Seventh-grade Boys Research Articles

Attachment and Antisocial Behavior in Early Adolescence

One hundred sixty-three sixth, seventh, and eighth grade boys (n = 72) and girls (n = 91) were given the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment and a 23-item self-report measure of antisocial behavior. Correlations between attachment to mother, father, and best friend and antisocial behavior showed moderate, inverse associations for the sample as a whole. Explained variance in antisocial behavior predicted by attachment to best friend was redundant with parent attachment. Both for boys and girls, attachment to father was the strongest predictor of antisocial behavior. For boys, attachment relationships with best friends were related to antisocial behavior and parent attachment. For girls, relationships with best friends were independent of other attachments and antisocial behavior. Across the 11-year through 14-year age span studied here, girls showed a positive correlation between age and aggressive antisocial behavior

The influence of deviant peers on the development of boys' disruptive and delinquent behavior: A temporal analysis

AbstractThe concurrent and predictive influence of deviant peers on boys' disruptive and delinquent behavior was examined in a community sample of fourth- and seventh-grade boys, who were followed-up over six data waves. Analyses were conducted separately for three different types of behavior problems: authority conflict, covert, and overt disruptive behavior. Consistent with the existing literature, concurrent relations between peers' and boys' disruptive behavior were expected to be significant. A more informative test, however, was whether exposure to deviant peers resulted in boys' subsequent initiation of disruptive behavior. Although peer influences were expected in the predictive analyses, the relations were hypothesized to differ by type of behavior. The potential moderating effects of hyperactivity and poor parenting practices were also examined to test the hypothesis that boys who are already at risk for behavior problems will be more susceptible to deviant peer influence. Results supported the significant concurrent and predictive relation between exposure to deviant peers and boys' engagement in disruptive and delinquent behavior. There were no significant moderating effects of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or parenting practices on peer influence.

A family process model of economic hardship and adjustment of early adolescent boys.

We propose a family process model that links economic stress in family life to prosocial and problematic adolescent adjustment. Employing a sample of 205 seventh-grade boys aged 12 to 14 years (M = 12.7) and living in intact families in the rural Midwest, the theoretical constructs in the model were measured using both trained observer and family member reports. In general, results were consistent with the proposed model. Objective economic conditions such as per capita income and unstable work were related to parents' emotional status and behaviors through their perceptions of increased economic pressures such as the inability to pay monthly bills. These pressures were associated with depression and demoralization for both parents, which was related to marital conflict and disruptions in skillful parenting. Disrupted parenting mediated the relations between the earlier steps in the stress process and adolescent adjustment. The emotions and behaviors of both mothers and fathers were almost equally affected by financial difficulties, and disruptions in each parent's child-rearing behaviors had adverse consequences for adolescent development.

Comparison of Students Taught Basketball Skills Using Mastery and Nonmastery Learning Methods

Mastery learning is an instructional strategy that embraces the philosophy that almost any student can learn what is being taught given sufficient time and help. Through Bloom’s group-based, teacher-paced model, 71 seventh-grade boys were taught basketball skills. Students in two treatment groups (mastery and nonmastery) and a control group were compared on the performance of psychomotor skills in isolation and in a competitive game situation before, midway through, and following their training. Students in the mastery group were not taught new skills until 80% had mastered the present skills. The mastery group performed significantly better on isolated skills than did the nonmastery and control groups. There was no significant difference between groups in the performance of skills in a competitive game situation.

Rules, Rule Behaviors, and Biological Maturation in Families with Seventh-Grade Boys and Girls

Mothers' and fathers' reports of rules and rule behaviors were examined in 200 intact families with seventh-grade boys and girls across three rule domains, both in terms of gender and parental differences and the manner in which rules varied across level of pubertal status. More rules were reported for family obligations and personal habits than for peer relations. Many parents reported that their children had some say in rule formation but relatively few parents had any recent occasion to remind or punish their children about the rules. Although no gender differences were found between boys and girls across the rule behaviors examined, parental differences suggest that mothers and fathers play different roles in rule making and in managing rule infractions and that these roles are in line with gender-related role expectations. Biological maturation was associated with rule frequency, but the findings differed for boys and girls.

Distinguishing between Perceived Closeness and Parental Warmth in Families with Seventh-Grade Boys and Girls

The distinction between perceived closeness and parental warmth was explored by examining the relations between closeness and warmth and selected parent-reported and child-reported characteristics in 200 seventh-grade boys and girls and their parents. Results revealed that children perceived greater closeness with their mothers than with their fathers and that mothers perceived greater closeness with their children than did fathers. No differences were found in patterns of parental warmth. Conceived as a specific facet of warmth, closeness was found to be positively related to parent-reported measures of satisfaction with parenting and children's participation in family activities and to child-reported measures of self-esteem and expressiveness but not instrumentality. Parental warmth predicted little additional variance in satisfaction or participation, but it predicted a significant proportion of the variance in self-esteem and instrumentality above and beyond that predicted by closeness.

Effects of decisional control and work orientation on persistence in preventive health behavior.

Examined persistence in the daily use of fluoride mouthrinse among adolescents as a function of an induced-choice manipulation concerning self-management strategies and freedom to participate in the program. Seventh-grade boys and girls from urban and suburban schools were randomly assigned to a series of either high- or low-choice decisional control manipulations; their daily, home use of fluoride was monitored over a 20-week period. In order to ameliorate the relatively lower persistence rates found previously among suburban (vs. urban) students, all students were given self-management and action instructions as per previous studies. Although suburban students still declined in persistence relative to urban students, female students who received high choice persisted at a higher rate than girls who received low choice. Boys, for the most part, were unaffected by the manipulation. In addition, students' self-reported work orientation was also positively associated with persistence.

The impact of AIDS education on junior and senior high school students: A pilot study

Prevention, through school-based education campaigns, has been suggested as a response to the AIDS crisis although the impact of such education is unproven. The seventh and tenth grade classes ( n = 313) in one Rhode Island school district were surveyed regarding AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and coping skills before and after a two-session educational program. Following instruction, students reported more knowledge, greater tolerance of AIDS patients, and more hesitancy toward high-risk behaviors, but the changes were modest. Using residual change scores to control for baseline levels, two subgroups (seventh grade boys and tenth grade girls) changed the most in tolerance, and the correlations between variables were the strongest. In the general sample, change in knowledge was independent of change in tolerance, attitudes regarding high-risk behaviors, or coping strategies. These data lend support to the potential usefulness of school-based education programs, especially if behavior and coping skills are emphasized in the education. Evaluation of such programs should include assessment of change in subgroups to determine components of programs that can be tailored for more effective education.

Effects of Proactive Interference on Learning the Tennis Backhand Stroke

Proactive interference in motor skill acquisition occurs when a desired response is adversely affected by a previously learned skill. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of learning a forehand tennis groundstroke on the subsequent learning of a backhand. 96 subjects equally representing seventh and eighth grade boys and girls who had never played tennis were randomly assigned to two methods of instruction. This resulted in four groups of 24. The experimental groups received instruction and practice in a forehand skill. The experimental and control groups received backhand instruction and practice and both groups were tested on backhand. Results of a 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant between-subjects main effects for sex and groups. There were significant within-subjects effects for days and group × days. These results suggest that learning the forehand independent of the backhand may interfere with learning the backhand.

The Relations of Pubertal Status to Intrapersonal Changes in Young Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between pubertal development and adolescents' perceptions of their physical and emotional states. Two research questions were posed: (a) What are the effects of pubertal status upon satisfaction with appearance and mood states of the adolescent; and, (b) What are the patterns of those pubertal effects in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades? A nonclinical group of adolescents (N = 253) was selected from two cohorts and was followed from sixth through eighth grade. Multiple measures were used to assess satisfaction with appearance and mood states. Significant multivariate findings were limited to seventh and eighth grades. For satisfaction with appearance in girls, there were significant multivariate effects for pubertal status in both grades with the salient variable being satisfaction with weight. Girls who were more physically mature reported being less satisfied with their weight. For moods in seventh grade boys, the multivariate effect was significant for pubertal status with the salient variables being Impulse Control and Emotional Tone. Pubertal boys rated themselves higher, that is better on Impulse Control and Emotional Tone. Other significant univariate effects and polynomial trends are also discussed.

Gender effects for student perception of the classroom psychosocial environment

AbstractA future shortage of science teachers has been predicted, and since women are presently underrepresented in the sciences, they are a good potential source for future science teachers. Unfortunately women appear to become less interested in science as they continue in school. Because the classroom psychosocial environment has been shown to be related to learning outcomes, it may contribute to women's lack of interest in sciences. This study compared the classroom environments perceived by fourth grade, seventh grade and high school boys and girls in classes taught by males and females to determine if any perceptual differences existed. The three, two factor MANOVAS (teacher gender by student gender) showed no differences for fourth grade students, one for seventh grade students and three for high school students. The seventh grade boys and girls perceived classes taught by females as having more friction than classes taught by males and high school boys and girls perceived classes taught by females as being more difficult than classes taught by males. Further, for the high school students it appears that classes are perceived more favorably when the opposite genders are combined. These perceptual differences combined with role modeling may contribute to the lack of women in science. More research is necessary to determine causal relationships.

Disagreements about rules in families with seventh-grade girls and boys

Parental reports of disagreements and serious disagreements about rules were examined in 200 families with seventh-grade boys and girls. No gender differences were found: Mothers did not report more disagreements than fathers; no more disagreements were reported for girls than boys. Disagreements about personal habits and family obligations were more common than disagreements about peer relations. Disagreements and serious disagreements, in general, were significantly correlated (positively) with parental reports of child oppositionalism and (negatively) with parents' satisfaction with parenting the target child, although some dyadic differences were found. Children's reports of parental acceptance were negatively correlated with disagreements only for the father-daughter dyad. Support was found for some of Baumrind's ([1968] "Authoritarian vs. Authoritative Control,"Adolescence 3: 255-272) notions regarding relations between rule frequency, child participation in rule making, and disagreements about rules, especially for the father-daughter dyad.

Judgments of the Features of Friendship among Early Adolescent Boys and Girls

Sex differences in children's impressions of the features of friendship were examined in a study of 201 fourth-grade and seventh-grade boys and girls. The subjects read descriptions of hypothetical pairs of boys and hypothetical pairs of girls, and rated each pair on a five-point scale according to the likelihood that they were friends. The characters in each dyad were described as being either similar or not similar to each other, helpful or not helpful to one another, and intimate or not intimate with each other. Both boys and girls made judgements about dyads of each sex, thus making it possible to assess differences between boys' and girls' friendship conceptions in general, and to consider differences in the ratings of the hypothetical boy dyads versus hypothetical girl dyads made by raters of both sexes. An examination of the subjects' ratings revealed (a) differences between the ratings of the similar and nonsimilar pairs, the helpful and nonhelpful pairs, and the intimate and nonintimate pairs, (b) stronger effects for intimacy among older subjects than the younger subjects, (c) stronger effects for intimacy in the ratings of the sentences with girl characters relative to those with boy characters, (d) stronger effects for similarity with the boy dyads than the girl dyads among the older subjects, and (e) interactions among the friendship features. These results are discussed in regard to the relation between social cognition and social behavior, and according to the nature of sex differences in friendship during early adolescence.

Perceived stress and symptom patterns in early adolescents: the role of mediating variables.

The relationship between perceived stress and symptom patterns was investigated in 136 seventh and eighth grade boys and girls. Affective-oriented coping and social support, two variables hypothesized as mediators of this relationship, were examined also. Participants completed the Modified Adolescent Life Change Events Questionnaire, the Jalowiec Coping Scale, the PRQ-A Social Support System, and the Symptom Pattern Scale. As predicted, the positive relationship between perceived stress and symptom patterns decreased when controlling for affective-oriented coping, while it increased when controlling for social support. Implications for nursing practice and further theory development are discussed.

Psychosocial correlates of alcohol use at two age levels during adolescence.

The correlations between self-reported alcohol use by adolescents and peer and parental alcohol use, tolerance of deviance, emotional maladjustment and self-derogation were studied in two independent samples--172 seventh-grade boys, 221 seventh-grade girls, 131 tenth-grade boys and 164 tenth-grade girls in Sample 1, and 166 seventh-grade boys, 149 seventh-grade girls, 120 tenth-grade boys and 129 tenth-grade girls in Sample 2. Regression analyses were performed to identify the relative contribution of each correlate in a prediction formula for alcohol use at the two grade levels and to determine whether the predictors differed at the two grade levels. The results were cross-validated in the two samples and showed that the predictors were similar at the two grade levels, despite the much greater alcohol use by tenth-graders. The major predictors for both grade levels and for both boys and girls were peer and parental alcohol use. Tolerance of deviance contributed to a much lesser degree and emotional maladjustment did not contribute to the prediction equations.

Developmental and Differential Aspects of Mental Rotation in Early Adolescence

A chronometric mental rotation paradigm was applied to examine manipulation of visual imagery in early adolescence in relation to age, sex, mental rotation ability (measured psychometrically), and socioeconomic background. Fifth- and seventh-grade boys and girls from middle and lower socioeconomic backgrounds viewed tachistiscopically letters of the alphabet presented at 0 degrees, 60 degrees, 120 degrees, and 180 degrees of rotation and were asked to judge whether the letter was forward or backward. In one condition, children were given no information about the test letter, and in the other, advance visual information about its identity and orientation was provided. With age, children became more skillful at rotating and were more likely to show evidence of using the advance information as a visual image. There were no sex differences. Socioeconomic differences were more pronounced in the fifth than the seventh grade. Children showing high mental rotation ability were more likely than low-ability children to show evidence of rotating visual stimuli on the chronometric measure. The findings are discussed in terms of adolescent cognitive development.

The Formal Operational Reasoning Test

Summary Educational researchers and psychologists have devoted considerable attention to the measurement of formal operational reasoning abilities. But the lack of suitable paper-and-pencil instruments has limited the quality and extent of assessment possible in regular classrooms and other group settings. The Formal Operational Reasoning Test (FORT) was developed to obviate such problems. Data (N = 300 seventh and eighth grade boys and girls) pertaining to the reliability, content validity, and construct validity of the FORT are reported. It is concluded that the FORT is a reliable and valid measure of formal operational reasoning abilities which is appropriate for use with Ss at or beyond the junior high school level.

Racial Differences in Global Self-Esteem

Summary On the basis of the knowledge of the low convergent validity which exists between self-esteem measures, the present study employed a multitest design to investigate the current state of racial differences in global self-esteem. The relationship between self-esteem and racial evaluation was also addressed. Fewer than 18% of 180 Ss (black and white seventh-grade boys and girls) were consistently classified in global self-esteem across three self-esteem indices. Nevertheless, the data were consistent in refuting the popular notion that blacks are more negative in self-esteem than whites. The association revealed between self-esteem and racial evaluation was not sufficient to justify the common practice of predicting one variable from the other.

IQ, Field Dependence-Independence, and the Development of Formal Operational Thought

Summary This study focused on the influence of field dependence-independence on the development of formal operational thought during early adolescence. The Group Embedded Figures Test and three paper-and-pencil logical reasoning tests involving second-order operations were administered to 450 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade boys and girls. The results showed that the relationships between field dependence-independence and formal operational reasoning abilities were due largely to their common overlap with IQ. The findings are discussed in terms of the acquisition and utilization of formal thought structures.

Effects of Students' Physical Attractiveness and Name Popularity on Student Teachers' Perceptions of Social and Academic Attributes

Summary Student teacher Ss (44 male, 97 female) rated six academic attributes and five social attributes of fictitious seventh-grade boys on the basis of school records. These records included pictures of students varying in attractiveness and first names varying in popularity. The Ss rated all academic attributes prior to rating all social attributes in order to prevent the latter ratings from biasing the former ratings (“halo” effects). Attractive students received significantly higher evaluations than unattractive students on all ratings of social attributes but on none of the ratings of academic attributes. All predicted name popularity effects and all Attractiveness x Name Popularity interactions were nonsignificant. Discrepancies between these results and those of earlier studies might be due to possible “halo” effects in those studies or to the possibility (suggested by earlier research) that attractiveness and name popularity affect the expectations of experienced teachers more than the expectations of student teachers.