Understanding Triadic and Family Group Interactions During Infancy and Toddlerhood

This paper outlines recent conceptual and methodological developments in the assessment of triadic and family group process during infancy and toddlerhood. Foundations of the emerging family group process are identified, and conditions specific to the assessment of the family during the early phases of family formation are summarized. Both microanalytic and global approaches to evaluating mother–father–child interactions are discussed. We highlight both similarities and differences in the strategies and methods employed by several different investigators who have been studying the group dynamics of families with infant and toddler children, and underscore several important family patterns and emerging themes that appear to be cutting across these different methods and measurement strategies. Preliminary evidence for the validity and clinical significance of family-level assessments is summarized, and directions currently being pursued by researchers engaged in studies of the family triad are outlined. We close by identifying several conceptual and clinical issues that remain to be addressed by subsequent work.     

Effective Treatment for Mental Disorders in Children and Adolescents

As pressure increases for the demonstration of effective treatment for children with mental disorders, it is essential that the field has an understanding of the evidence base. To address this aim, the authors searched the published literature for effective interventions for children and adolescents and organized this review as follows: (1) prevention; (2) traditional forms of treatment, namely outpatient therapy, partial hospitalization, inpatient treatment, and psychopharmacology; (3) intensive comprehensive community-based interventions including case management, home-based treatment, therapeutic foster care, and therapeutic group homes; (4) crisis and support services; and (5) treatment for two prevalent disorders, major depressive disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Strong evidence was found for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety, and disruptive behavior disorders. Guidance from the field relevant to moving the evidence-based interventions into real-world clinical practice and further strengthening the research base will also need to address change in policy and clinical training.     

Problem-solving strategies on a partial reinforcement task: Effects of socioeconomic status and cognitive level

Differences in performance between lower- and middle-class children on partial reinforcement tasks have often been attributed to motivational differences between the groups. An alternate hypothesis suggests that different environmental experiences have resulted in differences in familiarity with problem-solving tasks. Both of these hypotheses have generated research; neither has received clear-cut support. A third hypothesis is that there is a developmental lag in the lower class so that equating the two groups on chronological age confounds the social class by cognitive-level interaction. In the present study, children were matched on cognitive abilities (preoperational, transitional, and concrete operational) and administered a partial reinforcement task. The main hypotheses that social-class differences would not be found but that cognitive level differences in success on the task and in problem-solving strategies would be found were supported. Implications were made concerning a developmental learning model that includes both qualitative and quantitative changes in abilities.     

A follow-up developmental study of hypothesis behavior among mentally retarded and nonretarded children

To clarify the roles of IQ and mental age (MA) in hypothesis behavior, MA-matched subjects at three levels of IQ (70, 100, and 130) and three levels of MA ($\text{5}\text{1}\text{2}\text{, 7}\text{1}\text{2}\text{,}\text{and}\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}\text{years}$) received blank-trial discrimination learning problems using procedures designed to discourage position-oriented responding. With position responding discouraged, earlier findings were contradicted in that no hypothesis measure showed a main effect of IQ. This suggest that previously reported IQ group differences in hypothesis behavior may not reflect cognitive deficits inherently linked to low IQ, but instead may reflect the influence of specific methodological factors. The finding and interpretation are consistent with Zigler's (American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 73, 536–556) “developmental” theory of retardation and inconsistent with the general “difference” position. In additional findings, the predictions that subjects at all three MA levels would use hypotheses, and that retarded children from special-education classes would use hypotheses more often than retarded children “mainstreamed” in classes for the nonretarded were confirmed.     

The effects of preschool on educationally advantaged children: First phases of a longitudinal study

This study is concerned with the preschool and kindergarten phases of a ten-year longitudinal research project designed to investigate the immediate and long-term effects of preschool on educationally advantaged children. Preschool data dealing with IQ, social competency, and school readiness, as well as physical abilities and self-concept were collected on two waves of subjects. Wave I(N = 129) consisted of 87 experimental and 42 control subjects, and in Wave II(N = 85) there were 54 experimental and 31 control subjects. Follow-up data on school readiness and social competency data were obtained from Wave I subjects in kindergarten. Analysis of data indicated that social competency, was enhanced through preschool participation and although there were no significant group differences in kindergarten test results, substantial social competency gains were observed for both groups. Findings will have greater meaning as the longitudinal study continues.     

Adolescent autonomy and minors' legal rights: contraception and abortion

During adolescence, dependent children grow into independent and autonomous adults, and it is necessary to make difficult policy judgements about children's rights. Questions that arise include: shoudl minors have the right to work, to marry, to make legal contracts, and to obtain medical care without parental consent; or should parental consent be required by the state in order to protect minors and to preserve parental authority. This discussion focuses upon the area of family planning, a topic of special interest to policymakers because they now face many questions about minor's contraceptive and abortion rights in Congress, in state legislatures, and in the courts. comprehensive response to policy questions about family planning rights for minors would require information about adolescent development, maturity, and autonomy; about teenagers' sexual and contraceptive attitudes and behavior; about the nature of parent-child communication regarding sexual and contraceptive questions; and about politics and values. Many from the legal system want help in answering questions about minors' rights. As little research has been conducted, policymakers can obtain only limited guidance from social scientists. As the policy issue is fundamentally tied to developmental issues, the better the knowledge about the development of cognitive competence, social competence, and autonomy, the easier it will be to make the difficult legal and policy judgements about minor's rights. Regarding minors' access to contraceptives, the situation is somewhat cloudy. There is only 1 state statute that requires parental consent for access to contraceptive medical services, passed in Utah in 1981, and pertaining to services provided with public funds. Yet, common law requires parental consent for any medical treatment (with exceptions for emancipated or mature minors) and "physicians often hesitate to serve young people without first obtaining parental consent because they fear civil liability." The situation is even more cloudy in the case of abortion. The Supreme Court's present position seems to grant emancipated and mature minors access to abortion without a requirement for parental consent or notification, but states may place some requirements for parental involvement upon other minors, as long as these minors have an alternative route to abortion. A thorough search of the literature on adolescent development reveals that the policy questions loom larger than the alternatives. 2 policy alternatives are: to single out a reasonable age below which minors require either parental consent or some form of adult involvement; or treat family planning and fertility control as basic rights which cannot be abridged because of age.     

Sex-role orientation and relationship development in same-sex dyads

The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between sex-role identity, behavioral interaction, and interpersonal attraction in an initial extended encounter. Eighty-two female subjects identified as either feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated participated in the study in same-sex dyads. The design contrasted three different dyad types: (a) feminine-feminine; (b) androgynous-androgynous; and (c) undifferentiated-undifferentiated. Each dyad completed an initial 5-min unstructured interaction, a 10-min getting-acquainted exercise, and a final 5-min unstructured interaction. Results of the combined initial and final unstructured interactions indicated greater interpersonal attraction between androgynous as compared with undifferentiated and feminine dyad types. During the interactions, androgynous individuals talked, looked at, and gestured to one another longer than did nonandrogynous individuals. There were, however, no significant differences between the feminine and undifferentiated dyads in interpersonal attraction or behavioral interaction. Discussion of the results emphasized the need to examine further the relationship between sex-role identity, behavioral interaction, and attraction in interpersonal encounters.     

Preference in rhesus monkeys given a choice between cocaine and d,l-cathinone

Previous experiments have shown that both cocaine and d,l-cathinone can function as positive reinforces when delivered intravenously to rhesus monkeys. However, the relative reinforcing efficacies of these compounds have not been established. In the present experiment, three rhesus monkeys were allowed to choose between saline and several doses of d,l-cathinone or cocaine as well as between several doses of both drugs in a discrete-trial choice procedure. Sufficient doses (.05 to .2 mg/kg/injection) of either drug maintained self-administration and the higher doses were reliably preferred to saline. Doses of d,l-cathinone that were preferred to saline were then compared to a range of cocaine doses in drug-drug choice. As the dose of d,l-cathinone that was available was increased, an increase in cocaine dose was necessary to maintain cocaine preference. Comparison of drug-drug choice data to dose combinations predicted to be chosen with equal frequency revealed that the reinforcing efficacy of d,l-cathinone was equivalent to that of cocaine.     

Pentobarbital self-administration in rhesus monkeys: drug concentration and fixed-ratio size interactions.

Performances of three rhesus monkeys were reinforced by the oral delivery of pentobarbital and studied as functions of fixed-ratio size and drug concentration. Pentobarbital solutions and water were concurrently available on identical reinforcement schedules from separate liquid-delivery systems during 3-hour sessions. Under a fixed-ratio 16 schedule of drug availability, a descending series of drug concentrations was tested (4, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, and 0.0625 mg/ml, followed by a retest at 4 mg/ml). Partial concentration series beginning with the highest concentration were repeated with fixed-ratios of 32 and 64, with a fixed-ratio 128 for two monkeys, and with fixed-ratio 256 for one. At each fixed-ratio value, response rate and number of drug deliveries were inverted U-shaped functions of pentobarbital concentration. Drug intake (mg/kg/session) increased directly with drug concentration. As the fixed-ratio size was increased, the number of liquid deliveries decreased. For each drug concentration, when the numbers of drug deliveries at fixed-ratios of 32, 64, and 128 responses were plotted as percentages of those obtained at fixed-ratio 16, the following orderly relationship emerged: the higher the drug concentration, the less that drug deliveries were decreased by increases in fixed-ratio size. This relationship indicates an increase in reinforcing efficacy with increases in pentobarbital concentration.