Distorted Reflections: Media Exposure and Latino Adolescents' Conceptions of Self

Because Latinos are underrepresented and often negatively stereotyped in the media, concern is frequently expressed that repeated exposure to these portrayals may reflect poorly on Latino adolescents' self-esteem. To test this issue empirically, we conducted 2 studies examining associations between multiple dimensions of self-esteem and several forms of media use. Testing 40 Latino high school students in Study 1, we found that more frequent and more active TV viewing was associated with lower social and appearance self-esteem. Many of these general patterns were replicated in Study 2 with 115 college students and with several demographic controls. Additional analyses of possible moderators revealed more consistent negative correlations among women and among participants with a stronger Latino ethnic identity. Together, these findings provide powerful evidence of a potential link between media use and the self-conceptions of Latino youth.     

Examining the Intertextuality of Fictional Political Comedy and Real-World Political News

This study examines the intertextuality of a fictional political comedy and a political news article. In an experiment, participants watched the political comedy Man of the Year or a control film, read a politically relevant news article on electronic voting, and were asked their discussion intention about the political issue featured in the news article. Beyond direct effects, the mediating influence of elaboration about the politically relevant news article on discussion intent was analyzed. Results revealed no main effect of political comedy viewing on discussion intent, and no mediating effect of elaboration either. However, viewing the fictional political comedy was associated with higher levels of elaboration about the related news article, which shows evidence of intertextuality among media texts. Moreover, perceived external realism of the fictional political comedy was a significant positive predictor of discussion intent about the news article. Results also showed perceived external realism about the fictional political comedy to be a nearly significant moderator of the elaboration and discussion intent relationship. A broader discussion regarding the theoretical and practical implications of the findings is included.     

Genetic Counselors’ Current Use of Personal Health Records-Based Family Histories in Genetic Clinics and Considerations for Their Future Adoption

Given the widespread adoption of electronic medical records and recent emergence of electronic family history tools, we examined genetic counselors’ perspectives on the emerging technology of the personal health record (PHR)-based family history tool that links to an electronic medical record (EMR). Two-hundred thirty-three genetic counselors responded to an on-line survey eliciting current use of electronic family history (EFH) tools and familiarity with PHR-based family history tools. Additionally, after being shown a series of screen shots of a newly developed PHR-based family history tool based on the U.S. Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait (United States Department of Health and Human Services 2009), participants were surveyed about the perceived usefulness, ease of use, and impact on current workflow that this kind of tool would have in their practices. Eighty-three percent reported that their institution has an EMR, yet only 35 % have a dedicated space for family history. Eighty-two percent reported that less than 5 % of their patients have a PHR, and only 16 % have worked with patients who have a PHR. Seventy-two percent or more agreed that a PHR-based family history tool would facilitate communication, increase accuracy of information, ensure consistency in recording information, increase focus on actual counseling, reduce repetitive questions, improve efficiency, and increase the legibility and clarity. Our findings suggest that participants were familiar with existing EFH tools, but that the majority did not use them in practice. Genetic counselors’ adoption of such tools is limited due to non-existence of this kind of technology or inability to integrate it into their clinics. They are also strongly in favor of adopting a PHR-based family history tool in genetics clinics, but have practical concerns that must be addressed before the tool can be implemented.     

Perceived stress and everyday memory complaints among older adult women

Abstract

Memory complaints among older adults are often influenced by depression and anxiety, but the association of stress to memory complaints has received little attention. We examined the associations of perceived stress, life events, and activity level to everyday memory complaints among healthy older women, while controlling for the influence of depression and anxiety. Participants (N=54) completed self-report questionnaires on memory complaints, perceived stress, recent life events, activity level, depression, and anxiety. Partial correlation analyses indicated that higher levels of perceived stress were associated with higher levels of memory complaints when controlling for the influence of depression and anxiety, but that life events and activity level were not related to memory complaints. This study highlights that perceived stress, like depression and anxiety, is a psychological factor that influences the appraisal of cognitive ability; however, larger and more heterogeneous samples will be needed to better understand the multifactorial nature of memory complaints in older adulthood.     

Thinking Levels of Questions in Christian Reading Textbooks

If Christian schools desire students to achieve higher-level thinking, then the textbooks that teachers use should reflect such thinking. Using Risner's (1987 Risner, G. P. (1987). Cognitive levels of questioning demonstrated by test items that accompany selected fifth-grade science textbooks (Doctoral dissertation). Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. [Google Scholar]) methodology, raters classified questions from two Christian publishers’ fifth grade reading textbooks based on the revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001 Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrick, P. R., … Wittrock, M. C. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman. [Google Scholar]). The questions in the A Beka Book textbook contained 57.6% lower-level and 42.4% higher-level thinking; the questions in the Bob Jones University Press textbook contained 45.8% lower-level and 54.2% higher-level thinking. Analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the percentages of thinking in the two publishers (p < .05).     

Reliability and Validity of the Dyadic Observed Communication Scale (DOCS)

We evaluated the reliability and validity of the Dyadic Observed Communication Scale (DOCS) coding scheme, which was developed to capture a range of communication components between parents and adolescents. Adolescents and their caregivers were recruited from mental health facilities for participation in a large, multi-site family-based HIV prevention intervention study. Seventy-one dyads were randomly selected from the larger study sample and coded using the DOCS at baseline. Preliminary validity and reliability of the DOCS was examined using various methods, such as comparing results to self-report measures and examining interrater reliability. Results suggest that the DOCS is a reliable and valid measure of observed communication among parent-adolescent dyads that captures both verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors that are typical intervention targets. The DOCS is a viable coding scheme for use by researchers and clinicians examining parent-adolescent communication. Coders can be trained to reliably capture individual and dyadic components of communication for parents and adolescents and this complex information can be obtained relatively quickly.     

Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analyses of Parental Authority Questionnaire in Urban India

The present study examined the factor structure of a widely used measure of parenting style in three samples from Northwestern India. College Students (n = 195) completed Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri in J Pers Assess 57:110–119, 1991), and mothers of children attending high-school (n = 275), and middle-school (n = 145) completed its parent-report version Parental Authority Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R; Reitman et al. in J Psychopathol Behav Assess 24:119–127, 2002). Preliminary findings revealed that across three samples Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from poor to acceptable, with permissive parenting subscale of the PAQ/PAQ-R having the lowest value, whereas the authoritarian parenting had the highest value. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that none of the models achieved satisfactory fit (i.e., CFI > .90). Exploratory factor analysis revealed that a two factor structure (with first component consisting of authoritative and permissive items, and the second component consisting of authoritarian items) rendered Cronbach’s alpha in the acceptable range. Only PAQ/PAQ-R authoritarian scale was correlated with youth adjustment problems across all three samples, while findings concerning authoritative and permissive scales were mixed. The findings suggest that only PAQ/PAQ-R authoritarian scale is reliable and valid in urban, middle-class, educated families in India, and encourage researchers to develop culturally relevant measures of parenting for this population.     

Males' Reactions to Participating in Research on Dating Violence Victimization and Childhood Abuse

Childhood abuse and dating violence victimization are prevalent and devastating problems. Although there has been an abundance of research on these topics in recent years, researchers and institutional review boards often struggle with determining whether asking respondents questions on previous violence will result in increased emotional distress or other negative research outcomes. Empirical data are therefore needed that examine the research reactions of individuals who participate in research on childhood abuse and dating violence. This study examined this topic among a sample of male college students (N?=?193). Results showed that victims of childhood sexual abuse had more negative emotional reactions and victims of physical dating violence had more negative perceived drawbacks to research participation than nonvictims. However, victims and nonvictims did not differ on positive research reactions. These findings suggest that there are few differences between victims and nonvictims on research reactions.     

Aggression in the Laboratory: Problems with the Validity of the Modified Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test as a Measure of Aggression in Media Violence Studies

Many laboratory studies of aggression use a measure known as the modified Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test (TCRTT), for which validation studies are lacking. Using sound blasts administered by the participant against a fictional human opponent, the TCRTT also allows for multiple methods of measuring aggression. The validity of the TCRTT was tested in 53 college student participants. Participants took a self-report measure of aggressiveness as well as neuropsychological measures of frontal lobe functioning predictive of aggression. Results were not supportive of the TCRTT's validity and indicated concerns regarding the use of the TCRTT as a measure of aggression. Results suggest that labaratory studies of media violence using the TCRTT are of questionable validity.