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Perceptions of good parent–adolescent relationships were explored among 19 Mexican American high school students aged 14–17 who participated in focus group interviews on what it means for Mexican American teenagers to have good relationships with parents. Using a grounded theory approach, five general themes emerged in the responses, corresponding to open communication, instrumental and emotional support, indirect expressions of caring, parental control, and valued relationship qualities. Both genders described distinct relationships with mothers and fathers. Relationships with mothers were closer and more open than relationships with fathers, and mothers were seen as being more affectionate, lenient, and emotionally supportive, whereas fathers tended to express caring indirectly by providing instrumental and financial support and by just being there. Parental upbringing, culture, gender, and parental role expectations emerged as explanations for parents' behavior. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Abstract:The linkages between self-regulation in childhood, risk proneness in early adolescence, and risky sexual behavior in midadolescence were examined in a cohort of children (N = 518) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The possible mediating role of two early adolescent variables (substance use and negative peer pressure) was also examined. Self-regulation was assessed by maternal report at ages 8-9, and risk proneness, comprising aspects of sensation seeking and decision making, was assessed by adolescent self-report at ages 12-13. Structural equation models predicting risky sexual behavior at ages 16-17 indicated that self-regulation operated partly through early adolescent substance use, whereas risk proneness operated through early adolescent substance use and negative peer pressure. The overall model did not differ signifi cantly for boys and girls, although there were gender differences in the strength of particular paths. These longterm longitudinal results support the importance of early self-regulation and risk proneness in setting the stage for adolescent sexual risk taking and implicate substance use and negative peer pressure as processes through which risk proneness and poor self-regulation lead to risky sexual behavior.In recent years, self-regulation, defi ned as the ability to regulate one's attention, affect, and activity in accordance with internal and external demands, has emerged as an important determinant of children's psychosocial adjust- ment. Theoretical models (e.g., Block & Block, 1980;Demetriou, 2000;Kopp, 1982) suggest that self-regulation facilitates adaptive responses to life's challenges, and several reviews of the literature support a link between self-regulatory capacity and children's competence (Barkley, 1997;Baumeister, Leith, Muraven, & Bratslavsky, 1998;Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). To date, empirical work has tended to focus on childhood, with less attention devoted to the developmental consequences of self-regulatory capacity in adolescence. However, several studies have supported an association between self-regulation (or related constructs) and adolescent adjustment. For example, children low in ego control report elevated substance use and externalizing behavior as adolescents (Block, Block, & Keyes, 1988;Caspi, Henry, McGee, Moffi tt, & Silva, 1995). Building on this work, the present study investigated the link between childhood self-regulation and risky sexual behavior in adolescence.Risky sexual behavior such as early intercourse, unprotected intercourse, or sex with multiple partners contributes to high rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among adolescents in the United States (Grunbaum et al., 2004;Moore, Manlove, Terry-Humen, Williams, Papillo, & Scarpa, 2001). Prior work has documented a prospective association between poor self-regulation (or low self-restraint) in early adolescence and subsequent risky sexual behavior (Feldman & Brown, 1993;Raffaelli & Crockett, 2003). Here, we extend the temporal canvas to examine the relat...

The current study explored how parental inductions and punitiveness were related to the prosocial moral reasoning through perspective taking and sympathy. Data were collected from three ethnic groups: 106 European American, 202 Mexican American, and 196 Taiwanese fifth and sixth graders (approximately 50% girls). Using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, the results generally indicated that the relation between parental inductions and prosocial moral reasoning was partially mediated by perspective taking and sympathy, and that punitiveness had direct relations to prosocial moral reasoning. Furthermore, some ethnic group differences were found such that Taiwanese early adolescents reported less parental inductions and weaker effects of parental punitiveness than early adolescents from the United States. Discussion focuses on the socialization of prosocial moral reasoning across cultural groups.

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