The Relationship Between Family Stress and Behavioral Health Among African American Adolescents

African American youth, especially those who live in low-income communities, are at increased risk for experiencing higher juvenile justice involvement, poorer mental health, low school engagement, higher illicit drug use, and STIs, relative to their higher income peers and those from other ethnic backgrounds. However, few studies have examined the relationship between family stressors and these multiple youth concerns. This study examines the relationship between family stress (i.e., having an adult in the home with a history of mental illness, substance use, and incarceration) and youth concerns such as substance use, mental health challenges, low school engagement, juvenile justice involvement, and STI risk behaviors. A total of 638 African American adolescents living in predominantly low-income, urban communities participated in the study by completing self-report measures on the above constructs. Logistic regressions controlling for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation indicated that adolescents who reported higher rates of family stress were significantly more likely to report mental health problems, delinquent behaviors, juvenile justice involvement, drug use, risky sex, and lower school engagement factors. Findings suggest that attending to the developmental concerns of youth also requires addressing the needs of the family unit.     

Internet gambling, substance use, and delinquent behavior: an adolescent deviant behavior involvement pattern

Internet gambling among adolescents is a growing phenomenon that has received little attention to date. This study examines associations between Internet gambling and the severity of gambling, substance use (SU), and delinquent behavior among 1,870 Quebec students aged 14 to 18. The results show a higher proportion of Internet-gambling (IG) students reporting problematic substance use and delinquency, compared with nongamblers (NG) and non-Internet gamblers (NIG). Furthermore, a higher proportion of at-risk and probable pathological gamblers are found among IG compared with NIG. A moderating effect (Baron & Kenny, 1986) of the gambler categories (NIG, IG) was found in the relationship between the associated problems and the severity of gambling. Among IG, the severity of delinquency and of substance use contributes to explaining gambling severity whereas, among NIG, the severity of delinquency is the only factor that significantly contributes to such an explanation. Discussion of the results is based on Jessor, Donovan, and Costa's (1991) general deviance syndrome theory.     

Investigating Interrelationships among Sales Training Evaluation Methods

Today numerous training options are available to sales organizations, and sales training teams use various means to report training effectiveness. This study utilizes Kirkpatrick’s (1959; 1960) training evaluation model and examines the interrelationships among its four levels of sales training evaluation (i.e., reactions, knowledge acquisition, behavior change, and organizational outcomes). Empirical results indicate that sales trainees’ use of training materials at work is positively related to achieving sales training outcomes, including improving (1) organizational commitment, (2) sales effectiveness, and (3) customer relations. Furthermore, trainees who had positive reactions to training were more likely to learn the material, and trainees with higher levels of knowledge retention were more likely to apply the material in the work environment. Implications are discussed that may aid sales firms to better evaluate training solutions provided by vendors and to develop more effective and accountable sales training efforts.     

A Review of: East,West, North,South: Major Developments in International Relations Since 1945

Synchronicity: Science, Myth, and the Trickster Allan Combs and Mark Holland Paragon House, New York, 1990 pp. 192. US$9.95 ISBN 1–55778–304–7

The Rules Are No Game: The Strategy of Communication Anthony Wilden Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1987. $29.95 ISBN 0–7100–9868–5. Paperback due 1991

Man and Woman, War and Peace: The Strategist's Companion Anthony Wilden Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1987. $25.00 ISBN 0–7100–9867–7. Paperback due 1991.

Mindsets: The Role of Culture and Perception in International Relations Glen Fisher Intercultural Press, Inc. Varmouth, ME, 1988, $16.95, ISBN 0–933662–67 X

Quantum Psychology Robert Anton Wilson New Falcon Publications, Phoenix, Arizona, 1990. $12.95 ISBN 0–941404–01–3     

Understanding anhedonia in schizophrenia through lexical analysis of natural speech

Anhedonia is a negative prognostic indicator in schizophrenia. However, the underlying nature of this emotional deficit is unclear. Laboratory studies examining patients’ emotional reactions under controlled circumstances have failed to find evidence for a diminished hedonic response, instead finding that patients’ reactions to laboratory stimuli are characterised by high levels of negative emotion. The present study employed lexical analysis of natural speech in 52 patients and 49 non-patient controls while they discussed separate neutral, pleasant and unpleasant autobiographical memories. Patients with clinically rated anhedonia, versus other patients and controls, showed a dramatic increase in negative emotion expression when discussing pleasurable memories, but they showed no corresponding decrease in positive emotion. These findings provide further evidence that “anhedonia” is more reflective of negative emotional states than the absence of positive ones. These findings also raise questions about how positive and negative emotions can be simultaneously co-activated in patients with schizophrenia.     

Influencing and adjusting in daily emotional situations: A comparison of European and Asian American action styles

Emotions are for action, but action styles in emotional episodes may vary across cultural contexts. Based on culturally different models of agency, we expected that those who engage in European-American contexts will use more influence in emotional situations, while those who engage in East-Asian contexts will use more adjustment. European-American (N=60) and Asian-American (N=44) college students reported their action style during emotional episodes four times a day during a week. Asian Americans adjusted more than European Americans, whereas both used influence to a similar extent. These cultural differences in action style varied across types of emotion experienced. Moreover, influencing was associated with life satisfaction for European Americans, but not for Asian Americans.     

The Confusion of Fear and Surprise: A Developmental Study of the Perceptual-Attentional Limitation Hypothesis Using Eye Movements

The goal of the present study was to test the Perceptual-Attentional Limitation Hypothesis in children and adults by manipulating the distinctiveness between expressions and recording eye movements. Children 3–5 and 9–11 years old as well as adults were presented pairs of expressions and required to identify a target emotion. Children 3–5 years old were less accurate than those 9–11 years old and adults. All children viewed pictures longer than adults but did not spend more time attending to the relevant cues. For all participants, accuracy for the recognition of fear was lower than for surprise when the distinctive cue was in the brow only. They also took longer and spent more time in both the mouth and brow zones than when a cue was in the mouth or both areas. Adults and children 9–11 years old made more comparisons between the expressions when fear comprised a single distinctive cue in the brow than when the distinctive cue was in the mouth only or when both cues were present. Children 3–5 years old made more comparisons for brow only than both. The results of the present study extend on the Perceptual-Attentional Limitation Hypothesis showing an importance of both decoder and stimuli, and an interaction between decoder and stimuli characteristics.     

Motivated message processing: How motivational activation influences resource allocation, encoding, and storage of TV messages

This paper investigates differences in overtime processing of television messages with three types of emotional trajectories—those which begin neutral and become negative, begin neutral and become positive and begin neutral and become equally positive and negative. The limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing is used to predict how the type of emotional content influences real-time activation of the appetitive and aversive motivational systems which then alter concurrent and subsequent message processing. Results show that during the first time period, when motivational activation is low, more resources are allocated to coactive and positive compared to negative messages supporting the positivity offset hypothesis. In the middle time period, when activation is moderate, more resources are allocated to negative than to positive messages, supporting the negativity bias hypothesis. Further, the different patterns of motivational activation do result in different patterns of messages processing. During positive messages, encoding increases and storage decreases over time. During negative messages, encoding decreases and storage increases overtime. During coactive messages initial encoding and storage are high though both decrease slightly over time.