Experiencing and Learning About Emotions: A Longitudinal Analysis of Youth Program Participants

Organized youth programs provide a context where adolescents experience strong emotions and may develop new ways of thinking about and dealing with emotions. The current study examined youth’s reports of positive and negative emotions arising during the course of their work in different types of project-based programs; learning about emotions from different sources (e.g., from observing peers, interacting with adult staff, or engaging in self-reflection); and longitudinal associations between emotional experiences and learning. Quantitative data were collected at two time points from 319 youth (57% female; M age?=?15.8 years; 33% Latino, 29% Black, 32% White, 6% other) participating in 14 Midwestern programs focused on Leadership, Arts and Performance (Arts), and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Overall, positive emotions occurred more frequently than negative emotions, but emotional experiences differed based on the focus of the program. There were few significant differences in emotional learning from various sources (self, peers, staff) across the three types of programs. Multiple regression models controlling for prior learning indicated that, consistent with theory, positive emotions predicted subsequent learning about emotions from all sources. In contrast, negative emotions predicted increased learning from peers but decreased learning from self, suggesting that experiencing negative (vs. positive) emotions may lead youth to attend to different sources of information. The study’s findings have implications for theory, research, and practice.     

Helping to Break the Glass Ceiling? Fathers,First Daughters,and Presidential Vote Choice in 2016

Political Behavior - Throughout her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton crafted messages intended to appeal to fathers of daughters and to highlight the...     

Holding on tight – NPM and the New Zealand performance improvement framework

The New Zealand Government's Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) is aimed at public sector organisational improvement. The PIF exemplifies how the characteristics of new public management (NPM) challenge the evolution of performance systems attempting to go beyond performance management. The paper provides an empirical example of the operation of the PIF, using a theoretical frame derived from the literature. The analysis suggests that the PIF design does not yet mitigate the effects of gaming, synecdoche, and reputation-protecting behaviour. The common graded ratings continue to hold the attention of those to whom the PIF is important, acting as a proxy for the whole performance of the organisation. This is a case study of how, despite promising adaptations, performance improvement efforts remain hampered by NPM limitations.     

Terrorist Threat,Leadership, and the Vote: Evidence from Three Experiments

From 9/11 in the U.S. to train, subway, and airport bombings elsewhere, individuals frequently must make political decisions in the shadow of terrorist attacks. To date, few studies have examined how times of terror threat influence voters’ decision-making processes. Using data generated from three experiments we show that, in times of terrorist threat (compared to good times), individuals weight leadership more heavily in the voting booth. Our results also shed light on how much weight is given to other determinants of the vote (issues and partisanship) across these two conditions.     

Comparing Sexual-Minority and Heterosexual Young Women’s Friends and Parents as Sources of Support for Sexual Issues

The present study provides a comparative analysis of sexual-minority and heterosexual emerging adult women’s experiences seeking support for sexual issues from parents and friends. Participants included 229 college women (88 sexual-minority women; 141 heterosexual women), ranging from 18 to 25 years of age, who provided written responses to an inquiry about a time they went to friends and parents for support for a issue related to their sexuality. Responses indicated that the majority of participants had sought support from either a parent or a friend and that mothers and female friends were more likely involved than fathers or male friends, respectively. Sexual issues that participants reported discussing with parents and friends were inductively grouped into five categories: dating and romantic relationships, sexual behavior, sexual health, identity negotiation, and discrimination and violence. Issues that were discussed differed based on sexual orientation identity and the source of support (parent or friend); they did not differ by age. Participants generally perceived parents and friends’ responses as helpful, though sexual-minority participants perceived both parents and friends’ responses as less helpful than did heterosexual participants. Overall, results suggest both similarities and differences between sexual-minority and heterosexual young women’s experiences seeking support for sexual issues from parents and friends.     

Does Mother Know Best? Adolescent and Mother Reports of Impulsivity and Subsequent Delinquency

Although impulsivity is one of the strongest psychological predictors of crime, it is unclear how well impulsivity, measured at a specific moment in adolescence, predicts criminal behavior months or years into the future. The present study investigated how far into the future self-reports and parents’ reports of a youth’s impulsivity predicted whether he engaged in illegal behavior, whether one reporter’s assessment was more predictive than the other’s, and whether there is value in obtaining multiple reports. Data were obtained from a 6-year longitudinal study of adjudicated juvenile offenders (n = 701 mother-son dyads). Youth (m = 15.93 years old; sd = 1.14) and their mothers independently reported on adolescents’ impulsivity at the initial assessment. We examined the prospective correlation of these measures with illegal behavior, assessed by official records of arrests and youths’ self-reports of offending across the 72-month study period. Youths’ and mothers’ reports of the adolescents’ impulsivity were weakly, but significantly, correlated with one another. Furthermore, mothers’ ratings of their sons’ impulsivity predicted arrest up to 6 years into the future, whereas youths’ reports did not significantly predict arrest beyond 30 months. With respect to youths’ self-reports of offending, mothers’ ratings of impulsivity again predicted farther into the future (as late as 6 years later) than did youths’ self-reports of impulsivity, which were not predictive beyond 4 years. However, across the first 4 years, youths’ self-reports of impulsivity explained more variance in self-reported offending than did mothers’ ratings. The results underscore the endurance of the predictive utility of an assessment of impulsivity and the importance (and accuracy) of parents’ reports of developmental constructs, even when their children are adolescents.     

Bidirectional Influences Between Dimensions of Coparenting and Adolescent Adjustment

Research on coparenting documents that mothers’ and fathers’ coordination and mutual support in their parenting roles is linked to their offspring’s adjustment in childhood, but we know much less about the coparenting of adolescents. Taking a family systems perspective, this study assessed two dimensions of coparenting, parents’ shared decision-making and joint involvement in activities with their adolescents, and examined bidirectional associations between these coparenting dimensions and boys’ and girls’ risky behaviors and depressive symptoms across four time points (6 years) in adolescence. Participants were 201 mothers, fathers, and adolescents (M = 11.83, SD = .55 years of age at Time 1; 51 % female). Parents of sons shared more decisions, on average, than parents of daughters. On average, shared decision-making followed an inverted U shaped pattern of change, and parents’ joint involvement in their adolescents’ activities declined. Cross-lagged findings revealed that risky behavior predicted less shared decision-making, and shared decision-making protected against increased risky behavior for boys. For girls and boys, parents’ joint involvement predicted fewer risky behaviors, and lower levels of risky behavior predicted higher levels of joint involvement. In contrast, boys’ and girls’ depressive symptoms predicted less joint involvement. The discussion centers on the nature and correlates of coparenting during adolescence, including the role of child effects, and directions for future research on coparenting during this developmental period.     

Structural Home Environment Effects on Developmental Trajectories of Self-Control and Adolescent Risk Taking

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Extant literature has demonstrated that self-control is critical for health and adjustment in adolescence. Questions remain regarding whether there are...