Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel

Social Network Influences on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors

Within a socialization paradigm, a model was developed and tested to examine social network influences on adolescent sexual behavior and contraceptive use. It was hypothesized that the social network influences of parents and peers would affect the contraceptive knowledge and premarital sexual attitudes of adolescents. In turn, knowledge and attitudes were expected to influence sexual behavior and contraceptive use. The sample comprised 161 male and 200 female high school students. Results from the LISREL analyses indicated that the model was a good fit to the data and that the model differed significantly between males and females and between virgins and nonvirgins. Approximately 50% of the variance was explainedfor virgin and nonvirgin females, and for virgin males. Parents were more influential for males, whereas friends were more important for females. The transition to nonvirginity seems to produce a greater change in the social environment offemales than of males.

Acculturation and Teaching Behaviors of Dominican and Puerto Rican Mothers

The relationship between acculturation and maternal teaching behaviors was studied by observing 101 low-income Puerto Rican and Dominican mothers in a teaching task with their preschool children and rating six teaching behaviors frequently used by parents. Puerto Rican mothers tended to be more acculturated than Dominican mothers. Although the two groups tended to prefer teaching behaviors that involved giving directives, visual cues, and modeling, Puerto Rican mothers made significantly more use of inquiry and praise, and Dominican mothers used more modeling behaviors. Significant correlations for the total sample were found between acculturation and three teaching behaviors (inquiry, praise, and modeling). These correlations were thefunction of group difference in acculturation and not socioeconomic status. Acculturation was only significantly related to negative verbal feedback and visual cues in teaching, and positively related to modeling among Puerto Rican mothers.

The relationship of maternal behavior and acculturation to the quality of attachment in Hispanic infants living in New York city

The present exploratory study examined maternal parenting behavior and patterns of attachment using the Ainsworth Strange Situation with a Hispanic sample. Twenty-four Puerto Rican and 26 Dominican mother-infant dyads were videotaped in the strange situation and observed in their homes. As in other cross-cultural and subcultural studies, the pattern of attachment classifications differed from that reported for middle-class Euro-American populations: Overall there was an equal number of secure and insecure infants. Additionally, there were sex differences in the distributions of attachment patterns: Although two thirds of the boys were securely attached, two thirds of the girls were insecurely attached. The maternal behaviors that distinguished mothers of securely from insecurely attached infants in this study were also disparate from those found in previous studies using non-Hispanic samples. These findings provide a descriptive basis forfuture research with Hispanics and are importantfor their implications regarding the development of inner-city Hispanic children.

Mental Health Factors and Teaching Behaviors among Low-Income Hispanic Mothers

The relationships among anxiety, depression, parenting stress, social support, and teaching behaviors were studied in a group of 101 low-income Dominican and Puerto Rican mothers with children in Head Start The two groups of mothers showed high levels of depression, anxiety, and parenting stress but did not differ significantly from each other. Puerto Rican mothers reported more social support than did Dominican mothers. Surprisingly, neither anxiety nor depression was significantly associated with social support Both groups used more directive, modeling, and visual cues than other behaviors in their teaching. Dominican mothers used more modeling than Puerto Rican mothers, who used more praise and inquiry. Anxious and depressed mothers also used more negative feedback, directives, and modeling. Those with high parenting stress used less inquiry and praise and more modeling. These findings inform clinical and educational interventions with parents and children.

Applied Developmental Science, Social Justice, and Socio-Political Well-Being

In this article we present a vision of applied developmental science (ADS) as a means of promoting social justice and socio-political well-being. This vision draws upon the fields significant accomplishments in identifying and strengthening developmental assets in marginalized youth communities, understanding the effects of poverty and racial discrimination on individual and family well-being and promoting positive development through youth civic engagement programs. It also highlights potential linkages between ADS and other social science fields working to identify and eliminate societal barriers to human development.

Mastery motivation : Appropriate tasks for toddlers

Mastery motivation is the inherent drive which leads young children to explore and master their environment. This research explores the relationship between age and the ability to complete a task, and the appropriateness of using new shapes and mazes to assess mastery motivation in toddlers.

Pregnant Hispanic Women: A Mental Health Study

By most accounts, pregnant Hispanic women are a population at risk for perinatal health and mental health problems. In this article, the authors report on a pilot study of the mental health status of 86 low-income, pregnant Hispanics. Three cases drawn from a community-based, primary care clinic demonstrate how Hispanic women may appear in the clinical setting and how interventions can be designed.

Field independence as a function of sex, sex-roles, and the sex-role appropriateness of the task.

Two experiments were conducted to explain the sex difference in field independence by reference to socialization factors. It was hypothesized that the sex-role appropriateness of the task as masculine- or feminine-typed would influence the performance of masculine and feminine women in a manner congruent with their sex-role orientation. 28 pilot subjects and 100 subjects in Study 2 were equally divided between the sexes. Both studies used the Bern Sex-role Inventory, but different versions of the Embedded Figures Test. The over-all results suggested that feminine women varied their performance according to task appropriateness, although not always in a manner congruent with their sex-role orientation. Androgynous individuals and masculine men did not alter their performance.

Teaching Behaviors and Styles of Low-Income Puerto Rican Mothers

This study describes the teaching behaviors of low-income Puerto Rican mothers and explores several contextual variables as possible predictors of those teaching behaviors. The participants were 80 mothers and their preschool children, half from the Bronx, New York, and half from Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The most frequently used teaching behaviors in a cognitive-perceptual task were visual cues, directives, and modeling. Modernity of childrearing beliefs, social support, and difficulty of child temperament were related to maternal teaching behaviors and styles. In multiple-regression analyses, social support and modernity of childrearing beliefs significantly predicted use of inquiries, praise, and a democratic style; maternal education was not a significant predictor.

Applied Developmental Science

The chapter focuses on promising directions in applied developmental science in the next decade by charting the recent contributions and future potential for new ways of thinking about how we conceptualize and optimize development across the life course, the role of applied developmental science in public and private institutions, and obligations to promote a social justice agenda that contributes to social policies sensitive to diverse developmental challenges and inclusive in its offering of opportunities for individuals from different cultural, economic, and social positions. It brings together theoretical concepts and frameworks, methodological advances, and emerging themes and controversies that are redefining applied developmental science, highlighting areas that warrant further exploration and focusing attention on critical issues that should be addressed in future. Keywords: applied developmental science; translational research; social justice; health disparities; youth civic engagement; lifespan theory and methods; school-based interventions; selective optimization and compensation; aging; genetic research; adult develop; aggression; life span; prevention; developmental asset; racism; ethnic minority