Copyright (c) 2009 University of Nebraska - Lincoln All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub Recent documents in Faculty Publications, Department of Psychology en-us Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:31:14 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/404 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/404 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:48:13 PDT As courts often rely on clinicians when differentiating between sexually abusive youth at a low versus high risk of reoffense, understanding factors that contribute to accuracy in assessment of risk is imperative. The present study built on existing research by examining (1) the accuracy of clinical judgments of risk made after completing risk assessment instruments, (2) whether instrument- informed clinical judgments made with a high degree of confidence are associated with greater accuracy, and (3) the risk assessment instruments and subscales most predictive of clinical judgments. Raters assessed each youth's (n = 166) risk of reoffending after completing the SAVRY and J-SOAP-II. Raters were not able to predict detected cases of either sexual recidivism or nonsexual violent recidivism above chance, and a high degree of rater confidence was not associated with higher levels of accuracy. Total scores on the J-SOAP-II were predictive of instrument-informed clinical judgments of sexual risk, and total scores on the SAVRY of nonsexual risk. Natasha Elkovitch http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/403 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/403 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:37:57 PDT entific community. While a heterogeneous group, children with sexual behavior problems consistently demonstrate a number of problems related to adjustment and overall development. In order to appropriately intervene with these children, a comprehensive understanding of etiology is imperative. The overarching goal of the present paper is to review the extant research on mechanisms associated with the development of problematic sexual behavior in childhood within a developmental psychopathology framework. What is known about normative and nonnormative sexual behavior in childhood is reviewed, highlighting definitional challenges and age-related developmental differences. Further, the relationship between child sexual abuse and child sexual behavior problems is discussed, drawing attention to factors impacting this relationship. Risk factors for child sexual behavior problems, beyond that of sexual abuse, are also reviewed utilizing a transactional-ecological framework. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of implications of a developmental psychopathology perspective on problematic child sexual behaviors to inform future research and intervention efforts. Such implications include the need for attention to normative childhood sexual behavior, developmental sensitivity, and examinations of ecological domain in concert. Natasha Elkovitch http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/402 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/402 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:30:04 PDT This article reviews findings from anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines about the role of biological factors in the development of sex differences in human behavior, including biological theories, the developmental course of sex differences, and the interaction of biological and cultural gendering processes at different ages. Current evidence suggests that major biological influences on individual differences in human gender, to the extent that they exist, operate primarily in early development, during and especially prior to puberty. Biological effects are likely to be mediated by relatively simple processes, like temperament, which are then elaborated through social interactions (as with mother and peers) into more complex gendered features of adult personality. Biological anthropologists and psychologists interested in gender should direct more attention to understanding how social processes influence the development and function of the reproductive endocrine system. Matthew H. McIntyre http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/401 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/401 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:49:09 PDT The current study tested the emotional reactivity of smokers with and without histories of major depression (MDD Hx) and trauma exposure (TE). Four counterbalanced conditions nested negative (e.g., dysphoric) or neutral mood inductions with in vivo versus control smoking paraphernalia cues (Neutral+Control; Neutral+Cigarette; Neg+Control; Neg+Cigarette). Mixed model analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) tested between and within subjects differences in negative affective symptoms pre- to post-exposure across four groups (TE+MDD Hx; TE only; MDD Hx only; no history). Results produced two notable effects. First, TE only individuals endorsed the greatest increase in depressive symptoms across both negative mood induction conditions (regardless of smoking paraphernalia) compared with other groups. Second, dual history participants (TE+MDD Hx) show a potentiated depressive response to the Neg+Cigarette condition compared with the Neg+Control condition. Implications to a depression-specific negative affective vulnerability among TE only smokers that is independent of MDD Hx and greater than smokers with a MDD Hx are discussed. Dennis E. McChargue http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/400 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/400 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:46:00 PDT Child sexual abuse (CSA) has consistently been associated with the use of avoidant coping; these coping methods have been associated with increased trauma symptoms, which have, in turn, been linked to increased risk for adult sexual revictimization. Given these previous findings, the purpose of the current study was to test a model that conceptualized the relationships among these variables. Specifically, CSA severity was conceptualized as leading to the use of avoidant coping, which was proposed to lead to maintenance of trauma symptoms, which would, in turn, impact severity of revictimization indirectly. This comprehensive model was tested in a cross-sectional study of a large, geographically diverse sample of college women. Participants were 99 female undergraduates classified as having experienced CSA who completed measures of abuse history, coping style, current levels of trauma symptoms, and adult sexual revictimization. Multivariate path analysis indicated that the data fit the hypothesized model for verbally coercive, but not physically aggressive, revictimization. Specifically, increased CSA severity was associated with the use of avoidant coping, which, in turn, predicted greater levels of trauma symptomatology and severity of sexual coercion in adulthood. Although cross-sectional in nature, findings from this study suggest that coping strategies and trauma symptoms may represent modifiable factors that place women at increased risk for verbally coercive sexual revictimization. Michelle A. Fortier http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/399 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/399 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:42:05 PDT We join Brian A. Sharpless and Jacques P. Barber (2009) in calling for strengthening the evidence base supporting the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), particularly in the areas of criterion and predictive validity. Although 1 clear purpose of the EPPP is to assess core areas of knowledge, materials from the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards are less clear as to whether the EPPP is also intended to predict future performance as a psychologist. If the EPPP is expected to protect the public from poorly trained psychologists, then data supporting its use for that purpose are urgently needed. Sharpless and Barber offer suggestions for evaluating the EPPP against this criterion. Although a step in the right direction, these suggestions do not fully satisfy the need for predictive validation. Our greatest difference with Sharpless and Barber concerns their recommendation for abandoning generic licensing in favor of specialty exams tied to subfields. Segmenting licensure in this manner would deviate from the profession's long-standing commitment to broad and general training and would necessarily be accompanied by an undesirably narrowed scope of practice. David DiLillo http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/398 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/398 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:02:39 PDT Young children learning English are biased to attend to the shape of solid rigid objects when learning novel names. This study seeks further understanding of the processes that support this behavior by examining a previous finding that three-year-old children are also biased to generalize novel names for objects made from deformable materials by shape, even after the materials are made salient. In two experiments, we examined the noun generalizations of 72 two-, three- and four-year- old children with rigid and deformable stimuli. Data reveal that three-year-old, but not two- or four-year-old, children generalize names for deformable things by shape, and that this behavior is not due to the syntactic context of the task. We suggest this behavior is an overgeneralization of three-year-old children's knowledge of how rigid things are named and discuss the implications of this finding for a developmental account of the origins of the shape bias. Larissa K. Samuelson http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/397 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/397 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:56:45 PDT Participants included 202 newlywed couples who reported retrospectively about child maltreatment experiences (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect) and whose marital functioning was assessed 3 times over a 2-year period. Decreased marital satisfaction at T1 was predicted by childhood physical abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect for husbands; only neglect predicted lower satisfaction for wives. Increased maltreatment of various types was also related to T1 difficulties with marital trust and partner aggression. Dyadic growth curve analyses showed that the marital difficulties reported at T1 tended to remain over the course of the study. Further, in several instances, maltreatment exerted an increasingly detrimental influence on marital functioning over time, particularly for husbands. Examination of possible mediators between maltreatment and reductions in marital satisfaction revealed pathways through decreased sexual activity, increased psychological aggression, and increased trauma symptoms reported by husbands. These findings suggest that clinicians should consider how an adult's history of child maltreatment may contribute to current marital dysfunction. The authors also identify possible targets for intervention when working with this population. David DiLillo http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/396 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/396 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:51:56 PDT Coping has been suggested as an important element in understanding the long-term functioning of individuals with a history of child sexual abuse (CSA). The present review synthesizes the literature on coping with CSA, first by examining theories of coping with trauma, and, second by examining how these theories have been applied to studies of coping in samples of CSA victims. Thirty-nine studies were reviewed, including eleven descriptive studies of the coping strategies employed by individuals with a history of CSA, eighteen correlational studies of the relationship between coping strategies and long-term functioning of CSA victims, and ten investigations in which coping was examined as a mediational factor in relation to long-term outcomes. These studies provide initial information regarding early sexual abuse and subsequent coping processes. However, this literature is limited by several theoretical and methodological issues, including a failure to specify the process of coping as it occurs, a disparity between theory and research, and limited applicability to clinical practice. Future directions of research are discussed and include the need to understand coping as a process, identification of coping in relation to adaptive outcomes, and considerations of more complex mediational and moderational processes in the study of coping with CSA. Kate Walsh http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/395 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/395 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:48:36 PDT The Gulf coast hurricanes of a few years ago vividly highlighted important questions concerning the fair distribution of resources that are of continual concern in the more mundane distributive policies of the modern state. We present an experimental study of allocation decisions across two allocation contexts--nonemergency and emergency (flood) conditions--and with regard to qualitatively different goods--money, prescription medicine, and food. Distributive behavior is likely to vary across context and good depending on how individuals weigh distinct and competing allocation principles--merit, need, and equality here--in different circumstances. We find that allocation behavior is complex but structured, with context and good having predictable effects on the allocation strategies individuals employ. Although we find that individuals overall tend to weigh certain allocation principles more heavily in certain contexts and with regard to certain goods (e.g., emphasizing need in an emergency context or with regard to prescription medicine), we also find that they do not behave in a lockstep fashion and that they still employ a variety of allocation strategies, even in nonobvious ways, in every condition. Our study makes both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to our understanding of allocation behavior and distributive justice with implications for understanding the distributive decisions of policy makers as well as citizens' views of the fairness and legitimacy of policies. John T. Scott