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Validation of the Intention Attribution Test for Children (IAC)
Abstract
The Intention Attribution Test for Children (IAC) was created to assess hostile attribution bias in preschool- and early school-aged children. It comprises 16 cartoon strips presenting situations in which one character (either a child or an adult) causes harm to another, either intentionally, accidentally (non-intentional), or without his/her intention being clear (ambiguous). Its validity was tested on 233 children aged 4 to 12 years. Exploratory factor analysis and item response theory (IRT) models demonstrated support for a a single factor of hostile attribution bias for the ambiguous and non-intentional items. Analyses revealed, however, that the intentional items did not contribute to this same overall construct of hostile intention attribution bias. Correlations with the Social Perception Test and with sociometry suggest good validity of the IAC. The IAC may be a useful instrument for research and in the context of therapeutic intervention addressing socially inappropriate behavior in childhood.
Understanding hostile intent attribution (HIA) seems important for prevention of problems in social adaptation. This study aimed to explore whether HIA in childhood is determined by both a cognitive factor (i.e. intellectual disability) and an affective factor (i.e. attachment representations). One hundred and eight 8- to 12-year-old children (54 with intellectual disability and 54 with typical development) passed the Attachment Story Completion Task and the Intention Attribution Test for Children. Results indicated that in ambiguous situations, attachment disorganization was associated with HIA, whereas intellectual disability was not. In nonintentional situations, both attachment hyperactivation and intellectual disability were linked with HIA. These results highlight the importance of helping children develop organized attachment representations and optimal activation of their attachment system to prevent social maladaptation.
According to Bowlby, internal working models (IWMs) of attachment are likely to influence the perception of relationships. However, when insecurity leads to defensive exclusion, IWMs may prevent the integration of new contradictory information and thus lead to biased social perceptions. Little is known about the scope of influence of IWMs according to age, and whether it varies in case of psychopathology associated with biased social perceptions, such as conduct disorder..
Objectives were to examine the links between attachment representations and hostile intention attribution
1) among preschoolers as opposed to older children and
2) among preschoolers with conduct disorder (CD) as opposed to non-clinical preschoolers.
Method: 233 children from 4 to 12 and 22 4 to 6-year-olds passed the Attachment Story Completion Task and the Intention Attribution Test for Children.
Results:
Attachment representations seem to generalize beyond attachment relationships from the age of 6, but disorganization seems to have a pervasive effect on social perception as early as age 6, perhaps even earlier (age 4) when children are very insecure and disorganized (case of children with CD), and with much stronger links.
Between 5 and 7 years of age, secure attachment is associated with better identification of intentional harm, whereas deactivation (avoidance) is associated with reduced identification but not with hostile bias.
Discussion: Whereas connections between attachment IWMs and perceptions of other social relationships are normally observed from the age of 6, strong disorganization is associated with a hostile bias at an earlier age (4 years). This may due to defensive exclusion, which prevents the integration of contradictory information (i.e., non hostile intentions), leading to excessive generalization of anticipations based on past experience and a pervasive internal working model.
Abstract
There are many high-quality resources available which describe best practices in the
implementation of both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA). Yet, partly owing to the complexity of these procedures, confusion persists among
psychologists with respect to the implementation of EFA and CFA. Primary among these
misunderstandings is the very mathematical distinction between EFA and CFA. The current
paper uses a brief example to illustrate the difference between the statistical models underlying
EFA and CFA, both of which are particular instantiations of the more general common factor
model. Next, important considerations for the implementation of EFA and CFA discussed in this
paper include the need to account for the categorical nature of item-level observed variables in
factor analyses, the use of factor analysis in studies of the psychometric properties of new tests
or questionnaires and previously developed tests, decisions about whether to use EFA or CFA in
these contexts, and the importance of replication of factor analytic models in the ongoing pursuit
of validation.
A simple “expression” account of the relation between executive function (EF) and children's developing theory of mind (ToM) has difficulty accounting for the generality of the changes occurring in children's mental-state understanding during the preschool years. The current study of preschool children (N = 43) showed that EF—especially conflict EF—related uniformly to ToM measures that imposed either high or low executive demands, independent of verbal ability. These findings can be explained within an emergence account wherein executive skills are implicated in the acquisition of mental-state concepts as opposed to merely the expression of these concepts in task performance.
Children born with very low birth weight (VLBW) are at risk for neurocognitive and behavioral sequelae. Although VLBW infants are at higher risk for deficits in executive functions (EFs) and social functioning during school-age years, few studies have investigated those sequelae or their association in young children born VLBW. We examined the associations between EFs and social functioning in preterm, VLBW children age 4-6 years (n = 20) and matched, term-born, normal birth weight controls admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after birth (n = 18). The groups did not differ significantly on measures of EFs, social information processing, or parent-reported social adjustment. The VLBW group had lower IQs than controls, though both group means were in the average range. Within the VLBW group, medical predictors of better EFs included older gestational age at birth and no history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Across groups, EFs and social information processing were positively correlated. Deficits in EFs and social functioning may emerge after the preschool years in VLBW children, or improved care of children born VLBW may be reducing the cognitive and psychosocial sequelae observed in earlier cohorts. Among children born VLBW, early EFs may be directly related to social information processing.
The social information-processing (SIP) model has generated significant knowledge concerning the social cognitions of rejected and aggressive children. However, the model rarely has been applied to the cognitions and behavior of prosocial children or adolescents. This study examined SIP patterns of prosocial young adolescents (10 through 12 years of age). Hypothetical situation instruments were used to assess the intent attributions, feelings of distress, and response-decision processes (for relational and instrumental provocation situations) of fourth-through sixth-grade young adolescents (N = 675). Results revealed that, in contrast to their comparison group peers, prosocial young adolescents (a) were less likely to attribute hostile intent or feel distressed in provocation situations (i.e., a benign attributional bias), (b) gave relatively more negative evaluations of aggressive responses and relatively more positive evaluations of prosocial responses to provocation, and (c) were more likely to endorse relational rather than instrumental goals in dealing with provocation. Implications for prosocial development and intervention are discussed.
A total of 39 children, classified in Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 12 and 18 months of age with their mothers and fathers, were observed in play groups and given a cartoon-based social perception test at 5 years of age. Children with anxious attachment histories (primarily avoidant in this sample) differed from those with secure histories on a number of single variables, and behavioural profiles based on combinations of variables showed strong significant differences in quality of play, conflict resolution, and problem behaviours. Measures of play competence, conflict resolution, and behaviour problems were significantly related to infant-mother attachment for girls, but not for boys. Overall competence, however, was significantly related to attachment to the mother for both boys and girls. Children with anxious attachment histories also showed misperceptions of cartoon stimuli, more often perceiving negative intentions than children with secure histories. Between-group differences were notably stronger using classifications with mothers than classifications with fathers. However, effects based on combined attachment information with both mother and father were more powerful for some variables.
The present simulation investigated the performance of parallel analysis for unidimensional binary data. Single-factor models with 8 and 20 indicators were examined, and sample size (50, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000), factor loading (.45, .70, and .90), response ratio on two categories (50/50, 60/40, 70/30, 80/20, and 90/10), and types of correlation coefficients (phi and tetrachoric correlations) were manipulated. The results indicated that parallel analysis performed well in identifying the number of factors. The performance improved as factor loading and sample size increased and as the percentages of responses on two categories became close. Using the 95th and 99th percentiles of the random data eigenvalues as the criteria for comparison in parallel analysis yielded higher correct rate than using mean eigenvalues.
This study investigated the psychometric properties of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) in an adolescent sample (N = 406, ages 12 to 17). This is rarely done even though the TAS-20 is used in adolescent research. Five published factor models were tested. For good fitting models, a second-order model with alexithymia as a higher-order factor and metric invariance across sex and age groups was tested. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the original three-factor model and a four-factor model provided acceptable fit. Both models were invariant across sex, but not across age. Second-order models did not provide good fit. Reliability was good for the "Difficulty identifying feelings" subscale and acceptable for the "Difficulty describing feelings" subscale, but not for the "Externally oriented thinking" subscale. Measuring alexithymia with the TAS-20 in adolescents thus seems problematic, especially in younger age groups.
Item response theory (IRT) is widely used in assessment and evaluation research to explain how participants respond to item level stimuli. Several R packages can be used to estimate the parameters in various IRT models, the most flexible being the ltm (Ri-zopoulos 2006), eRm (Mair and Hatzinger 2007), and MCMCpack (Martin, Quinn, and Park 2011) packages. However these packages have limitations in that ltm and eRm can only analyze unidimensional IRT models effectively and the exploratory multidimensional extensions available in MCMCpack requires prior understanding of Bayesian estimation convergence diagnostics and are computationally intensive. Most importantly, multidi-mensional confirmatory item factor analysis methods have not been implemented in any R package. The mirt package was created for estimating multidimensional item response theory parameters for exploratory and confirmatory models by using maximum-likelihood meth-ods. The Gauss-Hermite quadrature method used in traditional EM estimation (e.g., Bock and Aitkin 1981) is presented for exploratory item response models as well as for confirmatory bifactor models (Gibbons and Hedeker 1992). Exploratory and confirma-tory models are estimated by a stochastic algorithm described by Cai (2010a,b). Various program comparisons are presented and future directions for the package are discussed.
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a complex, multi-step process. The goal of this paper is to collect, in one article, information that will allow researchers and practitioners to understand the various choices available through popular software packages, and to make decisions about "best practices" in exploratory factor analysis. In particular, this paper provides practical information on making decisions regarding (a) extraction, (b) rotation
Using a multicomponent, process-oriented approach, the links between social information processing during the preschool years and (a) sociodemographic risk and (b) behavior problems in preschool were examined in a community sample of 196 children. Findings provided support for our initial hypotheses that aspects of social information processing in preschool are related to both sociodemographic risk and behavior problems in preschool. Response evaluation and in particular the positive evaluation of an aggressive response were related to both sociodemographic risk and children's aggressive behavior and partially mediated the links between sociodemographic risk and aggressive behavior in preschool.
Little research has examined whether social information processing (SIP) measures from early childhood predict externalizing problems beyond the shared association with familial risk markers. In the present study, family antecedents and first-grade externalizing behaviors were studied in relation to preschool and 1st-grade SIP using data from the U.S. National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (N=1,364). A subgroup of low-risk children reported only benign attributions in preschool and had few externalizing problems in 1st grade according to both teacher and mother reports. After controlling for gender and cognitive functioning, the authors found that maternal education and authoritarian attitudes were key predictors of this "Pollyanna preschooler" status and of SIP in 1st grade. However, small effect sizes for SIP variables underscore the need for new approaches to measurement and for further research on moderators of the link between SIP and children's behavior.
Significance
Interpersonal conflict and violence occur within and between groups around the world. Although not proving causation, this study is significant because it suggests a key psychological mechanism in children’s chronic aggression that might be targeted for intervention: one’s attribution that a peer is acting with hostile intent. When children attribute hostile intent to peers, they are more likely to predict they would react aggressively than when they attribute benign intent. Differences in this tendency statistically account for differences in future chronic aggressive behavior problems across children, as well as differences in chronic aggressive behavior problem rates across ecological-context groups. Identifying this mechanism could lead to novel interventions, education, and policies that reduce or prevent aggressive behavior.
The goal of this research was to examine social information-processing mechanisms that may be responsible for hostile interpretational biases among aggressive children. In Study 1, 32 aggressive and 42 nonaggressive adolescent boys and girls were presented with hypothetical stories in which they were to imagine being the object of an ambiguous provocation by a peer. Their task was to interpret the peer's intention. Equal numbers of cues supporting a hostile interpretation and a benign interpretation accompanied the stories. Aggressive subjects demonstrated a relative bias toward attributing hostile intent to the peer provocateur. It also was found that aggressive subjects were less likely than others to utilize presented cues and more likely than others to utilize self-schemas when asked to explain their decisions. This pattern of cue utilization was not responsible for the interpretational patterns, however. In Study 2, similar stories were presented, but the numbers of hostile and benign cues were weigh...
Conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using statistical extraction methods has been recommended, but little is known about the accuracy of the decisions regarding the number of factors to retain for ordered categorical item data by considering a chi-square test, fit indices, and conventional criteria, such as eigenvalue >1 and parallel analysis. With computer-generated data, the authors examined the accuracy of decisions regarding the number of factors to retain for categorical item data, by combining these pieces of information using weighted least-square with mean and variance adjustment estimation methods based on polychoric correlations. A chi-square difference test was also conducted to compare nested EFA models. The results showed that the eigenvalue >1 criterion resulted in too many factors, in general. The chi-square test, chi-square difference test, fit indices, and parallel analysis performed reasonably well when the number of scale points was four, the number of items was 24, the sample size was at least 200, and the categorical distributions were similar across items. However, parallel analysis had a tendency toward factor underextraction when the correlation among factors was .50, particularly for two-point and 12-item scales.
We explored the development of cognitive flexibility in typically developing 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds and adults by modifying a common cognitive flexibility task, the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST). Although performance on the standard FIST reached ceiling by 8years, FIST performance on other variations continued to improve until 10years of age. Within a detailed task analysis, we also explored working memory storage and processing components of executive function and how these contribute to the development of cognitive flexibility. The findings reinforce the notion that cognitive flexibility is a multifaceted construct but that the development of working memory contributes in part to age-related change in this ability.
Perception of the social world in terms of agents and their intentional relations is fundamental to human experience. In this chapter, we review recent investigations into the origins of this fundamental ability that trace its roots to the first year of life. These studies show that infants represent others' actions not as purely physical motions, but rather as actions directed at goals and objects of attention. Infants are able to recover intentional relations at varying levels of analysis, including concrete action goals, higher-order plans, acts of attention, and collaborative goals. There is mounting evidence that these early competencies are strongly influenced by infants' own experience as intentional agents. Action experience shapes infants' action perception.
To further the understanding of the relations among sociocognitive abilities and social behavior, the current study examined theory of mind (ToM), social information processing (SIP), and prosocial behavior in 116 preschoolers (M age = 58.88 months) in Turkey. False belief tasks were utilized to test ToM and cartoons were used to assess SIP patterns. Prosocial behavior was measured with mother-reports and individual assessments. ToM was not related with the attribution of intent and was the only sociocognitive predictor of prosocial behavior, but just in boys. Results also pointed at sex differences in levels of sociocognitive development; girls showed greater ToM and more non-hostile attribution. Findings imply that SIP patterns might be less closely related to positive than antisocial behaviors, and understanding others’ minds might be less needed for positive acts in Turkish girls, who may learn to engage in such behavior as part of their gender role more strongly.
A framework for hypothesis testing and power analysis in the assessment of fit of covariance structure models is presented. We emphasize the value of confidence intervals for fit indices, and we stress the relationship of confidence intervals to a framework for hypothesis testing. The approach allows for testing null hypotheses of not-good fit, reversing the role of the null hypothesis in conventional tests of model fit, so that a significant result provides strong support for good fit. The approach also allows for direct estimation of power, where effect size is defined in terms of a null and alternative value of the root-mean-square error of approximation fit index proposed by J. H. Steiger and J. M. Lind (1980). It is also feasible to determine minimum sample size required to achieve a given level of power for any test of fit in this framework. Computer programs and examples are provided for power analyses and calculation of minimum sample sizes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Parallel analysis has been shown to be suitable for dimensionality assessment in factor analysis of continuous variables. There have also been attempts to demonstrate that it may be used to uncover the factorial structure of binary variables conforming to the unidimensional normal ogive model. This article provides both theoretical and empirical evidence that this is not appropriate. Results of a simulation study indicate that sample size, item discrimination, and type of correlation coefficient (Pearson vs. tetrachoric correlation) considerably influence the performance of parallel analysis. Reliability of parallel analysis with binary variables is found to be notably poor for Pearson correlations and also limited for tetrachoric correlations.
The relations among early social and familial experience, social problem solving skill, and social competence in the classroom were examined in a sample of 46 preschool (4- and 5-year-old) children from economically distressed backgrounds. The hypothesis was tested that (a) early family experiences would be related to classroom social competence, and (b) that this relation would be mediated by the child's social problem solving patterns. Early experience was assessed during a semistructured home-visit interview with each child's mother. Measures derived from this interview included the child's level of exposure to deviant aggressive models, maternal values and expectations for the child, harshness of discipline toward the child, use of preventive teaching with the child, and the child's degree of early experience with peers. The child's classroom competence was assessed by sociometric nominations and teacher ratings of aggressiveness and social skill. Responses to hypothetical social problems were used to generate measures of the child's social problem solving patterns. Several dimensions of family experience were found to be predictive of both classroom social competence and social problem solving. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that some kinds of early experience (e. g., early experience with peers) appeared to have a direct impact on peer outcomes, whereas for other experiences (e. g., exposure to deviant maternal values and expectations), the relation to social competence with peers was mediated by the child's social problem solving skills and patterns. The need to consider family relationship factors when designing preventive intervention programs for socially incompetent children was stressed.
Between the ages of 4 and 8 children increasingly make moral judgments on the basis of an actor's intent, as opposed to the outcome that the actor brings about. Does this reflect a reorganization of concepts in the moral domain, or simply the development of capacities outside the moral domain such as theory of mind and executive function? Motivated by the past evidence that adults rely partially on outcome-based judgment for judgments of deserved punishment, but not for judgments of moral wrongness, we explore the same categories of judgment in young children. We find that intent-based judgments emerge first in children's assessments of naughtiness and that this subsequently constrains their judgments of deserved punishment. We also find that this developmental trajectory differs for judgments of accidental harm (a bad outcome with benign intent) and judgments of attempted harm (a benign outcome with bad intent). Our findings support a two process model derived from studies of adults: a mental-state based process of judging wrongness constrains an outcome-based process of assigning punishment. The emergence of this two-process architecture in childhood suggests that the developmental shift from outcome- to intent-based judgment involves a conceptual reorganization within the moral domain.
Research on the relation between social information processing and social adjustment in childhood is reviewed and interpreted within the framework of a reformulated model of human performance and social exchange. This reformulation proves to assimilate almost all previous studies and is a useful heuristic device for organizing the field. The review suggests that overwhelming evidence supports the empirical relation between characteristic processing styles and children's social adjustment, with some aspects of processing (e.g., hostile attributional biases, intention cue detection accuracy, response access patterns, and evaluation of response outcomes) likely to be causal of behaviors that lead to social status and other aspects (e.g., perceived self-competence) likely to be responsive to peer status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined the role of maternal social behavior in children's behavioral reactions to provocation. Popular and rejected 1st graders and their mothers independently completed an intention-cue detection task. Mothers also completed a questionnaire assessing if their responses to their child were based on the child's intent. A moderate relation within the mother–child dyad was noted for all measures. Rejected children and their mothers reported more aggressive behavioral responses to nonhostile and ambiguous provocations than did popular children and their mothers. Mothers of popular children provided more prosocial resolutions to provocation than did mothers of rejected children. In addition, mothers of popular children focused more on the intent of their children's actions than did mothers of rejected children, particularly when behavior led to negative outcomes. Implications of these findings in terms of the correlates of social status are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research on family–peer relationships [and their effect on childhood development] is proceeding at a rapid pace, and important new conceptual and empirical developments are emerging in many . . . domains. The purpose of this book is to survey these developments and consider their impact on current knowledge and future research. Of particular interest are investigators' efforts to refine existing models of family–peer influences and illuminate specific pathways between the two systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Little research into children’s theory of mind has focused on links with social deficits, with exception of research into the rare condition of autism. However, other studies have analysed theory of mind ability in less severe and less rare social deficits, such as children with conduct disorders or bullying at school. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how social experiences within the peer system are linked to understanding of mind, adopting a sociocultural view of theory of mind development. Peer-rejected children, 4–6 years old, lacking positive social experiences with their peers, are compared with popular and average children in theory of mind tasks performance. Results showed that peer-rejected children presented a similar performance to average children in all theory of mind tasks, with the exception of some figurative language tasks (White Lie), and the presence of socio cognitive aggressive biases. It cannot be said from these results that peer rejected children showed a deficit in the ability of mentalizing. However, a kind of theory of ‘nasty minds’ may be present in these rejected children.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
A framework for hypothesis testing and power analysis in the assessment of fit of covariance structure models is presented. We emphasize the value of confidence intervals for fit indices, and we stress the relationship of confidence intervals to a framework for hypothesis testing. The approach allows for testing null hypotheses of not-good fit, reversing the role of the null hypothesis in conventional tests of model fit, so that a significant result provides strong support for good fit. The approach also allows for direct estimation of power, where effect size is defined in terms of a null and alternative value of the root-mean-square error of approximation fit index proposed by J. H. Steiger and J. M. Lind (1980). It is also feasible to determine minimum sample size required to achieve a given level of power for any test of fit in this framework. Computer programs and examples are provided for power analyses and calculation of minimum sample sizes., (C) 1996 by the American Psychological Association
This chapter reviews theory and research on the development of children's knowledge about the mental world, focusing especially on work done during the past 15 years under the rubric of theory-of-mind development. The three principal approaches to explaining this development--theory theory, modular theory, and simulation theory--are described first. Next comes a description of infant precursors or protoforms of theory-of-mind knowledge in infancy, including a beginning awareness of the intentionality and goal-directedness of human actions. This discussion is followed by a summary of the postinfancy development of children's understanding of visual perception, attention, desires, emotions, intentions, beliefs, knowledge, pretense, and thinking. Briefly considered next are intracultural, intercultural, and interspecies differences in theory-of-mind development. The chapter then concludes with some guesses about the future of the field.
Proper use of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) requires the researcher to make a series of careful decisions. Despite attempts by Floyd and Widaman (1995), Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, and Strahan (1999), and others to elucidate critical issues involved in these decisions, examples of questionable use of EFA are still common in the applied factor analysis literature. Poor decisions regarding the model to be used, the criteria used to decide how many factors to retain, and the rotation method can have drastic consequences for the quality and meaningfulness of factor analytic results. One commonly used approach--principal components analysis, retention of components with eigenvalues greater than 1.0, and varimax rotation of these components--is shown to have potentially serious negative consequences. In addition, choosing arbitrary thresholds for factor loadings to be considered large, using single indicators for factors, and violating the linearity assumptions underlying EFA can have negative consequences for interpretation of results. It is demonstrated that, when decisions are carefully made, EFA can yield unambiguous and meaningful results.
Self-regulation is a complex process that involves consumers’ persistence, strength, motivation, and commitment in order to be able to override short-term impulses. In order to be able to pursue their long-term goals, consumers typically need to forgo immediate pleasurable experiences that are detrimental to reach their overarching goals. Although this sometimes involves resisting to simple and small temptations, it is not always easy, since the lure of momentary temptations is pervasive. In addition, consumers’ beliefs play an important role determining strategies and behaviors that consumers consider acceptable to engage in, affecting how they act and plan actions to attain their goals. This dissertation investigates adequacy of some beliefs typically shared by consumers about the appropriate behaviors to exert self-regulation, analyzing to what extent these indeed contribute to the enhancement of consumers’ ability to exert self-regulation.
Synopsis
Results are compared in studies of 4 male cohorts – 1 all white, 1 all black, and 2 racially representative of the population – growing up in different eras, followed past varying portions of their adult lives, living in different parts of the US. Despite sample differences and differences in sources of information and in the variables used to measure both childhood predictors and adult outcomes, some striking replications appear with respect to childhood predictors of adult antisocial behaviour. All types of antisocial behaviour in childhood predict a high level of antisocial behaviour in adulthood and each kind of adult antisocial behaviour is predicted by the number of childhood antisocial behaviours, indicating that adult and childhood antisocial behaviour both form syndromes and that these syndromes are closely interconnected. Also confirmed across studies are: (1) adult antisocial behaviour virtually requires childhood antisocial behaviour; (2) most antisocial children do not become antisocial adults; (3) the variety of antisocial behaviour in childhood is a better predictor of adult antisocial behaviour than is any particular behaviour; (4) adult antisocial behaviour is better predicted by childhood behaviour than by family background or social class of rearing; (5) social class makes little contribution to the prediction of serious adult antisocial behaviour.
Recent studies indicate that feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction can be reliably assessed with third- through sixth-grade children, and that children who are sociometrically rejected by their peers are significantly more lonely than other children. The present research was designed (a) to examine whether loneliness could be reliably assessed in a population younger than previously studied, (b) to learn whether young children who are poorly accepted by peers report elevated levels of loneliness and social dissatisfaction, (c) to assess whether young children understand the concept of loneliness, and (d) to examine the behavioral characteristics of lonely young children. Kindergarten and first-grade children (N = 440) responded to a questionnaire about feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction in school. A subset of children (N = 46) were individually interviewed to assess their understanding of loneliness. To assess sociometric status and behavior, peers were asked to respond to various sociometric measures and behavioral assessment items. Teachers also provided behavioral information about children using a newly developed instrument. Results indicated that nearly all children understood loneliness, that loneliness was reliably assessed in young children, and that poorly accepted children were more lonely than other children. In addition, children who reported the most loneliness were found to differ from others on several behavioral dimensions.
Components of social problem solving (problem definition, generation and prioritization of solutions, and generation and evaluation of consequences) were assessed in high aggressive and low aggressive boys from grades 2-3 and 5-6. When compared with their low aggressive peers, high aggressive boys at both grade levels were more likely to (1) define social problems based on the perception that others were hostilely-motivated adversaries, (2) generate few consequences for exhibiting aggression, (3) choose a "second-best" solution that was rated as ineffective, and (4) evaluate their own affective reactions to self-generated consequences of aggression as "wouldn't care" or as not "unhappy." In addition, within the group of aggressive boys, problem definition was found to be significantly related to both number of solutions generated and effectiveness of solutions that subjects chose as best and second-best. These findings are discussed in terms of early patterns of cognitive mediation that differentiate high aggressive children from their low aggressive peers.
Theoretically based measures of social information-processing patterns in specific situations were developed and administered to popular, average, socially rejected, and socially neglected girls and boys in the first, third, and fifth grades (total n = 95). Measures included interpretations of peers' intentions, quantity and quality of responses generated to problematic stimuli, evaluations of responses, and enactments of particular responses. Three kinds of situations were generated empirically as stimuli: being teased, being provoked ambiguously, and initiating entry into a peer group. Deviant children (rejected and neglected) were found to respond deficiently compared to average and popular children, but only in the situation in which they were teased. Older children performed more competently than younger children in all three situations. Interactions among gender, sociometric status, and age also were found. Findings were interpreted as evidence of the elusiveness and complexity of social information-processing defects among low sociometric status children.
A reliable measure of children's skills in discriminating intention cues in others was developed for this investigation in order to test the hypothesis that intention-cue detection skill is related to social competence in children. Videotapes were prepared in which one child provoked another child. The intention of the first child varied across videotapes. The subject's task was to discriminate among types of intentions. Care was taken to ensure that scores on this measure were not confounded by a child's verbal capacity or general discrimination skill. This instrument was administered to 176 children in kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade, who were identified by sociometric measures as having a peer status as popular, average, socially rejected, or socially neglected. Scores on this measure were found to increase as a function of increasing age, and normal children (popular and average) were found to score more highly than deviant children (neglected and rejected). The errors by deviant children tended to consist of erroneous labels of prosocial intentions as hostile. Also, children's statements about their probable behavioral responses to provocations by peers were found to vary as a function of subjects' perceptions of the intention of the peer causing the provocation, not as a function of the actual intention portrayed by the peer. Sociometric status differences in these responses were also found. These findings were consistent with a hypothesis of a developmental lag among socially deviant children in the acquisition of intention-cue detection skills.
3 studies are reported which assess the nature and limits of a known bias on the part of aggressive boys to overattribute hostile intentions to peers. The first study determined that this bias is restricted to attributions of a peer's behavior toward an aggressive boy, and not to attributions of a peer's behavior toward a second peer. Biased attributions were implicated as a direct precedent to aggressive responses. The second study assessed the role of selective attention to and recall of hostile social cues in the formation of a biased attribution. It was found that selective recall of hostile cues did lead to a biased attribution, but that selective recall did not fully account for the attributional differences between aggressive and nonaggressive boys. Also, specific deficits in recall by aggressive boys were identified. The third study involved naturalistic observation of the peer-directed aggressive behaviors of boys in a controlled setting. It was found that the biased attributions of aggressive boys may have some basis in their experience, in that they were frequently the targets of peers' aggressive behavior. Their own aggressive behavior toward peers, however, occurred at a much higher rate than the rate at which they were the targets of aggression. These findings led to the formation of a social-information-processing model of aggressive behavior.
This article tested the hypotheses that (1) children's behavioral competence is a function of patterns of social information processing; (2) processing correlates of behavior occur at each of 5 steps of processing within each of 3 social situations; (3) measures at each step uniquely increment each other in predicting behavior; (4) the relation between processing and behavior is stronger within than across domains; and (5) processing patterns are more sophisticated among older than younger children and the processing-behavior relation is stronger among older than younger children. Videorecorded stimuli were used to assess processing patterns (encoding, interpretational errors and bias, response generation, response evaluation, and enactment skill) in 3 domains (peer group entry, response to provocation, and response to authority directive) in 259 first-, second-, and third-grade boys and girls (ages 6-9 years). Ratings of behavioral competence in each domain were made by peers and teachers. Findings generally supported hypotheses, with the magnitude of relations being modest.
A semi-parametric mixture model was used with a sample of 1,037 boys assessed repeatedly from 6 to 15 years of age to approximate a continuous distribution of developmental trajectories for three externalizing behaviors. Regression models were then used to determine which trajectories best predicted physically violent and nonviolent juvenile delinquency up to 17 years of age. Four developmental trajectories were identified for the physical aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity externalizing behavior dimensions: a chronic problem trajectory, a high level near-desister trajectory, a moderate level desister trajectory, and a no problem trajectory. Boys who followed a given trajectory for one type of externalizing problem behavior did not necessarily follow the same trajectory for the two other types of behavior problem. The different developmental trajectories of problem behavior also led to different types of juvenile delinquency. A chronic oppositional trajectory, with the physical aggression and hyperactivity trajectories being held constant, led to covert delinquency (theft) only, while a chronic physical aggression trajectory, with the oppositional and hyperactivity trajectories being held constant, led to overt delinquency (physical violence) and to the most serious delinquent acts.
A model of the development of hostile attributional style and its role in children's aggressive behavior is proposed, based on the translation of basic science in ethology, neuroscience, social psychology, personality psychology, and developmental psychology. Theory and findings from these domains are reviewed and synthesized in the proposed model, which posits that (a) aggressive behavior and hostile attributions are universal human characteristics, (b) socialization leads to the development of benign attributions, (c) individual differences in attributional style account for differences in aggressive behavior, and (d) interventions to change attributions have the potential to alter antisocial development. Challenges for future research are described.
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