This study coordinates moral value development in adolescence, parenting style, and gender with issues of stability and specificity. The primary research question asked whether parenting styles of mothers and fathers influence the development of adolescent moral values, and secondary research questions asked whether adolescent moral values were…

This study examined the association of friendships and popularity with adolescents' first-time involvement in a romantic relationship (referred to as romantic relationship debut). The aim of this article was twofold: first, to disentangle the unique effects of friendships and perceived popularity; second, to separate same- and cross-gender peer…

Character strengths are an integral component of positive youth development that can promote flourishing. Developmental principles posit constructs become increasingly complex with age, yet this process has not been examined with character. Using a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 2,467 youth ages 9-19, bifactor models were…

Manifestations of internalizing problems, such as specific symptoms of anxiety and depression, can change across development, even if individuals show strong continuity in rank-order levels of internalizing problems. This illustrates the concept of heterotypic continuity, and raises the question of whether common measures might be construct-valid…

Adolescents use media that exposes them to sexual material. This study focused on adolescents in the Czech Republic, a country with relatively high rates of exposure to sexual material (ESM). A sample of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years ("N" = 495) taken from the project EU Kids Online II was examined for predictors of the following:…

Civic engagement was studied in relation to overall development in adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood to examine how earlier activity involvement and success in prior and concurrent age-salient domains of competence may contribute to 2 forms of civic engagement in adulthood (citizenship and volunteering). Data on 163 youth were…

Hypothesized that a too early first birth has negative psychological consequences for the mother through a lowered sense of personal efficacy. Results indicated that having a first birth before age 19 reduces personal efficacy, regardless of original differences in personal efficacy, age, education, or parental socioeconomic status. (Author/RC)

Life history theorists have proposed that humans have evolved to be sensitive to specific features of early childhood environments and that exposure to different environments biases children toward development of different reproductive strategies, including differential pubertal timing. The current research provides a longitudinal test of this…

Assessed college undergraduates' (n=399) views concerning conventional war and compared views with those gathered from early adolescents in a previous study. Overall, late adolescents' views were less positive and less extreme than those of younger adolescents. Attitudes toward war appeared to be related to sex, socioeconomic status, and political…

The relation between Loevinger's measure of ego development and moral development as indexed by Rest's Defining Issue Test was examined in a sample of 517 adolescents between 12 and 21 years of age. The existence of a strong relationship between the moral and ego development during adolescence was clearly supported. (Author/LMO)

Examined extent to which demographics, students' personal resources, and family resources predicted stable or lowered educational expectations from eighth grade to 2 years post-high school. Found that predictors of lost talent or lowered expectations over time included low SES and racial group membership. External locus of control predicted lost…

The importance of family life on the development of the child has been well documented. In Africa, however, little research has been undertaken to assess the influence that family life and marital status of parents have on child development. It was hypothesized that African adolescents from broken homes would experience: (1) less involvement in…

The purpose of this project was to gain a better understanding of dimensions of trust and inter-relationships between those dimensions during the adolescent years. Drawing from survey data collected at the beginning and end of a semester in eighty middle- and high-school social studies classes, relationships were assessed between: social trust,…