Family factors in childhood obesity

Abstract

Childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States today. Children become its victims and often carry obesity-producing habits into adulthood. Much research has been reported on obesity, but little has touched on how family dynamics affect childhood obesity. This article explores the family dynamics of childhood obesity, and presents evidence supporting the need for a family-based treatment model.     

Explanatory Multidimensional Multilevel Random Item Response Model: An Application to Simultaneous Investigation of Word and Person Contributions to Multidimensional Lexical Representations

This paper presents an explanatory multidimensional multilevel random item response model and its application to reading data with multilevel item structure. The model includes multilevel random item parameters that allow consideration of variability in item parameters at both item and item group levels. Item-level random item parameters were included to model unexplained variance remaining when item related covariates were used to explain variation in item difficulties. Item group-level random item parameters were included to model dependency in item responses among items having the same item stem. Using the model, this study examined the dimensionality of a person’s word knowledge, termed lexical representation, and how aspects of morphological knowledge contributed to lexical representations for different persons, items, and item groups.     

Object-based correspondence effects for action-relevant and surface-property judgments with keypress responses: evidence for a basis in spatial coding

It has been proposed that grasping affordances produce a Simon-type correspondence effect for left–right keypress responses and the location of the graspable part of an object for judgments based on action-relevant properties such as shape, but not on surface properties. We tested the implications of this grasping affordance account and contrasted them with the ones derived from a spatial coding account that distinguishes holistic processing of integral dimensions and analytic processing of separable dimensions. In Experiments 1–3, judgments about the color of a door handle showed a Simon effect relative to the handle’s base, whereas judgments about the handle’s shape showed no Simon effect. In Experiment 4, when the middle of the handle was colored, the Simon effect was obtained relative to the base, but when the color was at the tip of the handle or near the base, Simon effects were obtained relative to the color location. For Experiment 5, only the base was colored, and the Simon effect was larger for a passive rather than active handle state, as in the color-judgment conditions of Experiments 2–4 in which the colored region overlapped with the base. In Experiment 6, orientation judgments showed no Simon effect, as the shape judgments did in Experiments 1 and 2. The findings of (a) an absence of Simon effects for shape and orientation judgments, (b) no larger Simon effects for active than passive handle states, and (c) isolation of the changing component for color judgments are consistent with the spatial coding account, according to which the distinction between object shape/orientation and color is one of integral versus separable dimensions.     

Birth of an Abstraction: A Dynamical Systems Account of the Discovery of an Elsewhere Principle in a Category Learning Task

Human participants and recurrent (“connectionist”) neural networks were both trained on a categorization system abstractly similar to natural language systems involving irregular (“strong”) classes and a default class. Both the humans and the networks exhibited staged learning and a generalization pattern reminiscent of the Elsewhere Condition (Kiparsky, 1973). Previous connectionist accounts of related phenomena have often been vague about the nature of the networks’ encoding systems. We analyzed our network using dynamical systems theory, revealing topological and geometric properties that can be directly compared with the mechanisms of non‐connectionist, rule‐based accounts. The results reveal that the networks “contain” structures related to mechanisms posited by rule‐based models, partly vindicating the insights of these models. On the other hand, they support the one mechanism (OM), as opposed to the more than one mechanism (MOM), view of symbolic abstraction by showing how the appearance of MOM behavior can arise emergently from one underlying set of principles. The key new contribution of this study is to show that dynamical systems theory can allow us to explicitly characterize the relationship between the two perspectives in implemented models.     

Emotional approach coping: Gender differences on psychological adjustment in young to middle-aged cancer survivors

Objective : The effect of emotional approach coping (EAC) varies by gender. However, this gender difference has not yet been investigated in cancer survivors. We investigated whether the effects of two kinds of EAC – emotional processing (EP) and emotional expression (EE) – vary by gender and whether EAC has effects above and beyond the effect of other coping strategies.

Design : EAC and other coping strategies were assessed at baseline in a sample of 248 young to middle-aged adult (between the age of 22 and 55) cancer survivors. One hundred and sixty-six survivors responded to psychological adjustment one year later.

Results : EAC had different relationships with Time 2 adjustment in men and women. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that for men, EE predicted lower intrusive thoughts and, for women, EP was associated with higher positive affect when other coping strategies and EE were controlled.

Conclusion : Gender differences held true in cancer survivors, and EAC was effective when other coping strategies were controlled. Further, EE was effective in reducing negative adjustment in men while EP was helpful in promoting positive adjustment in women.     

Electromechanical behavior of single-walled carbon nanotube thin films

Carbon nanotubes have been intensively studied owing to their great potential in nanoelectronics and nanomechanical devices. Recently, experimental results have shown that single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) change their electronic properties when subjected to strain. In this study, the electromechanical characteristics of SWCNT networks were investigated for the application of printable strain sensors on flexible substrates. SWCNT films were formed on plastic substrates of poly(ethylene terephthalate) using a spray process. In this manner, we were able to control the transparency and obtain uniform electrical properties of the films. The films are isotropic on account of the random orientation of bundles of SWCNTs. Experimental results showed a nearly linear change in the resistance across a film when it was subjected to tensile strain, even in the inelastic range of the flexible substrate. The results demonstrate the potential use of SWCNT films for highly sensitive printable strain sensors on a macroscale.     

The role of stress and area‐specific self‐esteem in adolescent smoking

Stress and self‐esteem have been shown to be important risk factors for adolescent cigarette smoking, and self‐esteem has previously been implicated as a stress‐moderating and a stress‐mediating variable. This study aimed to examine the associations between stress, area‐specific self‐esteem, and adolescent smoking, and to investigate whether specific areas of self‐esteem moderate or mediate the relationship between stress and smoking. Four hundred and ninety‐five adolescents (aged 14–19) responded to a questionnaire that examined these variables. Results showed that self‐esteem in the areas of school subjects and parent relations were related to smoking. Adolescents with low self‐esteem in these areas were more likely to smoke than their high self‐esteem counterparts. Highly stressed adolescents were more likely to smoke than those with low stress. However, the relationship between stress and smoking was completely mediated by self‐esteem in the area of school subjects. No moderation was revealed. Thus, high global self‐esteem may not be sufficient to reduce the risk of smoking. To maximise benefit, prevention and intervention efforts should target self‐esteem in the areas of school subjects and parent relations. Initiatives focusing on stress are only likely to decrease smoking to the extent that they influence self‐esteem in the area of school subjects.