Alex E. Schwartzman

Early Disruptive Behavior, Poor School Achievement, Delinquent Behavior, and Delinquent Personality: Longitudinal Analyses.

Three alternative models concerning the causal links between early disruptive behavior, poor school achievement, and delinquent behavior or antisocial personality were tested with linear structural equation modeling. Subjects were boys and girls followed from first grade to age 14. Disruptive behavior was assessed in Grade 1; school achievement was assessed in Grades 1 and 4; delinquent behavior and antisocial personality were assessed at age 14. With regard to self-reported delinquent behavior at age 14, results indicate that the best model for boys was a direct causal link between Grade 1 disruptive behavior and delinquent behavior. Poor school achievement was not a necessary causal factor. For girls, none of the tested models were a good fit to the delinquent behavior data. As for delinquent personality, results indicate that, for both boys and girls, poor school achievement was a necessary component of the causal path between Grade 1 disruptive behavior and age 14 delinquent personality.

Agreement among teacher, peer, and self-ratings of children's aggression, withdrawal, and likability

This study examined the relationship among teacher, peer, and self-ratings of childrens social behavior. The Pupil Evaluation Inventory was completed by 172 first-graders, 346 fourth-graders, 283 seventh-graders, and 30 teachers. Groups of deviant responders and controls were also selected from the total sample on the basis of peer-rated aggression and withdrawal scores. Interrater agreement was consistently greater between peer and teacher ratings than between self-ratings and either peer or teacher ratings. Discrepancies between raters were greatest for children with more deviant scores, with peer ratings providing the highest estimates of deviant behavior, and self ratings yielding the lowest. Self ratings were lower than teacher or peer ratings on aggression and withdrawal, and higher on likability. Aggression produced greatest agreement between raters. Agreement was uninfluenced by the cognitive maturity of peer evaluators. The results suggest that the selection of raters should be influenced by the class of behaviors to be evaluated and the context in which they occur.

Stress and selective attention: The interplay of mood, cortisol levels, and emotional information processing

The effects of a stressful challenge on the processing of emotional words were examined in college students. Stress induction was achieved using a competitive computer task, where the individual either repeatedly lost or won against a confederate. Mood, attention, and cortisol were recorded during the study. There were four findings: (1) Participants in the negative stressor condition were faster to shift attention away from negative words than positive or neutral words; (2) attentional shifts away from negative words were associated with stress-induced mood lowering; (3) participants in the negative stress condition with elevated scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were slow to disengage attention from all stimuli; and (4) elevated depression scores were associated with lower cortisol change from baseline during the experimental phase, and with higher cortisol levels during the recovery phase. These findings point to information-processing strategies as a means to regulate emotion, and to atypical features of cognitive and adrenocortical function that may serve as putative risk markers of depression.

Disentangling psychobiological mechanisms underlying internalizing and externalizing behaviors in youth: longitudinal and concurrent associations with cortisol.

Research examining cortisol dysregulation is seemingly contradictory with studies showing that both internalizing and externalizing behaviors are related to high and low cortisol. One extant theory to explain divergent findings in the stress literature is that both hypo- and hyper-arousal of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be present depending on time since onset of the stressor. This theory may extend to the onset of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Data from 96 youth participating in a longitudinal project were used to examine this possibility. Composite measures of internalizing and externalizing behaviors at both childhood and early adolescence were formed using mother and teacher reports. Multiple salivary cortisol samples were also collected over two consecutive days during early adolescence. Problematic behaviors were associated with cortisol and the direction of the association was dependent on amount of time passed since onset of the behaviors. When examined concurrently in adolescence, youth with more internalizing behaviors had higher morning cortisol; however, when examined longitudinally, youth with more internalizing behaviors in childhood had lower morning cortisol levels as adolescents. Youth with more externalizing behaviors in childhood had flattened diurnal cortisol rhythms as adolescents, and this finding persisted when examined in adolescence. Cortisol dysregulation was greatest in children with the most severe behavior problems. Findings support the theoretical model of blunting of the HPA axis over time. While the HPA axis may show hyper-arousal when youth first display behaviors, long-term exposure may lead to a hypo-arousal of the HPA axis which culminates in a dysregulated diurnal rhythm.

Children’s Salivary Cortisol, Internalising Behaviour Problems, and Family Environment: Results from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project

To explore the possibility that children’s adrenocortical reactions to parent-child conflict influence their vulnerability for internalising behaviour problems, we studied 62 mother-child dyads from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project. Standardised measures of maternal, child, and family adjustment were collected. Mother’s and children’s saliva was sampled before and after a conflict-oriented mother-child interaction task and was later assayed for cortisol. The children’s pre-task cortisol scores were negatively associated with their internalising behaviour problems, their mother’s childhood levels of socially withdrawn behaviour and current psychosocial problems, as well as dimensions of family environment representing the open expression of aggression, anger, and conflict. Children’s cortisol levels after the interaction task were lowest for those raised by mothers with high childhood levels of aggressive behaviour problems, and in family environments characterised by rigid rules. Interrelationships between mother and child pre- and post-task cortisol levels were associated with maternal levels of childhood behaviour problems. The integration of measures of children’s adrenocortical activity into developmental studies of children at risk for psychosocial problems may reveal important clues regarding the processes by which adverse early rearing environments affect children’s internalising problem behaviour.

A 3-Year follow-up of aggressive and withdrawn behavior in childhood: Preliminary findings

The school placement of 122 aggressive, 150 withdrawn, 182 aggressive-withdrawn, and 299 control children was determined 3 years following their original selection. Children identified by peers as aggressive-withdrawn or aggressive were more likely to have failed a grade or to be in a special class than were withdrawn children or controls. Older aggressive-withdrawn subjects and controls, but not aggressive subjects or withdrawn subjects, had higher rates of school failure and special class placement. Fewer boys than girls were in a regular class at the expected grade level. The results underline the importance of childhood aggression as a predictor of later academic adjustment. Implications of these findings for the interpretation of measures of behavioral stability are discussed.

Structural equation model of intellectual change and continuity and predictors of intelligence in older men

This study examined the effects of abilities as a young adult, an engaged lifestyle, personality, age, and health on continuity and change in intellectual abilities from early to late adulthood. A battery of measures, including a verbal and nonverbal intelligence test, was given to 326 Canadian army veterans. Archival data provided World War Two enlistment scores on the same intelligence test for this sample: Results indicated relative stability of intellectual scores across 40 years, with increases in vocabulary and decreases in arithmetic, verbal analogies, and nonverbal skills. Young adult intelligence was the most important determinant of older adult performance. Predictors for verbal intelligence were consistent with an engagement model of intellectual maintenance but also indicated the importance of introversion-extraversion and age. Nonverbal intelligence in late life was predicted by young adult nonverbal scores, age, health, and introversion-extraversion.

The role of psychosocial context, age, and intelligence in memory performance of older men

The hypothesis that psychosocial contextual factors contribute to developmental changes in memory was examined using 326 male World War II veterans. Availability of young adult intelligence scores made it possible to separate the contributions of contextual variables and age to maintenance of general intelligence from their direct contributions to performance on 4 memory tasks. Being younger, healthier, more educated, more introverted, more intellectually active, and more satisfied with social support predicted less intellectual decline and, indirectly, better memory performance. Age, personality, locus of control, and extent of social support directly contributed to performance on 1 or more memory tasks. Age contributions were consistent with Craiks (1986) proposed continuum of task demands for self-initiated effort. Possible elaborations of Craiks hypothesis to accommodate contextual variables are suggested.

Testing a dual-process family model in understanding the development of eating pathology: A structural equation modeling analysis

OBJECTIVE The present study tested a dual-process family model in understanding the relationships among dysfunctional family relationships, family preoccupation with weight and appearance, and body- and self-esteem problems in the development of eating and psychiatric symptoms. METHOD Subjects, 918 adolescent girls from eight high schools, completed measures assessing familial factors, body- and self-esteem problems, and eating and general psychiatric symptoms. RESULTS Structural equation analyses suggested that family environment contributed to the development of eating and psychiatric symptoms through two interrelated pathways. On one hand, family preoccupation with weight and appearance had direct effects on body dissatisfaction and eating symptoms. Body dissatisfaction had direct effects on self-esteem deficit and eating symptoms, and indirect effects mediated by self-esteem deficit on eating and psychiatric symptoms. On the other hand, general family dysfunction had direct effect on negative self-esteem, and indirect effects through negative self-esteem on eating and psychiatric symptoms. DISCUSSION Findings are discussed in relation to the possible mechanisms by which dysfunctional family relationships and family preoccupation with weight may predispose girls to eating pathology.

Automatic and effortful emotional information processing regulates different aspects of the stress response

There is increasing evidence that stress and self-regulation are important factors in the development and treatment of psychopathology. A key issue is to determine how cognitive-emotional systems modulate the stress response. We sought to determine whether effortful and automatic processing were differentially associated with subsequent mood and cortisol levels during a stressful challenge. We examined this question by having clinically anxious, depressed, and control participants perform a modified spatial cueing task with supraliminal and masked pictorial stimuli during a stressful challenge and control condition. The stressful challenge, relative to the control condition, lowered mood, but did not influence cortisol levels. In the full sample, disengagement from supraliminal dysphoric pictures was associated with subsequent mood ratings, whereas disengagement from masked pictures depicting threat was associated with subsequent cortisol levels. Effortful and automatic processing appears to regulate different aspects of the stress response.