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…

Although adolescents often participate in multiple extracurricular activities, little research has examined how the breadth of activities in which an adolescent is involved relates to school-related affect and academic performance. Relying on a large, multi-ethnic sample (N = 864; 55.9% female), the current study investigated linear and non-linear…

Despite decades of research analyzing fear of crime among adults, little is known about youth fear of crime in general and youth fear of crime in school, specifically. Moreover, among existing studies most emphasize causes of fear, with little discussion of avoidance or the academic consequences of these feelings and behaviors in school. This…

Previous research has recognized the significant relationship between perceived social support and resiliency in children and adolescents without disabilities, but less is known about the perceptions of social support among youth with disabilities. Available research suggests that students with disabilities report lower levels of social support…

Latino adolescents often are less likely to participate in extracurricular activities compared to youth from other ethnic groups. This descriptive study examined the differences in activity participation by family resources and markers of cultural orientation for the four largest Latino ethnic groups in the U.S. Findings were based on secondary…

In addition to typical career development and vocational programs in general education, providing school-based programs that are directly linked to employment and career development for youth with learning and emotional and behavioral disabilities is a legally mandated service in special education. Several broad research-based strategies are…

This study examined the relative influence of adolescents' supportive relationships with teachers, peers, and parents on trajectories of different dimensions of school engagement from middle to high school and how these associations differed by gender and race or ethnicity. The sample consisted of 1,479 students (52% females, 56% African…

In this brief, authors Michael Staunton and Eleanor Jaffee review the key findings and recommendations from research conducted in the first half of the Coös Youth Study, which began in 2008 and is planned to continue through 2018. The study explores young people's decisions about their educational and job opportunities in rural northern New…

Adolescent participation in academic/extracurricular activities is related to fewer diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections during adolescence. The role parents play in motivating participation in such activities is unclear. This mixed-methods study explored parental influences on academic/extracurricular activity participation, and the…

Edgar Allen Poe, Langston Hughes, Louisa May Alcott, and Stephen King are just a handful of famous authors who began their publishing careers in their teens. Many young adults would like to write and publish but few know where to begin. While there are many books on how to write and how to get published, none are written specifically for teens.…

This report examines the academic and civic behavior outcomes of teenagers and young adults who have engaged deeply with the arts in or out of school. In several small-group studies, children and teenagers who participated in arts education programs have shown more positive academic and social outcomes in comparison to students who did not…

Concern exists that youth who spend a lot of time participating in organized out-of-school activities (e.g., sports) are at-risk for poor developmental outcomes. This concern--called the over-scheduling hypothesis--has primarily been assessed in terms of adolescent adjustment. This longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of 1,115…

The authors underline their opinion that it is preferable to organise the extracurricular education on city level instead of forming autonomous school groups. Putting together students from different schools forces them to share their knowledge and programming techniques. All this helps them get familiar with new practices and experience and…

In contemporary discourse, children are imagined with "surplus risk," and parents often feel pressure to protect their children from danger. Drawing on interviews with 40 Latina, White, and Black mothers of teenagers, the authors examine the factors that shape these mothers' concerns for their teens' safety, how they articulate these…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a career, academic, personal, and social high school transition program option on 9th-grade students' achievement, behavior, and engagement. Students in the career, academic, personal, and social group (n = 30) and the comparison academic/elective course option programs group (n = 30)…