Promoting Social Nurturance and Positive Social Environments to Reduce Obesity in High-Risk Youth

Nurturing environments within the context of families, schools, and communities all play an important role in enhancing youth’s behavioral choices and health outcomes. The increasing prevalence rates of obesity among youth, especially among low income and ethnic minorities, highlight the need to develop effective and innovative intervention approaches that promote positive supportive environments across different contexts for at-risk youth. We propose that the integration of Social Cognitive Theory, Family Systems Theory, and Self-Determination Theory offers a useful framework for understanding how individual, family, and social-environmental-level factors contribute to the development of nurturing environments. In this paper, we summarize evidence-based randomized controlled trials that integrate positive parenting, motivational, and behavioral skills strategies in different contexts, including primary care, home, community, and school-based settings. Taken together, these studies suggest that youth and parents are most likely to benefit when youth receive individual-level behavioral skills, family-level support and communication, and autonomous motivational support from the broader social environment. Future investigators and healthcare providers should consider integrating these evidence-based approaches that support the effects of positive social climate-based interventions on promoting healthy eating, physical activity, and weight management in youth.     

The Wiseman and the Sage:Metaphysics as Wisdom in Aristotle and the Neo-Confucian School of Principle

Among scholars of classical philosophy in the West, it is not uncommon to hesitate about the existence of metaphysics in non-Western philosophical traditions. At times, the dilemma seems due to culture-specific ideas or standards about what metaphysics is or how it should be done. Other times the problem seems to lie in a general lack of awareness about the methods and approaches of divergent philosophical traditions. This article explores an often ignored Aristotelian notion of metaphysics: That it is wisdom. If we acknowledge wisdom to be a common value or ideal found in different cultures, then characterizing metaphysics as wisdom promises to be more inclusive than prevalent ideas about it, being broad enough to allow for the appreciation of metaphysical insights and achievements in non-Western schools. I first examine Aristotle’s account of what wisdom consists of. I shall then test the inclusivity of this conception of metaphysics by showing how its characteristic features are manifest in the Neo-Confucian ideal of sagely learning.     

Referrers' Perceived Utility and Outcomes of Clinical Neuropsychological Assessment in an Adolescent and Young Adult Public Mental Health Service

Despite frequent informal or anecdotal acknowledgement of the usefulness of neuropsychological services within various settings, including mental health settings, few studies have formally investigated the satisfaction, perceived utility, or outcomes associated with such a service. This survey‐based study evaluated referring clinicians’ (n = 35) perceptions of the usefulness and outcomes associated with the provision of clinical neuropsychological assessment and feedback within an adolescent and young adult public mental health service in Melbourne, Australia. The results suggest that referrers perceive the neuropsychological service, including formal neuropsychological assessment report and verbal and written feedbacks, as a highly useful adjunct to their clinical practice. In addition, referrers frequently reported clinically meaningful outcomes in association with the neuropsychological service, including diagnostic changes or additions (11% of clients referred), changes to approaches in treatment (52% of clients referred), and increased or appropriate access to services, education, or work (33% of clients referred). Referrers also reported that almost 60% of neuropsychological assessment reports were forwarded to other services or clinicians involved in the client's care. The findings suggest that mental health settings are likely to benefit from routine inclusion of specialist neuropsychology services. However, future research should also examine client and family perceptions regarding the satisfaction and usefulness of neuropsychological services.     

A comparison of two‐stage procedures for testing least‐squares coefficients under heteroscedasticity

This study explores the performance of several two‐stage procedures for testing ordinary least‐squares (OLS) coefficients under heteroscedasticity. A test of the usual homoscedasticity assumption is carried out in the first stage of the procedure. Subsequently, a test of the regression coefficients is chosen and performed in the second stage. Three recently developed methods for detecting heteroscedasticity are examined. In addition, three heteroscedastic robust tests of OLS coefficients are considered. A major finding is that performing a test of heteroscedasticity prior to applying a heteroscedastic robust test can lead to poor control over Type I errors.     

Stability and change in adolescent spirituality/religiosity: a person-centered approach

Although there has been a substantial increase over the past decade in studies that have examined the psychosocial correlates of spirituality/religiosity in adolescence, very little is known about spirituality/religiosity as a domain of development in its own right. To address this limitation, the authors identified configurations of multiple dimensions of spirituality/religiosity across 2 time points with an empirical classification procedure (cluster analysis) and assessed development in these configurations at the sample and individual level. Participants included 756 predominately Canadian-born adolescents (53% female, 47% male) from southern Ontario, Canada, who completed a survey in Grade 11 (M age = 16.41 years) and Grade 12 (M age = 17.36 years). Measures included religious activity involvement, enjoyment of religious activities, the Spiritual Transcendence Index, wondering about spiritual issues, frequency of prayer, and frequency of meditation. Sample-level development (structural stability and change) was assessed by examining whether the structural configurations of the clusters were consistent over time. Individual-level development was assessed by examining intraindividual stability and change in cluster membership over time. Results revealed that a five cluster-solution was optimal at both grades. Clusters were identified as aspiritual/irreligious, disconnected wonderers, high institutional and personal, primarily personal, and meditators. With the exception of the high institutional and personal cluster, the cluster structures were stable over time. There also was significant intraindividual stability in all clusters over time; however, a significant proportion of individuals classified as high institutional and personal in Grade 11 moved into the primarily personal cluster in Grade 12.     

The 'secret cocoon': fantasies about the private self in the absence of consensual reality

Clinical material is presented from an analysand whose defense of withdrawal to 'a private internal space' was mobilized when she became confused, within her relationships and within the transference, about whose understanding of a shared event was 'real.' Analysis of the defense as resistance revealed a disrupted sense of connection to others and to the analyst in the face of the difficulty in determining a consensual reality. This was accompanied by emotional withdrawal, with a complex fantasy of retreat to a protective inner hiding place, or cocoon. The phenomenology and functions of such withdrawals, the fantasies accompanying them, and the ways in which they changed during the analysis are discussed in this paper. For the patient described, the analysis of her shifting 'cocoon' states and of the fantasies connected with them eventually enabled her to access her creative 'private self' more freely and with less conflict.     

Associations of coping and appraisal styles with emotion regulation during preadolescence

We investigated the associations of appraisal and coping styles with emotion regulation in a community sample of preadolescents (N = 196, 9-12 years of age), with appraisal, coping styles, and emotion regulation measured at a single time point. In a previous study, we identified five frustration and four anxiety emotion regulation profiles based on children’s physiological, behavioral, and self-reported reactions to emotion-eliciting tasks. In this study, preadolescents’ self-reported appraisal and coping styles were associated with those emotion regulation profiles. Overall, findings revealed that children who were more effective at regulating their emotions during the emotion-eliciting tasks had higher levels of positive appraisal and active coping when dealing with their own problems. Conversely, children who regulated their emotions less effectively had higher levels of threat appraisal and avoidant coping.     

Damned if she does,damned if she doesn't: Consequences of accepting versus confronting patronizing help for the female target and male actor

Three studies examined how a woman's reaction to a man's benevolently sexist offer of help affected observers' perceptions. Results suggest a dilemma for women: A woman who accepted benevolently sexist help was perceived as warm but incompetent and less suited for a competence‐related job (management consultant), whereas a woman who declined help and asserted her independence as a woman was perceived as competent but cold and less suited for a warmth‐related job (day care worker). By contrast, observers viewed the male help‐offerer especially favorably (warmer, more competent, and more qualified as a management consultant) when the female target accepted (versus confronted) his patronizing offer. But only perceivers who endorsed benevolent sexism showed these effects. Implications for challenging benevolent sexism are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perception of emotional expression in musical performance

Expression in musical performance is largely communicated by the manner in which a piece is played; interpretive aspects that supplement the written score. In piano performance, timing and amplitude are the principal parameters the performer can vary. We examined the way in which such variation serves to communicate emotion by manipulating timing and amplitude in performances of classical piano pieces. Over three experiments, listeners rated the emotional expressivity of performances and their manipulated versions. In Experiments 1 and 2, timing and amplitude information were covaried; judgments were monotonically decreasing with performance variability, demonstrating that the rank ordering of acoustical manipulations was captured by participants' responses. Further, participants' judgments formed an S-shaped (sigmoidal) function in which greater sensitivity was seen for musical manipulations in the middle of the range than at the extremes. In Experiment 3, timing and amplitude were manipulated independently; timing variation was found to provide more expressive information than did amplitude. Across all three experiments, listeners demonstrated sensitivity to the expressive cues we manipulated, with sensitivity increasing as a function of musical experience.