Depressive Symptoms Following Coping with Peer Aggression: The Moderating Role of Negative Emotionality

The way in which children cope with peer aggression may determine their subsequent adjustment, but different forms of coping may be more or less effective for particular children. This research examined whether the contribution of children’s coping to subsequent depressive symptoms was contingent on children’s temperament (i.e., level of negative emotionality; NE) and gender. Children (N?=?235, 102 boys, 133 girls, M?=?7.94 years, SD?=?0.33) reported on exposure to peer victimization. Parents rated children’s NE and depressive symptoms, and teachers rated children’s coping. For girls with high NE, problem solving protected against depressive symptoms whereas seeking retaliation heightened risk for depressive symptoms. Advice seeking protected children with low NE against depressive symptoms whereas ignoring protected children with high NE against depressive symptoms. Humor predicted fewer depressive symptoms in boys with high NE but more depressive symptoms in boys with low NE. This research helps to elucidate individual differences in the effects of coping on adjustment, and has implications for interventions aimed at reducing risk resulting from exposure to peer aggression.     

Adolescent–parent attachment as a mediator of relations between parenting and adolescent social behavior and wellbeing in China

The purpose of this study was to examine links between parenting dimensions (authoritative parenting, psychological control, and parental authority) and adolescent wellbeing (self‐esteem, autonomy, and peer attachments) as mediated by parent–teen attachment, among Chinese families. The sample included 298 Chinese adolescents, ages 15–18 years (M age = 16.36, SD = .68; 60% female). The mediation model was examined using path analyses (one model with parental authority as overprotection, and one with it as perceived behavioral control). To improve model fit a direct path was added from authoritative parenting to autonomy. Authoritative parenting was positively predictive of attachment, while psychological control and overprotection (but not behavioral control) were negative predictors. In turn, adolescent–parent attachment was positively related to the three outcomes. Lastly, the model paths did not differ by adolescent gender. These findings suggest that parenting behaviors may play a crucial role in adolescent social behaviors and wellbeing via adolescent–parent attachment.     

Affective auditory stimulus database: An expanded version of the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS-E)

Using appropriate stimuli to evoke emotions is especially important for researching emotion. Psychologists have provided several standardized affective stimulus databases—such as the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) and the Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS) as visual stimulus databases, as well as the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS) and the Montreal Affective Voices as auditory stimulus databases for emotional experiments. However, considering the limitations of the existing auditory stimulus database studies, research using auditory stimuli is relatively limited compared with the studies using visual stimuli. First, the number of sample sounds is limited, making it difficult to equate across emotional conditions and semantic categories. Second, some artificially created materials (music or human voice) may fail to accurately drive the intended emotional processes. Our principal aim was to expand existing auditory affective sample database to sufficiently cover natural sounds. We asked 207 participants to rate 935 sounds (including the sounds from the IADS-2) using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and three basic-emotion rating scales. The results showed that emotions in sounds can be distinguished on the affective rating scales, and the stability of the evaluations of sounds revealed that we have successfully provided a larger corpus of natural, emotionally evocative auditory stimuli, covering a wide range of semantic categories. Our expanded, standardized sound sample database may promote a wide range of research in auditory systems and the possible interactions with other sensory modalities, encouraging direct reliable comparisons of outcomes from different researchers in the field of psychology.     

Intersecting cultural identities and help-seeking attitudes: the role of religious commitment,gender, and self-stigma of seeking help

ABSTRACT

The current study (N?=?404) used a moderated moderation model to examine how gender, religious commitment, and self-stigma toward seeking psychological help may interact in the prediction of help-seeking attitudes. Bivariate zero-order correlations indicated that help-seeking attitudes was negatively associated with self-stigma of seeking help (r?=??.55) and positively associated with religious commitment (r?=?.14), and self-stigma was not significantly associated with religious commitment. Men reported more negative attitudes than women (ΔM?=??.18). Furthermore, multiple regression results revealed a three-way interaction such that the relationship between gender and help-seeking attitudes was moderated by both self-stigma and religious commitment. Specifically, men with high religious commitment and high self-stigma endorsed the most negative help-seeking attitudes, suggesting that religious men’s help-seeking attitudes may be particularly susceptible to the influence of self-stigma. Implications for research and the development of targeted interventions are discussed.     

Variations of Gender–math Stereotype Content Affect Women’s Vulnerability to Stereotype Threat

To determine whether variations in stereotype content salience moderates stereotype threat effects, 66 US female undergraduate students were given a standardized math exam, and the salience of specific gender–math stereotype content was manipulated before the exam. Women exerted more effort on each problem and performed better on a math exam when threatened with an effort-based stereotype compared to when threatened with the ability-based stereotype or control (where no stereotype was explicitly mentioned). Implications of these results are discussed in terms of stereotype and social identity threat theory, as well as how the socio-cultural salience of ability versus other components of the gender–math stereotype may impact women who pursue math and science-based domains.     

Rape Perception Differences Between Japanese and American College Students: On the Mediating Influence of Gender Role Traditionality

This study was designed to examine the differences in rape perceptions between Japanese and American college students. It was found that the Japanese minimized the seriousness of rapes, blamed the victims, and excused the rapists more than did the Americans. Cross-cultural differences in the gender role traditionality (GRT) were found to mediate these differences. GRT-mediated tendencies for increases in the intimacy between the victim and the perpetrator to be associated with increases in rape minimization and victim blame were also found. These latter tendencies were found to be greater among the Japanese than among the Americans. Gender differences in rape perception were also found among the Japanese participants.     

Self-referential processing of negative stimuli within the ventral anterior cingulate gyrus and right amygdala

Neural activity associated with self-referential processing of emotional stimuli was investigated using whole brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Fifteen healthy subjects underwent fMRI scanning while making judgments about positive and negative trait words in four conditions (self-reference, other-reference, semantic processing, and letter processing). Significant activity was observed in the right ventral anterior cingulate gyrus and the right amygdala in the negative-word/self-reference condition, and in the left amygdala in the positive-word/self-reference condition. Compared with the semantic-processing condition, the self-reference conditions showed significantly more activity in the medial prefrontal and temporal gyri, posterior cingulate gyrus, and precuneus. These results suggest that the medial prefrontal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, and precuneus are associated with a self-referential processing, and the ventral anterior cingulate gyrus is involved in self-referential processing of negative emotional stimuli. The results also suggest that the amygdala is associated with self-referential processing of both positive and negative emotional stimuli.     

The moderating role of ambivalent sexism: the influence of power status on perception of rape victim and rapist

The authors examined the effect of ambivalent sexism on others' perceptions of alleged-rape incidents, in which there are socioeconomic status differences between the victims and their perpetrators. The dependent variables included measures of minimizing rape, blaming the victim, excusing the perpetrator, and determining the length of the recommended sentence. The results indicated 4 noteworthy findings: First, individuals who scored high on the hostile power relation (HPR) measure tended to minimize the seriousness of rape incidents. Second, the HPR measure moderated victim blame only in the powerful-man scenario. Third, participants who scored high on the HPR measure tended to believe that the alleged rapist held less responsibility. Fourth, female participants tended to give longer sentences.     

Differences between Japanese and American college students in giving advice about help seeking to rape victims

In this study, the author investigated differences in Japanese and American college students' tendencies to advise a hypothetical rape victim (their sister) to seek help from police, family members, or mental health professionals. Japanese students tended to encourage the victim to seek help from her family members, whereas American students tended to encourage her to seek help from police and mental health counselors. Cross-cultural discrepancies were marked by the following factors: (a) feelings of shame moderated advice to seek help from police; (b) minimization of rape mediated the likelihood to advise the involvement of police and mental health counselors; (c) attitudes toward mental health counselors mediated advice to seek help from them; and (d) the type of rape (stranger vs. date rape) moderated advice to report the crime to police.     

The relationships between perfectionism,religious motivation,and mental health utilisation among latter-day saint students

The present study examined the influence of perfectionism and religious motivation on help-seeking and attitudes towards mental health services (ATMHS) in a Latter-Day Saint sample of 119 undergraduates. Increased levels of perfectionism significantly predicted more negative ATMHS. Higher intrinsic religious motivation was significantly and positively related to help-seeking from religious sources, but not from mental health professionals. Intrinsic religious motivation was also related to perfectionism, but only for adaptive subscales. The implications for focusing utilisation interventions towards religious populations are discussed.