Fair Teachers,Fair Police? Assessing the Pathways between Perceptions of Teacher and Police Authority in Childhood and Adolescence

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Existing research has shown that the quality of the relationship between teacher and child is associated with more positive perceptions of school authorities....     

Evaluating the shared and unique predictors of legal cynicism and police legitimacy from adolescence into early adulthood

In different theoretical traditions, negative social conditions, attachments, and interactions shape the way individuals view the law and its agents. Although most researchers acknowledge the conceptual distinction between different legal attitudes such as legal cynicism and police legitimacy, it remains unclear to what extent these attitudes stem from the same social sources. In the current study, therefore, we evaluate the social and individual factors that influence trajectories of legal cynicism and police legitimacy using a diverse community sample of youths in Zurich, Switzerland. Latent growth curve models were employed to examine patterns of change in legal cynicism and police legitimacy between 13 and 20 years of age. The findings show that legal cynicism and police legitimacy both decline into early adulthood and exhibit high rank-stability over time. Furthermore, we find that legal cynicism is closely related to individual characteristics that reflect one's inability to recognize or abide by their internal rules. By contrast, police legitimacy is shaped by socialization influences, particularly teacher bonds and police contacts. These results indicate a need to assess the measurement and interpretation of legal cynicism critically in relation to broader legitimacy beliefs and to investigate the shared and distinct sources of these different constructs.     

Long-term effects of two childhood psychosocial interventions on adolescent delinquency,substance use,and antisocial behavior: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Objectives

Examine the long-term effects of two childhood universal prevention programs on adolescent delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior.

Methods

The cluster randomized controlled trial involved 56 schools and 1,675 children in Zurich, Switzerland. Two evidence-based interventions, namely the social-emotional skills program Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) and the cognitive-behavioral parenting program Triple P, were implemented during the first two years of primary school, at ages 7 and 8 years. Outcomes were measured at ages 13 and 15 years, and included youth self-reports and teacher assessments. Multilevel models were used to account for the clustered nature of the interventions. Effects were estimated with the inclusion of baseline covariates.

Results

Across 13 outcomes related to delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior at ages 13 and 15 years, only two non-negligible effects were found. The first was a reduced prevalence of police contacts in the PATHS condition [effect size (ES)?=??0.225). The second was a difference in competent conflict resolution skills in the combined PATHS?+?Triple P condition compared to the context (ES?=?0.259), but in the unexpected direction: participants in the combined treatment appeared to be less competent than their control group peers. All other effects were either statistically non-significant or negligible in size (i.e., ES?<?|0.200|).

Conclusions

Even “evidence-based” interventions may have few long-term effects on delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior. Our findings add to the small literature on the long-term effectiveness of early universal prevention in field settings.

     

Early Childhood Predictors of Teen Dating Violence Involvement at Age 17

The distal relationship between risk factors in childhood and subsequent dating violence in late adolescence has not often been explored using longitudinal data. This study aims to shed light on the problem of dating violence by examining children’s backgrounds at age 7 and the link to the future involvement in dating violence at age 17 using the first and seventh waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso, n?=?644). The sample consists of 644 multiethnic adolescents (57.14% female, M?=?17.47, SD?=?0.37), mainly Swiss-born (90%), though more than half of their parents (60%) were born in another country. A latent class analysis was applied to identify three different profiles (a) zero (or minimal) involvement in teen dating violence, (b) perpetrators/victims of controlling behaviors, and (c) perpetrators/victims of controlling behaviors and of physical violence. Participants who were corporally punished and/or victims of bullying at age 7 were significantly more likely to belong to the controlling and physical violence profile than children in the non-violent class. These results suggest a certain chronicity of the effects of violent experiences in early childhood on the patterns of romantic relationships at 17 years old.

     

A Non-bipartite Propensity Score Analysis of the Effects of Teacher–Student Relationships on Adolescent Problem and Prosocial Behavior

Previous research suggests a link between the quality of teacher–student relationships and the students’ behavioral outcomes; however, the observational nature of past studies makes it difficult to attribute a causal role to the quality of these relationships. In the current study, therefore, we used a propensity score analysis approach to evaluate whether students who were matched on their propensity to experience a given level of relationship quality but differed on their actual relationship quality diverged on their concurrent and subsequent problem and prosocial behavior. Student/self, teacher, and parent- (only waves 1–3) reported data from 8 waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths (z-proso), a longitudinal study of Swiss youth among a culturally diverse sample of 7- to 15-year-olds were utilized. The initial sample included 1483 (49.4 % female) students for whom information relevant for this study was available. The sample represented families from around 80 different countries, from across all the continents; with approximately 42 % of the female primary caregivers having been born in Switzerland. Following successful matching, we found that students who reported better relationships with their teachers and whose teachers reported better relationships with them evidenced fewer problem behaviors concurrently and up to 4 years later. There was also evidence for an analogous effect in predicting prosocial behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to prevention and intervention practices.     

Do Social Relationships Protect Victimized Children Against Internalizing Problems?

We investigated whether social relationships protect children against the effects of victimization on internalizing problems. We used data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths. Victimization at age 8 years was associated with internalizing problems at age 9 years. Victims who had siblings, warm parents, and a good relationship with the teacher had less severe internalizing problems than those who did not, providing evidence for a protective effect of social relationships. Friendships with classmates were not found to be protective. Furthermore, social relationships did not protect victims more than nonvictims.     

The Co-development of Friends’ Delinquency with Adolescents’ Delinquency and Short-term Mindsets: The Moderating Role of Co-Offending

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The companions in crime hypothesis suggests that co-offending moderates the link between peer delinquency and adolescent delinquency. However, this hypothesis has...