Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Past evidence has documented that attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation are related to sexual behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. This study extends prior research by longitudinally testing these associations across racial/ethnic groups and investigating whether culturally relevant variations within racial/ethnic minority groups, such as skin tone (i.e., lightness/darkness of skin color), are linked to attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation and sex. Drawing on family and public health literatures and theories, as well as burgeoning skin tone literature, it was hypothesized that more positive attitudes toward marriage and negative attitudes toward cohabitation would be associated with less risky sex, and that links differed for lighter and darker skin individuals. The sample included 6872 respondents (49.6 % female; 70.0 % White; 15.8 % African American; 3.3 % Asian; 10.9 % Hispanic) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The results revealed that marital attitudes had a significantly stronger dampening effect on risky sexual behavior of lighter skin African Americans and Asians compared with their darker skin counterparts. Skin tone also directly predicted number of partners and concurrent partners among African American males and Asian females. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings for adolescence and young adulthood.

Adolescents are at a significant risk for binge drinking and illicit drug use. One way to protect against these behaviors is through participation in extracurricular activities. However, there is a debate about whether highly conscientious adolescents are more likely to participate in activities, which raises the concern of a confound. To disentangle these relationships, we tested the latent trajectories of substance use and personality across 3 years, with participation in activities and sports as time-varying predictors. We surveyed 687 adolescents (55 % female, 85.4 % Caucasian) in Western Australia schools across 3 years. At Time 1, the students were in Year 10 1 (mean age 15 years). The results showed that participation in activities and conscientiousness are related, but each uniquely predicts slower growth in substance use. Across waves, participation in activities predicted less risky substance use a year later, over and above conscientiousness development. These results suggest that there may be unique benefits of participation in activities that protect against risky substance use.

Thời kỳ thanh thiếu niên là một giai đoạn phát triển đầy thách thức, đánh dấu bởi sự suy giảm trong tình trạng cảm xúc; tuy nhiên, lòng tự ái đã được đề xuất như một yếu tố bảo vệ. Nghiên cứu khảo sát cắt ngang này (N = 765, từ lớp 7 đến lớp 12; 53% nữ; 4% thuộc sắc tộc Hispanic; 64% da trắng và 21% da đen) đã đi sâu vào việc liệu lòng tự ái của thanh thiếu niên có khác nhau theo độ tuổi và giới tính hay không, và thứ hai, mối liên hệ của nó với sức khỏe tinh thần (stress cảm nhận, sự hài lòng trong cuộc sống, sự không chịu đựng căng thẳng, triệu chứng trầm cảm và lo âu) có khác nhau theo độ tuổi và giới tính hay không. Kết quả chỉ ra rằng các bạn nữ lớn tuổi có mức độ lòng tự ái thấp nhất so với các bạn nữ nhỏ tuổi hơn hoặc các bạn nam ở mọi độ tuổi. Lòng tự ái có liên quan đến tất cả các thước đo sức khỏe tinh thần, và giới tính và/hoặc độ tuổi đã điều chỉnh các mối liên hệ với triệu chứng lo âu và trầm cảm. Trong số các thanh thiếu niên lớn tuổi, lòng tự ái có tác dụng bảo vệ lớn hơn đối với triệu chứng lo âu ở các bạn nam so với các bạn nữ. Thêm vào đó, các thanh thiếu niên lớn tuổi có lòng tự ái thấp và trung bình có mức độ triệu chứng trầm cảm cao hơn so với những người có lòng tự ái cao. Những kết quả này có thể thông báo cho việc xác định đối tượng và độ tuổi mà các can thiệp về lòng tự ái có thể được triển khai để bảo vệ thanh thiếu niên khỏi những suy giảm cảm xúc thêm nữa.

In a sample of female college students, dysphoric and “intermittently’ dysphoric subjects, in comparison to nondysphoric subjects, were expected to perform more poorly on a game requiring eye-hand coordination. Actual performance showed no differences between these three groups. Following performance, relative to nondysphoric subjects, dysphoric and intermittently dysphoric subjects evaluated their performance more negatively. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive theories of depression and recent research. Implications for future research are suggested.

The present prospective study has followed a cohort of inner city men from adolescence (14±2) until age 65. While previous studies of shorter duration have identified numerous childhood factors that powerfully influence outcomes in young adulthood, this study examined the effect of these well-documented prognostic factors on occupational status across the lifespan. Consistent with previous studies, childhood environmental protector factors and parental social class predicted occupational status at age 25 significantly, but showed progressively weaker prediction at ages 32, 47 and 65. Timely early childhood development proved over time to be a far more important predictor than childhood social environment in adulthood.

Adolescents’ experiences of bullying victimization are positively associated with their post-traumatic stress symptoms. The development of these symptoms alongside experiences of bullying victimization over time, however, are not well understood. The current study used a transactional theory of development to examine the bidirectional associations between adolescents’ post-traumatic stress symptoms and experiences of cyber and traditional victimization across three academic years. Participants were 510 Canadian students in grade 7 or 10 (Mage = 13.7, 61.6% girls) who completed surveys annually. The findings show that adolescents’ concurrent experiences of cyber and traditional victimization were uniquely associated with their post-traumatic stress symptoms. Over time, greater post-traumatic stress symptoms were associated with more experiences of cyber and traditional victimization among adolescent boys and girls. Prevention and intervention efforts must address the role of post-traumatic stress symptoms that may limit adolescents’ ability to develop or maintain healthy relationships.