The use of an identity in Anderson for multivariate multiple testing

Consider the model where there are I$I$ independent multivariate normal treatment populations with p×1$p\times 1$ mean vectors _μi${\mathit{\mu }}_i$, i=1,…,I$i=1,\dots ,I$, and covariance matrix Σ$\Sigma$. Independently the (I+1)$(I+1)$st population corresponds to a control and it too is multivariate normal with mean vector _μI+1${\mathit{\mu }}_{I+1}$ and covariance matrix Σ$\Sigma$. Now consider the following two multiple testing problems.     

Narrative skills predict peer adjustment across elementary school years

The importance of peer adjustment in middle childhood coincides with developing social cognitive and discursive skills that include the ability to make personal narrative accounts. Authoring personal stories promotes attention to the sequence of events, the causal connections between events, the moral significance of what has happened, and the motives that drive human action: these skills may be critical for the establishment and maintenance of satisfying peer relationships during elementary school. This study extended previous research by considering whether narrative skills in written stories about peer interactions predicted peer adjustment. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, 92 children wrote narratives about peer experiences and completed surveys on measures of peer adjustment for two school years. Cross‐lagged panel models indicated that chronological and thematic coherence and reports of moral concerns in narratives in the first year of the study contributed to lower peer disliking in the subsequent academic year. Reports of motives in Year 1 narratives contributed to lower levels of loneliness and peer victimization in Year 2. Writing personal narratives that are coherent and attentive to moral concerns and motives may be especially beneficial for children who have difficulty connecting with peers. We discuss implications for classroom practices.     

Cyber Aggression: The Relation between Online Offenders and Offline Social Competence

Children are increasingly using computer technologies to engage in acts of aggression against peers, often termed ‘cyber aggression’. Media reports have sensationalized instances of cyber aggression, and social scientists have begun to examine its characteristics and consequences. Using a younger sample of children than most previous research (192 third‐ through sixth‐grade children), the present research evaluated grade and gender effects on cyber aggression and, most importantly, evaluated the classroom peer social consequences of engaging in cyber aggression, after controlling for traditional, face‐to‐face aggression. Children reported engaging in cyber aggression at comparable rates across grades and between males and females. Engaging in cyber aggression was related to higher rates of loneliness and lower rates of global self‐worth, peer optimism, number of mutual friendships, social acceptability, and popularity. In short, after controlling for effects attributable to traditional aggression, cyber aggression was related to significant negative peer relations outcomes.     

Conflict of Interest Mitigation Procedures May Have Little Influence on the Perceived Procedural Fairness of Risk‐Related Research

Two between‐subject experiments explored perceived conflict of interest (COI)—operationalized as perceived procedural unfairness—in a hypothetical public–private research partnership to study the health risks of trans fats. Perceived fairness was measured as subjects’ perceptions that health researchers would be willing to listen to a range of voices and minimize bias (i.e., COI) in the context of a research project. Experiment 1 (n = 1,263) randomly assigned research subjects to a partnership that included (1) a combination of an industry partner, a university partner, and a nongovernmental organization (NGO) partner; and (2) one of three processes aimed at mitigating the potential for COI to harm the quality of the research. The procedures included an arm's‐length process meant to keep the university‐based research team from being influenced by the other partners, an independent advisory board to oversee the project, and a commitment to making all data and analyses openly available. The results suggest that having an industry partner has substantial negative effects on perceived fairness and that the benefit of employing a single COI‐mitigation process may be relatively small. Experiment 2 (n = 1,076) assessed a partnership of (1) a university and either an NGO or industry partner and (b) zero, one, two, or three of the three COI‐mitigation procedures. Results suggest there is little value in combining COI‐mitigation procedures. The study has implications for those who aim to foster confidence in scientific findings for which the underlying research may benefit from industry funding.     

Sum of a Random Number of Correlated Random Variables that Depend on the Number of Summands

The mean and variance of a sum of a random number of random variables are well known when the number of summands is independent of each summand and when the summands are independent and identically distributed (iid), or when all summands are identical. In scientific and financial applications, the preceding conditions are often too restrictive. Here, we calculate the mean and variance of a sum of a random number of random summands when the mean and variance of each summand depend on the number of summands and when every pair of summands has the same correlation. This article shows that the variance increases with the correlation between summands and equals the variance in the iid or identical cases when the correlation is zero or one.     

Domain Specificity in Adolescents’ Concepts of Laws: Associations Among Beliefs and Behavior

Using detailed vignettes and scale measures, concepts of laws regulating domain‐specific issues and engagement in delinquency were assessed among 340 9th through 12th graders (M_age = 16.64, SD = 1.37). Adolescents distinguished between laws that regulate moral, drug‐related prudential, conventional, personal, and multifaceted issues in their criterion judgments and justifications. Youths’ ratings of the importance of laws, obligation to obey laws, and deserved punishment for breaking different laws also followed domain‐consistent patterns. Adolescents’ engagement in moral, drug‐related prudential, and multifaceted forms of delinquency was associated with less supportive judgments about laws within the same domain. Findings contribute to civic development research by demonstrating domain specificity in adolescents’ beliefs about laws and suggest that these beliefs are linked with engagement in similar types of delinquency.     

When density matters: Environmental control as a determinant of crowding effects in laboratory and residential settings

Conclusion We have argued that the influence of high levels of density on human health and behavior may be determined more by the individual's beliefs about hislher relationship to the environment than by the environment itself.An important implication of this analysis is that the behavior and health of those experiencing high density conditions can be altered (improved?) not only by changing their environment, but also by changing their attitudes toward their environment. Thus both interventions that actually provide people with the opportunity to terminate, periodically escape, or modify unwanted stimulation and those that otherwise provide them with the belief that such changes are within their power should similarly ameliorate the negative impact of high density.Preparation of this paper was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (SOC 75-09224 and BNS 77-08576).     

Investigation of Change in Adolescent Perceptions of Mothers' and Fathers' Contributions to Interparental Discord From 7th to 9th Grades

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether adolescent perceptions of mothers' and fathers' contributions to interparental discord changed from early to middle adolescence and if the changes were related to adolescent negative mood. Data were drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Adolescents who were in 7th grade at the Wave 1 assessment and lived with both biological parents during Waves 1–4 were included in this research (n=812; 55% boys; 69% White). Findings indicated that adolescents' perceptions of their mothers' and their fathers' contributions to interparental discord increased at similar rates from early to middle adolescence. The largest increases in adolescent perceptions of mothers' and fathers' contributions to interparental discord from 7th to 9th grades were associated with the largest increases in adolescent negative mood from 7th to 10th grades. Girls' perceptions of their fathers' contributions to interparental relationship problems increased at a steeper rate compared with boys. Findings are discussed in the context of the sensitization hypothesis.