Prenatal Maternal Distress: A Risk Factor for Child Anxiety?

The deleterious association between various types of prenatal maternal psychological distress (PNMS, anxiety, depression, psychological distress, stress) and childhood anxiety symptomatology (internalizing behaviors, anxiety symptoms) has been established using both retrospective and prospective longitudinal studies across varied demographic cohorts and throughout development. Yet, the existing literature cannot claim maternal distress during pregnancy to be a specific risk factor for anxiety symptomatology, as studies utilizing such observational designs are unable to adequately account for confounding of potential genetic factors and the postnatal environment. In this review, we examine studies that attempt to minimize such confounding and thus disentangle the unique intrauterine exposure effect of varying types of PNMS on childhood anxiety symptomatology. Such methodologies include paternal versus maternal comparison studies, sibling comparisons, prenatal cross-fostering designs and timing of exposure studies (including disaster studies). Of the identified studies, findings indicate that prenatal maternal distress is likely to constitute a risk factor for anxiety symptomatology, although more studies are needed to replicate current findings in order to determine whether there are clear differences in effects across specific types of PNMS and for specific subpopulations. We review the methodological limitations and strengths of the literature prior to exploring avenues of future research and implications for theory and clinical practice.     

I became adult when … Pathways of identity resolution and adulthood transition in Italian freshmen’s narratives

Defining and consolidating identity in order to acquire fulfilling adult roles may be more difficult than in the past for a significant proportion of youth cohorts, especially for youth in ‘post-industrial’ countries. This study was focused on the intersection between processes and contents of both identity and adulthood through the narrative approach in the Italian context. Participants were 105 Italian freshmen aged 18–21, attending the first year university. We adopted a narrative approach based on autobiographical memories. Findings confirm the relationship between identity resolution processes and adulthood reaching in Italian freshmen and they identify five student’s profiles (Resolved or closed keepers, Travelers, Uninvolved, On the way, Big babies). Suggestions for future research and limitations are discussed.     

An Evolving Gang Model in Contemporary Scotland

Young street gangs (YSGs) in Scotland are considered recreational youth outfits bound up in issues of territoriality and protest masculinities. While YSGs occasionally engage in territorial violence, they are nonetheless viewed as distinct entities from organized crime (OC). However, following qualitative interviews (n = 35) with offenders involved in OC, namely illegal drug supply, the author concludes otherwise and presents evidence which suggests that YSGs retain evolving capabilities. The author presents an evolving gang model in which the key sequential stages are outlined as recreational, criminal, and syndicate and argue that, aided by globalization, gang organization has become a means for gang business.     

Effect of temporal constraints on hemispheric asymmetries during spatial frequency processing

Studies on functional hemispheric asymmetries have suggested that the right vs. left hemisphere should be predominantly involved in low vs. high spatial frequency (SF) analysis, respectively. By manipulating exposure duration of filtered natural scene images, we examined whether the temporal characteristics of SF analysis (i.e., the temporal precedence of low on high spatial frequencies) may interfere with hemispheric specialization. Results showed the classical hemispheric specialization pattern for brief exposure duration and a trend to a right hemisphere advantage irrespective of the SF content for longer exposure duration. The present study suggests that the hemispheric specialization pattern for visual information processing should be considered as a dynamic system, wherein the superiority of one hemisphere over the other could change according to the level of temporal constraints: the higher the temporal constraints of the task, the more the hemispheres are specialized in SF processing.     

Hemispheric predominance assessment of phonology and semantics: a divided visual field experiment

The aim of the present behavioural experiment was to evaluate the most lateralized among two phonological (phoneme vs. rhyme detection) and the most lateralized among two semantic ("living" vs. "edible" categorization) tasks, within the dominant hemisphere for language. The reason of addressing this question was a practical one: to evaluate the degree of the hemispheric lateralization for several language tasks, by using the divided visual presentation of stimuli, and then choose the most lateralized semantic and phonological for mapping language in patients by using fMRI in future studies. During the divided visual field experiment by using words (semantic tasks) and pseudo-words (phonological tasks) as stimuli, thirty-nine right-handed participants were examined. Our results have shown that all tasks were significantly left hemisphere lateralized. Furthermore, the rhyme was significantly more lateralized than phoneme detection and "living" was significantly more lateralized than "edible" categorization. The rhyme decision and "living" categorization will be used in future fMRI studies for assessing hemispheric predominance and cerebral substrate for semantics and phonology in patients. Our results also suggest that the characteristics of stimuli could influence the degree of the hemispheric lateralization (i.e., the emotional charge of stimuli for words and the position of the phoneme to be detected, for pseudo-words).     

Categorization by schema relations and perceptual similarity in 5-year-olds and adults: A study in vision and in audition

This research explores the way in which young children (5 years of age) and adults use perceptual and conceptual cues for categorizing objects processed by vision or by audition. Three experiments were carried out using forced-choice categorization tasks that allowed responses based on taxonomic relations (e.g., vehicles) or on schema category relations (e.g., vehicles that can be seen on the road). In Experiment 1 (visual modality), prominent responses based on conceptually close objects (e.g., objects included in a schema category) were observed. These responses were also favored when within-category objects were perceptually similar. In Experiment 2 (auditory modality), schema category responses depended on age and were influenced by both within- and between-category perceptual similarity relations. Experiment 3 examined whether these results could be explained in terms of sensory modality specializations or rather in terms of information processing constraints (sequential vs. simultaneous processing).     

Dynamic categorization and slot-filler representation in 4- and 6-year-old children

This experiment was aimed at studying both the role of narrow/contextualized categories in the acquisition/organization of conceptual knowledge and the dynamics of categorization decisions. A forced-choice categorization task contrasting thematic and taxonomic responding was used in 4- and 6-year-old children. Before response alternatives were presented, a conceptual organization was pre-activated by means of a matching between the target stimulus and a thematically related, taxonomically related or slot-filler related object. Although taxonomic sorting was prominent overall, it varied as a function of age and of the nature of the pre-activated relation. Responses in accordance with the thematic or taxonomic activations occurred similarly in 4- and 6-year-old children. Age-related effects were however at work in the case of a slot-filler activation: 4-year-old children considered the contextual/contiguity relations between the stimuli but did not weight the equivalence relations (i.e., same occurrence of responses based on the kind of object in the slot-filler and in the thematic activation conditions). More diversified processes appeared to be at work in 6-year-old children. Slot-filler categories were this time considered throughout both their contextual/contiguity structure and their equivalence relations. Results were discussed in terms of availability of conceptual organizations, flexibility abilities, dynamic categorization and preferences. The focus was on implication of slot-filler representations in the construction of conceptual knowledge and in the development of categorization. An important point was to determine whether the age-related changes observed in the slot-filler activation condition could be consistent with Nelson's ( 1983 ) idea that slot-fillers would help passing from a schema-based to a conventional superordinate organization.     

Children dating childhood memories

How accurate are children when dating very long-term memories? Chinese and European Canadian 8-, 11-, and 14-year-olds (N=344) recalled and dated memories from before they went to school in a memory fluency task. Parents provided verification of children's memories and age estimates. Across all age and culture groups, a telescoping effect (i.e., events were dated as taking place more recently than they actually did) was found for earlier memories (before 48 months) and a reverse telescoping effect for later memories (after 48 months). Older children showed a greater tendency to telescope earlier memories and a weaker tendency to reverse telescope later memories than did younger children. Euro-Canadian children showed larger reverse telescoping than Chinese children. These are the first systematic findings concerning the accuracy of children's dating of very long-term memories. They shed new light on the phenomenon of telescoping and have implications for research on childhood amnesia.