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To advance knowledge of critical consciousness development, this study examined age-related change in awareness of inequality by race and ethnicity, gender, parent education, generation status, and their interactions. With longitudinal data (2013-2017) from 5019 adolescents in grades 6-12 (55.0% female) from California, Minnesota, and West Virginia, multigroup second-order latent growth curves were estimated for Black (13.7%), Latinx (37.0%), Asian (8.1%), and white (41.3%) youth. Black, Latinx, and Asian adolescents increased awareness of inequality longitudinally; white youth showed no change. Multiracial youth accelerated awareness of inequality in mid-adolescence; changes in race and ethnicity predicted decline, followed by increases. Girls with more educated, immigrant-origin parents started out more aware of inequality. Results signal the need for race-specific and intersectional approaches to studying critical consciousness development.

Situational variation is consistently leveled as a criticism of character research and theory. Across adolescence, young people’s realization that they may display certain character strengths in so...

The current study examined developmental change in future orientation and perseverance across childhood and adolescence. Drawing from stage-environment fit theory, the study examined how adolescents' perceptions of key school experiences (teacher support, school climate, high-quality organized activities, school transitions) and socioemotional competencies covaried across time. Using an accelerated longitudinal design, a diverse sample of 4,055 youth in grades 6-12 completed assessments at 4 time points. Latent growth curve analyses revealed future orientation and perseverance both followed a quadratic trajectory marked by growth in early adolescence, followed by a leveling off in later adolescence. School experiences positively covaried with socioemotional competencies. Findings provide insight into patterns of age-related change and offer implications for practices aimed at promoting future orientation and perseverance.

Endurance activities provide a key context for positive development. Using data from a longitudinal study of 398 adolescents and emerging adults participating in a charity marathon event, this stud...

Despite abundant research on the benefits of dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions, little is known about the naturally occurring developmental course of mindful awareness. Given dramatic strides during adolescence in competencies that may support mindfulness (e.g., emotion regulation), the high school years are a suitable window to study developmental changes in mindfulness. Using an accelerated cohort design to examine the longitudinal trajectory of mindfulness from 9th grade through 12th grade, we employed data from a 5-year study of 3,453 U.S. adolescents (55% female; 40% Latinx, 38% White, 13% Black, and 7% Asian) from high schools in three geographical regions in the U.S. Adolescents annually completed self-report surveys measuring mindful awareness and several internal and external factors. Latent growth curve analyses found that, after controlling for cohort, there was no average linear change in mindful awareness from grades 9 through 12, although there was significant interindividual variability in slopes. Within-person analyses found that in grades when needs-supportive climate was higher and discrimination was lower, adolescents reported greater mindful awareness. Unexpectedly, in grades when perspective taking and prosocial behaviors were higher, mindfulness was lower. These findings inform developmental understanding of mindful awareness and the ways that it naturally occurs and is supported during adolescence.

Parents promote character development in many ways: by cultivating a supportive relationship, modeling the strengths they hope to cultivate, and through the ideas they communicate to their children...

Despite the importance of community service for the well-being of individuals and communities, relatively little is known about the developmental course of community service during the transition to adulthood (TTA). This study tested competing hypotheses about change in community service across the TTA by estimating latent growth models from Ages 18 to 26 in a national U.S. Sample Analyses tested for cohort differences in community service and for individual differences in developmental trajectories by socioeconomic status, gender, grades, religiosity, race/ethnicity, college expectations, and college degree attainment. Using Monitoring the Future data from 1976 to 2011, the best-fitting latent growth model for community service was quadratic: Community service declined from Ages 18 to 24 and leveled off thereafter. Cohort differences in intercepts indicated that Age 18 community service increased over historical time; developmental declines in community service were consistent over 4 decades. Parent education predicted higher Age 18 community service but not growth parameters. Community service trajectories varied by gender, high school grades, religiosity, college expectations, and educational attainment, although all groups declined. Findings contribute to civic developmental theory by clarifying age and cohort effects in community service. Rising levels of community service at Age 18 may reflect heightened focus on service in high schools or the role of other socialization forces, yet these increases do not mitigate the decline across the TTA. We highlight the need for rethinking the ways in which institutions and communities can better support youth community service during the TTA. (PsycINFO Database Record

Many scholars posit that engaging in civic actions enhances mental health, yet existing evidence is limited. To address gaps in the literature and advance understanding of benefits of civic engagement from adolescence to young adulthood, we estimated a longitudinal structural model to test bidirectional associations between civic engagement (i.e., voting, community engagement, political behaviors) and depressive symptoms using nationally representative longitudinal U.S. data. Adolescent and early young adulthood (EYA) depressive symptoms predicted decreases in later voting. Adolescent and EYA community engagement predicted decreases in later depressive symptoms. Analyses suggested that findings generalized across gender, age, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and EYA social roles. Despite key limitations in measurement of civic engagement over time, results provide some support the notion that community engagement may have mental health benefits for youth, and that depression may reduce later ...

Numerous studies have established that participation in regular physical activity provides physical, cognitive, and affective benefits to adolescents, but fewer studies have examined how athletic involvement might affect character, social, or religious developmental markers of psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this study is to examine the bidirectional associations between entitativity (group closeness), positive affect, generosity, and religiousness across time among adolescents and emerging adults involved in charitable marathon training. We collected data from 396 adolescents and emerging adults who trained for half/full marathons with a religiously affiliated charity team. Participants completed measures at three occasions over 18 weeks (pre-training, mid-training, post-race). We conducted cross-lagged path analysis of latent factors to study concurrent and longitudinal effects of intrinsic religiousness, positive affectivity, and entitativity on interpersonal generosity and fundraising. Participants who reported higher levels of pre-training generosity were more likely to experience positive affect during training, which predicted higher levels of post-race generosity. Likewise, the internalization of religious ideas, reflected in increased intrinsic religiousness during training, was associated with higher post-race generosity. Overall, results support the potential of charitable sporting events to promote positive psychosocial developmental outcomes.

Developmental theory posits that youth are civically engaged in different ways, patterns of civic development vary across individuals, and both stability and change in youth civic engagement can be influenced by experiences in context. Drawing on these notions, we used a longitudinal person-oriented approach to document stability and change in civic engagement typologies across adolescence. Sociodemographic differences were tested to understand adolescents' civic developmental starting points in eighth grade, and civic discussions with parents and friends were examined as time-varying predictors of stability and change in civic engagement across eighth to 12th grades. Using national U.S. Longitudinal Study of American Youth data (N = 3701), 5 annual assessments of civic engagement (civic values, political behaviors, and future civic expectations) served as latent transition analysis (LTA) indicators. A 4-class model was comprised of civic leaders, informed future voters, civic sympathizers, and unengaged youth. Civic engagement typologies in eighth grade varied systematically by gender, parent education, and race/ethnicity in ways that replicate and extend prior research. Civic discussions with parents and friends predicted stability in all 3 engaged typologies. Civic discussions with parents also predicted growth out of the unengaged group, whereas civic discussions with friends predicted remaining unengaged later in high school. Findings underscore patterns of civic inequality that are evident early in adolescence and illustrate the role of civic discussions in sustaining and increasing youth civic engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Recent advances in positive youth development theory and research explicate complex associations between adaptive functioning and risk behavior, acknowledging that high levels of both co-occur in the lives of some adolescents. However, evidence on nuanced overlapping developmental trajectories of adaptive functioning and risk has been limited to 1 sample of youth and a single conceptualization of adaptive functioning. We build on prior work by utilizing a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents (N = 1,665) followed from 7th grade until after high school and using a measure of adaptive functioning that was validated in a secondary sample of older adolescents (N = 93). In using dual trajectory growth mixture modeling to investigate links between developmental trajectories of adaptive functioning and delinquency and substance use, respectively, results provided evidence of heterogeneity in the overlap between adaptive functioning and risk trajectories. Males were more likely to be in the highest adaptive functioning group as well as the most at-risk delinquency class. The magnitude of negative associations between adaptive functioning and both risk behaviors decreased at Wave 3, indicating a decoupling of adaptive functioning and risk as youth aged. These findings converge in underscoring the need to generate a cohesive theory that specifies factors that promote adaptive functioning and risk in concert.

Building on value socialization and personal values theories, this study examined adolescents' open-ended reports of the values their families emphasize. Based on open-ended reports of an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of adolescents, we described adolescent-reported familial values using qualitative and cluster analysis techniques. Adolescents' open-ended responses about the values held by their families were coded using a prominent circumplex value model, and values largely, but not completely, aligned with this model. Using person-oriented cluster analysis on the coded data, seven distinct value clusters were identified that captured various sets of values that adolescents hear from families. Several demographic differences emerged among the clusters, and mean differences by familial value cluster were found for adolescents' close-ended reports of values of helping others and religiosity. Results suggest that adolescents are able to articulate values emphasized in their families in ways that fit a universal structure of values; these values are related in meaningful ways to the values that they themselves want to live by.

Civic engagement may benefit individuals who engage in it, yet empirical evidence is lacking. We examined whether civic engagement was associated with well-being in a seven-day daily diary study of 276 college students. Based on self-determination theory, we hypothesized that satisfaction of basic psychological needs mediates the link between civic engagement and well-being. Four types of civic engagement – helping, pro-environmental behavior, volunteering, and charitable giving – were examined as separate predictors and as a composite predictor of daily well-being. The composite was associated with higher well-being across days, and basic needs satisfaction had a significant indirect effect on this association. Helping and pro-environmental behavior were linked to daily well-being directly and indirectly through basic needs satisfaction. No effects were evident for volunteering or charitable giving. Results suggest that civic engagement may enhance well-being, although some types of civic engagement may enhance well-being more than others.

Item does not contain fulltext We examined the influence of an antecedent communication intervention on challenging behavior for three students with developmental disorders. Students were taught to request tangible items that were identified as reinforcers for challenging behavior in a prior functional analysis. individual participant multielement and reversal designs were used to compare the effects of the antecedent communication intervention versus a no antecedent communication intervention condition. Immediately following the antecedent manipulations students were exposed to the tangible condition of the functional analysis. Results indicate that the antecedent communication intervention reduced challenging behavior in the subsequent tangible test condition for all three students. The importance of examining antecedent interventions to treat challenging behavior from a function analytic perspective is discussed. 7 p.