Using interview data from 38 musicians, this study examines the ways in which the transition to adulthood is complicated by aspirations to a nonstandard line of work. Musicians face a recurring set of obstacles as they move into adulthood and respond by enacting various tactics to reconcile these dilemmas. The "on-time" musicians do so by framing…

We argue that video game play may meet Larson's (2000) criteria for fostering initiative in youth, and thus, may be related to positive outcomes such as flow, cooperation, problem solving, and reduced in-group bias. However, developmental and social psychologists examining adolescent video game use have focused heavily on how video games are…

Identity research has focused primarily on outcomes associated with identity formation. Far less attention, however, has been given to understanding the facilitating contextual elements of this process. This qualitative study examined a context, a 2-week adventure recreation program for youth, quantitatively shown in previous research to have…

Although middle school is a critical time in adolescents' development, little is known about how that development is affected by public single-sex classes even though recent federal policy decisions have led more schools to provide these offerings. This case study used ethnographic methods to explore ways teachers, students, and courses in one…

Thirty-two adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 participated in a semistructured interview regarding their perspectives on parental expectations and their strategies for expressing resistance. Thematic analyses indicated that adolescents perceive parental expectations as flexible and coconstructed rather than as firm, explicit, standing…

Mother-daughter communication plays an influential role in adolescent development. The impact of maternal HIV infection on family communication is not clear. This study explores how living with HIV impacts sexual risk communication between mothers and daughters and whether maternal HIV status influences adolescent choices about engagement in HIV…

Having a noble purpose in life is an important component of positive youth development; however, little is known about how noble purposes develop over time. Therefore, using three waves of interviews over a 5-year period with 9 adolescents (N = 9) who demonstrated intense commitments to various noble purposes, the present study developed a…

Stanley Hall's (1904) description of adolescence as a time "suggestive of some ancient period of storm and stress when old moorings were broken and a higher level attained" is arguably one of developmental psychology's most vivid and powerful metaphors. Its relatively insignificant contribution to Hall's treatise (Arnett, 2006), the early demise…

Cellular telephones have become an increasingly prevalent feature of contemporary American life, with usage often beginning during early adolescence. With this in mind, twenty 7th graders and their mothers participated in separate qualitative interviews regarding early adolescents' use of cell phones as well as perceived risks and benefits of such…

In this study, the identity formation of emerging adults in Sweden was investigated in order to discover how identity issues concerning love, work and family are handled. The study group comprised 136 24- to 26-year-olds. The results revealed differences between men and women with regard to their position in the identity formation process. While…

The study investigates the experiences of emerging adults who had worked as counselors at overnight summer camps; identity-related issues emerge as most salient in the analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with 12 women and 8 men from 8 camps. Their descriptions portray the identity exploration that took place within the camp context, through…

Adolescent girls have emerged as the largest demographic of bloggers in the United States. In this study, the author interviewed 20 girls, aged 17 to 21, who had been blogging for 3 or more years. Consistent with previous studies involving youths' online activities, the girls discussed their use of blogging for self-expression and peer…

Recognition of the interplay between nature and nurture is decades old in fields such as psychiatry, but other fields in the social sciences continue to be hampered by the idea that social and biological variables compete for explanatory relevance. In a recent study of the adolescent brain and risk taking, Males critiqued biologically oriented…

This article analyzed 124 blogs, chronological, journal-type entries published on public hosting Web sites, as new and popular places for adolescents and emerging adults aged 15 to 19 to play openly with their self-presentation, an important aspect of identity exploration. Findings indicate that most young persons write emotionally toned entries;…

Progressive developments in scanning technologies over the last decade have led to a surge of new research into the structure and function of the brain and into differences between the brains of teenagers and other adults. This work has not been free of controversy, notably around the question of deficits in the capacity of young people concerning…