A two-year follow-up study of a preventive mental health program for preschoolers

The long-term effects of a preschool intervention program for high-risk experimental children were assessed and compared to a high-risk placebo control group and low-risk normal controls. Seventy first-grade children were involved in this 2-year follow-up. The experimental treatment group was superior to that of the placebo control group at follow-up on the criteria measures of behavioral adjustment and achievement. The low-risk normal control group was significantly different from that of the placebo control groups, but generally not significantly different from that of the experimental groups, suggesting that the intervention had boosted the high-risk experimental treatment children to the point where their performance was comparable to that of children who had not experienced behavioral or learning difficulties.The study was supported by grants from the McGregor Fund and the Eloise and Richard Webber Foundation, and by the Detroit Public Schools, for which the authors express grateful appreciation. A version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, September 1979.     

Social Class and Reported Changes in Behavior After Job Loss

Reports were obtained from middle-class and working-class unemployed British men about change or lack of change since job loss in 37 different behaviors. The behaviors were grouped into Domestic Work, Domestic Pastimes, Other Pastimes, Book Reading, Recreations, Entertainment Through Money, and Social Contacts. Contrary to findings from 1930s research, significant increases in social contact and book reading were reported since job loss. Other significant increases were reported within all categories except Entertainment Through Money, where a significant decline was recorded. A number of social class differences were found. For instance, middleclass unemploycd men were significantly more likely than their working-class counterparts to report increased book reading for study and more visits to the public library. Working-class respondents were significantly more likely to report increased looking around shops without buying and reduced visits to the pub. Several significant associations between reported behavior changes and aspects of psychological and general health were observed.     

Assessing social competencies in lower income preschool children

This study examined social competencies in 4-year-old, lower income, nonwhite preschool children in a replication of work by Shure, Spivack, and Jaeger. Age differential interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills were investigated, i.e., ability to generate alternative solutions to interpersonal problems, consequential thinking, and school achievement as they relate to behavioral adjustment ratings by teachers and independent observers. A teacher's rating of a child as aberrant or adjusted predicted an independent observer's rating of that child in a naturalistic setting. Children who were rated as adjusted by their teachers had significantly higher scores on an achievement inventory than those children who were rated aberrant, but the study did not find the predicted relationship between problem-solving thinking and adjustment. A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, September 1979. The study was supported by grants from the McGregor Fund, the Eloise and Richard Webber Foundation, the David M. Whitney Fund and by the Detroit Public Schools Region 7, for which the authors express grateful appreciation. The authors also wish to thank Myrna B. Shure for her help in carrying out this replication.     

Psychomotor reminiscence as a function of sex and length of rest period

Sex differences in psychomotor reminiscence were examined as a function of the length of the rest period. Five groups of Caucasian subjects, each group consisting of 12 males and 12 females, practiced continuously for 3 min on a mirror-tracking task, then rested for 0,1, 2, 4, or 8 min before resuming continuous practice. Reminiscence in both sexes increased as negatively accelerated functions of the amount of rest. The asymptotic level of reminiscence was higher for females than for males, but the quadratic slopes of the two functions were essentially alike. Analyses of prerest trial gains supported a conclusion that females reminisced more because they accumulated more reactive inhibition prior to rest.     

A Peer Assertiveness-Training Program

The demand for assertiveness-training groups and the effective use of paraprofessionals in skills training were influential factors in the authors' decision to develop a peer assertiveness-training program. This program extends the availability of assertiveness training to students through the use of paraprofessionals as group leaders. This article describes a format for developing a peer assertiveness-training program and is based on the authors' experience conducting this program during the 1977–78 academic year at Pennsylvania State University.     

Transfer of reaction inhibition

A serious challenge to Hull's (1943) theory of reminiscence and intertrial-interval effects is posed by the current contention that reactive inhibition (In) must be task-specific since it does not seem to transfer from one task to another. This notion was examined within the framework of a practice-rest paradigm in which three control groups were given 20 1-min trials on a principal task with intertrial intervals of 0, 5, and 70 sec, respectively, while two experimental groups practiced alternately on the principal task and a secondary task known to produce evidence for I(R). The two secondary tasks varied in their similarities to the principal task. Additional control groups were used to assess the magnitude of habit transfer effects. The total sample consisted of 70 males and 70 females whose modal age was 18 yr. With habit transfer effects controlled, results showed clearly that work effects transferred from the alternate tasks to the main task without regard for differences in similarity. Thus, the task-specificity hypothesis was not supported.     

The role of empathy and social anxiety in Latinx adolescents' indirect peer aggression during the transition to high school

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between decreased empathy (i.e., cognitive and affective) and indirect and cyber peer aggression among Latinx adolescents during their transition to high school. Further, we examined the degree to which social anxiety moderated this relationship. Participants were 469 Latinx ninth graders, ages 13–17 years (M = 14.52, SD = 0.58; 58% girls). Adolescents completed the Revised Peer Experiences Questionnaire, Cyber Peer Experiences Questionnaire, Basic Empathy Scale, and Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents at two different time points, 3 months apart. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed concurrent and prospective relationships between lower cognitive empathy and the perpetration of both indirect and cyber aggression. In addition, social anxiety moderated the concurrent associations between both types of empathy and both types of aggression perpetration. Results suggest that interventions that facilitate cognitive empathy and decrease social anxiety may help to reduce adolescents' indirect and cyber aggression toward peers throughout the high school transition.