Child physical punishment,parenting, and school readiness

This study explored how physical punishment (PP) and other parenting approaches may predict school readiness outcomes. By using the Canada‐wide representative data, 5,513 children were followed over a 2‐year period. Caregivers reported on their use of PP and other parenting approaches (i.e., literacy and learning activities and other disciplinary practices) when children were 2–3 years old, whereas school readiness was measured at 4–5 years using interviewer‐administered tests of number competence and receptive vocabulary skills. Analyses controlled for PP use at 4–5 years, child externalizing behaviours, and various sociodemographics. Results indicated that PP does not directly predict school readiness; however, the effect of PP was moderated by other parenting approaches. Children's receptive vocabulary was weaker if caregivers used PP together with less frequent explaining/teaching regarding problem behaviour, or PP with less frequent engagement in literacy and learning activities. Children had weaker number competence when PP co‐occurred with more frequent psychological aggression (e.g., yelling/scolding). Results suggest that PP hinders children's school readiness when used alongside other parenting approaches, which reflects the reality of parenting (i.e., PP does not occur in isolation). Findings support early education efforts aimed at promoting early learning and literacy opportunities, as well as positive disciplinary strategies that do not involve PP.

Highlights

• We explored how physical punishment and other parenting approaches may predict school readiness outcomes using Canada‐wide data.
• Results provided little evidence of positive effects of physical punishment on school readiness across a range of parenting and disciplinary contexts.
• To promote school readiness, early education efforts should promote early learning opportunities and positive disciplinary strategies that do not involve physical punishment.

     

The Editing Density of Moving Images Influences Viewers’ Time Perception: The Mediating Role of Eye Movements

The present study examined whether cinematographic editing density affects viewers’ perception of time. As a second aim, based on embodied models that conceive time perception as strictly connected to the movement, we tested the hypothesis that the editing density of moving images also affects viewers’ eye movements and that these later mediate the effect of editing density on viewers’ temporal judgments. Seventy participants watched nine video clips edited by manipulating the number of cuts (slow- and fast-paced editing against a master shot, unedited condition). For each editing density, multiple video clips were created, representing three different kinds of routine actions. The participants’ eye movements were recorded while watching the video, and the participants were asked to report duration judgments and subjective passage of time judgments after watching each clip. The results showed that participants subjectively perceived that time flew more while watching fast-paced edited videos than slow-paced or unedited videos; by contrast, concerning duration judgments, participants overestimated the duration of fast-paced videos compared to the master-shot videos. Both the slow- and the fast-paced editing generated shorter fixations than the master shot, and the fast-paced editing led to shorter fixations than the slow-paced editing. Finally, compared to the unedited condition, editing led to an overestimation of durations through increased eye mobility. These findings suggest that the editing density of moving images by increasing the number of cuts effectively altered viewers’ experience of time and add further evidence to prior research showing that performed eye movement is associated with temporal judgments.     

Affect in Play Scale-Preschool Version: Validation on a Sample of School Age Italian Children

The Affect in Play Scale-Preschool version is a semi-structured measure of cognitive and affective pretend play processes using a 5?min standardized play task devised for preschool children. This study investigated an extension of the scale in a sample of 333 children, aged 6–10 years. Participants were assessed using another measure of play processes, the Affect in Play Scale, a divergent thinking task, the Alternate Uses Test, a measure of school coping, the School Coping measure, and a measure of empathy, the Index of Empathy for Children. External validity with these measures was investigated, using correlational analyses. Construct validity of the scale was assessed using a confirmatory factor analysis approach. A correlated two-factor structure with a cognitive and an affective factor demonstrated the best fit. Implications for the use of this extension to assess cognitive and affective processes in pretend play and developmental outcomes were discussed.     

Psychological well-being of patients with insomnia and its relationship with anxiety and depression

The aims of the present study are to evaluate the impact of insomnia on psychological well-being and to examine the associations of insomnia and psychological well-being with anxiety and depression. Forty-one patients attending our hospital-based Centre for sleep medicine were administered scales for the evaluation of insomnia (ISI), anxiety (STAI-Y), depression (BDI-II) and psychological well-being (PWB). The scores were compared to those of a control group of 68 subjects attending the hospital for routine examinations or as accompanying persons. Significant differences between patients and controls were detected for anxiety and depression, as well as for psychological well-being. Even if subclinical on average, anxiety and depression symptoms were significantly related to poor psychological well-being, whereas insomnia per se was not. These findings suggest that patients with insomnia report a relevant impact on their psychological well-being, and that such an impact seems to be strongly associated with concomitant subthreshold symptoms of anxiety and depression. The implications for diagnosis and treatment are discussed.     

From pregnancy to motherhood: The structure of representative and narrative change

The aim of this work was to identify ways of objectifying the course of mothers' represen tations of their babies and themselves as mothers during pregnancy and the postpartum period. A sample of 51 women attending a Family Guidance Clinic for psychoprophylaxis courses was studied using semistruc tured interviews that were administered in the 7th month of pregnancy and on the 5th day and in the 4th month postpartum. This paper describes a method for classifiying themes identified in the mothers' representations of the baby and of the self-as-mother as wish-organized, defense-organized, fear-organized, or disorganized. This classification derives from the presumed clinical function of the narrative themes in the mothers' representational world. Themes about the baby and about the self-as-mother were primarily fear-organized at the 7th month of pregnancy. On the 5th day postpartum, there was no prevailing thematic organization. At 4 months postpartum, representations of the baby were primarily fear-organized and almost never disorganized. We speculate that themes about the baby and the self-as-mother that are disorganized may have negative prognostic significance.     

Estimation of Transient Error in Cognitive Ability Scales

In response to Schmidt, Le, and Ilies' (2003) call for further assessment of transient error variance in measures of key individual difference variables, the current study examines transient error estimates for eight speeded cognitive ability scales and a composite scale. One hundred twenty‐three participants were tested on two occasions with a 1‐week interval between administrations. Estimates of transient error ranged from a low of .01 to a high of .18, with an average value of .09. The coefficient of equivalence, based on the split‐half method, resulted in overestimates of reliability by as little as 1.90% to as much as 25.96%, with an average 12.96%.     

Working with and ‘seeing through’ the sexual transference in the psychotherapy of an adolescent boy

This paper explores the challenges and developmental opportunities of working with the sexual transference in psychotherapy with adolescents. Psychoanalytic contributions investigating the nature of adolescent sexuality and the developmental move from a narcissistic organisation to a capacity to form intimate relationships are reviewed, and the question of what happens when there is a lack of containment in infancy is addressed. The way in which unintegrated sexual impulses and phantasies can invade the therapeutic relationship is further discussed through the account of the weekly psychotherapy of a 16-year-old boy who formed a powerful sexual transference to his female therapist. The paper highlights how working through the sexual transference enabled this young man to face his developmental paralysis and begin to use the therapy as an opportunity for psychic growth.     

Global bias reliability in dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>)

Dogs enrolled in a previous study were assessed two years later for reliability of their local/global preference in a discrimination test with the same hierarchical stimuli used in the previous study (Experiment 1) and with a novel stimulus (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, dogs easily re-learned to discriminate the positive stimulus; their individual global/local choices were stable compared to the previous study; and an overall clear global bias was found. In Experiment 2, dogs were slower in acquiring the initial discrimination task; the overall global bias disappeared; and, individually, dogs tended to make inverse choices compared to the original study. Spontaneous attention toward the test stimulus resembling the global features of the probe stimulus was the main factor affecting the likeliness of a global choice of our dogs, regardless of the type of experiment. However, attention to task-irrelevant elements increased at the expense of attention to the stimuli in the test phase of Experiment 2. Overall, the results suggest that the stability of global bias in dogs depends on the characteristics of the assessment contingencies, likely including the learning requirements of the tasks. Our results also clearly indicate that attention processes have a prominent role on dogs’ global bias, in agreement with previous findings in humans and other species.     

The Italian version of the Empathy Questionnaire for 18- to 36-months-old children: psychometric properties and measurement invariance across gender of the EmQue-I13

Empathy is the basic ability to respond affectively to the emotions of others and is observed early in human development. This study (N = 304) tested the Italian version of the Empathy Questionnaire (EmQue), which is a parent scale assessing empathy-related behaviors in toddlers. For this study, it was completed by participants’ mothers only. The EmQue measurement model and its factorial invariance across children’s gender were tested via confirmatory factor analysis. Highly satisfactory goodness-of-fit indexes were found for a three factor-structure (contagion, attention to the feelings of others and prosocial actions) with 13 loading items. Furthermore, the data supported invariance of measurement across gender groups. These results suggest that the EmQue-I13 is a reliable instrument for investigating empathy and prosocial behavior in 18- to 36-month-old children in the Italian context.