Associations Between Social Anxiety and Nonverbal Processing Skill in Preadolescent Boys and Girls

This study was designed to investigate the potential association between social anxiety and children's ability to decode nonverbal emotional cues. Participants were 62 children between 8 and 10 years of age, who completed self-report measures of social anxiety, depressive symptomatology, and nonspecific anxious symptomatology, as well as nonverbal decoding tasks assessing accuracy at identifying emotion in facial expressions and vocal tones. Data were analyzed with multiple regression analyses controlling for generalized cognitive ability, and nonspecific anxious and depressive symptomatology. Results provided partial support for the hypothesis that social anxiety would relate to nonverbal decoding accuracy. Difficulty identifying emotions conveyed in children's and adults' voices was associated with general social avoidance and distress. At higher levels of social anxiety, children more frequently mislabeled fearful voices as sad. Possible explanations for the obtained results are explored.     

A natural lead-in approach to response-adaptive allocation for continuous outcomes

Response-adaptive (RA) allocation designs can skew the allocation of incoming subjects toward the better performing treatment group based on the previously accrued responses. While unstable estimators and increased variability can adversely affect adaptation in early trial stages, Bayesian methods can be implemented with decreasingly informative priors (DIP) to overcome these difficulties. DIPs have been previously used for binary outcomes to constrain adaptation early in the trial, yet gradually increase adaptation as subjects accrue. We extend the DIP approach to RA designs for continuous outcomes, primarily in the normal conjugate family by functionalizing the prior effective sample size to equal the unobserved sample size. We compare this effective sample size DIP approach to other DIP formulations. Further, we considered various allocation equations and assessed their behavior utilizing DIPs. Simulated clinical trials comparing the behavior of these approaches with traditional Frequentist and Bayesian RA as well as balanced designs show that the natural lead-in approaches maintain improved treatment with lower variability and greater power.     

The Time-Course for the Capture and Hold of Visuospatial Attention by Fearful and Happy Faces

Fearful faces both capture our attention and hold it. However, little is known about the time-course for the capture and hold of spatial attention by fearful, and other emotional, faces. In three dot-probe studies we examined this time-course. Experiments 1 and 2 used fearful and neutral faces. In Experiment 1, dot-probe targets occurred 133, 266, and 532 ms post-face onset and in Experiment 2, dot-probe targets occurred 84, 168, 336, and 672 ms post-face onset. In Experiment 1, for both 133 and 266 ms conditions, reaction times were fastest for congruent trials and slowest for incongruent trials with reaction times for baseline trials falling between the two. The same pattern was found for the 84 and 168 ms conditions in Experiment 2. For the later time-points in both experiments there were no significant differences between conditions. To examine whether this time-course is unique to fearful faces, a third dot-probe experiment using time-points identical to Experiment 2 was conducted with happy and neutral faces. The results from Experiment 3 suggest that happy faces captured and held attention in the 168 and 336 ms conditions. Together, the results indicate that attention is captured and held by fearful faces at times earlier than approximately 300 ms, while happy faces also captured and held attention, but on a slightly different time-course from 168 to 336 ms.     

Women's Attitudes Toward Family Formation and Life Stage Transitions: A Longitudinal Study in Korea

Although it is well documented that family attitudes become less traditional over cohorts, little is known about how individuals' attitudes change over time. More research also is needed on how the within‐individual changes relate to important life stage events such as marriage, childbirth, and transitions in education and work. Evidence is particularly lacking in Asian countries, which have socioeconomic and cultural contexts very different from those in the West. To fill these gaps in the literature, the authors analyzed the attitudes toward family formation of Korean women in their 20s and 30s (N = 6,042). Individual fixed effects regression using the panel data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families revealed that women became more traditional over time and that transitions to marriage and motherhood partly accounted for the change. These findings are explained within the context of very low fertility in Korea and have implications for other rapidly changing societies.     

Dosage matters: The relationship between participation in the Nurturing Parenting Program for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and subsequent child maltreatment

This article uses statewide data on caregivers of young children referred to the Nurturing Parenting Program (NPP) for allegations of abuse and neglect to examine the relationship between program dosage and subsequent maltreatment. At six months after participating in the program, caregivers who attended more sessions were significantly less likely to be reported for child maltreatment, holding other factors constant. At two years after participating, caregivers attending more sessions were significantly less likely to have a substantiated maltreatment incidence, controlling for other characteristics of families associated with maltreatment. These findings demonstrate the program is associated with preventing short-term allegations and longer-term substantiated incidences of maltreatment for a child welfare population. By demonstrating the importance of participation in the NPP, we increase the evidence about effective parent education programs for this population.     

Coping with War: Three Strategies Employed by Adolescent Citizens of Sierra Leone

Children and adolescents in Sierra Leone have suffered through a decade of catastrophic violence and dislocation resulting from a brutal civil war. Many have been forced to flee their villages and have found refuge in United Nations refugee camps in neighboring countries. These children have witnessed the torture, maiming, and murder of family, friends, and neighbors. Some have been forced to carry arms or to serve as domestic and sexual servants to predatory rebel combatants. All have confronted enormous hardship and loss. This paper identifies three coping strategies employed by adolescents in a large refugee camp. Implications for professional practice are discussed.     

Training in Family Assessment: A Comparison of Three Teaching Methods*

Three methods of training in family assessment were evaluated. Method I employed traditional classroom lecture along with demonstration videotapes prepared by faculty. Method II used small group discussion with the same videotapes. Method III incorporated an experiential task in which the students conducted a family interview and presented their own videotapes for small group discussion. Parallel pre and post tests were developed to measure knowledge and skills in family assessment. Results showed a significant gain in scores between pre and post measures, but the gains did not differ significantly between the three teaching methods. Logistic considerations led to the conclusion that the method of choice is Method I.     

Attributions of Responsibility in a Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Vignette Among Respondents with CSA Histories: The Role of Abuse Similarity to a Hypothetical Victim

Previous research suggests that similarity to a victim may influence attributions of responsibility in hypothetical child sexual abuse scenarios. One aspect of similarity receiving mixed support in the literature is respondent child sexual abuse history. Using a sample of 1,345 college women, the present study examined child sexual abuse history, similarity to victim, and attributions of responsibility to a hypothetical victim, family member, and perpetrator in a child sexual abuse vignette. Results revealed no group differences in responsibility ratings among respondents with and without child sexual abuse histories. However, among the 133 respondents with child sexual abuse histories, results indicated that similarity to victim moderated the relationship between vignette characteristics, respondent history, and responsibility attributions. Results suggest that similarity to a victim may influence ratings in a self-preserving manner.