Associations Between Menarcheal Timing and Behavioral Developmental Trajectories for Girls from Age 6 to Age 15

Substantial evidence from cross-sectional and short time-span longitudinal studies exists about negative associations between early pubertal maturation on a number of psychological outcomes. The objective of the present study was to assess the association between early maturation and developmental trajectories of social skills and internalizing and externalizing problems in girls from grades 1 through 9, including pre- and post-pubertal periods. The sample came from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development and included 398 Caucasian and 60 African American girls. Multilevel modeling revealed early maturing Caucasian girls were at risk for higher internalizing and externalizing problems and experiencing higher levels of problems pre-pubertally. African American youth had lower social skills and internalizing problems with no group differences due to early pubertal development. Findings are discussed in light of literature on continuity of girls' psychosocial development before and during the pubertal transition.     

Studying the emergence of depression and depressive symptoms during adolescence

The special issue on the emergence and maintenance of depression and depressive symptoms is introduced. The special issue considers two typically separate lines of research, one focusing on severe clinical depression and another on depressive symptoms. The biological, social, and cognitive factors contributing to the emergence of depression in adolescence are highlighted in this special issue.Received Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Research interests include biological and social development of adolescents and changes in development over a series of life cycle transitions.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests include biopsychosocial aspects of adoleslcent development.     

Fiscal Crisis and Community Development: The Great Recession,Support Networks,and Community Development Corporation Capacity

Community development corporations (CDC) are a cornerstone of neighborhood improvement in legacy cities. Yet they face challenges that threaten their financial sustainability, challenges that grew exponentially with the Great Recession. This article examines the impact of the Great Recession on the revenue and survival of CDC in Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; and Detroit, Michigan. An analysis of financial data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics from 2004 to 2011 highlights issues of industry contraction, revenue concentration and loss, and CDC survival. Interviews and examination of multiple secondary sources of information on CDC activity and support networks in each city further our understanding of the financial results. We find that the CDC industry in all three cities was severely impacted by the Great Recession and that the CDC support networks in each city had a significant intervening effect on the ability of CDC to adapt to the fiscal and service pressures created by the recession. We discuss the implications of the shared trends and the city-specific dynamics for the role of CDC in neighborhood improvement in legacy cities.     

Media development in Syria: the Janus-faced nature of foreign aid assistance

This article intends to provide responses to some of the many unanswered questions about the making and the transformation of the uprising in Syria by exploring a new avenue of research: media development aid. Most academic interest has been oriented towards the role that the new media played at the time of the uprising; insufficient interest, by contrast, has been directed to the development of the sector in the years predating it. What emerges from this article is that the Syrian media landscape was strongly supported by international development aid during the years prior to the outbreak of the uprising of 2011. By looking at the complex structure of media aid architecture and investigating the practices and programmes implemented by some representative organisations, this article reflects on the field of media development as a new modus operandi of the West (the EU and US especially), to promote democracy through alternative and non-collateral, bottom-up support.     

Invited Commentary: Promotion and Prevention in Youth Development: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

This commentary uses the contributions of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development as a chance to reflect on the progress of the past two decades and suggest important tasks for the future. Meaningful advances in theory now set the stage for needed work on measurement, evaluation, and understanding of contextual processes. The commentary ends with a plea for an integration of the research and programmatic approaches of promotion and prevention in order to study youth development and implement youth programs.