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Biomedical subjects

S Santostefano

Publications and source records attributed to S Santostefano.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Life stressors and cognitive styles in children.

To explore the way that children's cognitive functioning relates to stressors they report experiencing in every day life, this study used the approach of cognitive control theory, which defines cognition as a set of mobile functions that, in serving adaptation, shift in their organization. Children (N = 93), ranging in age from 56 to 115 months, were administered individually the Life Stressor Interview and several cognitive control tasks. Children who reported being exposed to arguments and threatening gestures among adults made more errors when focusing attention while distracted by stimuli concerning nurture. Children who reported being upset by shootings and fights had more difficulty remembering test information depicting two persons in a shoot-out. The results are discussed in terms of the potential value of an approach that integrates cognitive activity with personality.

Aggression↗
PubMed1993

Cognitive control differences in violent juvenile inpatients.

A stepwise discriminant analysis was used on a calibration sample (n = 135) of dangerous and nondangerous juvenile inpatients to determine which demographic, psychosocial, and cognitive variables best distinguished the violent inpatients. The resulting statistical model was cross-validated on the remainder of the sample (n = 123). Results show that the violent inpatients were more likely to be younger males whose family had a history of criminal behavior and extensive family discord. Moreover, the cognitive variables showed that violent inpatients showed differences in attention and memory, especially when they were processing aggressive stimuli. Results are discussed in terms of the potential ability of cognitive psychology to adopt an ecological perspective and to contribute to forensic assessment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Children's anticipation of impending surgery. Shifts in object-representational paradigms.

The authors used Rorschach assessments of the quality of object-representations to measure psychological shifts in children facing surgery. Fifteen children, ages 7 to 11, were given the Rorschach test three times: one week prior to elective hernia surgery, the day before the surgery, and 3 weeks after hospitalization. These children were compared with a nonsurgical group of 13 children matched for age and IQ and tested at the same time intervals. The authors hypothesized that the two groups would have similar Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy (MOA) scale scores at Times 1 and 3, but would differ substantially at Time 2. This hypothesis was confirmed using the Mann-Whitney U test. Within the surgical group, there was an overall significant difference in MOA scores over time, and, as hypothesized, these children's scores at Time 2 were significantly more malevolent than at Time 1 (p less than .003). The effects of surgery were somewhat attenuated by Time 3, but the Time 3 MOA scores were still more malevolent than at Time 1 (p = .05) and were not significantly different from those at Time 2 (p = .18). The authors highlight the need to amply prepare children for even minor surgical procedures.

Child↗
PubMed1984

The structure of fantasied movement in suicidal children and adolescents.

Guided by the hypothesis that imagining actions is a way of rehearsing actions in the service of effective adaptations to reality, various characteristics of imagined motion, assessed by the Rorschach Test, were compared in hospitalized suicidal and nonsuicidal preadolescents and adolescents, and in public school children. A number of differences were found for example, suicidal children imagined less vigorous motion than distinguished suicidal and nonsuicidal children and preadolescent and adolescent suicidal children. Further, the scale devised to assess imagined motion successfully predicted about 75 percent of the suicidal children. Implications for diagnosis and treatment of suicidal children are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Ego development and psychopathology: a study of hospitalized adolescents.

This paper explores the relationship between ego development and psychiatrically relevant behaviors in a group of hospitalized adolescents. Building on Loevinger's model of ego development, we administered the Sentence Completion Test to 114 adolescent girls and boys. To study psychiatric symptoms, Achenbach and Edelbrock's Child Behavior Checklist was used. With these procedures, the Achenbach and Edelbrock factor scores were compared to ego stage using correlational and multiple regression analyses. Findings indicate significant negative correlations with the externalizing and internalizing factors as well as a variety of behavioral subscales. A significant relationship also exists between the total number of symptoms and ego development. Ego development is found to be an important predictor for the externalizing factor and 2 subscales after the background variables of age, sex, and SES are partialed out. Our discussion addresses the question of the relationship between stages and transitions in ego development in relation to psychopathology. In addition, "age-stage dysynchronies" are discussed as ways of understanding psychopathology from a developmental perspective.

Acting Out↗