Journal of Research on Adolescence最新文献

This study examined the role of contextual factors in shaping adolescents' social–emotional learning (SEL) using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. The sample included 292,466 15-year-old adolescents across 42 countries or economies (18 low- and 24 high-context economies). Network analysis highlighted stress resilience, cooperation, perseverance, and curiosity as pivotal skills of SEL, with stress resilience emerging as central. The results further indicated significant cultural variations in how contextual factors would affect students' SEL: In high-context cultures (where communication relies heavily on implicit and situational cues), teacher–student relationships played a more central role, while in low-context cultures (where communication tends to be explicit and direct), sense of school belonging was prioritized. These results underscored the need for culturally responsive SEL programs, tailored to specific cultural dynamics, to support optimal skill development.

Historically marginalized adolescents experience environmental stressors that contribute to psychological distress and compromised academic outcomes. Prior research highlights the role of a positive school climate and school engagement in promoting both academic achievement and psychological well-being. Building on this work, we propose school engagement may mediate relationships between stressful life events (SLEs) and campus climate on academic achievement and psychological distress. In a sample of 293 historically marginalized adolescents (81.2% Latine), path analyses showed mediation between campus climate, SLEs, and psychological distress via school engagement. Additionally, school engagement partially mediated the link between SLEs and academic achievement. Multiple regression analyses revealed school-related challenges were associated with lower school engagement, more psychological distress, and lower academic achievement. These findings highlight the critical role of school engagement in shaping both academic and psychological outcomes. Implications for equity-focused initiatives are discussed.

Taking risks is a crucial part of adolescent development, encompassing both positive (socially valued) and negative (potentially life-threatening) behaviors. While cognitive control is known to reduce harmful risk behaviors, its relationship with beneficial risk-taking remains unclear. This study investigated how multiple components of cognitive control relate to both types of risk-taking and explored learning as a potential pathway to adaptive risk-taking. We assessed 127 adolescents (ages 12–18, 65% female, 60% White) using experimental cognitive tasks, self-report measures, and an adapted balloon analog risk task. Working memory and proactive control were associated with reduced negative risk-taking (NRT) but not positive risk-taking (PRT). Effortful control showed a unique divergent pattern, being associated with both reduced NRT and increased willingness for PRT. These associations diminished with age, perhaps due to the increasing influence of external factors like opportunity and social context. Better learning in low-risk experimental conditions related to reduced real-world NRT, though this learning ability was not associated with cognitive control measures. These findings contribute to expanding our understanding of how cognitive control relates to adolescent adaptive risk-taking and open up perspectives for effective interventions.

Middle school years are a turbulent period for students to develop their adaptive academic motivation and engagement. However, a person-centered longitudinal investigation on changes in academic motivation and engagement is scarce. Through a two-wave survey with a four-month interval, this study investigated the configurations, transitions, and the predictive roles of basic psychological needs satisfaction on transitions in academic motivation and engagement profiles among 502 Chinese seventh graders (261 boys; Mean age = 12.34 at Time 1). Latent profile analysis revealed three profiles at both measurement occasions: highly motivated-and-engaged, moderately motivated-and-engaged, and demotivated-and-disengaged profiles. Latent transition analysis showed that while 61.16% of students maintained their initial profiles, 15.54% transitioned to more adaptive profiles and 24.30% shifted to less adaptive profiles. Notably, autonomy need satisfaction emerged as the protective factor preventing the highly motivated-and-engaged students from falling into the moderately motivated-and-engaged status. Implications and future research directions for middle school students' motivation and engagement are discussed.

Childhood conduct problems are associated with problematic substance use in adulthood; however, little is known about what might explain these associations outside of high-income countries where the majority of research is conducted. Data were analyzed from 4599 young people from the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort in Brazil. The exposure was conduct problems (age 11 years). Outcomes included hazardous alcohol consumption and illicit drug use (age 22 years). Mediators included police arrest (by age 18 years), gang membership (ages 18 and 22 years), and school noncompletion (by age 22 years). We performed counterfactual mediation using the parametric g-computation formula to estimate the indirect effect via all three mediators simultaneously. After adjusting for confounders (including hyperactivity problems), conduct problems were weakly associated with police arrest (OR [95% CI] = 1.45 [0.97, 2.16]) and school noncompletion (OR [95% CI] = 1.46 [1.22, 1.74]), but not with gang membership. Police arrest and gang membership were associated with illicit drug use (OR [95% CI] = 3.84 [2.46, 5.99]; OR [95% CI] = 7.78 [4.30, 14.10], respectively) and with hazardous alcohol use (OR [95% CI] = 1.60 [1.08, 2.38]; OR [95% CI] = 1.88 [1.07, 3.30]), after adjusting for confounders (including hyperactivity and emotional problems). There was no association between school noncompletion and either outcome after confounder adjustment. There was little evidence for an indirect effect of conduct problems on hazardous alcohol use and illicit drug use via all three mediators after confounder adjustment. Findings highlight the importance of school professionals being aware of the risk for school noncompletion for those with conduct problems. Additionally, programmes designed to reduce substance use in Brazil should focus on young people involved in gangs, and in the criminal justice system.

This study explored the connections among adolescents' Theory of Mind (ToM), social anhedonia, loneliness, and self-concept. Research with clinical populations shows interrelations between mainly poor ToM skills, higher loneliness, a weaker self-concept, and high levels of social anhedonia. This study extends this work by investigating their relation in a nonclinical adolescent population of 236 Canadian adolescents from ages 11–18. Results revealed that ToM negatively predicted social anhedonia, with adolescents with poorer ToM skills reporting higher levels of social anhedonia. Loneliness, but not self-concept, significantly mediated the relation between ToM and social anhedonia. Adolescents with lower ToM skills were more likely to report feelings of loneliness, which in turn predicted greater social anhedonia. Implications include support for developmentally appropriate and culturally informed interventions that promote strong social connections and loneliness reduction.

Although peer victimization is an established risk factor for behavioral problems in adolescents, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To address this gap, this study examined whether peer victimization may be indirectly associated with behavioral problems through executive function and whether these associations may be moderated by resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in adolescents. A total of 298 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 12.88 years, SD_age = 0.69 years, 53% female) participated in this study. Participants completed questionnaires on peer victimization, executive function, and internalizing and externalizing problems. They also participated in a 3-min resting electrocardiogram recording, during which their resting RSA was measured. The results showed that exposure to peer victimization was associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents through its relation to executive function. Additionally, resting RSA moderated these relations, with the indirect associations between peer victimization and behavioral problems through executive function being stronger in adolescents with low rather than high resting RSA. Our findings highlight that poor executive function serves as a potential mechanism linking peer victimization to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, with this process varying by individual cardiac vagal tone.

Along with the rapid popularization of short-form video applications, adolescents' addiction to short-form videos has received increasing attention, but research on the bidirectional relationship between short-form video addiction (SFVA) and anxiety symptoms is limited. Therefore, the present study aimed to fill this gap by examining the interrelationship between these two variables and the potential mediating role of delayed gratification. This study surveyed 1143 Chinese high school students (50.04% male; M_age = 15.87, SD = 0.88 at time 1) across two waves of data collection spaced 6 months apart, measuring SFVA, delay of gratification, and anxiety symptoms at both time points. Using cross-lagged panel modeling, this study found that anxiety symptoms positively predicted subsequent SFVA, and SFVA positively predicted subsequent anxiety symptoms, suggesting a bidirectional relationship; furthermore, delay of gratification significantly mediated the relationship in both directions; specifically, anxiety symptoms increased the risk of SFVA by decreasing the ability to delay gratification, and vice versa. These findings emphasize the mediating role of delayed gratification, implying that interventions targeted at improving delayed gratification in adolescents may help to disrupt the vicious cycle of anxiety symptoms and SFVA.

Juvenile delinquency has significant impacts on physical and mental health in adulthood, yet longitudinal research investigating cognitive consequences of delinquent behavior is limited. This study investigates potential pathways linking adolescent delinquent behavior to memory performance in adulthood, with particular attention to proximal psychosocial and behavioral mediators. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and employing school fixed-effects models, we examine the association between juvenile delinquency and memory performance in adulthood. We distinguish between nonviolent and violent delinquent behaviors to investigate differential associations. Moreover, we conduct multivariate bootstrapped mediation analyses with several mechanism variables, including disciplinary action, substance use, psychological factors, sleep behaviors, and social support. The association between juvenile delinquency and memory performance in adulthood was confounded by individual and family-level characteristics. Differentiating between violent and nonviolent behaviors, violent delinquency was negatively associated with memory performance, even after adjusting for individual and family characteristics as well as school fixed effects. Mediation analyses indicated that disciplinary action, psychological factors, and social support mediated the association between violent delinquency and memory performance. Depressive symptoms (25.7%) and suspension (17.7%) emerged as the most salient mediating factors, followed by perceived care from teachers (8.6%). Our findings further demonstrate that these early psychosocial and behavioral disruptions may impair memory performance in adulthood by undermining educational attainment. The results of this study suggest that engagement in violent behaviors during adolescence is longitudinally associated with worse memory performance in adulthood. We also provide evidence on the potential pathways through which violent delinquency can impact future memory performance, prompting considerations for more effective intervention strategies for delinquent youth.