Does the Medium still Matter? The Influence of Gender and Political Connectedness on Contacting U.S. Public Officials Online and Offline

This study employs a secondary analysis of U.S. nationally representative data from the Pew Internet 2008 civic engagement survey (N?=?2251) to examine the degree to which contacting public officials both online and offline is explained by the variables of gender and political connectedness. We find that while women are somewhat less likely to contact public officials through direct means, such as emailing or writing a letter, they are more likely to sign petitions, offline and especially online. Gender gaps in direct forms of contact are smaller in the online context than the offline context. We additionally find that that gender moderates the relationship between political connectedness developed via social networking sites and contacting public officials, such that women gain even further advantage in signing online petitions, but also gain further disadvantage in writing a letter/calling public officials and signing offline petitions. Finally, we find that political connectedness, achieved via social networking sites and offline contexts, is related to contacting public officials through both online and traditional means, suggesting a blurring of offline and online worlds.     

Intact emotion-induced recognition bias in neuropsychological patients with executive control deficits

In recognition memory tasks, emotionally negative words are judged more often as "old" relative to emotionally neutral words, suggesting a shift in response bias. We wondered whether this bias shift was due to the flexible regulation of executive control during memory retrieval. To address this question, we investigated individuals with high variability in executive control functions. As expected, we observed that emotional word meaning did indeed have a strong influence on the bias toward responding "old," independent of recognition accuracy and overall response bias. However, these effects were uncorrelated with executive control, as measured by the Trail Making Test, and were fully intact, even in a sample of hospitalized neurological patients with severe executive dysfunctions, some of whom had marked damage in fronto-thalamo-striatal networks. Having concluded that the emotion-induced bias must develop on different grounds, we went on to discuss alternative explanations.     

Parent vs. Self-Report: Contributions Toward Diagnosis of Adolescent Psychopathology

Assessment of psychopathology in adolescents can be complicated due to uncertainties about who should be considered the primary informant. While a multimethod, multiinformant approach to assessment allows for a thorough assessment, it can also result in contradictory findings. The purpose of this study was to use a sample of 121 adolescents to investigate issues of parent-adolescent agreement on behavior rating scales and a structured diagnostic interview. Additionally, this study evaluated whether adolescent report offers unique information to the assessment beyond the parent's report. The sample included both normal controls and adolescents who met criteria for diagnosis of an Internalizing or Externalizing disorder based on the DSM-IV criteria. Agreement between parents and adolescents on the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents—Revised (DICA-R) was low for ADHD (39.4%) and Externalizing Disorders (41.1%) and moderate for Internalizing Disorders (56.6%). A significant difference was found between the number of ADHD symptoms reported, with parents reporting more symptoms (M = 9.42) than adolescents (M = 8.34). Regression analysis indicated that the adolescent completed Youth Self-report (YSR) contributed unique information beyond the parent completed measures in predicting both the adolescent and the parent interviews for Internalizing Disorders. This finding emphasizes the need to continue to collect self-report information, especially when assessing Internalizing disorders, which inherently contain symptoms indicating high-risk behaviors such as suicide ideation.     

A Model of Mindful Parenting: Implications for Parent–Child Relationships and Prevention Research

This paper introduces a model of “mindful parenting” as a framework whereby parents intentionally bring moment-to-moment awareness to the parent–child relationship. This is done by developing the qualities of listening with full attention when interacting with their children, cultivating emotional awareness and self-regulation in parenting, and bringing compassion and nonjudgmental acceptance to their parenting interactions. First, we briefly outline the theoretical and empirical literature on mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions. Next, we present an operational definition of mindful parenting as an extension of mindfulness to the social context of parent–child relationships. We discuss the implications of mindful parenting for the quality of parent–child relationships, particularly across the transition to adolescence, and we review the literature on the application of mindfulness in parenting interventions. We close with a synopsis of our own efforts to integrate mindfulness-based intervention techniques and mindful parenting into a well-established, evidence-based family prevention program and our recommendations for future research on mindful parenting interventions.     

What does integration mean? social insertion of Russian immigrants in Israel

This article is an effort to refine current understanding of social integration in the context of repatriate migration. The empirical basis for this analysis is a recent survey in a national sample of post-1990 Russian Jewish immigrants to Israel that examined the pace and determinants of their integration and acculturation. The proposed analytical framework in based on the four main indicators of integration among educated first-genaration immigrants: (a) the improving command of the host language and emerging bilingualism; (b) skilled occupation in the mainstream economy; (c) diversification of immigrants’ informal networks to include members of the host society; and (d) shifts in the cultural and media consumption from coethnic (i.e., Russian-based) to the mainstream (i.e., Hebrew/English-based) products. The study helps to sketch social profiles of the immigrants prone to social integration versus separatism; it also taps into the issue of cultural contact between the newcomers and non-immigrant Israelis measured on both sides of theencounter.     

Optimal or Typical Performance? The Impact of Instructional Set on the Behavioral Assessment of Parent-Child Interactions

The behavioral assessment of parent-child interactions is an important component of treatment planning and evaluation in many evidence-based parent training programs. However, numerous factors unrelated to the parent-child interaction may add error to the assessment. This study investigated the impact of task instructions on parents’ behaviors during the analogue parent-child interaction observation, the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS). Forty-eight mother-child dyads were randomly assigned to one of two conditions that differed on level of specificity of instructions. Significant differences were observed between groups, with parents who received specific instructions using more praises during the DPICS tasks. Specific instructions may shift parents’ behaviors toward optimal, rather than typical, interaction patterns and should be considered in the context of the assessment goals.