Purpose To further understand the association between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness among adolescent girls, we examine how this association, as reported by pre-teen and adolescent girls, is mediated or moderated by the quality of peer and family relationships. Methods Our data are from the Health Behavior of School-Aged Children 2009-2010, a nationally representative survey of school-aged children in the US. We analyze a sample of 5658 girls in Grades 5 through 10. We utilize ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques and adjust for the complex sampling design. We explore how the link between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness is mediated or moderated by family and peer relationships and also include controls for age, race, media exposure, and physical health. Results We find that body dissatisfaction is predictive of sadness/loneliness for girls at all grade levels and that the quality of peer and family relationships mediates 27%-38% of this association, particularly among early adolescent girls. Positive peer relationships also moderate or help mitigate the association between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness among pre-teens. Conclusion Our findings underscore the association between body dissatisfaction and sadness/loneliness among early adolescent girls. In addition, our results highlight the importance of quality peer and family relationships in terms of how girls think about their bodies and respond emotionally to them. To evaluate feelings of sadness and loneliness among early adolescent girls, health care professionals need to consider not only body dissatisfaction but also the context of peer and family relationships.

Objective The study's objective is to understand how parental propensities to provide support, as predicted by parental characteristics, shape adult daughters' and sons' entry into parenthood in the United States. Background Much research explores the influence of parental support on adult children's fertility, but the evidence is mixed and primarily focuses on European contexts. Theoretical approaches suggest that to best understand how parental support shapes adult children's outcomes, it is important to account for different forms of parental support, that is, time and money, and variation in parental characteristics. Method This study combined different data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: the 2013 Roster and Family Transfers module, main interview data file, and the Childbirth and Adoption History File. We implemented a two‐step analysis strategy. In the first, we built two different measures of propensities to receive parental support (PPS) in the form of time and money. In the second, we used discrete‐time logistic regression models to analyze the effects of these propensities to receive parental support on adult daughters' and sons' fertility. Results We find a positive and consistent effect of all types of PPS measures on adult daughters', but not adult sons', likelihood of entry into parenthood. The fertility decisions of adult daughters are highly responsive to the prospect of receiving parental support in the form of time or money. Conclusions Our results reflect the importance of informal support for women's entry into parenthood and highlight gender differences in the perceived and actual costs of becoming parents.

Children in foster care face heightened risk of adverse psychosocial and economic outcomes compared with children in the general population. Yet, the effects of foster care as an intervention are heterogeneous. Heterogeneity outcomes by race and ethnicity are of particular interest, given that Black and Indigenous youth experience foster care at higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups and experience group differences in setting, duration, and exits to permanency. This meta-regression explores racial disparities in education, employment, mental health, and behavioral outcomes during and following foster care. A systematic search of PsycINFO, ERIC, and Academic Search Complete using a series of search terms for studies published between January 2000 and June 2021 found 70 articles and 392 effect sizes that provided outcomes of US-based foster care by race/ethnicity. Findings reveal that Black foster care impacted persons (FCIPs) have 20% lower odds (95% CI: .68–.93) of achieving employment or substantial financial earnings and have 18% lower odds (95% CI: .68–1.00) of mental health concerns compared to White FCIPs. Hispanic FCIPs have 10% lower odds (95% CI: .84–.97) of achieving stable housing compared to non-Hispanic FCIPs. Moderator analyses revealed certain study features (i.e. publication type, timing of the study, location of the study, and placement status of the participants) have a significant impact on the gap between Black and non-Black and Hispanic and non-Hispanic FCIPs. The findings provide important implications for racial disparities in foster care outcomes, as well as highlight important gaps and missing information from published studies.

Positive parenting behaviors and parent-child relationships reduce sexual risk-taking among youth, but these associations may differ for adolescents in the child welfare system. Using two cohorts of a national longitudinal dataset of youth, the authors employed linear probability modeling to investigate associations of caregiver-child closeness, monitoring, and dating communication with youth’s sexual initiation, sexual partners, and unprotected intercourse over the subsequent 12 months. Moderation by placement status (non-relative foster care, kinship care, or birth parent care) was then tested. Closeness was negatively associated with risk-taking. Monitoring was positively associated with new sexual partners among youth in birth parent care, but negatively associated with new partners for youth in out-of-home care. Dating communication was positively associated with sexual initiation and additional sexual partners, and with unsafe sex among non-relative foster youth. In sum, caregiver relationships and parenting behaviors may matter differently for maltreated and foster youths’ sexual risk-taking.

We examined social and economic resources in the environments of children involved with child protective services and their associations with children's cognitive performance. We used a national dataset of child protection investigations (children aged 6–16 at Wave 1). Using latent class analysis, we constructed profiles of the financial resources, parental education and employment, and family structure and size. We then examined within‐ and across‐time associations between resource environment profiles and children's math and reading scores and tested whether associations differed by family care type. Our latent class analysis identified four distinct family resource environments: educated middle class, single earner, large working class, and severely disadvantaged. Family resource environment profiles predicted current cognitive performance and changes in performance over time, but associations were more consistent for children in biological family care. Children who remain in home following maltreatment allegations may benefit from services that target social as well as economic resources.