Coping and adaptation by children with mild physical differences

This comparative study of 60 parents' and teachers' views of how elementary school children cope with their own mild physical differences and with current psychosocial development and academic tasks in mainstream classrooms identified statistically significant differences in use of defensive-adaptive imagery and psychosocial functioning between children experiencing academic success and failure.     

Infants of Depressed Mothers Show Reduced Gaze Activity During Mother–Infant Interaction at 4 Months

Gaze is one of the main means of communication in young infants, and it has been shown to be important for subsequent socio‐emotional and cognitive development. Maternal depression is a well‐known risk factor for disrupting mother–infant interactions, but findings regarding gaze behavior in infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers have been ambiguous. In this study, we examined gaze duration and activity in a sample of 27 infants of mothers with postpartum depression (PPD) and 49 infants of nondepressed mothers. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and diagnoses were confirmed in clinical interview. Infant gaze was assessed during 4‐month face‐to‐face interactions using continuous timed‐event coding with high temporal resolution. Although we found no differences in gaze duration, infants of PPD mothers had both significantly less Gaze On and also less Gaze Off events. Findings suggest that PPD is related to reduced gaze activity during mother–infant interaction in 4‐month‐olds. This reduced activity may have long‐term negative consequences for child development.     

One is Not Enough: Multiple Exemplars Facilitate Infants' Generalizations of Novel Properties

Across three experiments, we examined 9‐ and 11‐month‐olds' mappings of novel sound properties to novel animal categories. Infants were familiarized with novel animal–novel sound pairings (e.g., Animal A [red]–Sound 1) and then tested on: (1) their acquisition of the original pairing and (2) their generalization of the sound property to a new member of a familiarized category (e.g., Animal A [blue]–Sound 1). When familiarized with a single exemplar of a category, 11‐month‐olds showed no evidence of acquiring or generalizing the animal–sound pairings. In contrast, 11‐month‐olds learnt the original animal–sound mappings and generalized the sound property to a novel member of that category when familiarized with multiple exemplars of a category. Finally, when familiarized with multiple exemplars, 9‐month‐old infants learnt the original animal–sound pairing, but did not extend the novel sound property. The results of these experiments provide evidence for developmental differences in the facilitative role of multiple exemplars in promoting the learning and generalization of information.     

Body Structure Perception in Infancy

Structural cues, such as the relative size and arrangement of parts, are key aspects of adults' representation of human bodies, and they are used to derive significant social information such as age, sex, and attractiveness. Prior studies have not clearly addressed young infants' sensitivity to these body characteristics. In the current experiments, 3.5‐month‐olds exhibited a preference between images of intact bodies versus those with parts in wrong locations. Infants also discriminated between intact bodies and those with distorted part proportions. In both cases, infants discriminated when images were presented upright but not when they were inverted. These results indicate that infants are sensitive to the arrangement and size of human body parts at least by 3.5 months of age. Thus, contrary to some prior reports, body representation early in life is developed enough to include structural information.     

The Role of School Contexts in Adolescents' Weight‐loss Behaviors and Self‐perceptions of Overweight

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and multilevel modeling, this study investigates the role high school social contexts play in the development of adolescents' weight‐loss behaviors and overweight self‐perceptions. Overall, the results indicate that there is an important association between adolescents' weight‐loss behaviors and self‐perceptions of overweight and the weight‐related context of their school. For example, both adolescent boys and girls are less likely to engage in weight‐loss behaviors when overweight is prevalent among their same‐sex schoolmates. However, gender differences are also found. For example, while adolescent boys' self‐perceptions of overweight are significantly associated with their same‐sex schoolmates' characteristics and behaviors, this is not the case for adolescent girls. Overall, these findings suggest that meso‐level social contexts—such as schools—may be particularly important to how individuals incorporate macro‐level beliefs or values—such as gendered body ideals—into their own behaviors and self‐concepts.     

Preparing social workers as reporters of suspected child maltreatment

Social workers are an important source of reports to child protective services in the United States (US). However, it is unclear what role social work education plays in preparing social workers for this responsibility. The current study explores how undergraduate and graduate social work programs in the US prepare students as reporters. This study found that while almost all programs that participated in this study provide students with some content related to their role as reporters of child maltreatment, there are varying ways such content is provided, and many avenues for improvement. International implications are highlighted.