What Predicts Adolescent Violence in Better-Off Neighborhoods?

Predictors of repeated violent delinquency across ages 13–19 were investigated in a longitudinal sample of 420 urban adolescent males living in high- compared to low-socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods. Adolescents in high-SES neighborhoods were significantly less likely than their counterparts in low-SES neighborhoods to engage in serious and violent delinquency. Results indicated that risk factors for later repeated violence among adolescents in high-SES neighborhoods, such as physical aggression, may be biologically based, whereas risk factors for later violence among adolescents in low-SES neighborhoods, such as poor parent–adolescent communication and early intercourse, appeared to be context-dependent. Having positive attitudes toward problem behavior and delinquent peers increased risk for later violence regardless of neighborhood SES type. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Parent–Adolescent Conflict in Teenagers with ADHD and ODD

Eighty-seven male teens (ages 12–18 years) with ADHD/ODD and their parents were compared to 32 male teens and their parents in a community control (CC) group on mother, father, and teen ratings of parent–teen conflict and communication quality, parental self-reports of psychological adjustment, and direct observations of parent–teen problem-solving interactions during a neutral and conflict discussion. Parents and teens in the ADHD/ODD group rated themselves as having significantly more issues involving parent–teen conflict, more anger during these conflict discussions, and more negative communication generally, and used more aggressive conflict tactics with each other than did parents and teens in the CC group. During a neutral discussion, only the ADHD/ODD teens demonstrated more negative behavior. During the conflict discussion, however, the mothers, fathers, and teens in the ADHD/ODD group displayed more negative behavior, and the mothers and teens showed less positive behavior than did participants in the CC group. Differences in conflicts related to sex of parent were evident on only a few measures. Both mother and father self-rated hostility contributed to the level of mother–teen conflict whereas father self-rated hostility and anxiety contributed to father–teen conflict beyond the contribution made by level of teen ODD and ADHD symptoms. Results replicated past studies of mother–child interactions in ADHD/ODD children, extended these results to teens with these disorders, showed that greater conflict also occurs in father–teen interactions, and found that degree of parental hostility, but not ADHD symptoms, further contributed to levels of parent–teen conflict beyond the contribution made by severity of teen ADHD and ODD symptoms.     

Do Cognitive Changes Accompany Developments in the Adolescent Brain?

ABSTRACT— The news that the brain continues to develop through much of adolescence risks becoming an explanation for anything and everything about teenagers and suggests the need for closer analysis. Central to such analysis is clarifying what develops at a psychological level during these years. An examination of contemporary research data on adolescent cognitive development identifies increased executive control as a major dimension of cognitive development during the second decade of life. Such development is consistent with changes occurring in the brain during this period.     

Adolescent maternity: A risk factor in poverty situations?

This paper describes the psychosocial characteristics of adolescent mothers living in poverty in urban communities of Uruguay, whose children are now 0 to 5 years old. A sample of 965 mothers representative of the poor urban communities in the entire country was studied. One hundred thirty-six of these mothers were adolescents, 19 years old or younger. Six major areas were explored: socioeconomic status and social support, family characteristics, child-rearing practices, maternal and paternal availability, and characteristics of the child. In the group of children 2 to 5 years of age, psychomotor development was explored using the Test de Desarrollo Psicomotor (TEPSI). Psychosocial risk and child development were compared for adolescent and nonadolescent poor urban mothers. Children in both groups showed negative effects. It was not found that children of adolescent mothers did worse than those of nonadolescent mothers. Therefore, it was concluded that adolescent maternity is a complex phenomenon that cannot be viewed in isolation from the social environment in which it takes place. The results indicated that in poor communities the poverty-related risk factors may obscure the effect of the age-related ones.     

Genetic Counselors’ Experiences with Adolescent Patients in Prenatal Genetic Counseling

Adolescents comprise a portion of women who present to genetic counselors prenatally. In this study, prenatal genetic counselors (N = 128) were surveyed regarding their perceptions of genetic counseling sessions for adolescent (ages 13–19) and adult (ages 20–34) patients. Counselors perceived differences in methods used to communicate risk information for adolescent versus adult populations. Respondents reported that it is more difficult for adolescents to understand prognostic information than adults. They also noted differences between adult and adolescent populations with respect to the people who typically accompany the patient to the session. Respondents stated that adolescents were accompanied by a parent, friend, or sibling, which differed from adults who reportedly were accompanied by a significant other, father of the pregnancy, or by no one. These findings suggest it is important to recognize that adolescent patients are in a unique stage of their development which may influence a prenatal genetic counseling session.     

Do Parent–Adolescent Discrepancies in Family Functioning Increase the Risk of Hispanic Adolescent HIV Risk Behaviors?

In the family‐based prevention science literature, family functioning, defined as positive parenting, parental involvement, family cohesion, family communication, parental monitoring of peers, and parent–adolescent communication, has been shown to ameliorate HIV risk behaviors in Hispanic youth. However, the majority of studies have relied solely on parent or adolescent reports and we know very little about parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether and to what extent parent–adolescent discrepancies in family functioning increased the risk of HIV risk behaviors, including substance use and sexual risk behaviors, and whether these associations vary as a function of acculturation and youth gender. A total of 746 Hispanic 8th grade youth and their primary caregivers were included in the study. Structural equation modeling findings indicate that parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies are associated with an increased risk of Hispanic adolescent HIV risk behaviors, including lifetime and past 90‐day alcohol and illicit drug use, and early sex initiation. In addition, study findings indicate that results vary by acculturation and youth gender. Findings are discussed in the context of existing family‐based research and practice in preventing and reducing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth and their families.     

Who are the Owners of Firearms Used in Adolescent Suicides?

In this brief report, the source of firearms used in adolescent suicides was examined using data from the National Violent Injury Statistics System, the pilot to the CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System, a uniform reporting system for violent and firearm-related deaths. Data represent the 63 firearm suicides among youth (<18 yrs) that occurred in 2001 or 2002 in one of four states (CT, ME, UT, WI) or two metropolitan counties (San Francisco, CA; Allegheny County, PA). Four-fifths of the suicides took place in the decedents' homes, and--when the firearm owner was known--most of the firearms were owned by parents. Findings replicate results from previous research and highlight the importance of limiting youth access to firearms.     

Do Social Connections and Hope Matter in Predicting Early Adolescent Violence?

We tested relationships between social connections, hope, and violence among young adolescents from socially distressed urban neighborhoods, and examined whether relationships between adolescents' family and school connectedness and violence involvement were mediated by hopefulness. Data were from middle school students involved in the Lead Peace demonstration study. The sample (N = 164) was 51.8% female; 42% African American, 28% Asian, 13% Hispanic, and 17% mixed race or other race; average age was 12.1 years; 46% reported physical fighting in the past year. In multivariate models, parent-family connectedness was protective against violence; school connectedness was marginally protective. Hopefulness was related to lower levels of violence. The relationship between school connectedness and violence was mediated by hopefulness; some evidence for mediation also existed in the family-parent connectedness and violence relationship. Findings warrant continued exploration of hopefulness as an important protective factor against violence involvement, and as a mediator in relationships between social connections and violence involvement.     

Gender Differences in Adolescent Depression: Gender-Typed Characteristics or Problem-Solving Skills Deficits?

This study explored gender differences indepressive symptoms during adolescence in relation withgender-typed characteristics, problem-solving abilities,and stressful life events. Participants were 306 white French-speaking adolescents (142 men and164 women) from upper middle-class families enrolled ina high school in the Trois-Rivières area ofQuebec. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 17 years, with a mean age of 15.3 years (SD = .95). Theycompleted the French versions of the Beck DepressionInventory (BDI), the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), theProblem-Solving Inventory (PSI), and the Life Event Questionnaire (LEQ) during a regularclass. Depressed participants distinguished themselvesfrom nondepressed participants on all variables exceptfor expressivity. Instrumentality was negatively correlated with depression for boys and for thetotal sample. Scores on all three subscales of the PSIcorrelated with depression, and with scores on the LEQ,with the exception of In the Last Yearsubscale for boys. A path analysis was conducted usingscores on the BDI as the dependent variable. Subjectiveproblem-solving abilities act as a mediating variablebetween instrumentality and depression. Instrumentality, expressivity, and problem-solving abilitiesexplained a significant portion of the variance of theBDI.     

How Competent are Adolescent Bullying Perpetrators and Victims in Mastering Normative Developmental Tasks in Early Adulthood?

A substantive body of literature suggests that those involved in bullying as perpetrators but particularly victims are at greater risk for psychological maladjustment. In comparison, relatively little is known about associations between bullying-victimization and perpetration and mastery of early adult tasks in domains including romantic relationships, education, work, financial competence, and conduct. These links were tested using data from two Dutch cohorts (RADAR-young, n = 497, 43% girls; TRAILS, n = 2230, 51% girls) who reported on victimization and perpetration at age 11 (TRAILS) and 13 (RADAR-young) and mastery of developmental tasks in early adulthood. Unadjusted regression analyses suggested for both cohorts that perpetrators were less likely to abide the law and more likely to smoke. Victims in TRAILS were less competent in the domains of education, work, and finances, and more likely to smoke in RADAR-young. Adjusting for childhood demographics and child intelligence and including psychopathology in the prediction models substantially reduced the strength of associations between bullying involvement and later outcomes in both cohorts; although association were retained between victimization and welfare dependence and perpetration and crime involvement in TRAILS. Parental support did not buffer associations in either sample and neither were gender differences detected. Overall, findings underline that negative outcomes of bullying are not only a concern for victims but also for their perpetrators although involvement in bullying is not a stable predictor of mastery of developmental tasks when childhood demographics, child intelligence, and psychopathology are taken into account.     

Adolescent Patients’ Responses to Interpretations Focused on Endings in Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Discussing endings is a crucial part of the work of short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy with adolescents, but there are different views on how best this should be done and whether it is helpful or appropriate to link endings to interpretations of the transference. This study looks at how adolescent patients suffering from moderate to severe depression respond to interpretations around endings in a 28-session long, manualized psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Data come from a randomized clinical trial in which all sessions were audio-recorded. Purposive sampling was used to identify four sessions with four different adolescents in which therapists raised the issue of upcoming endings, explored the patients’ emotional responses, and linked these to the transference. The four extracts were transcribed and analysed using conversation analysis. Findings show that patients either emphasized or diminished the importance of their relationship to the therapists and the consequences of the separation from them in response to transference interpretations. They managed the conversational exchange by either “trouble-telling” or “story-telling.” The authors reflect on the implication of patients’ responses for treatment technique and consider whether transference work with adolescents should be paced and adapted more flexibly in short term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.     

Does Childhood Executive Function Predict Adolescent Functional Outcomes in Girls with ADHD?

We prospectively followed an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of preadolescent girls with ADHD (n = 140) and matched comparison girls (n = 88) over a period of 5 years, from middle childhood through early/mid-adolescence. Our aim was to examine the ability of measures of childhood executive function (EF) to predict functional outcomes in adolescence. Measures of neuropsychological functioning comprised the childhood predictors, with academic, social, and global functioning serving as adolescent criterion measures. Results indicated that childhood EF predicted (a) academic achievement and social functioning across our entire sample (independent of diagnostic group status) and (b) global functioning only in girls with ADHD (independent of IQ). These results highlight the non-specificity of EF deficits and suggest the importance of assessing and developing interventions that target EF impairments, particularly in those at high-risk for negative outcomes, in order to prevent long-term difficulties across a range of important functional domains.     

The Role of Romantic Involvement and Social Support in Italian Adolescent Mothers’ Live

This study examined the experience of mothering in adolescence in the context of romantic involvement and social support. 30 adolescent mothers completed measures of adolescent self-development and motherhood, romantic relationship experience, availability of and satisfaction with social support, and parenting stress. Findings suggest that young mothers benefit greatly from the support of a partner, as evidenced by a more functional understanding of motherhood and the maternal role, greater satisfaction with social support, and lower levels of psychological distress. Education on social support should be made available to young mothers to address stress associated with adolescent parenting.     

A Test of a Cognitive Diathesis—Stress Generation Pathway in Early Adolescent Depression

This study evaluates a pathway for depressive risk that integrates cognitive diathesis-stress and stress-generation theories, following Hankin and Abramson’s (2001, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31(4), 491-504) elaborated cognitive-diathesis transactional stress model. In this model, young adolescents with initial depressive symptoms were hypothesised to experience later stressors that were at least partly dependent on their behaviour. The interaction of cognitive vulnerability, a tendency to make depressogenic attributions and to ruminate, with these dependent stressors was then hypothesised to predict depressive symptoms after 6 months. This model was supported in a sample of 756 young adolescents, with cognitive style and dependent stressors partly mediating the relationship between initial and subsequent depressive symptoms. Cognitive vulnerability was also linked with an increased likelihood of dependent stressors.

How Variations in Parents’ Use of Confrontive and Coercive Control Relate to Variations in Parent–Adolescent Conflict,Adolescent Disclosure,and Parental Knowledge: Adolescents’ Perspective

Benefits and drawbacks of parental control exercised in relation to adolescents continue to be debated in socialization research with greater emphasis being placed on the benefits of parental autonomy-granting than parental control. We examined the relations between maternal and paternal control and parent–adolescent conflict frequency and intensity as well as parental knowledge of adolescent activities and adolescents’ disclosure of their activities to parents. Adolescents in grades 10 and 12 were interviewed about parenting practices their parents employed when regulating 18 adolescent activities. Thirty-seven parenting practices emerged from which authoritarian, directive, authoritative, democratic, and unengaged parenting clusters were derived. Adolescents whose mothers and fathers were classified as directive or authoritative reported less conflict with parents, more disclosure to parents, and more parental knowledge than adolescents whose mothers and fathers were classified as authoritarian. Coercive control practices of authoritarian parents as well as nondemanding practices of unengaged parents and to some extent of democratic parents were related to more negative parent–child relationship indicators than was the extensive use of firm/confrontive control (rational-demanding) by directive parents or authoritative parents. Evidence herein supports the conclusion that even for middle and late adolescents, parental control that is rational and firm is related to beneficial parent–child relationship qualities. Therefore, practitioners should underscore the importance of continued parental control during adolescence not just of autonomy-granting.     

Gender Stereotypes Depicted by Western and Korean Advertising Models in Korean Adolescent Girls�� Magazines

Using content analysis based on Goffman??s (1979) typology, the authors examined gender role stereotypes in Korean fashion magazines targeting adolescent girls. Korean women were more stereotypically portrayed than any other group as smiling, pouting, and with a childlike or cute expression. On the other hand, Western women were more stereotypically portrayed than any other group in the categories of licensed withdrawal and body display. In some categories, male models were more female-stereotypically portrayed than female models of a particular race. Implications of the findings, future research suggestions, and limitations of the current study are discussed.