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…

In a study of French-speaking adolescents (n=547), five measures designed to examine psychological well being found that body image, self-esteem, and negative stressful life events mediate the relationship between gender and depressive symptoms during adolescence. Further analysis of a subsample who recently transitioned to high school also found…

Describes the different types of graffiti: (1) private forms of graffiti (doodling and latrinalia); and (2 public forms (gang graffiti, tags, and pieces). Uses teenage psychology to interpret adolescents' involvement in graffiti. Examines graffiti art in relation to its educational implications for secondary art education. (CMK)

Examined relationships between adolescents' explanations for unemployment, poverty, and homelessness, and their beliefs about opportunity, reports of family values, and personal aspirations. Found that likelihood of attributing problems to societal causes was positively related to maternal education and average household income in adolescent's…

Examined impact of mood, age, and gender on decision processes in a job-selection task for seventh through twelfth graders and adults. Found that females discarded more information and took longer to decide in negative versus positive or neutral moods. Junior high females were more pessimistic about their chances to obtain their desired job;…

This longitudinal study examined expectations about university and subsequent adjustment in the first year among 226 students. Results indicated that students with more complex expectations about university tended to adjust better to stressful circumstances than students with simpler expectations. (Author/KB)

Within the systemic framework of comprehensive school counseling programs, this article explores middle school counselors' vital role in collaborating with other educators to promote the academic development of early adolescents. Research pertinent to contemporary middle school counseling in this developmental domain is summarized, especially as…

While many youth are disconnected from adults, the people seem clueless as to what to do about this serious problem. The quality of connections is directly related to the quality of the total interpersonal environment. This article takes a systems perspective on the problem of connecting with youth, with particular emphasis on what communities,…

Teachers and other school staff are overwhelmed with myriad concerns. As a result, many view positive youth development as just "one more thing" to add to an already full plate. This article assists educators in understanding how positive youth development (PYD) is inherent in good educational practice, and does not have to be one more thing.…