Childhood obesity and parental reflective functioning: Is there a relation?

Background/ObjectiveIn recent decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased, with the major implications for public health. However, the factors that contribute to obesity in children are still poorly understood. The present study aimed to investigate the role of parental reflective functioning (PRF) in childhood obesity.MethodIn a cross-sectional design, 120 sets of parents of 60 children (n = 30 with obesity, age range 6–11) were recruited by local paediatricians. Parents completed the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. Children's and parents’ weight (assessed by BMI), as well as their socio-economic status (SES), were assessed to explore the contribution of PRF in the prediction of children's weight, controlling for parents’ weight and SES.Resultst-test showed significant differences with medium effect sizes in BMI, SES and PRF between parents of children with and without obesity. The best model resulted from hierarchical multiple regression analyses and showed that mothers’ PRF predicted children's BMI above and beyond the prediction by parents’ BMI and SES.ConclusionsLow maternal PRF could be an important target for intervention strategies, highlighting the need to consider parental responses to children's emotions in the treatment of childhood obesity, particularly in parents with low SES and high BMI.     

Th.o.m.a.s.: an exploratory assessment of Theory of Mind in schizophrenic subjects

A large body of literature agrees that persons with schizophrenia suffer from a Theory of Mind (ToM) deficit. However, most empirical studies have focused on third-person, egocentric ToM, underestimating other facets of this complex cognitive skill. Aim of this research is to examine the ToM of schizophrenic persons considering its various aspects (first- vs. second-order, first- vs. third-person, egocentric vs. allocentric, beliefs vs. desires vs. positive emotions vs. negative emotions and how each of these mental state types may be dealt with), to determine whether some components are more impaired than others. We developed a Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.) and administered it to 22 persons with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and a matching control group. Th.o.m.a.s. is a semi-structured interview which allows a multi-component measurement of ToM. Both groups were also administered a few existing ToM tasks and the schizophrenic subjects were administered the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale and the WAIS-R. The schizophrenic persons performed worse than control at all the ToM measurements; however, these deficits appeared to be differently distributed among different components of ToM. Our conclusion is that ToM deficits are not unitary in schizophrenia, which also testifies to the importance of a complete and articulated investigation of ToM.     

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIORS IN YOUNG CHILDREN: A UNIQUE CULTURAL COMPARISON IN ITALY

On account of a series of unique historical events, the present-day denizens of South Tyrol inhabit a cultural, political, and linguistic autonomous region that intercalates Italians and Austrian/German Italians. We compared contemporary Italian and Austrian/German Italian girls' and boys' adaptive behaviors in everyday activities in this region. Using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, we first interviewed mothers about their children's communication, daily living, socialization, and motor skills. Main effects of local culture (and no interactions with gender) emerged: Austrian/German Italian children were rated higher than Italian children in both adaptive daily living and socialization skills. Next, we explored ethnic differences in childrearing. Austrian/German Italians reported fostering greater autonomy in their children than Italians, and children's autonomy was associated with their adaptive behavior. Children living in neighboring Italian and Austrian/German Italian cultural niches appear to experience subtle but consequentially different conditions of development that express themselves in terms of differing levels of adaptive behaviors.     

is affirmative action still necessary?

The influences of socio‐race, racial identity development, gender, educational level, and age on promotion and compensation decisions by midlevel supervisors in industry were examined in this analogue study of 74 midlevel business and industry supervisors. The participants varied in socio‐racial classifications, gender, educational levels, and age. Results of this study indicated statistically significant differences in promotion rates of female analogue employees, rates of promotion between White male and Black male supervisors, and the rate of promotion when comparing older versus younger supervisors.     

When the bullied peer is native-born vs. immigrant: A mixed-method study with a sample of native-born and immigrant adolescents

An increasing number of immigrant students attend Italian schools, with the possibility of being involved in bullying episodes. A few studies have investigated this phenomenon, providing some evidence that immigrant students may face an increased risk of being bullied compared to native-born students. The present study adopted a mixed-method design, which may better detect the dynamics of bullying towards immigrant peers. Participants were 692 native-born and immigrant students (20.5% with immigrant background; 54.8% females) who filled in self-report measures about their bullying experiences, popularity, acceptance of diversity at school, and prejudice. Thirty-five pupils (54% with immigrant background) were also interviewed. Two hypothetical bullying scenarios were presented: one depicting a native-born victim and one depicting an immigrant victim. After each scenario, adolescents were encouraged to reason about the motives for bullying. Quantitative data showed that general bullying was associated with perceived popularity status among peers, while racial bullying was associated with prejudice but not peer status. The relevance of anti-immigrant prejudices in driving racial bullying emerged also from adolescents’ interviews. The qualitative data indicated that among the reasons for bullying, adolescents mentioned a desire for dominance and popularity, in particular when the victim was non-immigrant. Findings suggest that, in addition to individual and peer group-related risk factors, prejudice also needs to be addressed in anti-bullying interventions aimed to counteract racial bullying.     

A comparison of the construct validity of two alternative approaches to the assessment of psychopathy in the community

This study compared the validity of 2 different self-report approaches to the assessment of psychopathy in nonforensic samples: the Psychopathy Resemblance Index (PRI), derived from a measure of normal personality functioning, and the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP), developed specifically to assess the maladaptive traits associated with psychopathy. In 2 adult samples (n (1) = 260, n(2) = 250), the PRI and the SRP were positively correlated with each other and with measures of maladaptive personality traits related to Machiavellianism and narcissism. However, unlike the SRP, the PRI was independent of trait empathy and general psychopathology and was positively associated with trait emotional intelligence. These results suggest that the PRI captures a more adaptive variant of psychopathy than does the SRP.     

The General Factor of Personality: A critical test

The present study provides evidence supporting the presence of a General Factor of Personality (GFP), which has been proposed to represent the apex of the hierarchy of personality traits. Furthermore, the construct validity of this general factor is assessed to address recent criticisms suggesting that the GFP may merely be a statistical artefact rather than a genuine higher-order personality dimension. In this study, two samples of monozygotic (MZ) and same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins completed the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-IR), assessing individual differences in the Big Five traits of personality, and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Problems-Differential Questionnaire (DAPP-DQ) measuring variance in abnormal personality traits. First unrotated factors were extracted from each of the two measures separately within each sample. Correlations between these factors were significant and high in both samples (.78 and .77), indicating that the factors represent similar constructs. The manner in which these findings help to validate the GFP is discussed.     

A missing link in suggestibility research: what is known about the behavior of field interviewers in unstructured interviews with young children?

Despite suggestibility researchers' focus on adult behaviors that distort children's reports, whether behaviors examined in experimental work are used in the field is unknown. The current study presents a mutually exclusive and exhaustive hierarchical coding system that reflects interview questioning behaviors of concern in experimental work. The study examined 80 unstructured interviews conducted by 41 field interviewers with 40 children ages 3 to 7 about known events. Data on the use of leading and neutral questions are presented and include distinctions between accurate and inaccurate suggested information. In addition, analyses show that interviewers are consistent in their style of questioning and that a preinterview measure of interviewers' preference for a qualitative versus a quantitative interviewing style predicted the introduction of novel information into the interview.     

Rethinking the ontogeny of mindreading

We propose a mentalistic and nativist view of human early mental and social life and of the ontogeny of mindreading. We define the mental state of sharedness as the primitive, one-sided capability to take one's own mental states as mutually known to an interactant. We argue that this capability is an innate feature of the human mind, which the child uses to make a subjective sense of the world and of her actions. We argue that the child takes all of her mental states as shared with her caregivers. This allows her to interact with her caregivers in a mentalistic way from the very beginning and provides the grounds on which the later maturation of mindreading will build. As the latter process occurs, the child begins to understand the mental world in terms of differences between the mental states of different agents; subjectively, this also corresponds to the birth of privateness.