A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents' Attitude-Behavior Consistency

The attitudes and self-reported behaviors of outgoingness towardother people among a group of over 100 male adolescents weremeasured each semester for the last five semesters of high school.Cross-lagged panel correlation differences show a tendency (sevenof nine times) for attitudes to be nonspuriously antecedentto behaviors. During the first three semesters different observationalcomposites of behaviors correlated positively with the self-reportedmeasures of behaviors. Theoretical implications of these findingsare discussed from the perspective of social adaptation theory.A distinction is drawn between assimilatory and accommodativesituations. It is suggested that attitudes and behaviors aremore likely to be consistent in assimilatory than accommodativesituations.     

The Longitudinal Interplay of Maternal Warmth and Adolescents' Self‐Disclosure in Predicting Maternal Knowledge

This study examined the longitudinal associations among maternal warmth, adolescents' self‐disclosure, and maternal knowledge during the transition to adolescence. Three years of self‐report data were collected from 131 married mothers and their adolescents. Results from longitudinal analysis using adolescent reports indicated that greater maternal warmth in sixth grade predicted higher levels of adolescents' self‐disclosure in seventh grade, which in turn led to higher levels of maternal knowledge in eighth grade. Thus, adolescents' self‐disclosure served as an indirect link between higher maternal warmth and greater knowledge over time. An alternative model with prior self‐disclosure predicting subsequent maternal warmth and knowledge was not supported. Overall, this study demonstrated a time‐ordered process by which maternal warmth and adolescents' self‐disclosure predict maternal knowledge. Understanding such processes that affect parental knowledge may be beneficial for future prevention and intervention efforts during the transition to adolescence.     

Reciprocal Relationship Between Resilience and Professional Skills: A Longitudinal Study With Social Work Students

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed the relationship between the resilience developed by social work students and the professional skills acquired during their university degree program. A longitudinal study was conducted over 4 academic years. Participants were 73 social work students at the University of Malaga (Spain). The results show a gradual increase in the development of resilience and in the acquisition of professional skills among the students during the 4-year period. Panel model analysis shows that the two processes were stable and reciprocal throughout the social work training process. The results suggest that resilience had a stronger effect on professional skills than the latter had on resilience. In conclusion, resilience is a relevant component of university training of future social workers.     

Reconfiguring Friendships: Social relationships and the Internet

Debate on the social role of the Internet has centred on whether its use will tend to isolate or connect individuals, undermining or reinforcing social ties. This study moves away from this focus on more or less connectivity to explore the degree to which people use the Internet to make new friends and, thereby, reconfigure their social networks. The analysis identifies those who create new ties through the Internet and investigates under what conditions these online ties migrate to face to face settings. The analysis is based on data from the 2005 Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS), a national probability sample survey of individuals aged 14 and over in Britain. The findings indicate that about 20 per cent of Internet users have met new friends online, and about half of these individuals go on to meet one or more of these virtual friends in person. Sociodemographic characteristics, such as being single, shape patterns of Internet use, and are related to the greater propensity of some individuals to make online social relationships. However, experience with the Internet and the ways people choose to use the Internet, such as for chatting or communicating more generally, are most directly associated with who makes new connections over the Internet and who does not. These findings suggest that the Internet plays an important role in reconfiguring the social networks of many users. Also, multivariate analyses indicate that the dynamics of online friendships are driven more by the idiosyncratic digital choices made by users of the Internet than by any mechanistic social or technological determinism.     

The Relationship Between Work-to-Family Conflict and Family-to-Work Conflict: A Longitudinal Study

The relationship between work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict was tested using a longitudinal research design with 234 dual-earner couples caring for both children and aging parents. Two waves of mailed survey data were collected. The mediating effects of role-related satisfaction were hypothesized to link these two forms of work-family conflict. The analytical steps for determining mediating effects followed suggestions by Baron and Kenny (1986). The results failed to show significant mediating effects of role-related satisfaction between the two forms of conflict over time for both husbands and wives, contrary to suggestions by Frone, Yardley, and Markel (1997). Instead, positive, direct relationships between the two types of work-family conflict were found. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

The Interplay Between Gender and Structure: Dynamics of Adolescent Friendships in Single‐Gender Classes and Mixed‐Gender Classes

This study reviews theories on striving for closure in adolescent networks related to trust issues of adolescents and further examines whether adolescents in mixed‐gender and single‐gender classes are different in striving for closure. Stochastic actor‐based models for network dynamics are applied to test our hypotheses based on longitudinal friendship nominations of 406 Taiwanese adolescents in mixed‐gender, all‐boy, and all‐girl classes. The results show that adolescents strive for closure through connections of friends' friends. Further, the results reveal that while the tendency toward closure is stronger for girls in mixed‐gender classes, such tendency toward closure is stronger in all‐boy classes than in all‐girl classes. Testing effects between types of classes supports the indications of variances in striving closure.     

The Interplay Between Tonal Synchrony and Social Engagement in Mother–Infant Interaction

This study explores the relationship between tonal synchrony and maternal‐infant social engagement based on free‐play recordings of 15 mothers and their 3‐month‐old infants in a laboratory setting. Moment‐by‐moment analyses on a microlevel were used to study social engagement and vocal interaction. We analysed and categorized 854 vocalization periods (mother‐only vocalizations, tonal interaction periods, nontonal interaction periods, and mutual silence). Tonal synchrony was analysed in terms of harmonic and pentatonic series based on pitch frequency analyses. Social engagement was microanalyzed in terms of matched and mismatched engagement states. ANOVA‐repeated measures revealed, most importantly, a significant relationship between TIPs and social interaction repair, which indicates the importance of tonal synchrony in the flow of social engagement in mother–infant dyads. Other significant relationships were found between (a) nTIPs/mismatch–mismatch, and, (b) MOV/affect loss. As mentioned in the discussion, the findings are suggestive for clinical applications (e.g., music therapy) and warrant further research.     

The Development of Prospective Grasping Control Between 5 and 7 Months: A Longitudinal Study

By 7 months, infants, when reaching for an object, visually guide their grasp by preorienting their hands to match the object's orientation. Evidence at earlier ages, however, for prospective grasp control via anticipatory hand orientation is mixed. This study examined longitudinally the development of anticipatory hand orientation in 15 infants, seen every 3 weeks between 5 and 7.5 months. On each visit, infants were given 8 trials of reaching for an object oriented vertically and horizontally. Hand orientation at the first point of contact, prior to any tactile feedback, indexed infant prospective grasp. Between 5 and 7 months, infants showed evidence for qualitative transition in prospective control of grasp, supporting the contention that control of grasp shifts from being based on tactual feedback to being visually and therefore prospectively based. Implications for how prospective grasp emerges developmen‐tally are discussed.     

Same‐Race Friendships and School Attachment: Demonstrating the Interaction Between Personal Network and School Composition1

Previous research has demonstrated that students are strongly attached to school when many same‐race peers are present. This study extends the literature by considering students’ immediate social environment at school—egocentric friendship networks. I hypothesized that same‐race friendships contribute to school attachment by increasing the amount of support that students receive for their racial backgrounds in direct interactions. Further, the association between same‐race friendships and school attachment should be stronger when the school includes many same‐race peers because the organizational condition increases the ability of same‐race friendships to connect students to the major components of school‐wide networks and reduces perceived racial contrast between friends and nonfriend peers. Statistical analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) provided some support for these hypotheses, but white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students showed somewhat different patterns, suggesting group differences in how students develop and view same‐race friendships. The study highlights the importance of individual agency in navigating the multileveled social environment as well as the ability of organizational contexts to shift emotional consequences of personal relationships.     

The Relationship Between Theory and Research: A Longitudinal Perspective*

An earlier study of the theoretical and methodological postures used by the authors of 1,434 sociological journal articles found that those with a realist or social factist theoretical approach tended not to involve empirical data gathering and analysis techniques. In contrast, nominalists or social behaviorists used more highly empirical research procedures. Using the same data set, this study investigates the direction and nature of changes which occur over time in the theoretical or methodological orientations for 67 authors of multiple journal articles. The theory-methods pairing used by authors in their first article, when compared to those of their last, shows that about 80 percent of the authors have gravitated to or toward those theory-methods relationships found earlier. Such movement toward theoretical-methodological consistency was more often the result of authors' changing their methodological rather than their theoretical perspective. Implications for the changes in the theoretical-methodological linkages of sociologists over their careers are discussed.     

Gambling Participation and Social Support Among Older Adults: A Longitudinal Community Study

The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine associations between leaving home to engage in bingo or gambling activity and indices of physical and mental health and social support among a representative community cohort of 1016 elderly people. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data gathered from a prospective epidemiological study in a rural, low socio-economic status, area of Pennsylvania was employed. The cohort had a mean age of 78.8 (SD = 5.1) (range 71–97) and participated in three consecutive biennial waves of data collection. Nearly half (47.7) of the cohort reported gambling. To predict gambling, the independent variables included age, sex, education, employment, social support, depressive symptoms, self-rated health, alcohol use, cigarette use, and cognitive functioning. In cross-sectional, univariate analyses, gambling was associated with younger age, sex (male), fewer years of education, greater social support, lower depression scores, better self-rated health, alcohol use in the past year, and higher cognitive functioning. In a cross-sectional multiple regression model, younger age, greater social support, and alcohol use in the past year remain strongly and independently associated with gambling activity. Longitudinally, age, sex, social support, alcohol use, and gambling are predictive of future gambling activity. The results revealed that gambling may offer a forum of social support to older adults who are often isolated as they age.     

High School Social Climate and Antisocial Behavior: A 10 Year Longitudinal and Multilevel Study

A longitudinal and multilevel approach is used to examine the relationship between antisocial behavior during adolescence and high school social climate. The data are taken from a longitudinal study of 1,233 boys and girls who attended 217 public and private high schools. Students' disruptive behaviors were assessed yearly from 6 to 12 years of age. High school social climate was assessed by teachers, and students reported on their violent and nonviolent antisocial behavior while in high school. The multilevel analyses revealed (1) a large difference between the percentage of variance explained within schools (97%), compared with between schools (3%), and (2) teachers' reports of classroom behavior problems explain between‐school differences in student reported antisocial behavior, after controlling for students' family adversity and history of behavior problems during elementary school. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are examined and future directions for research are discussed.     

A Study of a Network Meeting: Exploring the Interplay between Inner and Outer Dialogues in Significant and Meaningful Moments

The present study is part of a series of qualitative studies focusing on dialogic practice in southern Norway. In this article, we present a qualitative study of a network meeting focusing on the interplay between the participants' inner and outer dialogues. The network meeting is between an adolescent boy, his mother and two network therapists, the same adolescent case discussed previously in this journal by Bøe et al. ( 2013 ). The aim of this study is to explore how the interplay between inner and outer dialogues contributes to significant and meaningful moments for the interlocutors. A multiperspective methodology is used that combines video recordings of a network meeting and participant interviews with text analysis. Our research found the interplay has an important role in understanding the emergence of significant and meaningful moments in therapy. A one‐sided focus on participants' utterances or inner dialogues was insufficient to explain their significance and meaning to the interlocutors. A dialogical approach provides a theoretical frame and concepts that are useful in investigations of therapeutic conversations.     

Social Capital and the Interplay of Families and Schools

Families and schools are two primary sources of social capital in the early life course. This study examines the degree to which these different contexts overlap to shape adolescent development. Multilevel modeling on nationally representative data (n = 11,927) revealed that emotionally distant relationships with parents were associated with declining academic achievement over 2 years of secondary schooling and that various aspects of the social environments of schools were associated with increasing academic achievement during this same period. Additionally, adolescents who had more social capital at home often benefited more from social capital at school.     

The Impact of Adolescents' Classroom and Neighborhood Ethnic Diversity on Same‐ and Cross‐Ethnic Friendships Within Classrooms

This study examines how classroom and neighborhood ethnic diversity affect adolescents' tendency to form same‐ versus cross‐ethnic friendships when they enter middle school. Hypotheses are derived from exposure, conflict, and constrict theory. Hypotheses are tested among 911 middle school students (43 classrooms, nine schools) in the Netherlands. Multilevel (p₂) social network analyses show that students were more likely to engage in same‐ethnic rather than cross‐ethnic friendships. In line with conflict theory, greater classroom and neighborhood diversity were related to stronger tendencies to choose same‐ethnic rather than cross‐ethnic friends, among both ethnic majority and minority students. Diversity did not hamper reciprocity, as students in more ethnically diverse classrooms were even more likely to reciprocate friendships.     

Social and Economic Exchange Between Social Workers and their Employers in the Context of their Sectorial Affiliation and Seniority

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Partial privatization creates organizational hybrids that can generate conflict between professional and institutional...     

Family Environment and Adolescents' Well‐Being Before and After Parents' Marital Disruption: A Longitudinal Analysis

Although previous research has noted that children of divorce tend to fare less well than peers raised in families with two biological parents, much less is known about how parents' marital disruption affects children as a continuous process in its different phases. Based on two waves of a large, nationally representative panel, this study demonstrates that even before the disruption, both male and female adolescents from families that subsequently dissolve exhibit more academic, psychological, and behavioral problems than peers whose parents remain married. Families on the verge of breakup are also characterized by less intimate parent‐parent and parent‐child relationships, less parental commitment to children's education, and fewer economic and human resources. These differences in family environment account for most well‐being deficits among adolescents in predisrupted families. Furthermore, the deterioration in different domains of the family environment appears to be associated with maladjustment in different aspects of children's lives. The postdisruption effects on adolescents can either be totally or largely predicted by predisruption factors and by changes in family circumstances during the period coinciding with the disruption. Finally, the analyses indicate that female adolescents are as likely to be affected by the parental divorce process as male adolescents.     

Negotiating the Unknown: The Role of Uncertainty in Social Exchange

This article documents the role of uncertainty in social exchange. Specifically, it reviews how social exchange theorists incorporate uncertainty when explaining psychological processes and social behaviors. After identifying and examining the structural roots of uncertainty, the article addresses how uncertainty affects actor behavior and attitude formation, from curbing power use to promoting the development of more committed, trusting and cohesive exchange partnerships. By assessing the consequences of uncertainty and risk for social exchange, this article contributes to sociological knowledge about the nature and form of relationships in an uncertain world.     

Emotion Identification Skill and Social Support During Adolescence: A Three‐Year Longitudinal Study

Emotion identification skill (EIS) has been correlated with social support, but little research has examined the extent that EIS is a developmental precursor to supportive relationships. The present study investigated the longitudinal relationships between EIS and social support in adolescence. Participants were 903 (464 males; 439 females) Australian high school students, with 314 participating in all four waves. Students completed questionnaires annually from Grade 9 to Grade 12, including self‐report measures of (1) EIS, (2) social support network size, and (3) quality of social support. Cross‐lagged structural equation modeling supported a reciprocal influence model, with social support and EIS mutually influencing each other's development. We discuss the implications of this finding for the positive development of EIS and social support.