Comparisons of Types of Exposure to Violence Within and Across Contexts in Predicting the Perpetration of Dating Aggression

It is widely accepted that adolescents exposed to violence are more likely to become perpetrators of dating aggression. However, it remains unclear whether the effects of exposure to violence on later perpetration of dating aggression vary based on the nature of the violence exposure (e.g., witnessing versus being a victim) and the contexts of exposure to violence. Thus, the relationships between two types of exposure to violence (witnessing and victimization) in early adolescence and perpetrating dating aggression in late adolescence were compared within and across three social contexts: the home, the community, and the school. Participants included 484 youth (51% females; 81% African–Americans, 18% European–Americans, 1% Hispanic or Other). Information on exposure to violence were collected at Waves 1 and 2 during early adolescence (Wave 1: M = 11.8 years old; Wave 2: M = 13.2 years old) and dating aggression data were collected during late adolescence (Wave 3: M = 18.0 years old). The results showed that across all contexts witnessing violence was a more consistent predictor of later dating aggression relative to victimization. Being exposed to violence in the home either via observation or victimization was a stronger predictor of physical dating aggression and threatening behaviors compared to being exposed to violence in the school. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the roles of various forms of exposure to violence during early adolescence in perpetrating dating aggression later in the life course

Peer Rejection and Friendships in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Contributions to Long-Term Outcomes

Even after evidence-based treatment, Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with poor long-term outcomes. These outcomes may be partly explained by difficulties in peer functioning, which are common among children with ADHD and which do not respond optimally to standard ADHD treatments. We examined whether peer rejection and lack of dyadic friendships experienced by children with ADHD after treatment contribute to long-term emotional and behavioral problems and global impairment, and whether having a reciprocal friend buffers the negative effects of peer rejection. Children with Combined type ADHD (N0300) enrolled in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) were followed for 8 years. Peer rejection and dyadic friendships were measured with sociometric assessments after the active treatment period (14 or 24 months after baseline; M ages 9.7 and 10.5 years, respectively). Outcomes included delinquency, depression, anxiety, substance use, and general impairment at 6 and 8 years after baseline (Mean ages 14.9 and 16.8 years, respectively). With inclusion of key covariates, including demographics, symptoms ofADHD, ODD, and CD, and level of the outcome variable at 24 months, peer rejection predicted cigarette smoking, delinquency, anxiety, and global impairment at 6 years and global impairment at 8 years after baseline. Having a reciprocal friend was not, however, uniquely predictive of any outcomes and did not reduce the negative effects of peer rejection. Evaluating and addressing peer rejection in treatment planning may be necessary to improve long-term outcomes in children with ADHD

The relationship between pain severity and alcohol use among school-aged children and adolescents : the moderating role of drinking motives

Objective. Evidence from adult samples suggests a co-occurrence between pain and alcohol abuse. However, studies in adolescents are scarce and results are inconsistent, with some studies observing heightened and others observing reduced alcohol consumption in adolescents suffering from pain. We hypothesized that in adolescents the association between pain and alcohol use will be moderated by drinking motives. Methods. Data from a large representative sample of Flemish school children and adolescents (N = 10,650, 50.8% boys, age range = 10-21 years, M-age = 514.33 years) were collected as part of the World Health Organization collaborative Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey. Pain severity was graded based on a pediatric pain classification system that accounts for both pain intensity and disability. Alcohol consumption was operationalized using two variables: frequency of drinking and drunkenness. The Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised was used to capture drinking motives; it assesses four motive categories (enhancement, coping, social, and conformity). Results. Findings indicated that higher pain severity was associated with greater frequency of alcohol use and drunkenness. However, drinking motives moderated this association. The positive association between pain severity and drinking frequency was stronger in case of high conformity motives. Likewise, the association between pain severity and drunkenness frequency was stronger at high levels of conformity motives and reached significance only at high levels of coping motives. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that specific drinking motives are linked to problematic alcohol use in adolescents with pain. Future studies using a longitudinal design are needed to draw conclusions about direction of effects

Discriminating Between Children With ADHD and Classmates Using Peer Variables

Objective: Impaired peer relationships have long been recognized as one of the major functional problems of children with ADHD, but no specific guidelines on clinical levels of impairment in this domain exist. Method: This study used Receiver Operating Characteristics methodology to determine what aspects of peer functioning best discriminate between children with ADHD and their classmates. Optimal cutoffs indicative of clinical levels of impairment associated with ADHD diagnosis were determined for all variables. The participants were 165 children with AD/HD who were part of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD and their 1,298 classmates. Results: Variables that best discriminated between children with ADHD and their classmates included peer rejection and negative imbalance between given and received liking ratings (i.e., children with ADHD liked others more than they were liked). Conclusion: Peer rejection and negative imbalance show most promise for identifying clinically significant levels of peer relationship impairment in children with ADHD. (J. of Att. Dis. 2009; 12(4) 372-380)

Sex-Related Differences in Violence Exposure, Neural Reactivity to Threat, and Mental Health

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, and amygdala play an important role in emotional health. However, adverse life events (e.g., violence exposure) affect the function of these brain regions, which may lead to disorders such as depression and anxiety. Depression and anxiety disproportionately affect women compared to men, and this disparity may reflect sex differences in the neural processes that underlie emotion expression and regulation. The present study investigated sex differences in the relationship between violence exposure and the neural processes that underlie emotion regulation. In the present study, 200 participants completed a Pavlovian fear conditioning procedure in which cued and non-cued threats (i.e., unconditioned stimuli) were presented during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Violence exposure was previously assessed at four separate time points when participants were 11-19 years of age. Significant threat type (cued versus non-cued) × sex and sex × violence exposure interactions were observed. Specifically, women and men differed in amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus reactivity to cued versus non-cued threat. Further, dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) reactivity to threat varied positively with violence exposure among women, but not men. Similarly, threat-elicited skin conductance responses varied positively with violence exposure among women. Finally, women reported greater depression and anxiety symptoms than men. These findings suggest that sex differences in threat-related brain and psychophysiological activity may have implications for mental health

Racial disparities in fifth-grade sun protection: Evidence from the Healthy Passages study

Background/Objectives: Despite rising skin cancer rates in children, multiple studies reveal inadequate youth sun-protective behavior (eg, sunscreen use). Using Healthy Passages data for fifth-graders, we set out to determine sunscreen adherence in these children and investigated factors related to sunscreen performance. Methods: Survey data were collected from 5119 fifth-graders and their primary caregivers. Logistic regression was used to assess associations between sunscreen adherence and performance of other preventive health behaviors (eg, flossing, helmet use) and examine predictors of sunscreen adherence. Analyses were repeated in non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white subgroups. Results: Five thousand one hundred nineteen (23.4%) children almost always used sunscreen, 5.9% of non-Hispanic blacks (n = 1748), 23.7% of Hispanics (n = 1802), and 44.8% of non-Hispanic whites (n = 1249). Performing other preventive health behaviors was associated with higher odds of sunscreen adherence (all P \u3c.001), with the greatest association with flossing teeth (odds ratio = 2.41, 95% confidence interval = 1.86-3.13, P \u3c.001). Factors for lower odds of sunscreen adherence included being male and non-Hispanic black or Hispanic and having lower socioeconomic status. School-based sun-safety education and involvement in team sports were not significant factors. Conclusion: Our data confirm low use of sun protection among fifth-graders. Future research should explore how public health success in increasing prevalence of other preventive health behaviors may be applied to enhance sun protection messages. Identifying risk factors for poor adherence enables providers to target patients who need more education. Improving educational policies and content in schools may be an effective way to address sun safety

Peer-Assessed Outcomes in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Peer-assessed outcomes were examined at the end of treatment (14 months after study entry) for 285 children (226 boys, 59 girls) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were rated by their classmates (2,232 classmates total) using peer sociometric procedures. All children with ADHD were participants in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). Treatment groups were compared using the orthogonal treatment contrasts that accounted for the largest amount of variance in prior MTA outcome analyses: Medication Management + Combined Treatment versus Behavior Therapy + Community Care; Medication Management versus Combined Treatment; Behavior Therapy versus Community Care. There was little evidence of superiority of any of the treatments for the peer-assessed outcomes studied, although the limited evidence that emerged favored treatments involving medication management. Post hoc analyses were used to examine whether any of the four treatment groups yielded normalized peer relationships relative to randomly selected- classmates. Results indicated that children from all groups remained significantly impaired in their peer relationships

Other-Sex Friendships in Late Adolescence: Risky Associations for Substance Use and Sexual Debut?

Adolescents’ friendships with other-sex peers serve important developmental functions, but they may also facilitate engagement in problem behavior. This study examines the unique contributions of other-sex friendships and friends’ behavior to alcohol use, smoking, and initiation of sexual intercourse among late adolescent girls and boys. A total of 320 adolescents (53% girls; 33% racial/ethnic minorities) provided sociometric nominations of friendships annually in grades 10–12. Friendship networks were derived using social network analysis in each grade. Adolescents and their friends also reported on their alcohol use, smoking, and sexual debut at each assessment. After controlling for demographics, previous problem behavior, and friends’ behavior, other-sex friendships in 10th grade were associated with initiation of smoking among girls over the following year, and other-sex friendships in 11th grade were linked with lower levels of subsequent alcohol use among boys. Additionally, friends’ smoking and sexual experience in 10th grade predicted the same behaviors for all adolescents over the following year. Other-sex friendships thus appear to serve as a risk context for adolescent girls’ smoking and a protective context for adolescent boys’ drinking. Promoting mixed-gender activities and friendships among older high school students may be helpful in reducing males’ alcohol use, but may need to incorporate additional components to prevent increases in females’ smoking

Impression formation and modifiability in children

The goal of the present study was to examine how young children form impressions of peers with implications for understanding and ameliorating peer rejection. We focused on four questions: whether young children make dispositional attributions from observed behavior; how children combine complex behavioral information into a coherent evaluation; how other traits are inferred; and how modifiable are existing impressions. The participants were 51 kindergarteners, 53 second graders, and 104 college students. All subjects watched videoclips of a same-sex child actor performing three mean or kind behaviors, three smart or not smart behaviors, and three shy or not shy behaviors. Two of the three behavioral dimensions had the same valence given by a valence condition while the third dimension had opposite valence. Some subjects also had prior expectancies of one trait of predominant valence. We hypothesized that in the expectancy condition, only the expected trait will be represented in memory, while all three traits will be represented if there is no expectancy. After providing ratings of how much they liked the actor and how various traits described him or her, two more video clips of the same actor were presented. These new behaviors were incongruent in valence with the expected trait or, in the no-expectancy condition, with one of the traits with predominant valence. Ratings of liking and the same personality traits were then collected again. The results showed that expectancy did not suppress the encoding of the unexpected traits but it made the ratings of the expected trait more extreme. Importantly, all age groups made dispositional attributions of all three presented traits that accurately reflected the valence of the observed behaviors, although 5-6 year-olds gave less negative ratings to traits with negative valence. The global evaluation of the actor was predicted by all presented trait ratings, and was evaluatively consistent with the inferred trait ratings. The presentation of incongruent behaviors resulted in substantial modifications of all impressions that had predominant valence. Kindergarteners modified their ratings the least, especially if their impressions were positive. Implications for understanding peer rejection are discussed

Impression Formation and Modifiability: Testing a Theoretical Model

This study proposed and tested a developmental model of impression formation based on observed behavior, prior expectancies, and additional incongruent information. Participants were 51 kindergartners, 53 second graders, and 104 college students who provided trait and liking judgments after watching a child actor engage in behaviors from three behavioral dimensions. Reaction times of judgments were also measured. Results showed that all age groups made dispositional attributions for all three presented traits. Nevertheless, young children had some difficulty conceiving of others as possessing both positive and negative attributes and provided less negative judgments. Prior expectancy strengthened judgments of the expected trait but did not suppress encoding of other traits. Judgments of likability were most strongly influenced by prosocialantisocial behavior. Unlike prosocial and smart behavior, shyness influenced only adults’ liking of the actor. Additional incongruent behaviors produced a substantial modification of impressions in all groups except for kindergartners who held positive impressions