Biomedical subjects

Gabriel P Kuperminc

Publications and source records attributed to Gabriel P Kuperminc.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Self-criticism and depressive symptomatology interact to predict middle school academic achievement.

Although previous research has implicated adolescent depression in academic difficulties, few studies have explored the role of cognitive/personality factors in this area. To address this gap, the present study examines the role of self-criticism in academic functioning among early adolescent students over a 1-year interval. We hypothesized and found that adolescent self-criticism and depressive symptomatology interacted to predict decreased grade point average (GPA) over time, an interaction that was found predominantly in boys. This finding illustrates the need to integrate research on personality and psychopathology into educational psychology.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

When adolescents disagree with others about their symptoms: differences in attachment organization as an explanation of discrepancies between adolescent, parent, and peer reports of behavior problems.

This study examined whether attachment theory could be used to shed light on the often high degree of discordance between self- and observer ratings of behavioral functioning and symptomatology. Interview-based assessments of attachment organization, using the Adult Attachment Interview, were examined as predictors of the lack of agreement between self- and other reports of behavioral and emotional problems among 176 moderately at-risk adolescents. Lack of agreement was measured in terms of concordance of adolescent and parent or close friend report on equivalent measures of behavioral and emotional adjustment. Insecure-dismissing attachment was linked to less agreement in absolute terms between self- and mother reports of externalizing symptoms, and between adolescent and close friend reports of behavioral conduct. Insecure-preoccupied attachment was associated with higher levels of adolescent reporting of internalizing and externalizing symptoms relative to parent reports of adolescent symptomatology. The findings suggest that attachment organization may be one factor that accounts for individual differences in the degree of discordance between self- and other reports of symptoms in adolescence.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

An interactive-synergetic approach to the assessment of personality vulnerability to depression: Illustration using the adolescent version of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire.

Research on personality vulnerability to depression is characterized by a "main effect" approach, often at the expense of examining interactions among various dimensions of vulnerability. To compare the "main effect" and "interactive-synergetic" approaches, we utilized data from a longitudinal study of adolescent adjustment. Focusing on dependency, self-criticism, and efficacy, the three factors of the adolescent version of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, Schaffer, Bers, & Quinlan, 1992), we found support for the interactive-synergetic approach. Dependency and self-criticism interacted in predicting changes in depressive and internalizing symptoms (under low efficacy), and among boys-changes in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results illuminate the synergetic interplay among dimensions of risk and resilience in clinical research and practice.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2001

Social Orientation: Problem Behavior and Motivations Toward Interpersonal Problem Solving Among High Risk Adolescents.

A model of problematic adolescent behavior that expands current theories of social skill deficits in delinquent behavior to consider both social skills and orientation toward the use of adaptive skills was examined in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 113 male and female adolescents. Adolescents were selected on the basis of moderate to serious risk for difficulties in social adaptation in order to focus on the population of youth most likely to be targeted by prevention efforts. Structural equation modeling was used to examine cross-sectional data using multiple informants (adolescents, peers, and parents) and multiple methods (performance test and self-report). Adolescent social orientation, as reflected in perceived problem solving effectiveness, identification with adult prosocial values, and self-efficacy expectations, exhibited a direct association to delinquent behavior and an indirect association to drug involvement mediated by demonstrated success in using problem solving skills. Results suggest that the utility of social skill theories of adolescent problem behaviors for informing preventive and remedial interventions can be enhanced by expanding them to consider adolescents' orientation toward using the skills they may already possess.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A secure base in adolescence: markers of attachment security in the mother-adolescent relationship.

This study sought to identify ways in which adolescent attachment security, as assessed via the Adult Attachment Interview, is manifest in qualities of the secure base provided by the mother-adolescent relationship. Assessments included data coded from mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of moderately at-risk 9th and 10th graders. This study found several robust markers of adolescent attachment security in the mother-adolescent relationship. Each of these markers was found to contribute unique variance to explaining adolescent security, and in combination, they accounted for as much as 40% of the raw variance in adolescent security. These findings suggest that security is closely connected to the workings of the mother-adolescent relationship via a secure-base phenomenon, in which the teen can explore independence in thought and speech from the secure base of a maternal relationship characterized by maternal attunement to the adolescent and maternal supportiveness.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Stability and change in attachment security across adolescence.

This study examined both continuity and familial, intrapsychic, and environmental predictors of change in adolescent attachment security across a 2-year period from middle to late adolescence. Assessments included the Adult Attachment Interview, observed mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of moderately at-risk adolescents interviewed at ages 16 and 18. Substantial stability in security was identified. Beyond this stability, however, relative declines in attachment security were predicted by adolescents' enmeshed, overpersonalizing behavior with their mothers; depressive symptoms; and poverty status. Results suggest that although security may trend upward for nonstressed adolescents, stressors that overwhelm the capacity for affect regulation and that are not easily assuaged by parents predict relative declines in security over time.

Adolescent↗