James Garbarino: Miller’s Children: Why Giving Teenage Killers a Second Chance Matters for All of Us,

The Effect of Visual Stressors on Adolescents’ Neural Response: A Review of Laboratory Research Abstract Laboratory models that help us understand the neural mechanisms associated with how stress, particularly interpersonal stress, affects children’s and adolescents’ emotions are paramount but are limited if that understanding lacks validity in adolescents’ daily lives. There is a lack of research that addresses the ecological validity of visual stimuli to induce stress in participants while measuring participants’ neural response to that stimuli. This approach is needed if we are to identify the neural mechanisms that underlie the effect of stressful events on individuals’ emotional functioning. The current study conducted a systematic literature review to identify visual tasks that have been used in laboratory settings to induce stress in participants. The most frequent tasks identified were developed to induce peer rejection/exclusion in youth (e.g., Chatroom and Cyberball). These tasks were generally effective at bringing about a neural response in areas of the brain traditionally associated with social cognitive processing, such as the cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, insula, and striatum. In particular, the cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex are associated with the Social Information Processing Network. Almost entirely absent from the literature are systematic evaluations of ecological validity and parent–child based visual stimuli that approximate the stress that adolescents might experience in their relationships with parents. The present article highlights trends and gaps in the current research, and examines the ecological validity of current stimuli used as laboratory based stressors, which can be used to fuel further investigation into adolescent neural response to stimuli, and further evaluation of the ecological validity of tasks.

Youth Anti-Racist Engagement: Conceptualization, Development, and Validation of an Anti-Racism Action Scale Abstract Scholarship on youth engagement indicates that adolescents address social issues of public concern, but it is not clear how youth challenge racism. This gap in the literature stems from indirect conceptualizations and a lack of quantitative measurement of adolescents’ acts to oppose racism. Correspondingly, this study presents the validation of a measure of youth anti-racism action. Study 1 describes the youth participatory approach used in the development of the Anti-Racism Action Scale and presents the results from an exploratory factor analysis that examined the measure’s initial factor structure and reliability. The factor structure of the 22-item measure was explored with a diverse sample of adolescents (Mage = 16.00, SD = 1.18; 61.7% girls, Black/African American [29.3%], Asian/South Asian [21.1%], White/European American [24.4%], Arab/Middle-Eastern [17.5%], Latino/Hispanic [4.5%], and Multiracial [3.3%]) enrolled in a race dialogue program (n = 249). The results indicated the measure consisted of three subscales: Interpersonal Action, Communal Action, and Political Change Action. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with an independent, nationally representative sample of youth (n = 384) from diverse backgrounds (Mage = 17.00, SD = 1.29, 51.0% girls, White/European American [26.1%], Black/African American [25.6%], Latino/Hispanic [19.3%], Asian/Pacific Islander [13.6%], Multiracial [9.9%], Native American [5.2%] and “other” [0.3%]). The results confirmed a three-factor model that resulted in a 16-item measure. Furthermore, tests of convergent validity tests were pursued between the Anti-Racism Action Scale and the Critical Consciousness Scale, a widely used measure of youths’ awareness of the structural causes of various forms of oppression, sense of sociopolitical agency, and social action. This study suggests that youth engagement in anti-racism is multidimensional and that notion of adolescent social action are more diverse than represented in the literature.

Survey Development for Adolescents Aged 11–16 Years: A Developmental Science Based Guide Abstract Methodological knowledge on surveying young adolescents is scarce and researchers often rely on theories and methodological studies based on adult respondents. However, young adolescents are in the process of developing their cognitive, psychological, emotional and social skills, therefore present a unique set of considerations. Question characteristics including; question type and format, question difficulty, wording, ambiguity, the number of response options, and the inclusion of a neutral mid-point, play a pivotal role in the response quality of young adolescents. Failure to address these factors is likely to encourage young adolescents to use satisficing techniques. In this article, we provide a science based guide for developing surveys for use with adolescents aged 11–16 years. The guide considers the characteristics and developmental stages of adolescents as survey responders and incorporates advice on appropriate question characteristics, survey layout and question sequence, approaches to pre-testing surveys and mode of survey administration. The guide provides recommendations for developmentally appropriate survey design to improve response quality in survey research with young adolescents.

Measuring Repression in Residential Youth Care: Conceptualization, Development and Validation of the Institutional Repression Questionnaire Abstract Repression in residential youth care institutions threatens youth’s positive development. When youth experience arbitrary use of power, structure, or coercion, this may cause demotivation, reactance or aggression, and diminished chances of rehabilitation in youth. Because institutional repression may be hard to recognize, a valid and reliable measurement instrument is necessary to signal repression in residential institutions. This article outlines the conceptualization, development and validation of the Institutional Repression Questionnaire in a sample of 180 youth (aged 12–24, 32% female) staying in open, secure, and forensic residential youth care institutions. The Institutional Repression Questionnaire is a self-report questionnaire, designed to measure five dimensions of repression: abuse of power, injustice, lack of autonomy, lack of meaning, and dehumanization. The multicomponent structure was confirmed in a confirmatory factor analysis, resulting in 24 items in five subscales: Abuse of Power, Justice, Lack of Autonomy, Meaning, and Humanization. One open-ended question is part of the questionnaire to invite youth to disclose more extreme cases of repression. Convergent validity was established via correlations between the Institutional Repression Questionnaire and the Prison Group Climate Inventory—as a measure of living group climate in residential institutions—and the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale-Intellectual Disability—as a measure of self-determination. The five Institutional Repression Questionnaire subscales demonstrated good internal consistency. The study provides preliminary evidence to support validity and reliability of an adolescent self-report questionnaire of perceived institutional repression as a multidimensional construct. Residential youth care institutions can use outcomes of the Institutional Repression Questionnaire to improve their living group climate.

Brief Alcohol Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults in Emergency Department Settings: A Descriptive Review and Meta-analysis Abstract Brief interventions have shown promise for reducing alcohol use among adolescents and young adults. However, research on the efficacy of these programs has largely ignored one potentially useful approach—interventions which take place in emergency department settings. The current study combines quantitative and descriptive approaches to synthesize the available literature examining the efficacy of brief interventions for alcohol usage among adolescents and young adults in emergency department settings. One-hundred-thirty-eight effect sizes from 11 studies contributed to an overall weighted average effect size as well as effect sizes for variations related to participant demographics, study characteristics (recruitment, instrumentation, and assessment delay) and intervention details (personnel, focal modality, and intervention components). Descriptive analyses examined many of these variations in more detail. Overall, quantitative summary provided little evidence supporting the efficacy of brief interventions in emergency department settings while descriptive analyses revealed primarily a lack of consistency, especially in the definition of adolescence and operationalization of alcohol usage. In many cases, a lack of detailed enough reporting prevented the identification of patterns which might have been present. The discussion includes a call for more agreement in the field regarding operationalization of adolescence and drinking behavior.

What Works in Sedentary Behavior Interventions for Youth: A Review of Reviews Abstract Previous reviews have summarized the results of interventions aimed at reducing sedentary behavior among youth, but evidence-based best practice is needed. This systematic review aimed to synthesize evidence to determine which intervention strategies/characteristics are powerful in reducing sedentary behavior among children and adolescents. Eight electronic databases were used. The eligibility criteria were systematic reviews (published in English, Spanish and Portuguese) that analyzed clinical trials to reduce sedentary behavior in young people (age ≤ 18 years). Twenty-nine studies were included. Eleven out of 29 previous reviews had low methodological quality. Almost all reviews reported that interventions were effective in reducing sedentary behavior; however, most of them (26 reviews) had limited evidence due to the inconsistency of results, low methodological quality and/or small sample size. School have been the most used context and strategies that involve family, used control devices, educational materials and standing desks show effectiveness. However, other answers are still unclear, such as the effectiveness of interventions for different types of sedentary behaviors (e.g., TV time), the necessary length for intervention, and the effectiveness of mediators. Thus, future and high-quality studies should consider addressing such questions in order to support evidence-based interventions to reduce sedentary behavior.

A Critical Review of Education-Based Sleep Interventions for Undergraduate Students: Informing Future Directions in Intervention Development Abstract Young adult undergraduate students are known to be a sleep-deprived population. Sleep disturbances among college students pose many potential risks to health, safety, and learning, and several education-based sleep interventions have been developed to improve sleep among college students. While many interventions have been found to improve sleep hygiene behaviors and sleep outcomes, few studies have identified and examined intervention components that are associated with these improvements. A review was warranted to synthesize current research on education-based sleep interventions and to propose recommendations to inform intervention development. The current review aimed to compare and analyze existing sleep education interventions with regard to specific intervention components and study designs. Through this review and critical appraisal of 12 intervention studies, we found that both brief sleep education interventions and semester-long sleep education courses statistically significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved sleep knowledge, sleep behaviors, and sleep health among undergraduate students. Cognitive behavioral strategies, specifically self-monitoring, were associated with significant improvements in sleep outcomes, and, thus, may be relevant additions to sleep education-based interventions for college students. Future intervention research is needed to increase our understanding of healthy sleep behavior change among sleep-deprived college students, and to improve interventions to address the adoption and maintenance of healthy sleep behavior. Recommendations are intended to help inform future directions in sleep intervention development for young adult undergraduate students, who are at increased risk for sleep disruption and disturbance and their attendant effects on well-being, performance, safety, and overall health.

Applying What is Known About Adolescent Development to Improve School-Based Mental Health Literacy of Depression Interventions: Bridging Research to Practice Abstract Rates of depression are the highest in adolescence in comparison to any other period of the life course. Yet, when depressed, the majority of adolescents do not seek formal help to treat their suffering. School-based mental health literacy of depression interventions aim to improve adolescents’ help-seeking for depression, by enhancing their knowledge about depression, fostering positive attitudes toward depression and help-seeking, and encouraging behavioral self-efficacy in help-seeking. While widespread, the effectiveness of these programs is inconsistent, and when properly evaluated, they only increase depressed adolescents’ help-seeking behavior at modest rates. This review argues that these interventions lack consideration of several important domains of adolescent development, as well as what is known about decision-making in the depressed adolescent mind. Accordingly, the specific cognitive and socio-emotional processes involved in adolescent decision-making are reviewed in order to highlight avenues for improving mental health literacy and help-seeking in depressed young people. Specific recommendations for program delivery are discussed.

Beyond Body Image: A Systematic Review of Classroom-Based Interventions Targeting Body Image of Adolescents Abstract Body image is especially relevant to the developmental period of adolescence, given the various physical and social changes that take place during this time. Though body dissatisfaction tends to be normative, especially among females, universal prevention programs have been established to intervene prior to body image concerns becoming severe and established. However, prevention efforts vary in their impact on body image. The current project systematically reviewed the literature on body image to determine how universal, classroom-based efforts impact adolescent body image and what program and participant elements help make programs successful. Findings are promising, demonstrating that interactive universal prevention programs can improve adolescents’ body image. However, program effects are generally small and short in duration. The Developmental Theory of Embodiment, which emphasizes body relations that extend beyond body image, is used to evaluate current programs and to guide recommendations for future interventions in an attempt to make these programs more effective.