Learning About Parenting Together: A Programme to Support Parents with Inter-generational Concerns in Pune,India

Rapid developments in the last few decades have brought about dramatic changes in Indian social life, particularly affecting new middle-class families. Inter-generational conflicts, high academic pressures, and modern anxieties lead to stress both in parents and in children. There is a need for parenting programmes that respond to these specific concerns, in order to reduce parenting stress and improve family well-being. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a parenting programme in Pune, India, based on a ‘theory of change’. In this pilot programme, parents were encouraged to learn in a group format about fostering autonomy in children, promoting academic potential in a stress-free manner and remaining in connection with adolescents. Facilitated by a psychologist, parents participated in four sessions involving ‘creativity and play’, ‘self-awareness and bonding’, and ‘communication’. The intervention was based on validated psychotherapeutic approaches and parenting methods to support parents in their learning. Some 16 in-depth interviews were conducted with parents before and eight interviews after the intervention to understand their learning experiences. Additional feedback was gathered from observation notes and debriefings after each session. The results show that the attention for playful quality time helped parents to (re)gain a more creative and flexible attitude towards spending time with their children. Second, parents learned to reflect on their frameworks of meaning (rooted in their own upbringing), listen attentively and communicate more mindful with their children. Furthermore, this study shows that an activity-based approach, connecting parents in co-creating new parenting paradigms, while supporting them with stress-reducing tools, is a useful way of engaging this target group. The study concludes by offering new perspectives for counsellors working with families in countries undergoing rapid change.     

Cultural Competence and School Counselor Training: A Collective Case Study

This collective case study investigated the experiences of bilingual counselors‐in‐training who assessed school‐wide cultural competence in public schools. Analysis and interpretation of data resulted in the identification of 5 themes: eye‐opening experiences, recognition of strengths, the role of school leaders, road maps for change, and empowering marginalized groups. Implications and recommendations are discussed. Este estudio de caso colectivo investigó las experiencias de consejeros bilingües en formación que evaluaron la competencia cultural institucional en escuelas públicas. El análisis e interpretación de los datos dieron como resultado la identificación de 5 temas: experiencias reveladoras, reconocimiento de puntos fuertes, el papel de los líderes académicos, hojas de ruta para el cambio y empoderamiento de grupos marginalizados. Se discuten las implicaciones y recomendaciones.     

Consumption of sexual dialogue and content on television and adolescent sexual outcomes: multiethnic findings

The purposes of this study were to examine group differences in sexual media consumption and to explore how well adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior can be explained by viewing of sexually suggestive dialogue (SD) and explicit sexual content (SC) in television media. Participants were 473 male and female high school adolescents who were racially, economically, and age diverse. Television viewing was coded for SD and SC. Both length of time spent watching SD and SC and explicitness of the SD and SC to which adolescents were exposed were factored into the coding scheme. In this sample, SD and SC consumption varied by subgroup and explained variance in some sexual attitudes and behavior variables but not others, and in some demographic subgroups but not others.     

Personality, biographical characteristics, and job interview success: a longitudinal study of the mediating effects of interviewing self-efficacy and the moderating effects of internal locus of causality

In this study, the authors developed and tested a model of performance in job interviews that examines the mediating role of interviewing self-efficacy (I-SE; job applicants' beliefs about their interviewing capabilities) in linking personality and biographical background with interview success and the moderating role of locus of causality attributions in influencing the relationship between interview success and subsequent I-SE. The authors tested their model (over 5 months' duration) with matched data from 229 graduating seniors, firms, and university records. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated I-SE mediated the effects of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and leadership experience on interview success. Locus of causality attributions for interview outcomes moderated the relationship between interview success and subsequent I-SE. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Suicidal Adolescents' Social Support from Family and Peers: Gender-Specific Associations with Psychopathology

Perceptions of social support from family, non-family adults, and peers were examined in relation to the psychopathology reported by 220 suicidal adolescents (152 females) during a psychiatric hospitalization. Results of regression analyses showed that, among females, family support was negatively related to hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Among males, peer support was positively associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Across gender, more peer support was associated with more externalizing behavior problems; whereas, family support was negatively related to these problems and to alcohol/substance abuse. Paralleling normative findings, age was positively associated with peer support, and females perceived more peer support than did males. Findings extend previous research on social support to suicidal adolescents, and broaden the literature by examining extrafamilial support and a broader range of relevant psychopathology. That is, perceived social support relates to psychiatric impairment differentially by gender, and normative, age-related variations in perceptions of social support are detected even among highly impaired adolescents. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The day of the week when you were born in 700 ms: calendar computation in an Autistic savant

Some individuals are able to determine the weekday of a given date in a few seconds (finding for instance that June 12, 1900, was a Tuesday). This ability has fascinated scientists for many years because it is predominantly observed in people with limited intelligence and may appear very early in life. Exceptional visual memory, exceptional concentration abilities, or privileged access to lower levels of information not normally available through introspection have been advanced to explain such phenomena. In the present article, the authors show that a simple cognitive model can explain all aspects of the performance of Donny, a young autistic savant who is possibly the fastest and most accurate calendar prodigy ever described.     

TV or not TV? Does the immediacy of viewing images of a momentous news event affect the quality and stability of flashbulb memories?

The flashbulb accounts of 38 participants concerning the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack reported at both 28 hours and 6 months following the event were examined for quantity, quality, and consistency as a function of the time lapse between first learning of the event and initial viewing of media images. The flashbulb accounts of those who reported seeing images at least an hour after learning of the event differed qualitatively, but not quantitatively, from accounts of participants who reported seeing images at the same time as or within minutes of learning of the event. Delayed viewing of images resulted in less elaborate and generally less consistent accounts across the 6-month interval. The results are discussed in terms of factors affecting flashbulb memory formation and individual differences in connectedness to the event.     

The Influence of Temporal Orientation and Affective Frame on Use of Ethical Decision-Making Strategies

This study examined the role of temporal orientation and affective frame in the execution of ethical decision-making strategies. In reflecting on a past experience or imagining a future experience, participants thought about experiences that they considered either positive or negative. The participants recorded their thinking about that experience by responding to several questions, and their responses were content-analyzed for the use of ethical decision-making strategies. The findings indicated that a future temporal orientation was associated with greater strategy use. Likewise, a positive affective frame was associated with greater strategy use. Future orientation may permit better strategy execution than a past orientation because it facilitates more objective, balanced contemplation of the reflected-upon situation and minimizes potential self-threat associated with past behavior. A positive affective frame likely improves strategy execution because it facilitates active analysis of the experience. Future directions and implications of these findings are discussed.