Adolescent sexual behavior—family characteristics,parental involvement,and associated mental disorders

Abstract

Manifold factors connect with adolescent sexual behavior, but studies on their reciprocal associations are scarce. This study seeks to find the ways in which parental involvement, family characteristics, depression, and delinquency are connected to adolescent early/risky sexual behavior, and to what extent they modify each other. A population-based self-report survey of nearly 187,000 adolescents (50.4% girls) was used. The most important of the family variables was living in a two-parent family, which showed the clearest inverse association with early/risky sexual behavior throughout adolescence. Depression and delinquency persisted associated with sexual behavior in the presence of the family variables.     

Personal and Family Correlates of Resilience Among Adolescents Living in Single-Parent Households in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Based on the responses of 291 Taiwanese adolescents living with single parents, this article examines the personal (gender and academic performance) and family (gender of parent living together and family type) correlates of resilience of the participants with reference to different psychosocial domains. Whereas girls displayed higher resilience in some dimensions of personal and school resilience domains than did boys, boys experienced higher family resilience than did girls. Better academic performance was positively related to effective coping, personal independence, global personal resilience, and parental expectation on academic performance. Adolescents living with single mothers displayed higher personal independence and family resilience than did adolescents living with single fathers. Compared with adolescents not living with any parent or those who lived with both parents after divorce, adolescents living in nuclear and stem families displayed higher positive orientation to older people and experienced higher family resilience.     

Structural Interpretation of Suicide

Abstract

Drawing upon longitudinal data collected from the same boys and girls in their early (13–14) and later (18–19) years of adolescence, this research models age at sexual debut, contraceptive risk-taking, and teenage pregnancy on the basis of family background and delinquency involvement during the early years of adolescence. The data also allow for control over the influence of social class while studying the effects of race, and vice-versa. Regression analyses showed that both race and delinquency independently predict age at sexual debut, but that SES, with race controlled, does not. Further analysis showed that contraceptive risk-taking was predicted by both age at sexual debut and early delinquency. With these variables controlled, however, neither SES nor race was predictive of contraceptive risk-taking. Finally, contraceptive risk-taking emerged as a substantial predictor of pregnancy.     

Family Factors,Theft, Vandalism,and Major Deviance Among a Multiracial/Multiethnic Sample of Adolescent Girls

This article reports on a study of 503 African-American, Hispanic, and White non-Hispanic adolescent girls attending public schools in Miami, Florida. The primary objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of 13 self-reported delinquent behaviors in the sample, to compare these rates among the three groups of students, and to explore the predictive influences of several family factors that correlate with delinquency. It was found that 37.5% of the sample engaged in one or more acts of serious delinquency, with African-Americans reporting they had engaged in significantly more of these behaviors. The best predictors of theft/vandalism were low family pride and family substance abuse for Hispanics, low family communication for African-Americans, and low family pride for White non-Hispanics. The findings indicate that traditional family factors that have been used repeatedly to understand delinquency by male adolescents were not strong predictors of delinquency among the adolescent girls in the sample.     

The longitudinal effects of influence of parental attachment and emotion regulation on Internet delinquency in early adolescence

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to identify the longitudinal influence of parental attachment and emotion regulation on changes in Internet delinquency. This study used the Korean Youth Panel Survey (KYPS) data, in which 2,844 school-age children were annually assessed from Grade 4 in 2004 to Grade 8 in 2008 in South Korea. Latent growth models were used to examine developmental trajectories of Internet delinquency, parental attachment, and emotion regulation longitudinally. This study showed that adolescents experience an increase in Internet delinquency over the fourth year and a decline in the fifth year. The initial level of parental monitoring had significant effects on the initial level of emotion regulation. In addition, the initial level of parental attachment was associated with a slower rate of acceleration of Internet delinquency across time. The study findings indicate that parental attachment influences Internet delinquency among Korean adolescents. The practice implications of the findings are discussed in terms of Internet delinquency reduction efforts.     

Juvenile Delinquency in Search of a Practice Model: Family Health,Differential Association,and Social Control

ABSTRACT

Historically, practice research on juvenile delinquency has often been guided by the theories of differential association and social control. However, current research indicates that no matter what theory of delinquency is pursued, it has had little effect on decreasing juvenile arrest and violent crime rates. This article will explore the dynamics of the theories of differential association and social control in relation to juvenile delinquency. These linear, normative, and deficit-based theories are then contrasted with family health practice, an alternative theory and intervention model which focuses on the multiple forms and needs of families and their strengths. Specific family health practice principles and interventions are suggested for practice with families in which juvenile delinquency occurs. Finally, a case example utilizing family health interventions is presented.     

Family Factors, Theft, Vandalism, and Major Deviance Among a Multiracial/Multiethnic Sample of Adolescent Girls

This article reports on a study of 503 African-American, Hispanic, and White non-Hispanic adolescent girls attending public schools in Miami, Florida, The primary objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of 13 self-reported delinquent behaviors in the sample, to compare these rates among the three groups of students, and to explore the predictive influences of several family factors that correlate with delinquency. It was found that 37.5% of the sample engaged in one or more acts of serious delinquency, with African-Americans reporting they had engaged in significantly more of these behaviors. The best predictors of theft/vandalism were low family pride and family substance abuse for Hispanics, low family communication for African-Americans, and low family pride for White non-Hispanics. The findings indicate that traditional family factors that have been used repeatedly to understand delinquency by male adolescents were not strong predictors of delinquency among the adolescent girls in the sample.     

The Work Ethnic and Delinquency

Abstract

Many criminologists argue that delinquency stems, in part, from the abandonment of the work ethnic by adolescents. No longer willing to engage in hard work and self-denial, adolescents become more likely to engage in delinquency. Using longitudinal data from a national survey of adolescent boys, this study found that adolescents with a low commitment to the work ethic were more likely to become delinquent. The effect of the work ethic was explained, in large part, by social control and cultural deviance theory. The implications of these findings are briefly examined.     

Influence of early romantic relationships on adolescents’ sexism / Sexismo en la adolescencia: influencia de las primeras relaciones de pareja

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of romantic relationships on adolescents’ sexism. We primed some of the participants with their past and/or present relationship experiences before assessing their sexism. A sample of 130 adolescents (67 boys and 63 girls) from Spanish high schools participated in the study. Half of them were asked to report on their relationship experience first before responding to an ambivalent sexism inventory. The other half of the sample responded first to the sexism inventory and then reported on their relationship experience. The results of this study showed that when participants’ relationship experiences were primed, they reported higher endorsement of sexist beliefs: boys reported higher BS and HS, whereas girls reported higher BS.     

Gender differences in the association of smartphone use with the vitality and mental health of adolescent students

ABSTRACT

Objective: The present study examined variations in the degree of smartphone use behavior among male and female adolescents as well as the association between various degrees of smartphone use behavior and the vitality and mental health of each gender.

Participants: A total of 218 adolescents were recruited from a junior college in September 2014.

Methods: All the participants were asked to answer questionnaires on smartphone use.

Results: The findings showed that adolescent females as compared with adolescent males exhibited significantly higher degrees of smartphone dependence and smartphone influence. Positive correlations were observed between the duration of smartphone use on weekends and the vitality/mental health of the male adolescents; negative correlations were found between smartphone dependence and the vitality/mental health of males.

Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that adolescent females are deeply affected by their smartphone use. Smartphone dependence may decrease the vitality and mental health of male adolescents.     

A Pseudofolliculitis Barbae Clinic for the Black Male who Has to Shave

Abstract

We conducted focus group interviews with students who were current peer health educators at a mid-sized university to determine what factors motivate individuals to volunteer for a peer health education program. Specifically, we asked the participants questions designed to explore their life experiences, their expectations of the peer education program, and their motivations. Constructs from social learning theory were used to categorize and contribute to our understanding of the responses. Many participants specified experiences with family members or friends, such as alcoholism or other illnesses, that had influenced their decisions. Participants' expectation of the program varied greatly and did not indicate a strong link to the decision to volunteer. The peer health educators' motivations for volunteering were altruistic, such as wanting to help others; egoistic, such as wanting job training; or related to self-efficacy beliefs, such as satisfying a personal need for health education. This study indicated that life experiences, a belief in the effectiveness of peer health education programs, and positive reinforcement to join influence the decision to volunteer. Implications for coordinating peer education programs are discussed.     

Developmental Shifts in Parent and Peer Influences on Boys' Beliefs About Delinquent Behavior

This paper examines the relative shifts in parent and peer influences on the development of boys' beliefs regarding delinquency from early to middle adolescence. The paper also explores the influence that beliefs about delinquency have on subsequent changes in these social relationships. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze six annual waves of data for 481 boys from the youngest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Increased parent–adolescent conflict only predicted changes in beliefs about delinquency in early adolescence, while increases in peer delinquency was associated with adopting more tolerant beliefs about delinquent acts from early to middle adolescence. Changes in boys' delinquent peer group association were initially influenced by increased family conflict. However, in middle adolescence increasingly tolerant beliefs about delinquency were related to subsequent increases in delinquent peers. The potential implications for preventing the formation of beliefs favoring delinquency during adolescence are discussed.     

The moderating role of length of stay in the relationship between cognitive dysregulation and peer attachment in adolescent boys and girls living in residential care

In Portugal, youth at risk tend to be placed in residential care for long periods of time, during which peers assume a status close to that of family. However, these adolescents often present deficits in emotional regulation, which can compromise the quality of their relationships with peers. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between emotional dysregulation experienced by institutionalized adolescents and their own perception of peer attachment, testing whether the length of stay moderates this relationship, for boys and girls independently. Data was collected from a sample of 100 Portuguese adolescents (71 boys; 29 girls), aged 12–18, living in residential care for 43 months average (SD = 43.14). They responded to the Abbreviated Dysregulation Inventory, which measures cognitive, affective and behavioral dysregulation, and the peer version of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, which measures communication, trust and alienation.Only cognitive dysregulation accounted for the variability of perceived attachment to peers, in the total scale and in communication and trust. When the level of cognitive dysregulation reported by the adolescents is high, there is a positive effect of length of stay in the previous relationships, but only for boys.Results outline how length of placement contributes to youth at risk to reach certain outcomes. They also emphasize the need to develop specific interventions in residential care contexts to address specific characteristics such as gender differences, in order to continuously promote positive interactions with peers in these contexts.     

Life Events and Delinquency: An Assessment of Event‐Based Stressors and Gender Differences among Adolescents in Mainland China

Studies that test general strain theory in China have primarily focused on poor treatments by others, and few have assessed the influences of stressor events other than negative treatments as antecedents of delinquency. This study assesses both cumulative and relative effects of multiple stressor events including parent marital instability, family financial disruption, health crisis, and romantic dissolution as antecedents of delinquency in mainland China and how these effects may vary by adolescent gender. Data drawn from over 500 middle‐school students from an urban city in China yielded significant observations: Stressful events are related to delinquency after controlling for poor treatments and other common correlates, and event effects are observed both as a composite index and by specific domains. Furthermore, significant gender differences are noted: For boys, delinquency is associated with family financial disruption, parent marital instability, and romantic dissolution. For girls, romantic dissolution and health crisis are associated with delinquency. These results along with others are addressed in light of general strain theory and gender disparity in the sociocultural context of mainland China.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Maternal and Peer Influences on Sexual Intention among Urban African American and Hispanic Females

Peer and family influences are interconnected in complex ways. These influences shape adolescent decision-making regarding engagement in sexual behaviors. Evidence indicates the more proximal (and direct) a process is to an individual, the more likely it is to affect his/her development and behavior. Therefore, family factors (e.g., parenting practices) and peer influence (e.g., peer norms) tend to be more strongly associated with adolescent behavior than distal factors (e.g., media or the economy). Guided by an ecological framework, this study explored how maternal influence variables interact with perceptions of peer influence to affect daughters’ intentions to have sex. A nonprobability sample of 176 mother–daughter dyads was recruited in clinics and service organizations in the northeastern United States. Results from path analysis revealed that maternal influence variables had a significant indirect relationship with daughters’ intentions to have sex through daughters’ perceptions of peer influence. Maternal processes can act as protective factors for adolescent girls who perceive their peers are engaged in sexual behaviors. Therefore, risk reduction interventions with adolescents should include opportunities for parents to learn about sex-related issues and develop skills that will allow them to buffer negative peer influence.     

Adolescent Violent Behavior

SUMMARY

The focus of this study was on the association between family characteristics (e.g., family structure, family cohesion), race/ethnicity and their relationship to violent behaviors in adolescents. Family characteristics represent one piece of a larger ecological model that includes individual, peer, school, and neighborhood/community factors. The current study uses data from the National Study of Adolescent Health (Wave 1). Add Health was a longitudinal study of adolescents in grades 7 through 12. The survey gathered information about the respondent's health and health-related behaviors, emotional well being, and family and school environment. The variables of interest in this study are all self-reported measures of violent behavior: (1) being in a serious physical fight, (2) seriously injuring someone, (3) pulling a knife or gun on someone, and (4) shooting or stabbing someone. Differences between those who reported being involved in violent behaviors are related, at least in part, to family cohesion, family structure, gender, and race/ethnicity. Family cohesion served as a protective factor in all four models of violent behavior regardless of racial/ethnic group. Attention needs to be focused not only on the other domains involved in this ecological model (e.g., individual, family, peer, school, and neighborhood/community) but also on the possible interactive effects of variables both within and across these domains. Future interventions need to focus their efforts on the multiple dimensions of youth violence as well as give consideration to a multi-pronged approach in addressing the needs of youth at risk for violent behaviors.     

RELIGIOSITY,PEERS, AND DELINQUENCY: DOES RELIGIOSITY REDUCE THE EFFECT OF PEERS ON DELINQUENCY?

Do peer influences have the same effect on religious and nonreligious youth, or does religiosity reduce the effect of peers on delinquency? Using data from the National Youth Survey, we examined the interaction of religiosity and peer influences on marijuana use, alcohol use, hitting, and property offenses. The results suggest that, for marijuana use and alcohol use, three measures of peer influence—peer attitudes, behaviors, and pressure—have weaker effects on religious adolescents. Thus, even when religious youth are exposed to peers who encourage substance use, religiosity may serve as a protective factor that reduces the effect of peers. In contrast, religiosity does not seem to condition the effect of peers on hitting and property offenses.     

Peer‐Perceived Admiration and Social Preference: Contextual Correlates of Positive Peer Regard Among Suburban and Urban Adolescents

The primary purpose of this study was to understand further the heterogeneity of popularity, by exploring contextual correlates of two dimensions of positive peer regard among seventh graders within two highly disparate sociodemographic groups: affluent suburban and low‐income urban (N=636). Three sets of attributes were examined, all consistently linked to social status in past research: rebellious behaviors (aggression, academic disengagement, delinquency, and substance use), academic application (effort at school and good grades), and physical attributes (attractiveness and athletic ability). The data provide empirical validation for the conceptual distinctions among peer‐perceived admiration and social preference with adolescents from diverse contexts. More specifically, results showed that within each socioeconomic context (a) some forms of rebellious behaviors are clearly admired, (b) prosocial attributes are linked with peer‐perceived admiration and social preference, (c) physical attractiveness and athletic skills are important for positive peer regard, the former particularly for suburban girls and the latter for suburban boys, and (d) aggression elicits admiration among early adolescents, but can also generate their disdain (i.e., lowered social preference). In the urban context, results provided evidence for the salience of distinct forms of rebellious and achievement oriented behaviors among different racial/ethnic groups as well.     

Implicit and Explicit Peer Evaluation: Associations With Early Adolescents’ Prosociality,Aggression, and Bullying

Implicit and explicit peer evaluations were assessed among 120 early adolescents (56 boys, 64 girls; M age = 11.1 years). Explicit peer evaluations were round‐robin ratings of likeability; implicit peer evaluations were assessed with an approach‐avoidance task, also using a round‐robin design. Prosocial behavior, aggression, and bullying were assessed with a standard peer nominations procedure. Prosocial behavior predicted explicit positive evaluations given and received. Bullying and physical aggression predicted receiving explicit negative evaluations from peers. Implicit negative biases were found for girls but not boys. Relationally aggressive girls and bullying girls showed a negative implicit bias toward their peers. Possible implications for intervention are discussed.     

Adolescents' Self-Reported Risk Factors and Desire to Talk About Family and Friends

Summary

Adolescents entering an urban mental health program completed Adquest, an 80-item self-report inventory asking about important areas in their life such as school and education, work, health, sexuality, substance abuse, personal and family life. This article examines how much adolescents wanted to talk about family and friends with their counselors, gender and age differences in this desire, and how that is mediated by behavioral risk factors. Irrespective of the existence of coping problems and behavioral risks, adolescents expressed a strong desire to discuss family, and, to a lesser extent, friends, in counseling. From a clinical standpoint, this finding highlights Adquest's limitations because it is based on an individual, behavioral risk paradigm rather than on more systemic factors in the lives of these adolescents. Implications regarding the use of practice-based research to facilitate reflective practice are discussed.