Long-term effects of the strong african american families program on youths’ alcohol use.

Objective:This report extends earlier accounts by addressing the effects of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program across 65 months. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) Rural African American youths randomly assigned to participate in SAAF would demonstrate lower rates of alcohol use than would control youths more than 5 years later, and (b) SAAF’s effects on deterring the onset of alcohol use in early adolescence would carry forward to mediate the program’s long-term effects. Method: African American youths in rural Georgia (mean age at pretest = 10.8 years) were assigned randomly to the SAAF group (n = 369) or to a control group (n = 298). Past-month alcohol use was assessed at pretest and at 9, 18, 29, 53, and 65 months after pretest. Results: SAAF participants increased their alcohol use at a slower rate than did adolescents in the control condition across the follow-up assessments. At the 65-month assessment, SAAF participants reported having drunk alcohol half as often as did youths in the control group. Consistent with the second hypothesis, SAAF’s effects on deterring initiation carried forward to account for its effects on alcohol use across time. Conclusions: Training in protective parenting processes and self-regulatory skills during preadolescence may contribute to a self-sustaining trajectory of disinterest in and avoidance of alcohol use during adolescence when peers begin to model and sanction it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of severe penetrating head injury on psychosocial adjustment.

The long-term effects of severe penetrating head injury on adjustment levels were studied. Forty-one World War II veterans who suffered penetrating injury to the brain were interviewed 40 years after their initial injury using the Washington Psycho-Social Seizure Inventory (WPSI). The results support a comparable behavioral impact of right and left hemispheric lesions. Similarly, no significant relations were found between anterior and posterior locus of damage and psychosocial difficulties, although the results pertaining to the right-anterior group could be interpreted as suggestive of much greater maladjustment in all life dimensions assessed by the WPSI. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical positions on hemispheric specialization and long-term expectancies that hold implications for planning rehabilitation programs for such patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Avoidance of the attachment figure and social-emotional adjustment in day-care infants.

Observed 21 1–2 yr olds during reunions with their parents in 2 different settings, the daycare center and a laboratory situation. They were also observed for 1 hr in their daycare centers. Avoidance of the attachment figure in the 2 settings was strongly correlated, and social-emotional adjustment in the daycare center was negatively related to avoidance. Ss who had spent a longer period in substitute care had lower scores for avoidance and higher scores for social-emotional adjustment. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of the death of a child on parents' adjustment in midlife.

The death of a child is a traumatic event that can have long-term effects on the lives of parents. This study examined bereaved parents of deceased children (infancy to age 34) and comparison parents with similar backgrounds (n = 428 per group) identified in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. An average of 18.05 years following the death, when parents were age 53, bereaved parents reported more depressive symptoms, poorer well-being, and more health problems and were more likely to have experienced a depressive episode and marital disruption than were comparison parents. Recovery from grief was associated with having a sense of life purpose and having additional children but was unrelated to the cause of death or the amount of time since the death. The results point to the need for detection and intervention to help those parents who are experiencing lasting grief. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of educational and peer discussion group interventions on adjustment to breast cancer.

The authors report a 3-year follow-up of the effects of 8-week support group interventions on the quality of life of women with early stage breast cancer. Shortly after diagnosis, women were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: control, education, peer discussion, and education plus peer discussion. The education group intervention focused on providing information to enhance control over the illness experience, whereas the peer discussion group intervention focused on providing emotional support through the expression of feelings. Consistent with the results that emerged 6 months after the interventions (V. S. Helgeson, S. Cohen, R. Schulz & J. Yasko, 1999), the authors found that the benefits of the education intervention were maintained over a 3-year period N?=?252) although effects dissipated with time. The authors continued to find no benefits of the peer discussion intervention, either alone or in combination with education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of parental divorce on parent-child relationships, adjustment, and achievement in young adulthood.

Longitudinal data from the National Survey of Children were examined to investigate whether effects of parental divorce are evident in young adulthood. Among 18–22 yr olds from disrupted families, 65% had poor relationships with their fathers and 30% with their mothers, 25% had dropped out of high school, and 40% had received psychological help. Even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic differences, youths from disrupted families were twice as likely to exhibit these problems as youths from nondisrupted families. A significant effect of divorce on mother–child relationships was evident in adulthood, whereas none was found in adolescence. Youths experiencing disruption before 6 yrs of age showed poorer relationships with their fathers than those experiencing disruption later in childhood. Overall, remarriage did not have a protective effect, but there were indications of amelioration among those who experienced early disruption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological effects of thought acceleration.

Six experiments found that manipulations that increase thought speed also yield positive affect. These experiments varied in both the methods used for accelerating thought (i.e., instructions to brainstorm freely, exposure to multiple ideas, encouragement to plagiarize others' ideas, performance of easy cognitive tasks, narration of a silent video in fast-forward, and experimentally controlled reading speed) and the contents of the thoughts that were induced (from thoughts about money-making schemes to thoughts of five-letter words). The results suggested that effects of thought speed on mood are partially rooted in the subjective experience of thought speed. The results also suggested that these effects can be attributed to the joy-enhancing effects of fast thinking (rather than only to the joy-killing effects of slow thinking). This work is inspired by observations of a link between "racing thoughts" and euphoria in cases of clinical mania, and potential implications of that observed link are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distorted self-perceptions: divergent self-reports as statistical outliers in the multimethod assessment of children's social-emotional adjustment

The influence of statistical outliers among older children's self-reports was investigated in the context of a multitrait-multimethod validation of the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (Weinberger, 1991). Self, teacher, and peer ratings in 6th-grade classrooms (N = 155) provided evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and low well-being) and self-restraint (i.e., impulse control, suppression of aggression, consideration of others, and responsibility) as superordinate dimensions of adjustment. However, a few children were statistical outliers whose self-reports starkly contradicted others' perceptions. These nonrepresentative cases notably affected the validity coefficients for the entire sample and seemed to identify children with potentially clinically significant distortions in their self-perceptions.     

Prospective effects of emotion-regulation skills on emotional adjustment.

Deficits in emotion-regulation skills have widely been shown to be associated with poor emotional adjustment. However, it is still unclear whether these deficits are a cause or a consequence of poor adjustment. The purpose of the present research was to clarify the reciprocal effects between these 2 concepts. In 2 studies (Ns = 446 and 635), self-reports of emotion regulation and emotional adjustment were assessed twice with a 2-week interval. Cross-lagged regression analyses demonstrated that self-reports of emotion regulation predicted subsequent adjustment, over and above the effects of previous adjustment, whereas emotional adjustment did not predict subsequent emotion regulation. Thus, a focus on emotion-regulation skills may be important in the prevention and treatment of affect-related mental health problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term psychosocial adjustment following very severe closed head injury.

Examined the cognitive, psychological, and social functioning of 18 community-dwelling male patients who had experienced a severe closed head injury (CHI) at least 18 mo previously and still required contact with rehabilitation services. Results from Ss with CHI were compared with those from 27 normal control Ss. Information on Ss' behavior was also obtained from their significant others. Results show that Ss with CHI exhibited deficits in their cognitive and social functioning but showed no signs of emotional or psychiatric disturbance. Attempts to find a relationship between the cognitive impairment and social functioning of Ss with CHI were partially successful. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social support, psychological adjustment, and functional ability in youths with physical disabilities.

Objective: To examine the relationship between perceived social support and psychological adjustment and functional ability in youths with physical disabilities. Participants: Thirty-seven youths with neuromuscular disease and 33 with spina bifida. Measures: Demographic and disability-related questions, Child Health Questionnaire, Functional Disability Inventory, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Results: Social support from family, but not from friends, was significantly associated with better psychological adjustment. Significant interactions emerged between family support and age, as well as between friend support and gross motor functioning, in the prediction of functional ability. Conclusions: Social support appears to play an important role in psychological adjustment and functional ability in this population, and the nature of this role may be moderated, to some extent, by age and gross motor functioning. Future research and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term psychological effects of LSD.

Reviews the literature reporting lasting adverse psychological reactions to LSD, along with other relevant reports where LSD users were followed. Data indicate that the danger of long-lasting psychological damage is low when the drug is used by emotionally stable Ss in secure, controlled settings, but Ss with psychiatric disturbance, unstable personalities, and current crisis situations have experienced pathological behavior temporally related to drug ingestion. Adverse reactions were not reported in well-controlled studies with normal Ss, indicating the drug's relative safety for continued research. (67 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of psychiatric programs and their effects on patients' adjustment.

Considers that measuring characteristics of psychiatric programs is an important 1st step in identifying ingredients related to treatment efficiency and effectiveness. Perception of ward (POW) scales were developed using repeated factor analyses of 1,141 male psychiatric patients' perceptions. Program dimensions identified by POW scales are evaluated. The serious problem of response variability in measuring the milieu characteristics of a ward through patient perceptions is examined. POW scores for 353 patients on 3 wards and ratings of later community adjustment revealed that staff receptivity positively affects the posthospital adjustment of certain patient subgroups. (32 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of incestuous child abuse in college women: Social adjustment, social cognition, and family characteristics.

This study investigated family and social cognitive characteristics as possible mediators of social adjustment. Subjects were 85 college women, including 29 with a history of sexual abuse by a family member and 56 control subjects with no history of abuse. Results indicated decreased cohesion and adaptability in the family of origin, increased perception of social isolation, and poorer social adjustment among abused subjects. Additional analyses suggested that family characteristics and increased perceptions of social isolation were more predictive of social maladjustment than abuse per se. However, abuse by a paternal figure was related to poorer social adjustment even after significant family and social-cognitive variables were controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Smoking during pregnancy: Long-term effects on offspring.

241 children (approximately 10 yrs old) of 233 mothers who did or did not smoke during pregnancy were compared on 4 classes of variables: physical, intellectual, affective, and personal and social functioning. No statistically significant differences were found between the offspring of smokers and nonsmokers on these variables. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of appearance-based interventions on sun protection behaviors.

Objectives: To examine the longer term efficacies of exposure to UV photographs and photoaging information (e.g., wrinkles and age spots) for increasing sun protection intentions and behaviors of young adults. Design: Randomized controlled trial with 4- to 5-month and 12-month follow-ups. Main Outcome Measures: Participants' self-reported sun protection intentions assessed immediately after the interventions, and both self-reported sun protection behaviors and an objective assessment (via spectrophotometry) of skin color change measured at the end of summer (4-5 months following interventions) and 1 year following interventions. Results: Both interventions resulted in immediate positive effects on future sun protection intentions. Both interventions showed objective evidence of less skin darkening at the postsummer follow-up, with those in the photoaging information condition also reporting more sun protective behavior and continuing to show less skin darkening 1 year after intervention. There was also evidence that effects of photoaging information on subsequent skin color change were mediated by the earlier positive effect photoaging information had on participants' intentions to sun protect and their subsequent sun protection behaviors. Conclusions: UV photo and photoaging-information interventions each show promise as a brief and relatively inexpensive approach for motivating sun protection practices that may reduce skin cancer risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of divorce on parent–child relationships.

100 introductory psychology students from families that had experienced divorce 7 or more years previously and 141 introductory psychology students from continuously intact families completed a series of self-report questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their relationship with their parents. Findings indicate that although there was considerable variation from person to person, Ss from divorced families perceived their relationships with their parents, and particularly their fathers, less positively than those from intact families. It was also found that these potentially negative consequences of divorce were attenuated by Ss' recall of a healthy predivorce family life, by a more successful adjustment on the part of the child before the divorce, and by a higher quality relationship between the ex-spouses after the divorce. Results support the notion that active involvement on the part of the father and added stresses placed on the mother after the divorce are the critical determinants of the perceived quality of the current parent–child relationships. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emerging themes for social-emotional development: Introduction to the section.

Reviews 8 changes in the study of children's social-emotional development (SED) over the past decade. These include use of multiple theories and research strategies; belief that SED is context, agent, and culture bound; and belief that SED is affected by both secular trends and social policy. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of leucine-enkephalin on active avoidance responding in mice.

Studied the effects of peripherally administered leucine-enkephalin (LE [200 μg/kg]) on the acquisition and retention of active avoidance behavior in 202 male Swiss-Webster mice. Ss received 4 training trials on Day 1, 24 test trials on Day 2, and 10 test trials on Day 5. LE impaired the acquisition of avoidance behavior when administered before testing on Day 2. Impairment of retention was demonstrated on Day 2 and Day 5 when LE was administered immediately after training on Day 1, results indicating the long-term nature of the enkephalin effect. There was no effect of LE when administered just prior to testing on Day 5. The impairing effect was attenuated but not blocked by naloxone (10 mg/kg). Results support the hypothesis that LE impairs both acquisition of learning and memory consolidation. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)