Making it to the Academic Path in a Tracked Education System: The Interplay of Individual Agency and Social Origin in Early Educational Transitions.

Little is known about the role of agency in transitions in tracked education systems or whether it varies by socioeconomic background. This study addressed this gap by estimating structural equation models based on longitudinal data that are representative of the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland (N = 1273 individuals, surveyed from age 6 to 18, mean age at wave 1: Mage = 6.54, SDage = 0.50, female = 49%). The findings reveal that agency (captured by study effort and occupational aspirations) and socioeconomic background (measured by parental education and family income) significantly predicted students' transitions to academically demanding tracks in lower- and upper-secondary education. In the transition to upper-secondary education, students with fewer socioeconomic resources benefitted less than their more advantaged peers from ambitious aspirations, but they benefitted more from exerting effort. These findings suggest that both an optimistic forward-looking orientation and the exertion of effort are required to make it to an academic track. Effort may serve as a "substitutive" resource for less socioeconomically advantaged students, whereas ambitious aspirations may enhance the positive effect of family socioeconomic resources on academic educational trajectories. Overall, the evidence from this study calls for greater attention to investigating not only how agency shapes adolescents' educational trajectories and opportunities but also how its role differs across social groups.

Cohort differences in the development of civic engagement during adolescence.

Investigating whether changing societal circumstances have altered the development of civic engagement, this study compared developmental changes from mid- to late adolescence (i.e., age 15-18) across two cohorts of representative Swiss samples (born in 1991, N = 1258, Mage T1  = 15.30, 54% female, 33% migration background representing diverse ethnicities; born in 2000, N = 930, Mage T1  = 15.32, 51% female; 33% migration background). Findings from latent multigroup models revealed similar levels in attitudes about social justice in both cohorts, remaining stable over time. Adolescents reported lower levels of political efficacy and informal helping in the cohort born in 2000. Both aspects slightly increased during adolescence. Informal helping had a steeper increase in the 1991 compared to the 2000 cohort, suggesting developmental differences between cohorts.

Parental educational aspirations and children's academic self-concept: Disentangling state and trait components on their dynamic interplay.

The dynamic interplay of parental educational aspirations and children's academic self-concept was examined from late childhood through mid-adolescence within a transactional socialization framework. Parental and child data were gained from a representative Swiss sample within 3-year intervals (NT1  = 1118; 51% females; 28% migration background; Mage T1  = 9.26, Mage T2  = 12.14, Mage T3  = 15.32). Results from a random intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed positive associations between the two constructs at the between- and within-person level. Findings showed general and time-specific associations between children and parents and reciprocal spill-over effects, whereby higher than usual aspirations predicted higher than usual academic self-concept over time and vice versa, highlighting transactional processes in the context of educational transitions.

Developmental antecedents of young adults' solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic: The role of sympathy, social trust, and peer exclusion from early to late adolescence.

This study explored characteristics of young adults' solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic by identifying three different profiles, characterized by low (23%), average (54%), and high solidarity (23%). Based on longitudinal Swiss panel data (NT1  = 797, Mage T1  = 12.15 years, 51% female; 28% migration background representing diverse ethnicities; NT2  = 707, Mage T2  = 15.33 years; NT3  = 596, Mage T3  = 18.31 years), the study combined person- and variable-centered approaches to examine whether sympathy, social trust, and peer exclusion at earlier phases in development predicted membership in pandemic-related solidarity profiles (NT4  = 300, Mage T4  = 20.33 years). All developmental predictors were significantly associated with the likelihood of expressing solidarity during the pandemic as young adults.

Developmental Associations Between Sympathy and Mutual Disclosure in Friendships From Mid-Adolescence to Early Adulthood.

Sympathy is regarded as an important precursor to the development of emotional intimacy, including mutual disclosure. In turn, emotional intimacy is assumed to foster the development of sympathy. Yet, research has not examined how sympathy and mutual disclosure in generic friendships are mutually related to one another during mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Data came from three waves of the Swiss Survey of Children and Youth (COCON; N = 1,258). Bidirectional links between sympathy and mutual disclosure were tested with autoregressive cross-lagged panel analyses. Sympathy at age 15 was associated with mutual disclosure in friendships at 18, which in turn was associated with sympathy at 21. Multi-group models suggested that our model better describes these processes in females than in males.

Civic Competencies During Adolescence: Longitudinal Associations with Sympathy in Childhood.

Civic competencies are essential prerequisites for adolescents' active citizenship; however, little is known about their developmental precursors. In order to address this research gap, this study examined the role of sympathy in late childhood, early, and mid adolescence for civic competencies in mid and late adolescence. Based on a representative sample of 1118 Swiss children (51% females, Mage T1 = 9.26, SDageT1 = 0.20, rangeageT1: 8.50-9.67-years), this study investigated associations of sympathy with four components of civic competence: attitudes about social justice, informal helping, perceived efficacy to take responsibility and perceived political efficacy. The findings revealed that sympathy in late childhood (i.e., age 9) reflected an early predictor of all four components of civic competence assessed 6 years later. Moreover, sympathy in early adolescence (i.e., age 12) positively predicted attitudes about social justice and informal helping in late adolescence (i.e., age 18). Lastly, changes in sympathy from mid to late adolescence (i.e., age 15 to 18) positively correlated with changes in all four components of civic competence. This study highlights that civic competencies reflect a multidimensional construct that starts to form in late childhood, with sympathy being a central individual predictor in the emergence of civic competencies during adolescence.

Upward Mobility of Students from Lower-educated Families in Stratified Educational Systems: The Role of Social Capital and Work Habits.

In tracked and highly stratified educational systems, where educational reproduction is particularly strong, the chances of students to achieve more education than their parents did are truncated. Little is known, however, what may help students raised in lower-educated families to become upwardly mobile at the transition to upper-secondary education. In tracked educational systems, this transition is decisive for ultimate educational attainment across the life course. The study addresses this research gap by examining whether quality of social relationships (i.e., social capital) among students, parents, and teachers matters for student and teacher assessment of students' agentic capabilities (i.e., work habits) at age 15. If so, the question is whether these assessments help students become enrolled in high-status upper-secondary school tracks at age 18, thus achieving educational upward mobility. The analyses are based on 401 students from two cohorts in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, interviewed at the ages of 15 (T1) and 18 (T2) (60.35% females, Mage 15 = 15.2, SDage 15 = 0.2; 58.35% older cohort), including data collected by questionnaire from primary caregivers and teachers at student age of 15. The students come from families where highest parental education attainment is below the high-status academic or vocational baccalaureate in upper-secondary education. They may thus experience the opportunity to gain access to these high-status tracks at the transition to upper-secondary education. A structural equation model reveals the role of student assessment of their agentic capabilities and teacher assessment of these competencies in mediating the relation of social capital accrued at home and at school to educational upward mobility. This novel evidence on mechanisms of social advancement may be prone to inform interventions helping students from less-educated families to succeed in tracked and stratified educational systems.

Social Inequality, Life Course Transitions, and Adolescent Development: Introduction to the Special Issue.

Conceptualizing adolescent development within a life course framework that links the perspectives on social inequality and early life course transitions has largely been absent from previous research. Such a conceptual model is needed, however, in order to understand how the individual development of agentic capacities and the opportunities and constraints inherent in the social contexts of growing up interact and jointly affect young people's trajectories across the adolescent life stage. We present the corner stones of the conceptual "trident" of social inequality, life course transitions, and adolescent development and identify three major themes the eleven contributions to this special issue address within this conceptual framework: social and individual prerequisites and consequences of coping with life course transitions; intergenerational transmission belts of social inequality; socialization of agency in and outside the family home. These three themes exemplify the great analytical potential inherent in this framework.

Children's Sympathy, Guilt, and Moral Reasoning in Helping, Cooperation, and Sharing: A 6-Year Longitudinal Study.

This study examined the role of sympathy, guilt, and moral reasoning in helping, cooperation, and sharing in a 6-year, three-wave longitudinal study involving 175 children (Mage 6.10, 9.18, and 12.18 years). Primary caregivers reported on children's helping and cooperation; sharing was assessed behaviorally. Child sympathy was assessed by self- and teacher reports, and self-attributed feelings of guilt-sadness and moral reasoning were assessed by children's responses to transgression vignettes. Sympathy predicted helping, cooperation, and sharing. Guilt-sadness and moral reasoning interacted with sympathy in predicting helping and cooperation; both sympathy and guilt-sadness were associated with the development of sharing. The findings are discussed in relation to the emergence of differential motivational pathways to helping, cooperation, and sharing.

Developmental relations between sympathy, moral emotion attributions, moral reasoning, and social justice values from childhood to early adolescence.

This study examined the development of sympathy, moral emotion attributions (MEA), moral reasoning, and social justice values in a representative sample of Swiss children (N = 1273) at 6 years of age (Time 1), 9 years of age (Time 2), and 12 years of age (Time 3). Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed that sympathy predicted subsequent increases in MEA and moral reasoning, but not vice versa. In addition, sympathy and moral reasoning at 6 and 9 years of age were associated with social justice values at 12 years of age. The results point to increased integration of affect and cognition in children's morality from middle childhood to early adolescence, as well as to the role of moral development in the emergence of social justice values.

The development of moral emotions and decision-making from adolescence to early adulthood: a 6-year longitudinal study.

Adolescents' emotions in the context of moral decision-making repeatedly have been shown to predict actual behaviour. However, little systematic information on developmental change regarding these emotion expectancies has been available thus far. This longitudinal study investigated anticipated moral emotions and decision-making between the ages of 15 and 21 in a representative sample of Swiss adolescents (N = 1,258; 54 % female; M = 15.30 years). Anticipated moral emotions and decision-making were assessed through a semi-structured interview procedure. Using Bernoulli hierarchical linear modeling, it was found that positive feelings after a moral transgression (i.e., "happy victimizer" responses) decreased over time, whereas positive feelings after a moral decision (i.e., "happy moralist" responses) increased. However, this pattern was contingent upon the moral scenario presented. Systematic relationships between anticipated moral emotions and moral personality characteristics of sympathy, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were found, even when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and cognitive ability. Overall, this study demonstrates that the development of anticipated moral emotions is not limited to childhood. Furthermore, our findings suggest that moral emotions serve as an important link between moral personality development and decision-making processes that are more proximal to everyday moral behavior.

The future of young women's economic role in a globalized economy: new opportunities, persisting constraints.

Young women in advanced industrial countries have been outperforming young men in educational attainment at the same time that their labor market outcomes are still lagging. Sex segregation in education and the labor market is identified as an important source of this imbalance.

Educational Concerns, Health Concerns and Mental Health During Early COVID-19 School Closures: The Role of Perceived Support by Teachers, Family, and Friends.

This study investigated whether school closures and health-related uncertainties in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic posed risk factors for adolescents' mental health and whether perceived social support by parents, teachers, and friends functioned as protective factors. In particular, we argued that perceived social support would buffer negative associations between educational and health concerns and mental health. Based on a person-centered approach, we first examined resilience profiles. These profiles reflect configurations regarding the levels of these risk and protective factors and levels of mental health. Second, we analyzed whether these risk and protective factors predicted adolescents' mental health differently by using a variable-centered approach. The sample consisted of 1'562 adolescents (Mage = 16.18, SD = 1.48, range = 14-20 years; 72% females) in lower and higher secondary education from three regions: German-speaking part of Switzerland, N = 486; Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, N = 760; and Northern Italy N = 316. Results from the person-centered approach revealed three latent profiles characterized by low (19%), average (47%), or high resilience (34%). Lower resilience was associated with higher educational concerns, lower perceived social support, and lower mental health, while high resilience was characterized by lower concerns, higher support, and higher mental health. Importantly, educational concerns varied more between profiles than health concerns, and perceived teacher and family support varied more than perceived friend support. Corroborating these findings, the variable-centered approach (i.e., a path analysis) revealed that educational concerns were a stronger predictor than health concerns and pointed to a higher relative importance of perceived family support for adolescents' mental health relative to perceived teacher and friend support. Taken together, the findings suggest that adolescents' educational concerns and perceived family support, respectively, were stronger risk and protective factors for their mental health during school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, adolescents from regions being more exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely, Italian-speaking part of Switzerland and Northern Italy, were more likely classified in the low or the average rather than in the high resilience profile compared to students from the region with lower exposure, that is, the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

Children's peer victimization, empathy, and emotional symptoms.

This study investigated the concurrent and longitudinal relations among children's peer victimization, empathy, and emotional symptoms. The sample consisted of 175 children (85 girls, mean age = 6.1 years) recruited from kindergartens in Switzerland and followed for 1 year (Time 2). Parents and teachers reported on the children's emotional symptoms, empathy, and victimization. Children reported their empathy and victimization experiences. Peer victimization was a predictor of emotional symptoms at Time 1; this association was stronger for children with average or high levels of empathy. Increases in peer victimization predicted increases in boys' emotional symptoms, and increases in victimization were related to decreases in empathy. The results emphasize the role of negative peer relations and children's social-emotional information processing for the development of emotional symptoms.

Socialization and individual antecedents of adolescents' and young adults' moral motivation.

Socialization and individual differences were examined as antecedents of moral motivation in representative samples of 15-year-old adolescents (N = 1,258; 54% female) and 21-year-old young adults (N = 584; 53% female). The adolescents' primary caregivers (N = 1,056) also participated. The strength of moral motivation was rated by participants' responses to two hypothetical moral dilemmas in terms of action decisions, emotion attributions, and justifications. Socialization was measured by the perceived quality of friendship, parent-child relationships, and educational background. The importance attached to social justice and various personality traits were also assessed. Adolescents' moral motivation was positively associated with the quality of their parent-child relationship and the importance of social justice. Young adults' moral motivation was predicted by the perceived quality of friendships, the importance of social justice, and agreeableness. For both groups, moral motivation was greater in females. The theoretical implications of the findings for the development of moral motivation are discussed.

[The development of moral emotions in early childhood]. / Die Entwicklung moralischer Emotionen bei Kindergartenkindern.

We investigated the development of young children's moral emotions, i.e., sympathy and guilt, within a multi-informant longitudinal research design. One-hundred and seventy-five 6-year-old Swiss children participated at the first assessment (T1; re-assessed after one year; T2). Mothers and teachers participated as well. Sympathy was measured with self- and other reports and within children's play narratives. Guilt feelings were assessed by emotion attributions to protagonists and self-as-protagonist following different hypothetical moral transgressions. Mother-rated sympathy at T2 was positively related to guilt feelings at T2, whereas no relations between sympathy and guilt were found at T1. Sympathy ratings within informant were stable over a year. Guilt feelings to protagonists and self-as-protagonist were stable over a year as well. Guilt feelings predicted subsequent guilt feelings, whereas earlier sympathy did not predict guilt feelings. The results are discussed in regard to the differential development of moral emotions.

Children's moral motivation, sympathy, and prosocial behavior.

Two studies investigated the role of children's moral motivation and sympathy in prosocial behavior. Study 1 measured other-reported prosocial behavior and self- and other-reported sympathy. Moral motivation was assessed by emotion attributions and moral reasoning following hypothetical transgressions in a representative longitudinal sample of Swiss 6-year-old children (N = 1,273). Prosocial behavior increased with increasing sympathy, especially if children displayed low moral motivation. Moral motivation and sympathy were also independently related to prosocial behavior. Study 2 extended the findings of Study 1 with a second longitudinal sample of Swiss 6-year-old children (N = 175) using supplementary measures of prosocial behavior, sympathy, and moral motivation. The results are discussed in regard to the precursors of the moral self in childhood.

Aggressive and prosocial children's emotion attributions and moral reasoning.

Aggressive and prosocial children's emotion attributions and moral reasoning were investigated. Participants were 235 kindergarten children (M=6.2 years) and 136 elementary-school children (M=7.6 years) who were selected as aggressive or prosocial based on (kindergarten) teacher ratings. The children were asked to evaluate hypothetical rule violations, attribute emotions they would feel in the role of the victimizer, and justify their responses. Compared with younger prosocial children, younger aggressive children attributed fewer negative emotions and were more likely to provide sanction-oriented justifications when evaluating rule violations negatively. Furthermore, age-, gender- and context-effects in moral development occurred. The context-effects included both effects of transgression type (i.e., prosocial morality vs. fairness) on emotion attributions and moral reasoning and the effects of the context of moral evaluation and emotion attribution on moral reasoning. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of emotion attributions and moral reasoning as antecedents of children's aggressive and prosocial behavior.

A multi-disciplinary model of life-course canalization and agency.

This article integrates life-course sociological insights and perspectives with the conceptions of agency and individual motivation formulated as the motivational theory of life-span development. We use Waddington's epigenetic landscape as a metaphor for how life courses are shaped jointly by societal structure and individual agency. Social structure imposes constraints and institutions provide the transitions and pathways that together constitute critical scaffolding for life-course timing and path dependency ("canalization"). The building blocks from developmental and motivational psychology as well as from life-course sociology are introduced first. Then we address the dynamic interplay of individual agent and society in terms of life-span timing and life-course canalization (i.e., path-dependency) effects. The proposed conceptual framework moves beyond previous accounts of agent-society interplay in two distinct ways. First, we develop a systematically organized set of specific phenomena of developmental canalization on the one hand, and of institutionalized or social-structure based canalization on the other. Second, we offer a discussion of a set of scenarios that show how these specific psychological and society-generated processes may play together to shape individuals' life courses and life-span development.