The third in a series of reports from P/PV's three-year study of the role Boys & Girls Clubs play in the lives of the youth they serve, "Making Every Day Count" examines how Club participation is related to youth's positive and healthy development in three outcome areas identified by Boys & Girls Clubs of America as central to its mission: good…

Cluster analyses and hierarchical linear modeling were used to investigate the impact of perceptions of connectedness to family, school, and neighborhood contexts on academic and psycho-social outcomes for 437 urban ethnically diverse adolescents. Five profiles of connectedness to family, school, and neighborhood were identified. Two profiles were…

To explore the link between interparental hostility and adolescent problem behaviors, the current study examines four important maternal parenting dimensions as potential mediators: acceptance, harshness, inconsistency, and psychological intrusiveness. With a primary sample of 1,893 sixth-grade students, the measures included adolescent and…

As technology evolves, so does its impact on people's lives. These changes clearly affect people's daily activities, but how might they also impact education, teachers, and the lives of students with disabilities? This article focuses on technological innovations and their potential implications for students and teachers in schools. This article…

Using an ecological framework, the authors explore the reasons for peer discrimination and harassment reported by many Chinese American youth. They draw on longitudinal data collected on 120 first- and second-generation Chinese American students from two studies conducted in Boston and New York. Our analyses suggested that reasons for these…

This study examined the Family Relationships Grid (FRG), a new measure of family structure that evaluates alliances, identification, isolation, and the relative strength of sibling and marital relationships. Subjects were 52 female and 35 male adolescents who were recruited through a university course and who each had at least one sibling.…

This fifth chapter in "The Challenge of Counseling in Middle Schools" looks at the issue of sexual maturation in early adolescence via four articles. "The Counselor's Impact on Middle-Grade Students," by Hershel Thornburg, examines physical, intellectual, and social developmental tasks of early adolescence. "Contraceptive and Sexuality Knowledge…

Just as infants and the elderly have special health care needs based on their stages in the life cycle, adolescents also have particular health needs. While some of those needs are simply a result of the bodily changes that define adolescence, others are true medical conditions which are most commonly found in this age group. Among achievements…

The role of psychosocial immaturity in the behavior of adolescent mothers remains unexplained. This project explores the validity of Newberger's Parental Awareness (PA) model which outlines the development of parents' conceptions of their parental role. PA distinguishes parents reported to be abusive from non-abusive parents. This study tests the…

Delinquency intervention and research have undergone changes in recent years. One new line of research has been aimed at mapping out juvenile criminal careers. Findings from this research suggest that involvement in technically delinquent activity may be a transitory, developmental phenomenon related to adolescence. Youth appear to be increasingly…

Thos paper discusses myths about adolescent psychopathology, including the beliefs that psychopathology is a normal state in adolescence; that adolescents grow out of their psychopathology; and that with regard to psychopathology, adolescents are either like adults or like children. Key features of adolescent development are summarized, the life…

This study examined the interrelationships between individual development and the family system by testing the hypothesis that variations in family relations during middle adolescence are associated with psychological and social aspects of adolescent development and with parental midlife development. Data were collected from 27 parent-adolescent…

This issue of Emphasis addresses the educator's role in confronting adolescent pregnancy by presenting articles on educational programs for adolescents which have been developed and/or implemented by Planned Parenthood affiliates. Programs are presented which attempt to provide information to adolescents or to the community; to change attitudes,…

The goal of this research synthesis is to evaluate the validity of the claim that there are fundamental limitations on the ability of adolescents to engage in critical thinking. Critical thinking is defined as an analytic, focused cognitive activity aimed at understanding phenomena at a root rather than a superficial level; a type of thinking…

While recent research has examined the positive benefits students receive from participating in extracurricular activities, very few studies have concentrated on female adolescents and their participation in such activities. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of participation in extracurricular activities on the level of…