Does It Matter What Mama Says: Evaluating the Role of Parental Mediation in European Adolescents’ Excessive Internet Use

This study investigated the relationship between adolescents’ excessive Internet use (EIU) and parental mediation. A random stratified sample of 11‐ to 16‐year olds (N = 18 709) and their parents from 25 European countries (EU Kids Online II project) was analysed to explore to what extent different types of parental mediation and other factors predict EIU. Active parental involvement in the child's Internet use (when the child had experienced online harm) and restrictive mediation were associated with lower EIU. Harmful online experiences, time spent online, scope of online activities and adolescents’ age predicted higher EIU.     

Toddlers’ Responses to Infants’ Negative Emotions

Early developments in toddlers’ responses to adults’ distress have been extensively examined, but less work has been directed to young children's responses to other children in distress. In the current study, we examined 12‐, 18‐, and 24‐month‐old children's (N = 71) behavioral and affective responses to a crying infant (doll) present in the room with the child. A comparison condition included a contented, neutral infant to contrast with the crying infant so as to disambiguate social interest from distress‐specific responding. Results showed that 12‐month‐olds were neither particularly interested in nor concerned about the infant, although they did discriminate between conditions. In contrast, 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds were socially interested and attentive to the infant, but 24‐month‐olds exhibited greater affective concern to the crying infant than did 18‐month‐olds. Children at all three ages were also mildly distressed themselves by the infant's crying, and this did not decline over the second year. Both girls and children without siblings were more interested in the infant; no effects were found for gender, daycare experience, or siblings on affective concern.     

Authority,Autonomy, and Deception: Evaluating the Legitimacy of Parental Authority and Adolescent Deceit

This research examined adolescents’ judgments about lying to avoid parental control over different types of activities. Participants (N = 66, M_age = 16.38, 73% European American) were interviewed about hypothetical situations describing adolescents who defied parental directives and lied about their defiance. Judgments about the legitimacy of parents’ directives and protagonists’ deception differed by types of parent relationship with adolescents (mutual or unilateral). Directives were least accepted, and deception was most accepted, in the context of unilateral relationships. Judgments also differed by domain of the action (personal, prudential, or conventional). Participants were least accepting of parental directives, and most accepting of deception about personal activities. Findings indicate that adolescents value honesty and parental authority, but sometimes give priority to concerns with autonomy and mutuality.     

“You Can Help People”: Adolescents’ Views on Engaging Young People in Longitudinal Research

We sought to discover adolescents’ thoughts about participation in longitudinal research and identify recruitment and retention strategies that were meaningful to them. We conducted seven focus groups with 10–15‐year‐olds in two large rural centers in New South Wales, Australia, and all focus groups were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Adolescents discussed factors salient to their involvement in focus groups, as well as factors that may influence involvement in a longitudinal study. At the outset of the focus groups, adolescents had a positive view of “research,” but were reluctant to engage in research that involved biologic samples. Effective recruitment of adolescents requires an appreciation of motivators, and time and resources to extend potential participants’ understanding.     

Adolescents’ Narratives of Schadenfreude

This study explored the experiential determinants of schadenfreude, how schadenfreude changes as a function of relationship, and how recollections of schadenfreude may vary by age. Using a narrative approach, 12‐ and 15‐year‐olds (N = 60) described times they felt schadenfreude toward various peers and adults. We coded their responses to extract information regarding preceding misfortunes and underlying reasons for schadenfreude. We found that adolescents' schadenfreude often involved another’s physical harm and failure, and was rooted in reasons of deservingness and personal gain. There were unique trends in the types of misfortunes and reasons mentioned toward each target of interest. Finally, deservingness reasoning was prominent within 15‐year‐olds’ schadenfreude experiences. The findings are discussed in relation to adolescents’ emotional experiences in conflict situations.     

Patterns of Competence and Adjustment Among Adolescents from Authoritative,Authoritarian, Indulgent,and Neglectful Homes: A Replication in a Sample of Serious Juvenile Offenders

The correlates of authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful parenting were examined within a sample of 1,355 14‐ to 18‐year‐olds adjudicated of serious criminal offenses. The sample is composed primarily of poor, ethnic‐minority youth living in impoverished urban neighborhoods. As has been found in community samples, juvenile offenders who describe their parents as authoritative are more psychosocially mature, more academically competent, less prone to internalized distress, and less prone to externalizing problems than their peers, whereas those who describe their parents as neglectful are less mature, less competent, and more troubled. Juvenile offenders who characterize their parents as either authoritarian or indulgent typically score somewhere between the two extremes, although those from authoritarian homes are consistently better functioning than those from indulgent homes. These patterns did not vary as a function of adolescents' ethnicity or gender.     

Sensitivity to Confidence Cues Increases during the Second Year of Life

We investigated the emergence in infancy of a preference to imitate individuals who display confidence over lack of confidence. Eighteen‐ and 24‐month‐olds (N = 70) were presented with an experimenter who demonstrated the use of several objects accompanied by either nonverbal expressions of confidence or lack of confidence. At 24 months, infants were more likely to imitate the actions when demonstrated by a confident experimenter than by an unconfident experimenter; 18‐month‐olds showed no such preference. The experimenter then presented an additional imitation trial and a word‐learning trial while displaying a neutral expression. Twenty‐four‐month‐olds persisted in preferentially imitating a previously confident experimenter, but prior confidence had no effect on their word learning. These findings demonstrate a developmental increase in infants’ use of confidence cues toward the end of the second year of life.     

Infants' Ability to Distinguish Between Intentional and Accidental Actions and Its Relation to Internal State Language

The experiment reported here investigated infants' concept of intention, as well as the relation among intention understanding, general productive vocabulary, and internal state language production during the 2nd year. Results from an imitation task indicated that 18‐month‐olds are better able to differentiate between intentional and accidental actions than 14‐month‐olds. Although there was no relation between infants' performance on the intention task and their general productive vocabulary, internal state language production at 30 months was predicted by infants' ability to differentiate between intentional and accidental actions about a year earlier. These findings shed light on the developmental progression of infants' concept of intention, as well as on the continuity between infants' understanding of intentional action and their ability to use internal state words.     

“It's Just a Lot of Work”: Adolescents’ Self‐Presentation Norms and Practices on Facebook and Instagram

We explored adolescents’ (12‐ to 18‐year‐olds; n = 51) awareness of their audience and subsequent self‐presentation practices on Facebook and Instagram through focus group discussions. Findings suggest that teens, who are developmentally able to perceive a situation from the third‐person perspective and who value peer approval, purposefully share content to appear interesting, well liked, and attractive. Some teens invested great effort into posting by these norms, even asking their friends to help; however, this was more common among girls. Older teens especially discussed taking the perspective of their audience when deciding what to post, which is consistent with the finding that perspective taking continues to develop throughout adolescence. These findings suggest that perspective taking skills and need for peer approval influence self‐presentation online.     

Helping and Cooperation at 14 Months of Age

Two experiments investigated the proclivity of 14‐month‐old infants (a) to altruistically help others toward individual goals, and (b) to cooperate toward a shared goal. The infants helped another person by handing over objects the other person was unsuccessfully reaching for, but did not help reliably in situations involving more complex goals. When a programmed adult partner interrupted a joint cooperative activity at specific moments, infants sometimes tried to reengage the adult, perhaps indicating that they understood the interdependency of actions toward a shared goal. However, as compared to 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds, their skills in behaviorally coordinating their actions with a social partner remained rudimentary. Results are integrated into a model of cooperative activities as they develop over the 2nd year of life.     

14‐Month‐olds anticipate others’ actions based on their belief about an object's identity

Past research has accumulated evidence regarding infants’ false‐belief understanding, measuring their gaze patterns or active helping behaviors. However, the underlying mechanisms are still debated, specifically, whether young infants can compute that others represent the world under a certain aspect. Such performance requires holding in mind two representations about the same object simultaneously and attributing only one to another person. While 14‐month‐olds can encode an object under different aspects when forming first‐person representations, it is unclear whether infants at this very age could also predict others’ behavior based on their beliefs about an object's identity. Here, we investigate this question in a novel eye‐tracking‐based unexpected‐identity task. We measured 14‐month‐olds’ anticipatory looks combined with their looking time, using a violation‐of‐expectation paradigm. Results show that 14‐month‐olds look longer to an actor's reach that is incongruent with her false belief about the identity of an object compared to a congruent reach. Furthermore, infants correctly anticipated the actor's reach based on her false belief. Thus, as soon as infants represent dual identities they can integrate them in belief attributions and use them for consequent behavioral predictions. Such data provide evidence for the flexibility of false‐belief attributions and support proposals arguing for infants’ rich theory‐of‐mind abilities.     

Race,ethnicity, gender,and generational factors associated with the coming‐out process among gay,lesbian, and bisexual individuals

Age at coming out among gay/lesbian/bisexual (GLB) persons and sexual debut with same‐gendered partners has typically been investigated in samples that do not reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of these communities. Addressing this limitation, data were collected from a diverse sample of men and women attending large‐scale GLB community events in New York and Los Angeles in 2003 (N = 2,733). Compared to older cohorts, younger cohorts (18–24 year olds) of both men and women reported significantly earlier ages for sexual debut with same‐gendered partners, and earlier ages for coming out to themselves and to others. Also, women began the process at later ages than men, as they reported coming out to themselves and sexual debut with a same‐gender partner approximately two years later than men. There were no racial or ethnic differences in age out to self or others; however, people of color were less likely to be out to their parents. Service providers, sexuality educators, and researchers should attend to the diversity in experience of coming out among GLB populations as they relate to the individuals’ gender, age, and racial and ethnic backgrounds.     

Good news in NSDUH: New heroin use down

New users of heroin were down in 2017 from the previous year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) released Sept. 14. The decline is dramatic: from 170,000 new heroin users in 2016, to 81,000 in 2017. But there are concerns about increasing cocaine and methamphetamine use, a continuing increase in widespread use of marijuana, and increased substance use in the “transitional‐age” (18–25‐year‐olds) population and pregnant women.     

Adolescent and adult alcohol attitudes in a high alcohol consumption community

The study examines alcohol-related attitudes among adolescents and adults in a high consumption community, exploring whether adolescents and adults hold similar or different views regarding adolescent drinking. Data were gathered from adults in a Midwestern city via random telephone survey of 487 adults (30% with children under the age of 21). Students in grades 6-12 (n = 558) also completed a youth version of the survey in classrooms. Results indicated that becoming a parent was associated with more restrictive attitudes about adolescent alcohol use, regardless of the age of their children. Adolescents aged 14 to 17 had the least restrictive attitudes. Adults aged 18 to 24 (who were not parents) reported values similar to older adolescents. Younger adolescents, while similar to older adolescents in perception of community alcohol problems, were more like parents and older adults in attitudes about adolescent drinking. Both adolescents and adults greatly overestimated actual amounts of community adolescent binge drinking.     

When My Mom Was a Little Girl … : Gender Differences in Adolescents' Intergenerational and Personal Stories

Narratives about parents may help adolescents navigate their own experiences. Yet, research has not examined what adolescents know about their intergenerational past. Sixty‐five 14‐ to 16‐year‐old middle‐class, racially diverse adolescents narrated two stories about each parent's childhood, and 2 positive personal stories. Narratives were coded for structure (length, elaboration), theme (affiliation, achievement), and internal states. Mothers' stories were more elaborative, affiliative, and emotionally rich than fathers', which were more achievement focused. Girls' personal narratives were longer, more elaborative, and more emotionally rich than boys' and resembled narratives about mothers but not fathers. Adolescents may be narrating parents' experiences through gendered lens of the parent but personal experiences through their own gendered lens. Implications of intergenerational narratives for adolescent identity are discussed.     

Neural Correlates of Conflicting Social Influence on Adolescent Risk Taking

Adolescence is often characterized by heightened risk‐taking behaviors, which are shaped by social influence from parents and peers. However, little is understood about how adolescents make risky decisions under conflicting influence. The valuation system in the brain may elucidate how adolescents differentially integrate conflicting social information. Twenty‐eight adolescents (M_age = 12.7 years) completed a social influence task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Behaviorally, adolescents took more risks only when their parent endorsed risky decisions but not when their peers endorsed risky decisions. At the neural level, adolescents showed enhanced vmPFC–striatum functional connectivity when they made risky decisions that followed their parents’ risky decisions. Results suggest that parents’ decisions may guide youths’ risk‐taking behavior under conflicting influence.     

Independence Giving or Autonomy Taking? Childhood Predictors of Decision‐Sharing Patterns Between Young Adolescents and Parents

This article reports on a study of whether young adolescents make decisions autonomously, share decisions with their parents, or have decisions made for them by parents. Using a sample of 2,632 12‐ and 13‐year‐olds from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child Survey we examine how childhood behavior and competence influence decision patterns in young adolescence. Individual models are used to test whether traits predict decision patterns, and sibling fixed‐effects models allow us to estim\ate effects of child characteristics net of stable family contributions. In both individual and sibling fixed‐effects models, children with higher verbal ability share more decision making with parents. Children with greater mathematical aptitude and children who are impulsive are more likely to make decisions without consulting parents. The impulsivity effect is stronger in families with fewer resources. These results suggest that children directly and indirectly influence household decision‐sharing patterns.     

Middle‐Class African American Parents’ Conceptions of Parenting in Early Adolescence

Conceptions of parenting were examined in 87 middle‐class African American parents (87 mothers and 51 fathers) of early adolescents (M= 13.11 years of age). Using semistructured interviews, parents were queried about two developmentally salient issues of early adolescence: parental limit‐setting and adolescent independence. Parents primarily defined firm limits in terms of nonnegotiation, strongly endorsed setting firm limits regarding a range of issues, and justified the importance of limits by focusing on adolescents’ socialization and psychological development. Mothers rated limiting adolescents’ behavior as more important than permitting or encouraging adolescents’ independence. Limits were seen as more important by mothers of younger rather than older early adolescent females, but mothers encouraged independence more for younger rather than older early adolescent males. Mothers permitted independent decisions regarding a limited range of issues such as clothes and appearance, based on psychological concerns with adolescents’ developing autonomy and competence; they encouraged independence primarily by encouraging greater responsibility. The results demonstrate that there is considerable heterogeneity in African American parents’ beliefs and goals about parenting in early adolescence.     

Sequences of toddler negative emotion and parent–toddler verbal communication during a waking day

Although the second year of life is characterized by dramatic changes in expressive language and by increases in negative emotion expression, verbal communication and emotional communication are often studied separately. With a sample of twenty‐five one‐year‐olds (12–23 months), we used Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009, Reliability of the LENA? language environment analysis system in young children’s natural home environment. LENA Foundation) to audio‐record and quantify parent–toddler communication, including toddlers’ vocal negative emotion expressions, across a full waking day. Using a multilevel extension of lag‐sequential analysis, we investigated whether parents are differentially responsive to toddlers’ negative emotion expressions compared to their verbal or preverbal vocalizations, and we examined the effects of parents’ verbal responses on toddlers’ subsequent communicative behavior. Toddlers’ negative emotions were less likely than their vocalizations to be followed by parent speech. However, when negative emotions were followed by parent speech, toddlers were most likely to vocalize next. Post hoc analyses suggest that older toddlers and toddlers with higher language abilities were more likely to shift from negative emotion to verbal or preverbal vocalization following parent response. Implications of the results for understanding the parent–toddler communication processes that support both emotional development and verbal development are discussed.     

Six‐Month‐Olds Comprehend Words That Refer to Parts of the Body

Comprehending spoken words requires a lexicon of sound patterns and knowledge of their referents in the world. Tincoff and Jusczyk (1999) demonstrated that 6‐month‐olds link the sound patterns “Mommy” and “Daddy” to video images of their parents, but not to other adults. This finding suggests that comprehension emerges at this young age and might take the form of very specific word‐world links, as in “Mommy” referring only to the infant’s mother and “Daddy” referring only to the infant’s father. The current study was designed to investigate if 6‐month‐olds also show evidence of comprehending words that can refer to categories of objects. The results show that 6‐month‐olds link the sound patterns “hand” and “feet” to videos of an adult’s hand and feet. This finding suggests that very early comprehension has a capacity beyond specific, one‐to‐one, associations. Future research will need to consider how developing categorization abilities, social experiences, and parent word use influence the beginnings of word comprehension.