Accurate and timely national estimates of the prevalence of birth defects are needed for monitoring trends, assessing prevention efforts, determining service planning, and understanding the burden of disease due to birth defects in the United States.

A mediational model positing that the effects of popularity on children's loneliness and depression are passed through indexes of friendship experiences was tested using structural equation modeling. Children (193 3rd through 6th graders) completed a battery of sociometric and self-report questionnaires from which measures of popularity, multiple friendship dimensions (i.e., quantity and quality of best and good friendships), and loneliness and depression were derived. Confirmation of a slightly modified model supported the mediational hypothesis. Although popularity exerted no direct impact on the adjustment indexes, it strongly influenced friendship, which, in turn, affected depression through its strong association with loneliness. It appears that popularity is important for setting the stage for relationship development, but that it is dyadic friendship experiences that most directly influence feelings of loneliness and depression.

This study examined whether maternal control protects African American adolescents from the negative influence of problem peers. Two forms of control were examined, behavioral control and psychological control. It was hypothesized that there would be a curvilinear relation between control and adolescent problem behavior, with the strength of the relationship and the amount of control optimal for adolescent development varying by the level of peer problem behavior. In general, data supported this model, particularly in regard to behavioral control, where the predicted curvilinear interaction occurred even after controlling for initial levels of problem behavior. The predicted curvilinear interaction between psychological control and peer problem behavior was statistically significant if initial levels of problem behavior were not controlled for but was not significant after controlling for initial problem behavior. These findings suggest that high-quality parenting can play a modest but critical role in the face of environmental adversity.

Agreement between 57 African American mothers and their early adolescent daughters on measures of maternal support, maternal restrictive control, and parent-adolescent conflict were examined. To assess the relative validity of these reports, the study then evaluated them against the ratings of independent observers. Additionally, mother and daughter reports were combined to examine validity coefficients based on aggregate scores of each construct. All analyses were based on 2 sets of objective criterion ratings: ratings provided by coders of similar ethnic background (African American) and coders who were ethnically dissimilar (non-African American) to the families they rated. Overall, adolescents provided ratings that were more valid than those of their mothers when evaluated against both sets of independent ratings. Adolescent ratings of maternal control and parent-adolescent conflict converged at significantly higher levels than the ratings provided by their mothers. Maternal and adolescent reports of maternal support converged with objective criteria at statistically comparable levels. Validity coefficients for adolescent reports were also higher than those based on aggregate mother-daughter scores. Secondary analyses further revealed that African American coders rated mothers as less controlling and rated the dyadic interactions as less conflictual, and that their ratings were more consistent with the perceptions of the African American mothers and adolescents than were those provided by non-African American coders.

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