Teachers’ reactions to experiences of violence: an attributional analysis

Violence perpetrated against teachers is prevalent and has the potential to adversely affect teachers’ well-being, efficacy, and longevity in the profession. In this study, we examined teachers’ reactions after having experienced violence, specifically examining the roles of attributional processes. In collaboration with the American Psychological Association, National Education Association, and American Federation of Teachers, data were collected via a survey instrument from teachers across the United States. We examined responses from 2505 participants who described the most upsetting incident of violence that had been perpetrated against them in their roles as teachers. We examined predictors of (1) communicating with others after the incident and (2) implementing intervention strategies with the perpetrators of violence. Emotions were tested as mediators of the relations between attributions and outcomes. Results indicated that characterological and behavioral self-blame were predictive of negative affect, which in turn predicted the majority of outcomes. Study limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Developmental Cascade Effects of Maternal Depression on Offspring Substance Use Across Adolescence: Pathway Through Mother–Child Relationship Quality and Peer Deviancy

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - There is evidence that maternal depression can disrupt adolescent social development and trigger a risk cascade to adolescent substance use that...     

Spaced Retrieval Enhances Memory for a Name–Face–Occupation Association in Older Adults With Probable Alzheimer's Disease

The authors trained 4 older adults with probable Alzheimer's disease to recall a name–face–occupation association using the spaced retrieval technique. Six training sessions were administered over a 2-week period. On each trial, participants selected a target photograph and stated the target name and occupation at increasingly longer retention intervals, contingent upon successful recall. Two transfer tasks were included to determine whether the trained association transferred to the person whose picture served as the training stimulus. Results yielded a positive effect of spaced retrieval on memory for the trained association. Analyses of errors revealed that participants remembered the target person's occupation more often than his or her name. There was modest evidence of transfer of the name–face–occupation association to the actual person. Implications of these data for memory remediation and quality of life in cognitively impaired older adults are considered.     

Social organization predicts nature of infant-adult interactions in two species of wild guinea pigs (Cavia aperea and Galea monasteriensis)

The authors compared interactions of infants with mothers and unfamiliar females in a novel environment in 2 caviomorph rodent species: the harem-living Cavia aperea, the probable progenitor of the domestic guinea pig; and the pair-living Galea monasteriensis. In C. aperea, interactions with mothers and unfamiliar females were largely similar; in G. monasteriensis, interactions with the mother, but not unfamiliar female, were characterized by physical closeness and sociopositive behavior. In G. monasteriensis, plasma cortisol levels were lower when with the mother than when with the unfamiliar female. Results are consistent with the species' social organizations and suggest that behavioral interactions of pups with mothers and other females in domestic guinea pigs reflect primarily the social organization of the progenitor species rather than domestication.