Adolescent egocentrism: Exploration into possible contributions of parent-child relations

A family relations model for the study of adolescent egocentrism was tested in an exploratory study of the relationship between parental socialization styles and adolescents' imaginary audience behavior. A sample of adolescent boys (n=58) and girls (n=57) responded to Heilbrun's Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scale and Schaefer's Parent-Behavior Inventory and completed Elkind and Bowen's Imaginary Audience Scale. As hypothesized, rejection-control was associated with increased imaginary audience behavior, while physical affect was negatively related to self-consciousness. Sex differences were noted, with rejection-control being most important in predicting self-consciousness for boys and physical affect being the best predictor of girls' egocentrism behavior. The data provide an alternative model to a cognitive developmental perspective of adolescent egocentrism development.Research was partially supported through the Western Regional Research Project W-144, Development of Social Competency in Children, with funding in part from the Science and Education Administration/Cooperative Research of USDA, and the Utah State University Agricultural Experiment Station.Received his M.A. in psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Ph.D. in human development from the Pennsylvania State University. Current research interest is personality and social development of children and adolescents.Completed his M.S. Degree in family and human development at Utah State University. Current research interests include the study of interpersonal perception and attraction and human socialization.     

Perceived attachments to parents and peers and psychological well-being in adolescence

This paper reports the findings from a study of 935 adolescents' perceived attachments to their parents and peers, and their psychological health and well-being. Perceived attachment to parents did not significantly differ between males and females. However, females scored significantly higher than males on a measure of attachment to peers. Also, relative to males, they had higher anxiety and depression scores, suggesting poorer psychological well-being. Overall, a lower perceived attachment to parents was significantly associated with lower scores on the measures of well-being. Adolescents who perceived high attachments to both their parents and peers had the highest scores on a measure of self-perceived strengths. In this study, adolescents' perceived attachment to peers did not appear to compensate for a low attachment to parents in regard to their mental ill-health. These findings suggest that high perceived attachment to parents may be a critical variable associated with psychological well-being in adolescence.Received M.Sc. in psychology from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Research interests include adolescent menial health.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Research interests include issues in behavioral medicine.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Newcastle, Australia. Research interests include child health and development, and adolescent smoking behavior.     

Sex differences within the family: Studies of adolescent and parent family interactions

Sex differences in verbal family interactions were investigated in a group of 79 adolescents and parents from normal and psychiatric settings. The analyses were designed to study these differences in both generations, parent and adolescent. Parent and adolescent interactions with one another were observed in a semistructured, revealed-differences family discussion. All of the individual speeches were then scored with our Constraining and Enabling Coding System (CECS). Initial predictions involved both adolescent and parent differences. These hypotheses were only partially confirmed. The strongest findings pertained to parent sex differences, as we found strikingly higher levels of cognitive enabling speeches expressed by fathers and significantly more speeches addressed to fathers. We discuss several alternative interpretations of these findings. Perspectives included in our considerations are direction of effect and influences of task/context upon the expression of family sex differences.This study was supported through a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD Grant No. R01 HD18684-02) and a Research Scientist Development Award No. 5 K-02-MH-70178 (Dr. Hauser) from the NIMH.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received B.A. from Michigan University. Currently graduate student in organizational behavior, Northwestern University. Current interests are women and work.Received his Ph.D. from Boston University. Research interests are in methodology and statistics.Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College. Received Ed. D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University (psychology). Current interests in assessing ego development and family systems.Parent-Place, Judge Baker Guidance Center. Received Ph.D. from the University of Miami (clinical psychology). Research interests are in family studies and adolescent development.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago. Currently studying psychological consequences of diabetes mellitus.the Children's Unit of McLean Hospital. Received Diploma Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (clinical psychology), and Ed.D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.     

Contraceptive use,sensation seeking,and adolescent egocentrism

The relations between contraceptive use, sensation seeking, and adolescent egocentrism were examined among 145 high school juniors and seniors (all female) attending high school in the Atlanta area. Sex without contraception was found to be significantly related to scores on the Sensation Seeking Scale, including the total score and two out of the four subscales. Sex without contraception was also found to be related to egocentrism, in particular to subjects' estimates of the probability of becoming pregnant as a result of engaging in sex without contraception. No significant relationship was found between sensation seeking and egocentrism.The author is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago. He obtained his masters and Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, in developmental psychology. His major interest at present is in reckless behavior among adolescents.     

Moral maturity and behavior: Failure to find a link

The question addressed is whether individuals operating at the Postconventional level of moral reasoning behave appreciatively different from those functioning at lower moral maturity levels. The types of behaviors reported in the literature are classified in five areas: resistance to temptation, resistance to social influence/authority, student activism, prosocial behavior, and antisocial behavior. The data suggest that evidence linking Kohlbergian moral development to differential behaviors is remote. However, the link between moral reasoning and behavior is not positively nonexistent. There remain several factors which probably affect the findings in all five behavioral categories, especially the sparsity of subjects at the principled level and the limited range of behaviors investigated.Received Ph.D. from Kent State University. Current inrerests are primary prevention and adolescent psychopathology.Received Ph.D. from Western Reserve University. Current interest is development of a theory of personality.     

Timing of first sexual intercourse: the role of social control,social learning,and problem behavior

Prior research has pointed to several distinct processes that may affect the timing of first intercourse among adolescents. In the present study, the role of six hypothesized processes was assessed in a sample of 289 rural adolescent boys and girls. Results support the importance of family socialization and problem-behavior for both sexes, the role of biological factors for boys, and the role of social control processes for girls. Two other hypothesized influences—social class and poor psychosocial adjustment—were not supported in either gender. These results indicate that multiple processes influence the timing of first intercourse; thus, they underscore the need for eclectic predictive models that incorporate the multiplicity of influences.Received Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Current research interests include adolescent psychosocial development and risk behaviors.Received Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from the Pennsylvania State University. Current research interests include adolescent sexuality and health-related behaviors.Received Ph.D. in Health Education from The Pennsylvania State University. Current research interests include adolescent health.Received Ph.D. in Education from The Pennsylvania State University. Current interests include adolescent substance abuse and pregnancy, as well as community health interventions.     

Parental contexts of adolescent self-esteem: A developmental perspective

Relationships between parental behaviors and adolescent self-esteem were analyzed in a group of 95 early adolescents from multiple settings. The study was designed to investigate hypotheses regarding associations between observed parental interactions (e.g., accepting and devaluing) and adolescent self-esteem. Parents' verbal interactions with their adolescents were assessed through application of the constraining and enabling coding system to transcribed family discussions, generated through a revealed differences procedure. Adolescent self-esteem was measured with the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Parent interaction-self-esteem associations were examined in the pooled sample, as well as in specific sub-groups based on gender, health, and ego development (measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test). Boys had more numerous associations between their self-esteem and parental interactions than girls, and psychiatrically ill boys had particularly high associations. Parental interactions were found to be most strongly related to adolescent self-esteem for adolescents at the lowest levels of ego development. Our findings are consistent with the view that increasing individuation in self-esteem regulation occurs during adolescent development, such that adolescents at higher levels of ego development evaluate themselves more independently of parental feedback than do their less mature peers.This study was supported through a Research Training Grant No. MH16259 (Dr. Isberg) from the NIMH, a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD Grant No. 5 R01 HD18684-02), and a Research Scientis Development Award No. 5 K-02-MH-70178 (Dr. Hauser) from the NIMH.Received M.D. from Harvard University. Currently studying adolescent development and working with the school consultation program of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (Psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received M.D. from The University of Chicago. Currently studying psychological consequences of diabetes mellitus.Received Ed. D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Dipl. Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (Clinical Psychology). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University (Psychology). Current interests in assessing ego development and family systems.Received Ph.D. from the University of Miami (Clinical Psychology). Research interests in family studies and adolescent development.     

Adolescent discipline: Different family members' perception

Adolescence is perhaps the most difficult period of child rearing for parents. This study attempted to identify disciplinary techniques used by parents as perceived by mothers, fathers, and their adolescent children. Results indicated several significant areas of intrafamilial disagreement in regard to disciplinary techniques utilized, although all subjects tended to agree that some form of verbal reasoning was the primary disciplinary technique utilized with these adolescents.This study was funded, in part, by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (H-644) and the School of Home Economics, The University of Georgia.Received his Ph.D. in child and family studies from the University of Tennessee. Current interests include adolescent development, family influences on sex-role development, and dual-work families.Received her Ph.D. in sociology from Iowa State University. Major interests include family research methodology, assessment of family power, and marital dissolution.Received her Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Texas. Current research interests include parenting, sex roles, and socialization across the life-span.     

Cognitive mediators of ego functioning in adolescence

It has often been assumed that a relationship exists between higher levels of cognitive functioning, particularly formal operations, and mature ego functioning in adolescence. This research examined the relationships between ego functioning and two domains of operational thinking: social interpersonal reasoning and physical-mathematical reasoning in 139 high school seniors. Subjects were given two measures of physical-mathematical reasoning, two measures of interpersonal reasoning, and the Sentence Completion Test of ego functioning, as well as a measure of verbal intelligence. Results indicated significant differences between males and females in patterns of correlations as well as in patterns of relationships in a causal analysis. Ego functioning was predicted by interpersonal reasoning for females and by physical-mathematical reasoning and verbal intelligence for males.This research represents a portion of the doctoral dissertation completed by the senior author in 1981. The research was supported by a grant to A. Petersen from the Spencer Foundation.Received Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Chicago. Current interests are sex-related differences in adolescent ego development and psychosocial variables in adolescent chronic illness.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interest is biopsychosocial development in adolescence, primarily early adolescence.Research Affiliate, Laboratory for Study of Adolescence, Michael Reese Hospital. Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago. Current interest is sex-related differences in the psychological effects of puberty.Research Associate, Laboratory for the Study of Adolescence, Michael Reese Hospital; Program Associate, Health Program, MacArthur Foundation. Received Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Current interest is sex-related differences in socialization.     

Utility of the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory personality disorder scales with adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Personality disorders play an important role in the treatment of many adult psychiatric disorders. Current research has begun to examine the role of personality disorders in adolescent psychopathology. Unfortunately, there is limited research available to document the reliability and validity of personality disorder assessment measures for use with adolescent psychiatric patients. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Personality Disorder Scales have shown adequate psychometric properties with adult samples, but have not been tested using adolescents. The present study was designed to examine the utility of the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales with 217 adolescent psychiatric inpatients. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed males scored significantly higher than females on the schizoid, narcissistic, and antisocial scales, a pattern that has been found in adult psychiatric patients. Also, the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales correlated in patterns consistent with research on adult samples. In addition, the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales were meaningfully correlated with the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. However, factor analysis revealed a different factor structure than that found with adults. The similarities between adolescent and adult data suggest that the assessment of personality disorders in adolescents may provide useful clinical information on the development of personality disorders.This article was presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August 1993. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Charles Reiley Armington Foundation for Values in Children.Received M.A. from Case Western Reserve University. Her major research interests are in the areas of depression and personality disorders.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Ohio State University in 1986. Completed his predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Program in Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island. Actively involved in research on risk factors for suicide in adolescents and adults. Has published empirical studies, theoretical papers, and treatment guidelines related to suicide and its risk factors.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. His major research interests include depression, suicide, adolescence, and family systems issues.     

Ego identity status and values among high school females

To test the hypothesis that adolescent females who are high in ego identity have high interests in religious and political values, the relationship between the ego identity status of 80 senior high school females and their response to the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values was examined. Participants classified as being identity achievements, moratoriums, and foreclosures had higher religious value scores than did diffusions; however, the expected differences on political value scores were not found. Two-thirds of the identity achievers came from homes disrupted by divorce or death of one parent, while less than 20% of the members of the other three statuses came from broken homes.This report is based on the first author's M.A. thesis, which was submitted to the Graduate School, Texas Woman's University, 1978.Received her M.A. from Texas Woman's University. Major interests are ego identity formation and female adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Major interests are developmental effects of stress and neurophysiology.     

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).     

A test of two models of adolescent egocentrism

The present study investigated two predictors of adolescent egocentrism: formal operational ability and interpersonal understanding. Participants included 87 adolescents from four age groups. Two measures of adolescent egocentrism, two formal operations tasks, and an interview assessing level of interpersonal understanding were administered. Results showed that interpersonal understanding level predicted egocentrism as measured by the personal fable subscale of the Adolescent Egocentrism-Sociocentrism scale, whereas formal operations was not a predictor of any form of adolescent egocentrism. Implications for future research and the relationship between egocentrism and social cognitive development are discussed.This study is based on the master's thesis work of the first author, which was directed by the second author.Received Ph.D. from Wayne State University. Research interest in adult social-cognitive development. To whom correspondence should be addressed.     

Correlates of loneliness in midadolescence

The present study was designed to assess the relationship between adolescent loneliness and the following factors commonly associated with adult loneliness: attributional style, self-esteem, social anxiety, and social skills. Subjects were 186 ninth-grade students (107 males and 79 females) who were asked to complete seven different paper-and-pencil measures. Data were analyzed by calculating separate stepwise multiple regression equations for the total sample, males and females. Three significant predictors were found for the total sample: student social skills rating scale, self-esteem, and the perception of stability in interpersonal situations (attributional style). A different pattern of predictors emerged for males and females. Loneliness could be predicted for males from three variables: low self-esteem, the perception of uncontrollability in noninterpersonal situations, and self-perceptions of poor social skills. The best multiple predictors of loneliness for the females were self-perceptions of poor social skills, high social anxiety, and stable attributions for interpersonal situations.This study is based on a master's thesis submitted by the first author to Wake Forest University, May 1986. A portion of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, Maryland, April 1987.Received Ph.D from West Virginia University. Current interests include social competence and social skills of adolescents and the adjustment of sexually abused children and adolescents.Received Ph.D from University of Illinois. Currently studying the friendships and peer relations of children and adolescents.Received Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University. Currently studying loneliness and close relationships.     

School return among pregnant adolescents

School return by adolescent mothers has been problematic. Many of the barriers to continuing education have been created by school system practices and policies. Recent administrative and court decisions are forcing changes in these traditional practices. Participants in an adolescent pregnancy program were permitted to attend their usual high school during and after pregnancy. Staff members discussed this and other educational opportunities with each eligible student and her family. More members of the program than control group reported some school attendance during the quarter of the delivery. Compared with the control group, which was permitted but not systematically encouraged to return, more program participants returned to day school following the pregnancy. Unexpectedly high rates of return to other school programs (other than day school) were reported by members of the control group. It is argued that the program effects are primarily a function of elimination of school system barriers, both formal and informal, to school return so that the subjects' already high motivation to return could be realized.Received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Washington. Main interests include social pathological aspects of fertility and fertility-related behavior.Received his Ph.D. in sociology from University of Washington. Main interests include sociology of the family. Current research is in family structure and suicide.     

Sex differences in the causes of adolescent suicide ideation

A model that incorporates both socioenvironmental and psychological factors was developed in an attempt to explain adolescent suicide ideation. A sample of 407 high school students was used to test the model. Most of the previous research on the causes of adolescent suicidal behavior has not used multivariate data analysis techniques and has failed to explore sex differences. Results of the present study suggest that these are important omissions. Although significant at the zero-order level, factors such as self-esteem and interpersonal problems at school were not related to suicide ideation when the effects of the other explanatory variables were controlled. The incidence of suicide ideation was higher for females. Emotional problems and involvement in delinquent behavior were important predictors of ideation for females, while employment problems were the most potent predictor for males.Received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current interest is the etiology of various forms of deviant behavior, especially among adolescents.Therapist, Story County Center for Personal Development. Received her M.A. in clinical sociology from Iowa State University.     

Alcohol use among college students: Some competing hypotheses

This paper presents a longitudinal study of alcohol use among college students. Three hypothesized predictors of alcohol use are found to have an independent effect when the other predictors and prior drinking are held constant: the drinking context of the dormitory living group, informal social involvement in college, and lack of commitment to religious and academic values. These predictors are also related to the onset of drinking during the freshman year for those who entered college as abstainers. The pattern varies somewhat for males and females, with the dormitory contextual effect larger for females. Formal involvement in college activities and psychological stress have no independent effect on drinking. The results are discussed in relation to previous work on alcohol use.This research was supported in part by NIAAA Grant AA02863 and NIMH Grant MH28177 and Veterans Administration Research funds.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford University in 1976. Current research interests include adolescent development, statistics, and environmental studies.Received Ph.D. in psychology from University of California, Berkeley, in 1960. Current research interests are personal and environmental influences on behavior.     

Identity development and perceived parental behavior as sources of adolescent egocentrism

Adolescent egocentrism involves heightened self-consciousness and feelings of uniqueness (O. Elkind [1967], Egocentrism in Adolescence, Child Development, Vol. 38, pp. 1025–1034). Some studies have found that adolescent egocentrism is associated with identity development, and other studies have found that egocentrism is associated with perceptions of parental behavior. The purposes of this investigation were to simultaneously examine the associations between these variables (1) to determine whether identity development and perceived parental behavior display separate or overlapping associations with adolescent egocentrism, and (2) to clarify the directions of the relationships between these variables. Four hundred eighteen subjects from 12 to 21 years of age completed established measures of identity development, perceived parental behavior, and egocentrism. Identity development was more strongly and consistently related to egocentrism (egocentric adolescents tended to be identity achieved or to be experiencing an identity crisis), whereas perceived parental behavior accounted for little additional variance. The results also clarify differences between the two primary measures of adolescent egocentrism (the Adolescent Egocentrism Scale and Imaginary Audience Scale).Received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Victoria. His main interests are in personality, and social and developmental psychology.     

Contraceptive behavior in adolescence: A decision-making perspective

The contraceptive behavior of adolescent girls was viewed from a decision-making perspective. A semistructured interview protocol was used in interviewing 120 girls aged 12–19 in three clinics (Teen Family Planning, Prenatal, Pediatric Acute Care) at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center on (1) demographic in formation; (2) sexual and obstetric history; (3) contraceptive and sexual knowledge, attitudes, and practices; (4) environmental pressures; (5) personality factors; and (6) decision-making style. We found that the girls were generally poor contraceptors. They viewed the costs of contraception (in terms of safety) to be high; and they positively valued physical intimacy, opportunities for which come up unexpectedly and sporadically. These factors, along with their ambivalent views toward pregnancy and childbearing seemed to encourage their risk-taking behavior. Once pregnancy occurred, it was carried to term because of the strong internal and external pressures they felt to have and keep the baby. The peer-led intervention program that we are developing based on the survey findings will focus on (1) the teenagers' lack of accurate and complete knowledge about birth control and conception, (2) their limited sense of options concerning birth control and pregnancy outcomes, and (3) their poor understanding of and lack of insight into what motivates their behavior.This study is part of the investigation being conducted by the YADMAC (Young Adult and Adolescent Decision Making About Contraception) Project at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, 2959 South Cottage Grove, Chicago, Illinois 60616. The authors are all members of the YADMAC research team.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interests are human sexuality and reproductive behavior. Currently at Department of Psychology, St. Xavier College.Received M.D. from the University of Michigan. Current interests are liaison child psychiatry and adolescent sexuality.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interests are early adolescent development issues.Current interests are puberty and sex differences.B. A. candidate in social work, Roosevelt University. Current interests are adolescent sexuality and contraceptive behavior.     

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.