Effects of harsh parenting and positive parenting practices on youth aggressive behavior: The moderating role of early pubertal timing

Prior research indicates that early pubertal timing is associated with aggressive behavior, particularly in the context of adversity as postulated in the contextual amplification hypothesis. However, few studies have examined harsh parenting as the context for the effect of early pubertal timing. Even fewer studies have tested the interactive effect of early pubertal timing and positive parenting on aggressive behavior. In this study, we tested the proposition that early pubertal timing, contrary to the general conception of it as a vulnerability, indexed susceptibility, and thus early maturing individuals were affected more by their environment in a “for better and for worse” manner. The sample consisted of 411 community‐recruited youth aged 11–12 years (51% boys, 80% African Americans). Participants reported Tanner Stages of pubertal development, aggressive behavior and harsh parenting practice of their parents. Puberty scores were standardized with groups of the same age, sex, and ethnicity, and those that scored the top one‐third were defined as early maturing individuals. Parents reported youth's aggressive behavior and their parenting practices towards the youth, including harsh parenting and positive parenting. Early pubertal timing significantly moderated the relationship between harsh/positive parenting and aggressive behavior. Specifically, harsh parenting was positively associated with aggressive behavior to a larger degree among early maturing individuals than among on‐time/late‐maturing individuals. Positive parenting was inversely associated with aggressive behavior but only among early maturing individuals. This study is the first to document support for early pubertal timing as susceptibility to the environmental influences in relation to aggressive behavior. Theoretical and intervention implications are discussed.

     

Response to Lombardi

We address some of the individual points that Lombardi makes, some that we agree with and some that as infant mental health clinicians we do not agree with—for example, that at the beginning of life the mind is still not there—and try to show why we think that is.     

A Social-Cognitive Model of Driver Aggression: Taking Situations and Individual Differences into Account

Aggressive driving is a phenomenon that has taken on tremendous significance in society. While the issue has been studied from perspectives of several disciplines, relatively few comprehensive empirical investigations have been conducted. This may be due, at least in part, to a scarcity of comprehensive theoretical works in the field, from which methodical research hypotheses could be derived. This paper reviews major extant theories of general aggression to offer a rationale for choosing a particular framework to apply to the topic of aggressive driving. The social-cognitive model of aggressive driving is recommended, as it takes into account wide-ranging cognitive, situational, and dispositional factors. Implications for future research are also considered.     

The concept of voluntary consent

Our primary focus is on analysis of the concept of voluntariness, with a secondary focus on the implications of our analysis for the concept and the requirements of voluntary informed consent. We propose that two necessary and jointly sufficient conditions must be satisfied for an action to be voluntary: intentionality, and substantial freedom from controlling influences. We reject authenticity as a necessary condition of voluntary action, and we note that constraining situations may or may not undermine voluntariness, depending on the circumstances and the psychological capacities of agents. We compare and evaluate several accounts of voluntariness and argue that our view, unlike other treatments in bioethics, is not a value-laden theory. We also discuss the empirical assessment of individuals' perceptions of the degrees of noncontrol and self-control. We propose use of a particular Decision Making Control Instrument. Empirical research using this instrument can provide data that will help establish appropriate policies and procedures for obtaining voluntary consent to research.     

Fruitful visual search: Inhibition of return in a virtual foraging task

Inhibition of return (IOR) has long been viewed as a foraging facilitator in visual search. We investigated the contribution of IOR in a task that approximates natural foraging more closely than typical visual search tasks. Participants in a fully immersive virtual reality environment manually searched an array of leaves for a hidden piece of fruit, using a wand to select and examine each leaf location. Search was slower than in typical IOR paradigms, taking seconds instead of a few hundred milliseconds. Participants also made a speeded response when they detected a flashing leaf that either was or was not in a previously searched location. Responses were slower when the flashing leaf was in a previously searched location than when it was in an unvisited location. These results generalize IOR to an approximation of a naturalistic visual search setting and support the hypothesis that IOR can facilitate foraging. The experiment also constitutes the first use of a fully immersive virtual reality display in the study of IOR.     

A covariance structure analysis of employees' response to performance feedback

This longitudinal study used D. R. Ilgen, C. D. Fisher, and M. S. Taylor's (1979) feedback process model as a theoretical framework to determine whether a sequential chain of cognitive variables mediates an individual's response to performance feedback. One hundred two employees were surveyed 2 weeks after their performance appraisal, and performance was assessed 11 months later at the end of the review cycle. Covariance structure analysis supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs underlying the model and the constellation of structural relationships. A set of cognitive variables was found to completely mediate the relationship between an individual's receipt and response to feedback. Implications for the feedback process and future research are discussed.     

Between reality and imagination: when is spatial updating automatic?

Spatial updating has been shown to occur automatically and operate on both real and imagined environments. In three experiments, we compared spatial updating in real and imagined environments and examined when automatic spatial updating occurs. Participants learned the locations of real objects in a room and imagined being in their kitchens. They turned to face either the kitchen or the room targets and pointed to the targets before and after turning. Although objects in the real environment were automatically updated when the participants turned in the imagined environment, targets in the imagined environment were not automatically updated when the participants turned in the real environment. However, explicit spatial updating of imagined environments was as efficient as that of real environments. Automatic updating of the real objects required perceptual experience of these targets, either visually or by touch, and did not occur when the targets were described verbally. Implications for spatial cognition research are discussed.