Risk factors for emotional/behavioral problems in young adolescents: A prospective analysis of adolescent and parental stress and symptoms.

Abstract

Stressful events in the lives of 309 10- to 15-year-olds and stressful events and psychological symptoms reported by their parents were examined in a 9-month study. Ss' self-reported emotional/behavioral problems were predicted by their reports of stressful events and their fathers' reports of psychological symptoms in cross-sectional analyses. Analyses at follow-up after controlling for initial reports of emotional/behavioral problems and prospective analyses predicting from first assessment to follow-up yielded significant effects for Ss' self-reported stressful events. Mothers' reports of children's problems were predicted by mothers' psychological symptoms in cross-sectional analyses and at follow-up after controlling for initial emotional/behavioral problems. Only prior levels of maternal reports of emotional/behavioral problems predicted mothers' reports of their children's problems 9 months later.

Developmental risks and psychosocial adjustment among low-income Brazilian youth

“…We assumed that risks preceded adjustment, an assumption supported by longitudinal studies conducted in the United States (e.g., Compas et al, 1989;DuBois et al, 1992). However, in keeping with the notion that individuals actively select their activities and environments (e.g., Lerner, 1982), risk and adjustment are likely to interrelate in a dynamic and reciprocal fashion.…”

“…US-based research indicates that higher levels of risk exposure are linked to decrements in psychological and behavioral adjustment (e.g., Clark & Miller, 1998;Compas et al, 1989;DuBois et al, 1992). For example, exposure to violence in the family and in the community is associated with externalizing and internalizing problems (see Margolin & Gordis, 2000, for review).…”

“…exposure to risk factors is linked to decrements in psychological, behavioral, and social adjustment (e.g., Compas, Howell, Phares, Williams, & Giunta, 1989;Cowan, Cowan, & Schulz, 1996;DuBois, Felner, Brand, Adan, & Evans, 1992;Gutman, Sameroff, & Cole, 2003). For example, exposure to stressful life events has been linked to psychological distress, psychopathology, and substance abuse (see Clark & Miller, 1998, for review).…”

The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations

“…A majority of the potentially stressful life events scored in the Simmons and colleagues [499] study were normative (school change, change in pubertal status, dating), although others were not (geographic mobility, major family change). Indeed, buildup of daily stressors/hassles has been reported to be more important than major life events as sources of risk for emotional/behavioral problems in adolescence [98], with the number of negative life events and not their nature linked to depression in adolescent females [58]. Many simultaneous changes (that individually may not necessarily be particularly stressful) may exceed the capacity of the adolescent to cope, leading to more negative outcomes than sequential changes [315,411].…”

“…In these studies, however, it should not be assumed that the relationship between stressors and negative outcome is necessarily causal. Indeed, this relationship may well be bidirectional [309], with negative events not only predicting later problems, but problem behaviors also predicting later increases in the number of perceived negative events [98].…”