Understanding the Role of Puberty in Structural and Functional Development of the Adolescent Brain

Over the past two decades, there has been a tremendous increase in our understanding of structural and functional brain development in adolescence. However, understanding the role of puberty in this process has received much less attention. This review examines this relationship by summarizing recent research studies where the role of puberty was investigated in relation to brain structure, connectivity, and task‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The studies together suggest that puberty may contribute to adolescent neural reorganization and maturational advancement, and sex differences also emerge in puberty. The current body of work shows some mixed results regarding impact and exact direction of pubertal influence. We discuss several limitations of current studies and propose future directions on how to move the field forward.     

Instagrowth: A Longitudinal Growth Mixture Model of Social Media Time Use Across Adolescence

This study examined differential patterns of time spent using social media in a sample of 457 adolescents over a 6‐year period. The majority of adolescents (83%), termed moderate users, reported steady social media use over time. A second group (increasers: 12%) reported low social media use that increased gradually and ended high at the end of the study. A third group, called peak users (6%), reported low social media that increased quickly after a few years and then returned to baseline levels. Low self‐regulation predicted being an increaser or peak user. Being a moderate user tended to be related to lower levels of depression, aggression, delinquency, social media problems, and cyberbullying across time, as compared with the other groups.     

Longitudinal Patterns in Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization: Associations With Adolescent Emotion Regulation

Adolescents learn about emotions through interacting with parents and friends, though there is limited longitudinal research on this topic. This study examined longitudinal patterns in parent and friend emotion socialization and adolescent emotion regulation. Eighty‐seven adolescents reported on parent and friend emotion socialization. Parents reported on adolescent emotion regulation. Parents’ responses were stable over time and across gender. Friends of girls reciprocated negative emotions more and were less punitive over time, whereas friends of boys increased in comforting and decreased in neglect of negative emotions. Parents and friends evidenced unique effects on adolescent emotion regulation, and the effect of friend socialization responses differed for girls and boys. Future research should examine combinatory influences of multiple socializers on adolescent adjustment.     

Relationships Among Career and Life Stress,Negative Career Thoughts,and Career Decision State: A Cognitive Information Processing Perspective

According to cognitive information processing theory, career thoughts mediate the relationship between career and life stress and the ensuing career decision state. Using a sample of 232 college students and structural equation modeling, this study found that an increase in career and life stress was associated with an increase in negative career thinking and that an increase in such thoughts was associated with a lower level of decidedness and satisfaction with career choice. However, when the variation associated with negative career thoughts was partitioned in the mediated causal model, career and life stress became associated with less career indecision and dissatisfaction with career choice. The results suggest that counselors attend to negative career thoughts when individuals encounter career and life stress.     

Social Capital and Human Mortality: Explaining the Rural Paradox with County‐Level Mortality Data

The “rural paradox” refers to standardized mortality rates in rural areas that are unexpectedly low in view of well‐known economic and infrastructural disadvantages there. We explore this paradox by incorporating social capital, a promising explanatory factor that has seldom been incorporated into residential mortality research. We do so while being attentive to spatial dependence, a statistical problem often ignored in mortality research. Analyzing data for counties in the contiguous United States, we find that: (1) the rural paradox is confirmed with both metro‐nonmetro and rural‐urban continuum codes, (2) social capital significantly reduces the impacts of residence on mortality after controlling for race and ethnicity and socioeconomic covariates, (3) this attenuation is greater when a spatial perspective is imposed on the analysis, (4) social capital is negatively associated with mortality at the county level, and (5) spatial dependence is strongly in evidence. A spatial approach is necessary in county‐level analyses such as ours to yield unbiased estimates and optimal model fit.     

Colonial State Entrapped – The Problem of Unregistered Schools in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s

Utilizing sources from newspapers, published official documents, and declassified governmental files from archives in Hong Kong and England, this article explores the problem of unregistered schools in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s. After the war the Hong Kong colonial government played a limited role in education provision, and private institutions became the chief providers of schooling facilities. To prevent private schools from operating in a manner detrimental to the political stability of the territories, and to ensure pupils' health and safety, the ruling authorities imposed strict regulations. This approach increased the cost of running private schools, caused a substantial portion of education demand to remain unfulfilled, and consequently led to the emergence of unregistered schools. These unlawful institutions placed the government under tremendous pressure, both because some were tied to questionable political factions and because the founding of these institutions provoked objections from operators of legal private schools. Since the colonial state continued to assume a limited role in education provision, strong action brought against unlawful institutions would have further increased the number of unschooled children and undermined the popularity of the government. These pressures made the presence of black market schools a very difficult problem to resolve.     

After a Long‐Term Placement: Investigating Educational Achievement,Behaviour, and Transition to Independent Living

This study describes the transition towards independent living of 123 former fostered young people reared for long periods in a private French organisation, SOS Children’s Villages. Three generations of care leavers were analysed through a postal survey and interviews. Their narratives show typical pathways after leaving care. Two‐thirds became independent without major problems by the age of 24–25. Analyses have shown that the absence of severe emotional and behavioural disorders, and diplomas obtained, improved their odds of becoming independent. Results suggest a vital need to implement appropriate therapeutic care during placement and to develop care leaver support well beyond the age of 18, in order to help them personally and academically and to ensure their successful transition to adulthood.