A parent-administered program to reduce children's television viewing

A parent-administered program to reduce television viewing of primary school-aged children was tested on two boys and three girls from three different families who were heavy viewers of television. Children were given 20 unearned tokens each week by their parents, which they could exchange for up to 10 hours of viewing time. The child earned a gold token for viewing in accordance with the rules for 4 consecutive weeks, which was exchanged for a reward. Parents were given instructions to follow the program independently. Data on hours of television viewing, homework, and reading were recorded each day by one or both parents. A multiple-baseline analysis of the effects of the TV reduction program indicated that children reduced their baseline television viewing by more than half once the program was implemented, and continued to maintain these changes 6 months and 1 year after the program was discontinued. Reading time increased for all children whereas effects on homework varied across children. The results support the effectiveness of a parent-administered program for nonbehavior problem children who watch excessive amounts of television.     

Successful emotion regulation requires both conviction and skill: beliefs about the controllability of emotions,reappraisal, and regulation success

To succeed in self-regulation, people need to believe that it is possible to change behaviour and they also need to use effective means to enable such a change. We propose that this also applies to emotion regulation. In two studies, we found that people were most successful in emotion regulation, the more they believed emotions can be controlled and the more they used an effective emotion regulation strategy – namely, cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal moderated the link between beliefs about the controllability of emotion and success in emotion regulation, when reappraisal was measured as a trait (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2). Such moderation was found when examining the regulation of disgust elicited by emotion-inducing films (Study 1), and the regulation of anger elicited by real political events (Study 2). We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice in emotion regulation.     

The Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale and Well-Being: Demographic Comparisons and Scale Validation with Older Jewish Adults and a Diverse Internet Sample

A substantive literature connects spirituality to positive physical, social, and mental health. In this study, the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) was administered to 410 subjects who participated in a community study and to 87 residents at the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale (HHAR), the latter sample consisting primarily of older Jewish respondents. Internal consistency of the DSES in both samples was high and exploratory factor analyses revealed one dominant factor and a second factor, which included 14 and 2 items, respectively, consistent with the scale’s original validation (Underwood and Teresi 2002). Demographic subgroup comparison among religious groups revealed significantly fewer daily spiritual experiences among Jews, and lowest scores among those respondents endorsing no religious affiliation. Women exhibited more frequent daily experience than men, and attainment of higher levels of education was associated with less frequent daily spiritual experience. All but one of the outcome measures of physical and psychologic well-being were found to be positively associated with the DSES so that more frequent daily spiritual experience correlated with less psychopathology, more close friendships, and better self-rated health. Directions for future research, study interpretation and limitations, and clinical implications for use of the DSES are discussed.     

Vulnerability to loneliness among fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder: The role of interpersonal and familial resources

Fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might be at increased risk of becoming lonely. In the current study, we explored the differences in loneliness between fathers of children with and without ASD and identified interpersonal and familial resources (social support, family cohesion, and family adaptability) that might be related to levels of loneliness. Using a cross-sectional design, 348 fathers (of 114 children with ASD and 234 without) completed a series of questionnaires. Fathers of children with ASD reported higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of social support and family cohesion. A moderated mediation model indicated that the interaction between social support and family cohesion mediated the association between ASD group (i.e., ASD vs. non-ASD) and fathers' loneliness. Findings suggest the importance of interpersonal and familial resources (e.g., perceived social support and family cohesion) for family members at risk of loneliness.     

(Re)imagining Literacy and Teacher Preparation Through Collaboration

This article reports the outcomes of the first 3 years of an ongoing participatory action research (PAR) project that brought together literacy and content-area teacher educators. The purpose of our collaboration was two-fold: (a) to develop shared understandings or theories related to literacy and the place of literacy instruction in content-area classrooms, and (b) to make changes to our work with preservice teachers in order to prepare them to support adolescents’ content learning and discipline-specific literacy development. The findings reveal that the collaborative activities allowed participants to embrace broad notions of text and literacy that are useful in making sense of disciplinary aims and pedagogy. Furthermore, as teacher educators came to shift their thinking about literacy and disciplinary learning and teaching, their work with preservice teachers changed. Implications for future collaborative activities to promote content-area literacy are discussed.     

Effects of Solution Elicitation Aids and Need for Cognition on the Generation of Solutions to Ill-Structured Problems

Numerous techniques have been proposed to assist problem solvers in the solution generation process. We empirically examined the effectiveness of a solution elicitation technique based on the presentation of problem objectives and also examined whether the technique was effective across individual differences in need for cognition (NC). We found that when two conflicting objectives were presented successively, more solutions, more categories of solutions, and more effective solutions were generated than when the same two objectives were presented simultaneously or not at all. However, the results indicated that effective solutions may be more efficiently generated by considering objectives simultaneously. Need for cognition was positively related to measures of divergent thinking, and the presentation of objectives was particularly effective as a solution elicitation aid for individuals with low NC. Implications for creative problem-solving research and practice are discussed.     

Perceived parenting style, self-esteem and psychological distress in adolescents with heart disease

The aim of the study was to assess the relationships between perceived parenting style, depressed mood, anxiety and self-esteem in adolescents with heart disease compared with healthy adolescents. Forty-five adolescents, aged 12-18 with congenital or acquired heart disease and 50 healthy age-matched adolescents answered perceived parental behaviour, self-esteem, depressed mood and anxiety questionnaires. The study group reported higher perceived acceptance and lower perceived parental control than healthy adolescents, but similar levels of depressed mood, anxiety and self-esteem. Fischer's r-to-z transformation and regression analyses showed different associations between perceived parenting style and depressed mood, anxiety and self esteem. In the study group, higher perceived parental acceptance was associated with lower depressed mood and higher self-esteem, whereas these associations were not significant in the control group. In the control, but not the study group, higher perceived parental control was associated with lower depressed mood and lower anxiety. Parenting style proved to exert a differential effect on adolescents with and without heart disease. For the former, perceived parental acceptance had a more substantial effect on psychological well-being than perceived parental control. Professionals caring for these adolescents should be aware of the special importance of parenting style on the well-being of adolescents with heart disease, and address this issue in the clinical setting with the patients and their parents.     

Self-reported leadership experiences in relation to inventoried social and emotional intelligence

Leadership has both social and emotional components. Social intelligence appears to tap the social component found in leadership. Recently, emotional intelligence has surfaced as a stable individual difference variable and appears to tap the emotional component of leadership. Mayer and Salovey (1993) suggested that the emotional intelligence and social intelligence constructs overlap. This study examined the power of both emotional and social intelligence to account for variance in self-reported leadership experiences. One hundred ninety-two university students completed measures of social and emotional intelligence and a measure of leadership experiences. Regression analyses showed that both social intelligence and emotional intelligence accounted for variance in leadership experiences. Although emotional intelligence was found to account for variance in leadership, it did not add unique variance beyond social intelligence. Social intelligence appears to play a principal role in leadership.     

The effect of age-at-testing on verbal memory among children following severe traumatic brain injury

Memory deficits are a common sequelae following childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI), which often have serious implications on age-related academic skills. The current study examined verbal memory performance using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) in a pediatric TBI sample. Verbal memory abilities as well as the effect of age at-testing on performance were examined. A sample of 67 children following severe TBI (age average = 12.3 ± 2.74) and 67 matched controls were evaluated using the RAVLT. Age effect at assessment was examined using two age groups: above and below 12 years of age during evaluation. Differences between groups were examined via the 9 RAVLT learning trials and the 7 composite scores conducted out of them. Children following TBI recalled significantly less words than controls on all RAVLT trials and had significantly lower scores on all composite scores. However, all of these scores fell within the low average range. Further analysis revealed significantly lower than average performance among the older children (above 12 years), while scores of the younger children following TBI fell within average limits. To conclude, verbal memory deficits among children following severe TBI demonstrate an age-at-testing effect with more prominent problems occurring above 12 years at the time of evaluation. Yet, age-appropriate performance among children below 12 years of age may not accurately describe memory abilities at younger ages following TBI. It is therefore recommended that clinicians address child’s age at testing and avoid using a single test as an indicator of verbal memory functioning post TBI.