Perceived family environment as a moderator of young adolescents' life stress adjustment

A longitudinal design was employed to test the main and stress-moderating effects of young adolescents' perceived family environment (Family Environment Scales; FES; Moos & Moos, 1981) on their depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. This study was part of a larger longitudinal project (L. Cohen, Burt, & Bjorck, 1987) that demonstrated the significant cross-sectional effects of the young adolescents' controllable and uncontrollable negative events, and the significant longitudinal effects of the former. The present cross-sectional analyses demonstrated the hypothesized main effects of the FES scores; families perceived as cohesive, organized, and expressive were related to positive psychological functioning, whereas families perceived as conflict-ridden and controlling were related to negative functioning. However, in general these effects were nonsignificant in the longitudinal analyses. Although there were a number of significant Negative Events x FES interactions, in no instance did the pattern support the hypothesized stress-buffering role of positive family climate.     

The social supports of suicide attempters: The different roles of family and friends

The social support patterns of a sample of 101 suicide attempters were compared with the patterns of a control sample on the basis of structured interview data. Network characteristics and the extent of support in different functional categories were examined as to their absolute and relative power to discriminate between the suicide attempters and the controls. A clear separation of the functions of kin and of friends/acquaintances emerged. The crucial difference between the attempters and the controls lay in the number of friends with whom the subjects had agreeable everyday interactions and in the number of kin that provided crisis support, both psychological and instrumental. Other support differences between the two groups were of secondary importance. While there was no overall difference in the frequency of social interactions between the two groups, the size of the social network differed greatly. Consequences for the conceptualization and measurement of social support as well as for the prevention of suicidal behavior are discussed.     

Intergroup fairness and bias in children

In recent years in research on intergroup relationships, the assumption has increasingly been made that discrimination dominates decisions when individuals allocate resources between (members of) own and other group. Conversely, in empirical studies of interpersonal decision-making, including an extensive literature on the development of children's allocation rules within dyadic relationships, it has been repeatedly observed that in dyadic relationships choices though responsive to various changes in the environment, are more strongly governed by fairness rules. The present research extends the interpersonal fairness paradigm to the intergroup case, and examines the effects of some of those variables, namely, children's age, input and attitudes toward other, that have been observed to influence choice behaviour within interpersonal relationships. The findings indicate that as children are socialized, fairness rules also play an increasing dominant role in intergroup allocation decisions, and that both relative input and the language of the outgroup influence such decisions. At the same time, there is some preliminary evidence to indicate that the relative strength of self-interest may be somewhat stronger in intergroup than in interpersonal relationships. Finally, a number of the issues that must be confronted in comparing the two more important forms of human social choices, interpersonal and intergroup decision-making, are considered.     

Visual stimulation affects the perception of voluntary leg movements during walking

When a limb is used for locomotion, patterns of afferent and efferent activity related to its own motion are present as well as visual, vestibular, and other proprioceptive information about motion of the whole body. A study is reported in which it was asked whether visual stimulation present during whole-body motion can influence the perception of the leg movements propelling the body. Subjects were tested in conditions in which the stepping movements they made were identical but the amount of body displacement relative to inertial space and to the visual surround varied. These test conditions were created by getting the subjects to walk on a rotatable platform centered inside a large, independently rotatable, optokinetic drum. In each test condition, subjects, without looking at their legs, compared, against a standard condition in which the floor and drum were both stationary, their speed of body motion, their stride length and stepping rate, the direction of their steps, and the perceived force they exerted during stepping. When visual surround motion was incompatible with the motion normally associated with the stepping movements being made, changes in apparent body motion and in the awareness of the frequency, extent, and direction of the voluntary stepping movements resulted.     

Association between anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders

The relationship between anxiety and depression was examined in a sample of 106 children and adolescents referred to an outpatient anxiety disorder clinic for children. Twenty-eight percent of patients with DSM-III diagnoses of anxiety disorders displayed a concurrent major depression. Children with anxiety disorders plus major depression were found (1) to be older, (2) to demonstrate more severe anxiety symptomatology, and (3) to be diagnosed with different rates of certain anxiety-disorder subtypes, when compared to anxious patients without major depression. Nondepressed anxious children and adolescents did not differ from a psychopathological control group in severity of either anxiety or depression symptoms.