In order to prepare students for adulthood and responsible citizenship, most high schools offer extracurricular activities designed to facilitate the learning of a wide range of competencies. The purpose of this study was to examine how participation in a single or a combination of extracurricular school activities for high school students may…

Although assigned mentoring relationships have typically involved same-gender matches, a growing number of programs, particularly those in schools, have begun pairing female mentors with male mentees. This practice stems, in large part, from the relative dearth of male mentors and programs' efforts to increase the availability of youth…

Evidence points to associations between the socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods and children's and adolescents' development. A minimal amount of research, however, examines how timing of exposure to neighborhood socioeconomic conditions matters. This study used longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth…

With the growing interest in the development of purpose in youth, one important role that requires attention is the school teacher. The current article explores student perceptions of the role teachers can play in fostering purpose in their students in the mid- and late adolescent years, and the teacher competencies that facilitate purpose…

In order to examine youth experiences in athletic activities with different characteristics, the present study explored the developmental outcomes associated with participation in three different types of sport (individual sports, team sports, and dance-type sports) as well as across six identified patterns of participation (no participation,…

This article contributes new evidence on the associations among immigrant generation, gender, and sexual risk behavior among Latino adolescents in the United States. Longitudinal data from 3,272 Latino adolescents (grades 7-12) who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were examined for evidence of the…

Surveys were administered to adolescents (N = 144) to determine if young people varied based on the type of long-term aims they held. Using cluster analysis, four groups emerged from the data: youth without clear long-term aims, youth with self-oriented long-term aims, youth with other-oriented long-term aims, and youth with both self- and…

Cross-age peer mentoring programs, in which teenagers mentor younger children, have proliferated in recent years, yet there is disagreement about the effectiveness of such programs. This study tested whether teen mentors' attitudes about children interact with their mentees' characteristics to moderate outcomes of cross-age peer mentoring. The…

This study examined whether the effects of employment-based policies on children's math and reading achievement differed for African American, Latino and Caucasian children of welfare receiving parents, and if so, why. Two kinds of employment policies were examined: "education-first" programs with an emphasis on adult education and job training;…

Social and behavioral problems can interfere with a child's acquisition of age-appropriate skills, which may lead to antisocial behavior in adolescence and adulthood. Thus, determining how best to support positive skills during early childhood is critical. Using data from the first three phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth…

We investigate whether the intervention designed by Kuhn and Udell (2003) to develop argument skills could be implemented productively among adolescent males in a residential juvenile detention facility--boys who were educationally disengaged and severely disadvantaged academically as well as socially. Compared to a control group from the same…

The current study examines the social and behavioral development of school-age children with different histories of overweight onset. Eight thousand children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) participated. Three groups of children were identified for analysis: (1) those who were persistently overweight from…

Although most immigrants are adults, their foreign and U.S.-born children are the fastest-growing component of the U.S. population. How these children integrate into U.S. society and the ways that they civically engage will greatly determine the nature of civil society in the United States over the next few decades. Using qualitative and…

This article describes the implementation and evaluation of a sport-based life skills and community service program. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the impact of a combined life skills and community service program on adolescents' prosocial values. The program was part of a national golf and life skills enrichment academy for…

Based on the conceptualization of successful development as the joint maximization of desirable outcomes and minimization of undesirable outcomes (Baltes, 1997), the present study examined connections between adolescent non-involvement in multiple risk behaviors and positive developmental status. Results from a survey of 7290 high school students…