Journal of Research on Adolescence最新文献

This commentary provides a reflection on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents in the context of family dynamics, school environments, peer relationships, and civic engagement. Drawing from four systematic literature reviews, the commentary highlights key findings, such as the long-term effects of COVID-19 on adolescent development, mental health, and academic well-being. The need for future research is emphasized to assess how these cohort effects will evolve over time. Cultural context and socioeconomic disparities emerge as crucial considerations, with the pandemic exacerbating existing inequalities, especially in access to education and digital resources. This commentary also underscores the importance of adopting a socio-ecological perspective to understand the multifaceted impact of COVID-19 on adolescents globally. In conclusion, it calls for targeted policies to support adolescents' mental health and academic recovery post-pandemic, particularly in underserved communities. Governments, educators, and civic organizations are encouraged to create inclusive policies that address these disparities while fostering resilience and well-being among young people. These reviews may also inform translational research that could aid in the development of evidence-based interventions and policies aimed at helping adolescents thrive in a post-pandemic world.

Some Latine youth from rural migrant farmworker communities engage in farmwork to help support themselves and their families. Although research has documented their motives for working and some characteristics of their employment, knowledge about how these youth construct their work in the fields and how such experiences relate to their positive development is needed to depict their holistic experiences. Using mixed methods, we explored youth's farmwork experiences and examined how these experiences relate to youth's prosocial behaviors, civic responsibility, and ego-resiliency. Data are from a mixed-method study of Latine youth and parents in rural and agricultural families in the U.S. Midwest. The present study uses qualitative data from a subsample of 47 youth (Mage = 11.42, 48.8% boys) who participated in interviews and survey activities. Thematic coding of the interviews revealed sociocognitive, socioemotional, skilled-related, and physical experiences, as well as prosocial considerations that included perspective taking, moral reasoning, and empathetic concern. Integrating qualitative and quantitative data showed that these experiences were distinctively associated with higher other-oriented and lower self-oriented prosocial behaviors and higher ego-resiliency. Further, farmworker youth also showed significantly lower civic efficacy, indicating that farmwork may discourage some aspects of civic responsibility. The results can inform policy and program designs on promoting Latine youth's positive development in the face of adversity, such as by highlighting character development and bridging youth engagement with civic spheres.

Associations of adolescents' smartphone use and well-being have been contradictory. The present study investigates patterns of smartphone use and psychosocial risk / protective factors in US adolescents during COVID-19 and examines their associations with depression symptom trajectories from 5 yearly waves beginning prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Latent profile analyses revealed three risk profiles, including a high risk profile (18.9% adolescents) characterized by elevated social media use, high levels of psychosocial risk, and low levels of protective variables. Latent growth mixture modeling identified three depression trajectories; stable low, moderate-increasing, and high-severely increasing depression. Both the moderate-increasing and high-severely increasing depression trajectories were associated with membership in the high risk profile. Results highlight the impacts of type of smartphone activity rather than use per se and can inform targeted intervention strategies.

Given the access that white youth have to privilege and power, it is important to understand how they might develop life goals related to dismantling multiple forms of oppression, which we term critical purpose. Parents may support their children's critical purpose via their own critical reflection (understanding of the root causes of disparities in society), which may be associated with their child's critical reflection. Structural equation models of two waves of data from 351 white youth showed an indirect relationship between parent critical reflection and youth critical purpose through youth critical reflection. Bolstering white parents' critical reflection may be a strategy for supporting the development of white youths' commitments to future social justice action.

The current study examined whether adverse childhood experiences and racial discrimination predicted adolescents' internal developmental assets, external developmental assets, and depressive symptoms. We also tested whether these relations were buffered by aspects of caregivers' reports of ethnic-racial socialization efforts (i.e., cultural socialization and preparation for bias). Participants were Black adolescents 12 to 17 years of age (Mage = 15.09, SD = 1.36) and their caregivers. Findings indicated that adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and adverse childhood experiences were associated with less internal assets, less external assets, and greater depressive symptoms. Preparation for bias was a protective moderator in two associations, such that at low levels of preparation for bias, racial discrimination predicted less external assets, but this relation became non-significant at high levels of preparation for bias. Similarly, at low levels of preparation for bias, adverse childhood experiences predicted greater depressive symptoms, but this relation became non-significant at high levels of preparation for bias. Caregivers' cultural socialization was also protective in that at low levels of cultural socialization, adverse childhood experiences predicted less internal developmental assets, but this relation became non-significant at high levels of cultural socialization. Adverse childhood experiences and racial discrimination contribute to poorer outcomes, but caregivers' efforts to teach their children about their race, ethnicity, and culture are protective in some of these associations. Findings highlight that it is important to focus on both risk factors and protective family cultural processes to promote Black adolescents' positive developmental and mental health.

Most adolescents are concerned about climate change. What helps them to act on their concerns? This preregistered randomized experiment tested whether adolescents' pro-environmental behavior can be promoted by framing the behavior as compatible with their autonomy motive. Dutch adolescents (N = 319, ages 12–17, 57.7% girls, predominantly indicating “Dutch” or “bicultural” identities) viewed a campaign-style video that explained the causes of climate change (all conditions), and additionally framed pro-environmental behavior as a personal choice (volition-alignment), opportunity to rebel (rebellion-alignment), or mandatory (misalignment). Rebellion-alignment increased pro-environmental behavior intentions and petitioning behavior; misalignment decreased pro-environmental donating behavior. Effect sizes were small to medium. These findings provide proof of concept that motive alignment can be effective in promoting adolescents' pro-environmental engagement.

Despite the well-established link between mothers' depressive symptoms and youth behavioral problems, it remains unclear whether the mechanism by which mothers' depressive symptoms promote behavioral problems may also be related to individual differences in this relation. Following the three-variable system integrating mediation and moderation, this study used an integrative model to simultaneously examine the mediating and moderating role of emotional reactivity in the longitudinal associations between maternal depressive symptoms and internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. Participants were 1060 youth and their mothers from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (49.7% boys, 81.6% white). Mothers reported their own depressive symptoms at nine waves from infancy through the fifth grade. They also rated adolescents' emotional reactivity in the fifth grade and behavioral problems in the fifth and sixth grades. The results showed that emotional reactivity mediated the longitudinal relations between maternal depressive symptoms and internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. The results also supported the moderation of emotional reactivity. That is, mothers' depressive symptoms were associated with high levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, particularly among youth who were high in emotional reactivity. The findings highlight the dual role of emotional reactivity to better understand the associations between mothers' depressive symptoms and offspring behavioral problems, and emphasize the need to target emotional reactivity to alleviate the adverse impacts of maternal depressive symptoms on behavioral adjustment in early adolescence.

This study applied the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) to simultaneously consider whether, and how, motivations for social withdrawal among Chinese children and adolescents (actor effects) and their best friends (partner effects) uniquely contributed to indices of socio-emotional adjustment. Participants were 101 same-gender best friend dyads (46 boys, M_age = 12.17 years, SD = 1.39) in mainland China. Among the results, actor effects were found such that youths' own shyness and unsociability were related uniquely to the socio-emotional adjustment outcomes. In addition, partner effects were found such that best friend's shyness and unsociability were related uniquely to youths' social preferences and depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the important role of best friends' motivations for social withdrawal in explaining variability in Chinese youths' socio-emotional adjustment and well-being.

Relationships between adolescents and primary caregivers play an important role in the development of internalizing (depressive and anxious) symptoms. We examined associations among caregiver-adolescent emotions and their emodiversity (their breadth and frequency) with adolescents' and caregivers' internalizing symptoms. A total of 181 adolescents (aged 13–17 years old) and their primary caregivers participated in a 14-day daily diary study between 2022 and 2023 where they reported their emotions at the end of each day. We used actor-partner interdependence models to examine whether positive and negative emotions and their emodiversity predicted each individual's and their family member's internalizing symptoms. Primary results concentrated on the actor effects of adolescents' and caregivers' mean levels of positive and negative emotions and their own internalizing symptoms. Greater negative emotion and lower positive emotion were associated with greater internalizing symptoms, for both caregivers and adolescents. Caregivers who showed greater positive emodiversity also showed greater internalizing symptoms. In contrast, relatively few partner effects were observed. Our findings point to the need for more research on the role of interpersonal emotions in daily life as they relate to internalizing symptoms. Although our sample captured diversity in ethnicity, results may not generalize across levels of socioeconomic status, gender identity, and caregiver education.