Community Violence and Youth: Affect, Behavior, Substance Use, and Academics

Community violence is recognized as a major public health problem (WHO, World Report on Violence and Health, 2002) that Americans increasingly understand has adverse implications beyond inner-cities. However, the majority of research on chronic community violence exposure focuses on ethnic minority, impoverished, and/or crime-ridden communities while treatment and prevention focuses on the perpetrators of the violence, not on the youth who are its direct or indirect victims. School-based treatment and preventive interventions are needed for children at elevated risk for exposure to community violence. In preparation, a longitudinal, community epidemiological study, The Multiple Opportunities to Reach Excellence (MORE) Project, is being fielded to address some of the methodological weaknesses presented in previous studies. This study was designed to better understand the impact of children’s chronic exposure to community violence on their emotional, behavioral, substance use, and academic functioning with an overarching goal to identify malleable risk and protective factors which can be targeted in preventive and intervention programs. This paper describes the MORE Project, its conceptual underpinnings, goals, and methodology, as well as implications for treatment and preventive interventions and future research.     

Emotion knowledge,emotion regulation,and psychosocial adjustment in children with nonverbal learning disabilities

Nonverbal learning disability is a childhood disorder with basic neuropsychological deficits in visuospatial processing and psychomotor coordination, and secondary impairments in academic and social-emotional functioning. This study examines emotion recognition, understanding, and regulation in a clinic-referred group of young children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD). These processes have been shown to be related to social competence and psychological adjustment in typically developing (TD) children. Psychosocial adjustment and social skills are also examined for this young group, and for a clinic-referred group of older children with NLD. The young children with NLD scored lower than the TD comparison group on tasks assessing recognition of happy and sad facial expressions and tasks assessing understanding of how emotions work. Children with NLD were also rated as having less adaptive regulation of their emotions. For both young and older children with NLD, internalizing and externalizing problem scales were rated higher than for the TD comparison groups, and the means of the internalizing, attention, and social problem scales were found to fall within clinically concerning ranges. Measures of attention and nonverbal intelligence did not account for the relationship between NLD and Social Problems. Social skills and NLD membership share mostly overlapping variance in accounting for internalizing problems across the sample. The results are discussed within a framework wherein social cognitive deficits, including emotion processes, have a negative impact on social competence, leading to clinically concerning levels of depression and withdrawal in this population.     

Is Life Skill Development a By-Product of Sport Participation? Perceptions of Youth Sport Coaches

The purpose of this study was to understand youth sport coaches’ perceptions of life skill development. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 youth sport coaches across 5 organizations. Analyses revealed 4 themes based on coaches’ perceptions: (a) life skills are a by-product of sport participation, and transfer “just happens”; (b) if intentionally addressed, it's reactive; (c) coaches recognize the value of intentionally teaching life skills; and (d) coaches identify challenges associated with using an explicit approach to teaching life skills. Results provide evidence for the state of the current sport context and highlight areas for coach education related to life skills integration.     

Nonconscious relationship reactance: When significant others prime opposing goals

Individuals nonconsciously and unintentionally pursue goals they associate with relationship partners ( [Fitzsimons and Bargh, 2003] and [Shah, 2003]). Here, we demonstrate conditions under which individuals nonconsciously and unintentionally reject goals they associate with relationship partners and instead pursue opposing goals. In Experiment 1, participants were subliminally primed with the name of a controlling significant other who had a particular goal for them. Without awareness or intent, participants pursued a goal that directly opposed their significant other’s wishes. In Experiment 2, chronic reactance was shown to moderate this effect: Low-reactant individuals adopted a subliminally primed significant other’s goal, whereas high-reactant individuals pursued an opposing goal. This research suggests that in response to controlling significant others and among chronically reactant individuals, the nonconscious activation of relational representations can automatically elicit oppositional goal pursuits, even when pursuit of an oppositional goal results in a personally suboptimal outcome.     

Comparing Mathematics Interventions: The Effects of Cover-Copy-Compare Alone and Combined with Performance Feedback on Digits Correct and Incorrect

The purpose of this study was to compare the isolated effects of cover-copy-compare (CCC) with the combined effects of CCC and two types of performance feedback (i.e., digits correct and incorrect per minute) on sixth grade students’ mathematics fluency and accuracy. An alternating treatments design was employed to compare treatments across 16 weeks. Participants included three general education sixth grade students whose teachers recommended them for additional help with mathematics calculation. No differentiation between treatments was demonstrated for any of the participants and individual differences pertaining to the number of sessions needed to reach and consistently perform at mastery levels were found. Follow-up data at 4 and 12 days following termination of the intervention phase indicated that all participants continued to perform at mastery levels. Generalization to a slightly more difficult mathematics skill yielded pre-intervention to post-intervention increases, albeit small. Students rated all three treatment conditions favorably.     

Post-discharge outcomes for mothers and the mother–infant relationship following admission to a psychiatric Mother–Baby Unit

Mother–Baby Unit research has focussed on maternal psychopathology over the course of an admission. Less is known about the baby's well-being, the shared relationship, or the mother's recovery. In an initial sample of 45 women, we describe discharge and post-discharge outcomes for maternal psychopathology (using maternal report and the Global Assessment of Function, GAF) and the mother–infant relationship (using the Child and Adult Relational Experimental Index, CARE Index). Three months post-discharge, one third of women described themselves as “completely recovered,” one third were experiencing significant deterioration and 17% were readmitted to inpatient care. Poorer GAF scores were associated with a clinical diagnosis of comorbid personality disorder, antenatal presence of the index illness, partner illicit substance use, maternal perception of her bond, infant social withdrawal, and child protection concern. Post-discharge, the mother–infant relationship results were concerning. Only 17% were regarded as adequate. Improvement was observed across this period in 56% but relational deterioration occurred for 35%. Maternal and relational outcomes were weakly correlated at discharge (r² = 0.29, p = 0.07) but this was lost post-discharge (r² = 0.03, p = 0.89). The shared relationship and infant mental health should both be targets for intervention; both during MBU admission, and post-discharge.     

Psychosocial factors in outcomes of heart surgery: the impact of religious involvement and depressive symptoms.

This article reports a prospective study of religiousness and recovery from heart surgery. Religiousness and other psychosocial factors were assessed in 142 patients about a week prior to surgery. Those with stronger religious beliefs subsequently had fewer complications and shorter hospital stays, the former effect mediating the latter. Attendance at religious services was unrelated to complications but predicted longer hospitalizations. Prayer was not related to recovery. Depressive symptoms were associated with longer hospital stays. Dispositional optimism, trait hostility, and social support were unrelated to outcomes. Effects of religious beliefs and attendance were stronger among women than men and were independent of biomedical and other psychosocial predictors. These findings encourage further examination of differential health effects of the various elements of religiousness.     

Blazing the trail versus trailing the group: Culture and perceptions of the leader’s position

Research suggests that power triggers assertive action. However, people from different cultures might expect different types of action from powerful individuals such as leaders. In comparing cultural differences in leadership imagery, we find that Americans represent leaders standing ahead of groups, whereas Asians also represent leaders behind groups. We propose that front versus back positions embody two faces of leader action: individual assertion versus group-focused action. Studies 1a and 1b respectively employed etic and emic methods to demonstrate that Singaporeans were more likely than Americans to represent leaders behind groups. In Study 2, Singaporeans evaluated back leaders more favorably than Americans did, and group focus mediated cultural differences. Simulating the conditions under which cultural differences arise, Study 3 demonstrates that a primarily Western managerial sample primed with threat (versus opportunity) preferred back leaders. By describing cultural variations in imagery, we reveal more nuanced implicit theories of leader action.