Dispositional Active Coping Predicts Patterns of Adolescents' Cortisol Responsivity in the Context of School-related Stressors.

Objective: The goal of this study was to examine the direct and conditional effects of active coping and prior exposure to school-related stressors on cortisol reactivity and recovery in response to an academically salient, social stress task.

Method: Participants included N= 758 adolescents (50% male; M age = 12.03 years, SD = .

Parent-child negative emotion reciprocity and children's school success: An emotion-attention process model.

Research has demonstrated that emotions expressed in parent-child relationships are associated with children's school success. Yet the types of emotional expressions, and the mechanisms by which emotional expressions are linked with children's success in school, are unclear. In the present article, we focused on negative emotion reciprocity in parent-child interactions.

Parent-Adolescent Conflict as Sequences of Reciprocal Negative Emotion: Links with Conflict Resolution and Adolescents' Behavior Problems.

Although conflict is a normative part of parent-adolescent relationships, conflicts that are long or highly negative are likely to be detrimental to these relationships and to youths' development. In the present article, sequential analyses of data from 138 parent-adolescent dyads (adolescents' mean age was 13.44, SD = 1.

Ecological context, concentrated disadvantage, and youth reoffending: identifying the social mechanisms in a sample of serious adolescent offenders.

Serious youthful offenders are presented with a number of significant challenges when trying to make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. One of the biggest obstacles for these youth to overcome concerns their ability to desist from further antisocial behavior, and although an emerging body of research has documented important risk and protective factors associated with desistance, the importance of the neighborhoods within which these youth reside has been understudied. Guided by the larger neighborhood effects on crime literature, the current study examines the direct and indirect effects of concentrated disadvantage on youth reoffending among a sample of highly mobile, serious youthful offenders.

Joint consideration of distal and proximal predictors of premature mortality among serious juvenile offenders.

Purpose: Juvenile offenders are at heightened risk of death in adolescence and young adulthood compared to adolescents in the general population. The current study extends previous research by testing the joint contributions of distal (historical and demographic characteristics) and proximal (closer to the time of the death) predictors of mortality. We also tested whether proximal variables were potential mediators of the effects of distal variables on mortality.

Does adolescent alcohol and marijuana use predict suppressed growth in psychosocial maturity among male juvenile offenders?

Multiple theories suggest mechanisms by which the use of alcohol and drugs during adolescence could dampen growth in psychosocial maturity. However, scant empirical evidence exists to support this proposition. The current study tested whether alcohol and marijuana use predicted suppressed growth in psychosocial maturity among a sample of male serious juvenile offenders (n = 1,170) who were followed from ages 15 to 21 years.

Acculturation and Enculturation Trajectories Among Mexican-American Adolescent Offenders.

This study examines changes over time in ethnic affirmation/belonging and ethnic identity achievement, Spanish language use, English language use, Mexican/Mexican-American affiliation/identification and Anglo affiliation/identification in a sample of Mexican-American adolescents participating in a longitudinal study of juvenile offenders. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure and the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II were completed by the Mexican-American adolescents 7 times over a 3-year period. The findings from longitudinal growth modeling analyses and growth mixture modeling analyses indicate that there is heterogeneity in the initial scores and changes over time on these variables that are related to markers for the cultural qualities of the home environment (i.

Predicting outcomes for youth transferred to adult court.

Extant research regarding juvenile transfer has focused primarily on the negative effects of current policies, with little consistent and rigorous work on the variation among the adolescents transferred to adult court and their later adjustment in the community. Using a sample of 193 transferred youth from Arizona, we consider how certain individual characteristics are related to four post-release outcomes (antisocial activity, re-arrest, re-institutionalization, and gainful activity). We find considerable variability in outcomes, with adjustment significantly and consistently related to certain legal and risk-need factors.

ESTIMATING A DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LENGTH OF STAY AND FUTURE RECIDIVISM IN SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS.

The effect of sanctions on subsequent criminal activity is of central theoretical importance in criminology. A key question for juvenile justice policy is the degree to which serious juvenile offenders respond to sanctions and/or treatment administered by the juvenile court. The policy question germane to this debate is finding the level of confinement within the juvenile justice system that maximizes the public safety and therapeutic benefits of institutional confinement.

Juvenile offenders' alcohol and marijuana trajectories: risk and protective factor effects in the context of time in a supervised facility.

The current study modeled trajectories of substance use from ages 15 to 20 among 1,095 male serious juvenile offenders (M age = 16.54; 42% African-American, 34% Latino, 20% European-American, and 4% other ethnic/racial backgrounds) and prospectively predicted trajectories from risk and protective factors before and after controlling for time spent in a supervised setting. Results indicated that supervised time suppressed age-related growth in substance use.

Longitudinal relations of children's effortful control, impulsivity, and negative emotionality to their externalizing, internalizing, and co-occurring behavior problems.

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations of effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and negative emotionality to at least borderline clinical levels of symptoms and change in maladjustment over four years. Children's (N = 214; 77% European American; M age = 73 months) externalizing and internalizing symptoms were rated by parents and teachers at 3 times, 2 years apart (T1, T2, and T3) and were related to children's adult-rated EC, impulsivity, and emotion. In addition, the authors found patterns of change in maladjustment were related to these variables at T3 while controlling for the T1 predictor.

Understanding mother-adolescent conflict discussions: concurrent and across-time prediction from youths' dispositions and parenting.

Adolescence is often thought of as a period during which the quality of parent-child interactions can be relatively stressed and conflictual. There are individual differences in this regard, however, with only a modest percent of youths experiencing extremely conflictual relationships with their parents. Nonetheless, there is relatively little empirical research on factors in childhood or adolescence that predict individual differences in the quality of parent-adolescent interactions when dealing with potentially conflictual issues.

Substance use treatment outcomes in a sample of male serious juvenile offenders.

This study examined drug-treatment-related reductions in alcohol and marijuana use, cigarette smoking, and nondrug offending among male adolescents who had been adjudicated of a serious (almost exclusively felony) offense. Results indicated that the "real-world" drug treatments that these adolescents experienced had significant effects on substance use, which could not be explained solely by incarceration in controlled environments. However, effects on cigarette smoking and criminal offending were found only for treatments that included family involvement.

TRAJECTORIES OF ACCULTURATION AND ENCULTURATION IN RELATION TO HEAVY EPISODIC DRINKING AND MARIJUANA USE IN A SAMPLE OF MEXICAN AMERICAN SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS.

This study examines the longitudinal relations of multiple dimensions of acculturation and enculturation to heavy episodic drinking and marijuana use in a sample of 300 male, Mexican-American, serious juvenile offenders. We track trajectories between ages 15 and 20 and also consider the effects of participants' time spent residing in supervised settings during these years. Results showed some (although not entirely consistent) support for the hypothesis that bicultural adaptation is most functional in terms of lowered substance use involvement.

Relation of emotion-related regulation to children's social competence: a longitudinal study.

The differential relations of children's emotion-related regulation (i.e., effortful control and impulsivity) to their personality resiliency, adult-rated popularity, and social competence were examined in children who were 4.

Relations among mothers' expressivity, children's effortful control, and their problem behaviors: a four-year longitudinal study.

Longitudinal relations between mothers' expressivity, children's effortful control, and their problem behaviors were examined when children (N = 181) were 6.5-10 years old (T2) and again 2 (T3) and 4 (T4) years later. Mothers reported on their expression of positive and negative dominant emotion.

The relations of problem behavior status to children's negative emotionality, effortful control, and impulsivity: concurrent relations and prediction of change.

The relations of children's internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors to their concurrent regulation, impulsivity (reactive undercontrol), anger, sadness, and fearfulness and these aspects of functioning 2 years prior were examined. Parents and teachers completed measures of children's (N = 185; ages 6 through 9 years) adjustment, negative emotionality, regulation, and behavior control; behavioral measures of regulation also were obtained. In general, both internalizing and externalizing problems were associated with negative emotionality.

Prediction of children's empathy-related responding from their effortful control and parents' expressivity.

In this study, the linear and interactive relations of children's effortful control and parents' emotional expressivity to children's empathy-related responses were examined. Participants were 214 children, 4.5 to 8 years old.

THEORY AND RESEARCH ON DESISTANCE FROM ANTISOCIAL ACTIVITY AMONG SERIOUS ADOLESCENT OFFENDERS.

Improving juvenile court decision making requires information about how serious adolescent offenders desist from antisocial activity. A systematic research agenda on this topic requires consideration of several processes, including normative development in late adolescence, what constitutes desistance, and the factors likely to promote the end of involvement in antisocial behavior and successful adjustment in early adulthood. This article presents an overview of the major points to consider in pursuing this research agenda.

The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's resiliency and adjustment.

The unique relations of effortful control and impulsivity to resiliency and adjustment were examined when children were 4.5 to 8 years old, and 2 years later. Parents and teachers reported on all constructs and children's attentional persistence was observed.

The relations of mothers' negative expressivity to children's experience and expression of negative emotion.

Guided by the heuristic model proposed by Eisenberg et al. [Psychol. Inq.

THE SELF-REPORT OF OFFENDING AMONG SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS: Cross-Gender, Cross-Ethnic/Race Measurement Equivalence.

This article evaluates the measurement equivalence of a self-report of offending measure among female and male juveniles, as well as Hispanic, African American, and White male juveniles. The findings indicate (a) considerable functional equivalence across gender and ethnically/racially diverse groups of juvenile offenders, and (b) scalar equivalence across Hispanic and White male juvenile offenders, but (c) that researchers should be careful making either mean difference or association comparisons across genders or African American/White boys.

OPERATIONAL LESSONS FROM THE PATHWAYS TO DESISTANCE PROJECT.

Implementing a large, longitudinal study of any sample is a major undertaking. The challenges are compounded when the study involves multiple sites and a high-risk sample. This article outlines the methodology for the Pathways to Desistance study, a multisite, longitudinal study of serious juvenile offenders, and discusses the key operational decisions with the greatest impact on the study design.

Children's physiological indices of empathy and their socioemotional adjustment: does caregivers' expressivity matter?

Relations of heart rate and skin conductance reactions to mildly evocative empathy-inducing slides with socioemotional functioning were examined for 154 children (mean age = 9 years, 5 months). In addition, maternal expressivity was tested as a moderator of these relations. Parents and teachers rated children's socioemotional functioning, and a behavioral measure of children's regulation was obtained.

The relations of effortful control and reactive control to children's externalizing problems: a longitudinal assessment.

In this study, we examined the role of negative emotionality as a moderator of the relations of effortful control and overcontrol (versus undercontrol) with children's externalizing problem behaviors; we also examined the longitudinal relations among these variables. Teachers' and parents' reports of children's negative emotionality, effortful control, overcontrol and externalizing problem behaviors were obtained at T1 (N=199; M age=89.51 months) and again 2 (T2) and 4 years (T3) later.