Journal of Adolescent Research

The purpose of the present study was to examine age differences in the involvement of children and adolescents with theirparents andpeers. Thle aspect of involvement examined in this study was engagement, measured by the expressive behaviors of touching, smiling, talking, and gazing. Subjects were members of 307 dyads (n = 122 mother-child dyads and n = 185 peer dyads) that included a child between the ages of 6 and 18 years. Subjects were unobtrusively observed in shopping malls and an amusementpark. Results revealed that expressive behavior in mother-child dyads decreased between childhood and middle adolescence, but increased in male-female dyads. These age differences were especially evident for interpersonal touching. For mother-child dyads, early adolescence was a transitional period during which an engagement style based on talk first emerged. For opposite-sex peers an engagement style dominated by talk in early adolescence shifted to one that also included much touching, smiling, and gazing in middle adolescence.

The purpose of this study was to examine how dimensions of parental power bases and processes predicted adolescent conformity to parental expectations. Questionnaire data were collected from a stratified random sample of 368 adolescents. Multiple regression was the statistical test used to analyze the data. Results from this study indicated that several dimensions of parental power bases and processes were significant predictors of adolescent coniformity. In addition, female adolescents demonstrated greater conformity than male adolescents. A major conclusion drawn from these findings was that social power theory provides a solid theoreticalfoundation for examining parental qualities as predictors of adolescent conformity.

Adolescents' levels of self-esteem as a function of their own versus their parents' appraisals of parental nurturance and parental authority were investigated. Results revealed that (a) both mothers'andfathers'nurturance (as perceived by the adolescents) were positively related to self-esteem, (b) based upon the adolescents' appraisals, parental authoritativeness was directly related to self-esteem whereas parental authoritarianism was inversely related to self-esteem, (c) adolescents' assessments of parental nurturance and authority were more strongly related to self-esteem than were the parents'assessments of these variables, and (d) regression analyses suggested that parental authority may be an important source of parental nurturance information for adolescents.

The present study aimed at examining the relation between perceived parental behavior and depressive symptoms in adolescents. One hundred forty-four adolescents, ranging in age from 13 to 18 years, were involved in the study. They all came from a high school of the Western Quebec Regional School Board. Subjects completed the Children s Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (revised form) and the Beck Depression Inventory. Father's rejection and mother's psychological control were found to be the two most powerful predictors of adolescents' depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in light of the literature on adolescent depression.

The objective of this study was to deterinine whethler-means-end thinking was related to adolescent maternal initeractions. One huundred twenty-eight single, low-income, first-time adolescent mothers were administered the Means-End Problem Solvinig Scale (MEPS) during their third trimester of pregnancy. Observationts of materntal-inifant interactions durinig teaching and feeding situations were assessed at one month postpar-tum. As predicted, higher MEPS scores indicating greater problem-solving skills were significantly correlated with more optimal maternal intleractions, even when the effects of age were statistically partialled out. This relation was no longer significant, however, when adjusted for socioeconomic status and grade level. Consistent with previous work, increasing age was significantly related to more optimal maternal interactions. However, MEPS scores were not correlated with increasing maternal age. It was emphasized that further research was nieeded to clarify whether developmenital change in meansenid thinking continuies to occuir throughout adolescence.

This article describes two studies concerning social conduict at high school lusing self-evaluation by quiestionnaire. The first was a construict validation study of an inistrument based on the categor-ies of Milburn (1974) that produced scores for several categories of behavior: Two samiples were used (N = 1,299 and N = 937). Image factor analysis extracted a dominant genieral factor that accouinted for the results. A second step of the first study led to the construction and examination of a n?ew 25-item quiestionniaire that produces a single total score related to thZe emergent general factor. The seconid study verified the construlct validity and reliability of the inew inst-ument, the Class Contduict Questionnaire, using a new sample (N = 744). In the discussioni it is suggested that the generalfactor is related to the respect of social ruiles at sclhool. These results do not question the diversity of social conduct, but they do show that the student judges his or her various behaviors in terms of a genieralframne of referentce.

This study used a goal-oriented motivation framework. The goals that high school-age adolescents held for their out-of-school learning activities were investigated. Two different approaches to goals were examined: (a) goal setting-the process of specifying desired outcomes and a self-regulated learning strategy, and (b) goal content -the life aims that people have that direct their behavior. Sixty-six students were interviewed. Few of the adolescents used goal-setting techniques effectively; only eight had a plan or series of subgoals necessary for achieving their major goal. Goal content categories that were mentioned most often were affective (feel good), self-assertive (competition), and integrative (social). The two specific goals mentioned most often were belongingness and superiority. However, when students ranked their goals by importance, affective and cognitive goals were equally common. Implications for schooling are discussed.