Interviewing young children with props: prior experience matters

This study investigated the effects of prior experience with props used during an interview on young children's recall of an event. In a one-way design, we interviewed 4-year-old children 1 to 2 days after they participated in a staged event. One group of children played with toy replicas of items from the event prior to an interview with the toy props. Another group matched toy replicas to real items from the event prior to an interview with the toy props. A third group coloured before an interview with the toy props, and a fourth coloured before an interview with the real items. Finally, a fifth group coloured before an interview with no props, only verbal cues about the items that had been present. Results indicated that the condition in which children played with toy props prior to the interview had the lowest verbal accuracy during the interview. Children who saw toys for the first time during the interview behaviourally enacted the highest volume of correct information about the event. Implications for interviewing children are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global reports of childhood maltreatment versus recall of specific maltreatment experiences: Relationships with dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms

Although studies have suggested that reports of childhood maltreatment are related to depressive cognitions and symptom levels in adults, it is unclear whether the significant relations reported are due to the recall of specific maltreatment experiences, how individuals globally label their experiences (i.e., whether they believe they were maltreated during childhood), or both. Results from the current study supported the moderating role of global beliefs only for childhood sexual maltreatment. Specifically, the relationship between reports of specific childhood sexual maltreatment experiences and both dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptom levels was significant only among participants who also globally endorsed a history of childhood sexual maltreatment. In contrast, the correlates of specific childhood emotional and physical maltreatment experiences were, for the most part, independent of whether the participants globally endorsed childhood emotional or physical maltreatment, respectively.     

Parsing temporarily ambiguous complements

Holmes, Kennedy and Murray (1987) recently claimed that the empirical support for the Minimal Attachment Strategy of sentence parsing had been weakened by results they reported. They found that reading time for an ambiguous string of words did not decrease when it was preceded by an overt complementizer, which should have disambiguated it. Thus, they suggested that results that we (Frazier and Rayner, 1982) earlier attributed to Minimal Attachment were not due to “garden-path” effects, but rather reflected the extra complexity caused by having to process two sets of clausal relations instead of just one. In the present experiment, we replicated their experiment using eye movement data rather than the subject-paced reading task they used. We found that readers processed Nonminimal Attachment sentences with overt complementizers considerably faster than those without a complementizer. Our results showed that the complexity of Nonminimal Attachment sentences cannot be attributed to their clausal status per se. Differences between the tasks that might contribute to the different pattern of results across the experiments are discussed.     

Cognitive and Emotion‐Regulatory Mediators of the Relationship Between Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury Frequency

Nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent among late adolescents and predicts the onset of suicidal ideation and behavior. Although research has established an association between the behavioral approach system (BAS) and NSSI, less research has explored mechanisms underlying this relationship. The authors examined negative and positive emotion regulation patterns, as well as the BAS‐relevant cognitive style of self‐criticism, as potential mechanisms through which a hypersensitive BAS might be related to NSSI frequency. Late adolescents (N = 177) with high and moderate BAS levels completed measures of self‐criticism, positive emotion regulation, brooding, and both lifetime and last‐year frequency of NSSI. Results indicated that self‐criticism and positive emotion dampening independently mediated the relationship between BAS and last‐year frequency of NSSI. Self‐criticism also mediated the relationship between BAS and lifetime frequency of NSSI. Results suggest that cognitive and emotion‐regulatory styles may help to explain why high BAS individuals are likely to engage in NSSI.     

The development of emotion recognition from facial expressions and non‐linguistic vocalizations during childhood

Sensitivity to facial and vocal emotion is fundamental to children's social competence. Previous research has focused on children's facial emotion recognition, and few studies have investigated non‐linguistic vocal emotion processing in childhood. We compared facial and vocal emotion recognition and processing biases in 4‐ to 11‐year‐olds and adults. Eighty‐eight 4‐ to 11‐year‐olds and 21 adults participated. Participants viewed/listened to faces and voices (angry, happy, and sad) at three intensity levels (50%, 75%, and 100%). Non‐linguistic tones were used. For each modality, participants completed an emotion identification task. Accuracy and bias for each emotion and modality were compared across 4‐ to 5‐, 6‐ to 9‐ and 10‐ to 11‐year‐olds and adults. The results showed that children's emotion recognition improved with age; preschoolers were less accurate than other groups. Facial emotion recognition reached adult levels by 11 years, whereas vocal emotion recognition continued to develop in late childhood. Response bias decreased with age. For both modalities, sadness recognition was delayed across development relative to anger and happiness. The results demonstrate that developmental trajectories of emotion processing differ as a function of emotion type and stimulus modality. In addition, vocal emotion processing showed a more protracted developmental trajectory, compared to facial emotion processing. The results have important implications for programmes aiming to improve children's socio‐emotional competence.     

Wish You Were Queer: Exploring the Potential of Queer Play Parties to Arouse Social Change

Abstract

This article explores how the practice of BDSM sex parties within the queer community can inspire social structure alternatives conducive to sustainability. Drawing from the notion that the dominant social order of neoliberal hetero-patriarchy undermines our ability to address sustainability challenges as a collective, I demonstrate how the same culture disproportionately alienates the queer community. Taking from the theory of subaltern counterpublics, I highlight how social structures created at BDSM queer sex parties challenge dominant cultures and create spaces of inclusivity and radical participation, specifically through communication. These are key criteria called for in commons management, relevant for sustainable futures.     

Educational Trends for Expanding Women's Occupational Lives

Institutional changes are described which would facilitate the expansion of women's occupational lives. Part I reviews educational trends in schools, focusing on legislation and other activities to eliminate sex discrimination in federally supported educational institutions. Part II discusses current trends to interface education and work, and proposes a transitional work group model which incorporates feminist values and legitimizes the work place as a place for learning. Part III discusses trends towards participatory democracy and asserts that the training of women to use new technologies in communications and computers will increase their power to shape public policy. The conclusion points to the necessity for compensatory and anticipatory measures to ensure the representation of all groups of women in decision-making environments.