Slowed Speech Input has a Differential Impact on On-line and Off-line Processing in Children’s Comprehension of Pronouns

The central question underlying this study revolves around how children process co-reference relationships—such as those evidenced by pronouns (him) and reflexives (himself)—and how a slowed rate of speech input may critically affect this process. Previous studies of child language processing have demonstrated that typical language developing (TLD) children as young as 4 years of age process co-reference relations in a manner similar to adults on-line. In contrast, off-line measures of pronoun comprehension suggest a developmental delay for pronouns (relative to reflexives). The present study examines dependency relations in TLD children (ages 5–13) and investigates how a slowed rate of speech input affects the unconscious (on-line) and conscious (off-line) parsing of these constructions. For the on-line investigations (using a cross-modal picture priming paradigm), results indicate that at a normal rate of speech TLD children demonstrate adult-like syntactic reflexes. At a slowed rate of speech the typical language developing children displayed a breakdown in automatic syntactic parsing (again, similar to the pattern seen in unimpaired adults). As demonstrated in the literature, our off-line investigations (sentence/picture matching task) revealed that these children performed much better on reflexives than on pronouns at a regular speech rate. However, at the slow speech rate, performance on pronouns was substantially improved, whereas performance on reflexives was not different than at the regular speech rate. We interpret these results in light of a distinction between fast automatic processes (relied upon for on-line processing in real time) and conscious reflective processes (relied upon for off-line processing), such that slowed speech input disrupts the former, yet improves the latter.     

Prediction of toddlers’ expressive language from maternal sensitivity and toddlers’ anger expressions: A developmental perspective

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of negative emotions and parenting to language skills may differ for girls and boys. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the associations among maternal sensitivity, children's observed anger reactivity, and expressive language when children were 18 (T1; n = 247) and 30 (T2; n = 216) months. At each age, mothers reported on their toddlers’ expressive language, and mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior was observed during an unstructured free-play task. Toddlers’ anger expressions were observed during an emotion-eliciting task. Using path modeling, results showed few relations at T1. At T2, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to anger, and in turn, anger was associated with lower language skills. However, moderation analyses showed that these findings were significant for boys but not for girls. In addition, T1 maternal sensitivity and anger positively predicted expressive language longitudinally for both sexes. Findings suggest that the relations between maternal sensitivity, anger reactivity and expressive language may vary depending on the child's developmental stage and sex.     

Overgeneral autobiographical memory in children of depressed mothers

The goal of this study was to examine overgeneral autobiographical memory in a population at-risk for depression (i.e., children of depressed mothers). We predicted that children of depressed mothers would display less-specific memories than children of non-depressed mothers and that these results would be observed among children with no prior history of depression themselves. Participants in this study were children (age 8–14; 50% girls, 83% Caucasian) of mothers with (n = 103) or without (n = 120) a history of major depressive disorder during the child's life. Mothers' and children's diagnoses were confirmed with a diagnostic interview, and children completed the Autobiographical Memory Test and a measure of depressive symptoms. We found that children of depressed mothers, compared to children of non-depressed mothers, recalled less-specific memories in response to negative cue words but not positive cue words. Importantly, these results were maintained even when we statistically controlled for the influence of children's current depressive symptom levels and excluded children with currently depressed mothers. These results suggest that overgeneral autobiographical memory for negative events may serve as a marker of depression risk among high-risk children with no prior depression history.     

Complementary assessments of executive function in preterm and full-term preschoolers

Executive functions (EFs) are interrelated cognitive processes that have been studied in relation to behavior, attention, academic achievement, and developmental disorders. Studies of EF skills assessed through parent report and performance-based measures show correlations between them ranging from none to modest. Few studies have examined the relationship between EF skills measured through parent report and performance-based measures in relation to adaptive function. The present study included preschool children born preterm as a population at high risk for EF impairments. Preschool children (N = 149) completed a battery of EF tasks that assess working memory, response inhibition, idea generation, and attention shifting or cognitive flexibility. Parents reported on children’s EF and adaptive skills. Preterm children showed more parent-rated and performance-based EF impairments than did full-term children. The combined use of either parent report or performance-based measures resulted in the identification of a large number of children at risk for EF impairment, especially in the preterm group. Both parent report and performance-based EF measures were associated with children’s adaptive function. EF skills are measurable in young child'ren, and we suggest that EF skills may serve as targets for intervention to improve functional outcomes. We recommend the use of both parent report and performance-based measures to characterize children’s EF profiles and to customize treatment.     

PTSD Symptoms in College Students Exposed to Interparental Violence: Are they Comparable to those that Result from Child Physical and Sexual Abuse?

Undergraduate students completed the Trauma Symptom Inventory and a childhood history questionnaire that assessed their experience of three types of childhood traumatic events: physical abuse (CPA), sexual abuse (CSA), and interparental violence (CPV). Six posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) subscales previously found to be associated with these types of abuse (anxious arousal, anger/irritability, intrusive experiences, depression, tension reduction behaviors, and defensive avoidance) were examined through multiple regression analyses to determine the extent to which each type of trauma history was most predictive of elevated symptomatology. For several subscales, having exposure to interparental violence was the strongest predictor of elevated symptomatology, suggesting that CPV is at least as powerful as CPA or CSA in producing symptoms of PTSD in adulthood.     

Do criminal offenders specialize in crime types?

A common misconception exists that criminal offenders specialize in types of crime, such as serial murders, domestic violence, and sex offenses. This article explores the research on specialization in general criminal offenders, domestic violence offenders, and sex offenders. This review finds that although there are a few specialists, the majority of criminal offenders are generalists who exhibit wide versatility in offending. The implications for legal and mental health policies are discussed.     

Children's social behavior: Reliability and concurrent validity of two self-report measures

In this study the psychometric qualities of Deluty's Children's Action Tendency Scale (CATS) and Michelson and Wood's Children's Assertive Behavior Scale (CABS) were assessed with 157 Dutch children. Both instruments are designed to assess children's self-reported responses to interpersonal situations, whereby aggressive, assertive, and submissive scores are obtained. In general acceptable psychometric properties were obtained for both the CATS and the CABS, except for the assertive scale of the CATS. Furthermore, it was found that the ability of both the CATS and the CABS to discriminate between submissiveness and assertiveness was low. Important gender differences that were found regarding the relations with measures of perceived competence and social desirability are offered as a possible explanation for the relative failure of the CABS and the CATS to unbind submissive from assertive behavior. The parent version of the CABS is offered as a possible alternative or additional source of information for the assessment of children's submissiveness. Recommendations for future applications and research are presented.This research was supported by Grant 2843 from the NFGV to the second author.     

Cognitive behavior therapy in treatment-naive children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: an open trial

This work aims is to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in pediatric patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who had not previously been treated with either pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy and who remained medication-free during CBT. Sixteen OCD outpatients, 8-17 years of age, were treated in a 12-week open trial with manualized CBT. Target symptoms were rated at two-week intervals with the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS), the National Institute of Mental Health Global Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (NIMH Global), the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI), and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (Ham-A). Statistical analyses showed a significant benefit for treatment. Ten patients experienced at least a 50% reduction in symptoms on the CY-BOCS; seven were asymptomatic on the NIMH Global. These results build on previous reports that CBT may be effective in the acute treatment of pediatric OCD. Further, the results of this study suggest that CBT can be efficacious in alleviating OCD symptoms in the absence of pharmacotherapy. These results must be considered preliminary, given the small sample size and open administration of treatment.     

Science and Human Behavior: a tutorial in behavior analysis

B. F. Skinner's Science and Human Behavior (1953) became the main source of my understanding of behavior during my first semester as a college professor in 1955 at Kansas University. It has continued to exert a major influence throughout my career as the basis for a completely deterministic science of behavior, as a handbook to be consulted as a first step in dealing with any issue in behavior analysis, and as a tutorial in behavioral interpretive analysis--in the use of a small number of behavioral concepts and principles to understand behavior of all degrees of complexity. I describe four general interpretive orientations or maxims that are of broad significance for behavior analysis, and also two underappreciated major theoretical contributions.     

Parent–Child Attunement Moderates the Prospective Link between Parental Overcontrol and Adolescent Adjustment

Parental overcontrol (OC), behavior that intrusively or dominantly restricts child autonomy, has been identified as a transdiagnostic risk factor for youth. However, it is as yet unknown whether the association between parental OC and child maladjustment remains even when OC is exerted infrequently or by attuned parents. Rather, the selective use of OC might steer children away from danger. Taking a developmental psychopathology approach, this study focuses on the larger parent–child relationship context, testing whether either the dose at which parents demonstrate OC or the degree to which children perceive their parents as attuned determines whether OC is risky or protective for adolescents’ adjustment. Among a community sample of 114 families of children followed from the ages of 12–18, we examine whether OC, behaviorally coded from triadic mother–father–child discussions in middle childhood, is associated with later risky behavior and anxiety symptoms in adolescence. Overcontrol exerted by either mothers or fathers had a curvilinear effect on adolescent risky behaviors, and this effect was moderated by children's perceived attunement. Although OC generally was associated with increased risky behaviors, low doses of OC or OC exerted by highly attuned parents protected against engagement in risky behaviors. No main effect of OC was observed on adolescent anxiety; however, mothers’ OC interacted with perceived parental attunement, such that OC exerted by less attuned parents predicted greater anxiety. Results underscore that the effect of parenting behaviors depends on the larger parent–child relationship context.