Protective factors in adolescent health behavior

The role of psychosocial protective factors in adolescent health-enhancing behaviors--healthy diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, good dental hygiene, and seatbelt use--was investigated among 1,493 Hispanic, White, and Black high school students in a large, urban school district. Both proximal (health-related) and distal (conventionality-related) protective factors have significant positive relations with health-enhancing behavior and with the development of health-enhancing behavior. In addition, in cross-sectional analyses, protection was shown to moderate risk. Key proximal protective factors are value on health, perceived effects of health-compromising behavior, and parents who model health behavior. Key distal protective factors are positive orientation to school, friends who model conventional behavior, involvement in prosocial activities, and church attendance. The findings suggest the importance of individual differences on a dimension of conventionality-unconventionality. Strengthening both proximal and distal protective factors may help to promote healthful behaviors in adolescence.     

Sleep schedules and daytime functioning in adolescents

Sleep and waking behaviors change significantly during the adolescent years. The objective of this study was to describe the relation between adolescents' sleep/wake habits, characteristics of students (age, sex, school), and daytime functioning (mood, school performance, and behavior). A Sleep Habits Survey was administered in homeroom classes to 3,120 high school students at 4 public high schools from 3 Rhode Island school districts. Self-reported total sleep times (school and weekend nights) decreased by 40-50 min across ages 13-19, ps < .001. The sleep loss was due to increasingly later bedtimes, whereas rise times were more consistent across ages. Students who described themselves as struggling or failing school (C's, D's/F's) reported that on school nights they obtain about 25 min less sleep and go to bed an average of 40 min later than A and B students, ps < .001. In addition, students with worse grades reported greater weekend delays of sleep schedule than did those with better grades. Furthermore, this study examined a priori defined adequate sleep habit groups versus less than adequate sleep habit groups on their daytime functioning. Students in the short school-night total sleep group (< 6 hr 45 min) and/or large weekend bedtime delay group (> 120 min) reported increased daytime sleepiness, depressive mood, and sleep/wake behavior problems, ps < .05, versus those sleeping longer than 8 hr 15 min with less than 60 min weekend delay. Altogether, most of the adolescents surveyed do not get enough sleep, and their sleep loss interferes with daytime functioning.     

School climate support for behavioral and psychological adjustment: Testing the mediating effect of social competence.

The present study used an ecological framework to examine the relationships among adolescents’ perceptions of school climate, social competence, and behavioral and psychological adjustment in the middle school years. This study improved upon prior studies by using structural equation modeling to investigate the hypothesized mediating effect of social competence and to account for measurement error. The sample included 1,042 participating students from 23 middle schools. Results showed that school mastery goal structure, promotion of autonomy and discussion, and teacher emotional support were negatively related to the levels of adolescents’ deviant behaviors and depression, while performance goal structure was positively related to deviant behaviors and depression. Social competence was a mediator between perceived school climate variables and adolescent adjustment, with the exception of the relationship between mastery goal structure and adjustment variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From adolescence to adulthood: Age-related changes in beliefs about cigarette smoking in a Midwestern community sample.

The current study used a cohort-sequential design to examine age-related changes in health-relevant beliefs from the middle school years through age 37 in a large, midwestern, community sample (N?=?8,556). Results suggest systematic age-related changes such that beliefs in the personalized risks of smoking declined in middle school and then increased, beliefs in generalized health risks increased beginning in the middle school years, and values placed on health as an outcome decreased in the high school years and then increased. These findings suggest that intervention programs must counter declining personalized risk perceptions among middle school students and declining values placed on health among high school age students, (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validation of the Minnesota Scale of Parental Occupations and a modification of the Werner Occupational Rating Scale.

The Minnesota and Warner scales were correlated with material and cultural possession criteria for a sample of 150 urban high school students and 150 rural students. The substantial but not high correlation between the scales and criteria is attributed to the present wide distribution of the criteria possessions in the population, so that they no longer act as adequate socioeconomic differentiators. The Warner scale seems to differentiate more adequately among agricultural occupations than the Minnesota scale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental behaviors and adolescents' achievement goals at the beginning of middle school: Emotional problems as potential mediators.

Recent literature on the determinants of academic motivation has shown that parenting and emotions are central elements in understanding students' achievement goals. The authors of this study set out to examine the predictive relationship between parental behaviors during the last year of elementary school and adolescents' achievement goals at the end of their first year of middle school. Manifestations of anxiety and depression in Grade 6 were examined as explanatory mechanisms for this relationship. A total of 498 early adolescents participated in the study. The results of structural equation modeling analyses demonstrated that parental involvement predicted mastery goals, whereas parental control predicted performance goals among these adolescents. This relationship was mediated by the adolescents' symptoms of anxiety. These results underscore the need for educators and clinicians to consider parental behaviors and emotional problems among elementary school students when seeking to understand the behaviors and learning strategies adopted by these students in middle school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal outcomes of young high-risk adolescents with imaginary companions.

The creation and cultivation of an imaginary companion is considered to be a healthy form of pretend play in early childhood, but there tends to be a less positive view of older children who have them. To test the extent that having an imaginary companion in middle school is associated with positive or negative outcomes, an ethnically diverse sample of 152 middle school children at high risk for developing problem behaviors were interviewed about imaginary companions, coping styles, and problem behaviors. Although having a current imaginary companion (n = 13) was associated with using more positive coping strategies, peer nomination data indicated that these children had low social preference with peers. In addition, our data indicated that these children were perceived by their parents as having more problem behaviors compared with young adolescents who never had imaginary companions (n = 108) or children who had imaginary companions in the past (n = 31). However, a longitudinal follow-up at the end of high school indicated that the children who had imaginary companions in middle school showed greater positive adjustment on a multiple-indicator adjustment construct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-determination and persistence in a real-life setting: Toward a motivational model of high school dropout.

The purpose of this study was to propose and test a motivational model of high school dropout. The model posits that teachers, parents, and the school administration's behaviors toward students influence students' perceptions of competence and autonomy. The less autonomy supportive the social agents' behaviors are, the less positive are students' perceptions of competence and autonomy. In turn, the less positive students' perceptions are, the lower their levels of self-determined school motivation are. Finally, low levels of self-determined motivation lead students to develop intentions to drop out of high school, which are later implemented, leading to actual dropout behavior This model was tested with high school students (N?=?4,537) by means of a prospective design. Results from analyses of variance and a structural equation modeling analysis (with LISREL) were found to support the model for all participants and for each gender separately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

HIV/AIDS risk factors among adolescent students in Puerto Rico, 1994

PURPOSE: Identify several HIV risk behaviors among adolescent students. METHODS: The sample (n = 3,648) was selected using a two-staged stratified cluster sampling design, and weighted to represent all junior high and high school students. RESULTS: About 28.8% of the students reported ever having sexual activity. Less than half of the sexually active (44.5%) used condoms during their last sexual activity; 27.6% used them always. Only 54.7% knew correctly > 75% of the HIV knowledge questions. A HIV risk scale was constructed using five risk factors. About 15.9% of the students did not have any risk factor, 36.2% had one, 47.9% had two or more. Males and high school students had significantly more risk factors. Half of the students will abstain from having sex next year because they don't want to get HIV/AIDS. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to implement effective HIV prevention programs for adolescents in order to change their attitudes and behaviors.     

Using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to compare risk behaviors of Texas High School and college students

This study used the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to assess selected health behaviors of Texas high school and college students. The YRBS was administered during 1993 in paper and pencil form to 6,015 high school students representing 329 classrooms from 78 school districts. A total of 1,408 college students representing 23 college and universities were surveyed by telephone in 1993 using a modified version of YRBS. Texas college students reported a higher percentage who had experienced sexual intercourse (82% versus 55.4%), but Texas high school students reported a younger age of first sexual intercourse. High school students also initiated alcohol consumption at a younger age, although college students were more likely to binge drink (33.5% versus 31%). Regular cigarette use also was higher among college students (25.4% versus 19.3%), but was initiated at a younger age by high school students. Study results indicate that health education programs must begin much earlier than during the high school years. Due to early initiation of negative health behaviors, emphasis must be placed on abstinence and risk-reduction techniques for both populations.     

Academic and social motives and drinking behavior.

This longitudinal study of 1,447 first-time college students tested separate time-varying covariate models of the relations between academic and social motives/behaviors and alcohol use and related problems from senior year of high school through the end of the second year in college. Structural equation models identified small but significant inverse relations between academic motives/behaviors and alcohol use across all time points, with relations of somewhat larger magnitude between academic motives/behaviors and alcohol-related problems across all semesters other than senior year in high school. At all time points, there were much larger positive relations between social motives/behaviors and alcohol use across all semesters, with smaller but significant relations between social motives/behaviors and alcohol-related problems. Multi-group models found considerable consistency in the relations between motives/behaviors and alcohol-related outcomes across gender, race/ethnicity, and family history of alcohol problems, although academic motives/behaviors played a stronger protective role for women, and social motives were a more robust risk factor for Caucasian and Latino students and individuals with a positive family history of alcohol problems. Implications for alcohol prevention efforts among college students are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Between- and within-domain relations of academic motivation among middle and high school students: Self-efficacy, task value, and achievement goals.

The author used confirmatory factor analysis to examine between-domain relations of self-efficacy, task-value, and achievement goal orientations among 424 Korean middle and high school students. All motivational constructs demonstrated strong subject specificity in both age groups. Strengths of between-domains differed substantially by individual constructs. Performance-approach and performance goals were highly correlated across domains, whereas task-value and mastery goals were more distinct across domains. Self-efficacy perceptions were moderately correlated across subjects. High school students' academic motivation was more differentiated than that of middle school students. Within-domain interrelations among these motivation constructs were generally consistent with previous research. More important, consistent patterns of relations were observed in four different academic domains within each age group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-informant agreement for ratings for social skill and problem behavior ratings: An investigation of the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales.

One of the most consistent findings in rating scale research with children and adolescents is the modest agreement among different informants’ ratings. The present study systematically explored patterns of agreement among teachers, parents/caregivers, and students in domains of social skills and problem behaviors using the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales (SSIS–RS; F. M. Gresham & S. N. Elliott, 2008). Two subsamples from the normative sample of the SSIS–RS were used. The first sample of participants consisted of 168 students who had all 3 informants (parent, teacher, and self) complete the SSIS–RS scales, which was necessary to assess agreement across different raters. The second sample consisted of 164 students who had raters in a similar or same role (father–mother, teacher–teacher). The results replicated an extensive literature showing that cross-informant agreements for social skills and problem behaviors are weak to moderate. The current study invoked multitrait–multimethod logic to interpret the correlations among raters derived from different informants and showed that the convergent validity coefficients were consistently stronger than the discriminant validity correlations. Implications for assessment practices and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' brief nonverbal behaviors in defined instructional situations can predict students' evaluations.

Can a few seconds of high school teachers' nonverbal (NV) behavior predict students' ratings of these teachers (SRT)? Yes, but NV-SRT relations varied among various instructional situations. NV behaviors while administering the class and using the board were unrelated to SRT. Positive judgments of NV behavior while disciplining the class and interacting with students were positively related to SRT. NV behaviors in frontal teaching were negatively related to SRT. The most negative NV-SRT relations were found for teachers' differential NV behavior toward high- versus low-achieving students. Teacher differentiality and SRT have rarely been investigated in high school. The structure of SRT seems to differ between high school and college, and students' anger about teachers' differentiality strongly predicted their evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental investigation of social aggression among children.

Social aggression consists of actions directed at damaging another's self-esteem, social status, or both, and includes behaviors such as facial expressions of disdain, cruel gossiping, and the manipulation of friendship patterns. In Study 1, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders completed the Social Behavior Questionnaire; only boys viewed physical aggression as more hurtful than social aggression, and girls rated social aggression as more hurtful than did boys. In the 1st phase of Study 2, girls participated in a laboratory task in which elements of social aggression were elicited and reliably coded. In the 2nd phase of Study 2, another sample of participants (elementary, middle, and high school boys and girls) viewed samples of socially aggressive behaviors from these sessions. Girls rated the aggressor as more angry than boys, and middle school and high school participants viewed the socially aggressive behaviors as indicating more dislike than elementary school children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is authoritative teaching beneficial for all students? A multi-level model of the effects of teaching style on interest and achievement.

This study examined the effects of the two facets of authoritative teaching—high academic press and caring for students—on student interest and achievement in mathematics for middle and high school students (N = 3,602 in 198 classrooms), and whether those effects are moderated by students' ethnicity (Hispanic, Vietnamese, and Caucasian Non-Hispanic). Tested with hierarchical modeling, a trend suggested that the authoritative teaching style predicted higher levels of interest for Hispanic students; however, the trend for caring was approaching significance, which suggests that future research should be conducted to determine whether authoritative and authoritarian teaching styles truly have different effects on interest for this group. Authoritarian teaching (high press and low caring) was positively related to interest for Vietnamese students. Results for Caucasian students did not differ from Hispanic students, but should be interpreted with caution due to small sample size. For all students, authoritarian teaching was positively associated with achievement gains. Results are discussed in terms of the relationships between teaching style and different academic outcomes among particular student groups, as informed by the parenting style and teaching style literatures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk behaviors, self-efficacy, and AIDS prevention among adolescents

This study was conducted to investigate risk behaviors and AIDS-preventive variables in high school adolescents. One hundred fifty-two students in Grades 10 through 12 were administered an AIDS-related behavior questionnaire and the Attitudes Toward AIDS Scale-High School Version (ATAS-HS; Goh, 1992). The results indicated that use of alcohol was far more common than other risk behaviors among the respondents. Rates of sexual intercourse and intravenous drug use were significantly lower than those reported in other research. Self-efficacy was significantly related to AIDS-preventive behavioral intentions, perceived knowledge, and measured knowledge about AIDS. Because the AIDS-preventive variables functioned differently in their relationships to sexual practices, the correlations suggest a pattern of co-occurrence between specific behavior intentions and actual AIDS-preventive behaviors (i.e., sexual experience, use of condoms). In addition, significant gender and grade differences were found on selected risk behaviors and AIDS-preventive variables.     

The Healthy for Life project: sexual risk behavior outcomes

Sexual risk behavior outcome data from the Healthy for Life (HFL) project is presented. Using a social influences model, the intervention was designed to positively affect the health behaviors of middle school students in five related areas: alcohol use, tobacco use, marijuana use, nutrition, and sexuality. The in-school program was supplemented by parent, community and peer components. The research used self-report data on an initial sample of 2,483 middle school students followed from Grade 6 to Grade 10. Twenty-one schools were assigned to three conditions--age appropriate (program taught in Grades 6, 7, and 8), intensive (program taught in Grade 7) and control--using blocked randomization. Attrition was 20% (by Year 4) and 33% (by Year 5). By ninth grade the lifetime intercourse rate among both groups of HFL subjects was significantly higher than for controls (controlling for baseline substance use risk and involvement with the opposite sex), but reported past month intercourse rates and condom use did not differ. At the tenth grade follow-up, the age appropriate subjects reported higher adjusted rates of lifetime and past month intercourse than did the controls. Intensive subjects perceived significantly lower normative rates of intercourse than controls at ninth grade follow-up, but age appropriate subjects perceived significantly higher norms at tenth grade. Our expectation that this approach would be effective in reducing adolescent sexual risk behavior has not been supported. The influence of social and community norms and contextual factors has a far greater influence on the behavior of students (even 6 years later) than this school-based social influences program targeting only one grade cohort.     

Perceptions of the school social context across the transition to middle school: Heightened sensitivity among Latino students?

The current study was designed to examine the ways in which perceived behavioral norms among grade mates and school social climate vary across the transition to middle school. The main goals of the study were to test whether Latino students may be more sensitive to the school social climate than White students and whether perceived behavioral norms might help explain this association. Cross-sectional analyses comparing Latino and White students (N = 383) revealed that perceptions of school social climate and behavioral norms became more negative across the middle school transition. Multiple regression analysis showed that school climate perceptions predicted self-reported academic compliance and rule breaking only for Latino students. Mediational analysis revealed that the association between perceived climate and self-reported rule breaking was partially accounted for by perceptions of behavioral norms for rule breaking only among Latino students. Taken together, the results suggest that compared with White students, Latino students are more sensitive to school social climate as it relates to their school conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)