Contribution of Leisure Context, Motivation and Experience to the Frequency of Participation in Structured Leisure Activities among Adolescents

Leisure time is considered an important context for adolescent development. The purpose of this article is to investigate what contributes to the frequency of adolescents’ participation in structured leisure activities (SLA). Participants were aged 14–21 years (M = 18.87, SD = 1.23) and 44.8% of participants were female. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results indicate that boys and adolescents who perceive the context of participation in SLA as safe, are externally or intrinsically motivated, and perceive that participation has contributed to their identity development and experiences of initiative, as well as their experiences of stress, are more likely to participate frequently in SLA. On the other hand, these findings indicate that girls and adolescents who are unmotivated to participate in SLA and who experience negative peer influences while participating in SLA are less likely to frequently participate in SLA. It can be concluded that it is important to think much more broadly than just the setting of the activities themselves when promoting young people’s participation in SLA. Some of the features of SLA that promote positive youth development are presented in this paper.

Social isolation and its impact on child and adolescent development: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Objective: This study aims to analyze the effects of social isolation on children's and teenagers’ development, with emphasis on the possible impacts over their physical and mental health. Data source: Review of the literature following the standards of PRISMA using the SciELO, LILACS and PubMed databases. The following key-words were used: “social isolation” and “child development”, “quarantine” and “adolescent development” according to the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) and their translation to the Portuguese. Studies in English, Portuguese and Spanish from inception were included. Data synthesis: 519 studies were screened and 12 were included in the systematic review. Five of those focused the psychology and social issues, two of them the effects of pandemics on these issues; four studies reported on impacts on general health and two consequences over the hypothalamus- hypophysis - adrenal axis and the cognitive and social development. Conclusions: The review shows a strong association between social isolation and anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. Social isolation leads to higher levels of cortisol and worse cognitive development. Therefore, the mental and physical health of children and adolescents need a careful follow up by health professionals during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The adolescent pattern of sleep spindle development revealed by HD-EEG polisomnography

Sleep spindles are developmentally relevant cortical oscillatory patterns; however, they have mostly been studied by considering the entire spindle frequency range (11 to 15 Hz) without a distinction between the functionally and topographically different slow and fast spindles, using relatively few electrodes and analysing wide age-ranges. Here, we employ HD-EEG polysomnography in three age-groups between 12 to 20 years of age, with an equal distribution between the two genders, and analyse the adolescent developmental pattern of the four major parameters of slow and fast sleep spindles. Most of our findings corroborate those very few previous studies that also make a distinction between slow and fast spindles in their developmental analysis. We find spindle frequency increasing with age, although spindle density change is not obvious in our study. We confirm the declining tendencies for amplitude and duration, although within narrower, more specific age-windows than previously. Spindle frequency seems to be higher in females in the oldest age-group. Based on the pattern of our findings, we suggest that HD-EEG, specifically targeting slow and fast spindle ranges and relatively narrow age-ranges would advance the understanding of both adolescent development and the functional relevance of sleep spindles in general.

Analysis of Adolescent Developmental Task Mastery and Its Implications for Information Service Materials

This study aims to describe the mastery of developmental tasks of MAN Curup students and their implications for the preparation of information service materials. The method used is quantitative with a population of 75 students from MAN Curup majoring in Social Sciences. The sampling technique used is saturated sampling. Data were collected by using a questionnaire using the Guttman scale and analyzed by descriptive analysis. The results showed that some of the tasks of adolescent development have been mastered and some have not been mastered by students. Some developmental tasks that have not been mastered are maturity in establishing relationships with peers, economic independence, choosing and planning careers and understanding and implementing value systems and ethics in behaviour. Some aspects of developmental tasks that have not been mastered by students must be prioritized to be used as a basic reference in program preparation and implementation of counselling guidance services including in compiling information service materials

Positive Changes in Life Outcomes over the Pandemic in Chinese Adolescents: The Role of Resilience and Relation to Mental Health

Background Although the existing literature has well documented the negative effects of COVID-19 on multiple life outcomes in adolescents, some research has also revealed that some life outcomes have become better during COVID-19. Scant research has specifically examined to what extent and in what aspects COVID-19 is beneficial to adolescent development so far. With person-centered approach, this research addressed this gap by: (1) exploring different profiles of positive changes in life outcomes in Chinese adolescents since the outbreak of COVID-19; (2) examining the role of resilience in relation to different profiles; (3) comparing mental health across adolescents categorized into different profiles. Method Participants were 2,567 Chinese adolescents aged 12 to 24. They rated how much their lives of different domains had experienced positive changes since the outbreak of the pandemic. They also answered the questionnaires that measured their resilience and mental health. Results Results of latent profile analysis revealed three different profiles: limited positive changes (33.3%), partial positive changes (49.5%), and overall strong positive changes (17.2%). Moreover, adolescents with a higher level of resilience were more likely to be categorized into the partial positive changes profile compared to the limited positive changes profile and into the overall strong positive changes profile compared to the other two profiles, after controlling for the covariates. Finally, adolescents in the overall strong positive changes profile had better mental health than their counterparts in the other two profiles. Conclusion COVID-19 might be helpful to adolescent development to some extent, especially for those with higher resilience.