The goals of this study were 1) to examine the features of adolescents’ disclosure and advice-seeking behavior about peer dilemmas; and 2) to examine the maternal parenting predictors of disclosure and advice-seeking behavior and the adolescent social correlates of these behaviors. Further, this study sought to examine adolescent advice-seeking as a potential mediator of the relations between maternal parenting characteristics and adolescent social outcomes (friendship quality and interpersonal competence). One hundred and one mother-child dyads were assessed when the children were approximately 10-12 years of age (M = 11.0) and 74 were re-assessed when the children were approximately 12-14 years of age (M = 12.8). Mothers provided reports of their parenting characteristics at Time 1 and Time 2, while adolescents provided reports of their disclosure at Time 1, and disclosure, advice-seeking, personality and social outcomes at Time 2. Results showed the adolescents disclosed and sought advice from their mothers moderately often across a variety of situations involving their close friends. The reasons adolescents chose to disclose, not disclose, and seek advice were discussed. Regression analyses showed that neither mothers’ positive nor their negative parenting characteristics were predictors of adolescent disclosure. Mothers’ positive parenting characteristics (including perspective-taking, warmth and positive responsiveness to children’s negative emotions) did significantly predict adolescent advice-seeking, for girls but not boys, after controlling for adolescent personality and maternal interpersonal competence. With respect to adolescent social outcomes, adolescent advice-seeking was significantly related to friendship quality, but not interpersonal competence, after controlling for adolescent personality and disclosure. There was no evidence for the role of advice-seeking as a mediator of the relations between parenting and adolescent social outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the importance of determining the conditions that encourage adolescents to seek advice from their parents when they encounter difficult situations involving their friends, and the value parental advice has for adolescent social success.

This dissertation examined language and literacy development in English-Hebrew emerging bilinguals. During their senior kindergarten year, one group of children participated in a bilingual English-Hebrew program (“early” group; n = 17) while another participated in an English-language program with minimal Hebrew instruction (“late” group; n = 19). Both groups were merged in Grade 1 and continued to receive a partial Hebrew immersion program. The first part of this dissertation explored longitudinally how an early partial Hebrew immersion program contributes to literacy (word reading, pseudoword reading, reading comprehension), language (vocabulary and morphological awareness (MA)), phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming in English and Hebrew. Similar improvement from senior kindergarten to Grade 1 was noted for both groups across all measures, however the early group displayed significantly stronger Hebrew vocabulary skills. Literacy and language inter- and cross-linguistic correlation patterns were not significantly different between the two groups. The second part examined the relevance of the Simple View of Reading framework (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986) in Grade 1 (N = 36). The contribution of word reading and language proficiency was examined within and between languages. Two aspects of MA (derivational awareness and inflectional awareness) were considered as additional components of oral language. Word reading, vocabulary and both MA measures were used as predictors. The SVR model significantly explained English reading comprehension based on a combination of word reading and derivational awareness (but not vocabulary), and Hebrew reading comprehension based on word reading and vocabulary. In English, derivational awareness contributed unique variance to reading comprehension above word reading although this was not the case in Hebrew. In addition, English word reading and inflectional awareness predicted Hebrew reading comprehension, thus supporting the SVR model cross-linguistically, although the reverse was not true. Overall, the children attending the Hebrew early immersion programming had an advantage for Hebrew vocabulary skills with no negative repercussions on their English language and literacy skills. The study supports the relevance of the SVR framework for young emerging bilinguals, and underscores the importance of considering aspects of MA as components of oral language proficiency that contribute to reading comprehension in these learners.

The current study seeks to address some debates surrounding the imposition of mandatory volunteer programs in high schools by directly engaging students with interviews about their own reasoning surrounding matters of autonomy and the fostering of prosocial beliefs that are affected by the composition of a mandatory volunteer program. Participants were asked to evaluate five different vignettes depicting a different program. Results indicated that older youth tend to evaluate programs which offer choice more positively, while younger students make few distinctions. All age groups prefer mandatory programs to a voluntary program. No effect of program (service learning vs. community service) was present, although forced-choice data indicate a preference for service learning components. Implications for autonomy and prosocial development are discussed.

This dissertation examined language and literacy development in English-Hebrew emerging bilinguals. During their senior kindergarten year, one group of children participated in a bilingual English-Hebrew program (“early” group; n = 17) while another participated in an English-language program with minimal Hebrew instruction (“late” group; n = 19). Both groups were merged in Grade 1 and continued to receive a partial Hebrew immersion program. The first part of this dissertation explored longitudinally how an early partial Hebrew immersion program contributes to literacy (word reading, pseudoword reading, reading comprehension), language (vocabulary and morphological awareness (MA)), phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming in English and Hebrew. Similar improvement from senior kindergarten to Grade 1 was noted for both groups across all measures, however the early group displayed significantly stronger Hebrew vocabulary skills. Literacy and language inter- and cross-linguistic correlation patterns were not significantly different between the two groups. The second part examined the relevance of the Simple View of Reading framework (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986) in Grade 1 (N = 36). The contribution of word reading and language proficiency was examined within and between languages. Two aspects of MA (derivational awareness and inflectional awareness) were considered as additional components of oral language. Word reading, vocabulary and both MA measures were used as predictors. The SVR model significantly explained English reading comprehension based on a combination of word reading and derivational awareness (but not vocabulary), and Hebrew reading comprehension based on word reading and vocabulary. In English, derivational awareness contributed unique variance to reading comprehension above word reading although this was not the case in Hebrew. In addition, English word reading and inflectional awareness predicted Hebrew reading comprehension, thus supporting the SVR model cross-linguistically, although the reverse was not true. Overall, the children attending the Hebrew early immersion programming had an advantage for Hebrew vocabulary skills with no negative repercussions on their English language and literacy skills. The study supports the relevance of the SVR framework for young emerging bilinguals, and underscores the importance of considering aspects of MA as components of oral language proficiency that contribute to reading comprehension in these learners.

The current study seeks to address some debates surrounding the imposition of mandatory volunteer programs in high schools by directly engaging students with interviews about their own reasoning surrounding matters of autonomy and the fostering of prosocial beliefs that are affected by the composition of a mandatory volunteer program. Participants were asked to evaluate five different vignettes depicting a different program. Results indicated that older youth tend to evaluate programs which offer choice more positively, while younger students make few distinctions. All age groups prefer mandatory programs to a voluntary program. No effect of program (service learning vs. community service) was present, although forced-choice data indicate a preference for service learning components. Implications for autonomy and prosocial development are discussed.

This thesis proposes a theory for fundamental aspects of the evolution and development of the representational mind. Building on Perner's (1991) theory of representational development, it is suggested that mind evolved from the ability to represent current reality (primary mind) to further entertain secondary representations of hypothetical content (collating mind) to finally represent representational relations themselves (metamind). In child development these transitions can be observed by about 18 months and by about 42 to 48 months. In comparative analysis only the great apes show signs of a collating mind. Young children and great apes can, for example, pretend, consider a limited future and past, solve problems by insight, and consider others' basic mental states. By about age four children begin to show evidence for metarepresentation in their ability to pass theory-of-mind tasks. At about the same age they also gain considerable executive control which, together with metarepresentation, is the key cognitive advance of metamind. Empirical evidence suggests that various skills co-develop with metamind and the thesis includes four studies that investigate such associations. It was found that gestural representation with imaginary objects and the generation of creative problem solutions were robustly correlated with theory-of-mind measures. These results substantiate the claim for a domain-general change in cognitive ability by about age four. Understanding delayed video feedback, however, was not found to correlate with such measures and it is questioned whether delayed feedback tasks measure an extended sense of self as has been proposed (Povinelli, 1995; Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). Great apes, while showing evidence for a collating mind, have not yet provided any convincing evidence for metamind. It is thus suggested that metamind developed after the split from the line that led to modern chimpanzees about five million years ago. Metamind, it is argued, was a prime mover in human phylogeny and is a crucial step in human ontogeny. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis proposes a theory for fundamental aspects of the evolution and development of the representational mind. Building on Perner's (1991) theory of representational development, it is suggested that mind evolved from the ability to represent current reality (primary mind) to further entertain secondary representations of hypothetical content (collating mind) to finally represent representational relations themselves (metamind). In child development these transitions can be observed by about 18 months and by about 42 to 48 months. In comparative analysis only the great apes show signs of a collating mind. Young children and great apes can, for example, pretend, consider a limited future and past, solve problems by insight, and consider others' basic mental states. By about age four children begin to show evidence for metarepresentation in their ability to pass theory-of-mind tasks. At about the same age they also gain considerable executive control which, together with metarepresentation, is the key cognitive advance of metamind. Empirical evidence suggests that various skills co-develop with metamind and the thesis includes four studies that investigate such associations. It was found that gestural representation with imaginary objects and the generation of creative problem solutions were robustly correlated with theory-of-mind measures. These results substantiate the claim for a domain-general change in cognitive ability by about age four. Understanding delayed video feedback, however, was not found to correlate with such measures and it is questioned whether delayed feedback tasks measure an extended sense of self as has been proposed (Povinelli, 1995; Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). Great apes, while showing evidence for a collating mind, have not yet provided any convincing evidence for metamind. It is thus suggested that metamind developed after the split from the line that led to modern chimpanzees about five million years ago. Metamind, it is argued, was a prime mover in human phylogeny and is a crucial step in human ontogeny. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis proposes a theory for fundamental aspects of the evolution and development of the representational mind. Building on Perner's (1991) theory of representational development, it is suggested that mind evolved from the ability to represent current reality (primary mind) to further entertain secondary representations of hypothetical content (collating mind) to finally represent representational relations themselves (metamind). In child development these transitions can be observed by about 18 months and by about 42 to 48 months. In comparative analysis only the great apes show signs of a collating mind. Young children and great apes can, for example, pretend, consider a limited future and past, solve problems by insight, and consider others' basic mental states. By about age four children begin to show evidence for metarepresentation in their ability to pass theory-of-mind tasks. At about the same age they also gain considerable executive control which, together with metarepresentation, is the key cognitive advance of metamind. Empirical evidence suggests that various skills co-develop with metamind and the thesis includes four studies that investigate such associations. It was found that gestural representation with imaginary objects and the generation of creative problem solutions were robustly correlated with theory-of-mind measures. These results substantiate the claim for a domain-general change in cognitive ability by about age four. Understanding delayed video feedback, however, was not found to correlate with such measures and it is questioned whether delayed feedback tasks measure an extended sense of self as has been proposed (Povinelli, 1995; Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). Great apes, while showing evidence for a collating mind, have not yet provided any convincing evidence for metamind. It is thus suggested that metamind developed after the split from the line that led to modern chimpanzees about five million years ago. Metamind, it is argued, was a prime mover in human phylogeny and is a crucial step in human ontogeny. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis proposes a theory for fundamental aspects of the evolution and development of the representational mind. Building on Perner's (1991) theory of representational development, it is suggested that mind evolved from the ability to represent current reality (primary mind) to further entertain secondary representations of hypothetical content (collating mind) to finally represent representational relations themselves (metamind). In child development these transitions can be observed by about 18 months and by about 42 to 48 months. In comparative analysis only the great apes show signs of a collating mind. Young children and great apes can, for example, pretend, consider a limited future and past, solve problems by insight, and consider others' basic mental states. By about age four children begin to show evidence for metarepresentation in their ability to pass theory-of-mind tasks. At about the same age they also gain considerable executive control which, together with metarepresentation, is the key cognitive advance of metamind. Empirical evidence suggests that various skills co-develop with metamind and the thesis includes four studies that investigate such associations. It was found that gestural representation with imaginary objects and the generation of creative problem solutions were robustly correlated with theory-of-mind measures. These results substantiate the claim for a domain-general change in cognitive ability by about age four. Understanding delayed video feedback, however, was not found to correlate with such measures and it is questioned whether delayed feedback tasks measure an extended sense of self as has been proposed (Povinelli, 1995; Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). Great apes, while showing evidence for a collating mind, have not yet provided any convincing evidence for metamind. It is thus suggested that metamind developed after the split from the line that led to modern chimpanzees about five million years ago. Metamind, it is argued, was a prime mover in human phylogeny and is a crucial step in human ontogeny. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis proposes a theory for fundamental aspects of the evolution and development of the representational mind. Building on Perner's (1991) theory of representational development, it is suggested that mind evolved from the ability to represent current reality (primary mind) to further entertain secondary representations of hypothetical content (collating mind) to finally represent representational relations themselves (metamind). In child development these transitions can be observed by about 18 months and by about 42 to 48 months. In comparative analysis only the great apes show signs of a collating mind. Young children and great apes can, for example, pretend, consider a limited future and past, solve problems by insight, and consider others' basic mental states. By about age four children begin to show evidence for metarepresentation in their ability to pass theory-of-mind tasks. At about the same age they also gain considerable executive control which, together with metarepresentation, is the key cognitive advance of metamind. Empirical evidence suggests that various skills co-develop with metamind and the thesis includes four studies that investigate such associations. It was found that gestural representation with imaginary objects and the generation of creative problem solutions were robustly correlated with theory-of-mind measures. These results substantiate the claim for a domain-general change in cognitive ability by about age four. Understanding delayed video feedback, however, was not found to correlate with such measures and it is questioned whether delayed feedback tasks measure an extended sense of self as has been proposed (Povinelli, 1995; Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). Great apes, while showing evidence for a collating mind, have not yet provided any convincing evidence for metamind. It is thus suggested that metamind developed after the split from the line that led to modern chimpanzees about five million years ago. Metamind, it is argued, was a prime mover in human phylogeny and is a crucial step in human ontogeny. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.