Rates of youth firearm exposure and carriage are well-established, but less work has examined how exposure to police violence and firearm violence, as victim or witness, may be associated with beliefs in gun ownership for society or access to guns. This study used survey data from a multiracial sample of 276 youth living in New Orleans, Louisiana…

Firearm-related violence is the leading cause of death for adolescents and can have lifelong ramifications, including to one's mental health and well-being. Through a scoping review of existing literature published since 1980, the current study describes nuanced pathways through which exposure to firearm violence (direct or indirect) can…

Guided by Fanon's constructs of racial epidermal schema, this study explored youth's experiences with anti-Asian racism (AAR) and their perspective on how AAR is formed and maintained. We recruited 36 Asian youth (age range 14-23 years) residing in a metropolitan city in Canada to attend a semi-structured focus group. Results from the reflexive…

Youth are vulnerable to mental health challenges. Social media presents an opportunity to evaluate disinhibited mental health discourse and self-disclosure. The objective of this study was to explore reported experiences and information needs related to youth seeking support for mental health on the social media platform, Reddit.com. We searched…

Based on the third-person effect hypothesis--people's belief that the media influences others more than it influences themselves--we administered a questionnaire to Chinese teens (N = 1,538) to discover the impacts of exposure to internet pornography on perceptions of pornography and attitudes toward censorship of pornography. The results…

While there is a substantial body of leaving care research, the theorization of care leaving has been more limited. Only a few studies have incorporated a life course perspective, mainly in Global North contexts where life course perspectives may differ significantly from those in the Global South, including Africa. Drawing on findings from a…

Self-report questionnaires on alcohol use are commonly used in both research and in clinical work with adolescents, but little is known about how adolescent responders perceive and interpret them. This study explores how adolescents think while responding to two alcohol-related questionnaires. It also investigates whether the instruments can…

Informed by Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of development, this mixed-methods study's aims are to: (1) describe rural Latino/a adolescents' (N = 62) narratives and lived social experiences in the context of rurality, and (2) examine their personal networks to better understand their social interactions (subset of 30 adolescents). Rural Latino/a…

This study explored the development and impact of shame and pride among sexual minority adolescents (SMA) to better understand emotions as psychosocial mechanisms of wellbeing. Shame and pride are salient to understanding the experiences of SMAs because American society has culturally constructed their identities to be dichotomized as shameful and…

We used a mixed-methods online survey to recruit 616 young Australians whose parents had separated, to understand their experiences and how to better support them throughout the separation process. Persistent themes included conflict, lack of communication and agency, mental health concerns, and feelings of confusion, frustration, loss, and grief.…

Violence is a major public health concern that particularly impacts Black young adults living in under-resourced, urban communities. There is limited research on promotive and protective factors that mitigate the impact of violence exposure on aggressive behavior. This study aims to address this gap by exploring positive factors across the…

Youth aging out of foster care are at particular risk for negative outcomes including school dropout, homelessness, poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, health and mental health problems, and victimization. Yet we know little about how, when, and why these youth find themselves on a downward trajectory. This qualitative, phenomenological…

Using data from 223 Latino adolescents residing in poor, urban neighborhoods, we investigate whether spirituality, religious importance at home, and religious involvement moderate the relation between community violence exposure and psychological well-being. Results showed significant interaction effects between community violence exposure and…

Dating is a highly desirable experience during adolescence and serves as an important developmental milestone. This study explored healthy and unhealthy dating as a step toward improving adolescent well-being. Six focus group interviews were conducted with high school-aged girls and boys (N = 35). Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed…

This study examines changes in religious service attendance over time for a contemporary cohort of adolescents moving from middle to late adolescence. We use two waves of a nationally representative panel survey of youth from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) to examine the dynamics of religious involvement during adolescence. We…