This study identified a set of factors, including vocational exploration and commitment, commitment to the role of work, and participation in the role of studying, which explained 43.3 percent of the variance in the identity development of 95 gifted female adolescents. Of these factors, vocational exploration and commitment contributed the most to…

This article describes positive youth development as a process in which young people's capacity for being motivated by challenge energizes their active engagement in development. The first part of the article discusses the conditions under which this motivation is activated and considers obstacles to its activation in daily life. The second part…

To gauge the status of connections between the research literature about adolescent development and current theoretical and applied work pertinent to the concept of positive youth development (PYD), we assessed whether the adolescent development literature from 1991 to 2003 reflected a network of terms associated with PYD. A list of 16 terms…

Adolescence is a developmental transition period during which there are profound transformations in emotional, cognitive, and behavioral systems. Despite being a time of rapid development and increasing rates of suicidality, limited research has examined possible interrelationships. Through the use of a case study, this paper illustrates the role…

Research using retrospective or cross-sectional data suggests that suicidal ideation rates peak during mid-adolescence. This study used a longitudinal, community sample of adolescents who reported suicidal ideation repeatedly over 7 years to examine suicidal ideation trends. We hypothesized that a mid-adolescence peak in ideation is limited to…

In this article, I explore how talk about being "ready" or "not ready" for sex shapes teen and adult understandings of sexuality. I argue that this "discourse of readiness" poses serious threats to teens' identity development, sexual decision making, and educators efforts to help them through these processes. To illustrate, I draw from my…

The author reviews the main points in Freud's 1917 paper "Mourning and Melancholia" and relates them to the process of both normal and troubled adolescent development. Using clinical examples she illustrates the ways in which the processes Freud describes in melancholia operate in some disturbed adolescents such that instead of mourning the lost…

"Student voice" describes the many ways in which youth might have the opportunity to participate in school decisions that will shape their lives and the lives of their peers. Student voice opportunities allow students to work with teachers and administrators to co-create the path of reform, it enables youth to meet their own developmental needs,…

This study investigated the roles of sex, age, and parent-child communication in moderating the association between digital game violence and direct aggression in a two-year longitudinal study. Finnish 12- and 15-year-old adolescents (N = 316) participated in the follow-up survey. As hypothesized, digital game violence was linked to direct…

The current study provides new information on the etiology of adolescent problem behaviors in African American youth by testing the importance of known predictors, namely parenting measures (monitoring, support, and communication), peers, and neighborhood characteristics across rural and non-rural developmental contexts. More specifically, the…

An assessment from a holistic perspective considers the overall well-being of the adolescent and seeks to understand the adolescent's development and resiliency in relation to social relationships and their context and risks, given the association between these factors and the goal to promote each area. It is recommended that measures in the…

This paper examines the way lesbian identities are silenced in schools particularly through anti-lesbian harassment. Based on research with 30 self-identified lesbian teachers working across high schools in New South Wales, Australia, the discussion illustrates how various responses to anti-lesbian harassment silence the recognition of such…

This is a paper by an educator for other educators. This article is informed by psychoanalytic theory, although it is not about psychoanalysis. The hope for this paper is that it will inform teachers about shaming in the context of child and adolescent development--the child's as well as the teacher's own development. Shaming is not a solo. It's a…

Successful collaboration is an art form but can be developed through several smart practices. The authors discuss the meaning of collaboration, stakeholder perceptions of collaborative partnerships, and the experience of Summer Scholars, a nonprofit community organization that successfully uses collaboration to accomplish its mission. Further,…

This paper considers how issues of adolescent development might be brought into conversation with dilemmas in sex education. Here, sex education is larger than information, affirmation or prohibition. In its address to the most intimate aspects of life--love, loss, vulnerability, power, friendship, aggression--sex education is necessarily…