Associations between risk factors,developmental outcomes,and executive function in neonatal intensive care unit graduates at 2 years: A retrospective study

This study explores the extent to which medical and sociodemographic variables and cognitive and language skills are associated with executive function (EF) skills in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) graduates at 24 months of adjusted age. We explored cognitive, language, and EF skills in 42 NICU graduates who participated in a NICU follow-up programme clinic. The association between risk factors and EF and the completion of the EF assessment were explored. Correlational analyses revealed that child gender was associated with EF scores. Analyses revealed cognitive skills, language skills, and multiple gestational births were associated with EF assessment completion. Our findings are among the first to examine EF skills in NICU graduates as young as 24 months of age using a multidimensional, child completed measure. Implications for NICU follow up programmes, the consideration of early interventions aimed to positively affect EF skills, and considerations for future studies are discussed.     

Adult social behavioral effects of heavy adolescent marijuana use among African Americans

The authors examined the effects of heavy adolescent marijuana use on employment, marriage, and family formation and tested both dropping out of high school and adult marijuana use as potential mediators of these associations among a community sample of African Americans followed longitudinally from age 6 to age 32-33. They used propensity score matching to reduce selection bias when estimating the effects of heavy adolescent marijuana use. Logistic regression results on the sample matched on sex, and early demographic and behavioral variables showed that adolescent marijuana use has adult social behavioral consequences: Use of marijuana 20 times or more during adolescence was associated with being unemployed and unmarried in young adulthood and having children outside of marriage for both males and females. Dropping out of high school and more frequent adult marijuana use seem to be important parts of the pathway from adolescent marijuana use to negative life outcomes.     

Correlations for the Stroop Color and Word Test with measures of reading and language achievement

The present investigation examined the relationships for scores on the Stroop Color and Word Test with measures of reading and language achievement within an adult population. The Stroop Color and Word Test, Nelson-Denny Reading Test, Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised, and Wide Range Achievement Test-3 were administered to 99 men ranging in age from 18 to 27 years. Pearson product-moment correlations indicated that the Stroop Word task was positively associated with scores on the WRAT-3 Spelling task, the Woodcock-Johnson Basic and Broad Reading tasks, and the Nelson-Denny Rcading Rate and Comprehension tasks. These and other significant relationships were discussed in terms of possible implications regarding the assessment of reading achievement.     

Career Research Interests and Training of Genetic Counseling Students

Research is important to validate clinical services, provide information on the effectiveness of practice techniques, and develop the knowledge base of a clinical profession. Genetic counseling students from American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) accredited training programs were surveyed to determine their career research interests and interest in pursuing a hypothetical doctoral degree in genetic counseling. Genetic counseling program directors were surveyed to assess the emphasis on research training within their programs. A substantial number (46%, n = 92) of genetic counseling students are interested in performing research in their careers and many (40%, n = 80) would pursue a doctoral degree in genetic counseling if it was available. Students and directors from programs with a thesis requirement reported a significantly higher emphasis on career research preparation than those from programs without a thesis requirement. The results of this study indicate that future genetic counselors are interested in contributing to the research base that will advance the field. This study suggests a need to strengthen research training within ABGC accredited graduate programs and explore the development of a doctoral degree option in genetic counseling.     

Coping styles and personality: a biometric analysis

Previous research suggests that coping styles are modestly heritable and that this genetic influence is shared in large part with genetic influences on personality. To test this hypothesis, we estimated the heritable basis of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations in a sample of 91 monozygotic and 80 dizygotic twin pairs. Task-oriented, emotion-oriented, and social diversion coping styles were modestly heritable (h(2)=.17 to .20), whereas the use of distraction appeared to be influenced solely by environmental factors. Multivariate analyses showed that genetic contributions to coping styles were, at best, only modestly related to genetic contributions to personality (r=-.03 to .35). Environmental contributions to personality were unrelated to environmental factors in coping style. These results suggest that coping style is not merely a manifestation of basic personality traits but does support the possibility that the genetic factors in personality influences have a modest influence on an individual's preferred coping style or strength (e.g., rigidity vs flexibility).     

Psychosocial mediators of group cohesion on physical activity intention of older adults

Considerable evidence has indicated that group-based physical activity may be a promising approach to reducing and preventing age-related illness. However, this research has not examined the mechanisms by which cohesion may impact on behaviour. The purpose of the present research was to utilise the theory of planned behaviour to investigate the mechanism by which group cohesion may affect physical activity intention. Participants were recruited from an existing physical activity intervention studying the effects of group cohesion on physical activity behaviour. The outcomes of this intervention are reported elsewhere. This paper presents data from a sub-sample of the intervention population (N=74) that examined the mediating relationships between the theory of planned behaviour and group cohesion on physical activity intention. Analyses showed that attitude and perceived behavioural control mediated the relationship between specific group cohesion concepts and physical activity intention. The direct measure of subjective norm failed to display a mediating relationship. The mediating relationships displayed between attitude and perceived behavioural control and physical activity intention provide insight into potential mechanisms by which group cohesion may affect behaviour.     

Burnout and connectedness among Australian volunteers: A test of the Job Demands-Resources model

This study used the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, developed in the context of occupational well-being in the paid workforce, to examine the antecedents of burnout and connectedness in the formal volunteer rural ambulance officer vocation (N = 487). Structural equation modeling using self-reports provide strong evidence for the central assumptions of the JD-R model. The findings confirm that burnout fully mediates the relationship between job demands and health problems (Hypothesis 1), and between job demands and determination to continue (Hypothesis 2). In addition, results show that connectedness fully mediates the relationship between job resources and determination to continue (Hypothesis 3). These findings have important practical implications because of the increasing problem of volunteer recruitment and retention.     

Psychoanalysis and Child Rearing

In this article we suggest that current controversies around the psychoanalytic concepts of narcissism, omnipotence, specialness, and so forth derive from reliance on a single-track developmental model. A single-track model, used implicitly or explicitly by almost all psychoanalytic theorists, posits that normal infants and children function in ways that would be considered pathological in later life. This way of thinking is contradicted by modern infant and developmental research. Additionally, it contradicts common-sense experience and is, therefore, not a useful model for parenting. On the other hand, Freud and many other writers also posited a dual-track model, which simultaneously allows for both healthy and pathological choices throughout life. In this article, we describe some of the ways in which a dual-track model, which we have elaborated as two systems of self-regulation, can be usefully applied to theory, technique, and applications with all those involved with children.     

Do women who succeed in male‐dominated domains help other women? The moderating role of gender identification

It is often expected that the first women to advance in male‐dominated fields will promote other women who follow them. Two studies test the hypothesis that some women show this expected pattern of promoting women but that others show the opposite pattern, favoring men over women. In two studies, women's gender identification moderated the extent to which they favored men over women when they advanced in a male‐dominated field. Specifically, the weaker women's gender identification, the more favoritism they showed for a male relative to a female subordinate. Gender identification did not moderate women's behavior in a context in which women were not underrepresented, pointing to the power of the situation in eliciting this relationship. Implications for the advancement of women in male‐dominated fields are discussed.