Although the positive youth development (PYD) model initially assumed inverse links between indicators of PYD and of risk/problem behaviors, empirical work in adolescence has suggested that more complex associations exist between trajectories of the two domains of functioning. To clarify the PYD model, this study assessed intraindividual change in…

The study of adolescent development rests on methodologically appropriate collection and interpretation of longitudinal data. While all longitudinal studies of adolescent development involve missing data, the methods to treat missingness that have been recommended most often focus on missing data from cross-sectional studies. The problems of…

This prospective longitudinal study examines the antecedents of adolescent mothers' transition into adulthood and their attainment of multiple adult statuses in their early 30s in a nonclinical sample. The distribution, timing, and impact of factors in adolescence (education, employment, marriage, economic status, criminal involvement, and others)…

Exposure to community violence can seriously threaten healthy adolescent development. This longitudinal study examines the relationship between exposure to violence in the community and the internalizing behaviors of Asian American and African American adolescents. Data analyzed was from 901 adolescents (57.9% female and 42.1% male, and 84.7%…

More youth live in poverty and poor youth comprise a larger share of the youth population than was the case a decade ago. This article first provides a descriptive analysis of children in poverty; examining the incidence of poverty among children by selected demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics with a particular focus on…

This article reviews the research literature on teaching and supporting purpose in adolescence and young adulthood. An extensive search revealed that most studies on youth purpose examine psychological correlates and neglect instructional and social supports. School is an effective context for fostering purpose, yet reported approaches for…

In recent years, there has been a flurry of media and public policy attention paid to adolescent literacy. The attention has taken shape in the form of federal policies, research, recommendations from private entities, and position statements from professional organizations. The work pressing upon educators now is to engage substantively with…

This report focuses on the development of reading proficiency during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. The span of time between the ages of 15 and 24 is a critical period of development for young people. Once compulsory education is completed, individual decisions about post-secondary education, employment and other life choices…

Background: School-based recreational opportunities for youth from low-income inner-city neighbourhoods are often lacking. School programs represent an ideal location for promoting youth development in low-income areas because they can provide safe, supervised, and structured activities. Such activities should include not only physical education…

Afterschool programs across the country provide critically needed services to the nation's children and families; however, many afterschool providers find it difficult to serve youth once they enter middle school. Middle school youth have a unique set of social, emotional and academic needs, and afterschool successfully weaves these together,…

The authors carried out an assessment of social support networks with a sample of 884 Spanish adolescents aged 12 to 17. The main goal was to analyze the development of the figures of parents and peers as providers of social support in the two basic dimensions of emotional and instrumental support. In peers, they distinguished between the contexts…

Transformation is the act of changing in form, nature or character. It is the process in which we learn something new or are so affected by an event or a conversation that our own selves are no longer the same. Many experiences can cause this transformation: a loss, a tragedy, or an interaction with a friend, loved one or stranger. Transformation…

Guided by an ecological framework, we explore how siblings' and parents' roles, relationships, and activities are intertwined in everyday life, providing unique and combined contributions to development. In a departure from past research that emphasized the separate contributions of siblings and parents to individual development, we find that…

Intellectual and psychosocial functioning develop along complex learning pathways. Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, and Banich measured these two classes of abilities with narrow, biased assessments that captured only a segment of each pathway and created misleading age patterns based on ceiling and floor effects. It is a simple matter to…

This chapter identifies four challenges to the study of the development of coping and regulation and outlines specific theoretical and empirical strategies for addressing them. The challenges are (1) to integrate work on coping and processes of emotion regulation, (2) to use the integration of research on neuro-biology and context to inform the…