A sample of 198 African American families, living in urban poverty, participated in a longitudinal study of adolescent sexual development beginning when children were in the 4th or 5th grade. Self-reports of family conflict and pubertal development and videotaped family interaction data were collected at 2 time points approximately 2 years apart. Youths reported on sexual debut at each time poi...

Given the importance of predicting outcomes for early adolescents, this study examines a multivariate model of parent-adolescent relationship variables, including parenting, family environment, and conflict. Participants, who completed measures assessing these variables, included 710 culturally diverse 11-14-year-olds who were attending a middle school in a Southeastern state. The parents of a ...

This study investigated the development of mother-son relationship quality from ages 5 to 15 in a sample of 265 low-income families. Nonparametric random effects modeling was utilized to uncover distinct and homogeneous developmental trajectories of conflict and warmth; antecedents and outcomes of the trajectory groups also were examined. Four conflict trajectory groups and 3 warmth trajectory ...

OBJECTIVE To examine relationships between parenting behaviors, parent-child relationship, and moderating effects of age on youth substance use among a community sample of African-American mothers who use crack cocaine and their children (12-17 years). METHODS Maternal-child dyads (n = 208) were recruited through street outreach and snowball sampling and completed interviews about substance u...

The present study described Mainland Chinese adolescents’ decision-making, and examined the relationship among their decision-making involvement, parent-adolescent communication and relationship variables by using Structural Equation Modeling. Results demonstrated that Chinese parents appeared to be less authoritarian than the prevailing literature had described. Chinese adolescents experienced...

Within-family covariation between interparental hostility and adolescent behavior across three interactions over a 2-year period was explored in a sample that included 37 typical adolescents and 35 adolescents recently hospitalized for psychiatric difficulties. More interparental hostility across the three interactions was associated with more adolescent hostility and more positive engagement (...