Inner-City Children Living with an HIV-Seropositive Mother: Parent–Child Relationships, Perception of Social Support, and Psychological Disturbance

Despite ongoing concern about the well-being of HIV-seronegative children living in urban poverty with a seropositive mother, very little is known about this expanding population of children. In this cross-sectional study, the psychosocial adjustment of 60 ethnic minority children 11 to 16 years of age who were living with an HIV-seropositive mother was compared with that of 108 children attending public school in the same community. Results of three multivariate analyses of covariance indicated that, after allowance for differences associated with age, gender, ethnicity, and family structure, the HIV-affected group confirmed (a) greater disturbance in the parent–child relationship, (b) less social support, and (c) greater disturbance in psychological functioning. Secondary analysis of the multivariate findings indicated that the differences were characterized primarily by (a) perception of more indifference and hostility in the mother–child relationship, (b) perception of less social support available from parents, friends, and teachers, and (c) less self-esteem. The findings suggest that HIV infection and concurrent problems may compromise parent–child relationships and perception of social support in ways that leave older, seronegative children living with an infected mother at risk for psychological disturbance.     

The Token Activity: Generating Awareness of Power in Counseling Relationships

The authors present an experiential activity, the token activity, that increases student awareness of power and privilege dynamics. Student feedback is incorporated to offer perceptions and knowledge gained from their experience. Los autores presentan una actividad experiencial, la actividad simbólica, que incrementa la conciencia los estudiantes sobre poder y dinámica de privilegios. Se incluyen las reacciones de los estudiantes para ofrecer las percepciones y el conocimiento que adquirieron durante su experiencia.     

A follow-up of a media-based,worksite smoking cessation program

Described an examination of data collected 2 years following the onset of a media-based, worksite smoking cessation intervention. Thirty-eight companies in Chicago were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions. In the inital 3-week phase, all participants in both conditions received self-help manuals and were instructed to watch a 20-day televised series designed to accompany the manual. In addition, participants in the group (G) condition received six sessions emphasizing quitting techniques and social support. In the second phase, which continued for 12 months, employees in G participated in monthly peer-led support groups and received incentives, while participants in the nongroup (NG) condition received no further treatment. Twenty-four months after pretest, 30% of employees in G were abstinent compared to only 19.5% in NG. This study is one of the few experimentally controlled worksite smoking cessation interventions to demonstrate significant program differences 2 years following the initial intervention. Our thanks to Lori Klett and Libby Yeager-Turner for their help in data collection. Work on the project was supported in part by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant DA-04406-01 and a grant from the Chicago Lung Association to the second author.     

Interrater reliability of the DSM-III-R with preschool children

Little attention has been paid to evaluating the use of DSM-III-R with preschool children. Children (N = 510) ages 2 to 5 years who were screened at the time of a pediatric visit were selected to participate in an evaluation which included questionnaires, a semistructured interview, developmental testing, and a play observation. Following the evaluation, two clinical child psychologists independently assigned DSM-III-R diagnoses. For each diagnostic category, kappa and Ycoefficients were calculated; Ycoefficients are less sensitive to base rates of disorders. For overall agreement, the weighted mean kappa (.61), and mean Y(.66) were moderately high. Overall agreement that the child had at least one of the disruptive disorders was substantial (kappa =.64; Y =.65);agreement that there was at least one of the emotional disorders was moderate for kappa (.54), but substantial for Y(.70). Kappa coefficients were higher for major categories of disorder than for specific disorders; however, Ycoefficients did not show a decline for specific disorders. Interrater reliability of DSM-III-R appears to be similar for preschoolers and older children.This study was supported by grant MH46089 from the National Institute of Mental Health.A preliminary report was presented at the Fifth Annual NIMH International Research Conference on the Classification and Treatment of Mental Disorders in General Medical Settings, Bethesda, Maryland, September 1991. We gratefully acknowledge the members of the Pediatric Practice Research Group who participated in this study.     

Characterizing the intuitive representation in problem solving: Evidence from evaluating mathematical strategies

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the nature of the intuitive problem representation used in evaluating mathematical strategies. The first experiment tested between two representations: a representation composed of principles and an integrated representation. Subjects judged the correctness of unseen math strategies based only on the answers they produced for a set of temperature mixture problems. The distance of the given answers from the correct answers and whether the answers violated one of the principles of temperature mixture were manipulated. The results supported the principle representation hypothesis. In the second experiment we manipulated subjects’ understanding of an acid mixture task with a brief paragraph of instruction on one of the principles. Subjects then completed an estimation task intended to measure their understanding of the problem domain. The evaluation task from the first experiment was then presented, but with acid mixture instead of temperature mixture. The results showed that intuitive understanding of the domain mediates the effect of instruction on evaluating problems. Additionally, the results supported the hypothesis that subjects perform a mapping process between their intuitive understanding and math strategies.     

Component Integrity of Teacher Intervention Management Behavior Using a Student Self-Monitoring Treatment: An Experimental Analysis

This investigation was undertaken to determine the effects of differing levels of treatment integrity resulting from implementation of varying numbers of intervention components. The self-monitoring program was conducted over 4 weeks and targeted positive and negative classroom behaviors. The independent variable included three levels: 100% integrity, that included reward and graphing of behavior; 83.3% integrity, that included the reward component; and 66.7% integrity, that employed self-monitoring with recording only. Participants included 49 elementary school students, mean age of 10.4 years, 36.7% female, 93.9% Anglo. Results of treatment on teacher and student ratings from the Social Skills Rating System, teacher ratings from the Abbreviated Symptom Questionnaire, ratings of the child-specific target behaviors, and student frequency counts of target behaviors were analyzed using Multivariate Analyses of Variance. The changes in rating measures from pre-test to post-test did not significantly differ between groups. Students in the two more inclusive treatment programs recorded more positive behaviors.     

Identity and Constructivism:Grounding the Self in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Albert Ellis' contribution to psychotherapy has been monumental, and he has argued that REBT is a philosophically based project. Especially after 1986, Ellis further argued that biological predisposition accounted for much of our tendencies toward rationality and irrationality. Further, he has called for non-rating of one's self or being (that call itself being an evaluation). We have argued, as has Ellis, for a tertium quid, character, also located in biological predisposition (ontology). Distinctions are drawn between types of constructivism (and construction), one of those foundational to REBT. We have accounted for a common sense self that can be evaluated and yet be unconditionally accepted. The self in REBT can be distinguished from roles. A reasoning self in the service of desires while allowing for LFT (DA) is preserved.     

Three stimuli for visual motion perception compared

Two arrangements yielding induced motion were used to explore the relative effectiveness of three stimulus conditions known to produce perception of motion—namely, image displacement, ocular pursuit, and object-relative displacement. In these arrangements, object-relative displacement, which resulted in induced motion, was in conflict either with ocular pursuit or with image displacement. The outcomes of these conflicts were determined by measuring the extent of induced motion. Image displacement proved more effective in competing with object-relative displacement than did ocular pursuit, which in one arrangement yielded to object-relative displacement entirely. The same pattern of results was obtained both with the usual arrangement of the moving-center type and with a stationary-center display.