Human Development & Quantitative Methodology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2779
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Item Family Processes and Leisure Activity Involvement Across the High School Transition: The Mediating Roles of Adolescent Internalizing Problems and Self-Esteem(2010) Dashiell-Aje, Ebony N.; Rubin, Kenneth H; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Parents are among the most important socializing agents in adolescents' lives. The purpose of the current study was to examine the prospective relations between family processes and leisure activity involvement across the high school transition. Specifically, I explored the meditational role of adolescent psychological well-being (internalizing problems and self-esteem) in these relations. The first aim of the present study included two dimensions: 1) to examine whether there were prospective relations between family processes (maternal and paternal parenting) and adolescent leisure involvement across the high school transition; and 2) to investigate the extent to which psychological well-being mediated the relations between family processes and adolescent leisure activity choices, based on Eccles and Harold's (1991) research linking parenting dimensions to leisure outcomes. The second aim of this study was to explore whether boys and girls differed in the extent to which their psychological well-being mediated the relations between family processes and leisure activity involvement from the 8th to the 9th grade. It was hypothesized that perceptions of maternal and paternal parenting would differentially relate to adolescent leisure activity intensity and enjoyment. Likewise, I hypothesized that internalizing problems and self-esteem would act as mediators in these relations. Finally, I hypothesized that gender would moderate some of the meditational relations. OLS regression and bootstrapping techniques were used to test simple mediation and moderated mediation for all variables. Significant mediation effects emerged for relations between perceptions of paternal involvement and sports intensity and enjoyment through internalizing problems. Additionally, internalizing problems mediated the relation between perceptions of paternal support and sports enjoyment. An indirect effect emerged for the relation between adolescent's perceptions of maternal negativity and arts enjoyment through self-esteem. Subsequent hierarchical regressions revealed significant gender by family process interactions when predicting leisure involvement and one significant gender by internalizing problems interaction effect emerged when predicting social activity enjoyment. These findings suggest that maternal and paternal parenting play significant and differential roles in adolescent leisure activity involvement across the high school transition. These results also suggest that adolescent psychological well-being effects the relations between adolescent perceptions of parenting and their leisure activity involvement.Item Maternal Adolescent Parenting Behavior and Child Aggressive and Inattentive Behavior: Findings from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project(2008-11-17) Guner, Bella Mironovna; Klein, Elisa L; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Adolescent parenting is associated with a wide variety of risk factors for both the mother (Berlin, Brady-Smith, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002) and child (Moore & Brooks-Gunn, 2002). Understanding the pathways leading toward poor parenting practices, and the subsequent influences on child aggressive and inattentive behavior may yield important information for intervention efforts on the part of adolescent families. The current study examines which maternal characteristics influence parenting behavior in a high risk sample of adolescent mothers and their toddlers, using Belsky's (1984) parenting process model. The purpose of the study was to: 1) examine whether maternal age, depression, or stress influenced positive and negative parenting behavior, 2) examine the influence of positive and negative parenting behavior on child aggressive and inattentive behavior, and 3) examine whether positive parenting would mediate the association between maternal characteristics and child aggressive and inattentive behavior. Data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation dataset was used to examine the aforementioned questions. The sample consisted of 319 mothers ages 15-19 and their toddlers ages 2-3 years. Heirarchical regression analyses revealed that maternal depression predicted higher levels of negative parenting behavior, younger adolescent mothers are more likely to engage in punitive parenting behavior than older adolescents, and maternal stress predicted lower levels of positive and higher levels of negative parenting behavior. Logistic regression analyses revealed that adolescent mothers who engaged in positive parenting behavior were less likely to have children who engaged in aggressive and inattentive behavior, and parents who engaged in negative parenting behavior were more likely to have children who engaged in aggressive and inattentive behavior. Mediational analyses revealed that positive parenting behavior mediated the association between maternal stress and child aggressive and inattentive behavior. These findings suggest that maternal characteristics are an important factor to consider in parenting behavior, and that despite the difficulties faced by adolescent mothers, there is room for positive parenting, which may mitigate the influence of maternal stress. The findings from this study indicate that intervention efforts may benefit from focusing on teaching adolescent mothers how to engage in positive parenting behaviors with their toddlers, thereby reducing the risk for future child aggressive and inattentive behaviors.