Beyond the Class Norm: Bullying Behavior of Popular Adolescents and its Relation to Peer Acceptance and Rejection

This study examined to what extent bullying behavior of popular adolescents is responsible for whether bullying is more or less likely to be accepted or rejected by peers (popularity-norm effect) rather than the behavior of all peers (class norm). Specifically, the mean level of bullying by the whole class (class norm) was split into behavior of popular adolescents (popularity-norm) and behavior of non-popular adolescents (non-popularity-norm), and examined in its interaction with individual bullying on peer acceptance and peer rejection. The data stem from a peer-nominations subsample of TRAILS, a large population-based sample of adolescent boys and girls (N = 3312). The findings of multilevel regression analyses demonstrated that the negative impact of individual bullying on peer acceptance and the positive impact on peer rejection were particularly weakened by bullying by popular adolescents. These results place the class-norm effects found in previous person-group dissimilarity studies in a different light, suggesting that particularly bullying by popular adolescents is related to the social status attached to bullying.

ADHD and Behavioral Inhibition: A Re-examination of the Stop-signal Task

The current study investigates two recently identified threats to the construct validity of behavioral inhibition as a core deficit of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on the stop-signal task: calculation of mean reaction time from go-trials presented adjacent to intermittent stop-trials, and non-reporting of the stop-signal delay metric. Children with ADHD (n = 12) and typically developing (TD) children (n = 11) were administered the standard stop-signal task and three variant stop-signal conditions. These included a no-tone condition administered without the presentation of an auditory tone; an ignore-tone condition that presented a neutral (i.e., not associated with stopping) auditory tone; and a second ignore-tone condition that presented a neutral auditory tone after the tone had been previously paired with stopping. Children with ADHD exhibited significantly slower and more variable reaction times to go-stimuli, and slower stop-signal reaction times relative to TD controls. Stop-signal delay was not significantly different between groups, and both groups’ go-trial reaction times slowed following meaningful tones. Collectively, these findings corroborate recent meta-analyses and indicate that previous findings of stop-signal performance deficits in ADHD reflect slower and more variable responding to visually presented stimuli and concurrent processing of a second stimulus, rather than deficits of motor behavioral inhibition.     

Survey and behavioral measurements of interpersonal trust

Although many studies treat trust as a situational construct, individual differences can be used to study and predict trusting behavior. We report two studies, the first showing the psychometric properties of a new trust inventory (the Propensity to Trust Survey or PTS), the second study validating this inventory using the standard economic task, the Investment Game. The first study utilized online survey data (N > 8000) to show that the PTS scales were reliable and measured broad constructs related to Big Five personality domains. Trust was related to extraversion and negative neuroticism, and trustworthiness was related to agreeableness and conscientiousness. The second study (N = 90) validated the PTS trust scale as a predictor of behavior in the Investment Game. These findings are evidence that trust and trustworthiness are compound personality traits, and that PTS scales are preferable to general Big Five measures for predicting trusting behavior.     

一个参与者眼中的行为遗传学史上的里程碑

行为遗传学的历史,从横切面看,就好似一个由心理学、遗传学、生物学、进化论、人类学、人口学、生物统计、社会学以及法哲学等学科组合成的万花筒。任何一对学科的演进都呈正相关。虽然任何一对学科都不至于相互否定,但是,他们各自独特的历史和人物,又使得每一对学科并不完全相似     

The Use of Stimulant Medication and Behavioral Interventions for the Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Survey of Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Experiences

We examined parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and information sources regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), including treatment with stimulant medication and behavioral interventions. Responses from parents with a child diagnosed with ADHD and parents without a child diagnosed with ADHD were also compared. Participants consisted of 146 parents of elementary age children from Wisconsin. The surveyed parents were aware of issues surrounding ADHD and the use of stimulant medication, but there were several areas where they possessed inaccurate or incomplete factual information. Parents who had a child diagnosed with ADHD rated the effects of stimulant medication more positively and side effects as less severe than other parents. They also rated behavioral interventions as less effective on all questions. Implications of the study are discussed.     

A Population-Based Twin Study of Parentally Reported Tactile and Auditory Defensiveness in Young Children

  Some adults and children exhibit defensive behaviors to tactile or auditory stimulation. These symptoms occur not only in subsets of children with ADHD, autism, and Fragile X syndrome, but also in the apparent absence of accompanying disorders. Relatively little research explores the correlates and antecedents of sensory defensiveness. Using a population-based sample of 1,394 toddler-aged twins, mothers reported on tactile and auditory defensiveness, temperament, and behavior problems. The incidence of defensive symptoms was widely distributed, with some accumulation of cases in the extreme range. Girls were overrepresented in the extreme tactile defensiveness group. Both auditory and tactile defensiveness were modestly associated with fearful temperament and anxiety, but they were relatively distinct from other common dimensions of childhood behavioral dysfunction. Twin correlations for the full range of scores and concordance rates for the extremes suggested moderate genetic influences, with some indication that the tactile domain might be more heritable than the auditory domain.     

What Causes Specific Language Impairment in Children?

ABSTRACT— Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child's language development is deficient for no obvious reason. For many years, there was a tendency to assume that SLI was caused by factors such as poor parenting, subtle brain damage around the time of birth, or transient hearing loss. Subsequently it became clear that these factors were far less important than genes in determining risk for SLI. A quest to find "the gene for SLI" was undertaken, but it soon became apparent that no single cause could account for all cases. Furthermore, although fascinating cases of SLI caused by a single mutation have been discovered, in most children the disorder has a more complex basis, with several genetic and environmental risk factors interacting. The clearest evidence for genetic effects has come from studies that diagnosed SLI using theoretically motivated measures of underlying cognitive deficits rather than conventional clinical criteria.     

Predicting the Early Developmental Course of Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were examined to test whether: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms remain stable from 54 months through early elementary school; behavioral inhibition and attention deficits assessed at 54 months predict ADHD symptoms in elementary school, even after controlling for their temporal stability; and early behavioral inhibition and attention deficits moderate the longitudinal stability in ADHD symptoms. Data were examined using continuous and categorical measures of symptoms. Modest stability in ADHD symptoms from 54 months to third grade was found. Measures of inhibition and inattention predicted later teacher ratings uniquely, but no evidence was found for moderation. Measures of preschool behavioral inhibition also predicted “persistently at risk status” defined by elevated teacher ratings over time. Results are discussed in terms of executive and motivational facets of inhibition that may be related to early signs of ADHD.     

What gene-environment interactions can tell us about social competence in typical and atypical populations

Social competence is a complex human behaviour that is likely to involve a system of genes that interacts with a myriad of environmental risk and protective factors. The search for its genetic and environmental origins and influences is equally complex and will require a multidimensional conceptualization and multiple methods and levels of analysis. Behavioural genetic research can begin to address the fundamental yet complex question of how children develop social competence by uncovering the various influences on social development and disentangling variance due to multiple genes, environments and experiences. In this paper, we review the current status of research on sociability, face recognition, emotion recognition, and theory of mind (TOM)--well defined and measured constructs that are likely to be useful indices for detecting genetic and environmental influences on social competence. We also propose specific milestones as indices of further progress in the field: the development of an operational definition of the construct of social competence, the identification of social endophenotypes-psychological processes that are validly and reliably measured components of social competence, and improving specificity and homogeneity with regard to social endophenotypes within a population of study by employing 'extreme social phenotypes'. These efforts will lead to a better understanding of the specific contributions to the normal variation of social competence in the general population as well as to atypical social development.     

Learning Abilities and Disabilities: Generalist Genes, Specialist Environments

ABSTRACT— Twin studies comparing identical and fraternal twins consistently show substantial genetic influence on individual differences in learning abilities such as reading and mathematics, as well as in other cognitive abilities such as spatial ability and memory. Multivariate genetic research has shown that the same set of genes is largely responsible for genetic influence on these diverse cognitive areas. We call these "generalist genes." What differentiates these abilities is largely the environment, especially nonshared environments that make children growing up in the same family different from one another. These multivariate genetic findings of generalist genes and specialist environments have far-reaching implications for diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities and for understanding the brain mechanisms that mediate these effects.