Young children's representations of peers' distress: associations to children's social functioning and acceptance of distressed peers

Children's mental representations of situations involving another child's distress were examined in two studies. Study 1 examined 3- to 7-year-old children's (n= 44) ideas about what victims and bystanders would think, feel and do in hypothetical situations. In Study 2, 7- to 8-year-olds (n= 40) described their own cognitive response to situations in which they were confronted with another's distress. In both studies, representational bias was examined in relation to children's display of prosocial and aggressive behavior and in relation to their acceptance of distressed peers. Although not entirely consistent, findings indicate that three types of representational biases are associated with low levels of considerate behavior and with relatively low acceptance of distressed peers: (a) mentally representing the victim's problem without giving thought to its implications for the victim, (b) significantly reducing the emotional significance of the problem and (c) exaggerating negative aspects of the problem.     

Interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's adjustment: bridging links between parents' depression and children's psychological distress

Pathways linking parental depressive symptoms, adult relationship insecurity, interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's psychological adjustment (internalizing symptoms and externalizing problems) were assessed using a 3-wave longitudinal research design. Two-parent families (N = 352) with 11- to 13-year-old children (179 boys, 173 girls) participated in the study. Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms were associated with insecurity in adult close relationships assessed 12 months later, which was concurrently related to heightened levels of interparental conflict. Controlling for children's initial symptom levels, interparental conflict was related to child appraisals of father and mother rejection assessed an additional 12 months later, which were related to children's internalizing symptoms and externalizing problems, respectively. Results are discussed with regard to the implications for understanding the complex interplay between adult depressive symptoms, attributions in close adult relationships, interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's psychological adjustment.     

Maternal depression, adult attachment, and children's emotional distress

INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to evaluate the impact of depressed mothers' marital intimacy and attachment security in romantic relationships on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. METHOD: Forty-six clinically depressed mothers rated attachment security, marital intimacy, and symptoms shown by their children aged 8 to 12. RESULTS: Maternal avoidance of closeness predicted increases in children's internalizing symptoms over a 6-month period. DISCUSSION: Avoidance of closeness in depressed mothers may be implicated in the development of internalizing symptoms in their children, possibly because individuals who are avoidant of closeness are poor caregivers.     

School-age children's reactions to deaf and hearing-impaired children

The study investigated 120 grade school children's impressions of deaf and hearing-impaired children. Scores on the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children showed that nonhandicapped students apply negative attributes similarly to both groups. Implications for mainstreaming and elimination of stereotypes are discussed.     

Age differences in emotional reactions: arousal and age-relevance count

Recent findings suggest positivity effects in older adults' attention and memory, but few studies have examined such effects on the level of emotional reactivity. In this study, 52 young and 52 older adults rated 172 pictures of the International Affective Picture System, differing in arousal and age-relevance, in terms of valence and discrete emotions. Age differences in the ratio of pleasantness reactions to pleasant pictures vs. unpleasantness reactions to unpleasant pictures as well as age differences in absolute levels of unpleasantness and pleasantness reactions suggest that positivity effects in older adults' subjective emotional reactions are reduced under high arousal. There is also evidence that positivity effects may be restricted to stimuli with low relevance in old age.     

Predictors of children's emotional distress in a mother-absent situation: implications for caregiving research

Although many factors have been found to be associated with caregiving behavior among preschool-age siblings, few studies have considered the older child's emotional responses to the distress of a younger sibling in the mother's absence. In this study, the authors considered both individual and family factors that predict older and younger sibling distress in a mother-absent situation designed to elicit caregiving behavior. For both older and younger siblings, the strongest predictor of distress following the mother's departure was distress in the other sibling, suggesting the importance of situational factors. Individual and family factors, however, were also found to predict child distress. Among older siblings, shy and sociable temperaments were associated with greater distress during the mother's absence. Higher levels of parenting stress were found to be associated with less distress among both older and younger siblings in the mother-absent situation. Results are discussed in terms of individual and family environment influences on the sibling relationship.     

Psychological distress,problem solving,and coping reactions: Sex role differences

Previous research has demonstrated that psychological well-being and distress are strongly associated with masculinity, but unrelated to femininity. The present study provides for a replication of this literature in that results from 211 undergraduate students revealed that high-masculine subjects, compared to low-masculine persons, reported significantly lower scores on self-report measures of depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. No differences in distress were found as a function of sex or the femininity dimension. Further, high-masculine subjects, relative to low-masculine subjects, were also found to rate their problem-solving ability as more effective, to engage in more active-behavioral and less avoidance methods of coping in response to previously experienced stressful reactions and to engage in more problem-focused and less emotional-focused coping styles regarding stressful situations. Sex and femininity differences were not found related to differences in problem solving and coping. However, the relation between masculinity and distress was found to be nonsignificant when the variance due to coping was partialed out, suggesting that sex role relations to distress may be mediated by coping skills.Completion of this article occurred while Christine M. Nezu was affiliated with Beth Israel Medical Center-Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York.     

Assessment of the effects of brief separation from parent on infants

The purpose of the study was to answer 2 questions: (1) are children 12 to 24 months old able to interpret their parents' accessibility on the basis of previous separation, and (2) how long do the effects of a brief, experimental separation last? 20 children were observed with their parents for 3 min, were then left alone for 3 min, and were observed for 3 min following reunion; as controls 19 children stayed with their parents for 9 min. The children were later observed after 1 or 2 weeks, this time they were free to separate themselves from their parents in order to explore an adjoining room. Observations were made by scoring predefined behavior measures from videotape. Results showed effects 1, but not 2 weeks after separation, and suggest that separation chiefly affects behaviors which involve confidence in parents' physical accessibility.     

Rational selective exploitation and distress: employee reactions to performance-based and mobility-based reward allocations

Prior research has demonstrated that allocators frequently distribute greater rewards to persons with high professional and geographic mobility than to persons with constrained mobility, especially among the very competent. This phenomenon has been termed rational selective exploitation. Do the recipients of such allocations actually experience this distribution rule as unjust and distressing, or is it a misnomer to refer to this phenomenon as exploitation? Two studies were conducted to explore this question. Study 1 was a laboratory experiment in which we manipulated relative performance level, relative mobility level, and allocation standard: performance based versus mobility based. Study 2 was a cross-sectional survey of actual employees in which subjects reported the degree to which performance and mobility were the basis for pay decisions at their places of employment, as well as the degree to which they perceived each standard to be fair. Both studies demonstrated that people regard mobility-based allocations as less fair and more distressing than performance-based allocations. Furthermore, the degree of distress resulting from mobility-based allocations is greater among persons who are disadvantaged by that standard: among people with constrained mobility, especially those who perform at high levels. These findings provide good support for the assertion that so-called rational selective exploitation is indeed distressing to employees. Reactions to this form of distress are also explored, and the implications of these findings for the allocation process are discussed.     

A Research Note: Happiness by Age is More Complex than U-Shaped

Happiness varies with age, but there is no general agreement regarding the feature of the variation. Many studies have found that it is U-shaped such that there is a minimum between approximately 40 and 50 years of age. The result largely depends on the control variables used in the happiness modeling. Some authors do not even allow the use of any control variables, but the conventional theory of U-shaped studies stipulates the inclusion of such controls that essentially influence the basic living conditions of people. In this study, we do not strictly follow earlier findings but estimate our age-shape with different versions of them, using the data of 28 or 30 European countries. We also estimate a model without proper controls. This does not give any minimum age and thus supports some studies. Moreover, using any or all of our three controls some type of U-shape is found in most countries. Our U-shapes are not as simple as conventional research suggests. Minimum happiness can occur either below 40 years, or much above 50 years. A special feature is that the U-shape phenomenon holds better for males than for females. We also estimated models to see what happens after the minimum age happiness. In the case of gender models, the turning points for males are substantially lower than for females. This means that the old-age happiness of males stops to increase approximately at 70 years but more than 10 years later for females.     

Predicting women's and men's reactions to geographic separation: relational interdependence matters

Participant sex and a theorized correlate of biological sex, relational interdependence, were tested as relative predictors of the extent to which daters 1) missed and 2) used emotional support to cope when geographically separated from their dating partners. One hundred twenty-four daters completed multiple measures of missing and coping during their colleges' winter breaks. Results from regression analyses indicated that levels of missing and seeking emotional support differed as a function of biological sex. Further, relational interdependence was reliably associated with missing and seeking emotional support in theoretically consistent ways. Mediation analyses highlighted the importance of considering relational interdependence or other individual differences that covary with biological sex when studying close relationship phenomena.     

Context and cue cards in young children's testimony: a comparison of brief narrative elaboration and context reinstatement

In a comparison of interview procedures that aimed to assist retrieval strategies in children's event recall, 72 children aged 4-6 years were questioned about a witnessed event. Context reinstatement and brief narrative elaboration (an abbreviated version of K. J. Saywitz and L. Snyder's [1996] procedure) produced similar levels of correct recall, and both elicited more correct recall than did a control condition, with no increase in errors. Combining these procedures did not further improve performance. The superiority of narrative elaboration over the control group was evident in free recall and did not depend on explicit prompting with cue cards. These findings suggest that incorporating brief narrative elaboration training in investigative interviews with children may, like context reinstatement, be a valuable mnemonic aid.     

Maltreated children's understanding of and emotional reactions to dependency court involvement

Little is known about the extent to which maltreated children understand what is happening during their participation in court proceedings, despite large numbers of children coming into contact with the legal system as victims of maltreatment. In the present study, maltreated 4‐ to 15‐year‐olds were interviewed about their understanding of dependency court on the day of their scheduled court visit. Their feelings about attending their hearings were also assessed, and after their hearing, their understanding of the decisions was examined. Age‐related improvements in children's understanding emerged. Also, children who were more knowledgeable about the legal system were less distressed about attending their hearings, as were younger children who had been in the system a longer time. Finally, a majority of children lacked full or accurate understanding of what actually happened during their hearings. Findings have implications for children's participation in legal proceedings and the development of interventions to facilitate children's legal understanding. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of children's emotional state on their reactions to emotional expressions: A search for congruency effects

Abstract

Three groups of 30 six-year-old children were tested to examine whether one's own happy or sad mood state causes a specific preference for happy or sad expressions in others, a systematic bias in the labelling of ambiguous expressions, and a selective memory for happy or sad expressions. In two of these groups, a happy or sad mood state was induced by a mental imagery procedure. The third group served as control subjects. It was found that all groups showed a distinct preference for happy faces. Happy children, however, tended to opt for extremely happy faces, whereas sad children chose mildly happy expressions. Furthermore, children (especially the children that received a happy mood induction) were inclined to interpret ambiguous expressions as being congruent with their own mood state. Finally, the “sad” group recalled fewer expressions correctly than the other two, irrespective of the nature of these expressions. Overall, the happy face was more often correctly identified than the sad one.     

Age differences in the effects of social influence on children's eyewitness performance and their metacognitive monitoring

The current work investigated the effects of social influence on children's recall accuracy and metacognitive monitoring. Two studies were conducted in which 8- and 10-year-olds were confronted with postevent information in an interview situation. An interviewer (Study 1) or a confederate (Study 2) provided postevent information with two levels of assertiveness, inducing (a) a variation of conformity pressure and (b) a variation of information credibility. Afterwards, children's confidence judgments were assessed. The results revealed significant age differences in children's ability to adequately cope with variations of social influence. Although conformity pressure was especially important for the 8-year-olds, effects of informative social influence were independent of age. However, 10-year-olds were also able to act appropriately on low credibility, thereby demonstrating a more sophisticated consideration of social influence sources. Moreover, varying assertiveness also affected the quality of children's confidence judgments by improving their metacognitive differentiation skills.