Journal of Research on Adolescence最新文献

In an increasingly ethnically diverse Europe, this study examined the potential of dual identifiers, those identifying with both a national majority and an ethnic minority, such as German-Turkish individuals, to facilitate integration. As members of two groups, dual identifiers may be in the advantageous position to form more interethnic connections in ethnically diverse social networks. We propose that dual identifiers' intergroup behavior and their attractiveness as friends depends on how they construct their dual identity, such as identifying with both identities equally (compartmentalization), identifying more with the majority group (dominance-majority), or more with the minority group (dominance-minority). We analyzed three waves of German school data (averagely 1965 students per wave, 45% dual identifiers). Longitudinal social network analysis (stochastic actor-oriented models) indicated that dual identifiers primarily befriended peers from their mono-minority group rather than forming connections to both groups they belong to. Analyses that took the different constructions of dual identity into account further showed that (1) stronger national identification did not alter friendship preferences but increased acceptance by the majority group; (2) mono-majority identifiers treated dual and mono-minority identifiers similarly; and (3) different types of dual identifiers exhibited similar friendship patterns, suggesting that identity construction did not significantly correlate with network preferences. These findings challenge assumptions that dual identifiers can connect different ethnic groups in interethnic networks, highlighting the complexity of interethnic social ties.

This study investigates the influence of executive functioning, language proficiency, and behavioral-emotional challenges on the academic performance of rural immigrant Latine youth in the Midwest. Using a convergent mixed methods design, we integrated quantitative analyses (N = 178) of academic indicators (GPA, Math, and ELA scores) with qualitative interviews (n = 47) that examined students' lived experiences. Higher behavioral difficulties were associated with lower academic outcomes, while executive functioning predicted academic success. Qualitative findings revealed that behavioral challenges often stemmed from adaptive responses to language barriers, academic stress and social exclusion. These patterns suggest that the cognitive load of second-language acquisition influences student engagement in ways not fully captured by standardized assessments. Results highlight the importance of culturally responsive interventions that support bilingual instruction, executive functioning, and mental health to promote resilience among Latine ELL students.

Exploring sexuality and identity are important and concurrent adolescent developmental tasks. Sexual identity fluidity (e.g., change over time in sexual identity) at this stage is increasingly documented, yet, knowledge concerning broad tendencies in sexual identity development in contemporary youth and how these relate to sexual well-being is lacking. This study identified and characterized longitudinal classes of sexual identity change across three time points and tested the associations between class membership and later sexual well-being. A total of 3027 Canadian adolescents aged 14-17 years (48.9% girls; 1.0% transgender/nonbinary youth) completed in-class questionnaires during three waves over 3 years. Three-step latent class analysis of sexual identity including sociodemographic covariates (gender, location, and parental education) was followed by Wald tests to examine differences in sexual well-being across classes (sexual satisfaction, sexual desire/arousal, orgasmic function, and sexual distress). Three classes emerged: Consistent Heterosexual (84.4%), Mostly Plurisexual (10.2%), and Consistent Questioning and Emerging Sexual Minority (5.4%). Compared with Consistent Heterosexuals, other class members were more likely to be cisgender girls or trans/nonbinary youth. Also, members of the Consistent Questioning and Emerging Sexual Minority class had higher odds of coming from a metropolitan area. Compared with Consistent Heterosexuals, Mostly Plurisexual members had lower sexual satisfaction as well as higher sexual distress, yet, members of the Consistent Questioning and Emerging Sexual Minority class had significantly higher sexual desire/arousal. No differences emerged for orgasmic function. Results document the complex association between sexual minority identity development and sexuality during adolescence and are in line with the Minority Stress Framework.

Digital dating abuse (DDA), the use of technology to coerce, control, harass, threaten, monitor, or pressure a romantic partner, is a widespread form of dating violence among adolescents that is associated with adverse mental health outcomes. Previous research shows that adolescents misinterpret some DDA behaviors as normative relationship behaviors, increasing the risk for more severe DDA. These misinterpretations may stem from DDA occurring within positive (e.g., affection and joking) contexts, and who is experiencing and/or engaging in DDA. Yet, it remains unclear how the context in which DDA occurs (DDA only, DDA with affection, or no DDA) and roles (perpetrator, victim, or mutual) influence adolescents' recognition of and emotional responses to DDA. Two between-subjects experiments using hypothetical text messages examined how DDA context and role influenced DDA recognition and anticipation of feeling upset among Hispanic and Latino high school adolescents (Study 1: N = 422, M_age = 15.76, SD = 1.02, 54.7% female; Study 2: N = 384, M_age = 16.52, SD = 0.98, 51.8% female). Across experiments, adolescents' recognition of DDA behaviors and anticipation of feeling upset were significantly higher in both the DDA-with-affection and DDA-only contexts compared to the no-DDA context. Findings suggest that even when affectionate behaviors are present, DDA behaviors were still recognized by adolescents. There were no significant main effects of role on DDA recognition or anticipation of feeling upset. The findings of this work highlight the importance of addressing both overt and mixed-message forms of DDA in future adolescent prevention and intervention efforts.

Suicide-related fatality has disproportionately risen among racial-ethnic minoritized youth in the past decade and remains at high levels for white youth. With schools as a primary context for adolescent development, this study examines associations of direct and vicarious racial-ethnic-based victimization and school connectedness with past-year active suicidal ideation (SI) and psychological distress during adolescence. Cross-sectional data from the 2017 to 2019 California Health Kids Survey on 400,369 high school students in 1010 schools, matched with administrative data, analyzed via multilevel logistic regression. Adolescents who experienced direct racial-ethnic-based victimization (i.e., racism) in the past year had increased odds of active suicidal ideation and psychological distress, while adolescents with higher individual-level school connectedness had reduced odds of each outcome. Controlling for personal experiences of racism, attending schools with higher proportions of students reporting bullying or harassment on school property based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin at least once in the past year (i.e., vicarious racism) was associated with increased odds of active suicidal ideation (AOR = 2.14, 95% CI: 1.19-3.88) and psychological distress (AOR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.09-2.86). Being in a school with higher mean scores of school connectedness (i.e., vicarious connectedness) was associated with increased odds of active SI and psychological distress, particularly among students with low levels of individual-level school connectedness. This study identifies direct and school-level, vicarious racism and connectedness to the educational system as potential pathways underlying suicidal thoughts and psychological distress among both racial-ethnic minoritized and white youth, which warrant attention.

Despite established evidence of a mutual relationship between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms, gender-specific variations remain underexplored, hindering the development of tailored interventions. This study examines gender-specific symptom networks linking peer victimization and internalizing symptoms in 10,374 Chinese adolescents (47.9% female). Peer victimization (verbal, physical, relational, and cyber) and internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) were analyzed using undirected and Bayesian network models to identify core and bridging symptoms. In the undirected network, both genders shared important nodes, including "public mocking," "threats intimidation," and "often fearful," while "online harassment" was distinctive for females and "social isolated" for males. "Feel unloved" emerged as the key bridging node linking internalizing symptoms and peer victimization among females, whereas "fear of doing bad" served this bridging role among males. Directed acyclic graph from the Bayesian network indicated that internalizing symptoms and victimization symptoms formed a single top-down cluster among females, whereas these symptoms formed two parallel clusters among males. These findings underscore the importance of gender-specific interventions targeting core and bridging symptoms to disrupt the cycle of internalizing symptoms and peer victimization.

We documented how many adolescents contribute to their families through chores, emotional support, earning wages, and caregiving for children and family members with chronic illness. Further, we examined whether adolescents who contribute to their families in more ways differ in mental health from peers, controlling for social and economic resources, and with attention to potential demographic moderators. We drew from a diverse survey of 1854 adolescents ages 14-17 in Massachusetts (60% girls, 52% White non-Hispanic, 19% Hispanic, 9% Black, 6% Asian). Adolescents who contributed to their families in relatively more ways were disproportionately older, girls, and Hispanic, and from families with relatively lower levels of social and economic resources. Contributing to the family in more ways was associated with significantly higher levels of distress (i.e., anxiety and depression symptoms), controlling for background demographics. This association was consistent across age, gender, and racial/ethnic groups. It was also significant for youth from homes within all levels of social and economic resources, although it was stronger among youth from homes with relatively higher (compared to lower) levels of social and economic resources. These findings suggest that contributing to the family in many ways could be emotionally taxing over time, even though prior daily diary studies show it can also be rewarding day to day. Perhaps surprisingly, it may be especially taxing for adolescents from more advantaged homes who are less likely to help the family overall. More long-term, within-subject studies are needed to adjust for numerous co-occurring family circumstances and resources that may confound our findings.

Despite theoretical work suggesting a close link between self-control and academic procrastination, the bidirectional relationship between them remains unclear. The present study used a large sample of Chinese children (N = 6590; 50.9% boys; Mage = 9.48 ± 0.99 years at Time 0), assessed over three six-month waves from third to sixth grade. A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model indicated that self-control was significantly associated with academic procrastination at the between-person level. At the within-person level, decreases in self-control predicted later increases in academic procrastination, while increases in academic procrastination predicted later decreases in self-control. These findings support a bidirectional relationship and suggest that understanding the interaction between self-control and academic procrastination may inform prevention and intervention strategies.

Spending time in greenspace is widely recognized as beneficial for the mood of preadolescent children. However, the day-to-day associations between greenspace exposure (the amount of time spent) and mood remain unclear, particularly regarding the moderating role of greenspace attributes. This study examines the day-to-day associations between greenspace exposure and preadolescent children's mood (including happiness, anxiety, and depression) and explores how greenspace attributes (including environmental quality and safety) moderate these associations using a daily diary approach. Data were collected from 508 preadolescent children (234 boys; M_age = 10.52 years, SD = 1.17), who completed a 14-day diary on their greenspace exposure and mood. The results revealed that on days when children spent more time in greenspace, they reported greater happiness on the same day, but not the following day. Although no direct associations were found between time spent in greenspace and anxiety or depression either on the same day or the next day, environmental quality moderated same-day associations among urban children, but not rural children. Specifically, urban children exposed to higher quality greenspace reported fewer anxiety and depression symptoms with increased exposure, while for those exposed to lower quality greenspace, more time spent in greenspace was associated with greater anxiety and depression. These findings underscore the importance of daily greenspace exposure for enhancing preadolescent children's happiness and emphasize the need for higher quality greenspace to alleviate anxiety and depression.

Although the visibility of trans and non-binary (TNB) individuals has increased in recent years, gender identity-based discrimination remains a significant social issue. However, there is an important gap in the research examining the mechanisms involved in TNB aggression. This study longitudinally analyzed the relationship between exposure to hate speech across different contexts and bystander intentions and aggression toward TNB individuals. Additionally, gender invariance was tested. A total of 755 adolescents aged 14 to 18 years (M_age = 16.28; SD = 0.88; 50.8% identified as girls, 48.7% as boys, and 0.3% as non-binary) completed measures assessing exposure to hate speech in several contexts, behavioral intentions when witnessing aggression, and TNB aggression at baseline. Behavioral intentions and aggression were assessed again three months later. Cross-sectional results indicated that hate speech in all contexts was associated with higher levels of aggression, with small to moderate effects. Longitudinal analyses showed that only hate speech among friends predicted aggression, with small effects. Regarding bystander intentions, none of the hate speech contexts were associated with bystander intentions either cross-sectionally or longitudinally, except for hate speech among friends, which predicted higher helping intentions with small effects. Furthermore, a bidirectional relationship was observed between bystander intentions and aggressive behaviors with small to moderate effects. Finally, the model was invariant across gender. Overall, these findings highlight the need to address adolescents' exposure to hate speech and to develop preventive strategies to reduce violence against TNB individuals, focusing on the bystander's role to promote safer and more inclusive adolescent environments.