Self- and group orientations represent distinct ways of perceiving the relations between the world and the self and are relevant to adolescents' development. Most of the existing studies in this area are cross-sectional, providing little information about how self- and group orientations develop. This 3-year longitudinal study examined the…

Adolescence is a developmental period when youth are increasingly likely to turn to their peers for support, and it is also a time of increased salience and development of ethnic-racial identity (ERI). Ethnic-racial centrality, a dimension of ERI, could be a predictor in the development of peer support, as youth with a stronger self-concept on the…

Friendships are important sources of support during adolescence. However, a growing literature indicates some adolescents co-ruminate, or talk with friends about problems in a way that is excessive, speculative, and negatively focused, which confers risk for internalizing problems. Still, previous research had not examined the types of problems…

This study examined associations between perceived popularity trajectories and changes in proactive and reactive aggression in middle adolescence. The sample included 1,374 adolescents from 5 cohorts who were followed from Grade 7 to Grade 9 (49% males, M[subscript age] = 12.67 years, SD = 0.67). Popularity trajectories were identified based on…

Identifying change at the individual level is an important goal for researchers, educators, and clinicians. We present a set of statistical procedures for identifying individuals who depart from a normative change. Using Latent Change Scores models (LCS), we illustrate how the Individual Likelihood computed from a statistical model for change…

This research examined a cultural socialization model in which differences in Chinese and American parents' goals for children foster differences in children's emotional distress via parents' responses to children's performance. Chinese and American mothers and their children (N = 397; M[subscript age] = 13.19 years) participated in a 2-wave study…

Dual-process theories have been proposed to explain normative and heuristic responses to reasoning and decision-making problems. Standard unitary and dual-process theories predict that normative responses should increase with age. However, research has focused recently on exceptions to this standard pattern, including developmental increases in…

The spirituality and religiosity of Indonesian Muslim adolescents were examined longitudinally as were the relations of spirituality and religiosity with (mal)adjustment. At Time 1 (T1), 959 seventh-grade Muslim adolescents were screened for selection of a sample; at Time 2 (T2), 183 eighth-grade adolescents participated; and at Time 3 (T3), 300…

Recent advances in positive youth development theory and research explicate complex associations between adaptive functioning and risk behavior, acknowledging that high levels of both co-occur in the lives of some adolescents. However, evidence on nuanced overlapping developmental trajectories of adaptive functioning and risk has been limited to 1…

School motivation and attachment typically decline after the transition to middle school. According to the stage-environment fit approach, extracurricular activities are supposed to promote motivation. However, research has shown that the effects depend on the quality of the activities, which usually is measured by assessing students' individual…

In the current study, based on a sample of 1,873 adolescents between 11.4 and 20.9 years of age from the first 3 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we investigated the longitudinal effects of future orientation on levels of and developmental changes in problem behaviors, while controlling for the effects by impulsivity;…

The time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004) assumes that during complex working memory span tasks, attention is frequently and surreptitiously switched from processing to reactivate decaying memory traces before their complete loss. Three experiments involving children from 5 to 14 years of age…

Racial/ethnic (R/E) socialization is widely practiced in R/E minority families. However, only recently have models been developed to understand how parents' R/E socialization messages influence adolescent development. The primary goal of the present study was to clarify and extend existing work on R/E socialization in African American (Black)…

We studied developmental trends in 5 important reasoning tasks that are critical components of the operational definition of rational thinking. The tasks measured denominator neglect, belief bias, base rate sensitivity, resistance to framing, and the tendency toward otherside thinking. In addition to age, we examined 2 other individual difference…

This study uses intraindividual variability and change methods to test theoretical accounts of self-concept and its change across time and context and to test the developmental implications of this variability. The 5-year longitudinal study of 541 youths in a rural Pennsylvania community from 3rd through 7th grade included twice-yearly assessments…