The Home Environments of Adolescents Whose Parents Legally Immigrated to the United States: Findings from the New Immigrant Survey

Adolescent well-being depends on the quality of their experiences at home. Data from the New Immigrant Survey were used to describe the home environments of 982 children ages 10–17 whose parents legally immigrated to the United States. Thirty-four indicators of home conditions were clustered into 5 domains: (1) discipline and socio-emotional support, (2) learning materials, (3) enriching experiences, (4) family activities, and (5) expectations. Results revealed variation in how frequently adolescents experienced each home environmental condition. As expected, there were differences in the likelihood an adolescent would have most—but not all—experiences connected with home life based on parents’ level of education. The home experiences documented for children of recent legal immigrants were similar to those documented for children of native-born families in other studies.     

Walking versus biofeedback: a comparison of acute interventions for stressed students

Background: High rates of stress-related problems in college students and low utilization of treatment options demonstrate the need for effective stress-reducing interventions that can be self-regulated. This study compared the effect of brief paced-breathing with biofeedback and exercise interventions on heart rate variability, state anxiety and affect. Methods: Students (n?=?32) with high levels of perceived stress completed three 10-min interventions on separate days: paced-breathing with biofeedback (Biofeedback), a self-paced walk (Exercise), and an attention control condition of quiet studying (Quiet Study). Anxiety and affect were measured before (Pre), immediately after (Post0) and 15 mins after (Post15) the intervention. Heart rate variability was measured pre- and post-intervention using electrocardiogram. Results: Biofeedback reduced anxiety more than the exercise condition (Pre to Post0: Biofeedback d?=??0.48, Exercise d?=??0.13). Secondly, Exercise temporarily increased energy (Pre to Post0: d?=?0.67), whereas Biofeedback temporarily increased calmness (Pre to Post0: d?=?0.51). All conditions significantly increased total heart rate variability (p?Conclusions: Biofeedback and Exercise interventions improved emotional states in high-stress college students, but the type of change observed (i.e. energizing, calming or anxiety reducing) depended upon the condition.     

Behavioral Variability in the Play of Children With Autism and Their Typically Developing Peers

Invariable or repetitive behavior is a defining feature of autism and can limit a child's exposure to varying consequences and subsequent learning opportunities. We compared the variability in play material selection between 30 children with autism and 30 typically developing children, aged 2‐8 years, across three different activities: selecting paper outfits to dress dolls, selecting beads to place on a string, and choosing marker colors for coloring shapes. Selections of materials could be varied or identical to previous selections within the session. Although there was some overlap between the two groups, children with autism were more likely to respond invariably than typically developing children. Two‐year‐old children in both groups tended to display invariable play material selection, but variability increased across increasing age groups for typical children and remained relatively stable across increasing age groups for children with autism. Implications regarding the divergence in variable behavior across children with autism and typically developing children as a function of age are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making Choices: Ethical Decisions in a Global Context

The changing milieu of research—increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative—prompts greater emphasis on cultural context and upon partnership with international scholars and diverse community groups. Ethics training, however, tends to ignore the cross-cultural challenges of making ethical choices. This paper confronts those challenges by presenting a new curricular model developed by an international team. It examines ethics across a very broad range of situations, using case studies and employing the perspectives of social science, humanities and the sciences. The course has been developed and taught in a highly collaborative way, involving researchers and students at Zhejiang University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Brown University. The article presents the curricular modules of the course, learning outcomes, an assessment framework developed for the project, and a discussion of evaluation findings.     

Relations of trauma exposure with current religiousness and spirituality

Many theorists posit that religiousness/spirituality (RS) may change after trauma. However, empirical findings regarding RS following trauma are inconclusive. The present study examined the relationship between potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and current RS by considering the cumulative effect of PTEs and multiple dimensions of RS. In our sample of 245 undergraduates (60% female, 79% White), there were no differences in RS between participants who did and did not have PTEs. When analysed as a continuous variable, the number of PTEs was positively correlated with many RS dimensions (i.e., daily spiritual experiences, religious strain, religious comfort, provident and challenging God images, belief in God) but not all (i.e., organised religious involvement, belief in afterlife, benevolent God image). These results suggest that PTEs relate distinctly to different aspects of RS and that examining multiple dimensions of RS may be a more informative way of studying this association.     

Weight Stigmatization Moderates the Effects of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage-Related PSAs Among U.S. Parents

Research indicates that media campaigns targeting weight-related behaviors can make overweight individuals feel stigmatized and may create backlash effects in weight-related health behavior. Using weight-based identity threat theory as a guiding framework, this study investigates the role of prior weight stigmatization in adults’ reactions to public service advertisements (PSAs) encouraging sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) reduction. In an online survey experiment among 807 U.S. parents, participants were randomly assigned to view anti-SSB PSAs containing one of three persuasive appeals (fear, humor, or nurturance). Emotional responses, evaluation of argument strength, and intention to reduce SSB consumption were measured following PSA exposure. Non-stigmatized parents felt less empowerment and hope and perceived weaker arguments if they viewed humorous PSAs instead of fear-based PSAs. Argument strength and empowerment or hopeful emotions predicted increased intention to reduce SSB consumption, regardless of whether participants had been stigmatized. There was weak support for the moderation of emotional responses on intentions by stigmatization history such that negative emotions were associated with lower SSB-reduction intentions only among stigmatized participants. Experiences of stigmatization can shape audiences’ responses to health-related messages in unintended ways. The findings suggest that campaign designers should choose empowering messages with strong arguments and avoid evoking negative emotions.     

Promoting Attachment and Mentalization for Parents and Young Children in the Foster Care System: Implementing a New Training and Treatment Approach in an Agency

The Building Blocks Program is an innovative psychodynamic treatment approach that was designed to fit within a social service agency structure. It is based on concepts of attachment, attunement, and mentalization and builds on the research of Beatrice Beebe (2003), Peter Fonagy and colleagues (2002), Arietta Slade (2005), Howard and Miriam Steele (2008), and Dan Stern (1985). The Building Blocks Program targets birth mothers and their young children under age 5 who have been or are in danger of being removed from their families. In the beginning of the program, the Building Blocks therapists faced many challenges. As noted (Remez, this issue), many of the therapists were unfamiliar with a Reflective Supervision model of learning. They were accustomed to a more traditional pedagogical approach that emphasized critiquing their work, with a focus on their clients’ pathology. The Building Blocks model focuses on therapist and client safety and support, prompting a paradigm shift in the therapists’ thinking about supervision and how to conduct therapy.     

Understanding Differences in Mental Health History and Behavioral Choices in a Community Sample of Individuals with and without Body Modifications

This study investigated the differences in mental health history and social, health, alcohol and substance, and sexual behaviors of individuals with and without body modification in a community sample. Previous research primarily focused on negative behavioral and psychological correlates of body modification practices in college student, juvenile delinquent, inpatient, and incarcerated populations. This tendency does not take into account changes in the demographics and motivations of individuals who obtain body modifications in the last two decades. The Community Body Modification Checklist was developed based on previous studies; reliability and validity for the measure were established using Cronbach’s alpha and factor analysis. The results indicated that individuals with body modifications were not more likely to engage in risky behaviors or report a history of mental health problems when compared to non-modified persons; however, they were more likely to engage in social and health behaviors. These findings may be best explained by the body modification community becoming diversified by the middle class whose meanings, motivations, and usage of tattoos and piercings are unique.