Applicability and attachment findings of the Strange Situation Paradigm in infants with visual impairment

Attachment studies with diverse populations enrich the understanding of infants’ socioemotional development by documenting both universal and idiosyncratic aspects of attachment. Given the effects of attachment in children's socioemotional outcomes, such studies are necessary to investigate the impact of children's sensory impairments on attachment development. Yet, very little attachment research has focused on infants with visual impairment (VI infants), a population in which infant–caregiver emotional exchanges through visual means are reduced/absent. We investigated the applicability of the Strange Situation Paradigm (SSP), with added instructions to compensate for degraded visual input, in 20 VI infants (with no additional disabilities and who were receiving developmental counseling). In all but 1 of the SSPs coded, VI infants displayed observable attachment behavior that was classifiable. Nineteen VI infants showed attachment by 12 months of age. Across the ages tested (fractional age range = 0.9–2.33 months), most VI infants’ attachment patterns were classified as secure and organized.     

Executive cognitive functioning and aggression: Is it an issue of impulsivity?

A large body of research has documented a relation between the executive cognitive functions (ECFs) and interpersonal aggressive behavior. A predominant theory proposes that individuals with poor ECFs are more aggressive because they are unable to inhibit impulsive behaviors. However, evidence for this relationship is typically indirect. In this study, 46 healthy men and women completed measures of ECF, the Taylor Aggression Paradigm, and the Go/No‐Go discrimination task, a behavioral measure of impulsivity. Also, impulsiveness of participant responses during the aggression task was directly assessed by measuring latency of responses to provocation (“set‐time”). It was hypothesized that low‐quartile–scoring ECF men and women would perform more aggressively and more impulsively than high‐quartile peers. Consistent with expectations, results indicated that ECF was related to aggression and to impulsivity on the Go/No‐Go task. However, low‐ECF men and women did not have shorter set‐times; in fact, on this task, low‐ECF participants' behavioral decisions seemed slightly slower than those of high‐ECF participants. In light of these results, the authors speculate that a social information‐processing problem may mediate the ECF aggression relationship rather than altered impulsivity per se. Aggr. Behav. 29:15–30, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Who Will Volunteer? Religiosity, Everyday Racism, and Social Participation Among African American Men

This study explores the relative importance of everyday racism, empathic concern, communalism, and religiosity as predictors of pro-social involvement (i.e., volunteerism and membership in political/social justice organizations) among a sample of African American men (N = 151). Church involvement emerged as a positive predictor of the likelihood that these men were involved in volunteer work as well as the number of hours that men dedicated to volunteer work. Communalism positively predicted the amount of time (in hours per year) that men were involved in volunteer work. Subjective religiosity and the stress of everyday racism were associated with a greater likelihood of being a member of a political–social justice organization. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Bullying and Victimization: Cause for Concern for both Families and Schools

This study examines the roles of family variables (authoritarian and authoritative parenting, family disharmony) and school variables (liking school, perceived control of bullying and school hassles) in discriminating non-bully/non-victims, victims and bullies. Participants were parents and their children aged 9–12 years (N = 610). Data were analyzed using ANOVA and discriminant function analysis (DFA). Two significant functions emerged, both of which appeared important in discriminating children according to their bullying status. Together they allowed for the correct classification of 76% of the non-bully/non-victims, 57% of victims, and 61% of bullies. The main conclusion is that family and school systems working together may provide the most effective means of intervention for bullying problems. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Adult attachment and spousal reactions to military deployment separations and reunions

We explored adult attachment and spousal perceptions of intrapersonal and relationship functioning during military deployments. In Study 1, spouses of military members experiencing a separation were assessed, and in Study Two, spouses of military members experiencing a reunion were assessed. Study 3 entailed a large‐scale survey of relationship perceptions of spouses of military members. In Studies One and Two, attachment dimensions were related to perceptions of intrapersonal and relationship functioning during the separation and reunion, with associations moderated by days separated/reunited. In Study 3, attachment dimensions were related to relationship perceptions, with associations moderated by deployment stages. This research not only contributes to the knowledge of attachment processes in military contexts but also has the potential to inform policies and services supporting military families.     

The role of internal inhibition and the frontal lobes in child development

The theory that children show a predominance of excitation over internal inhibition and that this is due to inadequate development of the frontal lobes is explored and extended. Experimental results show that children resemble leucotomised monkeys in their difficulty in overcoming an initial preference in discrimination tasks.     

Attentional processes in young children with congenital visual impairment

The study investigated attentional processes of 32 preschool children with congenital visual impairment (VI). Children with profound visual impairment (PVI) and severe visual impairment (SVI) were compared to a group of typically developing sighted children in their ability to respond to adult directed attention in terms of establishing, maintaining, and shifting attention on toys. The measures of children's sensory‐motor understanding (SMU) and language ability were obtained using the Reynell‐Zinkin scales of mental development. The video‐recordings of these play‐based assessments were coded for three categories of behavioural responses (Establish, Maintain, and Shift). The three groups were matched on verbal comprehension (VC), but differed significantly in their SMU and their chronological age. The groups of children with PVI and SVI were found to be comparable in their ability to establish and maintain attention on objects. Despite a relatively good performance overall both groups scored significantly lower on those skills than children who were sighted. However, with regards to attention shifting, children with PVI showed significantly lower performance than both the children with SVI and the sighted children who were similar on this component. Ability to maintain and shift attention was significantly related to the cognitive ability of children with PVI; however the poorer attentional responses were not confined only to the children with low IQ. The results are discussed in relation to the role of vision, cognitive ability and executive function in attentional processes in children with congenital VI.