Journal of Research on Adolescence最新文献

Shifts in societal attitudes and beliefs about sexual minority people may provide sexual minority youth with more opportunities to engage in intimate relationships during adolescence. To date, however, the degree to which sexual minority adolescents are involved in relationships and the factors related to such involvement are not well understood. The current study addressed this gap using data from a national sample of over 15,000 sexual minority adolescents. Twenty-nine percent of adolescents were currently dating; 70% had ever dated, and 57% had ever engaged in a nonheterosexual intimate relationship. Multivariable logistic regression models indicated that participants who were older, gender diverse, and plurisexual had a greater likelihood of dating involvement, whereas asexual participants had a lower likelihood of dating involvement. Partially supporting hypotheses, participants who reported higher levels of intrapersonal sexual stigma were less likely to be currently dating or to have ever dated. Contrary to hypotheses, participants who reported higher levels of interpersonal sexual stigma had a greater likelihood of dating involvement, and living in states with higher sexual stigma was associated with a greater likelihood of having ever dated or having ever engaged in a nonheterosexual relationship. Results reveal that many sexual minority youth are or have previously been involved in an intimate relationship and provide initial insights into factors associated with such involvement. These findings call for further research on sexual minority adolescents’ intimate relationships and for inclusive relationship and sexual health education to promote positive relationships among this group.

Adolescents' metacognitive skills and social relationships play key roles in learning but are often studied in isolation. This study investigated the links between metacognition, learning performance, and classroom friendship networks in a sample of 136 seventh-grade students from Switzerland (53.8% female; mean age 13.8 years) assessed at two time points 3 months apart. Metacognition was measured on-task. Monitoring was assessed through confidence judgments, and control through decisions about what to restudy and which responses to submit or withdraw from grading. Participants learned the meanings of Japanese characters (“Kanji”), self-tested memorization, monitored their performance, made restudy decisions, and submitted selected responses. Social friendship networks were measured with friendship nominations within classrooms. Results showed that decision accuracy strongly predicted Kanji task scores at both time points. Monitoring-based restudy became a significant predictor of task scores at the second measurement, indicating that participants who strategically restudied items for which confidence was initially low achieved higher scores. No evidence was found for friends influencing adolescents' metacognitive skills. Friends did, however, become more similar in task performance over time, suggesting that peer influence may shape learning processes other than the investigated metacognitive processes. These findings highlight the importance of metacognitive control and friendship dynamics for adolescents' learning outcomes.

Adolescence is a developmental window in which mental health symptomatology and other health behaviors can set lifelong trajectories. Yet, adolescent development research in rural areas of low-resource communities is severely lacking. Conceptualized in the Adolescent Well-Being Framework, where diet and activity form a core domain of well-being, we examined two modifiable risk behaviors (sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and physical activity) and their associations with mental health and substance use problems among 1351 adolescents aged 10–17 years (51% girls) in a rural setting in Lesotho, southern Africa. Standardized screening measures showed at least one clinically relevant mental health problem among 3% of the overall sample and 5% among 15–17 year-olds. Among those in the overall sample meeting these criteria, 45% recognized a need for help, yet only 17% obtained any care, leaving an 83% treatment gap. After adjusting for age and sex, any sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was associated with having at least one mental health symptom or recent substance use and with clinically relevant mental health and substance use problems. Physical activity showed no significant associations. Although the overall prevalence of clinically relevant mental health and substance use problems was relatively low, low levels of problem awareness suggest a need for adolescent-appropriate demand-side interventions for early treatment. Future research may explore possible indigenous protective factors underlying the low prevalence and clarify the pathway between health behaviors and mental health problems.

With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the relaxation of social restrictions, it seems intuitive to expect significant reductions in learning difficulties and psychological distress among adolescents. However, their psychological recovery could be hindered by the increased stress arising from rapidly changing environments, particularly for those from less developed regions. A three-wave study focusing on Chinese adolescents (N = 962) from economically disadvantaged regions was conducted to examine their psychological distress and academic inefficacy changes before and after the relaxation of the Zero-COVID policy established in December 2022 as well as to identify predictors and mediators of the change trajectories across T1 (three months before the policy), T2 (three months after the policy), and T3 (six months after T2). Counterintuitively, latent growth modeling (LGM) indicated deteriorating trends in students' psychological distress and academic inefficacy. From a change management perspective, structural equation modeling (SEM) further showed that at the individual level, perceived legitimacy of change (T2) was found to positively predict the slopes of psychological distress and academic inefficacy from T1 to T3 through the mediation of self-determination need fulfillment (T2), whereas perceived change unplannedness (T2) negatively predicted the changes, mediated by perceived relative deprivation (T2). These findings shed light on the risk and resilience factors of disadvantaged adolescents' post-pandemic psychological recovery, providing important implications for policymakers and the community.

There is little research on how parenting is related to youth's prosocial behavior toward outgroup members. We examined how parental warmth and gender socialization predict youth's altruistic and public prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers. A total of 358 youth (M_age = 13.00, SD_age = 1.13) and their parents participated in the study over 2 years in the United States. Longitudinal path analyses showed that parental warmth was positively related to residualized changes in altruistic prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers, and there were significant interaction effects of parental warmth and gender socialization practices in predicting youth's public prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers 1 year later. Specifically, when parental gender socialization practices were low, parental warmth was particularly important for prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers; when parental warmth was high, parental gender socialization practices were particularly relevant for prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers. Parental gender socialization attitudes had opposite effects for residualized changes in both altruistic and public prosocial behavior by youth gender.

Previous research shows that poverty can hinder the development of self-regulation skills, yet little is known about how individuals living in poverty experience self-regulation. This qualitative study aims to understand young people's experiences as they deploy self-regulation strategies and navigate interpersonal and contextual barriers associated with chronic scarcity. Adolescents (n = 29) aged 10–19 years living in low-income urban areas in Bogotá, Colombia, participated in semi-structured interviews and provided journal entries. Data were analyzed using framework analysis. Findings reveal that adolescents self-regulate using avoidance, reflection, physiologically mediated strategies, and self-care practices. They regulate themselves to solve interpersonal conflict and achieve personal and family-oriented goals. Co-regulation practices primarily involving peers were identified. Despite having a rich repertoire of self-regulation strategies, participants described that dysregulated responses by significant others and the lack of material resources interfere with their effective use of self-regulation strategies. Our findings can inform interventions operating in contexts of adversity that seek to improve self-regulation during adolescence, a critical age for preventing mental health conditions and adverse developmental outcomes.

Adolescent dating violence victimization is a prevalent public health issue with potential long-term consequences, yet little is known about its impact on different forms of adult violence. This study investigated the long-term association between adolescent dating violence victimization and violence involvement in adulthood, differentiating between intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-intimate partner violence (non-IPV), as well as victimization and perpetration. It also examined whether these associations vary by gender and race/ethnicity. This study used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) (N = 2164). Sibling fixed effects logistic regression models were employed to control for unobserved family-level heterogeneity. Interaction terms tested for gender and racial/ethnic differences. Adolescent dating violence victimization was significantly associated with increased odds of non-IPV perpetration (OR = 2.387, 95% CI [1.183, 4.815]) and IPV victimization (OR = 1.880, 95% CI [1.266, 2.792]) in adulthood. When disaggregating by type, psychological dating violence victimization was linked to higher odds of non-IPV perpetration and IPV victimization, whereas physical dating violence victimization was more strongly associated with both IPV victimization and perpetration. No significant patterns of gender or racial/ethnic heterogeneity were observed. Findings highlight the developmental continuity of violence and the importance of distinguishing between violence types and roles. Adolescent dating violence victimization, particularly in psychological and physical forms, poses a significant long-term risk for adult violence involvement. These results underscore the need for early prevention efforts and relationship education that address both victimization and perpetration in diverse contexts.

Du, X., Jia, J., Duan, T., Tao, X., Li, J., Yalikun, S., Wu, H., Zhou, Z., & Ren, Z. (2025). Trend of Chinese adolescent anxiety symptoms before and after COVID-19: A cross-temporal meta-analysis with segmented regression. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 35, e70046. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.70046

In this article, authors Xiayu Du and Jiaojiao Jia contributed equally to this work.

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This study examines the bidirectional relationship between adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ parenting styles and the development of a virtuous intellectual character. A longitudinal panel study was conducted, which involved annual evaluations of a sample of 383 adolescents from secondary schools in urban areas of Buenos Aires, Argentina. At Time 1, 57% of the participants were girls, 43% were boys, and one identified as nonbinary. At Time 2, 58% of the participants were girls, and 42% were boys. The average age of the participants was 12.63 years (SD = 0.69) at Time 1 and 13.42 years (SD = 0.59) at Time 2. This study used the Argentine Parenting Styles Questionnaire for Adolescents, the Parental Challenge Questionnaire, and the Virtuous Intellectual Character Scale. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed a bidirectional relationship between an accepting parenting style and a virtuous intellectual character, as well as a unidirectional effect of parental challenge, which was identified as a predictor of a virtuous intellectual character. Parents who adopt a positive parenting style are likely to promote a virtuous intellectual character among adolescents, thus making the latter more curious, autonomous in terms of their thinking, attentive in their learning, detail-oriented in their studies, and open-minded with respect to others’ perspectives. Moreover, dysfunctional parenting styles, such as pathological control and extreme autonomy, decrease open-mindedness among adolescents. These results reflect the important role that parents play in the development of intellectual virtues among adolescents.

Social norms are crucial to human development and social functioning. They play an important role in the formation of personal norms and intentions concerning risk-taking and prosocial behaviors. During adolescence, the school becomes a prominent environment where individuals gain a deeper understanding of broader social norms, helping them navigate the complexities of adult society. Here, adolescents may learn social norms from two key sources: peers and teachers. While heightened sensitivity to peers is well established, less is known about the influence of teachers in shaping adolescent personal norms and intentions. We performed a pre-registered two-wave experiment (N = 270; M_age = 13.7 years old) to investigate how normative information from peers and teachers directly and indirectly shapes intentions for risk-taking and prosocial behaviors. Results from our moderated mediation analysis indicate that normative information influences intentions for risk-taking and prosociality both directly and indirectly by shaping personal norms. Furthermore, while the source does not moderate the direct effect, it does moderate the indirect pathway by influencing personal norms. In particular, adolescents tend to conform more strongly to peer norms and exhibit anti-conformity toward teacher norms in the context of risk-taking. Overall, our findings highlight the often overlooked importance of teachers in co-shaping social norms during these formative years.