Background: It is well-established that children and adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) have social-emotional difficulties. This is reflected in their behaviour, for instance, by (social) withdrawal, hyperactivity or difficulty with peer relations. Children with DLD are also known to have poorer quality of life (QoL). This is…

We investigated whether daily experiences of conflict with family and peers were associated with fluctuations in diurnal cortisol, and whether sleep buffers the associations between conflict and diurnal cortisol. A racially diverse sample of 370 adolescents (ages 11-18; 57.3% female) provided daily diaries for 5 days and saliva samples for 4 days.…

Educational Robotics in Greece is being used increasingly, while it is hesitantly applied in Special Education as it requires a properly educational trained staff. The present study is a case study aiming to discuss the effects of the utilization of educational robotics in a Special Education School classroom and specifically on students with…

Background: In recent times, sibling bullying has emerged of interest to researchers concerned with the emotional and behavioural implications for victimization regardless of type and setting. Aims: This research attempts to extend current knowledge on both peer and sibling bullying and to determine the effects of poly-setting victimization. This…

This study examined to what extent motives for behavior differentiated between popular, accepted, and rejected adolescents. Based on goal-framing theory, three types of motives were distinguished: hedonic (aimed at short-term gratification), instrumental (aimed at improvement of one's situation), and normative (aimed at acting in accordance with…

Adolescent girls have emerged as the largest demographic of bloggers in the United States. In this study, the author interviewed 20 girls, aged 17 to 21, who had been blogging for 3 or more years. Consistent with previous studies involving youths' online activities, the girls discussed their use of blogging for self-expression and peer…

Although concerns about peer contagion are often cited in critiques of group treatments for troubled youths, few studies have examined the effects of exposure to deviant peers in residential group care settings. This study used administrative data of youth served at Boys Town, a nationally-known group care provider. Using latent class growth…

This study examined the similarities and differences between adolescents' interactions with romantic partners and those with friends and mothers. Thirty-two adolescents were observed interacting with a romantic partner, a close friend, and their mother. Adolescents and romantic partners engaged in more conflict than adolescents and friends.…

Social psychological investigations of hierarchy formation have been almost entirely confined to the case of task-oriented groups and hence have produced theories that turn on the existence of such a task. But other forms of vertical hierarchy may emerge in non-task groups. One form, orderings of dominance, has been studied among animals using…

Antipathetic relationships have received little empirical attention. This study examines these relationships by eliciting college students' descriptions of the formation, patterns of interpersonal behaviors, and termination of antipathetic relationships during high school. Factors that differentiate inimical from other antipathetic relationships…

Studied whether substance use, transgressive behavior, and delinquency were related to the quality of peer relations for 508 12- to 18-year-olds. Findings show that substance use and transgressive behavior are positively related to the quantity and quality of peer relations. (SLD)

The purpose of the present research is to compare early adolescents beliefs about parental and friend jurisdiction over relational aggression to their beliefs about parental and friend jurisdiction over physical aggression and personal behaviors. One hundred three adolescents (X age = 12 years, 11 months; SD = 12.46 months) are individually…

The challenge to demonstrate competence at personal physical risk as expressed by the dare phenomenon" is a functional aspect of the life space of early adolescent boys. (Author)

The predictive validity of several theoretical factors drawn from control, social learning, and differential association theories for explaining adolescent sexual behavior was studied with 1,478 adolescents. The single factor of differential association with peers accounted for most of the respective variances on frequency of sexual intercourse…

An examination of the hypotheses that rejection of traditional values and widespread use of illicit drugs have created a favorable environment for adolescent cigarette smoking is followed by a presentation of relevant smoking and drug use data and thoughts on the relationship between smoking and drug abuse. (Author/KM)