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Biomedical subjects

J G Borkowski

Publications and source records attributed to J G Borkowski.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Prenatal maternal predictors of cognitive and emotional delays in children of adolescent mothers.

The present study examined relationships among prenatal characteristics of 121 adolescent mothers-including cognitive readiness for parenting, intelligence, social support, and personal adjustment-and intellectual-linguistic development, social-emotional functioning, and adaptive behavior in their children at three years of age. Only 28% of the children scored within normal ranges on all three types of outcomes. Intellectual and linguistic delays were predicted best by prenatal measures of maternal Performance IQ and social support from extended family. Socioemotional problems were predicted best by maternal internalizing problems and social support from partner and friends. Adaptive behavior was associated with parenting style. Implications for the early identification of high-risk children--and associated intervention programs--are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

A longitudinal analysis of maternal abuse potential and developmental delays in children of adolescent mothers.

OBJECTIVE: This project was designed to examine the impact of adolescent mothers' abuse potential on the development of preschool children. The specific aims were to demonstrate relationships between maternal abuse potential and developmental problems in preschool children, to examine these relationships across time, and to determine whether maternal abuse potential predicted developmental delays after controlling for problematic parenting orientations. METHOD: Using a longitudinal design, we examined 146 first time mothers and their children. Maternal abuse potential was assessed when children were 1, 3, and 5 years old; problematic parenting orientation was assessed when the children were 6 months old; and child development (i.e., IQ, adaptive behavior, and behavior problems) was assessed at ages 3 and 5. RESULTS: Regression analyses revealed significant relationships between maternal abuse potential and a variety of developmental problems. Path analyses revealed unidirectional relationships between abuse potential predicting IQ and adaptive behaviors. Further analyses indicated that maternal abuse potential at 1 and 3 years predicted intelligence and adaptive behavior at ages 3 and 5, even when problematic parenting orientation was controlled. In contrast, children's behavioral problems at ages 3 and 5 was better accounted for by problematic parenting orientation than by abuse potential. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study revealed that developmental delays in children of adolescent are related to abuse potential. Two pathways were found for predicting developmental delays: One pathway linked child abuse potential with IQ and adaptive functioning: the other pathway showed that problematic parenting orientation accounted for the development of emotional and behavioral problems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Predicting adolescent mothers' transition to adulthood.

This study investigates the relation among prenatal maternal resources (including intellectual ability, cognitive readiness for parenting, personal adjustment and social support), maternal perceptions about parenting and children's temperament when children were 6 months of age, and individual differences in the adaptation of 90 adolescent mothers 3 years after the birth of their first child. It was hypothesized that adolescent mothers¿ pre-existing resources and emerging perceptions about parenting determine not only their children's but also their own later adaptation to critical life events. Maternal resources uniquely predicted later maternal cognitive functioning, personal adjustment, and child abuse potential, whereas maternal perceptions uniquely predicted maternal demographic status 3 years after childbirth. Moreover, maternal perceptions were found to mediate the influence of maternal resources on parent-child interactional styles. The unique roles that maternal resources and perceptions played in determining later maternal functioning are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Adolescent mothers and child abuse potential: an evaluation of risk factors.

This research examines maternal and child factors that place adolescent mothers at risk for abusing their children. Using a longitudinal design, relationships among four risk factors (social supports, maternal psychological adjustment, maternal preparation for parenting, and child temperament), maternal psychological predisposition for aggressive coping (perceptions of stress and endorsements of punitive parenting), and maternal abuse potential were examined in a sample of 75 primiparous adolescent mothers and their children. Preparation for parenting, a construct which included knowledge and attitudes about children's development, was the strongest direct predictor of abuse potential; however, its effects were also partially mediated by the mother's psychological predisposition for aggressive coping. Similarly, the effects of child temperament on abuse were mediated by the mother's psychological predisposition for aggressive coping. Implications for designing intervention programs, and identifying at-risk adolescents, were also discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Influence of intelligence on memory development.

The development of memory strategy use in children with and without mental retardation was investigated. Strategy use, recall, metamemory, and attributional beliefs were assessed over a 3-year period beginning at 10 years of age. Although both groups employed effective strategies and increased their use of these strategies across years, students without mental retardation were more strategic. Although strategy use was a significant predictor of recall for both groups, attributional beliefs and metamemory predicted recall only for the students without retardation in Years 2 and 3, respectively. Slight differences emerged as a function of intelligence in the types of strategies used as well as the ways in which strategy knowledge and beliefs were associated with memory performance.

Child↗
PubMed1993

Personal adjustment during pregnancy and adolescent parenting.

This study examined "naturally occurring differences" in personal adjustment (social competence, behavior problems, and problem-solving skills) among representative groups of pregnant and nonpregnant adolescents and pregnant adults. Differences in parenting stress and parenting style were also assessed among a subsample of adolescent and adult mothers. Finally, the relationship between prenatally assessed personal adjustment and parenting was evaluated in the adolescent mother group. The contributions of important demographic characteristics (socioeconomic status and race) to both between- and within-group relationships were examined. Results suggested that pregnant adolescents were less socially competent and less proficient in their problem solving than their nonpregnant peers and that they exhibited more behavioral problems than a pregnant adult comparison group. Adolescent mothers displayed higher levels of parenting stress and were less responsive and sensitive in interactions with their infants than adult mothers. Support for the hypothesized link between prenatally assessed personal adjustment and adolescent parenting stress was found, whereas no relationship between socioeconomic status and race and parenting stress was established. These results suggest that intervention with young mothers identified during pregnancy as having personal problems might forestall parenting problems that arise during early child rearing.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

Development of strategic skills in impulsive and reflective children: a longitudinal study of metacognition.

This study examined the relationships between metamemory and strategic behavior in impulsive and reflective children. One hundred thirty children from the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades participated. Seventy-seven of these children had been tested 3 years earlier on metamemory and cognitive tempo tasks. At pretraining, children were assessed on metamemory, cognitive tempo, summarization skills, and teacher ratings of impulsive behavior in the classroom. Next, children in three experimental groups received prose summarization instructions, summarization instructions in conjunction with metacognitive training about the importance of a reflective approach to learning, or no instructions. Following training, children were again measured on tempo, summarization skills, and teacher ratings of impulsivity. Analyses of strategy maintenance data indicated superior performance for children who had received both summarization and metacognitive training. Causal modeling analyses showed that early metamemory was an antecedent of later strategy acquisition. The dual role of metacognition as a precursor of later strategy acquisition and controller of lower level strategies was highlighted.

Child↗
PubMed1987

Predicting and understanding developmental delay of children of adolescent mothers: a multidimensional approach.

Divergent literatures on potential relationships among psychological, biological, and contextual factors that may contribute to mental retardation and other types of developmental delay in the children of adolescent mothers were reviewed. A linear model was proposed to describe the direct and indirect effects of learning ability, maternal health, social support, personal adjustment, cognitive readiness for parenting, and infant characteristics on adolescent parenting and child development. Because the validity of the model can be determined through the use of causal modeling (LISREL), it holds the potential for determining a unique set of risk factors that may produce developmental delay in children of adolescent mothers. These factors can serve as the targets in designing intervention programs for such mothers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Effects of methylphenidate (Ritalin) on information processing in hyperactive children.

The effect of methylphenidate on information-processing efficiency was studied in 12 hyperactive, nonretarded children. Performance on six efficiency tasks (Posner Letter Matching, Reaction Time, Memory Search, Category Verification, Item Identification, and Word-Span) and a general measure of on-task behavior were compared for children receiving methylphenidate or a placebo. The median drug dosage was .38 mg/kg, and it was ingested 1 1/2 hours prior to testing. Children blind to the drug-placebo condition were tested on 4 days. In general, methylphenidate-related improvements in attention to on-task behaviors were found. An overall analysis of processing speed suggested that methylphenidate improved efficiency. Methylphenidate significantly decreased reaction times to simple and complex stimulus arrays; differences due to the drug remained even when on-task attentive behaviors were statistically removed. Significantly fewer identification errors occurred on the Posner task in the methylphenidate condition. Results indicated that methylphenidate improved general attentional behaviors and positively influenced processes that define perceptual efficiency.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Transfer of learning strategies: contrast of self-instructional and traditional training formats with EMR children.

Twelve mentally retarded children were taught anticipation and paraphrase strategies imbedded in either a self-instructional format that provided strategy initiation and modification routines or a traditional didactic training format: six children in a control condition received no explicit strategy instructions. Maintenance tests were administered 1 and 3 weeks following three training sessions; generalization tests were given in the afternoon of each training and maintenance session. Although no differences were found for self-instructional vs. traditional training formats, both conditions were superior to the control condition on the maintenance tests. Strategy generalization did not occur during training or short-term maintenance. On the final generalization test, however, significant improvements in recall accuracy were noted for both format conditions. In the self-instructional condition, several children successfully generalized the strategies during the early phases of training to facilitate gist recall.

Child↗
PubMed1983

Impulsivity and strategy transfer: metamemory as mediator.

Acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of organizational strategies were studied as a function of impulsivity-reflectivity and metamemory. In Experiment 1, 64 second- and third-grade children, identified as impulsive or reflective, participated in strategy training and transfer sessions; 25 children in a control condition received the same tasks without strategy training. Strategy and metamemory scores were significantly higher for reflective than impulsive children. Metamemory predicted strategic behavior when cognitive tempo was removed. In Experiment 2, 80 children were given an expanded metamemory battery designed to assess verbalized knowledge of memory processes. Children in the experimental condition were trained to use an organizational strategy and later tested for its maintenance and transfer. Strategy scores were higher for the reflective children during transfer but not training, suggesting a relationship between cognitive tempo and the ability to use strategies in new contexts. Reflective children were again found to have higher metamemory scores. The correlation between metamemory and strategy use with cognitive tempo partialed out was significant, whereas the tempo-strategy use correlation was nonsignificant when metamemory was removed. Strategy maintenance and generalization in impulsive and reflective children appear mediated by metamemorial processes.

Child↗
PubMed1978

Effects of clustering instructions and category size on free recall of nonretarded and retarded children.

The effects of category size and instructions to cluster on the free-recall learning of 112 nonretarded and retarded children were assessed. Simultaneously presented lists of 12 pictures composed of 2, 3, or 6 categories were shown for three study-test trials. Instructions to cluster significantly increased recall and cluster scores on a new list for both nonretarded and retarded children. The category-size effect was weak, although it was related to the magnitude of the correlations between organization and recall scores.

Child↗
PubMed1977

Proactive interference and its release in short-term memory of mildly retarded adolescents.

Release from proactive interference in mildly retarded adolescents due to taxonomic shifts and rest periods prior to the final, critical-word triad was investigated. Interference accumulated rapidly across the first three trials; a shift in triad's taxonomic class on the final trial produced a substantial release (72 percent) from proactive interference. Although proactive interference dissipated when the interval between Trials 3 and 4 was increased to 120 seconds, the extent of recovery from proactive interference for the rest period plus taxonomic shift was no greater than a taxonomic shift alone. Results indicated that taxonomic category is a salient encoding dimension for retarded adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Training and transfer of clustering and cumulative rehearsal strategies in retarded individuals.

Forty-four retarded adolescents varying in MA, IQ, and etiology were taught one of three active rehearsal strategies or assigned to a control condition. Immediate, short-term (1 day), and long-term (2 weeks) transfer of the strategy was assessed by presenting new 9-item serial lists on each day. Exposure durations, which indicated the rate of subject-pacing, showed that the two highest MA-IQ (mean IQ = 55) groups, one diagnosed as organically impaired and the other as cultural-familially retarded, successfully transferred their strategies over three sessions, while no transfer occurred in the lower MA-IQ group (mean IQ = 40). Greater consistency in the expected pattern of exposure durations of high MA-IQ subjects was found in the cumulative-rehearsal group than in the cumulative-clustering group across sessions. During immediate transfer, the best recall was found for the cumulative group, while on short-term transfer both the cumulative and the cumulative-clustering groups learned more rapidly than the clustering or control groups. No significant recall differences during long-term transfer were apparent for high MA-IQ subjects, probably due to a ceiling effect. For retarded individuals with IQs above 50, the cumulative-rehearsal strategy was the most efficient technique for inducing strategy transfer to a categorized serial list.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Long-term transfer of a mediational strategy by moderately retarded children.

Moderately retarded children were instructed to produce prepositional mediatros by physically manipulating PA objects in learning three nine-term PA lists. Mediational training, distributed across days or weeks, consisted of one or three different prepositions supplied for two-thirds or for all of the items. It was found that mediation subjects performed significantly better than control subjects on an unaided test list administered 2 weeks after training, regardless of distribution of training, degree of aid or number of prepositions provided during training sessions. The degress of transfer, which was larger than in previously reported studies, was attributed to the instructional procedures requiring active production of prepositional mediators, coupled with an emphasis on their value. It was suggested that individual variability in mediational transfer should be considered in future research on mediational transfer.

Adolescent↗