TEAM SPORTS ACHIEVEMENT AND SELF-ESTEEM DEVELOPMENT AMONG URBAN ADOLESCENT GIRLS

In this study we investigate the contribution of achievement in team sports to adolescent girls' self-esteem development. Adolescent girls ( N = 247) from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds were surveyed as part of a larger study investigating the development of poor urban youth. Participants responded to items tapping global self-esteem, team sports achievement, and athletic self-evaluations. The results of hierarchical regression analyses indicate that girls' team sports achievement experiences in early adolescence are positively associated with self-esteem in middle adolescence. This relationship is partially mediated by team sports self-evaluations. Applications of these findings to the development of interventions designed to enhance the self-esteem of young women and girls are discussed.     

Promise is debt, threat another matter: the effect of credibility on the interpretation of conditional promises and threats.

Evidence from reasoning tasks shows that promises and threats both tend to receive biconditional interpretations. They also both display high speaker control. On the face of it, the only difference seems to be the positive or negative signing of the consequent. In a promise, the speaker tries to persuade the hearer to do something by holding out the prospect of a particular reward; in a threat, the speaker tries to refrain the hearer from doing something by holding out the prospect of a particular punishment. This paper investigates the respects in which conditional promises and threats differ further by means of an inference task. The credibility of the consequent was manipulated in order to examine whether the acceptability ratings of inferences based on promises and on threats would be equally affected. The results of the inference task and an analysis of the reasons people give for their answers suggest that the credibility of promises is less affected by the use of excessive consequents than the credibility of threats. In other words, promise remains debt, whereas threat is another matter.     

Assessing the impact of stressful incidents in organizations: the development of an extended impact of events scale

Employers are becoming increasingly aware of the risks to employee wellbeing associated with the traumatic incidents that occur in the workplace. Despite this increased organizational awareness of the need to protect employees from the damaging effects of traumatic events, there has been little provision to help organizations to evaluate their management systems and post trauma interventions. This problem of a lack of evaluation has become more important as a growing body of evidence has provided evidence that suggests that trauma debriefing, the widely used approach to traumatic stress may be ineffective or damaging. The problem for an organization is to have a means of assessing the impact of a traumatic incident on exposed employees soon after the event and at regular intervals as a way of tracking the effectiveness of the treatment and rehabilitation programme. This paper examines the development and validation of a traumatic stress questionnaire designed to be used by trained practitioners working with traumatized employees. The extended impact of events scale (IES-E), took the 15 items from the impact of events scale (IES) and added eight new items which had been chosen on the basis of existing theory and clinical experience to represent the traumatic stress symptom of hyperarousal. Two studies are reported which examine the structure and reliability, and then the discriminant validity of the extended scale when used with a working population. The first study involved a factor analysis of the IES-E items using data collected from 105 subjects who had formally reported exposure to stressful work events to their employing organization. The second study then used the IES-E to compare employees self-reporting of the impact of either a major positive or a major negative life event. The results of the first study confirmed the presence of the re-experience and avoidance symptoms as a response to a traumatic event (as in the IES) but, in addition, identified a new factor, arousal and a new measurement model based on a single general factor. The reliability coefficients for all three scales and the general factor were found to be good. The second study showed that IES-E scores on re-experience, avoidance, arousal and the general factor could be used to discriminate between the subjects reporting major positive and negative life events. Two measurement models can therefore describe the impact of stressful events, the first based on three orthogonal factors, and the second based on a single general factor. The theoretical implications of these findings are explored.     

Affect expression in prenatally psychotropic exposed and nonexposed mother–infant dyads

This prospective study examined infant, maternal, and dyadic affective profiles at three months postpartum in infant–mother dyads that were exposed to psychotropic medications in utero compared with nonexposed control dyads. Control dyads of nondepressed mothers and their infants showed many similarities in affect expression with mother–infant dyads who were exposed to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) alone for treatment of maternal depression. In contrast, mothers who received SSRIs and Rivotril (Benzodiazepine derivative) for treatment of depression and anxiety expressed both positive and negative affect towards their infants. Clinical implications regarding use of psychotropic medications such as SSRIs alone or in combination with other drugs for treatment of maternal anxiety and depression during pregnancy are discussed. Clinicians should be aware of the possible differential response in maternal–infant interaction in a mixed diagnosis group (i.e., depression and anxiety) regarding infant temperament, possibly suggesting latent behavioral teratogenicity with psychotropics. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Is Effective for the Treatment of Suicidal Behavior: A Meta-Analysis

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) prioritizes suicidal behavior and other self-directed violence as the primary treatment targets, and has been demonstrated to reduce self-directed violence in clinical trials. This paper synthesizes findings from controlled trials that assessed self-directed violence and suicidality, including suicide attempts, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicidal ideation, and accessing psychiatric crisis services. Eighteen controlled trials of DBT were identified. Random effects meta-analyses demonstrated that DBT reduced self-directed violence (d = -.324, 95% CI = -.471 to -.176), and reduced frequency of psychiatric crisis services (d = -.379, 95% CI = -.581 to -.176). There was not a significant pooled effect of DBT with regard to suicidal ideation (d = -.229, 95% CI = -.473 to .016). Our findings may reflect the prioritization of behavior over thoughts within DBT, and offer implications for clinical practice and future research concerning the implementation of DBT for acute suicidality.     

Interchangeability of Results From Computerized and Traditional Administration of the BIDR: Convenience Can Match Reality

Although interchangeability of results across computer and paper modes of administration is commonly assumed, recent meta-analyses and individual studies continue to reveal mean differences in scores for measures of socially desirable responding (SDR). Results from these studies have also failed to include new methods of scoring and crucial aspects of scaling, reliability, validity, and administration emphasized in professional standards for assessment that are essential in establishing equivalence. We addressed these shortcomings in a comprehensive, repeated measures investigation for 6 ways of scoring the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR), one of the most frequently administered companion measures of SDR in research and practice. Results for many previously unexamined, standards-driven aspects of scaling, reliability, and validity strongly supported the interchangeability of scores across modes of administration. Computer questionnaires also took considerably less time to complete and were overwhelmingly favored by respondents in relation to physical characteristics of the measures, appraisals of the the assessment experience, and perceived quality of information obtained. Collectively, these results highlight the importance of following professional standards when constructing and administering computerized assessments and the evolution of computer technology in providing viable, effective, and accepted platforms for administering and scoring the BIDR in numerous ways.     

Lead exposure and child maltreatment as models for how to conceptualize early-in-life risk factors for violence

Although rates of violent crime have been on the decline in the United States for the past two decades, young people—and particularly young men—continue to commit and fall victim to alarmingly high rates of violence. Effective prevention requires data on what the determinants of violence are and when in the life course they emerge. The goal of this review was to identify early-in-life risk factors for violence and to describe (a) who is most affected and (b) effect mechanisms. I focus on abuse and neglect and exposure to lead as risk factors for violence that disproportionately affect young children and that are likely to have causal effects on development. I conclude with future directions for research and intervention.     

Perceived Stigma and Self-Stigma in College Students: A Literature Review and Implications for Practice and Research

Perceived and self-adopted forms of stigma are omnipresent. Although stigma is often discussed alongside mental illness, constructs such as race, ethnicity, and sexuality can also cause individuals to adopt feelings of stigma within themselves. The literature has called for further inquiry examining the effects of perceived and self-stigmas among different populations. In response, this literature review examines the influence of perceived and self-stigmas on college student populations. Overall, perceived and self-stigmas have the potential to negatively affect students’ psychological well-being, willingness to seek treatment, cocurricular experiences, and academic performance. Implications for future research are presented based on the review’s findings.     

Talking about proportion: Fraction labels impact numerical interference in non‐symbolic proportional reasoning

Across two experiments, we investigated how verbal labels impact the way young children attend to proportional information, well before the introduction of formal fraction education. Five‐ to seven‐year‐old children were introduced to equivalent non‐symbolic proportions labeled in one of three ways: (a) a single, categorical label for multiple fractions (both 3/4 and 6/8 referred to as “blick”), (b) labels that focused on the numerator [e.g., 3/4 labeled as “three blicks” (Experiment 1) or “three‐fourths” (Experiment 2)], or (c) labels that had a complete part‐whole structure (“three‐out‐of‐four”). Children then completed measures of non‐symbolic proportional reasoning that pitted whole‐number information against proportional information for novel proportions. Across both experiments, children who heard the categorical labels were more likely to match non‐symbolic displays based on proportion than children in any of the other conditions, who demonstrated higher levels of numerical interference. These findings suggest that fraction labels have the potential to shape children's attention to proportional information even in the context of non‐symbolic part‐whole displays and for children who are not familiar with formal fraction symbols. We discuss these findings in terms of children's developing understanding of proportional reasoning and its implications for fraction education.