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Biomedical subjects

W A Collins

Publications and source records attributed to W A Collins.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Diverse aspects of dating: associations with psychosocial functioning from early to middle adolescence.

Theories imply that some aspects of adolescent dating behavior will be associated with individuals' positive psychosocial functioning, while other aspects will be associated with problems. This study addressed associations between diverse aspects of dating at age 16 and: (1) individual and social functioning at age 12 and at age 16; and (2) change in psychosocial functioning from age 12 to age 16. Controlling for physical maturity, overinvolvement in dating at age 16 was associated with poorer psychosocial functioning in early and middle adolescence and also predicted declines in functioning between the two ages. Level of dating experience and quality of romantic relationships were associated with social adaptation at age 16, especially in the friendship and dating domains.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

The coherence of dyadic behavior across parent-child and romantic relationships as mediated by the internalized representation of experience.

Attachment theory suggests, first, that patterns of dyadic behavior cohere across salient relationships and, second, that such linkages are mediated by working models, defined as cognitive/emotional representations of relationships abstracted from dyadic experience. In this longitudinal study, adolescents' (age 19) Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coherence ratings and classifications (e.g. working model proxies) were related prospectively to their observed dyadic behaviors with romantic partners in young adulthood (age 20-21). Results demonstrated significant associations between adolescents' representations of their relationships with parents and the later quality of their interactions with romantic partners. Next, a model was tested whereby participants' working models, as inferred from the AAI, mediate the across-time correlation between a subset of observationallv assessed parent-child dyadic behaviors (age 13) and the romantic relationship behaviors of these participants eight years later in young adulthood (age 20-21). Results of mediational analyses were consistent with the fundamental tenet of the organizational-developmental model that salient parent-child experiences are internalized and carried forward into adult relationships.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The relationship context of human behavior and development.

The influence of social relationships on human development and behavior is receiving increased attention from psychologists, who are central contributors to the rapidly developing multidisciplinary field of relationship science. In this article, the authors selectively review some of the significant strides that have been made toward understanding the effects of relationships on development and behavior and the processes by which relationships exert their influence on these, with the purpose of highlighting important questions that remain to be answered, controversial issues that need to be resolved, and potentially profitable paths for future inquiry. The authors' thesis is that important advances in psychological knowledge will be achieved from concerted investigation of the relationship context in which most important human behaviors are developed and displayed.

Humans↗
PubMed2000

Contemporary research on parenting. The case for nature and nurture.

Current findings on parental influences provide more sophisticated and less deterministic explanations than did earlier theory and research on parenting. Contemporary research approaches include (a) behavior-genetic designs, augmented with direct measures of potential environmental influences; (b) studies distinguishing among children with different genetically influenced predispositions in terms of their responses to different environmental conditions; (c) experimental and quasi-experimental studies of change in children's behavior as a result of their exposure to parents' behavior, after controlling for children's initial characteristics; and (d) research on interactions between parenting and nonfamilial environmental influences and contexts, illustrating contemporary concern with influences beyond the parent-child dyad. These approaches indicate that parental influences on child development are neither as unambiguous as earlier researchers suggested nor as insubstantial as current critics claim.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Reconsidering changes in parent-child conflict across adolescence: a meta-analysis.

A series of meta-analyses addresses whether and how parent-child conflict changes during adolescence and factors that moderate patterns of change. The meta-analyses summarize results from studies of change in parent-child conflict as a function of either adolescent age or pubertal maturation. Three types of parent-adolescent conflict are examined: conflict rate, conflict affect, and total conflict (rate and affect combined). The results provide little support for the commonly held view that parent-child conflict rises and then falls across adolescence, although conclusions regarding pubertal change as well as conflict affect are qualified by the limited number of studies available. Two diverging sets of linear effects emerged, one indicating a decline in conflict rate and total conflict with age and the other indicating an increase in conflict affect with both age and pubertal maturation. In age meta-analyses, conflict rate and total conflict decline from early adolescence to mid-adolescence and from mid-adolescence to late adolescence; conflict affect increases from early adolescence to mid-adolescence. Puberty meta-analyses revealed only a positive linear association between conflict affect and pubertal maturation. Effect-size patterns varied little in follow-up analyses of potential moderating variables, implying similarities in the direction (although not the magnitude) of conflict across parent-adolescent dyads, reporters, and measurement procedures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

The structure of family perceptions among adolescents and their parents: individual satisfaction factors and family system factors.

This study examined the underlying structure of self-reports of family functioning by adolescents, mothers, and fathers (N of individuals = 360) from intact families. Participants completed a multidimensional self-report measure of family functioning, and their responses were entered into a factor analysis with the family as the unit of analysis (N of cases = 120). The results indicate two types of factors: individual satisfaction factors and family system factors. The findings are consistent with the view that different types of characteristics assessed in self-report measures of the family may be stored as different kinds of memories. The findings also provide preliminary data toward understanding the linkages between family system factors and satisfaction with the family based on family roles as adolescents, mothers, and fathers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Interpersonal conflict during adolescence.

Interpersonal conflict is considered within various frameworks of adolescent development. Conflict, defined as behavioral opposition, is distinguished from related constructs. Differences between adolescent relationships and across age groups are reviewed in the incidence and intensity, resolution, and outcome of conflict. Influences of setting on conflict behaviors and effects are emphasized. The evidence does not reveal dramatic shifts in conflict behavior as a function of age or maturation. Consistent differences do emerge, however, when adolescent relationships and conflict settings are considered. It is argued that a social relational model based on principles of interdependence and equity provides an alternative to psychoanalytic, sociobiological, and cognitive-developmental accounts of conflict behavior during adolescence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Effects of adult commentary on children's comprehension and inferences about a televised aggressive portrayal.

Comprehension of explicitly portrayed events and implicit information in television dramatic narratives has been found to be poor for children as old as second and third graders. In the present experiment the effectiveness of an intervention to facilitate comprehension for young viewers was tested. Adult coviewers stated implicit relations between important explicitly portrayed events during viewing for some second-grade children, while others heard neutral comments at the same points in the plot. Children who heard facilitating commentary scored significantly better on understanding of implicit program content related to the adults' statements, although their scores on other program information were not affected. Adult coviewers may facilitate inferences about important program content for young viewers, who are unlikely to infer such relations spontaneously. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for previously reported relationships between children's understanding and their evaluative and behavioral responses to televised models.

Aggression↗