Despite extensive research linking adolescent loneliness to psychological well-being, little is known about its long-term cognitive correlates. In particular, few studies have examined whether it has lasting effects on adult memory performance or the underlying mechanisms. This study aims to determine whether adolescent loneliness is associated with memory performance in young adulthood. To elucidate the potential mechanisms, it adopts a life course framework, testing critical period and pathway models, and evaluates mediators across educational, behavioral, and psychosocial domains. The study draws on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative U.S. cohort of 3091 individuals aged 12 to 21 at baseline. Sibling fixed-effects models were employed to account for unobserved family-level heterogeneity. Indirect pathways were examined via parametric mediation analyses grounded in the counterfactual framework. Loneliness in adolescence was negatively associated with both verbal and working memory in young adulthood. Mediation analysis further revealed that none of the educational, behavioral, or psychosocial mechanisms significantly mediated these associations. This pattern indicates that the association is not explained by the specific pathways tested, but it does not establish that the association operates through direct mechanisms. The association with working memory is significant only for men, while the association with verbal memory persisted across genders. These findings are consistent with a critical period interpretation, as the tested pathways did not explain the association—though this does not rule out other mechanisms. The results underscore the potential value of early social support in reducing cognitive risks associated with adolescent loneliness.
Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by increased vulnerability to depression. Alexithymia and maladaptive emotion regulation may contribute to depressive symptoms by impairing adolescents’ ability to identify, describe, and regulate emotion. However, their inter-relationships remain unclear across different developmental stages in adolescence. A total of 4771 adolescents aged 10-18 were recruited and categorized into the early (10-12), middle (13-15), and late (16-18) developmental stages. Participants completed the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA). Two levels of network construction among above variables were conducted using network analysis. One examined the interplays among CDI total score, PAQ and ERQ-CA subscales. Another model replaced CDI total score with its 27 individual items to explore symptom-level interactions. Network comparisons were further performed across different developmental stages. In the networks with the CDI total score, Positive-Difficulty identifying feelings was the most central node in the whole sample and in early and middle adolescence, while Positive-Difficulty describing feelings was most central in late adolescence. In the CDI item-level networks, self-hatred and loneliness emerged as central nodes in the whole sample, with self-hatred being central in early adolescence and loneliness in middle and late adolescence. Structural difference was significant between early and middle adolescence in the symptom-level networks. This study identifies core nodes at each stage of adolescence and suggest the middle adolescence as particular vulnerable period. Our findings highlight the need for stage-specific intervention for depressive symptoms in adolescents.
Adverse childhood experiences in early childhood, or birth to age 5 years, may be especially disruptive to developmental trajectories of academic achievement and attainment. Youth who demonstrate academic resilience despite early adversity likely have benefited from protective factors, such as positive high school experiences. Participation in extracurricular activities in high school contributes to school achievement and postsecondary expectations; these factors may be particularly meaningful as protective factors for youth exposed to early adversity. We investigated pathways from early childhood adversity and achievement through high school experiences to predict educational attainment and aspiration in emerging adulthood, using a sample of 2985 youth from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS; Reichman et al., 2001). Results indicated that both resource-related adversity and family-related adversity had significant direct and indirect associations predicting worse educational outcomes. More involvement in extracurricular activities predicted both higher attainment and aspirations at age 22 years. Contrary to expectations, we did not find a significant moderating effect of extracurricular activities on the link between resource adversity and later educational outcomes. We encourage future efforts to prevent and address early adversity and to support positive school experiences for students at risk to reduce long-term educational disparities.
Brief psychological affirmation essays have been studied as way to counter stereotype threat and improve the academic achievement of Black students. Despite large and long-lasting positive effects of affirmation essays in many studies, results have not been consistent, leading to ongoing questions about moderators. The current study contributes to understanding of the value and limitations of the self-affirmation writing exercise by examining the impact of one dose of the intervention on grades in Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts (LA) within a sample of Black middle school students. It also examines gender moderation of intervention effects and compares effects of the original intervention with a version that simultaneously targets teachers' perceptions and behaviors. The enhanced version was expected to boost affirmation's effects by directly targeting the social environment side of affirmation's hypothesized recursive dynamics. Analyses of quarterly grades over one school year revealed superior Social Studies grade trajectories among students exposed to the enhanced intervention. Similarly, students receiving either the affirmation essay or teacher component had superior outcomes in Social Studies than students in the control condition. However, no intervention effects were found for Math or LA and gender did not moderate intervention effects in any subject. The study considers the intervention's mixed effects from a theoretical perspective that emphasizes the unique developmental and environmental experiences of Black students. Additional feasible interventions to address the balance of Black students' developmental vulnerabilities and protective factors in the classroom are described. Assessment of environmental threats before choosing environmental enhancements is recommended.
Non-mainstream rock music preferences, such as metal, have been linked to substance use in adolescence and emerging adulthood. This study examined whether these links persist into adulthood, with particular attention to gender differences. From ages 15 to 22, 364 participants (59% female) annually reported their interest in metal music. Problematic alcohol and cannabis use were assessed at age 35. Control variables, including early use and known risk factors were measured during early adolescence, along with as metal music interest at age 35. Latent trajectory analysis revealed two groups: low interest (non-fans; 67%) and high interest (fans; 33%). Gender moderation analysis showed that women in the high-interest trajectory were more likely to report problematic alcohol use at age 35. These findings suggest that sustained engagement with metal during adolescence and emerging adulthood may function as a developmental and sociocultural marker of elevated risk for problematic drinking among some women. This association likely reflects a combination of selection and contextual processes, including gendered experiences within music scenes, rather than a direct causal effect of musical preference.
Parent–adolescent communication about adolescents' negative emotions has close relevance to adolescent outcomes. This study examined how parent–adolescent congruence and incongruence in communication patterns of adolescents' negative emotions relate to adolescents' psychological problems and academic self-efficacy. The study included 243 parent–adolescent dyads from China. Adolescents were aged 12–18 years (Mage = 16.11, SD = 2.07; 51.4% boys), and parents were aged 29–57 years (Mage = 40.84, SD = 5.43; 20.6% fathers, 79.4% mothers). The results showed that compared with parents, adolescents reported less active and reactive emotion sharing with their parents. The results of response surface analysis (RSA) showed that adolescents' reports—but not parents' reports—showed significant associations with adolescent outcomes. When parents and adolescents were congruent, higher levels of active and reactive emotion sharing were associated with better adjustment, whereas higher levels of problematic communication patterns (i.e., lack of response by adolescents and lack of solicitation by parents) were linked to poorer adjustment in adolescents. When adolescents reported higher levels of emotion sharing than their parents, they tended to experience fewer negative outcomes; whereas when adolescents reported higher levels of problematic emotion communication than their parents, they tended to report poorer adjustment. Moreover, adolescents' psychological problems were highest when their perceived lack of parental solicitation exceeded parents' reports to a certain degree, but decreased when the discrepancy was extreme. Overall, these results underscore the importance of considering both parents' and adolescents' perspectives when examining parent–adolescent communication patterns of adolescents' negative emotions and their links with adolescent adjustment.
Objectives Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is a beneficial developmental competency that progresses during adolescence. Interventions such as the Identity Project (IP) promote the development of ERI exploration and resolution. This study reports on the IP's first out-of-school time replication. Methods This study is a registered, randomized clinical trial that enrolled ninth-grade students (N = 189; Mage = 14.76, SD = 0.38; 34.39% Black, 33.86% White, 15.87% Latinx/Hispanic, 2.65% Asian American, 13.23% Other; 58.73% girls/women, 39.68% boys/men, and 1.59% other gender) from one large public high school in the Midwestern US, between 2017–18 and 2019–20. It is the first out-of-school-time replication of the IP. Study implementation was adapted in response to participant and school feedback and the COVID-19 pandemic. Results Path analyses were carried out to test for direct effects of the IP on T2 exploration and T3 resolution and for indirect effects on T3 resolution, via T2 exploration. Results indicated that the IP led to post-intervention increases in ERI exploration and, in turn, greater ERI resolution one year later, compared to an attention control condition. Conclusions ERI development can be promoted in community-based, out-of-school time settings. Findings offer implementation-related insights that can inform youth development practitioners who may want to adapt the IP to their own local contexts.
Lie-telling has been found to be heightened during adolescence. Yet, past research has typically categorized age into discrete groups or treated the effect of age as linear, limiting the ability to assess non-linear (peaks) and continuous trends in lie-telling across development. Further, factors that relate to age-trends in lie-telling remain poorly understood. The current study assessed the non-linear relation between lie-telling and punishment sensitivity from adolescence into older adulthood. Participants (N = 298, Mage = 37.30, SD = 22.51; age range 13-86 years; 30.5% males) reported their lie-telling behaviors over a 7-day period and completed a measure of punishment sensitivity. The frequency of lie-telling showed a roughly linear decreasing trajectory across age. Although punishment sensitivity was not related to overall lie-telling, higher punishment sensitivity was associated with higher self-oriented and other-oriented lie-telling. Overall, this study provides a novel assessment of the relation between lie-telling and punishment sensitivity across development.
Given the early development of ingroup bias, understanding children’s prosocial behaviours directed at different outgroups has implications for more harmonious intergroup relations. Research on children’s biases in prosocial behaviour often involves minimal group designs or a binary lens of ingroup versus outgroup comparisons. However, children encounter many different types of social groups in their everyday lives, each with its unique history and dynamics. Surveying 128 White Irish children (ages 7 to 11), we measured children’s prosocial giving across six different groups: Irish, British, Traveller, Refugee, Irish ethnic minority, and a novel (fictional) group. We found that children’s prosocial giving differed by target group: Children gave the most to Irish, British, and Traveller targets, followed by Refugee and novel group targets, and finally the least to Irish ethnic minority targets. Children’s prosocial behaviour also varied as a function of their specific attitudes and empathy towards different groups, although this relationship was not consistent across groups. Specifically, attitudes toward refugees predicted prosocial giving across all groups. This multifaceted exploration lays the groundwork for promoting inclusivity and fostering positive intergroup relations in the formative years of development.
Teacher-student relationships play a prominent role in young children's social-emotional and academic development, and these relationships begin in early childhood. High-quality teacher-student relationships may be particularly important for preschoolers (approximately 3-5 years old) perceived by teachers as displaying symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who may be at risk for educational, social, and emotional difficulties. However, children showing ADHD symptoms, such as trouble following directions and staying seated, may be more likely to have less close and more conflictual relationships with teachers. This study explored the association between teachers' reports of preschoolers' inattention and hyperactivity at the beginning of the school year and their subsequent reports of teacher-student closeness and conflict later in the year when controlling for teacher, student, and classroom-level factors. Student gender was examined as a potential moderator of this association. Secondary data analysis was conducted on a randomized controlled trial that evaluated a teacher-student relationship-building intervention among 470 students and 183 teachers across federal, state, and privately funded early childhood education programs. Findings indicated that teachers reported closer and more conflictual relationships with preschoolers who they reported as displaying high levels of hyperactivity and less close and more conflictual relationships with preschoolers displaying elevated inattention. Students' gender did not moderate the associations between teacher ratings of ADHD and teacherstudent closeness or conflict. Implications of this study are discussed in terms of teacher-student relationships as an important target in future interventions for young children with elevated teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms.
Mental rotation skills predict later achievement in STEM, and prior research shows that children's mental rotation skills improve after training. However, most studies have used dynamic stimuli where children see objects rotating. We hypothesized that reading books that practice mental rotation with only static images could improve children' mental rotation skills. We preregistered a pretest-training-posttest design with 4- and 5-yearolds (N = 79). Children completed a mental rotation assessment at pretest, four to six reading days with an experimenter over two weeks in one of two randomly-assigned conditions (Mental Rotation Book Condition versus Control Book Condition), and a mental rotation assessment at posttest. The Mental Rotation Books involved mental rotation practice while the Control Books did not. Consistent with our hypothesis, condition was a significant predictor of posttest mental rotation accuracy, controlling for age, verbal ability, and pretest mental rotation accuracy. Children in the Mental Rotation Book condition significantly improved in mental rotation accuracy from pretest to posttest, while the control group did not. However, condition was not a significant predictor of transfer to posttest mental transformation skills, math achievement, or spatial vocabulary, controlling for age, verbal ability, and respective pretest scores. These results show that book-reading can be an effective method for improving mental rotation skills in early childhood and warrants further investigation to understand the scalability of these effects in home and school settings.
Parental burnout refers to a specific syndrome resulting from a chronic imbalance of parenting demands and resources. While previous studies have examined the negative effects of parental burnout on child and adolescent development, limited research has investigated its impact on self-esteem, a critical variable for success across many domains. This study aimed to examine the effects of parental burnout on adolescents' self-esteem, as well as the mediating roles of parental neglect and violence. The study adopted a longitudinal design, collecting data at three separate time points on primary caregivers' parental burnout, adolescents' perceptions of parental neglect and violence, and adolescents' self-esteem levels. Participants were students from a middle school in central China and their primary caregivers (n = 118). Results from cross-lagged model revealed that parental burnout indirectly influenced adolescents' self-esteem through neglect (indirect effect = -0.03, SE = 0.02, p = .01). However, the mediating effect of violence was not significant. This study enriches research on the consequences of parental burnout and provides further evidence on how parental behavior shapes adolescents' self-esteem.
The family stress model provides a framework for understanding how poverty harms children through its impact on parental mental health, parenting practices, and parent-child relationships. Informed by this model, the current study estimated one-year treatment effects of the Yolo County Basic Income Program, a pilot intervention in Yolo County, California that provided monthly payments to households with children under six years old (N = 75 intervention group families, N = 90 control group families interviewed during the study months). The program lifted all treatment families $1 above the California poverty level (average monthly payment: $1,289) for two years (spring 2022 to spring 2024). This study builds on previous literature by examining changes one year into the program (spring 2022 to spring 2023) in parent-reported economic hardship, housing status, parental depressive symptoms, parent-child activities, and child externalizing behavior. As hypothesized, parents reported a significant decrease in economic hardship and an increase in renting or owning their homes following one year of payments compared to control families. However, changes in parental depressive symptoms, positive parent-child activities, and child externalizing behavior were similar to or less pronounced than the changes observed in the control group. These findings offer several lessons for family-based intervention and policy, including the potential for guaranteed income to reduce poverty and mitigate the effects of poverty in the short term.
Being absent and being victimized often co-occur during elementary school. Students who are frequently absent or victimized tend to show lower academic performance, poorer socio-behavioral functioning, and reduced well-being over time. However, it remains unclear whether absenteeism and victimization are bidirectionally related, and under what conditions these relations emerge. We investigated the longitudinal relations between victimization and absenteeism from Grades 3 to 5 using a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model in a nationally representative sample (N = 6,945). We also tested family income status as a potential moderator. Results provided little evidence for within-child, bidirectional relations between absenteeism and victimization. Preliminary evidence suggested stronger associations for students from low-income families. Specifically, among low-income students, absenteeism predicted reduced victimization from 3rd to 4th grade. These findings underscore the importance of attending to vulnerable populations by identifying reasons for absenteeism and providing targeted supports that foster consistent attendance, engagement, and protection from victimization.
The Compass Model is a school-based social and emotional learning program that focuses on individual, relational, and community growth and development. This two-phase study used the experience sampling method (ESM) to examine whether educators' experiences in Circle, a core component of the model, predicted improvement in specific emotional states associated with individual and relational development. Results indicated that several emotional states associated with relational development (e.g., social concern) and, to a lesser extent, individual development (e.g., creativity and inspiration) improved after Circle. The influence of Circle on these emotional states was stronger for educators with a higher sense of personal accomplishment and those experiencing less work-related time pressure. Post-Circle emotional state was also predicted by the implementation quality of Circle practices. This research establishes the utility of ESM in early-stage intervention research and provides insights on conditions conducive to educator well-being.
This study examined associations between executive function (EF) and mathematics across the early years of schooling and explored whether there were differences for Dual Language Learners (DLLs) compared with their English monolingual (EM) peers across five measurement timepoints from fall of pre-k through spring of first grade. Data come from a longitudinal study of classroom processes and child outcomes in a large, diverse school system in the United States. Participants included 1388 students, over 87% of whom were DLLs. By estimating longitudinal models including both autoregressive and cross-lag paths between time points, we observed that prior EF was positively associated with future EF and mathematics, although these relations became weaker over time. Results also showed that prior mathematics was positively associated with future EF and mathematics, and these relations became stronger over time. A multi-group analysis showed that the longitudinal models did not vary significantly between DLL and EM students. Findings from this study inform future research and the ways in which practitioners support the co-development of children's EF and mathematics skills during the early years.
School-aged children with incarcerated parents face a higher risk of poor academic outcomes and peer relations; few programs within a school setting have been developed or evaluated for implementation. The current study evaluates a school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) program for children with an incarcerated parent, caregiver, or significant household member. Changes in children's emotional competencies and resilience were studied across two academic years; we also compared new and returning participants and explored sex differences. In the first academic year (AY1), across time one and time two, there were 78 participants (99.99% Black, 61% girls). In the second academic year (AY2), across time one and two, there were 125 participants (99.99% Black, 53.6% girls). Children attended a 22-session, weekly SEL program, completing measures of resilience, sadness, and anger regulation in the early fall and spring. Key findings show an overall increase in resilience in both academic years, with returners to the program showing more significant increases compared to new members in AY1. Returners also began the academic year with stronger emotion regulation skills than new members, particularly with respect to anger inhibition. Across both years, returners were less inhibited in their expression of anger compared to new members. Exploratory analyses revealed significant sex differences in emotion management, highlighting the possible need for tailored approaches that account for sex differences in such programs. These findings can inform the development of targeted, school-based interventions that are optimal for this population.
While emerging evidence links peer group composition to children's language development, most studies are limited to short-term effects and rarely examine potential long-term patterns across educational stages in which children encounter different peer groups. This study examined whether the average language skills of preschool peers showed a lasting association with children's receptive vocabulary in third grade, and further explored whether subsequent primary school peer groups added to or moderated this association. Using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; n = 499 target children in 213 preschool groups and 190 primary school classrooms), we applied multilevel regression analyses accounting for children's baseline vocabulary, sociodemographic characteristics, and the nested structure of the data. Preschool peer language skills showed a modest positive association with later vocabulary, which was moderated by primary school peer group skills. Contrary to expectations, preschool effects were strongest when children entered lower-skilled primary school peer groups and were not detectable in higher-skilled groups. No independent additive effect of primary school peer skills emerged. These findings suggest that preschool peer groups may serve as a compensatory foundation when later peer environments are less supportive and underscore the importance of considering consecutive peer contexts when examining longer-term associations in language development.
The worldwide COVID pandemic prompted concerns for the peer adjustment of adolescents and raised the issue of whether some adolescents benefited from their parents' spontaneous efforts to assist them with this during this period. To examine the circumstances and success of parents' peer coaching and to identify which parents did so, data were collected from 206 rural adolescents (11-15 years) and their mothers during a local surge in COVID-19 cases in a Southeastern U.S. state. Adolescents reported on friendship closeness, conflict, and loneliness, and on their mothers' warmth and coaching. Mothers reported their disposition to approach stress with optimism and agency, and these sources and community records were used to assess contextual risk factors that could have played a moderating role. Mothers' coaching had positive links to all aspects of the peer adjustment of their offspring. This was largely true for all adolescents, not just the adolescents with greater personal and contextual risk for difficulties. The benefits of coaching were distinct from mothers' general warmth. Surprisingly, COVID contextual factors were not an important factor in predicting which mothers coached their adolescents. Instead, coaching during this unique time was a feature of mothers with a general disposition to feel optimism and act when stressed. Results replicate past work but extend this work by illuminating how this family process may operate during challenging historical times.
Spanish-English emergent bilingual learners attending early childhood education (ECE) programs still face opportunity gaps, potentially due to limited implementation of high-quality teacher practices specifically for emergent bilinguals. This study explores the bidirectionality between teachers' discourse practices and the bilingual language development of Spanish-English emergent bilinguals. 171 Spanish-English emergent bilinguals (36-56 months; 57% female) wore audio-recordings multiple times to capture teacher-child interactions. Bidirectional analyses revealed that the percentage of Spanish used by emergent bilinguals and their syntactic complexity (T1) was associated with teachers' use of emergent bilingual-specific practices (T2), which was associated again with the percentage of Spanish used and their syntactic complexity (T3). These findings suggest emergent bilingual children's bilingual language skills at the beginning of the year likely drive teachers' use of discourse strategies.
