The mediating role of parental expectations in culture and well-being

In two studies, we examined the role of perceived fulfillment of parental expectations in the subjective well-being of college students. In Study 1, we found that American college students reported having higher levels of life satisfaction and self-esteem than did Japanese college students. American college students also reported having fulfilled parental expectations to a greater degree than did Japanese college students. Most importantly, the cultural difference in well-being was mediated by perceived fulfillment of parental expectations. In Study 2, we replicated the mediational finding with Asian American and European American college students. Asian American participants also perceived their parents' expectations about their academic performance to be more specific than did European Americans, which was associated with the cultural difference in perceived fulfillment of parental expectations. In short, perceived parental expectations play an important role in the cultural difference in the well-being of Asians and European Americans.     

Turning objects on their heads: the influence of the stored axis on object individuation

We used repetition blindness (RB) as a measure of object recognition and compared the pattern of RB obtained for objects with a well-established upright orientation (mono-oriented objects) and those without a usual upright orientation (polyoriented objects), when the critical objects were either in identical orientations or differed by 30 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees, or 180 degrees. Overall, we found robust RB despite differences in orientation, consistent with the idea that object recognition, as indexed by RB, is largely independent of orientation. However, whereas for polyoriented objects RB was obtained in all orientation conditions, for mono-oriented objects there was no RB between upright and upside-down versions of the stimuli. These findings suggest that the usual orientation of an object-when it exists-is stored in memory and can facilitate orientation processing when the principal axis of a viewed object is aligned with the stored axis orientation. This, in turn, allows for more rapid and successful construction of distinct episodic representations of an object, thus alleviating RB.     

Intervention Groups for Adolescents With Conduct Problems: Is Aggregation Harmful or Helpful?

Past research has suggested that the aggregation of deviant peers during treatment may cause harmful effects (T. J. Dishion, J. McCord, & F. Poulin, 1999). This study compared the effectiveness of problem-solving skills training groups in which all members had conduct problems (pure group condition) with groups that consisted of adolescents with and without behavior problems (mixed group condition). Participants were 139 sixth- and seventh-graders (mean age = 12.7; 63% male; 55% White) enrolled at public middle schools. Pre-, post-, and 6-month follow-up data were collected, along with intervention process variables. Results showed that, contrary to the deviancy training hypothesis, adolescents in the pure-group condition engaged in more adaptive in-session behavior and received lower scores on the parent and teacher ratings of externalizing behavior at postintervention than those in the mixed-group condition. Mediation analyses showed that the deviancy training that occurred in the mixed-group condition accounted for their worse postintervention scores, findings consistent with the deviancy training hypothesis.     

Validation of three dimensions of childhood psychopathology in young clinic-referred boys

Short measures of child inattention-overactivity (IO), aggression-defiance (AG), and anxiety-depression or emotionality (EM) derived through a double validation procedure are administered to mothers of 243 clinic-referred suburban New York boys between 6 and 10 years of age. Mother-rated IO is uniquely related to poor performance on cognitive and achievement tests; observed inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behaviors in a restricted academic setting; less father education and lower family income; and most mother-reported impairments and treatment use. Mothers of high-IO boys describe themselves and their sons as having similar childhood symptoms. AG is uniquely related to child-reported disruptive behavior and sensation seeking, many measures of family conflict and negative parenting styles, and mother-reported symptom pervasiveness and number of treatments. EM is uniquely related only to poorer cognitive and achievement test performance, living with one parent, parents who considered themselves too busy, and fewer friends. Each dimension also is associated with parallel teacher-rated factors.     

Shape-from-shading depends on visual, gravitational, and body-orientation cues

The perception of shading-defined form results from an interaction between shading cues and the frames of reference within which those cues are interpreted. In the absence of a clear source of illumination, the definition of 'up' becomes critical to deducing the perceived shape from a particular pattern of shading. In our experiments, twelve subjects adjusted the orientation of a planar disc painted with a linear luminance gradient from one side to the other, until the disc appeared maximally convex-that is, until the luminance gradient induced the maximum perception of a three-dimensional shape. The vision, gravity, and body-orientation cues were altered relative to each other. Visual cues were manipulated by the York Tilted Room facility, and body cues were altered by simply lying on one side. The orientation of the disc that appeared maximally convex varied in a systematic fashion with these manipulations. We present a model in which the direction of perceptual 'up' is determined from the sum of three weighted vectors corresponding to the vision, gravity, and body-orientation cues. The model predicts the perceived direction of 'up', contributes to our understanding of how shape-from-shading is deduced, and also predicts the confidence with which the 'up' direction is perceived.     

The Parents Matter! Program Interventions: Content and the Facilitation Process

The Parents Matter! Program (PMP) has developed three interventions for parents of 4th and 5th grade African-American children (9–12 years old). The overarching goal of all three interventions is to provide parents with knowledge, skills, and support for enhancing their efforts to raise healthy children. The interventions are: (1) Enhanced Communication and Parenting (five 2 -hour sessions), (2) Brief Communication and Parenting (single 2 -hour session), and (3) General Health (single 2 -hour session). This article discusses the development of these interventions, presents an overview of the content of each intervention, and discusses issues related to the facilitation/presentation of these interventions.     

Temporal variation in Irish suicide rates

Using Irish suicide data for the period 1990-1998, the independent effects of month and day adjusting for age, gender, and calendar year effects and distinguishing between holiday and working Mondays were assessed. The male suicide rate was significantly higher on working Mondays (+31%) and Saturdays (+14%), and during April, June, and August (+17%), after adjustment for the other variables. In contrast, female suicide rates were higher only in August (+35%) and exhibited no day effect. Teenage men had a greater elevation of risk on Saturdays, Sundays, and both working and holiday Mondays than any other group. The study findings should be taken into account in the planning of specialized health care services and helplines for suicidal people. Furthermore, the findings provide support for Gabennesch's (1988) broken promise theory and the relationship between dysfunctions of the serotonergic system and suicidal behavior.     

Repetition blindness: out of sight or out of mind?

Does repetition blindness represent a failure of perception or of memory? In Experiment 1, participants viewed rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sentences. When critical words (C1 and C2) were orthographically similar, C2 was frequently omitted from serial report; however, repetition priming for C2 on a postsentence lexical decision task was equivalent whether or not C1 was similar to C2. In Experiment 2, participants monitored RSVP sentences for a predetermined target. Participants frequently failed to detect the target when it was preceded by an orthographically similar word. In Experiment 3, the authors investigated the role of the attentional blink in this effect. These experiments suggest that repetition blindness is a failure of conscious perception, consistent with predictions of the token-individuation hypothesis.     

The effect of health value and ethnicity on the relationship between hardiness and health behaviors

Associations among hardiness, health value, and health protective behaviors were examined as a function of ethnicity among 80 African American and 100 European American college students. The role of health value as moderator versus mediator in the hardiness-health behavior link was explored. Racial differences in correlations among hardiness, control, and commitment were found, with stronger relations for African American than European Americans. Moderate positive relations between hardiness, control, commitment, and health value for African American, as contrasted with weak relations between commitment and health value for European Americans, were also shown. A partial mediational effect for health value with personal distress and moderator effects for health value with personal distress and health habits were found for African American only. Race predicted hardiness variables, tobacco and alcohol use, personal distress, and health habits beyond what was accounted for by occupation and income. The ramifications of these data with regard to future studies on hardiness, health value, and health behaviors for African American are discussed.