Journal of Adolescent Research

Antipathetic relationships and friendships are common during adolescence. One type of antipathetic relationship that has received no empirical attention is one that emerges from a broken friendship. Two studies, a reanalysis of N. A. Card’s previously published data (Study 1) and newly collected data (Study 2), investigated this topic through mixed-methods analysis of emerging adults’ retrospective reports of relationships during high school. Qualitative analyses revealed jealousy, incompatibility, intimacy-rule violations, and aggression as themes in the transformation of friendship to antipathy. Quantitative analyses revealed intimacy-rule violations in the formation; relational aggression, competition, and avoidance during the maintenance; and continued contact following high school as more common for former friends. These findings highlight the dynamic relations between friendship and antipathy.

This article reports on a 1-year diary study of conflicts between seventeen 15-year-old girls and their mothers assessing (a) within-conflict sequences according to the emotional processes related to a girl’s level of self-assertion and perceived control and (b) the relationship between these within-conflict sequences and the level of autonomy. Based on principles of the self-regulation theory and emotion-appraisal literature, three within-conflict scenarios were hypothesized. The withdrawal and pursuit scenario came out as occurring significantly above chance level. Investigating the girls’ individual conflict episodes revealed a positive association between the level of autonomy and the percentage of the pursuit scenario. Results are discussed in terms of the link between day-to-day conflict interactions and the long-term development of autonomy.

Research has suggested that musicians process music in the same cortical regions that adolescents process algebra. An early adolescence synaptogenesis might present a window of opportunity during middle school for music to create and strengthen enduring neural connections in those regions. Six school districts across Maryland provided scores from the 2006-2007 administrations of the Maryland Algebra/Data Analysis High School Assessment. Findings from a sample of 6,026 adolescents showed that students enrolled in formal instrumental or choral music instruction during middle school outperformed those who experienced neither of those modes of musical instruction. Significant mean differences in algebra achievement occurred between the instrumental and neither-instruction groups (13.34, p < .001) and between the choral and neither-instruction groups (3.82, p < .001). For African Americans, means significantly differed between the choral and neither-instruction groups (9.39, p < .001). The greatest mean difference between any two comparison groups occurred between the instrumental and neither-instruction groups of African Americans (18.87, p < .001).

Religiosity, sexual activity, and contraception were examined via questionnaires and interviews in a diverse sample of 118 high school seniors. The majority reported religion to be important; importance and frequency ratings declined from private (e.g., prayer) to public (e.g., group activities) components of religion. Most were sexually active and used contraception. Nearly half acknowledged religious teachings on sexual activity, and one third believed premarital sex is proscribed. Religiosity items were negatively correlated with approval of sexual activity in hypothetical relationship scenarios, but religiosity was not related to self-reported sexual activity or contraceptive use. Participants emphasized relationships and physical health, not religious proscriptions, in their standards for sexual activity. Older adolescents may believe sexual activity is acceptable in committed romantic relationships.

The conceptualization and measurement of parental support is predominately the work of adult researchers from the West. This mixed-method study reports the parental behaviors that adolescents themselves perceive as supportive. Data come from the Cross-National Adolescent Project, a survey of adolescents in 12 nations or ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas, the Balkans, Europe, and the Middle East. The authors find that adolescents in all 12 settings validated the substantive content of existing survey measures of parental supportive behaviors. Adolescents in all settings also expanded the list of supportive behaviors. When parents provide a rare and valued commodity, it is perceived as love. The specific commodities, which include quality time, basic necessities, and support for education, vary across culture. In the discussion the authors describe how parenting strategies that have been interpreted previously as reinforcing distinct cultural purposes may, in fact, serve the same purpose.