Developmental associations between externalizing behaviors, peer delinquency, drug use, perceived neighborhood crime, and violent behavior in urban communities

This study examines the precursors of violent behavior among urban, racial/ethnic minority adults. Data are from an on-going study of male and female African Americans and Puerto Ricans, interviewed at four time waves, Time 1-Time 4 (T1-T4), from adolescence to adulthood. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the developmental pathways, beginning in mid-adolescence (T1; age = 14.0 years), to violent behavior in adulthood (T4; age = 29.2 years). The variables assessed were: components of externalizing behaviors (i.e., rebelliousness, delinquency; T1, T3); illicit drug use (T2); peer delinquency (T2); perceived neighborhood crime (T4); and violent behavior (T3, T4). Results showed that the participants' externalizing behaviors (rebelliousness and delinquency) were relatively stable from mid-adolescence (T1; age = 14.0 years) to early adulthood (T3; age = 24.4 years). The participants' externalizing behaviors in mid-adolescence also had a direct pathway to peer delinquency in late adolescence (T2; age = 19.1 years). Peer delinquency, in turn, had a direct pathway to the participants' illicit drug use in late adolescence (T2), and to externalizing behaviors in early adulthood (T3). The participants' illicit drug use (T2; age = 19.1 years) had both direct and indirect paths to violent behavior in adulthood (T4). The participants' externalizing behaviors in early adulthood (T3) were linked with violent behavior at T3, and perceived neighborhood crime (T4), both of which had direct pathways to violent behavior in adulthood (T4). The findings suggest developmental periods during which externalizing behaviors, exposure to delinquent peers, illegal drug use, and neighborhood crime could be targeted by prevention and intervention programs in order to reduce violent behavior.     

Can the onset of type 2 diabetes be delayed by a group-based lifestyle intervention? A randomised control trial

This study was a randomised control trial with a waiting control group. It was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-month, group-based diabetes prevention programme, The Healthy Living Course and assess whether participation in the programme led to changes in modifiable risk factors for type 2 diabetes among an already at-risk pre-diabetic population. Individuals designated at risk for diabetes by their general practitioners (GPs) were screened using an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test. Volunteers (N = 307) with pre-diabetes were assigned to an intervention or wait-control group in the ratio of approximately 2 : 1. The sample was pre-tested on biochemical, anthropometric and self-report behavioural, cognitive and mood variables and post-tested either at the end of the educational/support-based lifestyle programme or the end of the wait period. The intervention group significantly improved their diabetes knowledge, motivation to change, positive affect, healthy eating and activity levels and showed significantly greater reductions in weight, body mass index, waist circumference, diastolic blood pressure and fasting plasma glucose in comparison with controls. The intervention group also changed their diagnostic status from pre-diabetes to non-diabetes at a greater rate than the wait group (43% vs. 26%) who received standard care from their GPs.     

Social power makes the heart work more efficiently: Evidence from cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat

Possessing social power is beneficial for a wide range of physical and psychological outcomes. In the current research we test the hypothesis that the mere activation of high social power elicits an efficient cardiovascular pattern (challenge) while the activation of low social power elicits an inefficient cardiovascular pattern (threat; Blascovich, 2008a, Blascovich, 2008b). Results from two experiments (one using power priming and one involving role playing) provide evidence for this hypothesis and are discussed in terms of the embodiment of power, the power-approach relationship, and further implications for the relation between power and health.     

Development and initial validation of the medical fear survey-short version

The present investigation employs item response theory (IRT) to develop an abbreviated medical fear survey (MFS). Application of IRT analyses in study 1 (n = 931) to the original 50-item MFS resulted in a 25-item shortened version. Examination of the location parameters also resulted in a reduction of the Likert-type scaling of the MFS by removing the last response category ("terror"). The five subscales of the original MFS were highly correlated with those of the MFS-short version. The short version also displayed comparable convergent and discriminant validity with the original MFS in relation to measures of fear, disgust, and anxiety. Confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 revealed that the five-factor structure of the MFS-short form fit the data well in U.S. (n = 283) and Dutch (n = 258) samples. The short form also had comparable convergent and discriminant validity with the original MFS in relation to domains of disgust in both samples. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis in Study 3 demonstrated that the subscales of the short version were comparable with the original MFS in classifying participants high (n = 40) and low (n = 40) in blood/injection phobia. Last, structural equation modeling in Study 4 (n = 113) revealed that the MFS-short form demonstrated excellent convergent/discriminant validity with strong associations with injection fear and no association with spider fear. These findings suggest that the MFS-short form has considerable strengths, including decreased assessment time, while retaining sound psychometric properties.     

Developmental Improvements in Perceptual Restoration: Can Young Children Reconstruct Missing Sounds in Noisy Environments?

Young children are frequently exposed to sounds such as speech and music in noisy listening conditions, which have the potential to disrupt their learning. Missing input that is masked by louder sounds can, under the right conditions, be ‘filled in’ by the perceptual system using a process known as perceptual restoration. This experiment compared the ability of 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children, 9‐ to 11‐year‐old children and adults to complete a melody identification task using perceptual restoration. Melodies were presented either intact (complete input), with noise‐filled gaps (partial input; perceptual restoration can occur) or with silence‐filled gaps (partial input; perceptual restoration cannot occur). All age groups could use perceptual restoration to help them interpret partial input, yet perception was the most detrimentally affected by the presentation of partial input for the youngest children. This implies that they might have more difficulty perceiving sounds in noisy environments than older children or adults. Young children had particular difficulty using partial input for identification under conditions where perceptual restoration could not occur. These findings suggest that perceptual restoration is a crucial mechanism in young children, where processes that fill in missing sensory input represent an important part of the way meaning is extracted from a complex sensory world. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Longitudinal Assessment of Sleep–Wake Regulation and Attachment Security with Parents

The development of sleep–wake regulation occurs within the context of the infant–parent relationship. The present study investigated (1) patterns of change in night waking across infancy and attachment to parents and (2) if dependency, a characteristic of secure subgroup B4 and insecure‐resistant infants, accounted for differences in night waking. Forty‐six families reported on the number of infant night wakings at 7, 12, and 14 months of age. Attachment was measured at 12 (infant–mother) and 14 (infant–father) months. Findings suggest that infants with a secure (including the dependent‐secure, B4) pattern of attachment with mothers decreased in the number of night wakings over time, whereas infants with an insecure‐resistant pattern of attachment with mothers continued to wake at night into the second year. Attachment dependency did not account for differences in night waking. These findings are important to understanding the mechanism(s) underlying the relation between attachment and sleep–wake regulation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working under cover: performance‐related self‐confidence among members of contextually devalued groups who try to pass

This paper experimentally examines the effects of passing (versus revealing) a contextually devalued identity on performance‐related self‐confidence. An experimental scenario was developed on the basis of the results of a pilot study. Studies 1 and 2 (total N = 255) experimentally manipulate passing versus revealing a contextually devalued identity, to an ingroup or an outgroup partner. The results show that, although passing makes participants believe that their partner has more positive expectations of them, it also undermines performance‐related self‐confidence. Moreover, the results show that negative self‐directed affect (i.e., guilt and shame) mediated the negative effect of passing on performance‐related self‐confidence. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Categorization in everyday life: the effects of positive and negative categorizations on emotions and self‐views

This study investigates how everyday categorization experiences affect people's emotional responses and self‐views. A representative Dutch population sample (N = 463) was asked to recount a situation in which they were categorized by others. This resulted in a range of categories that were spontaneously evoked by research participants. Participants were asked to think of a situation either where the categorization resulted in negative or in positive expectations about the self. Positive categorization elicited more positive emotions and agreement than negative categorization. However, when positive expectations about the self were formed, people found it less easy to detect that these were based on external categorizations, and were less likely to protest. Mediational analyses showed that because detection was impaired, exposure to positive categorization resulted in lower self‐confidence than exposure to negative categorization. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Images of engineering and liberal arts majors

In an attempt to gain insight into social-psychological barriers that inhibit women from entering engineering, 110 male and 84 female undergraduate students completed a variant of the Semantic Differential questionnaire. Subjects evaluated either male or female liberal arts and engineering majors. While female engineering majors were judged similar to male engineers on work-related traits, they were evaluated as less attractive than their female liberal arts counterparts. In particular, the data revealed reciprocal negative social images held by male engineering students for female engineers and by female engineering students for male engineers.