The dynamics of ethnic discrimination,identities and outgroup attitudes: A pre–post longitudinal study of ethnic migrants

This longitudinal study among ethnic migrants from Russia to Finland (N = 127) examined the relationships between anticipated and perceived discrimination, ethnic and national identities, and outgroup attitudes towards the national majority group. The study included one pre‐migration and two post‐migration assessments. First, associations between the variables studied were tested using a conventional autoregressive sample‐level modelling approach. Second, individual trajectories and the associations between the individual‐level changes in the variables included in the models were tested. Although there were no sample‐level effects over time, there were significant relationships between changes in discrimination and changes in identification and outgroup attitudes at the individual level. The results indicated that changes in perceived discrimination were not reflected in increased ethnic identification. However, participants who perceived higher levels of discrimination after migration than they anticipated before migration were, in the post‐migration stage, more likely to disidentify from and to increasingly show negative attitudes towards the national majority group. The study complements previous research by examining the identity and attitudinal reactions to perceived ethnic discrimination starting from the pre‐migration stage and highlights the value of incorporating both group and individual perspectives to the research on perceived discrimination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

License to sin: Self‐licensing as a mechanism underlying hedonic consumption

Hedonic overconsumption is often considered to be caused by impulsive factors. The current paper investigates whether self‐licensing, relying on reasons to justify subsequent gratification, can also be included as a significant contributor to hedonic consumption. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether self‐licensing can account for an increase in hedonic consumption while ruling out impulsive factors such as resource depletion, negative affect, and visceral state as alternative explanations. A pilot study indicated that perceiving oneself as having invested greater effort and thus having a self‐licensing cue did not lead to a decline in self‐control capacity compared with not having a self‐licensing cue. The main study employed the same procedure and established that having a licensing cue did lead to increased snack intake while controlling for impulsive factors. Together, these studies support the notion that self‐licensing is a separate mechanism leading to hedonic gratification independent of impulsive factors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Too black or not black enough’: Social identity complexity in the political rhetoric of Barack Obama

The election of the first African‐American President of the United States, Barack Obama, has been widely recognised as an extraordinary milestone in the history of the United States and indeed the world. With the use of a discursive psychological approach combined with central theoretical principles derived from social identity and self‐categorisation theories, this paper analyses a corpus of speeches Obama delivered during his candidacy for president to examine how he attended to and managed his social identity in his political discourse. Building on a social identity model of leadership, we examine specifically how Obama mobilises political support and social identification by building an identity for himself as a prototypical representative of the American people, notwithstanding the protracted public debate within both the White and Black American communities that had questioned and contested Obama's identity. Moreover, we demonstrate how Obama managed the dilemmas around his identity by actively crafting an in‐group identity that was oriented to an increasingly socially diverse America—a diversity that he himself exemplified and embodied as a leader. As an ‘entrepreneur’ of identity, Obama's rhetorical project was to position himself as an exceptional leader, whose very difference was represented as ‘living proof’ of the widely shared collective values that constitute the ‘American Dream’. Drawing on social identity complexity theory, we suggest that by providing more inclusive and complex categories of civic and national identity, Obama's presidency has the potential to radically transform what it means to be a prototypical in‐group member in America. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of speed of word processing on semantic access: the case of bilingualism

Bilingual speakers generally manifest slower word recognition than monolinguals. We investigated the consequences of the word processing speed on semantic access in bilinguals. The paradigm involved a stream of English words and pseudowords presented in succession at a constant rate. English-Welsh bilinguals and English monolinguals were asked to count the number of letters in pseudowords and actively disregard words. They were not explicitly told that pairs of words in immediate succession were embedded and could either be semantically related or not. We expected that slower word processing in bilinguals would result in semantic access indexed by semantic priming. As expected, bilinguals showed significant semantic priming, indexed by an N400 modulation, whilst monolinguals did not. Moreover, bilinguals were slower in performing the task. The results suggest that bilinguals cannot discriminate between pseudowords and words without accessing semantic information whereas monolinguals can dismiss English words on the basis of subsemantic information.     

The moderating role of empathy in the association between parental support and adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavior

The present two‐wave longitudinal study addressed the role of affective empathy and parental support in aggressive and delinquent behavior in a sample of 323 adolescents (158 boys, 165 girls). Self‐report questionnaires were used to assess affective empathy, perceived support from parents, delinquency, and aggression. Guided by theories on children's differential susceptibility to socialization, we expected adolescents with different levels of empathy to vary in their responsiveness to parental support. In agreement with our hypothesis, empathy moderated the relation of perceived parental support with aggressive and delinquent behavior. Controlling for the effect of gender and for the stability of aggression and delinquency, higher perceived parental support was predictive of lower levels of aggression at age 15, but only for adolescents high in empathy. Remarkably, adolescents low in empathy not only appeared to benefit less from parental support, but even showed more aggression and delinquency at age 15 when they perceived their parents to be more supportive at age 14. Aggr. Behav. 38:368‐377, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Compliance,opposition, and behavior problems in toddlers born preterm or low birthweight

Although children born preterm or low birth weight (PT LBW) are more likely to exhibit behavior problems compared to children born at term, developmental and family processes associated with these problems are unclear. We examined trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms in relation to toddler compliance and behavior problems in families with PT LBW infants. A total of 177 infants (93 boys, 84 girls) and their mothers enrolled in the study during the infant's NICU stay. Data were collected at five time points across 2 years. Assessments of maternal depressive symptoms were conducted at all time points, and toddler compliance and opposition to maternal requests and behavior problems were assessed at 2 years. Toddlers born earlier with more health problems to mothers whose depressive symptoms increased over time exhibited the most opposition to maternal requests during a cleanup task at 24 months, consistent with multiple risk models. Mothers with elevated depression symptoms reported more behavior problems in their toddlers. The study has implications for family‐based early intervention programs seeking to identify PT LBW infants at highest risk for problem behaviors.     

Indiscriminate behavior observed in the strange situation among institutionalized toddlers: Relations to caregiver report and to early family risk

Socially disinhibited or indiscriminate behavior (IB) has traditionally been investigated using caregiver reports. More recently, an observational measure based on the Strange Situation Procedure (M. Ainsworth, M. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978), the Rating of Infant and Stranger Engagement (RISE; C. Riley, A. Atlas‐Corbett, & K. Lyons‐Ruth, 2005), was validated in home‐reared at‐risk children. The present study aimed to validate the RISE in an institutionally reared sample using the caregiver report, to assess whether IB assessed with the RISE was elevated among the institutionalized children, and to explore potential risk factors associated with IB. The study was conducted among 74 institutionalized toddlers aged 11 to 30 months. Sociodemographic questionnaires were used to assess pre‐admission experiences, and aspects of institutional placement were coded from the children's files in the institution and staff's report. Institutionalized children displayed high frequencies of IB as assessed on the RISE, and this instrument was validated against caregiver report. Pre‐admission experiences of the institutionalized children in their biological families—namely, prenatal risk and maternal emotional neglect risk—predicted IB. Results suggest that the RISE is adequate to use among institutionally reared toddlers and point to aspects of the early familial environment that may be implicated in IB.     

Maternal representations and emotional availability among drug‐abusing and nonusing mothers and their infants

Both negative and idealized maternal prenatal representations may constitute a risk for mother–infant interaction. This study analyzed the role of maternal prenatal representations and pre‐ to postnatal representational change in predicting mother–infant emotional availability (EA) among 51 drug‐abusing mothers and their infants who participated in either psychodynamic group therapy (PGT) or received psychosocial support (PSS) and among 50 nonusing comparison dyads. Maternal representations of her child, the child's father, her own mother, self‐as‐mother, and self‐as‐woman were measured during pregnancy and at 4 and 12 months' postpartum with the Interview of Maternal Representations (M. Ammaniti et al., 1992 ; M. Ammaniti, R. Tambelli, & P. Perucchini, 1998). EA was measured with the Emotional Availability Scales, fourth edition (Z. Biringen, 2008 ) at 4 and 12 months. The results showed that drug‐abusing mothers had more negative prenatal representations of the self‐as‐woman and of the child's father. Postnatally, PSS mothers tended to first idealize their child, but later to experience disillusionment of idealization. Both negative and idealized prenatal representations of the self‐as‐mother predicted mother–infant EA problems, but only among the PGT mothers. For all mothers, negative representational change was detrimental for the mother–infant EA whereas for drug‐abusing mothers, also increasing idealization from the prenatal period to the postnatal period was harmful. Clinicians working with drug‐abusing mothers should aim at supporting the development of a realistically positive view of motherhood.     

Development of regulation disorders into specific psychopathology

Underlying deficits in self‐regulation and sensory processing are seen in children with regulation disorders (RD) and might lead to emotional and behavioral problems as the child develops. However, little is known about the specific developmental course of RD. This follow‐up study was conducted to investigate the development of a clinical sample of RD children, diagnosed by means of the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised (DC:0–3R; ZERO TO THREE, 1994), toward specific psychopathology 4 to 10 years later based on parent‐ and teacher‐reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (T.M. Achenbach & L.A. Rescorla, 2007). Parental reports showed that 39 to 69% of children with RD had internalizing, externalizing, and total problems above borderline cutoffs, as compared to norm group data (16%). In addition, higher rates of affective, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional defiant, and conduct problems were reported. Analyses between RD subtypes showed significant differences on future attention problems and rule‐breaking behavior, wherein less favorable results were found for the Hypersensitive subtype Type A (fearful/cautious) in comparison to the sensory stimulation‐seeking/impulsive subtype. The current results indicate persistence of emotional and behavioral problems into middle childhood and adolescence in children with preschool RD diagnoses. More attention should be paid to differentiation of psychopathology in these children since developmental outcomes may differ between RD subtypes.