Demographic Profiles on AFDC Mothers Successfully Placed in Competitive Employment

The purposes of this study were to research demographic characteristics of participants in a government work incentive program for AFDC recipients and to identify those characteristics that lead to successful employment through the program. Implications of the results for clients and staff members of work incentive programs are discussed, and limitations of the study are identified.     

Parent–child gender interaction in the relation between retrospective self-reports on parental love and current self-esteem

A retrospective questionnaire study investigated the relation between current self-esteem in adult men ( n =34) and women ( n =99) and self-reported experience of parental "unconditional positive regard" during childhood. For both men and women the perception of the father's unconditional regard was significantly related to self-esteem. For women only a weak relation was found between the reported experience of maternal regard and self-esteem in adulthood; a comparison of younger and older women showed that this relation was weaker for younger women. The results were interpreted in terms of a greater ambivalence in women towards the mother, possibly as a result of women's more complex separation and identification processes; the difference between younger and older women could indicate that this ambivalence decreases over the years. The implications of this interpretation for the validity of retrospective accounts is discussed, suggesting that the validity could increase over the years.     

Measuring depression for Swedish nonclinical adolescents: Factorial validity and equivalence of the Beck Depression Inventory across gender

Building upon earlier confirmatory factor analytic research that validated a 2nd-order 4-factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory for Canadian and Swedish nonclinical adolescents, the purposes of the present study were twofold: (a) to test the factorial structure of the Swedish version of the instrument separately for males ( n = 559) and females ( n = 537), and (b) to test for its measurement and structural equivalence across gender. Except for three minor discrepancies involving correlated errors, the hypothesized model best described the data for both males and females. Nonetheless, the imposition of equality constraints across sex revealed differences bearing on the measurement of six items, and latent construct relations involving the Somatic Elements factor. Four gender differences in factorial structure replicated findings for Canadian adolescents. Results have important implications for researchers, clinicians, and others whose interests focus on nonclinical adolescent depression.     

Schizophrenic reactions in the Serial Spiral After-Effect Test

A group of 52 schizophrenics, 13 neurotics and 30 normals were studied by means of the Serial Spiral After-Effect Test. Schizophrenics with classical overt symptoms showed significantly higher values compared to neurotics, normals and latent schizophrenics on the residual variability in ten consecutive durations of the after-effect, i.e. the total variability minus the variability ascribable to linear change. Significant correlations were obtained between residnal variability in the Serial Spiral After-Effect Test and psychosis, as assessed by a psychiatric rating scale for the schizophrenics with classical overt symptoms, when the mean level in the Serial Spiral After-Effect Test was checked.     

The development of risk acceptance and moral valuation

The relationship between acceptability of risks and moral valuation of risky activities was investigated in children, 10–16 years old. It was found that all age groups exhibited a strong correlation between the two dimensions of risky activities. Older children were more tolerant of risk taking than younger children. Individual actions were judged in a more lenient manner than collective actions. Girls tended to be more morally condemning towards risk taking, but the youngest girls were not less prone to accept risks than boys. General measures of moral development according to Piaget and Kohlberg were not associated with perceived acceptability of risk or the judged morality of risky activities but relations were found between risk taking and assertiveness and perceived freedom, which were the most important factors in accounting for risk and morality attitudes.