EARLY PARENTING SUPPORT AND INFORMATION: A CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE

The transition to parenthood is a period of both joy and challenge for most parents. There is a recognized need to support parents during this period, yet existing interventions have shown limited evidence of efficacy. This study takes a consumer‐focused approach to examine the needs and preferences of parents both prenatally (n = 77) and postnatally (n = 123) for parenting support. The study used a cross‐sectional design with a purpose‐built online survey. Parents were recruited via online forums, Facebook and parenting blogs, childcare centers, and playgroups. In general, all parents were satisfied with their current levels of both formal and informal support, and about one fourth of parents had accessed a parenting intervention. Parents expressed a moderate level of interest in additional parenting information, and parents expecting their first baby indicated preferences for information about basic baby care needs whereas postnatally, parents expressed more interest in topics around self‐care and behavior management. The implications for developing interventions and engaging families are discussed.     

Selective Retention of Information about the Superficial Form of Text: Ellipses W ith Antecedents in Main and Subordinate Clauses

Elliptical verb phrases must be interpreted indirectly, using a representation of the surface form of nearby (usually preceding) text. We used this fact to demonstrate the different availability of superficial representations of the two clauses in main-subordinate pairs. The acceptability of a later ellipsis was reduced when it took its meaning from a main clause that was followed by a subordinate clause, as compared with other combinations. In addition, positive acceptability judgements were made more quickly (1) when the antecedent clause was subordinate, rather than main, suggesting that the superficial form of a subordinate clause is more important, and (2) when the antecedent was in the immediately preceding clause, rather than two clauses back. These results support the idea that the surface form of subordinate clauses is selectively retained until the corresponding main clause has been read, but the surface form of a main clause is not retained after it has been interpreted.     

Family,peer, and neighborhood influences on academic achievement among African-American adolescents: One-year prospective effects

Using a 1-year prospective design, this study examined the influence of family status variables (family income, parental education, family structure), parenting variables (maternal support and restrictive control), peer support, and neighborhood risk on the school performance of 120 African American junior high school students. In addition to main effects of these variables, neighborhood risk was examined as a moderator of the effects of parenting and peer support. Family status variables were not predictive of adolescent school performance as indexed by self-reported grade point average. Maternal support at Time 1 was prospectively related to adolescent grades at Time 2. Neighborhood risk was related to lower grades, while peer support predicted better grades in the prospective analyses. Neighborhood risk also moderated the effects of maternal restrictive control and peer support on adolescent grades in prospective analyses. These findings highlight the importance of an ecological approach to the problem of academic underachievement within the African American community.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the structure of schizotypy

Recent research into schizotypal traits has been concerned with the number and nature of these personality dimensions. Earlier exploratory factor analytic work using a wide variety of scales (the CSTQ) has generated a four-factor solution but other solutions have been provided by other investigators. This study uses confirmatory factor analysis on a large sample to compare several plausible models of the relationships between scales. These models include a two-factor model separating ‘positive’ from ‘negative’ schizotypal features, a three-factor model including features of cognitive disorganization, and the four-factor model generated previously by exploratory factor analysis. Results offer support for the four-factor solution as the only structure meeting multiple criteria for goodness of fit. The relevance of Eysenck's dimensions, and the P scale in particular, to the results is discussed. Attention is drawn to the possibility that the factors describe predispositions of risk of psychotic disorders beyond that of schizophrenia.     

Counselling Requirements in a Voluntary Advice Agency

Voluntary advice agencies are frequently used by people during times of their lives when they are under emotional pressure: for example, following marital disruption, bereavement or redundancy. In order to assess the nature of personal problems and the psychological effects of such life-events, one such advice agency was observed. From a detailed analysis of a sample of client contacts, it was concluded that there was a well-defined need for counselling to be available in addition to the provision of practical and legal information. Using an action-research strategy, the training of existing volunteer staff was extended, and recommendations were outlined for the recruitment of counsel ling-trained staff.     

Is there evidence for automatic processing of spatial and color attributes present in pictures and words?

The current experiment studies evidence for automatic processing of color and spatial dimensions present in matched pictures and words. Subjects studied four lists of either line drawings or matched words that varied in color (red or green) and position (left or right side), under one of four encoding conditions. Subjects were instructed to encode (1) only the item, (2) the item and its color, 13) the item and its position, or (4) the item and both color and position. All subjects participated in an unexpected final recognition task in which item recognition and recall for both attributes, regardless of original encoding instructions, we:re examined. Color memory appeared to be effortful for both pictures and words, as it was at chance level unless subjects were specifically instructed to encode the information. Position was most poorly recalled when subjects attended only to item information, but memory for this dimension was well above chance in all encoding conditions. The position of the line drawings was better recalled than the position of the words. The implications of these results for Hasher and Zacks’ (1979) model of automatic processes is discussed.     

The initial standardization of the adolescent behavioral classification project instrument

An instrument has been developed through the Adolescent Behavioral Classification Project for assessing an adolescent's problems and for establishing a taxonomy of behaviors and of persons. Standardization has initially consisted of collecting from many sources 482 statements of problem behaviors and 30 positive behaviors, which can be observed by nonprofessional as well as professional persons; administering these behavior statements to 156 institutional and 94 noninstitutional mental health center adolescents and 376 of their parents; carrying out principal components analyses on the behavioral items and 3 demographic items, followed by Varimax and Promax rotations. Twentyfive factors scored on 410 items resulted from these procedures. Internal consistency coefficients for the factors range from .47 to .86. Test-retest reliabilities on a sample of 10 youths ranged from .24 to .94, with an average r_tt of .71. Factor scores for different classes of respondents were fairly well correlated from one set to another. The different classes of respondents did not differ significantly from one another on caution items. Similarities are noted, by inspection, between these factors and those derived from the Children's Behavioral Classification Project and between those other authorities have set forth and the ABCPAcknowledgements are gratefully extended to the ABCP team: Dr. Robert P. Baker, Greg Bennett, Dr. Millard J. Bienvenu, Sr., Dr. Ronald F. Boudreaux, Robert L. Compton, MSW, Dr. Thomas E. Deiker, Dr. M. K. Distefano, Dr. James R. Gay, Charles Granger, Dr. Wayne A. Greenleaf, Allison Hulse, Cathy Knighton, James Moss, Dr. Ronald S. Pryer, Dr. Felicia Pryor, Dr. Edith Schulhofer, Mrs. Annie A. Smart, Dr. T. T. Stigall. Special thanks go to Doctors Boudreaux, Greenleaf, and Pryer for permission to employ their patients from the Adolescent Unit of Central Louisiana State Hospital, and to Dr. Deiker for his provision of the listing of abnormal subjective perceptual experiences. Above all, many thanks are given to the necessarily unnamed adolescents and their parents who took part in the project at considerable inconvenience to themselves, and to the numerous personnel in the mental health centers who cooperated in the project.     

Reading ability and the encoding of item and location information

Two experiments using duration exposures ranging from 20 to 130 msec are reported that link reading skill in adults to the initial encoding of location information. Highly skilled and less skilled readers were equivalent in identifying single letters presented at a central fixation point. When they had to identify the serial position of a letter, however, highly skilled readers performed significantly more accurately than did less skilled readers. A second experiment used displays that consisted of one letter and three dollar signs. Subjects had to identify the letter under two location cuing conditions. When subjects were cued in advance as to which serial position would contain the letter, highly skilled and less skilled readers were equivalent. When the location of the letter had to be resolved prior to identification, highly skilled readers performed significantly more accurately than did less skilled readers. Results are interpreted to suggest that the role of perception in reading has been underestimated because emphasis has been on item perception, and the perception of spatial location has been largely overlooked.     

Comprehension of pronouns

An experiment is reported in which subjects had to choose referents for pronouns in sentences such as: John blamed Bill because he spilt the coffee. To examine whether the choice of referent is influenced by features of the main verb or by the events described in the sentence, the relation between the events was altered by changing the conjunction. A significant effect of conjunction was obtained, but only when both antecedents matched the gender of the pronoun. When only one antecedent matched the pronoun, referents were chosen faster. From these results it is argued that readers use general knowledge to select referents for pronouns when gender does not identify a unique referent. A further effect of sentence structure on the time taken to select a referent was interpreted as showing that subjects analysed the sentences clause by clause.