Ruth T. Gross

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.

ERYTHROCYTE GLUCOSE-6-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE DEFICIENCY: EVIDENCE OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEGROES AND CAUCASIANS WITH RESPECT TO THIS GENETICALLY DETERMINED TRAIT

Erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-P.D.) deficiency is associated with an increased susceptibility to hemolysis following ingestion of such agents as primaquine, naphthaline, sulfonamides, other drugs and the fava bean (1, 2). The incidence of this trait varies considerably among different population groups. Thus, it is relatively common among Negroes (3-7) and among Caucasians of Italian (4, 5), Greek (4, 5, 8) and Sephardic Jewish (9) extraction. On the other hand, the incidence of erythrocyte G-6-P.D. deficiency is low among subjects of Chinese (10) and Javanese (7) descent and is particularly rare among Ashkenazy Jews (9) and certain other Western Europeans (1-5). Data accumulated in both Negro (4, 5) and Caucasian populations (4, 5, 9) have suggested that this erythrocyte enzyme deficiency is due to a sex-linked gene of intermediate dominance. It has been assumed that the deficiency in G-6P.D. in these various population groups is a result of the same gene mutation. The explanation of the varied incidence of this enzyme defect in different racial groups has remained an intriguing problem. The present investigation has been concerned with further characterization of the relationship between the gene alteration and the resulting deficiency in red blood cell G-6-P.D. Among subjects with low erythrocyte G-6-P.D. activity, Caucasian males were found to have a more marked deficiency of this enzyme than Negro males. Recently, it was reported (11) that Ne-

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.

An Hereditary Enzymatic Defect in Erythrocyte Metabolism: Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency

Alterations in glutathione metabolism have been detected in the erythrocytes of patients with hemolytic anemia induced by ingestion of a variety of chemical agents including primaquine ( 1), acetanilid, sulfanilamide (2), naphthalene (3), fava beans (4) and nitrofurantoin (5). Erythrocytes sensitive to these agents may be identified by an in vitro test in which incubation with acetylphenylhydrazine leads to loss of reduced glutathione. Employing this test, it was found that among individuals without a previous history of hemolytic anemia, the incidence of subjects with drug sensitive erythrocytes was approximately 4.8 per cent in Negroes and apparently rare in Caucasians (6). The incidence and racial distribution of this defect in glutathione metabolism was similar to the previously reported distribution of primaquine sensitivity (7). The reactions involved in the maintenance of glutathione in the reduced state may be illustrated by the following scheme 2 (8-10): Carson, Flanagan, Ickes, and Alving (10) have demonstrated that the addition of 6-PG., but not G-6-P, to hemolysates of primaquine sensitive erythrocytes could initiate the above reactions leading to GSHformation. These authors interpreted their findings as indicating that the basic abnormality in red blood cells of primaquine sensitive subjects was a deficiency in G-6-P.D. Recently, Waller, Ldhr, and Tabatabai (11) reported an absence of G-6-P.D. and an accumulation of TPN in the erythrocytes of one patient with chronic hemolytic anemia of undetermined etiology. In the present study a reduction in erythrocyte G-6-P.D. has been demonstrated in healthy subjects without a history of hemolytic disease as well as in patients who have had a drug induced hemolytic anemia. This investigation establishes that this enzymatic defect in erythrocyte metabolism is on an hereditary basis.

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.

Use of physical and neurologic observations in assessment of gestational age in low birth weight infants

The relative validities of three clinical assessment methods for estimating gestational age in newborn low birth weight infants were evaluated with reference to estimates based on the date of the mothers last menstrual period. For 1246 infants in eight diverse institutions, estimates based on physical criteria correlated more strongly with dates estimates, yielded estimates more similar on average to dates estimates, and yielded higher proportions of correct classifications of prematurity and small for gestational age than did estimates based on neurologic criteria or neurologic and physical criteria combined. These results support the use of physical criteria rather than neurologic or combined criteria for the clinical assessment of gestational age in low birth weight infants. In a subsample of 511 black and white infants, there were no ethnic differences in mean error of estimate for any of the three methods.

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.

The Effect of Early Versus Late Physical Maturation on Adolescent Behavior

Are the behavioral effects of early versus late maturation short-term or do they influence the whole course of adult life? Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that have probed these interrelationships are reviewed, and stimulating questions posed for future research.

Identification of intrauterine growth retardation among low birth weight preterm infants

This study describes an attempt to define intrauterine growth retardation low birth weight preterm infants by comparing reference standards for intrauterine growth in weight, length, and head circumference on their variability across ethnic groups and cities, and on their specificity in independently classifying infants as short, thin, or having small heads. The sample consisted of 985 inborn preterm low birth weight infants enrolled at eight participating sites in a randomized clinical trial using uniform sampling criteria. When gestational age was used as the reference standard, striking differences were found by ethnicity and site in the prevalence of low weight infants at birth. These differences, as well as the potentially false overlap of classification, were attenuated when the use of gestational age as a reference standard was used only for birth length, while length itself was used (as an alternative to gestational age) as the reference standard for birth weight, and weight was used as the reference standard for head circumference. These results raise questions about the use of gestational age as the primary or only reference standard in assessing weight and head circumference at bith.