We examined how the development of familism values from 5th to 10th grade relates to 12th-grade prosocial tendencies (after controlling for 10th-grade prosocial tendencies) using a stratified random ...sample of 749 Mexican American adolescents (M = 10.42 years of age at 5th grade; 48.9% girls) from 35 culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods. Most of the families (44.3%) were at or below $25,000 in annual income. A 2nd-order linear growth model represented adolescents' familism values at 5th grade (intercepts) and change in familism values from 5th to 10th grade (slopes), with the vast majority of slopes being negative. Higher intercepts predicted greater compliant and emotional prosocial tendencies, and higher (i.e., more positive or less negative) slopes predicted greater dire (female adolescents only) and public prosocial tendencies at 12th grade. The results underscore the important role of familism values in prosocial development among Mexican American adolescents.
Since the advent of social networking site (SNS) technologies, adolescents’ use of these technologies has expanded and is now a primary way of communicating with and acquiring information about ...others in their social network. Overall, adolescents and young adults’ stated motivations for using SNSs are quite similar to more traditional forms of communication—to stay in touch with friends, make plans, get to know people better, and present oneself to others. We begin with a summary of theories that describe the role of SNSs in adolescents’ interpersonal relationships, as well as common methodologies used in this field of research thus far. Then, with the social changes that occur throughout adolescence as a backdrop, we address the ways in which SNSs intersect with key tasks of adolescent psychosocial development, specifically peer affiliation and friendship quality, as well as identity development. Evidence suggests that SNSs differentially relate to adolescents’ social connectivity and identity development, with sociability, self-esteem, and nature of SNS feedback as important potential moderators. We synthesize current findings, highlight unanswered questions, and recommend both methodological and theoretical directions for future research.
Parents' actions and knowledge of adolescents' whereabouts play key roles in preventing risk behaviors in early adolescence, but what enables parents to know about their adolescents' activities and ...what links there are to adolescent risk behaviors, such as substance use and delinquent behavior, remain unclear. In this study, we investigated whether different aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship predict parental knowledge, and we examined the direct and indirect longitudinal associations between these aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescents' self-reported delinquent behavior and substance use. The participants were 550 parents and their adolescent children from two small and two midsized municipalities in Sweden. Parental data were collected when the adolescents were 13 years old (mean), and adolescent data on risk behaviors were collected on two occasions, when they were 13 and 14 years of age (mean). Structural path analyses revealed that adolescent disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control predicted parental knowledge, with adolescent disclosure being the strongest source of parental knowledge and the strongest negative predictor of adolescent risk behaviors. Parenting competence and adolescents' connectedness to parents were indirectly, through adolescent disclosure and parental solicitation and parental control, associated with substance use and delinquent behavior. Some paths differed for boys and girls. In conclusion, confident parenting and a close parent-adolescent relationship in which adolescent disclosure is promoted, seem protective of adolescent engagement in risk behaviors.
The maturation of sleep regulatory systems during adolescence in combination with psychosocial and societal pressures culminate in a “Perfect Storm” of short and ill-timed sleep and the associated ...consequences for many youngsters. This model, first described by Carskadon in 2011, guides our current thinking of adolescent sleep behavior. Since the original description, the field has moved forward with remarkable pace, and this review aims to summarize recent progress and describe how this new work informs our understanding of sleep regulation and sleep behavior during this developmental time frame.
Background
Psychopathology and risky behaviors increase during adolescence, and understanding which adolescents are most at risk informs prevention and intervention efforts. Pubertal timing relative ...to same‐sex, same‐age peers is a known correlate of adolescent outcomes among both boys and girls. However, it remains unclear whether this relation is better explained by a plausible causal process or unobserved familial liability.
Methods
We extended previous research by examining associations between pubertal timing in early adolescence (age 14) and outcomes in later adolescence (age 17) in a community sample of 2,510 twins (49% boys, 51% girls).
Results
Earlier pubertal timing was associated with more substance use, risk behavior, internalizing and externalizing problems, and peer problems in later adolescence; these effects were small, consistent with previous literature. Follow‐up co‐twin control analyses indicated that within‐twin‐pair differences in pubertal timing were not associated with within‐twin‐pair differences in most adolescent outcomes after accounting for shared familial liability, suggesting that earlier pubertal timing and adolescent outcomes both reflect familial risk factors. Biometric models indicated that associations between earlier pubertal timing and negative adolescent outcomes were largely attributable to shared genetic liability.
Conclusions
Although earlier pubertal timing was associated with negative adolescent outcomes, our results suggests that these associations did not appear to be caused by earlier pubertal timing but were likely caused by shared genetic influences.
As an intensely social species, humans demonstrate the propensity to contribute to other individuals and groups by providing support, resources, or helping to achieve a shared goal. Accumulating ...evidence suggests that contribution benefits the givers as well as the receivers. The need to contribute during adolescence, however, has been underappreciated compared with more individually focused psychological or social developmental needs. The need is particularly significant during the teenage years, when children’s social world expands and they become increasingly capable of making contributions of consequence. Moreover, contribution can both promote and be a key element of traditionally conceived fundamental needs of the adolescent period such as autonomy, identity, and intimacy. The neural and biological foundations of the adolescent need to contribute, as well as the ways in which social environments meet that need, are discussed. A scientific and practical investment in contribution would synergize with other recent efforts to reframe thinking about the adolescent period, providing potential returns to the field as well as to youths and their communities.
Purpose
A social gradient in adolescent mental health exists: adolescents with higher socioeconomic status (SES) have fewer mental health problems than their peers with lower SES. Little is known ...about whether adolescents’ societal beliefs play a role in this social gradient. Belief in a just world (BJW) may be a mediator or moderator of the social gradient in adolescent mental health.
Methods
Using data from 848 adolescents (
M
age
= 17) in the Netherlands, path analyses examined whether two indicators of BJW (general and personal) mediated or moderated the associations between two indicators of SES (family affluence and perceived family wealth), and four indicators of adolescent mental health problems (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems).
Results
Adolescents with lower family affluence and lower perceived family wealth reported more emotional symptoms, and the association between perceived family wealth and emotional symptoms was mediated by lower personal and general BJW. Furthermore, higher personal BJW amplified the negative association between SES and peer problems.
Conclusion
This study suggests BJW may both mediate and amplify the social gradient in adolescent mental health. Adolescents’ beliefs about society may be important to include in research aimed at understanding this social gradient.
Parental burnout is a state that parents feel exhausted in their parental role. Although past research has examined concurrent correlates of parental burnout, the impacts of parental burnout on ...adolescent development over time remain largely unknown. The current study explored the indirect mechanisms linking mothers' parental burnout to adolescents' later internalizing and externalizing problems through maternal hostility among Chinese families. Using a sample of 606 adolescents (51.5% boys; Mage = 12.89 years old) and their mothers (Mage = 38.50 years old), this three-wave longitudinal study showed that mothers' parental burnout was predictive of adolescents' perceptions of their mothers' parental hostility over time, which were in turn related to adolescents' later internalizing and externalizing problems. Moreover, mothers' parental burnout was directly related to adolescents' later externalizing problems. Taken together, parental burnout played a role in adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems over time through increased parental hostility. These findings underscore the importance of parental burnout on parenting behavior and adolescent adjustment.
Abstract Self-regulation plays an important role in adolescent development, predicting success in multiple domains including school and social relationships. While researchers have paid increasing ...attention to the influence of parents on the development of adolescent self-regulation, we know little about the influence of peers and friends and even less about the influence of romantic partners on adolescent development of self-regulation. Extant studies examined a unidirectional model of self-regulation development rather than a bidirectional model of self-regulation development. Given that relationships and self-regulation develop in tandem, a model of bidirectional development between relationship context and adolescent self-regulation may be relevant. This review summarizes extant literature and proposes that in order to understand how adolescent behavioral and emotional self-regulation develops in the context of social relationships one must consider that each relationship builds upon previous relationships and that self-regulation and relationship context develop bidirectionally.
We provide a developmental perspective on two related issues: (a) why traditional preventative school-based interventions work reasonably well for children but less so for middle adolescents and (b) ...why some alternative approaches to interventions show promise for middle adolescents. We propose the hypothesis that traditional interventions fail when they do not align with adolescents’ enhanced desire to feel respected and be accorded status; however, interventions that do align with this desire can motivate internalized, positive behavior change. We review examples of promising interventions that (a) directly harness the desire for status and respect, (b) provide adolescents with more respectful treatment from adults, or (c) lessen the negative influence of threats to status and respect. These examples are in the domains of unhealthy snacking, middle school discipline, and high school aggression. Discussion centers on implications for basic developmental science and for improvements to youth policy and practice.
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