Anxiety,aspirations, and self-concept in the achievement process: A longitudinal model with latent variables

Recent research suggests that anxiety is not a single, unified reaction to perceived threat, but rather a cluster of interrelated factors whose relationships to performance change as the individual progresses from one test event to another. This study investigated the presumed linkages between traitlike predispositions to perceive threat and achievement performance, as mediated by statelike anxiety arousal on a longitudinal basis (Perceived Threat Anxiety Arousal Impaired Performance). College students were administered self-report questionnaire measures during a preenrollment period, after the first two midterms, and following the last two midterms in a general psychology course. Four performance measures and 26 motivational indicators were fitted to a 10-factor latent model using LISREL model-fitting techniques. Path-analytic interpretations of this structural model provided little evidence for the commonly held view that traitlike threat perceptions mediate performance via statelike anxiety reactions. Far more promising, theoretically, are those influences on test performance stemming from the self-attributional, cognitive domain. Overall, the findings support a recent reinterpretation of achievement anxiety as stemming from the disruptive effects of diminished ability perceptions (and hence, impaired personal worth), rather than from the interfering influence of diffused emotional arousalper se.     

Book Reviews

S trenger , C arlo . Between Hermenetttics and Science: An Essay on the Epistemology of Psychoanalysis.
E igen , M ichael . Coming through the Whirlwind: Case Studies in Psychotherapy.
C arotenuto , A. Kant's Dove: The History of Transference in Psychoanalysis.
S toller , R obert . Pom: Myths for the Twentieth Century.
B razelton , T. B erry and C ramer , B ertrand G.: The Earliest Relationship.     

Book Reviews

Little, Margaret I. Psychotic Anxieties and Containment: A Personal Record of an Analysis with Winnicott.
Casement, Patrick. Further Learning from the Patient: the Analytic Space and Process.
Perry, Christopher. Listen to the Voice Within: A Jungian Approach to Pastoral Care.
Singer, June. Seeing Through the Visible World: Jung, Gnosis, and Chaos.
Woodman, Marion. The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women.
Dowling, S. (Ed.) The Significance of Infant Observational Research for Clinical Work with Children, Adolescents and Adults.     

The Role of Maternal Acceptance in the Relation Between Community Violence Exposure and Child Functioning

Children in the United States are exposed to considerable community violence that has been linked to child functioning. However, not all those exposed, experience negative outcomes. Recent research has focused on factors that “buffer” or protect children from negative consequences of violence exposure. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the potential buffering or moderating role of maternal acceptance in the relationship between community violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems. Subjects were 268 urban African American first graders. Community violence exposure was significantly related to symptoms of post-traumatic stress, but did not correlate with either internalizing or externalizing problems for all children, after control for demographics, maternal mental health, and general life stress. However, children's perceptions of maternal acceptance moderated the relationship between violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems which included being withdrawn, anxious-depressed, and demonstrating delinquent behavior. Children with the lowest levels of self-reported maternal acceptance were most impacted by community violence. In this sample of urban first graders, low levels of maternal acceptance placed children at greater risk for adverse outcomes associated with community violence exposure compared to moderate and high levels of maternal acceptance.