Behaviors of ADHD and Peer Relationship Difficulties in Chinese and American Youths: Role of Co-Occurring Behaviors of Depression and Anxiety

Abstract

The co-occurrence of behaviors of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with behaviors of anxiety or behaviors of depression is the norm, but little is known on how the co-occurrence accounted for youths’ peer relations. The authors report results on difficult peer relations in relation to behaviors of ADHD, co-occurring behaviors of depression, and behaviors of anxiety from three studies on 862 youths in China and in the United States. Study 1 included 313 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse American youths; Study 2 included 250 youths who were adopted out of Chinese orphanages by American parents; and Study 3 included 299 youths from Beijing, China. Data on difficult peer relations and behaviors of ADHD, depression, and anxiety were collected with the third edition of Behavior Assessment System for Children-Self Report of Personality. In all three studies, each type of problems alone significantly predicted difficult peer relations, but behaviors of ADHD were not significant when co-occurring behaviors of depression or co-occurring behaviors of anxiety were considered. Despite that the youths in our study had different cultural and personal backgrounds, there was no evidence that behaviors of ADHD were detrimental to youths’ peer relations when behaviors of depression or anxiety were considered. Implications for intervention were discussed.     

Death in the new age

Modern death is characterized by secularization, and the related features of medical‐ization, privatization and individualism, and is increasingly criticized from an expressivist position. This is the context in which a considerable volume of New Age writing on death and dying has emerged. The article explores New Age concepts of the soul and of reincarnation, the basis for these beliefs and the effect they have on care of the dying, the willingness of New Age carers to let the dying person be him or herself, and New Age theodicies. It is concluded that the New Age concern with the soul of the dying represents a significant attempt to reverse the secularization of death, though the success of this endeavour may be undermined by emphasis on the variety of personal experience and meaning.     

Predicting children's media use in the USA: Differences in cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis

The purpose of this paper is to examine the predictors of children's media use in the USA, comparing cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses. Data come from Waves 1 and 2 of the Child Development Supplement (CDS‐I; CDS‐II), a nationally representative sample of American children aged 0–12 in 1997 and 5–18 in 2002. Twenty‐four hour time use diaries are used to assess children's time spent with media (television, video games, computers, and reading). Predictors examined include socio‐demographics, neighbourhood quality, family factors, and other media use. Ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regressions were performed by three age groups (preschoolers, early school age, and preadolescence). The findings suggest that neighbourhood quality, parental limits and family conflict are significant predictors of children's media use within time or over time, but the significance depends on the type of media and child's developmental stage. In addition, children's television viewing and reading habits are formed early in life and reinforced over time. This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence for the effect of early contextual factors on the life course of children's media use from a developmental perspective.