Press Release - January 29, 2003
University Park, Pa.- A good relationship between parents and their adolescent children can prevent risk behaviors and adjustment problems commonly associated with testosterone, says a group of Penn State researchers.
"In both sons and daughters, testosterone-related risk behavior, such as skipping school, getting drunk, smoking, or vandalism was less evident, in cases where there was a good parent child relationship," explains Dr. Alan Booth, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Human Development and Family Studies, and Demography.
Booth, Dr. David R. Johnson, Professor of Sociology, Human Development and Family Studies and Demography, Dr. Douglas A. Granger, Assistant Professor, Biobehavioral Health and Human Development and Family Studies, Dr. Ann C. Crouter, Professor of Human Development & Family Studies and Dr. Susan McHale, Professor of Human Development, interviewed 608 children and their mothers and fathers, who also provided saliva samples for testosterone analysis. Their findings were published as "Testosterone and Child and Adolescent Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Parent-Child Relationships" in the January issue of Developmental Psychology. Their research has also received coverage in a recent issue of Science News.
The researchers characterized a good quality parent-child relationship as one in which parents and children spend a lot of time in joint activities and parents are aware of and approve of their children's experiences and activities.
"In families with lower parent-child relationship quality, sons were more likely to engage in testosterone-related risk behaviors, " Booth says. "Also, as mother-son relationship quality increased, testosterone-linked depressive symptoms were less common, but as relationship quality decreased, they were more evident. This was also true for father-son relationships, but more marginally so."
"In daughters, we found that increases in testosterone generally reduced risk behavior regardless of the quality of the parent-child relationship," Booth adds. "But the instances of risk behavior were fewer among those with better relationships with their parents."
In families with lower-quality parent-child relationships, sons' risk behaviors are associated with higher testosterone, adds Booth, but for daughters in these families, risk behaviors were found to be most common in 10-14 year-olds with low testosterone.
Low testosterone was also linked to depressive symptoms in boys of all ages, while these symptoms were primarily linked for girls ages 14-18, who had a lower-quality father-daughter relationship. Booth emphasizes that more research and larger studies will be necessary to determine the causes of different testosterone-linked behaviors by gender.
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EDITORS: Dr. Booth is at (814) 863-1141 or axb24@psu.edu.