Social-Cognitive and Behavioral Correlates of Aggression and Victimization in Boys' Play Groups

A contrived play group procedure was utilized to examine the behavioral and social-cognitive correlates of reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and victimization via peers. Eleven play groups, each of which consisted of six familiar African-American 8-year-old boys, met for 45-min sessions on five consecutive days. Social-cognitive interviews were conducted following the second and fourth sessions. Play group interactions were videotaped and examined by trained observers. High rates of proactive aggression were associated with positive outcome expectancies for aggression/assertion, frequent displays of assertive social behavior, and low rates of submissive behavior. Reactive aggression was associated with hostile attributional tendencies and frequent victimization by peers. Victimization was associated with submissive behavior, hostile attributional bias, reactive aggression, and negative outcome expectations for aggression/assertion. These results demonstrate that there is a theoretically coherent and empirically distinct set of correlates associated with each of the examined aggression subtypes, and with victimization by peers.     

Attentional Focus of Students with Hyperactivity During a Word-Search Task

Mirrors have been used to focus attention to aspects of the self (e.g., to known strategies, standards). We hypothesized that this could be important for students with hyperactivity/inattention, who typically direct attention outward to external novelty. In this study, we administered a partially solvable word puzzle to 43 middle school students, with and without hyperactivity/inattention, in the presence and absence of a mirror, counterbalanced for condition and form order. Differences between students with hyperactivity/inattention and comparisons in accuracy were found only in the no mirror condition. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of the mirror for children with hyperactivity/inattention was most pronounced for those who looked at the mirror. Findings were interpreted in terms of their potential to remedy the production deficits of these children.     

TEACHING MULTIPLICATION FACTS TO STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Multiple baseline designs were used to examine the effects of an instructional package on accuracy of performance in solving multiplication facts by 3 students with learning disabilities. The instructional package included the following components: (a) a modified instructional sequence in which multiplication facts were grouped into the zeros, ones, doubles, fives, and nines categories, and those remaining; (b) identification of the category in which each fact belonged; (c) mnemonic strategies associated with solving facts in each category; and (d) steps to be completed for solving facts in each category. Results indicated that the instructional package produced substantial and immediate effects. After receiving instruction, a participant's accuracy was often 100%, and this was maintained throughout the evaluation even as other strategies were introduced. Comparable results occurred across students, demonstrating replication of the effects of the instructional package.     

The short-term consequences of early onset cannabis use

The associations between early onset (prior to 15 years of age) cannabis use and rates of mental health or adjustment problems during the period from 15 to 16 years of age were studied in a New Zealand birth cohort. Early onset cannabis users were at increased risks of later substance use behaviors, conduct/oppositional disorders, juvenile offending, severe truancy, school dropout, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Early cannabis users had odds of these outcomes ranging from 2.7 to 30.8 times higher than the odds for those who did not use cannabis prior to age 15. Most of the elevated risks of early onset users were explained by the fact that they were a high-risk group of adolescents characterized by family disadvantages, early adjustment problems, and high affiliations with substance-using or delinquent peers. Nonetheless, even after adjustment for a wide range of confounding factors, early onset users had increased risks of later cannabis use. It is concluded that while most of the elevated risks of early onset users were explained by social, family, and individual characteristics of this group, early onset users were at increased risks of later cannabis use.This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the National Child Health Research Foundation and the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation.     

FEMALE PARTNERS OF BISEXUAL MEN What They Don't Know Might Hurt Them

Individual interviews with 350 behaviorally bisexual men aged 18–30 revealed that 71% of their female sexual partners and 59% of their steady female sexual partners in the past 6 months had not been aware of their homosexual activity. Rates of nondisclosure were higher for African-American than White men. Compared to nondisclosers, men who disclosed to all their female partners were less self-homophobic and perceived their friends, families, and neighbors as more accepting of their homosexual behavior. Compared to men who had disclosed, the nondisclosers had more female partners and used condoms less consistently with women.     

Correlates of gender role orientation during pregnancy and the postpartum

This study was designed to examine the relationship between gender role orientation and psychological adjustment during pregnancy and the postpartum period in a large sample of French-speaking Caucasian mothers. Gender role was assessed with the Bem Sex Role Inventory, which classifies subjects into four categories: androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated. A discriminant analysis showed a relationship between androgyny and the following measures of psychological adaptation: self-esteem, satisfaction with social support, and level of apprehension toward perinatal stressors. The masculine gender role was linked with self-esteem, work involvement, age, and severity of perinatal stress. No relationship was found between gender role and the level of antenatal or postnatal depressive symptomatology. Stress, marital support, and social support were among the predictors of postpartum depression, which underlined the importance of taking these variables into account when studying the well-being of mothers during the postnatal period. Results are discussed in light of previous literature on the association between gender role and motherhood. The limitations of Bem's model and inventory are also considered.     

Failure, mistakes, regret and other subjugated stories in family therapy

This paper discusses the notions of failure and mistakes in family therapy, arguing that there are insufficient accounts in the literature which reflect the untidiness and disorder of everyday practice. The idea of dominant and subjugated stories is invoked to map the influence of notions of failure upon family therapy practice. It is argued that our practice would benefit if more accounts of our work routinely included stories of failure, mistakes and regret.     

Reaction-anticipation transitions in human perception-action patterns

We investigated the hypothesis that reaction and anticipation in human perceptual-motor performance are two coordinative modes of a single pattern-forming dynamical system, rather than separate behaviors. Subjects coordinated the onset of finger flexions with visual metronome flashes in each of three patterns: reactive, synchronized, or syncopated. The stimulus frequency was progressively increased (0.125–1.375 Hz) or decreased (1.375-0.125 Hz) in small steps (0.125 Hz) every 10 cycles. We observed qualitative transitions in both the time interval between stimulus and corresponding action (Δt) and their relative phase (ø) at critical values of the stimulus frequency, corresponding to changes from ‘reactive-to-anticipatory’ and ‘anticipatory-to-reactive’ performance. Such transitions provide evidence of a single, multifunctional system, which can be adequately described by the dynamics of collective variables characterizing the respective perception-action patterns.