Journal of Youth and Adolescence最新文献

Much remains unknown about whether restrictive mediation is an effective parenting strategy to prevent or reduce problematic social media use among adolescents. Therefore, this study examined bidirectional within-family effects between two restrictive mediation practices (rule-setting and reactive restrictions) and problematic social media use using random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling. Three-wave survey data collected among Dutch adolescents (T1: N = 1928, M_age = 13.31 years, SD = 0.91, 43.3% girl) with a 1 year-interval were used. Results showed that within-family changes in problematic social media use symptoms predicted subsequent within-family changes in perceived parental restrictive mediation. More specifically, an increase in symptoms predicted a decrease in rule-setting and an increase in reactive restrictions 1 year later. Within-family changes in perceived parental restrictive mediation practices did not predict within-family changes in problematic social media use symptoms, suggesting that the relation is unidirectional. However, concluding that limiting adolescents' Internet use is ineffective to prevent problematic social media use would be premature. Future research should investigate whether it may be an effective parenting strategy for a certain subgroup of adolescents or under certain circumstances.

Sleep quality is crucial for healthy adolescent brain development, which has downstream effects on self-control and involvement in risky behaviors, such as alcohol use. While previous studies have found that sleep and facets of self-control are associated with patterns of alcohol use, few have assessed whether these constructs are tied to alcohol-related problems with law enforcement during the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood. The current study uses self-report panel data from ages 16 to 27 from a population-based sample of U.S. youth (N = 956; 36.86% female). The goal of the current study is to assess the association between changes in restless sleep, impulsivity, sensation seeking, and problems with police during or shortly after consuming alcohol from adolescence to adulthood to begin to address this gap in the existing literature. Results from a multivariate latent growth curve model reveal that faster increases in restless sleep and slower declines in impulsivity are associated with slower declines in police contact. Correlated changes between restless sleep, impulsivity, and police contact are slightly greater from ages 16-21 than for ages 22-27, with males showing stronger associations. The reported results suggest that identifying developmental mechanisms between changes in poor sleep, impulsivity, and alcohol use behaviors during this life-course phase will be crucial moving forward to help divert youth away from alcohol-related contact with the police.

The comorbidity of depression and generalized anxiety have raised questions about the existing classification system. Based on the perspective of network analysis, the developmental relationship between psychological symptoms can be explored more clearly. The current study aimed to explore the longitudinal network association of depressive symptoms and generalized anxiety symptoms in non-clinical adolescents. The sample contained 1,947 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 13.93, SD = 1.71; 48.5% girls). Their depression (PHQ-9) and generalized anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms were assessed at baseline (T1) and 6-month follow-up (T2). Data was analyzed using a cross-lagged network analysis. Depressive symptoms and generalized anxiety symptoms were closely related and did not appear to be distinct categories in adolescence. More generalized anxiety symptoms predicted depressive symptoms rather than vice versa. After controlling for gender, and age, "Difficulty relaxing" presented the highest out-expected influence (out-EI) in the network, while "trouble concentrating", and "suicidal ideation" showed the lowest in expected influence (in-EI). Findings suggested that interventions for generalized anxiety symptoms may help reduce depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents. Specifically, alleviating "difficulty relaxing" may improve overall mental health.

Personality functioning, general psychopathology, and developmental milestones achievement are critical domains in the field of young people's mental health; however, no prior research has considered these variables jointly or examined the temporal dynamics between them. To fill these gaps, the present study aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between the above constructs in a clinical sample of Dutch youth. 525 outpatients (72.5% women; age range: 12-26 years, M = 18.8 ± 2.83) diagnosed with different psychological difficulties were recruited from specialized mental health care services in The Netherlands. They completed self-report measures assessing personality functioning, psychopathological symptoms, and the achievement of youth-specific developmental milestones. Data were collected on three occasions within a year and modelled using a Cross-Lagged Panel Model approach. The levels of personality dysfunction, general psychopathology, and developmental milestones achievement were found to fluctuate from one wave to the other. Personality dysfunction and general psychopathology were positively interrelated at each time point, while both constructs were negatively associated with developmental milestones achievement. Importantly, difficulties achieving developmental milestones predicted a worsening in personality functioning 6 months later. This result would suggest that the achievement of developmental milestones precedes personality functioning, supporting the importance of interventions promoting age-adequate functioning in youth.

Classroom status hierarchy (the degree to which popularity is unequally distributed in a classroom) has often been examined as a predictor of bullying. Although most research has relied on an operationalization of status hierarchy as the classroom standard deviation (SD) of popularity, other fields (e.g., sociology, economics) have typically measured resource inequality using the Gini coefficient. This multilevel study examines the concurrent and prospective associations of both status hierarchy indicators (referred to as SD-hierarchy and Gini-hierarchy) with peer-reported bullying, controlling for key variables (i.e., the structure of the classroom status hierarchy, average classroom level of popularity). The final sample included 3017 students (45.3% self-identified as a boy; T1 M_age = 13.04, SD = 1.73, approximately 93% born in Finland) from 209 classrooms. Concurrently, classroom SD-hierarchy was positively, linearly associated with bullying, whereas there was a curvilinear (inverted U) association between Gini-hierarchy and bullying. No significant longitudinal associations were found. The findings suggest that Gini-hierarchy provides unique information beyond the SD-hierarchy.

Early adolescence is a critical period for the development of children's intelligence mindsets, which play a significant role in academic achievement. However, existing research predominantly employs variable-centered approaches, which fail to capture individual differences in mindset-achievement relations. This research addresses this gap by adopting a longitudinal person-centered approach to explore the joint developmental trajectories of growth and fixed mindsets among early adolescents. It further explores how these trajectories relate to changes in academic achievement (i.e., the mean of standardized mathematics and Chinese achievement test scores) over 2 years, accounting for intelligence and sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, and family SES. In two five-wave longitudinal studies with 748 (M_age = 10.23 years, SD = 0.30; 49% girls at T1) and 3258 (M_age = 10.34 years, SD = 0.37; 49% girls at T1) Chinese elementary school students from grades 4 to 6, four distinct mindset trajectory profiles were identified: Growth (initially high growth but low fixed mindsets), Fixed (initially high fixed but low growth mindsets), Moderate (initially moderate levels in both mindsets), and Both-High (initially high levels in both mindsets). Analysis across both studies revealed that students in the Growth trajectory profile exhibited the most significant improvements in academic achievement 2 years later. Conversely, students in the Both-High trajectory profile experienced the least favorable academic outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of recognizing individual differences in mindset trajectories and their potential impact on academic outcomes. The current research underscores the need for educational interventions that are tailored to different mindset profiles to optimize student development and achievement.

Although greater mother-child interaction flexibility has been linked with overall better adjustment within early childhood and adolescence, whether this link persists across the two developmental periods remains unknown. This longitudinal study examined mother-toddler flexibility in affective and behavioral exchanges as predictors of adolescents' externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Sample included 128 families with their 33-month-old toddlers (52% female), of whom 67 returned in adolescence (M age = 13.25 years, SD = 0.59). Greater affective flexibility during play and behavioral flexibility during snack predicted fewer parent-reported externalizing (but not internalizing) symptoms ten years later, controlling for the positivity-negativity of mother-toddler interactions, early-childhood adjustment, and mother-adolescent flexibility. The findings highlight the unique, prospective role of early-life caregiving flexibility in mitigating adolescents' behavioral problems.

Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) and inclusive school policies and practices that affirm youth with minoritized sexual orientations or gender identities (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer youth; LGBTQ+ youth) are two sources of support for LGBTQ+ youth that could promote school belonging. The current study tested a three-level multilevel model in which youth's GSA experiences and the degree to which their schools implemented LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices predicted their school belonging over a six-month period. Participants included 627 youth (87% LGBQ+ youth, 45% transgender or nonbinary youth, 48% youth of color) ages 11-22 (M_age = 15.13) in 51 GSAs. At the within-individual level, youth reported greater school belonging on occasions following months when they felt their peers and advisors were more responsive to their needs and when they had taken on more leadership in the GSA. At the between-individual level, youth who generally felt their peers were more responsive over the study period reported greater school belonging than others. At the between-GSA level, GSA members in schools that more thoroughly implemented LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices reported greater school belonging over the study period. These findings underscore the relevance of GSAs and inclusive policies and practices in establishing welcoming school environments.