Although youth-led programs (YLP) have been successful in many areas of public health, youth leadership is rarely used in the prevention of peer aggression. A YLP to reduce bullying, sexual harassment, and dating aggression was compared experimentally with the board-mandated usual practice (UP). Four middle schools in an urban Canadian school…

We examined the influence of physical and psychosocial variables on math and reading achievement test scores. Between 1 and 5 months prior to taking annual standardized reading and math tests, a sample of (N = 1,211) sixth through eight graders (53.7% girls; 57.2% White) self-reported levels of physical activity, academic self-beliefs, general…

The study explored changes in parent-adolescent school-related conflict rate and academic performance over a 5-year period among Croatian early adolescents and gender differences in these changes. Furthermore, it examined the relationship between conflict and achievement. The study was performed by applying an accelerated approach to overlapping…

This study primarily aims to explore the association between perceived economic strain, parent-adolescent relational qualities and psychological well-being and to investigate the dyadic parental relationships during early adolescence. A total of 414 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 (M= 12.58, SD = 0.90) from three different socioeconomic…

Of the handful of national studies tracking trends in adolescent substance use in the United States, only the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study collects data from 6th through 10th graders. The purpose of this study was to examine trends from 1998 to 2010 (four time points) in the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use…

The effect of early adolescent alcohol use on antisocial behavior was examined at 1- and 2-year follow-up in Washington State, United States, and Victoria, Australia. Each state used the same methods to survey statewide representative samples of students ("N" = 1,858, 52% female) in 2002 (Grade 7 [G7]), 2003 (Grade 8 [G8]), and 2004…

Mediation analysis is a statistical approach used to examine how the effect of an independent variable on an outcome is transmitted through an intervening variable (mediator). In this article, we provide a gentle introduction to single-level and multilevel mediation analyses. Using single-level data, we demonstrate an application of structural…

Maternal and paternal psychological control, peer attitudes, and the interaction of psychological control and peer attitudes at age 13 were examined as predictors of risky sexual behavior before age 16 in a community sample of 181 youth followed from age 13 to 16. Maternal psychological control moderated the link between peer attitudes and sexual…

The current study used reports from 318 early adolescents to examine the associations of peer-reported gender nonconformity with peer- and self-reported overt and relational victimization and aggression, and possible sex differences in these associations. Multiple-group structural equation modeling revealed that higher levels of peer-reported…

Considerable evidence shows the detriments of neighborhood social disorganization for urban youth. Researchers have focused less on potential neighborhood strengths or on the interplay of neighborhood perceptions and objective neighborhood characteristics. The authors examined the presence and perception of positive and negative neighborhood…

This exploratory study examined middle school students' (N = 380) help-seeking behaviors and other reactions to controlling behaviors in their dating relationships. Over three-fourths of the participants perpetrated and were victimized by controlling behaviors in their dating relationships. Youth used emotional/verbal and dominance/isolation forms…

This study tests the predictive associations between externalizing behaviors and internalizing symptoms and examines the mediating roles of social competence, parent-child conflicts, and academic achievement. Using youth-, parent-, and teacher-reported longitudinal data on a sample of 523 boys and 460 girls from late childhood to early…

This study examined early adolescents' beliefs about which academic self-presentation strategies hypothetical hard-working, high-achieving students should use with popular peers, adolescents' own use of self-presentation strategies, and links between popularity and self-presentation strategies. In response to scenarios in which popular classmates…

The current study examined the role of school connectedness as a moderator of the associations between overt and relational forms of peer victimization and early adolescents' subsequent adjustment problems. Data were collected from 490 adolescents when they were initially in the sixth and seventh grades and again 1 year later. Regression analyses…

Peer support interventions have mostly neglected the domain specificity of intervention effects. In two studies, the present investigation examined the domain specificity of peer support interventions targeting specific domains of self-concept. In Study 1, participants ("n" = 50) who had received an academically oriented peer support…