Suchergebnisse

This longitudinal study examines the role that students' political reputation in class plays in their future political activities offline together with other people. When aged 16, students were asked to nominate the classmates they considered politically knowledgeable and verbal in class, that is, as having a political reputation. This measure of political reputation was used to predict the participants' political activities offline four years later at age 20 and their attempts to take a stand in public in the national election the same year. The study controlled for individual differences in political interest, self‐perceived political impact in class, the students' political activities at age 16, and also gender and immigrant status. About 300 Swedish students were followed up four years later. Political reputation in class positively predicted future political activities offline, membership of political organizations, and attempts to take a stand in public for a party in the forthcoming national election. At the same time, the role played by political reputation depended upon students' other characteristics, especially their levels of anger and popularity, as observed by classmates. Evidently, the group dynamics in class that give some students a political reputation have long‐term consequences for their future political activities.

Since politically interested adolescents do not necessarily present humanistic, environmental and democratic values, this study addresses the hitherto ignored role that how these basic human values play in politically interested adolescents'political values, attitudes and behaviors. A cluster analysis of 857 Swedish upper-secondary students (50.8% girls, Mage = 16.62, SD = 0.71) identified politically interested adolescents who attached high levels of importance to others'welfare and politically interested adolescents who attached low levels of importance. They differed on most comparative measures: environmental values, inclusive attitudes towards immigrants, support of democratic principles, trust in social movements, and readiness to step in if something jeopardizes the welfare of others. The conclusion is that the value of attaching high importance to others' welfare or not transforms youth's political interest into diverse attitudes and behaviors. The cluster group of politically interested adolescents who attached low importance to others' welfare largely consisted of males.

We proposed that having mutually hostile interactions with others is a strong environmental stress factor that, together with diverse psychosocial problems, characterizes adolescents who self‐harm. Using cluster analysis, this study examined the naturally occurring patterns of hostility conditions and psychosocial difficulties in a normative sample of 2,029 adolescents (50% boys;Mage = 13.89). Results showed that self‐harming behavior was significantly higher among the subgroup of adolescents with mutually hostile interactions who exhibited both internalizing and externalizing problems than among adolescents with other interpersonal–psychosocial configurations. Also, this subgroup of adolescents reported high impulsivity, anger dysregulation, and low self‐esteem. These findings support recent research that indicates that adolescents who self‐harm also tend to expose others to hostility and display externalizing symptoms.

The purpose of this study is to examine the adolescents who cross the boundaries of legality, also including illegal political means in their political action repertoire. The data comprised of questionnaire responses from middle and late adolescents in a Swedish city of around 130,000 citizens. Analyses of covariance, EXACON, and logistic regression were used to examine the extent to which adolescents including illegal political activities in their political activity repertoire compare with their legally oriented counterparts. Adolescents using illegal political activity reported higher levels of political interest and goal-orientation than adolescents involved solely in legal political activity. The major contrasts with legal political activism were that illegal political activism seemed to co-occur with (a) reluctance to accept authority, irrespective of the context (societal, school, or parental) and (b) approval of violent political means. In a simultaneous model, further analysis revealed that reluctance to accept authority reduced the predictive power of illegal political activities with regard to approval of political violence. This suggests that the tendencies to approve of political violence, among adolescents involved in illegal political activities, might be partially explained by challenges toward authority. To conclude, adolescents in illegal political activism seem to have similar resources for political engagement as their legally oriented counterparts. However, adolescents involved in illegal political activity seem more likely to let ends justify the means. Most likely, this position is related to authority challenges.

Adolescents' hyperactivity, impulsivity, and attention problems (HIA) have been shown to make parents feel powerless. In this study, the authors examined whether these feelings were dependent on parents' experiences with their older children. Two models that offer different predictions of how parents make use of their earlier experiences when raising their later‐born children were explored: the learning‐from‐experience model and the spillover model. The authors used reports from 372 parents with 1 child (Mage = 11.92) and 198 parents with 2 children (Mage = 11.89 and 14.35) from a small town in a European country. The results did not support a learning‐from‐experience process. Instead, consistent with a spillover process, parents felt particularly powerless about their younger children with HIA if they also felt powerless about their older children. This study suggests that parents' experiences of raising their older children are important for their reactions to HIA in their younger children

This study examines the conditions that make adolescents open to their parents' attempts at political socialization. Based on a reformulation of the perceptual accuracy argument, that parents' messages are filtered through correct perceptions of these messages by adolescents, the study suggests that adolescents who accurately recognize their parents' high political sophistication are particularly likely to attend to and be open to their parents' political communication. This proposition was tested using cluster analysis of a sample of 505 Swedish upper-secondary students and their parents (51% girls;Mage = 16.56, SD = 0.67). The analysis yielded two clusters where adolescents correctly identified (26%) and failed to correctly identify (22%) their parents' high political sophistication, and three clusters where both parents and adolescents reported low or medium parental political sophistication (10%, 11%, and 32%). In confirmation of the hypothesis, members of the cluster group of adolescents who correctly recognized their parents' high political sophistication were particularly aware of parents' political socialization attempts and receptive to parents' political communication. Moreover, these youth considered their parents' political views as important and, accordingly, seemed to perceive their parents as political role models.

The study examined the individual characteristics and consequences of psychological group processes that may lead some students to gain a reputation for being politically knowledgeable and verbal in class (a political reputation). Two normal samples of Swedish students were used, 13‐year‐olds (N = 835) and 16‐year‐olds (N = 795). Longitudinal data over one year were analyzed and showed that youths' political reputation in class is established very early. Cross‐sectional predictions showed that political interest predicted political reputation in class positively, and social fear predicted political reputation negatively in both cohorts. In addition, having a political reputation predicted increased political interest and political efficacy over one year. Further, mediation analyses showed that youths' political predispositions, their political interest and political efficacy at T1, significantly operated on interest and efficacy at T2 via the political reputation. This suggests that political reputation partly functions as a booster of youths' initial political predispositions over time. Future research is needed into the long‐term consequences of having a political reputation.

The study examined the individual characteristics and consequences of psychological group processes that may lead some students to gain a reputation for being politically knowledgeable and verbal in class (a political reputation). Two normal samples of Swedish students were used, 13-year- olds (N = 835) and 16-year-olds (N = 795). Longitudinal data over one year were analyzed and showed that youths' political reputation in class is established very early. Cross-sectional predictions showed that political interest predicted political reputation in class positively, and social fear predicted political reputation negatively in both cohorts. In addition, having a political reputation predicted increased political interest and political efficacy over one year. Further, mediation analyses showed that youths' political predispositions, their political interest and political efficacy at T1, significantly operated on interest and efficacy at T2 via the political reputation. This suggests that political reputation partly functions as a booster of youths' initial political predispositions over time. Future research is needed into the long-term consequences of having a political reputation.

Studies have shown that parents reduce control and support in response to youths' drinking. Why they react this way, however, is still unknown. From cognitive dissonance theory, we derived hypotheses about parents' reactions. We used a longitudinal, school‐based sample of 494 youths (13 and 14 years, 56% boys) and their parents. General Linear Model (GLM) analyses were used to test the main hypotheses. In accord with our hypotheses, parents who encountered their youths intoxicated became less opposed to underage drinking over time. In addition, parents who remained strongly opposed to youth drinking experienced more worries than parents who became less opposed. Alternative explanations for the results were tested, but were not supported. The findings suggest that to eliminate the dissonance between their strict attitudes against youth drinking and their knowledge of their own youths' drinking, parents changed their attitudes and became more lenient.

The aim of this study was to investigate associations between pubertal timing and boys' Internet use, particularly their viewing of pornography. We used a sample comprising of 97 boys in grade 8 (M age, 14.22 years) from two schools in a medium‐sized Swedish town. This age should be optimal for differentiating early, on‐time, and later‐maturing boys. Boys responded to self‐report questionnaires on their Internet use and pubertal timing. Early, on‐time, and late‐maturing boys did not differ in terms of most Internet activities. However, early maturers reported downloading and viewing pornography more often than the other boys did (p<.001). The findings build on previous research on the link between pubertal timing and sexual behavior in adolescence. Moreover, they help further understanding of the behavioral implications of boys' pubertal timing.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how children's involvement in bullying (as bullies, victims and bully‐victims) is related to longer term levels of various internalizing problems such as depression and self‐harm.Design/methodology/approachA prospective longitudinal design was used based on data from the Swedish Seven Schools Longitudinal Study. The authors also examined whether bullying/victimization experiences predict changes in internalizing problems.FindingsResults vary depending on children's participation in bullying behavior as bullies, victims or bully‐victims.Originality/valueOverall, the paper's findings highlight the importance of uniqueness of different bullying/victimization experiences. This study showed that the bully‐victims, followed by the victimized group, were more at risk for displaying internalizing problems. Bullies showed neither higher internalizing problems nor increases over time in symptom levels compared to the youths who were neither bullies nor victims.

Cette étude examine les processus de sélection et d'influence liés à l'engagement scolaire et au comportement délinquant dans les relations d'amitié chez les adolescents. Nous appliquons des modèles d'analyse de réseaux dynamiques (Snijders, Steglich et Schweinberger, 2007) examinant la coévolution des comportements et des réseaux à un échantillon longitudinal de jeunes suédois (n = 445) observé pendant cinq ans. Les résultats indiquent que les choix des jeunes sont caractérisés par un fort niveau de réciprocité, de transitivité, d'homophilie de genre et d'homophilie fondée sur des niveaux semblables d'engagement scolaire et de comportement déviant. Des effets d'influence indiquent que les jeunes adoptent les comportements déviants de leurs amis. Le niveau d'engagement scolaire permet de prédire des changements dans le comportement déviant et ce dernier permet en retour de prédire une évolution dans l'engagement scolaire.