Despite the serious and costly problems presented by juvenile sexual offenders, rigorous tests of promising interventions have rarely been conducted. This study presents a community-based effectiveness trial comparing multisystemic therapy (MST) adapted for juvenile sexual offenders with services that are typical of those provided to juvenile sexual offenders in the United States. Youth were ra...

This research investigates changes in social network size and composition of 351 homeless adolescents over three years. Findings show that network size decreases over time. Homeless youth with a conduct disorder begin street life with small networks that remain small over time. Caregiver abuse is associated with smaller emotional networks due to fewer home ties, especially to parents, and a mor...

The concept of emotional competence as a positive youth development construct is reviewed in this paper. Differences between emotional intelligence and emotional competence are discussed and an operational definition is adopted. Assessment methods of emotional competence with an emphasis on its quantitative nature are introduced. In the discussion of theories of emotional competence, the functi...

BACKGROUND . Subjective social status (SSS) is associated with physical and mental health in diverse samples. However, community, cultural, and ethnic influences on SSS are poorly understood, especially among rural and American Indian populations. OBJECTIVE We aimed to examine similarities and differences in how community poverty, family context, and life course attainment predict SSS among C...

The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) is a self-report measure of juvenile psychopathic traits. Validity data for this measure are limited, especially for nonreferred samples. This report investigated the concurrent validity of the YPI by assessing 171 nonreferred male youth (M age = 12.96 years) with a battery of self-, parent-, and peer-report measures including the Child Behavior Che...

This study investigates the incentives for labor migration of youth in rural China using panel data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, a longitudinal study of youth in rural Gansu Province of China. We investigate the individual and altruistic economic motivations featured prominently in demographic and economic research on migration. However, we propose that the non-economic goal ...

Energy drinks are emerging as a public health threat and are increasingly consumed by youth internationally. Energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine, sugar, and novel ingredients, and are often marketed through youth-oriented media and venues. We review these practices and the current inconsistent state of labeling. We also examine international support for regulation of these products, i...

Few studies have examined the impacts of past, current, and chronic physical bullying and cyberbullying on youth, especially in rural settings. This study augments this scant literature by exploring the school experiences, social support, and mental health outcomes for rural, middle school youth. The participants for this 2-year longitudinal study were 3,127 youth from 28 middle schools. Partic...

Recruiters traditionally attempt to meet their mission by targeting youth who plan to graduate from high school but have no immediate plans to attend college. As discussed in Chapter One, this group has not grown in the last two decades whereas the number of young people attending college right after high school has been rising steadily. This chapter explores whether college-bound youth are lik...

THE INCLUSION OF PLYOMETRICS WITHIN YOUTH-BASED STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING PROGRAMS IS BECOMING MORE POPULAR AS A MEANS TO DEVELOP STRETCHSHORTENING CYCLE ABILITY. PLYOMETRIC TRAINING ADAPTATIONS HAVE PREVIOUSLY BEEN REPORTED FOR RUNNING VELOCITY, POWER, AGILITY, AND RUNNING ECONOMY, AND THEREFORE, ATHLETES SHOULD BE EXPOSED TO THIS TRAINING MODALITY AT SOME POINT DURING THEIR TRAINING PROGRAM. ...