Sexual activity and contraceptive use among low-income urban black adolescent females.

A modified form of Nathanson and Becker's (1983) Health Belief Model Questionnaire and other measures designed to assess cognitive processing were administered to low-income black adolescent female clients of an inner-city comprehensive health care clinic. The purpose of the study was to explore determinants of sexual activity and contraceptive use. Subjects were classified as not sexually active (n = 50), sexually active/noncontracepting (n = 20), or sexually active/contracepting (n = 72). Not sexually active subjects tended to be younger, more career motivated, to have a father at home, to be more influenced by family values, and to have more conservative attitudes regarding adolescent sexuality than did sexually active subjects. Sexually active/noncontracepting subjects tended to report fewer benefits and more barriers to the use of contraception. Level of cognitive processing did not differ among the three groups, but was at a lower-than-expected level for age. Finally, inconsistent contraceptive use was common to both sexually active groups.     

Polysemy and the acquisition of the cognitive internal state lexicon

Previous research (Hall, Scholnick, & Hughes, 1987) suggested that cognitive word meanings denote six increasingly abstract and complex cognitive processes. In this paper, we further investigated two interrelated aspects of this framework. A set of 36 conversations with children aged 4:5 to 5 provided the data. In Study 1, issues related to the optimal ordering of levels were examined by comparing the original sequence with a restructured model. In Study 2, the hypothesis that, in addition toknow, other polysemous cognitive internal state words would be hierarchically organized was tested. The findings lent support to the restructured model, but rejected the hypothesis that polysemous words within the domain were characterized by equivalent,hhierarchically organized levels. We conclude by proposing that cognitive internal state words were related by complementarity of levels rather than equivalence.The research on which this paper is based was supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to William S. Hall. Data analysis was supported by the Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.     

The influence on recognition of spoken words that are misperceived

Two experiments were performed that involved an initial word-identification task in which the acoustic signal was degraded by either 50% or 60% compression of the recorded words. A control group was tested at the original recording rate (0% compression). The compression manipulation was successful in increasing the number of identification errors. During the second stage of the experiments, words were read at a normal rate. In Experiment 1, the subjects indicated whether each word had appeared on the prior list, and in Experiment 2, the subjects estimated the number of times each word had been read on the prior list. The false-negative rate decreased and frequency ratings increased as a function of the number of prior presentations (one, two, or three) of the target words. The most interesting result was that the effect of repetitions was present even for words that had been misperceived.     

The specificity of the effects of stimulant medication on classroom learning-related measures of cognitive processing for Attention Deficit Disorder children

There appear to be beneficial effects of stimulant medication on daily classroom measures of cognitive functioning for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) children, but the specificity and origin of such effects is unclear. Consistent with previous results, 0.3 mg/kg methylphenidate improved ADD children's performance on a classroom reading comprehension measure. Using the Posner letting-matching task and four additional measures of phonological processing, we attempted to isolate the effects of methylphenidate to parameter estimates of (a) selective attention, (b) the basic cognitive process of retrieving name codes from permanent memory, and (c) a constant term that represented nonspecific aspects of information processing. Responses to the letter-matching stimuli were faster and more accurate with medication compared to placebo. The improvement in performance was isolated to the parameter estimate that reflected nonspecific aspects of information processing. A lack of medication effect on the other measures of phonological processing supported the Posner task findings in indicating that methylphenidate appears to exert beneficial effects on academic processing through general rather than specific aspects of information processing.     

Rhythmic motor behavior of preambulatory motor impaired,down syndrome and nondisabled children: A comparative analysis

The developmental course of rhythmic motor behavior was followed longitudinally for three groups of preambulatory children — normally developing, Down syndrome, and those with profound motor impairment. The groups differed in chronological age but were comparable with respect to motor age. The motor impaired subjects displayed significantly less rhythmic motor behavior than the nondisabled and Down syndrome groups. In comparing particular subtypes of rhythmic motor behavior, differences were found in both the average number of bouts and duration of subtypes among the groups. Longitudinal analyses of the data over the entire observation period revealed that the rhythmic motor behavior of the children with Down syndrome was more similar to that exhibited by the nondisabled children than was the rhythmic motor behavior of the children with motor impairment. However, there was considerable variability among the groups in several particular subtypes.This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD 17650 and HD 07226).The authors acknowledge the assistance of Robert E. Arendt, Grant Youngquist, Michael Hohn, and Charles Lowitzer in obtaining the observational data and thank the families of the subjects for their enthusiasm and dedication to the project.This study was presented at the 23rd Annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, April 21, 1990.     

Developmental and family milieu correlates of resilience in urban children who have experienced major life stress

Reports findings from interviews with parents of demographically-comparable groups of highly-stressed urban children with stress-resilient (SR) and stress-affected (SA) outcomes at ages 10-12. SR and SA children were compared on family milieu and child development variables assessed within a developmental framework. Compared to SAs, parents of SRs scored higher on variables reflecting parent perceptions of a nurturant caregiver-child relationship and self-views as effective caregivers, in the context of positive discipline practices, a child's positive early temperament, and support for primary caregivers. A discriminant function analysis identified seven variables that optimally differentiated the groups and correctly classified 86% of the Ss as SR or SA.     

Clinical syndromes are not God''s gift to cognitive neuropsychology: A reply to a rebuttal to an answer to a response to the case against syndrome-based research

In this paper we consider several issues about single-patient versus syndrome-based research in response to E. Zurif, D. Swinney, and J. A. Fodor's (1991, Brain and Cognition, 16, 198-210) criticism of A. Caramazza and W. Badecker (1989, Brain and Cognition, 10, 256-295). We argue that these authors have failed to provide convincing arguments in favor of syndrome-based research. In particular, we show that the specific example--a study by D. Swinney, E. Zurif, and J. Nicol (1989, Journal of Cognitive Neurosciences, 1, 25-37)--given by these authors as a demonstration of the usefulness of syndrome-based research to inform theories of normal language processing does not in fact serve this purpose.     

Sex of child preferences among college students

In both 1985 and 1988, college student preferences for the sex of an only child were examined using social surveys. For both years, it was found that male students strongly prefer a male child, but that female students moderately prefer a female child. Gender of respondent accounted for most of the sex preference difference. The sex role attitude of agreement with having the wife retain her own name was the only other variable significantly related to sex preference. It is argued that differing male-female role expectations for women as wives and mothers partly explained the gender differences in sex preference for a child.     

Training in child and adolescent group therapy: Two surveys and a model

Although group therapy is widely used in the treatment of children and adolescents, there has been little attention paid to establishing training standards and developing comprehensive programs for training psychiatry fellows in child and adolescent group psychotherapy. The authors conducted two surveys of child and adolescent training programs. After reviewing the literature, they present the data from their surveys, compare similarities and differences, and discuss trends. Finally, they propose a model for training in child and adolescent group therapy.