Black adolescents: a descriptive study of their self-concepts and academic achievement

This study was designed to determine the relationships among global self-concept, self-concept of academic ability, and academic achievement of black American adolescents. The subjects were 211 tenth-grade students in five public high schools in the Pacific Northwest school district who volunteered to participate in the study. Global self-concept was measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), self-concept of academic ability by the Brookover Self-Concept of Ability (General) Scale, and academic achievement by the California Achievement Test (CAT). The major statistical tools were the Pearson product-moment correlations and Fisher Z statistic. In all of the tests the decision was made to reject the null hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. No significant relationship was found between global self-concept and academic achievement, although the relationship between self-concept of academic ability and academic achievement reached significance. The relationship between self-concept of academic ability and academic achievement correlated more strongly than the relationship between global self-concept and academic achievement. These results suggest that the enhancement of global self-concept might not be a potent intervention for academic improvement for black adolescents.     

What predicts fathers' involvement with their children? A prospective study of intact families

This study used longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study to explore factors associated with aspects of fathers' involvement with their children at age 7, 11 and 16 years in intact families. Father involvement was predicted by different factors at different ages but generally it was continuous and multidimensional, and strongly associated with mother involvement. Low parental socio‐economic status and child behaviour problems were negatively related to father involvement at age 7. With older children, father involvement was inversely related to family size and poor school performance. Financial difficulties in the family were not related to father involvement at either age. Domestic tension was negatively related to certain aspects of fathers' involvement with younger children. Father's education was generally related to father's involvement but maternal employment was only related to low father‐interest in child's education at age 7 and 11 years.     

Immigrant adolescents behaving as culture brokers: a study of families from the former Soviet Union

In immigrant families, culture brokering (CB) occurs when children mediate the new culture for their family. The authors examined CB in Russian immigrant adolescent-mother dyads (N=226) to determine the types and amounts of CB that Russian adolescents performed, why adolescents assumed the CB role, and how the role affected adolescent and familial functioning. The present results indicated that most adolescents reported CB for their families (89%). Children of families that more recently arrived in the U.S., with mothers who were less American-language acculturated, culture brokered more. Higher levels of CB related to (a) higher adolescent stress and reports of problems at home and with friends and (b) lower feelings of school membership. Parent-reported problems at home did not relate to CB. The authors discussed implications for future research on the role of the child as culture broker.     

Predictors of attachment security in preschool children from intact and divorced families

The authors selected 58 mother-child dyads from divorced and intact families to participate in a study on the impact of divorce on preschoolers' attachment security. The authors explored pathways that lead to security of attachment. They found that mothers from divorced families were younger, had lower income levels, and had lower levels of education compared with their intact counterparts. Divorced mothers also reported significantly higher levels of stress, depression, need for social support, and conflict with their spouses. Mothers from intact families were more likely to use positive (authoritative) parenting styles compared with divorced mothers. Children in the divorced group had lower security scores on the Attachment Q-Set instrument (E. Waters, 1995). Regression analyses indicated that parenting style made a direct (independent) contribution to attachment security. In addition, temperament was related to attachment security, but temperament did not diminish the association of parenting style with attachment security. Furthermore, regression analyses indicated that the relationship of divorce to attachment security was mediated by parenting style.     

Covert suicide and families of adolescents

"Covert suicide" refers to self-destructive behaviors whose suicidal intent is denied by the adolescent and his/her family. Such behaviors are considered to be an outcome of certain family dynamics and processes. Case examples are given, and issues presented to the clinician in assessing and making initial interventions are discussed. Social issues connected with expanding the range of behaviors considered suicidal, and with considering suicide as a family process, are reviewed briefly.     

The effect of career interventions designed to increase self-knowledge on the self-concepts of adolescents

This paper reports a study that used a quasi-experimental design to examine if a career intervention designed to increase self-knowledge enabled self-discovery or self-construction, determined by the structure of the personality inventory used. This study, situated within the theoretical model of Markus’s research in self-schemata (1977), used instruments that measured the Big Five personality factors. Results showed that after only one exercise designed to increase self-knowledge, high school students in the experimental group elaborated “self-schemata” that encompassed the five dimensions corresponding to the structure of the instrument used. Findings suggested that the self-knowledge tool constituted a sort of structured “looking glass” in which young people saw themselves reflected according to the dimensions in the inventory used.     

A pilot study of effects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training on participants' self-concepts

The administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was taught to a group of 12 adults. The Tennessee Self-concept Scale Form-C and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior Scale (FIRO-B) were administered before and after their training. A control group of 12 was administered both scales twice with one day between administrations. Analysis indicated both groups showed significant differences between the pre- and posttest administrations on expressed affection on the FIRO-B. However, participants in a brief CPR course did not score significantly differently from a control group on these measures, as expected.     

Adolescents' perceptions of discipline within intact families and stepfamilies

This study examined adolescents' perceptions of discipline in intact families and stepfamilies. Forty-five adolescents, ranging in age from 15 to 19 years, completed the Adolescent Discipline Perception Survey (ADPS). They responded to questions related to their own discipline experiences as well as their views on how they would discipline an adolescent. Results indicated that adolescents from intact families and stepfamilies identified loss of privileges and grounding as the primary discipline methods used by their families. In addition, adolescents from intact families and stepfamilies reported house rules and peers as the most common discipline issues. Twenty-six percent of adolescents from intact families and 44% of those from stepfamilies reported that grounding was the most severe form of punishment they had received.     

Gender differences and the Defense Mechanism Test: A comparative study of adolescents in psychiatric care and healthy controls

The aim of this paper was to study gender differences in the percept-genetic method Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) among a group of 60 adolescent subjects. Three subgroups were used: patients with psychotic disorders (Axis 1); borderline personality disorder (Axis 2) according to the DSM-IV classification system, and a non-patient group. The test protocols were scored with respect to 124 DMT variables and analyzed by means of the multivariate projection method Partial Least Squares (PLS) in latent structures. The overall results showed considerable gender differences in the whole group as well as in the subgroups. The most striking finding was that girls compared to boys were characterized by the perceptual defense identification with the opposite sex, which means that they perceived male gestalts instead of females in the stimulus picture. When both gender and diagnostic group membership were considered simultaneously, the influence of diagnostic group membership seemed to be stronger than gender even if there was an interaction between diagnoses and gender. It was concluded that gender must be considered when the DMT is used on adolescent populations.     

Mental health aspects of Arab-Israeli adolescents from polygamous versus monogamous families

The authors considered the mental health consequences of polygamy in a sample of 101 Arab Muslim adolescents (19 from polygamous and 82 from monogamous families) at Juarish (Ramla), Israel. The respondents completed the Self-Esteem Scale (SE; M. Rosenberg, 1979), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; L. Derogatis & N. Melsavados, 1983; L. Derogatis & P. Spencer, 1982), and the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD; N. B. Epstein, M. N. Baldwin, & D. S. Bishop, 1983). The respondents from polygamous families had lower SE scores, statistically significant higher scores in 2 BSI dimensions, higher scores in all other BSI dimensions, and higher levels of self-reported family dysfunction. The respondents from polygamous families reported lower levels of socioeconomic status, academic achievement, and parental academic attainment. Those variables may have had a more direct impact on mental health than did parental marital status. The data also indicated that perceived family functioning was the best predictor of mental health.     

Wealthy families and their drug abusing adolescents

Abstract

Researchers have hypothesized that providing care to an elderly relative can negatively affect marital relationships of caregivers. However, no research has directly examined this issue. This study explored the impact of elderly depression and impairment, mental caregiving, caregiver/elderly person relationship closeness, spouse burden, and caregiver burden on caregiver marital happiness (and adjustment) in 90 multigenerational families. No significant relationship was found between these variables and caregiver marital adjustment. A causal model involving the six independent variables and caregiver marital happiness was developed and tested. Elderly depression and caregiver burden directly affected level of caregiver marital happiness. The other four independent variables affected caregiver marital happiness indirectly through caregiver burden. Implications for marriage and family therapists are discussed.     

A comparative study of the impact of education vs. process groups for families of patients with affective disorders

This clinical project compares the relative impact of two types of multiple family groups on psychiatric inpatients and their families. Forty patients with a diagnosis of affective disorder, and their family members, were randomly assigned to a traditional multiple family group with a process orientation that emphasized support, destigmatization, and self-help about common problems; or to a psychoeducational multiple family group that emphasized the provision of information about the patient's illness and methods of coping with it effectively. Both groups, which met for four hours on a Saturday afternoon, were an integral part of an ongoing inpatient program specializing in the treatment of affective disorders. Pre- and post-measures were obtained regarding family and patient knowledge about affective disorders, level of personal distress, attitudes about the illness, and dyadic adjustment. In addition, both patients and family members were asked to rate their satisfaction with the group experience. A number of differences in knowledge, attitude and dyadic adjustment were found in the participants of both groups immediately following their respective group sessions, but there were only a few statistically significant differences between the two groups. Those who attended the psychoeducational session, however, reported significantly more satisfaction with the experience.     

Family characteristics and health behaviours of adolescents and families

Abstract

The relationship between general family characteristics, represented by family cohesion and adaptability, and health behaviours (smoking, alcohol use, food choice, sleeping, Body Mass Index, and physical activity) is studied in a first study of 429 adolescents and young adults, and in a second study of 522 family triads (adolescent-mother-father). Using cluster analysis, adolescent groups with four different profiles of health behaviour were identified. Very similar results were found in the two studies. The health behaviour patterns in the different subgroups show that forms of (un)desirable health behaviours are interrelated in some clusters. Adolescents in the most healthy clusters, consistently reported highest levels of family cohesion. The relationship between family adaptability and health behaviours showed only limited significance. In families characterised by a high level of emotional bonding between family members together with stability and regularity in roles rules and power structure, adolescents' behaviour is the most healthy. The findings suggest that parental involvement is desirable in health promotion intervention. Further, it seems possible that health behaviours originate from a relatively small set of family Characteristics and that modifying family interactions might be powerful, albeit very difficult to do so, in changing a variety of health behaviours in adolescents.     

A comparative evaluation of parent-training interventions for families of chronic delinquents

Fifty-five families of chronically offending delinquents were randomly assigned to parent-training treatment or to service traditionally provided by the juvenile court and community. The families in the parent-training group received an average of 44.8 hours of professional contact (23.3 hours of which were phone contacts), and each control group family received treatment estimated at more than 50 hours on the average. Comparisons of police contact data at baseline and subsequent years for the two groups showed that subjects in both groups demonstrated reduced rates of offending during the followup years. The finding most relevant was significant treatment-by-time effect for offense rates, with most of this effect accounted for by a greater reduction in serious crimes for the experimental group during the treatment year, and a similar reduction of the community control group occurring in the first of three followup years. These early decrements in offense rates persisted during followup for both groups. Throughout the study, boys in the experimental group spent significantly less time in institutional settings than did boys in the control group. Parent training had a significant impact, but the reduction in offending was produced at very high emotional cost to staff. Although it is clear that this population requires substantial treatment resources, this study underscores the need for more work on prevention.Research for this paper was supported by grant MH 37938 from the Center for Studies of Antisocial and Violent Behavior, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The writing was supported in part by grants MH 17126 and MH 37940 from the same Center, grant DA 05304 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, U.S. PHS., and grant MH 38730 from the Child and Adolescent Disorders Research Branch, NIMH, U.S. PHS. The authors gratefully acknowledge the enduring commitment of the treatment staff that made this study possible: Patricia Chamberlain, Marion Forgatch, and Kate Kavanagh.