Although research has established that school adjustment is associated with marijuana use (MU) in adolescence, few studies have tested these associations bidirectionally. Using random intercepts cross-lagged panel modeling, this study examined reciprocal associations between MU and school adjustment across 8th to 10th grade, including the…

This study examines associations between leisure reading and reading skills in data of 2,525 students followed from age 7 to 16. As a step further from traditional cross-lagged analysis, a random intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to identify within-person associations of leisure reading (books, magazines, newspapers, and digital…

Prior research has demonstrated a male advantage in spatial skills and science achievement. The present research integrated these findings by testing the potential role of spatial skills in gender differences in the science performance of eighth-grade students (13-15 years old). In "Study 1" (N = 113), the findings showed that mental…

Adolescents' perceptions of peers' relational characteristics (e.g., support, trustworthiness) were examined for subtypes of youth who evidenced chronic maladaptive behavior, chronic peer group rejection, or combinations of these risk factors. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify subgroups of participants within a normative…

Three aspects of racial-ethnic identity (REI)--feeling connected to one's racial-ethnic group (Connectedness), being aware that others may not value the in-group (Awareness of Racism), and feeling that one's in-group is characterized by academic attainment (Embedded Achievement)--were hypothesized to promote academic achievement. Youth randomly…