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Objectives: A large body of research exists on families and their impact on children's developmental outcomes. Fewer studies examine family processes within different family structures and their impact on adolescents. This study extends prior work by evaluating associations between family structure (two biological parents, single-parent—mother only, and blended families with a step parent), family functioning (communication, cohesion and flexibility) and adolescents' logic and reasoning skills and math performance. Methods: A convenience sample of 269 African American adolescents was recruited from a university-based summer enrichment program. The sample was mostly female (63%), with a mean age of 16.34 years. Data were derived from the baseline assessment during which participants completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES IV), a computer-administered test of cognitive skills, and a paper-based math performance test. Results: Families with different structures varied in their family functioning (Wilks' ʌ = 0.942, F(6, 496) = 2.486, p = 0.022, η2 = 0.835). Families differed on the dimensions of cohesion (F(2, 250) = 5.80, p = 0.003, η2 = 0.044), flexibility (F(2, 250) = 5.48, p = 0.005, η2 = 0.042) and communication (F(2, 250) = 5.80, p = 0.003, η2 = 0.047). Different dimensions of family functioning significantly predicted both logic and reasoning skills (F(7, 244) = 2.14, p = 0.040, R2 = 0.06) and math outcomes (F(7, 142) = 3.16, p = 0.004, R2 = 0.14). Conclusions: Families with different household structures differ in their functioning, including in their levels of cohesion, flexibility and communication. Family functioning is more important than family structure in predicting African American adolescents' reasoning skills and math performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women have made progress in entering scientific careers in biology, they remain underrepresented in mathematically intensive fields such as physics. We investigated whether gender differences in mathematics motivation and socialisers' perceptions impacted choices for diverse STEM careers of varying mathematical intensity. Drawing on expectancy-value theory, we tested structural equation models in which adolescents' preferred careers related to each of physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics were predicted by prior mathematical performance, motivations, and mothers' perceptions. We explored potential differences in gendered processes of influence using multigroup models. Samples were 331 Australian adolescents followed from 9th to 11th grade in 1998 and 277 U.S. adolescents from 9th to 12th grade in 2009-10. In both samples female adolescents preferred biological careers more than males did; male adolescents preferred physics-related careers and also mathematical careers in the Australian sample. Mothers' perceptions were important to female and male adolescents' mathematics motivations; gendered motivations were more evident in the Australian sample. Mathematics interest played the strongest role in male adolescents' preferred careers, whereas actual or perceived mathematical achievements were most important for females, demonstrating the impacts of mathematical motivations on preferences for diverse STEM careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affiliation with substance using peers is one of the strongest predictors of adolescent alcohol use. This association is typically interpreted causally: peers who drink incite their friends to drink. This association may be complicated by uncontrolled genetic and environmental confounds because teens with familial predispositions for adolescent substance use may be more likely to select into social networks where drinking is common. We test this alternative hypothesis using a sample of 1,820 twin and sibling pairs, and their same-sex best friends, from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Across all three waves, peer report of substance use did not influence adolescent alcohol use when genetic and shared environmental predispositions for drinking were considered. The association between alcohol use and peer behavior may be a spurious association attributable to a shared genetic liability to drink alcohol and associate with peers who drink alcohol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]