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The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal predictors of buying and selling sexual services among youths in a high-income country. We used data from Switzerland (target sample: N  = 1675 children, 52% male), where no prior studies have examined the trading of sexual services among representative samples of youths. Selling and buying sexual services were measured using novel, three-item measures at age 17. The predictors were measured at ages 13 and 15. In the regressions, multiple imputation was used to treat the missing values. Two-year point prevalence estimates of selling sexual services were 2.5% for females and 1.5% for males. Prevalence estimates of buying sexual services were 0.0% for females and 5.4% for males. Findings from logistic regressions revealed some support for prior findings from cross-sectional studies in high-income countries. New findings included evidence for prospective relations of having a disability, low generalized trust, and endorsing masculinity norms with trading sexual services. Follow-up models showed that the relations between pornography consumption and victimization with selling sexual services were gendered and stronger for females than for males.

This study examined early external childcare in relation to development from age 7 to 20. A Swiss sample was used ( N = 1,225; 52% male). Development included multi-informant-reported externalizing behavior, internalizing problems, prosocial behavior, delinquency, and substance use. Growth curve models revealed that, dependent on the informant, time in a daycare center was related to increased externalizing and internalizing problems until at least age 11. It was not related to delinquency. Roughly three days per week at a daycare mother or playgroup was related to increased externalizing behavior. External family care was associated with increased prosocial behavior. Finally, time in a daycare center was associated with fewer externalizing but more internalizing problems and substance use for children from vulnerable backgrounds. This relation with substance use lasted to age 20.

Drawing from life history theory and developmental perspectives, we test the hypothesis that the relation between parental discipline practices and delinquency is explained in part by short-term mindsets. We argue that such practices induce an orientation towards the here-and-now rather than the future, which, in turn, promotes delinquency. We used longitudinal data (N = 1,197) from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso). We distinguished between two types of disciplining practices, corporal and inconsistent punishment, which map onto two main environmental parameters, harshness and unpredictability. Results show that short-term mindsets, operationalized by impulsivity and low future orientation, mediate the relation between corporal and erratic punishment and delinquency, with impulsivity being the most important mediator.

Although there is much research on the relationship between routine activities and victimization, we have little knowledge about the reciprocal effects of victimization and routine activities. The current paper is framed within the Once Bitten Twice Shy perspective proposed by Hindelang et al. (Victims of personal crime: an empirical foundation for a theory of personal victimization. Ballinger, Cambridge, 1978) which argues that victimization decreases risky routine activities and that this in turn decreases the risk of victimization. The current paper tests these propositions by using longitudinal data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which allows us to tease out victimization and routine activities over time. Both violent and household victimization are examined. Variables pertaining to how often respondents go out for shopping, how often they go away at night and whether they have household devices are used as indicators for routine activities. Results indicate that the reciprocal effects of victimization and routine activities are limited. Consequences for routine activities theory are discussed.

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of children’s internalizing symptoms and aggressive behavior in cycles of peer victimization. We hypothesized that victimization increases internalizing problems, reactive, and indirect aggression, which in turn were expected to increase the likelihood of later peer victimization. Methods Data from four waves of a longitudinal study among a culturally diverse sample of 7- to 11-year-olds were used. Peer victimization was assessed via children’s self-reports. Parents and children rated internalizing symptoms. Teachers provided information about proactive, reactive, and indirect aggression. We tested our hypotheses using path models with maximum likelihood estimation. Multiple imputation was used to treat the missing values. Results Path analyses revealed that peer victimization increased later internalizing symptoms and reactive and indirect aggression when controlled for previous problem behavior. In contrast, proactive aggression was not affected by peer victimization. Reactive aggression and internalizing symptoms mediated the effect of prior on later peer victimization. Conclusions Our findings indicate that children’s problem behavior may contribute to an escalating cycle of peer victimization.

This study investigated the relationship between parental separation and aggressive and internalizing behavior in a large sample of Swiss children drawn from the ongoing Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths. Parents retrospectively reported life events and problem behavior for the first 7 years of the child’s life on a quarterly basis ( N  = 995; 28,096 time points) using an Event History Calendar. The time sequences of separation and child problem behavior were analyzed. Parental separation affected both aggressive and internalizing behavior even when maternal depression, financial difficulties, and parental conflict were included. Parental separation exerted a direct effect on child problem behavior as well as an indirect effect via maternal depression.

In this article, the authors introduce the special section on severe youth violence (SYV). As severe violence has significant negative consequences and youth commit more violence than other age groups, a developmental science approach is important to (a) understand pathways to SYV, (b) guide attempts to screen and assess SYV risk, and (c) inform novel, developmentally sensitive practices and policies to prevent and reduce SYV. The authors establish the theoretical and empirical contexts for the articles in this special section and explain how this developmental research on SYV can inform new lines of theoretical and empirical inquiry and innovative approaches to detect and respond to the risk of SYV.

This study examined early external childcare in relation to development from age 7 to 20. A Swiss sample was used (N = 1,225; 52% male). Development included multi-informant-reported externalizing behavior, internalizing problems, prosocial behavior, delinquency, and substance use. Growth curve models revealed that, dependent on the informant, time in a daycare center was related to increased externalizing and internalizing problems until at least age 11. It was not related to delinquency. Roughly three days per week at a daycare mother or playgroup was related to increased externalizing behavior. External family care was associated with increased prosocial behavior. Finally, time in a daycare center was associated with fewer externalizing but more internalizing problems and substance use for children from vulnerable backgrounds. This relation with substance use lasted to age 20.

Objectives: Provide insight into the victim-offender overlap and role differentiation by examining to what extent socio-psychological characteristics, risky lifestyles/routine activities and immersion in a violent subculture explain differences between victims, offenders and victim-offenders. Specifically, we measure to what extent anxiety and depression, negative peer relations, dominance, and self-control account for differences in adolescents' inclination towards (violent) offending, victimization or both, over and above risky lifestyles/routine activities or immersion in a violent subculture. Methods: Building on the method proposed by Osgood and Schreck (Criminology 45: 273-311, 2007), we use two waves of panel data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths, a prospective longitudinal study of adolescents in Switzerland. Results: Incorporating socio-psychological characteristics provides a more encompassing view of both the victim-offender overlap and victim versus offender role differentiation than routine activities/risky lifestyles and subcultural theory alone. Specifically, sociopsychological characteristics in particular differentiate between those who take on predominantly offender roles versus those who are predominantly victims. Conclusion: Unpacking the victim-offender overlap and examining differences in sociopsychological characteristics furthers our understanding of the etiology of the victimoffender overlap.

Objectives Examine the long-term effects of two childhood universal prevention programs on adolescent delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior. Methods The cluster randomized controlled trial involved 56 schools and 1,675 children in Zurich, Switzerland. Two evidence-based interventions, namely the social-emotional skills program Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) and the cognitive-behavioral parenting program Triple P, were implemented during the first two years of primary school, at ages 7 and 8 years. Outcomes were measured at ages 13 and 15 years, and included youth self-reports and teacher assessments. Multilevel models were used to account for the clustered nature of the interventions. Effects were estimated with the inclusion of baseline covariates. Results Across 13 outcomes related to delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior at ages 13 and 15 years, only two non-negligible effects were found. The first was a reduced prevalence of police contacts in the PATHS condition [effect size (ES) = −0.225). The second was a difference in competent conflict resolution skills in the combined PATHS + Triple P condition compared to the context (ES = 0.259), but in the unexpected direction: participants in the combined treatment appeared to be less competent than their control group peers. All other effects were either statistically non-significant or negligible in size (i.e., ES < |0.200|). Conclusions Even “evidence-based” interventions may have few long-term effects on delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior. Our findings add to the small literature on the long-term effectiveness of early universal prevention in field settings.