Work and leisure relationships: An exploration of life possibilities during adolescence

This study explored the relationship between leisure preferences and work/occupational aspiration for adolescents in Singapore and Australia. Three hypothesized relationships between the domains of spillover, compensation, and segmentation were investigated. Except for females in the Australian sample, it appeared that adolescents saw leisure preferences and occupational aspirations as two independent spheres of their personal futures, supporting the segmentation hypothesis.Received Ph.D. from La Trobe. Research interests include adolescence and youth.Received Ph.D. from University of Sydney. Research interests include longitudinal data analysis.     

Current contradictions in adolescent theory

This article points out two contradictions in current adolescent theory. The first is between the classical point of view, espousing the notion of storm and stress, and the empirical view, supporting a concept of adolescence as relatively peaceful and harmonious. The latter approach, however, creates a second contradiction because it does not explain how young people cope with the major adaptations demanded as a result of changes in their physical, social, and emotional spheres of life. The article examines the status of concepts such as the generation gap and identity crisis and concludes with the formulation of a focal theory of adolescence which attempts to resolve the contradictions discussed earlier.Received his B.A. from McGill University, Montreal, and Ph.D. from University College, London. Is both a developmental and clinical psychologist. Major interests include adolescence and the preschool years.     

Adolescent maturational changes and psychosocial development: A dynamic interactional perspective

Models of reciprocal biological-psychosocial relations may be quite usefully studied in adolescence. This period of life represents a natural laboratory for assessing these relations, and may be an ideal sample case illustrating their role in life-span development. In this article a dynamic interactional model of these relations is described and evaluated. This model stresses that on the basis of his or her characteristics of individuality (e.g., bodily characteristics that result from his/her maturational status), an adolescent will evoke differential reactions in his/her socializing others; these reactions will feed back to the adolescent and influence his/her further development. The nature of the feedback (e.g., its positive or negative valence) will depend on the goodness of fit between the adolescent's individual characteristics and the demands (e.g., the preferences, expectations, values, or behaviors) of significant others (e.g., parents, peers, teachers). The model is evaluated in regard to its use in understanding data pertinent to the role of characteristics of physical individuality in adolescent development. Conclusions pertain to the importance of studying the processes by which adolescents, and particularly early adolescents, attain good fits with their contexts.The preparation of this article was supported in part by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and from the William T. Grant Foundation.     

Adolescents' moral dilemmas: The context

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology which outlines the kinds of real-life moral dilemmas adolescents spontaneously present in open-ended semiclinical interviews. A coding procedure is introduced which delineates three aspects of these moral dilemmas, conflicts, context, and content, and an analysis is done of the category labeled context. One hundred forty-eight adolescents from two school settings were interviewed. The results show that the majority of both boys and girls in these samples describe moral conflicts in the context of a relationship, particularly involving friends. However, boys are more likely than girls to focus on the the self as the context of the moral dilemma with no other relational context present and significantly more girls than boys focus on relationships rather than self.The authors thank the Dodge, Klingenstein and Kendall Foundations for funding these studies.Her Ed.D. is from Harvard University, M.Ed. from Boston University, and A.B. from Ohio University. She was the Project Director for Carol Gilligan on a coed high-school study. Her present research interests are preservice teacher training and women's development.She is the Project Director of a longitudinal study of moral and social development in female children and adolescents and is the editor ofA Guide to Reading Narratives of Moral Conflict and Choice for Self and Moral Voice. Her Ed.D. is from Harvard University and B.A. is from Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas. Her research focuses on a developmental analysis of narratives of relationship in girls.Her B.A. is from Brown University and her research interests are in female development and children of alcoholics.     

Implicit theories of intelligence and self-perceptions of academically talented adolescents and children

Beliefs about intelligence can vary from the view that it is stable to the view that it is unstable. Third through eleventh grade academically talented students (n =153) rated their beliefs on the stability of intelligence using a 6-point Likert scale. They also rated themselves on similar scales for how smart and hardworking they thought they were, and how much they liked hard tasks. Students' views of the stability of intelligence paralleled a normal distribution, with almost one-half having borderline views that can be easily modified to match environmental demands. Approximately 9% of these talented students were at risk for underachievement based on their self-perceptions of relatively low ability and the belief that intelligence is stable. High school students believed intelligence was more stable than elementary students and females described themselves as being harder workers than males. Findings may account for the differing academic experiences and performance of academically talented students over time.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Maryland Baltimore County. Research interests include self-perceptions, achievement, motivation, metacognition, and family factors that contribute to the development of academic talent.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include gender differences, cognitive styles, and exceptional ability. Her other interests include gifted-learning disabled students and international education.     

Adolescent interpersonal and familial precursors of positive mental health at midlife

Associations between adolescent relationships with peers, adults in the larger community, and parents and successful adult mental health were explored as part of a longitudinal study. Measures included two Q-sort ratings: the adolescent interpersonal Q-sort at age 13 and the Psychological Health Index (PH) at age 50. Nine content clusters were formed from adolescent Q-sort items, and correlations computed between scores on these clusters and PH. In addition, one of the clusters was examined for possible curvilinear relationships. Three clusters related significantly to later mental health: harmonious peer relations, positive relationships with adults outside of the family, and reasonable parental control. Significant curvilinear relation-ships were obtained for a fourth cluster describing adolescents who valued intimate friendship.This research was conducted with assistance from a grant provided by the National Institutes of Mental Health. Award No. 1 F32 MH 0953-01.     

Who stays? who leaves? an examination of sex differences in staying and leaving

This article examines some of the major variables associated with the staying and leaving process, particularly as it operates similarly or differentially for male and female adolescents. Sixty attitude statements about aspects of school, parents, peers, teachers, and value orientations were obtained from 796 adolescents and factor analyzed. This subset of independent variables, together with a set of personality and ability measures, was then used to predict staying or leaving status. The discriminant analysis was undertaken using leaving status and sex (LVSEX) as the dependent variable. Using a stepwise solution method of discriminant analysis, two significant functions were identified-the first suggesting a sex dimension, the second a stayer-leaver dimension.Received Ph.D. from La Trobe University. Current research interest is adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from University of N.S. W. Current research interest is mathematical reasoning in adolescence.     

Sex differences in the identity formation of college students from divorced families

This study was desgined to examine gender differences in identity formation in late adolescents from divorced mother-custody families. Fifty-seven female and thirty-nine male college students ranging in age from 17 to 25 years completed the Child's Report of Parental Behavior [E. S. Schaeffer (1965) Children's Reports of Parental Behavior: An Inventory, Child Development, Vol. 36, pp. 412–482] and were interviewed using the J. E. Marcia [(1966) Development and Validation of Ego Identity Status, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 3, pp. 551–558] semistructured Identity Status Interview. While no differences between males and females were found in ratings of overall identity status, significantly more females were in the achieved category within the domains of occupation and attitudes toward premarital sex. Also, males perceived their mothers as significantly more accepting and less controlling than did females. The absence of the father and the altered role of the mother appear to have a differential impact on males and females who have grown up in mother-custody families. Implications of these and other findings are discussed.Received Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College Columbia University. Research interests include adolescent identity formation, the intersection and integration of personal and career counseling, and career development.     

A Moving Target: Reasons Given by Adolescents for Alcohol and Narcotics Use, 1984 and 1999

Previous studies have investigated adolescents' reasons for alcohol and narcotics use, but have tended to neglect changes in the reasons over time. This study investigates the reasons given by Finnish adolescents for their own alcohol use, and for the use of alcohol and narcotics by others. In 1984, a questionnaire on reasons for alcohol and narcotics use was administered to a sample of adolescents aged 14–16 (N = 396). The questionnaire was administered again to a similar sample (N = 488) in 1999. An increase was found in reasons involving inner subjective experiences, referring to the good feeling and fun resulting from alcohol and narcotics use. In addition, the goals of alcohol consumption were increasingly perceived as drinking to get drunk, and for its own sake. The results suggest that adolescents' attitudes have become more liberal towards alcohol and narcotics use, and that prevention campaigns may be aiming at a moving target of culturally held opinion.     

The life space and socialization of the self: Sex differences in the young adolescent

In this conclusion we examine the implications of the special issue findings for the development of the self. We discuss how well the young adolescent experiences in schoolwork, maintenance, talk, and leisure provide bases for an evolving adjstment to the adult roles of work, love, and play. Gender differences clearly emerged in the experience of daily life; children entered adolescence with differences in how time is experienced already firmly established, and by midadolescence these differences were intensifying. Our data support the three heuristics of communion versus agency, gender intensification, and the public versus private dichotomy. Concern is raised as to the viability of traditional sex role socialization when adult roles may demand more egalitarian behavior.     

Urban youth as witnesses to violence: Beginning assessment and treatment efforts

This article reviews literature on witnessing violence (covictimization) in children and adolescents. As violent incidents have increased dramatically in urban areas, so has exposure by inner-city youth to violence in the home, school, and community. In reaction to witnessing violence, youth may present symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Separation Anxiety and Depression, evince disturbed grieving and bereavement, show a number of externalizing behaviors including aggressiveness, have impaired interpersonal and family relations, and show declines in academic performance. A number of factors may mediate the impact of violence exposure including age, gender, and history of prior trauma. Mental health assessment and treatment efforts for youth who have witnessed violence have been limited. Directions for future investigation are highlighted.Received Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1994. Research interests include group therapy with adolescents, teenage parenting, social skills assessment and training, and development of programs to assess, prevent, and treat violence exposure in urban youth.Received Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1991. Research interests include evaluation and development of school-based mental health services, empirical selection of treatment targets for children and adolescents, development of interventions to assist youth who are exposed to violence, and identification of resilience factors for urban youth.     

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.     

The relative importance of parents and friends in adolescent decision making

In this study 175 older adolescents (83 males, 92 females) nominated their parents, particularly their mothers, then friends of the same sex, as people most important in their lives. While parents were rated as more important than friends overall, problems were more frequently discussed with close friends. Using a matched sampling design, the adolescents' own mothers, fathers, and a close friend of the same sex also responded to a scale where parents' or friends' opinions might be sought as part of adolescent decision making. As predicted, parents were perceived as most important in certain future-oriented areas, whereas for current decisions, friends' opinions were more valued. Several areas of possible parent-peer conflict were also identified.Current interest is the role of social and cultural factors in the development and maintenance of adolescent drinking and other drug use.     

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.     

The Mead/Freeman Controversy is Over: A Retrospect

Seventeen years after Derek Freeman launched his bid to reform anthropology by refuting the ostensible key text of Boasian anthropology, the situation remains at stalemate, with Freeman claiming ungainsayable evidence for closure, whereas his critics claim that his own refutation has been refuted. But no group of anthropologists espouses Freeman's interactionist paradigm, and no studies in anthropological method written since the commencement of the controversy recognize it as a significant contribution to the field. I argue that the Freeman reform of anthropology has no progeny because its basic game plan is not in alignment with the anthropological problem-set that he would reform. Several key examples of misalignment are discussed, including the hoaxing hypothesis.     

Acting out of character: Window on the identity crisis

An autobiographical account of acting out of character at a life turning point is presented as a window on a young person's identity crisis. Analysis of that account reveals (1) that the play of the tentative identities reflects the concurrent crisis in the character of that person's society, (2) that the story the person now has to tell sets forth the range of the psychosocial issues active in his life, (3) that the mysteries generated identify for the person the specific issues at crisis, (4) that the novelty of the event itself catalyzes called for changes, and (5) that the metaphor of the out of character actions serves to preview the ultimate resolution.Received M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, in 1964, and psychiatry training at Yale. Interests lie in the area of psychotherapy with disturbed youth, careers of young people who become psychiatric aides in mental hospitals, and group homes for adolescents.     

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.     

“Comorbidity” of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive problems in adolescence

The purpose of this study was to examine in a sample of 11,516 secondary school students the extent to which different behavioral, emotional and cognitive problems (a) reflected one or more underlying common factors; (b) actually cooccurred; and (c) were single problems. Principal Component Analyses were performed and percentagewise techniques were used. PCA demonstrated that one or more general syndromes could not by far account for all of the variance of the variables. The results suggest the existence of adolescent subgroups with divergent comorbidity patterns: those who primarily report one single symptom; those who report concurrent symptoms either exclusively in the category of behavioral problems or exclusively in the category of emotional and cognitive problems; and those who report concurrent symptoms in both categories. This distinction between different subgroups has important theoretical, diagnostic, and treatment implications.     

The high school “Junior Theme” as an adolescent rite of passage

This paper examines high school research projects as an adolescent transitional episode that demarks acquisition of a capacity for prolonged creative effort. Whereas tests of courage are important in many subsistence societies, in ours a valued quality of adulthood is the ability to think and act on one's own. Self-report data from 154 students working on a Junior Theme are employed to illustrate the psychological significance of this kind of rite. The students report a range of emotional states that are well out of their normal school experience. Many go through a process of personal involvement and self-searching that resembles an identity quest. As a result of the project students feel they have acquired a new status, one that separates them from the uninitiated and puts them closer to the status and power of an autonomous adult.Received his Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Chicago. Research interests include adolescent emotional development, the ecology of daily life, and gerontology.     

A measure of risk taking for young adolescents: Reliability and validity assessments

Researchers often define adolescent risk taking in terms of individual behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, early sexual activity, and reckless driving. It is not clear whether these behaviors defined by adults as risky have the same meaning for adolescents. This paper describes the development and preliminary testing of an instrument to assess risk taking among young adolescents. The six item scale was constructed by asking small groups of eighth grade boys and girls to describe things that teenagers your age do for excitement or thrills. The measure was then used in a longitudinal study of 758 young adolescents from three rural counties in Maryland. The scale shows good reliability, as indicated by coefficient alpha and factor analyses. Eighth-grade scores on the scale are associated with the initiation of sexual activity and substance use in ninth grade among virgins and nonusers of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and pills in eighth grade.