S. Shirley Feldman

Adolescents embody the best hopes of American society. Their vital role in shaping our future lends particular significance to their success in negotiating the passage from childhood to adulthood, while their intensity and visibility often make them barometers of social change. It is all the more remarkable, then, that this critical period has only recently captured the full attention of researchers.At the Threshold presents the long-awaited findings of the Carnegie Foundation study on adolescence. It offers a comprehensive overview of what investigators are learning about normal development and provides an interdisciplinary synthesis of research into the biological, social, and psychological changes occurring during this key stage in the life span. While focusing on the contexts of adolescent life - social and ethnic, family and school, leisure and work-it also addresses how researchers are doing in the effort to understand the intersection of processes that initiate and sustain adolescent development and to characterize the extraordinary changes that occur during these years.Contrary to popular belief, large numbers of young people continue to mature into productive members of society. At the Threshold seeks to allow professionals and nonprofessionals alike important access to the reality of normal adolescent experience. The authors recognize that only if we begin to understand and clearly articulate the parameters of successful adolescent development can we hope to intervene with those individuals whose lives seem aimed toward unsatisfactory futures.

Interactional behavior of mothers and preschool children was studied in light of mothers' internal models of relationships and select child characteristics. Children with behavior problems who were developmentally intact (n = 20) and developmentally delayed (n = 20), and a matched nonclinic group (n = 24), were studied in a problem-solving session. Mothers' help and support, and children's approach to tasks, relationship to mother, and overall experience were scored. Mothers' internal models of relationships, based on descriptions of childhood relationships, were characterized as detached, preoccupied, or secure (attachment classifications). Results showed children's behavioral and developmental status, as well as mothers' internal models, to be associated with dyadic behavior. Children's behavior corresponded to mothers' internal models and to behavioral and developmental status even with the effects of mothers' behavior removed. Discriminant analysis correctly classified 93% of the sample into clinic and nonclinic groups and into the 3 attachment classifications.

The relationship of daily uplifts and hassles to adaptational outcomes has gained increasing attention in recent years. However, investigators have focused considerably more on hassles than uplifts. In an attempt to rectify this trend, the present study examines the relationship of uplifts and hassles to anxiety, depression, distress, self-restraint, perceived sup-port from friends, perceived social competence, and general self-worth in a sample of 23 sixth graders (141 girls). Results indicate that both hassles and uplifts are substantially related to these outcomes in the expected direction, with the exception of a modest positive association between uplift and anxiety for girls. Moreover, in most cases uplifts add significantly to the relationship between hassles and outcomes, thus high-lighting the importance of uplifts. Other findings idicate that uplifts/hassles patterns vary as a function of gender and the particular outcome being considered. Similarities to and differences from adult findings are discussed in regard to gender-role and general development.