Kristin A. Buss - Böcker

Beauty has a well-documented impact on labor market outcomes with both legal and policy implications. This monograph investigated whether this stratification is rooted in earlier developmental experiences. Specifically, we explored how high schools' dual roles as contexts of social relations and academic progress contributed to the long-term socioeconomic advantages of being physically attractive. Integrating theories from multiple disciplines, the conceptual model of this study contends that physically attractive youths' greater social integration and lesser social stigma help them accumulate psychosocial resources that support their academic achievement while also selecting them into social activities that distract from good grades. A mixed-methods design, combining statistical analyses of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health and qualitative analyses of a single high school, supported and expanded this model. The data revealed that the benefits of attractiveness flowed through greater social integration but were partially offset by social distractions, especially romantic/sexual partnerships and alcohol-related problems. Interview and ethnographic data further revealed that adolescents themselves understood how physical attractiveness could lead to favorable treatment by teachers and classmates while also enticing youth to emphasize socializing and dating, even when the latter took time from other activities (like studying) and marginalized some classmates. These patterns, in turn, predicted education, work, family, and mental health trajectories in young adulthood. The results of this interdisciplinary, theoretically grounded, mixed methods study suggest that adolescence may be a critical period in stratification by physical appearance and that the underlying developmental phenomena during this period are complex and often internally contradictory. The monograph concludes with discussion of theoretical and policy implications and recommendations for future developmental research.

This handbook offers a comprehensive review of the research on emotional development. It examines research on individual emotions, including happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust, as well as self-conscious and pro-social emotions. Chapters describe theoretical and biological foundations and address the roles of cognition and context on emotional development. In addition, chapters discuss issues concerning atypical emotional development, such as anxiety, depression, developmental disorders, maltreatment, and deprivation. The handbook concludes with important directions for the future research of emotional development. Topics featured in this handbook include:The physiology and neuroscience of emotions.Perception and expression of emotional faces.Prosocial and moral emotions.The interplay of emotion and cognition.The effects of maltreatment on children’s emotional development.Potentialemotional problems that result from early deprivation.The Handbook of Emotional Development is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in child and school psychology, social work, public health, child and adolescent psychiatry, pediatrics, and related disciplines.