An investigation of the relationship between maltreatment and alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems in African -American and Hispanic adolescent girls

Maltreatment experienced in childhood or adolescence is a known risk factor for later problem alcohol and/or other drug (AOD) use (Bailey & McCloskey, 2005; Shin, Edwards, Heeren, 2009). A growing body of empirical work has found significant associations between adolescent girls’ AOD use and maltreatment experiences. However, questions remain as to how this relation unfolds with African-American and Hispanic adolescent girls. Guided by four relational models that have been proposed in the literature, this study examined the links between maltreatment, trauma symptoms, and alcohol and/or other drug (AOD) problems in a sample of 170 African-American and Hispanic adolescent girls who were participants in a school-based AOD use intervention. Results of this study revealed that maltreatment experiences (physical and emotional abuse) were positively related to trauma symptoms, which were positively related to AOD problem severity, alcohol abuse, alcohol dependency, drug abuse, and drug dependency. Perceived discrimination moderated this relation between sexual abuse and trauma symptoms, such that more perceived discrimination resulted in a stronger effect of sexual abuse on trauma symptoms. Ethnic identity moderated the relation between sexual abuse and AOD problem severity, such that ethnic identity demonstrated protective properties in the relation between sexual abuse and AOD problem severity. My research adds to extant knowledge on the relation between maltreatment and AOD use in adolescent girls and suggests the importance of developing interventions targeting maltreatment and AOD use concurrently.

Empowerment, social support, and self-esteem of parents involved in an elementary school program

Parent involvement (PI) in schooling has consistently been correlated with improved academic achievement in children. However, despite the apparent benefits of parent involvement, many schools serving low-income communities report consistent difficulty in facilitating the involvement of parents in their children's schooling. The purpose of this exploratory pilot study was to examine key variables associated with a PI program at a school that served a low-income community. The program was selected because it sustained the involvement of parents for a prolonged period of time. It was also selected because the program was facilitated by social workers. Derived from the literature, four lines of inquiry were examined: (a) the relationship between PI and parent strengths and development; (b) the relationship between PI and children's academic achievement; (c) facilitators for PI; and (d) barriers to PI. These lines of inquiry yielded the study's four primary research questions. The study employed a cross-sectional research design to address them. Thirty-three parents, representing 16 school-involved (SI) parents and 17 nonschool involved (NSI) parents, served as study participants. All 33 parents resided in a high poverty community. Quantitative methods were selected to examine differences between study participants and PI. Measures of parental empowerment, social support, self-esteem, and direct and indirect measures of their children's academic achievement were utilized. Qualitative methods were developed to identify and describe SI and NSI parents' perceptions of facilitators for and barriers to PI. This study's findings suggest that PI may yield important benefits for SI parents. These benefits include parents' perceptions of their empowerment, social support, and self-esteem. This study's findings also suggest a relationship between PI and reduced rates of children's school suspensions. This study did not, however, support relationships between PI and children's standardized test scores. This study concludes that despite the apparent benefits of PI for SI parents, PI may nonetheless be a proxy for several unspecified interventions that effect parents, children, schools and communities alike. More precise specifications and robust measures of PI are needed.

Childhood Attention Problems and the Development of Comorbid Symptoms at the Transition to High School: The Mediating Role of Parent and Peer Relationships

Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for the development of depression and delinquent behavior. Children and adolescents with ADHD also experience difficulty creating/maintaining high quality friendships and parent-child relationships, and these difficulties may contribute to the development of co-morbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence. However, there is limited research examining whether high quality friendships and parent-child relationships mediate the relation between ADHD and the emergence of these co-morbid symptoms at the transition to high school. This study examines the mediating role of relationship quality in the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms/delinquent behaviors at this developmentally significant transition point. Results revealed significant indirect effects of grade 6 attention problems on grade 9 depressive symptoms through friendship quality and quality of the mother-child relationship in grade 8. Interventions targeting parent and peer relationships may be valuable for youth with ADHD to promote successful transitions to high school.

An approach to emotion recognition in single-channel EEG signals: a mother child interaction

In this work, we perform a first approach to emotion recognition from EEG single channel signals extracted in four (4) mother-child dyads experiment in developmental psychology -- Single channel EEG signals are analyzed and processed using several window sizes by performing a statistical analysis over features in the time and frequency domains -- Finally, a neural network obtained an average accuracy rate of 99% of classification in two emotional states such as happiness and sadness

Developmental Neural Correlates of Social Interaction

Children develop in a sea of reciprocal social interaction, but their brain development is predominately studied in non-interactive contexts (e.g., viewing photographs of faces). This dissertation investigated how the developing brain supports social interaction. Specifically, novel paradigms were used to target two facets of social experience—social communication and social motivation—across three studies in children and adults. In Study 1, adults listened to short vignettes—which contained no social information—that they believed to be either prerecorded or presented over an audio-feed by a live social partner. Simply believing that speech was from a live social partner increased activation in the brain’s mentalizing network—a network involved in thinking about others’ thoughts. Study 2 extended this paradigm to middle childhood, a time of increasing social competence and social network complexity, as well as structural and functional social brain development. Results showed that, as in adults, regions of the mentalizing network were engaged by live speech. Taken together, these findings indicate that the mentalizing network may support the processing of interactive communicative cues across development. Given this established importance of social-interactive context, Study 3 examined children’s social motivation when they believed they were engaged in a computer-based chat with a peer. Children initiated interaction via sharing information about their likes and hobbies and received responses from the peer. Compared to a non-social control, in which children chatted with a computer, peer interaction increased activation in mentalizing regions and reward circuitry. Further, within mentalizing regions, responsivity to the peer increased with age. Thus, across all three studies, social cognitive regions associated with mentalizing supported real-time social interaction. In contrast, the specific social context appeared to influence both reward circuitry involvement and age-related changes in neural activity. Future studies should continue to examine how the brain supports interaction across varied real-world social contexts. In addition to illuminating typical development, understanding the neural bases of interaction will offer insight into social disabilities such as autism, where social difficulties are often most acute in interactive situations. Ultimately, to best capture human experience, social neuroscience ought to be embedded in the social world.

Resiliencia y desempeño organizacional

El cambio hoy se reconoce como el principal reto que enfrentan las empresas. Desde diversas ciencias como la biología, la psicología y la dirección se vienen estudiando las diferentes variables que tienen relación con los procesos de ajuste y adaptación que los individuos y las organizaciones desarrollan cuando disrupciones de diverso tipo se materializan en el entorno. En las últimas décadas se ha contemplado el estudio de la resiliencia como una característica que pueden desarrollar las organizaciones. Por ello, es un tema de estudio interesante, tanto desde los individuos como desde las organizaciones. Se revisan en este artículo los conceptos de resiliencia, resiliencia individual y organizacional, así como las relaciones que surgen entre dichos conceptos para explicar el desempeño organizacional.

Multicultural career counseling: Theoretical applications of the systems theory framework

Increasing recognition of cultural influences on career development requires expanded theoretical and practical perspectives. Theories of career development need to explicate views of culture and provide direction for career counseling with clients who are culturally diverse. The Systems Theory Framework (STF) is a theoretical foundation that accounts for systems of influence on people's career development, including individual, social, and environmental/societal contexts. The discussion provides a rationale for systemic approaches in multicultural career counseling and introduces the central theoretical tenets of the STF. Through applications of the STF, career counselors are challenged to expand their roles and levels of intervention in multicultural career counseling.

Who supports? The providers of social support to dual-parent families caring for young children

Previous research points to the importance of both kin and non-kin ties within social networks as sources of social support. This study examines the kin and non-kin providers of specific types of support to dual-parent low-income Australian families caring for young children. The study highlights the importance of family and friends as support providers. Study Participants tended to rely on family, including parents, siblings and other family members, and friends for emotional and information support. Parents also tended to provide material and practical support. While neighbors and community agencies offered some emotional and information support, overall, these sources were minimal. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Theory of mind and peer acceptance in preschool children

Two studies tested the hypothesis that preschool children's theory of mind ability is related to their levels of peer acceptance. In Study 1, 78 children between the ages of 4 and 6 provided peer nominations that allowed determination of social preference and social impact scores, and classification in one of five peer status groups (following Coie & Dodge, 1983). Children were also tested on five different theory of mind tasks. The results showed that theory of mind scores were significantly related to social preference scores in a subsample of children who were over 5 years old. Further, popular children were found to score higher on theory of mind tasks than children classified as rejected. Study 2 replicated and extended the first study with a new sample of 87 4- to 6-year-old children. Study 2 included measures of peer acceptance, theory of mind ability and verbal intelligence, as well as teacher ratings of prosocial and aggressive behaviours. The results of Study 2 showed that for the total group of children, prosocial behaviour was the best predictor of social preference scores. When the Study 2 sample was split into older and younger children, theory of mind ability was found to be the best predictor of social preference scores for the older children (over age 5), while aggressive and prosocial behaviours were the best predictors of peer acceptance in the younger children. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that the impact of theory of mind ability on peer acceptance is modest but increases with children's age.

Drawing insight from pictures: The development of concepts of false drawing and false belief in children with deafness, normal hearing, and autism

Theory-of-mind concepts in children with deafness, autism, and normal development (N = 154) were examined in three experiments using a set of standard inferential false-belief tasks and matched sets of tasks involving false drawings. Results of all three experiments replicated previously published findings by showing that primary school children with deafness or autism, aged 6 to 13 years, scored significantly lower than normal-developing 4-year-old preschoolers on standard misleading-container and unseen-change tests of false-belief understanding. Furthermore, deaf and autistic children generally scored higher on drawing-based tests than on corresponding standard tests and, on the most challenging of the false-drawing tests in Experiment 2, they significantly outperformed the normal-developing preschoolers by clearly understanding their own false intentions and another person's false beliefs about an actively misleading drawing. In Experiment 3, preschoolers; outperformed older deaf and autistic children on standard tasks, but did less well on a task that required the drawing of a false belief. Methodological factors could not fully explain the findings, but early social and conversational experiences in the family were deemed likely contributors.