Effects of Parent’s Gender, Child’s Gender, and Parental Involvement on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents in Single Parent Families

We used a national database (Educational Longitudinal Study) to investigate the effects of parent’s gender, child’s gender, and parental involvement in school on the academic achievement of adolescents in single-parent families. A three way 2 × 2 × 2 (parent’s gender × child’s gender × parental involvement) MANCOVA was conducted with four student academic achievement indicators as dependent variables and SES as a covariate. The results indicated that parent gender and child gender interact with parent involvement to affect adolescents’ academic achievement differentially. Specifically, daughters who lived with highly involved single-fathers performed better academically than the other groups did. These findings suggest that researchers who study single-parents’ involvement in their adolescents’ academic achievement need to pay more attention to gender-specific effects.     

Moderating Effects of Religious/Spiritual Coping in the Relation Between Perceived Stress and Psychological Well-Being

Although the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms is well documented, less is known about the role of coping strategies, in particular strategies for coping via religious or spiritual means. To investigate the relationships among these factors, data was collected with questionnaires completed by 127 MSW students at a northeastern university in 2003. Significant Stress×Religious/Spiritual Coping buffer interactions were found in the relationship between stress and depression. EQS 6.1 and hierarchical moderated regression analysis showed that religious/spiritual coping reduced the impact of stress on depression. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Diurnal variation in the Positive Affects

We examined the circadian rhythm of two basic dimensions of mood—Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA). Subjects were 196 college students in two studies who completed a mood rating form approximately seven times a day for 1 week. Significant diurnal variation was found to exist in overall Positive Affect, and in four component content areas, but not in Negative Affect. Specifically, all components of PA rose sharply from early morning until noon, remained relatively constant until 9 p.m., and then fell rapidly. The rise and fall of PA were quite robust across subjects, but the apparently static level of PA from noon to 9 p.m. was shown to result from averaging across marked individual differences in the time of peak PA. Various potential sources of these individual differences—“morningness-eveningness,” introversion-extraversion, and neuroticism/dysphoria—were investigated. Neither of the personality variables accounted for the significant variation in diurnal mood patterning, but clearly defined morning and evening types did show different patterns. Possible links between the mood pattern obtained and biologically based circadian rhythms, which have been postulated to be dysregulated in depression and mania, are discussed.     

Effects of Guided Notes on University Students' Responding and Recall of Information

The present study assessed the effects of guided notes on student responding and accuracy of recall of lecture material in an undergraduate psychology class using multi-element design. Guided notes were administered for approximately half of the class sessions on a random schedule. Data were collected on the frequency of student responses and daily quizzes were administered to assess accuracy of recall of information presented in the lecture. Results indicated higher mean quiz scores and response frequencies during the guided notes condition. Social validity questionnaires administered to participants revealed satisfaction with results and procedures.     

Psychoanalytic patients in the U.S., Canada,and Australia: II. A DSM-III-R validation study

A study was conducted to validate our previous work on the DSM-III-R disorders diagnosed in patients in psychoanalysis in the U.S., Canada, and Australia and to determine which specific mood, anxiety, and personality disorders were the most common in these patients. The earlier study consisted of three surveys of psychoanalytic practice that together obtained data on 1,718 patients, through extensive mail surveys to analysts in the three countries. In the validation study, 206 patients were diagnosed using a different technique. Analysts similar in important respects to those who participated in the original surveys rated patients diagnostically before and after DSM-III-R training. After training, no significant changes appeared in the rates for any of the specific mood disorders. For the thirty disorders examined, training effects decreased the identification of the generalized anxiety disorder, and increased the identification of three personality disorders: avoidant, dependent, and personality disorder not otherwise specified. Thus, analysts slightly underdiagnosed the number of personality disorders, and some "anxious" patients appear to have qualified for personality disorders. Some limitations of the DSM-III-R notion of narcissistic personality are discussed, as are the importance and stability of the self-defeating (masochistic) personality disorder. The most common Axis I disorder in psychoanalytic patients was dysthymia, followed by major depression, recurrent. This study reinforces the findings of the original three surveys. Minor corrections were developed to adjust the original three surveys.     

Projecting pastoral care in revival preaching: Billy Graham

Conclusion How may the evangelist project pastoral care in his preaching? This discussion sought to delineate some of the answers to this question. However, these cannot become answers for any herald of the Gospel unless he exercises an honest, sustained, self-critical probe into the inter-relatedness of his own being, attitudes toward congregants, and preaching. Erich Fromm asserts: There is no concept of man in which I myself am not included.²⁹ Likewise, there is no discussion of preaching or of a preacher in which each minister should not include himself-self-evaluatively, perhaps confessionally.     

Counselors and Juvenile Delinquents: Toward a Comprehensive Treatment Approach

The complex problems experienced by juvenile offenders require a multifaceted approach to treatment. Meeting the interwoven psychological and environmental needs of delinquent youngsters involves four differential treatment functions: behaviour adjustment, growth counseling, child advocacy, and social chance. Mental health counselors and juvenile-justice-system workers can coordinate their efforts toward comprehensive treatment by analyzing their roles in terms of these four functions and by keeping their roles clearly understood among themselves and with their clients.