Journal of Adolescent Research

Increasingly influential theories hold that the “teenage brain” suffers cognitive flaws that impel risk taking. Aside from warnings by leading researchers that brain science is insufficiently advanced to yield definitive findings that teenage behaviors are internally driven, the belief that adolescents take excessive risks has been developed using biased measures and without first ruling out alternative external explanations. In fact, the best demographic, crime, and health statistics show that adolescents do not take excessive risks compared to adults, adolescent risks are associated much more significantly with conditions of poverty and corresponding adult behaviors than with uniquely adolescent factors, and middle-aged adults exposed to the same high poverty levels as American youth display similar or higher levels of crime, violent death, firearms mortality, traffic fatalities, and other behaviors conventionally associates with adolescents. “Teenage brain” theories and the views of youth and policies they entail require much more rigorous scrutiny than they have received to date.

Many universities have changed their policies regarding the nature of on-campus housing—shifting from gender-specific to coed dorms. This study examines the scope of that transition in the United States. From a sampling of 100 universities in the United States, including the nation's 50 largest universities, it was found that the vast majority of on-campus housing is currently coed in nature. Anecdotal information provided by the housing offices at these universities suggests that this transition is largely driven by student demand and financial considerations. Implications for future research and university policy making are discussed.

In the last two decades, a corpus of research has been conducted to understand immigrant adolescent ethnic identity formation. However, few studies have examined the intersection of gender and ethnic identity. In this paper, drawing on mainly qualitative data collected on 72 Chinese immigrant adolescents, I present findings on the gendered expectations at home and school for Chinese immigrant adolescents and how they negotiated these expectations in constructing their identity. Findings suggest that while both Chinese immigrant girls and boys faced conflicting expectations at home and school, how they negotiated these differences differed. By examining issues related to gender, ethnicity, and identity, this paper also sheds light on the gendered pattern of educational outcomes of the new second generation.

The purpose of this study was to examine how online social networking facilitates adolescent grieving following the sudden death of a peer. Researchers reviewed 20 profiles authored by adolescents who had died between 2005 and 2007 collecting information from commentary posted to the profiles posthumously. Observed themes included adolescent Internet users directing comments to the deceased, posting memorial sentiments, indicators of coping strategies, current events and memories, comments about the act of commenting, cause of death, comments from distal or unknown peers, religious beliefs, and attending the funeral. In addition to prolonging an attachment with the deceased, online social networking also facilitates teenagers' coping in a way that grants unlimited freedom and opportunity to reflect back over their relationship with the deceased.

Dating behaviors and sexual attitudes of Asian-American youth were examined in a cross-sectional, mixed-methods study in the context of adherence to Asian values, measured by the Asian Values Scale (AVS). In all, 31 Asian-American adolescents (age 14-18 years old) from a Houston community center were interviewed regarding dating behaviors and sexual attitudes. Almost three-fourth of adolescents dated without parental knowledge. Compared with adolescents with the lowestAVS scores, those with the highestAVS scores were significantly more likely to date without parental knowledge and date longer before sex. Many adolescents proceeded directly to single, steady, relationships. Parents permitted dating, as long as grades were maintained. Asian-American adolescents should be questioned about secret dating, sexual activity, and participation in other high-risk activities.

Children born into poverty in the United States are at higher risk for a number of nonresilient outcomes. An extensive body of work examines and then confirms the qualities of resilient children, emphasizing the importance of four social-psychological characteristics—social competence, problem solving, autonomy, and sense of purpose—and three categories of protective environmental factors—family, school, and community. Extant research has done an excellent job of identifying the protective factors, but more work is needed to understand the processes through which the protective factors influence positive outcomes. Through life-history interviews with 48 educationally resilient African American adults who were “at-risk” children, this study highlights the factors that facilitated respondents' social mobility. By using an in-depth qualitative method grounded in sociological theory, it adds to the literature that identifies what are the protective factors, by elucidating the processes by which the protective factors operated in the lives of resilient adolescents. In this way it provides a view toward how and why the protective factors facilitate resilient outcomes, and does so through a connection with Bourdieu's habitus and, specifically, how accessing the interactional style of the middle class fostered resilient outcomes for the study's respondents.