This study examined whether adolescent students' externalizing behavior and prosocial behavior affects their academic achievement (i.e., school grades and standardized test scores) in two major academic domains (i.e., mathematics and German) over and above well-established determinants of school achievement (i.e., prior achievement, intelligence,…

This study examined relations between intentional self-regulation (ISR) and executive functions (EFs) among 84 Icelandic youth in Grade 6 (mean age 11.7 years; 51% girls) and their contributions to healthy and problematic outcomes a year later. ISR was indicated by the Selection, Optimization and Compensation model (SOC) and Self-Regulated…

"Sexting" (electronic transmission of sexual pictures/messages) among early adolescents is associated with early sexual activity, a marker of increased sexual risk. The current study is a secondary analysis that examined the longitudinal relationship between sexting and first-time sex among a sample of early adolescents deemed "at…

Parents play an important role in adolescents' development of empathy. However, less understood is what dimensions of parental behavior predict changes in empathy during early adolescence and whether effects of parental behavior are moderated by pubertal timing or differ by sex. This study used data from an ethnically diverse sample of 704 youth…

This longitudinal study covering two educational transitions examined 1,821 Finnish students' participation in and identification with school and their associations with students' academic achievement and truancy. The students were surveyed (a) at the end of primary school, (b) at the beginning of lower secondary school, (c) at the end of lower…

Black and Latinx youth are situated in a maladaptive discriminatory context in the United States; however, prosociality may be one way that youth can promote their own positive development in the face of these experiences. We examined the longitudinal associations between discrimination and prosociality among 380 Black and Latinx early adolescents…

The purpose of this study was to examine how two coping strategies together moderate the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment among young adolescents. Sixth-grade adolescents from California, Oregon, and Wisconsin (N = 1,058) self-reported peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and their utilization of social support seeking…

Urban adolescents experience high rates of exposure to community violence, which is associated with sleep problems. However, less is known about the prospective relationships between community violence exposure and sleep problems across adolescence. This study investigated reciprocal relationships between community violence exposure and sleep…

Recent theory and evidence support an integrated affective-cognitive model of adolescent depressive symptoms in which temperament predicts the use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation (ER) strategies which, in turn, predict depressive symptoms. We concurrently and prospectively investigated whether two cognitive ER strategies (dampening and…

This study examined the links between seven specific mechanisms of moral disengagement and indirect bullying, direct bullying, and pro-aggressive bystander behavior. In addition, the moderating role of gender on these associations was examined. Participants were 317 Swedish students in Grades 4 to 8 (X-bar[subscript age]=12.6, SD = 1.35; 62%…

This study examined the prospective association between peer victimization and subjective sleep quality among typically developing early adolescents. At Time 1 (T1), participants included 123 youth (50% boys; X-bar age = 12.03 years; 58.5% European American, 35% African American), along with one parent and teacher. Youth, parents, and teachers…

Adolescents' attitudes predict sexual behavior; therefore, attitudes are targeted in sexually transmitted infection (STI) and pregnancy prevention programs. However, attitudes and behaviors do not always align. Young adolescents who have had penile vaginal intercourse (PVI) and have attitudes supportive of PVI have two risk factors for future…

We investigated how family characteristics and experiences during early adolescence predicted timing of sexual initiation. In addition, we investigated adolescent sex and race/ethnicity as potential moderating factors. As part of the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (CNLSY-79), 799 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years provided…

The present study investigated the stability of friendship nominations over the course of a school year as a function of early adolescents' and their classroom best friends' internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, and somatization). Sample consisted of 156 early adolescents (57.1% female; X-bar age = 12.62; SD = 0.62) involved in 78…

We hypothesized that in adolescence, maladaptive narcissism interacts with low self-esteem to predict a preoccupied attachment style ("attachment for self-affirmation hypothesis"), and with high self-esteem to predict an avoidant attachment style ("attachment for self-enhancement hypothesis"). We expected gender differences in…