Memories of menarche: Age,preparation, and prior knowledge as determinants of initial menstrual experience

The relationships between age at menarche, preparation for menarche, and initial experience of menarche, were assessed in a retrospective questionnaire administered to 97 college-aged women. The more knowledgeable a girl was prior to menarche, the more adequate she perceived her preparation for menarche to have been; and the older she was at the time of menarche, the more likely she was to report a positive initial experience. These data support clinical anecdotes describing initial responses to menarche, and provide information about the factors which can moderate the extent to which menarche is experienced as a traumatic and disruptive event.Portions of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Hartford, Conn., April 1980.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. Major interest is cognitive development.     

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.     

The contribution of family structure and differentiation to identity development in females

We examined the relationship between Minuchin's structural family model, adolescent separation-individuation, and identity development. One hundred sixty-four female undergraduate students completed the Structural Family Interaction Scale Revised (SFIS-R), the Parental Relationship Inventory (PRI), and the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS) scale. Exploratory Factor Analysis of the SFIS-R and PRI scales indicated that two factors, Proximity-Differentiation and Generational Hierarchy-Differentiation, accounted for 90% of the variance. Canonical correlation analysis with the two factor scores and age included in the predictor variables, and the four measures of ego identity included in the dependent variables, yielded two significant roots. The results supported Minuchin's model.Received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Major interests are family factors influencing adolescent development and family assessment.Received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Major interests are family factors and the separation/individuation process.Received Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Major interests are statistical issues related to chi-square analyses.     

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.     

Family contexts of pubertal timing

This study examined the influence of pubertal timing upon family interactions in normal and psychiatric adolescent samples. An important feature of our approach is its emphasis upon micro-analysis of family behaviors (individual speeches) and family processes (theoretically specified speech pairings). Rather than assume that global family patterns (e.g., power) shift in response to pubertal changes, we follow how types of speeches and speech sequences are associated with different pubertal timing. Using the previously constructed family coding system, the Constrainig and Enabling Coding System, we found that on-time adolescents and their parents differed from both off-time groups (early or late). These results are discussed in terms of current implications and suggestions for future research.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the SRCD Study Group on Timing of Maturation, October, 1983, at the Education Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. This research was supported by NICHD Grant 1 R01 HD18684-01, and an NIMH Research Scientist Award (Dr. Hauser).Received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Research interest is adolescent development within the family and impact of chronic illness on adolescent development and family interaction.Received her B.A. from Wellesley College. Research interests are in humor and attractiveness.Received his M.A. from Boston University. Research interests are in methodology and statistics.Received Ed.D. from Harvard University. Research interests are in adolescent development within the family, and family coping with stress.Received M.D. from University of Chicago. Research interests are in psychosocial aspects of diabetes.Received Ed.D. from Harvard University. Research interests are in developmental psychopathology, and moral and ego development.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Research interests are in assessment of ego development and family systems.Received Ph.D. from University of Miami. Research interests are in family studies and adolescent development.     

Construct Validity of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire and Its Relationship with Self-Esteem,Depression, and Ego Development

Construct validity of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ) was studied in a sample of 194 normal Finnish adolescents from 14 to 16 years of age. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the hierarchical structure of adolescents’ self-image with 5 lower-order factors loading on a single higher-order factor. Lower-order factors were Personally Anxious Self, Social Relationships, Sexual Attitudes, Family Relationships, and Social Conscience. The relationships between the self-image areas of the OSIQ, global self-esteem, depression, and ego development were also examined. The results support the construct, convergent, and discriminant validity of the presented structure of the OSIQ.He received M.A. from University of Helsinki. Major research interest concern adolescent psychological developmentHe received Ph.D. from University of Helsinki. Major research interests include psychosocial health risks and organizational behavior.He received M.D. from Lausanne University and Ph.D. from Helsinki University. Major research interests include attachment issues, fatherhood, and foster parenting.He received his Ph.D. in psychiatry from the University of Helsinki. Major research interests are developmental theory of adolescence and personality development of adolescents in chronic illness.He received Ph.D. from University of Cambridge. Major research interests concern personality and developmental psychology.     

The psychological impact of menarche: Integrative versus disruptive changes

Ninety-four seventh- and eighth-grade girls, 49 premenarcheal and 45 postmenarcheal, produced male and female human figure drawings. These drawings were scored for sexual differentiation, sexual identification, and anxiety related to aggression-hostility and insecurity-lability. Postmenarcheal girls were found to evidence greater sexual differentiation and clearer sexual identification than premenarcheal girls of the same age. Postmenarcheal girls did not differ from premenarcheal girls in level or class of anxiety, however. Together, these results provide evidence for viewing the impact of menarche as primarily integrative, rather than primarily disruptive. Implications of these findings for understanding menarche as a normal developmental crisis are explored.This research was supported in part by Wellesley College Faculty Development Awards to each of the two authors.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development. Correspondence should be addressed to this author.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.     

Late adolescents' perceptions of their relationships with their parents: Relationships among deidealization,autonomy, relatedness,and insecurity and implications for adolescent adjustment and ego identity status

Questionnaire data from 376 undergraduates (mean age=19.3 years) were used to test a model describing interrelationships among deidealization, relatedness, autonomy, and insecurity in late adolescents' relationships with their parents. As expected, deidealization predicted greater autonomy and less relatedness (i.e., more disengagement), greater disengagement predicted greater insecurity, and greater insecurity predicted less autonomy. However, disengagement from parents proved to be a double-edged sword in that it was linked not only to insecurity, but also to feelings of greater separateness and self-directedness in relation, to parents. Additional analyses identified significant associations between the adolescent/parent relationship variables and the adolescents' psychological health and ego identity status.Received her Ph.D. from Yale University. Major interests are in parent/child relationships during late adolescence and young adulthood.Received her B.A. from University of Virginia and M.A. from Michigan State University. Major interests are in adolescent development and pediatric psychology.Received her B.A. from Duke University and M.A. from Michigan State University. Major interests are in adult children of alcoholics and adolescent separation/individuation.     

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.     

Ego development in adolescence: Longitudinal studies

Adolescents from four schools (one inner-city, two suburban, and one private) were tested two or three times using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development. Testing intervals ranged from 1.5 to 6 years. About half (N=193) the original pool was retested at twelfth grade. Every sample showed a mean rise in ego level; for six of eight samples that rise was statistically significant. Every pair of testings showed a postive correlation between scores; 10 of 14 correlations were significantly different from zero. Thus both test-retest correlations (about 0.5) and change scores support the hypothesized sequence of ego development. Significant correlation between ego level and intelligence occurred in two schools (0.6 at elementary and junior high grades and 0.4 at twelfth grade), but correlation was about zero in the private school.These studies were supported by Grant MH-05115 and Research Scientist Award MH-00657, both from the National Institute of Mental Health, Public Health Service.Received her Ph.D. from Washington University. Main interest is adolescent development.Received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Main interest is theory and measurement of ego development.     

Depressive symptomatology among very early maturing girls

This study investigated whether menarche is associated with depression when its onset is at the very early extreme of the normal age range. Girls who were postmenarcheal at the beginning of the sixth grade, comprising less than 10% of a sample of girls in that grade, were classified as very early maturers; their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, short form (BDIs), were compared with those of their premenarcheal peers. Additionally, postmenarcheal seventh graders, who comprised 30% of a sample of girls in that grade, were compared to their premenarcheal peers on the BDIs. Results were that postmenarcheal sixth graders were significantly more depressed than their premenarcheal peers, but that postmenarcheal and premenarcheal seventh graders did not differ significantly. The results suggest that very early menarche is associated with higher levels of depression than more normative menarcheal timing.This research was supported by Grant 16034 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Some portions of the data were cited previously at meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development and the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.Received Ph.D. from Clark University. Major interest is in clinical-developmental psychology. To whom reprint requests should be addressed.Received Ph.D. from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development     

Antecedents of adolescent initiation into stages of drug use: A developmental analysis

The social psychological antecedents of entry into three sequential stages of adolescent drug use, hard liquor, marihuana, and other illicit drugs, are examined in a cohort of high school students in which the population at risk for initiation into each stage could be clearly specified. The analyses are based on a two-wave panel sample of New York State public secondary students and subsamples of matched adolescent-parent and adolescent-best schoolfriend dyads. Each of four clusters of predictor variables, parental influences, peer influences, adolescent involvement in various behaviors, and adolescent beliefs and values, and single predictors within each cluster assume differential importance for each stage of drug behavior. Prior involvement in a variety of activities, such as minor delinquency and use of cigarettes, beer, and wine are most important for hard liquor use. Adolescents' beliefs and values favorable to the use of marihuana and association with marihuana-using peers are the strongest predictors of initiation into marihuana. Poor relations with parents, feelings of depression, and exposure to drug-using peers are most important for initiation into illicit drugs other than marihuana.This research is supported by Grant DA-00064 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and by the Center for Socio-Cultural Research on Drug Use of Columbia University.Revised version of a paper presented at the Conference on Strategies of Longitudinal Research on Drug Use, San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 1976. Authors' names are listed alphabetically.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1960. Current research interests are adolescent socialization, longitudinal approaches to the study of human behavior and psychopathology, and processes of interpersonal influence.Received Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1975. Major interest is quantitative sociology.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1975. Current research interests include adolescent socialization and deviant behavior.     

Parental influences on the development of adolescent autonomy and identity

Two studies were undertaken to examine parental influences on autonomy and identity development. In Study 1, 262 adolescents in seventh and eleventh grades were given Kurtines's autonomy measure, Simmons's identity measure, and Elder's questions regarding the adolescents' perceptions of their parents' autocratic, democratic, or permissive parenting styles. Study 2 was a replication with 168 subjects. Across both studies it was found that sex-role socialization is more influential for automony development than is either level of parental power or age. Both age and father's use of democracy were the most influential variables on identity development.Received Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.Received Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Major interests are cognitive development and theories of personality.     

Defendant characteristics and judgment behaviors of adolescent mock jurors

Fictitious court cases involving child abuse were presented to 140 male undergraduates and 140 male junior high school students to determine if the tendency to deal harshly with alleged criminals is dependent upon certain defendant characteristics. Results indicate that younger adolescent jurors give longer sentences than older adolescent jurors, and male defendants receive longer sentences than female defendants. While no significant main effects for case content were found, younger jurors gave longer sentences and attributed more responsibility to a parent who beat his/her child, while older adolescent jurors attributed more responsibility and prescribed longer sentences to a parent who burned the child. Implications for future research with adolescent jurors are discussed.Received Ph.D. from Lehigh University, Major interests include adolescent and adult personality and social development, developmental abnormalities, and jury behavior.Received Ph.D. from Lehigh University. Major interests are personality and sex-role development, and psychology and the law.Received Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Major interests are cognitive development, guilt feelings, and jury behavior.     

Verbal giftedness and sociopolitical intelligence: Terman revisited

This paper reports on a three-year study of sociopolitical intelligence-defined as the ability to formulate viable solutions to moral, social, and political problems—in adolescence. From an initial sample of 659 intellectually gifted 12- and 13-year-olds, 58 students with the highest SAT-V scores were selected for study. From a later sample of 506 equally gifted 13- and 14-year-olds, 120 students were selected using measures of verbal intelligence (DAT), social insight, and creative potential, as well as academic and nonacademic achievement. On the basis of a variety of personality and cognitive measures the students in both samples were found to be unusually mature and well adjusted but to vary considerably in sociopolitical intelligence. These results suggest in partial agreement with Terman's earlier findings concerning the gifted, that above a certain level of tested intelligence the critical determinants of effective, practical performance may be personality and biographical variables.This research was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the first author.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkely. Major interests are personality theory and moral developmentReceived her Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. Major interests are personality theory and medical psychology.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. Major interests are education and developmental psychology.Graduate student in psychology, The Johns Hopkins University. B. A. University of Oregon, 1973. Major research interest is personality correlates of high-level achievement.Main research interest is the development of sociopolitical achievement.     

Outcome,psychosocial functioning,and prognostic factors in adolescent anorexia nervosa as determined by prospective follow-up assessment

The aim of this prospective longitudinal study was to examine outcome, psychosocial functioning, and prognostic factors in adolescent anorexia nervosa. Thirty-four (88%) out of a consecutive series of 39 inpatients were reinvestigated three and seven years after discharge. The patients and 34 controls matched for age, sex, and occupational status were interviewed using structured interviews on their Diagnostic Statistical Manual, third edition, revised (DSM-III-R) eating disorder diagnoses, specific eating disorder psychopathology, comorbid psychiatric disorders, and psychosocial functioning. At the seven-year follow-up 15 patients (44%) still fulfilled DSM-III-R criteria for some form of eating disorder diagnosis, 21 (62%) for some other psychiatric diagnosis. Patients with a poor outcome showed significantly more problems in most areas of psychosocial functioning than the good-outcome group, but even recovered anorectic patients had more psychosexual difficulties than healthy controls. From a large range of potential prognostic factors, only low body weight at intake and low minimum weight during course of illness proved to be of predictive value.Received M.D. from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn. Major research interests are childhood and adolescent eating disorders including links to affective disorders.Received M.D. from Philipps University. His current interests include follow-up studies of adolescent eating disorders.Received M.D. from Philipps University. His interests are body image disturbances in eating disorders and research in neurophysiology and neuropsychology.Received M.D. from Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany, and Ph.D. from Rupprecht-Karls University, Tübingen. Current research interests are eating disorders, affective disorders, and early onset schizophrenia.     

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.     

The adolescent as mother: Early risk identification

Adjustment to parenting is a difficult process for the adolescent. This research attempted to identify easy-to-use maternal postpartum screening dimensions to predict two-month adjustment among 28 primipara adolescents. The results suggest several predictors of adjustment: initial parenting attitudes, preparation for parenting including involvement in instruction as well as specific knowledge areas, infant holding style, and aspects of social functioning. Postpartum risk screening may be a feasible way to identify intervention needs. Early screening would encourage early involvement in preventive programs. It would also provide a framework for evaluation and improvement of services to young mothers.Received Ph.D. from University of Pittsburgh. Current research interests include early adjustment characteristics, temperament as an individual difference, and cross-cultural adjustment patterns.clinical developmental psychologist in private practice. Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago. Current research interests in adolescent parenting, pediatric psychology, and the grief process.     

The ideal love object: Structural and family sources

We obtained preferences from 227 college students about the characteristics of their ideal love objects. We factor analyzed these separately for males and females and obtained both common and sex-specific factors. We then examined the relative contributions of a set of structural and family factors to the explanation of variance in each of the characteristics of the ideal love object. Results show that about one-third of the 58 characteristics have significant, though not high, amounts of variance explained by the predictors. The most important predictors were sex, religion, mother's marital happiness, and father's education.Received Ph.D. from New York University, 1963. Major research interest: emotions, love relationships, socialization, sociological theory.Received Ph.D. from City University of New York, 1976. Major research interests: sociological theory, sex roles, sociology of leisure, sociology of health.     

Hungarian adolescents' self-concept

Hungarian and United States adolescents' self-image was studied using the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ). In Hungary, 1,163 younger and older male and female adolescents were studied using a Hungarian translation of the OSIQ. Analyses of endorsement patterns of OSIQ items showed that Hungarian and American adolescents endorsed many items in the same way. Similarities in endorsement patterns were much more common between the two countries than were differences. Analyses of OSIQ scales showed that for most scales younger Hungarian adolescents reported better adjustment than younger American adolescents. Differences were not as great or reversed in the older age groups. Implications for cross-cultural studies of adolescent self-image were drawn based on these results.Received M. D. from the Semmelweis Medical university in Budapest. Research interest is complex somato-mental health care of adolescents.Received M. D. from the University of Chicago. Major interests are concepts of mental health and the developmental psychology of adolescence.Director, Forensic Psychology, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. Received J. D. from the University of Chicago School of Law; received Ph. D. in human development from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and delinquency.Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University. Received Ph. D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Major interests are psychotherapy research and adolescence.