Bullying among siblings: The role of personality and relational variables

This study aimed to investigate: (1) the influence of gender, sibling age, and sibling gender on sibling bullying and victimization; (2) the links between personality characteristics, quality of the sibling relationship, and sibling bullying/victimization; (3) the association between sibling and school bullying/victimization, and the direct and indirect associations between personality variables and school bullying/victimization. The sample comprised 195 children (98 boys and 97 girls, aged 10–12 years). Instruments included: a self‐report questionnaire for bullying and victimization, the Big Five Questionnaire for Children and the Sibling Inventory of Behaviour. Results highlighted that the presence of an older brother is a risk factor for the emergence of sibling victimization. For both boys and girls, high levels of conflict in the dyad and low levels of empathy were significantly related to sibling bullying and sibling victimization. For males, energy was associated with sibling bullying and indirectly to school bullying; friendliness and high emotional instability were directly associated with school bullying. School victimization was directly associated with emotional instability for both males and females. Finally, both sibling bullying and sibling victimization were associated with bullying and victimization at school. The discussion highlights the role of a multi‐contextual approach to understand and prevent bullying.     

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): attachment styles and parental bonding

The attachment styles and parental bonding by 64 patients (M age = 43.2 yr., SD = 13.3) with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) were compared with those of 64 patients (M age = 42.2 yr., SD = 13.5) with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and 126 Healthy participants (M age = 42.2 yr., SD = 12.1). Analysis of scores on the Attachment Style Questionnaire indicated insecure attachment in both the patient and control groups. The Parental Bonding scores indicated perceptions of Affectionless Control by parents in both patient groups. In particular, the mean Father-Protection subscale scores were significantly higher for in the GERD group than in the Healthy and IBD groups.     

Corporal punishment and long-term behavior problems: the moderating role of positive parenting and psychological aggression

The aims of this study were: (a) to examine the prevalence of corporal punishment (CP) of children in Spain; (b) to analyze the extent to which CP is used in combination with psychological aggression and positive parenting among Spanish parents; and (c) to investigate whether the relation between CP and behavior problems is moderated by a positive parenting context in which CP may be used, and by the co-occurrence of psychological aggression. The sample comprised 1,071 Spanish university students (74.8% female; 25.2% male). Findings indicate a high prevalence of CP of Spanish students, revealing that significantly more mothers than fathers used CP. Furthermore, more CP is related to more use of psychological aggression and less of positive parenting. Regression analyses revealed that CP was associated with an increased probability of antisocial traits and behaviors regardless of whether there was positive parenting and psychological aggression. These results highlight that, though many Spanish parents use CP as a disciplinary strategy, it appears to be related to negative outcomes for children regardless the parental context in which it is used.     

The performance of school integration according to the perception of specialist teachers in therapeutic pedagogy

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the perception that specialist teachers in therapeutic pedagogy have of the integration of students with specific needs for educational support. Diverse groups of students are differentiated. More specifically, it aims to know how teachers perceive students' performance and participation, and also certain attitudes towards the students (acceptance, involvement of fellow students…). Teachers' opinions of various measures to improve integration are also analysed as are the diverse preferred means of schooling and support. For this purpose, a 114-item Lickert-type questionnaire, with 8 additional personal identification items, was used. The sample comprised 106 specialist teachers who work in Asturias, out of an entire sample of 406. The results reveal that specialist teachers do not perceive the same attitudes in the different groups studied. Students with behaviour disorders are the most rejected and the ones from whom teachers can expect the least. The group of ethnic minorities needs to improve family involvement. The specialists demand more human and physical resources and most of them think that ordinary centres provide the most suitable form of schooling.     

Analysis of the indicators of pathological Internet use in Spanish university students

Addiction to and problematic use of the Internet are relatively recent phenomena whose scope, characteristics and correlates have begun to receive increasing attention by clinicians and researchers alike. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between time spent connected to the Internet and the variables that indicate a pathological and addictive use of this technological resource. The sample was comprised of 1,301 university students of both sexes (927 women and 374 men), with ages ranging from 18 to 30 years old. The results showed that, although most people use the Internet appropriately, users who invest higher quantities of time in the Internet more frequently exhibit connection behavior that is controlled through negative reinforcement, a high degree of arousal when online, loss of control over connection behavior, changes in health-related habits, and interference in the social, family, academic, or work spheres. These findings suggest that excessive Internet use is associated with the onset of several problems that are similar to those associated with other behavioral and technological addictions.     

Development of navigational working memory: Evidence from 6‐ to 10‐year‐old children

The ability to learn complex environments may require the contribution of different types of working memory. Therefore, we investigated the development of different types of working memory (navigational, reaching, and verbal) in 129 typically developing children. We aimed to determine whether navigational working memory develops at the same rate as other types of working memory and whether the gender differences reported in adults are already present during development. We found that navigational working memory is less developed than both verbal and reaching working memory and that gender predicts performance only for navigational working memory. Our results are in line with reports that children made significantly more errors in far space than adults, showing that near space representation develops before far space representation.     

Lenin and the crisis of Russian Marxism

This article attempts to understand the philosophical significance of Lenin’s work, Materialism and Empiriocriticism (1909), by putting it in the historical perspective and context of the theoretical debates of the time. The author argues that Lenin’s decision to engage in philosophical discussion was motivated by the need to respond to the growing struggles of Marxism, and specifically to the dangerous consequences of positivism that spread to Russia, which thereby led to a crisis in theory and political practice. Lenin’s work is the first philosophical assault on positivism, and most notably on its specific form, Machism, which he criticizes from the position of dialectical materialism. Recognizing the damaging effects of the positivistic position for Marxism, Lenin attacks Alexander Bogdanov’s Empiriomonism as a form of Machism which undermines the materialistic foundation of Marxist philosophy.     

Gender/ed identities: an overview of our current work as child psychotherapists in the Gender Identity Development Service

Abstract

This paper is adapted from a presentation first given at the 2017 Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) Conference. We hope to give a feel of our work as psychoanalytic child psychotherapists working in a Tier 4 national assessment service for gender variant children and connect with our colleagues working therapeutically with these families in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and other settings. Gender variance does not have a single cause, or straightforward developmental pathway; rather it is a complex interplay of multiple factors, akin to sexuality in the diverse manifestations and ‘tributaries’ taken. This paper is given as a plea for complexity, to counter the current intense focus on gender identity and the consequent reductionism this can lead to. To this end, three case studies from the clinic, taken from Under Five, Latency and Adolescent phases of development, are explored. The complexity of the cases is then discussed, followed by parallel issues of development, divergence and difference. These three ‘average’ cases from the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) serve to demonstrate the need for child psychotherapy as part of multi-disciplinary thinking about gender variance and how attention must be maintained to each unique story and process of identity development; as well as our clinical task to establish and encourage depressive functioning and secondary processes where possible.