Latent Profile Analysis of Observed Parenting Behaviors in a Clinic Sample

We examined typologies of parenting practices using latent profile analysis (LPA) in a sample of families with young children who had externalizing behavior disorders. We also examined mother and child characteristics associated with class membership using ratings from multiple informants. The sample included pooled data from five parenting treatment outcome research studies on oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and/or conduct disorder (CD) conducted throughout the past 20 years. These studies included 21 separate cohorts of children resulting in a total of 514 families. All children met diagnostic criteria for ODD or CD and 78 % were male. Parenting practices were observed by independent raters using the Dyadic Parent–child Interactive Coding System-Revised (DPICS-R). Four summary scores (i.e., total critical statements, total commands, total positive, total supportive) from the DPICS-R were used as class indictors in the LPA. Four classes best characterized the parenting practices of this clinic sample, roughly comprising a quarter of the sample each: Positive Only, Negative Only, Positive/Negative, and Neither Positive/Negative. High observed child negative behaviors, low observed child warmth, high socioeconomic status, and low academic performance distinguished the two classes with high negative behaviors (Negative Only, Positive/Negative) from the other classes. These results provide markers of the most common parenting profiles at entry into treatment programs for behavior disorders in young children. Findings have significant implications for the tailoring parenting interventions and supports to specific family needs.     

Ethnically based rejection sensitivity and academic achievement: The danger of retracting into one's heritage culture

This study examined the relation between ethnically based rejection sensitivity and academic achievement in a sample of 936 immigrant students in Germany and Switzerland. The theory of race‐based rejection sensitivity that originated in North America was extended to immigrant students in Europe. The rough political climate against immigrants in Europe makes it probable that immigrant youth face particular difficulties and are affected by ethnically based rejection sensitivity, at least as much as—or even more than—minority youth in the United States. Using a standardized literacy performance test and multilevel analyses, we found that ethnically based rejection sensitivity was negatively related to academic achievement for immigrant students. This relation was partially mediated by a strong contingency of the students' self‐worth on the heritage culture, as well as by a low number of native German or Swiss majority‐group friends. We interpret these processes as immigrant students' efforts to cope with ethnically based rejection sensitivity by retracting into their heritage culture and avoiding majority‐group contact, which unfortunately, however, at the same time also results in lower academic achievement. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Threats to the Internal Validity of Spinal Surgery Outcome Assessment: Recalibration Response Shift or Implicit Theories of Change?

A recalibration response shift will cause the patient to think about a self-report measure’s response options differently after a health state change. Commonly assessed using the retrospective-pretest design (“then-test”), recent guidelines suggest adjusting then-test estimates for competing explanations. This prospective longitudinal study investigated recalibration response shift after adjusting for implicit theories of change in patients undergoing spinal surgery. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) were collected before surgery and at 6 weeks and 3 months after spinal decompression surgery. Then-tests of the measures were also collected at all post-tests. Recalibration response shift was operationalized as the then-minus-pre difference score on the evaluative SF-36. Implicit theories of change were operationalized as the then-minus-pre difference score on the perception-based ODI. Improved vs. No-Effect patient groups were compared using the Minimally Important Difference (±15 points) as a cut-off on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) items for back and leg pain. Logistic regression analyses investigated whether recalibration response shift had an independent effect distinguishing patient groups, after adjusting for implicit theories of change. The sample (baseline n?=?169, mean age 52, 39 % female) was well-educated, and 1/3 were working. All then-minus-pre difference scores were non-zero at each time point and were stable over time. In the adjusted models distinguishing Improved versus No Effect groups, then-minus-pre ODI difference scores were significant in the majority of the adjusted models at all timepoints, but only one then-minus-pre SF-36 difference score—for physical functioning recalibration—was significant and only at 6-weeks post-surgery. This suggests that implicit theories of change bias the estimation of post-surgical outcomes, but that recalibration response shift biased only the estimation of physical functioning and only at 6 weeks post-surgery. Recalibration response shift and implicit theories of change can both be sources of bias in patient-reported outcome assessment. Our findings suggest that implicit theories of change are a greater threat to validity in this patient sample. Future research using the then-test should control for implicit theories of change to minimize misspecification of effects.     

Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 2—Application to Peer Group Processes and Future Directions for Research

As social media use becomes increasingly widespread among adolescents, research in this area has accumulated rapidly. Researchers have shown a growing interest in the impact of social media on adolescents’ peer experiences, including the ways that the social media context shapes a variety of peer relations constructs. This paper represents Part 2 of a two-part theoretical review. In this review, we offer a new model for understanding the transformative role of social media in adolescents’ peer experiences, with the goal of stimulating future empirical work that is grounded in theory. The transformation framework suggests that the features of the social media context transform adolescents’ peer experiences by changing their frequency or immediacy, amplifying demands, altering their qualitative nature, and/or offering new opportunities for compensatory or novel behaviors. In the current paper, we consider the ways that social media may transform peer relations constructs that often occur at the group level. Our review focuses on three key constructs: peer victimization, peer status, and peer influence. We selectively review and highlight existing evidence for the transformation of these domains through social media. In addition, we discuss methodological considerations and key conceptual principles for future work. The current framework offers a new theoretical perspective through which peer relations researchers may consider adolescent social media use.     

Detecting Clusters/Communities in Social Networks

Cohen's κ, a similarity measure for categorical data, has since been applied to problems in the data mining field such as cluster analysis and network link prediction. In this paper, a new application is examined: community detection in networks. A new algorithm is proposed that uses Cohen's κ as a similarity measure for each pair of nodes; subsequently, the κ values are then clustered to detect the communities. This paper defines and tests this method on a variety of simulated and real networks. The results are compared with those from eight other community detection algorithms. Results show this new algorithm is consistently among the top performers in classifying data points both on simulated and real networks. Additionally, this is one of the broadest comparative simulations for comparing community detection algorithms to date.     

Social comparison processes in the experience of personal relative deprivation

Drawing on social comparison and equity theories, we investigated the role that perceived similarity of a comparison target plays in how resentful people feel about their relative financial status. In Study 1, participants tended to choose a comparison target who was better off, and they selected a target they perceived to be more similar than dissimilar along dimensions that surrounded their financial outcomes. In Study 1, perceived relative disadvantage was positively associated with resentment regardless of the perceived similarity of the comparison target. The results of Studies 2 to 5b clarified these findings by showing that being both similar and dissimilar to a target can cause resentment depending on the context. Using hypothetical and real social comparisons, we found that people are more dissatisfied with their financial outcomes when their comparative targets have the same background qualifications (i.e., are similar) but are financially better off (Studies 2, 3b, 4, and 5b). However, we also found that when the comparative financial contexts were similar (i.e., equal affluence), participants were more dissatisfied when their target for comparison had lower qualifications (i.e., was dissimilar; Studies 2, 3a, 4, and 5a). In all cases, perceptions of unfairness mediated the effects of social comparison on financial dissatisfaction. Taken together, these studies address some of the ambiguities around what it means to be similar to a target in the context of social comparisons of affluence, and they underscore the importance of perceived unfairness in the link between social comparison and resentment with one's financial status.     

Writing,Reading, and Listening Differentially Overload Working Memory Performance Across the Serial Position Curve

Previous research has assumed that writing is a cognitively complex task, but has not determined if writing overloads Working Memory more than reading and listening. To investigate this, participants completed three recall tasks. These were reading lists of words before recalling them, hearing lists of words before recalling them, and hearing lists of words and writing them as they heard them, then recalling them. The experiment involved serial recall of lists of 6 words. The hypothesis that fewer words would be recalled overall when writing was supported. Post-hoc analysis revealed the same pattern of results at individual serial positions (1 to 3). However, there was no difference between the three conditions at serial position 4, or between listening and writing at positions 5 and 6 which were both greater than recall in the reading condition. This suggests writing overloads working memory more than reading and listening, particularly in the early serial positions. The results show that writing interferes with working memory processes and so is not recommended when the goal is to immediately recall information.     

The Immersion Experience: Lessons from Study Abroad in Religion

This paper discusses strategies I employed during seven years of teaching within a study abroad program focusing on religion. This year‐long program traveled to four Asian countries and included immersion experiences in monasteries, ashrams, and other religious institutions. I identify four principles and discuss accompanying exercises that guided my teaching: (1) Accept and observe anxiety. Inability to understand is a sign that direct and deep contact is taking place. (2) Educate about education. Help students to see the aims, assumptions, and context of the teaching strategies religious practitioners employ. (3) Make it practical. Devise exercises that students can do and do well and that do not demand synthetic, systematic comprehension even as a goal. (4) Stop making sense. Build pauses and breaks into the train of reflection on the meaning of experience. These spaces give room for the shifts in the ways of learning that study abroad demands. This essay is published alongside of six other essays, including a response from John Barbour, comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).