Left-behind children are children under 18 years old who live in their rural hometowns and are cared for by grandparents or other relatives for more than 6 months when their parents migrate from rural to urban areas for work. Left-behind adolescents are more likely to experience bullying victimization, which may lead to internalizing problem…

This study investigated the relationship between mathematics difficulties and psychopathology in a large community sample (N = 881) of youth (8-18 years of age) in the United States. The primary aims of the study were to (a) test the associations between mathematics difficulties and specific components of internalizing, externalizing, attention,…

Purpose: This study investigated the complexity of stuttering behavior. It described and classified the complexity of stuttering behavior in relation to age, behavioral treatment outcomes, stuttering severity, anxiety-related mental health, impact of stuttering, and gender. Method: For this study, a taxonomy was developed--LBDL-C7--which was based…

Adolescent depression is a major concern for public health and is associated with negative consequences and outcomes. Identifying adolescent characteristics that might relate to the risk for developing depression is crucial. This study investigated bidirectional associations between coping strategies and depressive symptoms over time. The…

Adolescence is a critical period for social development, which COVID-19 has dramatically altered. Quarantined youths had limited in-person interactions with peers. The present study used an intensive longitudinal design to investigate changes in interpersonal dynamics and mental health during COVID-19. Specifically, we investigated whether the…

Coping style plays an important role in children's wellbeing. This paper describes the patterns of associations between children's self-reported coping styles and symptoms of anxiety in order to determine whether particular dimensions are associated with better adjustment. Participants were 2566 children (1268 girls, 1298 boys) aged 7-11 years…

Internalizing psychopathology, including depression and anxiety, has been associated with sleep-wake problems among youth. Although transdiagnostic theories of psychopathology posit that emotion dysregulation explains many of the symptoms associated with internalizing psychopathology, examination of regulatory mechanisms underlying this…

Teenage mothers are more likely to use drugs, and their children are more likely to use substances and become pregnant during adolescence. Teenage mothers' substance use may play a role in the intergenerational risk for adolescent pregnancy. Pregnant adolescents (12-18 years) were seen during pregnancy and postnatal years 6, 10, 14, and 16 (n =…

Trajectories of depressive symptoms were compared between European American and African American boys and girls from ages 8 to 14 in a longitudinal sample of 130 children born to adolescent mothers. Mixed-effects regression modeling was used to analyze individual and group differences in level of depressive symptoms and their changes over time.…

Co-rumination is a dyadic process between relationship partners that refers to excessively discussing problems, rehashing problems, speculating about problems, mutual encouragement of problem talk, and dwelling on negative affect. Although studies have addressed youths' "tendency" to co-ruminate, little is known about the nature of…

Despite the recognized importance of emotion regulation (ER) for healthy psychological development, ER research has focused predominantly on the developmental periods of infancy, early childhood, and adulthood, while the middle childhood to adolescence years have been relatively neglected. An obstacle to ER research during these periods is the…

Support provided by caring teacher-student relationships is essential for the emotional well-being of students who are bullied. The researchers were interested in discovering whether perceived teacher support would moderate the relationship between relational victimization and depression in low-income minority middle school students. A mixed…

With China's rapidly developing economy and increasing urbanization, many adults from rural areas migrate to urban areas for better paid jobs. A side effect of this migration is that parents frequently leave their children behind (left-behind children). This research investigated left-behind children's and non-left-behind children's psychological,…

Among the explanations for the high rates of co-occurrence between depressive symptoms and externalizing behavior is the possibility of direct causal associations between the two symptom groups. However, the mechanisms by which co-occurrence arises may not be the same across etiologically significant variables. A gender-balanced sample of 303…

Purpose: A longitudinal cohort of adolescents who initiated drinking before age 15 were studied to determine which factors distinguished between early initiators who continued to drink (persisters) from those who stopped drinking (desisters). There were 308 early initiators in the total sample (n = 917); 247 were persisters, and 61 were desisters.…