THE MAGIC OF PLAY: LOW‐INCOME MOTHERS’ AND FATHERS’ PLAYFULNESS AND CHILDREN'S EMOTION REGULATION AND VOCABULARY SKILLS

Using data from a diverse sample of low‐income families who participated in the Early Head Start Research Evaluation Project (n = 73), we explored the association between mothers’ and fathers’ playfulness with toddlers, toddler's affect during play, and children's language and emotion regulation at prekindergarten. There were two main findings. First, fathers’ playfulness in toddlerhood was associated with children's vocabulary skills in prekindergarten whereas mothers’ playfulness was related to children's emotion regulation. Cross‐parental effects were found only for mothers. The association between mothers’ playfulness and children's vocabulary and emotion regulation was strengthened when fathers engaged in more pretend play and when children were affectively positive during the play. These findings show that playfulness is an important source of variation in the vocabulary and emotion regulation of children growing up in low‐income families. They also point to domain‐specific ways that mothers and fathers promote children's regulatory and vocabulary skills, and highlight the importance of children's positive engagement in play.     

An imputed dissociation might be an artifact: Further evidence for the generalizability of the observations of Durgin et al. 2010

We recently showed that palm board measures are systematically inaccurate for full-cue surfaces within reach of one's hand, whereas free-hand gestures and reaching actions are quite accurate for such surfaces (Durgin, Hajnal, Li, Tonge, & Stigliani, 2010). Proffitt and Zadra (2010) claim that our demonstration that palm boards are highly inaccurate is irrelevant to interpreting past and present findings concerning dissociations between verbal reports and palm board estimates. In their paper they offer a theoretical representation of the findings of Bhalla and Proffitt (1999) and argue that our analysis is incompatible with their account. We offer here an alternative account of the findings of Bhalla and Proffitt, based on their actual data (which are fully compatible with our original analysis). We further show how our account generalizes to more recent studies that continue (1) to mistakenly describe null statistical effects on (insensitive) palm boards as evidence of a “dissociation” from (more sensitive) verbal measures that show a similar relative magnitude of change and (2) to introduce uncontrolled demand characteristics.     

Use of factor mixture modeling to capture Spearman's law of diminishing returns

Spearman's law of diminishing returns (SLODR) posits that at higher levels of general cognitive ability the general factor (g) performs less well in explaining individual differences in cognitive test performance. Research has generally supported SLODR, but previous research has required the a priori division of respondents into separate ability or IQ groups. The present study sought to obviate this limitation through the use of factor mixture modeling to investigate SLODR in the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (KABC-II). A second-order confirmatory factor model was modeled as a within-class factor structure. The fit and parameter estimates of several models with varying number of classes and factorial invariance restrictions were compared. Given SLODR, a predictable pattern of findings should emerge when factor mixture modeling is applied. Our results were consistent with these SLODR-based predictions, most notably the g factor variance was less in higher g mean classes. Use of factor mixture modeling was found to provide support for SLODR while improving the model used to investigate SLODR.     

Physical growth delays and stress dysregulation in stunted and non-stunted Ukrainian institution-reared children

To study the effect of institutional rearing on physical growth and stress regulation we examined 16 institution-reared children (3–6 years old) in Ukraine and compared them with 18 native family-reared children pair-matched on age and gender. Physical growth trajectories were examined on the basis of archival medical records and current measurements of height, weight, and head circumference. Stress regulation was studied on the basis of diurnal salivary cortisol sampled six times during 1 day. 31% of institution-reared children were stunted at 48 months whereas none of the family-reared children were. Substantial delays in physical growth were observed in institution-reared children especially during the first year of life. From 24 months onwards a tendency for improvement in physical growth was evident among the temporarily stunted institution-reared children, with complete catch-up in weight and partial catch-up in height by the time of assessment. Chronically stunted institution-reared children demonstrated persistent severe growth delays. Institution-reared and family-reared children showed similar patterns of diurnal cortisol production with decreases over the day. However, temporarily stunted institution-reared children had a significantly higher total daily cortisol production than both chronically stunted institution-reared children and family-reared children. These data confirm previous findings regarding physical growth delays and stress dysregulation associated with institutional care, but also point to differences in cortisol production between stunted and non-stunted institution-reared children.     

Assessing risk of reoffending in adolescents who have committed a sexual offense: the accuracy of clinical judgments after completion of risk assessment instruments

As courts often rely on clinicians when differentiating between sexually abusive youth at a low versus high risk of reoffense, understanding factors that contribute to accuracy in assessment of risk is imperative. The present study built on existing research by examining (1) the accuracy of clinical judgments of risk made after completing risk assessment instruments, (2) whether instrument-informed clinical judgments made with a high degree of confidence are associated with greater accuracy, and (3) the risk assessment instruments and subscales most predictive of clinical judgments. Raters assessed each youth's (n = 166) risk of reoffending after completing the SAVRY and J-SOAP-II. Raters were not able to predict detected cases of either sexual recidivism or nonsexual violent recidivism above chance, and a high degree of rater confidence was not associated with higher levels of accuracy. Total scores on the J-SOAP-II were predictive of instrument-informed clinical judgments of sexual risk, and total scores on the SAVRY of nonsexual risk.     

Bayes nets and babies: infants' developing statistical reasoning abilities and their representation of causal knowledge

A fundamental assumption of the causal graphical model framework is the Markov assumption, which posits that learners can discriminate between two events that are dependent because of a direct causal relation between them and two events that are independent conditional on the value of another event(s). Sobel and Kirkham (2006) demonstrated that 8-month-old infants registered conditional independence information among a sequence of events; infants responded according to the Markov assumption in such a way that was inconsistent with models that rely on simple calculations of associative strength. The present experiment extends these findings to younger infants, and demonstrates that such responses potentially develop during the second half of the first year of life. These data are discussed in terms of a developmental trajectory between associative mechanisms and causal graphical models as representations of infants' causal and statistical learning.     

Neighborhood Risk, Parental Supervision and the Onset of Substance Use among African American Adolescents

The consequences of the early onset of substance use on later outcomes are a public health concern. In the present study, we examined neighborhood risk factors as a possible predictor of the onset of substance use in adolescents. In addition, we assessed the potential buffering effects of parental supervision on the relationship between neighborhood risk and the onset of substance use. The participants included 95, abstinent, African American 6th graders (mean age = 11.5 years) who enrolled in one site of a national, multi-site study of high-risk youth participating in a federally sponsored program. In the 6th and 8th grades, the participants completed self-report measures regarding substance use, perceived negative neighborhood activities and parental supervision. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that both exposure to negative neighborhood activities and low parental supervision increase the onset of substance use by the 8th grade among African American adolescents. However, the results suggested that parents can protect their adolescents from the impact of exposure to adverse neighborhood factors by providing appropriate supervision.     

Seeking the source of emotional Stroop interference effects in PTSD: A study of P3s to traumatic words

We investigated the source of emotional Stroop interference effects in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by measuring reaction times and P3 latencies and amplitudes to personal traumatic, personal positive, and neutral words in a modified Stroop paradigm. Individuals with PTSD were slower to indicate word color, especially for traumatic words, thereby replicating emotional Stroop interference in PTSD. Individuals with PTSD also had significantly reduced and delayed P3 components across word types. Across diagnostic groups, frontal P3 amplitudes were larger to personal positive and traumatic words compared to standard neutral words. However, the absence of Diagnosis x Word Type interactions for P3 measures suggests that individuals with PTSD do not differ from individuals without PTSD in the encoding and recognition of the color of traumatic relative to nontraumatic words, and that Stroop interference does not occur during these early stages of processing.     

Parental Absence and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Social Support,Social Constraints and Sense-Making

Given the rise of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in youth, it is imperative to address understudied correlates that may contribute to NSSI. The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate NSSI in college students (N?=?1703) with or without a history of parental absence. We also examined the relationships between parental absence, interpersonal (i.e., support and social constraint) factors, intrapersonal (i.e., sense-making) factors, and NSSI in our sample of primarily Caucasian/White, heterosexual, single, traditional-aged, female college students. Logistic regression indicated that the odds of reporting NSSI were 5 times higher for participants who had experienced permanent parental absence (e.g., death) compared to those who had not experienced absence. The odds of reporting NSSI were 8.5 and 7.5 times higher for those respondents who had experienced non-permanent parental absence (e.g., parental travel) and both types of parental absence, respectively, when compared to those who experienced permanent parental absence. Social support, social constraint, and sense-making made significant but small contributions to the prediction of NSSI endorsement. Participants who reported experiencing both permanent and non-permanent absence exhibited the highest level (p?<?.001, η²?=?.09) of interpersonal reasons (e.g., to hurt someone) for engaging in NSSI. These findings can serve as a catalyst for future NSSI research (e.g., the potential importance of including parental absence as a background variable). Moreover, the results suggest the possible benefit of continued examination of: (a) the relationship between experiencing both types of parental absence and engagement in NSSI for interpersonal reasons; and (b) social support, sense-making, and social constraint as contributing factors of NSSI endorsement.