The Need to Present a Perfect Body Image: Development of a New Measure of Perfectionistic Self-Presentation

Perfectionistic self-presentation is linked to different clinical conditions and specially to eating disorders. In fact, the role that the drive to reach “perfection” and display it to others plays on eating and body image-related symptoms has long been the target of theoretical and empirical interest. However, an instrument that specifically assessed the need to present a perfect body image to others did not exist. The current study presents the development and validation of the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale – Body Image (PSPS-BI), a measure designed to assess the need to present a perfect body image to others by displaying a flawless physical appearance and by occulting perceived imperfections in a public context. Three studies that included a total of 364 males and 541 females with ages between 18 to 38 years, were used to examine the structure and psychometric properties of the scale. Results showed that PSPS-BI presents two factors that measure the concealment of body imperfections and the display of body perfection. PSPS-BI revealed good internal reliability and temporal stability. Also, the PSPS-BI revealed good concurrent validity, tested with measures of perfectionism, body image flexibility, and general and eating psychopathology. Furthermore, a mediational analysis indicated that the need to present a perfect body image to others fully mediates the relationship between a general measure of perfectionistic self-presentation and drive for thinness, in both men and women. PSPS-BI showed good preliminary evidence as a reliable and accurate measure that seems to offer new possibilities to the research field of body image and eating-related difficulties.     

Comparing the Social Images of Youth In and Out of Residential Care

The literature indicates that youths in residential care have been associated with negative social images. However, there have been few studies focused on these social images, specifically, comparing them with the images of youths in normative contexts. To address this issue, we conducted two studies comparing the social images people have about youths in residential care to those they hold about youths living out of care. Both studies were conducted in Portugal: Study 1 explores these images through an open‐ended questionnaire; Study 2 examines these images with a quantitative instrument. Overall, the results indicate that the perception about youths in residential care was more negative than the perception about youths out of care. Additionally, the first study probed the effect of socioeconomic status of the youths on the social images held about them and the second examined the role of the respondents' professional contact with youth in care population on these social images. The implications of the social images people have about youth in residential care for the research and intervention towards the wellbeing of this population are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motor acquisition rate in Brazilian infants

This study used the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) with the aim of characterizing motor acquisition rate in 70 healthy 0–6‐month‐old Brazilian infants, as well as comparing both emergence (initial age) and establishment (final age) of each skill between the study sample and the AIMS normative data. New motor skills were continuously acquired from 0 to 6 months of age by the Brazilian infants, but their acquisition rate was non‐linear. When compared to the AIMS sample, Brazilian infants achieved lower percentiles, and their initial age to acquire skills requiring greater antigravity demand was higher. In contrast, Brazilian infants stopped exhibiting primitive patterns earlier, and their final age to acquire antigravity skills was lower. These differences in motor development are suggested to be a consequence of different parental practices and not necessarily indicate motor delay. Thus, the AIMS normative values should be adapted to cultural particularities so as to avoid that infants are misclassified as at risk for motor delay. Furthermore, an adequate assessment of motor development should consider not only the age at which a skill is emerged, but also the age at which such a skill is established in the infant's motor repertoire. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Visual dreams in the congenitally blind?

An EEG study of sleep in congenitally blind persons revealed a significant correlation between the visual activity reported during dreaming and the decrease of alpha strength recorded from the central and occipital regions of the scalp. This provides the first objective evidence that subjects who have never had visual experiences can have dreams with virtual images that are probably mediated by the activation of the cortical areas responsible for visual representations.     

South African Teachers' Experiences of Children in their Classrooms who may have ADHD

This study focused on understanding and explaining how teachers experience children in their classrooms who may have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study was a qualitative study in which 17 teachers from three different schools in Gauteng, South Africa, were interviewed. Content theme analysis was conducted on the textual data. Findings from the study indicate that (1) the teachers kept children who might have ADHD busy with different activities in order to manage their classrooms more effectively, (2) the teachers believed that children who might have ADHD challenged them, and (3) the teachers believed that they needed to share information with other teachers on how to manage and support children who might have ADHD and also that they needed outside assistance from a specialist. The study points to the complex experiences of teachers who have to deal with children with ADHD in their classrooms and recommends increased collaboration between professionals and teachers.     

Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats: Possible Animal Model of Sleep-Related Movement Disorders

Clinical experience suggests that restless legs syndrome (RLS), periodic leg movement (PLM), and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may co-occur in both children and adults. The purpose of the present study was to provide an electrocorticography and electromyography evaluation of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) to investigate the potential of this rat strain as an animal model of RLS–PLM. Initial work focused on evaluating sleep patterns and limb movements during sleep in SHR, having normotensive Wistar rats (NWR) as control, followed by comparison of two treatments (pharmacological–dopaminergic agonist treatment and nonpharmacological–chronic physical exercise), known to be clinically beneficial for sleep-related movement disorders. The captured data strengthen the association between SHR and RLS–PLM, revealing a significant reduction on sleep efficiency and slow wave sleep and an increase on wakefulness and limb movements for the SHR group during the dark period, as compared to the NWR group, effects that have characteristics that are strikingly consistent with RLS–PLM. The pharmacological and nonpharmacological manipulations validated these results. The present findings suggest that the SHR may be a useful putative animal model to study sleep-related movement disorders mechanisms.     

Gender stereotypes underlie child custody decisions

Using hypothetical divorce cases we examine the role of gender stereotypes in decisions about child custody. Good mothers received greater custody allocations than did good fathers across a tightly matched pair of vignettes in three culturally distinct samples: Argentina, Brazil, and the United States (Study 1). Two follow-up studies indicated that the warmth dimension of stereotype content partly accounted for the asymmetry in custody awards: The proportion of maternal-primary custody was predicted by the tendency to ascribe warmth-related traits—such as friendliness, generosity, or trustworthiness—to mothers (Study 2) and associate them with female over male nouns (Study 3). We also found that endorsing shared custody mitigated the asymmetry in custody awards documented in our studies. Together, these results highlight the interplay of stereotyped attitudes and egalitarian commitments in the context of judicial decisions about child custody.