How Do Families Matter? Age and Gender Differences in Family Influences on Delinquency and Drug Use.

Parenting practices, age, and gender all influence adolescent delinquency and drug use, but few studies have examined how these factors interact to affect offending. Using data from 18,512 students in Grades 6, 8, 10 and 12, this study found that across grades, parents treated girls and boys differently, but neither sex received preferential treatment for all practices assessed, and younger children reported more positive parenting than older students. Family factors were significantly related to delinquency and drug use for both sexes and for all grades.

A dual-factor model of mental health: toward a more comprehensive understanding of youth functioning.

Traditional mental health models focus on psychological problems and distress; accordingly, health is viewed as the absence of illness or disability. In contrast, a dual-factor model of mental health incorporates both indicators of positive subjective well-being (SWB) and measures of psychopathological symptoms to comprehensively determine an individual's psychological adjustment. This study used such a dual-factor model to measure the mental health status of young adolescents.

Assessing differential effects: applying regression mixture models to identify variations in the influence of family resources on academic achievement.

Developmental scientists frequently seek to understand effects of environmental contexts on development. Traditional analytic strategies assume similar environmental effects for all children, sometimes exploring possible moderating influences or exceptions (e.g.

An Internet method to assess cancer patient information needs and enhance doctor-patient communication: a pilot study.

Background: We previously reported that doctor-patient communication in the cancer context may be suboptimal. We therefore developed measures to assess patient communication preferences and established feasibility of an Internet-based intervention to improve communication.

Methods: Cancer patients completed an Internet-based survey about communication preferences, with a summary provided to the physician before the consultation.