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We investigated how mothers' parenting behaviors and personal characteristics were related to risk-taking by young children. We tested contrasting predictions from evolutionary and social role theories with the former predicting higher risk-taking by boys compared to girls and the latter predicting that mothers would influence children's gender role development with risk-taking occurring more in children parented with higher levels of harshness (i.e., authoritarian parenting style). In our study, mothers reported their own gender roles and parenting styles as well as their children's risk-taking and activities related to gender roles. The results were only partially consistent with the two theories, as the amount of risk-taking by sons and daughters did not differ significantly and risk-taking by daughters, but not sons, was positively related to mothers' use of the authoritarian parenting style and the girls' engagement in masculine activities. Risk-taking by sons was not predicted by any combination of mother-related variables. Overall, mothers who were higher in femininity used more authoritative and less authoritarian parenting styles. Theoretical implications as well as implications for predicting and reducing children's risk-taking are discussed.

Relationships with parents and friends may work together to increase the risk of adjustment problems in emerging adulthood. However, it is still undetermined if social relationships act in an additive (i.e., serve as unique predictors) or moderating (i.e., interact with other predictors) fashion. In a cross-sectional sample of 859 female college students ( M age = 19.53, SD = 1.49; 73.9% White) from a large university in the south-central United States, we assessed how parents and best friends impact emerging adult internalizing symptoms, risky behavior, and health problems. We found that low levels of best friend risky behavior attenuated the links between father-emerging adult relationship quality and risky behavior and internalizing symptoms, and high levels of father-emerging adult relationship quality magnified the association between mother-emerging adult relations and internalizing symptoms. Ultimately, these results indicate that relationships with parents and friends served as additive or unique predictors of emerging adult health and behavior.

AbstractAdolescence is defined in part by heightened exposure and sensitivity to stressors. In a longitudinal cohort of youth at risk for substance use problems, we examined the age‐varying relationship between stress exposure and traits that are central to the dual systems model. The positive associations between stress exposure, impulsivity, sensation seeking varied as function of age. Specifically, the influence of stress exposure on impulsivity strengthened during early adolescence and remained stable into early adulthood, while the influence of stress exposure on sensation seeking strengthened from early‐ to mid‐adolescence and weakened thereafter. These findings suggest that the maturational imbalance between the capacity to regulate impulsive tendencies and sensation seeking may be exaggerated for youth who are exposed to a high number of stressors.