Adolescent Sons Research Articles

The Impact of Birth Order on Intergenerational Transmission of Attitudes from Parents to Adolescent Sons: The Israeli Case

This study deals with birth order and its impact on intergenerational transmission of parental attitudes to adolescent sons in Israeli society. The sample included 294 participants (including 98 mothers, 98 fathers, and 98 sons). The attitudes chosen were key issues of concern in Israeli society: gender role attitudes, ethnic stereotypes, and attitudes toward immigrants from the former USSR (disposition toward contact and empathy toward immigrants). The findings indicate that birth order impacts on intergenerational transmission of attitudes from parents to adolescents, although the nature of this impact is different for mothers and fathers. The correlation between fathers' attitudes and those of their sons were strongest for the firstborn, and decreased according to birth order. The reverse trend was found for mothers. In addition, firstborns expressed greater willingness to approach immigrants than did middle and younger children. Regarding gender role attitudes and ethnic stereotypes, no impact was found for birth order. Compared with other family members, mothers expressed the most liberal gender role attitudes, and children expressed the least stereotyped attitudes toward ethnic groups, especially compared with their fathers.

Parent–Youth Conflict and School Delinquency/Cigarette Use: The Moderating Effects of Gender and Associations with Achievement‐Oriented Peers

Hypothesized gender‐specific relationships between parent–youth conflict and youth's school delinquency and cigarette use, and the moderating effect of associations with achievement‐oriented peers are estimated using information provided by a national sample of high school students (National Education Longitudinal Study [NELS] 1988–1990, N=13,348). Multiple regression analyses yielded results as follows: Conflict with fathers is more related to adolescent sons’ school delinquency and cigarette use than adolescent daughters’ while conflict with mothers is only predictive of daughters’ school delinquency and cigarette use. Further, associations with highly achievement‐oriented peers tend to mitigate adverse effect of conflict with the same‐sex parent on school delinquency and cigarette use. These results are observed while controlling for putative common antecedent variables.

Sensitive mother-to-adolescent disclosures after divorce: is the experience of sons different from that of daughters?

This study addressed two main questions: (a) Are adolescent sons and daughters exposed to sensitive maternal disclosures after divorce with similar frequency and in similar detail? and (b) Does gender act as a moderator in the association between maternal disclosures and adolescent adjustment difficulties? Forced-choice and open-ended data were collected from 194 adolescents within 2 years after their parents' divorce. Quantitative analyses revealed that although the majority of adolescents experience some level of maternal disclosure, neither frequency nor detail of maternal disclosure differed as a function of adolescent gender. Frequent and detailed maternal disclosures were associated with adolescent adjustment difficulties, primarily psychological distress. Gender did not moderate that significant association. Qualitative analysis shed light on the link between maternal disclosures and adolescent distress, suggested the importance of how disclosures are made, and revealed several gender differences in reactions to maternal disclosures. Implications of the findings are discussed.

“I've Never Thought about It”: Contradictions and Taboos Surrounding American Males' Experiences of First Ejaculation (Semenarche)

First ejaculation research is scant, but studies reveal a contradiction: The majority of males report positive reactions to the event, and they are curious and interested about it, but they also tell no one of the experience. These paradoxical reactions—interest and silence—can be explained by a first ejaculation taboo in contemporary America. The quantitative and qualitative results of the current study, the first to investigate the perspectives of parents of early adolescent sons, provide evidence for this taboo. For example, parents rarely reported that they had communicated with sons about first ejaculation, and when they were asked if they had future plans to communicate their most frequent response was neither “yes” (35%) nor “no” (12%), but “I've never thought about it” (54%). Because first ejaculation is closely linked with sexual desire, masturbation, nocturnal emission, and orgasm, parents and others may have difficulty considering its developmental implications.

Fathers and Their Adolescent Sons

This study examined perceptions of paternal involvement among adolescent males and their fathers across three levels of the adolescent’s pubertal development. A purposive sample of adolescent males (n = 173) and their fathers (n = 122) completed self-report measures of pubertal development (adolescent’s self ratings, fathers’ ratings of their son’s development), paternal support, and involvement. Fathers and sons were similar in their assessments of the sons’ pubertal development. Perceptions of Companionship, General Support, Satisfaction, Sustained Contact, and Time Together did not differ across three levels of development (pre-, transitional-, and post-pubertal development). Physical Affection was the only measure of paternal involvement that differed (decreased) across the three levels of pubertal development. These findings suggest that fathers’ involvement with their adolescent sons is not globally affected by pubertal development.

Adolescent Violence towards Parents: Maintaining Family Connections When The Going Gets Tough

This paper explores some of the dilemmas, difficulties and decisions faced by mothers whose adolescent sons or daughters act in violent and abusive ways and refuse any counselling. A group intervention program, designed to assist these mothers in more fully understanding and addressing their adolescent's behaviour, was evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Self‐report questionnaire data indicated that following the group intervention the mothers reported less violence in their homes, and significantly less personal anxiety and fatigue. However, these women continued to experience high levels of depression, and the reasons for this are discussed. These findings are integrated with information from post‐intervention, in‐depth interviews which indicated that participants valued the group experience because they realised that they were not alone, their problems were understood, and they developed a wider range of strategies to deal with their children's violent behaviour.

Prediction of violent recidivism.

To describe the changes and improvements in accuracy of the prediction of violent recidivism. The evolution of better prediction models is described by reviewing the more significant methods used and referring to the results of their application. Development of instruments such as the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the Violence Risk Assessment Guide (VRAG), the HCR-20 and the multiple-item comprehensive questionnaire of Monahan and Steadman has substantially improved accuracy in risk assessment. The presence of full-blown psychopathy has proven itself a better predictor of violence than has a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSW-IV). Shortcomings to the efficacy of the current instruments stem from the difficulty in detecting violence-proneness in persons who eventually assault or murder one or two persons (usually family members), but who have no, or a limited, record of past violence. Persons from affluent backgrounds are more adept at evading arrests or convictions than are the poor. Adolescent sons abused by parents are at risk to commit violent acts later on, but the community has little power to detect or intervene until these acts are committed. Prediction of violence has significantly improved over the last 20 years, thanks to the development of objective instruments of risk assessment.

Racial Socialization Messages and the Quality of Mother/Child Interactions in African American Families

Racial socialization messages were examined within a particular ecological niche: two-parent, African American families with a child in early adolescence. The linkage between mothers’provision of racial socialization messages and family process components (e.g., communication, warmth, negativity, child monitoring, and involvement) of the mother/child relationship was examined. Sixty-six African American mothers and their early adolescent sons and daughters participated in videotaped mother/child interactions and completed questionnaires regarding family demographics and parenting. Based on the frequency of their provision of proactive responses to discrimination items, mothers were categorized into three groups (high, moderate, and low). Results indicated that mothers in the moderate socialization group exhibited the most positivity, were the most involved, and monitored their child’s activities the most. Mothers in that group also displayed the lowest levels of dyadic negativity. Mothers in the moderate socialization group had children who exhibited the most positivity and displayed the lowest levels of negativity.

Similarities and Differences in Mother-Daughter and Mother-Son Conversations During Preadolescence and Adolescence

Temporal and functional conversation styles were examined in discussions between mothers and their preadolescent or adolescent sons and daughters. Conversations were audiotaped and coded for speakers’ rates of overlaps between speaking turns, simultaneous speech, and successful interruptions. Results indicated that boys and girls of both ages used a high-involvement conversational style including frequent overlaps, simultaneous speech, and interruptions. Mothers used a high-considerateness style characterized by significantly lower rates of overlaps, simultaneous speech, and interruptions than their children. Secondary analyses examining the functions of speakers’ simultaneous speech and successful interruptions indicated that adolescents produced less confirming simultaneous speech than preadolescents, and more confirming simultaneous speech was produced in the preadolescent boy dyads than in either the adolescent boy dyads or the preadolescent girl dyads. Finally, adolescent boys produced significantly more rejecting successful interruptions than their mothers.

Concordance between verbal report and urine screen of recent marijuana use in adolescents.

This study compared the concordance of self-report for recent marijuana use with results obtained from urine drug screen. The sample consisted of adolescent sons of fathers with DSM-III-R lifetime substance use disorder (SUD) [high average risk (HAR); N= 75] and sons of fathers with no Axis 1 psychiatric or SUD [low average risk (LAR); N= 125]. To avoid recall bias, and to ensure that the timeframe for accurate detection was restricted to promote accuracy, urine drug screen results were compared to self-reported marijuana use during the prior 48 h using an interview format. The HAR group of adolescents reported a higher rate of recent cannabis use and also had a higher rate of cannabis detection as measured in urine. The two groups did not differ with respect to either over or under-reporting marijuana use. Overall, of 19 participants who obtained positive urine cannabis results, six (31.5%) verbally denied that they used marijuana within the previous 2 days. Among the 181 participants who obtained a negative urine drug screen, 20 subjects (11.5%) inaccurately asserted that they had used marijuana within the prior 2 days. In total, 13% of the participants (26/200) inaccurately reported recent cannabis use. These results underscore the need for caution in interpreting the results of self-report methods documenting the prevalence of drug use among youth.

Decision-Making Influence in the Family: A Comparison of Turkish Families in Germany and in Turkey

In a longitudinal study including 200 Turkish male adolescents from two regions in Germany and 100 in Turkey, power attributions and power discrepancies in decision-making influence between positions in familial dyads were explored. The power attributions were measured by assessing the children’s ratings of their own and their parents influence in decision-making in four main domains: financial issues, children’s affairs and general family decisions. Discrepancy measures were computed for each familial dyad separately (father-mother; father-child; motherchild). Furthermore, the impact of personal resources and normative social attitudes on the attributions were explored. The results show that the family power structure as perceived by male adolescent children are influenced by the cultural context favoring father dominance in Turkish families independent of cultural context. Furthermore, the attributions of decision-making showed a reversed relationship to father’s resource of education. The more educated the father’s the less powerful they were perceived by their sons. With increasing age the sons attributed more power to themselves in Germany but less power to their parents in Turkey. Thus, during adolescent development sons use two different mechanism for reducing power discrepancies between themselves and their parents depending on cultural context. Turkish mothers seem to profit from fathers’ empathetic parenting style in Germany but not in Turkey. The results were interpreted as favoring a nonnative resource theory that takes into account that with some levels of resources, e.g. education, different social normative attitudes are associated; these attitudes may counterbalance a positive linear resource effect.

Adolescent Interactions With Gangs, Family, and Neighborhoods

This qualitative article explores the experiences of two Mexican American families. Both families live in impoverished urban neighborhoods where violence and gang activity are common. Both families have adolescent sons, with varying degrees of interactions with gangs. In-depth interviews with the two adolescent males, enhanced with other family member interviews, are central to this investigation. The purpose of this article is to explore themes and expand on issues surrounding these two adolescents and their families. Specific issues to be uncovered include neighborhood and family dynamics and the adolescents' relationships and interactions with peers and gangs. More specifically, this article will provide insight into the lives of two contrasting adolescents who are embedded in these poor urban neighborhoods. Their stories elucidate the degree to which households and families are connected, or disconnected, with their surrounding neighborhood, community, and gang presence.

PARENTS' PERCEIVED BENEFITS AND BARRIERS OF ADOLESCENTS' DIABETES SELF-MANAGEMENT: PART 2

Knowledge is limited about parents' decision making regarding adolescents' assumption of diabetes management. This study's purpose was to identify parents' perceived benefits and barriers about this process. We interviewed 17 parents of adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Questions were adapted from Janis and Mann's (1977) decisional balance sheet. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Descriptive expressions were identified and categories inductively generated. Inter-rater agreement was initially 85% and was 100% after discussion of disagreements. Parents' perceived benefits for themselves were relief from burden and knowledge and confidence and/or pride in adolescents' abilities. Their perceived benefits for their sons and daughters were also twofold: knowledge and/or confidence in abilities and freedom, independence, and/or control. Parents perceived barriers for themselves were loss of control, authority, and supervision, dealing with consequences, and expression of lack of barriers. Their perceived barriers for their sons and daughters were burden of responsibility and also lack of barriers. Understanding parents' perceived benefits and barriers would be beneficial to health care professionals when working with parents, because decision making related to the transfer of diabetes management to their adolescent sons and daughters is crucial to the success of its management.

Father Absence as a Risk Factor for Substance Use and Illegal Behavior by the Adolescent Sons

ABSTRACT It is a common belief that growing up without a father, and in the poverty that is related to fatherlessness, are “root causes” of crime and drug trafficking, and possibly also of substance use for adolescent males. This popular belief or assumption is most often applied to adolescent sons in families in this inner city African-American community. To test the hypothesis, the following two groups of subjects were compared on their illegal behavior, drug trafficking, and on drug and alcohol use/abuse: (1) subjects who grew up with both biological parents, and (2) subjects who grew up living with only their mother and siblings, and with very little contact with a father figure. Differences on 25 family history variables and on the relationship with mother, were controlled for in the analyses. African-American subjects who had been in one-parent (mother only) households, reported significantly less, rather than more, (p = .01) illegal offenses. Thus, the findings are contrary to the common attitude regarding the effects of fatherlessness.

The interface of adolescent and parent marital expectations

This study investigated the extent to which adolescents' marital expectations are related to the marital expectations of their parents; it also examined the extent to which nature of attachment to parent and level of adolescent individuation moderate the carryover of marital expectations models from parents to children. Participants included 81 adolescent-father-mother triads who completed a marital expectations inventory. The quality of attachment to parent and the intensity of the need for attachment also were evaluated. Results showed that parental married expectations, when evaluated from a systemic perspective, accounted for the marital expectations of their adolescent sons and daughters. Adolescents' quality of attachment and their need for attachment also affected the association between adolescents' and parents' marital expectations. More particularly, maternal expectations and the quality of attachment to the mother best accounted for the variance of adolescents' martial expectations. Fathers, on the other hand, made the more significant contribution only for expectation of respect for individuality. Results are discussed within the framework of gender differences in close relationships and patterns of intergenerational coherence.

Dependency, Self-Criticism, and Mothers' Responses to Adolescent Sons' Autonomy and Competence

A previous study found that dependency was associated with mothers' reacting punitively to independent behavior of their adolescent daughters and that self-criticism was associated with punitive and controlling responses to adolescent daughters. To extend these findings to mother–son relationships, the present study examined relations between personality and parenting behavior in 78 mothers of adolescent boys. Mothers completed measures of dependency and self-criticism and of baseline affect, and then were given experimentally manipulated results of the son's “initial assessment of problem-solving ability” (competence) and choice of discussion partner. Affect was assessed again. Mothers “coached” sons on computer problem-solving puzzles. Dependency was associated with mothers' giving fewer explicit commands and less negative feedback to (1) sons who were described as high in competence and who chose someone else as discussion partner and (2) sons who were described as average in competence and who chose the mother as discussion partner. It was concluded that mothers high in dependency relate to competent sons in ways that encourage independence, but relate to their less competent sons in ways that may foster dependency, by thwarting attempts at autonomy.

The False Self as a Means of Disidentification

This article is the first to explore and integrate, within one clinical case, the previously identified four functions of the False Self, contributing to the literature by postulating a fifth function: the individual's disidentification from mother. The formulation of this False-Self function evolved as a result of my attempt to understand and work with the more intractable aspects of my patient's False Self. also discuss how the exploration of this additional False-Self function led me to hypothesize that aggression plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of the False-Self organization. In this case, the five False-Self functions were not all evident at the beginning of the analysis, and there is considerable overlapping in terms of the timing of their emergence in the analysis. Broadly speaking, however, the first two False-Self functions, protecting the patient's True Self from mother's impingements and neglect, and maintaining a connection with mother, were more prominent during the first half of the analysis. Awareness of the more intractable aspects of this woman's False-Self functions, protecting mother from her own destructiveness, warding off anxiety regarding oedipal issues, and creating a means of disidentification from her mother, emerged during the second half of the analysis. When Sharon entered treatment, she was a forty-four-year-old nurse, who was married and had two adolescent sons, adopted by her and her husband approximately six months after each birth. Severe depression and suicidality had plagued her since suffering a series of recent losses: the deaths of her mother, father, stepmother, and best friend to cancer, as well as her personal illness, which resulted in a mastectomy and hysterectomy. She initially stated, I feel like been taking money out of the bank all my life, none's ever been put back in by me or anybody else, and now discovered I'm bankrupt. She was the primary caretaker throughout her mother's lengthy illness, and her mother's death precipitated a crisis in which Sharon realized, I've tried as hard as could my whole life to be good, and now realize there's no reward. Following her mother's death, she became paralyzed with intense feelings of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and emotional depletion. Although potentially attractive, Sharon was seriously overweight, having gained sixty pounds during this crisis period, and

Parents' viewpoint on reproductive health and contraceptive practice among sexually active adolescents in the Port Harcourt local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria.

The viewpoint of parents on reproductive health, specifically their attitude towards contraceptive use among sexually active adolescent daughters and general opinion on adolescent pregnancy, was examined. A sample survey of parents of pregnant adolescents in Port Harcourt was conducted. A greater proportion (79.1%) of parents did not favour the use of contraceptives by sexually active adolescents because according to their parents, contraception kills. Also, most (87.8%) parents did not usually discuss sexual matters with their adolescent girls. However, the majority (93.2%) of parents would want a sex education programme in schools in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

Chapter IV: Adolescent Sons and Daughters of Immigrants: How Schools Can Respond

Chapter IV: Adolescent Sons and Daughters of Immigrants: How Schools Can Respond

The Socioendocrinology of Adolescent Development in Male Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Observations were made on four captive breeding groups of rhesus monkeys in order to measure hormonal, behavioral, and genital changes in adolescent males during the annual mating season. Three questions were addressed with regard to possible effects of social environment upon reproductive maturation: (1) Does male agonistic rank influence adolescent development? (2) Does affiliation between adolescent males and adult females during the mating season influence the males’ reproductive development? (3) Does maternal rank exert any effect upon reproductive maturation in adolescent sons? In many (but not all) cases male rank was positively correlated with circulating testosterone and testes weights during the mating season. Affiliative behavior (allogrooming and sexual interactions) between adolescents and adult females in their social groups bore no relationship to the degree of reproductive maturation in males. Mounts involving intromission were infrequent, but sons of high-ranking mothers gained significantly more intromissions than sons of lower-ranking females. Maternal rank was also found to correlate with circulating testosterone levels, testes weights, growth of the baculum (os penis), and maintenance of body weight in adolescent sons during the mating season. By contrast, levels of β-endorphin in the cerebrospinal fluid of adolescent males did not correlate with social rank, testosterone levels, or genital development. These findings point to possible effects of maternal rank, as well as intermale agonistic rank, in determining reproductive maturation during adolescence in the male rhesus monkey.