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Household food insecurity is associated with youth behavioral problems, yet few studies have examined potential mechanisms that underline this association, particularly among adolescents. The Family Stress Model (FSM) states that food insecurity potentially impacts adolescent psychosocial adjustment indirectly through its effects on parental psychological functioning and parenting. The current study examined data from the Children, Welfare, and Families study (N = 687, 53% female, Mage of child at baseline = 11.74 years, SD = 1.39) to determine whether household food insecurity at the beginning of adolescence predicts later behavioral outcomes and whether that association is mediated through caregiver depression and caregiver–adolescent relationship quality. Caregivers completed measures of past-year household food insecurity, current self-reported depressive symptoms and adolescent behavior problems, while adolescents completed a measure of current caregiver–adolescent relationship quality. A serial multiple mediator model, controlling for baseline values of mediators, outcomes, and relevant demographic covariates, indicated a significant total indirect effect, whereas the total direct effect was not significant. Significant indirect effects through both caregiver depression and caregiver–adolescent relationship quality were also found. These results are the first to explicitly examine the FSM with respect to household food insecurity and to demonstrate the indirect effects of food insecurity on adolescent adjustment. The findings indicate the need to improve food security and address subsequent intra- and inter-personal difficulties among low-income families that contribute to behavioral problems among adolescents facing household food insecurity.

ObjectivesAs peers become more salient during early adolescence, the perception of supportive parenting may become an important buffer against peer-related stressors, such as peer victimization. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether perceived supportive parenting moderates the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms among early adolescents. The study contributes to the literature by specifically addressing both the source of supportive parenting (mothers vs. fathers) and the type of victimization (physical vs. relational).MethodsSurvey data on peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and perceived supportive parenting were collected from 237 middle school students (50% female; Mage = 12.21 years) in a mid-Atlantic metropolitan area.ResultsRegression analyses indicated that both relational (b = 0.45, p = 0.0005) and physical victimization (b = 0.35, p = 0.0265) were positively associated with depressive symptoms and that perceived supportive parenting from both parents was negatively associated with depressive symptoms (mothers: b = −0.20, p = 0.0006; fathers: b = −0.14, p = 0.0093). Perceived supportive parenting from mothers, but not fathers, moderated the association between each form of victimization and depressive symptoms (relational: b = −0.28, p = 0.0258; physical: b = −0.03, p = 0.0275), such that the associations were non-significant when perceived supportive parenting by mothers was high.ConclusionsThe results underscore the link between relational victimization and depressive symptoms among early adolescents. Supportive parenting, especially from mothers, may serve as a potential buffer against the harmful effects of peer victimization.

Parental psychological control has been found to relate to the development of childhood anxiety; however, this relation has not been thoroughly examined. The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of the relation between parental psychological control and anxiety symptoms in children, as well as to understand whether this relation is mediated by children’s perceived control. Questionnaires were administered to children ages 8–11. Results indicated a significant relation between parental psychological control and child anxiety symptoms. Results further indicated that this relation was fully mediated by children’s perceptions of how much control they feel they have over events in their lives. These findings suggest that although parental psychological control and a child’s perceived control both contribute to the development of anxiety, it is possible that parental psychological control contributes to the development of anxiety by affecting a child’s perception of control.

College students tend to engage in a variety of prosocial behaviors as well as substance use. Simultaneously, they are self-focused and capable of increased self-regulation. In the current study, we investigated the intersection of these behaviors on college students’ self-development. Specifically, we hypothesized that substance use would relate curvilinearly to self-regulation and self-esteem, prosocial tendencies would relate positively to self-regulation and self-esteem, and prosocial tendencies would moderate the relations between substance use and the two self-variables. A total of 572 undergraduate students (72.2% women; M age =19.37 years, SD  = 1.29) completed online surveys. As expected, a curvilinear relation between substance use and self-esteem was detected. In addition, results suggest that substance use negatively predicted self-regulation, whereas prosocial tendencies toward strangers and family positively predicted self-regulation. Prosocial tendencies as a moderator between substance use and the two self variables yielded mixed results. Therefore, the relation between substance use, prosocial tendencies, self-esteem, and self-regulation among college students remains nuanced and complex.

Guided by family stress theory, relations among neighborhood stress, maternal psychological functioning, and parenting were examined among 123 low-income, urban-dwelling, African American single mothers. Using a longitudinal design, structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesis that neighborhood stress results in poorer parenting over time through its detrimental effect on maternal psychological functioning. Social support from family and friends was examined as a potential moderator of the association between neighborhood stress and parenting behavior. Results indicated that higher levels of neighborhood stress were related to greater psychological distress among mothers, which in turn, was significantly related to less engagement in positive parenting practices approximately 15 months later. A moderating effect emerged for social support, however, such that the proposed model provided a better fit for mothers reporting low levels of perceived social support than for mothers reporting high levels. Implications of the findings for prevention and intervention are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine typically-developing adolescents’ perceived relationship quality with their developmentally-disabled sibling, specifically siblings diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Down syndrome (DS). The 119 eleven through seventeen-year-old adolescent participants ( M  = 13.32, SD = 1.90) completed an online survey that assessed demographics, sibling relationship quality, and anxiety. Results showed that siblings of children with DS have a greater overall sibling relationship quality than do siblings of children with an ASD. Results further indicated that reporting more negative interchanges within the sibling relationship was related to higher levels of anxiety regardless of sibling disability type. Lastly, sibling relationship quality moderated the relation between sibling disability type and anxiety. These findings promote greater understanding of the sibling dynamic in families with children with developmental disabilities and suggest the need for establishing more research and greater clinical evaluation in this area. Furthermore, the current study suggests that therapeutic intervention to address the sibling relationship quality within children diagnosed with ASDs and their typically-developing siblings would be beneficial in order to increase social support within the relationship as well as decrease the amount of negative interchanges within the sibling relationship. Results also suggested that decreasing the amount of negative interchanges within the sibling relationship may decrease the level of anxiety the typically-developing sibling reports.

Child and family researchers have long recognized parenting as making an important contribution to child development. Kotchick and Forehand examine the literature on variables that comprise the context in which parenting occurs, and summarize what is know about how three contextual factors influence parenting practices.

This study examined family structural variables (family income, parental education, and maternal marital status) and process variables (maternal monitoring, mother-adolescent general communication, mother-adolescent sexual communication, and maternal attitudes about adolescent sexual behavior) as predictors of indices of adolescent sexual behavior and risk due to sexual behavior in 907 Black and Hispanic families from Montgomery, Alabama, New York City, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The findings indicated that family-structure variables failed to predict adolescent sexual behavior. In contrast, each of three family-process variables predicted multiple indices of adolescent sexual behavior and risk due to sexual behavior. Neither adolescent gender nor ethnicity qualified the findings. Differences did emerge among the three locations and by reporter (adolescent of mother) of the family process variables.

The Parents Matter! Program (PMP) is a community-based family intervention designed to promote positive parenting and effective parent-child communication about sexuality and sexual risk reduction. Its ultimate goal is to reduce sexual risk behavior among adolescents. PMP offers parents instruction and guidance in general parenting skills related to decreased sexual risk behavior among youth (e.g., relationship building, monitoring) and sexual communication skills necessary for parents to effectively convey their values and expectations about sexual behavior--as well as critical HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention messages--to their children. We briefly review the literature concerning parental influences on adolescent sexual risk behavior and present the conceptual model and theoretical foundation upon which PMP is based.

Behavioral parent training has emerged as one of the most successful and well-researched interventions to date in the treatment and prevention of child and adolescent externalizing problem behaviors, with extensive empirical support for its clinical utility. Forehand and Kotchick delineate some of the challenges commonly faced by practitioners who are working with externalizing problem youth and their families and offer suggestions for overcoming these obstacles in order to deliver parent training interventions to families who may benefit from them.