Beyond the Laws: Parental Monitoring, Perceived Acceptability of Underage Drinking and Alcohol Use Among Belgian Youth.

Parental monitoring behaviors are negatively associated with adolescent substance use. Yet, the processes explaining these associations are still unclear. The current study examined adolescents' knowledge of minimum legal drinking age laws and their perceived acceptability of underage drinking as potential mediators of the links between parental monitoring behaviors and youth alcohol use. The sample included 1154 Belgian adolescents (Mage = 16.34, SD = 1.33; 71% girls), who were recruited in Wallonia (54.9%) and in Flanders (45.1%). Path analyses revealed that higher parental rule setting, but not solicitation, was related to lower alcohol use. Acceptability of underage drinking mediated this link, but not knowledge of the laws. Results suggest that beyond laws regulating the minimum legal drinking age, alcohol use prevention programs should consider the importance of parental rule setting and youth's perceived acceptability of underage drinking.

Promoting Postsecondary Education in Low-Income Youth: The Moderating Role of Socio-Behavioral and Academic Skills in the Context of a Major Educational Reform.

Governments around the world are pressed to invest in postsecondary education. However, little research exists to document whether large-scale educational reforms aimed at increasing rates of postsecondary attendance benefit youth's developmental outcomes. This study tested whether an educational reform occurring in Québec, Canada, in the 1960s increased educational levels, and whether it benefitted some youth more than others. In the 1970's, 4109 low-income youth (50% females) aged 7-13 years old were recruited at Time 1 from first, fourth, and seventh grade classes (Mage = 10.6, SD = 2.5). Socio-behavioral characteristics and academic skills at Time 1 were examined as predictors of educational attainment at Time 2, three decades later, on 3883 of the same participants. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine the likelihood of youth obtaining a diploma from the newly created, accessible, and affordable colleges ("cégeps"). Low-educated groups (high school dropouts and high school graduates) presented a higher early risk profile than did college graduates. Interactions revealed that social withdrawal protected youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods, helping them graduate from college. Likeability helped academically weaker girls go beyond college and access university, and helped academically competent boys graduate from college. Aggressive behavior decreased the odds of university attendance for academically competent boys. Policies promoting higher education for disadvantaged youth should be supplemented with early interventions integrating academic and socio-behavioral objectives.

How do individual predispositions and family dynamics contribute to academic adjustment through the middle school years? The mediating role of friends' characteristics.

This study examined the mediating effect of friends' characteristics (problem behavior and academic achievement) in the association between students' background (family and individual factors) and later academic adjustment, as operationalized by problem behavior and academic achievement. We recruited 998 participants in three public middle schools and used three annual waves of data collection (Grades 6, 7, and 8). We found that students' own academic achievement and problem behavior are predictors of later adjustment. Friendship choices are identified as a mediation mechanism that contributes to consistent adjustment from the beginning to the end of middle school. Specifically, high-achieving students in Grade 6 tend to associate with high-achieving friends and are unlikely to associate with friends who exhibit problem behavior in Grade 7, which results in continued achievement in Grade 8. Associating with high-achieving friends in Grade 7 also mediated the link between adolescent problem behavior in Grade 6 and academic achievement by Grade 8. Friends' characteristics in Grade 7 did not mediate the effect of any family factor measured in Grade 6. In general, our results suggest friendship selection is central to sustained success throughout the middle school years.

Brief report: A confirmatory approach to the validation of the peer group norm questionnaire.

This study evaluates the internal validity of the "Perception of Peer Group Norms Questionnaire" (PPGNQ), a 17-item measure that assesses middle school students' perceptions of positive and negative norms among their grade mates. The sample consisted of 1073 Grade 6 students. The factorability of the two hypothesized factors was assessed with Exploratory Factor Analysis and a clear two-factor structure emerged. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis this two-factor model evidenced good fit once items of similar wording and subject matter were permitted to correlate. Support was found for metric, strict, scalar, construct and latent means invariance between genders, suggesting that boys and girls perceived items similarly. The results indicate that the PPGNQ may be recommended as a research questionnaire that demonstrates high internal validity and measurement invariance, and can be used to study the influence of the perception of both negative and positive norms on adolescent behavior in school settings.

A randomized, controlled trial of the family check-up model in public secondary schools: Examining links between parent engagement and substance use progressions from early adolescence to adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Substance use in adulthood compromises work, relationships, and health. Prevention strategies in early adolescence are designed to reduce substance use and progressions to problematic use by adulthood. This report examines the long-term effects of offering Family Check-up (FCU) at multiple time points in secondary education on the progression of substance use from age 11 to 23 years. METHOD: Participants (N = 998; 472 females) were randomly assigned individuals to intervention or control in Grade 6 and offered a multilevel intervention that included a classroom-based intervention (universal), the FCU (selected), and tailored family management treatment (indicated). Among intervention families, 23% engaged in the selected and indicated levels during middle school. RESULTS: Intention to treat analyses revealed that randomization to the FCU was associated with reduced growth in marijuana use (p < .05), but not alcohol and tobacco use. We also examined whether engagement in the voluntary FCU services moderated the effect of the intervention on substance use progressions using complier average causal effect (CACE) modeling, and found that engagement in the FCU services predicted reductions in alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use by age 23. In comparing engagers with nonengagers: 70% versus 95% showed signs of alcohol abuse or dependence, 28% versus 61% showed signs of tobacco dependence, and 59% versus 84% showed signs of marijuana abuse or dependence. CONCLUSION: Family interventions that are embedded within public school systems can reach high-risk students and families and prevent progressions from exploration to problematic substance use through early adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record

Translational research on parenting of adolescents: Linking theory to valid observation measures for family centered prevention and treatment.

Parental monitoring and family problem solving are key parenting practices targeted in evidence-based interventions targeting adolescents and families, yet the constructs have yet to be validated across ethnic groups. The study's objective was to promote translational research by evaluating convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the two constructs at age 16-17 years through the use of multiple observation indicators and methods and as a function of ethnic status. Videotaped parent-adolescent family interactions were coded for monitoring and problem solving in a sample of 714 European American (EA; 59.2 %) and African American (AA; 40.8 %) males (53.8 %) and females (46.2 %). Structural equation models established convergent and discriminant validity of parental monitoring and problem solving among parent, youth, and observation measures for AA and EA families. Low levels of parent monitoring was highly predictive of antisocial behavior in EA and in AA youths (p < 0.001) and moderately predicted future drug use (p < 0.001) for both groups at age 18-19. Poorer family problem solving was also moderately predictive of antisocial behavior (p < 0.001 for EA; p < 0.05 for AA) and drug use (p < 0.01 for EA; p < 0.05 for AA) at age 18-19. These findings suggest that interventions targeting parental monitoring and family problem solving can be reliably evaluated through various measurement methods and that such interventions are of value in efforts to prevent and treat problem behavior in adolescence. These family processes are readily observable in videotaped family interaction tasks in both EA and AA families.

Emerging psychopathology moderates upward social mobility: The intergenerational (dis)continuity of socioeconomic status.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is relatively stable across generations, but social policies may create opportunities for upward social mobility among disadvantaged populations during periods of economic growth. With respect to expanded educational opportunities that occurred in Québec (Canada) during the 1960s, we hypothesized that children's social and academic competence would promote upward mobility, whereas aggression and social withdrawal would have the opposite effect. Out of 4,109 children attending low-SES schools in 1976-1978, a representative subsample of 503 participants were followed until midadulthood. Path analyses revealed that parents' SES predicted offspring's SES through associations with offspring's likeability, academic competence, and educational attainment. Interaction effects revealed individual risk factors that moderated children's ability to take advantage of intrafamilial or extrafamilial opportunities that could enhance their educational attainment. Highly aggressive participants and those presenting low academic achievement were unable to gain advantage from having highly educated parents. They reached lower educational attainment than their less aggressive or higher achieving peers who came from a similarly advantaged family background. Growing up with parents occupying low-prestige jobs put withdrawn boys and outgoing girls at risk for low educational attainment. In conclusion, social policies can raise SES across generations, with great benefits for the most disadvantaged segments of the population. However, children presenting with emerging psychopathology or academic weaknesses do not benefit from these policies as much as others, and should receive additional, targeted services.

The Contribution of Adolescent Effortful Control to Early Adult Educational Attainment.

Effortful control has been proposed as a set of neurocognitive competencies that is relevant to self-regulation and educational attainment (Posner & Rothbart, 2007). This study tested the hypothesis that a multiagent report of adolescents' effortful control (age 17) would be predictive of academic persistence and educational attainment (age 23-25), after controlling for other established predictors (family factors, problem behavior, grade point average, and substance use). Participants were 997 students recruited in 6th grade from 3 urban public middle schools (53% males; 42.4% European American; 29.2% African American). Consistent with the hypothesis, the unique association of effortful control with future educational attainment was comparable in strength to that of parental education and students' past grade point average, suggesting that effortful control contributes to this outcome above and beyond well-established predictors. Path coefficients were equivalent across gender and ethnicity (European Americans and African Americans). Effortful control appears to be a core feature of the self-regulatory competencies associated with achievement of educational success in early adulthood. These findings suggest that the promotion of self-regulation in general and effortful control in particular may be an important focus not only for resilience to stress and avoidance of problem behavior, but also for growth in academic competence.

Risk and protection factors in the peer context: how do other children contribute to the psychosocial adjustment of the adolescent?

As children become adolescents, peers assume greater importance in their lives. Peer experiences can either help them thrive or negatively affect their psychosocial adjustment. In this review article definitions for the types of peer experiences are provided followed by an overview of common psychosocial issues encountered by adolescents. Past research that has pointed to risk and protection factors that emerge from peer experiences during adolescence and the role of peer influences in the context of current issues relevant to adolescent education are discussed. Research suggests that friendships with deviant peers, involvement in bullying and the experience of rejection from the overall peer group are related to adjustment problems, whereas friendships with prosocial and academically oriented peers and social acceptance in the peer group are related to healthy development. Friendship quality, popularity among peers, and involvement in friendship cliques cannot be clearly categorized as either positive or negative influences, because they interact with other factors in shaping the development of adolescents. The promotion of social skills and positive youth leadership as an integral part of the student's learning process in school is recommended.

Risk and protection factors in the peer context: how do other children contribute to the psychosocial adjustment of the adolescent? / Fatores de risco e proteção no contexto dos pares: como outras crianças contribuem para o ajuste psicossocial do adolescente?

As children become adolescents, peers assume greater importance in their lives. Peer experiences can either help them thrive or negatively affect their psychosocial adjustment. In this review article definitions for the types of peer experiences are provided followed by an overview of common psychosocial issues encountered by adolescents. Past research that has pointed to risk and protection factors that emerge from peer experiences during adolescence and the role of peer influences in the context of current issues relevant to adolescent education are discussed. Research suggests that friendships with deviant peers, involvement in bullying and the experience of rejection from the overall peer group are related to adjustment problems, whereas friendships with prosocial and academically oriented peers and social acceptance in the peer group are related to healthy development. Friendship quality, popularity among peers, and involvement in friendship cliques cannot be clearly categorized as either positive or negative influences, because they interact with other factors in shaping the development of adolescents. The promotion of social skills and positive youth leadership as an integral part of the student's learning process in school is recommended.

No momento que as crianças se tornam adolescentes, colegas assumem uma importância maior em suas vidas. Experiências com os colegas podem ajudá-los a prosperar ou, ao contrário, prejudicar o seu ajustamento psicossocial. Este artigo de revisão primeiro fornece definições para os tipos de experiências entre pares, em seguida dá uma visão geral das principais questões psicossociais enfrentadas pelos adolescentes e, finalmente, analisa pesquisas anteriores que apontaram risco e fatores de proteção emergentes das experiências entre pares durante a adolescência. A pesquisa sugere que as amizades com pares desviantes, envolvimento em atos de bullying, e a experiência da rejeição do grupo global de pares são relacionados com problemas de adaptação, enquanto amizades com colegas pró-sociais, orientação acadêmica e aceitação social do grupo de pares são relacionadas com um desenvolvimento saudável. Amizade de qualidade, popularidade entre os pares e envolvimento em panelinhas de amizade não podem ser claramente classificados como influências positivas ou negativas, porque interagem com outros fatores na formação do desenvolvimento dos adolescentes.

Monitoring and peer influences as predictors of increases in alcohol use among american Indian youth.

This study investigated the combined influence of parental monitoring, community monitoring, and exposure to substance-using peers on early-onset alcohol use in a sample of American Indian adolescents in three Pacific Northwest tribal communities. We used structural equation modeling, including tests of indirect effects, in the investigation of 281 American Indian youth between ages 8 and 16 years at the time of consent. The effects of parental monitoring and community monitoring, mediated by friends' substance use, were examined in terms of youth alcohol use outcomes. Parental monitoring practices and contagion in peer substance use were proximal predictors of early-onset alcohol use and the mediating effect of friends' substance use was not significant. Community monitoring accounted for unique variance in affiliation with substance-using friends.

Mentoring early-career preventionists: current views from mentors and protégés.

In prevention science, much of the training occurs outside of a formal graduate program and mentorship is invaluable to early-career individuals. A sample of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) membership (N = 97) from a wide range of career levels completed an online questionnaire in spring 2010. Almost 20% identified as mentors, 32% as protégés, and 49% as both a mentor and a protégé. Most mentoring relationships were established in graduate school, but professional organizations such as SPR facilitated nearly one in five mentoring relationships. Qualitative results suggested that participants value their professional organization's support of mentoring and would support initiatives to increase mentoring relationships specifically among SPR members. Although all mentor functions and protégé responsibilities were rated as important, professional support was the highest ranked mentor function and taking initiative the highest ranked protégé responsibility. Additionally, the qualitative results revealed that interpersonal skills and commitment to the mentoring process were seen as key to positive mentoring relationships. We also found that formal documentation of mentoring agreements was rare and a slight preference for a match on gender or ethnicity was observed for protégés from nondominant groups. The discussion includes implications for individuals and implications for promoting high-quality mentoring within professional organizations.

Substance use progression from adolescence to early adulthood: effortful control in the context of friendship influence and early-onset use.

In a sample of 998 ethnically diverse adolescents, a multiagent, multimethod approach to the measurement of adolescent effortful control, adolescent substance use, and friendship influence was used to predict escalations to early-adult tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use by ages 22-23. Structural equation modeling revealed that adolescent substance use and friends' substance use tended to be highly correlated and together were robust predictors of a problematic pattern of usage for all substances in early adulthood. In addition, the adolescent effortful control construct directly predicted progressions to problematic use of tobacco and marijuana, but not for alcohol. In the alcohol model, effortful control interacted with the construct of substance use lifestyle (based on adolescent alcohol use and friends' substance use) when predicting problematic alcohol use in early adulthood. Results held when comparing across genders and across ethnic groups. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing adolescent self-regulation in interventions designed to treat and prevent early-adult substance abuse.

An ecological analysis of the effects of deviant peer clustering on sexual promiscuity, problem behavior, and childbearing from early adolescence to adulthood: an enhancement of the life history framework.

The authors propose that peer relationships should be included in a life history perspective on adolescent problem behavior. Longitudinal analyses were used to examine deviant peer clustering as the mediating link between attenuated family ties, peer marginalization, and social disadvantage in early adolescence and sexual promiscuity in middle adolescence and childbearing by early adulthood. Specifically, 998 youths, along with their families, were assessed at age 11 years and periodically through age 24 years. Structural equation modeling revealed that the peer-enhanced life history model provided a good fit to the longitudinal data, with deviant peer clustering strongly predicting adolescent sexual promiscuity and other correlated problem behaviors. Sexual promiscuity, as expected, also strongly predicted the number of children by ages 22-24 years. Consistent with a life history perspective, family social disadvantage directly predicted deviant peer clustering and number of children in early adulthood, controlling for all other variables in the model. These data suggest that deviant peer clustering is a core dimension of a fast life history strategy, with strong links to sexual activity and childbearing. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the need to integrate an evolutionary-based model of self-organized peer groups in developmental and intervention science.

Middle School Friendships and Academic Achievement in Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Analysis.

Early adolescence is a critical transition period for the maintenance of academic achievement. One factor that school systems often fail to take into account is the influence of friends on academic achievement during middle school. This study investigated the influence of friends' characteristics on change in academic achievement from Grade 6 through 8, and the role of students' own characteristics as moderators of this relationship. The sample included 1,278 participants (698 girls). Linear regressions suggest that students with academically engaged friends may achieve to levels higher than expected in Grade 8. However, when considering the significant, negative influence of friends' problem behavior, the role of friend's school engagement became nonsignificant. Low-achieving girls who had high-achieving friends in Grade 6 had lower academic achievement than expected by Grade 8. In contrast, high-achieving girls seemed to benefit from having high-achieving friends. Implications for theory and prevention efforts targeting young adolescents are discussed.

An ecological approach to promoting early adolescent mental health and social adaptation: family-centered intervention in public middle schools.

This study examined the impact of the Family Check-Up (FCU) and linked intervention services on reducing health-risk behaviors and promoting social adaptation among middle school youth. A total of 593 students and their families were randomly assigned to receive either the intervention or middle school services as usual. Forty-two percent of intervention families engaged in the service and received the FCU. Using complier average causal effect analyses, engagement in the intervention moderated intervention outcomes. Families who engaged in the intervention had youth who reported lower rates of antisocial behavior and substance use over time than did a matched control sample. Results extend previous research indicating that a family-centered approach to supporting youth in the public school setting reduced the growth of antisocial behavior, alcohol use, tobacco use, and marijuana use throughout the middle school years.

Transactional analysis of the reciprocal links between peer experiences and academic achievement from middle childhood to early adolescence.

This study tested a transactional model of reciprocal influences regarding students' peer experiences (peer acceptance, peer rejection, and friends' academic achievement) and students' academic achievement from middle childhood to early adolescence. This longitudinal model was tested on 452 students (198 girls), mostly Caucasian and French speaking, who were assessed yearly from Grades 2 through 7. Structural equation models revealed that, for boys and for girls, higher academic achievement predicted (a) increases in peer acceptance from Grades 2 through 6, (b) decreases in peer rejection from Grades 2 through 4 (through Grade 5 for girls), and (c) increases in friends' achievement from Grades 4 through 7. Also, rejection predicted decreases in academic achievement from Grades 3 through 5. These results suggest that academic achievement is a good predictor of peer group status in middle childhood and that high-achieving students start selecting each other as friends as they enter early adolescence. These data also suggest that peer rejection in childhood may disrupt future academic achievement. Possible mediating mechanisms, as well as peer selection and influences in the context of social development, are discussed.

Cascading peer dynamics underlying the progression from problem behavior to violence in early to late adolescence.

This study examined the peer dynamics linking early adolescent problem behavior, school marginalization, and low academic performance to multiple indices of late adolescent violence (arrests, parent report, and youth report) in an ethnically diverse sample of 998 males and females. A cascade model was proposed in which early adolescent risk factors assessed at age 11 to 12 predict gang involvement at age 13 to 14, which in turn, predicts deviancy training with friends at age 16 to 17, which then predicts violence by age 18 to 19. Each construct in the model was assessed with multiple measures and methods. Structural equation modeling revealed that the cascade model fit the data well, with problem behavior, school marginalization, and low academic performance significantly predicting gang involvement 2 years later. Gang involvement, in turn, predicted deviancy training with a friend, which predicted violence. The best fitting model included an indirect and direct path between early adolescent gang involvement and later violence. These findings suggest the need to carefully consider peer clustering into gangs in efforts to prevent individual and aggregate levels of violence, especially in youths who may be disengaged, marginalized, or academically unsuccessful in the public school context.

Predicting change in early adolescent problem behavior in the middle school years: a mesosystemic perspective on parenting and peer experiences.

The transition into middle school may be a risky period in early adolescence. In particular, friendships, peer status, and parental monitoring during this developmental period can influence the development of problem behavior. This study examined interrelationships among peer and parenting factors that predict changes in problem behavior over the middle school years. A longitudinal sample (580 boys, 698 girls) was assessed in Grades 6 and 8. Peer acceptance, peer rejection, and their interaction predicted increases in problem behavior. Having high-achieving friends predicted less problem behavior. Parental monitoring predicted less problem behavior in general, but also acted as a buffer for students who were most vulnerable to developing problem behavior on the basis of being well liked by some peers, and also disliked by several others. These findings highlight the importance of studying the family-peer mesosystem when considering risk and resilience in early adolescence, and when considering implications for intervention.