Gender and weight concerns in early and middle adolescence: links with well-being and family characteristics.

Studied sex and developmental differences in weight concerns in early and middle adolescence and links between concerns and adolescent well-being and family experiences. Participants were mothers, fathers, and older and younger siblings (Ms = 15 and 12.5 years, respectively) from 197, Caucasian, working-middle class, 2-parent families. Parents rated their gender role attitudes and adolescents rated their weight concerns, well-being, gender role orientations, and physical development. Girls reported more concerns than boys; body mass index (BMI) correlated with weight concerns for all youth. Controlling for BMI and pubertal status, weight concerns were linked to older girls' well-being; with physical characteristics controlled, mothers' gender attitudes explained older girls' weight concerns, and siblings' weight concerns explained those of older and younger girls and boys.

Conditions of sibling support in adolescence.

This study examined the nature and extent of adolescent siblings' supportive roles and the conditions under which siblings provide support to one another about familial and nonfamilial issues. Data were collected from 185 adolescent firstborn (M age = 16 years) and second born (M age = 13 years) sibling pairs. In home interviews, siblings reported on family experiences and psychosocial functioning during the past year. In a series of 7 evening telephone interviews, siblings reported on their shared daily activities. Findings suggested that both older and younger siblings view older siblings as sources of support about nonfamilial issues such as social and scholastic activities and that siblings assume equally supportive roles about familial issues. Further, the results suggested that family background characteristics, sibling relationship qualities, and adolescents' psychosocial functioning were linked to the nature and extent of sibling support.

Parental autonomy granting during adolescence: exploring gender differences in context.

This study investigated the ways in which 2 indicators of parental autonomy granting, adolescents' decision-making input and parental knowledge of adolescents' daily experiences, differed as a function of contextual factors (i.e., parents' gender role attitudes or sibling dyad sex composition) and boys' and girls' personal qualities (i.e., gender, pubertal status, developmental status, or birth order) in a sample of 194 families with firstborn (M = 15.0 years) and second-born (M = 12.5 years) adolescents. Firstborns were granted more autonomy than second borns, especially in families with firstborn girls and second-born boys. Girls in families marked by traditional maternal gender role attitudes were granted fewer autonomy opportunities. Postmenarcheal second-born girls were granted more opportunities for autonomy than were premenarcheal second-born girls, but only in families with less traditional maternal gender role attitudes.

Sibling influences on gender development in middle childhood and early adolescence: a longitudinal study.

The development of gender role qualities (attitudes, personality, leisure activities) from middle childhood to early adolescence was studied to determine whether siblings' gender role qualities predicted those of their sisters and brothers. Participants were 198 firstborn and second-born siblings (Ms = 10 years 9 months and 8 years 3 months, respectively, in Year 1) and their parents. Families were interviewed annually for 3 years. Firstborn siblings' qualities in Year 1 predicted second-born children's qualities in Year 3 when both parent and child qualities in Year 1 were controlled, a pattern consistent with a social learning model of sibling influence. Parental influence was more evident and sibling influence less evident in predicting firstborns' qualities; for firstborns, sibling influences suggested a de-identification process.

Free- time activities in middle childhood: links with adjustment in early adolescence.

This study assessed links between free-time activities in middle childhood (hobbies, sports, toys and games, outdoor play, reading, television viewing, and hanging out) and school grades, conduct, and depression symptoms both concurrently and 2 years later, in early adolescence. It also explored two mechanisms that might underlie activity-adjustment links: whether the social contexts of children's activities mediate these links, child effects explain these connections, or both. Participants were 198 children (M = 10.9 years, SD = .54 years) in Year 1, and their parents. In home interviews in Years 1 and 3 of the study, mothers rated children's conduct problems, children reported on their depression symptoms, and information was collected on school grades from report cards. In seven evening phone interviews, children reported on the time they spent in free-time activities during the day of the call and their companions in each activity. Links were found between the nature of children's free-time activities and their adjustment. The social contexts of free-time activities explained activity-adjustment links to a limited degree; with respect to child effects, evidence also suggested that better adjusted children became more involved in adaptive activities over time.

Adolescents sex-typed friendship experiences: does having a sister versus a brother matter?

This study examines the connections between having a sister versus a brother and coming from a same-sex versus an opposite-sex sibling dyad and the degree of sex-typing in adolescents' friendship experiences, including the qualities of their friendships (i.e., intimacy, control) and their friends' personal attributes (i.e., sex-typed leisure interests, expressive and instrumental personality qualities). Participants were 159 firstborn-secondborn adolescent sibling pairs (M = 14.94 years and M = 12.43 years, respectively) and a close friend of each sibling (N = 636, including siblings and friends). Data were collected during home visits with siblings and telephone interviews with friends of siblings. The results suggested that sisters may learn control tactics from their brothers that they apply in their friendships; boys, however, were less likely to model the emotional intimacy that characterized their sisters' experiences with friends. In addition, coming from an opposite-sex sibling dyad was linked to sex-typing in friends' personal attributes, particularly their masculine leisure interests and instrumental personality qualities. Sisters and brothers may provide unique opportunities to learn about sex-typed relationship experiences in early adolescence, a time when gender segregation in the peer context is pervasive.

Do women's provider-role attitudes moderate the links between work and family?

The authors examined the links between mothers' work qualities and their individual well-being and marital quality, as well as adolescent daughters' and sons' gender-role attitudes, as a function of mothers' provider-role attitudes, in 134 dual-earner families. In home interviews, mothers described their work, provider-role attitudes, family relationships, and mental health; their offspring reported gender-role attitudes. Women's attitudes about breadwinning were coded into main-secondary, coprovider, and ambivalent coprovider groups. Mothers' provider-role attitudes moderated the links between status indicators and mothers' depression, marital conflict, and daughters' gender-role attitudes. For example, depression and marital conflict were negatively related to coprovider mothers' earnings and occupational prestige. The same was not true for main-secondary and ambivalent coprovider mothers. These findings underscore the importance of considering employed women's interpretation of their work roles when exploring work-family links.

Linking parents' work pressure and adolescents' well-being: insights into dynamics in dual-earner families.

This study focused on the connections between mothers' and fathers' work pressure and the psychological adjustment of their older (M = 15 years) and younger (M = 12.5 years) adolescent offspring in a sample of 190 dual-earner families. Structural equation models revealed that the effects of work pressure on adolescent well-being were mediated by parental role overload and parent-adolescent conflict. Work-family linkages were similar for mothers and fathers with one exception: Fathers' work pressure predicted both parents' feelings of role overload, whereas mothers' work pressure predicted only their own overload, not their spouses'. The patterns of association were consistent for older and younger adolescent siblings.

Family context and gender role socialization in middle childhood: comparing girls to boys and sisters to brothers.

We studied the extent of sex-typing across different areas of child functioning (personality, interests, activities) in middle childhood as a function of the traditionality of parents' gender role attitudes and the sex composition of the sibling dyad. Participants included 200 firstborn children (mean = 10.4 years old), their secondborn siblings (mean = 7.7 years old) and their mothers and fathers. Family members were interviewed in their homes about their attitudes and personal characteristics and completed a series of seven evening telephone interviews about their daily activities. We measured children's attitudes, personality characteristics, and interests in sex-typed leisure activities (e.g., sports, handicrafts) as well as time spent in sex-typed leisure activities and household tasks (e.g., washing dishes, home repairs) and with same and opposite sex companions (i.e., parents, peers). Analyses revealed that sex-typing was most evident in children's interests and activities. Further, comparisons of girls versus boys and sisters versus brothers revealed that differences in children's sex-typing as a function of fathers' attitudes and sibling sex constellation were most apparent for children's activities. A notable exception was sex-typed peer involvement; time spent with same versus opposite sex peers was impervious to context effects. Analyses focused on children's sex-typing as a function of mothers' attitudes generally were nonsignificant.

Conditions underlying parents' knowledge about children's daily lives in middle childhood: between- and within-family comparisons.

This study examined the correlates of mothers' and fathers' knowledge about the daily experiences of their firstborn (M = 10.9 years) and secondborn (M = 8.3 years) children in 198 nondivorced, predominantly dual-earner families. Results revealed between- and within-family differences in knowledge as a function of mothers' work involvement, sibship composition (i.e., sex, birth order), children's personal qualities (e.g., temperament), and parents' personal qualities (e.g., education, gender role attitudes). Mothers' knowledge did not vary as a function of how much they worked outside the home, but fathers knew more about their children's activities, whereabouts, and companions when their wives worked longer hours. Parents knew more about their younger than their older offspring. Both mothers and fathers knew more about offspring of the same sex than about opposite-sex children, leading to greater within-family differences in families with mixed-sex siblings. Perhaps because parental involvement and monitoring are more "scripted" for mothers than fathers, fathers' knowledge was more consistently related to their children's characteristics than was mothers.'

Psychosocial factors in nutrition education for hypercholesterolemic children.

The goals were to assess psychosocial effects of labeling children as hypercholesterolemic and to measure changes in child well-being as a function of participation in nutrition education interventions. Older (6-10 years old) and younger (4-6 years old) children with (> 4.55 mmol/l; > 176 mg/dL) and without elevated total cholesterol levels were identified by cholesterol screening. Psychosocial functioning (self-esteem, perceived dietary competence, health beliefs, parental control of eating) was assessed and at-risk children were randomized into a home-based, self-contained nutrition education program (the Parent-Child Autotutorial, or PCAT program), dietary counseling with a registered dietician, or an at-risk control group. At three, six, and twelve months following baseline, children's psychosocial functioning again was assessed; parents also provided data at baseline, three months, and twelve months. Analyses of data from 189 at-risk and 74 not-at-risk children revealed that: (a) Older hypercholesterolemic children reported poorer health beliefs than non-labeled children; (b) Older girls in nutrition education programs reported lower self-esteem than control group girls; (c) Older children's feelings of efficacy at choosing a healthful diet were positively related to their health beliefs and self-esteem; (d) Younger children's reports of parents' dietary control were negatively related to children's feelings of acceptance; and (e) Parents of older children in the PCAT program reported increases over time in children's ability to choose a healthful diet. The quasi-experimental design means that conclusions about negative labeling effects should be drawn cautiously, but the evidence suggests that education interventions can have an impact on child efficacy and potentially child adjustment. Factors associated with adverse reactions to labeling (parental control or feelings of efficacy) should be taken into account in the development of intervention programs for children.

The family context of gender intensification in early adolescence.

This longitudinal study of 144 young adolescents (ages 9-11 at phase 1) examined the hypothesis that boys and girls would experience increased "gender-differential socialization" across a 1-year period in early adolescence, and that such patterns would be stronger in families in which (a) parents maintained a traditional division of labor, and (b) there was a younger sibling of the opposite gender. Longitudinal analyses of 3 aspects of family socialization (adolescents' participation in "feminine" and "masculine" household chores; adolescents' involvement in dyadic activities with mothers and fathers; parental monitoring) revealed that gender intensification was apparent for some aspects of family socialization but not others. In addition, when gender intensification was apparent, it generally emerged in some family contexts but not in others. Only dyadic parent-adolescent involvement was characterized by an overall pattern of gender intensification in which girls became increasingly involved with their mothers and boys with their fathers; this pattern was exacerbated in contexts where adolescents had a younger, opposite-sex sibling.

Congruence between mothers' and fathers' differential treatment of siblings: links with family relations and children's well-being.

We studied patterns of mothers' and fathers' differential treatment of firstborn (average age 10.5 years) and secondborn (average age 8 years) school-age siblings, and we examined the links between parents' differential treatment and children's well-being and dyadic family relationships. Mothers, fathers, and both siblings in 110 families were interviewed in their homes. For each dimension of parental behavior that we assessed (i.e., differential affection and discipline) we created groups of families that reflected mothers' and fathers' levels of differential treatment (e.g., discipline the firstborn more, equal treatment, discipline the secondborn more). Although we detected substantial correspondence between the 2 parents' differential treatment, we found a sizable group of families in which parents' reports were incongruent (i.e., 1 parent reported equal and the other differential treatment). Parental patterns were linked to differences between the siblings' well-being and both sibling and parent-child relationships, with younger siblings exhibiting greater vulnerability to differential treatment. Incongruence in differential warmth was associated with marital distress.

Children's housework and psychosocial functioning: the mediating effects of parents' sex-role behaviors and attitudes.

We examined sex-typed housework of children from dual- and single-earner families and its implications for children's adjustment as a function of congruencies between children's work and parents' sex-role behaviors and attitudes. Participants were 152 firstborn 9-12-year-olds (85 girls, 67 boys) and their parents. All fathers and 50% of mothers were employed. In home interviews parents rated their sex-role attitudes, and children rated their competence, stress, and parent-child relationships. In 7 nightly telephone interviews, children and parents described their household tasks for that day. Analyses revealed sex and earner-status differences in children's and parents' involvement in traditionally feminine and masculine tasks. Correlations between levels of parents' and children's task involvement were significant only in the case of fathers and sons in single-earner families. Regarding the connections between task performance and child adjustment, we found that incongruency between boys' sex-typed tasks and their fathers' sex-role behaviors and attitudes was linked to poorer psychosocial functioning, a pattern that did not hold for girls.

Family life problems, daily caregiving activities, and the psychological well-being of mothers of mentally retarded children.

Problematic situations experienced by mothers of mentally retarded children and those characteristics of retarded children that may influence family life problems were examined. Thirty mothers had a mentally retarded child and 30 had only nonretarded children. Home interviews and follow-up telephone interviews were conducted on seven separate evenings. Comparisons revealed group differences in children's characteristics and in duration of maternal involvement in child-oriented activities. No overall group differences in maternal well-being emerged. Child welfare issues and restrictive time demands were the most intense family problems reported by mothers with retarded children. Ratings of more intense family problems were associated with more time spent with the child and more symptoms of maternal depression.

Sibling relationships of children with autistic, mentally retarded, and nonhandicapped brothers and sisters.

The subjects were 90 children between 6 and 15 years of age, 30 with autistic, 30 with mentally retarded, and 30 with nonhandicapped brothers or sisters. The children were questioned about their sibling relationships in an open-ended interview, and, in the case of children with handicapped siblings, they also responded to questions about particular problems they faced in regard to their brothers or sisters. In addition, mothers filled out a behavior rating scale in which they described the positive and negative aspects of their children's behavior toward the sibling. In general, children and mothers rated the sibling relationships positively. Group comparisons indicated that children with autistic and mentally retarded siblings did not differ on any self-report measures. Children with nonhandicapped siblings reported that their family relations were slightly more cohesive but otherwise did not differ in terms of their self-reports from children with handicapped siblings. Mothers of nonhandicapped children, however, rated the sibling relationships more negatively than did mothers of handicapped children. Further analyses revealed that status variables (age, gender, family size) were not as highly correlated with the quality of sibling relationships with handicapped children as were specific problem areas (e.g., perceptions of parental favoritism, coping ability, concerns about the handicapped child's future).

The effect of the transition to parenthood on the marriage relationship: a longitudinal study.

PIP: A longitudinal study of newlyweds explored the impact of parenthood on marriages. Couples who became parents during the 1st year of marriage were compared with couples who remained childless during the year. The sample for the 3-year longitudinal study from which these data were drawn included 168 couples who married between December 1980 and June 1981. The couples resided in 4 predominantly rural counties in Pennsylvania, were all in their 1st marriages, and were all interviewed about 2 months after the couples' weddings and again about 1 year later. Data concerning the behavioral properties of marriage were gathered by phone interviews; data pertaining to the partners' satisfaction were obtained during face-to-face interviews. The results confirmed earlier research in showing that the transition to parenthood affects companionship and marital role patterns, but no evidence was found to support the idea that parenthood is associated with a decline in the partners' evaluations of one another (love) or their marriage (marital satisfaction). Both the parent and nonparent groups showed significant declines in love and satisfaction. Parents and nonparents not only evaluate their marriage less favorably but they also reduce by about 1/3 the extent to which they say and do things that bring pleasure to one another. Across the 1st year, the overall amount of marital companionship does not change, but it starts to become more incidental to instrumental activity rather than the focus of activity. The overall pattern of results is generally consistent with the idea that marriage change over the 1st year away from having a predominantly recreational character to having a quality more like that of a working partnership. The data indicate the importance of using comparison groups of nonparents in research on the transition to parenthood.^ieng

Men and women as parents: sex role orientations, employment, and parental roles with infants.

Mothers' and fathers' sex role orientations and employment situations were examined in connection with their involvement in child-oriented activities using a longitudinal research design. During interviews that took place within 3 months of their wedding dates, 34 couples completed questionnaires that measured their sex role attitudes, masculinity-femininity, and their skills and role preferences for performing a number of child-oriented activities. Approximately 1 year later, after the couples had become parents, they were interviewed about their employment situations and again about their child-care skills and role preferences for performing certain child-care tasks. During the 2- to 3-week period following the second interview, the couples were telephoned on 9 occasions and asked to report on the household tasks, leisure activities, and child-oriented activities they had performed during the 24-hour period that preceded each call. The findings showed that mothers' sex role attitudes before their infants' births predicted their role preferences after their babies were born, and these two factors, as well as mothers' involvement in the paid labor force, were related to the extent of their involvement in child-oriented activities. Mothers' masculinity and femininity, however, were unrelated to their parenting behavior. In contrast, fathers' work involvement was related only to the extent of their leisure activities with children. In addition, fathers' role preferences for performing child-care tasks and their perceived skill at such tasks (as measured both before and after their children's births) were related to the overall extent and the nature of their involvement in child-oriented activities. Fathers' role preferences were somewhat stable from before to after children's births, and fathers' preferences before their children were born predicted the mothers' preferences afterward. Neither fathers' sex-role attitudes nor their masculinity or femininity, however, predicted their activities with infants.