Reporting back to the community: Findings with Mercer Island students.
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Transcript of Reporting back to the community: Findings with Mercer Island students.
Demographics
• Middle schoolEthnicity: 72.1% Caucasian, 17.0% Asian,
2.4% Hispanic, .5% African-American, 5.1% Bi-/Multi-racial, 2.6% other
Mothers’ education: 44.1% college degree 36.5% graduate degree
Fathers’ education: 36% with college degree43.7% with graduate degree
Marital status: 81.7% parents currently married
Demographics (Cont’d)
• High schoolEthnicity: 69.7% Caucasian, 15.4% Asian,
2.5% Hispanic, 1.6% African-American, 6.6% Bi-/Multi-racial, 4.2% other
Mothers’ education: 40.5% college degree 41.4% with graduate degree
Fathers’ education: 31.9% college degree
52.3% with graduate degree
Marital status: 72.4% parents currently married
Procedures • Students saw brief videotape
– explaining goals of research
– clarifying that participation in no way required
– assuring anonymity of responses
• Parents sent letters – explaining the study
– providing opportunity to deny consent
• Data collection – participation rates ~ 85%
– in classrooms via paper-and-pen survey
– no personally identifying information asked
– completed surveys sealed in manila envelopes
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Cigarette Use percentages (last year)
norms
Prevalence of Cigarette Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Cigarette Use percentages (last year)
Mercer Island norms
Prevalence of Cigarette Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Cigarette Use percentages (last year)
Mercer Island Suburban School norms
Prevalence of Cigarette Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Cigarette Use percentages (last year)
MI girls MI Boys norms
Prevalence of Cigarette Use by Gender
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100
8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Alcohol percentages (last year)
norms
Prevalence of Alcohol Use
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100
8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Alcohol percentages (last year)
Mercer Island norms
Prevalence of Alcohol Use
0102030405060708090
100
8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Alcohol percentages (last year)
Mercer Island Suburban School norms
Prevalence of Alcohol Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Alcohol Use percentages (last year)
MI girls MI Boys norms
Prevalence of Alcohol Use by Gender
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Marijuana Use percentages (last year)
norms
Prevalence of Marijuana Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Marijuana Use percentages (last year)
Mercer Island norms
Prevalence of Marijuana Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Marijuana Use percentages (last year)
Mercer Island Suburban School norms
Prevalence of Marijuana Use
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8th grade 10th grade 12th grade
Marijuana Use percentages (last year)
MI girls MI Boys norms
Prevalence of Marijuana Use by Gender
Summary• Middle school substance use is below the
national norm• Substance use significantly greater among
high school students– Marijuana use among high-school students is
significantly higher than national norm – Particularly, cigarette and marijuana use is
problematic among high-school boys– Alcohol consumption is similar to the national
norm
PREDICTORS EXAMINED
Parent-child relationship• Closeness: Feelings of trust, open communication
• Involvement: In child’s activities/ interests, eating
dinner together
• Perceived criticism: For “less than perfect” performance
• Monitoring: “Really know”, “Try to know”
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
PREDICTORS EXAMINED Peer relationships: Quality of close friendships
• Support, respect, trust
• Conflict, disagreements, quarrels
Envy of peers
• Sometimes, even good friends can feel envious or jealous of each other. For each of the following, please indicate how much it would it bother you, or make you feel envious, if your friends …
– had better SAT scores than you– got a very fancy car as a gift from their parents– were better liked by other kids than you
• Academics• Possessions• Popularity
Protective factors associated with low substance use:
High-school students
• Males
– Close parent-child relationship – Perceived consequences for substance use – High parental involvement
Protective factors associated with low substance use:
High-school students
• Females– Perceived consequences for substance use – High parental involvement – Few negative interactions (low conflict) with
closest friends
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Internalizing
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Norm
Internalizing problems: National norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Internalizing
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Boys Norm
Internalizing Problems relative to national norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Internalizing
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Girls Norm
Internalizing Problems relative to national norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Internalizing
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Boys Girls Norm
Internalizing Problems relative to national norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Externalizing
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Norm
Externalizing problems: National norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Externalizing
T-s
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Boys Norm
Externalizing Problems relative to national norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Externalizing
T-s
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Girls Norm
Externalizing Problems relative to national norms
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6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade
Externalizing
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core
Boys Girls Norm
Externalizing Problems relative to national norms
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25.00%
Boys
Norm
Percent of middle school students with problems “Much Above Average”
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Girls
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Percent of middle school students with problems “Much Above Average”
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Boys
Girls
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Percent of middle school students with problems “Much Above Average”
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Boys
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Percent of high school students with problems “Much Above Average”
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Percent of high school students with problems “Much Above Average”
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Boys
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Percent of high school students with problems “Much Above Average”
Summary of Findings
• Middle school– Average “score” or levels of problems for whole
school are like national levels – But relatively high proportion of boys reported
clinical levels of • anxious/depressed &• thought problems
Summary of Findings
• High school– Average levels of internalizing problems
elevated among MI girls – Average levels of externalizing problems
elevated among MI boys and girls
Summary of Findings
• High school: Proportions with clinical levels of problems– Rule-breaking: high among both boys and girls – Girls: high on all internalizing subscales– Boys: high on anxious/depressed, thought
problems, and attention problems
Factors associated with low internalizing problems
• Males– Close parent-child relationship – High parent involvement – More serious parental consequences for
delinquency – Few negative interactions with closest friends – Low peer envy
Factors associated with low internalizing problems
• Females– Good parent-child relationship– High parental involvement – Few negative interactions with closest friends– Low peer envy
Factors associated with low externalizing problems
• For both males and females– Good parent-child relationship – High parental involvement– High perceived consequences for substance use – Low negative interactions with closest friends – Low peer envy
Prevalence
• 29.4% of high school students reported more than one incident of NSSI (compared to 15.9% NESSY)
• Among girls, self-hitting, cutting, and body-picking were most prevalent
• Among boys, self-hitting, body-picking, and self-biting were most prevalent
Predictors of high NSSI: Aspects of family functioning
Perceived parent criticism
feelings of alienation
NSSI frequencyseverity
• For girls, links hold for frequency but not severity • For boys, links hold for both frequency and severity
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
Gender-specific stressors. Aside from intrapersonal, community-based, and cultural factors that contri-bute to wealth-unhappiness links, there are also somechallenges relatively specific to women in upper- class communities & others more salient for men.
Women’s development in the context of “privilege”
• girls show elevations across multiple domains: internalizing and externalizing
• on average and through pre-teens and adolescence, youth tend to communicate more with mothers than with fathers
• 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
19.5
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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
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