Neighborhood Disorder and Children’s Antisocial Behavior: The Protective Effect of Family Support Among Mexican American and African American Families

Using data from a sample of 673 Mexican Origin families, the current investigation examined the degree to which family supportiveness acted as a protective buffer between neighborhood disorder and antisocial behavior during late childhood (i.e. intent to use controlled substances, externalizing, and association with deviant peers). Children's perceptions of neighborhood disorder fully mediated associations between census and observer measures of neighborhood disorder and their antisocial behavior. Family support buffered children from the higher rates of antisocial behavior generally associated with living in disorderly neighborhoods. An additional goal of the current study was to replicate these findings in a second sample of 897 African American families, and that replication was successful. These findings suggest that family support may play a protective role for children living in dangerous or disadvantaged neighborhoods. They also suggest that neighborhood interventions should consider several points of entry including structural changes, resident perceptions of their neighborhood and family support.     

The dynamic nature of the stress appraisal process and the infusion of affect

Very little is known about the process in which people reappraise a stressful environment or the factors that may influence this process. In the current study, we address the several limitations to previous research regarding stress reappraisals and explore the role of affect on this process. A total of 320 participants (mean age = 20 years, 60% male) completed an increasingly demanding team-based coordination task. Mood and stress appraisals were assessed at three time points using self-report surveys during four different waves of data collection. The longitudinal design enabled us to assess primary and secondary reappraisals (change in appraisals during the experiment), task-irrelevant affect (affect assessed prior to experiment participation), and task-relevant affect (change in affect experienced during the experiment). Guided by the Transactional Theory of Stress, we argue that the relationship between primary reappraisal and secondary reappraisal is an accurate representation of a dynamic stress appraisal process. We found that participants were more likely to engage in the stress appraisal process when they experienced less task-irrelevant positive affect and greater task-relevant positive affect. Both task-irrelevant and task-relevant negative affect were not found to influence the stress appraisal process.     

Adolescent socialization and use of licit and illicit substances: Impact on adult health

Abstract

This study examined the impact of adolescent substance use on young adult health. Longitudinal data from 825 participants were assessed when the participants were junior high school and high school students (1969-1973) and again in 1981. Latent variable models were used to determine what effect adolescent drug use had on later health. General substance use, which included tobacco, alcohol, stimulants, sedatives, and other hard drugs, had a small effect on adult health problems associated with substance use, and also predicted accidents related to substance use. In addition, the specific use of tobacco and cannabis in adolescence predicted later respiratory problems, while cigarette smoking during adolescence also predicted decreased physical hardiness. Lower adolescent socialization predicted post high school accidents (automobile and other) serious enough to require medical attention, and predicted increased psychosomatic and seizure symptoms, as well as general psychiatric distress. Implications of these results for the successful prevention or intervention of drug use are discussed. In addition to these results, gender differences are also examined.     

Understanding the dynamics of correct and error responses in free recall: Evidence from externalized free recall

The dynamics of correct and error responses in a variant of delayed free recall were examined in the present study. In the externalized free recall paradigm, participants were presented with lists of words and were instructed to subsequently recall not only the words that they could remember from the most recently presented list, but also any other words that came to mind during the recall period. Externalized free recall is useful for elucidating both sampling and postretrieval editing processes, thereby yielding more accurate estimates of the total number of error responses, which are typically sampled and subsequently edited during free recall. The results indicated that the participants generally sampled correct items early in the recall period and then transitioned to sampling more erroneous responses. Furthermore, the participants generally terminated their search after sampling too many errors. An examination of editing processes suggested that the participants were quite good at identifying errors, but this varied systematically on the basis of a number of factors. The results from the present study are framed in terms of generate-edit models of free recall.     

Functionalism and Causal Exclusion

Abstract: Recent work by Jaegwon Kim and others suggest that functionalism leaves mental properties causally inefficacious in some sense. I examine three lines of argument for this conclusion. The first appeals to Occam's Razor; the second appeals to a ban on overdetermination; and the third charges that the kind of response I favor to these arguments forces me to give up the homogeneity of mental and physical causation. I show how each argument fails. While I concede that a positive theory of mental causation is desirable, there is no reason to think that functionalism renders such a theory unattainable.