Childhood Maltreatment,Adult Attachment,and Depression as Predictors of Parental Self-Efficacy in At-Risk Mothers

Childhood abuse and neglect can have far-reaching effects on adult relationships, mental health, and parenting. This study examined relations between maltreatment types, anxious and avoidant adult attachment, maternal depression, and parental self-efficacy in a community sample of 76 at-risk mothers. After controlling for other forms of maltreatment, emotional abuse uniquely predicted higher levels of anxious attachment and maternal depression. Structural equation modeling revealed that childhood maltreatment predicted lower parental self-efficacy through indirect pathways involving anxious attachment and depression. Specifically, maltreatment's influence on maternal depression was mediated by attachment anxiety, while its influence on parental self-efficacy was mediated by depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of attachment theory and ways in which parental self-efficacy contributes to adaptive caregiving behavior.     

Eye movements when reading words with $YMβOL$ and NUM83R5: There is a cost

Recent evidence from masked priming experiments has revealed that readers regularize letter-like symbols and letter-like numbers into their corresponding base letters with minimal processing cost. However, one open question is whether the same pattern occurs when these items are presented during normal silent reading. In the present study, we respond to this question in an eye-movement experiment that included sentences with words that had symbols and numbers as letters, as in “YESTERDAY I SAW THE SECRE74RY WORKING VERY HARD”. Results revealed that there is a greater reading cost associated with letter-by-number replacements than with letter-by-symbol replacements, especially when the replaced letters occur at the beginning of the word. We examine the implications of these findings for models of visual word recognition and reading.     

Relationship Between Psychological Skill Profiles and Soldier Physical Fitness Performance

We examine the structure of soldier's psychological skills and assess the relationship between psychological skills profiles and physical performance with data from 427 soldiers from a Stryker Brigade. Exploratory factor analyses results provided empirical support for a three-factor structure that included foundation skills, psychosomatic skills, and cognitive skills. Cluster analysis revealed three emergent psychological skills profile groups: (a) strong skills, (b) weak skills, and (c) fearful focus clusters. Soldiers in the strong psychological skill profile group performed better than their peers in the other profile groups on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) performance measure. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, research, and practice.     

Some Characteristics of the Written Speech of Stutterers: I.

Abstract

(Bühler, Charlotte. The Child and his Family. Translated by Henry Beaumont. New York: Harper, 1939. Pp. 187.) Reviewed by Walter L. Wilkins     

Are stepfathers’ education levels associated with the intelligence of their stepsons? A register‐based study of Norwegian half‐brothers

We examined the relationship between the parents’ education levels and the adult intelligence of their children in a population‐based, nationwide sample of Norwegian half‐brothers with different fathers (2,016 pairs of half‐brothers). In a family where the mother has two children with different men, the firstborn child usually lives with the younger child's father during a period of their childhood. This makes it possible to study the non‐genetic effects of paternal education on children's development. Results showed that the education level of the younger half‐brother's father was positively associated with the intelligence score of the older half‐brother. The education level of the older half‐brother's father was not associated with the intelligence score of the younger half‐brother. Firstborn men whose half‐brothers’ fathers had high levels of education had intelligence scores that were 33% (95% confidence interval: 18–47%) of a standard deviation higher than those of firstborn men whose half‐brothers’ fathers had low levels of education, after adjustment for the biological fathers’ education levels, mothers’ education levels, and other background factors. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that a child's family environment exerts an effect on the cognitive abilities of the child that lasts into adulthood.     

Moderators of Candidate Name‐Order Effects in Elections: An Experiment

Past studies of elections have shown that candidates whose names were listed at the beginning of a list on a ballot often received more votes by virtue of their position. This article tests speculations about the cognitive mechanisms that might be responsible for producing the effect. In an experiment embedded in a large national Internet survey, participants read about the issue positions of two hypothetical candidates and voted for one of them in a simulated election in which candidate name order was varied. The expected effect of position appeared and was strongest (1) when participants had less information about the candidates on which to base their choices, (2) when participants felt more ambivalent about their choices, (3) among participants with more limited cognitive skills, and (4) among participants who devoted less effort to the candidate evaluation process. The name‐order effect was greater among left‐handed people when the candidate names were arrayed horizontally, but there was no difference between left‐ and right‐handed people when the names were arrayed vertically. These results reinforce some broad theoretical accounts of the cognitive process that yield name‐order effects in elections.