Established and novel multivariate methods were used to examine informants' rankings of 73 motives/causes for truancy. Five main relatively homogeneous clusters of motives/causes emerged, two covering a previously recognized pattern of parent-condoned truancy, and three related to recognized syndromes of adolescent delinquency. It was suggested…

Discusses contemporary theories of adolescence, stressing developmental systems models that integrate individual and contextual levels of analysis. Maintains that adolescence should be studied with multivariate-longitudinal designs, change-sensitive measures, and data analytic strategies capitalizing on triangulation across quantitative and…

Introduces the "person approach" to the study of adolescence, and discusses the consequences of the approach for theoretical thinking and research methodology. Reviews major types of pattern-based methods used for carrying out a person approach and discusses methodological challenges for adolescent research, including interindividual…