Coping and Positive Affect in Adolescents of Mothers With and Without a History of Depression

The adolescent children of depressed mothers are at increased risk for depression, but little is known about protective factors for these children. Maintenance of positive affect in a stressful context may be an important marker of resilience. Mothers with (n = 34) and without (n = 38) a history of depression and their adolescent children completed questionnaires regarding adolescents’ coping and depressive symptoms and engaged in a 15 min videotaped interaction about family stress. Adolescents’ observed behaviors were coded using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. No significant differences emerged in observed behavior between adolescents of mothers with and without a history of depression. Higher levels of primary and secondary control coping and lower levels of disengagement coping were related to higher levels of observed positive mood and fewer depressive symptoms in adolescents. Observed positive mood was related to fewer depressive symptoms in adolescents, even after accounting for maternal history of depression and current maternal depressive symptoms. Results suggest the importance of considering positive affect in the context of family stress as a marker of resilience in adolescents at risk for depression. The current study provides evidence for coping as a protective factor, related to higher levels of positive affect and fewer depressive symptoms, in adolescents exposed to maternal depressive symptoms.     

Virtual muscularity: a content analysis of male video game characters

The 150 top-selling video games were content analyzed to study representations of male bodies. Human males in the games were captured via screenshot and body parts measured. These measurements were then compared to anthropometric data drawn from a representative sample of 1120 North American men. Characters at high levels of photorealism were larger than the average American male, but these characters did not mirror the V-shaped ideal found in mainstream media. Characters at low levels of photorealism were also larger than the average American male, but these characters were so much larger that they appeared cartoonish. Idealized male characters were more likely to be found in games for children than in games for adults. Implications for cultivation theory are discussed.     

Resource allocation during spoken discourse processing: Effects of age and passage difficulty as revealed by self-paced listening

The allocation of processing resources during spoken discourse comprehension was studied in a manner analogous to self-paced reading using the auditory moving window technique (Ferreira, Henderson, Anes, Weeks, & McFarlane, 1996). Young and older participants listened to spoken passages in a self-paced segment-by-segment fashion. In Experiment 1, we examined the influence of speech rate and passage complexity on discourse encoding and recall performance. In Experiment 2, we examined the influence of speech rate and presentation mode (self-paced vs. full-passage presentation) on recall performance. Results suggest that diminished memory performance in the older adult group relative to the young adult group is attributable to age-related differences in how resources were allocated during the initial encoding of the spoken discourse.     

Global and local processing in adult humans (Homo sapiens), 5-year-old children (Homo sapiens), and adult cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)

This study compared adults (Homo sapiens), young children (Homo sapiens), and adult tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) while they discriminated global and local properties of stimuli. Subjects were trained to discriminate a circle made of circle elements from a square made of square elements and were tested with circles made of squares and squares made of circles. Adult humans showed a global bias in testing that was unaffected by the density of the elements in the stimuli. Children showed a global bias with dense displays but discriminated by both local and global properties with sparse displays. Adult tamarins' biases matched those of the children. The striking similarity between the perceptual processing of adult monkeys and humans diagnosed with autism and the difference between this and normatively developing human perception is discussed.     

The relationship between perceived length and egocentric location in Müller-Lyer figures with one versus two chevrons

We examined the apparent dissociation of perceived length and perceived position with respect to the Müller-Lyer (M-L) illusion. With the traditional (two-chevron) figure, participants made accurate open-loop pointing responses at the endpoints of the shaft, despite the presence of a strong length illusion. This apparently non-Euclidean outcome replicated that of Mack, Heuer, Villardi, and Chambers (1985) and Gillam and Chambers (1985) and contradicts any theory of the M-L illusion in which mislocalization of shaft endpoints plays a role. However, when one of the chevrons was removed, a constant pointing error occurred in the predicted direction, as well as a strong length illusion. Thus, with one-chevron stimuli, perceived length and location were no longer completely dissociated. We speculated that the presence of two opposing chevrons suppresses the mislocalizing effects of a single chevron, especially for figures with relatively short shafts.     

The Impact of First-Grade “Friendship Group” Experiences on Child Social Outcomes in the Fast Track Program

Many interventions for childrens behavior problems successfully utilize a group format for social skills training, providing opportunities for practice and performance feedback from peers. Recent studies however, suggest that grouping aggressive children together may reduce intervention effectiveness or even increase risk. The present study examined the relative impact of childrens own behavior and their experiences with peers in the first-grade friendship groups of Fast Track, a multi-component preventive intervention program. Two-hundred sixty-six children (56% minority, 29% female) participated in 55 friendship groups. Childrens own positive and negative behavior in friendship groups was related to relative improvements in social cognitive skills, prosocial behavior, and aggression, assessed through child interviews, teacher ratings, and peer sociometric nominations. Results from hierarchical linear models also revealed that the amount of peer escalation children received for their disruptive behavior during sessions impeded some intervention gains, whereas mere exposure to other childrens positive or negative behavior was rarely related to outcomes.Members of the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group are, in alphabetical order, Karen L. Bierman, Pennsylvania State University; John D. Coie, Duke University; Kenneth A. Dodge, Duke University; E. Michael Foster, Pennsylvania State University; Mark T. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University; John E. Lochman, University of Alabama; Robert J. McMahon, University of Washington; and Ellen E. Pinderhughes, Tufts University     

Individual differences in emotional memory: adult attachment and long-term memory for child sexual abuse

In the present study, attachment-related differences in long-term memory for a highly emotional life event, child sexual abuse (CSA), were investigated. Participants were 102 documented CSA victims whose cases were referred for prosecution approximately 14 years earlier. Consistent with the proposal that avoidant individuals defensively regulate the processing of potentially distressing information (Bowlby, 1980), attachment avoidance was negatively associated with memory for particularly severe CSA incidents. This finding was not mediated by the extent to which participants reported talking about the abuse after it occurred, although post abuse discussion did enhance long-term memory. In addition, accuracy was positively associated with maternal support following the abuse and extent of CSA-related legal involvement. Attachment anxiety was unrelated to memory accuracy, regardless of abuse severity. Implications of the findings for theories of avoidant defensive strategies and emotional memory are discussed.     

On the effectiveness of and preference for punishment and extinction components of function-based interventions

The current study describes an assessment sequence that may be used to identify individualized, effective, and preferred interventions for severe problem behavior in lieu of relying on a restricted set of treatment options that are assumed to be in the best interest of consumers. The relative effectiveness of functional communication training (FCT) with and without a punishment component was evaluated with 2 children for whom functional analyses demonstrated behavioral maintenance via social positive reinforcement. The results showed that FCT plus punishment was more effective than FCT in reducing problem behavior. Subsequently, participants' relative preference for each treatment was evaluated in a concurrent-chains arrangement, and both participants demonstrated a dear preference for FCT with punishment. These findings suggest that the treatment-selection process may be guided by person-centered and evidence-based values.     

What is perseverated in schizophrenia? Evidence of abnormal response plasticity in the saccadic system

Although perseveration is sometimes attributed to defective set switching, the authors have recently shown that set-switching is normal in schizophrenia. In this article, the authors tested for persistent states of the saccadic response system, rather than set perseveration. Schizophrenic and healthy subjects performed antisaccades and prosaccades. The authors analyzed for 3 carry-over effects. First, whereas the latency of the current saccade correlated with that of the prior saccade in both groups, the correlations under mixed-task conditions declined in healthy but not in schizophrenic subjects. Second, antisaccades in penultimate trials delayed upcoming saccades in schizophrenic but not in healthy subjects. Third, schizophrenic subjects were more likely to erroneously perseverate the direction of a prior antisaccade but not a prior prosaccade. The authors concluded that, in schizophrenia, the effects of correct antisaccades are persistent not weak. Saccades in schizophrenia are characterized by perseveration of antisaccade-induced changes in the saccadic response system rather than failures to switch task set.     

Exploring the influence of personality on depressive symptoms and self-esteem across a significant life transition

This study investigates the influence of personality on adjustment to a particular life transition, community relocation. Participants were 285 women (average age=69.5) who were interviewed once before they moved, and then multiple times after the move. Within the context of this multiwave design, personality traits were used to predict changes in depressive symptoms (DS) and self-esteem (SE) across the move. Neuroticism and Openness to Experience predicted increases in DS over time, whereas Extraversion and Openness predicted increases in SE. Stressful reactions to the move and sense of mastery about the move partially mediated these effects. The study documents the dynamic influence of personality on positive and negative aspects of adjustment and investigates differing routes through which such effects occur.