Fathers' and Mothers' Emotional Accessibility and Youth's Developmental Outcomes

ABSTRACT

This study examined the association between parents' emotional accessibility and youth's functioning. Participants included 154 parents who completed measures of parental emotional accessibility and their children's emotional and behavioral problems. Results showed that mothers are more emotionally accessible to their children. Mothers' emotional accessibility was associated negatively with youth's emotional and behavioral problems; whereas, fathers' emotional accessibility was associated with only youth's behavioral problems. This study highlights the importance of examining parental emotional accessibility when studying youth's development, utilizing parental perceptions to learn about youth and family functioning, and actively including fathers in family research studies.     

What it means to be and feel like a "true" American: perceptions and experiences of second-generation Americans

Through semistructured interviews, the authors investigated the relationships between the definition of a "true" American, the impact of 9/11, and the war in Iraq and their impact on experiences of fitting into and being excluded from the American identity with a sample of 10 2nd-generation young adults. Using consensual qualitative research methods (C. E. Hill et al., 2005; C. E. Hill, B. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997) the authors identified 6 major domains that described participants' experiences, including physical characteristics of true Americans, behavioral characteristics of true Americans, beliefs and values of true Americans, the impact of 9/11 on definitions of true Americans, participants' American identity, and experiences as 2nd-generation Americans.     

Eye color as an indicator of behavior: revisiting Worthy and Scott

Phenotypic eye color has been suggested as an indicator of genetic predisposition toward certain behaviors both in humans and in animals. Previous research has yielded mixed results. Phototaxic and ethological behaviors were examined in 14 different strains of Drosophila melanogaster. No significant correlation between phenotypic eye coloration and behavior was found, although significant genotypical behavioral differences were noted even among subjects with similar eye colors. An analysis of cellular defects associated with eye color in D. melanogaster pointed to significant behavioral differences among cell-defect groups, indicating that the cell defect which causes eye color, rather than eye color itself, may serve as a crude indicator of behavior.     

Jugendliche Sexualstraftäter: Spezialfälle der Prognoseerstellung?

This study compared a sample of 273 juvenile (aged 14 to under 18), 178 adolescent (aged 18 to under 21) and 273 adult (older than 20 years) male sex offenders modus operandi (or MO, the way in which they committed their offenses), frequency of recidivism and predicted recidivism via the static-99. In terms of the frequencies of the MO aspects we found that juveniles and adolescents differed significantly from adult sexual offenders. However, concerning the frequency of sexual violent behaviors, adolescents committed more severe offenses in contrast to the two other groups. The comparison of recidivism rates indicated that adolescent sexual offenders were significantly less likely to commit a new sexual offense, but were considerably more likely to commit a non-sexual violent offense compared to adult sexual offenders. For juvenile offenders, only few static-99 variables were predictive of future recidivism in comparison to the other groups, suggesting that the static-99 may only have a restricted utility in juvenile offenders. Further, juvenile offenders risk levels were found to fall primarily within the medium risk group making individual differentiation of potential risk difficult. It is suggested that additional predictors, which help to differentiate young sexual offenders must be investigated.     

Growing Up Perfect: Perfectionism,Problematic Internet Use,and Career Indecision in Emerging Adults

Among emerging adults who are career indecisive, perfectionism and problematic Internet use (PIU) are underdeveloped areas of inquiry. The authors examined the relationship between perfectionism and PIU to measure their contributions to career indecision. The full model was significant, yielding an R² of .46 (p < .0001). PIU accounted for the majority of variance in career indecision (adjusted R² = .32). Career indecision was also related to maladaptive but not adaptive perfectionism. Counseling implications are discussed.     

Getting Fathers Involved in Child-Related Therapy

Fathers are involved in treatment for child and family problems to a far lesser extent than are mothers. This article reviews the level of fathers’ inclusion in therapy, delineates possible barriers to fathers’ participation in child-related treatment, and discusses factors associated with fathers’ involvement in therapy. Empirically and clinically informed strategies to engage fathers in treatment are offered to help therapists increase fathers’ participation in the therapeutic process. Finally, future directions for clinically informed research in this area are discussed.     

The influence of background music on learners with varying extraversion: Seductive detail or beneficial effect?

Seductive details in general affect learning and cognitive load negatively. However, especially background music as a seductive detail may also influence the learner's arousal, whose optimal level depends on the learner's extraversion. Therefore, the effects of extraversion and background music on learning outcomes, cognitive load, and arousal were investigated. We tested 167 high school students and found better transfer outcomes for the group with background music. They also reported higher germane load, but no impact of background music on extraneous cognitive load or arousal was found. In the group without background music, learners with higher extraversion reached better recall scores, which was not found in the group with background music. Results may cautiously be interpreted that there is a beneficial impact of background music that compensates for the disadvantages of low extraverted learners and which cannot be explained through arousal.     

The Intended Reader of Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Judeo-Spanish Reading Culture

This essay explores rabbinic musar literature in Ladino from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries within the context of the emerging Ladino reading-culture in the Ottoman Empire. Rabbinic literature in the Judeo-Spanish vernacular opened the field of rabbinic knowledge for the first time to social groups hitherto excluded from the study of rabbinic literature: those who were ignorant of Hebrew, and women, to whom the rabbis now reached out explicitly in Ladino writings. Whereas the preferred forum for the reading and studying of vernacular rabbinic literature was the study group, or meldado, Ladino literature opened the opportunity of individual reading to an average Ottoman Jewish reading public, men and women alike. The rabbis clearly saw the dangers of individual reading and tried to contain its undesired consequences by encouraging reading with the mediating guidance by a talmid hakham. Nevertheless, ample evidence from at least the mid-nineteenth century demonstrates that individual readers challenged the rabbinical monopoly over the communication of traditional knowledge and its interpretation. It was this increasingly independent and critical reading public that would prove a most receptive audience for the secular genres of Ladino literature that developed at this time. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.