Educational expectations are a key predictor of educational attainment. Throughout adolescence, friends increasingly function as 'significant others' and, thus, can affect the development of these expectations. Although scholars often interpret the clustering of students with similar expectations within friendship networks as the outcome of peer…

The purpose of this study was to explore grade-level differences (7th, 8th, and 9th) among junior high school students' perceptions of the effects of participation in physical education (PE) class on individual environmental stress. The role of physical activity as a stress reduction tool has been well documented. However, physical activity as a…

This study examined age-related changes in friend similarity on delinquency to determine whether deviant behavior homophily peaks during mid-adolescence. A community sample of 1,663 male and 1,826 female Swedish youth from Grade 5 (M = 11.21 years) to Grade 10 (M = 16.25 years) provided self-reports of delinquency. Friendships were identified from…

Previous cross-national studies on social motivation among secondary students from individualistic societies such as Germany and Canada found four different motivation types (MT) varying in class size: (a) teacher-dependent MT, (b) peer-dependent MT, (c) teacher- and peer-dependent MT, and (d) teacher- and peer-independent MT. The current…

Under the integrated model of General Strain Theory (GST), the present study sought to examine whether delinquent peer association, social control, and negative emotion moderated the relations of distinctive cyberbullying roles with delinquency, as well as whether the moderating effects varied by gender among a nationally representative sample of…

This study examines the association between college-bound friends and college enrollment using restricted transcript data from the High School Longitudinal Study. Propensity score matching and school fixed effects models suggest that having close college-bound friends is positively associated with enrolling in college. However, Black and Latino…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine Finnish ninth grade pupils' (15-16 years) perspectives on hot school lunches and consider the potential of these perspectives as a resource for food and health education. Design/methodology/approach: Data include observations, essays, and visually elicitated focus group discussions from a larger…

Cognition plays a major role in the development of antisocial behavior. The aim of this study was to extend the current state of research regarding the mechanisms of negative peer influence in adolescence by testing whether aggregated classroom attitudes (injunctive norms) predict individual attitudes toward antisocial behavior and vice versa. For…

A performance-based measure of peer influence susceptibility was examined as a moderator of the longitudinal association between peer norms and trajectories of adolescents' number of sexual intercourse partners. Seventy-one 9th grade adolescents (52% female) participated in an experimental "chat room" paradigm involving…

Social goals are associated with behaviors and adjustment among peers. However, it remains unclear whether goals predict adolescent social development. We examined prospective associations among goals, physical and relational aggression, social preference, and popularity during middle school (N = 384 participants, ages 12-14 years). Agentic…

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…

Using cluster analysis, 717 students who reported that they had never smoked and the nondrinking 292 students who reported that they had never drank alcohol were classified into four profile groups based on their Pros and Cons of not using and temptation to use. Profiles were labeled Most Protected, Least Positive, Most Negative, and Most Tempted.…

Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors that jeopardize their futures. Although adolescent risk-taking has long been attributed to faulty decision making, surprisingly little research has directly examined this link. This study examined the role of deliberative decision making (the tendency to consider options and consequences before making a…

Background: Physical aggression is an important issue in North American populations. The importance of students' social environments in the occurrence of physical aggression requires focused study. In this study, reports of physical aggression were examined in relation to social environment factors among national samples of students from Canada…

The original purpose of this study was to test several types of anti-cannabis messages. Analysis of the results led to a second, post hoc purpose: to explain why pre-intervention substance usage rates varied so greatly between the sampled schools. Participants were Australian ninth-grade students at a state government high school and a…