Home Sweet Home(s):
Parental Separations, Residential Moves and
Adjustment Problems in Low-Income Adolescent Girls
Emma K. Adam and P. Lindsay
Chase-Lansdale
Abstract
This study examines associations between histories
of family disruption (including residential moves and separations
from parent figures) and adolescent adjustment in a random sample
of 267 African-American girls from three urban poverty neighborhoods.
Hierarchical regression analyses are used to test the associations
between disruption histories and a summary index of adolescent adjustment
including educational (GPA, dropout), internalizing (depression,
anxiety), externalizing (minor delinquency and major delinquency)
and reproductive (sexual activity) outcomes. Analyses control for
current household demographics and test the possible mediating role
of adolescents" perceptions of their current social relationships
and neighborhoods.
Family disruption accounts for 14 percent of the variance
in adolescent adjustment problems after controlling for current
household demographic characteristics. Among the disruption variables,
the number of residential moves experienced by the teen was an important
predictor of adolescent adjustment problems. There was some evidence
that separations from father figures play a role; however, a history
of maternal separations was the more powerful predictor of adolescent
girls" adjustment problems. The perceived quality of their
current neighborhood and relationships with adults also were significant
independent predictors, although they do not appear to mediate the
effects of disruption. The full model, including household characteristics,
disruption variables, and perceptions of current relationships and
neighborhoods, accounts for 38 percent of the variance in adolescent
adjustment.
Emma K. Adam, School
of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, School of Education
and Social Policy, Northwestern University
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