A Comparison of Two Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Instruments

This study examined the factor structure, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) instruments developed by K. A. Wallston, B. S. Wallston, and DeVellis (1978) and Lau (Lau, 1982; Lau & Ware, 1981), Both measures were administered to a sample of Veterans Administration (VA) medical outpatients (N = 181). Only minimal evidence of convergence was found between corresponding scales of the two MHLC instruments. Low convergent validity appears attributable to the poor internal consistency reliability of the Lau-Ware subscales. Moreover, results of factor analysis largely supported the a priori factor structure of the K. A. Wallston et at. (1978) MHLC instrument but failed to support the factor structure of the Lau-Ware instrument, Health locus of control (HLC) dimensions that emerged from simultaneous factor analysis of both instruments were most consistent with a three-dimensional typology (i.e., Personal Control, Professional Control and Chance) rather than the four-dimensional typology proposed by Lau (Lau, 1982; Lau & Ware, 1981). Implications for HLC conceptualization and measurement are discussed.     

Maternal Depressed Mood and Perceptions of Child Temperament

Research has suggested that women who experience postpartum depression are subsequently more likely to perceive their preschool-aged children as temperamentally difficult and maladjusted. However, previous studies have not controlled for the effects of concurrent depression levels on maternal ratings of child temperament or evaluated the accuracy of maternal reports. In the present study we assessed maternal and paternal ratings of child temperament 2 years after subjects had participated in a study of postpartum depression. The findings indicate that correlations between postpartum depression and subsequent child temperament ratings were accounted for statistically by concurrent levels of depression. Although fathers' ratings corroborated some aspects of maternal perceptions, levels of parental agreement were only moderately high. Moreover, discrepancies between the parents' reports were significantly associated with maternal depression, indicating that parental disagreement is more likely when the wife is dysphoric.     

Exposure to severe urban air pollution influences cognitive outcomes, brain volume and systemic inflammation in clinically healthy children

Exposure to severe air pollution produces neuroinflammation and structural brain alterations in children. We tested whether patterns of brain growth, cognitive deficits and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are associated with exposures to severe air pollution. Baseline and 1 year follow-up measurements of global and regional brain MRI volumes, cognitive abilities (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, WISC-R), and serum inflammatory mediators were collected in 20 Mexico City (MC) children (10 with white matter hyperintensities, WMH⁺, and 10 without, WMH⁻) and 10 matched controls (CTL) from a low polluted city. There were significant differences in white matter volumes between CTL and MC children - both WMH⁺ and WMH⁻ - in right parietal and bilateral temporal areas. Both WMH⁻ and WMH⁺ MC children showed progressive deficits, compared to CTL children, on the WISC-R Vocabulary and Digit Span subtests. The cognitive deficits in highly exposed children match the localization of the volumetric differences detected over the 1 year follow-up, since the deficits observed are consistent with impairment of parietal and temporal lobe functions. Regardless of the presence of prefrontal WMH, Mexico City children performed more poorly across a variety of cognitive tests, compared to CTL children, thus WMH⁺ is likely only partially identifying underlying white matter pathology. Together these findings reveal that exposure to air pollution may perturb the trajectory of cerebral development and result in cognitive deficits during childhood.     

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.     

Banality Reinvestigated: A Computer-Based Content Analysis of Suicidal and Forced Death Documents*

Suicide and simulated notes and forced-death documents were processed on the Harvard III Psycho-Sociological Dictionary. For each text, frequencies of related words were generated; these were contrasted with each other and with baseline data using z scores. The results indicated that the suicidal groups were more “deviant.” Other findings are concreteness and constriction of focus for suicides—a pattern suggesting denial just prior to the deed. The forced-death group seemed to be more meaningfully in contact with life and aware of responsibility. The simulated group appeared to be fabricating a popular stereotype rather than exhibiting empathy. Implications were discussed.     

Links between sex-related expectations about alcohol, heavy episodic drinking and sexual risk among young men in a shantytown in Lima, Peru

CONTEXT: Alcohol use is frequently identified as a contributor to risky sexual behaviors; however, research results are mixed. Given the conflicting evidence, researchers have focused on other factors, such as expectations about alcohol's effects that might help explain the relationship of alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from 312 sexually experienced males aged 18-30 in a shantytown in Lima, Peru, were used in logistic regression models to identify associations of heavy episodic drinking and sex-related expectations about alcohol with sexual risk behaviors. RESULTS: Heavy episodic drinking was associated with having had two or more sexual partners and having had sex with a casual partner in the past year (odds ratios, 2.8 and 2.5, respectively). After controlling for alcohol consumption, sex-related expectations about alcohol were associated with these high-risk sexual behaviors, as well as with not using a condom at last sex (1.2) and not using a condom at last sex with a casual partner (1.3). CONCLUSION: Beliefs about the effect of alcohol on sexual performance could help explain links between alcohol consumption and risky sexual behavior not completely accounted for by the pharmacological effects of alcohol.     

Turning configural processing upside down: part and whole body postures

Like faces, body postures are susceptible to an inversion effect in untrained viewers. The inversion effect may be indicative of configural processing, but what kind of configural processing is used for the recognition of body postures must be specified. The information available in the body stimulus was manipulated. The presence and magnitude of inversion effects were compared for body parts, scrambled bodies, and body halves relative to whole bodies and to corresponding conditions for faces and houses. Results suggest that configural body posture recognition relies on the structural hierarchy of body parts, not the parts themselves or a complete template match. Configural recognition of body postures based on information about the structural hierarchy of parts defines an important point on the configural processing continuum, between recognition based on first-order spatial relations and recognition based on holistic undifferentiated template matching.