In a national survey of U.S. adults, the number of close friends increased with age and 76% reported having three or more. However, 8% reported having none. There are limited parallel data for gifted learners but the survey provided an opportunity to compare the two groups. The numbers of close friends for gifted learners appears to increase from…

When perceiving emotional facial expressions, adults use a template-matching strategy, comparing the perceived face with a stored representation. A rejection of unnaturally exaggerated faces is characteristic of this strategy because the exaggerated expressions do not match the stored template. In contrast, a rule-based perceptual strategy (e.g.,…

When semantically-related photos appear with true-or-false trivia claims, people more often rate the claims as true compared to when photos are absent--"truthiness." This occurs even when the photos lack information useful for assessing veracity. We tested whether truthiness changed in magnitude as a function of participants' age in a…

Introduction: Mental health concerns have been noted to be highly prevalent for youth with intellectual disability (ID), with or without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of the current study was to examine a Canadian sample of youth with ID, with or without ASD, to explore caregiver-reported percentages, predictors, and treatment…

Purpose: We compare teens' and adults' imitation of sentences with shortened and lengthened voice onset time (VOT), in order to test whether purported age-based advantages in phonetic acquisition may be due to differences in imitative ability. Method: Teens (M[subscript age] = 13, n = 39) and adults (n = 31) completed an explicit imitation and…

Background: Bilingual assessment is particularly difficult in the very first period of children's second language (L2) exposure. This exploratory, longitudinal study examined L2 learning after 1 and 2 years of L2 exposure by young immigrants and how it is affected by their age at first exposure to the L2 (AoE). Method: Participants were 18…

Introduction: Compared to their neurotypical peers, children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) experience worse mental health outcomes, including greater service use and functional impairment. Few studies, however, have examined the neurodevelopmental contributions to mental health complexity among those seeking…

Peer victimization is a common concern in adolescence that includes both relational (e.g., exclusion, rumor spreading) and overt (e.g., hitting, threatening) forms (Crick & Bigbee, 1998). Relational and overt peer victimization have shown to be differentially associated with depressive symptoms, with relational peer victimization showing a…

We conducted a meta-analytic review of 53 studies published between 2000 and 2020 to quantify associations of parents' emotion regulation with parenting behavior and children's emotion regulation and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Twelve meta-analyses, which included between 4 to 22 effect sizes (N from 345 to 3609), were conducted to…

This systematic review aimed to understand the effects of self-esteem on risky sexual behavior (RSB) among adolescents and young adults. We followed the procedures outlined in the Cooper's five-step approach, and used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 reporting requirements. Published studies were…

Adolescents with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) experience a range of cognitive, behavioral, and physical difficulties, including difficulties with self-regulation. We investigated self-regulation strategy use in adolescents with FASD who completed a self-regulation intervention program. The intervention was an adapted version of the Alert…

This paper aims at connecting Self-Determination Theory (SDT) with research on moral identity. It is argued that SDT provides a unique and integrative framework for addressing important questions that have guided research on moral identity for many years: What is a moral identity? How is it linked to moral action? How do moral identities develop?…

Legalization of non-medical cannabis in Canada was intended to protect youth health and safety by limiting access and raising awareness of safety and risks. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore youths' perceptions of their cannabis health literacy and future educational needs. A convenience sample of youth aged 13 to 18 residing…

Background: This study aims to quantify associations between one's weight management goal and eating behaviors and physical activity among teenagers. Methods: Weighted logistic regressions were performed predicting healthy behaviors from weight goal separately for boys and girls while controlling for age, body mass index, socioeconomic indicators,…

Formal climate education without consideration of the ocean is incomplete. The effectiveness of a new climate lesson for youth that includes the ocean-climate nexus was examined by delivering the lesson to nine classes situated in separate British Columbia, Canada public schools and assessing the students' understanding of basic climate concepts…