Adolescents Who Perform Better In School

 Associations between important aspects of the home and family and adolescents' behavior and well-being are the primary focus. Families with few economic resources are more likely to have adolescents who have behavioral problems, who are psychologically distressed, and who do less well in school. Parental behavior and psychological well-being in less adequately resourced homes partially explain adolescents' poorer functioning. Parents in economically deprived homes are more distressed, inconsistent, and harsh in their parenting, and are less likely to create an organized and structured home environment. All of these can lead adolescents to display psychological distress.

In linking home environment and parenting to adolescents' behavior, empirical work has not kept pace with conceptual formulations of the factors that may shape parenting practices. Arguments have been made claiming that parenting behavior is shaped by parents' assessment of the qualities adolescents will need in the family's social environment. Findings addressing this theory are in short supply. But research has shown that parents' emotional support, control, supervision, and home organization are positively linked to adolescents' psychological well-being and functioning. Also, African American parents who have higher academic expectations for their adolescents and who prepare them for the school experience tend to have adolescents who perform better in school.

Findings on the effects of neighborhoods suggest that factors reflecting the economic status of the neighborhood (median income, percentage of professional workers, percentage of abandoned houses) are associated with adolescents' psychological functioning and their likelihood of engaging in problem behavior. Processes mediating these relations are less clear but suggest that lower emotional support may explain some of the problematic behavior.

The prevention of some of the problems of poor adolescents and their families calls for the investment of social and financial capital in disadvantaged communities. Many of the problems of poor, inner-city families may be rooted in the absence of both jobs and people working for pay at regular hours. It is argued that the lack of employment means that individuals do not have regular, legitimate forms of income; models of persons using their skills to lawfully maintain a living; or activities that structure the flow of events in the community.

The investment of capital may also include the introduction of resources into communities (markets, stores, banks, schools) that will enhance the quality of life of its residents. Consequently, parents-less psychologically distressed than before-would engage in better parenting that would result in fewer adjustment problems for adolescents.