The Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Females with a Pre-Existing Fear of Storms

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Hurricane Katrina on those with preexisting storm fear. Participants were divided into two groups, those with a fear of storms and control participants with no reported fears of any specific stimuli. Differences were examined on measures of exposure to and distress from trauma, fear, coping self-efficacy, and demographic variables. The participants were 62 female undergraduate college students who completed an online survey examining the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Despite no differences in the overall occurrence of trauma between the two groups, storm-fearful participants reported significantly more overall distress from their exposure when compared to the non-fearful participants. Those with storm-fears also reported significantly poorer coping self-efficacy following the storm than those who were not fearful. Overall, individuals with a fear of storms reported experiencing greater psychological impact and poorer coping self-efficacy from the same degree of storm exposure.     

Academic Dishonesty: An In-Depth Investigation of Assessing Measurable Constructs and a Call for Consistency in Scholarship

For over 70 years, research has tackled the issue of academic misconduct in the university setting. However, a review of the literature reveals that (a) consensus on the magnitude of such behavior has not been reached, and, (b) no one with expertise in quantitative methodology has attempted to classify the behaviors that describe cheaters until Ferrell and Daniel proposed the use of the Academic Misconduct Survey (AMS). Even they, following their 1995 study, made a call for the development of understandable constructs in the measurement of cheating. Seventeen years later, the present study sought to produce such constructs. In a series of three phases of data collection, 4,100 participants completed a revised version of the AMS. A factor solution containing five factors proved to be the most interpretable. The five factors are as follows: creative padding, interactive cheating, false personal excuses, taking credit for others’ work, exam cheating. The present paper outlines the constructs proposed and discusses implications in this area for (1) scholars within the area of measurement and (2) educators with regard to student accountability and performance.     

Incremental Validity of Situational Judgment Tests for Task and Contextual Job Performance

This paper has three goals. First, it responds to calls for additional research on subgroup differences in situational judgment tests. Second, it expands the cumulative knowledge on the incremental validity of situational judgment tests beyond cognitive ability and personality. Third, it examines the validity and incremental validity of various predictors for both task and contextual performance.     

Behavioral reactivity and approach-withdrawal bias in infancy

Seven hundred seventy-nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and baseline electroencephalogram data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry. Positively reactive infants exhibited significantly more approach behavior than controls and exhibited a pattern of left frontal asymmetry. Results support the notion that approach-withdrawal bias underlies reactivity in infancy.     

Adaptation of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV) for Vietnam

Intelligence testing is used for many purposes including identification of children for proper educational placement (e.g., children with learning disabilities, or intellectually gifted students), and to guide education by identifying cognitive strengths and weaknesses so that teachers can adapt their instructional style to students’ specific learning styles. Most of the research involving intelligence tests has been conducted in highly developed Western countries Yet the need for intelligence testing is as or even more important in developing countries. The present study, conducted through the Vietnam National University Clinical Psychology CRISP Center, focused on the cultural adaptation of the WISC-IV intelligence test for Vietnam. We report on (a) the adaptation process including the translation, cultural analysis and modifications involved in adaptation, (b) present results of two pilot studies, and (c) describe collection of the standardization sample and results of analyses with the standardization sample, with the goal of sharing our experience with other researchers who may be involved in or interested in adapting or developing IQ tests for non-Western, non-English speaking cultures.     

SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS' ACKNOWLEDGMENT STATUS AND REVICTIMIZATION RISK

How a victim of rape characterizes her assault has potential implications for her postassault experiences and revictimization risk. Prior research has identified several potential benefits to not conceptualizing one's experience as a form of victimization. The current study sought to identify whether there are costs to not acknowledging rape as well, specifically whether unacknowledged victims are at elevated risk of revictimization. The revictimization risk behaviors of 334 acknowledged and unacknowledged female college rape victims were compared. Unacknowledged victims reported more hazardous alcohol use and were more likely to report that they continued a relationship with the assailant after the assault. A subsample of 105 victims completed a 6-month follow-up survey regarding sexual victimization during the follow-up period. Unacknowledged victims were nearly twice as likely to report having experienced an attempted rape during the 6-month follow-up period. Implications of the results for future work evaluating rape acknowledgment, rape recovery, and revictimization are discussed.     

A longitudinal examination of factors predicting anxiety during the transition to middle school

Abstract

The transition from elementary to middle or junior high school is commonly regarded as a period of stress and turmoil for young adolescents, and has been associated with changes in anxiety and other psychological problems. However, less is known about risk and resilience factors that may predict these changes. This study examined changes in anxiety, as well as predictors of these changes among 77, predominantly Caucasian (88%), male and female (52%) adolescents from Grades 6 to 8. Repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted to examine the predicted grade and gender differences. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the prediction of eighth grade anxiety symptoms by sixth grade self-worth, perceived social acceptance, and social support, as well as the potential moderating role of gender in these relations. Results suggested a significant decrease in anxiety, particularly social anxiety, over this period for boys but not girls. Examination of predictors of changes in anxiety suggested that, in general, global self-worth, social acceptance, and gender were each associated with overall and social anxiety. Findings are integrated with extant literature on developmental changes associated with anxiety and school transitions and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Early Predictors of Urban Adolescents’ Community Violence Exposure

This study examined the extent to which individual, peer, and family factors predicted the onset of community violence exposure in middle and high school, as well as the indirect effects of early factors. We were particularly interested in the timing of exposure to community violence during adolescence, and thus conducted survival analyses on data from 632 urban youth, followed from first grade through high school. Early aggressive behavior and poor academic readiness were associated with an earlier onset of community violence exposure in adolescence. The effects of early aggression on community violence exposure and victimization were accounted for, in part, by peer rejection and deviant peer affiliation; there was no evidence of moderation by gender or parental monitoring. Findings highlight potential targets for preventive interventions with youth at risk of community violence exposure.     

The effects of collaboration on recall of social information

Three experiments examined the effects of passage type on both individual and collaborative memory performance. In Experiment 1, both individuals and collaborative groups recalled more information from passages containing social information than non-social information. Furthermore, collaborative inhibition (CI) was observed for both types of passages. In Experiment 2, which included a social passage that did not contain gossip, significant main effects of both gossip (gossip > non-gossip) and sociability (explicit > implicit) were observed. As in Experiment 1, CI was observed across all conditions. Experiment 3 separately manipulated gossip and the interest level of the passages and both of these factors enhanced memory performance. Moreover, robust CI was again observed across all conditions. Taken together, the present results demonstrate a mnemonic benefit for social information in individuals and collaborative groups.     

Understanding the Role of Neighborhood Context in the Long-Term Criminal Consequences of Child Maltreatment

This study investigated how neighborhood conditions influence the relationship between early child maltreatment and criminal behavior, using official data from a sample of maltreated children (N = 908) and matched controls (N = 667), as well as census data about respondents' neighborhoods. Using multilevel data that incorporated information about individuals, families, and neighborhoods, 2 hypotheses (direct influence and interaction effect) were examined using hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM). The results indicated that neighborhood disadvantage and stability moderated the relationship between early child maltreatment and offending. Specifically, the effect of early child maltreatment on later juvenile and adult criminal behavior was strongest for those individuals from the most disadvantaged and most stable neighborhoods. These results suggest that studying the interaction between family functioning and neighborhood conditions provides a more comprehensive understanding of offending than does studying each factor separately.