Stephen C. Peck

Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation among Youth Facing Multiple Risks: Prospective Research Findings

© Cambridge University Press, 2010 and Suniya S. Luthar 2003. The high prevalence of mental health problems among children in the United States has continued to stimulate service-oriented professionals to seek targets for preventive intervention. In a 1999 survey of youth risk behavior during the previous year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000), 28% of high school children felt blue or hopeless, 19% had considered suicide, and 8% had made an attempt. In terms of aggression, 36% had been in a physical fight. Academic problems were equally serious, with 30% of Hispanics dropping out before high school graduation compared to 14% of African Americans and 8% of whites. Although the majority of youth do not have such problems, the number who do is substantial. Understanding the pathways that have led to such problem behavior is an important precursor of any successful intervention. Prevention is intimately connected to developmental concerns because there is an expected time course in which activities in the present will influence activities in the future. Where the problem seems to be in the family, school, or peer group, intuitively interventions should take place in those settings and should have immediate impact. Unfortunately, most interventions in single domains have not produced major reductions in problem behavior. It appears that children typically experience multiple risks in multiple social contexts; consequently, it is unlikely that a “magic bullet” for prevention or intervention will be found (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998).

An Education in Awareness: Self, Motivation, and Self-Regulated Learning in Contemplative Perspective

Consistent with the aims of this special issue, we present a systems perspective on self/identity, predicated on William Jamess classic distinction between I and Me, and use this perspective to explore conceptual relations between self/identity, motivation to learn, and self-regulated learning. We define the I self functionally in terms of the capacity for the conscious shifting and sustaining of awareness. The I is conceived of as that aspect of the self-system that affords the potential for the conscious and willful, rather than the non-conscious and automatic, motivation and regulation of behavior. We introduce contemplative education as a set of pedagogical practices designed to cultivate conscious awareness in an ethical-relational context in which the values of personal growth, learning, moral living, and caring for others are nurtured. We discuss the implications of contemplative education for the cultivation of conscious and willful forms of learning and living among students and educators alike.

Changing ecological determinants of conduct problems from early adolescence to early adulthood

Changes in conduct problems from middle school through early adulthood were examined in a sample of 1191 African American and White males and females. Predictors were selected from a number of ecological contexts to examine the relative contribution of family, peer, school, and neighborhood factors to conduct problems during the 7th, 8th, and 11th grade and across transitions in middle school, into high school, and into young adulthood. Almost all contexts made a unique contribution to conduct problems except for the neighborhood setting. The variables that had the most regular influences during each of these periods were Family Consistent Control, Family Discipline Harshness, and Negative Peers. Positive family and positive peer variables had less consistent relations to outcomes. School variables were more influential in middle school than later. Few gender or race differences were found in the patterning of predictors across time. Studies using only one or two settings as predictors of conduct problems, may provide a misleading picture of their impact by excluding other contextual influences.

The influence of family relations on trajectories of cigarette and alcohol use from early to late adolescence

The present study examines growth curve trajectories of cigarette and alcohol use from 13 to 19 years, and investigates how family relations (i.e., decision-making opportunities, negative family interactions, and positive identification with parents) relate to contemporaneous and predictive alcohol and cigarette use during adolescence. Data came from a longitudinal study of European American and African American families from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds (n = 1160 for alcohol use; n = 1102 for cigarette use). European Americans had higher levels and faster rates of alcohol and cigarette use than African Americans. European Americans females had the greatest likelihood of increased cigarette use. Negative family interactions and positive identification had contemporaneous and predictive associations with alcohol and/or cigarette use. Negative family interactions were related to increased smoking and drinking, whereas positive identification was associated with decreased use. Family relations differentially affected cigarette use according to ethnicity and gender, but had similar effects on alcohol use.

Developmental histories of perceived racial discrimination and diurnal cortisol profiles in adulthood: A 20-year prospective study

Perceived racial discrimination (PRD) has been associated with altered diurnal cortisol rhythms in past cross-sectional research. We investigate whether developmental histories of PRD, assessed prospectively, are associated with adult diurnal cortisol profiles. One-hundred and twelve (N=50 Black, N=62 White) adults from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study provided saliva samples in adulthood (at approximately age 32 years) at waking, 30min after waking, and at bedtime for 7 days. Diurnal cortisol measures were calculated, including waking cortisol levels, diurnal cortisol slopes, the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and average daily cortisol (AUC). These cortisol outcomes were predicted from measures of PRD obtained over a 20-year period beginning when individuals were in 7th grade (approximately age 12). Greater average PRD measured across the 20-year period predicted flatter adult diurnal cortisol slopes for both Black and White adults, and a lower CAR. Greater average PRD also predicted lower waking cortisol for Black, but not White adults. PRD experiences in adolescence accounted for many of these effects. When adolescent and young adult PRD are entered together predicting cortisol outcomes, PRD experiences in adolescence (but not young adulthood) significantly predicted flatter diurnal cortisol slopes for both Black and White adults. Adolescent, but not young adult PRD, also significantly predicted lower waking and lower average cortisol for Black adults. Young adult PRD was, however, a stronger predictor of the CAR, predicting a marginally lower CAR for Whites, and a significantly larger CAR for Blacks. Effects were robust to controlling for covariates including health behaviors, depression, income and parent education levels. PRD experiences interacted with parent education and income to predict aspects of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. Although these results suggest PRD influences on cortisol for both Blacks and Whites, the key findings suggest that the effects are more pervasive for Blacks, affecting multiple aspects of the cortisol diurnal rhythm. In addition, adolescence is a more sensitive developmental period than adulthood for the impacts of PRD on adult stress biology.

Quality at the Point of Service: Profiles of Practice in After‐School Settings

A unique observational data set was used to explore quality at the point of service in after-school programs. Staff practices in after-school settings were represented on a series of unidimensional scales closely indexed to staff behavior. In order to account for heterogeneity of staff performances, pattern-centered methods were used to construct profiles of common staff practices. Results revealed six pedagogy profiles that were classified in terms of three broad types of performances delivered by after-school staff: (1) positive youth development, (2) staff-centered, and (3) low-quality. Staff membership in these profiles was not related to youth-staff ratio. However, results revealed significant differences between the profiles on the content of the offering and the age of youth in the setting.

Racial discrimination and substance use: longitudinal associations and identity moderators

Current research indicates that racial discrimination is pervasive in the lives of African Americans. Although there are a variety of ways in which discrimination may contribute to health, one potentially important pathway is through its impact on substance use. Addressing the paucity of longitudinal research on this topic, the present study examined the influence of teacher discrimination on changes in substance use over time among African American adolescents and considered three dimensions of racial identity as moderators of this association (centrality, private regard, and public regard). Latent variable SEM analyses indicated that, on average, levels of discrimination were associated with increases in substance use across the high school years. However, public regard was found to moderate this association such that discrimination was less strongly associated with increases in substance use for individual who reported lower levels of public regard. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Afterschool quality: AFTERSCHOOL QUALITY

This chapter discusses efforts to define and improve the quality of afterschool services, highlighting areas of agreement and identifying leading-edge issues. We conclude that the afterschool field is especially well positioned to deliver high-quality services and demonstrate effectiveness at scale because a strong foundation has been built for continuous improvement of service quality.

Perceptions of parental secure base support in African American adolescents and young adults: A preliminary study of predictive links to adult C-reactive protein

Within the field of relationship science there is increasing interest in the connections between close relationships and physical health. In the present study, we examined whether adolescents’ (∼12 years old) and young adults’ (∼20 years old) perceptions of their parents as a secure base prospectively predict C-reactive protein (CRP), a commonly used marker of inflammatory activity, at age 32 in a well-characterized sample of African Americans. We utilized existing data collected as part of the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) to construct measures of perceptions of parental secure base support (SBS), general parental support, and peer support in early adolescence and early adulthood. In the present study, SBS was operationalized as the perceived ability to depend on parents in times of need. Fifty-nine African American MADICS participants who reported on perceived support in early adolescence and early adulthood participated in a follow-up home visit at age 32 during which serum CRP was measured via a blood draw. After controlling for inflammation-related confounds (e.g., tobacco use, body mass index), adolescents’ perceptions of parental SBS, but not peer support or general parental support, predicted lower CRP values at age 32 (b = −.92, SE = .34, p < .05). None of the support variables in early adulthood predicted CRP at 32 years. This study adds to a growing literature on relationships and health-related outcomes and provides the first evidence for a link between parental SBS in adolescence and a marker of inflammatory activity in adulthood.

X: INTEGRATIVE SUMMARY

In thismonograph, we have examined the development of a large number of adolescents from diverse socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Overall, these young Americans showed much stronger evidence of positive than problematic development, even at their most vulnerable times. Absolute levels of their engagement in healthy behaviors, supportive relationships with parents and friends, and positive self-perceptions and psychological well-being were much higher than their angry and depressive feelings, engagement in risky behaviors, and negative relationships with parents and peers. We did not find much evidence that adolescence is a time of heightened risk. Rather, most of these adolescents experienced relatively stable and developmentally healthy trajectories across a wide range of beliefs, behaviors, emotional functioning, and relationships, with slight increases or decreases at different points in development that varied across domains. That said, however, some developmental periods were riskier than others, depending on the outcome assessed as well as the gender and race/ethnicity of the adolescent. An examination of the entirety of adolescence (ages 12–20) allows us to pinpoint when, on average, such changes occurred.