On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Jessica Percodani wrote:
>
> Does anyone know of any recent articles examining aspects of parenting
> related to violent adolescents?
>
I'd recommend the work of one of my favourite gadflies, Judith
Harris (as in her book "the Nurture Assumption"), which argues
that parents have much less influence than they've been
traditionally assigned in how their adolescents turn out.
In a recent reply to one of her critics (Harris, 2000), she cites
a book (Reiss, 2000) summarizing a major research project on the
topic. She says this about Reiss's findings:
"Reiss has confessed that he was "shocked" by the results...The
results are indeed shocking to believers in the nurture
assumption (and Reiss, in spite of everything, remains a
believer). Virtually all the correlations between parental
behaviors and child outcomes [adolescents, apparently] were
accounted for by genetic factors. The parents did indeed treat
their children differently, but they were reacting to genetic
differences...rather than causing the differences".
-Stephen
References
Harris, J. (2000). Socialization, personality development, and
the child's environments: comment on Vandell (2000). Develop.
Psychol. 36, 711-723
Reiss, D. (2000). The relationship code: Deciphering genetic
and social influences on adolescent development. Harvard Univ
Press.
Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's Universitye-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/
