Sober adolescence–Predictor of psychosocial maladjustment in young adulthood?

We have explored how age at first intoxication with alcohol relates to mental health, social integration and adjustment to the adult role. The data stem from a longitudinal representative study of 2000 Norwegians. The sample was assessed at ages 19–22, 21–24 and 25–28. Among females, only early intoxication was related to young adult symptoms of poor mental health. A U-shaped association between intoxication debut and psychological problems was revealed among males, implying that both early and late beginners had more such problems than those who had followed the mainstream. These associations persisted without change over time. However, males who remained abstainers in adulthood were psychologically healthy, but they showed indications of a delayed entry into the adult role. Male late beginners were also somewhat reluctant to adopt adult role-behaviors. Thus, getting drunk for the first time in mid-adolescence seems to be an ingredient in the normal developmental process in young males.     

Transitions in sleep problems from late adolescence to young adulthood: A longitudinal analysis of the effects of peer victimization

Adolescence is a developmental period with high vulnerability to sleep problems. However, research identifying distinct patterns and underlying determinants of sleep problems is scarce. This study investigated discrete subgroups of, changes in, and stability of sleep problems. We also examined whether peer victimization influenced sleep problem subgroups and transitions in patterns of sleep problems from late adolescence to young adulthood. Sex differences in the effects of peer victimization were also explored. In total, 1,455 male and 1,399 female adolescents from northern Taiwan participated in this longitudinal study. Latent transition analysis was used to examine changes in patterns of sleep problems and the effects of peer victimization on these changes. We identified three subgroups of sleep problems in males and two in females, and found that there was a certain level of instability in patterns of sleep problems during the study period. For both sexes, those with greater increases in peer victimization over time were more likely to change from being a good sleeper to a poor sleeper. The effects of peer victimization on baseline status of sleep problems, however, was only significant for males, with those exposed to higher levels of peer victimization more likely to be poor sleepers at baseline. Our findings reveal an important role of peer victimization in predicting transitions in patterns of sleep problems. Intervention programs aimed at decreasing peer victimization may help reduce the development and escalation of sleep problems among adolescents, especially in males.

     

Prepubertal social gender transitions: What we know; what we can learn—A view from a gender affirmative lens

ABSTRACT

?Background: This article provides a review and commentary on social transition of gender-expansive prepubertal youth, analyzing risks, and benefits based on a synthesis of research and clinical observation, highlighting controversies, and setting forth recommendations, including the importance of continued clinical research.

Methods: This article involved: (1) a review and critique of the WPATH Standards of Care 7th edition guidelines on social transition; (2) a review and synthesis of empirical research on social transition in prepubertal children; (3) a discussion of clinical practice observations; (4) a discussion of continuing controversies and complexities involving early social transition; (5) a discussion of risks and benefits of social transition; and (6) conclusions and recommendations based upon the above.

Results: Results suggest that at this point research is limited and that some of the earliest research on young gender-expansive youth is methodologically questionable and has not been replicated. Newer research suggests that socially transitioned prepubertal children are often well adjusted, a finding consistent with clinical practice observations. Analysis of both emerging research and clinical reports reveal evidence of a stable transgender identity surfacing in early childhood.

Discussion: The authors make recommendations to support social transitions in prepubertal gender-expansive children, when appropriate, as a facilitator of gender health, defined as a child's opportunity to live in the gender that feels most authentic, acknowledging that there are limitations to our knowledge, and ongoing research is essential.     

The poehlman case: running away from the truth

Eric T. Poehlman, Ph.D., was an internationally recognized, tenured professor at the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington when, in October 2000, a junior member of Poehlman’s laboratory became convinced that he had altered data from a study on aging volunteers from the Burlington area. This suspicion developed into one of the most significant cases of scientific misconduct in the history of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Research Integrity (ORI), launching a US Department of Justice (DOJ) civil and criminal fraud investigation and, eventually, to a much publicized guilty plea and felony conviction. In the end, Dr. Poehlman admitted to 54 findings of scientific misconduct made by the UVM and ORI, agreed to retract or correct ten of his publications and to exclude himself from federal procurement and nonprocurement transactions for life. The United States Government’s handling of this case was distinguished by a highly cooperative approach that integrated the resources of the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont (USAO) and both ORI and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in HHS in the common goal of prosecuting research fraud. The content of this article represents the personal views of the authors and does not express the opinion or policy of DHHS or its components. A paper on this topic was presented at the 6th International Bioethics Conference on the subject of ‘The Responsible Conduct of Basic and Clinical Research’, held in Warsaw, Poland, 3–4 June 2005.     

Concurrent-schedule performance in transition: changeover delays and signaled reinforcer ratios

Six pigeons were trained in experimental sessions that arranged six or seven components with various concurrent-schedule reinforcer ratios associated with each. The order of the components was determined randomly without replacement. Components lasted until the pigeons had received 10 reinforcers, and were separated by 10-s blackout periods. The component reinforcer ratios arranged in most conditions were 27:1, 9:1, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, 1:9 and 1:27; in others, there were only six components, three of 27:1 and three of 1:27. In some conditions, each reinforcement ratio was signaled by a different red-yellow flash frequency, with the frequency perfectly correlated with the reinforcer ratio. Additionally, a changeover delay was arranged in some conditions, and no changeover delay in others. When component reinforcer ratios were signaled, sensitivity to reinforcement values increased from around 0.40 before the first reinforcer in a component to around 0.80 before the 10th reinforcer. When reinforcer ratios were not signaled, sensitivities typically increased from zero to around 0.40. Sensitivity to reinforcement was around 0.20 lower in no-changeover-delay conditions than in changeover-delay conditions, but increased in the former after exposure to changeover delays. Local analyses showed that preference was extreme towards the reinforced alternative for the first 25 s after reinforcement in changeover-delay conditions regardless of whether components were signaled or not. In no-changeover-delay conditions, preference following reinforcers was either absent, or, following exposure to changeover delays, small. Reinforcers have both local and long-term effects on preference. The former, but not the latter, is strongly affected by the presence of a changeover delay. Stimulus control may be more closely associated with longer-term, more molar, reinforcer effects.     

The Props are Falling Down and We Want to Make Music: A Narrative Perspective on Organisations in Transition (Violins/Violence in Organisations)

While South African society finds itself in the throes of political changes, therapists working within organisations in transition find themselves challenged by the turbulence of transformation. The authors are a group of therapists attempting to understand, from a narrative perspective, the organisational context within which they work. This paper recounts the processes around the design, implementation, and outcomes of a workshop on this theme. The main body of the paper consists of a letter that was sent to participants after the workshop. The reader is invited to join collaboratively in our reflections so as to continue an open-ended, creative process.     

Political Power and Race Relations in South Africa: African Attitudes Before and After the Transition

When an oppressed majority finally gains political power, what happens to its attitudes to its erstwhile oppressor, and to its perceptions and feelings about its socioeconomic disadvantages that were established during its oppression? Longitudinal data from pre- and post-transition surveys of black South African college and high school students indicate marked reductions in perceptions of and outrage about intergroup socioeconomic inequity and deprivation relative to English-speaking and Afrikaans-speaking whites, but no change in attitudes toward these groups or toward whites in general. The findings are discussed in terms of contemporary theory and research on justice, intergroup relations, and group conflict. Some tentative implications for the prospects for a democratic political culture in South Africa are noted.     

Un éclairage de la transition de retraite par l’analyse interprétative phénoménologique (IPA)

IntroductionInterpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a method of qualitative discourse analysis that aims to understand lived experience and the meaning that individuals attribute to it.ObjectivesAfter describing its theoretical foundations and its methodology, this paper applies this method on a research on the experience of retirement transition which collected 28 interviews. It thus aims to show the interest of this method in understanding the psychological and reflexive processes inherent in periods of life marked by transformations.MethodCentred on the way in which people imagine their own transformation of identity at retirement age and on the meaning they give to it, the analysis takes into account the adjustments made to daily life, to the relationship with time, and to social relations. This analysis is based on the detailed study of a case, and then compared to five other cases.ResultsThe need to make a break, manifested by the extent and form of the transformations given on a daily basis, varies according to the subjects, meaning being attributed not only to the break but also to continuity. A temporal experience marked by a present to be reconfigured and interpersonal relationships deemed meaningful, is, on the other hand, very shared.ConclusionBy bringing to light the psychological and reflexive processes of the experience of retirement, this study carried out with reference to the IPA can contribute to nourishing the practices of support for retirement, which are tending to develop.     

Role adjustment as the unit of analysis for researching child development during the transition to school

While child development is well-recognized as a complex process which could hardly be decomposed into separate lines or domains in contemporary psychological theories, the decomposition approach is widely used in empirical studies. Based on the cultural-historical theory, this study argues for adopting the unit of analysis as a way to bridge this gap, and finds “role adjustment” as a suitable unit to analyse child development during the transition to school. The case of a 5-year-old second-generation Chinese Australian child's transition to school (with a total of 34 h of observation and 5 h of interview) is presented to verify its feasibility and to illustrate how it could be achieved in a research practice. The case study demonstrates that a child's role adjustment is in essence a process of transforming his/her role system, during which his/her major roles, the relation of the major roles, as well as his/her role-taking patterns change as a whole, and by tracing a child's role adjustment trajectory, how the child is learning and developing, what difficulties he/she encounter, and why these difficulties appear become clear.