Personal Network Characteristics as Predictors of Change in Obesity Risk Behaviors in Early Adolescence

The potential for peers to influence obesity risk behavior increases in adolescence, yet there are knowledge gaps of how behaviors are modified in response to peers over time. This study examined how personal friendship network characteristics were associated with obesity‐related behaviors from late childhood to early adolescence. Two waves of friendship, physical activity, screen time, and dietary recall data were collected from 11‐ to 13‐year‐old students (99% retention) in Australia (n = 308) over a five‐ to eight‐month period. Regression models identified friendship network characteristics that predicted later health behaviors which varied by gender and behavior type, such as the number of friends positively associated with physical activity intensity (males) and screen time (females). The need for considering context to influence behavior change is discussed.     

Predicting Well‐Being and Internalizing Symptoms in Late Adolescence From Trajectories of Externalizing Behavior Starting in Infancy

This study aimed to examine the long‐term prediction of well‐being and internalizing symptoms from trajectories of externalizing behavior problems in 921 children from a population‐based sample. We found that a high stable trajectory of externalizing behavior from infancy (age 1.5) to mid‐adolescence (age 14.5) predicted lower scores on life satisfaction and flourishing for both girls and boys (age 18.5). The high stable trajectory also predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms in boys and anxiety symptoms in girls (age 18.5). The findings are noteworthy as they document how a person‐oriented study of externalizing behavior problems starting in infancy can predict well‐being and internalizing in late adolescence. The findings underline the importance of early health promotion and problem intervention efforts.     

Portents or Confessions: Authoritative Readings of a Dream Text

As a cultural and historical phenomenon, dreams are universally endowed with significance. Yet, their interpretations have varied widely—in the ascribed “meanings” of dreams and in the ramifications for dreamers. In this article, we examine the social trajectory of a contemporary “dream” that came to light in the context of a police investigation of a murder. We analyze the various institutional codes that refracted this “dream” through their particular vocabularies of motive, agency, and meaning. The case under investigation provides an opportunity to test a working hypothesis about a generalized modern attitude toward dreams; the two aspects of that attitude are that dreams are no longer viewed as revelatory of future events, and that dreams have been privatized. Evidence from this case confounds these expectations and leads us to develop a theory of coexisting institutional paradigms of interpretation of dreams and of the authority structures that compete for interpretive dominance. Our analysis has yielded insights into situational aspects of cultural phenomena.     

Adolescent males' willingness to report masturbation

This paper compares contemporaneous and retrospective reports of adolescent masturbation experience, partnered sexual behavior, and nonsexual problem behavior. Analyses are based on data from 59 White males who were followed for 3 years in early adolescence and later reinterviewed as young adults. Comparisons of adolescent and adult reports about adolescent behavior indicated that adolescent masturbation, but not coitus and wet dreams, was more likely to be reported in young adulthood than in adolescence, even when confidential reporting techniques were used. In contrast, nonsexual problem behavior occurring during adolescence was more likely to be reported in adolescence than in early adulthood. These findings are consistent with other literature indicating that masturbation is a distinctly sensitive behavior that adolescent respondents may be particularly reluctant to report. These results suggest that adult retrospective reports may more accurately represent adolescent masturbation activity, but may underrepresent adolescent nonsexual problem behavior.     

Receiving Prosocial Behavior: Examining the Reciprocal Associations between Positive Peer Treatment and Psychosocial and Behavioral Outcomes

This study investigates the prospective and reciprocal associations between positive peer treatment and psychosocial (popularity, preference, psychological distress) and behavioral (prosocial behavior) outcomes during early adolescence. Participants were 270 young adolescents (52% boys; M_age = 11.84 years) who completed peer nomination and self‐report measures as part of a 7‐month longitudinal study (Wave 1; Feb. Grade 6; Wave 2: May, Grade 6; Wave 3: Sept., Grade 7). Cross‐lagged autoregressive path models revealed reciprocal associations between positive peer treatment and prosocial behavior, such that Wave 1 positive peer treatment predicted increases in Wave 2 prosocial behavior and vice versa. Findings are novel, highlight the importance of considering positive peer treatment during adolescence, and set the stage for future work in this area.     

Childhood risk factors for persistence of violence in the transition to adulthood: a social development perspective

This study examined violent behavior from ages 13 to 21 and identified predictors at age 10. Logistic regression was used to assess predictors of developmental patterns of violence. The sample is from a study of 808 youth interviewed annually from age 10 to 16 years, and again at ages 18 and 21. Over 28% of the youth in the sample reported nonviolence throughout adolescence and into early adulthood. Most youth (55%) engaged in violence in adolescence but desisted from violence in early adulthood, while 16% persisted in violent behavior at age 21. Violence in adolescence was best predicted by male gender, Asian American ethnicity (a protective factor), childhood fighting, early individual characteristics, and early antisocial influences. Adult persistence of violence was best predicted by male gender, early school achievement (which was protective), and early antisocial influences. Early prosocial development was also protective against violence persistence for females. Implications for prevention are discussed.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents' Bullying‐Related Indirect Defending,Outsider Behavior,and Peer‐Group Status

During adolescence, youth become more likely to avoid involvement in witnessed bullying and less likely to support victims. It is unknown whether—and how—these bystander behaviors (i.e., outsider behavior and indirect defending) are associated with adolescents' peer‐group status (i.e., popularity and social acceptance) over time. Cross‐lagged path modeling was used to examine these longitudinal associations in a sample of 313 Dutch adolescents (M_age‐T1 = 10.3 years). The results showed that status longitudinally predicted behavior, rather than that behavior predicted status. Specifically, unpopularity predicted outsider behavior and social acceptance predicted indirect defending. These findings suggest that a positive peer‐group status can trigger adolescents' provictim stance. However, adolescents may also strategically avoid involvement in witnessed bullying to keep a low social profile.     

Do Children's Behavior Problems Limit Poor Women's Labor Market Success?

Economically disadvantaged mothers face numerous barriers to stable, quality employment opportunities. One barrier that has received limited attention in previous research is having a child with significant psychological or behavioral problems. Using a representative sample of low‐income mothers and early adolescent children from the Three‐City Study (N = 717), we assessed whether adolescents' behavior problems prospectively predicted mothers' employment status, consistency, and quality. Lagged random‐effects regression models suggested that adolescents' psychological distress and delinquency inhibited the labor market success of disadvantaged mothers, although school problems were related to greater work effort among mothers. Links between labor market success and both psychological distress and delinquency differed across mothers with male and female adolescents.     

青年是推动社会进步和托举“中国梦”的重要力量

青年作为一种社会承前启后、富有生命力和创造力的代群,是未来社会的主干,是推动社会进步的重要力量。"中国梦"和青年梦是相辅相成的,青年梦是"中国梦"的一个重要组成部分。青年一代是实现"中国梦"的重要力量,青年对国家认同度上升是实现"中国梦"的基础。中国特色社会主义事业是面向未来的事业,需要一代又一代青年的努力奋斗。实现"中国梦"应将青年优先发展作为国家重要战略。     

Construction of Social Reality During Early Adolescence: Can Expecting Storm and Stress Increase Real or Perceived Storm and Stress?

This study examines whether mothers' or adolescents' expectations concerning “storm and stress” behaviors at adolescence predict subsequent real or perceived adolescent behavior and attributes during the early years of adolescence. The study used a short‐term longitudinal design. Participants were 6th‐ and 7th‐grade adolescents and their mothers (N=270 families). Data were collected via telephone interviews and questionnaires at 2 time points approximately 1 year apart. Results indicated that adolescents' expectations for risk‐taking/rebelliousness and for alienation and mothers' expectations for risk‐taking/rebelliousness predicted increases in corresponding adolescent‐reported outcomes over the 1‐year period. Results are most consistent with the possibility of perceptual biases with respect to storm and stress behaviors, but could indicate the existence of self‐fulfilling prophecies, particularly for risk‐taking/rebelliousness.     

Infants’ Biological Sensitivity to the Effects of Maternal Social Support: Evidence Among Mexican American Families

The identification of infants who are most susceptible to both negative and positive social environments is critical for understanding early behavioral development. This study longitudinally assessed the interactive effects of infant vagal tone (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) and maternal social support on behavioral problems and competence among 322 low‐income Mexican American mother–infant dyads (infants: 54.1% female) and explored sex differences. Infant RSA was calculated from resting HR data at 6 weeks of age. Mothers reported on general social support, partner support, and family support at 6 months, and infant behavioral problems and competence at 1 year. Two‐way interactions (RSA × support source) were evaluated to predict behavioral problems and competence, adjusting for covariates. Results indicated higher competence among infants with lower RSA whose mothers reported higher general support or higher partner support. Interactive effects on behavior problems of RSA with maternal partner or family support were only found for female infants: Girls with higher RSA showed more behavior problems when mothers reported low support, but fewer problem levels in the context of high support. Our results suggest that infant RSA is an important moderator of the effects of the early social environment on early development.     

Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescents: Gender Differences in Vulnerability to Parental Distress and Discord

This longitudinal study investigated gender differences in the relation between (1) internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety reported by adolescents, and (2) emotional distress and marital discord reported by their mothers. Structural equation modeling was used to track the relationship between these variables in a community sample of 116 males and 101 females and their parents across three data intervals roughly corresponding to early adolescence (M = 11,4), mid‐adolescence (M = 13,7), and late adolescence/early adulthood (M = 19,2). For early adolescents, there were no gender differences in the relation between internalizing symptoms and parental distress and discord. Gender differences did emerge, however, by midadolescence, at which time parental disturbances were significantly associated with internalizing symptoms in adolescent females but not adolescent males. The emergence of this risk factor during this developmental phase may help account for frequent findings that place adolescent females at higher risk for anxiety and depression than adolescent males.     

Adolescent Self‐Consciousness: Longitudinal Age Changes and Gender Differences in Two Cohorts

Adolescence is frequently described as a period of pervasive self‐consciousness, but an age‐related peak in adolescence is not consistently obtained, and higher self‐consciousness in girls is frequently obtained but not predicted by theoretical accounts. Two cohorts of adolescents (N=393), initially assessed at 13 and 15, completed public and private self‐consciousness measures 3 times in 4 years. They also reported social comparisons and social engagement. Public self‐consciousness decreased and private self‐consciousness increased in both cohorts, and girls scored higher on both measures, both in longitudinal and sibling replication samples (n=188). Public self‐consciousness appears to be a normative response to adolescent social challenges, with girls' higher levels largely attributable to their closer social engagement. Private self‐consciousness emerges as an individual difference in adolescence but is more likely to be salient and predictive of social behavior in adulthood.     

Nurturing Life with Dreams: Therapeutic Dream Work with Cancer Patients

This paper describes the use of dream work as a component of individual counseling for cancer patients. Motivated by the work of experts in the field, who use dream work with their clients facing life-threatening illness and corroborated by a review of the literature, this therapeutic modality was introduced with cancer patients at a social service agency. The clinical work seems to indicate that the use of dreams helps create a safe environment for therapy by encouraging clients to discuss the emotional aspects of their disease and introducing topics, like death and dying, which are normally difficult to discuss.     

Mexican‐Origin Mothers' and Fathers' Involvement in Adolescents' Peer Relationships: A Pattern‐Analytic Approach

Using latent profile analysis, the authors examined patterns of mother – father involvement in adolescents' peer relationships along three dimensions—support, guidance, and restrictions—in 240 Mexican‐origin families. Three profiles were identified: (a) High Mother Involvement (mothers higher than fathers on all three dimensions), (b) High Support/Congruent (mothers and fathers reported the highest levels of peer support and similar levels of guidance and restrictions), and (c) Differentiated (more guidance and restrictions by fathers than by mothers, similar levels of parent support). These profiles were linked to mothers' and fathers' familism values, traditional patriarchal gender role attitudes, and socioeconomic status and to adolescents' friendship intimacy and risky behaviors measured longitudinally from early to late adolescence. Adolescent gender moderated the linkages between parents' involvement in adolescents' peer relationships and youth adjustment.     

Delinquent and aggressive behaviors in early-adopted adolescents: Longitudinal predictions from child temperament and maternal sensitivity

Background

160 early-adopted children were followed from infancy to adolescence. Central question was whether early and concurrent parenting and child temperament predicted adolescent delinquent and aggressive behaviors.

Methods

Structural equation modeling was used to test the relations between early and concurrent observed maternal sensitivity, mother reported effortful control and teacher reported delinquent and aggressive behaviors.

Results

This longitudinal adoption study showed that lower effortful control, concurrent as well as 7 years earlier, predicted higher levels of delinquency in adolescence and aggression in middle childhood and in adolescence. Lower levels of effortful control in infancy predicted higher levels of maternal sensitivity in adolescence which in its turn predicted less adolescent delinquent behavior.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that effortful control is an important predictor of both aggressive and delinquent behaviors. Maternal sensitivity also plays a role in the development of delinquent behavior, buffering a lack of effortful control, but is not related to aggression at age 14. It is important to note that these relations were found in a sample of parents and their genetically unrelated adopted children.     

The dream as a vehicle for the recovery of childhood trauma

Gertrude and Rubin Blanck (1979), drawing on Freud's discovery that a dream may lead to the recovery of forgotten childhood experiences, have shown how certain dreams may provide access to the pattern of the early mother-child relationship and to critical events that occur before the ego is capable of processing experience adequately. Drawing from their considerations, this paper demonstrates how a dream was employed to reconstruct a pattern of early chronic stress trauma which had contributed to a repetitive pattern of self destructive behavior in a depressed woman. This reconstructive effort helped start the difficult work of diminishing the painful impact of the traumatic past and paved the way for a beginning identification with a protective object, the therapist.     

Developmental Precursors of Number of Sexual Partners From Ages 16 to 22

This study examines family and child characteristics, parent and peer relationships, and early adolescent behavior as statistical predictors of trajectories of number of sexual partners from midadolescence through early adulthood using data from 527 participants in the Child Development Project. Early adolescent developmental antecedents accounted for modest variance in number of sexual partners. Latent growth models revealed that African American race, more advanced pubertal development, lower parental monitoring knowledge, association with more deviant peers, and lower grade point average in early adolescence each predicted having more sexual partners at age 16. In addition, non‐African American race, lower child IQ, higher parental monitoring knowledge, and lower early adolescent internalizing problems each was associated with a higher rate of growth in number of sexual partners over time at the ages following 16. Latent growth mixture modeling identified subgroups with distinct trajectories of involvement with sexual partners that were associated with family and child characteristics, parent and peer relationships, and behavior in early adolescence.     

Quality of Parenting as Mediator of the Effect of Childhood Defiance on Adolescent Friendship Choices and Delinquency: A Growth Curve Analysis

Social scientists agree that childhood antisocial behavior portends adolescent delinquency, but there is little agreement regarding the theoretical processes that account for this behavioral continuity. Latent growth curve modeling was used to test latent trait and social influence explanations for this association. The analyses used data collected annually over a 4‐year period from a sample of 149 boys, 157 girls, and their parents. Contrary to latent trait theories, we found no direct association between oppositional/defiant behavior during childhood and a trajectory of increasing involvement with deviant peers and delinquency during adolescence. Rather, early oppositional/defiant behavior undermined effective parenting practices. The latter, in turn, predicted an increasing affiliation with deviant peers and delinquency during adolescence. Improvements in parenting during adolescence decreased delinquency indirectly by reducing affiliation with deviant peers. Overall, the results support a life course development model in which difficult behavior during childhood increases the probability of adolescent deviant behavior because of its disruptive effect on quality of parenting.     

Peer Crowd Affiliation and Internalizing Distress in Childhood and Adolescence: A Longitudinal Follow‐Back Study

Concurrent and longitudinal associations between peer crowd affiliation and internalized distress were examined in a sample of 246 youth (148 girls, 98 boys). Children completed measures of depression, social anxiety, loneliness, and self‐esteem when they were in grades 4 to 6 (Time 1), and again 6 years later during adolescence (grades 10 – 12; Time 2). At Time 2, adolescents also reported their self‐concept and their identification with reputation‐based peer crowds, including Populars, Jocks, Brains, Burnouts, Non‐Conformists, and None/Average crowds. Results indicated that adolescents' report of peer crowd affiliation was concurrently associated with self‐concept and levels of internalizing distress. Follow‐back analyses of internalizing trajectories revealed that Populars/Jocks had experienced significant declines in internalizing distress across development, whereas Brains exhibited some increases in internalizing distress between childhood and adolescence.