Impact of mothers' life style on adolescent gender-role socialization

The perceptions and attitudes of 365 eighth-grade girls were surveyed to examine the direct and indirect impact of mothers' life style on adolescents' gender-role development. Among the hypotheses investigated were the following: (1) mothers' activity outside the home enhances her status and increases the likelihood of diminished gender-role differentiation in the family and (2) status and parental role differentiation explain a greater proportion of the variance in the gender-role socialization variables than maternal life style. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to determine which combination of life style and intervening variables would best predict gender-role responses. Collectively, the results indicated only modest relationships between maternal characteristics and girls' gender-role socialization. The appropriateness of this model for future research is discussed.Data reported here are from a study conducted while the senior author was a Charles Phelps Taft Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati.     

Personality assessment and Native Americans

Personality assessment services for Native Americans have been culturally inappropriate and historically underutilized as a consequence. A framework for personality assessment is presented including components of relevant cultural knowledge, assessment techniques, assessor characteristics, and relationship style. Emic and etic approaches are described as serving different assessment functions. Acculturation measures and awareness of acculturation effects on different instruments provide temporary palliatives. A biopsychosocial model for service-delivery with linkages to family, tribal, county, state, and federal resources would be desirable and potentially effective. Ameliorations in techniques and service-delivery cannot substitute for genuine professional commitment to recruitment and training of indigenous assessment service-providers.     

Children's stereotypes about sex differences in emotionality

In spite of the egalitarian atmosphere of recent years, contemporary preschool children possess pronounced stereotypes about sex differences in emotionality. They associate anger with maleness, but associate happiness, sadness, and fear with femaleness. These stereotypes are similar to those held by adults, but are largely dissimilar to actual sex differences in emotionality. The impact and possible etiology of these stereotypes are discussed.     

Father responsivity: couple processes and the coconstruction of fatherhood

Forty in-depth interviews of heterosexual parents of children 5 five years of age and younger are analyzed using a qualitative grounded theory approach to understand how couples coproduce fatherhood within their day-to-day relationships and in social, cultural, and economic contexts. The analysis identifies the construct "responsivity" as a central process through which, to varying degrees, fathers are aware of the needs of their wives and children and able to take an active part in meeting them. Three groups of fathers are examined according to their level of responsivity: low, moderate, and high. Factors influencing degree of father responsivity include gender constructions, power and the wife's influence, attunement, work schedules, and emotional tradeoffs. Implications for practice are suggested.     

Treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: cognitive behavior therapy vs. exposure and response prevention

The efficacy of contemporary cognitive therapy for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has only recently been investigated. The current study compares exposure and response prevention (ERP) and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) delivered in an individual format. Participants were randomly assigned to the 12 consecutive-week CBT or ERP treatment. Based on 59 treatment completers, there was no significant difference in YBOCS scores between CBT and ERP at post-treatment or at 3-month follow-up. A higher percentage of CBT participants obtained recovered status at post-treatment (67%) and at follow-up (76%), compared to ERP participants (59% and 58%, respectively), but the difference was not significant. Effect sizes (ESs) were used to compare the results of the current study with a previous study conducted at our center that utilized group CBT and ERP treatments, as well as other controlled trials that have compared CBT and ERP. The significance of these results is discussed and a comparison is made with the existing literature.     

Perceived stress and physiological dysregulation in older adults

We use a population-based representative sample of older Taiwanese to investigate links between respondents' perceived levels of stress and a broad set of biological measures. These biomarkers were collected at a single time (2000) and reflect sympathetic nervous system (SNS)-activity, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-activity, immune function, cardiovascular function, and metabolic pathways. We model the relationship between perceived stress and (1) extreme values for each of 16 individual biological indicators; and (2) a measure of cumulative physiological dysregulation based on the full set of biomarkers. We consider two measures of perceived stress, one derived from the 2000 interview and the second based on data from three interviews (1996-2000). Age and sex-adjusted models reveal significant associations between measures of perceived stress and extreme values of cortisol, triglycerides, interleukin-6 (IL-6), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) and fasting glucose. Examined individually, numerous biomarkers, including those pertaining to blood pressure and obesity, are not significantly related to perceived stress. Jointly, however, the measure of cumulative physiological dysregulation is associated with both the level of perceived stress at a given time and to a longitudinal measure of perceived stress. Some results suggest that the relationship between level of perceived stress and physiological response is stronger for women than men.     

Use of the Conners-wells adolescent self-report scale (short form) with children

The short form of the Conners-Wells Adolescent Self-Report Scale (CASS:Short) is administered to 319 children and 844 adolescents to investigate whether the instrument can be used with respondents under the age of 12. Mothers of all respondents are asked to rate each child using a measure designed to assess a parallel set of problem behaviors. The factor structure of the CASS:Short is tested in both samples and is found to have good fit to the data. Mean levels of ADHD symptomatology are also examined for possible sex and age effects, as was the relationship between parent and self-report ratings. The overall results provide empirical support for the use of the CASS:Short with children ages 7 to 11.     

Development of the comprehension and appreciation of fables

The authors proposed and tested a model of fable comprehension and appreciation. They proposed that fables are metaphoric in that they teach moral lessons about human activity, and that apprehension of the moral derives from a belief in a just world. In Study 1, children from kindergarten to 8th grade and college students received Aesop fables, reversed-outcome Aesop fables, and fable-like stories. As predicted, kindergartners and some 1st graders did not demonstrate a belief in a just world and did not differentiate between normal and reversed-outcome Aesop fables. Quality of morals provided by older participants was superior to that of younger participants. In Study 2, the quality of fable moral was found to be significantly correlated with quality of proverb and metaphor interpretation. Also, memory for goal or intention story elements was found to be related to quality of moral produced. Directions for future research are identified.     

IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF SELF-REPORTS OF ADHERENCE

Behavioral scientists who study socially important but difficult-to-measure behaviors often rely on self-reports. We evaluated the influence of three experimenter demands—demand for adherence, demand for accurate reports, and demand for accurate reports combined with a prompted recall strategy—on the accuracy of self-reports of adherence to a week-long prescribed regimen of twice-daily telephone calls. Self-reports of adherence were significantly more accurate in the accuracy demand/prompted recall group (p < .05). The analogue study should be replicated with other regimens and populations to determine the most effective strategies for enhancing the accuracy of self-reports.