The association of physical maturation with family hassles among African American adolescent males

This research examined associations between physical maturation and adolescent-perceived family hassles within a sample of urban African American families who resided in high-risk communities. The purpose of the study was to examine the relations between physical maturation and youths' perceptions of their family context and the associated daily stresses experienced. The participants were 251 parent-son dyads who were interviewed separately. The combination of quantitative and qualitative results extends the literature on physical development and urban African American populations by indicating that parents are most aware of pubertal changes during early puberty. The findings suggested that adolescent-perceived hassles are indications of parental monitoring and more adaptive parenting strategies are needed for high-risk neighborhoods.     

The social consequences of expressive suppression

At times, people keep their emotions from showing during social interactions. The authors' analysis suggests that such expressive suppression should disrupt communication and increase stress levels. To test this hypothesis, the authors conducted 2 studies in which unacquainted pairs of women discussed an upsetting topic. In Study 1, one member of each pair was randomly assigned to (a) suppress her emotional behavior, (b) respond naturally, or (c) cognitively reappraise in a way that reduced emotional responding. Suppression alone disrupted communication and magnified blood pressure responses in the suppressors' partners. In Study 2, suppression had a negative impact on the regulators' emotional experience and increased blood pressure in both regulators and their partners. Suppression also reduced rapport and inhibited relationship formation.     

Exact distributions of intraclass correlation and Cronbach's alpha with Gaussian data and general covariance

Intraclass correlation and Cronbach's alpha are widely used to describe reliability of tests and measurements. Even with Gaussian data, exact distributions are known only for compound symmetric covariance (equal variances and equal correlations). Recently, large sample Gaussian approximations were derived for the distribution functions. New exact results allow calculating the exact distribution function and other properties of intraclass correlation and Cronbach's alpha, for Gaussian data with any covariance pattern, not just compound symmetry. Probabilities are computed in terms of the distribution function of a weighted sum of independent chi-square random variables. NewF approximations for the distribution functions of intraclass correlation and Cronbach's alpha are much simpler and faster to compute than the exact forms. Assuming the covariance matrix is known, the approximations typically provide sufficient accuracy, even with as few as ten observations. Either the exact or approximate distributions may be used to create confidence intervals around an estimate of reliability. Monte Carlo simulations led to a number of conclusions. Correctly assuming that the covariance matrix is compound symmetric leads to accurate confidence intervals, as was expected from previously known results. However, assuming and estimating a general covariance matrix produces somewhat optimistically narrow confidence intervals with 10 observations. Increasing sample size to 100 gives essentially unbiased coverage. Incorrectly assuming compound symmetry leads to pessimistically large confidence intervals, with pessimism increasing with sample size. In contrast, incorrectly assuming general covariance introduces only a modest optimistic bias in small samples. Hence the new methods seem preferable for creating confidence intervals, except when compound symmetry definitely holds. An earlier version of this paper was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.S. in Biostatistics, and also summarized in a presentation at the meetings of the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society in March, 2001. Kistner's work was supported in part by NIEHS training grant ES07018-24 and NCI program project grant P01 CA47 982-04. She gratefully acknowledges the inspiration of A. Calandra's “Scoring formulas and probability considerations” (Psychometrika, 6, 1–9). Muller's work supported in part by NCI program project grant P01 CA47 982-04.     

Initial reliability of the coaching isomorphism questionnaire for NCAA coaches

Isomorphic change is the process by which organizations facing similar environmental conditions will come to resemble one another. Isomorphic pressures may affect coaching behavior as well. The Coaching Isomorphism Questionnaire was developed to assess the isomorphic mechanisms exerted upon coaches. Content and face validity were established as well as acceptable but low reliability estimates.     

Factor Structure of the Self-Report Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire in a Diverse U.S. Sample

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widely used mental health screening instrument developed in the United Kingdom that...     

Implementation of the Psychosocial Standards for Caregiver Mental Health Within a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - The assessment of mental health needs and access to appropriate interventions for parents and caregivers is one of 15 evidence-based standards...     

Parental Buffering of Stress in the Time of COVID-19: Family-Level Factors May Moderate the Association Between Pandemic-Related Stress and Youth Symptomatology

Nearly all families in the United States were exposed to varying degrees of stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic during the spring of 2020. Building on previous research documenting the pernicious effects of stress on youth mental health, we aimed to test the effects of exposure to COVID-19-related stress on youth symptomatology. Further, in light of evidence suggesting that parents play an important role in buffering children from environmental stress, we assessed how specific parental behaviors (i.e., parental emotion socialization, maintenance of home routines, and availability to discuss the pandemic with child) contributed to effective parental buffering of the impact of pandemic-related stress on children’s symptomatology. Conversely, we tested whether parental anxiety-related symptomatology and parenting stress exacerbated the effect of children’s exposure to pandemic-related stress on children’s symptomatology. Results suggest that parents who engaged in relatively higher levels of emotion coaching of children’s negative emotions and who maintained more stable home routines during the pandemic were more effectively able to buffer the effects of pandemic-related stress on children’s symptomatology. Parents who reported higher levels of parenting stress and anxiety-related symptomatology were less likely to effectively buffer stress. Though interpretation of the findings is limited due to sole reliance on parental report and the cross-sectional study design due to the constraints of collecting data during a global pandemic, findings underscore the importance of assessing family-level factors when considering the impact of stressors on children’s symptomatology and highlight the need to support parents during global events that place families under significant stress.

     

Amount of Learning and Signal Stability Modulate Emergence of Structure and Iconicity in Novel Signaling Systems

Iterated language learning experiments that explore the emergence of linguistic structure in the laboratory vary considerably in methodological implementation, limiting the generalizability of findings. Most studies also restrict themselves to exploring the emergence of combinatorial and compositional structure in isolation. Here, we use a novel signal space comprising binary auditory and visual sequences and manipulate the amount of learning and temporal stability of these signals. Participants had to learn signals for meanings differing in size, shape, and brightness; their productions in the test phase were transmitted to the next participant. Across transmission chains of 10 generations each, Experiment 1 varied how much learning of auditory signals took place, and Experiment 2 varied temporal stability of visual signals. We found that combinatorial structure emerged only for auditory signals, and iconicity emerged when the amount of learning was reduced, as an opportunity for rote-memorization hampers the exploration of the iconic affordances of the signal space. In addition, compositionality followed an inverted u-shaped trajectory raising across several generations before declining again toward the end of the transmission chains. This suggests that detection of systematic form-meaning linkages requires stable combinatorial units that can guide learners toward the structural properties of signals, but these combinatorial units had not yet emerged in these unfamiliar systems. Our findings underscore the importance of systematically manipulating training conditions and signal characteristics in iterated language learning experiments to study the interactions between the emergence of iconicity, combinatorial and compositional structure in novel signaling systems.     

Pitches that Wire Together Fire Together: Scale Degree Associations Across Time Predict Melodic Expectations

The ongoing generation of expectations is fundamental to listeners’ experience of music, but research into types of statistical information that listeners extract from musical melodies has tended to emphasize transition probabilities and n-grams, with limited consideration given to other types of statistical learning that may be relevant. Temporal associations between scale degrees represent a different type of information present in musical melodies that can be learned from musical corpora using expectation networks, a computationally simple method based on activation and decay. Expectation networks infer the expectation of encountering one scale degree followed in the near (but not necessarily immediate) future by another given scale degree, with previous work suggesting that scale degree associations learned by expectation networks better predict listener ratings of pitch similarity than transition probabilities. The current work outlines how these learned scale degree associations can be combined to predict melodic continuations and tests the resulting predictions on a dataset of listener responses to a musical cloze task previously used to compare two other models of melodic expectation, a variable-order Markov model (IDyOM) and Temperley's music-theoretically motivated model. Under multinomial logistic regression, all three models explain significant unique variance in human melodic expectations, with coefficient estimates highest for expectation networks. These results suggest that generalized scale degree associations informed by both adjacent and nonadjacent relationships between melodic notes influence listeners’ melodic predictions above and beyond n-gram context, highlighting the need to consider a broader range of statistical learning processes that may underlie listeners’ expectations for upcoming musical events.     

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: Predictors of Treatment Outcome in a Quasi-Naturalistic Setting

We examined the outcomes of individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD) in a sample of 93 adults seeking treatment in a university outpatient clinic specializing in CBT for SAD. Treatment followed the structure of a manual, but number of sessions varied according to client needs. After approximately 20 weeks of therapy, patients’ social anxiety had decreased and their quality of life had increased. Patients with more severe SAD or comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD) at pretreatment demonstrated higher levels of social anxiety averaged across pre- and posttreatment. However, clinician-rated severity of SAD, comorbid MDD, or comorbid generalized anxiety disorder did not predict treatment outcome. Higher pretreatment scores on measures of safety behaviors and cognitive distortions were associated with higher social anxiety averaged across pre- and posttreatment and predicted greater decreases from pre- to posttreatment on multiple social anxiety outcome measures. We found no predictors of change in quality of life. Those with high levels of safety behaviors and distorted cognitions may benefit more from CBT, perhaps due to its emphasis on targeting avoidance through exposure and changing distorted thinking patterns through cognitive restructuring methods. Our study lends support to the body of research suggesting that manualized CBT interventions can be applied flexibly in clinical settings with promising outcomes for patients over a relatively short course of therapy.