The present 12-year follow-up study was conducted to investigate the long-term development of 60 hyperactive children, who were further subdivided onto those with and without childhood aggressiveness. They were followed from childhood to late adolescence/early adulthood, and compared on psychiatric, cognitive, and academic outcome with that of 60 matched normal control subjects. Childhood predictors of poor outcome were also explored in the hyperactive group. Consistent with previous studies, the core deficits of hyperactivity persisted in more than half of the hyperactive group. However, the results called into question the widespread claim that childhood hyperactivity was related to antisocial behaviours in adolescence. Although the hyperactive group displayed significantly more Antisocial Personality Disorder, Drug Use Disorders and comorbidity than the control group in adolescence, these group differences were significantly attributable to the aggressive subgroup of hyperactive subjects. In contrast, adolescents who were hyperactive only in childhood did not differ significantly from the control group in psychiatric functioning, except for their persistent ADHD. The hyperactive/aggressive subgroup had received the most individual and residential treatment for their behaviour problems. Consistent with previous research, at follow-up, hyperactive subjects displayed significantly poorer spelling, arithmetic and reading comprehension skills than did the control group. In comparison with the control group, the hyperactive group had also completed fewer years of High School education, failed more courses, received more special services in High School and fewer of them had attended post-secondary school. Hyperactive/aggressive and hyperactive only subgroups generally displayed similar problems on these academic variables. These preliminary findings suggest that chronicity of hyperactive behaviours is in part determined by its severity in childhood. Overall, the present findings suggest that hyperactivity is persistent in a significant number of children and the heterogeneity of ADHD needs to be addressed in order to move towards a better understanding of the long-term development of children with ADHD. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

No description available.

A series of three studies was conducted to examine the effects of attention and semantic relation on the processing of pictures and words in adults, normally achieving children, and children with specific learning disabilities (LD) in reading and spelling versus arithmetic. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a naming task for pictures and words presented individually and in superimposed picture-word pairs in which the meanings of the pictures and words were either congruent, semantically associated, or incongruent. Participants were required to direct their attention to either pictures or words in the superimposed conditions by naming the task-relevant stimulus. Physically, the superimposed picture-word pairs were the same in each condition. A negative ERP wave occurring approximately 450 ms post-stimulus (N450) was of particular interest in this work, as this wave is sensitive to linguistic and semantic processing and has been useful in differentiating LD subtypes. For adults and normally achieving children, distinct ERP waveforms were observed for individually presented pictures and words. Although there were developmental differences in the ERPs to pictures, distinct waveforms were maintained for pictures and words presented in the superimposed pairs for both groups. This finding affirms the independent attentional processing of pictures and words. Whereas, for adults, there was evidence for automatic and controlled processing of words and pictures, respectively, there was little evidence that children processed the words automatically to the same degree. Children were also less efficient than adults at managing attentional resources. Children with two subtypes of LD based on reading and spelling (RS) or arithmetic (A) achievement were differentiated from one another and from normally achieving controls on the picture-word naming task. Compared to controls, Group RS displayed naming deficits for pictures and words and smaller N450 waves to words. Their N450 to pictures was normal. These effects were indicative of deficient linguistic processing but intact visual-spatial processing. Group A displayed a specific picture-naming deficit and smaller N450 waves to words and pictures. When attending to pictures in the superimposed pairs, Group A failed to develop an early negative wave thought to reflect processes involved in the discrimination of task-relevant stimuli. This effect may indicate early deficiencies in visual-spatial processing, possibly at the stage of object identification. Overall, these effects provide support for a typology of LD based upon patterns of academic achievement and neurocognitive performance (Rourke, 1982, 1989).

Using ethnography, this study focused on a series of conversations with 47 young people from different social and geographical locations in an attempt to gain greater insight into how the consumption of sport and sport-related commodities are enmeshed in young men and women's struggle toward identity formation. From this exploration, there were three fundamental and inter-penetrating themes that emerged. First, the participants validated their sports consumption habits by describing the functional attributes of the commodities they consumed, namely comfort, quality and look. This served to defend against inferences suggesting that they may be conformists mindlessly shopping according to the social seduction of the sign. Second, choice within the sphere of sports consumption was repeatedly cited as a moment of empowerment and individuality whereby the participants, anxious to characterize themselves as rational and autonomously consuming individuals, were comfortable articulating and demonstrating their own creativity and character. Finally, the Other was essential to the self in the process of presenting one's own identity or the identity of a group in and through sports commodities, boundaries were established and re-established by way of a ceaselessly evolving depiction of the Other. In conclusion, for the young people involved in this study, sport and its related commodities play a crucial role in the complexities of peer relations and the ever-evolving process of identification and identity formation.

Two studies are reported here. The purpose of the first study was to examine the relative impact of the family climate (defined in terms of marital satisfaction, marital conflict, parental psychological distress, and SES) and the peer climate (defined in terms of peer likeability) on children's adjustment (measured by internalizing and externalizing behaviours) for 89 children from grades 6 to 11. Two path analytic models were assessed. The first assessed a single process family model which hypothesized that family functioning would have a direct effect on children's adjustment, but peer relations would have no significant effect on children's adjustment. The second model hypothesized dual processes, that is, that both family functioning and peer relations would predict children's adjustment. Results indicated strong support for a single process family model when data using fathers as informants about family functioning and children's adjustment were examined. Results from data which used mothers as informants about family variables and children's adjustment provided support for a dual process model, in which both family and peers made significant contributions to child adjustment problems. When either mothers or fathers provided information about the family, and peers provided outcome scores, there was evidence for a single process peer model. In the second study, a mediational model was assessed. It was hypothesized that overt marital hostility would mediate the relationship between marital satisfaction and children's adjustment for 277 children from grades 6 to 11. Results indicated that marital hostility mediated the relationship between marital satisfaction and children's adjustment when parents provided the information regarding marital functioning and children's adjustment. However, when peer information about aggression and withdrawal was used as outcome measures, the relationship between marital satisfaction and children's adjustment was no longer significant. Some gender differences were also noted, indicating that marital hostility mediated the relationship between marital satisfaction and internalizing and externalizing behaviours differently for boys and girls. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The primary goals of the current investigation were pursued through two separate studies. The first study was aimed at developing and assessing the psychometric adequacy of a daily hassles scale. The second study was prospective (six month time interval) and was aimed at testing specific hypotheses regarding the relations among self-concept, daily hassles, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Specifically, the purposes of Study 2 were three-fold: (a) to test hypotheses congruent with traditional formulations of diathesis-stress models separately for boys and girls and for depressive and anxiety symptoms, (b) to examine the prospective association between specific facets of self separately for boys and girls and for depressive and anxiety symptoms, and (c) to test two separate models for understanding the causal linkages between self-concept, daily hassles, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results of Study 1 supported the factorial validity of the Adolescent Daily Hassles Inventory (ADHI). A five-factor structure, comprised of dimensions labelled Academic, Family Relations, Interpersonal Concerns, Achievement, and Uncertainty about the Future, most adequately fit the data. Further tests of construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability provided additional support for the reliability and validity of the ADHI and direction for future research aimed at assessing and refining the ADHI. Results of Study 2 supported the assertion that self-concept can best be understood from a multidimensional perspective. Findings based on prospective analyses indicated that specific components of self-concept (cf. general self-concept) were more useful for understanding outcome measures. Consistent with socially prescribed gender roles, results indicated that self-concepts in the areas of math, school, and physical ability were the greatest risk factors for anxiety symptoms among boys, whereas self-concepts in the areas of physical appearance and verbal ability were consistent risk factors for depressive and anxiety symptoms among girls. Support also was obtained for hypothesized causal models aimed at understanding the causal linkages among self-concept, daily hassles, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Specifically, findings supported the hypothesized temporal association between symptoms of anxiety (Time 1) and depression (Time 2), as well as the proposed causal linkages between depression at Time 1 and self-concept and daily hassles at Time 2. Results are discussed in the context of prominent theories of adolescent development and depression.

Theorists operating in the associationist tradition have consistently maintained that creative thinking involves the ability to generate remote associations. It has been inferred that this ability requires a particular kind of associative memory structure, one which is characterized by many between-configuration links and many weak within-configuration links. However, there has been a paucity of studies examining the associative memory structures of creative individuals. Still, considerable effort has been devoted in the developmental literature to delineating various types of organizational structures in children's memories. Consequently, this research explored how associational processes operate in children vis-a-vis their memory structures. As well, an attempt was made to replicate part of a frequently-cited developmental shift from children's use of themes and categories to their use of categories as organizational structures on memory tasks. A series of three studies, each employing different memory tasks, were conducted to examine differences in the associative memory structures of more creative and less creative children in grades 3 and 7. Stimulus words used for the experimental tasks comprised three configural dimensions: within category, within theme, and between category and theme. The expected developmental shift towards increased category usage with age was partially replicated on a sorting task; Grade 3 children used more associations than Grade 7 children, and Grade 7 children used more categories than Grade 3 children. Results obtained on two receptive memory tasks (i.e., associability-rating and association-decision) indicated that the associative memory structures of more creative versus less creative children, as well as older versus younger children, appear to be characterized by many strong within-category associative links, fewer and weaker within-theme associative links, and very few and weak between-category-and-theme associative links. Yet, results obtained on one productive memory task (i.e., recall) revealed that both older more creative children and younger children tend to retain the use of weak between-category-and-theme associative links, whereas older less creative children relinquish these over time. These results suggest that the creative individual's continued ability to access weak between-configuration links from memory accounts in part for his/her ability to generate remote associations. As well, it appears that this ability to generate remote associations occurs not during the encoding stage but during retrieval. This coincides with recent developments in the computational modelling of creative thinking processes. Such developments highlight the creative individual's selection of viable associations among ideas, rather than the generation of associations among ideas per se.

Decades of research on the anorectic's family relationships have contributed a certain measure of depth and precision to our current understanding of this syndrome's pathogenesis. Yet none of the existing etiological formulations is specific as regards the predisposition to anorexia nervosa in that they also apply to other psychopathological conditions. Furthermore, many of these models do not address the precipitation and maintenance phases of the disorder, preferring to remain narrowly focused on premorbid personality factors. As well, existing etiological conjectures do not adequately explain several phenomena regularly encountered among anorectics, such as their relentless quest for perfection and their unusually intense autonomy strivings. In line with this problematic, the current work outlines a modal etiological pattern that is specific to core-group restrictive anorectics and that addresses the precipitation and maintenance phases of the disorder as well as predisposition. It also offers an explanation for their assiduous quest for perfection and their inordinately strong autonomy strivings. It does so by focusing on a hitherto largely overlooked aspect of relationships in the anorectic family, namely the particular ways in which the pre-anorectic child is called upon to compensate for parental emotional deficits. It is conjectured that the predisposition to anorexia nervosa arises in the context of her simultaneous function as a self-denying, merged selfobject to her mother and as an omnipotent, idealized selfobject to either or both parents. Such selfobject use of the pre-anorectic child is argued to leave her with a heightened sensitivity to environmental rejection experiences because of her inordinate dependence on external validation combined with the habit and expectation of being seen as "special". In addition, she finds herself with a uniquely polarized false-self system, particularly strong autonomy strivings, and a highly restricted repertoire of behaviours deemed acceptable, all of which eventuate in a particular proneness to shame and self-rejection. Moreover, this particular conjunction of family relationships and resulting cognitive and emotional distortions is seen to readily distinguish the anorectic from other psychodiagnostic groups with whom she shares certain clinical characteristics. It is the above combination of premorbid personality characteristics that is conjectured to place her at special risk for anorexia in the face of the normal developmental and environmental stresses of adolescence. More precisely, these personality factors place her at such risk, firstly, by compromising her ongoing self-esteem regulation either by sharply restricting the conditions under which she is able to maintain a relative sense of emotional well-being or by introducing an inherent tension or instability into her false-self system. Secondly, the adaptive mechanisms learned within the postulated selfobject relationships help to determine the coping strategies that she chooses in adolescence. That is, the anorectic's self-perfecting in the form of slimming is seen to exemplify an "adult" version of an earlier strategy for the avoidance of shame and self-rejection. As this strategy, however, essentially represents the misapplication of a local solution to a global problem, in contradistinction to the situation of the non-anorectic dieter, it ultimately fails. This, together with the family systemic factors so often cited in the literature and the strongly polarized, countervailing tendencies within her false-self system, are argued to eventuate in a series of intrapersonal and interpersonal vicious escalations that conspire to entrench her ever further in her symptoms.

La recherche sur la depression chez les adolescents est encore largement influencee par des modeles de depression adulte (Baron, 1993; Cicchetti, Rogosch et Toth, 1994; Lewinsohn et al., 1994; Reynolds et Johnston, 1994). Cette orientation neglige cependant l'impact de caracteristiques developpementales propres a l'adolescence. La perspective developpementale permet precisement de tenir compte de telles caracteristiques (Cicchetti et al., 1994). Damon (1983) a identifie cinq taches developpementales qui definissent la dimension psychosociale de l'adolescence: l'amitie, la sexualite, la separation-individuation, la pensee socio-politique et l'identite/concept de soi. Dans le contexte de la psychopathologie developpementale, nous avons postule un modele structural tripartite reliant ces taches developpementales a la symptomatologie depressive. L'objectif principal de cette these est donc d'examiner les relations entre les taches developpementales proposees par Damon (1983) et la symptomatologie depressive. D'une part, nous posons l'hypothese que l'amitie, la sexualite, la separation-individuation et la pensee socio-politique, influencent significativement le concept de soi, lequel influence aussi de facon significative la symptomatologie depressive. D'autre part, nous posons une seconde hypothese selon laquelle ces memes relations devraient etre systematiquement plus elevees chez les adolescents plus ages que chez les plus jeunes. Afin de verifier ces hypotheses, 413 adolescents non cliniques ages entre 13 et 19 ans et provenant de milieux scolaires ont repondu a un questionnaire forme d'echelles visant a mesurer ces variables developpementales et la symptomatologie depressive. Les analyses statistiques ont ete effectuees a l'aide du logiciel LISREL VII (Joreskog et Sorbom, 1989). Les resultats obtenus supportent dans l'ensemble les deux hypotheses postulees. Non seulement les cinq taches developpementales identifiees ont un effet significatif sur la symptomatologie depressive, mais ces relations apparaissent systematiquement plus elevees chez les adolescents plus ages.

Cette etude s'est penchee sur la relation entre les identites ethniques mere-fille et l'ajustement socio-affectif chez des adolescents d'origine libanaise. Il avait ete predit que la ressemblance des identites intergenerationnelles serait associee a un niveau superieur d'ajustement socio-affectif chez les filles tandis que la dissemblance des identites ethniques intergenerationnelles resulterait a un ajustement socio-affectif plus faible. En outre, il avait ete presume que la perception (a) de la presence de support parental et (b) de confort linguistique en arabe permettraient d'attenuer les effets negatifs d'une dissemblance mere-fille. Quatre-vingt douze paires de meres et de filles d'origine libanaise ont rempli des questionnaires sur leurs identites ethniques. En plus, les filles ont repondu a des questions portant sur le support maternel, le confort linguistique en arabe, le concept de soi, le bien-etre subjectif, la satisfaction de la vie familiale, la perception de conflits mere-fille et la qualite de la relation mere-fille. Des analyses de variance univariees et multivariees ont permis de refuter l'hypothese principale. La ressemblance ou la dissemblance des ecarts intergenerationnels d'acculturation ne serait pas un facteur important dans l'ajustement socio-affectif des adolescentes d'origine libanaise. Les analyses ont permis de montrer les roles essentiels du support maternel et du confort linguistique en arabe dans l'ajustement socio-affectif. Les adolescentes qui possedent un niveau eleve de support maternel rapportent un meilleur concept de soi, plus d'affects positifs, une plus grande satisfaction de la vie et moins de desaccords avec leur mere. Elles evaluent plus positivement la qualite de la relation avec leur mere que celles rapportant un bas niveau de support maternel. Un confort eleve en langue arabe favorise aussi un meilleur ajustement socio-affectif. Des comparaisons additionnelles, a partir des identites ethniques reflechies mere-fille et des identites ethniques veritables et reflechies des filles (seulement), n'ont pas revele de relation avec l'ajustement socio-affectif. Ces resultats corroborent a rejeter le postulat qui impute un role critique aux ecarts intergenerationnels d'acculturation sur l'ajustement socio-affectif des jeunes de familles immigrantes.