Alcohol as social lubricant.

This study examines how consuming alcohol differentially affects the communicative behavior and perceptions of high and low social self‐esteem (SSE) women as they engage in a brief interaction with a flirtatious male. Alcohol myopia theory proposes that alcohol affects behavior when it blocks a person's normal inhibitions about enacting a behavior. It was predicted that low SSE women would be more inhibited when talking to a flirtatious male than would high SSE women and, therefore administration of a social self‐esteem measure and random assignment to an alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage condition, participants (N=50) talked with an attractive, flirtatious male confederate. Low SSE women were less anxious and self‐disclosed more when drinking than when sober, whereas high SSE women were not significantly affected by alcohol consumption. The discussion highlights the complex and often contradictory effects of alcohol consumption on social interaction.     

Students’ Motivation and Engagement Predict Reading Achievement Differently by Ethnic Group

The authors examined Grade 3 and Grade 5 teacher-rated classroom engagement and student self-reported motivation for reading as predictors of reading achievement. They investigated the patterns of prediction of achievement for three racial/ethnic groups (White, Black, and Hispanic) and five levels of socioeconomic status (SES) in a combined within-group model. Groups were created by crossing race/ethnicity with SES to form 15 independent groups for each grade level. Results indicated that self-reported motivation was a significant predictor of reading achievement mainly for White third-grade students; teacher-reported engagement was a better predictor for all racial/ethnic groups for both Grade 3 and Grade 5 reading achievement. Results show higher achievement for White and higher-SES students compared with non-White and lower-SES students.     

The effects of violent video games on aggression.

Violent content video games such as Mortal Kombat and Doom have become very popular among children and adolescents, causing great concern for parents, teachers, and policy makers. This study cumulates findings across existing empirical research on the effects of violent video games to estimate overall effect size and discern important trends and moderating variables. Results suggest there is a smaller effect of violent video games on aggression than has been found with television violence on aggression. This effect is positively associated with type of game violence and negatively related to time spent playing the games. Directions for future programmatic research on video games are outlined.     

Goal orientations of young male ice hockey players and their parents

In this study, the researchers investigated the relationship between parent and player dispositional goal orientations associated with playing youth hockey. The authors used the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (J. L. Duda & J. Whitehead, 1998) to measure task and ego orientation in 123 boys (10-13 years old) and 1 of their parents. Sons rated their own goal orientations for hockey and their perceptions of their parent's goal orientations. Parents rated their goal orientations for their son and their perceptions of their son's goal orientations. Mothers and fathers did not differ in their goal orientations for their son. Travel-team and nontravel-team players did not differ. For ego orientation, the son's self-ratings correlated significantly with the parent's goals for the son, but not for task orientation. Sons reported being significantly more ego-oriented than their parents desired. Sons perceived that their parents had goal orientations similar to their own. The data from this study are congruent with the assertion that parents socialize their children's goal orientations and that ego orientation may be more salient and easily communicated than task orientation.     

Personal Characteristics,Job Performance,and Absenteeism of Public School Teachers1

Personal characteristics and job performance were examined as potential predictors of absenteeism for a professional occupational group. Data on 152 public school teachers demonstrated that sex and independence contributed unique variance to the prediction of absenteeism. Furthermore, the interaction terms of sex with independence, with the ability to control anxiety, and with performance rating significantly added to the variance explained in absenteeism. Implications of the present results are discussed as well as suggestions for future research.     

Goal Orientations of Young Male Ice Hockey Players and Their Parents

In this study, the researchers investigated the relationship between parent and player dispositional goal orientations associated with playing youth hockey. The authors used the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (J. L. Duda ? J. Whitehead, 1998) to measure task and ego orientation in 123 boys (10-13 years old) and 1 of their parents. Sons rated their own goal orientations for hockey and their perceptions of their parent's goal orientations. Parents rated their goal orientations for their son and their perceptions of their son's goal orientations. Mothers and fathers did not differ in their goal orientations for their son. Travel-team and nontravel-team players did not differ. For ego orientation, the son's self-ratings correlated significantly with the parent's goals for the son, but not for task orientation. Sons reported being significantly more ego-oriented than their parents desired. Sons perceived that their parents had goal orientations similar to their own. The data from this study are congruent with the assertion that parents socialize their children's goal orientations and that ego orientation may be more salient and easily communicated than task orientation.     

Bulimic symptomatology: the role of adaptive perfectionism, shape and weight concern, and self-esteem

An interactive model implicating high perfectionism, high weight and shape concern, and low self-esteem in the onset and maintenance of bulimic symptoms ( [Bardone et?al., 2000] and [Vohs et?al., 1999] ) has received mixed support. This study aimed to replicate the cross-sectional model in a clinical sample of women with eating disorders, and to investigate whether the model could predict changes in binge eating and purging at the end of treatment. Eating disorder outpatients (n = 353) completed measures of perfectionism, weight/shape concern, self-esteem, and bulimic symptoms at pre-treatment and discharge. Contrary to the hypotheses, the three-way interaction did not predict binge eating or purging cross-sectionally or prospectively as a moderator of psychotherapy outcome. It was concluded that the robustness of the interactive model seems questionable and may be impacted by an inadequate conceptualization of the perfectionism construct.