Religiosity in Emerging Adulthood: Familial Variables and Adjustment

The current study is an examination of the familial variables associated with the expression of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and the relationship between religiosity and adjustment in emerging adulthood. Three hundred and five emerging adults completed questionnaires regarding their religiosity, psychological adjustment, and several familial variables. Parental divorce, perceived parental marital satisfaction, and family support were found to relate to religiosity. Additionally, those classified as intrinsically and indiscriminately religious reported higher levels of self-esteem than the extrinsically religious. The current study highlights the importance of examining multiple contextual variables simultaneously in order to assess the true multidimensional aspect of religious expression in emerging adulthood. Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Society, Chicago, May 2004.     

Childhood Healthcare Experience,Healthcare Attitudes,and Optimism as Predictors of Adolescents’ Healthcare Behavior

Late adolescence and early adulthood is a time when people establish many of their life-style behaviors. Thus, in order to promote optimal health, it is important to identify factors predictive of young adults’ healthcare behavior. This study evaluated the relationship between measures of childhood healthcare experience, healthcare attitudes, and optimism with young adults’ healthcare behavior in a sample of college students (n = 100). Results suggested that prior healthcare experience, attitudes about healthcare, and optimism are associated with current healthcare behavior. In addition, the relation between childhood healthcare experience and current healthcare behavior was moderated by optimism, such that those who reported both more negative childhood healthcare experiences and low levels of optimism reported the least adaptive healthcare behaviors and those who reported the most positive childhood healthcare experience and the highest levels of optimism reported the most adaptive healthcare behavior.     

Autobiographical narratives of deaf and hearing adults: an examination of narrative coherence and the use of internal states

To examine the impact of early linguistic experiences on later verbal report of autobiographical memory, 13 hearing adults and 13 deaf adults born to hearing parents described events that occurred before and after the age of 10 years. The contextual, temporal, and thematic coherence of the narratives was rated. The use of emotional, perceptual, mental, and physiological states was also recorded. There were differences in the coherence of the narratives and use of internal states according to the age at which the events occurred. There were no group differences in coherence, but hearing adults provided longer narratives than deaf adults. When narrative length was controlled, deaf adults included more emotional states than hearing adults. Results suggest that early unavailability of language does not impact the coherence of adults' narratives, although certain features of linguistic expression specific to ASL may result in greater saturation of emotional states references in autobiographical narratives of deaf adults.     

Playground Contexts for Aggression for Preschoolers with Hyperactivity

This study assessed the naturalistic conditions that set the occasion for aggressive behavior in three preschoolers with hyperactivity and aggression (H/A). Peer and teacher responses to preschoolers' aggression were also investigated. For a total of 114 aggressive instances observed, relatively low percentages of aggression in social play with at least one other child were documented. The antecedent condition that was most predictive of aggression was (a) when children were seeking to enter into an activity and were denied entry and (b) when another child interrupted an on-going activity. Aggression was about 14 times greater for seeking/interrupted activity than for ongoing social play. Finally, the percentage of negative responses from peers to aggression on the playground was almost three times the rate documented in past research for preschoolers without hyperactivity.     

DRA contingencies promote improved tolerance to delayed reinforcement during FCT compared to DRO and fixed-time schedules

Following Functional Communication Training (FCT), clinicians often gradually expose newly taught communicative responses to delayed reinforcement contingencies to prepare clients for the normative environment in which requests are frequently reinforced after a delay. The introduction of delays may result in the resurgence and maintenance of problem behavior and the weakening of the newly trained communicative response. The current study compared delay tolerance with three individuals diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities when reinforcement for the functional communication response (FCR) was delivered following (a) the passage of time, (b) the omission of problem behavior, or (c) the occurrence of an alternative behavior. We measured delay tolerance in terms of minimizing problem behavior and maintaining efficient FCRs. Outcomes support requiring alternative responding during delays to attain optimal treatment results.     

Common Brain Structural Alterations Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Alzheimer’s Dementia: Future Directions and Implications

Neuropsychology Review - Recent reports suggest declines in the age-specific risk of Alzheimer’s dementia in higher income Western countries. At the same time, investigators believe that...     

Adaptive disclosure: an open trial of a novel exposure-based intervention for service members with combat-related psychological stress injuries

We evaluated the preliminary effectiveness of a novel intervention that was developed to address combat stress injuries in active-duty military personnel. Adaptive disclosure (AD) is relatively brief to accommodate the busy schedules of active-duty service members while training for future deployments. Further, AD takes into account unique aspects of the phenomenology of military service in war in order to address difficulties such as moral injury and traumatic loss that may not receive adequate and explicit attention by conventional treatments that primarily address fear-inducing life-threatening experiences and sequelae. In this program development and evaluation open trial, 44 marines received AD while in garrison. It was well tolerated and, despite the brief treatment duration, promoted significant reductions in PTSD, depression, negative posttraumatic appraisals, and was also associated with increases in posttraumatic growth.