Unit Cohesion,Resilience, and Mental Health of Soldiers in Basic Combat Training

Military unit cohesion has been shown to correlate with physical and psychological outcomes. However, little is known about the development of cohesion in the early days of military service during Basic Combat Training (BCT) and how it relates to positive support and the negative stressors of training. The current study assessed the development of unit cohesion across the 10-week BCT period (N = 1,939), and the relation of cohesion to stress, resilience, mental health measures, and BCT outcomes (graduation, passing the Army Physical Fitness Test, and final Basic Rifle Marksmanship scores). The sample was primarily male (62%), under age 25 (88%), and unmarried (88%). All putative mediators showed significant change over time. Unit cohesion increased over time (slope 0.22; p < .001), and these increases were associated with decreases in psychological distress (p < .001), sleep problems (p < .001), and tolerance of BCT stressors (p < .001), as well as increases in resilience (p < .001), confidence managing stress reactions (p < .001), and positive states of mind (p < .001). Unit cohesion was indirectly associated with successful graduation and passing the Army Physical Fitness Test through cohesion-related improvement in psychological distress, resilience, and confidence managing reactions to stress. Sleep problems also mediated BCT graduation. Cohesion effects on the Basic Rifle Marksmanship scores were mediated by psychological distress and tolerance of BCT stressors only. These results suggest that unit cohesion may play a key role in the development of psychological health among new soldiers.     

Selective and sustained attention in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele

This study examined memory functioning in children and adolescents with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (DS; velocardiofacial syndrome). An overall verbal better than nonverbal memory pattern was evident on the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL), with children with 22q11.2 DS performing significantly below their siblings and children with low average IQ but similar to children with autism on facial memory. Children with 22q11 DS also performed significantly below their siblings on tests of verbal working memory. Children with autism performed significantly poorer than the siblings of children with 22q11.2 DS only on their recall of stories. Delayed recall was significantly poorer in children with 22q11.2 DS and children with autism, compared to sibling controls. Although there were no significant group differences on tests of multiple trial verbal or visual learning, a relative weakness was noted with multiple trial visual learning in children with 22q11.2 DS and their siblings, suggesting that an alternative or interactive factor other than the deletion may account for the relatively better verbal compared to nonverbal memory abilities. Deficits in facial memory in children with both 22q11.2 DS and autism suggest disruptions in ventral temporal pathways such as between fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal/hippocampal regions whereas deficits in verbal working memory in children with 22q11.2 DS implicates dorsolateral prefrontal regions, both intimating aberrant white matter pathways.     

Social resources at a time of crisis: How gender stereotypes inform gendered leader evaluations

Research suggests that women are more likely than men to be selected for leadership positions when organizations are in a performance crisis, a phenomenon labeled the glass cliff. Two scenario studies demonstrate that the glass‐cliff effect is attenuated when organizational stakeholders support the decision to appoint a new leader (i.e., indicating that the new leader can rely on social resources). The glass‐cliff effect remains when this decision is not fully supported (i.e., indicating that the new leader is unable to rely on social resources). This moderation seems driven by beliefs that men are more likely to possess agentic leadership traits and women more communal leadership traits. When there is no performance crisis, these gendered beliefs are less influential, and thus, social resources do not inform people's leader evaluations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Youth as Partners, Participants or Passive Recipients: A Review of Children and Adolescents in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an orientation to research that places value on equitable collaborations between community members and academic partners, reflecting shared decision making throughout the research process. Although CBPR has become increasingly popular for research with adults, youth are less likely to be included as partners. In our review of the literature, we identified 399 articles described by author or MeSH keyword as CBPR related to youth. We analyzed each study to determine youth engagement. Not including misclassified articles, 27 % of percent of studies were community-placed but lacked a community partnership and/or participatory component. Only 56 (15 %) partnered with youth in some phase of the research process. Although youth were most commonly involved in identifying research questions/priorities and in designing/conducting research, most youth-partnered projects included children or adolescents in several phases of the research process. We outline content, methodology, phases of youth partnership, and age of participating youth in each CBPR with youth project, provide exemplars of CBPR with youth, and discuss the state of the youth-partnered research literature.     

The Integrated Self-Discrepancy Index: A Reliable and Valid Measure of Self-Discrepancies

This study examined the influence of sex of subject, sex of experimenter, and need for approval on Ss' perception of the sex items of the MMPI. Each of the 32 male and 32 female Ss was seen individually by one of 4 male and 4 female Es who instructed the S to rate the 16 items on a five-point favorability continuum.

The results are consistent with earlier findings that opposite-sexed E-S dyads are more likely to produce conventional, socially desirable responses than same-sexed dyads. The study also revealed that Ss with a high need for approval are more cautious and guarded in their evaluation of “negative” and “positive” sex items than Ss with a low need for approval. The overriding determinant of the favorability ratings, however, is the stimulus pull of the items themselves.     

Born to burnout: A meta-analytic path model of personality, job burnout, and work outcomes

We quantitatively summarized the relationship between Five-Factor Model personality traits, job burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment), and absenteeism, turnover, and job performance. All five of the Five-Factor Model personality traits had multiple true score correlations of .57 with emotional exhaustion, .46 with depersonalization, and .52 with personal accomplishment. Also, all three dimensions of job burnout had multiple correlations of .23 with absenteeism, .33 with turnover, and .36 with job performance. Meta-analytic path modeling indicated that the sequential ordering of job burnout dimensions was contingent on the focal outcome, supporting three different models of the burnout process. Finally, job burnout partially mediated the relationships between Five-Factor Model personality traits and turnover and job performance while fully mediating the relationships with absenteeism.     

An Examination of the Factor Structure and Scale Reliability of the Work Motivation Scale,the Motivation Sources Inventory

This study examined the factor structure and scale reliability of the Motivation Sources Inventory (MSI; Barbuto & Scholl, 1998 ), an instrument designed to measure the motivational concepts contained within the meta‐theory of motivation ( Leonard, Beauvais, & Scholl, 1999 ). Participants were comprised of financial‐service professionals, health‐industry administrators, and retail and distribution workers, all engaged in full‐time employment in Ireland. Data were collected through the administration of the Motivation Source Inventory (MSI) to a sample of working professionals (N = 252). Factor analyses, scale reliabilities, and inter‐item correlations were conducted. Results of the current study did not support the scale structure reported by the instrument developers. The implications of these results and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Teacher-child relationships as dynamic systems

The purpose of the present study was to examine factors associated with the quality of the teacher-child relationship from first through fifth grade using data from phases I, II and III of the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a prospective study of 1364 children from birth through sixth grade. On average, children evidenced moderately high quality relationships with teachers in fifth grade. However, there was extensive variation in fifth grade relationship quality across children. Children who received more support and stimulation at home and whose parents had higher quality interactions with the school had higher quality relationships. Additionally, children in classrooms with more positive environments and better management had higher quality relationships. Lastly, females, European-American children, children with lower levels of behavior problems and children who had higher quality relationships with their teachers in kindergarten also had higher quality relationships with teachers. On average, children evidenced decreases in the quality of their relationships with teachers from first through fifth grade. Interestingly, children whose parents had more contact with their schools, who were in schools where teachers received higher salaries and in classrooms that had more positive emotional climates and that were better managed evidenced slower rates of decline in relationship quality. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Types of Faith and Emotional Intelligence

In this article, I depict four types of relational faith (functional-cooperative, oppositional-closed, mutual-person, and transcendent) and their relation to emotional intelligence. I begin with a brief definition of emotional intelligence, as well as the research that has supported a shift in understanding the necessity of emotions in cognitive and social development. This sets the stage for describing the types of relational faith, using the notion of emotional intelligence to differentiate between adaptive and maladaptive manifestations of each faith type. This perspective serves as a lens for identifying the varied and complex types of faith-relations manifested in daily life within or outside of the church, synagogue or mosque.     

Movement duration does not affect automatic online control

Pisella et al. (2000) have shown that fast aiming movements are automatically modified on-line in response to a change in target position. Specifically, when a movement is less than 300 ms in duration the reach is completed to a target’s new location even when one never intended to respond to the target jump. In contrast, when movements are slower, the reach is completed according to instructions. At present, it is unclear if it is possible for one’s intentions to guide the initial stages of these slow movements. To determine if the intentional control mechanism can guide the initial stages of a slow aiming movement, participants aimed to targets that could jump at movement onset, with a slow and very slow movement time goal. In particular, participants were to point towards (“pro-point”) or away from (“anti-point”) the target jump, with a movement time goal of 500 or 1200 ms. Results showed that in the anti-point condition, movement trajectories first deviated in the same direction as the target jump, followed by a response in the intended (opposite) direction. This suggests that while movement outcome is controlled by the intentional system, even in these slow aiming movements the automatic system is engaged at movement onset.