The goal of this study was to provide key prevalence rates for experiences with cyberbullying among tweens (children between the ages of 9 and 12 years old). We were also interested in the extent to which tweens engaged in helping behaviors when they observed cyberbullying. American tweens (n = 1034; mean age = 10.52, SD = 1.12) completed an…

Connections between prosociality and antisocial behaviors have been recognized; however, little research has studied their developmental links longitudinally. This is important to illuminate during early adolescence as a sensitive period for social development in which prosociality could protect against the development of later antisocial…

This study's goal was to identify patterns of risk and promotive factors across multiple social-ecological domains and their associations with adolescents' problem behaviors (aggression, substance use, and other delinquent behaviors), victimization, and distress symptoms. Participants were a mostly African American (79%) sample of 2711 middle…

Early adolescents (aged 12-15) were observed during dyadic conflict discussions with their siblings (n = 23) and mothers (n = 32) in their homes. The verbal conflict behaviors and affect of family members were coded continuously. Sequential analyses identified temporal associations between individuals' affect and their own and their partners'…

Bias-based aggression at school in the form of homophobic name-calling is quite prevalent among early adolescents. Homophobic name-calling is associated with low academic performance, higher risky sexual behaviors, and substance abuse, among other adverse outcomes. This longitudinal study examined risk and protective factors across multiple…

This study examined whether adolescent students' externalizing behavior and prosocial behavior affects their academic achievement (i.e., school grades and standardized test scores) in two major academic domains (i.e., mathematics and German) over and above well-established determinants of school achievement (i.e., prior achievement, intelligence,…

The goal of this study was to assess longitudinal, predictive relationships between community violent crime and reactive and proactive aggression. Community violent crime data were gathered from local law enforcement agencies and combined with an existing dataset of at-risk youth. Aggression was assessed by parents using the Reactive and Proactive…

Effectively coping with peer victimization may be facilitated by deploying attention away from threat (i.e., bullies, reinforcers) and toward available support (e.g., defenders). To test this premise, 72 early adolescents (38 girls; M[subscript age] = 11.67, SD = 8.14 months) watched video clips of youth actors portraying a bully aggressing…

This study examined the level of congruence and incongruence between fathers', mothers', and adolescents' perceptions of parental monitoring in relation to the adolescents' antisocial behaviors. A sample of 163 father-mother-adolescent triads (59.5% girls; X-bar age = 12.35) filled out separate questionnaires assessing the dimensions of parental…

Adolescence is a sensitive period for taking risks, yet research has not investigated whether adolescents who engage in risk-taking actually "perceive" themselves to be risk-takers. In the current study, students (Grade: 6-8, N = 437) reported on their frequency of risk-taking and perceptions of themselves as risk-takers, forming four…

This 1-year longitudinal study examined the moderating effect of perceived parental social support in the associations between homophobic cyberbullying involvement (victimization and bystanding) and suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-harm, and subjective health complaints among 467 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 13.81 years; 59% female) who…

This study examined how early adolescents' risk taking propensity and urban stress were linked to their affiliation with risky peers. Participants (n = 297; [X-bar] age = 10.48 years [SD = 0.93 years]; 54% male; 58% Black/African American) completed a brief laboratory-based behavioral risk taking task. They also completed self-report measures of…

The current study explored early adolescent child-level predictors (physical aggression, impulsivity, empathy) and contextual-level predictors (peer deviance, neighborhood dangerousness) of violent and nonviolent antisocial behavior (AB) in late adolescence. Additionally, we tested the moderating role of rejecting parenting on these associations…

Identification of goals is a key social-cognitive process that guides whether adolescents engage in aggressive or nonviolent behavior during social conflicts. This study investigated early adolescents' goals in response to hypothetical social conflict situations involving close friends and peers. Participants (n = 160; M[subscript age] = 12.7, 53%…

The present study investigated the role of parenting stress in early adolescents' externalizing and internalizing behavior and, particularly, the moderating effect of maternal affection on these associations. The data of 992 early adolescents (x-bar[subscript age]=12.71; 454 girls) and their mothers during the transition from primary school to…