A promising development in school-based prevention and intervention science is the use of applied social-psychological concepts to improve students' experiences and outcomes in school. Mounting evidence from rigorous studies supports the efficacy of theoretically informed interventions grounded in social psychology, including growth mindset and…

The expectations of parents can shape the post-school pathways of young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Yet little is known about how parents view the employment prospects and priorities of their sons and daughters after high school. We examined expectations, preferences, and concerns of 1,065 parents of children and…

The field of youth sociology has been challenged to reconsider the role of parenting in the lives of young adults. This paper presents a multiple-case study investigation into young men's transitions from school into further education in an Australian context. We will argue that relationships with parents are materially, socially and emotionally…

Mitigating the perils of transition to early adolescence, while also supporting the promise of this stage of human development, has been a major focus of middle school reform (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989; Jackson & Davis, 2000). As a result, there are many classroom-based educational programs that target the social and…

The purpose of this study was to get an insight about how high school female students perceive the transition to university life, and to understand the transition experience of university female students in the first semester. An exploratory study design was used where 166 high school female students and 88 first year university female students…

Social responsibility can be defined as a set of prosocial values representing personal commitments to contribute to community and society. Little is known about developmental change--and predictors of that change--in social responsibility during adolescence. The present study used an accelerated longitudinal research design to investigate the…

The transition from middle school to high school is an important developmental period to investigate because of the negative impact it has on youths' academics. The purpose of this study was to investigate Latino youths' academic achievement prior to, during, and after the transition to high school, and gender differences in youths' achievement…

Despite research showing that immigrant adolescents differ in the degree to which they feel personally discriminated against, little is known about individual predictors of their perceived personal discrimination. We studied the role of a major developmental task in adolescence that is highly relevant for discrimination experiences: being liked by…

To what extent does maternal and paternal autonomy support enhance well-being across the major transitions of high school? We tested the degree to which perceived autonomy supportive parenting facilitated positive changes in self-esteem and life satisfaction and buffered against negative changes in depressive symptoms and school related burnout in…

Summer melt occurs when students who have been accepted to college and intend to enroll fail to matriculate in college in the fall semester after high school. A high rate of summer melt contributes to the lower postsecondary attainment rates of low-income students, in particular. This article presents qualitative findings from two interventions…

The study explored the relationship between types of spatial experiences and spatial abilities among 13- to 14-year-old high academic achievers. Each participant completed two spatial tasks and a survey assessing favored spatial activities across five categories (computers, toys, sports, music, and art) and three developmental periods (early…

Adolescents' expectations about the timing of adult role transitions have the potential to shape their actual transitions, setting the stage for their adult lives. Although expectations about timing emerge by early adolescence, little is known about how these expectations develop across adolescence. This longitudinal study examined developmental…

Adaptation, or adjustment, is a psycho-social process that occurs when an individual accepts and integrates into his or her life a transition from one situation to another situation (Schlossberg, 1981). Many individuals struggle with transitions because transitions involve changes in the environment, roles, routines, and/or ways of looking at the…

Establishing life purpose is a key developmental task; however, how it is linked to adolescents' everyday family, school, extracurricular, and leisure experiences remains unclear. Using daily diary data from 180 Asian American ninth and tenth graders (50% ninth; 58% female; 25% first generation), daily purpose was positively related to daily…

How can an understanding of adolescent development inform strategies and practices for supporting first-generation college goers? In "Ready, Willing, and Able," Mandy Savitz-Romer and Suzanne Bouffard focus on the developmental tasks and competencies that young people need to develop in order to plan for and succeed in higher education. These…