Biomedical subjects

M Trueman

Publications and source records attributed to M Trueman.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Concurrent and longitudinal links between friendship and peer victimization: implications for befriending interventions.

This short-term longitudinal study examined the associations between peer reports of victimization and self-reported friendship among early adolescents. It was carried out to test the view that friendship provides protection against victimization (called the "friendship protection hypothesis"). Data were collected at two points within a school year, separated by 6 months. At Time 1, 170 pupils provided data, and 158 of these did so again at Time 2. Three sets of findings were consistent with the friendship protection hypothesis. First, at Time 1 those early adolescents who had a reciprocated best friend in their home class received significantly fewer peer nominations for victimization than did classmates without a reciprocated best friend. Second, those early adolescents that did not have best friend at either Time 1 or Time 2 showed the highest increase in victimization over the course of the study, whereas those that did have a best friend at both Times 1 and 2 showed the highest falls in victimization. Third, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that a decrease in conflict and betrayal reported to characterize the participants' best friendship was associated with falls in victimization. The implications of these results for anti-bullying initiatives based on "befriending" principles were discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Parental perceptions of pre-adolescent children who have experienced a febrile convulsion: effects of social class and gender.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether, in terms of parental reports, the behaviour of pre-adolescent children who have been hospitalized following a febrile convulsion in infancy--without intracranial infection--differ from a group hospitalized with a non-febrile illness. DESIGN: A between-groups comparison of febrile and non-febrile children and a within-group comparison by gender and social class design were used. METHOD: The study compared 57 children, aged 9-12 years, who had experienced febrile convulsions before the age of 4 with a group of 66 children of similar age who had been hospitalized for non-convulsive conditions. Behaviour was measured using the Rutter A Parent Scale, the Berg Self-Administered Dependency Questionnaire (SDAQ) and the Werry-Weiss-Peters Activity Rating Scale. RESULTS: The scores of the children who had experienced a febrile convulsion in early life did not differ significantly from those of unaffected controls on any of the three measuring instruments. There were, however, marked social class differences on all three, with working-class children tending to lean towards poorer social adjustment than their middle-class peers. There was also one significant gender difference: boys received higher Assistance scores than girls on the SDAQ. CONCLUSIONS: In terms of social behavioural sequelae, febrile convulsions do not appear to have long-term effects. Hence, reassurance of a favourable outcome at the time of the seizure may ameliorate parents' worries at this frightening event in their child's life.

Child↗

PubMed1984

The effects of verbal and numerical quantifiers on questionnaire responses.

Three experiments are described which assess the effects of responding to different sets of verbal quantifiers (e g, always, often, sometimes). In Experiment 1, participants were asked to give percentage equivalents to three sets of supposedly equivalent quantifiers. The responses differed significantly. In Experiment 2, participants completed different versions of a questionnaire in order to see if the three sets of quantifiers produced equivalent responses in a more concrete situation. The results again showed that the three sets were not equivalent. In Experiment 3, participants completed one version of the questionnaire with a set of verbal quantifiers and two versions of the questionnaire with numerical quantifiers (e g, I do this about 75% of the time). The verbal quantifiers produced virtually the same results as before: the numerical quantifiers produced different but quite consistent results. It is concluded that numerical quantifiers are probably more useful than verbal ones, and should be used if possible.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1979

The role of spatial and typographic cues in the layout of journal references.

Fifteen American and 15 British readers used the method of paired comparisons to assess 12 different ways of presenting reference lists in social science journals. The results indicated - despite British preferences for British styles - that the spatial arrangements of elements in the list was the major determinant of preference, and that the presence of a typographic cue only enhanced a preference for a particular layout.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

How "flat' are normal ability profiles in 4-year-olds?

Group and individual ability profiles of 89 English 4-year-olds on the McCarthy scales of children's abilities (MSCA) are presented. The results suggest that at this age, there is a high expectation of obtaining at least one significant difference between a child's mean ability score and the individual ability of index scores. The direction of these significant differences in ability suggested that, in this age group, abilities measured by the MSCA verbal and perceptual performance indexes tend to be more advanced than abilities measured by the quantitative and memory indexes. Motor development is relatively retarded compared to these other abilities. (The results are at variance with the often accepted concept of a "flat' ability profile in normal children). The use of the MSCA on English children could result in over referral of normal children, especially boys, who appear delayed on the motor index, and under referral of children who were regarded as normal on the verbal and perceptual indexes.

Aptitude↗