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This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9-18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under 'lockdown' restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents' mental health during the pandemic.

Adolescents' interactions with friends were severely disrupted during stay-at-home orders associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study (N = 144, 49% female, 80% European American) considered adolescents' perceptions of this disruption and the implications of the disruption for their emotional adjustment. Adolescents reported that not seeing friends was the most distressing consequence of the pandemic. Compared to before the pandemic, adolescents reported a large decrease in in-person interactions with friends, which was related to loneliness. There was a small increase in online interactions, which could counteract the effects of fewer in-person interactions, but only if the interactions felt socially connected. Online interactions lacking social connection were related to greater loneliness and depressive symptoms.

Parent-adolescent relationships are related to adolescents' disclosure and concealment, but these associations may represent between-family differences (e.g., families with more negative interactions have adolescents who disclose less) or within-family processes (e.g., when a family has more negative interactions, their adolescent discloses less). This study used cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) and random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) to separate these elements. U.S. adolescents (N = 214, M[subscript age] = 16.0, 52% female) reported on their disclosure, concealment, positive relationships, and negative interactions with mothers 3 times over a year. Consistent with prior research, adolescent disclosure was transactionally associated with more positive and less negative relationships with mothers over time in between-family (CLPM) analyses. However, in the within-family (RI-CLPM) analyses, which controlled for the fact that more positive and less negative families had adolescents who disclosed more, changes in relationship quality within a family were not linked with changes in disclosure. In contrast, negative interactions and greater concealment were reciprocally related over time both between families and within families, even when considering that families with more negative interactions also had adolescents who concealed more. Positive relationships were associated with less adolescent concealment, but only relative to other families (at the between level) and not over time. Results confirm the importance of examining disclosure and concealment as separate processes, particularly at the within-family level, and indicate that the cycle of concealment and negative interactions among troubled families may be a particularly ripe area for intervention.

In line with increasing calls for within-family analyses of monitoring processes, this study examined profiles of (combined) adolescent information management strategies and parent knowledge-gathering strategies among 174 families with middle adolescents (M[subscript age] = 15.7 years; 164 mother-teen and 112 father-teen dyads). Three mother-adolescent profiles (open, intrusive, indirect) and two father-adolescent profiles (reserved, covert) emerged, with voluntary disclosure and snooping particularly differentiating profiles and fathers reporting gaining more knowledge from others. Profile membership was associated with adjustment and relationship quality both concurrently and over one year, controlling for prior levels. For mother-teen dyads, open communicators reported less behavioral control over time, intrusive communicators reported more negative interactions concurrently and greater depression and less maternal knowledge over time, and indirect communicators reported more problem behavior over time. For father-teen dyads, covert communicators reported more problem behavior concurrently and more negative interactions over time. Profile membership in mother-teen and father-teen dyads was not significantly associated. Results confirm the importance of disclosure and the problematic nature of snooping, while highlighting diverse ways that monitoring processes play out within families.

Parental induction of empathy-related guilt plays an important role in children's moral development. However, guilt induction can also be psychologically controlling and detrimental for youth adjustment. This study provided a more nuanced view of parental guilt induction by examining how the nature of a child's misdeed and the structure and content of the parental guilt inductive statement impact children's perceptions of it. Using hypothetical vignettes, this study experimentally examined the impact of the type (domain) of child behavior, highlighted victim, and focus of parental criticism on 156 children's and early and middle adolescents' (age: Ms = 8.82, 12.11, and 15.84 years) perceptions of maternal guilt induction. Attributions of guilt and shame increased most for younger children, when mothers focused on indirect harm to themselves about personal issues, and when mothers criticized their child as a person (shame only). Youth evaluated guilt induction least positively for personal issues and when mothers criticized the child's personality while focusing on indirect harm to themselves. With age, youth were less accepting of maternal guilt induction and more likely to endorse negative and parent-centered intentions, especially for personal issues. Older youth also drew less distinction between guilt induction over multifaceted and personal issues. Guilt induction over moral issues was generally perceived most positively. Additional interactions also emerged. These findings suggest that the meaning and effects of guilt induction on children's development may depend on the way in which it is enacted.

Some parents may engage in overparenting, often characterized as overprotection, to ensure their college student's academic success, yet, findings show that such parental efforts undermine performance. In the present study, we propose that there are interpersonal (parental hostility) and intrapersonal factors (depression and self-regulation) that act as mechanisms through which anxious overprotective parenting leads to diminished emerging adult academic confidence. Emerging adults (N = 967; 75.6% women; M age = 18.71, SD =.94) who were primarily in their first (60.5%) or second (35.7%) year of college completed measures of academic confidence (academic adjustment, academic efficacy, confidence in graduating), reports of mothers' and fathers' anxious overprotective parenting, perceptions of maternal and paternal hostility, depression, and self-regulation. Employing a double mediation structural equation model, results revealed that anxious maternal and paternal overprotective parenting operated through perceived parental hostility to intrapersonal processes (depression, self-regulation) in predicting academic confidence. Maternal and paternal hostility, in particular, was paramount as an interpersonal mediator through which overprotective parenting led to emerging adult intrapersonal and academic outcomes. Although cross-sectional, the current findings are suggestive of the developmental cascade model (Masten & Cicchetti, 2010), whereby diminished family dynamics are associated with internalizing symptoms and self-regulatory issues, which, in turn, are linked with lower academic achievement in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Describing how much and what type(s) of change are evident in civic engagement across adolescence is a fundamental starting point for advancing developmental theory in the civic domain. Using five annual waves of data from a large national U.S. sample spanning 8th-12th grades, our study describes civic engagement typologies and transitions in and out of typologies across adolescence. Four distinct civic typologies were identified across indicators of civic values, behaviors, and future expectations. Two-thirds of youth demonstrated ipsative continuity, i.e., within-class stability over time. Transitions indicated gradual stepwise change in both upward and downward directions and thus provided only modest support for age-related gains. Our study has the potential to spur theoretical progress regarding civic development by documenting developmental change as a series of transitions that vary across people. Results help to clarify the diverse civic pathways that youth experience across adolescence.

Associations between observed mother-adolescent interactions during a conflict task and adolescents' information management strategies were examined in 108 primarily middle class, European-American adolescents (M = 13.80 years, SD = 1.52) and their mothers. Teens who communicated more clearly disclosed more about personal and multifaceted activities, lied less about personal activities, and engaged in less avoidance regarding multifaceted and prudential activities. Mothers' clear communication was associated with less adolescent disclosure and more avoidance about personal and multifaceted activities. Teens with more receptive mothers omitted less prudential information but avoided discussing prudential issues more. Maternal warmth was not associated with information management. The results highlight the need to distinguish between parent and teen behaviors and between affective quality and specific communicative behaviors. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

Developmental trajectories and individual differences in 70 American middle-income 2.5- to 4-year olds' moral judgments were examined 3 times across 1 year using latent growth modeling. At Wave 1, children distinguished hypothetical moral from conventional transgressions on all criteria, but only older preschoolers did so when rating deserved punishment. Children's understanding of moral transgressions as wrong independent of authority grew over time. Greater surgency and effortful control were both associated with a better understanding of moral generalizability. Children higher in effortful control also grew more slowly in understanding that moral rules are not alterable and that moral transgressions are wrong independent of rules. Girls demonstrated sharper increases across time than boys in understanding the nonalterability of moral rules.

Adolescents' interactions with friends were severely disrupted during stay-at-home orders associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study (N = 144, 49% female, 80% European American) considered adolescents' perceptions of this disruption and the implications of the disruption for their emotional adjustment. Adolescents reported that not seeing friends was the most distressing consequence of the pandemic. Compared to before the pandemic, adolescents reported a large decrease in in-person interactions with friends, which was related to loneliness. There was a small increase in online interactions, which could counteract the effects of fewer in-person interactions, but only if the interactions felt socially connected. Online interactions lacking social connection were related to greater loneliness and depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]