Childhood maltreatment and alcohol and tobacco use trajectories in rural Chinese adolescents.

BACKGROUND: There is a high prevalence of childhood maltreatment among Chinese children and adolescents, but little is known about its impact on alcohol and tobacco use trajectories and how positive school and neighborhood environments moderate the associations. The objective of this study was to assess the association between multiple forms of childhood maltreatment and longitudinal alcohol and tobacco use trajectories, and to assess the possibility that perceived connections to school and neighborhood moderate these associations. METHODS: This longitudinal cohort study included 2594 adolescents (9 to 13 years) from a low-income rural area in China. Childhood exposure to abuse and neglect was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Participants reported past-month alcohol and tobacco use at three time points over 1 year. RESULTS: Growth curve models revealed that childhood sexual abuse was associated with a higher risk of past-month drinking (OR = 1.53, 95% CI 1.19-2.03, p < 0.001) and smoking (OR = 1.82, 95% CI 1.30-2.55, p < 0.001). Neglect was associated with a higher risk of past-month drinking (OR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.06-1.90, p < 0.05) and smoking (OR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.34-3.02, p < 0.001). None of the maltreatment forms predicted a faster increase in either drinking or smoking. These associations were found independent of personal, family, and contextual characteristics. School and neighborhood connection moderated the association between physical abuse and past-month drinking, such that physical abuse was associated with a greater risk of drinking only for youth who perceived low school or neighborhood connections. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate the importance of early experiences of childhood maltreatment for adolescent alcohol and tobacco use. Enhancing school and neighborhood connectedness for physically abused youth may help protect them from alcohol use.

Peer relationships mediate the pathways from behavioral qualities to United States and Chinese children's loneliness.

Loneliness is a perceived deficit in social relationships that is nested within broader cultural meaning systems. This longitudinal study examined predictors of loneliness in Chinese and U.S. children with the hypothesis that peer relationship parameters (number of friends, social preference, and popularity) mediate the associations between behavior qualities and loneliness differently across countries. Fifth-grade Chinese (n = 576, Mage = 10.58 years) and U.S. (White, Black, Asian, n = 540; Mage = 10.23 years) children completed two waves of assessment within an academic year. Shyness and athletic competence more strongly predicted loneliness for U.S. children, and academic ability, and aggression more strongly predicted loneliness for Chinese children. Popularity was a mediator for U.S. children but not Chinese children.

Peers influence the tobacco and alcohol use of Chinese adolescents.

This two-wave longitudinal study examined peer selection and influence pertaining to tobacco and alcohol use by adolescents and their friends in a sample of 854 Chinese adolescents (384 girls: mean age = 13.33 years). Participants nominated friends and self-reported their tobacco and alcohol use at seventh and again at eighth grade. Longitudinal social network analyses revealed evidence of friend influence but not selection over smoking and drinking. Boys increased their levels of smoking at rates greater than that of girls, but no sex moderation of either selection or influence was found. In interpreting these results, it is important to understand the gender norms for Chinese boys and girls and the cultural context of tobacco and alcohol use.

Peer Relationships and Indonesian Muslim Adolescents' Religiosity and Religious Coping: Selection and Influence.

The religious similarity of adolescents and their friends can arise from selection or influence. Prior studies were limited because of confounds that arose from the ethnic and religious heterogeneity of the samples and the use of cross-sectional designs. SIENA was used in this two-year longitudinal study of 825 Indonesian Muslim high school students (445 girls; mean age = 16.5 years) to assess peer selection and influence as these pertained to religiosity and religious coping. The analyses yielded significant influence but not selection effects for both religiosity and religious coping. This study is an important methodological advance over prior research and although limited by correlational data, nevertheless, provides evidence that adolescents influence their peers' religiousness.

Tobacco and Alcohol Use by Muslim Indonesian Adolescents: Longitudinal Associations With Religiosity and Problem Behavior.

OBJECTIVE: This three-wave (10th to 12th grade) longitudinal study explored the interrelations of religiosity, tobacco and alcohol use, and problem behavior in Indonesian Muslim adolescents. METHOD: The sample included 721 Muslim Indonesian adolescents (48% girls) who participated in at least one assessment when they were in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. Of these, 499 were recruited in 10th grade, with others added at 11th and 12th grades. RESULTS: Prior month use for 10th-grade boys and girls, respectively, was 49.2% and 5.2% for tobacco and 19.0% and 3.6% for alcohol. Tobacco use and alcohol use were negatively associated with religiosity for boys, but these associations were more inconsistent for girls. Consistent with U.S. findings, there was a bidirectional longitudinal association between tobacco and alcohol use. The longitudinal models and associations with problem behavior were similar for both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence of negative longitudinal associations between religiosity and tobacco use. The more frequent use of tobacco than alcohol may be attributable to religion, cost differentials, and social norms. Despite large gender differences in the frequencies of use, the similar predictors of tobacco and alcohol use for boys and girls suggest that models accounting for substance use are comparable for both sexes. These results have implications for the design of prevention programs in Indonesia and other culturally and religiously similar countries.

Chinese adolescents' positive relationships with parents: The effects of the sex of their younger sibling.

We investigated how sibling status and sex of younger siblings influence Chinese adolescents' relationships with their fathers and mothers as a function of resource dilution and preference for sons. The sample included 1,093 adolescents from the 8th grade (Mage  = 13.96 years, SD = 0.75 years; 47% girls) and the 11th grade (Mage  = 17.25 years, SD = 0.74 years; 57% girls) in a longitudinal study. Consistent with expectations pertaining to the hypothesis of resource dilution and son preference in combination, girls with a younger brother reported less positive relationships with mothers than either singleton girls or girls with a younger sister. No significant difference was found between singleton boys and boys with a younger sibling. The current findings show implications that the resource-dilution theory and son preference culture together may place girls with a younger brother in an unfavorable condition of resource allocation.

Religiosity and Effortful Control as Predictors of Indonesian Adolescents' Tobacco and Alcohol Use: Moderation and Mediation.

Moderation and mediation models of religiosity and effortful control as predictors of tobacco and alcohol use were tested in this 2-year longitudinal study of 563 16-year-old Muslim Indonesian adolescents. Adolescents reported their effortful control, religiosity, and tobacco and alcohol use and peers provided reports of adolescents' effortful control. Although both moderation and mediation effects emerged when predicting Year 2 substance use, predictions of change from Year 1 to Year 2 substance use yielded effects of moderation for peer- but not self-reported effortful control for boys; no mediation effects emerged. These findings provide evidence of interconnections between effortful control and religiosity as predictors of substance use and suggest the need for further longitudinal studies that compare moderation and mediation models.

Predicting Substance Use and Deviant Behavior from Prosociality and Sociability in Adolescents.

Social competence is commonly considered an important factor that impedes maladaptive development because individuals who lack adequate competence to direct or control their behaviors in social situations are likely to display problems. Despite the belief that social competence may be a multi-dimensional construct, existing research has not explored the unique contributions of its different aspects to development. The present two-wave longitudinal study examined relations of prosociality and sociability, two major aspects of social competence, with problem behaviors in a sample of adolescents. Peer assessment data on prosociality and sociability and self-report data on substance use and deviant behavior were obtained from a sample of adolescents in middle (N = 657, mean age = 13 years) and high (N = 675, mean age = 16 years) schools in China. The results showed that prosociality negatively predicted later problem behaviors, whereas sociability positively predicted later problem behaviors. In addition, gender and grade moderated the associations between sociability and problem behaviors. More specifically, the positive association between sociability and later substance use was significant for boys, but not for girls. Sociability was also more strongly associated with later substance use in middle school than in high school. The results indicate that prosociality and sociability may have different functional meanings in adolescent development and have implications for practical work with adolescents who display problem behaviors.

Longitudinal associations between popularity and aggression in Chinese middle and high school adolescents.

The longitudinal associations between popularity, overt aggression, and relational aggression were assessed in middle school and high school cohorts drawn from a large urban Northwest Chinese city. The middle school (n = 880; 13.33 years.) and high school samples (n = 841; 16.66 years.) were each followed for 2 years. In the concurrent regression analyses, overt aggression was more strongly and consistently associated with popularity than relational aggression after controlling for likability. Cross-lagged analyses revealed that popularity predicted subsequent increases in overt and relational aggression throughout middle and high school whereas overt aggression at 7th and 10th grade predicted increases in popularity 1 year later. These findings provide further evidence that popularity is associated with aggression and suggest that overt and relational aggression may be a consequence rather than a contributor to popularity in Chinese adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescents' perception of peer groups: Psychological, behavioral, and relational determinants.

Adolescents' social cognitive understanding of their social world is often inaccurate and biased. Focusing on peer groups, this study examines how adolescents' psychological, behavioral, and relational characteristics influence the extent to which they accurately identify their own and others' peer groups. Analyses were conducted with a sample of 1481 seventh- and tenth-grade Chinese students who are embedded with 346 peer groups. Overall, females and older students had more accurate perceptions. In addition, lower self-esteem, higher indegree centrality, and lower betweenness centrality in the friendship network predicted more accurate perception of one's own groups, whereas higher academic performance and lower betweenness centrality in the friendship network predicted more accurate perception of others' groups. Implications for understanding the connection between adolescents' psychological and behavioral traits, social relationships, and social cognition are discussed.

Tobacco Use by Middle and High School Chinese Adolescents and their Friends.

Understanding the similarity of the tobacco use of youth and their friends and unraveling the extent to which this similarity results from selection or socialization is central to peer influence models of tobacco use. The similarity between the tobacco use of Chinese adolescents and their friends were explored in middle (880, 13.3 years, 399 girls) and high school (849, 16.6 years, 454 girls) cohorts assessed yearly at three times. Boys were more similar to their friends in tobacco use than were girls. Growth curve models revealed escalation of use during middle school and stable use during high school for boys, whereas models for girls could not be computed. Evidence of selection effects emerged from cross-lagged panel analyses revealing pathways from boys' tobacco use to subsequent changes in their friends' use; assessment of selection and influence processes could not be assessed for girls. The results from this study suggest that peer influence processes may differ for Chinese boys and girls and that further quantitative and qualitative research is necessary to understand these processes.

Trajectories of Indonesian adolescents' religiosity, problem behavior, and friends' religiosity: covariation and sequences.

Changes in religiosity, problem behavior, and their friends' religiosity over a 2-year period were assessed in a sample of five hundred and fifty-nine 15-year-old Indonesian Muslim adolescents. Adolescents self-reported their religiosity, problem behavior, and friendships; the religiosity of mutual friends came from friends' self-reports. A parallel process analysis of growth curves showed that adolescents' religiosity trajectories covaried with both problem behavior and friends' religiosity. Using a cross-lagged model in which prior levels were controlled, religiosity at 10th and 11th grades predicted friends' religiosity 1 year later, suggesting that adolescents select friends of similar religiosity. This study provides evidence that religion is intertwined with other aspects of adolescent development and illustrates the importance of contextualizing adolescent religiosity within an ecological framework.

Parent-adolescent relationships, religiosity, and the social adjustment of Indonesian Muslim adolescents.

Parent-adolescent relationships invariably occur within a complex cultural context that in some populations include strong religious influences. Using data from multiple sources that were analyzed using structural equation modeling, we found that parental warmth and parental religiosity predicted adolescent religiosity in a sample of 296 Indonesian 15-year-old adolescents. The significant interaction of parental warmth and parent religiosity indicated that parental warmth moderated the relation between parent religiosity and adolescent religiosity. We expanded this model to predict externalizing and prosocial behavior where direct paths from adolescent religiosity to outcomes were significant for prosocial but not antisocial behavior; parental warmth, parent religiosity, and their interaction did not predict either outcome. Adolescent religiosity was found to be a mediator of these relations between predictor and outcomes for prosocial but not antisocial behavior. These results suggest that, in Indonesia and perhaps other highly religious cultures, parent-adolescent relationships and social competence may be interconnected with religion.

Friendship and the religiosity of Indonesian Muslim adolescents.

Adolescents' religious involvement occurs within a social context, an understudied aspect of which is relationships with peers. This longitudinal study assessed changes in religiosity over 1 year and explored the extent to which these were associated with their friends' religiosity and problem behavior. The first year sample included 1,010 (52.5% female) Muslim 13 and 15 year old Indonesian adolescents; 890 of these were assessed 1 year later. Adolescents were similar to their friends in religiosity. Changes in religiosity from year one to two were associated with friends' religiosity such that adolescents with religious friends were more religious at year two than those with less religious friends. Reductions in religiosity were also associated with the presence of problem behavior, consistent with the inverse relationship between these. Peers may play an important role in the development of adolescent religiousness and exploring these influences deserves further study.

Four children and one toy: Chinese and Canadian children faced with potential conflict over a limited resource.

Quartets of Chinese (n=125) and Canadian (n=133) 7-year-old children were observed as they played with a single attractive toy. Chinese children exhibited more assertive and general rule bids, engaged in more spontaneous giving, and reacted more positively to assertions of others whereas Canadian children more frequently referred to norms of sharing. Evidence of cultural scripts for dealing with potential conflict, that is, sharing for Canadian children and hierarchical organization for Chinese children, emerged. Passive and reticent behaviors in Chinese children and assertion and object control by Canadian children were associated with group acceptance, results suggesting the meaning of these patterns of social behavior may differ in these two countries.

Indonesian adolescents' spiritual and religious experiences and their longitudinal relations with socioemotional functioning.

The spirituality and religiosity of Indonesian Muslim adolescents were examined longitudinally as were the relations of spirituality and religiosity with (mal)adjustment. At Time 1 (T1), 959 seventh-grade Muslim adolescents were screened for selection of a sample; at Time 2 (T2), 183 eighth-grade adolescents participated; and at Time 3 (T3), 300 ninth-grade adolescents (164 new participants) participated. At T1, adolescents' peer likeability was assessed; at T2, adolescents' global and cognitive esteem were measured; and at T2 and T3, adolescents' (mal)adjustment, spirituality, and religiosity were assessed. Adolescents and parents rated aspects of (mal)adjustment, spirituality, and religiosity. Teachers also rated adolescents' (mal)adjustment. In general, we found that T2 spirituality and religiosity were positively related to T3 adjustment and negatively related to T3 maladjustment, although in panel models, support for prediction of outcomes from spirituality and religiosity was found only for loneliness and socially appropriate behavior. In addition, there was some evidence in the models that certain aspects of (mal)adjustment (self-esteem and social competence, and to a marginal degree, parent-rated internalizing problems and teacher-rated prosociality) predicted spirituality and religiosity longitudinally.

The relations of majority-minority group status and having an other-religion friend to Indonesian youths' socioemotional functioning.

In this study, the authors examined the relations of Indonesian adolescents' socioemotional functioning to their majority-minority status and the presence of cross-religion friendships and whether sex moderated these relations. At Time 1, 1,254 7th graders and their peers in Bandung, Indonesia, reported on their friendships, prosocial behavior, and peer likability; months later, a selected sample of 250 youths and their teachers and parents rated the youths' social functioning and (mal)adjustment. When controlling for socioeconomic status and initial sociometric status, girls were generally higher in measures of adjustment, whereas majority children were lower in externalizing problems and, for boys, loneliness. For minority children's social competence and prosocial behavior at school, there was evidence of a buffering effect of having a cross-religion friend.

Religious involvement and the social competence and adjustment of Indonesian Muslim adolescents.

This study assessed the relation between religious involvement and multiple indices of competence in 183 eighth- and ninth-grade Indonesian Muslim adolescents (M = 13.3 years). The authors assessed spirituality and religiosity using both parent and adolescent reports, and social competence and adjustment using multiple measures and data sources. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that parent and adolescent reports of religiosity and spirituality yielded a single religious involvement latent variable that was related to peer group status, academic achievement, emotional regulation, prosocial behavior, antisocial/problem behavior, internalizing behavior, and self-esteem. The consistency of relations between religious involvement and competence may be in part attributable to the collectivist context of religion in West Java, Indonesia, within which people exhibit strong beliefs in Islam and religion permeates daily life.

Children's social competence in cultural context.

Social initiative and behavioral control represent two major dimensions of children's social competence. Cultural norms and values with respect to these dimensions may affect the exhibition, meaning, and development of specific social behaviors such as sociability, shyness-inhibition, cooperation-compliance, and aggression-defiance, as well as the quality and function of social relationships. The culturally guided social interaction processes including evaluations and responses likely serve as an important mediator of cultural influence on children's social behaviors, relationships, and developmental patterns. In this article, we review research on children's social functioning and peer relationships in different cultures from an integrative contextual-developmental perspective. We also review research on the implications of the macro-level social and cultural changes that are happening in many societies for socialization and development of social competence.