Mothers' Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents: PDF

The Journalhttp://jea.sagepub.com/ of Early Adolescence Mothers' Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents: : Links to Expectations for a Specific child Christy M. Buchanan The Journal of Early Adolescence...

The Journalhttp://jea.sagepub.com/ of Early Adolescence Mothers' Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents: : Links to Expectations for a Specific child Christy M. Buchanan The Journal of Early Adolescence 2003 23: 29 DOI: 10.1177/0272431602239129 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jea.sagepub.com/content/23/1/29 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for The Journal of Early Adolescence can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jea.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jea.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jea.sagepub.com/content/23/1/29.refs.html >> Version of Record - Feb 1, 2003 What is This? Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  article/ OF 10.1177/0272431602239129 JOURNAL Buchanan GENERALIZED EARLY ADOLESCENCE BELIEFS ABOUT / February ADOLESCENTS 2003 Mothers’ Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents: Links to Expectations for a Specific Child Christy M. Buchanan Wake Forest University Mothers’generalized beliefs about adolescents were used to predict a mother’s expecta- tions for her own child’s adolescent years. Participants were 75 mothers of children in either sixth grade or seventh grade. Generalized beliefs about adolescents predicted the mother’s expectations for her own young adolescent even after accounting for the young adolescent’s current attributes (e.g., depressed mood, closeness to mother). For exam- ple, the more likely a mother was to believe that adolescents as a group are conforming, risk-taking and rebellious, or internalizing, the more likely she was to expect adoles- cence to be difficult for her own child. Greater beliefs that adolescents are upstanding/ prosocial predicted greater expectations for a closer parent/child relationship during the child’s adolescence. The link between a mother’s generalized beliefs and her expecta- tions for her young adolescent did not vary by the child’s pubertal development or gen- der. Potential implications of parental beliefs concerning adolescence for parenting and parent/child relationships are discussed. Keywords: social cognition; early adolescence; parental beliefs; parental expecta- tions; stereotypes of adolescence A growing body of research indicates that parents’ cognitions about child development in general and about their own children in particular are impor- tant influences on parenting behaviors and child outcomes. Parents’ expecta- tions for their own child’s behavior (e.g., Eccles, Jacobs, & Harold, 1990; Jacobs, 1991; Jacobs & Eccles, 1992), their attributions for that behavior Financial support of this research was provided by the Research and Creative Activities Fund (supported by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation), the Summer Stipends Program, and the Department of Psychology at Wake Forest University. Some of the results reported were presented at the 1998 meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, CA. The author extends thanks to the reviewers of this article for their helpful and constructive comments. Journal of Early Adolescence, Vol. 23 No. 1, February 2003 29-50 DOI: 10.1177/0272431602239129 © 2003 Sage Publications 29 Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 30 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 (e.g., Dix, Ruble, Grusec, & Nixon, 1986; Dix, Ruble, & Zambarano, 1989), and their feelings of parental control and efficacy (Bugental et al., 1993; Bugental, Blue, & Cruzcosa, 1989) are among the beliefs that have been shown to be related to parents’ affect and behavior. One source of parents’ expectations for, and attributions about, their own children appears to be parents’ generalized beliefs and stereotypes concern- ing the behavior and abilities of children based on age, gender, or other char- acteristics (Eccles, 1992; Jacobs & Eccles, 1992). In the current study, exam- ination was made of whether parents’ expectations for their young adolescents would be predicted by parents’ generalized beliefs about adoles- cents as a group. Previous research on the influence of parents’ generalized beliefs on expectations for a specific child has been confined to the domain of achievement-related beliefs. Given the existence of primarily negative ste- reotypes concerning adolescents in general (Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998), it seems important to know whether, among parents, negative beliefs about adolescents as a group would predict negative expectations for their own children. A Model Linking Beliefs and Behavior Based on extensive study of the achievement behavior of adolescents, Eccles (1992) developed a model to link parents’ beliefs, parents’ behavior, and children’s outcomes. Eccles proposes that parents’ “generalized beliefs” (sometimes referred to as stereotypes1 or category-based beliefs) predict par- ents’ child-specific beliefs (e.g., expectations for a specific child’s behavior) and that both general and child-specific beliefs can influence parental behav- iors and, subsequently, child outcomes. In one empirical test of the model, Jacobs and Eccles (1992) showed that mothers’ generalized beliefs about the abilities of boys and girls influenced mothers’ beliefs about their own children’s talents independent of the child’s actual performance in any particular domain (e.g., mathematics, sports). For example, mothers who endorsed the idea that males generally are more tal- ented in mathematics than are females had higher expectations for sons’ future mathematics performance and lower expectations for daughters’ future mathematics performance, even when past grades and standardized test scores were equivalent. Those data indicated that beliefs about category membership do influence parents’ judgments of their own children, above and beyond the influence of children’s own characteristics on those judgments. Those results were consistent with research in person perception, showing that, in general, perceptions and impressions of individuals can be influenced Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 31 by an individual’s category membership as well as that person’s individual attributes (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990; Jones & McGillis, 1976; Kreuger & Rothbart, 1988). However, given the rich and reliable information available to parents about individual characteristics of their children, it seems reason- able that parents’ expectations for their own children would be based primar- ily on those individual characteristics. It would not be surprising if, among parents, the child’s category membership (e.g., gender, age) and parents’gen- eralized beliefs about characteristics of category members were unimportant with respect to expectations for the child (Kreuger & Rothbart, 1988). Yet, the data on achievement-related beliefs indicate otherwise (Eccles et al., 1990; Jacobs, 1991; Jacobs & Eccles, 1992) and point to the importance of generalized beliefs about category membership in predicting expectations for specific individuals even among parents of those individuals. Parents’ Beliefs About Adolescents Adolescence is a developmental period in which parents’ beliefs concern- ing age-category membership especially might be important with respect to parenting and parent/child interaction. Unfavorable beliefs about adoles- cents, including negative stereotypes, exist (Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998; Holmbeck & Hill, 1988; Offer & Schonert-Reichl, 1992). Although there is, no doubt, a kernel of truth to some of the stereotypes about adolescence (Arnett, 1999; Buchanan et al., 1990), there also is evidence that cultural beliefs are more negative than the reality (Bandura, 1964; Buchanan, Eccles, & Becker, 1991; Collins, 1995; Offer & Schonert-Reichl, 1992). For exam- ple, stereotypes portray adolescents as heavily influenced by friends at the expense of parental influence, whereas research data show parents to be influential throughout adolescence (e.g., Grotevant & Cooper, 1985; Hill & Holmbeck, 1986; Ryan & Lynch, 1989). Stereotypes of adolescents as uncommunicative also appear exaggerated, although mild increases in nega- tive affect experienced in family interaction can occur during the early ado- lescent years (Larson, Richards, Moneta, Holmbeck, & Duckett, 1996). The ready availability of cultural ideas about adolescents as rebellious, insecure, emotional, influenced by friends and fads, and prone to a variety of high-risk behaviors including drinking and sexual behaviors might lead par- ents to endorse negative beliefs about adolescents, in general, and subse- quently to expect negative behavior from their own adolescents based simply on their age category. Negative expectations based on category membership then might influence parents’ behavior with their own adolescents, and ado- lescents’ own behavior, through several possible routes. As one example, Holmbeck (1996) has suggested that parents’ endorsement of beliefs about Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 32 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 adolescence as a time of turbulence might lead parents to be more authoritar- ian in their parenting and less supportive of adolescents’ bids for autonomy than they might be otherwise. Because those characteristics of parenting gen- erally are associated with poor outcomes for adolescents (e.g., Baumrind, 1991; Eccles et al., 1993), a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy could result, with parents’negative generalized beliefs leading to negative outcomes because of the ineffective parenting negative beliefs might engender (see also Holmbeck, 1996). Offer and Schonert-Reichl (1992) suggested, as well, that when parents and professionals expect problems to surface during adoles- cence (i.e., when problems are seen as “normal”), they are less likely to inter- vene in appropriate ways when an adolescent does need professional help. Despite cultural messages, parents vary in the extent to which they endorse negative (e.g., that adolescence is a time of difficulty) or positive (e.g., that adolescence is a time when adolescents mature in positive ways) ideas about adolescence, based on factors such as their own experience dur- ing adolescence and, as adults, their exposure to, or experience with, adoles- cents (Buchanan et al., 1990; Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998). Of concern in the current investigation was whether variations in parents’ generalized beliefs2 about adolescents, both negative and positive, would be related to variation in parents’ expectations for their own child during adolescence. Summary and Hypotheses The present study represents a first attempt to link parents’ generalized beliefs about adolescents and their expectations for their own child’s adoles- cence. Given evidence for the power of gender-related generalized beliefs to influence expectations for sons or daughters (e.g., Jacobs & Eccles, 1992), it was hypothesized that age-related generalized beliefs would predict expecta- tions for a particular child’s adolescence above and beyond individual char- acteristics of the child. Specifically, mothers of young adolescents with more negative (or less positive) generalized beliefs about adolescents were expected to have more negative (less positive) expectations for their own chil- dren’s adolescence than were mothers of young adolescents with less nega- tive (more positive) generalized beliefs. The young adolescent’s tempera- ment (e.g., characteristic tendencies toward such traits as moodiness or irritability) and current psychological functioning (e.g., current tendency toward personal or relational problems that might indicate risk during years of adolescence) also were expected to predict a mother’s expectations for that child. More positive individual attributes were expected to predict more posi- tive expectations for the child’s adolescence. However, the association between a mother’s generalized beliefs about adolescents and her expec- Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 33 tations for her child’s adolescence was expected to exist independently of the child’s current attributes. In other words, generalized beliefs were expected to add significant predictive power to a mother’s expectations for her child’s future as an adolescent above and beyond the information provided by her own child’s current disposition and adjustment. The more that individuals are identified clearly as members of a category, the more likely it is that attitudes and affect associated with that category will be triggered (Fazio, 1986). Thus, the presence of physical changes indicating that a child is entering adolescence might accentuate any concerns parents have about this age period. It was expected, then, that the link between gener- alized beliefs and expectations for a specific child would be stronger for young adolescents who were more advanced in pubertal development. METHOD Participants Participants were 75 mothers3 of young adolescents. Thirty-four of the mothers (45%) had an early-adolescent son, and 41 had an early-adolescent daughter. Forty of the mothers (53%) had a child in sixth grade, and 35 had a child in seventh grade. Letters describing the study were sent home to parents via their children attending a middle school in a southeastern city. Mothers then returned a form indicating whether they were willing to participate. Mothers who were willing were mailed a packet with consent forms, ques- tionnaires, and a stamped return envelope. The mothers who ultimately participated represent approximately 14% of the families with sixth graders or seventh graders attending that middle school. Reminders to return consent forms were sent to mothers through the schools to increase the response rate, but follow-up telephone calls were not possible as the school would not share telephone number information. Although the response rate is low, it is not atypical for response (as compared to refusal) rates (Kitson et al., 1982). Predominantly, participants were European American (89%) and married (71%). Fifty-two percent of the mothers reported an annual family income of more than $50,000, 32% reported family income between $30,000 and $49,000, and 15% reported family income of less than $30,000 (1% did not report income). The most common educational level among mothers was a college degree (47%), with 21% of mothers reporting more than a college degree and 32% less than a college degree. All had graduated from high school. In comparison to the general population of the county in which the Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 34 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 participants resided, participants were more likely to be European American and to have higher income and education.4 Measures Generalized beliefs about adolescents. Mothers responded to the Buchanan and Holmbeck (1998) Stereotypes of Adolescents scale. They were presented with 44 descriptors (e.g., rebellious, friendly) and asked to report the percentage of typical adolescents that, in their opinion, possess that characteristic or display that behavior. Each descriptor was presented next to a scale ranging from 0% (or definitely NO) through 100% (or definitely YES) (by intervals of 10 percentage points). Mothers’ ratings on the descriptors were collapsed into nine scales, with items in each scale averaged to arrive at the composite score. The scales were originally derived based on factor analyses (Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998) and represented beliefs that adolescents (a) are active, (b) display classic ado- lescent behaviors, (c) are conforming, (d) are friendly, (e) experience inter- nalizing symptoms, (f) exhibit problem behaviors, (g) are risk-taking and rebellious, (h) are social, and (i) display an upstanding and prosocial nature. Table 1 lists all descriptors included in each of these scales, as well as the means, standard deviations, and Cronbach’s alphas for each scale. As reported in Buchanan and Holmbeck (1998), the scales have demonstrated good test-retest reliability and validity. Expectations for child. Each mother rated a set of items used by Buchanan et al. (1990) to assess expectations for their own child’s adolescence. On a 7- point scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree, mothers rated their agreement with statements such as “As my child moves through adoles- cence, he or she will seek my advice more often” or “... be more difficult to get along with.” One item was added to the original set: “... he or she will be more moody and emotional.” Items were grouped into two scales suggested by Buchanan et al. (1990)—one to assess expectations for a closer relation- ship with the adolescent (2 items) and one to assess expectations of difficulty for the child during adolescence (4 items; the “moody and emotional” item was added to this latter scale). The scale for assessing expectations that chil- dren would have a closer relationship with their mothers had an adequate Cronbach’s alpha (.84); the mean and standard deviation of this scale were 4.2 and 1.3, respectively. The “adolescence will be difficult” scale was reli- able (.70) only if the item to assess expectations for the adolescent to “be Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 35 TABLE 1: Descriptors for Each of the Nine Scales Measuring Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents Scale Descriptors X SD α Activity active, adventurous, ambitious, energetic 71.6 13.1.75 Classic adolescent listens to music, into clothes, materialistic 82.6 10.1.73 behaviors Conformity conforms to peers, easily influenced by 72.5 12.2.70 peers, faddish, distractible Friendliness friendly, generous, fun-loving, considerate, 67.0 11.1.84 caring Internalizing awkward, anxious, insecure, confused, 63.8 13.4.79 emotional, depressed Problem behaviors uses alcohol, sexually active, smokes, 33.3 17.6.91 uses drugs, dates Risk-taking and takes risks, tests limits, rebellious, reckless, 63.0 15.0.89 rebelliousness stubborn, rude, impulsive, restless, selfish Sociability spends time with friends, social 81.1 11.0.75 Upstanding and interested in school, inquisitive, intelligent, 64.1 11.6.80 prosocial nature helpful, hardworking, honest clumsy” was excluded, so that item was eliminated. The resulting three-item scale had a mean of 5.2 and a standard deviation of 1.1. Child attributes: Temperament and current functioning. Several measures were used to assess the young adolescents’attributes and current psychologi- cal functioning. First, mothers rated their adolescents’temperament using the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R), which is described in detail elsewhere and has been shown to demonstrate adequate concurrent and predictive validity with samples of early adolescents and late adolescents (Windle, 1992; Windle & Lerner, 1986). On a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (usually false) through 4 (usually true), mothers rated a set of statements about how their child typically behaved, such as “(Your child) laughs and smiles at a lot of things” and “(Your child) resists changes in routine.” Subscales used in the analyses reported here assess the child’s general activ- ity level (X = 2.4, SD =.71), approach/withdrawal (X = 2.9, SD =.54), flexi- bility/rigidity (X = 3.1, SD =.64), (positive) mood quality (X = 3.5, SD =.53), (lack of) distractibility (X = 2.4, SD =.60), and persistence (X = 2.8, SD =.69). A “task orientation” scale also was computed by averaging all items in the (lack of) distractibility and persistence scales (X = 2.5, SD =.58). Internal consistency for all scales was more than.80. Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 36 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 Each mother also rated her young adolescent’s recent moods using a sub- set of questions from the Health and Daily Living Scale (HDLS) (Moos, Cronkite, & Finney, 1992). The HDLS assesses a wide variety of feelings and behaviors (including, for example, activities engaged in during the past month and assessment of intellectual and personality traits). A subset of the questions that ask how often in the past month the child has experienced vari- ous emotions was used. The questions on the subscale are very similar to those used in other scales to measure depression/anxiety among adolescents (e.g., Dornbusch, Mont-Reynaud, Ritter, Chen, & Steinberg, 1991), with the difference that the current scale focuses more on mood states and less on physical symptoms. Thus, using a scale from 1 (never) through 4 (fairly often), mothers rated how often each of the following 12 adjectives described their child over the past month: alert, cheerful, relaxed, full of energy, happy, calm, sad/blue, uptight/tense, afraid of things, restless, very tired, and wor- ried. The first six questions, which assessed positive mood states, were reverse scored, and then all items were averaged such that higher scores on the composite indicated higher depressed mood. Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was.87; the mean and standard deviation were 1.8 and.42, respectively. To distinguish this measure from the measure of general mood in the temper- ament scales, this scale will be referred to as “depressed mood”; the correla- tion between the two was –.50 (a high score on “general mood” indicates better mood; a high score on “depressed mood” indicates worse mood). School grades for the previous 2 years were reported by mothers on a scale of 1 (mostly As) through 8 (mostly below D). Cronbach’s alpha for the two items was.94; the mean and standard deviation were 2.2 and 1.4, respec- tively. Finally, the current closeness of the mother/child relationship was measured with a subset of six items adapted from Buchanan et al. (1992, 1996). On a 1 (not at all) through 5 (very) scale, mothers answered questions such as “How openly does your child talk with you?” and “How close are you and your child?” Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was.77; the mean and stan- dard deviation were 4.4 and.44, respectively. Ideally, a measure of children’s functioning that was independent of moth- ers’ own reports would have been available, to reduce artificial inflation of the link between child’s current functioning and mother’s future expectations for that child. Teachers of children whose mothers participated in this study were asked to fill out a short questionnaire to assess the child’s temperament (a subset of the temperament scales on which mother reported), depressed mood, school grades, effort, and competence in various domains. Unfortu- nately, the teacher questionnaire was completed for only 33 of the children on whom mothers reported. Thus, it was not possible to use teacher reports of children’s functioning without losing a significant number of cases for analy- Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 37 TABLE 2: Zero-Order Correlations Between Mothers’ and Teachers’ Ratings of Children’s Attributes Dimension Correlation Temperament General activity level—teacher/mother.31* Approach/withdrawal—teacher/mother.16 General mood—teacher/mother.37* Task orientation—teacher/mother.13 a School effort and performance Current year grades—teacher/mother.65** b Perceived academic competence teacher/ Current year gradesmother –.73** School effort—teacher/mother –.05 School effort—teacher/Current year grades—mother –.38* Symptoms of depression Depressed mood—teacher/mother.50** NOTE: Tests are one-tailed. a. Grades are scored such that high scores represent low grades. b. Harter (1982). * p <.05. ** p <.01. sis. However, the correlations between mothers’ and teachers’ reports of the children’s attributes were examined for the 33 cases in which both reports were available. The correlations are presented in Table 2. Although assess- ments of school effort were uncorrelated across reporters, correlations between mothers’ and teachers’ reports of activity level and of depressed mood were moderate in magnitude, and correlations between reports of school competence/grades were substantial. Children’s pubertal status. Mothers’perceptions of their children’s puber- tal status were measured using the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) (Petersen, Crockett, Richards, & Boxer, 1988). Mothers rated whether physi- cal changes had 1 = not yet begun, 2 = barely begun, 3 = definitely begun, or 4 = been completed on four indices for girls (height, body hair, skin, and breasts) and five indices for boys (height, body hair, skin, facial hair, and voice). A pubertal development score was derived from the average of the appropriate sets for boys (X = 2.3, SD =.68) and girls (X = 2.7, SD =.63), and those scores were standardized using z-scores so that the pubertal status scores indicated how mature a given child was relative to his or her own gender. Given the focus on relatively early signs of puberty in this early-adolescent sample, and because menarche is a relatively late sign of puberty, menarche was not assessed in the current study. Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 38 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 Although mothers might not be accurate in an absolute sense in rating their children’s pubertal development, relative rankings generally corre- spond well to doctors’ reports (Dorn, Susman, Nottelmann, Inoff-Germain, & Chrousos, 1990). Using the PDS, mothers’ and doctors’ ratings have been found to correspond quite well for ratings of girls; mothers’ reports might underestimate boys’development, somewhat, but still should provide an ade- quate assessment of the boys’ relative rankings (Buchanan, 1991; Miller, Tucker, Pasch, & Eccles, 1988). Analyses First, zero-order correlations between each of the dependent variables (the two scales measuring expectations for the young adolescent’s adolescent years) and all potential independent variables (each of the nine generalized beliefs scales and each of the seven child attribute scales) were examined. Second, regressions were used to test whether generalized beliefs predicted expectations for the child independent of the link between child attributes (i.e., temperament and current psychological functioning of the child) and expectations for the child. Each of the two scales that measure expectations for the child (Expectations for Child–Difficult Adolescence and Expecta- tions for Child–Closer Relationship) was regressed on (a) all child attribute measures that were correlated significantly with that particular expectations scale at the zero-order level, and then (b) each of the generalized beliefs scales that was correlated significantly with that expectations scale at the zero-order level. To examine hypotheses concerning interactions of generalized beliefs with pubertal status in predicting expectations for the child, a series of hierar- chical regressions was conducted. Each of the expectations scales was regressed on each of the nine generalized beliefs scales, pubertal status, and child gender (Step 1), all two-way interactions among those variables (Step 2), and the three-way interaction of generalized belief, pubertal status, and child gender (Step 3). Gender of the child was included in these analyses to test the possibility that the impact of pubertal development on the associa- tion between generalized beliefs about adolescents and expectations for the child would vary for girls and for boys. RESULTS Prior to conducting the central analyses of this investigation, differences both in generalized beliefs and expectations for the child by gender of the Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 39 TABLE 3: Zero-Order Correlations Between Independent Variables (General- ized Beliefs About Adolescents and Child Attributes) and Dependent Variables (Expectations for the Child’s Adolescence) Dependent Variable: Expectations for Child Difficult Increased Mother/ Independent Variable Adolescence Child Closeness Generalized beliefs Active –.20.18 Classic adolescent behaviors.23* –.25* Conforming.42** –.20 Friendly –.22.05 Internalizing.41** –.11 Problem behaviors –.05 –.07 Risk-taking and rebelliousness.39** –.10 Social.06 –.19 Upstanding –.32**.30** a Child attributes Temperament Activity level.23* –.08 Approach—withdrawal –.12.16 Flexibility—rigidity –.27*.02 Mood quality –.05 –.18 Distractibility –.10.17 Persistence –.25*.01 Task orientation –.17.12 Current psychological functioning Depressed mood.35**.16 School grades –.21.16 Current mother/child closeness –.31**.17 a. High scores on these scales indicate, respectively, high activity levels, high approach, high flexibility, positive mood, lack of distractibility, high persistence, high task orienta- tion, high depressed mood, lower grades, and closer mother/child relationships. * p <.05. ** p <.01. young adolescent were examined to see whether the child’s gender should be used as a covariate in analyses linking generalized beliefs and expectations for the child. Those analyses revealed no gender differences in either general- ized beliefs or expectations for the child. Zero-order correlations (see Table 3) indicated that mothers’ generalized beliefs about adolescents were related significantly to their expectations that the child’s adolescence would be difficult and that it would be a time when mother and child would become closer. Mothers’ generalized beliefs indicat- ing that adolescents display classic adolescent behaviors, or are conforming, internalizing, risk-taking and rebellious and not upstanding/prosocial, were Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 40 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 linked to greater expectations that adolescence would be a difficult time for their child. Mothers’expectations for a closer relationship with the child were linked to lower generalized beliefs that adolescents display classic ado- lescent behaviors and higher generalized beliefs that adolescents are upstanding/prosocial. Measures of the child’s attributes were not linked, at the zero-order level, with expectations of increased closeness in the mother/child relationship dur- ing adolescence. This indicated that the link between generalized beliefs and expectations concerning the mother’s own future relationship with the child would not be accounted for by the child’s current attributes. In contrast, a mother’s expectations that her young adolescent would experience difficulty during adolescence were related to several current char- acteristics of the child: higher general activity level, lower flexibility, lower persistence, high depressed mood, and lower current mother/child closeness. Thus, to test whether generalized beliefs predicted Expectations for Child– Difficult Adolescence independent of the link between the child’s current attributes and such expectations, regressions were conducted. Mothers’ Expectations for Child–Difficult Adolescence were predicted with each of the five generalized beliefs scales that was correlated significantly with Expectations for Child–Difficult Adolescence at the zero-order level. The generalized beliefs scales were entered (individually) as a last step in hierar- chical regressions that controlled for (a) measures of temperament correlated with the dependent variable, in the first step, and (b) measures of current psy- chological functioning correlated with the dependent variable, in the second step. Five separate regressions were run—with the five generalized beliefs entered separately in the last step—because an analysis including all five was not feasible given the sample size. Results of those analyses are summarized in Table 4. Mothers’ general- ized beliefs were associated significantly with expectations that the child would have a difficult adolescence, even after accounting for temperament and current psychological functioning. Mothers whose generalized beliefs about adolescents were more negative expected more difficulty for their own child during adolescence, regardless of the child’s current temperament and adjustment and regardless of current closeness in the mother/child relationship. Regression analyses also were used to test whether the relation between generalized beliefs and Expectations for Child–Difficult Adolescence was moderated by the child’s pubertal status and gender. The independent vari- ables of generalized beliefs and child’s gender were centered; pubertal status did not need to be centered, as the units for this measure were z-scores. The two Expectations for Child scales (Difficult Adolescence and Closer Rela- Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 41 TABLE 4: Results of Regression Analyses Linking Generalized Beliefs About Adolescents (GBA) With Expectations for Difficulty During Adoles- cence Controlling for Child’s Attributes 2 Dependent Independent R Change 2 Variable Step Variable β R (Last Step) Expectations for 1 general activity.15.12 Child–Difficult persistence –.11 † Adolescence flexibility –.23 2 closeness to mother –.14.19 depressed mood.20 3 GBA: risk-taking.28*.50 F = 5.75* 3 GBA: classic adolescent behaviors.16.21 F = 1.78 3 GBA: internalizing.30**.26 F = 6.96** 3 GBA: conforming.34**.28 F = 9.08** 3 GBA: upstanding –.25*.24 F = 5.21* NOTE: N = 75. Five different regressions are reported, each predicting expectations for a difficult adolescence for the child, and each with the same first two steps. Each regres- sion entered a different generalized belief on the third step. † p <.10. * p <.05. ** p <.01. tionship) were regressed on the independent variables in three steps. In the first step, the main effects of each generalized belief (individually), child’s pubertal status, and child’s gender were entered. In the second step, three two-way interactions (Generalized Belief × Pubertal Status, Generalized Belief × Gender, and Pubertal Status × Gender) were entered. In the third step, the three-way interaction of generalized belief by pubertal status by gender was entered. The number of significant interactions (both two-way and three-way) did not exceed the number that would be expected by chance. DISCUSSION In previous research, parents and others have endorsed the idea that ado- lescence is a time of “storm and stress” (e.g., Buchanan et al., 1990; Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998; Holmbeck & Hill, 1988). The data reported in the current study indicated that holding negative beliefs about adolescents as a group is related to mothers’expectations for difficulty with their own young adolescents as those children proceed through adolescence. Generalized beliefs were related less strongly to mothers’ expectations concerning their future relationship with their children during adolescence, although expecta- tions of an increasingly close relationship were associated with generalized Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 42 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 beliefs that adolescents are upstanding and are not involved necessarily in classic adolescent behaviors such as being concerned about clothes and lis- tening to popular music. The links between generalized beliefs about adoles- cents and expectations for a specific child existed independent of the child’s current attributes as measured here (i.e., the child’s characteristic tempera- ment, and his or her mood, school performance, and recent closeness in the mother/child relationship). The more consistent links between generalized beliefs and expectations for a difficult adolescence (as compared to expectations concerning mother/ child closeness) might indicate a greater conceptual similarity of the types of generalized beliefs measured (e.g., adolescents are risk-taking, conforming, and experience symptoms of depression) with expectations for general diffi- culty than with expectations concerning the parent/child relationship. Alter- natively, generalized beliefs might be more likely to affect expectations that do not concern an important personal relationship than expectations that do concern such a relationship. In other words, mothers might be more able to endure the notion that their children will experience some general difficulty during adolescence than they are able to endure the notion that their own, per- sonal relationship with their child will suffer. That idea would be consistent with the notion that parents are “developmental optimists” and need to be so as to continually put forth effort in the demanding role of parent (Buchanan et al., 1990; Knight, 1985). It is interesting to note, however, that measures of the child’s current attributes also did not predict expectations concerning closeness in the mother/child relationship. Thus, even though generalized beliefs about adolescents were not very strong predictors of expectations about the mother/child relationship, such beliefs still were better predictors than were the individual attributes of the child assessed here. These data provide evidence that even among parents—who know their children well and whose expectations should be influenced heavily by indi- vidual attributes of their children—generalized beliefs concerning a social category to which their child belongs might have the power to influence expectations for their child. Jacobs and Eccles (1992) demonstrated that par- ents’ generalized beliefs about gender categories were important predictors of expectations for specific children; the current data provide evidence that generalized beliefs about age categories might be important as well. It is possible, of course, that parents’generalized beliefs about adolescents as a category are informed by what they observe in their own young adoles- cents. There is reason to believe, however, that generalized beliefs precede judgments of individual adolescents, at least in part. First, other studies have shown the existence of negative beliefs about adolescents both in parent and nonparent samples (e.g., Buchanan & Holmbeck, 1998; Holmbeck & Hill, Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 43 1988; Offer, Ostrov, & Howard, 1981). It is unlikely that the current sample of mothers held no generalized beliefs consistent with stereotypes of adoles- cents independent of their own child’s provision of evidence for those beliefs. Second, these mothers were reporting on children who were at the very beginning of adolescence. Although young adolescents who defy the nega- tive stereotypes of adolescents ultimately might change their parents’ ideas about adolescents as a group,5 it is unlikely that dramatic changes in general- ized beliefs on the basis of the child’s behavior would take place before the child was further into adolescence. Regardless of how wonderful any particu- lar young adolescent is, he or she has not yet provided consistent evidence for a more positive view of adolescents over an extended period of time. Finally, generalized beliefs about adolescents and expectations for a specific child were linked independent of the association between the child’s current attrib- utes and those expectations. That fact lends credence to the idea that it is not just the child who is driving the association between generalized beliefs and child-specific expectations. Rather, there is an association between two types of cognitions within the parent, independent of the child’s characteristic moods and behavior. Of course, longitudinal data are necessary to provide a stronger test of the possibility that is only suggested here: that generalized beliefs actually influence expectations for specific children. This study provided no evidence that the link between generalized beliefs and expectations for a specific child was strengthened by cues concerning the emergence of adolescence in a child (i.e., signs of pubertal development). Perhaps the transition to middle school is such a powerful social indicator of the transition into early adolescence to parents that it overrides any impact of individual pubertal development after that transition. Pubertal development might be a more important sign of adolescent development among late ele- mentary school children, who have not yet made a social transition linked to adolescence in Western culture. Among the mothers of middle-school stu- dents in the present sample, however, the link between generalized beliefs about adolescents and expectations for a specific child was direct, and similar for boys and for girls and for children of differing levels of physical matura- tion. That could indicate that the extent to which generalized beliefs concern- ing adolescence permeate parents’thinking might be consistent across a wide variety of situations. Limitations and Further Research The present study had a low response rate, and the sample was not repre- sentative of the population of parents of young adolescents. Predominantly, the mothers in this sample were European American, well educated, and mar- Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 44 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 ried. Generalized beliefs, and their relation to expectations for a specific child, might differ for other ethnic groups or family structures. For example, there is some evidence for more positive expectations about adolescence among African American than among European American parents and chil- dren (Buchanan & Whiteman, 2000; Hinman, 1997; Newton, Buchanan, & Whiteman, 2001). As the majority group, European American parents and children might be more likely to endorse negative generalized beliefs consis- tent with the dominant society’s stereotypes. Variations in family circum- stances (due to economics, ethnicity, or family structure) might increase or decrease the relevance of cultural stereotypes to expectations for a particular child. Kitson et al. (1982) pointed out that nonprobability samples such as the present one, although limited, can be appropriate for exploration of relatively new areas of inquiry. The results obtained in the present study indicate that it would be worthwhile to pursue these research ideas in more diverse samples. The present study documented a relation between generalized beliefs and child-specific expectations after controlling for children’s current attributes (i.e., temperament and current functioning). In the future, those relations should be tested using independent reporters of children’s attributes to rule out the possibility of reporter bias. In the current study, there is some evi- dence that mothers’ reports of their children’s temperament and current adjustment were accurate in an objective sense because their reports on most measures of the children’s attributes correlated well with teachers’ reports. The test of the current hypotheses would have been stronger, however, had teachers’ reports been available as the measure of individual attributes. Another limitation of the current study is the one-time, correlational design. Although an association between mothers’ generalized beliefs and mothers’ expectations for specific children was documented, no conclusions can be drawn about the causal relation between generalized beliefs and child- specific expectations. Longitudinal data are needed to test the hypothesis that generalized beliefs influence expectations for a specific adolescent. In addi- tion to the examination of direction of effect, longitudinal research should be used to address the possibility of confounds other than the child’s tempera- ment and current functioning. For example, it could be that parents who gen- erally are more depressed, pessimistic, or cynical hold more negative gener- alized beliefs about adolescents as well as more negative expectations for a child (Buchanan et al., 1990). Longitudinal data including measures of par- ents’ personality and cognitive styles could illuminate more fully the nature of the relation between generalized beliefs about adolescents and expecta- tions for a specific child. Another task for research that is longitudinal in design is to elucidate the impact of generalized beliefs and specific expectations on parenting during Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012  Buchanan / GENERALIZED BELIEFS ABOUT ADOLESCENTS 45 adolescence. Currently, nothing is known about the impact of the kinds of beliefs measured here on parents’ affective reactions to encounters with their children or their parenting practices. Negative expectations might engender authoritarian parenting if parents become more restrictive in the hopes of averting problem behaviors (Holmbeck, 1996), or parents might lose faith in their own power to influence their adolescent if they believe adolescents to be influenced heavily by factors such as peers and hormones. Bogenschneider, Small, and Tsay (1997) demonstrated that a low sense of parenting compe- tence is linked to less optimal parenting of adolescents (e.g., lower monitor- ing). Furthermore, parents of young children who have low perceived control over caregiving outcomes are more sensitive to negative behavior in their child, reacting with more negative affect and more coercive discipline than do parents with high perceived control (Bugental, 1987; Bugental et al., 1989). It thus is possible that parents of adolescents who endorse negative beliefs con- sistent with societal stereotypes are more likely to respond negatively to, or to disengage from, their children if their beliefs engender a low sense of efficacy or control. Unrealistically positive expectations might not be good either, however. There is, after all, some truth to the stereotypes of adolescence (Arnett, 1999). For example, adolescents do spend less time with their family and more time with friends (Larson et al., 1996), and they do show more negative affect with parents (Collins, 1990; Larson et al., 1996) than do younger chil- dren. They do engage in more risky behaviors (Baumrind, 1987; Irwin & Millstein, 1991; Miller, Christopherson, & King, 1993), and girls become more likely to experience symptoms of depression (Nolen-Hoeksema & Girgus, 1994). The stereotypes might be extreme, and they might not apply to all children, but it might be argued that parents who do not expect some prob- lems are naïve. As has been demonstrated with research on the transition to parenting, dissatisfaction and disillusionment can result when the reality of parenting is worse than parents’ expectations (Kalmuss, Davidson, & Cushman, 1992). Furthermore, conflict between parents and adolescents can result from violations of expectancies (Collins, 1990). Thus, it could be real- istic and adaptive for parents to expect a bit of turbulence. The theory on which this study is based implies that parents’ generalized beliefs about adolescents will affect child-specific expectations and parenting in similar ways for differing children. In other words, parents’ gen- eralized beliefs about adolescence might be one contributor to the shared environment of differing children in the same family. Other factors, including factors not shared by siblings, also affect parents’ expectations for specific children as well as parents’ actual behavior with specific children, allowing for the fact that despite holding certain generalized beliefs, parents do not Downloaded from jea.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on December 28, 2012 46 JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE / February 2003 always parent in the same ways with differing children (Hetherington, Reiss, & Plomin, 1994; Hoffman, 1991). Even so, it would be informative to exam- ine the links among generalized beliefs, child-specific expectations, and parenting for multiple children in the same family. Research of this type could address the importance of generalized beliefs as a shared environmen- tal factor across differing children and could be used to examine the extent to which characteristics of a child (e.g., birth order, temperament) or a child’s nonshared environment (e.g., peer group) affect the association between gen- eralized beliefs on one hand and child-specific expectations or parenting on the other. Another potentially important topic for further research is children’s own generalized beliefs about adolescents and their expectations for themselves as adolescents. Children’s own beliefs and expectations about what is normal adolescent behavior might influence their actual behavior as they move through adolescence. Just as parents’ideas about gender ultimately influence their children’s own sense of competence in gender-stereotyped domains (Jacobs & Eccles, 1992), it is possible that parents’ ideas about adolescence influence what children believe is typical or acceptable behavior for adoles- cents. Thus, children’s perceptions of their parents’ ideas about adolescence in general and about themselves as adolescents are worthy of study. NOTES 1. Stereotypes are a form of generalized belief. However, the term stereotype is sometimes used in a more specific sense than is generalized beliefs, specifically denoting beliefs about one group (e.g., adolescents) that differ from beliefs about another group (e.g., elementary-age chil- dren; Jones & McGillis, 1976; McCauley, Stitt, & Segal, 1980). Generalized beliefs about a group could be related closely to stereotypes about a group, but they are not exactly the same thing. 2. The focus of this study was on “generalized beliefs about adolescents,” not “stereotypes of adolescents” in the more specific sense of comparing beliefs about adolescents to beliefs about younger or older individuals. Thus, references to current hypotheses and data use the term gener- alized beliefs to refer to beliefs about adolescents as a group. 3. Thirty-nine fathers also participated in this study; 33 were spouses of the mothers who par- ticipated. Data are not reported for fathers here, primarily for simplicity of presentation. Due to the smaller number of fathers, not all analyses could be conducted with fathers. Those analyses that were conducted indicated very similar results to those reported for mothers. 4. According to census data (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002a, 2002b), 69% of the residents of the county were European American in 2000. In 1990, 24% of residents were college graduates, and 78% were high school graduates. Median income in 1997 was $39,536. 5. 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