This study explores a psychosocial concept coined by the author referred to as "Urban Critical Literacy" (UCL). UCL is an emergent four-step strategy employed by five African American young men as they navigated their cultural worlds of home and school in an urban setting. Critical literacy is the theoretical conceptual framework that…

Having produced the first batch of the K to 12 program graduates in the country in 2018, an evaluation of their acquired competence is one of the priorities of the government. This study analyzed the perceived, actual, and reasons behind the competence level in General Mathematics of 410 Grade 12 students. The study employed a General Mathematics…

Several risk and protective factors are influential in predicting who uses or abstains from illicit substances during the high school years. The 2014 national cohort data from the Monitoring the Future survey shows the demographics, psychosocial factors, and attitudes regarding substance use that predict abstention by twelfth-graders (versus those…

Gang involvement is associated with many negative outcomes. However, the social and emotional development of gang-involved youth has received little empirical investigation. This study examines the social and emotional outcomes of gang-involved youth. Data come from the 2009 Fairfax County Youth Survey administered to eighth, 10th, and 12th grade…

Two online science education games, in which players learn about the risks of prescription drug abuse in the context of investigating crimes, were evaluated to determine shifts of prescription drug abuse attitudes attributable to game exposure. High school students from grades 11 and 12 (n = 179) were assigned to one of the games and participated…

Treating creationism as a controversial topic within the science and religion issue in the science classroom has been widely discussed in the recent literature. Some researchers have proposed that this topic is best addressed by focusing on sociocognitive conflict. To prepare new learning opportunities for this approach, it is necessary to know…

Lack of reading motivation impedes upper elementary and secondary school students' willingness to improve critical reading skills and strategies to be successful in school. Struggling readers often show a negative attitude towards reading tasks and manifest low motivation to read. Although the importance of motivation is clear, there is limited…

Lack of reading motivation impedes upper elementary and secondary school students' willingness to improve critical reading skills and strategies to be successful in school. Struggling readers often show a negative attitude towards reading tasks and manifest low motivation to read. Although the importance of motivation is clear, there is limited…

Background: The objectives of this study were: (i) to compare the behavioural intentions of high school students towards individuals with intellectual disabilities and individuals with physical disabilities and (ii) to explore reasons for these behavioural intentions. Materials and methods: A sample of 319 Grade 9 and Grade 12 students in Ontario,…

The purpose of this single community qualitative case study was to determine how the voice of the student was present in the IEP process, documentation paperwork, and curricular and diagnostic decisions, among a group of seven students, grades 9 through 12, placed in a self-contained program for students with emotional disabilities in a suburban…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is a long-term study of American adolescents, college students, and adults through age 50. It has been conducted annually by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research since its inception in 1975 and is supported under a series of investigator-initiated, competing research grants from the National…

The current study tested sex-specific pathways to early puberty, sexual debut, and sexual risk taking, as specified by an integrated evolutionary-developmental model of adolescent sexual development and behavior. In a prospective study of 238 adolescents (n = 129 girls and n = 109 boys) followed from approximately 12-18 years of age, we tested for…

School-based prevention programs are an important component of problem gambling prevention, but empirically effective programs are lacking. Stacked Deck is a set of 5-6 interactive lessons that teach about the history of gambling; the true odds and "house edge"; gambling fallacies; signs, risk factors, and causes of problem gambling; and…

Many adolescents spend time online, communicating with friends, family members and strangers, and these social activities have been often related with their loneliness experience. The goals of this study were to examine the social distress expressed by adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD) and to distinguish between unique…

This study administered an open-ended questionnaire about death and the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MODS) to explore the relationships between personal constructs about death and fears of death among Taiwanese adolescents. The sample included 329 adolescents in junior and senior high school grades 7 to 12. A coding manual was used to…