Parents’ Promotion of Psychological Autonomy, Psychological Control, and Mexican–American Adolescents’ Adjustment

Mexican–American adolescents are at an elevated risk for adjustment difficulties. In an effort to identify parenting practices that can affect the adjustment of Mexican–American youth, the current study examined parents’ promotion of psychological autonomy and parents’ psychological control as perceived by Mexican–American early adolescents, and explored their associations with adolescents’ adjustment in the context of acculturation. In 5th grade, 134 (54.5% female) Mexican–American adolescents reported on their acculturation level and the parenting practices of their mothers and fathers. In 5th and 7th grade, adolescents also reported on their depressive symptoms, number of delinquent friends, and self-worth. Perceptions of promotion of psychological autonomy and of psychological control were positively correlated. However, perceptions of more promotion of psychological autonomy and of less psychological control predicted fewer depressive symptoms 2 years later. Perceptions of more promotion of psychological autonomy also predicted fewer delinquent friends two years later. Finally, perceptions of more promotion of psychological autonomy predicted higher self-worth only among less acculturated adolescents. The study underscores the roles that promotion of psychological autonomy and psychological control may play in Mexican–American children’s well-being during early adolescence

Prostitution and survival in mauritius

In this article we present the results of a qualitative survey on teenage mothers in Mauritius. We expose the causes and consequences of teenage motherhood in Mauritius. The causes of child pregnancy are household poverty, personal characteristics of children and the social environment. One of the consequences of teenage motherhood in Mauritius is prostitution. We show how children are involved in prostitution

Two sides of a story: Mothers' and adolescents' agreement on child disclosure in immigrant and native families

Research on immigrant families often has suggested that the process of immigration can lead to a distancing of adolescents and their parents. This study examined the actual agreement of immigrant and native mother–adolescent dyads in their reports on children’s disclosure as an indicator for a trusting mother–child relationship. The research questions related to group-level differences (immigrant vs. native dyads) in mother–adolescent agreement, the prediction of interdyadic differences in mother–adolescent agreement, and the associations between mother–adolescent agreement and both family conflicts and adolescents’ depressive symptoms. The sample was comprised of mother–adolescent dyads: 197 native German dyads (adolescents: mean age 14.7 years, 53 % female) and 185 immigrant dyads from the former Soviet Union (adolescents: mean age 15.7 years, 60 % female). Agreement was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient. The results revealed that mother–adolescent agreement was lower in immigrant dyads than in native dyads. In both samples, higher levels of adolescent autonomy predicted lower mother–adolescent agreement. Among immigrants, language brokering was an additional predictor of lower levels of mother–adolescent agreement. The interaction of language brokering and autonomy also turned out to be significant, indicating that if an adolescent was high in language brokering or autonomy, the effect of the other variable was negligible. In both groups, mother–adolescent agreement was negatively related to family conflicts. The study shows that processes in immigrant and native families are rather similar, but that in immigrant families some additional acculturation-related factors have to be considered for a full understanding of family dynamics

I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You: Attentional Allocation to Infant, Child, Adolescent and Adult Faces in Mothers and Non-Mothers

<div><p>It has been reported previously that infant faces elicit enhanced attentional allocation compared to adult faces in adult women, particularly when these faces are emotional and when the participants are mothers, as compared to non-mothers <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0109362#pone.0109362-ThompsonBooth1" target="_blank">[1]</a>. However, it remains unclear whether this increased salience of infant faces as compared to adult faces extends to children older than infant age, or whether infant faces have a unique capacity to elicit preferential attentional allocation compared to juvenile or adult faces. Therefore, this study investigated attentional allocation to a variety of different aged faces (infants, pre-adolescent children, adolescents, and adults) in 84 adult women, 39 of whom were mothers. Consistent with previous findings, infant faces were found to elicit greater attentional engagement compared to pre-adolescent, adolescent, or adult faces, particularly when the infants displayed distress; again, this effect was more pronounced in mothers compared to non-mothers. Pre-adolescent child faces were also found to elicit greater attentional engagement compared to adolescent and adult faces, but only when they displayed distress. No preferential attentional allocation was observed for adolescent compared to adult faces. These findings indicate that cues potentially signalling vulnerability, specifically age and sad affect, interact to engage attention. They point to a potentially important mechanism, which helps facilitate caregiving behaviour.</p></div