The Impact of Major Earthquakes on Students' Emotional Distress and Internalizing Symptoms, Externalizing Behaviors, and Coping During the Implementation of keepin' it REAL-Mexico.

This article reports on effects of two earthquakes in Mexico on adolescents attending middle school. The earthquakes struck in close succession during the implementation of a school-based prevention program, providing an opportunity to assess emotional distress due to the earthquakes and whether the life skills taught in the program affected how students coped with the natural disaster. The objectives were to (1) evaluate the earthquakes' impact on students' distress; (2) assess if distress is associated with internalizing symptomology and externalizing behaviors; and (3) investigate if students receiving the original and adapted versions of the intervention coped better with the events. A Mexico-US research team culturally adapted keepin' it REAL to address connections between substance use among early adolescents in Mexico and exposure to violence. A random sample of public middle schools from three cities (Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey), stratified by whether they held morning or afternoon sessions, was selected. A total of 5522 7th grade students from 36 schools participated in the study. Students answered pretest and posttest questionnaires; the latter assessed earthquake-related distress and coping strategies. Earthquake-related distress was associated with all measures of undesired internalizing symptomology and externalizing behaviors. Compared to controls, students in the adapted intervention reported less aggressive and rule-breaking externalizing behavior and less violence perpetration. However, these intervention effects were not moderated by the level of earthquake-related distress, and they were not mediated by positive or negative coping. The findings have implications for prevention intervention research and policy as natural and human-made disasters occur more often.

Use of Violence as a Strategy of Early Adolescents for Rejecting Drug Offers in Mexican Cities.

Drug use and violence are two interconnected problems in violent urban contexts, leading to coercive drug offers. In this study, relationships between drug use, use of violence as a strategy for rejecting drug offers, and exposure to neighborhood violence were analyzed in Mexican students. Data were obtained through a self-report survey and focus groups with lower secondary students in three Mexican metropolitan areas. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that students who had used or would use violence as a strategy for rejecting drug offers presented a more problematic psychosocial profile, with exposure to neighborhood violence as the main predictor. These results suggest that Mexican students in violent cities may resort to violence as a strategy for rejecting drug offers.

El consumo de drogas y la violencia son dos problemas interconectados en contextos urbanos violentos y generan ofrecimientos de drogas coercitivos. En este estudio se analizaron las relaciones entre el consumo de drogas, el uso de violencia como una estrategia para resistir ofrecimientos de drogas y la exposición a violencia en el barrio entre estudiantes mexicanos. Se obtuvieron los datos mediante una encuesta de autoinforme y grupos de discusión centrada con estudiantes de educación secundaria en tres áreas metropolitanas de México. Tanto los resultados cuantitativos como los cualitativos indicaron que aquellos estudiantes que habían usado o usarían violencia como una estrategia para resistir ofrecimientos de drogas presentaban un perfil psicosocial más problemático, con la exposición a violencia en el barrio como el principal predictor. Estos resultados sugieren que los estudiantes mexicanos en ciudades violentas pueden recurrir a la violencia como una estrategia para resistir ofrecimientos de drogas.

The Feasibility, Acceptability, and Utility of Mantente REAL: the Culturally Adapted Version of keepin' it REAL for Mexico.

A binational team of investigators culturally adapted, implemented, and tested the efficacy in Mexico of keepin' it REAL, a US-designed prevention intervention for youth. This article reports on the social validity of the adapted intervention by assessing its feasibility, acceptability, and utility, as perceived by participating middle school students, teachers/implementers, and school administrators. Middle schools (N = 36) were randomly assigned to (1) the culturally adapted version for Mexico (Mantente REAL), (2) the original intervention from the USA (keepin' it REAL) translated into Spanish, or (3) a control condition (treatment as usual). Adult and child feedback about the adapted and original versions of the intervention indicate that both are feasible to implement in the Mexican context. Implementation fidelity was equally high for both versions of the manualized intervention. Students, however, were more satisfied with the culturally adapted version than with the non-adapted version. They reported gaining more knowledge, finding it more acceptable, applicable, and authentic, and they reported discussing the program with their family and friends more often. The findings support the feasibility of engaging classroom teachers to implement manualized prevention programs in Mexico. These findings also advance prevention science by documenting the importance of cultural adaptation as a means to increase students' identification with and acceptability of efficacious school-based interventions. The article discusses the practice, policy, and future prevention research implications of the findings for Mexico and their potential generalizability to other middle- and lower-income countries.

Cogniciones en el lado oscuro: desconexión moral, tríada oscura y conducta antisocial en adolescents / Cognitions on the dark side: Moral disengagement, dark triad and antisocial behavior in adolescents

Resumen En el marco de una tradición de investigación relativamente reciente, ciertos rasgos psicológicos relacionados con diversas conductas socialmente reprobables se han agrupado bajo la denominación de "Factor o lado oscuros de la personalidad". En este contexto, este trabajo estudia la varianza común que pudiera existir entre los tres componentes del constructo tríada oscura (maquiavelismo, narcisismo y psicopatía) y los procesos cognitivos constitutivos del constructo desconexión moral, en orden a relacionarlos con la conducta antisocial de una muestra de 800 adolescentes (M = 15.33, SD = .99; 50.1 % chicos). El análisis factorial exploratorio sugirió retener cuatro factores mediante el Análisis Paralelo de Horn. Estos factores se sometieron a una rotación bifactorial en el contexto exploratorio, y sus índices de ajuste fueron adecuados ꭓ² (1219.42, 737) = 1.65 p < .05; RMSEA = .03 (.01, .05 ); CFI = .98. El análisis factorial confirmatorio de este modelo bifactorial para representar el lado oscuro, obtuvo índices de ajuste óptimos ꭓ² (392.38, 150) = 2.61 p < .05; RMSEA = .04 (.04, .05); CFI = .95; y similar para chicos y chicas. El modelo de ecuaciones estructurales indicó que el "lado oscuro", entendido aquí como las características comunes de la tríada oscura y la desconexión moral, está directa e intensamente relacionado con conductas antisociales en chicas (β = .57, p < .001) y en chicos (β = .54, p < .001). Finalmente, se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados para la prevención de una amplia gama de conductas antisociales en adolescentes.

Abstract Within the context of a recent research tradition, certain psychological traits related to various socially reprehensible behaviors have been grouped under the name of "Dark Factor or dark side of personality." In this context, this paper studies the common variance that could exist between the three components of the Dark Triad construct (Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy) and the constituent cognitive processes of Moral Disengagement construct, in order to relate them to the antisocial behavior of a sample composed of 800 adolescents (M = 15.36, SD = .99; 50.1 % boys). Exploratory factor analysis suggested retaining four factors using Horn Parallel Analysis. These factors were subjected to a bifactorial rotation in the exploratory context, and their fit indices were adequate ꭓ² (1219.42, 737) = 1.65 p <.05; RMSEA = .03 (.01, .05); CFI = .98. The confirmatory factor analysis of this bifactorial model to represent the dark side obtained optimal fit indices ꭓ² (392.38, 150) = 2.61 p <.05; RMSEA = .04 (.04, .05); CFI = .95; similar for boys and girls. The results of the structural equation model indicated that the "dark side", understood here as the common characteristics of the Dark Triad and Moral Disengagement, is directly and intensely related to antisocial behaviors in girls (β = .57, p < .001) and boys (β = .54, p < .001). Finally, the implications of these results for the prevention of a wide range of antisocial behaviors in adolescents are discussed.