Friendlessness and theory of mind: A prospective longitudinal study

Chronic friendlessness in childhood predicts adverse mental health outcomes throughout life, yet its earliest roots are poorly understood. In theory, developing a theory of mind (ToM) should help children gain mutual friends and one preschool study (Peterson & Siegal, 2002. Br J Dev Psychol, 20, 205) suggested a cross‐sectional connection. We therefore used a 2‐year prospective longitudinal design to explore ToM as a predictor of mutual friendship in 114 children from age 5 to 7 years after controlling potential confounds including language ability and group popularity. Confirming friendship's distinctiveness from group sociometric status, numerous group‐rejected children (53%) had a mutual friend whereas 23% of those highest in group status did not. Five‐year‐olds with a mutual friend significantly outperformed their friendless peers on a comprehensive ToM battery (basic and advanced false belief). Longitudinally, chronically friendless 7‐year‐olds (no friends at either testing time) stood out for their exceptionally poor Time 1 ToM understanding even after controlling for group popularity, age, and language skill. Extending previous evidence of ToM's predictive links with later social and cognitive outcomes, these results for mutual friendship suggest possible interventions to help reduce the lifelong mental health costs of chronic friendlessness.     

Pleasure Can Hurt: The Erotic Politics of Sexual Coercion

Sexual coercion is an unstable practice, often performed nervously on the boundary between flirtation and violation, flattery and coercion. While it is true that sexuality may sometimes be lived on a liminal fourth dimension, where it is immunized from morality by the press of (mutual) desire, it is also true that desire can be commandeered by all manner of malignancies which coopt the erotic into a traumatic register. This essay takes sexual coercion on its face, and explores many of its grim varietals, while also seeking to deconstruct the alchemy of sexuality, awash in its painful pleasures.     

The social behaviours of inhibited children in and out of preschool

The goal of the present study was to explore the social behaviours of inhibited children in familiar social contexts, including: (1) free play with peers at preschool and (2) social activities at home and in the community. The initial participants were N =248 preschool children between the ages of 42 and 66 months. From this initial data, two smaller groups of inhibited (N =12) and uninhibited comparison (N =12) children were identified. These children were observed during free play at preschool and parents completed daily logs of children's social activities outside of school. Among the findings, inhibited children were observed to display more reticent (on looking, unoccupied) and anxious behaviours during free play preschool than uninhibited children. As well, inhibited children participated less in structured social activities outside school and were more likely to engage in dyadic play at home with a single friend as compared to their uninhibited counterparts.     

Background Papers to The National Suicide Prevention Conference: An Overview and Perspective

T he recognition of suicide as a serious public health problem and the advocacy of Americans who have experienced the loss of someone to suicide together have galvanized action to create a national strategy to prevent the loss of life and the suffering that suicide causes. The process began in 1993, when the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) convened the first Interregional Expert Meeting on the Formulation of National Strategies for the Prevention of Suicide in Calgary and Banff, Alberta, Canada. Building on a document emanating from these deliberations, Prevention of Suicide: Guidelines for the Formation and Implementation of National Strategies ( UN, 1996 ), a public/private partnership has begun national strategy development for the United States. The articles in this special supplement represent one significant achievement of that collaborative effort and a foundation for ongoing work in developing a comprehensive National Suicide Prevention Strategy.