Longitudinal changes in term and preterm infant night wakings: The role of caregiver anxious-depression

Changes in infant night waking during the first year of life are associated with individual (e.g., prematurity) and family (e.g., caregiver psychopathology) factors. This study examined the association between infant night waking and caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms during the first year of life in preterm and term infants. We considered between-person differences and within-person changes in caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms in relation to changes in infant night waking from 2- to 9-months. Racially (30.0% Black, 60.4% White, 9.5% multiracial/other) and socioeconomically (40.0% below median household income) diverse caregivers (N = 445) of full term (n = 258) and preterm (n = 187) infants were recruited from hospitals and clinics in two midwestern states. Caregivers completed measures of anxious-depression and their infant's night waking at four sampling periods (2-, 4-, 6-, and 9-months). Infant night wakings declined from 2- to 9-months. Between-person differences were observed, such that caregivers with higher average anxious-depressive symptoms or infants born full term reported more night wakings. Within-person effects of caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms were not significant. Caregiver anxious-depression is closely associated with infant night wakings. By considering a caregiver's average severity of anxious-depression, healthcare providers can more effectively plan infant sleep interventions. If caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms are ameliorated, night wakings may also decrease.     

Is prospective memory enhanced by cue-action semantic relatedness and enactment at encoding?

Benefits and costs on prospective memory performance, of enactment at encoding and a semantic association between a cue-action word pair, were investigated in two experiments. Findings revealed superior performance for both younger and older adults following enactment, in contrast to verbal encoding, and when cue-action semantic relatedness was high. Although younger adults outperformed older adults, age did not moderate benefits of cue-action relatedness or enactment. Findings from a second experiment revealed that the inclusion of an instruction to perform a prospective memory task led to increments in response latency to items from the ongoing activity in which that task was embedded, relative to latencies when the ongoing task only was performed. However, this task interference 'cost' did not differ as a function of either cue-action relatedness or enactment. We argue that the high number of cue-action pairs employed here influenced meta-cognitive consciousness, hence determining attention allocation, in all experimental conditions.     

‘The third person in the room’: Recording the counselling interview for the purpose of counsellor training – barrier to relationship building or effective tool for professional development?

Objective: Audio and videotape interview recording for training and supervision in counsellor education is commonplace within New Zealand, yet researchers have paid little attention to its value perceived by students. This study explores counselling students’ perceptions of the effects of recording counselling interviews on themselves, their clients and on the counselling process. Design: Counselling students from five tertiary educational settings in New Zealand participated in individual or focus group interviews to discuss their experiences of recording counselling interviews. Findings: All interviewees indicated that recording initially curtailed their ability to be completely present in the counselling interview. Some thought this may have negatively influenced their clients’ ability to use the counselling session effectively. Most noted their own increased confidence over time. Almost all considered recording to be extremely beneficial to the development of effective counselling skills. Conclusion: Most students considered the benefits of recording to outweigh the drawbacks. Implications for continuing the practice of recording and playing back interviews in counsellor‐education programmes are considered.     

Parenting in an Individualistic Culture with a Collectivistic Cultural Background: The Case of Turkish Immigrant Families with Toddlers in the Netherlands

Expanding our knowledge on parenting practices of immigrant families is crucial for designing culturally sensitive parenting intervention programs in countries with high immigration rates. We investigated differences in patterns of parenting between second-generation immigrant and native families with young children. Authoritarian and authoritative control and sensitivity of second-generation Turkish immigrant mothers of 2-year-old children (n = 70) and native Dutch mothers (n = 70) were observed in the home and in the laboratory. Controlling for maternal age and education, Turkish immigrant mothers were less supportive, gave less clear instructions to their children, were more intrusive and were less authoritative in their control strategies than native Dutch mothers. No differences were found in authoritarian control. In both ethnic groups supportive presence, clarity of instruction, authoritative control, and low intrusiveness loaded on one factor. No differences between ethnic groups were found in gender-differentiated parenting. Maternal emotional connectedness to the Turkish culture was associated with less authoritative control, whereas more use of the Turkish language was related to more sensitivity. Even though mean level differences in parenting behaviors still exist between second-generation Turkish immigrant and native Dutch mothers, the patterns of associations between parenting behaviors were comparable for both groups. This suggests that existing parenting interventions for native families may be applicable to second-generation Turkish immigrants as well.     

Predicting Growth Curves of Early Childhood Externalizing Problems: Differential Susceptibility of Children with Difficult Temperament

Using an accelerated longitudinal design, the development of externalizing problems from age 2 to 5 years was investigated in relation to maternal psychopathology, maternal parenting, gender, child temperament, and the presence of siblings. The sample consisted of 150 children selected at age 2–3 years for having high levels of externalizing problems. Parenting was measured using observational methods, and maternal reports were used for the other variables. Overall, mean levels of externalizing problems decreased over time, and higher initial levels (intercept) were related to a stronger decrease (negative slope) in externalizing problems. Results showed that higher levels of maternal psychopathology were related to less decrease in early childhood externalizing problems. Parental sensitive behavior predicted a stronger decrease in externalizing problems, but only for children with difficult temperaments. A stronger decrease of externalizing problems in children with older siblings also pertained only to children with difficult temperaments. Thus, temperamentally difficult children appear to be more susceptible to environmental influences on the development of externalizing behaviors. Our results indicate that the role of siblings in early childhood externalizing problems deserves more research attention, and that intervention efforts need to take into account temperamental differences in children’s susceptibility to environmental influences.     

Justification and the Processing of Information

This study explores, within the context of escalating commitment, how ambiguous information affects decision making. By analyzing subjects' looking times and allocation decisions, we examined the process by which individuals abstract and use information to arrive at their decisions. We found that subjects spent more time processing ambiguous information than they did either purely optimistic or purely pessimistic information. This tendency to process ambiguous information longer increased when the decision maker was not exonerated from blame for the failure of an original decision; presented with ambiguous information, nonex-onerated subjects also made smaller allocations than did exonerated subjects. In this study, the predominant effect of felt responsibility on allocations was withdrawal rather than escalation. Our results suggest that the ambiguity of information about the future plays an important role in escalation and that the combination of responsibility and failure may affect allocations only when the prospective information is ambiguous.