Adolescent Research
My adolescent research was initiated by a desire to understand how parenting works at its later, more complex stages. Adolescence is a period of vibrant, significant, and sometimes difficult changes for children, and can represent a time of difficulty and transition for parents. Generally speaking, there is normally far less conflict between adolescents and parents than is typically portrayed. Nevertheles, there are many changes that occur in the parent-adolescent relationship as the adolescent becomes more capable and indpendent. There are also changes in the parents, reflecting their typical entry into middle-age.
So I study parents and adolescents as a means of both exploring this interesting period in parenting, as well as to balance my narrow, experimental approach of studying infant facial cues. For adolescents, I study a wide range of social, personal, and demographic factors that can influence parental care. In particular, my research has emphasized how parental care influences scholastic enjoyment and performance in adolescents.
Bullying
A separate line of research from parenting involves the study of bullying and victimization in adolescents. This work is conducted in collobration Wendy Craig and the Queen's University Bullying Lab. Bullying and victimization is a serious problem that affects up 5%-40% of adolescents!(depending on how it is quantified). To study bullying in adolescents, we examined a World Health Organization-drawn sample of over 1,000 Canadian adolescents. We found that there are different risk factors associated with different types of bullying. For example, physical victimization is associated with young boys, whereas racial victimization shows no age trends, whereas sexual or verbal victimization are relatively more common in girls. For some forms of victimization, alcohol use is important (e.g., sexual), whereas it is not for others it is not (e.g., physical). By examining the risk factors associated with each type of victimization, we hope to encourage the development of more focused, and effective, anti-bullying strategies.
As a member of PREVNet, we are currently looking at three aspects of bullying and victimization:
1- Sports and Bullying
Our preliminary data suggests that adolescent girls who are in competitive sports face significantly greater risks of being a bully AND/OR being bullied! We are currently replicating the results of this study, as well as expanding it to include boys and adolescents outside of competitive sports. Given that sports are supposed to be a positive, safe, and character-building activity for youth, our findings are of great concern.
2- Parents, Temperament, and Bullying
We believe that parents can play a crucial role in preventing bullying and in helping victims of bullying. However, to do so, we need to understand that different children had different temperaments- different, internal ways of approaching the world. Some children respond well to empathy, others reward, others to challenges. Along with my colleagues Angela Book, Andrew Dane, and Zopito Marini, we are looking at how targeted, specific intervention strategies may boost the impact of parental interventions.
3- Evolution, Personality, Psychopathy, and Bullying
Bullying appears to be ubiquitous. Beyond the school yard, bullying happens in a wide range of settings, contexts, groups, and ages. We believe that it is a natural part of our evolutionary history. That doesn't mean we condone it- rather, we want to change this undesirable part of human nature. We believe that adolescents' personalities play a key role in predicting whether or not they engage in bullying. Particularly, we feel that personality traits that are related to psychopathy (callousness, lack of conscience) may put adolescents at risk for being bullies. Conversely, being introverted and neurotic may place adolescents at the risk of being bullied.
If you are interested in learning more about the adolescent-parent relationships, or adolescents in general, or in participating in one of our studies, please feel free to contact the lab.
