Biomedical subjects

M R Fondacaro

Publications and source records attributed to M R Fondacaro.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Informing juvenile justice policy: directions for behavioral science research.

Recent policy initiatives threaten to reduce the rehabilitative mission of the juvenile court or eliminate the court entirely. This article lays out a framework for an empirical assessment of these developments. It first evaluates the available and potential empirical support for three hypotheses about juveniles that might justify maintaining a separate, rehabilitation-oriented juvenile justice system: the hypotheses that, compared to adults, juveniles are more treatable, less culpable, and less deterrable. On the assumption that the continued existence of a rehabilitation-oriented juvenile court can be justified, it then provides suggestions as to how existing intervention strategies for juveniles could benefit from research attention to several substantive and methodological issues. These include refining outcome criteria and sampling strategies, matching offender and program characteristics, reexamining intervention efficacy, and focusing on decision makers and resource allocations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Attributional style in aggressive adolescent boys.

Past research suggests that aggressive children misattribute hostile intentions to peers during ambiguous provocative interactions. This study sought to extend the analysis of attributional differences between aggressive and nonaggressive boys to a sample of court-involved adolescents and their perceptions of interactions involving both peers and adults. Three groups of youngsters (nonoffenders, nonaggressive offenders, and aggressive offenders) participated in a structured interview and provided causal attributions for interpersonal problems commonly faced by teenagers. Results indicated that offenders were more likely than nonoffenders to attribute blame to others in ambiguous problem situations. Among offenders, external, person-centered blame attributions were significantly related to aggressiveness. This relationship was found only in ambiguous situations, and the correlation between such person-centered attributions and aggressiveness was higher in adult-oriented interactions than in peer-oriented ones. Overall, the results suggest that aggressiveness among offenders is associated with an attributional style that is characterized by the tendency to attribute blame for problems in ambiguous interactions to global, dispositional characteristics of others.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Approach and avoidance coping responses among older problem and nonproblem drinkers.

The Coping Responses Inventory (CRI) was used to study coping among older problem and nonproblem drinkers. The CRI organizes coping efforts according to their focus (approach or avoidance) and method (cognitive or behavioral). Compared with nonproblem drinkers, older problem drinkers were more likely to use cognitive and behavioral avoidance responses to manage life stressors. Problem drinkers who experienced more negative life events and more severe stressors used both more approach and more avoidance coping. Those who had more financial and social resources relied more on approach and less on avoidance coping. Problem drinkers who relied more on avoidance coping tended to have more drinking problems and to report more depression and physical symptoms and less self-confidence. Positive reappraisal was associated with less depression and more self-confidence.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1987

Social support and coping: a longitudinal analysis.

This paper examined the interrelation between social support and coping in a longitudinal study of 380 clinically depressed individuals. A two-wave, two-variable panel analysis revealed that connections between support and coping varied by gender and across the specific sources of support and modes of coping examined. In the family context, increases in support were related to increases in problem-solving coping among women and to a decline in emotional discharge coping among men. In the work context, increases in social support were related to a greater reliance on affective regulation among women and to more information/support seeking among men. Overall, the results suggest that specific aspects of support and coping processes jointly mediate the link between stress and adjustment among depressed individuals.

Adaptation, Psychological↗