Psychometric Properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire

  We examined the psychometric properties of a German translation of the Child Global Report version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ). A total of 1219 German school-children (644 boys and 575 girls), ages 10–14 years participated in the study. The APQ was subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis produced five factors that were largely consistent with the a priori scale structure. These factors included dimensions of parental involvement, positive parenting, poor monitoring/supervision, inconsistent discipline, and corporal punishment. Fit indexes from confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the five factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data, with some minor modifications in scale content. These findings provide initial support for the factorial validity of the child report version of the APQ in German families.     

“Not a Source but a Re-source”: The Ethics of Reading, Teaching, and Interpreting Beyond the Boundaries

Critical interest in Aboriginal and other non-mainstream works challenges established notions of literariness and canonicity, spilling over into the classroom and curriculum development, where instructors of various disciplines must make decisions about what they will teach, and how and why they will teach it. The ramifications of such decisions are multifaceted and often compounded by fear, raising concerns regarding the scope and the ways in which teachers or post-secondary instructors are accountable for the ethical treatment of texts by so-called minority writers and to the broadening demographic of students. Teachers/instructors must themselves construct an ethical framework for inclusion of texts for study, and often do so with only tenuous support. For example, what are the rights of educators to engage with texts that fall outside of their cultural experience? If instructors are not exempt from the ethical considerations facing researchers, how do they become accountable without excluding or appropriating contentious materials in the scope of their work? Liberatory pedagogical practices in the classroom provide the backdrop against which an ethics of inclusion can develop and consequently inform the development of curricula and the creation of syllabi, as well as the facilitation of classroom dynamics in an atmosphere of cultural richness and diversity.     

Where Am I? A new case of developmental topographical disorientation

Recently, developmental topographical disorientation (DTD) was described (Bianchini et al., 2010, J Clin Exp Neuropsychol, 20, 807–27; Iaria & Barton, 2010, Exp Brain Res, 206, 189–96; Iaria, Bogod, Fox, & Barton, 2009, Neuropsychologia, 47, 30–40) as a navigational deficit in the absence of neurological or psychiatric disorders. Here, we reported the case of a healthy subject who presented this disorder. Dr. WAI was a 29‐year‐old right‐handed man with normal development and no clinical history of neurological or psychiatric diseases who was affected by a very pervasive topographical orientation and navigational disorder. A neuroradiological exam confirmed the absence of structural and anatomical alterations of the brain. Dr. WAI was submitted to an extensive neuropsychological examination and to a battery of tests specifically developed to assess developmental topographical disorder. Using this battery, we analysed Dr. WAI's acquisition of navigational information and re‐orientation processes. He showed severe DTD accompanied by deficits of different cognitive processes directly or indirectly involved in navigational skills. Dr. WAI showed a deficit in developing cognitive maps, already found in previous cases, plus difficulties in evaluating distances and computing metric environmental features. He represents a further confirmation of the existence of DTD suggesting dissociations within the disorder related to the level of development of the ability to build cognitive maps and the association of different imagery deficits. Dr. WAI can help in shedding some light on the mechanisms underlying lack of development of navigational skills.     

Differences in automatic social information processing between nondepressed and subclinically depressed individuals

The present research examined individual differences in automatic social information processing. We hypothesized that because nondepressed and subclinically depressed persons have different interpersonal experiences, they may process social information in different ways. In this experiment, participants were asked to make judgments about social relationships after being reminded of a target person. They had to make these judgments under either a light or a heavy memory load. Results showed that when nondepressed participants were reminded of people with whom they had frequent pleasant interactions, they made a greater number of positive judgments about their social relationships than did subclinically depressed participants. When subclinically depressed participants were reminded of people with whom they had had frequent unpleasant interactions, they made a greater number of negative judgments about their social relationships than did their nondepressed counterparts. Moreover, performance in these experimental conditions was unaffected by memory load, suggesting that automatic thoughts about their social relationships had been evoked.     

The Effect of Training on Multicultural Counseling Competencies: An Exploratory Study Over a Ten‐Year Period

The impact of integrated multicultural internship training on multicultural counseling competencies was evaluated. Multicultural Counseling Awareness Scale (MCAS:B; J. G. Ponterotto, C. M. Sanchez, & D. M. Magids, 1991) scores were obtained at the beginning and end of internship. Knowledge/Skills scores significantly increased at the end of training. Implications for training, measurement, and research with multicultural counseling competencies are discussed. El impacto de integrar las competencias de consejería multicultural en el entrenamiento de internados de psicología, fué evaluado. Los resultados de internos en la Escala de Consciencia de Consejería Multicultural (MCAS:B; J. G. Ponterotto, C. M. Sanchez, & D. M. Magids, 1991) fueron obtenidos al principio y al final del entrenamiento. Al fin del entrenamiento los resultados de las technica/conocimientos aumentaron significamente. Consideraciones para el entrenamiento, la medición e investigación de las competencias de consejería multicultural son discutidas.     

Relationships between Exposure to Online Pornography,Psychological Well-Being and Sexual Permissiveness among Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents: a Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Applied Research in Quality of Life - With the increased accessibility to the Internet, adolescents can access the online pornography intentionally and accidentally. The purposes of this study were...     

Late Adoptions: Attachment Security and Emotional Availability in Mother–Child and Father–Child Dyads

A growing body of research suggests that a history of neglect, abuse and institutionalization can negatively affect late-adopted children’s attachment representations, and that adoptive parents can play a key role in enabling adopted children to earn secure attachments. Still, only a few studies have explored the quality of caregiver–child interaction in adoptive families. The present study aimed at verifying both the concordance of attachment in adoptive dyads (mother–children and father–children) and the relationship between attachment representations and parent–child interaction. The research involved 20 adoptive families in which the child’s arrival had occurred between 12 to 36 months before the assessment, and where children were aged between 4.5 and 8.5 years. Attachment was assessed through the Adult Attachment Interview for parents and through the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task for children. The emotional quality of parent–child interaction was assessed trough the Emotional Availability Scales. Our results pointed out the presence of a relation between attachment representations of late-adopted children and their adoptive mothers (75%, K?=?0.50, p?=?.025). In addition, we found that both insecure children and mothers showed lower levels of EA than secure ones. Some explanations are presented about why, in the early post-adoption period, child attachment patterns and dyadic emotional availability seem to be arranged on different frameworks for the two parental figures.