Resources

The present study explored the longitudinal trajectory of prosocial behavior in the transition to adolescence (from ages 9 to 16) in a sample of 915 children across six countries (Colombia, Jordan, Italy, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States) by examining the role of Human Development Index (HDI) in relation to prosocial development.

Findings suggest that ACEs, particularly parental challenges, are associated with greater likelihood of caregiving responsibilities in adulthood showcasing how ACEs also influence social roles over the life course. Both ACEs and caregiving can have detrimental effects on health and well-being, and thus, this observed relationship is important for developing support for caregivers.

Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture understanding of general characteristics of the world, such as whether the world is Good and Enticing. At age 22 years, original child participants reported their primal world beliefs. Parental warmth during childhood and adolescence significantly predicted Good, Safe, and Enticing world beliefs, but other experiences were only weakly related to primals.

In North Carolina and most other states, roughly 90-95% of criminal felony cases are resolved through plea bargaining, although typically little is documented about how prosecutors negotiate pleas. Durham County is working to change that through the development of a plea tracker to document and analyze comprehensive data on felony cases. This report details information gathered through the plea tracker from 2021-2023.

The chapter next describes findings from the Parenting Across Cultures project regarding trajectories of parental acceptance-rejection over time, predictors and developmental outcomes of parental acceptance-rejection, as well as parental acceptance-rejection as a mediator of links among prior risk and protective factors and child adjustment.

This study examined a self-report scale of positive risk taking with a sample of adolescents from nine diverse countries: China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States of America.

This brief summarizes the findings from “My friends made me do it: Peer influences and different types of vaping in adolescence,” published in Addictive Behaviors (2024). The authors explore the role of peer influences on adolescent vaping behavior and discuss strategies for vaping prevention interventions.

This paper explores the extent to which medical cannabis users differ from recreational cannabis users and whether medical use is associated with ACEs, poor health, or disability.

Hostile attribution bias (HAB) and hostile rumination (HR) are cognitive vulnerabilities associated with multiple forms of psychological maladjustment among diverse youth. This study longitudinally examined whether HR mediates the relation of HAB to aggression, anxiety, and depression symptoms in a sample of adolescents from three countries.

This study advances the understanding of risk and protective factors in trajectories of conduct problems in adolescence in seven countries that differ widely on a number of sociodemographic factors as well as norms related to adolescent behavior.

This report reviews and analyzes sources published from 2019 to 2024 to investigate the complex dynamics of the intersecting trends of urbanization, migration, and family. Six critical areas in need of policy recommendations have been identified: family-friendly policies, gender-responsive and child-sensitive legislation, affordable housing and inclusive infrastructure, comprehensive urban planning, sustainable urban growth through effective family planning,
and comprehensive healthcare services for immigrants.

This report describes six major demographic trends: declining fertility, changing partnering patterns, reductions in early childhood and maternal mortality, a burgeoning youth population, changes in child marriage rates, and a growing aging population.

This study suggests socially withdrawn children in the United States fare similarly to non-withdrawn peers in adulthood in their romantic relationships and parenting, but a subgroup of active-isolate children may be at risk of not entering adult relationships.

Our analyses showed that Fast Track’s improvements to interpersonal and intrapersonal skills in childhood served as catalysts for better life outcomes at age 31. Our findings inform understanding of how a childhood preventive intervention can improve adjustment and behaviors into established adulthood.

The current study seeks to explore caregiver–child attachment as an internal mental state in the calibration and modulation of life history strategies.

This article advances the use of mixed methods in higher education research to better understand the racialized experiences of African American college students and demonstrate how Critical Race Mixed Methodology can be used to integrate quantitative and qualitative findings.

Vaping is one of the most common forms of substance use among adolescents. Social influences play a key role in the decision to use substances and frequency of use during adolescence, and vaping is no exception. Using a sample of 891 adolescents, we explored whether the frequency of vaping nicotine and the frequency of vaping marijuana at age 17 were related to concurrent reports of resistance to peer influence, perceptions of friends vaping, and perceptions of classmates vaping.

This book explores the transformative power of critical literacy in fostering youth engagement through university-community partnerships. It is based on a six-year study by The Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI) at North Carolina State University.

When adult men are made to feel gender-atypical, they often lash out with aggression, particularly when they are pressured (vs. autonomously motivated) to be gender-typical. This article examines the development of this phenomenon.

This brief outlines the findings from “How adolescents’ lives were disrupted over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal investigation in 12 cultural groups in 9 nations from March 2020 to July 2022” in the journal Development and Psychopathology. The authors investigate the extent to which adolescents’ lives were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the factors that caused these disruptions.

Can positive transitions into young adulthood at age 25 prevent problematic substance use at age 31, even in the context of childhood adverse family environments, conduct problems, and adolescent substance use? The authors lean on John Schulenberg’s developmental framework to examine this question.

Youths who enter emerging adulthood with a background of familial relations grounded in positive parent-child interactions are better equipped to cope with transitional stressors, to voice effectively their opinions with parents, and to resist engaging in risky activities. The study reveals filial self-efficacy beliefs as central to the benefits conveyed to teens by parents in reducing their sexting behaviors.

Previous research shown that parental self-efficacy plays a protective role for children’s rule-breaking behaviours (i.e., parent-driven process), but rule-breaking also can reduce parents’ parental self-efficacy over-time (i.e., child-driven process). This study delves into the bidirectional longitudianl associations between parental self-efficacy and children’s rule-breaking behaviors.

This systematic review examined two research questions with 189 articles published from 2020-2022: (1) How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted families with adolescents, including broader family functioning, family relationship qualities, and parenting? and (2) How has the pandemic or pandemic-related stressors interacted with family functioning, family relationships, and parenting of adolescents to impact adolescent well-being and adjustment?

The main objective of this rapid systematic review was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted peer relationships for adolescents (10-25 years of age) around the globe.

Overall, our study helps to inform understanding of the developmental course and
prognosis of impulsivity, as well as adding to collaborative efforts linking data across multiple studies to better inform understanding of
developmental processes.

This study investigated relations among parental education, parents’ attitudes toward their adolescents’ school, parental support for learning at home, and adolescents’ academic identity and school performance over time and in different national contexts.

In a cohort followed from late adolescence until established adulthood, this study examined how singlehood, cohabitation, and marriage at different ages are related to well-being at age 34.

This study examines how parent-adolescent conflicts, attachment, positive parenting, and communication are related to adolescents’ romantic relationship quality, satisfaction, conflicts, and management. Results stress the relevance of parent-adolescent conflicts and attachment as factors connected to how adolescents experience romantic relationships.

To answer these questions about how much adolescents’ lives were disrupted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic or what risk factors predicted such disruption 1,080 adolescents in 9 nations were surveyed 5 times from March 2020 to July 2022, with findings presented in this article. Collectively, the findings provide new insights that policymakers can use to prevent the disruption of adolescents’ lives in future pandemics.

This study considers the multigenerational consequences of wealth transmission for the transition to young adulthood.

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) captures parents’ beliefs in their ability to perform the parenting role successfully and to handle pivotal issues of specific developmental periods. This study examined the developmental trends of PSE among Italian mothers and fathers over seven waves as well as the longitudinal associations between PSE and rule-breaking behaviors during late adolescence.

This study examined parental self-efficacy among mothers and fathers over 3.5 years during children’s transition into adolescence, and whether the level and developmental trajectory of parental self-efficacy varied by cultural group. Data were drawn from three waves of the Parenting Across Cultures (PAC) project, a large-scale longitudinal, cross-cultural study, across nine countries (12 ethnic/cultural groups). Results suggest that declines in parental self-efficacy documented in previous research are culturally influenced.

Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture individuals’ basic understanding of what sort of world this is. How do children develop beliefs about the nature of the world?

This paper presents an argument for why there is a need to re-envision the underlying culture of undergraduate biology education to ensure the success, retention, and matriculation of Black students.

This study examined the relation between adolescents’ perceived changes in internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and four different family and peer relationships in Germany and Slovakia. In both countries, we found that higher levels of father internalizing symptoms exacerbated the relation between pandemic disruption and increases in pandemic-related adolescent internalizing symptoms. Similarly, parental support buffered the relation between adolescent perceptions of COVID-19 disruption and increases in the adolescents’ internalizing symptoms.

Parenting that is high in rejection and low in acceptance is associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents. Findings show that more variability over time in experiences of parental acceptance/rejection predicts internalizing and externalizing symptoms as children transition into adolescence, and this effect is present across multiple diverse samples.

A family cash transfer in childhood that had long-term effects on individual functioning did not impact the home environment of participants who became parents. Rather, parents in both groups were providing home environments generally conducive to their children’s growth and development.

Using data from surveys of Italian adolescents, researchers looked at the pattern of adolescent coping from just before the pandemic started and then for two more years. As adolescents reported feeling more stress about the pandemic, they reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression, and reported feeling less capable of coping with negative emotions. The findings are important for informing interventions to strengthen coping strategies for adolescents during stressful community-wide events.

COVID-19 has altered adolescents’ opportunities for developing and strengthening interpersonal skills and proficiencies. Using data from adolescents in Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom, we examined the relation between internalizing symptoms assessed pre-pandemic or when pandemic-related restrictions were lifted and associated internalizing symptoms during a subsequent restrictive pandemic period.

Researchers studying predictors of adolescents’ adjustment have increasingly focused on temperamental characteristics of self-regulation (e.g., effortful control – EC) and negative emotionality (NE). This study contributed to understanding how different configurations of specific dimensions of NE and EC were associated with aggressive and prosocial behaviors and if these associations differed across genders and three different countries, two of which have seldom been examined.

Researchers examined whether kindergarten conduct problems among mostly population-representative samples of children were associated with increased criminal and related costs across adolescence and adulthood, as well as government and medical services costs in adulthood.

This study demonstrates how data- and theory-driven methods can be integrated to identify the most important preadolescent risk factors in predicting adolescent mental health.

Food insecurity among adolescents is not static but varies from day to day. This daily variation is greater for economically disadvantaged youth.

Short video on co-regulation, the interactive process by which caring adults (1) provide warm supportive relationships, (2) promote self-regulation through coaching, modeling, and feedback, and (3) structure supportive environments.

In the APA Handbook of Adolescent and Young Adult Development, Jen Lansford and co-authors discuss how parents and their adolescent and young adult offspring observe and participate in parent–offspring interactions in their communities and hold expectations about their own relationships derived in part from culturally shaped expectations.

The purpose of this report is to highlight the insights from our first year that we can glean from plea tracking, describe the cases managed in the Durham Office, and draw attention to any emerging patterns in case characteristics and prosecutorial discretion.

Although there is a breadth of knowledge on child marriage in many low- and middle-income countries, little research and policy discussion exists surrounding child marriage within the United States. Using administrative data from several sources, this study examines how a range of different state-level variables, including political lean, academic performance, median household income, religiosity, population density, minimum age requirements and other state laws, such as parental and judicial consent, and median distance to an abortion clinic are related to variation in child marriage rates across states.

Parent and child endorsement of reactive aggression both predict the emergence of child aggression, but they are rarely studied together and in longitudinal contexts. The present study does so by examining the unique predictive effects of parent and child endorsement of reactive aggression at age 8 on child aggression at age 9 in 1456 children from 13 cultural groups in 9 nations.

The prevalence of arrests for crimes involving guns among young adults in North Carolina with a gun-disqualifying felony record acquired before age 18 suggests that the federal gun prohibitor conferred by a felony record is not highly effective as currently implemented in this population. From a risk-based perspective, these restrictions appear to be justified; better implementation and enforcement may improve their effectiveness.

This study examined whether a key set of adolescent and early adulthood risk factors predicts problematic alcohol, cannabis, and other substance use in established adulthood. Externalizing behaviors and prior substance use in early adulthood were consistent predictors of problematic alcohol and cannabis misuse in established adulthood across samples.

This study examined whether the childhood intervention program called Fast Track improves family life into the second generation.

Juvenile justice involvement was associated with increased risk of adult criminality, with residential services associated with highest risk. Juvenile justice involvement may catalyze rather than deter from adult offending.

Using a sample of 1338 families from 12 cultural groups in 9 nations, we examined whether retrospectively remembered Generation 1 (G1) parent rejecting behaviors were passed to Generation 2 (G2 parents), whether such intergenerational transmission led to higher Generation 3 (G3 child) externalizing and internalizing behavior at age 13, and whether such intergenerational transmission could be interrupted by parent participation in parenting programs or family income increases of > 5%.

Across countries, adolescents’ internalizing problems pre-pandemic predicted increased internalizing during the pandemic, and poorer well-being pre-pandemic predicted increased externalizing and substance use during the pandemic.

Historically, individualism vs. collectivism has been a main organizing framework for understanding cultural differences in family life. This study examines parents in nine countries to understand their individualism, collectivism and parenting attitudes. They found parenting attitudes are predicted by a range of sociodemographic factors.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol and illicit substance use among adults without children, parents, and adolescents was investigated through two studies with five samples from independent ongoing U.S. longitudinal studies.

This study evaluated how individuals’ own substance use and their perception of peers’ substance use predict each other across development from early adolescence to middle adulthood.

Lower family income during childhood is related to increased rates of adolescent depression, though the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood.

Edited by Jennifer Lansford and Drew Rothenberg with Marc Bornstein, this book shares findings from a study of parents and children in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States. Each chapter is authored by a contributor native to the country examined. Together, the chapters provide a global understanding of parenting across cultures.

Nationwide, school principals are given wide discretion to use disciplinary tools like suspension and expulsion to create a safe learning environment.

Charles T. Clotfelter, Steven W. Hemelt, Helen F. Ladd Education Finance and Policy (2019) 14 (3): 492–521. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00258

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the potential of an innovative high school neuroscience-based health course for implementation feasibility and impact on student outcomes.

Saint-Eloi Cadely et al. found longitudinal patterns for the perpetration of both psychological and physical intimate partner violence (IPV), including actively and minimally aggressive patterns.

We study the evolution of a campus-based aid program for low-income students that began with grant-heavy financial aid and later added a suite of nonfinancial supports.

Many advocacy organizations devote time and resources to increasing community awareness and educating the public in an effort to gain support for their issue.

This is the third in a series of four inter-related reports titled Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress.

According to the North Carolina (N.C.) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, approximately 18,000 adults and 1,000 children in Durham County abused or were addicted to illegal drugs, prescription medications, or alcohol in 2012(1). Substance abuse not only impacts the individual and his/her family, but also the community.

This report summarizes preliminary findings associated with the MHOP program that began in Durham County in January of 2011.

Approximately one quarter of U.S. students do not graduate from high school with their peers. Failing to complete high school severely limits opportunities for employment and future financial stability. High school dropouts earn lower wages through their lifetime and work for fewer years.1 The costs to society of high school dropouts are also high and…