This study investigated the relationship between advanced-grade placement and the self-concept of 600 gifted adolescents. No differences were found in any facet of self-concept between grade-advanced and non-advanced students nor in interactions of advanced status and gender and/or grade level. Caucasian students were significantly more likely to…

Used a goodness-of-fit model and an exploration-based/perspective-taking model to examine identity formation among Jewish adolescents. Found that ideological identity diffusion was higher among students living in Jewish nondominant neighborhoods, and ethnic behaviors and practices and total ethnic identity were higher among adolescents living in…

Reports findings on changes in adolescent-crowd orientations using national data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Categorizes high school students into five prototypical peer-crowd orientations at tenth and twelfth grade. Illuminates the change in students' peer crowd orientation by examining individual and relationship…

Examined orientation of high school students' peer groups to formal (school-oriented) and informal (peer-oriented) reward systems. Investigated factors that influence change in peer-group orientation over time, and demonstrated how changes by the individual and changes in peer-group orientation predicted change in ego identity. Demonstrated how…

The reliability and validity of the trait form of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List-Revised (MAACL-R6) have been demonstrated for sixth- and seventh-grade public school students and patients at a mental health clinic. In this study, norms for the MAACL-R6 with middle and high school students are investigated. (Author)

Examines the perception of urban African-American adolescent mothers and fathers regarding sex, love, intimacy, pregnancy, and parenting. Uses structured interviews and focus groups to gather data. Employs inductive data analysis using constant comparison methods to identify themes and patterns within and across gender groups. (Author/GCP)

Surveyed junior and senior high students. Found that adolescents' identity exploration and commitment reflect institutional transitions: those facing transition to senior high exhibited more exploration and commitment related to future education and occupation than younger students. Concerns with a future family increased with age and were…

Compares relationships in adoptive and non-adoptive families (N=253) containing late-adolescents and examines family member roles in preventing adolescents' psychosocial risk. Results suggest a different relational configuration between family types. The father/child relationship and the mother/child relationship play different roles in preventing…

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…

Explores the relationship between antisocial behavior and social resources in a two-year longitudinal study of 100 high-risk adolescents (N=146) in a residential foster care facility. Risk factors and protective functions of variables are discussed, along with theoretical implications and methodological problems. (EMK)

Examined relation between goal orientations of 12- to 15-year-old competitive swimmers, and those of parents, and coaches. Found that adolescents' self-reported goal orientations correlated highly with their perceptions of goal orientations of their significant adults but not with self-reports of their significant adults. Adolescents believed…

Proposes a risk/protective theoretical perspective grounded in ecological and developmental contextualist theories. Principles extrapolated from the theory are illustrated with the success of Wisconsin Youth Futures, a campus/community partnership that has built 18 community coalitions to promote positive youth development and prevent behavior…

Summarizes research on the effects of the transition from elementary school to middle school on young adolescents. Notes problems of this transition in academic performance and in students' perceptions of school and self-perceptions, and of the mismatch of developmental needs with school environment. (JPB)

Explored applicability of the Loevinger conception of ego development for early adolescence and developed a measure of earliest ego levels: Sentence Completion Test for Children and Youth. Found oral administration of test did not yield essentially different responses or significantly differing ego-level scores from the written version, regardless…

Assesses whether current changes in adolescents' interpersonal experience are likely to give them the social resources and competencies they will need in the future. Analysis suggests that family and non-family changes will provide many youth with greater opportunities to develop the more versatile interpersonal resources, but that many will have…