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Introduction: Grandparents are often highly involved as secondary caregivers for their grandchildren and may influence children's psychological and physical health outcomes. The purpose of the current review was to gather [...]

In this 2-year longitudinal study, we hypothesized that sex of the human child (Homo sapiens), differences in physical activity, and time of the year would interact to influence preschool children's sex segregation. We also hypothesized that activity would differentially relate to peer rejection for boys and girls. Consistent with the first hypothesis, high-activity girls started off as the most integrated group bur became more segregated with time, whereas high-activity boys remained the most segregated group across the duration of the study. The second hypothesis was also supported: For girls only, activity was significantly related to peer rejection during Year 1 only, the time when high-activity girls also interacted frequently with boys. Results are discussed in terms of sexual selection theory and gender boundary violations. Keywords: sexual segregation, physical activity, sex roles, sexual dimorphism DOI: 10.1037/a0018083

Personality disorders (PDs), long thought to be immutable over time, show considerable evidence of individual change and malleability in modern prospective longitudinal studies. The factors responsible for the evident individual change in PDs over time, however, remain essentially unknown. A neurobehavioral model that posits negative emotion (NEM), nonaffective constraint (CON), communal positive emotion (PEM-C), and agentic positive emotion (PEM-A) as important systems underlying PD provides a theoretical basis for investigating predictors of change in PD features over time. Thus, in this study, the authors investigated how individual change in NEM, CON, PEM-C, and PEM-A over time predicted individual change in PD features over time, using longitudinal data on PD assessed by the International Personality Disorders Examination (A. W. Loranger, 1999), as well as data on normal personality features gathered within a 4-year prospective multiwave longitudinal study (N = 250). The authors used the method of latent growth modeling to conduct their analyses. Lower initial levels of PEM-C predicted initial levels of the growth trajectories for those with elevated Cluster A PD features. Elevated NEM, lower CON, and elevated PEM-A initial levels were found to characterize the initial levels of growth trajectories for those with increased Cluster B PD features. Interestingly, subjects with higher initial levels of PEM-A revealed a more rapid rate of change (declining) in Cluster B PD features over time. Elevated NEM and decreased PEM-C initial levels were found to characterize the growth trajectories for subjects with increased Cluster C PD features. The substantive meaning of these results is discussed, and the methodological advantages offered by this statistical approach are also highlighted. Keywords: personality disorder, personality, negative emotion, nonaffective constraint, longitudinal individual growth trajectories

Interventions for a variety of emotional and behavioral problems are commonly delivered in the context of treatment groups, with many using rolling admission to sustain membership (i.e., admission, dropout, and discharge from group are perpetual and ongoing). The authors present an overview of the analytic challenges inherent in rolling group data and outline commonly used (but flawed) analytic and design approaches to addressing (or sidestepping) these issues. Moreover, the authors propose use of latent class pattern mixture models (LCPMMs) as a statistically and conceptually defensible approach for modeling treatment data from rolling groups. The LCPMM approach is illustrated with rolling group data from a group-based alcoholism pilot treatment trial (N = 128). Different inferences were made with regard to treatment efficacy under LCPMM vs. the commonly used standard group-clustered latent growth model (LGM); coupled with other preliminary findings in this area, inferences from LGMs may be overly liberal when applied to data from rolling groups. Continued work on data analytic difficulties in groups with membership turnover is critical for furthering the ecological validity of research on behavioral treatments. Keywords: group therapy, rolling admissions, group membership, missing data, pattern mixtures Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.75.4.580.supp

This report provides some initial findings from an investigation of the relations between childhood Big Five personality traits assessed by elementary school teachers and similar traits assessed 40 years later by self-reports at midlife (N = 799). Short-term (1-3 years) test-retest reliabilities were lower (.22-.53) in childhood when personality was developing than they were in adulthood (.70-.79) when personality stability should be at its peak. Stability coefficients across the 40-year interval between the childhood assessment and the 2 measures of adulthood personality were higher for Extraversion (e.g., .29) and Conscientiousness (e.g., .25) than for Openness (e.g., .16), Agreeableness (e.g., .08), and Neuroticism (e.g., .00). Construct continuity between childhood and adulthood was evaluated by canonical analysis and by structural equation modeling and indicated continuity at both a broad, two-dimensional level and at the level of the Big Five. The findings are discussed in relation to A. Caspi, B. W. Roberts, and R. L. Shiner's (2005) principles of rank-order personality stability. Keywords: personality stability, Big Five, construct continuity, longitudinal study

Longitudinal analysis of 10-year follow-up data on objectified body consciousness, body esteem, weight-related attitudes and behaviors, and psychological well-being in 74 middle-aged and 72 young women tested hypotheses developed from age-related change and cohort differences models of body experience. Young women's body surveillance and body shame decreased, and their body esteem increased, supporting an age-related changes model. Relationships between variables were relatively consistent with the 2 cohorts across data waves, supporting a cohort differences model, although nonoverlapping cohorts limit the interpretation of the data. The importance of developmental context in understanding women's body experience is discussed. Keywords: body image, longitudinal studies, human females, objectified body consciousness, feminism

An examination on the explicit memory and priming with reference to multiple tests over four annual data-collection waves in a large group of older persons without dementia at baseline was done. The findings indicate that explicit memory and priming are dissociable based on age-related change and that mildly reduced priming is not an inevitable consequence of growing older.

This article examines sex differences in factors associated with smoking cessation in teenagers. Findings indicate that smoking cessation in girls is associated with weak intentions for extended smoking, decreased marijuana use, less parental approval, and peer support while there were no significant associations for smoking cessation among teenage boys.

This article examines longitudinal smoking behavior patterns among adolescents. An analysis of epidemiological data reveal several distinct behavioral patterns which include rapid escalation to heavy smoking at a young age, a slow progression to moderate and light smoking, and stable smoking of less than two cigarettes a month

This article examines the relationship between life change events and adherence to a home-based or class-based exercise program. Results indicate that participants who reported three or four life events within a six month period had significantly lower rates of program adherence regardless of exercise format.

This article examines the psychosocial factors that influence attitudes toward condom use. Results indicate that beliefs about pleasure and self-concept were directly related to attitudes towards condom use but intention and protection implications did not influence attitudes toward safe sex.

This article examines the effectiveness of using response styles as predictors of cardiovascular health. Results indicate that controlling for personality-related confounds in cardiovascular health studies did not improve predictive accuracy, but using response styles as independent variables significantly improved the accuracy of cardiovascular health predictions in longitudinal studies.

A longitudinal study examined treatment services and outcomes in a nationwide sample of 565 homeless veterans who were classified as alcoholic, psychiatrically impaired, multiproblem, or best-functioning. All four groups experienced some improvement in their primary problem area, in employment status, and in residential quality at eight-month follow-up, but there were significant differences in degree of improvement across groups. Implications for the design of homeless programs and policies are discussed.

In a prospective, 32-year longitudinal study of 87 young men originally selected for general health, it was found that good physical and mental health were maintained by most. Successful predictors of midlife mental health included satisfactory peer social adjustment, little or no angry behavior, and a mentor relationship in young adulthood. Overall findings suggest that mental health is closely associated with developing social relationships.

A study of 532 scientists and engineers from 4 industrial research and development organizations showed that as hypothesized, the scientist-engineer distinction had a moderating effect on the relationships between job involvement and 1-year-later job-performance ratings and on counts of patents and publications. Scientists had stronger relationships between job involvement and each of the performance measures taken 1 year later than did engineers. No moderating effect was found for the scientist-engineer distinction on the relationships between organizational commitment and the performance measures. Moreover, no moderating effect was shown for an interaction term of job involvement and organizational commitment on the performance measures. Implications are discussed for theory building of the construct of job involvement and for the differential management of scientists versus engineers.

A three year follow-up study of premenopausal women, aged 42-50 years, shows positive correlation of depressive symptoms with recent or chronic stressful events, trait anxiety, and pessimistic attitudes. Depressive symptoms are independent of changes in menopausal status. Pessimism causes vulnerability to adverse situations and stressful events in midlife. Psychological interpretations for such effects are detailed.

Although there have been many recent advances in the literature on subjective well-being (SWB), the field historically has suffered from two shortcomings: little theoretical progress and lack of quasiexperimental or longitudinal design (E. Diener, 1984). Causal influences therefore have been difficult to determine. After collecting data over four time periods with 160 Ss we compared how well two alternative models of SWB (bottom-up and top-down models) fit the data. Variables of interest in both models were physical health, daily hassles, world assumptions, and constructive thinking. Results showed that both models provided good fit to the data, with neither model providing a closer fit than the other, which suggests that the field would benefit from devoting more time to examining how general dispositions toward happiness color perceptions of life's experiences. Results implicate bidirectional causal models of SWB and its personality and situational influences.

Accelerated longitudinal analyses of data obtained over eight years from children with behavioral-emotional problems between the ages of four and 18 revealed that longer term reassessments of problems for single cohorts were similar to short-term reassessments for multiple cohorts. The data was obtained from parent responses to the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 4-18 (CBCL). Use of the CBCL for all subjects facilitates the employment of these analyses to predict child psychopathology. Short-term longitudinal studies of behavioral-emotional problems can be amalgamated into a longer longitudinal study by accelerated longitudinal analyses.

A longitudinal examination of 1,008 children over the years to study the correlation between retrospective and prospective measures of variables in the seven areas of residence shifts, anthropometrics, injuries, reading capability, family features, behavioral difficulties and delinquency reveals that the validity of retrospective reports on psychosocial variables varies with the situation. The psychosocial variables indicate a low correlation between prospective and retrospective methods. The absolute correlation between the data of retrospective and prospective measures is low even when the individual reports of these two sources agree with each other.

This study, guided in part by G. A. Marlatt and J. R. Gordon's (1985) abstinence violation effect (AVE) model, examined whether variability in cognitive and emotional reactions to binges accounts for recurrence of binge eating. Attributional, cognitive, and affective reactions to two successive binges, as well as the latencies between each binge and a subsequent binge, were evaluated through a series of structured phone interviews with 50 nonpurging normal-weight female bingers. Reported mood after binging was unrelated to binge latency. However, when Ss made more intense internal, global, and uncontrollable causal attributions for a binge, a subsequent binge followed significantly sooner. Within-subject variations in AVEs across binges prospectively predicted within-subject variations in the speed with which another binge followed. Analyses suggested that cognitive states (e.g., AVE and guilt) evoked by particular events were better predictors of how quickly binging repeats than were stable differences in attributional style.

This article describes the use of structural equation modeling with latent variables to examine group differences and test competing models about cause-effect relationships in passive longitudinal designs. This approach is compared with several other statistical methods including analysis of cross-lagged panel correlations, regression analysis, and path analysis. The mechanics and advantages of structural equation modeling are illustrated using an example based on a 3-wave longitudinal study of adolescents' alcohol use. Within this example, the generalizability of the measurement model and structural model are assessed across gender and time, and competing models about the causes and consequences of adolescents' alcohol use are tested. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the strengths and limitations of using structural equation modeling with longitudinal data.

This article illustrates a method for approximating longitudinal data analysis by combining information from different overlapping age groups to form a single developmental growth curve. Using this method, hypotheses about the form of growth, the extent of individual differences in growth, and factors that affect the rate and pattern of growth are investigated. The example used to illustrate this method examines the growth of externalizing behavior and of negativity in parent-child relationships during early adolescence using assessments from multiple methods and multiple informants. These 3 dimensions changed significantly during this period, with parental negativity increasing more rapidly after age 12. However, there were substantial individual differences in the pattern of change in these dimensions. Gender of child and type of family situation (nondivorced, divorced, and remarried) were investigated as possible factors affecting change.

We propose 4 parameters that describe the course of change in the subjective intensity of personal problems during psychotherapy: (a) the problem's initial severity; (b) its rate of change (deterioration or improvement); (c) its instability (day-to-day variability in intensity); and (d) its curve (change in the rate of change during treatment). We constructed indexes of these parameters for 10 individualized personal problems rated 3 times per week by each of 40 clients (most were diagnosed as depressed) over the course of their 16-session treatment and associated assessment periods. Initial severity predicted problems' reported salience to clients. The rate of change parameter was correlated (across clients) with traditional pretreatment to posttreatment outcome measures. Instability was high, and problems dealing with tension symptoms and mood were more unstable than were problems dealing with relationships or self-esteem. Cutting across problem content were large individual differences among clients in the patterns of change.

Statistical procedures that have become routine in other social sciences were used to analyze data from clinical service records. Despite the absence of control groups, nonrandom assignment of clients to treatment conditions, and incomplete records, effective analyses of psychotherapeutic processes were possible. Multivariate regression models, with variables that were transformed to significantly improve skewness and regression linearity, were controlled for heteroskedasticity and for end-point censoring of dependent variables. They were also used to measure the effects of a categorical variable (gender) and a scalable variable (intake distress) on a reactive outcome measure (of acute distress) and on an unreactive one (of long-term life satisfaction). Graphical methods for summarizing large data sets helped identify intake variables that could control for attrition-related sampling biases. These longitudinal covariates and corrections to adjust degrees of freedom for cases with repeated measures were then used to construct statistical models that were equivalents of pure cross-sectional designs.

The association between psychological factors and HIV disease progression, using longitudinal design model, is discussed.

The effects of calcium intake in premenopausal women on prevention of osteoporosis are presented.

Correlates of change between memory and processing speed and the contribution of age and retest to such change correlates are examined using longitudinal multivariate mixed models. It is suggested that age alone does not capture such a co-variation although the changes in memory and processing speed may be correlated over time.

Six-year longitudinal data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study was used to investigate individual differences in amount of episodic memory change. The results revealed reliable individual differences in cognitive change and other cognitive variables, including speed and working memory.

Authors evaluated the long-term effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for childhood anxiety disorders. Fifty-two clients (aged 14 to 21 years) who had completed treatment an average of 6.17 years earlier were reassessed using diagnostic interviews, clinician ratings, and self- and parent-report measures. Results indicated that 85.7% no longer fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for any anxiety disorder. On a majority of other measures, gains made at 12-month follow-up were maintained. Furthermore, CBT and CBT plus family management were equally effective at long-term follow-up. These findings support the long-term clinical utility of CBT in treating children and adolescents suffering from anxiety disorders.

This research tests a model suggesting that marital distress leads individuals to scrutinize what is given and received in the relationship. This scrutiny elicits perceptions of unfairness that maintain or exacerbate marital distress. In a 3-panel longitudinal study tracking married couples across the transition to parenthood, both wives' and husbands' reports of marital conflict and wives' marital dissatisfaction at Time 1 positively predicted perceived unfairness of the allocation of household tasks at Time 2, controlling for earlier perceptions of unfairness. In addition, there was evidence of perceived unfairness of division of labor at Time 2 predicting marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for wives at Time 3, controlling for earlier conflict and dissatisfaction. This model of relationship distress and perceptions of unfairness is contrasted with prior interpretations of links between perceived injustice and distress in relationships.

Four personality traits--Mastery Motivation, Academic Conscientiousness, Surgent Engagement, and Agreeableness--were measured in a community sample of 205 children (ages 8-12), who were followed up 10 years later. Childhood personality was examined in relation to concurrent and longitudinal adaptation in 3 domains--academic achievement, role-abiding versus antisocial conduct, and peer social competence. The childhood personality traits evidenced robust, conceptually coherent relationships with adaptation, both concurrently and across time. Childhood personality added to the prediction of later adaptation, beyond childhood IQ and earlier adaptation in the same domain. Few sex differences were obtained in the relationships between childhood personality and adaptation. The present results document both continuity and discontinuity in the links between childhood personality and adaptation across childhood into late adolescence.

Contributions of phonological abilities to early reading acquisition were examined in a longitudinal study of 166 Dutch children from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Various phonological abilities, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, and letter knowledge were assessed in kindergarten and Grade 1. Reading and arithmetic were examined in 1st and 2nd grades. The importance of individual differences in phonological ability for subsequent reading acquisition changed over time. At first, the effects of phonological abilities increased, but after Grade 1, these effects disappeared. Phonological awareness and rapid naming had independent and specific influences on reading achievement. Verbal working memory was associated with both reading and arithmetic acquisition. The results tend to support an interactive view of the relation between development of phonological abilities and learning to read.

A longitudinal study into parent warmth, control and indulgence and their relations to adjustment in Chinese children was undertaken.