Youth Exposed to Violence: Stability, Co-occurrence, and Context

With considerable literature establishing how separate types of violence disrupt the lives of children, there is emerging interest in examining violence across multiple interpersonal domains. This article examines four commonly occurring and frequently researched domains of violence exposure: marital physical aggression, mother-to-youth aggression, father-to-youth aggression, and community violence. A community-based sample of 103 parents and youth provided three waves of data at annual intervals beginning when the youth were aged 9–10. We explored stability of exposure, co-occurrence across different types of violence exposure, and associations with co-occurring risk factors. Approximately 30–45% of youth reported intermittent exposure over the 3 years. In addition to overlap among types of violence exposure within the family, we found overlap between parent-to-youth aggression and community violence, an association that was exacerbated in families where fathers reported high levels of global distress symptoms. Mother-to-youth, father-to-youth, and community violence related to youth behavior problems beyond the contextual risk factors of low income, stressful life events, and parents’ global distress symptoms. These results highlight the importance of examining violence longitudinally, across multiple types, and with attention to contextual factors.     

Sculpting Present and Future: A Systemic Intervention Model Applied to Psychosomatic Families

We present a therapeutic intervention model for use with psychosomatic families. This method, the result of our extensive research on various psychosomatic disorders, uses family sculptures of the "present" and "future": each family member is requested to represent the family as it now "is," and how it "will be" in the future. We discuss the theoretical reasons for our choice of this method: (a) the opportunity to use a therapeutic language that is similar to the nonverbal language of the psychosomatic symptom, and (b) the usefulness of reinserting temporal dimensions into family systems that seem to have lost their evolutionary potential and to be in a sort of "time lock." Two clinical cases are discussed (a child with chronic asthma and an anorexic adolescent); the use of sculptures in both cases revealed the underlying problems and made positive therapeutic interventions possible. Finally, we point out how the use of sculpture as a therapeutic technique enables therapists to deal with multiple systemic levels.     

Children's perceptions of parental behaviors

Children's perceptions of positive and negative parental behaviors were assessed using a newly-developed scale, the Parent Perception Inventory (PPI). Reliability and validity were examined across a sample of 75 children aged 5 to 13 using additional measures administered to the children and measures completed by their parents. The scale showed acceptable levels of internal consistency. No effects of children's age were apparent, but effects of the child's and parent's gender were found. Boys reported more positive parental behaviors, particularly for fathers, and children reported more negative (disciplinary) behaviors by mothers. PPI scores were predictably related to child's self-concept and behavior problems (convergent validity) and generally unrelated to measures of child's achievement (discriminant validity). As predicted by family systems theory, children from nondistressed families viewed their parents as behaving more similarly on the PPI than did children from distressed families.     

The Nuts and Bolts of Behavioral Observation of Marital and Family Interaction

Despite considerable discussion in the literature about the advantages of observational research and the relative benefits of different coding systems and strategies, little is written about the actual implementation of this assessment strategy. This paper presents an overall framework as well as the essential components involved in collecting (selection of task, setting, unit of analysis, and coding system) and coding (transcribing, selecting and training coders, transforming data, and analyzing reliability) of observational data. To achieve success with observational methods, we emphasize several issues, including (a) the research question as the motivator for all decisions, (b) the interrelatedness of tasks, and (c) the implications of decisions early in the process for later stages of analysis and interpretation. Investigators are encouraged to communicate the details of their observational and coding procedures so that these methods are readily accessible for purposes of replication and comparison.     

E‐readers,Computer Screens,or Paper: Does Reading Comprehension Change Across Media Platforms?

The present research examined the impact of technology on reading comprehension. While previous research has examined memory for text, and yielded mixed results of the impact technology has on one's ability to remember what they have read, the reading literature has not yet examined comprehension. In comparing paper, computers, and e‐readers, results from this study indicated that these three different presentation modes do not differentially affect comprehension of narrative or expository text. Additionally, readers were not consistently compensating for difficulties with comprehension by engaging in different reading behaviors when presented with text in different formats. These results suggest that reading can happen effectively in a variety of presentation formats. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

神经成像数据的元分析

随着高空间分辨率神经成像技术如fMRI和PET的普及, 神经成像研究报告的数量增长迅猛。文献的积累为研究者提供了大量的数据, 研究者可以通过对文献的分析来验证研究结论以及提出新的假设。由于神经成像研究的主要目的之一在于寻求认知过程与脑区的空间位置对应关系, 基于坐标的元分析方法满足了这种需求, 成为神经成像数据元分析中主导的方法。其中, 激活可能性估计法(Activation Likelihood Estimation, ALE)由于方法上的合理性和使用上的便利, 成为当前使用最广泛的基于坐标的元分析方法。本文首先介绍了ALE方法的基本原理, 并在此基础上讨论了神经成像数据元分析的两种主要思路：寻找多个研究的一致性以及寻找脑区激活的调节变量。此外, 文章还介绍了新近流行的脑连通性元分析模型(MACM), 即使用元分析方法进行功能连通性分析。最后, 文章讨论了当前神经成像数据元分析的发展趋势。     

Degrading situations and antisocial behaviour: an experimental approach to delinquency

What are the social psychological processes likely to lead individuals to commit antisocial behaviour? Two experiments are presented showing that students experiencing a publicly degrading situation (a failure on a fictitious test) agreed more often than non-degraded students to participate in a theft to the detriment of a fellow student or even to the detriment of a teacher. We were able to exclude an interpretation in terms of imitation or revenge and suggest that a publicly degrading situation places subjects in a kind of social dependency state which is expressed by a vulnerability to influence. These results are discussed with due regard to the criminological and social psychological literature.