Mediators of Neighborhood Influences on Externalizing Behavior in Preadolescent Children

This study tested a mediation model of neighborhood influences on children’s externalizing behavior. In the proposed model, neighborhood disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, and low residential stability affect children’s behavior indirectly through their impact on neighborhood social processes, which in turn influence parenting and deviant peer affiliations. A community sample of 704 preadolescents (76% African American, 22% Caucasian) and their parents and teachers provided information for the study. Neighborhood concentrated poverty, derived from the 2000 U.S. Census, was positively associated with children’s externalizing behavior. This effect was fully mediated by neighborhood social processes and parenting quality, while deviant peer affiliations made independent contributions to problem behavior. The final mediation model explained children’s externalizing behavior equally well across gender and ethnicity, suggesting the presence of universal processes.     

Temperament Alters Susceptibility to Negative Peer Influence in Early Adolescence

The role of deviant peers in adolescent antisocial behavior has been well documented, but less is known about individual differences in susceptibility to negative peer influence. This study examined whether specific temperament dimensions moderate the prospective relationship between peer deviance and delinquent behavior in early adolescence. Participants included 704 adolescents recruited from the community. At baseline, parents provided information on adolescents’ temperament and youth reported on their own and their friends’ delinquent behavior. Self-reports of adolescents’ delinquent behavior were collected again 16 months later. Peer deviance was related to delinquent behavior over time more strongly for adolescents with low levels of task orientation, flexibility, and positive mood, compared to youth with high levels of task orientation, flexibility, and positive mood. Analyses of gender differences indicated that low flexibility increased susceptibility to negative peer influence only for males, but not females. General activity level and sleep rhythmicity did not moderate the effect of peer behavior on delinquency.     

Adolescent suicidal behaviors as a function of depression,hopelessness, alcohol use,and social support: A longitudinal investigation

Surveyed two high school cohorts (ns=698 and 283) to study independent prospective predictors of adolescent suicidal behaviors (thoughts, communicatio to others, attempts). Within each cohort, there were two measurements conducted 6 months apart. Structural equation models were tested, with depressive symptoms, hopelessness, alcohol consumption, social support, and gender serving as predictors. In the larger cohort, depression predicted later levels of all three suicidal behaviors controlling for baseline suicidal behaviors. Also, suicidal thoughts predicted later communications, and suicide attempts predicted future thoughts. In the smaller cohort, alcohol consumption predicted all three suicidal behaviors at the later measurement, whereas depression was predictive only of later thoughts. Major issues regarding prevention, theories of suicide and negative affect, and methodological/analytical approaches were discussed.     

NIMH support of rural mental health

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) emphasizes improved mental health and mental health services in rural areas through funding for research projects and research centers. NIMH also supports related activities including state planning, improvement of state data systems, protection of and advocacy for mentally ill individuals, disaster relief, professional training, and education concerning depression. Other important components include surveys, analyses, and public information, including support for a public hearing on rural mental health.     

Interspousal Criticism: A Behavioral Mediator Between Husbands’ Gender Role Conflict and Wives’ Adjustment

Seventy-two married couples participated in a study of husband gender role conflict and interpersonal criticism and wife psychological and marital adjustment. Participants were recruited from a community in the Midwestern USA. Husband criticism was measured using self-report, wife-report, and trained coder ratings of an audiotaped task in which husbands described their wives and their relationship with their wives. Hypothesized associations between husband gender role conflict and husband interspousal criticism were supported. In addition, all three measures of husband criticism were found to mediate the relationship between husband gender role conflict and wife marital adjustment. However, only self- and wife-reported criticism by husbands significantly mediated the relationship between husband gender role conflict and wife depressive symptoms.     

SEX ROLE ORIENTATION, COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY, AND LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG OLDER ADULTS

Bem's Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) was employed to categorize 101 older adults into masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated sex role orientations. Relationships among these sex role orientations and cognitive flexibility and life satisfaction were explored. Additionally, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the contributions of masculinity, femininity, and the interaction term (masculinity x femininity) in the prediction of cognitive flexibility and life satisfaction. These older adults did not vary significantly in either their cognitive flexibility or their life satisfaction as a function of their sex role categorization, nor was an appreciable percentage of variance accounted for by the predictor variables in the regression analyses. Issues are raised regarding the validity of the typological (median-split based) approaches used by researchers to assess expectations of the differentiation of masculine and feminine components in older adults. An alternative structural developmental approach, based on a factor-analytic methodology, is proposed.