Childhood Adversity and Children’s Academic Functioning: Roles of Parenting Stress and Neighborhood Support

Existing research has shown that adverse childhood experiences from family instability and lack of safety increase children’s risk for poor academic functioning. A recent conceptual framework, however, has emphasized the need to investigate how parenting might mediate while community context might moderate the association between childhood adversity and children’s cognitive development. In the current study, we tested the roles of parenting stress and neighborhood support in the association between cumulative childhood adversity and children’s current academic functioning. We conducted a secondary data analysis on the subsample of school-aged children (i.e., 6–17 years old; N?=?65,680) from the 2011–2012 United States National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). The parent provided telephone survey data on six types of adversity (e.g., parent’s divorce) that the target child experienced, parenting stress, neighborhood support, as well as the child’s academic functioning. Controlling for the child’s age, gender, ethnicity, and the parent’s education level, structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed a significant moderated mediating effect: parenting stress partially mediated the association between history of childhood adversity and children’s current academic functioning (β?=??1.760, p?<?0.001), while neighborhood support moderated the association between parenting stress (β?=?0.492, p?<?0.001) and academic functioning.     

The effect of diabetes knowledge and attitudes on self-management and quality of life among people with type 2 diabetes

We examined the effect of diabetes knowledge and attitudes on self-management and quality of life (QoL) of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We employed a cross-sectional study design. A total of 137 female and 129 male participants with T2DM completed the diabetes knowledge scale (DKN), Diabetes Integration Scale-19 (ATT19), Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities (SDSCA) scale, and Diabetes Quality of Life (DQoL) scale, measuring diabetes knowledge, attitudes, self-management, and QoL respectively. The SDSCA scale measures diet, exercise, blood glucose monitoring, and foot care. The DQoL scale measures satisfaction and impact of QoL. An initial path model that tested the inter-relationships of the study variables was first identified based on previous research. Then, the path model was tested using Mplus 7.3. In the final model, diabetes knowledge was a significant predictor of attitudes and self-management in terms of blood glucose monitoring and foot care. Attitudes was a significant predictor of impact of QoL. Self-management in terms of blood glucose monitoring was a significant predictor of impact of QoL and diet was a significant predictor of satisfaction and impact of QoL. Exercise and foot care aspects of Self-management were significant predictors of satisfaction and impact of QoL respectively. The final model showed a good fit to the data: RMSEA = .045 (90% CI: .009, .071; Clfit = .601), CFI = .950, SRMR = .058. The findings suggest a theoretical basis to direct the development of appropriate health programs and interventions for improving QoL in people with T2DM and warrant replication in diverse samples.     

An Introduction to Latent Class Growth Analysis and Growth Mixture Modeling

In recent years, there has been a growing interest among researchers in the use of latent class and growth mixture modeling techniques for applications in the social and psychological sciences, in part due to advances in and availability of computer software designed for this purpose (e.g., Mplus and SAS Proc Traj). Latent growth modeling approaches, such as latent class growth analysis (LCGA) and growth mixture modeling (GMM), have been increasingly recognized for their usefulness for identifying homogeneous subpopulations within the larger heterogeneous population and for the identification of meaningful groups or classes of individuals. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of LCGA and GMM, compare the different techniques of latent growth modeling, discuss current debates and issues, and provide readers with a practical guide for conducting LCGA and GMM using the Mplus software.     

What are television advertisements really trying to tell us? A postmodern perspective

This paper differentiates between the modern and the postmodern approach to advertising. It provides indicators of the nature of postmodern advertisements and proposes a methodology based on critical discourse analysis for interpreting the meaning and understanding the structure of such advertisements. The paper discusses the purpose of the postmodern approach to advertising and argues that its very imagery may further confuse an already confused postmodern consumer. The credibility of the imagery may also be questioned where it is perceived to be an illusion that is incapable of being substantiated. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Domain specific attentional impairments in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

One of the defining cognitive characteristics of the chromosome 22q deletion syndrome (DS22q11.2) is visuospatial processing impairments. The purpose of this study was to investigate and extend the specific attentional profile of children with this disorder using both an object-based attention task and an inhibition of return task. A group of children with the disorder was compared in these tasks with a group of age-matched typically developing children. The children with DS22q11.2 demonstrated impaired spatially based orienting which is consistent with previous findings in this group. Strikingly, the children with DS22q11.2 also demonstrated an improved ability to use object-based cues, relative to the typically developing group. Finally, the children with DS22q11.2 demonstrated an intact inhibition of return system, however, it appears to be delayed developmentally.     

Between the sheets: Investigating young adults' communication during sexual activity

The present study investigated young adults' self‐reported communication during sexual activity and its link to sexual and relational outcomes. The associations between two forms of communication during sexual activity (i.e., positive relational disclosures and erotic talk) and orgasm and relationship satisfaction were explored. Additionally, the study tested whether orgasm mediated the association between communication during sexual activity and relationship satisfaction. Three‐hundred and nineteen young adults (237 women, 82 men) ranging in age from 18–32 years (M = 19) completed a survey within 2 hours of a recent sexual episode addressing their communication during sexual activity. Results revealed that positive relational disclosures, but not erotic talk, predicted the likelihood of orgasm, controlling for participants' biological sex. More specifically, individuals who disclosed more positive feelings during sexual activity were more likely to orgasm. Additionally, the more individuals disclosed positive thoughts and feelings for their partners during sexual activity or the more they engaged in mutualistic erotic talk that included intimacy and bonding, the higher their reported relationship satisfaction after sexual activity. The implications of these findings for research on sexual satisfaction, relational health, and the post sex disclosures model are discussed.     

Navigating relational turbulence in the wake of weight loss transitions: A support marshaling analysis

The current study sought to investigate how individuals optimize their partner's support during a weight transition to accomplish their weight loss goals. A theoretical model was tested to determine the role of support marshaling in managing the relational turbulence associated with weight transitions. Path modeling broadly identified that support marshaling is a useful framework from which to consider how relational turbulence associated with weight transitions influences health behaviors. The results identify that partner facilitation and interference are both directly related to health behaviors and indirectly related to health behaviors through support marshaling. Theoretical implications for relational turbulence and support marshaling are discussed with regard to their ability to account for weight‐related behavior changes.     

Bullying and victimisation in school children: the role of social identity, problem-solving style, and family and school context

The relationship between social identity, family and school context, problem-solving style, self-esteem, health behaviour, psychological distress, and victimisation, was explored in a quasi-experimental survey of 461 children aged between 11 and 15 years old. There was a high prevalence of victimisation (29%) in the group and 44% of those victimised scored above the clinical cut-off on the GHQ. Victims exhibited higher levels of psychological distress, lower self-esteem, more unhealthy behaviours, less support from parents and teachers, poorer problem-solving styles, and lower perceived social identity. Girls had a higher prevalence of victimisation than boys. The best predictors of victimisation were sex, family situation, social identity and problem-solving style. Some implications for interventions are discussed.

Musical expertise modulates the effects of visual perceptual load

Several studies have demonstrated that faces are processed differently from other types of objects, implicating a special role that faces have within the human visual system. However, other studies have suggested that faces may be special only in that they constitute a highly familiar category of visual objects with which most humans have expertise. In this study, we tested a group of expert musicians with a musical instrument classification task during which irrelevant images of musical instruments were presented as visual distractors under varying conditions of perceptual load. Unlike nonmusicians (who had been tested in Lavie, Ro, & Russell, 2003, using the same paradigm as in the present study), the musicians processed these irrelevant images of musical instruments even under conditions of high perceptual load. These results suggest that musical instruments are processed automatically and without capacity limits in subjects with musical expertise and implicate a specialized processing mechanism for objects of high familiarity.