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…

Adolescence may be conceptualized as a period of life that begins and ends with major developmental transitions: the transition from childhood to adolescence and the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. This study focused on the nature of change in early adolescence and the relationship of that change to adjustment or problem behavior 4…

Jones and Hartmann (1988) investigated the relation between identity status and experimental substance use among adolescents in junior and senior high schools, identifying differences in substance use across four identity statuses for adolescents in general. This study was conducted to examine the generalizability of these differences across…

Three hypotheses derived from Hilde Bruch's formulations regarding onset differences among the obese were tested. In Bruch's theory, adult-onset, or reactive, obesity is a result of psychological trauma; the individual uses eating as a defense against anxiety and depression. Child-onset, or developmental, obesity results from a mixture of…

Present research on adolescent suicide prevention is based on the possibility that there is a continuum of self-destructive behaviors which develops throughout life. Through personal interviews and written questionnaires, this case study examines family perceptions of the suicidal child's behavior at different ages. Subjects were randomly chosen…

Family background variables such as race, religion, and gender of household head emerged as significant predictors of communication about sex in interviews conducted with a sample of mothers and teenage daughters. A suprising finding was a strong positive association between family religion and early sexual communication, although this may reflect…

Cigarette smoking is a behavior with profound biomedical and psychosocial consequences across the life span. Although it is advertised in terms of youth, beauty, sexual appeal, success and independence, smoking is intimately linked with addiction, disease and death. Smoking has been shown to be a leading contributer to several kinds of cancer,…

A typology of adolescent media uses is presented, discussing five uses--entertainment, identity formation, high sensation, coping, and youth culture identification--in relation to adolescent socialization. Media differ from other socializing agents in that adolescents have greater control over their media choices, resulting in substantial…

In this study, 375 adolescents from the junior high and high school of a Midwestern, semi-rural community were surveyed to investigate: (1) developmental and gender differences in strategies that adolescents use to cope with family, school, and peer stressors; and (2) the relation between coping strategies and outcome. The students were divided…

An interactional model explaining predisposition to hyperactivity asserts that being identified, diagnosed, and treated as hyperactive is a function of biological factors, early health and temperament, family characteristics, and the quality of the home environment. A longitudinal study involving 367 subjects, aged 17-18, tested the interactional…