The Journal of Early Adolescence

This study examines three parenting behaviors (support, involvement, and harsh control) in predicting children’s loneliness and aggression across developmental transitions to adolescence in a Taiwanese sample. Two cohorts (n = 4,990) were followed for 5 years: a younger cohort (first-graders, 51.5%) and an older cohort (fourth-graders). Multilevel modeling for change across time was used to examine the baseline and rate of change of child outcomes. Overall, loneliness decreased and aggression increased across time. Maternal involvement predicted less loneliness at the baseline and a faster decreasing rate of loneliness. Harsh control predicted more aggression and support predicted less aggression at the baseline. Girls showed a faster increasing rate of aggression and slower declining rate of loneliness than boys. The findings highlight the need to identify effective parenting behaviors for loneliness and aggression with acknowledgment of cultural beliefs, and address girls’ aggression. Implications for prevention/intervention in children’s social functioning problems were discussed.

Youth with conduct problems present frequently depressive symptoms. Academic skills are thought to be a mediating variable by which conduct problems could lead to depressive symptoms. No studies have longitudinally compared this model among school-aged boys and girls with different levels of conduct problems. Cascade models were tested to examine the relations between conduct problems, depressive symptoms, and academic skills over a 3-year period, and whether the severity of conduct problems and gender moderated these associations. Participants were 381 children presenting early clinically significant conduct problems (44.9% female) and 363 children with low levels of conduct problems (48.8% female). While results did not show any cascade or indirect associations, they revealed different direct links between conduct problems or depressive symptoms and academic skills in the four groups. These findings suggest that conduct problems severity and gender differences should be considered in treatment planning.

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), this study aimed to identify body mass index (BMI) trajectories from kindergarten to eighth grade using group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM), examine the relationships between BMI trajectories and adolescents’ school achievement (reading and math), determine whether parental warmth had a protective effect on adolescents in the higher BMI groups, and assess whether similar patterns were observed for boys and girls. Three distinct BMI trajectories were identified. Adolescents in the gradually increasing BMI group and consistently higher BMI group were shown to have worse academic achievement compared with adolescents in the consistently low-to-normal BMI group. Parental warmth in eighth grade played a protective role for girls but not for boys, suggesting important gender differences in the role of parental warmth in overweight and obese adolescents’ school achievement. Our results highlighted the importance of intervention programs tailored for specific subgroups of overweight and obese adolescents.

Negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE) represent people’s beliefs that they can use behaviors and cognitions to alleviate unpleasant emotional states. The relationship between NMRE and measures of affect, coping, depression, and anxiety with youth in Grades 4 through 8 (N = 539) was examined. In hierarchical regressions, scores on an NMRE scale predicted depression, but not anxiety, independent of positive affect, negative affect, adaptive coping, and avoidant coping. Results were consistent with those found with college students and adults, suggesting the NMRE construct can add to our understanding of how youth deal with negative moods. Assessing NMRE in youth may help identify those at risk for developing affective symptoms, and provide a useful index of progress in therapeutic interventions.

This study examined changes in subjective well-being (SWB) during early adolescence (seventh grade-ninth grade). We treated SWB as a latent variable, which was measured by life satisfaction, negative emotions, and positive emotions, and employed a growth curve model-to-model change. Aspects of family structure (e.g., parental marital status and members in the household) were included as time-varying covariates. Using a Taiwanese sample (N = 2,510), we found that SWB declined during early adolescence. Furthermore, we found that having an intact family with a discordant marriage was detrimental to SWB at each time point. Moreover, we also found that adolescents from an intact family with a good intra-parental relationship and where grandparents were co-resident experienced better SWB at the second and the last year, respectively, of junior-high school than did their counterparts who stayed in an intact family without cohabiting grandparents.

This study explored the effects of a middle school physical activity intervention for adolescent girls on the executive functioning involved in science learning. The girls, ages 11 to 14, were at risk for low self-esteem, sedentary lifestyle, and poor health outcomes. Executive function stems from interdependent cognitive control processes that influence goal setting and information processing, which complement higher order thinking required for acquiring scientific process skills. A 20-week informal triathlon training program served as the intervention for the treatment girls (n = 29). The comparison group of girls (n = 30) was randomly drawn from a matched sample of students of a similar demographic. Mean comparisons, ANCOVA, and Roy-Bargmann stepdown analysis were used to measure outcomes. The intervention contributed to significant improvement in several executive functions and science achievement. These results suggest that an afterschool program with a physical fitness component may improve the executive functions involved in science learning.