When family considerations influence work decisions: Decision-making processes

The work–family literature has provided an abundance of evidence that various family factors are linked to various work decisions, suggesting that the “family-relatedness” of work decisions is a prevalent phenomenon (Greenhaus & Powell, 2012). However, the cognitive processes by which such linkages occur have received little attention. We offer a framework by which to examine individuals' decision-making processes when they take family considerations into account in their work decisions. The framework suggests stages through which individuals proceed when making a work decision that takes family considerations into account and cognitive processes that influence how they proceed through each stage.     

The unreachable object? Difficulties and paradoxes in the analytical relationship with borderline patients

The author investigates the main difficulties the analyst encounters in borderline patient analysis, focusing on the specific way in which such patients put the analyst's mental functioning to the test and highlighting the most salient elements of the transference-countertransference dynamic. The author picks out several of the paradoxes that characterize the analytical relationship with these patients, who are constantly seeking contact with the object, which is inevitably traumatic for them. On the basis of highly detailed clinical material, the author demonstrates how - no matter which theoretical-clinical model is adopted - a specific technical problem with these patients is how to manage their intense destructiveness. With these patients, countertransferential difficulties are inevitably predominant because of the looming threat of the destruction of the analytical relationship. Maintaining a balance between the recognition-legitimization of primary narcissistic mirroring needs and the recognition-control of narcissistic demands and attacks on the analytical link is as crucial as it is complex. The paper examines the most important therapeutic and anti-therapeutic factors, highlighting the importance of countertransference analysis and self-analysis as ways of accessing as yet unrepresented elements of the patient and analyst respectively. Particular attention is given to the role played by the analyst's subjectivity and to the enactment.     

TRIAL-BASED FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS AND FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING IN AN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTING

Problem behavior is common in early childhood special education classrooms. Functional communication training (FCT; Carr & Durand, 1985 ) may reduce problem behavior but requires identification of its function. The trial‐based functional analysis (FA) is a method that can be used to identify problem behavior function in schools. We conducted trial‐based FAs and FCT with 3 children in an early childhood special education setting. All trial‐based FAs resulted in identification of behavioral functions, and subsequent FCT led to reductions in problem behavior and increases in communication.     

Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation in Middle Schools: Extending the Process and Outcome Knowledge Base

Abstract

Many professional educators are implementing school-based prevention focused on conflict resolution (CR) and peer mediation (PM). The authors conducted research on CR-PM in 3 middle schools. Specifically, they surveyed teachers and students, tracked disciplinary incidents across school years, collected mediation data, and compared mediators with a matched sample to determine attitudinal change as a result of PM training and experience. The authors also surveyed peer mediators and disputants about program satisfaction, as well as peer mediators and their parents about the generalization of PM skills. The authors conclude with implications for developing future CR programs, including a focus on mediation-process evaluation as well as schoolwide outcome measures and the use of peer mediation training as an intervention for students at risk.     

Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R): a comparative study

The aim of this study was to compare the psychometric properties (normal distribution values, reliabilities and factor structure) of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and the Temperament and Character Inventory revised (TCI-R). The total sample consisted of 482 subjects (53.1% men and 46.9% women) from diverse age. Results showed somewhat better psychometric properties, like reliability and facet-factor structure, for the ZKA-PQ than the TCI-R. The expected five-factor facet structure of the ZKA-PQ was clear found. However, the seven-factor structure of TCI-R was not clear and it did not show a clear distinction between Temperament and Character factors. When ZKA-PQ and TCI-R variables are analyzed together, the ZKA-PQ factors are related to the Character as well as the Temperament factors. In some cases they represent the opposite poles of ZKA-PQ factors; for example, Neuroticism versus Self-Directiveness and Aggression versus Cooperativeness. Some are directly and highly related to ZKA-PQ factors; for example, Sensation Seeking and Novelty Seeking, Extraversion and Reward Dependence, Neuroticism and Harm Avoidance, and Activity and Persistence.     

“Changing the Text”: Modeling Council Capacity to Produce Institutionalized Change

Collaboration is a ubiquitous approach to change, but is notoriously difficult and not definitively linked to desirable outcomes. Not surprisingly, the collaboration literature is replete with numerous facilitators and barriers to collaborative efforts. The current study aimed to develop a parsimonious model of factors influencing the success of collaborative efforts both internal and external to the council, including, (a) features of the council environment, (b) intermediate outcomes including the empowerment of members in the council context and the degree to which councils have generated social capital and (c) the extent to which collaborative efforts are occurring in a community context supportive of their aims. In particular, this study examines whether these factors affect the extent to which councils are positioned to achieve institutionalized change, or changes "in the text" that govern front line providers' (e.g., police, advocates) practices in the community response to intimate partner violence. Results suggest that perceived member empowerment, generation of social capital, and supportive community context are the most important predictors of the extent to which councils foster shifts in institutionalized change. Features of the council environment are only indirectly related to the degree to which institutionalized change is ultimately fostered as mediated by the generation of social capital. This suggests that the ability of members to act as change agents and the extent to which those in power support council efforts figure more prominently to facilitate or constrain council efforts than council functioning itself.     

Exposure to Violence and Socioemotional Adjustment in Low-Income Youth: An Examination of Protective Factors

Using a sample of 391 low-income youth ages 13–17, this study investigated the potential moderating effects of school climate, participation in extracurricular activities, and positive parent–child relations on associations between exposure to violence (i.e., witnessing violence and violent victimization) and adolescent socioemotional adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). Exposure to violence was related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. High levels of participation in extracurricular activities and positive parent–child relations appeared to function as protective factors, weakening the positive association between exposure to violence and externalizing problems. Contrary to prediction, school climate did not moderate associations between exposure to violence and socioemotional adjustment. Further, none of the hypothesized protective factors moderated the association between exposure to violence and internalizing problems.     

“Just Beyond my Front Door”: Public Discourse Experiences of Children Adopted from China

The phenotypic differences between children and their adoptive parents in transracial adoptions make the child’s adoptive status readily apparent in public. Consequently, adoptees field more frequent questions and comments about the adoption. The present study examines the nature of public conversations about ethnicity and adoption of 41 elementary school age girls adopted from China and the ecological factors related to less frequent occurrences of such conversations and to the positive nature of these experiences. Results indicate that family structure (single parent vs. two parents) and parental bicultural competence predict membership in the favorable condition (reporting fewer public interaction experiences and reporting more positive experiences, respectively). Child’s age and racial diversity of the town of residence do not predict these outcomes. Implications for families, adoption professionals, teachers and researchers are discussed.     

Exploring the Use of the Interactive Systems Framework to Guide School Mental Health Services in Post‐disaster Contexts: Building Community Capacity for Trauma‐Focused Interventions

Over the past two decades schools have been identified as the de facto mental health system for youth. Therefore, improving and expanding school mental health (SMH) has become a pressing agenda item for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and funders. Advancing this agenda includes not only translating intervention research into practice within schools, but building capacities for these interventions to occur. The interactive systems framework (ISF) of Wandersman and colleagues, and the focus of this special issue, provides guidance in bridging the gap between research and practice through multisystem capacity building. There is some evidence that application of the ISF has helped to build capacity for SMH in states, but this evidence is preliminary. In addition, application of the ISF has not occurred in SMH at the community level or in relation to the specific stresses a community undergoes in relation to a disaster. The purpose of this article was to conduct a preliminary attempt to connect these three areas—the ISF, SMH and strengthening SMH through the ISF to better address impacts of a community level disaster; in this case, we explore the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans schools, their students and families, and SMH programming within them. Special Issue: Advances in Bridging Research and Practice Using the Interactive System Framework for Dissemination and Implementation; Guest Editors: Abraham Wandersman, Paul Flaspohler, Catherine A. Lesesne, Richard Puddy; Action Editor: Emilie Phillips Smith     

Exposure to Violence,Social Information Processing,and Problem Behavior in Preschool Children

Understanding the mechanisms by which early risk factors for social maladjustment contribute to disruptive behaviors in social settings is vital to developmental research and practice. A major risk factor for social maladjustment is early exposure to violence, which was examined in this short‐term longitudinal study in relation to social information processing (SIP) patterns and externalizing and internalizing behaviors in a sample of 256 preschool children. Data on exposure to violence were obtained via parent report, data on SIP were obtained via child interview, and data on child problem behavior were obtained via teacher report. Findings supported the hypothesis that, compared to children not exposed to violence, children reported to witness and/or experience violence are more likely to attribute hostile intent to peers, generate aggressive responses, and evaluate socially unaccepted responses (aggressive and inept) as socially suitable. The former were also found to exhibit higher levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Finally, SIP mediated the link between exposure to violence and problem behavior thus supporting this study's general approach, which argues that the link between exposure to violence and children's problem behaviors are better understood within the context of their perceptions about social relationships. Aggr. Behav. 38:429‐441, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.