Regulating the interpersonal self: strategic self-regulation for coping with rejection sensitivity

People high in rejection sensitivity (RS) anxiously expect rejection and are at risk for interpersonal and personal distress. Two studies examined the role of self-regulation through strategic attention deployment in moderating the link between RS and maladaptive outcomes. Self-regulation was assessed by the delay of gratification (DG) paradigm in childhood. In Study 1, preschoolers from the Stanford University community who participated in the DG paradigm were assessed 20 years later. Study 2 assessed low-income, minority middle school children on comparable measures. DG ability buffered high-RS people from interpersonal difficulties (aggression, peer rejection) and diminished well-being (e.g., low self-worth, higher drug use). The protective effect of DG ability on high-RS children's self-worth is explained by reduced interpersonal problems. Attentional mechanisms underlying the interaction between RS and strategic self-regulation are discussed.     

Parental conflict and children's coping styles in litigating separated families: Relationships with children's adjustment

The influence of interparental verbal and physical aggression, children's coping styles, and relevant demographic factors on children's adjustment was examined in a group of 52 families who were disputing custody and/or access arrangements after separation. It was hypothesized that parental conflict and specific children's coping strategies (i.e., cognitive redefinition and social support seeking) would be important predictors of children's adjustment. Consistent with previous research, aggressive styles of resolving conflict between parents were related to more frequent and severe behavior problems and diminished competence among children. Conversely, greater flexibility in coping and greater use of cognitive coping strategies among children were related to decreased behavioral disturbance. The unique and combined influence of these variables is discussed.This research was supported in part through a grant from the LaMarsh Research Programme on Violence and Conflict Resolution, York University, Toronto, Ontario. The author acknowledges the help of Cathy Melville and Susan Dickens in the data analyses. In addition, the author thanks the staff and families at the Toronto and London, Ontario, Family Court clinics who participated in this project.     

Foundations for self and other: a study in autism

There is controversy over the basis for young children's experience of themselves and other people as separate yet related individuals, each with a mental perspective on the world - and over the nature of corresponding deficits in autism. Here we tested a form of self-other connectedness (identification) in children with and without autism, who were group-matched according to CA (approximately 6 to 16 years) and verbal MA (approximately 2 1/2 to 14 years), and therefore IQ. We gave two forms of a novel 'sticker test' in which children needed to communicate to another person where on her body she should place her sticker-badge. Across the trials of Study 1, all of the non-autistic children pointed to their own bodies at least once, but over half the children with autism failed to point to themselves at all, even though they communicated successfully in other ways. In Study 2, where a screen was introduced to hide the tester's body, group differences in the children's communicative self-orientated gestures were most marked after the tester had 'modelled' a point-to-herself gesture in communicating to the child. Our interpretation is that autism involves a relative failure to adopt the bodily-anchored psychological and communicative stance of another person. We suggest that this process of identification is essential to self-other relations and grounds young children's developing understanding of minds.     

Caregiver models of self and others, coping, and depression: predictors of depression in children with chronic pain.

In a sample of 59 chronically ill pediatric patients and their maternal caregivers, both child-reported pain and caregiver-reported depression predicted child-reported depression. Results further suggested that the association between pain and depression in children is ameliorated by caregiver coping strategies and that how caregivers cope is a function of their attachment-related representations of the self and others. Caregivers with a negative model of the self were more depressed. and those with a negative model of others were more prone to use avoidant coping strategies, and, in turn, to be more depressed. However, the extent to which caregivers with negative models of self used more avoidant and less approach coping appeared to depend on whether they perceived that others were likely to respond to their needs.     

Women as generalized other and self theory: A strategy for empirical research

Following the argument that women as generalized other (Mead, 1934) could be empirically explored in much the same manner as self concepts, a variant of Kuhn's (1960) twenty statements test was applied to an examination of perceptions of women in general and of the relationship between self concepts and conceptions of women. College men and women were asked to reply to the questions “Who are they (women)?” and “Who am I?” in 20 open-ended responses. Content analysis of the statements revealed findings both consistent and inconsistent with other sex-role research findings.     

Cultural differences in young children's vulnerability to injuries: a risk and protection perspective.

Interview data from 100 lower income Hispanic and 50 White mothers from a nutritional service clinic extended prior research on cultural differences in the risk for unintentional pediatric injuries. Group differences were expected in reported injury incidence and in the prevalence and impact of contributing factors. As predicted, White mothers reported more injuries for a young child, and among Hispanic mothers, English language preference and use were associated with more reported injuries. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that risky behaviors, mother's judgment about child compliance, and stressful life events were better predictors of injuries than housing quality, but among Hispanics, the impact of certain factors (e.g. child temperament) was qualified by mother's acculturation level. Stress and child temperament explained injury differences between more- and less-acculturated Hispanic families but only partially accounted for differences between White mothers and less-acculturated Hispanics. Pediatric injury risk and protective factors seemed to operate in concert with cultural processes.     

Balancing concern for other with concern for self: links between unmitigated communion, communion, and psychological well-being

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of distinguishing between positive (communion) and negative (unmitigated communion) characteristics when investigating the relation between traditional feminine gender roles and psychological adjustment. However, previous work has relied on cross-sectional analysis of self-reported unmitigated communion and self-reported emotional distress. The present series of studies was designed to address this limitation by using multiple methodologies to examine the relation between unmitigated communion (UC) and psychological adjustment. Study 1 examined the relation between self- and peer reports in a sample of 102 college students. Study 2 examined the relation between communion, UC, and adjustment in a community sample of 94 adults using a 10-year longitudinal design. Study 3 used a daily diary methodology to examine the relation between these constructs, social functioning, and depressed mood in a sample of 78 college women. Results from the three studies converged to demonstrate that unmitigated communion is an important factor that impacts negatively on the psychological adjustment of men and women.     

Explication of the coping goal construct: implications for coping and reemployment.

This longitudinal study developed a reemployment coping goal construct and examined its role in a job-loss context. Several predictors of displaced workers' reemployment coping goal intensity were examined: human capital, employment commitment, internal coping resources, and anticipation of job loss. Results show that human capital, employment commitment, internal coping resources, and anticipation of job loss positively predicted a reemployment coping goal. Human capital also directly predicted reemployment. Finally, unemployed individuals' reemployment coping goal intensity positively predicted job-search effort, which positively predicted reemployment. Implications for the process of coping with job loss and future research are discussed.     

Self-construal level and voice procedures: The individual self as psychological basis for procedural fairness effects

In the current article, we investigate the influence of self-construal level on procedural fairness effects, that is, the finding that fair versus unfair procedures influence people’s evaluations of their relation with decision-making authorities. In two experiments, we manipulated self-construal level by activating the individual self (“I”) or the social self (“We”), and we induced a control condition. Furthermore, we manipulated procedural fairness by granting versus denying participants an opportunity to voice their opinion in a decision-making process. Results consistently revealed stronger procedural fairness effects if the individual self is activated than if the social self is activated. It is concluded that sometimes the individual self, rather than the social self, constitutes the psychological basis for procedural fairness effects.     

Self-defeating personality and strategies for coping with stress.

People who scored higher on a measure of self-defeating personality also scored low on ego-strength, showed an external locus of control, and used less adaptive coping strategies than those who scored lower. These strategies (denial, mental disengagement, alcohol and drug use) were viewed as helping to perpetuate their positions as victims.     

Development of affective decision making for self and other: evidence for the integration of first- and third-person perspectives

The role of perspective taking in affective decision making was studied in children at two ages (3 and 4 years) using a delay-of-gratification paradigm in which children chose between an immediate reward of lower value and a delayed reward of higher value. Half the children chose for themselves (self condition), and half chose for the experimenter (other condition). Three-year-olds chose delayed rewards in the other condition but made impulsive choices in the self condition. Compared with 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds performed better in the self condition and worse in the other condition. Results suggest that 3-year-olds took either a subjective, first-person perspective (for self) or an objective, third-person perspective (for other). Four-year-olds integrated these perspectives, considering a third-person perspective in the self condition and the experimenter's subjective perspective in the other condition (i.e., her desire for immediate gratification). This integration allowed reason to be tempered by emotion, and vice versa.     

Children's strategies for coping with stress: Blunting and monitoring

The present study examined children's suggestions for coping with uncontrollable stress, from the perspective of the monitoring/blunting distinction proposed by Miller (1987). Children in the first through sixth grades heard stories depicting four stressful situations that afforded little opportunity for control. Children's coping suggestions were classified as blunting (including reappraisal, cognitive distraction, and behavioral distraction), monitoring, or seeking support. Overall, blunting strategies were mentioned most often, followed by monitoring, and seeking support. A grade-level increase in blunting suggestions was found, and this developmental pattern was identical for reappraisal, cognitive distraction, and behavioral distraction. No grade-level differences were observed for monitoring or support. Situational differences in coping suggestions were explored, and there was mixed evidence of cross-situational consistency in coping style.The author would like to thank the staff and students of the Bell Top Child Care Centers and Kinder-Care Learning Center, Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Thanks are also due to Cricket Blassage and Latoria Carroll for their help with the coding. This research was partially supported by a small grant from Illinois State University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington, April, 1991.     

Implications of sex and gender differences for self: Perceived advantages and disadvantages of being the other gender

Undergraduate students (34 females and 28 males/44 Caucasian, 16 African-American, 2 Asian) were asked to list the advantages and the disadvantages that they imagined they would experience if they were the other gender. A separate group of undergraduate raters then classified each of the statements into one of four categories designed to reflect social (social roles or social appearance) or physical differences (sexual or non-sexual physical differences) between the sexes. The number of responses each participant generated within each category served as the dependent variable. By far the largest number of responses pertained to the social roles category, and there were no participant gender differences for that category. Participant gender differences were observed in the social appearance and sexual physical difference categories, indicating males and females agreement that males have more advantages. Overall, females listed more advantages to a change in gender, while males indicated more disadvantages. Results are interpreted as providing insights into the personal and practical implications of differences between males and females.The authors would like to acknowledge Tiffany Capers and Millard McCluney for their assistance in collecting the data.     

Attachment-based classifications of children's family drawings: psychometric properties and relations with children's adjustment in kindergarten.

Investigated an attachment-based theoretical framework and classification system, introduced by Kaplan and Main (1986), for interpreting children's family drawings. This study concentrated on the psychometric properties of the system and the relation between drawings classified using this system and teacher ratings of classroom social-emotional and behavioral functioning, controlling for child age, ethnic status, intelligence, and fine motor skills. This nonclinical sample consisted of 200 kindergarten children of diverse racial and socioeconomic status (SES). Limited support for reliability of this classification system was obtained. Kappas for overall classifications of drawings (e.g., secure) exceeded .80 and mean kappa for discrete drawing features (e.g., figures with smiles) was .82. Coders' endorsement of the presence of certain discrete drawing features predicted their overall classification at 82.5% accuracy. Drawing classification was related to teacher ratings of classroom functioning independent of child age, sex, race, SES, intelligence, and fine motor skills (with p values for the multivariate effects ranging from .043-.001). Results are discussed in terms of the psychometric properties of this system for classifying children's representations of family and the limitations of family drawing techniques for young children.     

Adolescents' explanations for political issues: concordance with their views of self and society.

The relationships between adolescents' explanations for unemployment, poverty, and homelessness and their beliefs about opportunity, reports of family values, and personal aspirations were tested for 434 teenagers (mean age = 16 years 4 months). Explanations were coded for references to individual causes, societal causes, or both. Higher maternal education and average household income in the adolescent's school district were positively related to the likelihood of attributing all three problems to societal causes. When explaining unemployment, older adolescents noted both causes, and boys mentioned individual factors whereas girls mentioned societal factors. After adjustment for background factors, those endorsing individual causes were more likely to believe that all Americans enjoyed equal opportunity and that government support encouraged dependency, and they were more committed to materialist goals. In contrast, youth endorsing societal or situational causes had more altruistic life goals and reported that compassion was emphasized in their families.     

'Fairness and reasonableness of the child's decision:' a proposed legal standard for children's participation in medical decision making.

Using as illustration the case of Nikolas E., a six-year-old child with HIV/AIDS, this article considers the competing rights of children, parents, and state in cases involving pediatric medical disputes. The article outlines arguments in favor of and against children's participation in medical decisions and describes legal standards currently used in resolving pediatric medical disputes. The article then proposes adoption of a new legal standard described as the 'fairness and reasonableness of the child's decision,' and articulates advantages and disadvantages of such an approach, as well as the factors that should be considered in implementing the standard. Finally, the article argues for a methodology for including children's wishes in pediatric medical decision making that is based upon Monahan and Walker's model for including social science evidence in legal contexts and evaluates alternative strategies for including children meaningfully in the process of making medical decisions that affect them.     

Sensation seeking, stress, and adolescent injuries: a test of stress-buffering, risk-taking, and coping skills hypotheses.

The potential stress-buffering effects of sensation seeking were assessed in a prospective study involving high school athletes. A significant positive relation between major negative sport-specific life events and subsequent injury time-loss occurred only for athletes low in sensation seeking. No evidence was obtained for a competing hypothesis that high sensation seeking would constitute an injury vulnerability factor by increasing risk-taking behaviors. Although low sensation seekers reported poorer stress management coping skills, there was no evidence that differences in coping efficacy mediated the injury vulnerability difference. Results indicate that sensation seeking is a stress-resiliency factor and suggest the utility of assessing relations between life stressors and outcomes that occur within the same environmental context.