The mysterious and unspoken secrets of life can be a source of fascination for young people. The bildungsroman quest for identity is often coupled with a protagonist's attempts to decode a range of secrets. Jamaica Kincaid's work of fiction, "Annie John" (1985), illustrates this journey. In this novel, the female protagonist's maturity…

Identity development is theorized to be a cornerstone of adolescence. An abundance of evidence has documented the significance of specific social identities (e.g., ethnic-racial or sexual identity) in the adjustment of adolescents. Research has found that youth who have explored their social identities and have more positive views of their social…

The COVID-19 era unleashed a separate medical crisis in the United States: adolescent mental health struggles led to a spike in teen suicides. Adolescence, the period of development long associated with the search for one's identity--a struggle that requires engagement with one's peers for a healthy resolution--was complicated by the lockdowns and…

This paper aims to offer a new perspective on role modelling by examining adolescents' own efforts to lead a morally virtuous life. While traditional approaches to moral education emphasize the importance of teachers as role models, this study proposes a shift in focus towards adolescents' own role models. Drawing on the philosophical concept of…

Adolescent literature has the power to positively impact and support the identity development of all adolescents, regardless of ability, gender, race, cultural, or linguistic background. Yet, we contend that this is only possible through the intentional, purposeful, and cognizant selection of texts that accurately and respectfully portray…

This paper considers the Twilight novels alongside the Vampire Academy books, as young adult readers regularly invoke these series as touchstones of the contemporary adolescent Gothic genre. The abiding appeal of these vampire novels is related to the ways they reflect the experiences of young adults with the rapacity and greed displayed in our…

Coming-of-age stories have conventionally constructed the development of subjectivity as a linear, cohesive, and ultimately empowering process. Narrative closure is thus typically contingent on the adolescent protagonist's ability to acquire an agentic form of self-knowledge and integrate productively into the adult world. In contrast, the failure…

Teachers, schools, and the wider education system have a responsibility to nurture young people's identity development and to optimise youth wellbeing. For the study, 10 adolescents shared their experiences and perspectives of identity development and the extent to which their identity impacted on their wellbeing and subsequent learning…

This paper explores one of the elements of doing philosophy with young people. Richard (Mort) Morehouse argues that there is something unique about the ways that some adolescents and young adults struggle with a set of philosophical issues. To explore philosophy with adolescents and young adults is to recognize and to build on some of the…

This qualitative literary analysis explores the intersection of place, space, and identity in two novels for young adults to explore how the provision of a new physical place provides space for independence development among female teen protagonists and the implications of this development given the authors' identities as non-US authors writing…

In this theoretical article, the authors elaborate a revisited theory of Third Space from a BlackCrit/Afropessimist stance, exploring Black youth ethnic and racial identity formation searching for place and belonging in the context of a raced world. To illustrate their theoretical contributions, the authors draw on empirical research conducted…

Changes in their brains, combined with a greater awareness of peers and events around them, make adolescence a key time for students to figure out who they are, what they aspire to be, and what they want to do in the world. This Alliance for Excellent Education report explores how human identity and self-regulation develop during adolescence and…

In Europe, the question of identity and youth civic engagement constitutes a challenge both for the European Union (EU) and for research on adolescent psychology. In this article, we discuss the European historical context and the current initiatives from the EU that aim to encourage civic engagement among young people. Then, we suggest some…

Sport is a context that provides positive developmental benefits to adolescents. However, these benefits are not distributed equally to all participants. This study examined whether the motivational constructs of attainment value and ability self-concept were related to positive developmental experiences in sport, and tested intensity of…

The article reviews recent classroom research developed in South America related to child and adolescent development. We review work about three themes: ethnicity, school climate and violence, and the learning process. The few studies found on ethnicity and classroom experiences told a story of invisibility, if not exclusion and discrimination.…