Parenting Style Dimensions As Predictors of Adolescent Antisocial Behavior.

Antisocial behavior is strongly associated with academic failure in adolescence. There is a solid body of evidence that points to parenting style as one of its main predictors. The objective of this work is to elaborate a reduced, valid, and reliable version of the questionnaire by Oliva et al. (2007) to evaluate the dimensions of parenting style and to analyze its psychometric properties in a sample of Spanish adolescents. To that end, the designed questionnaire was applied to 1974 adolescents 12-18 years of age from Asturias (Spain). Regarding construct validity, the results show that the model that best represents the data is composed of six dimensions of parenting style, just as in the original scale, namely affection and communication; promotion of autonomy; behavioral control; psychological control; self-disclosure; and humor. The psychological control factor negatively correlates with the other factors, with the exception of behavioral control, with which it positively correlates. The remaining correlations among the factors in the parenting style questionnaire are positive. Regarding internal consistency, the reliability analysis for each factor supports the suitability of this six-factor model. With regard to criterion validity, as expected based on the evidence available, the six dimensions of parenting style correlate in a statistically significant manner with the three antisocial behavior measures used as criteria (off-line school aggression, antisocial behavior, and antisocial friendships). Specifically, all dimensions negatively correlate with the three variables, except for psychological control. In the latter case, the correlation is positive. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Validity and reliability of the Cyber-aggression Questionnaire for Adolescents (CYBA) / Validez y fiabilidad del Cuestionario de Ciberagresión para Adolescentes (CYBA)

Cybercrime is a growing and worrisome problem, particularly when it involves minors. Cyber-aggression among adolescents in particular can result in negative legal and psychological consequences for people involved. Therefore, it is important to have instruments to detect these incidents early and understand the problem to propose effective measures for prevention and treatment. This paper aims to design a new self-report, the Cyber-Aggression Questionnaire for Adolescents (CYBA), to evaluate the extent to which the respondent conducts aggressions through a mobile phone or the internet and analyse the factorial and criterion validity and reliability of their scores in a sample of adolescents from Asturias, Spain. The CYBA was administered to 3,148 youth aged between 12 and 18 years old along with three self-reports to measure aggression at school, impulsivity, and empathy. Regarding factorial validity, the model that best represents the structure of the CYBA consists of three factors (Impersonation, Visual-sexual Cyber-aggression, and Verbal Cyber-aggression and Exclusion) and four additional indicators of Visual Cyber-aggression-Teasing/Happy Slapping. Regarding criterion validity, the score on the CYBA correlates positively with aggression at school and impulsivity and negatively with empathy. That is the way cyber-aggression correlates with these three variables, according to previous empirical evidence. The reliability of the scores on each item and factor of the CYBA are adequate. Therefore, the CYBA offers a valid and reliable measure of cyber-aggression in adolescents (AU)

Los ciberdelitos constituyen un problema creciente y preocupante, sobre todo si están involucrados menores. Las ciberagresiones en adolescentes, en concreto, pueden generar consecuencias legales y psicológicas muy negativas para los implicados. Es importante, por tanto, disponer de instrumentos que permitan detectar precozmente estos hechos, así como comprender el problema de cara a plantear medidas eficaces para su prevención y tratamiento. El objetivo de este trabajo es diseñar un nuevo autoinforme, denominado Cuestionario de Ciberagresión para Adolescentes (CYBA), para evaluar en qué medida el informante ejerce agresiones a través del teléfono móvil o Internet y analizar la validez factorial y de criterio y la fiabilidad de sus puntuaciones en una muestra de adolescentes de Asturias (España). Para ello, se aplicó el CYBA a 3.148 jóvenes de 12 a 18 años, junto con tres autoinformes para medir agresión escolar offline, impulsividad y empatía. Respecto a la validez factorial, el modelo que mejor representa la estructura del CYBA es el compuesto por tres factores (suplantación, ciberagresión visual-sexual y ciberagresión verbal/exclusión) y otros cuatro indicadores de ciberagresión visual-burlas/happy slapping. Respecto a la validez de criterio, la puntuación en el CYBA correlaciona de manera positiva con agresión escolar offline e impulsividad y negativa con empatía, tres variables con las que la evidencia empírica previa indica que correlaciona la ciberagresión. La fiabilidad de las puntuaciones en cada ítem y factor del CYBA son adecuadas. Por todo ello, se concluye que el CYBA ofrece una medida válida y fiable de ciberagresión en adolescentes (AU)

Electrophysiological evidence for a natural/artifactual dissociation.

The aim of this work was to test whether the differences usually found between the processing of visual stimuli corresponding to natural and artifactual domains reflect the different ways in which these domains are organized in the brain or are rather due to varying tasks demands. For this purpose, we designed two tasks in which subjects had to classify a series of line drawings. In one task (semantic categorization), the subjects were asked to categorize the stimuli as corresponding either to the natural or the artifactual class, and in the other (gender decision), the subjects had to decide if the names of the stimuli corresponded to either the masculine or the feminine gender. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and reactions times (RTs) were registered during the two tasks. We found both quantitative and topographical differences between ERPs elicited by natural stimuli and those by artifactual stimuli. In the 50- to 200-ms period, ERPs were more positive for the natural stimuli in the categorization task, but more positive for the artifactual stimuli in the gender decision task. In addition, natural stimuli elicited larger P600 and were associated with shorter RTs than artifactual stimuli in the categorization task. These results likely reflect differences concerning the relative difficulty of processing the stimuli of each domain in each task. In the N400 range, in contrast, there were differences between the two domains which were independent of task. In the two tasks, natural and artifactual stimuli elicited ERPs with a different scalp distribution: ERPs were more positive at posterior (parietal and temporal) sites for the natural stimuli and in the frontal areas for the artifactual ones. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that semantic knowledge associated with natural and artifactual domains is represented in separate subsystems with presumably different anatomical bases.