Reaching Black Adolescent Parents Through Nontraditional Techniques

Despite considerable attention in the literature given to Black adolescent fathers by human service professionals (Hendricks, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983), efforts to document how workers might reach out to them more have been few (Hendricks, 1983). Even less is available on how to reach Black adolescent fathers through nontraditional techniques, for new approaches are needed. As a step toward alleviating this nagging gap in the literature, this chapter utilizes data from studies conducted In Tulsa, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and Washington, DC to provide suggestions for reaching out to Black male adolescent parents through nontraditional means. Major issues include but are not limited to the following: (1) needs of Black male adolescent parents; (2) nontraditional techniques for reaching this group of parents; (3) planning the initial assessment meeting, including possible barriers to the process andfactors that contribute to its success; (4) do's and don'ts for helping Black adolescent fathers stay in treatment or in a counseling relationship; and (5) ways young Black fathers may be helpful not only to themselves but also the mothers and their children.     

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.     

A social learning model of adolescent contraceptive behavior

Central to an understanding of adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention is the study of birth control use among teenagers. This paper critically reviews both recent research findings and dominant theories regarding adolescent contraceptive use. An alternative theoretical framework, one that relies on social learning theory, is offered. This framework uses three major components — environmental context, cognitive influences, and behavior execution constraints — as the foundation for understanding the learning and maintenance of contraceptive behaviors. First, environmental factors, such as the availability of role models, accurate sexuality education, and birth control services, are seen as supporting or inhibiting birth control use. Second, the importance of cognitive functions through which the external environment is viewed and which influence the adolescent's image of the consequences associated with contraceptive use are highlighted. Last, the actual behavioral skills teenagers need in order to use birth control successfully are considered.Received D.S.W. in Social Welfare from the University of California — Berkeley. Research interests are adolescent reproductive health, contraceptive use, and prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.     

Unmarried Fathers and Parental Responsibility: A Case for Reform?

Following a Consultation exercise conducted by the Lord Chancellor's Department, the U.K. Government has announced its intention to amend the Children Act 1989 so that the unmarried father who jointly registers the birth with the mother will acquire parental responsibility automatically. In this paper, I draw on the responses made to the L.C.D. Consultation, in order critically to evaluate the arguments for and against reform. A poverty of relevant empirical research makes it impossible to reach a properly informed view on the positive or negative impacts of implementing the proposal. However, the principled arguments: that unmarried fathers and their children are subject to discrimination, or that it is unfair for men to pay child support, yet have no automatic rights with regard to their children, are ultimately unconvincing. I also attempt a more explicitly sociological exploration of the Consultation and reform process, focusing on what it can tell us about evolving social attitudes towards the statuses of `father' and `family' and how they should be valued and protected.     

Do Late Adolescent Fathers Have More Depressive Symptoms Than Older Fathers?

Although fathers are increasingly a focus of attention in research, there is a dearth of research on depressive symptoms among fathers, especially young fathers with toddlers. This study used longitudinal data to examine what risk factors, including the age status of fathers (e.g., late adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adulthood), may be associated with depressive symptoms of fathers when their children were 3 and 5 years of age. A subsample of families for which complete data were available on all variables was used in the analyses (n = 1,403). About 46% of study sample was African American, 27% White, 23% Hispanic, and 4% other race/ethnicity. Paternal depressive symptoms were measured using Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form (CIDI-SF). Late adolescent fatherhood was significantly associated with third-year paternal depressive symptoms but not with fifth-year depressive symptoms. Those who reported low social support were more likely to be depressed at both times. Fathers who did not work for regular pay were more likely to be depressed at the third-year follow-up, but not at the fifth-year follow-up. Parenting stress and being booked/charged with a crime were not associated with third-year paternal depressive symptoms, but were with fifth-year paternal depressive symptoms. This study emphasizes the importance of screening for depressive symptoms of fathers even before the birth of their child and monitoring and treating postpartum depressive symptoms, as first-year depressive symptoms was a significant predictor for third- and fifth-year depressive symptoms. Service providers should focus on the mental health of fathers as well as mothers to promote healthy environments for their children.     

The Impact of Birth Order on Intergenerational Transmission of Attitudes from Parents to Adolescent Sons: The Israeli Case

This study deals with birth order and its impact on intergenerational transmission of parental attitudes to adolescent sons in Israeli society. The sample included 294 participants (including 98 mothers, 98 fathers, and 98 sons). The attitudes chosen were key issues of concern in Israeli society: gender role attitudes, ethnic stereotypes, and attitudes toward immigrants from the former USSR (disposition toward contact and empathy toward immigrants). The findings indicate that birth order impacts on intergenerational transmission of attitudes from parents to adolescents, although the nature of this impact is different for mothers and fathers. The correlation between fathers' attitudes and those of their sons were strongest for the firstborn, and decreased according to birth order. The reverse trend was found for mothers. In addition, firstborns expressed greater willingness to approach immigrants than did middle and younger children. Regarding gender role attitudes and ethnic stereotypes, no impact was found for birth order. Compared with other family members, mothers expressed the most liberal gender role attitudes, and children expressed the least stereotyped attitudes toward ethnic groups, especially compared with their fathers.     

Pregnancy in the single adolescent girl: The role of cognitive functions

Interviews were conducted with 211 single adolescent girls, free of known psychiatric disturbance, who had undergone an elective abortion at a metropolitan municipal hospital. Besides providing help for the possible emotional stress connected with their situation, it was learned to what extent they were acquainted with birth control methods and had actually attempted to avoid their pregnancy. Similar data relating to birth control were obtained in interviews with a group of 200 single adolescents pregnant for the first time, and from 50 girls serving as controls who had effectively practiced birth control for at least 6 months. The great majority of the girls came from the same socioeconomic background, close to the subsistence level. The results indicate that about three-fourths of the pregnancies were unintended. Besides the implied external difficulty involved in finding a congenial low-cost birth control clinic, three psychological cognitive mechanisms were uncovered which virtually block the conversion of birth control knowledge into its successful practice. This finding suggests that adolescent out-of-wedlock pregnancies do not exclusively arise from motivational factors.Received M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University, New York. Associated with René A. Spitz, M.D. (Denver), for many years. Collaborated on latter's book,The First Year of Life, International Universities Press, New York, 1965. Current interests are in psychology of adolescence and infancy; prenatal psychological phenomena.     

Male adolescent birth control behavior: The importance of developmental factors and sex differences

A survey of sex and birth control behavior of 51 male adolescents aged 15–17 was conducted utilizing a structured interview protocol. The purpose of the study was to describe male adolescent birth control behavior incorporating developmental issues, and to interpret the findings in light of what is known about female birth control behavior. Based on research with teenage females, three social influences were examined for their possible impact on male birth control behavior. A new operational definition ofmale effective birth control usage involving the effectiveness of the method and the consistency of its usage was developed. Findings similar to those obtained from research on females suggest that adolescent sexual partners may be the only direct social influence on adolescents' birth control usage. Results indicating differences from research with females suggest that in general: male birth control behavior is primarily self-oriented, males are more likely to be effective contraceptors with casual partners than with girl friends, males are more likely to communicate about sex and birth control with similar age peers than with family members and/or other adults, and that teen males view sex and birth control decisions as female decisions.He also conducts private psychotherapy, specializing in marital and family therapy. His doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania is from a unique joint program in marital/family therapy and sex education. His interests include sex roles and their impact on intimate relationships, adolescent development, and male sexuality. This article is based on his doctoral dissertation.faculty member in the Human Sexuality Program. Dr. Rose served as supervisor on Dr. Cohen's doctoral dissertation.     

Pregnancy in early and late adolescence

The degree to which adolescent pregnancy is viewed as a social problem varies with the age of the adolescent: the younger the adolescent, the greater the perceived risks and costs. The young adolescent has been found to be at greater risk medically; both the young adolescent and her infant are subject more frequently to prenatal and postpartum complications. A sample of 130 pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers was surveyed to determine the factors that discriminate between girls who become pregnant in early years versus late adolescence. The younger group had begun dating and particularly steady dating at a significantly earlier age than the older group. The age discrepancy between the groups is even greater for the average age at which subjects began steady dating, that is, dating 1 boyfriend exclusively. While ages at which the adolescent began dating and particularly steady dating were found to be significantly related to early pregnancy, this vulnerability was increased by the subjects' lack of knowledge and use of birth control. Subjects in both groups reported that prior to pregnancy they desired quite frequently to leave their parents' home and be on their own. Early pregnancy appeared instead to have increased the adolescents' dependence upon her parents, especially the mother. The findings point to a need for instruction in reproduction and birth control to begin at an earlier age. Opportunity is needed for guided discussion among peers about their feelings regarding the costs and benefits of relationships and how one might deal with potential problems.     

The First Sexual Experience Among Adolescent Girls With and Without Disabilities

First sexual intercourse is an important experience in the young adult life course. While previous research has examined racial, gender, and socioeconomic differences in the characteristics of first sexual intercourse, less is known about differences by disability status. Using a racially diverse (27% Black, 20% Hispanic, and 53% non-Hispanic white) sample of 2,729 adolescent girls aged 12–24 at first sexual intercourse from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this article examines the association between disability and type of first sexual relationship, degree of discussion about birth control, and pregnancy wantedness. Regression analyses indicate that girls with mild or learning or emotional disabilities experience first sexual intercourse in different types of relationships than girls without disabilities. Adolescents with learning or emotional conditions have greater levels of discussion about birth control with their first sexual partners than those without disabilities. In addition, among those who do not use birth control at first sexual intercourse, girls with multiple or seriously limiting conditions are more likely to want a pregnancy—versus not want a pregnancy—at first sexual intercourse. Findings indicate that disability status is important to consider when examining adolescent sexuality; however, not all youth with disabilities have equal experiences.     

Correlates of adolescent pessimism: A study of the beck hopelessness scale

This study examines correlates of the Beck Hopelessness Scale within an adolescent population. Consistent with studies employing adults as subjects, Hopelessness scores were found to be associated with depression and external locus of control. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between Hopelessness scores and an index of general maladjustment. The Hopelessness measure was, however, found to be unrelated to self-reported health status.Data for this study were collected as part of a larger investigation involved with the development and validation of an adolescent measure of life stress which was funded by a grant to the senior author from the University of Washington Graduate School Research Fund.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northern Illinois University. Major interests are clinical-child psychology and psychopathology of children and adolescents.Major interests are clinical-child psychology and suicide.     

Loneliness at adolescence: Correlates,attributions, and coping

The present study provides much needed empirical data on the adolescent loneliness experience. One hundred adolescents were given measures of loneliness, loneliness attributions, coping styles, and personal characteristics. Loneliness was positively related to state and trait anxiety, an external locus of control, depression, self-consciousness, and social anxiety and negatively related to self-reported attractiveness, likability, happiness, and life satisfaction. Lonely adolescents were also less willing to take social risks. Adolescents most often attributed loneliness to boredom and most often coped with loneliness by watching TV or listening to music. The implications of these findings for adolescent social development are discussed.     

Fathers,adolescent daughters and gender in a low-income South African community

Knowledge about father–adolescent daughter relationships is mostly based on research in North-American and European contexts. Furthermore, it tends to rely on either fathers' or daughters' perspectives, and not on dyadic data. Informed by a social constructionist perspective, this study investigated the fatherhood constructions of fathers and adolescent daughters in a South African low-income community. We used Charmaz' social constructionist grounded theory method. Forty-two interviews were conducted separately with fourteen fathers and their adolescent daughters. Five conceptual categories were identified: (i) Predominance of fathers' provider role; (ii) Fathers and daughters having an ‘understanding’ in which daughters apparently complied with fathers authoritarian positions; (iii) explicit expressions of affection were mostly limited to special occasions; (iv) Fathers wished a better future for their daughters and attempted to keep them on track to such a future and (v) lastly, Fathers' expected daughters to follow their instructions and not their bad examples. Our findings highlight the influential and constricting role of dominant masculine and feminine gender notions in the discourses and practices of the fathers and adolescent daughters in our study. However, some evidence of contestations were present that suggests the potential of a shift towards more equitable gender relations.     

Family Financial Stress and Adolescent Sexual Risk-Taking: The Role of Self-Regulation

The ability to control one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors is known as self-regulation. Family stress and low adolescent self-regulation have been linked with increased engagement in risky sexual behaviors, which peak in late adolescence and early adulthood. The purpose of this study was to assess whether adolescent self-regulation, measured by parent and adolescent self-report and respiratory sinus arrhythmia, mediates or moderates the relationship between family financial stress and risky sexual behaviors. We assessed these relationships in a 4-year longitudinal sample of 450 adolescents (52 % female; 70 % white) and their parents using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that high family financial stress predicts engagement in risky sexual behaviors as mediated, but not moderated, by adolescent self-regulation. The results suggest that adolescent self-regulatory capacities are a mechanism through which proximal external forces influence adolescent risk-taking. Promoting adolescent self-regulation, especially in the face of external stressors, may be an important method to reduce risk-taking behaviors as adolescents transition to adulthood.     

Developmental Changes in Conflict Resolution Styles in Parent–Adolescent Relationships: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study

In this study, changes in three conflict resolution styles in parent–adolescent relationships were investigated: positive problem solving, conflict engagement, and withdrawal. Questionnaires about these conflict resolution styles were completed by 314 early adolescents (M = 13.3 years; 50.6% girls) and both parents for four consecutive years. Adolescents’ reported use of positive problem solving increased with mothers, but did not change with fathers. Fathers reported an increase of positive problem solving with adolescents, whereas mothers reported no change. Adolescents’ use of conflict engagement was found to temporarily increase with mothers, but showed no change with fathers. Mothers and fathers reported a decrease in conflict engagement with adolescents. Adolescents’ use of withdrawal with parents increased, although this increase was temporarily with mothers. Mothers reported no change in withdrawal, whereas fathers’ use of withdrawal increased. Generally, we found that both adolescents and their parents changed in their use of conflict resolution from early to middle adolescence. These results show that conflict resolution in parent–adolescent relationships gradually change in favor of a more horizontal relationship.     

Parent–Child Relationships,Parental Psychological Control,and Aggression: Maternal and Paternal Relationships

Few studies have examined both maternal and paternal parenting practices in the prediction of child outcomes despite evidence that underscores the salience of fathers throughout their children’s development. This study examined the role of the quality of mother–child and father–child relationships in buffering the influence of ineffective parenting practices on subsequent adolescent aggression. Measures of parental psychological control, the quality of the parent–child relationship, and youth aggressive behavior were completed by 163 (49 % female) mostly White and Asian adolescents and their parents during the eighth and ninth grades. Paternal psychological control predicted aggression when adolescents perceived low-quality relationships with their mothers. Similarly, maternal psychological control predicted aggression when adolescents perceived low-quality relationships with their fathers. Maternal psychological control was also associated with lower levels of aggression among adolescent males who reported a high-quality relationship with their father. These findings indicate that, when one parent exerts psychological control, the low-quality relationship the adolescent shares with the opposite gender parent increases risk for adolescent aggression. The findings also suggest that, as mothers exert psychological control, the high-quality parent–child relationship a son shares with his father decreases risk for adolescent aggression.     

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Autonomy-Relevant Parenting: Longitudinal Links with Adolescents’ Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior

The goal of this study was to advance the understanding of separate and joint effects of mothers’ and fathers’ autonomy-relevant parenting during early and middle adolescence. In a sample of 518 families, adolescents (49 % female; 83 % European American, 16 % African American, 1 % other ethnic groups) reported on their mothers’ and fathers’ psychological control and knowledge about adolescents’ whereabouts, friends, and activities at ages 13 and 16. Mothers and adolescents reported on adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing behaviors at ages 12, 14, 15, and 17. Adolescents perceived their mothers as using more psychological control and having more knowledge than their fathers, but there was moderate concordance between adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers and fathers. More parental psychological control predicted increases in boys’ and girls’ internalizing problems and girls’ externalizing problems. More parental knowledge predicted decreases in boys’ externalizing and internalizing problems. The perceived levels of behavior of mothers and fathers did not interact with one another in predicting adolescent adjustment. The results generalize across early and late adolescence and across mothers’ and adolescents’ reports of behavior problems. Autonomy-relevant mothering and fathering predict changes in behavior problems during early and late adolescence, but only autonomy-relevant fathering accounts for unique variance in adolescent behavior problems.     

The Association Between Parental Rearing Dimensions and Adolescent Psychopathology: A Cross-Cultural Study

Research on parental rearing dimensions faced ethnocentric criticism for mainly focusing on adolescents in Western industrialized countries. Over the past decade, the phenomenon of anxious parenting, so called “helicopter parenting”, gained attention in popular media as well as scholarly publications in addition to support and psychological control. Whether these parenting dimensions, which were associated with different health outcomes in adolescents, were only occurring in the Western world or are visible cross-culturally, has not been sufficiently studied. Therefore, it is unclear whether these links exist also for adolescents from other parts of the world. Additionally, the involvement of fathers in child rearing continues to be neglected in adolescent psychopathology research. The current cross-cultural study tested the association of maternal and paternal rearing dimensions with youth internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in a sample of 2415 adolescents (56% female, 15.33 years, SD?=?0.61) from eight countries (Argentina, France, Germany, Greece, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, and Turkey). Hierarchical regression models showed that internalizing symptomatology was associated with mothers’ support, psychological control, and anxious rearing as well as fathers’ psychological control up and above predictors like country and mother’s level of education. For predicting externalizing symptomatology, mother’s anxious rearing, mother’s psychological control, and father’s support as well as father’s psychological control were significant up and above adolescents’ gender, standard of living, and country. To conclude, across countries, anxious rearing and psychological control experienced from both parents were substantially linked with adolescent mental health.

     

Early adult psychological consequences for males of adolescent pregnancy and its resolution

Using data front 2522 young men who were first surveyed as 7th-grade students in Houston, Texas in 1971, we examined the psychological consequences in early adulthood of having a girlfriend become pregnant in adolescence. By age 21, 15% of the young men were involved in a nonmarital pregnancy. Rates were higher for blacks (24%) than for whites (12%) or Hispanics (16%). Among whites, most adolescent pregnancies were ended by abortion (58%). Adolescent pregnancies to blacks most often resulted in single parenthood (56%). Hispanics tended to have the child, and marry or live together (55%). Consistent with the life course perspective, young men involved in adolescent pregnancies were more psychologically distressed as young adults than those who did not have a girlfriend become pregnant in adolescence. The greater distress in adulthood is not simply a function of accelerated role transitions, because men whose girlfriends had abortions are also distressed, and those who let their girlfriends assume major parenting responsibility are no less distressed than those who became fathers and married or lived with their girlfriends. Subgroup comparisons revealed that psychological distress levels of young black men were not influenced by adolescent pregnancy.This paper was presented at the North Central Sociological Association meetings, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 1988, and reflects equal authorship. This research was supported by a grant (APR000940-02) to Dr. Robbins by the Adolescent Family Life Program, Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, Office of Population Affairs. The data were collected under a grant (R01DA02497) to Howard B. Kaplan by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Graduate student in sociology at The University of Kentucky where she recently completed a master's thesis on adolescent fatherhood.Completed doctorate in sociology at the University of Michigan in 1984. This research is part of a larger study of the psychosocial causes, resolution, and consequences of adolescent pregnancy.