Gender Differences in the Relations among Patriarchal Beliefs,Parenting, and Teen Relationship Violence in Mexican Adolescents

Teen relationship violence is a global phenomenon associated with adverse outcomes. As in other countries, teen relationship violence is of concern in Mexico. However, few studies have examined the risk and protective factors of teen relationship violence among Mexican adolescents. This study examined whether patriarchal beliefs and exposure to authoritarian parenting among Mexican adolescents are associated with perpetration and victimization of physical and verbal-emotional teen relationship violence. Two hundred and four students (15–18 years old) from Monterrey, Mexico, completed questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for age revealed that among girls, authoritarian parenting was associated with physical and verbal-emotional victimization and verbal-emotional violence perpetration. Among boys, higher endorsement of patriarchal beliefs was associated with lower reports of physical perpetration and physical victimization.     

Age and Gender Differences in Teen Relationship Violence

Research shows that abuse in adolescence can start early and current literature regarding gender differences in teen relationship violence (TRV) is inconsistent. Age and gender differences in TRV were examined. Measures assessing TRV and its correlates were completed by 231 teens from 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-grade classes. A 2 (gender) by 3 (grade) multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant effects for grade and gender indicating that 7th graders have lower perpetration and victimization of TRV, less anger control, and fewer positive conflict resolution behaviors than 9th and 11th graders. Furthermore, girls perpetrate more physical and emotional abuse, whereas boys perpetrate more sexual abuse. Results have implications for timing and content of prevention programs addressing dating violence in adolescence.     

Book reviews

The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jatakanidana) translated by N. A. Jayawickrama, Oxford, Pali Text Society, 1990, xvi, 141 pp. ISBN 0 860 293 5, £4.95.

Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, Issues in Contemporary Judaism. London, Macmillan Academic & Professional, 1991. ISBN 0 333 535 37.

Raymond L. Weiss, Maimonides’ Ethics— The Encounter of Philosophic and Religious Morality. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991. ISBN 0 226 8915 26.

Peter Harrison, ’Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, 277 pp. ISBN 0 521 38530 X, £35 (U.K.).

Michael Dames, Mythic Ireland. London, Thames and Hudson, 1992, 272 pp. ISBN 0 500 01530 9, £14.95 (hardback).

Stephen and Robin Larsen. A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell. New York, Doubleday, 1991, 636 pp. ISBN 0 385 26635 9. $30.00 U.S.     

Mental simulation and sexual prejudice reduction: the debiasing role of counterfactual thinking

Reducing prejudice is a critical research agenda, and never before has counterfactual priming been evaluated as a potential prejudice‐reduction strategy. In the present experiment, participants were randomly assigned to imagine a pleasant interaction with a homosexual man and then think counterfactually about how an incident of sexual discrimination against him might not have occurred (experimental condition) or to imagine a nature scene (control condition). Results demonstrated a significant reduction in sexual prejudice from baseline levels in the counterfactual simulation group. Importantly, whereas intergroup anxiety and motivation to control prejudice were not predictive factors, number of counterfactual thoughts generated independently predicted variance in prejudice reduction. Mechanisms for, and implications of, prejudice‐reduction strategies including counterfactual thinking are discussed.     

The role of attitudes and beliefs in differential health care utilisation among Chinese in Singapore

Abstract

One hundred and twenty-eight Chinese patients at two Western medical practices and two Chinese medical practices in Singapore completed a questionnaire regarding perceptions of illnesses. Health beliefs and attitudes towards different medical practitioners. Results indicate significant differences between those who consult only allopathic physicians (Western doctors) and those who consult both practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (sinsehs) and Western doctors. Individuals consulting both Western doctors and sinsehs perceived a smaller proportion of “general” illness attributes (those found in both Western and Chinese medicine) to be relevant to specific diseases and showed greater endorsement of Chinese health beliefs than did individuals seeking help only from Western doctors. Also individuals consulting both types of practitioners expressed less satisfaction with the doctor's treatment than did those consulting only Western doctors and also rated sinsehs as more concerned with patient well-being and as listening more to their patients.     

Ad Hominem Fallacies, Bias, and Testimony

An ad hominem fallacy is committed when an individual employs an irrelevant personal attack against an opponent instead of addressing that opponent’s argument. Many discussions of such fallacies discuss judgments of relevance about such personal attacks, and consider how we might distinguish those that are relevant from those that are not. This paper will argue that the literature on bias and testimony can helpfully contribute to that analysis. This will highlight ways in which biases, particularly unconscious biases, can make ad hominem fallacies seem effective, even when the irrelevance is recognized.     

Executive and Attention Functioning Among Children in the PANDAS Subgroup

Evidence from past studies indicates that adults and children with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome (TS) experience subtle neuropsychological deficits. Less is known about neuropsychological functioning of children and adolescents with a symptom course consistent with the PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infection) subgroup of OCD and tics. To provide such information, we administered three tests of attention control and two of executive function to 67 children and adolescents (ages 5–16) diagnosed with OCD and/or tics and a symptom course consistent with the PANDAS subgroup and 98 healthy volunteers (HV) matched by age, sex, and IQ. In a paired comparison of the two groups, the PANDAS subjects were less accurate than HV in a test of response suppression. Further, in a two-step linear regression analysis of the PANDAS group in which clinical variables were added stepwise into the model and in the second step matching variables (age, sex, and IQ) were added, IQ emerged as a predictor of performance on this task. In the same analysis, ADHD diagnosis and age emerged as predictors of response time in a continuous performance task. Subdividing the PANDAS group by primary psychiatric diagnosis revealed that subjects with TS or OCD with tics exhibited a longer response time compared to controls than subjects with OCD only, replicating previous findings within TS and OCD. This study demonstrates that children with PANDAS exhibit neuropsychological profiles similar to those of their primary psychiatric diagnosis.     

Age Effects on Visual-Perceptual Processing and Confrontation Naming*

ABSTRACT

The impact of age-related changes in visual-perceptual processing on naming ability has not been reported. The present study investigated the effects of 6 levels of spatial frequency and 6 levels of contrast on accuracy and latency to name objects in 14 young and 13 older neurologically normal adults with intact lexical-semantic functioning. Spatial frequency and contrast manipulations were made independently. Consistent with the hypotheses, variations in these two visual parameters impact naming ability in young and older subjects differently. The results from the spatial frequency-manipulations revealed that, in general, young vs. older subjects are faster and more accurate to name. However, this age-related difference is dependent on the spatial frequency on the image; differences were only seen for images presented at low (e.g., 0.25–1 c/deg) or high (e.g., 8–16 c/deg) spatial frequencies. Contrary to predictions, the results from the contrast manipulations revealed that overall older vs. young adults are more accurate to name. Again, however, differences were only seen for images presented at the lower levels of contrast (i.e., 1.25%). Both age groups had shorter latencies on the second exposure of the contrast-manipulated images, but this possible advantage of exposure was not seen for spatial frequency. Category analyses conducted on the data from this study indicate that older vs. young adults exhibit a stronger nonliving-object advantage for naming spatial frequency-manipulated images. Moreover, the findings suggest that bottom-up visual-perceptual variables integrate with top-down category information in different ways. Potential implications on the aging and naming (and recognition) literature are discussed.     

Self-referencing enhances recollection in both young and older adults

Processing information in relation to the self enhances subsequent item recognition in both young and older adults and further enhances recollection at least in the young. Because older adults experience recollection memory deficits, it is unknown whether self-referencing improves recollection in older adults. We examined recollection benefits from self-referential encoding in older and younger adults and further examined the quality and quantity of episodic details facilitated by self-referencing. We further investigated the influence of valence on recollection, given prior findings of age group differences in emotional memory (i.e., “positivity effects”). Across the two experiments, young and older adults processed positive and negative adjectives either for self-relevance or for semantic meaning. We found that self-referencing, relative to semantic encoding, increased recollection memory in both age groups. In Experiment 1, both groups remembered proportionally more negative than positive items when adjectives were processed semantically; however, when adjectives were processed self-referentially, both groups exhibited evidence of better recollection for the positive items, inconsistent with a positivity effect in aging. In Experiment 2, both groups reported more episodic details associated with recollected items, as measured by a memory characteristic questionnaire, for the self-reference relative to the semantic condition. Overall, these data suggest that self-referencing leads to detail-rich memory representations reflected in higher rates of recollection across age.     

Diverse Phases of Collaboration: Working Together to Improve Community-Based HIV Interventions for Adolescents

Although alliances between community-based organizations (CBOs) and university-based evaluators provide opportunities to enhance community-based interventions, such partnerships may be fraught with challenges and obstacles. This paper focuses on the "story" behind a collaborative partnership between a Latino-focused CBO and a team of university-based evaluators that was formed to evaluate HIV prevention interventions for Mexican American female adolescents and gay/bisexual/questioning (GBQ) Latino male adolescents. A developmental trajectory of the partnership is detailed, with a focus on the creation and enhancement of a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship. In tracing this history, the paper explores challenges that were faced and presents ways in which the partnership attempted to overcome obstacles. Recommendations are offered to assist in the formation and maintenance of collaborative partnerships between CBOs and university-based evaluators/researchers.