This study examined relationships of stress (negative event frequency during the last year) to re... more This study examined relationships of stress (negative event frequency during the last year) to reports of illness among 92 children, aged 10 to 13 years. Children's health status was reported separately by children and parents, and children's skill in identifying and communicating their feelings was tested for direct and buffering relationships on illness reports. Analyses controlled for demographics and negative affect of both children and parents, and children's verbal ability was also tested for confounding. Results showed that stress correlated positively with children's poor health, whether the children's health status was reported by children or by parents. Children's emotional skill was correlated with better health when health was reported by children, but with worse health when health was reported by parents. Further, moderator analyses indicated that the relationship between negative event frequency and children's poor health as reported by parents held only for children with high levels of skill in identifying and communicating feelings. These findings suggest that negative life events impair children's health, but that the health reports of children and parents are quite different, and parents' views may be affected by children's skill in communicating their internal states.
The relations among age appearance, facial attractiveness, and adult expectations of the developm... more The relations among age appearance, facial attractiveness, and adult expectations of the developmental maturity of infants were examined in 3 studies. In Study 1, a relation was demonstrated between ratings of the attractiveness (77 judges) and age appearance (53 judges) of 6-month-olds: less attractive infants were judged to be older than their attractive age-mates. In Study 2, 75 parents judged the specific developmental abilities of 6-month-old infants and estimated the age of the babies. Parents overestimated both the age and the developmental abilities of the unattractive infants. Furthermore, ability estimates for the unattractive infants were significantly higher than judgments of the typical abilities of 6-month-olds made by another group of 35 parents. Finally, the results of Study 2 were replicated in Study 3 conducted with 348 mothers. It was also demonstrated in Study 3 that, although mothers expected unattractive infants to be capable of more specific developmental skills, they nevertheless rated the general competence of the unattractive infants to be lower than that of attractive infants. Specious contradictions in the attractiveness and age appearance literatures are resolved by these results: age appearance seems to function as an informational cue with respect to specific age-appropriate abilities, whereas attractiveness elicits evaluative attributions of general competence. Both types of information conveyed in faces may have important implications for adult evaluations of infants and older children.
Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for youth has the potential to benefit both physical and mental hea... more Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for youth has the potential to benefit both physical and mental health outcomes. Yet little is known about the extent to which study designs in this area are aligned with established standards of intervention research. This critical review assesses current research methodologies focusing on AATs for youth with physical and mental health concerns. The main aims of this review are to advance the knowledge base of empirically supported treatments and identify next steps that researchers can take to secure the place of AATs as sound and valid interventions for youth.
The growing interest in the mechanisms through which human-animal interaction (HAI) benefits huma... more The growing interest in the mechanisms through which human-animal interaction (HAI) benefits humans suggests that new measures are needed to assess human bonding, especially to non-owned animals (i.e., animals that are not the human’s pet). The current study addressed this need by developing and testing a new measure to assess human bonding behavior with non-owned animals, during an animal-assisted intervention that incorporated shelter dogs. An observational measure, a 12-item Bonding with Dog Checklist (BoDC), was created based on prior work on dog bonding and attachment. Participants in the study were incarcerated adolescents residing in two juvenile detention centers (N = 131). An Exploratory Factor Analysis resulted in a final 7-item measure with a single factor structure and good inter-item reliability ( alpha = .864). Raters used the 7-item BoDC to assess bonding of youth with dogs as they trained or walked shelter dogs during a 10-week intervention. Seventeen raters were trained in use of the observational measure and attended weekly supervision meetings. BoDC scores increased over the sessions and the BoDC was moderately correlated with a measure of dog attachment in the first half of the intervention, providing some evidence for construct validity. These results provide preliminary evidence for the BoDC as a reliable and valid measure to assess human bonding to animals that are not their personal companions.
This study examined relationships of stress (negative event frequency during the last year) to re... more This study examined relationships of stress (negative event frequency during the last year) to reports of illness among 92 children, aged 10 to 13 years. Children's health status was reported separately by children and parents, and children's skill in identifying and communicating their feelings was tested for direct and buffering relationships on illness reports. Analyses controlled for demographics and negative affect of both children and parents, and children's verbal ability was also tested for confounding. Results showed that stress correlated positively with children's poor health, whether the children's health status was reported by children or by parents. Children's emotional skill was correlated with better health when health was reported by children, but with worse health when health was reported by parents. Further, moderator analyses indicated that the relationship between negative event frequency and children's poor health as reported by parents held only for children with high levels of skill in identifying and communicating feelings. These findings suggest that negative life events impair children's health, but that the health reports of children and parents are quite different, and parents' views may be affected by children's skill in communicating their internal states.
The relations among age appearance, facial attractiveness, and adult expectations of the developm... more The relations among age appearance, facial attractiveness, and adult expectations of the developmental maturity of infants were examined in 3 studies. In Study 1, a relation was demonstrated between ratings of the attractiveness (77 judges) and age appearance (53 judges) of 6-month-olds: less attractive infants were judged to be older than their attractive age-mates. In Study 2, 75 parents judged the specific developmental abilities of 6-month-old infants and estimated the age of the babies. Parents overestimated both the age and the developmental abilities of the unattractive infants. Furthermore, ability estimates for the unattractive infants were significantly higher than judgments of the typical abilities of 6-month-olds made by another group of 35 parents. Finally, the results of Study 2 were replicated in Study 3 conducted with 348 mothers. It was also demonstrated in Study 3 that, although mothers expected unattractive infants to be capable of more specific developmental skills, they nevertheless rated the general competence of the unattractive infants to be lower than that of attractive infants. Specious contradictions in the attractiveness and age appearance literatures are resolved by these results: age appearance seems to function as an informational cue with respect to specific age-appropriate abilities, whereas attractiveness elicits evaluative attributions of general competence. Both types of information conveyed in faces may have important implications for adult evaluations of infants and older children.
Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for youth has the potential to benefit both physical and mental hea... more Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for youth has the potential to benefit both physical and mental health outcomes. Yet little is known about the extent to which study designs in this area are aligned with established standards of intervention research. This critical review assesses current research methodologies focusing on AATs for youth with physical and mental health concerns. The main aims of this review are to advance the knowledge base of empirically supported treatments and identify next steps that researchers can take to secure the place of AATs as sound and valid interventions for youth.
The growing interest in the mechanisms through which human-animal interaction (HAI) benefits huma... more The growing interest in the mechanisms through which human-animal interaction (HAI) benefits humans suggests that new measures are needed to assess human bonding, especially to non-owned animals (i.e., animals that are not the human’s pet). The current study addressed this need by developing and testing a new measure to assess human bonding behavior with non-owned animals, during an animal-assisted intervention that incorporated shelter dogs. An observational measure, a 12-item Bonding with Dog Checklist (BoDC), was created based on prior work on dog bonding and attachment. Participants in the study were incarcerated adolescents residing in two juvenile detention centers (N = 131). An Exploratory Factor Analysis resulted in a final 7-item measure with a single factor structure and good inter-item reliability ( alpha = .864). Raters used the 7-item BoDC to assess bonding of youth with dogs as they trained or walked shelter dogs during a 10-week intervention. Seventeen raters were trained in use of the observational measure and attended weekly supervision meetings. BoDC scores increased over the sessions and the BoDC was moderately correlated with a measure of dog attachment in the first half of the intervention, providing some evidence for construct validity. These results provide preliminary evidence for the BoDC as a reliable and valid measure to assess human bonding to animals that are not their personal companions.
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