Emergence of normative beliefs legitimizing antisocial behaviour in adolescents : the roles of monitoring, attachment, and temperament /

Beliefs about the rightness or wrongness of engaging in various antisocial acts, referred to here as nonnative beliefs legitimizing antisocial behaviour (nblab), have been shown to playa role in the emergence oflater antisocial behaviour. The current study represented an attempt to understand whether parental monitoring and parent-child attachment have differential relationships with these antisocial nonnative beliefs in adolescents of different temperaments. The participants, 7135 adolescents in 25 high schools (ages 10- 18 years, M = 15.7) completed a wide-ranging questionnaire as part of the broad Youth Lifestyle Choices - Community University Research Alliance project, whose goal is to identify and describe the major developmental pathways of risk behaviours and resilience in youth. Two aspects of monitoring (monitoring knowledge and surveillance/tracking), attachment security, and two measures of temperament (activity level and approach) were examined for main effects and in interactions as predictors of adolescent nonnative beliefs. All of these measures were based on adolescent self-ratings on either 3- or 4-point Likert-type scales. Several important results emerged from the study. Males were higher than females in nblab; parental monitoring knowledge and adolescent attachment security were negatively related to nblab; and temperamental activity level was positively related. Monitoring knowledge, the strongest of the predictors, was much more strongly related to nonnative beliefs than was parental surveillance/tracking, supporting the contention that it is how much parents actually know, and not their surveillance efforts, that predict adolescent nonnative beliefs. A surprising finding that is of the utmost importance was that, although several of the interactions tested were significant, none were considered to be of a meaningful magnitude (defined as sr^ > .01). The current study supported the suggestion that normative beliefs legitimizing antisocial behaviour are multiply determined, and the results were discussed with respect to the observed differential relations of parental monitoring, parent-child attachment, temperament, age, and gender to antisocial normative beliefs in adolescents. Also discussed were the need to test other parenting, temperament, and other variables that may be involved in the development of nblab; the need to directly test possible mechanisms explaining the links among the variables; and the usefulness of longitudinal research in determining possible directions of causality and developmental changes in the relationships.

Immuno-cytochemical localization of glycoproteins involved in recognition and attachment in a mycoparatism

Polyclonal antibodies prepared against the two glycoproteins (Mr 100 and 85 kDa) involved in recognition and attachment of the mycoparasite, Piptocephalis virginiana, to its hosts, Mortierella pusilla and Phascolomyces articulosus, susceptible and resistant, respectively, were employed to localize the antigens at their cell surfaces. Indirect immunocytochemical technique using secondary antibodies labelled with either FITC or gold particles as probes, were used. FITC-Iabelled antibodies revealed a discontinous pattern of fluorescence on the hyphae of MortlerelLa pusilla and no fluorescence on the hyphae of Phascolomyces articulosus. Intensity of fluorescence was high in the germinating spores of both the fungi. Fluoresence could be observed on P. articulosus hyphae pretreated with a commercial proteinase. Fluorescence was not observed on either hyphae or germinating spores of the nonhost M0 r tie re11 a ca ndelabrum and the mycoparasite P. virginiana. Antibodies labelled with gold conjugate showed a different pattern of antigen localization on the hyphal walls of the susceptible and resistant hosts. Patches of gold particles were observed allover the whole cell wall of the susceptible host but only on the inner cell wall layer of the resistant host. Cell wall fragments of the susceptible host but not those of the resistant host, previously incubated with the antibodies inhibited attachment of the mycoparasite. Implications of preferential localization of the antigen in the resistant host and its absence in the nonhost are described.

Isolation and partial characterization of host cell wall surface glycoproteins: their involvement in agglutination, attachment and appressorium formation by piptocephalis virginiana

Cell surface proteins obtained by alkaline extraction from isolated cell walls of Mortierella pusilla and M. candelabrum, host and nonhost, respectively, to the mycoparasite, Piptocephalis virginiana, were tested for their ability to agglutinate mycoparasite spores. The host cell wall protein extract had a high agglutinating activity (788 a.u. mg- t ) as compared with the nonhost extract (21 a.li. mg- t ). SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the cell wall proteins revealed four protein bands, a, b, c, and d (Mr 117, 100, 85 and 64 kd, respectively) at the host surface, but not at the nonhost surface, except for the faint band c. Deletion of proteins b or c from the host cell wall protein extract significantly reduced its agglutinating activity. Proteins band c, obtained as purified preparations by a series of procedures, were shown to be two glycoproteins. Carbohydrate analysis by gas chromatography demonstrated that glucose and Nacetylglucosamine were the major carbohydrate components of the glycoproteins. It was further shown that the agglutinating activity of the pure preparation containing both band c was 500-850 times that of the single glycoproteins, suggesting the involvement of both glycoproteins in agglutination. The results suggest that the glycoproteins band c are the two subunits of agglutinin present at the host cell surface. The two glycoproteins band c purified from the host cell wall protein extract were further examined after various treatments for their possible role in agglutination, attachment and appressorium formation by the mycoparasite. Results obtained by agglutination and attachment tests showed: (1) the two glycoprotein-s are not only an agglutinin responsible for the mycoparasite spore agglutination, but may also serve as a receptor for the specific recognition, attachment and appressorium formation by the mycoparasite; (2) treatment of the rnycoparasite spores with various sugars revealed that arabinose, glucose and N-acetylglucosamine inhibited the agglutination and attachment activity of the glycoproteins, however, the relative percentage of appressorium formation was not affected by the above sugars; (3) the two glycoproteins are relatively stable with respect to their agglutinin and receptor functions. The present results suggest that the agglutination and attachment may be mediated directly by certain sugars present at the host and mycoparasite cell surfaces while the appressorlum formation may be the response of complementary combinations of both sugar and protein, the two parts of the glycoproteins at the interacting surfaces of two fungi.

Attachment and alcohol : testing a motivational model of problem drinking /

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend a motivational model of problem drinking (Cooper, Frone, Russel, & Mudar, 1995; Read, Wood, Kahler, Maddock & Tibor, 2003), testing the notion that attachment is a common antecedent for both the affective and social paths to problem drinking. The model was tested with data from three samples, first-year university students (N=679), students about to graduate from university (N=206), and first-time clients at an addiction treatment facility (N=21 1). Participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, drinking motives, peer models of alcohol use, positive and negative affect, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. Results underscored the importance of the affective path to problem drinking, while putting the social path to problem drinking into question. While drinking to cope was most prominent among the clinical sample, coping motives served as a risk factor for problem drinking for both individuals identified as problem drinkers and university students. Moreover, drinking for enhancement purposes appeared to be the strongest overall predictor of alcohol use. Results of the present study also supported the notion that attachment anxiety and avoidance are antecedents for the affective path to problem drinking, such that those with higher levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance were more vulnerable to experiencing adverse consequences related to their drinking, explained in terms of diminished affect regulation. Evidence that nonsecure attachment is a potent predictor of problem drinking was also demonstrated by the finding that attachment anxiety was directly related to alcohol-related consequences over and above its indirect relationship through affect regulation. However, results failed to show that attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance increased the risk of problem drinking via social influence.

The Dynamic Interplay of Attachment and Temperament in Relation to Dimensions of Aggression

The current study examined whether overt and relational forms of reactive and proactive aggression were differentially related to adolescents’ temperament and attachment security. Measures of adolescents’ temperament, attachment security, and aggression were completed by 211 adolescents, ages 10–14, and their caregivers. Attachment security was consistently associated with all four dimensions of aggression, whereas proneness to frustration was found to be uniquely associated with reactive-overt aggression. Additionally, it was found that at lower levels of effortful control more secure attachment was related to lower levels of reactive-relational aggression. Results also indicated that, for girls, the relation between attachment and proactive-overt and proactive-relational aggression was only significant when effortful control was low. Conversely, for boys, the relation between attachment and proactive-overt aggression and proactive-relational aggression was significant when effortful control was high. Implications of these findings and limitations to the current study are discussed.

Liberation and Non-Attachment: Arjuna’s Fear in the Bhagavad-Gītā

This thesis takes liberation to be supreme knowledge of the unity underlying the world of multiplicity. This knowledge is always already attained, so all are eternally liberated, but it is unrecognized in ordinary experience. We will look at the Bhagavad-Gītā to consider why this is so. When Arjuna saw Kṛṣṇa’s imperishable Self, he saw all beings standing as one in Kṛṣṇa; thus, he was confronted by supreme knowledge. But he was overwhelmed with fear and confusion and took refuge in blindness. I argue that Arjuna was not prepared to face recognition because he was unpractised in non-attachment. Attached to his subjectivity, he trembled in the face of unity. The supreme goal is standing firm in recognition while living in the world.