Search

Anxious and depressive symptoms often co-occur and are associated with difficulties in academic, social, and emotional areas of functioning. The current study identified the factor structure and profiles of symptoms of anxiety and depression among 169 Black early adolescents in sixth through eighth grade (Mage = 12.6 years; 50% female) using confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and latent profile analyses (LPA), respectively. CFAs supported a six-factor model for depressive symptoms (i.e., dysphoria, social problems, externalizing, self-deprecation, biological dysregulation, and school problems) and a four-factor model for anxiety symptoms (i.e., social evaluation, worry, affective response, and physiological symptoms/sleep problems). These factors formed the profiles for the LPA analyses, and results supported a three-profile solution that included: (a) a low-severity group who reported few anxious or depressive symptoms, (b) a group who reported high levels of externalizing behaviors and moderate levels of school and social evaluation problems, and (c) a group who reported high levels of social evaluation problems and physiological/sleep anxiety. The three groups differed significantly in their ratings of anger regulation difficulties (i.e., anger emotion regulation coping, anger inhibition, and anger dysregulated expression) and their perceptions of the quality of school interpersonal relationships (i.e., student-teacher relationships and student-student relationships). These findings add to our knowledge about how patterns of depressive and anxious symptoms present for Black youth during adolescence and have important implications for the conceptualization, treatment, and prevention of anxiety and depression using culturally sensitive approaches. Highlights: The experience and presentation of depressive and anxious symptoms differed for Black youth. Factor structures of depression and anxiety measures were confirmed prior to running latent profile analyses. Three profiles of anxious and depressive symptom dimensions were identified. Profiles differed in youths' ratings of anger regulation difficulties and perceptions of the quality of school interpersonal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, we examined how caregiver prompting of tobacco products (e.g., asking a child to empty an ashtray), caregiver monitoring, and caregiver-adolescent communication were associated with adolescents' tobacco use, intentions to use, and efficacy to refuse using tobacco. Caregiver-adolescent dyads were recruited from a southeastern city in the United States. Approximately 48% of the population in this city is Black. Participants included 101 Black caregivers who smoke and their adolescents (Mage = 14.4 years). Multiple regression analyses (R2 ranged from 0.10 to 0.44 across models) indicated that higher levels of adolescent-reported caregiver prompting were associated with a higher likelihood of adolescent-reported use and intentions to smoke tobacco products in their lifetime. Caregiver monitoring was associated with lower levels of adolescent tobacco use and intentions to use tobacco, and higher levels of tobacco refusal self-efficacy. General caregiver-adolescent communication was associated with greater tobacco refusal self-efficacy. Differences among caregiver prompting behavior by reporter highlight the importance of obtaining both adolescent and caregiver perceptions. These findings illustrate that caregivers may play a critical role in shaping their adolescents' tobacco-related outcomes through adolescent perceptions of their prompting of tobacco products, as well as their overall knowledge or monitoring of adolescent activities. Highlights: Black caregivers who smoke and their adolescent were both assessed. Prompting behavior from caregivers is associated with adolescent smoking. Caregivers that smoke tobacco products may shape their adolescents smoking behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated relationships among parenting stress, parental readiness to change, and child externalizing behaviors in a sample of clinically referred families. Additionally, parenting stress was investigated as a potential moderator of the relationship between parental readiness to change and child externalizing behaviors. Sixty-nine parents of clinically referred children completed measures of parenting stress, readiness to change, and child externalizing behaviors. We found that child externalizing behaviors, specifically hyperactivity/impulsivity and oppositionality, had a significant positive relationship with parental readiness to change and parenting stress. Child conduct disorder symptoms did not significantly relate to parental readiness to change. Parenting stress emerged as a significant moderator of the relationship between child externalizing behaviors and parental readiness to change, such that at low levels of parenting stress, readiness to change increased as level of child externalizing behaviors increased. However, at high levels of parenting stress, parental readiness to change remained high and constant irrespective of level of child externalizing behaviors. The findings from this small pilot study have significant implications for clinicians and researchers. The parents most ready to engage in child mental health services may be those with high levels of parenting stress, regardless of the severity of the child's behaviors. These parents may benefit from learning stress management strategies in addition to receiving intervention services for their children. Researchers should further examine the clinical utility of measuring readiness to change in families of children with behavior problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]