This study investigated the middle and high school students' interests towards the subjects of human biology, specifically, "Human Health and Nutrition" and "Human Body and Organs." The study also investigated sources of their interests and factors that impact their interests, namely people that they interact and courses that…

A ruminative response style has been shown to predict depressive symptoms among youth and adults, but it is unclear whether rumination is associated specifically with depression compared with co-occurring symptoms of anxiety and externalizing behaviors. This prospective, multiwave study investigated whether baseline rumination predicted…

This study examined relations between students' psychological engagement and academic achievement, as well as between students' psychological engagement and growth in academic achievement. The study also examined if relations between students' psychological engagement and academic growth varied by grade level (elementary school compared to middle…

The objective of this article was to investigate the prevalence and psychological correlates of binge eating among adolescents. Self-report questionnaires were administered to a community sample of 708 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14 years). Adolescents reporting loss of control over eating (17% of the sample) reported more eating pathology and…

This study examined how boys' and girls' weight preoccupation varied by grade level, parent-child relationships, self-classified weight, entertainment media exposure levels, and gender. Seventh-grade girls (n = 190) and boys (n = 132) and 10th-grade girls (n = 99) and boys (n = 67) participated. Girls were more likely to report weight…

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate self-criticism as a potential mediating factor in the link between mother-adolescent relationships with aggression and perceptions of social competence. The sample consisted of 888 older (M = 14.3 years) and younger (M = 11.6 years) adolescent children from the same family. Maternal…

The Louisiana Striving Readers evaluation assessed the implementation and effectiveness of the Voyager "Passport Reading Journeys" (PRJ), a widely used supplemental literacy intervention for struggling adolescent readers that reflects the research-based practices recommended by the National Reading Panel (2000) and other more recent…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to begin testing new English Learners (EL) in English language arts within three years after they enter school and holds schools accountable for their performance on these exams. Yet very little empirical work has examined exactly how long it takes EL students to become proficient in English and how…

This study uses two waves of data to examine the relationships among racial socialization, racial discrimination, and academic achievement outcomes in a sample of 144 African American male adolescents. Using latent class analyses, the authors identified four patterns of adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences: Positive Socialization,…

Background: Despite the growing number of school-based interventions designed to reduce childhood obesity or otherwise promote health, no models or materials were found for Jewish schools. The current study describes an effort within a Jewish school system in Chicago to create, implement, and evaluate a school-based intervention tailored to the…

All school children experience stress at some point in their school careers. This study investigates whether dyslexic children, by way of their educational and social difficulties, experience higher levels of stress at school. The School Situation Survey was used to investigate both the sources and manifestations of stress amongst dyslexic…

This study reports on our steps toward achieving a conceptually coherent and empirically validated learning progression for carbon cycling in socio-ecological systems. It describes an iterative process of designing and analyzing assessment and interview data from students in upper elementary through high school. The product of our development…

School violence is not gender-exclusive to boys; girls are also capable of violence. Research shows that girl-to-girl violence stems from competition for male attention and tends to be relational in nature, which typically takes the form of social alienation, spreading of rumors, and otherwise manipulating the victim's peer group. By proactively…

This study investigated psychosocial mechanisms that may account for sex differences in internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety during adolescence using data from a prospective, multiwave study with a sample of early and middle adolescents (N = 350, 6th to 10th graders; 57% female). Girls showed higher initial levels of only depressive…

This paper outlines early findings from the Tasmanian-based Social Norms Analysis Project (SNAP). The Social Norms model is presented as a theoretically informed, evidence-based model for reducing alcohol-related harm in youthful populations by utilising the complex and often positive contributions peer groups make to adolescent health and…