Attitudes toward parenting strategies, potential for child abuse, and parental satisfaction of ethnically diverse low-income U.S. mothers

Among a sample of 176 low-income mothers from 3 ethnic groups in the United States, the authors investigated ethnic differences in attitudes toward preferred parenting strategies, or styles; ethnic differences in the potential for child abuse; and the relationship between parenting strategies, the potential for child abuse, and parental satisfaction. They distributed the Maternal Reactions to Child's Deviant Behavior subscale (K. M. Rickard, W. Graziano, & R. Forehand, 1984), a shortened version of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI; J. S. Milner & R. C. Wimberley, 1979), and a Parental Satisfaction Scale (N. P Medora, S. M. Wilson, & J. Larson, 1996) to the participants. The results indicated no significant ethnic differences in preferred parenting styles. Mothers from all 3 ethnic groups ranked praise and reasoning as the 1st and 2nd preferred parenting strategies. There were no ethnic differences in the perceived potential for child abuse. Parental satisfaction was negatively related to 2 of the CAPI subscales--Loneliness and Problems. The parenting strategy reasoning was positively correlated with parental satisfaction.     

HYPERFEMININITY AND INFLUENCE

Murnen and Byrne (1991) have defined hyperfemininity as an exaggerated adherence to a feminine gender role as it relates to heterosexual relationships. Hyperfeminine women believe their success is determined by maintaining a romantic relationship with a man, and that their sexuality can be used to maintain this relationship. Extrapolating from theory concerning gender and status, including expectation states theory, it was hypothesized that a woman's expression of hyperfeminine attitudes would lead male college student participants to agree with her in response to a persuasive speech because it would indicate her compliance with women's subordinate status. It was found that men (but not women) who listened to a very hyperfeminine (high) speaker agreed with her more than did men who heard a mildly hyperfeminine (low) speaker, despite the fact that the high hyperfeminine speaker was judged less competent and knowledgeable. Implications of the results, including the idea that the sexual objectification of women perpetuates women's subordinate status, were discussed.     

Adolescent substance use disorders: findings from a 14-year follow-up of speech/language-impaired and control children.

Intervening on the development of adolescent addiction requires an understanding of the role of precursors. In a community sample of youth with and without early childhood speech/language (S/L) impairments, 12.7% of participants had a substance use disorder (SUD). Among these participants, 42.0% met criteria for more than 1 SUD. Interestingly, rates of SUDs did not differ by S/L status. However, S/L-impaired participants did show greater psychiatric comorbidity and poorer functioning. A total of 80% of S/L participants with SUDs had a concurrent diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, compared with 43.8% of SUDs controls. In a logistic regression analysis, we found age 5 mother-rated problem behavior scores and an interaction between S/L status and teacher-rated conduct problem scores were predictive of SUDs. High conduct scores were predictive of SUDs development among control participants but not among S/L-impaired participants. First substance use and initial SUDs symptoms suggest that a window of opportunity exists to reach these troubled young people before they spiral into addiction.     

Gender, Somatization, and Psychopathic Traits in a College Sample

The structure of psychopathic traits and their association with somatization symptoms were investigated in a sample of 199 undergraduate college students enrolled in introductory psychology classes. Using multiple measures of psychopathic traits, an iterated principal axis (IPA) analysis revealed two dimensions of psychopathy that were similar to ones typically found in forensic samples. One dimension focused on a cold, callous, and unemotional interpersonal style and the second dimension focused on an impulsive and antisocial lifestyle. These two dimensions emerged for both men and women, although the correlation between the two was somewhat higher for men than women. Also, the callous and unemotional dimension was negatively correlated with somatization symptoms, and the impulsive and antisocial dimension was positively associated with somatization symptoms. This pattern of associations was similar for both men and women and it suggests that somatization symptoms may be one aspect of the high rate of negative affectivity experienced by antisocial individuals.     

Dilution, not load, affects distractor processing

Lavie and Tsal (1994) proposed that spare attentional capacity is allocated involuntarily to the processing of irrelevant stimuli, thereby enabling interference. Under this view, when task demands increase, spare capacity should decrease and distractor interference should decrease. In support, Lavie and Cox (1997) found that increasing perceptual load by increasing search set size decreased interference from an irrelevant distractor. In three experiments, we manipulated the cue set size (number of cued locations) independently of the display set size (number of letters presented). Increasing the display set size reduced distractor interference regardless of whether the additional letters were relevant to the task. In contrast, increasing the cue set size increased distractor interference. Both findings are inconsistent with the load explanation, but are consistent with a proposed two-stage dilution account.     

EFFECTS OF PREFERENCE AND REINFORCER VARIATION ON WITHIN-SESSION PATTERNS OF RESPONDING

We examined correspondence between preference assessment outcome and within‐session patterns of responding in one subject with autism. Responding maintained by a single highly preferred item resulted in a greater total number of responses, a slower decline in within‐session response rates, and a greater proportion of short interresponse times compared to responding maintained by varied moderately preferred (MP) stimuli. Presenting varied MP stimuli within the same session produced greater levels and more sustained responding than presenting those same stimuli individually.     

Poignancy: mixed emotional experience in the face of meaningful endings

The experience of mixed emotions increases with age. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that mixed emotions are associated with shifting time horizons. Theoretically, perceived constraints on future time increase appreciation for life, which, in turn, elicits positive emotions such as happiness. Yet, the very same temporal constraints heighten awareness that these positive experiences come to an end, thus yielding mixed emotional states. In 2 studies, the authors examined the link between the awareness of anticipated endings and mixed emotional experience. In Study 1, participants repeatedly imagined being in a meaningful location. Participants in the experimental condition imagined being in the meaningful location for the final time. Only participants who imagined "last times" at meaningful locations experienced more mixed emotions. In Study 2, college seniors reported their emotions on graduation day. Mixed emotions were higher when participants were reminded of the ending that they were experiencing. Findings suggest that poignancy is an emotional experience associated with meaningful endings.     

Maze learning in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and normal elderly controls performed a block of 10 trials on a finger maze, followed by a 45-min period during which verbal learning measures were administered. Subjects then performed an additional 10 trials on the original maze, followed by 10 trials on a new maze. The AD patients and a subset of control subjects decreased mean completion time across Blocks 1 and 2, suggesting skill acquisition. Mean time on Block 3 was significantly less than mean time on Block 1, suggesting skill generalization. A subset of controls did not show the above pattern. The results of this study suggest that AD patients are able to acquire and generalize a cognitively mediated perceptual-motor skill.     

Hypertension risk and caffeine's effect on cardiovascular activity during mental stress in young men

Examined the cardiovascular effects of caffeine plus behavioral stress in men low versus high in risk of essential hypertension. Caffeine (3.3 mg/kg, equivalent to 2 to 3 cups of coffee) or placebo was given on alternate days to 19 low-risk men (negative for parental hypertension and low-normal resting blood pressure, BP) and 20 high-risk men (positive history, high-normal BP). Forty minutes later, each worked for 15 min on a demanding psychomotor task during which BP, cardiac output, and vascular resistance were determined. During rest, caffeine raised vascular resistance in both groups. During the task, it supra-additively increased the systolic BP response by enhancing the rise in cardiac output, producing equivalent BP rises in both groups. Due to the higher resting pressures of the high-risk men, caffeine plus the task resulted in 50% of these having transient BP of 140/90 mg Hg or greater. Caffeine in combination with mental stress may produce undesirable BP in those at risk for hypertension.