Carol R. Freedman-Doan

Change in Children's Competence Beliefs and Subjective Task Values Across the Elementary School Years: A 3-Year Study

The authors assessed change over 3 years in elementary school childrens competence beliefs and subjective task value in the domains of math, reading, instrumental music, and sports. The longitudinal sample consisted of approximately 615 mostly White, lower middle to middle-class children. Stability correlations indicated moderate to strong stability in childrens beliefs, especially older childrens competence beliefs. The relation of childrens ratings of their competence in each domain to estimates of their competence in those domains provided by both parents and teachers increased over the early elementary grades. Childrens competence beliefs and ratings of the usefulness and importance of each activity decreased over time. Childrens interest in reading and instrumental music decreased, but their interest in sports and math did not. Gender differences in childrens competence beliefs and subjective task values did not change over time.

Academic Functioning and Mental Health in Adolescence: Patterns, Progressions, and Routes From Childhood

The current study examines patterns of academic functioning and mental health in 184 middle school children and the relation of such patterns to their prior and subsequent functioning. Data were collected from children during their second, third, fourth, eighth, and ninth grade school years. Cluster analyses were used to delineate patterns of academic functioning and mental health during eighth grade. The authors examined the relation of these patterns to academic functioning and mental health 1 year later the transition to high school, and then examined the long-term developmental roots of the eighth grade patterns using data collected during elementary school years. Results indicated variegated patterns of academic and emotional functioning at eighth grade and stability in these patterns across the high school transition. Some long-term continuity was found among children showing uniformly positive or negative functioning at eighth grade. Studying child functioning across multiple domains and time periods is discussed.

What Am I Best At? Grade and Gender Differences in Children's Beliefs about Ability Improvement

The authors assessed age and gender variations in childrens beliefs regarding the kinds of activities (academics, sports, music and arts) at which they thought they were best and worst. Children also reported the extent to which they thought they could improve their abilities in these different activities. The authors interviewed 865 first-, second-, and fourth-grade children individually. Children in all three grades were very optimistic that increased effort and better strategy use could improve their ability to perform different activities, particularly academic and sports activities. However, by fourth grade, an increasing number of children began to doubt whether they could improve enough to become best at their current worst activity. There were gender stereotypic differences in childrens beliefs about their abilities. The implications of these findings for teachers and parents and for childrens future activity choice are discussed.

The Role of Parenting in Drug Use Among Black, Latino and White Adolescents

Abstract This study investigates the role of parenting in adolescent drug use for black, white and Latino adolescents. Parenting has been consistently identified as a crucial factor in drug use by adolescents. This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results show that parenting has a significant effect on drug use for these adolescents. The relationship between parenting and drug use is more strongly negative for the Latino adolescents, than for black and white adolescents. This indicates that greater parental warmth and family acceptance exert a stronger impact in reducing drug use for Latino adolescents than is the case for the black and white adolescents.

Looking Forward to Adolescence Mothers' and Fathers' Expectations for Affective and Behavioral Change

One hundred five parents were surveyed about their expectations for what their relationship with their sixth-grade child would be like when their child becomes an adolescent. Parents rated a series of items concerning how much they felt they could influence their childs behaviors and interests currently and when their child becomes an adolescent. Parents also rated their childs level of pubertal development on several items, as well as the quality of their current relationship with their child Findings suggest that mothers and fathers do not differ in their expectations for how their sons or daughters will change as they move into adolescence. Nevertheless, the relation between the gender of the child and parental expectations, taking the childs pubertal status into account, is mediated by current parent-child relationships in predicting parental expectations for change during adolescence. These findings are discussed in terms of the impact current parent-child relationships can have on future relationships.

Faith-based sex education programs: what they look like and who uses them.

The purpose of this study was to explore the kinds of sex education programs for youth available in mainline churches. This research project sought to identify the kinds of programs developed, the ages of the youth involved, the reasons for implementing the programs, the goals of the programs, the topics covered, and the perceived youth response to these programs as identified by youth ministers and leaders. The sample included 92 churches/synagogues with memberships over 300 that were within a 25-mile radius of our small, urban area in southeast Michigan. Findings from this study lay the groundwork for exploring whether these programs have an impact on adolescents’ sexual behaviors.

Continuity of Behavior and Parenting from Childhood Through Adolescence

This chapter presents data from a longitudinal study spanning 9 years of data collection looking at how early childhood characteristics and parenting practices, as well as the parent–adolescent relationship and parenting practices during adolescence, impact adolescents’ behaviors. We specifically looked at both externalizing (community and school problem behaviors and alcohol use) and internalizing behaviors (depression, anxiety, and self-esteem problems) of the adolescents and looked at the relationships separately for boys and girls and mothers and fathers. We found some continuity of behavior from childhood to adolescence, especially for boys, and that parental conflict and worry when the child is in elementary school is related to adolescent outcomes. Further, parental monitoring of the adolescents’ behaviors, as well as actual knowledge about those behaviors, interacted with the parent–adolescent relationship in predicting adolescent outcomes. From this work, we highlight what pediatricians might say to parents who are struggling with their adolescents. We advocate for an integrative primary care framework that utilizes a screening instrument to detect problem behaviors early and encourage primary care providers to share their impressions of parents’ interactions with their children.