Religious Affiliation and Attitudes Towards Gay Men: On the Mediating Role of Masculinity Threat

Previous research suggests that people from some religious backgrounds hold more negative attitudes towards gay men than others do. The current research focuses on psychological variables as an alternative explanation to religious affiliation, testing whether masculinity beliefs regarding gay men and their perceived threat to one's masculinity can explain such between‐group differences in negative attitudes. With a sample of 155 male heterosexual university students (Muslims and Christians in Germany), we found that Muslims held more negative attitudes towards gay men than Christians did. Yet, this relation was partially mediated by beliefs about the masculinity of gay men and the experience of masculinity threat imposed by gay men, substantially reducing the effect of religious affiliation on antigay attitudes. In sum, similar psychological processes explained antigay attitudes of both Muslims and Christians. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal Expectancy Versus Objective Measures of Child Skill: Evidence for Absence of Positive Bias in Mothers’ Expectations of Children with Internalizing Disorders

Parents of anxious children are thought to be more attuned to threat, which might translate into less positive bias in parental report of child coping and ability, unlike parents of non-anxious children. Maternal expectancy bias was examined in a sample of 43 clinically anxious (51 % female), 30 clinically anxious/depressed (50 % female), and 44 non-clinical control children (46 % female), 8–14 years of age. When compared to an objective observer’s ratings of the children, mothers of non-clinical children demonstrated a positive bias (i.e., over-rated their children’s performance) for both ratings of expected speech performance in absolute terms and relative to peers. Mothers in the clinical groups did not exhibit this positive expectancy bias. Moreover, mothers of clinical children reported lower expectations in absolute terms and relative to peers than mothers of non-clinical children. The data suggest that mothers of clinical children held accurate expectations for child performance when compared to the gold standard of an objective observer.     

Multilevel and Cross-Level Effects of Neighborhood and Family Influences on Children’s Behavioral Outcomes in Trinidad and Tobago: The Intervening Role of Parental Control

The objective of this investigation was to examine the associations among neighborhood conditions, neighborhood collective efficacy, family economic disadvantage, parental control behaviors, and children’s behavioral outcomes using multilevel and cross-level analyses. The proposed conceptual model incorporated propositions advanced by social disorganization theory, the structural-process model, as well as the Family Stress Model. Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of 1,337 families with children between 3 and 6 years (668 boys) drawn from 45 communities in Trinidad and Tobago. Neighborhood level indicators were assessed using census as well as parent reports whereas individual level constructs were assessed using parent reports. Findings indicated support for the Family Stress Model in that harsh punishment and parental monitoring functioned as mediators of the relationship between family economic disadvantage and behavioral difficulties (parental monitoring for prosocial behaviors). Findings from the multilevel analyses indicated that the relationship between neighborhood infrastructure deprivation and children’s behavioral difficulties and prosocial behaviors was mediated through neighborhood collective efficacy and parental harsh punishment. Cross-level interactions indicated that neighborhood collective efficacy buffered the relationship between parental discipline, monitoring, harsh discipline and behavioral difficulties. Given the importance of communities and families in influencing children’s behavioral outcomes, due consideration must be given to utilizing multilevel and cross-level perspectives both in research as well as in the development of intervention programs. Policies and programs designed to improve neighborhoods conditions, promote neighborhood collective efficacy, and advance the socioeconomic opportunities for families can help enhance the well-being of children.     

Bootstrapping Processes in the Development of Students' Commonsense Matter Theories: Using Analogical Mappings,Thought Experiments,and Learning to Measure to Promote Conceptual Restructuring

This study explores whether the development of students' understanding of matter as something that occupies space and has weight involves conceptual change and restructuring rather than only simple belief revision. Based on an analysis of how the concepts in students' initial matter theory (henceforth MT1) may differ from the concepts in the matter theory that is a target of middle school instruction (MT2), I propose ways that concepts in a given theory cohere with each other and identify the sources of the new ideas in MT2 and the learning processes by which those new ideas can be acquired. I test implications of these analyses by designing a curriculum unit that exploits these learning mechanisms, by using the curriculum with 4 classes of eighth-grade Earth Science students, and by assessing 42 students' thinking about matter, object size, and weight (via individual interviews and written tests) before and after the teaching unit. Consistent with the hypothesis of conceptual restructuring, the data not only show coherencies in students' thinking about matter, size, and weight before and after teaching, but also coordinated patterns of change. The implications for the design of science instruction are discussed.     

Parity and disparity among three measures of fear of crime: A research note

Research on fear of crime often concerns problems associated with measuring fear of crime. Most of the literature in this area critiques “global measures,” which are the most commonly used, and suggests movement to more specific measures of fear of crime. Although much has been said about the use of alternative measures of fear, seldom has research provided comparative analyses of the alternative measures. Using a conceptual model based on previous research, the present study illustrates the differences among findings using three measures of fear of crime: global fear, fear of property crime, and fear of violent crime. This is achieved by employing each of the three measures of fear as the dependent variable in identical models. Comparing the results, the parity and disparity of these measures are demonstrated. The results suggest that conflicting findings from previous research may be a consequence of the types of measures used in the analyses. Thus, it is theoretically important to understand what dimensions of fear are being measured by our operational procedures.     

Therapy with law enforcement couples: Clinical management of the “high-risk lifestyle”

Abstract

A great deal of attention has been given to the issue of stress in law enforcement and its impact on individual officers. However, the literature has not equally addressed the effects of police work on officers' relationships. This paper reviews three primary ways in which law enforcement can affect relationships (organizational influences, peer/socialization influences, and police role influences). It identifies some common difficulties encountered by these couples, and provides some basic goals and strategies for engaging them in treatment and addressing these issues in couples therapy.     

Parents and divorce: Identifying the support network for decisions about custody

Abstract

The social support network of divorcing parents has been identified as an important factor in postdivorce adjustment. The present study examined the social resources accessed by parents regarding issues of custody and visitation. Parents' evaluation of and interest in participating in four types of custody-related interventions (workshops, mediation, professional evaluation, and arbitration) were also examined. The findings and their implications for clinical practice suggest some major shifts in the provision of services for divorcing families.     

Mortality Salience and Perceptions of People with AIDS: Understanding the Role of Prejudice

Study 1 examined the perceived association of AIDS and death by showing that thinking about AIDS increased participants'; death-thought accessibility. Hypotheses about the consequences of this association for perceptions of people with AIDS were derived from terror management theory, which proposes that mortality salience increases derogation of those who threaten people's worldviews unless those worldviews oppose prejudice, in which case mortality salience can increase acceptance of people who are otherwise threatening. Consistent with these hypotheses, conservative participants had less favorable impressions (Study 2) and liberal participants had more favorable impressions (Study 3) of a target with AIDS following a death reminder. Study 4 suggested that the decrease in prejudice among liberals following mortality salience was a genuine decrease in prejudice (as indicated by responses to an unobtrusive attitude measure), not just an increase in the desire to appear nonprejudiced. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Procedural Text Structure and Reader Perceptions and Performance

This research tested the relationship between text structural variables (on vs. off the causal chain, active vs. static information, and hierarchical structure) and reader perceptions, reading time, and true-false performance for procedural texts. Twenty-four college-age participants each read 3 procedural texts. As predicted, sentences that were (a) on the causal chain, (b) active, and (c) associated with task steps were read more slowly and judged to be more important (p < .05). The results were similar to those previously found with narratives, except for the hierarchical structure variable. Also as predicted, text differences were found such that as the variation in the type of information contained in the text increased, relationships with the structural variables increased.