Psychometric Properties of the Parental Distress Subscale

Using data from the Fragile Family Child Wellbeing Study, we examined the psychometric properties of the parental distress subscale of the parenting stress index—short form. Unlike previous studies, we found that the two-factor model did not fit the data significantly better than the one-factor model. Moreover, the results indicated that both the one-factor and the two-factor models provided only a marginal fit to the data. This finding was consistent across two time periods. Implications of these findings and future research are discussed.     

More of myself: Manipulating interoceptive awareness by heightened attention to bodily and narrative aspects of the self

Psychology distinguishes between a bodily and a narrative self. Within neuroscience, models of the bodily self are based on exteroceptive sensorimotor processes or on the integration of interoceptive sensations. Recent research has revealed interactions between interoceptive and exteroceptive processing of self-related information, for example that mirror self-observation can improve interoceptive awareness. Using heartbeat perception, we measured the effect on interoceptive awareness of two experimental manipulations, designed to heighten attention to bodily and narrative aspects of the self. Participants gazed at a photograph of their own face or at self-relevant words. In both experimental conditions interoceptive awareness was significantly increased, compared to baseline. Results show that attention to narrative aspects of self, previously regarded as relying on higher-order processes, has an effect similar to self-face stimuli in improving interoceptive awareness. Our findings extend the previously observed interaction between the bodily self and interoception to more abstract amodal representations of the self.     

Revealing the invisible hand: The role of teachers in children's peer experiences

To introduce this special issue, the concept of the teacher as an “invisible hand” is presented as a metaphor to describe the potentially influential but relatively understudied contribution that educators are likely to have on children’s peer relationships and their broader interpersonal growth. Building from conceptual work distinguishing between the role of adults and peers in children’s social development, we summarize empirical support for the view that teachers are in a position to develop and guide the classroom as a society by simultaneously directing institutional expectations while also providing students with opportunities to collectively construct their own peer culture. Key social development constructs are reviewed from this lens, and the four articles and two commentaries that constitute this special issue are discussed in relation to their contributions to clarifying and extending current views of the role of teachers in school social dynamics. We conclude by considering intervention implications of this work, and we argue that teachers are the one professional in a child’s life who have the opportunity to view the whole child in relation to the social ecology in which he or she is embedded.     

The development and psychometric evaluation of a new measure of dissociative activities

The psychometric properties of a new measure of dissociative behaviors, the Scale of Dissociative Activities (SODAS), were evaluated. Undergraduates (n = 533) completed the SODAS, 2 other established self-report measures of dissociative behaviors, and a measure of socially desirable responding. A randomly selected subset of participants (n = 100) also participated in an additional reliability and validity follow-up study. The SODAS was found to be internally consistent (a =.95) and temporally stable (r =.77) over an average 38-day interval. The validity of the SODAS was established by a moderately low negative correlation with social desirability, high correlations with other self-report measures of dissociation, and moderate to high correlations with samples of dissociative activities assessed in naturalistic environments with experience sampling methodology. Overall, the SODAS compared favorably to other existing self-report measures of dissociative behaviors. Directions for future research on the SODAS are discussed.