Socioeconomic Context, Social Support, and Adolescent Mental Health: A Multilevel Investigation

This study examined whether the impact of contextual-level socioeconomic disadvantage on adolescent mental health is contingent upon individual-level perceptions of social support. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a panel survey of a nationally representative United States sample (analytic N=18,417) of students in 7th through 12th grade. Effects of social support and social context on both internalizing problems (depressive symptoms) and externalizing problems (minor delinquency and violent behavior) are analyzed. Contextual-level socioeconomic disadvantage is positively associated with depressive symptoms, negatively associated with minor delinquency, and not directly associated with violent behavior. High perceived support from family, friends, and other adults offsets poor mental health, but is most protective in areas of low socioeconomic disadvantage. The mental health benefits of perceived social support are dampened in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, compared to advantaged areas. Results suggest that interventions targeting only individual- or family-level processes within disadvantaged contexts may be inadequate at stemming psychological distress among adolescents. Richard G. Wight, Assistant Research Sociologist, conducts life course mental health research in the UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences. His work emphasizes the intersection of individual- and contextual-level factors that impact health within dyads, families, and neighborhoods. Amanda L. Botticello is a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences, where her work addresses the reciprocal relationships between depressive symptoms and problem drinking among adolescents. Carol S. Aneshensel is a Professor of Community Health Sciences at UCLA, where she applies principals of social stratification and life course theory to the analysis of quantitative data to better understand disparities in mental health risks.     

Taking It to the Next Level: The Elevation of District Court Judges to the U.S. Courts of Appeals

We address an important aspect of judicial careers: the elevation of judges from the U.S. District Courts to the Courts of Appeals. We argue that the likelihood of a judge being elevated is a function of informational cues and signals regarding the nature of the judge and the judge's compatibility with presidential preferences. We also expect norms involving the intersection between geography and Senate politics to affect a judge's elevation chances. Using data on district court judges appointed between 1946 and 1995, we find that the likelihood of a judge being elevated is a function of the judge's ideological compatibility with the president, the judge's previous ABA rating, and Senate norms involving state "ownership" of appeals court seats. Blunt indicators of policy preferences trump direct signals when presidents decide whom to elevate, leaving judges little control over their career prospects and thus less incentive to slant their decisions in the direction of the president's preferences.     

Negotiating the Politics of Inclusion: Women and Australian Labor Governments 1983 to 1995

The Hawke and Keating Labor governments have tended to practise a politics of inclusion in which women, along with other social groups, are seen to have an important part to play in building the new, internationally competitive Australian economy of the twenty-first century. Australian politics have therefore had a very different nature from that of the more exclusionary politics practised by British Conservative governments. While the politics of inclusion have given feminists room for manoeuvre, and facilitated some positive developments in areas such as affirmative action and childcare policies, feminists have had little success in challenging the overall direction of the governments' right-wing economic policies. Furthermore, the ‘economic’ has functioned as a meta-category which dissolves difference and conflict. The Australian experience therefore has both practical and theoretical implications for British feminists who may be experiencing a Labour government themselves before too long.     

Books in review

He is author of Reversing Language Shift; Yiddish: Turning to Life;and most recently, The Earliest Stage of Language Planning.     

Is Federalism a Political Question? An Application of the Marshallian Framework to Garcia

In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985)the Supreme Court relegated the matter of the wages and hoursof local government employees to the national political processas though the issue were a political question. More importantly,the Court left the determination of whether the issue requirednational political resolution up to Congress. This article appliessome of the writings of John Marshall to the Garcia case inorder to ascertain whether national political resolution ofthe issue was appropriate. Under Marshall's framework, matterswhich involve the enumerated powers of Congress or the impliedpowers of Congress are political issues. However, in contrastto the holding in Garcia, the question of whether a particularissue involves an enumerated or an implied power is a matterappropriate for judicial scrutiny.     

Parents' and teachers' beliefs about adolescents: Effects of sex and experience

Three studies examine beliefs that parents and teachers have about adolescents. A distinction is made between category-based beliefs (concerning adolescents as a group) and target-based beliefs (concerning individual adoles cents). In Study 1, 90 late elementary and junior high school teachers indicated degree of agreement with a set of category-based statements about adolescents. Parents of early adolescents in Study 2 (N=1272) responded to category- and target-based statements. Study 3 compares the responses of teachers in Study 1 and parents in Study 2. Both teachers and parents endorsed beliefs that adolescence is difficult, and that adults can have an impact. Compared to fathers, mothers believed more in difficulty and in the negative effects of biological change on behavior. Parents of daughters believed adolescence is more difficult than parents of sons. Among teachers, amount of experience with adolescents was positively associated with the belief that adolescence is a difficult period of life. For parents, the effect of amount of experience was mixed. Experience had a greater impact on the category-based beliefs of teachers than parents. Possible influences on the origins and modification of beliefs are discussed.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, effects of pubertal development on social development, hormones and behavior in early adolescence, and family processesCurrently on leave from The University of Michigan. Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Research interests: development of self-concept, subjective task value, interests, and activity preferences, especially during early and middle adolescence. Dr. Eccles is also investigating the impact of school and family experiences on these constructs.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: the impact 6f family stress on adolescent development and family decision-making practices.Received Ph.D. in educatiqn from The University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, middle years education, teacher beliefs, and classroom processes.Received M. A. in education from the University of Michigan. Research interests: adolescent development, classroom environments, and supporting beginning teachers.Received Ph.D. in social work and psychology from The University of Michigan. Research interests: family processes and development.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1987 biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development. This research was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31724-04, -05) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD17296-01, -02, -03,S1) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles.     

Sex in transition, 1900–1980

Changes in the proportion of college-aged males and females participating in coital relationships are analyzed through a review of 35 studies conducted between 1903 and 1980. Two major trends are apparent: there has been a major increase in the proportion of young people reporting intercourse, and the proportion of females reporting coital involvement has increased more rapidly than the proportion of males, although the initial base for males is greater. Prior to 1970, about twice as many college men as women reported having had intercourse; since 1970, the proportions of men and women reporting coital involvement are nearly equal. These changes are seen as supportive of major shifts in the standards governing sexual behavior from the double standard to the single standard of permissiveness with affection [Reiss, I. F. (1967).The Social Context of Premarital Sexual Permissiveness, Rinehart and Winston, New York] to the current standard of intercourse being appropriate in love relationships (without the requirement of progression toward marriage) and permissible in causal relationships without exploitation.     

A deterrence study of the death penalty in Illinois, 1933–1980

The study analyzes the effect of executions and the death penalty on homicides in Illinois. A forty-eight year time series (1933–1980 inclusive) is used as the basis for this analysis. The first series of results are presented in a graph of executions and homicides by year. A second portion of the analysis compares the mean homicide rates for three time periods—years with executions, years when the death penalty was allowed but no executions were performed, and years in which the death penalty was abolished by the U.S. Supreme Court. No notable differences in homicide rates were observed for these three eras. Finally, a regression analysis was performed which included a lag structure and several relevant controls. The deterrence measure (executions) made no contribution to the variation in homicide rates. Thus, the authors conclude that there is no deterrent effect for the death penalty on homicides in Illinois.     

Students’ Perceptions of Safety at School After Sandy Hook

High profile school shootings have served as pivotal events for developing policies to promote student safety. Although previous studies indicate that exposure to violence is associated with feeling unsafe at school and poorer academic and psychosocial outcomes, research on the relationship between widely publicized acts of school violence and students’ perceptions of safety is scant. This study examines this relationship utilizing data from 66,511 high school students from a single state by comparing survey responses from students who completed surveys before and after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Although several models indicated a statistically significant relationship between Sandy Hook and perceptions of safety, the sizes of the effects were not meaningful. Implications for policy and research are discussed.