The Efficacy of a Video-Based Teamwork-Building Series with Urban Elementary School Students: A Pilot Investigation

The Talking with TJ teamwork-building series is a video-based program designed to promote social/emotional competence in elementary school children. The program emphasizes group planning, diversity appreciation, and teamwork. Although it has been implemented in schools and by children's social organizations nationwide, empirical investigations have not evaluated its use in urban school districts. This article presents pilot data on the effectiveness of “TJ” with a sample of 208 third-grade students from an urban district designated “high risk” due to poverty, community violence, and below average reading abilities. TJ had significant positive effects on several aspects of students' social concept, but did not lead to significant behavior changes over the 5-week intervention period. These results suggest that the program is a promising means of increasing feelings of self-efficacy for students participating in cooperative problem solving tasks, but a longer-term intervention is likely necessary to produce significant behavioral effects.     

Childhood Adversity and the Continued Exposure to Trauma and Violence Among Adolescent Gang Members

This study investigates interfaith groups from across the United States to understand how these religious settings may serve as mediating structures to facilitate individual political action. Based on a multilevel modeling analysis with 169 individuals from 25 interfaith groups, we found that core activities of the group, such as group members sharing community information (e.g., announcing upcoming events, political meetings, community issues) or sharing religious information (e.g., educating members about their religion) positively and negatively predicted individual political action as a result of group participation, respectively. Moreover, a sense that the interfaith group served as a community to work for local change, but not trust within the group, predicted political action as a result of group participation. However, this effect for a sense the group served as a community to work for local change was stronger and more positive as the degree of community information sharing in the group increased. These results show that a core activity of sharing community information may enhance the ability of a group to mediate political action. Overall, these findings demonstrate the potential role of interfaith groups to mediate political action, and show the importance of considering both individual and group characteristics when understanding these religious settings. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Criminal Activity: Examining Patterns Over Time

This study examined whether street homelessness, sheltered homelessness, and the severity of psychological symptoms predicted non-violent and violent crime among 207 mentally ill participants who were homeless at baseline. Participants were interviewed at 9 time points over 4 years. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine whether changes in homelessness status and symptom severity predicted changes in criminal activity over time. Results indicated that homelessness both on the streets and in shelters and psychological symptom severity predicted increases in non-violent crime. Sheltered homelessness and symptom severity predicted increases in violent crime, although street homelessness did not. A separate mediational analysis with 181 participants showed that the relationship between diagnosis of a psychotic disorder and both non-violent and violent criminal activity was partially mediated through the severity of psychotic symptoms. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.     

The inclusion of antisocial behavior in the construct of psychopathy: A review of the research

The psychopathic personality, or the construct of this disorder, has a long and contentious history. Psychopathy has been identified anecdotally for centuries; however, the ability to accurately define this construct continues to challenge researchers and clinicians. Of preliminary concern is the relevance of antisocial behavior to this disorder. Theoretical conceptualizations of psychopathy have changed over the past 65 years. Some have stressed the interpersonal and affective deficits of psychopathy [Cleckley, H. (1941). The mask of sanity (1st ed.). St. Louis, MO:C.V. Mosby.], while later conceptualizations have included both personality traits as well as antisocial behavior as criteria of psychopathy [Hare, R. D. (1991/2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised. Toronto, Canada: Multi-Health Systems]. This article will review the literature, particularly the relevance of antisocial behavior to the core personality structure of the psychopath. In doing so, historical theories will be reviewed, followed by later theoretical and empirical research. A great deal of this research has been conducted over the past 15 years, since the publication of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; [Hare, R. D. (1991/2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised. Toronto, Canada: Multi-Health Systems]). The PCL-R has provided the field of psychopathy research with a consistent measurement device, and, therefore will be discussed at length. The limitations of the psychopathy construct will be discussed as well as needed future research and the policy implications of such research.     

Measuring dating violence: Conflict or non-conflict related instructions?

Introduction

Dating violence, as well as the broader field of intimate partner violence, has mainly been investigated with two conflict-related questionnaires (Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationship Inventory CADRI, Conflict Tactics Scale CTS). Indeed, the respondents have to report aggressive behaviors that occurred in a context of conflict. Such conflict-related instructions prevent us from investigating violence occurring outside a context of conflict.

Lessons From Markey et al. (2015) and Bushman et al. (2015): Sensationalism and Integrity in Media Research

This article presents a response to the comment by B. J. Bushman, D. Romer, and P. E. Jamieson (2015). This reply addresses 2 issues raised by the commenters. First, they claim they and others have not made sensationalistic statements linking violent media to horrific acts of real‐world violence. In response, we supply numerous examples of sensationalistic statements made by them and others. Second, they claim they did not expect violence in films to be related to violent behavior among adults, but only among youths. However, by examining homicide arrests and homicide gun mortality rates among youths, we found that as films have become increasingly violent over time, both homicide arrests and gun‐related homicides have tended to decrease among this age group.     

Distinguishing Hypotheses From Hyperbole in Studies of Media Violence: A Comment on Markey et al. (2015)

In alleging that Bushman et al. (2013) made sensational and unsubstantiated claims, Markey et al. (2015) mistake hypotheses for hyperbole. Moreover, in their effort to show that gun violence in PG‐13 movies (for ages 13 and older) is unrelated to trends in population violence, they make unjustified demands on our data, with outcomes that are unconnected to hypothesized effects. Using outcomes in line with our hypotheses, we draw the contrary conclusion that recent trends in gun violence in youth are actually consistent with gun violence trends in PG‐13 movies. Nevertheless, because we do not believe those patterns are sufficient to draw causal conclusions, we suggest more adequate tests of the hypothesis that exposure to movie gun violence affects the beliefs and attitudes of youth toward guns.     

The criminal and personality profile of patients with schizophrenia and comorbid psychopathic traits

Sixty-one male forensic patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia were categorised into high and low psychopathic trait groups using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. The groups were compared on their criminal history, symptom profile, personality style, risk scores and subsequent institutional violence. Patients with high scores on the PCL:SV had a greater number of previous convictions and were more likely to have a family history of criminality. The high psychopathy-scoring group had higher levels of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale grandiose and hostile symptomatology, and higher scores on trait impulsivity and aggression. They also had a more coercive, less compliant interpersonal style than the low-psychopathy scoring group. The high-psychopathy scoring group were more likely to be involved in institutional aggression and had higher levels of risk for violence. Patients with schizophrenia and high levels of comorbid psychopathy have a distinctive interpersonal style that may contribute to their greater risk of disruptive institutional behaviour.