Biomedical subjects

Kathryn A Urberg

Publications and source records attributed to Kathryn A Urberg.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Friendship and adjustment among adolescents.

This study investigated the relation of friendship and emotional adjustment in adolescents. Both quantitative (popularity, mutual friendships, and number of friends) and qualitative dimensions (perceived positive friendship quality and conflict) of friendship were used. Participants were 618, mostly European American, 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. Structural equation modeling showed that positive friendship quality was the only friendship variable that predicted adjustment. An examination of gender effects indicated that this relation held only for boys. The quantitative aspects of friendship had a small, indirect effect on adjustment through their effects on positive quality. Conflict had a negative effect on positive quality and this effect was stronger for girls than for boys. The role of adolescents' perception in adjustment was highlighted and suggestions for future research were made.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Antisocial behavior and affiliation with deviant peers.

We examined the associations among gender, antisocial behavior, and peer-group affiliation in a high-risk sample of 401 homeless and matched housed adolescents (139 boys and 262 girls). The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (Version 2.3, 1991; Costello, Edelbrock, Kalas, Kessler, & Klaric, 1982) yielded 2 measures of adolescent antisocial behavior: symptoms of conduct disorder and substance abuse or dependence. Various deviant behaviors of friends were assessed based on adolescent self-report. Results indicated that, for both boys and girls, having many deviant peers was associated with more antisocial behavior, regardless of the number of boys in the peer network. Furthermore, findings suggest that the relation between number of deviant peers and antisocial behavior may be stronger for boys and homeless adolescents than for girls and housed adolescents, respectively. The results of prior studies indicating that antisocial behavior is a function of affiliation with male peers may be due to the higher frequencies of maladaptive behaviors evidenced in boys in normative samples.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

A two-stage model of peer influence in adolescent substance use: individual and relationship-specific differences in susceptibility to influence.

A two-stage model of peer influence was proposed. The model served as a framework for examining individual and relationship-specific differences in susceptibility to influence. The two stages are (1) the acquisition of a peer context and (2) conforming to the behavior of a peer. Data from a four-wave longitudinal study were used to assess (1) the initial selection of cigarette- and alcohol-using peers and (2) influence from peers. Relationship factors and variables identified as risk factors for substance use were hypothesized to increase susceptibility to peer influence. The results indicated that adolescents who did not value school achievement or spending time with parents were more apt than others to choose friends who smoked cigarettes more than they did. Adolescents who chose friends who drank more than they did not differ from other adolescents on any of the risk factors. Thus, low-risk adolescents were as likely to acquire a friend context where drinking was likely to occur as were adolescents who had more risk factors. When the second stage was examined, only high peer acceptance and high friendship quality resulted in adolescents being more apt to conform to their friend's substance-use behaviors.

Adolescent↗