Effects of an intervention program for pregnant adolescents: Educational outcomes at two years postpartum

Examined postpartum effects of a school-based intervention program for pregnant adolescents. Interviews were conducted with 102 innercity black, low-income, school-aged mothers who had attended the program, and their academic and medical records were reviewed. For teenagers who had been poor students prior to becoming pregnant, a strong linear effect was found for duration of program attendance: with sufficient time in the program, poorer students became indistinguishable from better students in educational success. Most of the better students were educationally successful at 2 years postpartum, independent of their length of time in the program. For all students, longer durations of postnatal intervention were predictive of lower likelihood of subsequent childbearing. Numerous academic, medical, social, and demographic variables were ruled out as possible confounding factors that might have produced the positive educational outcomes for poorer students. The results suggest that adolescents who appear to have minimal academic promise prior to their pregnancy are nevertheless very responsive to school-based intervention.     

Social cognitive and demographic factors related to adolescents’ intrinsic satisfaction with school

Based on social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study is to examine certain social cognitive and demographic factors involved in intrinsic satisfaction amongst secondary school students of different cultural backgrounds in a new migrant-receiving country. Given the role of schools in youth acculturation and adaptation, it is important to detect the variables related to successful academic adaptation of adolescents. The sample comprised of 938 South American, African and Spanish adolescents who settled in Spain. Correlation analyses showed that age, social self-efficacy, academic self-concept, attribution style and intrinsic satisfaction were related. ANOVAs revealed that girls displayed a greater tendency to attribute their outcomes to internal factors than boys. Furthermore, older and Spanish adolescents displayed lower levels of intrinsic satisfaction than younger and immigrant adolescents. Path analyses found that social self-efficacy and academic self-concept were the best predictors of intrinsic satisfaction. Therefore, the promotion of social self-efficacy and academic self-concept should increase intrinsic satisfaction in schools. In addition, research into the role of cultural origin in self-regulation in schools may be necessary.     

Is Body Mass Index or Percent Body Fat a Stronger Predictor of Health-Related Quality of Life in Rural Hispanic Youth?

The objective of the present study was to assess whether Body Mass Index or percent body fat was a stronger predictor of health-related quality of life in a community sample of rural Hispanic youth. The sample consisted of 219 Hispanic children and adolescents ages 8–19 years (54.8 % female). Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted with demographics and obesity indicators (BMI, percent body fat) entered as independent variables. Each subscale and summary score of the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales was a separate dependent variable. Greater percent body fat was associated with lower social functioning in our sample of rural Hispanic youth. BMI percentile was not significantly associated with any of the PedsQL domains. These findings indicate that percent body fat may be more strongly associated with psychosocial functioning than BMI percentile in rural Hispanic youth.     

Educationally-Based,Culturally-Sensitive,Theory-Driven Mentorship Intervention with At-risk Native American Youth in South Dakota: A Narrative Review

Native American youth struggle with many social issues such as poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of high school, as a result of historical trauma and the current conditions on the reservation. This narrative review found that existing mentorship programs lack adequate research, particularly with Native American youth and youth from rural settings, yet the limited research does demonstrate potential promise. Available research findings suggest that mentorship programs are supporting at-risk youth generally, particularly with increasing their self-worth as well as having educational benefit for the youth. Two theoretical frameworks, strengths perspective and social learning theory, have been determined to offer support to increase the value of mentorship programs for Native American youth. This narrative review concludes that by understanding the social issues and the impact of historical trauma as well as understanding the use of applied theories, strong programming, and helpful factors or considerations, a culturally-sensitive, educationally-based mentorship intervention has potential to support at-risk Native American youth feel motivated to move forward with their educational futures.     

Educational effects of interscholastic athletic participation on African-American and Hispanic youth.

This study examined the educational effects of interscholastic athletic participation on a national, stratified, probability sample of African-American and Hispanic boys and girls drawn from the High School and Beyond Study (U.S. Department of Education, 1987). This two-year longitudinal analysis was based on questionnaire data from 3,686 minority youth who were sophomores in 1980 and seniors in 1982. The independent variable was athletic participation, and the dependent variables included senior year popularity, extracurricular involvement, grades, achievement test performance, dropout rates, and educational expectations. The control variables were socioeconomic status, school location, and sophomore measures of the dependent variables. In general, athletic participation enhanced popularity and contributed to greater involvement in extracurricular activities. Sports participation was generally unrelated to grades and standardized test scores. Depending on school location (i.e., urban, suburban, rural), athletic participation was significantly related to lower dropout rates for some minority youth. High school athletic participation was unrelated to educational expectations in the senior year. These findings show that high school athletic participation was a social resource for many minority youth, but only a modest academic resource for others. Equally clear, however, is the fact that not all racial or ethnic groups reap the same benefits from sport. More importantly, these findings strongly suggest that high school sport should only be considered one of many institutional forces converging in the lives of American minority youth. To assign sport more significance than these findings call for is to run the risk of oversimplifying and trivializing the very complex psychosocial processes which attend high school athletic participation.     

Family problems and youth unemployment

This study attempted to determine the extent to which family and personal characteristics relate to the employment situation of adolescents. Data were drawn from the Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development (USAD), which investigated, longitudinally, a national sample of Dutch youths aged 12 to 24 years in 1991. Specifically, two waves of a sample of 955 non-school-going respondents between 18 and 27 years old were analyzed. Parental divorce, parental unemployment (only for males), low parental affective involvement, and adolescent relationship problems were related to youth unemployment, but educational career and work commitment were not. For males, parental unemployment demonstrated the strongest correlation with youth unemployment. For females, only variables in the relational domain played a role in explaining unemployment; relationship variables were also important predictors of male unemployment. The results suggest that the family factors included in this study are better predictors of youth unemployment than are the classic individual (personal) variables.     

Sticks and stones may break my bones: Protective factors for the effects of perceived discrimination on social competence in adolescence

Adolescents are developing in an increasingly diverse society requiring sophisticated and flexible social skills for effective negotiation of social environments. Developing these social skills effectively has important implications for adolescents, especially those of diverse ethnic backgrounds. This study investigated social competence in minority and nonminority adolescents from the perspective of an integrated and context‐specific model of development (C. Garcia Coll et al., 1996 ). The relationships among perceived discrimination, attachment, ethnic identity, and social competence were explored in 320 middle school students using questionnaire methodology. Perceived discrimination was found to be negatively related to social competence in all participants and attachment was found to be a buffering factor, but only in minority adolescents. The findings support a unique developmental context of minority and nonminority youth and highlight the need for continuing research on constructs such as attachment and ethnic identity that may be influential in outcomes such as social competence.     

The Promotional Role of School and Community Contexts for Military Students

This article examines how supportive public school environments can serve as a promotional context for the development of children and adolescents from military families. The authors integrate theory and research from multiple research strands (e.g., human development, studies of at-risk youth, educational reform, goodness of fit theory, and school climate) to outline how public schools can support the development of all children and adolescents. This article provides further support for the supposition that school climates and the social-ecological contexts surrounding a school (e.g., universities, communities, school districts) have the potential to protect at-risk children and adolescents from an array of negative social, emotional, and psychological outcomes. The authors draw linkages between these research domains and the development of military children and adolescents. Promotional civilian school environments embedded within supportive and inclusive contexts can create a social infrastructure that supports the development of military children and adolescents. The authors argue that this conceptual approach can create a foundation for interventions and research that focuses on schools as normative supportive developmental settings for military children and youth during challenging times of war (e.g., deployments and multiple school transitions). This article concludes with a discussion of future directions in research on the development of military children and adolescents. Based on a heuristic conceptual model that outlines areas needing further research, the authors call for a deeper theoretical and empirical integration of school climate and external contextual factors surrounding the school. Investigating the social and organizational dynamics within these contexts can result in a more comprehensive picture of the development of military children and adolescents.     

父母教养方式的潜在类别:潜在剖面分析

采用问卷法,对764名青少年进行测试,首先采用潜在剖面分析模型探索了父母教养方式的潜在类别,然后通过青少年道德脱离、道德同一性的得分差异来确认潜在类别的效度。结果表明,从青少年的角度父母教养方式分为积极型、消极型和混合型三种,其中积极型人数最多、消极型人数最少。此外,青少年道德脱离、道德同一性的得分在这三种潜在类别上存在显著差异,表明本研究得到的三种潜在类别有较好的效度。积极型教养方式下青少年道德脱离的得分显著低于混合型和消极型的得分,混合型教养方式下道德脱离的得分显著高于消极型的得分;积极型教养方式下青少年道德同一性的得分显著高于混合型和消极型的得分,混合型教养方式下道德同一性的得分显著低于消极型的得分。     

Adolescent alcohol use in context: the role of parents and peers among African American and European American youth

African American youth are less likely to use alcohol than their European American counterparts; however, the greater consequences of use for African American youth highlight the need for greater research attention to this group. Two social contexts that have been linked with adolescent alcohol use are parents and peers, yet these studies have rarely included African American youth or failed to examine potential racial differences. This study examined the main and interactive effects of parents and peers, as well as the moderating role of race on alcohol use, in African American and European American rural adolescents (n=71) identified as at high-risk for alcohol use. Contrary to study hypotheses, however, parents were not a more robust moderator for African American than European American youth. Clinical implications for prevention and intervention programming for both African American and European American youth are discussed.     

A Meta-Analysis of After-School Programs That Seek to Promote Personal and Social Skills in Children and Adolescents

A meta-analysis of after-school programs that seek to enhance the personal and social skills of children and adolescents indicated that, compared to controls, participants demonstrated significant increases in their self-perceptions and bonding to school, positive social behaviors, school grades and levels of academic achievement, and significant reductions in problem behaviors. The presence of four recommended practices associated with previously effective skill training (SAFE: sequenced, active, focused, and explicit) moderated several program outcomes. One important implication of current findings is that ASPs should contain components to foster the personal and social skills of youth because youth can benefit in multiple ways if these components are offered. The second implication is that further research is warranted on identifying program characteristics that can help us understand why some programs are more successful than others.     

Predictors of Diabetes Self‐care,Metabolic Control,and Mental Health in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to explore the psychosocial predictors of diabetes self‐care (adherence to care regimes), metabolic control (glycated haemoglobin), and mental health among rural‐ and urban‐dwelling youth with type 1 diabetes. One hundred and twenty three adolescents/young adults (aged 13?25 years, mean = 16 years, standard deviation = 3.8 years) with type 1 diabetes, 50 males and 73 females, completed questionnaires reporting on diabetes self‐care, metabolic control, mental health (negative affect, quality of life), risk‐taking behaviours and attitudes, diabetes self‐efficacy, community engagement, and perceived social support. No rural/urban differences were detected on key predictors or outcome variables. Structural equation modelling revealed that high diabetes self‐efficacy, lower risk behaviour, and more conservative attitudes to risk taking predicted better diabetes self‐care, which in turn predicted better metabolic control and mental health. Social support and engagement in community activities did not influence diabetes self‐care. The study has significance because both diabetes self‐efficacy and propensity towards risk behaviour are potential targets for educational and counselling interventions designed to improve diabetes self‐care regimes and resultant metabolic and mental health outcomes.     

Evidence against the myth of adjustment problems of people with high intellectual abilities

Personal and social adjustment of high-ability children and adolescents is a very important issue in the specialized literature. The differences found between data for and against appropriate adjustment in gifted children and adolescents could be explained by conceptual or methodological biases. In this work, the relation between adjustment and high abilities are contrasted in a sample of teenagers from the Canary Islands, using a screening procedure based on their scores in intelligence tests. Results show that, although gifted adolescents differ significantly from their peers in the control group in socio-economic variables and academic performance, there are no differences in personal, social and educational adjustment. We conclude that adjustment problems and high ability are independent variables, and there is no evidence to support that gifted individuals have adjustment problems.     

Childhood behavioral inhibition and the experience of social anxiety in American Indian adolescents

American Indian youth may be at increased risk for anxiety-related problems. Social anxiety is the most common form of anxiety experienced by adolescents, yet little research specific to American Indians has been conducted. Childhood temperament, especially behavioral inhibition (BI), has been identified as an important risk factor for social anxiety in other racial and ethnic groups. This study examined BI in relation to social anxiety in a cross-sectional community-based sample of 86 rural southeastern American Indian adolescents. Patterns of childhood BI suggested cultural variations in the way temperament relates to adolescent social anxiety. Specifically, nonsocially based fears in childhood were associated with social anxiety symptoms in adolescence, which is in contrast to previous findings in non American Indian samples that have suggested continuity between social inhibition in childhood and social anxiety in adolescence. It is recommended that major psychological risk factors, including temperament, be evaluated within the specific social and cultural context of the adolescent population of interest.     

The Social Phobia Inventory: validity and reliability in an adolescent community sample

Social anxiety disorder and social anxiety are highly prevalent psychological conditions in youth. Because of the known risks associated with the spectrum of social anxiety in youth, early detection with valid and reliable assessment measures is imperative. Self-report measures have become the most widely used method of assessment for child and adolescent social anxiety. Because research to date on self-report measures of social anxiety disorder in adolescents is limited, the primary objective of the present study was to contribute to the literature by examining the validity and reliability of a new self-report measure, the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), in a community sample of adolescents. The SPIN is a 17-item measure purported to assess the full spectrum of social anxiety disorder symptomatology. Previously, psychometric research on the SPIN in adult populations has demonstrated its validity and reliability. In the current psychometric examination, results revealed strong support for the temporal stability, internal consistency, and construct validity of the SPIN, suggesting it is an appropriate screening measure for the assessment of social anxiety disorder in adolescents.     

Current Considerations in the Assessment of Youth Narcissism: Indicators of Pathological and Normative Development

The present study summarizes research on youth narcissism and examines the relations between different measures of youth narcissism and various indicators of behavioral, emotional, and social functioning. This area of research has grown dramatically in only a few years and speaks to the recognized role of self-perception in general and narcissism specifically in youth adjustment. Data are presented for 117 adolescents ages 16 to 19 attending a residential program. Results showed a moderate level of association across three measures of youth narcissism. In addition, each of the measures appeared to capture unique variance in different indicators of behavioral and social functioning. The implications of this area of research for conceptualizations of youth personality, assessment, and behavioral problems are discussed.     

Mental Health and Incarcerated Youth. II: Service Utilization

The incarceration of mentally ill youth is a serious problem not receiving the same attention as in adults. In this study, we examine the level of prior service utilization in incarcerated youth versus youth receiving community mental health services. We randomly recruited youth from middle South Carolina served by a local community mental health center (CMHC; n = 60), hospitalized in the state adolescent inpatient program (n = 50), and incarcerated in the S.C. Dept. of Juvenile Justice facilities (n = 75). We used a Services History to evaluate episodes of prior utilization of mental health, social service, educational, residential, and volunteer services, as well as the DISC-PC 2.3 to evaluate DSM-III-R diagnoses and symptoms and the CBCL and YSR to evaluate behavioral symptomatology. Incarcerated, hospitalized, and CMHC youth utilized similar levels of educational services and social services. Incarcerated youth had a significantly lower lifetime utilization of outpatient and acute mental health services and significantly higher utilization of out-of-home residential services than the other groups. These services utilization variables, along with gender and age, significantly distinguish incarcerated youth from the clinical groups, with clinical variables not serving to significantly distinguish them. Our results indicate the need to develop programs to prevent the entry of mentally ill/emotionally disturbed youth into the juvenile justice system. Youth who are at risk for incarcenation may benefit from intensive mental health services to prevent out-of-home placement and later incarceration.     

The classification of Spanish adolescents based on substance consumption patterns and the analysis of the relationships within their social developmental contexts

This research is part of the 2006 edition of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The data presented were composed of a sample of 15942 Spanish adolescents ranging from 13 to 18 years of age. The instruments used included a variety of questions related to substance consumption among adolescents, their bio-psycho-social adjustment and developmental contexts, all of which are part of the HBSC study instrument bank. Through classification analysis, as well as significance and effect size tests, we obtained relevant information about the current epidemiology of substance consumption among Spanish adolescents. These results are representative of the Spanish adolescent population which allows the typical risk profile attributed to young people to be clarified. A gradual adjustment can be seen in terms of substance consumption levels in youth and that same level in their friends. Likewise, the analysis of the developmental context (family, friends and school) provides important information when it comes to preventing substance consumption, thus showing the advantages that coherence and connection have between the different environments where youth live, grow up and develop.     

Rural adolescent aggression and parental emotional support

Preliminary research findings suggest important distinctions between rural and urban adolescent aggression risk and protective factors. Despite these potentially important differences, most of the existing research on adolescent aggression has utilized urban samples. The current study examines the direct association between parental emotional support and rural adolescent aggression, and whether adolescent psychopathology and substance abuse mediate this association. Multi-method measurement (self-report, parent report, and behavioral observations) were employed in measuring aggression and emotional support variables with rural, nonadjudicated adolescents (N=62) and their mothers or stepmothers. Results indicated that parental emotional support has an indirect influence on adolescent aggression. Adolescent substance abuse was completely mediated by adolescent grade-point average, indicating no significant direct impact on aggression. Adolescent psychopathology significantly mediated the relationship between parental emotional support and adolescent aggression. Particular items contributed substantially to this mediating association, making certain characteristics, rather than a specific diagnosis, relevant to psychopathology's mediating impact. These characteristics include cognitive perception of others as critical or hostile, emotional anxiousness in social situations, and behavioral persistence in social interactions despite these perceptions.     

Examining Anxiety and Depression as Moderators of the Associations Between ADHD Symptoms and Academic and Social Problems in Hispanic Adolescents

The effects of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms on the psychosocial functioning of Hispanic youth have been understudied. It also remains unclear if the well-established associations between ADHD symptoms and academic and social impairment are exacerbated by co-occurring internalizing symptoms. The purposes of the present study were to (1) examine whether ADHD symptoms would be associated with academic and social problems while also controlling for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms, and (2) test the hypothesis that anxious and depressive symptoms would moderate the relations between ADHD symptoms and academic and social problems. Participants were 142 at-risk Hispanic adolescents (54 % male, ages 14–19) who reported on their anxious and depressive symptoms, as well as their teachers who reported on adolescents’ ADHD symptoms, ODD symptoms, academic problems, and social problems. When the psychopathology variables were included simultaneously in a path model, ADHD was the only domain significantly positively associated with academic problems. In contrast, ODD and depressive symptoms were the only domains significantly positively associated with social problems when all of the psychopathology variables were included in the path model. No moderation effects were found in relation to academic problems, although a significant ADHD × depression interaction was found in relation to social problems. Specifically, ADHD symptoms were not associated with social problems among adolescents who reported low levels of depressive symptoms, but the association between ADHD symptoms and social problems was significant at higher levels of depression. In addition to targeting oppositionality, attending to the combined presence of ADHD and depressive symptoms will be important for reducing the social impairments among Hispanic adolescents.