Students' perceptions of parent-adolescent closeness and communication about sexuality: relations with sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

The main goal of this study was to explore how parent-adolescent closeness and communication about sexuality were associated with three aspects of adolescent sexuality (sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviors). Participants were 157 boys and girls in grades 9 to 12 from two suburban high schools in the Midwest. Canonical correlation analyses revealed two significant combinations of variables. First, younger age and less maternal and paternal communication were related to less sexual behavior and less sexual knowledge. Second, being younger and female and receiving less maternal communication was related to less sexual knowledge and more conservative attitudes. Contrary to expectation, higher levels of parental closeness in conjunction with parental communication did not have a significant influence on these adolescents' sexuality. Given the importance of both age and parental communication in predicting adolescent's sexuality in this study, implications concerning the timing of communication become evident.

Human breath emissions of VOCs.

The medical community has long recognized that humans exhale volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Several studies have quantified emissions of VOCs from human breath, with values ranging widely due to variation between and within individuals. The authors have measured human breath concentrations of isoprene and pentane. The major VOCs in the breath of healthy individuals are isoprene (12-580 ppb), acetone (1.2-1,880 ppb), ethanol (13-1,000 ppb), methanol (160-2,000 ppb) and other alcohols. In this study, we give a brief summary of VOC measurements in human breath and discuss their implications for indoor concentrations of these compounds, their contributions to regional and global emissions budgets, and potential ambient air sampling artifacts. Though human breath emissions are a negligible source of VOCs on regional and global scales (less than 4% and 0.3%, respectively), simple box model calculations indicate that they may become an important (and sometimes major) indoor source of VOCs under crowded conditions. Human breath emissions are generally not taken into account in indoor air studies, and results from this study suggest that they should be.

Patterns of parenting during adolescence: perceptions of adolescents and parents.

The purposes of this study were (1) to explore differences in maternal and paternal parenting style and parental involvement, (2) to examine the differences between parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement, and (3) to explore the changes in parenting style and parental involvement between the adolescents' ninth and twelfth grade years. Subjects were 244 ninth graders recruited from several school districts in the Southeast and Midwest. Thirty-one subjects participated in a small longitudinal study three years later when they were in the twelfth grade. Measures of maternal and parental demandingness, responsiveness, values toward achievement, involvement in schoolwork, and involvement in school functions, designed for this program of research, were obtained from both adolescents and their parents. Results showed that both adolescents and parents perceived mothers to be more involved in parenting than were fathers during both ninth and twelfth grades. Mothers and fathers were not found to be different regarding their values toward achievement. Additionally, both mothers and fathers perceived themselves to be higher on all aspects of parenting than their adolescents perceived them to be during both ninth and twelfth grades. In the longitudinal study, both adolescents and parents perceived levels of parenting to drop between ninth and twelfth grades, except values toward achievement which did not change. Implications for interpretation of existing research and for considerations of future research are discussed.

Birth order and family size: influences on adolescents' achievement and related parenting behaviors.

The purposes of this study were to confirm birth-order and family-size differences in achievement, to confirm birth-order and family-size differences in parenting, and to examine whether parenting style and parental involvement serve as mediators of birth-order and family-size differences in achievement. Subjects were 195 ninth-grade boys and girls and their parents from urban, suburban, and rural communities in the southeast and the midwest. Questionnaire measures of adolescents' and parents' perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement were used. Birth-order and family-size differences were found in adolescents' achievement and perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement but not in parents' perceptions of parenting. However, these parenting characteristics did not mediate the differences seen in achievement by birth order and family size. Implications of these findings are discussed.