The influence of parents and family context on children's involvement in household tasks

To determine the relative impact of a number of family variables on children's performance of gender-typed household tasks, this study took account of the gender of the child, the gender of a sibling within the same age range (8–14 years), whether a first or second child and three parental variables: the degree of encouragement given to perform masculineand femininetasks, parental involvement in the same tasks, and parents' general egalitarianism. The sample consisted of 191 white, mainly Anglo Australian two-parent families, with the two oldest children in a boy—boy, girl—girl, boy—girl, or girl—boy sequence. To check on the robustness of effects, measures were taken on two occasions, on average 16 months apart. Among the family context variables, the gender of the child was the strongest contributing variable, with girls doing more feminine tasks than boys and boys doing more masculine tasks than girls. There was limited support for the proposition that first children do more housework than second children of the same gender, while the results for gender of sibling were small and inconsistent. Among the parental variables, encouragement had strong positive effects for feminine tasks (i.e., more encouragement by parents corresponded to more involvement by children). In contrast, parental involvement in the same tasks (modeling) and parental egalitarianism predicted only the performance of masculine tasks, and the direction of the effects was mostly negative (e.g., the more a father was involved in masculine tasks, the less a child did of those tasks). The results point to involvement in gender-typed activities being influenced by multiple factors, with parental encouragement and gender of child being most prominent among these. They also point to the value of sampling on more than one occasion and of considering separately the performance of feminine and masculine tasks. This research was financially supported by the Australian Research Council. We are happy to acknowledge that support, together with the essential assistance of the Department of Education and the many parents and children who participated in the study.     

Cultural specificity of support sources,correlates and contexts: Three studies of African-American and Caucasian youth

Levels and correlates of parental support, peer support, partner support, and/or spiritual support among African American and Caucasian youth were examined in three contexts: adolescent pregnancy (Study 1), first year of college (Study 2), and adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15–29; Study 3). Partially consistent with a cultural specificity perspective, in different contexts different support sources were higher in level and/or more strongly related to adjustment for one ethnic group than the other. Among pregnant adolescents, levels of spiritual support were higher for African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, peer support was positively related to well-being only for African Americans whereas partner support was positively related to well-being only for Caucasians. Among college freshmen, family support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment for African Americans than Caucasians; conversely, peer support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment among Caucasians. Among 15 to 29-year-olds, levels of parental support and spiritual support were higher among African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, spiritual support was positively related to self-esteem for African Americans but not for Caucasians. Implications and limitations of the research are discussed. The third study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 MH40963. We thank Monica Greene, Shea Lyda, Wendy Stevenson, and the many undergraduate students who contributed to the three research projects. We also acknowledge the very thoughtful and helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Edison Trickett.     

Fear of success,achievement-related motives and behavior in black college women1

This study was designed to test the hypothesis, derived from past research, that Fear of Success should be an insignificant motivational determinant among black college women. Fifty-five black undergraduates from Radcliffe College participated in two one-hour sessions where motive and performance measures in a series of achievement-related situations were obtained. Among middle-class women, nAchievement was the major positive determinant of the achievement-related behaviors under investigation while Fear of Success, measured by Horner's new experimentally derived scoring system, facilitated rather than inhibited performance. For women of working-class origin, Fear of Success exerted the strongest influence on behavior and inhibited achievement-striving in nontraditional directions. The findings among middle-class women support the prevailing opinion that black women are more achievement-oriented than their white counterparts, but the results for working-class women challenge the findings of earlier studies based upon the original measure of Fear of Success imagery and suggest that an internalized conflict over achievement and feminine identity may be a salient motivation among some black women.     

The role of assembled phonology in reading comprehension

The contribution of assembled phonology to phonological effects in reading comprehension was assessed. In Experiment 1, subjects judged the acceptability of sentences with regular, exception, and nonword homophone substitutions and orthographic controls. Significantly more errors occurred to sentences with regular-word homophones than to exception words, and error rates for nonword homophones were low and not significant. Experiment 2 showed that this was not due to differences in the sentence frames. In Experiment 3, the subjects judged as unacceptable those sentences containing an exception word that sounded correct when read according to spelling-to-sound rules. Significantly higher error rates occurred only for low-frequency exception words. Experiment 4 showed that task conditions affect semantic-categorization error rates for nonword homophones. These results indicate that both assembled and addressed phonology contribute to sentence and word comprehension, but the low error rate for nonwords suggests that an early lexical check may be applied.     

The influence on recognition of spoken words that are misperceived

Two experiments were performed that involved an initial word-identification task in which the acoustic signal was degraded by either 50% or 60% compression of the recorded words. A control group was tested at the original recording rate (0% compression). The compression manipulation was successful in increasing the number of identification errors. During the second stage of the experiments, words were read at a normal rate. In Experiment 1, the subjects indicated whether each word had appeared on the prior list, and in Experiment 2, the subjects estimated the number of times each word had been read on the prior list. The false-negative rate decreased and frequency ratings increased as a function of the number of prior presentations (one, two, or three) of the target words. The most interesting result was that the effect of repetitions was present even for words that had been misperceived.     

Correction to: Suicidal Mental Imagery in Psychiatrically Hospitalized Adolescents

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00827-8     

长期高策略性技能训练对运动员大脑白质结构的影响：一项DTI研究

目前关于运动员经验优势的脑机制还存在争议, 尤其对于涉及较多认知过程参与的高策略性技能项目运动员, 其大脑白质结构可塑性变化还需进一步探究。研究横向对比了乒乓球运动员和非运动员大脑白质纤维束的弥散张量成像数据。结果发现, 相比于非运动员, 乒乓球运动员在连接背侧和腹侧通路脑区的双侧皮质脊髓束、左侧上纵束、左侧下纵束和双侧额枕下束的各向异性值(FA)更大, 进一步分析发现, 部分腹侧通路白质纤维束FA增加的原因是径向扩散系数(RD)下降。研究结果支持了动作双通路模型。提示经过长期高策略性技能训练, 乒乓球运动员在背侧和腹侧通路上的白质纤维束结构完整性增强。     

The Association between Home Environment and Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents in Hangzhou City,China

To investigate the influence of the home environment, defined as family socioeconomic status (SES) (parent education level, household income), student resource-mediated SES (access to nutritional resources and cognitively stimulating experiences), reading ability, and difficulty with homework on quality of life in children and adolescents residing in urban and suburban areas in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. This study included 3200 Grade 3–6 students from 8 elementary schools in Hangzhou City. Assessments included questionnaires that evaluated student quality of life, family SES, resource-mediated SES (dietary behavior and the home literacy environment), reading ability, and difficulty with homework. The effects of the home environment on student quality of life were analyzed by univariate analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. Overall, 80.6% of students had a medium or better quality of life. Young age (Grade 3 or 4), female sex, household income of 10000–15000 RMB, high breakfast consumption, daily intake of fruit, a balanced diet, and good reading habits were positively correlated with student quality of life (P?<?0.05), while overuse of electronic devices was negatively correlated with quality of life (P?<?0.05). Dietary behaviors, home literacy environment, and student reading ability and difficulty with homework directly affected quality of life. Family SES indirectly affected student quality of life. Children and adolescents in China should have access to good nutrition and cognitively stimulating experiences to enhance their well-being and provide them with social and academic advantages.

     

Interpersonal Psychotherapy—Adolescent Skills Training With Youth From Asian American and Immigrant Families: Cultural Considerations and Intervention Process

Although research has identified effective evidence-based depression prevention interventions for diverse youth, little is known about how the intervention process unfolds with immigrant family youth. This study utilized a qualitative approach to explore cultural and clinical differences in the implementation of Interpersonal Psychotherapy–Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) in two schools, one serving youth from primarily immigrant, Asian American families and the second, youth from mostly nonimmigrant, non-Hispanic White families. A total of 131 IPT–AST sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded for presence and patterns of cultural and clinical constructs. Results revealed that sessions with immigrant family youth were more likely to contain discussions of interpersonal problems characterized by estrangement, goals of spending time together with important others, mentions of emotion suppression and academic achievement expectations, conversations about acculturation, differences in value orientation, and discomfort with implementing new intervention skills. Dialogue from interventionist and youth exchanges is presented to illustrate how these themes emerged and were addressed by interventionists in a culturally responsive manner. The study highlights how IPT–AST with immigrant family and Asian American youth may unfold differently compared to youth from nonimmigrant families. Implications of findings for providers are discussed.