Many young people are inclined toward risk taking and also toward helping other people. "Prosocial risk taking" is a term that can describe different ways that youth provide significant instrumental and emotional support to family members, friends, and strangers, even when it involves a personal risk. In this article, we review research…

Contemporary research on mental health and well-being highlights the importance of understanding the complexities of adolescent life. Adolescence is a critical developmental stage, marked by various challenges and opportunities that shape mental health outcomes. Our study aims to explore both positive and negative experiences related to school,…

Through the provision of different types of social support, significant nonparental youth--adult relationships can facilitate youth's positive development across adolescence. However, despite the potential benefits of these relationships, there has been little consideration of how the relational process may vary across different adolescent stages.…

Social responsibility can be defined as a set of prosocial values representing personal commitments to contribute to community and society. Little is known about developmental change--and predictors of that change--in social responsibility during adolescence. The present study used an accelerated longitudinal research design to investigate the…

It has been argued that peers are the most important agent of adolescent socialization and, more specifically, that this socialization process occurs at the child-specific (or nonshared environmental) level (J. R. Harris, 1998; R. Plomin & Asbury, 2005). The authors sought to empirically evaluate this nonshared environmental peer influence…

Presents a conceptual and empirical framework for examining the developmental changes that romantic relationships undergo over the course of adolescence. Describes several empirical studies that have examined age differences and delineates an agenda for subsequent developmental work. (JPB)

The social and interpersonal characteristics of early adolescents are described in relation to puberty and the physical and emotional changes that are experienced by the preteen. Learning characteristics for this age group include problem-solving strategies, self-directed learning, and emerging value systems. (JN)

Close relationships among children and adolescents are ordinarily considered to encompass friendliness and fun. Recent studies, however, reveal that many friendships have dark sides consisting of competitiveness, hostility, and conflict. Relationships based on aversion and antipathy may turn out to have major developmental implications, but more…