The "second skin": perceptions of disturbed and nondisturbed early adolescents on clothing, self-concept, and body image

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there were differences between regular education and emotionally disturbed early adolescents with respect to self-concept, body image, and selected uses of clothing. A questionnaire was administered to 74 regular education students from three middle schools. An additional 27 students labeled emotionally disturbed were surveyed from one of the schools. The questionnaire contained existing measures of self-concept and body cathexis and a revised clothing scale developed by the authors. Analysis of the data using t tests revealed significant differences between the groups with regard to self-concept and body image. In both cases, regular education students perceived themselves more positively than did those labeled emotionally disturbed. Factor analysis of the clothing-use measure gave rise to five distinct factors, one of which revealed a significant difference between the groups when analyzed by t tests. This factor, "dependence," examined the emotional effects of the use of clothing on individuals, such as the ability to influence mood. The emotionally disturbed students were less likely to use clothing to influence mood than were the regular education students. The results of this investigation lend further credence to the importance of self-concept in the education curriculum, and imply that the usual aspects of the curriculum that deal with self-concept may be served better by helping the individual become more realistic and self-accepting. The use of clothing as a tool to enhance self-concept merits further investigation.     

Occult participation: its impact on adolescent development

This study investigated the relationship between occult participation, substance abuse, and level of self-esteem in adolescents. Data were collected from 50 adolescents who ranged in age from 12 to 19 years and who spoke English as their primary language. The combined group of adolescents consisted of 25 clinical and 25 nonclinical youth. Participants completed a three-part questionnaire package which included Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Adolescent Magic Questionnaire, and the Drug and Alcohol Assessment Scale. Results indicated that adolescent substance abuse and occult participation were significantly related. High and low occult participation groups were determined, and significant differences were found between the high versus low occult groups when compared on the primary variables of self-esteem and substance abuse. Significant differences were also noted when comparing the high versus low occult groups with various psychosocial developmental variables. Included is a discussion of the impact of occult participation on the psychosocial elements of adolescent self-esteem, self-concept, tolerance for deviance, and religious involvement.     

Visual control of movement patterns and the grammar of action

In this experiment adult subjects copied three types of material (letters, reversed letters and geometric shapes) with and without sight of the hand and the writing trace. Without vision the number of movement segments decreased and the sequence and direction of movements were altered. This means that subjects did not use a fixed stored representation to produce items nor did they obey the rules of Goodnow and Levine's (1973) grammar of action. When spatial location is made more difficult by the removal of vision, movement production is simplified to reduce the number of relocations required. The use of consistent directions of movement depends on the ability to use visual control of spatial location.     

The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory: concurrent validity with a clinic sample

The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) is an empirically derived self-report inventory developed as a specific measure of social phobia. The current investigation included two studies. The first examined the correlation of the SPAI with daily social behavior of a clinic sample of social phobics. The results indicated that the SPAI provides a reasonable indication of the distress experienced during daily social encounters in three dimensions: behavior, cognitions, and overall distress. The second study examined the validity of the SPAI with reference to the somatic response and avoidance behavior of social phobics. The results indicated that the somatic items of the SPAI are related to the somatic response of social phobics and that performance on the SPAI is associated with avoidance behavior in an anxiety-producing task.     

Emotions and emotional communication in infants

Important advances have recently been made in studying emotions in infants and the nature of emotional communication between infants and adults. Infant emotions and emotional communications are far more organized than previously thought. Infants display a variety of discrete affective expressions that are appropriate to the nature of events and their context. They also appreciate the emotional meaning of the affective displays of caretakers. The emotional expressions of the infant and the caretaker function to allow them to mutually regulate their interactions. Indeed, it appears that a major determinant of children's development is related to the operation of this communication system. Positive development may be associated with the experience of coordinated interactions characterized by frequent reparations of interactive errors and the transformation of negative affect into positive affect, whereas negative development appears to be associated with sustained periods of interactive failure and negative affect.     

Fears in hearing-impaired and normally hearing children and adolescents

In this study the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children was administered to 138 hearing-impaired and 134 normally hearing youths. Although both groups expressed fear of potentially dangerous stimuli, significant differences in responding were evident towards other kinds of stimuli. Whereas hearing children were more fearful of failure and criticism, the hearing-impaired children were more afraid of the unknown, injury and small animals. Girls reported significantly greater levels of fear than boys thus confirming a well established research finding. Further, significant interactions were found between hearing status and gender. In contrast to previous findings, age was not related to self-reports of fear.     

Restrained eaters are rapidly habituating sensation seekers

Several authors have pointed to similarities between eating disorders and addictive behaviors. In earlier studies, addicts were found to score high on the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) and to habituate rapidly to neutral stimuli. In this study, we found experimental support for an addiction model of eating disorders: restrained eaters also scored significantly higher on the Sensation Seeking Scale and also habituated significantly quicker to a series of neutral stimuli than unrestrained eaters. No clear evidence was found for the hypothesis that restrained eaters score lower on measurements of anxiety. It is hypothesized that rapid habituation promotes sensation seeking, which may be manifested in excessive consumption of either drugs or food. Restraint may be a strategy to prevent negative consequences of sensation seeking and excessive consumption. The model is related to earlier experimental findings.     

Research-structured vs clinically flexible versions of social learning-based marital therapy

The purpose of this study was to compare our structured research-based version of marital therapy from a social learning perspective with a clinically flexible version of the same treatment where treatment plans were individually-based and there was no specific number of treatment sessions. Thirty distressed married couples were randomly assigned to one of these two treatments. Assessment of outcome was based on global marital satisfaction, spouse reports of functioning in specific areas, and direct observational measures of communication. At posttest there were no differences in efficacy between structured and flexible treatments, although both treatments led to significant improvements. At a 6-month follow-up couples treated with the structured format were more likely to have deteriorated and flexibly treated couples were more likely to have maintained their treatment gains.