Male Violence Toward Females: Victim and Aggressor Variables

Two studies investigated the effect of exposure to psychology on male and female college students' pcrceptions of the truthfulness of psychologists as researchers. Study I (N # 72) compared the perceptions of freshmen in general psychology courses at the beginning and the end of the semester. Study II (N # 70) compared the perceptions of upperclassmen who had had no psychology courses with upperclassmen who had had at least five psychology courses. Both studies found that students with training in psychology perceived psychologists to be significantly less truthful than students with no training in psychology.     

Sudden gains as a long-term predictor of treatment improvement among children in community mental health organizations

ObjectiveSudden gains have been described as rapid, sizeable changes observed between treatment sessions and have been associated with improved treatment outcome in adults. The current study examined weekly sudden gains among children seeking treatment in the community mental health setting.MethodParticipants were 161 children (age M = 10.58, SD = 1.73; 69.6% male; 47.8% Caucasian) and their parents who were randomized to one of three treatment modalities and were administered weekly and quarterly assessments throughout treatment.ResultsWhen idiographic (youth- and parent-identified “top problems”) and nomothetic measures (standardized checklists) were used to calculate sudden gains (i.e., gain must be large: in absolute terms, relative to prior session, and relative to changes in prior and subsequent sessions), 20–42% of participants experienced at least one sudden gain during treatment. Most sudden gains occurred early in treatment, and session content of relaxation was associated with sudden gain presence. Using a modified Bonferonni correction, sudden gains predicted overall symptom levels at final assessment (i.e., last assessment obtained following post-treatment) even after controlling for pre-treatment symptom levels and magnitude of the overall gain from pre- to post-treatment.ConclusionsSuddenness of gains may have a direct effect on long-term treatment outcome among children in the community.     

Central Role of Relatedness in Alaska Native Youth Resilience: Preliminary Themes from One Site of the Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood (CIPA) Study

This qualitative study of youth resilience takes place in an Alaska Native community, which has undergone rapid, imposed social change over the last three generations. Elders, and successive generations have grown up in strikingly different social, economic and political contexts. Youth narratives of relationships in the context of adolescent growth and development offer insights to better understand culturally-patterned experience, continuity and change. Local youth and adults shaped the design, implementation and analysis phases of this participatory study. Multiple interviews, totaling 20 older (ages 15–18) and younger (11–14) boys and girls provide accounts of everyday lives and life histories. Although losing close relationships was the most common stressor, many of the participants’ resilience strategies centered on their connections to others. Participants cultivated ‘relatedness’, nurturing relationships that took on kinship qualities. Within these relationships, youth participants acted more responsibly and/or developed a sense of competency and self-worth because of others’ reliance on them.     

Developing Measures of Community-Relevant Outcomes for Violence Prevention Programs: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach to Measurement

Community-Based Participatory Research is a research paradigm that encourages community participation in designing and implementing evaluation research, though the actual outcome measures usually reflect the “external” academic researchers’ view of program effect and the policy-makers’ needs for decision-making. This paper describes a replicable process by which existing standardized psychometric scales commonly used in youth-related intervention programs were modified to measure indicators of program success defined by community partners. This study utilizes a secondary analysis of data gathered in the context of a community-based youth violence prevention program. Data were retooled into new measures developed using items from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, the Hare Area Specific Self-Esteem Scale, and the Youth Asset Survey. These measures evaluated two community-defined outcome indicators, “More Parental Involvement” and “Showing Kids Love.” Results showed that existing scale items can be re-organized to create measures of community-defined outcomes that are psychometrically reliable and valid. Results also show that the community definitions of parent or parenting caregivers exemplified by the two indicators are similar to how these constructs have been defined in previous research, but they are not synonymous. There are nuanced differences that are important and worthy of better understanding, in part through better measurement.     

The Relationship Between Cumulative Risk and Promotive Factors and Violent Behavior Among Urban Adolescents

Resiliency theory posits that some youth exposed to risk factors do not develop negative behaviors due to the influence of promotive factors. This study examines the effects of cumulative risk and promotive factors on adolescent violent behavior and tests two models of resilience—the compensatory model and the protective model—in a sample of adolescent patients (14–18 years old; n = 726) presenting to an urban emergency department who report violent behavior. Cumulative measures of risk and promotive factors consist of individual characteristics and peer, family, and community influences. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the two models of resilience (using cumulative measures of risk and promotive factors) for violent behavior within a sample of youth reporting violent behavior. Higher cumulative risk was associated with higher levels of violent behavior. Higher levels of promotive factors were associated with lower levels of violent behavior and moderated the association between risk and violent behaviors. Our results support the risk-protective model of resiliency and suggest that promotive factors can help reduce the burden of cumulative risk for youth violence.     

Honesty about God: Theological reflections on violence in an evolutionary universe

Theodicy has become problematic in light of scientific theories of evolution, and all theologies are doomed to failure unless and until they are “honest, and ever-vigilant against the temptation … to excise from [nature] … violence and indifference to suffering” simply because it does not suit our theological systems or political goals.1 1 B. Jill Carroll, The Savage Side: Reclaiming Violent Models of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 116. View all notes In this theological attempt to deal directly with the violence inherent in the evolutionary process, I suggest a cautious retrieval of Martin Luther's God Hidden/God Revealed in order to allow for a more honest appraisal of suffering in this evolutionary universe.     

The frontal lobe and aggression

Frontal lesions often lead to psychosocial problems. It is not surprising that frontal lobe dysfunctions have been proposed to underlie antisocial behaviour in individuals without apparent lesions. However, physical aggression and violence have never been systematically related to acquired lesions. Whereas, traditional neuropsychological testing identifies problems in cognitive and emotional information processing, recent brain-imaging studies have revealed both the frontal structural and functional underpinnings of antisocial behaviour. Careful characterization of antisocial behaviour subtypes seems to indicate that cognitive-neuropsychological function is systematically poor in physical aggression and hyperactivity. Recent refinements point to biological and genetic moderators of that association.     

A longitudinal examination of stressors,appraisals, and coping in youth swimming

PurposeInvolvement in sport has the potential to cause athletes, coaches, and parents to experience stress. However, the extent to which experiences of stress are shared within the athletic triad is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the individual and shared stress experiences among youth swimmers, their mothers, and coach within the context of training, tapering, and competition.DesignMulti-case study design.MethodFour female swimmers, their mother, and one coach completed daily diaries for six weeks and up to three semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed through within- and cross-case thematic analysis.ResultsThe study showed evidence of shared stress experiences between all three members of the athletic triad. Participants predominately encountered organizational stressors, which they appraised in relation to movements between squad, interpersonal relationships, and overall progress towards performance goals/outcomes. Numerous coping strategies were employed by participants, with varying degrees of effectiveness, such as seeking social support, distancing, and lift sharing. The coping strategies used by coaches, swimmers, and parents were often interrelated with participants frequently seeking emotional support from one another. The majority of stressors and appraisals cited by parents and swimmers were shared, with both heavily relying on social support to help each other cope with the stressors encountered.ConclusionAthletes, parents, and coaches have the capacity to influence one another's stress experiences and as such their experiences should be considered simultaneously to maximize the impact of interventions.     

Validation of Dating Violence Questionnarie-R (DVQ-R)

Background/Objective

Despite the growing interest in the study of dating violence, relatively few psychometrically sound instruments are available to researchers. To provide an instrument to researchers and professionals to assess victimization in dating relationships, with adequate psychometric properties. Method: Participants were 6,138 adolescents drawn from the general population, 25% of which were university students. Participants responded to the original Dating Violence Questionnaire (DVQ). Results: Confirmatory analyses results provided evidence of a clear factorial structure that was invariant through sex groups. The DVQ-R measures with 20 items five dimensions of abuse in affective interpersonal relationships of adolescents and youth: Detachment, Humiliation, Coercion, Physical and Sexual violence. Internal consistency indexes were adequate for both each one of the five dimensions as well as for the general scale. Conclusions: The DVQ-R is an useful assessment to be applied in adolescents and youth. Implications for research and intervention are discussed in light of the results obtained.     

Evaluating Violent Conduct in Sport: A Hierarchy of Vice

The landscape of sport shows conspicuous discursive and material disparities between the responses to openly violent on-field transgressors and the responses to other kinds of transgressor, most notably drug users. The former gets off significantly lighter in terms of ideological framing and formal punishment. The latter—and drug users in particular—are typically demonised and heavily punished, whilst the former are regularly lionised, dramatised, celebrated and punished less severely. The preceding disparities cannot be upheld from the standpoint of morality in general or from that of a Broad Internalist sport ethic. Consideration of the consequences, actions, motives and vices involved in the respective categories fails to support them. Nor is support provided by the notion that sports are tests of the physical skills and virtues that the obstacles presented are designed to foster and promote, and behaviour that threatens the opportunity to exercise those excellences or have competitions determined by them should be the subject of critical moral scrutiny. Openly violent on-field transgression does not fare at all well by the yardstick of Broad Internalism. Robust investigation of and ultimate change in the values underpinning the disparities is warranted.