Kathleen M. Roche

When a Parent Goes Off to War: Exploring the Issues Faced by Adolescents and Their Families.

The objectives of this study were (1) to explore the consequences of parental deployment for adolescents and their families and (2) to identify potential strategies that may help adolescents cope with a parents deployment. Eleven focus groups were conducted among adolescents in military families, military parents, and school personnel in military-impacted schools at five military bases. Findings reveal that one of the most prominent sources of stress for families is adjusting and readjusting to new roles and responsibilities. Notably, this stress was primarily felt after the deployed parent returned. School personnel also commented that many teachers and counselors are not prepared to deal with deployment issues among the military students. These findings suggest that parents need to be better prepared to handle the stresses after a deployed parent returns. School personnel also need special training, and military-impacted schools need to offer additional opportunities for students to discuss deployment issues.

Variations in Parenting and Adolescent Outcomes Among African American and Latino Families Living in Low-Income, Urban Areas:

Drawing from social disorganization theory, this study examined how perceived neighborhood conditions modified associations between parenting and delinquency, depressive symptoms, and school problem behavior among more than 800 African American and Latino 10- to 14-year-olds participating in Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study. Permissive and disengaged parenting, maternal involvement, and punitive parenting were associated with youth outcomes in varying ways depending on perceived neighborhood context and a youths race, ethnicity, and gender. Neighborhood-modifying influences on parenting were stronger for African Americans as compared to Latinos and for males as compared to females. Findings suggest that the stakes of uninvolved and permissive parenting for problematic youth outcomes are greater in higher risk neighborhoods. In addition, among African American males, punitive parenting is less strongly associated with poor youth outcomes when mothers perceive that the neighborhood poses more threats and offers fewer social resources.

Parenting Influences on Early Sex Initiation Among Adolescents How Neighborhood Matters

Building on social ecological research, this study considers whether neighborhood socioeconomic advantage modifies the relationship between parenting practices and sex initiation among young adolescents. Using data on a national sample of 2,559 middle school students, the authors examined two-way interactions between neighborhood socioeconomic status and parental involvement, decision making, and communication about sex. The parental decision-making measure was developed using latent class analysis. Greater parental involvement was related to a lower likelihood of sex initiation only when youth lived in socioeconomically advantaged neighborhoods. Parental decision making centered on the child’s activities within (e.g., television watching) and outside (e.g., hanging with peers) of the home was associated with a lower likelihood of sex initiation for adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods but to a greater likelihood of sex initiation for youth in advantaged neighborhoods. Results suggest that the neighborhood context must be considered in preventive interventions aimed at discouraging adolescent involvement in sexual intercourse.

Enduring consequences of parenting for risk behaviors from adolescence into early adulthood

Few studies examine the long-term consequences of family socialization experienced during early adolescence for the health and well being of young adults. This study investigates how two salient dimensions of family socialization--family closeness and parental behavioral control--are associated with three distinct risk-taking behaviors in early adulthood: problem drinking, early school dropout and multiple sex partners. Data from the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health are analyzed for a sample of over 1500 youth interviewed at three time points (Time 1: ages 12-14 years; Time 2: ages 13-15 years; Time 3: ages 19-21 years). Structural equation modeling techniques were used to identify direct and indirect effects of family closeness and parental behavioral control on problem behaviors among young adults. Indirect effects of family socialization were hypothesized to operate through a delayed onset of risky behaviors in adolescence. Results for females indicated that greater family closeness in early adolescence was directly and indirectly, through less adolescent truancy, associated with less school dropout in young adulthood. Family closeness was also directly associated with less early onset of sex and with fewer sex partners among females. Among males, greater parental behavioral control was directly associated with less problem drinking in young adulthood. Additionally, parental control and family closeness were each associated with males having fewer sex partners in early adulthood. Overall, findings support the strategy of family-focused interventions that stress the importance close relationships for females and of instrumental control for males.

The environment and urban adolescents' use of recreational facilities for physical activity: a qualitative study.

Purpose. Investigate environmental factors influencing the use of recreational facilities for physical activity by urban African-American adolescents. Design. Qualitative in-depth interviews and direct observation. Setting. Two public high schools and 24 public recreational facilities in Baltimore, Maryland. Participants. Forty-eight African-American adolescents aged 14 to 18 years. Methods. Data from 48 in-depth interviews and 26 observations were coded using NVivo software and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results. Facility use is influenced by characteristics of the physical, social, organizational, and economic environments. Adolescents are attracted to low-cost, well-maintained facilities that offer preferred activities and that are within close proximity to home. Adolescents with limited access to facilities use alternative play spaces, like the streets or vacant lots, where they risk injury from falling or being hit by a car. They are drawn to facilities where they find active adolescents, and they avoid those where young people are engaged in drug or gang activity. Concerns about facility safety largely determine use, particularly for adolescent girls. Conclusion. Previous research points to the importance of increasing facility availability as a means of promoting physical activity, particularly in minority communities in which availability is disproportionately limited. This study shows that, while availability is important, additional facility characteristics should be considered when using environmental change to promote facility use for physical activity.

Social support and low-income, urban mothers: longitudinal associations with adolescent delinquency.

The current study examined the role of engaged parenting in explaining longitudinal associations between maternal perceptions of social network support and whether youth engage in delinquent behaviors during the transition into adolescence. The sample included 432 low-income, African American and Latino youth (49% female) and their mothers participating in “Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study”. Results from longitudinal SEM analyses demonstrated that social network support was associated positively with mothers’ engaged parenting as youth transitioned into early adolescence. Engaged parenting, which functioned as a mediating variable, was associated with less youth delinquency during transitions into middle adolescence. Taken together, social network supports appeared to facilitate mothers’ abilities to remain engaged with their children and to deter youth from becoming involved in delinquent behaviors.

Unpacking acculturation: cultural orientations and educational attainment among Mexican-origin youth.

Given educational risks facing Mexican-origin children of immigrant parents, it is important to understand how aspects of the acculturation process influence Mexican-origin youth’s educational success. Drawing from selective assimilation theory, this study examined how cultural orientations across myriad facets of acculturation were associated with the educational attainment of second-generation Mexican immigrant youth. The sample included 755 Mexican-origin youth (50% female) in the “Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study.” Results from structural equation models indicated that youth reporting greater facility in the English language and a stronger value on familism attained higher levels of education in young adulthood than did other youth. Parents’ U.S. social ties and youth’s value on early paid work were associated with less educational attainment. Innovative findings from this study indicate the importance of considering both Mexican and American cultural orientations across myriad facets of acculturation for understanding second-generation immigrant Mexican youth’s educational attainment.

The Value of Family Routines for the Academic Success of Vulnerable Adolescents

This study examined associations between mother reports of family routines and adolescent academic success. The authors used prospective data from “Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study” (N = 1,147), a study of low-income urban youth and mothers. The vast majority of youth were African American (43%) or Latino (47%); youth were an average of 12-years-old at Time 1. Academic success was assessed by youth’s self-reported grades, self-reported educational expectations, and standardized achievement scores. Results from structural equation models indicated that Time 1 family routines were associated with better academic success at Time 2, which, in turn, was associated with higher academic achievement and educational expectations at Time 3. Routines were less strongly associated with higher educational expectations and achievement when mothers reported more destabilizing family life events. Moderating effects of family instability varied by youth gender and whether youth were in earlier versus later phases of adolescence.

Early Entries Into Adult Roles Associations With Aggressive Behavior From Early Adolescence Into Young Adulthood

This study examines how early entries into adult roles are associated with aggressive and violent behavior occurring from early adolescence to young adulthood among 499 males and 578 females living in low-income, central-city neighborhoods. Among males, engagement in adult roles accounted for the relationship between higher levels of aggressive behavior during early adolescence and violence in young adulthood. Males who lived independently and males who were behind in school or not in school at age 19 and 20 years (regardless of labor force participation) were at increased risk of engaging in violence in young adulthood. Among females, the positive association between early adolescent aggressive behavior and violence in young adulthood persisted even after accounting for involvement in adult roles. For females, parenthood and independent living were associated with involvement in violence during young adulthood in varying ways depending on labor force participation.

Acculturation Gap Distress among Latino Youth: Prospective Links to Family Processes and Youth Depressive Symptoms, Alcohol Use, and Academic Performance

Latino youth have higher rates of educational and mental health difficulties compared to peers from other racial/ethnic groups. To understand the factors related to such maladjustment, a mediational model linking youth report of parent-youth acculturation gaps to prospective changes (from spring to fall semester) in youth report of academic performance, depressive symptoms and alcohol use via youth report of parent-youth conflict and family cohesion, was studied in a sample of 248 U.S.—and foreign—born Latino youth (Mage = 15.21 years; 50% female; 67% U.S.-born). Parent-youth acculturation gaps were associated with changes in youth academic performance across two semesters via their negative impact on family functioning. For U.S.-born youth, parent–youth acculturation gaps were also linked to changes in alcohol use via parent-adolescent conflict. Results provide some support for the acculturative gap hypotheses while unique findings across nativity groups suggest that such individual-level characteristics may serve as important sources of variation for Latino youth.