Le stress des mères monoparentales en relation avec l'agressivité de l'enfant d'âge préscolaire

Dans cette étude, nous avons décrit la relation existante entre le stress parental des mères vivant avec ou sans conjoint et le niveau d'agressivité de l'enfant vis-à-vis de ses pairs. De plus, nous avons observé les comportements des mères en situation de jeu avec leur enfant. Notre échantillon se compose de 32 mères monoparentales et de 43 mères biparentales ayant des enfants de trois ou quatre ans évalués au QECP comme étant agressifs (n = 47) et non-agressifs (n = 28). Nos résultats démontrent: (1) le niveau de stress parental est similaire pour les mères monoparentales et biparentales, sauf si l'enfant est agressif; (2) en contrôlant statistiquement le revenu financier, il existe un lien très clair entre le stress des mères monoparentales et l'agressivité de l'enfant en garderie; (3) le niveau de scolarisation de la mère est la variable la plus reliée au stress maternel; (4) l'agressivité de l'enfant est reliée au faible revenu financier des mères; plus les mères sont pauvres, plus l'enfant est agressif; (5) en situation de jeu avec l'enfant, les mères monoparentales sont plus contrôlantes et moins positives que les mères biparentales, et le négativisme de l'enfant augmente avec le niveau de stress de la mère.     

Parent reports of child behavior problems: Bias in participation

This paper compares the characteristics of 274 children whose parents agreed to provide information about their children's functioning in research with children whose parents did not. Parents had provided permission for child participation in school-approved research. Measures included self-, peer, teacher, and parent ratings. Parents of minority children were less likely to participate than parents of nonminority children. Among nonminorities, children of parent participants were viewed as more socially skilled and liked by their peers; teachers rated them as having less attention problems, less depression, and better academic skills than children of nonparticipating parents. Among minorities, no differences emerged. Implications for research involving the use of parent ratings are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, Sarasota, Florida, February 1992. The authors appreciate the efforts of Shari Wasserstein in assisting with the organization of the data. The authors also appreciate the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers.     

The effects of the Positive Environment Program (PEP) on the behaviors of adults with profound cognitive and physical disabilities

This study evaluated the effects of the Positive Environment Program (PEP) on the behaviors of residents and staff in a state‐operated residential facility during a 2½ year period. The participants included 19 adult residents with profound cognitive and physical disabilities and 11 staff members who worked with them. Data were collected on alertness, leisure material availability, engagement, staff interactions, and resident affect during two samples of data collection six months prior to implementation of PEP. Training was then provided to staff on positive interaction skills. Following the training, researchers implemented a monitoring program and a staff incentive program. The results of this project showed improvements in staff interactions, resident interaction with leisure materials, improved levels of alertness, and increases in a ‘happiness index’. The benefits and limitations of this project as well as future research are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms

It has been claimed that bilingualism enhances inhibitory control, but the available evidence is equivocal. The authors evaluated several possible versions of the inhibition hypothesis by comparing monolinguals and bilinguals with regard to stop signal performance, inhibition of return, and the attentional blink. These three phenomena, it can be argued, tap into different aspects of inhibition. Monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ in stop signal reaction time and thus were comparable in terms of active-inhibitory efficiency. However, bilinguals showed no facilitation from spatial cues, showed a strong inhibition of return effect, and exhibited a more pronounced attentional blink. These results suggest that bilinguals do not differ from monolinguals in terms of active inhibition but have acquired a better ability to maintain action goals and to use them to bias goal-related information. Under some circumstances, this ability may indirectly lead to more pronounced reactive inhibition of irrelevant information.     

The unique contributions of motivations to maintain a relationship and motivations toward relational activities to relationship well-being

People experience autonomy when they perceive their behaviour to be volitional rather than driven by external controls. Previous research has studied autonomy in relationships at a general level, focusing on people’s motivations to maintain their romantic relationships, as measured by the Couple Motivation Questionnaire (CMQ; Blais et al., J Personal Soc Psychol 59:1021–1031, 1990). To supplement the CMQ, we developed the Motivations for Relational Activities (MRA) scale, which assesses the extent to which people feel autonomous and controlled in a variety of specific relational activities. The purpose of this study is to examine the unique contributions of general motivations to maintain a relationship (CMQ) and motivations toward specific relational activities (MRA) in the prediction of relationship well-being. Results showed that the MRA and CMQ both independently and significantly contributed to the prediction of relationship well-being (i.e., commitment, intimacy, satisfaction, and vitality within the relationship) and were differentiated by their associations to dimensions of personality and attachment.

Why identities fluctuate: variability in traits as a function of situational variations in autonomy support

ABSTRACT Interest in intra-individual variation in trait expression across situations, contexts, and relationships, and the meaning of this variation for personal functioning has grown significantly. In this article we review this literature with an emphasis on (a) appropriate methods for identifying variations in trait expression and (b) the substantive meaning and sources of this variation. Self-determination theory suggests that people will express traits differently as a function of the degree of support for autonomy they experience in any given setting. Accordingly, autonomy support is shown to predict variations in Big Five trait expression and other stable individual differences such as attachment security and dependency. The discussion focuses on methodological issues in the study of variability and on why autonomy support may play a central role in explaining trait variability and its relation to well-being.     

A paradoxical exposure-duration effect in the Stroop task: temporal segregation between stimulus attributes facilitates selection.

In comparison with the situation in which target and distractor are presented until response, Stroop interference substantially decreases when the target color is removed from the display 150-160 ms after stimulus onset (W. La Heij, N. A. Kaptein, A. C. Kalff, & L. de Lange, 1995; O. Neumann, 1986). Six experiments showed that this paradoxical exposure-duration effect is robust, that it is not due to the target's exposure duration per se, and that it is not due to an increased spatial selectivity of input selection. The present findings support and extend earlier observations that changes in the display during stimulus exposure affect attentional selection. The findings are tentatively interpreted in terms of (a) reduced duration of input selection or (b) facilitation of attribute selection.