Although concern is often expressed that frequent media exposure may adversely affect the self-esteem and racial self-esteem of African American youths, evidence to support this assumption has been limited. To examine this issue, the author collected data among 156 African American high school students, testing connections among racial…

Authoritative parenting has been associated with positive outcomes for children and adolescents, but less is known about the mechanisms responsible for such effects. Two longitudinal studies examined the hypothesis that the relation between authoritative parenting and adolescents' adjustment is mediated by adolescents' level of dispositional…

An established finding in criminology is that most adolescents engage in delinquency. Still, studies continue to identify a small group of individuals who refrain from delinquency even when it is normative for their same-age peers. Moffitt's developmental taxonomy provides some reasons for delinquency abstention, but research has been slow to…

There is no one style of parenting which characterizes young mothers as a group. In addition, life circumstances play an important role in shaping maternal behaviour. The aim of this study was to identify patterns of maternal play behaviour and contextual (social and personal) factors associated with these different patterns. In this study, 107…

Violent conduct by youths ranks among the types of inappropriate behavior generally originating in difficult family and social contexts. A proper understanding of the development of violent conduct must consider the situation taken as a whole. This article documents the results of a qualitative study which aimed to determine the psychosocial…

This study, using Andersen's health care utilization model, examined how predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, need, personal health practices, and psychological factors influence health care utilization using a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of Canadian adolescents. Second, this study examined whether this process…

This study investigated the role of two dimensions of parental separation anxiety--Anxiety about Adolescent Distancing (AAD) and Comfort with Secure Base Role (CSBR)--and parental maladaptive perfectionism in the prediction of psychologically controlling parenting. In a sample of middle adolescents and their parents (N=677), it was found that…

This study investigates perceived characteristics of victims of peer bullying in a sample of 1237 adolescents (mean age is 13.3 years-old) in two southern European countries. Focusing upon perceived characteristics of victimized peers, the main goal was to inspect how descriptions of the victims varied according to country, age, gender,…

This study examined sex differences in risk factors associated with adolescent depression in a large sample of boys and girls. Moderation and mediation explanatory models of the sex difference in likelihood of depression were examined. Findings indicate that the factors associated with depression in adolescent boys and girls are quite similar. All…

Results suggest that important components in career level aspiration are related to the total personality styles of both parents and adolescents and further, that achievement motivation is more a function of the models children are exposed to than the training they receive. (Author/BJG)

Using the methods of study developed by the International Graphoanalysis Society, this book offers practical suggestions that parents and teachers can use to understand children through their handwriting. Following a brief history of handwriting analysis, the first four chapters of the book explain how variations in children's writing--slant,…

Linkages between the abilities and personality domains are explicated from the results of a study, in which cross-domain correlations between 20 ability variables and 14 personality traits were obtained and factor analyzed from a sample of adolescent males. (Author/CTM)

Two samples of verbally gifted adolescents were tested using cognitive and personality measures. Although both groups were found to be unusually mature and well adjusted, they varied considerably in sociopolitical intelligence--the ability to formulate viable solutions to moral, social, and political problems. (Author/MV)

From a sample of eighth-grade pupils, 96 class clowns were identified and compared to a sample of 237 nonclown classmates. Clowns were predominantly males, and were seen by their teachers to be higher than nonclowns in Asserting, Unruliness, Attention Seeking, Leadership, and Cheerfulness, and to be lower in Accomplishing. (Author/CP)

Patterns of relationships between 96 adolescents' cognitive and verbal domains suggest a three-level cognitive complexity continuum: Level 1, a creative, analytic, flexible, differentiating mode; Level 2, a person-oriented, moderately complex functioning level; and Level 3, an inflexible, concrete, simplistic mode of operation. (RL)