Temperament and Social Problem Solving Competence in Preschool: Influences on Academic Skills in Early Elementary School

The goals of the current study were to examine whether children's social problem solving (SPS) skills are a mechanism through which temperament influences later academic achievement and whether sex moderates these associations. The participants included 1117 children enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. During preschool, mothers and childcare providers rated children's temperamental shyness and inhibitory control, and SPS was assessed using a hypothetical–reflective measure during a laboratory visit. During kindergarten and first grade, teacher‐report of math and language skills was collected. The results indicated that high ratings of inhibitory control in preschool, but not shyness, predicted better kindergarten and first‐grade academic skills. Furthermore, children's SPS competence mediated the relations between both shyness and inhibitory control on later academic skills. The child's sex did not moderate these associations. The results suggest that preventative efforts targeting early SPS skills may buffer against later academic adjustment problems among temperamentally extreme children.     

The development of interindividual differences in sympathy: The role of child personality and adults’ responsiveness to distress

In a three‐wave longitudinal study of 85 children (43 girls) at 5, 6, and 7 years of age, the role played by child personality (inhibition, aggressiveness) and adults’ responsiveness to distress in children's sympathy was examined. At all three times, sympathy was measured via standardized observations as well as children's self‐reports. Child inhibition and aggressiveness were assessed with reports by teachers at T1 and T2. Parents’ and teachers’ responsiveness to distress were inferred from interviews with the children at T1 and T2. Longitudinal analyses via latent regression using structural equation models showed that earlier sympathy explained most of the variance in later sympathy. Additionally, higher inhibition at T1 predicted less sympathy at T2. Higher sympathy at T1 predicted more adult responsiveness at T2. Higher aggressiveness at T2 predicted less sympathy at T3. Within time, at T1, sympathy was positively related to adults’ responsiveness. At T2, inhibition and sympathy were negatively related. The discussion focuses on the question of how child personality as well as parental and non‐parental socialization experiences work in concert to explain interindividual differences in sympathy.     

DOES BEAUTY MATTER IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION?

Physically attractive individuals achieve greater success in terms of earnings and status than those who are less attractive. However, whether this “beauty premium” arises primarily because of differences in ability or confidence, bias, or sorting remains unknown. We use a rich dataset from a women's college to evaluate each of these three mechanisms at the college level. We find that students judged to be more attractive perform significantly worse on standardized tests but, conditional on test scores, are not evaluated more favorably at the point of admission, suggesting that more attractive people do not possess greater abilities at the beginning of college. Controlling for test scores, more attractive students receive only marginally better grades in some specifications, and the magnitudes of the differences are very small. Finally, there is substantial beauty‐based sorting into areas of study and occupations. (JEL J16, I21, I23)     

Giving advice on advice-giving: a conversation analysis of Karl Tomm's practice

In this article we challenge a common definition of therapeutic advice as a linear, one-way accomplishment, enacted by therapists toward clients. We also offer a novel conception of advice as a dialogical "performance," to which both therapists and clients contribute. We discuss the results of a conversation analysis of a family therapy session by Karl Tomm, showing sequential practices employed by a family therapist and a family as they jointly work out common ground to set the stage for the therapist's eventual offering of advice. We discuss the results of this study in light of the literature on advice provision in various contexts.     

ASSESSING CHANGE IN FAMILY FUNCTIONING AS A RESULT OF TREATMENT: THE STRUCTURAL FAMILY SYSTEMS RATING SCALE (SFSR)

This article describes a theoretically based structural family assessment procedure designed for use in evaluating therapy outcome. The standardized procedure for eliciting family interaction consists of the administration of three family tasks. The family's interactional patterns on the tasks are evaluated along six dimensions of structural family functioning: Structure, Flexibility, Resonance, Developmental Stage, Identified Patienthood, and Conflict Resolution. A manual has been developed for standardizing ratings for research applications. The measure demonstrated good interrater and internal consistency reliability. Available evidence for the content, factor, and construct validity of the measure is presented. Clinical outcome research studies conducted with the measure provide evidence that the measure is sensitive to different types of structural family intervention modalities and that it discriminates between a structural family intervention versus a no treatment/wait list control condition as well as between a structural family intervention versus an individual psychotherapy treatment modality. Finally, the measure has been demonstrated to be nonreactive under both treatment and wait list conditions.     

Identifiability and Comparison of Estimation Methods on Weibull Mixture Models

In this article, the finite mixture model of Weibull distributions is studied, the identifiability of the model with m components is proven, and the parameter estimators for the case of two components resulted by several algorithms are compared. The parameter estimators are obtained with maximum likelihood performing calculations with different algorithms: expectation-maximization (EM), Fisher scoring, backfitting, optimization of k-nearest neighbor approach, and random walk algorithm using Monte Carlo simulation. The Akaike information criterion and the log-likelihood value are used to compare models. In general, the proposed random walk algorithm shows better performance in mean square error and bias. Finally, the results are applied to electronic component lifetime data.     

Sexual self-concept and sexual self-efficacy in adolescents: a possible clue to promoting sexual health?

This study examined the associations between sexual self-concept (sexual esteem and sexual anxiety) and sexual self-efficacy (situational and resistive) in a sample of 388 high school students (59% Caucasian, 28% African American). Males reported lower sexual esteem and lower sexual self-efficacy than females. Males and African Americans reported higher levels of sexual anxiety and lower levels of resistive self-efficacy than females and Caucasians. In regression models, higher sexual self-esteem uniquely predicted higher sexual self-efficacy scores, even after controlling for demographic variables, knowledge of sexual risk, and previous coital experience. In post hoc analyses, sexual self-esteem mediated the relation between knowledge of sexual risk and both types of sexual self-efficacy. Results suggest the need for interventions to promote male sexual self-efficacy and sexual esteem and the need for longitudinal research that explicates models of sexual health in adolescence.     

Gender differences in Russian adolescent mental health from 1999 to 2021

This study examined secular trends in Russian adolescent mental health, the specific effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associations with country-level indicators. A cross-sectional survey of 12,882 adolescents aged 11–18 years was carried out between 1999 and 2021 using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The results showed an incline in girls' internalizing problems with a two-fold increase in the gender gap. There was a decline in girls' prosocial behavior and an incline in peer problems, with decreasing gender differences. Conduct problems showed a reversal of gender differences. Changes during the pandemic were not greater than over-time changes, with the exception of inclines in hyperactivity-inattention in both genders. Time trends in adolescent mental health were associated with over-time changes in national indicators of wealth and gender equality. The findings provide a strong basis for further research into the determinants of gender differences in adolescent mental health and for gender-specific interventions.     

A probabilistic synopsis of binary decision rules

Decision rules for Yes–No voting systems are placed in a probabilistic framework. Selfdual and permutationally invariant distributions are introduced. Under such distributions, the mean success margin of the majority rule and of the unanimity rule are shown to bound the mean success margin of all other decision rules. For bloc decision rules in the Penrose/Banzhaf model, a product formula for the voters’ influence probabilities is derived. Other indices and the Shapley/Shubik model are also discussed.