BACKGROUND Perinatal HIV (PHIV) infection may place youth at risk for impairments in executive functioning (EF). We examined associations of EF with HIV infection, disease severity and other factors among youth with PHIV and perinatally HIV-exposed, uninfected youth (PHEU). METHODS Within the US-based Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study, 354 PHIV and 200 PHEU youth completed a standardized EF mea...

Although parental attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for multiple negative youth outcomes, it is unknown how change in parental ADHD symptoms over time affects change in child ADHD symptoms; moreover, mediators of these predictions are largely unknown. Parents of 230 5-10 year-old children (68 % male) with (n = 120) and without ADHD (n = 110) were followed prospect...

BACKGROUND Suicide is the number one cause of death among incarcerated youth. We examined the demographic and forensic risk factors for self-harm in youth in juvenile detention using a Canadian provincial correctional database. METHOD We analyzed data from de-identified youth aged 12 to 18 at the time of their offense who were in custody in a Manitoba youth correctional facility between Janua...

Adolescent sexual risk behavior can lead to serious health consequences, yet few investigations have addressed its neurodevelopmental mechanisms. Social neurocircuitry is postulated to underlie the development of risky sexual behavior, and response to social reward may be especially relevant. Typically developing adolescents (N=47; 18M, 29F; 16.3±1.4years; 42.5% sexual intercourse experience) c...

Bullying is a common experience for many school-aged youth, but the majority of bullying research and intervention does not address the content of bullying behavior, particularly teasing. Understanding the various forms of bullying as well as the language used in bullying is important given that bullying can have persistent consequences, particularly for victims who are bullied through biased-b...

BACKGROUND Racial/ethnic differences in representation, substance use, and its correlates may be linked to differential long-term health outcomes for justice-involved youth. Determining the nature of these differences is critical to informing more efficacious health prevention and intervention efforts. In this study, we employed a theory-based approach to evaluate the nature of these potential ...

Street youth are at risk of HIV infection worldwide. To develop effective prevention strategies, information about the meanings and functions of sexual activity for street youth is needed. In this paper, data from structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and field observations are used to build up a picture of the sexual culture of 9-to-18-year-olds living and/or ...

Suicide is one of the most common causes of death among young people worldwide. Adolescence is a developmentally important phase of age due to the growing risk for suicide and prevalence of psychiatric disorders, as well as due to growing possibilities for prevention and treatments. Research findings in theoretical considerations, in psychological autopsy studies as well as in selected follow-u...

Youth with substantial sexual behavior problems (n = 166) were compared with youth from the same sample with few sexual behavior problems (n = 413) and with no sexual behavior problems (n = 943). It was hypothesized that youth with significant sexual behavior problems would be characterized by higher rates of sexual and physical abuse and higher rates of internalizing problems relative to youth...