Examines the relationship between self-evaluation and social comparison in adolescent males during their last two years of high school. The question is empirically examined in two realms that capture primary features of the adolescent transition: physical transformation and social role reorganization. (Author/RH)

Examined the relation between authoritative parenting and school achievement in 120 adolescents of 10-16 years. Adolescents who described their parents as treating them warmly, democratically, and firmly were more likely than their peers to develop positive attitudes toward their achievement and do well in school. (RJC)

This study examined the role of adolescent perceptions of parental behavior and disrupted parenting in the continuity of antisocial behavior across generations. Participants included 430 adolescents and their biological parents assessed during the period from the 9th to 12th grades (9th grade age in years: M=15.09, SD=0.43). Structural equation…

This editorial discusses the "Child Development" journal's 25 percent manuscript acceptance rate, the publishing of good papers, the absence of editorial bias in the journal, and the conservatism of scientific research. The increase in studies of adolescent development is noted. Editorial and writing standards are stressed. (BC)

Fifth through eighth graders completed self-reports in response to pager signals received over one week and again four years later. Responses indicated that thinking about the opposite sex occurs earlier than spending time with the opposite sex alone and that both increase over time. Girls spent more time with opposite sex and more time thinking…

Examined mother-adolescent congruence in reports of adolescent sexual behavior and communication about sex in 745 African American adolescents (ages 14-17). Found that adolescent perceptions and reports were more predictive of adolescent sexual behavior than maternal reports. Mothers underestimated their teens' sexual activity, and teens…

To characterize cognitive maturation through adolescence, processing speed, voluntary response suppression, and spatial working memory were measured in 8- to 30-year-old (N=245) healthy participants using oculomotor tasks. Development progressed with a steep initial improvement in performance followed by stabilization in adolescence. Adult-level…

Developmental change in self-esteem was assessed from early adolescence through early adulthood. Found that males tended to increase and females to decrease in self-esteem over time and that there was rank order consistency in self-esteem over time. Within each gender, individuals' differences in developmental trajectories were related to…

Examined the validity of an observational assessment of adolescent social competence within a group interaction during a revealed differences task. Found that ratings of task enjoyment, involvement, leadership, self-confidence in task, and global social competence showed strong correlations to counselor ratings and peer sociometrics and were…

Used semi-parametric mixture model with boys assessed repeatedly from 6 to 15 years to approximate a continuous distribution of developmental trajectories for aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity. Found that a chronic oppositional trajectory, with other trajectories held constant, led to covert delinquency only. A chronic physical aggression…

The influence of the sleep patterns of 2,259 students, aged 11 to 14 years, on trajectories of depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and grades was longitudinally examined using latent growth cross-domain models. Consistent with previous research, sleep decreased over time. Students who obtained less sleep in sixth grade exhibited lower initial…

Five-year longitudinal patterns and the influence of developmental transitions on 76 middle-class African American late adolescents' (M18.43 years) relationships with parents were examined. Late adolescents were closer to mothers than to fathers. Controlling for age, late adolescent females who had left home reported less negative relationships…

College students who took the Defining Issues Test (DIT) were instructed to simulate the responses of 11-, 15-, and 19-year-old adolescents; other college students selected moral issues which they believed should be presented to adolescents in those age groups who were faced with the moral dilemmas in the DIT. (Author/DB)

This study examined ways in which adolescent attachment security is manifest in qualities of the secure base provided by mother-adolescent relationships among at-risk ninth- and tenth-graders. Findings suggest that security is closely connected to the mother-adolescent relationship via a secure-base phenomenon, in which the teen can explore…

Investigated effects of pubertal, social, and biological factors on negative affect of 103 White girls aged 10 t0 14 years. Results indicate that social factors, and the interaction of negative life events and pubertal factors, accounted for more variance than did hormonal pubertal factors alone. (RJC)