This study explores the longitudinal changes among a sample of early adolescent girls in China throughout their transition from primary to junior high school. Early adolescence is a time of multiple transitions and is associated with a range of mental health outcomes in Western literature. This study will be the first to examine developmental changes in early adolescence among Chinese girls. A sample of 425 Chinese girls completed a self‐report questionnaire at three time points: the end of primary school, the start of the first year of junior high, and the end of the first year of junior high. The questionnaire comprised a range of measures relating to bodily changes, puberty, and gender issues, social changes in family, peers and school, and a series of standardised measures of mental health including: life satisfaction, self‐esteem, psychosomatic symptoms, loneliness, anxiety, depression, and coping. Results were analysed using ANOVA to examine longitudinal changes in measures. Following an overview of the interrelations between all the variables in this study using One‐way ANOVA, longitudinal results were reported in three chapters: physical changes, social changes, and mental health. Findings relating to physical growth highlighted the co‐occurrence of pubertal development and school transition. Significant increases in body dissatisfaction and social comparisons of physical appearance were identified, indicating girls’ growing self‐consciousness about their physical changes. Specifically, apart from weight concerns, an interesting finding of this study was that girls in this study reported consistently higher and significantly growing concerns about their height stature. A significant decline in positive feelings of gender typing was also identified. In terms of social development, there were no longitudinal changes in the overall quality of attachment with parents or peers, as well as peer norms, suggesting that although variance exists across individuals, these constructs remained longitudinally stable in this sample. On the other hand, a significant decline was found in parental involvement. In contrast to the negative outcomes reported widely in Western literature following the primary to middle school transition, this study revealed an overall positive school transition experience. To be specific, overall school climate was reported to be more positive in junior high school, girls’ personal goals and school behaviours were improved longitudinally, and school transition problems were significantly smaller than expected prior to the transition. Analysis of developmental changes in mental health revealed no changes in global life satisfaction and depression. However, self‐esteem in general significantly reduced over time; simultaneously and interestingly, psychosomatic health, loneliness, and overall anxiety significantly improved after the transition. Furthermore, longitudinally girls adopted a wider range of coping strategies to deal with stressful events, although both the selection and efficacy evaluation varied across coping strategies among individuals. This study is the first to explore Chinese girls’ development during early adolescence. Developmental trends are established in Chinese adolescent girls’ physical, social, and psychological domains. Despite evidence consistent with the universalities of this life stage as established in Western literature, this study also highlights cultural differences in the developmental experiences of Chinese adolescents. Taken together, the findings reveal a positive developmental phase with little evidence of increases in adaptation difficulties or mental health outcomes. These empirical findings are in contrast to Western research, which often highlights early adolescence as a time of adaptation difficulties. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on adolescent development. The role of culture and implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

Context: Dopamine has been implicated as an important neurotransmitter involved in regulating appetite and food intake by modulating the reinforcement of food via the meso-limbic circuitry of the brain. Several genes have been linked with the regulation of dopamine. Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) modulates the metabolism of serotonin and dopamine, both of which are neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of appetite and food intake. The gene coding for MAOA contains a 30-bp tandem repeat (uVNTR) polymorphism in its promoter region that has been previously identified to be associated with energy balance behaviors and body mass index (BMI). The gene coding for dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) contains a 16 amino acid (48-bp) repeat polymorphism that has been linked with food consumption and BMI. Lastly, the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3: Solute carrier family 6 – neurotransmitter transporter, dopamine – member 3) codes for a dopamine transporter protein (DAT) that mediates the active reuptake of dopamine from the synapse. The transport gene contains a 40-base variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) at the 3’ untranslated region (3’-UTR) that has been previously identified to be associated with variable levels of postsynaptic dopamines. Objective: Our goals were to investigate the population effects of the aforementioned functional polymorphisms on various types of food consumption (soda, fast food, snack, and ready to eat foods) and physical activity (exercise and TV watching), and to further explore gender differences and interaction effects with negative stressors. Methods: The analyses were conducted with data on genotypes and self-reported behavioral characteristics among 951 Chinese adolescents 11-15 years old living in Wuhan, China. Results: Males with the high-activity allele of MAOA had lower odds of increased soda intake (adjusted OR=0.63; 95% CI: 0.41-0.98, p=0.03) than those with low activity allele. Experience of negative stressors significantly strengthened the protective genetic effect on increasing odds of engaging in vigorous activity (adjusted OR for interaction=1.89 with 95% CI of 1.89-2.52, pvalue for interaction=0.04). Additionally, combined males and females with DRD4 variant had greater odds of engaging in vigorous exercise (adjusted OR=1.39; 95% CI: 1.01-1.86, p=0.03) and of increased soda intake (adjusted OR=1.33; 95% CI: 1.01-1.76, p=0.04) than those with the wild-type allele. Among females, wild-type carriers (no 2R or 7R allele) when exposed to negative stressors were significantly more likely to engage in vigorous exercise (adjusted OR=0.14, 95% CI: 0.047-0.43, p=0.000586). Lastly, combined males and females with the DAT variant had increased odds of watching TV (adjusted OR=1.59; 95% CI: 0.61-1.77) and decreased odds of consuming fast foods (adjusted OR=0.60; 95% CI: 0.38-0.95, p=0.030654) than those with DAT wild-type. Experience of negative stressors significantly weakened the protective genetic effect on the odds for fast food consumption (adjusted OR=0.30; 95% CI: 0.13-0.66, p=0.002639). Conclusions: Our findings confirm the genetic effects of the dopamine regulating genes polymorphisms on food consumption and physical activity, and provide new insights about interactions with negative stressors.

Childhood obesity has been increased dramatically and become a public health concern in China. Parents have strong influence on children's eating and weight status. However, there is a lack of data about the influence of Chinese parents' child-feeding practices on children's weight status. This study aimed to assess parents' child-feeding practices and examine their relationships to young Chinese adolescents' weight status. A self-administrated survey was conducted among parents of young Chinese adolescents in Beijing urban areas. The survey included 29 items from Birch's Child-feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) and 15 items developed by the researcher to assess parents' attitudes, behaviors and family food environment regarding child feeding. Parents were recruited through students in public middle schools in two Beijing urban areas. Children's annual check-up data (weight and height) was obtained from schools. 598 parents of students in 7th and 8th grades were surveyed and 548 of them responded to the survey. By excluding those who were not primarily responsible for preparing family meals and those whose children's check-up data was missing, final data analysis included 355 records. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children were 19.4% and 9.0%, respectively, using International Obesity Task Force recommendations. Boys had significant higher prevalence of obesity than girls. Results show that parents of young Chinese adolescents used controlling feeding practices to regulate the child's eating, including restriction of certain food, pressure to eat and monitoring of the child's eating. Parents indicated that they had some concerns about their child's being overweight. The family food environment was generally positive in these families with some unhealthy elements in sizeable proportion of families. After adjusting for socioeconomic factors and parents' BMI, multiple regression analysis showed there were positive associations of restriction and family eating patterns, and an inverse association of pressure to eat to children's BMI z-scores. Parents' child-feeding practices may have significant influence on children's weight status. Family-based intervention is needed to help establish or maintain a healthy eating environment at home in order to combat the rising obesity prevalence in Chinese youths. Further studies also are needed to gain better understanding of parental influence on children's weight status.

Chinese adolescents’ development has received increasing attention over recent decades. However, following a traditional deficit model, most of the attention has been on problematic functioning of adolescents (e.g. depression). This emphasis is not consistent with evidence that the large majority of Chinese adolescents do not manifest such problem behaviors. Little is known about positive functioning among Chinese adolescents and how it is related to key socialization practices such as parenting. The purpose of the present study was to begin to fill these gaps. Using theory, past empirical practice, and characteristics of Chinese culture, the study posited a second-order structure for positive functioning in three components: intrapersonal functioning (self-esteem and empathy), interpersonal functioning (social initiative and peer connection), and institutional functioning (academic achievement). Parenting was measured by three commonly investigated dimensions: parental support, behavioral control, and psychological control. A specialized multivariate model of associations between parenting and adolescents’ positive functioning was hypothesized and analyzed using data from the Cross-National Adolescence Project (C-NAP; Barber, Stolz, & Olsen, 2005). The Chinese sub-sample consisted of 1,027 adolescents (453 boys) from 12 to 20 years old in Beijing, China. The three hypothesized paths were: parental support would be positively related to interpersonal functioning, parental psychological control would be negatively associated with intrapersonal functioning, and parental behavioral control would be positively linked with academic achievement. The results indicated that the second-order model for adolescents’ positive functioning fit the data well. In terms of the associations between parenting and positive functioning, all three hypothesized paths were supported. In post-hoc analyses, it became apparent that a parental support model fit the data even better than the specialized model. Thus, the best model fit was achieved when all paths from parental support to positive functioning were estimated, revealing that parental support explained unique variance in all three domains of positive functioning. In contrast, parental behavioral control and psychological control did not explain unique variance in any outcome measure beyond that explained by parental support. The predominating role of parental support in Chinese adolescents’ positive functioning was discussed, along with limitations of the study, and suggestions for future studies.