Child,Parenting, and Situational Characteristics Associated with Toddlers' Prosocial Behaviour

The infant and toddler years are crucial for the development of prosocial behaviour, such as helping, sharing, comforting and cooperation. Recent evidence suggests that the correlates of different types of prosocial behaviour may differ. The current study investigated whether child, maternal parenting and situational characteristics were differentially associated with toddlers' cooperation and concern with a peer. The sample, drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, included the 612 children who participated in the 36‐month dyadic play session and their mothers. The results indicated that girls were more cooperative and expressed more concern than boys. Greater sustained attention to toys was associated with lower cooperation. Children were more cooperative with peers who engaged in more positive social interaction, and expressed more concern with peers that they had a close relationship with. Maternal sensitivity at 24 months was associated with greater cooperation when the peer engaged in more positive social behaviour. Finally, both maternal sensitivity and cognitive stimulation at 15 months indirectly influenced toddlers' cooperation through maternal sensitivity at 24 months, underscoring the predictive power of early parenting when children are rapidly developing the capacity to engage in prosocial behaviour. Overall, the results highlight some differences in the correlates of toddlers' cooperation and concern. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a self-theory and measurement scale.

In this study, we examined a theoretical model of self-development and a scale to measure 12 aspects of the self. The theory, called developmental self-theory, proposes a hierarchical arrangement of dimensions of the self. The 12 scales are collectively called the Omnibus Self-Test and measure Self-Esteem, Positive Self-Regard, Moral Self-Concept, Self-Confidence, Self-Reliance, Self-Control, Selfishness, Self-Disclosure, Self-as-Agent, Self-Critical, Self-Identity, and Self-Reflection. Preliminary data on the reliability and validity of the Omnibus Self-Test is reported along with intercorrelations among the scales.     

The level-of-focal-attention hypothesis in oral reading: influence of strategies on the context specificity of lexical repetition effects.

Two experiments examined the influence of level of focal attention--text or lexical--on benefits from lexical repetition in speeded oral reading of coherent texts and random word lists. Experiment 1 showed that with coherent targets, direction of attention to the text level resulted in benefit only from a previous reading of the same coherent paragraph. However, when attention was directed to the lexical level, equal benefit resulted from a previous reading of either the same coherent paragraph or a scrambled version of the paragraph. Experiment 2 showed that level of focal attention did not influence benefit with scrambled targets. Thus, the linguistic structure of the target is important to repetition benefits and their modulation by attentional strategies.     

Suicide Attempts in Preadolescent Child Psychiatry Inpatients

This paper describes a preliminary study examining the relative power of measures of perceived family support, hopelessness, and depression for the classification of suicide attempters and nonattempters in a series of 8- to 13-year-old psychiatric inpatients. Results of a stepwise discriminant-function analysis indicated that a measure of a child's perceived family support discriminated between suicide attempters and nonattempters with an 88% accuracy rate. The addition of measures of hopelessness and depression at later steps did not lead to improved classification. The results are interpreted as providing strong support for a link between suicide attempts in children and perceptions of low family support.     

Trauma‐Related Guilt Mediates the Relationship between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Suicidal Ideation in OEF/OIF/OND Veterans

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma‐related guilt are risk factors for suicidal ideation (SI) in veterans. Components of trauma‐related guilt were examined as serial mediators of the relationship between PTSD and SI. In a sample of 53 OEF/OIF/OND combat veterans, PTSD had an indirect effect on SI through a serial mediation chain of guilt cognitions, distress, and global guilt, suggesting that trauma‐related guilt via cognitions, distress, and global guilt is a pathway from PTSD to SI. Attention should be given to assessing and addressing trauma‐related guilt in veterans experiencing PTSD to prevent SI.     

Reactive and proactive aggression: stability of constructs and relations to correlates

The authors examined short-term temporal stability of reactive and proactive aggression, as well as short-term consistency of differential relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to 4 correlates. The authors used parent, teacher, peer, and self-report measures twice across 1 year to assess reactive aggression, proactive aggression, hyperactivity, social skills, anger expression, and depressive symptoms of 2nd-grade boys and girls (N = 57). Both subtypes of aggression remained stable across the year, even when the other subtype of aggression was explained at each assessment. Reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was consistently positively related to hyperactivity, poor social skills, and anger expression at each assessment.     

The development of executive functioning and theory of mind. A comparison of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers

Preschoolers' theory-of-mind development follows a similar age trajectory across many cultures. To determine whether these similarities are related to similar underlying ontogenetic processes, we examined whether the relation between theory of mind and executive function commonly found among U.S. preschoolers is also present among Chinese preschoolers. Preschoolers from Beijing, China (N= 109), were administered theory-of-mind and executive-functioning tasks, and their performance was compared with that of a previously studied sample of U.S. preschoolers (N= 107). The Chinese preschoolers outperformed their U.S. counterparts on all measures of executive functioning, but were not similarly advanced in theory-of-mind reasoning. Nonetheless, individual differences in executive functioning predicted theory of mind for children in both cultures. Thus, the relation between executive functioning and theory of mind is robust across two disparate cultures. These findings shed light on why executive functioning is important for theory-of-mind development.     

Anxiety symptomatology: the association with distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity

Research focused on psychological risk factors for anxiety psychopathology has led to better conceptualization of these conditions as well as pointed toward preventative interventions. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been well-established as an anxiety risk factor, while distress tolerance (DT) is a related construct that has received little empirical exploration within the anxiety psychopathology literature. The current investigation sought to extend the existing literature by examining both DT and the relationship between DT and AS across a number of anxiety symptom dimensions, including panic, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive anxiety. Participants (N = 418) completed a number of measures that assessed DT, AS, anxiety symptomatology, and negative affect. Findings indicated that DT was uniquely associated with panic, obsessive compulsive, general worry, and social anxiety symptoms, but that DT and AS were not synergistically associated with each of these symptom dimensions. These findings indicate that an inability to tolerate emotional distress is associated with an increased vulnerability to experience certain anxiety symptoms.