Counselor perceptions of students who vary in gender and socioeconomic status

The present study experimentally examined how counselor perceptions of hypothetical students are affected by student gender and socioeconomic status (SES). Results showed that counselors perceive students from low SES backgrounds as having less promising futures and lower math abilities. Counselors also rated female students as lower in math abilities than male students. Our results indicate that institutions should consider providing more school counselor training to reduce bias based on gender and SES.

“Accept Me,or Else…”: Disputed Overestimation of Social Competence Predicts Increases in Proactive Aggression

It has been proposed that aggressive behavior may result from unrealistically positive self-evaluations that are disputed by others (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996). The present three studies tested this proposition concurrently and longitudinally for the domain of self-perceived social competence (SPSC) in 3-6th grade children on two continents. Each study tested whether aggressive behavior is related to general overestimation of SPSC compared to competence as perceived by peers, or to disputed overestimation, that is, overestimation disputed through rejection by peers. Specificity of relations with reactively or proactively aggressive behavior patterns was assessed and the predictive value of overestimation to the development of these types of aggressive behavior was investigated. Concurrently, disputed overestimation explained more variance in aggressive behavior than general overestimation, and was uniquely related to proactive aggression. Longitudinally, disputed overestimation also uniquely predicted changes in proactive, not reactive aggression.     

Change and Management of Complex Services: The Ethno-narrative Form to Support Good Living and Working Together

Nowadays, managing change in complex services requires that middle management re-designs its objects and professional practices, in order to cope with new needs. It seems therefore crucial to activate training settings that allow managers to: (1) develop research and analytical skills on their own work practices and professional objects; (2) face and manage conflict, related to every change, that represents an opportunity to reflect and review one's own practices; and (3) build new and shared repertories of managerial practices, able to support a better form of living and working together within the management community. Moving from these hypotheses, inside the setting of a training intervention conducted in an educational service, the article discusses a specific tool used to generate opportunity of exchange, and reflection, within a challenging framework of change.     

The Intergenerational Association Between Parents’ Problem Gambling and Impulsivity-Hyperactivity/Inattention Behaviors in Children

Despite the well-established association between problem gambling and ADHD core categories of impulsivity-hyperactivity and inattention, the link between parents’ problem gambling and impulsivity-hyperactivity/inattention (IH/I) behaviors in children has not been investigated. This study investigated the association between parents’ problem gambling and children’s IH/I behaviors while controlling for potential confounding variables. A population-based prospective cohort followed-up from kindergarten to age 30, the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children (QLSKC), provided data over three generations. Among 1358 participants at age 30, parents with a child aged 1 year or older (N = 468; Mean age = 4.65 years; SD = 2.70) were selected. Generalized Linear Models included measures of grandparents’ and parents’ problem gambling, parents’ IH/I behaviors in childhood, and a host of risk factors and comorbidities to predict IH/I in children. Intergenerational bivariate associations were observed between grandparents’ problem gambling, parents’ IH/I in childhood and problem gambling at age 30, and between parents’ IH/I, problem gambling, and children’s IH/I behaviors. Parents’ problem gambling predicted children’s IH/I behaviors above and beyond the effects of covariates such as family and socioeconomic characteristics, alcohol and drug use, depression symptoms and parents’ gambling involvement. Parents’ IH/I behaviors in childhood also predicted children’s IH/I and had a moderating, enhancing effect on parents’ problem gambling association with their offspring’s IH/I behaviors. Problem gambling is a characteristic of parents’ mental health that is distinctively associated with children’s IH/I behaviors, above and beyond parents’ own history of IH/I and of typically related addictive, psychopathological or socioeconomic risk factors and comorbidities.     

Continued Bullying Victimization from Childhood to Young Adulthood: a Longitudinal Study of Mediating and Protective Factors

Bullying in schools has severe consequences for victims’ adjustment. It is unclear, however, whether victims of school bullying continue to be victimized in other contexts during adulthood. Mediating processes through which peer victimization in school increases the risk of revictimization in adulthood, as well as protective factors, also need to be explored. This study examined 1) the longitudinal association between peer victimization in school and victimization at work during young adulthood, 2) the predictive link of reactive and proactive aggression and anxious-withdrawn behavior in childhood with victimization in school and at the workplace, 3) the potential mediating role of depression symptoms, and 4) the potential protective effect of friendship support. The study included 251 participants (61% females) followed from age 12 to age 22. Participants reported about their victimization in school from ages 12 to 17 and their workplace victimization at age 22. They also reported about their depression-related thoughts and feelings and about friendship support. Teachers rated reactive and proactive aggression and anxiety-withdrawal at age 12. Structural equation modeling revealed that anxiety-withdrawal at age 12 predicted peer victimization in school, which in turn predicted later victimization at work. The latter association was partially mediated by increased depression symptoms. However, friendship support counteracted (via a main effect) the link between school victimization and subsequent depression symptoms. Bullying victims may benefit from interventions aimed at reducing depression symptoms and fostering social skills to establish supportive friendships to help avoid the generation of new interpersonal stress such as workplace victimization in adulthood.     

Influence of Deviant Friends on Delinquency: Searching for Moderator Variables

Three categories of potential moderators of the link between best friend's deviancy and boys' delinquency during early adolescence were investigated: personal (i.e., disruptiveneness profile during childhood, attitude toward delinquency), familial (i.e., parental monitoring, attachment to parents), and social (i.e., characteristics of other friends). Best friend's and other friends' deviancy were assessed during preadolescence through the use of peer ratings. Potential moderators were assessed at the same age period with teacher ratings or self-reports. Finally, delinquent behaviors were assessed at ages 13 and 14, as well as age 10 for control purposes, with self-reports. Results showed that boys' disruptiveness profiles during childhood, attachment to parents, and attitude toward delinquency moderated the link between best friend's deviancy and later delinquent behaviors. Other friends' deviancy and parental monitoring had main effects but no moderating effects. These results help clarify the conditions under which exposure to a deviant best friend can influence boys' delinquent behaviors. They also help to reconcile different theoretical explanations of the role of deviant friends in the development of delinquency.     

Community Development in Rural Mexico: The Social Psychological Effects of Adult Education1

A field study compared the social-psychological impact of two traditional adult education programs (certification and literacy) with a socio-ecologically oriented approach in three rural Mexican community types (Ejido, Hacienda, Cabecera) varying in structure and degree of isolation. The primary findings revealed interactions between community and program for the luck/fate dimension of locus of control and for a measure of social efficacy. Community type was the critical factor affecting program impact on luck/fate locus of control beliefs: Residents of the most unstructured and isolated community (Ejido) showed the greatest shift toward internality. Program focus produced significant changes in feelings of social efficacy in two of the three communities. The socio-ecological program contributed most to social competence in the Hacienda community, whereas the certification program had the greatest positive impact in the Cabecera community. The findings are discussed in terms of the relevance of the ecological approach to community intervention in developing countries such as Mexico.