Risk for Suicidal Ideation and Attempt among a Primary Care Sample of Adolescents Engaging in Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury

One in five adolescents in the United States has engaged in nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI), one in eight have had serious thoughts of suicide, and one in 25 have attempted suicide. Research suggests that NSSI may increase risk for suicide attempt, yet little is known about the relationship between NSSI and suicidal ideation or attempts. In a primary care setting, 1,561 youth aged 14–24 years completed a brief, comprehensive, mental health screen as part of a routine well visit to determine which factors were most likely to predict suicidal ideation and attempt among youth engaging in NSSI. Results of recursive partitioning revealed that current depression and history of alcohol use best differentiated youth engaging in NSSI with low versus high risk for suicidal ideation and attempts. This simple algorithm is presented as a clinical screening tool that might aid medical providers in determining which youth would benefit from more intensive assessment and intervention.     

Children's Adjustment in a Climate of Political Violence: Comparing Mother and Child Reports

There is a dearth of research on parent and child reports regarding a parent’s parenting and its contribution to a child’s adjustment. Therefore, the current study examined: (a) the differences between mother and child reports of aspects of maternal parenting (i.e., care and control), among both boys and girls; (b) which parenting report (i.e., mother’s or child’s) makes a stronger contribution to mother and child reports of the child’s adjustment in the context of political violence. One hundred and twenty-one mother-child dyads (children aged seven to 12 years old (M?=?10.02, SD?=?1.03)), who were exposed to prolonged political violence, participated in this study. Maternal care and control were assessed by mother and child reports on the Parental Bonding Instrument. Child’s adjustment was assessed both by mother’s report of child’s total difficulties and child’s self-report of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Results revealed that both the mothers of girls and the girls themselves reported higher care, in comparison to mothers of boys and the boys themselves, while mothers of boys and the boys themselves reported higher control. Higher maternal control, as reported by the child, was associated with the child’s self-reported PTSS. Higher maternal control, as reported by the mother, was associated with the child’s total difficulties, as reported by the mother. However, maternal care, whether reported by mother or child, was not found to be associated with the child’s adjustment. School-aged children and their mothers were in agreement regarding maternal dimensions and their contribution to children’s adjustment.     

Replication and extension of the military family stress model: The after deployment adaptive parenting tools ADAPT4U study

The military family stress (MFS) model conceptualizes that wartime deployments and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are associated with couple, parenting, and child adjustment difficulties. The aim of this study was to replicate and extend the military family stress model by examining the associations among deployment length, PTSD symptoms, marital functioning, parenting practices, and child adjustment in a replication sample of both National Guard and Reserve (NG/R) as well as active-duty service member families. The MFS model is extended to test whether these relationships vary between mothers and fathers. The sample included 208 families enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a parenting program for military families (94.4% of fathers and 21.6% of mothers were deployed). Replicating the MFS model, we specified parenting, marital quality, and child adjustment as latent variables and conducted multi-group structural equation models. Parenting practices were positively associated with marital quality and child adjustment. PTSD symptoms were negatively associated with marital quality. The indirect effect from PTSD symptoms to parenting practices through marital quality was marginally significant. The indirect effect from marital quality to child adjustment through parenting practices was significant. There were no significant gender differences between the two structural models. This study provides empirical support for the MFS model. Results demonstrate that deployment-related stressors are significantly associated with parent and family functioning. Parenting programs for military families might effectively target similar risk processes among both mothers and fathers.     

Contact and the personal/group discrimination discrepancy in an Inuit community

The personal/group discrimination discrepancy involves disadvantaged group members rating discrimination directed at their group considerably higher than ratings of discrimination aimed at themselves personally as members of that group. This robust phenomenon has been found in samples of women, African Americans, and aboriginal people. In the present study, the authors used a sample of Inuit from a remote Arctic community to confirm the perceived discrepancy. However, ratings for perceived group discrimination were surprisingly low. The authors argue that geographical isolation may have led Inuit to be unaware of the impact of discrimination on their lives. In support of this argument, findings showed that group discrimination ratings were higher for Inuit who did have contact with mainstream Canadian culture. Implications for the traditional contact hypothesis are discussed.     

What Makes the Political Personal? Openness,Personal Political Salience,and Activism

ABSTRACT People who attach personal meaning to social and political events or are high in Personal Political Salience (PPS) are more likely to engage in political activism ( Duncan & Stewart, 2007 ). Although research suggests that PPS is consequential for activism, we know little about its origins or, more generally, about indirect effects of personality on activism. In this study we examined the possibility that the personality trait of Openness to Experience may be one source of PPS and an indirect predictor of activism. In addition, we proposed that Openness would also be directly related to political activism in young adults but not in middle‐aged and older adults. Analyses confirmed these predictions in cross‐sectional and over‐time data from six samples. We argue that Openness may predispose some individuals both to find personal meaning in distant political events and to engage in social activism in their youth.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Harry Potter</Emphasis> and the sorcerer's scope: latent scope biases in explanatory reasoning

What makes a good explanation? We examine the function of latent scope, i.e., the number of unobserved phenomena that an explanation can account for. We show that individuals prefer narrow latent scope explanations—those that account for fewer unobserved effects—to broader explanations. In Experiments 1a–d, participants found narrow latent scope explanations to be both more satisfying and more likely. In Experiment 2 we directly manipulated base rate information and again found a preference for narrow latent scope explanations. Participants in Experiment 3 evaluated more natural explanations of unexpected observations, and again displayed a bias for narrow latent scope explanations. We conclude by considering what this novel bias tells us about how humans evaluate explanations and engage in causal reasoning.