Coparenting Conflict and Academic Readiness in Children of Teen Mothers: Effortful Control as a Mediator

Children's exposure to coparenting conflict has important implications for their developmental functioning, yet limited work has focused on such processes in families with diverse structures or ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This longitudinal study examined the processes by which Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers' coparenting conflict with their 3‐year‐old children's grandmothers and biological fathers (N = 133 families) were linked to children's academic and social skills at 5 years of age, and whether children's effortful control at 4 years of age mediated the link between coparenting conflict and indices of children's academic readiness. Findings revealed that adolescent mothers' coparenting conflict with their child's biological father was linked to indices of children's academic and social school readiness through children's effortful control among girls, but not boys, whereas conflict with grandmothers was directly linked to boys' and girls' social functioning 2 years later. Findings offer information about different mechanisms by which multiple coparenting units in families of adolescent mothers are related to their children's outcomes, and this work has important implications for practitioners working with families of adolescent mothers.     

Depression-related distress in Mauritian and South African adolescent girls: an exploratory investigation

Self-reports of depression-related distress were obtained from girls of 14 to 17 years of age living in communities of low socioeconomic status in Mauritius (n = 198) and South Africa (n = 275). Of the girls in the two samples, 26.3 and 21.5%, respectively, had thought about self-harm during the past 5 yr., while between 14.6 and 16.7% had made self-harm attempts. Also, 39.9% of the Mauritian girls and 31.0% of the South Africans reported being sad and tearful every day for more than 2 wk. over the past year. Of the girls, Mauritians (54.0%) and South Africans (32.1%) felt their problems were too much to cope with, while 20.4% of the South African girls and 44.4% of the Mauritians knew of no place to go for help when feeling sad or depressed. The findings highlight the extent of depression-related symptoms and issues related to access to mental health services. Increasing mental health services and awareness programmes are indicated.     

Coparenting Profiles in the Context of Mexican‐Origin Teen Pregnancy: Links to Mother–Daughter Relationship Quality and Adjustment

The current study explored the multifaceted nature of the mother–adolescent coparental relationship with data from 167 Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers and their own mothers at 10 months post childbirth. Profiles of mother–adolescent coparenting were created with latent profile analysis using adolescents’ reports of three dimensions of coparenting (communication, involvement, and conflict). Four profiles were identified: (a) Harmonious Coparents (equal involvement, high communication, low conflict); (b) Harmonious‐Adolescent Primary (adolescent is more involved than mother, high communication, low conflict); (c) Conflictual Coparents (equal involvement, high communication, high conflict); and (d) Conflictual‐Adolescent Primary (adolescent is more involved than mother, moderate communication, high conflict). Families characterized by high mother–daughter conflict and psychological control prior to childbirth were more likely to belong in the Conflictual Coparents profile. In addition, adolescents’ and mothers’ depressive symptoms and parenting efficacy after childbirth were linked to profile membership, such that the Harmonious‐Adolescent Primary profile reported the most positive adjustment patterns, whereas profiles with high coparental conflict (i.e., Conflictual Coparenting and Conflictual‐Adolescent Primary profiles) showed the least positive adjustment patterns. Discussion considers the applied implications of identifying precursors to healthy and problematic mother–daughter coparenting for families of adolescent mothers in the early years of parenting.     

A developmental-contextual model of depressive symptoms in Mexican-origin female adolescents

The current study tested a developmental-contextual model of depressive symptomatology among Mexican-origin, female early and middle adolescents and their mothers. The final sample comprised 271 dyads. We examined the interrelations among cultural (i.e., acculturation dissonance), developmental (i.e., pubertal development and autonomy expectation discrepancies), and interpersonal (i.e., mother-daughter conflict and maternal supportive parenting) factors in predicting adolescents' depressive symptoms. For both early and middle adolescents, maternal support was negatively associated with mother-daughter conflict and depressive symptoms. Mother-daughter autonomy expectation discrepancies were positively associated with mother-daughter conflict, but this association was found only among early adolescents. Further, mother-daughter acculturation dissonance was positively associated with mother-daughter conflict but only among middle adolescents. Findings call for concurrently examining the interface of developmental, relational, and cultural factors in predicting female adolescents' depressive symptomatology and the potential differences by developmental stage (e.g., early vs. middle adolescence).     

Significant differences in quality-of-life factors and their correlates: A function of differences in career orientations or gender?

This study compared the differences in the three quality-of-life variables of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and mental health, and their correlates, based on differences in career orientation vs gender differences. Eight correlates, theorized to have an influence on the three quality-of-life factors were used to investigate the issue. One hundred and sixty-six working couples in a variety of organizations in the midwest and west coast regions of the United States offered a sample of 220 professionals and 120 nonprofessionals with a good mix of both genders in the two groups. The findings of the study indicated that: (1) career orientations had a far greater influence on the perceived quality-of-life and other factors than gender differences; (2) there was no strong support that the predictors differentially predicted the variance in any of the quality-of-life factors based on gender, or on the career orientations for the entire population; and (3) among the subset of the women in the sample, the multiple-role stress experienced did make a significant difference in how job satisfaction was predicted for the professional as opposed to the nonprofessional women. Further research directions and future trends are suggested.     

Use it or lose it: purchase acceleration effects of time‐limited promotions

While researchers have examined the impact of retail promotions on purchase acceleration in the past, the distinction between time‐limited and time‐independent promotions has not been made in this context. In this paper, the authors report findings from two studies. In Study 1, it was found that promotions of short duration (time‐limited), such as store coupons, accelerate purchases, whereas promotions of longer duration (time‐independent), such as manufacturer's coupons, have no such impact. In Study 2, the impact of semantic cues was examined highlighting the time‐limited nature of promotions (such as ‘10 Hours Only Sale’), impact on purchase willingness, intent to search further for deals and attitudes towards the deal. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

How husbands and wives in dual-career families perceive their family and work worlds

The perceptions of men and women in dual-career families were mapped with a view to understanding their concerns, priorities, and attitudes toward their work and family lives. Sixteen variables which represented aspects of family and work life and members' own attitudes and behaviors were used to map the perceptions through the multivariate factor analytic technique. A sample of husbands and wives in 127 dual-career families in the St. Louis area was used to collect the data. The results of the study indicate that husbands and wives perceive and cognitively structure their family and work worlds in practically the same way. They both see four distinct facets of their work and family lives. These are (1) a psychologically rewarding job dimension, (2) a general effectiveness dimension, (3) an investment-return dynamic in their careers, and (4) an expectation from the organization and consequences dimension. If the results of this study are replicated in different samples of dual-career families, then we could be sure that the perceptions, values, priorities, and cognitive structuring of family and work factors are virtually the same for men and women and that there are no gender differences.     

An examination of ethnic identity and self-esteem with diverse populations: exploring variation by ethnicity and geography

The current study examined the relationships among ethnic identity and self-esteem across multiple ethnic groups within two distinct geographical locations (N = 1,344). In the current study, for same ethnic group members, the components of ethnic identity (i.e., exploration, resolution, and affirmation) were differentially related to self-esteem based on geographical context. Furthermore, within each geographical context, the strength of the relation between each ethnic identity component and self-esteem varied based on group membership, suggesting that the variables may be more or less influential on self-esteem depending on one's group membership. Based on these results, the exploration and resolution subscales of the Ethnic Identity scale (EIS) appear to be valid and reliable with diverse samples, whereas support for the affirmation subscale of the EIS is more tenuous. Finally, these findings suggest that ethnic identity may have varying salience and meaning for same ethnic group members in different geographical contexts (e.g., Asian Americans in California vs. Asian Americans in the Midwest).