Children's Spatial Behavior is Differentially Affected After Traumatic Brain Injury

Spatial behavior in 20 children with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 20 healthy controls was investigated using the Kiel Locomotor Maze. Children had to remember defined locations in an experimental chamber with completely controlled intra- and extra-maze cues until learning criterion was reached. In a second experiment, spatial orientation strategies were assessed. Children with TBI were shown to be impaired in spatial learning and spatial memory. Spatial orientation was found to be deficient even in cases where spatial learning and memory proved to be unimpaired, especially in tasks that demanded the use of relational place strategies. Children who suffered a TBI at an early age proved to be more severely impaired in spatial learning and orientation than older children.     

Economic Disadvantage and Young Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Mechanisms of Risk

This study aimed to establish potential mechanisms through which economic disadvantage contributes to the development of young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. Prospective data from fetal life to age 3 years were collected in a total of 2,169 families participating in the Generation R Study. The observed physical home environment, the provision of learning materials in the home, maternal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and harsh disciplining practices were all analyzed as potential mediators of the association between economic disadvantage and children’s internalizing and externalizing problem scores. Findings from structural equation modeling showed that for both internalizing and externalizing problems, the mechanisms underlying the effect of economic disadvantage included maternal depressive symptoms, along with parenting stress and harsh disciplining. For internalizing but not for externalizing problem scores, the lack of provision of learning materials in the home was an additional mechanism explaining the effect of economic disadvantage. The current results suggest that interventions that focus solely on raising income levels may not adequately address problems in the family processes that emerge as a result of economic disadvantage. Policies to improve the mental health of mothers with young children but also their home environments are needed to change the economic gradient in child behavior.     

Social orientations and adolescent health behaviours in Hungary

Adolescent health behaviours are influenced by a variety of social factors, including social orientations, such as social comparison or competitiveness. The main goal of the present study was to investigate the role that these social orientations might play in health behaviours (both health‐impairing and health‐promoting). Data were collected from high school students (N = 548; ages 14–20 years; 39.9% males) in two counties of the Southern Plain Region of Hungary. The self‐administered questionnaires contained items on sociodemographics, such as age, sex, parental schooling, and socioeconomic status (SES) self‐assessment; school achievement, health behaviours, competitiveness and social comparison. Multiple regression analyses suggest that those who scored higher on competitiveness engaged in more substance use, a pattern that was not present for health‐promoting behaviours. Social comparison, however, was associated with lower levels of substance use. In addition, in relation to health‐impairing behaviours, both competitiveness and social comparison interacted with sex; both social orientation variables proved to be more important for boys. Social comparison also contributed to health‐promoting behaviours among boys. Findings support the idea that the role of social orientations, such as competitiveness and social comparison, can be quite different depending on sex and the nature of the health behaviour. While competitiveness may act as a risk factor for substance use among boys, social comparison may act as a protection. It appears that social orientations play less of a role in girls' health‐related behaviours. More focus is needed on gender differences in influences on adolescents' health‐related behaviours.     

Emotional inhibition of effective contraception

Negative emotional responses to sex such as anxiety, guilt and fear tend to inhibit sexual behavior. When they are not sufficient to inhibit sexual intercourse, however, they frequently interfere with the ability to plan for, or cope with the consequences of sexual activity. More specifically, these emotional responses to sex frequently interfere with the ability to apply thoughtful and careful logic to contraceptive decision making, and thereby inhibit the use of effective methods of birth control. The current article is a review of the empirical support for emotional inhibition of contraception, and an examination of the psychological mechanisms by which these responses to sex mediate birth control behavior.     

Inhibitory effects of drinker and nondrinker prototypes on adolescent alcohol consumption.

This prospective study examined the relation between 308 adolescents' images of typical dinkers and nondrinkers and their subsequent alcohol consumption. The results indicate that both images are associated with changes in consumption between ages 16 and 18 but that they operate in different ways. Contrary to previous assumptions, drinker images do not represent goal states for adolescents in that they are more negative than their self-images and nondrinker images and are not correlated with their ideal selves. In contrast, nondrinker images do appear to represent goal states for adolescents who abstain from drinking. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Empirical support for the gender‐as‐culture hypothesis.

This investigation provided a test of the gender‐as‐culture, or ‘two cultures’, hypothesis proposed by Maltz and Borker (1982) to explain male/female differences in language use. Analysis of previous empirical investigations located 16 language features that had consistently been shown to indicate communicator gender and these were tested within the framework of the four dimensions of intercultural style proposed by Gudykunst and Ting‐Toomey (1998): direct versus indirect, succinct versus elaborate, personal versus contextual and instrumental versus affective. Study 1 provided preliminary evidence supporting the hypothesized language‐feature‐by‐dimension relationships (e.g., male directives were rated more direct and female uncertainty verbs more indirect). In Study 2, respondents rated multiple exemplars of the 16 language features, as well as 16 contrasting foil sentences, on all four dimensions, finding that nearly all of the variables fell on the hypothesized intercultural dimensions. In Study 3, respondents rated four sets of naturally occurring target sentences and matching foil sentences, representing all language variables, on their appropriate intercultural dimensions in order to establish dimensional polarity. Results across the three studies supported the hypothesized language feature‐by‐stylistic dimension relationship for 15 of the 16 variables: The 6 male language features were rated as more direct, succinct, personal, and instrumental, whereas 9 of the 10 female features were perceived as more indirect, elaborate, and affective. The findings demonstrate that gender preferences for language use function in ways that are consistent with stylistic preferences that distinguish national cultures.     

Movie smoking exposure and smoking onset: a longitudinal study of mediation processes in a representative sample of U.S. adolescents.

The authors tested 2 mechanisms for the relation of movie smoking exposure with onset of cigarette smoking in adolescence. Longitudinal data with 8-month follow-up were obtained from a representative sample of 6,522 U.S. adolescents, ages 10-14 years. Structural modeling analysis based on initial nonsmokers, which controlled for 10 covariates associated with movie exposure, showed that viewing more smoking in movies was related to increases in positive expectancies about smoking and increases in affiliation with smoking peers, and these variables were both related to smoking onset. A direct effect of movie exposure on smoking onset was also noted. Mediation findings were replicated across cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Tests for gender differences indicated that girls showed larger effects of movie exposure for some variables. Implications for policy and prevention research are discussed.     

Maternal speech to infants at 1 and 3 months of age

The goal of this study was to assess maternal speech and in relation to changes in infant social behavior occurring around the second month post birth. Sixty infants interacted with their mother at 1 and 3 months of age in a face-to-face context. At 3 months, infants gazed, smiled, and positively vocalized significantly more than at 1 month. These findings point to a transition in infant social behavior at around the second month post birth. In addition, maternal speech to infants increased between these times in both amount and complexity, possibly in response to an increase in infant social behavior. Maternal speech was related to infant positive vocalizing at 3 months, suggesting mothers especially monitored infant vocalizing at 3 months. Individual differences in maternal speech were stable across visits.