Community Social Organization, Parents, and Peers as Mediators of Perceived Neighborhood Block Characteristics on Delinquent and Prosocial Activities

Research on contextual and neighborhood effects has grown exponentially over the past decade as researchers have reacknowledged that community matters. Although empirical findings have consistently documented the significant influence of neighborhood context, the field is just beginning to investigate the varied and multiple pathways through which this influence is transmitted. The current study found support for both a direct and indirect influence of perceived neighborhood structural characteristics (i.e., neighborhood stability, income), measured at the block level, on neighborhood and youth outcomes. Directly, perceived neighborhood advantage led to significantly lower neighborhood rates of official delinquency and higher rates of prosocial activity. Indirectly, perceived neighborhood advantage significantly impacted outcomes by influencing more proximal constructs such as community social organization, informal social control, parenting practices, and affiliation with delinquent peers. Different pathways were significant across neighborhood and youth outcomes, yet perceived neighborhood advantage, in particular neighborhood stability, consistently exerted substantial effects, highlighting the need for more comprehensive and multilevel prevention efforts.     

Suicidal Adolescents' Social Support from Family and Peers: Gender-Specific Associations with Psychopathology

Perceptions of social support from family, non-family adults, and peers were examined in relation to the psychopathology reported by 220 suicidal adolescents (152 females) during a psychiatric hospitalization. Results of regression analyses showed that, among females, family support was negatively related to hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Among males, peer support was positively associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Across gender, more peer support was associated with more externalizing behavior problems; whereas, family support was negatively related to these problems and to alcohol/substance abuse. Paralleling normative findings, age was positively associated with peer support, and females perceived more peer support than did males. Findings extend previous research on social support to suicidal adolescents, and broaden the literature by examining extrafamilial support and a broader range of relevant psychopathology. That is, perceived social support relates to psychiatric impairment differentially by gender, and normative, age-related variations in perceptions of social support are detected even among highly impaired adolescents. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Social Skills,Social Support,and Psychological Distress: A Test of the Social Skills Deficit Vulnerability Model

The social skills deficit vulnerability model predicts that poor social skills minimize opportunities to acquire social support, in turn, leading to the proliferation of psychological distress. This prediction was tested in a 2‐wave longitudinal study that assessed 211 emerging adults at Time 1 (T1), with a 70% response rate 1 year later at Time 2 (T2). The results indicated that, after controlling for psychological distress at T1, social skills at T1 had an indirect effect on lower psychological distress at T2, through higher social support. Thus, people with poor social skills may be vulnerable to the development of psychological distress because they have less access the protective effects of social support.     

Effects of Sex,Culture, and Support Type on Perceptions of Spousal Social Support: An Assessment of the “Support Gap” Hypothesis in Early Marriage

Several writers have suggested that a “support gap” characterizes modern marriages, with women receiving less support from their spouses than men receive from theirs. Although this support gap hypothesis (SGH) is used increasingly to explain marital interaction and satisfaction, there have been few rigorous evaluations of this hypothesis. In particular, existing research on the support gap has not systematically considered (a) different types of social support; (b) differences in provided vs. received support; (c) differences in reported levels of support desire, experience, and satisfaction; or (d) differences in distinct cultural groups with respect to social support in marriage. The present study provided a multidimensional assessment of desired and experienced spousal social support. Participants were recently married men and women (100 Americans and 102 Chinese) who completed questionnaires providing assessments of desired and experienced levels of spousal support for each of 5 support types. Men and women did not differ systematically with respect to the levels of support they experienced from their spouses; however, women reported desiring significantly higher levels of support from their spouses than did men for all 5 types of support. Evaluation of support satisfaction indicated that both American and Chinese women experience gaps with respect to emotional and esteem support; Chinese women additionally experience a gap in network support. These results specify the nature of marital support gaps much more precisely than previous work and suggest several issues to be addressed in future work.     

Comparing Education,Employment, Social Support and Well-being among Youth with Disabilities and Their Peers in South Africa

Youth with disabilities face many challenges in life which are thought to have a negative impact on their well-being. Evidence, however, suggests that individuals differ in their resilience to deal with adverse life-events and protect their well-being. These differences may be explained by an individual’s resources such as education, employment, and social support. Studies on how youth with disabilities perceive their well-being and resources important to their well-being are, however, lacking. In this study we therefore compared education, employment, social support, and well-being between youth with disabilities (n?=?120) and their peers (n?=?117) in South Africa. In addition, we investigated the relationship between background characteristics, having a disability, access to resources, and well-being. The unemployment rate among youth with disabilities is higher, they are less educated, receive less social support and report poorer states of well-being. Our study showed that having a disability, social support, and employment were associated with the well-being of youth in South Africa. While having a disability predicted well-being in youth, the effect was mediated by employment and social support, indicating that those two resources influence wellbeing through both a direct and buffer effect. Therefore, employment and social support may mitigate the negative consequences of a disability and have a substantial role in improving or maintaining well-being.     

Salesperson Burnout: A Test of the Coping-Mediational Model of Social Support

Salesperson burnout continues to be a major concern among sales organizations. In this work, the authors examine whether certain coping strategies mediate the impact of sales manager support on salesperson burnout; as suggested by Thoits’s (1986) Coping-Mediational Model. More specifcally, this work investigates if problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping mediate the impact of sales manager support on feelings of emotional exhaustion in a feld sales setting. Study fndings indicate that positive sales manager support has a signifcant negative direct effect on salespersons’ emotional exhaustion. Findings also support the assertion that sales manager support encourages salespersons’ use of problem-focused coping strategies that, in turn, further reduce emotional exhaustion. In contrast, sales manager support does not signifcantly infuence salespersons’ use of emotion-focused coping; however, emotion-focused coping does signifcantly increase emotional exhaustion.     

Facilitating the Furrowed Brow: An Unobtrusive Test of the Facial Feedback Hypothesis Applied to Unpleasant Affect

Abstract

We examined the hypothesis that muscle contractions in the face influence subjective emotional experience. Previously, researchers have been critical of experiments designed to test this facial feedback hypothesis, particularly in terms of methodological problems that may lead to demand characteristics. In an effort to surmount these methodological problems Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) developed an experimental procedure whereby subjects were induced to contract facial muscles involved in the production of an emotional pattern, without being asked to actually simulate an emotion. Specifically, subjects were required to hold a pen in their teeth, which unobtrusively creates a contraction of the zygomaticus major muscles, the muscles involved in the production of a human smile. This manipulation minimises the likelihood that subjects are able to interpret their zygomaticus contractions as representing a particular emotion, thereby preventing subjects from determining the purpose of the experiment. Strack et al. (1988) found support for the facial feedback hypothesis applied to pleasant affect, in that subjects in the pen-in-teeth condition rated humorous cartoons as being funnier than subjects in the control condition (in which zygomaticus contractions were inhibited). The present study represents an extension of this nonobtrusive methodology to an investigation of the facial feedback of unpleasant affect. Consistent with the Strack et al. procedure, we wanted to have subjects furrow their brow without actually instructing them to do so and without asking them to produce any emotional facial pattern at all. This was achieved by attaching two golf tees to the subject's brow region (just above the inside comer of each eye) and then instructing them to touch the tips of the golf tees together as part of a “divided-attention” experiment. Touching the tips of the golf tees together could only be achieved by a contraction of the corrugator supercilii muscles, the muscles involved in the production of a sad emotional facial pattern. Subjects reported significantly more sadness in response to aversive photographs while touching the tips of the golf tees together than under conditions which inhibited corrugator contractions. These results provide evidence, using a new and unobtrusive manipulation, that facial feedback operates for unpleasant affect to a degree similar to that previously found for pleasant affect.     

Gender,Race, and Delinquent Behavior: An Extension of Power-Control Theory to American Indian Adolescents

Research testing Hagan’s power-control theory has largely been tested with samples of non-Hispanic whites. We extend prior research by testing the theory’s merits with a sample of American Indian (AI) adolescents. Overall, we find mixed support for the theory’s merits. However, we find that our measure of patriarchy is a robust predictor of AI female delinquent activity. We also find that a grandparent in the household serves to greatly reduce involvement in violent behavior among AI females. Compared to a sample of non-Hispanic whites, these results reveal the importance of testing explanations of deviant behavior across racial and ethnic groups.     

Effects of Social Cues,Task Complexity,and Sex on Intrinsic Motivation and Task Perceptions: A Test of the Task-Instrumentality Hypothesis

This study investigated the interaction of task complexity, social cues, and sex on measures of intrinsic motivation and task perceptions. Social cues were in the form of co-worker statements regarding their preference for intrinsic or extrinsic task outcomes. It was predicted that to the extent the task was instrumental in meeting subjects' expectations (motivational orientation) evoked by the co-worker cue, higher levels of satisfaction, if not intrinsic motivation, would be present. This was called the task-instrumentality hypothesis. To assess sex effects related to the possibility that women may react differently to the task and co-worker cues, sex was included as a factor in the design. The design was a 2 (Cue: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic) x 2 (Task: Simple vs. Complex) x 2 Sex: (Male vs. Female Subjects) factorial design. Subjects were 81 undergraduate students. The results indicate that for the behavioral measures of intrinsic motivation the instrumentality hypothesis was supported for men only, as evidenced by a significant three-way interaction. In addition, exploratory analyses were also conducted. The results are discussed from a motivational-orientations perspective.     

The Social Ecology of White-Collar Crime: Applying Situational Action Theory to White-Collar Offending

This article applies the integrated framework of situational action theory (SAT) to white-collar crime causation – previously unexamined in this perspective, drawing also on data from a small-scale study based on semi-structured interviews with white-collar offenders. The key arguments and findings are discussed around SAT’s categories, modified in accordance with white-collar crime particularities: criminogenic propensity, workplace environmental factors, and the individual-environment situational mechanisms. This initial SAT application shows that its constructs can be fruitfully deployed in explaining white-collar crime only to a moderate extent. The findings are not fully supportive of SAT’s “weak law-relevant morality” and deterrence arguments, while SAT’s moral correspondence situational mechanism provides a novel way to explain crimes within criminogenic workplace cultures.     

Elaboration and Autonomy Support in Low-Income Mothers' Reminiscing: Links to Children's Autobiographical Narratives

Maternal elaboration and autonomy support during reminiscing facilitate middle-class children's autobiographical narrative skills. In this study, low-income Hispanic, White, and Black mothers' elaboration and autonomy support in reminiscing were examined in relation to children's joint and independent autobiographical narratives and engagement. Sixty preschool children discussed three past events with their mothers and one past event with a researcher. Maternal elaboration was related to children's joint and independent autobiographical narratives, and autonomy support was related to children's joint and independent engagement. Hispanic mothers used a less elaborative style during conversations about misbehavior, and Hispanic children tended to have less advanced independent autobiographical narratives. Maternal elaboration and autonomy support appear to play different roles in children's autobiographical narratives. Further, reminiscing may serve different purposes in different racial/ethnic groups.     

The Automaticity of Affect for Political Leaders, Groups, and Issues: An Experimental Test of the Hot Cognition Hypothesis

We report the results of three experimental tests of the "hot cognition" hypothesis, which posits that all sociopolitical concepts that have been evaluated in the past are affectively charged and that this affective charge is automatically activated within milliseconds on mere exposure to the concept, appreciably faster than conscious appraisal of the object.
We find support for the automaticity of affect toward political leaders, groups, and issues; specifically:

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  Most Ss show significantly faster reaction times to affectively congruent political concepts and significantly slower response times to affectively incongruent concepts;

       
  
  

Using a Multivariate Multilevel Polytomous Item Response Theory Model to Study Parallel Processes of Change: The Dynamic Association Between Adolescents' Social Isolation and Engagement With Delinquent Peers in the National Youth Survey

The application of multidimensional item response theory models to repeated observations has demonstrated great promise in developmental research. It allows researchers to take into consideration both the characteristics of item response and measurement error in longitudinal trajectory analysis, which improves the reliability and validity of the latent growth curve (LGC) model. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the potential of Bayesian methods and the utility of a comprehensive modeling framework, the one combining a measurement model (e.g., a multidimensional graded response model, MGRM) with a structural model (e.g., an associative latent growth curve analysis, ALGC). All analyses are implemented in WinBUGS 1.4.3 (Spiegelhalter, Thomas, Best, &; Lunn, 2003 Spiegelhalter, D. J., Thomas, A., Best, N. G. and Lunn, D. 2003. WinBUGS user manual Cambridge, , UK: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Institute of Public Health. Retrieved October 24, 2006, from http://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/bugs [Google Scholar]), which allows researchers to use Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation methods to fit complex statistical models and circumvent intractable analytic or numerical integrations. The utility of this MGRM-ALGC modeling framework was investigated with both simulated and empirical data, and promising results were obtained. As the results indicate, being a flexible multivariate multilevel model, this MGRM-ALGC model not only produces item parameter estimates that are readily estimable and interpretable but also estimates the corresponding covariation in the developmental dimensions. In terms of substantive interpretation, as adolescents perceived themselves more socially isolated, the chance that they are engaged with delinquent peers becomes profoundly larger. Generally, boys have a higher initial exposure extent than girls. However, there is no gender difference associated with other latent growth parameters.     

An Initial Test of the Cosmetics Dehumanization Hypothesis: Heavy Makeup Diminishes Attributions of Humanness-Related Traits to Women

Sex Roles - Objectification theory suggests that sexualization has significant dehumanizing consequences for how perceivers see women. To date, research has mostly documented how sexualized bodies...     

Immigration Stress,Social Support,and Adjustment in the First Postmigration Year: An Intergenerational Analysis

In this study of 429 newly immigrant children (ages 7–8 years) and their parents, we addressed generational variation in the stresses related to immigration. We also assessed whether child and parent psychological adjustment varied as a function of high versus low levels of stress and social support. Finally, we examined the comparability of effects across participants from different countries. Participants originated in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, and the English-speaking West Indies. Children generally reported more immigration stress than did parents, although parents were more likely to have economic worries. Higher levels of stress significantly compromised the adjustment of both children and parents. The availability of social support to the family facilitated adjustment but was more effective for parents than for children. Stress and support levels varied, but links between stress, support, and adjustment were mostly comparable across country-of-origin groups.     

Social Identity and Social Exchange: Identification, Support, and Withdrawal From the Job

Integrating insights from the social exchange perspective and the social identity perspective, we propose that evaluations of support received from the organization and its representatives and organizational identification interact to predict withdrawal from the job. The relationship of support with withdrawal is proposed to be weaker the more strongly employees identify with the organization. This prediction was confirmed in 2 samples focusing on different operationalizations of support and withdrawal. Study 1 explored the interaction between organizational support and organizational identification in predicting turnover intention; Study 2 investigated the link between supervisor support and organizational identification and absenteeism. The present study thus yields evidence that may lay the groundwork for further integration of social exchange and social identity analyses of organizational behavior.     

社会支持与身心健康关系研究述评

该研究从社会支持的概念入手．探讨了社会支持的结构与测量．社会支持对身心健康影响的作用模型,影响社会支持的因素,并对研究中存在的问题及研究方向进行了探讨。     

Family Influences on Adolescent Delinquent Behaviors: Applying the Social Development Model to A Chinese Sample

The current study applied the Social Development Model (SDM) to improve understanding of the mediation processes through which the family environment was related to Chinese adolescent delinquent behavior. We tested the hypothesized model using structural equation modeling with questionnaire data collected from 736 Chinese 7th and 9th graders, their parents, and their teachers from two middle schools in Beijing, China. Testing the model separately for boys and girls yielded adequate fit indices for both although the hypothesized model was not invariant across gender and several gender differences were identified. The SDM appeared to be a valuable tool in studying the development of Chinese adolescent delinquency.