The present study examined components of adolescents' social environment (social network, extracurricular activities, and family relationships) in association with depression. A total of 332 adolescents presenting for a routine medical check-up were self-assessed for social network risk (i.e., smoking habits of best male and female friends), extracurricular activity level (i.e., participation in organized sports teams, clubs, etc.), family relationship quality (i.e., cohesion and conflict), and symptoms of depression (i.e., minimal, mild, moderate/severe). Results of a forward linear regression modeling indicate that social environment components were associated with a significant proportion of the variance in adolescent depression (Adjusted R (2) = .177, p < or = .05). Specifically, adolescent females (beta = .166, p < .01) and those having more smokers in their social network (beta = .107, p < .05) presented with significantly greater depression symptoms. Conversely, adolescents who engaged in more extracurricular activities (beta = -.118, p < .05) and experienced higher quality family relationships (beta = -.368, p < .001) presented with significantly lower depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the important role that the social environment plays in adolescent depression, as well as yields new insights into socially-based intervention targets that may ameliorate adolescent depression. These intervention targets may be gender-specific, include positive social network skills training, increase adolescents' engagement in organized activities, and attend to the quality of their family relationships.

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The call to generate increased student interest in math and science careers continues to receive tremendous amounts of national attention, most recently in President Barack Obama's (2011) State of the Union address when he referred to the current climate as “our generation's Sputnik moment.” Responses to this call focus predominantly on teacher training and standards‐based instruction. However, considering the explosive momentum within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education initiatives and the pivotal role school counselors can and should play in academic and career planning, school counselors would benefit from taking the necessary steps toward adopting and integrating elements of these STEM initiatives into their work.

Although some evidence indicates that religiosity may be protective against substance use in the urban youth population, limited research has investigated the effects of multiple dimensions of religiosity on substance use in this population. In this study, a sample of 301 urban adolescents was used (a) to test the effects of three dimensions of religiosity (social religiosity, perceived religious support, and private religiosity) as well as proximity to religious institutions and (b) to determine their correlates with tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. It was hypothesized that all three dimensions of religiosity would act as protective factors against all types of substance use and that proximity to religious institutions from adolescents’ routine locations would also serve as a protective factor against any type of substance use. Results of logistic regression analysis showed that social religiosity and perceived religious support were protective against marijuana and tobacco use, respectively. Private religiosity was not protective against any type of substance use. Proximity to religious institutions was protective against alcohol use. These findings suggest the importance of examining multiple dimensions of religiosity when investigating substance use in urban youth and offer initial evidence of the importance of proximity to religious institutions as a protective factor against substance use.