Gender Role Development and Body Image among Male and Female First Year College Students

In the current study we examined associations between gender role development and body image. Male and female first-semester college students (N = 434) who identified as African American, Latino/a American, and European American completed surveys about gendered personality traits (instrumentality/expressivity), gender role attitudes, and aspects of body image (e.g., satisfaction, orientation). Gendered traits were more frequently associated with body image than were gender role attitudes. In particular, individuals who were more instrumental and less inauthentic in their relationships felt more positive about their bodies. Gender role attitudes were also associated with body image, but sometimes in an unexpected direction. These findings highlight the importance of examining multiple components of gender role development and body image in both men and women.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD. This research was supported by grant R01 HD 41720 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Eva S. Lefkowitz.     

Internet-Delivered Exposure-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents With Functional Abdominal Pain or Functional Dyspepsia: A Feasibility Study

Functional abdominal pain (FAP) and functional dyspepsia (FD) are common in adolescents and associated with low quality of life. Exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficient for adult and adolescent irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but has never been evaluated for adolescent FAP/FD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and potential efficacy of a novel disorder-specific Internet-delivered CBT (Internet-CBT) for adolescents with FAP or FD, using an uncontrolled open pilot including 31 adolescents. The Internet-CBT consisted of 10 weekly online modules, which focused mainly on exposure to abdominal symptoms. Parents received modules to help them reduce unhelpful parental behaviors. Participants reported the treatment to be credible, and an overall satisfaction with the treatment. Data attrition rate was low (7%) and adherence to treatment was acceptable. We saw a significant and large effect on the primary outcome, pain intensity, at posttreatment (d = 1.20, p < .001) that was further improved after 6 months (d = 1.69, p < .001). Participants also made significant and large improvements on gastrointestinal symptoms (d = 0.84, p < .001) and quality of life (d = 0.84, p < .001) that were sustained or further improved at follow-up 6 months after treatment. This study demonstrated that exposure-based Internet-CBT, tailored for adolescents with FAP or FD, is a feasible treatment that potentially improves pain intensity, gastrointestinal symptoms, and quality of life.     

Irritability and parenting practices as mediational variables between temperament and affective,anxiety, and oppositional defiant problems

Irritability and parenting are potential targets for transdiagnostic studies to identify the common and core dysfunctional characteristics underlying several diagnostic pictures with the goal of addressing these issues in treatment. Our objective was to investigate the different paths from temperament to child psychopathology (affective, anxiety, and oppositional problems) through irritability and parenting using a prospective design from ages 3 to 7. A sample of 614 3-year-old preschoolers was followed at ages 4, 6, and 7. Parents answered questionnaires about temperament (age 3), irritability (age 4), parenting practices (age 6), and psychopathology (age 7). Statistical analyses were carried out through structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the mediation effect of irritability and parenting practices from temperament (negative affectivity and effortful control) through to affective, anxious, and oppositional problems. The proposed model fit the data well. SEM showed (a) an indirect effect from temperament to affective problems, via irritability and positive parenting; (b) a direct effect from negative affectivity to anxiety, plus an indirect effect from both temperament dimensions, via irritability and autonomy parenting practices; and (c) an indirect effect from temperament to oppositional problems, via irritability and punitive parenting. Irritability and parenting are transdiagnostic mediational variables that should be focused on in intervention programs for affective, anxiety, and oppositional problems.     

Observers’ reactions to workplace incivility in the masculine domain: How does role congruency explain gender bias in future workers?

Based on Role Congruity Theory, we tested the hypothesis of gender bias by examining gender differences in observers’ evaluations of the awareness and acceptability of workplace incivility gender‐dyad interaction. Three hundred and ninety‐six Spanish high school students (55.3% female) read one scenario of overt incivility (publicly humiliates and openly doubts the employee's judgment) or covert (omits and pays little attention) from a leader (female vs. male) toward a subordinate (female vs. male) in engineering. Results indicated gender differences among observers. From the leader actor of incivility, males were more aware and accepted less the incivility when performed by a female leader in a male domain; whereas females were more aware and accepted less incivility than males in all cases. Regarding the subordinate target of incivility, only females were more aware and accepted less incivility, and both males and females were more aware and accepted less covert incivility. Our results reveal practical implications for interventions from a gender perspective.     

Children's knowledge acquisition through film: influence of programme characteristics

Several characteristics of educational programmes for children are discussed to influence learning of content. In the present study, positive effects of a preview and inserted summaries in educational films for learning are examined. A total of 127 6‐and 8‐year‐old participating children watched one of the four educational film versions: The original film (without preview and summaries), a version with a preview, with inserted summaries or with a verbal ‘preview’. One week later, children's recollection of facts was tested in a memory interview. Results show that previews and summaries in educational films can enhance learning, and that visual scene repetition appears to further boost knowledge acquisition. Formal and content characteristics of educational programmes are discussed in terms of the underlying mechanisms influencing children's cognitive processing and learning. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of mothers' control in children's mastery orientation: a time frame analysis

Important to understanding the process by which parents' control shapes children's motivation is identifying the time frame in which it does so. To this end, mothers and their 4-year-old children were observed interacting for 15 min while working on a challenging task twice over 6 months. Mothers' control and children's mastery orientation were coded in 1-min intervals at both times. Analyses over the 6 months indicated that mothers' heightened control foreshadowed children's dampened mastery because mothers' control was stable over time. Analyses over the 15-min interactions revealed that the more controlling mothers were one minute, the less mastery oriented children were the next minute, adjusting for their earlier mastery. Moreover, when mothers began these interactions highly controlling, children's mastery was particularly likely to decrease over the 15 min. Taken together, the results suggest the effect of mothers' control on children's mastery is immediate and maintained through mothers' continued controlling practices.     

Do we only dream in colour? A comparison of reported dream colour in younger and older adults with different experiences of black and white media

This study aimed to find out whether differences in the reported colour of dreams can be attributed to the influence of black and white media or to methodological issues. Two age groups, with different media experience, were compared on questionnaire and diary measures of dream colour. Analysis revealed that people who had access to black and white media before colour media experienced more greyscale dreams than people with no such exposure, and there were no differences between diary and questionnaire measures of dream colour. Moreover, there were inter-group differences in the recall quality of colour and black and white dreams that point to the possibility that true greyscale dreams occur only in people with black and white media experience.     

The use of safety behaviours to manage intrusive memories in depression

Cognitive models of clinical disorders conceptualise cognitive and behavioural safety-seeking behaviours as central to symptom persistence because they prevent disconfirmation of key maintaining beliefs. Despite growing evidence of the role of negative beliefs about intrusive memories in depression, it remains unclear why such beliefs persist. Accordingly, we examined whether safety behaviours in response to unhelpful beliefs about intrusive memories might play a role in their maintenance. Eighteen high dysphoric (i.e., BDI-II12) individuals who reported an intrusive negative autobiographical memory in the past week completed a battery of measures about their memory, associated negative beliefs and safety behaviours adopted in response to their beliefs. The most commonly endorsed beliefs reflected themes of wanting to control memories (e.g., ‘I should be able to rid my mind of this memory’) and self-deprecation about experiencing them (e.g., ‘Because I can’t control this memory, I am a weak person’). The beliefs prompted a range of safety behaviours, with cognitive distraction being the most common. The findings demonstrate that safety behaviours are common in response to maladaptive beliefs about intrusive memories. Treatment developments in this area are needed, and should incorporate strategies to challenge beliefs about memories, reduce the use of safety behaviours, and promote processing of intrusive memories.     

"Did you have a nice evening?" A day-level study on recovery experiences, sleep, and affect

In this study, the authors used a within-person design to examine the relation between recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery experiences) during leisure time, sleep, and affect in the next morning. Daily survey data gathered over the course of 1 work week from 166 public administration employees analyzed with a hierarchical linear modeling approach showed that low psychological detachment from work during the evening predicted negative activation and fatigue, whereas mastery experiences during the evening predicted positive activation and relaxation predicted serenity. Sleep quality showed relations with all affective states variables. This study adds to research on job-stress recovery and affect regulation by showing which specific experiences from the nonwork domain may improve affect before the start of the next working day.     

We will hunt them down: How social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism fuel ethnic persecution of immigrants in fundamentally different ways

Despite the fact that SDO and RWA are correlated with one another and both predict support for ethnic persecution of immigrants, it is argued that this aggression is provoked for very different reasons. For authoritarians, outgroup aggression against immigrants should primarily be provoked by immigrant refusal to assimilate into the dominant culture because this violates ingroup conformity. In contrast, SDO should be associated with aggression against immigrants who do assimilate into the dominant culture because this blurs existing status boundaries between groups. Using samples of American and Swiss college students, the data were consistent with this status boundary enforcement hypothesis regarding social dominators and largely consistent with the ingroup conformity hypothesis regarding authoritarians. National and ethnic identification did not account for these results. The results further support the argument that outgroup prejudice and discrimination is most fruitfully seen as an interactive function of individual differences and situational constraints.