Educational trajectory and “action orientation”: Grade and track differences

A life-span developmental perspective suggests that variations in social context will lead to differences among individuals in their action orientations. An action orientation is defined by an individual's values, control beliefs, goal orientation, and decision-making perspective. To investigate differences in the action orientations of adolescents embedded in different contexts, 83 sophomore and senior high school students on either a vocational training or college-preparatory trajectory participated in the study. A discriminant function analysis of action orientations showed that the action orientations of vocational training and college-preparatory students differed: College-preparatory students had a career preparation action orientation and vocational students had an adult preparation action orientation; also, sophomores may have had a socializing orientation. The findings are discussed in terms of the developmental tasks facing students in different grades and on different life-course trajectories. Received Ph.D. from West Virginia University. Research interests are cognitive and social cognitive development in cultural and institutional contexts.Received Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Research interests include adult developmental and problem solving.     

Discrimination and Mexican-Origin Adolescents’ Adjustment: The Moderating Roles of Adolescents’, Mothers’, and Fathers’ Cultural Orientations and Values

Drawing on García Coll et al.’s integrative framework and the risk and resilience model, this study examined the relationships between adolescents’ perceived discrimination and psychosocial adjustment and the moderating roles of adolescents’, mothers’, and fathers’ cultural orientations and values, and adolescent gender in a sample of 246 Mexican-origin families. Using multilevel modeling with data from mothers, fathers, seventh graders (M _age = 12.8 years; SD = .57 year) and older siblings (M _age = 15.7 years; SD = 1.5 years), findings revealed that perceived discrimination was positively related to depression, risky behaviors, and deviant peer affiliations. In addition, parents’ cultural orientations and values and adolescent gender moderated the relationships between perceived discrimination and some indicators of adjustment. These findings suggest that parents’ cultural orientations and values can serve as protective and vulnerability factors in the associations between Mexican-origin adolescents’ perceived discrimination and their psychosocial adjustment.     

Developmental Relations Between Bullying Victimization and Suicidal Ideation in Middle Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Do Internalizing Problems and Substance Use Mediate Their Links?

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Previous research has suggested that bullying victimization is associated with higher suicidal risk among young people; however, the mechanisms underlying this...     

Stability and Change in Rural Youths’ Educational Outcomes Through the Middle and High School Years

There is a dearth of literature that examines rural youths’ school transition and adaptation over the middle and high school years. Given rural education challenges, this study examines rural youths’ developmental trajectories of self-reported grades and affective and behavioral educational outcomes (i.e., school belonging, value of education, school misbehavior, and extracurricular activity participation). The cohort-sequential study consisted of 3,312 African American and White youth (50% female) who were surveyed over three and a half years, including the transition to high school. The results reveal significant changes in the outcomes from sixth to twelfth grade. For example, on average, school misbehavior increased over time while perceived school belonging decreased over time. Gender and race differences emerged; African American youth reported placing higher importance on education and less participation in school activities than White youth. The discussion focuses on the importance of examining rural adolescents’ educational pathways during the high school transition.     

Gender role socialization and adolescents' reports of depression: Why some girls and not others?

Previous research has noted a greater rate of depression among adolescent girls than boys (A. C. Petersen et al. [1993]; Depression in Adolescence, American Psychologist, Vol. 48, pp. 155–168; S. Nolen-Hoeksema [1987] Sex Differences in Unipolar Depression, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 101, pp. 259–282). Explanations for this gender differential in adolescent reports of depressive symptomatology have been the focus of past scholarly attention (Petersen et al, 1993; D. B. Kandel and M. Davies [1982] Epidemiology of Depressive Mood in Adolescents, Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 39, pp. 1205–1232). Littk is known, however, about factors that underlie individual differences in adolescent girls' reports of depression. In this study, we explored individual differences in depressive symptoms as a function of young adolescent girls' gender role orientations (i.e., level of masculinity) and the degree of sex typing in their parents' marital roles. Participants were 89 seventh-and eighth-grade girls from white, rural, maritally intact families. Results revealed that girls who rated themselves as more masculine and their parents' marriage as more egalitarian were significantly lower in depression than other girls. Results of this study suggested that the potential positive effects of person characteristics associated with mental well-being (i.e., high masculinity) were moderated by family context (i.e., traditional families).The research reported in this paper was supported by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. We gratefully acknowledge the comments and help provided by Dr. Ann Crouler, Kimberly Updegraff, Alison Baker, and Sharon McGroder. We also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their help on this work.Received Ph.D. from Penn State University. Her research interests include adolescent development and psychopathology in relation to various contexts.Received Ph.D. from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her research interests include children and adolescents' family relationships.Received Ph.D. from Universitaet Muenster and Technische Universitaet, Berlin. His research focuses on personality development in adolescence and young adulthood, utilizing cross-cultural perspectives.     

Association Between Mother and Adolescent Reports for Assessing Relations Between Parent–Adolescent Communication and Adolescent Adjustment

An important research finding is that parent–adolescent communication is related to adolescent adjustment. However, when using self-report measures with multiple reporters, adolescent and parent reports do not correlate highly, and within-rater reports correlate higher than cross-rater reports. This limits the utility of traditional methods of aggregation across raters. The present study used canonical correlation to examine if and how mother and adolescent reports for communication and problem behaviors are related. With reports from 161 adolescents and their mothers, the results indicated that the relationship between mother and adolescent reports differed by problem behavior area. Within-rater reports dominated the dimensions for communication related to aggressive behaviors. For anxious/depressed behaviors, both mother and adolescent reports contributed to the dimensions, with 1 dimension reflecting opposite perceptions of communication and adjustment by mothers and adolescents.     

Nurture,Pleasure and Read and Resist!: Abolition Feminist Methodology for a Collective Recovery?

COVID-19 has magnified intersecting inequalities that are central to the functioning of capitalism. At the height of the crisis, the value of an economy based on the exchange of goods and services faded away to expose the importance of care across the public and private spheres. Undervalued and underpaid labour suddenly became critical to the survival of many. Drawing on Abolition Feminism, we argue for the need to seize this revaluation of labour to centre nurture and pleasure within our post-pandemic recovery. We apply an Abolition Feminist framework that conceptualises the prison as part of a network of violence that deflects attention from the root causes of harm. We reflect on the development of our Abolition Feminist web platform, Read and Resist!, a space where theory meets reflection on praxis. We consider how activist strategies within Abolition Feminism may support us in reimagining our relationships with law and justice post-COVID-19.

     

Cracks in the Feminist Mirror?: Research and Reflections on Lesbians and Gay Men Working Together

This article is an offshoot of a research project on lesbian and gay self-organization in the UK's public sector union UNISON. The site upon which lesbians and gay men ‘work together’ is a complex and contradictory one, located at the juncture of several pathways – women's and men's movements, gendered politics and sexual politics, purist ghettos and queer rainbows. The UNISON group furnishes an ideal site for a case-study of sexual and gendered dynamics in lesbian-and-gay politics by dint of institutional arrangements whereby separate spaces for lesbians and gay men respectively encourage reflexivity in working through these hyphens. While reflections from the lesbian feminist mirror have been active ingredients in the ongoing resocialization of gay men, it is argued that reflections from a gay male mirror will also be necessary if we are to nurture greater wisdom and justice in gender relations. Since the lesbian and gay group co-exists with other selforganized groups for women, black people and disabled people within a broader pro-socialist movement, the potential for working across other sets of differences is also noteworthy. Nevertheless, it can be demonstrated that a sustained coalition between lesbians and gay men is not sufficient in bringing about coalitions with other oppressed minorities or majorities, and may even be at loggerheads with them.     

Men and Women’s Attachment and Contact Patterns with Parents During the First Year of College

Attending a university involves change and transition and an opportunity to study older adolescents’ attachment. The current study explored potential gender differences in both older adolescents’ need-and nonneed-based interactions with parents and their perceptions of attachment quality. Results indicated that although females did not initiate significantly more need-based contact with parents than males, they received significantly more need-based contact than males that was initiated by their parents. On the other hand, females both initiated and received nonneed-based contact with parents more than males. Consistent with attachment theory, parent–child need- and nonneed-based interactions were related to one’s perceived quality of attachment. Results indicated that adolescent attachment involves both need- and nonneed-based parent–adolescent interactions. The pattern of findings suggests that adolescent males and females may show attachment in different ways.This research is based on the first author’s master’s thesis at American University under the supervision of the second author.Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC. Received MA in Psychology from American University, Washington, DC. Research interests lie within developmental and clinical psychology, parent–adolescent interactions, and child psychopathology.Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC. Received PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Research interests include gender issues and developmental and clinical psychology.     

COVID-19 Stressors and Latinx Adolescents’ Mental Health Symptomology and School Performance: A Prospective Study

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - This study addressed the need for research examining impacts of the Coronavirus-19 (COVID) pandemic on Latinx adolescents’ adjustment. Survey data for a...     

Early Adolescent Social Anxiety: Differential Associations for Fathers’ and Mothers’ Psychologically Controlling and Autonomy-Supportive Parenting

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Although psychologically controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting are important indicators of social anxiety during early adolescence, less research has...     

Who is Likely to Help and Hurt? Profiles of African American Adolescents with Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior

Prosocial behavior and aggression among children and adolescents are important indicators of social and interpersonal competence. The goal of this study was to investigate whether there are different prototypes among African American adolescents that can help explain prosocial and aggressive (relational and overt) behaviors. Also of interest was whether these profiles differed for boys and girls. The selection of independent variables (e.g., empathy, anger management, normative beliefs about aggression, and ethnic identity) was guided by an information processing model of aggression and prosocial behaviors. The sample consisted of 789 (57% female) African American adolescents between the ages of 11 and 14. Cluster analysis produced three profiles that were similar for boys and girls. These were labeled “well-adjusted,” “poorly adjusted,” and “low identity.” A fourth profile was labeled “low empathy” for girls and “poor anger management” for boys. These four clusters significantly differentiated who engaged in prosocial behavior and relational and overt aggression. Findings suggest that prevention programs may consider targeting well-adjusted youth to serve as peer modes. Additionally, programs that promote empathy, anger management, ethnic identity, and normative beliefs against aggression may be useful for reducing aggression and increasing prosocial behavior among poorly adjusted youth.     

“Disrupting the surface of order and innocence”: Towards a theory of sexuality and the law

Conclusion The dominant male discourse as expressed in the law of sexuality constructs the male subject. In each area — rape, incest and prostitution, it creates and extends the power which underpins the sexuality of the male subject to facilitate the non-consensual taking of women in rape and incest and the buying of them on the subject's own terms in prostitution.Further, the law constructs the female as Other not as freely consenting subject but as Other for the male subject in the space of unreason, for the logic of desire.In these constructions, lie the paradox of the law of sexuality. It exists purportedly to defend and protect the victims of rape, incest and prostitution but even in so far as it does so, it reasserts, through its constructions, the power of the speaking male subject through and the exclusion of the woman as Other from, the dominant male discourse as it is expressed in and enshrined by that law.The author is grateful for the comments of Glynis Cousin, Mike McConville, Brendan McSweeney and an anonymous referee on this work.     

Autonomy-related Parenting Profiles and their Effects on Adolescents’ Academic and Psychological Development: A Longitudinal Person-oriented Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The important role of parenting is widely acknowledged, but as most studies have understood and examined it as a stable attribute (e.g., parenting style), the...     

Heterosexual,Cisgender and Gender and Sexually Diverse Adolescents’ Sexting Behaviors: The Role of Body Appreciation

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Sexting has become part of the repertoire of adolescents’ sexual behaviors, especially among those who identify as gender and sexually diverse. Whereas body...     

Did Mrs Danvers warm Rebecca's pearls? significant exchanges and the extension of lesbian space and time in literature

This article is concerned with the ways in which literary spaces can become sexualized by the transfer of objects between women, as well as by the ways in which bodies themselves touch. It discusses how lesbian desire changes both spatial and temporal structures, via a consideration of the use of pearl imagery. In particular, it analyses the link between sexual, class and bodily construction in two texts: Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca (1938) and Carol Ann Duffy's poem ‘Warming Her Pearls’ (1987). These texts encode contrasting ideas about the lesbian body, ideas that are discursively textured by the periods in which they were written and by the relative ideological resistance of their writers. While du Maurier's novel establishes a concept of spatial and temporal enclosure, Duffy's poem creates an unconfined and unstable lesbian body-text. Within this, the pearl can be seen as a subversive device, destructuring and stretching the parameters of lesbian desire.     

Classroom Predictors of National Belonging: The Role of Interethnic Contact and Teachers’ and Classmates’ Diversity Norms

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Schools can be important for the development of national belonging in students with immigrant backgrounds. Following Contact Theory and prior research on...     

Parent–Child Interaction During Adolescence,and the Adolescent's Sexual Experience: Control,Closeness, and Conflict

It is often assumed that a good parent–child relationship leads to a later sexual initiation of the adolescent. Using a representative longitudinal sample of 332 (Time One) to 255 (Time Two) mother–adolescent pairs, we sought to reexamine the relations between distal variables (including socioeconomic status, age of mother and child, presence of the father), proximate variables (rearing styles, sexual permissiveness), and the amount of intrafamily conflict and adolescent sexual behavior, by means of structural modeling techniques and logistic regression analysis. Our results did not support the notion of delayed sexual initiation of adolescents as a consequence of positive parent–child relationships. On the contrary, we find that the stronger parental desire to maintain a good relationship with their adolescents, the more likely it is that their sexual initiation will be at a younger age.     

Middle and Late Adolescents' Conflict Resolution Skills with Siblings: Associations with Interparental and Parent–Adolescent Conflict Resolution

The present study examined whether conflict resolution skills utilized in the interparental and parent–adolescent relationships were related to adolescents' conflict resolution skills with siblings. The associations between interparental, parent–adolescent, and sibling conflict resolution skills were compared for middle and late adolescents. Middle adolescents (N = 89) and late adolescents (N = 90) reported their perceptions of attack and compromise conflict resolution styles for both family members within a dyadic relationship. Differences were found between middle and late adolescents regarding their perceptions of attack and compromise resolution styles utilized in family dyadic relationships. Path analysis results indicated that the influence of interparental conflict resolution on sibling conflict resolution was mediated by mom–adolescent and dad–adolescent resolution for both middle and late adolescents. Theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed here.