Trajectories of loneliness during childhood and adolescence: predictors and health outcomes.

The present study employed latent growth mixture modeling to discern distinct trajectories of loneliness using data collected at 2-year intervals from age 7-17 years (N = 586) and examine whether measures taken at age 5 years were good predictors of group membership. Four loneliness trajectory classes were identified: (1) low stable (37% of the sample), (2) moderate decliners (23%), (3) moderate increasers (18%), and (4) relatively high stable (22%). Predictors at age 5 years for the high stable trajectory were low trust beliefs, low trusting, low peer acceptance, parent reported negative reactivity, an internalizing attribution style, low self-worth, and passivity during observed play. The model also included outcome variables. We found that both the high stable and moderate increasing trajectories were associated with depressive symptoms, a higher frequency of visits to the doctor, and lower perceived general health at age 17. We discuss implications of findings for future empirical work.

Development of a Children's Trust in General Physicians Scale.

BACKGROUND: Researchers have developed scales assessing adults' trust beliefs in physicians and found that those are associated with measures of health behaviour and physical health. The purpose of the research was to develop a Children's Trust in General Physicians Scale (CTGPS) and examine its relation to health behaviour: adherence to medical regimes. METHODS: The participants were 128 children (68 girls and 60 boys) in Study 1 and 198 children (105 girls and 93 boys) in Study 2 who attended years 5 and 6 of elementary school in UK (mean ages = 10 years and 10 months and 10 years and 7 months respectively). The children completed the nine-item CTGPS and reported their trust in doctors and (in Study 2) adherence to medical regimes. Parents also reported those behaviours. RESULTS: Principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the CTGPS yielded the expected three factors: Honesty, Emotional and Reliability. The CTGPS had acceptable internal consistency and, as evidence for its validity, was associated with reported trust in doctors. The results from Study 2 confirmed that the CTGPS was associated with adherence to medical regimes. CONCLUSION: A CTGPS was developed that is associated with adherence to medical regimes.

Developmental differences in the understanding of and reaction to others' inhibition of emotional expression.

In Study 1,160 individuals from kindergarten (kd), 3rd, 6th, 9th, and college grades were presented story protagonists who facially expressed or did not express sadness/fear when encountering events that likely caused (relevant-inhibitory cause) or did not cause (irrelevant cause) the inhibition of the expression of emotion. In Study 2, 108 kd, 3rd-, and 6th-grade children viewed peers engaging in real interactions similar to the stories. In both studies, kindergartners judged that relevant-inhibitory causes decreased a peer's emotions. Older individuals displayed an understanding of the inhibition of emotional expression by ascribing greater emotion to the peer under relevant-inhibitory than irrelevant causal conditions. In Study 2, age differences in children's search for social information and prosocial behavior paralleled judgments of emotion.

Dietary restraint, attributional styles for eating, and preloading effects.

A total of 319 undergraduates completed the Restraint Scale and an Eating Attributional Style Questionnaire (EASQ). Subsequently, 101 female students participated in the classic preloading experiment. The results indicated that restrained eating was associated with an external locus of control attribution style, particularly for indulgent food consumption (ELCifc). Partial preloading effects for Restraint were found: The amount consumed increased as a function of Restraint in the preload condition. A more complete pattern of preloading was found for the ELCifc attribution style. In addition, the relationship between Restraint and food consumed in the preload condition was no longer significant with the ELCifc attribution style partialled out. The findings supported the hypotheses that: (a) restrained eaters display an external attribution style of learned helplessness and (b) related cognitions serve as a cause of preloading effects.

Development of children's restrictive disclosure to friends.

Sixty preschool children, 60 peer friends, and 60 peer nonfriends (mean age = 4 years, ranging from 2 years 8 months to 6 years old) were engaged in conversations on topics varying in personal content. The findings indicate that restrictive disclosure to friends developed across the preschool period. Older preschool children (4 to 5 years old) displayed the restrictive disclosure to friend pattern; they provided more high-personal disclosures in conversations with friends than with nonfriends, while not differentially providing low-personal disclosures in conversations with the two types of peers. Younger preschool children (2 to 3 years old) displayed the opposite pattern; they provided more low-personal disclosures in conversations with friends than with nonfriends, while not differentially providing high-personal disclosures in conversations with the two types of peers. The potential causes and consequences of the development of restrictive disclosure to friends during the preschool period are discussed.

Development of the reciprocity of self-disclosure.

This study was designed to assess whether children demonstrate covariant and equivalent forms of the reciprocity of self-disclosure, and if so, at what age. Twenty-one kindergarten, 23 second-grade, 24 fourth-grade, and 24 sixth-grade children were shown videotapes of three children (partners) who provided pre-established low-, medium-, and high-intimate disclosures. The subjects were required to send a message to the partners on topics varying in personal content. Fourth-grade children showed evidence of covariant reciprocity of self-disclosure by disclosing higher intimacy to high-intimate partners than to low-intimate partners. Sixth-grade children showed equivalent reciprocity of self-disclosure by providing a greater number of high- and medium-intimate disclosures to high- and medium-intimate partners, respectively, than to low-intimate partners. By contrast, neither form of reciprocity of self-disclosure was shown by kindergarten and second-grade children. Consistent with our expectations, girls provided a greater number of high-intimate disclosures than did boys in three of the four grades. The findings are discussed in terms of interplay between the development of the reciprocity of self-disclosure and the norm of the reciprocity of self-disclosure.

Racially based trust expectancies of Native American and Caucasian children.

Native American and Caucasian children attending fourth or fifth grade in same-race or mixed-race Canadian schools judged themselves and the other group with respect to trust. As hypothesized, the children displayed same-race trust expectancies: Native American children expected a Caucasian child to be less likely to keep promises, keep secrets, and tell the truth than a Native American child. The Caucasian children displayed the opposite pattern of expectancies. The same-race pattern of trust was less evident in mixed-race schools than in same-race schools but, consistent with the behavioral disconfirmation hypothesis, only for expectancies of promise keeping.

Stigmatization of social and intimacy loneliness.

82 female and 62 male college students judged the psychosocial functioning and acceptability of hypothetical peers that depicted 2 Levels of Loneliness (Lonely versus Nonlonely) x 2 Domains of Loneliness (Social versus Intimacy). Analysis indicated the students stigmatized both social and intimacy loneliness; they ascribed lower psychosocial functioning to and were less accepting of the lonely than nonlonely peer for both the social and intimacy domains of loneliness. The students, however, displayed greater differentiation in the ascription of psychosocial functioning between the lonely and nonlonely peers for the intimacy than the social domain of loneliness.

A measure of the trust beliefs of elderly individuals.

Rotter's trust scale was modified for use as a measure of trust beliefs of elderly individuals. Analyses of 140 elderly individuals' responses on the scale yielded support for its internal consistency, reliability and validity. As evidence for the latter, the scale was correlated with peer sociometric ratings of trusting. Factor analyses revealed that the trust scale was composed of four factors: 1) dependability of social-legal organizations; 2) fear of being cheated; 3) dependability of specific social groups to fulfill their promises; and 4) adherence to trustworthy ideals within society. A complex relationship was found between trust and income; income correlated positively with the total score and both the first and second trust factors, but negatively correlated with the third factor. This was attributed to the tendency of elderly individuals with low income to place their trust in specific groups rather than social-legal organizations, and to their fear of crime. A curvilinear shift with age was found in the first trust factor and was attributed to post-retirement experiences in middle-old age and a form of generativity in very old age.

Social interaction and depression in elderly individuals.

Forty-two elderly individuals received partial or complete testing on: (a) the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale; (b) frequency of social interaction (quantity of social interaction); and (c) round-robin reports of disclosures among peers, that yielded whether the persons had reciprocally intimate relationships (quality of social interaction). It was found that depression was: (a) negatively correlated with the measure of the quantity of social interaction entailing frequent conversations; and (b) contrary to expectation, positively correlated with having reciprocally intimate relationships. Also, the individuals' intimacy of disclosure to peers was not correlated with the intimacy of disclosure received from them; indicating a lack of reciprocity of self-disclosure. The findings were interpreted as showing that depression in elderly individuals is negatively related to having peers to "talk to" frequently, but positively related to having reciprocal exchanges of negative communications.

Loneliness, dysphoria, dietary restraint, and eating behavior.

The study was designed to examine Herman and Polivy's restrained eating theory (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84, 666-672, 1975) using two different methods: situational-experimental and dispositional-correlational. Fifty-eight female college students were administered the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory (Short Form), and the Restraint scale. Subsequently, the students were subjected to either a neutral, sad, or loneliness mood induction and then ate cookies under the pretext of participating in a taste test. Consistent with expectation, dieters tended to consume more food in the loneliness than neutral mood condition, whereas nondieters displayed the opposite pattern. A comparable pattern was found in the relation between the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and food consumption with respect to Restraint; the amount of food consumed increased as a function of loneliness for high restrained eaters, whereas the amount of food consumed decreased as a function of loneliness for low restrained eaters. There were no appreciable effects of the sad mood induction, nor prediction by dispositional depression, regarding the amount of food consumed as a function of dietary restraint. The findings were discussed with respect to the motivational role that loneliness may play in inhibiting and disinhibiting food consumption.

Children's use of a verbal-nonverbal consistency principle to infer truth and lying.

Children's use of a verbal-nonverbal consistency principle to infer truth and lying was investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, kindergarten (5-year-olds), second- (7-year-olds), and fourth-grade (9-year-olds) children judged the truthfulness of stimulus persons whose verbal communication and nonverbal communication varied in valence (positive, neutral, and negative). In Experiment 2, children from the same 3 grades were presented part of the verbal communications on audiotape and a similar set of general verbal communications. They were asked to predict what facial expression the speaker would show if he or she was telling the truth or lying. The findings yielded by both experiments indicated that the use of the verbal-nonverbal consistency principle increased with age. Use of that principle was demonstrated by fourth grade children who judged that telling the truth, as opposed to lying, was shown by a consistency between the affective valence of the verbal and the nonverbal communications.