Rejection and depression: Prospective and contemporaneous analyses.

Explored the relationship of parental rejection during childhood and manifestations of depression both then and in young adulthood in 3 studies. In Study 1, 427 Ss were seen in 2 waves at the ages of 8 and 19 yrs. In the 1st wave, the parents of these Ss were also interviewed with a childrearing questionnaire that included a measure of rejection. In the 2nd wave, the Ss, then 19 yrs old, were administered the MMPI—D subscale. In the 2nd study, the contemporaneous relationship between maternal rejection and childhood depression was investigated. The identical measure of rejection used in the prospective study was administered to 245 mothers, and 4 measures of depression—peer ratings, self-ratings, teacher's ratings, and mother's ratings—were obtained for their children (mean age 10.11 yrs). The 3rd study, conducted with 508 mothers and their children (mean age 9.78 yrs) replicated the significant findings of the contemporaneous study. Findings support the hypothesis that deprivation in the generic sense ranging from the death of 1 or both parents to rejection or even parental disharmony is an etiological factor in adult depression. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family-based treatment for childhood antisocial behavior: Experimental influences on dropout and engagement.

Antisocial behavior in childhood and adolescence is an unquestionably serious problem for society. Family-based treatments are promising but face the challenging obstacle of premature parental dropout. To systematically study dropout, we randomly assigned 147 families with a markedly aggressive child (age 4 to 9 yrs) to a standard family treatment (SFT) focusing exclusively on parental management or to an enhanced family treatment (EFT) that also promoted frequent discussions of adult issues. EFT produced a significantly lower dropout rate than SFT overall, but particularly for high adversity families. Dropouts were clearly distinguishable from completers on several dimensions. The results underscore the importance of addressing contextual variables such as family adversity in the treatment of childhood antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood amnesia and the beginnings of memory for four early life events.

Childhood amnesia was examined in a between-groups study of adults' memories of 4 datable target events: the birth of a younger sibling, a hospitalization, the death of a family member, and making a family move. 222 college students answered questions about events that had occurred when they were 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 yrs old and also about external information sources, such as family stories. Results show that the offset of childhood amnesia (earliest age of recall) is age 2 yrs for hospitalization and sibling birth and 3 yrs for death and move. Thus, some memories are available from earlier in childhood than previous research has suggested. Ss' mothers judged most of their children's memories as accurate. External information sources were negatively related to recall from the earlier ages (2–3 yrs) but positively to recall from later ages (4–5 yrs). These results are compatible with a multiple-determinants account of childhood amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific exemplar retention and prototype abstraction in young and old adults.

Examined the effects of age differences in retention of information about specific concept members on 40 older adults' (mean age 72.3 yrs) and 40 younger adults' (mean age 20.6 yrs) ability to abstract central tendency information. The mean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R) Vocabulary scaled score for the young adults was significantly lower than that of the older adults. Ss were presented with a series of visual patterns that were organized around a prototype and were then presented with these same patterns plus a set of new patterns varying in prototype similarity in a recognition test. It was found that young Ss retained more information about specific acquisition set exemplars, which resulted in slightly different recognition responses for new patterns. However, the recognition behavior of both young and older Ss appeared to be governed by the same rules. It is suggested that the organization of conceptual information does not change with age but that the poorer retention of specific item information in older adults may result in a less complete representation. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The young person's job search: Insights from a study.

This condensation of a longer report presents some of the findings of a study of job search approaches used by young people. Using 2 cohorts on which past test information was available—260 Ss about 20 yrs old and 250 Ss about 32 yrs old—data were collected on what techniques had been used in the participants' job search; which approaches were thought to be most effective; and what factors, when measured in high school, best predicted employment status and satisfaction at the time of the study. The samples were weighted toward urban minority youth, and analyses were performed by cohort, race, and sex. A profile of the successful job-seeking youth is drawn from these analyses. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender stereotypes and social inferences: A developmental study.

Investigated changes between childhood and adulthood in reliance on gender stereotypes when making inferences about another person. 36 children from each of 3 age groups (kindergarten [mean age 5 yrs 8 mo], 3rd grade [mean age 8 yrs 9 mo], and 6th grade [mean age 11 yrs 8 mo]) and 36 college students were told that a boy or a girl had chosen activities consistent or inconsistent with gender stereotypes. Ss were asked to predict the actor's future behavior, rate the actor on several traits, and estimate the actor's popularity with peers. College students predicted that the actor's future behavior would be approximately as consistent (or inconsistent) with gender stereotypes as their past behavior. College students' ratings of the actor's traits and their judgments about the popularity of boys were also influenced by the actor's past behavior. Sixth graders showed a similar pattern of social inferences, but the effects of the actor's past behavior were weaker than at college age. By contrast, 3rd graders predicted that the actor's future behavior would be stereotypical, even if his or her past behavior was not. Past behavior had some effect on 3rd graders' trait ratings but not on their popularity judgments. At kindergarten, only predictions for a girl's future behavior were affected by past-behavior information. The age differences are discussed in the context of current models of the development and functioning of gender stereotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early temperamental antecedents of adult Type A behaviors.

Examined the role of early childhood temperament in the development of adult Type A (coronary prone) behaviors, using data on 108 young adults from the ongoing New York Longitudinal Study (begun by A. Thomas and S. Chess in 1956). The data included measures of temperament derived from interviews conducted with the children's mothers when the youngsters were 3 and 4 yrs of age and measures of Type A behaviors derived from interviews conducted with the participants during young adulthood (mean age 21 yrs). Correlational and regression analyses indicated that early childhood temperament accounted for approximately 20% of the variance in achievement-striving, 13% of the variance in impatience-anger, and 15–25% of the variance in overall Type A behavior scores. Achievement-striving in young adulthood was associated with high adaptability and negative mood during early childhood, whereas impatience-anger had as its antecedents low sensory threshold, low persistence, and low adaptability. Findings suggest that certain temperamental attributes, visible early in childhood, may predispose individuals toward the development of the Type A behavior pattern. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond cognition: Expanding the search for the early roots of internalization and conscience.

J. E. Grusec and J. J. Goodnow (see record 1994-25033-001) offered a new comprehensive reformulation of discipline encounters as context for children's internalization of parental views. They focused mainly on children's social information processing and how it affects perception and acceptance of parental messages. The model seems best suited for middle childhood and adolescence. This commentary suggests additional directions in research on internalization in early childhood. It is argued that processes such as social referencing, sensitivity to standard violations, emergence of self, emotional reactions to wrongdoing, early self-conscious emotions, and self-regulation may be important antecedents and signs of internalization in the 1st 3 yrs of life. The proposed shift from cognitive to affective and self-regulatory aspects of early conscience reveals children's temperament as an important but neglected contributor to early moral development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transmission and transaction: Predicting adolescents' internalization of parental religious values.

Data in this study supported a model of internalization that included both transmission and transactional variables. Two sets of hierarchical linear regression models were conducted on data collected from the fathers, mothers, and adolescents (10–12 yrs old) in 171 intact Caucasian families. One set predicted adolescent religious behavior; the other predicted the importance of religion to child. Transmission variables (parental religious behavior and parental desire for child to be religious) predicted the most variance in all models. Dyadic discussions of faith (transactional) predicted significant variance in all models. Child gender had a direct effect only on adolescent religious behavior. A significant 3-way interaction occurred between child gender, parental desire for child to be religious, and dyadic discussions when predicting importance of religion to child, with child and parent gender dyads interacting in a complex manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Backstage, frontstage: an analysis of work and leisure roles of women recreational softball players

The interrelationships between experience of parental verbal aggression and physical violence during childhood and the development of low self-esteem during adulthood were explored separately for the father-daughter and mother-daughter relationships. Data were collected from 472 women between the ages of 18 and 45 during in-depth interviews drawn from five sources: outpatient alcoholism treatment, DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) education programs, shelter for battered women, outpatient mental health treatment, and randomly from the community. Control variables included respondents' alcohol problems and help-seeking behavior, parental alcohol problems, number of changes in childhood family (e.g., divorce), and respondents' race and social class. Controlling for these variables, experiences of father-to-daughter verbal aggression, moderate violence, and severe violence were found related to lower self-esteem in adulthood for women. Conversely, controlling for these variables, experiences of mother-to-daughter verbal aggression, moderate violence, and severe violence were not found related to lower self-esteem in adulthood for women.     

Synergistic interaction of child manageability problems and parent-discipline tactics in predicting future growth in externalizing behavior for boys.

Manageability problems during early childhood for boys were hypothesized to disrupt parental discipline practices. In turn, disrupted parental discipline practices were hypothesized to interact with manageability problems during late childhood to predict change in antisocial behavior during the transition from elementary to middle school. Results indicated that maternal retrospective perceptions of unmanageability predicted observed maternal discipline practices, even when maternal antisocial behavior and depressed mood and the disruptive and antisocial behavior of the boy were statistically controlled. Graphical analyses and latent class growth models indicated that level of temper tantrums interacted with maternal discipline in predicting change in teacher ratings of antisocial behavior. The nature of the interaction indicated that maternal discipline was a risk factor for growth in antisocial behavior only for boys with high levels of tantrums. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family characteristics, childhood symptoms, and adult outcome in schizophrenia.

Assessed childhood symptom factors for 43 male children (average age 10.9 yrs), initially diagnosed as schizophrenic, in terms of their relationship to parental factors. The parental factors, in addition to family variables not derived by factor analysis, were evaluated as predictors of outcome over a 22-yr period extending from early to middle adulthood. Two maternal factors, Mother Anxious and Mother Neglect, were significantly related to adult outcome. The maternal factors were differentially associated with paternal factors, global judgments of severity of family disturbance and childhood symptoms. Path analysis indicated that the measure of severity of family disturbance had substantial, direct effects on adult measures with minimal mediation by childhood symptoms. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Externalizing problems in fifth grade: Relations with productive activity, maternal sensitivity, and harsh parenting from infancy through middle childhood.

This study used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to examine relations between parenting, self-control, and externalizing behavior from infancy through 5th grade. Results indicate that self-control measured during middle childhood mediates relations between maternal sensitivity, opportunity for productive activity, and parental harshness and both mother-reported and teacher-reported externalizing behavior. Results showed that parenting measured during middle childhood was more strongly related to 5th-grade externalizing behavior compared with parenting measured during infancy and early childhood. However, there was evidence that parenting during the preschool years was related to 5th-grade externalizing behavior through later parenting and self-control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family-of-origin maltreatment, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, social information processing deficits, and relationship abuse perpetration.

In this study, the authors examined the interrelations among family-of-origin maltreatment variables, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, social information processing deficits, and male-to-female psychological and physical intimate relationship abuse perpetration in adulthood among a community sample of 164 men and their partners. In bivariate analyses, higher family-of-origin childhood parental rejection was associated with the perpetration of psychological and physical abuse in adulthood, and childhood exposure to interparental violence was also associated with adult psychological abuse perpetration. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that when childhood variables and other study variables were considered together, only childhood parental rejection was associated with the abuse perpetration outcomes, and these effects were indirect through PTSD symptoms and social information processing deficits. Results indicate a need for further investigation into the mechanisms accounting for the impact of early maltreatment on the development of abusive intimate relationship behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's recognition of rights violations in counseling.

Evaluated the capacity of children and adolescents to comprehend and protect their rights in a mental health setting in 60 male Ss. 20 Ss at each of 3 age levels (8.2–9.7 yrs, 15.2–16.0 yrs, and 20.4–23.1 yrs) were explained 6 rights—refusal of treatment, knowing the reason for refusal, withholding information from counselors, refusal to allow videotaping of a treatment session, confidentiality, and the right of access to records—and then asked to view videotapes in which these rights were violated. Results show that, for 9-yr-old Ss, the experimental effect of providing information about rights was minimal; both experimental Ss and noninformed controls demonstrated low scores on measures of recognition of rights violation and protection of rights. At ages 15 and 21, experimental Ss demonstrated significantly higher scores on both measures than did control Ss. There was no significant difference in the experimental effect between the 15- and 21-yr-old Ss, which suggests that by age 15, the average adolescent is fully capable of comprehending and exercising his or her rights. Guidelines are proposed regarding the provision of information about rights to minors who receive mental health services. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting creativity in preadolescence from divergent thinking in early childhood.

Administered to 75 children (ages 4 and 5 yrs) 2 divergent-thinking (DT) measures (Instances and Unusual Uses) and 2 conventional tests of general intelligence. Six and 7 yrs later, these Ss—then preadolescents—were evaluated with respect to creativity by their 6th-grade teachers. These creativity evaluations at 11 yrs exhibited substantial discriminant and construct validity and were relatively free of halo effects. A composite score based on the number of high-quality, divergent-thinking responses in childhood (i.e., responses reflecting both imagination and sensitivity to task constraints) correlated significantly with teacher evaluations of preadolescent creativity. This construct-validating correlation, which spanned 6 and 7 yrs and 2 measurement domains, was .45, uncorrected for attenuation. Even more important, this composite DT high-quality score in early childhood incrementally accounted for 14% of the variance in preadolescent creativity evaluations beyond that accounted for by sex and conventionally measured intelligence and DT fluency (number of responses regardless of quality). (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk factors for asthma in young adults. Spanish Group of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey

We assessed the association of asthma prevalence in young adults with susceptibility factors and environmental exposures, taking into account the age at asthma onset. A random sample of the general population, aged 20-44 yrs, in five areas of Spain (Albacete, Barcelona, Galdakao, Huelva, and Oviedo) was selected in the frame of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS). Overall, 2,646 subjects (response rate = 60.9%) responded to a respiratory questionnaire and 1,797 (41.4%) finalized a bronchial challenge. Atopy to perennial (odds ratio (OR) = 10.2, 95% confidence interval 4.2-25) and seasonal allergens (11.5, 4.6-28), parental asthma (4.5, 2.5-8.4), and birth order (OR for no older siblings in comparison to having more than two = 3.2, 1.2-9.1) were associated with current asthma whatever the age of asthma onset. Past asthma was associated to a lesser extent with atopy (OR around 3.5 to both perennial and seasonal allergens). Lower respiratory tract infections before the age of 5 yrs (LRTI), having had a pet in childhood, and being born in a younger cohort were associated with asthma starting before the age of 15 yrs, but not after. Male gender was more frequent in childhood asthma and female gender in adulthood. In addition to the known risk factors of asthma (atopy to perennial allergens, parental asthma) we provide evidence for an association of asthma (whatever the age of onset) with sensitization to seasonal allergens, and having less than three older siblings; and for an association of childhood asthma with lower respiratory tract infections.     

Parenting, peers, and the stability of antisocial behavior in preadolescent boys.

This study examined the linkages between parental discipline practices, peer relationships, and antisocial behavior in a 2-yr longitudinal study (N?=?206) of preadolescent boys (aged 9–10 yrs at 1st assessment). Structural equation models were used to estimate the stability of parenting, peer relations, and antisocial constructs, and their effects on each other. The results showed that preadolescent antisocial behavior had substantial concurrent negative effects on the quality of parental discipline and peer relationships. Evidence for a reciprocal relationship between parental discipline and child antisocial behavior was found. The study specifies how parental discipline practices are involved in maintaining the stability of antisocial behavior in preadolescents. Low popularity with peers did not directly influence the child's antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk and resilience in early mental development.

Examined mental development scores for 2 groups of at-risk twins throughout their childhood, those classified as small for gestational age (SGA), and those twins falling below 1,750 g birthweight. The Ss were recruited as newborns—about 30 new pairs were added each year—and the total sample included 450 pairs of twins. Ss were assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at age 24 mo and the WPPSI at age 6 yrs. Results show that the SGA Ss showed only a modest deficit in IQ scores as compared to the full twin Ss, and thus these small-for-date Ss did not appear to be at special risk. The Ss below 1,750 g, however, did show a very significant deficit in IQ scores throughout childhood. When the recovery patterns were examined for this group, upper SES Ss appeared to recover completely, whereas lower SES Ss remained significantly depressed. Mother's education was significantly related to recovery from 24 mo onward, which suggests that maternal intelligence plays a prominent role in determining the level of recovery. When monozygotic Ss of markedly unequal birth weight were compared, the twins who weighed less than 1,750 g attained the same level of IQ scores at 6 yrs as did their heavier co-twins. Among these genetic replicates, the initially powerful effects of low birth weight did not exert a long-term handicapping effect on mental development. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)