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Playfulness represents the disposition to play and has important mental health benefits. Children's playfulness is mainly rated by parents, teachers or trained assessors but playfulness is not always reflected in overt behavior. Fortunately, even young children are able to provide a perspective on their playfulness, as illustrated by research with the Child Self-Report Playfulness questionnaire (CSRP). This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the CSRP. We included 332 children (M age = 5.43 years). Internal consistency of the Dutch version of the CSRP was suboptimal at first administration and acceptable during retest. Test-retest reliability (with an interval of 8 weeks) was adequate. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a one-factor model fits the CSRP, which supports the idea that playfulness in young children is a unidimensional construct. Scores on the CSRP were not significantly correlated with scores on a parent-rated questionnaire and an observation tool measuring playfulness. Further research to discover how informant and administration discrepancies affect playfulness scores is warranted given this lack of convergence. Children's self-perception of playfulness may complement more traditional measures such as parent reports in future research., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

It was investigated whether test anxiety (TA), mathematics anxiety (MA), and reading anxiety (RA) can be traced back to some type of general academic anxiety or whether these are separable. A total of 776 fifth graders ( M age = 10.9 years) completed questionnaires on TA, MA, and RA, as well as a mathematics test. Also, mathematics and reading performance results from the National Tracking System were requested. The sample was randomly split into two halves. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a three-factor model (factors: TA, MA, RA) had superior model fit compared with a one-factor model (factor: "Academic anxiety"), in both halves. The resulting anxiety factors were related to math performance measures using structural equation models. A scarcity of data on reading performance prevented the analysis of links between anxiety and reading performance. Anxiety-math performance relations were stronger for MA than for TA and MA. We concluded that TA, MA, and RA are separable constructs.

In this longitudinal, observational study, following 883 adolescents (aged 11-15 years, grades 6th - 8th) we tracked changes in perceived school motivation and effort across four time points during the two years of remote education in Perú as a consequence of COVID-19 (retrospective reports before the pandemic, May 2020, July 2021, and November 2021). Compared to before the pandemic, levels of perceived school motivation and effort dropped sharply in May 2020 and continued to decrease across 2 years. Perceived school motivation was positively associated with perceived school effort at almost all time points. Furthermore, students with lower levels of perceived school motivation had a steeper decline in perceived school effort. In a subsample of 380 students in 8th grade, perceived school effort in July 2021 predicted objective math performance in November 2021. Our findings suggest that COVID-19 has further compounded decreases in subjective and objective indices of school engagement and performance that are typically observed in early adolescence. Our results from a large sample of low- to middle-class Peruvian adolescents highlight the experiences of youth in a country that had particularly long school closures, and that is under-represented in the literature., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Impulsivity is a core feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previous work using the delay discounting task to assess impulsivity reveals that adolescents with ADHD tend to prefer a smaller-immediate reward over a larger-delayed reward, and this relates to problematic choices in daily life. To gain a better understanding of daily decision-making in adolescence, it is important to examine the social context, as peers have a major influence on decisions. Peer influence often has a negative connotation, but also provides an opportunity to promote positive outcomes. To date, it is unclear if peers affect impulsive decision-making in adolescents with ADHD, for better or for worse., Methods: The aim of this preregistered study was to examine the effect of peer feedback on impulsive choice in male adolescents with and without ADHD (ages 13-23; N  = 113). We utilized an adapted delay discounting task that was administered alone, in a social condition, and alone again. In the social condition, adolescents received either (between-subjects) manipulated impulsive or non-impulsive peer feedback. Impulsive peer feedback consisted of likes for choosing the smaller immediate reward, whereas non-impulsive peers endorsed choosing the larger delayed reward., Results: Preregistered analyses showed that non-impulsive peer feedback resulted in decreased impulsive choice, whereas impulsive peer feedback did not alter decision-making in adolescents with and without ADHD. Explorative analyses of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms in the total sample, irrespective of diagnosis, showed that lower hyperactivity-impulsivity and more inattention symptoms were associated with increased susceptibility to non-impulsive peer feedback., Conclusions: Together, these findings indicate that peers may provide an opportunity to decrease impulsivity and emphasize individual differences in susceptibility to non-impulsive peer feedback related to inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Therefore, peer feedback may be a promising component in behavioral peer-supported interventions in adolescents with ADHD., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest., (© 2022 The Authors. JCPP Advances published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

A key question in the developmental sciences is whether developmental differences are quantitative or qualitative. For example, does age increase the speed in processing a task (quantitative differences) or does age affect the way a task is processed (qualitative differences)? Until now, findings in the domain of decision making have been based on the assumption that developmental differences are either quantitative or qualitative. In the current study, we took a different approach in which we tested whether development is best described as being quantitative or qualitative. We administered a judgment version and a choice version of a decision-making task to a developmental sample (n judgment  = 109 and n choice  = 137; M age  = 12.5 years, age range = 9-18). The task, the so-called Gambling Machine Task, required decisions between two options characterized by constant gains and probabilistic losses; these characteristics were known beforehand and thus did not need to be learned from experience. Data were analyzed by comparing the fit of quantitative and qualitative latent variable models, so-called multiple indicator multiple cause (MIMIC) models. Results indicated that individual differences in both judgment and choice tasks were quantitative and pertained to individual differences in "consideration of gains," that is, to what extent decisions were guided by gains. These differences were affected by age in the judgment version, but not in the choice version, of the task. We discuss implications for theories of decision making and discuss potential limitations and extensions. We also argue that the MIMIC approach is useful in other domains, for example, to test quantitative versus qualitative development of categorization, reasoning, math, and memory., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Adolescents with ADHD demonstrate increased risk-taking behavior (RTB) like substance abuse and dangerous traffic conduct. RTB in adolescence is more likely under peer influence. The current investigation (1) tests the hypothesis that adolescents with ADHD are particularly susceptible to such influence and (2) tests whether groups differed in autonomic reactivity to peer influence. Adolescent boys between 12 and 19 years with (n = 81) and without (n = 99) ADHD performed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task twice. In the peer condition, a highly credible virtual peer manipulation that encouraged risk taking was added, in the solo condition this was absent. Autonomic reactivity was indexed by heart rate (HR), pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). All adolescents engaged in more risk taking in the peer condition relative to solo condition. Autonomic differences between groups were only found on PEP: a stronger sympathetic response to peer influence was observed in typically developing adolescents relative to adolescents with ADHD. Increased physiological stress (as indexed by PEP) in the peer relative to the solo condition predicted peer-induced risk taking in all adolescents. We conclude that susceptibility to peer influence is not exaggerated in ADHD but rather reflects a general tendency of adolescents. As adolescents experiencing peer influence as stressful are most susceptible to peer influence, we suggest that increasing resistance to peer influence may be an important treatment aim for these adolescents specifically.

Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) demonstrate increased levels of real-life risk-taking behavior like substance abuse and reckless behavior in traffic, which potentially originates in decision-making deficits. Using experimental gambling tasks, the current study investigated three potential underlying mechanisms: (1) risky vs. suboptimal decision making, (2) the complexity of decision-making strategies and (3) the influence of feedback. Participants were 181 male adolescents (81 ADHD, 100 Typically Developing (TD); M age  = 15.1 years). First, we addressed a common confound in many gambling tasks by disentangling risk seeking from suboptimal decision making, and found that ADHD-related decision-making deficits do not originate in increased risk seeking but in suboptimal decision making. Second, we assessed decision-making strategies with a Bayesian latent mixture analysis and found that ADHD-related decision-making deficits are characterized by the use of less complex strategies. That is, adolescent boys with ADHD, relative to TD adolescent boys, less often adopted strategies in which all characteristics relevant to make an optimal decision were integrated. Third, we administered two gambling task conditions with feedback in which adolescents experience the outcomes of their decisions and found that adolescents with ADHD performed worse relative to TD adolescents on both conditions. Altogether, this set of studies demonstrated consistent decision-making deficits in adolescent boys with ADHD: The use of less complex decision-making strategies may cause suboptimal decision making, both in situations with and without direct feedback on performance.

The current study examined the role of implicitly measured associations (henceforth referred to as associations) between math and anxiety in adolescents' math anxiety. Previous research has shown that associations predicted behavior independent of explicit measures. In this study, it was investigated whether math-anxiety associations would be related to math anxiety and whether they predicted math behavior as well as state math anxiety independent of explicitly measured math anxiety. In addition, the domain specificity of math-anxiety associations for predicting math behavior was investigated. Adolescents' anxiety associations and self-reported anxiety were assessed for three domains: math anxiety, foreign language (English) anxiety, and trait anxiety. A sample of 189 secondary school students performed three single-target implicit association tests, performed a math problem solving task, and filled out questionnaires. Overall, adolescents showed stronger math-anxiety associations in comparison with math-calmness associations. In contrast to our hypotheses, math-anxiety associations were not related and did not uniquely or specifically predict math behavior and state math anxiety. Explicit anxiety measures demonstrated specificity in predicting math and English grades as well as state math anxiety. The innovative aspects of this study are the investigation of implicitly measured math-anxiety associations and the relation to math anxiety and math behavior. Further research is needed to develop tasks that are better able to capture the most relevant math-threat associations and to investigate which math behavior might be most strongly influenced by these associations., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Sensation seeking is a trait that predicts a wide range of real-life risk behavior, such as substance abuse and gambling problems. Sensation seeking is often assessed with the Sensation Seeking Scale. Several adaptations of this questionnaire have been made, for example, to abbreviate it and to make it suitable for children. However, studies on sensation seeking in children are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate sensation seeking in children ( N = 158, M age = 11.4 years). The Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (BSSS-C) was translated into Dutch and psychometric properties were examined. Internal consistency was high, and the factor structure showed close resemblance with previous research. Test-retest and split-half reliabilities were acceptable, as was convergent validity with self-reported symptoms of psychopathology (attention problems and aggressive behavior). Construct validity was adequate, with more sensation seeking in boys than in girls. No effects of age were found. To sum up, sensation seeking can be measured in children in a valid and reliable way. The correlation of sensation seeking with high-risk behaviors emphasizes the importance of assessment early in development.

Molenaar's manifesto on psychology as idiographic science (Molenaar, 2004) brought the N = 1 times series perspective firmly to the attention of developmental scientists. The rich intraindividual variation in complex developmental processes requires the study of these processes at the level of the individual. Yet, the idiographic approach is all but easy in practical research. One major limitation is the collection of short interval times series of high quality data on developmental processes. In this paper, we present a novel measurement approach to this problem. We developed an online practice and monitoring system which is now used by thousands of Dutch primary school children on a daily or weekly basis, providing a new window on cognitive development. We will introduce the origin of this new instrument, called Math Garden, explain its setup, and present and discuss ways to analyze children's individual developmental pathways., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Background and Objectives: Adolescence-related increases in both anxiety and risk taking may originate in variability in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), rendering the study of IU of importance. We therefore studied the psychometric properties of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-Short version (IUS-12), including its associations with trait anxiety and risk taking, among adolescents., Methods: A sample of 879 Dutch adolescents, from diverse educational levels, and with an equal distribution of boys and girls, was classically tested. To obtain indices of IU, and self-reported trait anxiety and need for risk taking, questionnaires were administrated; to obtain an index of risk taking behavior, adolescents performed a risk taking task., Results: Multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analyses revealed that the IUS-12 consists of a Prospective and an Inhibitory IU subscale, which are partially measurement invariant across sex. Cronbach's alphas and item-total correlations revealed that the IUS-12 and its subscales have reasonable-to-good internal consistency. Correlational analyses support convergent validity, as higher IUS-12 scores were related to, respectively, higher and lower levels of self-reported trait anxiety and need for risk taking. However, we found no relationship between IUS-12 scores and risk taking behavior, operationalized by performance on the risk taking task., Limitations: A community, instead of clinical, sample was included. Also, IU was measured by a paper-and-pencil version of the IUS-12, instead of a computerized version., Conclusions: The IUS-12 has good psychometric properties and may be a central measure to assess IU, which enables to explain the adolescence-related increase in both anxiety and risk taking., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)