This study shows that residual variation can cause problems related to scaling in exponential random graph models (ERGM). Residual variation is likely to exist when there are unmeasured variables in a model--even those uncorrelated with other predictors--or when the logistic form of the model is inappropriate. As a consequence, coefficients cannot…

Evidence suggests that youth progressively experience mental health needs and discover mental health symptoms for the first time in adolescence. Schools have come to the forefront of providing mental health services, as adolescents spend most of their day in the academic setting. The current study aimed to examine individual and school-level…

Adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms tend to withdraw from social interaction, but patterns among Latinx LGBT youth (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) are unclear. Latinx adolescents in the Greater Los Angeles Area (N = 549) were surveyed during two consecutive years, and longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms,…

This study uses a subsample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to examine protective factors for lower-income, first-generation students. A logistic regression model is used to explore the impacts of (1) gender, (2) race, (3) perceived sense of belonging during middle or high school, and 4) protective adult…

Latent class analysis was performed to identify clusters of items on the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health -- School Connectedness Scale among students. Cluster membership was explored by student-reported ethnicity. The sample included students attending Canadian secondary schools in two waves of the COMPASS study: Years 4 (Y4:2015/16)…

The multi-decade growth and spatial dispersion of immigrant families in the United States has shifted the composition of US schools, reshaping the group of peers with whom students age through adolescence. US-born students are more likely to have foreign-born peers and foreign-born students are more likely to be educated outside of enclaves. This…

Overweight youth are often socially marginalized and have fewer friends than their nonoverweight peers. Participation in organized activities may be one way to promote friendships for overweight youth. In this study, we used a large nationally representative sample to test whether two aspects of participation promoted friendships, namely the…

This study estimates peer effects in diverse friendship networks by friend types. Evidence from friendship networks for 57,351 U.S. high school adolescents demonstrates that adolescents are more likely to make friends with someone of the same immigrant status or ethnicity ('similar friends') than those with different backgrounds ('dissimilar…

Background: We examined the longitudinal trajectory of substance use (binge drinking, marijuana use, and cocaine use) in relation to self-esteem from adolescence to young adulthood. Methods: Generalized estimating equation models were fit using SAS to investigate changes in the relation between self-esteem and each substance use (binge drinking,…

We document a largely unrecognized pathway through which schools promote human capital development -- by fostering informal mentoring relationships between students and school personnel. Using longitudinal data from a large, nationally representative sample of adolescents, we explore the frequency, nature, and consequences of school-based natural…

The aim of the study was to investigate the mediating effect of school safety and school connectedness on the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among boys and girls facing terror. A cross-sectional research design using a nationwide random sample of 609 (54% girls) 9th (25%), 10th (26%), 11th (24%),…

Previous methodological approaches have not been flexible enough to model the heterogeneity of depressive symptoms or to identify variations between prototypical trajectories conditional on risk and protective factors. The current study examined latent class trajectories of depressive symptoms using data from 3,819 respondents of the Adolescent…

The current study examined the association between playing high school football and involvement in violent behaviors in sibling pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The analysis revealed that youth who played high school football self-reported more violence than those youth who did not play football.…

While scholars have studied racial bias in the application of out-of-school suspension and its influence on arrest and incarceration for decades, the mechanism that produces juvenile delinquency remains unclear. Guided by general strain theory, this study considers racial group differences in the evaluation of suspension as discriminatory, and how…

The current investigation examines whether visual impairment has an impact on a student's perception of the school climate. Using a large national sample of high school students, perceptions were examined for students with vision impairment relative to students with no visual impairments. Three factors were examined: self-reported level of…