Interactions Between Maternal Parenting and Children’s Early Disruptive Behavior: Bidirectional Associations across the Transition from Preschool to School Entry

This study was a prospective 2-year longitudinal investigation of associations between negative maternal parenting and disruptive child behavior across the preschool to school transition. Our main goals were to 1) determine the direction of association between early maternal negativity and child disruptive behaviors across this important developmental transition and 2) examine whether there would be different patterns of associations for boys and girls. Participants were 235 children (111 girls; T1; M = 37.7 months, T2; M = 63.4 months) and their mothers and teachers. Observational and multi-informant ratings of child disruptive behavior showed differential patterns of stability and associations with measures of parenting risk. Results indicated bidirectional and interactive contributions of externalizing behavior and negative parenting across time. Results also indicated that risk mechanisms operate similarly for both sexes. Findings support transactional models of disruptive child behavior that highlight the joint contributions of parents and children.     

Examining the Course of Suicidal and Nonsuicidal Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors in Outpatient and Inpatient Adolescents

Suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) among youth are major public health concerns. Although a growing body of research has focused on the complex association between nonsuicidal and suicidal self-injury, the temporal relationship between these two classes of behaviors is unclear. The current study addresses this empirical gap by examining the course of SITBs in adolescents receiving outpatient (N = 106; 82.1 % female) and inpatient (N = 174; 75.9 % female) treatment. SITBs (co-occurrence, age-of-onset, and time lag between SITBs) and major psychiatric disorders were assessed at a single time point with well-validated structured interviews. Adolescents in both clinical samples reported high co-occurrence of SITBs: most adolescents reported both lifetime nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal thoughts. A similar temporal pattern of SITBs was reported in the two samples: thoughts of NSSI and suicide ideation had the earliest age-of-onset, followed by NSSI behaviors, suicide plans, and suicide attempts. However, the age-of-onset for each SITB was younger in the inpatient sample than in the outpatient sample. In terms of time lag between SITBs, suicide ideation occurred on average before initial engagement in NSSI, suggesting that pathways to NSSI and suicidal behavior may occur simultaneously rather than in succession from nonsuicidal to suicidal self-injury. Results also indicated that the time to transition between SITBs was relatively fast, and that a key period for intervention and prevention is within the first 6–12 months after the onset of suicidal thinking. Taken together, these findings have important implications for understanding the time-lagged relationship between nonsuicidal and suicidal self-injury.     

Development of Rigid Motion Perception in Response to Radially Expanding Optic Flow

A radially expanding flow with a linear positive speed gradient is perceived as a rigid object approaching the observer, whereas such a flow having no or a reduced speed gradient is perceived as a non‐rigid, two‐dimensionally deforming object (De Bruyn & Orban, 1990). We tested elementary school‐aged children (younger children, 6–9 years, and older children, 9–11 years) and adults (20–22 years) to examine the development of the perception of rigidity. The results suggest that the perception of rigidity in response to a radial flow pattern with a speed gradient is similar in older (but not younger) children and adults. The development of rigidity perception from a radial flow pattern may be related to the maturation of the dorsal and ventral visual pathways during the elementary school years. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing Biobehavioural Self‐Regulation and Coregulation in Early Childhood: The Parent‐Child Challenge Task

Researchers have argued for more dynamic and contextually relevant measures of regulatory processes in interpersonal interactions. In response, we introduce and examine the effectiveness of a new task, the Parent–Child Challenge Task, designed to assess the self‐regulation and coregulation of affect, goal‐directed behaviour, and physiology in parents and their preschoolers in response to an experimental perturbation. Concurrent and predictive validity was examined via relations with children's externalizing behaviours. Mothers used only their words to guide their 3‐year‐old children to complete increasingly difficult puzzles in order to win a prize (N = 96). A challenge condition was initiated midway through the task with a newly introduced time limit. The challenge produced decreases in parental teaching and dyadic behavioural variability and increases in child negative affect and dyadic affective variability, measured by dynamic systems‐based methods. Children rated lower on externalizing showed respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression in response to challenge, whereas those rated higher on externalizing showed RSA augmentation. Additionally, select task changes in affect, behaviour, and physiology predicted teacher‐rated externalizing behaviours four months later. Findings indicate that the Parent–Child Challenge Task was effective in producing regulatory changes and suggest its utility in assessing biobehavioural self‐regulation and coregulation in parents and their preschoolers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is Self‐Complexity Linked to Better Coping? A Review of the Literature

Initial theorizing depicted self-complexity as the number of nonoverlapping self-aspects, such as traits, roles, and behaviors, and proposed that greater self-complexity is linked to better coping in response to stress and negative events. A review of the literature, however, finds inconsistent results. The inconsistency apparently arises from variation in the measurement of self-complexity. The different measures stem from disagreement over the definition of self-complexity, and the various definitions apparently result from theoretical disagreement about how to conceptualize the structure of self-knowledge. The present paper reviews the self-complexity literature and suggests directions for future research. The present paper suggests a positive, moderating relationship between self-complexity and coping, and additional research that includes careful measurement and definition of self-complexity may provide stronger support for this relationship.     

The relation between dimensions of attachment and internalizing or externalizing problems during adolescence

The authors examined the relation between dimensions of attachment and internalizing and externalizing problems in 15- to 16-year-old adolescents (n = 62) who completed the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; J. Feeney, P. Noller, & M. Hanrahan, 1994) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR; T. M. Achenbach, 1991). In total, the ASQ dimensions accounted for 48% of the variance in scores on the broad YSR internalizing problem scale. Three ASQ dimensions (confidence, discomfort with closeness, preoccupation with relationships) accounted for unique variance. Girls exhibited higher problem scores than did boys even when the authors considered ASQ scores. The authors observed comparable results for the anxious/depressed subscales. The confidence, discomfort, and preoccupation dimensions predicted scores on the withdrawn subscale. The authors observed weak relations or no relations between results on the ASQ and the externalizing problems scale. In conclusion, dimensions of attachment are powerful predictors of internalizing problems in adolescents. The authors discussed the potential cause and effect relationship between attachment variables and self-reported problems.     

Changes in functional status among older adults in Japan: successful and usual aging

This research aimed to chart the trajectories of functional status in old age in Japan and to assess how self-rated health and cognitive functioning differentiate these trajectories and account for interpersonal differences. Data came from a 5-wave panel study of a national sample of 2,200 Japanese older adults between 1987 and 1999. The sample as a whole showed an accelerated increase in functional limitations with age. approximated by a quadratic function. More important, 3 major trajectories of functional change were identified: (a) minimal functional decrement, (b) early onset of functional impairment. and (c) late onset of functional impairment. These findings may serve as useful benchmarks for observations derived from other developed nations.     

Influences of preclinical dementia and impending death on the magnitude of age-related cognitive deficits

The authors examined the influence of preclinical dementia and impending death on the cross-sectional relationship between age and performance in tasks assessing episodic memory, visuospatial skill, and verbal fluency. Increasing age was associated with a general decrease in cognitive performance. In addition, those who were to be diagnosed with dementia or had died by a 3-year follow-up, were older, and performed at a lower level than the remaining sample across all cognitive tasks at baseline. Nevertheless, removal of the preclinical dementia and impending death groups from the original sample affected the cross-sectional age-cognition relations relatively little. This pattern of findings suggests that the biological aging process exerts negative influences on cognitive functioning beyond those resulting from disease and mortality.     

On Being Poor and Feeling Poor: Low Socioeconomic Status and the Moral Self

Persons of low socioeconomic status generallyexperience worse health and shorter lives thantheir better off counterparts. They alsosuffer a greater incidence of adversepsychosocial characteristics, such as lowself-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-masteryand increased cynicism and hostility. Thesepopulation data suggest another category ofharm to persons: diminished moral agency. Chronic socioeconomic deprivation can createenvironments that undermine the development ofself and capacities constitutive to moralagency – i.e., the capacity forself-determination and crafting a life of one'sown. The harm affects not only the choicesa person makes, but the chooser herself. Thismoral harm is particularly salient in modernWestern societies, especially in the UnitedStates, where success and failure is attributedto the individual, with little notice of thelarger social and political realities thatinform an individual's circumstances and choices.