Maternal Depressive Symptoms When Caring for a Child with Mental Health Problems

As primary caregivers of children with mental health problems, mothers face challenges that put them at risk for depression, which is rarely identified or addressed. The aims of this paper were to (a) identify mean differences among demographic, stressor, threat, and resource variables specified in a theoretical model and thought to be associated with maternal depressive symptoms and (b) determine how much variability in depressive symptoms is explained by these variables. High levels and prevalence of depressive symptoms were found within a quality of life study that these data were drawn from. Of 139 mothers participating in this study, 58% had a score of 16 or greater on the CES-D indicating moderate to high levels of depressive symptoms. Significant differences were found between mothers with higher versus lower levels of depressive symptoms for 11 of the 18 variables. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the variance explained in depressive symptoms based upon the conceptual model with 4 composite variables. Income (step 1), behavioral problems (step 2), threat appraisal (step 3), and resource appraisal (step 4) combined explained 42% of the variance.     

How clinical trials really work rethinking research ethics

Despite prevalent concerns about the ethical conduct of clinical trials, little is known about the day-to-day work of trials and the ethical challenges arising in them. This paper reports on a study designed to fill this gap and demonstrates a need to refine the oversight system for trials to reflect an understanding of this day-to-day work. It also illuminates ethical challenges that cannot be addressed by the oversight system and so necessitate a rethinking of the ethics of clinical trials.     

Literary arts and the development of the life story

Throughout adolescence, children begin to develop their life story: a coherent account of their experiences and selfhood. Although the nature of this development is still being uncovered, one promising direction for research is the examination of factors that could encourage life story development. Here the authors explore the idea that exposure to the literary arts (i.e., poetry and fictional literature) might promote the formation of a coherent autobiographical narrative. Taking a critical look at both theoretical proposals along with the current empirical research, they provide a brief survey of this intriguing hypothesis.     

Media exposure, internalization of the thin ideal, and body dissatisfaction: comparing Asian American and European American college females

Internalization of the thin ideal mediates the media exposure-body dissatisfaction relation in young adult European American females. There is little related research on Asian Americans. We used structural equations modeling to test: (1) whether media exposure was associated with body dissatisfaction in Asian American young adult females, (2) internalization of the thin ideal mediated any such association, and (3) whether the mediational model provided equivalent fit for European American and Asian American samples. Participants were 287 college females (154 Asian Americans, 133 European Americans). Internalization of the thin ideal explained the media exposure-body dissatisfaction association equally well for both groups. Results suggest that Asian Americans may be employing unhealthy weight control behaviors, and may be prone to developing eating disorders, at rates similar to European American young adult females. Clinicians need to screen carefully for body dissatisfaction, unhealthy weight control behaviors, and eating disorders in Asian American females.     

A Comparison of Phonological Awareness Skills in Early French Immersion and English Children

This 2-year study examined the effects of early second language exposure on phonological awareness skills. Syllable, onset-rime and phoneme awareness skills of 72 anglophone children attending English or French immersion programs in primary and grade 1 were investigated. Three-way mixed ANOVAS revealed the following effects and interactions. In terms of grade effect, grade 1 students performed significantly better than primary students on phoneme and onset-rime tasks. A stimulus language effect was observed for the three levels of phonological awareness. All children performed better on English tasks than on French ones. Interaction effects of stimulus language by program were revealed for phoneme as well as syllable tasks. Posthoc analyses revealed that French students performed better on English phoneme and syllable tasks than on French, while English students performed better than French immersion students on French syllable tasks. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between reading and phoneme and onset-rime phonological awareness tasks regardless of program of instruction (English, French immersion) or language of reading test (English, French). Syllable awareness was only significantly correlated with the French non-word reading task for the French immersion students.     

Axiomatic Extensions of IMT3 Logic

In this paper we characterize, classify and axiomatize all axiomatic extensions of the IMT3 logic. This logic is the axiomatic extension of the involutive monoidal t-norm logic given by ¬φ³ ∨ φ. For our purpose we study the lattice of all subvarieties of the class IMT3, which is the variety of IMTL-algebras given by the equation ¬(x³) ∨ x ≈ ?, and it is the algebraic counterpart of IMT3 logic. Since every subvariety of IMT3 is generated by their totally ordered members, we study the structure of all IMT3-chains in order to determine the lattice of all subvarieties of IMT3. Given a family of IMT3-chains the number of elements of the largest odd finite subalgebra in the family and the number of elements of the largest even finite subalgebra in the family turns out to be a complete classifier of the variety generated. We obtain a canonical set of generators and a finite equational axiomatization for each subvariety and, for each corresponding logic, a finite set of characteristic matrices and a finite set of axioms.     

Discriminating among diagnostic categories using the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule

The Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule was administered to 1,308 subjects in eight diagnostic categories, including 296 with dissociative identity disorder. The study tested three hypotheses: (1) the Mahalanobis distance between dissociative identity disorder and each of seven other diagnostic categories would be large, (2) the closest diagnostic category to dissociative identity disorder would be dissociative disorder not otherwise specified, and (3) nondissociative diagnostic categories would be closer to each other than any one to dissociative identity disorder. All three hypotheses were confirmed by these data. The findings support the conclusion that dissociative identity disorder is a discrete category or taxon.     

Empirical research on research ethics

Ethics is normative; ethics indicates, in broad terms, what researchers should do. For example, researchers should respect human participants. Empirical study tells us what actually happens. Empirical research is often needed to fine-tune the best ways to achieve normative objectives, for example, to discover how best to achieve the dual aims of gaining important knowledge and respecting participants. Ethical decision making by scientists and institutional review boards should not be based on hunches and anecdotes (e.g., about such matters as what information potential research participants would want to know and what they understand, or what they consider to be acceptable risks). These questions should be answered through empirical research. Some of the preceding articles in this special issue illustrate uses of empirical research on research ethics. This article places empirical research on research ethics into broader perspective and challenges investigators to use the tools of their disciplines to proactively solve ethical problems for which there currently exist no empirically proven solutions.     

Men's and Women's Perceptions of the Gender Typing of Management Subroles

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which subroles inherent in managerial positions are gender-typed and whether men or women engage in relatively more gender typing of managerial roles. We obtained perceptions of 19 management subroles from 263 business students in the United States Results confirmed predictions that some subroles are viewed as more feminine in nature whereas other subroles are perceived as more masculine. Male respondents saw most subroles as more masculine in nature than did female respondents. Results are discussed in terms of implications for researchers studying management, as well as for managers in the workplace.