This dissertation examined etiological risk factors in juvenile delinquency from a control theory perspective (social and self-control theories). Two adolescent samples were used for this purpose: A Swiss national sample (N= 970) and a local American sample (N= 232). Four main questions were empirically examined: First, whether rates of deviance in delinquency were different by Swiss educational tracks (apprentices versus Gymnasium students) and by national origin (Swiss versus" non-Swiss").

Abstract In this article, we outline the importance of peers in adolescent delinquency. We review ways in which peers influence different deviant behaviors, as well as the ways in which deviant adolescents tend to select like-minded friends (homophily). The coexistence of both the peer influences→ deviance and deviance→ peer selection direction of effects is also explored, where the same adolescents and behaviors co-occur in both directional pathways.

Three waves of longitudinal data from a high poverty sample of 1544 African American youth were used to test an ecological–transactional model of violence. SEM analyses were conducted to determine whether parenting (Time 2) mediated the effects of exposure to violence (Time 1) on violent behaviors (Time 3). Findings supported the specified model. Multigroup SEM analyses indicated that neither family structure nor developmental stage (early versus middle/late adolescence) moderated these effects.

Abstract The current longitudinal study examined the protective effects of parenting processes on measures of adolescent adjustment (health-compromising and violent behaviors) in a sample of high-risk, inner-city, poor African American youth (N= 2,867). Parenting processes played an important role in this dangerous developmental milieu. For male adolescents, they accounted for 26 to 37% in health-compromising behaviors and 16 to 24% of the total variance in violent behaviors over time.

PURPOSE: The current study tested both descriptive and explanatory similarities and differences in a latent objectified body consciousness (OBC) construct and its relationship to three mental health indicators among Georgian and Swiss adolescents. Few studies have been conducted on adolescents; similarly, most work has been completed on US college-age women.

Abstract Five waves of longitudinal data collected from 349 African American youth living in extreme poverty were used to examine the interrelationship between exposure to violence and parenting during adolescence. Semi-parametric group based modeling was used to identify trajectories of parental monitoring and exposure to violence from T1 to T5. Results from these analyses revealed:(1) a trajectory of declining parental monitoring for 48% of youth; and (2) four distinct trajectories of exposure to violence.

Abstract 1. PeaceBuilders is a universal, elementary-school-based violence prevention program that attempts to alter the climate of a school by teaching students and staff simple rules and activities aimed at improving child social competence and reducing aggressive behavior. Eight matched schools (N> 4,000 students in Grades K-5) were randomly assigned to either immediate postbaseline intervention (PBI) or to a delayed intervention 1 year later (PBD).

78 Typed Pages Directed by Alexander T. Vazsonyi From a feminist perspective, theorists have increasingly emphasized that, particularly for females, socio-historical context plays an integral role in the development of feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and beliefs about one's body. Over the course of the last decade, the importance of understanding women's body objectification experiences in the American cultural context has been widely studied and empirically demonstrated.

Abstract The present study was designed to ascertain the extent to which dimensions of acculturation would differ across personal identity statuses in a sample of 2,411, first and second generation immigrant college-attending emerging adults. Participants from 30 colleges and universities around the United States completed measures of personal identity processes as well as of heritage and American cultural practices, values, and identifications.

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las características de personalidad y los estilos de interacción entre padres e hijos que se relacionan con diferentes manifestaciones de conducta desviada en la adolescencia, como abuso de drogas y alcohol, vandalismo y robo. Así mismo, se analiza el papel moderador de los estilos de crianza de los progenitores en la relación entre personalidad y conducta antisocial.

Previous research has documented the importance of parenting on adolescent health and well-being; however, some of the underlying mechanisms that link the quality of parent-child relationship to health, adjustment, and well-being are not clearly understood. The current study seeks to address this gap by examining the extent to which sleep functioning mediates the effects by parental warmth on different measures of adolescent problem behaviors. Specifically, we test whether sleep functioning, operationalized by sleep quality and sleep quantity, mediates the relationship between the parental warmth and three measures of problem behaviors, namely alcohol use, illegal drug use, and deviance, in two nationally representative samples of Georgian (N = 6,992; M = 15.83, 60% females, and Swiss (N = 5,575; M = 17.17, 50% females) adolescents. Based on tests for parallel mediating effects by sleep functioning of parental warmth on problem behaviors in the MEDIATE macro in SPSS, the findings provided evidence that both sleep quality and sleep quantity independently and cumulatively mediated the effects of parental warmth on each of the three problem behaviors in both samples, with one exception. These results highlight the salience of positive parenting on sleep functioning among teens in two different cultural contexts, and, in turn, on measures of problem behaviors.