Parental Perceptions of Characteristics of Non-Parental Child Care: Belief Dimensions, Family and Child Correlates

Investigators argue that it is essential to consider why parents select non-parental child care arrangements in studying the effects of that care on a child’s development. Existing investigations explore family economic and demographic characteristics as determinants of child care choice. The present investigation examined a wide array of parents’ beliefs about characteristics of child care arrangements with the goal of determining if these could be reduced to coherent dimensions. The emergent belief sets were examined in relation to maternal and child characteristics as potential correlates. Two hundred and twenty respondents with children in non-parental care completed surveys. These individuals represent diverse ethnic and economic groups. Ratings of the importance of characteristics were factor analyzed resulting in a six factor solution: Practical Concerns, Institutional Structure, Curriculum, Scheduling, Child Centered Orientation and School Readiness. The latter factor, or program components promoting social skills and classroom behaviors associated with succeeding in school, was identified as the most important dimension. Parents describing their children as more difficult temperamentally and as less developmentally advanced tended to describe school readiness and curriculum issues as less important. Child characteristics accounted for unique variance above and beyond mothers’ characteristics in predicting to parental beliefs. Results suggest that parents as consumers possess coherent belief sets and are sensitive to children’s developmental needs in evaluating care arrangements.     

The Impact of Managing School-aged Children’s Diabetes: The Role of Child Behavior Problems and Parental Discipline Strategies

Models of diabetes management in children emphasize family relationships, particularly parent–child interactions. In adolescents, parental involvement in disease-specific management relates to better health and adherence. However, information about parental involvement in disease management for young children is limited and mixed. This study investigated behavior problems of school-aged children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) in association with parent discipline strategies and parents’ perceptions of (1) time spent managing diabetes and (2) the impact their child’s diabetes has on their discipline strategies. Parents of children ages 5–12 with T1DM completed standardized measures of child misbehavior, parent discipline strategies, and responded to questions regarding perceived time spent managing diabetes, and perceived impact of diabetes on ability to discipline. Results showed child mealtime misbehavior was common and associated with overreactive parental discipline. Further, overreactive discipline was also associated with reports of less time spent managing child’s illness. Child misbehavior was positively associated with parents’ perceived amount of time spent managing diabetes and with the impact of child diabetes on discipline. Findings suggest the importance of considering parent discipline strategies and child misbehavior when working with young children with diabetes.     

Temperament and its Relationship to Autistic Symptoms in a High-Risk Infant Sib Cohort

The present study prospectively investigated early temperamental profiles and their associations with autistic symptoms in high-risk infants (N = 138) with an older sibling with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and low-risk infants (N = 73) with no family history of ASD. Children who were diagnosed with ASD at 36 months were distinguished from non-ASD sibs and controls by a temperament profile marked by lower positive affect, higher negative affect and difficulty controlling attention and behavior, which we labeled Effortful Emotion Regulation. This profile also distinguished the non-ASD sib group from the control group. Children with ASD were distinguished from both of the other two groups by a temperament profile of low Behavioral Approach (lower sensitivity to “social” reward cues). Low levels of Behavioral Approach were associated with a higher number of ASD symptoms, even after taking into account IQ, sex and group membership. Finally, a cluster analysis revealed two ASD subgroups distinguished by number of ASD symptoms, IQ, age of diagnosis and scores on the Behavioral Approach profile. These findings suggest that temperament may be a useful framework for understanding the emergence of ASD early in life.     

Cognition and survival in a biracial urban population of old people

We examined the relation of level of cognition to survival in a biracial community population of more than 10,000 older persons. At baseline, participants completed 4 cognitive tests from which a composite global cognitive measure was derived. During up to 14 years of follow-up (mean = 6.9 years), 4201 people died (41.6%). Higher level of cognitive function was associated with increased survival even after controlling for health related and lifestyle variables. The association did not differ between African Americans and whites; it was stronger in older than younger persons; and it was especially pronounced for perceptual speed. The results underscore the importance of cognition to survival in old age.     

How intelligence and education contribute to substance use: Hints from the Minnesota Twin family study

In old and even middle age, there are associations between physical health and both intelligence and education. This may occur because intelligence and/or education exert effects on lifestyle choices that, in turn, affect later health. Substance use is one aspect of lifestyle choice in young adulthood that could play such a role. The effects of intelligence and/or education on substance use could be direct and environmental, or indirect due to the presence of confounding genetic and shared family influences. We used the Minnesota Twin Family Study to distinguish these effects in males and females at age 24. In contrast to prevailing expectations, there were moderately negative direct nonshared environmental effects of both IQ and education on both smoking and drinking in both males and females. That is, controlling for family background effects in the form of both genetic and shared environmental influences, both higher IQ and greater education were associated with greater alcohol and nicotine use. These effects were accounted for by alcohol and nicotine use at age 17. Our results suggest that genetic and family-culture variables confound the associations between intelligence and education and substance use in young adults, rendering them indirect. Further research is needed to understand the roles of IQ and education in alcohol and nicotine use and their relative impacts on physical health throughout the lifespan.     

Genetic and environmental transactions underlying educational attainment

This report used a population-representative longitudinal twin study with two birth cohorts to explore the association between intelligence and education by understanding how genetic and environmental influences on intelligence moderate genetic and environmental influences on school grades and educational attainment. Nonshared environmental influences on grades were strong when IQ was low, but decreased across the range of IQ. Shared environmental influences common to age 24 educational attainment and age 17 IQ were strong when IQ was low, but genetic influences common to IQ and education were strong when IQ was high. These results suggest that the causal mechanisms linking educational variables with intelligence differ for people with different levels of intelligence.     

Functional analysis and generalized treatment of disruptive behavior during dental exams

Patient disruption during dental visits can impede treatment and may result in invasive approaches to care. The current study evaluated the efficacy of graduated exposure with and without extinction to decrease disruption during dental treatment for 4 young men with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Modified functional analyses confirmed that disruption was maintained by escape from dental demands for all four young men. Initial treatment consisted of graduated exposure, whereby exam steps were initially removed and then gradually reintroduced as disruption remained low; throughout this phase, disruption resulted in a break from the exam. During the subsequent treatment phase, graduated exposure procedures continued and extinction for disruption was added. Graduated exposure alone did not result in sufficient treatment effects; however, the addition of extinction resulted in greater reductions in disruption and increases in exam completion for all 4 young men, and treatment effects generalized to a dental clinic setting.     

From Gaze to Outrage: The Role of Group-Based Anger in Mediating the Relationship between Sexual Objectification and Collective Action

Numerous studies have demonstrated the harmful effects of sexual objectification on well-being. However, despite the rapid growth of the #MeToo movement, which has raised public awareness about sexual harassment, there has been much less research investigating the role of sexually objectifying behaviours in motivating people to try to tackle this issue through collective action (e.g., signing petitions, engaging in protests) and the process through which this occurs. Across two studies, we tested whether experiencing sexually objectifying behaviours motivates women to be willing to engage in collective action against sexual objectification via feelings of anger toward women being the target of such actions (i.e., group-based anger). In Studies 1 (n?=?127) and 2 (n?=?159), female participants rated the extent to which they had been the target of sexually objectifying behaviours, their feelings of group-based anger, and their willingness to engage in collective action against sexual objectification. We found that sexual objectification positively predicted the willingness to engage in collective action and that this relationship was mediated by feelings of group-based anger. This pattern suggests that experiencing numerous instances of sexual objectification is likely to result in women feeling group-based anger and that this anger, in turn, promotes collective action against sexual objectification. Therefore, our research demonstrates one process through which sexual objectification promotes a willingness to engage in collective action.

     

The impact of socioeconomic status on teenage mothers and children who received early intervention

To determine the early school age effects of an intervention program for low SES, black teenage mothers and their term and preterm infants, a subsample of 61 mother-child dyads was assessed when the children were 5 to 8 years of age. The mothers and children were videotaped in a storytelling interaction together and then interviewed and tested. The child interviews included the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Wide Range Achievement Test, and the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. The maternal interviews included a demographic questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, the Parenting Stress Index, and the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Analyses of variance yielded no intervention effects and no effects of prematurity on any of the child or mother measures. Correlation analysis, however, yielded a number of significant relations between socioeconomic status and child and maternal outcome measures. These findings suggest that the effects of intervention may be short-term for this population, and that low socioeconomic status (SES) may override the effects of early intervention and prematurity by the time children reach school age.