Search

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.

The Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) has been used for decades to identify symptomatology of depression in individuals. Overtime, the factor structure of the scale has been both confirmed and challenged when applied to different population samples. The present study explores the factor structure in population sample consisting of impoverished African American parents (N=1,020), and the data were collected from the Mobile Youth Study (MYS). Two-, four-, and higher-order models were used to identify the best fitting model. The results indicate that the most parsimonious model is a two-factor structure.

Although there is much research on adolescent poverty, research related to youth living in communities characterized by extreme poverty who are also identified as academically gifted is lacking. This study explores the development of hopelessness in these youths, compared with peers not identified as gifted, using data from the Mobile Youth and Poverty Study. Specifically, trajectories of hopelessness as a function of gifted status and gender are explored. Results indicate that boys experience greater feelings of hopelessness than girls, regardless of their gifted status, and students identified as gifted have lower levels of hopelessness than their peers not identified as gifted. These latter differences are particularly pronounced during early adolescence (age 10 years) but decline over time and largely disappear by later adolescence (age 18 years). Results suggest that boys may be particularly vulnerable to declining effects of gifted classification as a protector against hopelessness across age and that disadvantaged students who are identified as gifted may benefit from gifted programs that continue at an intense level through their high school years.

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.

Research abounds on adolescent poverty and on gifted education, but these fields are seldom considered together. This study explores trajectories of aggressive behavior (i.e., weapon carrying) of impoverished, gifted youth. Results indicate that gifted students engage in lower levels of weapon carrying than non-gifted students. Gifted and non-gifted girls' trajectories are parallel across age. However, weapon carrying among gifted and non-gifted boys does not differ during early and late adolescence, but it does during middle adolescence. These differences can perhaps be explained by examining impulsivity and temperament trajectories by gifted status. Impulsivity for boys and quick-temperedness for girls is lower during early and middle adolescence for gifted students than for non-gifted students, but not during later adolescence. Quick-temperedness for boys and impulsivity for girls does not differ by gifted status during early and late adolescence, but it does during middle adolescence. These findings suggest that some characteristics of giftedness are manifest during early adolescence (perhaps even before enrollment in a gifted program). However, other giftedness characteristics appear only during middle adolescence, after students have enrolled in the gifted program. Implications of these findings for how gifted education programs can impact aggression, and ways to optimally structure these programs, are explored.

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.

Within the adolescent risk behavior literature, questions remain about relationships among behaviors in early adolescence, gender, context, and negative social and health outcomes. Additionally, little attention has focused on trajectories of adolescent risk behavior among impoverished African American youth. Using data from the Mobile Youth Survey, a multiple cohort longitudinal study of adolescents living in impoverished neighborhoods, we have reduced gaps in the literature by identifying trajectories of alcohol use for males and females separately as a function of early initiation of alcohol use. Our findings indicate that early initiation of alcohol use predicts escalating use at least through age 17. Results are especially notable for females who begin drinking before age 12: They drink significantly more than any other group at age 12 and their trajectory remains the highest through age 17. Our findings about the escalation of drinking have implications for efforts to improve the lives of impoverished adolescents.

Previous research has demonstrated the effect of family cohesion on adolescent outcomes. However, little attention has been given to the effect of adolescence on the family environment. Family systems theory suggests that as adolescents develop, their development will impact the family environment. The current study examined the impact of adolescent development on family cohesion. Specifically, 4 years of data from the Mobile Youth Survey, a study of adolescents living in low-income neighborhoods in Mobile, Alabama, were analyzed. Survey participants were between the ages 13 and 16 and 97 % of them were Black American. Adolescent development was measured using three dimensions-identity style, self-worth, and hopelessness. Family cohesion was measured along two dimensions: maternal and paternal warmth. Adolescent gender was used as a covariate. The longitudinal models revealed that parents responded differently to identity styles and to levels of self-worth depending upon the adolescent's gender. Our study provides evidence that family cohesion, a key predictor of adolescent behaviors, changes in response to adolescent development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined how self-reported racial/ethnic identification of adolescents living in poverty may be related to significant societal events and seminal public figures. Data from a multiple cohort longitudinal study, conducted in Mobile, Alabama between 1998 and 2011, were used to examine the impact of Barack Obama's nomination and presidency on racial/ethnic identification. The results show that significantly more adolescents changed their self-reported racial/ethnic identification from White or Mixed-Race to Black or Mixed Race after the election than before. These results suggest that a distant public figure can serve as a role model with observable effects for adolescents. [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]