Adolescent Research Review最新文献

The fields of personality and social psychology, with their focus on individual differences and human communalities, have much to offer the study of religious and spiritual development in adolescence. This review describes the ways McAdams and Pals’ comprehensive personality theory and Saroglou’s Big Four functional account of religion inform the scientific understanding of adolescents’ religious and spiritual development. These theories suggest religious/spiritual development of adolescents should be studied at three levels of personality (traits, characteristic adaptations, and narrative identity/objective biography) and account for the potential functions of religion in relation to behaving (moral), believing (cognitive), belonging (social), and bonding (emotional) across diverse cultural contexts. The utility of these theories for investigating adolescent religious/spiritual development is illustrated through description of empirical studies and lines of research based on methodologies commonly employed in personality and social psychology, including longitudinal studies, religious priming experiments, and experience sampling methods. Likewise, this review highlights areas for future investigation and provides specific suggestions for inquiry on adolescent religious/spiritual development, which include deploying experimental designs, merging narrative identity with identity status approaches, and adopting a more holistic view of traits through analysis of experience sampling data.

The cognitive science of religion proposes that religion and spirituality—including belief in God, conceptualizations of God’s mind, and reasoning about the religious beliefs of other people—are rooted in the same systems that underlie everyday cognitive processing. Because these systems change throughout development, the cognitive science of religion provides unique insight into how and why religious belief and reasoning develop. While a growing body of work has investigated these topics among children and adults, there are glaring gaps in the field’s understanding of adolescence. This article reviews what is known and unknown in this space. It also argues that applying the cognitive science of religion approach to adolescence would provide critical insight into the development of cognition in general and religious belief in particular.

Although adolescents experiencing mental illness lack trust in others, potentially influencing their help-seeking behaviors, no broad review of trust in adolescents living with mental illness exists. This scoping review examines what can be learned about interpersonal trust from adolescents living with mental illness. More specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate reports from adolescents with mental illness regarding: (1) factors they perceive influence their trust, (2) factors statistically associated with trust, and (3) interventions that support trust. This review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Articles were identified through database and hand searches, with 89 of the 2010 identified articles included. Frequency counts and content analysis revealed several factors which fostered trust e.g., worker reliability. Trust was associated with protective factors such as quality of communication, and negatively with mental illness. Thirteen articles reported on trust outcomes of interventions, with most reporting positive outcomes. This review revealed adolescents’ perceptions of factors associated with trust, which may assist carers/professionals to build trust with them. Research is needed into links between trust and the quality of adolescents’ communication, and interventions targeting trust in adolescents with mental illness.

Organized activities have been championed as an important youth setting to nurture character development through childhood and adolescence, but scholars have yet to document the state of research on activities and youth character. Using guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Statement (PRISMA, Moher et al., PLoS Med 6(7):e1000097, 2009), this study conducts an extensive review of previous research in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the various ways in which organized activities support moral and civic character development. Through database and backward and forward citation searches, 65 studies were deemed eligible between 1999 and 2019, with 44 studies on civic character and 21 studies on moral character. Relations between organized activity participation and character development were assessed by five key dimensions of activity participation (intensity, duration, breadth, type and quality of the activity), and by youth characteristics (e.g., age, family income, gender, motivation/engagement in the activity). Review of the character literature provides evidence for the positive relations between organized activities and youth’s concurrent and long-term moral and civic character development. For civic studies, findings suggest that the greater the intensity, duration, and breadth of participation, the more favorable youth character outcomes. For moral character, the type and quality of the activity setting appear to be particularly important for supporting development. Overall, findings suggest that moral and civic character development ought to be considered and intentionally nurtured within activities as two separate, yet complimentary dimensions of interpersonal character. Future research is needed that explores various mechanisms that explain these associations and examines variations by characteristics of youth.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in interpersonal relationships. To date no reviews have scoped the extant research on peer relationship functioning for young people diagnosed with BPD or showing borderline personality features. The current review provides this scoping of studies on all facets of peer relationships, including friendship quality, peer victimization and bullying and peer aggression, and relevant studies of social–cognitive processes with relevance to peer relationships. From 282 studies identified up to August 2019, 39 studies were included for review. The majority of these were published between 2014 and 2019 (64%), with most studies using community samples (56.4%), conducted in the Unites States of America (51.3%) and over half (53.8%) with majority female (> 60% of the sample) participants, and over half (53.8%) with adolescent samples (mean age between 13 and 18 years). Most studies only addressed one domain of peer relationships (general k = 15; friendships k = 12; victimization k = 10; aggression k = 12). Only 8 studies (19.5%) were identified that included measures that crossed these domains. Borderline personality features were consistently associated with problematic functioning across facets of peer functioning. However, relatively few studies were located that examined multiple domains of peer relationship qualities, leaving an unclear and disjointed body of research. Some promising directions have received scant attention, including unrealistic expectations of friendship exclusivity and the sequelae when those expectations are not met. Studies that explicitly probe the developmental role of dysregulation, that assess bully/victim co-occurrence, and that consider the dynamics of thwarted expectations for exclusive “best-friend” roles, especially within the context of potential disorganized attachment histories, are needed.

John Bowlby’s theory of attachment has inspired numerous studies which have concluded that insecure attachment can contribute to the development of depressive symptoms in adolescents. It has also spurred research confirming that other environmental factors, such as parental depressive symptoms, can contribute to the development of insecure attachment in adolescents. However, few studies have investigated how insecure adolescent attachment works as a mechanism in the relationship between adolescent and parental depressive symptoms. Accordingly, this systematic review was conducted to better ascertain how attachment is related to the development of adolescent depressive symptoms in the context of parental depressive symptoms. Inclusion criteria for this review were met if the child study population had a mean age in our identified “adolescent” range (age 10–19), if depressive symptoms were measured in at least one parent and their adolescent child, and if adolescent attachment was related to (i.e., mediated or moderated) the intergenerational relationship between depressive symptoms. A total of nine studies were identified searching among three databases (APA PsychNET, Academic Search Elite and PubMed) and one search engine (Google Scholar) through March 2020. The overall sample of this review included mothers (N = 1,684), fathers (N = 123), and adolescents (N = 1805). Samples for the original studies were recruited from both clinical and community populations, with clinical samples being determined by both parental and adolescent levels of depressive symptoms in different studies. Attachment was measured as both an internal working model of self or “state of mind” and as a behavior in which a stressed child seeks comfort or support from an attachment figure acting as a “secure base.” Measurements of attachment were taken at varying stages in child development ranging from infancy through adolescence. Additionally, most reviewed studies did not include fathers or much racial or social class diversity. Overall, the review determined that both conceptualizations of attachment (internal working model and support-seeking behavior) successfully mediated or moderated the relationship between maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Theoretical accounts of the relationship between social media use and body image among adolescents have highlighted motivations as an important factor. However, motivations for social media use has received little attention in extant research in the area of body image. The aim of this study was therefore to develop a measure of motivations for social media use among adolescents, with a focus on appearance motivations. Data from 770 adolescents (49% female), mean (SD) age = 12.76 (0.74) were used to examine the psychometric properties of the new Motivations for Social Media Use scale (MSMU). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a four-factor structure including Connection, Popularity, Appearance, and Values and Interests subscales. All subscales revealed acceptable internal reliability, and convergent validity with internalization of appearance ideals, self-esteem, and social media use. The MSMU is a useful tool for assessing appearance motivations for social media use among adolescent girls and boys.

“Diversion” schemes encouraging children and young people away from offending have successfully reduced the numbers of young people within the youth justice system. However, for those not successfully diverted, recidivism remains obstinately high. Many of those remaining in the youth justice system appear to have complex psychological needs. Research has also shown that many of this group have experienced a high number of adverse childhood experiences. Investigation into the potential consequences of these experiences suggests the potential disruption of normative adolescent psychological growth. Domains may include emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal development. This review assesses the effectiveness of individual interventions that had a psychological focus and succeeded in reducing recidivism. A systematic research review from 2000 to 2019 yielded 206 studies for youth offenders, and of these, 14 met the criteria for inclusion. Sample size varied greatly, from 30 to 3038. Research design, follow-up period and intervention content also varied greatly. Further, intervention success for recidivism ranged from almost total desistance to changes (increased time to re-offend) affecting only 50% of the intervention group. Psychological changes as a result of intervention included an increased sense of coherence, improved emotion recognition, more positive decision-making and reduced defiance. However, none of the studies conducted follow-up psychological assessments post-intervention. Although youth crime is a priority for policy makers, so far research has fallen short of fully examining how the development of psychological resilience via interventions may help reduce persistent offending.

There is a well-established body of literature regarding how formal aspects of school impact high school students’ interest, achievement, and persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, less is known regarding the influence of informal factors (e.g., parents, social groups) on these STEM outcomes. This study helps address this gap by synthesizing interdisciplinary, international research on the role of parents’ professionalism and parents’ STEM occupation on a variety of STEM-related outcomes. Resulting evidence indicated a positive relationship between parents’ professionalism—a measure of job status such that professional occupations are defined as requiring high-level literacy and numeracy skills that are typically gained as a result of postsecondary education—and high school students’ success and persistence in STEM fields. With respect to parents employed in STEM occupations and high school students’ success and persistence in STEM fields, there was also an observed connection. Female and minority students tended to see more wide-ranging benefits from having a professional or STEM parent than did male and white students respectively. This study helps to draw insights into the role of parents’ occupation in influencing STEM achievement and participation.

Schools are an important source of information about sexuality, but programs that focus on promoting knowledge alone generally have limited impact on sexual health. Schools also provide a space for relationship and social skill development, which are critical for social connectedness or a sense of belonging. Enhancing social connectedness among adolescents has been associated with improved mental health, but whether this is a beneficial strategy for sexual health is unclear. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the impact of school-based programs that promote social connectedness on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Following a search of major databases, 18 studies of ten distinct programs were identified. Overall, improved condom use, delayed initiation of sex, and reduced pregnancy rates were demonstrated. Program effectiveness was influenced by ethnicity and gender, for example, greater improvements in condom use were often reported among African American students. Programs that were most effective incorporated multiple constructs of social connectedness, included social skill-building and had a sustained intensity. Future research should examine gender- and culture-sensitive ways to promote social connectedness, and the optimal program intensity. This review provides promising evidence that programs that promote multiple aspects of connectedness can improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health.