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This study examines the conditions that make adolescents open to their parents’ attempts at political socialization. Based on a reformulation of the perceptual accuracy argument, that parents’ messages are filtered through correct perceptions of these messages by adolescents, the study suggests that adolescents who accurately recognize their parents’ high political sophistication are particularly likely to attend to and be open to their parents’ political communication. This proposition was tested using cluster analysis of a sample of 505 Swedish upper-secondary students and their parents (51% girls; Mage = 16.56, SD = 0.67). The analysis yielded two clusters where adolescents correctly identified (26%) and failed to correctly identify (22%) their parents’ high political sophistication, and three clusters where both parents and adolescents reported low or medium parental political sophistication (10%, 11%, and 32%). In confirmation of the hypothesis, members of the cluster group of adolescents who correctly recognized their parents’ high political sophistication were particularly aware of parents’ political socialization attempts and receptive to parents’ political communication. Moreover, these youth considered their parents’ political views as important and, accordingly, seemed to perceive their parents as political role models.

Since politically interested adolescents do not necessarily present humanistic, environmental and democratic values, this study addresses the hitherto ignored role that how these basic human values play in politically interested adolescents’ political values, attitudes and behaviors. A cluster analysis of 857 Swedish upper-secondary students (50.8% girls, Mage = 16.62, SD = 0.71) identified politically interested adolescents who attached high levels of importance to others’ welfare and politically interested adolescents who attached low levels of importance. They differed on most comparative measures: environmental values, inclusive attitudes towards immigrants, support of democratic principles, trust in social movements, and readiness to step in if something jeopardizes the welfare of others. The conclusion is that the value of attaching high importance to others’ welfare or not transforms youth’s political interest into diverse attitudes and behaviors. The cluster group of politically interested adolescents who attached low importance to others’ welfare largely consisted of males.

Research on ethnic victimization to date has done little to identify the reasons why adolescents victimize their peers due to their ethnic background. To address this limitation, we examined: (1) the extent to which prejudiced attitudes within adolescents’ close and larger social networks determine their engagement in ethnic harassment, and (2) the extent to which classroom ethnic diversity plays a role in any such link. Our sample included 902 Swedish adolescents (Mage = 14.40, SD = .95; 50.3% girls). We found that Swedish adolescents who held negative attitudes toward immigrants or who were surrounded by prejudiced peers were more likely to be involved in ethnic harassment, particularly in classrooms with high ethnic diversity. Adolescents in classrooms with a high anti-immigrant climate were more likely to harass their immigrant peers. These findings suggest that prejudiced beliefs in youth social networks put young people at risk of engaging in ethnic harassment, particularly in ethnically diverse classrooms.

We proposed that having mutually hostile interactions with others is a strong environmental stress factor that, together with diverse psychosocial problems, characterizes adolescents who self-harm. Using cluster analysis, this study examined the naturally occurring patterns of hostility conditions and psychosocial difficulties in a normative sample of 2,029 adolescents (50% boys; M

In the literature, bully-victims report a wider range of adjustment problems than “pure” bullies or victims. This may not be confined to the school context, but might be found in other settings as well. Involvement in mutually hostile interactions across everyday settings may more reflect adolescents' characteristic way of handling conflicts with others. We used data from a longitudinal study of a community sample of adolescents (N = 992). Cluster analyses for specific everyday settings and across settings yielded clusters high on both exposing others and being exposed to hostility. Adolescents in these clusters, and particularly across settings, reported a wider range of externalizing, internalizing, and academic problems, than adolescents in other cluster groups. Longitudinal analyses showed support for bidirectional relationships between mutually hostile conditions and problematic adjustment. We conclude that adolescents' mutual hostility experiences are associated with profoundly problematic adjustment.

The present study aimed to examine whether ethnic harassment was related to violent behaviors among immigrant youth over time and to identify the risk factors. The sample comprised immigrant adolescents living in Sweden (N = 365; M

Different interpersonal experiences are related to delinquency and depressive mood. In many studies, delinquency has been associated with exposing others to hostility, while depressive mood has been associated with being a victim of others' hostility. In this study, we proposed that adolescents with a co-occurrence of high delinquency and depressive mood may be both perpetrators and victims in their relations with parents at home, peers and teachers at school, and other people encountered in leisure time. We studied a normative sample of 1452 mid-adolescents (50.61% boys and 49.38% girls). Cluster analyses found a group with a co-occurrence of high delinquency and high depressive mood. Adolescents in this cluster group were highest on being exposed to hostility, exposing others to hostility, and being involved in mutually hostile interactions with others in different everyday contexts. The findings were especially strong when we examined being a victim and a perpetrator across contexts. The results were similar for boys and girls. We conclude that the co-occurrence of high delinquency and depressive mood among some adolescents is intimately linked to the mutually hostile interactions that these adolescents experience in their everyday interpersonal contexts.

The aim of this special issue is to understand better the many changes in adolescent psychopathology have taken place over the last decades. The factors associated with adjustment problems and psychopathology in adolescence today are not necessarily the same as the factors that predicted problems and psychopathology in the past. But the basic strategies for connecting negative experiences with adolescent psychopathology remain as important today as they were for understanding adolescent psychopathology decades ago. This is well exemplified in the studies included in this Special Issue. What all this studies have in common is that parenting and the family environment are assumed to play a key role in adolescents' adjustment and psychopathology. Finally, given that all papers in this special issue are based on conference presentations at the 15th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA), some more information on that conference in included in this introduction.

Bullying and victimization are manifest in the peer social world, but have origins in the home. Uncertainty surrounds the mechanisms that convey problems between these settings. The present study describes the indirect transmission of hostility and coercion from parents to adolescent children through emotional dysregulation. In this model, derisive parenting – behaviors that demean or belittle children – fosters dysregulated anger, which precipitates peer difficulties. A total of 1409 participants (48% female; M(age)=13.4 years at the outset) were followed across secondary school (Grades 7–9) for three consecutive years. The results indicated that derisive parenting in Grade 7 was associated with increases in adolescent dysregulated anger from Grade 7 to 8, which, in turn, was associated with increases in bullying and victimization from Grade 8 to 9. The findings suggest that parents who are derisive, have children who struggle with emotional regulation and, ultimately, with constructive peer relationships.

Long-term follow-up studies of selective parent training (PT) programs are scarce, particularly in the case of effectiveness trials conducted within regular care settings. This study evaluated the 2-year effects of 4 programs: Comet, Incredible Years, Cope, and Connect and differences in the rate of change among programs were investigated using Latent Growth Modeling (LGM). Participants were parents who had sought help at 30 local service sector units (e.g., child psychiatric clinics and social services centers) for major problems in managing their children's externalizing behavior. Parents of 749 children (63 % boys) with moderate levels of externalizing behavior, aged 3-12, were randomized to one of the 4 PT programs. Assessments included parent-reported measures of child externalizing, hyperactivity and inattention, as well as parenting practices, sense of competence, and parents' stress and depressive symptoms. At 2-year follow-up, there were no differences in any of the child outcomes among the programs. All programs had reduced externalizing behaviors with large effect sizes (d = 1.21 to d = 1.32), and negative parenting practices with moderate to large effect sizes (d = 0.49 to d = 0.83). LGM analyses showed that the 2 behavioral programs, Comet and Incredible Years, produced more rapid reductions in externalizing behavior during the course of the intervention than the non-behavioral program, Connect. Connect, however, was the only program where children continued to improve after the intervention. Overall, the results indicate that the 4 programs were equally effective in a clinical setting, despite differences in their theoretical origin.

We aimed to analyze the impact of several parenting factors on the relationship between psychopathy and antisocial behavior. Nine hundred youths and their mothers reported on parent–youth interactions, and youth self-report measures of psychopathy, delinquency and violent behavior were taken. Multiple regression was used to test for the significance of interactions between parenting and psychopathy scores. In terms of delinquency, linear interactions between psychopathy and the level of conflict with parents and parents' knowledge of their youths' whereabouts/youths' willingness to disclose information were found based on the data reported by the youths. Data reported by mothers indicated a linear interaction between psychopathy and parents' knowledge/youth disclosure, and a quadratic interaction of conflict with parents. For violence, we used logistic regression models to analyze moderation. No interaction effects between psychopahy scores and parenting factors were found. Youths' reports of high conflict with parents and parents' knowledge/youth disclosure showed to have an impact on violence regardless of the level of psychopathic traits. Implications for the prevention and treatment are discussed.

We evaluated the effectiveness of 4 parent-training programs for children with externalizing problems. We tested the effectiveness of 3 behavioral programs (Comet, Cope, and Incredible Years) and 1 nonbehavioral program (Connect) in reducing child behavior problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, in improving positive parenting and parenting competence, and in decreasing negative parenting and parents' stress and depressive symptoms.This national study was designed as a randomized-controlled effectiveness trial (RCT). The treatments were carried out in 30 clinical and community-based practices. Parents of 908 children (ages 3-12 years) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 parent training programs available at each practice, or to a wait-list condition, where parents had sought help from regular services. Before and after treatment, parents rated child behavior problems and parenting strategies.At posttreatment, children whose parents had received interventions showed a strong decrease in child conduct problems and a moderate to strong decrease in ADHD symptoms. About half of parents whose children scored over the 95th percentile on the behavior measures (Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Rating Scale), a clinically meaningful cutoff, reported that their children were no longer above the cutoff after the intervention. Parents showed considerably less negative behaviors toward their children at posttest compared with pretest; they increased in parental competence, and decreased in both stress and depressive symptoms. Overall, the behavioral programs were more effective than the nonbehavioral program.The results support the general efficacy of parent training in a short-term perspective.

The present study was designed to examine best friend influence over alcohol intoxication and truancy as a function of relative perceptions of friendship satisfaction. The participants were 700 adolescents (306 boys, 394 girls) who were involved in same-sex best friendships that were stable from one academic year to the next. Participants completed self-report measures of alcohol intoxication frequency and truancy at 1-year intervals. Each member of each friendship dyad also rated his or her satisfaction with the relationship. At the outset, participants were in secondary school (approximately 13-14 years old) or high school (approximately 16-17 years old). More satisfied friends had greater influence than less satisfied friends over changes in intoxication frequency and truancy. Problem behaviors of less satisfied friends increased over time if the more satisfied friend reported relatively higher, but not relatively lower, initial levels of drinking or truancy. The results support the hypothesis that adolescent friends are not similarly influential. The power to socialize, for better and for worse, rests with the partner who has a more positive perception of the relationship.

The link between sexual maturation, or pubertal timing, in girls and adolescent depressive symptoms is well-documented, but the underlying processes remain unclear. We examined whether sexual harassment, which has previously been linked to both pubertal timing and depressive symptoms, mediates this link, using a two-wave longitudinal study including 454 girls in 7th (M age = 13.42, SD = .53) and 8th grade (M age = 14.42, SD = .55). Pubertal timing was linked to depressive symptoms in both age groups, and predicted an increase in depressive symptoms among the 7th graders. Sexual harassment significantly mediated the link between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms among the 7th, but not the 8th grade girls. Together, our findings suggest that one way to prevent depressive symptoms among early-maturing girls could be to address sexual harassment in preventive intervention in early adolescence.

In this study, we examined subgroups of adolescents based on their levels of psychopathic traits and anxiety. Participants were 914 youths from a community sample, with a mean age of 14.28 (SD ¼ .94) years. We used adolescents’ self-reports of psychopathic traits and their parents’ reports of the adolescent’s anxiety to identify distinct subgroups of youths. Using latent class analysis, we identified five groups that varied in levels of psychopathic traits and anxiety. Two groups were characterized by high levels of psychopathic traits and high or low scores on anxiety. Validation of these subgroups revealed that they differed significantly from each other in theoretically meaningful waysdthe low-anxious subgroup reported higher levels of psychopathic traits, lower levels of impulsivity and hyperactivity, and lower levels of aggression than the high-anxious group. These findings are in line with previous empirical research and provide support that anxiety discriminates between two subgroups of adolescents with psychopathic traits. 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Purpose Although the receipt of peer sexual harassment in schools has been linked to deliberate self-injury, the direction of association over time has not been tested. Two longitudinal studies examined whether receipt of peer sexual harassment within schools predicts engagement in deliberate self-injury or vice versa. Differences between boys and girls were also tested. Methods Surveys were conducted in two countries, Canada and Sweden. Measures of sexual harassment and deliberate self-injury were administered yearly in classrooms. Two waves of data were collected in the Canadian study (N = 161, 59.6% girls, mean age = 13.82 years); three waves of data were collected in Sweden (N = 513, 47% girls, mean age = 13.23 years). Results In the Canadian study, deliberate self-injury predicted subsequent peer sexual harassment; the converse relationship was not significant. No significant gender differences were found. Across the three waves of the Swedish study, peer sexual harassment predicted self-injury from T1 to T2, and self-injury predicted peer sexual harassment from T2 to T3. However, self-injury did not mediate peer sexual harassment at T1 and T3. Tests of gender differences revealed self-injury predicted sexual harassment from T2 to T3 among Swedish girls but not boys. Conclusions Adolescents who deliberately self-injure may be vulnerable to sexual harassment by peers at school. Cultural norms may have a role in whether this process applies primarily to girls or to both genders. Sexual harassment by peers may also increase self-injury, but this is not subsequently linked to increases in receipt of sexual harassment.

Ethnically harassed immigrant youth are at risk for experiencing a wide range of school adjustment problems. However, it is still unclear why and under what conditions experiencing ethnic harassment leads to school adjustment difficulties. To address this limitation in the literature, we examined two important questions. First, we investigated whether self-esteem and/or depressive symptoms would mediate the associations between ethnic harassment and poor school adjustment among immigrant youth. Second, we examined whether immigrant youths' perception of school context would play a buffering role in the pathways between ethnic harassment and school adjustment difficulties. The sample (n = 330; M age = 14.07, SD = .90; 49% girls at T1) was drawn from a longitudinal study in Sweden. The results revealed that experiencing ethnic harassment led to a decrease in immigrant youths' self-esteem over time, and that youths' expectations of academic failure increased. Further, youths' relationships with their teachers and their perceptions of school democracy moderated the mediation processes. Specifically, when youth had poor relationships with their teachers or perceived their school context as less democratic, being exposed to ethnic harassment led to a decrease in their self-esteem. In turn, they reported low school satisfaction and perceived themselves as being unsuccessful in school. Such indirect effects were not observed when youth had high positive relationships with their teachers or perceived their school as offering a democratic environment. These findings highlight the importance of understanding underlying processes and conditions in the examination of the effects of ethnic devaluation experiences in order to reach a more comprehensive understanding of immigrant youths' school adjustment.

Using a longitudinal design, we asked 2 age cohorts of adolescents (15- and 18-year-olds) whether they, during the last year, had experienced events that had increased their civic interest and about details of their experiences. Based on self-determination theory, we predicted that the adolescents who reported having experienced events of this kind had already been more interested and had had more positive feelings about politics much earlier in time, and that this original interest would have increased more over time, than that of other adolescents. Second, we proposed that the adolescents who had encountered events that triggered their civic interest would have been engaged in behaviors that reflected their needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence, much earlier in time, and that, over time, they would have increased these behaviors more than other adolescents. These 2 predictions were largely confirmed. As for the content of the events the adolescents reported, many of them concerned national and international issues experienced as threatening, and that challenged the adolescents' beliefs and morality. Overall, a previous interest in politics and engagement in exploratory behaviors that reflect the adolescents' psychological needs seem to play crucial roles in understanding why adolescents in their everyday life encounter events that trigger their civic interest. Further, the findings show that having had everyday experiences that trigger the adolescents' civic interests are associated with a later increase in political interest more broadly. (PsycINFO Database Record

Teachers are thought to play an important role in fostering youth civic engagement; however, the current literature is limited with regard to providing concrete suggestions as to what teachers can do to promote youth civic engagement and why teachers have an impact on youth. To address these limitations, we simultaneously tested three alternative explanations to identify the critical way(s) in which perceived teachers' behaviors might contribute to youth civic engagement in school. We also investigated the underlying processes that may explain why youth's perceptions of teachers' behaviors matter, by focusing on the mediating roles of young people's feelings about politics and their political efficacy beliefs. The sample included 7th (n = 876, M age = 13.42, SD = .71; 51 % girls) and 10th grade students (n = 857, M age = 16.62, SD = .71; 51 % girls) residing in Sweden. Among the different aspects of perceived teacher behaviors, only an engaged and inspiring teaching style fostered youth's initiations of civic and political discussions in class over time among both early and late adolescents. Moreover, youth's feelings about politics significantly mediated the effect of perceived teachers' behaviors on youth civic engagement in class. Contrary to our expectation, youth's political efficacy did not act as a mediator. The present study sheds light on what teachers can do to promote youth civic and political engagement in a school setting.

A crossed-lagged regression model was tested to investigate relationships between friendship support, bullying involvement, and its consequences during adolescence. Students, 12-16 years (N = 880), were administered questionnaires twice, one year apart. Using structural equation modeling, a model was specified and higher levels of support from friends were related to lower levels of bullying and victimization one year later. Additionally, a bidirectional relationship between victimization and depression was found, and greater property crimes commission was related to higher levels of future bullying. These findings support the 'friendship protection hypothesis' and suggest the quality of support in friendships can protect against bullying victimization and perpetration. Prior research has shown that friendships can protect against victimization; however this is one of the few longitudinal studies to focus on the quality of friendship, rather than other characteristics of the friends. It is suggested that interventions should focus on increasing perceptions of support within existing friendships.

In the present research on parenting and adolescent behavior, there is much focus on reciprocal, bidirectional, and transactional processes, but parenting-style research still adheres to a unidirectional perspective in which parents affect youth behavior but are unaffected by it. In addition, many of the most cited parenting-style studies have used measures of parental behavioral control that are questionable because they include measures of parental knowledge. The goals of this study were to determine whether including knowledge items might have affected results of past studies and to test the unidirectional assumption. Data were from 978 adolescents participating in a longitudinal study. Parenting-style and adolescent adjustment measures at 2 time points were used, with a 2-year interval between time points. A variety of internal and external adjustment measures were used. Results showed that including knowledge items in measures of parental behavioral control elevated links between behavioral control and adjustment. Thus, the results and conclusions of many of the most highly cited studies are likely to have been stronger than if the measures had focused strictly on parental behavior. In addition, adolescent adjustment predicted changes in authoritative and neglectful parenting styles more robustly than these styles predicted changes in adolescent adjustment. Adolescent adjustment also predicted changes in authoritativeness more robustly than authoritativeness predicted changes in adjustment. Thus, parenting style cannot be seen as independent of the adolescent. In summary, both the theoretical premises of parenting-style research and the prior findings should be revisited.

This study tests the hypothesis that adolescents with romantic partners are less similar to their friends on rates of alcohol abuse than adolescents without romantic partners. Participants (662 girls, 574 boys) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years nominated friends and romantic partners, and completed a measure of alcohol abuse. In hierarchical linear models, friends with romantic partners were less similar on rates of alcohol abuse than friends without romantic partners, especially if they were older and less accepted. Follow-up longitudinal analyses were conducted on a subsample (266 boys, 374 girls) of adolescents who reported friendships that were stable across 2 consecutive years. Associations between friend reports of alcohol abuse declined after adolescents became involved in a romantic relationship, to the point at which they became more similar to their romantic partners than to their friends. (PsycINFO Database Record

Girls' early pubertal timing has been linked in many studies to behavioral problems such as delinquency and substance use. The theoretical explanations for these links have often involved the girls' peer relationships, but contexts have also been considered important in some explanations. By integrating two theoretical models, the peer-socialization and the contextual-amplification hypotheses, we propose a contextual framework for explaining the link between early pubertal timing and external problem behavior in girls. We hypothesize that early developing girls engage in unhealthy, dangerous, and risky behavior under contextual conditions that promote access to older friends and opposite-sex relationships. Under other conditions it is less likely. We tested this integrated hypothesis in two studies conducted in Sweden. The first was a cross-sectional study with information about school and free-time friends in a community sample (N = 284). Early pubertal timing was linked to having older, more normbreaking friends outside of school, but not in school, thus suggesting that the school context interferes early-developing girls' selection of older peers. The second study involved both a longitudinal (N = 434) and a cross-sectional sample of girls (N = 634), where we examined a leisure setting that is known to attract delinquent youth. Results showed that early pubertal timing was most strongly linked to delinquency for girls who spent time in this context and were heavily involved with boys and peers. In sum, results from both studies supported our predictions that certain contexts would amplify the peer-socialization effect. Overall, we conclude that the integrated peer-socialization/contextual-amplification model satisfactorily explains the link between pubertal timing and external problem behavior.

The predictive effects of peer victimization and harsh parenting on deliberate self-harm were examined. As derived from the experiential avoidance model, the study also tested whether these links were moderated by individual self-regulation approaches. Data were collected at two points in time from 880 junior high school students (mean age = 13.72) in Sweden. Analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that Peer Victimization was predictive of self-harm. Although Harsh Parenting was not predictive of self-harm, this link was moderated by adolescents' gender. No moderating effect of self-regulation was revealed. The study concludes that the high prevalence of deliberate self-harm recently found in community samples of adolescents cannot be prevented without attending to environmental psychosocial factors.

The current study investigated the mechanisms underlying peer contagion of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Five annual measurements of data were gathered from a large (N = 842) community-based network of adolescents (M = 14.3 years at first measurement). Results showed that, after controlling for selection and deselection of friends on the basis of depressive symptoms, peers' depressive symptoms predicted increases in adolescents' depressive symptoms over time. Failure anticipation mediated effects of peers' depressive symptoms on adolescents' depressive symptoms, particularly for girls. Thus, results suggest that peers' depressive symptoms place adolescents at risk of developing depressive symptoms through increasing in failure anticipation.

Recent research suggests that youths interpret parental control and that this may have implications for how control affects youths' adjustment. In this study, we propose that youths' feelings about being over-controlled by parents and feeling connected to parents are intermediary processes linking parental control and youths' adjustment. We used three years of longitudinal data sampled from 1,022 Swedish youths in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade (47.3% girls; 12-17 years old, M age = 14.28 years, SD = .98) who were mainly Swedish in ethnic origin. We tested models linking parental control (i.e., rules, restriction of freedom, and coldness-rejection) to adjustment (i.e., norm-breaking, depressive symptoms, and self-esteem) through youths feeling over-controlled by and connected to parents. The overall model incorporating youths' feelings showed that restrictions and coldness-rejection were both indirectly linked to increases in norm-breaking and depressive symptoms through increases in youths feeling over-controlled. Parental rules still independently predicted decreases in norm-breaking and in self-esteem, and coldness-rejection predicted increases in norm-breaking. In addition, some paths (e.g., feeling over-controlled to self-esteem) depended on the youths' age, whereas others depended on their gender. These results suggest that when youths' feelings are taken into account, all behavioral control is not the same, and the line between behavioral control and psychological control is blurred. We conclude that it is important to consider youths' feelings of being controlled and suggest that future research focus more on exploring this idea.

There is some evidence that adolescent romantic involvement is associated with delinquent behaviour. One aim of this longitudinal study was to determine whether this holds for romantic relationships deemed important by the participants. A second aim was to test whether this association was stronger for adolescents with pre-existing delinquent behaviour and personality traits of impulsivity and thrill seeking (delinquency propensity). Sex differences also were examined. Participants were 686 7th and 8th grade students who completed three assessments over three years. The results showed that delinquency was associated with earlier romantic relationships among those who were higher in delinquency propensity one year earlier. This association was stronger among girls than boys. Thus, romantic relationships amplified girls' and boys' existing delinquency propensity, but this was strongest among girls.

Contains fulltext : 76836.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Aims To evaluate the effectiveness of two preventive interventions to reduce heavy drinking in first- and second-year high school students. Design and setting Cluster randomized controlled trial using four conditions for comparing two active interventions with a control group from 152 classes of 19 high schools in the Netherlands. Participants A total of 3490 first-year high school students (mean 12.68 years, SD = 0.51) and their parents. Intervention conditions (i) Parent intervention (modelled on the Swedish Orebro Prevention Program) aimed at encouraging parental rule-setting concerning their children's alcohol consumption; (ii) student intervention consisting of four digital lessons based on the principles of the theory of planned behaviour and social cognitive theory; (iii) interventions 1 and 2 combined; and (iv) the regular curriculum as control condition. Main outcome measures Incidence of (heavy) weekly alcohol use and frequency of monthly drinking at 10 and 22 months after baseline measurement. Findings A total of 2937 students were eligible for analyses in this study. At first follow-up, only the combined student-parent intervention showed substantial and statistically significant effects on heavy weekly drinking, weekly drinking and frequency of drinking. At second follow-up these results were replicated, except for the effects of the combined intervention on heavy weekly drinking. These findings were consistent across intention-to-treat and completers-only analyses. Conclusions Results suggest that adolescents as well as their parents should be targeted in order to delay the onset of drinking, preferably prior to onset of weekly drinking.

AIMS: To evaluate a 2.5-year prevention programme working through parents, targeting drinking among 13-16-year-olds. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental using matched controls with a pre-post, intention-to-treat design. SETTING: Schools located in inner city, public housing and small town areas. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 900 pupils entering junior high school and their parents, followed longitudinally. INTERVENTION: Parents received information by mail and during parent meetings in schools urging them to: (i) maintain strict attitudes against youth alcohol use and (ii) encourage their youth's involvement in adult-led, organized activities. MEASUREMENTS: Evaluation of the implementation used measures of parental attitudes against underage drinking and youths' participation in organized activities. Outcomes were youths' drunkenness and delinquency. FINDINGS: The implementation successfully influenced parents' attitudes against underage drinking, but not youth participation in organized activities. At post-test, youths in the intervention group reported less drunkenness and delinquency. Effect sizes were 0.35 for drunkenness and 0.38 for delinquency. Findings were similar for boys and girls and for early starters. Effects were not moderated by community type. CONCLUSIONS: Working via parents proved to be an effective way to reduce underage drinking as well as delinquency. Language: en

Variable and person-oriented analyses were used to explore the associations between personality and three previously untested general iris characteristics: crypts, pigment dots and contraction furrows. Personality data, as measured by the NEO PI-R and ratings of iris characteristics from 428 undergraduate students were collected. Crypts were significantly associated with five approach-related behaviors, i.e., feelings, tendermindedness, warmth, trust and positive emotions, whereas furrows were associated with impulsiveness. These findings suggest that because Pax6 induces tissue deficiencies in both the iris and the left anterior cingulate cortex, Pax6 may influence the extent people engage in approach-related behaviors. The results from using a person-oriented analysis suggested that people with different iris configurations tend to develop along different personality trajectories. Future longitudinal studies, twin-studies and genetic association studies, may benefit from collecting iris data and testing candidate genes for crypts and furrows.

Adolescent participation in structured activities, meaning those with adult leaders, regular meetings, and skill-building activities, is related to good adjustment. Participation in unstructured, unsupervised, peer-oriented activities is related to poor adjustment. Structured activity participation is high in early adolescence and then declines, raising the question of why youths leave structured activities. The authors examined explanations involving parents and peers. They used longitudinal data from 861 youths (ages 13-17 years). Results showed that, compared with youths who stayed in structured activities, those who switched to hanging out on the streets were less likely to have peers in structured activities and had less positive feelings about the home context and more negative interactions with parents. In addition, delinquency predicted switching to hanging out in the streets and never joining structured activities in the first place. The results concerning parents support a theoretical explanation of how parents might unintentionally affect youths' leisure choices. Furthermore, the authors found some indications that positive feelings at home might protect youths who switch from structured activities to hanging out on the streets from increases in delinquency.

There is strong evidence that depression anticipates later drinking problems among adults. These associations have not been consistently documented during adolescence, perhaps because little attention has been given to individual differences in peer relationships, which are the primary setting for adolescent alcohol consumption. This study investigated associations between depressive affect and alcohol misuse as moderated by peer group acceptance.A community sample of 1,048 Swedish youth provided self-reports of depressive symptoms and intoxication frequency at annual intervals across the middle school years (seventh grade: M = 13.21 years old; eighth grade: M = 14.27 years old; ninth grade: M = 15.26 years old). Peer nominations provided a measure of individual acceptance.Growth curve analyses revealed differences in the extent to which initial levels of depressive symptoms predicted the slope of increase in intoxication frequency. Higher levels of depressive symptoms at the outset anticipated sharp increases in intoxication frequency from seventh to ninth grades for low-accepted youth but not for average- or high-accepted youth.poor peer relations and depressive affect are vulnerabilities that set the stage for escalating adolescent alcohol misuse. Across the middle school years, when most youth have their first experiences with alcohol, peer difficulties exacerbated the tendency of depressed youth to drink to excess.

A common view is that self-harmers are individuals who are exposed to or have been exposed to stressors and hostility in everyday settings. A strand of research has also found that self-harmers expose other people to their hostility. Extending these findings, this study examined whether adolescent self-harmers are simultaneously exposed and expose others to hostility in their everyday interpersonal contexts-at home, at school, and during leisure-time. The participants were 1,482 adolescents, ranging from 13 to 16 years of age, who attended different schools in a medium-sized city in central Sweden. The results show that the adolescents involved in mutually hostile relationships in their different interpersonal contexts exhibited higher self-harm than the adolescents who were exposed to others' hostility or exposed other people to their hostility. Also, the more mutually hostile settings the adolescents were involved in, the more self-harm they reported. Overall, our findings suggest not only that self-harmers are exposed to hostility in their different interpersonal contexts, as has been typically assumed, but also that they simultaneously expose others to hostility in these contexts. This has implications for our understanding of young people who harm themselves and also for intervention. Aggr. Behav. 42:522-532, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The aim of this study was to investigate stability and change over 26 years in self-reported adjustment of Swedish teenage girls. Data were collected with the same questionnaire from two school-cohorts in a middle-sized Swedish community: 522 girls attending Grade 8 (approximately at age 15) in 1970, and 529 girls attending Grade 8 in 1996. The first cohort was part of the longitudinal research programme Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA). In most domains, adjustment problems were approximately as common in 1996 as in 1970, with two exceptions: more girls reported problems with self-esteem and antisocial problems in 1996. In the antisocial domain, a polarization process was indicated, with an increase also in the number of girls without adjustment problems. In the relational domains, especially peer relations, there was an increase in positive adjustment. The results are discussed in relation to earlier findings and to social changes during the period.

Using a sample of 1227 Swedish adolescents we examined peer relations across contexts and for multiple peer targets (three "Very Important Persons", VIPs). Specifically, we examined the relations between antisocial behaviour and the types of relationships individuals had with their VIPs (e.g. friend, romantic partner), the contexts in which they had met, and where they spent time (e.g. school, neighbourhood, club). Additionally, we tested an "additive homophily" hypothesis, or the idea that youths would show unique similarities to multiple peers. Results showed that individuals who nominated romantic partners as their first VIPs were the most antisocial (both boys and girls), and individuals who had met and spent time with their first VIPs in the neighbourhood were also the most antisocial. Similar results were found for the antisocial behaviour of the first VIP. Finally, results supported the additive homophily hypothesis, showing that significantly more variance in individual behaviour is explained when including second and third VIPs.

This dissertation explains why behavioral genetic research can be better informed by using characteristics in the human iris as biomarkers for personality, and is divided into five parts. Part I gives an introduction to the classical twin method and an overview of the findings that have led most developmental researchers to recognize that the normal variation of personality depends on a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Part II highlights empirical findings that during the last twenty years have gradually moved genetic and environmental theory and research to evolve toward one another, and also presents the theory of genetics and experience that currently is used to explain how the interplay between genes and the environment works. Part III explains why, from a developmental perspective, it is of interest to identify candidate genes for personality, and gives a brief overview of genes that have been associated with personality. Problems associated with genetic research on the molecular level and how these apply to personality are also highlighted. Part IV examines molecular research on the iris and the brain, which suggests that genes expressed in the iris could be associated with personality, and explains how the use of iris characteristics can increase power to test candidate genes for personality by taking advantage of the self-organizing properties of the nervous system. The empirical foundation for the questions posed in this dissertation and also the empirical results are presented here. Part V discusses the associations found between iris characteristics and personality, and exemplifies how iris characteristics can be used within the theoretical frameworks presented in parts I, II, III and IV. In other words, Part V explains how iris characteristics – in addition to identify as well as test candidate genes for personality – can be used to investigate how people’s experiences in themselves are influenced by genetic factors.

The sick building syndrome (SBS) comprises eye, nose, skin, and throat symptoms, headache and fatigue. Gender, personality aspects, and psychosocial factors at work have lately been at focus in health research. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationships between SBS and personal factors, personality traits, and psychosocial work stress. Two different populations were studied: a cohort of 195 subjects working in suspected “sick buildings” followed 1988-1999, and a random sample of 695 subjects from the Swedish population, 20-65 y. Two personality scales were used; the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) and the Sense of Coherence (SOC). Two stress questionnaires were used: the 3-dimensional demands-control-support model (DCS) and the Assessment of Perceived Psychosocial Work Environment (PPWE). SBS and personal factors were assessed by a postal symptoms questionnaire and a symptom score (SC) was calculated. Personality was assessed by means of two verbal personality scales, the KSP and the SOC. Females in problem buildings had more SBS than men, and females had a lower SOC and more anxiety and aggressivity in the KSP. Females and males in the general working population reported differences in psychosocial work environment. Moreover, the associations between personality traits and SBS, and between DCS and SBS, differed between males and females. Over all, the investigated occupants of suspected sick-buildings were within the normal range for both KSP and SOC norms. However, those with symptoms showed prominent personality vulnerability, especially in anxiety, aggressivity, and lower SOC, compared to those that were not reporting symptoms. Female gender, low age, asthma, and a history of atopy were related to SBS in the general working population. A combination of low social support and either passive, strained, or active work situation, as well as a combination of high social support and active work situation, were associated with SBS. In conclusion, measurements of personality and psychosocial work environment could be of value in future studies on environmental syndromes. Moreover, the demans-control-support model can predict SBS, but in a more complex way than indicated by earlier research.

In this study we made an effort to identify the kinds of strategies adolescents deploy in achievement context in an unselected sample of Swedish adolescents. The participants were 880 14-15-year-old comprehensive school students (399 boys and 481 girls) from a middle-sized town in central Sweden. Six groups of adolescents were identified according to the strategies they deployed. Four of them, i.e. optimistic, defensive pessimistic, self-handicapping and learned helplessness strategies, were similar to those described previously in the literature. The results showed that membership in the functional strategy groups, such as in mastery-oriented and defensive pessimist groups, was associated with well-being, school adjustment and achievement, and low levels of norm-breaking behaviour. By contrast, membership in the dysfunctional, for example self-handicapping and learned helplessness strategy groups, was associated with low levels of well-being, and of school adjustment, and a higher level of norm-breaking behaviour.

Children involved in mutually hostile interactions at home are at risk of experiencing adjustment problems in other everyday life contexts. However, little is known about whether the pattern of mutual hostility at home is reproduced by high-conflict youths in other interpersonal contexts. In this study, we examined whether adolescents involved in mutually hostile interactions with their parents encounter similar mutually hostile interactions in other interpersonal contexts. We used a longitudinal design, following mid-adolescents over 1 year (N = 2,009, 51 % boys, Mage = 14.06, SD = 0.73). The adolescents were 7th and 8th grade students in a mid-sized town in Sweden. The results showed that the youths involved in mutual hostility at home were more likely to be involved in mutual hostility at school and in their free-time. A longitudinal relationship between mutual hostility at home and mutual hostility in other contexts was confirmed. Being involved in mutually hostile interactions at home at Time 1 increased adolescents’ likelihood of getting involved in mutually hostile interactions with peers at school and in free-time at Time 2. Overall, the results point to the important role played by experiencing mutual hostility at home in maladaptive behaviors across everyday settings.

Community cohort studies and meta-analyses of randomized trials have shown a relation between low or lowered cholesterol and death by violence (homicide, suicide, accident); in primates, cholesterol reduction has been linked to increased behavioral acts of aggression (Kaplan J, Manuck S. The effects of fat and cholesterol on aggressive behaviour in monkeys. Psychosom. Med 1990;52:226-7; Kaplan J, Shively C, Fontenot D, Morgan T, Howell S, Manuck S et al. Demonstration of an association among dietary cholesterol, central serotonergic activity, and social behaviour in monkeys. Psychosom. Med 1994;56:479-84.). In this study we test for the first time whether cholesterol level is related to commission of violent crimes against others in a large community cohort.We merged one-time cholesterol measurements on 79,777 subjects enrolled in a health screening project in Varmland, Sweden with subsequent police records for arrests for violent crimes in men and women aged 24-70 at enrollment; and with information on covariates. We performed a nested case control comparison of cholesterol in violent criminals - defined as those with two or more crimes of violence against others - to cholesterol in nonoffenders matched on age, enrollment year, sex, education and alcohol, using variable-ratio matching, with a nonparametric sign test.One hundred individuals met criteria for criminal violence. Low cholesterol (below the median) was strongly associated with criminal violence in unadjusted analysis (Men: risk ratio 1.94, P=0.002; all subjects risk ratio 2.32, P0.001). Age emerged as a strong confounder. Adjusting for covariates using a matching procedure, violent criminals had significantly lower cholesterol than others identical in age, sex, alcohol indices and education, using a nonparametric sign test (P=0.012 all subjects; P=0.035 men).Adjusting for other factors, low cholesterol is associated with increased subsequent criminal violence.

As adolescents spend increasing amounts of time away from home, parental trust should become important. Little is known about how trust develops, however. We propose that parental trust is primarily based on knowledge. In this study, we pitted three types of knowledge of the child against each other in the prediction of parental trust: knowledge of feelings and concerns; of past delinquency; and of daily activities. Results showed that knowledge of daily activities was more important than knowledge of past delinquency. In further analyses, knowledge of daily activities that came from the child's spontaneous disclosure was most closely linked to parental trust. These findings add support to a recent re-interpretation of parental "monitoring" as parental knowledge that mainly comes from spontaneous child disclosure. Additionally, the role of parental trust for dysfunctional family relations was examined and it was found that the relations between the child's delinquency and family dysfunction were mediated by parental trust. Finally, even though there was substantial agreement between parents and children about parental trust in the child, the individual's unique perspectives were important. Family dysfunction from the child's perspective was based on whether they believed that their parents trusted them, and parental perceptions of family dysfunction were based on their own trust in the child.

Item does not contain fulltext We tested whether parents can reduce affiliation with delinquent peers through 3 forms of peer management: soliciting information, monitoring rules, and communicating disapproval of peers. We examined whether peer management interrupted 2 peer processes: selection and influence of delinquent peers. Adolescents’ feelings of being overcontrolled by parents were examined as an additional moderator of delinquent selection and influence. Using network data from a community sample (N = 1,730), we tested whether selection and influence processes varied across early, middle, and late adolescent cohorts. Selection and influence of delinquent peers were evident in all 3 cohorts and did not differ in strength. Parental monitoring rules reduced the selection of delinquent peers in the oldest cohort. A similar effect was found in the early adolescent cohort, but only for adolescents who did not feel overcontrolled by parents. Monitoring rules increased the likelihood of selecting a delinquent friend among those who felt overcontrolled. The effectiveness of communicating disapproval was also mixed: in the middle adolescent network, communicating disapproval increased the likelihood of an adolescent selecting a delinquent friend. Among late adolescents, high levels of communicating disapproval were effective, reducing the influence of delinquent peers for adolescents reporting higher rates of delinquency. For those who reported lower levels of delinquency, high levels of communicating disapproval increased the influence of delinquent peers. The results of this study suggest that the effectiveness of monitoring and peer management depend on the type of behavior, the timing of its use, and whether adolescents feel overcontrolled by parents.

To what extent do adolescents and their friends socialize each others' attitudes toward immigrants? Can friends' positive attitudes toward immigrants counter adolescents' negative attitudes toward immigrants, and do friends' negative attitudes decrease adolescents' positive attitudes? These questions were examined by following a large (N = 1,472) friendship network of adolescents (49.2 % girls; M(age) = 13.31 at first measurement) across three annual measurements. Selection and influence processes regarding tolerance and xenophobia were distinguished with longitudinal social network analyses, controlling for effects of age, gender, and immigrant background. Findings showed that friends' tolerance predicted increases in adolescents' tolerance and friends' xenophobia predicted increases in adolescents' xenophobia. Moreover, friends' tolerance predicted a lower likelihood of adolescents' xenophobia increasing. The current results suggest that interventions should distinguish between tolerance and xenophobia, as these appear to represent two separate dimensions that are each influenced in specific ways by friends' tolerance and xenophobia.

Previous research has shown a consistent positive association between non-suicidal self-injury and depressive symptoms. However, the direction of the effects has not been examined. To understand whether non-suicidal self-injury predicts depressive symptoms or vice versa, we examined the relations between non-suicidal self-injury and depressive symptoms across three waves of self-report data collected 1 year apart from 506 Swedish adolescents (47 % girls; M age = 13.21; SD = .57) who were attending 7th grade at the onset of the study. The results suggest that depressive symptoms predict increases in non-suicidal self-injury 1 year later between the first and second waves of the study. Between the second and third waves of the study depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury were significantly correlated indicating co-occurrence with no direction of effect rather than depressive symptoms predicting non-suicidal self-injury or vice versa. Group comparisons revealed no differences for boys and girls. The findings help clarify the relationships between non-suicidal self-injury and depressive symptoms during middle adolescence.

Item does not contain fulltext Objective: This study examined developmental trends of peer selection and socialization related to friends' alcohol use in early-, middle-, and late-adolescent peer networks, with the primary goal of identifying when these mechanisms emerge, when these mechanisms exert their strongest effects, and when (or if) they decrease in importance. Gender and reciprocity are also tested as moderators of selection and socialization. Method: Cross-sequential study (three age cohorts assessed at three annual measurements) of 950 youth (53% male) initially attending classrooms in Grade 4 (n = 314; M = 10.1 years), Grade 7 (n = 335; M = 13.1 years), and Grade 10 (n = 301; M = 16.2 years). Results: Similarity between friends' drinking behaviors emerged in Grade 6, peaked in Grade 8, and decreased throughout late adolescence. Adolescents in all three age groups selected peers with similar drinking behaviors, with effects being more robust for early-adolescent males and for late-adolescent females. Peers' alcohol use emerged as a significant predictor of middle-adolescent alcohol use and remained a significant predictor of individual drinking behaviors throughout late adolescence. Socialization did not differ as a function of gender or reciprocity. Conclusions: Alcohol-related peer selection was relatively more important than socialization in early-adolescent friendship networks; both mechanisms contributed to explaining similarity between the drinking behaviors of friends in middle and late adolescence. Effects of peer socialization emerged in middle adolescence and remained throughout late adolescence. 10 p.

Peer influence on adolescent delinquency is well established, but little is known about moderators of peer influence. In this study, we examined adolescents' (targets) and their peers' psychopathic personality traits as moderators of peer influence on delinquency in peer networks. We used three separate dimensions of the psychopathic personality: grandiose-manipulative traits, callous-unemotional traits, and impulsive-irresponsible traits.We used a peer network approach with five waves of longitudinal data from 847 adolescents in one community. Peer nominations were not limited to the school context, thus allowing us to capture all potentially important peers. In addition, peers reported on their own delinquency, thus allowing us to avoid problems of false consensus or projection that arise when individuals report on their peers' delinquency. We used simulation investigation for empirical network analyses (SIENA), which is the only program currently available that can be used to study peer influence effects in peer networks of multiple relationships while controlling for selection effects.Targets' and peers' callous-unemotional and grandiose-manipulative traits uniquely moderated peer influence on delinquency. Relative to those with low levels, targets who were high on these traits were less influenced by peers' delinquency, and peers who were high on these traits were more influential on targets' delinquency. Selection effects were found for impulsive-irresponsible traits, but these traits did not moderate peer influence on delinquency.As the first study to look at moderating effects of psychopathic traits on peer influence, this study advances knowledge about peer influence on delinquency and about psychopathic traits in adolescents. In addition, the study contributes to the literature by looking at unique effects of the three dimensions of psychopathy and taking a peer network approach, in which network effects, self-selection, and other selection effects are controlled when examining influence and moderators of influence.

Socially anxious children and adolescents have previously been found to have friends with similarly socially anxious, withdrawn behavioral characteristics. How peers might socialize social anxiety over time has, however, not been thoroughly investigated. We examined this in a sample of 834 youths (339 girls and 495 boys; M=14.29), followed for 3 years. We used the social network analysis software SIENA to analyze the data. The results showed that youths who were socially anxious were less popular and chose fewer friends in the network. They also tended to choose friends who were socially anxious, and over time they influenced each other into becoming more socially anxious--over and above other effects. Finally, girls' social anxiety was more influenced than boys' by their friends' social anxiety levels. The results showed the significance of looking at socially anxious youths' friendships over time and embedded in social networks.

Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and attention problems (HIA) in children and adolescents are stressful for parents. In this study, we used theories of parents’ perceived power and attributions for youths’ behaviors to develop a model to understand parents’ reactions to their youths’ HIA. We followed 706 youths (376 boys and 330 girls, aged 10–12 years at T1) and their parents in a community-based project over 5 years. Measures of youths’ HIA, youths’ unresponsiveness to correction, parents’ feelings of powerlessness, parental monitoring, and parents’ negative behaviors toward their youths, were used. HIA in youths predicted increases in parents’ perceptions that their youths were unresponsive to correction, which in turn prompted parents to feel more powerless over time. Further, parents’ feelings of powerlessness were associated with increases in negative parenting behaviors over time. These results indicate a movement to more negative parenting practices over time as a result of youths’ HIA.

The purpose of this study was to test a process model of youths' information management. Using three waves of longitudinal data collected from 982 youths, we modeled parents' positive and negative reactions to disclosure predicting youths' feelings about their parents, in turn predicting youths' disclosure and secrecy about their daily activities. Gender, age, and psychopathic personality traits were examined as potential moderators. The results showed that parents' negative reactions were associated with increases in youths' feeling controlled and decreases in youths' feeling connected to their parents, which in turn, predicted increased secrecy and decreased disclosure. In contrast, parents' positive reactions predicted increased feeling connected to parents, which in turn predicted increased disclosure. Moreover, these predictive pathways were modified by youths' psychopathic personality traits. Our results are consistent with a transactional model suggesting that how parents react to youths' disclosure affects youths' future decisions to provide their parents with information about their daily activities. The results point to the importance of considering youths' feelings and characteristics.

Selection and socialization have been implicated in friendship homophily, but the relative contributions of each are difficult to measure simultaneously because of the nonindependent nature of the data. To address this problem, the authors applied a multiple-groups longitudinal actor-partner interdependence model (D. A. Kashy & D. A. Kenny, 2000) for distinguishable dyads to 3 consecutive years of intoxication frequency data from a large community-based sample of Swedish youth. Participants, ranging from 12 to 18 years old (M = 14.35, SD = 1.56) at the start of the study, included 902 adolescents (426 girls and 476 boys) with at least one reciprocated friend during at least one time point and 212 adolescents (84 girls and 128 boys) without reciprocated friends at any time. Similarity estimates indicated strong effects for selection and socialization in friends' intoxication frequency. Over time, younger members of these dyads had less stable patterns of intoxication than older members, largely because younger partners changed their drinking behavior to resemble that of older partners.