Developmental scientists studying interpersonal relationships often find that informants disagree in their reports, and two theoretical perspectives suggest that these discrepancies may be predictable. In two studies of adolescents' interpersonal relationships, we examined two factors that may predict the absolute magnitude and the direction of the discrepancies in reports about several types of relationships. Specifically, we examined informants' depressive symptoms and attachment as predictors of absolute and directional discrepancies in reports about (a) adolescents' relationships with peers, (b) parent–adolescent relationships, and (c) adolescents' friendships. Findings revealed that informant depressive symptoms sometimes were associated with discrepancies. In contrast, informant attachment more consistently accounted for absolute and directional discrepancies.

Antisocial behavior typically increases during early adolescence, but the possibility of seasonal variation has not been examined. In this study, trajectories of antisocial behavior were estimated for early adolescent boys and girls. Data were obtained from a 3-year longitudinal study of 11 middle schools in the western United States (n = 5,742), with assessments completed four times per academic year. Antisocial behavior increased steadily throughout 6th grade, but beginning in 7th grade for boys and 8th grade for girls it declined during the school year. Significant increases between Grades 6–7 and 7–8 were found for both genders. Trajectories varied by contextual and individual-level social victimization and gender. Implications for theoretical development and future studies are discussed.

This is the first longitudinal study of urban African American adolescents that has examined bidirectional effects between their family conflict and violent behavior across all of high school. Structured interviews were administered to 681 students each year in high school at ages 15, 16, 17, and 18 years. We used structural equation modeling to test a transactional model and found bidirectional effects between family conflict and violent behavior across the middle years of high school, while accounting for sex and socioeconomic status. Findings suggest a reciprocal process involving interpersonal conflict in African American families and adolescent engagement in youth violence.

The current research examined the reciprocal pathways between children's autonomous motivation in school and affect over early adolescence in the United States and China. Beginning in the fall of 7th grade, 825 American and Chinese children (mean age = 12.73 years) reported on their autonomous (vs. controlled) motivation as well as unpleasant and pleasant affect every 6 months until the end of eighth grade. In both the United States and China, there were negative reciprocal pathways between children's autonomous motivation and unpleasant affect. Over time, heightened autonomous motivation predicted dampened unpleasant affect, which in turn predicted heightened autonomous motivation. Positive reciprocal pathways between children's autonomous motivation and pleasant affect were evident over time only in China.

The development of youth purpose was explored in a qualitative, cross-sequential study. Interviews about life goals and reasons for pursuing them were conducted with 146 adolescents from four age groups (6th grade, 9th grade, 12th grade, and college sophomores or juniors). Participants completed the interview twice in 2 years. Each cohort focused on different aspects of purpose: middle school youth desired to be empathic; high school youth focused on finding a role to engage their purpose; high school graduates focused on re-evaluating their priorities through transitions; and college students focused on developing pathways to support their purpose. These phases were impacted by several factors, including transitions, identity formation processes, and external supports and influences.

Peer antisocial behavior robustly predicts adolescents' own behavior, but not all adolescents are equally vulnerable to their peers' influence and genetic factors may confer vulnerability. This study used data of n = 3,081 adolescents from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children to examine whether brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a polymorphism that affects psychological functioning, moderates the association between affiliation with aggressive peers at age 10 and own aggression at age 15. A significant gene–environment interaction was found, where those who affiliated with aggressive peers in childhood showed increased risk of being aggressive in adolescence if they carried the BDNF met-met variant compared with val-val carriers. Our findings underline the importance of both biological and social factors for adolescent development.

Delinquency and substance use are more likely to co-occur in adolescence compared to earlier and later developmental periods. The present study examined developmental pathways to co-occurring problem behavior from 6th to 10th grade (N = 2,002), testing how peer delinquency and substance use were linked to transitioning between abstaining, delinquency, substance use, and co-occurring problem behavior. Developmentally, most youth transition from abstinence to delinquent behavior and then escalate to co-occurring problem behavior. Once co-occurring problem behavior onsets, remitting to single-problem behavior or abstinence is unlikely. The impact of peers on problem behavior is domain-specific when individuals transition from abstaining to a single-problem behavior, but is more general with respect to escalation of and desistance from problem behavior.

We examined associations between positive interactions and avoidant and anxious representations in relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners. Two hundred adolescents completed questionnaires, observations, and attachment interviews. From a between-person perspective, those adolescents with more positive interactions overall had less avoidant representations. Within persons, the more positive interactions were relative to one's own average level in relationships, the less avoidant representations were for that type of relationship. Adolescents were less anxious about a particular type of relationship if they had positive interactions in their other types of relationships. Finally, representations were primarily predicted by interactions in the same type of relationship; interactions in other relationships contributed little. The findings underscore the importance of examining representations of particular types of relationships.

This randomized trial compared two types of expressive writing—benefit-focused versus standard expressive writing—with a factual writing (control) condition in enhancing adolescents' self-concept during the transition to high school. First-year male students (N = 201) wrote on three consecutive days about either the potential benefits of the school transition, their deepest thoughts and feelings about this transition, or their school activities. The benefit-focused group had better short-term academic self-concept relative to the other two conditions, especially among students who had low academic self-concept at baseline, but these changes were not lasting. Writing about the benefits of the transition may be a cost-effective school-based intervention to strengthen academic self-concept, but may need augmentation with booster sessions or interpersonal discussion.

Longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study are used to examine (1) how young people establish work with self-identified career potential and how these patterns are linked to educational attainments; and (2) how adolescent achievement orientations, experiences in school and work, and sociodemographic background distinguish youth who establish themselves in careers and those who flounder during this transition. Multilevel latent class models reveal four school-to-work pathways from ages 18–31: two groups that attain careers through postsecondary education (via bachelor's or associate's–vocational degrees) and two groups that do not (distinguished by attempting college). Multinomial logistic regression models demonstrate that academic orientations, socioeconomic background, and steady paid work during high school help adolescents avoid subsequent floundering during the school-to-work transition.

This mixed-method longitudinal study investigated the role of identity synthesis and emotional support from family, friends, and professors in emerging adults' mental health during the transition to college. A total of 167 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse emerging adults were surveyed and interviewed during the fall and the spring quarters of their first year in college. Cluster analysis revealed four mental health clusters: greatly improving mental health; maintaining positive mental health; poor mental health declining; and good mental health declining. Clusters that maintained or improved mental health over the first year of college had higher identity synthesis and emotional support from friends and family than clusters where mental health declined. Emotional support from friends was especially important for adjustment.

As developmental scientists seek to index the strengths of adolescents and adopt the positive youth development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents’ positive attributes. Using a series of exploratory factor analyses and CFA models, this research creates short and very short versions of the scale used to measure the Five Cs of PYD in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. We created separate forms for earlier versus later adolescence and ensured that items displayed sufficient conceptual overlap across forms to support tests of factorial invariance. We discuss implications for further scale development and advocate for the use of these convenient tools, especially in research and applications pertinent to the Five Cs model of PYD.

This study examined differences in predictors of marijuana use versus quantity of marijuana use across the high school years, using annual assessments from the Oregon Youth Study (OYS) and a two-part model for semicontinuous data. The OYS is a community sample of at-risk boys followed from age 10 years. To capture dynamic prediction effects, change scores of predictors, as well as baseline scores, were included. Baseline predictors predominantly showed associations with the intercepts but not with the slopes of growth models. Change scores for parental monitoring, peer substance use, and antisocial behavior and deviant associations were associated with both parts of the model. Findings highlight the importance of looking at marijuana use compared with the quantity of marijuana use.

This study identifies trajectories of dating from sixth to twelfth grade and describes the academic performance (teacher-rated study skills and high school dropout) and self-reported drug use associated with these trajectories, in a diverse sample randomly selected in sixth grade. Using a group-based, semiparametric procedure, we identified four dating trajectories: low (16%), increasing (24%), high middle school (22%), and frequent (38%). Students in these latter two groups had significantly worse study skills, were four times more likely to drop out of school, and reported twice as much alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use than students in the low and increasing dating groups. This study highlights the diversity of dating trajectories and some of the risks associated with early dating.

Susceptibility to peer influence may be related to activation in reward-related brain regions. The current study extends research on the role of reward sensitivity in peer influence by examining whether preferential attention to positive emotional stimuli predicts behavior in peer interactions, and whether this association is moderated by attachment style in a sample of 36 same-sex peer dyads. Positive attentional bias was associated with lower autonomy and greater avoidance with peers. This association was attenuated among individuals with secure attachment style. Attention to negative stimuli was associated with less avoidant and more hostile behavior during peer interactions. Results suggest that preferential attention to positive emotional stimuli is associated with greater susceptibility to peer influence, particularly in individuals low in secure attachment.

Implicit and explicit peer evaluations were assessed among 120 early adolescents (56 boys, 64 girls; M age = 11.1 years). Explicit peer evaluations were round-robin ratings of likeability; implicit peer evaluations were assessed with an approach-avoidance task, also using a round-robin design. Prosocial behavior, aggression, and bullying were assessed with a standard peer nominations procedure. Prosocial behavior predicted explicit positive evaluations given and received. Bullying and physical aggression predicted receiving explicit negative evaluations from peers. Implicit negative biases were found for girls but not boys. Relationally aggressive girls and bullying girls showed a negative implicit bias toward their peers. Possible implications for intervention are discussed.

This study investigated religious stress, gay-related stress, sexual identity, and mental health outcomes in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and emerging adults. The model examined negative LGB identity as a mediator of the relationships between (1) religious stress and mental health, and (2) gay-related stress and mental health. The data indicated that negative LGB identity fully accounted for both relationships. Findings suggest that a negative sense of sexual identity for LGB youth helps explain the links between religious and gay-related stressors and mental health. As LGB youth may have limited control over these stressors, the importance of helping LGB youth maintain a positive LGB identity, despite homonegative messages from others, is discussed.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines individual and neighborhood predictors of adolescent and young adult survival expectations—their confidence of surviving to age 35. Analyses revealed that within-person increases in depression and violent perpetration decreased the odds of expecting to survive. Individuals who rated themselves in good health and received routine physical care had greater survival expectations. Consistent with documented health disparities, Black and Hispanic youth had lower survival expectations than did their White peers. Neighborhood poverty was linked to diminished survival expectations both within and between persons, with the between-person association remaining significant controlling for mental and physical health, exposure to violence, own violence, and a wide range of sociodemographic factors.

Socioeconomic differences in sleep and how sleep relates to health and risky behaviors among 12- to 18-year-old Ghanaians (N = 1,195) were investigated. Overall, 49.2% of boys and 60.8% of girls had inadequate sleep. Girls (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.3–2.0) and older (16- to 18-year-olds) adolescents (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.3–2.1) had higher probability of inadequate sleep than boys and younger (12- to 15-year-old) adolescents, respectively. High material affluence, low parental education, low parental occupational grade, drunkenness, marijuana use, drug use, and not having plans to continue schooling after graduation decreased the chances of inadequate sleep, while low school performance, low fruit and vegetable intake, and tiredness during daytime increased the probability of inadequate sleep. Promotion of adequate sleep and gender equality should be taken into consideration in adolescent health promotion programs.

Cyber victimization is an important research area, yet little is known about aversive peer experiences on social networking sites (SNSs), which are used extensively by youth and host complex social exchanges. Across samples of adolescents (n = 216) and young adults (n = 214), we developed the Social Networking-Peer Experiences Questionnaire (SN-PEQ) and examined its psychometric properties, distinctiveness from traditional peer victimization measures, and associations with internalized distress. The SN-PEQ demonstrated strong factorial invariance and a single-factor structure that was distinct from other forms of peer victimization. Negative SNS experiences were associated with youths' symptoms of social anxiety and depression, even when controlling for traditional peer victimization. Findings highlight the importance of examining the effects of aversive peer experiences that occur via social media.

Little research has examined the association of parents' friendships with adolescent's well-being, perhaps because the association was considered too distal. However, developmental theories suggest that contexts in which parents, but not their children, are situated may be related to child development (Bronfenbrenner, , ). The current work examined associations between the quality of mothers' own friendships and their adolescent children's friendship quality and emotional adjustment. Fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-graders (N = 172) whose mothers' friendships were characterized by conflict and antagonism reported having friendships that were high in negative friendship qualities as well as elevated internalizing symptoms. These associations held after controlling for mother–child relationship quality, suggesting that mothers' friendships may have a unique association with adolescents' adjustment.