Child maltreatment and adult health in a national sample: Heterogeneous relational contexts,divergent effects?

Objective

This study considers the long-term health consequences of child maltreatment. Distinct from previous research, we examine the effects of maltreatment in the context of more general parental evaluations.

Method

Analyses used retrospective and current data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study.

Results

A considerable proportion of middle- and older-age adults who experienced frequent maltreatment nevertheless evaluated the relationship with their offending parent as “excellent”, “very good”, or “good” (e.g., 47% for physical and emotional maltreatment by mothers). Maltreated respondents generally evaluated their maltreating parents less favorably than non-maltreating parents, but there was considerable variation in these recollected relationships. Adults who experienced child maltreatment reported a greater number of chronic medical conditions and physical symptoms and lower self-rated health, but effects were smaller when they had positive relationships with their parents than when one or more of the relationships was perceived as negative.

Conclusions

These findings highlight a common and seemingly paradoxical pattern among MIDUS participants: the co-presence of harsh parental behavior and positive recollections of parental relationships during childhood. Moreover, these surprising patterns of retrospective interpretation predict very different experiences of adult health – health problems are most pronounced among maltreatment in cases where the respondent had a generally negative relationship with one or more of his or her parents.     

Early life emotional neglect and HIV risk taking among men using the Internet to find other men for unprotected sex

Purpose: Using a Syndemics Theory conceptual model, this study examines the relationship between emotional neglect experiences during childhood and/or adolescence and involvement in HIV risk taking in a sample of adult men who actively seek partners for unprotected sex via the Internet. Methods: The study was based on a national random sample of 332 MSM who use the Internet to seek men with whom they can engage in unprotected sex. Data collection was conducted via telephone interviews between January 2008 and May 2009. Structural equation analysis was undertaken to examine the specific nature of the relationships involved in understanding HIV risk practices. Results: Emotional neglect was highly prevalent among the men participating in this study. Emotional neglect experiences were not found to be related directly to involvement in HIV risk taking in adulthood. Emotional neglect, was found to be an important variable in the overall structural equation. Its effect on HIV risk taking was indirect, operating principally by having a negative impact upon self-esteem, which in turn had a negative effect on attitudes toward condom use, which in turn were related strongly and directly to risk taking. Conclusions: Childhood experiences with emotional neglect are relevant to understanding HIV risk practices among MSM in adulthood, but the relationship is not as simple as usually conceptualized. Rather, emotional neglect appears to impact risk taking indirectly, through its effects on mental health functioning, which in turn affects risk-related attitudes.     

The conceptualisation of pupils’ problems by Finnish and Norwegian primary school teachers: performance,welfare and behaviour

Drawing on the tradition of childhood studies, this study explores how children’s problems are being conceptualised by primary school teachers in Finland and Norway and what kind of institutional childhood is reflected in those conceptualisations. I use thematic content analysis to analyse data derived from two primary schools in Tampere, Finland, and two in Trondheim, Norway. In both Nordic contexts, problems were conceptualised in terms of children’s performance, welfare and behaviour. The results imply that the welfare (or care) perspective to childhood, along with more instrumental perspectives of learning outcomes and behaviour management, is essential in Nordic primary education.     

Does training with 3D videos improve decision-making in team invasion sports?

We examined the effectiveness of video-based decision training in national youth handball teams. Extending previous research, we tested in Study 1 whether a three-dimensional (3D) video training group would outperform a two-dimensional (2D) group. In Study 2, a 3D training group was compared to a control group and a group trained with a traditional tactic board. In both studies, training duration was 6 weeks. Performance was measured in a pre- to post-retention design. The tests consisted of a decision-making task measuring quality of decisions (first and best option) and decision time (time for first and best option). The results of Study 1 showed learning effects and revealed that the 3D video group made faster first-option choices than the 2D group, but differences in the quality of options were not pronounced. The results of Study 2 revealed learning effects for both training groups compared to the control group, and faster choices in the 3D group compared to both other groups. Together, the results show that 3D video training is the most useful tool for improving choices in handball, but only in reference to decision time and not decision quality. We discuss the usefulness of a 3D video tool for training of decision-making skills outside the laboratory or gym.     

Injuries in football (soccer)—a systematic review of epidemiology and aetiological aspects

Increasing injury incidences prove the importance of injury prevention in football. The aim of this review was to summarise the recent evidence on the epidemiology and inciting events of acute injuries within subgroups (performance level, age and sex). A systematic literature search was conducted in the databases PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane, PEDro, and SPORTDiscus for articles published from 1 January 2014 until 15 October 2017. The search yielded 4690 results. After the initial screening of titles and abstracts, 182 studies underwent detailed full-text screening according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, 53 studies were included. Of these, 46 papers contained epidemiological data, with a total of approximately 41,212 observed player seasons and 11 further tournaments, including 7122.5 observed matches with approximately 126,748.5 player hours. A total of 30,844 injuries were identified. The overall injury incidence ranged from 0.6 to 20.3 injuries per 1000?h of exposure. The locations at highest risk of injury were the lower limbs, particularly the thighs, knees and ankles. Injury-inciting events were reported in 12 studies, involving a total of 8035 injuries. Of these 12 studies, 5 considered all body locations, 3 concentrated on anterior cruciate ligament injuries, 1 reported on general head injuries, 2 reported on concussions, and 1 reported on midfacial trauma only. One of the main findings of this review was that playing football does not necessarily imply a high risk of injury. Promising preventive approaches are being used to revise implementation strategies of evident training programmes and management of individual workloads.     

Relational integration as a predictor of academic achievement

The current study aimed at applying a broad model of cognitive functions to predict performance in science and language courses at school as well as performance in a science course at university. We hypothesized that performance in science courses was predominantly related to the cognitive function known as relational integration, whereas performance in language courses should be best explained by individuals' short-term memory capacity. The sample consisted of 161 German undergraduate students who were asked to complete 33 cognitive tasks. School grades were also obtained. The analyses revealed that relational integration incrementally explained variance in science grades. Short-term memory acted as a predictor of language grades. However, mental speed was also substantially related to language grades. Predicting university exam scores revealed that short-term memory yielded an incremental predictive power. We conclude that academic performance requires different cognitive functions depending on a domain of study.     

Friends’ influence on the development of academic values in mathematics: are there differences between female and male dyads?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Based on the social cognitive theory and the emotional contagion theory, this study investigated if friends influence (reinforce or change) the...     

Promoting Curiosity?

Science & Education - Curiosity is a wonder of the human mind. It goes to the heart of modernity, as a driving force for learning, novel insights, and innovation, both for individuals and...