Validation of the Italian Emotion Awareness Questionnaire for children and adolescents

This study aimed at validating the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ, Rieffe et al., 2008) for Italian children and adolescents. Emotion awareness is a prerequisite of emotion regulation including the abilities to monitor and differentiate emotions, locate their antecedents, and value the importance of one's own and others' emotions. The EAQ consists of six scales: Differentiating Emotions, Verbal Sharing of Emotions, Not Hiding Emotions, Bodily Awareness of Emotions, Attending to Others' Emotions, and Analyses of (Own) Emotions. The questionnaire was filled in twice with a one-year time interval. At T1, 420 Italian children and adolescents took part (M = 12.65; SD = 1.41). Additionally, the Somatic Complaints List was administered to examine the concurrent validity of the EAQ. Results confirmed the six-factor structure, showed good psychometric properties of the separate scales and a good concurrent validity, which make the EAQ a reliable instrument to administer emotion awareness in Italian youth.     

Metalinguistic development in French learners enrolled in an immersion programme: A longitudinal study

Research on bilingualism has shown a bilingual advantage in phonological and syntactic awareness, and more recently on some morphological awareness tasks in children who had acquired two languages simultaneously. However, there is still limited knowledge about this advantage in students who acquire a second language in school after having developed a first language. The present longitudinal study addressed this issue by comparing, over the first two years of primary school, the development of metalinguistic abilities in 33 French learners enrolled in an immersion French–German programme to that of 43 French monolingual peers. Results support the bilingual advantage and add to the growing body of research reaching the same conclusion. In this study, this advantage appears as early as in first grade and the gap favouring second language learners widens with time. The results are discussed in light of differences between the characteristics of the two languages.     

Matters Olympic and Paralympic

Over the past several years, I have been arguing that nature sports such as surfing, backcountry skiing, and mountaineering are best described as sports in which athletes interact dynamically with natural features rather than compete with other humans. This article is part of a larger attempt to trace the implications of that view. Specifically, I consider the relationship between nature sports and competition. To this purpose, I address three separate, but related topics: First, I reply to Leslie Howe’s article, ‘On Competing Against Oneself, Or, I Need to Get a Different Voice in My Head’, in which she argues that there is a version of self-competition that is central to nature sports. Second, I argue that adapting nature sports to fit into formal competitive frameworks is problematic because, when we do so, the focus shifts from athletes interacting with natural features to athletes using natural features to outdo other athletes. And third, I argue that nature sports may seem competitive because the interaction between humans and natural features produces a type of intensity that is very similar to the intensity produced in competition. I argue further that because nature sports can produce this intensity in an environment that is not based on competition, they present an important alternative to traditional sports.     

To Add Insight to Injury: Childhood Abuse,Abuse Perceptions,and the Emotional and Physical Health of Young Adults

Although childhood abuse is strongly associated with psychological difficulties, survivors may not perceive their experiences as abusive. Depression, anxiety, dissociation, and physical health complaints may decrease perceptions of abuse and may also be exacerbated by individuals' abuse perceptions. The current study examined abuse perceptions, abuse experiences, and current symptoms among 185 university students. Ninety-six participants repeated the study 1–2 years later. At Time 1, self-labeling as “abused” or “maltreated” was not related to psychological or physical health symptoms. At Time 2, self-labeling as “abused” or “maltreated” was positively related to depression, anxiety, and dissociation. Results indicate that abuse perceptions may change over time and may be connected with emotional and physical symptoms.     

Reading and Phonological Awareness Skills in Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

This study examined whether children exposed to domestic violence perform worse on tests of reading and phonological awareness than children from nonviolent homes. Forty children, ages 6 to 9 years, were divided into control or domestic violence groups based on their mothers' responses on the revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2). The groups were matched on age, gender, nonverbal IQ, and socioeconomic status. The domestic violence group performed worse than the control group on all measures of reading and phonological awareness. Significantly more children in the domestic violence group were identified as having reading difficulties compared to the control group. The results suggest that domestic violence may negatively impact children's reading skills, and appropriate intervention techniques should be developed.     

Involuntary attention in the absence of visual awareness

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have found a dissociation between voluntary attention and awareness. Here, we examined the relationship between involuntary attention and awareness. We presented a masked cue such that participants were unaware of the cue. This was followed by a search array, for which participants detected the presence of a shape target. Even though the cue was task irrelevant and unconscious, we observed faster reaction times when either the cue’s location or colour was congruent with shape target. We conclude an unconscious stimulus can elicit both space- and feature-based attention. These results provide further evidence for the dissociation between attention and consciousness.     

Aggressiveness and Perceived Marital Quality: The Moderating Role of a Family-Supportive Work Climate

In this article, we examined the impact of language (i.e., native English speakers vs. non-native English speakers) on two aspects of information processing associated with multinational coalition operations in a simulated precrisis, command and control (C2) headquarters (HQ). First, we examined the impact of language on situation awareness (SA) and confidence in the participants' SA responses. Second, we examined the participants' responses to questions about various aspects of language, information sharing, decision-making, identity, and cultural issues that exist within a multinational coalition operation C2 HQ. The primary findings from this work revealed that there was very little impact of language on SA and confidence and that both language groups overwhelmingly shared the same views on information sharing, decision-making, and organizational/cultural issues.     

Level of emotional awareness in the general French population: Effects of gender,age, and education level

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) developed by Lane et al. ( 1990 1990) measures the ability of a subject to discriminate his or her own emotional state and that of others. The scale is based on a cognitive‐developmental model in which emotional awareness increases in a similar fashion to intellectual functions. Because studies performed using North American and German populations have demonstrated an effect of age, gender, and level of education on the ability to differentiate emotional states, our study attempts to evaluate whether these factors have the same effects in a general French population. 750 volunteers (506 female, 244 male), who were recruited from three regions of France (Lille, Montpellier, Paris), completed the LEAS. The sample was divided into five age groups and three education levels. The results of the LEAS scores for self and others and the total score showed a difference in the level of emotional awareness for different age groups, by gender and education level. A higher emotional level was observed for younger age groups, suggesting that emotional awareness depends on the cultural context and generational societal teachings. Additionally, the level of emotional awareness was higher in women than in men and lower in individuals with less education. This result might be explained by an educational bias linked to gender and higher education whereby expressive ability is reinforced. In addition, given the high degree of variability in previously observed scores in the French population, we propose a standard based on our French sample.     

Writing product and process in children with English as an additional language

ABSTRACT

Children draw on limited cognitive resources to write and these resources are under more demand when writing in English as an additional language (EAL). This study investigated the relationship between writing process measures along with two language measures, phonological awareness and lexical retrieval, and measures of writing product. Thirty-nine EAL children took part in the study and their writing was digitised so that execution speed, burst length, and the pattern of pauses were available for analysis. The results found that lexical retrieval was significantly associated, indirectly through execution speed and burst length, with the number of words, lexical richness, and writing quality. The results are discussed in the context of common underlying proficiency theory and lexical retrieval as part of the translation process of writing.