Jessica M. Sales

Functions of parent-child reminiscing about emotionally negative events.

Parent-child reminiscing about negative experiences influences childrens developing “emotional self-concept”, which comprises three interrelated functions: self-defining (this is the kind of emotional person I am), self-in-relation (this is how I express and share my emotions with others), and coping (this is how I cope with and resolve negative emotion). In this study, we examined how 70 mostly white, middle-class mothers discuss three negative experiences (fear, anger, and sadness) with their 4-year-old children. Conversations about fear elaborate on the facts of the event and emotional resolutions, thus focusing on coping. Conversations about sadness contain evaluative feedback and emotional resolutions, thus focusing on self-in-relation and coping. Finally, conversations about anger highlight the emotional state itself, thus focusing on self-definition. Mothers are also more elaborative and more evaluative with daughters than with sons, and place emotional events in a more interpersonal context with daughters than sons. Thus girls may be forming a more elaborated and more interpersonal emotional self-concept than boys.

Psychosocial predictors of HIV-associated sexual behaviors and the efficacy of prevention interventions in adolescents at-risk for HIV infection: what works and what doesn't work?

The HIV epidemic among adolescents in the United States is inherently tied to individual, psychosocial, and cultural phenomena. Expanding intervention development and implementation to incorporate a broader spectrum of determinants of adolescents’ sexual risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/HIV acquisition may provide an opportunity to prevent disease transmission more effectively. To address the STI/HIV prevention needs of adolescents, we highlight research assessing adolescents’ sexual risk behavior and place the findings in the context of the diverse array of psychosocial factors influencing adolescents. This synthesis provides an opportunity to examine why adolescents engage in risky sexual behavior and to review the effectiveness of theory-based prevention programs. Subsequently, we offer recommendations for improving future programs aimed at reducing the incidence of STI/HIV infection among adolescents. STIs = sexually transmitted infections; AIDS = acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome; SiHLE = Sistas Informing, Healing, Living and Empowering.

Weathering the storm: Children's long‐term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3–4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9–10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for childrens developing memory of stressful events are discussed.

Parental Reminiscing About Positive and Negative Events

We examined how 67 parent-child dyads talked about 2 emotionally laden events: an injury resulting in emergency room treatment and an individually nominated, positively valenced experience. Group differences were found in parental reminiscing between positive and negative events such that parents asked a higher proportion of open-ended memory questions in conversations about negative experiences and a higher proportion of yes-no questions in conversations about positive experiences. Also, parents focused more on emotion when discussing positive experiences with their children and more on causal explanations during the negative conversations. However, individual parents were consistent across event types in both reminiscing style and content. Finally, parental reminiscing style was correlated with childrens recall for both types of events such that parents with an elaborative style had children who reported more new information during the conversations. Implications for children coping with stressful experiences as well as future research are discussed.

Coping, Attachment, and Mother-Child Narratives of Stressful Events

Based on attachment theory and recent findings with adults on relations between narrative coherence and well-being, we hypothesized that mothers who are more securely attached and who cope more effectively would be more engaged and more emotionally expressive in mother-child co-constructed narratives about stressful events. Twenty-seven mostly white mixed-SES mothers and their 9- to 12-year-old children with asthma were asked to discuss two asthma-specific stressful events together: a chronic parent-child conflict and an acute asthma attack. Few relations emerged for the asthma attack event, although, against predictions, mothers who were more anxiously attached were more engaged and more explanatory in these narratives than mothers who were less anxiously attached. For the conflict event, mothers who were more anxiously attached talked more about other peoples emotions than did mothers who were less anxiously attached, and mothers who cope more effectively were more engaged, more emotionally expressive, and more explanatory, and, in turn, their children showed more flexible coping.

A decade in review: building on the experiences of past adolescent STI/HIV interventions to optimise future prevention efforts

The major purpose of this article is to systematically review and synthesise empirical findings from selected adolescent STI/HIV interventions conducted in the United States between 1994 and 2004. Specifically, the most current adolescent STI risk reduction interventions conducted in diverse venues, such as in the community, schools, clinics, and specialised adolescent centres (that is, detention homes and drug programmes) were examined for reported efficacy, and were assessed for programmatic and methodological strengths and weaknesses. Next, a subset of programmatic characteristics was identified that were associated with the efficacy of STI risk reduction programmes both within a particular venue, as well as across all venues. Finally, we discuss the research and practice implications of these findings for optimising future evidence based STI risk reduction programmes for adolescents in the United States.

Meaning making in mothers’ and children's narratives of emotional events

Narrative coherence and the inclusion of mental state language are critical aspects of meaning making, especially about stressful events. Mothers and their 8- to 12-year-old children with asthma independently narrated a time they were scared, frustrated, and happy. Although mothers’ narratives were generally more coherent and more saturated with mental state language than childrens narratives, for both mothers and children narratives of negative events were more coherent and contained more mental state language than narratives of positive events overall, and narratives of scary events contained more mental state language than narratives of frustrating events. Coherence appears to be multifaceted, in that the three dimensions of coherence coded, context, chronology, and theme were not strongly interrelated within narratives of the same event, but use of mental state language, including cognitive-processing and emotion words, appears to be more integrated. Moreover, while thematic coherence seems to be a consistent individual narrative style across valence of event being narrated, mental state language appears to be a consistent style only across the two stressful event narratives. Finally, and quite surprisingly, there were virtually no relations between mothers’ and childrens narrative meaning making.

Impact of a physician recommendation and parental immunization attitudes on receipt or intention to receive adolescent vaccines

Four vaccines are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for adolescents. Parental attitudes may play a key role in vaccination uptake in this age group. In 2011, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among parents of adolescents in one county in Georgia to identify parental attitudes toward adolescent vaccination, reasons for vaccine acceptance or refusal, and impact of a physician recommendation for vaccination. Physician recommendation was reported as one of the top reasons for receipt or intent to receive any of the vaccines. Physician recommendation of any of the four vaccines was associated with receipt of Tdap (p < 0.001), MCV4 (p < 0.001), and HPV (p = 0.03) and intent to receive Tdap (p = 0.05), MCV4 (p = 0.005), and HPV (p = 0.05). Compared with parents who did not intend to have their adolescent vaccinated with any of the vaccines, parents who did intend reported higher perceived susceptibility (3.12 vs. 2.63, p = 0.03) and severity of disease (3.89 vs. 3.70, p = 0.02) and higher perceived benefit of vaccination (8.48 vs. 7.74, p = 0.02). These findings suggest that future vaccination efforts geared toward parents may benefit from addressing the advantages of vaccination and enhancing social norms. Physicians can play a key role by providing information on the benefits of adolescent vaccination.

Stressing Memory: Long-Term Relations Among Children's Stress, Recall and Psychological Outcome Following Hurricane Andrew

We examined relations among stress, childrens recall, and psychological functioning following Hurricane Andrew. Thirty-five children from mixed socioeconomic backgrounds were divided into low-, moderate-, and high-stress groups and were interviewed about the hurricane immediately after the storm and 6 years later. Our primary interest, stemming from previous work, was in the emotional and cognitive content of their recall. At the initial interviews, children who were more stressed included less positive emotion and fewer cognitive processing words and provided less free recall and less information overall. In contrast, children who initially recalled more information showed better psychological outcome immediately following the hurricane. Six years later, children who had been more stressed initially included more negative emotion and more cognitive processing words, but provided less information during free recall. Children who had initially used more positive emotion words and recalled more information showed better psychological outcome 6 years later. Implications for childrens remembering and coping with traumatic events are discussed.

The Mediating Role of Partner Communication Skills on HIV/STD–Associated Risk Behaviors in Young African American Females With a History of Sexual Violence

OBJECTIVES To examine the prevalence of sexual violence among young African American females and to explore the mediating role that partner communication plays on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted disease-associated risk behaviors among youth with a history of sexual violence relative to those without. DESIGN Only data from baseline, before randomization, were used for this analysis. SETTING A clinic-based sample of young females enrolled in a randomized trial of an HIV-prevention program in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 2002 to August 2004. PARTICIPANTS African American females aged 15 to 21 years who reported sexual activity in the previous 60 days. Of 1558 screened, 874 females were eligible and 82% (n = 715) participated at baseline. OUTCOME MEASURES History of sexual violence as well as (1) sexual partner communication skills, (2) current sexual behaviors, and (3) psychological well-being. RESULTS Lifetime prevalence of sexual violence was 26%. Communication skills partially mediated the relationship between sexual violence and psychological well-being and sexual behavior outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Given the lifetime prevalence of sexual violence and its adverse sexual, psychological, and relational sequelae, it is paramount that effective interventions are developed. Based on our findings, improving partner communications skills is one particularly important area for HIV/sexually transmitted disease risk-reduction interventions for youths with a history of sexual violence.