Gender differences in the relative impact of physical and relational bullying on adolescent injury and weapon carrying

Using structural equation modeling, concurrent associations were assessed among physical bullying, relational bullying, physical victimization, relational victimization, injury and weapon carrying using data from the population of 1300 adolescent girls and 1362 adolescent boys in grades 7-12 in a Colorado school district. For both genders, being a relational bully was a significantly stronger predictor of weapon carrying than being a physical bully, and both bullying types were significant predictors of more weapon carrying. For both genders, being a victim of physical bullying, a victim of relational bullying, or being a relational bully significantly predicted more injury. In latent means comparisons, adolescent girls reported more relational victimization and adolescent boys reported more physical bullying and victimization, more weapon carrying, and more injury. The relative strength of relational bullying on weapon carrying, and the health-related consequences of bullying on interpersonal violence and injury support concerted efforts in schools to mitigate these behaviors. Attention to differences related to age and gender also is indicated in the design of bullying mitigation programs.     

Parental Bonding and Its Effect on Adolescent Substance Use and Sexual Debut

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among parental bonding factors and the early onset of sexual behaviors and substance use. Significant differences were found in the levels of care among the parental status groups and among the ages of onset for alcohol use.     

Working memory capacity and individual differences in the making of reinstatement and elaborative inferences

This study investigated the role of working memory capacity on the making of reinstatement and causal elaborative inferences during the reading of natural texts. In order to determine participants' working memory capacity, they were asked to take the reading span task before they took part in the study. Those participants that were identified as high or low working memory capacity readers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in two conditions: pre-inference and inference. In the pre-inference condition, target words representing reinstatement or causal elaborative inferences were presented immediately before the sentences that were predicted to prompt them. In the inference condition, the target words were presented immediately after the sentences that were predicted to prompt the inferences. Results indicated that, for the high working memory capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations for both types of inferences. In the case of low working capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations only for reinstatement inferences. These findings suggest that working memory capacity plays a role in the making of causal inferences during the comprehension of natural texts.