Associations between Race and Eating Disorder Symptom Trajectories in Black and White Girls

Epidemiological research suggests racial differences in the presentation of eating disorder symptoms. However, no studies have examined associations between race and eating disorder symptom trajectories across youth and adolescence, which is necessary to inform culturally sensitive prevention programs. The purpose of the current study was to examine the trajectories of eating disorder symptoms from childhood to young adulthood and to examine whether race was associated with trajectory group membership. Data were drawn from 2,305 Black and White girls who participated in a community-based longitudinal cohort study (Pittsburgh Girls Study) examining the development of psychopathology. The child and adult versions of the Eating Attitudes Test assessed self-reported eating disorder symptoms at six time points between ages 9 and 21 years. Growth mixture modeling was used to examine developmental trajectories of dieting, bulimia/food preoccupation, and total eating disorder symptom scores. Given potential confounds with race and disordered eating, financial strain (i.e., receiving public assistance) and weight were included as covariates. Four to six distinct developmental patterns were found across eating disorder symptoms, including none, increasing, decreasing, or increasing-decreasing trajectories. Black girls had a greater likelihood of being in the decreasing trajectories for dieting, bulimia/food preoccupation, and total eating disorder symptom scores. White girls were more likely to follow increasing trajectories of dieting and total eating disorder symptom scores compared to Black girls. These results highlight the importance of examining the influence of racial background on eating disorder symptoms and the potential need for differences in the timing and focus of prevention interventions in these groups.     

Autonomic conditioning to monetary and social stimuli and aggression in children

Poor conditioning to punishment, such as loud tones or electric shock, has been proposed as an important factor involved in the etiology of aggressive and psychopathic behavior. However, it is not known whether the association holds when monetary or social stimulus is used as the unconditioned stimulus, and if aggressive individuals also have impaired conditioning to rewards. In this study, skin conductance responses in a conditioning task involving both monetary/social reward and punishment as unconditioned stimuli were assessed in 340 male and female 8‐ to 9‐year‐old children from the community. Children reported their reactive and proactive aggression using the Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ; Raine et al., 2006). Results showed that monetary/social reward and punishment were effective in eliciting physiological classical conditioning in children, and that reduced reward conditioning was associated with high levels of proactive aggression in particular. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between reactive and proactive aggression when examining antisocial behavior in children, and suggest that reward‐oriented treatment programs may not be effective for children with more proactive, instrumental aggressive behavior.

     

Different sides of the same conversation: Black and White partners differ in perceptions of interaction content

A positive interracial interaction can create a foundation for friendships, improved intergroup attitudes and reduced prejudice. Recent research has demonstrated that what people talk about in important. Here, two studies expand the interaction content model of interracial interactions to reveal that Black and White Americans perceive interaction content in similar and different ways. As expected, Black and White participants evaluated conversation topics along the same three dimensions, but differed in their perceptions of specific conversation topics. These convergences and differences emerged for pre‐generated (Study 1) and self‐generated (Study 2) topics. Factor analyses revealed that conversation attributes similarly distilled to the predicted underlying content dimensions of intimacy, valence, and controversy for Black and White Americans. However, Black individuals found interaction content, in general, to be more controversial, race‐related, enjoyable, and predictable than White individuals. Although both groups found race‐related content more controversial, Black individuals were less bothered by discussing race and found race‐related topics to be more predictable and enjoyable to discuss. These findings supported the interaction content model which may provide a framework for future research on interracial interactions. We conclude with the importance of considering differences in perceptions of interaction content, as well as suggestions for how intergroup interaction research could benefit from systematically incorporating such content.     

Experience of Parental Marital Dissolution Earlier in Life and the Disposition to Forgive Among Older Violent and Non-Violent Prisoners

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in self-reported dispositional forgiveness types among older male prison inmates who experienced parental separation/divorce earlier in life. Participants included a sample of N = 261 incarcerated men, aged 45 and older, residing in state-managed prisons in Oklahoma. IBM/SPSS 22.0 was used to examine mean differences across forgiveness of self, situation, and others. Significant mean differences were evident only for forgiveness of situation. In particular, significant differences emerged relative to depressive affect F (1, 192) = 19.90, p < .001, and social support F (1, 192) = 18.64, p < .001. After controlling for age, race, religiosity, depression, social support, perceived health, crime type, and parental separation/divorce, one significant interaction (crime type X parental separation/divorce) emerged, F (1, 192) = 4.42, p < .05. It appears that the disposition to forgive the situation among older prison inmates depends on criminal offender type as well as whether the older inmate experienced parental dissolution earlier in life. Implications for pastoral counseling programing and forgiveness therapy treatment for older male prison inmates who experienced parental separation/divorce earlier in life are discussed.     

Causal Overdetermination and Modal Compatibilism

Compatibilists respond to the problem of causal exclusion for nonreductive physicalism by rejecting the exclusionist’s ban on overdetermination. By the compatibilist’s lights there are two forms of overdetermination, one that’s problematic and another that is entirely benign. Furthermore, multiple causation by “tightly related” causes requires only the benign form of overdetermination. Call this the tight relation strategy for avoiding problematic forms of overdetermination. To justify the tight relation strategy, modal compatibilists appeal to a widely accepted counterfactual test. The argument of this paper is that the counterfactual test fails to legitimize the tight relation strategy as it fails to adequately distinguish between problematic and benign overdetermination. Contrary to modal compatibilists, modal dependence does not suffice for benignity. I conclude by arguing that adequately addressing overdetermination worries requires a much heavier metaphysical burden than modal compatibilists have typically recognized.     

The Relationship Between Racial Identity Status Attitudes and Acculturation Among Chinese and Korean Americans: A Criterion Profile Analysis

This study tested the relationship between racial identity and acculturation among 223 Asian Americans self‐identifying as Chinese American or Korean American. Findings showed within‐group variations among the study participants with regard to their racial identity status attitudes and acculturation. Using criterion profile analysis, the authors found 2 distinctive criterion profiles of racial identity status attitudes that significantly related to higher levels of acculturation among Chinese American and Korean American participants. Implications for multicultural counseling, racial identity, and acculturation research are discussed. Este estudio puso a prueba la relación entre identidad racial y aculturación entre 223 individuos asiático‐americanos que se identifican a sí mismos como chino‐americanos o coreano‐americanos. Los resultados mostraron variaciones dentro del miso grupo entre los participantes del estudio en cuanto a su aculturación y sus actitudes hacia el estatus de su identidad racial. Usando un análisis de perfil de criterio, los autores encontraron 2 perfiles de criterio distintivos para las actitudes hacia el estatus de identidad racial que estaban relacionados significativamente con niveles más altos de aculturación entre los participantes chino‐americanos y coreano‐americanos. Se discuten las implicaciones para investigaciones sobre consejería multicultural, identidad racial y aculturación.     

The Fragility of Consensus: Public Reason,Diversity and Stability

John Rawls's transition from A Theory of Justice to Political Liberalism was driven by his rejection of Theory's account of stability. The key to his later account of stability is the idea of public reason. We see Rawls's account of stability as an attempt to solve a mutual assurance problem. We maintain that Rawls's solution fails because his primary assurance mechanism, in the form of public reason, is fragile. His conception of public reason relies on a condition of consensus that we argue is unrealistic in modern, pluralistic democracies. After rejecting Rawls's conception of public reason, we offer an ‘indirect alternative’ that we believe is much more robust. We cite experimental evidence to back up this claim.