Maternal, Paternal, and Peer Relationships Differentially Predict Adolescent Behavioral Problems.

The current study investigated how maternal, paternal, and peer social relationships predict adolescent behavioral problems using secondary data analyses of the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). We aimed to examine differences between maternal and paternal relationships in predicting adolescent behavioral problems, and we hypothesized that parental relationships would more strongly predict adolescent behavioral problems than peer relationship in mid-adolescence. Participants were 929 adolescents at their 14-year-old visit. Hierarchical multiple regressions and multiple regression models revealed the following: Maternal relationship quality predicted fewer adolescent externalizing and total behavioral problems; paternal relationship quality predicted fewer internalizing problems; and peer popularity predicted fewer externalizing and total behavioral problems. In conclusion, mother-adolescent relationship may be more important for externalizing behavioral problems and father-adolescent relationship may be more important for internalizing behavioral problems. In middle adolescence, parental relationships are still more important than peer relationship in predicting adolescent behavioral problems. Study limitations and implications for research, policy, and practice were discussed.

Working toward a conceptual definition of child neglect.

The phenomenon of child neglect has been nebulous due to limited research on child neglect and the meshing of child neglect with child abuse. There are disagreements among neglect researchers about several important issues, such as whether to frame child neglect as a child's unmet needs or as omissions in parental behavior. It has therefore been difficult to develop a standard conceptual definition of child neglect. In this article, a conceptual definition of child neglect is proposed. The definition's stand on a few important issues is discussed. Finally, how the conceptual definition can guide the formulation of operational definitions for both research and practice is described.

Young children's reports of when learning occurred.

This study investigated young children's reports of when learning occurred. A total of 96 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds were recruited from suburban preschools and elementary schools. The children learned an animal fact and a body movement. A week later, children learned another animal fact and another body movement and then answered questions about when the different learning events occurred. Responses of children who responded correctly to control questions about time supported the hypothesis that temporal distance questions would elicit more correct responses than would temporal location questions. Partial support was also found for the hypothesis that behavior learning would generate more correct reports than would fact learning. Implications for characterizations of children's developing understanding of knowledge and for applications of those characterizations in education and eyewitness testimony are discussed.