The "second skin": perceptions of disturbed and nondisturbed early adolescents on clothing, self-concept, and body image

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there were differences between regular education and emotionally disturbed early adolescents with respect to self-concept, body image, and selected uses of clothing. A questionnaire was administered to 74 regular education students from three middle schools. An additional 27 students labeled emotionally disturbed were surveyed from one of the schools. The questionnaire contained existing measures of self-concept and body cathexis and a revised clothing scale developed by the authors. Analysis of the data using t tests revealed significant differences between the groups with regard to self-concept and body image. In both cases, regular education students perceived themselves more positively than did those labeled emotionally disturbed. Factor analysis of the clothing-use measure gave rise to five distinct factors, one of which revealed a significant difference between the groups when analyzed by t tests. This factor, "dependence," examined the emotional effects of the use of clothing on individuals, such as the ability to influence mood. The emotionally disturbed students were less likely to use clothing to influence mood than were the regular education students. The results of this investigation lend further credence to the importance of self-concept in the education curriculum, and imply that the usual aspects of the curriculum that deal with self-concept may be served better by helping the individual become more realistic and self-accepting. The use of clothing as a tool to enhance self-concept merits further investigation.     

Occult participation: its impact on adolescent development

This study investigated the relationship between occult participation, substance abuse, and level of self-esteem in adolescents. Data were collected from 50 adolescents who ranged in age from 12 to 19 years and who spoke English as their primary language. The combined group of adolescents consisted of 25 clinical and 25 nonclinical youth. Participants completed a three-part questionnaire package which included Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Adolescent Magic Questionnaire, and the Drug and Alcohol Assessment Scale. Results indicated that adolescent substance abuse and occult participation were significantly related. High and low occult participation groups were determined, and significant differences were found between the high versus low occult groups when compared on the primary variables of self-esteem and substance abuse. Significant differences were also noted when comparing the high versus low occult groups with various psychosocial developmental variables. Included is a discussion of the impact of occult participation on the psychosocial elements of adolescent self-esteem, self-concept, tolerance for deviance, and religious involvement.     

Emotional disturbance and the development of self-consciousness in adolescence

The development of self-consciousness and its relationship to emotional disturbance was examined in early and late adolescence. The Imaginary Audience Scale was administered to emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed adolescents. As predicted, results indicated that self-consciousness decreased with age in nondisturbed adolescents. For the emotionally disturbed adolescents, the development of self-consciousness in temporary situations did not follow consistent patterns, as indicated by interaction effects. A significant negative relationship was found between intelligence test scores and self-consciousness in the disturbed group. The findings support the premise that social-cognitive shifts found in early to late adolescence are disrupted in disturbed populations. The mediating role of social experience as a factor in cognitive and emotional development is discussed.     

Sex and the working mother: adolescent sexuality, sex role typing and family background

The relationship between family background, sexual behavior, and sex role typing was examined in 44 female and 47 male 15- to 17-year-old subjects at a New England preparatory school using verbal recall, self-report, and background information. Mother's profession was the best correlate of adolescent sexual behavior. The Spence Personal Attributes scale was correlated with sexual behavior in females and the Essay Recall measure was correlated with sexual behavior for males. Theoretical reasons for these relations are discussed.     

Age-appropriate behaviors: a comparison of three generations of females

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in older adolescent and adult females' perceptions of age-appropriate behavior in adults. Subjects were three generations of maternally related females (95 older adolescents, 78 mothers, 83 grandmothers) who were administered a questionnaire designed to assess age-appropriate behaviors in three broad categories: recreation, occupation/career, and family. Major findings were that older adolescents were most tolerant of behaviors performed by individuals at varying ages while older women most closely ascribed to age constraints, and that the greatest agreement on appropriateness of age constraints concerned family relationships while least agreement concerned recreational activities. Results support the view that adolescents' values on family issues are consistent with those of their parents, and suggest that adherence to age norms increases throughout the life span or are the result of generational differences in socialization.     

Visual control of movement patterns and the grammar of action

In this experiment adult subjects copied three types of material (letters, reversed letters and geometric shapes) with and without sight of the hand and the writing trace. Without vision the number of movement segments decreased and the sequence and direction of movements were altered. This means that subjects did not use a fixed stored representation to produce items nor did they obey the rules of Goodnow and Levine's (1973) grammar of action. When spatial location is made more difficult by the removal of vision, movement production is simplified to reduce the number of relocations required. The use of consistent directions of movement depends on the ability to use visual control of spatial location.     

The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory: concurrent validity with a clinic sample

The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) is an empirically derived self-report inventory developed as a specific measure of social phobia. The current investigation included two studies. The first examined the correlation of the SPAI with daily social behavior of a clinic sample of social phobics. The results indicated that the SPAI provides a reasonable indication of the distress experienced during daily social encounters in three dimensions: behavior, cognitions, and overall distress. The second study examined the validity of the SPAI with reference to the somatic response and avoidance behavior of social phobics. The results indicated that the somatic items of the SPAI are related to the somatic response of social phobics and that performance on the SPAI is associated with avoidance behavior in an anxiety-producing task.     

The impact of anxiety on visual attention to central and peripheral events

Recent reports in the literature suggest that anxious individuals show an attentional bias to mood-congruent information. Various investigators have hypothesized that such anxiety-based coding biases contribute to the maintenance of mood disorders. The present study sought to determine if attentional biases in anxious subjects extends to the perception of neutral, as opposed to affect-laden, stimuli. A procedure used to determine the locus of attention to foveal and peripheral visual events was used in combination with two inter-stimulus intervals, fixed and variable, to examine anxious and non-anxious subjects' attentional biases. Mood states were established by a well-validated musical induction procedure. The results revealed an attentional bias to foveal visual events in non-anxious subjects and an attenuated or reversed (peripheral) bias in anxious subjects. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Restrained eaters are rapidly habituating sensation seekers

Several authors have pointed to similarities between eating disorders and addictive behaviors. In earlier studies, addicts were found to score high on the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) and to habituate rapidly to neutral stimuli. In this study, we found experimental support for an addiction model of eating disorders: restrained eaters also scored significantly higher on the Sensation Seeking Scale and also habituated significantly quicker to a series of neutral stimuli than unrestrained eaters. No clear evidence was found for the hypothesis that restrained eaters score lower on measurements of anxiety. It is hypothesized that rapid habituation promotes sensation seeking, which may be manifested in excessive consumption of either drugs or food. Restraint may be a strategy to prevent negative consequences of sensation seeking and excessive consumption. The model is related to earlier experimental findings.     

Research-structured vs clinically flexible versions of social learning-based marital therapy

The purpose of this study was to compare our structured research-based version of marital therapy from a social learning perspective with a clinically flexible version of the same treatment where treatment plans were individually-based and there was no specific number of treatment sessions. Thirty distressed married couples were randomly assigned to one of these two treatments. Assessment of outcome was based on global marital satisfaction, spouse reports of functioning in specific areas, and direct observational measures of communication. At posttest there were no differences in efficacy between structured and flexible treatments, although both treatments led to significant improvements. At a 6-month follow-up couples treated with the structured format were more likely to have deteriorated and flexibly treated couples were more likely to have maintained their treatment gains.