Childhood depression: Peer reactions to depression and life stress

The present study investigated children's responses to a peer's childhood depression. Younger children in third and fourth grade and older children in fifth and sixth grade were exposed to one of four films. The four films portrayed a female peer who was either depressed or not depressed and who had experienced numerous recent life stresses or no recent life stress. Overall, children rated the depressed peers as less likable and attractive, as engaging in fewer positive current and future behaviors, and as needing therapy more than a nondepressed peer. There was a tendency to rate the depressed peer with high life stress more positively than the depressed peer with low life stress; this tendency decreased with age. Girls rated all of the peers and especially the stressed peers more positively than did the boys. The results are discussed in terms of the implications of children's social interaction for the initiation or maintenance of childhood depression.The authors would like to thank Kelly Merk and Susan Vanderheid for their assistance with this research.     

Gender differences in parent-child conversations about past emotions: A longitudinal investigation

Sex Roles - In this longitudinal investigation, we examined the emotional content of 17 white middle-class parents' conversations about past events with their children at 40 and 70 months of...     

The effects of reducing teacher questions and increasing pauses on child talk during morning news

The effects of reducing teacher questions and increasing pauses on student talk during morning news sessions were investigated. The length of student discourse was observed during random 10-min samples of the lesson, together with frequency counts of teacher questions and pauses. Concomitant measures of teacher praise, directives, control statements and student call-outs were also obtained. Within the constraints of a within-subjects reversal design (ABAB), experimentally reducing teacher questions and replacing these with pauses and/or topic-related statements was associated with an increase in child discourse. Teacher praise and directives did not systematically alter across experimental phases but both teacher control statements and child call-outs reduced during the intervention phases. Reducing teacher questions and increasing the use of pauses by the teacher was associated with increases in student discourse without adversely affecting classroom behavior. These results support the hypothesis that teacher questions foil pupil talk in morning news thereby obstructing the pedagogical value of these sessions.     

Correlates of children's television viewing: Expectancies,age, and sex

The relationship of interpersonal trust and locus of control expectancies to amounts of television viewing and viewing preferences were examined among children in grades five through eight. Age and sex differences in viewing times, preferences, and viewing habits, as well as children's scores on the Children's Interpersonal Trust Scale and the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale were assessed. Several findings suggested that heavy viewing is associated with less trusting perceptions of others and less belief in controlling one's academic successes and failures, although the pattern found does not suggest so specific an effect of viewing television violence as Gerbner's cultivation hypothesis might suggest. Age and sex differences found were largely consistent with those reported in the previous literature.     

Determinants of cognitive outcomes of perinatal and childhood stroke: A review

Our understanding of cognitive and behavioral outcomes of perinatal and childhood stroke is rapidly evolving. A current understanding of cognitive outcomes following pediatric stroke can inform prognosis and direct interventions and our understanding of plasticity in the developing brain. However, our understanding of these outcomes has been hampered by the notable heterogeneity that exists amongst the pediatric stroke population, as the influences of various demographic, cognitive, neurological, etiological, and psychosocial variables preclude broad generalizations about outcomes in any one cognitive domain. We therefore aimed to conduct a detailed overview of the published literature regarding the effects of age at stroke, time since stroke, sex, etiology, lesion characteristics (i.e., location, laterality, volume), neurologic impairment, and seizures on cognitive outcomes following pediatric stroke. A key theme arising from this review is the importance of interactive effects among variables on cognitive outcomes following pediatric stroke. Interactions particularly of note include the following: (a) age at Stroke x Lesion Location; (b) Lesion Characteristics (i.e., volume, location) x Neurologic Impairment; (c) Lesion Volume x Time Since Stroke; (d) Sex x Lesion Laterality; and (e) Seizures x Time Since Stroke. Further, it appears that these relationships do not always apply uniformly across cognitive domains but, rather, are contingent upon the cognitive ability in question. Implications for future research directions are discussed.     

Volunteerism in a Community‐Based Sample of Women Aged 50 to 80 Years1

This paper has 2 purposes: (a) to present the differences in demographic and health characteristics of older women volunteers and nonvolunteers in a community‐based sample; (b) to identify the motivations of current and past volunteers, as contrasted with those who have never volunteered. A population‐based survey was conducted with a sample of 1,104 women aged 50 to 80 years in the state of Washington. Nonvolunteers were less likely to be married and were slightly less likely to be White than were current or past volunteers. Demographic variables (e. g., age) and health status predicted level of reported motivation for volunteering. These data provide us with population‐based estimates of volunteering and motivations for older women.