Effectiveness of family-based programs to prevent delinquency and later offending

This paper reviews the effectiveness of family-based prevention programs in reducing delinquency and later offending by children and adolescents. Eleven large-scale randomized experiments and eleven other controlled evaluations (smaller-scale experiments or quasi-experiments) are reviewed. Out of 22 evaluations, the experimental group did better than the control group in 19 cases, and the differences were significant (or nearly significant) in 12 of these 19 evaluations. The median decrease in offending in the experimental group compared with the control group was 35%. It is concluded that the best evaluations generally show that family-based programs are effective in reducing later offending.     

Representation of lexical form: evidence from studies of sublexical ambiguity

The authors examined the role of intermediate, sublexical representations in spoken word perception. In particular, they tested whether flaps, which are neutralized allophones of intervocalic /t/s and /d/s, map onto their underlying phonemic counterparts. In 2 shadowing tasks, the authors found that flaps primed their carefully articulated counterparts, and vice versa. Because none of the flapped stimuli were lexically ambiguous (e.g., between rater and raider), these results provide evidence that such priming is sublexically mediated. Therefore, the current study provides further insights into when underlying form-based representations are activated during spoken word processing. In particular, the authors argue that phonological ambiguity, inherent in their flapped stimuli, is one of the conditions leading to the activation of underlying representations.     

A cross-national perspective on school bullying in Northern Ireland: a supplement to Smith, et al. (1999)

There is great value in exploring the prevalence of school bullying from a cross-national perspective. Smith, Morita, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano, and Slee in 1999 presented a cross-national perspective on the nature, prevalence, and correlates of school bullying that encompassed a wide range of countries. However, Northern Ireland was not included, despite potentially being an important country to include, given its volatile social, ethnic, and religious history--leading to the concern that the population has become somewhat habituated to low level aggression. Thus, the present paper provides a review of the current literature on school bullying in the Northern Ireland school system. Evidence presented suggests that the incidence of school bullying in Northern Ireland may be higher than that in the rest of Ireland and the United Kingdom.     

The use of contact lenses for the lateralisation of visual input in man.

This research demonstrates the use of a new method of investigating lateralised hemisphere functions. Specially designed contact lenses were used, which directed visual input to either the left or the right cerebral hemisphere. These lenses are an advance on previous methods used in investigating hemisphere function in that they enable the subject to react to stimuli without restrictions on movement and without time limitations on the exposure of stimuli. Investigations of language and visual-spatial functions showed that the lenses appeared to be very effective in lateralising verbal and spatial information.     

School Bullying and Cyberbullying Among Boys and Girls: Roles and Overlap

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the overlap between school and cyberbullying according to the different types of involvement in such behaviors. The current study involved 2,785 Italian students, ages 11–17 recruited from 7 secondary schools, who anonymously self-reported about school and cyberbullying as victims and/or perpetrators. Based on their responses, students were classified as ‘only-bullies,’ ‘only-victims,’ ‘bully/victims,’ or ‘not involved’ in school and/or online. To explain the relationship between school and online bullying, 2 theoretical frames were tested: role continuity and role inversion. Results showed that, for girls, ‘school only-bullies’ were not overlapping with ‘cyber only-bullies,’ and ‘school only-victims’ were not overlapping with ‘cyber only-victims,’ but these categories were related for boys. ‘School bully/victims’ were significantly overlapping with ‘cyber bully/victims’ for both boys and girls. It was concluded that the role continuity approach is most appropriate to explain these 2 disturbing problems in adolescents especially for boys. Intervention efforts should especially target the bully/victims group.     

A systematic literature review of the average IQ of sub-Saharan Africans

On the basis of several reviews of the literature, Lynn [Lynn, R., (2006). Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary analysis. Augusta, GA: Washington Summit Publishers.] and Lynn and Vanhanen [Lynn, R., & Vanhanen, T., (2006). IQ and global inequality. Augusta, GA: Washington Summit Publishers.] concluded that the average IQ of the Black population of sub-Saharan Africa lies below 70. In this paper, the authors systematically review published empirical data on the performance of Africans on the following IQ tests: Draw-A-Man (DAM) test, Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), the Wechsler scales (WAIS & WISC), and several other IQ tests (but not the Raven's tests). Inclusion and exclusion criteria are explicitly discussed. Results show that average IQ of Africans on these tests is approximately 82 when compared to UK norms. We provide estimates of the average IQ per country and estimates on the basis of alternative inclusion criteria. Our estimate of average IQ converges with the finding that national IQs of sub-Saharan African countries as predicted from several international studies of student achievement are around 82. It is suggested that this estimate should be considered in light of the Flynn Effect. It is concluded that more psychometric studies are needed to address the issue of measurement bias of western IQ tests for Africans.