Given large variations in the etiology and developmental trajectories of violent and nonviolent delinquency, this study examines whether educational outcomes of violent and nonviolent offenders might differ. In particular, this study attempts to remove environmental influences such as family background and neighborhood effects from the effects of…

This study explores misperceptions about peer norms in support of telling authorities about weapons at school and whether perceptions predict personal support for telling authorities. Anonymous surveys were conducted among youth in 30 schools (Grades 5-12) in six states (n = 12,903) between 2006 and 2014. Personal support for telling principals,…

Limited work has focused on understanding mechanisms through which violence negatively impacts youth outcomes. The present study investigates how three different facets of violence exposure (witnessing violence, victimization and armed conflict) relate to Colombian youth externalizing behaviors via the indirect influence of aggressive cognitions…

This study evaluated the injury prevention program, Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) for Year 9 students (aged 13-14 years). The aim of SPIY was to reduce adolescent injury by reducing engagement in risk-taking behaviors. A randomized controlled trial was conducted and data analyzed with 32 schools, N = 2,739 students at baseline.…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been identified as a key risk factor for a variety of negative health, psychiatric, and behavioral outcomes across the life course. Although recent research has begun to consider the role of ACEs in criminogenic behaviors among youth, few studies to date have assessed the association between early exposure…

Adolescent intentional and unintentional injury is commonly related to involvement in violence and transportation behaviors. While many risk and promotive factors have been identified, a cumulative assessment of such factors is less common, and this has rarely been undertaken with transportation behaviors. The study involved Australian adolescents…

Criminological literature has examined the potential for gendered pathways of offending, while also recognizing the gendered risk for victimization. General strain theory explicitly recognizes this gendered risk as strains that structure differences in these experiences for males and females. The current article tests the longitudinal risk for…

Youth, particularly urban minority youth, are exposed to high levels of stressful and potentially traumatic life events that have been linked to a wide array of negative outcomes including internalizing and externalizing problems. Youth perceptions of their interpersonal relationship quality with caregivers and friends were examined as potential…

We used a life stress framework to examine linkages between distal or primary stressors (e.g., child abuse) and proximal or secondary stressors (e.g., street victimization) and their association with substance use among 150 youth experiencing homelessness in the Midwestern United States. Results revealed that numerous primary stressors such as…

For African American youth disproportionately exposed to community violence and the associated risk of externalizing behaviors, developmental assets that reduce the risk for externalizing behaviors and enhance adaptive coping should be explored. In a sample of 572 African American adolescents (M[subscript age] = 15.85; SD = 1.42), the current…

Youth living in violent urban neighborhoods increasingly post messages online from urban street corners. The decline of the digital divide and the proliferation of social media platforms connect youth to peer communities who may share experiences with neighborhood stress and trauma. Social media can also be used for targeted retribution when…

Although gender has become a key dimension in migration research, previous scholarship has largely focused on adult rather than child migrants. Even less attention has been paid to the role of gender in migration-related child health. By comparing rural migrant and urban-born adolescents in the largest city in south China, this study assessed…

Though considerable research links both a lack of self-control and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to a variety of negative health and behavioral outcomes, few studies to date have explored whether ACEs are associated with deficits in self-control. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW; n = 3,444) and a life…

This study examined relations between patterns of dating aggression and victimization and school environment factors among 4,114 early adolescents attending 37 middle schools in four sites in the United States (51% Black, non-Hispanic, 21% Hispanic, and 17% White). Latent class analyses revealed a five-class solution that differentiated among…

Pregnancy rates among youth experiencing homelessness are much higher than those of their housed peers, yet limited research exists on this population's abortion experiences. This study examined abortion attitudes, experiences, and decision making through individual interviews with 30 female, male, and gender-fluid youth (ages 18-21 years)…