Hope in Context: Developmental Profiles of Trust,Hopeful Future Expectations,and Civic Engagement Across Adolescence

Hopeful expectations for the future have been shown to play an important role in the positive development of youth, including youth contributions to society. Although theory and some research suggest that familial socialization may influence future-oriented cognitions, little work has focused on the possible interrelation of parent–child relationships and the development of hope, particularly during adolescence. Accordingly, the first goal of this study was to identify developmental profiles of youth with respect to hopeful future expectations (HFE) and parental trust across adolescence. Next, we explored whether these developmental trajectories were related to youth Contribution, indexed by community leadership, service, and helping attitudes and behaviors. We used growth mixture modeling to simultaneously examine trajectories of adolescents’ perceived connections with parents (indexed by parent trust) and HFE among 1,432 participants (59 % female) from Waves 3 through 6 (Grades 7 through 10) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. A four-profile model provided the best fit to the data, with the following profiles: Moderate HFE/U-shaped Trust; Moderate HFE/Increasing Trust; Both Decreasing; and Both High Stable profiles. We then explored whether hope-trust profiles were related to youth Contribution in Wave 7. Contrary to hypotheses, results indicated that the profile reflecting the greatest discrepancy in HFE and trust across early to middle adolescence (i.e., Moderate Hope/U-shaped Trust) was associated with the highest mean Contribution scores. The implications of the findings for future theory and research are discussed.     

Personal and Ecological Assets and Academic Competence in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Role of School Engagement

Although the role of school engagement in influencing children’s academic competence has been recognized in past theory and research, how school engagement may mediate the relationships between ecological and personal resources and academic competence remains largely unknown. Using structural equation modeling procedures, the present study was aimed at examining the role of school engagement in mediating the associations between ecological and personal assets and academic competence. Data from 960 participants (45.6% boys) who took part in the Grades 5 and 6 assessments of the longitudinal, 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development were used. Evidence was found for a model positing two distinct school engagement components, Behavioral and Emotional, and for the role of these facets of school engagement in the relationships between developmental assets and later academic competence. Personal and ecological assets had indirect effects on later academic competence, via behavioral and emotional school engagement. Behavioral and emotional school engagement predicted academic competence differently. Emotional engagement was indirectly linked to academic competence, via behavioral engagement. Behavioral and emotional engagement also had different individual and contextual antecedents. Implications of the findings for evaluating the role of behavioral and/or emotional school engagement in academic competence and positive youth development are discussed.     

Adolescents' response to nuclear threat: Before and after the chernobyl accident

This study investigated adolescent responses to nuclear threat during intervals preceding and following the Chernobyl disaster. The Nuclear Threat Index was administered to 96 Israeli subjects two months prior to and two months following the disaster. In addition, they were tested with Rotter's Locus of Control Scale. The data results indicate that on the whole there were differences in scores between the two administrations, especially with respect to self-reported activity (behavioral subscales). Adolescents reported significantly more past nuclear-related activity before the accident as well as fewer anticipated activities after the accident. Adjusted for the preaccident score differences data reveal that after the accident younger adolescents reported less pessimism and more previous activity than the older adolescents. In addition, males reported more nuclear-related activity than females; younger males reported more past activity and less pessimism than older males; external males reported more activity than internal males. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the results, on limitations of the investigation, and on implications for further research.Received Ph.D. in school counseling from Tel Aviv University. Research interests: evaluation of primary prevention programs, crisis intervention in mass disasters, and death studies.Received D.Sc. from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) Department of Management Science. Research interests: Statistics.Received M.A. in Education from University of Haifa, School guidance and counseling, Haifa, Israel.     

Physical attractiveness,body attitudes,and self-concept in late adolescents

Seventy male and 119 female late adolescents, enrolled in a college introductory psychology course, rated 24 body characteristics in terms of (1) how important each part was in determining their own physical attractiveness and (2) how physically attractive they assumed each of these parts of their own bodies were. In addition, all subjects responded to a short self-concept scale. Results indicated that males and females rated the importance of the body characteristics for their own physical attractiveness in a markedly similar manner and that mean physical attractiveness ratings were significantly related to the self-concepts of females but not of males. Moreover, the attractiveness ratings of a larger number of individual body parts were significantly related to self-concept for females than for males. Finally, a visual inspection technique for determining physique type was found related to self-concept in males, while this was not the case with a traditional anthropometric index of physique type. Sex differences in the role of physical attractiveness in personality and interpersonal behavior development are discussed.Received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the City University of New York. Current research interests include the relation of organismic variables to personality/social development.Received his Ph.D. in personality and developmental psychology from the University of Michigan. Current research interests include the psychology of women and physical attractiveness.