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Previous research has demonstrated initiation of alcohol during adolescence has a negative effect on both school attendance and missed instruction due to behavior. Utilizing longitudinal data comprised of primarily Black American youth between ages 11 and 18 (N = 931), both the short-term and long-term effects of alcohol initiation were analyzed using a piecewise growth curve model. Results indicated that alcohol initiation negatively impacted school absences, but this effect was unique and independent of the age at which alcohol was initiated. The number of days of missed instruction due to school violations was also negatively impacted, but the effect was found to be more detrimental to those youth initiating alcohol at a younger age. By age 18, early alcohol initiators had a significantly greater number of days of missed instruction due to school violations, yet did not differ in the number of school absences. Implications of the results are discussed.

While previous research has shown alcohol use to increase developmentally throughout adolescence, the age of alcohol initiation has rarely been incorporated into developmental trajectories. Simultaneous estimation of the effects of early alcohol initiation was made in relation to the recency and frequency of alcohol use utilizing a sample of 1,209 low-income, minority adolescents initiating alcohol between 12 and 18. Significant effects of both age of alcohol initiation and gender were found. Initial alcohol use was higher the later the adolescent initiated alcohol use. Following initiation, trajectories of the recency and frequency of alcohol use for female adolescents increased more rapidly the earlier they initiate alcohol use, while trajectories for male adolescents increased independent of their year of initiation. Modeling age of initiation using piecewise growth models provided more informative results regarding early alcohol initiation effects as compared to traditional longitudinal model.

An extensive body of work shows that parental monitoring reduces the likelihood of risky behaviors among youth, yet little attention has been given to the factors compelling parents to engage in monitoring behaviors. The current study examines the association between non-familial, adolescent relationships (i.e., school connectedness, community connectedness, and peer relationships) and parental monitoring. The data used come from the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS), and from 2006 and 2011, resulting in a longitudinal sample of 3,287 adolescents. Longitudinal growth modeling reveals strong associations between non-familial relationships and parental monitoring, along with gendered effects across time. Implications for parental monitoring and delinquency in a low-income, Black American sample are discussed.

High levels of school connectedness have been shown to be associated with positive outcomes for adolescents (e.g., higher levels of self-worth and higher test scores); however, the impact of school connectedness during early adolescence has not been studied in relation to school-related outcomes during later adolescence. The current study explores the effects of school connectedness in middle school (MS) on high school (HS) outcomes in a sample of Black Americans living in low-income areas of Alabama. Results indicate that higher levels of MS connectedness were significantly related to a higher probability of enrollment in the last 2 years of HS, higher levels of school connectedness in HS, and lower probability of suspensions in HS. High levels of school connectedness in middle school were significantly related to positive outcomes in HS.

This study, undergirded by family systems theory, examined the extent to which parent and family-level factors correlate with adolescent obesity and depressive symptoms. We also considered whether these variables predict unique variance in adolescent obesity and depressive symptoms. The participants were a convenience sample of 77 racially diverse, predominantly early adolescents (aged 12 to 17) and their parents. Results from a series of linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that three of the study factors (parental weight history, family resources and adolescent weight history) significantly contributed to the variance in adolescents' body mass indexes and only one of the study factors (parental depressive symptomatology) significantly contributed to the variance in adolescents' rates of depressive symptomatology. These preliminary findings clarify how parent and family system factors might inform family and school-based intervention and treatment efforts for adolescent health outcomes. Practitioner points Family environment (measured in this study as family conflict and cohesion) should continue to be evaluated as a risk factor for obesity and depressive symptoms in racial and ethnic minority and non-minority families., Family therapists as well as other practitioners (for example, primary care providers) should assess for family conflict when adolescents present with physical and psychological distress and disturbances., Family therapists and other practitioners could be more effective if they established whether adolescent patients and their family members have the resources (for example, knowledge, financial ability and skills) needed to live a healthy lifestyle, as well as the coping strategies for maintaining their physical and psychological health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study analyzed the relationships among adolescent delinquency, self-worth, peer influence, and family cohesion (i.e., maternal and paternal warmth). The longitudinal analysis identified how these relationships develop and change through adolescence. Using data from the Mobile Youth Survey, a 14-year longitudinal study of high-poverty, primarily Black American youths living in Alabama (N =5400), delinquency, self-worth, and peer influence were analyzed in linear growth models. Results from these three linear growth models are presented. Findings include a significant increase in delinquency over time for the adolescents in the study and significantly lower rates of delinquency overall for females than males. Delinquency was also found to have negative relationships to both parental warmth and self-worth, with higher levels leading to decreased delinquency. Peer influence was found to have a gender effect, with males exhibiting steady rates, while females exhibit an increase in peer influence over time. Furthermore, maternal warmth and self-worth are also found to increase the rates of peer influence as well as significantly increasing self-worth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Previous research found adolescents with low self-worth often utilize delinquency as a method of "self-enhancing" as proposed by Kaplan, which suggests the effects of delinquency can be both enhancing and damaging to adolescents' later reports of self-worth. We tested Kaplan's self-enhancing thesis to determine the extent to which different levels of self-worth in early adolescents foretell long-term levels of self-worth associated with delinquency among adolescents placed at-risk. Data from a sample of 982 primarily Black American (95%) adolescents living in high-poverty neighborhoods were analyzed using global and behavioral self-worth measures collected annually between the ages of 12-17, with school delinquency as the self-enhancing mechanism. Gender (45% female, 55% male) and baseline self-worth measures were included in the model. We found empirical support for the positive effects of school delinquency consistent with self-enhancing theories, although with younger female participants only. Specifically, engaging in delinquent behaviors at age 12 had a positive effect on a females' behavioral self-worth. There were, however, differential effects for males. Although delinquency increased self-worth among females in the short-term, long-term effects were negative, as greater school delinquency resulted in lower self-worth at age 17. Additional gender results and implications for findings are discussed., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objective: To explore the mediating effect of loneliness on the relationship between pain interference and depressive symptoms and to determine whether this mechanism is contingent on employment status., Design: Cross-sectional study., Subjects: A total of 876 adult caregivers of adolescents living in extremely impoverished conditions., Analysis: Mediation and moderated mediation analyses using standard path-analytic approaches., Results: The mean age of the sample was 39.0 (SD = 12.8) years and 80.7% ( n = 707) identified as female. Almost half (48.9%, n = 425) of the participants did not report any pain, while 32.5% ( n = 285) reported non-disabling pain, and 19.0% ( n = 166) reported disabling pain. The mean depressive symptoms score was 16.20 (SD = 10.6), and the mean loneliness score was 40.09 (SD = 10.5). Loneliness mediated the effect of both non-disabling and disabling pain on depressive symptoms. However, the indirect effect of pain interference on depressive symptoms through loneliness was more pronounced among participants reporting disabling pain (coefficient, 2.11; Boot 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.25-3.01)) than non-disabling pain (coefficient, 0.99; Boot 95% CI (0.25-1.76)). Moderated mediation results showed that the indirect effect of pain interference on depressive symptoms, via loneliness varied in magnitude as a function of employment status among participants reporting disabling pain but not those reporting non-disabling pain., Conclusion: Loneliness provides an important link in the relationship between depressive symptoms and pain interference. Furthermore, employment status is an important factor to consider, especially among individuals reporting disabling pain with comorbid depressive symptoms.