Albert H. Hastorf

Single parents, extended households, and the control of adolescents.

This paper uses a representative national sample of adolescents to study the interrelationships among family structure, patterns of family decision making, and deviant behavior among adolescents. Mother-only households are shown to be associated with particular patterns of family decision making and adolescent deviance, even when family income and parental education are controlled. In contrast to adolescents in households with 2 natural parents, youth in mother-only households are perceived as more likely to make decisions without direct parental input and more likely to exhibit deviant behavior. The presence of an additional adult in a mother-only household, especially for males, is associated with increased parental control and a reduction in various forms of adolescent deviance. Finally, patterns of family decision making and family structure both make independent contributions to adolescent deviance, and the impact of family structure on deviance of adolescent males is hardly affected by controlling for patterns of family decision making.

Cultural Uniformity in Reaction to Physical Disabilities

olic countries of origin a value of .20. Further confirmation of the hypothesis is obtained when we compare groups which have roughly the same socio-economic status index but differ in the predominant religion of their country of origin. The hypothesis predicts correctly that in the groups from non-Catholic countries of origin the proportion never married will be less, given an equal socioeconomic status index, than in the groups from Catholic countries. Conversely, given an equal proportion never married, the socioeconomic status index is always higher for the groups coming from non-Catholic countries than from Catholic countries. The corollary hypothesis predicted that, holding constant the predominant religion in the country of origin, the degree of correlation between the proportion never married and the socio-economic status index would be higher for men than for women. For groups from predominantly non-Catholic countries of origin, this proves to be the case. For men, Kendalls Tau has a value of .95 and for women, only .20. Somewhat surprisingly, in the case of ethnic groups from predominantly Catholic countries of origin, Kendalls Tau has the same value for women as for men. Thus the data shown in Table 4 support our functional hypothesis that the proportion of persons in each ethnic group who marry at an early age is related to attitudes within the group toward attainment of high socio-economic status and toward birth control. However, this support depends on the assumption that the relevant attitudes are correlated in specified ways with the nonattitudinal variables which we have measured. Further research to test the hypothesis by directly measuring these attitudes would be desirable.

VARIANT REACTIONS TO PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

In an earlier study, a consistent preference pattern in the rank-ordering of various types of physical disabilities was demonstrated among children aged 10 and 11. We suggested this pattern reflected a widespread cultural value in our society. In the present paper we postulate two factors significant in the acquisition of a value: (1) the childs exposure to the value, and (2) the childs ability to learn the value. From the first factor we predicted that adults hold the same preference pattern to the various disabilities; and that Jewish and Italian children, coming from subcultures which, we believed, held different values related to physical appearance, would hold a different preference pattern. From the second factor we predicted that mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed children would hold preference patterns that differ from the normative. The results supported these hypotheses.

Acknowledgement of handicap as a tactic in social interaction.

Nonhandicapped people often report discomfort and uncertainty when interacting with handicapped individuals. The three studies reported here investigated a possible tactic that handicapped people could use to reduce a fellow interactants discomfort and uncertainty. Nonhandicapped subjects watched two videotapes of handicapped individuals being interviewed. Each subject then chose the handicapped person with whom he would prefer to work on a cooperative task. Results of all three studies supported the hypothesis that a handicapped person acknowledging his handicap will be preferred to a handicapped person who does not acknowledge his handicap. In Study 1, subjects significantly preferred a handicapped person who acknowledged his handicap to a handicapped person who did not disclose anything personal. In Study 2, subjects significantly preferred an acknowledging person over one who made a personal disclosure other than about his handicap. In Study 3, subjects preferred the individual acknowledging a handicap over one who disclosed something else personal even when the acknowledging individual was clearly nervous about doing so. These results suggest that acknowledging the handicap may be a promising tactic.

Black Control of Adolescent Dating

This study uses data from a representative national sample to examine racial differences in the control of dating behavior. Controlling for social class and area of residence, the impact of age norms on dating is found to be stronger for Black adolescents, especially Black female adolescents. Strong parental control over adolescent decisions is related to later entry into the dating pattern. For our total sample, and within both Black and White subgroups, the control of dating is shown to be related to the control of various forms of deviance. This finding of greater Black control of adolescent dating, particularly among females, suggests the importance of looking at subcultural differences in the emphasis placed upon various aspects of socialization and social control. A possible interpretation is that Black parents are using the control of dating as one device for dealing with an environment that is perceived as threatening to their adolescent children.