Interventions targeting parents of young children have shown effectiveness, but research is lacking about best practices for engaging parents of early adolescents. Low levels of enrollment and attendance in parenting interventions present major problems for researchers and clinicians. Effective and efficient ways to engage and collaborate with…

This mixed-methods longitudinal project investigates the association between student perceptions of their schools and themselves. Findings from the first two waves of data analysis with 894 middle and high school students in a midsized Great Lakes city reveal similarities and differences between the grade levels (7th-10th) and their perceptions of…

Social responsibility is a value orientation, rooted in democratic relationships with others and moral principles of care and justice, that motivates certain civic actions. Given its relevance for building stronger relationships and communities, the development of social responsibility within individuals should be a more concerted focus for…

Developing a sense of purpose is both salient and desirable for adolescents, and purpose in people's lives and careers is associated with both general and work-related well-being. However, little is known about whether purpose can be encouraged through school-based interventions. This article reports the results of a quasi-experimental pilot study…

Adolescents' friendships with other-sex peers serve important developmental functions, but they may also facilitate engagement in problem behavior. This study examines the unique contributions of other-sex friendships and friends' behavior to alcohol use, smoking, and initiation of sexual intercourse among late adolescent girls and boys. A total…

This study examined the levels and growth of specific and general normative beliefs about nonviolence (called norms for nonviolence). The sample consisted of 1254 middle school students from four metropolitan areas who participated in the control condition of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project. We predicted that the association and…

Objective: Based on the data obtained through Child Protective Services (CPS) case records abstraction, this study aimed to explore patterns of overlapping types of child maltreatment in a sample of urban, ethnically diverse male and female youth (n= 303) identified as maltreated by a large public child welfare agency. Methods: A cluster analysis…

This study examined ego resilience and engagement coping as mediators of the relationships between supportive and controlling parenting practices and early adolescents' academic achievement, social competence, and physical health. Participants were 240 predominantly Mexican American early adolescents, their parents, and their teachers. There were…

Using a person-centered approach, we examined the relations between goal selection, various indicators of parenting, and positive development among 510 Grades 9 to 11 participants (68% female) in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents. Goal selection was operationalized by the "Selection"…

For 16 years, a university teacher educator has been teaching a course on adolescent development using novels, memoirs, and case studies instead of the customary college textbook. Novels have included such award-winning works as Angelou's (1969) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Wolff's (1989) "This Boy's Life: A Memoir", Salinger's (1979)…

Depression often emerges during adolescence and persists into adulthood. Thus, it is critical to study risk factors that contribute to the development of depression in adolescence. One set of risk factors that has been recently studied in adolescent depression research is eating- and weight-related disturbances (EWRDs). EWRDs encompass negative…

In this study, time diary data from 1977 to 1978 and 2003 to 2005 are used to investigate time use in middle adolescence with the goals of ascertaining (a) changes in time use, (b) how socioeconomic and familial factors influence adolescent time allocation, and (c) the extent to which the mix of leisure undertaken by today's adolescents reflect a…

The goals of this study were to examine longitudinal changes in perceived control in adolescents' sibling relationships and to describe the nature and correlates of three distinct control patterns: firstborn dominant, equal, and secondborn dominant. Firstborn and secondborn adolescents in 184 predominately European-American families participated…

This opening article defines the ways in which three mentoring interaction elements--focus, purpose, and authorship--distinguish between effective and ineffective mentoring relationship styles. The framework described can help mentors better understand the difference between prescriptive and instrumental styles and differentiate laissez-faire from…

Advances in applied developmental science have contributed to the large literature on positive youth development (PYD) interventions. This study reports an investigation of a PYD program using an outcome-mediation evaluation model that drew on the treatment intervention science literature. The Changing Lives Program (CLP) is a community supported…