Adolescent girls give more affection

By Jeff Grabmeier

Adolescent girls are more helpful and affectionate toward their parents than adolescent boys, new research suggests. In addition, mothers receive more help and affection from their children than do fathers.

The study involved questioning 129 children in the sixth, eighth and 10th grades and their parents to see how often the teens helped their parents -- such as running an errand -- and how often they showed affection, such as giving hugs.

By Kevin Kitzsimons

Raymond Montemayor directed a study on gender differences.

"We found important gender differences in who gets and receives help and affection in families with adolescents," said Mary Eberly, who co-authored the study as a doctoral student at Ohio State.

The study also found that adolescents generally showed less affection as they got older. But regardless of age, they showed more affection and consideration to parents when they viewed their parents as warm and supportive.

The results suggest that families may be teaching their children that there are male and female gender roles in affection and helpfulness, said Raymond Montemayor, professor of psychology.

"In our society it is considered more appropriate for women to give and receive affection within the family context than it is for men," he said. "That may be why daughters and mothers give and receive more affection."

Moreover, girls in this study may have been more helpful than boys because most of the help-related activities examined in the study - such as doing dishes and helping with grocery shopping - may have been considered in the realm of women.

Eberly conducted the study as part of her dissertation at Ohio State, which Montemayor directed. Eberly is now an assistant professor of psychology at Oakland University in Michigan. The study was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Adolescent Research.

The researchers visited the 129 families who participated in the study two times, one week apart. At various times during or between the visits, the children and their parents completed questionnaires that measured the frequency of helpful and affectionate actions by the adolescents.

The children completed questionnaires that measured how positive their relations were with their parents, and the degree to which their parents influenced their lives.

Both parents and children reported mothers received more affection and help than fathers. And both parents and children agreed that the girls were more helpful and affectionate than boys.

As expected, parents reported that sixth graders were more affectionate than eighth or 10th graders. "There's less physical affection between parents and children as the children move through early adolescence," Eberly said. "It suggests that adolescents show affection in different ways as they get older."

The researchers also found that eighth graders were more helpful than sixth or 10th graders. This was unexpected, Montemayor said, as they thought helpfulness would decline steadily through early adolescence. "We can't really explain this finding with the data we have," he said.

Not surprisingly, the findings showed that the quality of the relationship between the adolescents and their parents affected affection and helpfulness.

"Adolescents were more frequently affectionate and considerate when they viewed parents as warm, supportive and emotionally available," Eberly said.

Up-front rejection the best policy
for most refusal letters

New research suggests that businesses and others who write rejection letters are better off delivering the bad news up front rather than placing it lower in the letter. Also, a business should clearly spell out the reason for the refusal when it makes that business look good and suggest an alternative or a compromise for the reader.

ÒThe real goal is to make customers feel that they would do the same thing if they were in the business' shoes,Ó said Kitty Locker, associate professor of English. www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/r/research/archive/nobuffer.htm

Fear of regulators keeps some
doctors from pain treatment

Doctors may sometimes be reluctant to treat the pain of seriously ill patients because they fear legal problems for prescribing powerful narcotics, according to one expert.

Although some physicians may be overly skittish about their legal vulnerability, this concern may mean some patients don't get the pain treatment they need, said Timothy Jost, professor of law and health services management.

Jost examined these issues as part of a larger study on public financing of pain management.www.acs.ohio-state.edu/un its/r/research/archive/painman.htm