Three Characters: Narcissist,Borderline and Manic Depressive,by Christopher Bollas,with Sacha Bollas,Phoenix Publishing House Ltd,Bicester, Oxfordshire, 2021, 76 pp

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Stress and dietary practices in adolescents.

Baseline data from the Health and Behavior in Teenagers Study (HABITS) were used to investigate associations between stress and dietary practices in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 4,320 schoolchildren (mean age = 11.83 years). Male (n = 2,578) and female (n = 1,742) pupils completed questionnaire measures of stress and 4 aspects of dietary practice (fatty food intake, fruit and vegetable intake, snacking, and breakfast consumption) and also provided demographic and anthropometric data. Multivariate analyses revealed that greater stress was associated with more fatty food intake, less fruit and vegetable intake, more snacking, and a reduced likelihood of daily breakfast consumption. These effects were independent of individual (gender, weight) and social (socioeconomic status, ethnicity) factors. Stress may contribute to long-term disease risk by steering the diet in a more unhealthy direction.