Peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and high salivary cortisol predict poorer memory in children

The predictive relations of peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and salivary cortisol on memory in 168 children aged 12 at Time 1 (T1) were examined using a longitudinal design in which data were collected on four occasions over a 2-year period. Results indicated that: (1) peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and evening cortisol were stable over time, (2) peer victimization and elevated symptoms of depression were concurrently linked at each time, (3) T1 peer victimization predicted elevated symptoms of depression at T2 which in turn predicted lower cortisol levels at T3, and (4) controlling for earlier associations, T3 peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and higher morning and evening cortisol levels uniquely predicted memory deficits at T4. The links between elevated cortisol, symptoms of depression, and poor memory are consistent with published research on depressed adults and extend the findings to children exposed to peer victimization. These findings highlight that peer abuse is harmful and may impact children's long-term mental health and memory functioning.     

Metabolic costs of aggressive behaviour in the Siamese fighting fish,Betta splendens

Aggressive conflicts between males are often resolved by means of multiple ritualized agonistic displays without damaging escalation. Apparently, in such cases by using those displays opponents exchange important motivational and physical information on which they base a decision to stay or leave the interaction. In the Siamese fighting fish, the time spent spreading the dorsal fin and erecting the gill coverts predicts who will be the winner or loser of the interaction. Two experiments were carried out to study whether display performance might be costly. First, oxygen consumption was measured during mirror‐image stimulation. This experiment showed that oxygen consumption was positively correlated with gill cover erection and dorsal fin spread. In the second experiment, a fight between two opponents was simulated and the oxygen consumption of the expected winner and loser was compared. Metabolic rates were not different between winners and losers before and during the fight, but winners showed higher oxygen consumption in the night after the fight. These results are in accordance with costs of display performance and with long‐lasting physiological consequences of winning or losing a fight. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–7, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

NEO-FFI scores in college men and women: A view from McDonald’s unified treatment of test theory

There is a need for more detailed psychometric data in describing and evaluating the NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992), especially in samples of men and women enrolled in Introductory Psychology classes. This article meets that need and in so doing introduces to a new and wide audience procedures recently advocated by McDonald (1999) in his unified treatment of test theory. Results reveal a wide range of strengths and weaknesses in the NEO-FFI at both the item and sum-score levels, as well as sources of concordance and discordance between men and women at both levels.     

Protesting to challenge or defend the system? A system justification perspective on collective action

Social identity, shared grievances, and group efficacy beliefs are well-known antecedents to collective action, but existing research overlooks the fact that collective action often involves a confrontation between those who are motivated to defend the status quo and those who seek to challenge it. Using nationally representative data from New Zealand (Study 1; N = 16,147) and a large online sample from the United States (Study 2; N = 1,513), we address this oversight and demonstrate that system justification is negatively associated with system-challenging collective action, but positively associated with system-supporting collective action, for members of both low-status and high-status groups. Group identification, group-based injustice, group-based anger, and system-based dissatisfaction/anger mediated these relationships. These findings constitute the first empirical integration of system justification theory into a model of collective action that explains when people will act collectively to challenge—and, just as importantly, defend—the status quo.     

Antecedents and consequences of autonomy- and dependency-oriented help toward refugees

We tested antecedents (paternalistic beliefs; Study 1) and consequences (social change potential; Study 2) of autonomy- and dependency-oriented help and developed scales assessing paternalistic beliefs and both forms of help. In Study 1 (N = 143 Germans), we focused on paternalistic beliefs as an antagonist to social change and a key distinguishing variable between engagement in both forms of help. As expected, paternalistic beliefs were positively related to dependency-oriented help, mediated by concern for a positive national moral image, but negatively related to autonomy-oriented help, mediated by perceived competence of refugees. In Study 2, both refugees (N = 80) and Germans (N = 94) perceived autonomy-oriented help to have more potential for social change than dependency-oriented help.     

Strengthening and Expanding Child Services in Low Resource Communities: The Role of Task‐Shifting and Just‐in‐Time Training

In the United States, the demand for child mental health services is increasing, while the supply is limited by workforce shortages. These shortages are unlikely to be corrected without significant structural changes in how mental health services are provided. One strategy for bridging this gap is task‐shifting, defined as a process by which services that are typically delivered by professionals are moved to individuals with less extensive qualifications or training. Although task‐shifting can increase the size of the workforce, there are challenges related to training new workers. In this paper, we propose Just‐In‐Time Training (JITT) as one strategy for improving task‐shifting efforts. We define JITT as on‐demand training experiences that only include what is necessary, when it is necessary, to promote competent service delivery. We offer a proof of concept from our own work shifting counseling and academic support tasks from school mental health professionals to pre‐baccalaureate mentors, citing lessons learned during our iterative process of JITT development. We conclude with a series of key considerations for scaling up the pairing of task‐shifting and JITT, including expanding the science of JITT and anticipating how task‐shifting and JITT would work within the context of dynamic mental health service systems.     

Parceling Cannot Reduce Factor Indeterminacy in Factor Analysis: A Research Note

Parceling—using composites of observed variables as indicators for a common factor—strengthens loadings, but reduces the number of indicators. Factor indeterminacy is reduced when there are many observed variables per factor, and when loadings and factor correlations are strong. It is proven that parceling cannot reduce factor indeterminacy. In special cases where the ratio of loading to residual variance is the same for all items included in each parcel, factor indeterminacy is unaffected by parceling. Otherwise, parceling worsens factor indeterminacy. While factor indeterminacy does not affect the parameter estimates, standard errors, or fit indices associated with a factor model, it does create uncertainty, which endangers valid inference.

     

Volatile visual representations: failing to detect changes in recently processed information

Research documenting people’s inability to detect large changes in visual scenes suggests that visual representations may be sparse and volatile, providing no cumulative record of the attended items in a scene. However, these studies have failed to control for attention. Thus, the visual system may construct a cumulative record of all attended stimuli and still miss such changes, because they involve items that were never attended to. In two experiments, subjects saw 12-digit arrays and identified either the highest digit in the array (Experiment 1) or the lowest digit not in the array (Experiment 2). Subsequent change-detection tasks revealed that subjects often failed to detect changes that involved the same digits they had previously identified to perform the digit tasks successfully. This provides additional evidence that our usable visual representations are relatively impoverished and volatile.