Achievement of a positive identity and its transition to adulthood is the most important task of the adolescent era. This cross-sectional explanatory mixed-method study sought to better understand barriers to identity development in female adolescents in Iran by explaining their own experiences and using a Positive Youth Development model as a…

Limited research exists on the slut labeling process, a key means of enforcing rules around appropriate female sexuality. This study explores that process through qualitative interviews with 44 adolescent girls in Travis County, Texas. Labeling girls as sluts or hos was pervasive and was based on a number of factors beyond sexual behavior,…

Despite the growing research on emotion regulation, the empirical evidence for normative age-related emotion regulation patterns is rather divergent. From a life-span perspective, normative age changes in emotion regulation may be more salient applying the same methodological approach on a broad age range examining both growth and decline during…

Recent developmental cognitive neuroscience research has supported the notion that puberty and adolescence are periods of profound socio-emotional development. The current study was designed to investigate whether the onset of puberty marks an increase in the awareness of complex, or "mixed," emotions. Eighty-three female participants (aged 9-16…

This study explored the relations between parental problem drinking, adolescent-parent communication, and adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Surveys were administered to a diverse sample of 683 15-17-years-old adolescents in the spring of 2007 and again in the spring of 2008. Results indicated that paternal problem drinking directly predicted…

There is an increase in the number of fathers who do not reside with their children, which signifies changes in patterns of family interaction with implications for father-daughter attachment. Using attachment, self-efficacy, and psychosocial theories as framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how girls'…

This paper describes the struggle to develop a female sexual identity and the importance of the roles of the father and mother in this struggle. The clinical illustration is taken from the psychotherapy of an anorectic adolescent.

Examined social and psychological patterns of the adolescence of females who become adult suicide attempters. Obtained life histories of 50 adult female suicide attempters and personal documents written during adolescence. Identified two patterns: Cheap Thrills pattern of defiance, rebelliousness, acting-out, drug use, and indiscriminate…

To identify distinguishing features of personality associated with anorexia nervosa in adolescence, the Cattell High School Personality Questionnaire responses of 50 anorectics were compared with matched groups of depressed and antisocial adolescent females. Results indicated that anorectics displayed greater conformity, neurotic anxieties,…

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on 11,506 high school students were used to test a gendered and age-graded sequential stress theory in which delinquency can play an additive and intervening role in adolescents' movement from early anger through rebellious or aggressive forms of behavior to later depressive symptoms…

The psychosocial impact of puberty on changes in girls' feelings about their bodies and their sexuality is discussed. We present a model of girls' sexuality development that incorporates puberty, self, and peer systems. (Contains 2 figures.)

Investigated effects of pubertal, social, and biological factors on negative affect of 103 White girls aged 10 t0 14 years. Results indicate that social factors, and the interaction of negative life events and pubertal factors, accounted for more variance than did hormonal pubertal factors alone. (RJC)

Frequent mood changes in adolescents are often attributed to the influence of shifting hormone levels. The presence and magnitude of menstrual-related mood changes in adolescent women were examined in 10th and 11th grade females (N=158) who completed the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ). Self-reports of the onset date for the next two…

Spirituality is an important force during a period when institutional religion seems to be losing its hold on adolescents. To enhance the spiritual development of adolescent girls in the school setting, the group experience described addresses authentic identity, relationships and boundaries, managing pain experienced in life, and discovering and…

Examined relationship between acculturation and eating-disorder symptoms in normative samples of 920 adolescents girls of high school age. Found that acculturation was positively associated with structured-interview defined partial syndrome eating disorders in Hispanic girls, but not in Asian or European-American girls. There was no relation…