No abstract

Background The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic in the United States resulted in safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intended to curb the spread of the virus. Adolescents are potentially at risk for disregarding these guidelines due to their reduced psychosocial maturity compared with adults. The current study examined the relationship between adolescents' psychosocial maturity, perceived importance of the CDC guidelines and adherence to the CDC guidelines within some of the highest risk groups for contracting COVID‐19 in a county particularly impacted by the pandemic (i.e., Hispanic and low‐SES youth in El Paso, Texas). Methods Participants completed a phone interview with a research assistant regarding their thoughts and behaviours in the initial months of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Adolescents ( N = 68) were 15.38 years old on average ( SD = 1.05, range = 13, 17), predominantly male (60.3%) and nearly exclusively Hispanic/Latino (94.1%). Results Results indicated that although more psychosocially mature adolescents reported greater adherence to the CDC guidelines than less psychosocially mature adolescents, the association between psychosocial maturity and adherence was fully mediated by how important adolescents felt it was to follow the guidelines. Specifically, greater perceived importance was associated with greater adherence to the guidelines. Conclusions The current study found that more psychosocially mature adolescents adhere to CDC's safety guidelines better than less psychosocially mature adolescents because they are more likely to view the guidelines as important. Information that attempts to increase adolescent adherence to the guidelines should therefore emphasize not only that following the guidelines is important, but why following the guidelines is so important. Less psychosocially mature adolescents may benefit most from interventions efforts and targeted messages regarding the importance of following the CDC's guidelines, as more psychosocially mature adolescents already recognize this importance.

This study evaluated 190 adolescent–parent dyads from two US sites (CA and TX) about their awareness of and attitudes toward adolescent sexting and age of sexual consent policies. Findings indicate (a) poor policy awareness among adolescents and parents, particularly for the Texas sample, (b) positive associations between parent and adolescent awareness, (c) site differences in fairness ratings, and (d) a negative association between adolescents’ fairness ratings and their willingness to violate the policies. We recommend greater efforts toward policy education, given the lack of awareness in the present sample, and consideration for the developmental appropriateness of policies.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has caused immense change and stress among adolescents. Yet, little is known about youths’ concerns related to the COVID‐19 pandemic. This is particularly true among youth who have been highly impacted by the pandemic—namely, justice system‐involved youth, low‐income youth, and youth who consider themselves to be low status. Youth from the community, youth on probation, and incarcerated youth completed a survey describing their concerns related to COVID‐19 across three concern domains: economic, social concerns, and COVID‐19 itself. Results suggested that, with respect to economic concerns, incarcerated youth felt more concern about their ability to get a job if needed than youth on probation or community youth (accounting for gender and household income), and more concerned about food security (accounting for gender and subjective social status). With respect to social concerns, both incarcerated youth and youth on probation felt that the quality of their relationship with family members had decreased as a result of the pandemic, relative to community youth (accounting for gender and income), while incarcerated youth only felt that the quality of their friendships had decreased (accounting for gender and subjective social status). With respect to concerns about COVID‐19, no group differences were observed about getting sick or dying from COVID‐19, but low‐income youth regardless of justice system status were more concerned about dying of COVID‐19 than their affluent counterparts. Overall, the study gives voice to the concerns of the most vulnerable youth during the pandemic.