Gender issues in the interface of family experience and adolescents' friendship and dating identity

This study focuses on the role of family experience in adolescents' conception of the self in the context of friendship and dating relationships. Three issues are addressed: the extent of sex differences in adolescents' friendship and dating identity, how links between family experience and friendship and dating identity might differ for males and females, and whether mothers and fathers play distinctive roles in such development. A sample of Caucasian two-parent families, each including an adolescent who was a high school senior, was observed in a family interaction task designed to elicit the expression and coordination of a variety of points of view. Each adolescent was also given an interview assessing exploration and commitment in friendship and dating identity. Only one sex difference was found in identity, with females more committed in their conceptions of dating relationships than males. The key finding of the study concerns the distinctive patterns of family interaction associated with friendship and dating identity. For females, separateness in family interaction was related to their friendship identity exploration, whereas for males, the links between family interaction and exploration all involved connectedness. The different contingencies may reflect the interplay between different societal patterns of support and restriction of males' and females' exploration.This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-92819 and HD-17983) and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and from the University Research Institute and the Institute of Human Development and Family Studies of the University of Texas at Austin.Received her Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include the role of family and peer relationships in the development of individual and relational competence, and the interface of family, peer, and school contexts in the development of children and adolescents.Received his Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include the role of the family in adolescent personality development and identity formation, career development, and adoptive family relationships.     

Parent–Child Relations,Conduct Problems and Cigarette Use in Adolescence: Examining the Role of Genetic and Environmental Factors on Patterns of Behavior

This study investigated genetic and environmental influences on the associations between mother–child relationship quality (warmth and hostility) and adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use. Participants included 601 mothers and adolescent twin pairs (aged 12–17 years). Mothers and adolescents provided separate reports of mother-to-child warmth and hostility. A combined measure of mother and adolescent reported conduct problems was used while adolescents provided reports of their cigarette use. Analyses were conducted using bivariate genetic analyses of correlated factors models and regression analyses of monozygotic twin differences. Genetic influences were found for most ratings of the parent–child relationship, with evidence of gender and/or rater-specificity for some measures. The relationship between mother–child hostility with adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use was influenced by genetic and environmental effects. Evidence was found for shared environment effects on the relationship between mother–child warmth and conduct problems. Examining monozygotic twin differences provided further support for non-shared environmental influence on the relationship between mothers’ expressions of hostility and low warmth and adolescent adjustment. Findings are discussed in relation to the interplay between genetic and environmental effects underlying links between parent–child relations and adolescent behavior problems.

Minimal standards for the performance and interpretation of toxicology tests in legal proceedings.

There have been several high profile criminal and civil cases that have been litigated in recent years involving toxicologic analyses and interpretations of blood, urine, and other specimens for drugs of abuse. Disputes have erupted between prominent toxicologists and laboratory scientists as to the validity and interpretation of the data presented. The disputes centered around the fact that the procedures used in these cases had not been properly validated with analytical noise being misinterpreted as a positive result. As with any analyses, forensic tests must be conducted in a manner such that they meet the minimum standards accepted within the toxicology community. No conclusions as to presence or absence of drug, its concentration, or its physiologic effects can be made if there is a failure to meet these basic standards. Several cases are presented where these standard tenets may not have been followed.     

Control of drunken driving accidents in Norway: An econometric evaluation of behavior under uncertainty

This article makes use of a very simple choice-theoretic model and econometric analysis to evaluate the control of motoring accidents in Norway. The model attempts to take account of the impact of driving levels, traffic density, and road quality as well as alcohol consumption, the probability of convictions, and sanctions on the generation of accidents. Five alternative logit formulations, estimated within a simultaneous systems framework, provide insights on the impact of law enforcement on the levels of fatal and serious accidents. Results of this pooled cross-section-time-series analysis compare favorably with earlier time-series estimates of the strength of control effects.