Testing the effectiveness of the Developing Inclusive Youth program: A multisite randomized control trial.

The Developing Inclusive Youth program is a classroom-based, individually administered video tool that depicts peer-based social and racial exclusion, combined with teacher-led discussions. A multisite randomized control trial was implemented with 983 participants (502 females; 58.5% White, 41.5% Ethnic/racial minority; Mage  = 9.64 years) in 48 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classrooms across six schools. Children in the program were more likely to view interracial and same-race peer exclusion as wrong, associate positive traits with peers of different racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds, and report play with peers from diverse backgrounds than were children in the control group. Many approaches are necessary to achieve antiracism in schools. This intervention is one component of this goal for developmental science.

Children's group identity is related to their assessment of fair and unfair advantages.

Unfair advantages can be created either intentionally (e.g., cheating) or unintentionally (e.g., unintended benefit). Little is known regarding how children evaluate different types of advantages in situations where group identity and group membership are made salient. To investigate how children's group identity influences their evaluations and attribution of intentions in intergroup contexts, children were presented with three hypothetical advantages (unintentionally unfair, intentionally unfair, and fair) in a competitive context created by either an in-group member or an out-group member. Children (N = 120) were 4-6 years of age (n = 59; Mage = 5.29 years) and 7-10 years of age (n = 61; Mage = 8.34 years), including 64 girls and 56 boys. Participants were 67% European American, 18% African American, 11% Asian American, and 4% Hispanic. All participants were assigned to one of two teams in a contest in order to create an in-group/out-group manipulation prior to their evaluation of the actions. Out-group members viewed unintentional unfair and fair advantages as less acceptable than in-group members, but in-group and out-group members were equally negative in their assessment of an intentional transgression. When reasoning about unintentional and intentional unfair advantages, older children referenced the intentions of the advantage creator to justify their decisions more than younger children, whereas younger children reasoned about the impact of the behavior on their team more than older children. These novel findings shed light on developmental and social factors influencing children's understanding of fairness and intentionality in everyday contexts.

A Comparison of Dimensional and Categorical Approaches to Characterizing the Association Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Future Suicide Attempts.

The present study compared the utility of categorical (i.e., diagnostic status) and dimensional (i.e., symptom severity) approaches to measuring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in predicting future suicide attempts among participants in a nationwide, longitudinal study of U.S. military veterans who were deployed in support of operations in Iraq or Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (9/11) and were enrolled in Veterans Health Administration services (N = 1,649). Following an initial assessment of PTSD symptoms, we assessed for suicide attempts at two subsequent time points (M = 28.74 months, SD = 8.72 and M = 55.11 months, SD = 6.89 following the initial assessment). Between the initial and final assessments, 125 participants (7.58%) made at least one suicide attempt. All categorical and dimensional indicators of PTSD predicted suicide attempts at both time points except the categorical indicator for reexperiencing symptoms. Categorical indicators predicting suicide attempts demonstrated excellent sensitivity but poor specificity and overall accuracy. The point along the continuum at which PTSD symptom severity was most accurate regarding the prediction of future suicide attempts was well above the threshold previously established as indicating a probable diagnosis. Although this score was less sensitive than diagnostic indicators, it demonstrated greater specificity and overall accuracy in predicting future suicide attempts. The present results indicate that veterans whose PTSD symptoms satisfy the diagnostic criteria have a higher risk of future suicide attempts, but this risk appears to be even higher for veterans with symptom levels above the diagnostic threshold.