Patterns and correlates of personal,family, and prior placement variables in an interagency community based system of care

We examined interrelationships among personal, family, and prior service utilization data collected on young people selected to participate in a Chicago suburban area system of care, with a detailed consideration of a subset of 176 White participants aged 9–20 years. Data obtained through a review of archival information and then analyzed included WISC IQ grade retention, medication status, DSM diagnostic group, adjudication, marital status of parents, living situation before selection, maternal employment, public assistance status, family risk status, and placement history. Results showed that IQ and specific DSM diagnostic category were not important correlates of personal, family, or placement variables, although having a DSM diagnosis of any kind was. Family risk factors, including family history of mental illness, substance abuse, criminal conviction, and violence in the family, were related to other family variables, primarily. Adjudication and prescribed medication appeared to have been alternative responses to these young people's problems. A cluster analysis of these system of care participants' placement histories indicated five clusters characterized by varied personal and family correlates, as well as different patterns of placement usage.     

Rites of passage in families with adolescents

In previous generations society defined expectations and constructed events to promote individual development, a functional family organization, and cultural continuity. Culturally defined and accepted rites of passage that were previously observed in families with adolescents have given way to a more vague and meaningless set of adolescent expectations and affirmations. It is proposed that this change has interfered with the mission of the family to promote functional adolescent development and with the ability of the family during this life cycle stage to operate with a sense of community attachment. This paper addresses the importance of rites of passage as they pertain to family development and change and presents ideas about making them explicit in family therapy to change family interaction and structure. Prescribed family rituals that are straightforward, developmentally relevant, and interactional can be effective without consideration to whether they are paradoxical. Three clinical illustrations are presented to highlight this therapeutic approach.     

Time requirements of changes in program and parameter variables in rapid ongoing movements

Two experiments investigated the differences in processing time requirements of two types of modifications of a rapid ongoing movement. In response to a signal presented at either 0, 100, or 200 msec after initiation of a 400-msec horizontal arm movement, subjects attempted to either increase the speed of the movement or to reverse it. EMG modification latencies were shorter in the former condition than in the latter indicating a difference in processing-time requirement between modification types. The results support the generalized motor program hypothesis of Pew (1974) and Schmidt (1976) in that increasing the speed of an ongoing movement may require modification of a parameter variable while reversing movement direction requires the implementation of a new motor program.     

Reading skills of hearing and congenitally deaf children

The present study examined the nature of reading skills in congenitally deaf and hearing children 7–19 years of age. Deaf children were drawn from oralist and total communication programs. A visual detection task was designed to assess the extent of phonological coding and chunking used in reading a story of various degrees of syntactic, semantic, and orthographic complexity. The results provide evidence that (1) like hearing children, deaf children tend to use orthographic regularities in their reading: (2) there is no relation in the deaf child's performance between sensitivity to orthographic regularities and the type of communication method used in training; and (3) hearing and deaf readers use qualitatively similar psycholinguistic strategies in their processing of a story.     

Moral Questions and Amoral Answers: Who Decides?

ABSTRACT Researchers have examined moral thought using selected philosophical standards without showing that such standards represent moral thinking. Recently, we examined the extent to which assumed standards actually organize moral knowledge (Quinn, Houts, & Graesser, this issue). We found dimensions not accounted for by previous theories. In his response (this issue), Shaffer misrepresents the aims of our research, and he overlooks the implications of assessing naturalistic rather than prescribed dimensions of morality.     

An evaluation of auditory feedback for students of dance: Effects of giving and receiving feedback

The purpose of this study was to evaluate auditory feedback for dance students on a competition team in which one peer provided auditory feedback to another peer for a selected dance movement. Some peers switched roles during the study, and increases in their performances were evaluated both as the receiver and deliverer of auditory feedback. All participants demonstrated increases in their respective target behaviors when they received auditory feedback. Several participants also displayed increases in their movements when they provided auditory feedback to their peer partner, although these increases were not as substantial as those who received feedback.     

Sleep and Aging: Challenges and Recommendations for Middle‐Aged and Older Adults

Understanding and alleviating sleep problems for middle‐aged and older adults is addressed through discussion of the following topics: age‐related sleep changes; gender considerations; interactions among sleep, mental health, and physical illness; lifestyle and sleep; and assessment and treatment recommendations.