Reduced Electrodermal Activity in Psychopathy-Prone Adolescents.

This study tests the hypothesis that psychopathy-prone adolescents show reduced anticipatory skin conductance responding. Electrodermal activity was recorded while participants anticipated and responded to a 105dB signaled or unsignaled white-noise burst. Using an extreme groups design, the authors used Child Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997) scores from a community sample of 335 male adolescents (age 16) to form control (n=65) and psychopathy-prone (n=65) groups. Significantly more psychopathy-prone participants were nonresponders in the signaled anticipatory (p=.014), signaled responsivity (p=.037), and unsignaled responsivity (p=.003) conditions compared with controls. Anticipatory hyporesponsivity of psychopathy-prone adolescents similar to the electrodermal hyporesponsivity found in psychopathic adults suggests that this autonomic impairment is present by adolescence and may predispose individuals to adult psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Addressing Religious Conflicts in Adolescents Who Experience Sexual Identity Confusion.

How ought psychologists to respond to adolescents who experience sexual identity confusion? Does it make a difference if teens report religious conflicts or strain with respect to their experiences of same-sex attraction, behavior, or identity? This article considers adolescents who experience same-sex attraction and religious conflicts and offers recommendations to psychologists who provide services to these adolescents. The 3 primary goals of this article are to (a) clarify the religious and sexual-identity developmental contexts in which some adolescents find themselves experiencing same-sex attraction, (b) identify some of the religious conflicts that may occur for adolescents, and (c) offer suggestions for addressing religious conflicts faced by adolescents who experience same-sex attraction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Military-Style Residential Treatment for Disruptive Adolescents: Effective for Some Girls, All Girls, When, and Why?

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of military-style residential treatment for adolescents with conduct, academic, and substance use problems. They compared 171 boys and 81 girls (ages 16-18 years) referred to a 22-week boot camp administered by the Wisconsin National Guard. At referral, girls showed equal levels of conduct problems as boys, but higher levels of comorbid internalizing symptoms. Completion rates were similar across genders; however, most (84%) girls with histories of abuse withdrew from treatment. At 6-month follow-up, program graduates showed improved social-emotional functioning, greater frequency of school completion and employment, and lower frequency of substance use problems and arrest than controls. Outcomes were independent of gender. Results suggest military-style treatment can be effective for both genders, but treatment effectiveness is reduced considerably for girls with histories of maltreatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Longitudinal Study of the Relationship Between Depressive Symptoms and Cigarette Use Among African American Adolescents.

The relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette use was examined in a sample of 623 African Americans during adolescence and transition to adulthood by using hierarchical linear modeling. Participants in the study were interviewed across 6 occasions over 8 years. Results indicate that depressive symptoms tend to decrease over time, whereas cigarette use tends to increase for both female and male adolescents. The results also suggest that depressive symptoms predict later cigarette use. Male adolescents who reported more depressive symptoms were more likely than female adolescents to use cigarettes as a way to cope with their mood. These results suggest that depressive symptoms may be important to consider when developing smoking cessation interventions for African American youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Space-Based Inhibition of Return in Children With Spina Bifida.

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to an increase in time to react to a target in a previously attended location. Children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and hydrocephalus have congenital dysmorphology of the midbrain, a brain region associated with the control of covert orienting in general and with IOR in particular. The authors studied exogenously cued covert orienting in 8- to 19-year-old children and adolescents (84 with SBM and 37 age-matched, typically developing controls). The exogenous cue was a luminance change in a peripheral box that was 50% valid for the upcoming target location. Compared with controls, children with SBM showed attenuated IOR in the vertical plane, a deficit that was associated with midbrain dysmorphology in the form of tectal beaking but not with posterior brain volume loss. The data add to the emerging evidence for SBM deficits in attentional orienting to salient information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Online "predators" and their victims: Myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment.

The publicity about online "predators" who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate. Internet sex crimes involving adults and juveniles more often fit a model of statutory rape--adult offenders who meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers--than a model of forcible sexual assault or pedophilic child molesting. This is a serious problem, but one that requires approaches different from those in current prevention messages emphasizing parental control and the dangers of divulging personal information. Developmentally appropriate prevention strategies that target youths directly and acknowledge normal adolescent interests in romance and sex are needed. These should provide younger adolescents with awareness and avoidance skills while educating older youths about the pitfalls of sexual relationships with adults and their criminal nature. Particular attention should be paid to higher risk youths, including those with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns, and patterns of off- and online risk taking. Mental health practitioners need information about the dynamics of this problem and the characteristics of victims and offenders because they are likely to encounter related issues in a variety of contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promoting early adolescents' achievement and peer relationships: The effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures.

Emphasizing the developmental need for positive peer relationships, in this study the authors tested a social-contextual view of the mechanisms and processes by which early adolescents' achievement and peer relationships may be promoted simultaneously. Meta-analysis was used to review 148 independent studies comparing the relative effectiveness of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures in promoting early adolescents' achievement and positive peer relationships. These studies represented over 8 decades of research on over 17,000 early adolescents from 11 countries and 4 multinational samples. As predicted by social interdependence theory, results indicate that higher achievement and more positive peer relationships were associated with cooperative rather than competitive or individualistic goal structures. Also as predicted, results show that cooperative goal structures were associated with a positive relation between achievement and positive peer relationships. Implications for theory and application are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal homepage construction as an expression of social development.

In 2 studies, the authors explored preadolescent and adolescent use of personal homepages in relation to mastery and identity formation. In Study 1, the authors attempted to determine the prevalence of personal homepage and online journal (blog) construction among a random sample (N=500) of preadolescents and adolescents. Adolescents were more likely to create personal homepages or blogs than preadolescents. Creation was related to feelings of mastery, expressions of identity, and a means to socialize. In Study 2, the authors explored the relationship of homepages to mastery and identity formation by content analysis of a random sample of homepages. Results suggest children use personal homepages to express and explore their forming identities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex isn't that simple: Culture and context in HIV prevention interventions for gay and bisexual male adolescents.

Gay and bisexual male adolescents and young adults in the United States have been disproportionately impacted by the HIV pandemic. Despite the steadily increasing rise in their HIV infection rates, there has not been a commensurate increase in HIV prevention programs targeted to the unique social and sexual lives of these youths. Programs that address cultural and contextual factors that influence sexual risk and protective behaviors need to be developed, implemented, and rigorously evaluated. These interventions should address the potential influences of sexual and gay culture on the HIV risk/protective behaviors of gay and bisexual adolescents, as well as the influence of more traditional cultural factors related to ethnicity. The influence of contextual developmental factors should also be addressed. This may include an incorporation into prevention programs of the societal-level influences of heterosexism and masculinity ideology and the individual-level influences of sexual identity and ethnic identity development. Researchers and interventionists need to be creative and innovative in their HIV prevention approaches and ensure that programs are grounded in the lives and realities of gay and bisexual adolescents and young adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapeutic Bonding in Group as an Explanatory Variable of Progress in the Social Competence of Students With Learning Disabilities.

This study, conducted in Israel, explores the efficacy of an expressive-supportive group psychotherapy in helping adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficits (ADD and ADHD) to increase social competence and friendship. Bonding with the therapist and group members was tested as an explanatory variable of outcomes. The study included 87 students with LD from seven different schools who had been referred to school counseling centers because of social, emotional, and behavior difficulties. The students in each school were randomly divided into experimental and wait-list conditions. Children in the experimental conditions (n = 42) participated in seven small groups, in 15 weekly sessions of group therapy conducted by trained school counselors. Results indicated gains on the social competence measure, but not on the friendship-intimacy measure. Therapist-related bonding was more frequently related to outcomes than member-related bonding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)