Erikson (1950) contends that the physical changes associated with puberty serve as a catalyst for adolescents to question childhood identifications and to consolidate these with current self-conceptions, personal ideologies, interpersonal values, and future aspirations. Erikson describes the adolescent identity crisis as the developmental period…

This study examined how "homophily" (similarity) and "propinquity" (availability) simultaneously predict both unidirectional and reciprocal cross-ethnic friendships among early adolescents in ethnically diverse classrooms. In a sample of sixth-grade students, liking nominations were used as the indicator of friendship, and both…

Examines the impact of pubertal status and timing, independent of chronological age, on the family relationships of adolescents in 204 families with a firstborn child between the ages of 10 and 15. Measures included adolescent and parental reports of closeness, confict, and autonomy and assessments of adolesents' pubertal status and pubertal…

Fifty-one families responded to questionnaires on affective relations between parents and their adolescent children. On the basis of the pubertal status of their children, families were classified into prepubertal, transpubertal, or postpubertal groups. Results showed that differences in family relationships were due to the transformation of…

The associations between menarcheal status and several child-rearing and outcome variables were examined for mother-daughter and father-daughter dyads. The results indicated that most of the significant relations occurred for the mother-daughter dyad, and most of these relations were curvilinear. (Author/LMO)

Questionnaire and interview findings from 36 white middle-class adolescent boys found that the first ejaculation was psychologically meaningful but socially invisible. Those who felt more prepared expressed more positive feelings and coped better. Psychosocial and developmental difficulties in sexual education for young males are discussed. (SLD)