Longitudinal Association Between Parenting Practices and Early Sexual Risk Behaviors among Urban African American Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Gender

A sample of 274 African American families, living in impoverished neighborhoods with high HIV rates, participated in a longitudinal study of adolescent sexual development when children were in the 4th or 5th grade. Self-report and observational measures of parental warmth and parental behavioral control were collected from adolescents and parents at Time 1, and youth reported if they had initiated intercourse at Times 1 and 2. Regression analyses suggested that gender moderated associations between parental behavioral control and engagement in adolescent sexual behaviors. More generally, findings suggested that boys reared in low control/high warmth (i.e., permissive) homes and girls reared in high control/low warmth (i.e., authoritarian) homes were particularly at risk for early sexual behaviors. Clinical implications and directions for the future research are discussed.Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology at Loyola University Chicago. Received her B.S. in Psychology and African & African American Studies from Duke University and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University Chicago. Her major research interests include the role of family and mental health factors in HIV risk exposure among urban African American adolescents.Professor, Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago. Received his Ph.D. in 1987 from Virginia Commonwealth University. His major research interests are family relations during adolescence, physical disabilities, pediatric psychology, developmental psychopathology, and statistical applications in psychologyAssociate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois, Chicago. Received her PhD in Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 1987. Her current research interests include developmental transitions during adolescence, as well as from pre-school to middle childhood, among typically developing children as well as children with special needs     

Future-time perspective in adolescence: The present of things future revisited

Several theorists have suggested that the observed changes in adolescent future-time perspective are due to the emergence of formal-operations reasoning [e. g., T. J. Cottle and S. Klineberg (1974),The Present of Things Future, Free Press-Macmillan, New York; P. Fraisse (1963),The Psychology of Time, Harper & Row, New York; H. Hartmann (1958),Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation, International Universities Press, New York; J. Piaget (1968),Six Psychological Studies, Vintage Book, New York]. Using a cross-sectional sample of 60 Caucasian adolescents, the present study was designed to examine this hypostatized interrelation. Data obtained through individual interviews provide only limited support for a cognitive hypothesis. As predicted, older students showed greater future extension and the more cognitively advanced students proved better able to project a set of events into the distant future. However, neither the older, nor the more cognitively advanced, students projected a greater number or a more consistent set of future events than did their respective counterparts. Moreover, analysis of the types of events projected obtained significance only for grade level. The findings are discussed from a contextualist perspective, within which consideration is given to the influence of experiential and life-span status factors.This paper is an expanded version of one presented as part of the symposium entitled, The Timing of Life Events in Adolescence, at the annual meeting of the Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada, April 11–15, 1983. This work was completed while the author was a Clinical Research Training Fellow in Adolescence (funded by T32 MH 14668) at the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, in a program also sponsored by the Department of Behavioral Science (Human Development) and Psychiatry, University of Chicago, and the Adolescent Program of the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute.Received a Ph.D. from Boston University. Research interests include cognition, self-concept, and adolescence.     

Keeping Secrets From Parents: Longitudinal Associations of Secrecy in Adolescence

A 2-wave survey study among 1173 10–14-year-olds tested the longitudinal contribution of secrecy from parents to psychosocial and behavioral problems in adolescence. Additionally, it investigated a hypothesized contribution of secrecy from parents to adolescent development by examining its relation with self-control. Results showed that keeping secrets from parents is associated with substantial psychosocial and behavioral disadvantages in adolescence even after controlling for possible confounding variables, including communication with parents, trust in parents, and perceived parental supportiveness. Contrary to prediction, secrecy was also negatively associated with feelings of self-control. Secrecy from parents thus appears to be an important risk factor for adolescent psychosocial well-being and behavioral adjustment.PhD student, Department of Social Psychology, Free University, The Netherlands. Received Masters degree in social psychology at Utrecht University. Research interests are workings and consequences of secrecy in adolescence and adulthood, and evolutionary approaches to studying human social behavior.Associate Professor, Department of Social Psychology, Free University, The Netherlands. Received PhD in clinical and social psychology at the University of Louvain, at Louvain-la-Neuve. Research interests are communication and relationships in adolescence and the conceptualization and measurement of secrecy.Assistant Professor, Institute of Family and Child Care Studies, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Research interests are family, work-stress, and methodological issues in multivariate longitudinal analyses.Professor, Institute of Family and Child Care Studies, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Research interests are friendships, family relationships, and substance use and abuse in adolescence.     

An approach to evaluating adolescent adaptive processes: Validity of an interview-based measure

The authors present an initial exploration, of the validity of 15 scales designed to assess adaptive ego processes in adolescence. These scales are rated solelyThis study was supported by the Youth Development Project of the Joslin DRTC (NIH AM 20530-01), grants from the Psychoanalytic Research Fund of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Spencer Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Harris Trust, National Instutute of Mental Health, a Research Scientist Award (K-05-MH-70178) (Dr. Hauser), the Maternal and Child Health Research Grants Program, and a Faculty Scholar Award of the William T. Grant Foundation (Dr. Beardslee).Clinical director, Department of Psychiatry, The Children's Hospital; and assistnt professor in psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Received M.D. from Case-Western Reserve University. Currently studying adaptation and intervention with youngsters at high risk for psychopathology.Chief of psychiatry, Joslin Diabetes Center; and associate professor in psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Received M.D. from the University of Chicago. Currently studying psychosocial consequences of diabetes mellitus.Associate professor in psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development and outcomes in diabetic adolescents.Director of evaluation research, The Children's Unit of McLean Hospital. Received Dipl. Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (clinical psychology); Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.Research associate, Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe Colleges; and instructor of psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Received Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying adolescent and family coping processes in response to stressful events.Currentlyand tudying research methodology and statistics.M.S.W., Smith College School of Social Work. Currently attending Dartmouth Medical School.     

Ego development and moral development in relation to age and grade level during adolescence

The relation between Loevinger's measure of ego development and moral development as indexed by Rest's Defining Issues Test was examined in a sample of 517 adolescents between 12 and 21 years of age. Major increases in moral capacity were found at the Conformist and Conscientious levels of ego development. Low positive correlations between ego level and moral capacity were reported for young adolescents but not for older ones. The development indices of age and grade were compared. Both ego and moral development seemed more closely related to grade level than to age. Socioeconomic status predicted acceleration in ego development at the rate of one half an ego level over middle to late adolescence. This effect persisted at university. Students of higher socioeconomic background attained developmental levels one to two years before their contemporaries of low socioeconomic status. Sex differences in ego development were in favor of females.This study was part of the author's Ph.D. thesis at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Partial funding for the study was provided by a Brandon University research grant.The author is an assistant professor in psychology at Brandon University with interests in social cognition, vocational development, and sexual socialization during adolescence.     

Storm and stress beliefs about adolescence: Prevalence,self-reported antecedents,and effects of an undergraduate course

The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence and self-reported developmental antecedents of beliefs in storm and stress notions about adolescence, and to investigate the effects on such beliefs of an undergraduate course on adolescent development. Subjects were 192 college students who were enrolled in a course entitled Psychology of Adolescence at a large urban university. The questionnaire, which was administered at the beginning and end of the course, contained a storm and stress scale, items tapping the nature of parent-adolescent arguments, Dusek and Flaherty's (1981) Self-Concept Scale, and several demographic questions. Results suggested that beliefs in storm and stress notions are quite prevalent, arguments between parents and adolescents are believed to occur quite frequently, and females endorse storm and stress beliefs more readily than do males. Moreover, subjects tended to endorse storm and stress notions more readily if they viewed themselves as being less adjusted during their own adolescence and if they reported more adjustment instability. After a course on adolescent development, the tendency to report that the typical adolescent experiences storm and stress decreased, and this decrease was more pronounced for those receiving higher grades in the course.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the First Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Madison, Wisconsin, March, 1986.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Interests are family relations during adolescence, pediatric psychology, child clinical psychology, and statistical applications in psychology.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University. Interests are the social psychology of adolescence and psychosocial adaptation to biological change.     

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.     

Introduction: The changing life space of early adolescence

The socialization of children and adolescents is shaped by how they spend their time. This special issue maps the daily experience of white American 5th–9th graders, describing both the quantities of time they spend in different contexts and the affective states associated with these contexts. Each paper examines a separate segment of daily activity (e.g., schoolwork, talking, sports), employing data from a common study in which 401 participants provided experience sampling reports at random times during their daily lives when cued by a pager. The findings show substantial age and sex differences, indicating significant changes in the daily life space of girls and boys between preadolescence and early adolescence. Implication for socialization to healthy adult adjustment in love, work, and play are discussed in each paper.Received Ph.D. from Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago, Research focuses on daily experience associated with health and psychopathology in adolescence and across the life span.Received Ph.D. from Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Current research interests: pubertal development, precursors of eating disorders, and the effects of maternal employment on young adolescents.     

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.     

Youth Self-Report of Behavioral and Emotional Problems in a Swiss Epidemiological Study

The Youth Self Report (YSR) was used in a Swiss epidemiological study with 1093 subjects aged 10–17 years. Internal consistency was good for the second-order factors Internalizing Problems, ExternalizingProblems, and the Total Problem Score, whereas it was less satisfactory for almost all syndrome scales. In general, internal consistency coefficients were slightly lower in the Swiss sample than in the U.S. sample. Correlations between the syndrome scales resulted in good replications of the original findings as obtained in the U.S. normative sample. Effect analyses showed that sex is more important than age and nationality (indigenous vs. immigrant subjects). However, all effects were small. Correspondence between YSR and Child Behavior Checklist scores showed that agreement between adolescents' and parents' reports is relatively small.     

Attitudes toward sexuality in a group of 1500 middle class teen-agers

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes toward sexuality in a group of randomly selected middle class teen-agers. The sample included boys and girls, young (13–14) and older (16–18) teen-agers, in a variety of geographic locations from 1962 to 1970. Results demonstrated significant differences between the sexes and between younger and older teen-agers. It did not show differences between teen-agers' attitudes toward sexuality from 1962 to 1970 and neither were there any differences in the attitudes of adolescents in the American cities and in Hobart, Australia. The main finding is that there is no evidence to suggest that the adolescent population is in the midst of a sexual revolution. Presented at the VIIIth International Congress for Child Psychiatry and Allied Professions, Jerusalem, Israel, August 1970.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago; psychiatric training at Michael Reese Hospital; and is a graduate of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Main interests are the developmental psychology of adolescents and young adults and juvenile delinquency.The paper was prepared with the collaboration of H. Diesenhaus, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, and E. Ostrov, Research Associate, Michael Reese Unit, Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, Chicago, Illinois.     

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.     

The state of research on ego identity: A review and appraisal

Considerable research on ego identity has appeared over the past 15 years, indicating the need for an overall review. Part I commences by considering the complexity of Erikson's concept and suggesting several different theoretical contexts in which it has been used. The validity of investigators' attempts to operationalize the concept ego identity is assumed to depend in part upon their interpretations of its meaning. The subsequent review of empirical literature is organized according to different procedures which have been used to measure ego identity. A first section summarizes and evaluates research utilizing Q-sort and self-report questionnaire measures, while a second considers the large number of investigations that have employed James Marcia's Identity Status Interview. The latter group of studies are ordered according to the type of dependent variable (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, personality, developmental) examined in relation to ego identity status (i.e., achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion). Part II of the review, to appear in the next issue of this journal, will recapitulate the identity status literature, present an overall evaluation of the identity status paradigm, and suggest a number of issues for future research.Support for this study comes from research training grant No. 5-T32MH14668-02 awarded to Dr. D. Offer by the National Institute of Mental Health.Postdoctoral Fellow in the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence jointly sponsored by the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training of Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and the Committee on Human Development of the University of Chicago. Present research interests include adolescent ego development and epistemological/methodological issues in personality theory and measurement.     

The relation of ego development to sex-stereotyping in caretakers' expectations for adolescents

The investigators tested the hypothesis that the direction of the relationship between the level of ego development of adult caretakers and the degree of sex-stereotyping in their expectations for adolescents would vary as a function of the adolescents' level of ego maturity. Two groups of caretakers (counselors of an immature group of disturbed adolescents and parents of a mature group of undergraduates) participated in the study. In comparison to their conformist counterparts, the postconformist counselors were expected to make more sex-stereotyped goals for the disturbed adolescents; postconformist parents were expected to make less sex-stereotyped goals for the undergraduates. Hypotheses were confirmed for the counselors, but not for the parents. Both groups of caretakers seemed to consider developmental or life task factors in formulating goals for adolescents.Received Ph.D. from Yale University in 1977. Research interests are juvenile delinquency, adolescent coping abilities, organizational aspects of youth agencies, and young adulthood.Interests are adolescence and community psychology.Interest is residential care for adolescents.Interests are battered women and women in prisons.     

Different methodologies in the assessment of identity: Congruence between self-report and interview techniques?

Convergent-divergent validity and reliability estimates for clinical interview and self-report measures of ego identity were obtained. Twenty-three males and 25 females completed an extended version of the Ego Identity Interview [H. D. Grotevant, W. Thorebecke, and M. C. Meyer (1982) An Extension of Marcia's Identity Status Interview into the Interpersonal Domain,Journal of Youth and Adolescence 11: 33–48] and the extended version of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status [H. D. Grotevant and G. R. Adams (1984) Development of an Objective Measure to Assess Ego-Identity in Adolescence: Validation and Replication,Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 13: 419–438]. While the two measures were expected to converge, little convergence was observed. The findings suggest that the two measures may be (a) assessing relatively distinct forms of ego identity, or (b) that the ego-identity construct as measured by the process (exploration) and outcome (commitment) dimensions needs further theoretical examination.Partial support for this project was provided through fundings to the second author from the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station, Logan, Utah. This paper was presented earlier in a symposium titled Identity Development from Adolescence to Adulthood at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research on Child Development, Toronto, Canada, April 1985.Received M.S degree in Psychology from Utah State University. Research interests include identity development and social relations.Received Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 1975. Research interests include personality and social development in adolescence, family psychology, and research methodology.     

The satisfaction with life scale: Psychometrics properties in an adolescent sample

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was developed in the United States as a multiitem scale for the overall assessment of life satisfaction as cognitive-judgmental process, rather as a measurement of specific satisfaction areas (e.g., health, energy). The present study attempted to extend the applicability of the SWLS by investigating specific aspects of reliability and validity in a different cultural context (Portugal) with adolescents. In line with previous American findings, reliability figures were found to be favourable. SWLS scores were affected by sex and sociocultural level. In addition, SWLS scores showed to be predictably associated with psychological measures: loneliness, social anxiety, shyness, self- concept, and physical attractiveness. The variables that best predicted satisfaction were overall self-concept, loneliness, and physical attractiveness.Received a Ph.D. in normal and abnormal anthropology from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Faculty of Psychology (Porto) and an Aggregation in Psychology from Faculty of Psychology (Coimbra) in 1990. Research interests include migration and cross-cultural social migration.The author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Contextual,cognitive, and adolescent factors associated with parenting in adolescence

In this study, we examined predictors of parenting during adolescence from three domains: the contextual (i.e., stress, support, marital satisfaction), social-cognitive (i.e., beliefs about adolescence), and child (difficulty). Fifty-three mothers and 38 fathers of 13–18 year olds were interviewed and rated on three dimensions of parenting—involvement, autonomy support, and structure. Parents completed questionnaires assessing predictor variables. Results indicated that, for mothers, higher numbers of recent stressful events were associated with less provision of structure and more control. For fathers, relations between views of adolescence and parenting were in evidence; while for both mothers and fathers strong relations between adolescent difficulty and parenting emerged. Relations between perceived difficulty of adolescent and parenting were more apparent in conducive than nonconducive contexts. The differential results for mothers and fathers are interpreted in terms of mothers' greater involvement and less role latitude than fathers. Parents' resources, experience, and expectations are considered in understanding why predictors might be associated with parenting variables.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of Rochester. Research interests include motivational development, parenting, self- and emotion-regulation. Also investigating factors affecting parenting, especially parent involvement.Received a Master's degree from New York University. Current interests involve interpersonal processes in depression.Received a Master's degree from Clark University. Research interests include the development of self-regulation with particular interest in the effects of power, authority, and responsibility on the socialization and disciplining of young children.Received Master's of Social Work degree from Columbia University. Current interests include factors that facilitate adolescents developing connections with the community.     

Family types and communication with parents: A comparison of youth at different identity levels

Recent theory views adolescent behavior as nested in an ongoing system of family relationships. In keeping with this focus, differences in family functioning of high vs. low identity achievement youth were examined and variables to account for differing identity levels were explored. However, the hypothesized relationship (Circumplex Model) between family type and communication was also examined. Subjects were 411 male students, 18–24 years of age, belonging to intact nuclear middle-class homes, who resided with parents in urban areas. Measures used were the Identity Achievement Scale, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, and the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale. Results supported an association between balanced family type and effective communication (p.001). Significant differences in the family types were found (p.001), with high identity subjects belonging to balanced families, experiencing more openness (p.01) and less problems (p.01) in communicating with parents. Openness with father, mother, and problems with father emerged as significant discriminants. There are important implications for counselling and therapy with youth, placing family at the center of the psychosocial milieu influencing their development.Received Ph.D. from H.P. University. Research interests: adolescent psychosocial development, youth, identity, and family influences.Received M.A.; Ph.D. from Boston University; Panjab University. Research interests: family interiors, women studies, life stress, self image (DAP), sexuality, myths, holistic healing, and tribal women.     

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.     

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.