Domain-specific daily hassles, anxiety, and delinquent behaviors among low-income, urban youth

We studied contributions of domain-specific daily hassles to anxiety and delinquency prior to and during the transition into middle (N=186) or high school (N=167) in a sample of low-income, urban adolescents (93% African American; 54% female) using a two-wave longitudinal design. Path models controlling for baseline maladjustment and sex examined how hassles from parents, peers, academics, and the neighborhood were associated with maladjustment once youth had made the transition into a new school. Hassles with friends both prior to and during the school transition mattered for older youth's maladjustment only, whereas hassles with parents mattered for both older and younger youth. Academic hassles only appeared to be problematic for younger youth. Neighborhood hassles were associated in opposite ways with younger and older youth's maladjustment. These findings suggest that both hassle type and the timing of the school transition matter for youth maladjustment. •Daily hassles predicted changes in adjustment across school transitions.•Daily hassles more often predicted anxiety than delinquency across transitions.•The impact of hassles on changes in adjustment varied by type of hassle and age.•Developmental context is important to consider when evaluating the role of hassles.