Family Assessment and Intervention for Early Adolescent Problems*

The clinical assessment of adolescent problems is most effective when conducted in view of developmental tasks, family interaction, and peer group influences. For early adolescents, developmental issues need to be resolved within a supportive family milieu before satisfactory differentiation toward a peer group can occur. An assessment-intervention model for initiating treatment with early adolescents and their parents is presented. The combined collaborative-conjoint method was operationalized by interdisciplinary professional teams in a community health setting. The treatment model's effectiveness was evaluated by self-reports and statistical comparisons in 50 cases over a two year period. The results are discussed and illustrated in two case studies.     

The Impact of Parental Attachment on Adolescent Perception of the School Environment and School Connectedness

The extent to which students feel accepted, valued, respected and included in the school has recently surfaced as one of the most important predictors of adolescent mental health (particularly depressive symptoms). The school environment is an established predictor of school connectedness, but we set out to examine whether parental attachment predicts both adolescents' perception of the school environment and school connectedness. A study of 171 high school students from years 8 to 12 showed that parent attachment strongly predicted both. We also confirmed that the relationship between parent attachment and school connectedness is not a direct one but that parent attachment influences individual differences in the way adolescents perceive the school environment, which in turn influences school connectedness. This finding shows how multiple systems might be interlinked in influencing wellbeing in adolescents, and confirms the importance of intervening at the double level of both the family and the school system.     

Adolescent Sexuality: Disentangling the Effects of Family Structure and Family Context

Growing up in single‐parent, step‐, cohabiting, or lesbian families has been suggested to have negative effects on adolescent sexual behavior. However, our analysis reveals that, with the exception of girls in single‐parent families, family structure does not significantly influence adolescents' sexual initiation. Rather, the family context—more specifically the mother‐child relationship, their level of interaction, and the mother's attitudes toward and discussion of sex—is associated with adolescent sexual debut. When looking at sexually active teenagers, neither family structure nor family context have an impact on the sexual partnerships of boys, and they explain little in terms of girl's sexual partnering.     

Longitudinal Relations of Economic Hardship and Effortful Control to Active Coping in Latino Youth

How Latino youth cope with stressors may have implications for their adjustment. We examined how a temperamental characteristic (effortful control) and a contextual factor (economic hardship) were associated with Latino youth's coping. Individual differences in effortful control, a core facet of self‐regulation, may contribute to coping as effortful control is consistently linked to adaptive behaviors during adolescence. We examined relations of effortful control and economic hardship to active coping in a sample of Mexican‐origin youth (N = 674) across three time points (fifth to ninth grades). Although economic hardship negatively predicted coping and effortful control, effortful control positively predicted coping (controlling for prior levels). Findings support a resilience perspective by suggesting that effortful control may contribute to coping and thus counteract the negative effects of economic hardship.     

Longitudinal Prediction of Mid‐Adolescent Psychosocial Outcomes From Early Adolescent Family Help Seeking and Family Support

This study examined whether family help seeking and family support represented the same or distinct constructs and prospective associations between emergent constructs and psychosocial outcomes. Data were from 1,713 school‐based adolescents participating in a randomized controlled trial, in Victoria, Australia. Family help seeking emerged as a single factor, distinct from family support, and was prospectively associated with improved psychosocial outcomes. Father closeness predicted lower depressive symptoms. Family help seeking predicted higher help seeking for peers. Interactions between family help seeking and family support on psychosocial outcomes were not apparent. Findings highlight the importance of examining family help seeking and family support separately in future studies of adolescents' help‐seeking behavior.     

Longitudinal Mediators of Relations Between Family Violence and Adolescent Dating Aggression Perpetration

Few longitudinal studies have examined the pathways through which family violence leads to dating aggression. In the current study the authors used 3 waves of data obtained from 8th‐ and 9th‐grade adolescents (N = 1,965) to examine the hypotheses that the prospective relationship between witnessing family violence and directly experiencing violence and physical dating aggression perpetration is mediated by 3 constructs: (a) normative beliefs about dating aggression (norms), (b) anger dysregulation, and (c) depression. Results from cross‐lagged regression models suggest that the relationship between having been hit by an adult and dating aggression is mediated by changes in norms and anger dysregulation, but not depression. No evidence of indirect effects from witnessing family violence to dating aggression was found through any of the proposed mediators. Taken together, the findings suggest that anger dysregulation and normative beliefs are potential targets for dating abuse prevention efforts aimed at youth who have directly experienced violence.     

Maternal Neurobiological Processing of Negative Adolescent Stimuli: Relations With Positive Parenting and Relationship Quality

We examined associations between maternal affective neurobiology and positive parenting in a study of 20 mothers of adolescents. Mothers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotion image task, rated parent‐adolescent relationship quality, and completed an adolescent interaction task in which positive parenting behaviors were observed. Maternal structure was associated with lower responsivity in emotional processing regions in the general negative image contrast and was related to greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to negative adolescent images. Parent‐adolescent relationship quality was associated with lower precuneus activation to negative adolescent images. Findings are among the first to connect functional brain processing with observed parenting behaviors for parents of adolescent children, and underscore the relative importance of affective processing in parenting older children.     

Examining the Moderating Role of Perceived School Climate in Early Adolescent Adjustment

The current study examined the unique and interactive relations of 4 aspects of student‐perceived school climate (cohesion, friction, and competition among students, and overall satisfaction with classes) and adolescent effortful control in the conduct problems and depressive symptoms of 868 ten‐ to fourteen‐year‐old adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that each of the school climate variables was uniquely associated with at least 1 outcome beyond effortful control. Two‐way interactions between effortful control and school climate variables showed that among boys low in effortful control, those perceiving high levels of cohesion among students, low levels of friction among students, or high levels of satisfaction with classes reported fewer depressive symptoms. Among females, 2‐way interactions indicated that girls low in effortful control reported fewer conduct problems when their perceptions of friction or competition among students were low. Implications for perceptions of good quality school climates are discussed.     

Gender Differences in the Developmental Links Between Conduct Problems and Depression Across Early Adolescence

Various developmental models have attempted to explain the relationship between antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms in youth, often proposing intermediary processes such as social and academic functioning. However, few studies have tested these developmental models fully, particularly in mixed‐gender samples. The current study strives to fill this gap in the literature, examining these processes in an early adolescent sample. Results indicated both direct and indirect paths between antisocial behavior and depression. In addition, potentially important gender differences were found. These results underscore the importance of examining direct and indirect links between symptoms of depression and antisocial behavior and suggest that there may be important developmental differences between girls and boys in the relationship between these symptoms.     

Anger and Approach Motivation in Infancy: Relations to Early Childhood Inhibitory Control and Behavior Problems

The relations among infant anger reactivity, approach behavior, and frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry, and their relations to inhibitory control and behavior problems in early childhood were examined within the context of a longitudinal study of temperament. Two hundred nine infants’ anger expressions to arm restraint were observed at 4 months of age. Infants’ approach behaviors during play with an unpredictable toy and baseline frontal EEG asymmetry were assessed at 9 months of age. Inhibitory control during a Go/No‐Go task and parent report of behavior problems were evaluated at 4 years of age. High anger‐prone infants with left, but not right, frontal EEG asymmetry showed significantly more approach behaviors and less inhibitory control relative to less anger‐prone infants. Although a link between anger proneness in infancy and behavior problems in early childhood was not found, a combination of low approach behaviors and poor inhibitory control was predictive of internalizing behaviors.     

School,Family and Neighborhood: The Theory and Practice of School-Community Relations

This paper reports on the findings of a survey of the first five graduating classes of students from a newly developed specialization in social policy. The survey was undertaken to ascertain students' work affiliations after graduation along a number of dimensions and to compare their situations before and after graduation. We also were interested in assessing whether students were doing in practice what they had been prepared for educationally. The survey findings clearly indicated differences in work affiliations and experiences before and after graduation, and the emergence of a social work-social policy practitioner.     

The Effects of Family Structure on Consumption and Exercise Patterns for Adolescent Youth

With over 22 million children considered overweight or obese, research needs to examine factors related to overweightness and obesity. Parents seem to have an influence on their children’s eating behaviors such as taste likes and dislikes and quality and quantity of food. Parents also seem to influence their children’s physical activity levels. A link between physical activity level and obesity exists, indicating that less active children have an increased risk for high BMIs, with children from single parent families having higher than normal BMIs compared to children from two-parent families. The purpose of this study is to examine whether family structure influences eating and exercise patterns of adolescent youth. The current study employed a secondary data analysis utilizing data from the HBSC (N = 6733). According to the data, participants engaged in approximately 3.76 healthy consumption behaviors per week and moderate levels of exercise (mean = 2.38). The linear regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between family structure and consumption patterns, as youth from single parent families, stepparent families, and multigenerational families have fewer healthy consumption patterns (?.256, ?.142, and ?.164, respectively) compared to youth from two-parent families. Healthy eating initiatives need to target both parents and children, as a relationship between consumption patterns and family structure exists. Additionally, future research needs to examine initiatives targeted at promoting physical activity, particularly among overweight and obese youth who are less likely to engage in physical activity.     

Adolescent Profiles of Marginalization and Connection at School: Relations With Academics and Mental Health

School context serves as a testing ground for exploring social relationships and satisfying needs for connection and affirmation, but often includes feelings of rejection. With a diverse high school sample (n = 645; 55% female; 61% White, 18% African American, 10% Latino, 10% Asian American, 1% Multiracial), patterns of experiences with marginalization and connection were identified and their associations with achievement and mental health examined. Using two‐step cluster analysis, three clusters were identified: above the fray, exposed and protected, and targeted and unsupported. Ethnic/racial background was not related to cluster membership. Except for gender and well‐being, associations between cluster membership and outcomes were similar across demographic background. The above the fray and the exposed and protected clusters were associated with better outcomes.     

Positive Effects of Talking About the Negative: Family Narratives of Negative Experiences and Preadolescents' Perceived Competence

Family narratives about the past are an important context for the socialization of emotion, but relations between expression of negative emotion and children's emerging competence are conflicting. In this study, 24 middle‐class two‐parent families narrated a shared negative experience together and we examined the process (initiations and collaborations) and function (the expression and explanation of emotions) of co‐constructed narratives in relation to preadolescents' perceived competencies and self‐esteem. Family narratives in which specific emotions were expressed and explained in a collaborative fashion, especially negative emotion, were positively related to preadolescents' reported competencies and self‐esteem, whereas family narratives that expressed general positive emotion were negatively related to preadolescents' perceived competencies. Implications of family narratives about emotional events, specifically the ways in which families discuss emotion, in relation to preadolescents' self‐development are discussed.     

Health-Promoting Influences of the Family on Late Adolescent Functioning

This study examined whether potentially modifiable health-promoting family factors during mid-adolescence (age 15) predicted adaptive functioning in late adolescence (age 18) among members of a working-class community cohort. Family factors included feeling valued in the family, cohesion, and social support. Late adolescent outcomes covered developmentally salient areas: academic functioning; mental health; suicidal behavior; and social, psychological, and behavioral functioning. Our findings demonstrate that a positive adolescent family milieu is related to both adaptive outcomes and a reduced likelihood of serious difficulties, including mental and behavior problems. Although each hypothesized health-promoting factor was significantly associated with multiple areas of age 18 functioning, the patterns of association differed by type of family factor. Taken together, results suggest that the family remains an important social context during mid-adolescence and that to be most effective programs designed by practitioners aimed at strengthening families should target multiple features of the family environment.     

Dropping Out of High School: The Effects of Family Structure and Family Transitions

We use the 1988, 1990, and 1992 waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to examine the effects of family structure and family transitions on adolescent high school dropout. Our study differs from previous studies by using a large longitudinal sample (N?=?21,420) and applying event history analysis with standard errors corrected for clustered sampling. Our study has two major contributions. First, we examine single-mother, single-father, stepmother, and stepfather families separately. Controlling for socioeconomic status, children from single-mother families are doing better than children from single-father and stepparent families. Second, using event history we can determine the causal order between family transitions and high school dropout rates. We find high school students are not hurt by their parents marrying, remarrying, or starting a cohabiting relationship, but are negatively affected by a parental divorce or separation during the high school years.     

Pre/Early Adolescent Onset of Gambling and Psychosocial Problems in Treatment-Seeking Pathological Gamblers

This study examined the association between pre- or early-adolescent onset of gambling and severity of gambling and psychosocial problems in treatment-seeking adult pathological gamblers. A total of 236 pathological gamblers entering outpatient treatment completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). Using a quartile split procedure, gamblers who began gambling during their pre- or early-adolescent years (mean age of 10.5 years; 1st quartile) were compared to gamblers who began gambling later in life (mean age of 23.0 years; 2nd to 4th quartiles). Compared to later onset gamblers, pre/early adolescent onset gamblers reported increased severity of psychiatric, family/social, and substance abuse problems on the ASI. They were more likely to report cognitive problems (trouble understanding, concentrating, or remembering), suicidal ideation, and a history of inpatient psychiatric treatment, and were less likely to be satisfied with their current living situation. Pre/early adolescent onset gamblers also reported earlier age of initiation of drinking, and were more likely to have received treatment for an alcohol use disorder, and to have used cannabis and cocaine in their lifetimes. Taken together, these data suggest that pre/early adolescent-onset of gambling may be a risk factor for later-life psychiatric, family/social, and substance abuse problems in treatment-seeking pathological gamblers.     

School, Family and County Effects on Adolescents’ Later Life Chances

This paper explores the links between family, school and area background influences during adolescence and later adult economic outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the period 1979 to 1996, drawn from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. For a sample of individuals aged 14–19 in 1979, we estimate the association between family, school and area characteristics when growing up, on adult earnings capacity and poverty risk. We show that including all these influences jointly, family and school quality generally have significant associations with adult outcomes, but that area influences generally do not.Simon Burgess, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Simon.Burgess@bristol.ac.ukKaren Gardiner, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY, UK; e-mail: K.S.Gardiner@bath.ac.ukCarol Propper, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Carol.Propper@bristol.ac.uk     

Social Capital and Adolescent Substance Use: The Role of Family,School, and Neighborhood Contexts

This study assesses the link between social capital factors of norm‐setting social arenas including family, school, and neighborhood and adolescent substance use measured by cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and illicit drug use among a sample of adolescents in California. The key messages of this study are that socialization processes at different life domains, in varying degrees, are associated with adolescent substance use behavior. Compared with school and neighborhood contexts, family is the most influential setting that should be primarily targeted for youth substance use prevention. Among different aspects of within‐family social resources, parental monitoring seems to be the most protective of adolescent substance use. Study implications on family‐based interventions are discussed.     

Multiple Views of the Family and Adolescent Social Competencies

This research examined the linkages between congruence in perceptions of family functioning and adolescent competencies with a sample of 223 first‐year college students, their mothers, and their fathers. The primary goal was to explore further the nature and importance of perceptual congruence as related to adolescent social competencies with a more informative analytic strategy than has been used in most past research (one that controls for individual perceptions of family members and takes into account direction of differences among family members), and with more comprehensive, multimethod assessments of adolescent competencies. Our congruence analyses portrayed a more complex picture of congruence and divergence than has emerged from previous studies, and highlight the importance of examining interaction patterns in future research. It is noteworthy, however, that individual perceptions of family members were more important than was congruence in relation to adolescent social competencies. The possibility that congruence effects may be more apparent when the focus is on more specific rather than global measures and on developmental as well as family interaction processes is suggested.