Mediators of aggression among young adult offspring of depressed mothers

The current article explores the connection between maternal depression and offspring aggression during the transition to adulthood, expanding the scope of prior research on this topic. Both family-level factors (including parent-child relationship quality and maternal romantic relationship quality) and youth factors (including depression history and social functioning in midadolescence) were tested as potential mediators in a longitudinal community sample of 710 youth at ages 15 and 20. The results suggest that maternal depression confers a risk for higher levels of aggressive behavior by offspring at age 20. Structural equation models suggested that the association between maternal depression and youth aggression is fully mediated by youth history of depression by midadolescence, even when accounting for the stability of aggression between ages 15 and 20. Parent-child relationship quality, youth social functioning, and maternal relationship quality were not unique mediators of this association. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Chain letters: Players and their accounts

Even though it is unlawful to send chain letters through the mails, thousands of Americans send them to friends, acquaintances, and strangers in hopes that their names will move to the top of the pyramid, and they will receive the influx of tax‐free dollars from those at the bottom of the chain. This paper analyzes the content and structure of the chain letter and also describes the accounts which chain letter players (N=129) provide for their participation. Differences between male and female accounts and participation strategies are provided. The implications for these differences for understanding participation in the underground economy are discussed.     

Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation in a Canadian Military Sample

The Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) was administered to 1,060 male and 305 female soldiers from combat support and combat service support units in the U.S. Army. Eighty-four percent of women and 74% of men experienced at least 1 of the behaviors listed in the SEQ during the previous year. However, only 30% of women and 8% of men acknowledged having been sexually harassed in the same time period. Men who experienced SEQ behaviors were less likely to acknowledge harassment than women who experienced these behaviors. The 3 SEQ subscales—gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and coercion—were examined as predictors of organizational commitment, turnover wish, the perception of sexual harassment as a personal and work-unit problem, and as predictors of acknowledged harassment. The more serious behaviors were more likely to be acknowledged as harassment than the milder behaviors when the type of behavior was defined as either present or absent. On the other hand, when milder behaviors occurred frequently, they were the main predictors of the perception of sexual harassment as a personal and work-unit problem. Sexual harassment predicted turnover wish and Army commitment for male soldiers only.     

Children's binary prediction of partially learnable sequences followed by an all-correct procedure

Six groups of 20 subjects each were run individually in a binary prediction situation with each alternative occurring equally often. Two age groups were employed; subjects were either in second or sixth grades. For one-third of the subjects at each age level, the events occurred in runs of either two or six; another third observed events which occurred in runs of either five or six; the other subjects received a random sequence of events. All subjects then received an additional 50 trials in which every prediction was correct. The results indicated some sensitivity to run length characteristics. Fewer errors of all types were made in the prediction of 5–6 sequences. The verbal reports and all-correct trial protocols revealed that at least the sixth graders employed some simple run length structure rules, although many instances of runs other than those presented in training occurred, showing much processing error. The results were discussed in terms of a general limited-capacity model of information-processing.     

A note on the standard length of a test

This paper describes a relationship between the variance-covariance matrix of test items and Woodbury's concept of the standard length of a test. An index of item-test relationship is described in standard length terms. The sum of these indices for the items in a test is equal to the square of Jackson's coefficient of sensitivity.     

A Comparison of Latent Inhibition and Learned Irrelevance Pre-Exposure Effects in Rabbit and Human Eyeblink Conditioning

The learning of an association between a CS and a US can be retarded by unreinforced presentations of the CS alone (termed latent inhibition or LI) or by un-correlated presentations of the CS and US (termed learned irrelevance or LIRR). In rabbit eyeblink conditioning, there have been some recent failures to replicate LI. LIRR has been hypothesized as producing a stronger retardation effect than LI based on both empirical studies and computational models. In the work presented here, we examined the relative strength of LI and LIRR in eyeblink conditioning in rabbits and humans. In both species, a number of preexposure trials sufficient to produce LIRR failed to produce LI (Experiments 1 & 3). Doubling the number of CS pre-exposures did produce LI in rabbits (Experiment 2), but not in humans (Experiment 4). LI was demonstrated in humans only after manipulations including an increased inter-trial interval or ITI (Experiment 5). Overall, it appears that LIRR is a more easily producible pre-exposure retardation effect than LI for eyeblink conditioning in both rabbits and humans. Several theoretical mechanisms for LI including the conditioned attention theory, stimulus compression, novelty, and the switching theory are discussed as possible explanations for the differences between LIRR and LI. Overall, future work involving testing the neural substrates of pre-exposure effects may benefit from the use of LIRR rather than LI.     

Expanding Treatment Options for Children With Selective Mutism: Rationale,Principles, and Procedures for an Intensive Group Behavioral Treatment

Children with selective mutism (SM) experience significant challenges in a variety of social situations, leading to difficulties with academics, peers, and family functioning. Despite the extensive evidence base for cognitive-behavioral interventions for youth anxiety, the literature has seen relatively limited advancement in specialized treatment methods for SM. In addition, geographic disparities in SM treatment expertise and the roughly 6-month duration of some of the supported SM treatment protocols can further restrict the accessibility and acceptability of quality SM care. Intensive group behavioral treatment (IGBT) for SM was developed to expand the portfolio of evidence-based SM treatment options by offering brief, but high-dose, expert SM intervention in a group format for youth ages 3–10 years that can be completed in 1 week. In this article, we outline IGBT for SM program, which has already received initial support in a waitlist-controlled trial. Our presentation is organized around the five main components of the treatment model: (1) individual “lead-in” sessions, (2) camp (i.e., all-day group sessions for children held in a simulated classroom setting, with an emphasis on graduated exposures and structured reinforcement), (3) parent training, (4) school outreach, and (5) booster treatment, as needed. We conclude with a discussion of clinical considerations and future directions for further IGBT refinement and evaluation.