Pamela Davis‐kean
Biographic Data
| ID | 120968 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pamela Davis‐kean |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pamela |
| FAMILY NAME | Davis‐kean |
| SIGNATURE | KEAN P D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8389-6268 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 507 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Interactions of gender inequality and parental discipline predicting child aggression in low- and middle-income countries
Children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately at risk of not meeting their developmental potential. Parental discipline can promote and hinder child outcomes; however, little research examines how discipline interacts with contextual factors to predict child outcomes in LMICs. Using data from 208,156 households with children between 36 and 59 months (50.5% male) across 63 countries, this study examined whether intera…
Parental educational attainment and children’s mathematical skills: The role of parental expectations and the home environment
Economic hardship trajectories of college‐educated families living in or near poverty: Assessing predictors and outcomes
Analyzing teacher audio: The contribution of classroom mathematics instruction to early numeracy
The relation between mathematical achievement in early childhood and future academic success is well established. However, our knowledge about the effect of instruction on mathematical performance is often reliant upon self-report or videotaped instruction measures and standardized achievement assessments.The current study uses teacher audio recordings to examine the role of classroom mathematics instruction in the growth of adaptive early mathem…
A metascience investigation of inclusive, open, and reproducible science practices in research posters at the 2021 SRCD biennial meeting
Over the past decade, there has been a growing appreciation of metascience issues in psychological science. Using data collected from 2615 posters presented at the 2021 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, this article examines the use of transparent research practices to increase rigor and reproducibility as well as generalizability through greater inclusivity of diverse samples. Research presented through poster pr…
Positioning adolescence in the developmental timeline
Adolescence, the second decade of life, bridges childhood and adulthood, but also represents a host of unique experiences that impact health and well-being. Lifespan theories often emphasize the continuity of individual characteristics and their contexts from childhood to adolescence, underscoring the distal influence of childhood experiences. Yet, adolescence is marked by transitions that may provoke discontinuities, particularly within individu…
Attention and behavior problems in childhood predict adult financial status, health, and criminal activity: A conceptual replication and extension of Moffitt et al. (2011) using cohorts from the Unite…
This study is a conceptual replication of a widely cited study by Moffitt et al. (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled "self-control") predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data from longitudinal cohort studies in the United States (n = 1,168) and the United Kingdom ( n = 16,506), we largel…
Socioeconomic Variations in the Frequency of Parent Number Talk: A Meta-Analysis
Using data from 12 studies, we meta-analyze correlations between parent number talk during interactions with their young children (mean sample age ranging from 22 to 79 months) and two aspects of family socioeconomics, parent education, and family income. Potential variations in correlation sizes as a function of study characteristics were explored. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the amount of number talk in pa…
Working memory development from early childhood to adolescence using two nationally representative samples
We leveraged nationally representative data from the Panel study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement ( N = 3,562) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal study ( N = 18,174), to chart the development of working memory, indexed via verbal forward and backward digit span task performance, from 3 to 19 years of age. Results revealed nonlinear growth patterns for forward and backward digit span tasks, with the most rapid growth occurring dur…
The Role of Parent Educational Attainment in Parenting and Children’s Development
Socioeconomic status (SES)—indexed via parent educational attainment, parent occupation, and family income—is a powerful predictor of children’s developmental outcomes. Variations in these resources predict large academic disparities among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds that persist over the years of schooling, perpetuating educational inequalities across generations. In this article, we provide an overview of a model that has …
Preschool executive function and adult outcomes: A developmental cascade model
The present study examined longitudinal associations between preschoolers' executive function (EF) and adult educational attainment, impulse control, and general health directly and through its cascading effects on childhood and adolescent EF using a large, national, and prospective longitudinal sample of participants. Data were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study of Early Child Care and Youth Development…
Pathways from socioeconomic status to early academic achievement: The role of specific executive functions
Executive function and academic achievement: Longitudinal relations from early childhood to adolescence.
Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N = 1273) were analyzed to assess the longitudinal relations among executive function (EF) components in early childhood (54 months) and adolescence (15 years) and their prediction of academic achievement. We found that after controlling for early achievement, demographic and home environment variables, only working memory at 54 months significantly predicted working memory at 15 years and that worki…
Socioemotional wellbeing of mixed race/ethnicity children in the UK and US: Patterns and mechanisms
Existing literature suggests that mixed race/ethnicity children are more likely to experience poor socioemotional wellbeing in both the US and the UK, although the evidence is stronger in the US. It is suggested that this inequality may be a consequence of struggles with identity formation, more limited connections with racial/ethnic/cultural heritage, and increased risk of exposure to racism. Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (n = 1…
Contributions of Research Based on the PSID Child Development Supplement
This article summarizes important contributions of the Child Development Supplement to the PSID (PSID-CDS) to knowledge in child development, time use, media use, and health. The PSID-CDS began in 1997, surveying 2,394 households, including 3,563 children; three waves of data on the first cohort were collected—1997, 2002–03, and 2007–08—and a new cohort was interviewed in 2014. Hundreds of books, journal articles, and dissertations have used the …
Family food talk, child eating behavior, and maternal feeding practices
Getting Under the Skin: Children’s Health Disparities as Embodiment of Social Class
The Discontinuity of Offending Among African American Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
Little is known about what factors contribute to African American youth desisting from offending. Participants were 3,230 moderate- to high-risk adolescents from Washington State who completed a statewide risk assessment to assess the likelihood of recidivism. Participants were screened by juvenile probation officers between 2003 and 2010. Researchers investigated whether youth possessed protective factors and whether developmental change took pl…
The selection of children from low-income families into preschool
Because children from low-income families benefit from preschool but are less likely than other children to enroll, identifying factors that promote their enrollment can support research and policy aiming to reduce socioeconomic disparities in education. In this study, we tested an accommodations model with data on 6,250 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. In general, parental necessity (e.g., maternal employment) and…
Parenting with Digital Devices
Parents have always faced challenges in managing the family environment. Within the past decade, these challenges have increased as digital devices and media have become more ubiquitous in the home. The issues faced by families include the appropriate age for children to interact with these devices, whether children's cognitive and social skills may be negatively impacted by the use of devices, and the role of parents in setting limitations and r…
Adolescent Pregnancy's Intergenerational Effects: Does an Adolescent Mother's Education Have Consequences for Her Children's Achievement
Although substantial work has examined the influence of adolescent pregnancy on mothers’ developmental outcomes, few studies have investigated the influence of adolescent mothers’ educational attainment on their children's achievement. This article examined the reading and math achievement trajectories of children born to adolescent and nonadolescent mothers with various levels of educational attainment. Results demonstrate that higher levels of …
What’s Past Is Prologue: Relations Between Early Mathematics Knowledge and High School Achievement
Although previous research has established the association between early-grade mathematics knowledge and later mathematics achievement, few studies have measured mathematical skills prior to school entry, and few have investigated the predictive power of early gains in mathematics ability. The current paper relates mathematical skills measured at 54 months to adolescent mathematics achievement using multisite longitudinal data. We find that presc…
Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement
Identifying the types of mathematics content knowledge that are most predictive of students’ long-term learning is essential for improving both theories of mathematical development and mathematics education. To identify these types of knowledge, we examined long-term predictors of high school students’ knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement. Analyses of large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets from the United Sta…
Longitudinal Links Between Spanking and Children’s Externalizing Behaviors in a National Sample of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American Families
This study examined whether the longitudinal links between mothers’ use of spanking and children’s externalizing behaviors are moderated by family race/ethnicity, as would be predicted by cultural normativeness theory, once mean differences in frequency of use are controlled. A nationally representative sample of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American families (n = 11,044) was used to test a cross-lagged path model from 5 to 8 years old. Whil…
Same-sex Sexuality and Adolescent Psychological Well-being: The Influence of Sexual Orientation, Early Reports of Same-sex Attraction, and Gender
Emerging research has shown that those of sexual-minority (SM) status (i.e., those exhibiting same-sex sexuality) report lower levels of psychological well-being. This study aimed to assess whether this relation is largely in place by the onset of adolescence, as it is for other social statuses, or whether it continues to emerge over the adolescent years, a period when SM youth face numerous challenges. Moreover, the moderating influence of sexua…
Children's Time With Fathers in Intact Families
This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine children's involvement with their fathers in intact families as measured through time spent together. Our findings suggest that although mothers still shoulder the lion's share of the parenting, fathers' involvement relative to that of mothers appears to be on the increase. A "new father" role is emerging on weekends in intact families. Different determinants of fathers' involvement we…
Math and science motivation: A longitudinal examination of the links between choices and beliefs
This study addresses the longitudinal associations between youths' out-of-school activities, expectancies-values, and high school course enrollment in the domains of math and science. Data were collected on 227 youth who reported on their activity participation in 5th grade, expectancies-values in 6th and 10th grade, and courses taken throughout high school. Math and science course grades at 5th and 10th grade were gathered through school record …
What’s Past Is Prologue: Relations Between Early Mathematics Knowledge and High School Achievement
Although previous research has established the association between early-grade mathematics knowledge and later mathematics achievement, few studies have measured mathematical skills prior to school entry, and few have investigated the predictive power of early gains in mathematics ability. The current paper relates mathematical skills measured at 54 months to adolescent mathematics achievement using multisite longitudinal data. We find that presc…
The selection of children from low-income families into preschool
Because children from low-income families benefit from preschool but are less likely than other children to enroll, identifying factors that promote their enrollment can support research and policy aiming to reduce socioeconomic disparities in education. In this study, we tested an accommodations model with data on 6,250 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. In general, parental necessity (e.g., maternal employment) and…
Parents, Peers, and Problem Behavior: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Impact of Relationship Perceptions and Characteristics on the Development of Adolescent Problem Behavior
This study examined longitudinal relations among adolescents' family relationships, peer relationships, and problem behavior. Participants were 1,357 African American and European American adolescents who were interviewed at 3 time points: 7th grade (mean age = 12.7 years), the summer after 8th grade (mean age = 14.2 years), and 11th grade (mean age = 17.1 years). For all racial and gender groups, 7th-grade family characteristics (youth perceptio…
Preschool executive function and adult outcomes: A developmental cascade model
The present study examined longitudinal associations between preschoolers' executive function (EF) and adult educational attainment, impulse control, and general health directly and through its cascading effects on childhood and adolescent EF using a large, national, and prospective longitudinal sample of participants. Data were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study of Early Child Care and Youth Development…
Pathways from socioeconomic status to early academic achievement: The role of specific executive functions
Risk Factors of Sexual Harassment by Peers: A Longitudinal Investigation of African American and European American Adolescents
The present research explores risk factors for, and longitudinal associations of, sexual harassment by peers during adolescence. Eight‐hundred and seventy‐two African American and European American adolescents (65.4% African American, 51.1% females) were assessed during the summer after the eighth grade (mean age=14.2 years) and then again in the 11th grade (mean age=17.1 years). At the first assessment, adolescents were asked about their experie…
Family food talk, child eating behavior, and maternal feeding practices
Career Development From Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood: Insights From Information Technology Occupations
Career development theories suggest that social-contextual experiences are influential in individuals' career interests, aspirations, and skill development and may be a source of gender and ethnic differences in certain career fields. In this mixed methods study, we examine the supportive and obstructive career-related experiences of 13 men and 13 women (modal age 25). Interviews focused primarily on the pathway toward or away from an information…
Self‐esteem, academic self‐concept, and aggression at school
The present study explores the relation between academic self‐concept, self‐esteem, and aggression at school. Longitudinal data from a racially diverse sample of middle‐school students were analyzed to explore how academic self‐concept influenced the likelihood of aggressing at school and whether high self‐concept exerted a different pattern of influence when threatened. Data include self‐reported academic self‐concept, school‐reported academic p…
The Discontinuity of Offending Among African American Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
Little is known about what factors contribute to African American youth desisting from offending. Participants were 3,230 moderate- to high-risk adolescents from Washington State who completed a statewide risk assessment to assess the likelihood of recidivism. Participants were screened by juvenile probation officers between 2003 and 2010. Researchers investigated whether youth possessed protective factors and whether developmental change took pl…
Working memory development from early childhood to adolescence using two nationally representative samples
We leveraged nationally representative data from the Panel study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement ( N = 3,562) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal study ( N = 18,174), to chart the development of working memory, indexed via verbal forward and backward digit span task performance, from 3 to 19 years of age. Results revealed nonlinear growth patterns for forward and backward digit span tasks, with the most rapid growth occurring dur…
Getting Under the Skin: Children’s Health Disparities as Embodiment of Social Class
Positioning adolescence in the developmental timeline
Adolescence, the second decade of life, bridges childhood and adulthood, but also represents a host of unique experiences that impact health and well-being. Lifespan theories often emphasize the continuity of individual characteristics and their contexts from childhood to adolescence, underscoring the distal influence of childhood experiences. Yet, adolescence is marked by transitions that may provoke discontinuities, particularly within individu…
Attention and behavior problems in childhood predict adult financial status, health, and criminal activity: A conceptual replication and extension of Moffitt et al. (2011) using cohorts from the Unite…
This study is a conceptual replication of a widely cited study by Moffitt et al. (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled "self-control") predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data from longitudinal cohort studies in the United States (n = 1,168) and the United Kingdom ( n = 16,506), we largel…
Adolescent Pregnancy's Intergenerational Effects: Does an Adolescent Mother's Education Have Consequences for Her Children's Achievement
Although substantial work has examined the influence of adolescent pregnancy on mothers’ developmental outcomes, few studies have investigated the influence of adolescent mothers’ educational attainment on their children's achievement. This article examined the reading and math achievement trajectories of children born to adolescent and nonadolescent mothers with various levels of educational attainment. Results demonstrate that higher levels of …
Children's Time With Fathers in Intact Families
This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine children's involvement with their fathers in intact families as measured through time spent together. Our findings suggest that although mothers still shoulder the lion's share of the parenting, fathers' involvement relative to that of mothers appears to be on the increase. A "new father" role is emerging on weekends in intact families. Different determinants of fathers' involvement we…
The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of Parental Expectations and the Home Environment.
This study examined the process of how socioeconomic status, specifically parents' education and income, indirectly relates to children's academic achievement through parents' beliefs and behaviors. Data from a national, cross-sectional study of children were used for this study. The subjects were 868 8-12-year-olds, divided approximately equally across gender (436 females, 433 males). This sample was 49% non-Hispanic European American and 47% Af…
The slippery slope: What predicts math grades in middle and high school
For middle and high school girls in high-ability math classes, interest and self-concept made a difference for school grades, and for all adolescents, maternal expectations were influential in predicting math grades over time
The intersection between self-concepts and values: Links between beliefs and choices in high school
This chapter addresses how critical choices in the math and science pipeline can be traced back to adolescents' self-concepts of abilities and values at the beginning of high school
Parents' Socializing Behavior and Children's Participation in Math, Science, and Computer Out-of-School Activities
This study examined associations between multiple parental behaviors and children's participation in out-of-school math, science, and computer activities for children in 2nd (n = 125), 3rd (n = 123), and 5th grade (n = 200). Mothers and fathers reported how often they encouraged their children's activities, participated in activities with their child, provided activity-related materials, and participated in activities themselves, as well as how o…
Parents, Peers, and Problem Behavior: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Impact of Relationship Perceptions and Characteristics on the Development of Adolescent Problem Behavior
This study examined longitudinal relations among adolescents' family relationships, peer relationships, and problem behavior. Participants were 1,357 African American and European American adolescents who were interviewed at 3 time points: 7th grade (mean age = 12.7 years), the summer after 8th grade (mean age = 14.2 years), and 11th grade (mean age = 17.1 years). For all racial and gender groups, 7th-grade family characteristics (youth perceptio…
Special Reviewers
Math and science motivation: A longitudinal examination of the links between choices and beliefs
This study addresses the longitudinal associations between youths' out-of-school activities, expectancies-values, and high school course enrollment in the domains of math and science. Data were collected on 227 youth who reported on their activity participation in 5th grade, expectancies-values in 6th and 10th grade, and courses taken throughout high school. Math and science course grades at 5th and 10th grade were gathered through school record …
Risk Factors of Sexual Harassment by Peers: A Longitudinal Investigation of African American and European American Adolescents
The present research explores risk factors for, and longitudinal associations of, sexual harassment by peers during adolescence. Eight‐hundred and seventy‐two African American and European American adolescents (65.4% African American, 51.1% females) were assessed during the summer after the eighth grade (mean age=14.2 years) and then again in the 11th grade (mean age=17.1 years). At the first assessment, adolescents were asked about their experie…
Self‐esteem, academic self‐concept, and aggression at school
The present study explores the relation between academic self‐concept, self‐esteem, and aggression at school. Longitudinal data from a racially diverse sample of middle‐school students were analyzed to explore how academic self‐concept influenced the likelihood of aggressing at school and whether high self‐concept exerted a different pattern of influence when threatened. Data include self‐reported academic self‐concept, school‐reported academic p…
Career Development From Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood: Insights From Information Technology Occupations
Career development theories suggest that social-contextual experiences are influential in individuals' career interests, aspirations, and skill development and may be a source of gender and ethnic differences in certain career fields. In this mixed methods study, we examine the supportive and obstructive career-related experiences of 13 men and 13 women (modal age 25). Interviews focused primarily on the pathway toward or away from an information…
Increases in Maternal Education and Young Children's Language Skills
Maternal education is a strong correlate of children’s language, cognitive, and academic development. In most prior research, mothers’ education has been treated as a fixed characteristic, yet many mothers, particularly economically and educationally disadvantaged mothers, attend school after the birth of their children. In the present study, we use longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early…
Same-sex Sexuality and Adolescent Psychological Well-being: The Influence of Sexual Orientation, Early Reports of Same-sex Attraction, and Gender
Emerging research has shown that those of sexual-minority (SM) status (i.e., those exhibiting same-sex sexuality) report lower levels of psychological well-being. This study aimed to assess whether this relation is largely in place by the onset of adolescence, as it is for other social statuses, or whether it continues to emerge over the adolescent years, a period when SM youth face numerous challenges. Moreover, the moderating influence of sexua…
Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement
Identifying the types of mathematics content knowledge that are most predictive of students’ long-term learning is essential for improving both theories of mathematical development and mathematics education. To identify these types of knowledge, we examined long-term predictors of high school students’ knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement. Analyses of large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets from the United Sta…
Longitudinal Links Between Spanking and Children’s Externalizing Behaviors in a National Sample of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American Families
This study examined whether the longitudinal links between mothers’ use of spanking and children’s externalizing behaviors are moderated by family race/ethnicity, as would be predicted by cultural normativeness theory, once mean differences in frequency of use are controlled. A nationally representative sample of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American families (n = 11,044) was used to test a cross-lagged path model from 5 to 8 years old. Whil…
Adolescent Pregnancy's Intergenerational Effects: Does an Adolescent Mother's Education Have Consequences for Her Children's Achievement
Although substantial work has examined the influence of adolescent pregnancy on mothers’ developmental outcomes, few studies have investigated the influence of adolescent mothers’ educational attainment on their children's achievement. This article examined the reading and math achievement trajectories of children born to adolescent and nonadolescent mothers with various levels of educational attainment. Results demonstrate that higher levels of …
What’s Past Is Prologue: Relations Between Early Mathematics Knowledge and High School Achievement
Although previous research has established the association between early-grade mathematics knowledge and later mathematics achievement, few studies have measured mathematical skills prior to school entry, and few have investigated the predictive power of early gains in mathematics ability. The current paper relates mathematical skills measured at 54 months to adolescent mathematics achievement using multisite longitudinal data. We find that presc…
Parenting with Digital Devices
Parents have always faced challenges in managing the family environment. Within the past decade, these challenges have increased as digital devices and media have become more ubiquitous in the home. The issues faced by families include the appropriate age for children to interact with these devices, whether children's cognitive and social skills may be negatively impacted by the use of devices, and the role of parents in setting limitations and r…
The selection of children from low-income families into preschool
Because children from low-income families benefit from preschool but are less likely than other children to enroll, identifying factors that promote their enrollment can support research and policy aiming to reduce socioeconomic disparities in education. In this study, we tested an accommodations model with data on 6,250 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. In general, parental necessity (e.g., maternal employment) and…
Family food talk, child eating behavior, and maternal feeding practices
Getting Under the Skin: Children’s Health Disparities as Embodiment of Social Class
The Discontinuity of Offending Among African American Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
Little is known about what factors contribute to African American youth desisting from offending. Participants were 3,230 moderate- to high-risk adolescents from Washington State who completed a statewide risk assessment to assess the likelihood of recidivism. Participants were screened by juvenile probation officers between 2003 and 2010. Researchers investigated whether youth possessed protective factors and whether developmental change took pl…
Socioemotional wellbeing of mixed race/ethnicity children in the UK and US: Patterns and mechanisms
Existing literature suggests that mixed race/ethnicity children are more likely to experience poor socioemotional wellbeing in both the US and the UK, although the evidence is stronger in the US. It is suggested that this inequality may be a consequence of struggles with identity formation, more limited connections with racial/ethnic/cultural heritage, and increased risk of exposure to racism. Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (n = 1…
Contributions of Research Based on the PSID Child Development Supplement
This article summarizes important contributions of the Child Development Supplement to the PSID (PSID-CDS) to knowledge in child development, time use, media use, and health. The PSID-CDS began in 1997, surveying 2,394 households, including 3,563 children; three waves of data on the first cohort were collected—1997, 2002–03, and 2007–08—and a new cohort was interviewed in 2014. Hundreds of books, journal articles, and dissertations have used the …
Executive function and academic achievement: Longitudinal relations from early childhood to adolescence.
Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N = 1273) were analyzed to assess the longitudinal relations among executive function (EF) components in early childhood (54 months) and adolescence (15 years) and their prediction of academic achievement. We found that after controlling for early achievement, demographic and home environment variables, only working memory at 54 months significantly predicted working memory at 15 years and that worki…
Psychology (35 works) · Developmental psychology (30 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (19 works) · Medicine (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Academic achievement (8 works) · Demography (8 works) · Longitudinal study (8 works)