Implementation of the Sound Partners Reading Program

Eleven first grade and 10 second grade students, all with reading and behavioral difficulties, received one-on-one tutoring using the Sound Partners reading program (Vadasy & Pool, l997). Students received 30 min of tutoring each day for 5 months. Students were assessed on Letter-Word Identification, Passage Comprehension, and Word Attack subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised (WJ-R): Tests of Achievement. An informal measure (rapid letter naming) was also used. Results indicated that gains of approximately 1 standard deviation (or greater) were noted for subtests of the WJ-R for first-grade students; second graders showed relatively stable performance from pre- to posttest assessments. Similar performance was noted on the informal measure across grades. Program satisfaction data showed that overall the tutors, teachers, and students were pleased with the program. Discussion focuses on the implications for future investigations.     

Consumer Racial Discrimination in Tipping: A Replication and Extension

This study examined the effects of server race, customer race, and their interaction on restaurant tips while statistically controlling for customers' perceptions of service quality and other variables. The findings indicate that consumers of both races discriminated against Black service providers by tipping them less than White service providers. Furthermore, this server race effect on tipping was moderated by perceived service quality and dining party size. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Particularly noteworthy is the possibility that the server race effect on tipping represents an adverse impact against Black servers that makes the use of tipping to compensate employees a violation of employment discrimination law in the United States.     

Do conscientious individuals live longer? A quantitative review

OBJECTIVE: Following up on growing evidence that higher levels of conscientiousness are associated with greater health protection, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of the association between conscientiousness-related traits and longevity. DESIGN: Using a random-effects analysis model, the authors statistically combined 20 independent samples. In addition, the authors used fixed-effects analyses to examine specific facets of conscientiousness and study characteristics as potential moderators of this relationship. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Effect sizes were computed for each individual sample as the correlation coefficient r, based on the relationship between conscientiousness and mortality risk (all-cause mortality risk, longevity, or length of survival). RESULTS: Higher levels of conscientiousness were significantly and positively related to longevity (r = .11, 95% confidence interval = .05-.17). Associations were strongest for the achievement (persistent, industrious) and order (organized, disciplined) facets of conscientiousness. CONCLUSION: Results strongly support the importance of conscientiousness-related traits to health across the life span. Future research and interventions should consider how individual differences in conscientiousness may cause and be shaped by health-relevant biopsychosocial events across many years.     

Intimate partner violence and children's reaction to peer provocation: the moderating role of emotion coaching

The current study examined the relation between intimate partner violence (IPV) and children's reactions to a stressful peer interaction in a community-based sample. The moderating role of parental emotion coaching in buffering children from negative reactions to a peer was also examined. Children participated in a peer provocation paradigm and mothers completed the Parent Meta-Emotion Interview. Both adaptive (i.e., laughing, ignoring) and maladaptive (i.e., hostile/challenging, odd behaviors) reactions to the provocative peer were examined. IPV was positively related to children's laughing and odd behaviors but was unrelated to ignoring and hostile/challenging behaviors. Additionally, emotion coaching was found to moderate relations between IPV and children's laughing and odd behaviors. The importance of understanding protective factors in families experiencing IPV and of developing emotion coaching parenting programs is discussed.     

Maternal meta-emotion philosophy and socialization of adolescent affect: The moderating role of adolescent temperament

This study explored the associations between maternal meta-emotion philosophy (MEP) and maternal socialization of preadolescents' positive and negative affect. It also investigated whether adolescent temperament and gender moderated this association. MEP involves parental awareness and acceptance of their own and their child's emotions and their coaching of child emotions. Event-planning (EPI) and problem-solving (PSI) interactions were observed in 163 mother-adolescent dyads, and maternal behaviors were coded to provide indices of socialization responses to adolescent emotion. In addition, maternal MEP was assessed via interview, and preadolescents provided self-reports of temperament on 2 occasions. Maternal MEP that is higher in awareness and acceptance was associated with reduced likelihood of negative socialization behaviors during the EPI. Moreover, preadolescents' temperamental negative emotionality (NEM) and effortful control (EC) moderated some of these MEP-socialization associations. During the positive EPI task, greater maternal awareness and acceptance is associated with reduced likelihood of negative socialization toward preadolescents with "easy" temperaments, that is, low NEM or high EC. However, during the conflict task, greater maternal awareness is associated with reduced likelihood of negative socialization among preadolescents with "difficult" temperaments. Some male-specific associations were also found.     

Shades of disengagement: high school dropouts speak out

The purpose of this study was to describe how dropouts navigate their educational journeys. Eighty dropouts participated to individual interviews which were recorded and transcribed. The data analysis yielded three broad categories in answering the research question. Setting the stage in the family and the school, the dropouts described their teetering between in and out of school contexts and proceeded to explain how they ended their educational journey. For 20 dropouts, family turmoil represented a pervasive force negatively influencing their schooling. For 24 dropouts, problems in school set the stage for dropping out. Teetering represented juggling strategies to prolongand to sabotage the journey, while the end of the journey occurred as a result of a pivotal moment (48%) or a gradual fade out (52%) from the school context.

Narrative Constructions of Health Care Issues and Policies: The Case of President Clinton’s Apology-by-Proxy for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (TSE) has shaped African Americans' views of the American health care system, contributing to a reluctance to participate in biomedical research and a suspicion of the medical system. This essay examines public discourses surrounding President Clinton's attempt to restore African Americans' trust by apologizing for the TSE. Through a narrative reading, we illustrate the failure of this text as an attempt to reconcile the United States Public Health Service and the African American public. We conclude by noting the limitations of rhetoric when equal prominence is not given to policy proposals in national apologies.     

Is hypnotic suggestibility a stable trait?

The present study examined the trait-like nature of hypnotic suggestibility by examining the stability of hypnotic responsiveness in a test-retest design in which the procedures were administered either live or by audiotape. Contrary to the idea that hypnotizability is a largely immutable, stable trait, scores on the scale of hypnotic responsiveness decreased significantly at the second session. Measures of subjective experiences and expectancies accounted for a sizable portion of the variance in hypnotic responding, both at initial test and at retest. Participants became disengaged with the hypnotic procedures at retest. Participants who received the hypnotic induction by audiotape did not differ from participants who received it live. The results are consistent with sociocognitive and altered state theories of hypnosis, and underline the important role of subjective experiences in hypnotic responding.     

The Influence of Clinical Variables on the Psychological Adaptation of Adolescents after Solid Organ Transplantation

This study assessed the influence of clinical and socio-demographic variables on the psychological adaptation of transplanted adolescents. Twenty-six transplanted adolescents and 25 healthy adolescents, aged 13–17, and their parents participated in the study. The following domains were measured: social competence, emotional/behavioral problems, self-concept, self-esteem and subjective well-being. The findings revealed that transplanted boys presented significantly less social competence (U = 26,000, p < .05) and more externalizing problems (U = 25,000, p < .05), social problems (U = 25,000, p < .05) and attention problems (U = 17,500, p < .01) than healthy boys. In contrast, transplanted girls displayed significantly more internalizing problems (U = 47,000, p < .05) and lower physical self-concept (U = 49,500, p < .05) than healthy girls. Hierarchical regression analysis showed clinical variables, especially waiting-list time, significantly predicted attention problems (β = .364, p < .05) and negative affect (β = .632, p < .05) in transplanted adolescents. Also, male (β = −0.554, p < .01) and younger (β = −0.444, p < .01) transplanted adolescents were at risk for attention problems. Our data suggest the importance of the waiting-list time for transplanted adolescents. Efforts to reduce the pretransplant phase would help adolescents achieve better psychological adaptation at long-term posttransplant.