Special Section Introduction: Thriving in Context: Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development

The positive youth development perspective, a strength-based relational developmental systems model that focuses on mutually influential relationships between individuals and contexts, has been used to study thriving across the second decade of life. However, more attention has been paid empirically to identifying the features of the individual (e.g., intentional self regulation, hope, or purpose) or to enumerating the role of context-general ecological assets than to the nature of individual-context relationships linked to thriving within specific contexts. The goal of this special section is to provide initial research reports about context-specific instances of the thriving process. The research focuses on two contexts where many youth spend a considerable amount, and often the majority, of their time—school and out-of-school time sports activities.     

Sleep Disturbance and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence: The Role of Catastrophic Worry

Depression is a common and debilitating disorder in adolescence. Sleep disturbances and depression often co-occur with sleep disturbances frequently preceding depression. The current study investigated whether catastrophic worry, a potential cognitive vulnerability, mediates the relationship between adolescent sleep disturbances and depressive symptoms, as well as whether there are gender differences in this relationship. High school students, ages 16–18, n = 1,760, 49 % girls, completed annual health surveys including reports of sleep disturbance, catastrophic worry, and depressive symptoms. Sleep disturbances predicted depressive symptoms 1-year later. Catastrophic worry partially mediated the relationship. Girls reported more sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, and catastrophic worry relative to boys. The results, however, were similar regardless of gender. Sleep disturbances and catastrophic worry may provide school nurses, psychologists, teachers, and parents with non-gender specific early indicators of risk for depression. Several potentially important practical implications, including suggestions for intervention and prevention programs, are highlighted.     

Different Stressors, Different Strategies, Different Outcomes: How Domain-Specific Stress Responses Differentially Predict Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents

As a time of notably increased stress and a marked rise in depressive symptoms, adolescence is a key period in which to examine how stress is related to mental health outcomes. Many studies examine stress as a unitary construct; however, research suggests that how adolescents respond to stress within different domains may differentially predict depression. The current study used an 8-week weekly diary design to assess how adolescents’ cognitive appraisals, rumination, and co-rumination in response to dependent, independent, social, and nonsocial stressors differentially predicted depressive symptoms. Participants were 111 high school students (72 % female) ages 14–19 years (mean age 16.4). Results indicated that rumination and co-rumination about dependent and social events, rather than independent or nonsocial events, prospectively predicted depressive symptoms. Negative cognitive appraisals prospectively predicted depressive symptoms regardless of domain. This study provides support for the hypothesis that adolescents’ responses to stress in different domains differentially predict depressive symptoms.     

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Depressive Symptoms During Middle Adolescence: A Longitudinal Analysis

Previous research has shown a consistent positive association between non-suicidal self-injury and depressive symptoms. However, the direction of the effects has not been examined. To understand whether non-suicidal self-injury predicts depressive symptoms or vice versa, we examined the relations between non-suicidal self-injury and depressive symptoms across three waves of self-report data collected 1 year apart from 506 Swedish adolescents (47 % girls; M age = 13.21; SD = .57) who were attending 7th grade at the onset of the study. The results suggest that depressive symptoms predict increases in non-suicidal self-injury 1 year later between the first and second waves of the study. Between the second and third waves of the study depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury were significantly correlated indicating co-occurrence with no direction of effect rather than depressive symptoms predicting non-suicidal self-injury or vice versa. Group comparisons revealed no differences for boys and girls. The findings help clarify the relationships between non-suicidal self-injury and depressive symptoms during middle adolescence.     

The Impact of Emotional Disturbances on the Arrest Trajectories of Youth as They Transition into Young Adulthood

This article identifies the arrest trajectories of youth from ages 12 through 24 years old and tests hypotheses derived from Moffitt’s developmental taxonomic theory of crime concerning the impact of various emotional disturbances on the specific trajectories of the youth involved. The study uses exclusively administrative data sets and includes a gender and racially diverse sample of 10,360 youth (30.7 % females) who were arrested at least once between ages 12 and 24 in the early 2000s. Latent class growth analysis was employed in order to identify distinct arrest trajectories of youth in the sample. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify diagnostic and other characteristics associated with membership in the specific trajectories predicted by Moffitt’s theory. Five trajectory classes were identified, 3 of which were consistent with taxonomic theory including high and classic adolescence limited trajectory classes and a “snared adolescence limited class” described more recently by Moffitt. The distribution of youth among the 5 classes was very different for those with and without emotional disturbances. Youth with emotional disturbances in their late adolescent years were more likely to fall into the high arrest trajectory class and much less likely to fall into the low arrest trajectory class. Compared to youth without an emotional disturbance, youth with psychotic disorders were more than twice as likely to fall into the high as into the low arrest trajectory class. Youth with disruptive behavior disorders were more than twice as likely to fall into the high and intermediate classes as into the low trajectory class. Anxiety and depressive disorders were not associated with significantly greater likelihood of falling into any one of the trajectory classes. Youth in the snared adolescence limited class were more likely than those in the classic adolescence limited class to be male, black versus white and in the foster care enrollment category lending some support to Moffitt’s conceptualization of this class as an adolescence limited class composed of youth who are snared by involvement in the criminal justice and or social services systems. Implications of these results for public policy and the study of adolescence are discussed.     

The Role of Mentor Type and Timing in Predicting Educational Attainment

Having an adult mentor during adolescence has been found to predict academic success. Building on previous work, the present study examined interactions between the type of mentor (i.e., kin, teacher, friend, or community), the time that mentor became important (i.e., before, during, or after high school), and the ethnicity of the protégé in predicting educational attainment in young adulthood. Analyses used Waves III and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 2,409). Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 27 (M = 21.75, SD = 1.79). The sample was 56.7 % female and nationally representative of ethnic diversity. Analyses showed that having a teacher-mentor was more predictive of educational attainment than having other types of mentors and that overall, having a mentor after high school predicts the most educational attainment. Kin- and community-mentors appeared to be more important to educational attainment during and before high school, respectively. Findings were consistent across ethnic groups. Overall, results highlight the value of teacher-mentors throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood and our study further suggests that different types of mentors may be particularly useful at specific points in development.     

Involved-Vigilant Parenting and Socio-Emotional Well-being Among Black Youth: The Moderating Influence of Natural Mentoring Relationships

Positive relationships with parents and nonparental adults have the potential to bolster Black adolescents’ socio-emotional well-being. Though each type of intergenerational relationship has been linked to more positive youth outcomes, few studies have examined the interactive influences of parenting and natural mentoring relationships on the socio-emotional development of Black youth. In the current study, we examined associations between involved-vigilant parenting and the psychological well-being and social skills of Black early adolescents (n = 259; 58 % female; mean age = 13.56, SD = .96) across types of natural mentoring relationships. Using K-means cluster analysis, we identified two types of mentoring relationships (less connected and more connected) based on relationship length, involvement, closeness, and frequency of contact. Youth with more connected mentoring relationships (n = 123) had higher psychological well-being and social skills than youth with no mentor (n = 64) or less connected mentors (n = 72). Youth without a natural mentor and youth with less connected mentors did not differ in their levels of social skills or psychological well-being. Structural equation modeling was conducted to determine if associations between involved-vigilant parenting and youths’ psychological well-being and social skills varied among youth with a more connected mentoring relationship in comparison to youth without a mentor or with a less connected mentor, controlling for participants’ gender, age, school, and parental education. The positive associations between involved-vigilant parenting and adolescents’ psychological well-being and social skills were weaker among adolescents with a more connected mentoring relationship in comparison to their peers without or with a less connected mentoring relationship. These results suggest that youth may be more strongly influenced by involved-vigilant parenting in the absence of a strongly connected natural mentoring relationship.     

Cultural Stressors and Mental Health Symptoms Among Mexican Americans: A Prospective Study Examining the Impact of the Family and Neighborhood Context

Studies of stress consistently have linked individuals’ experiences of stress to maladjustment, but limited attention has been given to cultural stressors commonly experienced by minority individuals. To address this, the current study examined the links between cultural stressors and prospective changes in mental health symptoms in a sample of 710 (49 % female) Mexican American youth. In addition, the moderating role of both family and neighborhood cohesion was examined. In-home interviews were completed with youth, mothers (required) and fathers (optional) to collect data on youth’s experiences of cultural stressors (discrimination and language hassles) and internalizing/externalizing behavior, and mothers’ report of family cohesion and mothers’ and fathers’ report of neighborhood cohesion. Analyses revealed that youth’s experiences of discrimination and language hassles at 5th grade were related positively to increases in internalizing symptoms at 7th grade. Additionally, youths who reported higher levels of language hassles in 5th grade experienced increases in externalizing symptoms across the 2-year span. Both family and neighborhood cohesion emerged as significant moderating factors but their impact was conditional on youth’s gender and nativity. Limitations and future implications are discussed.     

Attributes that Differentiate Children Who Sip Alcohol from Abstinent Peers

Sipping alcohol during childhood may be a marker of differentiation as regards children’s future risk of underage drinking; yet very little is known about alcohol use when it occurs among elementary school-aged children. The purpose of the present study is to examine alcohol sipping behavior in a sample of third-grade school children to learn whether sipping is associated with attributes that could increase children’s likelihood of further underage drinking. We collected telephone interview data from 1,050 mothers and their third grade children (mean age 9.2 years; 48.2 % male) residing in the Southeastern United States. The majority of mothers were White non-Hispanic (69.02 %) or Black non-Hispanic (21.3 %); most (85 %) lived in households shared with fathers or other adult caretakers. We hypothesized that children who sip alcohol would score lower than abstinent peers on indicators of competence and score higher on indicators of exposure to alcohol-specific socialization by parents and peers. A multivariate model controlling for frequency of parent alcohol use and demographic covariates showed that children who had sipped alcohol were significantly less likely than abstinent peers to affirm indicators of competence and significantly more likely to affirm indicators of exposure to alcohol specific socialization by parents and by same age peers. These preliminary findings suggest that developmental attributes associated with risk of underage drinking begin to differentiate at least as young as middle childhood. Research is needed to test prospectively for continuity between alcohol risk attributes present in middle childhood and future alcohol use.     

The Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence among LGBTQ College Youth: The Role of Minority Stress

Preliminary research suggests that partner violence is a problem among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) college youth. However, there is no study to date with college youth on the factors associated with perpetration of same-sex partner violence, which is needed to inform prevention efforts specific to this population. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to assess how facets of minority stress (i.e., sexual-orientation-related victimization, sexual minority stigma, internalized homonegativity, sexual identity concealment) relate to physical, sexual, and psychological partner violence perpetration among LGBTQ college youth (N = 391; 49 % identified as men; 72 % Caucasian; M age: 20.77 years). At the bivariate level, physical perpetration was related to identity concealment and internalized homonegativity; sexual perpetration was related to internalized homonegativity; and psychological perpetration was related to sexual-orientation-related victimization. However, at the multivariate level (after controlling for concurrent victimization), psychological perpetration was unrelated to minority stress variables, whereas physical and sexual perpetration were both related to internalized homonegativity; physical perpetration was also related to identity concealment. These results underscore the utility of understanding partner violence among LGBTQ youth through a minority stress framework. Moreover, the current study highlights the need for a better understanding of factors that mediate and moderate the relationship between minority stress and partner violence perpetration among LGBTQ youth in order to inform prevention and intervention efforts.