Creating Effective Civic Engagement Policy for Adolescents: Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluations of Compulsory Community Service
For high school community service programs to have a positive impact on subsequent civic engagement, students must volunteer in a sustained manner and must evaluate their volunteering experiences positively. Using a survey with 1,293 respondents and 100 semistructured interviews with past participants of the mandatory community service program implemented by the Ontario provincial government in 1999, the authors identify how and why students generate positive evaluations of community service requirements and whether the diversity of implementation or the mandatory nature might account for negative reactions to volunteering...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Henderson, A., Pancer, S. M., Brown, S. D. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

"Why Should I Leave?" Belgian Emerging Adults' Departure From Home
In today’s Western societies, the transition to adulthood is prolonged, creating a separate developmental phase between adolescence and adulthood referred to as emerging adulthood. Following from this general delay in adult commitment-making, a considerable number of emerging adults continues to live in the parental household. The present study was conducted in Belgium and aimed to obtain a greater understanding of the home-leaving experience by qualitatively exploring how emerging adults who live with their parents or who have taken steps toward independent living experience their residential status. Twenty Belgian ...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Kins, E., De Mol, J., Beyers, W. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

"Doesn't Everyone Want That? It's Just a Given": Swedish Emerging Adults' Expectations on Future Parenthood and Work/Family Priorities
This study investigated Swedish emerging adults’ expectations on future parenthood through interviews with 124 Swedish emerging adults who were not yet parents. Thematic analysis showed that most participants were sure they wanted to become parents, but not right now. First, they wanted a stable financial situation, a romantic relationship, and time for self-focus. More women than men talked about parenthood as a social norm and wanted to prioritize both work and family. More men than women wanted to prioritize either work or family before the other. The study showed that Swedish emerging adults postpone, but do not ...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Frisen, A., Carlsson, J., Wangqvist, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Adoptees' Contact With Birth Relatives in Emerging Adulthood
While openness in adoption has become more common in the United States, little research has examined contact between birth and adoptive families as adoptees become adults. Using quantitative and qualitative data from 167 emerging adult adoptees, factors characterizing contact (e.g., type, frequency, with whom), satisfaction with contact, and the influences of transitional events and significant relationships were explored. Among these variables, satisfaction with contact with birth parents in emerging adulthood was significantly associated with greater openness levels. Four qualitative case studies, representing increasing...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Farr, R. H., Grant-Marsney, H. A., Musante, D. S., Grotevant, H. D., Wrobel, G. M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Authors' Rejoinder to Respondents (Shulman, Steinberg, & Piquero, 2013)
Respondents, in "A Mistaken Account of the Age-Crime Curve: Response to Males and Brown," dispute our finding that virtually all of the discrepancy in violent crime rates between adolescents/emerging adults versus older adults is explained not by young age per se but by higher poverty levels among the young. Our rejoinder argues that Respondents misunderstand our method, raise "ecological fallacy" objections that do not apply to our population-level study, and counter with a reanalysis that includes only limited ages and inadequate method to assess socioeconomic factors in crime and risk taking by age. Our examination of R...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Males, M. A., Brown, E. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

A Mistaken Account of the Age-Crime Curve: Response to Males and Brown (2013)
The present article responds to Males and Brown’s "Teenagers’ High Arrest Rates: Features of Young Age or Youth Poverty?" which claims that the widely observed pattern of crime rates peaking in late adolescence or early adulthood is an artifact of age differences in poverty. We note that the authors’ interpretation of their aggregated data is an example of the ecological fallacy. Drawing inferences about individual behavior from macro-level data can lead to erroneous conclusions and does so in the case of Males and Brown’s analysis. Moreover, the authors overlook research that has used more appropri...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Shulman, E. P., Steinberg, L., Piquero, A. R. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Teenagers' High Arrest Rates: Features of Young Age or Youth Poverty?
The association of more crime with youthful age is widely accepted in social science. However, a literature search revealed no studies of the age-crime relationship that controlled for young ages’ economic disadvantage. This research gap is addressed using the California Criminal Justice Statistics Center’s arrest detail and Census poverty statistics for 2010. When poverty rates were controlled, younger and older ages’ violence disparities largely disappeared. Where teenagers and emerging adults display typical middle-aged demographics (two thirds non-Latino, White, or Asian, poverty levels under 10%), th...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - November 26, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Males, M. A., Brown, E. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Book Review: A Thicker Look at Boys' Emotional Lives and Their Countless Contradictions Deep Secrets: Boys' Friendships and the Crisis of Connection, by Niobe Way
(Source: Journal of Adolescent Research)
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - September 23, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Reigeluth, C. S. Tags: Book Review Source Type: research

Sunni-Muslim American Religious Development During Emerging Adulthood
Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in America, with approximately 6 to 7 million Muslims living in America within the past decade. However, there has been little psychological research conducted focusing on the development of the Muslim American self. This inquiry addresses that gap by focusing on how familial religious affiliation during childhood and the everyday environmental activity systems of emerging adulthood impact religious practice and the construction of the religious self among Sunni-Muslim American emerging adults (N = 63, 18-29 years) via the development of diverse mediational strategies. Utilizin...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - September 23, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Etengoff, C., Daiute, C. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

The Role of Empowerment in a School-Based Community Service Program with Inner-City, Minority Youth
Despite considerable fiscal and structural support for youth service programs, research has not demonstrated consistent outcomes across participants or programs, suggesting the need to identify critical program processes. The present study addresses this need through preliminary examination of the role of program empowerment in promoting positive identity development in inner-city, African American youth participating in a pilot school-based service program. Results suggest that participants who experienced the program as empowering experienced increases in self-efficacy, sense of civic responsibility, and ethnic identity,...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - September 23, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Gullan, R. L., Power, T. J., Leff, S. S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

"You Must Know Where You Come From": South African Youths' Perceptions of Religion in Time of Social Change
This study examined South African youths’ perceptions of religion during a period of social and economic transition. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 Black South African youth (age 18) living in the Johannesburg-Soweto metropolitan area. Data were analyzed in a manner consistent with grounded theory methodology and structural coding. Beliefs about the function of religion were captured by the following themes: provides support, connection to the past, moral compass, promotes healthy development, and intersections between African traditional practices and Christian beliefs. Themes are discussed and direction...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - September 23, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Brittian, A. S., Lewin, N., Norris, S. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

South African Adolescents' Constructions of Intimacy in Romantic Relationships
This study explored the constructions of intimacy of 20 adolescent men and women in romantic relationships from one low-income community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Using Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory method, we found that our participants reproduced dominant romantic and gender discourses in their intimacy constructions within a community context of limited and limiting discourses. We argue that they could benefit from alternative discourses, more opportunities to interact privately and intimately with their partners, and to reflect on and articulate their romantic relationship experienc...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - September 23, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Lesch, E., Furphy, C. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

The Meaning of Motherhood: Adolescent Childbearing and its Significance for Poor Dominican Females of Haitian Descent
This article looks at how a group of marginalized young women, in the Dominican Republic, understand the experience of becoming a mother at an early age. The dominant global discourse on adolescent motherhood problematizes the phenomenon. Methodologically flawed scholarship typically attributes adolescent motherhood to poor economic and education outcomes. Little research exists examining the voices of young mothers themselves. The author aims to fill this gap and contribute a better understanding of how a group of disenfranchised young females narrate the experience of motherhood and its significance using a qualitative r...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - July 29, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Salusky, I. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Adolescent Work Quality: A View From Today's Youth
This study investigated adolescent work quality by examining the extent to which characteristics associated with positive or negative psychosocial outcomes are found in the jobs adolescents hold today. Our findings from surveys and interviews with working youth show that contemporary adolescent jobs provide at least moderate levels of the characteristics that promote positive psychosocial outcomes and some of those that promote negative outcomes. Adolescent jobs have the greatest capacity to encourage positive psychosocial development by providing opportunities for youth to be helpful and, to a lesser extent, to be around ...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - July 29, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Rauscher, K. J., Wegman, D. H., Wooding, J., Davis, L., Junkin, R. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Religion and Sex Among College Freshmen: A Longitudinal Study Using Facebook
The purpose of this study was to use the social networking site Facebook to explore the relationship between religion and sex in emerging adults. Public profiles were examined at four Time points during freshman year. One hundred fifty profiles were analyzed for self-displayed religious affiliation, references to religiosity, and references to sexual behavior. Analyses included mixed-effects logistic regression, mixed-effects Poisson regression, and nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test. Displayed religious affiliation and references to sexual behavior decreased over the year. References to religiosity slightly increased. Acro...
Source: Journal of Adolescent Research - July 29, 2013 Category: Child Development Authors: Gannon, K. E., Becker, T., Moreno, M. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research