The objective of this study was to adapt the Pre-Adolescent Decision-Making Competence Test to Turkish, which was originally developed in English by Weller, Levin, Rose and Bossard (2012) for assessing decision-making competence of children between the ages of 9 and 14. For this purpose; a) the test and instructions were translated into Turkish, b) the Turkish test was administered to a group of 398 students as a pilot, c) retest was administered to a group of 97 students, and finally, d) a group of 382 students was subject to a norm study. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis model created by the data of the pilot administration was well adapted, and one-factor model was verified for construct validity. As the construct of the test was altered, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed on the data obtained from the norm study. A construct similar to that acquired from the data of the first test administration and the results obtained have even relatively better fit indices. Although the reliability values were less than what was expected, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of internal consistency was similar to the results obtained from the original test.

If performance goals (i.e., motivation to prove ability) increase children's vulnerability to depression (Dykman, 1998), why are they overlooked in the psychopathology literature? Evidence has relied on self-report or observational methods and has yet to articulate how this vulnerability unfolds across levels of analysis implicated in stress–depression linkages; for example, hypothalamic–pituitaryadrenal axis (HPA), sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Utilizing a multiple-levels-of-analysis approach (Cicchetti, 2010), this experimental study tested Dykman's goal orientation model of depression vulnerability in a community sample of preadolescents (N = 121, Mage = 10.60 years, Range = 9.08–12.00 years, 51.6% male). Self-reports of performance goals, attachment security, and subjective experience of internalizing difficulties were obtained in addition to objective behavioral (i.e., task persistence) and physiologic arousal (i.e., salivary cortisol, skin conductance level) responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and two randomly assigned coping conditions: avoidance, distraction. Children with performance goals reported greater internalizing difficulties and exhibited more dysregulated TSST physiologic responses (i.e., HPA hyperreactivity, SNS protracted recovery), yet unexpectedly displayed greater TSST task persistence and more efficient physiologic recovery during avoidance relative to distraction. These associations were stronger and nonsignificant in the context of insecure and secure attachment, respectively. Findings illustrate a complex matrix of in-the-moment, integrative psychobiological relationships linking performance goals to depression vulnerability.

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the performance of creativity tasks regarding different levels of bilingualism and school grade. The sample consisted of 224 preadolescent children from fifth and sixth grades resident in the Basque Country (Spain). Evaluation included verbal and figural creativity tasks, and a linguistic proficiency questionnaire. The sample was divided into three groups depending on the bilingualism level (low, medium, and high). Results showed on the one hand, a better performance in figural creativity in the high-level group compared to medium and low-level groups, F(2, 218) = 7.22, p = .001, Ƞ2p = .062. On the other hand, the high-level group performed better in verbal creativity compared to the medium level group, F(2, 218) = 4.22, p = .016, Ƞ2p = .037. Differences in creativity between the three levels of bilingualism were different depending on the school grade. Moreover, children from fifth grade had better results in figural creativity tasks, F(1, 218) = 6.75, p = .010, Ƞ2p = .030. These results suggest that level of bilingualism is related to performance in creativity, and concretely, that a high level of bilingualism is associated with a greater creativity, while a medium level of bilingualism is related to a worse creativity performance. These are relevant results for the educational field that point out the importance of acquiring good competence in both languages.

Situations generated by high family risk have a negative effect on personal development, especially during preadolescence. Growing up in the presence of risk factors can lead to negative consequences on mental health or on school performance. The objective of this study focuses on individual factors related to this phenomenon during preadolescence. Specifically, we seek to establish whether level of family risk (high vs. low risk) is related to interpersonal problem-solving skills, executive function and learning potential in a sample of preadolescents controlling age, sex, total IQ, verbal comprehension ability and the classroom influences. The participants were 40 children, 23 boys and 17 girls between the ages of 7 and 12, twenty of which had a record on file with the Social and Childhood Protection Services of Information deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process, and therefore, a high family risk situation. The other 20 participants had a low family risk situation. Results show that the preadolescents from high family risk performed worse on interpersonal solving-problem skills and executive function (p < .05, b from –119,201.81 to 132,199.43, confidence interval from –162,589.78/–75,813.8 to 84,403.05/179,995.8). Nevertheless, they showed the same ability to learn as the participants from low family risk. These results highlight the negative effects of high family risk situation in preadolescents and give value of taking into account protective factors such as learning potential when assessing preadolescents from high family risk.

Alcohol use and nicotine use were investigated in a representative sample of 1110 study participants aged 10 to 17 years. In addition to questions on substance use, the participants responded to questionnaires covering behavior and emotions, life events, self-related cognitions, coping capacities, perceived parental behavior, perceived school environment, and the social network. The gender gap in substance use tended to close with increasing age. Parental substance use served as a model for substance use in the participants. Substance users had more abnormal scores on almost all variables as compared to abstaining controls. Lack of acceptance and control, pressure to achieve at school, and life events significantly predicted substance use. The latter served as a moderating risk variable for delinquent behavior under stress.