Interpersonal relationships are central to adolescent well-being. The current research investigates interpersonal goal setting among a general sample of adolescents following a growth mindset intervention. This study qualitatively explores what interpersonal goals adolescents set, outcomes they aim to achieve, obstacles they perceive, and actions…

Few sexual health studies have examined subgroup differences in youth risk behaviors that sufficiently account for sexual orientation and gender identity. This study used 2017 New York City Youth Risk Behavior Survey data (N = 10,191), a stratified cluster-sampled survey, to examine descriptive differences in the prevalence of risky sexual…

Background: Mental health care is critical to improving mental health but factors associated with student utilization are poorly understood. Methods: Data were from high school students (N = 2933; mean age = 15.7 ± 0.6) enrolled in a California cohort. We examined associations of sociodemographic factors, substance use, and mental health symptoms…

As smartphones are emerging as a common device for adolescent, prior studies have provided theoretical and empirical evidence for the factors affecting adolescent smartphone use. However, mainstream research has tended to focus on the negative effects of smartphone. Even though smartphone use can have adverse outcomes, it may also allow students…

Executive functions, which begin developing in early childhood, are necessary for the tasks of daily life, such as decision making and planning. Despite their early development, often without teaching, many teens with disabilities need explicit instruction to acquire and apply executive functions each day. Gaps in executive functions directly…

For lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (i.e., sexual minority [SM]) youth, coming out is an important developmental milestone and is typically associated with positive well-being. However, coming out in high school may entail a higher risk of school-based victimization. Due to the greater risk of homophobic bullying, the implications of being out in…

Background: Students' social emotional competencies (SECs; also known as non-cognitive skills) are the skills or knowledge that allow them to successfully navigate social and academic environments such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills. Research has established cross-sectional associations between SECs and student…

Sexual minority adolescents have worse sleep health than their peers. Adolescents who identify as heterosexual and report prior same-sex sexual contact (termed 'discordant heterosexuals') have elevated health risks, but little is known about this group's sleep health. This study examined 2015-2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data (n = 12,773 high…

This study aimed to identify profiles of achievement goal orientations and transitions between these profiles among adolescents from different socioeconomic backgrounds before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 1268 adolescents (51.7% females; M[subscript age] = 14.87; SD[subscript age] = 0.39) participated in four waves of data…

Adolescents' academic achievement goals are associated with their perceptions of teacher and peer goals. Earlier research focused on perceived teacher goals, mostly disregarding perceived peer goals' effects. However, since peer-group influence becomes prominent during adolescence, research on students' perceptions of both peer and teacher goals…

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…

Bullying victimization remains to be a public health concern in the United States, especially among sexual and ethnic minority youth. However, few studies have examined how school outcomes might be associated with bullying victimization among heterosexual and sexual minority African American youth and the factors that may attenuate that…

Bullying is common among students; however, there are several individual characteristics or identities that make an adolescent more susceptible to victimization. This secondary data analysis of a sample of 20,302 high school students in Wisconsin uses a multilevel model to assess common risk factors such as gender identity, sexual orientation,…

Youth purpose has important implications for behavior and well-being, yet there is limited information about the types of purpose that young people pursue. The current study contributes insight into the content of purpose through a survey of 316 adolescents and young adults. Analyses of responses revealed that young people rated their purposes as…

Research on bullying victimization has expanded to specific forms of harassment based on discriminatory bias, which involve aggressive behavior targeting an individual's identity characteristics, such as sexual orientation and/or gender expression. Recent studies have documented elevated health risks associated with victimization based on…