Evaluation of a social contextual model of delinquency: a cross-study replication

The present study empirically examined three theoretical approaches designed to predict risk for delinquency during adolescence: an individual difference perspective, a social interactional model, and a social contextual approach. Hypotheses derived from each perspective were tested using two independent samples of early adolescents followed over a 4-year period. Six-hundred sixty-seven children (in sixth grade at Time 1), and their parents comprised the first sample (Project Family); and 451 children (in seventh grade at Time 1), their parents, and a close-aged sibling made up the second sample (Iowa Youth and Families Project). Results from a series of structural equation models suggested that a social contextual approach provided the best fit with the data across both samples and genders. Consistent with the social contextual approach, results indicated that a lack of nurturant and involved parenting indirectly predicted delinquency by increasing children's earlier antisocial behavior and deviant peer relationships; child antisocial behavior also predicted similar decreases in nurturant parenting over time. Both child antisocial behavior and deviant peer affiliations at Time 2 predicted delinquency 1 year later. Implications for theoretical development and future research priorities are discussed.     

Do Cultural Attitudes Matter? The Role of Cultural Orientation on Academic Self‐Concept Among Black/African College Students

The authors explored the relationship between academic self‐concept and noncognitive variables (i.e., Africentric cultural orientation, academic class level, gender, and involvement in culturally relevant school and community activities) among Black/African college students. Results indicated that Africentric cultural orientation and academic class level were significantly related to academic self‐concept. Female students had higher scores on the Academic Self‐Concept Scale ( Reynolds, Ramirez, Magrina, & Allen, 1980 ) compared with their male peers. Implications for counseling practice and future research are discussed.     

Perceived emotional intelligence as predictor of psychological adjustment in adolescents: a 1-year prospective study

In recent years, emotional intelligence has appeared as a predictor of adults’ mental health, but little research has examined its involvement in adolescents’ psychological adjustment. In this paper, we analyzed the predictive validity of perceived emotional intelligence (attention to feelings, emotional clarity, and emotional repair) over psychological adjustment in an adolescent sample at two temporal stages with a 1-year interval. At Time 1, the results indicated that adolescents with high scores in attention to feelings and low scores in emotional clarity and repair display poorer psychological adjustment, concretely, higher levels of anxiety, depression, and social stress and lower levels of general mental health. At Time 2, attention to feelings and emotional repair significantly predicted adolescents’ psychological well-being, even when the effects of previous psychological adjustment were controlled for. The findings suggest that perceived emotional intelligence is a stable predictor of adolescent adjustment and may serve as a useful resource for preventive interventions.     

The Relationship Between Relational Aggression in Kindergarten Children and Friendship Stability, Mutuality, and Peer Liking

The current study examined relational aggression in kindergarten children and how it relates to aspects of their friendships over a 2-month period. Participants were 74 boys and girls (ages 5 and 6). Teacher report and peer nominations assessed relational and physical aggression. Children also rated each child in their class on liking and identified their friends. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that peer nominations of relational aggression were negatively related to Time 1 liking, Time 1 number of mutual friends, and friendship stability even when teacher ratings of physical aggression were controlled. Physical aggression was also significantly related to these variables. Relational aggression (but not physical aggression) significantly predicted declines in the number of mutual friendships and liking two months later.     

Custom-Fit Parenting: How Low- and Well-Accepted Young Adolescents Benefit from Peer-Related Parenting

Objective. The present study investigated whether longitudinal associations between peer-related parenting behaviors (facilitation of peer interactions, social coaching about peer problems) and peer adjustment were moderated by young adolescents’ peer status. Design. Participants included 123 young adolescents (mean age = 12.03 years; 50% boys; 58.5% European American) at Time 1. At Time 1 (summer before the middle school transition), parents reported on their facilitation of peer interaction opportunities and coaching strategies to a hypothetical peer exclusion situation; teachers reported on youth peer acceptance. At Times 1 and 2 (spring after the middle school transition), youth reported on peer adjustment (friendship quality, loneliness, peer victimization). Results. Peer acceptance (pre-middle school transition) moderated prospective associations between peer-related parenting and peer adjustment, yielding two patterns of associations. Parental facilitation predicted better friendship quality and lower levels of loneliness over time among youth with high peer acceptance, but not among youth with low peer acceptance. In contrast, parental social coaching predicted better friendship quality among youth with low peer acceptance, but lower friendship quality among youth with high peer acceptance. Conclusions. Not all forms of positive peer-related parenting are equally beneficial for all youth. Well-accepted youth may have the social opportunities to take advantage of parental facilitation, whereas low-accepted youth may have greater social needs and benefit from support in the form of social coaching. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the literatures on peer-related parenting and peer adjustment.     

The contribution of emotionality and self-regulation to the understanding of children's response to multiple risk

This study investigated the additive and interactive effects of multiple risk, emotionality, and self-regulation in predicting children's adjustment problems and positive adjustment using a community sample (N = 101) of children in third through fifth grades. Multiple measures of emotionality and self-regulation were used, including observational measures and mother and child report on questionnaires. Results indicated that questionnaire measures of emotionality and self-regulation predicted children's positive and negative adjustment over and above the effects of multiple risk, as well as resilience and vulnerability. Negative emotionality predicted adjustment problems, positive emotionality predicted positive adjustment, and self-regulation predicted both. In addition, observational measures of self-regulation moderated the association between multiple risk and adjustment such that children low in self-regulation were more vulnerable to multiple risk. The results suggest that emotionality and self-regulation operate as additional risk and protective factors in multiple-risk models.     

Morphological awareness and bilingual word learning: a longitudinal structural equation modeling study

This longitudinal study examined the contribution of morphological awareness to bilingual word learning of Malay–English bilingual children in Singapore where English is the medium of instruction. Participants took morphological awareness and lexical inference tasks in both English and Malay twice with an interval of about half a year, the first time at the end of Grade 3 (Time 1) and the second time at the end of the first semester of Grade 4 (Time 2). Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that within both languages, morphological awareness significantly predicted lexical inference at Time 1 as well as Time 2, and the contribution also became strengthened over time. Cross-linguistic SEM analyses showed that concurrently at both Time 1 and Time 2, English morphological awareness only had a significant indirect effect on Malay lexical inference. The exact indirect relationships, however, varied between Time 1 and Time 2. In addition, an indirect effect of Time 1 English morphological awareness on Time 2 Malay lexical inference also surfaced. These findings suggest concurrent as well as longitudinal cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from English to Malay.     

Reciprocal Influences among Adrenocortical Activation, Psychosocial Processes, and the Behavioral Adjustment of Clinic-Referred Children

The reciprocal effects among cognitive-behavioral, environmental, and biological influences on clinic-referred children's ( N = 64; 34 boys; M age 12.71 years) short-term psychological and psychiatric adjustment were studied. At clinic intake and 6 months later, standardized measures of adjustment and control-related beliefs were assessed. Before and after conflict-oriented parent-child interaction tasks the children's saliva was sampled. Adrenocortical responses (i.e., increases in salivary cortisol) to the social conflict task predicted children's internalizing problem behaviors and anxiety disorders at follow-up. Consistently high adrenocortical reactivity at intake and follow-up was associated with deflated social competence over the 6-month period. Also, specific patterns of discontinuity in children's internalizing behavior problems predicted individual differences in their subsequent adrenocortical responsiveness. Specifically, rising behavior problem levels across time predicted higher and declining behavior problem levels predicted lower adrenocortical reactivity at follow-up. Findings are among the first to suggest links among internalizing behavior problems, adrenocortical responsiveness to social challenge, and clinic-referred children's short-term cognitive-behavioral and emotional adjustment.     

Race and gender influences on adjustment in early adolescence: investigation of an integrative model

This research investigated an integrative model of race- and gender-related influences on adjustment during early adolescence using a sample of 350 Black and White youth. In the proposed model, prejudice/discrimination events, as well as race and gender daily hassles, contribute to a general stress context. The stress context, in turn, influences levels of emotional and behavioral problems in adjustment, with these associations mediated (in part) by intervening effects on self-esteem. Racial and gender identity similarly have positive effects on adjustment via their intermediary linkages with self-esteem. Structural equation modeling analyses provided support for all of these aspects of the model. Findings also revealed theoretically predicted differences in model parameters across race by gender subgroups. These include a direct effect of prejudice/discrimination events on emotional problems specific to Black youth and an effect of gender identity on self-esteem specific to girls. Black girls appeared to be most vulnerable to exhibiting significant adjustment difficulties as a result of the processes under investigation.     

Reciprocal influences between stressful life events and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems

Investigated in this study were hypothesized reciprocal influences between stressful life events and adolescent maladjustment using data from a 6-year, prospective longitudinal study. Stressful life experiences, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing behaviors were assessed for a sample of adolescents (215 males, 236 females) living in the rural Midwest. From 7th to 12th grades, autoregressive analyses showed that stressful life events and these two forms of maladjustment were reciprocally interrelated over time. For example, stressful life events at one point significantly predicted delinquent behaviors 1 year later, which, in turn, significantly predicted stressful life events 1 year later, and vice versa. The findings provide evidence for the accumulating disadvantage for adolescents that results from the mutual reinforcement of problematic situations and adjustment problems over time.     

Teacher–Student Conflict and Preschoolers’ Adjustment in the Transition to Primary School: The Role of Child Self-Regulation and Parents’ Positive Relations With Others

Research Findings: This study examined the contribution of teacher-student conflict at kindergarten to the child’s school adjustment in primary school using a Hong Kong sample. It investigated self-regulation as a mediator and parents’ positive relations with others as a moderator in that transition. At Time 1 (T1), kindergarten teachers reported their levels of conflict with individual children (N = 324, 168 girls), whereas children’s self-regulation was assessed with a Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders Task. Fathers and mothers also rated their positive relations with others. At Time 2 (T2; 8 months later), when children were enrolled in primary school (N = 247, 126 girls), primary school teachers rated how well they adjusted to the new school. Moderated mediation analyses showed that although the direct effect of T1 teacher-student conflict on T2 school adjustment was not significant, the indirect effect of self-regulation was. T1 teacher-student conflicts were negatively related to children’s self-regulation, which in turn predicted subsequent school adjustment. Interestingly, this indirect effect was significant only when parents’ positive relations with others were low rather than high. Practice or Policy: The findings highlight the importance of both a warm and caring relationship in the home and self-regulation to successful school transition.     

A Two-Year Longitudinal Study of Stressful Life Events, Social Support, and Social Problem-Solving Skills: Contributions to Children''s Behavioral and Academic Adjustment

We investigated the contributions of stressful life events and resources (social support and social problem-solving skills) to predicting changes in children's adjustment. At Time 1, 361 third through fifth graders completed measures of social support and social problem-solving skills. Their parents completed a stressful life events scale and a child behavior rating measure. The children's teachers provided ratings of behavioral and academic adjustment. 2-year follow-up data (Time 2) were obtained for approximately half of the sample on the same measures. Time 1 stressful life events and resources showed some significant but modest zero-order correlations with the Time 2 adjustment indices. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed prospective effects for Time 1 social support on later teacher-rated competencies and grade-point average. In addition, increases over time in social support and social problem-solving skills (a composite score) were significantly related to improvement in behavioral and academic adjustment, whereas stressful life events were not predictive of adjustment.     

Desiring to Fit: Fostering the Success of Community College Transfer Students in STEM

The United States is experiencing a dire need for individuals who possess training and expertise in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). With over half of the nation’s students entering university environments via community colleges coupled with a large portion of this population majoring in STEM areas, the successful transition and adjustment of community college transfer students is essential to the STEM workforce. This article uses an ex post facto survey research design to examine the socialization factors that impact the transition and adjustment experiences of community college transfer students in STEM disciplines. Two hierarchical regression models are employed to examine the factors that impact the academic and social adjustment of community college transfer students in STEM majors. This research was situated using an adaptation of Weidman’s (1987) Socialization Theoretical Framework. Implications, and recommendations for policy and practice will be provided based on the overall results of this study.     

Moral rationality and intuition: An exploration of relationships between the Defining Issues Test and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire

Explorations of relationships between Haidt’s Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) and indices of moral decision-making assessed by the Defining Issues Test have been limited to correlational analyses. This study used Harm, Fairness, Ingroup, Authority and Purity to predict overall moral judgment and individual Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2) schema scores using responses from 222 undergraduates. Relationships were not confirmed between the separate foundations and the DIT-2 indices. Using the MFQ moral judgment items only, confirmatory factor analyses confirmed higher order constructs called Individualizing and Binding foundations. Structural models using these higher order factors fitted the data well, and findings indicated that the Binding foundations significantly positively predicted Maintaining Norms and negatively predicted both overall moral judgment (N2) and the Postconventional Schema. Neither Individualizing nor Binding foundations significantly predicted Personal Interest. While moral judgments assessed by DIT-2 may not be evoking the MFQ foundations, findings here suggest the MFQ may not be a suitable measure for capturing more advanced moral functioning.     

Interparental Discord and Parenting: Testing the Moderating Roles of Child and Parent Gender

Objective. This multimethod, prospective study examined whether child and parent gender moderate the relation between interparental discord and changes in parenting practices over a 1-year time span. Design. Self-report questionnaires of interparental discord and parenting as well as an observational measure of interparental discord were collected from a sample of 226 mothers and fathers of kindergarten children. Results. Multigroup analyses using structural equation models indicated that the relation between a multimethod assessment of interparental discord and changes in parent-reported childrearing practices varied significantly as a function of child gender only. Interparental discord predicted decreases in parental responsiveness to boys' distress while predicting increases in parental responsiveness to girls' distress. Moderating analyses further indicated that interparental discord predicted significant increases in parental use of psychological control with boys only. Conclusions. The considerable heterogeneity in previous research examining prospective linkages between interparental discord and parenting practices may be attributable, in part, to the moderating role of child gender. Differences in the moderating role of child gender across separate dimensions of parenting highlight the importance of distinguishing among specific parenting practices in examining gender differences in family pathways.     

Relational Aggression, Gender, and Social-Psychological Adjustment

Prior studies of childhood aggression have demonstrated that, as a group, boys are more aggressive than girls. We hypothesized that this finding reflects a lack of research on forms of aggression that are relevant to young females rather than an actual gender difference in levels of overall aggressiveness. In the present study, a form of aggression hypothesized to be typical of girls, relational aggression, was assessed with a peer nomination instrument for a sample of 491 third- through sixth-grade children. Overt aggression (i.e., physical and verbal aggression as assessed in past research) and social-psychological adjustment were also assessed. Results provide evidence for the validity and distinctiveness of relational aggression. Further, they indicated that, as predicted, girls were significantly more relationally aggressive than were boys. Results also indicated that relationally aggressive children may be at risk for serious adjustment difficulties (e.g., they were significantly more rejected and reported significantly higher levels of loneliness, depression, and isolation relative to their nonrelationally aggressive peers).     

Interrupting the Pathway From Discrimination to Black Adolescents’ Psychosocial Outcomes: The Contribution of Parental Racial Worries and Racial Socialization Competency

Racial discrimination can lead to psychosocial problems for Black adolescents, including internalization (e.g., depression) and externalization (e.g., conduct problems). Black parents (N = 186; M_age = 42.9) of adolescents (ages 10–18) were assessed to investigate how parental worries and racial socialization competency (i.e., confidence, skills, and stress) contribute to the association between parental discrimination experiences and their adolescents’ psychosocial problems. Mediation analyses indicated that the total direct models with discrimination, worries, and problems had good fit, and that the addition of worry mediated the discrimination-problems association. Furthermore, racial socialization competency moderated the association between worry and problems, wherein greater competency was associated with less impact of worry on problems. Findings illuminate potential intervention targets for buffering discrimination’s influence on adolescents’ psychosocial functioning.     

“Neglected moms” - The implications of emotional neglect in childhood for the transition to motherhood

BackgroundThe transition to motherhood involves many challenges that require adjustment; included among them are adapting to body changes, forging a maternal identity, and attaching to the baby. Although these tasks may not be easy for any women, those who experienced emotional neglect during childhood may find them especially difficult.ObjectiveThe aim of the current study was to examine a model illuminating the mechanism underlying the association between childhood emotional neglect and women’s adjustment during pregnancy and the postpartum period.Participants and settingThree hundred and ninety four Israeli women participated in the study, during their pregnancy (Time 1) and two months postpartum (Time 2).MethodsParticipants filled out a battery of questionnaires assessing their history of childhood emotional neglect, body experience, maternal self-efficacy, attachment to the fetus/baby, and depression.ResultsResults from structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that childhood emotional neglect was associated with depression at both Time 1 and Time 2. These associations were mediated by the body experience during pregnancy (Time 1) and motherhood (Time 2) as well as by anticipated maternal self-efficacy (Time 1) and maternal self-efficacy (Time 2). The model explained 56% of the variance of postpartum depression (Time 2).ConclusionsThese findings point to the long-term implications of childhood emotional neglect for women’s adjustment to the transition to motherhood. The underlying mechanism suggested by the research model is discussed.     

Child emotional security and interparental conflict

Guided by the emotional security hypothesis developed by Davies & Cummings (1994), studies were conducted to test a conceptual refinement of children's adjustment to parental conflict in relation to hypotheses of other prominent theories. Study 1 examined whether the pattern of child responses to simulations of adult conflict tactics and topics was consistent with the emotional security hypothesis and social learning theory in a sample of 327 Welsh children. Supporting the emotional security hypothesis, child reports of fear, avoidance, and involvement were especially prominent responses to destructive conflict. Study 2 examined the relative roles of child emotional insecurity and social-cognitive appraisals in accounting for associations between parental conflict and child psychological symptoms in a sample of 285 Welsh children and parents. Findings indicated that child emotional insecurity was a robust intervening process in the prospective links between parental conflict and child maladjustment even when intervening processes proposed in the social-cognitive models were included in the analyses. Studies 3 and 4 explored pathways among parental conflict, child emotional insecurity, and psychological adjustment in the broader family context with a sample of 174 children and mothers. Supporting the emotional security hypothesis, Study 3 findings indicated that child insecurity continued to mediate the link between parental conflict and child maladjustment even after specifying the effects of other parenting processes. Parenting difficulties accompanying interparental conflict were related to child maladjustment through their association with insecure parent-child attachment. In support of the emotional security hypothesis, Study 4 findings indicated that family instability, parenting difficulties, and parent-child attachment insecurity potentiated mediational pathways among parental conflict, child insecurity, and maladjustment. Family cohesiveness, interparental satisfaction, and interparental expressiveness appeared to be protective factors in these mediational paths. No support was found for the social learning theory prediction that parent-child warmth would amplify associations between parental conflict and child disruptive behaviors.     

Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations between Children's Playground Behavior and Social Preference, Victimization, and Bullying

Prior research with contrived play groups suggests that how children interact with one another can influence their social relationships, but few studies have been carried out to determine if this is the case in naturalistic settings. This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal links between four observational measures of 8- to 9-year-old children's (N = 89) playground behaviors/peer contacts (Alone, Conversation, Group Size, and Network) and three sociometric measures of their peer relationships (Social Preference, Bully, and Victim). The latter were assessed at 2 points within a school year, the first corresponding with the playground observations and the second 5 months later. Several of the concurrent correlations were found to be significant. For boys, Group Size was positively correlated with Bully Score and Social Preference Score, but negatively correlated with Victim Score; and time Alone was positively correlated with Victim Score. For girls, time Alone was positively correlated with Victim Score; Network was negatively correlated with Bully Score but positively correlated with Social Preference Score; and Group Size was positively correlated with Social Preference Score. The longitudinal analyses indicated that for boys, elevated levels of time Alone and, separately, Conversation, predicted the highest increases in Victim Score. For girls, low levels of time Alone predicted the sharpest increases in Social Preference Score. There was also some marginally significant evidence, p < .06, that among girls, high levels of time Alone predicted the greatest increases in Bully Score, and high levels of Conversation predicted the greatest increases in Social Preference Score. The theoretical and practical importance of these links between children's nonaggressive playground behaviors and their emerging peer relationships are discussed.