Prior Trauma Exposure for Youth in Treatment Foster Care

Very little research has focused on rates of trauma exposure for youth in treatment foster care (TFC). Available research has utilized record review for assessing exposure, which presents limitations for the range of trauma types examined, as records are predominantly focused on abuse and neglect. The current study examines exposure rates and association with emotional and behavioral outcomes for 229 youth in 46 TFC agencies. The youth in this study had exceptionally high rates of trauma exposure by foster parent report, similar to youth in traditional foster care, with nearly half of the sample exposed to four or more types of traumatic events. A composite child abuse and neglect exposure variable was associated with child and adolescent emotional and behavioral outcomes. Implications for services provided as part of TFC are discussed.     

Utilizing Benchmarking to Study the Effectiveness of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy Implemented in a Community Setting

Benchmarking is a program evaluation approach that can be used to study whether the outcomes of parents/children who participate in an evidence-based program in the community approximate the outcomes found in randomized trials. This paper presents a case illustration using benchmarking methodology to examine a community implementation of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (CI-PCIT) utilized as a child maltreatment prevention effort. Data were collected from 83 parent–child dyads. Change scores were compared to treatment and control effect sizes aggregated from the PCIT literature. Pre-post results indicated significant positive changes in child behavior for CI-PCIT completers. Benchmarking analyses revealed that parents who completed CI-PCIT reported significantly greater positive child outcomes than the aggregate control group benchmark, and significantly less than observed in the treatment benchmark. A summary of decision points and implications for utilizing this methodology in the child maltreatment field are postulated.     

The etiology of variation in language skills changes with development: a longitudinal twin study of language from 2 to 12 years

The present study is the first long-term longitudinal examination of the etiology of individual differences in language from early childhood through to adolescence. We applied a multivariate latent factor genetic model to longitudinal data from the Twins Early Development Study in order to (a) compare the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on language skills in early childhood (2, 3 and 4 years), middle childhood (7, 9 and 10 years), and early adolescence (12 years); and (b) determine to what extent the same genetic and environmental factors underlie variation in language skills at these three stages of language development. We found that while shared environmental influences appear to be dominant (latent factor c2 = .74) in early language, with a smaller though significant role for genetic factors (latent factor a2 = .24), the pattern is reversed by middle childhood such that genetic influences are substantially more important (latent factor a2 = .57-.63 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .47-.57 at 12 years) and shared environmental influences less so (latent factor c2 = .31-.37 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .31-.32 at 12 years). The increase in the heritability of language skills between early and middle childhood appears to be due to new genetic factors that come into play at that transition. In contrast, genetic factors remain stable from middle childhood through to early adolescence, and account for the phenotypic continuity in language skills across these two stages.     

Compensatory nonconformity: Self-uncertainty and low implicit self-esteem increase adoption and expression of minority opinions

The present studies tested whether people, particularly those who are most vulnerable to self-threats as indicated by low implicit self-esteem, adopt and express minority opinions to compensate for self-uncertainty. In Studies 1 through 3, low implicit self-esteem participants who were made to feel uncertain about themselves as individuals (versus uncertain about a self-irrelevant issue in Study 1, certain about themselves in Study 2, or uncertain about their group memberships in Study 3) expressed more disagreement with others' opinions. Additionally, Study 3 demonstrated that this effect is specific to minority opinions and does not emerge on majority opinions. In Study 4, the relation between self-uncertainty and disagreement with others' opinions was strongest among participants with both low implicit and high explicit self-esteem, who respond to self-threats in particularly defensive ways.     

Intrinsic value and the supervenience principle

An important constraint on the nature of intrinsic value---the “Supervenience Principle” (SP)---holds that some object, event, or state of affairs ϕ is intrinsically valuable only if the value of ϕ supervenes entirely on ϕ's intrinsic properties. In this paper, I argue that SP should be rejected. SP is inordinately restrictive. In particular, I argue that no SP-respecting conception of intrinsic value can accept the importance of psychological resonance, or the positive endorsement of persons, in explaining value.     

Athlete identity and athlete satisfaction: The nonconformity of exclusivity

The goal of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between athletic identity, a relatively stable individual difference, and athlete satisfaction. A second goal was to evaluate the structure of athletic identity to examine potential differences between facets. Analyzing data from 175 NCAA student athletes, results indicated that use of overall athletic identity hid meaningful relationships between this self-identity concept and level of athlete satisfaction. When examined at the facet level, results indicated that athletic social identity and negative affectivity were positively related to athlete satisfaction while the exclusivity facet of athletic identity was negatively related to athlete satisfaction.     

Profiles of Emotion Socialization Across Development and Longitudinal Associations with Youth Psychopathology

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Although there is relative consensus in the literature regarding associations between certain emotion socialization (ES) strategies and youth...