Infants' meaning-making and the development of mental health problems

We argue that infant meaning-making processes are a central mechanism governing both typical and pathological outcomes. Infants, as open dynamic systems, must constantly garner information to increase their complexity and coherence. They fulfill this demand by making nonverbal "meaning"-affects, movements, representations-about themselves in relation to the world and themselves into a "biopsychosocial state of consciousness," which shapes their ongoing engagement with the world. We focus on the operation of the infant-adult communication system, a dyadic, mutually regulated system that scaffolds infants' engagement with the world of people, things, and themselves, and consequently their meaning-making. We argue that infant mental health problems emerge when the meanings infants make in the moment, which increase their complexity and coherence and may be adaptive in the short run, selectively limit their subsequent engagement with the world and, in turn, the growth of their state of consciousness in the long run. When chronic and iterative, these altered meanings can interfere with infants' successful development and heighten their vulnerability to pathological outcomes. Cultural variations in meaning-making and implications for clinical practice are discussed.     

Race,social relationships,and mental health

Researchers often assume that the extent, quality, and effectiveness of personal relationships explain why African Americans have relatively good mental health despite experiencing high levels of stress. This study tests this assumption using data from the 1990–1992 National Comorbidity Survey. Few racial differences emerge in patterns of social relationships, and the nature and quality of social relationships do not explain African Americans’ resiliency on mental health. Several aspects of social relationships benefit African Americans’ mental health more than Whites’, but these moderating effects are insubstantial. Hence, the data do not support the assumption. If social relationships help explain the lack of racial differences in mental health, their nature and effects must be more adequately conceptualized.     

Quality of social support in mental and physical health

The current study investigates the relationship between social support and mental and physical health. Results indicate that poor functional support (or quality of support) is related to physical health problems while structural support (or social network size) is not. Moreover, although both poor functional and structural support are related to depression and anxiety, functional support is more strongly related to these outcome variables, the strongest relationship being associated with depression. Depression and hostility are also related to social isolation, although the relationship is again stronger for depression. The results suggest that the quality of social relationships is more important than quantity for optimal mental and physical health. The clinical relevance of these findings is that the quality of social support in the lives of individuals is central to recovery and should be addressed in medical and mental health treatment planning whenever it is an etiological or maintaining factor. The author dedicates this paper to her beloved father, Charles VanderVoort and her colleagues Dr. Uwe Stuecher and Dr. Gay Barfield whom she describes as “natural altruists, the rarest and most loving type of people in the world.”     

Social desirability,adequacy of social support and mental health

The extent to which the association between satisfaction with social support and mental health was due to social desirability was determined. Whether this association differed between those high and low on social desirability was also examined. Measures consisted of the Crowne – Marlowe Scale, the Adequacy of Social Integration and Attachment Indices, the General Health Questionnaire, the Zung Self‐Rating Depression Scale and four scales from the Delusions‐Symptoms‐States Inventory. The sample comprised 132 women and 93 men randomly drawn from a larger sample of 756 selected at random from the Canberra electoral roll. Although social desirability was positively associated with satisfaction with social support and mental health, the association between mental health and satisfaction with social support was little reduced when social desirability was controlled, indicating that social desirability did not account for the association between social support and mental health. The association between satisfaction with social support and mental health did not differ between those high and low in social desirability, suggesting that this association was not moderated by social desirability. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

社会网络视角下的同伴关系与心理健康

近年来, 从社会网络视角考察同伴关系与心理健康的相互作用正成为发展心理学和健康心理学研究的热点。研究者多借助整体网和纵向数据, 通过两种作用机制, 即选择过程(selection process) (强调心理和行为变量对社会网络和同伴关系的影响, 如关系的形成、维持和解除)和影响过程(influence process) (强调社会网络和同伴关系对心理和行为变量的影响), 来分析同伴关系与心理健康协同演进的动态过程。实证研究关注的领域集中在青少年健康风险行为(如吸烟、喝酒、药物滥用)和情绪问题(如抑郁、焦虑、孤独感)。未来研究应该注重拓展社会网络的类型和样本、加强理论建构、增加对积极心理和消极关系的研究, 并有望在互联网领域及社会网络的生物学基础等方面取得进展。     

Physical health and social network characteristics as determinants of mental health across cultures

This study examines cross-cultural differences in the etiology of depression and anxiety, two common indicators of mental health problems. Using an ethnically diverse sample of 162 college students, we found that chronic physical symptoms and social network characteristics, particularly network quality, were predictive of both depression and anxiety, yet their effects were mediated by ethnicity. Multiple regression analyses showed that social network quality, compared to physical health, was a much stronger predictor of mental health in Caucasian students, whereas among students of Asian/Pacific descent, physical health was a much stronger predictor of mental health than the social network characteristics. The observed differences were particularly strong for anxiety, which was not significantly associated with physical health in Caucasian students or social network size and quality in the Asian/Pacific group. Theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Physical health and social network characteristics as determinants of mental health across cultures

This study examines cross-cultural differences in the etiology of depression and anxiety, two common indicators of mental health problems. Using an ethnically diverse sample of 162 college students, we found that chronic physical symptoms and social network characteristics, particularly network quality, were predictive of both depression and anxiety, yet their effects were mediated by ethnicity. Multiple regression analyses showed that social network quality, compared to physical health, was a much stronger predictor of mental health in Caucasian students, whereas among students of Asian/Pacific descent, physical health was a much stronger predictor of mental health than the social network characteristics. The observed differences were particularly strong for anxiety, which was not significantly associated with physical health in Caucasian students or social network size and quality in the Asian/Pacific group. Theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

社交退缩与儿童的社会适应之间的关系

本研究的目的是探讨社交退缩与儿童的社会适应之间的关系。 共有145名11岁儿童(M=129个月,SD=6.5个月,60名男孩,85名女孩)参与了本研究。本研究运用实验室观察程序,采用儿童游戏观察量表(Play Observation Scale)对儿童在两个自由游戏情景中的社交退缩行为进行编码,采用教师报告法和儿童自我报告法测量了儿童的适应情况。研究结果发现,焦虑退缩行为更多的与男孩的适应问题有关,而安静退缩更多的与女孩的适应问题如孤独感、抑郁等有关。结果表明社交退缩的各个亚型与其社会适应之间的关系是不同的,且性别在其中起着调节作用。     

Infants' use of social partnerships to predict behavior

The experiences of social partners are important motivators of social action. Can infants use such experiences to make predictions about how social agents will behave? Sixteen‐month‐old infants were introduced to two social pairs. Initial events established within‐pair cooperation as well as between‐pair conflict involving an individual from each pair. Following these events, infants looked longer when between‐pair members who had never previously interacted now cooperated – instead of conflicted – with each other. Thus, infants tracked the third‐person allegiances and inferred that the conflict would generalize across social partnerships. These findings demonstrate a critical feature of early social cognition and promote needed, further research on the role of social allegiances in social cognition across development.     

Social psychology of mental health: the social structure and personality perspective

Previous research has revealed a persistent association between social structure and mental health. However, most researchers have focused only on the psychological and psychosocial aspects of that relationship. The present paper indicates the need to include the social and structural bases of distress in our theoretical models. Starting from a general social and psychological model, our research considered the role of several social, environmental, and structural variables (social position, social stressors, and social integration), psychological factors (self-esteem), and psychosocial variables (perceived social support). The theoretical model was tested working with a group of Spanish participants (N = 401) that covered a range of social positions. The results obtained using structural equation modeling support our model, showing the relevant role played by psychosocial, psychological and social, and structural factors. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.     

Sex roles,social roles,and clinical judgments of mental health

This study examined whether clinical psychologists expect similar behavior from males and females in contexts that are traditionally male vs. female. In a modification of the task by Broverman et al. (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1970, 34, 1–7), practicing psychologists (N=104) rated the appropriate behavior of a mature, healthy, socially competent man in the home environment, man in the work environment, woman in the home environment, or woman in the work environment. There was a significant effect of environment, with ratings closer to the pole traditionally labeled masculine in the work environment (p<.001). However, clinicians did not assign significantly different ratings to men vs. women. These data call into question the continued use of feminine and masculine to describe behavior, and emphasize the need to specify the environmental context in research on sex role stereotypes.This report is based on an undergraduate honors thesis conducted by the second author under the sponsorship of the first. Order of authorship is alphabetical.     

Infants' joint attention skills predict toddlers' emerging mental state language

To assess predictive relations between joint attention skills, intention understanding, and mental state vocabulary, 88 children were tested with measures of comprehension of gaze and referential pointing, as well as the production of declarative gestures and the comprehension and production of imperative gestures, at the ages of 7-18 months. Infants' intention-based imitation skills were assessed at 12, 15, and 18 months. At the ages of 24 and 36 months, toddlers' internal state lexicon was evaluated by parents with a German adaptation of the Mental State Language Questionnaire (Olineck & Poulin-Dubois, 2005). Regression analyses revealed that 9-months-olds' comprehension of referential pointing contributed significantly to the prediction of intention-based imitation skills at 15 months, as well as to children's volition and cognition vocabularies at 24 and 36 months, respectively. Moreover, 12-month-olds' comprehension of an imperative motive was shown to selectively predict toddlers' use of volition terms at 24 months. Overall, these results provide empirical evidence for both general and specific developmental relations between preverbal communication skills and mental state language, thus implying developmental continuity within the social domain in the first 3 years of life.     

Critical thinking as cooperation and its relation to mental health and social welfare

The purpose of this theoretical investigation was to examine critical thinking as a realization of human cooperation, affecting both mental health and social welfare. Although critical thinking contains a critical stance toward any asserted standpoint, such a critical stance appears, paradoxically, to have developed from cooperation and the shared goals of human beings. Moreover, although critical thinking has been seen in academic literature to be anchored on culturally developed rules and principles of rational dialogue as well as on effective learning methods, investigators have not interconnected critical thinking and human cooperation comprehensively enough. To solve the dilemma, we will use available scientific knowledge to examine how cooperation and socially shared goals are realized in critical thinking, especially in a critical stance. The view of critical thinking as cooperation places it ontogenetically and phylogenetically into a wider theoretical framework which also provides a novel perspective on mental health and social welfare. The deterioration of rational thinking in the context of mental disorders may be explained by failures of cooperation, which can contain epistemic distrust and an inability to mentalize the viewpoints of others. These features may clarify some causes why some contemporary dialogues and critical contributions are divisive in worldwide, especially in social media.     

Infant day care: A social and psychological perspective on mental health implications

A review of infant group daycare programs abroad and in the USA leads to the conclusion that the degree of industrial and technological development is a major determinant of infant daycare practices. In the USA a culture gap exists between the middle class providers and the predominantly poor and non-caucasion recipients of the service. Difficulties in implementing programs, especially in transmitting child development information to parents stem from these basically different orientations. Some suggestions are made that may lead to more effective communication and collaboration between families using daycare personnel.