Soccer referees’ experience of threat and aggression: Effects of age,experience, and life orientation on outcome of coping strategy

The present study examined the circumstances pertaining to threat and aggression during soccer matches as experienced by 107 provincial Soccer Association referees. Three sources of aggression were identified—soccer players, coaches/trainers, and spectators—and the main measures included threat and physical and verbal aggression. Several outcomes, including prematch worry and effects on concentration, performance, and motivation, were affected by the incidence of threat and aggression, and these outcomes were found to be affected by the age, degree of experience, and life orientation of the referees. Younger referees were shown to be the most prone to threat and aggression. Referees with a generally pessimistic orientation experienced less motivation, worse performance, and greater problems coping with aggressive behavior from the spectators compared with referees with a generally optimistic orientation. Aggr. Behav. 28:317–327, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Attachment strategies in Japanese urban middle–class couples: A cultural theme analysis of asymmetry in marital relationships

This study introduces a cultural theme analysis to assess within–culture variation in attachment, with special emphasis on asymmetry in Japanese marital roles. Thirty–nine young urban married Japanese couples were interviewed using a modification of the Adult Attachment Interview. The participants also described their marital experiences, viewed both from their own and from their spouse”s perspective, and the ego resiliency of their child. Husbands” attachment strategies vis–à–vis their parents and their adherence to the marital asymmetry theme conjointly influenced their marital attachment security. The secure husband’s strategy seemed to be enhanced by using his “motherly” wife as a secure base, thereby leading to higher marital attachment security. In contrast, the dismissing husband—when adhering to the marital asymmetry theme—appeared to further intensify deactivating strategies by downplaying the emotional significance of his motherly wife. Thus the marital asymmetry theme appears to have different psychological implications for Japanese husbands, depending on their attachment strategies (secure versus dismissive). Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of adult attachment from a cultural perspective are discussed.     

Maternal ratings of infant regulatory competence from 6 to 12 months: influence of perceived stress, birth-weight, and intervention: a randomized controlled trial

Mothers’ reports of preterm and term infants’ temperament from 6 to 12 months of age were studied, with intervention and stress as predictors. Preterm infants with a birth weight <2000 g were randomized to an intervention (71) or a control (69) group. A control group of healthy term infants (74) was also established. The intervention was a modified version of the “Mother–Infant Transaction Program”, aimed at sensitizing caregivers to the infants’ individual characteristics. Temperament was measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, and stress with the Parenting Stress Index. There were no group differences in temperament at 6 or 12 months or in change during the same period. There was a strong association between stress and negative reactivity in the preterm control group at 12 months. In the preterm intervention group, there were strong negative correlations between stress and regulatory competence at 6 months. The intervention seemed to change the relationship between stress and temperament. The strength of this association indicates that the intervention sensitized mothers to the temperamental regulatory competence of their preterm infants.     

Median decision techniques as an alternative to the classical statistical inference test

In the research area, the criterion to test a hypothesis is frequently the distance of each subject from the mean of the distribution. This concept of distance is constantly used and re-used as a source of evidence in the search for significant contrasts with respect to models of theoretical probability. This paper proposes a number of ideas regarding the use of new distance indicators related to statistics that rely less heavily on parametric assumptions, in particular, the use of median confidence intervals. We have simulated via EXCEL different data samples for a design of two independent groups under 15 different conditions in two different situations: mean equality and mean differences. The results showed the high sensitivity of the comparison of the confidence intervals, especially if a strict decision criterion is used. However, we did not obtain good results for sensitivity. In fact, in some cases, the comparison of the confidence intervals of the mean worked better than those of median.     

Dispositional resistance to change: measurement equivalence and the link to personal values across 17 nations

The concept of dispositional resistance to change has been introduced in a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses through which the validity of the Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale has been established (S. Oreg, 2003). However, the vast majority of participants with whom the scale was validated were from the United States. The purpose of the present work was to examine the meaningfulness of the construct and the validity of the scale across nations. Measurement equivalence analyses of data from 17 countries, representing 13 languages and 4 continents, confirmed the cross-national validity of the scale. Equivalent patterns of relationships between personal values and RTC across samples extend the nomological net of the construct and provide further evidence that dispositional resistance to change holds equivalent meanings across nations.     

What is so frightening about spiders? Self‐rated and self‐disclosed impact of different characteristics and associations with phobia symptoms

Spider phobia is a common and impairing mental disorder, yet little is known about what characteristics of spiders that spider phobic individuals find frightening. Using screening data from a clinical trial, we explored which characteristics that spider‐fearful individuals (n = 194) rated as having the greatest impact on fear, used factor analysis to group specific characteristics, and explored linear associations with self‐reported phobia symptoms. Second, a guided text‐mining approach was used to extract the most common words in free‐text responses to the question: “What is it about spiders that you find frightening?” Both analysis types suggested that movement‐related characteristics of spiders were the most important, followed by appearance characteristics. There were, however, no linear associations with degree of phobia symptoms. Our findings reveal the importance of targeting movement‐related fears in in‐vivo exposure therapy for spider phobia and using realistically animated spider stimuli in computer‐based experimental paradigms and clinical interventions such as Virtual Reality exposure therapy.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the behavior rating inventory of executive function in a neuro-pediatric sample and its application to mental disorders

The construct validity of the 9-scale version of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) parent form was examined in a clinical sample of children and adolescents with neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders (N = 281). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor model separating the inhibitory behavioral control dimension from the emotional control and metacognitive problem-solving dimensions. The Metacognitive factor was also related to a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after controlling for age, gender, IQ, adaptive functioning, and a conventional behavioral rating scale, which included inattention-hyperactivity symptoms. The Emotional Regulation factor was related to a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder. Correlational analyses indicated that child comorbid emotional and behavioral problems may exacerbate parental BRIEF reporting. Accordingly, when assessing executive function among children with neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, the BRIEF should be complemented with assessments of mental health problems.     

Fatigue Impact Scale: Its validation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and shorten the questionnaire. The empirically developed FIS, which comprised three subscales (cognitive, physical and psychosocial), was tested originally on Pipers' theoretical framework of subjective manifestations of fatigue, including behavioural, physical, emotional and cognitive expressions. The data analysed here consisted of responses from 296 patients with COPD who reported fatigue. The dimensionality of the FIS was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. A reduction of 15 items from the original FIS was made based on theory, modification indices and factor loadings. The results indicate that a nested-factor model with one general behavioural factor and three specific factors, physical, emotional and cognitive, shows acceptable fit. A modified version of 25 items, FIS-25 was developed. The original FIS and the FIS-25 were able to discriminate between patients with differing duration of fatigue. Test - retest correlations ranged from .70 to .85 for items and .94 for the total scale. Due to modification, the FIS-25 needs to be validated on a new group of patients with COPD.     

Heroin addicts reporting previous heroin overdoses also report suicide attempts

Nonfatal heroin overdoses and suicide attempts are both common among heroin addicts, but there is limited knowledge about the association between them. The sample in the present study consisted of 149 regular heroin users in Malmö, Sweden. Out of these 98 had taken an unintentional heroin overdose at some time and 51 had made at least one attempt to commit suicide (but not using heroin). Suicide attempts were significantly more common among those who had taken unintentional overdoses as compared with those who had never taken any overdose (p < 0.01). The more overdoses, the greater the risk of suicide attempt.