Children and Political Violence from a Social Ecological Perspective: Implications from Research on Children and Families in Northern Ireland

The effects on children of political violence are matters of international concern, with many negative effects well-documented. At the same time, relations between war, terrorism, or other forms of political violence and child development do not occur in a vacuum. The impact can be understood as related to changes in the communities, families and other social contexts in which children live, and in the psychological processes engaged by these social ecologies. To advance this process-oriented perspective, a social ecological model for the effects of political violence on children is advanced. This approach is illustrated by findings and methods from an ongoing research project on political violence and children in Northern Ireland. Aims of this project include both greater insight into this particular context for political violence and the provision of a template for study of the impact of children’s exposure to violence in other regions of the world. Accordingly, the applicability of this approach is considered for other social contexts, including (a) another area in the world with histories of political violence and (b) a context of community violence in the US.     

Links Between Anxiety and Allergies: Psychobiological Reality or Possible Methodological Bias?

ABSTRACT The objective of the study was to examine the link between anxiety and allergies to establish whether it reflects a psychobiological reality or a possible methodological bias. A cohort of 1,037 children enrolled in the study. Anxiety disorders were assessed between 11 and 21 years. Anxious personality was assessed at 18 years. Allergies were examined at 21 years by (a) self reports, (b) skin pricks, and (c) serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE). Self-reported allergies were predicted by recurrent anxiety disorders (OR [95% CI]=1.56 [1.06–2.30], p =.023) and self-reports of anxious personality (OR [95% CI]=1.67 [1.17–2.37], p =.004): Objectively verified allergies were not. These results suggest that the link between anxiety and allergies may reflect a methodological artifact rather than a psychobiological reality.     

“It Makes Me a Man from the Beating I Took”: Gender and Aggression in Children’s Narratives About Conflict

Personal conflict narratives were written by 364 4th–6th graders from two urban schools in the U.S. mid-south that contrasted in levels of poverty and crime. Narratives were coded for severity of violence, type of aggression, explanations, characters’ mental and emotional states, and authors’ moral evaluations. Boys described more severe physical violence than girls, but provided fewer explanations, less moral evaluation, and showed less psychological mindedness in the moderate-stress neighborhood, but only when they wrote stories about boy aggressors and physical or psychological aggression. Boys describing girl or relational aggression were as psychologically and morally astute as girls were. Girls also neglected to explain and evaluate boys’ aggression. Findings supported a social constructivist model of how narrative discourse may gender aggression.     

The Role of Stimulus Specificity on Infidelity Reactions: Seeing is Disturbing

Past research has found that males are more distressed by imagined scenarios of sexual infidelity compared with females, while females are more distressed by imagined scenarios of emotional infidelity. Expanding on the methodology originally employed by Buss et al. (Psychological Science, 3, 251–255, 1992), we examined sex differences in reactions to imagined infidelity by addressing the effects of visual images of potential interlopers. Additionally, this research measured affective responses in a continuous format by examining psychological discomfort. Participants in high-visual imagery and control conditions imagined infidelity (both emotional and sexual) and then reported levels of discomfort. Further, two indices of autonomic nervous system responding were assessed (skin conductance and pulse rate). Ninety-three (53 females, 40 males) college students participated. Visual stimuli produced greater psychological distress than thought-produced stimuli for all participants, especially males. Sex differences in reactions to infidelity consistent with past research were obtained for the categorical and continuous psychological indices. Implications for research in this area are discussed.

Factors Predicting Family Reunification for African American,Latino, Asian and White Families in the Child Welfare System

We examined child, family and system-related factors associated with reunification across African American, Latino, Asian and White families involved in the child welfare system in one large and ethnically diverse California County. Data were obtained from extensive reviews of child welfare case records and multivariate analysis was performed on a wide array of variables not found in previous research. Results indicated that when taking other factors into account, ethnicity was not a strong predictor of reunification. Factors that predicted reunification varied across ethnic groups, with none of the predictors being significant for the Asian group. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Genetic and environmental influences on interpersonal cognitions and associations with depressive symptoms in 8-year-old twins

Less is known about depression in children than in adults. This study integrates fields by combining cognitive and interpersonal research investigating childhood depression symptoms through the use of a genetic framework. Three research questions are addressed. First, what are the associations among interpersonal cognitions, anxiety, and depression? Second, what are the relative magnitudes of genetic and environmental influences on interpersonal cognitions? Third, to what extent do genetic and environmental influences explain associations between interpersonal cognitions and depression? Three hundred pairs of 8-year-old twins reported on symptoms of depression and anxiety by completing the Children's Depression Inventory and the Screen for Childhood Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders. The authors examined interpersonal cognitions with the Children's Expectation of Social Behaviors and the Perceptions of Peers and Self Questionnaires. Interpersonal cognitions were more strongly correlated with depression (mean r = .35) than with anxiety (mean r = .13). Genetic influence on interpersonal cognitions was small (M = 3%), and associations between interpersonal cognitions and depression were mainly explained by environmental influences. These latter findings may result from interpersonal cognitions in young children, reflecting life experiences as opposed to trait-like cognitive biases.     

Family influences on the association between sleep problems and anxiety in a large sample of pre-school aged twins

Research suggests that environmental influences are important on the association between sleep problems and anxiety in children. This study examines family influences on the association between sleep problems and anxiety in 6000+ twin pairs. Parents provided information on their twins’ anxiety and sleep problems at ages 3 and 4 years. The family influences maternal depression, life events, socio-economic status, family illness, and family disorganization, were examined using parent-report. Family disorganization and maternal depression showed the strongest correlations with sleep problems (r = .20, .21, respectively) and with anxiety (r = .24, .28). Subsequent analyses indicated that family disorganization and maternal depression (examined individually) each accounted for approximately 30% of the association between sleep problems and anxiety (r = .18). The remaining association was mainly explained by environmental factors making children in the same family alike and genetic influences. This study specifies family influences that may be important in the association between sleep problems and anxiety and highlights areas of research that may be worth pursuing in order to further understand the childhood association between sleep problems and anxiety.     

An Influence of Product and Brand Name on Positive Affect: Implicit and Explicit Measures

Results of two studies indicated that tasting a familiar product designed to be refreshing (iced tea), without knowledge of the brand, induced positive affect, as did the gift-of-candy (not consumed) induction, used in many previous studies. As compared to controls, these participants showed more positive affect as reflected by 5 implicit measures and 2~explicit ratings of the refreshingness and pleasingness of the product. They performed significantly better on items from the Remote Associates Test (a test of creativity), generated more unusual and more pleasant first associates to a randomly selected letter of the alphabet, and to neutral words (the implicit measures). Results also indicated that similar affect did not arise when participants tasted a less liked, unfamiliar, brand of iced tea, without knowledge of the brand. However, when the brand name (a known brand) of that tea was presented with the less liked product sample, people who tasted that same tea showed positive affect responses on the implicit measures of affect and also explicitly rated the tea as more refreshing and pleasing than the unbranded version of the same tea.