INTRODUCTION:Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents, highlighting the importance of identifying interpersonal experiences associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). Adolescent dating violence (ADV), encompassing physical, sexual, psychological, and digital victimization, represents an important interpersonal context in which suicide risk may emerge. This systematic review examined quantitative evidence on associations between ADV victimization and STBs, including suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts. METHODS:Using systematic review methods informed by the Cochrane Handbook, we reviewed quantitative studies examining ADV victimization and STBs. Thirty-one studies published between 2000 and 2025 met inclusion criteria. Most were conducted in the United States (k = 28), with additional studies from Spain, Italy, and Turkey. Studies were evaluated by ADV type, suicide-related outcome, study design, and sample characteristics. RESULTS:ADV victimization was consistently associated with a higher likelihood of STBs. Evidence was more robust for suicide attempts, particularly in relation to physical, sexual, and co-occurring forms of victimization. Psychological and emotional victimization were more often associated with suicidal ideation, while fewer studies linked suicide planning to physical, sexual, and digital ADV. Digital ADV was also associated with suicidal thoughts and attempts, particularly alongside in-person abuse. Several studies documented elevated STB burden among LGBTQ+ and racially/ethnically minoritized adolescents, although subgroup patterns were not uniform. Most studies were cross-sectional and longitudinal findings were limited and mixed. CONCLUSION:ADV victimization is consistently associated with STBs, underscoring the need for longitudinal and mechanistic research to inform integrated approaches to ADV and suicide prevention.
INTRODUCTION:Problematic social media use (PSMU) is a growing concern among adolescents, particularly among girls, and often co-occurs with depressive symptoms. This co-occurrence can worsen symptom severity and impair functioning. Early identification and gender-specific interventions are crucial. This study aimed to explore the interaction between PSMU and depressive symptoms and identify gender differences in Chinese adolescents. METHODS:A sample of 1068 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 14.28; 52.8% girls) completed self-reported questionnaires on PSMU and depressive symptoms. Cross-lagged panel network (CLPN) analysis was used to examine the reciprocal relationships between PSMU and depressive symptoms and to identify gender-specific patterns. RESULTS:In the overall co-occurrence network, the three strongest cross-lagged paths were guilt → suicidal ideation (β = 0.13), concentration difficulties → relapse (β = 0.13), and suicidal ideation → sad mood (β = 0.12). "Suicidal ideation" and "guilt" showed the strongest connectivity, while "mood modification" and "low energy" were most influenced by other symptoms. Concentration difficulties → relapse was the strongest cross-domain pathway, suggesting that these symptoms may form a candidate longitudinal bridge between depressive symptoms and PSMU. In the gender-stratified networks, guilt was the primary driving node and low energy the most strongly influenced node among girls; among boys, suicidal ideation and sleep problems occupied these roles, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:These findings suggest that symptoms such as "guilt" and "suicidal ideation" may represent potential targets for future gender-sensitive prevention and intervention research. Tailored approaches based on symptom patterns can help reduce the impact of PSMU and depressive symptoms in adolescents.
INTRODUCTION:Past research suggests that adolescents may be subject to anti-youth ageism from adults. However, little research has investigated adolescents' subjective awareness and experiences of anti-youth ageism by adults toward their specific age group. Thus, the purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary qualitative analysis of open-ended response data to better understand how adolescents perceive adult beliefs about teenagers generally and whether (and how) they personally have been treated differently due to their age. METHOD:Seven-hundred and seventeen adolescents (ages 13-18 years; 62.9% female; 67.9% Caucasian/White) completed an online survey that included two open-ended questions related to how adults feel about teenagers (prejudice) and whether they had ever been treated differently based on their age (age-based discrimination). Emic and etic coding approaches were used to identify codes and themes from the data. RESULTS:Results demonstrated that most of the adolescents in this sample believed that adults held negative views toward teenagers (e.g., entitled, rude, lazy, inferior), and they personally were treated differently because of their age. CONCLUSION:These findings extend upon recent theory and research and highlight the importance of asking adolescents how they perceive adults' beliefs about them and their interactions with adults (positive and negative). Moreover, the results of this study underscore the critical need for adults, especially those adults in authority (e.g., parents, teachers), to consider how their beliefs and actions may be internalized by adolescents. Further investigation into how these perceptions of anti-youth ageism toward adolescents is warranted.
INTRODUCTION:Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are robust predictors of marijuana use, yet the developmental mechanisms remain unclear. Building on prior cross-sectional studies using broad internalizing composites, this study prospectively distinguishes withdrawn/depressed from anxious/depressed symptoms as candidate mediators across nearly two decades. METHODS:This prospective, longitudinal study used data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a US cohort of children born between 1998 and 2000. The final analytic sample included 2 865 participants (52.1% female; 46.6% Black, 27.3% Hispanic, 18.5% White). A parallel mediation model was tested using parent-reported cumulative and specific ACEs (age 3) as predictors, parent-reported withdrawn/depressed and anxious/depressed symptoms (CBCL; age 15) as mediators, and youth self-reported monthly marijuana use (age 22) as the outcome. RESULTS:Cumulative ACEs at age 3 significantly predicted more frequent marijuana use at age 22. This association was partially mediated by adolescent withdrawn/depressed symptoms, which accounted for approximately 16% of the total effect, whereas anxious/depressed symptoms were not a significant mediator. The strength of this mediating pathway varied across specific ACE types, consistent with a dimensional model of adversity. CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide prospective longitudinal evidence for a specific internalizing pathway linking early adversity to young adult marijuana use. Although a minority of the overall association, this indirect pathway is notable given the nearly two-decade span and points to adolescent depressive symptoms as a meaningful, modifiable intervention target. The differential mediation patterns suggest that interventions should be tailored to specific ACE profiles, with depression-focused approaches being particularly relevant for deprivation-based adversities.
INTRODUCTION:Adolescent social media experiences are diverse and may vary based on developmental stage. The associations that these experiences have with subjective well-being may also vary in that different associations may emerge when examining relations at the immediate within-person level versus the general person-level. METHODS:The current study utilized an ecological momentary assessment design to examine how exposure to three types of social media content (uplifting, humorous, hateful) related to affect and state self-esteem three times per day for 14 days. These associations were examined in a cohort of late adolescents (N = 51; aged 18-20, M = 18.39; 63% women) and early adolescents (N = 67; aged 11-14, M = 12.37; 52% girls). Cohorts were from the same racially and ethnically diverse community in the southeastern U.S., and data collection took place in 2023-2024. RESULTS:Adolescents reported the greatest exposure to humorous content, followed by uplifting content and finally hateful content. Younger adolescents reported greater exposure to humorous content compared to late adolescents. Within-person, there was a positive hourly association between exposure to uplifting content and state self-esteem, and a negative hourly association between exposure to hateful content and low arousal positive affect. At the person-level, exposure to uplifting social media content was associated with greater positive affect, and exposure to hateful content was associated with greater negative affect. Person-level associations were typically stronger for older adolescents. CONCLUSIONS:Nuance is needed to holistically understand how social media content can differentially relate to subjective well-being.
INTRODUCTION:Adolescence is a developmental period involving social and peer transitions, and within this context peer stress can contribute to social anxiety. Fostering adaptive coping strategies for youth to effectively manage this peer stress is crucial for developing resilience. Relationships with pet dogs may be one way of supporting effective coping through social support and physiological regulation. However, the specific nuances of youth-dog relationship quality have not been explored in the context of social anxiety. METHODS:We analyzed survey data collected in the United States from 514 adolescents with high social anxiety (ages 13-17; 62.1% cisgender girl, 32.4% cisgender boy, 2.8% nonbinary or genderqueer, 1.6% transgender) and their parents. Participants were recruited through national panel sampling and local community outreach. Structural equation modeling was used to examine if and how adolescent-dog relationship qualities were associated with dimensions of coping with peer stress. RESULTS:Relationship qualities of Companionship, Nurturance, and Friction were linked to adaptive and maladaptive coping in the expected directions. Counter to our hypotheses, higher frequency of engaging with dogs for emotional support was negatively associated with adaptive coping and positively associated with maladaptive coping strategies. Affection was not significantly associated with coping, and Pets as Substitutes for People followed similar trends to Friction (negatively associated with adaptive coping). CONCLUSIONS:These findings suggest that relationship quality is an important dimension in understanding how pet dogs can support adolescent resilience. This points to the need for future research to explore the role of contextual factors in shaping beneficial adolescent-dog relationships.
BACKGROUND:The transition from late childhood to early adolescence is a pivotal developmental period characterized by substantial social, emotional, and behavioral change. During this transition, loneliness and conduct problems may co-occur and mutually reinforce one another, increasing vulnerability to later maladjustment. However, longitudinal research on their bidirectional developmental interplay and the family processes that may underlie it remains limited, particularly with respect to maternal reactions to children's negative emotions (MRCNE). This study examined the bidirectional longitudinal associations among loneliness, conduct problems, and MRCNE, as well as the potential mechanisms linking these constructs. METHODS:The sample was composed of 995 fourth-grade students from three primary schools in eastern China (Mage = 10.45, SD = 0.68; 36.3% girls). Data were collected across three annual waves over a 2-year period. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to examine bidirectional longitudinal associations among loneliness, conduct problems, and two dimensions of MRCNE: maternal supportive and unsupportive reactions to children's negative emotions. RESULTS:The results revealed bidirectional associations between loneliness and conduct problems over time. Conduct problems negatively predicted subsequent maternal supportive reactions, while maternal unsupportive reactions at T1 positively predicted loneliness at T2. Maternal supportive reactions at T2 negatively predicted loneliness at T3. Mediation analyses identified significant indirect pathways linking loneliness, conduct problems, and MRCNE. CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how socioemotional and behavioral difficulties become intertwined during the transition to adolescence and highlight maternal emotion-related responding as an important family process during this developmental period.
INTRODUCTION:Developing a strong sense of identity is a core developmental task in adolescence and emerging adulthood, yet relatively little is known about the underlying psychological mechanisms that promote or hinder this process. Guided by schema theory, this exploratory study examined how early emotional experiences, reflected in Early Adaptive Schemas and Early Maladaptive Schemas, relate to identity development. Three research questions were addressed: (1) What are the associations between identity dimensions and (mal)adaptive domains? (2) Can meaningful identity statuses be identified based on these dimensions? (3) Do schema domains (cross-sectionally) predict identity status membership?. METHODS:A community sample of 711 Flemish emerging adults (68.9% female, Mage = 19.53) completed online questionnaires assessing the study variables. Cluster analysis, linear regression modeling, and multinomial logistic regression were performed to answer the research questions. RESULTS:Adaptive and maladaptive schemas significantly predicted all identity dimensions. Out of these dimensions, six identity statuses were identified (achievement, foreclosure, ruminative moratorium, doubting diffusion, troubled diffusion, and an undifferentiated cluster), largely mirroring previous research. Status membership was significantly predicted by adaptive and maladaptive schema domains, except for ruminative moratorium. CONCLUSIONS:Results from linear regression modeling and multinomial logistic regression offer preliminary evidence that early emotional experiences, both supportive and frustrating, as measured through adaptive and maladaptive schemas, are meaningfully related to how emerging adults form their identity. Given the study's highly exploratory design, findings should be interpreted with caution, but they point toward the usefulness of schema theory as a theoretical framework within the context of identity development. More research, in particular using a longitudinal design, is necessary.
INTRODUCTION:Perceived parental autonomy support (PAS) and life satisfaction (LS) may change during adolescence, yet longitudinal studies have typically examined prospective associations and developmental trajectories in separate models. This study examined how these constructs changed and were linked throughout secondary school in South Korea. METHODS:Data came from the Grade 7 cohort of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018, a nationally representative longitudinal survey from 2018 to 2023. The baseline sample included 2590 adolescents aged approximately 13 years: 1405 boys (54.2%) and 1185 girls (45.8%). Adolescents completed annual self-report measures of PAS and LS. The autoregressive latent trajectory model estimated growth factors, growth-factor associations, autoregressive paths, and cross-lagged paths. Wave 1 was treated as an initial condition, and growth trajectories were defined from ages 14 to 18. RESULTS:PAS declined on average from ages 14 to 18. LS showed individual differences in change but no significant linear slope in the ALT model. The intercepts of PAS and LS were positively associated, but their slopes were not. LS was not significantly associated with later PAS, while PAS was associated with later LS from age 16 to 17 and from age 17 to 18. CONCLUSIONS:PAS was prospectively associated with subsequent LS only during the later years of secondary school. Perceived autonomy support may therefore be particularly relevant when adolescents face increasingly consequential academic and future-oriented decisions. During this period, parents' efforts to express trust, acknowledge adolescents' perspectives, and support self-endorsed decision-making may be especially relevant to adolescents' LS.
INTRODUCTION:Despite the amount of time adolescents spend online, relatively little research has focused on parental monitoring of adolescents' online behavior. The present study examined late adolescents' retrospective evaluations of parental rules and their right to know about routine versus online activities, beliefs about the costs and benefits of regulating online behavior, and digital parenting and its correlates. METHOD:244 U.S. college students (M = 20.29 years, SD = 1.27; 178 females, 107 Asians) completed an online survey in 2019 examining parents' rules, their acceptability, and parents' right to know about their routine activities versus online behavior when they lived at home. They also rated the costs and benefits of parental monitoring of online behavior, digital parenting and its acceptability, and parent-adolescent relationship dynamics. RESULTS:Participants reported that parents had more rules, rated them as more acceptable, and viewed parents as having more right to know about routine than online activities. Parental monitoring of online behavior was seen as more privacy-invasive than as facilitating adolescent development. Path analyses revealed that digital parenting was associated with more rules and more psychologically controlling parenting, whereas greater acceptance of digital parenting was associated with more negative parent-adolescent relationships, more parental right to know, and beliefs that monitoring enhances maturity and safety. CONCLUSIONS:Late adolescents acknowledged the benefits of parental monitoring of online behavior, but they also viewed it as privacy-invasive and psychologically controlling. Findings reveal the tensions among adolescents' desires for autonomy, their need for privacy, and parents' responsibility to keep adolescents safe.
INTRODUCTION:Parent-child interactions constitute a critical developmental context for the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents. This study aimed to differentiate parenting styles and examine their domain-specific effects on later adolescent outcomes, using a culturally sensitive, person-centered approach. METHODS:This study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) on a national sample of 8333 Chinese parent-adolescent dyads (4564 mother-child and 3769 father-child dyads) from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). At baseline, adolescents were aged 12.93 years on average (SD = 0.82), and 51.5% of them were boys. Analyses were conducted separately for the full sample of parents, mothers, and fathers to identify distinct parenting profiles and their subsequent influence on adolescent academic difficulty, deviant peer affiliation, and depression. RESULTS:A robust four-profile structure namely Authoritative, Managerial, Warm Harbor, and Disengaged was identified for the full and maternal samples. Crucially, a unique five-profile structure emerged for fathers, featuring an additional Emotionally Detached profile characterized by average discipline but extremely low warmth. Further analyses revealed that the Authoritative and Warm Harbor profiles were associated with more favorable outcomes across all domains, particularly in mother-child dyads. For father-child dyads, the Emotionally Detached profile was uniquely associated with higher academic difficulty, deviant peer affiliation, and depression. CONCLUSIONS:These findings underscore the necessity of using gender-differentiated, person-centered approaches to understand culturally configured parenting and its consequences. Moving beyond uniform theoretical models, these results inform more targeted research and family support practices.
INTRODUCTION:Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent disorder that often begins during adolescence, leading to considerable challenges in social functioning and overall mental health. Previous studies have demonstrated that mentalization deficits and emotion regulation difficulties are each independently associated with social anxiety. The present study aimed to concurrently examine the associations of emotion regulation difficulties and mentalization deficits with SAD in adolescent girls. METHODS:The study sample consisted of 105 adolescent girls, conducted in Türkiye, including 69 treatment-naïve adolescents diagnosed with SAD without psychiatric comorbidities and 36 healthy controls. Mentalization was assessed by the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). All participants filled in the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). RESULTS:Compared with healthy controls, adolescents with SAD demonstrated lower general mentalizing ability, higher levels of hypermentalizing errors, and greater difficulties in emotion regulation (p < 0.001). Within the SAD group, none of the mentalization measures were directly associated with symptom severity. Lower levels of no-mentalizing were associated with greater emotion regulation difficulties (β = -0.24, p = 0.04), and greater emotion regulation difficulties were associated with higher social anxiety symptoms (β = 0.35, p < 0.01); however, the indirect effect of no-mentalizing on social anxiety symptoms through emotion regulation difficulties was not statistically significant (β = -0.09, 95% CI [-0.21, 0.01]). CONCLUSIONS:The present findings suggest that mentalization and emotion regulation processes may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding and addressing of SAD in adolescents.
INTRODUCTION:Research shows that interethnic friendships are beneficial for integration, well-being, and intergroup relations, yet adolescents often prefer same-ethnicity friends even in diverse settings. Prior studies point to individual characteristics, structural opportunities for contact, and classroom contexts as potential predictors of ethnic homophily. This study examines whether ethnic homophily is associated with the ethnic and socioemotional composition of the classroom among adolescents in the Czech Republic. METHODS:Our data was collected in the autumn of 2023 from 6,447 students (Mage = 15.6, SDage = 0.73) in 258 classrooms. We estimated ethnic homophily applying exponential random graph models (ERGMs), accounting for reciprocity, transitivity, and homophily in gender and popularity. Meta-regression was then used to examine the classroom-level correlates of the ethnic homophily coefficients calculated by the ERGMs. RESULTS:The ERGMs provide evidence of ethnic homophily across all groups, with stronger effects observed among minority than majority students. For the Czech majority, homophily was positively associated with the proportion of Ukrainian students and negatively with the proportion of the "other ethnicity" group. Among Ukrainian students, homophily was positively associated with the proportion of Czech students. Neither in-group size nor the socio-emotional composition of the classroom, measured as classroom averages of empathic concern and perspective-taking, was associated with ethnic homophily. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings underline the importance of structural factors, the size of relevant out-groups, in understanding ethnic homophily. They suggest that schools seeking to promote interethnic friendships should prioritize structured opportunities for meaningful cross-ethnic interaction rather than relying only on general socioemotional characteristics of classrooms.
INTRODUCTION:Frequency of emotion regulation strategy use undergoes changes during early adolescence. Executive functions are often proposed as foundational for successful emotion regulation, yet longitudinal links between executive functioning and the development of emotion regulation strategies remain underexplored. METHODS:The present study included 1532 children from ages 9 to 15 (Mage_baseline = 11.03, SD = 1.15, 49.3% male) and 1157 mothers from Croatia. Children reported on their use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, while mothers provided reports of executive functioning difficulties across three-waves over 2 years. Children were divided into four age cohorts. Cohort-sequential latent growth models were used to estimate developmental trajectories of emotion regulation strategies. Additionally, random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to explore both within- and between-person associations between emotion regulation strategies and executive functioning difficulties. RESULTS:Self-reported use of cognitive reappraisal showed a linear decline across all cohorts at similar rates, though a single common trajectory was not fully supported due to intercept differences. Expressive suppression showed more complex results, but it seems to have increased between approximately 11 and 14 years, though this pattern was not consistent across all cohorts and common trajectory also was not supported due to intercept differences. Executive function difficulties did not consistently predict changes in either strategy across cohorts. In the three oldest cohorts, reappraisal was unrelated to EF difficulties, while suppression showed a complex pattern: trait-level suppression was positively associated with shifting, working memory, and inhibition difficulties, and within-level suppression and working memory were bidirectionally negatively linked. CONCLUSIONS:The use of emotion regulation strategies changes in early adolescence, with reappraisal declining and suppression varying by age, and executive function difficulties showing a complex, strategy-specific relationship.
BACKGROUND:Loneliness among young people is a growing concern, and life transitions can create significant upheaval in social networks. The scale of these changes and their association with loneliness remains underexplored. OBJECTIVE:This study examined retrospectively recalled changes in network composition and structure across the transition to university and explored associations with loneliness. METHODS:We used social network interviews to assess 79 first-year students' networks before and after starting university, measuring loneliness post-transition; 77% of the sample were 18-21 years and 72% were female. RESULTS:Participants recalled substantial change in their network (network churn); on average 58% of social connections were gained or lost. Network change was normal and widespread. Networks became larger, less dense, more geographically dispersed, less emotionally close, more heterogeneous in composition, while perceived support remained broadly stable at population level. Greater loneliness was associated with perceived reductions in network support (B = -1.03, SE = 0.48) and greater ethnic heterogeneity within social networks (B = 1.26, SE = 0.41). CONCLUSION:This study highlights the substantial social restructuring that accompanies the transition to university. Young people reported marked changes in their social networks, characterized by expansion, diversification, and considerable network churn, suggesting that university entry represents a distinctive developmental transition requiring adaptation to new social environments.
INTRODUCTION:Adolescent externalizing symptoms, including aggression, impulsivity, and rule-breaking, are prevalent and often co-occur. Etiologically, developmental scientists have utilized developmental models to explain the link between exposure to family violence and adolescent externalizing symptoms; however, few studies have tested the longitudinal underlying role of impulsivity on the association between exposure to family violence and adolescent antisocial behavior. METHODS:Thus, this study synthesized three theoretical frameworks, including the developmental cascading framework, emotional insecurity model, and intergenerational transmission of violence, in estimating the predictive effects of exposure to family violence on aggression and rule-breaking behavior, respectively, and the mediating role of impulsivity on the developmental link between exposure to family violence and aggression and rule-breaking behavior, respectively, across four time points (n = 1543). RESULTS:Direct effects results indicated that exposure to family violence did not statistically predict the onset and growth rates of aggression; however, exposure to family violence positively predicted the onset of rule-breaking behavior, but not the growth rate. Mediation results indicated that baseline impulsivity mediated the indirect effect of family violence on baseline aggression; however, the same mediation effect was not found for the growth rate of aggression. Importantly, family violence, mediated by the growth rate of impulsivity, had a negative indirect effect on the growth rate of aggression. Furthermore, family violence was linked to baseline rule-breaking behavior through baseline impulsivity; however, baseline impulsivity did not significantly mediate the relationship between family violence and the growth rate of rule-breaking. As with aggression, the growth rate of impulsivity mediated the association between family violence and the growth rate of rule-breaking behavior, with a negative indirect effect, indicating that greater family violence exposure was associated with slower declines in impulsivity and, in turn, slower declines in rule-breaking behavior. CONCLUSION:Overall, these results partially supported the developmental cascading and the intergenerational transmission of violence perspectives by highlighting the relative effects of exposure to family violence on baseline rule-breaking and the longitudinal mediational effect of impulsivity on the relationship between adolescents' exposure to family violence and both aggression and rule-breaking behavior over time.
INTRODUCTION:The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted youths' interpersonal relationships, posing risks for internalizing distress. Yet, evidence remains limited beyond the early pandemic waves and with changing interpersonal contexts. This study examined trajectories of youth internalizing symptoms across five timepoints of the pandemic and associations with parental support and social interactions (in-person vs. virtual). METHOD:Data were from the population-based COVID-19 Ontario Provincial Assessment and Tracking of Child and Family Health study in Canada. Youth (N = 176; 10-18 years; 51.4% girls, 43.5% boys) participated in up to five waves between January 2021 and December 2022. Linear mixed-effects models were conducted with internalizing symptoms as the outcome and age, gender, parental support, and in-person and virtual social interactions as predictors. RESULTS:Girls (b = 0.21, p = 0.005), gender minority youth (b = 0.60, p < 0.001), and older youth (b = 0.07, p < 0.001) reported greater symptoms; girls showed steeper increases over time (b = 0.01, p = 0.006), reflecting widening gender disparities. Greater baseline parental support was associated with fewer symptoms (b = -0.33, p < 0.001), with a stable effect over time. In-person and virtual interactions were unrelated to symptoms at baseline; however, over time, more frequent in-person interactions were increasingly associated with fewer symptoms (b = -0.01, p = 0.005). Virtual interactions remained unrelated. CONCLUSIONS:Internalizing symptoms increased modestly across the study period, with widening disparities for girls that extended well beyond periods of lockdown. In-person social interactions became increasingly protective, whereas parental support showed a stable protective association. Findings highlight the importance of gender-responsive supports and family relationships during prolonged disruption, and in-person connections as restriction ease.
BACKGROUND:Disadvantaged adolescents face greater challenges and are in more vulnerable positions, posing significant risks to their psychological development and long-term health. This study focuses on multiple resilience factors across emotional, family, school, and social domains, examining their longitudinal interplay with depressive symptoms, with particular attention to differences across social contexts. METHODS:A cross-lagged network analysis was conducted using longitudinal data from 820 adolescents recruited from two middle schools in northern China. Participants completed validated questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, emotional resilience, family resilience, teacher support, friend support, and social support at two time points. RESULTS:A total of 820 adolescents were included (mean age = 14.50 years, SD = 1.70; 48.84% male). Network analysis revealed distinct centrality patterns across groups. In the overall sample, social support showed the highest in-expected influence (in-EI), whereas friend support had the highest out-expected influence (out-EI). Among non-disadvantaged adolescents, teacher support had the highest in-EI and friend support the highest out-EI, while in the disadvantaged group, friend support showed the highest in-EI and teacher support the highest out-EI. Longitudinally, emotional resilience positively predicted social support in the overall sample and teacher support in non-disadvantaged adolescents, whereas teacher support predicted friend support in disadvantaged adolescents. Depressive symptoms negatively predicted emotional resilience in the overall and non-disadvantaged samples and were associated with reduced social support in the disadvantaged group. CONCLUSIONS:High-quality friendships appear to play a central role in adolescents' resilience networks and may be relevant for mitigating depressive vulnerability. Emotional resilience and teacher emotional support emerged as important protective resources for non-disadvantaged adolescents, whereas teacher support and peer relationships constituted key components of the resilience network among disadvantaged adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of considering social context when designing strategies to support adolescent mental health.
INTRODUCTION:HIV and pregnancy rates among Kenyan adolescents are among the highest globally. For both conditions, timely disclosure to family caregivers is critical for engagement in antenatal and prevention of HIV mother-to-child transmission care. Unfortunately, adolescents often delay disclosure due to fear of caregivers' responses. We examined disclosure experiences among Kenyan pregnant adolescents living with HIV in 2022 using a qualitative cross-sectional design. METHODS:We conducted individual interviews with 22 adolescents (15-19 years) and 24 "dyadic" interviews with adolescents and adult caregiver (20 years and older) pairs. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and verified. Our US/Kenyan team then conducted a deductive-inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS:Interviewees included 46 adolescents and 24 caregivers. Caregivers of 43 adolescents knew about their HIV status and pregnancies; one adolescent disclosed only HIV; one only pregnancy; one disclosed neither. We identified five disclosure patterns: direct, indirect, mediated, accidental, and caregiver initiated. Pregnancy disclosure was most often caregiver-initiated, followed by mediated, whereas HIV disclosure was primarily mediated, followed by direct and accidental. Caregivers' disclosure responses were generally more supportive than adolescents anticipated. Interviewees suggested that others in similar situations should disclose directly to their caregiver, especially a mother, or with support from a trusted person or healthcare provider. CONCLUSIONS:Disclosure experiences varied. Some disclosures involved strategies to mitigate perceived risks; others occurred without adolescents' consent. Direct and mediated approaches may be preferrable options for adolescent disclosure. These findings may inform the development of interventions to enhance disclosure communication skills in this underserved population. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05383755.
INTRODUCTION:Prior research has examined the role of interpersonal relationships in adolescents' problematic use of the internet (PUI). However, studies that examine the distinct contributions of various interpersonal relationships (i.e., with mothers, fathers, teachers, and peers) to adolescent PUI at the within-person level remain lacking. Thus, this longitudinal study was conducted to address this research gap by incorporating both between- and within-person perspectives and potential sex differences. METHODS:The study recruited 598 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 15.47 years at Wave 1, SD = 0.53; 54.52% girls) who participated in five waves of data collection across 2.5-years. Multilevel model was constructed to examine the between- and within-person associations between various sources of interpersonal relationships and adolescent PUI. RESULTS:The findings demonstrated that improved relationships with teachers and peers were related to lower levels of PUI at the between- and within-person levels, whereas no such association was found for parent-adolescent relationships. In addition, the associations between interpersonal relationships and adolescent PUI were not moderated by sex at either the between- or within-person level. CONCLUSIONS:These findings underscore the need to examine the distinct associations between multiple sources of interpersonal relationships and PUI among Chinese adolescents. The results revealed that positive interpersonal relationships, especially those with teachers and peers, may be an effective compensatory strategy for preventing and intervening in adolescent PUI.
