Design and Implementation of Parent Programs for a Community-Wide Adolescent Alcohol Use Prevention Program

SUMMARY

Project Northland is a comprehensive community trial designed to evaluate programs for the primary prevention of alcohol-related problems during adolescence. It uses a community-wide model, that includes both demand and supply reduction techniques. The first phase of Project Northland (grades 6-8) was completed with the effective implementation of multiple, complementary programs including a multi-year social behavioral curriculum, intensive parental involvement components, peer leadership opportunities, and community-level changes through the formation of local task forces. This article describes the process used for developing and implementing the comprehensive parent interventions used during the first phase of the research, highlighting the elements that led to the successful implementation of the programs with very high participation rates by parents, their young adolescents, teachers, and community members.     

When Formal Sanctions Encourage Violent Offending: How Violent Peers and Violent Codes Undermine Deterrence

Research focusing on deterrence has stressed the negative relationship between perceived formal sanctions and criminal behavior, ignoring the possibility that in some populations formal sanctions may serve to increase offending under some conditions. Utilizing a sample of 300 homeless street youths, the study explores if violent peers, violent values, and the culture of the street moderates the association between perceived legal sanctions and violent offending. The results suggest that violent peers, violent values, and the culture of the street condition the perceived certainty of punishment so that it leads to higher levels of violence. Further, the culture of the street conditions the relationship between perceived severity of punishment and violence. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Behavioral Heterogeneity in Adolescent Friendship Networks

Criminologists’ understanding of peer influences has been greatly advanced by social network methods; however, relatively scant attention has been paid to improving measurement. In particular, research has continued to measure peer influence by averaging the level of delinquency within a peer network, thereby neglecting the role of behavioral heterogeneity. The present study seeks to advance theory and research into peer influences on delinquency by explicitly modeling behavioral heterogeneity in peer networks measured as the variance. Drawing on social learning and opportunity theories, we argue that behavioral heterogeneity should attenuate the effect of average peer delinquency on individual offending. Models using social network data from the Add Health were estimated predicting involvement in two delinquent substance-use acts (cigarette smoking and getting drunk) as a function of peer influences. The results are consistent with our hypothesis, indicating that behavioral heterogeneity matters. Findings suggest that future research employing network models could incorporate peer behavioral heterogeneity to get a more accurate portrait of the processes of peer influence.     

Stability and Changes in Problem Behavior During Adolescence: Latent Growth Analysis

The aim of this study was to examine growth trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems during adolescence. In addition, we also examined factors that might account for individual differences in the level of problem behavior and in the rate of change: Adolescent gender and the quality of the relationships with parents and peers. The sample consisted of 212 adolescents (mean age 13.4 years at the initial assessment) who were assessed at 3 measurement waves with approximately 1-year intervals. The results showed substantial absolute and relative stability in both types of problem behavior, but also significant individual differences in both initial levels of problem behavior and in the rate of change across the 3 measurement occasions. Adolescent gender and the quality of the parent–adolescent relationship predicted the initial level of both externalizing and internalizing problems. The protective effect of the positive quality of the relationship with peers was found for internalizing but not for externalizing problems. No differences appeared between boys and girls in the effect of the quality of interpersonal relations on the level and on the rate of change in problem behavior, suggesting that the etiology of problem behavior might be similar for boys and girls in spite of gender differences in the prevalence of problem behaviors.     

Is It Bad to Be Good? An Exploration of Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior Subtypes in Adolescence

Research in aggressive behavior development has distinguished between proactive (i.e., intended to achieve an instrumental goal) and reactive (i.e., emitted as an emotional response to provocation) subtypes of aggression. A similar distinction has not been made with regard to prosocial behavior. In this study, subtypes of both aggressive and prosocial behavior and their relation to aggression-supporting social cognitions were examined in a sample of 250 early and middle adolescents. Adolescents completed behavior rating scales and a measure of their beliefs about the acceptability of responding aggressively. Principal components analysis identified 3 subtypes of aggressive and prosocial behavior: aggressive, prosocial, and proactive prosocial. Proactive prosocial behavior was positively correlated with aggression and aggression-supporting beliefs, while other prosocial behavior was negatively correlated with these constructs. Findings are discussed in the context of aggressive behavior development and with regard to traditional views of prosocial behavior as altruistic.     

Cutting the Grass: A Reexamination of the Link between Marital Attachment,Delinquent Peers and Desistance from Marijuana Use

Recent work indicates that marriage contributes to desistance from crime. However, two prominent interpretations of this relationship have been offered. The first, rooted in informal control theory, suggests that the marriage effect is a direct result of social bonds that tend to accompany matrimony. The second contends that the effect is indirect and due to the impact of marriage on patterns of delinquent peer association. Using data from waves 5 and 6 of the National Youth Survey, this study re-analyzes these interpretations by examining the relationship between marital attachment, delinquent peer association and desistance from marijuana use. Although change in delinquent peer association is a powerful predictor of marijuana desistance, findings are also consistent with the control theory interpretation of the marriage effect. Implications and limitations of the current study are noted.A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2000 meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, CA.     

Parenting,Peer Orientation,Drug Use,and Antisocial Behavior in Late Adolescence: A Cross-National Study

The objective of this study was to investigate the links between maternal and paternal bonding, parental practices, orientation toward peers, and the prevalence of drug use and antisocial behavior during late adolescence. A model was tested using structural equation modeling in order to verify the robustness of the investigated links across 3 countries: Canada, France, and Italy. A self-report questionnaire was given to a sample of 908 adolescents, with an equivalent number of girls and boys, in Grade 11. The questionnaire assessed the following variables: parental bonding, parental supervision, parental tolerance, orientation toward peers, involvement in physically aggressive antisocial behavior, non-physically aggressive antisocial behavior, and drug use. The model was robust across the 3 countries, thus confirming a path that identified quality of emotional bonds between adolescents and their parents as a distal variable acting upon deviant behaviors through the following mediators: parental supervision, parental tolerance, frequency of conflicts, and orientation toward peers. Michel Claes is full professor at the Université de Montréal, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in Education from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. His major research interest is in social development in adolescence, with a special focus on intercultural studies.     

Justice and emotional reactions to the disadvantaged

Various attitutidinal, cognitive, emotional, and actional reactions to problems and needs of less fortunate people (unemployed, poor people in the developing countries, foreign workers in West Germany) were assessed in a questionnaire study with 865 respondents. The external validity of self-report data was established by external ratings. The focus was on emotional reactions (existential guilt, sympathy, moral outrage because of unjust disadvantages, anger about the disadvantaged, contentment with one's own advantages, fear of losing these, hopelessness with respect to the fate of the less fortunate). Several justice-related variables (beliefs, views, appraisals) as well as responsibility-related variables and social attitudes were assessed as predictors of emotions. The importance of justice-related variables for the arousal of different social emotions was clearly shown. The use and usefulness of cognitive models of discrete emotions is discussed. The impact of emotions on the readiness to various forms of prosocial activities in favor of the less fortunate was also shown: Moral outrage and existential guilt proved to be much more salient predictors than sympathy. Crucial differences between these three prosocial emotions as well as the impact of justice-related variables on readiness to prosocial activities are discussed.     

The development of empathy and prosocial behavior through humane education,restorative justice,and animal-assisted programs

Literature suggests that developing empathy for animals will result in caring toward other living things. Empathy is often seen as a key building block of prosocial behavior and can be defined as sharing of another person’s emotions and feelings. In older childhood and adolescence, a lack of empathy may have deleterious consequences, leading to antisocial behaviors. However, children and adolescents who exhibit human and non-human animal aggression have often been witness to animal cruelty in the home. When empathy and prosocial behaviors are not learned in the home, there are alternatives to facilitate that process. This study discusses the development of empathy and prosocial behavior by working with animals through the modalities of humane education, restorative justice, and animal-assisted programs. Each modality focuses on building compassion, caring, responsibility, and kindness with the help of animals. Through these violence prevention programs, children and adolescents can develop empathy, which will decrease the likelihood of future aggression.