Parentification of Adult Siblings of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Many typically-developing (TD) siblings provide care for their siblings with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), both as children and as adults. Research on parentification (i.e., when children assume responsibilities typically reserved for adults) has been mixed, with some studies supporting positive outcomes for TD siblings and others indicating negative outcomes. Some of these discrepancies may be due to inconsistencies in differentiating types of parentification. The current study examined how different types of parentification during childhood (retrospectively-reported) related to distress outcomes and attitudes about sibling relationships among 41 TD adult siblings of individuals with ASD. Results indicated that parent-focused parentification was positively related with anxiety and stress among TD siblings. Sibling-focused parentification was positively related to stress but was also related to more positive sibling relationship attitudes. Accounting for demographic variables and the other form of parentification, parent-focused parentification was a unique predictor of distress, whereas sibling-focused parentification was a unique predictor of positive sibling relationship attitudes. Although parentification is often viewed negatively, sibling-focused parentification and perceived benefits of parentification may predict positive outcomes. Results suggest that parentification may prove important in understanding the complex nature of sibling relationships. Specifically, strengthening the sibling bond and reducing parent-focused parentification during childhood may curtail sibling relationship problems and general distress in TD siblings later in life.     

Mentoring in China: Enhanced Understanding and Association with Occupational Stress

Purpose  

Given the increased usage of mentoring programs in multi-cultural settings, including the Chinese workplace, the present study examined Chinese employees’ understanding of mentoring relationships and whether mentoring played a role in their occupational stress process.     

Examining the constructs of work-to-family enrichment and positive spillover

This paper reports three studies examining construct validity evidence for two recently developed measures of the positive side of the work–family interface: work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS; Hanson, Hammer, & Colton, 2006) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE; Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, & Grzywacz, 2006). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the results from the first two studies indicate that the best fitting model distinguishes between WFPS and WFE, each with three sub-dimensions. However, these studies also showed that several items measuring WFE cross-loaded onto factors measuring WFPS. Results from the discriminant analyses showed that the sub-dimensions of WFPS and WFE uniquely predicted job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Yet, when WFPS and WFE were examined as one dimension, the measure of WFE predicted life satisfaction, but the measure of WFPS did not add to the prediction above WFE. Across both studies, WFE mediated the relationship between WFPS with both job and life satisfaction. Lastly, Study 3 provides some evidence of the content adequacy of these items; however, several items overlapped in content. These results suggest that enrichment and positive spillover are distinct but related constructs, each with three sub-dimensions. Further, more work is needed to refine the measurement of WFE and WFPS; however, this research helps advance our understanding of the positive side of the work–family interface.     

Linking career mobility with corporate loyalty: How does job change relate to organizational commitment?

Today's organizations are undergoing constant and substantial change due to many internal and external forces. These changes are impacting on the inter- and intra-organizational career mobility of managers and employees. This research assessed the relationship between career mobility history and a recent internal or external job change on organizational commitment using (Allen & Meyer, 1990) three-dimensional model. Professional-level employees participated in three survey administrations over an 18-month timeframe. External career mobility history (i.e., number of external job moves over one's career) was negatively related to normative commitment, but not to affective and continuance commitment. Affective and continuance commitment were significantly lower for external movers prior to a move when compared to nonmovers over the same period. In contrast, only continuance commitment was significantly lower for internal movers prior to a move when compared to nonmovers over the same period. Affective commitment increased significantly after the move for both internal and external movers. Implications for research with respect to career mobility and organizational commitment are discussed.     

Protégé anxiety attachment and feedback in mentoring relationships

A model focused on protégé anxious attachment and feedback in mentoring relationships was tested with a sample of matched doctoral student protégés and their faculty mentors. Results show that protégé anxious attachment was associated with less feedback seeking and less feedback acceptance. Protégé feedback acceptance was associated with both the quality and frequency of feedback provided by the mentor. Frequency, but not quality of mentor feedback, was associated with protégé scholarly productivity. Results underscore the value of focusing on specific behavioral aspects of the mentoring process.     

Mourning beyond melancholia: Freud's psychoanalysis of loss

Freud's mourning theory has been criticized for assuming a model of subjectivity based on a strongly bounded form of individuation. This model informs "Mourning and Melancholia" (1917), in which Freud argued that mourning comes to a decisive end when the subject severs its emotional attachment to the lost one and reinvests the free libido in a new object. Yet Freud revised his mourning theory in writings concerned with the Great War and in The Ego and the Id (1923), where he redefined the identification process previously associated with melancholia as an integral component of mourning. By viewing the character of the ego as an elegiac formation, that is, as "a precipitate of abandoned object-cathexes," Freud's later work registers the endlessness of normal grieving; however, it also imports into mourning the violent characteristics of melancholia, the internal acts of moralized aggression waged in an effort to dissolve the internal trace of the other and establish an autonomous identity. Because it is not immediately clear how Freud's text offers a theory of mourning beyond melancholy violence, his account of the elegiac ego is shown here to ultimately undermine the wish for an identity unencumbered by the claims of the lost other and the past, and to suggest the affirmative and ethical aspects of mourning.     

Attention bias for social threat in youth with tic disorders: Links with tic severity and social anxiety

Many individuals with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders (TS/CTDs) report poor social functioning and comorbid social anxiety. Yet limited research has investigated the role of cognitive factors that highlight social threats in youth with TS/CTD, and whether these biases underlie tic severity and co-occurring social anxiety. This study examined whether selective attention to social threat is enhanced young people with TS/CTDs compared to healthy controls, and whether attention biases are associated with tic severity and social anxiety. Twenty seven young people with TS/CTDs and 25 matched control participants completed an experimental measure of attention bias toward/away from threat stimuli. A clinician-rated interview measuring tic severity/impairment (YGTSS Total Score) and questionnaire measures of social anxiety were completed by participants and their parents. Young people with TS/CTD showed an attention bias to social threat words (relative to benign words) compared to controls but no such bias for social threat faces. Attention bias for social threat words was associated with increasing YGTSS Total Score and parent-reported social anxiety in the TS/CTDs group. Mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect path between YGTSS Total Score and social anxiety, via attention to social threat. Tentatively, these associations appeared to be driven by impairment rather than tic severity scores. Preliminary data suggests that youth with TS/CTD have enhanced attention to threat, compared to controls, and this is associated with impairment and social anxiety. Attention to threat could offer a cognitive mechanism connecting impairment and social anxiety, and so be a valuable trans-diagnostic treatment target.     

Linking Peer Victimization to the Development of Depressive Self-Schemas in Children and Adolescents

Previous theory and research suggest that childhood experiences are more likely to generate depressive self-schemas when they focus attention on negative information about oneself, generate strong negative affect, and are repetitive or chronic. Persistent peer victimization meets these criteria. In the current study, 214 youths (112 females) with empirically-validated histories of high or low peer victimization completed self-report measures of negative and positive self-cognitions as well as incidental recall and recognition tests following a self-referent encoding task. Results supported the hypothesis that depressive self-schemas are associated with peer victimization. Specifically, peer victimization was associated with stronger negative self-cognitions, weaker positive self-cognitions, and an elimination of the normative memorial bias for recall of positive self-referential words. Effects were stronger for relational and verbal victimization compared to physical victimization. Support accrues to a model about the social-developmental origins of cognitive diatheses for depression.