Maternal-Related Predictors of Self-Regulation Among Low-Income Youth

The association between self-regulation and various adaptive outcomes has become a topic of growing interest to researchers. Yet, there is not much research on predictors of self-regulation in children. Using a cross-sectional design and an array of psychometrically sound scales and measures from multiple informants, this study examined whether maternal characteristics, namely maternal mental health, substance abuse, parenting practices, and child monitoring predicted self-regulation in children. Participants included a culturally diverse group of 155 youths (ages 8–17) and their mothers, all of whom were part of a larger investigation of low-income families in a mid-sized Northeastern city in the United States. Results showed that maternal substance abuse, parenting practices and parental monitoring independently predicted children’s self-regulation, accounting for 23% of the variance. Additional analyses indicated that parenting practices may partly mediate the effect of maternal mental health on children’s self-regulation. Implications for intervention and practice, especially those aimed to mitigate the detrimental effects of maternal mental health problems on children’s self-regulation, are discussed. Further research, both longitudinal and experimental, is warranted in order to extend this line of investigation.     

Self-Enhancement Among Major League Soccer Players: The Role of Importance and Ambiguity on Social Comparison Behavior1

This study was conducted to examine psychological mechanisms underlying self enhancing comparisons among 88 male major league professional soccer players. In line with other research, the results suggest that positive beliefs about oneself are more difficult to maintain with regard to unambiguous comparison dimensions. More interestingly, similar results were found by contrasting comparisons with a specific other to those with a vague other, a more ambiguous comparison target. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the more value subjects attach to a dimension of comparison, the more they consider themselves superior on that dimension. The practical implications of these results for competitive sport are discussed.     

Antecedent Behaviors of Male Youth Victimization: An Exploratory Study

The antecedent behavior patterns of violently victimized male youths were assessed using a variety of instruments, including the Risk-Taking Survey, Aggression Questionnaire, Weekly Activity Record, and Delinquency Index. Sixty-six percent of the participants reported engaging in risky, delinquent/criminal, and/or aggressive (RDA) behavior prior to victimization. Victims aged 20?24 differed significantly from those aged 15?19 in that they reported more RDA behaviors prior to the event, and more frequent risky, delinquent, and aggressive behaviors in general. They also spent more hours engaged in negative activities than the younger group. The findings are congruent with the lifestyle-routine activities and risky behavior theories of violent victimization.     

Support for Resistance Among Iraqi Students: An Exploratory Study

This study examines predictors of expressed support for resistance to U.S.-led forces in Iraq among a sample of 130 university students in Baghdad. Based on a review of the literature and common discourse, personality, clash of civilization and social-psychological variables are tested as likely predictors of support for resistance. Data were collected in March 2004 during a period of relative political stability and optimism. Only social-psychological variables significantly predicted support. In particular, national identity, perceived procedural injustice, and higher life satisfaction prior to the U.S.-led invasion were significant predictors. Findings are discussed in relation to media and academic accounts explaining political violence in the current conflict.     

Stress and Coping Among Displaced Bosnian Refugees: An Exploratory Study

Traumatic experiences associated with the recent war in Bosnia (1992–1995) have impacted the lives of many Bosnian refugees and displaced people. Approximately 25% of Bosnians were forced to leave their homes and resettle in other areas of Bosnia or abroad. In this study, 82 displaced Bosnians living in the area of Tuzla, Bosnia, and 53 refugees living in the San Francisco Bay area completed the same questionnaire in the Bosnian language. The study describes war-related stress and the association of marital status, anxiety, depression, and sensitivity levels. Furthermore, being single, having lower anxiety ratings, finding and adapting to a new environment easily, and moving on with their lives indicated better self-reported health. Findings also revealed that being divorced or separated, better self-reported health, and lower anxiety, depression, and sensitivity ratings were predictors of more effective coping.     

Mixed Methods in Youth Purpose: An Examination of Adolescent Self-Regulation and Purpose

Utilizing a relational developmental systems approach to examining character strengths, this article examines the connection between adolescents’ intentional self-regulation (ISR) with youth sense of purpose, using data from a large-scale evaluation of a youth development program in Scotland. Data were triangulated from multiple sources, including youth surveys and interviews as well as teacher assessments. Surveys were collected from 783 S2 (approximately seventh grade) pupils; teacher survey data were collected for 732 of these pupils. Telephone interviews were conducted with a subset of 29 adolescents. The data were analyzed with an innovative mixed-methods technique that allows qualitative interview data to underscore consistencies and disconnects with quantitative findings from both teacher and adolescent surveys. Results demonstrate a strong connection between ISR and purpose and many consistencies across measures of purpose.     

Factors Associated with Therapeutic Approaches Among Norwegian Occupational Therapists: An Exploratory Study

According to the Intentional Relationship Model, the use of therapeutic approaches tailored to individual clients’ needs is essential for building therapeutic relationships. This study investigated factors associated with occupational therapists’ preferred therapeutic approaches. One hundred eight occupational therapists were recruited as a convenience sample, and the data were analyzed with linear regressions. Mental health as the field of practice was associated with a stronger preference for use of empathy. More job satisfaction was associated with stronger preference for the instructing mode. Empathy appears to be more commonly used in mental health practice, whereas instructing may be linked with job satisfaction.     

Ethically Questionable Behaviors Among Supervisees: An Exploratory Investigation

In spite of numerous studies of program outcomes finding little or no positive effect on violent behavior, the Duluth model remains the most common program type of interventions with perpetrators of domestic violence. In addition, Duluth model programs often ignore serious mental health and substance abuse issues present in perpetrators. These and other issues of possible threat to mental health professional ethics are reviewed in light of the court-mandated, compulsory nature of most Duluth model programs and client and victim expectations for program efficacy.     

Perceptions of Gender Stereotypic Behavior: An Exploratory Study of Women in Selling

This study explores sales managers' perceptions of the relationship between saleswomen's stereotypic behavior and their functional effectiveness in selling. The results show that sales managers do perceive negative stereotypic behavior to have some deleterious associations with performance. Moreover, sales managers' knowledge of the sex role identities of saleswomen is helpful to them in recognizing those saleswomen who are least likely to be perceived stereotypically.     

An Exploratory Study: Perceptions of Ethical Behaviors Among Psychologists Practicing in the Caribbean

A sample of 44 psychologists who practice in the Caribbean completed a web-based survey containing 73 behavioral items related to ethical issues in professional practice. The aim of this exploratory study was to learn about perceptions regarding ethical behaviors that create ethical dilemmas and the level of agreement to their responses and to identify how demographic variables influenced their perceptions of ethical behaviors. Findings suggest that there was approximately an equal level of agreement on behaviors such as being an advocate for your client and being sexually involved with a current client rated as ethical and unethical, respectively. Several demographic variables and ethical behaviors such as level of degree and confidentiality issues were statistically significant. Finally, psychologists prefer the presence of a professional psychological association with an ethics committee.     

Association Between Insomnia and Quality of Life: An Exploratory Study Among Software Engineers

Insomnia is a major public health challenge. Due to its high prevalence and impact on health in recent years it has attracted attention of health care providers. The concept of quality of life (QOL) has gained importance as an outcome measure in sleep disturbed people. This study aims to determine the prevalence of insomnia among software engineers as the job related stress is considered very high. Ninety-one software engineers aged between 21 and 45 from a software developing company in Mysore formed the study population. Insomnia Screening Questionnaire and SF 36 Health Survey Questionnaire were used to elicit information about sleep quality and quality of life respectively. Sleep status among the subjects was as follows: 20.9% severe insomnia, 35.2% mild insomnia and 43.9% normal sleeper. Mean scores for SF 36 and those for physical and mental health were considerably lower among severe insomniacs. Software engineers run at the risk of developing insomnia, those with severe insomnia had poor QOL in comparison with the others. Quality of sleep among software engineers needs special attention since they are prone to develop sleep disturbances.     

Religion and Body Weight Among African-American Adults Attempting to Lose Weight: An Exploratory Study

Religion and body weight was explored at two time points among overweight and obese African-American adults. Baseline and follow-up data were collected from 26 adults participating in a weight loss intervention and analyzed using multiple regression analyses of religious measures, body weight, and other variables. Frequent church attendance was significantly associated with greater weight lost from baseline to 16-week follow-up. In this exploratory study, religious interactions and experiences may be involved in shaping body weight among African-Americans attempting to lose weight.

     

The Relationships Among Grief Experience,Problem-Solving Appraisal,and Depression: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Research has consistently shown a relationship between problem-solving appraisal and depressive symptoms. This study expands that research by including grief symptomatology as a variable. A college student sample completed the Problem-Solving inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Revised Grief Experience Inventory. Consistent with hypotheses, those individuals who had experienced the death of a close loved one within the previous 5 years reported significantly higher levels of grief and depression than those who had not experienced such a loss. However, the group that had experienced the death of a close loved one did not report significantly worse problem-solving scores than the group that did not. This study also examined the relationships among problem-solving appraisal, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms within the subsample that had experienced the loss of a close loved one within the previous 5 years. Consistent with predictions, grief symptoms were associated with depressive symptoms and self-appraised ineffective problem solving. The results of this study extend the research on grief and mourning. Also, the results expand our understanding of the grief process by providing preliminary evidence for the role of problem solving in this process     

An Exploratory Study of Perceived Career Change and Job Attitudes Among Job Changers

The study examined the effects of job change characteristics on perceived career change and attitudes toward the new job. The job change characteristics examined were content of change, magnitude of change, direction of change, volitionality of job choice, and duration of the unemployment period between the two jobs. The subjects were 222 university educated men and women. It was found that perceived career change was firmly related to job change characteristics reflecting both "internal" and "external" career perspectives. After controlling for the direction of change, the magnitude of change had a negative impact on satisfaction with the new job, while the volitionality of job choice and the duration of unemployment were positively associated with job satisfaction. Contrary to expectation, the volitionality of job choice and the duration of unemployment did not increase the commitment to continue in the new job.     

Transcultural wellness: An Exploratory Study

This study explored differences in wellness scores between a transcultural sample and the normative sample of the Five Factor wellness Inventory (5F‐wel; Myers & Sweeney, 2005c). Differences between the two groups were found on all scales of the 5f‐wel, with transculturals scoring higher than the normative sample. Implications for practitioners and researchers are presented for those working with transculturals. Este estudio exploró las diferencias en puntuaciones de bienestar entre una muestra transcultural y la muestra normativa de los Cinco factores del Inventario de Bienestar (5F‐wel, por sus siglas en inglés; Myers & Sweeney, 2005c). Se hallaron diferencias entre los dos grupos en todas las escalas del 5f‐wel, con las puntuaciones transculturales siendo más altas que la muestra normativa. Se presentan implicaciones para profesionales e investigadores que estén trabajando con individuos transculturales.     

Delay Discounting,Dating Applications,and Risky Sexual Behavior: An Exploratory Study

The Psychological Record - Research on delay discounting and sex suggests that discounting measures correlate to risky sexual behavior. Dating applications are a growing trend in sexual partner...     

Recalled Challenging Parenting Behavior and Anxiety in Adulthood: An Exploratory Retrospective Cohort Study

This research examined the relationship between recalled challenging parenting behavior (CPB) and adult anxiety and aimed to determine the underlying latent factors involved in CPB. CPB is a novel parenting construct that involves the encouragement of children to go beyond their own limits and engage with concepts they may find scary or that destabilises them, in a playful and fun way. Participants in the current study were 386 undergraduate psychology students (M age?=?19.89 years, SD?=?4.6; range 17–56). Questionnaire measures of CPB, anxiety, and social anxiety were delivered to participants via an online survey. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using Principle Axis Factoring with Oblimin rotation. This identified three latent constructs underlying adults recall of CPB during childhood; parental encouragement of social assertion (‘Social’), parental encouragement to engage in novel or new situations (‘Novelty’), and intentional teasing (‘Teasing’) CPB. Both mother and father Social and Novelty CPB was associated with lower report of adult anxiety. However, only fathers Teasing was able to predict adult anxiety.     

Bearing Witness Through Medicine: An Exploratory Study of Attitudes to Service Among Australian Evangelical Christian Doctors

This study explores the attitudes of Australian evangelical Christian doctors to healing, suffering and good practice, using in-depth interviews. Doctors described an intellectualised faith, in which medical care was conceived in itself as a way of bearing witness. The alleviation of suffering, for these doctors, included supporting patients to rediscover purpose and meaning in their lives. There was diversity of opinion about evangelising, with many feeling that this was a contingent activity best conducted outside the consultation. This cohort of doctors, mostly non-denominational, had consciously engaged in work with the poor and marginalised as an expression of their faith.     

Professional Career Services: An Exploratory Study

This study assesses the willingness of three groups of job seekers to use professional career counseling services.     

Defying Unjust Authority: An Exploratory Study

This research explores the psychological factors potentially involved in fostering disobedience to an unjust authority. Our paradigm was modeled after that of the Utrecht Studies on Obedience (Meeus and Raaijmakers European Journal of Social Psychology 16:311-324, 1986) in which participants are ordered to give each of 15 increasingly hostile comments to a participant/victim whenever he fails a trial. Although 30% of our sample followed commands to insult the other participant (confederate), the majority did refuse to do so at some point in the escalating hostility sequence. Our procedure utilized conditions known from prior research to increase the ratio of disobedience to obedience: proximity of teacher to learner plus remote authority. In order to better understand some of the cognitive and affective processes that may predict such defiant behaviour, we utilized a variety of measures, among them, behavioural observations, individual difference assessments, and in depth post-experimental interviews.