Procedural Justice in Family Conflict Resolution and Deviant Peer Group Involvement Among Adolescents: The Mediating Influence of Peer Conflict

The involvement of adolescents with deviant peer groups is one of the strongest proximal correlates to juvenile delinquency and stems from a variety of causes. Past research has linked ineffective parenting with peer variables, including deviant peer group involvement and peer conflict during adolescence. In this study, adolescents’ appraisals of procedural justice within the family (adolescents’ appraisals of how fairly they are treated by parents in the process of resolving family conflict) were examined as one aspect of effective parenting that may relate to deviant peer group involvement in early adolescence. Data from 1660 middle school students (ages 11–14, mean = 12.6) indicated that higher appraisals by adolescents of procedural justice during family conflict resolution were related to lower levels of both peer conflict and deviant peer group involvement. A structural model was tested in which the relationship between adolescents’ appraisals of procedural justice in the family and deviant peer group involvement was partially mediated by measures of peer conflict. This model was found to have adequate fit to the data, indicating that part of the relationship between procedural justice appraisals and deviant peer group involvement can be explained by levels of peer conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Acculturation, Enculturation, and Symptoms of Depression in Hispanic Youth: The Roles of Gender, Hispanic Cultural Values, and Family Functioning

The risk for depression increases as Hispanic youth acculturate to U.S. society. This association is stronger for Hispanic girls than boys. To better understand the influence of culture and family on depressive symptoms, we tested a process-oriented model of acculturation, cultural values, and family functioning. The data came from Project RED, which included 1,922 Hispanic students (53?% girls; 86?% were 14?years old; and 84?% were U.S. born) from Southern California. We used data from 9th to 11th grade to test the influence of acculturation-related experiences on depressive symptoms over time. Multi-group structural equation analysis suggested that both family conflict and cohesion were linked with depressive symptoms. Hispanic cultural values were associated with family cohesion and conflict but the strength and direction of these relationships varied across cultural values and gender. For girls and boys, familismo and respeto were associated with higher family cohesion and lower family conflict. Moreover, gender roles were linked with higher family cohesion in girls but not in boys. These results indicate that improving family functioning will be beneficial for boys' and girls' psychological well-being. This may be achieved by promoting familismo and respeto for boys and girls and by promoting traditional gender roles for girls.     

Family,School, Peer,and Media Predictors of Adolescent Deviant Behavior in Hong Kong

Based on a self-report study of 1139 secondary school students in Hong Kong, this paper estimates the strengths of selected family variables, school variables, peer variables, and media variables in the prediction of adolescent deviant behavior. Regresssion results show that the equation containing peers' deviant behavior, peers' disapproval of deviant behavior, frequency of media exposure, preference for violent/obscene content, imitation of media characters, parents' deviant behavior, and teachers' negative evaluation explained the amount of variance of adolescent deviant behavior. Theoretical and research implications of these and other findings for the rapidly industrializing and modernizing society of Hong Kong are discussed.     

Neighborhood,Family, and Peer Factors Associated with Early Adolescent Smoking and Alcohol Use

There is broad agreement that neighborhood contexts are important for adolescent development, but there is less consensus about their association with adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Few studies have examined associations between neighborhood socioeconomic contexts and smoking and alcohol use while also accounting for differences in family and peer risk factors for substance use. Data drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project (N?=?808), a gender-balanced (female?=?49%), multiethnic, theory-driven longitudinal study originating in Seattle, WA, were used to estimate trajectories of smoking and alcohol use from 5th to 9th grade. Time-varying measures of neighborhood socioeconomic, family, and peer factors were associated with smoking and alcohol use at each wave after accounting for average growth in smoking and alcohol use over time and demographic differences. Results indicated that living in more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, lower family income, lower family general functioning, more permissive family smoking environments, and affiliation with deviant peers were independently associated with increased smoking. Lower family functioning, more permissive family alcohol use environments, and deviant peers were independently associated with increased alcohol use. The effect of neighborhood disadvantage on smoking was mediated by family income and deviant peers while the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on alcohol use was mediated by deviant peers alone. Family functioning and family substance use did not mediate associations between neighborhood disadvantage and smoking or alcohol use. The results highlight the importance of neighborhood, family, and peer factors in early adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Future studies should examine the unique association of neighborhood disadvantage with adolescent smoking net of family socioeconomics, functioning, and substance use, as well as peer affiliations. Better understanding of the role of contextual factors in early adolescent smoking and alcohol use can help bolster efforts to prevent both short and long harms from substance use.     

Family processes and adolescent adjustment in intact and remarried families

This study examines whether family processes that predict positive and negative developmental outcomes are the same in intact and remarried families. Surveys were administered to 758 tenth graders from intact families and 95 from stepfather families. Measures of cohesion, democratic decision-making style, permissiveness, and conflict were used to predict self-rated depression, worry, and self-esteem. Remarried and intact families provide similar family environments for permissiveness and democratic decision making. Remarried families are more conflictual and less cohesive than intact families. In both family types, conflict had negative effects, and cohesion and democratic decision-making had positive effects on adolescents' adjustment. In remarried families, but not intact, permissiveness was related to higher self-esteem.Received Ph.D in developmental psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests include family influences on adolescent identity development and the effects of divorce and remarriage on adolescent adjustment.Received M.S. in child clinical psychology from Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include family processes in stepfamilies and the impact of family structure on adolescent development.     

Family Functioning and High Risk Adolescents’ Aggressive Behavior: Examining Effects by Ethnicity

The relationship between family functioning and adolescents’ physical aggression has been well established, but whether these relationships might differ by ethnicity has received less attention. Ethnic variations may be important for targeting prevention programs to specific youth and families. This study examined the longitudinal relationship between family cohesion, parental monitoring, and physical aggression using data from the Multisite Violence Prevention Project sample of high-risk youth (elevated aggression). Participants were 1,232 high-risk middle school students (65 % male; 70 % African American; 15 % Hispanic). Meaningful demographic variations were identified. After controlling for intervention condition and study site, family cohesion was significantly negatively related to physical aggression, more so for Hispanic youth. Parental monitoring was negatively associated with physical aggression for African American youth only. Our findings point to the importance of developing culturally sensitive family interventions to prevent physical aggression in middle school.     

Family Obligation Values and Family Assistance Behaviors: Protective and Risk Factors for Mexican–American Adolescents’ Substance Use

Adolescent substance use is one of today’s most important social concerns, with Latino youth exhibiting the highest overall rates of substance use. Recognizing the particular importance of family connection and support for families from Mexican backgrounds, the current study seeks to examine how family obligation values and family assistance behaviors may be a source of protection or risk for substance use among Mexican–American adolescents. Three hundred and eighty-five adolescents (51 % female) from Mexican backgrounds completed a questionnaire and daily diary for 14 consecutive days. Results suggest that family obligation values are protective, relating to lower substance use, due, in part, to the links with less association with deviant peers and increased adolescent disclosure. In contrast, family assistance behaviors are a source of risk within high parent–child conflict homes, relating to higher levels of substance use. These findings suggest that cultural values are protective against substance use, but the translation of these values into behaviors can be a risk factor depending upon the relational context of the family.     

Family Factors in the Ego Development of Adolescent Girls

Thirty-nine adolescent girls, 16–19 years, were observed together with their 2 parents at a family discourse about moral and family issues on which they disagreed, to study interaction and conflict handling in families with daughters at different levels of ego development. Family interactions were coded by the Constraining and Enabling Coding System, ego development by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test and handling of internal conflict by Bond Defense Style Questionaire. Daughters' ego development was predicted by parental cognitive and affective enabling, but not by constraining communications. Fathers' cognitive and affective enabling transactions and mothers' affective enabling transactions contributed to the explained variance in the adolescents' ego development when daughters' age, parents' SES and ego development were controlled for in hierarchical regression analyses. Parents' ego levels were related to their enabling transactions, which also predicted daughters' ego levels, suggesting that especially enabling parenting behavior may play a mediating role. Mothers' challenging behavior toward daughters and parental autonomy from responding in kind to daughters' communications were also related to high ego levels in daughters.     

Ethnic Differences in Trajectories of Family Cohesion for Mexican American and Non-Hispanic White Adolescents

This study examined gender, family structure, SES and language usage as predictors of cultural orientation and family cohesion. Ethnic differences in trajectories of family cohesion were tested within a hierarchical linear modeling framework. The sample consisted of 4156 adolescent respondents, measured at three time points during three consecutive years. The three study groups consisted of Mexican Americans oriented to Mexican culture (N = 738), Mexican Americans oriented to majority American culture (N = 867), and Non-Hispanic Whites (N = 2551). Family cohesion was assessed using the cohesion subscale of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale (FACES III). Analyses consisted of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) in which a linear trajectory of family cohesion for the three groups was computed followed by a test for the effects of ethnicity with the inclusion of control variables. Thus, ethnic differences in the trajectories of family cohesion over time were examined. Neither group of Mexican Americans was significantly different from Non-Hispanic Whites in initial status. However, Mexican Americans oriented to Mexican culture showed a significant increase in family cohesion at mid adolescence. Judith C. Baer is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Houston. Her major research interests include the study of adolescent development within the contexts of culture, and family, adolescent sexual risk taking, and the nosology of mental disorders. Mark F. Schmitz is Clinical Assistant Professor at Temple University. He received his Ph.D. in sociology at Iowa State University. His major research interest involves the use of several large epidemiologic datasets for an extensive examination of the empirical basis for the diagnostic criteria of various DSM-IV mental disorders. He also is involved in research on cultural issues in child development and family processes.     

Family profiles of adaptability,cohesion, and communication for learning handicapped and nonhandicapped adolescents

The family functioning of 30 nonhandicapped and 30 learning handicapped adolescents and their parents was examined. Measures of adaptability, cohesion, and communication were taken from the parent and the adolescent perspectives. Parent and adolescent perspectives on these areas of functioning were analyzed with a cluster analytic technique, which resulted in five distinct profiles of family functioning. These statistical groupings were confirmed by information gathered through participant observation from an accompanying investigation. The nature of the five clusters confirmed the existence of similar family functioning across the nonhandicapped and learning handicapped groups. Additionally, variations in reaction and adjustment to the amount of structure in the family environment by different families was documented. The importance of considering adolescent and parent perspectives separately was highlighted.Received degree from University of California, Riverside. Research interests are in the area of the social development of at-risk or mildly handicapped children and adolescents in school and family settings.Received degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. Research interests in social competence and family relations of learning handicapped populations as well as the development of family, community, and school partnerships.     

Mother-daughter dyads view the family: Associations between divergent perceptions and daughter well-being

Divergent perceptions (or disagreements) within the mother-daughter dyad and the association of such divergence with daughter's affective and behavioral well-being were examined in the current study. One hundred sixty-one mother-daughter dyads (daughters aged 14–18 years; mothers aged 37–59 years) completed paper- and-pencil measures assessing their perceptions of family cohesion and family conflict; daughters also rated their own depressive affect and dieting behavior. While the means for groups of mothers and daughters on family cohesion and conflict were similar, dyads varied substantially in their level of agreement. Disagreements on family cohesion were associated with daughter dieting behavior; maternal employment status was more highly associated with daughter depressive affect than either family conflict or cohesion. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for studying the divergent perceptions of family members, and for family systems and relationship approaches to understanding the family.The research presented in this paper was supported by the W. T. Grant Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Portions of this paper were presented at the 3rd biennial meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Atlanta, Georgia.Received Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include the interplay among developmental processes during transitions into and out of adolescence.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include familial adaptation to chronic illness and the role of family processes in self-image and depression during adolescence.Received Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include girls' psychological adaptation to pubertal change, biosocial aspects of female reproductive events, and development of biologically and socially at risk children and adolescents.     

Course and Severity of Maternal Depression: Associations with Family Functioning and Child Adjustment

Number of lifetime episodes, duration of current episode, and severity of maternal depression were investigated in relation to family functioning and child adjustment. Participants were the 151 mother–child pairs in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) child multi-site study. Mothers were diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder; children (80 males and 71 females) ranged in age from 7 to 17 years. Measures of child adjustment included psychiatric diagnoses, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and functional impairment. Measures of family functioning included family cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, organization, and household control; parenting measures assessed maternal acceptance and psychological control. Children of mothers with longer current depressive episodes were more likely to have internalizing and externalizing symptoms, with this association being moderated by child gender. Mothers with more lifetime depressive episodes were less likely to use appropriate control in their homes.

Family Functioning and School Success in At-Risk, Inner-City Adolescents

The relation between family functioning and school success was examined in 211 at risk, African American, inner city adolescents attending middle school (grades 6–8). Interviews with adolescents and caregivers yielded data on family cohesion, parental monitoring, and school engagement; school records provided data on grade point average. Results showed that both family cohesion and parental monitoring predicted school engagement, but neither family characteristic predicted GPA. Important gender differences also emerged. For boys only, the relation between family cohesion and school engagement was stronger when parental monitoring was high. For girls only, the effects of cohesion and monitoring on school engagement were additive: girls with both high family cohesion and high parental monitoring were most likely to be engaged in school. These findings extend the research base on family protective factors for antisocial behavior in young adolescents. Implications for future examination of family process characteristics in high-risk adolescents are discussed. This work is based on the dissertation research of the first author submitted to the Department of Psychology at Fordham University. Research Associate, Hudson Valley Cerebral Palsy, Patterson, NY. Professional Training: PhD, Developmental Psychology, Fordham University. Major interests include etiology and treatment research on developmental disabilities and psychological health problems in children and adolescents. Senior Research Associate, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, New York, NY. Professional Training: PhD, Clinical Psychology, Temple University. Major interests include development of family-based interventions for adolescent drug use and delinquency, adherence and process research on family intervention models. Research Associate, National Clinical Assessment Authority, London, England. Professional Training: PhD, Developmental Psychology, Fordham University. Major interests include mental health services research and program evaluation. Professor and Director, Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL. Professional Training: EdD, Counseling Psychology and Family Therapy, Northern Illinois University. Major interests include developing, testing, and disseminating family-based treatment for adolescent substance abuse and related behvioral problems.     

Family Characteristics and Adolescent Competence in India: Investigation of Youth in Southern Orissa

This study examines the relationship among a host of family characteristics and indicators of adolescent competence in a sample (N = 107) of 8th- and 9th-grade students in one school located in Berhampur city in Orissa state, India. Social competence (SC) and antisocial behavior (AB) were assessed by teachers, and adolescents evaluated various areas of their own competence on a perceived competence scale. Final examination grades also were obtained as a general measure of cognitive competence. The results indicated that families of more socially competent participants tended to be verbally and emotionally expressive; democratic with regard to discipline, input, and decision making; close but not enmeshed; higher in their level of parent–adolescent communication and family ideals; and lower in external locus of control. Consequently, families of more antisocial adolescents had more conflict and enmeshment and were more external-locus-of-control oriented and either permissive or authoritarian. Finally, several personal and family demographic traits were positively associated with SC and negatively associated with AB, including gender (girls higher in SC and lower in AB than boys), age and grade (older students and those in grade 9 more competent and less problematic), education level of mothers and fathers (positively related to SC and negatively to AB), and birth order (middle children in the family lower in self-perceptions of competence than oldest or youngest children). The findings have implications for parenting and family-life education efforts in India that could have a major impact on the development of adolescent competence.     

Conflict Resolution Styles in Family Subsystems and Adolescent Romantic Relationships

The purpose of the present study is to examine how conflict resolution styles between one family dyad is related to other family dyads and how conflict resolution styles within these family dyads are related to conflict resolution styles in one relationship outside the family—adolescents' romantic relationships. Late adolescents (n = 217) were asked to report their perceptions of three resolution styles used in interparent, mother–adolescent, father–adolescent, sibling, and romantic couple conflicts. Based on the cases with complete data (n = 163), path analyses indicated that both direct and indirect relationships exist between these dyadic relationships: (1) Resolution styles utilized in the interparent subsystem were found to have a direct relationship with mother–adolescent and father–adolescent resolution and an indirect relationship with sibling and romantic couple resolution. (2) Mother–adolescent and father–adolescent resolution were found to have a direct relationship with sibling and romantic couple resolution. (3) Sibling resolution was found to have a direct relationship with romantic couple resolution for negative resolution styles, but not for the positive resolution style of compromise.     

Identity Orientation, Voice, and Judgments of Procedural Justice During Late Adolescence

This study focused on the relationship between voice and judgments of procedural justice in a sample of older adolescents and examined potential moderating and mediating influences of identity orientation (personal, social, and collective) and negative emotional response. Participants read 1 of 2 different family conflict scenarios (voice and no voice) asking them to imagine themselves in a disagreement with their parents over grades and financial support. In the voice condition, parents were described as making their decision after listening to the participant’s input. In the no voice condition, parents were described as making their decision without listening to the participant’s input. The adolescents then judged the fairness of the parental decisions and responded to questions concerning their identity orientation. Findings indicate that in addition to replicating the effect of voice in a novel context, the present investigation found moderating effects of personal identity orientation on procedural fairness judgments. Additionally, negative emotional response partially mediated the relationship between voice and global judgments of procedural fairness.Mark R. Fondacaro is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of the Levin College of Law Center on Children and Families at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Indiana University and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. His major research interests are ecological jurisprudence and the conceptualization and assessment of procedural justice in legal and extra-legal contexts including the family and the juvenile justice and health care systems.Eve M. Brank is an Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. in social psychology and her J.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her major research interests are parental responsibility laws and juvenile law issues.Jennifer Stuart is a graduate student in counseling psychology at the University of Florida. Her major research interests are adolescent development and delinquency prevention.Sara Villanueva-Abraham received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Florida. Her major research interests are adolescent development and parent-child relationships.Jennifer Luescher is a Forensic Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Florida. Her major research interests are in the areas of procedural justice, risk assessment and risk management, and mental health and juvenile justice policy.Penny S. McNatt is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North Florida. She received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Florida. Her major research interests are in the area of intergroup relations.     

Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) and Deviant Peer Affiliation: A Gene–Environment Interaction in Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

Although the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is involved in aggression and social affiliation, it has not been examined in gene-environment interaction studies. This longitudinal study examined the effect of genetic variants in OXTR and its gene-environment interaction with perceived deviant peer affiliation in the trajectories of antisocial behavior in 323 adolescents (182 males) from 13 to 18 years. Annual assessments of reactive and proactive aggression, delinquency, and friends’ delinquency, as well as DNA at age 17 were collected. Gene-based tests yielded no main effect of OXTR, but revealed a significant gene-environment interaction in proactive aggression and delinquency. Variation in the OXTR might affect the influence of deviant peer affiliation on antisocial behavior, contributing to a better understanding of individual differences in antisocial behavior.

     

The transmission of relationship difficulties from one generation to the next

This study investigated how marital relationship difficulties might be transmitted from parents to their late adolescent children's romantic relationships. Measures of perceived interparent conflict, styles of subject-parent conflict behaviors, and styles of subject-boyfriend/girlfriend conflict behaviors as well as a measure of general relationship difficulties were obtained from samples of 144 female and 79 male 18–19-year old college students. Subjects tend to use the same styles of conflict behavior with their boyfriends/girlfriends as with their parents. Path analyses showed that perceived interparent conflict is associated with avoidant, verbally aggressive, and for females, physically aggressive styles of conflict behavior with parents, and that some of these subject-parent conflict behavior styles are related to general relationship difficulties. The avoidance style is especially important in mediating between interparent conflict and the son's or daughter's relationship difficulties.This research was supported in part by a grant from the University Research Council, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.He obtained his Ph.D. degree at Stanford University and his current interests are in family interaction associated with disorded behavior.     

A Developmental Perspective on Young Adult Romantic Relationships: Examining Family and Individual Factors in Adolescence

The ability to develop and maintain healthy romantic relationships is a key developmental task in young adulthood. The present study investigated how adolescent interpersonal skills (assertiveness, positive engagement) and family processes (family climate, parenting practices) influence the development of young adult romantic relationship functioning. We evaluated cross-lag structural equation models with a sample of 974 early adolescents living in rural and semi-rural communities in Pennsylvania and Iowa, starting in sixth grade (mean age?=?12.4, 62.1% female) and followed into young adulthood (mean age?=?19.5). Findings revealed that adolescents who had experienced a more positive family climate and more competent parenting reported more effective problem-solving skills and less violent behavior in their young adult romantic relationships. Adolescent assertiveness was consistently positively associated with relationship problem-solving skills, and adolescents’ positive engagement with their family was associated with feeling more love in young adult romantic relationships. In addition, family functioning and adolescent interpersonal skills exhibited some reciprocal relations over the adolescent years. In summary, family processes and interpersonal skills are mutually influenced by each other across adolescence, and both have unique predictive implications to specific facets of young adult romantic relationship functioning.     

Psychosocial Adjustment and Family Relationships: A Typology of Italian Families with a Late Adolescent

The importance of family relationships in human development and adjustment has always been recognized in psychological studies. The present study aims to construct a typology of families with a late adolescent and to analyze the family relationships present in each type. The typology, constructed using family satisfaction—a global index of family functioning—as the discriminate variable, took into account eight types. This study is focused on the two extreme types of the typology: Families with adequate functioning or satisfied families and Families with inadequate functioning or dissatisfied families. These two types of families were compared according to variables such as: (a) parent-child communication and its topics and (b) the family's decision-making process on topics related to the adolescent and his/her future orientation. All subjects completed a questionnaire composed of different scales. The results show substantial differences in the two family types regarding both family functioning and the role played by mothers and fathers. Satisfied families give evidence of a better communication process than the dissatisfied ones, greater sharing between parents and adolescents and, finally, a decision-making process based mostly on sharing and support. Moreover, in satisfied families the father has the role of social mediator. In this way, he succeeds in part in restoring equilibrium to the relational imbalance in favor of mothers so typical of Italian families.