Relations of television viewing and reading: Findings from a 4-year longitudinal study.

This longitudinal study explored the long-term effects of television viewing on the development of children's reading competencies. Among 2 cohorts of German children (N? = 165, N? = 167), measures of television viewing were collected over 4 years, and tests of reading speed and reading comprehension were administered annually. As a main result, TV genre (educational vs. entertainment programs) produced different effects. Whereas educational program viewing was positively correlated with reading achievement, relations between entertainment program viewing and reading performance were generally negative. Children who were classified as heavy viewers (average viewing time per day = 117 min) showed lower progress in reading over time as compared to medium and light viewers (average viewing times per day 69 and 35 min, respectively). Partial support was found only for 1 of the 3 tested causal mechanisms, namely television-induced reduction in leisure-time book reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschoolers' viewing of instructional television.

Investigated the structural relations among viewing behaviors, viewing conditions, background characteristics, and intellectual ability and 107 34–71 mo olds' learning from instructional TV. Ss viewed tapes designed to teach seriation concepts in groups of four, in dyads, or individually. Ss also completed various subtests from tests of intellectual ability (e.g., the Verbal Fluency subtest of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities); Ss' parents completed a family background questionnaire. Instructional outcomes were not affected by treatment condition, so data were pooled for subsequent analyses. A principal components analysis with oblique rotation was used to reduce the number of variables for subsequent testing of a hypothetical model using path analysis. School aptitude made the strongest contribution to learning from the tapes; viewing behavior, parental education, and family constellation also directly contributed to learning. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender constancy and television viewing.

Cognitive developmental theory predicts that gender constant children bias their attention to same-sex TV characters compared with children who have not achieved gender constancy. The TV viewing at home of 24 5-year-old children was videotaped over 10 days. Half of the children were high in gender constancy. Gender constant boys biased their attention consistent with the hypothesis, and they viewed programs featuring a greater percentage of men as TV characters than did preconstant boys. An analysis of TV-viewing diaries of 313 5-yr-olds showed that gender constant boys viewed more programming intended for adults (especially sports and action programs) than did preconstant boys. Gender constant girls viewed more action programming than did preconstant girls. There was no association of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test IQ with level of gender constancy. Gender constancy is associated with multiple changes in TV-viewing behavior especially in boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship problems in the early stages of marriage: A longitudinal investigation.

131 couples (aged 16–35 yrs) were assessed premarriage for relationship problems and adjustment. At each follow-up (12 wks and 1.5, 3, 4, and 5 yrs) a portion of the sample completed an interview, a set of interaction tasks, and the questionnaire. Consistent patterns were found among 3 methods (mean problem intensity, percentage checked in problem areas, and percentage ranked) of assessing couples' problems. Subsequent analyses on problem intensity ratings indicated a moderately strong association between male and female ratings at each stage of family development. Changes in clusters of problems were found between stages consistent with some changes in developmental tasks predicted by stage theories of family development. Support was found for the assumption that men and women confront developmental tasks at different rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study predicting patterns of cigarette smoking in late childhood

Early initiation of cigarette smoking so strongly predicts future smoking that several investigators have advocated delaying the age of initiation as a prevention strategy. To complement retrospective studies of early initiation, this study assessed prospectively patterns of smoking behavior in a sample of 401 children who were surveyed in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. The principal findings were (1) modeling of smoking by parents and friends is sufficient to influence children to initiate smoking, particularly when children also have low behavioral self-control, and (2) when modeling occurs in combination with poor adjustment to school, low parental monitoring, easy access to cigarettes, and other risk attributes, early initiators are significantly more likely to continue smoking. The results suggest that delaying initiation of smoking without also modifying child attributes and socialization factors that predict early initiation and persistent smoking is unlikely to reduce the proportion of children who become habitual smokers.     

Viewing bilingual multicultural educational television: An empirical analysis of children's behaviors during television viewing.

Presents a methodology for reliably observing and recording children's behaviors during television viewing. 385 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-grade Mexican-American, Puerto Rica, Cuban-American, and Anglo-American children viewed 2 Carrascolendas pilot programs, and their visual attention, facial expressions of mirth, verbal and nonverbal imitations, and program- and nonprogram-related verbalizations were measured. The relationships of these behaviors to each other, to perceptual-cognitive ability, to language used in the home, and to family socioeconomic and educational status; the stability of the behaviors over time and across programs; and the effects and interactions of ethnic group membership, grade level, and sex on behavior were examined. Findings of ethnic differences may be related to either (a) differential understanding of portions of the programs due to the language spoken, or (b) differential appeal of the material, (c) culturally determined differences in the degree, frequency, and pattern in which the behaviors studied are produced in each of the ethnic groups, or (d) cultural differences in the observers. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sibling influences on gender development in middle childhood and early adolescence: A longitudinal study.

The development of gender role qualities (attitudes, personality, leisure activities) from middle childhood to early adolescence was studied to determine whether siblings' gender role qualities predicted those of their sisters and brothers. Participants were 198 firstborn and second-born siblings (Ms?=?10 years 9 months and 8 years 3 months, respectively, in Year 1) and their parents. Families were interviewed annually for 3 years. Firstborn siblings' qualities in Year 1 predicted second-born children's qualities in Year 3 when both parent and child qualities in Year 1 were controlled, a pattern consistent with a social learning model of sibling influence. Parental influence was more evident and sibling influence less evident in predicting firstborns' qualities; for firstborns, sibling influences suggested a de-identification process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prosocial development in middle childhood: A longitudinal study.

Examined change in prosocial moral judgment over a 7-year period; determined whether there are gender differences in the development of prosocial moral judgment; and examined the interrelations of moral judgment, affect (empathy), and behavior in middle childhood. Participants were two groups of children who have been followed for 5 and 7 years and two groups of children interviewed for the first time at either ages 9–10 or 11–22. Hedonistic reasoning decreased with age; simple needs-oriented moral judgments increased with age and then leveled off; most other more sophisticated types of reasoning increased in a linear fashion with age. Modes of reasoning that most explicitly reflect role taking or empathy increased in use with age for girls but not for boys. Empathy was positively related to needs-oriented judgments and to higher-level prosocial reasoning and was negatively related to hedonistic reasoning (depending on the age of the children). Empathy was positively related to donating at 11–22 years of age but not at 9–20 years of age. Relations between behavior and reasoning varied depending on the structure and costs of a specific behavior. The results are discussed in relation to theory and research concerning developmental change in moral reasoning and possible mediators of prosocial development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of phenomenological consciousness in early childhood.

This article presents a developmental model of phenomenological consciousness in early childhood (from 0 to about 4 yrs of age). A 3-stage developmental model is constructed, based on the understanding of phenomenological consciousness as modeling activity structured by the directedness at/by the world in general and directedness at/by directedness in particular. Thereby, it is demonstrated that it is in the interaction with other people and the structure and content of their phenomenological consciousness, i.e., their directedness and their modeling of the world, that the development of fully accomplished phenomenological consciousness takes place. The developmental model is empirically substantiated on the basis of a review of empirical investigations which traditionally has been framed in terms of the "theory-of-mind"-theory, but which in this article shall be reframed in terms of directedness and phenomenological modeling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antecedents of bridge employment: A longitudinal investigation.

Bridge employment is the labor force participation pattern increasingly observed in older workers between their career jobs and their complete labor force withdrawal. It serves as a transition process from career employment to full retirement. Typical bridge employment decisions include full retirement, career bridge employment, and bridge employment in a different field. In the current study, 3 dominant theories (i.e., role theory, continuity theory, and life course perspective) on retirement processes were reviewed. On the basis of these theories, the authors proposed 4 categories of antecedents (i.e., individual attributes, job-related psychological variables, family-related variables, and a retirement-planning-related variable) of different types of bridge employment decisions. The authors used longitudinal data of a large, nationally representative sample from the Health and Retirement Study (F. Juster & R. Suzman, 1995) to test the current hypotheses. These data were analyzed with multinomial logistic regression, and most of the hypotheses were supported by the results. The implications of this study are discussed at both theoretical and practical levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevention of marital distress: A longitudinal investigation.

This study examines the impact of an intervention designed to prevent divorce and marital distress. Both short- and long-term effects of a cognitive-behavioral marital distress prevention program were assessed. Forty-two couples planning marriage were matched and randomly assigned to intervention (n?=?21) and control (n?=?21) conditions. Couples participated in pre- and postintervention assessment sessions and in similar assessment sessions 1? years and 3 years later. The intervention emphasized communication and problem-solving skills, clarifying and sharing expectations, and sensual/sexual enhancement. Although postintervention results indicated that couples learned the skills taught in the program, no group differences emerged on self-report measures of relationship quality. At 1? years, intervention couples showed higher levels of relationship satisfaction than control couples. At 3 years, intervention couples showed higher levels of both relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction and lower levels of problem intensity. These data support cost-effective prevention programs for attacking the major social problem of divorce. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychological investigation of a group of demographic, personality, and behavioral variables as they relate to viewing educational television.

42 frequent and 72 nonviewers were interviewed by 6 trained interviewers using a questionnaire composed of fixed-alternatives, general open-end, and projective questions. They did not differ with respect to occupation, income, sex, race, or personality factors. Time spent in viewing reaches its peak after 50. "Our findings indicate that frequent viewers discuss and act upon ideas and information gained from educational television programs." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2KC25E. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of calcium intake patterns: A longitudinal analysis.

Objective: The study was guided by the precaution adoption process model; the author examined factors associated with (a) stage of change with respect to calcium intake at 4 time points and (b) calcium intake patterns across time. Design: Data were collected by mailed questionnaire at baseline and at 3 follow-up assessments over 1 year. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures were calcium intake, stage of change with respect to calcium intake, and pattern of calcium intake across follow-up. Three patterns were identified: successful maintenance (adequate calcium intake at all 3 follow-ups), vacillation (adequate calcium consumption at 1 or 2 follow-ups), and inertia (inadequate calcium consumption at all 3 follow-ups). Results: Five hundred six women completed baseline questionnaires, and 346 completed 3 follow-up assessments. Even after baseline stage of change was controlled for, longitudinal analyses revealed 3 variables that predicted different patterns of behavior across time. Isolated instances of adequate calcium intake were predicted by higher levels of knowledge and perceived benefits, whereas long-term maintenance was predicted by lower levels of perceived difficulty. Conclusion: These findings provide support for a central premise of the model, that different factors are important at different points in the behavior change process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prosocial development in early adulthood: A longitudinal study.

Consistency of measures of a prosocial personality and prosocial moral judgment over time, and the interrelations among them, were examined. Participants' and friends' reports of prosocial characteristics were obtained at ages 21-22, 23-24, and 25-26 yrs. In addition, participants' prosocial judgment was assessed with interviews and with an objective measure of prosocial moral reasoning at several ages. Reports of prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding in childhood and observations of prosocial behavior in preschool also were obtained. There was interindividual consistency in prosocial dispositions, and prosocial dispositions in adulthood related to empathy/sympathy and prosocial behavior at much younger ages. Interview and objective measures of moral reasoning were substantially interrelated in late adolescence/early adulthood and correlated with participants' and friends' reports of a prosocial disposition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of adult motives in patterns of parent behavior in early childhood.

Ratings based on 379 mothers' reports of child-rearing practices obtained in 1951 by R. R. Sears et al (1957) when their children were 5 yrs old were correlated with social motive scores obtained from 78 of the children 26–27 yrs later. Scheduling of feeding and severity of toilet training were significantly associated with adult need for achievement (nAch) scores overall and in subsamples obtained either randomly or by sex or social class. Permissiveness for sexual and aggressive behavior in childhood was significantly associated with adult need for power (nPower) scores both among men and women and in random subsamples. No child-rearing practices were associated with adult need for affiliation or intimacy motive scores. The relations for nAch and nPower cannot readily be explained in terms of the child-rearing practices involved being part of larger child-rearing syndromes responsible for promoting motives throughout the life of the child. Rather, the findings point to attitudes or behaviors involving specific practices at certain periods in a child's life as being critical for motive development, as basic-personality theorists have argued. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal investigation of anxiety sensitivity in adolescence.

This investigation sought to expand existing knowledge of anxiety sensitivity in a sample of high school students (N = 2,365) assessed over 4 years. The stability of anxiety sensitivity levels across assessment periods was examined, and cluster analyses were used to identify different developmental pathways in levels of anxiety sensitivity. Groups of adolescents with stable low, stable high, and escalating anxiety sensitivity levels were identified. Adolescents with stable high or escalating anxiety sensitivity were significantly more likely to report experiencing a panic attack than individuals with stable low anxiety sensitivity. Results also indicated that Asian and Hispanic adolescents tended to report higher anxiety sensitivity but that their anxiety sensitivity was less strongly associated with panic than that of Caucasian adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construct accessibility and clinical depression: A longitudinal investigation.

There is a rapidly growing body of literature that examines the role of cognitive processes in the etiology and maintenance of depression. In general, empirical support for the causal aspects of cognitive models of depression has been mixed. This study was designed to examine construct accessibility in depressed patients both during and following their hospitalization. Depressed psychiatric patients and nondepressed controls participated twice in a modified Stroop task, naming the colors of tachistoscopically presented depressed-, neutral-, and manic-content words. In addition, a cognitive priming procedure designed to temporarily alter the differential accessibility of the subjects to the three categories of words was assessed. As predicted, the depressed patients took longer to name the colors of the depressed-content than the nondepressed-content words. This effect, however, was obtained only for the hospitalization session, when the patients were clinically depressed; no significant group differences were obtained for the discharge session, when the patients had improved symptomatically. These results suggest that patterns of cognitive functioning hypothesized by cognitive theorists to be implicated in the etiology of depression vary with recovery from depression. Finally, there was no evidence that priming effectively alters either the negative construct accessibility or the affective state of depressed patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal investigation of the affective environment in families with young children: From infancy to early school age.

We examined the affective environment in 102 families studied longitudinally when children were 7, 15, 25, 38, 52, and 67 months of age. At each assessment, every mother–child and father–child dyad was observed in typical daily contexts. Each person's emotions of affection, joy, and anger were coded. Both parents rated marital satisfaction when children were 15, 52, and 67 months. Growth curve analyses, using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling, examined (a) developmental changes in emotions, (b) within-relationship influences of the partner's emotions, (c) across-relationship influences of emotions in other parent's interactions with the child, and (d) associations between marital quality and emotions over time. Parents' emotional expressiveness was highest early in the child's development, and declined thereafter. Children's anger was highest at 15 months of age, and declined thereafter, and their positive emotions, particularly with mothers, increased over time. Generally, one's positive emotions and better marital quality were associated with greater positive emotion within- and across-relationships, whereas one's anger was associated with greater anger within- and across-relationships. However, any emotion expression elicited greater affection in the interaction partner. Parents' neuroticism did not account for the convergence of emotions across relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ACT Against Violence Training Program: A preliminary investigation of knowledge gained by early childhood professionals.

Given the prevalence of violence in young children's lives and the detrimental effects violence exposure may have on children's development, it is essential that psychologists disseminate information to those in direct contact with young children. One antiviolence program, the Adults and Children Together (ACT) Against Violence Training Program, is aimed specifically at the role models in young children's lives, their parents or caregivers, and teachers and others who work directly with them. This research examined the utility of the ACT program in disseminating knowledge to early childhood professionals. Results revealed that the program is effective in terms of both participants' increase in knowledge and perception of knowledge regarding violence in childhood. Preliminary support for the utility of the ACT training program for psychologists working with young children was provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)