Youth who form bonds with supportive, nonparent adults within their existing social networks (i.e., natural mentors) experience a range of positive outcomes, but a relatively minimal amount is known regarding the psychosocial factors that prospectively predict the formation of natural mentoring relationships. Analyzing longitudinal youth data from…

The main purpose of this study is to broaden our understanding of the predictors of self-control. We test how two types of strain variables (bullying victimization and grade dissatisfaction) influence the level of self-control during adolescence using three-wave panel data collected from Korean adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 16. We…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the developmental trajectory of Korean adolescents' multicultural receptivity with a latent growth model. The study was performed using the data of 5,943 students (2,918 boys and 3,025 girls) who sincerely responded to all the questions used as variables in the data in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th years of the…

How important is the role that the different social institutions play in adolescents' emotional development? This study alludes to the social capital framework to explain the influence that the family, school and peer relations have on the social-emotional competencies (SEC) of adolescents, immigrants and locals living in Southeastern Spain. Three…

The long-term import of a fundamental challenge of adolescent social development--establishing oneself as a desirable peer companion while avoiding problematic behaviors often supported within peer groups--was examined in a community sample of 184 adolescents, followed from ages 13 to 23, along with parents, peers, and romantic partners. The…

This study prospectively examined pubertal timing and peer victimization as interactive predictors of depressive symptoms in a racially diverse community sample of adolescents. We also expanded on past research by assessing body esteem as a mechanism by which pubertal timing and peer victimization confer risk for depression. In all, 218…

Background: The popularity of communication technologies such as text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking sites has grown exponentially, especially among adolescents. At the scale of growth along with the pressures and normative use of communication technology, psychological effects of these technologies need to be further…

Bullying and victimization occurring in adolescence can have a long-lasting negative impact into adulthood. This study investigates whether conduct problems (CP) and dimensions of psychopathy predict the developmental course of bullying and victimization from ages 12 to 14 among 1,416 Greek-Cypriot adolescents. Results indicate that initial levels…

Developmental scholars assert that parents are important in fostering prosocial behaviors in adolescents, but longitudinal investigations on this topic are limited. Participants consisted of 372 boys and 358 girls with a mean age of 10.84 years (SD = 1.57) at Wave 1 from a mostly middle class community in Spain. Across three successive years,…

This study investigated how early experience with racial discrimination affected the subsequent risky sexual behaviors of a diverse sample of African American youths (N = 745). The analyses focused on 3 risk-promoting factors thought to mediate the hypothesized discrimination--risky sex relation: negative affect, affiliation with deviant peers,…

This article responds to recent calls for a focus on successful development in young people and examination of its developmental precursors, in order to identify potentially modifiable targets for interventions. The current study examined child and adolescent precursors of positive functioning in emerging adulthood, including individual…

Although the onset of illicit substance use during adolescence can hit parents abruptly like a raging flood, its origins likely start as a trickle in early childhood. Understanding antecedent factors and how they grow into a stream that leads to adolescent drug use is important for theories of social development as well as policy formulations to…

This study compared alternative hypotheses (from general deviance, life course, and developmental psychopathology perspectives) regarding the effects of early adolescent delinquency on psychosocial functioning in family, school, and peer contexts, and on alcohol use. Analyses also examined parent-child negative affective quality, prosocial school…

The authors test biosocial models that posit interactions between biological variables (testosterone, estradiol, pubertal status, and pubertal timing) and social context variables (family, peer, school, and neighborhood) in predicting adolescent involvement with cigarettes and alcohol in a sample of 409 adolescents in Grades 6 and 8. Models…

Growth curve modelling was used to examine developmental trajectories of sociometric and perceived popularity across eight years in adolescence, and the effects of gender, overt aggression, and relational aggression on these trajectories. Participants were 303 initially popular students (167 girls, 136 boys) for whom sociometric data were…