A two-year follow-up investigation of parenting and peer influences on tobacco use onset among Italian early adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of peer and family influences on tobacco use onset among Italian early adolescents at two-year follow-up. Participants were 161 adolescents aged 11 to 12 (M = 11.14, SD = 0.39; 49% female) living in the northwest of Italy. Multiple logistic regressions were used. Results indicated that increases in positive family climate were negatively associated with lifetime smoking among non-smokers at two-year follow-up. Additionally, parental knowledge of child daily activities decreased lifetime smoking at two-year follow-up. Moderation analyses revealed that parental knowledge reduced the effect of peers' influence on youth smoking onset at two-year follow-up. This study underlined the influence of parenting practices in preventing early smoking initiation in Italy.     

Psychological treatment of hypnotic-dependent insomnia in a primarily older adult sample

Objective

This study tested cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in hypnotic-dependent, late middle-age and older adults with insomnia.

Method

Seventy volunteers age 50 and older were randomized to CBT plus drug withdrawal, placebo biofeedback (PL) plus drug withdrawal, or drug withdrawal (MED) only. The CBT and PL groups received eight, 45 min weekly treatment sessions. The drug withdrawal protocol comprised slow tapering monitored with about six biweekly, 30 min sessions. Assessment including polysomnography (PSG), sleep diaries, hypnotic consumption, daytime functioning questionnaires, and drug screens collected at baseline, posttreatment, and 1-year follow-up.

Results

Only the CBT group showed significant sleep diary improvement, sleep onset latency significantly decreased at posttreatment. For all sleep diary measures for all groups, including MED, sleep trended to improvement from baseline to follow-up. Most PSG sleep variables did not significantly change. There were no significant between group differences in medication reduction. Compared to baseline, the three groups decreased hypnotic use at posttreatment, down 84%, and follow-up, down 66%. There was no evidence of withdrawal side-effects. Daytime functioning, including anxiety and depression, improved by posttreatment. Rigorous methodological features, including documentation of strong treatment implementation and the presence of a credible placebo, elevated the confidence due these findings.

Conclusions

Gradual drug withdrawal was associated with substantial hypnotic reduction at posttreatment and follow-up, and withdrawal side-effects were absent. When supplemented with CBT, participants accrued incremental self-reported, but not PSG, sleep benefits.     

Observational Learning and the Role of Confinement in Pigeons: Suppression of Learning as a Function of Observing the Performance of a Conspecific

Observational learning of a successive discrimination problem by pigeons was studied using conspecifics as models responding for either contingent or noncontingent reinforcement. We found that observation of these models was associated with poorer performance on subsequent testing than was shown by a control group that learned without first observing conspecifics' performance. No significant difference was found between subjects without observational experience and another control group that was confined in the observation apparatus and observed an empty chamber only.     

“孤芳自赏”还是“茕茕孑立”:儿童社交淡漠适应功能的文化差异

社会退缩行为是指在社会情境中,儿童不参与社会互动并频繁表现出独自消遣的行为。社会退缩有多种亚类型,其中社交淡漠指儿童仅仅喜欢一个人独处,对社会互动没有兴趣。有趣的是,社交淡漠的适应功能存在一定的文化差异,主要表现为:社交淡漠行为在个人主义文化中较少产生适应困难,在心理与情绪适应方面尤为明显;但其在集体主义文化里却会引起多方面的适应困难。这种差异可能与文化价值观的内涵有关,也可能与特定国情有关。未来的研究亟需提高研究方法的多面性,关注年龄与文化的交互作用,进行直接的跨文化比较,探索与文化相关的风险与保护因子,以及关注互联网环境的影响。     

Use of Delayed Praise as a Directive and Its Effectiveness on On-Task Behavior

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effectiveness of delayed, directive praise on the on-task behavior of children identified as having a low level of attention. Utilizing an A-B-A-B single subject design, each child received delayed praise, employed as a directive for future behavior, from his or her classroom teacher during the treatment phases. The on-task behavior of each participant rose substantially between the initial baseline and treatment conditions and remained elevated throughout the study. Similarities between student performances suggest that students with low on-task behavior respond positively to delayed, directive praise and that the positive effects of such praise generalize over time.     

Trajectories of Social Withdrawal from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence

Heterogeneity and individual differences in the developmental course of social withdrawal were examined longitudinally in a community sample (N = 392). General Growth Mixture Modeling (GGMM) was used to identify distinct pathways of social withdrawal, differentiate valid subgroup trajectories, and examine factors that predicted change in trajectories within subgroups. Assessments of individual (social withdrawal), interactive (prosocial behavior), relationship (friendship involvement, stability and quality, best friend’s withdrawal and exclusion/victimization) and group- (exclusion/victimization) level characteristics were used to define growth trajectories from the final year of elementary school, across the transition to middle school, and then to the final year of middle school (fifth-to-eighth grades). Three distinct trajectory classes were identified: low stable, increasing, and decreasing. Peer exclusion, prosocial behavior, and mutual friendship involvement differentiated class membership. Friendlessness, friendship instability, and exclusion were significant predictors of social withdrawal for the increasing class, whereas lower levels of peer exclusion predicted a decrease in social withdrawal for the decreasing class.     

儿童社交退缩、同伴关系和社会信息加工特点的关系

应用班级戏剧问卷在小学3-5年级儿童中筛选退缩儿童121名（安静退缩52名,活跃退缩47名,混合退缩22名）,同时设立对照组。集体施测同伴提名、朋友提名和友谊质量问卷,并对其中部分儿童实施社会信息加工的结构性访谈,探讨童年中期不同类型社交退缩儿童的同伴关系和社会信息加工特点之间的关系。结果表明,安静退缩儿童的同伴关系与一般儿童无显著差异,但活跃退缩和混合退缩儿童的同伴关系较差;活跃退缩儿童和混合退缩儿童与一般儿童相比,在社会信息加工过程中存在更多的差异;儿童的同伴关系在社交退缩行为与社会信息加工能力之间起到部分中介的作用;可从同伴关系和反应执行水平两个方面综合预测儿童的退缩行为。     

Conceptions of aggression and withdrawal in early childhood

Two studies investigate young children's beliefs about aggression and withdrawal in others with reference to the possibility of stability and change. Study 1 (N=41) provides evidence that preschool children (1) view aggression in more essentialist ways (i.e. they believe it to be more stable and less changeable) than withdrawal and (2) believe that friends hold a greater potential to create change in aggression and withdrawal than do other potential sources of influence, such as parents and teachers. Study 2 (N=25) replicates the findings of Study 1 and also demonstrates that by preschool age, children hold systematic ideas about the effectiveness of strategies that friends can use to change the behaviour of their peers. These ideas include the belief that prosocial strategies, such as showing peers how to make friends, are more effective than requests to stop engaging in undesirable behaviour. Study 2 also demonstrates that preschool‐aged participants engaged in essentialist reasoning to a greater extent than did a comparison group of 20 7–8 year olds. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CLINICAL WINNICOTT: TRAVELING A REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

The author contends that, contrary to the usual perception that Winnicott followed a linear progression “through pediatrics to psychoanalysis,” Winnicott's vision was always a psychoanalytic one, even during his early pediatric work. His place in the development of psychoanalytic theory is highlighted, and the author discusses such key Winnicottian concepts as transitional space, the false self, and the use of the object. Winnicott's unique approach to the form and value of analytic interpretation is particularly emphasized, and his thoughts on the treatment of depression are also addressed, as well as his distinction between regression and withdrawal. Included is a summary of convergences and divergences between Winnicott's thinking and that of Bion.