Stability of the isolation/disengagement relationship across age groups

Research has indicated isolated elderly persons are either engaged or voluntarily disengaged. The present assessment was whether this relationship holds across age subgroups. While the general relationship did hold true for all age groups, the 55-64 age group was less engaged than their older cohorts. The level and type of disengagement appears to be dependent upon life situations and can decrease with age.     

Biomarkers, health, lifestyle, and demographic variables as correlates of reaction time performance in early, middle, and late adulthood

We aimed to identify demographic, health, and biomarker correlates of reaction time performance and to determine whether biomarkers explained age differences in reaction time performance. The sample comprised three representative cohorts aged 20-24, 40-44, and 60-64 years, including a total of 7,485 participants. Reaction time measures of intraindividual variability and latency were used. The measure of intraindividual variability used was independent of mean reaction time. Older adults were more variable than younger adults in choice reaction time performance but not simple reaction time performance. The most important correlates of reaction time performance after gender and education were biological markers such as forced expiratory volume at one second, grip strength, and vision. Few measures of physical or mental health or lifestyle were associated with poorer performance on reaction time measures. Biomarkers explained the majority of age-related variance in simple reaction time and a large proportion of variance in choice reaction time. We conclude that for the ages studied, biomarkers are more important than health factors for explaining age differences in reaction time performance.     

Not your parents' test scores: cohort reduces psychometric aging effects

Increases over birth cohorts in psychometric abilities may impact effects of aging. Data from 2 cohorts of the Long Beach Longitudinal Study, matched on age but tested 16 years apart, were modeled over ages 55-87 to test the hypothesis that the more fluid abilities of reasoning, list and text recall, and space would show larger cohort differences than vocabulary. This hypothesis was confirmed. At age 74, average performance estimates for people from the more recently born cohort were equivalent to those of people from the older cohort when they were up to 15 years younger. This finding suggests that older adults may perform like much younger ones from the previous generation on fluid measures, indicating higher levels of abilities than expected. This result could have major implications for the expected productivity of an aging workforce as well as for the quality of life of future generations. However, cohort improvements did not mitigate age declines.     

Diagnostic status and symptomatic behavior of hard-to-manage preschool children in middle childhood and early adolescence

Followed 2 cohorts of hard-to-manage preschool children and comparison children without early problems to middle childhood and early adolescence. Children with early problems, especially problems that were still evident at school entry, were more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for an externalizing diagnosis at follow-up. Hard-to-manage children in Cohort 1 with problems that persisted from ages 3 through 9 years were much more likely to meet diagnostic criteria at age 13 than children whose early problems were less stable in elementary school. Similarly, hard-to-manage boys in Cohort 2 whose problems persisted at age 6 were more likely to meet criteria for an externalizing diagnosis at age 9 than hard-to-manage boys whose problems appeared less stable at age 6. Across cohorts, children with persistent problems had higher levels of symptoms and more varied symptoms at ages 3 and 4 and over the course of development.     

Trajectories of religious coping from adolescence into early adulthood: their form and relations to externalizing problems and prosocial behavior

Little is known about changes in religious coping and their relations to adolescents' and young adults' functioning. In 686 Italian youths, trajectories of religious coping were identified from age 16-17 years to age 22-23 years; cohorts of youths reported at 3 of the 4 assessments. Four trajectories of religious coping were identified: decreasing, low stable, high stable, and increasing. A decline in religious coping was associated with high levels of externalizing problems at age 16-17, whereas an increase in religious coping was associated with higher externalizing problems at ages 18-19 and 20-21 years and with relatively high involvement with deviant peers. High stable religious copers were high in prosocial behavior at three ages; low stable religious copers were higher than people undergoing change in their religious coping from mid-adolescence into early adulthood. These results can expand our current thinking about religious coping and adolescent adjustment.     

A descriptive epidemiology of lifetime trauma and the physical health status of older adults

Three issues are evaluated in this study. The 1st involves examining the relationship between exposure to trauma over the life course and physical health status in old age. The 2nd has to do with seeing whether the relationship between trauma and health varies across 3 cohorts of older adults: the young-old (ages 65-74), the old-old (ages 75-84), and the oldest old (age 85 and over). The 3rd issue involves seeing whether the age at which a trauma was encountered is related to health in late life. Data from a nationwide survey of older people (N=1,518) reveal that trauma is associated with worse health. Moreover, the young-old appear to be at greatest risk. Finally, data suggest that trauma arising between the ages of 18 and 30 years, as well as ages 31 to 64 years, has the strongest relationship with current health.     

The development of primary process in children's Rorschachs

Three cohorts of normal Italian schoolchildren, 55 boys and 47 girls, were given Rorschachs at ages 6, 7, and 8; 9, 10, and 11; and 12 and 13. Regardless of sex or score, primary process (scored by Holt's method) tends to diminish with age; but significantly among the boys only for the sums of all primary process, of Level 2 responses, and of content. Measures of control showed similar developmental trends, mean form level advancing significantly in the total sample and among girls. Even stronger trends within cohorts were confounded by retest effects.     

Emergence of attributional style and its relation to depressive symptoms

The development of depressive attributional style (AS) and its role as a cognitive diathesis for depression were examined in children and adolescents (Grades 2-9). In a 4-wave longitudinal study of 3 overlapping age cohorts, AS, negative life events, and depressive symptoms were evaluated every 12 months. Consistency of children's attributions across situations was moderately high at all ages. The cross-sectional structure of AS changed with age, as stability became a more salient aspect of AS than internality and globality. The structure of AS also changed, becoming more traitlike as children grew older. In longitudinal analyses, evidence of a Cognitive Diathesis x Stress interaction did not emerge until Grades 8 and 9, suggesting that AS may not serve as a diathesis for depression at younger ages. Results suggest that attributional models of depression may require modification before they are applied across developmental levels.     

Development of psychiatric comorbidity with substance abuse in adolescents: effects of timing and sex.

Examined the impact of childhood psychiatric disorders on the prevalence and timing of substance use and abuse and tested for sex differences. A representative population sample of 1,420 children, ages 9, 11, and 13 at intake, were interviewed annually. American Indians and youth with behavioral problems were oversampled; data were weighted back to population levels for analysis. By age 16, more than half the sample reported substance use, and 6% had abuse or dependence. Alcohol use began by age 9, and smoking in the 13th year. Mean onset of dependence was 14.8 years, and mean onset of abuse was 15.1 years. Substance use began earlier in boys, but not girls, who later developed abuse or dependence. Disruptive behavior disorders and depression were associated with a higher rate and earlier onset of substance use and abuse in both sexes, but anxiety predicted later onset of smoking. Family drug problems were the strongest correlate of early onset. Despite differences in prevalence of psychopathology, boys and girls showed more similarities than differences in the course of early substance use and abuse, and its associations with psychopathology.     

Bullying in school and adolescent sense of empowerment: an analysis of relationships with parents,friends, and teachers

We explore the development of bullying and victimization in school by investigating 11‐, 13‐ and 15‐year‐olds' sense of interpersonal empowerment with parents, friends and teachers. A national sample of 4386 male and female students from 243 middle and secondary schools in Italy were surveyed. Boys were more likely than girls to be bullies and more likely to have been a bully/victim. Victimization and the likelihood of being both a bully and a victim declined with age. Bullying increased with age among boys whereas for girls it was slightly more prevalent at age 13 than ages 11 or 15. The sense of empowerment students experience with their teachers decreased in the older cohorts. Disempowered relationships with teachers consistently predicted bullying behaviour. Higher social competence was reported by 13‐ and 15‐year‐old bullies. Chronically bullied students had lower social competence in all age cohorts. Otherwise, predictors of victimization varied by age: 11‐year‐old victims felt less empowered by their teachers; 15‐year‐old victims reported more difficulties in negotiating cooperative relationships with parents. Bullies in all cohorts and younger bully/victims feel less empowered by their teachers. These findings suggest that students who are disempowered by teachers may either compensate by oppressing (bullying) peers or generalize the power differential with peers (become a victim). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relation between self-paced and synchronized movement in persons with mental retardation

The relation between self-paced and synchronized tapping in 64 persons with mental retardation whose mental ages ranged from 2 to 11 years and chronological ages from 13 to 23 years was investigated. In a self-paced tapping task no stimulus was presented, and subjects' easy and spontaneous tapping was measured. In a synchronized tapping task their synchronous tapping with an auditory stimulus present at a quick or slow tempo was measured. Under both tempo conditions, the lower the subjects' mental age, the larger the errors in the intertap interval they made. The subjects of low mental age showed significantly larger errors in the intertap interval in the Slow than in the Quick Tempo condition and tended to tap at a rate near the self-paced tapping. These results may suggest that ability to adjust one's self pace is one of the key factors in the development of motor synchronization in persons with mental retardation.     

An assessment of decision-making as a possible factor in the age-related loss of contrast sensitivity

The possibility that changes in decision-making may contribute to the age-related decline in contrast sensitivity has been investigated in nineteen young subjects (ages 21-38 years) and twenty-seven old subjects (ages 55-92 years). A signal detection paradigm was employed in which the detection of stationary sinusoidal grating patterns was measured at 3 and 15 cycles deg-1 for a range of contrasts which were psychophysically equivalent for each subject. A decline in contrast sensitivity with age at the spatial frequencies studied was confirmed for contrast thresholds obtained both by the ascending method and from the 50% hit rate for detection of the grating pattern. The criterion adopted for decision-making, expressed as both beta and percentage bias, did not change significantly between young and old subjects at 15 cycles deg-1. At 3 cycles deg-1, criterion beta did not change significantly at X0.8, X1.0, or X1.2 contrast threshold, but at contrast giving 50% hit rate there was a significant increase with age. The percentage bias increased significantly at contrast threshold but not at 50% hit rate. It is inferred from the results that the loss of contrast sensitivity was not accountable in terms of the adoption of a more conservative criterion by older subjects. Hence visual loss in ageing is attributed to changes within the visual pathway rather than within higher decision-making centres.     

Body-size estimations in children six through fourteen: a longitudinal study.

Estimates of perceived and ideal body size were collected in 216 boys and girls ages 6 through 14 years. Video methodology was used to adjust the width of a life-size frontal image of the children. Longitudinal data were collected annually for three years, beginning at ages 6, 9, and 12. Three psychological methods were used, including the method of adjustment, staircase method, and adaptive probit estimation technique which permitted separate measures of the children's point of subjective equality and just noticeable difference values. The point of subjective equality is the body size which is subjectively equal to the child's perception of self. The just noticeable difference is the amount of change in body size necessary to detect the difference 50% of the time. Acceptable size boundaries were also measured, using the method of adjustment. Over-all, children were accurate in estimating their body width, with average overestimation of less than 2%. Overestimation decreased within each age group during the three years of the study. There were no differences between ages or sexes. Both point of subjective equality and just noticeable difference values decreased significantly during the three years of the study. The latter values significantly decreased as children became older. Body dissatisfaction (the discrepancy between perceived and ideal size) remained low for boys in all age groups. Girls' body dissatisfaction significantly increased across ages, beginning at age 9. Test-retest consistency of both perceived and ideal size judgments at intervals of one and two years were low. Acceptable boundaries in body width were similar between sexes and across age cohorts.     

Psychosocial predictors of adult antisocial personality and adult convictions

In the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, 411 South London males have been followed up since age 8. This article investigates the ability of psychosocial risk factors measured at age 8 - 10 to predict antisocial personality measures at ages 18 and 32 and convictions between ages 21 and 40. The most important childhood predictors were a convicted parent, large family size, low intelligence or attainment, and child-rearing factors, including a young mother and a disrupted family. The accuracy of prediction of antisocial personality at age 32 on the basis of childhood risk factors measured more than 20 years before was surprising: nearly half of boys with a convicted parent at age 10 were antisocial at age 32, compared with one in six of the remainder. Over 60% of boys very high risk at age 8 - 10 became antisocial at age 32. While the present research shows how far adult antisocial and criminal behavior can be predicted in childhood, more research is needed to establish the precise causal mechanisms involved.     

Development of the understanding of the polysemous meanings of the mental-state verb know

This study investigated children's understanding (3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-year-olds) of the different levels of meaning of the cognitive verb know as defined by the Hall, Scholnick, and Hughes (1987) abstractness and conceptual difficulty hierarchy. We found that cognitive verb knowledge increased with development and that certain low levels of meaning were mastered before certain high levels of meaning irrespective of the medium of presentation: video-taped “skits” and audio-taped “stories.” However, children developed an understanding of low levels of meaning at a more rapid rate than high levels of meaning. This resulted in a more differentiated and hierarchical cognitiveverb knowledge in older children. Finally, we found that the audio-taped stories were more difficult than the video-taped skits, and that both tasks were significantly correlated with a standardized vocabulary measure for all ages except the 3-year-olds. The implications of this study and others for a model of the cognitive-verb lexicon are discussed.     

Children''s Behavioral Inhibition Over Age and Across Situations: Genetic Similarity for α Trait During Change

Ratings of behaviors pertaining to inhibition were observed for 130 twins participating in a longitudinal study. Ratings were available for four ages (12, 18, 24, and 30 months) and from three sources at each age: direct observations obtained in a laboratory setting, direct observations obtained in conjunction with infant mental testing, and a temperament measure from a questionnaire completed by parents. For the individual twins, the age-to-age correlations were in the moderate range (.26 to .64). The situation-to-situation correlations were generally in the same range (.17 to .64). When the twins were recombined into twin pairs, within-pair (intraclass) correlations indicated that monozygotic (MZ) twins were more concordant than dizygotic (DZ) twins for each of the behaviors at each of the ages. Also, the MZ twins were more concordant for the direction and degree of behavioral change from age to age or from situation to situation. These data provide additional evidence for the biological influence on behavioral inhibition, a characteristic that has been studied in temperament and personality research. The results suggest that the trait of behavioral inhibition and a change in the trait are genetically conditioned. In addition, it is suggested that the concept of trait be expanded to include the person-centered biological regulation of change.     

Family structure and dating behavior of adolescents

This study investigated the effect of family structure on previous dating behavior of older adolescents, and examined the relationship of family structure, family relationship variables, and personal attributes to previous dating behaviors. Data were obtained from 96 males and 81 females enrolled in human development courses at two midwestern universities; 122 were from intact, nuclear families and 55 were from nonintact families. The Dating and Courtship Behavior Questionnaire, adapted from questionnaires by Winch (1949a) and Landis (1963), was administered to subjects during regular class periods. Family structure did not have an effect on number of partners or steadies, but adolescents from nonintact households began dating at younger ages than those from intact households. Personal attributes were more often related to dating behaviors than family structure or family relationship variables. Little support was found for the proposition that dating behaviors were affected by family structure.     

Age of onset of child maltreatment predicts long-term mental health outcomes

The authors tested the hypothesis that children who are maltreated earlier in life are at greater risk for poor psychological functioning in adulthood than those maltreated later in life. Age of onset of maltreatment was assessed with 3 classifications: (a) continuous (ages 0-11 years); (b) dichotomous (early [ages 0-5 years] vs. later [ages 6-11 years]); and (c) developmental (infancy [ages 0-2 years], preschool [ages 3-5 years], early school age [ages 6-8 years], and school age [ages 9-11 years]). Individuals with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect prior to age 12 (N=496) were followed up and assessed in adulthood. Results indicated that an earlier onset of maltreatment, measured dichotomously and developmentally, predicted more symptoms of anxiety and depression in adulthood, while controlling for gender, race, current age, and other abuse reports. Later onset of maltreatment, measured continuously or developmentally, was predictive of more behavioral problems in adulthood. Implications for the assessment of maltreated children, the prevention of adult psychopathology, and the classification of age of maltreatment onset are discussed.     

Cohort effects in older drivers' accident type distribution: are older drivers as old as they used to be?

Accident type distributions were compared in successive cohorts of older drivers, with focus on intersection accidents. It was thought that if the increasing share of intersection accidents is a truly age-related phenomenon, as opposed to cohort-related or time-related, it would remain fairly constant over time in different cohorts. The data consisted of Finnish traffic insurance data on private car accidents of drivers aged 60 yr or more who were legally responsible for causing the accident, and covered the years 1987–1995 (N=56,481). Some changes in accident type distributions were found across cohorts. Among male drivers aged 60–79 yr, the portion of intersection accidents decreased in successive cohorts, so that the younger cohorts showed the age-typical accident picture at a somewhat later age than the older cohorts. In contrast, for male drivers aged 80 yr or more, there was an increase in the share of intersection accidents in more recent cohorts. Among female drivers, a decrease in intersection accidents only reached statistical significance for drivers aged 60–69 yr, and for the oldest age group (75+ yr) no change was observed. For both male and female drivers, the tendency to incur accidents at intersections increased with age in all cohorts. The occurrence of intersection accidents thus is both an age-related and a cohort-related phenomenon: age-related in the sense that it will emerge eventually, but with cohort-related variance in timing.