Introduction: Although prior research has examined adolescents' resistance to parental control, the dyadic level of analysis has been overlooked. This study attended to how a Canadian sample of parents and adolescents engaged in resisting one another by observing moment-to-moment actions as they discussed the upcoming transition to high school.…

We examined relations among select components of the 4-H Thriving Model, focusing on youth sparks and four presumed determinants: program quality, developmental relationships, situational engagement, and dosage. Based on our results and results of previous studies, we propose a formal theory of youth program sparks. Three hundred fifty-six Texas…

Positive youth development (PYD) programs have increased positive outcomes for adolescents, however research on the underlying change processes in these programs remains limited. The 5Cs (Competence, Confidence, Character, Caring and Connection) of PYD are a framework of desirable outcomes for youth programs. Change to metacognition is proposed as…

Background: Mid-adolescence is an important phase of self-development in various domains including academics as well as for changes in the neural mechanisms underlying the self-concept. Students' academic self-concept (ASC) is affected by educational achievements and social others (such as teachers and peers). To what extent these external…

Introduction: This mixed-method longitudinal study examined American adolescents' meaning making of salient COVID-19 pandemic events. Method: Within phone interviews, adolescents (N = 124, M[subscript age] = 15.76 years; 46% Latine) narrated their most emotionally impactful pandemic experience at two time points ~30 days apart between July 2020…

Introduction: Family and school environments are pivotal in adolescent development. However, the simultaneous examination of adversities in both domains remains understudied. Based on bioecological and spillover theories, this study aimed to bridge this research gap by using latent profile analysis to identify distinct patterns of family adversity…

Good religious education needs to be rooted in a robust theological anthropology. The Roman Catholic Church's gender complementarity approach is inadequate for accompanying adolescents in Catholic schools as they engage in questions of gender and sexuality; instead, educators need a theological anthropology oriented towards adolescent flourishing.…

Social gaming--online gameplay involving digital interactions with others--is a common form of social media use among adolescents. Research on this topic has neglected the social aspect of gaming and the potential role of social gaming in adolescent development. In this article, we define social gaming, drawing on interdisciplinary theories to…

Adolescent risky behaviors are often interpreted as products of self-control failures stemming from a developmental mismatch between reward processing and cognitive control systems. However, adolescents -- much like adults -- may also engage in risky behaviors because of conscious and deliberate (even if objectively poor) decisions. It is not easy…

Traditionally, children have generally been considered as developmentally immature and unable to experience spirituality. However, more recent studies seem to indicate the opposite. This article aims to: (1) explore how religiosity and spirituality evolve in the developing person; (2) describe the perceptions of children about God; (3) explore how…

Academic attainment is a core education policy priority. Wellbeing is recognized as critical for adolescent development, and is linked to academic attainment. Yet research with adolescents primarily focuses on life satisfaction or overall wellbeing, despite differentiating conceptually between two wellbeing components "feeling" good…

Longitudinal study of associations between family-level emotion socialization and adolescent adjustment is limited. When American children (53.5% girls) were in second grade (N = 213; M[subscript age] = 7.98; data collected 2002-2003), mothers and fathers (79.8% of mothers and 74.2% of fathers were White) reported on their reactions to children's…

"Middle School Today" is clustered into major themes: adolescent development and identity, the adolescent learner, curriculum and instruction, and the contemporary middle school. The book describes the components related to adolescent development starting with simple principles from psychology regarding the physical, cognitive, and…

Purpose: The current study addresses a gap in the literature regarding syntactic development of adolescent boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Down syndrome (DS). Specifically, we ask whether syntactic skills plateau or continue to change during adolescence for these groups and whether the profile of syntactic change differs between boys with…

Engagement in preventive health behaviors (PHBs; i.e., healthy eating, sleep, and physical activity) during adolescence is associated with reduced risks for chronic conditions, such as diabetes, in adulthood. Although several interventions seek to improve adolescents' engagement in health promoting behaviors, racial- and income-based disparities…