognitive social learning theory, year of publication moderated the magnitude of effect sizes, with gender differences for some aspects of sexuality increasing over time and others decreasing. As predicted by social structural theory, nations and ethnic groups with greater gender equity had smaller gender differences for some reported sexual behaviors than nations and ethnic groups with less gender equity. Gender differences decreased with age of the sample for some sexual behaviors and attitudes. (Contains 10 tables.)

A gender gap in mathematics achievement persists in some nations but not in others. In light of the underrepresentation of women in careers in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering, increasing research attention is being devoted to understanding gender differences in mathematics achievement, attitudes, and affect. The gender stratification hypothesis maintains that such gender differences are closely related to cultural variations in opportunity structures for girls and women. We meta-analyzed 2 major international data sets, the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme for International Student Assessment, representing 493,495 students 14-16 years of age, to estimate the magnitude of gender differences in mathematics achievement, attitudes, and affect across 69 nations throughout the world. Consistent with the gender similarities hypothesis, all of the mean effect sizes in mathematics achievement were very small (d less than 0.15); however, national effect sizes showed considerable variability (ds = -0.42 to 0.40). Despite gender similarities in achievement, boys reported more positive math attitudes and affect (ds = 0.10 to 0.33); national effect sizes ranged from d = -0.61 to 0.89. In contrast to those of previous tests of the gender stratification hypothesis, our results point to specific domains of gender equity responsible for gender gaps in math. Gender equity in school enrollment, women's share of research jobs, and women's parliamentary representation were the most powerful predictors of cross-national variability in gender gaps in math. Results are situated within the context of existing research demonstrating apparently paradoxical effects of societal gender equity and highlight the significance of increasing girls' and women's agency cross-nationally. (Contains 7 tables and 2 figures.)

The current study describes longitudinal trends in sexual harassment by adolescent peers and highlights gender, pubertal status, attractiveness, and power as predictors of harassment victimization. At the end of 5th, 7th, and 9th grades, 242 adolescents completed questionnaires about sexual harassment victimization, pubertal status, and perceived power. Results indicate an increase in sexual harassment from 5th to 9th grade, with boys more likely to report harassment than girls in each grade. An analysis of harassment type indicated no gender difference in 9th grade cross-gender harassment, but boys received more same-gender harassment than girls. Pubertal status predicted concurrent sexual harassment victimization in each grade. Boys and girls with advanced pubertal status at all grades were more likely to be victims of 9th grade same-gender harassment. Adolescents with greater power at all grades were more likely to be victims of 9th grade cross-gender sexual harassment. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

In this longitudinal study, we examined whether certain types of stressful events and how individuals respond to these events would explain gender differences in depressive symptoms among adolescents. We hypothesized that certain stressful events would mediate the relationship between gender and depressive symptoms. We also hypothesized that individual differences in emotional reactivity would impact part of this relationship. Lastly, we examined whether gender differences in early childhood temperament might explain gender differences in emotional reactivity in adolescence. We examined these hypotheses in a sample of 315 adolescents (51% females; 93% Caucasian; 3% African-American; and 1% each Hispanic, Asian-American, and Native American) participating in a longitudinal study of child development since birth. We used multiple regression and constrained nonlinear regression to analyze the data. Results indicated that stressful events significantly mediated gender differences in depression, and that individual differences in emotional reactivity to these stressors significantly moderated the relationship between stress and depression. We also observed significant gender differences in emotional reactivity to these stressors; temperamental differences in withdrawal negativity in infancy were marginally significant in mediating gender differences in emotional reactivity to stress in adolescence.

This study explored factors that may be associated with early initiation of sexual activity among adolescents. Using the cumulative risk model, we hypothesized that as exposure to risk factors increases, so does the likelihood of early sexual debut. A sample of 273 (53% girls, 90% European American) adolescents was followed longitudinally from age 13 to 15. The results indicate that, for girls, increased television viewing, low self-esteem, poor parental relationships, living in a non-intact household, higher levels of externalizing behavior (ADHD symptomology), low academic achievement, and parents with low education levels were associated with earlier sexual debut. For boys, advanced pubertal development, increased television viewing, higher rates of externalizing behaviors (ADHD and ODD symptoms), and poor parental relationships were associated with earlier sexual debut. As hypothesized, predictive power increases with the accumulation of these risks; girls are 1.56 times more likely to become sexually active with an increase of only one risk and boys are 1.90 times more likely.

Gender intensification, an increased pressure for adolescents to conform to culturally sanctioned gender roles, has been posited as an explanation for the emergence of the gender difference in depression. This longitudinal study assessed whether 410 individuals became more stereotypical in their gender-role identity across adolescence and whether such patterns predicted depressive symptoms. Girls reported higher femininity than boys at ages 11, 13, and 15, but girls and boys did not differ in masculinity. Contrary to prevailing views, there was not evidence of intensification in femininity or masculinity. Positive trajectories in masculinity for both girls and boys predicted fewer depressive symptoms, particularly at moderate levels of stress. Findings suggest a need to reconceptualize gender intensification in ways that characterize contemporary adolescence.

In adulthood, twice as many women as men are depressed, a pattern that holds in most nations. In childhood, girls are no more depressed than boys, but more girls than boys are depressed by ages 13 to 15. Although many influences on this emergent gender difference in depression have been proposed, a truly integrated, developmental model is lacking. The authors propose a model that integrates affective (emotional reactivity), biological (genetic vulnerability, pubertal hormones, pubertal timing and development) and cognitive (cognitive style, objectified body consciousness, rumination) factors as vulnerabilities to depression that, in interaction with negative life events, heighten girls' rates of depression beginning in adolescence and account for the gender difference in depression. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table and 2 footnotes.)

Objectified body consciousness (OBC)--the tendency to view one's body as an object for others to look at and evaluate--is theorized to emerge during sexual maturation as adolescents, particularly adolescent girls, experience sexual objectification. Although OBC generally is discussed in developmental terms, research so far has examined primarily the experiences of undergraduates and adults. Our goal in this study was to examine early adolescent experiences with OBC and to explicitly test the idea that OBC is linked to experiences of sexual objectification, such as peer sexual harassment, that early adolescents face as their bodies reach maturity. We tested several structural models of OBC and its relation to puberty, peer sexual harassment, and negative body experience. The prevailing model supported OBC theory's premise that pubertal development and peer sexual harassment increase adolescent girls' tendency toward self-surveillance, which in turn leads to greater body shame. Several pathways in the model were not significant for boys. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Objectification theory posits that the tendency to view oneself as an object to be looked at and evaluated by others negatively affects girls', but not boys', subjective well-being. Although it has been established that women self-objectify more than men, research in this area has been limited to the study of adult college women. The aim in the current longitudinal study was to investigate the role of body shame and rumination in the link between self-objectification and depression among a community sample of girls and boys at ages 11 and 13. Results indicated that adolescent girls reported higher levels of self-objectification, body shame, rumination, and depression than boys. The findings support a model in which body shame and rumination mediate a direct relation between self-objectification and depression among girls; developmentally, the gender difference in self-objectification appears before the gender differences in rumination and depression.

Cognitive models of depression have been well supported with adults, but the developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability are not well understood. The authors hypothesized that temperament, parenting, and negative life events in childhood would contribute to the development of cognitive style, with withdrawal negativity and negative parental feedback moderating the effects of negative life events to predict more depressogenic cognitive styles. These constructs were assessed in 289 children and their parents followed longitudinally from infancy to 5th grade; a subsample (n = 120) also participated in a behavioral task in which maternal feedback to child failure was observed. Results indicated that greater withdrawal negativity in interaction with negative life events was associated with more negative cognitive styles. Self-reported maternal anger expression and observed negative maternal feedback to child's failure significantly interacted with child's negative events to predict greater cognitive vulnerability. There was little evidence of paternal parenting predicting child negative cognitive style.

Objectified body consciousness (OBC)--the tendency to view oneself as an object to be looked at and evaluated by others--has received recent attention as a possible vulnerability factor for depression and disordered eating. Although OBC generally is discussed in developmental terms, extant research has examined primarily the experiences of undergraduates and adults. Our goal in this study was to develop an age-appropriate measure to allow study of OBC development during preadolescence and adolescence. We modeled the OBC-Youth after McKinley and Hyde's (1996) OBC-Classic to measure three components of OBC: body surveillance, body shame, and appearance control beliefs. The 14-item scale contains modified vocabulary and syntax to make it appropriate for use with preadolescent and adolescent youth. Results indicate that the OBC-Youth scale is a reliable, valid measure of OBC. Initial findings about the correlates of OBC in preadolescence are discussed.

The authors used meta-analytical techniques to estimate the magnitude of gender differences in mean level and variability of 35 dimensions and 3 factors of temperament in children ages 3 months to 13 years. Effortful control showed a large difference favoring girls and the dimensions within that factor (e.g., inhibitory control: d = -0.41, perceptual sensitivity: d = -0.38) showed moderate gender differences favoring girls, consistent with boys' greater incidence of externalizing disorders. Surgency showed a difference favoring boys, as did some of the dimensions within that factor (e.g., activity: d = 0.33, high-intensity pleasure: d = 0.30), consistent with boys' greater involvement in active rough-and-tumble play. Negative affectivity showed negligible gender differences.

The differences model, which argues that males and females are vastly different psychologically, dominates the popular media. Here, the author advances a very different view, the gender similarities hypothesis, which holds that males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables. Results from a review of 46 meta-analyses support the gender similarities hypothesis. Gender differences can vary substantially in magnitude at different ages and depend on the context in which measurement occurs. Overinflated claims of gender differences carry substantial costs in areas such as the workplace and relationships.

The prevailing view in popular culture and the psychological literature is that White women have greater body dissatisfaction than women of color. In this meta-analysis, 6 main effect sizes were obtained for differences among Asian American, Black, Hispanic, and White women with a sample of 98 studies, yielding 222 effect sizes. The average d for the White-Black comparison was 0.29, indicating that White women are more dissatisfied, but the difference is small. All other comparisons were smaller, and many were close to zero. The findings directly challenge the belief that there are large differences in dissatisfaction between White and all non-White women and suggest that body dissatisfaction may not be the golden girl problem promoted in the literature. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.

A personal attitudes model (i.e., infant feeding choices are based on personal attitudes primarily) and a structural factors model (i.e., feeding choices are shaped by the structural contexts of women's lives, as much as personal attitudes) of women's breastfeeding behavior were tested by surveying a longitudinal sample of 548 mostly European American women recruited for the Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health Project. Personal attitudes (enjoyment of breastfeeding, gender-role attitudes, and work and family salience) accounted for half as much variance in breastfeeding duration for women who were employed outside the home compared to those who were not. For women employed outside the home, both structural variables (length of maternity leave and workplace flexibility) and personal attitudes predicted duration. These results have implications for how we construct the issue of women's breastfeeding decisions.

A review of the three articles on feminist identity development in this issue indicates that (a) the Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS) and the Feminist Identity Composite (FIC) perform similarly and acceptably in psychometric analyses, (b) no research has properly tested whether there are true stages of feminist identity development, and (c) existing scales do not specify scoring that permits the classification of an individual into a stage. Caution is urged in using the Downing and Roush model in practice, pending the accumulation of longitudinal evidence that true stages exist.

Suggests that researchers should report the results of appropriate significance tests and the effect sizes associated with each test. Discusses the roles of textbook authors, publication manuals, and journal editors in leading the movement to better statistical reporting. (SLD)

Compared psychosocial outcomes for mothers and their infants who had been delivered vaginally or by planned or unplanned cesarean deliveries. Found that women low in neuroticism who delivered by unplanned cesarean showed less positive affect toward infants at 4 months than did women in other groups. Found some evidence that maternal appraisal of the delivery mediated these effects. (Author/KB)