The Inventory of Children's Individual Differences: development and validation of a short version

As more researchers utilize the Five-factor model (FFM) of personality with children and adolescents, the need for instruments designed specifically for use with children and adolescents increases. In the United States, the 108-item Inventory of Children's Individual Differences (ICID; Halverson et al., 2003), has provided researchers with an age and culture neutral instrument designed specifically to assess the FFM of personality in children and adolescents, ages 2 to 15, using parental, nonparental, or self-reports. This article presents a shorter, 50-item version of the ICID (the ICID-S) that maintains the levels of validity and reliability previously established for the full instrument.     

Early Student-Teacher Relationships of Children With and Without Intellectual Disability: Contributions of Behavioral, Social, and Self-Regulatory Competence

We investigated the student-teacher relationships (STRs) of 6-year-old children with (n = 58) and without (n = 82) intellectual disability (ID). We also examined early (age 3) and concurrent (age 6) child behavioral, self-regulatory, and social characteristics as predictors of age 6 STR quality. Children with ID experienced significantly poorer relationships with their teachers, marked by less closeness and more conflict and dependency, compared to typically developing children. This group difference was not accounted for entirely by IQ differences. Child characteristics and parent-child interactional variables at age 3 and 6 accounted for 53.5% of the variance in age 6 STR quality. The relation between ID status and STR quality was fully mediated by three child variables-global self-regulation at age 3, mother-reported behavior problems at age 6, and teacher-reported behavior problems at age 6- and was partially mediated by mother-reported behavior problems at age 3. Our findings demonstrate the importance of child behavioral and social characteristics in predicting relationships with teachers for children with and without ID.     

Ongoing physical activity advice by humans versus computers: the Community Health Advice by Telephone (CHAT) trial.

PURPOSE: Given the prevalence of physical inactivity among American adults, convenient, low-cost interventions are strongly indicated. This study determined the 6- and 12-month effectiveness of telephone interventions delivered by health educators or by an automated computer system in promoting physical activity. DESIGN: Initially inactive men and women age 55 years and older (N = 218) in stable health participated. Participants were randomly assigned to human advice, automated advice, or health education control. MEASURES: The validated 7-day physical activity recall interview was used to estimate minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Physical activity differences by experimental arm were verified on a random subsample via accelerometry. RESULTS: Using intention-to-treat analysis, at 6 months, participants in both interventions, although not differing from one another, showed significant improvements in weekly physical activity compared with controls. These differences were generally maintained at 12 months, with both intervention arms remaining above the target of 150 min per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity on average. CONCLUSION: Automated telephone-linked delivery systems represent an effective alternative for delivering physical activity advice to inactive older adults.     

Book reviews

Blackman, D.E., & Lejeune, H. (Eds.) (1990). Behaviour analysis in theory and practice: Contributions and controversies. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd, pp. x + 317. ISBN 0-86377-144-0. £29.95.

Davis, J.L., & eichenbaum, H. (Eds.). (1991). Olfaction: A model system for computational neuroscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp. 319. ISBN 0-262-04124-3. £49.50 (hardback).     

Taylor and Parfit on personal identity: a response to Lötter

In this paper the author attempts to show that Lötter is not justified in ignoring orthodox views of personal identity on the basis of arguments offered by Taylor. It is argued that Taylor's arguments against the orthodoxy do not establish what he, and Lötter, hope they establish, namely, that the orthodox position, represented by the work of Parfit, fails to account for personal identity. The author also attempts to show the importance of this area of debate between orthodox theories of personal identity and the concept of personal identity offered by Taylor, Lötter, and others.     

Akrasia and the Problem of the Unity of Reason

Joseph Raz and Sergio Tenenbaum argue that the Guise of the Good thesis explains both the possibility of practical reason and its unity with theoretical reason, something Humean psychological theories may be unable to do. This paper will argue, however, that Raz and Tenenbaum face a dilemma: either the version of the Guise of the Good they offer is too strong to allow for weakness of will, or it will lose its theoretical advantage in preserving the unity of reason. 1     

Multidimensional Suicide Inventory-28 (MSI-28) Within a Sample of Military Basic Trainees: An Examination of Psychometric Properties

Suicide and suicidal ideation are serious public health concerns. Accurate detection and assessment are critical first steps in addressing this challenging issue. The present study examined self-reported suicidal ideation in a sample of United States Air Force enlisted active duty basic trainees (N = 470) using the Multidimensional Suicide Inventory (MSI-28). Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 4-factor structure for the MSI-28 in this sample. Together, these 4 factors explained approximately 72% of the variance in the MSI-28. The MSI-28 evidenced moderate to strong associations with measures of resilience (Dispositional Resilience Scale-15; DRS-15) and psychological distress (Outcome Questionnaire; OQ-30.2). These findings demonstrate that the MSI-28 is a promising tool for clinical measurement of self-reported suicidality. Future directions for further validation of the MSI-28 are discussed.     

Why the body comes first: effects of experimenter touch on infants' word finding

The lexicon of 6‐month‐olds is comprised of names and body part words. Unlike names, body part words do not often occur in isolation in the input. This presents a puzzle: How have infants been able to pull out these words from the continuous stream of speech at such a young age? We hypothesize that caregivers' interactions directed at and on the infant's body may be at the root of their early acquisition of body part words. An artificial language segmentation study shows that experimenter‐provided synchronous tactile cues help 4‐month‐olds to find words in continuous speech. A follow‐up study suggests that this facilitation cannot be reduced to the highly social situation in which the directed interaction occurs. Taken together, these studies suggest that direct caregiver–infant interaction, exemplified in this study by touch cues, may play a key role in infants' ability to find word boundaries, and suggests that early vocabulary items may consist of words often linked with caregiver touches. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/NfCj5ipatyE     

Exposure to Parental Alienation and Subsequent Anxiety and Depression in Italian Adults

This study examined associations between exposure to parental alienation behaviors (PA) and anxiety and depression in a community sample of Italian adults. Data were examined by the gender of the alienating parent and the gender of the respondent/adult child. Five hundred nine adults were administered the Baker Strategy Questionnaire (BSQ), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y); and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Results revealed that exposure to PA was associated with higher ratings of anxiety and depression. The data add to the growing body of knowledge regarding the long-term negative impact of exposure to parental alienation.