Sex roles,personality, and intellectual abilities in adolescents

The relationship between personality variables associated with sex roles and the cognitive variables of math and verbal ability was examined in three groups of adolescents. Masculinity and femininity of interests, behavioral traits, and values were examined using three inventories: the Femininity Scale from the California Psychological Inventory, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and the Study of Values. Results indicate that there is some evidence for a positive relationship between masculine traits and values and math ability, and feminine traits and values and verbal skills (for both sexes). Certain traits indicative of maturity were found to be positively related to both high math and high verbal scores, while certain highly sex-typed traits and interests were found to be negatively related to both cognitive variables. A different relationship for males and females was found between high intellectual scores and indicators of self-concept and emotional well-being. The differing relationship between each of the three personality variables indicative of sex roles (e.g., interests, values, traits) and cognitive variables emphasizes the need to view masculinity and feminity, as well as sex-role, as a complex combination of the many different aspects of sex roles as they exist in our society.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Johns Hopkins University. Main research interests are gifted adolescents, sex-role development, and personality development.     

Attitudes toward sexuality in a group of 1500 middle class teen-agers

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes toward sexuality in a group of randomly selected middle class teen-agers. The sample included boys and girls, young (13–14) and older (16–18) teen-agers, in a variety of geographic locations from 1962 to 1970. Results demonstrated significant differences between the sexes and between younger and older teen-agers. It did not show differences between teen-agers' attitudes toward sexuality from 1962 to 1970 and neither were there any differences in the attitudes of adolescents in the American cities and in Hobart, Australia. The main finding is that there is no evidence to suggest that the adolescent population is in the midst of a sexual revolution. Presented at the VIIIth International Congress for Child Psychiatry and Allied Professions, Jerusalem, Israel, August 1970.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago; psychiatric training at Michael Reese Hospital; and is a graduate of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Main interests are the developmental psychology of adolescents and young adults and juvenile delinquency.The paper was prepared with the collaboration of H. Diesenhaus, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, and E. Ostrov, Research Associate, Michael Reese Unit, Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, Chicago, Illinois.     

A closer look at adolescent sexual activity

This study of 1228 parochial students in the eastern United States answered questions about adolescent sexuality. Few of the students surveyed claimed that sex was forced or even pressured. Over half of the students reported going steady as their relationship status when experiencing their first intercourse. Another fourth reported that they were dating or knew each other well. Approximately one-fifth of the students reported that drugs or alcohol was used at the time of first sex and three-fourths of them had first sex at either their own home or a friend's home. Nearly half of the students wished they had waited longer before having sex, especially the females and the more religious students. One-half of the nonvirgin students in the sample reported having had only one sexual partner. The implications of this information for setting social policy, designing and implementing effective sex education programs are discussed.Received Ph.D. in family studies/family science, Brigham Young University in 1994. Research and writing interests include adolescent sexuality and related problems, character education, and parenting.serving a sabbatical at BUY—Hawaii currently. Received Ph.D. in psychology at Michigan State in 1966. Research interests concern gender issues, parenting, and adolescent problems.In 1978 received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests include adolescent problems and social policy.     

Parental marital status and adolescents' optimism about their future

This article reports the results of a questionnaire survey of a representative random sample of all the schooled French-speaking adolescents of Montreal (N=4539). The sample included adolescents from legally intact homes, separated or divorced homes, and homes in which a parent was deceased. Three indicators of future success were included; adolescents from both types of broken families were less optimistic on all three dimensions than were adolescents from intact families. These results are discussed within a socioeconomic framework.This project was sponsored by grant 605-1356-42 from the National Health Research and Development Program, Canada Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1976–1978, and by a research grant from York University, 1981.Received M.D. from Université de Montréal and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Main research interest are in pedopsychiatry and family life.Received Ph.D. from Cornell University. Main research interests are in social psychiatry and marital dissolution.     

The Implausibility of Freeman's Hoaxing Theory: An Update

This article updates a series of critical analyses of Derek Freeman's claim that Margaret Mead was hoaxed during the field research that constituted the basis of her book Coming of Age in Samoa. In particular, Freeman claims that this hoaxing caused Mead to falsely portray Samoa as a free-love society. Based on Mead's written correspondence, progress reports, and the contents of her book, it is concluded that no hoaxing of any significance could plausibly constitute the basis of her book. Moreover, while Mead may have made some misleading statements about the extent of sexual freedom among her informants, she did not portray a free-love society in her book. Instead, some of the misleading statements can be traced to the encouragement of her publisher to make a show for the public.     

An experimental study of the effect of structured videotape feedback on adolescent group psychotherapy process

Group psychotherapy with disturbed undersocialized adolescents requires modification of traditional group psychotherapy methods. The effectiveness of a structured, brief video-tape feedback and discussion on group psychotherapy process with this population was studied by an analysis of detailed ratings of each statement, or process unit; in randomly selected videotapes from a control and experimental group during a nine-month period. Significant differences in level of intimacy of verbal content and in frequency of feedback about behavior in content indicate that this technique is effective in facilitating group psychotherapy goals.Received Ed.D. from University of Kentucky. Research interests are group psychotherapy process and methodology.Received M.A. from North Carolina State University. Research interest is adolescent group psychotherapy.Received Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Research interest is adolescent group psychotherapy.Received M.A. from University of North Carolina. Research interest is group psychotherapy process.Received Ph.D. from Purdue University. Research interets include analysis of small group processes.     

Prevalence and Predictors of Sexual Risks Among Homeless Youth

This study examined prevalence of sexual risks among homeless adolescents and described factors associated with those risks. Community-based outreach methods were used successfully to access this difficult-to-reach population. The sample included 203 homeless youth aged 15–22 recruited from community sites. Questionnaire items addressed demographics, sexual behaviors, alcohol/drug use, STI history and testing, and pregnancy history. In cross-sectional analysis, 58.7% of males and 75.6% of females reported recent sexual intercourse. Of those, one third of males and half of the females used no barrier method with at least one partner. Both gender (female) and race/ethnicity (non-Black) were associated with having intercourse without a barrier contraceptive method. Over one fifth reported a history of survival sex or receiving money, drugs, clothing, shelter, or food for sex. These results show disturbingly high rates of a number of sexual risks, reinforcing the need for targeted interventions with this highly vulnerable population.     

Sexual Behavior and Perceived Peer Norms: Comparing Perinatally Hiv-infected and Hiv-affected Youth

A large proportion of perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) children are becoming adolescents and exploring their sexuality. This study explored the prevalence of sexual behaviors (kissing, touching, engaging in oral sex, or having vaginal/anal intercourse) in a sample of predominantly ethnic minority youths (N = 339; 54.1% Black and 30.4% Latino; 51% female; ages 9–16) perinatally exposed to HIV (61% HIV+). Using logistic regression, we tested the association between sexual behavior and HIV status, demographic characteristics, and peer influences regarding sexual behavior. PHIV youth were less likely to be sexually active. Among sexually active youth, PHIV youth were more likely to engage in touching behavior than HIV-negative youth and were less likely to engage in penetrative sex. Youths reporting that a greater number of their peers believed that sexually active boys were “cool” or “popular” were more likely to report sexual behavior. The association between sexual behavior and peers believing sexually active girls were “cool” or “popular” varied by age, gender, and HIV status. Furthermore, friends’ sexual activity was associated with sexual intercourse. Prevention programs should strengthen messages addressing peer norms regarding sexuality, as well as address specific issues related to adolescent HIV.

“Always Use Protection”: Communication Boys Receive About Sex From Parents,Peers, and the Media

Although parents are often thought to be the primary communicators of sexual information, studies have found that many adolescent boys report receiving little or no parental communication about sex. Instead, boys report learning about sex mostly from their peers and the media. However, little is known about the content of these communications, from any source. Using a sample of 286 male undergraduates, this study employed a mixed-method approach to examine the amount and content of sex-related communication boys received from their parents, peers, and the media. Results indicated that adolescent boys report receiving less sexual communication from their parents than from peers and the media. In terms of content, parental messages focused on abstinence and contraception while peer and media messages were significantly more sex-positive. Analyses of ethnic group variation showed that African American adolescents reported receiving the most parental communication and Asian American boys reported the least, with further variability in the content of the messages. Findings also document considerable diversity of message content, both within and across source, highlighting the utility of comparative and multi-method approaches.

Female adolescents of alcohol misusers 1: Sexual behaviors

Studies show that children of alcoholics constitute an at-risk population. This study attempted to understand the impact of parental alcohol misuse on sexual behaviors of female adolescents, based on a sample of 1134 teenagers from alcohol misusing parents in Minnesota. Index adolescents were more likely to report having sexual intercourse as well as greater frequency of intercourse, history of pregnancy and greater overall pregnancy risk based on current patterns of sexual behavior and contraceptive utilization. Bivariate analysis revealed that gender of the drinking parent was also associated with the above variables. However, in multivariate assessment of protective and risk factors for adolescent pregnancy in the at-risk sample, maternal vs. paternal vs. both parents drinking was no longer salient. Pregnancy avoidance was associated in the index group with two-parent family structure and higher maternal education, while pregnancy history was associated with a history of physical abuse and perception of high levels of vandalism in the school setting.The study reported in this article did not utilize clinically diagnostic indicators of alcoholism. Hence the authors have deliberately avoided using the word alcoholics when referring to parents of study participants. The terms alcohol misusers and alcohol abusers have been substituted and are used interchangeably.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Research interests include identifying resilience factors in populations that are considered at risk and the usefulness of these factors in planning social welfare programs.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Research interests include children with chronic illness and disabilities, adolescent sexual decision making and international adolescent health care issues.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Research focuses on adolescent high-risk behaviors and resiliency, and interested in the translation of social research into social action, programs, and policy.     

Toward analysis of the relations among the youth counterculture,telephone hotlines,and anonymity

During the 1960s, there emerged a youth culture which had two major orientations: the Counterculture and the Movement. We are well informed about this youth culture, its social values, social norms, and emergent social roles (e.g., hippie, freak, radical, dropout). Part of these social and political movements was the creation of alternative, counterculture, or radical human service programs. Early examples were free medical clinics, drop-in centers, and telephone hotlines. Among the actual differences in these programs compared to older, established human service agencies was (is) the prominent position of the social value of client anonymity. This notion of client anonymity is examined in the attempt to understand its role in the relations among themes of the Counterculture, individual youth, their peers, and youth-serving agencies.Holds degrees in social work and public health and is currently completing a report of a national survey of hotlines and youth crisis programs and working with others in editing papers for a monograph from a conference on evaluating hotlines. The survey data will appear in that publication.     

Developing Sexual Self-Efficacy Beliefs During Adolescence: Do Health Teachers Really Matter?

Teacher attitudes and instructional strategies impact success of human sexuality programs. Limited prior research has examined the relations of teachers’ attitudes and instruction to the development of adolescents’ sexual self-efficacy beliefs. This study examined how adolescents’ perceptions of their health teachers (i.e., teacher value of content, teacher affinity, teacher caring for students) predict changes in efficacy beliefs related to HIV/STD and pregnancy prevention, and if perceptions of mastery goal structure predicted adaptive efficacy beliefs. Data were collected in 4 Midwestern/Appalachian high schools in health class where the delivery of a 14-lesson sexual health curriculum occurred. Participants included 561 students (50.4% 9^th graders, 43.5% female, 56.3% White, 53.7% did not have a current romantic partner, and 59.7% had previously not engaged in sexual activity). The findings indicate students’ perceptions of teachers valuing the content predicted perceptions of mastery goal structure for all sexual self-efficacy beliefs: learning efficacy, condom negotiation efficacy, refusal self-efficacy, and situational self-efficacy. Students who perceive a mastery goal structure in health class, and who feel their teachers value learning about HIV/STD and pregnancy prevention, are likely to experience positive adaptive self-efficacy beliefs related to sexual health, ultimately leading to behaviors indicative of decreased STDs among teenagers and safe sexual practices, such as abstinence, the use of a condom, and saying “no” to having sex.

     

Disagreements about rules in families with seventh-grade girls and boys

Parental reports of disagreements and serious disagreements about rules were examined in 200 families with seventh-grade boys and girls. No gender differences were found: Mothers did not report more disagreements than fathers; no more disagreements were reported for girls than boys. Disagreements about personal habits and family obligations were more common than disagreements about peer relations. Disagreements and serious disagreements, in general, were significantly correlated (positively) with parental reports of child oppositionalism and (negatively) with parents' satisfaction with parenting the target child, although some dyadic differences were found. Children's reports of parental acceptance were negatively correlated with disagreements only for the father-daughter dyad. Support was found for some of Baumrind's ([1968] Authoritarian vs. Authoritative Control,Adolescence 3: 255–272) notions regarding relations between rule frequency, child participation in rule making, and disagreements about rules, especially for the father-daughter dyad.The research reported here was funded in part by Father Flanagan's Boys Home, Inc., and by a grant to the senior author from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Family Relations in Early Adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University. Interests are the social psychology of adolescence and psychosocial adaptation to biological change.Received his Master of Science from Virginia Commonwealth University. Interests are family relations during adolescence, sex roles and their development, pediatric psychology, and statistical applications in psychology.     

Adolescents' response to nuclear threat: Before and after the chernobyl accident

This study investigated adolescent responses to nuclear threat during intervals preceding and following the Chernobyl disaster. The Nuclear Threat Index was administered to 96 Israeli subjects two months prior to and two months following the disaster. In addition, they were tested with Rotter's Locus of Control Scale. The data results indicate that on the whole there were differences in scores between the two administrations, especially with respect to self-reported activity (behavioral subscales). Adolescents reported significantly more past nuclear-related activity before the accident as well as fewer anticipated activities after the accident. Adjusted for the preaccident score differences data reveal that after the accident younger adolescents reported less pessimism and more previous activity than the older adolescents. In addition, males reported more nuclear-related activity than females; younger males reported more past activity and less pessimism than older males; external males reported more activity than internal males. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the results, on limitations of the investigation, and on implications for further research.Received Ph.D. in school counseling from Tel Aviv University. Research interests: evaluation of primary prevention programs, crisis intervention in mass disasters, and death studies.Received D.Sc. from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) Department of Management Science. Research interests: Statistics.Received M.A. in Education from University of Haifa, School guidance and counseling, Haifa, Israel.     

Stability in Depressed Mood in Adolescence: Results from a 6-Year Longitudinal Panel Study

A 6-year longitudinal panel study investigated the absolute and relative stability in depressed mood throughout adolescence by reporting data from a sample of 538 adolescents between 13 and 19 years of age. Results revealed the following. (1) Girls had on average higher depressed mood scores than boys at all ages. (2) Among boys there were no substantial changes in depressed mood mean scores, while among girls there was a slight tendency of a curvilinear trend, with a peak level reached in midadolescence. (3) There was a tendency for adolescents to retain their relative level in depressed mood, most pronounced for a period of 4 years, from age 15 to age 19 years. (4) Depressed mood was most stable in a subgroup of adolescents who had high initial depressed mood scores. (5) By applying structural equation modeling, it was shown that the stable (trait) component of depressed mood increased in importance with increasing age, while the temporal (state) component decreased with increased age.     

Attentional and intellectual deficits in unmedicated behavior-disordered adolescent inpatients

The authors examined the hypothesis that impairments in attention and verbal intelligence are associated with seriously maladaptive social behavior in behavior-disordered, hospitalized adolescents. Twenty-five unmedicated inpatients with disruptive behavior disorder diagnoses were rated during a one-month period for frequency of severe disruptive episodes, or critical incidents (CI); these included assaults, behavior resulting in the use of restraints, etc. All subjects independently received intelligence testing and continuous performance testing (CPT). Based on CI scores, subjects were divided into a high-CI group (CI>5; N=9) and a low-CI group (CI<4; N=16). On the CPT, the high-CI group showed more impairment in perceptual sensitivity (d; this group also had lower verbal IQ scores. (Both findings were significant at the p<.05 level.) The latter result was largely due to differences in Comprehension subtest scores. These results support the hypothesis, and may have implications for the treatment of behavior-disordered adolescents.Received M.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Major research interests are adolescent psychopathology, disruptive behavior disorders, and information processing.Received Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Major research interests are outcomes measurement, psychosis proneness, and psychodiagnostic assessment.Received Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Major research interests is adolescent psychopathology.Received M.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Major research interests are adult attachment and mental representation.Received M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Major research interests are schizophrenia, personality disorders, and trauma.     

Adolescent Sexual Timetables

Young people's age expectations for the Initiation by boys and girls of a range of sexual practices were elicited from a sample of 522 15- and 16-year-olds. As expected, there was a progression in the modal ages nominated from the least intimate (kissing) to more intimate behaviors (sexual intercourse). There were few gender differences, either for age expectations of the practices of boys and girls or between male and female respondents. There was a strong relationship between sexual timetables and timetables for autonomy and use of common drugs such as alcohol, and several marker sexual behaviors were identified that may signify the appropriateness of a range of sexual practices, It is suggested that there is a group of young people whose desire for early autonomy, substance use, and belief in early sexual activity may put them at risk.     

The nuclear family,ideology and AIDS in the thatcher years

Thanks to Willem De Haan, Pompe Institute, Utrecht University, for his regular intellectually corrective efforts and to my colleague Gillian Douglas for encouraging the solo rewrite and for her helpful suggestions.