This study explored adolescent siblings’ perspectives of family life and social connections, comparing the experiences of siblings of children with and without neurodevelopmental conditions. Using a mixed methods design, teenaged siblings aged 13 to 19 years in Australia, completed questionnaires and participated in focus groups to describe their experiences relating to friendships, recreation, and holidays. Forty teenagers participated, including 24 from families of children with neurodevelopmental conditions. Commonalities were observed between teenagers of both groups for friendships, recreation, and social activities. Differences were observed in relation to inviting friends home, parental availability for transport to activities, and family holidays, where many siblings of children with neurodevelopmental conditions voiced challenges associated with taking vacations. Findings can be used to tailor supports for siblings to enhance their relationships and opportunities for socialisation, which are important protective factors for mental health and wellbeing.
Climate change generates uncertainty and insecurity, shaping human–environment relations and contributing to psychological distress, particularly in the form of worry and anxiety. While moderate levels of worry may foster adaptive responses, elevated worry and anxiety are associated with emotional and functional difficulties. Adolescents may be especially vulnerable to these reactions due to their developmental stage. This study aimed to identify psychological profiles characterized by different levels of climate change worry and anxiety. Preliminary analyses also explored sex- and age-related differences, as well as the associations of worry and anxiety with emotion regulation difficulties and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The study involved 625 Italian adolescents aged 14 to 18 years who completed online self-report questionnaires during regular school hours. No significant sex or age differences emerged for climate change anxiety, whereas boys and older adolescents reported higher levels of worry. Latent profile analysis identified three groups: low (77.3%), moderate (17.3%), and high (5.4%) worry and anxiety, with progressively greater emotional dysregulation and psychopathological symptoms. Adolescents in the moderate and high profiles reported more difficulties than those in the low profile across most indicators. The moderate and high groups differed primarily in externalizing symptoms, which were more pronounced among adolescents with higher levels of anxiety. These findings suggest that increasing levels of climate-related distress are associated with greater impairment in emotional and behavioral functioning. They highlight the importance of interventions aimed at strengthening adolescents’ emotion regulation resources and psychological well-being.
School violence is a major global public health issue that has received increased scrutiny in recent times. Prior studies have indicated that variations in aggressive behaviors among students are associated with factors such as gender-role identity and class atmosphere. However, there remains a gap in knowledge regarding the role of gender-role identity in moderating the association between class atmosphere and aggressive behaviors. A total of 2,788 primary and middle school students (1,454 boys and 1,334 girls; aged 9–15 years) participated in the study by completing the Brief Aggression Questionnaire(BAQ), My Class Inventory (MCI), and Bem Sex-ole Inventory (BSRI). The results indicated that both gender-role identity and class atmosphere had significant direct effects on aggressive behaviors. Gender-role identity significantly moderated the associations between class atmosphere and aggression. Specifically, masculinity moderated the inverse association between discipline and aggression in the total sample (β = −.07) and in girls (β = −.12). Androgyny significantly moderated the association between learning burden and verbal aggression in the total sample (β = −.05) and in boys (β = −.07). These findings may inform the development of future educational practices aimed at fostering a supportive class atmosphere through reducing learning burden, enhancing class management, and addressing individual needs based on gender-role identity, particularly masculinity, to help mitigate aggressive behaviors and promote positive mental health among Chinese children.
This research explored the association between universal primary school Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and early adolescent police contact for criminal incidents. For 12,564 students in New South Wales, Australia, data from school leaders regarding SEL programs delivered at 493 primary schools (when students were in Year 6) was linked with police contact records (during Years 7 and 8). Multi-level regressions revealed no significant association between SEL and police contact. Early childhood risk for police contact (according to child and family characteristics) did not consistently moderate the effect of SEL. However, a significant three-way interaction indicated that boys with above median early childhood risk had marginally higher contact if their school delivered SEL programs than if it did not. At-risk girls demonstrated the opposite direction of effect. Averting young people’s involvement with the criminal justice system may require multi-tiered systems of support, which supplement universal SEL with targeted and/or intensive interventions for at-risk students.
While online behaviors have flourished in youth studies, they have seldom been considered in relation to political behaviors. Using structural equation modeling, we examine whether digital fluency is associated with online political participation through political efficacy, and whether online addiction moderates these relationships among youths in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Political efficacy positively predicts online political participation, and mediates the relationship between digital fluency and participation. However, group analysis shows that among internet addicts in Taiwan, online political participation is driven primarily by digital fluency, with political efficacy negatively associated with participation. High levels of online addiction further strengthen this negative relationship, while weakening the positive effect of digital fluency on online political participation. No significant differences between addicts and non-addicts were found in Hong Kong, plausibly due to context-specific political dynamics. Implications for the civic consequences and considerations of digital education, and the landscape of digital-age participation, are discussed.
Though services promoting general success among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) are available, one-half of young people never use them. Thus, there is a need to learn more about how to engage young people to utilize services. Using culturally relevant information from four focus groups with YEH in 2024, young people’s responses reveal the need for behavioral health programs which youth deemed “revolutionary.” Many youths do not want to ask for help as they value their independence and want to “make it on their own.” Creative solutions to encourage service utilization included sharing success stories of young people with lived experiences as well as advertising services, their positive benefit, and free accessibility. Because youth who use services are more likely to exit the streets, knowing how best to engage young people with services is vital to their health and wellbeing.
This study explores the links between school climate, self-compassion, and social adaptation among Chinese secondary vocational students, focusing on self-compassion’s mediating role. A three-month longitudinal study ( N = 333; 33.3% male) with one-month intervals revealed downward mean slopes for school climate and social adaptation. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was observed between the initial level of self-compassion and its slope, indicating that students with higher initial self-compassion exhibited more stable trajectories. Both the intercept and slope of school climate positively predicted those of social adaptation. Additionally, initial baseline level of self-compassion mediated the relationship between school climate and social adaptation, whereas the mediation effect involving rates of change was non-significant. This suggests the importance of the initial level of environmental and personal resources rather than their short-term fluctuations. These results suggest interventions to improve school climate and foster self-compassion for better social and emotional development among secondary vocational students.
This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 24 empirical studies to examine the impact of formal one-to-one mentoring on the wellbeing and development of vulnerable young people. Guided by an ecological framework informed by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, the review identifies three interrelated themes: relational processes within the mentoring dyad, program structures that support relationship stability, and outcomes across psychosocial, educational, and social domains. Findings indicate that trust, compatibility, and sustained engagement are central to effective mentoring, but these relational processes rely on strong organizational supports, including training, supervision, and planned closure. Cultural humility, contextual responsiveness, and sensitivity to structural inequities further influence engagement and impact. Across studies, mentoring effects were generally modest, but more evident when relational and program structures were well aligned. Drawing on these findings, the review proposes the Ecological Framework for Youth Mentoring, comprising five principles for stable, contextually grounded, and effective mentoring with vulnerable young people. Overall, the review positions mentoring within a broader ecology of care rather than as a stand-alone intervention, with implications for program design, equity, and future research.
Knowledge about girls’ and young women’s perceptions of media representations of marginalized areas and their consequences is limited. Using theories of representation and territorial stigmatization, this study explores how girls and young women living in marginalized areas in Sweden perceive news media representations of these places and how theses representations affect their lives. Thematic analysis was used to analyse 21 interviews with girls and young women aged 13 to 22 years, resulting in four themes: a place marked by criminality, media’s lack of local knowledge, collective punishment and a lack of prospects, and challenging the media images. The exclusively negative media representations of marginalized areas are described to have consequences for girls’ and young women’s lives and living conditions. In contrast, the girls and young women in this study both acknowledge and contest the territorial stigma associated with their neighborhoods, by underscoring the positive aspects of growing up in these environments.
Navigating sources of support and expectations are central to adolescents’ transition to adulthood. For upwardly mobile families in evolving collectivist cultures, expectations are shaped by cultural clashes, gendered norms, and filial piety. Based on focus groups with 40 adolescents (ages 14 to 18; 50% female), this study examined how youth in an urban Sri Lankan setting negotiate diverging cultural pressures, parental expectations, and social comparisons. Adolescents negotiated competing cultural values by selectively complying with family demands, reframing obligations as purposeful, and balancing between personal interests and socially valued careers. Parents’ persistent comparisons and high expectations often left adolescents feeling that no level of success was sufficient. Girls described heightened constraints tied to gendered expectations of obedience and family reputation. These findings illustrate how adolescents in collectivist settings negotiate tensions between tradition and autonomy through strategies that balance family obligation and personal agency.
Black adolescent males remain underrepresented in mental health research, and limited scholarship examines how predominantly White schools and communities shape their well-being. Guided by a socio-ecological model, this qualitative study explores meaning-making about racialized identity, relationships and support, and school resources. Data came from semi-structured interviews and a focus group with eight Black male students at one predominantly White high school. Audio recordings were transcribed by Ubiqus and analyzed in Delve using inductive thematic coding with iterative memoing, peer debriefing, and member-checking opportunities. Findings highlight heightened racialized visibility and stereotype-management (e.g., masking), reliance on family and a small set of trusted peers/adults for emotional safety, and limited clarity and utilization of formal school mental health supports. Implications emphasize racially affirming school climates and clearer, student-informed pathways to support.
Bystander responses are crucial to understanding cyberbullying dynamics, yet further research is needed to clarify which factors shape them. This study extends prior work based on the Theory of Normative Social Behavior (TNSB) by testing its explanatory power across defender, reinforcing, and passive profiles while incorporating mediators such as empathy, parental supervision, toxic online disinhibition, and need for popularity. Participants were 2,539 students aged 11 to 18 ( M age = 14.07, SD = 1.39) who completed self-report measures. Three structural equation models were estimated in Jamovi using the DWLS estimator, followed by multigroup analyses by gender. Results indicated that social norms (collective, descriptive, and injunctive) are explanatory factors of all three profiles, and mediators improved the theory’s explanatory capacity, with distinct patterns for each profile. Similar pathways were observed for boys and girls. Findings support TNSB’s relevance for understanding bystander responses and point to factors for school-based interventions aimed at reducing cyberbullying.
Prior research shows that adolescents with higher levels of legal cynicism are more likely to experience arrest in young adulthood, yet less is known about how different forms of childhood disadvantage shape legal cynicism and later criminal legal system involvement. This study examines whether childhood risks operate through distinct developmental pathways linking early adversity to arrest in young adulthood. Using longitudinal, nationally representative data, we employed path analysis to examine associations between childhood parental incarceration, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and race with arrest in young adulthood as mediated through adolescent police stops and legal cynicism. Parental incarceration and identifying as Black/African American directly predicted arrest in young adulthood. Cumulative ACEs and identifying as Black/African American indirectly predicted young adult arrest through increased adolescent police stops and subsequent legal cynicism. Parental incarceration operated through a distinct pathway, directly predicting young adult arrest and shaping adolescent legal cynicism independently of police contact.
Smartphones’ role in schools has been widely debated in recent years, and this study foregrounds students’ voices on their role in social processes at school. Data were collected from 58 students in two Finnish lower secondary schools through open-ended questionnaires and focus group interviews and analyzed inductively using qualitative content analysis. The findings emphasize that, according to students, smartphone use plays a central role in forming and maintaining relationships in school. Their influence in face-to-face interaction is ambivalent: while smartphone use can facilitate interaction, their pervasive presence may reduce conversations and expose students to social tensions and loneliness. Students describe smartphones as sources of social support and safety, but also as exposing them to inappropriate content and uncertainty. Overall, peer relationships are strongly mediated through smartphones, reflecting a transformed media ecology and underscoring the need for schools to support face-to-face peer socialization and students’ interpersonal and digital citizenship skills.
Prior research tends to treat left-behind children as homogeneous, overlooking variations in their family structures. Grounded in the Resilience and Youth Development Module, this study explores caregiver support among four distinct groups of left-behind children: children left behind by one (LBC-One) or two migrant parents (LBC-Two), children from divorced families left behind by the custodial parent (LBC-Divorced), and bereaved children left behind by their single living parent (LBC-Bereaved). Second, it examines the correlation between children's resilience and caregiver support and, therefore, determines the mediating role of caregiver support in the relationship between family structure and resilience of rural left-behind children. Structural equation modeling analyses on a sample of 2,300 students (Mage = 13.93 +/- 0.94 years) recruited from 4 junior schools reveal that LBC-One received significantly more caregiver support than the other three groups. In addition, caregiver support mediates the resilience disparities between left-behind children from different family structures.
Depression is a significant psychological concern affecting adolescent development, yet research on latent subgroups and symptom interactions remains limited. Guided by an individual-centered approach and psychopathological network theory, this study surveyed 3,704 Chinese adolescents ( M age = 16.19, SD = 0.44) to explore latent subgroups of depression and their symptom networks using latent profile and network analysis. Three profiles emerged: normal, latent pathological, and pathological, with gender significantly predicting membership. Core symptoms included upset and low mood (normal and latent pathological) and poor appetite and low mood (pathological). Network comparisons revealed significant group differences. Findings highlight the need to monitor male students’ mental health and target core symptoms like upset, low mood in interventions.
Cyber delinquency has become a growing global concern as adolescents’ socialization increasingly unfolds online. This study introduces cultivated unstructured socializing to examine how different online activities, varying in structure, immersion, and peer orientation, are associated with unequal delinquency risks. Using 2023 survey data from a Chinese youth correctional institution, a high-delinquency sample that provides leverage for distinguishing activity-specific effects, we analyze how five online activities prior to incarceration relate to cyber delinquency and perceived peer cyber delinquency. Results show that more unstructured and immersive activities, particularly short-video viewing and chatting with strangers, are associated with higher levels of cyber delinquency, and higher perceived peer cyber delinquency partly accounts for these associations. In contrast, more structured activities, including watching movies or television episodes, playing games, and chatting with friends, show no significant association. These findings highlight the need for activity-specific platform governance to reduce youth cyber delinquency.
Drawing on Schwartz's value theory and self-determination theory, this study addressed how South Korean adolescents organize competing life priorities within their sociocultural context. Using a nationally representative sample (N = 7,540), this study examined heterogeneity in value orientations across 11 life domains. Latent profile analysis identified three groups: an intrinsic stability-oriented group emphasizing family and personal stability values, a low-value group with diffuse commitments, and an integrative high-value group showing broadly elevated value endorsement. Multinomial logistic regression showed that positive family relationships were associated with both intrinsic stability-oriented and integrative profiles. Challenge-oriented attitudes and lower materialism distinguished the stability-oriented group, whereas higher subjective happiness and stronger internal future control characterized the integrative group. A nonlinear school-level pattern emerged, with middle school students (grades 7-9) showing greater likelihood of diffuse orientations rather than integrated value patterns. These findings highlight how sociocultural pressures and developmental contexts can shape adolescents' value orientations.
