This article shares how three African-centered Black men partnered with a school system to develop and implement an Africentric rites of passage program for seventh- and eighth-grade Black male students. The proposed school-based intervention aimed to socialize, educate, and cultivate Black boys in preparation for manhood. Theoretically, the…

This commentary engages the three elements of a social justice framework in the study of African American Boys and Men's (AABM) positive development, proposed by Barbarin, Tolan, and Gaylord-Harden (2019). In agreement with the importance of and in support of employing a social justice framework in developmental science, we offer theoretical and…

This research-to-resource article reports pedagogical implications of several types of research literature. This literature collectively focuses on boys' adolescent development, with specific attention to psychological and sociological implications on the teaching of vocal technique during the period of voice change. From this foundation, the…

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth have many strengths, with about 24% of boys and 48% of girls in seven metropolitan GLBTQ support groups identifying as gifted. Similarly, approximately 30% of 1,000 online GLBTQ adult respondents indicated that they, too, had attained gifted-range accomplishments. Parents of gifted…

This issue of ETS Policy Notes (Vol. 21, No. 3) provides highlights from the symposium, "Black Male Teens: Moving to Success in the High School Years" held on June 24, 2013, in Washington, DC. The third in a series of four symposia cosponsored by ETS and the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), the seminar examined the education and status of…

Lack of money has long kept promising preventive programs from expanding. Existing government-funded programs are furthermore subject to budgetary cutbacks or complete loss of funding. Moreover, preventive programs traditionally offer no accountability for success or failure. This leaves government entities in a bind where if they invest their…

In the social transition between childhood and adolescence, boys draw on discourses of masculinity that address the male body in constituting themselves as adolescents. They make themselves as no longer children and acquire a sense of themselves as adolescents by performing bodily practices that position them within some of these discourses.…

Many teenagers get involved in criminal activity. This tendency is so pervasive that psychologist Terrie Moffitt, one of the world's leading experts on the development of antisocial behavior, has described delinquent behavior as a normal part of teenager life (Scott & Steinberg, 2008). Adults, even those in the justice system, are often at a loss…

Reviews number of social difficulties facing black families (delinquency, addiction, welfare dependence, family dissolution, unwed parents, school failure) and problems specific to black males. Describes activities undertaken by Male Responsibility Program (MRP) of Detroit (Michigan) Urban League, which works to develop culturally specific…

As children approach adolescence, they often experience confusion and uncertainty as they attempt to appear more grown up than they really feel. Research on both girls and boys has documented that the buoyant self-confidence of younger children often gives way to self-consciousness as young adolescents become aware of the complexity and difficulty…

This article formulates an overarching, inclusive model of integral counseling that enables school counselors to help male adolescents challenge the norm of conventional masculinity. The model draws from 3 areas: transpersonal counseling, holistic education, and mindful social action. The aim is to move the students' level of self-development and…

This study examined links between early adolescent exposure to entrepreneurial gang activity and later criminal justice, economic, and social outcomes, comparing the social and behavioral outcomes of young people with active gang involvement and their non-gang affiliated counterparts. Participants came from a concentrated poor, predominantly…

This document describes the Parents Too Soon (PTS) program, a project which integrated a comprehensive array of services for teenagers in an effort to help prevent premature and unwanted pregnancies. Four components of the PTS program are listed: (1) comprehensive family planning medical services including provision of contraceptives; (2) social…

Discusses how young male voices change due to development during puberty, the make-up of their voices, and the effect male peers have on their decision to become a choir member. Explains how male adolescents can be encouraged to join the choir and how teachers can strengthen their male students' voices. (CMK)

A behavior specialist working in a class for students identified as severely emotionally disturbed shares the dialog journal writing of an eighth-grade male student and notes the boy's self-evaluation regarding his special education label, his searching questions, his relationship to others, his growing self-esteem as a writer, and his family…