Dramatic changes occur in abstract reasoning, physical maturation, familial relationships and risk exposure during adolescence. It is probable that delivery of behavioral interventions addressing decision-making during the preadolescent period and later in adolescence would result in different impacts. We evaluated the intervention effects of an…

This cross-sectional study investigated associations between perceived parental rearing, attachment, and social anxiety. 510 Chinese middle school students, aged 12 to 20 years, completed a set of questionnaires including "Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran" for Children (EMBU-C), Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) and…

Parents play an important role in influencing adolescent health behaviors and parenting practices may be an important pathway through which social disadvantage influences adolescent health behaviors that can persist into adulthood. This analysis uses the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine how parenting practices mediate…

Erikson (1950) contends that the physical changes associated with puberty serve as a catalyst for adolescents to question childhood identifications and to consolidate these with current self-conceptions, personal ideologies, interpersonal values, and future aspirations. Erikson describes the adolescent identity crisis as the developmental period…

To better understand how young Alaska Native (Inupiaq) people are creatively responding to the tensions of growing up in a world markedly different from that of their parents and grandparents, the pilot study examined youth-produced digital stories as representations of their everyday lives, values, and identities. Two hundred and seventy-one…

This study examined two social status goals in relation to aggressive and prosocial behaviors as well as attributions for relational aggression among 477 (244 girls) Chinese early adolescents. Findings indicate that, after controlling for each other, the social preference goal was negatively related to self-reported overt aggression, and…

In Agnew's general strain theory, repeated strains can generate crime and delinquency by reducing social control and fostering social learning of crime. Using a sample of 615 middle-and high-school students in China, this study examines how social control and social learning variables mediate the effect of repeated strains in school and at…

This mixed-methods longitudinal project investigates the association between student perceptions of their schools and themselves. Findings from the first two waves of data analysis with 894 middle and high school students in a midsized Great Lakes city reveal similarities and differences between the grade levels (7th-10th) and their perceptions of…

In the current study, 45 girls and 41 boys participated in focus groups following a program designed to teach them about social justice. The children articulated the discrepancy between their own gender identity and gender role stereotypes and discussed potential problems with conforming to gender role expectations as well as consequences of…

The transmission model of religious socialization was tested using a sample of American Jewish parents and adolescents. The authors expected that measures of religiousness among parents would be associated with those among their children. Interaction effects of denominational membership were also tested. Data were collected from a sample of 233…

The aim of this research is to assess if home firearm access increases the risk of nonfatal suicidal attempts among adolescents. Such a gun focus has largely been limited to case-control studies on completed suicides. This line of research has found that household gun access increases the risk of suicide due to features of available firearms…

Few studies have investigated school-based, positive development for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth, despite knowledge of their heightened negative school experiences compared to heterosexual youth (e.g., school victimization). This study examines associations among participation in Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA)--related social…

This study used latent class analysis to examine typologies of peer conformity in a community sample of middle school students. Students responded to 31 items assessing diverse facets of conformity dispositions. The most parsimonious model produced three qualitatively distinct classes that differed on the basis of conformity to recreational…

Youth violence is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among Blacks and Latinos. Violent behaviors within Latino subgroups and the reasons for subgroup differences are not well understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 16,615), this study examined the risk for violent behaviors among an ethnically…

Disadvantaged rural youth may be especially at risk for obesity and poorer health due to physical inactivity. Research suggests that extracurricular school programs can increase physical activity for this population. This study sought to determine whether local differences existed in the availability of supportive environments for extracurricular…