In recent developmental theorizing, it has been hypothesized that teacher-child conflict and children's externalizing behavior affect one another reciprocally over time. However, the relation between teacher-child conflict and externalizing behavior has been mainly studied from a unidirectional point of view. Therefore, this study aimed to test the hypothesis of bidirectionality by means of a cross-lagged longitudinal design with kindergarten teacher reports on core variables at 3 measurement occasions in 1 year. Structural equation modeling with data of 148 kindergartners provided evidence for the hypothesis of bidirectionality. Specifically, results supported a transactional sequence in which children's aggressive behavior at the beginning of kindergarten led to increases in teacher-child conflict midyear, which in turn led to an increase of aggressive behavior at the end of the kindergarten school year.

Summary:A scale for indecisiveness was constructed and then used to investigate distinctive features of indecisiveness. In the literature on decision making, the distinction between indecision and indecisiveness is an important issue, but evidence showing that these two constructs are different is lacking. We found clear evidence for such a distinction, from a joint exploratory factor analysis of the indecisiveness scale and a career indecision scale, and from the differential relation of both with self-esteem as a third variable. Furthermore, with confirmatory factor analysis, we found that the correlations between items on career indecision cannot be explained only by indecisiveness, and that also a factor specific to the situation of career decision is needed. These results corroborate the distinction between career indecision and indecisiveness. Although it must be differentiated from specific types of indecision, such as career indecision, indecisiveness turned out to be a correlate of the specific indecisions -one that can explain the intercorrelations between different kinds of more specific indecision.

This study examined how indecisiveness relates to adolescents' process of choosing a study in higher education, using a longitudinal design. A sample of 281 students participated at the beginning, middle, and end of Grade 12. Findings show that indecisiveness was a risk factor for future levels of coping with the career decisional tasks of broad and in-depth environmental exploration (amount of information and exploratory behavior), amount of self-information, decisional status, and commitment. However, indecisiveness did not relate to the degree of change in decisional tasks during Grade 12. Moreover, results suggest that the linkage of indecisiveness with the amount of in-depth environmental information, the amount of self-information, decisional status, and commitment was mediated by adolescents' career choice anxiety. Finally, stability data provided support for the conceptualization of indecisiveness as a trait.

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Three factors of indecision are derived from decision theory: being insufficiently informed about the alternatives, valuation problems, and uncertainty about the outcomes. The three factors are studied in high school studentsÕ career decision process of choosing further studies. Using factor analysis, we found empirical evidence for a differentiation between the three theoretical sources of career indecision: an information factor, a valuation factor, and an outcomes factor, but only the valuation factor and the outcomes factor seem to associate empirically with career indecision. The importance of both factors for career indecision was further supported by their intermediate role between general indecisiveness and career indecision.