Coping styles of learning disabled adolescents and their parents

The study compares coping styles of 50 learning disabled and nonlearning dis-abled adolescents and their parents. Analyses indicate that learning disabled adolescents show less ability to appraise a source of stress and seek information in the various domains with which they are expected to cope. Also, they reveal a higher level of pessimism about problems in academic-related domains. Coping patterns of parents of learning disabled adolescents do not show clear differences from parents of nonlearning disabled. Yet mothers of learning disabled adolescents tend more to seek and accept help. Learning disabled adolescents' coping is clearly related to coping or more specifically to difficulties in coping of their parents. Results are discussed in the context of the special difficulties of the learning disabled during adolescence and the role their parents play during this developmental stage.Received Ph. D. from Bar Ilan University. Research interests include developmental and family processes in normal and pathological adolescents.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Main interests are developmental and family processes in adolescence.Received M.A. in counseling from Tel Aviv University.Received M.A. in counseling from Tel Aviv University.     

The nuclear family: Correspondence in cognitive and affective reactions to the threat of nuclear war among older adolescents and their parents

In order to assess the relationship between family members' cognitive and affective responses to nuclear war issues, 317 college students and their parents (n=559) independently completed a multifaceted questionnaire that included items concerning personal reactions, predictions, opinions, and attitudes about nuclear war. Results revealed a negligible relationship between the responses of college students and their parents, although the level of concordance between mothers and fathers was somewhat greater. Moreover, parents and students were relatively poor at predicting each others' nuclear threat attitudes, and the strength with which an attitude was endorsed did not enhance its predictability. Results are discussed with regard to heterogeneity in attitudinal and affective reactions within families, and with regard to the idea that infrequent communication concerning nuclear war issues may be occurring.Portions of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California, August 25, 1985.Interested in clinical and counseling psychology, the psychological effects of the threat of nuclear war, and parent training.Interested in counseling psychology, nuclear war issues, and the concept-specific measurement of emotionality.Interested in counseling psychology, nuclear war issues, and factors influencing custody decisions.     

Adolescents Coping with Poverty-Related Family Stress: Prospective Predictors of Coping and Psychological Symptoms

Examined prospective associations among poverty-related family stress, coping, involuntary stress reactivity, and psychological symptoms in a sample of 79 rural, low-income adolescents. Poverty-related family stress predicted adolescents’ anxious/depressed and aggressive behavior 8 months later, controlling for prior symptoms. Coping interacted with initial symptoms and involuntary stress reactivity to predict changes in symptoms over time, showing that primary and secondary control coping were most strongly associated with changes in symptoms for adolescents with low initial symptoms and involuntary stress reactivity. The only significant predictor of coping over time was prior coping, suggesting that coping is not symptom-driven and may be somewhat trait-like. Implications for interventions and additional research are offered. Assistant Professor, University of Denver. Received PhD from University of Vermont. Research interests include the effects of poverty on family functioning, developmental issues in stress and coping, and developmental psychopathology Doctoral student in Clinical Psychology, University of Denver. Research interests include close relationship influences on adolescent development and psychopathology.     

Adults' attachment patterns: Coping with separations

The present study was designed to examine the correlation between attachment patterns of adults and reactions to separations from their significant others on both a phenomenological and a representational level. Cluster analysis technique was used to classify 137 college students into four attachment pattern categories: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and controlling (compulsive care giver). On the phenomenological level, the current relationships of the subjects with their parents and romantic partner were assessed, in order to explore how they manage the developmental task of separation from one's parents. On the representational level we assessed, using a projective test (the SAT) subjects' responses to mild and severe separations. As expected, subjects with different attachment patterns coped with separations according to their attachment style. For example, secure subjects coped well with this developmental task. They tended to live outside the parental home and to attribute the highest significance to their romantic partner while sustaining close communication with their mother. Ambivalent subjects also tended to live outside their parental home but were all single and reported less committed and close relationships with romantic partners. On a representational level they reacted with strong anxiety, rejection, and self-blame to separations and even mild separations elicited strong attachment reactions. Avoidant subjects tended to refrain from dealing with the developmental task of separation, while controlling subjects were characterized by their use of mechanisms of reaction formation. Overall the results underscore the importance of considering attachment patterns of adults in our attempts to understand coping with the developmental task of separation.Received Ph.D from Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Research interests include attachment and close relationships.Received M.A. degree from the University of Haifa. Research interests include transition to adulthood.Received Ph.D. from Cornell University. Research interests include intimacy, ecological influences on the development of close relationships, and children's friendships.     

Interethnic contacts in an alternative educational environment: The Israeli Shelef project

The purpose of the study was to examine the unique interethnic contact situation provided by the Israeli Shelef project and its consequences in changes of ethnic stereotypes among Shelef participants. The study population consisted of all 49 Shelef members during the academic year 1979–1980, who resided in seven different development towns. They responded to an anonymous questionnaire which solicited information concerning their personal background and measures of interethnic relations. The data indicate that the tendency to generalize and to relate to people categorically decreased over the year and was replaced by a more individualistic approach to people different than one's own. Also, Shelef members' valuation of eastern Jews and development townspeople became higher, and their readiness to associate with them became complete and unconditional at all levels of intimacy. The implications of the project for providing adolescents with meaningful experiences, bringing the school and the real world closer together, are also discussed.Received Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Main interests are sociology of education, political socialization, and sociology of the family.Received M.A. in the sociology of education from Tei-Aviv University. Currently working in teachers' training in the social sciences.     

Towards the Development of a Conflict Escalation Model: The Case of Israeli Youth

The aim of this study was to present and initially test a model of escalation to verbal and physical aggression among Israeli youths. Stratified sampling was used to obtain data from 799 students in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades of junior high schools in a northern Israeli city and its suburbs. A structural equation model (SEM) analysis confirmed that there is a significant positive correlation between the constructs of the so-called escalation preference and capability, and showed that both significantly influenced the escalation pattern. In addition, boys and younger students appeared to demonstrate a higher escalatory tendency than girls and older students. Theoretical and practical implications for professional intervention are discussed.     

Contextual and Personal Predictors of Adaptive Outcomes Under Terror Attack: The Case of Israeli Adolescents

This paper explores individual differences in perceptions of political violence, strategies for coping with violence, and adaptive outcomes. Data on political violence stress, personal variables, coping strategies, and stress reactions were gathered on a sample of 227 Israeli adolescents in Haifa and Northern Israel confronted with a prolonged period of terror attack in the course of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Political violence stress and trait anxiety were shown to be meaningful predictors of both coping strategies and adaptive outcomes. Although adolescents reported employing more avoidance coping, on average, than other coping modes, it was primarily the use of emotion-focused coping efforts that predicted stress reactions. The observation that problem-focused coping did not meaningfully alleviate stress reactions may have been a function of the uncontrollable nature and severity of the community stressor. The data were discussed and explicated in the context of stress and coping theory and research. Professor and Dean of Research and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Emotions, Haifa University, Mt. Carmel, Israel.     

The self-image of adolescents: A study of four cultures

This paper describes the utilization of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ) for research purposes on a variety of adolescent populations and demonstrates the OSIQ's effectiveness in meaningfully separating normal, juvenile delinquent, and emotionally disturbed adolescents; older and younger teenagers; males and females. It also considers the utilization of the OSIQ in four different cultures (United States, Ireland, Australia, and Israel) and concentrates on the results obtained when the OSIQ is given adolescents in these four cultures. It discusses the findings and points to some of the methodological problems which are inherent in doing cross-cultural research.Presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in San Francisco, California, April 20, 1976.Received his M.D. from the University of Chicago. He interned at the University of Illinois and took his psychiatric residency at Michael Reese Hospital and University of Chicago. He is a graduate of the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. Major interests have been concept of mental health and the developmental psychology of adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in human development from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and delinquency.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Major interests are psychotherapy research and adolescence.     

The Impact of Birth Order on Intergenerational Transmission of Attitudes from Parents to Adolescent Sons: The Israeli Case

This study deals with birth order and its impact on intergenerational transmission of parental attitudes to adolescent sons in Israeli society. The sample included 294 participants (including 98 mothers, 98 fathers, and 98 sons). The attitudes chosen were key issues of concern in Israeli society: gender role attitudes, ethnic stereotypes, and attitudes toward immigrants from the former USSR (disposition toward contact and empathy toward immigrants). The findings indicate that birth order impacts on intergenerational transmission of attitudes from parents to adolescents, although the nature of this impact is different for mothers and fathers. The correlation between fathers' attitudes and those of their sons were strongest for the firstborn, and decreased according to birth order. The reverse trend was found for mothers. In addition, firstborns expressed greater willingness to approach immigrants than did middle and younger children. Regarding gender role attitudes and ethnic stereotypes, no impact was found for birth order. Compared with other family members, mothers expressed the most liberal gender role attitudes, and children expressed the least stereotyped attitudes toward ethnic groups, especially compared with their fathers.     

The self-concept of homeless adolescents

Thirty adolescents who had lived away from home for at least six months were compared on self-concept with 120 adolescents living at home. The latter group was divided into equal numbers of adolescents who were employed, unemployed, school students, and college students. The Offer Self-image Questionnaire for Adolescents was used to measure self-concept. Other measures used were the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hopelessness Scale of Beck et al.,and the Rotter Internal External Locus of Control Scale. These were used to examine the relationship between deficits in self-concept and psychopathology. Environmental factors such as family relationships, employment, school achievement, and friendships were also examined. It was found that homeless adolescents demonstrated significant deficits in five areas of self-concept and a specific pattern of deficits was related to hopelessness. Results were discussed with reference to the theory that acting-out behavior mitigates the impact of affective disturbance on self concept.Received her master's of clinical psychology from Macquarie University, Australia. Major interest is adolescent psychopathology and clinical work with homeless adolescents.     

Ethnicity and gender similarity: The effectiveness of counseling for adolescents

Few studies in counseling and psychotherapy have examined the relationship between counselees' perception of counselors' attractiveness and therapeutic outcomes using high school-age counselees in actual counseling sessions. This study investigated the extent to which perceived counselor-counselee similarity affected the counselee's perceptions of counselor attractiveness and how perceived counselor attractiveness affected the degree of counselee satisfaction with counseling. The results suggested that racial and gender differences appear not to have operated as barriers to effective counseling. The implications of these findings for counseling research and practice, in general, we well as for successful counselor-counselee interactions in a multicultural context, in particular, are discussed.She received her Ed.D. degree in curriculum and counseling from the UCLA Graduate School of Education in 1987. She has a long-standing interest in minority-group accessibility to higher education and the importance of matching in counseling and guidance.Her Ph.D. is also from UCLA, where she is currently a faculty member. Her areas of research include discriminatory testing and psychodiagnostic issues related to ethnic/minority-group populations.     

The Project for the Education of Israeli Children in the Kibbutz Movement

Summary

In Israel there are various settings in which children can be raised if for various reasons they cannot live with their families. This article describes one of these programs, The Project for the Education of Israeli Children (Mif'al Lehahsharat Yaldei Israel) (Brashi, 1994), and focuses on the role of the kibbutz movement. The Project is special in that children are placed in foster families (or family homes), offering them not only warmth and love but also the opportunity for a remedial experience of family life in functioning families that provide physical and emotional support. The first part presents a general outline of the Project, and the second part describes the development of the Project in the kibbutz movement: the absorption procedures, the foster families and foster family homes, and the advantages and difficulties of absorbing children within a kibbutz framework.     

The self-image of physically abused adolescents

Thirty physically abused adolescents were compared via the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire to thirty nonabused adolescents who were from a similar background. Another control group was comprised of normal adolescents tested by Offer, Ostrov, and Howard (1981). Results showed that physically abused adolescents feel worse in a number of areas when compared to nonabused adolescents. These areas include family relations, emotional stability, psychopathology, impulse control, coping skills, as well as poorer overall self-image. Implications are drawn for the professional's treatment of abused children and their responsibility to report abuse.This study was completed as part of the first author's doctoral dissertation at California Graduate Institute.Received Ph.D. from California Graduate Institute. Current research interests are psychoanalytic therapy and adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.     

The effects of the Yom Kippur War on values of Israeli female students

The Rokeach Terminal Value Scale and an attitude questionnaire were administered to two similar groups of female Israeli students before and after the Yom Kippur War. The second group also responded to a questionnaire about the effects of the war on the importance attributed to each of the values. The results were as follow: (a) Subjects stated that after the war 14 out of the 18 values in the Rokeach list increased in importance. (b) The war brought about a significant increase in the relative importance (rank) of 4 values (Pleasure, National Security, Happiness, and Mature Love), and a significant decrease in Equality. (c) No attitude change was found in respect to issues related to the war itself. (d) Values accounted for a smaller percent of the variance in attitudes after the war than they did before it. In view of these findings it is suggested that a distinction be made between relative and absolute importance within a value system.Received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Fields of interest include cognitive processes, psychology of mathematics education, and evaluation.Recieved his Ph.D. from the Committee on Human Development, the University of Chicago. Fields of interest include motivation and moral development.     

Psychological adjustment of adolescents with myelodysplasia

The psychosocial development of 20 adolescents with congenital paralysis due to myelodysplasia is compared to 20 age- and gender-matched subjects with no physical handicap. On many of the measures the myelodysplasia group showed poorer adjustment and lower self-esteem than the controls. Consistent with hypotheses regarding adjustment during adolescence the paralyzed males did show greater concern on Offer's scales of Body and Self-Image and External Mastery and showed poorer adjustment on his Sexual Attitudes Scale. The paralyzed girls, particularly those 13 years or younger, showed the poorest emotional adjustment with a significant variability in responses on many of the tests. This degree of variability may indicate a lack of integration of self-concepts and is consistent with an emotional immaturity discordant with advanced physiologic maturation of these girls.This study was supported in part by the National Foundation-March of Dimes.Received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1959. Main interests are adolescent development, personality, and evaluative research.Received her M.D. from the University of Rochester, New York, in 1953 and her pediatrics training at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles. Main interests are comprehensive care of patients with birth defects; research and management of hydrocephalus.Received her M.D. from McGill University in 1968 and her pediatric training at University of Washington, Seattle. Main interest is care of children with handicapping conditions, with emphasis on communication problems of the hearing impaired.     

Self-image of adolescents with cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a lethal genetic disease, yet improved care has extended the mean age of survival into the young adult years. Many of the surviving adolescents have respiratory and digestive problems which delay growth and sexual development. It has been suggested that the specter of fatal disease interferes with adjustment to adolescence. We administered the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire to three groups with mean height less than the fifth percentile: CF males aged 12–19 (n=16); CF females aged 12–19 (n=8); and otherwise healthy males with short stature and/or delayed puberty aged 13–19 (n=34). The values obtained were compared to published normative data for a large number of normal adolescents and a smaller number of adolescents actively undergoing treatment for emotional disorders. CF males showed an abnormal pattern of adjustment that could be considered comparable to disturbed males and to growth-delayed and sexually delayed males. The CF female group was concordant with the normal population, rather than with the emotionally disturbed population. Thus CF and pubertally delayed males have a self-perception of maladjustment to the psychologic problems of adolescence. This suggests that adjustment problems of the CF male may be related to growth retardation and pubertal delay, the social stigma of which may be more easily disguised in the female. This is important in health care, since recent evidence suggests that exemplary attention to medical compliance and nutrition may ameliorate some of the growth lag both in pubertal delay and CF.Postdoctoral medical research fellow in allergy, immunology, and respiratory disease at Children's Hospital at Stanford. Received his M.D. from the University of Southern California and pediatric training at Stanford University Hospital. Main research interests are clinical nutrition and behavioral intervention in adolescents with chronic disease.Received his M.D. from Stanford University and pediatric training at Stanford University Hospital. Main research interests are growth disorders and adolescent development.Studied psychology at Dartmouth College and Oxford University before coming to Stanford University, where he is currently completing his Ph.D. in social psychology. Main research interests are the social determinants of motivation.Chief of the Allergy and Pulmonary Disease Service at Children's Hospital at Stanford and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University. Received his M.D. from University of Iowa; pediatric training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Stanford University Hospital; and allergy, immunology, and respiratory postdoctoral training at Stanford University Hospital. Main research interest is cystic fibrosis.