Research investigating social media use typically focus on late adolescents and young adults, despite a growing number of early adolescents, 93% to 97%--having at least one social media platform. Also, early adolescents are more likely to engage with newer sites, such as Snapchat and Instagram, than older platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.…

Stress among adolescents is a growing concern due to its adverse effects on health and social functioning, especially in China. Awe is related to relief of daily stress and reduction of stress-related symptoms. However, existing research related to perceived stress in Chinese adolescents has not considered awe; moreover, the possible influence of…

Smartphone dependency (SD) has been linked to decreased happiness; however, research has not yet explored potential mediating mechanisms such as social class awareness (SCA) in this relationship. This study examined the association between SD and happiness among middle school students and the mediating effect of SCA in this relationship. Data from…

There is ample evidence of bullying victimization-perpetration association. However, little is known about the role of socioemotional variables in reinforcing or mitigating it. There is a need to delve deeper into what victims feel and do that leads them to bully. This study aimed to analyze the moderating role of peer relationship management and…

Although scholars are attuned to the particular transitional dilemmas faced by middle school students, inquiry into middle school breaktimes is largely limited to research on bullying and peer victimization. This study interrogates the geography of middle school breaktime to expand understanding of student safety and recognize the ways that the…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of technology use for friendship maintenance in the associations between self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and friendship quality, measured 6 months later (Time 2). Participants were 1,567 seventh and eighth graders (51% female; 51% white; M[subscript age] = 13.47)…

Previous studies have shown that there is overlap between victimization and the perpetration of bullying, and social and motivational variables are known to mediate this relationship. However, the effects of different moral disengagement strategies have not been studied, despite the fact that they exert a major influence on aggressive behavior.…

Youth civic engagement is relatively low in the United States. However, when students are involved in an action civics class (like Generation Citizen), they enthusiastically take action on a wide variety of topics. To systematically assess what issues youth are interested in, we analyzed administrative data from 1,651 action projects conducted by…

Phubbing, the ignoring of one's companions to pay attention to one's phone, is ubiquitous. Yet far less is known about its interpersonal transmission. Based on the social learning theory and the theory of normative social behavior, this cross-sectional study tested the associations between perceived parental phubbing and teenagers' phubbing. Two…

This three-wave longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether the relationship between self-control and academic achievement, through mastery goals, was conditional on the nature of the teacher-student relationships. A total of 852 junior school students in China completed questionnaires about self-control, mastery goals, and teacher-student…

Establishing a coherent meaning in life has long been considered to be a protective factor of well-being, but this construct has been understudied in early adolescent development. The current study investigated the relationships between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms as well as the mediation effect of meaning in life in 214 Chinese…

This mixed method study explored whether and how familial mentor support may have influenced the parent-adolescent relationship, and whether the impact of familial mentor support on the parent-adolescent relationship may have differed across adolescents' developmental stage. Findings from analyses of survey data from 106 Black adolescents…

This study examines the role of adolescents-parents/teachers/peers relationships as explanatory variables of cyberbullying and problematic Internet-use (PIU) pre-and during COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaires were delivered to 348 adolescents ages 13 to 18 years (M = 15.05) at two time-points, provided a rare opportunity for assessment the pandemic…

Ethnic identity (EI) can facilitate racially and ethnically marginalized youths' academic achievement but the mediating process by which it exerts its influence is unclear. This study examines how EI is associated with academic achievement through academic beliefs in a sample of Caribbean first and second generation immigrant adolescents whose…

In tracing two Chinese rural middle school classes for 3 years, this study found the positive impact of adopting the algorithm-based mobile short video platform Douyin on rural adolescents' intrinsic motivation. The application's broad adoption has reshaped the social processes supporting adolescent users' intrinsic motivation and spontaneous…