Laursen, Brett

Adverse parenting practices have adverse effects on child outcomes, ranging from
lower academic success (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987) to
delinquency behavior (Steinberg, Fletcher & Darling, 1994) to adjustment difficulties
(Shumow & Lomax, 2009). There is considerable evidence linking poor parenting
practices to increases in adolescent adjustment symptoms (e.g. Barnes, Reifman, Farrell,
& Dintcheff, 2000). It is likely that there is an explanatory mechanism driving this
relationship. The current study tests the hypotheses that associations between adverse
parenting behaviors are both directly associated with adjustment problems, and indirectly
associated with maladjustment via changes in self-views.
A staggered cohort longitudinal design was employed that included a total of 453
(215 boys, 238 girls) 9th graders and 464 (231 boys, 233 girls) 10th graders at the first
assessment in spring, 2013. At the onset of the study, adolescents completed scales
describing parental monitoring (Small & Kerns, 1993), parental psychological control (Barber, 1996), and parental connectedness (Arnold, Nott, & Meinhold, 2012).
Adolescents also described indices of self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965), self-efficacy
(Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995), and adjustment behaviors (Achenbach & Rescorla,
2001).
Results from the direct effects models revealed parenting practices have a direct
effect on adolescent adjustment. Mediation models revealed indirect links between
parenting practices and adolescent adjustment via self-esteem. Greater parental
psychological control and less parental connectedness was linked to decreases in selfesteem
one year later, and lower levels of self-esteem were in turn, associated with
increases in adolescent adjustment problems.
This study provides insight on the impact that parenting practices have on
adolescents both directly and indirectly. Parents should understand that even though
adolescents are seeking autonomy and separation, practicing attentive and meaningful
parenting is just as important during adolescence as it is during any other periods of
development.

Friendships are important for adolescent adjustment and development; however, adolescent
friendships are fleeting. Friend dissimilarity and undesirable individual attributes have been
hypothesized to predict friendship dissolution. The present study tests each as predictors of adolescent
friendship dissolution. A sample of 410 U.S. adolescents participated in a total of 573 reciprocated
friendships originating in the 7th grade. These friendships were followed annually from 8th-12th grade
to determine when each friendship dissolved. In the 7th grade, participants completed a peernomination
inventory, and teachers completed a survey of each participant’s school competence.
Discrete-time survival analyses used 7th grade friend dissimilarity and individual characteristics of sex,
age, ethnicity, number of friends, peer acceptance, peer rejection, leadership, physical aggression,
relational aggression, peer victimization, and school competence as predictors of the occurrence and
timing of friendship dissolution. Friendships originating in the 7th grade were at greatest risk for
dissolution during the first year. Only 1 percent of friendships that started in the 7th grade lasted 5
years. Friend dissimilarity on sex, peer acceptance, physical aggression, and school competence
predicted friendship dissolution. At each grade, the odds of friendship dissolution were higher for
friends dissimilar on these characteristics. Individual characteristics failed to predict friendship
dissolution. The findings suggest compatibility is a function of similarity between friends rather
than the presence or absence of a specific individual trait. Adolescents seeking friendships with
individuals dissimilar from them on school-related characteristics risk suffering the downside of
dissimilarity, namely rapid friendship dissolution.

Strong evidence links positive and negative features of adolescent friendship to
adjustment outcomes. However, the majority of these studies adopt a variable-oriented
approach, which can obscure differences between subgroups. This study used a
person-oriented approach to examine the patterns of friendship quality and their
association with adolescent adjustment outcomes. To this end , both members of 88
stable friendships reported on the quality of their relationship and target adolescents
reported on their adjustment (behavior problems, friendship competence, scholastic
competence, behavioral conduct, global self-worth, and school grades) at both Grade 6
and Grade 7. K-means cluster analyses identified three distinct patterns in friendship
quality at both Grade 6 and Grade 7: /ow positivity, high negativity, and high quality.
These groups exhibited structural stability. The high negativity group and the high
quality group both exhibited interindividual stability. Person-oriented analyses indicated
adolescents in the high quality group tended to have the best adjustment outcomes,
whereas adolescents in the high negativity group tended to have the worst adjustment
outcomes. Additionally, person-oriented analyses indicated that adolescents whose friendships increased in quality also tended to report increased friendship competence.
Adolescents whose friendships decreased in quality tended to report decreased global
self-worth . Supplemental variable-oriented analyses generally complemented the
findings of the person-oriented analyses. Overall, these findings suggest that many
adolescents have enduring friendships that are less than ideal. Moreover, different low
quality friendships have different associations with adjustment. These findings also
suggest that friendships may not have pervasive influence on adjustment outcomes.
Specifically, friendship quality appears to be strongly associated with behavior
problems, friendship competence, and self-esteem.

As adolescents transition to middle school, math confidence and performance
declines (Eccles et al., 1993; Lee, Statuto, & Kadar-Voivodas, 1983). These declines are
typically attributed to social and maturational changes (Eccles, Lord, & Midgley, 1991;
Simmons & Blyth, 1987). In this dissertation, I explore the hypothesis that low parent
support for schoolwork is also responsible.
Latino-American adolescents are especially at risk for math difficulties.
Maintaining adolescents’ engagement and performance in math are important goals for
mothers because high levels of both are requisites for many professional careers. This
dissertation will focus on Latino-American families to determine if mothers’ homework
involvement is associated with changes in children’s math-related outcomes across the
transition to secondary school. Parental involvement in math homework is assumed to mitigate declines in math
performance during this transition. Cognitive models suggest that involved parents utilize
scaffolding (Rogoff & Gardner, 1984) and instruction to ensure math achievement
(Pomerantz & Moorman, 2010). Motivational models suggest that involved parents foster
math engagement by bolstering child confidence, modeling management strategies, and
promoting values that encourage children to work hard (Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994;
Simpkins, Fredricks, & Eccles, 2015). However, empirical evidence in support of the
importance of parents in math achievement is limited. While positive forms of
involvement co-occur with better math outcomes (Bhanot & Jovanovic, 2005; Rice et al.,
2013), no studies have examined such associations longitudinally. Children who are
uninterested in math may be more susceptible to the effects of parental homework
involvement because they lack internal motivation for mastery that underlies performance
in other children.
The present study examines the extent to which Latina-American mothers’
involvement in math homework is effective in preventing declines in child math-related
outcomes (i.e., perceptions of math ability, etc) during the transition to middle school.
Child math interest was postulated to moderate this association. Results indicated that
low maternal homework involvement predicts worsening child math-related outcomes,
but only for children who were intrinsically uninterested in math.
The findings hold important implications for parents, who must work to ensure
that they remain engaged in their children’s activities, especially if children appear
uninterested in math.

Adolescence is a period of significant changes in relationships with mothers,
specifically parent-adolescent conflict increases from childhood into adulthood. The
present investigation is designed to address these differences by using adolescent and
mother reports of conflict and relationship quality. The investigation addresses four
research questions. (1) Do characteristics of conflict with mothers differ for adolescents
with and without clinical problems? (2) Do perceptions of mother-child relationship
quality differ for adolescents with and without clinical problems? (3) Do family
characteristics moderate differences between clinical and nonclinical youth in motherchild
of conflict? (4) Do family characteristics moderate differences between clinical and
nonclinical youth in mother-child relationship quality? The results demonstrated that the
clinical group reported more conflicts, greater affect, and less post-conflict interaction
than those of the nonclinical group. The clinical group reported higher negativity than the nonclinical group. In addition, levels of positivity were higher for the nonclinical
group than for the clinical group.

This study of 91 dyads investigated concurrent and prospective bidirectional
associations between friendship quality and psychosocial adjustment in young
adolescents, using multiple-group structural equation modeling to detect gender
differences. Friend reports ofboth positive (social support) and negative features of
friendship, self-reports of two adjustment variables (internalizing problems and
externalizing problems), and self-reports of three dimensions of self-esteem (global selfworth,
behavioral conduct esteem, and close friendship esteem) were examined at two
time periods approximately one year apart. Principal findings were that grade 6
friendship negativity was inversely associated with grade 7 self-esteem, and positively
associated with grade 7 internalizing problems and externalizing problems, in the boys'
model but not girls' model. Chi-square difference testing confirmed a significant
difference between these paths in the girls' model and these paths in the boys' model.

The current study examined the homophilic processes of selection and
socialization in same-sex adolescent friendships across a 3-year period. The
framework of the actor-partner interdependence model for distinguishable dyads was
the main analytic technique, an improvement over previous analysis methods which
often did not allow for simultaneous exploration of selection and socialization.
Within the friendships, adolescents were distinguished based on their general peer
acceptance levels, and similarity was assessed for three behaviors: deviant behavior,
depression, and achievement motivation. Results showed evidence of both selection
and socialization for deviant behavior and achievement motivation, but not for
depression. Furthermore, partner influence paths suggested that more accepted
friends typically exerted more influence on less accepted friends. Gender also
moderated results, with girls tending to have stronger effects than boys.

In this short- term longitudinal study (N=428), the unique predictive association
between the positive peer nominated characteristic of being fun and peer status (peer
preference and popularity) was assessed in a sample of fourth through sixth grade
students. Concurrent hierarchical regression analyses and longitudinal structural equation
modeling analyses found that peer nominated fun positively predicted preference and
popularity, after accounting for the contribution of predictors potentially confounded with
being fun, such as prosocial behavior, academic achievement, relational aggression, and
physical aggression. The longitudinal association between fun and preference was
qualified by grade in school, such that being fun predicted increases in preference for
younger children but not for older children. There were bidirectional associations
between peer status and fun; fun predicted increases in peer preference and popularity,
but peer preference and popularity also predicted later increases in fun. The findings
point to the need to expand existing conceptualizations of the antecedents of peer status beyond known predictors and to examine the developmental shifts in the landscape of
children’s peer interactions that make certain characteristics more desirable at different
ages.

As children enter adolescence, social status within the peer hierarchy gains
importance. Variable-oriented research has linked adolescent popularity with both
positive and negative adjustment outcomes. Popularity may be better understood with
reference to types or subgroups of similar individuals, identified through person-oriented
approaches. Resource Control Theory (RCT: Hawley, 1999) posits three distinct types of
popular adolescents: coercive, prosocial, and bistrategic. The existence and adjustment
correlates of the prosocial and coercive groups have been well-established, but little
evidence supports the existence of a bistrategic popular group of adolescents, and even
less is known about their adjustment correlates. The present study aims to confirm the
existence of the popularity groups hypothesized by RCT and to identify group differences
in social adjustment and problem behaviors.
A sample of 568 adolescents (n = 288 girls, 280 boys; M age = 12.50) completed
peer nomination procedures and self-report questionnaires in the Fall and Spring of the
7th and 8th grades. Longitudinal latent profile analyses classified adolescents into profile groups on the basis of initial physical aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial
behavior, and four time points of popularity spanning the 7th and 8th grades. Repeated
measures ANOVAs examined profile group differences in social adjustment (peer
acceptance, peer rejection, physical victimization, relational victimization, and preference
for solitude) and problem behaviors (disruptiveness and delinquency) across the 7th and
8th grades.
Results indicate that adolescents fall into one of four distinct groups: aggressive
popular, prosocial popular, bistrategic popular, and average. Bistrategic popular
adolescents evinced positive social adjustment, exhibiting the highest levels of popularity
and peer acceptance and the lowest levels of peer rejection, victimization, and preference
for solitude. Despite their social skill advantages, bistrategic popular adolescents were
also at risk for problem behaviors. Bistrategic popular adolescents scored above average
on problem behaviors, including physical and relational aggression, disruptiveness, and
delinquency. Bistrategic popular adolescents successfully navigate the social world in a
manner that both offers hope for positive long-term adjustment and concern for the same.

Popular children are visible and influential in an adolescent peer group
(LaFontana & Cillessen, 2002). Previous studies have demonstrated that there are two
types of popular children: aggressive-popular and prosocial-popular (Cillessen & Rose,
2005). The current study was designed to determine that, while both types are well liked
and accepted, they draw favor from different sources of affiliation. The Study uses a
sample of 450 adolescents (36.2% boys and 63.1% girls) from one high school in
Lithuania. Hierarchical generalized logistic linear models (HGLLM) were conducted to
determine if there was differential acceptance of aggressive-popular and prosocialpopular
adolescents. Also, models determined if peers exhausted with school, attached to
school, connected to peers and anxious/withdrawn would have differential association
with aggressive-popular and prosocial-popular adolescents.
Results answered 3 questions. First, HGLLM models were used to replicate the
previous finding that popular adolescents have more affiliations than other peers. Second, results determined that popular, popular-aggressive, and popular-prosocial adolescents
were all more likely to receive affiliation nominations from peers. Third, results
determined that aggressive-popular adolescents were chosen as affiliates by peers
exhausted with school, and less likely to be chosen by peers attached to school, connected
to friends and withdrawn. Prosocial-popular adolescents were chose as affiliates by peers
attached to school and connected with friends. These findings indicate that aggressivepopular
adolescents draw favor from crowds that are more oriented toward youth culture,
while prosocial-popular draw favor from crowds that are more oriented toward adult
culture (Brown, 1990)
The findings first extend previous research by demonstrating that popular
adolescents, of all types, are likely to receive affiliation nominations. Furthermore,
prosocial-popular and aggressive-popular adolescents have more acceptance and
affiliations than others, but this attraction comes from different sources. Previous studies
have shown that popular children are well liked by some but not by others (Parkhurst &
Hopmeyer, 1998). Taken with findings demonstrating that popular children strategically
use cooperation or manipulation to influence others (Cillessen & Rose, 2005), the current
study extends knowledge about the peer groups where cooperation or manipulation
strategies may be most effective. Crowds that are school oriented and have positive peer
relations follow prosocial-popular peers while crowds that are fed up with school follow
aggressive-popular peers.