Effects of self-concept and perceived disapproval of delinquent behavior in school children

It is argued that a multidimensional approach to self-concept may reveal intricate relations between self-concept and delinquent behavior, and that perceived approval of delinquent behaviors from referent groups may be related to the frequency of their occurrence. To evaluate these hypotheses, 1668 students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 responded to a questionnaire that measured their general self-esteem; their self-concept with regard to physical ability, social ability, physical appearance, and academic ability; the frequency they committed 15 delinquent acts; and the perceived approval of committing these acts from their parents, teachers, and friends. Regression analyses indicated that poor academic self-concept and poor relationship with school and parents were related to a higher frequency of delinquent behavior. However, a higher frequency of delinquent behavior was related to a more positive selfconcept with regard to social ability and physical ability. Finally, higher perceived approval from parents and peers was related to more delinquent behavior. Implications of these findings for identifying the antecedents and consequences of delinquent behavior were discussed.Received his Ph.D. from University of Illinois in social, industrial, and organizational psychology. His research interests included cross-cultural psychology, social justice, and the psychology of adolescence.Received his Ph.D. from Purdue University, and his research interests include values, selfconcept, family processes, and the psychology of adolescence.     

Effects of self-monitoring and perceived approval on delinquent behavior among Hong Kong adolescents

It has been established that perceived approval from relevant others is related to delinquent behavior. The aim of the present study was to investigate how this relationship was mediated by self- monitoring. Eight hundred twenty-eight students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 were asked to respond to a questionnaire that measured their self-monitoring, the frequency they committed delinquent acts, and the perceived approval of committing these acts from their parents, teachers, and friends. Regression analyses indicated that self- monitoring wax an interacting factor between perceived approval and delinquency. On further path analyses, it was found that self- monitoring acted as a mediating factor, and that the relationship between delinquent behavior and perceived approval was more apparent among high self- monitoring individuals. The present study was based on data collected in the delinquency project by S. Lau and Kwok Leung.Received M.Phil. from University of Hong Kong and M.A. in education from Chinese University of Hong Kong. Research interests include self-monitoring, problem solving, and learning environments.Received Ph.D. from Purdue University. Research interests include values, self-concept, family processes, and the psychology of adolescence.     

Parents' and teachers' beliefs about adolescents: Effects of sex and experience

Three studies examine beliefs that parents and teachers have about adolescents. A distinction is made between category-based beliefs (concerning adolescents as a group) and target-based beliefs (concerning individual adoles cents). In Study 1, 90 late elementary and junior high school teachers indicated degree of agreement with a set of category-based statements about adolescents. Parents of early adolescents in Study 2 (N=1272) responded to category- and target-based statements. Study 3 compares the responses of teachers in Study 1 and parents in Study 2. Both teachers and parents endorsed beliefs that adolescence is difficult, and that adults can have an impact. Compared to fathers, mothers believed more in difficulty and in the negative effects of biological change on behavior. Parents of daughters believed adolescence is more difficult than parents of sons. Among teachers, amount of experience with adolescents was positively associated with the belief that adolescence is a difficult period of life. For parents, the effect of amount of experience was mixed. Experience had a greater impact on the category-based beliefs of teachers than parents. Possible influences on the origins and modification of beliefs are discussed.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, effects of pubertal development on social development, hormones and behavior in early adolescence, and family processesCurrently on leave from The University of Michigan. Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Research interests: development of self-concept, subjective task value, interests, and activity preferences, especially during early and middle adolescence. Dr. Eccles is also investigating the impact of school and family experiences on these constructs.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: the impact 6f family stress on adolescent development and family decision-making practices.Received Ph.D. in educatiqn from The University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, middle years education, teacher beliefs, and classroom processes.Received M. A. in education from the University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, classroom environments, and supporting beginning teachers.Received Ph.D. in social work and psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: family processes and development.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1987 biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development. This research was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31724-04, -05) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD17296-01, -02, -03,S1) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles.     

Perception of epistemic authorities by children and adolescents

The study investigated children's and adolescents' perceptions of epistemic authorities in various knowledge domains. Children and adolescents from 4th, 8th, and 12th grades were asked to evaluate their father, mother, teacher, and friends as epistemic authorities in nine areas of knowledge content. In general, the results indicated that the perception of parents as epistemic authorities decreases with age. Nevertheless, children and adolescents continue to consider one or both parents to be the most important epistemic authorities. The perception of friends as epistemic authority increased relative to other sources in the social domains of knowledge. The perception of teachers as epistemic authority decreases with age, but in the formal knowledge domain it remains relatively stable.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Research interests concern media psychology, knowledge formation, and school psychology. Requests for reprints should be sent to Amiram Raviv at Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel 69978.Received Ph.D. in psychology from University of Pittsburgh. Research interests concern political psychology, social psychology of knowledge, and stereotyping.Received Ph.D. in statistics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Research interests concern nonparametric statistics and applied statistics.Received M.A. degree in clinical child psychology from Tel Aviv University.     

Components of loneliness during adolescence

Predictors of adolescent loneliness were investigated in two samples of high school students (n=92)and college undergraduates (n=192).Results were similar across samples. Among the high school sample loneliness was significantly predicted by a combination of alienation, a lack of social facility and acceptance, inferiority feelings, negative school attitudes, and a lack of social integration. Among college students loneliness was negatively related to social facility, regularity, approval, and involvement and positively related to alienation, parental disinterest, negative school attitudes, and inferiority feelings.Research interests include loneliness and self-concept.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from Oklahoma State University. Research interests include loneliness and friendships.     

Parental role in teenage driving

Students in 75 high schools in seven states participated in a questionnaire survey. The results showed that high school students want to become licensed as soon as possible and that parents are important in teaching them to drive. Once licensed, the majority of students have their own cars, though they do not typically pay the majority of the costs. Seventy-one percent of licensed students who do not have their own cars reported that they can usually or always use a family car. Most students, particularly younger ones and females, reported that their parents expect them to conform to certain rules or restrictions when driving and when riding as passengers. The most common restrictions were that their parents asked them not to drive after drinking, to tell parents where they were going and with whom, and to be home at a certain time. Students were far less likely to report that their parents required that they wear seat belts.This work was supported by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.Received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Yale University. Research interests are highway safety, pedestrian safety, and evaluation of training and education programs.Received a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University. Research interests are the factors related to motor vehicle injuries, drinking and driving, and the crash involvement of teenagers.Received a Ph.D. in social psychology from State University of New York at Buffalo. Research interests are health behavior and the role of the individual in public health.     

Adolescent idolization of pop singers: Causes,expressions, and reliance

The study examines the phenomenon of adolescents' idolization of pop singers. Male and female adolescents from three age groups (ages 10–11, 13–14, and 16–17) were compared with regard to the intensity of idolization, its behavioral manifestations, causes for selecting the idol, and reliance for knowledge on the idol. The results of self-reports indicated that the phenomenon of idolization, expressed especially in worshipping and modeling, is strongest in the youngest age group and decreases in intensity with age. Also, it was found that girls idolize singers more than boys. The youngest age group, especially girls, rely on singers with regard to knowledge concerning personal matters. These findings were explained within the frameworks of gender differences, adolescence characteristics, and youth culture development.This paper was prepared while the first and the third authors were on sabbatical at the Department of Psychology, Maryland University, College Park, Maryland.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Hebrew University, 1974. Research interests include school psychology, social cognition, and media psychology.Received Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, 1974. Research interests include political psychology, social psychology, and social development.Received Ph.D. in statistics from the Hebrew University, 1976. Research interests concern applied statistics and nonparametric statistics.Received MA in clinical child psychology, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University.     

Self-Control,Social Factors,and Delinquency: A Test of The General Theory of Crime Among Adolescents in Hong Kong

The objectives of this study were to test the predictive power of self-control theory for delinquency in a Chinese context, and to explore if social factors as predicted in social bonding theory, differential association theory, general strain theory, and labeling theory have effects on delinquency in the presence of self-control. Self-report data were collected from 1,015 Chinese secondary school students (463 boys and 552 girls) in Hong Kong aged between 14 and 19. Bivariate results showed that low self-control is correlated with delinquency in the Chinese setting. We also found that low self-control is linked to a range of negative social conditions in Chinese adolescents, including disrupted social bonds, delinquent association, deviant definition, educational under-achievement, coercive parenting, negative school experiences, negative relations with peers, stressful life events, and labeling by parents and teachers. However, contrary to self-control theory and many previous studies based on Western samples, self-control fails to predict delinquency when social variables are controlled for among Chinese adolescents. The effects of social factors on delinquency remain significant net of self-control. This suggests that it is the combination of self-control and social factors in the prediction of delinquency that might be variant across cultures. These findings from adolescents from Hong Kong only partially support the culture-free thesis of self-control theory. The implications of Chinese cultural forces on the influence of self-control merit closer attention.

Psychosocial differences between occasional and regular adolescent users of Marijuana and Heroin

Data on marijuana and heroin use were obtained from 969 adolescents in Hong Kong, part of them being offenders. Very high drug use prevalence rates were found, which is due to the unique population studied. All but two of the heroin users were incarcerated youth. Drug use frequencies were highly associated with psychosocial variables such as sensation seeking, peer drug use, family drug use, susceptibility to peer pressure, perceived control to gain access to drugs, intention to try other substances, and perceived adverse consequences of drug use. Interactions were found indicating, for example, that regularly marijuana using girls and occasionally heroin using girls were characterized by higher levels of sensation seeking and susceptibility to peer pressure than their male counterparts. Polysubstance use was generally related to high levels of psychosocial vulnerability factors. The exclusive use of marijuana was associated with high susceptibility to peer pressure and with perceived control to gain access to drugs. The findings reflect a complex interplay of psychosocial variables with substance use in adolescents that, however, cannot be generalized beyond this particular sample in Hong Kong.Received Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Texas. Research interests include drug-taking behaviors, health psychology and women studies. To whom correspondence should be addressed.Received M. Phil in Clinical Psychology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Research interests include drug-taking behaviors and adolescent problems.Research interests include stress and anxiety.     

Parental support,coping strategies,and psychological adjustment: An integrative model with late adolescents

The purpose of this study was to apply an Integrative predictive model to examine interrelationships among parental support, adaptive coping strategies, and psychological adjustment among late adolescents. Findings using new measures of parental support and adaptive coping with 241 eighteen-year-old college freshmen supported hypotheses. Social support from both mother and father and a nonconflictual relationship between parents were positively associated with adolescents' psychological adjustment. Adolescents with high parental support were better adjusted and less distressed than were those with low parental support. Additionally, an integrative structural equation model showed that parental support was associated with psychological adjustment both directly and indirectly through a higher percent of approach coping strategies.This work was supported in part by grants from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the University Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, and the William T. Grant Foundation.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Research interests include stress and coping processes among adolescents and adults and coping with chronic illness.Research interests include adolescent coping and development and anxiety processes.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Research interests include social ecological perspectives on psychological functioning, health services research and evaluation, depression, and alcoholism.     

Satisfaction with body image for early adolescent females: The impact of pubertal timing within different school environments

During adolescence dramatic physical changes take place which the individual must incorporate into his or her evolving body image. The impact of different school environments on this incorporation process is explored using data on 225 White females from a longitudinal study. Differences in physical characteristics between early, middle, and late developers were assessed each year. The effects of pubertal timing on satisfaction with body image dimensions and self-esteem were then explored for sixth- and seventh-graders within different school environments. Reference group theory was used to examine three alternative hypotheses. Early versus late onset of menarche had different effects on certain aspects of satisfaction with body image, depending on the school environment. Results support the strength of the cultural ideal of thinness for women, but no other hypothesis had consistent support. The findings indicated the need to consider a multiplicity of factors in relation to specific body image dimensions.This study has been funded by NIMH grant R01 MH-30739 and a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation. In addition, the work of the second author has been supported by a Research Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, #2 K02 MH-41688.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Current research interests include stress and coping in adolescence, the role of social relationships in problem behavior, and the effects of different school contexts.Received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Research interests include the social and psychological effects of puberty and sex differences in adolescence.Received M. A. in clinical child psychology from Ohio State University. Main interests are developmental aspects of body-image and research on personality disorders.     

Physical attractiveness,body attitudes,and self-concept in late adolescents

Seventy male and 119 female late adolescents, enrolled in a college introductory psychology course, rated 24 body characteristics in terms of (1) how important each part was in determining their own physical attractiveness and (2) how physically attractive they assumed each of these parts of their own bodies were. In addition, all subjects responded to a short self-concept scale. Results indicated that males and females rated the importance of the body characteristics for their own physical attractiveness in a markedly similar manner and that mean physical attractiveness ratings were significantly related to the self-concepts of females but not of males. Moreover, the attractiveness ratings of a larger number of individual body parts were significantly related to self-concept for females than for males. Finally, a visual inspection technique for determining physique type was found related to self-concept in males, while this was not the case with a traditional anthropometric index of physique type. Sex differences in the role of physical attractiveness in personality and interpersonal behavior development are discussed.Received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the City University of New York. Current research interests include the relation of organismic variables to personality/social development.Received his Ph.D. in personality and developmental psychology from the University of Michigan. Current research interests include the psychology of women and physical attractiveness.     

Family influences,school behaviors,and risk for the later development of an eating disorder

Interviews were conducted with parents of 136 female and 45 male adolescents categorized into risk groups for the later development of an eating disorder. The family and school concomitants of risk status in females were demonstrated to be different from that in males. Risk group female adolescents rated family cohesion, parent-adolescent communication processes, and overall family satisfaction more negatively than the comparison group. Mothers of moderate risk group females reported lower family cohesion than the comparison group; there were no group differences for adolescent females in fathers' ratings of family measures. However, no group differences were found on any of the family measures between male risk and comparison males. For both females and males, there were no significant group differences in family history of eating and mood disorders, or alcohol dependence. Teacher ratings indicated relatively greater internalizing tendencies in the high-risk female group.This investigation was supported by NICHD Grant Number 1R01-HD24700 awarded to Gloria R. Leon.Received Ph.D. from University at Maryla. Research interests include precursors of eating disorders and stress and coping in extreme environments. To whom correspondence should be addressed.Received M.A. from San Diego State University. Research interests include precursors of eating disorders, substance abuse, and personality.Received Ph.D. from Stanford University. Research interests include psychosocial aspects of health promotion and disease prevention.Received B.A. from University of Maine. Research interests life span development and family issues.     

Adoptees' portrayal of the development of family structure

Young adult adoptees and nonadoptees provided retrospective accounts of family relationships from infancy to young adulthood. Adoptive families were portrayed as more cohesive and adaptable than nonadoptive families. Adoptive fathers were recalled as being closer to their children then were nonadoptive fathers in the years preceding adolescence. Within the same time frame, adoptive mothers were drawn in a less hierarchical relation to their children than were other parents. Also, while adoptive males saw themselves as presently unconnected to their adoptive parents, adopted females perceived themselves as more connected to their parents in the present than any other period of time. Openness of communication and acknowledgment of difference in adoptive family formation varied with graphic retrospective accounts. Results were considered in terms of discontinuities between reported observations of adoptive families and adoptees' personal reflections on family developmental history.Received PhD in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Book. Research interests: adoptive family relations, social attributions of children and their parents.Received M.A. from the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Research interests: development of identity, adoption.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Toronto. Research interests: attribution, jealousy, parents' theories of child psychology.     

Reciprocal effects of self-concept and academic achievement in sixth and seventh grade

We aimed to (a) assess causal influences of three levels of self-concept on each other, (b) examine the relationship between each level of self-concept and academic achievement, and (c) compare the effect of self-concept on achievement with the effect of achievement on self-concept. In a two-year longitudinal study of 322 sixth and seventh grade students, influences over time between three levels of self-concept were weak. Zero-order correlations between self-concept and grades were positive and substantial, as in past studies. When using structural equation models, we found much weaker paths between self-concept and grades. Influences from self-concept to grades were very weak, but grades had a modest influence on subsequent discipline-specific self-concept. We conclude that past correlational studies have overstated the influence of self-concept on grades and of grades on self-concept.Financial support was supplied by the Life Cycle Institute, Catholic University.Received Ph.D. from Harvard University. Research interests include self-concept, religious development, and moral development.Received Ed.D. from Michigan State University. Research interests include self-concept and reading instruction.Received B.A. from The Catholic University of America. Research interests include political socialization and social movements.     

Perceived attachments to parents and peers and psychological well-being in adolescence

This paper reports the findings from a study of 935 adolescents' perceived attachments to their parents and peers, and their psychological health and well-being. Perceived attachment to parents did not significantly differ between males and females. However, females scored significantly higher than males on a measure of attachment to peers. Also, relative to males, they had higher anxiety and depression scores, suggesting poorer psychological well-being. Overall, a lower perceived attachment to parents was significantly associated with lower scores on the measures of well-being. Adolescents who perceived high attachments to both their parents and peers had the highest scores on a measure of self-perceived strengths. In this study, adolescents' perceived attachment to peers did not appear to compensate for a low attachment to parents in regard to their mental ill-health. These findings suggest that high perceived attachment to parents may be a critical variable associated with psychological well-being in adolescence.Received M.Sc. in psychology from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Research interests include adolescent menial health.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Research interests include issues in behavioral medicine.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Newcastle, Australia. Research interests include child health and development, and adolescent smoking behavior.     

Maternal employment and adolescent sexual behavior

This study investigated whether maternal employment would be associated with teenage sexual attitudes and behaviors likely to increase the probability of teenage pregnancy. Female subjects whose mothers were employed outside the home during the high school years (a) had a greater tendency to begin sexual relations before age 19, (b) expressed less concern regarding the risk of unintended pregnancy, and (c) scored lower on an objective test of their practical knowledge about contraception.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests include personality and environmental influences on adjustment.Received Ph.D. from University of Georgia. Current research interests are in behavioral teratology.Received Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Research interests are in loneliness and adjustment.Received Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Research interests are in population and urban sociology.     

The impact of stress and coping: Developmental changes in the transition to adolescence

Developmental change in the impact of stressful life events and coping styles were assessed among Israeli preadolescent and adolescent boys. A school sample completed a questionnaire tapping emotionally, cognitively, and practically oriented styles of coping, along with a life event survey. Teachers reported on behavior and adjustment. Analyses revealed that coping among preadolescent males was relatively undifferentiated and of limited efficacy. The transition to adolescence saw an increased qualitative differentiation of emotionally from practically or cognitively oriented coping styles, as well as quantitatively greater use of cognitively oriented coping. Further, cognitively and practically oriented coping served as effective foils to the adverse effects of stress, whereas emotionally oriented coping was counterproductive. Discussion focused on the possible contribution of cognitive growth to coping, as well as the relative utility of adult models for the study of coping in young populations.Received doctorate in educational psychology from University of California, Los Angeles. Current research interests include stress and coping across the life span, social sources of adolescent self-esteem, and intergroup relations in the junior high school.Received doctorate in clinical psychology from Hebrew University. Research interests include social and emotional development in children and adolescents.Received doctorate from Groningen University. Research interests include longitudinal studies of health and well-being in normal families and those with mentally ill members.Received master's degree in clinical child psychology from Bar-Ilan University. Research interests are in family relations and socioemotional development.     

Sixth Graders’ Conflict Resolution in Role Plays with a Peer,Parent, and Teacher

This study used conflict resolution role play vignettes and self-report surveys of 450 New York City 6th graders to examine associations between adolescents’ conflict resolution efficacy and social skills. Vignettes covered 3 social contexts, conflict with a peer (disagreement over activities), with a parent (raise in allowance), and with a teacher (low grade on report). Effective and ineffective strategies for resolving these conflicts were coded from the videotaped interactions. Adolescents were more often effective in resolving conflict with peers than with parents (χ²(1) = 7.10, p < .01). Strong communication skills cut across interpersonal context as associated with effective resolution. Assertiveness and absence of aggression were associated with effective conflict resolution in vignettes with peers. Assertiveness was also associated with effective conflict resolution in vignettes with parents, however nervousness was unexpectedly found to facilitate conflict resolution in vignettes with parents. Only skills observed within a particular context were associated with effective resolution in that context; self-report skills and cross-context observed skills were not associated with efficacy. Implications for implementation and evaluation of social skills curricula and conflict resolution process are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, LA, April 2002Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2004. Research interests include adolescent social competence and youth development programs.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 1991. Research interests include the psychosocial correlates of puberty, stress reactivity, and health compromising behaviors and adjustment.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2002. Research interests include social competence, prevention research, and women’s health.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2002. Research interests include social competence, prevention research, and women’s health.Received Ph.D. in 1975 from University of Pennsylvania in Human Learning and Development. Research focus centers around designing and evaluating interventions aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of children living in poverty and associated conditions. Conducts research on transitional periods during childhood and adolescence, focusing on school, family and biological transitions in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Specific interests are in the factors that contribute to positive and negative outcomes, and changes inwell-being over these years.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University in 1977. Research interests include tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention, violence prevention, AIDS risk reduction among adolescents, health promotion and disease prevention, smoking cessation.     

Adolescent attachment to parents and friends in relation to aspects of self-esteem

This study explored the relative influence of adolescents' perceptions of their attachment relationships with their mothers, fathers, and friends on three measures of self-esteem. The sample consisted of 493 New Zealand adolescents ranging from 13 to 19 years of age. Two dimensions of the attachment relationship were assessed: the utilization of emotional support and proximity, and the quality of affect. The major findings were as follows: utilization of emotional support and proximity from mothers, fathers, and friends was minimally related to overall self-esteem, coping abilities, and social competence. The quality of affect toward mothers and fathers was significantly related only to social competence. These findings suggest that adolescent self-esteem is more strongly associated with the quality of affect toward parents and friends than with the utilization of these target figures for support or proximity. The notion that parents and friends may contribute to different facets of self-esteem is discussed.This research is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation at the University of Auckland.Received Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. Research interests are adolescent development and the development of children's health beliefs and behaviors. To whom reprint requests should be addressed at School of Occupatinal Therapy, Private Bag 92006, Auckland Institute of Technology, Auckland 1020, New Zealand.Received Ph.D. from the University of Canterbury. Main interests are in life span developmental psychology, and the development of low birthweight babies.Received Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Interests lie within life span developmental psychology and early cognitive development.