Aggression toward female partners by at-risk young men: the contribution of male adolescent friendships

Deviancy training was examined as a risk factor for physical and psychological aggression toward a female partner among boys and young men in the Oregon Youth Study. Hostile talk about women during videotaped male friendship interactions was hypothesized to indicate a process by which aggression toward women is reinforced within male peer networks. Both antisocial behavior and hostile talk were predicted to be associated with later aggression toward a female partner. Prospective developmental models were tested from 9-10 years of age through young adulthood. Findings indicated that the relation of deviant peer association in adolescence and later aggression toward a partner was mediated by antisocial behavior; observed hostile talk about women with male peers explained additional variance in aggression toward a partner.     

Sibling collusion and problem behavior in early adolescence: toward a process model for family mutuality

Sibling collusion is a process by which siblings form coalitions that promote deviance and undermine parenting. Collusive sibling processes were identified and measured using macro ratings of videotaped family interactions. Hypotheses were tested on a multiethnic sample of urban youth, with a target child identified as either high risk (n = 26) or normative (n = 26), and their families. Siblings in families with a high-risk target child showed reliably higher rates of collusion than those in families with a normative target child. Sibling collusion also accounted for variance in problem behavior after controlling for involvement with deviant peers. Findings suggest that deviant conduct forms a common ground among siblings, potentially amplifying risk of mutuality in problem behavior during early adolescence. These data also indicate that attention to sibling relationship processes is relevant to family interventions designed to mitigate the development of behavior problems.     

Cross-setting consistency in early adolescent psychopathology: deviant friendships and problem behavior sequelae

This study examines adult reports of externalizing and internalizing psychopathology at home and school in a sample of 224 high-risk adolescent boys and girls (average age 12 years). Four groups of young adolescents were defined, based on the consistency of the teacher and parent Child Behavior Checklist reports: normal, internalizing, externalizing only, and comorbid. Group comparisons revealed the comorbid and externalizing groups were more engaged in a deviant peer group and were observed in higher levels of deviancy training with their friends, compared to other young adolescent groups. In general, elevated levels of arrest, drug use, and sexual promiscuity were associated with cross-setting consistency in externalizing disorders. Comorbid youth, however, showed the highest levels of sexual promiscuity in middle adolescence, compared to all other groups. These findings are consistent with a developmental account of adolescent maladjustment and suggest that emotional disturbance in early adolescence might exacerbate youth vulnerability, especially to deviancy training within friendships.     

Skill deficits and male adolescent delinquency

The research literature on juvenile delinquency shows that antisocial adolescents are often lacking in academic, interpersonal, and work skills. Past research on antisocial adolescents has focused primarily on the relationship between single skill deficits and official delinquency. The present report extends this body of literature by investigating the relationship between seven measures of skill and official and self-reported delinquency in a nonclinical sample of 70 white male adolescents. Youths classified as delinquent on the basis of prior police contact had a lower multivariate profile on seven measures of academic, interpersonal, and work skills. Five of the seven measures correlated significantly with both the official and self-reported criteria of delinquency. Academic skill deficits may be the strongest covariates of antisocial behavior.     

Neighborhood Deprivation during Early Childhood and Conduct Problems in Middle Childhood: Mediation by Aggressive Response Generation

The tremendous negative impact of conduct problems to the individual and society has provided the impetus for identifying risk factors, particularly in early childhood. Exposure to neighborhood deprivation in early childhood is a robust predictor of conduct problems in middle childhood. Efforts to identify and test mediating mechanisms by which neighborhood deprivation confers increased risk for behavioral problems have predominantly focused on peer relationships and community-level social processes. Less attention has been dedicated to potential cognitive mediators of this relationship, such as aggressive response generation, which refers to the tendency to generate aggressive solutions to ambiguous social stimuli with negative outcomes. In this study, we examined aggressive response generation, a salient component of social information processing, as a mediating process linking neighborhood deprivation to later conduct problems at age 10.5. Participants (N = 731; 50.5 % male) were drawn from a multisite randomized prevention trial that includes an ethnically diverse and low-income sample of male and female children and their primary caregivers followed prospectively from toddlerhood to middle childhood. Results indicated that aggressive response generation partially mediated the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and parent- and teacher-report of conduct problems, but not youth-report. Results suggest that the detrimental effects of neighborhood deprivation on youth adjustment may occur by altering the manner in which children process social information.     

Social Influences on Executive Functions Development in Children and Adolescents: Steps Toward a Social Neuroscience of Predictive Adaptive Responses

This commentary discusses the findings and implications of four empirical papers that establish a reciprocal, longitudinal link between the social environment and executive functions from childhood to adolescence. Two future directions are suggested by this work. The first is a call for measurement research to clarify the nomological network of various measurements of self-regulation and executive functions across a variety of methods and procedures. The second new direction is to broaden the analysis of executive function to include a wider array of predictive adaptive responses to various environmental conditions, including those where youth are chronically marginalized or otherwise stressed. Findings from these studies suggest that the executive functions within the brain guide adaptation in both deviant as well as competent responses to the social environment. Understanding various forms of adaptation will enhance the potential for prevention as well as avoid iatrogenic intervention strategies with misinformed targets.     

The Relationship between Parental Efficacy and Depressive Symptoms in a Diverse Sample of Low Income Mothers

We examined the relationship between parental efficacy and depressive symptoms in a diverse sample of low income mothers. The sample consisted of 607 European American, African American, and Hispanic mothers who participated in The Early Steps Project, a multi-site, longitudinal, preventative intervention study. Parental efficacy was found to be significantly associated with depressive symptoms in the entire sample of low income mothers. Ethnicity moderated results, however, such that parental efficacy was significantly associated with depressive symptoms for European American mothers but was not for the African American and Hispanic mothers. Ethnic differences in the various categories of depressive symptoms (i.e., total, somatic, and psychological) were also explored, with the results showing that African American mothers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than both European American and Hispanic mothers in each of the categories. The theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed.     

A longitudinal examination of risky sexual behaviors among Canadian and Italian adolescents: Considering individual, parental, and friend characteristics

In this study, two longitudinal models of early adolescent risky sexual behaviors (RSB) were compared using a pooled sample of 267 Canadian and Italian adolescents (55% females; 53% Canadians) assessed yearly from grade 8 to 10. We focused on parenting practices (monitoring, control, limit setting), adolescent problem behaviors (antisocial behaviors, substance use) and their friends' deviance (antisocial behaviors, substance use) as predictors of condom use frequency and lifetime number of sexual partners. The socialization model postulates that youths' problem behaviors and RSB are behaviors learned within the friendship network where deviancy training can occur. The selection model posits that delinquent youth tend to affiliate with each other, and that RSB is one of many behaviors that can form the basis of selection. Using structural equation modeling, this study showed that the socialization model was the most accurate to explain the emergence of RSB. A full mediation of parenting practices, passing through deviant friends and youths' problem behavior, was observed for condom use. The same process applied to number of sexual partners, but a direct effect for parenting practices was also found.     

Collateral benefits of the Family Check-Up on early childhood school readiness: indirect effects of parents' positive behavior support

The authors examined the longitudinal effects of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on parents' positive behavior support and children's school readiness competencies in early childhood. It was hypothesized that the FCU would promote language skills and inhibitory control in children at risk for behavior problems as an indirect outcome associated with targeted improvements in parents' positive behavior support. High-risk families in the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program participated in a multisite preventive intervention study (N = 731) with 3 yearly assessments beginning at child age 2 years. Positive behavior support was measured using 4 indicators derived from at-home observations of parent-child interaction during semistructured tasks. Longitudinal structural equation models revealed that parents in families randomly assigned to the FCU showed improvements in positive behavior support from child age 2 to 3, which in turn promoted children's inhibitory control and language development from age 3 to 4, accounting for child gender, ethnicity, and parental education. Findings suggest that a brief, ecological preventive intervention supporting positive parenting practices can indirectly foster key facets of school readiness in children at risk.