The role of children's future expectations in self-system functioning and adjustment to life stress: A prospective study of urban at-risk children

Adolescent Mental Health and Resilience Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

PURPOSE

We aimed to assess levels of depression, anxiety, and resilience factors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a school sample of adolescents. We also aimed to examine the compensatory and protective effects of individual, family, and school resilience factors on adolescent mental health.

METHODS

We used fall 2019 and fall 2020 survey responses from a cluster randomized controlled trial implemented in 20 schools in a Midwestern county. The sample consisted of 3,085 responses from students in grades 5 and 6. Multilevel mixed-effects models with cluster robust standard errors were used to investigate the associations between exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health (anxiety, depression), and resilience factors (future orientation, family engagement, and having a caring school adult).

RESULTS

Anxiety, but not depression, was higher in fall 2020 compared to fall 2019. Family engagement increased during the pandemic, while future orientation of the student body was lower during that time and the prevalence of having a caring adult at school was unchanged. A positive future orientation was associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression, while having a caring school adult was associated with lower depression. Adolescents with less positive future orientations, low family engagement, and no caring school adults experienced the greatest increases in anxiety.

DISCUSSION

Positive future orientations, family engagement, and supportive nonparental adult relationships had compensatory and protective effects on adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding these measures to the inventory of modifiable resilience factors during natural disasters may promote healthy adaptation among adolescents.

Long-term consequences of mothers' and fathers' wartime deployments: Protocol for a two-wave panel study

Multiple adjustment difficulties have been associated with children's exposure to recent parental wartime military deployments, but long-term consequences have not yet been systematically studied. This investigation will assess direct and indirect relationships between exposures to parental deployments early in life and later youth adjustment. Parents' psychological health and family processes will be examined as mediators, and parents' and children's vulnerability and support will be examined as moderators. Archival data will be combined with new data gathered from two children and up to two parents in families where children will be aged 11 to 16 at the first data collection and will have experienced at least one parental deployment, for at least one child prior to age 6. Data are being gathered via telephone interviews and web-based surveys conducted twice one year apart. Outcomes are indicators of children's social-emotional development, behavior, and academic performance. Notable features of this study include oversampling of female service members, inclusion of siblings, and inclusion of families of both veterans and currently serving members. This study has potentially important implications for schools, community organizations and health care providers serving current and future cohorts of military and veteran families.

Revisiting the power of future expectations and educational path dependencies

Individuals from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and those with loftier future expectations typically have higher educational attainment. However, it is important to understand just how consequential future expectations are for educational attainment independent of socioeconomic origins-because these expectations might enable intergenerational social mobility. Moreover, it is unclear whether institutional structures moderate the influences of socioeconomic origins and future expectations on educational attainment. I address these questions by analyzing educational attainment as it relates to transitions in a system that offers multiple educational tracks. Using data from a 15-year longitudinal study conducted in Switzerland (N = 4986), I analyze transitions from lower- to upper-secondary education (academic vs. vocational tracks) and from there to university. Path models reveal that both socioeconomic origins and future expectations are significantly associated with individuals' probability of moving along academic paths and into university, but future expectations have a strong unique predictive power even when controlling for socioeconomic origins. However, because the education system partially channels educational trajectories along distinct educational tracks, it minimizes the beneficial effect of future expectations on educational attainment and-by extension-intergenerational social mobility. I conclude that socioeconomic advantage and optimistic future expectations may only shape educational attainment to the extent that institutional opportunity structures allow such resources to take effect.

Perceived Discrimination in School: a Longitudinal Look at the Impact on Expectations and Health

The purpose of the study was to look at levels of perceived discrimination in school among students of different races and to assess whether there are significant short- or long-term effects as they develop. This study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which is a multi-stage nationally representative study of individuals who were in 7th-12th grade during the 1994-1995 school year. Responses on teacher discrimination items showed that Black students reported the highest levels of perceived teacher discrimination. Educational expectations were lowest for Hispanic students. At wave three, participants who identified their race/ethnicity as Hispanic or other reported the worst overall health, whereas at wave four, White participants had significantly better overall health than the other three groups. Teacher discrimination was found to be a significant predictor for educational expectations, income expectations, and overall health eight and 15 years later. When stratified by race, higher teacher discrimination predicted lower educational expectations and poorer overall health eight years later for Black, Hispanic, and White students.

Latinx college students' anxiety, academic stress, and future aspirations: the role of sibling relationship quality

Latinx students experience stress at higher rates than European-American college-students in the U.S. and report the highest levels of anxiety among all other college-students, which can be a potential barrier to success. However, family members are identified as important sources of support by Latinx young-adults, and feeling support from family indicates a higher likelihood to remain enrolled in college. Few studies have explored the role of siblings in this relationship. This study examined whether positive and negative relationship qualities (RQ) between Latinx siblings may interact with level of anxiety, predicting academic stress (AS) and future aspirations (FA). Findings indicated that younger siblings with high anxiety and high negative RQ experienced higher levels of AS, while older siblings with low or mean-level anxiety and high negative RQ experienced high AS. Younger siblings with low anxiety, and high negative RQ with older siblings experienced low FA. The findings provide evidence that sibling relationship quality in Latinx students moderates the associations with anxiety, academic stress, and future aspirations, and that the presence of negative relationship qualities carried particular implications for future aspirations and academic stress. Understanding the influence of Latinx sibling RQ on mental health and AS can offer insight into the role of sibling relationships in the context of health, academic retention, and success in Latinx young people.

Factors Related to Personal Resiliency in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Adolescents

Hearing loss is a risk factor for a child's appropriate psychosocial development but is not a risk factor for the development of resiliency. Thus, the aim of this research was to determine the level of resiliency, as well as its relation to internal and external factors, in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) adolescents. The sample included 55 DHH students, 12-14 years of age. Resiliency Scales for Children & Adolescents was used in this research. The obtained results showed that DHH students perceived their resiliency in the average range, except in subscales: Self-efficacy (within Sense of Mastery Scale), Social Support (within Sense of Relatedness Scale), Impairment (within Emotional Reactivity Scale) in which the results were within a higher range, and Recovery (within Emotional Reactivity Scale) in which the results were in a lower range.

Diurnal Cortisol in a Sample of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Chinese Children: Evidence for the Shift-and-Persist Hypothesis

OBJECTIVE

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most well-established social determinants of health. However, little is known about what can protect the health of individuals (especially children) living in low-SES circumstances. This study explored whether the psychological strategy of "shift-and-persist" protects low-SES children from stress-related physiological risks, as measured through blunted (unhealthy) diurnal cortisol profiles.

METHODS

A sample of 645 children (aged 8-15 years) from low-SES backgrounds and having at least one HIV-positive parent completed a battery of psychological scales. Diurnal cortisol assessments included collection of saliva samples four times a day for 3 days, from which three cortisol parameters (cortisol at awakening, cortisol awakening response, and cortisol slope) were derived.

RESULTS

Higher levels of shift-and-persist, considered as a single variable, were associated with higher cortisol at awakening (B = 0.0119, SE = 0.0034, p < .001) and a steeper cortisol slope (B = -0.0007, SE = 0.0003, p = .023). These associations remained significant after adjusting for covariates and did not vary by age. In supplementary analyses, where shifting and persisting were treated as separate variables, the interaction between these two coping strategies significantly predicted cortisol at awakening (B = 0.0250, SE = 0.0107, p = .020) and the cortisol slope (B = -0.0022, SE = 0.0011, p = .040), suggesting that the combination of shift-and-persist is important for predicting diurnal cortisol profiles.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrate that shift-and-persist is associated with healthier diurnal cortisol profiles among socioeconomically disadvantaged children and introduce the possibility that this coping strategy is protective against other stressors, such as those uniquely faced by children in our study (i.e., being affected by parental HIV).

Pathways linking family stress to youth delinquency and substance use: Exploring the mediating roles of self-efficacy and future orientation

African American adolescents in poorer neighborhoods experience significant sanctions related to drug use and delinquency. Parental stress (i.e. substance use, mental distress, and incarceration) is associated with youth drug use and delinquency. We examined whether high self-esteem and positive future orientation mediated parental stress and youth substance use and delinquency. Demographic, family stress, future orientation, self-esteem, and drug use data were collected from 578 youths. Major findings indicated that self-esteem mediated the relationship between family stress and both drug use and delinquency. Future mediated the relationship between family stress and delinquency. Resiliency factors may promote positive development for low-income youth.

Psychological Distress and Revictimization Risk in Youth Victims of Sexual Abuse

Psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, has been associated with increased risk for sexual revictimization in youth who have experienced child sexual abuse. The present study utilized assessment information from treatment seeking youth with histories of sexual abuse to explore specific risk indicators for revictimization-risk taking, social problems, maladaptive cognitions, and posttraumatic stress-that may be indicated by self-reported distress. The relationship between initial levels of distress and change in symptoms over a 12-week course of treatment was also explored. Participants were 101 youth referred to a child-focused therapeutic group for victims of sexual abuse, 65 youth referred to an adolescent-focused group, and their non-offending caregivers. Results revealed that when combined into a distress score, depression and anxiety were associated with delinquent behaviors, interpersonal difficulties, maladaptive cognitions, and posttraumatic stress symptoms for child and adolescent group participants at presentation to treatment. Children exhibited improvement on measures of interpersonal difficulties, maladaptive cognitions, and self-reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Adolescents exhibited less change over time, with significant improvement on self-reported social problems and PTSD only. Higher psychological distress was associated with less improvement in regard to negative expectations of abuse impact for child group participants. The findings suggest that distress indicates the presence of specific revictimization risk indicators, helping to identify targetable symptoms for intervention. Therefore, screening for psychological distress after discovery of sexual abuse may help detect youth at higher risk for revictimization and guide treatment.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and future expectations in Russian adolescents

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the role of future expectations-the extent to which a future outcome is deemed likely-in the health and well-being of adolescents, with research linking future expectations to outcomes such as an increased likelihood of engaging in risky health behaviors. As yet, however, there has been no research on future expectations and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adolescence. To address this research gap, the current study examined the association between ADHD symptoms/possible ADHD status and future expectations in a school-based sample of adolescents. Data were analyzed from 537 Russian adolescents (aged 12-17) with teacher-reported ADHD symptoms and self-reported future expectations. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine associations. In fully adjusted analyses, inattention symptoms/possible ADHD inattentive status was associated with lower future educational expectations, while a possible ADHD hyperactivity status was associated with increased odds for negative future expectations relating to work, family and succeeding in what is most important. The findings of this study suggest that greater ADHD symptoms/possible ADHD status in adolescence may be linked to an increased risk for negative future expectations across a variety of different life domains.

The Japanese Version of the Adolescent Time Inventory-Time Attitudes (ATI-TA) Scale: Internal Consistency, Structural Validity, and Convergent Validity

In this study, we translated the Adolescent Time Inventory-Time Attitudes (ATI-TA) scale into Japanese and examined the internal consistency and structural and convergent validity of ATI-TA scores in a sample of 383 Japanese high school students aged 15 to 18 years. The ATI-TA consists of six subscales assessing two valences (positive and negative) for each of three time periods (past, present, and future). Internal consistency estimates for scores on the ATI-TA were over .79. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a six-factor model yielded the best fit to scores. Correlations among ATI-TA scores, time attitudes assessed by the semantic differential method, educational career planning, and self-esteem were consistent with our hypotheses. Our results provide evidence that scores on the Japanese version of the ATI-TA are reliable and valid, and thus potentially useful for research in this cultural context.

Urban-centric resilience in search of theoretical stabilisation? A phased thematic and conceptual review

Over the last decades 'resilience' has particularly arisen as an attractive perspective with respect to cities. As cities continue to expand, their susceptibility to uncertainties and new challenges, such as climate change, has increased, rendering 'urban resilience' an increasingly favoured concept in the realm of Urban Development, Planning and Management (UDPM). Despite recent reviews, an updated analysis of the concept is required to understand whether there is in fact scientific evidence to support the expansion and favouring of 'urban resilience' in UDPM. The need to understand how the concept evolved is further emphasised by the need to perceive how the distinct sciences have contributed to its development, and which were the focuses and conceptual underpinnings of such evolution. Thus, the objective of this paper is to provide a broader review of the multidimensional concept of 'urban resilience', while understanding how distinct research fields have contributed to its inception and expansion, and how distinct conceptualisations of resilience have influenced its evolution. Supported by a bibliometric analysis of urban-centric publications, this paper highlights the recent extensive growth and expanding application of 'urban resilience' to distinct research fields, as well as an apparent theoretical stabilisation of the concept, which reemphasises the idea of a three-dimensional conceptual resilience perspective in scientific literature: (1) 'engineering', (2) 'ecological', and (3) 'social-ecological resilience'. Consequently, this research emphasises that, if the related conceptual underpinnings are clear, 'urban resilience' can potentially serve as an 'integrative metaphor', adapted by diverse stakeholders, to reinforce UDPM initiatives.

A Review of Factors that Promote Resilience in Youth with ADHD and ADHD Symptoms

The vast majority of research on youth with ADHD has focused on risk factors and describing the types of impairment individuals with ADHD experience. However, functional outcomes associated with ADHD are heterogeneous, and although many youth with ADHD experience significant negative outcomes (e.g., school dropout), some are successful in multiple domains of functioning (e.g., pursue and graduate college). There is a growing body of literature supporting the existence of factors that protect youth with ADHD from experiencing negative outcomes, but there is no published synthesis of this literature. Accordingly, the goals of this review are to conceptualize risk-resilience in the context of ADHD using a developmental psychopathology framework and to systematically review and critique evidence for promotive and protective factors in the context of ADHD. The literature search focused specifically on resilience in the context of ADHD symptoms or an ADHD diagnosis and identified 21 studies, including clinic, school, and community samples. Findings of promotive and/or protective factors are summarized across individual, family, and social-community systems. Overall, we know very little of the buffering processes for these youth, given that the study of promotive and protective factors in ADHD is in its infancy. The strongest evidence to date was found for social- and family-level systems. Specifically, multiple longitudinal studies support social acceptance as a protective factor, buffering against negative outcomes such as poor academic performance and comorbid depressive symptoms for youth with ADHD. There was also compelling evidence supporting positive parenting as a promotive factor. In terms of individual-level factors, positive or modest self-perceptions of competence were identified as a promotive factor in multiple studies. Future directions for research that will catalyze the study of resilience with ADHD are provided, and the potential for targeting protective mechanisms with intervention and prevention is discussed.

"I Have Strong Hopes for the Future": Time Orientations and Resilience Among Canadian Indigenous Youth

In this article, we demonstrate how concepts of time and the future inform processes of resilience among Indigenous adolescents within an urban Canadian context. This study employed a modified grounded theory methodology by conducting 38 qualitative interviews with 28 Indigenous youth (ages 15-25) over the course of 1 year. The analysis revealed complex processes of and navigations between moments of distress and strategies for resilience. The distressing contexts in which Indigenous youth often find themselves can impact the development of their concepts of time and limit their abilities to conceptualize a future. A future time orientation (FTO) emerged as central to processes of resilience and was supported by (a) nurturing a sense of belonging, (b) developing self-mastery, and

Changes in Substance Use Symptoms Across Adolescence in Youth Perinatally Infected with HIV

The paper utilizes data collected at three time points in a longitudinal study of perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV+) and a comparison group of perinatally exposed but HIV-uninfected (PHEU) youths in the United States (N = 325). Using growth curve modeling, the paper examines changes in substance use symptoms among PHIV+ and PHEU youths as they transition through adolescence, and assesses the individual and contextual factors associated with the rate of change in substance use symptoms. Findings indicate that substance use symptoms increased over time among PHIV+ youths, but not among PHEU youths. The rate of change in these symptoms was positively associated with an increasing number of negative life events. Study findings underscore the need for early, targeted interventions for PHIV+ youths, and interventions to reduce adversities and their deleterious effects in vulnerable populations.

Adolescents' future orientation and nonmedical use of prescription drugs

INTRODUCTION

How adolescents think about their future (i.e., future orientation) impacts their risk-taking behavior. The purpose of the present analysis was to explore whether future orientation (future planning, perceived risk to future goals, and positive future expectations) was associated with nonmedical use of stimulants and analgesics in a sample of high school students.

METHODS

Information on future orientation and nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) were collected using a paper-and-pencil survey from a sample of 9th-12th grade students in a Midwestern school.

RESULTS

Higher perceived risk to future goals and positive future expectations were associated with a lower likelihood of self-reported nonmedical use of stimulants (n=250; OR=0.46, 95% CI: 0.26, 0.83; OR=0.15, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.47, respectively). Only higher perceived risk to future goals was associated with a lower likelihood of self-reported nonmedical use of analgesics (n=250; OR=0.40, 95% CI: 0.24, 0.68). In a follow-up analysis limited to students who endorsed alcohol or marijuana use, perceived risk to future goals remained associated with a lower likelihood of nonmedical use of stimulants and analgesics.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that risk perception might be a salient protective factor against both nonmedical use of stimulants and analgesics. Overall, the differential impact of conceptualizations of future orientation might depend on the class of prescription drug used, demonstrating a need to consider prescription drugs individually in the development of future studies and interventions.

Reciprocal Effects of Positive Future Expectations, Threats to Safety, and Risk Behavior Across Adolescence

We examined the reciprocal relationships among positive future expectations, expected threats to future safety, depression, and individual substance use and delinquency using 4 waves of data (N = 248-338) from African American and Latino adolescent male participants in the Chicago Youth Development Study. Individual positive future expectations and expected threats to safety were assessed at each wave and modeled as latent constructs. Individual substance use and delinquency were assessed at each wave and represented as ordinal variables ranging from low to high. Categorical autoregressive cross-lagged structural models were used to examine the hypothesized reciprocal relationships between both aspects of future expectations construct and risk behavior across adolescence. Analyses show that future expectations has important effects on youth substance use and involvement in delinquency, both of which in turn decrease positive expectations and increase expectation of threats to future safety across adolescence. Similarly, low positive expectations for the future continued to predict increased substance use and involvement in delinquency. The expected threats to safety construct was significantly correlated with delinquency within time. These effects are observed across adolescence after controlling for youth depression and race. Findings support the reciprocal effects hypothesis of a negative reinforcing cycle in the relationships between future expectations and both substance use and involvement in delinquent behavior across adolescence. The enduring nature of these relationships underscores the importance of future expectation as a potential change mechanism for intervention and prevention efforts to promote healthy development; vulnerable racial and ethnic minority male adolescents may especially benefit from such intervention.

Gender Differences in African American Adolescents' Personal, Educational, and Occupational Expectations and Perceptions of Neighborhood Quality

This study was conducted in an effort to generate information toward fostering academic outcomes among African American adolescents. Gender differences in African American adolescents' personal, educational, and occupational expectations were examined in relation to perceptions of neighborhood quality. Participants included 352 African American adolescents residing in an urban area. Measures were self-reported expectations and perceptions of neighborhood quality. Regression analyses indicated that (a) expectations were positively associated with perceptions of neighborhood quality, (b) female adolescents reported more positive expectations than male adolescents, and (c) the association between expectations and perceptions of neighborhood quality depended on gender, with male adolescents who rated their neighborhood higher in quality reporting higher personal and educational expectations than male adolescents who rated their neighborhood poorer in quality. Implications of this study for programs and research that focus on academic outcomes and neighborhoods of African American adolescents are discussed.

Assessing future expectations of low-income minority young men: Survival-threats and positive expectations

Future expectations, a subset of overall orientation, represent youths' most realistic appraisals of future outcomes, and has been demonstrated to be associated with a range of health risk behaviors and wellbeing. The current study extends previous measurement efforts to operationalize and measure future expectations by estimating a multidimensional model of future expectations encompassing both positive and survival-based expectations, and using longitudinal data to test the consistency of these constructs over time. The current work uses data from six waves of the Chicago Youth Development Study (n=338), a sample of African American and Latino young men from low income neighborhoods in an urban center, to test a hypothesized multidimensional structure of future expectations across adolescence. Test retest confirmatory factor analyses from six waves of data covering the mean age range of 12 to 19 years reveal good model fit for the hypothesized multidimensional model of future expectations at each wave. Strong measurement invariance based on race/ethnicity is established for the multidimensional model. Implications for a latent construct approach to future expectations with low-income racial/ethnic minority young men are discussed.

Resilience: A Dynamic Perspective

Identifying characteristics that distinguish youth who achieve adaptive outcomes in the face of adversity from those who do not has furthered our understanding of developmental psychopathology. However, accumulating evidence indicates that particular characteristics rarely serve exclusively risk or protective functions, that individuals who seem resilient on one index often do not seem so on other indices, and that individuals often are not equally resilient across contexts. These findings call for a dynamic conceptualisation of resiliency that can account for why the ways children cope with stressors vary across domain, development, and context. We organise resiliency research into a framework based on a recently proposed dynamic conceptualisation of personality (Mischel & Shoda, 1995). This framework assumes that understanding why some children show resilience in the face of adversity whereas others show difficulties requires identifying: (a) the content of and relational structure among relevant psychological mediators such as competencies, expectancies, values, and goals; and (b) the relation between these psychological mediators and relevant features of the environment. To illustrate the potential of this approach to further our understanding of resiliency, we examine and reconsider the link between IQ and conduct problems.

Promoting Positive Future Expectations During Adolescence: The Role of Assets

Positive future expectations can facilitate optimal development and contribute to healthier outcomes for youth. Researchers suggest that internal resources and community-level factors may influence adolescent future expectations, yet little is known about the processes through which these benefits are conferred. The present study examined the relationship between contribution to community, neighborhood collective efficacy, purpose, hope and future expectations, and tested a mediation model that linked contribution to community and collective efficacy with future expectations through purpose and hope in a sample of 7th grade youth (N = 196; Mage = 12.39; 60 % female; 40 % African American; 71 % economically disadvantaged). Greater collective efficacy and contribution to community predicted higher levels of hope and purpose. Higher levels of hope and purpose predicted more positive future expectations. Contribution to community and neighborhood collective efficacy indirectly predicted future expectations via hope. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Cumulative Disadvantage and Youth Well-Being: A Multi-Domain Examination with Life Course Implications

PURPOSE

The accumulation of disadvantage has been shown to increase psychosocial stressors that impact life course well-being. This study tests for significant differences, based on disadvantage exposure, on youths' emotional and physical health, as well as family supports, peer assets, and academic success, which hold potential for resilience and amelioration of negative health outcomes.

METHODS

A 12 item cumulative disadvantage summed index derived from surveys of a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of urban high school seniors (n=9,658) was used to distinguish youth at low, moderate, and high levels.

RESULTS

Findings supported hypothesized stepped patterns such that as multiple disadvantages accumulate, a concomitant decline is evident across the assessed outcome variables (except positive academic identity). Post-hoc tests indicated a pattern of groups being significantly different from one another.

DISCUSSION

Overall, results lend support for an additive stress load associated with stacked disadvantage, with implications for continuing trends into adulthood as well as preventive interventions.

Exploring Mexican American adolescent romantic relationship profiles and adjustment

Although Mexican Americans are the largest ethnic minority group in the nation, knowledge is limited regarding this population's adolescent romantic relationships. This study explored whether 12th grade Mexican Americans' (N = 218; 54% female) romantic relationship characteristics, cultural values, and gender created unique latent classes and if so, whether they were linked to adjustment. Latent class analyses suggested three profiles including, relatively speaking, higher, satisfactory, and lower quality romantic relationships. Regression analyses indicated these profiles had distinct associations with adjustment. Specifically, adolescents with higher and satisfactory quality romantic relationships reported greater future family expectations, higher self-esteem, and fewer externalizing symptoms than those with lower quality romantic relationships. Similarly, adolescents with higher quality romantic relationships reported greater academic self-efficacy and fewer sexual partners than those with lower quality romantic relationships. Overall, results suggested higher quality romantic relationships were most optimal for adjustment. Future research directions and implications are discussed.

Future orientation: a construct with implications for adolescent health and wellbeing

Multidisciplinary research has supported a relationship between adolescent future orientation (the ability to set future goals and plans) and positive adolescent health and development outcomes. Many preventive strategies - for example, contracepting, exercising - are based on taking actions in the present to avoid unwanted or negative future consequences. However, research has been hampered by unclear and often divergent conceptualizations of the future orientation construct. The present paper aims to integrate previous conceptual and operational definitions into a conceptual framework that can inform programs and services for youth and efforts to evaluate future orientation as a target for intervention. Recommendations focus on furthering the study of the construct through measurement synthesis as well as studies of the normative development of future orientation. Also suggested is the need to pair environmental intervention strategies with individual level efforts to improve future orientation in order to maximize benefits.

Depressive symptoms and immune response to meningococcal conjugate vaccine in early adolescence

Research findings in psychoneuroimmunology document reliable, bidirectional linkages among psychological processes, the nervous system, and the immune system. However, available data are based almost entirely on animal and adult human studies; the application to children and adolescents is uncertain. We capitalized on the experimental leverage provided by a routine vaccination to examine the link between mood symptoms and the immune response to a vaccine challenge in early adolescence. One hundred twenty-six 11-year-olds for whom vaccine response data were available were assessed at prevaccination and 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months following vaccination; self-report ratings of depression and anxiety as well as measures of psychosocial and somatic risk were assessed prior to vaccine response. Analyses indicated that children's internalizing mood symptoms were associated with elevated and persistently higher antibody responses, with evidence extending to two of the four serogroups. The associations remained after controlling for multiple possible confounders (social class, body mass index, sleep, psychosocial risk, and pubertal status). The observed enhanced vaccine response associated with depressive and anxious symptoms in early adolescence may reflect an important developmental difference in immune system-brain interplay between adults and children, and it underscores the need for further developmental studies of psychoneuroimmunology.

Positive pathways to adulthood: the role of hope in adolescents' constructions of their futures

Hope has been studied within various disciplines since at least the 1950s, as researchers have attempted to describe, explain, and predict the association between human functioning and this seemingly vital-yet often abstract-construct. Recent work by Snyder and colleagues identified future goal orientation as a necessary component of hope. For developmental scientists, understanding the associations between hope and intentional self regulation strategies that may help young people achieve their goals could provide insight into the positive development of youth. In this chapter, we present a developmental systems framework for elucidating the links between hope and adaptive developmental outcomes, and we discuss recent research that provides evidence for the relationship between hopeful future expectations and thriving in the adolescent period. Finally, we provide guidelines for taking the next steps in not only assessing hope among diverse youth, but also in harnessing that hope for positive constructions of adolescents' pathways to adulthood.

Thriving in the shadow of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake: Two studies on resilience in adolescents

The objective of the current study was to explore the relationship between resilience and psychological adjustment in Chinese adolescents who experienced the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Study 1 compared the scores and factor structures on the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents for 1436 adolescents, who were divided into a high-adversity group and a low-adversity group. The results showed that resilience following exposure to an earthquake included cognitive and emotive components. In Study 2, 311 Chinese adolescents who resided in the most severely affected areas were surveyed at 15 months (T1) and 20 months (T2) following the earthquake. The results revealed that resilience mediated the relationship between positive future expectations at T1 and adjustment at T2.

Future expectations among adolescents: a latent class analysis

Future expectations have been important predictors of adolescent development and behavior. Its measurement, however, has largely focused on single dimensions and misses potentially important components. This analysis investigates whether an empirically-driven, multidimensional approach to conceptualizing future expectations can substantively contribute to our understanding of adolescent risk behavior. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to derive subpopulations of adolescents based on their future expectations with latent class analysis. Multinomial regression then determines which covariates from Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory are associated with class membership. After modeling these covariates, we examine whether future expectations is associated with delinquency, substance use, and sexual experience. Our analysis suggests the emergence of four distinct classes labeled the Student Expectations, Student/Drinking Expectations, Victim Expectations, and Drinking/Arrest Expectations classes according to their indicator profiles. These classes differ with respect to covariates associated with membership; furthermore, they are all statistically and differentially associated with at least one adolescent risk behavior. This analysis demonstrates the additional benefit derived from using this multidimensional approach for studying future expectations. Further research is needed to investigate its stability and role in predicting adolescent risk behavior over time.

Parents' participation in a work-based anti-poverty program can enhance their children's future orientation: understanding pathways of influence

Planning and preparing for life after high school is a central developmental task of American adolescents, and may be even more critical for low-income youth who are less likely to attend a four year college. This study investigates factors that led to the effects of the New Hope Project, a work-based, anti-poverty program directed at parents on youths' career-related thoughts and planning. The New Hope project was implemented in Milwaukee, WI, during the mid-1990s. 745 families participated (52% male children; 56% African American; 30% Latino, and 15% White non-Hispanic) and half were randomly selected to receive New Hope benefits, which included earnings supplements, job search assistance, and child and health care subsidies for 3 years. Importantly, effects on youths' future orientation were found 8 years after the program began (5 years after benefits ended). The present study investigates what factors sustained these positive impacts over time. Results indicate that parental perceptions of reading performance mediate the effects of New Hope on youths' cynicism about work. Additionally, parental perceptions of reading performance and youths' educational expectations mediate the effects of New Hope on boys' pessimism about future employment. These findings highlight the importance of youths' educational development to their career-related thoughts and planning.

Direct protective and buffering protective factors in the development of youth violence

This article discusses conceptual issues and reviews knowledge about direct and buffering protective factors in the development of youth violence. Direct protective factors predict a low probability of violence, whereas buffering protective factors predict a low probability of violence in the presence of risk (and often interact with risk factors). Individual, family, school, peer, and neighborhood factors are reviewed. Heterogeneity of variables, measurement, contexts, study design, sample, and other characteristics limit generalizations. However, there were various evidence-based candidates for having a direct protective or buffering protective effect such as above-average intelligence, low impulsivity/easy temperament, enhanced anxiety, prosocial attitudes, high heart rate, close relationship to at least one parent, intensive parental supervision, medium SES of the family, sound academic achievement, strong school bonding, a positive school/class climate, nondeviant peers, and living in a nondeprived and nonviolent neighborhood. The probability of violence decreases as the number of protective factors increases (a dose-response relationship). Implications for future research and practice concern adequate research designs to detect nonlinear relationships; conceptually and methodologically homogeneous studies; differentiated analyses with regard to age, gender, and other characteristics; and greater integration of longitudinal correlational research with (quasi-)experimental intervention studies.

Constructing positive futures: modeling the relationship between adolescents' hopeful future expectations and intentional self regulation in predicting positive youth development

Intentional self regulation and hopeful expectations for the future are theoretically-related constructs shown to lead to positive youth development (PYD). However, the nature of their relationship over time has not been tested. Therefore, this study explored the associations between hopeful future expectations and intentional self regulation in predicting positive developmental outcomes. Participants were in Grades 7, 8, and 9 of the 4-H Study of PYD (N = 1311), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents. A cross-lagged panel analysis using Structural Equation Modeling assessed the relations among hopeful future expectations and intentional self regulation across time in predicting PYD. Results indicated that earlier hopeful expectations for the future may be influential for later intentional self-regulation abilities, although both constructs were strong predictors of PYD in middle adolescence. We discuss implications for research and practice of hopeful expectations in adolescents' constructions of their positive futures.

Development of a multi-dimensional measure of resilience in adolescents: the Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire

Background

The concept of resilience has captured the imagination of researchers and policy makers over the past two decades. However, despite the ever growing body of resilience research, there is a paucity of relevant, comprehensive measurement tools. In this article, the development of a theoretically based, comprehensive multi-dimensional measure of resilience in adolescents is described.

Methods

Extensive literature review and focus groups with young people living with chronic illness informed the conceptual development of scales and items. Two sequential rounds of factor and scale analyses were undertaken to revise the conceptually developed scales using data collected from young people living with a chronic illness and a general population sample.

Results

The revised Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire comprises 93 items and 12 scales measuring resilience factors in the domains of self, family, peer, school and community. All scales have acceptable alpha coefficients. Revised scales closely reflect conceptually developed scales.

Conclusions

It is proposed that, with further psychometric testing, this new measure of resilience will provide researchers and clinicians with a comprehensive and developmentally appropriate instrument to measure a young person's capacity to achieve positive outcomes despite life stressors.

Assessing the effects of a work-based antipoverty program for parents on youth's future orientation and employment experiences

The impacts of New Hope, a 3-year work-based antipoverty program to increase parent employment and reduce poverty, on youth ages 9-19 (N = 866) were assessed 5 years after parents left the program. New Hope had positive effects on the future orientation and employment experiences of boys, especially African American boys. Compared to boys in control group families, boys in program group families were less cynical about work, less pessimistic about their employment prospects, and more involved in employment and career preparation. They also worked for longer periods during the school year than did control group boys. Comparable effects were not found for girls. The developmental significance of the findings, possible processes that led to the impacts, and the policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Introducing English and German Versions of the Adolescent Time Attitude Scale

In this study, the authors report on the development of English and German versions of the Adolescent Time Attitude Scale (ATAS). The ATAS consists of six subscales assessing Past Positive, Past Negative, Present Positive, Present Negative, Future Positive, and Future Negative time attitudes. The authors describe the development of the scales and present data on the reliability and structural validity of ATAS scores in samples of American ( N = 300) and German ( N = 316) adolescents. Internal consistency estimates for scores on the English and German versions of the ATAS were in the .70 to .80 range. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a six-factor structure yielded the best fit for scores and that the scores were invariant across samples.