New Fathers’ Perceptions of Dyadic Adjustment: The Roles of Maternal Gatekeeping and Coparenting Closeness

Although the association between maternal gatekeeping and relationship functioning has been explored by a few studies, none of these have focused on fathers’ perceptions of these constructs. Given that today's new fathers are challenged by elevated expectations for active parenting and coparenting even as most new mothers remain primary caregivers of infant children, this is a critical omission. This study examined the associations between new fathers’ perceptions of maternal gatekeeping and change in dyadic adjustment as mediated through coparenting closeness. Maternal gatekeeping was reported by 182 fathers at 3 months postpartum, coparenting closeness was reported at 3 and 6 months postpartum, and dyadic adjustment was reported during the third trimester of pregnancy and at 9 months postpartum. Fathers’ perceptions of relative change in coparenting closeness from 3 to 6 months mediated associations between fathers’ perceptions of maternal gatekeeping at 3 months and relative change in dyadic adjustment from the third trimester to 9 months postpartum. In particular, findings indicate that greater perceived maternal gate opening was associated with higher levels of dyadic adjustment through higher levels of coparenting closeness, whereas greater perceived maternal gate closing was associated with lower levels of dyadic adjustment through lower levels of coparenting closeness. This study highlights the importance of studying fathers in the context of the family system and the role of the coparenting relationship at the transition to parenthood in couple relationship functioning.     

The growth of gossip: Socialization of relational aggression from adolescence to emerging adulthood

The extant literature suggests that relational aggression appears in early childhood, and gradually increases throughout adolescence. However, very little research has examined the growth of relational aggression from adolescence to emerging adulthood. In addition, research generally examines socializing factors of relational aggression, such as parenting, peers, siblings, or media in isolation. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to examine these socializing factors conjunctively as predictors of the growth of relational aggression over time. Participants consisted of 500 adolescents who completed several questionnaires over a 7-year period (between ages 14–20 on average). Results revealed that the vast majority of individuals (88%) showed low levels of relational aggression that decreased over time. Conversely, a small proportion of individuals (12%) had high, increasing levels of relational aggression between adolescence and emerging adulthood. High levels of maternal psychological control, sibling hostility, and relational aggression in the media at the initial time point all predicted being in the high and increasing group.     

Common mechanisms of executive attention underlie executive function and effortful control in children

Executive Function (EF) and Effortful Control (EC) have traditionally been viewed as distinct constructs related to cognition and temperament during development. More recently, EF and EC have been implicated in top‐down self‐regulation ‐ the goal‐directed control of cognition, emotion, and behavior. We propose that executive attention, a limited‐capacity attentional resource subserving goal‐directed cognition and behavior, is the common cognitive mechanism underlying the self‐regulatory capacities captured by EF and EC. We addressed three related questions: (a) Do behavioral ratings of EF and EC represent the same self‐regulation construct? (b) Is this self‐regulation construct explained by a common executive attention factor as measured by performance on cognitive tasks? and (c) Does the executive attention factor explain additional variance in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) problems to behavioral ratings of self‐regulation? Measures of performance on complex span, general intelligence, and response inhibition tasks were obtained from 136 preadolescent children (M = 11 years, 10 months, SD = 8 months), along with self‐ and parent‐reported EC, and parent‐reported EF, and ADHD problems. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that behavioral ratings of EF and EC measured the same self‐regulation construct. Cognitive tasks measured a common executive attention factor that significantly explained 30% of the variance in behavioral ratings of self‐regulation. Executive attention failed to significantly explain additional variance in ADHD problems beyond that explained by behavioral ratings of self‐regulation. These findings raise questions about the utility of task‐based cognitive measures in research and clinical assessment of self‐regulation and psychopathology in developmental samples.     

Neural recruitment related to threat perception differs as a function of adolescent sleep

Detecting threat cues in the environment is an important aspect of social functioning. This is particularly true for adolescents as social threats become more salient and they navigate increasingly complex relationships outside of the family. Sleep relates to socioemotional processing throughout development, but the neurobiological relevance of sleep for threat perceptions in adolescence remains unknown. In the present study, 46 human adolescents (aged 14–18 years; 26 female) made judgments while undergoing a brain scan about whether unfamiliar, affectively neutral, computer‐generated faces were threatening. Prior to the scan, several indices of sleep were assessed nightly for two‐weeks using actigraphy. Sleep duration and poor sleep quality (defined as less efficiency, more awakenings, longer awakenings), factors influenced by biological and psychosocial changes during adolescence, elicited distinct neural activation patterns. Sleep duration was positively associated with activation in visual and face processing regions (occipital cortex, occipital fusiform gyrus), and this activation was linked to increased threat detection during the threat perception task. Sleep quality was negatively related to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation, which moderated the relation between reaction time (RT) and exposure to faces. Findings suggest reduced threat perception for adolescents with shorter sleep durations and more impulsive responding (as evinced by less consistent RT) for adolescents experiencing worse quality sleep. This study identifies an association between sleep and neural functioning relevant for socioemotional decision making during adolescence, a time when these systems undergo significant development.     

Thinking about multiple identities boosts children’s flexible thinking

Studies of children's developing social identification often focus on individual forms of identity. Yet, everyone has multiple potential identities. Here we investigated whether making children aware of their multifaceted identities—effectively seeing themselves from multiple angles—would promote their flexible thinking. In Experiment 1, 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children (N = 48) were assigned to either a Multiple‐Identities condition where they were led to consider their multiple identities (e.g. friend, neighbor) or to a Physical‐Traits condition where they considered their multiple physical attributes (e.g. legs, arms). Children in the Multiple‐Identity condition subsequently expressed greater flexibility at problem‐solving and categorization than children in the Physical‐Traits condition. Experiment 2 (N = 72) replicated these findings with a new sample of 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children and demonstrated that a Multiple‐Identity mindset must be self‐relevant. Children who were led to think about another child's multiple identities did not express as much subsequent creative thinking as did children who thought about their own multiple identities. Experiment 3 (N = 76) showed that a Mmultiple‐Identity framework may be particularly effective when the identities are presented via generic language suggesting that they are enduring traits (in this case, identities depicted as noun phrases rather than verbal phrases). These findings illustrate that something as simple as thinking about one's identity from multiple angles could serve as a tool to help reduce rigid thinking, which might increase open‐mindedness in a society that is becoming increasingly diverse.     

The facilitative interpersonal skills method: Difficult psychotherapy moments and appropriate therapist responsiveness

The Facilitative Interpersonal Skills (FIS) task is a performance test of therapists’ use of common relational skills (e.g. empathy, building expectations). The FIS method includes (a) materials that simulate difficult client moments on video, which are used to collect therapists’ responses to these situations; and (b) independent ratings of these responses. Many of the FIS items are informed by psychotherapy processes that have been linked to outcome and facilitative conditions that have been reframed as individual therapist skills (e.g. alliance bond capacity). Overall, the FIS has predicted psychotherapy outcome. A single study is described in which FIS predicted the therapist effect using multilevel modelling of a large sample of clients who were nested within therapists. We also summarise two additional outcome studies that used experimental designs. One future direction is to better understand how therapists form responses to these difficult moments. We conclude that forming an optimal therapeutic response during challenging, emergent in‐session situations involves responsiveness (Stiles et al., 1998), or finding a response that fits the clients’ needs within any moment.     

FRAMES OF COMPARISON Anthropology and Inheriting Traditional Practices

This essay seeks to develop and illustrate an approach to comparison based on ad hoc frames. A frame is defined by a question, to which different thinkers can be seen as offering complementary and/or competing responses. Pursuing a middle ground between universalist conceptions of comparison and particularist rejections of comparison, this approach brings various positions into dialogue in a manner that is not inherently totalizing. The article draws extensively on Hegel's philosophy of religion to articulate this approach to comparison and its presuppositions. The second section of the essay seeks to illustrate the value of this approach by using the question of how traditional practices are inherited to frame a comparison of Hegel on habit and the Confucian thinker Xunzi on ritual. This comparison functions principally to indicate the process of comparison and suggest the value of pursuing this comparison in greater depth.     

Experiences of school bullying in Northern Ireland: data from the Life and Times Survey

Little is known about the levels of bully/victim behaviors in schools in Northern Ireland. The aim of the present study was to supplement previous research findings from Northern Ireland by examining the self-reported experiences of school bullying among Northern Ireland children through data collected as part of the 1998 "Youth Life and Times Survey." A random sample of 397 12 to 17-year-olds living throughout Northern Ireland were interviewed during 1998 and 1999. As part of the larger survey, six questions were asked relating to experience of bullying behaviors and being a victim of such behaviors. The findings suggests that the incidence of school bullying in Northern Ireland may be higher than those found in the rest of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the data supplements previous findings among Northern Irish children employing alternate measures of bully/victim problems.     

Asymmetries in categorization, cerceptual discrimination, and visual search for reference and nonreference exemplars

In two experiments, we examined the representation, treatment, and attention devoted to the members of reference (i.e., club members) and nonreference (i.e., not club members) categories. Consistent with prior work on category interrelatedness (e.g., Goldstone, 1996; Goldstone, Steyvers, and Rogosky, 2003), the findings reveal the existence of asymmetric representations for reference and nonreference categories, which, however, decreased as expertise and familiarity with the categories increased (Experiments 1 and 2). Participants also more readily judged two reference exemplars as being the same than they did two nonreference exemplars (Experiment 1) and were better at detecting reference than nonreference exemplars in a set of novel, category-unspecified exemplars (Experiment 2). These findings provide evidence for the existence of a feature asymmetry in the representation and treatment of exemplars from reference and nonreference categories. Membership in a reference category acts as a salient feature, thereby increasing the perceived similarity and detection of faces that belong in the reference, in comparison with the nonreference, category.