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.     

Development of an objective measure to assess ego identity in adolescence: Validation and replication

Three studies that evaluate the reliability and validity of the Extended Version of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Adams and Grotevant, 1983) are reported. In Studies 1 and 2, college students in Texas and Utah, respectively, completed the identity measure, the Extended Range Vocabulary Test, and the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale and released achievement results from their college records. The identity measure was found to have acceptable reliability (both internal consistency and test-retest) and validity (content, factorial, discriminant, and concurrent). In Study 3, scale scores from the objective identity measure correlated in the predicted pattern with ratings of identity exploration and commitment made from the Ego Identity Interview. Although the objective measure is not intended to replace the interview, it would appear to be useful in a number of situations where administration of the interview is impractical.We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Dan Tousley in the data collection and data analysis phases of this research. Data collection and analyses for Study 3 were provided by grants from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the University of Texas Research Institute, and the University of Texas Institute of Human Development and Family Studies to Harold D. Grotevant and Catherine Cooper, Co-Principal Investigators.Study 2 was supported by the W144 regional research grant on The Development of Social Competency in Children with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Utah State University Agricultural Experiment Station, directed by Gerald Adams.Received Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests concern the contribution of family relationships to personality and identity development in adolescence.Received Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include adolescent social and personality development.     

Short-term forces and partisan change in Canada: 1974–1980

The theoretical attractiveness of party identification derives in large measure from its presumed stability at the level of the individual voter. Recent studies conducted in Great Britain and the United States suggest, however, that partisan attachments are less stable than originally believed, and respond to the impact of shortterm forces. This paper uses newly available, national panel surveys to consider the Canadian case. Between 1974 and 1980 party identification in this country is characterized by aggregate stability and individual change. The latter is not confined to particular groups of voters and is not strongly associated with time-related reinforcement effects, but rather reflects variations in party leader and party/issue preferences. Further, interaction effects suggest that extent of political interest and patterns of partisanship across levels of the federal system condition processes of partisan change.     

Social goals and appropriate policy for corrections: An economic appraisal

This paper presents a logical approach to the problem of devising socially acceptable policy for the operation of a corrections system. As an alternative to considering separately the frequently mentioned, but conflicting goals of providing rehabilitation, retribution, detention of dangerous criminals, and general and specific deterrence of criminal behavior, the authors suggest that the goal be couched in terms of minimizing the social cost of crime. By developing a model which illustrates how the corrections process relates to the various facets of the criminal justice system, and by isolating the functional relationships which must be taken into account, the authors are able to show there is an optimal level of rehabilitation, detention, and deterrence associated with a socially optimal level of criminal activity and criminal justice control activity. Although much remains to be learned before such a model can be effectively implemented, considerable research has already pointed the way for learning how to more effectively balance the alternatives for policy. An enumeration of the policy implications of the model identifies targets for further research.     

Social Integration, Self-control, and Conformity

Evidence relevant to claims of self-control theory concerning the connection between social integration and crime/deviance is offered. Using data from a survey of the population of a southwestern city that permit measurement of two types of social integration, including socially supportive networks, we (1) investigate the association between self-control and social integration, and (2) attempt to ascertain if social integration is associated with misbehavior independently of self-control. Results suggest that self-control is a persistent predictor of misconduct that operates independently of social integration. Although interpersonal social integration appears to stand alone in its association with deviance, community integration shows no relationship with self-control or misbehavior.