Child and youth conduct problems are known to be a heterogeneous category that implies different factors and processes. The current study aims to analyze whether the early manifestation of psychopathic traits designates a group of children with severe, pervasive and persistent conduct problems. To this end, cluster analysis was conducted in a…

Dyadic variability is considered to be a key mechanism in the development of mother-adolescent relationships, and low levels of dyadic flexibility are thought to be associated with behavior and relationship problems. The present observational study examined heterogeneity in the development of dyadic variability in mother-adolescent interactions…

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are two core developmental periods in which individuals can develop a meaningful identity across domains. However, there is a lack of studies exploring correlates of different identity configurations. The purpose of this article was to fill this gap in examining correlates of configurations characterized by…

Investigators have identified a number of factors that increase risk for physical and psychological dating abuse perpetration during adolescence, but as yet little is known about the etiology of sexual dating aggression during this critical developmental period. This is an important gap in the literature given that research suggests that patterns…

Little is known about the social networks of homeless youth in emerging adulthood despite the importance of this information for interventions to reduce health risks. This study examined the composition of social networks, and the risks and supports present within them, in a random sample of 349 homeless youth (33.4% female, 23.9% African…

It is unknown whether perceived pubertal timing changes as puberty progresses or whether it is an important component of adolescent identity formation that is fixed early in pubertal development. The purpose of this study is to examine the stability of perceived pubertal timing among a school-based sample of rural adolescents aged 11-17 (N =…

Although socioemotional competencies have been identified as key components of youths' positive development, most studies on empathy are cross-sectional, and research on the role of the family has focused almost exclusively on parental socialization. This study examined the developmental course of empathy from age 7 to 14 and the within-person…

This study tested whether Marcia's original identity statuses of achievement, moratorium, early closure (a new label for foreclosure), and diffusion, can be considered identity status trajectories. That is, we examined whether these statuses are distinct and relatively stable, over-time configurations of commitment strength, levels of in-depth…

Previous research suggests that the prevalence of aggression is high among low-income urban youth who have to cope with a number of psychological stressors. Less is known about the early development and consequences of aggression and peer victimization prior to adolescence in these contexts. This study examined the correlates, interplay, and…

The relative nature of pubertal timing has received little attention in research linking early pubertal development with psychological adjustment. The current study examines the dynamic association between pubertal timing and internalizing symptoms among an urban, ethnically diverse sample of girls (n = 1,167; 50% Latina, 30% Black/African…

Recent publications in the "Journal of Youth and Adolescence" present a variety of topics exploring adolescents' mental functioning in the twenty first century. Conceptually, many of the articles address the intriguing, though rarely explicit, question of developmental continuities and change from adolescence to adulthood. Such…

Why do depressive symptoms increase during adolescence? Because inhibition and poor peer relationships predict adolescents' depressive symptoms concurrently, we hypothesized that adolescents who cope with the stresses of this period by becoming increasingly inhibited may experience increasing depressive symptoms both directly and due to increased…

The aim of this five-wave longitudinal study of 923 early to middle adolescents (50.7% boys; 49.3% girls) and 390 middle to late adolescents (43.3% boys and 56.7% girls) is to provide a comprehensive view on change and stability in identity formation from ages 12 to 20. Several types of change and stability (i.e., mean-level change, rank-order…

Identity is a critical developmental task during the transition to adulthood in Western societies. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate an empirically based, cluster-analytic identity status model, to examine whether all four of Marcia's identity statuses (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement) would emerge empirically,…

Over the past 5 years, a great deal of attention has been paid to the development of early warning systems for dropout prevention. These warning systems use a set of indicators based on official school records to identify youth at risk for dropout and then appropriately target intervention. The current study builds on this work by assessing the…