Author Guidelines

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Child and Youth Psychology should be written in clear, fluent, comprehensible, and scholarly Turkish or English.

All manuscripts must be submitted through the journal's online manuscript submission system. Manuscripts submitted by e-mail will not be considered for evaluation.

1. Submission Templates

Authors are encouraged to use the following templates during the initial submission and revision processes.

Authors are encouraged to use the most recent versions of all journal templates.

2. Article Types

Research Article

Research articles are scholarly studies that make an original empirical and/or theoretical contribution to the field of child and youth psychology.

• The manuscript should not exceed 10,000 words, including references, tables, and figures.
• It should include Turkish and English abstracts of 150–250 words.
• It should include 4–6 keywords.
• The number of references should be appropriate to the nature of the study; for research articles, authors are encouraged to avoid exceeding 60 references.

Where scientifically justified, the editorial office may consider exceptions to the word or reference limits.

Review Article

Review articles should provide a comprehensive, critical, and original synthesis of a scholarly problem relevant to child and youth psychology.

Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, theoretical reviews, and conceptual reviews may be considered. Merely summarizing the existing literature is insufficient; review articles are expected to provide new perspectives, integration, evaluation, or scholarly conclusions.

• The manuscript should not exceed 10,000 words, including references, tables, and figures.
• It should include Turkish and English abstracts of 150–250 words.
• It should include 4–6 keywords.

No fixed reference limit is applied to review articles; references should be sufficient, current, and appropriate to the purpose and methodology of the review.

3. General Formatting Requirements

Unnecessary additional spacing should not be inserted between paragraphs.

Tables, figures, graphs, and images should be placed in the manuscript near the relevant text. All tables and figures must be cited in the text and numbered and titled in accordance with APA 7.

APA 7th edition should be followed for units of measurement, statistical notation, numbers, tables, figures, in-text citations, and references.

4. Submission Files

At least the following two separate files are required for the initial submission:

1. Cover File: Contains author identities and affiliation information.
2. Anonymized Main Manuscript: Contains the manuscript with identifying information removed.

Depending on the nature of the research, the editorial office may also request:

• Ethics committee approval documents,
• Research permissions,
• Permissions for the use of scales or materials,
• Data files,
• Supplementary materials,
• Other supporting documents.

5. Cover File

The cover file should include:

• Full Turkish and English titles of the manuscript,
• Full names of all authors,
• Academic titles,
• Institutional and departmental affiliations,
• ORCID identifiers,
• Name and contact e-mail address of the corresponding author,
• Funding/support information,
• Conflict of interest declaration,
• Data availability statement,
• Author contribution statement,
• Ethics committee/research ethics statement,
• Participant consent statement where applicable,
• Acknowledgements, if any,
• A statement indicating whether the work is derived from a thesis, funded project, or conference presentation, where applicable.

Information in the cover file is not shared with reviewers.

6. Anonymized Main Manuscript

To preserve double-blind peer review, the anonymized manuscript must not contain:

• Author names,
• Institutional affiliations,
• ORCID identifiers,
• E-mail addresses,
• Acknowledgements,
• Other information that clearly identifies the author or institution.

Authors should cite their own previous work in the same manner as other sources where scientifically necessary. Statements that directly reveal author identity should be anonymized.

7. Main Sections of the Manuscript

7.1. Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the content of the manuscript. Both Turkish and English titles should be provided.

7.2. Abstract

The manuscript should contain Turkish and English abstracts of 150–250 words. The abstract should concisely present the purpose, method, principal findings, and main conclusions of the study.

7.3. Keywords

Authors should provide 4–6 keywords in both Turkish and English. Keywords should represent the central concepts of the study, and unnecessary repetition of terms already used in the title should be avoided.

7.4. Introduction

The research problem and theoretical/empirical background should be clearly presented. Relevant literature should be critically evaluated, and the rationale, original contribution, and purpose of the study should be explained. Research questions and/or hypotheses should be stated at the end of the section where appropriate.

7.5. Method

The Method section should provide sufficient information to permit scientific evaluation of the research and, as far as reasonably possible, its replication.

Depending on the nature of the study, this section should include:

• Research design,
• Participants/study group,
• Sampling method,
• Data collection instruments,
• Procedure,
• Ethics committee and research ethics information,
• Data analysis methods.

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to follow internationally recognized reporting guidelines relevant to the study design.

7.6. Results

Results should be presented clearly and systematically and should correspond to the research questions or hypotheses. Statistical analyses should be reported in accordance with APA 7.

Tables and figures should support understanding of the findings and should not unnecessarily duplicate information presented in the text.

7.7. Discussion

Findings should be interpreted in relation to the purpose of the study and current scholarly literature. The Discussion should go beyond merely repeating the results and should address their theoretical and practical implications.

Study limitations should be clearly stated, and recommendations for future research and/or practice should be consistent with the findings.

7.8. Conclusion

A separate Conclusion section may be included where appropriate. It should briefly and clearly present the main implications of the study.

7.9. References

In-text citations and the reference list must follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Edition (APA 7).

Authors are responsible for ensuring that every work cited in the text appears in the reference list and that every work included in the reference list is cited in the manuscript. DOI information should be provided whenever available.

8. Reference Examples

Journal Article

Anderson, N. W., Hassler, G. W., Ohana, E., Griffin, B. A., Sheftall, A. H., & Ayer, L. (2025). Preteen suicidal ideation and adolescent academic well-being among child welfare-involved youth. School Mental Health, 17(1), 60–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09726-x

Book

Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

Book Chapter

Finney, S. J., & DiStefano, C. (2006). Non-normal and categorical data in structural equation modeling. In G. R. Hancock & R. O. Mueller (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: A second course (pp. 269–314). Information Age Publishing.

Doctoral Dissertation

Savahl, S. (2010). Ideological constructions of childhood [Doctoral dissertation, University of the Western Cape].

Online Sources

Online sources should be listed in accordance with APA 7 and should include the author or organization, date, title of the page or document, and retrieval information where appropriate.

9. Revision Process

For manuscripts for which revision is requested, authors are required to:

1. Respond separately to each reviewer and editor comment,
2. Clearly explain the changes made,
3. Provide a scholarly justification when a recommendation has not been implemented,
4. Upload the revised anonymized manuscript,
5. Upload the Response to Reviewers document.

10. Final Submission Check

Before submitting a manuscript, authors are expected to confirm that:

• All required files are complete and correct,
• Author information appears only in the cover file,
• The anonymized manuscript contains no identifying information,
• Turkish and English titles, abstracts, and keywords are complete,
• In-text citations and references comply with APA 7,
• Ethics and conflict-of-interest declarations are complete,
• All required supplementary documents have been uploaded.