Child extrafamilial sexual abuse: predicting parent and child functioning

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the emotional and behavioral adjustment of parents and children within 3 months and 1 year after the discovery of child extrafamilial sexual abuse. METHOD: Ninety-two case parents (63 mothers, 29 fathers) and 56 children were compared to a nonclinical comparison group of 136 parents (74 mothers, 62 fathers) and 75 children. Parent adjustment was assessed using self-report measures while child functioning was assessed using a combination of child-, parent- and teacher-report measures. RESULTS: Mothers, fathers and sexually abused children experienced clinically significant effects both initially and at 12 months post-disclosure. Children's perceptions of self-blame and guilt for the abuse and the extent of traumatization predicted their self-reported symtomatology at 3 months and 1 year post-disclosure. Child age and gender also significantly contributed to the prediction of many of the child outcome measures. No abuse-related variable was related to any child self-report measure. Mothers' satisfaction in the parenting role, perceived support and intrusive symptoms predicted their initial emotional functioning. Avoidant symptoms, child's internalizing behavior and mothers' initial emotional functioning were significant predictors of longer-term emotional functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Results emphasize the need to address children's abuse-related attributions and underscore the need to expand our focus beyond the child victims to the traumatized families.     

Personality, self-estimated intelligence, and uses of music: A Spanish replication and extension using structural equation modeling.

This study replicates and extends a recent study on personality, intelligence and uses of music [Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2007). Personality and music: Can traits explain how people use music in everyday life? British Journal of Psychology, 98, 175–185] using Spanish participants and structural equation modeling. Data from 245 university students showed that, in line with our hypotheses, individuals higher in Neuroticism were more likely to use music for emotional regulation (influencing their mood states), those higher in Extraversion were more likely to use music as background to other activities, and those higher in Openness were more likely to experience music in a cognitive or intellectual way. As predicted, self-estimates of intelligence were also linked to cognitive use of music, though not when individual differences were considered. On other hand, contrasting with initial predictions, Extraversion was positively rather than negatively linked to emotional use of music. Small incremental effects of gender (over personality) were also found on the emotional use of music. Results are discussed in regards to previous findings on personality traits as determinants of uses of music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relating emotional abilities to social functioning: A comparison of self-report and performance measures of emotional intelligence.

Three studies used J. D. Mayer and P. Salovey's (1997) theory of emotional intelligence (EI) as a framework to examine the role of emotional abilities (assessed with both self-report and performance measures) in social functioning. Self-ratings were assessed in ways that mapped onto the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), a validated performance measure of EI. In Study 1, self-ratings and MSCEIT scores were not strongly correlated. In Study 2, men's MSCEIT scores, but not self-ratings, correlated with perceived social competence after personality measures were held constant. In Study 3, only the MSCEIT predicted real-time social competence, again, just for men. Implications for analyzing how emotional abilities contribute to social behavior are discussed, as is the importance of incorporating gender into theoretical frameworks and study designs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Construct and Criterion Validity of Emotional Intelligence and Its Potential Utility for Management Studies.

In this study, the authors reviewed the definition of emotional intelligence (EI) and argued that El is conceptually distinct from personality. In Study 1, the authors showed that EI was related to yet distinct from personality dimensions and that it had incremental predictive power on life satisfaction. The authors examined the construct validity of self-reports and others' ratings of EI using two samples in Study 2. In a student sample, parents' ratings explained additional variance in the students' life satisfaction and feelings of powerlessness after controlling for the Big Five personality dimensions. In the work sample, peer ratings were found to be significant predictors of job performance ratings provided by supervisors after controlling for the Big Five personality dimensions. Other implications for future research on EI are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological predictors of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder after motor vehicle accidents

A prospective longitudinal study assessed 967 consecutive patients who attended an emergency clinic shortly after a motor vehicle accident, again at 3 months, and at 1 year. The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 23.1% at 3 months and 16.5% at 1 year. Chronic PTSD was related to some objective measures of trauma severity, perceived threat, and dissociation during the accident, to female gender, to previous emotional problems, and to litigation. Maintaining psychological factors, that is, negative interpretation of intrusions, rumination, thought suppression, and anger cognitions, enhanced the accuracy of the prediction. Negative interpretation of intrusions, persistent medical problems, and rumination at 3 months were the most important predictors of PTSD symptoms at 1 year. Rumination, anger cognitions, injury severity, and prior emotional problems identified cases of delayed onset.     

Coping self-talk and cognitive interference in anxious children.

The present study addressed the as-yet-unresolved issue of whether coping self-talk facilitates or interferes with effective task performance. Tests of the relationship between coping cognition and task performance are reported when potentially confounding relationships of negative cognition and task performance are controlled. The results indicate that coping self-talk of high-anxious children was positively correlated with negative thoughts but did not contribute significantly to performance. Implications for the functional value of coping self-talk are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Service with a smile: Do emotional intelligence, gender, and autonomy moderate the emotional labor process?

This survey study of 176 participants from eight customer service organizations investigated how individual factors moderate the impact of emotional labor strategies on employee well-being. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that gender and autonomy were significant moderators of the relationships between emotional labor strategies and the personal outcomes of emotional exhaustion, affective well-being, and job satisfaction. Females were more likely to experience negative consequences when engaging in surface acting. Autonomy served to alleviate negative outcomes for individuals who used emotional labor strategies often. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional intelligence did not moderate the relationship between the emotional labor strategies and personal outcomes. Results demonstrated how the emotional labor process can influence employee well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of individual differences and gender differences in knowledge.

The authors investigated the abilities, self-concept, personality, interest, motivational traits, and other determinants of knowledge across physical sciences/technology, biology/psychology, humanities, and civics domains. Tests and self-report measures were administered to 320 university freshmen. Crystallized intelligence was a better predictor than was fluid intelligence for most knowledge domains. Gender differences favoring men were found for most knowledge domains. Accounting for intelligence reduced the gender influence in predicting knowledge differences. Inclusion of notability predictors further reduced the variance accounted for by gender. Analysis of Advanced Placement test scores largely supported the results of the knowledge tests. Results are consistent with theoretical predictions that development of intellect as knowledge results from investment of cognitive resources, which, in turn, is affected by a small set of trait complexes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of response to treatment in a randomized clinical trial of couple therapy: A 2-year follow-up.

Many studies have examined pretreatment predictors of immediate posttreatment outcome, but few studies have examined prediction of long-term treatment response to couple therapies. Four groups of predictors (demographic, intrapersonal, communication, and other interpersonal) and 2 moderators (pretreatment severity and type of therapy) were explored as predictors of clinically significant change measured 2 years after treatment termination. Results demonstrated that power processes and expressed emotional arousal were the strongest predictors of 2-year response to treatment. Moderation analyses showed that these variables predicted differential treatment response to traditional versus integrative behavioral couple therapy and that more variables predicted 2-year response for couples who were less distressed when beginning treatment. Findings are discussed with regard to existing work on prediction of treatment response, and directions for further study are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intensified insulin therapy and the risk of severe hypoglycaemia

The objectives of the present analyses were to assess the association between HbA1c levels and severe hypoglycaemia (SH, treatment with glucose i.v. or glucagon injection) and to identify predictors of SH in a prospective multicentre trial. The study population consisted of 636 insulin-dependent diabetic patients who had participated in a structured 5-day in-patient group treatment and teaching programme for intensification of insulin therapy (ITTP) in one of 10 hospitals and who were re-examined after 1, 2, 3, and 6 years including assessment of demographic, disease and treatment related parameters, diabetes-related knowledge, behaviour, and emotional coping. At baseline, age (mean +/- SD) was 27 +/- 7 years, diabetes duration 9 +/- 7 years and HbA1c 8.3 +/- 1.9 %. During the 6-year follow-up, the mean HbA1c value improved to 7.6%, and in patients with a diabetes duration of more than 1 year at entry into the study (n = 538) the incidence of SH decreased from 0.28 cases/patient/year during the year preceding the ITTP to 0.17 cases/patient/year. The patient group was divided into decile groups according to mean follow-up HbA1c values. In each group more than 230 patient years could be analysed. Groups with mean HbA1c values of 5.7, 7.0, 7.4, 7.7 and 8.9% had comparable risks of SH (0.15-0.19 cases/patient/year). In a logistic regression analysis, mean HbA1c during follow-up, a history of SH during the year preceding the ITTP, C-peptide level, emotional coping, carrying emergency carbohydrates (as assessed at the 1-year follow-up), and age at onset of diabetes were significant independent predictors of SH. The incidence of SH between centres varied between 0.05 and 0.27 cases/patient/year. In conclusion, in the present analyses no linear or exponential relationship between HbA1c and severe hypoglycaemia could be identified by using simple group comparisons. Applying complex regression analyses, various patient-related predictors of severe hypoglycaemia were identified.     

Emotional openness as a predictor of college students' attitudes toward seeking psychological help.

Fear of emotions is hypothesized to be a primary reason for individuals' negative attitudes toward seeking psychological treatment. This study examined the effects of emotional openness and other potential predictors of attitudes toward seeking psychological help in a sample of 311 college students. Results of simultaneous multiple regression analyses indicated that gender (male), perception of stigma, discomfort with emotions, and lower psychological distress accounted for 25% of variance in attitudes toward seeking psychological help. The implications of the findings and recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of public education efforts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of psychosocial features of employment status on emotional distress in chronic pain and healthy comparison samples

This study examined the extent to which measures of psychosocial features of employment status predict emotional distress in chronic pain (n = 83) and healthy comparison (n = 88) samples. Participants completed measures of emotional distress, pain severity, psychosocial features of employment status, and demographic data. After controlling for length of current unemployment, number of pain sites, and level of current pain severity, psychosocial measures (structured and purposeful time use, perceived financial security, skill use, social support form formal sources) were significant predictors of emotional distress in the chronic pain sample. Similar results were obtained for the healthy comparison sample. Structured and purposeful time use emerged as the most significant individual predictor of emotional distress for both samples. Findings are discussed in terms of their potential implications for treating chronic pain patients and the need to develop multidimensional measures that assess features of employment status within chronic pain samples.     

The role of self-statements as a mediator in treatment for youth with anxiety disorders.

The authors investigated features of self-statements as predictors of anxiety in children with and without anxiety disorder (AD) and as a mediator of treatment of ADs in children. Children (N = 145) between the ages of 9 and 13 years participated (71 AD youth, 84 controls). Self-statements were classified by valence and content. Results indicated that children's anxious, but not positive or depressed, self-statements significantly predicted anxiety in children with and without AD. For children with AD, changes in anxious self-statements mediated treatment gains, replicating a previously reported finding. A states of mind ratio mediated only 1 outcome measure, and positive and depressive cognitions served no mediating role. The impact of anxious self-talk on children's adjustment and implications for cognitive theory of anxiety in children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A female advantage in cognitive recovery from early cerebral insult.

Gender differences in cognitive outcome were examined in children born prematurely who had incurred early cerebral lesions and in a high-risk comparison group. The boys and girls, who had suffered perinatal intracranial hemorrhage (the most common neurological insult in the preterm infant) were similar in their antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal course, as well as in their sociofamilial attributes. After statistical adjustment to account for the extent of the insult, a significant gender difference in cognitive recovery was observed in the lesion group. Girls outperformed boys by about half a standard deviation on standardized intelligence tests. No gender differences were observed in the comparison group. The implications of the results for theories and empirical findings on gender differences in vulnerability to deviation from normal development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social, emotional, and intellectual behavior at school among children at high risk for schizophrenia.

Four classroom teachers rated the school behavior of 44 12–17 yr olds of schizophrenic parents and 70 Ss of normal parents as part of an ongoing high-risk study. The ratings were made by teachers using the Pupil Rating Form and the Hahnemann High School Behavior Rating Scale. Ss of schizophrenic parents showed greater interpersonal disharmony, less scholastic motivation, more emotional instability, and lower intelligence than the control Ss, but the difference in introversion was not significant. Two of the 4 Ss with 2 schizophrenic parents had extremely low ratings for scholastic motivation, harmony, emotional stability, and intelligence and a 3rd was rated extremely low on emotional stability, but none of them was extremely introverted. On the basis of the results and a preliminary examination of intermediate outcomes (early hospitalization or psychological treatment after the initial school assessments), it is concluded that disharmony, emotional instability, and low intelligence are the early markers for vulnerability to schizophrenia worthy of most attention. The surprising absence of introverted behavior among Ss of schizophrenic parents indicates that introversion—when it is observed—may best be construed not as a static typology of preschizophrenic character but as a dynamic phase in a process of coping and retreat that precedes schizophrenic breakdown, sometimes by many years. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's self-talk under conditions of mild anxiety

Two studies are described which used think-aloud (Study 1) and verbal thought-listing (Studies 1 and 2) procedures to assess preadolescent children's self-talk under conditions of mild anxiety. The self-talk reported was coded into six theoretically meaningful categories and the relationship between self-talk type and anxiety (state and trait) examined. Increased levels of anxiety were associated with higher rates of negative self-talk, but not clearly associated with other types of self-talk. These results suggest negative self-talk plays a role in the generation or maintenance of anxiety in normal children. From the data, it is unclear to what extent perceived task difficulty contributes to the relationship between trait anxiety and negative self-talk. Assessment of self-regulation (Study 1) identified higher levels of anxiety in children reporting awareness of strategies for managing their anxiety.     

Emotional intelligence in the National Hockey League.

The purpose of the present study was threefold: a) to evaluate the standing on emotional intelligence of National Hockey League players, relative to the general population, b) to evaluate the relationship of draft rank and emotional intelligence (EI) measures to hockey performance, and c) to evaluate the relative predictive value of these measures to performance indices: total NHL points and NHL games played. During the 2003-04 hockey season, 79 players across 24 NHL teams completed the Bar-On EQ-i. The findings indicated that years-since-draft was the strongest predictor of performance and draft rank was the weakest predictor of performance. With respect to EI, both intrapersonal competency and general mood added significant variance to predictions of number of NHL points and games played. Implications for predicting performance in the NHL, amongst draft prospects, is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Male therapists' clinical bias: Influence of client gender roles and therapist gender role conflict.

This study examined male therapists' gender role conflict, client sexual orientation, and client emotional expression as they interrelated with clinical judgments about male clients. Using a series of written clinical vignettes to manipulate the client variables of sexual orientation and emotional expression, 196 experienced male therapists completed a measure of male gender role conflict, read a clinical vignette varying the client's sexual orientation and emotional expression, and rated the client on several clinical dimensions. Canonical analysis revealed 2 roots indicating that therapist gender role conflict factors, in combination with client sexual orientation and emotional expression, were associated with therapists' ratings of the male client's prognosis and how much therapists liked, had empathy for, had comfort with, and had willingness to see the male client. Implications for counseling practice, limitations, and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Role of Social and Dispositional Variables Associated With Emotional Processing in Adjustment to Breast Cancer: An Internet-Based Study.

Cognitive and emotional processing is seen as critical to successful adjustment to traumatic experiences, such as breast cancer. Cognitive and emotional processing can be facilitated by dispositional and social environmental factors. Emotional intelligence is a dispositional characteristic defined as the ability to understand, accurately perceive, express, and regulate emotions (J. D. Mayer & P. Salovey. 1997). This study investigated psychological adjustment as a function of emotional intelligence, social support, and social constraints in 210 patients recruited via postings to Internet-based breast cancer support groups. Regression analyses indicated high social constraints and low emotional intelligence were associated with greater distress. Evidence suggested high emotional intelligence could buffer against the negative impact of a toxic social environment. Results support a social-cognitive processing model of adaptation to traumatic events and suggest consideration of emotional intelligence may broaden this model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health dietary practices among European students.

Predictors of 5 healthy dietary habits were examined in data from the European Health and Behaviour Survey (A. Steptoe & J. Wardle, 1996), a study of over 16,000 students from 21 European countries. The level of practice of these healthy dietary habits was low. Significant univariate associations with healthy dietary habits were identified for gender, weight, dieting status, dietary health beliefs, nutrition knowledge, and health locus of control. In multivariate analyses, only gender, dieting status, and dietary health beliefs were significant predictors of healthy dietary habits. The practical implications of these results for dietary health promotion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)