(Clase 2) Gerard, J. & Zoller, M. (2015) - Family and School Influences On Adolescent's Adjustement

Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado
Family and school inuences on adolescents' adjustment: The

moderating role of youth hopefulness and aspirations for the
future
Jean M. Gerard*, Margaret Zoller Booth
Bowling Green State University, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Available online 11 July 2015
Using a school-based sample of 675 adolescents, this short-term longitudinal investigation

examined the relationships among individual, family, and school inuences on adolescent
adjustment problems. Adolescents' perceptions of school climate and their sense of
connectedness to school were negatively associated with conduct problems. A signicant
interaction between parental academic support and adolescents' academic aspirations was
detected for the total sample, boys, and White youth, indicating that parental support
serves a protective function against conduct problems for students with low academic
expectations. Adolescents' hopefulness, parental academic aspirations, and school
connectedness were negatively associated with depression. Adolescents' hopefulness and
their academic aspirations moderated associations between both family and school inuences on adolescent adjustment with youth gender and race qualifying these interaction
effects.
2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier
Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Adolescence
Youth hopefulness
Academic expectations
Conduct problems
Depression
Adolescence is a period marked by rapid growth and psychosocial change. In addition to the dramatic physical alterations
of puberty, adolescents develop abstract thinking skills, explore possibilities in pursuit of identity, realign relationships with
parents as the need for autonomy increases, and navigate signicant school transitions. These transformations present opportunities for enhanced development; however, they also present challenges that can trigger vulnerabilities. Although most
teenagers traverse these changes successfully without undue stress this developmental stage is marked by increases in
behavioral and emotional problems (Hawkins & Monahan, 2009; Roza, Hofstra, Ende, & Verhulst, 2003). Conduct problems
are a major concern because adolescents who manifest behavioral problems are also at risk for adverse educational outcomes
such as peer rejection, school failure, and dropping out (Maguin & Loeber, 1996; Roeser & Eccles, 2000). Likewise, depression
involves emotional and behavioral downswings that can impede social development and scholastic performance (Keyes,
2006).
Myriad factors are implicated in the onset of problem behaviors; however, some of the most critical impacts stem from the
proximal settings in which adolescents reside including the family and school context (Resnick et al., 1997). Both contexts
potentially promote well-being when they provide ample resources and support (e.g., Prelow, Bowman, & Weaver, 2007), yet
both are potential arenas of risk that can hinder development when they are unsupportive (Call & Mortimer, 2001) or at odds
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jgerard@bgsu.edu (J.M. Gerard).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.06.003
0140-1971/ 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16
with adolescents' developmental needs (Eccles et al., 1993). At the same time, consideration must be given to individual
differences as children exhibit variability in response to environmental demands. Accordingly, we integrate ecological theory
with a risk-protection framework to examine associations among quality of educational support systems (i.e., family and
school), individual attributes, and adolescent adjustment problems. Drawing from two waves of youth-report data, the
purpose of this paper is to: a) examine the unique and relative inuence of the family context (i.e., parents' academic support
and academic expectations for their children) and school context (i.e., climate and connectedness) on conduct problems and
depression; b) determine whether adolescents' hopefulness and aspirations for the future, as individual attributes, serve as
buffering agents against conduct problems and depression when youth perceive the family context and school context as
unsupportive; and c) assess the equivalence of these associations across youth gender and racial groups.
Theoretical framework
Our conceptualization of family and school as key social arenas for developing youth is grounded in ecological theorydan
approach that is useful for understanding development as it occurs in multiple intersecting ecologies. According to this
perspective, the social environment can contribute to positive functioning by exposing children to supportive networks and
opportunities for enhanced development; conversely, it can contribute to poor functioning through exposure to unfavorable
conditions or by imposing constraints that limit psychosocial growth (Fraser, Kirby, & Smokowski, 2004). As microsystem
inuences, family and school constitute immediate contexts that directly impact adolescents largely through proximal
processes that either restrict or support their development. These proximal processes include key people (e.g., parents,
teachers, peers) in the form of interpersonal relationships and key places in the form of safety, satisfaction and opportunity
(Bowen, Roderick, Powers, & Glennie, 2008). The quality of experiences in the family and school setting are a matter of great
import as it is through these contexts that children not only learn norms for expected behavior but also are afforded the
opportunities necessary to acquire the fundamental knowledge, skills, and values that enable them to lead productive lives,
engage successfully in social relationships, and develop healthy responses to change.
Reecting a transactional process, ecological theory assumes that development is shaped by the interplay between
qualities of the individual and the quality of the environment in which the individual resides (Bronfenbrenner, 1989). This
assumption is compatible with a risk-protection framework, the second theoretical perspective undergirding this study,
which seeks to understand why some individuals fare poorly in the face of adversity or persistent risk, whereas others seem to
escape this risk with little psychological harm.
For purposes of this study, risk is dened as a condition within the youth's socialization context that potentially increases
the likelihood of unfavorable developmental outcomes, represented in this study as perceived lack of educational support in
the familial and school context. Protective factors, on the other hand, are individual or environmental safeguards that shield
youth from risk agents by fostering positive outcomes or reducing the likelihood of negative outcomes (Gerard & Buehler,
2004). Three general classes of protective factors have been identied in literature: individual attributes, family support,
and external support (Masten & Garmezy, 1985). Given our primary interest in understanding how adolescents' cope with
challenging educational/ecological contexts, we focus on individual attributes as possible protective factors, in this case
adolescents' hopefulness and academic aspirations e personal assets or psychological strengths that youth may draw upon
when they perceive their educational environments as unsupportive. Scholars have identied numerous personal characteristics that serve an ameliorative function in the context of risk. However, little attention has been given to youth hopefulness and academic aspirations e personal characteristics that warrant consideration as protective agents given their
potential to enhance psychological well-being through optimism, a sense of purpose, and a goal-seeking orientation. In the
present research context, high hope and academic aspirations may be particularly salient as a motivational force and
deterrent to socio-emotional problems when educational support in the home and/or school environment is lacking. The
emphasis on personal attributes aligns with ecological theory by recognizing adolescents' agency in managing the social
contexts in which they are embedded, represented here as an operating belief system based on optimism and goal aspiration
(Snyder, 2002).
Family context and support for academics
To the degree that parents provide sufcient resources and emotional support for their children's ongoing education, the
family is a pivotal school-related context for adolescents' socio-emotional functioning (Pomerantz & Moorman, 2010). Based
on this guiding premise, we focus on two academic-based aspects of the familial context: parents' academic support and
educational aspirations for their teenaged childrendfacets of the familial environment that have been conceptualized in the
literature as elements of social capital. Broadly dened, social capital refers to resources derived from social relationships that
minimize, prevent, or solve common problems for individuals and communities (Coleman, 1988; Smylie, Medaglia, &
Maticka-Tyndale, 2006). Linking this theoretical idea to the ecological framework, Crosnoe (2004) describes social capital
as resources that ow through relationship ties to enhance individual functioning, which are evident at both the micro-level
(i.e., personal relationships) and macro-level (i.e., social networks or institutions; p. 268). Such resources include information
channels, support networks, and norms for behavior. According to this view, supportive parentechild networks and access to
parents' aspirations facilitate the transmission of resources from parent to child in the form of encouragement, instrumental
assistance, and pro-school values (Marjoribanks, 2002). Theoretically, these resources direct adolescents toward positive
behavioral choices and enhance their emotional well-being through encouragement and support for academic goals.
Parental academic support
Considerable attention has been given to the role of parental academic support in facilitating children's academic functioning and, to a much lesser extent, their socio-emotional functioning (see review by Pomerantz & Moorman, 2010).
Recognizing this disparity, Pomerantz, Wang, and Ng (2005) contend that parental support of children's scholastic activity is
benecial to children beyond the school arena through the provision of affective resources that foster emotional well-being.
To date, most research has focused on parental involvement or parents' allocation of resources to the academic arena of
children's lives (Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994). Conceived in this manner, involvement can be viewed as a behavioral property
of the parentechild relationship reecting parental investment in the child manifested primarily through instrumental
assistance (e.g., help with homework) and active engagement with teachers and the broader school system. Our interest lies
more specically with parental support, which can be viewed as both a behavioral and affective property of the parentechild
relationship, in this case regular expression of interest by the parent that is conveyed directly to the child through praise and
encouragement for scholastic work in addition to instrumental assistance. Theoretically, parents who offer little in this regard
might convey disinterest or send the message that academics are unimportant, potentially steering their children toward
disengagement from school and poor behavioral choices. Lacking support from parents in the academic realm, adolescents
could react to parental indifference with emotional distress or deance to elicit parental attentiveness (Gerard, Krishnakumar,
& Buehler, 2006).
To our knowledge, no studies have examined the direct inuence of parental academic support on both conduct problems
and depression nor its interaction with youth attributes. Research on school inuences has generally focused on the link
between parental involvement and children's academic performance whereas research on parenting has focused on the link
between general parental support (i.e., warmth and responsiveness) and various indicators of children's adjustment including
mental health outcomes and academic performance. However, evidence from the school research literature backs the notion
that parental academic support plays a signicant role in their children's social-emotional functioning. For instance, Hill and
colleagues reported that parental academic involvement in 7th grade was associated with a decrease in school behavioral
problems, however, this nding held for middle-class children but not lower class children (Hill et al., 2004). In this study
parental involvement was assessed via reports by teachers, mothers, and adolescents. Mothers and teacher reports reected
conventional measures of involvement (e.g., parents' attendance school events, teachers' communication with parents) More
in line with our conceptualization of academic support, youth report items reected personally supportive gestures by
parents (e.g., helped children choose classes, held discussions about what children were doing in school). Similarly, Grolnick
and colleagues found that personal involvement (i.e., interest in what is going on in the child's school life) but not cognitive
(i.e., engaging child in intellectually stimulating activities) or school involvement (e.g., attendance at school events) predicted
decreased behavioral problems (Grolnick, Kurowski, Dunlap, & Hevey, 2000; Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994).
Parental academic aspirations
A host of studies have documented a positive linear relationship between parents' educational expectancies for their
children and subsequent academic achievement (e.g., Fan & Chen, 2001; Marjoribanks, 2002). In contrast, minimal research
attention has been given to parents' aspirations or expectations in relation to children's mental health outcomes. One
exception is a study by Resnick and colleagues. Drawing from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (ADD
Health), Resnick et al. (1997) found that high parental expectations for their teenagers' school achievement were associated
negatively with concurrent violence among older adolescents and depressive symptoms among both younger and older
adolescents. We extend this study by examining the inuence of parents' academic expectations on conduct problems and
depression longitudinally and its possible interactive effects with youth hope.
School context: climate and connectedness
Linkages between students' perception of the school context and indicators of academic performance are welldocumented; however, research has given much less attention to the role of school in adolescents' psychosocial development. Consideration of the school environment is important for several reasons. First, teenagers spend a considerable portion
of their waking hours in the school settingda proximal context, much like the family, that provides structure through rules,
routines, and potential resources in the form of social capital (i.e., supportive teachers, positive peer afliations). Second,
external support becomes increasingly salient during the teenage years as guidance from non-parental adults is sought. For
instance, research has shown that supportive relationships with teachers have a salutary effect on adolescents' scholastic
performance as well as their emotional well-being (e.g., Roeser, Eccles, & Sameroff, 1998). Third, the adolescent years,
particularly early adolescence, are marked by motivational decline, waning interest in school, and declines in academic
performance (Wigeld, Eccles, MacIver, Reuman, & Midgley, 1991) e changes that occur simultaneously with decreased
parental involvement in children's schooling (Epstein, 2005; Jackson & Davis, 2000). These conditions might leave youth
vulnerable, particularly to conduct problems. Thus, it is reasonable to expect linkages between the school context and adolescents' socio-emotional development, hence the focus on youth perceptions of school climate and connectedness.
Eccles and colleagues provide a compelling framework for understanding how socio-emotional problems such as conduct
problems and depression can develop in the school context (Eccles & Roeser, 2011). According to a stageeenvironment t
perspective, educational contexts in which youth are expected to learn often lack a positive goodness-of-t as a result of
ineffective school climates that do not foster positive social processes. Most difcult for adolescents, particularly middle
school students, are school ecologies that include greater teacher control and a decrease in the quality of teacherestudent
relationships, which can contribute to a decrease in academic motivation, a negative self-image, and an increase in behavioral
problems (Eccles, Lord, & Midgley, 1991; Roeser & Eccles, 1998). Such conditions are problematic from a developmental
standpoint considering the psychological and social needs of adolescents. Hallmark features of this stage of life include an
increased need for autonomy, decision-making, and belongingness to peers and non-familial adults. According to Eccles and
Roeser (2011), adolescents whose social environments address these changing needs are more likely to experience positive
outcomes.
School climate
School climate is a multi-dimensional construct reecting various aspects of the educational setting including quality of
instruction, studenteteacher relations, fairness, regulation and enforcement of rules (Kuperminc, Leadbeater, Emmons, &
Blatt, 1997). Several studies have documented an association between school climate and socio-emotional problems (e.g.,
Jia et al., 2009; Kuperminc, Leadbeater, & Blatt, 2001; Kuperminc et al., 1997; Roeser et al., 1998; Wang, Selman, Dishion, &
Stormshak, 2010). Many climate studies are based on concurrent measures of school climate and adolescent adjustment,
thereby focusing on the immediate impact of the school setting. Stronger support for the climateeadjustment relationship
comes from longitudinal studies that document a link between school quality and change in children's socio-emotional
functioning over time. For instance, in a longitudinal study of 1451 young adolescents, Way, Reddy, and Rhodes (2007)
found that middle school students' perceptions of school climate declined from sixth through eighth grade and that these
declines were predictive of student declines in psychological and behavioral adjustment. Similarly, in their longitudinal study
of an ethnically diverse sample of 7th grade students, Kuperminc et al. (2001) reported a main effect of an unfavorable school
climate, as perceived by students, on both externalizing and internalizing problems, ndings that were not attributable to
prior levels of adjustment. These effects were qualied by interactions with youth attributes (i.e., self-criticism and selfefcacy), supporting our focus on student characteristics that moderate the impact of school climate.
School connectedness
Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown that school connectedness, or the extent to which students feel
personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment (Goodenow, 1993, p. 80),
is associated negatively with numerous indicators of adjustment including violence (Brookmeyer, Fanti, & Henrich, 2006;
Resnick et al., 1997), conduct problems (Gerard & Buehler, 2004), depression and anxiety (Anderman, 2002; Shochet,
Dadds, Ham, & Montague, 2006). Such associations can be understood when viewing the school context not simply as an
educational institution that prepares students academically and vocationally but also as a developmental context where
important attachments and support networks are formed e conditions that foster personal well-being (Crosnoe, 2004; Eccles
& Roeser, 2011). Catalano and colleagues contend that school plays a central role as one of the primary socialization domains
that can deter antisocial behavior and promote healthy development in childhood (Catalano, Haggerty, Oesterle, Fleming, &
Hawkins, 2004), an assertion supported by the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP). Utilizing a quasi-experimental
design, these researchers evaluated the effects of increasing social bonding among elementary school students. Compared
to the control group, the intervention group demonstrated increases in school connectedness and decreases in behavioral
problems when students were in grades one through six. Gains from the intervention had long-lasting impact on students
that extended into young adulthood. Other studies from the SSDP have shown that school bonding during the middle and
high school years is inversely related to delinquency, violence, and gang membership (Catalano et al., 2004). It is likely that
when youth lack bonds to school, they are at an increased risk of aligning with other children who are similarly detached from
school and may feel pressure to engage in antisocial behavior.
In terms of emotional well-being, Shochet et al. contend that school connectedness is a signicant but often overlooked
factor in adolescent depression. They reported a longitudinal relationship between low school connectedness and depression
for boys and girls after controlling for earlier adjustment. Moreover, prior adjustment did not predict subsequent school
connectedness after controlling for students' earlier reports of attachment to school. Likewise, in a longitudinal study of 2678
middle school students, Bond et al. (2007) found that children in 8th grade with low school connectedness were more likely
to report depressive symptoms and engage in substance use in 10th grade. Furthermore, the researchers discovered that
school connectedness interacted with social connectedness (i.e., the quality of students' friendship networks) such that
students with high school connectedness and social connectedness scored lowest on measures of depression and anxiety.
Thus, this study provides further support that adolescents' perceptions of the school context interact with other social/
psychological variables to predict their mental health.
To summarize this section, theory and research support links between the school context and various adolescent outcomes; however, most research to date has focused on academic achievement. We extend a limited research base by testing
main effects of family inuences (parents' academic support and academic aspirations) and school inuences (climate and
connectedness) simultaneously across two indicators of mental health (i.e., conduct problems and depression) and by
examining whether these forms of social capital interact with adolescents' outlook for the future to predict later adjustment
problems.
Youth hopefulness and aspirations as moderators of the family and school context
A primary objective of this study is to determine whether youth hopefulness and aspirations for the future serve as
protective factors against poor developmental outcomes when parents provide minimal academic support or when their
aspirations for children's education are low. Likewise, does hopefulness serve students well when the school climate is
perceived negatively or when connections to teachers and students at school are lacking? An assumption of the riskprotection framework is that personal attributes buffer children from the adverse effects of external risk factors and
stressful life events, in this case low academic support and educational expectations by parents, low school connectedness,
and negative perceptions of the school climate.
Hopefulness
A sense of hope, purpose, and meaning in life are vital to emotional well-being, evasion of risk behaviors, and goal-directed
behaviors and cognitions (Duke, Borowsky, Pettingell, & McMorris, 2011). Hope has received considerable attention by researchers interested in identifying psychological strengths that promote healthy development (Valle, Huebner, & Suldo,
2006), a focus that is warranted given robust associations between hopefulness and a variety of outcomes including academic performance, physical health, psychological adjustment, and self-esteem (Snyder, 2002). However, much of what is
known about the salutary effects of hope is based on samples of adults. The extent to which optimism and positive expectations for the future are useful in warding off conduct problems and depressive symptoms in teenagers has not been
examined at great length. Yet, there is evidence that children who hold a positive outlook for their future manage stress better
than those with less optimism, an indication that hopefulness, as a personal attribute, promotes healthy adaptation and
resilience in the face of risk (Wyman, Cowen, Work, & Kerley, 1993).
Drawing from Snyder's (2002) hope theory, hopefulness is viewed as an individual characteristic that is cognitive and
motivational in nature or, more specically, as the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate
oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways (p. 249). Dened as such this idea ties in with the assumption of ecological
theory that individual development is determined in part by the characteristics one brings into his or her social world.
Hopeful individuals demonstrate the ability to formulate goals, develop strategies for attaining goals, and possess the
motivation necessary for initiating and sustaining effort directed toward goal achievement (Snyder, Lopez, Shorey, Rand, &
Feldman, 2003). According to Snyder et al. (2003) children who encounter repeated obstructions to goals and failed attempts to surmount these obstacles are vulnerable to adjustment problems. Research supports this theoretical assertion.
Hopefulness among adolescents has been shown to be inversely related to concurrent measures of behavioral and emotional
problems (Ruchkin, Eisemann, & Hagglof, 1999; Snyder et al., 1997). Using a large sample of 6th, 9th, and 12-grade students
who participated in the 2007 Minnesota Student Survey, Duke and colleagues found a positive contemporaneous association
between hopelessness and delinquency, a reliable association evident across several racial groups (Duke et al., 2011).
Longitudinal research on the main effects and moderating effects of adolescent hopefulness is sparse. Valle et al. (2006)
reported links between hope and decreases in internalizing but not externalizing problems over time. These authors also
reported that adolescents' hope buffered the impact of early stressful life events on later internalizing problems (assessed
approximately one year later). However, results are by no means conclusive given the paucity of research in this area. Based on
extant research, we expect that youth hope will show a stronger direct association with depression than conduct problems.
We also expect greater support for the moderating effect of hope when depression is considered as the outcome variable.
Youth academic aspirations
In addition to a general sense of hopefulness, we also consider adolescents' academic aspirations, a more specic indicator
of students' outlook for the future that is in line with the study focus on the linkage between aspects of the academic context
and adolescent mental health outcomes. Using ADD Health data, Harris, Duncan, and Boisjoly (2002) found that adolescent
students who do not expect to graduate from college are more likely to participate in risk-taking behavior including early
sexual activity, selling drugs, and weapon use, providing support for their nothing to lose hypothesisdthe idea that youth
with low expectations for their future are more likely to engage in risky conduct because they have less to lose than do youth
with high expectations. To our knowledge no studies have examined students' academic aspirations as a predictor of
adolescent depression or as a moderator of family and school inuences. We address this gap by examining possible linkages
between students' academic aspirations and both conduct problems and depression and the possibility that students' academic aspirations interact with available social capital in the family (i.e., parents' academic aspirations, parental academic
support) and school (climate and connectedness). Research has shown that parents' and children's academic aspirations
mutually inuence each other when considering their impact on students' academic achievement (Zhang, Haddad, Torres, &
Chauansheng, 2011). There is also some evidence that parental expectations interact with the expectations of others in the
prediction of academic achievement. For instance, Benner and Mistry (2007) found that high parental expectations mitigated
the inuence of low teacher expectations on students' academic outcomes. Given the close linkage between negative
educational outcomes and conduct problems (Maguin & Loeber, 1996), we expect students' academic aspirations to play a
more salient role as a moderator of conduct problems than for depressive symptoms. However, to the extent that there is a
mismatch between parents' aspirations for their children and students' own aspirations, adolescents may exhibit emotional
distress in the form of depressive symptoms.
Macro-level inuences: the role of gender and race
As a nal study objective we examine the role of gender and race as possible moderating factors in the proposed relationships. An ecological framework assumes that developmental trajectories potentially differ by gender and race given
variation in behavioral norms, cultural experiences, and socialization processes (Bronfenbrenner, 1989). In terms of gender,
research has shown that conduct problems are more prevalent among adolescent boys (Lahey et al., 2000), whereas
depressive disorders are more prevalent among girls, a pattern that emerges in middle adolescence (Hankin et al., 1998;
Twenge & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). Furthermore, gender differences in response to environmental stressors are evident.
For instance, Gerard and Buehler (2004) and Call and Mortimer (2001) found that girls who perceived their social environment (i.e., family, peers, school) as unsupportive were more vulnerable to depressive symptoms than were boys. In terms
of race, research has shown that African American and Hispanic students tend to perceive the school environment more
negatively and less supportive than do White students (KewalRamani, Gilbertson, Fox, & Provasnik, 2007; Ruck & Wortley,
2002)dperceptions that could have bearing on their connectedness or attachment to the school context and, ultimately,
the mental health outcomes under consideration. In light of these differences, gender and race are included in this analysis as
possible moderating variables in the proposed relationships among family/school variables, youth hope and aspirations, and
mental health outcomes. Given how little is known about the role of race and gender in this context, we treat this inquiry as
exploratory rather than stating specic hypotheses.
Methods
The current study is part of a larger four-year longitudinal project that focuses on adolescents' subjective experiences of
their academic contexts during middle and high school. The study is situated within a mid-sized city in Northwest Ohio, with
racial diversity and lower socio-economic characteristics more closely aligned with national trends than most towns in the
region. In 2009e2010 (the rst year of data collection), the average daily enrollment of 4213 students in the entire school
district (for all grades) was 15.1% Hispanic, 7.5% African-American, 12.8% multi-racial, and 64.0% White. Furthermore, 57.8% of
the students were categorized as economically disadvantaged, 6.9% as English language learners, and 1.0% as migrant youth
(Ohio Department of Education, 2010). The long-term history of low-income minority migration to the town looking for
manual labor has inuenced the average level of adult educational attainment. Only 10.5% of adults have attained a bachelor's
degree or higher, compared to a national average of 24.7% (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2010).
Sampling procedures
During fall and spring of the 2009e2010 academic year all students in the middle school (580 7th and 8th grade students)
and all 9th and 10th grade students (710) in the high school were invited to participate in the study. Consent letters were sent
home with all students, utilizing passive consent procedures, which resulted in an 89% response rate for the middle school
and 74% response rate for the high school. This response rate included 13 middle and 64 high school students with negative
consent forms and 49 middle and 120 high school students who were either absent or decided for themselves on that day not
to complete the survey. As a result, in fall 2009 (wave 1) survey data were collected from 518 middle and 526 high school
students (N 1044); in spring 2010 (wave 2), data were collected from 482 middle and 509 high school students (N 991),
reecting a retention rate of 85% for the middle school and 86% for the high school for wave 2. These surveys were completed
during the rst hour of classes and included demographic questions, various measures related to the family and school
context, self-appraisals (e.g., academic self-efcacy, self-esteem) as well as other measures not used in the present study.
The present study is based on data collected during the second year of the study. Measures of conduct problems and
depression were introduced to the youth survey during the second year of the project in an effort to include additional
developmental outcomes that have bearing on students' academic performance. Survey data were collected from 986 students in fall 2010 (wave 3) and from 887 students in spring 2011 (wave 4). The sample for this study includes 675 students
who participated across the rst four waves of data collection (65% of the original sample) and who reported being AfricanAmerican, Hispanic, Multi-racial, or White. Demographic makeup of the sample is as follows: 51% female (n 343), 49% male
(n 332); 24% 8th graders (n 164), 26% 9th graders (n 176), 29% 10th graders (n 196), 15% 11th graders (n 103), 5.3%
missing data on grade level (n 36); 6.5% African-American (n 44), 10.8% Hispanic (n 73), 19.4% Multi-racial (n 131), and
63.3% White (n 427). The demographic makeup of this nal sample did not differ markedly from the original fall 2009
sample on gender, race, and school lunch status, an indicator of economic disadvantage.
Measurement
Outcome measures
Conduct problems were assessed using youth reports on 15 items measuring the extent to which they engaged in
aggressive or delinquent behavior during the past year. Items were taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
Health. Students were asked to report how often they engaged in behaviors such as group ghting, shoplifting, and selling
drugs. Items are measured on a four-point scale ranging from 0 (never) to 3 (5 or more times). Cronbach's alpha for fall and
spring assessments was .89 and .90, respectively. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiology
Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC), a commonly used index of depression that has evidence of reliability and
validity (Radloff, 1977) including cross-cultural equivalency (Tally et al., 2000). The 19-item measure assesses somatic disturbances, interpersonal problems, and depressed affect. Youth reported the degree to which they experienced depressive
symptoms during the past week. Sample items include bothered by things, felt lonely, and poor appetite. The four-point
scale ranges from 0 (never or rarely) to 3 (most or all of the time). Items expressing positive content (e.g., felt happy) were
reverse coded so that high values reect greater depressive affect. Alphas for fall and spring assessments were .86 and .85. Fall
measures were used as control variables to partition variance in spring assessments.
Youth attributes
Hope was assessed with the 10-item hopefulness subscale of the Child/Adolescent Measurement System (Doucette &
Bickman, 2002). Sample items include I feel good about what's going on in my life right now, there are people I can
count on to help me out if I need it, and I am able to accomplish the things I want to do in life. Reliability of the scale was
good (fall a .90). The four-point response format ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Academic aspirations
were assessed with one item asking students to report the highest level of education they would like to receive based on the
following categories: leave school as soon as possible, nish high school, high school plus some additional professional
training, some college, graduate from college with a 2-year or 4-year degree, and postgraduate degree or further education for a special job such as doctor or lawyer. High scores reect greater hope and aspirations for the future.
Family variables
Parental academic support was assessed using the Perceived Family Capital Scale (Marjoribanks, 2002). Sample items for
the seven-item scale include my mother (father) is very interested in my schoolwork, my mother (father) often helps me
with my homework, and my mother (father) often tells me that a good education is important. The 4-point scale for these
items ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), thus high scores on this measure reect greater perceived support.
Reliability of these measures was good (fall assessment: .90 mothers, .94 fathers). Youth perceptions of maternal and paternal
support were moderately correlated (r .46), so the two scales were averaged to create a measure of overall parental support.
Parents' academic aspirations for their children were assessed by youth with an item that was similar to their self-reported
academic aspirations. In addition to the six responses noted above, the one-item measure included an additional categorydmy parents do not care. Given low frequencies on this rst category, it was collapsed with the second category
(leave school as soon as possible). Youth perceptions of maternal and paternal aspirations were moderately correlated
(r .57), supporting a combined measure.
School variables
School climate was assessed with a modied version of Marjoribanks Perceived School Capital Scale (PSCS; Marjoribanks,
2002). The 40-item PSCS assesses student perceptions of the school environment across four dimensions: imaginative (e.g.,
Most of my teachers make this school a very exciting place in which to learn), interpersonal (e.g., Most of the teachers in
this school are very interested in the personal problems of students), regulative (e.g., There are many rules and regulations
in this school) and instructional (e.g., The teachers often seem like they are not very interested in what they are teaching).
In the interest of keeping the youth survey at a manageable level in terms of length and completion time and to eliminate
redundancy in questions, a subset of the original 40 items was used (i.e., 29 items; contact rst author for more information
about the modied measure). Eliminated items were those considered to be redundant or possibly difcult for children to
understand. In keeping with original usage, items with a negative valence were reverse-coded, and a total score was created
by averaging scores across items. The modied measure has good predictive validity as evidenced by signicant correlations
with outcomes measures in the expected direction that are consistent with other studies (Kuperminc et al., 2001). Reliability
of the PSCS was good (fall a .93) and is in line with the internal consistency estimate reported in the original study (.87,
Marjoribanks, 2002). School connectedness was measured using the mean value of ve items that assessed the degree to which
youth have friends, a supportive teacher, and trouble with peers (fall a .63). The 4-point scale for both school variables
ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), thus high scores reect more positive perceptions of school climate
and a greater sense of connectedness.
Youth background characteristics
Gender and race were included in analytic models to control for their inuence on outcome measures. Boys and girls were
coded respectively as zero (reference group) and one. Racial groups included African-American, White, Hispanic, and multiracial students. Three dummy codes were created using White youth as the reference group (coded as 0 and all other groups
as 1). As a matter of specicity, separate analyses were conducted by gender and race in addition to analysis of the total
sample to determine whether relationships among youth attributes, family/school variables, and outcome measures are
similar across boys and girls and across racial groups, which permits identication of common and unique sources of variation
in conduct problems and depression across youth subgroups.
Analytic procedures
All scales and indices were created in SPSS. The degree of missing data varied across variables of interest, but generally
constituted fewer than 10% of cases. Missing data were imputed at the scale level using the expectation maximization method
in SPSS (EM). EM is a full information method of imputing missing values that uses an iterative procedure to t the best
values. It is preferable to other procedures for handling missing data because it produces less biased results (Acock, 1997).
Data were examined using hierarchical multiple regression, a procedure that is useful for identifying variance in a dependent
variable attributable to individual variables or sets of variables entered in blocks and for testing statistical interactions between predictor variables. Entry of variables proceeded in the following order: Block 1 e early outcome (i.e., conduct
problems or depression); Block 2 e control variables (i.e., gender and race); Block 3 e individual attributes (youth hope and
academic expectations), family variables (parental academic support and aspirations), school variables (climate and
connectedness); and Block 4 e interactions between family/school variables and individual attributes.
Following guidelines by Aiken and West (1991), interaction terms were created by centering individual, family, and school
variables on their mean to reduce potential problems with multi-collinearity. Signicant interaction terms were probed using
simple slope analysis. High and low values on the youth hopefulness scale were represented, respectively, by one standard
deviation above and below the centered mean of zero. Given a skewed distribution on the one-item measure of student
academic expectations (75% of students expected to graduate from a 2- or 4-year college or pursue postgraduate education), a
dichotomous split was used to represent high and low values on student academic expectations (i.e., high graduate from
college with a two year degree or more; low some college or less). Reported ndings are signicant at a p-value of .05 or
less.
Results
Descriptive statistics for individual attributes, family and school variables, and indicators of youth maladjustment are
presented in Table 1, as well as zero-order correlations between all variables. Each of the fall predictor variables was
signicantly related in the expected direction to spring outcome measures, with the exception of an insignicant association between youth academic aspirations and depression. Although associations between youth attributes and family/
school context variables are not the central inquiry of this study, it is noted that students' hopefulness and academic aspirations were signicantly related to their reports of parental support and parental academic aspirations in addition to
their reports of school climate and school connectednessdevidence of predictive validity for the measures utilized in this
study.
Regression results for total sample
Table 2 summarizes results from analyses regressing outcome measures on youth attributes, family/school variables, and
specied two-way interaction terms for the entire sample. Reported estimates reect standardized beta coefcients. Unstandardized coefcients are used to interpret signicant interaction terms and their corresponding slopes.
Table 1
Inter-correlations among individual, family, school inuences and indicators of youth maladjustment.
Variable
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(1) T1 Youth hope

(2) T1 Youth academic aspirations
(3) T1 Parental academic support
(4) T1 Parental academic aspirations
(5) T1 School climate
(6) T1 School connectedness
(7) T1 Conduct problems
(8) T1 Depression
(9) T2 Conduct Problems
(10) T2 Depression
M
SD
.18**
.42**
.25**
.35**
.23**
.21**
.64**
.15**
.50**
3.17
.53
.18**
.49**
.21**
.13**
.16**
.09*
.17**
.08
5.03
1.00
.32**
.36**
.23**
.19**
.34**
.14**
.22**
3.00
.63
.16**
.14**
.24**
.23**
.16**
.22**
4.77
1.12
.34**
.27**
.26**
.23**
.21**
2.70
.43
.09*
.14**
.17**
.22**
2.72
.97
.23**
.54**
.23**
3.93
6.13
.13**
.67**
15.34
9.87
.23**
4.25
6.60
15.28
8.99
Notes: *p .05; **p .01. T1 fall semester assessment; T2 spring semester assessment.
Table 2
Conduct problems and depression regressed on individual, family, and school variables.
Variables
Conduct problems
Block 1
Early problem behavior

Gender
African American
Hispanic
Multiracial
Youth hope (HOPE)
Youth academic aspirations (YA)
Parent academic support (PS)
Parent academic aspirations (PA)
School climate
PS HOPE
PA HOPE
School climate HOPE
School connectedness HOPE
PS YA
PA YA
School climate YA
School connectedness YA
R2
R2D
F
FD
.45***
.21
.21***
174.9
174.9***
Block 2
.45***
.01
.00
.01
.02
.21
.00
34.8
.09
Depression
Block 3
.40***
.01
.02
.01
.02
.02
.05
.02
.01
.12**
.10*
.23
.02**
18.1
3.47**
Block 4a
Block 4b
.41***
.02
.01
.01
.02
.03
.07
.03
.04
.13**
.10*
.06
.05
.05
.05
.40***
.02
.02
.01
.03
.03
.01
.01
.01
.13*
.10*
.24
.01
13.7
1.56
.11*
.01
.09
.01
.26
.03***
14.6
3.29***
Block 1
.61***
.37
.37***
389.4
389.4***
Block 2
.59***
.08**
.03
.04
.04
.37
.01
80.0
2.08
Block 3
.52***
.08**
.03
.03
.04
.11**
.01
.06
.07*
.03
.13***
.40
.03***
40.2
4.83***
Block 4a
Block 4b
.51***
.08**
.03
.04
.04
.12**
.02
.06
.09*
.04
.12***
.01
.05
.01
.06
.52***
.08**
.03
.04
.04
.11**
.01
.07*
.08*
.03
.12***
.41
.00
29.8
1.16
.04
.06
.11
.01
.41
.01**
30.7
3.11**
Note: *p .05, **p .01, ***p .001.
Conduct problems
Controlling for early conduct problems, gender, and race (Block 3), school climate and connectedness were negatively
related to conduct problems, albeit weakly, supporting our expectation that positive experiences in the school environment,
as perceived by youth, would be linked to lower involvement in conduct problems. No other main effects were detected.
However, a statistically signicant interaction between parental academic support and youth academic aspirations was
detected (Block 4b), providing partial support for our expectations of interactive effects. As shown in Fig. 1a, the slope for
youth with low academic aspirations was negative such that a one point increment in parental academic support (more
support) was associated with a 3.80 decrease in conduct problems (p .01), whereas the slope for youth with high aspirations was positive (b .93) but not signicant. This nding supports a risk-protection framework; however, the protective
inuence in this instance is parental academic support, not students' academic aspirations.
Depression
Turning to the next set of models presented in Table 2, gender was a signicant covariate of depression (Block 2) after
baseline levels were controlled statistically. The positive coefcient reects a higher level of depressive symptoms for girls
compared to boys. After controlling for earlier depression, gender, and race (Block 3), youth hopefulness, parental academic
aspirations, and school connectedness were negatively related to depression, reecting a weak compensatory effect of these
variables on the total sample, and, unexpectedly, parental academic support was positively, but weakly, associated with
depression. None of the interaction terms accounted for unique variance in depression.
Gender and racial considerations

A primary objective was to determine whether signicant variables identied in the total sample reect common or
unique sources of variation across gender and race. To address this objective, regression analyses were run separately for boys
and girls (Table 3) and for racial groups (Table 4). In light of small sample sizes and concerns about statistical power, ethnic
minority groups were combined for the racial analyses. While we understand that different cultural contexts of youth from
various racial/ethnic groups should be treated separately under ideal conditions, sample demographics do not permit reliable
statistical methods to do so. Thus, this set of regression results are based on a comparison between White students and
students of all other races (African American, Hispanic, and multi-racial).
Gender
Replicating results from the full sample, positive appraisals of school climate and school connectedness were negatively
associated with conduct problems among boys. The interaction between parental academic support and youth academic
aspirations was also a signicant predictor of conduct problems for boys, suggesting that gender is partially driving the same
nding in the total sample. The plotted interaction is shown in Fig. 1b. Boys with low academic aspirations engaged in fewer
10
Fig. 1. Interactions for youth academic aspirations.
Table 3
Conduct problems and depression regressed on individual, family, and school variables by gender: nal block (B) with interaction terms.
Variables
Conduct problems
Boys

African-American
Hispanic
Multiracial
Youth hope (HOPE)
Youth aspirations (YA)
Parental support (PS)
Parental aspirations (PA)
School climate
School connectedness (SC)
PS HOPE
PA HOPE
School climate HOPE
PS YA
PA YA
School climate YA
R2
F
B4a
B4b
.37***
.03
.02
.02
.04
.09
.09
.05
.14*
.13*
.01
.06
.06
.04
.35***
.04
.02
.02
.07
.03
.08
.01
.15*
.13*
.22
6.40
Depression
Girls
.17**
.01
.05
.02
.24
7.21
B4a
.48***
.09*
.02
.06
.04
.05
.04
.00
.08
.00
.08
.03
.04
.05
.31
10.42
Boys
B4b
.49***
.11*
.03
.06
.02
.03
.07
.03
.09
.01
.09
.02
.15
.11
.34
11.85
Girls
B4a
B4b
.41***
.04
.01
.03
.15*
.06
.15**
.01
.04
.11
.03
.01
.05
.00
.41***
.04
.01
.04
.13*
.01
.18**
.01
.03
.12**
.26
7.73
.02
.08
.20***
.09
.28
8.66
B4a
.56***
.02
.07
.01
.17**
.07
.01
.13*
.05
.15**
.02
.07
.09*
.11*
.51
24.61
B4b
.59***
.01
.06
.02
.13*
.03
.02
.17**
.04
.16***
.02
.04
.05
.05
.50
23.30
Note: *p .05, **p .01, ***p .001. Sample size for boys 330; sample size for girls 341. F value reects nal block of the model with interaction terms.
conduct problems with increasing levels of parental academic support, further support for the buffering inuence of parental
support among low-aspiring students (b 2.65, p .05). In contrast, boys with high academic aspirations showed a tendency, albeit weak, to engage in more conduct problems with increasing levels of parental academic support (b 1.76,
p .01). Signicant predictors of conduct problems for girls were limited to race. African American girls demonstrated a
slightly higher risk for engagement in conduct problems than did White girls.
The gender breakdown for depression shows a more complicated picture. For boys, hope and school connectedness were
negatively associated with depression. Contrary to expectations, parental academic support was positively associated with
depression, suggesting that the provision of support by parents, however manifested, might not always be benecial to boys
or perceived by them as helpful. The interaction between school climate and youth academic aspirations was also statistically
signicant. As depicted in Fig. 1c, the plotted interaction shows that boys with low academic aspirations beneted signicantly from a positive school climate through lower depressive symptoms (b 4.59, p .05) in contrast to boys with high
academic aspirations who showed insignicant variation in depressive symptoms across levels of school climate (b .77).
For girls, hopefulness, parental academic aspirations, and school connectedness were negatively associated with
depression, suggesting that goal-directed cognitions by students, high expectations by parents, and positive school connections exert a compensatory inuence in warding off depressive symptoms. In addition to these main effects, signicant
11
Table 4
Conduct problems and depression regressed on individual, family, and school variables by race: nal block (B) with interaction terms.
Variables
Conduct problems
White
B4a

Gender
Youth hope (HOPE)
Youth aspirations (YA)
Parental support (PS)
Parental aspirations (PA)
School climate
PS HOPE
PA HOPE
School climate HOPE
PS YA
PA YA
School climate YA
R2
F
.33***
.01
.01
.18**
.01
.08
.13*
.09
.10
.16
.04
.09
.24
11.12
B4b
.33***
.00
.01
.11
.02
.06
.13*
.08
.21***
.05
.04
.06
.27
12.46
Depression
All other races
White
B4a
B4b
B4a
.52***
.07
.05
.04
.02
.02
.07
.01
.01
.10
.02
.04
.55***
.08
.07
.03
.02
.05
.10
.03
.30
8.25
.06
.08
.08
.11
.31
8.89
.53***
.07
.09
.05
.05
.05
.03
.11*
.01
.05
.08
.03
.37
20.59
All other races

B4b
.55***
.07
.09
.07
.06
.06
.01
.11**
.08
.08
.17
.01
.39
21.88
B4a
.44***
.10*
.19**
.12*
.08
.31***
.10
.14**
.01
.09
.01
.19**
.49
18.71
B4b
.44***
.11*
.17**
.10*
.10
.31***
.07
.16**
.03
.03
.01
.02
.48
18.05
Note: *p .05, **p .01, ***p .001. Sample size for racial groups is as follows: White 425; all other races 242 (African-American 42, Hispanic 71,
Multi-racial 129).
F value reects nal block of the model with interaction terms.
interactions between youth hope and both school variables were detected. The interaction between school climate and youth
hope (Fig. 2a) reects a signicant decrease in depressive symptoms with increments in school climate among girls in the
low-hope group (.3.26, p .05), indicating a protective effect of school climate. In contrast, a signicant increase in
depressive symptoms with increments in school climate was found for girls with high hope (3.86, p .01). The interaction
between school connectedness and youth hope (Fig. 2b) shows that positive school connections are benecial to both girls
with high hope and those with low hope; however, this relationship was signicantly stronger for girls with low hope (b for
low-hope girls 2.76, p .01; b for high-hope girls .86, p .05). Overall, though, girls with high hope had fewer
depressive symptoms than did girls with low hope across all levels of school connectedness.
Race
Consistent with results for the total sample and boys, school climate was inversely associated with conduct problems for
White students and youth aspirations moderated the association between parental support and conduct problems for this
racial group. As shown in Fig. 1d, the interaction reveals a negative slope for low-aspiring White students (b 5.31, p .01),
or decreases in conduct problems with increments in parental support, additional support for the mitigating inuence of
parental support among students with low academic aspirations. In contrast, the positive slope for high-aspiring White
Fig. 2. Interactions for youth hopefulness.
12
students (b 1.12, p .05) reects slight increases in conduct problems with increments in parental support. With the
exception of early conduct problems, none of the predictor variables accounted for signicant variation in conduct problems
for minority youth.
Turning to depression, school connectedness was the only signicant main effect for White youth. Among minority youth,
main effects were detected for hopefulness, youth academic aspirations, parental academic aspirations, and school
connectedness after controlling for earlier depression, gender, and race. All of these associations were in the expected direction with the exception of youth academic aspirations, suggesting that this variable operates as a risk factor for depression,
albeit weakly, for minority students when compared to White students. Youth hope moderated the association between
school connectedness and depression. As shown in Fig. 2c, the association between school connectedness and depression was
not signicant for minority students with high hope (b .38); however the association for those with low hope was statistically signicant (b 2.66, p .01). Although the plotted slopes reveal a protective inuence of school connectedness for
the low hope group, minority youth with high hope had lower depressive symptoms than did those with low hope at all levels
of school connectedness. Taking into account early problem behaviors and gender, the set of predictor variables accounted for
more variation in depression among minority youth. The set of predictor variables accounted for 37e39% of variance in
depression among White youth and 48e49% of variance in minority youth.
Discussion
A focus on both characteristics of the adolescent and characteristics of the adolescent's social environment is in line with
an ecological approach to understanding the relationship between contextual risk and youth maladjustment. According to
this theoretical perspective, behavioral and emotional problems arise from the interplay between attributes of the individual
and the environment (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983). Thus, assessing youth problem behaviors with a singular focus on
environmental circumstances disregards active contributions by adolescents to adapt to and regulate their experience.
Likewise, a sole focus on individual attributes neglects environmental characteristics that shape the quality of experiences
available to developing youth. Three key ndings emerged from this study, which we use to frame our discussion of results.
Unique and relative inuence of family and school context variables
First, the degree to which adolescents perceive the family and school context as academically supportive has implications
for their mental health as evidenced by direct associations between ecological variables and measures of adjustment (main
effects). Findings from this study suggest that supportive educational environments e assessed here with student reports of
parental academic support, their parents' expectations for educational attainment, school climate, and school connectedness
e have more far-reaching impact on youth that extends beyond scholastic performance to their behavioral and emotional
well-being. Each of these variables is uniquely related to at least one indicator of adolescent adjustment. Many of the resulting
associations are qualied by gender and race, a point we turn to in the next section, so our discussion of main effects is limited.
However, the most pervasive inuences are school climate and school connectedness, variables that cut across gender and
racial groups and two indicators of mental health. In contrast to the widespread inuence of school variables, specialized
effects emerged for variables representing the family educational climate. Parental academic support serves as a deterrent to
conduct problems, particularly for students with low academic aspirations, whereas parents' academic aspirations appear to
benet teenage students most by reducing their risk for depressive symptoms. To date, most of the empirical literature that
deals with educational support in the family and school context has focused on children's academic achievement. Thus,
programmatic efforts to engage parents in their children's education, improve school climate, and strengthen students' attachments to teachers and peers may benet youth across multiple dimensions of functioning.
Adolescents' hopefulness and academic aspirations as buffering agents
Reecting the second key nding, associations between family/school variables and adolescent mental health outcomes
are complex and intertwined with youth attributes as demonstrated by signicant statistical interactions with youth hope
and academic aspirations. Gender and race qualied most of these interactive relationships e the third key nding; therefore,
we merge our discussion of the second and third key nding. We hypothesized that youth hopefulness and high educational
aspirations would serve a mitigating role when social capital in the family and school is lacking. In line with our expectations,
hopefulness showed protective properties, particularly as a deterrent to depression. A sense of hope and purpose in life are
central to healthy development, goal formulation, and avoidance of problematic behaviors. Although the majority of U.S.
adolescents are optimistic in their beliefs about the future, a signicant percentage experience psychological distress and
feelings of hopelessness. Data from the 2009 Youth Risk Survey reveal that 26% of 9the12th grade students reported feeling
sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row in the past year, enough to interfere with usual activities;
prevalence of these negative emotions was higher for girls compared to boys and for Hispanic and Black youth compared to
white youth (Eaton et al., 2010).
Mirroring these gender and racial results to some extent, our ndings reect the special meaning of hope in the lives of
girls and minority youth. A signicant direct longitudinal association between hope and depression, albeit weak, was
detected for boys, girls and minority youth. But, on an encouraging note, it appears that the link between low hope and
13
depression for girls and minority youth is offset by positive connections at school. It is important to note that all three of the
interactions with hope involved school variables, with two of these being school connectedness. Although students with high
hope had lower scores on our index of depression across all levels of school connectednessda testament to the shielding
properties of an optimistic belief system e our data also show that social connections at school can offset depressive
symptoms when hope is low or lacking. A sense of belonging to others outside of the familial sphere is especially salient for
adolescents who, as part of the individuation process, seek extra-familial relationships such as those found in the school
setting through attachments to peers and teachers (Shochet et al., 2006). These afrmative social networks appear to be more
critical for female students than for boys, perhaps because of gender socialization processes that promote centrality of social
relationships among girls (Gilligan, 1982), and for minority youth who, as a group, tend to experience the school setting as
biased and unfair (Rowley, Kurtz-Costes, & Cooper, 2010).
A more complicated picture emerges when considering the moderating role of students' academic aspirations. All four of
the signicant interactions indicate that positive educational environments, particularly in the form of parental academic
support and school climate, are most benecial to students with low academic aspirations. In the U.S. one of the major indicators of success in young adulthood is attainment of a college degree. Research indicates that the vast majority of high
school students expect to attend college. For instance, data from the National Center for Education Statistics (U.S. Department
of Education, 2004) has shown that the percentage of U.S. 10th graders who hope to complete a bachelor's degree or higher
doubled from 40% in 1980 to 80% in 2002, with signicant increases across racial and ethnic groups and among students from
low income families. However, local rates of college attendance will also inuence attitudes pertaining to college attainability.
The low rate of college attendance in this town (10.5% of adults as compared to a national average of 24.7%) (United States
Census, 2010) may be inuencing measures of academic aspirations. Spera, Wentzel, and Matto (2008) suggest that parents are often inuenced by their own experiences of school when they were a student. Those who had strong positive
experiences in school (and are therefore more likely to go on to college) are more likely to demonstrate high academic expectations for their students.
Thus, in this study, it is not surprising that overall, students' academic aspirations were signicantly associated with their
perceptions of parental support and parental academic aspirations (see Table 1). However, parental support appears to have
its greatest inuence when students have low academic aspirations. As a result, it may be that when students come from
family backgrounds that are less likely to produce college graduates, strong parental support serves a protective function,
much more than for youth who already feel that college is naturally within reach. Gender and race qualied the interaction
between parental support and youth academic aspirations. Given boys' vulnerability to externalizing problems, it is not
surprising that educationally supportive measures by parents are more benecial to low-aspiring boys than to low-aspiring
girls by steering them away from antisocial behavior. In terms of race, research indicates that parental academic involvement/
support is a better predictor of academic achievement for White students than for African American and Hispanic students
(see review by Ceballo, Huerta, & Epstein-Ngo, 2010). It might be that parental academic support is operating the same way in
our sample and that academically supportive efforts by parents have greater impact as a protective agent against the
development of conduct problems among low-aspiring White youth.
These ndings are consistent with a risk-protection framework, demonstrating the buffering inuence of the family
environment. However, a question that arises from this study is why high academic aspirations among students do not serve
as a protective factor or deterrent to the outcomes under consideration. Academic aspirations may be viewed as a desire or
hope whereas academic expectations may be thought of as a more realistic belief (Trusty, 2002). Given the distribution of
scores on the measure of youth academic aspirations (45% aspire to a 2-year or 4-year college degree, 30% aspire to a postgraduate degree), a signicant percentage of youth in the high aspirations group appear to be reporting idealistic goals rather
than realistic beliefs about what they expect to accomplish. Research has shown that average expectations of graduating from
college decrease from middle school to high school as students develop more realistic expectations (Harris et al., 2002)da
pattern found in our own quantitative data. As illustrative of this possibility, a representative sample of 53 students from the
current study was interviewed about their future goals as a portion of annual conversations about school. Within those
conversations, younger adolescents often lacked understanding of the realistic connection between college and specic
professions. For instance, of the high school youth, ninth grade students often did not understand the different levels of
academic preparation that would be needed between being a cosmetologist, a forensics expert, or psychologist. Thus, it would
behoove researchers who are interested in assessing early and middle adolescents' academic aspirations to include a measure
of what adolescents realistically expect as well as a measure of what their ideal educational goals entail.
Other gender and racial considerations
In addition to the aforementioned qualifying effects of gender and race, a few others deserve attention as they point to
different sources of vulnerability and protection for male and female youth and for White and minority youth. As noted
previously, high parental academic support appears to be a signicant mechanism for warding off conduct problems
particularly among boys who aspire to low levels of education; however, in contrast to its inhibitory effect on conduct
problems, parental support functioned as a risk factor for depression among boys. Though seemingly counterintuitive and
contradictory to a large body of literature that documents the salutary effect of supportive parenting on children's psychosocial development, this nding aligns with research and theory on gender socialization processes that orient boys toward
agency and mastery of the environment (Block, 1983; Harter, 1990). Although speculative, supportive measures by parents in
14
the academic realm, however well-intentioned, may be viewed by boys as interference or as a reection of their academic
competence, particularly if these gestures come across as controlling versus autonomy-supportive or performance-oriented
versus process-oriented (i.e., emphasis on effort and learning; Pomerantz & Moorman, 2010).
From a practical standpoint, this nding suggests that efforts to engage parents in their teenagers' academic lives might be
effective in preventing conduct problems in boys, particularly those with low aspirations; however, these gains might be
offset by heightened susceptibility to depression among boys, in general, if supportive measures by parents are perceived as
psychologically intrusive or limited with respect to promoting independence in schoolwork. Our measure of parental academic support was designed to assess social capital in the family via items that assess the degree to which parents offer praise,
support, and verbal encouragement to stay in school. However, other items in this measure, such as the degree to which
parents are interested in children's schoolwork and help with homework, could be tapping helicopter parentingdbehavior
indicative of parents who are both highly active and interested in their teenager's schooling but also highly controlling
(Pomerantz & Moorman, 2010). Parental involvement in children's homework typically declines during the middle school and
high school years due, in part, to adolescents' increasing need for autonomy. Teenagers of parents who maintain a high degree
of assistance in this domain of schooling may experience difculty being autonomous in their schoolwork.
In terms of racial differences one notable nding is the positive association between youth academic aspirations and
depression among minority youth, an indication, perhaps, of stereotype threat at work. According to Garcia-Coll et al. (1996),
consideration of developmental processes for minority youth must take into account aspects of their social experience that
are not reected in the lives of White youth. Mindful of racial and socioeconomic inequalities in educational and occupational
attainment, high academic aspirations among minority youth might compete with the reality of membership in a stigmatized
group, causing cognitive dissonance, emotional distress and, possibly, fatalism about their educational prospects (Ceballo
et al., 2010). In contrast to their own academic aspirations, a fairly strong negative association between parental academic
aspirations and depression was found among minority youth. These ndings are in line with other studies. For example, Spera
et al. (2008) found that minority youth were more inuenced than their White peers by their parents' academic aspirations
and degree of school connectedness. Other research has found Hispanic youth to be strongly inuenced by perceptions of
parental academic expectations (Carranza, You, Chhuon, & Hudley, 2009) with Hispanic girls in particular to place great
importance on family support and obligations to the family. Therefore, it is not surprising that for the students in this study,
there is a stronger association between parents' educational aspirations for their children and depression for minority youth
when compared to White youth. Future research should explore the interaction between adolescents' educational aspirations/expectations and those of their parents in relation to adolescents' psychological adjustment.
Limitations
This investigation is not without limitations. First, all measures are based on youth reports, an approach that potentially
introduces bias in the form of shared method variance. Yet, these are worthwhile in the present context. Adolescents' appraisals of their family and school environment might be more powerful predictors of their psychological well-being than the
actual quality of these social contexts (Call & Mortimer, 2001; Eccles et al., 1993). Moreover, adolescents are more cognizant
than are outside reporters of the conduct problems they engage in across settings and the negative mood states they
experience. Nevertheless, outcome measures based on multiple informants are preferable to eliminate method variance as an
explanation for ndings. Second, small subsample sizes precluded a more detailed analysis of the racial groups represented in
this study. To its credit, however, this study provides evidence of racial differences, pointing to the error of assuming that one
model of development ts all. Often times, researchers treat gender and race as background variables by controlling statistically for their inuence rather than treating them as sources of variation with practical signicance. Third, parental aspirations and support for their children's education are likely inuenced by parents' level of education and socioeconomic
status, measures that were unavailable in our data. However, preliminary analysis using lunch status as a proxy for family SES
revealed that this measure was unrelated to outcome measures utilized in this study. It could be that family SES is a more
salient predictor of high-school completion or academic performance than problem behaviors.
With these limitations in mind, this study contributes to the small but growing body of literature that has demonstrated
links between educational support systems in the family and school environment and adolescent mental health. The focus on
the interplay between students' hopes/aspirations for their future and their perceptions of the school and family academic
climate provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between adolescents' academic environments and their
emotional and social functioning. Findings serve as a reference point for designing supportive educational contexts and direct
interventions for youth who are struggling in school. School-based efforts to improve school climate, strengthen students'
bonds to teachers and peers, and increase parents' academic support may have broad impact on students' academic
achievement; however, results of this study suggest that these efforts may pay off in additional ways by helping vulnerable
students evade antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms, particularly those with low educational aspirations and those
who believe they have poor prospects for the future. Directed social-psychological interventions that target students' beliefs
and feelings about school are also a worthwhile effort. Yeager and Walton (2011) have noted that sometimes only brief, simple
interventions that target students' cognitions are necessary to produce signicant and lasting gains in children's functioning,
particularly in the academic realm. These researchers demonstrated signicant gains in academic achievement by precisely
targeting students' experience in school from the student's perspective (p. 283). In a likewise fashion, Snyder et al. (2003)
offer recommendations for school-based hope-enhancing techniques that can be geared to all students or to targeted groups
15
(i.e., students identied as having low levels of hopefulness), which include helping students set goals in whatever form they
take (e.g., feeling happier, making new friends, deciding whether or not to go to college), teaching students how to set clear
markers for identied goals, helping students identify various routes to a desired goal, and helping students to breakdown
broad goals into more manageable subgoals. Finding from the present study and recommended practical applications serve as
guiding posts to facilitate mental health adjustment of adolescents as they wrestle with the academic contexts in which they
are embedded and the personal beliefs they bring to these social arenas.
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Family and school inuences on adolescents' adjustment: The

Using a school-based sample of 675 adolescents, this short-term longitudinal investigation

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

(1) T1 Youth hope

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

Early problem behavior

Note: *p .05, **p .01, ***p .001.

Gender and racial considerations

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

Fig. 1. Interactions for youth academic aspirations.

Early problem behavior

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

Early problem behavior

All other races

Fig. 2. Interactions for youth hopefulness.

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

J.M. Gerard, M.Z. Booth / Journal of Adolescence 44 (2015) 1e16

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Note: p .05, p .01, p .001.