The association between the quality of teacher-student relationships and children's psychological adjustment has been mainly studied in Western countries; however, this research topic is gaining more interest in Eastern countries. Based on attachment theory and empirical evidence, this cross-sectional study examined the relationship between…

Educational leaders through the United States have prioritized developing integrated tiered systems to assist educators in meeting students' academic, behavioral, and social and emotional well-being learning needs in an integrated fashion (McIntosh & Goodman, 2016). This is an important shift away from traditional reactive models towards…

Background: Middle school victimization and problem behaviors often co-occur, but little is known about patterns of co-occurrence, or how long effects persist into adulthood. Objective: Drawing on general strain theory, this study aimed to identify sex-specific profiles of victimization and problem behaviors during middle school, and their…

Prior research has shown that Black and Hispanic students are more likely to experience office discipline referrals than White youth, and the magnitude of these inequalities has been found to vary by gender. However, it remains unclear whether racial/ethnic and gender disparities in office referrals might be amplified among students in more…

Deception is a common phenomenon in everyday life, yet some people generally lie more than others and some people consider lying more acceptable than others do. Current knowledge about lie acceptability across development or about the individual differences in emotion or personality which shape it is still in an incipient stage. We aimed to expand…

To elucidate the processes underlying the cultural construction of adolescence, this research examined youth's stereotypes about teens in Hong Kong and Chongqing, a relatively less developed city in Mainland China. Youth (N = 1,269) reported on their teen stereotypes and problem behavior in the fall and spring of 7th grade. Youth in Hong Kong (vs.…

Research has identified at least three patterns of direct involvement in bullying and victimization: bullying, bullying-victimized, and predominantly victimized. However, little is known about risk and protective factors for these patterns. As such, the goals of the present study were to establish these patterns and examine risk and protective…

Few studies have examined whether dimensions of school engagement are differentially associated with bullying victimization and perpetration, behaviors that undermine the capacity to achieve academically and increase risk for depression and school dropout. We investigated associations between affective, cognitive, and behavioral engagement upon…

As leaders in the school, principals play an important role in fostering family engagement. Unfortunately, little is known about specific aspects of leadership that promote family engagement. Collegial leadership, an aspect of principal leadership that promotes organizational health via trusting relationships and a sense of community, may be…

This study's goal was to identify patterns of risk and promotive factors across multiple social-ecological domains and their associations with adolescents' problem behaviors (aggression, substance use, and other delinquent behaviors), victimization, and distress symptoms. Participants were a mostly African American (79%) sample of 2711 middle…

Starting from observed gender differences in educational effort and because research considers motivation to be a personal student feature, this study had two aims. First, it examined whether autonomous and controlled motivation are shared by students within a school and whether such a motivation culture is associated with the school's student…

This study was conducted to determine if middle school female students were exhibiting violent behavior in a large mid-south urban school district. The subjects were all middle school female students within 30 middle schools in a large mid-south urban school district from 2012-2013 until 2016-2017. Information about middle school female students'…

Purpose: Studies of college and university student suicide have identified predictors only of suicide ideation and attempts and have relied solely on self-report data. This study explores risk factors observed in the last 30 days of life of college and university students who died by suicide, compared to those of high school and middle school…

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with severe conduct problems (CP) in youth. Causal theories for CU traits focus on emotion processing deficits that interfere with empathy development. However, though CU traits are consistently associated with deficits in affective empathy (i.e., emotional reactivity), the association between CU…

National policies have targeted widespread exclusionary discipline in schools which is associated with negative academic outcomes. Principals play an important role in making disciplinary decisions, yet little is understood about how their mindsets might impact these decisions. We hypothesized that principals' mindsets regarding the purpose of…