The Influence of Sensation-Seeking & Parental & Peer Influences in Early Adolescence on Risk Involvement through Middle Adolescence

This study examined the relationships between youth and parental sensation-seeking, peer influence, parental monitoring and youth risk involvement in adolescence using structural equation modeling. 

Beginning in grade-six, longitudinal data were collected from 543 students over three years. Youth sensation-seeking in grade six contributed to risk involvement in early adolescence (grades six and seven) indirectly through increased peer risk influence and decreased parental monitoring but did not have a direct contribution. It contributed directly and indirectly to risk involvement in middle adolescence (grades eight and nine). 

Parent sensation-seeking at baseline was positively associated with peer risk influence and negatively associated with parental monitoring; it had no direct effect on adolescent risk involvement. Parental monitoring buffers negative peer influence on adolescent risk involvement. 

Results highlight the need for intervention efforts to provide normative feedback about adolescent risky behaviors and to vary among families in which parents and/or youth have high sensation-seeking propensities.

Proportions of youth involved in risky behaviors at baseline, 12, 24, and 36 months

Risky behaviors	Baseline	12 months	24 months	36 months	z
Sample size	543	494	458	451
Delinquent behaviors
Was suspended from school	1.9%	2.5%	11.9%	16.9%	9.12c
Was truant	3.2%	1.9%	3.8%	3.6%	0.82
Carried a weapon	4.4%	4.1%	5.3%	9.7%	3.45c
Engaged in a fight	33.2%	21.8%	22.5%	24.6%	3.20b
Substance use behaviors
Smoked cigarettes	2.0%	1.6%	2.4%	1.8%	0.01
Drank alcohol	18.5%	14.7%	18.6%	29.3%	3.60c
Used marijuana	0.4%	1.0%	1.1%	2.7%	2.97b
Sold or carried drugs	1.1%	0.6%	1.3%	2.2%	1.58
Been asked to sell drugs	1.5%	1.6%	2.4%	2.7%	1.47
Sexual behaviors
Ever had sex	3.6%	9.6%	20.8%	28.6%	13.90c
Had sex in the last 6 months	1.0%	3.1%	7.9%	13.7%	9.15c
Ever had anal sex	0.8%	2.1%	6.8%	8.7%	8.14c
Had multiple sex partners	0.2%	0.6%	2.9%	4.4%	6.12c
Did not use a condom during last sexual encounter	66.7%	59.6%	44.0%	27.3%	5.04c

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/IZYp7q

By:  Bo Wang,1 Lynette Deveaux,2 Sonja Lunn,2 Veronica Dinaj-Koci,1 Xiaoming Li,1 and Bonita Stanton1

¹Pediatric Prevention Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, USA

²Office of HIV/AIDS, the Bahamas Ministry of Health, Nassau, The Bahamas

Corresponding author: Bo Wang, Ph.D., Pediatric Prevention Research Center, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 4707 St. Antoine, Suite W534, Detroit, MI 48201, Phone: 313-966-2366, Fax: 313-745-4993

Youth Soc. 2016 Mar; 48(2): 220–241.

Published online 2013 May 6. doi:  10.1177/0044118X13487228

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The Predictive Influence of Family and Neighborhood Assets on Fighting and Weapon Carrying from Mid- to Late-Adolescence

Using a developmental, social-ecological approach to understand the etiology of health risk behavior and inform primary prevention efforts, we assess the predictive effects of family and neighborhood social processes on youth physical fighting and weapon carrying. Specifically, we focus on relationships among youth and their parents, family communication, and parental monitoring, as well as sense of community and neighborhood informal social control, support, concerns, and disorder. 

This study advances knowledge through its investigation of family and neighborhood structural factors and social processes together, employment of longitudinal models that estimate effects over adolescent development, and use of self-report and observational measures. Data from 1,093 youth/parent pairs were analyzed from the Youth Assets Study using a Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) approach; family and neighborhood assets and risks were analyzed as time-varying and lagged. Similar family assets affected physical fighting and weapon carrying, whereas different neighborhood social processes influenced the two forms of youth violence. 

Study findings have implications for the primary prevention of youth violence, including the use of family-based approaches that build relationships and parental monitoring skills, and community-level change approaches that promote informal social control and reduce neighborhood concerns about safety.

Predictive Effects of Parenting Practices, Family Processes, Neighborhood Social Processes, and Neighborhood Conditions on Physical Fighting

Initial Models1
Parameter	Adjusted1
	OR (95% CI)	p
Broken windows score	1.02 (0.97, 1.06)	0.5266
Family communication	0.77 (0.65, 0.90)	0.0012
Relationship with mother	0.71 (0.58, 0.87)	0.0012
Relationship with father	0.67 (0.56, 0.80)	<.0001
Parental monitoring	0.55 (0.44, 0.68)	<.0001
Informal social control	0.80 (0.71, 0.92)	0.0010
Sense of community	0.87 (0.74, 1.01)	0.0683
Neighborhood support
Two parent household	1.04 (0.87, 1..25)	0.6665
One parent household	0.65 (0.49, 0.85)	0.0017
Inconsistent	1.08 (0.81, 1.45)	0.6028
Neighborhood concerns – crime/safety	1.08 (0.98, 1.20)	0.1257
Neighborhood concerns – services	1.09 (0.99, 1.20)	0.0876

Final Model2
Parameter	Adjusted2
	OR (95% CI)	P
Relationship with father	0.68 (0.57, 0.83)	<.0001
Parental monitoring	0.58 (0.46, 0.72)	<.0001
Informal social control	0.83 (0.72, 0.96)	0.0142
Neighborhood support
Two parent household	1.10 (0.91, 1.34)	0.3304
One parent household	0.73 (0.54, 1.00)	0.0484
Inconsistent	1.17 (0.85, 1.60)	0.3385

1Ten separate initial models were analyzed (one for each variable of interest). Each was adjusted for the potential confounders youth age, gender, race/ethnicity, family structure, ever below the federal poverty level, parental education, neighborhood structural disadvantage, and neighborhood residential instability. ORs for the potential confounding variables are not shown.

2One final model was analyzed that adjusted for the potential confounders above and also adjusted for other variables of interest in the final model. Only variables of interest with a p-value ≤ .05 were retained in the final model. ORs for the potential confounding variables are not shown.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/qp2U9U

By:  Tamara M. Haegerich, Roy F. Oman, Sara K. Vesely, Cheryl B. Aspy, and Eleni L. Tolma

Tamara M. Haegerich, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;

Contributor Information.

Contact: Tamara M. Haegerich, PhD, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway MS F-62, Atlanta, GA 30341, Phone: 404-488-1308, Fax: 404-488-1317, Email: vog.cdc@hciregeaHT

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Aggression-Related Alcohol Expectancies and Barroom Aggression among Construction Tradespeople

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS:

Few studies have investigated the relationship of barroom aggression with both general and barroom-specific alcohol expectancies. The present study investigated these associations in a rarely studied and high-risk population: construction tradespeople.

DESIGN AND METHODS:

Male construction tradespeople (n = 211) aged 18-35 years (M = 21.91, SD = 4.08 years) participated in a face-to-face questionnaire assessing general and barroom-specific alcohol expectancies and perpetration of physical and verbal barroom aggression as well as control variables, age, alcohol consumption and trait aggression.

RESULTS:

Sequential logistic regression analyses revealed that general alcohol-aggression expectancies of courage or dominance were not predictive of either verbal or physical barroom aggression after controlling for age, alcohol consumption and trait aggression. However, barroom-specific alcohol expectancies were associated with both verbal and physical barroom aggression, with positive associations found for expected hyper-emotionality and protective effects for expected cognitive impairment.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:

In a population where rates of risky drinking and barroom aggression are high, specific expectations about the effects of drinking in bars may influence subsequent aggressive behaviour in bars. 

Purchase full article at:  http://goo.gl/tCQ10V

By: Zinkiewicz L1, Smith G1, Burn M1, Litherland S1, Wells S1,2,3,4,5, Graham K1,2,3,4,6, Miller P1,2,6,7.

• 1School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
• 2Department of Social and Epidemiological Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.
• 3Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
• 4Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Canada.
• 5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, Canada.
• 6National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.
• 7National Addiction Centre, Maudsley Hospital/Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK. 

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Moving Against & Away from the World: The Adolescent Legacy of Peer Victimization

Nicki Crick initiated a generative line of theory and research aimed at exploring the implications of exposure to overt and relational aggression for youth development. The present study aimed to continue and expand this research by examining whether early (second grade) and increasing (second–sixth grade) levels of victimization during elementary school contributed to youths’ tendencies to move against, away from, or toward the world of peers following the transition to middle school. Youth (M age in second grade = 7.96 years, SD = 0.35; 298 goals 338 girls, boys) reported on their exposure to victimization and their social (performance-approach, performance-avoidance, or mastery). Teachers reported on youths’ exposure to victimization and their engagement in antisocial, socially helpless, and prosocial behavior. 

Latent growth curve analyses revealed that early and increasing levels of both overt and relational victimization uniquely contributed to multifinality in adverse developmental outcomes, predicting all three social orientations (high conflictual engagement, high disengagement, and low positive engagement). The pattern of effects was robust across sex and after adjusting for youths’ early social motivation. These findings confirm that both forms of victimization leave an enduring legacy on youths’ social health in adolescence. Given that profiles of moving against and away from the world can contribute to subsequent psychopathology, understanding and preventing this legacy is pivotal for developing effective intervention programs aimed at minimizing the effects of peer adversity.

Although the study of peer relationships and their effects on psychopathology became popularized in the 1980s, early attention was directed toward the construct of peer rejection (Asher & Coie, 1990). As the adverse consequences of peer rejection became clear, a burgeoning interest emerged in identifying specific behaviors through which negative attitudes such as rejection are conveyed to peers. With these efforts arose a heightened concern about bullying and victimization. Given the predominant focus of the time on physical aggression among peers, victimization typically was conceptualized in terms of acts of overt aggression as reflected in hitting, threats of violence, and the like. However, pioneering work by Nicki Crick and colleagues (Crick & Bigbee, 1998; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995, 1996; Crick & Nelson, 2002) spearheaded an innovative line of research aimed at uncovering the nature and consequences of relational aggression/victimization, as reflected in acts aimed at threatening dyadic relationships (e.g., social manipulation) or damaging one’s social standing (e.g., exclusion or rumor spreading).

Two decades later, solid evidence documents the adverse effects of victimization, implicating it as a potentially traumatic stressor that warrants significant research and practical attention (Graham, 2006). Moreover, research documents multifinality of outcomes (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996), reflected in between-individual heterogeneity in the consequences of victimization. Yet many of these efforts involve either concurrent or short-term longitudinal studies, leaving open the question of whether victimization constitutes a long-term risk. Moreover, most research fails to distinguish the static effects of victimization from its dynamic effects over time and across developmental transitions. This study examined whether early (second grade) and dynamic (trajectories across second–sixth grades) indicators of victimization uniquely predict risky outcomes in adolescence (sixth grade). In particular, consistent with prior evidence of multifinality in the outcomes of victimization, we sought to understand the emergence of three social orientations that represent risk or protective factors for psychopathology (Caspi, Elder, & Bem, 1987, 1988): moving against the world (conflictual engagement), moving away from the world (disengagement), and moving toward the world (positive engagement). We also examined whether exposure to victimization contributes to these outcomes beyond early individual differences in children’s social motivation.

Victimization and Moving Against the World

Moving against the world was conceptualized as aggressive (e.g., fighting or cruelty) and antisocial (e.g., disobedience or lying) acts that threaten others and defy accepted social norms. Some peer-victimized children may attribute maltreatment to undesirable characteristics of their peers (Perren, Ettekal, & Ladd, 2013; Schwartz et al., 1998; Yeung & Leadbeater, 2007), thereby developing negative peer perceptions (e.g., a sense of mistrust, hostility, or injustice) and feelings of anger (Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004; Salmivalli, Karhunen, & Lagerspetz, 1996; Troop-Gordon & Ladd, 2005). Being victimized also may instill a defensive stance in children, prompting aggressive efforts to retaliate or reattain their social status. Over time, negative peer perceptions, anger, and aggressive tendencies may become consolidated into a hostile attitude toward the world and generalized antisocial behavior...

Purchase full article at:  http://goo.gl/uxUNHq

By:  Karen D. Rudolph,^A Wendy Troop-Gordon,^B Jennifer D. Monti,^A And Michelle E. Miernicki^a

^aUniversity of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign

^bNorth Dakota State University

Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Karen D. Rudolph, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820; Email: ude.sionilli@hplodurk.

   

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