Claude Gagnon

A Prosocial Scale for the Preschool Behaviour Questionnaire: Concurrent and Predictive Correlates.

The Preschool Behaviour Questionnaire has been used widely to assess childrens aggressive, anxious, and hyperactive behaviour. Items from the Prosocial Behaviour Questionnaire were added to create a prosocial scale. The resulting questionnaire was administered to teachers of three large samples of kindergarten children and shown to have three stable, orthogonal components disruptive (13 items): anxious (6 items); and prosocial (10 items). Mother and peer assessments of children were used to investigate concurrent and predictive validity. Concurrent data showed that the disruptive component was highly correlated with peer assessments and moderately correlated with mother assessments; the prosocial component was moderately correlated with peer assessments but marginally correlated with mother assessments, whereas the anxious component was marginally correlated with peer assessments and moderately correlated with mother assessments. From a predictive perspective it was shown that highly disruptive boys in kindergarten who were prosocial, were assessed by mothers and teachers at age 9 to be better adjusted than highly disruptive boys in kindergarten who were non-prosocial.

Increased reactive oxygen species formation in semen of patients with spinal cord injury

OBJECTIVES To evaluate reactive oxygen species production of semen samples and Percoll-washed spermatozoa from men with spinal cord injuries and to determine if there is a relationship between this reactive oxygen species production and sperm motility. PARTICIPANTS Semen samples from healthy volunteers and infertile patients were collected by masturbation. INTERVENTIONS Semen samples from men with a spinal cord injury were obtained by electroejaculation or by masturbation after treatment with physostigmine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS Motility was measured using the CellSoft computer-assisted analysis system (Cryo Resources Ltd., Montgomery, NY). Luminol-amplified chemiluminescence was used to measure reactive oxygen species production. RESULTS Semen samples and Percoll-washed spermatozoa from men with a spinal cord injury produced reactive oxygen species at much higher frequency and levels than equivalent preparations from infertile men or healthy volunteers. There was an inverse relationship between the percentage of motility and reactive oxygen species production in Percoll-washed spermatozoa from men with a spinal cord injury. CONCLUSION Semen samples and Percoll-washed spermatozoa from men with spinal cord injury produce high levels of reactive oxygen species that may be related to the low sperm motility and infertility observed in these men.

Kindergarten predictors of boys' stable behavior problems at the end of elementary school

This study predicted stable social maladjustment at ages 10, 11, and 12 from teacher behavioral ratings in kindergarten and a measure of family demographics. Kindergarten teachers rated 1,034 boys on hyperactivity, aggression, inattention, anxiety–withdrawal, and prosocial behavior. Sociodemographic information was collected from the parents. At ages 10, 11, and 12, teacher, parent, peer, and self-report behavior ratings were collected on 743 boys. School achievement was documented from school records. Boys whose average scores on each of the five behavioral ratings across ages 10, 11, and 12 were above the 90th percentile according to at least two informants were defined as having stable behavioral problems. From teacher ratings collected in kindergarten and family demographics, logistic regression analyses predicted stable social maladjustment. For each negative outcome there was a unique set of predictors. The results are discussed with reference to the early identification of children who are at risk.

Correlates of Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence.

A relatively well-documented increase in depressive symptoms has been noted among some early adolescents; however, the factors that correlate with this increase have not been identified. In the present study, 26 boys and girls whose depressive symptoms increased from ages 11 years through 13 years were compared with 26 matched control participants whose depressive symptoms remained low over the same period. Comparisons were made on behavioral, psychological, social, family, school, and biological variables. At age 11, groups differed on feelings of loneliness, self-reported number of friends, social self-perceptions, behavioral self-perceptions (boys only), global self-worth (boys only), and self-reported parent–child relationships. At ages 12 and 13, groups differed on feelings of loneliness (boys only), self-perceptions in several domains, self-reported delinquency, and several dimensions of parent–child relationships. The usefulness of age 11 variables to predict increasing depressive symptoms during early adolescence and the influence of process variables during this period are discussed.

Situational consistency in behavioral patterns of aggressive boys: methodological considerations on observational measures

The issue of situational consistency is of great interest for early intervention with aggressive boys, but efforts to show behavior stability across settings have been unsuccessful to date, due principally to methodological problems. It is argued here that a more appropriate matching of response form, interaction partner, and situations should increase the situation consistency of observed behavior. The results support this proposition in that, more crosssetting behavior consistency was found in the pairing of situations where aggressive boys (age 6–7 years) were interacting with an adult female (mother/child versus baby-sitter/child) than in the pairing of situations where the boys were interacting with an adult male (mother/child versus father/child) or with the teacher in a nondyadic situation (classroom). The implications of using an extreme group are also discussed.