Co-Rumination Exacerbates Stress Generation among Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms

Through stress generation, individuals’ own thoughts and behaviors can actually lead to increases in their experience of stress. Unfortunately, stress generation is especially common among individuals who are already suffering from elevated depressive symptoms. However, despite the acknowledgement that some individuals with depressive symptoms generate greater stress than others, few studies have identified specific factors that could exacerbate stress generation among individuals with depressive symptoms. The present study examines co-rumination as a factor that might exacerbate stress generation among adolescents with depressive symptoms using a short-term longitudinal design. Considering these processes among adolescents was critical given that many youth experience increases in depressive symptoms at this developmental stage and that co-rumination also becomes more common at adolescence. Participants were 628 adolescents (326 girls; 302 boys) who reported on their depressive symptoms, experiences of stress, and co-rumination with a best friend. Interpersonal stressors (peer and family stress) and non-interpersonal stressors (school and sports stress) were assessed. Consistent with past research, adolescents with depressive symptoms experienced greater interpersonal and non-interpersonal stress over time. Importantly, co-rumination interacted with both depressive symptoms and gender in predicting increases in peer stress. Depressive symptoms predicted the generation of peer stress only for girls who reported high levels of co-rumination with friends. Implications for protecting youth with depressive symptoms against stress generation are discussed.     

Putting It on the Line: Telephone Counseling for Adolescent Smokers

Adolescent smokers need cessation help, but the question of how best to intervene remains unanswered. This article describes the empirically validated protocol of an established, well‐utilized adolescent telephone counseling program for smoking cessation, tailored to adolescent developmental needs and shown to increase clients' 6‐month prolonged abstinence rate significantly. Clinical issues addressed include client assessment, motivation, self‐efficacy, familial and social support, planning, coping, relapse‐sensitive call scheduling, and self‐image. Counselor training considerations are also discussed.     

Contributions of processing ability and knowledge to verbal memory tasks across the adult life-span

This study investigated the relationships of processing capacity and knowledge to memory measures that varied in retrieval difficulty and reliance on verbal knowledge in an adult life-span sample (N = 341). It was hypothesized that processing ability (speed and working memory) would have the strongest relationship to tasks requiring active retrieval and that knowledge (vocabulary ability) would be related to verbal fluency and cued recall, as participants relied upon verbal knowledge to retrieve category items (fluency) or develop associations (cued recall). Measurement and structural equation models were developed for the entire sample and separately for younger (aged 20-54 years, n = 168) and older (aged 55-92 years, n = 173) subgroups. In accordance with the hypotheses, processing ability was found to be most highly related to free recall, with additional significant relationships to cued recall, verbal fluency, and recognition. Knowledge was found to be significantly related only to verbal fluency and to cued recall. Moreover, knowledge was more important for older than for younger adults in mediating variance in cued recall, suggesting that older adults may use age-related increases in knowledge to partially compensate for processing declines when environmental support is available in memory tasks.     

Elementary school students with AD/HD: predictors of academic achievement

Academic underachievement frequently is associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD); however, the role of variables beyond AD/HD symptoms and cognitive mediators is unknown. Further, whether prediction models vary (a) relative to non-AD/HD students, (b) between math and reading, and (c) based on how achievement is defined has not been examined. Multiple measures (e.g., teacher ratings and behavior observations) were examined as predictors for concurrent achievement outcomes (standardized achievement test scores and report card grades) in math and reading in two samples of 1st through 4th grade children (136 with AD/HD, 53 without AD/HD). Teacher perceptions of academic skills were the strongest predictors of achievement test scores for both groups, while academic skills and enablers accounted for reading report card grades in children with AD/HD but not their normal counterparts. Implications of these findings for school-based assessment and intervention for students with AD/HD are discussed.     

Contribution Patterns in Major U.S. Marital and Family Therapy Journals: 1992 Through 2002

The institutional sources of articles published between 1992 and 2002 in five major family therapy journals—the American Journal of Family Therapy, Contemporary Family Therapy, Family Process, Journal of Family Psychology, and the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy were reviewed. Noteworthy similarities and differences as compared to earlier reviews were found. While no single institution dominated in numbers of publications, six of the top 10 institutions found between 1980 and 1995 were also found to be within the top 10 most productive institutions between 1992 and 2002. Patterns and changes in contributions from international sources, as well as from institutions with a COAMFTE-accredited program are discussed. Contributions from private practitioners and clinicians are also addressed.     

The White–Coat Effect: Physician Attire and Perceived Authority, Friendliness, and Attractiveness

Although previous studies have evaluated the effects of attire on doctor–patient interaction, the common assumption of a tradeoff between perceptions of medical authority/ status versus trustworthiness/openness has not been established. Thirty–eight male and 40 female participants rated their perceptions of same– and opposite–gender models who all were identified as doctors, but who were wearing different attire. The results indicate that authority and trust are not opposing factors and that a white coat and formal attire are clearly superior to casual attire. Additionally, perceptions of attractiveness of same– and opposite–gender doctors were rated, finding gender differences in perceptions different from, but theoretically similar to, prior findings. For females rating male models, perceptions of authority and attractiveness appear to be related.     

The Effect of Upward Feedback on Managerial Behavior

Un feed-back de gratification a été donné par des subordonnés aux managers australiens d'une firme internationale de prestation de services. Dans cette recherche quasi-expérimentale, la perfomance au travail de ces managers, a pu être observée six mois plus tard par les subordonnés comme s'étant accrue par rapport à la performance initiale et à ceux obtenus par un groupe de comparaison. L'efficacité personnelle modère la portée de ces résultats suggérant qu'elle joue un rôle clé en déterminant des réactions comportementales au feed-back de gratification. L'orientation vers un but d'apprentissage fut corrélée de manière significative à leur performance subséquente.
Upward feedback from subordinates was provided to Australian managers in an international professional services firm. The job performance of the managers in this quasi-experimental study was observed by subordinates to be significantly higher six months later, compared to both initial performance and subordinate ratings of a comparison group. Self-efficacy moderated this finding, suggesting that it plays a key role in determining behavioral reactions to upward feedback. The managers' learning goal orientation correlated significantly with their subsequent performance.     

Death anxiety and sexual risk-taking: different manifestations of the process of defense

College students(n = 162) completed measures of death anxiety and sexual risk-taking, with a thought listing procedure in-between. Those who completed the death anxiety measure first (Death Salient condition) reportedgreater willingness to engage in high-risk sexual behavior than the Non-Death Salient group. This result was consistent with the hypothesis that evoking death anxiety would produce denial-based defensive activity. Also, Death Salient participants reporting more death thoughts were lower on risk-taking, as predicted. Interestingly, Death Salient participants reporting stressful thoughts about issues unrelated to personal mortality (displacement) were also less willing to engage in high-risk sexual behavior. The results are discussed in relation to a new, avowal-based model of the process of psychological defense.     

Planning and articulation in incremental word production: syllable-frequency effects in English

We investigated the role of syllables during speech planning in English by measuring syllable-frequency effects. So far, syllable-frequency effects in English have not been reported. English has poorly defined syllable boundaries, and thus the syllable might not function as a prominent unit in English speech production. Speakers produced either monosyllabic (Experiment 1) or disyllabic (Experiment 2-4) pseudowords as quickly as possible in response to symbolic cues. Monosyllabic targets consisted of either high- or low-frequency syllables, whereas disyllabic items contained either a 1st or 2nd syllable that was frequency-manipulated. Significant syllable-frequency effects were found in all experiments. Whereas previous findings for disyllables in Dutch and Spanish-languages with relatively clear syllable boundaries-showed effects of a frequency manipulation on 1st but not 2nd syllables, in our study English speakers were sensitive to the frequency of both syllables. We interpret this sensitivity as an indication that the production of English has more extensive planning scopes at the interface of phonetic encoding and articulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

Identifying the task characteristics that predict children's construction task performance

Construction tasks form a major part of children's play and can be linked to achievement in maths and science. However there is a lack of understanding of construction task ability and development. Therefore, there is little foundation for the applied use of construction tasks, such as in teaching or research, as there are no apparent methods for assessing difficulty. This empirical research identifies four construction task characteristics that impact on cognition and predict construction task difficulty in children aged 7–8 and 10–11 years and adults. The results also reveal a developmental trajectory in construction ability. The research provides a method to quantify, predict and control the complexity of construction tasks for future research and to inform applied use. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.