Surviving Abuse: Shame,Anger, Forgiveness

The issue of forgiveness affects everyone at some time or another; whether young or old, male or female, Christian or not. For the survivor of abuse, the issue of forgiveness journeys with them profoundly influencing their life, their recovery, and even their faith. Surviving Abuse: Shame, Anger, Forgiveness is an attempt to develop a theology of forgiveness from the perspective of a survivor of abuse.     

Concurrent validity of the Cognitive Abilities Scale and Binet IV for nonvocal 2- and 3-year-olds

The concurrent validity of the Nonvocal Cognitive Quotient (NVCQ) of the Cognitive Abilities Scale (CAS) and the Binet IV was examined for 2- and 3-year-olds referred to Project Find. Adequate concurrent validity was found for the CAS NVCQ and the Binet IV Verbal Comprehension at both age levels as well as for the Nonverbal Reasoning/ Visualization factor of the Binet IV at age 3. A significant, but moderate correlation was obtained with 2-year-olds for the NVCQ and the Binet IV Nonverbal Reasoning/ Visualization factor, the Binet IV scores being significantly higher scores. Differences in the results for the 2-year-olds are discussed. The implications of the results are presented.     

Differential Effects of Racial Socialization Messages for African American Adolescents: Personal Versus Institutional Racial Discrimination

Racial socialization is one factor known to attenuate the negative consequences of racial discrimination on adolescents’ anger and depressive symptoms. However, little is known about whether racial socialization messages addressing cultural and racial pride and messages preparing youth for racial discrimination and racial barriers function differently depending upon whether adolescents perceive personal versus institutional racial discrimination. Thus, the present study examined whether racial socialization messages emphasizing racial pride and racial barriers protected against anger and depressive symptoms for African American adolescents’ experience of personal and institutional racial discrimination. Participants were a community sample of 106 urban African American adolescents (57 % girls; mean age = 15.41) residing in a large metropolitan area. Regression analyses revealed that personal racial discrimination was positively associated with anger for youth reporting low cultural pride reinforcement, and positively associated with depressive symptoms for youth reporting low cultural alertness to discrimination; there were no associations between personal racial discrimination and anger or depressive symptoms for youth reporting high racial socialization messages. Neither cultural pride nor racial barrier racial socialization message protected against institutional racial discrimination. Findings suggest that the protective effects of racial socialization messages vary based on the type of racial discrimination adolescents experience.     

Screening for Significant Behavior Problems in Diverse Young Children Living in Poverty

The development and use of first line screening instruments is an essential first step in assessing behavior disorders in very young children. The Early Childhood Behavior Screen (ECBS) is a parent-report measure for behavior disorders and is normed on young children (1–5 years old) living in poverty. The current study presents psychometric support for the discriminative validity of the ECBS’s 10-item Challenging Behavior Scale (CBS) as a first-line screener for externalizing behavior problems for preschool aged-children in poverty. The study’s sample included 673 participants (M age years = 2.81; 63.2 % male; 65.8 % African American) that all met the federal definitional standard for living in poverty. A confirmatory factor analysis was run to provide support for the ECBS factor structure. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses were used to test the CBS’s ability to distinguish between 428 clinic-referred children and 245 non-clinic-referred children. Results showed an acceptable fit model for the ECBS, providing further evidence of its construct validity. Optimal cut-scores by child age derived from the ROC curve analyses were provided with corresponding levels of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. Sensitivity rates for cut scores ranged from 0.76 to 0.83 and specificity rates ranged from 0.88 to 0.95. Acceptable test–retest reliability and good internal consistency also was observed. The CBS quickly identifies young children from low-income, urban, diverse populations that may be at-risk for developing significant behavior disorders and should be considered by health care professionals who work with very young children.     

The neurodynamics of emotion: delineating typical and atypical emotional processes during adolescence

The study of development is, in and of itself, the study of change over time, but emotions, particularly emotional reactivity and emotional regulation, also unfold over time, albeit over briefer time‐scales. Adolescence is a period of development characterized by marked changes in emotional processes and rewiring of the underlying neural circuitry, making this time of life formative. Yet this period is also a time of increased risk for anxiety and mood disorders. Changes in the temporal dynamics of emotional processes (e.g. magnitude, time‐to‐peak and duration) occur during this developmental period and have been associated with risk for mood and anxiety disorders. In this article, we describe how the temporal dynamics of emotions change during adolescence and how they may increase risk for these psychopathologies. We highlight studies that illustrate how formalizing temporal neurodynamics of emotion may enhance links among levels of analyses from neurobiological to real‐world, moment‐to‐moment experiences.     

All employees are equal,but some are more equal than others: dominance,agreeableness, and status inconsistency among men and women

Status inconsistency is a situation in which there is an objective or subjective mismatch between, for example, a person’s education and his/her income. This mismatch may transform into status enhancement, wherein rewards exceed one’s human capital, or into status detraction, wherein one’s human capital exceeds one’s rewards. Although status inconsistency affects employees’ attitudes and behaviours, little is known about individual differences in this variable. The current study investigates whether the relationships of agreeableness and dominance—with objective and subjective status inconsistency vary by gender. We analysed objective and subjective input and return statuses among a sample of 375 employees. We found that men who expressed a gender-non-congruent trait, namely agreeableness, experienced an objective backlash effect compared with dominant men, whereas women who expressed a gender-non-congruent trait, namely dominance, did not experience a backlash effect compared with agreeable women. In addition, our results show that agreeable employees, both men and women, perceive themselves as status-enhanced when in fact they are not. Finally, we show that objective status inconsistency mediates the relationships of agreeableness and dominance with subjective status inconsistency.