Life stress and adjustment: Effects of life events experienced by young adolescents and their parents.

A longitudinal design was used to test the effects of life events experienced by young adolescents and their parents. The criteria were the adolescents' depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. The longitudinal analysis revealed a significant effect for the adolescents' controllable, but not uncontrollable, negative events. However, causal analyses revealed that this effect was the result of the significant relation between initial adjustment and the subsequent occurrence of controllable life stress (e.g., school suspension). The longitudinal analysis also revealed the stress-protective role of positive events, but only with respect to girls' self-esteem. There was no longitudinal support for the role of the parents' negative life events. These findings do not support the etiological importance of an accumulation of relatively discrete negative events experienced by early adolescents and their parents, but they do suggest the need (a) to conceptualize (controllable) life stress as a dependent variable in future research on developmental psychopathology; (b) to examine gender differences in early adolescent life stress; and (c) to develop more sophisticated measures of family life stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observations on the training of therapists in time-limited dynamic psychotherapy.

Suggests that "manualized training" is most effective at increasing adherence to the technical procedures characterizing the treatment under scrutiny. There is minimal evidence that other skills associated with therapeutic competence are acquired or enhanced to the extent found with technical adherence. Drawing on findings from a study of manual-guided training of therapists in the techniques of brief therapy (H. H. Strupp and J. L. Binder, 1984), the author offers recommendations for improving therapy training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's Physiological Indices of Empathy and Their Socioemotional Adjustment: Does Caregivers' Expressivity Matter?

Relations of heart rate and skin conductance reactions to mildly evocative empathy-inducing slides with socioemotional functioning were examined for 154 children (mean age = 9 years, 5 months). In addition, maternal expressivity was tested as a moderator of these relations. Parents and teachers rated children's socioemotional functioning, and a behavioral measure of children's regulation was obtained. Boys who exhibited higher skin conductance and higher heart rate to slides depicting negative emotions were better regulated, less emotionally intense, and better adjusted than their peers. Furthermore, boys' regulation and adjustment were positively related to such physiological responding to negative slides if maternal negative expressivity was relatively low or moderate, but not high. Fewer findings were obtained for girls or for positive slides. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agricultural land-use change in Brazilian Amazônia between 1980 and 1995: Evidence from integrated satellite and census data

As cropland and pasture have replaced forest and cerrado in Brazilian Amazônia, concern has mounted over the effects of changing the biogeochemical and hydrological properties of one of the world's great storehouses of biomass and biodiversity. Although much recent effort has focused on the location, effects, and causes of deforestation and cerrado conversion, much less is known about the basin-wide spatial distribution and density of the land use following conversion for crops or pasture.In this paper, we use census and satellite records to develop maps of the distribution and abundance of major agricultural land uses across 4.5×10⁸ ha of Brazilian Amazônia in 1980 and 1995. Results indicate an overall expansion of 7.0×10⁶ ha in total agricultural area in Brazilian Amazônia between 1980 and 1995. The net change during this period is estimated for three different land-use types: croplands (an increase of 0.8×10⁶ ha), natural pastures (a decrease of 8.4×10⁶ ha), and planted pastures (an increase of 14.7×10⁶ ha). These estimates, the first spatially explicit quantifications of agricultural land-use activities in 1980 and 1995 across Brazilian Amazônia, are shown to be consistent with the results of applying a land use change and secondary regrowth model to published deforestation rates for the period.The resulting time slices, presented for each land-use category at 5-min (∼9 km) spatial resolution, allow for the quantification of land-use changes in this region for biogeochemical, demographic and economic models. Several foci of agricultural change existed within Brazilian Amazônia during this period: in the state of Pará, cropland was lost and planted pasture increased markedly; in Mato Grosso, both cropland and planted pasture increased; in Rondônia, planted pasture replacing forest was the primary route to agricultural expansion.     

Insiders Behaving Badly

This column goes beyond previous insider analyses to identify a framework for a taxonomy of insider threats including both malicious and inadvertent actions by insiders that put organizations or their resources at some risk. The framework includes factors reflecting the organization, the individual, the information technology system, and the environment.     

Mapping the Characteristics of a 'Good' Play Therapist.

In this pilot study, concept mapping, a methodological approach combining qualitative and quantitative analytic strategies, was used to identify the therapist qualities, competencies, and skills necessary for effective play therapy outcomes as perceived by a sub-sample of 28 experienced play therapists who are members of the Association for Play Therapy (APT). The clusters associated with the therapeutic relationship and facilitative skills (e.g., empathy, warmth, and genuineness) were rated as the most essential skills to possess and also as the most difficult to develop. In contrast, the clusters associated with play therapy interventions and theories were rated as the least important skills to possess but as the easiest to acquire. The findings are discussed, with implications for therapeutic practice, research, and policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of the hydration and dehydration of aluminium oxide-hydroxide using high frequency dielectric measurements between 300 kHz-3 GHz

Aluminium oxide exists in several forms which on addition of water give a complex range of oxide-hydroxide; boehmite, bayerite and gibbsite. High frequency dielectric measurements {300 kHz-3 GHz} are reported on the hydrated and dehydration of certain of these oxide-hydroxides. The amplitude of the observed dielectric relaxation correlates approximately with the water content, however anomalies can be observed during dehydration due to the retention of water in an immobilized form within the oxide matrix which highlights complexities in their structure and properties. These data indicate the potential of the dielectric method for quantification of the degree of hydration of an oxide in adhesive bonded structures. Two silane coupled alumina samples were studied to simulate the interface generated in the pre-treatment of real adhesive bonded structures.     

Job demands and worker health: Three-dimensional reexamination of the relationship between person€nvironment fit and strain.

The most influential study of the person–environment (P–E) fit approach to stress was conducted by J. R. French et al (1982). Unfortunately, this study operationalized fit using various transformations of difference scores, thereby introducing numerous substantive and methodological problems. In the present study, the authors reanalyze data from French et al, using a procedure described by J. R. Edwards (in press) that avoids problems with difference scores and captures the underlying 3-dimensional relationship between environment, person, and strain. Results resolve ambiguities in the French et al findings and identify relationships between environment, person, and strain that, although consistent with P–E fit theory, cannot be adequately represented by fit measures such as those used by French et al. Implications for P–E fit research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rate of seasonal spread of respiratory syncytial virus in a pediatric hospital

The rate of nosocomial respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection was measured in a large pediatric hospital using an incidence density method. The at-risk days for nosocomial RSV were summed during a defined winter period in which there were 54 admissions with community-acquired RSV infection giving a rate of 2.9 cases per 1,000 at-risk days (95% confidence interval, 0.3-5.4 per 1,000).     

"Resource" exchange in the biparental California mouse (Peromyscus californicus): Water transfer from pups to parents.

Mammalian mothers provide water to their young via milk. Rodent mothers reclaim much of this water by licking the anogenital areas of their pups, stimulating reflexive urination and consuming the pups' urine. Male rodents do not provide milk (hence water) to the young, but in some species male parents may nevertheless lick their pups. We determined the amount of water transfer from pups to mothers and fathers in the biparental California mouse, Peromyscus californicus, by injecting 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-day-old pups with tritiated water and measuring the radioactive label in maternal and paternal plasma after 24 hrs of interaction with their litter. On Days 5 and 10, mothers obtained more pup urine than did fathers. Parents consumed equivalent amounts of pup urine on Days 20 and 30. Mothers engaged in more pup anogential licking than did fathers, which accounted for the difference in pup urine consumption. Salt appetite controls, in part, pup anogential licking in lactating rats (Gubernick & Alberts, 1983). Salt appetite was not implicated in the modulation of anogential licking in the California mouse because the mice failed to display a salt appetite. Licking of young and urine consumption are not dependent solely on the bidirectional exchange of water between the dam and her offspring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)