2008 Chicago Schools
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Transcript of 2008 Chicago Schools
“Privileged youth”:
Well-educated and well-to-do, but what of well-being?
Study 1: Suburban vs. Inner-city teens (mid 1990’s)
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Substance use Anxiety Depression
Suburban girlsSuburban boysInner city girlsInner-city boys
Proportion of youth above clinical cutoffs _____________________________________________
GIRLS BOYS
Norm Suburb Norm Suburb Depression 7% 22% 7% 5% Anxiety 17% 22% 17% 26% _________________________________________________Substance use
Alcohol 61% 72% 61% 63% Illicit drugs 38% 46% 38% 59% ____________________________________________
Correlates of substance use
Suburban youth: • substance use linked with depression, anxiety: ‘self-medication’• ‘negative affect’ subtype shows high continuity
Suburban boys: • substance use linked with peer popularity• links robust with controls for internalizing, externalizing & academic indices
Questions:
• do problems generalize to pre-teens? • causes of such problems in ‘privileged’ groups?
• Study 2: Sixth & seventh graders in suburban school • n = 302, 92% Caucasian, median family income $102,000
Findings
• problems low among 6th graders
• 7th grade girls: 14% above clinical cutoff for depression: twice as high as normative rates
• 7th grade boys: 7% drinking to intoxication once / month, 7% marijuana use once / month
• Correlates of substance use as in Luthar & D’Avanzo (1999)• internalizing symptoms among boys & girls• peer popularity among 7th grade boys
Luthar & Becker (2002), Child Development
Roots of adjustment problems?
1. Achievement pressures • maladaptive perfectionism (self-report)• parents’ emphasis on achievements (ranking: personal success versus personal integrity / decency)
2. Isolation from adults • children often alone at home (supervision after school)• little relaxed “family time” (closeness to mother, father)
Results showed multiple links for both achievement pressures and isolation from adults
Generalization of Problems:
The New England Study of Suburban Youth (NESSY)
• all sixth graders from both middle schools in a town • parallel with study of inner-city middle schoolers Demographics:
• 93% Caucasian• median family income > $125,000• one third adults with graduate/ professional degrees
Family dimensions: NESSY vs inner-city 6th graders on seven dimensions
Comparable mean values onMom closeness Dad closeness Dinner with parents Emphasis on integrity (vs own success)
Suburban youth fared better onAfter school supervision Perceived criticism
Suburban youth fared more poorly on:Parent expectations
Material wealth does not imply “superior” family functioning
ContainmentParents differ in how seriously they react when they discover
types of rule-breaking behaviors among their teenage children. Reactions can range from simply talking about the incident or giving warnings for the future, to revoking privileges that are very important to the person. For each of the following items, please indicate how serious the consequences from your parents would be, if they found out you’d done the behavior in question.
Substance use
Delinquent behavior
Rudeness / unkindness
Academic indolence
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
Substance Use Delinquency Rudeness AcademicDisengagement
Perceived parent containment
Female Male
Luthar & Goldstein (2008), Development & Psychopathology
Psychologists & pediatricians warn that youth in affluent communities are highly stressed due to over-scheduling, with far too many after-school activities.
Hours spent in extra curricular activities
Suburban youth higher on Sports activities Academic activitiesArts activities
Suburban youth lower onCivic activities (e.g., volunteering, church, temple)
Sports hours
Arts hours
Academic hours
Civic hours
Parent criticism
After school supervision
Parent expectations
Mom achievement emphasis
Dad achievement emphasis
Dinner with parents
PREDICTORS OF PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC ADJUSTMENT: Activity / family indices *
Girls &boys
Boys
* Luthar, Shoum, & Brown (2006). Developmental Psychology.
GENERALIZABILITY OF HIGH DISTRESS AMONG AFFLUENT YOUTH
Is this just a suburban phenomenon?
-data on private school students
-60% parents with graduate degrees
-74% Caucasian, 8% Asian, 2% Hispanic 4% African-American, 11% other
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
Anxious/ Depressed Withdrawn/Depressed
Somatic Complaints Rule Breaking
Normative samples Pvt school girls Pvt school boys
Private High School Juniors/seniors with symptoms "Much Above Average" (T>65)
Norms: 7%
47%
75%
50%
84%
% who used alcohol in last year
US Girls Private sch. Girls US Boys Private sch. Boys
Private High School Juniors/ seniors alcohol use compared to norms
GENERALIZABILITY OF HIGH DISTRESS AMONG AFFLUENT YOUTH
Is this just a suburban phenomenon?
Is this restricted to the East coast?
-data on West coast youth
-33% parents with graduate degrees
- 84% Caucasian, 12% Asian, 2% Hispanic,
1% African-American, 1% other
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5%
10%
15%
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25%
30%
Anxious/Depressed
Withdrawn/Depressed
SomaticComplaints
Rule Breaking
% Norm % Girls Much Above Average % Boys Much Above Average
West Coast High School Juniors/seniors with symptoms “Much Above Average” (T > 65)
Norms: 7%
Non-suicidal Self-injury (NSSI)*
Two cohorts:
Cross sectional: 1,036 9-12 graders (West Coast)Longitudinal: 245 students followed annually, grades 6-12
(East Coast)
* Yates, Tracy, & Luthar (2008). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• Self-injurious behavior: “a prominent and recurrent phenomenon among the 1,300 children of highly educated, white-collar professionals”
• Nearly a third reported NSSI during the previous year • Three quarters of injurers endorsed recurrent episodes• Rates higher than in other school settings
Most prevalent:
Girls: self-hitting, cutting, body-picking
Boys: self-hitting, body-picking, and self-biting
Conclusions regarding symptoms:
Adolescents of highly educated, well-to-do parents clearly show some signs of elevated symptoms relative to norms
- as seen in suburban and urban samples - on East and West coast
Preliminary impressions re gender differences - boys show elevations in rule breaking and substance use - girls show elevations across multiple domains:
the “traditionally female” internalizing symptoms andthe more typically male externalizing problems
- compared to youth in harsh urban poverty, on average, - perceptions of family functioning are not necessarily “better” - peers endorse rebellious behaviors at least as much
Complex underlying causes
Family pressures? • in some instances --- as is true in all demographic groups
Peer values• reinforcing rebellious behaviors
Social comparisons• competition for few “Ivy league spots”• competing with “friends” – low intimacy & self-doubt
Schools: Advanced Placement courses • encouraged by schools and by parents
The American Dream: “More is better” • material rewards make for ultimate happiness • acquired through competitive schools and colleges
COMPETITION AND FAST-LANE LIFE
• Little leisure time…
• Youth are taking lunch hour to study
• Should schools require them to take recess?
• How many of us adults can be “forced to relax”?
CASA• Important things for parents to do:
– Set a good example
– Have dinner with your kids
– Keep open channels of communication
– Show / express love
– Know their whereabouts
– Know who their friends are
– Have real consequences for substance use
CASA• Important things for parents to do:
– DON’T SET A BAD EXAMPLE (Set a good example)
– Keep open channels of communication
– Show / express love
– Have real consequences for substance use
– Know their whereabouts
– Know who their friends are
– Have dinner with your kids
Does angst dissipate post adolescence? - no, according to preliminary data in college
- Particularly problematic: substance abuse (including prescription medications), eating problems
Women’s development in the context of “privilege”
• media suggestions of high expectations, guilt, anxiety
“…urged us to be, simultaneously, independent, achievement-oriented, successful, the equal to any man and yet appealing to men, selfless, accommodating, nurturing, the connective tissue that holds all families together, and of course, slim and beautiful. We really were supposed to become some hybrid between Mother Teresa, Donna Shalala, Martha Stewart, and Cindy Crawford”.
Douglas & Michaels, The Mommy Myth, p 325.
…there is something about motherhood that provokes a psychological crisis in privileged women's lives. They suffer from …a "choking cocktail of guilt and anxiety and resentment and regret." They lose their sense of self. They worry about whether their children will turn out okay. And they begin to feel estranged from their husbands who have stimulating professional work.. …. For the author and others, motherhood does not bring the expected joy and fulfillment. On the contrary, it is the source of painful conflict, self-doubt, and existential angst.
Review of Warner, Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, 2005
Internet-based study of mothers
• oversampling for highly educated mothers of middle- & high schoolers
• N 360, recruiting through PTA and word-of-mouth
• measures of • personal adjustment (e.g.,well-being, depression, substance use)• relationships (e.g., marriage, role restrictions, guilt),
personal authenticity, e.g., “The self” I show to others – my “outer self” – is very much the same as my “inner self”
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High School College College + MA Doctoral
Mothers' Subjective Well-Being by Education
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High School College College + MA Doctoral
Mothers' Personal Authenticity by education
Drug Dependence - MCMI
Ph.D. / MA mothers
College degree mothers
Alcohol Dependence – MCMI
Anxiety BSI
Depression- BSI
Somatization- BSI
Personal authenticity
Mother Incompetence/guilt
Drug Dependence - MCMI
Ph.D. / MA mothers
College degree mothers
Alcohol Dependence – MCMI .38*** .09
Anxiety BSI .33*** .22**
Depression- BSI .42*** .12
Somatization- BSI .38*** .10
Personal authenticity -.31*** -.26**
Mother Incompetence/guilt .23** .16
Quality of Marriage by Education
High School College College + MA Adv. Grad
Satisfaction with being a Parent by Education
High School College College + MA Adv. Grad
Marital status / employment status?
• no difference in major outcomes
• quality of relationships much more significant
CAVEAT TO FINDINGS
• relatively small sample of mothers
• need further multivariate analyses
For mothers: As individuals... and not just "moms"
This national online survey explores the inner lives of mothers.
In developmental research, women are typically considered in terms of their behaviors as mothers - rarely in terms of their own personhood. This survey will explore how you feel about your different roles not only as a mother, but also as a spouse, as a friend, as an individual with various hopes and fears -- and how you cope with the challenge of balancing multiple roles.
Many of the survey questions will inquire about your relationship with your child. If you currently have more than one child in middle or high school, please consider the oldest of these children for this survey.
Your responses will be entirely anonymous. Our interest, in this project, is solely in aggregate or average trends; no one (not even I) will be able to identify any individual mother in terms of her survey responses.
If you would like a copy of the summary results on completion of this survey, please provide your email address.
From one mother to another - many thanks and best regards.
Suniya S. Luthar, Ph.D.Professor of Clinical and Developmental PsychologyTeachers College, Columbia University
http:// www.MomsasPeople.com
momsaspeople
CollaboratorsDoctoral students: Monica Ghalian, Adam Goldstein, Mia Ihm,
Jason Karageorge, Shoshanna Must, Rebecca Prince, Aparna Sampat, Skip Teel, Dana Zelman
Faculty colleaguesBronwyn Becker, Britt Galen, Shawn Latendresse,
Chris Sexton, Tuppett Yates, Laurel Bidwell Zelazo
Yale Mother-Child StudyPamela Brown, Erica Shirley, Karen Shoum, Julie Scott
This research has been supported by theNational Institute on Drug Abuse & the William T. Grant Foundation
Heartfelt thanks to the children and families of theNew England Study of Suburban Youth