Intergenerational closure refers to parents' knowing the parents of their adolescents' friends. This study treated intergenerational closure - as reported by the parents of adolescent twins - as the dependent variable in a behavioral genetic analysis. The sample consisted of identical and fraternal twin pairs in the National Longitudinal Study of…

This article uses a resources and demands approach to examine the extent to which work, community, and parenting resources and demands are related to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems and grades in school. The analysis is based on data from 489 married two-earner couples and adolescents aged 10 to 17 interviewed for the…

This study investigated whether self-efficacy beliefs measured before the onset of social change would moderate effects of social change on adolescents' life satisfaction, optimism regarding their future, and educational success. Self-efficacy beliefs of 593 German adolescents were measured between 1985 and 1988 before German unification. In 1992,…

The home-leaving transition of male adolescents in Israel, where most 18-year-olds leave home to perform a 3-year mandatory military service, was examined. Transfer of attachment functions from parents to peers across the transition and adjustment to the basic-training period were investigated. Adolescents ( N = 143) filled out questionnaires 3…

Interview data from a sample of 262 poor African American single mothers and their 7th-and 8th-grade children were used to investigate the relations between neighborhood conditions and adolescents' educational values and school effort. The model tested incorporates both subjective and objective assessments of neighborhood quality and controls for…

Examined the influence over time of demographic variables and perceived family and friend support and school climate on changes in psychological adjustment among Black, Latino, and Asian American adolescents from low-income families. Found a greater increase in self-esteem in students reporting more positive perceptions of school climate and,…

Investigated the role of personality variables related to self-worth and coping in the formation of distinct personality profiles for 11th graders. Identified three distinct adolescent personality profiles for coping and self worth. Found that self-worth was related to resource-soliciting mechanisms of extroversion, agreeableness, and openness to…

Examined the association between psychological separation and adjustment to university among college students. Found that two dimensions of psychological separation--independence from parents and positive separation feelings--predicted better adjustment to college life. Independence from parents was moderated by grade, gender, and perceived…

Examined links between father and mother character traits and college undergraduates' academic and athletic competence and self-worth. Found that some links between father characteristics and adolescent attributes exist only when mother characteristics are considered. Also found that father characteristics moderated links between mother…

Examined the role of female undergraduates' perceived reciprocity in parental relationships, their sense of incompetence, and their identity style and commitment in predicting disordered eating symptoms. Found that disordered eating was related to a sense of incompetence, avoidant identity style, and lack of identity commitments. A lack of a…

This study used a national sample of Mexican Americans to develop structural equation models of the effects of 4 eighth- grade latent variables on educational expectations 6 years later. Findings indicated that parents' influences had a strong positive effect on educational expectations at late adolescence. Parents' influence dominated effects of…

The present study was conducted to determine if participation in extracurricular activities predicts multiple positive outcomes such as attending college, voting in national and regional elections, and volunteering for community and religious organizations. From analyses of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, a nationally…

To explore potential bases of positive development among gang youth, attributes of positive individual and social behavior were assessed in individual interviews with 45 African American adolescent male members of inner-city Detroit gangs and 50 African American adolescent males from the same communities but involved in community-based…

Middle-class African American adolescents' and parents' (n = 82 families) everyday conflicts were examined longitudinally over 2 years. The number and frequency of conflicts did not change from early to middle adolescence, but mothers rated conflicts as less intense and adolescents rated conflicts as more intense over time. Conflicts over…

The independent effects of ethnicity and social class on multiple aspects of adolescent drinking were examined. African American, European American, and Mexican American high school students (1,134 females, 740 males) from three social classes completed measures of drinking frequency and quantity, drinking consequences, reasons for drinking, and…