Cognitive Social Maturity, Life Change Events, and Health Risk Behaviors among Adolescents: Development of a Structural Equation Model

Purpose: To examine the roles of cognitive social maturity and life change events in a structural equation model (SEM) to explain adolescents' use of marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol. Methods: Data were derived from 1322 9th and 10th graders in a HIV prevention study. Students completed a survey of their cognitive social maturity, recent life events and substance use habits. A model from a study on the metabolic control of adolescents with diabetes was modified to apply to health risk behaviors. Results: A SEM was tested and fit the data well. Lower cognitive social maturity and greater life change events significantly predicted health risk behaviors. Life events partially mediated the relationship between cognitive social maturity and health risk behaviors. Conclusions: Adolescents' social thought processes are related to their recent life events, which in turn are related to their substance use behaviors. Suggestions are made for interventions to improve adolescents' cognitive social maturity.     

Altered lateralization of dorsal language tracts in 6‐week‐old infants at risk for autism

Altered structural connectivity has been identified as a possible biomarker of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in the developing brain. Core features of ASD include impaired social communication and early language delay. Thus, examining white matter tracts associated with language may lend further insight into early signs of ASD risk and the mechanisms that underlie language impairments associated with the disorder. Evidence of altered structural connectivity has previously been detected in 6‐month‐old infants at high familial risk for developing ASD. However, as language processing begins in utero, differences in structural connectivity between language regions may be present in the early infant brain shortly after birth. Here we investigated key white matter pathways of the dorsal language network in 6‐week‐old infants at high (HR) and low (LR) risk for ASD to identify atypicalities in structural connectivity that may predict altered developmental trajectories prior to overt language delays and the onset of ASD symptomatology. Compared to HR infants, LR infants showed higher fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF); in contrast, in the right SLF, HR infants showed higher FA than LR infants. Additionally, HR infants showed more rightward lateralization of the SLF. Across both groups, measures of FA and lateralization of these pathways at 6 weeks of age were related to later language development at 18 months of age as well as ASD symptomatology at 36 months of age. These findings indicate that early differences in the structure of language pathways may provide an early predictor of future language development and ASD risk.     

Forum: Quilting as metaphor for theological education

How is quilt‐making both metaphor and pedagogy for early‐career faculty of theology and religion who seek to cultivate critical and creative imagination for teaching, and to probe the challenges and promises of complex identities and vocations within 21st‐century landscapes of theological education? This forum presents essays (with explanatory introduction) by five members of the 2016–2017 Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty, who were impelled to story their experience of being “handed over to themselves” by an “arts and craft” project which forced them to think with their hands, speak with found objects, and re‐present themselves in the form of 12 × 12‐inch quilt squares. In self‐reflexive prose, these scholar‐teachers offer through this medium a glimpse of their unexpected moments of revelatory learning, as each was pulled into deeper contemplation of their personhood, experience, know‐how, and practical wisdom, each uncovering valuable hidden sources for more expansive theological query, and each re‐thinking the possibilities for theological education and its pedagogies.     

Taking sustainable fashion mainstream: Social media and the institutional celebrity entrepreneur

There is a growing imperative to address the negative environmental impact of fashion and an increased awareness of sustainability issues: the sustainable fashion concept (SFC). However, while consumers are becoming more aware and concerned about sustainability, this is not resulting in the purchase of sustainable fashion products in preference to “mainstream” goods. This so‐called attitude–behaviour gap is well documented in academic literature, and yet there is a lack of research into potential methods of disrupting this phenomenon. This study seeks to redress this by examining the potential influence of celebrity institutional entrepreneurs (CIEs) to raise awareness of the SFC and to therefore guide and change consumer behaviour towards more sustainable practice. CIEs are celebrities who use their social position to espouse their values with the intention of influencing institutional habits and behaviours. In this case, Emma Watson is identified as an appropriate and credible proponent, and her @the_press_tour Instagram account was used to examine her influence. A netnographic investigation of this account was conducted in combination with eight in‐depth interviews with account followers to examine attitudes and actions towards sustainable fashion. Findings showed that the account had partial impact on consumer engagement with the SFC in that it led to the participants being more likely to discuss and consider the issues around sustainable fashion; however, it had no significant impact on purchases of sustainable fashion. The study concludes that CIEs can impact the attitudes of mainstream consumers towards sustainable fashion; however, further research is required to determine any long‐term influence.     

Perfectionism and Depression Among Low-Income Chronically Ill African American and White Adolescents and Their Maternal Parent

Most research on perfectionism is based on convenience samples of university students or clinically distressed samples, and therefore relatively less is known about the development and implications of perfectionism for other groups. In this study, we examined perfectionism and depression in low-income African American (n = 39) and White (n = 55) adolescents with chronic illnesses (most with diabetes, asthma, and/or hypertension) and their primary parents. We specifically examined the association between parent and child perfectionism, and the link between perfectionism and depression in both groups. The African American adolescents reported significantly more maladaptive perfectionism than did the White adolescents, and the African American parents reported significantly higher scores on depression than did the White parents. Correlations and regression analyses revealed similarities and differences in perfectionism-depression associations that might be explained in light of cultural differences and the unique physical and emotional challenges faced by youth with chronic illnesses. The word “parent” in this study is used to represent a parent or other adult who was identified as a primary caregiver for the adolescent.     

Moving From Efficacy to Effectiveness in Eating Disorders Prevention: The Sorority Body Image Program

Although eating disorders prevention research has begun to produce programs with demonstrated efficacy, many such programs simply target individuals as opposed to engaging broader social systems (e.g., schools, sororities, athletic teams) as participant collaborators in eating disorders prevention. Yet, social systems ultimately will be responsible for the real-world delivery of eating disorder prevention programs, suggesting that an important issue has yet to be addressed. Namely, it is unclear to what degree efficacious individual-focused eating disorder prevention programs remain effective when incorporated into critical social systems under real-world conditions. Over the past 5 years, we have collaborated with the campus sororities in the development of a sustainable eating disorders prevention program that is based on the prevention efficacy literature. This paper describes both challenges and helpful strategies that we encountered in tailoring an evidence-based eating disorders prevention program to the needs of a relevant social system.     

Training parents to help their children read: A randomized control trial

Background . Low levels of literacy and high levels of behaviour problems in middle childhood often co‐occur. These persistent difficulties pose a risk to academic and social development, leading to social exclusion in adulthood. Although parent‐training programmes have been shown to be effective in enabling parents to support their children's development, very few parent interventions offer a combination of behavioural and literacy training. Aims . This paper (1) reports on a prevention programme which aimed to tackle behaviour and literacy problems in children at the beginning of school, and (2) presents the effects of the intervention on children's literacy. Sample . One hundred and four 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children selected from eight schools in an inner city disadvantaged community in London participated in the intervention. Methods . This is a randomized control trial with pre‐ and post‐measurements designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention. The behavioural intervention consisted of the ‘Incredible Years’ group parenting programme combined with a new programme designed to train parents to support their children's reading at home. Results . Analyses demonstrated a significant effect of the intervention on children's word reading and writing skills, as well as parents' use of reading strategies with their children. Conclusion . A structured multicomponent preventive package delivered with attention to fidelity can enable parents to support their children's reading at home and increase their literacy skills. Together with the improvement in child behaviour, these changes could improve the life chances of children in disadvantaged communities.     

The impact of parent behavior-management training on child depressive symptoms

The present study tested the impact of a parent behavior-management intervention on child depressive and internalizing symptoms. One hundred eighty-one children were randomly assigned to receive a videotape modeling parenting intervention, the Incredible Years, or to a wait-list control group. Children who received the intervention were more likely to have lower mother-rated mood and internalizing symptoms at post-treatment, compared with children in a wait-list control group. The effect sizes observed in the present intervention fell in the small-to-medium range for the sample as a whole, and some evidence supported the authors' hypothesis that effects would be strongest for children with baseline internalizing symptoms in the clinical range. Subsequent analyses also revealed that perceived changes in parenting effectiveness mediated the effect of treatment on children's post-treatment internalizing symptoms. The finding was consistent with study hypotheses and social learning explanations of child internalizing symptoms that guided selection of putative mechanisms. Implications for counseling psychologists and for designing interventions and prevention strategies for children with internalizing symptoms are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

A comparison of preschoolers' recall of experienced versus non‐experienced events across multiple interviews

Preschool children's recall of both experienced and non‐experienced activities was examined across three interviews. One hundred and six children aged 4 to 5 years (58 males, 48 females) from both low and high socioeconomic status areas participated in an event called the Deakin Activities, which consisted of two experienced activities. One or two days later, the children were asked to recall what happened in the two activities and an activity they had not experienced which was suggested to have occurred along with the experienced activities. Next, children were given false suggestions about one of the experienced (true‐biased) activities and the non‐experienced (false) activity. For the remaining experienced (true‐unbiased) activity, no questions were asked. Three and eight days after the activities were presented, children were again required to recall all three activities in their own words while a variety of suggestive techniques were used as encouragers. The results revealed that irrespective of the SES group, assent rates across the true and false activities became more similar after the first interview. Furthermore, children's narratives about the false activity became more similar in detail, structure and quality to their narratives about the true activities across interviews. However, the rate of fantastic/improbable details was higher for the false activity compared to the true activities, children reported more interviewer suggestions about the false activity than the true‐biased activity, and there were fewer confabulation errors reported about the false activity compared to the true activities. The implications of the results are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.