Biomedical subjects

R D Rende

Publications and source records attributed to R D Rende.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1993

Longitudinal relations between temperament traits and behavioral syndromes in middle childhood.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested Graham and Stevenson's 1987 hypothesis specifying links between EAS (emotionality-activity-sociability) temperament traits and behavioral syndromes of depression, hyperactivity, and delinquency in an unselected sample of 164 children in infancy and early childhood. METHOD: Mothers completed the Colorado Child Temperament Inventory. Each mother also used the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to report on her child's behavior problems after the child's completion of first grade. Scores on three CBCL scales, anxiety/depression, attention problems, and delinquent behavior, were examined in relation to the EAS traits. RESULTS: For boys, high emotionality in infancy and early childhood was associated with high scores on both the anxiety/depression and attention problem scales. For girls, both high emotionality and low sociability predicted high scores on the anxiety/depression scale. There were no associations between EAS traits and attention problems for girls. There was little evidence for links between EAS traits and delinquent behavior for either boys or girls. CONCLUSIONS: The results are discussed with respect to temperamental traits as risk factors for the emergence of behavior problems in childhood.

Child↗

PubMed1993

Genetic and environmental influences on depressive symptomatology in adolescence: individual differences and extreme scores.

The purpose of the current investigation was to compare the genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in depressive symptomatology (as assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory) to such influences on extreme scores in an unselected sample of adolescents. The sample included 707 pairs of siblings (average ages 14.5 and 12.9 years, respectively) participating in a combined twin- and step-family study. Moderate genetic influence was found for the full range of individual differences in depression; in contrast, there was nonsignificant genetic influence, and significant shared environmental influence, on extreme scores. The results were interpreted using a risk model in which familial influences specific to the high end of the distribution contribute to depressive symptomatology in adolescence.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Child and parent perceptions of the upsettingness of major life events.

An adaptation of the Coddington Social Readjustment Rating Scale for use with first-grade children was administered to 164 first-graders and their parents. Parents indicated whether each event occurred and both parents and their children rated the upsettingness to the child. Parent ratings of stress are significantly higher than child ratings for specific events and a composite stress measure. Parent and child composite scores correlated 0.21 when the number of events was controlled. Implications for research on life events and childhood stress are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1990

Who discovered the twin method?

The twin method is usually credited to Francis Galton's 1875 article on twins. However, Galton did not propose the comparison between identical and fraternal twin resemblance which is the essence of the twin method. Although the twin method was "in the air" in the mid-1920s, the first descriptions of the method appeared in an article by Curtis Merriman and in a book by Hermann Siemens, both in 1924, 50 years after Galton's paper.

Genetics, Behavioral↗

PubMed1989

Facial perception in autism.

Disturbances in gaze and patterns of facial interaction are prominent aspects of social dysfunction in autism; the nature of this disturbance has up to the present been unclear. This study examined the ability of autistic subjects to use the human face as a source of information. Autistic and age- and MA-matched retarded control subjects assembled a series of puzzles displaying photographs of human faces; puzzles differed in complexity, familiarity of the faces and configuration (normal vs scrambled faces). Significant effects of all three factors, but not of diagnostic group, were observed. The autistic subjects did not exhibit specific deficits in perception of faces.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1988

Phenomenology and classification of the childhood psychoses.

Two hundred and twenty-eight cases of children with final clinical diagnoses of childhood psychosis were reviewed using a standard coding scheme; cases were grouped in three broad categories on the basis of clinical diagnosis (autistic, atypical and schizophreniform). These three groups differed significantly in many respects, although the 'atypical' group more closely resembled the autistic group. While it was possible meaningfully to differentiate diagnostic groups using DSM-III criteria, some cases were difficult to classify. Childhood schizophrenia, as strictly defined, was far less common than childhood autism. The development of diagnostic schemes for those children whose disorders are difficult to classify is an important topic for future research.

Adolescent↗