An Increase in Early Adolescent Undercontrol Is Associated With the Use of Denial

This is a longitudinal study of change in undercontrol and its relation to the use of defense mechanisms with participants from the Berkeley Guidance Study of the Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley. I predicted that use of the immature defense of Denial, but not Projection or Identification, would be related at early adolescence to an increase in undercontrol as assessed from 2 independent measures. The assessment of Ego Undercontrol indicated that the majority of children decreased with age, but for those who increased at early adolescence, the increase was significantly related to the use of Denial. Similarly, assessment of Externalizing Behavior Problems at early adolescence indicated that an increase in Externalizing Problems was related to the use of Denial. In addition to indicating psychological immaturity, the use of Denial prevents these children from recognizing the negative impact of their undercontrolled behavior.     

Identification and the development of competence: a 44-year longitudinal study from late adolescence to late middle age

The role of defense mechanisms in the development of planful competence (J. A. Clausen, 1993) was studied over a period of 44 years in participants from the Oakland Growth Study, who are part of the Intergenerational Studies of the Institute of Human Development. Planful competence was assessed on 4 occasions, from late adolescence (ages 15-18) to late middle age (age 62). The use of the defense mechanisms of denial, projection, and identification was assessed in late adolescence, based on Thematic Apperception Test (H. A. Murray, 1943) stories coded with the Defense Mechanism Manual (P. Cramer, 1991b). In late adolescence, the defense mechanism of identification was found to be positively related to competence, whereas the less mature defense of projection was related to lower levels of competence. For the group as a whole, hierarchical linear modeling (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) indicated that competence increased across the adult years, with a modest decline at late middle age. Individual differences for intraindividual change in competence were related to the use of identification: high use of identification in late adolescence was associated with relative stability in adult competence, whereas low use of identification in adolescence predicted changes in adult competence.     

Influences of character-based coping style on psychological health

This study explores the moderating effects of early adult character style on correlations between social relationships in adolescence and midlife psychological health. Participants were drawn from the ongoing longitudinal studies at the Institute of Human Development. Individuals who beat the odds of an adverse environment and those who failed to capitalize on beneficial environments were identified and compared at age 30 on the California Psychological Inventory, the Meredith-Millsap Component Scores, and the Thematic Apperception Test. Social relatedness and personal independence were characteristics at age 30 of all subjects who went on to develop good psychological health by age 50. Social relatedness was more associated with overcoming a difficult environment, while self-assurance was more associated with capitalizing on a good one.     

Longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling analyses of California Psychological Inventory data from age 33 to 75: an examination of stability and change in adult personality

Twenty aspects of personality assessed via the California Psychological Inventory (CPI; Gough & Bradley, 1996) from age 33 to 75 were examined in a sample of 279 individuals. Oakland Growth Study and Berkeley Guidance Study members completed the CPI a maximum of 4 times. We used longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to ask the following: Which personality characteristics change and which do not? Five CPI scales showed uniform lack of change, 2 showed heterogeneous change giving an averaged lack of change, 4 showed linear increases with age, 2 showed linear decreases with age, 4 showed gender or sample differences in linear change, 1 showed a quadratic peak, and 2 showed a quadratic nadir. The utility of HLM becomes apparent in portraying the complexity of personality change and stability.     

Adversity in adolescence predicts personality trait change from childhood to adulthood

This study examined whether cumulative adversity in adolescence predicted changes in the Big Five traits from childhood to adulthood in the Project Competence Longitudinal Study sample (N = 205) followed from childhood (age 10) through adolescence into adulthood (age 30). Personality traits were measured in childhood through multiple methods and in adulthood by self-report. Cumulative adversity, assessed in adolescence, differentiated independent adversity (likely unrelated to participants’ behavior) from dependent adversity (resulting from participants’ own behavior). Participants’ personality traits were modestly stable over 20 years, although Openness showed greater stability. Independent and dependent adversity predicted increases in Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism, and dependent adversity predicted decreases in Constraint/Conscientiousness and Agreeableness from childhood to adulthood, suggesting that cumulative adversity shapes personality development in young people.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Select Influences on Adolescents' Occupational Aspirations

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 was used to investigate the longitudinal influence of select demographic and latent variables on the development of adolescents' occupational aspirations at three critical points in the career development process—early, mid-, and late adolescence. Linear structural equation (LISREL) analysis examined the contributions of family status, academic achievement, and social psychological variables. Occupational aspirations of adolescents were relatively stable across the 4-year time period. Further, earlier aspirations offered significant predictive power for subsequent ones. Structural coefficients for social demographic variables indicated that socioeconomic status (SES) had significant effects on adolescents' aspirations. In contrast, two latent variables, academic achievement and self-evaluation, initially represented only modest effects on aspirations which then decreased consistently over time.     

Psychological distress and quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Presence of psychological distress and poor quality of life (QoL) may affect the outcome of HIV/AIDS. One hundred and seventeen consecutive and consenting participants were interviewed using a Socio-demographic questionnaire, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) and World Health Organization Quality of Life-HIV Bref. Fifty-six (47.9%) participants scored 20 and above on K10 Scale. QoL was significantly higher in married participants, those who perceived their state of health as being good, asymptomatic participants and those who scored well–mild on K10. The older age group scored higher on QoL Scale than the younger age group in the physical health domain while the married participants scored higher in the domains of physical health, psychological health, environment and spiritual/religion. The participants who perceived their state of health as being good scored higher than those who perceived their health as poor in all domains. There is a high level of psychological distress and poor QoL in people living with HIV/AIDS.     

Religious Pathways from Adolescence to Adulthood

Prior research suggests the significance of religion for development and well‐being in adolescence and beyond. Further, new developments and applications of statistical methods have led to ways of better accounting for the multidimensional nature of religiosity (e.g., latent class analysis), as well as the dynamic aspects of religiosity (e.g., latent growth curve models). Yet, rarely, if ever, are both features of religiosity incorporated and examined together. Therefore, we propose and conduct a latent class analysis using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to identify seven distinct pathways of religiosity that involve independently changing levels of religious affiliation, religious service attendance, personal importance of religion, and prayer from adolescence to adulthood. We also show how individuals’ religious pathways are related to gender, race, parents’ education, their own education, and family formation experiences in the transition to adulthood. Our findings inform the study of how multiple dimensions of religiosity take shape across adolescence and the transition to adulthood, and suggest a new way for measuring the dynamics of religiosity in studies of the impact of religion across the life course.     

The erosive effects of racism: reduced self-control mediates the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use in African American adolescents

Perceived racial discrimination, self-control, anger, and either substance use or use cognitions were assessed in 2 studies conducted with samples of African American adolescents. The primary goal was to examine the relation between discrimination and self-control over time; a 2nd goal was to determine whether that relation mediates the link between discrimination and substance use found in previous research. Study 1, which included a latent growth curve analysis with 3 waves of data, indicated that experience with discrimination (from age 10 years to age 18 years) was associated with reduced self-control, which then predicted increased substance use. Additional analyses indicated anger was also a mediator of this discrimination to use relation. Study 2, which was experimental, showed that envisioning an experience involving discrimination was associated with an increase in substance-related responses to double entendre words (e.g., pot, roach) in a word association task, especially for participants who were low in dispositional self-control. The effect was again mediated by reports of anger. Thus, the "double mediation" pattern was discrimination → more anger and reduced self-control → increased substance use and/or substance cognitions. Results are discussed in terms of the long-term impact of discrimination on self-control and health behavior. Implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating the negative effects of discrimination and low self-control on health are also discussed.     

The effect of early cognitions on cigarette and alcohol use during adolescence

The present study predicts cigarette and alcohol use in adolescence from the development of children's cognitions in the elementary years. Using latent growth modeling, the authors examined a model using data from 712 participants in the Oregon Youth Substance Use Project, who were in the 2nd through 5th grade at the 1st assessment and followed for 6 annual or semiannual assessments over 7 years. Growth in children's prototypes and subjective norms in the elementary years (Times 1 through 4) were related to their substance use in adolescence (Time 6) through their willingness and intentions (Time 5) to smoke and drink. Across the sample, for both substances, the intercept and slope of prototypes were either indirectly related to use through willingness or directly related to use. Both the intercept and slope of subjective norms were indirectly related to use of both substances through both willingness and intentions and directly related to cigarette use. Results suggest that elementary children have measurable cognitions regarding substance use that develop during the elementary years and predict use later in adolescence. These findings emphasize the need for prevention programs targeted at changing children's social images of substance users and encouraging more accurate perceptions of peers' use.     

Narcissism,identification, and longitudinal change in psychological health: Dynamic predictions

The narcissist has been described as “dependent on others to provide confirmation of the grandiose ego ideal” (American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.). The present study shows how the combination of dependent identification and unhealthy narcissism leads to decreasing psychological health across 42 years of adulthood. Change in psychological health is studied in 156 participants of the Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley. We predicted that longitudinal decline in psychological health, as assessed by longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling analyses of the California Personality Inventory v3 scale [Gough, H. G., & Bradley, P. (1996). California Psychological Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press], would be predicted by the joint presence in early adulthood of maladaptive narcissism [Wink, P. (1992). Three narcissism scales for the California Q-set. Journal of Personality Assessment, 58, 51–66] and defensive identification [Cramer, P. (1991a). The development of defense mechanisms: Theory, research and assessment. New York: Springer-Verlag]. In contrast, we predicted healthy narcissism would be positively related to psychological health throughout adulthood. Predictions were confirmed via regression analyses including interaction terms, and are explained by the insoluble conflict that occurs when narcissistic gratification is dependent on the admiration of others, but the tie to others interferes with independent growth and accomplishment.     

Self-esteem development from age 14 to 30 years: a longitudinal study

We examined the development of self-esteem in adolescence and young adulthood. Data came from the Young Adults section of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which includes 8 assessments across a 14-year period of a national probability sample of 7,100 individuals age 14 to 30 years. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that self-esteem increases during adolescence and continues to increase more slowly in young adulthood. Women and men did not differ in their self-esteem trajectories. In adolescence, Hispanics had lower self-esteem than Blacks and Whites, but the self-esteem of Hispanics subsequently increased more strongly, so that at age 30 Blacks and Hispanics had higher self-esteem than Whites. At each age, emotionally stable, extraverted, and conscientious individuals experienced higher self-esteem than emotionally unstable, introverted, and less conscientious individuals. Moreover, at each age, high sense of mastery, low risk taking, and better health predicted higher self-esteem. Finally, the results suggest that normative increase in sense of mastery accounts for a large proportion of the normative increase in self-esteem.     

A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Shyness from Infancy to Adolescence: Stability, Age-Related Changes, and Prediction of Socio-Emotional Functioning

This longitudinal, population-based and prospective study investigated the stability, age-related changes, and socio-emotional outcomes of shyness from infancy to early adolescence. A sample of 921 children was followed from ages 1.5 to 12.5?years. Parent-reported shyness was assessed at five time points and maternal- and self-reported social skills and symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed at age 12.5?years. Piecewise latent growth curve analysis was applied, with outcomes regressed on latent shyness intercept and slope factors. Results showed moderate stability and increasing levels of shyness across time, with more variance and a steeper increase in early as compared to mid-to-late childhood. Both stable shyness and increased shyness in mid-to-late (but not early) childhood predicted poorer social skills and higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms in early adolescence. The implications of the evidence for two developmental periods in shyness trajectories with differential impact on later socio-emotional functioning are discussed.     

Religiousness, spiritual seeking, and personality: findings from a longitudinal study

The hypothesis that personality characteristics in adolescence can be used to predict religiousness and spiritual seeking in late adulthood was tested using a structural equation modeling framework to estimate cross-lagged and autoregressive effects in a two-wave panel design. The sample consisted of 209 men and women participants in the Berkeley Guidance and Oakland Growth studies. In late adulthood, religiousness was positively related to Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and spiritual seeking was related to Openness to Experience. Longitudinal models indicated that Conscientiousness in adolescence significantly predicted religiousness in late adulthood above and beyond adolescent religiousness. Similarly, Openness in adolescence predicted spiritual seeking in late adulthood. The converse effect, adolescent religiousness to personality in late adulthood, was not significant in either model. Among women, adolescent Agreeableness predicted late-life religiousness and adolescent religiousness predicted late-life Agreeableness; both these effects were absent among men. Adolescent personality appears to shape late-life religiousness and spiritual seeking independent of early religious socialization.     

Life-span development of self-esteem and its effects on important life outcomes

We examined the life-span development of self-esteem and tested whether self-esteem influences the development of important life outcomes, including relationship satisfaction, job satisfaction, occupational status, salary, positive and negative affect, depression, and physical health. Data came from the Longitudinal Study of Generations. Analyses were based on 5 assessments across a 12-year period of a sample of 1,824 individuals ages 16 to 97 years. First, growth curve analyses indicated that self-esteem increases from adolescence to middle adulthood, reaches a peak at about age 50 years, and then decreases in old age. Second, cross-lagged regression analyses indicated that self-esteem is best modeled as a cause rather than a consequence of life outcomes. Third, growth curve analyses, with self-esteem as a time-varying covariate, suggested that self-esteem has medium-sized effects on life-span trajectories of affect and depression, small to medium-sized effects on trajectories of relationship and job satisfaction, a very small effect on the trajectory of health, and no effect on the trajectory of occupational status. These findings replicated across 4 generations of participants--children, parents, grandparents, and their great-grandparents. Together, the results suggest that self-esteem has a significant prospective impact on real-world life experiences and that high and low self-esteem are not mere epiphenomena of success and failure in important life domains.     

Latent growth modeling of the relationship between depressive symptoms and substance use during adolescence.

To explicate the nature of the relationship between depressive symptoms and substance use, the authors conducted research that incorporated both individual and group approaches and utilized longitudinal data across development. Multiple-group latent growth curve models were used to assess specific dimensions (cross-sectional and longitudinal correlation, within-individual change, and movement off developmental trajectories) of the relationship between depressive symptoms and substance use during adolescence and how this relationship differs by gender. Annual survey data from 8th through 11th grade were provided by 441 girls and 510 boys in the Raising Healthy Children project (E. C. Brown, R. F. Catalano, C. B. Fleming, K. P. Haggerty, & R. D. Abbott, 2005). Levels of depressive symptoms and substance use in early adolescence were positively associated for alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use for girls, but only for marijuana use for boys. Individual changes in depressive symptoms and substance use across adolescence were positively associated for each type of substance use. Evidence was also found for positive association between episodic expressions of depressive symptoms and alcohol use that fell outside developmental trajectories. Predictive relationships across constructs were not found, with the exception of higher level of depressive symptoms in early adolescence predicting less increase in alcohol use.     

Early Onset Binge Eating and Purging Eating Disorders: Course and Outcome in a Population-Based Study of Adolescents

This study aimed to describe the course of early onset eating disorders in a population-based sample followed from 14 to 20 years; identify variables that could account for the persistence of eating disorders from 14 to 20 years; and describe outcome of early onset eating disorders with reference to general and psychological functioning at age 20. Participants (N?=?1,383; 49 % male) were drawn from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, which has followed children from pre-birth to young adulthood. Eating disorder symptoms were assessed using an adapted version of the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire, at ages 14, 17 and 20. At age 14, 70 participants met DSM-IV criteria for a binge eating or purging eating disorder. Nearly half (44 %) of these adolescents ceased to meet criteria for an eating disorders at ages 17 and 20, whilst one-quarter still met criteria for an eating disorder at age 20 and one-fifth met criteria for an eating disorder at all three time points. Purging at age 17 and externalising behaviour problems at age 14 were the strongest predictors of eating disorder persistence to age 20. Participants who experienced a persistent eating disorder were less likely to complete high school than other participants, and reported pronounced depressive and anxiety symptoms at age 20. This study provides new data the course and outcome of early onset eating disorders at a population level. Behavioural difficulties in early adolescence and purging in middle adolescence may predict persistent eating pathology to young adulthood.     

Psychological Distress and Associated Factors Among a Sample of Pregnant Women in South Africa

We sought to identify the prevalence of psychological distress and associated factors among pregnant women who were patients at antenatal primary care clinics in a South Africa district. A cross-sectional study using systematic sampling was conducted among 1497 pregnant women (age range=18 to 47 years; mean age=26.6 years, SD=6.1; Black African=98%), with a mean gestational age of 6.5 months (SD=1.6). They completed the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, a measure of psychological distress. Results showed high rates of severe psychological distress (26.5%). Increased distress was in multivariate analysis associated with having had an STI (other than HIV), being unhappy about current pregnancy, and HIV positive. Identification of pregnant women with psychological distress in public health clinics is crucial for effective and appropriate targeted interventions.     

Longitudinal findings from the Normative Aging Study: III. Personality, individual health trajectories, and mortality

Individual differences in physical and psychological health trajectories were examined in 1,515 Normative Aging Study men. Mean age at baseline was 47.15 years (range = 28-80), and average follow up was 18.55 years (range = 8-25). Both linear and nonlinear growth curves were estimated with random-effects models and then clustered to identify patterns of change. Men whose physical health trajectories were characterized by high, increasing symptoms were higher in hostility and anxiety, were overweight, and smoked. Those whose trajectories were characterized by low symptoms were emotionally stable, educated, nonsmokers, and thin. Men with high, stable psychological trajectories had high hostility; those with low, stable trajectories had high emotional stability; those with moderate anxiety levels had nonlinear trajectories with peaks in psychological symptoms at different life stages. Personality had life-long effects on health trajectories, but these effects varied across traits and health outcomes.     

The etiology of variation in language skills changes with development: a longitudinal twin study of language from 2 to 12 years

The present study is the first long-term longitudinal examination of the etiology of individual differences in language from early childhood through to adolescence. We applied a multivariate latent factor genetic model to longitudinal data from the Twins Early Development Study in order to (a) compare the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on language skills in early childhood (2, 3 and 4 years), middle childhood (7, 9 and 10 years), and early adolescence (12 years); and (b) determine to what extent the same genetic and environmental factors underlie variation in language skills at these three stages of language development. We found that while shared environmental influences appear to be dominant (latent factor c2 = .74) in early language, with a smaller though significant role for genetic factors (latent factor a2 = .24), the pattern is reversed by middle childhood such that genetic influences are substantially more important (latent factor a2 = .57-.63 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .47-.57 at 12 years) and shared environmental influences less so (latent factor c2 = .31-.37 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .31-.32 at 12 years). The increase in the heritability of language skills between early and middle childhood appears to be due to new genetic factors that come into play at that transition. In contrast, genetic factors remain stable from middle childhood through to early adolescence, and account for the phenotypic continuity in language skills across these two stages.