Problem boys in young adulthood: Teachers' ratings and twelve-year follow-up

In an earlier paper we reported that teachers' ratings of child guidance clinic children were associated with the children's global adjustment in young adulthood. Teachers' ratings, especially the peer relations measure, far surpassed other data sources in predicting general adult mental status. Other sources were developmental history, social history, family information, and psychiatric and psychological evaluations. The purposes of the present investigation were to evaluate mother-son reliability on adulthood information, and to determine whether teacher-rated behaviors of clinic boys predicted specific adult behaviors or were only globally related. Interviewed separately when sons were young adults, mothers and sons closely agreed on sons' adult behavior, with mothers somewhat underreporting sons' negative behaviors. The major finding was that one teacher-rated item,fails to get along with other children, was closely associated with a wide spectrum of adult behaviors. This was not due to the peer relations indicator serving as a global statistic reflecting general childhood impairment. It was also found that composite scores of childhood and adulthood bad conduct were significantly related to each other.Data collection was funded by NIMH Grant #MH-23441-02A1, and by the William T. Grant Foundation, Loretta K. Cass, Principal Investigator. The authors bear sole responsibility for the data analyses and interpretation presented here.Received Ph.D. from University of Oklahoma. Current research interests are in prediction of adult mental status from childhood indexes.Received Ph.D. from Washington University. Current research interests are in life history research, particularly alcoholism and schizophrenia.Received B. A. from Washington University.     

Body image satisfaction in adolescent girls and boys: A longitudinal study

In a longitudinal developmental study, 90 girls and boys participated in a psychological investigation, and were medically examined when they were 11, 13, 15, and 18 years old. Their satisfaction with the various parts of their body was assessed by means of a questionnaire. Satisfaction was highest at age 18, with males on average more satisfied than females at all age levels. There was a fairly constant pattern of critical body features for each of the sexes. However, individual satisfaction varied greatly as a function of age and developmental level, with late maturers tending to be more satisfied than early matures at ages 11 and 18. The correlations between body image satisfaction and other variables varied as a function of the age and sex of the subjects, and are discussed in relation to the growth process.This research was supported by the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation.Received Ph.D. from the University of Turku, Finland. Research interest is the life process of adolescents.     

Independence and the creative potential of gifted and exceptionally gifted boys

A 16-item questionnaire concerning independence and three divergent thinking tests were administered to three groups of preadolescent boys and their mothers as part of an ongoing longitudinal investigation of exceptional giftedness. The subjects included one group of exceptionally gifted boys with IQs in excess of 150 (n=28), a second group of exceptionally gifted boys selected for their math-science abilities (also well within the 99th percentile;n=26), and a control group of gifted boys (n=37), with a mean IQ of 133). The three groups were compared with one another in terms of (a) their own independence ratings, (b) their mothers' independence ratings, (c) correlations of boys' and mothers' independence ratings, and (d) correlations of independence ratings with IQ and scores from the divergent thinking tests. Results indicated significant differences among the three groups of mothers, and significant differences between the two exceptionally gifted groups and the control group. In addition, mothers' and subjects' independence scores were moderately correlated with IQ and divergent thinking test scores. These results are discussed and placed in the context of the longitudinal project of which they are a part.This research was supported by a grant to Dr. Albert by the Arthur D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.Preliminary results from this investigation were presented at the meeting of the Hawaii Psychological Association in Honolulu, Hawaii, November 1985.Received Ph.D. from Boston University His research interests include long-term family involvement in giftedness and achievement of eminence.Received Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School His current interests include the psychometrics and family background of creativity and exceptionality.     

Disagreements about rules in families with seventh-grade girls and boys

Parental reports of disagreements and serious disagreements about rules were examined in 200 families with seventh-grade boys and girls. No gender differences were found: Mothers did not report more disagreements than fathers; no more disagreements were reported for girls than boys. Disagreements about personal habits and family obligations were more common than disagreements about peer relations. Disagreements and serious disagreements, in general, were significantly correlated (positively) with parental reports of child oppositionalism and (negatively) with parents' satisfaction with parenting the target child, although some dyadic differences were found. Children's reports of parental acceptance were negatively correlated with disagreements only for the father-daughter dyad. Support was found for some of Baumrind's ([1968] Authoritarian vs. Authoritative Control,Adolescence 3: 255–272) notions regarding relations between rule frequency, child participation in rule making, and disagreements about rules, especially for the father-daughter dyad.The research reported here was funded in part by Father Flanagan's Boys Home, Inc., and by a grant to the senior author from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Family Relations in Early Adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University. Interests are the social psychology of adolescence and psychosocial adaptation to biological change.Received his Master of Science from Virginia Commonwealth University. Interests are family relations during adolescence, sex roles and their development, pediatric psychology, and statistical applications in psychology.     

On being one of the boys: An exploratory study of women's professional and domestic role definitions

In this study, I analysed the definitions of male and female professionals' domestic responsibilities, and the consequences of these definitions for the career histories of these male and female professionals. The architectural profession was used as the illustrative case. I surveyed a cohort of women and men who graduated from architectural schools in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and conducted in-depth interviews with selected men and women. The findings showed that role perceptions and career histories differed for male and female professionals in a number of significant respects.     

Boys will be boys: Teaching women's studies in mixed-sex groups

There are strong arguments for teaching Women's Studies to teachers of both sexes in order that they might effect changes in schools concerning the validity of female experience. Some of the difficulties in teaching mixed-sex groups of student teachers are described through two short case studies of male disruption. These seem to point to the desirability of working in single-sex groups. Ironically this conclusion is often most quickly reached by women through the experience of being in the mixed-sex group.     

Maternal aspirations,socialization, and achievement of boys and girls in the white working class

Analysis of the scholastic achievement of 150 white pre-teen-age boys and girls in relation to their mothers' aspirations for them, selected socialization practices, and their social origins helps explain disparities in scholastic achievement between working class and middle class children as well as disparities in achievement within the working class. Mothers in this stratum, as a rule, do not articulate high educational and occupational aspirations for their children, especially for girls. Yet, girls exhibit significantly higher achievement than boys and their achievement is conditioned more by maternal aspirations than that of boys. Girls' greater responsiveness to their mothers' aspirations and their higher scholastic ability are due to the fact that white working class mothers engage in more early interaction and employ less coercive discipline with daughters than with sons. Boys' achievement is more responsive to variations in maternal practices than to maternal aspirations. Although not typical, mothers who interact much with their sons early in life and who do not employ coercive discipline produce high-achieving sons. Otherwise, they do not, whatever aspirations they hold for their sons. For girls, maternal aspiration is the more critical determinant of achievement. Downwardly mobile women, those working class women with middle class origins, differ from the stable women in their stratum in that they have equally high aspirations for daughters and sons. As a result of their mothers' high aspirations and more enlightened practices, the daughters of downwardly mobile women are the highest achievers in the white working class. Their sons, however, are underachievers, mainly because downward mobiles adopt the prevailing pattern of their class of destination and rely more on coercive discipline in socializing boys.This research is supported by Welfare Administration, HEW, under grants CRD-371-C2-9 and 10-P-56018/5-4.A revised and extended version of a paper given at the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 1970, under the title, White Working Class Women and Their Families.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, New York, New York. Major present research interests are structural determinants of variations in patterns of socializing children, intergenerational changes in socialization practices and beliefs, and the effects of family structure and socialization on children in different structural contexts.     

Substance use and its relationship to conduct problems and delinquency in young boys

The paper presents lifetime and six-month prevalence of substance use by 1st, 4th, and 7th graders (N=2573). Smoking and alcohol consumption was surprisingly high even for 1st graders. The use of developmentally more advanced substances, such as marijuana, was associated with the use of substances that typically emerge earlier, such as beer. Significantly more of the multiple substance users in the 1st and 4th grade were already engaged in a variety of conduct problems and delinquent acts than were either single users or nonusers. The findings show that substance use, even at Grades 1 and 4, is an indicator of boys who commit a wide variety of problem behaviors. For the 7th graders, the use of marijuana was especially associated with the commission of more serious delinquent acts. Multiple substance use reported by the 7th graders also signified a higher frequency and volume of use. The results of the study are related to a developmental conceptualization of conduct problems, delinquency and substance use.Research interests: antisocial behavior and substance use.Research interests: the development of antisocial behavior and substance use; familial processes leading to deviant behavior; the prediction of delinquency.Research interests: development of concealing antisocial behaviors and processes that affect such development.     

Reviving rosetta tharpe: performance and memory in the 21st century

This article examines the pleasures and dangers of the 'reviving'—that is, restoring to memory, of a 'forgotten' female gospel-guitarist, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. It argues that the erasure of black women from cultural memory is not merely the effect of the passage of time, but of small but significant acts of forgetting that themselves constitute cultural practices. As examples of attempts to forestall forgetting and 'revive' the dead, the essay looks to a recent Rosetta Tharpe tribute CD, composed of women musicians' versions of songs Tharpe made famous, as well as a local Pittsburgh theatre incorporation of Tharpe as a character in its production 4 Real Women. Both projects, although inevitably fraught by difficulties specific to their medium of performance and address, set the terms of cultural 'revival' crucial not merely to Rosetta Tharpe but to black women performers generally.     

Inclusive ideologies and passive performances: exploring masculinities and attitudes toward gay peers among boys in an elite youth football academy

Abstract

Drawing on data generated from semi-structured, one-to-one interviews in 2012, this article focuses on the attitudinal disposition toward homosexuality of 12 English academy level football players aged 14–15. Results highlight the presence of progressive attitudes toward homosexuality even though some of the youth feel they lack the agency to contest homophobia when espoused in their schools. Using a blend of two dominating masculinities theories, we use these interviews to highlight that boys in this setting are best understood as a complex imbrication of inclusivity yet socially-passive acceptance. We suggest that boys of this age are now primed for learning agency to contest the social marginalization of others.     

Mojave mirages: gender and performance in Las Vegas

The article explores the permeable boundaries between image, perception, experience, and realities through a series of personal observations on gender and performance in Las Vegas. The author'observations on this resort destination in the middle of the Mojave Desert are mingled with the narratives of women who came to the area during and after World War II. Lucrative jobs in wartime industries followed by the post-war tourist economy gave women opportunities to earn more money than they could ‘back home.’ A work in progress, the article explores why women came to Las Vegas and stayed and how they, like many visitors to the city, play out their fantasies in its public theater.