J. Merrill Carlsmith

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.

The Effects of Pubertal Timing on Body Image, School Behavior, and Deviance.

Variation in the timing of pubertal maturation may result in behavioral differences among early, mid-, and late maturers. Using data from the National Health Examination Survey, a national probability sample of children and youth aged 12–17, we investigated the relationships between maturational timing and body image, school behavior, and deviance. In terms of body image, the early maturing boys were the group most satisfied with height and weight. The early maturing girls were most dissatisfied with weight, with 69% wishing to be thinner. This great dissatisfaction with weight reported by early maturing girls is probably not an affect of early maturation, but a concomitant of maturation in general. The majority of girls became dissatisfied with their weight as they matured, and females from the higher social groups were more likely to want to be thinner than females from lower groups. Thus, a normal developmental process is being viewed negatively by females and positively by males. Male early maturers more often had deviant behavior, but there were no consistent findings for girls. There was no effect of maturational timing on teacher reports of school absence, adjustment, popularity, need for discipline, or grade repetition.

Sexual Maturation, Social Class, and the Desire to Be Thin Among Adolescent Females

Veblens 1899 hypothesis that associated a female desire for thinness with the higher social classes was tested with data from a representative national sample of adolescents, 12 to 17 years of age, in the National Health Examination Survey. Controlling for the actual level of fatness, adolescent females in higher social classes wanted to be thinner more often than those in lower classes. The greater female desire for thinness was not the product of health information nor of sex differences in the level of fatness. The thinner the female, the greater the impact of social class on the desire for thinness. During puberty, adolescent females negatively evaluated the body fat associated with normal sexual development.

Ambient temperature and the occurrence of collective violence: a new analysis

Prevalent folklore suggests that riots tend to occur during periods of very hot weather. Baron and Ransberger examined 102 major riots in the United States between 1967 and 1971 and concluded that the frequency of collective violence and ambient temperature are curvilinearly related. The present article points out that the Baron and Ransberger analysis did not take account of the different number of days in different temperature ranges. The artifact is eliminated, and the probability of a riot, conditional upon temperature, is estimated. When this is done, the evidence strongly suggests that the conditional probability of a riot increases monotonically with temperature. Some general implications of such data analyses are discussed.

Sexual development age and dating: a comparison of biological and social influences upon one set of behaviors.

Data from the U.S. National Health Examination Survey of 12-17-year-old youths were used to determine whether the development of the social behavior of dating is more closely linked to the level of sexual maturation or to the progression through age grades without reference to sexual maturation. Regression analyses and partial correlations show that individuals levels of sexual maturation add very little to the explained variance in dating after age had been taken into account. It appears that social pressures, based on behavior considered typical and appropriate at various ages, determines the onset of dating in adolescents. Individual rates of sexual maturation that deviate from the norm for that age have little impact on dating. These findings show how social standards can reduce dramatically the impact of individual biological processes on institutionalized forms of behavior.

Educational correlates of early and late sexual maturation in adolescence

From the National Health Examination Survey data, 4,735 Caucasian males and females, 12 to 17 years, were classified by age and stage of sexual maturation (Tanner). Early and late maturers were each compared to all other youth of comparable age and sex, in eight education-related categories: youth and parental aspirations and expectations concerning the level of education which would be achieved by the student, teacher reports of intellectual ability and academic achievement, and test scores (WISC and WRAT). Except at age 12, late maturing boys received significantly lower ratings than mid maturers in all these areas, and early maturing males received higher ratings. For females, no differences persisted across age groups. In advising male adolescents, physicians should be alert to the possibility that school functioning may be linked to maturational processes.

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.

9 LINEAR GROWTH DURING PUBERTY: IMPACT OF PUBERTAL DEVELOPMENT

Short stature is a frequent complaint of adolescent males. The pediatricians ability to interpret this concern is largely dependent upon use of standard growth curves. These curves are based only on chronological age and do not reflect the impact of sexual maturation on height. Accordingly, we undertook to revise these curves to enhance their usefulness.Using National Health Examination Survey data from 3,000 male adolescents, ages 12 to 17, we constructed height curves for each stage of sexual maturation and age. The resulting graphs depict estimated percentiles for height at each stage of sexual maturation from ages 12 to 17.Applications: a 145 cm 13 year old boy with a Sex Maturity Rating (S.M.R.) of 1, is later in sexual maturation and shorter than his age mates with his height measuring below the 10th percentile on standard height charts. When compared with other S.M. R. 1, 13 year old males, his height is at almost the 25th percentile. For the 150 cm 14 year old boy with a S.M.R. of 2, his percentile moves from 5th-10th percentile on the standard growth curve to approximately the 20th percentile on the curves adjusted for stage of sexual maturation.Our data provide pediatricians with a more precise way of evaluating adolescent male height and may offer information potentially reassuring to the short, late-maturing adolescent male and his parents.