First Observation of the ß3αp Decay of

The ß-delayed proton decay of ^{13}O has previously been studied, but the direct observation of ß-delayed 3αp decay has not been reported. Rare 3αp events from the decay of excited states in ^{13}N^{⋆} provide a sensitive probe of cluster configurations in ^{13}N. To measure the low-energy products following ß-delayed 3αp decay, the Texas Active Target (TexAT) time projection chamber was employed using the one-at-a-time ß-delayed charged-particle spectroscopy technique at the Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University. A total of 1.9×10^{5} ^{13}O implantations were made inside the TexAT time projection chamber. A total of 149 3αp events were observed, yielding a ß-delayed 3αp branching ratio of 0.078(6)%. Four previously unknown α-decaying excited states were observed in ^{13}N at 11.3, 12.4, 13.1, and 13.7 MeV decaying via the 3α+p channel.

A mediational model of the impact of interparental conflict on child adjustment in a multiethnic, low-income sample.

Path analysis was used to determine whether the effects of interparental conflict on children's depression and conduct disorder are mediated by 3 dimensions of parenting: acceptance, inconsistent discipline, and hostile control. The study extends the literature by testing this mediational model with a low-income, predominantly ethnic minority sample of preadolescent children and by examining the effects of multiple dimensions of interparental conflict from the child's perspective. Results supported the mediational model when analyses were based on child's reports of all variables but not when mother's reports were used to assess child depression and conduct problems. Exploratory analyses revealed unique mediational paths associated with conflict frequency and resolution, which were examined along with intensity as distinct dimensions of interparental conflict.

Some thoughts about resilience versus positive development, main effects versus interactions, and the value of resilience.

Interaction effects are the defining feature of resilience and resilience research and are responsible for the unique contributions of this field of study to our understanding of human development. The methodological and statistical challenges posed by interaction effects do not, by themselves, undermine the value of resilience as a construct.

Do coping styles differ across sociocultural groups? The role of measurement equivalence in making this judgment.

Cross-sociocultural group measurement equivalency is an important issue that generally has not been studied in the coping literature. Measurement equivalency of the COPE (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) was assessed across two sociocultural groups, a sample of 100 Anglo middle-class divorced mothers and a sample of 122 low-income Mexican American/Mexican immigrant mothers. A series of restrictive confirmatory factor analyses revealed that seven of the COPE's subscales may be measuring the same underlying construct across populations. However, scores derived from the subscales may not represent the same magnitude of the construct in these two groups. This study makes an important first step in furthering the understanding of coping strategies in low-income Mexican American/Mexican immigrant mothers. This study also illustrates the importance of testing for measurement equivalency before conducting comparative research in disparate populations.

The relation of child sexual abuse and depression in young women: comparisons across four ethnic groups.

To investigate the relation of child sexual abuse to depression and whether this relation differed by ethnicity (African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and non-Hispanic whites), we surveyed 2,003 women between 18 and 22 years of age about family histories, sexual abuse, and depression. Reported rates of child sexual abuse were similar across ethnic groups; approximately one-third of each group reported some form of sexual abuse and about one-fifth of each ethnic group reported experiencing rape. After controlling for background characteristics identified as risk factors for both child sexual abuse and depression, severity of child sexual abuse was significantly related to depressive symptoms only for non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans. Child sexual abuse variables accounted for more variance in depression than background variables only for Mexican American women. Child physical abuse was the strongest predictor of adult depression and the only significant predictor for each ethnic group.

A dispositional and situational assessment of children's coping: testing alternative models of coping.

Dispositional and situational measures of children's coping were developed using a theoretically based approach. Two studies (N1 = 217; N2 = 303) assessed the psychometric characteristics of these measures in fourth- through sixth-grade children. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a four-factor model of dispositional coping (active, distraction, avoidant, and support seeking) provided a better fit to the data than either the problem- versus emotion-focused (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) or passive versus active (Billings & Moos, 1981) coping models. The four-factor model was largely invariant with respect to age and gender. Moderate to high correlations were found between the parallel subscales of the dispositional and situational measures of coping. Although the four factor structures of the dispositional and situational measures were generally similar, factor loadings and correlations between dimensions were not equivalent.

Family characteristics as mediators of the influence of problem drinking and multiple risk status on child mental health.

Structural equation modeling was used to test a theoretical model in which family cohesion and family reframing coping were hypothesized as mediators between family drinking problems, multiple risk factors, negative life events, and child mental health (conduct disorder, depression, anxiety) in two-parent families. Family cohesion mediated the relationships of family drinking problems and negative life events to child conduct disorder and depression. Negative life events mediated the relationships of family drinking problems and family multiple risk to child conduct disorder. Family reframing coping did not function as a mediator nor was it related to child mental health when other factors were considered simultaneously. Results indicate that increasing family cohesion and reducing sources of stress within the family (negative life events) represent promising areas of interventions for children with problem-drinking parents.

The role of stress and family relationships in mediating problem drinking and fathers' personal adjustment.

OBJECTIVE: To test a stress process model in which family stress (negative life events) and fathers' family system resources (marital adjustment and positive father-child relationships) were evaluated as mediators of the relationship between problem drinking (fathers' and mothers') and fathers' personal adjustment. METHOD: Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from fathers and mothers in 93 two-parent families with early adolescent children. RESULTS: Fathers' problem drinking contributed marginally to family stress and directly to fathers' diminished personal adjustment. Family stress was related to reduced marital adjustment and personal adjustment. Mothers' problem drinking contributed only to less positive father-child relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Stress process models for fathers and mothers differ; in particular, family relationships do not appear to play a significant mediational role for fathers whereas they do for mothers. Interventions for symptomatic fathers might best concentrate on alleviating problem drinking and extrafamilial sources of stress.

Evaluation of a preventive intervention for a self-selected subpopulation of children.

Evaluated an experimental preventive intervention developed for children who perceived their parents as problem drinkers. The 8-session program was designed to improve children's coping, self-esteem, and social competence, and modify alcohol expectancies which were specified as mediators of the effects of parental alcohol abuse on child mental health. Participants were 271 self-selected 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students in 13 schools. The children were randomly assigned to treatment or delayed treatment conditions and the program was given to three successive cohorts of students. A meta-analysis across three different cohorts indicated significant program effects to improve knowledge of the program content and the use of support- and emotion-focused coping behaviors for the full sample. A slightly stronger range of effects was found for a high-risk subsample.

An examination of the cross-ethnic equivalence of measures of negative life events and mental health among Hispanic and Anglo-American children.

Recently there has been concern over the need for mental health research within ethnic minority populations, particularly Hispanic populations. Although there has been research focusing upon the similarity of mental health problems among Hispanic and Anglo-American samples, the absence of information regarding the cross-ethnic measurement equivalence of the assessment tools used in these comparisons seriously limits the interpretability of these findings. The two reported studies were designed to (a) examine the cross-ethnic functional and scalar equivalence of several mental health measures by examining the interrelations of these mental health indicators and examining the regression equations using negative life events to predict mental health outcomes; and (b) compare several mental health indicators among Hispanic and Anglo-American 8- to 14-year-old children. Findings suggest considerable cross-ethnic functional and scalar equivalence for the measure of depression, conduct disorders, and negative life events. In addition, findings indicate that the Hispanic children scored higher in depression than did the Anglo-American children, but this difference could be a function of differences in SES. The reader is cautioned that the present samples included only English-speaking and primarily Mexican American children.

Socialization and family correlates of mental health outcomes among Hispanic and Anglo American children: consideration of cross-ethnic scalar equivalence.

Recently there has been concern over the need for developmental research within ethnic minority populations and interest in socialization and family variables within, and variability across, ethnic groups. This study reports analyses designed to: compare several socialization, family, and mental health variables among Hispanic and Anglo American 8-14-year-old children and mothers; examine the regression equations predicting mental health indicators with the socialization and family variables; and evaluate the cross-ethnic scalar equivalence of these socialization and family measures. The findings indicate that there are ethnic differences in several socialization and family variables; several of the socialization and family variables are related to the mental health variables, and these relations are very similar across ethnic groups; and the socialization and family measures appear to have sufficient cross-ethnic scalar equivalence for English-speaking, largely Mexican American Hispanic samples. Further, these findings suggest some caution regarding the use of the Child Depression Inventory in Hispanic samples.

Validity of children's reports of parental alcohol abuse.

Data from interviews with parents and 9-12 year old children from 303 families were used to test the validity of children's reports of parental alcoholism or problem drinking status. Children's responses to several single-item screening questions that had been used previously to identify children of alcoholics, as well as their responses to the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test for each parent, were compared to parents' alcoholism diagnosis and screening test scores. In general, children's responses correctly identified only a small portion of alcoholic parents and, when all screening items were combined into a single screening tool to increase sensitivity, the false positive rate became unreasonable for most applications. The screening items were better at identifying active alcoholics than abstaining alcoholics but were also better at identifying problem drinking parents than alcoholic parents. None of the screening options tested had optimal characteristics for use in research or intervention applications.

The cross-ethnic equivalence of parenting and family interaction measures among Hispanic and Anglo-American families.

Recently there has been concern over the need for developmental research within ethnic minority populations and interest in family processes within, and variability across, ethnic groups. Unfortunately, most of the research using standard scales of family processes has sampled middle-class Anglo-Americans, and the potential absence of cross-ethnic measurement equivalence threatens the validity of the research using these scales with ethnic minority populations. This study reports confirmatory factor analyses and construct validity coefficients for several parenting and family interaction scales among Anglo-American and Hispanic 8-14-year-old children and mothers. The findings indicate that the Children's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (except the hostile control subscale), the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (open communication subscale only), and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales II appear to have sufficient cross-ethnic equivalence for English-speaking Hispanic samples. Further, the Family Routines Inventory and the problem communication subscale could benefit from additional scale development.

Family characteristics of children who self-select into a prevention program for children of alcoholics.

Evaluated the efficacy of a self-selection recruitment process designed to attract fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children into a school-based prevention program for children of alcoholics. Participants were 296 families comprising one child and either one or both parents. Family members' self- and collateral reports were used to assess parental problem drinking, family characteristics, and individual pathology. Analyses revealed that the recruitment process was not effective in recruiting children of alcohol-abusing parents. Furthermore, families in which children received parental consent to participate in the prevention program were indistinguishable from families whose children either showed interest without obtaining consent or showed no interest at all. Implications for recruitment strategies for future prevention programs for children of alcoholics are discussed.

Interpreting children's reports of concern about parental drinking: indicators of risk status?

Examined several self-report items traditionally used to identify children of alcoholics for their utility in identifying mental health risk status. The meaning of children's responses to these items was also examined. Collectively, these items reflected children's concern about their parents' drinking. Across multiple studies, children who reported concern about parental drinking reported higher levels of psychological and behavioral problems. This pattern existed whether or not children had a problem-drinking parent. Discriminant analyses with data from child and mother reports showed that children who reported concern were from homes with greater stress, lower income, and less supportive mother-child relationships.

Children's self-selection into prevention programs: evaluation of an innovative recruitment strategy for children of alcoholics.

Systematically evaluated the efficacy of a self-selection strategy to recruit elementary-aged children into a school-based prevention program for children of alcoholics. Recruitment involved: a film about parental alcoholism, a follow-up meeting, and an invitation to participate in a prevention program. Of the 844 4th-6th graders exposed to recruitment, 67% showed no interest in the program, 26% attended the follow-up meeting, and 11% obtained parental permission. Analyses focused on group differences according to selection classification on measures of symptomatology and resources available to the child. Significant differences were noted on level of concern about parents' drinking, depression, conduct disorder, and self-worth. Children interested in the program tended to score higher on measures of symptomatology. The potential of a self-selection model for identifying children at risk and areas for future research are discussed.

The role of risk and protective factors in predicting symptomatology in adolescent self-identified children of alcoholic parents.

Tested a stress process model for predicting mental health symptoms in children of alcoholics (COAs). Stress and mental health measures were completed twice over a 3-month period by 145 high school students, 43 of whom self-identified as COAs. Using structural equation modeling, a stress process model for predicting mental health symptoms in children provided a good fit to the data. COA status was related to higher levels of negative and lower levels of positive events. In turn, positive and negative life events were found to have an immediate, but not a longitudinal, direct effect on adolescent symptomatology.

Measurement issues in family assessment: the case of the Family Environment Scale.

The internal consistency reliabilities of 5 subscales of the Family Environment Scale were re-examined in a study of 311 stressed and 74 control families. The reliability coefficients generated were lower than those originally reported for this instrument; most coefficients generated were below the acceptable level for practical or research use, and there was considerable variation in the reliabilities across type of stressed family. An attempt to generate more reliable scales using the original items was unsuccessful, and questions about the validity of the subscales were raised. Our results illustrate the importance of examining reliabilities of instruments, even well-known and widely used instruments, for each sample studied.