One particular developmental task during adolescence is to regulate fluctuating moods to successfully transition through this period. The aim of this person-centered study was to identify distinct developmental trajectories of adolescent mood variability and to compare adolescents in different trajectories on changes in depressive symptoms,…

Background: Adolescents face major developmental tasks such as increasing individuation and establishing autonomy. These developmental tasks increase demands on adolescent self-control, hereby putting youth with poor effortful control at risk for psychopathology. Specific parenting behaviors might be warranted to buffer against this risk.…

Social responsibility can be defined as a set of prosocial values representing personal commitments to contribute to community and society. Little is known about developmental change--and predictors of that change--in social responsibility during adolescence. The present study used an accelerated longitudinal research design to investigate the…

Surveyed 485 undergraduate students to determine on which developmental tasks they believed they were currently working. Results indicated students were simultaneously engaged in developmental tasks associated with middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, although they identified themselves as being in early adulthood. Results supported…

Identity is a major developmental task for adolescents, and the development of ethnic identity is a unique and significant developmental task for many adolescents. This article reviews theoretical and empirical literature that informs our understanding of the development of a positive ethnic identity, and the consequences for adolescent mental…

Examined whether underprepared students participating in self-awareness course during their first quarter of college would show significant growth along developmental tasks as measured by Student Developmental Task Inventory. Findings from 83 underprepared first-year students enrolled in developmental education program suggest that participation…

Drug experimenters and drug abstainers were compared on identity achievement at a traditional, conservative, independent college (N=155). Drug abstainers were found to be more foreclosed than experimenters; however, in contrast to previous research, abstainers were not more identity-achieved. Additional findings and results are discussed.…

The concept of juvenile court and juvenile delinquency as distinct from adult crime is grounded in the idea of allowing adolescents more consideration because they are not quite adults, cognitively, psychologically, or socially. These developmental progressions within the individual and complementary societal changes in how the individual is…

Middle adolescents are exposed to environments riddled with potential adversities which pervade their lives, adding to the challenges inherent in their developmental stage. They spend a significant time in school and therefore it is an appropriate context to foster, enhance, and develop emotional, social, and cognitive resilience competencies.…

This study applied a social identity perspective to the study of adolescent self-concept and social development. British adolescents aged 14-15 years (N=114) completed a questionnaire which asked them to: (i) rate their degree of identification with a school-based friendship group; (ii) complete a measure of multi-dimensional self-concept; and…

Proposed and tested model for predicting college students' (n=224) identity. Sequentially considered information on students' reported conflictual independence from parents and their current mood states and generalized self-efficacy. Model explained significant variance in criterion measure for both sexes; respective contributions of model…

This study compared the timing of early vocational preferences in young adolescents from former East Germany and West Germany. Results suggested that as the memory of the Communist system fades and as younger adolescents have had less exposure to it, East-West differences tend to disappear. The formation of early vocational preferences was…

Establishment of identity represents a normative developmental crisis at adolescence. It is commonly speculated that adopted adolescents find resolution of the identity crisis especially difficult. Some theorists and researchers suggest that adoptees who search for information about their birth heritage have failed to make satisfactory progress…

Examined relationship between developmental tasks and academic achievement among first-term college freshmen (n=83) enrolled in program for students at risk. Results support limited relationship between growth on developmental tasks of young adulthood and academic performance of university freshmen. Sex differences also were found on predictors of…

Career preparation represents a major developmental task of adolescence, which has not received sufficient attention in empirical research on career development. Thus, this study was designed to examine the structure, continuity, and change in adolescent career preparation and its relationships with adjustment. The data were collected from a…