The relationship of Internet use to depression and social isolation among adolescents

The present study investigated whether higher levels of Internet use are associated with depression and social isolation among adolescents. Eighty-nine high school seniors were administered a questionnaire that measured low (less than 1 hour per day), moderate (1-2 hours per day), and high (more than 2 hours per day) Internet use; relationships with mother, father, and peers; and depression. Low Internet users, as compared with high users, reported better relationships with their mothers and friends.     

Targeting adolescent mothers with depressive symptoms for early intervention

Infants of mothers with depressive symptoms show developmental delays if symptoms persist over the first 6 months of the infant's life, thus highlighting the importance of identifying those mothers for early intervention. In Study 1, mothers with depressive symptoms (n = 160) and mothers without depressive symptoms (n = 100) and their infants were monitored to identify variables from the first 3 months that predict which mothers would still be symptomatic at 6 months. A "dysregulation" profile was noted for the infants of depressed mothers, including lower Brazelton scores, more indeterminate sleep, and elevated norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine levels at the neonatal period, and greater right frontal EEG activation, lower vagal tone, and negative interactions at the 3- and 6-month periods. A group of maternal variables from the neonatal and 3-month assessments accounted for 51% of the variance in the mothers' continuing depressive symptoms. These variables included greater right frontal EEG activation, lower vagal tone, and less positive interactions at 3 months, and elevated norepinephrine, serotonin, and cortisol levels at the neonatal stage. In Study 2, a similar sample of mothers with depressive symptoms (n = 160) and without depressive symptoms (n = 100) was recruited and followed to 3 months. Those symptomatic mothers who had values above (or below) the median (depending on the negative direction) on the predictor variables identified in Study 1 (taken from the first 3 months) were then randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group at 3 months. These groups were then compared with each other, as well as with the group without depressive symptoms, at 6 and 12 months. The intervention, conducted from 3 to 6 months, consisted of free day care for the infants and a rehab program (social, educational, and vocational) plus several mood induction interventions for the mothers, including relaxation therapy, music mood induction, massage therapy, and mother-infant interaction coaching. Although the mothers who received the intervention continued to have more depressive symptoms than did the nondepressed mothers, their interactions significantly improved and their biochemical values and vagal tone normalized. Their infants also showed more positive interations, better growth, fewer pediatric complications, and normalized biochemical values, and by 12 months their mental and motor scores were better than those of the infants in the control group.     

Fear information and the development of fears during childhood: effects on implicit fear responses and behavioural avoidance

Field, Argyris and Knowles (Behav Res Ther 39 (2001) 1259), and Field, Hamilton, Knowles and Plews (Behav Res Thera 41 (2003) 113) have developed a prospective paradigm for testing Rachman's (Behav Res Ther 15 (1977) 375) proposition that fear information is important in the development of fears and phobias in children. Despite this paradigm being an advance on retrospective reports, the research so far has been restricted to self-reported fear beliefs measured after the information is given. This gives rise to two possible shortcomings: (1) the effects could simply reflect demand characteristics resulting from children conforming to the experimental demands, and (2) although fear information changes beliefs, this might not translate into the behavioural change that would be expected if this information has a powerful effect relevant to the development of pathological fear. This paper describes an experiment that attempts to address these concerns by improving Field et al.'s (2001, 2003) basic paradigm but with the addition of two measures: (1) a behavioural measure of avoidance, and (2) an implicit attitude task that should not be susceptible to deliberate attempts to conform to experimental demands. The result showed that negative and positive information have dramatic, and opposite, effects on self-reported fear beliefs, behavioural avoidance and implicit attitudes. There were no effects of gender on any of these results. This study fully supports Rachman's model and suggests that past work does not merely reflect demand characteristics and that fear information increases behavioural avoidance as well as fear beliefs.     

Employment during adolescence is associated with depression, inferior relationships, lower grades, and smoking

A self-report questionnaire was administered to high school seniors to collect data on the psychological, behavioral, and social aspects of their lives. It was found that employment was associated with (1) greater depression; (2) inferior relationships with parents and best friend, including less time and physical contact with parents; (3) lower grade point average; and (4) smoking.     

Depressed fathers' stereotyping of infants labeled “depressed”

This study investigated whether depressed and nondepressed fathers stereotyped infants labeled “depressed” and how they viewed their own infants. Twenty-five fathers (12 nondepressed, 13 depressed) of 4-month old infants rated their infants' psychological, social and physical attributes on the Infant Stereotyping Scale (ISS). They then rated videotaped infants, labeled “normal” or “depressed”, on the ISS. Fathers rated depressed versus normal infants lower on sociability, social behavior, and cognitive competence. Depressed versus nondepressed fathers, rated depressed infants lower on social behavior, potency, and sociability. Depressed fathers rated their own infants lower on social behavior, potency, and cognitive competence as well as being more vulnerable. Implications of parental depression on stereotyping effects and possible risks for infants are discussed. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

BIS/BAS scores are correlated with frontal EEG asymmetry in intrusive and withdrawn depressed mothers

Differences between different style‐depressed mothers, intrusive and withdrawn, were examined by the use of the Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scales (BIS/BAS) and EEG activity from the mid‐frontal and parietal regions. Analyses revealed that withdrawn mothers had left frontal EEG hypoactivation, higher Behavior Inhibition (BIS), and lower Behavior Activation (BAS) scores than the intrusive mothers. Further analysis revealed that the BIS, the BAS reward and the BAS‐BIS difference scores were related to frontal EEG asymmetry and power scores. BIS scores were also related to the mothers' withdrawn interaction style, supporting the use of the BIS/BAS as a screening instrument to help identify intrusive and withdrawn depressed mothers. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Dominance and age-related changes in the play fighting of intact and post-weaning castrated male rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The play fighting behaviour of male rats (Rattus norvegicus) castrated at weaning was compared to that of intact controls during the juvenile and post-pubertal phases of development. Following puberty, both the castrated and intact animals exhibited an age-related change in their play fighting; the frequency of initiating play fighting decreased and juvenile patterns of playful defense were replaced by more adult-like patterns. As these changes occurred even in the absence of the pubertal surge of gonadal hormones, they were more likely to result from the organizational effects of gonadal hormones in the perinatal period than the activational effects of these hormones at puberty. Although the castrated animals exhibited the age-related changes in behaviour, they did not exhibit the asymmetries in play associated with dominance relationships. As demonstrated in previous studies, in pairs of intact rats, the animal that attacks the most and uses more juvenile defenses during play fighting and weighs the least is typically the subordinate. In the castrates, asymmetries in weight and playful defense are not related to play frequency, indicating the absence of a dominance relationship. Although the characteristic changes in male play fighting at puberty are independent of the activational effects of gonadal hormones, dominance relationships and their associated changes in play fighting are dependent on these hormones. Therefore, in the perinatal period gonadal hormones most likely organize the age-related changes in play behaviour, whereas post-pubertally gonadal hormones activate dominance relationships and thus, indirectly modify play fighting by affecting dominance-associated assymetries in behaviour. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Newborns of depressed mothers

Eighty-three newborns (M GA = 37 weeks) were assigned to depressed (N = 47) and nondepressed mother (N = 36) groups based on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. The Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale was administered to the infants within 24 hours after birth. Infants of depressed mothers demonstrated poorer performance on the orientation cluster. Further analysis of the orientation cluster items revealed inferior orientation to the inanimate stimuli. Infants of depressed mothers also showed less motor tone and activity and more irritability and less robustness and endurance (unavailability, lethargy, and stress behaviors) during the examination.     

Islamophobia in Contemporary Britain: The Evidence of the Opinion Polls, 1988–2006

British attitudes towards Islam and Muslims are examined on the basis of 104 public opinion polls conducted between 1988 and 2006, 90 of them since 2001. Many of these surveys were undertaken at national crisis points of one sort or another for which Islam and Muslims could not avoid being seen as causal factors. Nine high-level conclusions are drawn from this evidence. There has been increasing Islamophobia, not least since 2001. A stereotypical picture of British Muslims in the eyes of the majority population has emerged, Muslims being seen as slow to integrate into mainstream society, feeling only a qualified sense of patriotism, and prone to espouse anti-Western values that lead many to condone so-called Islamic terrorism. To an extent, these stereotypes reflect the reality of Muslim views, as displayed in 29 polls conducted among the British Muslim community, mainly since 2001.     

The impact of socioeconomic status on teenage mothers and children who received early intervention

To determine the early school age effects of an intervention program for low SES, black teenage mothers and their term and preterm infants, a subsample of 61 mother-child dyads was assessed when the children were 5 to 8 years of age. The mothers and children were videotaped in a storytelling interaction together and then interviewed and tested. The child interviews included the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Wide Range Achievement Test, and the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. The maternal interviews included a demographic questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, the Parenting Stress Index, and the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Analyses of variance yielded no intervention effects and no effects of prematurity on any of the child or mother measures. Correlation analysis, however, yielded a number of significant relations between socioeconomic status and child and maternal outcome measures. These findings suggest that the effects of intervention may be short-term for this population, and that low socioeconomic status (SES) may override the effects of early intervention and prematurity by the time children reach school age.