Knowledge of sex-role stereotypes in children aged 3 to 5

When do children begin acquiring adult sex-role stereotypes? This study examined the sex-stereotypic knowledge of four groups of young children: 3.0–3.5, 3.5–4.0, 4.0–4.5, and 4.5–5.0 years old. To assess the development of their knowledge, the same children were retested six months later. Evidence of sex-stereotyping appeared at 3.5 years and increased both across the different age groups and within the same children as they aged. The children's knowledge encompassed both feminine and masculine traits, and was related to general intellectual development. These results are interpreted as supporting cognitive-developmental theories that children learn sex-role stereotypes as structural rules for organizing and understanding behaviors present in their social environment.Thanks are due to Diane Bulow, Grace Horsman, Barbara Kutner, Joan Strutts, and the other teachers for aiding our access to children enrolled in their centers. Moira Davidson, Beth Kaplan, Keith Miller, Suzanna Nam, Dan Birecree, Sara Corse, Jim Gilbert, Jean Merenda, Anna Steiner, and Steve Tannenbaum served graciously as testers.     

Children’s Thinking about HIV/AIDS Causality,Prevention, and Social Interaction

Guided by both a Piagetian and a naïve theories perspective on disease concepts, this study examined children’s thinking about HIV/AIDS, with special attention to its development, coherence, and sociocultural correlates. It examined age differences among Mexican-American and Euro-American children aged 8 to 13 (N?=?158) in both Piagetian level of causal understanding (independent of correctness) and the causal knowledge central to an intuitive theory of AIDS (knowledge of risk behaviors and of the viral disease agent). It explored theoretical coherence in terms of implications of causal understanding and causal knowledge for knowledge of how to prevent AIDS and willingness to interact with people who have it. As predicted, scores on all measures increased significantly with age, and causal knowledge of risk factors exceeded knowledge of corresponding prevention rules. In multiple regression analyses, causal knowledge of both risk factors and the viral disease agent predicted knowledge of prevention and willingness to interact, even with age and other measures controlled. Prevention knowledge predicted willingness to interact even better, whereas the Piagetian measure of casual understanding did not predict either prevention knowledge or willingness to interact. Ethnic group differences were not evident but parent education was related to greater viral knowledge and willingness to interact. The results suggest a good deal of coherence in children’s thinking about this disease while also suggesting the desirability of making explicit the implications of critical causal information about an unfamiliar disease for preventing the disease without stigmatizing those who have it.     

Psychological adjustment among adult children of alcoholics: a cross-cultural study.

In this study, we compared Hispanic and Caucasian college students identified as adult children of alcoholics in terms of psychological adjustment using the Diagnostic Inventory of Personality and Symptoms (DIPS; Vincent, 1985). Results of the study suggested that, among college students, Caucasian men seem to be at a greater risk for using alcohol and drugs than Caucasian women or Hispanic men and women.     

Psychological Adjustment Among Adult Children of Alcoholics: A Cross-Cultural Study

In this study, we compared Hispanic and Caucasian college students identified as adult children of alcoholics in terms of psychological adjustment using the Diagnostic Inventory of Personality and Symptoms (DIPS; Vincent, 1985). Results of the study suggested that, among college students, Caucasian men seem to be at a greater risk for using alcohol and drugs than Caucasian women or Hispanic men and women.     

Suicide Ideation,Alcohol Consumption,Motives, and Related Problems: Exploring the Association in College Students

Previous findings on the relationship between suicide ideation (SI) and alcohol misuse among college students are inconsistent, leading to conflicting clinical implications. We aimed to clarify this relationship in order to determine the utility of regarding alcohol misuse as a risk factor for SI in this population. Unselected college students (N = 545) completed an online survey including measures of alcohol consumption, problems, drinking motives, SI, and related variables. Our results suggest alcohol misuse is not a correlate of SI among college students; therefore, one should not assume that students who misuse alcohol are necessarily at increased risk for SI.     

Goal agreement and relationship quality among college students and their parents

Two hundred eight parent–college student dyads (total N = 416) participated in the current study, which examined the link between goal agreement and perceived conflict within their relationships. Undergraduate participants (91 male, 117 female) completed a demographic form, a 65 items goal measure, and a measure of parental conflict. Parents (98 fathers, 110 mothers) were asked to rate the importance of the same 65 goals for their emerging adult children. College students tended to place more importance on independence, affect control, health, social relationships, and financial concern goals than their parents did, whereas parents placed more importance on moral and religious goals than their emerging adult children did. However, relative goal agreement between parents and college students was found to be moderately high. Those parent–college student dyads who experienced less conflict tended to have higher goal agreement, whereas those dyads with a higher level of conflict had lower goal agreement. These findings provide further evidence for the link between interpersonal relationships and the personality construct of goals.     

Comparing Students From Substance Abusing and Dysfunctional Families: Implications for Counseling

This research compared family role dysfunction, college adjustment, chemical dependence, and family functioning among a sample of 245 college students from three groups: homes in which significant alcohol or other chemical abuse or dependence dysfunction existed; dysfunctional homes in which substance abuse was not a significant problem; and nonabusing, nondysfunctional homes. The results suggest that chemical abuse or dependence in families is associated with slowed adult role assimilation and increased risk for alcohol and other drug abuse among children.     

Elaboration of Cognitive Knowledge of Biology from Childhood to Adulthood

Fifty-seven stimulus words from general biology were presented to subjects ranging from fourth graders to college students. Their free-word-association responses were analyzed according to the relationships between stimulus and response words. Response patterns provided strong support for the Piagetian sensorimotor, concrete operational, and formal operational stages. They also revealed increasing hierarchical organization of knowledge with increased biology learning.     

From Here to Eternity Children's Acquisition of Understanding of Projective Size on Television

This study attempts to trace children's acquisition of understanding of projective size (e.g., getting closer to and farther away from an object) as depicted on television through two distinctive techniques—zooming in/out and multiple edits. Unlike previous research in this area, this investigation applied aspects of cognitive processing that have been identified as untapped through gross Piagetian measures—Level 1 and Level 2 knowledge of visual perception (Pillow & Flavell, 1986). Findings suggest that children classified as “preoperational” by Piagetian standards, but possessing Level 1 knowledge of visual perception—the ability to infer what objects can or cannot be seen from another person's viewpoint—are capable of understanding the more simple form of projective size; children possessing Level 2 knowledge—the ability to infer the nature, as well as the content, of another person's visual experience—have a better comprehension of the more complex, edited presentation of projective size. Level of television consumption plays a role in children's acquisition of understanding of television information.     

Adolescent drug use in Mexico and among Mexican American adolescents in the United States: environmental influences and individual characteristics

The authors compared high school students in Baja California Norte (BCN), Mexico (n = 775), with Mexican American students in Los Angeles (LA), California (n = 516). The students' use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, inhalants, and other illicit drugs were compared, because these vary by gender, country, and their age of first drug use and are influenced by demographic variables, individual characteristics, and environmental influences. More BCN students than LA students had used alcohol, but more LA than BCN students had used illicit drugs and initiated drug use earlier. When demographic variables were influential, they were most powerful and increased the risk for drug use more than environmental factors or individual characteristics. Environmental factors were most influential for boys' drug use, whereas environmental and demographic variables were most influential for girls' drug use.     

Reflective judgment: Concepts of justification and their relationship to age and education

This paper describes a seven-stage model of post-adolescent reasoning styles, the most advanced of which is called “Reflective Judgment.” The model outlines a sequence of increasingly complex methods of justification of beliefs. This model demonstrates how people's conceptions of the nature of knowledge, the nature of reality, and their concepts of justification change over age/educational levels. Sixty subjects from three age/educational levels (high school, college, and graduate school) were administered the Reflective Judgment Interview. In addition, subjects were tested on four other factors hypothesized to affect reflective judgment scores. Two were competing theoretical constructs: verbal ability (using Terman's Concept Mastery Test) and Piagetian formal operations (chemicals and pendulum tasks); and two were potentially confounding factors: socio-economic status (using Hollingshead's two-factor index) and verbal fluency (number of words spoken during the interview). Highly significant differences (p < .001) were found on reflective judgment level between the three age/educational groups, and could not be statistically accounted for by scores earned on measures of the other four factors. Whereas verbal ability was found to be closely related to reflective judgment level, the differences between groups on reflective judgment could not be solely attributed to this factor.     

Associations between depression, distress tolerance, delay discounting, and alcohol-related problems in European American and African American college students

Although levels of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems are high in college students, there is significant variability in the number and type of problems experienced, even among students who drink heavily. African American students drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related problems than European American students, but are still at risk, and little research has investigated the potentially unique patterns and predictors of problems among these students. Depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting have been implicated in adult substance abuse and may be important predictors of alcohol problem severity among college students. We examined the relationship between these variables and alcohol-related problems among African American and European American students (N = 206; 53% female; 68% European American; 28% African American) who reported recent heavy drinking. In regression models that controlled for drinking level, depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting were associated with alcohol problems among African American students, but only depression was associated with alcohol problems among European American students. These results suggest that negative affect is a key risk factor for alcohol problems among college student drinkers. For African American students, the inability to tolerate negative emotions and to organize their behavior around future outcomes may also be especially relevant risk factors.     

Resilience in siblings of children with sickle cell disease

This pilot study was conducted to identify factors responsible for promoting resilience in siblings of children with sickle cell disease. Twenty siblings (10–17 years of age) of children (5–13 years) with sickle cell disease were selected from the Pediatric Clinic of Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease. The siblings responded to questionnaires, and the data obtained was analyzed by chi-square for association. The results indicated that age, birth order, and gender had no effect on resilience in the siblings. However, family size, number of parents in the home, sibling's knowledge of the illness, degree of morbidity of the illness, socioeconomic status of the family, and parents' attitudes and childrearing practices were all found to affect resilience. These findings provide additional insight into the psychosocial aspects of, and genetic counseling for sickle cell disease, as well as for other chronic genetic disorders.     

Transitions in first-year college student drinking behaviors: does pre-college drinking moderate the effects of parent- and peer-based intervention components?

This study used Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to examine a stage-sequential model of alcohol use among a sample of high-risk matriculating college students (N=1,275). Measures of alcohol use were collected via web-administered surveys during the summer before entering college and followed-up during the fall semester of college. Seven indicators of alcohol use were used in the LTA models, including temporal measures of typical drinking throughout the week. The results indicated that four latent statuses characterized patterns of drinking at both times, though the proportion of students in each status changed during the transition to college: (a) nondrinkers; (b) weekend nonbingers; (c) weekend bingers; and (d) heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers were distinguished by heavy episodic drinking (HED), and increased likelihood of drinking throughout the week, especially on Thursdays. Covariates were added to the LTA model to examine the main and interaction effects of parent- and peer-based intervention components. Results indicated that participants in the parent and peer conditions were least likely to transition to the heavy drinkers status. Results also indicated that the parent condition was most effective at preventing baseline nondrinkers from transitioning to heavy drinkers whereas the peer condition was most effective at preventing escalation of use among weekend nonbingers. The results underscore the value of considering multiple dimensions of alcohol use within a person-centered approach. Differential treatment effects were found across baseline drinking class, suggesting the benefit for tailored intervention programs to reduce high-risk drinking among college students.     

Implicit cognitive development in cultural tools and children: lessons from Maya Mexico

Zinacantec Maya weaving tools and apprenticeship practices contain an implicit theory of cognitive development that corresponds to Piaget and Inhelder’s explicit theory of cognitive development [The Child’s Conception of Space, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1956]. A set of preoperational and concrete operational spatial problems from the weaving domain provided empirical support for the ethnotheory of cognitive development implicit in Zinacantec weaving tools and their developmental sequencing. A structurally similar set of preoperational and concrete operational spatial problems were adapted from Piaget and Inhelder’s Swiss research. Both sets of problems were presented to children aged 4–13 in Nabenchauk, a Zinacantec hamlet in Chiapas, Mexico, and in Los Angeles, CA, USA. While the sequence of operational development was the same across both domains and both cultures, Zinacantec children were more precocious with the weaving problems, whereas U.S. children were more precocious with the spatial problems adapted from Piaget and Inhelder. After a brief instructional procedure, children in both Nabenchauk and Los Angeles improved on the weaving problems only, within the maturational constraints typical of concrete operational development. Nonetheless, the brief learning experience could not reverse the advantage of long-term cultural familiarity with backstrap-loom weaving. Our conclusions are threefold: (1) An implicit ethnotheory of cognitive development, built into the sequencing of cultural tools, can be as developmentally valid as an explicit formal theory. (2) Culture-general Piagetian stages are harnessed in culture-specific situations. (3) Maturational readiness interacts with both long-term cultural experience and short-term learning experience to actualize concrete operations in a specific context. Cross-context generalization of Piagetian stages is far from automatic; it requires cultural learning.     

Concurrent alcohol and tobacco use among school-going adolescents in Namibia: Prevalence and risk factors

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for concurrent alcohol and tobacco use among school-going adolescents in Namibia. Data were from a sample of 4 531 Namibian middle school children (females = 53.1%; mean age = 15.8 years, SD = 1.8 years). They completed the Namibia Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) in 2013. Overall, 74.4% of alcohol users in the past month were frequent tobacco users; whereas 40.5% of tobacco users in the past month were frequent alcohol users. Compared to students who were neither alcohol nor tobacco users (63.1%), concurrent alcohol and tobacco users were more likely to self-report with a lack of parent support, to have used illicit drugs, to have engaged in school truancy, to be sedentary in behaviour, to have engaged in a physical fight, and to have had two or more sexual partners. Substance use prevention and treatment programmes with adolescents should routinely address their risk for comorbid tobacco and alcohol use.     

Children's cognitive ability from 4 to 9 years old as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure, environmental risk, and maternal verbal intelligence

This study examined the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, environmental risk, and maternal verbal intelligence on children's cognitive ability. Gender and age were examined as moderators of potential cocaine exposure effects. The Stanford-Binet IV intelligence test was administered to 231 children (91 cocaine exposed, 140 unexposed) at ages 4, 6, and 9 years. Neonatal medical risk and other prenatal exposures (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana) were also examined for their unique effects on child IQ. Mixed models analysis indicated that prenatal cocaine exposure interacted with gender, as cocaine-exposed boys had lower composite IQ scores. Age at assessment did not moderate this relation, indicating that cocaine-exposed boys had lower IQs across this age period. A stimulating home environment and high maternal verbal IQ also predicted higher composite IQ scores. Cocaine-exposed boys had lower scores on the Abstract/Visual Reasoning subscale, with trends for lower scores on the Short-Term Memory and Verbal Reasoning subscales, as exposure effects were observed across domains. The findings indicate that cocaine exposure continues to place children at risk for mild cognitive deficits into preadolescence. Possible mechanisms for the Exposure x Gender interaction are discussed.     

Parent Perception of Elementary School Aged Children’s Sleep Problems

Wide discrepancies exist concerning the reported occurrence of sleep problems for elementary school children. We describe parental perception of sleep problem behavior in elementary school aged children 5–12 years. Approximately 4% of parents reported their children experienced significant global sleep problems serious enough to adversely affect family functioning. Significant specific sleep problems reported by parents occurred for approximately 9–14% of the children in the sample. These ranges were in the low end of the ranges of sleep problems reported in previous literature for this age group.     

Social Influence and Selection Processes as Predictors of Normative Perceptions and Alcohol Use Across the Transition to College

Research indicates that social influences impact college alcohol consumption. However, little work has addressed how selection processes may serve as an influential factor predicting alcohol use in this population. A model of influence and selection processes contributing to alcohol use across the transition to college was examined using structural equation modeling among a sample of late adolescents (N=193). Results indicate selection processes occur as students transition into college and have the opportunity to seek out and join new friend circles, while peer influence occurs once students have settled within a circle of friends at college. Implications for prevention are discussed.