Children and youth in neighborhood contexts

Neighborhoods are increasingly studied as a context where children and youth develop; however, the extent of neighborhoods' impact remains debatable because it is difficult to disentangle this impact from that of the family context, in part because families have some choice as to where they live. Evidence from randomized experiments, studies using advanced statistical models, and longitudinal studies that control for family characteristics indicates that neighborhoods do matter. In nonexperimental studies, small to moderate associations were found, suggesting that children and adolescents living in high-income neighborhoods had higher cognitive ability and school achievement than those living in middle-income neighborhoods, and children and adolescents living in low-income neighborhoods had more mental and physical health problems than those living in middle-income neighborhoods. The home environment has been shown to be partly responsible for the link between neighborhood and children's development. For adolescents, neighborhood effects are partially accounted for by community social control. Experimental studies in which families were randomly assigned to move to low-poverty neighborhoods from housing projects found larger neighborhood effects than nonexperi-mental research, particularly for boys' outcomes. Additional issues reviewed are relevant neighborhood characteristics, theoretical models explaining the pathways underlying neighborhood effects, methods for research assessing neighborhood processes, and policy implications.     

The Effects of Prior Attitudes and Attitude Importance on Attitude Change and Class Impact in Women's and Gender Studies1

Attitude change in women's and gender studies (WGS) students has been a central goal of the WGS movement since its inception. Attitude change theory stresses the crucial roles of prior attitudes and attitude importance in the effectiveness of a persuasive message. This study examined attitude change dynamics in 548 WGS students drawn from 32 United States college campuses. Results provided partial support for the following hypotheses: (a) Students with attitudes discrepant from the WGS message demonstrate more resistance to attitude change when they deem these attitudes to be more important, and (b) WGS class impact is greater among students who rate class‐relevant attitudes as more important.     

Improving Predictions of Condom Behavioral Intentions With Partner-Specific Measures of Risk Perception

Inconsistent findings regarding the predictive validity of perceptions of risk for a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV may be related to the use of nonspecific measures. The objective of this study was to determine whether more specific measures of perceptions of risk for SI Ds and HIV are associated with intentions to use a condom. We interviewed 490 male and female adolescents, 14 to 19 years old, from a free municipal STD clinic. Controlling for whether a condom was used at last sex, the association between perceptions of risk for an STD and HIV with a casual sex partner and intentions to use a condom with a casual sex partner was significant (β_HIV= 14, p < .01, and β_STD=.20, p < .01), as was the association between perceptions of risk for an STD and HIV with a main sex partner and intentions to use a condom with a main sex partner (β_HIV= .31, p <.001, and β_STD= .32, p < .001). This supports the continued inclusion of this construct in models of sexual and other health-related behaviors.     

Effects of delayed time‐out on problem behavior of preschool children

Time‐out is a common negative punishment procedure in home and school settings. Although prior studies have shown time‐out is effective, more research is needed on its effects when implementation is imperfect. We evaluated delays to time‐out with 4 preschool children who engaged in some combination of aggression, property destruction, and rule breaking. Target behavior decreased for all subjects exposed to delayed time‐out, with 3 of 4 subjects displaying low levels of target behavior even when time‐out was delayed by 90‐120 s. These data suggest delayed time‐out might be effective in situations in which a caregiver or teacher cannot implement time‐out immediately.     

The predictive power of low-arousal positive affect

Motivation and Emotion - Relative to high-arousal positive affect (HAPA), low-arousal positive affect (LAPA) is less likely to be included in research on positive affect and emotion. To gauge the...     

Mental Health and Career Development of College Students

Little has been written about the reciprocal effects of the mental health and the career development of college students. Nevertheless, college students seeking services in college career and counseling centers often present both types of issues simultaneously. Service providers must, therefore, be cognizant of these potentially interactive issues. This article provides a summary of theoretical foundations and recent research regarding the interaction between psychosocial and career development. Implications for theory, research, and practice are provided.     

Creative idea generation: harmony versus stimulation

The literature on maintaining versus changing membership of groups has generally favored stable membership, not only for more cohesion and morale but for better performance via comfort and shared experiences. On the other hand, research on the stimulating properties of dissent, debate and diversity would argue for a change in membership in that it would provide access to differing views and stimulate more divergent and creative thought. The present study investigated idea generation when membership was maintained versus completely changed. We predicted and found that maintaining membership increases comfort and also the perception of creativity but not actual creative behavior whereas changing membership results in a less comfortable experience but also an increase in the number and creativity of the ideas generated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Good feelings in christianity and buddhism: religious differences in ideal affect

Affect valuation theory (AVT) predicts cultural variation in the affective states that people ideally want to feel (i.e., "ideal affect"). National and ethnic comparisons support this prediction: For instance, European Americans (EA) value high arousal positive (HAP) states (e.g., excitement) more and low arousal positive (LAP) states (e.g., calm) less than Hong Kong Chinese. In this article, the authors examine whether religions differ in the ideal affective states they endorse. The authors predicted that Christianity values HAP more and LAP less than Buddhism. In Study 1, they compared Christian and Buddhist practitioners' ideal affect. In Studies 2 and 3, they compared the endorsement of HAP and LAP in Christian and Buddhist classical texts (e.g., Gospels, Lotus Sutra) and contemporary self-help books (e.g., Your Best Life Now, Art of Happiness). Findings supported predictions, suggesting that AVT applies to religious and to national and ethnic cultures.