The Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS): predictive validity and construct validity in a Dutch population

The discriminant and predictive validity of the Dutch translation of the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS; Rust and Golombok, 1985, Rust and Golombok, 1986a, Rust and Golombok, 1986b; Ter Kuile et al., (1993); Ter Kuile et al., accepted for publication) was examined in independent samples comprising sexological (357 males and 380 females) and gynaecological outpatients (156 males and 209 females). Prediction of the presence of sexual complaints with the GRISS differed in these samples. The best performance was found in the male sexology sample in which sensitivity and specificity, as well as the predictive values both positive and negative were satisfactory. The predictive characteristics in the other three samples were found to be less satisfactory and were confounded with sample characteristics concerning the presence or absence of individual sexual problems. The availability of the other partners' GRISS scores enhanced the GRISS' predictive capacities for males and females in these samples. In 320 female and 300 male sexology patients and their partners, the convergent and divergent construct validity of the GRISS scales was investigated using other instruments measuring psychological distress, marital, sexual and general life maladjustment, personality traits of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism and social desirability. No correlations of the GRISS with social desirability were found. GRISS subscales were found to represent relatively independent constructs. These findings were confirmed by higher-order factor analyses of subscale scores of males and females.     

Relation of Age of Onset to the Type and Severity of Child and Adolescent Conduct Problems

In a cross-sectional household sample of 9-through 17-year-old youths from 4 U.S. communities, youths with earlier ages of onset of conduct problems engaged in more conduct problems than youths with later ages of onset when current age and gender were controlled. Specifically, youths with earlier ages of onset were more likely to engage in several types of physical aggression, frequent lying, theft, and vandalism and were less likely to engage in only truancy. There also was an inverse relation between age of onset and level of functional impairment, mental health service use, and meeting diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder. Within the limits of cross-sectional data, these results support the hypothesis that key aspects of the heterogeneity of conduct problems among youths are related to the age of onset of conduct problems.     

Retrieving the correlation matrix from a truncated PCA solution: The inverse principal component problem

Whenr Principal Components are available fork variables, the correlation matrix is approximated in the least squares sense by the loading matrix times its transpose. The approximation is generally not perfect unlessr =k. In the present paper it is shown that, whenr is at or above the Ledermann bound,r principal components are enough to perfectly reconstruct the correlation matrix, albeit in a way more involved than taking the loading matrix times its transpose. In certain cases just below the Ledermann bound, recovery of the correlation matrix is still possible when the set of all eigenvalues of the correlation matrix is available as additional information.     

Behavioral Family Interventions for Improving Child-rearing: A Review of the Literature for Clinicians and Policy Makers

This paper reviews evidence that behavioral family interventions are effective at improving child-rearing in distressed families and families with children exhibiting disruptive behavior. Essential therapeutic strategies offered within a collaborative therapeutic process are identified. Exemplary materials for parents and clinicians are identified. Differences between behavioral family interventions and two popular press parenting approaches are highlighted, including the lack of empirical support for these widely used programs and the advice they offer which runs counter to behavioral approaches. Recommendations are offered for combining behavioral family interventions with other empirically supported approaches, promoting more widespread use of empirically supported treatments, such as behavioral family interventions, and the need for a public health perspective on family functioning, involving collaboration among clinicians, policy makers, and researchers.     

Innumeracy in social problems construction: Missing children,vanishing workers,and other statistical claims

Statistical claims are often central to the contemporary construction of social problems. The failure to subject these figures to critical analysis is a form of innumeracy, the inability to deal effectively with mathematical concepts. Two cases from the United States -estimates of the number of missing children, and projections for the workforce in the year 2000 -illustrate how the uncritical acceptance of inaccurate statistics can shape policy debates. Claimsmakers, the mass media, and the media audience all contribute to the innumerate interpretation of social statistics.     

Social skill in third and sixth grade children: A moderator of lifetime stressful life events and behavior problems?

We investigated relationships among stressful lifetime life events, social skill, and behavior problems in children. Participants were 159 third graders, 138 sixth graders, and their mothers. Mothers reported on their children's life events, social skill, and behavior problems. Children self-reported on their social skill and behavior problems. Increased numbers of stressful life events significantly predicted increased behavior problems in third and sixth graders. Increased social skill significantly predicted decreased behavior problems in third and sixth graders. Social skill served a stress-protective role for third but not sixth graders; third graders with increased life events and better social skill had fewer behavior problems than their less socially skilled peers. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future resilience research are presented.     

Teacher rated problems and school ability tests in relation to preschool problems and parents'' health information at school start. A study of first-graders

The reliability of assessments at four and six years of age in identifying teacher rated problems in behaviour, concentration, motor skill and school achievement was investigated in a study of first-graders. Relationships between preschool data and school ability tests, and between parents' information at school start and teacher ratings were also studied. Problems noted in preschool and school were often present in more than one area. Multiple problems at four and six years were strong predictors of later school problems, but preschool assessments of separate areas could not in general predict problems in corresponding areas in school. However, cross situational concentration deficits at the age of six did reliably identify concentration problems in the first grade, at the age of seven.     

Alcohol problems and relapse: Can the clinic combat the community?

Despite over a decade of research and debate into the issue of relapse the majority of people in treatment for alcohol-related problems still relapse. In this paper the results of an innovative relapse prevention and management programme are reported. It was found that a cognitive-behavioural package of strategies reduced the likelihood of relapse. On average, clients receiving this experimental package took four times longer to return to any alcohol use and seven times longer to return to ‘heavy drinking’ than did a conventional treatment control group. However, notwithstanding these results, 60 per cent of the experimental group did return to harmful drinking. The authors question whether further refinement of these procedures is possible, and suggest that if relapse rates are to be further reduced then greater attention needs to be given by counsellors to clients' social environment.     

规则变型推理对远迁移问题解决的促进

为了避免多重变异样例学习和采用题海战术,并能促进规则样例学习的远迁移问题解决,开创出原样例学习后对原型规则做出变型推理的学习方法,以算术应用题的解题样例为原样例学习材料进行了4项实验研究。结果显示：四年级小学生运用该方法可有效促进远迁移问题的解决;其变型推理能力存在数学成绩等级差异;提供问题情境和推理提示能提高部分学生规则变型推理成绩和远迁移测验成绩。实验结果证明,规则变型推理是促进远迁移问题解决的有效方法之一。     

Bi-directional relations between behavioral problems and executive function: Assessing the longitudinal development of self-regulation

During childhood, the ability to limit problem behaviors (i.e., externalizing) and the capacity for cognitive regulation (i.e., executive function) are often understood to develop in tandem, and together constitute two major components of self-regulation research. The current study examines bi-directional relations between behavioral problems and executive function over the course of childhood and adolescence. Relying on a diverse sample of children growing up in low-income neighborhoods, we applied a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to longitudinally test associations between behavioral problems and executive function from age 4 through age 16. With this approach, which disaggregated between- and within-child variation, we did not observe significant cross-lagged paths, suggesting that within-child development in one domain did not strongly relate to development in the other. We also observed a moderate correlation between the stable between-child components of behavioral problems and executive function over time in our preferred model, suggesting that these two domains may be relatively distinct when modeled from early childhood through adolescence.