The Role of Socio-Psychological Determinants in the Sexual Behaviors of Latina Early Adolescents

Although a large body of research has examined the negative outcomes that occur when Latina adolescents engage in sexual activity, relatively little research explores the determinants that may contribute to these behaviors. In the current study, an ecological community psychological approach was used to examine the impact that substance use, sexual self-efficacy, parental communication, normative peer pressure, acculturation, educational aspirations, grades, and gang activity have on adolescent sexual behavior. The sample consisted of 217 participants (mean age of 14.6) who self-identified as Latina from the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area of California in the United States. The results indicate that about a third of the sample had engaged in one or more sexual behaviors. Overall, greater usage of substances was associated with greater numbers of sexual behaviors. Girls who reported engaging in two or more sexual behaviors reported more frequent marijuana and alcohol use. The girls who reported high sexual self-efficacy engaged in few to no sexual behaviors. Additionally, parental communication, normative peer pressure, acculturation, and educational aspirations were unrelated to their sexual behavior. However, the majority of girls who reported receiving good grades also reported no sexual activity. Moreover, girls who reported no sexual behavior also reported no gang activity. The results indicate that a multi-level approach to examining the psycho-social determinants of sexual activity in Latina girls provides a more comprehensive picture of their sexual decision making.     

"Age of onset of marijuana use and executive function": Correction to Gruber et al. (2011)

Reports an error in "Age of onset of marijuana use and executive function" by Staci A. Gruber, Kelly A. Sagar, Mary Kathryn Dahlgren, Megan Racine and Scott E. Lukas (Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Advanced Online Publication, Nov 21, 2011, np). Figure 1 should have been presented in color. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-27123-001.) Marijuana (MJ) remains the most widely abused illicit substance in the United States, and in recent years, a decline in perceived risk of MJ use has been accompanied by a simultaneous increase in rates of use among adolescents. In this study, the authors hypothesized that chronic MJ smokers would perform cognitive tasks, specifically those that require executive function, more poorly than control subjects and that individuals who started smoking MJ regularly prior to age 16 (early onset) would have more difficulty than those who started after age 16 (late onset). Thirty-four chronic, heavy MJ smokers separated into early and late onset groups, and 28 non-MJ smoking controls completed a battery of neurocognitive measures. As hypothesized, MJ smokers performed more poorly than controls on several measures of executive function. Age of onset analyses revealed that these between-group differences were largely attributed to the early onset group, who were also shown to smoke twice as often and nearly 3 times as much MJ per week relative to the late onset smokers. Age of onset, frequency, and magnitude of MJ use were all shown to impact cognitive performance. Findings suggest that earlier MJ onset is related to poorer cognitive function and increased frequency and magnitude of MJ use relative to later MJ onset. Exposure to MJ during a period of neurodevelopmental vulnerability, such as adolescence, may result in altered brain development and enduring neuropsychological changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Family Intervention to Prevent Depression and Substance Use Among Adolescents of Depressed Parents

Parental depression places offspring at elevated risk for multiple, co-occurring problems. The purpose of this study was to develop and preliminarily evaluate Project Hope, a family intervention for the prevention of both depression and substance use among adolescent-aged children (M?=?13.9?years) of depressed parents. The program was created by blending two empirically supported interventions: one for depression and another for substance use. Thirty families were randomly assigned to either Project Hope (n?=?16) or a wait-list control condition (n?=?14). Pretests, posttests (n?=?29), and 5-month follow-ups (n?=?28) were conducted separately with parents and youth via phone interviews. Questions asked about the family depression experience, family interactions, family management, coping, adolescent substance use beliefs and refusal skills, adolescent depression, and adolescent substance use. Project Hope was fully developed, manualized, and implemented with a small sample of targeted families. Engagement in the program was relatively high. Preliminary outcome analyses were conducted using 2 (Group) ×3 (Time) analyses of covariance. Results provided some evidence for significant improvements among intervention compared to control participants in indicators of the family depression experience, family management, and coping, and a statistically significant decrease from pretest to posttest in alcohol quantity for intervention compared to control youth. Next steps for this program of research are discussed.     

Parent Perspectives on Community Mental Health Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The community mental health (CMH) system provides treatment for behavioral and psychiatric problems in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although parent stakeholder perspectives are important to improving care, these perspectives have not been systematically examined for this population in the CMH sector. Twenty-one semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with parents of children with ASD who received services in CMH clinics. Themes related to child clinical histories, service access and experiences with the CMH system revealed a specific trajectory of service need identification, obtaining a diagnosis, and experience with services. Each trajectory stage was marked by high parent stress. Results provide information about the characteristics of children with ASD served in community mental health clinics and direction for targeted improvement efforts.     

Asynchrony in discrete bimanual aiming: Evidence for visual strategies of coordination

The bimanual coupling literature supposes an inherent drive for synchrony between the upper limbs when making discrete bimanual movements. The level of synchrony is argued to be task dependent, reliant on the visual demands of the two targets, and the result of a complex pattern of hand and eye movements (Bingham, Hughes, & Mon-Williams, 2008 ; Riek, Tresilian, Mon-Williams, Coppard, & Carson, 2003 ). However, recent work by Bruyn and Mason ( 2009 ) suggests that temporal coordination is not solely influenced by visual saccades. In this experimental series, a total of 8 participants performed congruent movements to targets either near or far from the midline. Targets far from the midline, requiring a visual saccade, resulted in greater terminal asynchrony. Initial and terminal asynchrony were not consistent, but linked to the task demands at that stage of the movement. If the asynchrony evident at the end of a bimanual movement is due to a complex pattern of hand and eye movements then the removal of visual feedback should result in an increase in synchrony. Sixteen participants then completed congruent and incongruent bimanual aiming movements to near and/or far targets. Movements were made with or without visual feedback of hands and targets. Analyses revealed that movements made without visual feedback showed increased synchrony between the limbs, yet movements to incongruent targets still showed greater asynchrony. We suggest that visual constraints are not the sole cause of asynchrony in discrete bimanual movements.     

Detecting symmetry and faces: Separating the tasks and identifying their interactions

Face and symmetry processing have common characteristics, and several lines of evidence suggest they interact. To characterize their relationship and possible interactions, in the present study we created a novel library of images in which symmetry and face-likeness were manipulated independently. Participants identified the target that was most symmetric among distractors of equal face-likeness (Experiment 1) and identified the target that was most face-like among distractors of equal symmetry (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we found that symmetry judgments improved when the stimuli were more face-like. In Experiment 2, we found a more complex interaction: Image symmetry had no effect on detecting frontally viewed faces, but worsened performance for nonfrontally viewed faces. There was no difference in performance for upright versus inverted images, suggesting that these interactions occurred on the parts-based level. In sum, when symmetry and face-likeness are independently manipulated, we find that each influences the perception of the other, but the nature of the interactions differs.     

A conceptual and methodological framework for measuring and modulating the attentional blink

The attentional blink (AB) is a transient attention cost that is shown when report accuracy for a second target (T2) is reduced when T2 is presented within approximately 500?ms of a first target (T1). Thus, by definition an AB is only observed when T2 accuracy is reduced at short relative to long T1?CT2 separations, and the magnitude of the AB is reflected in the change in T2 performance across target separations. However, the designs, analyses, and interpretations of several studies of the AB have suggested a lack of clear definitions about what constitutes a demonstration of the AB, what constitutes a modulation of the AB across participant groups or manipulations, and how AB magnitude might best be represented accurately as a single value for a given individual. In this article, we discuss the important conceptual and methodological issues that should be considered when obtaining, analyzing, and interpreting AB data, and we discuss the pros and cons of various approaches while providing suggestions as to how best to validly represent the AB and its modulations.     

Response to DiNunno's “Long-Term Group Psychotherapy for Women Who Are Survivors of Childhood Abuse”

Trauma impels people both to withdraw from close relationships and to seek them desperately. The profound disruption in basic trust, the common feelings of shame, guilt, and inferiority, and the need to avoid reminders of the trauma that might be found in social life, all foster withdrawal from close relationships. But the terror of the traumatic event intensifies the need for protective attachments. The traumatized person therefore frequently alternates between isolation and anxious clinging to others [Herman, 1992, p. 56].     

Sources of Differences in Children's Understandings of Mathematical Equality: Comparative Analysis of Teacher Guides and Student Texts in China and the United States

This study reports findings from comparative samples of sixth-grade Chinese and U.S. students' interpretations of the equal sign. Ninety-eight percent of the Chinese sample correctly answered 4 items indicating conceptions of equality and provided conceptually accurate explanations. In contrast, only 28% of the U.S. sample performed at this level. We examine how teacher preparation materials, students' textbooks and teachers' guidebooks treat equality in each country. U.S. teacher preparation textbooks rarely interpreted the equal sign as equivalence. On the contrary, Chinese textbooks typically introduced the equal sign in a context of relationships and interpreted the sign as “balance,” “sameness,” or “equivalence” and only then embedded the sign with operations on numbers.     

Book Reviews

For inexperienced sales representatives, success provides an important learning opportunity from which to build confidence and hone strategies. Such learning is derived from the attributions one makes for success and how those attributions shape future behavior. This research investigates the interpretation and behavioral intentions of inexperienced sales representatives following a successful sales call using a sample of financial services representatives. Surprisingly, we found that achieving success did not assure the adoption or future use of the strategy that garnered that success. These results suggest that inexperienced sales representatives may require managerial attention to fully understand and appropriately assimilate their sales successes. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.