The relationship between depression and smoking in adolescents

The literature suggests that smokers are more likely to be depressed, while people who are depressed are more likely to smoke. The purpose of the present study was to determine the strength of the relationship between smoking, depression, intention to smoke, and several psychosocial and environmental factors. The participants (98 high school and college students aged 16 to 19 years) completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire consisting of the Multiscore Depression Inventory (MDI) and items regarding smoking behavior as well as psychosocial and environmental factors. Correlation, stepwise regression, and discriminant analyses were then conducted. It was found that participants were more likely to smoke if their parents smoked, if their scores on the MDI indicated instrumental helplessness and social isolation/withdrawal, or if they were older. Participants were more likely to state intention to smoke in the future if they had MDI scores indicating instrumental helplessness, if they were older, if their parents smoked, if their MDI scores indicated social intro-version, or if they resided with a guardian. Participants were also more likely to have smoked for more years if their parents smoked or if their scores on the MDI indicated instrumental helplessness. Further, participants were more likely to have scores on the MDI indicative of higher depression levels if they had low grades or if their parents smoked.     

Jamaican child-rearing practices: the role of corporal punishment

The family is the most prominent social group that exists. It prepares its members for the various roles they will perform in society. Yet, the literature has unequivocally singled out the family as the most violent social group, with parental violence against children being the most prevalent type of family violence. While societies like the United States, Japan, and Sweden have taken a hard line on physical punishment and shifted to a gentler approach to discipline, harsh disciplining of children persists elsewhere. In the Caribbean, and Jamaica in particular, child-rearing and disciplinary practices that would warrant child abuse charges in other Western societies are rampant. This article examines the child-rearing techniques of Jamaican adults and their assumed effects on child outcomes. It also examines the plausibility of the assumption that the harsh physical punishment meted out to children is partially responsible for the current social problems of that island nation. We recommend approaches to tackle the broad goals of addressing familial and societal practices that compromise children's development and well-being.     

Stressor exposure produces long-term reductions in antigen-specific T and B cell responses

Exposure to an acute laboratory stressor at the time of keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) immunization results in a long-term suppression in circulating anti-KLH antibody. The mechanism for the stress-induced reduction in anti-KLH immunoglobulin (Ig) remains unknown. Given that the generation of anti-KLH antibody requires T cell help, we hypothesize that stress reduces the proliferation of anti-KLH T cells, thus leading to a reduction in anti-KLH antibody. The present studies examined the effect of tail shock stress (100, 1.6 mA, 5-s, 60 s ITI) on the KLH specific T cell response. Fischer F344 rats were immunized either intraperitoneally (i.p.) or subcutaneously (s.c.) at the base of the tail with 200 microg KLH, and exposed to inescapable tail shock (IS) or remained in their home cages (HCC). T cell proliferation after KLH restimulation, but not ConA, was markedly suppressed in IS animals in both the spleen after i.p. immunization and the draining lymph nodes after s.c. immunization. Other secondary lymphoid cells did not differ in their proliferative capacity. Anti-KLH IgG, IgG1 and IgG2a, but not anti-KLH IgM serum levels were significantly suppressed. These data support the conclusion that stress suppresses the generation of antigen specific T cells. In addition, the methods employed in the current study allow the isolation of the site of the acquired T cell immune response, making it possible to further elucidate the cellular mechanisms that contribute to stress-induced modulation of the antigen-specific acquired immune response.     

Motion and edge sensitivity in perception of object unity

Although much evidence indicates that young infants perceive unitary objects by analyzing patterns of motion, infants' abilities to perceive object unity by analyzing Gestalt properties and by integrating distinct views of an object over time are in dispute. To address these controversies, four experiments investigated adults' and infants' perception of the unity of a center-occluded, moving rod with misaligned visible edges. Both alignment information and depth information affected adults' and infants' perception of object unity in similar ways, and infants perceived object unity by integrating information about object features over time. However, infants perceived a moving, misaligned, three-dimensional object as indeterminate in its connectedness, whereas adults perceived it as connected behind the occluder. These findings indicate that the effectiveness of common motion in specifying unified surfaces across an occluder is reduced by misalignment of edges. Alignment information enhances perception of object unity either by serving directly as information for unity or by optimizing the detectability of motion-carried information for unity. In addition, young infants are able to retain information about edge orientation over short intervals in determining connectedness via a process of spatiotemporal integration.     

Numerity of a socially housed hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) and a socially housed squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus)

To extend a study conducted by E. M. Brannon and H. S. Terrace (1998, 2000), the authors trained 1 hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) and 1 squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) to respond to stimuli representing the numerosities 1-4 in ascending order. When tested with novel stimuli of the same numerosities, both subjects' performance appeared to be based on the numerical attributes of stimuli. Subjects were then tested on their ability to order pairs of numerosities derived from the values 1-9. Both subjects successfully ordered pairs that included the untrained numerosities 5-9 regardless of the total surface area of numerosities. Accuracy and latency of responding also showed numerical distance and magnitude effects. Numerosity was a salient cue to both subjects, suggesting that these 2 families of primates perceive ordinal relations. The outcome shows that cognitive studies of this type can be effectively conducted with socially housed animals.     

Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire profiles of veterans with traumatic combat exposure: externalizing and internalizing subtypes

This study used the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, in press) to identify personality-based subtypes of posttraumatic response. Cluster analyses of MPQs completed by combat veterans revealed subgroups that differed on measures relating to the externalization versus internalization of distress. The MPQ profile of the externalizing cluster was defined by low Constraint and Harmavoidance coupled with high Alienation and Aggression. Individuals in this cluster also had histories of delinquency and high rates of substance-related disorder. In comparison, the MPQ profile of the internalizing cluster was characterized by lower Positive Emotionality, Alienation, and Aggression and higher Constraint, and individuals in this cluster showed high rates of depressive disorder. These findings suggest that dispositions toward externalizing versus internalizing psychopathology may account for heterogeneity in the expression of posttraumatic responses, including patterns of comorbidity.     

The use of coping strategies by Danish children classed as bullies, victims, bully/victims, and not involved, in response to different (hypothetical) types of bullying

The coping strategies employed in response to different types of bullying, by 305 Danish children (142 boys, 163 girls) in school years four to nine (aged 10-15 years), were investigated. Children were classed into four bully-victim status types. A revised version of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire was used for the classification of children, and a Self-Report Coping Measure for the investigation of coping strategies. The coping strategy of Externalizing was used significantly more by children classed as bully/victims compared with victims and not involved children: Seeking Social Support and Internalizing were preferred significantly more by girls, whereas Externalizing was preferred significantly more by boys; Distancing, Seeking Social Support, and Internalizing were favored significantly more by children in years four to six compared with children in years seven to nine. Looking at coping strategies in response to different types of bullying, Seeking Social Support was used significantly more in response to attack on property relative to verbal bullying, social exclusion, and indirect bullying, and Distancing was used significantly less in response to attack on property compared with any of the other types of bullying. The results are discussed in relation to implications for educational practice.     

When a reappearance is old news: visual marking survives occlusion

Performance in a visual search task becomes more efficient if half of the distractors are presented before the rest of the stimuli. This "preview benefit" may partly be due to inhibition of the old (previewed) items. The preview effect is abolished, however, if the old items offset briefly before reappearing (D. G. Watson & G. W. Humphreys, 1997). The authors examined whether this offset effect still occurred if the old items undergo occlusion. Results show that a preview benefit was found when the old items were occluded but not otherwise, consistent with the idea of top-down attentional inhibition being applied to the old items. The preview benefit is attenuated, however, by movement of the irrelevant stimuli in the displays.