Getting by with a little help from self and others: self-esteem and social support as resources during early adolescence

Influences of social support and self-esteem on adjustment in early adolescence were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study (N = 350). Multi-informant data (youth and parent) were used to assess both overall levels and balance in peer- versus adult-oriented sources for social support and self-esteem. Findings obtained using latent growth-curve modeling were consistent with self-esteem mediating effects of social support on both emotional and behavioral adjustment. Lack of balance in social support and self-esteem in the direction of stronger support and esteem from peer-oriented sources predicted greater levels and rates of growth in behavioral problems. Results indicate a need for process-oriented models of social support and self-esteem and sensitivity to patterning of sources for each resource relative to adaptive demands of early adolescence.     

Power in randomized group comparisons: the value of adding a single intermediate time point to a traditional pretest-posttest design

Adding a pretest as a covariate to a randomized posttest-only design increases statistical power, as does the addition of intermediate time points to a randomized pretest-posttest design. Although typically 5 waves of data are required in this instance to produce meaningful gains in power, a 3-wave intensive design allows the evaluation of the straight-line growth model and may reduce the effect of missing data. The authors identify the statistically most powerful method of data analysis in the 3-wave intensive design. If straight-line growth is assumed, the pretest-posttest slope must assume fairly extreme values for the intermediate time point to increase power beyond the standard analysis of covariance on the posttest with the pretest as covariate, ignoring the intermediate time point.     

Emotions Evoked by Viewing Pictures may Affect Temporal Aspects of Visual Processing

We examined how impression (such as safety, pleasantness, and impact), as well as emotional arousal and valence, evoked by viewing a picture affects temporal resolution of visual processing and perceived picture duration. In the first experiment as an index of temporal resolution of visual processing, we measured the noticeable duration of a monochrome picture after presenting a color picture. In the second experiment, we measured the duration of the picture presentation, which was equivalent to the duration of the presentation of a gray rectangle that should not evoke specifically safe or pleasant impressions. We found that the minimum duration in which an observer could notice a monochrome image in viewing a dangerous picture was shorter than that in viewing safe pictures. We also found that observers overestimated the duration of the picture presentation in viewing dangerous pictures. However, there was no significant correlation between the results of the two experiments. These results suggest that the basis for improvement of the temporal resolution in visual processing differs from that for the elongation of the perceived duration.     

Bilingual enhancements have no socioeconomic boundaries

To understand how socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism simultaneously operate on cognitive and sensory function, we examined executive control, language skills, and neural processing of sound in adolescents who differed in language experience (i.e. English monolingual or Spanish‐English bilingual) and level of maternal education (a proxy for SES). We hypothesized that experience communicating in two languages provides an enriched linguistic environment that can bolster neural precision in subcortical auditory processing which, in turn, enhances cognitive and linguistic function, regardless of the adolescent's socioeconomic standing. Consistent with this, we report that adolescent bilinguals of both low and high SES demonstrate more stable neural responses, stronger phonemic decoding skills, and heightened executive control, relative to their monolingual peers. These results support the argument that bilingualism can bolster cognitive and neural function in low‐SES children and suggest that strengthened neural response consistency provides a biological mechanism through which these enhancements occur.     

MFT Program Policies on Referral of LGBT Clients

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine program policies that govern whether or not student therapists can refer lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer clients, based on the therapist’s religious beliefs. We conducted a qualitative survey with program directors of Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education—accredited marriage and family therapy programs to ask what policies monitor client referrals that are solely based on the therapist’s beliefs toward sexual orientation and gender identity. Implications revolve around finding congruency between the program’s philosophy, policy, expectations for students, and ethics. We provide recommendations for addressing these issues early on in the recruitment process.     

Faces as forms in the world of the newborn

A number of recent studies have indicated that newborns can learn to recognize mother's face within a few hours of birth. Two of the present authors suggested that a simple auto-associative net might explain that rapid learning. This paper reports three experiments in which the newborn's ability to recognize a learned face over three transformations was tested. The transformations were: (1) a photonegative transformation, (2) a size change and (3) rotation in the third dimension of visual space. Existing auto-associative nets cannot maintain identification across these transformations. The newborns succeeded with all three. An alternative proposal based on the idea that there is a built-in specification of the true shape of a face in the frontal parallel plane is outlined. These data present a challenge not only to associationist theories but also to their main rival, differentiation theory.     

Do Negative Cognitive Styles Confer Vulnerability to Depression?

According to the cognitive-vulnerability hypothesis of depression, negative cognitive styles confer vulnerability to depression when people confront negative life events. In this article, we present evidence that negative cognitive styles do indeed confer vulnerability to clinically significant depressive disorders and suicidality and discuss possible developmental antecedents of cognitive vulnerability to depression. We consider the issue of stability versus change in cognitive vulnerability to depression and discuss the broader implications of the cognitive-vulnerability findings for mental and physical health.     

Novelty and frequency as determinants of newborn preference

The debate over whether infants prefer a familiar stimulus over a novel stimulus has persisted for over 30 years, and there is evidence which supports both sides of the question. However, the research which supports the preference for the familiar uses different measures than that which supports the preference for novelty. In the first experiment, the preference for the familiar was tested by making one stimulus more familiar than the others presented. A target of a ‘familiar’ face was presented eight times more frequently than the other faces. During the experiment, the infants could choose at which face they looked and for how long. It was found that the infants significantly preferred the familiar face over any one of the novel faces, especially when the familiar face was presented first. Substituting auditory for visual stimuli, the second experiment was a replication of the first experiment. Consonant–vowel syllables were used instead of faces. Overall, 17 stimuli were used: one repeating ‘familiar’ sound, and 16 novel sounds. It was found that the infants significantly preferred the familiar sound over any of the novel sounds. As found in Experiment 1, the infants also had a greater preference for the familiar sound when it was presented first.