Does stress-related growth involve constructive changes in coping intentions?

The theorized link between stress-related growth (SRG) and enhanced coping intentions was examined in 91 young adults. Participants reported their most stressful event in the past year, how they coped with it, their perceived SRG from this event, and how they would intend to cope should this same event happen again. In general, SRG was unrelated to intended changes in coping. Participants then read three vignettes describing stressful events. For each, they imagined that it was currently occurring and reported their coping plans. Whereas SRG was positively related to some adaptive coping plans, it was also related to several maladaptive strategies, inconsistent with coping enhancement. Overall, findings suggest that SRG might represent retrospective positive reappraisals vs. growth, as has been shown for the related construct of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Implications for the validity of SRG and directions for future research are discussed.     

Withdrawal Versus Reversal: A Necessary Distinction?

In the behavior analysis literature, the terms withdrawal and reversal are widely used to refer to various iterations of the basic A‐B‐A or A‐B‐A‐B experimental design structure. Although these terms were initially used to label two distinct but closely related experimental designs, it now appears that many researchers have come to use these terms interchangeably. A review of major behavior analytic journals published between 2009 and 2013 reveals a strong preference among researchers for use of the term reversal in labeling the design described in the publication, whether or not that design is characterized by the specific features initially associated with the reversal design. This paper describes the origin of this definitional distinction and reviews the case for abolishing that distinction. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Liberalization of Young Evangelicals: A Research Note

Media outlets and observers of American religion suggest that young evangelicals are retreating from the ranks of the “Christian right” and are embracing more liberal positions on controversial social issues. We test this hypothesis using the Baylor Religion Survey. We examine two separate measures of evangelical identity as well as a wide variety of political identifications and attitudes. Our study indicates that young evangelicals (1) are significantly more likely than older evangelicals to think that more should be done to protect the environment; (2) hold views similar to older evangelicals regarding abortion, same‐sex marriage, stem cell research, marijuana use, government welfare spending, spending on the nation's health, and the war in Iraq; and (3) remain significantly more conservative than nonevangelicals on these same social issues. We find no strong evidence to support the notion that young evangelicals are retreating from traditional positions or increasingly adopting more liberal positions on hot‐button or controversial social issues.     

Longitudinal Effects of Latino Parent Cultural Stress,Depressive Symptoms,and Family Functioning on Youth Emotional Well‐Being and Health Risk Behaviors

U.S. Latino parents can face cultural stressors in the form of acculturative stress, perceived discrimination, and a negative context of reception. It stands to reason that these cultural stressors may negatively impact Latino youth's emotional well‐being and health risk behaviors by increasing parents' depressive symptoms and compromising the overall functioning of the family. To test this possibility, we analyzed data from a six‐wave longitudinal study with 302 recently immigrated (<5 years in the United States) Latino parents (74% mothers, M_age = 41.09 years) and their adolescent children (47% female, M_age = 14.51 years). Results of a cross‐lagged analysis indicated that parent cultural stress predicted greater parent depressive symptoms (and not vice versa). Both parent cultural stress and depressive symptoms, in turn, predicted lower parent‐reported family functioning, which mediated the links from parent cultural stress and depressive symptoms to youth alcohol and cigarette use. Parent cultural stress also predicted lower youth‐reported family functioning, which mediated the link from parent cultural stress to youth self‐esteem. Finally, mediation analyses indicated that parent cultural stress predicted youth alcohol use by a way of parent depressive symptoms and parent‐reported family functioning. Our findings point to parent depressive symptoms and family functioning as key mediators in the links from parent cultural stress to youth emotional well‐being and health risk behaviors. We discuss implications for research and preventive interventions.     

A context-specific latent inhibition effect in a human conditioned suppression task

Three studies used a computer video game preparation to demonstrate latent inhibition in adult humans. In all studies participants fired torpedoes at a target spaceship by clicking the mouse. Conditioned stimuli (CSs) were presented in the form of coloured “sensors” at the bottom of the screen. Conditioning was conducted by pairing a sensor with an attack from the target spaceship. Participants learned to suppress their rate of mouse clicking in preparation for an attack. In Experiment 1 a total of 10 preexposures to the sensor CS, prior to conditioning, retarded acquisition of suppression. In Experiment 2 the effect of preexposure was shown to be context specific. Experiment 3 showed little generalization of the preexposure effect from one sensor CS to another. Experiment 3 also showed that preexposure did not make the sensor CS inhibitory. Comparisons with conditioned suppression procedures with animals and negative-priming procedures are briefly discussed.     

The effects of varying levels of treatment integrity on child compliance during treatment with a three-step prompting procedure

The effects of three levels of treatment integrity (100%, 50%, and 0%) on child compliance were evaluated in the context of the implementation of a three-step prompting procedure. Two typically developing preschool children participated in the study. After baseline data on compliance to one of three common demands were collected, a therapist implemented the three-step prompting procedure at three different integrity levels. One integrity level was associated with each demand. The effects of the integrity levels were examined using multielement designs. The results indicate that compliance varied according to the level of treatment integrity that was in place.     

Explaining the Relationship between Religiosity and Political Participation: The Mediating Roles of Transcendent Accountability and Religiopolitical Awareness

Prior research tends to find a positive relationship between religiosity and political participation. Explanations of this relationship have focused mostly on religiosity-generated organizational resources (e.g., civic skills), while paying less attention to psychological resources. We simultaneously examined different aspects of religiosity (belief, behavior, and belonging) and political participation (electoral and nonelectoral) in a structural equation model with two psychological resources as mediators: (1) “transcendent accountability”—seeing oneself as responsible to God or a higher power for one's impact on other people and the environment, and (2) “religiopolitical awareness”—perceiving the influence of one's religion and/or spirituality on one's political views and activities. Results from analyzing survey data from a US representative sample showed that transcendent accountability and religiopolitical awareness, whether together or awareness only, mediated positive relationships between religiosity (belief, private and public behaviors, and membership) and political participation (voting and other political activity), highlighting key psychological motivators of political participation.