Depressed mothers' judgments about their children: an examination of the depression-distortion hypothesis

The belief that depressed mothers have distorted perceptions of their children's problems has gained considerable currency in recent years. The empirical basis for this belief at present amounts to little more than reliable demonstrations that depressed mothers tend to report more behavior problems in their children than do nondepressed mothers. An obvious alternative to the distortion interpretation is that depressed mothers are accurate about their children's behavior problems. We examined these competing models by comparing teachers' ratings of children with ratings provided by their mothers, who varied on the dimensions of depressed mood, depressed clinical state, and history of depression. Mothers' and teachers' ratings yielded substantially similar portraits of child behavior problems at the group level, with children of in-remission and in-episode mothers manifesting significantly higher levels of behavior problems than children of control mothers. Moreover, agreement between mothers and teachers was in the moderate range for all index groups and did not differ significantly from the mean level of mother-teacher agreement reported by other investigators based on unselected samples. The limitations of these findings and of earlier reports for assessing a depression----distortion influence on mothers' ratings of their children are considered.     

Learning disabilities in alcohol-dependent adults: a preliminary study

To determine if neuropsychological deficits, known to precede alcohol use in those genetically predisposed to alcoholism, were present in an alcoholic population, 25 male alcoholics (mean age 41.1) were interviewed concerning alcohol usage, educational difficulties in elementary school, and family history of alcoholism. Using a regression table, discrepancies between current IQ on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) (Wechsler, 1981) and achievement on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (WJB) (Woodcock & Johnson, 1977) were calculated to determine present learning status. Forty percent of the alcoholics were found to have had special education, remedial services, or repeated grade failure concurrent with a familial history of alcoholism and current discrepancies indicative of learning disability. There were no significant differences on intelligence, years of drinking, or mean grades completed in school between this group and the rest of the subjects who did not receive services in school. Conclusions were that childhood learning disorders may be related to the development of alcoholism, particularly when alcoholism is in the family, and that special educators have a role to play in the prevention and treatment of alcoholism.     

Developing guidelines for HIV antibody testing among victims of pediatric sexual abuse

The incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection acquired by children through sexual abuse is presently unknown. A telephone survey of 63 practitioners of pediatric sexual abuse (PSA) assessment in the five U.S. regions with highest prevalence of HIV infection was conducted to determine the present status of guidelines for HIV antibody testing of PSA victims. No formal protocol was used by any of those surveyed, and a literature review found no existing guidelines for HIV antibody testing of PSA victims. A standard set of clinical situations was presented to practitioners to assess whether a consensus exists of indications for HIV antibody testing of abused children. Seven clinical profiles with 12 criteria were presented including HIV antibody status, AIDS/ARC clinical profile, and behavioral profile of the assailant; clinical profile of the victim; pre-assault victim behavioral profile compatible with high risk of HIV infection (exclusively adolescents); parent/guardian anxiety/psychosocial profile; and profile of the assaultive act with respect to potential transmissibility of HIV. We found an 85% or greater consensus for 6 testing criteria, and based upon these propose an interim set of HIV antibody testing guidelines for PSA victims. There was no consensus about five testing criteria, but their frequent citation merits further consideration. Clinical application of interim guidelines and design of prospective studies to quantitatively evaluate them are reviewed.     

A conceptual overview of the regression discrepancy model for evaluating severe discrepancy between IQ and achievement scores

A conceptual overview of the Regression Discrepancy Model (RDM) for determining severe discrepancy between IQ and achievement scores is presented in order to enhance understanding of the model without the use of the complex mathematical equations that constitute the model. The six specific goals of the RDM are identified, and figures illustrate the manner in which the model accomplishes each goal. Figures are also provided from a RDM computer output showing the basic outcomes of the model. Advantages and disadvantages of the RDM are discussed to further promote understanding of the model.     

Reasoning about logical propositions and success in science

Students display a number of misconceptions when asked to reason about logical propositions. Rather than being random, these misconceptions are stereotypic, and relate to age, ability, and success in science. The grades in science achieved by tenth-grade general science students from two parochial single-sex schools in Australia correlated with their scores on the Propositional Logic Test. The students' ability level was consistently related to the pattern of errors they committed on that measure. Mean scores were lowest on a subtest of ability to use the biconditional and implication, higher on the disjunction, and highest on the conjunction. Success in science was predicted most strongly by the disjunction and biconditional subtests. Knowledge of the way in which a person reasons about logical propositions provides additional insights into the transformations information is subjected to as it is integrated into mental schemata.     

Mnemonic-strategy reduction of prose-learning interference

One hundred and sixty college students read three fictitious biographical passages according to either imagery-mnemonic or no-strategy control instructions. In one mnemonic condition, subjects formed separate images involving each biographical name and its associated facts: in another mnemonic condition, the biographical name and its associated facts were integrated within a single composite image. Relative to an interference-control condition, integrated mnemonic subjects recalled more factual information, whereas separate mnemonic subjects did not. In addition, the recall of integrated mnemonic subjects was statistically no different from that of a noninterference control condition, whereas the recall of separate mnemonic subjects was lower. Both theoretical and educational implications of the results are discussed. The first author’s contribution to this work was supported by an Organized Research Grant from the Graduate School of Illinois State University. The second author’s contribution was supported by the National Institute of Education under Grant No. NIE-G-81-0009 to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and was facilitated by a Romnes Faculty Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.