Variance Distribution in Sibling Relationships: Advantages of Multilevel Modeling Using Full Sibling Groups

The majority of research on sibling relationships has investigated only one or two siblings in a family, but there are many theoretical and methodological limitations to this single dyadic perspective. This study uses multiple siblings (541 adults) in 184 families, where 96 of these families had all siblings complete the study, to demonstrate the value in including full sibling groups when conducting research on sibling relationships. Two scales, positivity and willingness to sacrifice, are evaluated with a multilevel model to account for the nested nature of family relationships. The distribution of variance across three levels: relationship, individual, and family are computed, and results indicate that the relationship level explains the most variance in positivity, whereas the individual level explains the majority of variance in willingness to sacrifice. These distributions are affected by gender composition and family size. The results of this study highlight an important and often overlooked element of family research: The meaning of a scale changes based on its distribution of variance at these three levels. Researchers are encouraged to be cognizant of the variance distribution of their scales when studying sibling relationships and to incorporate more full sibling groups into their research methods and study design.     

Feeling bad and doing good: The effect of customer mistreatment on service employee's daily display of helping behaviors

Mistreatment by customers is a common occurrence for many frontline service employees. Although some evidence suggests that employees engage in dysfunctional workplace behaviors as a result of mistreatment, others studies have suggested that employees may cope with such negative experiences by helping others. Drawing on negative state relief theory, we conducted 2 studies to test these relationships and examine whether service employees cope with negative emotions arising from such daily customer mistreatment by engaging in helping others. In Study 1, daily surveys from 70 restaurant employees showed that daily customer mistreatment predicted the experience of negative moods the next morning, which, in turn, led to higher levels of coworker helping the next day. In Study 2, daily surveys from 54 retail employees showed that daily customer mistreatment led to higher customer helping the next day, but only when customer orientation was high. Our results further show that helping behavior was associated with elevated positive affective experiences and that the proposed relationships differ depending on whether customer mistreatment is measured at a daily or a cumulative perspective. Specifically, cumulative customer mistreatment over time decreased general helping. These findings are discussed in relation to employees' coping strategies towards acute and cumulative mistreatment.     

A Study of Church Members During Times of Crisis

The purpose of the current study was to understand what church members experience during a situational crisis and identify the resources of social support that are helpful for them. By identifying the degree to which personal religious beliefs and participation in a particular congregation help people in crisis, this study sought to provide a foundation from which religious as well as mental health professionals can understand the psychological benefits of religious involvement. For the purposes of this research the investigators developed the Crisis Appraisal and Coping Interview Protocol. The research team collected interview data from 26 members of one Southern Baptist congregation within two weeks of a crisis event. Qualitative analysis identified several key themes that appeared which are discussed.     

Differential Effects of Two Spelling Procedures on Acquisition,Maintenance and Adaption to Reading

An alternating treatments design was used to assess the effects of a constant time delay (CTD) procedure and a cover-copy-compare (CCC) procedure on three students’ acquisition, subsequent maintenance, and adaptation (i.e., application) of acquired spelling words to reading passages. Students were randomly presented two trials of word lists from their respective curriculum under each condition once daily. Results suggest that both procedures were effective for helping students efficiently acquire spelling words, but the CCC condition resulted in more words learned for all participants, although less pronounced when instructional time was considered. However, the CTD procedure resulted in substantially higher levels of maintenance for Jeremy and Leon, with no significant difference between the two procedures for the Anthony. Adaptation of acquired spelling words to reading was about equal under both conditions for Anthony and Leon, while Jeremy showed higher levels of performance in the CTD procedure. Discussion focuses on discrepant results, matching instructional procedures to specific learning concerns, and directions for future research.     

Always on My Mind: Exploring How Frequent,Recent, and Vivid Television Portrayals Are Used in the Formation of Social Reality Judgments

Prior research has found consistent support for the heuristic processing model of cultivation effects, which argues that cultivation effects can be explained by the availability heuristic. The present study represents an experimental test of the heuristic processing model and tests the impact of frequency, recency, and vividness on construct accessibility and social reality beliefs. 213 students participated in a 2 × 2 × 2 prolonged exposure experimental design varying the frequency of exposure to violent television programs, the level of vividness in the programs, and recency of exposure. Dependent measures were accessibility and social reality beliefs. Results showed that reaction times were largely unresponsive to the independent variables. Although there were no main effects for frequency on social reality beliefs, there was a significant interaction between frequency and vividness on beliefs: People watching vivid violent media gave higher estimates of the prevalence of crime and police immorality in the real world in the 3× viewing condition than those in the 1× viewing condition. In concluding, it is argued that this study has important implications for the heuristic processing model, cultivation theory, and research into vividness effects.     

Child Negative Emotionality and Caregiver Sensitivity Across Context: Links with Children's Kindergarten Behaviour Problems

Behavioural adjustment is critical for children's school readiness. This study used data from a nationally representative sample of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort. We examined the effects of interactions between children's negative emotionality, maternal sensitivity and preschool teacher sensitivity on children's kindergarten internalizing and externalizing behaviours. Parent report of children's negative emotionality and observations of maternal sensitivity were obtained at age 2 years, teacher sensitivity was observed in preschool and teacher report of children's behaviour problems was obtained in kindergarten. Negative emotionality moderated links between maternal sensitivity, teacher sensitivity and children's internalizing behaviours. For children high in negativity, maternal sensitivity was positively associated with internalizing behaviour in the context of low teacher sensitivity, whereas for children low in negativity, maternal sensitivity was negatively associated with internalizing behaviour. For children high or low in negativity, internalizing behaviour was comparable when teacher sensitivity was high regardless of maternal sensitivity. Maternal sensitivity and teacher sensitivity interacted to predict externalizing behaviour regardless of child negativity. Children who experienced high teacher sensitivity displayed comparable externalizing behaviour regardless of maternal sensitivity. When children experienced low teacher sensitivity, maternal sensitivity was negatively associated with externalizing behaviour. Interactions between child characteristics and caregiving across developmental contexts are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.