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Focusing on the role of capital as both personal and social resources for adolescents, the authors examined depressive symptomatology among a sample of 10- to 18-year-old African American youths (N=1,538). In addition to gender and age differences, adolescents exposed to threatening environments (school, neighborhood, home) reported more depressive symptoms. Social capital had a significant inverse relationship with adolescent depression; self-esteem and a social capital index were negatively related to depressive symptomatology. Furthermore, the interaction effects of gender with social capital, age with self-esteem, and age with grades were significant, indicating the presence of a buffering effect. These findings suggest the importance of interrelationships among violence exposure, capital, and well-being for adolescents.

In Romanian adolescents, meaning in life is a protective factor against health risk behaviors and poor psychological health.

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Our results indicate that despite certain level of equalization during adolescence, some important relationships between SES variables and health outcomes may occur.

Despite a growing body of research into children's concepts of illness, many basic questions still remain. This study aims to describe 8- to 11-year olds' lay beliefs of health, illness, health promotion and disease prevention. Children responded to open-ended questions about health and illness by drawing and writing their responses. Two primary schools of two small towns of Békés County, Hungary, were invited to participate. The sample consisted of 128 primary school students (57% males and 43% females), one class from each of Grades 3, 4 and 5 within each location. Consistent with previous findings, the children of this sample have considerable knowledge about health, illness and disease risks. In addition, they seem health conscious and hold positive attitudes toward health and health promotion. Many respondents demonstrated a biomedical approach to health. At the same time, holistic views of health were also common. Children's past experiences (e.g. trivial infections) may play an important role in their concepts of disease causation. Ideas about health promotion were especially varied, with a few children describing complex guidelines.

A number of factors influence adolescent substance use. The main goal of this study has been to investigate how sociodemographics, psychosocial health, and perceived support from parents and friends might predict smoking, drinking, and drug use in adolescence. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires among secondary school students (n = 1,039) in Szeged, Hungary. Sociodemographics (gender, age, and the type of school) proved to be the key predictors of substance use. While neither friend nor mother support appeared to be strong predictors, a low level of perceived father support increased the chance of all types of substance use.

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