Surveyed 398 adolescents who reported using drugs or alcohol to examine whether drug involvement and perceived positive affective impact were related to high levels of arousal. Results indicated a relationship between impetuosity and perceptions of relaxation and accentuated motivation in extended drug users. (JAC)

Measures of likability, knowledge of emotion, prosocial and aggressive behavior, peer competence, and expressed emotions of happiness and anger of 65 subjects between 33 and 56 months of age supported the notion of early development of stable peer reputations and the hypothesized centrality of emotion-related predictors of likability. (RH)

The explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies has been proposed as a means to better prepare secondary school-aged students for today's information-dense, fast-paced, fast-changing global society, and to improve the academic performance of struggling adolescent readers. This proposition of a direct and positive impact of reading…

Aversive performance incidents play a role in the development of some anxiety disorders. The role of sensitizing experiences in the development of music performance anxiety (MPA) in adolescent music students has not yet been explored. Two-hundred-and-ninety-eight music students were asked to provide written descriptions of their worst performance,…

Adolescence is often thought of as a period during which the quality of parent-child interactions can be relatively stressed and conflictual. There are individual differences in this regard, however, with only a modest percent of youths experiencing extremely conflictual relationships with their parents. Nonetheless, there is relatively little…

Objective: Although there are extensive data on the relationship between personality and stress reactivity in adults, there is little comparable empirical research with adolescents. This study examines the simultaneous relationships between long term functioning (personality, defenses) and observed stress reactivity (affect) in adolescents.…

Two groups of male adolescents, incarcerated young offenders (N = 64, mean age = 16.3 years) and a comparison group of community youth (N = 60; mean age = 16.6 years), were administered the Empathy Continuum (measuring cognitive-affective responses to persons in emotionally evocative videotaped vignettes) and questionnaire measures of empathy,…

Because most studies investigating psychological profiles of subjects convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) have been conducted at the time of arrest or treatment, it is unclear whether subjects' anxiety, depression, and hostility represent "trait" characteristics central to alcohol abuse or "state"…

Although predictive accuracy (cognitive empathy) and emotional empathy may be aspects of the same general ability, few empirical studies have examined the relationships between these dimensions. The relationship between cognitive empathy and emotional empathy was investigated by correlating the Mehrabian and Epstein Emotional Empathy Scale and its…

Investigated the relationship between patient age and preference for physician communication style in 303 adults. Results showed that, while most patients prefer a high degree of both information and affect, older patients prefer a low-information/high affect strategy. Results may indicate the presence of receiver apprehension in elderly patients.…

Assessed influence of maternal age at first birth on mothers' emotionally affective behaviors to their children using three samples of families (N=33, 38, 36). Two models of age effects were considered: (1) life experiences and (2) stress from early first birth. Age at first birth was positively associated with supportive maternal behaviors and…

Smokers and nonsmokers were exposed to anti-smoking communications to compare the relationship of emotional arousal, attitudes, and subjective normative beliefs. Findings revealed that smoking-related intentions were more strongly associated with attitudes toward smoking than with subjective normative beliefs or emotional arousal. (RC)

Examined relationship of emotion regulation and emotionality to social functioning in 77 children followed from age 4 to age 10. Found that high-quality social functioning was predicted by high emotion regulation and low nonconstructive coping, negative emotionality, and emotional intensity. Measures of regulation and emotionality frequently…

Controlling for early sensorimotor differences, found that high levels of distress and anger expressed by children at age three months predicted low cognitive scores at four years. Controlling for early emotional and sensorimotor differences, found that high levels of maternal responsiveness in the same group of children predicted high cognitive…

Evaluated emotional expressiveness, empathy, and prosocial behavior in 9-, and 13-year-olds. As expected, emotional expressiveness, emotional insight, and role taking were strong predictors of latent empathy. Boys' empathy was a strong predictor of prosocial behavior, whereas girls' empathy was related to prosocial behaviors with friends but not…