Children's Adjustment in a Climate of Political Violence: Comparing Mother and Child Reports

There is a dearth of research on parent and child reports regarding a parent’s parenting and its contribution to a child’s adjustment. Therefore, the current study examined: (a) the differences between mother and child reports of aspects of maternal parenting (i.e., care and control), among both boys and girls; (b) which parenting report (i.e., mother’s or child’s) makes a stronger contribution to mother and child reports of the child’s adjustment in the context of political violence. One hundred and twenty-one mother-child dyads (children aged seven to 12 years old (M?=?10.02, SD?=?1.03)), who were exposed to prolonged political violence, participated in this study. Maternal care and control were assessed by mother and child reports on the Parental Bonding Instrument. Child’s adjustment was assessed both by mother’s report of child’s total difficulties and child’s self-report of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Results revealed that both the mothers of girls and the girls themselves reported higher care, in comparison to mothers of boys and the boys themselves, while mothers of boys and the boys themselves reported higher control. Higher maternal control, as reported by the child, was associated with the child’s self-reported PTSS. Higher maternal control, as reported by the mother, was associated with the child’s total difficulties, as reported by the mother. However, maternal care, whether reported by mother or child, was not found to be associated with the child’s adjustment. School-aged children and their mothers were in agreement regarding maternal dimensions and their contribution to children’s adjustment.     

Spatial behavior: the impact of global and local geometry

Humans and other animals use the global geometry of the surrounding environment in order to orient and determine which direction they are facing. Accordingly, the impact of environment geometry on spatial behavior is reflected in the paths of progression in the environment. When the perception of the global geometry is limited, such as in large or dark environments, the global geometry of the environment has to be constructed gradually as the accumulated geometry of locales. In the present study, we progressively altered the form of a dark square test arena by means of local alterations to its corners and walls, in order to differentiate the impact of the global arena geometry from that of the local arena geometry sectors on spatial behavior in rats. We found that as long as the local alterations did not distort the global square geometry of the dark environment, the rats’ behavior did not significantly change. In contrast, distortion of the square shape of the arena resulted in significant changes in the spatial distribution of the rats’ activity. Accordingly, we suggest that the perceived global geometry affects spatial behavior, overriding the impact of the local geometry.     

Linguistic Markers and Emotional Intensity

The purpose of this experiment is to explore possible relationships between the intensity of emotions and the lexical modalities for expressing those emotions. In this experiment, 60 Hebrew-speaking subjects were asked to watch four short films that aroused emotion. Two of the films gave rise to different degrees of happiness, and two produced sadness. At the end of each film, subjects were asked to report on their emotions. This experiment was based on the supposition that there is a relationship between the various lexical modalities used by the subjects when writing about their emotions and the intensity of those emotions. The lexical modalities examined included intensifiers, the use of emotion words, repetitions, the use of first person singular, the use of metaphors, and the use of exclamations, among others. This experiment supported the research hypothesis, as it confirmed that significant differences existed between the lexical modalities found in texts written with lower emotional intensity (for both happiness and sadness) and those written with greater emotional intensity.     

Developmental changes in assigning agent relations in Hebrew: The interaction between word order and structural cues

Developmental changes in the interaction between word order and structural cues was investigated by having Hebrew-speaking children between 4 and 10 years of age interpret NVN utterances that balanced the complementary and contradictory effects of work order and two types of morphological cues, inflections that mark subject-verb gender agreement and an object particle. In Hebrew, gender inflections are highly complex and irregular while the object particle is highly regular and distinctive. Both word order and structural cues affected interpretations by subjects of all age groups, though the role of structural cues increased with age. For all groups, the objec particle was a dominant cue. The likelihood of assigning the agent relation to the first or second noun systematically varied with the relative weights of cues that supported and opposed each assignment. Comparisons were made between processing of Hebrew and processing of Serbo-Croatian and Turkish.     

Orthographic and phonological computation in visual word recognition: Evidence from backward masking in Hebrew

We employed the backward masking paradigm to map the early computation involved in the perception of printed words in Hebrew. By independently manipulating orthographic and phonological overlap between targets and masks, we examined whether orthographic and phonological structure imposes late or early constraints on lexical access. The results demonstrated that the probability of reinstating a masked target depended on both the orthographic and the phonological overlap between the target and the mask. However, whereas phonemic structure seems to constrain lexical access only at short exposure durations, orthographic overlap also exerts its influence at longer durations.     

Using aspiration levels in an interior primal-dual multiobjective linear programming algorithm

We introduce in this paper a new multiple-objective linear programming (MOLP) algorithm. The algorithm is based on the single-objective path-following primal—dual linear programming algorithm and combines it with aspiration levels and the use of achievement scalarizing functions. The resulting algorithm falls in the class of interactive MOLP algorithms, as it requires interaction with the decision maker (DM) during the iterative process to obtain statements of aspirations for levels of objectives of the MOLP problem. The interior point algorithm is then used to trace a path of interates from a current (interior) solution and approach as closely as desired a non-dominated solution corresponding to the optimum of the achievement scalarizing function. The timing of the interaction with the DM is dependent on the progress of the interior algorithm. It can take place every few, pre-specified, iterations or after the duality gap achieved for the stated aspirations has fallen below a certain threshold. It is expected that an interior algorithm will speed up the overall process of searching and finding the most preferred MOLP solution—especially in large-scale problems—by avoiding the need for numerous pivot operations and their corresponding interactive sessions inherent in simplex-based algorithms.     

Parental beliefs and practices concerning motor development: Testing new tools

The parental beliefs on motor development (PB-MD) and the motor habits (MOHAB) questionnaires are new instruments measuring parental beliefs, practices, infant MOHAB, and environmental features regarding motor development. Psychometric properties of these questionnaires were tested using data of parents of 268 Dutch and Israeli infants aged 1-to-8-months. Face- and convergent validity of both questionnaires, as well as internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the PB-MD were satisfactory. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors in the PB-MD. Altogether, both questionnaires are valid, reliable and culturally sensitive instruments potentially useful for research and clinical practice.     

Mothering under political violence: Post-traumatic symptoms,observed maternal parenting practices and child externalising behaviour

Using the family stress model as our conceptual framework, we explored whether observed maternal parenting practices (positive and coercive) account for the associations between mothers' post-traumatic stress symptoms and children's externalising behaviours. Mothers' self-reported post-traumatic stress symptoms, observed maternal practices, and reports of children's externalising behaviour were collected from 123 Israeli mothers and their children, who were exposed to ongoing rocket attacks in southern Israel. A structural equation model revealed that mothers' post-traumatic stress symptoms were linked with greater maternal coercive parenting practices, which in turn were associated with more externalising behaviours in children. The study highlights the crucial role of maternal distress and mothers' parenting skills in the development of externalising behaviours in children exposed to chronic political violence. These results suggest that prevention interventions designed to promote parenting skills for mothers exposed to political violence may be beneficial for children's healthy development.     

Testing a Military Family Stress Model

The current study examines a military family stress model, evaluating associations between deployment‐related stressors (i.e., deployment length/number, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptoms) and parent, child, parenting, and dyadic adjustment among families in which a parent had previously deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in the recent conflicts. Married families (N = 293) with at least one child between the ages of 4 and 12 were recruited from a Midwestern state. Service members were from the Reserve Component (National Guard or Reserves); fathers (N = 253) and/or mothers had deployed (N = 45) to the recent conflicts in the Middle East. Multiple‐method (observations of parenting and couple interactions; questionnaires) and multiple informant measures were gathered online and in the homes of participants, from parents, children, and teachers. Findings demonstrated associations between mothers’ and fathers’ PTSD symptoms and a latent variable of child adjustment comprising teacher, parent, and child report. Mothers’ but not fathers’ PTSD symptoms were also associated with dyadic adjustment and parenting practices; parenting practices were in turn associated with child adjustment. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for military family stress research and interventions to support and strengthen parents and families after deployment.