Illusions of Safety in a Risky World: A Study of College Students' Condom Use

The role that costs, benefits, and perceptions of invulnerability play in condom use was examined in a sample of students ( N = 211) at 4-year and 2-year colleges. In multiple regression analyses, past condom use was related to relative invulnerability, low present risk, and inexperience. Less intended condom use was associated with high perceptions of relative invulnerability and low perceptions of present risk. It appears that many college students feel protected from HIV because they judge their current sexual environment to be safe due to monogamy, sexual history taking, and the ability to tell a partner's HIV status. Independent of that, feelings of relative invulnerability are associated with more condom use—perhaps an accurate judgment of past risky behavior.     

A perceptual comparison: All-voiced versus typical reading passage read by children

The present investigation tested the modified vocalization hypothesis (Hutchinson and Brown, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 1978, 3, 149) in young stuttering subjects. In this study, stuttering children ages 7–13 yr were instructed to read two experimentally constructed passages. One passage contained both voiced and voiceless phonemes; the second passage was constructed using only voiced phonemes. Results indicated there was neither a quantitative nor a qualitative difference in the stuttering blocks during the reading of either experimental passage. These results would appear not to be supportive of the modified vocalization hypothesis in children; however, as has been indicative of similar studies, 8 of 22 subjects did demonstrate more dysfluencies during the reading of the passage that contained both voiced and voiceless phonemes.     

Divining testimony? The impact of interviewing props on children’s reports of touching

There is a long-held assumption that objects help bridge the gap between what children know and what they can (or are willing to) explain. In this review, we present research on the extent to which two types of objects used as props in investigative interviews of children, anatomical dolls and body (human figure) diagrams, actually help children report accurate information about autobiographical events. We explain why available research does not instill confidence that props are the best solution to interviewing challenges, and we consider practitioners’ and policy-makers responses to this evidence. Finally, we discuss the types of developmental research that are necessary to advance the field of evidence-based interviewing of children.     

Role function and job satisfaction of school psychologists practicing in an expanded role model

School psychologists are typically itinerant among multiple schools and often spend up to two-thirds of their time on assessment activities related to students with disabilities and special education programs. School psychologists in delivery of an expanded role service model are assigned to a single school and provide more consultation and intervention services. 97 school psychologists assigned to an expanded role in a single southeastern urban school district were surveyed on their job roles and job satisfaction. The majority were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs, particularly with engaging in activities that were of service to others and staying involved in a variety of job activities. School psychologists wanted to spend less time in assessment, multidisciplinary team meetings, and administrative duties. The discrepancy between the desired and actual amount of time spent in multidisciplinary meetings was negatively related to job satisfaction. Psychologists wanted to spend more time in direct and indirect intervention, professional development, and networking.     

Adjustments to the correction for attenuation

With respect to the often-present covariance between error terms of correlated variables, D. W. Zimmerman and R. H. Williams's (1977) adjusted correction for attenuation estimates the strength of the pairwise correlation between true scores without assuming independence of error scores. This article focuses on the derivation and analysis of formulas that perform the same function for partial and part correlation coefficients. Values produced by these formulas lie closer to the actual true-score coefficient than do the observed-score coefficients or those obtained by using C. Spearman's (1904) correction for attenuation. The new versions of the formulas thus allow analysts to use hypothetical values for error-score correlations to estimate values for the partial and part correlations between true scores while disregarding the independence-of-errors assumption.     

Two languages, one developing brain: event-related potentials to words in bilingual toddlers

Infant bilingualism offers a unique opportunity to study the relative effects of language experience and maturation on brain development, with each child serving as his or her own control. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to words were examined in 19- to 22-month-old English-Spanish bilingual toddlers. The children's dominant vs. nondominant languages elicited different patterns of neural activity in the lateral asymmetry of an early positive component (P100), and the latencies and distributions of ERP differences to known vs. unknown words from 200-400 and 400-600 ms. ERP effects also differed for 'high' and 'low' vocabulary groups based on total conceptual vocabulary scores. The results indicate that the organization of language-relevant brain activity is linked to experience with language rather than brain maturation.