Search

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on Contemporary Issues in Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and Beyond. First, we give an account of the history of research on religious and spiritual development in adolescence and beyond. Although religion and spirituality have a long history in psychology, it is still an emerging area of research. Second, we summarize the current body of work on religious and spiritual development in adolescence and beyond. Most research in this area has focused on outcomes, particularly religion and spirituality as a protective factor against negative youth outcomes. Some work has also looked at individual and contextual predictors of religion and spirituality. Less is known about processes and trajectories of religious development, particularly in terms of changes in religious identification. Third, we recommend directions for future research in this area. We focus on the need for research to look at the role of religion and spirituality in positive youth development, the religious and spiritual experiences of religious minority youth, religious and spiritual challenges faced by sexual minority youth, and processes and predictors of religious deconversion. Fourth, we outline the four review papers on contemporary issues in religious and spiritual development featured in the special issue. These papers provide literature reviews on four important directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Doxa Comunicación is the property of Fundacion Universitaria San Pablo - CEU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Psychiatric illness in adolescence is associated with long-term impairments, making it critical to identify predictors of adolescent psychiatric distress. Individual differences in stress sensitivity could be associated with longitudinal trajectories of internalizing symptoms. Historically, researchers have operationalized stress sensitivity by assessing either objective or subjective responses to stress. However, we posit that the relative discordance between subjective and objective responses to stress is a critical metric of stress sensitivity. We examined whether two discordance-based indices of stress sensitivity were related to one another and to trajectories of internalizing psychopathology among a sample of 101 adolescent youths (Mage = 12.80 at baseline; 55% males) across two successive stressors: the high school transition and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using latent growth curve modeling, we found that greater discordance between subjective (i.e., affective) and objective (i.e., cortisol) responses to a social-evaluative stressor was associated with higher internalizing symptoms at baseline and an accelerated symptom growth trajectory across the first year of the pandemic. In contrast, early life stress sensitivity was not associated with internalizing symptoms. Findings suggest that the discordance between objective and subjective experiences of social-evaluative stress predicts a pernicious growth trajectory of internalizing symptoms during adolescence. This work advances current methodologies, contributes to theoretical models of internalizing psychopathology, and with replication could have implications for policy and practice by identifying a key vulnerability factor that increases adolescents' psychiatric distress over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to examine the effects of a group counseling program based on spirituality-integrated cognitive behavioral therapy on adolescents' trait anger, anger control, external dysfunctional emotion regulation, and positive religious coping. The research used a quasiexperimental design with a pretest-posttest control group. Criterion sampling, which is one of the purposive sampling types, was used in the selection of the participants in the study. Participants who met the criteria determined within the scope of the study were ranked according to their scores. Then, odd-numbered ones were assigned to the control group, and even-numbered ones were assigned to the experimental group. While the mean age of the experimental group (n=10) comprising 6 female and 4 male participants was 16.1, the mean age of the control group (n=10) comprising 8 female and 2 male participants was 15.4. The psychological counseling program was applied to the experimental group with 8 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. The trait Anger and Anger Style Scale, Religious Coping Scale, and Adolescent Emotion Regulation Scale were used as data collection tools. Mann-Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were used in data analysis. As a result of the study, it was found that the cognitive behavioral therapy-based group spiritual counseling program significantly decreased adolescents' trait anger and external dysfunctional emotion regulation skills, and significantly increased their anger control and positive religious coping levels. The findings were discussed within the literature framework and recommendations were presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of adolescents are more likely to have both internalized and externalized behavioral issues. These behavioral problems are linked to temperament because studies show that particular temperamental traits are related to the chance of developing subsequent behavior problems. So this study focused on at what extent temperament is related to adolescent behavior problems. The purpose of the current study is to examine the association between temperament and behavioral issues in adolescents. The study was cross-sectional in nature. 67 people were chosen at random from the Thrissur district. Both male and female adolescents at higher secondary levels were included. The age range of the participants was 15-18. Problem Behavior Rating Scale (Radhika, Immanuel Thomas, & Nice Mary, 2005) and Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire- Revised (Milu Maria Anto & Jayan, 2014) was used to collect the data. Mean, Standard deviation, t test, and correlation were used to employ the interpretation of the data. Significant negative correlation was observed in the temperamental factor Effortful Control (EC) and Behavior Problems (r= -0.277*; p<0.05), where as significant positive correlation was observed in the temperamental factor Surgency (SU) and behavior problems (r=0.282; p<0.05). The study concluded that temperamental characteristics are associated with behavior problems. The study also provided useful information to the parents and teachers regarding the temperamental variations in problem behavior of the adolescents, which can be helped them to make considerations, assessments, and interventions planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding Americans' deeply held and widely shared assumptions about adolescents and their development can reveal key opportunities and challenges for developmental science communicators. Twenty‐nine in‐depth interviews were conducted with adolescents and adults about adolescence. We analyzed the cultural models the public use to make meaning about what adolescence is, what development involves, what adolescents need, and how adolescents can be supported. The analysis revealed several cultural models that may impede public engagement around youth issues. These dominant ways of thinking include a strong focus on the vulnerability of adolescence and a narrow understanding of how environments affect adolescent development. The findings have important implications for communicators seeking to expand and deepen public thinking about adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective emphasizes adolescents' potential for healthy, successful development. Researchers have introduced a variety of constructs that may promote PYD. For example, Intentional Self‐Regulation (ISR) enables youth to seek out and use resources in the environment; purpose can help youth navigate and overcome obstacles. We examine connections between ISR, purpose and two PYD outcomes: confidence and connection. Data come from 763 Scottish youth (ages 12–14). We estimated fixed‐effects regression models predicting confidence and connection from both ISR and purpose, confirming outcomes were independently associated with one or both predictors. Our findings are especially salient to the field of youth purpose, linking purpose with specific PYD outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents are stereotypically viewed as risk-takers ("stereotypical risktakers") in science, mainstream media, fictional literature and in everyday life. However, increasing research suggests that adolescents do not always engage in "heightened" risk-taking, and adolescents' own perspectives (motives) on risk-taking are largely neglected in research. Hence, this paper is a commentary and review with two aims. First, taking a cross-national perspective, we discuss the definition of adolescence and risk behavior. We argue that much of the research on what drives adolescent risk behavior (e.g., substance use) focuses on the harms that this behavior promotes rather than on the need to explore and grow into adulthood. Thereafter we summarize the dominant approach to studying motives behind substance use, which has mostly considered young adults, and which has typically not focused on adolescents' own self-generated motives. The few empirical studies (including one of our qualitative studies) on adolescents' own motivations for engaging in risk behavior (i.e., cannabis use, alcohol use, and tobacco smoking) show that the most frequently mentioned motives by adolescents were being cool/tough, enjoyment, belonging, having fun and experimenting and coping. Interestingly, the "cool/tough identity" motive is virtually overlooked in research on adolescent risk-taking. The above-mentioned motives, however, generally support newer theories, such as the Developmental Neuro-Ecological Risk-taking Model (DNERM) and the Life-span Wisdom Model that suggest that adolescents' motivations to engage in risk-taking include experimentation, identity development, explorative behavior, and sensation seeking, all of which run counter to the stereotype of adolescents engaging in risk-taking due to "storm and stress." Hence, we also briefly consider additional recent attempts to study positive forms of risk taking. Second, extrapolating from sociological/criminological theories on labeling, we suggest that caution is warranted when (inaccurately) labeling adolescents as the "stereotypical risk-takers," because this can instigate a risktaking identity in adolescents and/or motivate them to associate with risktaking peers, which could in turn lead to maladaptive forms of risk-taking. Empirical research testing these hypotheses is needed. To conclude we argue that research on adolescent risk-taking could further benefit from considering adolescent's own motivations, which is also in line with the participatory approach advocated by international children's rights standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent decisions, especially in novel contexts, are often guided by affective evaluations (i.e., feelings associated with a stimulus) rather than knowledge of the risks and probabilities of different outcomes. In this study, we used the affect-driven exploration (ADE) model to illustrate how affective evaluations can play a critical role in driving early use of cigarettes, as well as the adaptive function of the resulting experiential learning in informing future affect and cigarette use. We analyzed five waves of data collected from a large, diverse community sample of adolescents who were followed from early to late adolescence (N = 386; 50.9% female; Baseline age = 11.41 ± 0.88 years) during years 2004–2010 to model trajectories of positive affect and risk perceptions (associated with cigarette use) and examined the associations of these trajectories with their self-reported cigarette use and dependence symptoms. Consistent with the ADE model, early initiators reported higher levels of positive affect at baseline, which we argue may have led them to try cigarettes. Notably, most early initiators reported a decline in positive affect over time, suggesting an experience-based shift in affective evaluations associated with cigarette use. Risk perceptions associated with cigarette use did not emerge as a significant predictor of cigarette use or subsequent dependence. Therefore, for deterring adolescent cigarette use, efforts to influence affect (through graphic warning labels and other media) may be more effective than directly influencing risk perceptions. Despite the affective basis for initiating cigarette use, few adolescents engaged in early use (N = 20) or developed symptoms of dependence (N = 25). Majority of those who engaged in early cigarette use showed a decline in positive affect, with corresponding increase in risk perceptions over time. Some early users may indeed continue to engage in cigarette use, but this is likely driven by the addictive properties of the drug. Overall these findings challenge the popular stereotype of impulsive and emotionally reactive behaviors during adolescence, and suggest a more nuanced interpretation of adolescent risk behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One specific instantiation of the storm-and-stress view of adolescence is the idea that “normal” adolescence involves high-risk substance use behaviors. However, although uptake of some substance use behaviors is more common during adolescence than other life stages, it is clear that not all adolescents engage in risky substance use—and among those who do, there is much variation in emotional, behavioral, and contextual precursors of this behavior. One such set of predictors forms the internalizing pathway to substance use disorder, whereby internalizing symptoms in childhood such as negative affect and anxiety set off a chain of consequences culminating in high-risk substance use in late adolescence. However, findings linking internalizing symptoms to substance use are mixed, and it is clear that this link varies across adolescents and contexts. One heretofore unanswered question is whether and how geographic location, specifically whether the adolescent lives in an urban or rural location, moderates this link. The current report is a secondary analysis of data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; N = 2,285), in which we examined the link between internalizing symptoms in childhood and initiation of substance use through age 19. Using a multiple event process survival mixture model (MEPSUM), we identified three trajectories of substance use initiation in adolescence: one (65.7% of the sample) characterized by nearcomplete abstinence until late adolescence, another (27.2%) by earlier initiation of alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis, and another (7.2%) by early initiation of these substances and later initiation of more hazardous drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine. Although childhood externalizing symptoms increased the risk of being in the second or third class, internalizing symptoms decreased risk when rural and non-rural adolescents were considered together. Few effects of rurality were found, but the negative relationship between internalizing at age 10 and high-risk substance use was only observed among non-rural adolescents. This finding, which was inconsistent with our initial predictions that rurality might confer higher risk for substance use, instead suggests a potentially protective effect of internalizing symptoms for engagement in risky substance use which may differ based on an adolescent’s geographical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of recent calls for psychology to use more strengths-based approaches when studying the life experiences of girls, this qualitative archival diary study examined two famous Holocaust-era diaries for evidence of the resilience of adolescence in girls. Adolescent-themed passages were selected from the posthumously published diaries of Anne Frank and Renia Speigel, who kept private diaries while under grave threat and devastation of WWII and the Holocaust. To explore how the ordinary affairs of adolescent development may have contributed to their resilience, we used thematic analysis to explore the prevalence and emotional valence of four themes of adolescence: evolving social-relationships, emotional fluctuation, cognitive-identity changes, and physical changes. Adolescent-themed diary passages were predominantly positive, focused on love, joy, excitement, lust, self-efficacy, trust, contentment, and justice. Negatively valanced adolescent-themed passages described commonplace social concerns of relationship conflict, sadness, social-emotional distance, embarrassment, frustration, and jealousy. Whether positive or negative in valence, the adolescent-themed passages revealed gender-role consistent attention to relationships, alongside gender-role violating confessions of unrestrained sexuality and independence, as well. Theoretical conceptions of the resilience of adolescent girls and implications for theorists and trauma care providers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although psychosocial functioning and personality are indisputably interrelated in adulthood, much less is known about these associations in early adolescence. Accordingly, the goal of the current study was twofold. First, we investigated associations between adolescents' personality and three broad indicators of psychosocial functioning: academic achievement, social relationships, and psychosocial adjustment. Second, we tested differential effects by comparing these associations across three different cohorts (Grades 5, 7, and 9) and across two raters of adolescents' personality: self- and parent reports. Our sample consisted of N = 2667 students and their parents. According to latent regression models, adolescents' personality traits showed significant associations with all psychosocial functioning variables: Achievement was most consistently associated with emotional stability, openness, and conscientiousness; social relationships were most consistently associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness; and psychosocial adjustment was related to all of the Big Five traits. Most associations did not vary across grades, whereas self-reported extraversion showed lower associations in later grades. Looking at rater-specific effects, we found fewer and usually smaller associations with parent- than with self-rated personality, again with the most significant differences with extraversion. We discuss the consistent interrelatedness between adolescents' personality and psychosocial functioning but also highlight important exceptions in grade- and rater-specificities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his monumental work, Adolescence, G. Stanley Hall showed the value of interdisciplinary scholarship and respect for research, which had a policy orientation. Over the course of the 20th century these two characteristics faded in adolescent studies as psychology took dominance and basic research was given priority over policy considerations. An argument is made that there is value in revisiting Hall's approach as studies of adolescence can be enriched through interdisciplinary efforts and research which brings policy to the forefront. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Encuentros is the property of Universidad Autonoma del Caribe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As a means to disrupt the historical and present narratives of adolescence and adolescent development, which often build upon and reify settler colonialism and white supremacy, this article calls for theoretical and methodological reconsiderations of colonial-centered developmental science, particularly regarding Native American youth. Thus situated, this article has two purposes. The first is to illuminate the constitutive nature of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the constructs of adolescence and adolescent development—and the ways these continue to adversely impact Indigenous youth. From this exigency, the second purpose is to articulate a framework designed to inform developmental science's anti-racist aims, especially related to disrupting ongoing settler colonialism, engaging in culturally humble inquiry with Native youth and communities, and supporting Indigenous (youth) futurity. To elucidate this framework, this article brings together Native youth-focused developmental research, Indigenous methodologies scholarship, and experiences gained and lessons learned from a long-term research project with Native youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The timing of smartphone acquisition for children and adolescence has gained public interest and research on the topic is just beginning. Parent-late adolescent dyads (n = 8; 16 individuals) from one community were recruited for participation in a study regarding smartphone acquisition in adolescence. Late adolescents (mage = 18; female n = 4; male n = 4) and parents (mage = 47; female n = 6; male n = 2) completed in-depth interviews or online surveys with open-ended items. A qualitative case study approach was selected, and inductive analytic methods were implemented. Themes indicated that age and maturity, practical reasons, and social and individual consequences were all taken into consideration when determining the timing of adolescent smartphone acquisition. Most participants reported that there was a right age for adolescents to receive a smartphone, but the ages varied (mage = 15). Results from this study support the need for research on the potential influence of age of smartphone acquisition on adolescent developmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this manuscript, we engage with Thomas Ogden's recent reconceptualization of D.W. Winnicott's seminal description of the movement between object-relating and object-usage. We begin by closely reading Ogden updates to Winnicott's description of the movement from object-relating, the time in infancy where babies relate primarily along dimensions of a shared reality and sameness to object-usage where they can "use" objects in the external world and so tolerate difference. Ogden highlights how this process necessarily involves the mother's "real destruction"; the felt and lived experience of her identity as a "good enough mother" being destroyed by the baby's aggression. Although we find this an incredibly valuable addition to the literature, we believe that Ogden's reconceptualization does not quite go far enough. Describing this destruction as real maintains problematic confusion surrounding the infant's agency. Accordingly, we provide a different way of viewing development, which highlights the dynamics of articulation and collapse. This idea allows us to better appreciate and situate destruction within the realm of adolescence. We offer examples from literature and our clinical work to demonstrate this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including that of G. Stanley Hall's article on adolescence and the scientific study of developmental psychology.

As seen in this issue, many Jewish educators are focusing much attention on helping to develop a generation of resilient, healthy, and thriving youth, as much as they are concerned with the Jewish development of these teens. Brookner unpacks the aspiration of such programs to socialize Jewish youth into recognizing the importance of donating both to Jewish causes and within a Jewish framework. [Extracted from the article]

Items of the Resistance to Peer Influence Questionnaire (RPIQ) have a tree-based structure. On each item, individuals first choose whether a less versus more peer-resistant group best describes them; they then indicate whether it is "Really true" versus "Sort of true" that they belong to the chosen group. Using tree-based item response theory, we show that RPIQ items tap three dimensions: A Resistance to Peer Influence (RPI) dimension and two Response Polarization dimensions. We then reveal subgroup differences on these dimensions. That is, adolescents with mild-to-borderline intellectual disability, compared with typically developing adolescents, are less RPI and more polarized in their responses. Also, girls, compared with boys, are more RPI, and, when high RPI, more polarized in their responses. Together, these results indicate that a tree-based modeling approach yields a more sensitive measure of individuals' RPI as well as their tendency to respond more or less extremely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a time of transition from childhood to adulthood during which significant changes occur across multiple domains, including emotional experience. This article reviews the relevant literature on adolescents' experience of four specific dimensions of emotion: emotional frequency, intensity, instability, and clarity. In an effort to examine how emotional experiences change as individuals approach adulthood, we examine these dimensions across ages 10 to 19, and review how the emotional functioning of adolescents compares to that of adults. In addition, we explore whether and how gender and puberty explain age differences in emotional experience. Finally, we discuss how these findings could inform future research on both the typical trajectory of emotional experience and the development of psychopathology in adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work has indicated that female adolescents mature more quickly than males with regard to the various personality dimensions. From the developmental perspectives, this study aimed to explore gender differences in the relationships between resilience and the Big Five personality traits in Japanese adolescents. Middle school students (N=310, 155 females, age range=14-15 years) participated in an online survey. The results demonstrated that females had higher Conscientiousness than males. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that Neuroticism was the most influential predictor of resilience in females, whereas Extraversion was the most important predictor in males. Multigroup path analysis demonstrated that the effect of Neuroticism on resilience was greater for females; however, the effects of all other variables did not differ across genders. Considering gender differences is important to understand the relationship between resilience and the Big Five dimensions among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevailing cultural views of adolescence are the product, this article argues, of a long, multidimensional process of social construc-tion. Employing a double reading of this process, this article analyzes the difficulties religious educators face on account of the reified nature of this social construction. Drawing on philosophical and psychological understandings of human flourishing, this article presents and argues for a different way of thinking about adolescents and the religious congregation's role in religious education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health practice involving adolescents is largely focused on preventing or delaying the initiation of risk behavior. However, given the experimental and exploratory nature of this developmental period, this is often impractical. This article focuses on behavioral transitions and the ways in which youth involved in risk behaviors shift to more promotive behaviors. Based on a positive youth development perspective, in-depth interviews with urban youth were conducted and analyzed to gain an understanding of the influences on behavior change. Specific family support, ability to detach from harmful peer relationships, and school connectedness and vocational support emerged as important to those youths who made a positive behavioral transition. These findings suggest the importance of understanding ways to support the cessation of involvement in risk behaviors and reinforce the significance of contextual influences on youth development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research linking teen motherhood to psychoneurodevelopmental causes and pathologies has proliferated in the past two decades. In Brazil, a psychodevelopmental project of teen motherhood has gained traction despite many experts' long-standing commitment to psychodynamic psychiatry and social epidemiology, generating epistemic tension rather than substitution. Drawing on historical ethnography conducted in Southern Brazil, I explore how this project materialized through the co-production of epistemic struggles, remedial interventions, and ontological politics. In showing how this co-production became interwoven with incremental changes in young women's emotions, sexualities, relationships, and bodies, I describe how one particular "kind" of teen motherhood emerged and became entangled with both psychiatric knowledge-production and the angst of working-class political agency. In giving women a contested psychiatric language with which to rework their social-moral worlds, I argue that science did more than conceptualize teen childbearing in pathological terms; it contributed to its troubled transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses Shakespeare’s adolescent Prince Hal, his relationship to his father, Henry IV, his rebellion, which included a turn to an anti-social mentor, a substitute father, Falstaff. This study explores Shakespeare’s portrayal of the evolution of the complex father-son relationship. Eventually, Prince Hal gives up his rebellion and takes on his adult role, becoming Henry V. Relevant aspects of adolescence are highlighted, including the transition from an adolescence dominated by a narcissistic object choice to an adulthood in which the ego ideal is the most prominent driving force of his behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Enfances, Familles, Generations is the property of Enfances, Familles, Generations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present study investigated the development of global and domain-specific self-representations in the transition from late childhood to early adolescence and tested whether gender, puberty, and school transition help explain individual differences in change. The study was based on three measurement occasions over 2 years and included 248 adolescents (average age at T1 = 10.6 years). Findings indicated both stability and change over time. Individual differences in change were partially explained by gender and school transition. It revealed that girls experienced steeper decreasing trajectories and were more negatively affected by school transition in comparison with boys. Time-varying associations between puberty and self-representations were evident in terms of perceived pubertal timing. Findings suggest that both biological (pubertal timing) and contextual factors (school transition) play a role in explaining individual differences of self-representation level as well as their development in girls’ and boys’ transition to early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper adolescence is seen as a cultural historical phenomenon and not as a biological unavoidable developmental stage. It is demonstrated that in earlier centuries there was no such thing as adolescence; that since the 18th century adolescence as a developmental stage became longer and longer; and that adolescence does not exist within pre-industrial countries. It is claimed that the classical adolescence, as described by Stanley Hall is in our time disappearing. This is a slower process in the USA than in Western Europe, because of the commercial importance of adolescence in the USA. It is concluded that adolescence researchers should start from the conviction that adolescents are full-fledged interlocutors, who should carry societal responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology / Hattatsu Shinrigaku Kenkyū is the property of Japan Society of Developmental Psychology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The author discusses the concept of adolescence and its acceptance as a biological imperative, a developmental mandate, and an explanation for young people's behavior. Topics discussed include the shift of the fundamentals of labor from largely agrarian to predominantly industrial forms, the 1904 naming of adolescence as a distinct life stage in the human experience, and adolescence as the default starting point for most adult interactions with youth in the academic and practice literatures.

Background Risk-taking, which involves voluntary choices for behaviors where outcomes remain uncertain, undergoes considerable developmental changes during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. In addition, risk-taking is thought to be a key element of many externalizing disorders, such as ADHD, delinquency, conduct disorder, and substance abuse. In this review, we will discuss the potential adaptive and nonadaptive properties of risk-taking in childhood and adolescence. Findings We propose that the changes in brain architecture and function are a crucial element underlying these developmental trajectories. We first identify how subcortical and cortical interactions are important for understanding risk-taking behavior in adults. Next, we show how developmental changes in this network underlie changes in risk-taking behavior. Finally, we explore how these differences can be important for understanding externalizing behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence. Conclusions We conclude that longitudinal studies are of crucial importance for understanding these developmental trajectories, and many of these studies are currently underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stigma within the context of mental illness has been conceptualized as problematic or negative knowledge, attitudes, and behavior held against someone with mental illness. Perceptions of stigma and care receipt have been explored in adult clinical populations; however, these experiences have not been widely explored with adolescent clinical populations who self-harm. The purpose of this study was to explore youths’ perceptions of stigma. Using a cross-sectional design, open-ended interviews were conducted with 12 adolescents (14–19 years, 83% female). Data were examined with content analysis. Results indicated that youth reported experiences of stigma from both clinicians and other patients, and some of these youth reported stigmatizing others with mental health disorders. Youth reported varied experiences with stigma and varied experiences with care receipt. Implications for practice include attention to perceived stigma in healthcare settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explored the development of mood variability in 474 Dutch adolescents (56.8% male, 90.1% medium to high socioeconomic status) from a community sample, followed from ages 13 to 18 years. Three times per year, adolescents reported on daily happiness, anger, sadness, and anxiety for 5 days using Internet diaries (15 assessment weeks; from 2006 to 2010). Mood variability scores were calculated as means of absolute differences between consecutive days. Results showed that happiness, anger, and sadness variability continuously declined across adolescence, while anxiety variability increased initially, then decreased, and then increased toward late adolescence. Despite females experiencing higher happiness and sadness variability, the rate of change across adolescence was similar for both sexes. Implications for normative emotional development and future studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an examination of the experience of adolescent conversion, with particular attention to teenagers who report having made multiple commitments to Christ. Conversion of these teenagers is seen as a long process containing multiple spiritually significant commitment events. The aspects of faith that James Fowler measures to mark the transition from his mythic/literal stage to the synthetic/conventional stage are used as a framework to understand the perceived need of these teenagers to make what appear to be multiple commitments to Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently within academic and popular discourse, focus and interest has amplified on the relational and 'increasingly' physical aggression of young women. Examinations into young women's aggression have tended to construct it as a new and emerging phenomenon. This article will compare the historical conception of the aggression of young women, found in the work of G.S. Hall, with current ideas of teenage feminine aggression found in popular and academic discussions. It will show that many of the current 'emerging' and popular ideas can be seen in Hall's theory. Moreover, these ideas limit the aggressive behaviours of young women to pathological and problematic definitions. Hence, a need to critique and question the foundations of the psychology of adolescence continues to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in promoting positive development among children and adolescents has always been a focus of developmental science. Historically, many researchers framed this interest using a deficit model that sought to optimize positive development by reducing problems. In the context of the articles in this special section, the author discuss a different conception of positive youth development that has emerged across the past 25 years, one that capitalizes on human plasticity and tests a strength-based model (instead of a deficit one). This model seeks to identify the process that could enhance the attributes of young people that are valued by them and others (e.g., parents, peers, teachers, mentors, coaches, and faith leaders), as compared to processes that reduce or prevent undesirable characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central task of adolescence is to help children transform into adult roles and responsibilities. Presently, we are in a time of rapid change in multiple areas of roles and systems that influence the development of adolescents. This article identifies some examples of these important shifts, and suggests that a positive development emphasis can provide important advances in useful research and action related to helping prepare youth for the coming world. In introducing this special issue, the intent is to highlight the many areas of needed research, provide some promising and innovative approaches to such research, and note how these are examples of positive development approaches that have much to offer adolescent research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the public YouTube profile of AnonyGirl1, the pseudonym used by a teenaged girl who takes to YouTube to narrate various aspects of her life. Using AnonyGirl1's case as an object of analysis, the article considers the new narrative flexibilities that are shaping young people's online explorations of self. On YouTube, where narrative linearity and fixity often come undone, AnonyGirl1 creates herself as a chimera of disappearing and reappearing video fragments that comprise an unstable, constantly changing entirety. In making and unmaking herself in fragments, AnonyGirl1 calls into question the presumed coherences of predominant youth narratives, negotiates her views about being young, and articulates processes of interior self-making through a mode of social expression that gives new form to its fluidities. Although the surfeit of narrative choices that AnonyGirl1 has at her disposal on YouTube come with a series of pleasures, the possibilities for self-construction that these choices provoke also come with debilitating pressures and confusions that she scrambles to negotiate. Amidst these pleasures and confusions, AnonyGirl1's narrative offers a venue through which educators can think through the emerging complexities of young people's online self-making practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As developmental scientists cease to perceive adolescence as a period of inevitable turmoil and adopt the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents' positive attributes. In this article we examine the longitudinal stability of the very short version of the PYD scale developed as part of the 4-H Study of PYD. Using a sample of 7,071 adolescents (60 % female) followed between Grades 5 and 12, our results suggest general stability of PYD across adolescence, both in terms of mean levels and rank-order stability. We also show that both a global measure of PYD and the individual Five Cs of PYD consistently correlate with important criterion measures (i.e., contribution, depressive symptoms, and problem behaviors) in expected ways. Although our results suggest weak relationships among our three criteria, we especially note that across adolescence PYD becomes more strongly correlated with contribution but less strongly correlated with depressive symptoms, and that confidence becomes more strongly related to depressive symptoms. We discuss implications for use of the present PYD measure in youth development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the question of how religion in childhood and adolescence should be studied. More exactly, the focus is on problems of methodology and research which are discussed in relationship to religion in childhood and adolescence. It does not present a handbook type of overview, however, but is focused on problems and chal-lenges for future research. Four questions are addressed specifically: How can empirical research do justice to the special nature of religion in childhood and adolescence? What are the implications of viewing religion within non-religious interpretive frameworks? What methodological problems do we have to face concerning religion in childhood and adolescence? What interdisciplinary challenges can be identified in this context? The final section relates these questions to the main topic of the present publication by stating a number or criteria, i.e., criteria related to the concept of religion to be used in research across different approaches and disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the mechanisms of communication and advances in brain imaging technology shape understanding and interpretation of the manner in which adolescents process and respond to information and relate to others. Knowledge about how trends in adolescent development should inform practice with adolescents is limited, and yet emerging trends and new discoveries have implications for adolescent relationships, behavior, and well-being. Our purpose was to critically examine the influence of major technological innovations on adolescent development and the impacts on research and practice with vulnerable adolescent populations. We discuss strategies for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kenya has at least 42 tribes. Each of these tribes had a unique way of marking the boundary between childhood and adulthood. It is like once pubertal signs emerged, the adolescent was said to be ready for adulthood. Traditional conceptualization of adolescence is not clearly defined, because while puberty marks the beginning of adolescence today, this was not the case in the traditional society. In the traditional society, when a girl started getting her menstrual periods, she was considered mature and arrangements for marriage were started. Modern rites of passage tend to come closer to how modern text books define adolescence. Most boys undertake circumcision after completing primary school, as they wait to join high school. Upon realizing that the hospital ceremony, unlike the traditional one, is lacking in complementary teachings, some Churches have organized teachings prior to circumcision. For girls, after circumcision for them was banned, alternative rites of passage (ARPs) are being instituted, most often targeting urban girls, but these, too, raise questions: Do alternative rites of passage fulfill the same functions for modern society that traditional ceremonies once fulfilled? And, if they do so for girls, is there reason to believe that they ought to be developed for both genders? This paper examines self-reports of Kenyans spanning three generations regarding social roles and identity-seeking among those who did (primarily older men) and did not (primarily younger men and women of all ages) participate in traditional initiation ceremonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has emphasized the importance of the relationship between family functioning and adolescent behavioral development. The present study examines family environment and social-emotional functioning of primarily minority adolescents, viewed from both adolescents' and mothers' perspectives. Participants were a school-based sample of adolescents with and without risk for emotional and behavioral disabilities and their mothers (N = 86 dyads). Results suggested an association between the mothers' views of their adolescent children's problem behaviors and the adolescents' self-ratings of risk-taking behaviors across 5 years. Overall, mothers of the at risk youth receiving special education services reported higher ratings of youth problem behaviors, but results also indicated that mothers of the at risk adolescent boys not receiving special education services perceived greater depressive symptoms in their children and more family conflict in their homes. Mothers of youth at risk but not receiving special education services experienced higher levels of stress associated with being a parent than mothers of the not-at-risk adolescents. The parent measures of adolescent behavior and depressive symptoms, family conflict, and parental stress were not predictive of the social-emotional functioning of these adolescents in the multilevel models. Implications of these findings for early identification and family focused intervention programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of increased autonomy. Higher levels of autonomy could increase the opportunities for risky behavior such as delinquency. During these periods of transition, the role of parental control becomes less clear. Previous studies have demonstrated the association between parental control and adolescent delinquency, but few have extended examination of such association into young adulthood. The purpose of the study is to examine the association between parental control and delinquency and parental control in adolescence and young adult criminal behavior. We propose that, even though adolescents seek autonomy during this stage, lack of parental control is positively associated with delinquency and has continued influence in young adulthood. Using a national longitudinal dataset, we analyzed the relationship between parental control and delinquency. Findings from regression analyses indicated that lack of parental control had a positive association with delinquency both concurrently and longitudinally into young adulthood. When analyzing delinquency in young adulthood, females reported a lower level of delinquency and younger age was associated with more delinquent behavior. Unexpectedly, parents' college education was positively associated with delinquency in young adulthood. The findings suggest that parental control is still influential through the period of adolescence and early parental control is still influential in young adulthood. Ways to practice parental control and implications of results are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age is one of the most robust correlates of criminal behavior. Yet, explanations for this relationship are varied and conflicting. Developmental theories point to a multitude of sociological, psychological, and biological changes that occur during adolescence and adulthood. One prominent criminological perspective outlined by Gottfredson and Hirschi claims that age has a direct effect on crime, inexplicable from sociological and psychological variables. Despite the attention this claim has received, few direct empirical tests of it have been conducted. We use data from Pathways to Desistance, a longitudinal study of over 1,300 serious youthful offenders (85.8 % male, 40.1 % African-American, 34.3 % Hispanic, 21.0 % White), to test this claim. On average, youths were 16.5 years old at the initial interview and were followed for 7 years. We use multilevel longitudinal models to assess the extent to which the direct effects of age are reduced to statistical and substantive non-significance when constructs from a wide range of developmental and criminological theories are controlled. Unlike previous studies, we are able to control for changes across numerous realms emphasized within differing theoretical perspectives including social control (e.g., employment and marriage), procedural justice (e.g., perceptions of the legitimacy and fairness of the legal system), learning (e.g., gang membership and exposure to antisocial peers), strain (e.g., victimization and relationship breakup), psychosocial maturity (e.g., impulse control, self-regulation and moral disengagement), and rational choice (e.g., costs and rewards of crime). Assessed separately, these perspectives explain anywhere from 3 % (procedural justice) to 49 % (social learning) of the age-crime relationship. Together, changes in these constructs explain 69 % of the drop in crime from ages 15 to 25. We conclude that the relationship between age and crime in adolescence and early adulthood is largely explainable, though not entirely, attributable to multiple co-occurring developmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed method study explores youths' perceived conceptions of spirituality and tests whether spirituality is an additional internal developmental asset (IDA). Spirituality was assessed using an open-ended question asking youth to define spirituality followed by a closed-ended item gauging the extent to which their definition reflected their own spirituality. Using grounded theory to assess youths' qualitative responses resulted in the creation of 10 “spiritual categories.” Quantitative analyses revealed that youths' self-assessment of spirituality had significant concurrent effects on six domains of positive youth development (PYD). However, the longitudinal change model only revealed a significant effect between youths' self-ratings of spirituality and their later Character scores. Additionally, we tested if religious identification moderated the relations between youth spirituality and the domains of PYD but no significant effects were found. The significant findings provide support for the notion that spirituality is an IDA, thus helping professionals might seriously consider fostering the spiritual lives of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantively, this study investigates potential heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of anxiety in adolescence. Methodologically, this study demonstrates the usefulness of general growth mixture analysis (GGMA) in addressing these issues and illustrates the impact of untested invariance assumptions on substantive interpretations. This study relied on data from the Montreal Adolescent Depression Development Project (MADDP), a 4-year follow-up of more than 1,000 adolescents who completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory each year. GGMA models relying on different invariance assumptions were empirically compared. Each of these models converged on a 5-class solution, but yielded different substantive results. The model with class-varying variance–covariance matrices was retained as providing a better fit to the data. These results showed that although elevated levels of anxiety might fluctuate over time, they clearly do not represent a transient phenomenon. This model was then validated in relation to multiple predictors (mostly related to school violence) and outcomes (grade-point average, school dropout, depression, loneliness, and drug-related problems). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]