Family, Peer, and Neighborhood Influences on Academic Achievement among African-American Adolescents: One-Year Prospective Effects

Depressive symptoms, anxiety and academic motivation in youth: Do schools and families make a difference?

“…However, other longitudinal studies in similar populations have shown that high attrition rates are common among urban and ethnic minority adolescents with low SES (Seidman et al, 1994;Gonzales et al, 1996), and therefore also expected in our study. To minimize missing data, follow-up administrations were made one month after the initial administration to reach those students that were absent the first time.…”

Attachment and Autonomy During Adolescence

“…Further, several recent surveys of parenting practices in primarily African American samples have demonstrated that the level of environmental risk moderates the links between parental restriction of autonomy and adolescent adjustment. In high -risk contexts within these samples, parental restriction of autonomy during early and middle adolescence is linked with positive indices of adjustment, including higher levels of academic competence, decreased externalizing behaviors, and more positive self -worth (Baldwin et al, 1990 ;Gonzales, Cauce, Friedman, & Mason, 1996 ;Mason, Cauce, Gonzales, & Hiraga, 1996 ;Smetana, CampioneBarr, & Daddis, 2004 were high on undermining of cognitive/verbal autonomy as more trustworthy and accepting; teens from low -risk settings, however, viewed highly undermining mothers as more psychologically controlling, and they reported feeling more alienated from them (McElhaney & Allen, 2001 ). In this same study, higher levels of adolescents ' expressions of autonomy were linked to positive outcomes for low -risk teens (higher levels of competence with peers), but to negative outcomes for high -risk teens (higher levels of engagement in delinquent behaviors).…”

The Academic Achievement of African American Students During Early Adolescence: An Examination of Multiple Risk, Promotive, and Protective Factors

“…Considering this, parenting practices that emphasize democratic decision-making and foster a sense of autonomy may be more suitable for children from low risk environments, whereas they may be inappropriate for, or even detrimental to, youth living in more risky environments. Indeed, a number of studies have found that children and adolescents who live in more dangerous environments may benefit from high levels of parental control, whereas children living in less risky neighborhoods may experience negative effects of such restrictive control (Baldwin, Baldwin, & Cole, 1990;Baumrind, 1972;Furstenberg et al, 1999;Gonzales, Cauce, Friedman, & Mason, 1996). This may be especially true during early adolescence as youth are just beginning to confront decisions and experience situations that may have profound effects on their life trajectories.…”