Alcohol and Quality of Life Among Social Groups for the Elderly in São José dos Campos,Brazil

This study aims to investigate alcohol consumption within social groups for the elderly in São José dos Campos-Brazil, and to check for a correlation between alcohol consumption and quality of life. A sample of 500 individuals participating on social groups for the elderly were interviewed by using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to verify alcohol consumption; the Medical Outcomes Study 36 Item Short Form (SF-36), for evaluating quality of life; and the Oral Health Impact Profile short form (OHIP-14), for evaluating oral health-related quality of life. The average alcohol consumption was very low (1.48), being higher in men (2.23) than women (1.09). The SF-36 average score for the domain of physical function was 70.5; for role-physical function 64.9; for bodily pain,68.3; for general health 73.8; for vitality,72.4; for social function 82.8; for role-emotional function 72.3 and for mental health 75.0. The OHIP-14 average score was 3.87. AUDIT did not correlate with SF-36 domains, or with OHIP-14. However, there was a negative correlation between OHIP 14 and all SF-36 domains. This elderly sample has a very low consumption of alcohol, and no correlation was found between alcohol consumption and oral and medical quality of life.     

A Multimodal Study of Childhood Trauma and Distress Tolerance in Young Adulthood

Individuals with a history of childhood trauma experience deficits in emotion regulation. However, few studies have investigated childhood trauma and both perceived (i.e., self-report) and behavioral measures of distress tolerance. The current study evaluated associations between childhood trauma (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing family violence) and measures of perceived (Distress Tolerance Scale) and behavioral distress tolerance (i.e., Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, breath-holding). Participants were 320 undergraduate students with a history of interpersonal trauma (e.g., sexual/physical assault). Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate associations between frequency of childhood trauma type and distress tolerance. Greater childhood physical abuse was associated with higher perceived distress tolerance. Greater levels of witnessing family violence were associated with lower behavioral distress tolerance on the breath-holding task. No significant effects were found for Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test performance. Associations between childhood trauma and emotion regulation likely are complex and warrant further study.     

Who's my little monkey? Effects of infant‐directed speech on visual retention in infant rhesus macaques

Both human and nonhuman primate adults use infant‐directed facial and vocal expressions across many contexts when interacting with infants (e.g., feeding, playing). This infant‐oriented style of communication, known as infant‐directed speech (IDS), seems to benefit human infants in numerous ways, including facilitating language acquisition. Given the variety of contexts in which adults use IDS, we hypothesized that IDS supports learning beyond the linguistic domain and that these benefits may extend to nonhuman primates. We exposed 2.5‐month‐old rhesus macaque infants (N = 15) to IDS, adult‐directed speech (ADS), and a non‐social control (CTR) during a video presentation of unrelated stimuli. After a 5‐ or 60‐minute delay, infants were shown the familiar video side‐by‐side with a novel video. Infants exhibited a novelty preference after the 5‐minute delay, but not after the 60‐minute delay, in the ADS and CTR conditions, and a novelty preference in the IDS condition only after the 60‐minute delay. These results are the first to suggest that exposure to IDS affects infants’ long‐term memory, even in non‐linguistic animals.     

Church and choices: a qualitative exploration of lived sexual values in young adult women

This qualitative research article discusses three crucial encounters in the sexuality education experiences of young adult women who were raised Catholic by drawing from the analyzed interview data of 15 such women. Using the framework of lived theologies, the author argues that understanding the impact of these encounters helps theological scholars better understand the way that young adults from religious backgrounds make decisions about relationships and sexuality. The young adult women interviewed for this research highlight a defensive posture in sexual decision-making that reflects poor preparation for the realities of relationships and a lack of opportunities to clarify and specify their own sexual values prior to these occasions.     

Lost in the great divide: Motivation in religious studies classrooms

One of the most illuminating finds in Barbara E. Walvoord's Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses (2008) is what she calls “the great divide,” a mismatch between instructors’ goals for their courses, which are academic, and the students’ reasons for taking them, which relate to their personal interests and development. Motivation – or, rather, the lack thereof – is not explicitly considered as a potential victim of this mismatch. This article will turn its attention squarely to this issue. First, I will review data about the “great divide” and link them to the common practice of asking our students to bracket the personal when they take our courses. The article will juxtapose this practice with what research tell us about motivation, which will allow us to further explore why the divide Walvoord and others have identified is so problematic. The article will conclude with pedagogical strategies that can help instructors intentionally influence motivation in religion courses. Ultimately, I suggest that we may be doing students – as well as ourselves, as the purveyors of our discipline – a disservice, if we do not attend to (or, worse, if we actively avoid) what we know motivates students to learn.     

School Perceptions of Children Raised by Grandparents

Increasing numbers of children raised by grandparents are students in schools. Their substitute family structure and precursors to the emergence of this family structure have implications for the children's school performance. Research suggests teachers view these children as at risk for difficult school functioning. The aforementioned judgment is problematic because teacher expectations, attributions, and biases are associated with stereotype threat that impacts student performance adversely. The author compares children raised by grandparents with children raised by parents and foster parents. The author examines the children's perceptions of their teachers' views of their school performance. He also examines the children's general feelings about school. Participants in the study were 6,550 students in Grades 6–8 from the nationally representative Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. Nonparametric statistical analyses reveal children raised by grandparents believe teachers' view their school performance negatively when compared with children living with both parents. Strategies are described to improve the children's performance in school and to foster favorable teacher perceptions.     

The forest and the trees: Examining the association of self-compassion and its positive and negative components with psychological functioning

ABSTRACT

This paper presents two studies focusing on the link between psychological functioning and self-compassion as measured by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), especially in terms of SCS components that represent increased compassionate and reduced uncompassionate behavior. Study One examined this association in seven domains – psychopathology, positive psychological health, emotional intelligence, self-concept, body image, motivation, and interpersonal functioning – and found that while reduced negative self-responding had a stronger link to negative emotionality and self-evaluation than positive self-responding, they were roughly equivalent predictors in other domains. Study Two examined the association of compassionate and reduced uncompassionate behavior with sympathetic nervous system and inflammatory activity after stress, and found they equally predicted salivary alpha amylase and interleukin-6 levels in individuals after a stressful situation. Overall, results suggest that both compassionate and reduced uncompassionate self-responding are central to self-compassion and that both help to explain its link to healthy psychological functioning.