Reciprocal influences between parents' marital problems and adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior

The present study examines reciprocal associations between marital functioning and adolescent maladjustment using cross-lagged autoregressive models. The research involved 451 early adolescents and their families and used a prospective, longitudinal research design with multi-informant methods. Results indicate that parental conflicts over child rearing predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and delinquency. In turn, these adolescent problems exacerbated parental conflicts over child rearing. Furthermore, conflict over child rearing served as the nexus through which more generalized marital dissatisfaction and adolescent adjustment problems were reciprocally interrelated. This research replicates earlier observations that marital problems intensify adolescent maladjustment and extends the literature by demonstrating that adolescent problems also predict marital conflict and ultimately marital dissatisfaction. In sum, the present study demonstrates that marital dissatisfaction, conflict over child rearing, and early adolescent adjustment difficulties are interwoven in a dynamic family system marked by reciprocity along these dimensions.     

From Sincerity to Authenticity: Adolescents'' Views of the "True Self"

This study examined age-related trends in adolescents' view of sincerity and of honesty towards oneself. Subjects were 84 high school students in grades 8 to 12 (age range 12-18). Semistructured interviews with preplanned probes were used and analyzed using content categories reflecting different emphases on disclosing "facts" versus internal events (for sincerity) and on recognizing conflicts with others versus recognizing internal divisions (for honesty towards oneself). Results indicate clear age trends on these two dimensions and a close association between them. The age trends suggest that for the younger adolescent, being "genuine" consists mainly in disclosing facts that are in principle accessible to others. For the older adolescent, being genuine more frequently implies recognizing and expressing one's "true" nature. The findings are discussed both in light of recent research on the development of self-understanding and as challenging traditional paradigms of studying the self.     

La relation entre les conflits conjugaux,la satisfaction conjugale des mères et la qualité de la communication mère‐adolescente

A sample comprising 41 couples and their adolescent daughters participated in a study on the association between marital conflicts and mother‐daughter communication. Observational measurements and questionnaires were used to evaluate the level of the quality of communication between the couple, the marital satisfaction of the parents and the quality of the communication between mother and adolescent daughters. The results show that: (a) conflicts observed between the parents are positively associated with the level of confrontation observed between the mother and the daughter and (b) the marital satisfaction of the mothers plays a mediatory role between the conflicts in the couple and the level of mother‐daughter confrontation. The marital satisfaction of the mothers would be the link in the process of propagation of the affects and the negative behaviour of the couple and the mother‐adolescent daughter relationship.     

初中一,二年级学生的亲子冲突

本研究选取北京市两所普通中学１９２名初一和初二学生为被试,通过学生对８个方面亲子冲突的评价,探讨初中生亲子冲突的特点。研究发现,（１）初中生早期的亲子冲突处于较低水平;（２）与母亲的冲突多于与父亲的冲突,女生尤其如此;（３）多数亲子冲突随年级而增加;（４）在多数冲突上,男生与父母的冲突多于女生;（５）亲子冲突最多的三个方面为日常生活安排、学业和家务,而冲突最少的为隐私。     

父母婚姻冲突对青少年抑郁情绪的影响:一个有调节的中介模型

采用整群抽样法选取宁波市四所中学初一至初三共537名学生为被试,以问卷调查法考察父母婚姻冲突与青少年抑郁情绪的关系,同时探讨心理韧性的中介作用,以及该作用是否受到社会支持的调节。结果发现：（1）心理韧性在父母婚姻冲突与青少年抑郁情绪之间起部分中介作用;（2）社会支持调节了父母婚姻冲突通过心理韧性影响青少年抑郁情绪中介过程的前半路径和后半路径。研究结果揭示了父母婚姻冲突影响青少年抑郁情绪的内部机制,对增强青少年心理韧性的强度以及减少抑郁等情绪问题具有重要的理论与实践价值。     

From biography to theory: the role of Anna Freud in the emergence of the ‘adolescent process’

Some aspects of Anna Freud’s life reveal the existence of specifically adolescent conflicts, which can be tied to some of her theoretical and clinical discoveries in the field of adolescent psychoanalysis. Her historical input in the gradual construction of a theoretical corpus on adolescence has often been ignored. These links between biography and theory gave rise to a movement of conceptualisation, making it possible to develop a psychoanalytic metapsychology of adolescence: indeed, emerged such notions as asceticism, intellectualisation in relationship with anorexia and the struggle against the genitalisation of the adolescent body. Today, the Annafreudian school of thought has remained the main source of investigation and theoretical transmission of what is now called the adolescent process.     

Empathy Development in Adolescence Predicts Social Competencies in Adulthood

This 23‐year study explored the predictive associations between empathy development in adolescence and self‐reported social competencies and outcomes in adulthood. Participants were 1,527 adults aged 35 years (48.3% female). The predictor variable (adolescent empathy) was measured yearly at the ages of 12 to 16 years. The outcome variables (adult empathy, communication skills, social integration, relationship satisfaction, and conflicts in relationships) were measured at the age of 35 years. Five important results stand out. First, longitudinal measurement invariance was established for the measure of adolescent empathy. Second, empathy tended to increase during the adolescent years. Third, significant interindividual differences in level and change of adolescent empathy were found. Fourth, gender was related to level of adolescent empathy, favoring girls over boys. Fifth, not only level but also change in adolescent empathy predicted individual differences in social competencies in adulthood two decades later. These findings demonstrate that developmental processes that are relevant for adjustment reveal long‐term social consequences beyond the adolescent years.     

Acculturation and Aggression in Latino Adolescents: A Structural Model Focusing on Cultural Risk Factors and Assets

The specific aim of this investigation was to map cultural factors associated with aggressive behavior in Latino adolescents. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 481 foreign- and U.S.-born Latino adolescents living in North Carolina and Arizona. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate a conceptual model linking adolescent and parent culture-of-origin and U.S. cultural involvement, acculturation conflicts, and perceived discrimination to family processes (familism and parent-adolescent conflict) and adolescent aggression. Parent-adolescent conflict was the strongest cultural risk factor followed by perceived discrimination. Familism and adolescent culture-of-origin involvement were key cultural assets associated with less aggressive behavior. Exploratory mediation analyses suggested that familism and parent-adolescent conflict mediated the effects of acculturation conflicts, parent and adolescent culture-of-origin involvement, and parent U.S. cultural involvement on adolescent aggression. Implications for prevention programming were discussed.     

"This strange disease": adolescent transference and the analyst's sexual orientation

The treatment of adolescents by gay analysts is uncharted territory regarding the impact of the analyst's sexuality on the analytic process. Since a core challenge of adolescence involves the integration of the adult sexual body, gender role, and reproductive capacities into evolving identity, and since adolescents seek objects in their environment to facilitate both identity formation and the establishment of autonomy from primary objects, the analyst's sexual orientation is arguably a potent influence on the outcome of adolescent development. However, because sexual orientation is a less visible characteristic of the analyst than gender, race, or age, for example, the line between reality and fantasy is less clearly demarcated. This brings up special considerations regarding discovery and disclosure in the treatment. To explore these issues, the case of a late adolescent girl in treatment with a gay male analyst is presented. In this treatment, the question of the analyst's sexual orientation, and the demand by the patient for the analyst's self-disclosure, became a transference nucleus around which the patient's individual dynamics and adolescent dilemmas could be explored and clarified.     

The Patient Who Was Not There

Many clinicians attest to the challenges of working with the adolescent patient. The phase itself prescribes resistances to forming a transference relationship, not to mention that passions and conflicts can be stirred in the therapist that had long been dormant. Various theoretical positions have dictated different paths, from systems theory to Freud’s treatment of Little Hans. This article describes a case that took an unorthodox route based on an adolescent’s refusal and Lacan’s formulation of the function of a child’s symptom in the intrapsychic world of the parent. The outcome opened pathways for growth for both the adolescent and the parents, suggesting that the uniqueness of the phase of adolescence allows for new pathways for clinical intervention as well.     

亲子冲突与青少年社会适应的关系

从北京市四所普通中学选取 82 9名初一、初二、高一和高二学生为被试 ,采取匿名的方式让被试报告自己在过去半年内分别与父亲和母亲在学业、做家务、交友、花钱、日常生活安排、外表、家庭成员关系和隐私等八个方面发生冲突的频率 ,以及自己的问题行为、抑郁和社交焦虑的情况 ,以此探讨亲子冲突与青少年社会适应之间的关系。结果发现 :(1 )父子和母子在冲突内容上有很大的差别 ;母子冲突多于父子冲突 ,且母子冲突和父子冲突的侧重点也有所不同。 (2 )在学业和生活方面 ,发生亲子冲突的青少年远多于没有亲子冲突的青少年 ,但在其余六个方面却是没有亲子冲突的青少年多于发生亲子冲突的青少年。在发生亲子冲突的青少年中 ,与双亲均发生冲突的青少年最多 ,其次是只与母亲发生冲突的青少年 ,与父亲发生冲突的青少年最少。 (3 )亲子冲突与青少年的抑郁和问题行为具有较为一致的关系 ,即与双亲发生冲突的青少年所表现的问题行为和抑郁最多 ,其次是与单亲发生冲突的青少年 ,问题行为和抑郁表现最少的是与双亲均无冲突的青少年 ;但亲子冲突与青少年社交焦虑之间的关系并没有一致的趋势。     

Obscuring Desire: A Special Pattern of Male Adolescent Masturbation,Internet Pornography,and the Flight From Meaning

The sexual development of adolescent boys is closely tied to masturbation. Erotic fantasies are used to work through conflicts concerning sexuality and gender. These fantasies may be extended, enriched, and socialized through a variety of means, including interactions with peers, various cultural means, and pornography. Adolescents also commonly defend against awareness of these conflicts by denying their significance and conceptualizing them as mere stimulants or concomitants of physiologic arousal. Internet pornography provides a particularly powerful means by which some adolescents can disguise or obliterate the meaning of personal masturbation fantasies and so be spared the anxiety associated with the fantasies and their conflicted meaning.     

Loneliness and adolescent alcoholism

This paper first shows how the feelings of separation anxiety, hostility, and loneliness are intrinsically related. In pursuing this line of thought, the views of Fromm-Reichmann, Fromm, and Erikson are synthesized. The foregoing emotions are then discussed within the context of Freud's speculative postulation of the "oceanic feeling." All these conceptual connections, in turn, are then analyzed as essential factors contributing to, and indeed determining, adolescent drinking disorders. Traumatic issues and conflicts, initially centered in the infant's sense of separation from the mother, are later reexperienced and revived during the critical period of adolescence as the child is confronted with a sense of separation from the family. The paper concludes with a more empirically oriented treatment of the concrete features exhibited in adolescent alcoholism.     

Gender-Specific Conflicts among Urban African-American Youth: The Roles of Situational Context and Issues of Contention

The literatures on violence among young men and young women have highlighted the importance of situational context. However, few studies have compared disputes that do not result in violence with those that do, and even fewer have been positioned to investigate the role situational context may play across gender in accounting for these outcomes. Drawing on recent scholarship on gender and violence, this research explores the situational contexts of youth conflicts among African-American adolescent boys and girls. Using a large sample of narrative accounts of 153 violent and nonviolent conflicts, we examine how youth describe the issues of contention in their conflicts, how these relate to the situational contexts in which conflicts emerge, and similarities and differences in the antecedents, contexts, and extent of male and female violence.     

Adolescent mental health: the role of youth and college pastors

The present study investigates the gatekeeping role of youth and college pastors, specifically exploring their psychological training, perceptions, attitudes, and interactions concerning adolescent congregants' mental illness. Texas youth and college pastors were anonymously surveyed regarding referral patterns, mental health interventions and contact, adolescent mental health perceptions, and means of collaboration. While the sample reported actively working with numerous adolescent mental health issues, the majority did not feel qualified to work with significant psychopathology. Despite this, they reported using various intervention methods, with the most common being initial counselling followed by a referral. Although the sample frequently referred to other professionals, they described many perceived barriers in collaborating with others in the mental health field. Overall, a positive role exists for youth and college pastors in adolescent mental health; however, tensions and conflicts between pastors and mental health professionals hinder the usefulness of these unique gatekeepers. Implications and recommendations for mental health professionals are highlighted.     

青少年和母亲知觉的差异及其与青少年问题行为的关系

从辽宁辽阳市选取605名小学五年级至初中二年级、高中一年级至高中三年级学生及其母亲为被试,探讨青少年与其母亲对父母冲突知觉的差异,以及这种知觉差异与青少年问题行为的关系。要求青少年和其母亲分别报告父母过去一年中在10个方面的冲突频率,同时要求青少年报告自己在过去一年中20种问题行为的发生频率。研究发现：青少年对父母冲突的知觉明显比母亲消极,但是到了高中．两者知觉的差异不再明显;青少年与母亲在指向父母自身冲突方面的知觉差异大于指向孩子的父母冲突方面两者的知觉差异;青少年知觉到的父母冲突多于母亲知觉到的父母冲突的人数比例高于青少年知觉到的父母冲突少于母亲知觉到的父母冲突的人数比例;青少年与母亲对父母冲突知觉的差异会增加青少年出现问题行为的可能性。     

Are critical items "critical" for the MMPI-A

This article examines one aspect of the potential usefulness of critical items to the: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -Adolescent (MMPI-A). Endorsement frequency data are presented on the Koss-Butcher (1973) and the Lachar-Wrobeli (1979) critical items for Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) adult normative and clinical samples and for MMPI-A adolescent normative and clinical samples. Adolescents in both normal and clinical samples endorse critical items with a higher frequency than do normal adults. Further, results demonstrated that significant differences were uniformly found between the endorsement frequencies for normative versus clinical subjects for the MMPI-2 samples, whereas similar comparisons for the MMPI-A samples typically showed that adolescents in clinical setting did not endorse critical items more frequently than normal adolescents. These findings indicate that it may be difficult to construct critical item lists for adolescents based on the type of empirical methodology used with adults in which items are selected based on endorsement frequency differences found between comparison group. Beyond the issue of the technical difficulty in creating a critical item list for adolescents, several conceptual concerns are raised regarding the application of critical items to the MMPI-A. It was noted that the concept of "critical items" has not been we11 defined, and both the reliability and validity of critical items may be limited in adolescent populations.     

Clinical implications of "subthreshold" depressive symptoms

There is active debate regarding whether diagnosable depression exists on a continuum with subthreshold depressive symptoms or represents a categorically distinct phenomenon. To address this question, multiple indexes of dysfunction (psychosocial difficulties, mental health treatment history, and future incidence of major depression and substance abuse/dependence) were examined as a function of the extent of depressive symptoms in 3 large community samples (adolescent, adult, and older adult; N = 3,003). Increasing levels of depressive symptoms were associated with increasing levels of psychosocial dysfunction and incidence of major depression and substance use disorders. These findings suggest that (a) the clinical significance of depressive symptoms does not depend on crossing the major depressive diagnostic threshold and (b) depression may best be conceptualized as a continuum. Limitations of the present study are discussed.     

Developmental differences in depression: cognitive-perceptual distortion in adolescent versus adult female depressives

This study was undertaken to determine differential cognitive-perceptual distortion in depression for adolescent versus adult females. Twenty-five female adolescent and twenty-five female adult psychiatric inpatients served as subjects. Each had received a primary diagnosis of neurotic or reactive depression and had completed the Beck Depression Inventory within five days of hospitalization. Results indicated significant similarities between the groups in anger at self and sense of failure. These may serve as unifying themes for adolescent and adult depressives. Results also indicated significant differences between the two groups. Adult female depressives demonstrated an internalized, ruminative focus to their depressive cognitions. Adolescent female depressives demonstrated an externalized focus to their depressive cognitions. Adults demonstrated a preoccupation with their own view of themselves and perceived themselves as a failure in their own eyes. Adolescents demonstrated a preoccupation with how others view them and perceived themselves as a failure in the eyes of others. These results are discussed in terms of developmental, theoretical, and treatment issues for adolescent versus adult depressives generally. Depression may exacerbate cognitive-perceptual distortions already existing within the adolescent population. In treatment, group psychotherapy may prove particularly efficacious for adolescent depressives.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy With An East Indian Family*

This article discusses the use of the cognitive-behavioral approach to family therapy with an immigrant Indian family residing in the United States. Issues of acculturation and the emancipation of a young adolescent female are addressed as conflicts arise between her and her parents. The use of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is presented as a flexible mode of treatment because it allows for the modification of schemas in a way that is respectful to cultural underpinnings and allows the family the freedom to change in a manner that does not compromise their cultural values. Further discussion is directed toward the cultural variables that may be accommodated by the CBT approach and the elements that make the approach adaptable, particularly in cases involving Indian culture.The authors thank Eric Frey of Lehigh University for his assistance with the literature review.