Impact of Behavioral Inhibition and Parenting Style on Internalizing and Externalizing Problems from Early Childhood through Adolescence

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is characterized by a pattern of extreme social reticence, risk for internalizing behavior problems, and possible protection against externalizing behavior problems. Parenting style may also contribute to these associations between BI and behavior problems (BP). A sample of 113 children was assessed for BI in the laboratory at 14 and 24 months of age, self-report of maternal parenting style at 7 years of age, and maternal report of child internalizing and externalizing BP at 4, 7, and 15 years. Internalizing problems at age 4 were greatest among behaviorally inhibited children who also were exposed to permissive parenting. Furthermore, greater authoritative parenting was associated with less of an increase in internalizing behavior problems over time and greater authoritarian parenting was associated with a steeper decline in externalizing problems. Results highlight the importance of considering child and environmental factors in longitudinal patterns of BP across childhood and adolescence.     

Modeling the Bullying Prevention Program Preferences of Educators: A Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment

We used discrete choice conjoint analysis to model the bullying prevention program preferences of educators. Using themes from computerized decision support lab focus groups (n = 45 educators), we composed 20 three-level bullying prevention program design attributes. Each of 1,176 educators completed 25 choice tasks presenting experimentally varied combinations of the study’s attribute levels. Latent class analysis yielded three segments with different preferences. Decision Sensitive educators (31%) preferred that individual schools select bullying prevention programs. In contrast, Support Sensitive educators (51%) preferred that local school boards chose bullying prevention programs. This segment preferred more logistical and social support at every stage of the adoption, training, implementation, and long term maintenance processes. Cost Sensitive educators (16%) showed a stronger preference for programs minimizing costs, training, and implementation time demands. They felt prevention programs were less effective and that the time and space in the curriculum for bullying prevention was less adequate. They were less likely to believe that bullying prevention was their responsibility and more likely to agree that prevention was the responsibility of parents. All segments preferred programs supported by the anecdotal reports of colleagues from other schools rather than those based on scientific evidence. To ensure that the bullying prevention options available reflect the complex combination of attributes influencing real world adoption decisions, program developers need to accommodate the differing views of the Decision, Support, and Cost Sensitive segments while maximizing the support of parents and students.     

“Heart Trouble” and Religious Involvement among Older White Men and Women

Objective Few studies examine how older adults’ health status affects spiritual and religious involvement. This study examined the effects of gender and poor cardiac health on older adults’ ends, means, and quest religious motivations and frequency of private devotion. Method Longitudinal data (12 months between the T₁ and T₂ interviews) with 182 older adults sampled from a Northeast city were used to examine in a multivariate analysis of covariance whether gender and the existence of cardiac health problems at T₁ affected older adults’ spiritual and religious involvement at T₂. Findings A gender and cardiac health condition interaction showed older men with heart trouble had more changes in religious involvement—they engaged in more religious doubt, prayed less, and were not as intrinsically oriented at T₂. Discussion The findings strongly suggest that older men with heart trouble may maintain a masculine style and shun seeking divine help.     

The effects of group membership and social context on information organization

Self-categorization theory posits that the perception of group members is flexible and determined by the comparative social context as well as by group membership. Subjects read about either four ingroup or outgroup target persons in the context of four additional stimulus persons who were members of either the same group as the target persons (intragroup context) or the other group (intergroup context). Individualized and attribute-wise information organization was assessed on the basis of information clustering in free recall. As predicted, differential processing of ingroup information occurred as a function of the salient social context; in an intragroup context, ingroup information was organized significantly more by person than in an intergroup context. Conversely, ingroup information tended to be clustered more by attribute in an intergroup than in an intragroup context. Clustering of outgroup information was not sensitive to changes in the social context. The results indicate that the perception of group members may be based on more than group membership alone. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of prenatal cocaine and genotype on intermale agonistic behavior in Mus musculus

We exposed the pups of three F₁ genotypes of mice to a daily regime of cocaine by injecting their mothers (all C57BL/10J strain) on days 7–18 of gestation with 20 mg/kg subcutaneously. Pups of the cocaine and control groups did not differ on measures of maternal and pup health or size. Male pups were weaned and isolated at 21 days of age and their behaviors measured in an intermale aggression situation at about 80 days of age. Treated and untreated males of each F₁ genotype were paired in dyads with either a C3H/HeJ (hawk-like) or AKR/J (retaliator-like) standard tester male. Standard tester males were not exposed to cocaine. Cocaine treatment alone reduced the overall level of aggression in dyads, and in interaction with genotype or the standard tester it altered the behavior of dyads in all phases of social interaction: the initiation, content, and outcome. Standard testers used as behavioral probes, differentiated cocaine and control males with respect to their stimulus and behavioral qualities. Aggr. Behav. 23:183–196, 1997.© 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Development of prospective memory: tasks based on the prefrontal-lobe model.

This study investigated the development of prospective memory using tasks based on the prefrontal-lobe model. Three groups each of 30 children, adolescents, and young adults were compared on prospective-memory performance using ongoing tasks with two levels of cognitive demand (low and high), and two levels of importance (unstressed and stressed) of remembering prospective cues. The Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), Stroop Color Word Interference Test, and Tower of London were also used to assess relationships between prospective memory and prefrontal-lobe functions. The children remembered fewer prospective cues than either the adolescents or adults, but the adolescents and adults remembered equally well. This trend increased significantly as the cognitive demand of the ongoing tasks increased. However, stressing or not stressing the importance of remembering made no difference to prospective-memory performance. Performance on the SOPT and Stroop Colour Word Interference predicted performance on the high- but not on the low-demand condition. These findings implicate the maturation of the brain's prefrontal region in the development of prospective memory.     

Social cues in animated conversational agents

In human‐computer interaction people often interpret the interaction with the computer as interactions with humans. The social agency theory suggests that social cues like the face and voice of the agent motivate this interpretation. In two off‐line experiments in which comprehension scores and liking ratings were collected, we found that participants preferred natural agents with natural voices, as predicted by the social‐cue hypothesis. Although female agents with male voices formed an exception, this was explained by a stereotype effect. These findings support the social‐cue hypothesis and the social agency theory that human characteristics are applied in the perception of computational animated conversational agents. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elder Abuse and Neglect: Considerations for Mental Health Practitioners

Elder abuse and neglect are prevalent throughout the U.S. and are often unrecognized and untreated. It is projected that by the year 2030, the number of older adults (age 60 and older) will double, thereby increasing the likelihood that mental health practitioners will encounter instances of elder abuse and neglect. The authors address the symptoms, risk factors, consequences, current laws, interventions, and relevant prevention strategies related to these issues.     

The Tri-Council Policy Statement and Research in Cyberspace: Research Ethics, the Internet, and Revising a ‘Living Document’

Increasingly, the Internet is proving to be an important research tool. Today, cyberspace affords researchers easy access to traditionally difficult to reach populations, a host of virtual communities, and a wealth of data created through computer-mediated-communication. This newfound research frontier brings with it, however, a multiplicity of ethical concerns, including: (1) whether the Internet constitutes a private or public space; (2) whether the human subject paradigm is appropriate when considering the ethics of Internet research; and (3) whether cyber participants/‘speakers-as-writers’ and communities should be guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity when researchers contain or consider them in research. This paper examines these specific ethical concerns as they relate to Canada's Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, which, as yet, does not explicitly address ethics involved in Internet research. I propose that in large part the Internet is by definition a public site of activity, and as such, many posters cannot expect their texts to remain confidential, nor their names anonymous, and that the human subject paradigm is highly problematic in terms of regulating ethics involved in some research generated through new information technologies. This is most expressly the case with computer-mediated-communication, which, in light of the Tri-Council Policy Statement, can be viewed as theoretically akin to public entertainment and performance. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.