This study explored the connections among adolescents' Theory of Mind (ToM), social anhedonia, loneliness, and self-concept. Research with clinical populations shows interrelations between mainly poor ToM skills, higher loneliness, a weaker self-concept, and high levels of social anhedonia. This study extends this work by investigating their relation in a nonclinical adolescent population of 236 Canadian adolescents from ages 11-18. Results revealed that ToM negatively predicted social anhedonia, with adolescents with poorer ToM skills reporting higher levels of social anhedonia. Loneliness, but not self-concept, significantly mediated the relation between ToM and social anhedonia. Adolescents with lower ToM skills were more likely to report feelings of loneliness, which in turn predicted greater social anhedonia. Implications include support for developmentally appropriate and culturally informed interventions that promote strong social connections and loneliness reduction.

Although peer victimization is an established risk factor for behavioral problems in adolescents, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To address this gap, this study examined whether peer victimization may be indirectly associated with behavioral problems through executive function and whether these associations may be moderated by resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in adolescents. A total of 298 Chinese adolescents (M = 12.88 years, SD = 0.69 years, 53% female) participated in this study. Participants completed questionnaires on peer victimization, executive function, and internalizing and externalizing problems. They also participated in a 3-min resting electrocardiogram recording, during which their resting RSA was measured. The results showed that exposure to peer victimization was associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents through its relation to executive function. Additionally, resting RSA moderated these relations, with the indirect associations between peer victimization and behavioral problems through executive function being stronger in adolescents with low rather than high resting RSA. Our findings highlight that poor executive function serves as a potential mechanism linking peer victimization to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, with this process varying by individual cardiac vagal tone.

Middle school years are a turbulent period for students to develop their adaptive academic motivation and engagement. However, a person-centered longitudinal investigation on changes in academic motivation and engagement is scarce. Through a two-wave survey with a four-month interval, this study investigated the configurations, transitions, and the predictive roles of basic psychological needs satisfaction on transitions in academic motivation and engagement profiles among 502 Chinese seventh graders (261 boys; Mean age = 12.34 at Time 1). Latent profile analysis revealed three profiles at both measurement occasions: highly motivated-and-engaged, moderately motivated-and-engaged, and demotivated-and-disengaged profiles. Latent transition analysis showed that while 61.16% of students maintained their initial profiles, 15.54% transitioned to more adaptive profiles and 24.30% shifted to less adaptive profiles. Notably, autonomy need satisfaction emerged as the protective factor preventing the highly motivated-and-engaged students from falling into the moderately motivated-and-engaged status. Implications and future research directions for middle school students' motivation and engagement are discussed.

Childhood conduct problems are associated with problematic substance use in adulthood; however, little is known about what might explain these associations outside of high-income countries where the majority of research is conducted. Data were analyzed from 4599 young people from the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort in Brazil. The exposure was conduct problems (age 11 years). Outcomes included hazardous alcohol consumption and illicit drug use (age 22 years). Mediators included police arrest (by age 18 years), gang membership (ages 18 and 22 years), and school noncompletion (by age 22 years). We performed counterfactual mediation using the parametric g-computation formula to estimate the indirect effect via all three mediators simultaneously. After adjusting for confounders (including hyperactivity problems), conduct problems were weakly associated with police arrest (OR [95% CI] = 1.45 [0.97, 2.16]) and school noncompletion (OR [95% CI] = 1.46 [1.22, 1.74]), but not with gang membership. Police arrest and gang membership were associated with illicit drug use (OR [95% CI] = 3.84 [2.46, 5.99]; OR [95% CI] = 7.78 [4.30, 14.10], respectively) and with hazardous alcohol use (OR [95% CI] = 1.60 [1.08, 2.38]; OR [95% CI] = 1.88 [1.07, 3.30]), after adjusting for confounders (including hyperactivity and emotional problems). There was no association between school noncompletion and either outcome after confounder adjustment. There was little evidence for an indirect effect of conduct problems on hazardous alcohol use and illicit drug use via all three mediators after confounder adjustment. Findings highlight the importance of school professionals being aware of the risk for school noncompletion for those with conduct problems. Additionally, programmes designed to reduce substance use in Brazil should focus on young people involved in gangs, and in the criminal justice system.

The co-development of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and distress tolerance (DT) and adolescent problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) and their relationships at both the between- and within-person levels remain poorly understood, particularly among Chinese adolescents navigating the highly stressful pre-college entrance examination period in East Asia. Further, the potential moderating effects of early-life environmental unpredictability (EEU) on these relationships are yet to be tested. This large-sample Chinese cohort study seeks to address these gaps through a three-wave design. A total of 4548 Chinese high school students (50.70% female; M = 16.87, SD = 0.81) were surveyed at baseline. The study employed latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) and the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM). Univariate LGCMs identified an average continuous decline in PMPU among all adolescents. Parallel LGCMs indicated that individuals with higher PMPU levels also tended to report greater IU and DT (between-person effects). The results of the RI-CLPM revealed that DT consistently predicted subsequent PMPU and IU, while PMPU also predicted DT and IU (within-person effects). Importantly, all these findings exhibited different patterns of differentiation across groups with varying levels of EEU. In summary, this study highlights the complex relationship among IU, DT, and adolescent PMPU, emphasizing the crucial moderating role of EEU in these dynamic associations.

The irritability-suicidality link has been identified in extensive adolescent suicide research. Few studies, however, have investigated the mechanisms underlying this link within a developmental psychopathology framework. The present study aims to address this issue, with a consideration of contextual differences, by examining whether irritability observed at home and in school increases suicidal risk indirectly through dysfunctional parent-adolescent and peer relationships in a prospective cohort of 932 participants (53.0% girls; 54.6% Black, 25.2% White, 20.2% Mixed or Other race; from the United States). The general levels (i.e., random intercept, RI) of teacher-reported irritability across childhood (age 6-12) independently predicted mid- to late-adolescent suicidality (ages 16-18), whereas the parent RI and the interaction of these two RIs had limited predictive utility for suicidal risk. Poor relationships with parents and peers (age 14) partly mediated the prediction of suicidality from the parent and teacher RIs, respectively. These findings indicate that higher levels of teacher-reported irritability, irrespective of the levels of parent-reported irritability, place youth at greater risk for suicidality; dysfunctional parent-adolescent and peer relationships serve as possibly context-specific pathways from early irritability at home and in school, respectively, to later suicidality. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

While adolescent pregnancy is widely recognized as a marker of early-life disadvantage, less is known about its long-term occupational consequences. This study examines the relationship between adolescent pregnancy experiences and precarious employment in adulthood, distinguishing between three pregnancy outcomes: abortion, miscarriage, and live birth. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we estimate school-fixed effects regression models to assess whether adolescent pregnancy is associated with greater labor market precarity. To examine underlying mechanisms, we employ multivariate bootstrap mediation analysis to test the mediating roles of educational attainment, incarceration history, and depressive symptoms. Findings indicate that all pregnancy outcomes are linked to increased risk of precarious employment, with educational attainment emerging as a consistent mediator across all outcomes-accounting for 28.2% of the total effect for live birth, 15.4% for miscarriage, and 14.1% for abortion. Incarceration significantly mediates the association for live birth (16.8%) and miscarriage (17.0%), but not abortion. Depressive symptoms have a relatively smaller overall impact, mediating 13.7% of the effect for abortion only. These results underscore the importance of disaggregating adolescent pregnancy experiences and identifying key mechanisms to better understand how early reproductive events shape labor market inequality across the life course. Findings point to the need for targeted, outcome-specific interventions that support continued education, reduce criminal justice exposure, and address mental health to mitigate long-term employment precarity among adolescent pregnancy survivors.

The relationship between low self-esteem and bullying involvement, particularly the temporal antecedence of the relationship, has been inconclusive. A potential explanation for these mixed findings is the limited consideration of bullying subtypes (i.e., physical, verbal, and relational) within longitudinal frameworks. This study examines the longitudinal relationships of self-esteem with each type of bullying perpetration and victimization by gender. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were analyzed with the data from 3617 South Korean adolescents (female = 48.3%, age mean = 12.43, SD = 1.48 in the first wave) of the Seoul Education Longitudinal Study for three waves (7th to 9th grade). The results revealed that self-esteem was an outcome of both bullying perpetration and victimization. That is, it is not personal traits such as self-esteem that lead adolescents to engage in or become victims of bullying, but rather, involvement in bullying results in a subsequent decline in self-esteem. When all three subtypes of bullying involvement were considered simultaneously, only physical perpetration and relational victimization negatively predicted subsequent self-esteem. These findings underscore the importance of differentiating bullying subtypes in longitudinal analyses of self-esteem and point to the need for closer attention to the possibility that physical perpetration and relational victimization may be associated with subsequent decreases in self-esteem.

Despite the growing body of research on cyber dating violence, a comprehensive understanding of gender differences in cyber-violent behaviors across developmental stages remains limited. The main purpose of this meta-analytic review was to estimate the direction and magnitude of gender differences in cyber dating violence perpetration and victimization by synthesizing results from various studies. The second purpose of this study was to examine the effect of potential moderators (i.e., continent, age, grade level, time frame, method of survey administration, the metric of the outcome, study design, publication status, and publication year) on these differences. Various databases were used to identify relevant studies, including PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, PsycINFO, ERIC, and ProQuest. Eighty-one individual studies with a total sample of 70,233 participants, ranging in age from 10 to 30 years (M = 18.94), were included based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the present study. Most studies were conducted in North America and Europe with the largest proportions from the United States and Spain. Results indicated that there were no statistically significant gender differences (women vs. men; girls vs. boys) in perpetration and victimization of cyber dating violence. Moderator analyses showed that grade level and sample age were statistically significant moderators of gender differences in cyber dating violence victimization. However, other moderators (continent, time frame, method of survey administration, the metric of the outcome, study design, publication status, and publication year) were not statistically significant. This study contributes to understanding gender differences in cyber-violent behaviors during adolescence and emerging adulthood and highlights the importance of some moderators when developing targeted prevention and intervention strategies.

The study examined the intergenerational transmission of aggressive conflict resolution toward intimate partners from Generation 1 (G1) parents during Generation 2's adolescence to both G2 and their partners (G2 partner), and the potential spillover effects from G2 and G2 partner's aggressive conflict resolution to G2's harsh and inconsistent parental discipline towards Generation 3 (G3) children. Using data from the Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships (RADAR) project, G1, G2 (51.5% girls; M = 14.82 in mid-adolescence, M = 29.66 in parenthood), and later G2's partner and G3 were followed from G2's adolescence to adulthood. The sample comprised 1178 G1-G2 dyads, including 222 G1-G2-G3 triads. Path analyses provided evidence for (1) intergenerational transmission, that is, G1's aggressive conflict resolution in G2's mid-adolescence weakly predicted G2's aggressive conflict resolution in G2's adulthood and (2) spillover effects, that is, G2's aggressive conflict resolution predicted G2's harsh and inconsistent discipline toward G3 children. Most of the intergenerational transmission and spillover relations did not differ across G1 and G2 gender. Overall, the findings highlight the intergenerational transmission of aggressive conflict resolution towards intimate partners and its subsequent relation with harsh and inconsistent discipline. Future prevention could target both parental figures in G1 and G2 to disrupt the cycle of aggressive conflict resolution and prevent problematic discipline practices.

Allostatic load (AL), the cumulative physiological cost of early adversity, is associated with increased depression risk, especially among disadvantaged adolescents. Bullying, which peaks during adolescence, also predicts depressive symptoms. However, how early (e.g., AL) and recent (e.g., bullying) stressors interact to influence adolescent depression remains unclear. While social mobility belief-adolescents' expectations of upward socioeconomic movement-is often viewed as protective, its effects may vary under stress. Based on the biopsychosocial model, this study examines the interplay among AL, bullying, and social mobility belief in shaping adolescent depression. Participants were 600 adolescents (M = 11.44, SD = 1.76; 49.17% boys) from impoverished rural areas in China. Data were collected at two time points at 1-year intervals. Adolescents completed questionnaires assessing bullying experiences, social mobility belief, and depressive symptoms. AL was measured using eight biomarkers: heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dehydroepiandrosterone. Results indicated that AL and bullying exert cumulative effects on depression: bullying predicted higher depressive symptoms among adolescents with high AL, but not among those with low AL. This relationship was further moderated by social mobility belief. A higher social mobility belief may exacerbate depression in adolescents with high AL who face significant bullying. These findings highlight that the role of social mobility belief is context-dependent, rather than a universally protective factor and suggest that interventions should address both physiological stress and perceived opportunity.

The current study examines whether multisystemic therapy (MST), a widely used, developmentally informed, social-ecological intervention for justice-involved youth (JIY), is equally effective for males and females. Justice-involved youth (JIY) have higher rates of substance use relative to youth in the general population. Although interventions like MST often target co-occurring substance use and delinquent behavior, these interventions often neglect female-specific risks and developmental pathways for delinquent behavior and substance use, which raises concern about their appropriateness for female JIY. We use integrative data analysis (IDA) to pool data from three trials of MST to generate sufficient power to detect sex differences in treatment outcomes of self-reported cannabis, alcohol use, and delinquent behavior over the last 90 days. Analyses showed MST was no more effective than services as usual in reducing self-reported substance use and delinquent behavior among JIY through one-year follow-up, nor were treatment outcomes moderated by sex. In the first adequately powered study to compare sex differences in the effects of MST among U.S. JIY, current findings suggest that MST for comorbid delinquent behavior and substance use may need to be improved for both sexes. Continued development and study of effective psychosocial interventions for JIY are needed, and interventions should consider the distinct needs of female JIY.

This study extends situational action theory (SAT) and its developmental ecological action (DEA) model by examining within- and between-individual variations in offending among 1354 serious adolescent offenders using Pathways to Desistance data. It highlights the interplay between morality, self-control, and delinquent peer associations, finding lower offending rates among adolescents with stronger morality, higher self-control, and fewer delinquent peers. Criminogenic exposure increases and declines in morality or self-control heighten crime risk. Self-control is most effective in reducing offending when paired with strong moral values, especially in highly criminogenic environments. Morality's influence grows as self-control strengthens or peer delinquency declines, supporting the DEA model's emphasis on the dynamic interaction of crime propensity and environmental influences.

Along with the rapid popularization of short-form video applications, adolescents' addiction to short-form videos has received increasing attention, but research on the bidirectional relationship between short-form video addiction (SFVA) and anxiety symptoms is limited. Therefore, the present study aimed to fill this gap by examining the interrelationship between these two variables and the potential mediating role of delayed gratification. This study surveyed 1143 Chinese high school students (50.04% male; M = 15.87, SD = 0.88 at time 1) across two waves of data collection spaced 6 months apart, measuring SFVA, delay of gratification, and anxiety symptoms at both time points. Using cross-lagged panel modeling, this study found that anxiety symptoms positively predicted subsequent SFVA, and SFVA positively predicted subsequent anxiety symptoms, suggesting a bidirectional relationship; furthermore, delay of gratification significantly mediated the relationship in both directions; specifically, anxiety symptoms increased the risk of SFVA by decreasing the ability to delay gratification, and vice versa. These findings emphasize the mediating role of delayed gratification, implying that interventions targeted at improving delayed gratification in adolescents may help to disrupt the vicious cycle of anxiety symptoms and SFVA.

This study examined the role of contextual factors in shaping adolescents' social-emotional learning (SEL) using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. The sample included 292,466 15-year-old adolescents across 42 countries or economies (18 low- and 24 high-context economies). Network analysis highlighted stress resilience, cooperation, perseverance, and curiosity as pivotal skills of SEL, with stress resilience emerging as central. The results further indicated significant cultural variations in how contextual factors would affect students' SEL: In high-context cultures (where communication relies heavily on implicit and situational cues), teacher-student relationships played a more central role, while in low-context cultures (where communication tends to be explicit and direct), sense of school belonging was prioritized. These results underscored the need for culturally responsive SEL programs, tailored to specific cultural dynamics, to support optimal skill development.

Juvenile delinquency has significant impacts on physical and mental health in adulthood, yet longitudinal research investigating cognitive consequences of delinquent behavior is limited. This study investigates potential pathways linking adolescent delinquent behavior to memory performance in adulthood, with particular attention to proximal psychosocial and behavioral mediators. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and employing school fixed-effects models, we examine the association between juvenile delinquency and memory performance in adulthood. We distinguish between nonviolent and violent delinquent behaviors to investigate differential associations. Moreover, we conduct multivariate bootstrapped mediation analyses with several mechanism variables, including disciplinary action, substance use, psychological factors, sleep behaviors, and social support. The association between juvenile delinquency and memory performance in adulthood was confounded by individual and family-level characteristics. Differentiating between violent and nonviolent behaviors, violent delinquency was negatively associated with memory performance, even after adjusting for individual and family characteristics as well as school fixed effects. Mediation analyses indicated that disciplinary action, psychological factors, and social support mediated the association between violent delinquency and memory performance. Depressive symptoms (25.7%) and suspension (17.7%) emerged as the most salient mediating factors, followed by perceived care from teachers (8.6%). Our findings further demonstrate that these early psychosocial and behavioral disruptions may impair memory performance in adulthood by undermining educational attainment. The results of this study suggest that engagement in violent behaviors during adolescence is longitudinally associated with worse memory performance in adulthood. We also provide evidence on the potential pathways through which violent delinquency can impact future memory performance, prompting considerations for more effective intervention strategies for delinquent youth.

Taking risks is a crucial part of adolescent development, encompassing both positive (socially valued) and negative (potentially life-threatening) behaviors. While cognitive control is known to reduce harmful risk behaviors, its relationship with beneficial risk-taking remains unclear. This study investigated how multiple components of cognitive control relate to both types of risk-taking and explored learning as a potential pathway to adaptive risk-taking. We assessed 127 adolescents (ages 12-18, 65% female, 60% White) using experimental cognitive tasks, self-report measures, and an adapted balloon analog risk task. Working memory and proactive control were associated with reduced negative risk-taking (NRT) but not positive risk-taking (PRT). Effortful control showed a unique divergent pattern, being associated with both reduced NRT and increased willingness for PRT. These associations diminished with age, perhaps due to the increasing influence of external factors like opportunity and social context. Better learning in low-risk experimental conditions related to reduced real-world NRT, though this learning ability was not associated with cognitive control measures. These findings contribute to expanding our understanding of how cognitive control relates to adolescent adaptive risk-taking and open up perspectives for effective interventions.

Research suggests that adolescents often perceive parental behaviors-such as expressions of warmth and affection-differently than their parents do. These parent-adolescent discrepancies offer meaningful insight into family functioning during adolescence and adolescent mental health, though existing findings remain mixed. Grounded in interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), this study investigates longitudinal, bidirectional associations between parent-adolescent discrepancies in perceived parental warmth and adolescent internalizing symptoms. The sample included 1219 parent-adolescent dyads (both mothers and fathers) from 12 cultural groups across 9countries, followed across three time points spanning 5 years, with children's mean age being 10.72 years (SD = 0.67) at Wave 1, 13.19 years (SD = 0.90) at Wave 2, and 15.60 years (SD = 0.94) at Wave 3. The results of latent congruence models showed that mothers reported higher warmth than adolescents, whereas no significant discrepancies emerged between fathers and adolescents. The cross-sectional analyses indicated that a higher parent-adolescent discrepancy in parental warmth perceptions was linked to increased internalizing symptoms in adolescents and lower overall warmth perceived by parents and adolescents in the dyad. However, over the long term, marginal effects were observed only between greater internalizing symptoms in adolescents and lower overall warmth experienced, and vice versa. Additionally, some cross-cultural differences in the discrepancies between parents and adolescents were identified. These findings highlight the importance of congruence between parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parental warmth, which may play a critical role in reducing adolescent internalizing symptoms, at least in the short term. Future research should deepen these dynamics across different cultures and developmental stages to improve intervention strategies and strengthen family-based mental health support.

Historically marginalized adolescents experience environmental stressors that contribute to psychological distress and compromised academic outcomes. Prior research highlights the role of a positive school climate and school engagement in promoting both academic achievement and psychological well-being. Building on this work, we propose school engagement may mediate relationships between stressful life events (SLEs) and campus climate on academic achievement and psychological distress. In a sample of 293 historically marginalized adolescents (81.2% Latine), path analyses showed mediation between campus climate, SLEs, and psychological distress via school engagement. Additionally, school engagement partially mediated the link between SLEs and academic achievement. Multiple regression analyses revealed school-related challenges were associated with lower school engagement, more psychological distress, and lower academic achievement. These findings highlight the critical role of school engagement in shaping both academic and psychological outcomes. Implications for equity-focused initiatives are discussed.

Most research on emotional functioning focuses on the intensity of emotions. Little is known about how current emotion predicts future emotion, or how emotions fluctuate. Understanding how day-to-day emotional dynamic indices change over time, especially during adolescence, is important, as this developmental stage represents a critical period for emotional development. This study investigates the developmental trajectories of emotional dynamics in adolescents. One hundred seventy nine adolescents (44.1% males, M = 12.80 ± 0.41) at baseline participated in the current study as part of a larger longitudinal study (the Circadian Light in Adolescence, Sleep and School [CLASS] Study). Positive and negative affect were assessed daily via ecological momentary assessment (EMA) for 2 weeks every 6 months over 2 years. Bayesian multilevel location scale models were used to characterize emotional dynamic trajectories. Positive affect inertia (p = .005) and variability (p < .001) decreased, and negative affect intensity (p = .015) increased significantly over time. Higher positive affect intensity was associated with lower positive affect variability, with a coefficient of -.25. All negative affect dynamic indices were significantly correlated with each other (r = .26 to .75). Adolescent's negative affect intensity increased with age, while positive affect inertia and variability decreased. The increase in negative affect intensity, combined with its positive relationship to emotional problems, may heighten vulnerability to negative emotional states. The reduction in positive affect inertia and variability suggests improved flexibility in regulating positive affect, potentially offering a stabilizing effect. Research should explore their link to clinical mood disturbances and their potential as early warning signs.

Gratitude has been empirically linked to psychological and behavioral adjustment outcomes during early adolescence. However, the role of gratitude in relation to friends' adjustment outcomes remains unclear, particularly in more interdependent-oriented cultures. To address this gap, this 1-year longitudinal study applied the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model to simultaneously examine whether gratitude would predict adolescents' and their best friends' depressive symptoms and aggressive behaviors. The sample consisted of 1342 students within 671 friendship dyads, initially in the fourth grade (44.0% boy-dyads; initial M = 10.22 years, SD = 0.33). The results indicated that adolescents' gratitude negatively predicted both their own and their best friends' subsequent aggressive behaviors, revealing both actor and partner effects. In addition, adolescents' gratitude only negatively predicted their own subsequent depressive symptoms. The aforementioned findings were stable across gender. The results suggest that adolescents with higher levels of gratitude can contribute positively not only to their own adjustment but also to the development of those around them. These findings deepen the understanding of the "firewall" function of gratitude and highlight the critical role of friendships in mitigating adolescents' maladjustment, offering practical implications for school-based gratitude education.