Adolescence can be a particularly difficult time for youth as they experience the physical, social, and academic changes that accompany maturation. One of the most critical challenges for schools is teaching adolescent students positive social and emotional skills, which are crucial for them to succeed academically and emotionally. "Strong…

We assessed the extent to which feelings of sympathy and aggressive behaviors codeveloped from 6 to 12 years of age in a representative sample of Swiss children (N = 1,273). Caregivers and teachers reported children's sympathy and overt aggression in 3-year intervals. Second-order latent curve models indicated general mean-level declines in…

"The Mentoring Toolkit 2.0: Resources for Developing Programs for Incarcerated Youth" provides information, program descriptions, and links to important resources that can assist juvenile correctional facilities and other organizations to design effective mentoring programs for neglected and delinquent youth, particularly those who are…

Individuals with autistic traits are considered to be prone to develop psychosexual problems due to their limited social skills and insight. This study investigated the longitudinal relation between autistic traits in childhood (T1; age 10-12 years) and parent-reported psychosexual problems in early adolescence (T2; age 12-15 years). In a general…

This study attempted to establish and quantify the connections between parenting, offspring psychosocial adjustment, and the epigenome. The participants, 35 African American young adults (19 females and 16 males; age = 17-29.5 years), represented a subsample of a 3-wave longitudinal 15-year study on the developmental trajectories of low-income…

School psychologists are becoming more and more involved in helping our youth to learn better coping strategies, decision making skills, and develop tolerance with others. According to Elias (2002), school psychologists are valuable resources for early adolescents to learn skills necessary to avoid high-risk behaviors, including alcohol and drug…

Generally recognized as the standard work in its field, "Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents" provides a comprehensive foundation and guide for conducting conceptually sound, culturally responsive, and ecologically oriented assessments of student social and emotional behavior. It is aimed at graduate…

In this chapter, we present a brief review of the developmental literature linking healthy adjustment to five core competencies: (1) positive sense of self, (2) self-control, (3) decision-making skills, (4) a moral system of belief, and (5) prosocial connectedness. A central premise of this chapter and the rest of the volume is that promoting…

Objective: As a follow-up to an earlier cross-sectional study (Holmbeck et al., 2003), the current multimethod, multi-informant investigation examined individual growth in psychosocial adjustment across the adolescent transition in 2 samples: young adolescents with spina bifida (SB) and typically developing adolescents (N = 68 in both groups at…

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…

Highly recommends Rutter et al.'s work as an important review of the major research findings on adolescent problem behavior. Describes the structure of the book, summarizing each chapter. Cites as the strength of the book its concern with interdisciplinary explanations, historical trends, and international variations. (SD)

Describes examples of adolescent behavior which parents and school personnel find obnoxious. Explains why intelligent, reasonable, and well-adjusted teenagers periodically behave in this way, as something that is developmentally inevitable given the uneven development of competencies in several important areas. Adolescent incompetencies in four…

Examined gender differences in effects of menarche in females and voice change in males, specifically with regard to depression, self-esteem, body image, and externalizing problems. Analyses indicated prepubertal males had more externalizing problems and females increased in depression, externalizing problems, and negative body image post…

Examined individual differences in friendship characteristics and their cross-sectional and longitudinal interrelations with adolescent problems. Assessed four salient friendship characteristics: reciprocity of relations, overt hostility, covert hostility, and self-disclosure. Suggests that adolescent problem behaviors have a more potent…

Using a socio-ecological perspective, examines the influences of adolescents' social networks, personal resources, and environmental risks on adolescents' behavior problems across three samples of youth (N=155). Findings show that social support can operate as a protective agent or as a risk factor, depending on other characteristics of subsystems…