Parental socialization of emotion expression: gender differences and relations to child adjustment

The present study examined gender differences in children's submissive and disharmonious emotions and parental attention to these emotions. Sixty children and their mothers and fathers participated when children were 4 and 6 years old. Children's emotion expression and parental responses during a game were coded. Girls expressed more submissive emotion than boys. Fathers attended more to girls' submissive emotion than to boys' at preschool age. Fathers attended more to boys' disharmonious emotion than to girls' at early school age. Parental attention at preschool age predicted later submissive expression level. Child disharmonious emotion predicted later externalizing symptoms. Gender differences in these emotions may occur as early as preschool age and may be subject to differential responding, particularly by fathers.     

Gender and the Internet: Women Communicating and Men Searching

This research examined gender differences in Internet use and factors responsible for these differences. A sample of 630 Anglo American undergraduates completed the Student Computer and Internet Survey that contained questions about e-mail and Web use, and about potential affective and cognitive mediators of use. Based on a general model of Internet use, we predicted and found that females used e-mail more than did males, males used the Web more than did females, and females reported more computer anxiety, less computer self-efficacy, and less favorable and less stereotypic computer attitudes. Path analysis to identify mediators of gender differences in Internet use revealed that computer self-efficacy, loneliness, and depression accounted in part for gender differences, but that gender continued to have a direct effect on use after these factors were considered. Implications for realizing the democratizing potential and benefits of Internet use are discussed.     

Church-Based Social Support and Religious Coping

The purpose of this study is twofold: to explore the nature of church-based social support, and to see whether support received in religious settings is related to the use of religious coping methods. The data come from a nationwide survey of members of the Presbyterian Church USA. Three dimensions of religious support are examined in detail: emotional support from church members, spiritual support from church members, and emotional support from the pastor. These dimensions of support are used to evaluate an issue that has been largely overlooked in the literature—the relationship between religious support and religious coping. The findings reveal that people are especially inclined to use positive religious coping responses when they receive spiritual support from church members. Even though emotional support from the pastor also increases the use of religious coping methods, the relationship is not as strong. Finally, emotional support from church members has no effect.     

I'm Afraid I Have Something Bad to Tell You: Breaking Bad News From the Perspective of the Giver1

College students (N= 90) completed a questionnaire designed to assess their recollection of a time that they delivered bad news. Responses were provided about whether each of 72 possible characteristics of such transactions occurred in addition to the impact each had on the ease of delivering the news. Participants also provided information about the stress associated with the process and their perceptions of the anxiety experienced by the receiver of the news. Three important findings emerged: (a) there was substantial diversity in the type of bad news that givers recalled transmitting; (b) students reported a wide variety of experiences associated with the bad‐news process, with a sizable cluster of these experiences seeming to typify such transactions across students and news type; and (c) the level of stress associated with the bad‐news process was generally high, and it was associated with what students thought about and did during the transaction.     

Mental fatigue influence on effort-related cardiovascular response: difficulty effects and extension across cognitive performance domains

Two experiments investigated cardiovascular effects of mental fatigue as a function of (1) the difficulty of the cognitive challenge with which participants were confronted, and (2) the relevance of that challenge to the activity that instigated the fatigue. In the first, participants performed an easy (fatigue low) or difficult (fatigue high) counting task and then were presented an arithmetic challenge (task B relevance high) or a scanning challenge (task B relevance low) with instructions that they would avoid a noise if they attained a modest performance standard. Analysis of blood pressure responses assessed during the work periods revealed fatigue main effects, reflecting stronger responses for High Fatigue participants, regardless of the character of the second task. In the second, the procedure was the same except that it included a high performance standard and provided the chance to win a prize. Analysis of the pressure data revealed fatigue x work period interactions, reflecting relatively stronger responses among High Fatigue participants in work period 1, but relatively weaker responses among these participants in work period 2. Results confirm previous findings and support an analysis of fatigue influence on effort and associated cardiovascular responses. They also argue against the idea that mental fatigue influence may be confined to relevant cognitive performance realms.

Religious Doubt and Mental Health Across the Lifespan

The current study examined the connections among religious doubt, mental health, and aging in a nationwide sample of individuals 18 years and older (N = 1629). Findings indicate that that religious doubt emerging from the recognition of suffering and evil in the world has a deleterious impact on mental health. Results also show that as people grow older, religious doubts continue to be associated with psychopathology, but the magnitude of this association becomes weaker across age categories. In other words, the impact of doubt on mental distress declines as one ages. These effects were found across various measures of mental distress, including depression, general anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoia, hostility, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Findings are explored within the context of psychosocial development and the experiential trajectory of religious maturity.     

Disorder-specific Effects of CBT for Anxious and Depressed Youth: A Meta-analysis of Candidate Mediators of Change

The commonalities between anxiety and depression have been discussed before, but few have delineated the potentially different mechanisms through which treatments work for these populations. The current study conducted a comprehensive review of child and adolescent randomized clinical trials that tested cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety or depression. All studies were required to have assessed both treatment outcomes and at least one theory-specific process target, including behavioral, physiological, cognitive, and coping variables. Using a meta-analytic approach, CBT demonstrated positive treatment gains across anxiety, depression, and general functioning outcomes. CBT for anxiety also produced moderate to large effects across behavioral, physiological, cognitive, and coping processes, with behavioral targets demonstrating potentially the greatest change. CBT for depression produced small effects for cognitive processes but nonsignificant effects for behavioral and coping variables. Findings were generally consistent with CB theory but suggest potentially different mediators in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Results are discussed in terms of implications for mechanisms research, theories of change, and treatment development.     

Use of Self-perspectives and their Sources to Predict the Mathematics Enrollment Intentions of Girls and Boys

An understanding of the differences in the ways in which self-efficacy and interest influence boys’ and girls’ intentions to continue enrollment in mathematics courses may provide insight into how to encourage continued mathematics enrollment for all students. Two competing theoretical models of mathematics self-efficacy and interest in predicting students’ enrollment intentions and achievement were evaluated separately across samples of middle level boys and girls. One model was empirically supported for both groups and indicated the independent influence of self-efficacy and interest in predicting enrollment intentions. Multi-group analyses revealed that self-efficacy’s influence in enrollment intentions and achievement was significantly stronger for boys than for girls, and interest was significantly more important in the prediction of enrollment intentions for girls than for boys.