Internalising and externalising children's behaviour problems in Britain and the US: relationships to family resources1

A large sample of British children (n=994) of varying ages (7–18 years) and a large sample of American children (n=886) of varying ages (7–16 years) were rated by their mothers using respectively the Rutter Child Scale A and the Behaviour Problems Index both of which cover a variety of behavioural problems. Factor analysis of the behavioural scales distinguished externalising and internalising dimensions of behaviour in both countries. We examined whether children's experiences of family change, cognitive ability and family adversity including economic deprivation were associated with differences in the prevalence of the behavioural dimensions. Mean cognitive scores decreased significantly with increasing level of externalising behavioural problems in British and American children but showed no significant relationship to levels of internalising behaviour problems in either sample. Among American children internalising and externalising behavioural problems were related to experience of non‐intact family structures and measures of family adversity. Externalising behavioural problems were related to measures of family adversity among British boys and girls but were only related to experience of non‐intact family structures in the sample of British girls. Among British girls, internalising behavioural problems were also related to non‐intact family structures. The associations between non‐intact family structures and behavioural problems were independent of measures of economic deprivation in both samples of children. This study documents some of the background factors which affect children's behavioural and cognitive outcomes. Unlike children's family structure economic deprivation can be influenced through policy intervention, and the analysis supports the view that relieving economic deprivation would help improve children's behavioural outcomes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adolescent grief: relationship category and emotional closeness

Bereaved adolescents (N = 90) who had experienced relatively common death losses (e.g., grandparent, friend) completed the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief and the Emotional Closeness Scale and Continuum. Results indicated that present grief was significantly higher for friend than for grandparent death loss. A MANOVA revealed that those in the high closeness group reported significantly higher mean scores on past and present grief than those in the low closeness group. Finally, in a hierarchal multiple regression, after demographic variables were entered (e.g., age, present at death), emotional closeness added significant variance to the prediction of past and present grief. This research contributes to the understanding of grief intensity following adolescents' most common death losses and highlights the importance of counselors' intentionally and directly assessing bereaved adolescents' perceived emotional closeness to the deceased as part of grief-related counseling.     

International adopters and their children: Birth culture ties

This study explores parents’ attitudes toward helping their internationally adopted children develop an appreciation for the cultures of the children’s birth countries and surveys the culture-related activities in which they and their children engage. While most parents believed their child’s primary attachment should be to American culture, they accorded great importance to their child forming ties to his/her birth culture. Both the adopted child’s region of origin and the parent’s gender had an impact on attitudes and activities. Parents who adopted from Asia and mothers generally accorded greater importance to and participated more frequently in cultural activities with their children than parents who adopted from Europe and fathers. Patricia Hanigan Scroggs is a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State and the mother of two daughters adopted from China. A specialist in economic affairs, she has served overseas in Mexico, Korea, and Japan and in various Washington assignments for the State Department. She conducted this research while a fellow in the State Department’s Una Chapman Cox Sabbatical Leave Program. She is presently studying Justice, Law, and Society and holds a graduate degree in forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.     

Who Are the Poor?

Here we present the subject of poverty in the United States as one that is central to a concern with social issues and justice and argue that its relative invisibility in psychology reflects the discipline's dominant middle-class standpoint. We describe, first, the articles in this issue, which are focused particularly on the voices of poor women in the United States. Then we examine poverty in terms of its economic indicators as well as its experiential correlates.     

Effects of residential density on sonoran desert nocturnal rodents

We compared nocturnal rodent distributions among residential developments and in adjacent undeveloped native habitat remnants in Tucson, Arizona during October 1994. We trapped rodents in 2 low density (0.5 houses/ha) developments, 2 medium density (7.5 houses/ha) developments, and in 4 adjacent blocks of undeveloped native habitat using trap lines of 50 snap traps spaced at 2 traps every 10 meters. We compared species abundance, species richness, and total abundance among the 4 site types in a contingency table using a 2-tailed Fisher's exact test, and used post-hoc tests where the null hypothesis of no difference among sites was rejected. We encountered 144 individuals representing 5 species of nocturnal rodents in 1200 trap nights. Of 4 native rodent species, none were captured in medium housing density sites. House mice (Mus musculus) were captured only in medium housing density sites. Total rodent abundance was lower in both the medium density residential and the adjacent undeveloped sites than in either low density or adjacent undeveloped sites. Low density housing must be included in the developing matrix if the full complement of native nocturnal rodents is to be retained in Tucson.     

Cultural Sexism is Ordinary: Writing and Re‐Writing Women in Academia

When we ‘write women’ in academia, the focus in much of the literature to date has been to write about women. The focus of this article is the writing of women themselves; to give voice to women's experiences as constructors of knowledge. Through so doing this article uses writing as praxis; as a mechanism to disrupt, challenge and open a space for renegotiation of cultural norms within academic institutions. Based on qualitative data collection over a six‐year period, this article writes women's experiences and unpacks the way in which cultural sexism has become an ordinary feature of women's academic lives. It also considers ways in which the underlying cultural interpretations of hegemonic masculinized structures may be re‐written.     

Raising awareness of transformative ecosocial work: Participatory action research with Australian practitioners

This article reports on Participatory Action Research with social work practitioners who collaboratively explored the effects on professional practice when practitioners raise their awareness of an ecosocial work approach. Although contemporary research in the profession has contributed to the ongoing development of ecosocial work, there is a notable lack of collaboration with social work practitioners. Using a transformative ecosocial work model of practice, researchers together with social workers from a range of practice contexts met as co‐inquirers to plan, implement and evaluate ecosocial work interventions. As part of a larger international study, this article reports on research outcomes within the Australian context. Overall, results indicate that practitioners incorporated interventions across personal, individual, group and organisational levels of practice, but were constrained by structural elements at broader levels. Continuing the development of ecosocial work requires further collaborative exploration with practitioners, which takes into consideration communities and broader social and political systems. Key Practitioner Messages: ? This research endeavours to contribute to the evidence‐base for progressing transformative ecosocial work in professional practice; ? Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), this research was done in collaboration with social work practitioners as co‐inquirers to develop ecosocial work interventions; ? A range of ecosocial work interventions were implemented at the personal, individual, group and organisational levels.     

Proximity (Mis)perception: Public Awareness of Nuclear,Refinery, and Fracking Sites

Whether on grounds of perceived safety, aesthetics, or overall quality of life, residents may wish to be aware of nearby energy sites such as nuclear reactors, refineries, and fracking wells. Yet people are not always accurate in their impressions of proximity. Indeed, our data show that only 54% of Americans living within 25 miles of a nuclear site say they do, and even fewer fracking-proximal (30%) and refinery-proximal (24%) residents respond accurately. In this article, we analyze factors that could either help people form more accurate perceptions or distort their impressions of proximity. We evaluate these hypotheses using a large national survey sample and corresponding geographic information system (GIS) data. Results show that among those living in close proximity to energy sites, those who perceive greater risk are less likely to report living nearby. Conversely, social contact with employees of these industries increases perceived proximity regardless of actual distance. These relationships are consistent across each site type we examine. Other potential factors—such as local news use—may play a role in proximity perception on a case-by-case basis. Our findings are an important step toward a more generalizable understanding of how the public forms perceptions of proximity to risk sites, showing multiple potential mechanisms of bias.     

Longitudinal patterns of anger reactivity and risk‐taking: The role of peer‐context

The current study examined the interplay between children's dispositional anger and susceptibility to peers' influence in increasing children's risk‐taking behaviors. Participants in the current study were children from a larger study of temperament and social–emotional development who were followed across 9, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months. Dispositional anger was measured using mothers' reports across 9 and 48 months. At 60 months, children played a risk‐taking computer game in presence of an unfamiliar peer who watched the child play. The child's risk‐taking was assessed during the game as the unfamiliar peers' reactions were coded based on comments that were peer directed, reflective of praising the target child's performance, or object directed, indicative of excitement toward the game. A latent profile analysis revealed three longitudinal anger profiles across infancy to early childhood: high stable, average stable, and low stable anger. Results suggested that as peers' object‐directed comments predicted risk‐taking independent of children's anger, the association between peer‐directed comments and risk‐taking was dependent on children's dispositional anger. Specifically, when peers praised the target child's performance, children in the high stable anger profile showed increased risk‐taking propensity. Findings are discussed based on the importance of considering both temperamental characteristics and aspects of the peer context in relation to children's risk‐taking.