Excuses,Excuses: Self-Handicapping in an Australian Adolescent Sample

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in the self-handicapping tendencies of a sample of 337 Australian school attending adolescents, who were aged between 15 and 19 years. Self-handicapping, as measured by the shortened Self-Handicapping Scale, was examined in relation to self-esteem, performance attributions, coping strategies, and the potential behavioral self-handicaps of reduced study hours and inefficient study habits. Girls scored significantly higher on the Self-Handicapping Scale and endorsed using emotional and illness related excuses significantly more often than boys. High self-handicapping scores independently predicted lower study hours for boys, and were associated with less efficient study for girls. Coping and attributional predictors of self-handicapping were found to be rumination, luck attribution, and poor active coping strategies for boys, and ability attributions, behavioral disengagement, instrumental support, and poor active coping strategies for girls.     

Perceptions of Parenting in Daily Life: Adolescent-Parent Differences and Associations with Adolescent Affect

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Adolescents can perceive parenting quite differently than parents themselves and these discrepancies may relate to adolescent well-being. The current study aimed...     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Adolescent Health Risk Problems: The Role of School Engagement

Maternal depressive symptoms disrupt positive youth development, though the pervasiveness of this disruption is understudied. Additionally, it remains unknown whether prosocial factors such as adolescent school engagement may buffer against this risk factor. Using multigenerational, longitudinal data spanning ten years from an ethnically diverse sample of mother-child dyads (66% Black, 17% Hispanic, and 17% White), this study examines the effect of maternal depressive symptoms in late childhood (ages 8–13) on the development and progression of offspring depressive symptoms, substance use, and delinquent behavior during adolescence (ages 14–17). Further, the study examines whether school engagement moderates the ill effects of maternal depressive symptoms. Mother-son (n?=?212) and mother-daughter (n?=?215) dyads are compared to assess for similarities and differences between male and female offspring. The results indicate that offspring of mothers with greater maternal depressive symptoms are more likely to display higher levels of depressive symptoms, substance use, and delinquency throughout adolescence, although important nuances emerge across outcome and child sex. Additionally, while school engagement itself is associated with reduced depressive symptoms, substance use and delinquency among adolescents, it is not profound enough to offset the risk posed by maternal depressive symptoms. The findings of this study reinforce the pervasive, negative, intergenerational impact of maternal depressive symptoms and has implications for prevention and intervention efforts for adolescent health risk problems.

     

Concurrent Trajectories of Change in Adolescent and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in the TORDIA Study

Depression has a heightened prevalence in adolescence, with approximately 15 % of adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode by age 18. Depression in adolescence also poses a risk for future distress and impairment. Despite treatment advances, many adolescents relapse after initial remission. Family context may be an important factor in the developmental trajectory of adolescent depression, and thus in enhancing treatment. This study examined concurrent change over time in adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms in the context of the Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents study. Participants were 334 adolescents (mean age: 16; SD: 1.6; 70 % female, 84 % Caucasian), and their mothers (n = 241). All adolescents were clinically depressed when they entered the study and had received previous selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment. Adolescents received acute treatment for 12 weeks and additional treatment for 12 more weeks. Adolescent depression and suicidal ideation were assessed at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks, while maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at 0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks. Latent basis growth curve analyses showed a significant correlation over 72 weeks between trajectories of maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms, supporting the hypothesis of concurrent patterns of change in these variables. The trajectories were correlated more strongly in a subsample that included only dyads in which mothers reported at least one depressive symptom at baseline. Results did not show a correlation between trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms change in tandem, and that treatment for adolescent depression can benefit the wider family system. Notably, most mothers in this sample had subclinical depressive symptoms. Future research might explore these trajectories in dyads with more severely depressed mothers.     

Developmental Associations Between Adolescent Change in Depressive Symptoms and Menstrual-Cycle-Phase-Specific Negative Affect During Early Adulthood

The causal factors associated with increases in depressive symptoms among adolescent girls remain an area of theoretical debate, and the limited research considering a hormonal influence has provided mixed results. The goal of the present study was to test a set of longitudinal associations, that, if found, would provide support for a hormonal contribution to these changes. Specifically, this study tested the hypotheses that changes in depressive symptoms among adolescent girls would be associated with phase-specific symptoms of the menstrual cycle during early adulthood; that these associations would differ across three phases of the menstrual cycle; and that the pattern of associations would differ for changes in depressive symptoms during early- and late-adolescence. The sample consisted of 47 women with longitudinal data from 12 to 21 years old (approximately 91% European Canadian, 4% Middle Eastern Canadian, 2% Haitian Canadian, and 2% Asian Canadian). Consistent with expectations, results showed that early-adolescent increases in depressive symptoms were negatively associated with menstrual-phase negative affect, and positively associated with mid-cycle negative affect, but not associated with premenstrual negative affect; whereas late-adolescent change in depressive symptoms was only associated with depressive symptoms at 20-21 years. Thus, early-adolescent changes in depressive symptoms are longitudinally associated with later mood change across the menstrual cycle, suggesting a common underlying cause, which is hypothesized to be hormonal. Moreover, results suggest that, with respect to variables that are involved in affective development, important differences exist between early- and late-adolescence. The discussion considers menstrual-cycle-related symptoms (e.g., dysmenorrhea) during adolescence, and the need to study their effects on development. It is suggested that focused intervention and prevention efforts may be indicated to interrupt negative developmental outcomes.     

Gender Differential Influences of Early Adolescent Risk Factors for the Development of Depressive Affect

Based on a model by Cyranowski, J., et al. (2000), Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 57: 21–27, adolescents at-risk for the development of depressive symptoms were identified. Adolescents were considered at-risk if they had 2 or more of the following early adolescent risk factors: (1) insecure parental attachment, (2) anxious/inhibited temperament, (3) low instrumental coping skills, and (4) early pubertal maturation. Nonrisk adolescents had zero or just one risk factor. Using data from a 10-year longitudinal study on the development of adolescents’ health, with 5 points of data assessment (i.e., 6th, 7th, 8th, 12th, and 12 + 4 follow-up), the impact of the four early adolescent risk factors on the development of emotional tone was investigated. Emotional tone was measured by the Emotional Tone Scale of the SIQYA (Petersen, A. C., et al. (1984), J. Youth Adolesc. 13: 93–111), an indicator for positive emotional tone and low depressed affect. Growth curve modeling was applied to reveal significant gender differences in level and slope for the development of emotional tone over the adolescent years. Latent Growth Curve Models can be seen as a combination consisting of repeated measures analysis of variance and autoregressive analyses to evaluate the latent change of the variables under investigation (Rovine, M. J., and Molenaar, P. C. M. (2000), Multivar. Behav. Res. 35(1): 51–88). At-risk girls revealed poorer levels of emotional tone which stayed almost at the same low level up to young adulthood (i.e., 12 + 4), indicating a long lasting impact of the specified risk factors. In contrast, at-risk boys showed poorer emotional tone in early adolescence, but at the end of adolescence boys at-risk had the same level of emotional tone as nonrisk boys. At-risk girls showed significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms at grade 12 and at 12 + 4.Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He received his master’s degree from the Technical University Berlin in 1989 and his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in 1993. His research interests encompass developmental psychology and methodology.Senior Vice President for Programs at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, Michigan. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago.     

Coping with Maternal Depressed Affect and Depression: Adolescent Children of Depressed and Well Mothers

This study examined the strategies adolescents use to cope with their mothers' depressive symptoms and/or episodes. An open-ended semistructured interview and a closed-ended coping scale, the Maternal Affectivity Coping Scale derived from the Self-Report Coping Scale (D. L. Causey and E. F. Dubow [1992] Development of a Self-Report Measure for Elementary School Children, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Vol. 21, pp. 47–59), was administered to pairs of adolescent siblings (N = 179) from families (N = 94) in which the mother was either depressed or well. With a few important exceptions, the results reveal similar coping styles in the offspring of depressed and well mothers. One difference was that mothers' current psychological distress was weakly related to young adolescents' coping patterns (e.g., problem solving, externalizing). Also, adolescents' coping styles (e.g., provide support) were related to the type of depressive symptoms the mother exhibited (e.g., anger, irritability). Second, greater sibling differences were found for emotion-focused coping strategies (e.g., distancing) in children of depressed mothers than in children of well mothers. Third, the results suggest that the sex of the adolescent may be important in attempting to understand individual differences in coping. Females were more likely than males to engage in interpersonally focused coping strategies (e.g., provide support to their mother, seek support from others). The feelings of responsibility for contributing to their mother's depression that were more evident in females than males may offer some insight into gender differences and may also have implications for placing females at higher risk for internalizing disorders.     

Perceived Parental Monitoring,Adolescent Disclosure,and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Examination

Parental monitoring has long been stressed as an important parenting practice in reducing adolescents’ susceptibility to depressive symptoms. Reviews have revealed, however, that measures of monitoring have been confounded with parental knowledge, and that the role of adolescent disclosure has been neglected. In the present study, adolescents (N = 2,941; 51.3% female) were surveyed each year from grades 9–12. To disentangle parenting factors, bidirectional associations among parental knowledge, adolescent disclosure, and parental monitoring (i.e., solicitation and control) were examined. Higher parental knowledge was associated with lower adolescent depressive symptoms over time. Adolescent disclosure and parental control also predicted lower adolescent depressive symptoms indirectly through knowledge. Conversely, higher adolescent depressive symptoms predicted lower parental knowledge, adolescent disclosure, and parental solicitation over time, highlighting the bidirectional nature of associations among parenting factors and adolescent depressive symptoms. Importantly, these effects were invariant across gender and grade, suggesting that interventions can be broadly based.     

A Growth Curve Analysis of the Joint Influences of Parenting Affect,Child Characteristics and Deviant Peers on Adolescent Illicit Drug Use

This study purports that parental rejection and warmth are critical to the development of adolescent drug use, and investigates a model that also considers children's vulnerability and deviant peer affiliations. It tests mediation through the proximal risk factor of deviant peers. Poisson growth curve modeling was used to examine participants from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY; N=2194) over 4 waves. Results indicated that parental rejection was positively related to drug use, whereas parental warmth was negatively related to it. Both effects were significant when child ADHD symptoms were taken into account. Parental rejection and warmth had differential effects over time. Deviant peer affiliations were positively associated with drug use, did not have a differential influence over time, and did not mediate the other effects. There was significant between-individual (level 2) variability in drug use. Results are discussed in light of adolescent perceptions of parent-child relationships. Research Interests: social and emotional development; family processes; adolescent problem behaviours; main area of work is about understanding risk and protective factors in typical and atypical adolescent development Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada Research Interests: social and emotional development; family interaction; child psychopathology; main area of work is about understanding emotion processes in children and in family life that help us to understand psychopathology in childrenDepartment of Human Development and Applied Psychology, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada     

Coping Styles and Sex Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Delinquent Behavior

Building on research that links gender to differences in well-being and differences in stress exposure and vulnerability, the current study examines how coping styles are gendered in ways that may contribute to sex differences in depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. The study disaggregates stress measures to reflect gender differences in the experience of stress, examining whether avoidant, approach, and action coping condition the relationship between stress and well-being. Regression analyses were conducted using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results revealed sex differences and similarities. The interaction of avoidant coping and stress helped explain why girls had more depressive symptoms than boys, action coping increased delinquent behavior for girls, while approach coping decreased delinquent behavior for boys and girls. Assisting adolescents in developing coping styles that discourage avoiding problems or taking quick action, but that encourage problem-solving, can improve well-being, regardless of sex

The Role of Deliberative Decision Making,Parenting, and Friends in Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors that jeopardize their futures. Although adolescent risk-taking has long been attributed to faulty decision making, surprisingly little research has directly examined this link. This study examined the role of deliberative decision making (the tendency to consider options and consequences before making a decision) and social contextual variables (parenting and friend influences) in alcohol and drug use, risky sex, and delinquency. Participants were 7,748 adolescents (50% female) in grades 7–11 from the Add Health dataset (M age = 14.87, SD = 1.54). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that deliberative decision making and contextual variables were associated with risk behavior concurrently and 1 year later. Furthermore, deliberative decision making interacted with social contextual variables in some models, indicating that deliberative decision making may be especially important in certain contexts. These findings suggest that both cognitive and social factors need to be considered to explain adolescents’ decisions to engage in risk behavior.     

Development of Self-Criticism in Adolescent Girls: Roles of Maternal Dissatisfaction,Maternal Coldness,and Insecure Attachment

A model of the development of self-criticism in adolescent girls is proposed, in which maternal dissatisfaction leads to maternal coldness. Maternal coldness in turn leads to insecure attachment in the daughter, which leads to self-criticism. This model was supported in a sample of 54 early adolescent girls and their mothers. The relationship between maternal dissatisfaction and daughter attachment was mediated by maternal coldness. The relationship between maternal coldness and daughter self-criticism was mediated by daughter attachment. The implications of these findings for theory and future research are discussed.     

Autonomy-related Parenting Processes and Adolescent Adjustment in Latinx Immigrant Families

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - It is unclear how autonomy-related parenting processes are associated with Latinx adolescent adjustment. This study uses Latent Profile Analysis to identify...     

Maternal Emotion Socialization Mediates the Relationship between Maternal and Adolescent Negative Emotionality

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Parents and children with high negative emotionality may be more likely to provide and receive non-supportive contingencies, respectively. However, no study has...     

Ethnicity,Perceived Pubertal Timing,Externalizing Behaviors,and Depressive Symptoms Among Black Adolescent Girls

An accumulation of research evidence suggests that early pubertal timing plays a significant role in girls’ behavioral and emotional problems. If early pubertal timing is a problematic event, then early developing Black girls should manifest evidence of this crisis because they tend to be the earliest to develop compared to other girls from different racial and ethnic groups. Given the inconsistent findings among studies using samples of Black girls, the present study examined the independent influence of perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche on externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Black girls (412 African American and 195 Caribbean Black; M = 15 years). Path analysis results indicated that perceived pubertal timing effects on externalizing behaviors were moderated by ethnic subgroup. Caribbean Black girls’ who perceived their development to be early engaged in more externalizing behaviors than Caribbean Black girls’ who perceived their development to be either on-time or late. Age of menarche did not significantly predict Black girls’ externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms. The onset of menarche does not appear to be an important predictor of Black girls’ symptoms of externalizing behavior and depression. These findings suggest ethnic subgroup and perceived pubertal timing are promising factors for better understanding the adverse effects of early perceived pubertal timing among Black girls.     

Conflict Resolution Styles in Family Subsystems and Adolescent Romantic Relationships

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