Long-term Effects of a Parenting Preventive Intervention on Young Adults' Attitudes Toward Divorce and Marriage.

This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting-focused preventive intervention designed to reduce children's post-divorce mental health problems, affected attitudes toward divorce and marriage in young adults whose mothers had participated 15 years earlier. Participants (M = 25.6 years; 50% female; 88% Caucasian) were from 240 families that had participated in a randomized experimental trial (NBP vs. literature control). Analyses of covariance showed that program effects on both types of attitudes were moderated by gender. Males in the NBP reported more positive attitudes toward marriage and less favorable attitudes toward divorce than males in the literature control.

Data-Driven Improvement in Prekindergarten Classrooms: Report From a Partnership in an Urban District.

In 2014-2015 and 2015-2016, a metropolitan school system in the southern United States embarked on a unique mission to improve the quality of its public prekindergarten programs through a partnership with a group of developmental researchers in an iterative, data-based venture. Data on 407 children in Year 1 and 433 in Year 2 (who were enrolled in 26 classrooms and extensively observed) are presented from the first 2 years of the ongoing partnership. All children were 4 years of age. Variability in classroom practices, measured empirically, and variability in child outcomes provided the means to examine the relations between children's gains in academic and social-emotional areas and major areas of classroom practices. Lessons learned, the eight identified significant practices, implications, and next steps in the partnership are addressed.

Characteristics of brief sticky mittens training that lead to increases in object exploration.

The onset of independent prehension marks the beginning of infants' direct interaction with the physical world. The success infants have in contacting objects with their hands and arms can have both visual and auditory consequences; objects may move and collide with other objects or fall onto table surfaces. Seeing and hearing these events could have important consequences for infants' learning about objects and their subsequent behavior toward objects. The current research assessed the effects of brief object manipulation experiences and how a specific characteristic of training, auditory feedback produced by hard plastic toys colliding with a tabletop surface, affects pre-reaching infants' subsequent object exploration. In Experiment 1, infants participated in either active "sticky" mittens training or passive "nonsticky" mittens training with a set of toys; before and after this experience, infants explored a teether. Results showed that infants participating in active training increased looking toward and sustained touching of the teether from pre- to post-training, whereas infants receiving passive training decreased their looking toward and touching of the teether following training. To investigate whether infants' exploration behaviors were related to the amount of auditory feedback produced by the objects during training, in Experiment 2 data were collected from infants who received active sticky mittens training that had either more or less auditory feedback potential. Results showed more robust increases in infants' exploratory activity from pre- to post-training in the more auditory feedback condition compared with infants' exploratory activity in the less auditory feedback condition. These findings support the idea that active control of objects, including experiencing contingent feedback through multiple sensory modalities, promotes the development of object exploration during early infancy.

Predicting sexual coercion in early adulthood: The transaction among maltreatment, gang affiliation, and adolescent socialization of coercive relationship norms.

This study tested a transactional hypothesis predicting early adult sexual coercion from family maltreatment, early adolescent gang affiliation, and socialization of adolescent friendships that support coercive relationship norms. The longitudinal study of a community sample of 998 11-year-olds was intensively assessed in early and middle adolescence and followed to 23-24 years of age. At age 16-17 youth were videotaped with a friend, and their interactions were coded for coercive relationship talk. Structural equation modeling revealed that maltreatment predicted gang affiliation during early adolescence. Both maltreatment and gang affiliation strongly predicted adolescent sexual promiscuity and coercive relationship norms with friends at age 16-17 years. Adolescent sexual promiscuity, however, did not predict sexual coercion in early adulthood. In contrast, higher levels of observed coercive relationship talk with a friend predicted sexual coercion in early adulthood for both males and females. These findings suggest that peers have a socialization function in the development of norms prognostic of sexual coercion, and the need to consider peers in the promotion of healthy relationships.

Very extensive nonmaternal care predicts mother-infant attachment disorganization: Convergent evidence from two samples.

We examined whether a maximum threshold of time spent in nonmaternal care exists, beyond which infants have an increased risk of forming a disorganized infant-mother attachment. The hours per week infants spent in nonmaternal care at 7-8 months were examined as a continuous measure and as a dichotomous threshold (over 40, 50 and 60 hr/week) to predict infant disorganization at 12-15 months. Two different samples (Austin and NICHD) were used to replicate findings and control for critical covariates: mothers' unresolved status and frightening behavior (assessed in the Austin sample, N = 125), quality of nonmaternal caregiving (assessed in the NICHD sample, N = 1,135), and family income and infant temperament (assessed in both samples). Only very extensive hours of nonmaternal care (over 60 hr/week) and mothers' frightening behavior independently predicted attachment disorganization. A polynomial logistic regression performed on the larger NICHD sample indicated that the risk of disorganized attachment exponentially increased after exceeding 60 hr/week. In addition, very extensive hours of nonmaternal care only predicted attachment disorganization after age 6 months (not prior). Findings suggest that during a sensitive period of attachment formation, infants who spend more than 60 hr/week in nonmaternal care may be at an increased risk of forming a disorganized attachment.

Coparenting Problems with Toddlers Predict Children's Symptoms of Psychological Problems at Age 7.

This study examined whether coparenting during toddlerhood predicts children's later symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, affective disorder, and somatic complaints. When children were 2 years old, 108 middle-class nonclinical families were observed in triadic interactions to assess two domains of dyadic coparenting (competitive and cooperative), as well as each parent's individual competitive behavior toward the spouse. Teachers and mothers reported children's symptoms of psychological problems at age 7. Independent of cooperative coparenting and each parents' individual harsh parenting, competitive coparenting predicted children's symptoms of ADHD and ODD. Interactions with child gender indicated that competitive coparenting predicted ADHD symptoms in boys (not in girls) and teacher-reported (not mother-reported) somatic complaints in girls (not in boys). ODD and ADHD symptoms were also predicted by fathers' (not mothers') individual competitive behaviors. The children of parents who were both low in competitive behaviors had the lowest teacher-rated symptoms of affective disorder.

Perspectives about COVID-19 vaccine boosters among the U.S. paralysis community.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: We sought to explore perspectives of the paralysis community about COVID-19 vaccine boosters. RESEARCH METHOD/DESIGN: Data were collected through an online survey with multiple choice and open-ended questions from adult persons with paralysis (PWP), persons with other disabilities, and other members of the paralysis community (Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Supporters, FS). PWP and persons with other disabilities were grouped into one group (persons with disabilities, PWD) for most analyses. Multiple choice questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were conducted to compare the PWD and FS groups; open-ended responses were coded using Hamilton's rapid assessment process. RESULTS: A total of 774 participants (740 PWD and 304 FS) responded to the survey. PWD were less likely to agree that they felt well-informed about boosters, that the boosters were safe, and that their state and federal governments provide transparent information about boosters. Of those who had not received a booster, PWP were less likely than the rest of the sample to plan to receive one. Both groups expressed similar concerns about the boosters, but distrust was a more common concern for PWD than for FS. Both groups expressed concerns about side effects and the boosters affecting a health condition, but PWP expressed concerns unique to paralysis and neurological difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: Although PWD shared concerns with the FS group, distrust is a larger issue and concerns unique to PWD that must be considered in public health efforts to ensure that the paralysis community is treated equitably. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Long-term effects of a parenting preventive intervention on young adults' painful feelings about divorce.

This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting preventive intervention for divorced mothers that was designed to reduce children's postdivorce mental health problems, reduced painful feelings about divorce in young adults whose families had participated 15 years earlier. This study also explored whether NBP participation reduced the relations between young adults' painful feelings about divorce and their concurrent internalizing, externalizing, and substance use problems. Participants (M = 25.6 years; 50% female; 88% Caucasian) were from 240 families that had been recruited into a randomized experimental trial (NBP vs. literature control). Data from the pretest and 15-year follow-up were used. NBP participants reported less feelings of seeing life through a filter of divorce (e.g., thinking about how the divorce causes continued struggles for them) than those in the control condition. Program effects on maternal blame and acceptance of the divorce were moderated by pretest risk, a composite of divorce-related stressors and externalizing problems. NBP participants with elevated risk at program entry had lower levels of maternal blame. Program participation was associated with higher acceptance for those with elevated risk at program entry but lower acceptance for those with low risk at program entry. Program participation decreased the relations between maternal blame, acceptance of the divorce and filter of divorce and some, but not all, of the adjustment outcomes. These findings suggest that programs designed to help families after divorce have benefits in terms of long-term feelings about parental divorce as well as their relations with adjustment problems. (PsycINFO Database Record

Corticosteroids in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a reappraisal.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common and most severe form of childhood muscular dystrophies, resulting in early loss of ambulation between the ages of 7 and 13 years and death in the teens and twenties. Despite the phenomenal advances made in the understanding of the molecular genetics of the disease, no definitive cure has been found. Of all of the therapeutic drugs studied in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, only prednisone seems to have the potential for providing interim functional improvement for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy while they wait for a cure with gene or cell therapy. There is still no consensus regarding recommending corticosteroids as standard therapy for boys. This is an evidence-based review of all of the studies of corticosteroids (prednisone, deflazacort, and oxandrolone) in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. From this review, it is clear that until a definitive treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy is available, the use of deflazacort and prednisone with judicious dietary control and close clinical monitoring for side effects seems the best intervention for interim preservation of function in such a common devastating disorder of young growing boys.