Introduction: Based on internal and external assets, the positive youth development approach aims to increase the capacity among adolescents to overcome challenges as they transition to adulthood. Developmental assets have been found to be positively associated with academic achievement, a variety of health promoting behaviors, and improved…

The present article is drawn from a year-long ethnographic study of adolescents' uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) and their perceptions of themselves and their uses in multiple contexts. Examining three cases, the author shows how ICT provided participants with powerful opportunities to develop strong self-efficacy beliefs.…

This study focused on 12th-grade Chilean students' ability to produce locally coherent persuasive texts and on the cognitive basis that underlies this ability. All the participants wrote persuasive texts and answered a test of recognition of incoherent sequences. A subsample wrote another persuasive text while thinking aloud and had a…

Family conflict is a salient risk factor for African American adolescents' mental health problems. No study we are aware of has estimated trajectories of their family conflict and whether groups differ in internalizing and externalizing problems during the transition to young adulthood, a critical antecedent in adult mental health and…

This study examined the effects of out-of-school suspension on high school students. Its purpose was to determine if exclusionary discipline practices led to negative consequences such as poor academic achievement and juvenile delinquency. The study also hoped to generate new insight into current disciplinary practices in order to yield a better…

This mixed-methods study investigated relationships among gender, academic motivation and achievement in a mid-sized Wisconsin high school. A questionnaire was developed that focused on perceived ability, achievement motives and achievement goals. Interviews with teachers focused on relationships among academic motivation and gender achievement.…

In this pilot study, we sought to examine the influence of the beliefs of Grade 10 to 12 physical science teachers on their intended and actual usage of interactive simulations (Physics Education Technology, or PhET) in their classrooms. A combination of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Technology Acceptance Model and the Innovation Diffusion…

In this paper, I use a nationally representative sample of American high school seniors in 1992 to examine change and stability in the employment patterns of youth as they make the transition from high school to college. Students with weak attachments to the labor force in high school tend to remain unemployed during the first year of college.…