From cleaning up to helping out: Parental socialization and children's early prosocial behavior

Relations between parental socialization and infants’ prosocial behavior were investigated in sixty three 18- and 30-month old children. Parents’ socialization techniques (e.g., directives, negotiation, reasoning) differed for the two age groups, as did relations between socialization and different forms of emerging prosocial behavior (helping; sharing).     

Measuring secondhand smoke exposure in babies: the reliability and validity of mother reports in a sample of low-income families.

The reliability and validity of mother's reports of their infants' exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of low-income, low-education families (N = 141 mothers). At baseline and posttest, smoking mothers reported about their infants' SHS exposure at different locations and by different sources during the previous week. Findings show that mothers can give reliable accounts of the degree to which they contribute to their babies' SHS exposure. Mothers are able to differentiate between their own smoking behavior and the extent to which they expose their infants. Consistent with the overall exposure pattern, exposure caused by the mother and exposure occurring at home showed the strongest associations with biological and environmental measures. These findings suggest that smoking mothers can provide reliable and valid reports of the degree to which their infants are exposed to SHS.     

Correlates of household smoking bans in low-income families of children with and without asthma

Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) harms all children's health, especially children with asthma. Yet, children with asthma are as likely to live with smokers as healthy children. Household smoking bans are being advocated to reduce children's harm from SHS. To measure the effect of household smoking bans on child SHS exposure and to examine correlates of strict smoking bans in a low-income, diverse sample, 91 children with asthma were matched to 91 healthy children. All had at least one smoker living in their homes. Nicotine dosimeters, child cotinine assays, and maternal reports quantified child SHS exposures. Maternal reports of household smoking rules, behaviors, and beliefs, and other family characteristics were also gathered. The presence of a strict household smoking ban vastly reduced children's SHS exposures and was associated with fewer cigarettes smoked by the mother and by other family members, the belief that SHS was a personal health risk, having children with asthma, and living in a single-family home. Many children are exposed to high levels of SHS at home. Strict household smoking bans greatly decrease, but do not eliminate children's SHS exposure. Even in disadvantaged families, mutable factors were associated with strict smoking bans. Increased dissemination and use of established public health strategies are needed to reduce children's SHS exposures.     

Neurofeedback Treatment of Depression and Anxiety

A robust body of research documents that there are biological predispositions that often exist for depression, anxiety, and obsessive–compulsive disorder. However, new research has shown that medication is only mildly more effective than placebo in the treatment of these problems. In treating these conditions, neurofeedback (EEG biofeedback) may offer an alternative to invasive treatments such as medication, ECT, and intense levels of transcrancial magnetic stimulation. This paper reviews the neurofeedback literature with these problems, finding particularly positive research support for the treatment of anxiety disorders. New findings on the neurofeedback treatment of depression are presented.     

Decay functions and criminal spatial processes: geographical offender profiling of volume crime

Although it is now well established across diverse samples that the frequency of offending ‘decays’ as distance from the home/base increases, it remains unclear what form of decay function best characterises this relationship. Different forms of decay function reflect different patterns and rates of decrease in the likelihood of offending as distance from the home/base increases. These different patterns imply rather different underlying psychological processes. Therefore, considerations of the particular function characterising distance decay elucidate explanations of offender spatial behaviour. To bring to light the possible psychological and behavioural processes inherent in offending distance decay, the present study examined the fit of logarithmic, negative exponential, and quadratic decay functions to the distribution of the distances travelled to offend by a sample of 70 prolific burglars from the UK. It is argued that these functions are consistent with the operation of perceptual processes of magnitude estimation, friction or effort effects, and the influences of cost‐benefit assessments, respectively. The results indicate that offending distance decay patterns most closely fit the logarithmic function, consistent with Stevens' perceptual processes of distortion in magnitude estimation, whilst not ruling out additional processes relating to the increased effort required in travelling greater distances to offend. Because most geographical profiling systems are built upon the distance decay function, the impact of utilising the different forms of function on the accuracy of geographic profiles was also assessed utilising ‘search cost’ calculations. The results showed little impact of applying different decay functions. Thus, whilst the decay function does have important theoretical implications for understanding offender spatial behaviour, it is noted that the particular variant used does not significantly impact on the effectiveness of geographical profiling systems as they currently exist. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of individual attachment styles on group members' experience of therapist transitions

Attachment theory has recently been applied to clinical practice in an effort to improve understanding and treatment of the maladaptive relational patterns clients bring to therapy. While most of this research has focused on individual therapy, interest in the application of attachment theory to group psychotherapy is growing. This paper will explore the impact of clients' attachment styles on their experiences of co-therapist transition in an ongoing psychodynamic therapy group. This discussion will elucidate how knowledge of attachment theory and an understanding of clients' individual attachment styles can be useful in predicting responses to therapist-initiated terminations and transitions.     

Interpretation revealed in the blink of an eye: depressive bias in the resolution of ambiguity

Self-report measures of interpretation have been criticized on methodological grounds. An approach is introduced in this article that enables the assessment of interpretive bias with a greater degree of methodological rigor than previously has been the case. Psychophysiological researchers have established that the magnitude of the human blink reflex is augmented when elicited during negative rather than neutral imagery. The 1st experiment demonstrates that the blink reflex is sensitive to the emotional valence of imagery evoked by interpretations imposed on ambiguous stimuli. In the 2nd experiment, this measure is used to assess interpretations imposed on ambiguous stimuli by individuals who differ in depression levels. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that depression is associated with a negative interpretive bias.     

Coventry university students’ experience of mental health problems

Growing numbers of university students are reporting mental health problems and using counselling services. The purpose of this study was to examine Coventry University students’ experience of mental health problems. The Department of Health (DoH) Mental Health Survey questionnaire (2003) was used to examine the experience of mental health problems and help seeking behaviour. Within the last 12 months nearly three quarters of students had experienced anxious or depressed moods, or, personal, mental, nervous or emotional problems, with a third of students failing to seek help. Ethnic minority students were more likely to report problems and less likely to seek help when compared to white students. Male students were less likely to seek help compared to female students. There are few existing studies that have focused on the mental health of students at universities established after 1992 from existing polytechnics. Coventry University exceeds the Government benchmark targets for recruiting students from non-traditional backgrounds. Our results show that it is these groups of students who are more likely to experience mental health problems.     

The relationship of offending style to psychological and social risk factors in a sample of adolescent males

Research has indicated that life‐course persistent offenders typically vary their offending style, following a criminal career progression from co‐ to solo‐offending. Few studies have investigated the offenders who contemporaneously mix their style of offending. A sample of 1,047 male adolescent offenders from the Pathways to Desistance study was investigated over a 7‐year period. Participants were identified as solo, co or contemporaneous mixed style (CMS) offenders for each wave of data and one‐way between groups analysis of variance was conducted to examine variations between the different offending styles in terms of offending frequencies, exposure to violence, peer antisocial behaviour and influence, resistance to peer influence, impulse control and psychopathy. CMS offenders were found to consistently report significantly higher rates of offending and present significantly higher negative risk factors and lower protective risk factors than solo‐ and co‐offenders for the duration of the study. A multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of offending style with CMS as the reference category. Higher levels of exposure to violence and peer antisocial behaviour and lower levels of impulse control predicted membership of the CMS group for the first part of the study when compared with co‐offenders; and higher levels of exposure to violence and peer antisocial behaviour continued to predict CMS offending when compared to solo‐offenders until the end of the study.