Margo Gardner

Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision making in adolescence and adulthood: an experimental study.

In this study, 306 individuals in 3 age groups--adolescents (13-16), youths (18-22), and adults (24 and older)--completed 2 questionnaire measures assessing risk preference and risky decision making, and 1 behavioral task measuring risk taking. Participants in each age group were randomly assigned to complete the measures either alone or with 2 same-aged peers. Analyses indicated that (a) risk taking and risky decision making decreased with age; (b) participants took more risks, focused more on the benefits than the costs of risky behavior, and made riskier decisions when in peer groups than alone; and (c) peer effects on risk taking and risky decision making were stronger among adolescents and youths than adults. These findings support the idea that adolescents are more inclined toward risky behavior and risky decision making than are adults and that peer influence plays an important role in explaining risky behavior during adolescence.

Adolescents' participation in organized activities and developmental success 2 and 8 years after high school: do sponsorship, duration, and intensity matter?

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, the authors examined relations between educational, civic, and occupational success in young adulthood and the duration and intensity of participation in organized activities during high school. They also examined these relations as a function of sponsorship (i.e., school- vs. community-sponsored organized activities). They found that youths who participated in organized activities for 2 years demonstrated more favorable educational and civic outcomes in young adulthood than those who participated for 1 year. More intensive participation was also associated with greater educational, civic, and occupational success in young adulthood--particularly among youths who participated in activities for 2 years. Educational attainment often mediated the relations between temporal measures of participation and young adult civic and occupational outcomes. With the exception of analyses examining occupational success, findings varied little as a function of sponsorship. Of note, analyses revealed that both temporal measures of participation were positively associated with young adult outcomes as many as 8 years after high school.

“Feeling Disorder” as a Comparative and Contingent Process Gender, Neighborhood Conditions, and Adolescent Mental Health

We explore the effects of neighborhood social disorder on internalizing symptoms among urban youth by focusing on three questions. First, we ask whether the impact of social disorder on internalizing symptoms results from comparisons with conditions measured locally or across the entire city.  Second, we consider whether neighborhood collective efficacy modifies disorder’s effect on internalizing symptoms. Finally,  we assess whether these effects vary by gender. Analyses of survey data on 2,367 youth from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods indicate that social disorder is positively associated with girls’ internalizing symptoms when measured as a deviation from a neighborhood cluster (NC - two to three census tracts) mean. High collective efficacy within girls’ NCs attenuates disorder effects on their internalizing symptoms. We find no evidence of disorder or collective efficacy effects on boys’ internalizing symptoms.

The Mediated and Moderated Effects of Family Support on Child Maltreatment

Previous research has linked parents’ social support to decreased child maltreatment, but questions remain surrounding the mechanisms explaining this association. Furthermore, it is unclear whether this association applies to support provided by family alone (and not friends), and whether it is moderated by the presence of neighborhood violence. Based on a sample of parents of children aged 3 to 15 years in Chicago, the authors find that parents’ family support is associated with a lower risk of child maltreatment. This association is partly mediated by reduced parental depression, but only in neighborhoods with average or high levels of violence. In neighborhoods with low levels of violence, the inverse association between family support and maltreatment is equally strong, but it is not mediated by reduced depression.

College Expectations for All? The Early Adult Outcomes of Low-Achieving Adolescents Who Expect to Earn a Bachelor's Degree

Critics of the college-for-all ethos argue that it encourages low-achieving adolescents to develop unrealistically high expectations. This argument posits that low-achievers waste time and money, and risk disappointment and self-recrimination, pursuing college when they are unlikely to complete it. The present study uses two national data sets—Add Health and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979—to test the proposition that expecting to earn a bachelors degree (BA) puts low-achieving students at risk of disadvantageous early adult outcomes. Youth reported their educational expectations in high school, and their income-to-needs ratios and depressive symptoms were measured approximately a decade later. Results in both data sets suggest that the expectation of a BA was advantageous for all students, regardless of achievement level. Low-achievers who expected to earn a BA had higher educational attainment, higher income-to-needs ratios, and fewer depressive symptoms than low-achievers who did not expect to earn a BA.