Malcolm W. Watson

A developmental sequence of agent use in late infancy.

WATSON, MALCOLM W., and FISCHER, KURT W. A Developmental Sequence of Agent Use in Late Infancy. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 828-836. A hypothesized developmental sequence of agent use in pretending was tested in 36 infants between 14 and 24 months of age and was compared with the development of object permanence. The sequence was predicted by a theory of the development of early representation, defined as the understanding that objects are independent agents of action. A simple technique was devised to elicit systematic pretending: Infants observed an adult modeling various pretend behaviors and were then videotaped in a free-play situation with a carefully chosen set of toys. As hypothesized, infants used agents in the following developmental sequence: (1) self as agent, (2) use of an object as a passive agent, (3) use of a substitute object as a passive agent, and (4) use of an object as an active agent. Infants not only acquired the types of agent use in this sequence, but they also stopped using and remembering them in the same sequence. Agent use and object permanence showed a moderate correlation, but also substantial decalage. The findings suggest that specific sequences in the development of representation can be predicted within task domains, but precise correspondences should not be expected across task domains.

Children Who Are Targets of Bullying A Victim Pattern

The hypothesis that there is a constellation of qualities that predisposes certain children to be chronically victimized is supported by three forms of evidence. First, children who are victims have qualities in common that differentiate them from other children. Some of these qualities exist before the child is victimized; others develop because of the victimization. Second, children who are victimized early in life remain victims for a long period of time, even though the bullies and situations may differ. Third, other children are able to identify potential victims with high reliability. To clarify why these victims are chronically harassed, this article examines qualities of victims, bullies, and the environment that support bully/victim problems.

Agents and recipient objects in the development of early symbolic play.

The development of 2 components of early symbolic play--childrens symbolic transformations of agents of action and recipient objects of action--was assessed in 48 children from 14 to 25 months of age. A 5-step sequence was predicted based on a combined weighting of agent substitutions and recipient object substitutions in each step. Children observed an adult model who pretended to talk into a telephone using each agent and object substitution in all combinations and then were allowed to demonstrate their own imitative pretending for each step. Based on the childrens profiles of steps passed and failed, the sequence was found to form a Guttman scale and be age related. 2 types of possible underlying sequences were discussed.

Toward a Refined View of Aggressive Fantasy as a Risk Factor for Aggression: Interaction Effects Involving Cognitive and Situational Variables

Over three decades of research have established a positive connection between fantasizing about aggression and enacting aggression. Such findings have provided strong evidence against the catharsis view of aggressive fantasy. However, little attention has been paid to the potentially nuanced nature of the link between fantasy aggression and actual aggression. In the present article, we examined the influence of four variables in the aggressive fantasy-aggressive behavior link: gender, exposure to violence, fantasy absorption, and level of fantasy about harm befalling loved ones and the self (dysphoric fantasy). Using data from a diverse, community-based sample of 7-14-year olds and their mothers, we replicated the general finding that aggressive fantasy is positively associated with real-world aggressive behavior. However, we also found that the interaction of aggressive fantasy and exposure to violence related significantly to aggression, as did the relation between aggressive fantasy and dysphoric fantasy. When exposure to violence was low, even high levels of aggressive fantasizing did not predict aggressive behavior, and, when aggressive fantasizing was low, even high levels of exposure to violence did not predict aggressive behavior. Similarly, when dysphoric fantasy was high, the connection between fantasy aggression and real aggression was markedly attenuated. The implications of these findings for intervention efforts and future research are considered.

The Timing Effect of Bullying in Childhood and Adolescence on Developmental Trajectories of Externalizing Behaviors

This longitudinal study investigated the timing effect of bullying on developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors from middle childhood to adolescence. We focused on the relation of (a) only an early experience of bullying (i.e., desisters) to subsequent externalizing behaviors in adolescence and (b) only a late experience of bullying (i.e., late-onsetters) to the concurrent externalizing behaviors in adolescence. Their trajectories of externalizing behaviors were compared with the persisters and to the non-experience group. Individual growth curve modeling was conducted using 440 child–mother dyads from the Springfield Child Development Project, a community-representative, longitudinal study over a 6-year period that included four time interviews. We modeled the changes in child aggression and delinquency from 7 to 19 years of age as a function of bully status group. Results indicated that the levels of aggression and delinquency for the desisters decreased over time (with the cessation of bullying in adolescence) and were significantly lower than those of the persisters and similar to those of the non-involved group at the end of the trajectory (cessation effect). For the late-onsetters, the level of delinquency increased over time (with the onset of bullying behaviors in adolescence) and were significantly higher than those of the non-involved group and similar to those of the persisters at the end of the trajectory (onset effect). The aggression for the late-onsetters, however, did not support the onset effect. This study implies that we need to pay more attention to intervening for late-onset.

Person-Environment Interactions and Adolescent Substance Use: The Role of Sensation Seeking and Perceived Neighborhood Risk

ABSTRACT Aims: This longitudinal study investigated person-environment interactions and adolescent substance use by examining whether, and if so how, early temperamental quality of sensation seeking interacted with current neighborhood characteristics to shape underage smoking, drinking, and marijuana use. Sample: Participants consisted of a community-representative sample of 352 adolescents. Methods: Early temperament was assessed when adolescents were between seven and 13 years of age, and current neighborhood characteristics (as perceived by participants and their mothers) and current adolescent substance use (self-reported smoking, drinking, and marijuana use in the past 30 days) were assessed approximately three years later. Results: The results from a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression revealed a potent negative effect of the perceived neighborhood risk, such that riskier neighborhoods were associated with both a greater probability for any substance use among adolescents, and a greater frequency of substance use among those who were engaging in these behaviors. High sensation seeking was a risk factor only for frequency of substance use among adolescent extant users, but not for the likelihood of any use. In addition, a significant interaction between sensation seeking and neighborhood risk revealed that adolescent sensation seekers engaged in smoking, drinking, and marijuana use primarily under conditions of elevated neighborhood risk and increased opportunity for such behaviors. Conclusion: Underage substance use was affected by synergistic effects between personal and community risk factors.

The Defragmentation of Creativity: Future Directions with an Emphasis on Educational Applications

In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion in the creativity literature of topics, perspectives and methodologies; yet investigators in one subfield often seem entirely unaware of advances in another. The field of creativity research has become increasingly fragmented, but how should defragmentation proceed, if at all? Should researchers attempt to construct a unified systems theory of creativity ? The argument is made that a defragmentation of the creativity field should not entail wholesale reduction to models that fail to help us understand reality and generate new hypotheses. Some models may be hazardous because they distort reality either by oversimplification or, in an opposite vein, by complicating our understanding through attempts to include all aspects and instances of the process of creativity across all cultures into one unified model or by losing sight of the applied goals of our research. Specific models of creativity and specific issues related to enhancing creativity in our schools are presented as part of this discussion.

P01-217 - Etiology of adolescent substance use: neighborhood effects on initiation

Objectives We investigated the timing of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use initiation in adolescents, focusing on three levels of predictors: (1) individual-, (2) family- and (3) neighborhood characteristics. Method A community-representative sample of 440 mother-child dyads was assessed 4 times over 6 years. Children were on average 10 (+ 2) years old at baseline (T1), with equal SES, gender and ethnic representation. We examined the timing of first alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use as reported by children on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) at T3 in relation to predictors collected at baseline (T1). Individual-level predictors at T1 included child gender, race, and child reports of sensation seeking. Family-level predictors included household size, maternal education, family income, and child-reported exposure to home violence. Finally, maternal and child reports regarding gangs and drugs in the neighborhood, and child reports of neighborhood violence were factor-analyzed into a single scale, where higher scores reflected unsafer neighborhoods. To examine the timing of first cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use as a function of the above predictors, three separate Cox regression (i.e., survival) models were estimated. Results Controlling for all other predictors, neighborhood safety remained significant predictor of substance use initiation among adolescents across all three examined substances. Children living in unsafe neighborhoods started, on average, smoking, drinking, and using marijuana at an earlier age, as indicated by positive and significant regression coefficients. Conclusions These results point to the importance of broader contextual influences - such as neighborhoods - on underage substance use initiation.

Corporal Punishment and Child Aggression: Ethnic-Level Family Cohesion as a Moderator:

Ethnicity has been examined as a putative moderator between parents’ use of corporal punishment and children’s externalizing behaviors. Yet, the reasons for this potential ethnic-level moderator have not been fully examined. The primary objective of this study was to examine whether the effect of corporal punishment on aggression is ethnic-specific using major racial groups inside and outside the U.S. samples and how the mean levels of cohesion in family relationships as found in different ethnic groups moderate the association between mothers’ use of corporal punishment and children’s aggression. A total of 729 mothers who had children aged 7 to 13 years were sampled from five ethnic groups (i.e., European American, African American, Hispanic American, Korean, and Chinese). Several hypotheses were tested to examine the moderating effect of ethnic-level, family cohesion on the relation of corporal punishment to children’s aggression. As expected, the mean level of family cohesion was significantly different across ethnicities. Consistent results across parallel multilevel and fixed effect models showed that high corporal punishment was associated with more aggression in all ethnicities, but there was a significant variation in the association across ethnicities, and the variation was explained by ethnic-level family cohesion. There were weaker associations between corporal punishment and child aggression among ethnic groups with high family cohesion and stronger associations among ethnic groups with low family cohesion. Ethnic/cultural variation in this study emphasizes the importance of understanding family environment of diverse ethnic groups when evaluating the influence of corporal punishment on child behavior in different ethnic/cultural contexts.

The Relation of Physical Discipline to Bullying Behaviors across Different Families and Ethnicities

No single cause leads to a child becoming a habitual bully, but research has provided us with information on several antecedent factors that seem to lead to bullying behaviors. Harsh or frequent, parental physical discipline is one of those factors. According to Barboza, Schiamberg, and Oehmke’s (2009) review, adolescent bullies tend to be reared with a lack of parental involvement and warmth (Olweus, 1993) and with authoritarian parenting, in which parents use a lot of physical discipline and power assertive techniques (Bowers et al., 1994; Rodkin & Hodges, 2003).