Physical attractiveness as a mediator of the impact of early pubertal changes for girls

The present study examined the effects of early pubertal development and physical attractiveness on the popularity, body image, and self-esteem of over 200 sixth-grade girls. Two rival hypotheses were explored. The first suggests that physically attractive girls, because of their more favorable social environment, will exhibit fewer psychosocial difficulties than unattractive girls during pubertal development. The second hypothesis argues that attractive girls will exhibit greater difficulty during pubertal transition because their self-image is more intimately connected with their physical appearance. Although there were no significant interactions between attractiveness and pubertal development for either popularity or body image, the second hypothesis was supported with respect to self-esteem. Specifically, developing attractive girls exhibited lower self-esteem than their unattractive counterparts. The results are discussed in terms of the relative vulnerability to bodily changes of girls differing in physical attractiveness.Support for this work was provided by NIMH Grant 2 R01 MH-30739 and the William T. Grant Foundation.Received his M.A. in clinical child psychology from the Ohio State University. Main interests are the psychological concomitants of physical appearance and developmental aspects of the body image.Received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Minnesota. Current interests include social relationships in adolescence, consequences and correlates of physical maturation, and effects of transitions in early adolescence.Received her Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University. Current interests include gender differences in adolescence, the impact of transitions throughout the life span, and the psychosocial impact of organ donation.     

The relation of personality functions and adaptive skills to self-esteem in early adolescence

This paper examines the relation, in early adolescence, of competence in personality functions and adaptive skills to self-esteem. As part of a longitudinal study of adolescent personality development, a nonclinical group of 63 adolescents underwent a comprehensive assessment at age 13. Their personality functioning status was assessed by means of a semistructured psychiatric interview. A psychometric battery was administered to assess verbal and nonverbal adaptive skills. In addition, global self-esteem was assessed. The findings indicate that positive self-esteem was associated with competence in both personality functions and in adaptive skills. Both domains contributed to self-esteem to a similar degree.This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Community and Social Services of the Province of Ontario, Canada. This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Academy of Child Psychiatry, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 1985.Received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Research Interests include adolescent personality development and the effects of affective disorders on development.Received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include mood disorders, personality development in adolescence, and preventive psychiatry.Received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include adolescent personality development, effects of psychosis on personality, and psychophysiology of schizophrenia.Received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include affective disorders in adolescence and individual psychotherapy.     

Adolescent males with urogenital anomalies: Their body image and psychosexual development

Three midadolescent males with major congenital urogenital anomalies and multiple surgical repairs are described. Each patient had suffered repeated profound insults to body image concepts and gender identity from infancy onward, now clearly reflected in his psychosocial behavior and in figure drawings. Of major importance is the total lack at any time of counseling and emotional support as a part of comprehensive management. A plea is made for awareness of the psychological effects of such disorders and the need for long-range therapeutic planning from early childhood through adolescence to develop sound compensatory modes of coping with this stress.Formerly fellow in adolescent medicine, New York University Medical Center, at the time the material for this report was collected. Received his M.D. and pediatric training at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston City Hospital. Research interests include comprehensive health care for adolescents and the effects of illness on adolescent psychological development.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from Heed University, Miami, Florida, and training in psychology and child development at New York University. Research interests include the psychological effects of hospitalization on children and youth, minimal brain dysfunction, and developmental assessment in infancy.Received her M.D. from the University of Rochester, pediatric training at University of Minnesota Hospitals and Babies Hospital, New York City, and training in adolescent medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, New York. Research interests include psychological effects of illness and hospitalization in adolescents, legal rights of minors, and adolescent sexuality.     

Life satisfaction,self-concept,and relationship with parents in adolescence

The influence of self-concept and relationships with parents and school on life satisfaction of adolescents was explored in 1156 Chinese junior high school children in Hong Kong. Adopting the multidimensional approach, self-concept was measured globally as well as in four specific aspects, namely, academic ability, social ability, physical ability, and physical appearance. Results show that all self-concept measures are correlated with life satisfaction, but the strongest correlation was found between general self-concept and life satisfaction. This pattern is consistent with American findings in that a higher self-concept was related to more life satisfaction, but the correlation obtained was much weaker in the present study. In a series of regression analyses, it was found that relationship with parents dominated the prediction of life satisfaction, and only the social ability component of self-concept was able to account for a small amount of extra variance. Relationship with school was not related to life satisfaction in any significant way. Implications of these results are discussed.This study was supported by the Centre for Hong Kong Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong through a Social Policy Research Programme on Policy for Prevocational Education in Hong Kong.Received Ph.D. from Massey University, New Zealand. Research interests include educational psychology, operant conditioning, behavior modification, and rehabilitation.Received Ph.D. from University of Illinois in social, industrial, and organizational psychology. Research interests included cross-cultural psychology, social justice, 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.     

From trust on intimacy: A new inventory for examining erikson's stages of psychosocial development

A new inventory for examining the first six of Erikson's psychosocial stages is described. The self-report questionnaire, developed in a pilot study of 97 adolescents and tested in a study of 622 adolescents, has 12 items for each subscale. Measures of reliability and validity are reported. It is concluded that the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI) is a useful measure for researchers interested in development from early adolescence and in mapping changes as a function of life events.This research was supported by a grant from the Education Research and Development Committee.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are adolescent adjustment, ethnicity, and sex-role psychology.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are effects of unemployment and adolescent adjustment.Received Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current research interests are sex-role psychology and adolescence.     

The relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem: An investigation of gender and class differences

This study examined the body shape satisfaction and self-esteem of 41 male and 43 female young adults. It was predicted that males would be more satisfied with their body shape and weight than females, and that upper class females would report a stronger relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem than would less affluent females. Surprisingly, males were significantly more dissatisfied than females with their weight, due to the males' desire to be heavier. Both males and females reported a positive, significant relationship between overall body image and self-esteem. Females also reported a positive, significant relationship between satisfaction with body shape and self-esteem, which as expected was significantly stronger for upper class than for lower class women.Received Ph.D. from Loyola University of Chicago. Research interests are body image and cognitive assessment.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests are body image and cultural diversity.     

Risk and resilience in young adolescents

This exploratory study focused on the role of risk and protective factors in 179 adolescents from a middle and lower income northeastern school district. The protective factors examined were family cohesion, locus of control, mother/father communication, and relationship with a nonparent adult. The study found that the protective factors were powerful predictors of adaptation in their own right independent of risk. Protective factors were found to be highly context specific and there was no evidence of broadly applicable protective factors. Gender was found to be an important aspect of context, and there were significant sex differences. Most strikingly, the study did not find any significant interactions between protective factors and risk for girls or boys. Thus, these results support the growing view that researchers must identify specific rather than global protective factors that provide protection in the space of specific risks for youth in specific life contexts.A grant from the Boston University Graduate School provided initial support for this project.Received Ph.D. from Yale University in clinical psychology. Research interests include effects of risk, particularly sexual and physical abuse, and resiliency.Received M.A. from Boston University. Research interests include risk and developmental factors in psychopathology.Received Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston University Department of Psychology. Research interests include study of adolescence and risk factors.Received Ph.D. from Boston University.Received M.A. from Eastern Nazarine College, Quincy, MA.Received B.A. from Boston University Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02215.     

Intimacy development in middle adolescence: Its relationship to gender and family cohesion and adaptability

The relationships of family cohesion and adaptability to adolescent intimacy development were explored by administering the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales survey and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation — Behavioral Version survey to 207 middle adolescents (70 males and 137 females) from a small midwestern high school. The adolescents' perceptions of family adaptability correlated with the amount of responsibility the teens expressed in their relationships, while cohesion correlated with companionship and affection in their relationships; however, females' scores were related to cohesion, while males' scores were related to satisfaction with cohesion in their families. The study suggests that family cohesion and adaptability differentially influence intimacy development based on the adolescent's gender.Received Ph.D. in marital and family therapy from Purdue University. Research interests include family influences on adolescent development and family issues related to incarceration.Received Ed.D. in human development from Boston University. Research interests include major life transitions (e.g., adolescence, middle adulthood).     

School crime and disruption as a function of student-school fit: An empirical assessment

A theoretical model is described which conceptualizes school crime and disruption as a function of the congruence or fit between the personal characteristics of students and the social environments of the schools they attend. In a direct empirical test of the model, indices representing 10 distinct dimensions of student-school fit are related to three composite measures of school misconduct: school crime, school avoidance, and class misbehavior. A number of significant relationships are found between dimensions of student-school fit and the three indices of school misbehavior, several of which manifest one of the nonlinear forms specified by the model, providing at least modest support for a person-environment fit theory of school crime and disruption.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, San Francisco, September 1978. Analyses reported here were supported by a research grant (G-78-0049) from the National Institute of Education.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan. Current research interests include alienation and involvement in high school, person-environment fit, and survey methodology.Current research interests include the development and treatment of aggressive and deviant behavior in adolescence and socialization experiences in high school.Received Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of Michigan. Current research interests include adolescent self-esteem, delinquent behavior, and alternative schools.     

Parental criticism and the adolescent experience

In a questionnaire study of 883 high school students, subjects were asked the extent to which their parents criticized them for 18 criticizable behaviors or attitudes. Over 50% of the respondents reported being criticized for being disobedient, lazy, and messy—issues central to family life. Further analyses indicated a relationship between perceived criticism and self-image. The more criticism the teenager perceived for a specific behavior or attitude (e.g., being selfish), the more likely that teenager was to perceive himself/herself as being that way. The differential impact of criticism in the context of parental rejection was also explored.Received M.D. from Rush Medical College. Research interests are birth order and adolescence.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and psychotherapy.     

Pubertal timing and grade effects on adjustment

Effects on adjustment of biological maturation and social timing were compared using data from a longitudinal sample of 335 young adolescents, who were followed from the sixth through eighth grades. Biological maturation was estimated from the relative timing of the adolescent growth spurt. Social timing was assessed by grade in school. Five adjustment constructs were examined: school achievement (course grades in five subjects), family relations (a 17-item scale), peer relations (a 10-item scale), body image (an 11-item scale), impulse control (an 8-item scale), and psychopathology (an 11-item emotional tone scale and an 11-item general psychopathology scale). All but one adjustment construct showed grade effects, but only three of the six constructs showed pubertal timing effects. There were no grade by pubertal timing effects. Although there were gender differences for some of the adjustment constructs, there were no gender by pubertal timing effects. The results are discussed in terms of the life-span developmental perspective.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973. Research interest is biopsychosocial development in early adolescence, with a focus on sex differences.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests are social development, biosocial interactions in early adolescence, and sex differences.     

The transition to junior high school: Beliefs of pre- and posttransition teachers

The beliefs of 107 teachers who students have for mathematics the last year of elementary school are compared to the beliefs of 64 teachers the same students have for mathematics the first year of junior high school. As hypothesized, posttransition teachers trust students less, believe more strongly in controlling and disciplining students, and have a weaker sense of teaching efficacy than do pretransition teachers. There are no significant differences in beliefs about the nature of ability as a fixed trait. It is suggested that societal stereotypes about early adolescents may flourish in school settings that are exclusively for that age group, so that teachers believe these students are unlikely to make much academic progress and must be controlled.This research was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31724) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD17296) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8510504) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles and Allan Wigfield.Received Ph.D. in Education from the University of Michigan. Research interests are adolescent development, middle years education, teacher beliefs, and classroom processes.Received M.A. in Education from the University of Michigan. Research interests are adolescent development, classroom environments, and supporting beginning teachers.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Research interests are development of self-concept, subjective task value, interests, and activity preferences, especially during early and middle adolescence. Also investigating the impact of school and family experiences on these constructs.     

Approach and avoidant coping: Implications for adolescent mental health

We conducted a short-term longitudinal study examining the structure of coping behavior and the relationship between coping style and depression during adolescence. The sample consisted of 603 adolescents in Grades 6–11 who were surveyed in the fall of 1989 and again in the fall of 1990. A two-dimensional model of coping was found using confirmatory factor analysis with the factors being approach and avoidant coping. Four cross-sectional and seven longitudinal coping groups were formed to explore group differences in depression. Approach copers reported the fewest symptoms of depression, while avoidant copers reported the most. Subjects who changed over time from approach to avoidant coping evidenced a significant increase in depressive symptoms, whereas subjects who switched from avoidant to approach coping displayed a significant decrease in depression over a one-year period. These findings imply that adolescents who are able to elicit social support, engage in problem solving, and cognitively restructure events within a positive light are more likely to successfully negotiate the challenges of adolescence.This research was supported by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation (8912789), Anne C. Petersen, Principal Investigator. The writing of this article was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Research Training Grant 5 T32MH18387-06 in Child Mental Health/Primary Prevention.Received Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include adolescent mental health and community research.Received his Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include adolescent mental health and research methodology.Received degree from the University of Chicago. Research interests are in biopsychosocial development in adolescence, with a focus on sex differences in mental health.     

Adolescents view their mental health

A new 40-item behavioral checklist, the Adolescent Life Assessment Checklist (ALAC), was devised to be used with patient and nonpatient samples. A comparable form obtains information from a parent or guardian. Responses of 356 adolescents from three sources were analyzed for differences attributable to race, sex, age, sample source, and their interactions. A factor analysis was carried out on the average within-race-sex-source subgroup correlation matrix, resulting in seven meaningful and six usable oblique factors. Subscales were developed and corrections were computed to remove estimated differences due to race, sex, and age. Corrected scales significantly differentiate the three samples.This study was supported in part by MCHS Grant No. MC-R-390201, the Adolescent Clinic Foundation, and USPHSMH Fellowship Grant No. 0597921.Received her Ph.D. in psychology from Washington University, St. Louis; received a Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry interdisciplinary research-teaching grant, 1959–1965. Current research interests include test development, evaluation, and personality research.Received her M.D. from Medical College of Georgia at Augusta; her medical internship was at Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. Current research interests include stress, coping, and adaptation in children and adolescents.She is a licensed psychologist with the State of Ohio, with an M.A. from the University of Cincinnati. Current research interests include verbal behavior, psychotherapeutic efficacy, and dream research.Received his M.D. from College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati; his medical internship was with Boston City Hospital, and he is the founder of the Adolescent Clinic, Cincinnati General Hospital. Current research interests include growth and development and medical/social problems at adolescence.     

Family contexts of pubertal timing

This study examined the influence of pubertal timing upon family interactions in normal and psychiatric adolescent samples. An important feature of our approach is its emphasis upon micro-analysis of family behaviors (individual speeches) and family processes (theoretically specified speech pairings). Rather than assume that global family patterns (e.g., power) shift in response to pubertal changes, we follow how types of speeches and speech sequences are associated with different pubertal timing. Using the previously constructed family coding system, the Constrainig and Enabling Coding System, we found that on-time adolescents and their parents differed from both off-time groups (early or late). These results are discussed in terms of current implications and suggestions for future research.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the SRCD Study Group on Timing of Maturation, October, 1983, at the Education Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. This research was supported by NICHD Grant 1 R01 HD18684-01, and an NIMH Research Scientist Award (Dr. Hauser).Received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Research interest is adolescent development within the family and impact of chronic illness on adolescent development and family interaction.Received her B.A. from Wellesley College. Research interests are in humor and attractiveness.Received his M.A. from Boston University. Research interests are in methodology and statistics.Received Ed.D. from Harvard University. Research interests are in adolescent development within the family, and family coping with stress.Received M.D. from University of Chicago. Research interests are in psychosocial aspects of diabetes.Received Ed.D. from Harvard University. Research interests are in developmental psychopathology, and moral and ego development.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Research interests are in assessment of ego development and family systems.Received Ph.D. from University of Miami. Research interests are in family studies and adolescent development.     

Adolescent women's developing identity: A study of self-definition in the context of family relationships

This study generated adolescent women's perception of their identity in relation to family members spanning three generations and related these perceived relationships to their sex-role orientation. Subjects were 20 firstborn university women from intact families. The methodology used multiple sources of information, including open-ended interviewing procedures, rating scales, and standard research measures of sex-role identity. Significantly more constructs empirically differentiated family by generation than by sex. Congruence of young women with both the parent and grandparent generation, relative number of masculine stereotypes produced, and personality traits of males and females were significantly influenced by the presence of a brother in the sibling generation. There was no relationship between family constellation and sex-role orientation. Feminine women were significantly more congruent with other females in their family than androgynous women. There was a linear trend for androgynous women to be increasingly individuated across the generations.Received her Ph.D. from Yale University. Research interests include observation of children and families in natural settings, longitudinal research with at-risk infants, and rural consultation.Received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include development of social competence in family, school, and community environment.Received his Ph.D. from Yale University. Research interests include the socialization of values, professional development, and studies of the family in religious and ethnic community contexts.     

Ego development in adolescence: Longitudinal studies

Adolescents from four schools (one inner-city, two suburban, and one private) were tested two or three times using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development. Testing intervals ranged from 1.5 to 6 years. About half (N=193) the original pool was retested at twelfth grade. Every sample showed a mean rise in ego level; for six of eight samples that rise was statistically significant. Every pair of testings showed a postive correlation between scores; 10 of 14 correlations were significantly different from zero. Thus both test-retest correlations (about 0.5) and change scores support the hypothesized sequence of ego development. Significant correlation between ego level and intelligence occurred in two schools (0.6 at elementary and junior high grades and 0.4 at twelfth grade), but correlation was about zero in the private school.These studies were supported by Grant MH-05115 and Research Scientist Award MH-00657, both from the National Institute of Mental Health, Public Health Service.Received her Ph.D. from Washington University. Main interest is adolescent development.Received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Main interest is theory and measurement of ego development.     

Adolescent pubertal status and affective family relationships: A multivariate assessment

This research attempted to more adequately dimensionalize the study of affective family relations during adolescent pubertal maturation by employing a multivariate approach. Fifty-one families responded to an assessment battery consisting of a series of questionnaires designed to measure affective relations between parents and their adolescent children. Families were classified into prepubertal, transpubertal, or postpubertal groups according to their modal response on pubertal status criteria. A stepwise discriminant analysis was performed to identify measures that maximize between groups differences. Based on this analysis, a correct classification rate of 70% was achieved for all families. The two significant discriminant functions that emerged indicate that differences in family relationships are due to the transformation of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relations. The pattern of results replicate those of other researchers and provide elaborations concerning the affective nature of family relations during adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in Life-span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 1984. Research interests in dialectical models of adolescent development.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in 1979. Research interests in decision-making in adolescence and adulthood.     

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.