Sex differences in adolescent ethanol drinking to behavioral intoxication

Rodent models have been especially useful for investigating adolescent ethanol exposure. However, there is a paucity of studies examining sex differences in behavioral intoxication from adolescent ethanol drinking. Here, we used an ethanol drinking model to investigate if adolescent rats of both sexes readily drink ethanol to measurable behavioral intoxication, indicated by increased impulsive action and motor incoordination. Beginning on postnatal day (P) 28, male and female Long‐Evans rats were given 30‐min access to a solution of sucrose (20%) or sweetened ethanol (20% sucrose +15% ethanol) every other day until P60 and once after 2 weeks of forced abstinence (on P75). On alternate (nondrinking) days, rats were reinforced with a food pellet for making a cued nosepoke response. Beginning on P56, rats were tested in this task after drinking sessions to assess ethanol‐induced changes in impulsive action, defined as premature responding prior to cue presentation. Motor coordination was assessed before and after drinking sessions using an incline plane test. Adolescent male and female rats readily consumed ethanol to behavioral intoxication, measured as reduced motor coordination. Following forced abstinence, females displayed greater ethanol‐induced impulsive action. These studies provide evidence for sex differences in behavioral intoxication following adolescent ethanol drinking.     

What do you think about ink? An examination of implicit and explicit attitudes toward tattooed individuals

Tattoos are increasing in popularity, yet minimal research has examined implicit attitudes or the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes toward tattooed individuals. Seventy-seven online participants (Mage = 36.09, 52% women, 78% white, 26% tattooed) completed measures assessing implicit and explicit attitudes toward tattooed individuals. Results revealed evidence of negative implicit attitudes, which were associated with less perceived warmth, competence, and negative explicit evaluations. However, implicit attitudes were not correlated with measures of disgust or social distance. In addition, age predicted implicit prejudice, but other individual difference measures—such as personal tattoo possession, political identity, and internal/external motivations to respond without prejudice—did not. These findings are discussed in terms of how attitudes toward tattooed individuals may be multifaceted, and research may benefit from measuring implicit and explicit attitudes.     

A cross-cultural investigation of college student alcohol consumption: a classification tree analysis

In this cross-cultural study, the authors attempted to identify high-risk subgroups for alcohol consumption among college students. American and Greek students (N = 132) answered questions about alcohol consumption, religious beliefs, attitudes toward drinking, advertisement influences, parental monitoring, and drinking consequences. Heavy drinkers in the American group were younger and less religious than were infrequent drinkers. In the Greek group, heavy drinkers tended to deny the negative results of drinking alcohol and use a permissive attitude to justify it, whereas infrequent drinkers were more likely to be monitored by their parents. These results suggest that parental monitoring and an emphasis on informing students about the negative effects of alcohol on their health and social and academic lives may be effective methods of reducing alcohol consumption. Classification tree analysis revealed that student attitudes toward drinking were important in the classification of American and Greek drinkers, indicating that this is a powerful predictor of alcohol consumption regardless of ethnic background.     

Stability of harassment in children: analysis of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth data

No longitudinal information about bullying and peer harassment among Canadian children currently exists. In the present study, the author examined the stability of bullying and harassment. The sample consisted of two cohorts of children aged 10-11 years (n=2798) and 12-13 years (n=1946) drawn from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which is a stratified random sample of households in Canada. The author analyzed children's reports of bullying and harassment from 1994 to 2001 using cross-sectional time-series analyses. The results show that children who were not bullied or harassed in one cycle were unlikely to report being bullied or harassed at a subsequent cycle. About half of children who reported being bullied or harassed in a previous cycle also reported being bullied or harassed in a subsequent cycle. The author concludes that some children may be resilient, whereas others are vulnerable to ongoing bullying and harassment from their peers.     

I am too just like you: nonconscious mimicry as an automatic behavioral response to social exclusion

ABSTRACT— Research across various disciplines has demonstrated that social exclusion has devastating psychological, emotional, and behavioral consequences. Excluded individuals are therefore motivated to affiliate with others, even though they may not have the resources, cognitive or otherwise, to do so. The current research explored whether nonconscious mimicry of other individuals—a low-cost, low-risk, automatic behavior—might help excluded individuals address threatened belongingness needs. Experiment 1 demonstrated that excluded people mimic a subsequent interaction partner more than included people do. Experiment 2 showed that individuals excluded by an in-group selectively (and nonconsciously) mimic a confederate who is an in-group member more than a confederate who is an out-group member. The relationship between exclusion and mimicry suggests that there are automatic behaviors people can use to recover from the experience of being excluded. In addition, this research demonstrates that nonconscious mimicry is selective and sensitive to context.     

Promoting Generalization of Reading: A Comparison of Two Fluency-Based Interventions for Improving General Education Student’s Oral Reading Rate

The generalization effects of empirically-supported fluency-based reading interventions have been largely ignored. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of two fluency-based reading interventions, Repeated Readings and Multiple Exemplars, on elementary-aged children’s immediate and generalized oral reading fluency rate. Using a within-subjects group design, a total of 42 second (n = 25) and fourth (n = 17) grade general education students were administered both interventions and their generalized responding to passages containing high word and medium word overlap was assessed. Results indicated that children’s oral fluency on intervention passages was significantly greater during the Repeated Readings intervention. However, children’s oral reading fluency on generalization passages containing medium word overlap was significantly greater following the Multiple Exemplars intervention. This difference was however possibly due to the Multiple Exemplar medium word overlap passage being easier for students to read. No significant differences between the two interventions were observed in children’s oral reading fluency on generalization passages containing high word overlap. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed in relation to improving students’ reading fluency on generalization passages.     

Decreasing Child Distress During Needle Sticks and Maintaining Treatment Gains Over Time

This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention for reducing behavioral distress in children during needle sticks. Participants were eight children and their parents. The children received injections or venipunctures for hematological or oncological disease. The distress management intervention included instruction for children to engage in a distraction activity during needle sticks and parent training in coaching their children. The intervention was adapted to clinic and home treatment settings. Results indicated that five children exhibited significantly less distress after treatment when compared with baseline sessions, that treatment gains were maintained at follow-up for three of them, and that child distress was significantly and negatively related to use of the experimental distractor. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.     

Differences in American English, Spanish, and monkey perception of thesay-stay trading relation

An interesting phenomenon in human speech perception is the trading relation, in which two different acoustic cues both signal the same phonetic percept. The present study compared American English, Spanish, and monkey listeners in their perception of the trading relation between gap duration andFl transition onset frequency in a syntheticsay-stay continuum. For all the subjects, increased gap duration caused perception to change fromsay tostay; however, subjects differed in the extent to which theFl cue traded with gap duration. For American English listeners, a change from a low to a highF1 onset caused a phoneme boundary shift of 26 msec toward shorter gap durations, indicating a strong trading relation. For Spanish listeners, the shift was significantly smaller at 13.7 msec, indicating a weaker trading relation. For monkeys, there was no shift at all, indicating no trading relation. These results provide evidence that thesay-stay trading relation is dependent on perceptual learning from linguistic exposure.     

Applying Continuity Theory to Older Adult Friendships

Continuity theory provides a rationalization for understanding older adult friendships. Older adults do not have to anticipate disengagement but can exercise their choice to actively participate in establishing and maintaining friendship structures. The role of friend is one a person can choose to maintain. Friendships are dynamic and progress on a continuum with beginnings, periods of endurance and change, and endings. Continuity theory provides ways to understand why particular people have developed and adapted distinct friendship and social support networks. This insight provides social service professionals, gerontologists, and family members ways to enable older adults to remain in their communities longer and maintain support stability.