Adolescent health and well-being are abysmal due to low and declining physical activity rates, increasing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and minimal opportunities to engage in meaningful social experiences. Adolescents who live in communities that are underserved face greater risks for experiencing health disparities…

Schools and neighborhoods are adolescents' primary environments, and each has a significant influence on their academic success. The majority of studies on educational attainment have examined the impact of a single context--either the school or the neighborhood--suggesting mixed findings on school and neighborhood effects as well as potential…

Adolescent substance use is typically addressed from the perspectives of school personnel (e.g., teachers, school counselors, social workers, and resource officers) who interact daily with students in school settings. Consequences of adolescent substance use in the schools may include suspension or expulsion and possible legal involvement.…

Adolescent suicide is a public health issue with 15 percent of adolescents experiencing the suicide loss of a classmate, acquaintance, or friend. This article reports findings from an online survey of individuals (N = 40) who lost a peer to suicide in middle or high school. The most frequently provided school-based postvention responses were…

Social communication is closely related to overall and general adolescent mental health and predictive of problem behaviors in adulthood. However, adolescents with social communication deficits remain an underidentified and underserved population, especially in school-based settings. In part, this is due to the dearth of social communication…

Most adolescents have mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) and daily access to the internet. Scholars, however, have only recently begun to consider the impact of this technology on youth. This article draws on attachment theory to explain how adolescents' attachment styles may be represented in their attachment to technology. The authors posit that…

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between polyvictimization, school social climate, and depression in adolescents. Authors also looked at whether school social climate acts as a moderator of the interaction between polyvictimization and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, to have a deeper analysis, they included--as…

Subsequent teenage births may present various challenges for teenage parents and their children. Evaluation of efforts to prevent subsequent teenage pregnancy and increase use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) have lacked investigation of the mechanisms--particularly, goal orientation and social supports--through which these efforts…

This study explores the relationship between emotion regulation and psychosocial difficulties among adolescents with a specific learning disorder (SLD) and examines the role of the sense of school belonging in this connection. Participants were 249 seventh- and eighth-grade students diagnosed with SLD (146 boys, 103 girls) from 11 urban public…

This study examines how youths with different types of disabilities, mental health diagnoses, and special education services experience peer harassment victimization (PHV). This analysis examines how these youths experience harassment that only occurs in person, only through technology, and both in person and through technology…

Research on inclusion for students with emotional-behavioral disabilities (EBD) has typically focused on male participants, because data are limited on female students who fit the criteria for having an EBD and are often misdiagnosed. This qualitative case study adds to the very limited research on the inclusion experiences of girls with EBD.…

Strong teacher support is associated with and predictive of fewer depressive symptoms among youths. However, school connectedness may play a role in explaining this relationship. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examined the mediating role of school connectedness on the relationship between teacher…

Reducing disproportionality in school discipline is a grand challenge for school social work. Although the causes of disproportionality in exclusionary school discipline are interrelated and complex, one solution is to introduce alternatives to suspensions and expulsions that discipline students while keeping them engaged in school. The teen court…

The study discussed in this article examined the relationships between support from parents, teachers, and peers; contextual risks; and select achievement outcomes in a representative sample of African American female high school seniors enrolled in an urban school district in southeastern Virginia. Quantitative analysis revealed that some support…

The long-term nature of mental health needs after disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, continues to require attention. Research that emerged during the anniversaries of the storm has shown Katrina and its aftermath to be associated with posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, and somatic complaints in children and…