A prospective study of adolescent mothers’ social competence,children's effortful control and compliance and children's subsequent developmental outcomes

Previous work has established that caregiver and child temperamental characteristics are associated with child compliance. Given the critical role that parents play in this process, and that children of teen mothers are at risk for poorer developmental outcomes, it is important to understand the development of compliance in the context of at‐risk parenting such as adolescent motherhood. The current study examined child compliance (Wave 5; W5) as a mediator of the association between adolescent mothers’ social competence (Wave 4; W4) and children's behavioral and academic outcomes (Wave 6; W6), and whether this mediation varied depending on children's effortful control (W4) in a sample of 204 Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers (M_age at W4 = 19.94, SD = .99) and their children (M_age at W4 = 36.21 months, SD = .45). Adolescent mothers reported on their own social competence and their children's effortful control and externalizing problems; compliance was assessed using observational methods; and academic readiness was assessed using standardized developmental assessments. Findings based on structural equation modeling revealed that adolescent mothers’ social competence was positively related to children's compliance among children with high effortful control, but not among those with low effortful control. Moreover, child compliance mediated the longitudinal association between adolescent mothers’ social competence and child externalizing problems and academic readiness. Discussion focuses on the importance of considering the role of child temperament in understanding how adolescent mothers’ social competence is subsequently associated with children's social and academic adjustment.     

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.     

Reporting suspected child abuse: a pilot comparison of middle and high school counselors and principals

A survey on experiences with child abuse reporting was obtained from 116 middle and high school counselors and principals across the U.S. Results revealed that counselors throughout their careers had made more reports than principals and perceived themselves to be better trained on child abuse. Those school professionals with fewer years of experience reported more adequate pre-service training. Counselors also failed to report in more instances than principals, citing as deterrents the lack of physical evidence and little faith in child protective services. Most counselors and principals took appropriate action when presented with case examples of child sexual abuse. Recommendations for future research are provided.     

Ensuring quality and sustainability in after-school programs

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education are engaged in a unique public-private partnership that strives to integrate the assets and flexibility of philanthropy with the breadth of a major federal program to support meaningful after-school programs and school-community partnerships for children, youth, families, and communities.     

Training x Trainee Interactions in a family planning intervention

This study investigated the effects of introducing a family planning counseling model at clinics of Peru's Ministry of Health. Providers trained in the model presented greater quality of care and longer counseling sessions than did controls. The main effects, however, were misleading. Nearly all of the quality improvements were contributed by 37% of the trained providers; they had already been better performers at the pretest and complied with the new counseling model's requirement of job aid use at the posttest. The recognition that a majority of trained providers did not profit from training posed a challenge that led to improvements in the model. Training x Trainee Interactions should be explored in evaluations.     

Specificity of phonological representations in U.S. English-speaking late talkers and typical talkers

Late talkers are a heterogeneous group of children who experience delayed language development in the absence of other known causes. Late talkers show delays in expressive phonological development, but less is known about their receptive phonological development. In the current study, U.S. monolingual English-speaking typical talkers (TTs) (n = 23, mean age = 26.27 months, 57% male; 78.3% White) and late talkers (n = 22, mean age = 24.57 months, 59% male, 72.7% White) completed a Looking-While-Listening task to assess their sensitivity to mispronunciations. Results revealed that late talkers and TTs looked to the referent of a word for a shorter duration when it was mispronounced than when it was correctly pronounced, suggesting they were sensitive to mispronunciations. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in their sensitivity to mispronunciations.