Adolescent Adjustment Problems Research Articles

Concern for mianzi: Relations with adjustment in rural and urban Chinese adolescents.

The present study examined relations between concern for mianzi, or the social perception of one's prestige and standing in the group, and adjustment in Chinese adolescents. Participants were seventh- and ninth-grade students in rural and urban regions of China (n = 794, Mage = 14 years). Data were obtained from multiple sources including peer assessments, teacher ratings, self-reports, and school records. The results showed that concern for mianzi was associated with social competence, leadership, academic achievement, as well as aggression and mixed peer relationships in rural adolescents. In contrast, concern for mianzi was associated with comprehensive social, school, and psychological adjustment problems in urban adolescents. The results indicate the role of context in shaping the relations between adolescents' concern for mianzi and adjustment.

Socijalna prilagođenost adolescenata sa oštećenjem sluha u Nigeriji - da li će posredovati agresivni sadržaji na televiziji i zavisnost od pornografije?

Introduction. Living adaptively in any environment depends on several factors ranging from personal to environmental. In the event of development, there is the complexity that globalisation through digitalisation has added to adaptive living among youngsters, especially those living with hearing impairment. Objectives. This study investigated the effects of televised aggression and pornographic addiction on social adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment in two states in South-west Nigeria. Methods. The study employed a descriptive survey study of expo facto type. Samples of 118 adolescent students with hearing impairment participated in the study through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. A Social Adaptation Inventory with a reliability of .79 was used to collect data from the respondents. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regressions were used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Results. A significant relationship was found between televised aggression and social adjustment problems of adolescents with hearing impairment. Pornographic addiction has a significant relationship with social adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment. Also, there were joint contributions of televised aggression and pornographic addiction to social adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment in South-west Nigeria. Conclusion. Parents are admonished to monitor their adolescents with hearing impairment in a bid to censor the kinds of television programmes and print media materials they engage in because they also undergo the same developmental process as adolescents without hearing impairment.

Relationshipbetween family income and trajectories of adjustment in adolescence: Sleep and physical activity as moderators.

Youth from lower-income families experience adjustment problems at higher rates than higher-income peers. While adolescents have little control over family income, they do have some agency over their sleep and physical activity, two factors that have been shown to mitigate the risk of maladjustment. To test this, sleep and physical activity were examined as moderators of the longitudinal relationship between family income (indexed by income-to-needs ratio)and trajectories of adolescent adjustment problems. Participants included a socioeconomically diverse community sample of 252 USyouth (53% female; 33% Black, 67% White) in 2012-2015. Actigraphy-based sleep duration and quality were indexed, respectively, by minutes (sleep onset to wake excluding awakenings) and efficiency (% minutes scored as sleep from onset to wake). Physical activity and adjustment were youth-reported. Outcomes included internalizing (anxious/depressive) and rule-breaking behavior. Latent growth models estimated trajectories of adjustment across ages 16 and 18 years conditional on family income, sleep, physical activity, and their interactions. Relationships between family income and change in internalizing symptoms were moderated by sleep minutes, and associations between income and change in internalizing symptoms and rule-breaking behavior were moderated conjointly by sleep efficiency and physical activity. Under conditions of high-quality sleep and more physical activity, adolescents with lower income reported fewer adjustment problems. Conversely, youth with both poor sleep and low physical activity were at the highest risk for maladjustment over time. Findings enhance understanding of individual differences in trajectories of mental health associated with bioregulation, health behaviors, and the sociocultural context.

Parental mindfulness and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents: Parenting anxiety and negative parenting as mechanisms

AbstractObjectiveThe current study aims to examine parenting anxiety and negative parenting practices as intervening variables in the relation between parental dispositional mindfulness and Chinese adolescents' externalizing problems.BackgroundParental dispositional mindfulness is negatively associated with their adolescents' adjustment difficulties through both positive and negative parenting practices in Western samples. However, research does not support these same pathways of effects among Eastern samples. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative mediators of the link between parental mindfulness and lower adolescent adjustment problems in Eastern cultures. The present study addresses this need by examining parenting anxiety as a mechanism linking parental dispositional mindfulness, negative parenting practices, and Chinese adolescents' externalizing problems.MethodsParticipants were 624 adolescents (aged from 9 to 18 years, M = 12.69 years, SD = 2.30) and their parents from urban areas in Southeast China. Parents completed questionnaires on their dispositional mindful awareness, parenting anxiety, and negative parenting practices, and adolescents reported on their externalizing problems.ResultsStructural equation modeling revealed that the indirect relation between parental dispositional mindful awareness and adolescents' externalizing problems was significant, with parenting anxiety and negative parenting practices as the first and second intervening variables.ConclusionThe results highlighted the importance of parenting anxiety in the relation between parental mindful awareness and parenting.ImplicationsIt suggested that mindfulness‐based parenting interventions may help alleviate parenting anxiety, which may further improve parenting behaviors and indirectly decrease adolescents' externalizing problems.

Examination of the importance of anger/irritability and limited prosocial emotion/callous-unemotional traits to understand externalizing symptoms and adjustment problems in adolescence: A 10-year longitudinal study.

ObjectiveWithin a longitudinal study (10-year follow-up), we aim to examine the role of anger/irritability and limited prosocial emotion/callous-unemotional traits in predicting externalizing symptoms and adjustment problems in individuals formerly in youth residential care institutions.MethodThese dimensions were assessed in 203 young adults, with baseline assessments during youth residential care and a follow-up 10 years later.ResultsIn general, emotional problems and psychopathological symptoms did not reduce over time. Analyses of regression revealed that a younger age at baseline, anger/irritability both at baseline assessment, and regarding their aggravation over time refer to significant predictors of the level of externalizing symptoms at 10-year follow-up (R2 = 0.431) and the worsening of externalizing symptoms over time (R2 = 0.638). Anger/irritability has been observed to be a significant predictors of both the level of adjustment problems at 10-year follow-up (R2 = 0.471) and its worsening over time (R2 = 0.656).DiscussionOur results suggest that dysregulation of anger/irritability is a key factor in the prediction of long-term externalizing symptoms and adjustment problems as well as its worsening over time. Possible implications for intervention and prevention are discussed.

Family cohesion, shame-proneness, expressive suppression, and adolescent mental health-A path model approach.

ObjectiveThe family remains one of the most important relationship systems into early adulthood and provides an important foundation for lifelong mental health. Dysfunctional family cohesion can promote adjustment problems in adolescents and might also affect adolescents’ self-concept and strategies for coping with emotional distress. To test these relationships and the underlying mechanisms, we proposed a dual mediation model describing the associations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing problems, mediated by shame-proneness and expressive suppression.MethodsA sample of 526 German-speaking adolescents aged 14 to 18 years from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland participated in an online self-report survey encompassing questionnaires on family cohesion, shame-proneness, expressive suppression, and psychological problems. We tested a path model to examine the indirect pathways of the associations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing problems via shame-proneness and expressive suppression, while controlling for age, gender, and guilt-proneness.ResultsWe found a significant dual mediation of the associations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing problems by shame-proneness and expressive suppression. The indirect pathways were all significant, except for the indirect pathway from family cohesion to externalizing problems via shame-proneness.DiscussionOur results provide a model for the mechanisms by which disrupted family cohesion can be related to psychological problems in adolescents. Expressive suppression emerged as crucial when considering the consequences of shame-proneness in adolescents, as it was only indirectly related to externalizing problems via expressive suppression.

Bidirectional effects between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing problems across six years in Northern Ireland.

Emerging evidence indicates the existence of bidirectional relations between mothers' mental health and adolescent adjustment, but few studies have examined these relations in contexts of high environmental adversity, including economic deprivation and political violence. Given other empirical connections between political violence and adolescent adjustment problems, the impact of child adjustment problems on maternal mental health may be exacerbated in contexts of sectarian violence. Addressing this gap, latent change score modeling was used to examine interrelations between trajectories of maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing symptoms over time in communities afflicted by political conflict. Over six years, 999 adolescent-mother dyads participated in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Six-hundred ninety-five families were originally recruited in year 1, with 304 recruited to supplement the sample in year 3; the largest available sample for a given year was 760 dyads. Models including maternal mental health, adolescent internalizing symptomatology, and political violence (i.e., sectarian antisocial behavior) as a time-varying covariate were tested. Results demonstrated that for both mothers and adolescents in a dyadic pairing, higher rates of symptomology in one member of the dyad were related to symptoms observed in the other member. Results also suggest that political violence and factors related to social deprivation increased symptoms across the dyad. This study advances understanding of the bidirectional impact between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing over time in contexts of political violence.

Examining family pre-pandemic influences on adolescent psychosocial wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, with social distancing measures in place and a decrease in social activities, emotional states are more likely to be transferred between family members via increased interactions and communication. However, longitudinal evidence, particularly for early adolescents, is lacking. This study investigated family pre-pandemic influences on parental stress and adolescent psychosocial wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 233 adolescents and their parents before and during the initial phase of the pandemic. Parents reported their own stress level and perception of adolescent adjustment problems, whereas adolescents reported their own psychological distress level. In addition, adolescents also reported their satisfaction with family life in the pre-pandemic survey. Cross-lagged path models indicated reciprocal associations between parental stress and perception of adolescent adjustment problems. Compared to adolescents low in pre-pandemic family life satisfaction, those adolescents with higher levels of family life satisfaction before the pandemic reported lower levels of anxiety and stress only when parental stress showed no increase during the pandemic. Findings provide support for the mutual influences between parental stress and perceived adolescent adjustment problems during the pandemic. Special attention should be paid to those adolescents who undergo significant family life changes during the pandemic.

Domain-Differentiated Parental Guilt Induction: Understanding the Structure and Correlates of a Novel Measure

SYNOPSIS Objective. Vignette-based research shows that youth evaluate parental guilt induction (GI) differently depending on the type of issue over which guilt is induced. However, domain differences in the prevalence and associations of parental GI have not been examined in real-world parenting behavior. This study examined the utility of a novel measure of domain-differentiated parental guilt induction (DDPGI) focusing on its psychometric properties and correlates. Design. Surveys were completed by 123 U.S. adolescents (M age = 13.99 years, 54% female, 53% European American) and their mothers. Analyses included factor analysis and invariance tests, then structural equation modeling. Results. Consistent with social domain theory, maternal GI over legitimately regulated issues (moral, conventional, prudential) and personal issues were statistically separable and had differential associations with parenting and youth adjustment. When reported by adolescents, maternal GI over legitimately regulated issues was uniquely associated with more inductive discipline, adolescent empathy, perspective-taking, and moral self-relevance. In contrast, maternal GI over personal issues, especially at high levels, was uniquely associated with more maternal psychological control, maladaptive guilt induction, adolescent adjustment problems, and fewer adolescent moral cognitions and emotions. When reported by mothers, maternal GI showed no significant links with youth adjustment and positive associations between legitimately regulated guilt induction and both adaptive and maladaptive parenting behaviors. Conclusions. Results highlight the importance of measuring parental GI as its own construct, considering the topics over which guilt is induced when conceptualizing the parenting practice as positive or negative, and recognizing family member differences in perceptions of GI.

Developmental timing of parent-youth intimacy as a protective factor for adolescent adjustment problems.

Parent-youth intimacy protects adolescents from adjustment problems, including weight concerns, low self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. This study aimed to identify when in development parent-youth intimacy emerges as a protective factor, how this protective effect changes in its strength across adolescence, and whether there are differences in intimacy-adjustment linkages depending on parent and youth gender. The sample was 388 predominately White American adolescents (50.8% female; ages 12-20 years, M = 15.2, SD = 1.63 at Time 1) from 202 families. Time-varying effect models revealed that associations between intimacy and adjustment problems were dynamic and differed by parent and youth gender and across adjustment problems. Father-youth intimacy was associated with fewer weight concerns across most of adolescence for girls and boys, and these effects were strongest in mid- and late adolescence, respectively. Mother-youth intimacy was associated with boys' but not girls' weight concerns, and only in early adolescence. Father-youth intimacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for boys and girls across most of adolescence, whereas mother-youth intimacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms in mid-adolescence. However, the association between intimacy and depressive symptoms was strongest during mid-adolescence for mother- and father-youth intimacy. Finally, father-youth intimacy was associated with higher self-esteem from early through mid-adolescence for boys and girls, whereas mother-youth intimacy was associated with higher self-esteem across most of adolescence for girls and during early and late adolescence for boys. Findings have implications for the timing and targets of family interventions and highlight parents' unique and shared roles in adolescents' adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Child disclosure, parental solicitation, and adjustment problems: Parental support as a mediator.

Little is known about how perceived parental solicitation and child disclosure are negatively associated with early adolescent adjustment problems and/or if these associations are consistent across race/ethnic groups. This study used data from 209 early adolescents to examine perceived parental support as a mediator in the associations between perceived parental solicitation and child disclosure and subsequent adjustment problems, while also examining race/ethnic group differences across non-Hispanic White and Hispanic early adolescents using multi-group path analyses. Perceived parent support did not mediate the associations between child disclosure and perceived parental solicitation and subsequent adjustment problems. However, child disclosure was directly associated with subsequent conduct problems for Hispanic adolescents. Child disclosure and perceived parental solicitation may positively influence the parent-adolescent relationship by increasing parental support but may not entirely help in reducing the prevalence of adjustment problems. Child disclosure may be particularly beneficial for Hispanic early adolescents in reducing adjustment problems.

Dynamic fluctuations of emotional states in adolescents with delayed sleep phase—A longitudinal network modeling approach

Background: Very late sleep rhythms are risks for social adjustment problems in adolescence. Using ecological momentary assessment data, we quantified and visualized temporal and contemporaneous within-persons dynamical relations of sleepiness and emotions in adolescents with and without late sleep rhythms.Methods: We analyzed a temporal network via multilevel vector autoregression (mlVAR) modeling and a contemporaneous network through the partial associations between the residuals of temporal and the between-subject multilevel models. We tested whether these networks were different between those with a late circadian rhythm [concurrent delayed sleep phase (DSP) N = 172, 37% boys, 63% girls] and those without (N = 143, 22% boys, 78% girls).Results: In adolescents without DSP, the temporal networks showed continuity only for low mood from the previous to the following time point. In adolescents with DSP, there were more predictable patterns of emotions. Feelings of depression led to a decrease of positive emotions and increase of irritation and anxiety. The contemporaneous networks showed clusters of positive and negative emotions in both groups and sleepiness decreased the experience of positive emotions concurrently.Limitations: DSP in our current study was based only on one out of three diagnostic criteria of the full disorder (DSM-5) and it was assessed only once.Conclusions: These findings indicate that the dynamic organization of emotions and sleepiness is different in adolescents with and without DSP. DSP adolescents have more predictable and maladaptive emotional patterns during the day. Results provide new insight about why individuals with DSP are at a heightened risk for decreased emotional adjustment.

Exposure to Parental Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Analysis on the Association with Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms and Adjustment Problems.

Parental depressive symptoms have been associated with depressive symptoms and adjustment problems in adolescents. However, longitudinal studies assessing both mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms over time and their association with adolescents' outcomes are sparse. Data were obtained from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. A total of 1364 children and families were followed from the child's birth until the age of 15 years. Adolescents' depressive symptoms were evaluated via self-reported questionnaire at ages 11 to 15 years. Adjustment problems at 15 years of age were defined as high internalizing and/or externalizing problems. Parental depressive symptoms were assessed several times during the study period. Trajectories created using partitional clustering analyses were entered in logistic regression models to predict adolescents' outcomes. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, adolescents' outcomes were associated with every additional time point of reported maternal (depressive symptoms: odds ratio [OR] = 1.2, p = 0.001; adjustment problems: OR = 1.1, p = 0.003) and paternal depressive symptoms (adjustment problems: OR = 1.2, p = 0.027). When maternal and paternal depressive symptom trajectories were combined, we found adolescents' depressive symptoms to be significantly associated with mother elevated and stable subclinical father scores (OR = 3.3, p = 0.003) and girls (OR = 5.4, p < 0.001). Adjustment problems were associated with father elevated and stable subclinical mother (OR = 1.9, p = 0.003) and mother elevated and stable subclinical father (OR = 2.1, p = 0.001) trajectories. Parental depressive symptoms are an important risk factor for adolescents' outcomes. This highlights the importance of continuously evaluating parents' mental status across child development. The cumulative effect of recurrent depressive symptoms and the combined parental trajectories are especially predictive for the development of adolescents' outcomes.

Associations Between Domain Differentiated Sibling Conflict and Adolescent Problem Behavior

AbstractObjectiveThe present study examines sibling conflict across two domains and their associations with externalizing behaviors (discussed as problem behavior in this article) 1 year later.BackgroundThe close‐natured relationship of siblings often leads to sibling conflict. Previous research has found that sibling conflict can be categorized into the following two content domains: invasion of personal (IP) and equality and fairness (EF). These domains of conflict are differential predictors of adolescent adjustment problems, particularly internalizing problems; however, less is known about the link between specific domains of conflict and problem behavior.MethodUsing Actor Partner Interdependence Modeling, purposive sampling was conducted to recruit a sample of 145 sibling dyads (N = 290) adolescents in 8th, 10th, or 12th grades with a sibling no more than 4 years younger. Adolescents were administered questionnaires assessing the frequency and intensity of sibling conflict and individual problem behavior.ResultsThe results suggest that more intense IP and EF sibling conflicts were more strongly associated with later adjustment problems than frequent IP and EF sibling conflicts. Furthermore, mixed‐sex sibling dyads and younger siblings were at greater risk for later problem behavior when engaged in intense IP and EF sibling conflicts.ConclusionThe findings of the present study underscore the importance of considering the content of sibling conflict and the contextual factors of siblings as they have differential impacts on adolescent problem behavior.

Electronic and Combustible Cigarette Use in Adolescence: Links With Adjustment, Delinquency, and Other Substance Use

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to identify proximal links between electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use and numerous indicators of adjustment, delinquency, and other substance use in adolescence, beyond prior levels and confounders. MethodsThe ongoing Millennium Cohort Study is a nationally representative, intergenerational, longitudinal study of children born 2000–2001 in the United Kingdom followed from birth to age 14 years (n = 11,564 adolescents and their parents). A series of ordinary least squares and logistic regressions compared 14-year-old e-cigarette only users to never users and to combustible/dual users on 10 measures of adjustment (school engagement, well-being, and self-esteem), delinquency (theft, vandalism, disorderly conduct, and graffitiing), and other substance use (frequent alcohol use, heavy drinking, and marijuana use). Controls included each outcome variable measured at age 11 years and prospectively assessed parent and child confounders (e.g., parent education, child externalizing and internalizing behaviors, cognitive test scores, gender, and race/ethnicity). ResultsAt age 14 years, e-cigarette only users (approximately 7% of youth) had a higher risk of adolescent adjustment problems, delinquent behavior, and substance use relative to nonusers (75% of youth), but lower risk relative to combustible cigarette/dual users (18% of youth), even after controlling for a host of childhood confounders. ConclusionsPositive links shown here between e-cigarette use and poor adjustment, delinquency, and other substance use in adolescence, coupled with accumulating evidence that e-cigarettes substantially increase youths’ likelihood of combustible smoking, indicate that e-cigarettes are part of an emerging pattern of health-risk behaviors and poor adjustment for some youth.

Adolescent Adjustment Problems Mediate the Association Between Racial Discrimination and School Connectedness.

Whereas previous research suggests a positive association between racial discrimination and early adolescent adjustment problems, few studies examine the relationship between discrimination and school connectedness as it relates to adjustment problems among Hispanic early adolescents. In this study, we examined if depressive symptoms and conduct problems would mediate the concurrent association between perceived racial discrimination and school connectedness among Hispanic early adolescents. Participants for this study were 192 11-15-year-old (M=12.1; SD=.95) Hispanic middle school students. Using multigroup path analyses, we examined the indirect association between racial discrimination and school connectedness through adjustment problems, and the equivalence of the associations across girls and boys. Racial discrimination was positively associated with depressive symptoms and conduct problems for both girls and boys. In turn, depressive symptoms were negatively associated with school connectedness for girls only, whereas conduct problems were negatively associated with school connectedness for boys only. In consideration of study findings, school personnel should be mindful of Hispanic adolescents who display depressive symptoms or conduct problems, as they may be highly vulnerable to lower levels of school connectedness when experiencing racial discrimination.

Childhood Sleep Functioning as a Developmental Precursor of Adolescent Adjustment Problems.

Sleep has been linked to adjustment difficulties in both children and adolescents; yet little is known about the long-term impact of childhood sleep on subsequent development. This study tested whether childhood sleep problems, sleep quantity, and chronotype predicted internalizing and externalizing problems during adolescence. Latent Growth Modeling using the Czech portion of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (N = 4393) was utilized to test the developmental trajectories of sleep characteristics (from 1.5 to 7years) as predictors of adjustment problems trajectories (from 11 to 18years). Findings provided evidence that children with higher levels of sleep problems at 1.5years (and throughout childhood) reported higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems at age 11. Additionally, greater eveningness at age 1.5 predicted a greater increase in externalizing problems from ages 11 to 18years. The results emphasize the importance of childhood sleep problems in evaluating the risk of future adjustment difficulties.

부모의 학대적 양육과 청소년의 낮은 자기통제력이 청소년기 사회심리적 적응에 미치는 직·간접적 영향과 성차: 한국과 미국 비교 연구

부모의 학대적 양육과 청소년의 낮은 자기통제력이 청소년기 사회심리적 적응에 미치는 직·간접적 영향과 성차: 한국과 미국 비교 연구

The Study of Family Context: Examining Its Role for Identity Coherence and Adolescent Adjustment for Swedish Adolescents

The present cross-sectional study aimed to examine whether characteristics of the parent-child relationship in adolescence are important for adjustment and identity development. Participants were recruited from schools in central Sweden for a larger longitudinal study when the cohort was 13- to 14-year-olds ( N = 3,667). Characteristics of the parent-child relationship, like parental warmth, democratic parenting, and child communication, and adolescent adjustment problems and identity coherence were studied. It was found that democratic parenting was positively linked to child communication but negatively associated with problematic peer relationships and behavioral problems. Parental warmth was linked to other parenting characteristics as well as identity cohesion. Democratic parenting was linked to greater school engagement and identity coherence for boys and girls. Gender differences were found. The findings support the notion that democratic and warm parenting may provide support for adolescent identity development and adjustment.

Emotionality and temperament in attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity

Those who suffer from attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) find it difficult to direct their emotions in order to solve challenges or problems. This alteration in emotional self-regulation implies greater disability than that attributed to the traditional dimensions -attention deficit and hyperactivity- with an evident impact on the development of personality. To review how the confluence of poor self-regulatory skills, emotion awareness and autonomy, and a particular temperament profile increase the risk of children diagnosed with ADHD for the development of a range of adjustment problems in childhood and adolescence. The typical temperamental profile of children with ADHD is characterised by high emotional reactivity and poor self-regulatory skills. The effects of the interaction of emotionality and temperament in ADHD can be either direct on the child himself or indirect on the environment, interactional by fitting or mismatch with environmental expectations, and transactional due to their dynamic relation with other characteristics in the child's environment. The confluence of poor self-regulation skills, emotion awareness and autonomy, and a temperament profile with a higher novelty seeking and lower persistence increase the risk of children diagnosed with ADHD for the development of a series of adjustment and adaptation problems in childhood and adolescence.