Suchergebnisse

This article explored the implications of diverse family structures on adolescents' adjustment, with an emphasis on whether and, if so, how diverse family structures influence and predict developmental outcomes. Family relationships within the family unit are a stronger predictor of adolescents' development than the particular family structure. Transitions in families that result in notable reductions in effective parenting practices and economic well‐being will negatively affect youth, regardless of family structure. Family processes that promote optimal growth and development among youth in traditional two‐parent, heterosexual households work similarly for those growing up in nontraditional family structures. A conceptual model to advance this field of research is offered, and implications for research and policy are discussed.

A population‐representative sample of young adolescents (N = 2,104, mean age 12.4) reported on digital technology use and relationships in 2015. A subsample (N = 388) completed a 14‐day ecological momentary assessment in 2016–2017 via mobile phone. Across the 2,104 adolescents, those who reported more social networking site engagement were more likely to live in families characterized by more family chaos and to report that their online experiences resulted in problems with their parents. However, when the subsample of adolescents was followed daily, there was little consistent evidence that adolescents' quantity of daily digital technology use detracted from the amount of time they spend interacting with close others (including parents) nor that adolescent daily technology use was associated with more negative or less positive parent–adolescent interactions.

Using daily diary data, this study examined the associations between positive and negative parent–youth experiences and youth cortisol and physical health symptoms among a sample of adolescents (N = 132, mean age = 13.39). On days when girls reported more negative experiences than usual, they exhibited more physical health symptoms and flatter evening cortisol slopes than usual. Negative experiences with mothers were associated with higher dinner and bedtime youth cortisol levels (between‐person). Daily positive experiences with fathers were linked with lower dinner cortisol levels. Youth with high levels of negative experiences, on average, were less sensitive to daily variation in negative experiences than youth who experienced lower parental negativity. We discuss the benefits of a daily diary approach.

This study used data from 12 cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States; N = 1,298) to understand the cross‐cultural generalizability of how parental warmth and control are bidirectionally related to externalizing and internalizing behaviors from childhood to early adolescence. Mothers, fathers, and children completed measures when children were ages 8–13. Multiple‐group autoregressive, cross‐lagged structural equation models revealed that child effects rather than parent effects may better characterize how warmth and control are related to child externalizing and internalizing behaviors over time, and that parent effects may be more characteristic of relations between parental warmth and control and child externalizing and internalizing behavior during childhood than early adolescence.