With divorce rates rising (Kennedy & Ruggles, 2014), it is important to consider the impact of parental marital status on children and adolescents. In this study, we looked at whether children's relationships with their parents differ based on their parents being married or divorced/separated. We hypothesized that a child's perceived relationship with their parents would be significantly influenced by parental marital status, such that those whose parents are divorced will demonstrate a negative relationship with the perception of their parents. Using data collected from the longitudinal New England Study of Suburban Youth (NESSY), we ran correlational analyses as well as an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether different aspects of attachment (Alienation, Communication, and Trust), measured with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment \u2014 Revised for Children (IPPA-R) were significantly linked to parental marital status (Luthar & Barkin, 2012). Using our sample size of 489 students in the twelfth grade, we divided the groups into children with married parents (414) and children with divorced or separated parents (75). An ANOVA produced a significant difference between children's perceived relationship with their father and parental marital status; the adolescents' perception of the father's Alienation, Communication, and Trust were negatively associated with divorce. However, the child's perceived relationship with their mother was similar across both groups. These results suggest further research is needed to determine the effects of a child's perception of their relationship with their father during development, in particular in situations when parents have divorced before high school graduation.

Affluent children have been previously understudied and considerably neglected in developmental research due to the notion that they are "low risk." There is limited empirical research exploring the effects of parent involvement in affluent youth: specifically, the importance of the adolescent's perception that their mother/father do not spend as much time with them as they would like. The goals of the study were to explore the role of this dimension of perceived parental involvement in anxious-depressed symptoms, somatic symptoms, rule breaking behaviors and substance use with upper-class suburban youth. The sample was taken from the New England Study of Suburban Youth Cohort (NESSY) (Luthar & Latendresse, 2005b) consisting of 252 high school students in the 12th grade located in an affluent community in the Northeast. Results showed that the participants who indicated their fathers could have dinner with them more often if they tried presented significant group differences in anxious-depressed symptoms, somatic symptoms, and rule breaking behaviors while substance use trended towards significant. Thus, these data demonstrate that parent-child relationships are not only important for infant and child development, but are also an integral part of development of adaptive behaviors during adolescence. In addition, the data suggest the benefits from having strong, supportive, and stable relationships with not only mothers but with fathers as well. Results from post hoc analyses revealed perceived absence of fathers at dinnertime affects the adolescent more than the perceived absence of mothers at dinnertime. Finally, teens who indicated a need to spend more dinnertimes with their father may be suffering from a lack of open communication and opportunities to discuss social and emotional issues that are conducive to adolescent development and adjustment.

Given the major investment young people make in earning and maintaining a peer reputation, our goal in this study was to explore the association between dimensions of negative and positive peer reputation in middle school and adjustment several years later, by the end of high school, among upper middle class youth. Prior research has shown negative reputations such as aggressive-disruptive and sensitive-isolated to be associated with maladjustment later in life, whereas reputations like popular and prosocial-leader have been related to positive future outcomes. However, there are contrary findings that reveal a more complex relationship between peer reputation and adjustment, showing certain “negative” reputations to be tied with better outcomes in some domains and the converse in others. Using a sample of middle school students, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test a four-factor model of the Revised Class Play, a peer report measure on peer reputations. CFA findings supported the four-factor model with the following reputations: popular, prosocial, aggressive, and isolated. Structural equation models were used to predict 12th grade adjustment outcomes (academic achievement, psychopathology, substance use) from middle school peer reputation. Prosocial reputation in middle school was connected to higher academic achievement and fewer externalizing symptoms in 12th grade. Both prosocial and isolated peer reputation were negatively associated with alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, whereas a popular reputation was related to higher levels of alcohol use. Middle school reputation did not predict internalizing symptoms in 12th grade. Findings are discussed in terms of adaptive and maladaptive adjustment outcomes associated with each peer reputation and implications for future research.