This evaluation study addressed the need to increase the participation of teenagers in the Youth Service Agency ABC (YSA ABC). ABC offers positive, powerful, and empowering experiences for area teens. These programs help them with character development, financial literacy, emotional intelligence, healthy well-being, and many other skills and tools…

Beyond correlational studies exploring the benefits of nature exposure, there have been studies assessing interventions that aim to improve nature connection in children and adolescents. A feeling of connection with nature or 'nature connectedness' describes our attitude towards nature, primarily reflecting the emotional, cognitive, and…

Mailing campaigns are a way to keep longitudinal survey respondents engaged. While mailings usually include a survey answer request, sometimes respondents are contacted between-waves to update contact information or simply to keep respondent contact. Research on the actual impact of these between-wave contacts on response rates is scarce. This…

This study aims to evaluate the relationship between social skills and sensory features, emotion regulation, and empathy in adolescents on the autism spectrum. One hundred and twenty-three adolescents were included in the study (50 autistic, 73 typically developing-TD adolescents). The participants filled out the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile…

Adventure education (AE) has long been celebrated for its unique contributions to learning and personal growth. But the benefits of the AE experience may be broader than these outcomes and we are best positioned to uncover these benefits through employing new lenses in our analysis of AE. A qualitative study of the AE experience was completed at…

Sports participation in adolescents may increase social self-efficacy and decrease social anxiety with time. Understanding the correlation between social self-efficacy and social anxiety may be useful for developing effective interventions for adolescents with social anxiety. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between social…

Many technology designers strive to involve end users in the design process, aiming to produce better outcomes. However, designers may struggle to engage autistic users effectively due to a lack of understanding of autistic characteristics and preferences. This systematic literature review aimed to identify how autistic adolescents and adults can…

People, the author holds, instinctively believe quitting a game to be a simple choice: you are either playing or you are not. But she finds quitting play more complex. To understand better the whole ecosystem of play, she maps out the reasons Finnish players abandon or reduce their gaming and examines these reasons through the lens of specific…

While research abounds on the outcomes of out-of-school time programs for youth, most studies focus on programs with similar profiles or within the same program category, leaving a notable gap in examining youth experiences across programs with different delivery modes. The current research investigated the perceived experiences of youth in two…

Behavioral research increasingly uses accelerometers to provide objective estimates of physical activity. This study extends research on methods for collecting accelerometer data among youth by examining whether the amount of a monetary incentive affects enrollment and compliance in a mail-based accelerometer study of adolescents. We invited a…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to seek descriptions from people included in, and excluded from, participating on transition teams for adolescents with intellectual disabilities entering adulthood in New Jersey. The theoretical framework included two theories to support this research. Faludi's Procedural Planning Theory…

Rates of depression and suicide are rising in adolescents, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth experiencing higher rates. We examined the relationship between team sports participation, depression, and suicidal ideation among a representative sample of adolescents (n = 46,537) in the Healthy Kids Colorado…

Participation is a fundamental human right, and being able to communicate is an essential component of participation in various life situations, such as at school, with peers, and in the community. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions aim to facilitate communication and social interaction, independence, and participation…

Self-determination is a vital skill for individuals with disabilities and provides significant benefits, like more positive adult outcomes and greater qualities of life. Recreational sports participation is another fundamental aspect of life for individuals with disabilities, as it leads to increased physical activity, enhanced self-esteem, and…

Despite the widespread popularity of online reading challenges on platforms like Goodreads and The StoryGraph, research on this phenomenon has been mostly absent. This article addresses this gap by examining the motivations of adolescent participants in reading challenges, the outcomes of their participation and the implications for their reading…