Journal of Adolescent Research

Ethnic identity is an important component of the self-concept and, like other aspects of identity, can be particularly salient during adolescence. Most research on ethnic identity has focused on the unique elements that distinguish particular ethnic groups. However, it is important as well to study and compare ethnic identity and its correlates across groups. This article presents a questionnaire measure of ethnic identity based on the elements of ethnic identity that are common across groups, so that it can be used with all ethnic groups. The questionnaire was administered to 417 high school students and 136 college students from ethnically diverse schools. Reliability, assessed by Cronbach 's alpha, was .81 for the high school sample and .9Ofor the college sample. The relationship of ethnic identity to various demographic variables and to self-esteem was examined. The measure can be used to examine similarities and differences in ethnlic identity and its correlates among youths from different ethnic groups.

This research examined how parent-adolescent communication about initiating sex and condoms influenced the relationship between peer norms and behavior. African American and Hispanic adolescents reported on parent-adolescent discussions about initiating sex and condoms, perceived peer norms about sex and condom use, and their own behavior. Communication about sex and perceived peer norms about sex were each related to sexual behavior, and communication about condoms and peer norms about condoms were related to condom use behavior. For both sex and condom use, the peer norm–behavior relationship was moderated by parental communication: Peer norms were more strongly related to behavior among adolescents who had not discussed sex or condoms with a parent. Communication was also related to teens naming a parent as their best source of information about sex. Results suggest that a lack of communication may cause adolescents to turn to peers and that peers may then influence their behavior.

This longitudinal study used a national probability sample of adolescents to examine whether attachments to the family and school reduced five forms of adolescent deviance: cigarette smoking, alcohol use, marijuana use, delinquency, and violent behavior. The authors assessed whether these factors reduced the overall frequency, prevalence, and intensity of each problem behavior. The study also examined the power of these attachments to reduce deviance among adolescents who were differentiated in terms of gender, ethnicity, and their community’s level of economic deprivation. Overall, adolescent attachments to family and school tended to reduce the overall frequency, prevalence, and intensity of deviant involvement, regardless of community context, gender, or ethnic group. Parental reports of attachment to the adolescent, compared with adolescent reports of connection to the family, were the stronger predictors of lower levels of deviance. Attachment to school predicted lower levels of initiation of deviant behavior but did not predict the intensity of deviance.

Evaluated in this study was the extent to which stress, coping strategies, and social support were associated with depressive symptoms, poor physical health, and substance use in homeless youth. Data were obtained from a stratified random sample of 432 homeless youth recruited.from service sites and street sites in Los Angeles, California. Stres,sful life events were associated positively with symptoms of depression, poor physical health, and substance use. Use of emotion-focused coping strategies increased the risk of symptoms of depression, poor health, and substance-use disorders, whereas use of problem-focused coping strategies decreased the risk of alcohol use disorder and poorhealth. Social support decreased the risk of symptoms of depression and poor health but was not related to the risk of substance use. Results indicate that effective coping skills and social support may counteract the negative efficts of stressful life events on physical and psychological health in homeless youth.

This study investigated the associations among involvement in political violence, family relations, and several measures of adolescent social and psychological functioning in a sample of 7,000 Palestinian families from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Structural equation analysis of youth self-reported survey data revealed that experience in the intifada (as children) predicted increases in antisocial behavior (males and females) and depression (females) 1 to 2 years after the end of the intifada (when adolescents), but was not related to family values, educational values, academic performance, or aggression. Intifada experience was related to increases in parental use of psychological control and conflict with daughters, but was unrelated to parental support, parental monitoring, or conflict with sons. The discussion centers on the role of cultural forces and the psychological meaning of nationalistic conflict in the resilience of children and families to political violence.

The role of parental support, hostile campus racial climate, and sense of belonging to campus in predicting psychological adjustment and drug use was examined in a sample of 319 African American and White college freshmen. No ethnic-group differences were found for mean levels of parental support, racial hostility, belonging to campus, or psychological adjustment. White adolescents reported higher levels of drug and alcohol use than did African American adolescents. Drug use was related to anxiety and depression for White adolescents but not for African American adolescents. For both ethnic groups, higher perceptions of racial hostility were related to higher levels of adjustment problems and binge drinking. Higher levels of parental support were related to lower levels of depression and loneliness for both ethnic groups. Modest support for belonging to campus as a mediator between parental support and hostile racial climate and the outcomes was found, with more evidence for African American adolescents than for White adolescents.

Ethnographic research, including interviews, focus groups, and observations were conducted to explore gendered dimensions of smoking among low level smokers, including the acceptability of smoking in different contexts; reasons for smoking; the monitoring of self and friends’ smoking; and shared smoking as a means of communicating concern and empathy. Important gendered dimensions of smoking were documented. Although males who smoked were described as looking manly, relaxed, and in control, among females, smoking was considered a behavior that made one look slutty and out of control. Young women were found to monitor their own and their friends’ smoking carefully and tended to smoke in groups to mitigate negative perceptions of smoking. Gender-specific tobacco cessation programs are warranted on college campuses.

Based on the importance of during-treatment activities for improving outcomes, relationships between patient background, treatment readiness, and therapeutic engagement were examined in a national sample of adolescents admitted to 20 treatment programs representing three modalities. Patients with higher readiness for treatment at intake subsequently became more therapeutically involved, replicating previous findings on relationships between motivation and engagement in adult samples. One of the most influential background factors associated with higher treatment readiness was patient relationships with family and friends. Interventions that focus on treatment readiness appear to be appropriate strategies for improving treatment engagement.

This article reports on an investigation of adolescent social initiative, a particular form of adolescent social competence. Specifically, the study explored the extent to which variations in this form of social competence can be understood as a function of the history of interpersonal relationships in the lives of adolescents. The sample (N = 750) consisted of two age cohorts (ages 11-13 and 14-17) that were assessed annually for 3 consecutive years (1995-1997) by way of a mailed self-report survey. Findings indicated that positive aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship (support, behavioral control) measured 2 years previous predicted adolescent social initiative directly or indirectly through the quality of interpersonal relationship with best friend, school officials, and community adults measured 1 year previous to the assessment of social initiative and/or through adolescent individual characteristics (self-esteem, antisocial behavior) measured concomitantly with social initiative. Although significant variance in the change in social initiative across the 3-year period was accounted for in both cohorts, a larger set of predictors was associated with social initiative among the younger cohort, suggesting that the social identity of younger adolescents was still dependent on their recent experiences in a variety of social relationships, whereas the parental relationship was the primary predictor for the older cohort.

Few studies have examined the migration and acculturation experiences of Latino youth in a newly emerging Latino community, communities that historically have had low numbers of Latino residents. This study uses in-depth interview data from the Latino Adolescent, Migration, Health, and Adaptation (LAMHA) project, a mixed-methods study, to document the experiences of Latino youth (aged 14-18) growing up in one emerging Latino community in the southeastern region of North Carolina. Using adolescent’s own words and descriptions, this study shows how migration can turn an adolescent’s world upside down, and it discovers the adaptive strategies that Latino immigrant youth use to turn their world right-side-up as they adapt to life in the United States.