Journal of Research on Adolescence最新文献

This one-year longitudinal study examined how the academic achievement of peer group leaders and nonleader members was associated with individual social, school, and psychological adjustment in Chinese adolescents. Participants included 2450 middle-school students (1233 boys; initial Mage = 13.96 years) in China. Data were collected from multiple sources, including self-reports, peer nominations, teacher ratings, and school records. Peer groups and their leaders were identified using the WalkTrap community detection algorithm, resulting in 256 peer group leaders across 238 peer groups. Multilevel modeling revealed that academic achievement of group leaders and nonleader members both positively predicted individual academic achievement and social competence. Whereas group leaders' academic achievement negatively predicted adolescents' aggression and externalizing problems, nonleader members' academic achievement negatively predicted adolescents' peer victimization and internalizing symptoms. The results indicate similar as well as distinct patterns of longitudinal associations of leaders' and nonleader members' academic achievement with individual adjustment in adolescent peer groups. The results suggest that it may be an effective strategy to use peer group-based education and intervention programs involving group leaders and group members to help adolescents develop social and academic competence and reduce externalizing and internalizing problems.

For Black adolescent girls, hair is a significant aspect of gender and ethnic identity, influencing both intrapersonal reflections and interpersonal interactions. Gendered racism and Eurocentric beauty standards marginalize Black girls and their hair, causing them to experience high rates of hair-related harassment and discrimination. These experiences negatively affect the self-esteem of Black girls, which has critical implications for various health behaviors. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a culturally relevant digital toolkit aimed at promoting hair esteem and self-esteem. The development of the toolkit for Black girls was grounded in a youth participatory research approach and co-created with Black adolescent girls who were part of an existing youth advisory board (YAB). Existing literature and YAB discussions were used to create the “Hair-Esteem Toolkit for Black Girls.” The toolkit includes hair empowerment strategies alongside activities and resources designed to enhance self-esteem among Black girls. This study emphasizes the development of the toolkit and the importance of centering Black girls in intervention development. The resulting toolkit marks a potential first step toward addressing hair discrimination and empowering Black girls.

The present study validates a brief version of the Multiracial Youth Socialization Scale, the MY-Soc-B, which assesses Multiracial youths' experiences of receiving messages from their caregivers about race and culture. Using a sample of 318 diverse Multiracial American adolescents (M_age = 16.01; SD = 1.30), the original 62 items were reduced to 24 items via an examination of confirmatory factor analyses and conceptual clarity and fit of item content. The model fit strongly supported retaining the eight-factor structure from the original full version. Validity and reliability of the eight subscales (i.e., navigating multiple heritages, Multiracial identity socialization, preparation for monoracism, negative socialization, race-conscious socialization, diversity appreciation socialization, colorblind socialization, and silent socialization) were largely supported, with 20/24 correlations between the MY-Soc-B subscales and racial-ethnic identity resolution, affirmation, and exploration replicating associations found with the original 62-item MY-Soc Scale.

Experience sampling method (ESM) research, relying on real-time data collection via mobile devices, provides unique insights into adolescents' daily lives. However, concerns about digital distraction and overstimulation have led to shifting societal norms and consequently, increased restrictions on smartphone use—both institutionally (e.g., school bans) and informally (e.g., parental rules, self-regulation). These constraints raise questions about the feasibility and ecological validity of using ESM in adolescent samples. In this study, 195 adolescents (M_age = 16.12) participated in a 17-day ESM protocol, completing six prompts daily. Most adolescents reported facing school-based (88%) and parental (56%) smartphone restrictions. Despite these constraints, compliance was moderate to high (M = 78%), and analyses of nonresponse patterns revealed when and why prompts were most likely to be missed. Early morning prompts were often missed due to sleep, late morning prompts due to school, and evening prompts due to work—highlighting the importance of context-sensitive sampling strategies. Moreover, data quality was high: careless responding was rare, and participants reported high levels of integrity and motivation. Most participants evaluated the study as positive, with financial incentives, scientific contribution, and social connection as key motivators. These findings underscore that adolescent ESM studies remain feasible and ecologically valid when protocols are flexibly aligned with real-world constraints. Given that societal norms on digital well-being are in flux and smartphone restrictions intensify, aligning ESM design with adolescents' everyday realities becomes increasingly essential to preserve both feasibility and ecological validity in research on adolescence.

Popularity is increasingly salient and impactful in adolescence, and unpopular youth are at significantly greater risk of experiencing depressive symptoms. However, adolescents can vary in their neural sensitivity to social stimuli, such that some adolescents may be more impacted by social status than others. We examined whether adolescents' neural sensitivity to popular and unpopular peers moderates the extent that their own social status is related to trajectories of depressive symptoms across 5 years (6th–10th grades). During an fMRI scan, adolescents from the southeastern United States (n = 116, 61 female, 29% White Non-Hispanic, 36% Hispanic, 22% Black/African American, 11% multiracial, 2% other; M_age = 13.59, SD = 0.59) viewed pictures of their popular and unpopular classmates based on sociometric nominations from their social networks. Results indicated that heightened amygdala sensitivity to unpopular peers moderated the relations between participants' own popularity and their depressive symptoms, leading to increased depressive symptoms for unpopular youth. These findings suggest that individual differences in sensitivity to peer hierarchies impact the degree to which adolescents are negatively impacted by their own level of popularity.

Adolescence is a pivotal developmental stage characterized by heightened vulnerability to stress and rapid fluctuations in emotional well-being. Using a 30-day daily diary design on 107 adolescents (11–18 years old; M_age = 14.75, SD_age = 1.59; 38.3% female, 58.9% male), this study examined both same-day and lagged-day associations between daily stress and adolescent emotional well-being (positive and negative affect) and explored the moderating roles of sport experience and sleep quality in buffering the aversive effects of stress. Results revealed both same-day and lagged-day effects of daily stress on adolescent emotional well-being. In addition, sport experience moderated the same-day stress-affect associations, supporting the same-day buffering hypothesis; it also moderated the associations between stress and lagged-day affect, supporting the recovery hypothesis. Similarly, sleep quality the night before stress exposure moderated the same-day stress-affect associations, supporting the preparation hypothesis; sleep quality the night after stress exposure moderated the associations between stress and lagged-day affect, supporting the reset hypothesis. Findings underscore the importance of disentangling dynamics in daily stress-affect associations, and demonstrate the effectiveness of promoting positive sport experience and sleep quality to enhance adolescent emotional well-being. Implications for interventions and future research directions are also discussed.

Examining the impact of basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPNS) and parent–adolescent coliving time on the longitudinal link between perceived parental knowledge and adolescent depression, this study integrated the ecological systems theory of human development with self-determination theory. A total of 563 Chinese middle and high school students (M_age = 13.70 ± 1.54 years; 47.8% boys) completed three-wave questionnaire over an 18-month period. The results revealed two pathways through which perceived parental knowledge reduced depression: (M1) perceived parental knowledge → autonomy satisfaction → competence satisfaction → lower depression, and (M2) perceived parental knowledge → relatedness satisfaction → competence satisfaction → lower depression. The results showed that BPNS explains the link between perceived parental knowledge and depression, underscoring the importance of competence. Moreover, the strength of perceived parental knowledge effects varied across contexts and developmental stages, being stronger among adolescents who reported longer parent–adolescent time and among seventh graders (compared with 10th graders). Notably, in low parent–adolescent time and older adolescent groups, perceived parental knowledge showed a positive direct association with depression, suggesting that when parental involvement is limited or developmentally incongruent, perceived parental knowledge may be perceived as intrusive rather than supportive. These findings deepen our understanding of the impact of perceived parental knowledge on adolescent psychological needs and depression.

Emotional granularity, reflecting the specificity with which individuals distinguish their emotional experiences, is crucial to emotional well-being. This study examined whether emotional granularity predicts adolescents' social anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 140 adolescents (M_age = 11.91) reported daily emotions for 21–28 days at three timepoints: before the pandemic, during the acute phase, and 1 year later. Results showed that negative emotional granularity decreased from prepandemic to the acute phase and increased during the chronic phase. Adolescents with larger decreases in negative granularity during the acute phase and smaller increases during the chronic phase reported higher social anxiety and depressive symptoms at follow-up. Notably, baseline granularity and its stress-related changes were stronger predictors of social anxiety than depression. These findings suggest that the ability to differentiate negative emotions with greater precision may serve as an adaptive emotional process that buffers adolescents against internalizing problems.

Greater mindfulness is thought to give rise to more positive psychological health through more adaptive emotion regulation. While there is extensive evidence linking higher average mindfulness to lower average emotion regulation difficulties, less is known about the momentary-level patterns that occur within individuals. Additionally, it is unclear if the relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation changes as a function of adolescents' mental health status. This study sought to fill these gaps by investigating the between- and within-person concurrent (same moment) and prospective (next moment) effects of mindfulness on emotion regulation among adolescents exposed to chronic stressors. This study also explored the moderating effects of mental health symptoms. Seventy-nine participants who were 10–18 years old (M = 13.81; SD = 2.16; 56% male; 62% non-Hispanic White) completed ecological momentary assessments (EMA) three times a day for 7 days. Dynamic structural equation modeling revealed that between- and within-person mindfulness was inversely associated with concurrent, but not prospective, emotion regulation difficulties. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and internalizing symptoms also moderated concurrent and prospective within-person associations. Individuals with higher PTSD and internalizing symptoms experienced lower emotion regulation difficulties during moments of greater-than-average mindfulness. Adolescents with higher PTSD symptoms also experienced fewer difficulties regulating their emotions in moments that followed greater mindful nonjudgment. These results highlight that greater momentary mindfulness may be beneficial for emotion regulation within the same moment and across the day for adolescents with mental health difficulties which has meaningful implications for just-in-time interventions. Future research may benefit from incorporating additional EMA measurements to explore the finer grained, short-term dynamics between mindfulness and emotion regulation.

Peer defending is widely promoted as a strategy to reduce bullying, but few studies have investigated whether having more defenders decreases victimization over time from the victim's perspective. This social network study examined the longitudinal association between nominating more defenders and subsequent victimization among (early) adolescents and tested whether this relation is moderated by the popularity status of the defender and the victim. The sample included 1450 participants from 93 secondary school classes (grades 4–9) in Finland (52.51% female; M_age = 12.38 years, SD_age = 1.56). Results from longitudinal social network analyses showed that contrary to expectations, having more defenders did not reduce victimization over time. Moreover, the popularity of the defender or the victim did not moderate this effect. Results did not differ by grade. These findings suggest that defending alone may not protect students from ongoing victimization and highlight the need for broader, multi-level intervention strategies.