A Confirmatory Comparison of the Factor Structure of the Children's Depression Inventory between European American and African American Youth

We examined the factor structure of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) among a sample of 523 African American children (m age = 12.76) and a sample of 564 European American youth (m age = 12.43). Previous investigations have produced discrepant factor structures among samples of predominantly majority-culture children, but fewer investigations of the factor structure of the CDI have been conducted among non-European American samples. Confirmatory factor analyses of the original 5 factors identified by Kovacs (1983, 1991) revealed that the items had invariant measurement properties across the samples. The latent factor structure, however, revealed telling differences between the two samples. For European American youth, only one of the original five factors was meaningfully differentiated from the others, whereas for the African American youth, two of the factors clearly emerged as unique facets of depression. Consistent with other reports, between-group mean differences on the CDI and its factors were noted. We argue that further validation of the CDI among traditionally underserved populations is warranted. Predictive validation investigations, in particular, are needed to examine the relationship between CDI factor scores and clinical outcomes.     

Durable and generalized effects of spatial experience on mental rotation: gender differences in growth patterns

This study addressed questions about improvement in mental rotation skills: (1) whether growth trajectories differ for men and women with higher or lower spatial experience, (2) whether videogame training has effects on performance and leads to transfer, (3) whether effects of repeated testing or training effects are durable and (4) whether transfer is durable. Undergraduates participated in repeated testing on the MRT or played the videogame Tetris. Analyses showed large improvements in mental rotation with both repeated testing and training; these gains were maintained several months later. MRT scores of men and women did not converge, but men showed faster initial growth and women showed more improvement later. Videogame training showed greater initial growth than repeated testing alone, but final performance did not differ. Effects of videogame training transferred to other spatial tasks exceeding the effects of repeated testing, and this transfer advantage was still evident after several months. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Re-Examining the Overjustification Effect

The purpose of the present investigation was to extend the research related to the possible negative side effects of extrinsic reinforcement on children's compliant behavior, particularly the overjustification effect. Specifically, this study examined the effects of a token reinforcement procedure in a naturalistic environment (third grade classroom) on children's compliance with classroom rules. Three students exhibiting high compliance with classroom rules were selected. Results indicated that the introduction of a token reinforcement program contingent on the occurrence of rule compliance had no detrimental effect on their rule compliant behavior following the withdrawal of the token procedure (i.e., comparison of Baseline I and Baseline II). Thus, the overjustification effect was not supported.     

Extraversion predicts individual differences in women’s face preferences

Extraversion is positively associated with various indices of women’s mate quality (e.g., facial symmetry and attractiveness). Since such indices are thought to predict variation in women’s preferences for masculine men, we investigated the relationships between each of the ‘Big 5’ personality factors and women’s preferences for facial masculinity. Extraversion, but not the other four personality factors, was positively correlated with women’s preferences for masculinity in men’s, but not women’s, faces. Additionally, extraversion mediated the positive relationship between women’s self-rated attractiveness and their preferences for masculinity in men’s faces, suggesting that extraversion may play a role in condition-dependent mate preferences. Unexpectedly, openness to experience was associated with women’s preferences for femininity in faces of both sexes and this association was independent of that between extraversion and women’s preferences for masculine men. This is the first study that we know of to implicate personality traits in individual differences in women’s preferences for masculine men.     

Assisted Suicide,Suffering and the Meaning of a Life

The ethical problems surrounding voluntary assisted suicide remain formidable, and are unlikely to be resolved in pluralist societies. An examination of historical attitudes to suicide suggests that modernity has inherited a formidable complex of religious and moral attitudes to suicide, whether assisted or not. Advocates usually invoke the ending of intolerable suffering as one justification for euthanasia of this kind. This does not provide an adequate justification by itself, because there are (at least theoretically) methods which would relieve suffering without causing the physical death of the suffering person. Carried to extremes, these methods would finish the life worth living, but leave a being which was technically alive. Such acts, however, would provide no moral escape, since they would create beings without meaning. Arguments seeking to justify ending the lives of others need some grounding in concepts of the meaning of a life. The euthanasia discourse therefore needs to take at least some account of the meaning we construct for our lives and the lives of others.     

The perception of time following stress

To determine whether the relationship between the overestimation of time and anxiety or stress is a function of the anticipation of the stressful event, high and low socially anxious subjects judged a series of eight short (5-second and 7-second) intervals both prior to and following a stressful or nonstressful social interaction. The results indicated that overestimation of fixed intervals occurs following a stressful interaction, thus disconfirming the hypothesis that such overestimation is due to anticipation of the stressful event. These results are discussed with regard to a modified storage size model of time estimation.     

Adolescents who apparently are invulnerable to drug, alcohol, and nicotine use

As part of a large survey of addictive behavior in high school students, a group of 43 girls and 34 boys was identified who denied any use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. These apparently invulnerable adolescents were compared to the rest of the "user" sample on the remaining items of the questionnaire. The invulnerable students reported generally better physical and mental health and academic achievement. They also indicated a significantly lower rate of similar problems in their parents.     

Factors Influencing Condom Use Among African American Women: Implications for Risk Reduction Interventions

Examined factors associated with condom use in a community-based sample of 423 sexually active African American women. Measures were selected to reflect the components in prevailing models of health behavior. Condom users were higher on AIDS health priority, prevention attitudes, stage of change, behavioral intentions, reported more frequent and comfortable sexual communication with partners, perceived greater partner and peer approval for condom use, and reported that peers also used condoms. Women in exclusive relationships evidenced earlier stage of change, lower intentions to use condoms, fewer peers who engaged in preventive behaviors, perceived themselves to have lower risk, and had lower rates of condom use, higher education, and family income. Women in fluid relationships were at particularly high risk, with lower rates of condom use relative to women not in a relationship and greater sexual risk for HIV. Implications for HIV-risk reduction interventions with African American women are discussed.