Adolescent risky behaviors are often interpreted as products of self-control failures stemming from a developmental mismatch between reward processing and cognitive control systems. However, adolescents -- much like adults -- may also engage in risky behaviors because of conscious and deliberate (even if objectively poor) decisions. It is not easy…

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits predict behavioral problems in adolescence. But little is known about early modulatory factors. Behavioral Inhibition (BI) in particular has been suggested to protect against the development of CU-traits. This temperamental predisposition is characterized by heightened environmental sensitivity. The current…

In this article, I discuss major theoretical and methodological issues in the study of cultural meanings of children's behaviors. Research in this area is conducted mainly through assessing individual beliefs using hypothetical vignettes or other self-report methods. I argue that it is important to investigate functional meanings of children's…

We conducted a meta-analytic review of 53 studies published between 2000 and 2020 to quantify associations of parents' emotion regulation with parenting behavior and children's emotion regulation and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Twelve meta-analyses, which included between 4 to 22 effect sizes (N from 345 to 3609), were conducted to…

The dysregulation profile (DP) in youth is characterized by severe emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dysregulation and is associated with an increased risk for psychiatric disorders. Adolescent self-regulation has important implications for adulthood outcomes, yet this association is understudied in the context of the DP in emerging adults.…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted opportunities for adolescents to progress through a typical developmental trajectory of adjustment and self-regulation. Adolescents across many contexts have shown an increase in adjustment difficulties during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. Utilizing data collected from 830 Italian adolescents from…

Few studies have used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and exploratory bifactor factor analysis (EBFA) to define a baseline factor structure model checking the construct-relevant psychometric multidimensionality of student engagement. This study was conducted on a sample of 3,374 students in France, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and Luxembourg by…

This study examined age-related changes in friend similarity on delinquency to determine whether deviant behavior homophily peaks during mid-adolescence. A community sample of 1,663 male and 1,826 female Swedish youth from Grade 5 (M = 11.21 years) to Grade 10 (M = 16.25 years) provided self-reports of delinquency. Friendships were identified from…

This article aims to provide a critical analysis of how much we know about the effectiveness of parental monitoring in preventing adolescent delinquency. First, it describes the historical developments in parental monitoring research. Second, it explains why it is uncertain whether causal inferences can be drawn from contemporary research findings…

This longitudinal study explores differences between native Dutch and immigrant Moroccan adolescents in the relationship between internalizing and externalizing problems across time. By using generalized estimating equations (GEE), the strength and stability of associations between internalizing and externalizing problems in 159 Moroccan and 159…

Premature infants have significant risk for later behavior problems. This study examined growth trajectories of three problem behaviors across five developmental age points from preschool to early adulthood in a well-characterized sample of premature infants. The effects of neonatal risk, gender, and socioeconomic context were modeled on these…

Children adopted from institutions at older ages are at increased risk of persistent attention problems, lower cognition, and academic difficulties. This study examined cognitive and behavior problems as mediators of the association between early psychosocial deprivation and academic functioning. Participants were 8-17-year-old children adopted…

We tested the peer-socialization/contextual-amplification explanation for the link between early female puberty and problem behaviour. We propose that in cultures with high tolerance for adolescent heterosexual involvement, early puberty should be linked with problem behaviour--not in other cultures. We compared girls in two cultures (Slovakia and…

Home-leaving is considered an important marker of the transition to adulthood and is usually framed as an individual decision. We move beyond this limited assumption to examine a broader conceptualization that might better illuminate home-leaving among youth in impoverished circumstances. We adopt the Problem Behavior Theory-framework to…

We compared the predictive validity of five aggregation methods for multiple informant data on child and adolescent behavior problems. In addition, we compared the predictive validity of these aggregation methods with single informant scores. Data were derived from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N = 175). Maternal and…