Journal of Research on Adolescence最新文献

Mao, J., Xiao, H., Chen, J., He, J., Chen, P., & Nie, Y. (2026). Does perceived parental knowledge reduce subsequent depression in adolescents? Explanations of parent–adolescent coliving time and basic psychological needs satisfaction. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 36(1), e70138.

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This study examined longitudinal associations between early adolescents' emotional responding and use of cognitive reappraisal and the stability of their friendships with grade-mate peers. The sample consisted of 152 early adolescents (53.29% female) in the sixth and seventh grades from three rural southeastern middle schools who provided school-based peer nominations of their friendships. A stability index of adolescents' close friendships was computed from in-school peer nominations collected at two time points, approximately 1 year apart. Adolescents self-reported their levels of emotional responding, habitual use of cognitive reappraisal, and peer relationship quality during assessments. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we also examined the behavioral and neural correlates of emotional responding to negatively and positively valenced stimuli in an affective pictures task. We found that greater self-reported emotional responding predicted less close school-based friendship stability across 1 year, even controlling for adolescents' characterizations of global peer relationship quality. Self-reported reappraisal use did not predict friendship stability. However, reappraisal use interacted with neural reactivity to negative stimuli in regions of visual cortex (ventral occipitotemporal cortex) to predict friendship stability; among adolescents reporting moderate to high reappraisal use, greater neural activation in ventral occipitotemporal cortex was associated with more stable friendships across 1 year, whereas among those reporting markedly low reappraisal use, greater activation was associated with fewer stable friendships. These findings provide valuable—albeit preliminary—insights about affective predictors of friendship stability during a life stage critical to social development.

Many advocates seek to engage young people in justice reform efforts, arguing that youths' voices will produce a more just legal system. However, it is unclear what youth voice and civic engagement more broadly mean to young people or how experiences such as incarceration shape the ways youth speak out. The purpose of this study is to develop a theory explaining how youth involved in the legal system use their voices to address issues affecting their lives and communities. The study used community-engaged and constructivist grounded theory methodologies to interview 14 formerly incarcerated young people aged 18–25. An intensive process of simultaneous coding and analysis was conducted after each interview, and two youth consultants with lived experience in the legal system advised on methods and analysis. Results produced a model of adaptive voice showing how young people speak out selectively in carceral contexts to help create a better future while protecting themselves from the risks of doing so in this constrained setting. Specifically, young people developed various strategies to try to increase the impact and reduce the consequences of using their voices. Such strategies included intentionally staying silent, taking covert actions, taking an explicit stand, contributing to a larger movement, leveraging opportunities, and strengthening their credibility. Results offer implications for broader discourses on youth voice in carceral contexts and for promoting the civic development of young people involved in the legal system.

Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a drug and violence prevention program of Nicaraguan adolescents, this study offers a unique look into personal, family, peer, and communal factors for depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD). This study draws on primary socialization theory to hypothesize that family, peer, and community factors have a significant impact on youth mental health outcomes. A total of 4631 adolescents (ages 10–17, 49% female) completed self-report surveys in schools. Path models showed that cross-sectionally, parental factors including parental monitoring, parental relationship satisfaction, family expressiveness, and peer factors such as friend support were negatively associated with PTSD and depression, whereas adolescent alcohol use and externalizing behaviors, engagement in prosocial behaviors with peers, and exposure to community violence were positively associated with PTSD and depression, controlling for age, sex, region, and intervention effects. A longitudinal model showed that alcohol use pre-crisis predicted PTSD post-crisis. Findings have practical implications for intervention by highlighting the importance of protecting adolescents from exposure to community violence as well as providing multiple layers of support during crisis.

Healthy development depends on adequate material and social resources, but measures of these affordances are often limited or absent from psychological research. Conventional measures of socioeconomic status, such as household income or parental education, are difficult for adolescents to accurately report and are distal proxies for the resources that directly impact functioning (e.g., nutrition, safety). As a more proximal measure of environmental affordances, we developed the Adolescent Necessities Index (ANI), a 10-item adolescent-report measure. In Study 1, a prospective longitudinal sample of N = 6057 U.S. adolescents, we demonstrate the ANI's convergent, discriminant, and incremental predictive validity for objectively measured report card grades and subjectively reported well-being, as well as measurement invariance across demographic subgroups (e.g., gender, race, and ethnicity). In Study 2, a cross-sectional study in a nationally representative sample of N = 1859 U.S. adolescents, we replicate evidence of incremental predictive validity, demonstrate consensual validity with a parent-report version of the ANI, and establish national norms. The ANI provides a new tool for efficiently capturing adolescents' access to necessities in the modern U.S.

Adolescents frequently use social media to form online-only friendships (OOFs; i.e., friendships that are exclusive to digital platforms), raising questions about their emotional impact. While OOFs may provide social support and increase well-being, they could also displace in-person relationships or increase exposure to online risks. This study examined longitudinal associations between OOFs, intimate disclosure within these friendships, and depressive symptoms among adolescents. A total of 1089 teens aged 13–19 (M = 15.65, SD = 1.19; 581 girls, 492 boys, and 16 another gender identity) completed online surveys as part of a longitudinal study investigating adolescent development at two timepoints: October 2019 (T1) and February 2020 (T2). Teens reported whether they had any OOFs, and, if so, levels of intimate disclosure within their OOFs, as well as depressive symptoms. There was a significant correlation between OOF status and depressive symptoms at T1 (r = .13, p < .01). However, T1 OOF status was not significantly associated with depressive symptoms at T2 (unstandardized b = 0.02, p = .64, IRR = 1.02), or vice versa (OR = 1.02, p = .055, CI = 1.00–1.05), controlling for age, gender, and baseline levels of the outcome variable. Higher T1 intimate disclosure with OOFs predicted higher T2 depressive symptoms (unstandardized b = 0.088, p = .011, IRR = 1.09), while T1 depressive symptoms did not significantly predict T2 intimate disclosure (unstandardized b = 0.012, p = .069, CI = −0.001–0.03), controlling for age, gender and baseline levels of the outcome variable. These results suggest that while the sole presence of OOFs is associated with depressive symptoms, intimate disclosure within these friendships may predict increases in depressive symptoms.

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development reflects the processes through which adolescents learn about their ethnic-racial background (i.e., exploration) and develop clarity about what it means to them (i.e., resolution). Research on ERI has been critiqued for not examining connections between ERI and broader social beliefs, such as critical consciousness (i.e., individuals' level of reflection about social oppression, motivation to take action against it, and the extent to which they take such action). When examining connections to ERI, research underscores the importance of considering individuals' patterns of exploration and resolution in tandem (i.e., ERI status) rather than analyzing them in isolation. Accordingly, the current study utilized latent profile analysis to examine how ERI status profiles were associated with dimensions of Latine adolescents' critical consciousness. Cross-sectional data came from Latine adolescents (n = 338, M_age = 16.30, SD: 1.11; 44% boys, 53% girls, 3% another gender) attending a U.S. southwestern high school. Findings revealed three ERI status profiles: Foreclosed (n = 132; lower exploration and higher resolution), Diffuse (n = 59; lower exploration and resolution), and Achieved (n = 147; higher exploration and resolution). Profiles did not significantly differ in critical reflection. The Achieved profile reported the highest critical motivation, the Diffuse profile reported the lowest, and the Foreclosed profile fell between them. The Achieved profile reported higher critical action than the other two profiles, which did not significantly differ from one another. Findings suggest that among Latine adolescents, engaging in ERI development is connected to feeling more agency to change unjust systems and engaging in more action against such systems, but higher ERI development does not necessarily reflect deeper engagement in questioning those systems (i.e., critical reflection).

The pandemic contributed to an ongoing youth mental health crisis, though mental health burdens are disproportionately distributed within youth populations. The objective of this study was to identify latent trajectories of youth suicide risk during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine differential risk by demographic subgroups. We leverage a national crisis dataset (n = 6741 youth in crisis) and employ latent Markov models and multinomial logistic regression to identify suicide risk classes and model within-person suicide risk trajectories from pre-pandemic to the extended pandemic response period (2019–2022) among a cohort of young people (ages 24 and younger). This analysis identified three suicide risk classes: low risk (sample ranges from 4831 to 5199 texters across periods), high risk (sample ranges from 1246 to 1030 texters across periods), and very high risk (sample ranges from 664 to 506 texters across periods). Overall, suicide risk declined during the pandemic (e.g., low risk class +5.4 percentage points). Yet, person-centered results emphasize variable risk for younger youth, transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth, and Black/African American youth across pandemic periods. Specifically, younger youth (i.e., 13 and under) were associated with 50% higher odds than youth 18–24 years to transition from low to very high (OR: 1.50, CI: 1.05–2.15) and 93% higher odds to transition from very high to low risk (OR: 1.93, CI: 1.44–2.61). TGD youth were associated with the highest odds of transitioning to high-risk classes during the early pandemic (OR_{Low_VeryHigh}: 1.79, CI: 1.33–2.41), compared to girls/women. Black/African American youth were associated with 122% higher odds of transitioning to very high risk during the extended pandemic period (OR: 2.22, CI: 1.24–3.97), compared to White youth. Gender identity, race, and age were significantly associated with changing suicide risk among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results emphasize the immediate and prolonged need for effective suicide risk reduction efforts among young people.

Adolescence is crucial for shaping social behavior, with peers influencing popularity and likability. While some adolescents use bullying to gain popularity, prosocial behavior often underlies likability. Yet, little is known about bistrategic control, where youth combine aggression and prosocial actions. This study used a multilevel person-centered approach to identify latent profiles based on peer-reported bullying, prosocial behavior, popularity, and likability, examined differences in bystander behavior, social status goals, and insecurity, and further explored how these individual-level profiles differ across classrooms and align with classroom-level bullying and prosocial social status norms. Data from 6379 Slovenian adolescents in 328 classes revealed five profiles: Unpopular bullies, Popular bullies, Bistrategic, Prosocial, and Uninvolved. At the classroom level, two distinct profiles emerged, differing in the prevalence of Uninvolved, Prosocial, Bistrategic, and Popular bully students.

Adolescent romantic experiences are socially normative and serve important social and developmental functions. Despite the well-established concurrent link between romantic involvement and internalizing symptoms in heterosexual adolescents, limited and mixed evidence exists on the directionality of this association. Research on this topic in sexually diverse adolescents is scarce. We sought to clarify how changes in relationship status and internalizing symptoms predict each other over time, and how these associations vary by sexual orientation, gender, and age. We provided a novel examination of these associations separately for initially single and romantically involved adolescents. In this longitudinal study, 1136 demographically diverse adolescents (M_age = 15.3 years, range_age = 13–19 years; 55.3% Hispanic/Latine) from local public high schools reported their relationship status and internalizing symptoms in four waves of surveys (August 2017–June 2019). We found that entering into a romantic relationship predicted lower internalizing symptoms for adolescents who were gay, lesbian, or not sure about their sexual orientation (but not for heterosexual or bisexual adolescents), highlighting the protective functions of romantic relationships for certain sexually diverse youth. We also found that higher internalizing symptoms predicted a greater likelihood of entering into a romantic relationship among initially single adolescents. Breakups and internalizing symptoms did not predict each other over time. Gender and age did not moderate any associations. These findings contribute to our understanding of the longitudinal associations between changes in relationship status and mental health and inform how adults should counsel youth on romantic relationships. Researchers should further elucidate the complex interplay between adolescent romantic relationships and mental health, especially for sexually and gender diverse youth.