Religiosity, self-control, and antisocial behavior: Religiosity as a promotive and protective factor

Three hypotheses with the potential to provide information on the role of religiosity as a promotive and protective factor in early adolescence were tested. Adolescents (N = 166, M age = 13 years, 49% female, 49% European American, 45% African American) and mothers reported their own personal importance of religion and the frequency of their attendance of religious services. Greater mother importance and attendance was associated with greater adolescent importance and attendance. Mother importance was indirectly linked to adolescent antisocial behavior through adolescent importance. Less adolescent importance and attendance were associated with low self-control and low self-control was associated with more antisocial and rule-breaking behavior. Adolescent importance also moderated the links between low self-control and antisocial and rule-breaking behavior such that low levels of self-control were more strongly associated with more antisocial and rule-breaking behavior among adolescents reporting low religious importance compared to adolescents reporting high religious importance.     

“God Smites You!”: Atheists’ Experiences of Stigma,Identity Politics,and Queerness*

Existing research on Atheists is sparse. The lived experiences of Atheists have been ignored almost entirely. Triangulating from autoethnographic materials and life-history interviews, this project documents the ways that Atheist individuals understand the stigmas attributed to them and their responses to it. Some of the behaviors are framed as “techniques of information control” such as “compartmentalizing” and “passing.” Others are framed as “Identity Politics.” Techniques of information control and identity politics may serve to impede efforts toward effective activism on behalf of Atheists. Taken from an alternative perspective, Atheism is deconstructed as a form of “queerness” in relation to religion.     

Managing Frustration for Children (MFC) Group Intervention for ADHD: An Open Trial of a Novel Group Intervention for Deficient Emotion Regulation

Deficient emotion regulation is a common and impairing area of difficulty among children with ADHD. Few interventions specifically address deficient emotion regulation. The Managing Frustration for Children With ADHD (MFC) group treatment was developed to specifically target deficient emotion regulation deficits common to children with ADHD. The MFC was developed as a 12-week multisystemic intervention for emotion regulation deficits among children with ADHD. An open trial assessed the effectiveness of the MFC as an adjunctive treatment for deficient emotion regulation among children with ADHD. Fifty-two children with ADHD ages 9–11 (42 boys, 10 girls) were enrolled in the MFC, with 44 completing treatment. The majority (71.2%) of participants had at least one comorbid internalizing, externalizing, or learning disorder. Intent-to-treat repeated-measures ANCOVA suggested significant decreases in emotion regulation deficits, mood difficulties, and externalizing difficulties following completion of treatment. More than half (53%) of children who completed treatment experienced reliable and clinically significant improvement in at least one area of functioning. The MFC demonstrated promising initial effectiveness in addressing the emotion regulation deficits of children with ADHD.     

Gender differences in the relationship between empathy and forgiveness

Much research has shown that women are more empathic than men. Yet, women and men are equally forgiving. However, it is not clear whether empathy is more important to forgiveness for men or for women. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in levels of empathy and forgiveness and the extent to which the association of empathy and forgiveness differed by gender. Participants were 127 community residents who completed self-report measures of empathy and forgiveness. The present results showed that women were more empathic than men, but no gender difference for forgiveness was apparent. However, the association between empathy and forgiveness did differ by gender. Empathy was associated with forgiveness in men--but not in women.     

Sacred practices in highly religious families: Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim perspectives

Quantitative research examining linkages between family relationships and religious experience has increased substantially in recent years. However, related qualitative research, including research that examines the processes and meanings behind recurring religion-family correlations, remains scant. To address this paucity, a racially diverse sample (N = 24) of married, highly religious Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim parents of school-aged children were interviewed regarding the importance of religious family interactions, rituals, and practices in their families. Mothers and fathers discussed several religious practices that were meaningful to them and explained why these practices were meaningful. Parents also identified costs and challenges associated with these practices. Interview data are presented in connection with three themes: (1) "practicing [and parenting] what you preach," (2) religious practices, family connection, and family communion, and (3) costs of family religious practices. The importance of family clinicians and researchers attending to the influence of religious practice in the lives of highly religious individuals and families is discussed.     

Devaluation versus enhancement of attractive alternatives: a critical test using the calibration paradigm

The calibration paradigm was used to test the competing hypotheses that (a) commitment motivates unduly negative evaluations of attractive alternatives (devaluation) versus (b) low commitment motivates exaggerated positive evaluations of attractive alternatives (enhancement). Single participants and dating participants low and high in relationship commitment were presented with an attractive, available person of the opposite sex and asked to judge the person's romantic appeal from their own perspective or from the perspective of their friends. Contrary to predictions based on the enhancement hypothesis, single and low-commitment participants did not provide higher ratings from their own perspective. In support of devaluation and calibration hypotheses, committed participants did provide lower ratings from their own perspective. Singles did not rate the target less attractive in a third condition in which the target was unavailable. However, dating participants, regardless of commitment level, rated the unavailable alternative negatively, consistent with social comparison processes and interdependence theory.     

Generalized imitative affection: Relationship to prior kinds of imitation training

Two experiments utilizing first- and second-grade Canadian children showed that generalized imitative physical affection was most facilitated by prior imitative physical contact training (as opposed to verbal contact training) when the object of the affection was either a toy teddy bear, Experiment I, or an adult human, Experiment II.Additional findings from Experiment I showed that generalized imitative physical aggression was equally facilitated by imitative physical contact training and that punishment, as well as extinction operations applied to training imitations, resulted in suppression of all generalized imitations with no differential effect of punishment on affection or aggression being noted.The lack of any persisting imitations in a control group in Experiment II, which received noncontingent reinforcement but instructional prompting for training imitations, suggested that instructional control of imitation responses was initially weak and that the contingency between reinforcement and training imitations was critical for continued occurrence of training imitations and any occurrence of generalized physical affection imitations.     

Managing data entry of a large-scale interview project with optical scanning hardware and software

A hardware and software system for the cost-effective preparation of interview data is described. Scantron optical scanning hardware and DataBlocks software were used to prepare ASCII data files from structured interviews and questionnaires. These data were then edited for analysis with SPSS-X Data Entry software. Three different processes for preparing interview data were compared. Time, personnel, hardware, and software costs were projected for each process, as well as comparative risks to the integrity of data. A scanning procedure saves time and money, and it reduces the risk of errors.