Relational Aggression in Mothers and Children: Links with Psychological Control and Child Adjustment

This study assesses associations between mothers’ use of relational aggression with their peers and psychological control with their children, and child adjustment in a sample of fifty U.S. mothers of elementary and middle school children. Mothers completed surveys assessing their relational aggression and psychological control. Teachers completed surveys assessing children’s externalizing behavior, internalizing symptoms, and relational aggression. Results suggest that mothers who are relationally aggressive with their peers are more likely to be psychologically controlling with their children. Results also showed that relational aggression predicted adjustment problems in youth. Relational aggression was associated with externalizing problems among boys and girls, and with internalizing problems among boys. Few gender differences in mean levels of maternal or child behaviors emerged.     

The Straight Path to Healing: Using Motivational Interviewing to Address Spiritual Bypass

Spiritual bypass is the avoidance of underlying emotional issues by focusing solely on spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client‐centered, compassionate approach to effectively addressing resistance among those who present with spiritual bypass. In this article, the authors provide background information on spiritual bypass and a rationale for adopting an MI approach to working with these clients. A case presentation illustrates 1 example of using MI with spiritual bypass.     

Developing Norms of Argumentation: Metacognitive,Epistemological, and Social Dimensions of Developing Argumentive Competence

We examine how extended engagement in argumentation with peers leads to enhanced metalevel understanding of argumentive discourse. Following such engagement, young adolescents demonstrated enhanced understanding of counterargument and use of evidence as objectives of skilled argumentation, relative to a nonparticipating comparison group. Among the participating group, analysis of metatalk (talk about the discourse, distinguished from talk about the topic) during electronic peer dialogs proved revealing regarding participants’ evolving awareness of and adherence to discourse norms. Metatalk became more reciprocal and sustained with time and revealed an increasing focus on the argumentation process and engagement in talk that seeks to direct it. Implications are considered for understanding and studying argumentation as a social practice that encompasses not only individual skills but also the less visible norms that govern it and that members of a social group come to share.     

Work engagement and voluntary absence: The moderating role of job resources

The present study examined the moderating role of job resources, namely, organizational trust, the quality of employees’ relationship with their manager, and the motivating potential of jobs, on the negative relationship between work engagement and voluntary absence. Employee survey results and absence records collected from the Human Resources department of a construction and consultancy organization in the United Kingdom (n = 325) showed that work engagement was negatively related to voluntary absence, as measured by the Bradford Factor. Furthermore, the results showed that organizational trust and the quality of employees’ relationships with their line managers ameliorated the negative effect of relatively low levels of engagement on voluntary absence. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Emotional and behavioral problems in children of depressed mothers: a school-based study in Southern Brazil

The present study aimed to verify the association between maternal depression and emotional and behavioral problems in school children in Pelotas, Southern Brazil, considering that maternal depression increases children’s vulnerability for developing psychiatric disorders. This is a cross-sectional study with a school-based sample conducted between August 2015 and November 2016 and it is part of a major project entitled ‘Healthy Childhood in Context: A Multidisciplinary Investigation’. Schoolchildren aged between 7 and 8 years and one of their respective parents or a primary caregiver were included in the study. Maternal depression was assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). The presence of emotional and behavioral problems in children was verified by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) – parents version. Children of depressed mothers exhibited higher mean scores in all SDQ domains and in the total score when compared to children of non-depressed mothers. Lower socio-economic status was also associated with higher SDQ scores. Our results showed the effects of both maternal depression and poverty on children emotional and behavioral problems, which evidence the need for child mental health preventive care, and free quality assistance for both mothers and their children.     

Health Programming for Clergy: An Overview of Protestant Programs in the United States

The health of clergy is important, and clergy may find health programming tailored to them more effective. Little is known about existing clergy health programs. We contacted Protestant denominational headquarters and searched academic databases and the Internet. We identified 56 clergy health programs and categorized them into prevention and personal enrichment; counseling; marriage and family enrichment; peer support; congregational health; congregational effectiveness; denominational enrichment; insurance/strategic pension plans; and referral-based programs. Only 13 of the programs engaged in outcomes evaluation. Using the Socioecological Framework, we found that many programs support individual-level and institutional-level changes, but few programs support congregational-level changes. Outcome evaluation strategies and a central repository for information on clergy health programs are needed.     

Improving the Social-Behavioral Adjustment of Adolescents: The Effectiveness of a Social Skills Group Intervention

We evaluated the efficacy of a social skills training intervention designed to improve adolescents’ social, emotional and behavioral adjustment, Social Skills Group Intervention-Adolescent (S.S.GRIN-A). Seventy-four adolescents (ages 13–16 years) and their parents were randomly assigned to either the treatment group (N = 40) or a wait-list control group (N = 34). Adolescents in the treatment and control groups were compared on global self-concept, social self-efficacy, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems pre- and post-intervention. Youth in the treatment group demonstrated enhanced global self-concept, increased social self-efficacy, and decreased internalizing problems as compared to youth in the control group. No differences in externalizing behavior were found. We discuss the effectiveness of S.S.GRIN-A as a general program designed for addressing a range of adjustment issues and social skill deficits in adolescents.     

The accidental transgressor: morally-relevant theory of mind

To test young children’s false belief theory of mind in a morally relevant context, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, children (N = 162) at 3.5, 5.5, and 7.5 years of age were administered three tasks: prototypic moral transgression task, false belief theory of mind task (ToM), and an “accidental transgressor” task, which measured a morally-relevant false belief theory of mind (MoToM). Children who did not pass false belief ToM were more likely to attribute negative intentions to an accidental transgressor than children who passed false belief ToM, and to use moral reasons when blaming the accidental transgressor. In Experiment 2, children (N = 46) who did not pass false belief ToM viewed it as more acceptable to punish the accidental transgressor than did participants who passed false belief ToM. Findings are discussed in light of research on the emergence of moral judgment and theory of mind.     

Dialogic argumentation as a vehicle for developing young adolescents' thinking

Argumentive reasoning skills are featured in the new K-12 Common Standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010), yet with little said about their nature or how to instill them. Distinguishing reasoning skills from writing skills, we report on a multiyear intervention that used electronically conducted dialogues on social issues as the medium to develop argumentive reasoning skills in two cohorts of young adolescents. Intervention groups demonstrated transfer of the dialogic activity to two individual essays on new topics; argument quality for these groups exceeded that of comparison groups who participated in an intervention involving the more face-valid activity of extensive essay writing practice, along with whole-class discussion. The intervention group also demonstrated greater awareness of the relevance of evidence to argument. The dialogic method thus appears to be a viable one for developing cognitive skills that the comparison-group data show do not routinely develop during this age period.     

Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents: A Factor-Analytic Examination of the Tripartite Model

The tripartite model of Clark and Watson (1981) suggests that the oft-observed covariation between anxiety and depression can best be understood by examining three related yet distinct constructs: negative affectivity, positive affectivity, and elevated physiological arousal. In the present study, 510 boys and girls in the 4th, 7th, and 10th grades completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the goodness of fit of single-factor (i.e., negative affectivity), two-factor (i.e., anxiety and depression), and three-factor models (i.e., negative affectivity, positive affectivity, and physiological arousal). Analyses were conducted by examining each of the models in the whole sample first and then separately for boys and girls and for fourth, seventh, and tenth grade youths. Results failed to support the tripartite theory; rather, the findings supported a two-factor model in all cases. These factors represented the general constructs of anxiety and depression, and these factors remained significantly interrelated. Consistent with previous findings, the strength of these relations was stronger for boys than girls and for children than adolescents.