The development of the family alliance from pregnancy to toddlerhood and children outcomes at 18 months

This paper presents a longitudinal study of the development of family interactions from pregnancy to toddlerhood. Family interactions are increasingly acknowledged as a predictive factor for children's psychopathological outcomes. We used an observational setting, the Lausanne Trilogue Play, to evaluate the ‘family alliance’, namely, the quality of interactive coordination between family members. Families participated at the 5th month of pregnancy, and at 3‐ and 18‐months after birth. The sample (N=39) consisted of non‐referred primiparous families. Results show that (i) family alliance is stable during the first two years for most families: the quality of prenatal interactions between parents and a baby doll is thus predictive of the subsequent interactions with the actual child; (ii) there are links, but only a few, between family interactions and children outcomes reported by parents. Methodological issues (observation versus self‐reported questionnaires) are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Student interracial interactions and perceptions of school as a community

Communally organized, as opposed to bureaucratically organized, schools are expected to provide significant advantages to students in terms of their cognitive and social growth. However, for students to avail themselves of these benefits, they need to experience school as a community. One factor that may influence whether students view their school as a functional community is the kind of teacher–student and peer interactions they observe or personally experience. This study examines the effects of positive and negative interracial interactions on whether students sense that their school is a community. Analysis of a large sample of elementary and secondary schools in a major urban school district show that positive interracial interactions contribute to students’ sense of school community while negative actions inhibit that sense.

Infant touching behaviour during mother–infant face‐to‐face interactions

The study of infant communication during mother–infant interactions has largely focused on infants' distal behaviours, while neglecting their more proximal behaviours, such as touch. Yet, touch is an important modality through which infants and mothers communicate; it is also a vital means through which infants self‐regulate and explore their surroundings. The present study was designed to investigate the touching behaviours of 44, 51/2‐month‐old, healthy, full‐term infants during face‐to‐face mother–infant interactions. A still‐face (SF) procedure was used in order to examine differences in the types and locations of infant touch across normal and perturbed interaction periods, when mothers exhibit changes in their emotional availability. Results revealed that infant touch varied with changes in maternal availability. During the SF period, when mothers were unavailable, infants used more active, soothing, and reactive tactile behaviours (stroke, finger, pat, and pull), and they spent more time touching themselves. In contrast, infants used mostly passive touch (static) during the Normal periods, when their mothers were available. They also spent a significant portion of time touching their mothers. The variations in infant touch across periods suggest that infants communicate their affective states through touch. The findings also support the regulatory and exploratory roles of infant touch, especially during periods of maternal unavailability. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patterns of Natural Language Use: Disclosure, Personality, and Social Integration

When people write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about an emotionally significant event, numerous benefits in many domains (e.g., health, achievement, and well-being) result. As one step in understanding how writing achieves these effects, we have developed a computer program that provides a "fingerprint" of the words people use in writing or in natural settings. Analyses of text samples indicate that particular patterns of word use predict health and also reflect personality styles. We have also discovered that language use in the laboratory writing paradigm is associated with changes in social interactions and language use in the real world. The implications for using computer-based text analysis programs in the development of psychological theory are discussed.     

PROMOTING RECIPROCAL INTERACTIONS VIA PEER INCIDENTAL TEACHING

This study evaluated peer incidental teaching as a strategy for increasing reciprocal peer interactions by children with autism. Three typical preschoolers were trained as peer tutors for 3 young children with autism. During a classroom free-play session, peer tutors used incidental teaching to obtain verbal labels of preferred toys by children with autism. A multiple baseline across the 3 target children showed replicated positive effects of the intervention. Adult supervision and assistance were then faded systematically, with resulting maintenance of increased reciprocal interactions. Multiple measures of the extent and limits of generalization suggested that 1 child increased interactions in free-play periods throughout the day, but none of the children showed increases at lunch. Teacher and peer ratings supported the social validity of positive findings.     

Effects of cocaine and alcohol, alone and in combination, on human learning and performance.

The acute effects of cocaine hydrochloride (4 to 96 mg/70 kg) and alcohol (0 to 1.0 g/kg), administered alone and in combination, were assessed in two experiments with human volunteers responding under a multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response chains. Subjects were intermittent users of cocaine and regular drinkers who were not cocaine or alcohol dependent. Alcohol was mixed with orange juice and ingested in six drinks within 30 min; cocaine was administered intranasally 45 min after completion of drinking. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed response sequences using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, a new sequence was learned each session. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. Results were consistent in both experiments, despite variations in the order in which the drugs were tested alone and in combination. Alcohol administered alone increased overall percentage of errors and decreased rates of responding in the acquisition component, whereas responding in the performance component generally was unaffected. Cocaine administered alone decreased rates of responding but did not affect accuracy of responding in the acquisition component, and enhanced accuracy of responding without affecting rates of responding in the performance component. The combined doses of cocaine and alcohol attenuated the effects observed with alcohol and cocaine alone. These results suggest that, under the conditions investigated in this study, (a) alcohol produces greater behavioral disruption than cocaine or cocaine-alcohol combinations, (b) cocaine and alcohol each attenuate effects of the other, and (c) such attenuation is most pronounced for cocaine attenuating the disruptive effects of alcohol.     

The Shaping of Family Therapy Education: An Update

The preparation and credentialing of marital and family therapists in the United States and Canada continues to be significantly affected by the role of accreditation in MFT graduate education. This report on a study of Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education accredited degree programs and non-accredited programs shows some significant differences between the two paths to preparation and credentialing. Accredited programs tend to have more faculty, lower faculty-student ratios, more Approved Supervisors, more financial aid, more programs requiring practica and internships, and more emphasis on professional identification with marital and family therapy. Nonaccredited programs provide more emphasis on psychopathology, psychodiagnostic testing, and cognitive behavioral therapy.