The aim of this study was to examine the cultural applicability of widely used psychosocial measures and identify patterns of psychosocial development among late adolescents in Taiwan, Italy, and the United States (N = 1,335). Measurement invariance testing revealed partial non-invariance across groups, particularly at the item intercept and factor loading levels. Using latent profile analysis (LPA), four distinct psychosocial profiles emerged within each cultural group, characterized by varying levels of cognitive autonomy, identity development, and shyness. Multigroup LPA indicated that although profile configurations differed across cultures, one profile (Well Balanced) displayed the highest cross-national similarity. Profiles were significantly associated with mental health outcomes including self-worth, depression, and substance use - though such associations were less pronounced in the Taiwanese sample. These findings underscore the need for culturally sensitive tools and profile-based frameworks to understand differences in psychosocial development in a globalized context.

BackgroundAlthough diagnosis and identification of IDD is improving, adolescents with IDD receive limited attention in research, particularly concerning their psychosocial development. Measures developed and normed with typically developing populations may not be appropriate for IDD populations and may result in biased assessment. Aim: This study aimed to develop and validate modified psychosocial development assessments for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), addressing the absence of such assessments.MethodIt involved two phases: modifying existing instruments and validating the revised versions. Four stakeholder groups participated: adolescents with IDD, parents, and scholars in adolescent developmental and disabilities. Validation included two groups: neurotypical adolescents completing both measures and IDD adolescents completing modified measures.ResultsConfirmatory factor analyses identified the need to adjust or eliminate scales for better understanding by individuals with IDD. The modified instruments provided suitable measures for assessing psychosocial development in adolescents with IDD.DiscussionAll the scales allowed for accommodation toward comprehension for those with IDD except for identity formation. Further work is needed to understand the challenges associated with assessing identity formation in adolescents with IDD. The active involvement of and participation from adolescents with IDD and their parents in this research was paramount to understanding their comprehension and needs.ConclusionThis study highlights the importance of tailored assessments for accurate measurement of IDD individuals' development, benefiting the assessment of all adolescents.

This study facilitates understanding of college students' current and previous experiences with cyberbullying and negative social media experiences using an exploratory, qualitative design. Participants were 16 undergraduate freshman or sophomores (9 women, 7 men) at a medium-sized, United States university. A 13 question, semi-structured interview probed participants' past and present experiences with cyberbullying. Iterative, thematic analysis was used to analyze data. Codes were clustered together based on similarity, then grouped into hierarchical themes. First, participants considered cyberbullying to be a grey area, and their definitions of cyberbullying varied considerably. Almost all participants indicated that they experienced and witnessed the most cyberbullying during adolescence. Third, participants mentioned screens and fake personas as mechanisms through which aggressors could distance themselves from victims, empowering individuals to disengage from the harm they were causing. Last, participants described a lack of education and knowledge about cyberbullying resources. Results have policy implications including the need to educate young people about cyberbullying, and, importantly, how to report cyberbully attacks.

Today, most societies allow more time for young people to transition to adulthood. Compared to youth from a generation ago, young people today are delaying marriage, prolonging their educational pursuits, and deemphasizing the need for a single life-long career. The purpose of this study was to delineate patterns of transitioning to adulthood among young people from three countries. As part of a collaborative multisite project, 1,310 emerging adults from Taiwan (n = 372), Italy (n = 364), and the United States (n = 574) provided perceptions of their endorsement and attainment of certain commonly accepted adult status markers. Using latent profile analysis, a four-class model emerged. The groups were not culturally specific and the groupings highlighted unique approaches to how emerging adults conceptualized adulthood. Using Marcia's identity statuses as loose labels for each group, the achieved group was the largest as they showed an inclination toward endorsing and attaining most adult markers. Other groups showed both delay (diffused) and perplexity (transitional) toward many markers of adulthood. Using an alignment procedure to account for cross-cultural measurement non-invariance, the role of individualism-collectivism, filial piety, and parental autonomy support in relation to adult status profiles were also explored across participant groups. Vertical collectivism and authoritarian filial piety were the most predictive whereas parental autonomy support was less predictive in class membership in both the overall and stratified regression analyses.

Cyberaggression is a substantial problem for college-aged students. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine associations between social cognitive factors and digitally sharing one’s own and others’ overt and relational cyberaggressive material among college students. Social cognitive factors included cyber moral disengagement and facets of cognitive autonomy, including comparative validation, voicing opinions, and evaluative thinking. A convenience sample of 437 college students from a medium-sized US university completed an online survey about cyber aggression and related social cognitive factors. Results from a structural equation model, controlling for gender, showed that cyber moral disengagement was positively associated with sharing own and others’ overt and relational cyberaggressive material. Sharing one’s own and others’ relational cyberaggression was positively associated with comparative validation but was negatively associated with evaluative thinking. The present research reinforces prior links between moral disengagement and cyberaggression while examining other social cognitive factors associated with cyberaggression and assisting cyberaggression perpetrators.

Presently, there is a lack of consensus about whether interactive technology enhances or restricts the quality and quantity of shared time between parents and their children. The purposes of this exploratory study were to identify parent and adolescent/young adult perceptions of time spent together and to investigate ways in which the use of technology is related to that time. Using a purposive sample, 766 youth (high school and early college) and their parents ( n = 735) responded to questions about their interactive time spent together. Results indicated that parents and their adolescent/young adult children distinguished between parent–child quality and parent–child quantity time. Participant perceptions of both quality and quantity parent–child time were explored in relation to parent–child computer-mediated communication via text messaging, telephone calls, social networking, video chat, and e-mail. The type of interactive technology was related to participant perceptions of parent–child quality time more than the quantity of time.

Abstract Social support serves as a protective factor, buffering stress in both adolescents and adults, however Socioemotional Selectivity Theory suggests developmental differences in stress reactivity and social support. It is unclear how modern forms of social contact, such as social media buffer stress, and the extent to which this differs across the lifespan. We utilized ecological momentary data to examine the moderating effects of age and two distinct types of social contacts the person had experienced in prior hours (frequency of face-to-face, or social media contacts) on the association between daily stress and momentary mood. Participants were recruited initially through Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (adolescents referred by a parent). A total of 119 adolescent (n = 44; Agemean= 15.73) and middle-aged/older adult participants (n = 75; Agemean= 59.67) provided momentary data three times a day, on three consecutive days, every two weeks, for up to 12 weeks. Multi-level models showed significant 3-way interactions between stress appraisal of avoiding an argument, age group, and frequency of social contact via face-to-face (β = 1.698, se = 0.542, p = .002) and social media (β = 3.341, se = 0.984, p = .001). Older adults experienced better mood than adolescents. When avoiding an argument was appraised as more stressful, both age groups displayed worse mood. Whereas high levels of recent social contact (both face-to-face and social media) seemed to exacerbate the impact of this stressor on poorer mood for older persons, high levels of recent social contact, particularly social media, had stress-buffering benefits for adolescents.

Civic engagement is important for the positive development of adolescents. As such, many youth development programs promote civic engagement, particularly community service and volunteerism. This report is a program evaluation of a youth leadership seminar that seeks to empower adolescents to engage in community service. Using a pre to post mixed-methods design, we evaluated 114 adolescent participants on several psychosocial outcomes. Findings indicated that participants experienced positive change that was consistent with program goals. Quantitative findings demonstrated self-reported increases in areas of cognitive autonomy, moral ideal and social responsibility. Qualitative findings included the important themes of an increased desire to volunteer, confidence, and positive feelings towards self. Implications of these findings and future directions are also discussed.

ABSTRACTIntroductionThe purpose of this study was to examine reasons adolescents give for pretending to text in various social situations. Pretending to text was conceptualized as when a person uses a cellphone to make it look like they are texting, but they are not actually sending messages. Little research is available from the adolescent perspective regarding self‐presentation and avoidance when using digital devices in social contexts.MethodsA convergent mixed methods approach was used to understand the experience of high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors (n = 216) in the United States. Chi‐square analyses and t‐tests were used to examine differences between those who pretended to text and those who did not. Qualitative data were analyzed using van Manen's line‐by‐line approach.Results & conclusionsParticipants indicated they pretended to text for reasons of avoidance, to maintain a positive appearance, and sometimes to provide a sense of security if they felt unsafe in a situation. This study uses self‐presentation to further understand adolescent perceptions of pretending to text.

The present study examined the long-term impact of individual and family factors during childhood and adolescence on outcomes associated with the transition to adulthood, specifically well-being and substance use. Data for this study were drawn from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) and Transition to Adulthood (TA) surveys (n=1362), both a part of The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We first examined the influence of individual and family factors from childhood and adolescence on well-being and substance use during the transition to adulthood using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). We then applied a mixture modeling approach to evaluate whether there were subgroups (latent classes) in these transitions to adulthood outcomes, and how these subgroups linked with the individual and family factors from younger years. We found that, in general, parental acceptance and psychological control in childhood and adolescence predicted all aspects of well-being during the transition to adulthood. Substance use during this transition was linked with being male, White, and heightened parental psychological control. Overall, observable differential associations between individual and family factors during childhood and adolescence and outcomes in later life highlighted a need to evaluate transitional aspects independently, rather than grouping young adults all together.

The purpose of this study was (a) to identify latent subgroups of Taiwanese adolescents who vary in their cultural value affiliations and (b) to examine how latent-subgroup membership in early adolescence predicted depressive symptoms for 6 years throughout adolescence into young adulthood. Participants consisted of 2458 youth from the longitudinal Taiwan Youth Project (TYP). Latent profile analysis indicated five classes (patterns) of cultural value affiliation. A zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) analysis followed, which identified the estimated (a) probability of experiencing depressive symptoms and (b) number of depressive symptoms experienced by individuals who reported depressive symptoms across the five observational time points. Results showed that among the five classes of value affiliation, two classes had a greater likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms at the beginning of the assessment (age 15). Youth who were least likely to embrace societally prescribed culture values were at the greatest risk for manifesting subsequent depressive symptoms. These findings support the idea that the way adolescents identify with their cultural values predicts subsequent depressive symptoms.

Adolescents with disabilities face many challenges common to their typically developing peers. However, the ways that they resolve them may differ. The focus of this narrative overview was to summarize results from the disabilities in adolescence literature, highlight common research directions, evaluate the overall big picture of this literature, and draw conclusions based on general interpretations. Evidence suggests that the literature in this field of study is lacking. Suggestions for improvement include increasing the number of studies that focus specifically on adolescence across the various types of disabilities, establishing a theoretical base to anchor research, forming cohesion across disabilities among researchers, and taking a comprehensive approach to intervention studies. By addressing these issues in future research, scholarly knowledge will be increased, but more importantly, the lives of young people with disabilities can be greatly enhanced.

The current study sought to identify what parents would perceive to be helpful in terms of including technology topics in parent education programs, rather than assuming what would be best for parents. Parents were recruited for participation from a western state in the United States between 2012 and 2013. A qualitative approach was used to analyze parental responses (N = 168) regarding what topics/areas would be beneficial if they attended an educational offering relating to teens and technology. Parents indicated they wanted specific direction and skills relating to the practice of implementing parental mediation, and information about staying current with the technology trends. Other findings focused on the difficulty of getting parents to commit to such education.

Contemporary adolescents rely heavily on technology and media to navigate romantic relationships. In this mixed-methods study, adolescents and young adults (N = 204) detailed their perceptions of how entertainment media and interactive technology influence adolescent romantic relationships. The majority of adolescents and young adults perceived that entertainment media (95%) and interactive technology (97%) did influence adolescent romantic relationships. Using a qualitative analysis approach, we found six major themes. Although entertainment media provided media role models for expected behavior in romantic relationships, it was also associated with the development of unrealistic relational expectations and perceived pressure to be in a romantic relationship. Participants perceived that interactive technology has changed the way adolescents communicate with romantic partners, become integrated into the entire relationship life cycle, and led to a decline in face-to-face communication in adolescent romantic relationships.