Snitching versus reporting: A qualitative analysis of barriers and facilitators to addressing safety concerns among high school students

Social Psychology of Education - Creating effective school-wide safety mechanisms depends on understanding students' previous experiences of reporting, however, students may also be...     

Posttraumatic Growth in the Context of Heart Disease

The concept of positive consequences arising as a result of coping with traumatic experiences, such as life-threatening illness, represents an emerging area of empirical study in the stress and health literature. This study investigates three specific psychosocial variables (personality, social support, and coping) in relation to posttraumatic growth in a population of individuals coping with heart disease. The results indicate that Extraversion was the most significant predictor of growth, and there is evidence that Problem-Focused Coping partially mediated this relationship between Extraversion and posttraumatic growth. The role of Social Support Satisfaction in predicting growth remains unclear. Findings emphasize the importance of personal and environmental factors in psychological interventions aimed at improving the adjustment and posttraumatic growth of heart patients. Directions for future research are proposed.     

The serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism and childhood positive and negative emotionality

Association studies of the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and negative emotionality (NE) are inconclusive. However, emerging evidence suggests that the association between this polymorphism and NE may be influenced by levels of another temperament trait, positive emotionality (PE). Therefore, this study examined whether the association between the 5-HTTLPR and NE was moderated by PE. A community sample of 413 three-year-old children completed a standardized battery of laboratory tasks designed to tap temperamental emotionality. Children were also genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR. No direct association between 5-HTTLPR genotype and NE was found. However, the interaction of child PE and NE predicted 5-HTTLPR genotype. Furthermore, children with a short allele who were also low in PE had significantly greater NE than children without a short allele or children with high PE. Our findings suggest that the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR is associated with NE only in the context of low PE. Inconsistent links between NE and this gene in previous research may stem from the failure to consider other temperament traits that moderate associations.     

A practice-specificity-based model of arousal for achieving peak performance

The authors propose a practice-specificity-based model of arousal for achieving peak performance. The study included 37 healthy male physical education students whom they randomly assigned to a high-arousal (n = 19) or low-arousal group (n = 18). To manipulate participants' level of arousal, the authors used motivational techniques. They used heart rate and the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (R. Martens, 1977) to measure the level of arousal that participants achieved. At the determined and given arousal state, the 2 groups performed the task (basketball free throws) for 18 sessions. Both groups performed a retention test at the 2 arousal levels immediately after the last exercise session, in the posttest, and after 10 days. Results showed that both groups learned the task similarly and achieved their peak performance at their experienced arousal level. When tested at an arousal level that differed from the one that they experienced throughout practice sessions, participants' performance had deteriorated significantly. Performance of the task seemed to have integrated with the arousal level of the participants during the task learning. The findings of this study suggest a practice-specificity-based explanation for achieving peak performance.     

The embodiment of emotional words in a second language: An eye-movement study

The hypothesis that word representations are emotionally impoverished in a second language (L2) has variable support. However, this hypothesis has only been tested using tasks that present words in isolation or that require laboratory-specific decisions. Here, we recorded eye movements for 34 bilinguals who read sentences in their L2 with no goal other than comprehension, and compared them to 43 first language readers taken from our prior study. Positive words were read more quickly than neutral words in the L2 across first-pass reading time measures. However, this emotional advantage was absent for negative words for the earliest measures. Moreover, negative words but not positive words were influenced by concreteness, frequency and L2 proficiency in a manner similar to neutral words. Taken together, the findings suggest that only negative words are at risk of emotional disembodiment during L2 reading, perhaps because a positivity bias in L2 experiences ensures that positive words are emotionally grounded.     

Knowledge and the Prediction of Behavior: The Role of Information Accuracy in the Theory of Planned Behavior

The usefulness of a combined protection motivation and self-efficacy theory as a model of health enhancement was investigated via a persuasive communications paradigm. Self-efficacy expectancy, outcome expectancy (i.e., perceived response efficacy) and outcome value (i.e., perceived social value) of a health-enhancing behavior were manipulated. As predicted, both self-efficacy expectancy and response efficacy had significant main effects on subjects' intentions to perform the health-enhancing behavior. Outcome value had no significant effect on behavioral intentions. Correlational data indicated that response efficacy was the best single predictor of intentions and that self-efficacy expectancy was also a significant predictor of intentions. Outcome value added no predictability. These results support the utility of the combined protection motivation and self-efficacy theory as a model of health enhancement.     

The role of parenting and dopamine D4 receptor gene polymorphisms in children's inhibitory control

Temperamental effortful control has important implications for children's development. Although genetic factors and parenting may influence effortful control, few studies have examined interplay between the two in predicting its development. The current study investigated associations between parenting and a facet of children's effortful control, inhibitory control (IC), and whether these associations were moderated by whether children had a 7‐repeat variant of the DRD4 exon III VNTR. A community sample of 409 3‐year‐olds completed behavioural tasks to assess IC, and observational measures of parenting were also collected. Negative parenting was associated with lower child IC. The association between children's IC and positive parenting was moderated by children's DRD4 7‐repeat status, such that children with at least one 7‐repeat allele displayed lower IC than children without this allele when positive parenting was lower. These effects appeared to be primarily influenced by parent support and engagement. Results extend recent findings suggesting that some genetic polymorphisms may increase vulnerability to contextual influences.     

‘Big Five’ personality dimensions and social attainment: Evidence from beyond the campus

Research on the contribution of personality traits to attainment has focused heavily on grades among college students. Conscientiousness emerges consistently as the most powerful personality dimension. However, while university students are a convenient group to study, there remain questions about the generalizability, and utility of examining the link between personality and attainment, in a group that consists mainly of educational high-achievers who have not yet earned an income. In this study, data were instead drawn from a more diverse and representative sample gathered in the British National Child Development Study (NCDS). Regression analyses indicated that, in the general population compared to student samples, Openness and Emotional Stability are stronger predictors of educational attainment and earnings than conscientiousness.     

The role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor genotype, parental depression, and relationship discord in predicting early-emerging negative emotionality

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is a plausible candidate for early-emerging negative emotionality (NE), and evidence suggests that the effects of this gene may be especially salient in the context of familial risk for child maladjustment. We therefore examined whether the single-nucleotide polymorphism producing a valine-to-methionine substitution at codon 66 (val66met) of the BDNF gene was associated with childhood NE, in the context of parental depression and relationship discord. A sample of 413 three-year-old children was assessed for NE using standardized laboratory measures. The children's parents completed clinical interviews as well as a measure of marital satisfaction. Children with at least one BDNF methionine (met) allele exhibited elevated NE when a parent had a history of depressive disorder or when relationship discord was reported by a parent. In contrast, this allele was associated with especially low NE when parental depression was absent and when the parental relationship was not discordant. Our findings suggest that the BDNF met allele confers increased child sensitivity to both positive and negative familial influences.