From Bill Kessen’s idea of the child as a “cultural invention” (Kessen, 1983) it follows that developmental psychology can-not function fruitfully without historical analysis. Developmentalists should stop “positivistic dreaming” and develop a historical developmental psychology. The history of childhood shows how a historical process of infantilization has tak-en place since Rousseau and the 19th century pedagogical and educational theories and institutions. In the 20th century a new process of de-infantilization took place, caused mainly by the modern mass media (Postman, 1982). It is demonstrat-ed how this led to the “disappearance of childhood”. Babies no longer were considered and studied as “empty-headed” (William James’ conception of the baby experiencing “one great blooming, buzzing confusion”): impressive new research methods and data “filled the baby’s brain” and made the baby much more human than ever before in history. With the narrowing of the gap between childhood and adulthood adolescence as a bridge is less necessary than before. Not only the disappearance of childhood is going on; at the same time there is a correlated disappearance of adolescence. The conclusion must be that the study of cognitive, social and personality development should take into consideration the cultural historical embeddedness.

This introduction of the special issue on 'Global Challenges for Developmental Psychology' argues that although developmental science is international, a European perspective is important, for at least three reasons: developmental psychology stems from Europe, there are specific themes and issues within Europe that ask for evidence-based solutions, and research in Europe with its many languages and fault-lines can be exemplary for global research. Global challenges are asking for future-oriented, cooperative, and collective efforts. Future-orientation can be found within the papers of this special issue on two levels: (1) when future developments guide the choice of research topics, and (2) when children need to be prepared for the future. The first level describes to which future challenges researchers aim to contribute knowledge, e.g., when investigating climate change, social inequalities, or digital technologies. On the second-level researchers aim to develop means to prepare children for a positive future, e.g., by fostering democratic and political competencies, by understanding children's rights, by offering interventions to prevent bullying, or by stimulating school engagement. Tackling global challenges also asks for cooperative and collective efforts. This implies that research should be considered as teamwork. The papers in this issue offer very nice examples of precisely that.

Although it is widely recognised that well-being of teachers is important, not much is known about the effects of job characteristics in subjective well-being. This paper is a report of a study that investigates the effects of job characteristics on subjective well-being. Nationally representative employee data is used to investigate the effects of job characteristics and teachers' subjective well-being among teachers in Britain (N = 954). The findings suggest that there is a prima facie case for schools to use the job demands-resources model to maintain and raise levels of job satisfaction and negative affect among their teachers. Multiple regressions were performed to calculate the relative weight of job characteristics related to subjective well-being. Results show, among other things, that job security, autonomy and employee voice increase, and work-life conflict decreases, the subjective well-being of teachers. In addition, it is found that family policies, a supportive supervisor and employee voice can mitigate the detrimental effects of work-life conflict, workload and work hours on negative affect. Policy implications follow, which include, inter alia, that training and development programmes with an emphasis on communications skills and providing teachers more opportunities to participate in decisions could be used to achieve greater participation, better supportive supervision and more job security. In addition, workload can be reduced by giving teachers more non-contact time and creating smaller classes.Rationale for this study Why the new findings matter Implications for practice It is widely recognised that lack of well-being can potentially affect both workers and the organisation in negative ways. Within the teaching occupation well-being is a serious and growing concern. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to generate insights into what job characteristics affect teacher well-being.This study demonstrated that the JD-R model can be used successfully to investigate job characteristics. Furthermore, this study highlights the relationship of subjective well-being of teachers with job characteristics. In addition, it is found that various job resources can mitigate the detrimental effects of several demands on negative affect.The present study suggests that increases in subjective well-being can be made by increasing resources and decreasing demands and that special attention needs to be drawn to: supportive management, employee voice, autonomy, job security, workload and work-life conflict. Policy implications include that training and development programmes with an emphasis on communication skills and providing teachers more opportunities to participate in decisions could be used to achieve greater participation, better supportive supervision and more job security. In addition, workload can be reduced by giving teachers more non-contact time and creating smaller classes.Context and implications

Samenvatting In dit essay wordt de geschiedenis van de opvattingen van kinderlijke ontwikkeling beschreven als een proces van infantilisering, waarin het kinderlijke tijdperk steeds langer wordt en de afstand tussen kinderen en volwassenen steeds groter. Rousseau gaf in de 18de eeuw met zijn Emile een sterke impuls aan de historische infantilisering. Hij wilde een nieuwe Franse samenleving; hij wees de heersende cultuur af en was daarmee een voorloper van de Franse revolutie. Hij beval aan dat kinderen pas laat in de ontwikkeling gingen lezen om niet beïnvloed te worden door de heersende cultuur. Het eerste boek voor zijn Émile was de Robinson Crusoë, die immers op een onbewoond eiland alles zelf moest uitvinden. In dit essay wordt aangetoond dat de Pinokkio van Collodi een vergelijkbare rol heeft gespeeld in het infantiliseringsproces: de Pinokkio is een oproep tot begrip van de eigen aard van kinderen: spontaniteit, impulsiviteit en een geleidelijke ontwikkeling naar volwassenheid. Ook Collodi was revolutionair en wilde een nieuwe Italiaanse samenleving. Zowel de Robinson Crusoë als de Pinokkio hebben wereldwijd bijgedragen aan de verdere infantilisering, aan de opvatting dat een natuurlijk ontwikkelingsproces noodzakelijk voorafgaat aan volwassenwording

This paper assesses whether China's policies for providing educational support to overseas Chinese match the educational needs of current Chinese immigrants around the world. Firstly, the paper presents the different migration backgrounds of four waves of Chinese global migration in contemporary history: labor immigrants to the Global North, international students in the Global North, businessmen in the Global South and the new rich investors in the Global North. Using the concept of intergenerational contract, we found the four waves have distinct parental investment strategies in relation to their migration background, which comes along with their different educational needs. After carefully reviewing China's policies in overseas education in terms of the assumptions, purpose and background of their implementation, we argue that these policies are outdated and serve the needs of only a limited number of Chinese immigrants due to their ignoring the variety of certain intergenerational contracts. Lastly, some specific suggestions for policy makers are given.

This paper argues against the stereotypical image of the Chinese parent by studying how two groups of Chinese immigrant mothers, economic and knowledge immigrants, rebuilt their parenting ethnotheories after migration to the Netherlands. The results show that economic immigrants believe in natural growth and direct their children through authoritarian relationships, while knowledge immigrants see parenting as a task which demands much personal effort and an equal, transparent and close parent–child relationship. These differences are explained through a focus on both their pre-migration histories and how these are reinterpreted in the migration context.

Immigrant parents may have to rebuild their parenting knowledge after migration to keep up with their new milieu. Comparing two subgroups of Chinese immigrants, economic and knowledge immigrants, this study shows that the construction of different parental ethnotheories can be understood through the characteristics of their parenting knowledge acquisition, social networks and networking strategies. Findings from ego-network interviews with 15 economic immigrant mothers and 20 knowledge immigrant mothers indicate that the former tends to obtain practical tips and specific instructions directly from experts and acquire practical help from local, co-ethnic, small and dense networks, while the latter engages in critical peer-based learning in multicultural, open and long-distance networks. This study argues that a social network perspective can shed light on the “black box” of how parenting theories are reconstructed after migration.

Abstract On puberty, adolescence and infantilisation In this paper adolescence is seen as a cultural historical phenomenon and not as a biological unavoidable developmental stage. It is demonstrated that in earlier centuries there was no such thing as adolescence; that since the 18th century adolescence as a developmental stage became longer and longer; and that adolescence does not exist within pre-industrial countries. It is claimed that the classical adolescence, as described by Stanley Hall is in our time disappearing. This is a slower process in the USA than in Western Europe, because of the commercial importance of adolescence in the USA. It is concluded that adolescence researchers should start from the conviction that adolescents are full-fledged interlocutors, who should carry societal responsibility.

Emphasizing the importance of understanding children and child development as 'cultural inventions', William Kessen urged developmental psychologists to forego 'positivistic dreaming'. The first section of this paper summarizes Kessen's central ideas. In the second section the pretensions of positivism (classical nineteenth century positivism as well as twentieth century neo-positivism) are analyzed. The core critique of positivism is based on Poppers falsificationism and the so-called Positivismusstreit within the Frankfurter Schule. Despite those and related fundamental critiques, anti-positivism (such as Kessen's) does not imply anti-empiricism. One corollary – Although contemporary developmental psychology is dominated by empirical-quantitative approaches, a wider range of philosophical and methodological approaches are called for if the failings of lingering positivism are to avoided. In particular, twenty-first century developmental psychology requires critical thinking about the discipline's foundations and history, along with deep analyses of how childhood and child development, and the field itself, are historically and culturally embedded (as Kessen asserted). Section 4 concludes with several critical notes regarding, e.g., the predominantly Western orientation of historical studies of child development and the need to recognize the unavoidable normative, moral dimension in the study of human development. The final section provides a brief overview of the papers that comprise this special issue on historical developmental psychology.

This study examined differential student motives among students from a social sciences bachelor's degree, and whether this difference related to participating in educational programmes for broader intellectual formation (Bildung). Survey research was conducted among 432 Dutch students (79.5% female), ranging in age from 17 to 32years (M-age=21.12, SD=2.08). With five categories of questions, the survey assessed whether study motives corresponded to Bildung or vocational preparation. Results indicated an overall twocomponent structure, distinguishing Bildung motives (indicated as the von Humboldt component) from vocational preparation motives (indicated as the McKinsey component). In addition, respondents participating in a programme for broader intellectual formation or aspiring a research master's degree programme generally scored higher on Bildung and lower on vocational preparation compared to students who were not. Educational consequences of these findings are discussed. The main conclusion is that a von Humboldt perspective is feasible, since a substantial number of students share the von Humboldt perspective.

Veel mensen denken dat het bergafwaarts gaat met de jeugd: slecht opgevoed, geen normen en waarden en op de achterste benen bij de eerste de beste frustratie. Nog erger is dat velen ook menen dat er zelfs meer criminele en pathologische agressie te zien is bij de hedendaagse jeugd dan ooit daarvoor. De media berichten er dagelijks over. Men moet bij dit soort evaluaties van volwassenen altijd bedenken dat volwassenen waarschijnlijk al zo lang als de mensheid bestaat denken dat het met de volgende generatie bergafwaarts gaat. Het is vermoedelijk de vrees de verantwoordelijkheid voor de verworvenheden uit handen te geven. Dat is een vrees die tamelijk universeel optreedt bij allerlei geroutineerde verantwoordelijke ouderen. Een tweede mogelijke verklaring voor de gepercipieerde toename van agressie is dat onze gevoeligheid voor agressie enorm is toegenomen door het proces van civilisatie. Zo wordt begrijpelijk hoe het komt dat heel veel mensen niet kunnen accepteren dat de omvang van agressie in de samenleving al jaren juist een dalende lijn vertoont.

This paper differentiates between four levels of behavioural development (according to Schmidt, 1972): phylogeny, anthropogeny, ontogeny and actualgeny. This categorization helps to provide an understanding of multidisciplinary developmental science. Haeckel's recapitulation theory states that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, linking evolution theory and ontogeny. However, Haeckel's depictions of embryonal phases, which were intended to prove that phylogeny is repeated during embryonal development, are not tenableat least not in the sense that he proposed, namely, that phylogeny is the mechanical cause of ontogeny. Accusations of fraud concerning Haeckel's depictions and others are discussed and given a nuanced reading. However, the conclusion must still be that Haeckel's recapitulation theory is not tenable The theory was, however, the main catalyst behind the creation of developmental psychology as an academic discipline. Haeckel and his recapitulation theory are clearly present in the works of founding fathers such as Hall, Baldwin and Piaget. It is not an exaggeration to state that developmental psychology could not have come into existence without it. Recapitulation theory connected developmental psychology with biology and the observation methods leading to baby biographies; and it offered an excuse for the gentlemen who conducted research in the nineteenth century to study children: for the children were the source of learning about phylogeny and evolution. Nowadays recapitulation theory does not play a role in developmental science. Comparisons of levels of behavioural development mainly take place for heuristic reasons, as in the ethology-developmental psychology relationship (De Waal, 1982, 2005, 2013).

In this paper, the European roots of modern developmental psychology are described. The Enlightenment was concentrated on autonomous thinking (Kant) and natural development and education (Rousseau) that resulted in community schooling. After Prussia was defeated by Napoleon (the Battle of Jena, 1806), German Romanticism intensified, leading to a new interest in childhood, child development and education. In the second half of the nineteenth century this new interest in child development was biologized, in particular by Haeckel's recapitulation theory. This theory is at the core of the work of the fathers of developmental psychology and education: Preyer, Hall, Baldwin and Piaget. Nowadays, although Haeckel and his theory do not play any role in developmental psychology, it is clear that they are of foundational relevance for understanding the history of developmental psychology.

The early history of Utrecht University (founded 1636) reflects an emerging public sphere (Habermas’s ‘bürgerliche öffentlichkeit’) of a major town in the Netherlands. This public sphere was a contested field among the different groups establishing and administering the university: university professors, town magistrates and representatives of the newly established Reformed Church and the former dominant Catholic Church. The factionalised magistrates developed a public sphere, while also trying to limit the passionate but destabilising debate concerning the new philosophy of Descartes. They supported the Calvinistic anti-Descartes movement while permitting, and even advocating, the establishment of the new philosophy at the university. They ambivalently protected the academy from the consistory’s control while simultaneously trying to safeguard their own (financial) position. It is concluded that the Habermasian framework has to be fleshed out in local histories, such as this case study of Utrecht University, to demonstrate the ‘messy’ complexities in reality.