This guide, developed by the American Psychological Association's Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education and Ethics Committee is designed for educators and includes a self-assessment for students ages 12 to 18 to reflect on and improve their civil discourse skills. The tool targets five values related to civil discourse and their…

Children are generally encouraged to tell adults about bullying. Although telling can be effective in ending bullying, adults do not necessarily respond in a way that is helpful. Previous research has rarely included victims' own thoughts and feelings regarding what adult actions and reactions are experienced as positive and helpful, and which are…

Despite abundant research on the benefits of dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions, little is known about the naturally occurring developmental course of mindful awareness. Given dramatic strides during adolescence in competencies that may support mindfulness (e.g., emotion regulation), the high school years are a suitable…

In our response to "Deliberating Public Policy Issues with Adolescents," we address the matter that students seem to be reluctant to changing their minds, opinions, and initial positions in classroom deliberations and instead see such deliberations as an opportunity to perform and publicly announce their preexisting views. We argue that…

The exploration of social networking sites (SNS) offers great potential for understanding novel forms of youth civic engagement within the 21st century. SNS can foster a young person's social capital by connecting them to others with different backgrounds, thereby exposing them to alternative perspectives and lived experiences within a growingly…

This pilot study explored the effects of participation in a servicelearning initiative on first-year pre-service teacher education student development. The focus of the service-learning was a combination of problem-based learning and immersive activities, pairing pre-service teacher education students with an early high school-to-college bridge…

Critical consciousness refers to the ways in which individuals come to understand and challenge oppressive social forces. Philosopher-educator Paulo Freire argued that critical curiosity--an eagerness to learn more about and develop a deep understanding of issues of social justice--serves as an important catalyst to critical consciousness…

Although studies examining multidimensional perfectionism among adolescents have increased over the past two decades, most continue to focus on psychological outcomes such as anxiety or depression. The purpose of this study was to examine two social outcomes that may differ among perfectionistic subtypes: "social perspective taking"…

In 2011, the Finnish National Board of Education assessed the learning outcomes of history with a study whose results raised doubts about the fulfilment of the goals of history education. This article seeks to expand awareness about Finnish adolescents' understanding of historical empathy. The study assessed twenty-two 16-17-year-old high school…

Peer sexual harassment is a stressor for many girls in middle and high school. Prior research indicates that approach strategies (seeking support or confronting) are generally more effective than avoidance strategies in alleviating stress. However, the deployment of effective coping behaviors depends partly on how individuals evaluate different…

Caring and helping are suggested as mechanisms that link empathy to religiosity and spirituality. To test this assertion, 428 adolescents completed self-report measures of religious attendance, importance of spiritual or religious beliefs, care, volunteerism, and affective and cognitive subscales of empathy. Sex differences also were examined.…

This study used a social exchange framework to examine the features of non-romantic other-sex (OS) friendships compared with same-sex (SS) friendships and romantic relationships. High school seniors (N = 141) completed open-ended interviews about the benefits and costs of having OS friendships, SS friendships, and romantic relationships in…

The psychosocial inventory of ego strengths (PIES) was devised as a measure of Erikson's eight ego strengths. The present investigation extended previous research through examination of the validity and reliability of the PIES among 502 high school students. The study also included an appraisal of Erikson's ego strengths as indices of psychosocial…

In this article, the author argues that, wherever possible, English teachers should not consider English or English education curriculum as an end in itself but rather a "means" to an end--the building of a critical and compassionate community both within and beyond the classroom. Building such a community involves a re-imagining of the teaching…

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) identifies scheduling students for classes as a non-counseling activity. Ideally, school counselors should limit non-counseling activities, but the reality is that counselors do in fact spend much time and energy scheduling classes, according to a recent survey of secondary counselors. We introduce…