Journal of Adolescent Research

This study examined young adult sequelae of participation in high school activities and identity group for 900 participants from the Michigan Study of Life Transitions.Participation at Grade 10 in high school activities predicted later substance use, psychological adjustment, and educational and occupational outcomes.Prosocial activity participation predicted lower substance use and higher self-esteem and an increased likelihood of college graduation.Performing arts participation predicted more years of education as well as increases in drinking between ages 18 and 21 and higher rates of suicide attempts and psychologist visits by the age of 24.Sports participation predicted positive educational and occupational outcomes and lower levels of social isolation but also higher rates of drinking. Breakfast Club identity categories were predictive of both levels and longitudinal patterns in substance use, education and work outcomes, and psychological adjustment.In general, Jocks and Brains showed the most positive adjustment and Criminals the least.

Responses from students at two suburban Catholic high schools were analyzed to identify associations among peer group orientation, voluntary service, and civic engagement measures.Crowd types were constructed through cluster analysis of reputational group activities.Types were called School, Disengaged, All-Around, Fun, and Average.School crowd members were likely to volunteer for social service activities and unlikely not to volunteer; Fun crowd members showed the opposite tendency.All-Around crowd members were likely to choose functionary service compared with other crowds.Crowd membership was also differentiated on civic engagement measures.School crowd members were likely to participate in school clubs versus Fun members.School, All-Around, and Average crowd members had high scores on future service intentions, compared with Fun and Disengaged crowd members.School and Average crowd members scored high on intentions for political activities.These results support our theory of social-historical identity development.

Psychosocial engagement of adopted adolescents was examined as a function of longitudinal patterns of stability and change in parents’ perceptions of the compatibility of the child within the family.Psychosocial engagement involves the adolescent’s active use of his or her inner resources to interact positively with others in family, peer, and community contexts.Participants included 177 adoptive families who were interviewed when the target child was in middle childhood and again when the child was in adolescence.Five patterns of stability and change in compatibility were identified.Parents’ perceptions of their adolescent’s social competence were related to patterns indicating higher compatibility, and higher reports of problem behaviors were found in families with patterns indicating lower compatibility.The same pattern of results was evident whether mothers’ or fathers’ scores for social competence and behavior problems were used.No main effects for adolescent gender or interaction between gender and change pattern emerged.

In this article, the authors examine competing explanations for hypothesized family effects on adolescents’ educational outcome beliefs.Controlling on family socioeconomic status indicators, they find no support for the hypothesis that family composition affects outcome beliefs.Controlling on family structure, two measures of connection, including a dimension of parenting that promotes positive emotional ties between parents and children, have significant effects.They examine the robustness of the effects by controlling on variables known to affect educational outcomes and establish that the effects are not substantially diminished.Finally, they examine three measures of connection, varying from domain specific to global, and determine that the more targeted the measure, the stronger the association with educational outcome beliefs.The data consist of matched survey responses from a purposive sample of high school juniors (N = 203) and their mothers or guardians.Analysis is based on a series of ordinal logit models.

In this article, the authors conducted a study to discover what types of parent involvement are effective as students make the transition to high school.This study also aimed to elaborate on the role parents play in connecting their children to desirable peer networks during this transition.In-home interviews were conducted with 26 students as well as their parents before and after entering high school.The successfulness of the students’ transition was evaluated in terms of their final grades as well as the number of credits earned and their school attendance.They identified five forms of parental involvement that helped students succeed: monitoring the teen’s academic and social life, evaluating the information obtained about the teen, helping the teen with schoolwork, creating positive peer networks for the teen, and participating directly in the school.