This study examined psychosocial factors influencing smoking intention in Korean male middle school students. We used a descriptive cross-sectional design, based on the biopsychosocial model, to analyze data from 309 male adolescents aged 14-16 years in middle school. Of the psychological factors examined, stress and risk-taking tendency were…

Students become increasingly disconnected from their schools across the middle school years, but little is known about the factors contributing to changes in school connectedness. This study examined the time-invariant and time-varying roles of depressive symptoms and externalizing problems in trajectories of student-perceived school connectedness…

This longitudinal study examined the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents who affiliate with antisocial crowds in a gang-impacted urban environment. We followed 405 adolescents (219 boys, 186 girls; average age of 11.51 years, SD = 0.61; 84% Latino, 9% Asian, and 7% other or unclassified) for one academic year. These youth attended a middle…

Guided by the family relational schema model, the current study examined the direct and indirect contributions of maternal psychological control to subsequent relational and overt peer victimization, via early adolescents' conduct problems, fear of negative evaluation, and depressive symptoms. Participants were 499 10- to 14-year-olds (53% female;…

Universal screening is a promising approach for identifying students at risk for behavioral and emotional problems. Due to the frequent adolescent onset of behavioral and emotional problems, middle school is an important time for early identification. This study explored the ability of the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) to…

Rural American Indian (AI) middle school students with depressive symptoms who participated in a culturally modified version of the Adolescent Coping with Depression (CWD-A) course (n = 8) reported significant improvement in depressive symptoms at post-intervention and at 3-month follow-up. There was also a nonsignificant but clinically relevant…

The current study examined the role of school connectedness as a moderator of the associations between overt and relational forms of peer victimization and early adolescents' subsequent adjustment problems. Data were collected from 490 adolescents when they were initially in the sixth and seventh grades and again 1 year later. Regression analyses…

Considerable evidence shows the detriments of neighborhood social disorganization for urban youth. Researchers have focused less on potential neighborhood strengths or on the interplay of neighborhood perceptions and objective neighborhood characteristics. The authors examined the presence and perception of positive and negative neighborhood…

This longitudinal study builds on research addressing changes in achievement goal orientations (AG) across the transition to middle school. We had two objectives. The first was to identify and describe different development trajectories of AG (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance) from the last year of elementary school (Grade…

Depression is a common psychological problem in adolescence. Recent research suggests that group cognitive-behavioral interventions can reduce and prevent symptoms of depression in youth. Few studies have tested the effectiveness of such interventions when delivered by school teachers and counselors (as opposed to research team staff). We…

This 3-year, longitudinal analysis examined the psychological and social correlates of adhering to gender-typed behaviors in friendships among boys during middle school in United States ("N" = 446, "M"[subscript age] = 11.37 years) and in China ("N" = 368, "M"[subscript age] = 12.20 years). Results indicated…

Rumination is a risk factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Previous investigations of the mechanisms linking rumination to internalizing problems have focused primarily on cognitive factors. We investigated whether interpersonal stress generation plays a role in the longitudinal relationship between rumination and…

A 2-wave longitudinal study of young adolescents was used to test whether peer victimization predicts depressive symptoms, depressive symptoms predict peer victimization, or the 2 constructs show reciprocal relations. Participants were 598 youths in Grades 3 through 6, ages 8 to 14 (M = 10.9, SD = 1.2) at Wave 1. The sample was 50.7% female and…

Support provided by caring teacher-student relationships is essential for the emotional well-being of students who are bullied. The researchers were interested in discovering whether perceived teacher support would moderate the relationship between relational victimization and depression in low-income minority middle school students. A mixed…

Aggression is associated with a host of behavioral, social, and emotional adjustment difficulties. However, some aggressive youth are perceived as "popular" by peers. Although these perceived popular aggressive youth appear relatively well adjusted, especially in the social domain, the emotional well-being of these youth is understudied.…