Facilitating Adolescent Well‐Being: A Review of the Challenges and Opportunities and the Beneficial Roles of Parents,Schools, Neighborhoods,and Policymakers

Adolescents face exceptional challenges and opportunities that may have a lifelong impact on their consumption and personal and societal well‐being. Parents, community members (schools and neighborhoods), and policymakers play major roles in shaping adolescents and influencing their engagement in consumption behaviors that are either developmentally problematic (e.g., drug use and unhealthy eating) or developmentally constructive (e.g., academic pursuits and extracurricular activities). In this article, we discuss two main topics: (a) the challenges and opportunities that characterize adolescence, based primarily on research in epidemiology and neuroscience, and (b) the ways that parents, community members, and policymakers can facilitate positive adolescent development, based on research from many disciplines including marketing, psychology, sociology, communications, public health, and education. Our goal is to summarize the latest scientific findings that can be used by various stakeholders to help adolescents navigate this turbulent period and become well‐adjusted, thriving adults.     

Mapping differential responses to cognitive training using machine learning

We used two simple unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify differential trajectories of change in children who undergo intensive working memory (WM) training. We used self‐organizing maps (SOMs)—a type of simple artificial neural network—to represent multivariate cognitive training data, and then tested whether the way tasks are represented changed as a result of training. The patterns of change we observed in the SOM weight matrices implied that the processes drawn upon to perform WM tasks changed following training. This was then combined with K‐means clustering to identify distinct groups of children who respond to the training in different ways. Firstly, the K‐means clustering was applied to an independent large sample (N = 616, M_age = 9.16 years, range = 5.16–17.91 years) to identify subgroups. We then allocated children who had been through cognitive training (N = 179, M_age = 9.00 years, range = 7.08–11.50 years) to these same four subgroups, both before and after their training. In doing so, we were able to map their improvement trajectories. Scores on a separate measure of fluid intelligence were predictive of a child's improvement trajectory. This paper provides an alternative approach to analysing cognitive training data that go beyond considering changes in individual tasks. This proof‐of‐principle demonstrates a potentially powerful way of distinguishing task‐specific from domain‐general changes following training and of establishing different profiles of response to training.     

Statistical learning of multiple speech streams: A challenge for monolingual infants

Language acquisition depends on the ability to detect and track the distributional properties of speech. Successful acquisition also necessitates detecting changes in those properties, which can occur when the learner encounters different speakers, topics, dialects, or languages. When encountering multiple speech streams with different underlying statistics but overlapping features, how do infants keep track of the properties of each speech stream separately? In four experiments, we tested whether 8‐month‐old monolingual infants (N = 144) can track the underlying statistics of two artificial speech streams that share a portion of their syllables. We first presented each stream individually. We then presented the two speech streams in sequence, without contextual cues signaling the different speech streams, and subsequently added pitch and accent cues to help learners track each stream separately. The results reveal that monolingual infants experience difficulty tracking the statistical regularities in two speech streams presented sequentially, even when provided with contextual cues intended to facilitate separation of the speech streams. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding how infants learn and separate the input when confronted with multiple statistical structures.     

Irrelevant‐action imitation is short‐term and contextual: Evidence from two under‐studied populations

Across the lifespan and across populations, humans ‘overimitate’ causally unnecessary behaviors. Such irrelevant‐action imitation facilitates faithful cultural transmission, but its immediate benefits to the imitator are controversial. Over short time scales, irrelevant‐action imitation may bootstrap artifact exploration or interpersonal affiliation, and over longer time scales it may facilitate acquisition of either causal models or social conventions. To investigate these putative functions, we recruited community samples from two under‐studied populations: Yasawa, Fiji, and Huatasani, Peru. We use a two‐action puzzle box: first after a video demonstration, and again one month later. Treating age as a continuous variable, we reveal divergent developmental trajectories across sites. Yasawans (44 adults, M = 39.9 years, 23 women; 42 children, M = 9.8 years, 26 girls) resemble documented patterns, with irrelevant‐action imitation increasing across childhood and plateauing in adulthood. In contrast, Huatasaneños (48 adults, M = 37.6 years, 33 women; 47 children, M = 9.3 years, 13 girls) evince a parabolic trajectory: adults at the site show the lowest irrelevant‐action imitation of any demographic set in our sample. In addition, all age sets in both populations reduce their irrelevant actions at Time 2, but do not reduce their relevant‐action imitation or goal attainment. Taken together, and considering the local cultural contexts, our results suggest that irrelevant‐action imitation serves a short‐term function and is sensitive to the social context of the demonstration.     

Just banter? Friendship,teasing and experimental aggression in adolescent peer networks

Aggressive behaviour serves many useful social functions, yet can also have damaging consequences. In line with evidence showing adolescent development in social cognitive abilities, we hypothesized that the use of aggression would become more sophisticated with age. We investigated adolescent aggression towards peers using an experimental, hypothetical aggression paradigm, the hot sauce paradigm, in a school‐based social network setting. Participants (N = 162 aged 11–17, 98 male) indicated which strength of imaginary hot sauce they would allocate to each of their classmates. A Social Network Questionnaire quantified participants’ perceived dyadic social tie strength with each classmate, and the incidence of mutual or unilateral dyadic real‐world aggression (e.g. teasing). Participants allocated weaker hot sauce to peers with whom they reported strong, positive social ties and an absence of self‐reported unilateral real‐world aggression. With increasing cross‐sectional age, there was a decrease in the impact of social tie strength and an increase in the extent to which hot sauce allocation was predicted by self‐reported mutual real‐world aggression. This pattern of findings is consistent with young (vs. late) adolescent use of experimental, hypothetical Hot Sauce aggression to reflect real‐world animosity, while late adolescents’ behaviour is more subtle. These findings extend our understanding of the dyadic social context of adolescent aggressive behaviour using a novel experimental aggression paradigm.     

Cerebral blood flow in 5‐ to 8‐month‐olds: Regional tissue maturity is associated with infant affect

Infancy is marked by rapid neural and emotional development. The relation between brain function and emotion in infancy, however, is not well understood. Methods for measuring brain function predominantly rely on the BOLD signal; however, interpretation of the BOLD signal in infancy is challenging because the neuronal‐hemodynamic relation is immature. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) provides a context for the infant BOLD signal and can yield insight into the developmental maturity of brain regions that may support affective behaviors. This study aims to elucidate the relations among rCBF, age, and emotion in infancy. One hundred and seven mothers reported their infants' (infant age M ± SD = 6.14 ± 0.51 months) temperament. A subsample of infants completed MRI scans, 38 of whom produced usable perfusion MRI during natural sleep to quantify rCBF. Mother‐infant dyads completed the repeated Still‐Face Paradigm, from which infant affect reactivity and recovery to stress were quantified. We tested associations of infant age at scan, temperament factor scores, and observed affect reactivity and recovery with voxel‐wise rCBF. Infant age was positively associated with CBF in nearly all voxels, with peaks located in sensory cortices and the ventral prefrontal cortex, supporting the formulation that rCBF is an indicator of tissue maturity. Temperamental Negative Affect and recovery of positive affect following a stressor were positively associated with rCBF in several cortical and subcortical limbic regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. This finding yields insight into the nature of affective neurodevelopment during infancy. Specifically, infants with relatively increased prefrontal cortex maturity may evidence a disposition toward greater negative affect and negative reactivity in their daily lives yet show better recovery of positive affect following a social stressor.     

The role of midfrontal theta oscillations across the development of cognitive control in preschoolers and school‐age children

The development of cognitive control enables children to better resist acting based on distracting information that interferes with the current action. Cognitive control improvement serves different functions that differ in part by the type of interference to resolve. Indeed, resisting to interference at the task‐set level or at the response‐preparation level is, respectively, associated with cognitive flexibility and inhibition. It is, however, unknown whether the same neural mechanism underlies these two functions across development. Studies in adults have revealed the contribution of midfrontal theta (MFT) oscillations in interference resolution. This study investigated whether MFT is involved in the resolution of different types of interference in two age groups identified as corresponding to different latent structures of executive functions. Preschool (4–6 years) and school children (6–8 years) were tested with a task involving interference at the response level and/or the task‐set level while (electroencephalogram) EEG was recorded. Behaviorally, response time and accuracy were affected by task‐set. Both age groups were less accurate when the interference occurred at the task‐set level and only the younger group showed decreased accuracy when interference was presented at the response‐preparation level. Furthermore, MFT power was increased, relative to the baseline, during the resolution of both types of interference and in both age groups. These findings suggest that MFT is involved in immature cognitive control (i.e., preschool and school‐ages), by orchestrating its different cognitive processes, irrespective of the interference to resolve and of the level of cognitive control development (i.e., the degree of differentiation of executive functions).     

First steps toward an understanding of procedural fairness

In four experiments, we tested whether 20‐month‐old infants are sensitive to violations of procedural impartiality. Participants were shown videos in which help was provided in two different ways. A main character provided help to two other agents either impartially, by helping them at the same time, or in a biased way, by helping one agent almost immediately while the other after a longer delay. Infants looked reliably longer at the biased than at the unbiased help scenarios despite the fact that in both scenarios help was provided to each beneficiary. This suggests that human infants can attend to departures from impartiality and, in their second year, they already show an initial understanding of procedural fairness.     

Complementary teaching practices: Ignatian pedagogy and Buddhist‐inspired compassion meditation

While scholarly discussions on Jesuit education are plentiful, inquiries related to Ignatian pedagogy are rare. This article examines the applications of Ignatian pedagogy by juxtaposing it with the analysis of a Buddhist‐inspired and interdisciplinary contemplation program, Cognitively‐Based Compassion Training® (CBCT®). Drawing from the author's experience in teaching CBCT® at a Jesuit University, this article explores how CBCT® aligns with the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm's five elements: context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation. This study uses psychometrical measurements, such as the Compassionate Love for Humanity Scale, to document how my interdisciplinary approach may enhance participants' emotional well‐being and widen their ethical concerns. As these outcomes are inherently cross‐disciplinary and include intellectual and affective dimensions, they cannot be achieved through a single field. Building a bridge between the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm and CBCT® provides a successful strategy for the educational objectives of developing the whole person and forming a compassionate character.     

Life skills development in physical education: A self-determination theory-based investigation across the school term

ObjectivesGrounded in self-determination theory (SDT), the main aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between teacher autonomy support, students’ basic psychological need satisfaction and life skills development in physical education (PE).DesignThis study employed a two-wave longitudinal research design.MethodStudents (N = 266, Mage = 12.94 years, SD = 0.70) completed measures assessing perceived autonomy-supportive teaching, need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and life skills development in PE (teamwork, goal setting, social skills, problem solving and decision making, emotional skills, leadership, time management, and interpersonal communication). Data collections took place during week 6 (timepoint 1; T1) and week 15 (timepoint 2; T2) of the autumn school term.ResultsCross-lagged panel analyses showed that T1 teacher autonomy support did not significantly predict students’ three basic psychological needs, total need satisfaction or life skills development at T2. Students’ T1 total need satisfaction positively predicted their development of all eight life skills at T2. Additionally, students’ T1 autonomy satisfaction positively predicted their teamwork, social skills, emotional skills, leadership, and interpersonal communication skills at T2, T1 competence satisfaction positively predicted students’ teamwork skills at T2, and students’ T1 relatedness satisfaction positively predicted their social skills at T2.ConclusionsProviding partial support for SDT, the findings highlighted that satisfaction of students’ three basic psychological needs had some positive effects on students’ life skills development in PE. As such, a climate that satisfies students’ basic psychological needs should help to develop their life skills in PE.