Time-out with children

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to determine the effect of an explanation prior to or after time-out on child compliance and on child disruptive behavior during time-out and (b) to determine the effect of brief parent training in time-out on child and parent behaviors. Thirty-two mother—child pairs served as subjects and were assigned to one of the following four groups: control, time-out only, explanation prior to time-out, or explanation following time-out. Each mother—child pair was observed for one session under pretraining, training, and posttraining conditions. The results indicated that time-out significantly increased compliance but the addition of an explanation did not further alter the effectiveness of time-out. Training in the use of time-out decreased the incidence of maternal interruptions but did not affect maternal responses that were not trained. Finally, following brief time-out training for noncompliance, the mothers used the procedure only 50% of the time following noncompliance.This study was supported in part by a University of Georgia Research Council grant.     

Informational analysis of imitation: Further comments

An informational analysis of imitation as proposed by Liebert and Fernandez (1970a) is examined. Based on the Liebert and Fernandez data and statistical procedures, as well as inconsistent findings in other studies in the area, at least certain components of the informational heuristic would appear to have serious limitations. In particular, the proposal that both vicarious reward and punishment, relative to no vicarious consequences, will increase recall of the model's acts is questioned.     

The association between social withdrawal and internalizing problems of children

Children identified as low-frequency interactors or socially withdrawn were compared to outgoing children to evaluate whether socially withdrawn children display concurrent internalizing problems. From a sample of 640 children in grades 2-5, 48 children were identified by teachers as low-frequency interactors and 72 children were selected as outgoing or sociable. When these two groups were compared on a battery of teacher, peer, and self-report measures that assessed internalizing difficulties, the low-frequency interactors were found to display concurrent problems in adjustment. Children who rarely interacted with peers were less well liked by their peers, displayed poorer self-concepts, and were more depressed and anxious than sociable children. In contrast to these findings regarding internalizing problems, the two groups did not differ on measures of externalizing problems. The results lend support to the concurrent validity of the low-interaction method of identifying socially withdrawn children.     

Attitude change as a function of threat to attitudinal freedom and extent of agreement with a communicator

Subjects who previously expressed either partial or full agreement with an attitudinal position were exposed to a low- or high-threat essay advocating the position. Anonymous post-communication measures of opinion indicated a reactance effect (negative attitude change) only for subjects who (1) read the hrgh-threat essay, and (2) previously expressed complete agreement with the communicator. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Cumulative Risk Across Family Stressors: Short- and Long-Term Effects for Adolescents

This study examined the relationship between number of family risk factors during adolescence and three areas of psychosocial adjustment (internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and academic achievement) in adolescence and 6 years later in young adulthood. Risk factors examined included parental divorce, interparental conflict, maternal physical health problems, maternal depressive mood, and mother-adolescent relationship difficulties. The findings indicated both concurrent and long-term associations between number of family risk factors and psychosocial adjustment; however, the results differed based on area of adjustment examined and whether concurrent or longitudinal data were considered. Furthermore, a steep increase in adjustment difficulties occurred when number of risk factors increased from three to four. The results are discussed in the framework of four hypotheses which were tested, and clinical implications are delineated.     

Predicting interpersonal competence in young adulthood: The roles of family,self, and peer systems during adolescence

The present investigation examines the impact of family, self, and peer systems, evaluated during early adolescence, on the development of interpersonal competence in young adulthood. The participants were 110 Caucasian individuals, their mothers, and one of their teachers. At the first assessment, the participants ranged in age from 11.5 to 15.1 years old. Approximately six years later, the participants completed a second evaluation involving assessment of interpersonal competence. Increased interparental conflict and parental divorce predicted decreased self-esteem. Decreased self-esteem predicted poorer peer-adolescent relationships, which, in turn, forecasted poorer adult interpersonal competence. The results suggest that living in a distressed family leads to diminished self-esteem which can influence the quality of peer relationships and place an adolescent on a trejectory toward difficulties in interpersonal competence during adulthood.     

The relationship of young adolescent Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) scores to their social and cognitive functioning

The relationship of young adolescents' scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) to subjective and objective indices of their social and cognitive functioning was examined. Subjects were 89 young adolescents (11–15 years old), their parents, and their social studies teachers. The correlations of adolescents' CDI scores with recent school grades, objective ratings of overt social behavior, and measures of adolescent social and cognitive competence as perceived by the adolescent, both parents, and the teacher were examined. CDI scores were significantly and negatively correlated with school grades, behavioral ratings of positive social communication, and adolescent, mother, father, and teacher perceptions of the adolescents' social and cognitive competence. The relationship of these findings to those of other CDI validity studies is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Avoidant control difficulty and aversive incentive appraisals: Additional evidence of an energization effect

There is evidence that certain physiological and subjective indices of stress are relatively great when control over aversive outcomes is moderately difficult and relatively reduced when control over such outcomes is either easy or impossible. A possible explanation is suggested by Brehm's recent theory of motivation, which asserts that energy mobilization and the perceived unpleasantness of an aversive event will (a) increase with the difficulty of avoidant behavior so long as avoidance is believed to be possible and worthwhile, and (b) be low when avoidant behavior is impossible, not worthwhile, or simply unavailable. This article reports two experiments that examined appraisals of an aversive incentive under conditions where avoidance was expected to be easy, difficult, and impossible. The first demonstrated the complete nonmonotonic pattern of appraisals predicted by the energization theory, something that has proved elusive in previous investigations. The second study demonstrated this as well and, in addition, showed a correspondence between subjects' incentive appraisals and their cardiovascular responses immediately before and during an avoidance task period. Implications and alternative interpretations are discussed.This research was supported in part by a Faculty Research Award from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.     

Historical overview of child discipline in the United States: Implications for mental health clinicians and researchers

Discipline of children is a major topic of concern in our society. This paper places discipline in a historical perspective by briefly tracing disciplinary practices from the 1600s to the present day in the United States. Four primary trends are then delineated. These include the following: movement from strict discipline to lax discipline to mixed messages concerning discipline; determinants of discipline changing from Puritan religious beliefs to experts in fields such as psychology; the increasing role of legislative efforts focusing on children's rights; and the changing role of fathers in childrearing in general and discipline in particular. Viewed against such a historical account, implications for mental health professionals in shaping disciplinary practices are offered. These include generating data to provide needed answers and assuming an active role in setting policy.