During the developmental stage of adolescence young people face many stressful challenges (Dacey & Kenny, 1997). Some adolescents manage these challenges adaptively but others do not and are therefore at the risk of adopting maladaptive responses to stress (Frydenberg & Lewis, 2002; Patton & Noller, 1990). Because adolescents are…

Daniel Offer's seminal writings in the 1960s led to a realization that normal adolescence was not characterized by turmoil and upheaval, the then prevailing view that derived from studies of clinical samples. In this paper, the research findings that have appeared over the last four decades are reviewed with respect to the overall features of…

Current parent-adolescent behavioral interaction research highlights the importance of three elements of behavior in defining adaptive interactions: autonomy, control, and warmth vs. hostility. However, this research has largely addressed the developmental needs and psychosocial outcomes of adolescents, as opposed to parents, with a focus on how…

Recent research has identified a discreet set of subjective markers that are seen as characterizing the transition to adulthood. The current study challenges this coherence by examining the disparity and variability in young people's selection of such criteria. Four sentence-completion cues corresponding to four different contexts in which adult…

Objective: This article describes the development and initial validation of the 90-item Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale (CPYDS), which contains items related to 15 aspects of positive youth development. Method: Adolescents with well adjustment ( N = 162) and poor adjustment (N = 160) responded to the CPYDS. Results: The findings showed…

In this article, the author describes the various changes that are experienced by young adolescents. Physically, early adolescents are growing faster than at any other time in their lives except infancy. They experience significant increases in weight, height, heart size, lung capacity, and muscular strength. Intellectually and cognitively, early…

In this article, the author describes how researchers study the adolescent brain--a subject of inquiry that did not exist a generation ago. Any parent of a teenager knows that adolescents often have difficulty navigating through their world. Now scientists are starting to find out why. Peering into the minds of maturing youngsters, researchers are…

Educators and parents have been concerned about insufficient sleep time among adolescents, which could seriously compromise their learning and development. Altering school schedule to a later start time has been proposed to be a viable measure to address the problem and practiced in some schools and districts. Despite its significance and high…

This study examined the relations among activity participation, expressive identity, and wellness in a sample of 115 high school students. Results indicated that most adolescents identify several activities as self-defining. Within-person variation in identity scores across self-selected activities was substantially greater than between-person…

This study investigated the influence of loneliness and relationships with parents and friends on the psychological well-being or adolescent malaise. Data were collected via two questionnaires (LLCA--Marcoen, Goossens & Caes, 1987; TRI--Bracken, 1996) from a sample of 330 Italian adolescents, males and females, aged between 11 and 19. As…

Twenty narrative interviews were conducted with German host parents between 2006 and 2007 about their experiences with a one-year stay of a guest student in their family. The study took place within the context of a student research project as part of the research-oriented MA course "Intercultural Communication-Intercultural Competence"…

Adolescence is a critical period of development. Previous research suggests parent involvement in school directly impacts student success. However, different types of parental involvement and the efforts of middle school personnel to educate parents about these effective practices have received scant attention in the literature. The level and type…

Neurological examination of children includes the screening for soft neurological signs (NSS). There is little knowledge about their evolution during adolescence, except that their lasting presence has been associated with developmental, psychological, and cognitive disorders. We report the results of a NSS exam (assessing gross and fine motor…

Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), we developed and empirically tested a conceptual model to assess the longitudinal impact of school-based athletic participation and parental involvement, along with other factors, on the college-bound behaviors of male high school seniors attending public schools in the U.S. The…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (LGBTQ) students are likely to be in every classroom in every secondary school in the United States; yet, their needs are often overlooked. LGBTQ students are at risk for developing academic, social, and emotional problems due to harassment and bullying experienced at school. Although schools…