Whom you may marry

Pastoral Psychology -     

Single and multiple suicide attempts and associated health risk factors in New Hampshire adolescents

In this study we examined self-reported suicide attempts and their relationship to other health risk factors in a community sample of 16,644 adolescents. Fifteen percent endorsed suicide attempts (10% single; 5% multiple attempts) We hypothesized that multiple attempters would show higher prevalence of comorbid health risks than single or non-attempters. The three groups showed significant differences in ten health risk domains, on factors such as depressed mood, sexual assault, weight problems, and drug and alcohol use (ORs: 3.26-13.57). Repeated suicide attempts appear to be related to increased vulnerability and likelihood of harm in multiple domains of health risk.     

Development: Compared to what?: Contrast effects in age-comparative paradigms

Recent controversies about judgment competence of preschool and adolescent children are considered as being a possible product of contrast effects. That is, perceived abilities of children of a given age group may depend on the ages of the other subjects in the experiment. An experiment was done to test the possibility of contrast effects in age-comparative experiments. One group of subjects read about three experimental tasks in which 6-year-old children performed better than 4-year-olds. A second group read about 6-year-olds performing worse than 8-year-olds on the same tasks. Performance levels of 6-year-olds were the same on the two forms. For each task subjects rated the competence of each of the two age groups on the task and predicted the performance of the two groups on a related task. Undergraduate subjects' competence ratings and predictions were higher for 6-year-olds when compared to 4-year-olds than when compared to 8-year-olds. Psychology graduate students showed the same contrast effect for predictions but not for competence ratings. The results are discussed in terms of potential biases in age-comparative methods in developmental psychology.     

Reducing stereotype threat by blurring intergroup boundaries

The authors aimed to establish whether interventions designed to reduce intergroup bias could be applied to the stereotype threat domain. In three experiments, the hypothesis was tested that blurring intergroup boundaries would reduce stereotype threat. In the first study, it was found that female participants who thought about characteristics shared between the genders tended to show less preference for stereotypical female careers than did participants in the baseline condition. In Experiment 2, participants who thought about overlapping characteristics answered more math questions correctly compared to a baseline group and participants who thought about differences between the genders. In Experiment 3, a specific threat manipulation was included. Participants who completed the overlapping characteristics task before receiving the threat completed significantly more math questions correctly than did participants in the baseline and threat conditions. The findings support the idea that interventions designed to reduce intergroup bias can be applied successfully in the reduction of stereotype threat.     

Observing emotion in infants: facial expression,body behavior,and rater judgments of responses to an expectancy-violating event

Eleven-month-old European-American, Japanese, and Chinese infants (ns = 23, 21, and 15, respectively) were videotaped during baseline and stimulus episodes of a covert toy-switch procedure. Infants looked longer at the object during the expectancy-violating event (stimulus episode) but did not produce more surprise-related facial expressions. American and Japanese infants produced more bodily stilling during stimulus than baseline, and American infants also produced more facial sobering. Naive raters viewing both episodes could correctly identify the expectancy-violating event. Rater judgments of surprise were significantly related to infants' bodily stilling and facial sobering. Judgments of interest were related to cessation of fussing. Thus, observer judgments of infant emotions can be systematically related to behaviors other than prototypic emotional facial expressions.     

Parents Explain More Often to Boys than to Girls During Shared Scientific Thinking

Young children's everyday scientific thinking often occurs in the context of parent-child interactions. In a study of naturally occurring family conversation, parents were three times more likely to explain science to boys than to girls while using interactive science exhibits in a museum. This difference in explanation occurred despite the fact that parents were equally likely to talk to their male and female children about how to use the exhibits and about the evidence generated by the exhibits. The findings suggest that parents engaged in informal science activities with their children may be unintentionally contributing to a gender gap in children's scientific literacy well before children encounter formal science instruction in grade school.     

Jewish Attitudes toward Intermarriage

This paper explores attitudes toward intermarriage among American Jews. After an introduction of the basic findings about attitudes toward intermarriage in the general sample, we present the differences between the major American Jewish denominations in this respect. A correspondence analysis of intermarriage attitudes and the denominational factor shows the typical attitude profiles characterizing groups according to current denomination and the denomination in which they were raised. We then go on to show how much of this denominational effect is related to the influence of Jewish education, age, and marital status on attitudes toward intermarriage. Finally we consider all three sets of factors together in a multiple regression analysis of attitudes toward intermarriage, in order to determine the net or independent effects of each of these influencing factors. We show that intermarriage attitudes are a compromise between two forces: the strength of Jewish identity, as reflected in denominational affiliation, and Jewish education; and the exigencies of the mate selection process, as reflected in age, marital status, and proximity to other Jews. Data are based primarily on the 1991 New York Jewish Population Survey.