The Children's Attributional Style Interview: Developmental Tests of Cognitive Diathesis-Stress Theories of Depression

This paper presents an initial assessment of the Children's Attributional Style Interview (CASI), a newly designed measure for assessing attributional style in young children (age 5 and up). The CASI was used to conduct prospective tests of the reformulated helplessness (L. Y. Abramson, M. Seligman, & J. Teasdale, 1978) and the integrated hopelessness/self-esteem (G. I. Metalsky, T. E. Joiner, Jr., T. S. Hardin, & L. Y. Abramson, 1993) theories of depression in a sample of 147 5–10-year-old children. For comparison, the same tests were also conducted with the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised (CASQ-R; N. J. Kaslow & S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), a commonly used measure for assessing attributional style in older children (age 8 and up). The CASI evidenced support of the reformulated helplessness theory and partial support of the integrated hopelessness/self-esteem theory. The CASI also demonstrated good internal consistency. Thus, our findings provide initial support for the CASI as a methodologically sound measure of attributional style for children as young as 5 years old. Although preliminary, our findings also suggest possible developmental differences in how attributional style interacts with self-esteem and negative life stress. The CASI should prove to be a useful tool in furthering the understanding of the origins and development of attributional style in childhood, as well as its contribution to the understanding of the development and prevention of depressive symptomatology in children.     

The Role of Life Stress and Social Support in the Adjustment of Sexually Victimized Pregnant and Parenting Minority Adolescents

Associations among sexual victimization and the psychosocial functioning of African American and Latina pregnant and parenting adolescents were examined. Forty-seven (17.7%) of the 265 participants reported histories of sexual victimization, most of which was unwanted sexual intercourse. The victimized adolescents reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and life stress and, although the two groups reported no differences in their levels of social support, support was found to be differentially related to depression and anxiety in the two groups. In particular, victims derived benefits from social support at low levels of stress, but social support provided no protection against depression and anxiety at average or high levels of stress. For nonvictims, social support provided no benefits at low levels of stress, but protected against depression and anxiety at moderate levels of stress and against depression at high levels of stress. Implications of these findings for research, theory, and intervention are discussed.     

Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels

Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings in free‐living litters of Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) were videotaped. Frame‐by‐frame analyses using the Eshkol‐Wachman Movement Notation were employed to record the correlated movements of attack and defense by the partners and to reveal the body areas targeted during each play bout. Whereas sexual play was organized around access to the rump, aggressive play was organized around the shoulders. Although in most cases the defender’s tactics blocked access to the respective target, when contact did occur, it involved mounting in sexual play and nosing or biting in aggressive play. Eighty‐six percent of play fights could be unambiguously categorized as either sexual or aggressive play. Of these, the majority (?80%) involved sexual play. The sex of the participants did not affect the frequency of aggressive play, but in sexual play, males initiated more attacks than females. Once initiated, each form of play fighting remained distinct—if a bout began as sexual play, it would end as sexual play. Furthermore, a counterattack following sexual play was significantly more likely to be sexual than aggressive, and vice versa for counterattacks following aggressive play. Therefore, all the evidence suggested that the two forms of play fighting were not intermixed in Richardson’s ground squirrels. Aggr. Behav. 27:323–337, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Parent–Adolescent Conflict in Teenagers with ADHD and ODD

Eighty-seven male teens (ages 12–18 years) with ADHD/ODD and their parents were compared to 32 male teens and their parents in a community control (CC) group on mother, father, and teen ratings of parent–teen conflict and communication quality, parental self-reports of psychological adjustment, and direct observations of parent–teen problem-solving interactions during a neutral and conflict discussion. Parents and teens in the ADHD/ODD group rated themselves as having significantly more issues involving parent–teen conflict, more anger during these conflict discussions, and more negative communication generally, and used more aggressive conflict tactics with each other than did parents and teens in the CC group. During a neutral discussion, only the ADHD/ODD teens demonstrated more negative behavior. During the conflict discussion, however, the mothers, fathers, and teens in the ADHD/ODD group displayed more negative behavior, and the mothers and teens showed less positive behavior than did participants in the CC group. Differences in conflicts related to sex of parent were evident on only a few measures. Both mother and father self-rated hostility contributed to the level of mother–teen conflict whereas father self-rated hostility and anxiety contributed to father–teen conflict beyond the contribution made by level of teen ODD and ADHD symptoms. Results replicated past studies of mother–child interactions in ADHD/ODD children, extended these results to teens with these disorders, showed that greater conflict also occurs in father–teen interactions, and found that degree of parental hostility, but not ADHD symptoms, further contributed to levels of parent–teen conflict beyond the contribution made by severity of teen ADHD and ODD symptoms.     

A Web site in cognitive science

A Web site (http://web2-pc.uncc.edu/cogsci) has been established to support an interdisciplinary course in cognitive science. The modules include introductory reading material, interactive exercises/virtual laboratory, and pointers to existing material on the Web. Our approach to using the Web in support of instruction differs from distance learning initiatives because it is centered on an instructor and classroom experiences. The Web-based modules are used to supplement classroom lectures and provide an interdisciplinary perspective.     

A Review of On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss

Book reviewed in this article: Elizabeth Kübler‐Ross and David Kessler (2005). On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss.     

Adult attachment orientations: Relation to affiliation motivation

This study examines the multifaceted relationship between attachment and affiliation motivation. In a sample of 322 participants differences were found between attachment styles or dimensions and affiliation motivation. Anxious attachment was positively related to seeking attention from others, social comparison, and positive stimulation as motivations for affiliation. Avoidant attachment was negatively related to emotional support and positive stimulation as motivations for affiliation. Also, results indicated that individuals with a dismissing attachment style scored lower on several dimensions of affiliation motivation than individuals characterized by secure, fearful, or preoccupied attachment styles. Implications for the impact of attachment on motivation to seek social support and counseling are discussed.     

Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence: descriptive psychopathology

Although the presentation of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adults is well documented, less is known about its clinical manifestation in children and adolescents. To date, most studies have included combined samples of children and adolescents despite the fact that this age range represents an extensive period of growth and development. This study compares and contrasts the clinical presentation of SAD among children (ages 7-12) and adolescents (ages 13-17). One hundred and fifty children (n=74) and adolescents (n=76) with a primary diagnosis of SAD participated in the study. The assessment battery included clinical ratings and behavioral observation as well as parental and self-report. The results indicate that, although the symptom presentation of children and adolescents with primary SAD shares many features, children tend to present with a broader pattern of general psychopathology, while adolescents have a more pervasive pattern of social dysfunction and may be more functionally impaired as a result of their disorder. These findings suggest that interventions for SAD need to carefully consider clinical presentation of the disorder as it manifests in childhood and adolescence.     

A transactional systems model of autism services

There has been an escalation in the number of children identified with autism spectrum disorders in recent years. To increase the likelihood that treatments for these children are effective, interventions should be derived from sound theory and research evidence. Absent this supportive foundation, intervention programs could be inconsequential if not harmful. Although atypical, the development of children with autism should be considered initially from the perspective of the same variables that affect the development of typical children. In addition, the developmental deviations that characterize autism must be considered when developing intervention programs. Behavioral systems models describe both typical and atypical development and emphasize dynamic multidirectional person-environment transactions. The environment is viewed as having multiple levels, from the individuals with autism themselves, to larger societal and cultural levels. Behavioral systems models of human development can be generalized to a transactional systems model of services for children with autism. This model is the foundational theoretical position of the Southern Illinois University Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders. The center's programs are described to illustrate the application of the model to multiple levels of the social ecology.