Exploring the associations between coping patterns for everyday stressors and mental health in young schoolchildren

The purposes of this study were to explore the structure of coping with everyday stressors in a young nonclinical population and examine the relationship between coping and mental health. A total of 1324 children from 91 second-grade classes in 35 schools participated. Mental health was assessed using the parent and teacher forms of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997), and coping was assessed by the Kidcope (Spirito et al., 1988) self-report checklist. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a three-factor structure of coping. Latent-variable regression analysis indicated that coping categories including both active and emotional strategies were associated with fewer mental health problems, whereas withdrawal and oppositional coping strategies were associated with greater mental health problems. With some important exceptions, the results replicated previous studies of adults and adolescents. The need for new, more comprehensive coping assessments is highlighted.     

Dependency and perfectionism: Short-term dynamic group psychotherapy for university students

Abstract

This paper is based on the authors' experiences of conducting short-term psychodynamic group therapy with university students. The therapy groups focus on common problems among the members, i.e. perfectionism, procrastination, and fear of graduation. Working on their dependency and on their inadequate separation from parental figures typically helps the students cope more creatively with their academic problems. The paper explores technical questions and possible advantages in working within a short time frame using a group analytic approach.     

The Factor Structure of MASC Youth Report in Norwegian School Children

Identifying children with symptoms of anxiety before they develop clinical disorders is important. The objective of our study was to examine the latent factor structure of the MASC (youth report version) in a large self-selected sample of school children in 4th to 6th grade, and examine if the measure had a comparable factor structure for gender and age. Gender and age differences in anxiety symptoms were also examined. Children (N?=?1686, 53.8% female) were recruited from schools during pretest of an ongoing randomized, controlled, indicative intervention. Latent variable modelling was used to determine the underlying concepts of the MASC. We found good model fit for the four-factor model, however some items on the Harm/Avoidance scale had low factor loadings. Invariance analysis indicated that the MASC had similar factor structure (comparable meaning) for boys and girls and for younger and older children in this sample. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on all subscales and on the Total Anxiety scale. Age differences were only found on the Separation Anxiety scale. Overall, the original four-factor structure of the MASC was confirmed within a large sample of school children and was invariant across gender and age. However, the Harm/avoidance scale warrants some attention. The MASC is a potentially useful measure to be used for screening purposes in a school setting.     

Common Etiological Sources of Anxiety,Depression, and Somatic Complaints in Adolescents: A Multiple Rater twin Study

Somatic complaints in children and adolescents may be considered part of a broader spectrum of internalizing disorders that include anxiety and depression. Previous research on the topic has focused mainly on the relationship between anxiety and depression without investigating how common somatic symptoms relate to an underlying factor and its etiology. Based on the classical twin design with monozygotic and dizygotic twins reared together, our study aimed to explore the extent to which the covariation between three phenotypes in adolescent girls and boys can be represented by a latent internalizing factor, with a focus on both common and specific etiological sources. A population-based sample of twins aged 12–18 years and their mothers and fathers (N?=?1394 families) responded to questionnaire items measuring the three phenotypes. Informants’ ratings were collapsed using full information maximum likelihood estimated factor scores. Multivariate genetic analyses were conducted to examine the etiological structure of concurrent symptoms. The best fitting model was an ACE common pathway model without sex limitation and with one substantially heritable (44 %) latent factor shared by the phenotypes. Concurrent symptoms also resulted from shared (25 %) and non-shared (31 %) environments. The factor loaded most on depression symptoms and least on somatic complaints. Trait-specific influences explained 44 % of depression variance, 59 % of anxiety variance, and 65 % of somatic variance. Our results suggest the presence of a general internalizing factor along which somatic complaints and mental distress can be modeled. However, specific influences make the symptom types distinguishable.     

Brought Up to Rebel in the Sixties: Birth Order Irrelevant,Parental Worldview Decisive

In Born to Rebel 1997 [1996] and subsequent works Frank Sulloway asserts that laterborns are more supportive of radical rebellions than are firstborns. Failure to replicate his historical cases and lack of significant sibling differences in contemporary studies of personality have produced fierce debate and grave doubts about the theory. It has yet to find robust support from studies of contemporary rebellions. Using retrospective survey data on the 1960s radicalization from 1,246 former students at the University of Oslo, we find no effect of birth order on who became student radicals. What we find are strong effects on political orientation of conventional radicalizing factors: upbringing in an urban environment and in particular in a home with radical parents. Within the group of radicals, birth order did not increase the propensity for political protest activity such as demonstrations and civil disobedience. Laterborns moreover had no higher proclivity than firstborns to apolitical protest behavior such as using cannabis or letting males' hair grow. Coming on top of concerns about the empirical support for other parts of the theory, our findings indicate that Sulloway's contested claim about the extrafamilial effects of birth order is not viable.     

Thirty-five-month-old children have spontaneous memories despite change of context for retrieval

ABSTRACT

Many parents have experienced incidents in which their preschool child spontaneously (i.e., without prompting of any kind) recall a previously experienced event. Until recently, such spontaneous memories had only been examined in non-controlled settings (e.g., diary studies). Using a novel experimental paradigm, a previous study has shown that when young children are brought back to a highly distinct setting (same room, same experimenter, same furnishing), in which they previously experienced an interesting event (a Teddy or a Game event), spontaneous memories can be triggered. However, exactly which cues (or combination of cues) are effective for the children’s memory, remains unknown. Here, we used this novel paradigm to examine the possible impact of contextual cues at the time of retrieval. We manipulated whether the 35-month-old children returned to the same room (n?=?40) or to a different, but similarly furnished, room (n?=?40) after one week. The results revealed that although the children returning to a new room produced fewer spontaneous memories than the children returning to the same room, the difference was not significant. Interestingly, despite changing rooms, the children still produced spontaneous memories. Taken together the results may shed new light on the mechanisms underlying childhood amnesia.     

Bound to remember: Infants show superior memory for objects presented at event boundaries

Following Event Segmentation Theory (EST) adult memory is enhanced at event boundaries (EB). The present study set out to explore this in infancy. Sixty‐eight 21‐month‐olds watched a cartoon with one of two objects (counterbalanced) inserted for 3s either at EB or between EB. Ten minutes later they watched both objects (familiar and novel) in a 10s Visual Paired Comparison (VPC) test while being eye‐tracked. Furthermore, they were asked to point to the previous object. Based on EST, we hypothesized that objects inserted at EB would be processed more fully, resulting in improved memory compared to objects inserted between EB. Only infants with objects at EB exhibited memory evidenced by a transient familiarity preference for the first 3s of the test. Only 18 infants completed the pointing test, but all infants presented with objects at EB (10/10) pointed to the correct (familiar) object, which was not the case for the infants presented with objects between EB (5/8).     

Infant Socioeconomic Position and Quality of Life in Midlife: A 50-Year Follow-Up Study of 2079 Individuals in Denmark

Applied Research in Quality of Life - During the last decades, an important line of public health research has focused on the influence of socioeconomic position (SEP) on the quality of life (QoL)...     

Crises Now and Then—Comparing Integration Policy Frameworks and Immigrant Target Groups in Denmark in the 1970s and 2000s

This article investigates the impact of economic crises in the early 1970s and 2000s on integration policy frames in Denmark. By the means of a comparative case study of “guest workers” in the 1960s/1970s and labor migrants in 2000s, we identify changes in discourses and policy frames brought on by economic crisis. In the article, we explore policy transformations relating to integration in the light of periods economic upturns and downturns. We analyze and compare the development of policy frames and policy content before, during and after the crises and thereby seek to answer how economic contours affect not only policy-making processes and content but also the social construction of target groups. The fact that Denmark did not have an official policy on integration of the guest workers in the 1960s and 1970s created a different point of departure than in the 2000s where the experience with and policy on integration of immigrant is much more developed. It is therefore also rather striking that many of the mistakes made during the 1960s and 1970s seems to be repeated in the 2000s. The situation of economic upturn and envision of the migration being temporary did, in both cases, lead to little emphasis on integration up until the point of crisis. In the analysis, we find that issues such as religious background, cultural characteristics, and educational levels, position on labor market, language proficiency, housing, and mobility which all pertain to integration are given less attention in times of economic upturn.