This study investigates how adolescents begin to demonstrate skills and approaches that help them pursue their aspirations. The qualitative study examined emergent forms of key indicators of adolescent thriving: the 5Cs of positive youth development and sense of purpose. Pre- and post-program interviews with 24 S2 (~seventh grade) Scottish…

Research has shown that youth and their communities benefit from civics education, with its aim to prepare citizens for democracy. However, civics education for adolescents in the United States is not equitable, and determining how to best measure aspects of civic development in younger adolescents is a challenge. In this qualitative study, we…

Many adolescents want to be popular. Popularity goals are associated with adolescents' relational and overt aggression and aggression has been linked to greater risk for victimization. The current study sought to examine if popularity goals may be linked to victimization through associations with aggression and if self-perceived popularity and…

This three-wave longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether the relationship between self-control and academic achievement, through mastery goals, was conditional on the nature of the teacher-student relationships. A total of 852 junior school students in China completed questionnaires about self-control, mastery goals, and teacher-student…

Poverty in the long run, as the long-term source of pressures, has strengthened the vulnerability of juveniles and has increased the incidence of psychological or behavioral problems during their growth. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen preventive intervention for adolescents to avoid poverty's "scar effect" upon their physical…

The purpose of this study is to translate and validate the Korean version of the social achievement goals scale, which is known to be a significant variable in predicting social behaviour and social adjustments. There were 133 seventh grade middle school students (male = 64, female = 69) who took part in Study 1, and 425 seventh to eighth grade…

Urban middle school students (N = 1,057; M[subscript age] = 12.06) viewed Facebook-like profiles of peers who varied by race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation and indicated the social class (SC) of those peers along two dimensions--family income and social class position. As hypothesized, most profiles were perceived as middle class and…

Data from the School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey, a nationally representative sample survey of students ages 12 through 18, were used to analyze trends in hate-related words. The SCS study is completed every other year. Data from seven consecutive surveys are included in this report: school years 2000-01,…

Research on perceived instrumentality of students' academic work for attaining life goals has shown to have positive effects on academic achievement and motivation The purpose of the study was to examine the changes in perceived instrumentality over time and to identify how significant others such as parents, teachers and peers affect changes in…

We examined (a) the relative importance of perceived social support from parents, peers, and teachers; (b) the consequences associated with different types of perceived social support; and (c) the mediation by achievement goals in the relationship between perceived social support and academic outcomes. We analyzed the first 3 waves of the Korean…

The purpose of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of the scores on a brief strengths-based assessment, the 22-item Personal Strengths Inventory (PSI). In Study 1, findings from exploratory factor analysis of 410 adolescents provided evidence for a five-factor solution--social competence (four items), emotional awareness (five…

In this study we examined adolescents' physical activity (PA) stability as well as individual differences in PA across grades 7-9. In addition, we tested the predictive role of adolescents' self-determination and goal orientations in physical education at grade 6 in relation to their PA development. Adolescents' (N = 812) self-reported PA was…

Previous research suggests that sexual minority youth have poorer health-related outcomes than their heterosexual peers. The purpose of this study is to determine whether sexual orientation disparities in mental health and substance use increase, decrease, or remain the same during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Data are from Waves…

We examined the moderating effects of mastery goals and academic contingency of self-worth (CSW-A) on how perfectionistic discrepancy associates with academic efficacy and satisfaction with life among gifted students in middle and high school. Participants in this study were 144 gifted students from 6th to 12th grade in a suburban Midwest U.S.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between substance use and sexual orientation among Asian adolescents in Canada. We analyzed an East- and Southeast-Asian subsample of a province-wide, school-based survey (weighted N = 51,349). Compared to heterosexual adolescents of the same gender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and mostly…