Conflicting perspectives mediate the relation between parents’ and preschoolers’ self-referent mental state talk during collaboration

We examined the relations between the referent of parents and preschoolers’ mental state talk during a collaborative puzzle-solving task (N = 146 dyads; n = 81 3-year-olds, n = 65 4-year-olds). The results showed that parents’ references to their own knowledge and beliefs (self-referent cognitive talk), and references to their child’s knowledge and beliefs (child-referent cognitive talk) were both related to children’s (primarily self-referent) cognitive talk. We then tested whether any of the observed relations could be explained by the presence of conflicting perspectives within the collaborative interaction. Mediational analyses revealed that conflicting perspectives mediated the positive relation between parents’ production of self-referent cognitive talk and child cognitive talk. By contrast, the positive relation between parents’ production of child-referent cognitive talk and child cognitive talk did not depend on the presence of this type of conflict. These findings highlight an important mechanism through which parents’ references to their own mind might promote children’s developing mental state talk in collaborative contexts.     

Can men do better if they try harder: Sex and motivational effects on emotional awareness

Research indicates that women are more emotionally aware than men. Motivation was investigated as a possible source of this sex difference. A total of 242 women and 74 men completed the first half of an emotional awareness test, the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane & Schwarz, 1987), received either motivational or control instructions, and then completed the second half of the awareness scale. Participants' LEAS scores were compared via a 2 (sex) × 2 (condition) × 2 (time) General Linear Model Analyses of Variance. The motivational intervention was successful in significantly increasing both male and female participants LEAS scores, although women generally demonstrated greater emotional awareness than men. Furthermore, the LEAS scores of motivated men equalled those of women in the control condition, but the motivated men had to work significantly longer on the task to achieve this equality. Additional covar-iance analysis revealed that there were significant sex differences even after controlling for self-report and behavioural measures of motivation. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding sex differences in emotional awareness.     

Interpersonal and print nutrition communication for a Spanish-dominant Latino population: Secretos de la Buena Vida.

Participants (N=357) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: lay health advisor (promotora) plus tailored print materials, tailored print materials only (tailored), or off-the-shelf print materials (control). The primary outcomes were calories from fat and daily grams of fiber. Secondary outcomes included total energy intake, total and saturated fat intake, and total carbohydrates. Adjusted for baseline values, calories from fat were 29%, 30%, and 30% for the promotora, tailored, and control conditions, respectively, and grams of fiber consumed were 16 g, 17 g, and 16 g. Significant Condition X Time interactions were not observed between baseline and 12-weeks postintervention. The LHA condition achieved significantly lower levels of energy intake, total fat and saturated fat, and total carbohydrates. The relative superiority of the promotora condition may derive from the personal touch achieved in the face-to-face interactions or from the women's use of print materials under the promotora's guidance.     

On the Nature,Magnitude, and Causality of Suicidal Behaviors: An International Perspective

The central questions addressed in this paper are whether present generations of adolescents and adults worldwide are at greater risk of developing suicidal reactions than previous generations were and what the possible causal mechanisms involved are. On the basis of data from international and national data banks as well as an extensive review of the literature, it is concluded that a true increase in suicide mortality and morbidity has occurred over the larger part of this century among the White urban adolescent and young adult populations of North America and Europe, particularly among (young) males over the last three decades. Among the possible causal mechanisms identified are (1) the corresponding increase in the prevalence of depressive disorders; (2) the corresponding increase in the prevalence of substance (ab)use and substance abuse disorders, and a lowering of age of onset of (ab)use; (3) psychobiological changes, in particular the dramatic lowering of the age of puberty; (4) an increase in the number of social stressors with extensive consequences for youth; (5) changes in attitudes towards suicidal behaviors and the related increased availability of suicidal models.     

Increasing self-efficacy reduces visual intrusions to a trauma-film paradigm

Background and Objectives: It has been proposed that self-efficacy plays a critical role in the onset and maintenance of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study aimed to test if increasing perceptions of self-efficacy using a false feedback technique about coping abilities prior to a trauma-film paradigm lead to a reduction of visual intrusions over the course of 6 days.

Design and Methods: Healthy participants recruited from the community were randomized to a high self-efficacy (HSE, N?=?18), low self-efficacy (LSE, N?=?21), or neutral self-efficacy (NSE, N?=?23) conditions.

Results: Participants in the HSE condition reported higher levels of self-efficacy. In addition, individuals in the HSE conditions reported significantly fewer intrusions over 6 days. Unexpectedly, individuals in the LSE condition reported fewer intrusions on the final day of the study compared to those in the NSE condition. The LSE group was also the only group showing a significant linear decline in intrusion across the 6 days.

Discussion: These findings provide further support that perceptions of self-efficacy are modifiable and may contribute to clinically-relevant processes underlying PTSD. Future prospective research with individuals exposed to trauma will help to shed light on the potential role of self-efficacy to buffer the negative impacts of traumatic stress.     

Being nice by choice: The effect of counterfactual reasoning on children's social evaluations

The ability to engage in counterfactual thinking (reason about what else could have happened) is critical to learning, agency, and social evaluation. However, not much is known about how individual differences in counterfactual reasoning may play a role in children's social evaluations. In the current study, we investigate how prompting children to engage in counterfactual thinking about positive moral actions impacts children's social evaluations. Eighty-seven 4-8-year-olds were introduced to a character who engaged in a positive moral action (shared a sticker with a friend) and asked about what else the character could have done with the sticker (counterfactual simulation). Children were asked to generate either a high number of counterfactuals (five alternative actions) or a low number of counterfactuals (one alternative action). Children were then asked a series of social evaluation questions contrasting that character with one who did not have a choice and had no alternatives (was told to give away the sticker to his friend). Results show that children who generated selfish counterfactuals were more likely to positively evaluate the character with choice than children who did not generate selfish counterfactuals, suggesting that generating counterfactuals most distant from the chosen action (prosociality) leads children to view prosocial actions more positively. We also found age-related changes: as children got older, regardless of the type of counterfactuals generated, they were more likely to evaluate the character with choice more positively. These results highlight the importance of counterfactual reasoning in the development of moral evaluations.

Research Highlights

• Older children were more likely to endorse agents who choose to share over those who do not have a choice.
• Children who were prompted to generate more counterfactuals were more likely to allocate resources to characters with choice.
• Children who generated selfish counterfactuals more positively evaluated agents with choice.
• Comparable to theories suggesting children punish willful transgressors more than accidental transgressors, we propose children also consider free will when making positive moral evaluations.