Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors Share a Common Predictor: the Effects of Early Maladaptive Schemas Are Mediated by Coping Responses and Schema Modes

We investigated the relationships of adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors with their early maladaptive schemas (EMS), coping responses, and schema modes. We focused on EMS related to experiences of disconnection and rejection that comprise vulnerable emotions, such as shame, mistrust, deprivation, abandonment, and isolation/alienation. This cross-sectional study included a total of 699 adolescents (combined clinical and non-referred sample) who were 11 to 18 years old (M?=?14.6; SD?=?1.6), and of which 45% was male. All participants completed self-report questionnaires on EMS, coping responses, schema modes, and behavior problems. We aimed to clarify the relationships between these variables by testing mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation models. In general, coping responses functioned as mediators rather than moderators in the relationships between EMS and schema modes. Furthermore, EMS regarding experiences of disconnection and rejection were related to both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, and coping responses and schema modes mediated these effects. In conclusion, although adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems manifest quite differently, they seem related to the same EMS.     

Three Subtypes of Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Chinese Adolescents: Results of a Latent Class Analysis

Using latent class analyses (LCA), the present study aimed to test whether meaningful subtypes of internalizing and externalizing behaviors could be found among Chinese community-based adolescents. A total of 5244 adolescents, ages 11–18 years (M?=?15.11, SD?=?1.79) recruited from 16 Chinese middle schools completed the Chinese version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-C). We examined the data using Latent Class Analysis to identify subtypes of internalizing and externalizing behaviors among the adolescents. Multivariate Logistic regression was subsequently implemented to ascertain the relationships between latent classes and demographic covariates. Three distinct subtypes were uncovered: a high-risk group, a middle-risk group and a low-risk group; the three subtypes accounted for 19.8, 31.1, and 49.1 % of the total sample variance respectively. Youth with elevations in one behavior type were likely to have elevations in the other behavior type. Further analyses revealed that compared to the low-risk group, the adolescents from the high-risk group and middle-risk groups were female and older. Significant heterogeneity in internalizing and externalizing behaviors was revealed in this Chinese adolescent’s sample. Profiling behavior problems patterns is potentially useful as a first step in developing tailored prevention and intervention programs. Suggestions for future research, including cross-national studies, and implications for mental health professionals were discussed.     

The Effects of Family Structure and Family Processes on Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors of Male and Female Youth: A Longitudinal Examination

The present study examined potential gender differences in the effects of family structure and family processes on externalizing and internalizing behavioral outcomes among youth over time. Using data from waves one through three of the Add Health study, results indicated that the relationship between family structure and family processes on behavioral outcomes varied depending on the specific externalizing or internalizing behavior. Family structure directly influenced three different externalizing behaviors, but indirectly influenced internalizing behaviors through its effect on maternal attachment and to some degree parental permissiveness. The long-term influence of family structure, family processes, and later externalizing and internalizing behaviors is complex. These relationships played out similarly across both male and female youth, suggesting that the effect of living in a single-parent home, subsequent family processes, and individual behavior and well-being may not be different across gender.     

Parent and Adolescent Responses to PovertyRelated Stress: Tests of Mediated and Moderated Coping Models

We tested several models of the associations among economic strain, life stress, coping, involuntary stress responses, and psychological symptoms in a sample of 57 parent-adolescent dyads from rural, lower-income families. Economic strain and life stress predicted symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Stressor-symptom specificity was found for parents, such that economic strain uniquely predicted depression, whereas negative life events predicted hostility. Involuntary stress responses were associated with higher levels of symptoms for both parents and the adolescent children. Secondary control coping was associated with fewer symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Results support a mediational role of coping and responses to stress during adolescence, with a shift to moderational status in adulthood. Implications of these results are discussed with regard to developmental coping theory and potential interventions with at-risk families.     

Externalizing Outcomes of Youth with and without ADHD: Time-Varying Prediction by Parental ADHD and Mediated Effects

Although parental attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for multiple negative youth outcomes, it is unknown how change in parental ADHD symptoms over time affects change in child ADHD symptoms; moreover, mediators of these predictions are largely unknown. Parents of 230 5–10 year-old children (68 % male) with (n = 120) and without ADHD (n = 110) were followed prospectively for 6–7 years across three separate waves. Parents self-reported their ADHD and depression symptoms and similarly rated offspring ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms; youth self-reported their substance use. Temporally-ordered mediators consisted of parental expressed emotion (EE), derived from the Five Minute Speech Sample, and self-reported positive and negative parenting behavior. Controlling for key demographics and parental depression symptoms, increasing parental ADHD symptoms were a time-varying predictor of worsening youth ADHD and ODD, although it was unrelated to change in CD and alcohol/substance use. Next, although EE facets (i.e., criticism, emotional over-involvement) did not mediate these predictions, negative parenting behavior significantly mediated predictions of youth ADHD (and marginally in predictions of ODD) from parental ADHD symptoms. These quasi-experimental findings suggest that parental ADHD symptoms are a potential unique causal risk factor for offspring ADHD and ODD; also, preventing negative parenting behavior secondary to parental ADHD symptoms is critical to improve trajectories of youth ADHD and ODD. We consider parental ADHD symptoms and family factors underlying emergent externalizing problems utilizing a developmental psychopathology framework, including implications for intervention and prevention.     

Explaining Counterproductive Work Behaviors Among Police Officers: The Indirect Effects of Job Demands Are Mediated by Job Burnout and Moderated by Job Control and Social Support

The present study applied two theoretical frameworks (the demands–control–support model and the conservation of resources model) to investigate associations between job demands, job burnout, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) in the context of social support and job control. Data were collected among 625 police officers. Moderated mediation analysis showed that high job demands were indirectly related to high CWB, with job burnout acting as the mediator. These indirect effects were moderated by work-related resources (social support and job control). Job demands were associated with higher job burnout when social support was low. High job burnout was related to more frequent CWB when support was low and control was high. Finally, the job demands–CWB association was significant when support was low and control was high.     

Repressive Coping and Blood Measures of Disease Risk: Lipids and Endocrine and Immunological Responses to a Laboratory Stressor1

Relations between repressive coping and a variety of health‐related variahles including insulin, lipids, catecholamines, and cellular immune components, were investigated in a laboratory study of acute stress among a sample of healthy male college students (N ‐ 83). Compared to nonrepressors, at baseline, repressors had fewer numbers of circulating CD4 (T‐helper) cells, greater numbers of natural killer (NK) cells. lower high‐density lipoprotein (HDL), a higher total/HDL cholesterol ratio, and higher fasting insulin levels. In response to an acute laboratory stressor (Stroop Color Word Conflict Test). repressors demonstrated an attenuated increase in the number of circulating NK cells compared to nonrepressors. Confounds such as physical activity, age, and smoking were unrelated to the dependent measures.     

Cardiovascular Responses to Threat: Effects of the Difficulty and Availability of a Cognitive Avoidant Task

Measures of heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were taken during an interval immediately preceding a period in which male subjects were to perform an easy or difficult memory task to avoid a noxious noise, or simply wait to receive the noise. As predicted, anticipatory elevations in SBP and HR were relatively higher in the difficult avoidance condition than in the easy and impossible avoidance conditions. In contrast, anticipatory DBP change-scores decreased linearly from easy to difficult to impossible avoidance conditions. Results are discussed in terms of a recent motivational theory suggesting that energy mobilization in the face of threat should be a function of what can, will, and must be done to cope.     

Coping with the Uncontrollable: The Use of General and Religious Coping by Caregivers to Spouses with Dementia

SUMMARY

Using a transactional model of stress and coping, we examined the general (i.e., Problem-Focused, Emotion-Focused) and religious (i.e., Self-Directing, Collaborative, Deferring) coping strategies used by 64 caregivers to spouses with dementia to cope with their most significant, albeit uncontrollable, caregiving hassle over a two-month period. With respect to general coping, we hypothesized that caregivers who used Emotion-Focused coping would demonstrate fewer Depressive Symptoms at Month 2 after controlling for Depressive Symptoms at Month 1. With respect to religious coping, we hypothesized that care-givers who used Deferring Coping would also demonstrate fewer Depressive Symptoms. Results revealed interesting patterns between caregivers' use of general and religious coping strategies. Contrary to our hypotheses, caregivers who used Emotion-Focused and Collaborative coping reported greater Depressive Symptoms. Implications for the empirical study of stress and coping and directions for future research are discussed.     

Standard Form Contracts and Contract Schemas: A Preliminary Investigation of the Effects of Exculpatory Clauses on Consumers' Propensity to Sue

This study investigated the extent to which exculpatory clauses deter consumers from pursuing their legal rights. Undergraduate participants (N = 101) were presented with two written vignettes and asked to imagine themselves as a consumer harmed by a contracted for service. Participants then read a contract and responded to questions assessing their likelihood of seeking compensation and their perceptions of the contract. The presence of exculpatory clauses, the severity of the harm, and the nature of the harm were varied. The data suggest that exculpatory clauses, if read, have a deterrent effect on propensity to seek compensation. Development of a psychological definition of contract schemas and implications for legal policy are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Academic Conference as a Chilly Climate for Women: Effects of Gender Representation on Experiences of Sexism,Coping Responses,and Career Intentions

Across many disciplines, women are underrepresented in faculty positions relative to men. The present research focuses on the academic conference as a setting because it is a gateway to an academic career and a context in which women might experience sexism. We surveyed 329 presenters (63% women) from three U.S. national academic conferences, which differed in women-to-men ratios, about their perceptions of the conference climate, their coping tactics (e.g., gender performance, silence, or voice), and their intentions to exit the conference or academia. The greater the representation of women at the conference relative to men, the less likely were women to perceive sexism and to feel they had to behave in a masculine manner in that setting. In contrast, women who perceived the conference as sexist and felt silenced also expressed increased intentions to exit from academic careers. Men’s perceptions of sexism predicted increased intentions to exit from that particular conference, but not from academia. Because conferences signal the norms of a discipline, it is important to explore their climates as they relate to gender. Perhaps especially for new and aspiring female academics, they may signal devalued status and lack of fit and as such play an inadvertent role in the “leaky pipeline.” We discuss strategies that conference organizers could implement to mitigate sexist climates, including broader inclusion of women in speaking and leadership roles and explicit attention to cues that women belong.     

From the Macro to the Micro: A Geographic Examination of the Community Context and Early Adolescent Problem Behaviors

This study examined how multiple dimensions and levels of the community context associated with early adolescent problem behaviors in rural communities. Four thousand, five hundred and nine eighth-grade students in 28 rural and small town school districts in two states participated in surveys regarding substance use and delinquency in 2005. Locations of alcohol retailers, tobacco retailers, youth-serving organizations, and student residences were geocoded. Associations of the number of proximal alcohol and tobacco retailers, and youth-serving organizations with an early-adolescent problem behavior index were tested in Nonlinear Mixed Models that controlled for multiple district-level and individual characteristics. Multi-level model results demonstrated that the number of alcohol and tobacco retail locations within a one-mile radius of each adolescent's home positively associated with student-reported problem behaviors above and beyond the influence of school district and individual characteristics. Results suggest that the proximal community context added significantly to the district context when understanding the occurrence of early adolescent problem behaviors. Recognizing this variability in geographically determined risk within a community will likely enhance the effectiveness of community prevention activities.     

Maladaptive correlates of the failure to forgive self and others: further evidence for a two-component model of forgiveness

In a sample composed of 162 young adults, we examined the generalizability of an orthogonal, 2-component model of forgiveness previously reported by Ross, Kendall, Matters, Rye, and Wrobel (2004). Furthermore, we examined the relationship of these two components with maladaptive personality characteristics as measured by the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP; Clark, 1993), with an emphasis on Five-factor model markers of personality. Using multiple measures of forgiveness, principal components analysis supported a 2-component model representing self-forgiveness and other forgiveness. Despite the independence of self-forgiveness and other forgiveness, zero order correlations with SNAP scales supported convergent more than discriminant validity. In contrast, hierarchical multiple regression analyses emphasized the discriminant validity of self-forgiveness and other forgiveness. Among indices of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness, Negative Temperament (+) was the sole predictor of self-forgiveness. In contrast, Positive Temperament (+), Aggression (-), and Histrionic PD (-) were most associated with other forgiveness. Overall, these findings support the validity of these factors and highlight the importance of self-forgiveness in clinical assessment.     

Early Behavior Problems as a Predictor of Later Peer Group Victimization: Moderators and Mediators in the Pathways of Social Risk

This study is a prospective investigation of the predictive association between early behavior problems (internalizing, externalizing, hyperactivity–impulsiveness, immaturity–dependency) and later victimization in the peer group. Teacher ratings of the behavioral adjustment of 389 kindergarten and 1st-grade children (approximate age range of 5 to 6 years-old) were obtained, using standardized behavior problem checklists. These ratings predicted peer nomination scores for victimization, obtained 3 years later, even after the prediction associated with concurrent behavior problems was statistically controlled. Further analyses suggested that the relation between early behavior problems and later victimization is mediated by peer rejection and moderated by children's dyadic friendships. Behavior problems appear to play an important role in determining victimization within the peer group, although the relevant pathways are complex and influenced by other aspects of children's social adjustment.     

Maladaptive Correlates of the Failure to Forgive Self and Others: Further Evidence for a Two-Component Model of Forgiveness

We examined relations between the Five-factor model (FFM) domains and facets of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, hypothesized behavioral manifestations of these traits (e.g., social information processing and delay discounting), and externalizing behaviors in an undergraduate sample. Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were differentially related to the externalizing behaviors and the laboratory tasks, which in turn evinced significant relations with externalizing behaviors. The personality facets displayed evidence of modest incremental validity over the broader domains and were related to the externalizing behaviors even when controlling for the social information processing and behavioral discounting variables. In general, the results support the validity of the FFM domains and facets, particularly Agreeableness, in the prediction of a variety of externalizing behaviors.     

Individual Versus Collective Responses to Membership in a Low-Status Group: The Effects of Stability and Individual Ability

Abstract

To test predictions of social identity theory (SIT; M. A. Hogg & D. Abrams, 1988; H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1979) and the 5-stage model (FSM; D. M. Taylor & D. J. McKirnan, 1984) concerning reactions to membership in a low-status group, the authors led 112 pupils to believe that another (anonymous) class outperformed their class. In an overall permeable and legitimate intergroup context, the authors manipulated the stability of the low group status and the individual ability of the group members. Contrary to SIT and FSM, the pupils generally favored collective normative action. Individual mobility was preferred only by group members, especially boys, with high individual ability who thought that the low status of their group was stable. The results support FSM assumptions (a) that individual ability is a powerful determinant of intergroup behavior but (b) that one should consider its impact in combination with perceived stability.