Transition outcomes for Black youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities are especially dire, lagging even further behind already poor outcomes among their White peers. Self-determination is a key factor in predicting better outcomes, but it is unclear how self-determination is fostered or hindered within the transition process for…

Adolescents navigate the transition into young adulthood through their pursuit of developmental goals. While societal expectations and institutions provide normed paths to adulthood by shaping decisions on goal identification, individuals take various routes to attain adult-status through different goal prioritization. Using longitudinal data from…

Research suggests that the process of adolescents exploring and developing clarity about their ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important developmental competency. However, the extent to which individuals view their ERI as central to their overall self-concept (i.e., ERI centrality) informs the degree to which they choose to explore their ERI,…

Background: Positive youth development emphasizes that adaptive features of adolescence may contribute to teenage pregnancy prevention. Methods: Using data from approximately 1300 seventh-ninth graders, we describe positive youth development assets (external and internal) and their association with sexual risk taking. School-, sex-, and…

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor spaces remained one of the few places for youth recreation. Outdoor recreation and sport have been associated with positive youth development (PYD) prior to the pandemic, so we sought to test these relationships during the pandemic, accounting for self-efficacy and demographic factors that may be…

Youth participation in community-based, structured out-of-school time programs (OST) has been found to promote positive developmental outcomes by providing youth with resources to build interpersonal relationships and essential life skills. The increasing prevalence and multiplicity of youth participation in these activities leads us to expand the…

Wealth ownership is a critical component of economic well-being, and wealth in early adulthood provides important clues about the trajectories along which individuals move throughout their lives. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we find an association between growing up rural and adult wealth that…

The population of multiracial youth in the United States is expected to grow in the coming decades (exceeding 11% by 2060). In this article, we aim to convince child development researchers who do not usually examine race and ethnicity in their work to consider multiracial youth. We describe ways in which youth from more than one racial background…

Although family-school engagement is important across child and adolescent development, most research, programs, and policies have focused primarily on elementary students and contexts. The current study extends beyond elementary settings by exploring the unique and shared contributions of developmental context on family-school engagement (i.e.,…

Although family-school engagement is important across child and adolescent development, most research, programs, and policies have focused primarily on elementary students and contexts. The current study extends beyond elementary settings by exploring the unique and shared contributions of developmental context on family-school engagement (i.e.,…

Over the past several years, a growing consensus has emerged across a range of disciplines--including brain science, developmental psychology, and education research--about how learning happens. The latest science now aligns with what educators, youth-supporting adults, parents, and caregivers have known for a long time: successful learning…

Social responsibilities are a central component of adolescents' and young adults' development, particularly for those from immigrant backgrounds. Social responsibility--a sense of responsibility and duty that extends beyond the self (Wray-Lake & Syvertsen, 2011) includes both family obligations (Fuligni, 2001; 2007) and community engagement…

For children and youth, summertime presents a unique break from the traditional structure, resources, and support systems that exist during the school year. For some students, this time involves opportunities to engage in fun and enriching activities and programs, while others face additional challenges as they lose a variety of supports,…

The transition to adulthood is an underresearched topic for cross-systems youth, defined as young people who have experienced homelessness, child welfare system involvement, and educational challenges. This qualitative study explored processes of resilience in the transition to adulthood for cross-systems youth aged 18 to 24 (n = 20). Analysis of…

This study evaluated a brief social self-efficacy (SSE) measure among 4,122 public middle school adolescents and its association with aggressive behavior. Data analytic procedures included calculating mean ratings, standard deviations in addition to inspecting the scale's reliability, internal structure, and relationships to demographic and…