Little Girls in Women's Bodies: Social Interaction and the Strategizing of Early Breast Development

The purpose of this study was to analyze early breast developers' narratives of their experience of early development to understand the patterns of social interaction and resulting emotion that generated the meaning of their breasts and their bodies. Thirteen women were interviewed, and three of their stories were selected to tell in detail to demonstrate the various strategies of interaction that these women developed as girls in response to the social context of their early breast development. These results suggest that whether early breast developers rely on proactive or defensive strategies for managing their breasts has implications for their ways of thinking and feeling about their sexuality and their bodies. This research also helps to illuminate the significance of social interaction in generating the meaning of breasts and of femininity more generally.     

THE EFFECTS OF CHILDHOOD EXPOSURE TO MARITAL VIOLENCE ON ADOLESCENT GENDER-ROLE BELIEFS AND DATING VIOLENCE

Children exposed to marital violence in childhood are at risk for engaging in dating violence as adolescents or young adults. Using a longitudinal prospective design, mother–child pairs from violent and nonviolent homes ( N = 208) were interviewed about exposure to marital violence twice over a 7–9 year time span. Responses to questions about adolescent gender-typed beliefs, the acceptance of dating violence, and experiences with dating violence were collected during follow-up interviews. Results indicated that adolescents exposed to marital violence during childhood were more likely to justify the use of violence in dating relationships. Possessing traditional attitudes of male–female relationships and justifying relationship violence were associated with higher levels of dating violence perpetration regardless of marital violence exposure. How adolescents thought about dating relationships was more important than whether they witnessed marital violence in childhood. Results have implications for social-cognitive and norm-based interventions.     

Who is most likely to fat talk? A social comparison perspective

Negative talk about food, weight, or the body that occurs commonly among women – fat talk – is gaining increasing attention. Whereas its negative eating pathology and body esteem correlates have received continued empirical validation, what is not yet known is who is most likely to fat talk. We propose that social comparison processes underlie and motivate much of fat talk. In a sample of 143 college women, we found evidence for the role of social comparison. First, having a stronger tendency to socially compare directly predicts fat talk. Second, as a woman's body image concerns increase, her likelihood of engaging in fat talk increases, and this is intensified if she has a greater tendency to socially compare. Finally, social comparison propensity begins to exert its exacerbating effects at surprisingly low levels of body image concern. Results are discussed in terms of the advantages of using a social comparison perspective to better understand fat talk.     

Severity of childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder--a risk factor for personality disorders in adult life?

Some evidence points to an increased rate of cluster B and C personality disorders (PDs) in adult ADHD patients. In order to assess axis II disorders comprehensively we used the diagnostic instrument of the WHO. In sixty adult out-patients with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria PDs were assessed with the International PD Examination (IPDE) and severity of childhood ADHD with the Wender-Utah-Rating Scale (WURS). We found at least one PD in 25% of cases. Cluster C PDs were most common (36.6%) followed by Cluster B (23.3%) and A (8.3%). Avoidant (21.7%) and borderline (18.3%) were the most frequent single PD entities. ADHD patients with PD suffered from significantly more severe childhood ADHD compared to those without co-occurring PD. Applying the IPDE we confirmed a high number of PDs among adult ADHD patients. Our findings point to a higher vulnerability for the development of PDs in patients with severe childhood ADHD.     

Violence risk assessment and women: predictive accuracy of the HCR-20 in a civil psychiatric sample

Research to date has not adequately demonstrated whether the HCR-20 Violence Risk Assessment Scheme (HCR-20; Webster, Douglas, Eaves, & Hart, 1997), a structured violence risk assessment measure with a robust literature supporting its validity in male samples, is a valid indicator of violence risk in women. This study utilized data from the MacArthur Study of Mental Disorder and Violence to retrospectively score an abbreviated version of HCR-20 in 827 civil psychiatric patients. HCR-20 scores and predictive accuracy of community violence were compared for men and women. Results suggested that the HCR-20 is slightly, but not significantly, better for evaluating future risk for violence in men than in women, although the magnitude of the gender differences was small and was largely limited to historical factors. The results do not indicate that the HCR-20 needs to be tailored for use in women or that it should not be used in women, but they do highlight that the HCR-20 should be used cautiously and with full awareness of its potential limitations in women.     

Stronger evidence for own-age effects in memory for older as compared to younger adults

Three studies examined whether younger and older adults better recall information associated with their own than information related to another age group. All studies compared young and older adults with respect to incidental memory for previously presented stimuli (Studies 1 and 2: everyday objects; Study 3: vacation advertisements) that had been randomly paired with an age-related cue (e.g., photo of a young or an old person; the word "young" or "old"). All three studies found the expected interaction of participants' age and age-associated information. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the memory bias for information arbitrarily associated with one's own as compared to another age group was significant for older adults only. However, when age-relevance was introduced in a context of equal importance to younger and older adults (information about vacations paired either with pictures of young or older adults), the memory bias for one's own age group was clearly present for both younger and older adults (Study 3).     

The Relationship Quality Interview: evidence of reliability, convergent and divergent validity, and incremental utility

Relationship satisfaction and adjustment have been the target outcome variables for almost all couple research and therapies. In contrast, far less attention has been paid to the assessment of relationship quality. The present study introduces the Relationship Quality Interview (RQI), a semistructured, behaviorally anchored individual interview. The RQI was designed to provide a more objective assessment of relationship quality as a dynamic, dyadic construct across 5 dimensions: (a) quality of emotional intimacy in the relationship, (b) quality of the couple's sexual relationship, (c) quality of support transactions in the relationship, (d) quality of the couple's ability to share power in the relationship, and (e) quality of conflict/problem-solving interactions in the relationship. Psychometric properties of RQI ratings were examined through scores obtained from self-report questionnaires and behavioral observation data collected cross-sectionally from a sample of 91 dating participants and longitudinally from a sample of 101 married couples. RQI ratings demonstrated strong reliability (internal consistency, interrater agreement, interpartner agreement, and correlations among scales), convergent validity (correlations between RQI scale ratings and questionnaire scores assessing similar domains of relationship quality), and divergent validity (correlations between RQI scale ratings and (a) behavioral observation codes assessing related constructs, (b) global relationship satisfaction scores, and (c) scores on individual difference measures of related constructs). Clinical implications of the RQI for improving couple assessment and interventions are discussed.     

Epigenetics in the mature mammalian brain: effects on behavior and synaptic transmission

The role of epigenetic mechanisms in control of gene expression during mammalian development is well established. Associations between specific DNA or histone modifications and numerous neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders implies significant consequences of epigenetic dysregulation in both the developing and mature brain, the latter of which is the general focus of this review. Accumulating evidence suggests that epigenetic changes are involved in normal cognitive processes in addition to neurological and psychiatric disorders. Recent investigations into the regulation of epigenetic modifications in the adult brain have revealed novel and surprisingly dynamic mechanisms for controlling learning and memory-related behaviors as well as long-term synaptic plasticity. DNA methylation and histone acetylation have also been implicated in the modulation of basal synaptic transmission and the balance between excitation and inhibition in various brain regions. Studies have begun to uncover some of the alterations in gene expression that appear to mediate many of these effects, but an understanding of the precise mechanisms involved is still lacking. Nevertheless, the fundamental importance of epigenetic processes in influencing neuronal activity is becoming increasingly evident.